NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11752, 28 November 1903, Page 9

NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

To show tha power and versatility of Mr Kipling as a poet, it is suißcient to poici to his late,, volume, "The Five Nations." Its title alone would lead us to expect to find it largely devoted to songs of Empire, nor aro we disappointed. It contains "White Horses"—Mr Kipling's triumph-song of England's supremacy on the sea: — Where run your colts at pasturef Where h-da your mares to breed? 'Mid bars* about tbe Ice-cap Or wote Sargasso weed; By cbarUeae re*f and C-UL&nqlj Or ct-iiy ccaalwise bars, But'most the oceiu_-me-dow_> All purpie to the stars! It contains the tirin ileet-portraits of "Tlie Cruisers" and the "Destroyers." But Mr Kipling, a# we know, can bite and -tin* upon occasion, as well as minister to the mat ions I pride, end so we have bere r-.lso "The Islanders," with its famous taunt about " the flannelled fools at the wick»4" and " the muddied . oa f s at th_ goal." We have South African warpengs, such a_ "' Bridge Guard in the Karroo," and we have the eervice-songs, of winch "M.1." may be taken as a .ample, sketching the lighter humours of the campaign, and "Tommy" unpolishedj if not unrcgenerate. Wo have "Tbe White Man'a Burden," "Our Lady of tha Snows," and "The Young Queen" —ttu-birtli-song of the Australian Coro_nonwenlth. In "The Old Men" we have perhaps the moat tragic verse* which Mr Kipling ever -penned. In contrast to all these is one of the Bweetesb little ' pastorales" in the English language, a p;n-picture of Sussex, the county which the pott, after his Ulysses-like wanderings, has selected as the home in which to live and rear his children. We quota cue or two stanzas in our extracts to show its quality. Finally the volume, as ia fitting, closes with the solemn organ-notes of "The Recessional." Needless to say, every KiplingitJ will hasten to possess himself of the book, and we ohall be mistaken if it is not generally selected as tho one to be most frequently "dipped into." (London: Methuen and Cot. Christchurch ; Whitcombo and Tombs. 2a 6d.)

In .the "Adventures of Gerard," Dr. Conan Doyle, as he tells us, has gone for his historical and military atmosphere to the actual experiences of fighting men under Napoleon's command, written by themselves. This is certainly very much better than depending upon tho formal historian. The actual hero—Brigadier Gerard, aide-de-camp to General Suci_-t, is of course tbe product of Dr. Conan Doyle's vivid imagination, and yet lie too seems to live before tv, a curious compound of bravery, vanity, and whimsical humour He certainly ingratiate- himself into tlie heart of the reader. His thrilling exploits and adventures aro told with the vivd dramatic power characteristic of the author. When he comes to England, and, in his ignorance, slays a fox, shoots hen pbea-sants sitting, and commits other atrocities from an English point of view, we even forgive him these enormities becaute of the gallant heart and gay humour of this "beau sabreur." (London: Longman's, Green and Co. Cnristchurch: Fountain Barber and Whitcombe and Tombs, 3s _d and 2s 6d.)

Children's books, as now written, give for the most part an impression that the English child, in spite of all schools and scnoolrnasters, remains charmingly, if not almost inconceivably childish. Miss Evelyn Sharp's new story The Children Who Ran Away," is another example of this. Here tlie heroine at fourteen thinks, feels, and behaves in a fashion colonial views might deem befitting a small person, of eight; yet the authoress seems in no way struck by the incongruity, and wa must adjust our minds to it by supposing that, even at the larger age, England expects no creater development of sense. Apart from this difficulty the story is a clever, cheerful and acceptable account of children's doings under varioua circumstances of sunshine or stress. The girls and boys' talk is done particularly well, and there is an account of a paper chase which every young reader will find thrilling. There are no parents in the book —only a guardian or two, and these of such traascendently tolerating and amiable deposition that it is only by a determined misunderstanding the young people can find anything to complain of in their rule. A romance interest amongst these elders will add to the charm of the book for girls, to whom we can recommend it as a pleasantly fanciful production, with a heroine of decided character, though young for her years, and with a iather embarrassing propensity to run away. (London « Messrs Macmillan and Co., in colonial editions, 3s 6d and 2s 6d.)

Three charming, girls j an agreeable glimpse first of French society, then of English country life; a father who finds it difficult to inform grown-up daughters that he has married again; a hero who lives for a time on his own and his sister's earnings as card-sharpers, yet who is nevertheless an honourable and interesting person, capable of risking his life with selfless seal in a typhus epidemic—these promising ingredients are combined in "The Love That Overcame," by Adeline Sergeant. English sanitary science may complain of the injustice done in placing a "black typhus" i epidemic in such late days as since the reign of bridge began. But that is a detail. The not too severely defined purpose of the story appears to be to exhibit the evils of cord-playing as carried on in pre-sent-day society. "Tlie Love That Overcame," is "that" simple skill of loving to the end," which triumphed over every obstacle, from typhus to congenital gambling tendencies. "livo worthy people all get, their deserts, the bod ones ore leniently dealt with. It is a pleasant volume, and may rank with "Anthea's Way" as a npeciment of Miss Sergeant's best style. (London: 3_-thuen*s Colonial Library. Christchurch: Whltcombe and Tombs, 3s 6d and 2s 6d.)

