BOOKS AND AUTHORS

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 27 March 1926, Page 8

BOOKS AND AUTHORS

Leo Tolstoy’s novel, “The Devil, has been translated into English lor the first time by Mr. Aylmer Maude, and will be published early in the year by Messrs. Allen and Unwin. * * * The manuscript of “Actions and Reactions” has been given to St. Andrew's University, by itudyard Kipling, the University’s former Lord Rector. At auction in London or New York the MS. would fetch £-500 or more. Those who wondered what it was that induced so many apparently sane Englishmen to risk life and limb in the hunting of the fox, now we know. The answer will be found in A illiam Uanceley’s “Form Hall Boy to House Steward,” published by Ixmguians, Green, and Co.: “Before leaving for cover everybody was asked to take a liqueur glass of the squire's jumping powder. This liqueur was made lrom the juice of ripe white currants steeped in the best Scotch whisky and flavoured" with ginger and other condiments, it was always popular, as no follower of the hunt ever funked a fence alter indulging in a glass or two.” • tf * During recent years there has been a notable return of the vogue of that very English novelist, Anthony Trollope. Particularly his group ox Batches ter novels have been sought by a new generation curious to read ins pictures of old English life. Normally the centenary” of his birth in 1816 would have tended to turn fresh attention to Trollope, but the war overshadowed everything then. » * * An anthology of unusual interest, ou account of the circumstances ol its authorship, will very shortly be published by the house of Heinemann. It is entitled “in Braise of Love,’’ and it has been compiled by Alice Lady Lovat, who is a nun, Sister Juliana Lovat! That is why the volume is described in the sub-title as “Extracts from a Nun’s Commonplace Book.” It is filled with thoughts from many countries, ages, and people, for Lady Lovat ranges from Aristotle to Keats and from Leonardo da Vinci to Chesterton. » ■* * M. Georges Clemenceau, ex-lTemier of T rance, has written a book called “Demosthenes.” It is said to contain some very interesting utterances on modern world politics and politicians. * ■* * Katherine Mansfield’s first book, “in a German Pension,” published in 11111 and now out of print, is to be republished shortly by' Alfred A KnopL in New York. These stories were written when Miss Mausiieht was twenty-one or younger, yet at the time they were first published they attracted immediate attention and ran quickly into three editions.

in "Disraeli: Alien Patriot,’ Mr. K. T. I-taymon-d lias cast a novel light oil one oi' the greatest ligures which made history. His final analysis is shrewd, blunt, and convincing : "He was the one unquestionable genius ol' liis age among the statesmen of England ■ . . . lie was the strangest mixture oi prophet and comedian. . . . he served England as well as she allowed him; ... he had always an imperfect sympathy with the party lie led, and indeed with the party system itself; he had proved himself in most respects a man of hne feeling and honour, but in all respects a Jew." * * * * In his G:K.’s Weekly (London) Chesterton pays this tribute obviously to Lady Astor. It comes as one of a group of “Wishes” : A LADY M.P. She wants a new England, more bright and more clean, Where foul tap-room revelries never are seen. And after the quarter-staff flies the quart-pot. For she wants a new England where these things are not. And om- love of old England is vain in her sight As the noise of blind drunkards that strive in the night. As if our old England like fable could fade, And a Puritan purge through the ages had made A Shaker of Shakespeare, a grave man of Gay, And a Pussyfoot Johnson with Boswell t 0 P lay ’ „ . 1 ! 'For she wants a new England, where censors and prigs Can browbeat our jokes and can bridle our jigs, . The title is apt and the tale is soon told, She wants a New England, three hundred years old. * * * n. Now that the menace to Kipling’s life has passed, his admirers will read this in the New York Times with gratitude. KIPLING. (By Edward S. Van Zile.) “Never the twain shall meet.” I. The jungle laughs. The wild seahorses know He’ll sing again who .hymned them long ago; And ancient lands, the cradle oi lus fame, . Forget their grief and echo Kipling s name. n. Who tells us tales, makes music out of words. Now harsh with truth, now tuneiul as the birds, Has won from Death: and men will not forget That- in their joy the East and West have met! Miss A. W. W. Pamsav, a. daughter of Sir William Itanisay, the archaeologist, has .just published in “Idealism and Foreign Policy’’ a study of’ the relations of Great Britain with Germany and France from 18(50 to 1878. If her conclusions filter down into the popular mind (says an exchange), they will dispel much of the glamour that is wont to surround statesmen and diplomatists. She does not hesitate to charge Queen Victoria’s leading Ministers with intellectual indolence. Not only between 1860 and .1878, but between 1830 and 1890, there were only two or three British Ministers at most, she irreverently declares, who ever sat down to think out clear for themselves a definite policy in foreign affairs. Most of them were sentimental optimists who were encouraged in their easy going ways by the demand of the newly enfranchised electorate for catchwords and imposing phrases that sounded well but did not make any great demand on the brain power of the hearer.