The Bookshelf.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIX, Issue 13, 26 March 1913, Page 44

The Bookshelf.

By

DELTA,

FEUILLETON. Three Interesting Fisher Unwin New Publications. /T\ UNSIEUR RAYMOND I’OIN--4 I ■ CARE, the new President o£ 2) A / France, contributes an interJ esting preface of considerable length to Senor F. Garcia Calderon’s "Latin America: its Rise and Progress,” recently published in Mr T. Fisher Unwins ‘‘South American Series.” "Here,” he says, “is a book that should be read and digested by everyone interested in the future of the Latin genius. It is written by a young Peruvian diplomatist. It is full of life and' of thought. History, politics, economic and social science, literature, philosophy— M. Calderon is familiar with all, and touches upon all with competence and without pedantry. The entire evolution of the South American Republics is comprised in the volume which he now submits to the European public.” The same firm are also issuing a new impression of Mr Owen M. Edward’s "Wales” in the "Story of the Nations” series, and also a new impression of Mrs Brightwen’s "More About Wild Nature.” Both these latter publications were to be issued on February 3rd, and should soon reach this Dominion. An Unparalleled Fictional Success. According to the publishers, George Putnam’s Sons, Mrs Barclay’s “The Rosary” is selling as well as ever. The week before Christmas, 3,000 copies were sold, the week after Christmas, over a 1,000 copies were disposed of; since then hundreds of copies have been sold each week —and so the story goes on making new friends through the year's. It is interesting to note that the last edition, which the Putnam's have just issued, is its 50th, which constitutes a jubilee. Of the well-merited and phenomenal success achieved by the author of “The Rosary” there can be no doubt. Neither can there he any doubt that she has gauged more correctly than any novelist living the sort of mixture that would be swallowed hylins bolus by the general reading public. If designedly so compounded, it marks the author as a very clever woman. In any case, it proves that there is no success that succeeds like an instantaneous success. Questions of the Day. Those readers interested in the questions of the day will be glad to hear that Mr John Murray published about the end of January, in his “Questions of the Day" series, a new volume, written by the experienced pen of Mr A. W. Dicey, entitled “A Fools Paradise.” This book is not a general dissertation on the question of Home Rule, for that surely has been more than sufficiently done during the last twenty-five years, but a particular study of the Home Rule Bill, is still with us. Mr Dicey finds good reasons to show that the Bill, as passed through the House of Commons, is ineffectual and likely to be dangerous. His study, although critical, is not biassed, for he brings to the problem a great sympathy with Ireland, and fully recognises the truth of the saying that, "A study of Irish history teaches us sympathy for all Irish parties.” Another interesting publication issued by Mr John Murray, is “The Gallant Way,” by Mr Frank Taylor, which sings of the prowess of British Arms from Crceay to South Africa, and shows that in all periods of our history the British soldier lias found no hesitancy in treading the "Gallant Way.” which has always proved the path of duty. Thia little volume should meet with a cordial welcome, since the poetry of -patriotism, more than any other kind of verse, has always found a wide circle of appreciation throughout the British Empire. Obituary. The death of Mr. Arrowsmith, of Bristol, England, removes from the rank of publishers one of its oldest and most esteemed memliera. Only about a ymr ago Mr. Arrowsmith celebrated his jubilee as a business man. He was the publisher of "Called Back,” and he was

also the afterwards sorry publisher that first refused Conan Doyle's afterwards famous “Sherlock Holmes.” “Called Back” was written to Mr. Arrowsmith’s order by Fred Fargus, then a song writer. “Called Baek” a year ago had reached a circulation of 400,000, and it says much for its quality that it still actively circulates. “With regard to ‘Called Baek’ it should, however, be stated that Mr. Labouchere had something to do with its success. Not very long after it was issued he bought a copy at Waterloo Station. The weather was foggy, and he could not read it in the train, but took it up late —or e’arly —that night, and did not get to bed till he had finished it at 4.30 a.m. He published a paragraph to this effect, and soon there was a great run on the book. Several months were occupied in print-

