AMONG THE BOOKS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13262, 22 August 1906, Page 9

AMONG THE BOOKS.

The lack of passion is as remarkable in English literature as its predominance in that of Fiance. The modern writer in England prefers to describe; the young girl, while in France he occupies himself almost exclusively with the married woman.— Revue, Paris. i Now that America is being attacked for I its tinned meat, its poisonous cigarettes, its insurance finance, and several olhe. native- I bred atrocities, we would suggest a cam- j paign against the American language. "Does 1 anyone talk United States here?" is tin ; favourite conversational opening of the tra- 1 veiling Yankee when he floats into the news- i paper offices and other houses of call ill ! Paris, where " English is spoken and Amen- j can understood.'' The "English'' written by j American journalists even of the better sort j is becoming so corrupt and so infected with | slang Ilia' it will presently contain no more ! 11!' the original stock than a tin of Chicago j meal contains of the ox. I .Mr. Austin Brereton has written a j hook' concerning the London Adelphi. He' tells lln- romantic story attaching Ic the ■ locality from the period uf its origin, as j Durham House, in the thirteenth century, I down to modern limes. Henry VIII.. I Queen Elizabeth, Philip Sydney, Walter Ualeigh. Voltaire, Samuel Pepys, Peter the Great. Dr. .Johnson. Oliver Goldsmith, David uarrick, and Charles Dickens are .-.'to. of the people associated with the Adelphi. Mr. Brereton's book is entitled "The Literary History of the Adelphi and its Neighbourhood." It is published by Messrs. Anthony Trcherne and Co, Ltd. We are promised a sensation by Mr. John Long in the form of a hook hearing the title of "Tlie Confessions of a Prim cess." We arc told that the "Confessions" "present a startling picture, limned with consummate knowledge of Court life and manner., and morals and lioval personages in their weaknesses, their follies—and worse."