The Bookshelf.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLV, Issue 9, 31 August 1910, Page 47

The Bookshelf.

By

DELTA.

BOOKSHELF FEUILLETON. Visit to Collins Bros.', Limited. T|t HE inestimable boon of cheap literature was never so fully brought home to us as 'the other day, when we paid a visit to (Collins Bros, splendidly equipped wholesale warehouse and offices, the spaciousness of which somewhat surprised us, Until we remembered them as a firm who Supply the last thing in educational (books, stationery, etc., to a Government whose pet hobby is education for everyone. But, naturally, the department

(Which concerned us most nearly was the firm’s book and publishing department in the former of which are to be found nearly every standard work of biography,

■travel, and adventure, fiction, etc., and here we lingered for the best part of an hour, revelling in peeps into their famous shilling classics, which include no fewer than 149 masterpieces of English, ■French, and American authors, among ■whom we noticed Thomas Carlyle rubbing covers with Victor Hugo and Dickons and Thackeray-, also, despite the comparisons which are always being instituted between them, and which are so Obviously unfair, since each is so unlike tire other, and each, in his own domain, is piaster. De Quincey’s "Confessions of 'An Opium Eater - ’ was flanked on either Side with "Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare,” and that line work of Bulwer Lytton’s, "Rienzi” and "Alice in Wonderland,” leaned for protection on "The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table.” V\ e found, to our astonishment also that that stupendous work, "The Origin of Species,” could be obtained in this series, hs could also "Sesame and Lilies,” "The Ingoldsby Legends,” "Sartor Resartus,” ‘‘■Les Miserable.*,” and "The Hunchback <4 Notre Dame.” A pleasant souvenir 6f our visit in the shape of two of these dainty volumes, lately added to the series, now lie on the table before us, Which we shall notice in our next issue. They are respectively entitled, "Uganda to Khartoum” (Albert B. Lloyd), a record of life and adventure on the Nile, Apd “A Life for a Life,” l>v the author bf the inimitable "John Halifax, Gentleiian.” Cheap Literature. Innumerable as are still the outcries bf pessimistic authors against cheap literature, the cheaper literature move, inent .is still briskly and gaily eareerinj* tUong to the great benefit of that omnivorous reading public that is still asking “for more.” Many and varied are .the arguments used against this cheapening of new fiction. Authors say it 'Will pot pay. Publishers fear it will not, but are willing to try the scheme, knowing itliat if they do 'not they will soon be put of the" race; while pessimists prophesy the deterioration of literature if it is cheapened. Now, there are many reasons why fiction in these days ought to be cheaper. To begin with, most modern novelists are journalists, or novels are written in journalistic vein, and consequently novels are slighter, ©nd, frankly, not worth the price formerly paid for the “standard” work; secondly, the cost of production ii* less. Materials are cheaper. Machinery has simplified, hastened (and, in many respects, improved), and Lessened cost of production, while the markets and the facilities for distribution have increased fiiore than tenfold. Anybody that has pyer had occasion to print even a few circulars will know that it is the first hundred or two that counts in the cost t>f production; after that the cost of a thousand, or more, is comparatively nominal. So that material exeepted, as boon as the initial cost is covered, the i’cst is more than half profit. And so in the wider sale that i* bound io follow in the wake of a cheaper literature, both author and publisher should be able to recoup themselves. A Romance of Strenuous Affection. Rex Beach's new story, entitled •'Going Some” (Harper Brco.) is all about a house party on a Western ranch—they are a jolly group of young jioople. Trouble arises from the fact that the hero has led his friends to believe that he is an athlete, when, as a matter of fact, he never did anything

more athletic than lead the cheering for others. His predicament and that of a fat man, who w with him as his “trainer,” form a humorous background for a dashing love romance. The book’s illustrations are by Mark Fenderson. Chesterton on Thackeray, A writer in “Current Literature” cleverly sums up Mr. Chesterton's critical essay on the great Victorian novelist in this wise. Thackeray, says Mr. Chesterton, is a romantic pessimist. He loved all fresh and beautiful things, like other romantics, but loved them with a deliberate recollection of their eternal recurrence and decay. Those who think Amelia Sedley “so soft,” and Becky Sharp "so interesting” are wrong, continues Mr. Chesterton, and fail to see Thackeray's point. His point surely is that Amelia was a fool, but that there is a certain

