NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12683, 22 December 1906, Page 7

NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

It was Swiniburne, we think, who first gauged tbe rare quality of Matthew Arnold as a poet, and predicted that it was by his verse, even more than by his exquisite pro 9©, that he would live. Nearly forty years ago he wrote—"For somo years -past th© fame of Mr Matthew Arnold has been almost exclusively tho fame of a prose writer. Those students could hardly find hearing—they have nowhere of late found expression that I know of—wh© with all esteem and enjoyment of his essays, of the clearness and beauty of tne«r sentiment and style, retained the opinion that if justly judged he must be judgod by 'bis verse and not by his prose, certainly not by this alone; that future students would cleave to that with more of care and of love; that the meet memorable quality about him was the quality of a poet." That prophecy is coming true to the extent that Matthew Arnold's poems aro now admired not only by a few fine spirits but by a wad© circle of cultured readers. These will welcome tlie appearance of a d©b'gh-ful edition of "Tlie Scbolar-Giwy" and "Thyrsis" handsomely printea on thick paper, with wide margins. It is a volirme which will especially appeal to Oxford' men. sinco where else will you get such exquisite pictures of the country round "that sweet city" as ho terms it, as in thepso poemsP Mr E. H. New's isim.pl©, but finely-drawn illustrations are a fitting accompaniment to the text. {London : Macmillan and Co.. Ltd-, 2s Gd net).

"Dot and the Kangaroo" is a very charming storybook for children* by tho late Missy Ethel Peedley. Tne authoress was best known as a musician, but she wrote this book towards the close of her life. It is something between "Alice in Wonderland.' and Mr Kipling's "Jungle Book." "Dot is a little girl, who is lost in the bush, and is befriended by a kangaroo. Soon she forms a large and extremely interesting circle of acquaintances—a native bear, an opossum, a platypus, a magpie, a pefican, to say nothing, of a kookaburra, which vanquishes a deadly snake la open combat. Thera are sir papital illustrations, by- Frtflik P. Mahoaey. (.Sydney, Angus and Robertson, 89 Castlereagh street, 3s 6d.)

* '-Occasion's Forelock," by Violet Simrlon, writer of 'The Bonnet Conspirators." shows some curiously clever cbaracter-drawing. The title is owed to a passage in' Bacon's essay "Of Delays"—"For occasion (as it is in the common verse) turneth a bald noddle after the hath preasented her locks in front, and no hold taken." This story mirsues through very troublous ways the lives of some persons whose ocoasion to be good or occasion to be happy has been allowed to slip by,; and gives a new interest to the lives still undecided by surveying them as exposed to the same test. Eustace Oleig was successful in seizing Occasion when a chance came for worldly-advance, but was sorrowfully incapable of dealing with the situation when he found himself supposed to have asked the hand of one sister whilo he adored the other. Two lives were spoiled until the engaged sister sensibly seized an occasion to run oft 5 with another young man, whom she found, after all, sho preferred, and left Eustace free to make the best explanation of events that he could, or, at any rate, to make no mistake as to his meaning in a second proposal. The two sisters, scholarly Mercedes and frivolous Grace, aro very prettily drawn; and there are good chapters on Oxford life, when Mercedes goes from the old-world teachings of her quaint and charming Aunt Mary, and the companionship of a simple, stalwart Cousin Hugh, to. the new air of a tv-omon's college. But a sad tone somehow prevails, through the shadow of suffering to be borne for a previous generation's sins; and even in the book's happy ending, we have to feH that the man left with bride arid with estates is less worthy than he who has gone out lonely and landless from all that was once esteemed to be his. (London: Arnold's Colonial Library. Christchurch: Simpson and Williams. 2s. 6d.:

