DESIRABLE VOLUMES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19964, 4 December 1926, Page 4

DESIRABLE VOLUMES.

IN PLEASING VARIETY. By Constant Readeb, L—SAILOR'S YARNS. Lite on the ocean wave is a changing quantity, and tho romance of the sea is qjuickily passing. This truth constitutes tho charm of such a book as “yarns From a Windjammer,” in which Mr Manning Crane tolls a number of capital stories of the sea in tho days before steani dominated everything. The book does not pretend to any great literary merit, butt the stories have point and atmosphere. Commodore Sir Bertram F. Hayes, who contributes a brief foreward, pays a tribute to the truth of the stories, and to tho actuality of the sailor men about whom the stories are told. Landsmen will derive much enjoyment from them, whilst all who arc acquainted with life at sea will recognise at once that Mr Mannin Crane’s yarns have tho right ring. 'll.—AN EPIC OF CAPE HORN. Mr Rex Clements made his name as a writer of sea stories with his book “A Gipsy of tho Horn,” and he has now followed up this success with what promises to prove equally attractive, “ A Stately Southerner,” in which the fast disappearing days of the sailing ships are vividly and spiritedly described. Mr Clements, who has been both cadet and officer, has tho knack of making a long deep sea voyage live again, and he reflects all the varied sensations of such a voyage. He nas visited many parts of tho world and he is able to relate incidents of a thrilling, tragic, and humorous nature. He quotes frequently from the work of a seaman of an earlier period, William Dampier: indeed, his book breathes the spirit of the older voyage. . “A tall ship and a second mate’s billet —there are few better ways of seeing the world,” he writes, and ho .has the happy knack of enabling his renders to sec what he has seen. Tho book is illustrated bv a series of fine pen and ink sketches by Mr A. Weston, the frontispiece in particular being a beautiful example of (he artist in black and white. “A Stately Southerner” is a book greatly to be desired by all who love the sea poetry of John Masefield. lII.—NATURE STORIES. • A year ago Mr Henry Williamson delighted all lover's of nature and animals with ‘‘The Peregrine’s Saga,” a collection of short sketches, of which Mr John Galsworthy said: “I’ve been greatly struck by it. Ife has a real gift—many real gifts. You see —ho sees, and that’s rare; ho will come into his own.” On this account Mr Williamson’s now volume called “The Old Stag” is certain of a good reception. It, is essentially a book of tho English countryside. The stories tell of red doer, foxes, herons, badgers, and falcons, and all amid an atmosphere of sea and sun and wind. Mr Williamson combines a gift of keen observation with a vivid imagination, and these arc reflected in his description of the excitement of tho hunt and pity for the hunted. Tho balance of sympathy is rather on the side of the animal than the man, and especially is the author able to enter into the life of tho bird “wild in its native air.” His style is no less attractive than is his selection of subjects, and each one of the dozen stories in this volume is a little prose masterpiece. IV.-A NOTABLE BIOGRAPHY. Beautifully bound, finely illustrated, and a desirable book in every way is “Tho Life of Benvenuto Cellini, a Florentine artist, written by himself, translated into English bv Anne Macdonell, with an introduction by Henry Wilson.” This translation, when originally published in 1903, forming the first two volumes in tho well-known series of “Templo Autobiographies,” at once took precedence for accuracy and scholarship over any previous rendering into English of this masterpiece. In its new and highly attractive form this autobiography deserves to find a new circle of readers. Tho book is a faithful reflection of the man who wrote it, and ho was a phenomenon. Mr Wilson says of him with truth: Lawless beyond belief, he invokes tho law in his own defence. Contemptuous of the rights of others, ho is a stickler for his own. Clever as a bag full of monkeys, ho is often unconsciously stupid. Innocent as a wondering child, and a remorseless murderer, v ain as a cage of peacocks, boastful beyond words, yet not without knowledge and tho most scrupulous regard to veracity. Prone of . exaggeration, yet capable of restraint, tho ardour of relation. Burning with hatred and full of affection for family and friends. Envious and yet full of admiration for tho genius of others. Delighting in pleasure, in vice oven, yet a passionately assiduous worker. A gross materialist, yet full of superstition. Full of piety arid religion, yet revengeful. Admiring beauty, yet behaving like a brute to women; insatiable of praise, yet generous of it—a planner of deep schemes, yet foolishly credulous. Jealous, generous pitiless, humorous, egotistical, devotedly unselfish, bold and pusillanimous, arrogant, and fawning; having all the vices and most of the virtues, he can only be described by antitheses and contrast.