ing the large editions necessary to supply the requirements of the reading public, the author, it should be stated, in a fresh arrangement, sharing in the success. In the United States the circulation was also very large, and out of the American publ'shers who issued it, one only (Henry Holt and Co.) made any acknowledgment.” Still Another Encyclopedia. On January 14 the publishing firm of Dent and Co. added still another obligation to the many owed by the better class of readers to this enterprising firm in the shape of an “Everyman Encyclopaedia.” It is to be issued in twelve volumes nt 1/ each, and the work as 4 whole is considered a remarkable enterprise in the annals of publishing. “It is natural,” says a “Daily Mail” reviewer, "that the originators of the ‘Everyman’ Library should have wished to include in the reference section of that remarkable enterprise an adequate encyclo-

paedia, uniform with the rest of the series. So far as may be judged from a single volume, they are to be heartily congratulated on the way in which this considerable and exhausting undertaking has shaped in the hands of its editor, Mr. Boyle. That is saying u great deal, for we are getting rather spoiled, and therefore exceedingly critical, in the matter of encyclopaedias. One can already get them at almost all prices, and for a minimum of immediate cash outlay. ‘Everyman,’ which offers its half-million words for a shilling, and promises to be complete in twelve volumes, advances the process a stage further. All the mechanical features of the edition, which one must prize especially in a book for constant reference, are conspicuous. No stately folio opens more uncompromisingly flat, the thin page making no unseemly attempt at independence, and although 600 such pages lie within a breadth of a bare three-quarters of an inch, the indispensable capacity is much more perfectly preserved than in some much more grandiose works which have sought to compress the full quart of learning into the pint pot of portability.”

Last week we were somewhat mystified by advice from the Messrs. Methuen that they were about to publish a new novel with the curious title of our head-line on January 23. It was to be a highly adventurous and thrilling story, and we were told to ask, until sueh time as the book reached us, a chemist what “Wo,” meant. We have asked several chemists, wholesale and retail, but it has mystified them as much as it did us. However, the “Daily News,” of January 23, published a review of this book, and though it has given us some idea of what the book is about, it is mute on tlie meaning of what Wo 7 stands for. Here is the "Daijy News” review, which must serve until the book reaches us. It Is headed “Free Trade,” and begins: “Ask a chemist what Wo, means.’* So the hero of Mr. Drake's book wrote to his slower-wittcd partner. It would spoil the reader’s enjoyment if we told what valuable

