BOOK NOTICES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10595, 12 September 1896, Page 2

BOOK NOTICES.

' "SARTOR RBSARTUS." We have received, per Mr Bmithwaifce, No. 1 of Ward, Look, aud Bowden'a "Nineteenth Century Classics." The series is being edited by Mr Clement K. Shorter, aod if we may judge by " Sartor Resartus," it will be one which no one reed be ashamed to have in his library. Well printed on thick paper, with uucut edges and gil'-. tnp, according to the style which is now largely in vogue, it in yet published at an extremely moderate price, so fiat a reader, even of the mvst moderate means, may enjoy the reflection* of the sage Teufeis- | drockh without a sordid qualm. It is somei.what late iv the day to criticise tha ptofeanor's j treatise, hut il; may be remarked that the pra- ! sent edition is preiaeed by a lucid analytical ! article by Profewor Dowdeo, which incidentally describes the difficulty experienced by C.trlyle in finning an au-iience—a difficulty which is cot even yec surmounted, for tj the multitude " Sartor Re=artu3" is caviare. ,It only saw the light with difficulty ; its growth in public estimation was equally slow. When "Sartor" apueated in " Fraser's Maga- ; zinc" (at a r.educi-d' paymmi: iv consideration of its unpopular character) reviewers and sub- . Ecribers protested against foisting in such j " clotted uouseuse" f.in'd respectable.contributions, and only two pers-.ns.had a good word to say of the articles "by a crr.zy tailor." One of these was an Irish priest, the other was a Unitarian inini«ter—then jonng and little known—the American Emerson. " The Crazy 1 Tailor " is now a; classic, aud the houte st I Eeclofecban a ahrine of Htwrary worship. We ! ought to have mentioned before that the present J edition contains an, excellent portrait of the j author, the letter from John Storling on the j first pubiicaciou of " Sattar" in 1835, and a j chronology of the principal events in Carlyle's i ntc. . ;;, ; ■ I

Mr Briithwaite has also sent us " Old Mr Tredgold," by Mrs OliphaiitfLongiHans's Colonial Library); "The Two M»rys," by the earn* author (Methueu's Colonial Library); and " Bush Solitudes and Other Verras," by William Main (published by the Melbourne house of George Rubortspu arid Co). We defer our notice'of the volumes. : .