Page 3 Advertisements Column 2

Evening Star, Issue 11642, 31 August 1901, Page 3

REMARKABLE SUCCESS ...OF THE... S' OFFER ...OF TTTK... EDITED BY DR RICHARD GARNETT, AND RECENTLY ISSUED IN LONDON BY 'THE STANDARD.' HUNDREDS OF APPLICATIONS FROM EVERY PART OF NEW ZEALAND. VOL. I.—You would naturally think that the first volumes, dealing wit. the classics, would be heavy. If so, you don't know how interesting some of the classics are. Homer, for instance, has written some wonderfully stirring talo3. But this volume isn't au Homer and VirgiL The plan permits modern treatments of aucient life too. ™"1 *° 'ce jewels of Greek wit still sparkling in the coffers of Aristophanes, Lucian, and others ; sonorous pages from the great trio -Aschylus Sophocles, a. d Euripides; Mahaffy and Plutarch combine to describe Alexander the Great: Eber tens 01 the Olympic games ; and DrydeD anc 1 Byron sing of " the glory that was Greece." VOL. m. places side by side Bulwer-LytWs powerful story of the destruction of Pompeii and the ancient account of Pliny, who a r a iv" Wen , thron S h that awful holocaust. Equally thrilling are the arena pictures from Sienkiewiez and Whyte-Mclville. A lighter note or a more tender chord is struck by other stories and poems VOL. IV. is especially rich in mediaeval masterpieces, such as the delicious romance of " Aucassin and Nicolete " as Andrew Lang has translated it; humor and anecdote from the Persians ; great pages concerning the Crusades: Boccaccio's inoffensive and charming stories ; Chaucer's gaiety and Conan Doyle's exciting " White Company." n'"v7— * I 7\% g maker » " the hero of two vigorous battle stories ; Pulci's humor, Ariosto's gorgeousness, Benvennto w " l ™ 8 V? nk jelf-confesHion, and Machiavelli's chill cunning represent Italy, while the best of Montaigne, Villon, Rabeliaa and the Abbe de Brantome's accouut of Mary Queen of Scots stand for France. VOL VL— England in Henry VTIL s Time jb the subject for a most entertaining picture by Froude. . This volume is full of the most powerful tragedy and the happiest comedy of the great days of Elizabeth. Marlowe, Shakespeare, Jonson, and others are here. There is wit from Bacon; and appropriate fiction from Scott, Puc, and Clark Russell Sienkiewicz writes of e saunters past laughing, and Pepys follows with Butler's ridiculous " Hudibras." Fire and Sword," and Quiller-Couch has a romance of the Battle of Stamford. Thackeray, Charles Reade, Ainsworth, and Blackmore. Jefoe. The historical novels covering this period are by VOL. IX.—Each of the twenty volumes is prefaced by an essay specially written for th« Library by some eminent author. For this Sir Walter Besant writes on " Novels I hat Have Made History." Here are the best of the first English novelist Richardson, the rollicking Feilding, Smollett, Goldsmith, Sterne, and others. ' VOL. X.—The fiction here chosen is from the "Evelina" of Miss Barney (whose fascinating diary is also quoted), from Goethe's " Wilhelm Meister," from Dumas' "Saint Pierre." and Bedford's "V.thek." The hist"rical selections include Carlyle on " Ihe French Revolution," and Captain Mahan's accouut of Trafalgar and the Deith of Nelson. VOL. Xl._ contains an introductory essay by the great French critic and novelist, Paul Bourget, written especially' for the " Library " ; «lso eloquent oratory and vivid translations of some of the best German writers, such as Goethe, Raspe Renter Ruckert Uhland, Heine, Meiuhold, as well as fiction by Disraeli, Charles Lever, Miss Edgeworth, &c. ' VOL. XII begins with Coleridge's splendid narrative poem, "The Rime of the Ancient^Manner" ; it continues with other mas'erpiec s, such as Campbell's " Pleasures of Hope'' Hood's "Bridge of Sighs," Shelley's "Skylark" Southev's " Lodore"; and there are essays by Lamb and Birrell, fiction by Balzac, Jane Austen, Lover, Hawthorne, &c. ' VOL. XTII. is a lurky number, opening with Victor Hugo's breathl-ss description of a fight with a runaway cannon in a stormtossed ship followed by a powerful work of Balzic's. There, is a section of school life from Thomas Hughes Dickens, Cuthbert Bede, Anstey, and others ; tales of adventure by Rudolf Wyss and Jules Verne. ' VOL. XIV. is graciously opened by Wendell Holmes's " Autocrat of the Breakfa-t Table." The feast continues with a poem of George Eliot's and characte istio delights by Barrie, H>rdy, B'aokmore, Stevens n and others ; and by the best wit such as O'Rell's "John Bull and His Island " and M a-k Twain's immortal " Jumping Frog." ' Bret Harte's " Rise of the Short Story." It appropriately introduces w?KID u lu , Bll ™™.» m,u™ «x«u ? «u«iu which is represented by. Poe's best work, and the ingenious art of Cooper, Emerton, Hawthorne, aua Artemus Ward ; but the volume is not all American. VOL. XVL—The philosophers are here with pages interesting to the least solemn of rciders. Herbert Spencer writes on " The Physiology of Laughter," Proctor on " The Control and Supe' vision of Other Worlds," and there are engarins works bv such men as Tyndall, Wallace, Balfour ; not to mention the poetry, humor, and fiction. VOL. XVII.-Andrew Lang writes especially on «' Literature hi the Nine eenth Century." Among the masters of our hundred year* are the poet, lennyson, the Brownings, Ro-setti. Emerson, Lowell, Matthew A-nold Poe, Longfellow Ingelow-th* novehtt Belzac, Manzoni, Halevy, Hawthorne, Dickens, Hope, Hall-Caine, Haggard, and Daudet, ' VOL. XVllL—Perhaps we are inclined ».o know too little of any poetry except our own magnificent works, and such verse of Greece and Rome as is hammered into us at school. Brunetiere. thegreit French critic, writes for the "Library" on " French Poetry." Ihe Library contains much of the best of France as of all nations. VOL. XIX —Russia is a world power in literature as in politics. Thai, stra ige Titan Count Tolstoi, is well represen ed in the " Library," as also are Pushkin, Turgeuief, and the humorous G"gol. Otner masters are Kipling, Zola, Valdes Freilierath the opulent Flaubert, Maarten Maartens, the Dutchman who writes in English, and others. ' ' ' VOL. XX —The last volume takes a final survey of modern literature. America is here with Bret Harte and Marion Crawford Italy with d'.-\micis and d'Azeglio, France with About and Daudet, Spain with Valdes and Galdos, England with Besant' Zangwill, and others, completing the great circle from Homer to To-day. ' URGENT NOTICE The success of the offer of the Library of Famous literature in New Zealand lias exceeded all anticipations. In view of the well-known appreciate best literature and their reputation as a reading public, a liberal reservation of copies of the first edition of the Library of Famous Literature was made for New Zealand, but it now appears that the demand in this country has been under-estimated, and that many who desire, and doubtless fnlly intend to secure the work, but who delay in sending in their subscriptions, will be disappointed. The rule of fir t come first served has been,, and will continue to be, strictly observedT>..l. J.l__ !_• ... •„ . . when the announcement of withdrawal of the offer mast be made ; and once withdrawn this> offer can never be renewed. Those who delay will have only themselves to blame if they are too late to secure this great work—justly described by the R ght Hon. R. J. Seddon as "a complete lbrary in itself"—now offered on the same favorable terms on which 19,000 subscribers in England secured it. It is, indeed, difficult to understand why anyone should hesitate in a case where both the book itself and the terms o« purchase so strongly recommend acceptance. But there is an end to every opportunity, and the difference between failure and success is ever the difference in the attitude towards great opportunities such as this. All who hav< the books should at once apply to the 'New Zealand Times' for afreeprospectuß and full information. Arrangements have been made for displaying the books in every important centre in New Zealand, in order that all might have the fullest opportunity to learn just what the work is before purchasing it. Thousands of copies of the 100-Page Prospectus have been sent out in response to applications received from every part of New Zealand. A copy of this Prospectus will be Bent to everyone who applies as long as the Bupply lasts. Everyone who prizes the best literature should either call at one of the addresses given below or apply for Prospectus and full information TO-DAY.

