FICTION.
THE RED xmarrr.* THE tone of Mr. Brett Young's new novel is sharply contrasted with that of his last work, The Black Diamond, a dour story of life in a colliery town. There the events of the book were almost entirely subjective, the situations were created within the minds of the characters, and now and then erupted into action. In The Red Knight, on the other hand, outer circumstances are shown hammering insistently upon the minds of the characters, battering them to fantastic shapes. However, though The Red Knight is primarily an adventure story, Mr. Brett Young has very properly given rein to his considerable talent for creating character. The short chapter sketching Robert Bryden's heredity is extremely well conceived, and his character all through is comprehensible, subtle, and consistent.
The crisis—emotional and physical—of the book takes place amid the throes of a revolution in the capital of some Medi- terranean country which Mr. Brett Young has christened Trinacria, a country whose inhabitants possess a kind of blend of the characteristics of Spaniards and Italians. Maddelena, the heroine, is a Trinacrian aristocrat, and the gulf of time— centuries of slow evolutionary change in point of view—between her and the hero (a modern Englishman, a Socialist and an Idealist) is very well conveyed, as is the bridging of this gulf when the two are brought together in the primitive circum- stances of extreme personal danger.
The plot is well contrived. Its many intricate complica- tions and convolutions spring inevitably from the characters of the persons of the drama. There is no way out of the difficulties which arise that would be possible to the characters concerned except the way which Mr. Brett Young has depicted.
• The Red Knight. By hands Brett Young. London : W. Collins. 17s. 6d. net.j
From which simple statement the experienced reader will gather how much superior is the book in construction to most tales of adventure.
The part which the elements are made to play in the book is very well contrived, and the book contains many passages of distinguished and able description. Mr. Brett Young's residence in Capri has made him an admirable portrait painter of Medi- terranean scenes and weather in their fierce hardness and of their emotional effects.
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