BOOKS & AUTHORS.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2229, 15 August 1914, Page 5

BOOKS & AUTHORS.

— | BY"t.IBER." BOOKS OF THE DAY. SOME CHOICE CUTS OF LAMB. Everything that Charles Lamb wrote —even that disastrously fatied play, "Mr. H;"—is worth, reading, but literature is as long as art, and life is short, and nowadays. I mo that outside the ever popular Ella Essays, Lamb is but littlo read. Here, however, in a little volume, '.'The Best of Lamb" (Met'huen's Shilling Library) comes that most enthusiastic . of Lamb devotees, Mr. E. V....Lucas, and gives us a rich plattor full of the choicest of Lamb outlets. Mr;-Lucas has in more than one anthology, of prose as well as of verse, proved nis unerring flair for the mellowest, most delicate, the very best, in fact, of an author; and in this particular instance his expert' knowledge of Lamb's work makes him a specially qualified cicerone. He makes, as was to be expected, very "liberal extracts from the "Essays of Elia," that treasure house of whimsicality and wit, of sound judgment in literature, and of kindly satire on the small faults and foibles of Lamb's world. We renew acquaintance with that stern stickler for the "rigour of the game," the never-to-be-forgotten whist lover; Mrs.. Battle;'we smile ■ over the small vanities of good.Captain Jackson; chuckle over (the famous "Dissertation upon Boast Pig": are lost in wonder at the delicate beauty of the pathetio little essay oh "Dream Children"—one "of the purest gems in English literature—or, if wo he lovers of the play, notes the fine critical quality of Lamb's i reminiscences of the "Old Actors." One of the Tales ,from r Shakespeare—"King Lear"—also finds a place, also tho description of a boy's experience of a long sea voyage, which appears in ,tho littlo known "Mrs. Leicester's School." To me, however, the chief attraction in this'charming little collection of Lamb cutlets, henceforward to take its place in-a row of carefully-chosen "bed-side books.", is a selection of Charles Lamb s letters,' letters to the redoubtable "Comberbatch" (Coleridge), and to Lamb's . gentle Quaker friend, the bank clerk poet, Bernard Barton, who, iu his old age, it is : worth'while recalling,, was one. of "Omar EitzGerald's friends and correspondents.' ■Let-ters-also to Mrs. Wordsworth, to Dibdin _of sailor-songs fame,, to Orabbe Robinson, the diarist, and to Moxon. the publisher, are also included. All make* excellent reading; indeed, I am one of those who are bold enough to avow a preference for Lamb, the letterwriter, over even Lamb of the Essays. The. book : concludes-with a small collection of Lamb's poems. Well printed and neatly bound in' cloth, this little volume which you can secure for the modest ransom' of fifteeripence, should be deemed a precious acquisition by all food book-lovore .whose shelves have ithorto been .bare of I Lamb. The "Best of Lamb"'is a dish,'full of'succulent literary delights; '.',.')''• ■ "PETS IFOR BOYS AND 'GIRLS." In his'Tets for Boys and Girls" (London: Jarrold'and Sons), Mr. F. Townend Barton, a well-known English uuthority on the selection, keeping, and breeding of dogs, has earned tho gratitude of all yonngi_ people, and hot a few oldsters, who desire pleasure from keeping pet aninals and birds. Tho aufihqj forth in, detiiil the chief points ol tht) principal breeds of dogs and cats, adding much practical and useful advice Wi_ the keeping and. animals. Goats and goatJcceping,' ant the various 'kinds? of "fancy" rabbits are then described. {Next follow/chap tors in.guinoapigs, monkey's,' arid'ovei: "fancy'rats-and mice," this latter title suggesting to "Liber," as it may t< others, painful .memories of what hap pened to a certain schoolboy w|ho car ned,his temporary enthusiasm-for whit< mice .to .the extent of keeping them it his desk,,-and was detected in tha ' tabooed practice, bv, an unsympathetii master. New Zealand juveniles havi not the opportunity of securing sucl pets as the ring-tailed lemurs, the,_ gre; Indian mongoose, a jerboa (a miriiaturi kangaroo, whose native habitat is North em Africa and Afghanistan), and th otter and the badger are to them- almos equally of exotic interest. When, how ever, Mr. Barton' reaches his poultr and cage birdß sections, he_ will fin* many interested readers.in this-countrj The .final chapters are .headed '"!) Vivaria—how many English boys, wonder, keep a pet chameleon or a sain mandor?