THE RAGE FOR REPRINTS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13996, 31 August 1907, Page 7

THE RAGE FOR REPRINTS.

Messrs Dufiield and Co. have just reprinted, in two neat volumes, the "Pliarais" and "The Sin Eater" of the lato "Fiona Macleod."

Mre John Richard Green's "Town Life in the Fifteenth Century" is reissued in a now edition (two volumes in ouc) by tho Macmillan Co, The same publishers also reissue (likewise two volumes in one)

"The Life of Napoleon I," by Mr Job Holland Rose.

Goethe's " Life at Weimar (1775-1779)" (Greoning; 2s 6d net) is a reprint of somo of the chapters of G. 11. Lcwes's famous biography. The publishers are probably riglit- in thinking that many readers who to bo "scared" by the weight of that great work will be glad to liavo these more popular chapters in .1 convenient form.

With '• Tbeophrastus Such" the excellent new popular edition of George Eliot's works igsucd bv Messrs Blackwood comes to a. conclusion. TJiese 10 handsome volumes, published at the very cheap price of 3s 6d net eaeli, can be. recommended as the most satisfactory edition of Ucorgc. Eliot 's complete works'now 011 the market.

"Hutchinson's Popular Classics" aro published at. lOd net each. They are bigger than the usual mn of reprint, and are well-produced and handy volumes. Tho latest volumes to be issued are "Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress!," "Mitford's Tales of Our Village," "A Talo of Two Cities," ami "A Rope's Life," the latter, of oourse, by Wiikie Collins, " The Odes of Horace," the Latin text printed alongside Philip Francis's verse rendering, "The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table," "Burner's Buccaneers of America," and "The Chemical History of a. Candle," by Sir Michael Faraday, a volume which is particularly to'be'welcomed.

We have frequently referred to "The Popular Edition" of the complete' works of Charles Dickens, which Messrs '.Chapman and Hall are publishing at is net the volume bound in cloth, and 2s net in leather. Three new issues of tliis series (making 12 volumes published already) are just to ltaml—vix., "A Child's History of England," " American Notes and Pictures from Italy," and "Dombey and Son." The series will be complete in 22 volumes, and i 6 undoubtedly the best edition of Dickens that- can be obtained at- the price. It must- bo remembered that all of Dickens's books a,PB not yet out of copyright, and' therefore it is still neccssary to go to his original publishcns for complete editions of his works. But as Messrs Chapman and Hall have met the demand for good and cheap volumes so well as.this, there is no need' to wait- until all the copyrights •have run out- in order to get them elsewhere.

Cheap and eminently satisfactory are tile numerous volumes of Dumas's works now being issued by Messrs Dent at 2s 6d net a volume. They are very well bound and very well printed, apparently from American plate. We have read one or two of them as they . appeared during the past few months, and the translation seems to, be exceptionally good. The two volumes just published are "La Dame de Moneoreau" and "The Fortyfive." For those to whom a translation of Dumas is necessary this series can be recommended as the best- obtainable, and, indeed, in the matter of production it would be difficult to find its equal in the original language,

"Poems by William Wordsworth," selected and annotated by Clara. L. Thomson (Cambridge: At the University Press, Is 6d) contains all tyic better-known of Wordsworth's sonnets Vnd shorter poems, together with. brief extracts from " The Prelude" -and "The Excursion." Incomparably the finest selection from Wordsworth's poems in existence is, of course, tliafc made by Matthew Arnold some years ago for the Golden Treasury series. The present volume may, however, be recommended for the junior student. The book is Talker overladen with notes,' many of which might comfortably be dispensed .with. The magic of such a line as Old, unhappy, far-off tilings tends to disappear before suck an explana-tion-as tiie following:—•" Wordsworth was, perhaps, thinking of the ancient legends of the Gads, of whom it was said, ' They went forth to battle, but they' always fell.'" The word "natural," wliich occurs in the same verso of the same poem, is defined by the editor as "ordinary, only, to be expected in the natural course of things."