NEW BOOKS AND EDITIONS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 80, 28 December 1907, Page 13

NEW BOOKS AND EDITIONS.

("Arethusa.".. By F. ' Marion Crawford. Macmillan's Colonial Library.); Constantinople of, tho fourteenth century forms the bizarre and pioturesque . background of Mr. Crawford's new story.. Carlo Z/eno, a Venetian free-lance, young and wellborn, is commissioned by liis friend, Mnrco' Posaro, of Venice, to buy—ostensibly as a companion for i'esarb's plain and elderly wife—tho most beautiful girl slavo to bp had for threo hundrecj and hrty ducats, 'l'ho slave, calling hersolf Arethusa, is bought, but novor readies Venice, and thereby hangs the story. Who she.is, and how she induces i&eno to lead the revolution that drives out tho usurping Emperor Andronicus and restores his father, the Emperor John, to.'the throne, we leave tho reader to discover for himself. The story is brightly written, animated, and'at times decidedly exciting. The characters are well sketched, though Zeno and Arctium', aro perhaps too modern for tho setting and have an air of make-believe, 'flic old-world atmosphere is'woven into tho romance, and with a few clever touches Mr. Crawford conjures up many pleasant scenes before the eye. ("Robert Thome: Tho Story of a London Clerk." By Shan P. 13uliock. London: T. Werner Laurie.) This is a faithful and sympathetic account of the, struggles of a Devonshire lad who comes to Loudon as a clerk in a great Government oiiico; marries on something liko eighty pounds a year; and al'tor some years of olrice routine escapes to iNew Zealand. An interesting picture ,is given of. tho internal economy, of a dopartment of tho British Civil Service, aiid the soul-dclulening rut into which ,overything and • everybody connected with; tho rea-tapc of officialdom seems destined to get.. It is tho history of a circumscribed, uneventful life, and is told with barely .sufficient, insight to lift it abovo tho commonplace. Mr. Bullock has done better work,, but to those who liko a .quiet and placid. tale tho story may bo recommended. ~ ("How does"it feel to bo old?" By Edward Marstonj F.11.G.5. London: Sampson Low, Marston and Co., Ltd. Is.) Most people who know tho charming books of "Tho Amateur Angler," who gossips so delightfully of fishing, Nature, and books, will be pleased with this pleasant little, volumo. It is just a dozen short chapters of genial and gentlo philosophy, rich in quotation, from which you rise up feeling as much younger as peaco, philosophy'and a dose of wisdom fronr the sages of literature can make you. . ("Noptune's Toll, and Other Verses." By J. M'Len'uan. AVhitcombo and Tombs, . Ltd.) ; Tho most remarkable thing about • this latest contribution to our home-grown literature is tho extravagance of the eulogies which Miss Jessie Macliuy heaps upon the author in a preface. . Mr. M'Lennan has written a jjroat quantity of verse, and although he is generally caroful of his rhymes, | and correct in his metres, he is very barren of beauty in phrase, and quite barren of poetic ideas. His verses aro cchoes of the poorest productions of the "standard poets"—not wholly devoid of merit, but better placed in the "poot's comers" of tho obscure journals in whioh thc.v appeared than I in book form*