BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 224, 9 June 1923, Page 21

BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

Born of a turbulent stock ha is crippled by gout at Eton and Oxford, then launched into a cavalry regiment, and then

By

LIBER.

Give a man a pipe he can smoke. Give a man a book he can read: And his home is bright with a calm delight Though the room be poor indeed.

BOOKS OF THB DAY.

Near Eastern Problems, Just now when Near Eastern problems are so much to the front, when so much is at stake as regards the future of Greece and European Turkey, as well as, indirectly may be, though none the less certainly, the future of the smaller Balkan States, such a book as that of Professor Arnold Toynbee, “Tho Western Question in Turkey and Greece: A Study in the Contact of Civilisations” (Constable and Co., per Australasian Publishing Company and Whitcombe and Tombs), is to be welcomed by all students of contemporary European history. The author, who is Professor of and Modern Greek Language, Literature, and History at the University of London, has for some years past devoted special attention to studying the political, economic, and social problems of the Near and Middle East. He wrote under the direction of the late Lord Bryce the Government Blue Book (1915) on “The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.” He also did most important work on Turkish affairs in and for the British Foreign Office up to and during the Peace Conference of Paris, and his knowledge of sources and documents has frequently been freshened by personal journeyings (on the latest occasion . as the special correspondent of the ‘‘Manchester Guardian”) over the areas covered by his book. His book may be regarded as a serious attempt to give recent events a correct historical setting. There is no trace of political pamphleteering in this important work; no attempt to redraft the ’Treaty of Sevres. The aim, kept steadily in view throughout the book, is evidently to present, quite apart from the momentary problems of diplomacy, what, in the words of the sub-title, is termed a “Study in the Contact of Civilizations,” or, as the author further explains, “A Study in the Influence of Modern Western Social Idealism on that of the Ancient East.” To the full understanding of the varied and complex features of the Near Eastern situation, as it exists to-day, Professor Toynbee’s book, so laudably free from anything approaching nationalistic prejudices, still less sectional propaganda, must be regarded as an historical study of the highest importance and value. The volume, which contains some excellent maps, would prove a most desirable accession to all university and secondary school .libraries, as well as being worthy of close and attentive study by all who are watching the progress of events in Eastern Europe. Specially valuable features of the book are the chronological tables and bibliographies which precede an unusually and usefully detailed index. (N.Z. price, 205.).

“A Century of Children’s Books." Miss Florence V. Barry, in her book, “A Century of Children's Books” (Methuen and Co.), gives a most interesting survey of the growth nf nursery literature, from the chapbook of the early pedlars to the later classics,(with Maria Edgeworth as tho turning 'point. In Elizabethan days English - children • had, it is. true, few boolcs, but they could enjdy seeing ‘‘Robin Hood or St. George and tho Dragon” played by travelling mummers on the village green, and they lived in an age of practical romance. It is curious that although a stem Puritan, such as George Fox condemns, among other “sins” of children, “the telling of Tales, Stories, Jests, Rhymes, and Fanciesthe greatest' child’s book of the age, "The Pilgrim’s Progress,” was written by a Puritan. Later on, we find that grave philosopher, John Locke, in “Some Thoughts on Education,” recommending that when the child l>v gin? to read “some easy, pleasant book, suited to his capacity, should be put into his hand.” He strongly recommends, in this connection, “Aesop’a Fahies” and “Reynard the Fox.” Miss Barry gives a very interesting account of the many “chap-books” and ballads which, after the Restoration, began to induce subjects specially interesting to children. _ She next deals with th* earlier “Fairy Tales” and “Eastern. Stories,” and traces the gradual evolution of children’s story-books from the “chap-book” stage to the rather overmoralised juvenile literature of the eighteenth century. John Newberry was the first London publisher to specialise in children’s books. Of such were the instructive "and entertaining “Histories of Mr. Thomas Thumb,’’ “Mr. John Hickathrift,” and sundry other worthies, a true and faithful ao count of whose adventures and achievements may bo had by the curious and the public in general, price two pence gilt, at Mr. Newberry’s, St. ?“«!’« Churchyard.” Miss Barry has written a most entertaining book, one which, in its »vn way. is a very valuable contribution to the history of English literature. Not the least valuable feature of the book is the full and excellent, bibliography printed in the appendices. It is to be hoped that, later on, the' author will add a second volume dealing with children’s books of the nineteenth century. Herein would be a rich field for such an industrious searcher after the quaint ’ and curious in such literature. <N Z. price 10s.). Lord Rosebery's “Chatham." From Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton (per Whitcombe and Tombs) comes a handsomely-produced library edition of Lord Rosebery’s fine historical monograph, “Chatham: His Early Life and Connections,” which, first appearing in 1910, has gone through several editions, and is widely recognised as a standard biographical work of high importance and value. It is not necessary to recount in detail the special qualities of this fine biographical study. I may, however, quote from tho author’s preface, a singularly clear and vivid summary of the great statesman’s strange and romantic career.

