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In A German Pension
Belles Lettres
Belles Lettres
EPISODES OF VATHEK. By William Beckford. Translated by Sir Frank T. Marzials, with an Introduction by Lewis Melville. Medium 8vo, cloth. 21s. net. These Episodes or Eastern Tales, related in the Halls of Eblis, were discovered recently by Mr. Lewis Melville in the archives of Hamilton Palace. They were conceived by Beckford as three episodes complete within themselves, which he proposed to interpolate, in the manner of the “Arabian Nights,” into his famous Oriental story of “Vathek.” The original in French is given after the English translation, and the reader will find this volume extremely interesting both as treasure trove and literature.
SONNETS AND BALLADES OF GUIDO CAVALCANTI. Translated by Ezra Pound. Crown 8vo, cloth. 3s. 6d. net. We have had many translations of the Divina Commedia, a few of the Vita Nuova. Rosetti has translated a miscellany of “Early Italian Poets,” but in these “Sonnets and Ballades” of Guido Cavalcanti we have a new thing, the endeavour to present a 13th century Tuscan poet, other than Dante, as an individual. More than one Italian critic of authority has considered Cavalcanti second to Dante alone in their literature. Dante places him first among his forerunners.
LEAVES OF PROSE, interleaved with verse. By Annie Matheson, with which are included two papers by May Sinclair. Crown 8vo, 5s. net. This volume is composed of a selection of those short studies for which Miss Matheson is so justly famous. Literature, Sociology, Art, Nature, all receive her attention in turn, and on each she stamps the impression of her own personality. The prose is soft and rhythmic, infused with the atmosphere of the country-side, while the lyrics scattered throughout the volume reflect a temperament that has remained equable under the most severe trials. No book more aptly expresses the spirit of Christianity and goodfellowship as understood in England.
OFF BEATEN TRACKS IN BRITTANY. By Emil Davies. Crown 8vo, cloth. 7s. 6d. net. In this book the author, who has already won for himself a position in a surprisingly large variety of fields, goes off the beaten track in more than one direction. It is a book of travel, philosophy and humour, describing the adventures, impressions and reflections of two “advanced” individuals who chose their route across Brittany by ruling a straight line across the map from Brest to St. Malo—and then went another way!
page 8IMAGINARY SPEECHES AND OTHER PARODIES IN PROSE AND VERSE. By Jack Collings Squire. Crown 8vo, cloth. 3s. 6d. net. This is probably the most comprehensive volume of Parodies ever issued. The author is as much at his ease in hitting off the style of Mr. Burns or Mr. Balfour, as he is in imitating the methods and effects of the new Celtic or Imperialist poets; whilst he is as happy in his series illustrating “The Sort of Prose Articles that modern Prose-writers write” as he is in his model newspaper with its various amusing features.
SHADOWS OUT OF THE CROWD. By Richard Curle. Crown 8vo, cloth. 6s. This book consists of twelve stories of a curious and psychological kind. Some deal with the West Indian and South American tropics, some with London, some with Scotland, and one with South Africa. The author's sense of atmosphere is impressive, and there is about all his stories the fatalistle spirit of the Russians. They have been written over a period of several years, and show signs of a close study of method and a deep insight into certain description of fevered imagination. All are the work of a writer of power, and of an artist of a rare and rather un-English type.
LONDON WINDOWS. By Ethel Talbot. Crown 8vo, cloth. 2s. 6d. net. In this little volume Miss Talbot, who is a well-known and gifted singer in the younger choir of England's poets, pictures London in many moods. She has won themes from the city's life without that capitulation to the merely actual which is the pitfall of so many artists. London is seen grieving, sordid, grey, as well as magical and alluring. All who love the London of to-day must perforce respond to the appeal which lies in these moving and poignant verses.
DOHEMIA IN LONDON. By Arthur Ransome. Fcap. 8vo, cloth. Illustrated. 2s. net.
SOME ASPECTS OF THACKERAY. By Lewis Melville. Demy 8vo. 12s. 6d. net. As a literary study the book incites interest, and commands attention as a further revelation of a brilliant and many-sided literary genius. There are admirably written chapters on “Thackeray, as a Reader and Critic,” “Thackeray as an Artist,” “Thackeray and his Illustrators,” “Prototypes of Thackeray's Characters,” etc. The volume is fully illustrated.
page 9ENGLISH LITERATURE. 1880–1905. Pater, Wilde, and after. By. J. M. Kennedy. Demy 8vo, cloth, 7s. 6d. net. Mr. J. M. Kennedy has written the first history of the dynamic movement in English literature between 1880 and 1905. The work begins with a sketch of romanticism and classicism, and continues with chapters on Walter Pater and Oscar Wilde, who, in their different ways, exercised so great an influence on various poets and essayists of the time, all of whom are dealt with.
ONLY A DOG'S LIFE. By Baron von Tause. Crown 8vo, cloth. 5s. net. This fascinating work was originally published in German, and is now issued in the author's own English rendering. It has been most favourably received in Germany. A Siberian hound, whose site was a wolf, tells his own story. The book, in fact, is a very clever satire on human nature, a satire which gains much charm and plquancy from its coming from the mouth of a masterful self-respecting hound.
SOME OLD ENGLISH WORTHIES. Thomas of Reading, George a Green, Roger Bacon, Friar Rush. Edited with notes and introduction by Dorothy Senior. Medium 8vo, cloth. 10s. 6d. net.
BY DIVERS PATHS. By Eleanor Tyrrell, Annie Matheson, Maude P. King, May Sinclair, Professor C. H. Herford, Dr. Greville Macdonald, and C. C. Cotterill. New Edition. Crown 8vo, cloth. gilt. 3s. 6d. net. A volume of natural studies and descriptive and meditative essays interspersed with verse.
IN DEFENCE OF AMERICA. By Baron von Taube. Crown 8vo, cloth. 5s. net. This very remarkable book gives the American point of view in reply to criticisms of “Uncle Sam” frequently made by representatives of “John Bull.” The author, a Russo-German, who has spent many active years in the United States, draws up about thirty “popular indictments against the citizens of Uncle Sam's realm,” and discusses them at length in a very original and dispassionate way, exhibiting a large amount of German critical acumen together with much American shrewdness. Both “Uncle Sam” and “John Bull” will find in the book general appreciations of their several characteristics and not a few valuable suggestions.