BOOKS AND AUTHORS

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 84, 7 January 1928, Page 25

BOOKS AND AUTHORS

.(By

"LIBER.")

BOOKS OF THE DAY A Famous British Orator. Under the title, “Speeches by the Earl of Oxford and Asquith” (Hutchinson and Co.), have been collected an authoritative selection of those many speeches bv which, during his lengthy career as a British Parliamentarian and statesman, Lord Oxford and Asquith has made himself known as one of the finest orators of whom his country men have been so proud, 'lite speeches liete given range over a lengthy term ol vears, the first quoted dealing with “Coercion in Ireland,” delivered as far back as 1887, and ending with Mr. Asquith’s speech on his “Resignation of the Leadership of the Liberal Partv, in October, 1926. /Among the most famous of the orations are those on various Budgets, on Welsh Disestablishment, on Women’s Suffrage, on various subjects connected with the war, with the accession to office of a Labour Government, etc. It is good to see that included in what is a volume, of far more more than usual interest are the speeches delivered on the deaths of those fine, though greatly varying, characters, Alfred Lyttelton and Joseph. Chamberlain. From a perusual of this most interesting and historically valuable volume may be readily seen what a serious loss to British Parliamentary oratory was caused by the retirement of this great Liberal to the so much calmer atmospheie of the House of Lords. It is, perhaps, a pity that two or three of the many orations wmeh Mr. Asquith delivered upon r.on-pohtical subjects, speeches in which he displayed such an eloquent grasp of English literature and its history, could not have been included, but in an already bulky volume there was, T suppose, no space available. A fine photogravure portrait of Lord Oxford is given as fiontispiece. (225. Gd.) Maeterlinck, on Ants. The great Belgian naturalist, playwright, and poet, to whom we owe works as various as “The Blue Bird’ and “The Life of tlie Bee,” now gives the public, in his “Life of the White Ant” (George Allen and Unwin), a singularly arresting, indeed, most fascinating, study of the termites, or white ants, whose mischievous activities have proved so awkward a problem in lite in tropical and semi-tropical countries. There is something almost sinister about the white ant, something weirdiv horrible about the termites, of which there arc more than a thousand species. The termite is blind, tunnelling with astounding industry termitaries, < houses, underground. The female rules, the males are “a caste of royal sluggards, gluttonous, roisterous, self-in-dulgent, licentious, veritable encumberers of the earth.” The prolificity of the queen is almost inconceivable. ■ Says Maeterlinck, “Her corselet sunk in a vast area of fat, lier tiny legs absurdly useless, the queen is absolutely incapable of the slightest movement. She lavs on an average an egg a second, that is to say, more than 86,00 J in 24 hours, and 30,000,000 a year.” Maeterlinck sees in the white ants and their marvellous doings, a veritable. menace to mankind, in their everyday

life underground, Crucltv, atmosphere, the convict cells, tl - „ settlement, and the cliaiiicl -• ■ Naturalists assure us that the jl’ ants can hear each others sig « - some mvsterious auditory organs their legs. The whole story of the telinites is one at which mere liumaiis • y well ponder aghast at the possibilities of their unique and for the ’” Obt In - evil power. When Maeterbuck tells l is that the white ant is a hundred mi - lion vears the predecessor of mail on our planet, he opens up a tiekl °‘ to ’’’ lecture, which is well-nigh limitless. But the whole book is replete Willi mscrulablv wonderful problems. J e translation, as with others sine; tlie death of Texeira de Mattos, has been done by Alfred Sutro. (Bs.) "America’s Secret.” Mr. J. Ellis Harker, the author ol “America’s Secret: 'I he Causes of le*" Economic Success” (John Murray), is well known to readers of English reviews as a skilful compiler and analyst of economic statistics. In his lates volume, so closely packed with facts and figures, the author of “Modern G‘rniany,” “Economic Statesmanship, and other widely-circulated works, explains to us the secret of America s marvellous advance towards economic success. He describes American business principles, the attitude of American workers, tlie activities of some 01 the great business organisations, anil analyses the scientific management which so widely rules in manufactuiing and commercial enterprises. Mr. Barker also takes into account the influences of America’s systems of education and protection; reviews the management of America’s railways and banking systems, and pays due attention to the enormous increase of electrification. Whether Mr. Barker is correct in nil the theories he sets forth, whether all American commercial and social conditions could or should be duplicated in Great Britain, . is, of course, a matter of some question, but there is no gainsaying his massing together of a vast amount of most useful information, information which, in many of its details, should be of both interest and value to New Zealand politicians of all shades of partv colour, and publicists generally. (10s.)