into Parliament. For el ?^ r6a^t e n ? groom-in-waiting to ft vnn<x. Tlten bo holds subordinate office for . nln ® 7 ? more. Then he suddenly Hashes out, not as a royal attendant or a ?9 lno r 3 1 ’ man, but as the people's darling and the champion of the country. In obsme positions he haa become the first man In Britain, which he now rules absolute tv for four years in a continual blaze of triumph. Then he is sacrificed to an intrigue, but remain# the supreme otat man of his country for “° r fd Then he becomes Prims l A ln * s ‘ er <-? t ant general acclamation, but in an instant he shatters his own power, and retirei, distempered, if not mad, into a cell. At last he divesta himself of ™ covers his reason; he Uvea lor nine y _ more, a lonely, sublimo firtire. but sriul to the last, an Incalculable fo J° o, dies, practically in uubUo. he have wished, and the nati on. hoping against hope, pins its faith to him to the hour of death.

It is of this strango poutioal g«n luB that Lord Rosebery has written the “Life.” The work is one opPJ which should, it is say, be found in ©very fjood public or private. In its new edrbion, printed in large, clear “ J specially welcome. (N.Z. pnoe 195.) A Book for Natural History Lovers. Mr. Richard Kearton.. F.Z.S.. the author of “At Home With Wild Nature” (Cassell and Co., per K hitcombo and Tombs) is well known as an expert and most entertaining writer on natural history subjects. Hi» book deals with such vaned fascinatingly interesting subjects M the Mentality of Wild Birds Mid Beasts. “Voices of the Night," “Natural History Superstitions.” “Robbers of ths Air and their Dashing Ways, the wonderful “Life History of the Coinmon Mole,” “Strange Accidents to Birds,” the “Wild Life of a Surrey Moor,” etc. It has been truly. said that “Richard Kearton has relieved the study of natural histoi-y from the charge of being as dry an dust, and made it as fascinating as a romance to old and young alike/’ A special and excellent feature of the book is its wealth of illustrations. Many strange and curious creatures and their equally strange and curious habits have in the past been pictured for us by Mr. Kearton’s camera. In the present volume the supply of pictures is as liberal as in its many predecessors and as fully interesting (N.Z. price. 10s.)

Some Excellent Reprints. Booklovers who would fain possess copies of many masterpieces not usually to he procured save in original and expensive editions, will join me in welcoming the appearance of an entirely new series of reprints; “The Abbey Classics” (Chapman _ and Dodd, per Australasian Publishing Co. and Whitcombe and Tombs). I have received a sample volume of this series in the shape of a handysized, neatly bound reprint _ of Cobbett’s “A Year’s Residence in America.” It might, perhapo, have' been better bad the long section on “Rutabaga Growing” been omitted or abbreviated, and to have printed the book in a larger type. But although on the small side we tyjie is very clear, and the get-up of tho book generally is very pleasant to the eye. When that sturdy Englishman, a typical John Bull of his time, William Corbett, fled from England in 1817, to escape, appearing before a court-mar-tial to answer the charge of having made grave allegations of corruption against certain officers of his late regiment, he spent a little over a year in America devoting his time to studying Yankee farming conditions. Everything that Cobbett wrote is worth, reading, if only for his rugged forcible style, his uncompromising frankness, and evident sincerity. Mr. John Freeman says, in his preface:

