OTHER PUBLICATIONS

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1680, 11 May 1904, Page 23

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

A treatise on “Bridge,” by “Templar,” which is published by Messrs Geo. Bell and Sons, London, is the latest contribution to the literature of the fashionable card game. This book, which is one of the Messrs Bell’s “Ol'ub Series,” contain!* the rides of the game in concise form, along with copious notes on tlie right “declarations” to make, the cards to lead, eCc. There are many illustrative “hands” given; instructions being added for playing .“dummy” and “double dummy.” Tins treatise being by “one who has played somewhat extensively ac the game during the Last two or three years with more success 'than failure/’ will be totnnd of great assistance to those who wish to master the mysteries of “bridge.”

The journeyings of Christian had, of course, a nappy termination, but those ofrthe “Pilgrim's Progress” seem to be interminable. The Religious Tract Society, which lias published editions of the • immortal work in 104 different languages and dialects, has just issued a popular shilling edition for English readers. The text of this new edition hah been carefully collated with the one finally revised by the author and published in - the year in which he died. There are eight coloured, pictures, from a set of specially drawn illustrations by Hairold Copping. This edition should prove most acceptable to lovers of the great allegory.

Mi- T. Fisher Unwin will publish during May in his Colonial Library Mrs Campbell Praed’s new novel “Nyria.” The story is cast in the days of Domitian, and the principal scenes are laid in the Rome of the decline and fall. Mr Justin McCarthy, who has read the manuscript, speaks of it in the following terms: “I can say that it lias impressed me deeply by the vivid reality with which it enters into, describes and illuminates the life of those far-distant days. . . Mrs Piraed’s bo-k seems alive from first to last- Its men and women are living figures, and the ways and habits of Domitian’s court, even when they are most strange to all our modern ideas, are made to seem in these animated chapters as real and as natural to us as if we had been personally familiar with the society which they illustrate. I shall be much surprised, indeed, if the reading world does not find in the sparkling pages of Mrs Praed’s forthcoming novel something like a living restoration of that dead past.”

Mr T. Ffelier Unwin is adding to his Colonial Library a book by Mr E. E. Kellett, entitled “Birds of a Feather.” It gives a picture, from a hoy’s point of view, of life at a big public school. It is full of amusing incidents, and very diverting are the scrapes into which the boys get, and from the direful consequences of which they are rescued through the ingenuity and ready tongue of one “Hoppy.” There are many to whom the book will irresistibly recall the memory of them own paat school exploits, and hence it should meet with a warm welcome.

Another addition 'to the series is Mr A. G. Hale’s new novel, ‘The Watcher on the Tower.” The period of the story is that of Napoleon'ts invasion of Russia, and the great Emperor is himself introduced. The scenes are laid partly in Russia, partly in England. The central character is a Jew, Eli Gotsolialk, alias Mr Thornton, and the book as a whole has a distinctly pro-Semitic tendency. It breathes , a deep sympathv with the oppressed Hebrew race in their unshaken faith in the Eternal Watcher on the Tower who keeps guard over His chosen people.