NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXVII, Issue 5558, 8 April 1905, Page 10

NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS.

“The Yellow War.” By “O.” Wm. Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh. Whitcombe and Tombs, Wellington. . These pen and ink sketches of the Russo-Japanese War are brilliantly sketched, and the book is illumined by photo-engravures of drawings made on the spot, in which many of the scenes and incidents described are depicted. Originally published in “Blackwood’s Magazine” under the title of “The War in the Far East,” these brilliant sketches have attracted widespread attention, and been pronounced by the press worthy to rank wi' “Linesman’s” “Words by ah Eyewitness,” and “On the Heels of Be Wet,” by “Intelligence Officer.” Of many of the incidents related the writer has been an eye-witness. For the rest, he has dealt at first-hand with the actors themselves. Although for the purpose of concealing identity th<* nomenclature is fictitious, yet every character in the book represents some actor in the terrific drama with which he has been intimate during the past year. “The Bell in the Fog, and Other Stories.” By Gertrude Atherton. Macmillan and 00., London. Whitcome and Tombs, Wellington. Here we have a collection of ten tales by one of the best and cleverest lady writers ol ; the day. The three first stories in the book have a more or less common interest in that they deal with theosophical and supernatural subjects, with the scenes laid in Hertfordshire. Yorkshire and Brittany. ‘The Greatest Good of the Greatest dumber,” which follows, tells how a New York physician,, out-of regard for the

husband, sacrifices the life of a wifd whose reason has been deranged by morphine. “The Monarch of a Small Survey” and “Talbot of Ursula are Californian stories, tile former giving the history of two women whoso lives wore ruined by the selfishness of a miserly millionaire; and the latter recording the unrequited love of an English settler for a beautiful Californian. “Tho Tragedy of a Snob” relates tho attempts made by a New York hank clerk to enter the select circle of .“cottagers” at Newport, and tho painful awakening 'that followed. "Crowned With One Orest” has for heroine an imaginative American woman, and, for theme her second marriage with an Englishman., A perfect marrigo forms the subject matter of “Death and the Woman," and “A Prologue” describes in dramatic form the fateful meeting between tho father and mother of Alexander Hamilton, th© American statesman, during tho historic hurricane that swept over tho West Indies at that period. "In Spite of the Czar.” By Guy Boothby. John Long, London. Gordon l and Gotoh, Cuba street, Welling" ton. Another Story of discovery-of-treasur* order, one is inclined to say on starting, but in this case tho hiding-place, in tho Siberian gold mines, is never reached, and the treasure is never, found. Yet there are sensational incidents all the same in the quest of it, and the descriptions of life in the gay society of St. Petersburg and in the capital of Siberia are vivid and spirited. Altogether the last of Mr Boothhy’s work is probably one of tho bes# he has written., “Hester Wray.” , By Dora Russell'. Digby, Long and Co., London. Gordon and Gotoh, Wellington. Miss Dora Bussell tells a good oldfashioned love story, with plenty of stolen wills, heartless sons, etc., in her own popular style. The interest is never allowed bo flag in this long story, in which crime is avenged, folly punished. and goodness rewarded. All tho characters who marry for any reason but that of love come to grief sooner or later, and pay dearly for their.error. This is a healthful story for women of all classes.