"A Year’s Residence" is full of Oobbett —the homely man, the romantic, the satirical, the eloquent, the curt. Pigs lead him to Rousseau, that scurvy root, the potato, is Involved with a denunciation of Shakespeare and. Milton: parsons like "placemen" are distinguished by his scorn; Arthur Young is but a religious fanatic, bribed by £5OO a year; and Bentham becomes little Mr. Jeremy Bentham, an everlasting babbler. He pleases himself with the praise of American hospitality, regretting that it died in England under the extortion of the r tax-gatherer, and still more delights himself with the beauty of American women, r. But his heart is still in England. _ "England la my country and to England I shall return. I like it best." etc.

Cobbjitt’a account of tho America of 1817, its city and country life, of farming methods, of tho people and their ways, is as readable as ever, and it is good to have sudh an excellent reprint of a book which it has long bepn difficult to obtain. Arnontx other works the Abbey Classics” will I notice, include Sir James Melville’s <^emoir ®,„T .. , Own Life.” Beckfords Vathek. Adlinßton’s translation of „ lhe Golden Asse of Lucius A-puleius Voltaire’s “Candide,” and his less known “Zadig,” ‘Disraeli’s “Runnymede Letters,” Longue’s “Daphne and Chloe.” One of the rarest of Henw> Melville books. “Mardi,’’ hitherto uns.” wF'a s A Z 9S^ioe, B 4s. 6d.)

Those of my readers, and. I hope they are many, who have a set of the Barchester novels on their shelves should note the appearance in that excellent series "The World’s Classics (N.Z. nrice 2s 6d.) of a charming little reprint’ of Anthony Trollope’s “Autobiography.” It is specially. “ terest “K m its references to the oHgmal F.. , and scenes which the novelist utilise! in those pleasant, restful stories of his Not very many of the lopes, a least not those of late years, have been Haiti (now Pope P>us XI). Inc boos has an introduction by Douglas Fres - field, a well-known English authon y on alpine climbing.

LIBER’S NOTE BOOK Stray Leaves. English papers of the end of April contain many interesting references to the late W. H. Mallock, who died recently. At one time Mallock was a prominent figure in the literary world, but of late years, save in connection with an occasional article in the “Fortnightly Review,” generally of a strongly anti-Socialist character, his name was rarely mentioned. And yet, in the ’eighties or thereabouts he was, in his way, quite a celebrity. He made his first hit by a brilliant satire, “The New Republic,” in which, under thin disguises, figured such loading men as Huxley, Spenoer, Walter Pater, Mark Pattison, Jowett (the famous Master of Balliol), and others.

Mallock was also a novelist. His “Romance of tho _ Nineteenth Century” enjoyed for a time a certain succes de scandale, one of its episodes being considered by the Victorian Mrs. Grundys of a decidedly risky character, although nowadays it would seem, I expect, nothing very dreadful. The background of the story is Monte Carlo, and there is some beautiful local colour in the book. The trouble with Mallock’s novels was that they were more of the nature of propaganda pamphlets (against Agnosticism, Socialism, and other ’isms disliked by the author) than novels. There is, in at least two of them, a mixture of religion and erotics which to many readers is somewhat repellent. Mallock was a nephew of James Anthony Froude, the historian, and of Hurrell Froude, the friend of Cardinal Newman. He was reported at one time to have “gone over” to Rome, but the report wm contradicted.

