Mail (Adelaide, SA : 1912 - 1954), Saturday 27 September 1913, page 5


AN ADELAIDE STOEY.

EVELYN GOODE'S LATEST. THE CHILDHOOD OF HELEN

In 'Days that Speak' Polly-Dear. Rod. and Small have already been introduced to a wide circle of readers, and a com- panion story from the pen of the same authoress. Evelyn Goode, who is the wife of one of our leading legislators of the younger school, Mr. Crawford Vaughan, is more than welcome. Although the day of the great Australian novel is evidently not yet, we are gradually working towards the goal, and books of the kind under review indicate that time is setting the perspective quickly now.

In all the States the national atmos-phere is growing, the smallness of a com-munity tends to disappear, and the nov-elist taking one or two sides of life can weave romance around things which the ordinary public before looked upon as hum-drum and uninteresting. From small be-ginnings, where eaeh knew the business of his neighbour, we have developed into a virile community whose interests are so varied that stories of the other man al-most represent a breaking of new ground. 'The Childhood of Helen' will be new ground to a large number, presenting a view of country life with those little smailnesses which make it great, prac tically unrealised by the dweller in the city. After reading the book one is forced to the conclusion that the title is most appropriate, but to the reader casually picking it up we are afraid that there will be a suggestion that it is a story for children only. Nothing of the kind. This is essentially a story of children, though the latter will doubtless find as much plea-sure in it as will the grown-ups. Evelyn Goode presents child character quite as forcefully as Ethel Turner does, and she succeeds in passing that famous writer when it eomes to expressing views on life, which leave more than a passing impression. The story deals with an outback country town in South Australia glorying in the name of Mercunda, a sleepy hollow of the type so prevalent outside of the great city. Into the home of the children comes their city cousin, Helen Dupane, to recuperate after a rather strenuous season or two in society, and to the city bred girl Mercunda appeals as a place entirely God-forsaken. The children's excitement, in the coming of the girl is well portrayed. Here ia a typical sample:— Small came tapping out in his new slippers, which bad been got a little too big for him in order that he' might grow into them. 'If I AM kep in. Small.' said Rod, earnestly, 'mind you don't go an' show, her the black kittens, or the zebras' nest in the prickly hedge, or the cur-lew's eggs, or my new bricks. I've bagsed to show her all of: those.' ''Then I 'hasn't got anyiing to show her.'' said Small, working up a show of distress. ''Yes. you have. We gave you your things to show her last night, but you're not to take ours as well. Do you hear? You can show, her Tape an' Wise an' Darky an' the wagon!' 'Mine has be on'y old lings to show her. Yours has be all new fings!''' Small complained. Well, you can show, her your sore finger!' 'It hasn't be sore now.' 'Let's see il. Yes it is. Look at it!'' Small bent to examine more closely his unhoped-for possession. His face lighted up. 'Yes. it has be a bit sore,'' he assert- ed, with a sigh of latent fortitude, 'See here"

.'Don't pull the skin off, or it won't show. But you're not to show her where I fell out of the gumtree by the duck's place. Say 'N'o — I — won't!' 'N'o I won't!' Helen is a disappointment to the child-ren- They had built so much on a loveable cousin that her boredom at farm life is something their small minds cannot under-stand. Mr. Patrick, a young man next door, 'who is a great lover of children. realises their trouble, and by thoughtful speech with the maiden, mixed with not a little raillery, makes her realise that she is one of many who have stopped growing, as it were, left childhood far be- hind them. Resentment against the young man en-dues, but in the end his personality -sways her, and love looms in the distance. Helen, from a stiff formal girl grows into something more human. How could she escape it with the influence of such lov-able children always around her? The authoress invests the country with no less charm. '.If is essentially a human book, and will do much to enhance Evelyn Goode's reputation. The volume, which is published by Ward, Lock, & Co., is freely illustrated. Our copy is from Cole's Book Arcade. WTOIEX WKITEBS. : 'Women when they write,' says a. London publisher recently, 'are apt' to -H-rite from a too personal point of riew. - For that reason Ihey write fewer books than men, or if they do write a great number you will find their heroes, arid, above all, tieir heroines, resemble each other. They are' cut too much from the Game cloth. For women writers tell, more or less, their own I'xpprie'nees: they describe their * own feelings, their own desires. They see all men and women with their own. eyes only, not with the eyes of pothers; ,, ; whereas in the .case -of men literature is ?; ?' jnore— of- -ft- jn^«f^t.ll ^miy sa ,-so~*jot -. merely an outlet Tor ijbeir own emotions;'-'' ? ^r~':J He' considers 'that fljgn often write ^»r^?.^--'' better - about, wjtm&ji than women -writ p ^Sc* ' about themselves.' and gives it as his opinion that 'since Sappho ihpre have been very few great. -women writers.'' Oh. shades of Ireorge Sand. George Eliot Jane Austen, Madame de Stael! THE COMING OF THE GEKIl'S. The unsophisticated literary genius, ir all- tlie sublimity of his sophistica-tiou, bai .liever been 'better portrayed thaTi by Pr?!.sident '(Wqodrow Wilson in one of jiis essays 'xutvr republkhed in a volume eutit'«J 'Mere Literature.' In the essay op 'The Author 'Himself/' he writes:— 'The man thrown early upon his own resource*, and Already beeome a conqueror of success before being thrown with the litecary lalkei-s: the man grown to giant's .stature in some rural library, and become exercised there Jn-a giant's prerogative before ever he has 'b**11 laughingly told, to hit heart 's confusion, of scores of other gianU dead ' and forgotten . long ago; the mar grounded' in .-hope and setf'ei in tonvic tion ere be4 has discovered b--w .inany hopes time has seen boned, ho«r many convictions cruelly given flic lie dir.ict ny fau-; the' man .whq has oarried 1«- yonth ipio middle age before' S'wni: mti the chill atmosphere of blase sentiment: ihe quiet, stern -man Tvho has cultivated literature' on a little oatmeal before thrusting himpelf upon the great trorM as a jiroptiei and seer; the man .who 'priEOiinr.cs ni-wi eloquence 'n ihench dialect in whith he wa«i-rod; ibe' man come up :o lite capita! from iho provinces— those .ir? the men wlio pt-ople ihr worl-i'* r.z'::.'] wit!i_ Tientn'.i^'j i- r.ini cive t r- :3-.o * 'nisisticited loarr'' -1 -?' .'?? :--^t '.-I-: .??von n?'.v i ijiK^.

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