A BUNDLE OF BOOKS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1130, 27 October 1893, Page 12

A BUNDLE OF BOOKS.

Messrs George Robertson and Company, of Melbourne, send us two' volumes of Messrs Longman's Colonial Library,- a well selected and well printed collection of works by firstclass English authors, published at the very reasonable price of two shillings a volume. The two volumes we have now received are Mr Eider Haggard's romance, 'Eric Brighteyes,' and the latest of Dr Conan Doyle's stories,' The Refugees.'

Besetting for-a while his favourite field of South Africa, the author of "King Solomon's Mines' how takes his admirers to Iceland, amidst the crags and fiords of which picturesque but little known country, he has laid the scene of the story which is now before us. Mr Haggard had admirable. material to go upon in the famous Sagas, but he has produced a much more exciting and interesting story than any of those somewhat dreary chronicles of a byegone and semi-fabulous age. The result is a romance fully as strong in interest and as exciting in incident as any of his previous stories. \ There are some capital pictures of the hardy Norsemen of ancient times, and the story itself is carefully worked out to a satisfactory conclusion. ' Eric Brighteyes ' is decidedly one- of the best of Mr Haggard's books, and in its present cheap form the story should be widely read throughout the The book is increased in value by a number of admirable illustrations from the pencil of Mr Lancleot Speed.

Those who have only made acquaintance with Dr Conan Doyle's work in his now famous series of detective stories,' The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,' are not perhaps aware that he has also written two fine historical stories, ' Micah Clarke ' and • The White Company.' To these he has now added' The Refugees-A Tale of Two Continents.' «The Refugees' is a capital book. We have read the copy n>w before us right through, from- and experienced no small amount of pleasure therefrom. It is a much superior., story in every way to the very clever ' Micah Clarke,' and the equally clever but less entertaining ' White Company.' In the opening chapters of the story Dr Doyle introduces, us to the French Court at the time when Mesdames De Montespan and De Maintenon were disputing as to which of the two ladies should rule the ruler of France, that august and famous monarch Louis XTV. Very lively and graphic are the pictures the author gives us of court life and court intrigues, and although he admits that he has made free use of the works of other writers, he dresses his faots up with so large an amount of original fiction and serves up so distinctly interesting a compound that one can read every page of the book without the slightest weariness, which is something that cannot be truthfully said of most semihistorical romances. The hero of the story, a gentleman of Huguenot faith and a captain in the Royal Guard, eventually has to leave France with some of his friends, on account of his faith, and the inevitable heroine, the captain's fair cousin, and the whole party go to French Canada, where they have the most marvellous and most thrilling of adventures with the Iroquois. The Canadian chapters are fully equal in interest to those which deal with life at the French court, and as could be expected from the author of ' Micah Clarke ' and the ' White Company,' there is enough ighting to satisfy the most devoted lover of bloodshed in fiction. The Indian episodes remind one of Fenimore Cooper, and Dr Doyle's work does not lose in comparison. The story ends happily, which is a desideratum insisted upon bx »l#rge proportion of readers

of light literature,' and we can assure our readers that there is not a dull page in the whole book.

From Messrs Macmillan and Company we have received a copy of the latest volume of their excellent series of English Classics, being Lord Macaulay's Essay on Clive, with an introduction and notes by Mr Deighton, who has made a special study of the history of India and of Olive's connection therewith. The notes are clear and interesting, and a more suitable book for use in the upper forms of our schools could not well be imagined. Like all Messrs Macmillan's publications, the type is clear and the binding and general get-up extremely neat and serviceable.

Several well-known London publishers have recently established branches in Australia, amongst whom may be mentioned the firm of Remington and Company, who now send us for notice a copy of a shilling volume issued by them, entitled ' The Stories of the Broadmoor Patient' and 'The Poor Clerk.' The first of the two tales which form the volume may be briefly described as a study—and a very disagreeable study—in criminal insanity. It is powerfully told and displays literary ability of a very high order, but the subject is so repulsive that« we do not feel warranted in recommending the book, save to those who choose ' to' dine on crime and sup on blood.' The other story, ' The Poor Clerk,' is of a very different character and is well told and somewhat amusing. The book —which, for a oheap edition, is beautifully printed—contains a number of full-page and other illustrations by Mr A. Morrow. C.W.