THE PLAN OF THE WORK. The plan of the work is simplicity itself. The 20 volumes of The Library of Famous Literature contain the best parts of each author's work, not a ragged extract, but a carefully chosen, cmplete picture in that author's typical style'—enough for half-an-hour's reading, enough to give the reader the desired sense of an intellectual change of air: More than a thousand of these examples are offered in a handsome and convenient form. Nor is the result a mere compromise. The best thing an author ever wrote is, for the purpose of occasional readiug, better than the whole body of his work, since it enables the reader to get at the essence of his creation without losing time over the straw and chaff which form a part of even the most precious literary growths. The index to the 20 volumes shows that more than three hundred of the most famous poems, and more than four hundred of the best stories, are included, and also the best of the world's stoie of travel and adventure, philosophy and . science, wit and humor, letters, journals, and memoirs. Edited by DR RICHARD GARNETT, CD. In association with DR ALOIS BR A NHL, Berlin; M. LEON VALLEE, Paris; DONALD G. MITCHELL, U.S A., and many qualified assistants. Twenty handsome volumes. Over 10,000 royal octavo pages. Nearly 500 full-page illustrations and many Colored plates. THE ILLUSTRATES OF THE "LIBRARY" INCLUDE: 20 Rare Colored Plates (many in fifteen colors) 210 Portraits of Men of Letters, in all Ages 26 Portraits of Living Authors in their Studies 52 Interesting Yiews of Well-known Homes of 150 Reproductions of Famous Paintings, and other Illustrations 20 Portraits of the Celebrated Special Contributors to the " Library." 500 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS !N ALL.