—and- "The-.;- Fresh _ Wate Aquarium,' 'and there is a special chap ter on '-'Silkworms." The illustration! of whißh there are a large" number, ar well produced (mainly from photograph e and a coloured picture of a perky littl Scottish terrier makes an attractiv frontispiece. Altogether; this ib a boo which should be in high favour whereve pets are kept.': (New Zealand price, 4i 6d.) ■ "- "■•"•. -■-■ - SOME RECENT FICTION. "THE DUCHESS OF WREXE." ' In the midst of so much that isbana • • vulgar, or utterly negligible by readei of any decent intellectual equipment ar cultured literary taste,. such a novel i Hugh Walpple's "Duchess'of Wrexo (( Bell and «Sons; per.'; _ ai Tombs) comes as "a nice deed in naughty world." Those 'who had rejoin in Mr. Wolpole's earlier booKs, notab "Maradick at Forty," "Mr. Perrin ai Mr. Erail," and 'Tortitude," expecti not a little from the author's new story ai certainly they should not be disappointe For, in "The Duohcss of Wrexe, J) Walpole stops at once into tho front rai '■ of. living .English-'novelists.'..Not sin John [Galsworthy's .'fCountry- House m "Man of Property" Have we had a mo 1 subtle and yet more penetrating and i timato analysis of English life and enj acter, of a certflin well-defined class ai standard, than is here presented. 1 ' Walpole may be" a,few j-ears behind t present'day-in his period,' which is th of the Boer' war, and slightly antecede thereto. But the elements o! change social' points of"view which are with ■ to-day, often in such puzzling sna] were even then formulating themseh ' and demanding attention, and tho 6tc -is bv no means to: be considered out ' dnto" - in' that ft-deals with the begmnn ,of social influen'ces;which to-day are wi — us in more emphatic gmse. Mr. WolV I endeavours in this story to show us t I final struiglos of-the old-fashioned ai tocracy to" preserve inviolate its prestiffits mana. as we New ZcalandeTs woi say—and even more than its prestigepowers. That prestige.and power are '"' the story .'.personified in the grim old It whose nameaffords the title.for the nm The Duchess of WTexe, of the fine fli of the aristocracy, is an old, > delicate ' man who rules her relatives and dope: ■ ents—even her friends—with a rod iron, a rod the firmness,, and, at times, cruelty of which are but. thinly disgm ' ncath tho-velvot smoothness of a gua let oi surface courtesy. Suddenly rule of the grim old dame, whose w has hitherto been the sole law and f pel to be obevwl and respected by great Beaminstcr family, of winch is the uncrowned queen, is subtly, surely, challenged .by her granddough Lady Rachel Beaminstcr, who has m em ideas, and what is more, is dc mined to'live up to them, ThncUe himself, the creator of Lady Kcw, cc . -not hove bettered the Duchess, and for Lady Rachel, she is worth a R round dozen Ethel Newcomes. lo forth in details the plot of the story task which demands more time ana si - than are this week at my disposal, stage is well filled from rise to fall the curtain with characters one and 1 destitute of any suspicion ofpuppetd but ench and every one playing: a l indispensable to the working onto* n complicated social comedy-dTama. Knci t marriage to,.the.;distincHy..cligible,' » ■'■. . h;eart6d,:bui.3ust''.a .k 100 . 1^??^^ Beddon'j her awakening, and d»sultis

her dangerous philandering with tho "black sheep" of the Beaminstcr oircle, Francis Breton,; tho crosscurrent of Lizzie Rand's passionate love for that gentleman; tho honest friendship -which is shown the hcroinß by Doctor Chris, olid by one of tho most charming and truest noblemen, Lord John Beaminstcr; tho relentless warfare which proceeds between tho Duchess and her rebellious granddaughter—all these arc depicted with consummate literary artistry. In tho end it is a case of "honours easy," for, although tho Duchess is beaten, Rachel herself is conquered by' tho strength of Roddy's truly chivalrous conduct. Tho dialogue is, in places, a perfect joy to peruso, so pointed is it,'' so witty, without any pretention to deliberate smartness. . Whether Mr. Walpole will mako all his readers fully perceive and grasp, his moral may be doubted. But no one who appreciates clever characterdrawing can foil to enjoy his book. "Tho Ducheso of Wrexe" is a novel to be bought, not borrowed.. .