ADDITIONS TO EVERYMAN’S

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 81, 29 December 1934, Page 7

ADDITIONS TO EVERYMAN’S

“Table Talk” by various writers from Ben Johnson to Leigh Hunt, edited by J. C. Thornton ; “Short Stories” by Guy de Maupassant,: “The Golovlyov Family” by N. E. Shchedrin; “Critique of Pure Reason” by Emmanuel Kant; “Prose and Poetry'” by Heinrich Heine (London: Dent. Everyman’s Library). The editor of "Table Talk” defines his subject as a form of literary biography, consisting of the sayings and opinions of a person, recorded by the one to whom they were addressed. The selection here given makes up a delightful book at once amusing and wise. The authors represented are Jonson, Selden, Pope, Walpole. Foote, Sheridan, Porson, Rogers, Smith, Coleridge. Hazlitt. Hunt and Byron. The Contes of Maupassant, so colourful and so wide in range and manner, are here translated by Marjorie Laurie, who has accomplished a difficult task with marked success. For as Mr. Gerald Gould points out in an introduction, the simplicity of Maupassant’s style is itself a bar to adequate translation.

More than thirty of the best-known stories are included in the volume. Shchredin’s “The Golovlyov Family” first appeared in this translation, that of Mrs. Natalie Duddington, some three years ago and was at once hailed as a lit companion to the better known great Russian novels. It is fitting therefore that it should be offered for Everyman to read. Mr. Edward Garnett writes the introduction. As introduction to the “Critique of Pure Reason.” the Master of Balliol provides an excellent critical study. The translation used is J. M. D. Meiklejobn’s. made from the second edition. The Heine volume gives a comprehensive selection of the varied work accomplished by this versatile genius. It is introduced by the general editor of the series, Mr. Ernest Rhys. The translations are the work of a number of people. In the case of the lyrics the original German is given together with an English rendering. Miss Freya Stark, author of “The Valley of the Assasins,” has received the Burton memorial medal from the Royal Asiatic Society. Miss Isobel W. Hutchinson has been presented with the Mungo Park medal by the Duke of York for tlie Arctic Alaskan journey she describes in “North to the Rime-Ringed Sun.”