BOOKS AND PUBLICATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 10837, 22 August 1898, Page 6

BOOKS AND PUBLICATION.

T - StOTT ;r S inrLondon.-Somany ampton-street, Stona, advices has P^«^ t jT so important tiie author mhiHntrJnct^l.^ has it become as a" «*££» claims that it is not easy investigators, or to say on the attend dm» ° ' tsffi ay,»ot in finical application be achieved. -Astc-i"°? „. nigh without 0 { photography hat is we g limit, extending » co ™ tion of tho star-l.t depth of spnee Itfwlation.to the star-lit depth of space- design department of —?'' J of b the most J| illustration c »»f development of the important chapter the ueve j states, tine arte liCnTith the object of prolm not been wr Men wi^« J w iriut Xb Sving due weight to that scientific aspects. ~«* de.a toy f l SevS chapters are X photography, telegraph » photography and photography and art, me work is suitably illustrated.

Two Hundred Years : The Bstow OF 7 c iv PTC ■ Bv W. 0. B. Allen, M.A., '"' liSnd'MX, M.A., secretaries of MS for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Northumberland Avenue, W.C., L«m fflTho writers have accomplished the dtlt task of putting 200 years ovaj work of the Society for Promoting Christian life, from 1698 to 189, ~ reasonable limits and a readable book, ine oetv l work marked an era in the history of Sand, and in the frontispiece is a sketch 0 the Charity Children of the;. Society s ioorsintl.e-Strandatthepuhctlm.s-giving for the peace of Utrecht, .July 7,1713. 1 mission work in India in the 18th cen--lis dealt with fully The circulate, of Gnristian iteratwe at Home was among the society's earliest enterprises. Hie followine extract from the preface gives some idea of the society's operations:-" was concerned ill the emigration of the Salzburg exiles, and we have here a record of the society's efforts for their spiritual welfare in their new home in Georgia (United States). It look earlv steps to provide religious instruction to the seamen of our navy, and of the merchant marine. It followed too, with its benevolent eye our soldiers to the Low Countries, and endeavoured to make provisions for their spiritual instruction during the Marlborough campaign. Long before Howard's time it set to work to amend the condition of our prisons, Newgate, the Marshalsoa, etc." The account of the origin, growth, history, and work of the old society throws a new light upon the history of the Church of England in the 18th century.

Matehfamimas: By Ada Cambridge. Ward, Lock, and Co. (Limited), Warwick House, Salisbury Square, E.C., London.—This authoress' works are always readable and interesting, and the present talc of fiction is no exception. The plot of the story is very simple. The heroine leaves her home through her father marrying again, and marrying the governess. She herself elopes in consequence with her admirer, and gets married. Her husband is a ship's doctor and has to travel the'world, so that she has practically no home, and is left to manage the test way she can at 21. Subsequently she hears that her husband is lying ill in a Melbourne hospital, and she determines to leave England and see him, taking passage by the Bocer, Captain Thomas Braye, and being placed in the care of the captain. The caption tikes such care of the lady on the voyage that a platonic affection ensues, and on reaching Melbourne the captain goes ashore to ascertain the fate of her sick husband, and returns only to inform her that lie lias died ill the hospital. This, providentially, cleared the way, and her feelings are thus portrayed:— moment I realised the position— is a dreadful, dreadful thing to confess, but God knows, 1 never meant any harm— arms instinctively went up to Tom's stoopish shoulders and, hiding my face ii; his breast, I nearly swooned with joy." The outcome was that they got married, and he went into the inter-colonial trade first, and settled in Victoria afterwards. It is as " Materfamilias" now that we are most concerned with her. The description of her foibles is very good— passionate love for her husband, not unmixed with a selfish jealous affection; the same characteristics marking her relations with her children, and her desire to control the home and everything within it are cleverly sketched. Still, taking one consideration witlt another, " Materfamilias" is not a bad sort, while Captain Braye is a grand type of a son of Neptune. The sketches of colo-' nial life, are very realistic.

