ABOUT BOOKS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CIV, Issue 12323, 13 October 1900, Page 4

ABOUT BOOKS.

JUBILEE BOOK OP CANTER- . t ! • , BURY RHYMES.'' • k -T' 1 ' ■ ■ ' - It gays little for the energy of our Natives’ lAsscci-ition or for ■ the literary talent of Canfterbury College, that, a single individual [should have been allowed to undertake the /■whole risk of publishing, and the labour !of compiling, a collection of the poetry of four own province.. It is, however, a matItet for congratulation that in the Jubilee • (celebrations, . the literary side of Canterjbuxy’s development will not go unrepresent«cii, and as.far as the quality of the production is concerned, it will pipbah-y benefit, rather than otherwise, by, the fact that in has devolved entirely upon a ,gentleman, pf such well-known ability as Mr;o. T. J; • Alpersi, “ Thei Jubilee Book of Canterbury Rhymes,” which he is it present engaged in , feeing through the press, will remain a useful compilation of the beginnings of Canterbury literature when it has passed, far beyond its present stage of development''. Colonial poetry as yet enjoys chly a limited [circle of readers, and much good verse has If ever been published in any more enduring jlom than in the columns of a newspaper or the pages of a magazine. Even the poems ,/that have attained the dignity of volume [form have never been in such demand as to .call for second editions.. The. selections in [‘.‘The Jubilee. Book of Canterbury Rhymes,” v {will rescue from oblivion some of thefruita lof the early literary efforts of this province, ■ana will lighten the labours of the future > [historian of Canterbury litemturey The : poems ol the pioneers, -written between 1850 land 1870, will be representted by selections [from the verses of J. E. Fitzgerald, Alfred ■ ; Domett, E. J. Wakefield, Mrs Raven and [others. Poems of Dean Jacobs, the Hon C. ;0. Bowen, W. P. Reeves and others will : be included, as well as those of later writers down to the present day; Currie,and Alex- ,- ®nder, lads who are scarcely done with their • jKJhookbys, finding a place in the collection. - , She editor of the volume wiE furnish ajr inis/Iroduotoiy essay, and 1 -will append brief i biographies of'the writers, and entertaining . i i explanatory of the topical allusions.

i The financial risk attaching to a venture of 1 this sort is not inconsiderable, but the public may be trusted io see' tnat ■ Air Ainers does not have- to lament a pecuniary loss afier the : amount of labour he has devoted upon a.s seu-unpO'sed ta.:K., ■ ' ■ “ The Red Badge of Courage,” by Stephen wi'ane. The sixpenny edition oi Steuiien Crane’s remarkjD.e book, entitled The "Red Badge or Courage,” is it\ hand,’ per I Messts 'Win.combe and. Tombs, Ltd. Tire ! work, having run through six editions in five ■ yeabs, is now finding its way among Uie j masses , in, large numbers at the . ...popular | price that has been adopted- recently with phenomenal success by authors and pub- | iishers. The work is of -a peculiar nature, . and specially interesting jus-t now'when our i troopa are still, struggling with the Boers in ! South Africa. The book is'not a.ppvel. It i has no p.oc, ana in it'one can barmy give | a name to any one of the characters. 'lt is lan attempt, not by any means unsuccessful, I to piace beiure the reader the realities or j war. Wo are accustomed in ordinary deI scriptions of bat.le scenes to see only those j pans that hold, up to us ” the pomp and i circumstance;” but Stephen Crane, who is I dealing in this work with the American i Civil War, goes away down into the feelings j of individuals under fire. Id is an an..lyai ß j of courage, and the incidents are so closely realised before the reader that he. is, so to speak, chained to the spot while he reads i the vivid word-painting. In ..ha 194 pages |of the little work the author has shown ! more of what this poor humanity of ours, is i like than has ever before been achieved by volumes upon volumes of present-day fiction.

