BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12931, 29 July 1905, Page 6 (Supplement)

BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

Jena or Sedan* : By Franz von Beyerlin. .Win.' Heinemann, London.An excellent translation of the military novel which created great excitement in Germany on its publication, and caused the prosecution of its author. A Germany military depot devoted lo the training of conscripts is the scene of most, of the incidents. A thin plot threads the various chapters together but is not of importance, the intent and purpose being to show by a series of graphic and realistic pictures of officers and men and their barrack life how greatly/ the. German army's degenerating, and how inevitable under the system this degeneration is.

The Doll's Dance : By Clarice ForestierWalker. Digby, Long, and Co., 18, Bow-verie-street, Fleet-street, London. (Received through Messrs. Gordon and Gotch, Book Department, 15, St. Bride-street, London.) —John Grey, a hard, stern ironmaster, maker of his own vast fortune, dislikes his elder sou, but loves the younger, whose gentle mother died at his birth. The elder sob is strong and self-reliant, the younger weak and easily led. but the two are warmly attached and the elder from his small private fortune ransoms the younger from a. villainous blackmailei, who was preying on his youthful errors. The father wishes his heir to marry into a ducal family, but the son. falling in love with a mysterious widow in England, refuses, and is disinherited by a new will leaving everything to the younger son. Immediately afterwards the "stern father dies of a stroke. The younger brother destroys the new will and leaves the rightful heir of millions free to marry the mysterious widow, a wealthy princess, who had confessed her love to him while she thought him poor. Upon this.plot is built an exceedingly readable story.

Miss Bads worth, M.F.H.: By Eyre Hussey. Longmans, Green, and Co., 39, Paternoster Row, London. (Received through Messrs. Upton and Co.)— This is a distinctly hunting story, which will please all hunting people and interest some others. Hugo Badsworth is a stout country squire, master of nis own fox hounds, whoso old maid sister, Lavinia, believes that women can do everything as well as. men.. . Hugo makes a " will leaving . his. sister, Lavinia Badsworth, all his property on condition that "Lavinia Badsworth" hunts his hounds regularly for a month; then-dies suddenly. The property is saved from the clutches -of the next heir, a worthless scoundrel, by the appearance of another Lavinia, niece/ a' gentle beauty, who has grotfi' up among horses and hounds, but whose father and uncle quarrelled and didn't speak. This young lady undertakes the task and successfully hunts the pack for a mouth, only to discover at the end of the time another will leaving the property to tier own. father. This plot enables the fullest possible description of the formation, working, and management of a line English pack to be dished up in very readable shape. The writer is evidently an authority, for the book is dedicated, "by permission," to that English Nimrod, His Grace the Duke of Beaufort.

. The House of Barnkqik: By Amy McLaren. Duckworth and Co., 3, Henriettastreet, Coveufc Garden, London, W.C.— The skilful hand that drew such pleasant pictures "From a Davos Balcony"' loses none of its cunning when it depicts the fortunes of "The House of Barnkirk" in more familial' Scotland. The plot is more than simple, being of the love of the Master of Barnkirk, and various others for Lady Jean Marsfield, .and how the Master finally woos a winsome lassie, the daughter of the tenant in his House of Barnkirk, and succeeds. It is made charming by the variety of cleverly and naturally drawn characters that are introduced, fisher folk, great folk, good folk, bad folk, and all sorts of folk, and by the knowledge it displays not only of the outward and visible manners of rich and poor, but of their inward and spiritual selves.

The Merry-go-Rotjn» : By W. S. Maugham, ffm. Heinemann.— Maugham has an uncanny habit of writing brilliantly and effectively upon the shady side of' things. "The M&rry-go-Round.," as its name indicates, gives glimpses of its various characters as they are carried round a'nd round by fate or circumstances. Most of them are of the class condemned by Bishop Julius, i Foolish youths marry barmaids, foolish old maids with money many consumptive youths without money, high-born ladies live the lives of adventuresses, and ill-matched wives jump over bridges to leave their husbands free to marry again more pleasantly. There are decent characters, of course, but the general effect of the book is a sad and sordid-one.

' The Brooding Wild : By Ridge well Gullum. , George\ Bell and Sous, London. This is a North-west Canada Cain and Abel story with modern imaginings as a background. Two gentle trappers Have lived all their lives in the mountains, without seeing any woman but their mother, or drinking anything stronger than vanilla essence. A' crafty half-breed trader, to obtain some gold they have dug, sets a good-looking half-breed woman upon them with a fanciful fairy tale. They both fall madly in love with her, and at last fight until one kills the other. The murderer goes crazy, burns the half-breed's store, and runs after a.phantom of his fancy until he brings up in the arms of a grizzly bear.

Virginia: By L. T. Meade. Digby, Long, and Co., 18. Rouverie-street, Fleetstreet, London, E.G. (Received through Messrs. Gordon and Gotch, London.) — has often been remarked that those who stay at home can write more easily of things abroad than those who have been abroad themselves. This story of Klondike and London illustrates the truism very effectively, for it abounds with sensations .such as lynching, recovery from hanging, girls making fortunes by selling coffee and pie at'Dawson City, and villains who were sometimes villains for love and sometimes for greed. .

" After-Glow Memories: By AngloAustralian. Methuen and Co., 36, Essexstreet, London, W'.C.--Reminiscences of Australian .life and visits to England, by an evidently elderly woman; generally of too personal and mild a nature to be of interest outside the family circle. As thus: "Any account of'this unique Exhibition, and the social functions connected with it, would fill a book without anything more, so it is impossible at the end _of one. Throughout the whole of our visit to the Motherland, Sir Alfred's kindness and attention to us was unbounded, and one little conversation between him and myself—viewed from a standpoint of after —was so strange that I must mention it. We were standing together ,at a crowded reception (I think) at the Foreign Office, and, turning to me,- he said, 'Why don't, you write a book?' My reply was— and it was perfectly genuine at the time— ' It is about the' last thing that I should ever think of doing. Don't you remember the words of Job?— mine adversary had written a book!"'"

Russia As It Really Is: By Carl. Joubert.' George Bell and Sons, London.— This is the seventh reprint of the interesting book first published in June of last year, and which has since attained a remarkable popularity. Mr. Joubert lived for many years in Russia, and claims to know it better by extensive observation than the Russians themselves. "And here I would point out that the Russian immigrant to this country knows as much of his own country as the average Whiteehapel pedlar blows" of the British Empire." Compromised : By Gertrude Warden and Harold E. Gorst. Greening and Co., Ltd., 20, Cecil Court, Charing Cross Road, London. (Received through Messrs. Gordon and Gotch, Ltd., Book Department, St. Bride-street, London, E.C.) —A story of a youth who imagined himself " compromised to many a young woman and what came of it. The King's Friend: By Dugald Ferguson. Alexander Gardiner. Paisley, Scotland.—This tale. of . the Scottish wars of independence deals with the time of Wallace and contains in novel form thrilling records of the great national hero, and of the Braces, Douglas, Randolph and other noted patriots, "while pillorying' again the disgraced memories of traitors who thought to profit 'by the rain of their countrv.