The FfomTii Napoleon: By Charles Bcnham. Hcinemann's Colonial Library.— As a novel it is disappointing, as a burlesque it is too serious to be altogether amusing. As a satire it may be very clever, only the main points, like some of Mr. Punch's political jokes, are lost on most colonials. The bight cleverness of the dialogue, the smart outlines of (lie political characters, use attractive in their way, but one feels that the whole purpose of the book was warped and twisted to suit the author's cynical moods. " The Fourth Napoleon" is one of the most striking and contemptible cowards known in fiction. His claim to the Imperial title is based on the fact that in December, 1789, Second Lieutenant Bonaparte, then 20 years old, secretly married the daughter of an Italian doctor named Capelli. Paul Lucien Capelli is the son of this marriage, and the Fourth Napoleon is the son of Paul Lucien Capelli. _ He is brought up in Pimlico, Loudon, in utter ignorance of his parentage, and brought to the throne of France by a curious series of accidents, The whole' book reminds one of the heavier parts of Gilbert and Sullivan's comic operas, without the music, and with satire instead of wit. There is, however, what one does not find in comic operas, a very real and terrible tragedy in the suicide of the Fourth Napoleon's mistress, the very beautiful and very ambitious daughter of an English nobleman. Altogether, "The Fourth Napoleon," as a book, is not likely to attract colonial readers, and it is difficult to understand why the author produced it, unless it was to show how easily Mr. Benham might have produced a much better one.

Dkad Men's Talks: By Charles Junor. | George Robertson and Co., Sydney.—The' work is dedicated to Rider Haggard, The author states in his introduction that the tales and sketches contained in the volume consist chiefly of republished magazine stories of Melbourne life, though several others dealing with external localities are included. The book consists of a series of short stories, told in a terse, vigorous style, ami as the reader comes to the climax of a story he feels disappointed at its sudden termination, and has a SOT of "cut and come again feeling. "Dead Men's Tales" comprise some weird and sensational tales of the Australian desert, including " A New El Dol ado ' " Among the Blacks," "A Hermits End," "Flight from Destruction," the Horrors of the Way," and "A Terrible Revelation." The author seems equally : at homo m the pathetic, the humoroul, and kve''ffi Ve -. J? thirst division we have Marlow's Mistake," "A Terror for Un to 2"n *?*!' and in the M. Up-to-date * Burglars," "Her Funeral" rho Countryman in Town," and "Tie Doctors Detective." Some of the storie ar somewhat sensational-" How the oE SS' M r d T myStiCal ' Hke "' rh « Tw seS with ib v U - nor a PP ears t0 possessett with the divine afflatus, for he d s \ closing article is on -ti.. t u "' u ' lor tn e Vv:»f if , ine Ij aw of Universal don't know " De!dSf Un . 0r ?ft a facil ° Pen, and his " Doa 1 M -' Wl ? ld ,? a facile Weawideliif d i^ rife "^uld

The Badminton MuMrrm. i Green, and Co., 19 "S n ? : Longmans, don,-The July ,mi?• "? te [ R(W - ton-initial-article y is"" I be sl t< s h T an B» C. W Trevor anlS 1 ?'. b ? <¥»!» P. E- H. -Johns one g? W> Cricket Ball." L "S°ie fi es roldi, r Cricket Ball." v ,of a a capital deseriptiv^at^r^!

ing on the Riviera." T. F. D a u., *& ' ! « The Recent Development of f " ■ l" ■ '■ writer says.' As a spectacle, its a '.- - ' ness lias grown steadily with the innT* e " v ''' the skill and science shown, fo"^ 8 J>! }y V played game of polo has some of ft. a > •'• ' excitement of a gladiatorial exhibiting p-: " -i bull-fight, without the stain of blood IV A * reproach of brutality." The miscellsJi e ■- ■' I articles are:-" Mysterious fe ;: - i by Lady Duntze; " Bear-shooting in i?!'--'-'- : * Lapland," by Cutcliffe Hvne; IttSfe ) Motor," by Herbert Vivian; V"{si : ■:, ' Golf," by Louie Mackern and E. it |? a : "' >: - ; Notes by "Rapier" complete one of rt V ' " ' best numbers of this popular magazine r :-' : ' : ' : : some time past. •'■ /;., I, .> : ;. Tub Resources of New Zsai'ivk' ' ' Printed and published by Alderton ,*i ' •~t Wyatt, Whangarei.-We have to Sn£?< <>■ ' ledge receipt of No. 2 of the series, the fw of which, entitled " Resources of the North" ' ; ; we have already noticed. The prea i''-•:,' '; number comprises 130 pages, and contain 200 illustrations. Illustrated accounts an : given of the' resources and industries of th'" " Far North, including those of kauri sum ■: ■ and timber, the industries, • public \1 educational institutions of the city of Aucfe V '.' land, the stud and sporting establishments' : ' A section is devoted to our yachting fleet"' and ferry steamers, and another to "(Jan. : • : tains of Industry," with portraits. A chap.'/ ter is given to "New Zealand's Wonder- ' V land," the Hot Lake Country, with' the *'■ ■ Eotorua Sanatorium and the tourist establishments. The work is well arranged' • • tastefully got up and illustrated,and highly " creditable to the firm by whom it is printed L'.'■■'" and published. v.'