BOOKS and AUTHORS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVII, Issue XXI, 21 November 1896, Page 76

BOOKS and AUTHORS.

A LITERARY CAUSERIE for COLONIAL BOOKBUYERS and BORROWERS. BOOKS marked thus (*) have arrived In the colony, and could at the time of writing be purchased in the principal colonial bookshops, and borrowed at the libraries. For the convenience of country cousins who find difficulty In procuring the latest books and new editions, the ‘BOOKMAN’ will send to any New Zealand address any book which can be obtained. No notice will, of course, be taken of requests unaccompanied by remittance to cover postage as well as published price of book. It is requested that only those who find it impossible to procure books through the ordinary channels, should take advantage of this offer. The labour Involved will be heavy and entirely unremuneratlue, no ‘ees or commission being taken. Queries and Correspondence on Literary Matters Invited. All Communications and Commissions must be addressed THE BOOKMAN,’ Graphic Office, Auckland. M ‘ Thirty Years These two books may be conveniently in Paris '-‘Re- bracketed together for notice, as the subjects treated of in both are so similar in collectionsofa , , character that the two volumes might Literary Man. exc hange titles with perfect propriety and no loss of significance. They are veryhappilj- translated, so that nearly all the charm of Alphonse Daudet’s French style is retained in these English versions. Daudet can write very charmingly, and nowhere, I think, is the fact more patent than in the contents of these two volumes. He treats us in these to a series of essays, sketches, articles, or whatever you may like to call them ; snatches of autobiography, of the biography ofnotable people whom he has met, and of the biography of notable books which he has written. He may not tell us anything very new or very important, but he writes in such a pleasant, familiar style, taking the readers into his full confidence with frank, boyish abandon, that we cannot help feeling interested and amazed. And clever turns of thought, accurate and artistic touches oP observation and felicities of expression, are plentifully scattered throughout the two volumes. Daudet’s way of poking gentle fun at things and people—his own self included—makes pleasant reading, though the general tendency of his humour will always excite more appreciation in the Gallic mind than in the English. In his Recollections of a Literary Man he gives us some striking and vividly drawn pictures of Gambetta and Emile Ollivier, the sometime audacious republican, who was won over by Morny to the Empire and became Minister of Justices ; of the two de Goncourt brothers with their beautifully close friendship in their literary collaboration ; of many well-known theatrical characters, including Dejazetand Felix. In Thirty Years in Paris hisportraitgallery includesTourgueneff, the Russian novelist, the clever, insolently daring Henri Rochefort, and the enterprising Villemessant, the maker of the Figaro, who used to daily dismiss or promote his literary staff according as the man of the boulevards and the cafes talked favourably or unfavourably of their passing contributions to the paper. A great aid in solidifying and vivifying the charm of the two books are the numberless dainty and artistic little illustrations—by Rossi. Bieler, Myrbach, and others—with which they are filled, and which conclusively renders them a valuable artistic and literary addition to any library. It is pleasant to meet with this book in a cheap and popular edition, for, though From the Hills.’ j, ma y no t , on the whole, the best collection of Rudyard Kipling’s short stories, it contains certain tales that show his salient merits as a writer in a very conspicuous and advantageous fashion. Certainly Rudyard Kipling has written nothing better in its own way than the little story entitled 1 Pig.’ * ‘Thirty Years in Paris.' by Alphonse Daudet: Macmillan and Co. ‘ Recollections of a Literary Man.’ by Alphonse Daudet: Macmillan and Co. • ‘ Plain Tales from the Hills.' by Rudyard Kipling : Macmillan and Co.