The Romance of Chemistry. It would be difficult to come across any book of greater interest to a student of science, more particularly chemistry, and, indeed, to any intelligent young man, than Dr. William Foster's “Romance of Chemistry” (George Allen and Unwin). Dr. Foster, who is Professor of Chemistry in Princeton University, has dealt with many sides of chemistry, the story ol which from the old to the new alchemy, is so full of romance. It is astonishing how wide a ground he has succeeded in covering. He tells, for instance, the story of the atom and electron, of fire and electricity, of the metals and radium, of the constituency and internal action of so many everyday things which play so important a part in our existence, and yet, although they touch the lives of most of us, the nature of which on their chemical side is often quite unknown to us, Dr. poster's book may well be claimed by its publisher to constitute “a brisk, complete, and eminently readable manual on chcmis*

try lor everyone,” not the least prominently valuable feature of which is the author’s skilful avoidance of perplexing technicalities. The book is most generously illustrated by photographs of chemical works laboratories, with diagrams and designs all cognate to the subjects discussed. (155.). LIBER’S NOTE BOOK Chaliapin, the famous singer, has written his autobiography, “Pages From Aly Life.” . . . Another stage hero, this time the actor Cyril Maude, who wrote a book when in Australia, "piling on the toffee” so thick that even several Australian journals found it rather fullsome, is also writing his reminiscences. As a rule theatrical autobiographies are seldom much more than egotistical outpouring. . . . Your fashionable mummer is seldom a success with his pen. . . . Mrs Forrest, the Queensland ladj' who has written so much verse, has just had a novel, "Reaping Roses,” accepted by Hutchinsons. This is the fourth novel by the popular Australian writer to be published in London. . . . Jowett, of Plato fame, the famous Master of Balliol, had no great opinion of Gladstone’s scholarship. In his book of reminiscences, “Under Three Reigns,” the Hon. Mrs. Lyttelton Gell quotes Jowett’s criticism of the G.O.M. on Homer! “He has only two things to say about Homer. They’re not new, they’re both wrong, and they’re mutually contradictory. . . ._ The old gentleman who styles himself Aloysuis. Horn will never again peddle gridirons and tinware, as lie was doing when "discovered” at Johannesburg by Airs Elthelreda Lewis, for, according to his American publishers, he is netting no less than £5OO a week by royalties on his famous book. . . . It is understood that the abridgment made by Colonel T. E. Lawrence (now Private Lawrence, of the Indian Air Force) of his privately printed book, "Seven Pillars of Wisdom,” under the title "Revolt in the Desert” (Jonathan Cape), is to be withdrawn. When the present edition is exhausted it is understood that no further copies will be available. . _. . Bv the way, apropos of the African desert, one of the greatest living English authorities on Arabia, Dr. David George Hogarth, died early in November. . . .. Hogarth was a noted archaeologist. “The Ancient East” and “A Wandering Scholar in Arabia” are two of his best-known works. . . . T. W. H. Crosland, that clever but eccentric Bohemian who is perhaps best known by his rather savage satire, “The Unspeakable Scot,” was a Leeds man bv birth. A medallion of Doulton ware, in his memory, has been placed on the house in Dewsburv Road (now a branch of the Yorkshire Penny Bank) which was his birthplace in the woolly and smokv Yorkshire city. . . . The ‘istuffing” and “cramming” of boys with alleged fads, which is so frequently mistaken for education nowadays, was recently responsible, no doubt, for the dreadful howler perpetrated by an English schoolbov the other day. “The Kodak is the Bible of the Mohammedans.” . . . Miss Janet Ross, who died at 85 at Florence, where she had lived for many years in a picturesque old house overlooking the Arno, was the doyenne of tlie British colony in that city. She had known

