BOOKS REVIEWED.

Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14776, 15 October 1921, Page 9 (Supplement)

BOOKS REVIEWED.

CURRENT LITERATURE. Siump in Novels. Fewer books were published in England during tiie month of June than for any month for many years. Publishers are stocked up with hooks, wailing for the right moment to launch I hem on Ihe market. One novelist alone has six books accepted, printed and unissued. In America, lam told by a friend in the trade (says a London writer) the publishers contemplate reducing tlie price of novels to the pre-war figure. Diminishing sales have given them a strong hint, and they mean to take it. 1 hope their example will be noted and followed on this side, 'fhe present stale of things in the book trade is bad for everyone concerned. Publishers are having alt outlays and scarcely any returns. Even successful authors are receiving nothing, because their books are being kept back. Many publishers will not look for new writers to-day. The beginner in literature never had so hard a time to secure publication as now.

Lamb Treasures from Belgium. When tlie Lambs removed from Edmonton, Mary Lamb presented a pair of silver candlesticks to Mrs Westwood, their Enlield landlady; and Charles presented to her son a pastel portrait of his old schoolmistress, Mrs Reynolds. These relics have been preserved in the Westwood fam'ily. 'fhe son married a Belyian woman and settled in Brussels. He died in lastami ids widow in I DIG. Their country home at Boltsport was occupied by the Germans, but these Lamb treasures had been so carefully hidden that they escaped the hands of the looters. They are now safe at Manchester in the possession of the late Mrs Westwood's niece.

Napoleon, Book-lover. If is interesting to remember that Napoleon was a voracious reader of hooks (observes a London reviewer), in his early days, long before he became a subject for them, lie spent a great deal of his lime tin the Bibliotheque Nalionale in Paris. When tie settled himself at Malmaison as First Consul, he fitted up his library in a quiet and sunny room with great care, 'fhe windows looked out on a moat and garden. Some 500 books fitted '-he shelves, history and philosophy being the leaven. He read the classics ia French translations. Shakespeare and Pope were there, but above all Ossian. Tales of South Seas.

Ileincmanns announce for early rublication a book on the South Seas, by Lewis 11. Freeman. "In the Track of the Trades," the 'account of a li,ooo-mile yachting cruis/3 to Hawaii, the Marqueas, Tahiti, Samoa, and Fiji. Ileincmanns also announce a volume of stories of the South Sea Islands by \V. Somerset Maugham, whose ".Moon and Sixpence" was so remarkable a took. The title of the new volume is "The Trembling of a Leaf."

English Madrigal Verse (15S8-1632). Edited from the. Original Sung Books by E. 11. Fellowes.

Future generations of Englishmen will most certainly rise up and call Dr. Fellowes blessed, lie is not only proving that the English, as a nation, have produced in the pasUso much good music as to place us in the front rank of musical peoples, but as a byproduct of his work as the re-dis-coverer of musical England, "he has e.t'ded immeasurably to our treasury of poetry. This volume cannot be overpraised. II makes a body of English lyric poetry which has hitherto been known solely lo the sludern of old and obscure song books accessible lo every reader of poetry. Many cf the poems have, irdecd, been so ii accessible as to be practically nonexistent. Here, however, for one great period at least, they are gathered together, forming, for all time, as flagrant a garland of lyric verse as this world has known or is likely to know. Dr. Fellowes and the Claredon Tress have added greatly to our possessions by the production of this book.

For the Young Folks. A very charming gift book for a child is "The Scottish Fairy Book," by Elizabeth W. Grierson (T. Fisher Unwin, Lid). Mrs Grierson has made a selection from the rich mine of Celtic fairy stories,, animal tales and legendary stonies generally, taking as a rule I lie least-known stories thai are most likely to be new lo youthful readers of to-day. She wisely employs the simplest ppssiblc language, and such rrehaie words and phrases as she uses arc quite within juvenile comprehension. Oldsters who want "something lo read to the chlildren" will find in Mrs Grierson's book as rich a store of entertainment for the litle ones as parents of an older generation found in 1 lie pages of Hans Anderson and Grimm. The author has been singularly fortunate in her illustrator, Mr Morris Meredith Williams. Here and there a Walter Crane influence is perceptible in .Mr Williams' drawings, hut for the most pari they are delightfully original in design, and (in pleasant keeping with the spirit of the stories I hey illustrate. Sonic of the tail rieces are specially charming.

"Release," by Rosamond Napier. Tins s an agreeably-told story of life in Ireland and India. A middleaged Anglo-Indian oflicial spends a vacation in Ireland, and marries a delightful young Irish girl, Owen Kamon, although her aunt Nora, an exceptionally line personality, would have been a more suitable match. Owen goes out in India with her husband, and after a time tlie pair drift somewhat apart. Tlie auni, who is suffering from an incurable disease, comes on a visil lo her niece, and before she dies heals Ihe breach. Owen is a very charming heroine, and tlie Indian background i-'-responsible for some picturesque local colours. Why Wells Wrote Ills History.

Headers may he ilileresled in Ihe story of Ihe birlh of II 15. Wells' "outline of llislory." The idea of writing an oulline of history came lo Mr Wells a! a dinner in London in Ihe spring of I!)IS, at, which Professor Henry S-idel Canby, then one of Ihe editors of Ihe Yale Review, was present. Among other guests were Mr A'-no|f| Rennet!, M r Anthony Hope. Professor Carl Fish, and Professor C. N. Cunliffe. The discussion turned ipun the nerd bo- n history of Ihe Ansrlo-Saxon nations, prefaced by ri history of Kurope. "Oh, I shall go much furllior back than thai." Mr Weils remarked, "and begin Willi Ihe earliest geological periods." The result if this determination was "The Outline of History," which has been widely commented upon ever since its appearance in 1920.