sanative and antiseptic element in virtue, by which a fool manages to live longer than a knave. For after all, when Amelia and Becky meet at the end, Amelia has much energy, but she has much more life. She is younger; she lias not lost her power of happiness; her stalk is not broken. She could really, to use Thackeray's own metaphor, live again. But the energy of Becky is the energy of a dead woman; it is like the rythmic kicking of some bisected insect. The life of the wicked workcs outward and goes to waste. The life of the innocent, oven the most stupidly innocent, is within; if anyone dislikes the battered sentiment of the word love, I will siy that innocence has more zest, more power of tasting things. Mr. Chesterton argues that it is better to be open to all emotions as they come than to reach the hell of Rebecca ; the hell of having all outward forces open, but all receptive organs closed, for the very definition of hell is energy without joy. Thackeray Contrasted With Dickens. Dickens differed from Thackeray inasmuch as while Dickens was concise, Thackeray was diffusive. Dickens in a few won’s says all that it is essential to sa v about anyone, while Thackeray Works by a thousand touches seatt wi I through a thousand pages, Thackeray was a man of impressions rather than convictions, sensitive and receptive, while Dickens was creative. The world imposed on Thackeray, Dickens imposed on the world. In .short, concludes Mr. Chesterton. Thackeray represents, in that gigantic parody, called genius, I he spirit of the Englishman in repose. This spirit is the idle embodiment of all of us; by

his weakness we shall fail and by his enormous sanities we ehall endure.

An Interesting Publication. Miss Sylvia I’ankhurst, daughter of Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst, who is the leader of the (Suffragettes in England, has prepared a personal narrative, which is considered an authoritative statement of the Suffragette movement in England and America. The book, which is to be entitled “The (Suffragette,” is to be published in the autumn by Sturgis and Walton (New York). Mrs Pankhurst’s American experiences are included in the work, together with a chapter, which deals with the outlook for Suffragism in England and the United States. The 'book is to be profusely illustrated with snapshots and drawings by the author. A New Scribner Publication. A book of short stories by that writer of repute, Richard Harding Davis, which bears the attractive title of “Once Upon a Time,” is to be published this month by 'Charles Scribner's Sons. Rentiers who remember this author’s highly romantic "White Mice,” will await with impatience its arrival in this Dominion.

What Roosevelt Likes to Read. Mr Roosevelt has been telling the* readers of “The Outlook” the names of the books that constituted the now famous “pigskin library,” which accompanied him to Africa. „ Ex-President Roosevelt’s taste in literature is catholic, as will be seen by a perusul of the list appended below:—“1 almost always had some volume with me,” Mr Roosevelt says in the “Outlook,"’’either in my saddle pocket or in the cartridge-bag, which one of my gun-bearers carried to hold odds and ends. Often my reading would be done while resting under a tree at noon, perhaps beside the carcase of a boast I had killed, or else while waiting for the camp to be pitched; ami in eithei case ii might ■be impossible to get waler for washing, in consequence I he books were stained with blood, sweat, gun-oil. dust, and ashes; ordinary bindings would either have vanished or become loathsome, wheieas pigskin merely grew to look ns a. well-used saddle looks. Here are enough names of authors to show Mr Roosevelt's catholicity-of taste: ’Bible,” "Apocrypha,” Shakespeare, Borrow. Macaulay. Carlyle. Keats. Dante, Bret Harte. Mark Twain, Euripides, Gre goroviiis, Froissart, C'ooper, Thackeray, Dickens, lowell. Emerson. Shelley Bacon, Percy. Marlow. 'This ’’pigskin” list. which we cannot give in full. owing to lack of space, was eimsiderahly augmented in Africa, with books of mor. l .serious import. Mr •Roosevelt also likes fiction, and is in •( liholic in f'ciioii as in serious literature. 'Kipling's poetry, however, is the poetry Air Roosevelt best likes. The July “ Bookman.” Kate Douglas W iggin is to be the sub-

ject of an appreciative article in the .July “Bookman,” which Mr Ashley Gib* son is to write. Other important artiMea in this number will be«“The Fine Art of letters Humane,” by Dr. William Barry; “John Stuart Mill,” by Henry Murray; and “The Spacious Days of Great Victoria,” by Mr Thomas Seccoinln'. Two New Novels. Novels awaiting review are "’rhe Fortune Hunter,” by Ixuiis .Joseph Vance; author of that tine Indian story “The Bronze Bell" (Dodd Mead and Co.), and “The Heart of Noel,” by Fred Whishaw; George Bell and Co. Both these books have reached us through Wildman and Notable Writer* of Edward the Seventh’s Reign. A summary of the writers who may !*• said to have risen in Edward tho Seventh’s brief reign, has resulted in a meagre list of eight. Mr C.v-terton heads the list. Mr John Ga-lsw.»rt by < onws second, and Archibald Marshall, Alfred Noyes, W. 11. Davis, and Herbert french follow in succession. But beyond question, says a writer in the ‘ \u