natural product the symbol stands for. One of its uses is revealed on page 131. Upon that use depends the first half of the plot. Upon another use, revealed on page 296, depends the other half. So if anyone is so feebly inquisitive as to wish to discover Mr. Drake's fine secret without reading his admirable book, he must simply “ask a chemist.” Very likely the chemist will not answer offhand: Wo ? is a very up-to-date element. It is also not very common and in great demand: its price is therefore high, and people who find a deposit of it are not anxious to share their discovery with others. The difficulty is to keep the discovery secret, and at the same time dispose of the goods profitably. Mr. Drake's people—let us say, incidentally, very real people, humanly differentiated in a manner rare in adventurous fiction —settle that problem by what is virtually smuggling. It might be called stealing, on the one hand, or free trade on the other, according to whether the producer’s or the consumer's standpoint be adopted. Finally, this splendidly exciting novel shifts its interest to yet another - secret—“ The Riddle of the Sands,” it appears to be at first, though it is not quite on Mr. Erskine Childer’s lines. The sea, chemistry, finance, Hermoass —Mr. Drake lias woven the strands together deftly. We have not been so gloriously thrilled for several years. z A New Margery Bowen Novel. Miss Bowen, whose splendidly historic novels have hitherto been published by the Messrs. Methuen, hao a new story entitled “The Two Carnatio.is,” appearing with Messrs. Cassell and Co. The interest of the tale passes from Bath to Paris, at the time of the French Revolution, anti it is said to be a triumph as regards its local colour. It anay be remembered by readers of “.I Will Maintain,” that Miss Bowen mentioned in that superb work, that' every Dutch house of the period depicted had a mirror inside its door, in order that every visitor entering might behold his own reflection. Xow Miss Bowen, as is well known by her readers, never spares any pains in authenticating her facts, and in adding touches of realism by presenting such quaint customs as this affair of the mirror. This quaint Dutch custom was discovered by her in a pamphlet written by an Englishman in 1698, and may any time be found among the Harleian manuscripts. Yet upon this fact appearing in “I Will Maintain,” the Dutch newspapers, who were otherwise delighted with the most superb character study that had ever been written of “William the Silent,” took mortified exception, declaring that Miss Bowen was accusing them of vanity, The Road to Freedom. Still another contribution to the literature on the “Band Question” is Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Wedgw’ood's new book entitled “The Road to Freedom,” (Daniel). Collaboration of man and wife on this burning topic would seem to have become the vogue in England, which only shows how widely the opinion is growing that women should take a hand in the elucidating of this and similar questions of vital import to the British nation at large. REVIEWS. Love apd Ethics : By Ellen Key. ’((London: George Putnam's .Sons. 1/ net.) There is no mistaking the earnestness and the purity of the motive which has animated Miss Key in writing this treatise on “love and ethics.” In “Love and Marriage” Mies Key was accused of wanting to rob society of its conventions. But it lias since been conceded by those whose opinion is of the greatest value, that it is new and improved forms or conventions that Miss Key would like to substitute for the old, which, satisfactory enough in a less enlightened, and lee® complex age, provided, sufficiently well, for the protection and the physical well-being of a people less concerned, because less enlightened, about the ultimate perfection of the race than to-day. “Ono may doubt,” says .Miss Ellen Key, “the psychological import or the legal soundness of the new forms which I proposed, in ‘Love and Marriage.’ But no one can truthfully maintain that I demanded freedom alone without any bonds whatsoever. But my bond® are like the hempen cords that tie up a young tree, not like the iron hoops round an old tree 'to keep it from falling apart.” “In Love snd Ethics” Mins Key applies the theories of Eugenes to those intimatjj

questions that concern every man and woman, and while I do not go all the way with Mass Key, whose “Love and Ethics” I have read every line of, I strongly recommend it to the perusal and digestion of all readers, satisfied at least that they will give its author credit for purity of motive and an intense desire to improve the spiritual, intellectual, and physical condition of the human race, even though it be accomplished at some sacrifice of present convention.

Setter Times for Working People : ■By James Glass. (Ormiston and Glass, Ltd. At the sign of the “Saracen’s Head,” Snow Hill, London, E.U.)

There is very much to be commended in this little work which has been written in advocacy of “Protection,” as against “Free Trade.” I strongly approve, for instance, of what Mr Glass says about “ Equality ”:— ‘■■Equality, as required and understood by the masses, can never come into effect, on any earthly plane. But I decline to believe that the result of the French Revolution was nothing but ■bloodshed and anarchy. Such a blow as was then dealt at the gross abuse of Monarchic and Aristocratic power constituted an object lesson to the whole world, and has resulted, and will still further result in ‘better times for working people.’ ” 1 also take exception, on economic grounds, to the author's statement that “the man who sorts letters in the Post Office is of more importance to the State than the man who bakes our bread,” and the statement that the State only protects the non-producer. The letter-sorter's work is as valuable from an economic point of view as the work of what Mr Glass calls the producer. For were every man to undertake to be his own letter-sorter, or his own baker, or his own anythingelse, his whole time would be taken up in providing for his own personal needs. And in any case, even though the State worker is better provided for than the worker that is employed in private industries, it is only one more argument in absolute State control of every industry and of the land. Space forbids further comment of Mr Glass’s book, but it is a work that has been inspired by a genuine desire to bring about - better times foi’ the workers. Mr Glass has divided his work into twenty-three parts, which splendidly classify and cover his subject. An added interest to the little work are the 'black and white and the nine coloured illustrations by Mr A. Pearce. iMr Pearce was the artist who, accompanied H.M. The King, when Prince of Wales, on. h's tour round the world, and who depicted the principal events of the trip. Another added interest for Australasian readers are the references made to the improved industrial conditions in these overseas Colonies; I have much pleasure in recommending the perusal of Mr Glass' book, which is to be had, I believe, for a shilling, aind is well worth it, to all classes of industrial workers. Indeed, it mav be read with profit by any one interested in political or industrial questions.