In the same series are to appear a reprint of Morion's amusing book, “Hadji Baba of Ispahan,” in its way almost as good as some of the Arabian Nights stories; also “Mardi,” one of the least known of Herman Melville’s books, and “Tolstoy’s Plays ”

To those of my readers who specially enjoy books with a strong personal flavour. I can warmly recommend a perusal of Arthur Machen’s two volumes of reminiscences of literary life in London. “Far off Things,” and “Things Far and Near.” In these reminiscences of Machen’s there is much of that quiet charm which so many book lovers have found in that now well-established favourite of lovers of really good literature, Gissing’s masterpiece, “The Private Papers of Henry Rycroft.” ( Apropos of Gissing, I notice that Nash and Grayson have reprinted what had become a somewhat Scarce book. “The Private Life of Henry Maitland,” by Morley Roberts. “Henry Maitland” is in every way George Gissing. Morley Roberts was a, life-long friend of Gissing’s, and gives, in this strange but very fascinating book, what is the nearest approach to vac truth as to Gissing’s chequered literary and personal career that has yet been published. ’Poor Gissing handicapped himself very early in life by an act of dishonesty committed, when, as a mere youth, he was a student at. Owen’s College, Manchester. Roberts tells the sad ■tory, perhaps with less reticence than might more properly have been displayed. Those who are interested in Gissing’s life, and work will _ find a biographical sketch, with a critical appreciation of his fine work as a novelist, in tho long and most interesting preface to Constable’s pocket edition of “The House of Cobwebs.” a collection of short stories and sketches by Gissing.

SOME RECENT FICTION "Give aid Take.” “Give and Take,” bv Amber Reeves (Mrs. Blanco White), (Hurst and Blackett, per Ferguson and Osborne), has a special interest for New Zealand readers, in that it is the work of a indy who was born in the Dominion, the daughter of the Hon. W- P. Reeves, long and honourably connected with New Zealand both as a politician and as High Commissioner. Mrs. White had already two successful novels to her credit, but “Give and Take” is a much more elaborate and important story. The novel deals with the working of a special department supposed to have been set up during the war, “The Board of Reconciliation,” whose special duty was the solving of industrial difficulties. The picture, as drawn by Mrs. White, is of a complex character, the stage being crowded by officials of various type's. There is the berfect Civil servant. Sir Adnan Heath, who “respected facts, and above all else, disliked slipshod, specious methods of dealing with them” ; the pushful “Second Secretary,” Harvard. bright of manner, deceiving most of his colleagues by his affectation of clever intuition; Sir George Cuthbertson, the official head, and a host of others, right down to the second division clerks, the rank and file... as it were, of the regiment of officialdom. Trades union leaders and instigators of strikes also play prominent parts in the story, and wo are introduced also to the sacred precincts of Downing Street and shown some of the inner workings of ministerial and political intrigues The author’s personal experience of work in a Government Department during the war has enabled hor to invest her story with a convincing realism in its details, but it is doubtful whether the novel, which runs to the portentous length of 400 pages, would not have been the better for some liberal blue-pencilling, “of its meticulous detail.” The story recalls memories of Miss Rose Macaulay’s amusing novel. “What Not,” with its unforgettable description of the “Ministry of Brains,” but Mrs. White works on her own lines, and evidently is far more in earnest than was. Miss Macaulay. Her humour, too, is of a different kind, being inclined to be slightly acidulated and sardonic, whereas the author of “What Not” was only playfully satirical. “Give and Take” is a fine piece of work, but it is doubtful whether its subject were not more suitable for treatment in a professed serious study than is possible in a novel.

Three “Breen Label” Novels. Mr. Herbert Jenkins, the publisher of the well-known “Green Label” Library, continues to issue some very entertaining fiction. Two new and highly sensational detectives in this series are “The Clevedon-. Case, Nancy and John Oakley, and ‘ Tho Return of Anthony Trent,” by Wyndham Martin (Herbert Jenkins, Ltd'). The former deals with the remarkable and very thrilling experiences which fall to the lot of an authority on criminology, Dennis Holt, who inherits a house in a remote village, the sort or place where, as he says, ‘‘nothing ev©r happens.” As a matter of fact, some very surprising things happen to the new owner of Stone Hollow, for close upon midnight one evening there is a tapping on a windowpane and a young girl appears, who whispers, “Let me ui, I have hurt myself.” The criminologist gives “first aid” and sets her on her way through the fog, and tho next day 11 learns of a tragedy, the murder of a baronet, Sir Philip Cleveden, at his house, “White Towers,” the victim having been, apparently, stabbed to death with a hatpin. In this wise begins a well-told story which ends—well, as to that my readers must go to the pages of this very thrilling yarn. In "The Return of Anthony Trent,” from the same publishers, we have some further episodes in the life of a master-criminal who now, a reformed “Raffles,” achieves fame as an amateur detective. He tracks down and brings to punishment an American crook, Payson Grant, for whose crime an innocent man had suffered punishment. The scene changes rapidly from New York to London and to a country village, and the author is highly successful in keeping his readers fairly agog with excitejnent as to how the resourceful Treat will get himself out of some rapidly succeeding “tight corners.” The villain of the piece is, in the end, safely housed in the famous American prison of Sing, and the ingenious and audacious Mr. Trent is left in the final chapter, the accepted and happy lover of a charming young French lady. As a “thriller” Mr. Martin’s latest story will take some beating.

