The Apprentice. By Maud Stepney Rawson. (Hutchinson and Co. 6s.)—Mrs.
Rawson has taken for the subject of this fine novel the last efforts of Rye to maintain its place as a port against the encroachments of neighbouring landowners and the hostility of the sea. This is the real conflict in the book, the struggle of those who, with the old greatness of the Cinque Ports in their mind, fought not only against grasping landlords, but against that very sea which was their hope and trust, and which was yearly silting up the river channels. Such a mighty antagonism raises the strife of the human characters to an epic level. William Malines, the master-shipbuilder, is the leader of the harbour party, while Sir George Orwald, the county magnate, is bent on reclaiming every acre ho can from the waters. The one has a daughter and the other a son, who in this war of Montagues and Capulets fall secretly in love. Meanwhile Sterne Wildish, the chief apprentice, is imbued with his master's policy and in love with his master's daughter ; ho hates fiercely the Orwald family, though he himself belongs to it; but being far-sighted and ambitious beyond the others, he despises the petty warfare of the town. He provides, indeed, the eyes through which the reader can survey the drama, eyes at once sympathetic and critical. Tragedy, as was to be expected, dogs the career of the lovers, and the apprentice, like Gabriel Oak, finds his opportunity when the lady has been betrayed and forsaken. His happiness is on the verge of beginning, when the struggle for the sea culminates in a wild attack on the new lock erected by the Orwalds, and he falls a victim in endeavouring to quell it. It is a fine story, reaching at times the high level of drama, which human action only attains when it is linked to the strife of natural forces. The atmo- sphere of the old port, the landscape, the traditions clinging to all long-descended things in their decay, are portrayed with insight and sympathy. The characters are all carefully realised and firmly drawn. Best, perhaps, is the apprentice himself, the strong soul enmeshed in the net of local quarrels, striving for an ideal in the air, but driven back again and again to earth, and finding satisfaction only to lose it. Malines, the shipbuilder, is also admirable, and his daughter Fey and Wildish's mother have
something of the fascination and clean-cut vitality of Mr. Hardy's female figures. The manner in places suggests the author of "Tess of the D'Urbervilles "; but there is no imitation, for Mrs. Rawson has evolved a method and an atmosphere all her own. She is to be congratulated on an exceptionally strong and attractive romance.
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