NEW BOOKS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9130, 11 August 1888, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEW BOOKS.

We have received from the publishers, Messrs. McMillan and Co., a further instalment of the Colonial Library.

The first is "The New Jcdomknt of Paris," a novel by Ph>ip Lafargue. In this book the sexes concerned in the famous judgment are reversed, and Paris is represented by a woman, the heroine, who judges between three candidates lor her hand—Trevor, an artist, " a tall spare man, with clear, amber-coloured eyes that glowed and Hashed beneath arched brows, a high, blue-veined forehead," &c. ; John Sumner, a politician, a tall man, wide-shouldered and thick limbed, " with signs of power and energy in the square contours of brow and chin and the third, a spendthrift scamp of a military man, heir to a baronetcy and £8000 a year. The heroine chooses to engage herself to the artist, but eventually she marries the £8000 a-year. The book is decidedly clever, the conversations are crisp and witty, and oftentimes the characters say smart things—for instance, that the music of the future is the music of the few. The heroine is amusing. She does not like people who talk down to you in a patronising way, and "detests men who converse on an incline." She sings German songs, " Rastlose Liebe," " Haidcnroslein," and so forth. The whole novel is a curious medley of science, art criticism, culture, and modern society. There is a very cynical tone throughout, especially in the description of the fashionable society doctor Harvey Bland, who prescribes " nervines," and who lends money at exorbitant interest on the postobit system to spendthrift heirs. The novel is very readable, sketchy, Frenchy, amusing, brisk, as champagne, and as unsatisfactory. Biographical Sketches by Harriet Martineau, new edition, with autobiographical sketch, need no recommendation to make their merits known.

Realmah, by Sir Arthur Helps, is another new edition of a well-known book. Those who have not read the history of Realmah-Koonah, the ruler of the ancient lake city in the South of Europe, " similar to such ss have been discovered in recent years at the bottom of the lakes in Switzerland," would do well to get this new edition and acquaint themselves with the fortunes of its hero, and the strange history of the nation of the " Sheviri."

Chris, a novel by W. E. Norris, is a pleasantly-written tale of a young lady after the stamp of Daisy Miller. The plot is of the slightest, but the characters are fairly good, especially a Yorkshire terrier called Peter, whoso doggy ways are very amusingly described. Other volumes of the series are "For God and Gold, by Julian Corbett, a stirring story of adventure, of which the hero is Sir Francis Drake : " A Teacher ok the Violin," and other tales, by ,T. A. Shorthouse, author of "John InglesantThe Second Son," by Mrs. Oliphnnt; and " Paul Patokf," by F. Marion Crawiord. From the same publishing firm we have also received "Chai:ckr," by Professor A. W. Ward, being another of the works belonging to the English Men of Letters series, which are now being re-issued in a cheaper edition.