Yet another story of the Franco-German war. "Under the Iron Flail," by John Oxenham, goes more fully into the details of the great struggle than does " The Dayspring," recently reviewed in this column. It« vivid descriptions of tha-terrible misxuuiagement and confusion in the French army, and the picture it gives of the brutalities of war, remind Us of Zola's "La Debacle." The story of tlie siege of Paris is told with great vigour. ' The hero of the talo fa a young English doctor, ia love with a French girl, and their romantic ad ventures aad perilous escapes odd much to the interest of the volume. On the whole it is a novel which we can recommend. (London: Caasell and Co. CS-iiit-church: Fountain Barber. 2s 6d_)

Mr Fountain Barber sends us a copy of Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler's latest novel, "Place and Power." In view of recent political developments at Home the political element in the story is invested with more than usual interest. (London: Hutchinson and Co., 34 Paternoster Row. 3s 6d and 2a 6d.)

The "National Review" for October again devotes a good share of its'space to the fiscal problem, of course, as • warm -dvocate of Mr Chamberlain's scheme. In the "Episodes of tbe Month" the "Review" characterises the Cabinet crisis as a rupture between Mr Balfour and Mr Chamberlain, and, in spite of the talk of a "collusive divorce," it mamtains that •the breach between the writers of the letters (Mr Balfour and Mr CJh-mberiaio), which we have quoted, is final and irrevocable, and they will never again ait in the some Cabinet." As regards Mr Balfour's pamphlet, ths " Review" believes that "any attempt to concentrate the Unionist party on the 'insular' policy" is foredoomed to failure. Another subject over which tho "Review" expatiates at length is the Report of the War Ccmv Buss-on- It says that the Report is "a complete confirmation of Mr Spencer Wilkinson's description of the Army system .as a system from which ' ths idea of war <

is altogether absent.*" Mr T. P- 7 P l * al '; Williams, in an article o» "The.Powers of Clubs," discusses the recent decisio--' ot Mr Justioe Joyce, that the Oxford and Cambridge Cub had no power to raise the Club's annual subscription, and concludw Shat the decision is bad in law. His Honour Judge Webb, K.C., contributes an ir.te-veting paper on "Tlie Genuine Text _f Shakespeare." The Hon. Mrs Edward Stuart-Wortley has aa article on the "Teaching the Old Testament to Children." , She holds that if people will look on the Old Testament from a new' point of. view, and otudy it with an unprejudiced mind, that i s uninfluenced by "conventional opinion," she ventures "to predict for them a yet deeper appreciation of the " Scriptures that have tuvn written for our learning." "The Reign of Labour," "The New Naval Training," and the usual monthly article-, appear, and Sir Leslie Stephen has "Sonte Early Impressions," to which we recently referred in our leading columns.

Really there is no excuse for ignorance in the present day. Not only can we get some of the best literature in tbe English language for sixpence a volume, but there now comes to hand a really first-class " Etymological Dictionary," published at a shilling net. It is the "Peopl-'s Edition" of Chambers's Dictionary, edited by A. Findlater, M.A., LL.D., and is complete in every detail, giving tha pronunciation aa well us ths derivation and meaning of tlie words, together with a number of very useful tables for reference. Altogether it is a triumph of cheap and good publishing. (London and Edinburgh: W. and R. Chambers. Ci-ristchurch: Whitconibe and Tombs).

Mr George Manvillo Fenn's latest- novel, "It Came to Pass," deals with the fortunes of two young men, Grant and Lester Vine, sons of a well-to-do widow, and two young- women, Mary and Effie Dale, daughters of the old rector of tlie parish of which the Ford House, where the Vines live, is tho manor house. Grant Vina ia a rather dreamy bookworm, whose unspoken love for Mary Dale is checked by the belief that her heart is given to his brother, a young men of loose habits. The latter contracts an irregular marriage with a gipsy girl, and when Mrs Vino dies this 'girl thrusts herself in to the Ford House, of which she declares she is now mistress, only to learn that it has been left to Grant, and that Lester lias run through all his share of the property. Tlie news of the latt.r"s mesalliance creates a painful sensation at tlie rectory, especially in the case of Efhe, whom he has apparently betrayed. That this is what happens eventually is undoubted, and tho unfortunate girl is juat rescued in time from the river. Grant Vina learns the girl's secret, and a violent scene between the brothers ends in Grant half killing Lester by a blow in self-defence. Eventually Lester marri'M his gipsy girl, and Grant marries Effia to Bave her honour. She dies shortly after giving birtjs, to a child, leaving the reader to conclude that Grant then marries h<?r sister. The best character is that of the country doctor, a. shrewd old fellow, with more corranon sense than anyone else in the book, and next, to him comes John Stunt, the rector's runs «__ illicit still in the potting-ened. Grant, the hero, ia a rather colourless young main, whose many virtues hardly compensate for hi. preachin-83. Most of tho c__aracfcra, by the way, say "Hah!' varied occasionally by "Tchali," "Yah," and "Bah," with irritating frequency. The author's melodramatic tendencies are somewhat relieved by his appreciation of the beauties of gardens and woodlands. (London: George Bell and Sons' Indian and Colonial Library. Christchurch: Whitoon.be and Tombs. 2s 6d.)