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In A German Pension

A List of Some of the Books Published by Stephen Swift and Company Limited

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A List of Some of the Books Published by Stephen Swift and Company Limited

History and Philosophy

BRITISH BATTLE BOOKS. By Hilaire Belloc. Illustrated with Coloured Maps. Fcap. 8vo. Cloth, 1s. net; leather, 2s. 6d. net.

HISTORY IN WARPARE

The British Battle Series will consist of a number of monographs upon actions in which British troops have taken part. Each battle will be the subject of a separate booklet illustrated with coloured maps, illustrative of the movements described in the text, together with a large number of line maps showing the successive details of the action. In each case the political circumstances which led to the battle will be explained; next the stages leading up to it; lastely, the action in detail. 1. Blenheim; 2. Malplaquet; 3. Waterloo; 4. Tourcoing, Later volumes will deal with Crecy, Poltiers, Corunna, Talaveras, Flodden, The Siege of Valenciennes, Vittoria, Toulouse.

TRIPOLI AND YOUNG ITALY. By Charles Lapworth and Helen Zimmerm. Demy 8vo, cloth. Illustrated. Price 10s. 6d. net. A book of international importance. This is the first systematic account of the Tripoli expedition written from the Italian point of view which has yet been published in Europe. Italy's case against Turkey is fully stated, and the annexation of Tripoli which has constantly been misrepresented by blassed critics as an arbitrary capricious act of capacity on the part of the Italian Government is conclusively shown to have been an imperative political necessity. The highest authorities in Italy have heartily assisted the authors in their task of drawing up a reliable account of the inner history of the Tripoli expedition and of vindicating Italy from the many false accusations which have been levelled against her. The MSS have been submitted to the Italian Prime Minister as well as the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The book is illustrated with portraits of leading Italians and with photographs of Libya.

PSYCHOLOGY, A NEW SYSTEM OF. By Arthur Lynch, M. P. 2 vols. 10s. 6d. each net. Based on the study of Fundamental Processes of the Human Mind. The principles established will afford criteria in regard to every position in Psychology. New light will be thrown, for instance, on Kant's Categories, Spencer's Hedonism, Fechner's Law, the foundation of Mathematics, Memory, Association, Externality, Will, the Feeling of Effort, Brain Localisations, and finally on the veritable nature of Reason.

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AN INTRODUCTION TO METAPHYSICS. By Henri Bergson. Translated by T. E. Hulme. Fcap. 8vo, Cloth, price, 2s. 6d. net. The “Introduction to Metaphysics,” although the shortest, is one of the most important of Bergson's writings. It not only provides the best introduction to his thought, but is also a book which even those familiar with the rest of his work will find necessary to read, for in it he develops at greater length and in greater detail than elsewhere, the exact significance of what he intended by the word “intuition.” Every expositor of Bergson has hitherto found it necessary to quote “An Introduction to Metaphysics” at considerable length, yet the book has never before been available in English.

AN INTRODUCTION TO BERGSON. By T. E. Hulme. 7s. 6d. Besides giving a general exposition of the better known parts of Bergson's philosophy, the author has discussed at some length Bergson's “Theory of Art,” which may prove to many people the most interesting part of his whole philosophy, although it has so far been written about very little. At the same time this book is no running commentary on a great number of separate ideas; the author has endeavoured by subordinating everything to one dominating conception, to leave in the reader's mind a clearly outlined picture of Bergson's system. During the last few years the author has been able to discuss many points of difficulty with Mr. Bergson himself.

Social and Political Series

FROM THEATRE TO MUSIC-HALL. By W. R. Tittertom. Crown 8vo, cloth. 3s. 6d. net. This book is neither a history of the drama nor a critical study of well-known playwrights. It is an attempt to account for the weakening of the dramatic sense in modern England, and to explain the enormous importance of the music-hall, and the desperate necessity of maintaining it as a means of popular expression. The theories put forward are bold, and are likely to excite great agreement and great opposition.

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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!

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IMAGINARY 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.

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ENGLISH 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.

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Fiction
Crown 8vo, cloth, 6s, each

LADY ERMYNTRUDE AND THE PLUMBER. By Percy Fendall. this is a tale fantastical and satirical, of the year 1920, its quaint humours arising out of the fact that a Radical-Socialist Government has passed an Act of Parliament requiring every man and woman to earn a living and to five on their earnings. There are many admirable strokes of wit dispersed throughout, not the least of these being the schedule of charges which the king is permitted to make, for he also, under the Work Act, is compelled to earn a living.

AN EXCELLENT MYSTERY. By Countess Russell, The scene opens in Ireland with a fascinating child, Will.o'-the-Wisp, and a doting father. A poor mother and a selfish elder sister drive her to a marriage which has no sound foundation. The husband turns out eccentric, unsympathetic, and even cowardly. Will-o'-the-Wisp has to face at a tender age and with no experience the most serious and difficult problems of sex, motherhood and marriage. Then with the help of friends, her own good sense and determination, and the sensible divorce law of Scotland, the escapes her troubles. This forms the conclusion of an artless but thrilling narrative.

