BELLS AND POMEGRANATES (FIRST SERIES).

Otago Witness, Issue 2250, 15 April 1897, Page 53

BELLS AND POMEGRANATES (FIRST SERIES).

Br Robert Browning. London : Ward, Lock, and Co. Ducedin : Joseph Braithwaite. The expiration of the copyright on some of the earlier works of Robert BrowDicg has now made it possible to issua them in cheaper form, and so make them accessible beyond the somewhat limited circle to which they have hitherto been confined. "Paracelsus" was first published in 1835 and "Bslls and Pomegranates" in 1841, and though some 20 or more societies have been studying his works, and though the author web honoured with interment in "Westminster Abb9y, the great public know little or nothing of Browning's books. Whether this republication in cheap form will secure popularity is questionable. Browning is indubitably hard to understand. The present volume is sub-entitled " Pippa Passes," and it contains some of Brownirg's best known dramatic lyrics, as " Cimp and Cioister," "In a Gondola," and "The Pied Piper of Hamelin," as well as " A Blot on the Scutcheon " and others. It is also enriched with a. chronology and bibliography of Browning. Works on Shakespeare form a library in themselves ; those on Browning are also very numerous. The list of commentators and annotators, as well as the biographers, fills a couple of page?. Notwithstanding its cheap price (being included among " Nineteenth Century Classics "), " Bells and Pomegranates " is handsomely got up, and lovers of Browning need nob be ashamed to have it on their bookshelves.

A flowering plant is said to ab3tract from the soil 200 times its own weight in water daring its life.