ABOUT BOOKS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CIII, Issue 12159, 24 March 1900, Page 9

ABOUT BOOKS.

❖ The volume formed of the letters which Mr G. W. Steevens wrote home from South Africa -is already in preparation, and should bo ready this month. A year ago Mr Steeyens contributed rather a striking anonymous article to “ Blackwood's.” It was entitled “The New Gibbon,” and was a summing up of our national position at the end of the century, as Gibbon summed up the history of Rome. This article and others that Air Steevens wrote anonymously, will be included in the full edition of his vvoi-ks, which Messrs Blackwood are eventually to publish. Mr Bret Harte is collecting into a volume the various short stories he has recently written. Most of them have appeared in the English and American magazineis; In England, as in America, Mr Bret Harte well maintains the position of favour that he long ago won for hits short stories. For this reason the book, which, by the bye, ■has not yet been given a title, will be awaited with interest. Sir Frederick Young is known for several works dealing with the British colonies in connection with Imperial policy. He has just finished a new volume on the same great subject, and it will shortly appear under the title “ Exit Party.” He defines it as an essay on " the rise and fall of party ” as the ruling factor in the future government of the British Empire. Professor York Powell is to. edit a series of popular histories for Messrs Pearson. It will be called the Great People’s Series, which signitito that a nation will primarily be studied through its people. Green showed whai attractive' reading history could be made when the personal note is introduced. Thai popular method, combined with scholarly accuracy, will be held in view for these volumes. The first one is to be by Air Arthur Hassall, of-Oxford, its subject the French. • Air Geortre Atoore has written a play en-

titled “The Bending of the Bough,” which Mr Fisher Unwin will publish shortly.Thus Mr Moore becomes, like Mr Yeats and Mr Martyn, one of the dramatists of the Irish Literary Theatre, for the play is to be produced in connection with it. The piece may be described as a study in municipal jobbery, the problem set by Mr Moore to a group of town councillors or aldermen being this, “ Will duty or self-interest prevail with the most eloquent cf their number who is the mouthpiece of the most unselfish?” Love is a motive of action in the drama, but occupies a subordinate position •on the stage.

The soldiers in South Africa are to have a patriotic Testament It is being prepared by the Scripture Gift Mission, and is to contain fifty illustrations of Eastern life. It is bound in a red, white and blue cover, and its size is most conveniently small. Moreover, Lord Wolseley contributes an interesting snapshot preface as follows: “In my opinion there could be nothing more suitable for tbe spiritual comfort ;of a soldier on active service than this Testament. The size of it always permits him to cany it in his kharld jacket pocket, and each soldier who possesses a c:py will have something of far higher value to him than the proverbial murshars baton.”

The war still holds sway in the hook world. Messrs Blackwood announce a volume hy Captain Walter James on modern strategy, and another reprint of Sir Edward Hamley’s recognised military work, the “ Operations of War.” Messrs Sampson and Low have issued a volume by Mr Teasdale Buckell, entitled “Experts on Guns and Shooting.”. It is fully illustrated. In “ Mr Tommy Atkins,” the Rev E. J. Hardy describes the British soldier as seen by an army chaplain. Mr J. A. Hobson recently paid a visit to South Africa, and embodies his impressions in a volume called “The War in South Africa: Its Causes and Effects.”

There has been a small controversy in literary circles as to whether the soldier or the man of letters is the more attractive individual. Dr Johnston’s- dictum on the point'is set forth in Boswell's “Life”; Johnson; Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier or not having been at sea. Boswell: Lord Mansfield does not. Johnson: Sir, if Lord Mansfield were in a company of general officers and admirals who have been in service, lie would shrink; he’d wish to creep under the table. No, sir; were Socrates and Charles the Twelfth of Sweden both present in my company, and Socrates to say, “ Follow me, and hear a lecture in philosophy ” ; and Charles, laying his hand on a sword, to say ‘Follow me, and dethrone the Czar” ; a man would be ashamed to follow Socrates. Sir, ; the impression is universal. 'Sir, the profession of soldiers and sailors has the dignity of danger. Mankind reverence those who have got over fear, which is so general a weakness. Amosig works of fiction announced are Mr Max Pemberton's ' “ Feo,” Mr Sidney Grier’s “ Kings of the East,” and a Volume of stories by Mr W. E. Nonis. Mr Cuteliffe Hyne, whose “ Lost Continent ” was recently published, has completed another tale called “ Prince Rupert, the Buccaneer.” Mr Anthony Hope is the new Chairman of the Author’s Society. Dr Conan Doyle, now in South Afxica, is a member of the committee. Mrs Coulson Kernahan’s “ Quits ” and Mr Beaman’s “ Experiment of Dr Neville ” will bo published shortly. Mr Heinemann has issued a Look of short stciries by the lady who writes as “Maxwell Gray.” It is entitled “ The World’s Mercy.” That mysterious person, “ Fiona Macleod,” will shortly publish with Messrs Chapman a volume, “ The Divine Adventure ; and Other Stoxies.”