Fiction

Sedatives and Stimulants

Monsieur Faux-Pas. By Rosa and Dudley Lambert. (Wishart. 7s. 6d.) Wm' one or two notable exceptions the exponents of fiction, now that holiday August is close upon us, are ceasing to require much mental concentration from their readers. It

seems as if they would rather merely soothe or eXcitc. Prob- ably many will find Mr. Lacon Watson's novel, The Last of the Stranges, a tranquillizing, summer-afternoon kind of book, though some may fretfully inquire why the lukewarm

Rudolf Strange has persisted not only through one volume but three. That mild, gently inhibited gentleman, after one of the least enthusiastic engagements in fiction, marries Kathleen Creegan, and is just happy enough. He drifts into a semi-journalistic career, helped by Collinson Clark, the literary agent, who is a really amusing and incredibly philanthropic person ; and the tale ambles pleasantly along till Kathy's death, when Rudolf goes off to travel through a rather dull America, meets old friends, has a belated love-affair in war- time, and dallies with spiritualism in his inconclusive way. The most vital person in the book is Rudolf's annoying sister Elsie, who commandeers all she wants while capturing public sympathy at the same time. This is a leisurely, amiable book about middle-class people with decent unadventurous characters.

Crossing to New York with Miss Dorothy Van Doren we fwd another study of quiet middle-class people also engaged in journalism. But a certain amount of light explosive is lying about, for some of them crave for emotional adventure. The shock is given by the brilliant, detonating Ann, 'who holds the easy theory that she has a right to experiment in romantic change with Stephen, the husband of her friend Edith. Nor does she expect Edith and her own husband William to admit there is any shock. Under the compulsory cant of " being a sport," neither does ; but the experiment does not work out exactly as Ann wished, so she decides—with little originality—that human beings are inevitably " Strangers"

to each other. Ann is a nuisance. The charm of this really innocent and unsophisticated book lies in the stormy but actual

love-affair of Paul and Rachel, Ann's sister, and of her piteous death by a fall as she steps back from Paul's violent look. Miss Van Doren handles the situation of the interchanging couples too crudely ; but the description of Rachel's bitter-sweet honeymoon in Cornwall shows at its best that bright limpid style which makes us read her with pleasure.

Mr. Con O'Leary has an original touch, and a turn for

savage satire which at times becomes exacerbating. This Delicate Creature (an epithet caught from Othello's furious

lips) is Boda, daughter of an impecunious Irish peer, married to an elderly husband. She is contemptuously exhibited as the courtesan-wife, a piece of light and airy corruption, innocent-looking, shameless, sporting with her kind. Then appears Crowfled, the explorer. (" His book wasaust out, and Boda intended to read a review of it.") From him she wrings, at a price, the sensation of eating the drug Nirvabogcea ; and, in a series of fierce visions, becomes one after another of all the creatures who have suffered by her, while her own place is taken by her deadly rival. From this experience she wakes in horror to implore a last chance from her despairing husband. Mr. O'Leary can write eloquently of pain ; and Boda's incarnations are most moving when she is tortured as bird and beast. There is something fantastically unreal in his human

characterization ; and before the end we feel that the butterfly Boda has been broken on too many wheels. The moralist has blunted the skill of the satirist. The story . of

" Boy," born scholar and ardent priest, is the sincerest and most touching episode in the book, which has real promise.

Social satire stings also in some of the stories and sketches Mr. Rawlence calls Passengers. All of these concern English

folk in residence abroad, in Brittany, Switzerland, Italy, the Riviera, the Rhineland. Some of the notes seem too slight to

get any artistic effect from the banalities they record. But the pleasant irony of The Count, the sweetness of Their Last Journey, the mockery of Plenty of Time show the author as a deft craftsman, and his volume as well worth reading.

The red and reddening corpuscles race madly through the veins as Irma, the devoted mistress of that deceased arch-

villain Carl Petersen, does her devilish and imaginative best to convince Bull-dog Drummond that The Female of the

Species is indeed as Kipling describes her. There is no failing in the might or the ingenuity of that cheerful hero. The tale is told by one Jim Dixon, who, as Irma remarks, " is new on me." His naturally peace-loving disposition gives a comic flavour to his narrative ; but he qualifies nobly for the brother- hood. Phyllis Drummond is spirited away by Irma ; and, led by taunting clues through amazing dangers, her husband and his faithful companions seek the treasure they are not meant to find. The ominous Mere House is set with springes of a ghastly originality ; and after the arrival at Stonehenge you become so breathless that the contagion of the hero's derisive but affectionate mirth is almost too much for you. Begin this vitalizing saga when you are quite at leisure, for you will be annoyed at any interruption before the end.

Monsieur Faux-Pas is an ingeniously complicated detective story in which a supposed suicide in Brussels is proved to be a diabolical murder. The human interest is fresh and pleasant, Glyn Morgan, Welsh and mystical, is a personality among detectives, and the surprises are maintained to the very end.

RACHEL ANNAND TAYLOR.