Andrew Lang, in an appreciative note on Stockton, makes the one criticism that his vein is a little too connubial—"a little too rich in the humours and experiences of young married people." Miss Mary Mann's new story, 'The Eglamour Portraits," might bo described in the same words. Its vein is connubial from the fire* entrance of Clarence Eglamour,- with Juliet his wife, just arrived from the honeymoon, to find the trsditionsP mother-in law industriously setting the houae in order t© welcome them back. "Doesn't he look sweet P" asks the little bride, es-_, tatically pointing out to her mother the effects of sunburn on his complexion—to the joy of the attendant servant-maids. But the honeymoon mood la*t no longer than tlie first meal, during which Clarenece disoovens that Mrs Cummin has sacrilegiously taken it upon herself to banish the portraits of his father and mother from their piece of honour to make room for some -common wedding presents. Tlie uncertain fate of these portraits during the next few weeks represents the house struggle for authority. Mrs Cummin takes them down, and Clarence r©stor<-s tbem. Tbe young wife takes them down, and Clarenoe makes it a condition of his awful rule and right supremacy that she should hang tbem up. We iwgre* to say this contention soon exsenerated the rebellious Juliet to the point of calling names and throwing things, .and tho young husband into locking his wife up in the bath-room! An idle captain, and a mischirf-making Susy, increase the trouble on either si<l©. This novel belongs to the new school of such domestic fiction ss "The Red House,"" or "Tbe Smiths of Surbiton." But Mary Mann haa a harder tou<eh than E. Nesbit or Keble Howard. When remorse and paralysis combine to cany off the offending Mm Cummin, we are inclined to resent the intrusion of do- 1 mcstic tragedy where all seemed to promise domestic farce; even though "The Eglamour Portraits" hang where Ancestors should, and the present-day Eglamoura have regained their honeymoon bliss. efLondon: Methuen's Colonial Library. Christchurch: Whitcombe and Tombs, Ltd., 2s 6d''Enderby" is a tale with an Auatra-

ban setting, and Miss Bertha Shelley's 'as presumably an Australian pen. The writing shows ability modi wasted on a preposterous plot. A dying girl •ends in baste for a girl friend, Enderby, who, after swearing faithfulness to a death-bed request, finds herself in the difficult position of going home with a baby, under oath to tell no one how aha came by it. Meeting the young man who loves her, she so behaves as to lead him to lamentable conclusions. He declares he must give her his name .to shield her character, and tbey elope at once, carrying the objectionable infant, and come back from a wretched mock honeymoon te amaze their friends by the story of an adopted, baby, and by their own intensely miserable looks as a married couple. All ia gloom till the right father appeani at last, to -relieve the victim from her vow, and account for everythinc. It is an impoesible little story, told by a young writer treating f-oofehly themes she but half comprehends. Miss Shelley will probably do work so much better that she will feel grateful for a kind forgetfiilness of this. (London: Methuem's Colonial Libnirv: ChristdiuTch: Whitcombe and Tombs, 2s 6d). The numerous admirers of Mr A. B. Paterson, as a writer of rollicking, realistic Australian verse, will turn with interest to "An Outback Marriage," his first work as a novelist, to roe how he shapes in thia*branch of literary activity. Tho general verdict will be, wo think, that his proof pictures of Australian life are realistic, brightly written, and by no means too flattering. One of the characters is a wealthy old runholder* known as Bully Grant, who has made his fortune largely by taking advantage of other people's weaknesses. Irish selectors of a very objectionable type, English "newchums," bush publicans, are sketched for us with unfaltering'hand. Life and scenery in the back blocks are drawn for us by one who evidently knows them well,' and we eet a glimpse of a club interior in Sydney on the one hand, and "Push Society on the other. There is no attempt to idealise or soften down the most sordid and depressing futures of life on the/station or in the selectors' huts. One of the- characters is an Englishman, who after living among the blacks with a couple of "gins" returns to the very free and loose-mannered lady, whotri he married and deserted in earlier days, she he-self h-iving contested Bully Grants will on the ground that she was his "widow." There is nothing very refined or romantic about the tale. Mr Paterson's descriptions, however, are vigorous and life-like, and the story :s bound to make ita mark even although many Australians may be inclined to ressent it, as much as they did Lord Bcauchamp's tactless reference to the birthstain. (Sydney, Angus and Robertson. 89 Castlereagh street, 3s 6d.)

A delightful Christmas present for the littfe ones is Ward. Lock and Co.'s apnrQpriatelv-namSd "Wonder Book — full of splendid picturtw, veree, fairy stories, and other good things of the kind children love. Many eyes will be made the brighter next Christmas morning if this book should hanpen to arrive through the gracious offices of Santa Clans- (London: *WaTd, Lock and Co. Christchurch: Simpson and Williams.)