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Stanley Paul's New Six Shilling Novels continued.
Susan and the Duke. KATE HORN
Author of "Edward and I and Mrs. Honeybun,"
Owl,"
"The White
" The Lovelocks of Diana," etc.
Lord Christopher Fitzarden, younger brother of the Dnke of Cheadle,
is the
mojt delightful of young men. He adopts the old family servants destined for the
almshouses by the cynical Dnke, who bestows upon him the family house in Mayfair.
Nanny, his old nurse, keeps him in order. Susan Ringsford, the heroine, is an early
visitor. She is in love with Kit, but he falls madly in love with Rosalind Pilkington,
the heiress of a rich manufacturer. The contrast between the two girls is strongly
drawn. Susan, sweet and refined a strong character but of insignificant appearance,
and Rosalind radiantly beautiful ambitious and coarse of nature. The whole
party go caravanning with Lady Barche?ter and an affected little poet, and many
love scenes are woven into the tour in the New Forest. Susan and the Duke of
Cheadle have a conversation the Duke loves her in silence, and sees that she loves
his brother. He gets up a flirtation with Rosalind, who, anxious to be a duchess,
throws over Kit immediately. The Duke disillusions her. Meanwhile Susan and
Kit have come together, and the book ends with wedding bells.
Lonesome Land. B. M. BOWER
A strong, human story in which Valeria Peyson, an Eastern girl, goes out to a
desolate Montana town to marry the lover who has preceded her three years before.
Unfortunately the lover has not had the moral fibre to stand the unconventionality
of Western life, and has greatly deteriorated. However, they marry and live on his
ranch, where Valeria finds that the country and her husband are by no means what
she thought them. She does her best to make the life endurable and is aided by the
kindness of her husband's closest friend, a rough diamond with an honest heart.
Out of this situation is unfolded a strong tale of character development and overmastering
love that finds a dramatic outcome in happiness for those most deserving it.
Confessions of Perpetua.
ALICE M. DIEHL
Author of " A Mysterious Lover," " The Marriage of Ignore," etc.
Perpetua is the youngest of three daughters of a baronet, all of whom make
wealthy marriages, a duke, a viscount and a colonel sharing the baronet's family.
The story opens when Perpetua emerges from the care of her governess and enters
society under the auspices of the duchess. She marries against the warnings of the
countess and divorces the colonel within three months of their union, and yet all
proceeds in a perfectly natural and straightforward manner. The process of disillusionfrom
love's enchantment is well described, and other Perpetuas may well learn
a lesson from the heroine's experience. The characters are well drawn and distinct,
and the narrative develops dramatic incidents from time to time.
A Modern Ahab. THEODORA WILSON WILSON
Author of " Bess of Hardendale," " Moll o' the Toil-Bar," etc.
This is a very readable novel in the author's best manner. Rachael Despenser, a
successful artist, spends a summer holiday in a Westmoreland village, living at an
old farm-house, and making friends of the people. Grimstone, a local baronet, is
grabbing the land to make a deer run, and Rachael comes into collision with him,
but is adored by his delicate little son. Right-of-way troubles ensue, and violence
disturbs the peace. Grimstone's elder son and heir returns from Canada, where he
has imbibed Radical notions. He sympathises with the villagers, and is attracted
towards Rachael, whom he marries. The baronet determines to oust the farmer
whom Rachael had championed, when the tragic death of his delicate little son leads
him to relinquish the management of the estate to his heir.
The Annals of Augustine
RAFAEL SABATINI
Author of " Bardelys the Magnificent," " The Lion's Skin," etc.
Mr. Sabatini lays before his readers in " The Annals of Augustine " a startling
and poignant human document of the Italian Renaissance. It is the autobiographical
memoir of Augustine, Lord of
Mondolfp, one of the lesser tyrants of
^Emilia, a man pre-natally vowed to the cloister by his over-devout mother. With
merciless self-analysis does Augustine in these memoirs reveal his distaste for the
life to which he was foredoomed, and his early efforts to break away from the
repellant path along which he is being forced. The Lord of Mondolfo's times are
the times of the Farnese Pope (Paul III.), whose terrible son, Pier Luigi Farnese,
first Duke of Parma, lives again, sinister and ruthless, in these pages. As a mirror
of the Cinquecento, " "
The Annals of Augustine deserves to take an important place,
whilst for swiftness of action and intensity of romantic interest it stands alone.
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