LITERARY.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 230, 28 September 1929, Page 2 (Supplement)

LITERARY.

On page one "Cyrano" reviews ''The Poet and the Lunatics," by G. Kv Chesterton. A German book, "A Fatalist at War," is reviewed-on page 11. From "The Humorist." — Eurncst Young Thing: "Of course you wri'e f;i fame alone, Mr. Sh;twells'/" Author: "No-—purely tltt-t 1 uiav have .something to i'cad when I am old." Young people have disposed ot' t'V: gods as fictions, but hav'j .still to come to terms with the needs that createdthe fictions.—Mr. C. '.'<■!,. M. . T -.>ad. MacmillanV advertise that nearly three million copies have bean h.-ld of thefc' editions of Mr. Uudyanl Kipling's works. ;v'Apparently . "The New Zealand Artiste' Annual" is now an journal.. This year's mimuer, which is edited by -Mr. Pat Lawl.ir ami printed in Sydney, is contributed to by a large number of New* Zealand artists and writers. Some of the black and white work is very ordinary, but some of it ia good, and there is none better than Mr. George Finey's cartoons, As- before, the verse is a strong feature. The magazine is doing useful work in encouraging local talent. It is interesting to note signs of the rise 6f Mr. P. G. Wodehouse's reputation. In a preliminary article about "The Legion Book," which is to be published shortly, the "Times" says; "Among the many well-known authors whose work will also be seen in 'The Legion Book , are Mr. Robert Bridges, Mr. RudVard Kipling, Mr. Arnold Bennett, Mr. Hugh Waljxrie, Sir Henry Newbolt, Mr. J. C. Squire, Mr. G. K. Chesterton and Mr. P. G. Wodehouse." Observe the company Mr. Wodehouse keeps. Five or ten*years ago lie would never have been admitted to it. • ,

It is only necessary to read a bopk aboui English birds to realise how weird to the immigrant is the land of the mOaj the kiwi, the kea and the tui. By comparison* with most parts of Europe, New Zealand birds neither fling '.nor display beauty in colour. Equally weird and strange are the native flowers, companions to the birds. "How to Enjoy Birds," by Marcus Woodward, the English naturalist (Hodder and Stoughton'e People's Library), Iβ illustrated, and the author being something of a poet, and his affection for his subjects evident, there is much to provoke "nostalgia in the exiled English who read his non-technleal descriptions. To the colonial the list of songsters of the English countryside will come as a surprise and the plumage of many of the birds will seem to him. to be rather of the tropics than of the so often cold and dull climate of the British Isles. •' . -

THE MIDDLE AGES. Dr. G. (3. Coulton lias issued through the Cambridge University Press an edition in four handy volumes of the large - one-volume book which he published inlOlO on mediaeval, life. Volume 11., deals yith chfolileles, science and art,-andVconslsts of selections from original floeumeiits illustrating life in the middle, age?. Thcre,,are with Alpini;"clfiiiibs, : vivisection; the . fortification ef a town, natural history .miracle plays, and many of the small things of everyday life. There arc some quaint instances given of inscriptions in books, from which it appears that borrowed ■ b6oks went astray in those days as frequently as in our own, One inscription reads: "This book belongs to St. Mary of Ro'jertsbridgc; whosoever shall steal it, or i?ll it, or in any way alienate it from this house, or niutijate it, let him bo anatlienm-inaranatha. Amen." Another says, "He that steals this book shall be hanged' on a hook/' Volume 111. treats of men and manners, and begins with the story of a fight with staves and fists between the followers of Eichard, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Jtoger, Archbishop of York, over a question of There are extracts on women's dress, tricks of trade, trial by battle, the ways 6f a wife, and a song in praise of good ale. There is a delightful story of a matt Who, wishing to do penance, rose , at dawn and browsed on grass without touching it with his hands, hoping that by so groat a penance he would obtain high rank in the Order of Angels. But he was told: "By suclia life them has not deserved to be of the Order of Angels, but father of the Order of Asses.". There is a quaint humour running through most of the extracts, and the volumes are indispensable to those who wish to get a picture of the middle ages from colli' temporary documents, and first-hand facts.