the Impossible She : By R. Ramsay. (London: Constable and Co. Melbourne: George Robertson and Son. 3/6.) Those who love a story in which sport is well seasoned with romantic sentiment cannot do better than invest in “The Impossible She,” which is one of the happiest blends of sport and sentiment that I have read since Whyte Melville’s days. The plot has the merit of originality, and the sentiment is of the wholesome variety. An American millionaire has hocussed two of his young relations {the villain and villainuess of this story, though the reader will require a considerable stretch of the imagination to resolve them into real villains) into believing that they are, individually. his sole heir, while all the time, and in order to satisfy a spite against them, he has made another and younger relation the real heiress. Then the male relation having committed a murder, is judged insane, and is detained during his country’s pleasure, which leaves the false heiress free to suppress the will which makes the youngest relation sole heiress, and at liberty also to practice a little deception, by making the real heiress think that she is dependant upon her bounty. Not that the pseudo-heircss gives her anything to complain of in the matter of treatment. But the villain manages to escape to

England, where his cousins have rented, and are living in magnificent style, in one of England's stately homes, that its owner, one, “Lord Peter,” cannot afford to live in himself. For a time it seems as though wrong is going to triumph over right, for the escaped lunatic insists upon the real heiress promising to marry him as a way of levelling up things. But the accidental burning of Lord Peter’s house, which cripples the villain and prevents his working any further mischief, the confession of the villainess, and the marrying of the real heiress to Lord Peter, rounds things up and everything ends exactly as a good, sporting romance should end, in satisfaction all round. “The Impossible She,” without doubt, is a novel no lover of the sport of hunting can afford to miss. The Lovers of Sanna : By Mary .Stewart Cutting; and The Mission of Victoria Wilhelmina : By Jenne Bartholow Magoun. (London: George Putnam’s Sons. 2/’ each.) Both these novels belong to the now famous “Mauve” library series issued by the firm of George Putnam’s Sons, and both are eminently suitable, both for adult and adolescent reading. “The Lovers of Sanna" demonstrates in a remarkable degree the sort of love that a girl should welcome, and the sort that does not make for permanent happiness. Sanna is an orphan who, because she has not sufficient means to live, as she has always been accustomed, lives with a brother and sister-in-law, whose morals and ideals are far inferior to her own. Beautiful, both in person and character, Sauna has many lovers. But she fixes •her affections upon a man whose love for her is inferior to her love for him. Then an utter stranger comes into her life, whose ideal, manly love sweeps her so to speak, off her feet, and the end ot the story finds her going to him, in spite of a formal refusal, and offering to sail straight away with him to the other end of the world if needs be, certain that she had thrown her lot in with a man who would cherish her for all time. The Mission of Victoria Wilhelmina. There may be those who will object to this story from beginning to end. Now a glance at any Putnam list will show any one initiate in the literature of the feminist movement, that in the Putnam’s this movement has found staunch adherents, “The Mission of Victoria Wilhelmina,” is the story of an ingenuous country girl, an orphan with some means, who comes up to New York with a wish to live a fuller, wider life than the country place she has hitherto lived in allows her to. Not having sufficient money to live an altogether leisured life, she joins the rank of telephone girls in a large New York stockbroking firm. Here, on acftpuut of her beauty, she attracts the notice of one of the firm, who. not to put too fine a point upon it, is a sensuous scoundrel about to be divorced by his wife. Unconsciously, being a simple, trusting soul, she is drawn, by insidious degrees, into the terrible mistake of seeing no wrong in accepting the love of a man already married. A child is the result of her betrayal, and the love of a man already married. A child is the result of her betrayal, and in the agony of her distress, a new soul is born to her, and her mission henceforward is to keep other girls from falling into the same sin, by forewarning them of the subtle and seemingly innocent forms temptation takes. “The Mission of Victoria Wilhelmina” is a book that could be placed in every girl’s hands with perfect confidence that no girl could read it without benefitting by its warning, and its high moral tone. 1 congratulate Miss Magoun on a beautiful human story, that combines entertaining matter with ideal instruction to an extraordinary degree. BITS FROM NEW BOOKS. Proverbs From tbe East. “If you censure your friend for every fault he commits, there will come a time when you will have no friend to censure.” “If you spend all your time collecting money for fear of poverty, you are practising poverty.” “A wise enemy is less harmful than a foolish friend.” “Men are boxes, of which the keys are dealing and commerce.” —Veiled Mysteries of Egypt, by S. H. Leeder.