‘‘Daughters of Pleasure.” —Being the history of Keara, a musician j Athene, an aci tress; and Hera, a singer; by Anna, Com- | tesse de Bremonit. Comcesse de Bremoirt i has now been before the world as a writer i of fiction for a number of -ears, and has ; added not a few volumes to the library shelves. Her book, “A Son of Africa,” is a fascinating romance, , and kindly critics of * it have been good enough to say that in her ■treatment of her subject she combines the -Jrtiikinir word-painting and power of narra-

tion of Fennimore Cooper, -with all his creative power in -ihe relation of adventure ; the weirdness of Rider Haggara when he is at his Weiruest; and l the oescriptive ability of o.,ve Sci.re.ner, whose vividness and local colouring are exceptional. Hers, too, is “The Gentleman Dagger," a work that was* read with avidly and acceptance whin tiouble in the Transvaal began to loom large, and was credited with giving more really uselul information about life on the Rand titan whole libraries of more uretentious works claiming to deal sp-mlicaily wkh the country, and the grievances of the Uitlanders. In “ Daughters of Pleasure,” while the story is written with un-, mistakable power, and is full of graphically-related incidents, the • arrangement of which is often marvellous in xs.ingenuity, one hardly fetis ruppy after reading her story. The proem is descriptive of a struggle in argument between, on the one - side, a lady or. wealth and position, who devotes her time, energies and substance to the reclamation of women' who have stepped aside from virtue; and on the 'other a young lady whom she has made a protege, but an whose life there is one blot of the kind that has stained the lives of so’many'of the women amongst whom the elderly lady has been working out her philanthropic aims. The young woman has been asked in marriage by the son of the elder woman, but of this blot she has kept both mother and son in ignorance, and she trow has the courage to tell her story to her future mother-in-law. She wins her mother-in-law’s forgiveness, and at the same time shows that good old lady, how really little she knows of a woman’s heart. Never having been under- the fire of temptation the old lady has never fallen, -and though she has worked for years amongst the fallen, and fancied she knew all that was to be known in this direction, she learns now that in her society *‘ good breeding ” had taken .precedence of virtue, and with ail her apparent tolerance, her .great and varied charities, she was limited in her views, and intrinsically narrow through the force of her position. l She looked on sin unmoved because she'did net understand it, and never having known the need of love

or of money, she had sever had to resist the tide of Itemptadon, so did.not know, herself, was not .conscious oi. her. possJb.Lries or her'weaknesses. Of-the-true inwardness of religion— its passion,'its.tragedy, its sc-lf-effacamemt—she was as uneonheious as one of the dazzling angels in the stained glass windows upon which she gazed with reverent eyes when listening to the Bishop preaching against the world .and its wickedness. The proem tells of the , younger woman’s triumph, and the remainder ’ of. the 'book teds of the varied incidents in the lives of three artistes. The book is published by Greening and Co., Ltd., London, and the Canterbury • publishers'are VV' hiiCOin.be and Tombs, Ltd. “ A Son of the. State” (by W. Pett Ridge). —Few readers of fiction have -in these days missed altogether the writings of W. Pett Ridge. His “Secretary to Bayne, was very well received on its first appearance, and has held its own since,' and the same may be said of two other works from . his pen—“ Three) Women and ' Mr Frank Cardwell,” and “ Mord EmTy.” The one now under notice, “A Son of the State,” is a well-written story, depicting life in the “ Homes,” which, (thanks to the recent marked spread of altruism in the Old Country, have become one of the principal features, as they are a prominent outcome, of present-day English charity. The story can be commended as one that will both interest and instruct. The edition before us is the one for Methuen’s Colonial Library for circulation in India and the colonies only, and is sent by Whitcombs and Tombs, Limited. “ The Chevalier of the Splendid Crest ” (by Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart., M.P.). —Sir Herbert Maxwell is a voluminous writer, and history and biography, science, fiction, and general literature have been largely enriched by the labours of his pen. His life of her Majesty on “Sixty Years a Queen,” is a valuable work, but not more so than his life of the Duke of Wellington. In the department of science he has written “ Studies in the Topography of Galloway,-” .and his 11 Rhind Lectures in Archaeology -for 1893”. are marvels of research; The.- last-named work was published by.Blackwood; audSons,

under the main title of “ Scottish Landnames.” 11 The Chevalier of the Splendid Crest” is a beautifully told tale of the fourteenth, century. Its interest is maintained unflaggingly to the end of its well-printed 376 pages, and the volume is one that v*i II more than while away the weary hours of a railway journey, or the heavy hours of enforced idleness. It will be found, when once commenced, that it possesses a) wonderful fascination for the reader.