ites—By Phyllis Hambledon, 'Sampton Low, Marston ce One' is prone to commence the! Grst effort of a novelist with mingled hopes and expectations. After glancing throug! of Phyllis Hambledon'
Fires" at random, scanning passages here and there as some will do before venturing into the unknown, I was rather sceptical whether} those passages could be woven into story that would fulfil my hopes On the whole I was not disappointed. Although the main plot "Autumn Fires". is weak, its defects are successfully camouflaged from the less critically inclined by the many potent sub-plots which the author uses with such rare skill—skill that one expects in "best sellers" but not in a first Yenture into the realms of authorship.
The theme upon which the story is based, the tardy development of the characters of two brothers! whose every movement and thought)
but the gratification of the Il of an old crank, is delightful its simplicity and realism, Even those who have not met Stephen or Martin Herrifield in everyday life do not have to stretch their imagination to picture]
im if they have met his master. Master! was not that old man herrifieid's position in the lives of his two sons? What _less condemning name can be applied a man who has warped the] minds of his sons by sheer domination of character? In "Autumn Fires" we are introduced to old man Herrifield, We are introduced fin that passage immediately after] his faneral in which Mai himself of the thoughts whose] expression has been suppressed by] 'a. physically crippled man, but man who by the strength of his perverted personality, averted pending death "Just to spite us" as Martin declares.
The author is also to be congratulated for her excellent! character delineations, for the characters not only are skilfully drawn but harmonize with the theme. The two brothers, are just what - one would expect their respective natures to be.under the circumstances, We are nob} merely told that Stephen is "cranky and loose jointed and wore an air of dreamy, melancholy" or that Martin has inherited some of his ther's dominating spirit, but they live up to their portrayals from the time Martin' "sat down at the head of the table with the air' of chairman addressing a board meeting" and Stephen "roused himself from his usual state of indolent dreaminess" until after the development of their characters when home for Martin.and Sheila "was within the compass of each other's arns" and a new look was on Stephen's face, "the look of one who at last has conquered."
The human clement was there in flying colours, in the first sentence, "The last of " the mourners, wearing an air of pleasant relaxation, had been helped into the waiting motors and cabs;" in the last, "Stephen had became a man, and his house a hom scattered throughout the book in all its forms of expression, _where most needed to make it easy. for us to" understand and sympathize with those two unfortunate brothers, but were they so unfortunate? "Al's well that ends well'
Real people cannot live in toy towns and be surrounded by toy scenery. Apparently our author is id ful of this for her people live where some of us have lived, where some of us live, How many of us have mutely gazed through the window of our train on that beauty of which Dresden is composed—"'Iying like a blossom that had fallen by the side of river." Probably few of us have lived in Stephen's house, but who among not longed to? Phyllis Hustielnsoms te sonne & tare comprehension of human nature, She knew that one of the chief props of her theme was the reaction of the house upon Stephen. One, Jess adroit than she proved _herself to be would very probably have lost the whole effect upon the reader through lack of] knowledge of human nature or through incapacity of self-express. sion, through inability to make that house affect the reader it affected Stephen. But the author built the house and garden that is} one of the greatest dreams of every man and woman, That house changes Stephen's outlook—upon life and we know why.
As a whole Phillis Hambledon is]
be congratulated upon her delightful novel. Although _her inexperience is occasionally mani fest by her neglect of several good opportunities available to exphasize different stages" in the development of Stephen's character, book is really well balanced and has none of the mass production, atmosphere about it that—accompanies so many of the novels of to-day. pee
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.