A NIGHT IN THE LUXEMBOURG (Une Nuit an Luxembourg). By Remy de Gourmont. Crown 8vo, cloth. 5s. net. With preface and appendix by Arthur Ransome. M. Remy de Gourmont is, perhaps, the greatest of contemporary French writers. His books are translated into all languages but ours. “Use Nuit au Laxembourg” is the first of his works to appear in English, and will be followed by others. It will certainly arouse considerable discussion. It moves the reader with something more than a purely mathetic emotion.

HUSBAND AND LOVER, By Walter Riddall. In this book is given a discerning study of a temperament. The author has taken an average artistic man and laid bare his feelings and impulses, his desires and innermost thoughts under the supreme influence of sex. Frankness is the key note of the work; its truth will be recognised by everyone who faces the facts of his own nature and neither blushes nor apologises for them.

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THE CONSIDINE LUCK. By H. A. Hinkson. The considine Luck is primarily a story of the Union of Hearts, an English girl's love affair with an Irishman, and the conflict of character between the self-made man who is the charming heroine's father and the Irish environment in which he finds himself. The writer can rollick with the best, and the Considine Luck is not without its rollicking element, But it is in the main a delicate and serious love story, with its setting in the green Irish country, among the poetical, unpractical people among whom Mr. Hinkson is so thoroughly at home.

A SUPER-MAN IN BEING. By Litchfield Woods. Both in its subject-matter and craftsmanship this is an arresting piece of work. It is not, in the usual sense, a story of love and marriage. Rather, it is the biographical presentment of Professor Snaggs, who has lost his eyesight, but who is yet known to the outside world as a distinguished historian. The revelation of the Professor's home life is accomplished with a literary skill of the highest kind, showing him to be a combination of superman and super-devil, not so much in the domain of action as in the domain of intellect. An extraordinary situation occurs—a problem in psychology intensely interesting to the reader, not so much on its emotional as on its intellectual side, and is solved by this super man in the domain of intellect.

GREAT POSSESSIONS. By Mrs. Campbell. A story of modern Americans in America and England, this novel deals with the suffering bequeathed by the malice of a dead man to the woman he once loved. In imposing upon her son the temptations of leisure and great wealth he is a means of making him a prey to inherited weakness, and the train of events thus set in motion leads to an unexpected outcome. The author is equally familiar with life in either country, and the book is an earnest attempt to represent the enervating influences of a certain type of existence prevalling amont the monied classes in New York to-day.

THE DARKSOME MAIDS OF BAGLEERE. By William Kersey. A delightful novel of Somerset farming-life. Although a tragedy of the countryside, it is at the same time alive with racy country humour. The character drawing is clear and strong, and the theme is handled with the restraint of great tragedy. This book is of real literary value—in fact it recalls to our minds the earlier works of Thomas Hardy.

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Plays

THE KING. A Daring Tragedy. By Stephen Phillips. Crown 8vo, cloth, 2s. 6d. net. Don Carlos, heir to the throne of Spain, learns that Christina, a young lady of the Court, with whom he is secretly in love, is really his sister. The gloom of the tragedy is deepened by the discovery that Christina is about to be a mother. Brother and sister, who are at the same time husband and wife, die by the same dagger. The king, who has already abdicated in favour of his son, whom he desired to marry the Princess of Spain, resolves to put an end to his life also, but is persuaded by his minister that the task of living as king will be a greater punishment for all the misery he has created. The story is developed with skill, reticence, simplicity, in solemn harmonies and with tragic beauty.

SHAKESPEARE'S END AND TWO OTHER IRISH PLAYS. By Conal O'Riordan (Norreys Connell). Crown 8vo, 3s. 6d. net. Mr. O'Riordan, who is better known by his nom-de-guerre of “Norreys Connell” which has served him for twenty years, has brought together in this volume the three plays in which he has given expression to his view of the relation between England and Ireland. In a prefatory letter to Mr. Joseph Conrad he presents a synthesis of the trilogy, and explains why this, of his several books, is the first which he wishes to associate with his proper name.

Unclassified

OH, MY UNCLE! By W. Teignmouth Shore, author of “The Talking Master,” “D'Orsay,” etc. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. net. Wit, fun, frolic, fairy tale, nonsense verses, satire, comedy, farce, criticism; a touch of each, an olla podrida which cannot be classified. It certainly is not history, yet cannot fairly be put under the heading fiction; it is not realism, yet fairy-taleism does not fully describe it; it deals with well-known folk, yet it is not a “romance with a key”; it is not a love story, yet there is love in it; in short, again, it cannot be classified. It is a book for those who love laughter, yet it is not merely frivolous. It deals with the lights of life, with just a touch now and again of delicate shadow. One thing may safely be said—Miss Blue-Eyes and Uncle Daddy will make many friends.