both Dickens and Thackeray, but was more famous perhaps in that she was reputed to be the original of Rose Jocelyn in George Meredith’s “Ewen Harrington.” . . . William McFee, the novelist, who is also a marine engineer, declares that not since Conrad wrote “Typhoon” has the storm which wrecks tlie tramp Altair in mid-ocean, in Tomlinson’s "Gallion’s Reach,” been equalled in strength and truth in English fiction. “Twilight Sleep.” When one remembers that Mrs. Edith Wharton, the author of “Twilight Sleep” (Appleton and Co.) has been styled by a leading English review the best of America’s lady novelists, and recalling, too, two really admirable novels, “I he House of Mirth,” with its unforgettable picture of poor Lily Bart, and "The Custom of the Country,” it is impossible not to consider Airs. Wharton’s latest novel very unsatisfying. “Twilight Sleep” has not here its usual meaning, but shows how in New York of to-day a twice divorced woman can drug herself into a belief that for her two families not to be on friendly terms with each other is not to recognise new social and moral conditions. Pauline Alanfred, who is at one and the same time chairman of a birth control society and a mothers’ league, and whose rage for collecting social lions results in her patronage of a horrible charlatan, a bogus Alaliatma, and her invitations to a Church of England bishop, an Italian cardinal, and a Jewish Rabbi to meet her protege, is a very stupid person whose philosophy is as silly as herself, is a severely satirised and not unamusing figure, but it is difficult to believe she represents even a small section of New York society, and the story as a whole seems but poor stuff to come from a novelist who has unquestionably given us some very fine work in fiction. “Young ’Un.” Hugli Walpole’s delightful boy Jeremy has a rival in young Paul Gauvinier, the boyish hero of Hugh De Selincourt’s “Young ’Un” (Alethuen and Co.). Perhaps Air. Selinconrt gives Paul a somewhat more advanced psychology than is natural to the age of one whose later life, curiously enough, has been described in that earlier novel “'J he Cricket ATatch,” but “Young ’Un” is, in its own way, a very delightful picture of the strange workings of the youthful mind. “The District Bungalow.” "The District Bungalow,” by Cecil Champain Lewis (Jonathan Cape) is another pleasantly-written novel on the life led in Burmah by the British officials and their women folk. The story deals with the mild upset caused in the social life of a small up-country station in Burmah by the arrival thereat of a travelling British conjurer and his ladv assistant, the interest being largely 'of a comedv character. The plot is but slight, Mr. Champain succeeding specially in his cleverly-drawn, if in places highly satirical, pictures of the male,and female society of the station, and the picturesque local colour of a region concerning which the average novel reader here can know but little. SOME RECENT FICTION Some Jarrold’s Fiction. t In his preface to Nicolai Lyeskow s novel, “The Enchanted Wanderer, translated from the Russian by A. G. Paschoff (Jarrolds) the veteran novelist, Alaxiin Gonci, ranks its author with. Tolstoy, Turgenioff and other great Russians, and warmly commends Lyeskow’s story which is supposed to be told by a wandering lay brother and is the tale ol his adventures over a large portion of his native land. The supernatural plays no small part in the story, the action of which reallv dates from a dream he had in which a monk, to whom the Enchanted Wanderer, accidentally killed appears. The result is a strange and typically Russian mixture of adventure and mysticism Estrith Mansfield’s, ‘‘The Plaming Flower” (Jarrolds), is a poignant seventeenth century romance 111 winch appear not only some well drawn purelv fictional characters. Lancelot Bushel and Diana, his wife, and the old familv doctor, all very human figures, but' such historical personages of fame as Sarah, Duchess of Alarlborough, the poets Pope and Gray, and the first of our great English novelists, Daniel Defoe. Some Good Reprints. The frequent issuing of new and cheaper editions of novels which ha\c already achieved some popularity is a feature of latterday publishing. From Messrs. Stanley Paul and Co. come reissues (3s. Gd.) of two of Alav Wynne s semi-historical romances, “King Maudlin's Challenge,” a Dumas-hke, or perhaps one should say, Stanley Wig-man-like story of Louis the Fifteenth’s court; and “Love’s Penalty,” in which the great Cardinal de RicheHeu figures. Messrs. Stanley Paul and Co. also republish in cheaper form L. Noel’s “A Riff Bride,” which had some success last year as a desert story of the style first made so popular by Airs. Hull’s novel, "The Sheik.” Afessrs. Herbert Jenkins and Co. send us a new edition (3s. 6d.) > of J. S. Fletcher’s romance of old time rural life in Yorkshire. Those who only know Mr. Fletcher as a writer of clever detective yarns should sample his writing in a very different style. It is always good to sec new and cheaper editions of William J. Locke’s lively and wholesome novels, which seem assured of permanent popularity in so many forms do these stories reappear. Recent additions to ’ John Lane’s four and sixpenny edition of Air. Locke’s novels include four of his earlier stories, "The White Dove,” and “The Usurper,” "Simon the Jester,’ with ite fine character sketches of Simon Gcx and Lola Brandt, and “Stella Alaris.” “Each has its host of admirers, to which these cheaper editions should greatlv increase. Recent additions to Afessrs. Nelson’s handy-sized and well printed two shillingnovels: “My Friend Prospero,” by Henry Harland, whose editorship of “The Yellow Book” in the eightcennineties, was accompanied by the introduction of tnanv then quite new comers, both in literature and art; Ridgwell Cullum’s vigorously written Canadian story, “The Alan in the Twilight” (in which there is much concerning the Canadian wood pulp industry), and that lively romance, mainly of motoring adventure, “The Scarlet Runner,” by those much practised novelists, C. N. and A. Af. Williamson. Afessrs. Stanley Paul and Co. are doing good service to novel readers by publishing at the reasonable price of 3s. Gd. (New Zealand) new editions got up, in format to the usual six shilling standard, of several of the earlier stories of the popular lady writer, May Wynne. Recent additions to this series are "Brav6 Brigands,” a romance of the French Revolution; “Roval Traitor,” in which we are taken back to the court of that eleventh Louis who figures so prominently in Scott’s “Quentin Durward.” Stanley Paul and Co. publish a halfcrown reprint of one of Guv Tliorne’s most popular stories "Portalone,” and of yet another romance by the everpopular writer, Cecil Adair, “Whispering Trees.” Air. John Afurray publishes a new (2s. M.) edition of Airs Afaud Diver’s Anglo-Indian story “Siege Perilous.” ,