V.—FOR LOVERS OF DANTE. To the average man Dante as poet is represented by the “Divina Commedia,” of which wonderful work there are many renderings into English. 'Five years ago the sixth centenary of the death of Dante Alighieri was celebrated in Italy by the publication, under the auspices of the Italian Dante Society, of a critical edition of the.master’-, collected works. This edition was hailed by scholars as a guide to many of Dante’s minor works, and it proved especially helpful in regard to the Canzouicre, hitherto much neglected save by a few enthusiasts. The publication ot Professor Michele Barbi’s critical text has given the opportunity to Signora Lorna de Lucchi to provide for English readers “The Minor Poems of Dante,” and she claims that her book contains every poem attributed with certitude by present-day scholarship to Dante, with the exception of the “Divina Commedia.” Owing to the fact that many of the poems have been taken out of their prose settings, especially in the case of the “Vita Nuova, the translator has accompanied each of the translations by a brief explanatory note, together with a summary of the poems by various writers to which Dante makes reference or reply. One note sounded in the introduction is worth reproducing since it evidences the spirit of sincerity m which the work has been undertaken. “Poetry has been rendered into poetry, because I am convinced that no other practice is artistically justifiable, and have the courage of my conviction. Courage is needed as much for the assertion as fertile achievement, it being the pleasure of more than a few to undertake the easy if inglorious task of holding up to scorn and ridicule all such as have the hardihood to combat a pet theory with consecration of strength and skill and abnegation of self.” The qualifications of the translator for her difficult task are thus set forth: — By long and devoted study, “love,” Dante might have called it. who believed such study to be “the application of the mind to that f which it is enamoured.” I have acquired, or so it has seemed to me, a sense of the beauty dwelling in these poems, and I earnestly hope that in consequence something of their original inspiration has survived translation, even into a language as alien as our own. Be that as it may, in all my strivings after the spirit of my author, I have not allowed myself to be unfaithful to his letter, so readers who through prejudice, principle, or persuasion deny poetical merit to my translation will nevertheless be compensated for their disappointment by discovering that., these do at last constitute a satisfactory crib. VI.—ABOUT RED INDIANS. Under the title “The War Trail of Big Boar,” Mr William Bleasdale Cameron tells the story of the connection of Big Beni- and other of the Cree Indian chiefs and their followers with the Canadian north-western rebellion of ISSS, the Frog Lake massacre, and the events leading up to and following it, together with an account of his two months’ imprisonment in the camp of the Hostiles. Mr Cameron is one of the four survivors of an appalling disaster which has come to be regarded as one of the darkest pages in the history of the Canadian dominion, and in some respects resembles some of the darker episodes of the Maori wars. Students of Now Zealand early history will be interested in a comparison between the dealings of the Canadian pioneers with the Red Indians and the way in which the early settlors in New Zealand treated the Maoris. Mr Cameron gives a detailed account of the events which led up to the Frog Lake massacre, in which almost all the male settlers met their deaths. For two months ho was a prisoner amongst tli§ Indians, and owing to his close acquaintance with both sides of the question lie. is able to indicate the regrettable mistakes and misunderstandings which had such tragic issues. There are a number of illustrations, including a frontispiece portrait of Big Bear, and life-like portrait of Imasees, the second son of Big Bear, and the instigator of the Frog Lake massacre. There are also portraits of Kahneepotaytayo. Big Bear’s head dancer, and of Fine Day, the leader of the Indians in the Cut-knife Battle of 1885. The book is a brief but stirring epitome of the influence upon the Red Indians—immortalised by Fenimorc Cooper—of British and French colonisation. The story told by Mr Cameron is more thrilling than many a novel, and it has its romantic side. VII.—BRITISH BATTLES. Mr Boyd Cable will bo remembered as an American journalist who wrote some informative and 1 stirring bonks about the early stages of the Great War. His latest literary effort is entitled “British Battles of Destiny” in which he seeks to show to how great an extent the destiny of Britain has depended upon the valour and prowess of her fighting men. Whether the placing of the emphasis upon the battles of a nation strikes the right note for to-day may be open to question. This objection apart, Mr Cable has done his work well. Starting with Crosar’s invasion of Britain, there follow descriptions of the battles of Stampfordbridge, Hastings, Damme, Bannockburn, Agincourt, the Armada, Naseby, Blenheim, The Nile, Trafalgar, and Waterloo, constituting an admixture of battles on land and on sen. Describing Damme, Mr Cable saJ . s; —"For some strange reason our history books pass lightly over, or even ignore, the battle of Damme, fought between the English and French fleets at the port of Damme, near Bruges, in 1213.” _______ '