Fugitive Anne. By Mrs. Campbell Praed. (John Long. 6s.)— Authors
who write romances about mysterious races which possess an ancient civilisation are usually puzzled by the ultimate disposal of the nation they have created. Mrs. Camp- bell Praed has a sweeping method of overcoming this difficulty by allowing her readers to infer that a tremendous volcanic eruption disposed of most of the Children of Aak, and that thus they no longer inhabit the centre of Australia. Fugitive Anne, the heroine of the book, flies from an uncongenial husband, and then wanders over Australia, at first only in the company of the black boy who aided her escape, but afterwards with a Danish ex- plorer with whom she had become acquainted on the ship which brought them both to Australia. After many adventures she and Erie Hansen penetrate to the heart of a mountain where dwell the Children of Aak, the mammoth tortoise. Anne becomes high priestess to the tortoise, who is worshipped with great pomp and circumstance. The book is not a bad specimen of what may be called the "hidden civilisation" type of novel, though this type is not so new as it was once. Perhaps, however, the wanderings of Anne among the real Australian aborigines are on the whole more interesting to read of than her troubles in her high-priestess-ship. In the end the volcanic eruption, besides probably disposing of the Children of Aak, neatly picks off Anne's unpleasant husband, so that the heroine, for whom the reader has a genuine liking, is free to marry her explorer, who with herself and her faithful black boy are the only certain survivors of the catastrophe. Truly Jove's thunderbolt is in this instance most delicately aimed.
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