Thomas Hardy and William de Morgan* are, respectively, the greatest poet md novelist of the Edwardian reign. An appreciation of Mr Hardy appealed in the June ’’Bookman,” ami a writer in the August number is to deal fully with tho. work of Mr de Morgan. EPIGRAMS FROM NEW BOOKS. A Few Maxims of " Marmaduke’s. * Methuen’s have pnldi-Jied in book form a selection of wittily wise maxim-* from the writings of that brilliantly < lever journalist. Mr. Charles Edward Jenningham. who. for 21) years and more, his contributed to the pages of "Truth.’’ Some of the maxims selected have appeared in an earlier Lsiic of the "Weekly Graphic,” but those appended below are new to us; — h is not our bitter euemi.- who do us the most harm; it C our bitter friends. A man never takes -o much care <>f himself a> he does when he has a woman to take care of him. ’fhis is tho age of the well fed ill lut’d. We say nothing but good of the dead, for we have exhausted our stock of evil of them when they were living. It is a relief no longer to have tn strain our ill nature. All who have made a noise in the world have had flu* little dogs bark at llk i r heels. The fool sin-coeds where the wisp man fails, for the former generally has flux courage of hi*, folly; tile latter, the fear of his wisdom. Comersaf ion is listening to ynursplf in the prcM'nce of others. Love; A sentiment wp all ontertnin for ourselves, and oppnsionally Imagine others entertain for us.

We insist that “money is the root of all evil,’’ and behave as if it were the source of all good. The of Lords is composed of nun who represent themselves; the lloii'C of Commons of men who misrepresent others. Gcniti-i is a combination of aspiration and inspiration. 100 many intere-ts 1 the brain. W’e generally turn the sunny side of our character towards the public; the shady <i<h* towards home. Were the process reversed, life would be much more happy than it is. Life is like walking through Paradise with peas in your shoe*'. Originally an animal, man has improved by cin um-tances. and may eventually develop into a perfect beast. To make a literary celebrity: Half educate a vain youth at Oxford; let hair grow; dip into erotic French literature; add one idea, chop it small; “log-role the whole. Give a grotesque name, then serve up as a rival to Milton, Sheridan, or Shakespeare. To make an art critic: Open the top and extract the intelligence of a raw Brixton bov; till up with self-conceit; clean, bru*h. and trim; rub against a handful of similar obscure ami inexperienced lads; add a gla-* of cheap claret on Pre.-> vi(V7 day-; then serve up cold in the columW of the “Penny Autocrat.’ A meagre di-Ti. Deception of Length. there's nothing so short as a long skirt —properly managed.”—“The Dop Doctor.” b Richard Dehan. Heinemann. G-. Compensation. Lh ii inu-t be a special heaven ref- rvo! I'-r plain girls who have beautiful si-:< r-.”- • The Adventures of an A.IU ..” b\ S. Bradley. Love’s Varieties. •There are more varieties of love than there are days in the year.”- - "Hypocrite* and >hiners,” by Violet Tweedale. Jehu Long. Gs. Man v. Woman. • Men and women have notliitg in com* He >l. inlelleviually, unless they’re iu ]o\c. For company, for straight conversation. for lm-i’ie—•. for sport, a man won d i ith< be with men.”—“The Danger Mark,” by R. W. Chambers. Her Hat. • •'!’.» straighten their hats is the first imj ulse of feminine humanity after an a tident. it a woman could be raised from the dead she would straighten her hit before doing anything else.”—“The Vmlc-iraMe Governess,” by Marion Ci aw ford. The Announcement ‘When the father of a daughter acquit* <1 a son the nurse put her head round the door and thus announced th? news: Well, yo’n as mony sorts as onyTody now.’”—'Lancashire Life and ( .i.ir.i tei .” by Erank Ormerod. John Heywood. 3s (hl. Many Cooks. “Xo man made by one woman alone. The voice of one. the touch of another, the ki-s of a third, the heart of a fourth —all have their place in the education of love. For love is an education, like any other art.’’—''Life’s Compass,” by | Alston Rivers. 6s. Touchy Subject. “Tide is no surer way of getting anubbed than by offering advice to a of friends. Such the perversity of the sex that forbidden fruit becomes the moT desirable arti- le of diet.”- "The Book of a Bachelor, by Dun an <.-hwann. Heinemann.