BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11825, 30 November 1901, Page 6 (Supplement)

BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS

Geobce Eliot's Novels: The Warwick edition. William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London.—ln this age of trashy fiction a cheap reprint of the works of George Eliot, one oi the greatest novelists of the Victorian em, will be welcomed everywhere. The Warwick edition consists* of 10 volumes, published at 2s net per volume. The little books, judging from the specimen sent us. " Middlemarch," are neatly bound in red cloth, and are clearly printed.

The BETTALEr Jewels: By E. M. C. Baliour-Browne. Edward Arnold, London.—We are possibly wrong, but this novel strikes Us as being the work of a 'prentice hand. It is melodramatic to the commonplace. We have all the well-known incidents and characters which make up the familiar dish of fare—the old squire, the haunted manor, the stolen jewels, the erring wife, the gypsies, the sexton, the mysterious stranger, the missing daughter, the intriguing roue, and all the other bit* of coloured glass which constitute the stock-in-trade of certain storv-tellers. Some books are read to kill time. "The Bettaley Jewels" is a good time-killer.

MoN-snxF. Vincent : By James Adderlev. Edward Arnold. London.—This is 'a. carefully-written sketch of .G. Vincent de Paul, the great Christian Social reformer of the seventeenth century. The author says that the lives of the saint are so many and so crammed with details that it would be quite impossible in a small volume, such as this to deal completely with the matter. He has succeeded, however, in giving enough to kindle the imagination of the reader, and to make him feel that to know nothing of S. Vincent would be a serious loss to anyone to whom a knowledge of the history of the Church, and the hope for her advance in the solution of social problems, are objects of desire.

The Lion's Whelp : By Amelia E. Barr. T. Fisher Unwin, London.— powerful storv has been added to Mr. Unwin's popular "colonial library-. The scene is laid in the time of Cromwell, and much of the plot turns upon the doings of the great Protector, with whose death the story ends.

The Pall Mall Magazine : 18, Charing Cross Road, London.— November issue of this magazine contains many beautiful illustrations and a large amount of interesting letterpress. Dr. Nausen writes an article on " The Race to the Poles." showing what has been done, and what new expeditions are endeavouring to accomplish, in the northern and southern polar regions. \\ e quote the following from an article on " The Boer Prisoners at Bermuda:''

It is a piteous thing to think of these three thousand menstrong and capable, and readyto hemmed up in the narrow limits of four small islands, with nothing to 60, and no interest in life but to wait, and wait till the war is over. Many of them have been prisoners for nearly two years. Some were wealthv professional men, some were farmers and landowners, and all have been soldiers — for surely the baptism of file may be held to make a man a soldier even more than the weariag of khaki. It is true the small discomforts of the prisoners' camp are nothing to the hardships of war; yet the forced inactivity while their country- is at its last gasp cannot fail to be felt keenly by men who have sought so long and so hard for it: and the dreary monotony of the life of a prisoner of war iriakes the constraint doubly irksome. They are allowed to volunteer for work in fatigue parties, and they can thereby earn a small wage such as a soldier would earn for extra work; and they can, too, sell their little odds and ends of carving in the town, and make a few shil—but what is that for a man of ambition in the prime of life? One pities them now. but it will be harder still for them when the time comes to go back to what once was their own country, as subjects to their enemy. They will find the war has swallowed up their homes and their farms and their cattle. Many of the burghers left their money and the title-deeds of their farms buried in some secret hiding-place : and thesesuch of them as are still living—may start again in their old part of the country. Others will drift away to America and elsewhere, taking with them, wherever they go, their energy and their spirit, their ancient theology and their self-righteousness, and, I fear, .their bitter hatred of England.

Maori Tattj and Moko : By H. Ling Both. Anthropological Institute of Great Britain, and Ireland, 3, Hanover Square, London.The article on the above subject, lately published in the journal of the Anthropological Institute, has been republished in separate form. We noticed it at some length on its original publication. It is a first-class piece of work, embodying all that is known on the subject.

Hugh op Lincoln: By Charles L. Marson. Arnold, London. (Received from Messrs. Upton and Co.). —Reading of Carlyle's abbott hero has evidently moved this curate of Cambridge to revive the life and works of " one of the makers of mediaeval history." In matters archaic—and Hugh of Lincoln, though only contemporary with Richard the Lion and John the Fox, is archaic enough to be clothed in the miraculous —the first and foremost consideration for the general reader is the literary skill of the expounder. For what good does it do us to be presented with all the wisdom of Egyptians if it is smothered in dreary phrases, or hidden from sight in hieroglyphic English? Mr. Marson is the wielder of a very pleasing pen, tipped with a blend of the" graces and dictions of the great writers of tile past century. Thereby he is able to sketch in vivid fashion his picture of the great bishop, whose sanctity was such that his curse was supposed to slay outright, and his —including the touch of his dry bones—to keep alive. Mr. Marson points out the value of the wonderful stories told of the Lincoln bishop do not depend in any way upon the actuality of the occurrences they narrate, but upon the bright and searching light they throw upon the thoughts, manners, morals, and customs of the times. This is undoubtedly correct. With the bones of dry records, the flesh of contemporaneous history, and the warm blood of folk-lore Mr. Marson has formed a very real and very human Hugh, whose reincarnation cannot but pleasantly increase our knowledge of "Merrie England," and our fellow-feeling with our rough and ready forefathers.

Two Girls and a Dream : Jean Do Caire. Ward, Lock, and Co. (Received from Messrs. Wildman, Lyell, and Arey).—■ Two girls. liea-bitten with the plague of ambition, .set out to conquer London and the world, one as a miniaturist and the other as a novelist. They finally succeed, not by their own wonderful genius, but by the timely help of an American millionairess. 'Twas ever thus. The moral is that the world owes genius, worship, and recognition to a pocketful of sovereigns, genius being a kind of Pooh-Bah which appoints itself.

Lovk and Longitude : R. Scot Sfcirving. Angus and Robertson, Sydney. (Received from Messrs, Upton and Co.). This is a Pacific sea-story, told by a writer who evidently knows something about the sea, and by vigorous coaching might early know a great deal about making a book. There is a simple and graphic account of a South Sea trader being smitten with plague through having Sydney rate aboard, and of the crew falling man by man till only four of the original ship's company of twelve were left alive. This happens west of New Zealand, on the way out to exploit a newlvdiscovered guano island, and the trader heads for Samoa. On the way she is beached on a coral islaud and rescued by a gunboat that has come surveying ; she is remanned at Samoa by a kindly admiral ; she picks up a Doat full of dead and dying castaways ; she loads guano, and she returns to Sydney. The various incidents are given with "a wealth of detail —and the mate loves tne captain's daughter, who is aboard, woos her, wins her, weds her, and was living hap pily with her a week 01 two later when the book went to press.