Tbe Art of Life. “He woos best who leaves first.” “He’s the popular pulpiteer who spanks the vices of his age and lunches with them afterwards.” “The art of public life consists to a great extent of knowing exactly where to stop and going a bit further.” —“The Unbearable Bassington,” by H. H. Munro. Her Hatred. “A woman’s wounded pride is often the source of the greatest hatred in the world.”—“Until that Day,” by Harold Wintie. Our Tender Points. “One is not tender of a natural gift, but we are all jealous of our acquirements.”—“Broken Pitchers.” by Reginald Wright Kauffman. From the Heart to the Head. “Everything that is beautiful is intoxicating. Wine is the coarsest of intoxicants—beautiful woman the most delicate.”—“The Moth,” by W. Orcutt. A Child's Questions. Small Boy “Say, mamma, what’s the kreck pronounsation of B-e-l-u-c-h-i--s-t-a-n? And who was Bellew, and why did he kiss her?”—“The Old Nest,” byRupert Hughes. The Servant Problem in the East. “A Hindu servant was once told to keep some trunks from getting wetted with the rain. He did so by taking out the fine clothes they contained, and wrapping them rotuvl the trunks.”—“Bengali Household Tales,” by W. McCullorh. Love's Deposit Account. “The man who would do anything in this world must first deposit his heart in the bank of some woman’s keeping.”— “The Antagonists,” by E. Temple Thurston. The Picture Post Card Hero. “The man who invented picture postcards ought to have his statue on the top of the Eiffel Tower. The millions of headaches he has saved! People go to places now not to exhaust themselves by seeing them. but. to buy picture postcards of them.” —“The Joyous Adventures of Aristide Pujol,” by W. J. I.ocke. “ Crocks of Gold.” “Man is Thought and woman is Intuition, and they have never mated.” “Women are stronger than men—they do not die of wisdom. They are better than men because they do not seek wisdom. They are wiser than men because they know less and understand more.” “Young people are fools in their heads and old people are fools in their hearts, and they can only look at each other and pass by in wonder.”—“The Crock of Gold,” by James Stephens. Wisdom From “ Molyneux.” “To be thought wise it is only necessary to hold one’s tongue.” “The more I see of women, the more I love my dogs.—Charles Cruft.” “Any lout can hold a girl's hand when there's no one else about, but the superman does it when her papa and mamma are looking on.” “If a man’s affection for a woman will survive a morning's shopping it’ll stand any test.” “If a man wants a woman to take an interest in him he must make love to her.”—“Molyneux of Mayfair,” by Duncan Schwann. Hour an American Hero Talks. “Geel Miss Langdon, you sure do look as if you'd been basing a run-in with the governor. I’d hate mightily to meet up with you if I were alone and unprotected, and you were as plumb sore at me, as you are now at somebody you have just left inside that building. 1 sure would. Yes, indeed!” —“The Last Woman," by Ross Beeekman. From Lady Sybil Grant's Book. “There is only one way in which to attain originality now, a very laborious and difficult line to take—it is to be j>erfectly natural.” “Have you ever bought a paper blindfold? You approach the bookstall with a perfectly open mind, shut your eyes and buy whatever paper you chance to pick up. It is an excellent way of collecting miscellaneous knowledge, and a cure for narrow-mindedness.” — “Samphire,” by Lady Sybil Grant.