BOOKS AND BOOKMEN.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXVII, Issue VIII, 24 August 1901, Page 376

BOOKS AND BOOKMEN.

•‘DORSET PASTORALS.” This is a very appropriate title of a delightful collection of tales of rustic life. Most unpretentious they are, and most interesting. I have rarely met with anything better done of their kind than such little sketches as “Johnny at Shroton Fair,” “Shepherd Robbins,” “How Granfer Volunteered.” Broad rustic farce grins out at you from one of two of the collection, but more generally the stories are characterised by touches of tender humour and charming pathos that sometimes deepens—as, for instance, in “The Rosy Plate”—into tragedy, all the more affecting, perhaps, from its simplicity. The book has some capital illustrations, and the fact that «>me of the situations in the stories are induced by the Boer war brings it up to date. "Dorset Pastorals,” by M. E. Francis— Longmans, Green, and Co. INFINITE RICHES IN A LITTLE ROOM. The “Library of Famous Literature,” particulars of which will be found in our advertising columns to-day, is being issued on the same plan of monthly payments that proved so successful with the issue of the “Encylcopaedia Britannica” by “The Times.” The offer presents an opportunity to

secure, for a short time only, and upon the preliminary payment of ten shillings, the complete set of twenty large volumes. These volumes contain 10,000. royal octavo pages, and make a collection, unparalleled in extent of the greater literature of the world, from the dawn of letters, through ancient and mediaeval times, to the work of living authors like Tolstoi, Mommsen, Hardy, Herbert Spencer and Mark Twain. It includes over 300 of the finest poems, over 400 of the best stories, together with the best of travel and adventure, philosohpy and science, art, wit and humour, religious meditation, criticism and miscellaneous essays from the literature of the world. It has been edited by Dr. Richard Garnett, C. 8., late of the British Museum, one of the foremost of English scholars, and who has had the assistance of many qualified foreign writers and professors. Other notable features of the Library are the many illustrations and coloured plates, which have been gathered from rare sources, and comprise some of the most exquisite specimens of the antique art of book illumination. It need only be added that the present opportunity should not be missed of obtaining this great collection at a considerably reduced price. It will remain open for but a short time.