New Books.

"He Who Digged a Pit." By William Freeman. Dunedin: J. Wilkie and Co. If merit is a guarantee of success, i have every confidence in foretelling a prosperous career both for the book under notice and its author. It is distinctly a clever work. Buskin says somewhere that the evidence of ease is on the front of all great works: that is one of the notable characteristics of this book. The ease with which it is written and read is the best proof of its power. The literary execution is excellent. The story is an interesting one, and wins the reader's attention from the first page to the last. But the principal feature in the book is the delineation of the character of Count Lezza, who is drawn with a power not unworthy of Marcus Clark himself, and it were hard to accord higher praise than that. From the moment of Lezza's introduction, through the scenes at the Chateau of Angels, where he checkmates and at last overthrows the malignant cunning of Devinie—another powerfully conceived character—up to the final catastrophe that overwhelms the sombre and unconventional villain of the tale, he is depicted with a force and originality as delightful as unusual in colonial literature. Most writers would have made a concession to popular prejudice in the last scene, and have so arranged it as to obviate the Count's very characteristic but very un-English expression of retributive justice, and thus have spoiled the artistic unity of the conception; but this difficulty, instead of being avoided, is boldly grappled with and made to contribute more than anything else to the clearness of the reader's appreciation of the character; and the Count moves off the stage of action without abating a lot of his singular power of self-reliance and self-possession. The Count is emphatically good. It is a pity, however, that the sketch as a whole is so brief. It does not allow full elaboration of character, and hence there are here and there blank spaces, which must be filled up by the reader. Readers are not always ready to do this, and doubtless "He who Digged a Pit" may not impress all as it has done me. Yet I I venture to predict for its author a very high place in the rising school of Colonial writers. There is another suggestion I may venture to make to the author. If instead of going so far afield he tried scenes nearer home than Italy, I am sure the interest of his fiction would not suffer, and, for New Zealanders at anyrate, it would have additional attractions. The questions which this little book throw into prominence are present-day ones, and the author's treatment of them is fresh and suggestive. Mr. Geo. Fisher, M.H.R., to whom the book is dedicated, writes a kindly and encouraging preface. The author's own introductory note will excite interest and sympathy, on account of the pathetically personal references which it contains. I have but to add that the type, paper, and binding are all that could be desired, and the publishers may be congratulated on a finish very unusual in colonial works; only I must take exception to the cover. The conception of the design may be artistic and original, but the execution is decidedly indifferent. One does not buy a book for its cover, however, and as the little work combines so admirably the good with the attractive, I am safe in predicting for it an extensive sale.—Rutherford Waddell.

"The Riven Cloud." Being a sketch taken in New Zealand. By William Ross. Dunedin: J. Horsburgh. The first duty of a literary critic is to lay before readers an opinion which shall guide them in their choice of literary pabulum; his second duty is to assist authors by pointing out both the faults and the good points in their productions. Beyond this he has no right to go. The critic who allows sentiment or feeling to sway him into unduly praising or unwarrantably attacking a work, is dishonest and unreliable. Holding these views, it is with a certain amount of positive distress that I receive for review such an evidently well-meant but painfully crude effort as "The Riven Cloud." Well-meant, because it must be almost as apparent to the casual reader as to the pains-taking critic that the little work was intended to inculcate a moral lesson; crude because the writer has lacked the ability to convey clearly to the reader's mind the particular lesson intended to be conveyed, and because the general style shows either a careless—almost slovenly—haste, or else literary incapacity on the part of the writer. Speaking broadly, and excepting certain rare Heaven-born geniuses, work that has not been revised seven times with appropriate intervals (for maturing, so to speak), is seldom worth reading. It is difficult to understand how, if "The Riven Cloud" had been properly revised even once, such a passage as this could have passed muster:—"At eighteen, she 'came out' at a ball given by one of the squatters' wives living in the district, and dressed in silk and lace and sundries to the full extent of what constitutes the perfect costume of a debutante in colonial society, at anyrate, enhanced the effect of her charms to a degree that her partnership was much sought in dancing, and she was considered the belle." Here punctuation, grammar, phraseology, are all at fault, and the meaning is obscure. It is even a worse fault to discover at the end of the book that it is impossible to obtain a clear idea of the plot; though doubtless it is all plain enough to the author, he has not the gift of imparting his thoughts clearly to others. Moreover, the taste displayed is occasionally of that doubtful kind which is so often noticeable in the works of quite young writers—but, generally, more especially of the gentler sex—when they do not understand the subject of which they are treating. Indeed, a certain effeminate style of nibbling at subjects which should be let severely alone unless boldly grappled with in a masterly way, is observable throughout the tale. I have personally a great dislike to the repeated introduction in a work of fiction of religious words and phrases. To bring them to this common use seems to me flippant and irreverent. For instance, it came upon me with a positive shock to be told, in excuse for actual sin, to "Remember Gethsemane, and think of the lesson, and those gentle words so full of meaning, 'The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.' "I shall have concluded what is to me the most disagreeable of tasks—fault-finding—when I say, with all due deference, that it might have proved the truest kindness if the first friend whose advice had been asked about the MS. had advised the author to put it by unpublished, and to fit himself by long-continued study, careful preparation, and constant practice for the position of educator or amuser of his fellows. In all professions a long course of apprenticeship is considered absolutely necessary to success. Why is it so many attempt to disregard this in literary matters? The dialect used occasionally in "The Riven Cloud" is really very fair, and the conversation I altogether is greatly superior to the descriptive writing. There are several excellent flashes of humour in the book—"Nature evidently intended the old bachelors as mates for the old maids"—for example. What the author really needs to produce a readable tale is study and assiduous practice! The printing and binding have been well and carefully done, but the design on the cover hardly preposseses one in favour of the book.—Wm. Freeman.