With pleasant recollections of that excellent story, “The Salo of Lady Daventry,” ana tho highly amusing “Sally bn the Rocks,” I turned to the pages of Miss Winifred Boggs’s latest story, “The Joyous Pilgrim” (Herbert Jenkins) in a spirit of agreeable anticipation anticipation destined to be fully realised. T)ie hero of the story, Jim Pilgrim, is an ingenuous young soldier, whose earlier experiences with the fair sex are none too pleasant. In “Little Ann,” otherwise Miss Ann Bellew, however, he meets a very charming girl, who has been brought up by an eccentric millionaire grandfather on entirely novel and rather fantastic lines, her guardian’s idea being that she should grow up to womanhood uncontaminated by any of the frivolities and follies of present-day society. The story, although inclining to the farcical in certain of its incidents, is told with much vivacity, and includes some well-drawn and very amusing character sketches.

“Ditto : Towards the Stars." The Danish novelist’s Martin Andersen Nexo's trilogy, which commenced with “Ditte: Girl Alive,” and was continued by “Ditte: Daughter of Man,” has now been concluded by a story entitled “Ditte: Towards the Stars” (William Heinemann). There is a subtle but fascinating power'displayed in these stories which set forth the life of a poor peasant girlj who knows not her parents, and who, when a mere child, is put to domestic service. Of her life on a desolate farm, and of her earlier experiences in Copenhagen, we have read in tho first two volumes of Nexo's trilogy. We now have the final scenes in the heroine’s life, scenes passed amidst the sordid environment of a tenement house in the great city. She is to the end sadly misused by a cruel fortune, but she is always the sturdy fighter against fate, one who loads a patient, selfsacrificing life, one in whom the finer spirit of maternity is personified. Ditto’s slum surroundings in" the city are painted with the' same realistic brush which made tho rural scenes of the first story so vivid and so convincing. It is in places a very pathetic, indeed, a very painful story that Nexo gives us, and not a few readers may be repelled by the ingratitude and cruelty of some of the often very unworthy objects of the heroine’s devotion, for whom’ she so unselfishly sacrifices her own happiness. , But the trilogy, taken as u whole, is undoubtedly a very fine literary achievement. Shorter Notices. Mr. Donn Bvrnne, the author of “The Wind Bloweth” (Australasian Publishing Co., per Whitcombe and Tombs and Ferguson and Osborne), is a young Irish-American writer, whose work has been, I believe, warmly praised by American critics. The hero of “The Wind Bloweth,” Shane Campbell, is a young Irishman from Antrim, who travels to Africa, South America, and elsewhere, and whose numerous and exceedingly sentimental and amorous experiences are here set forth in detail, often in a curious style which betrays a rather desperate desire on the part of the author to get away from literary conventions. The ,bero is a strange compound of perfervid morality—in a fit of which he murders a beautiful woman at Marseilles to save her from the life she was leading—sexual weakness, and Celtic mysticism. A queer story, but not without a certain fascination of its own.

“Tho Eden Tree” (Mills and Boon) is the latest of Anthony Carlyle’s novels. It deals with some complicated divorce court proceedings, and how they affect a pretty, ambitious young married woman and a young nobleman with whom she has fallen in love. A readable story.