THE READERS' COLUMN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 200, 21 February 1914, Page 6

THE READERS' COLUMN.

(Conducted by James Wortlo.y). SOME INTERESTING. ROOK LISTS. Since Lord Avebury's ''Rest Hundred Rooks," there have been numberless lists, good bad and indifferent, prepared by various bookmen, but the groups of classical, works .Mr. Arnold Bennett gives us in his capital brochure, ''Literary Taste," are of more than passing ' merit. lie takes an Knglish library, and divides it into three periods, being, roughly--)I) The period up to the close of the sixteenth century; (2) the eighteenth century; and (:i) the nineteenth I century. Tin; first period has M prose volumes and an equal number of verse. A few of these books are little known to the general public, among which are .lames Howell's '"Familiar betters," Dekker's "Gull's Horn-Hook," Cowley's, Webster's and Campion's poems. T'ho second period (eighteenth century) includes among the lesser known works, ""Caleb Williams," by Godwin; '"The -Man of Keeling," by Mackenzie; and "'Principles of Human Knowledge," by Ueorgc Berkeley. Of the minor poets of that period aro Rlake, Crabbe, Prior, Gay, Macl'hcrson and Rowles. Rook-lovera are strongly recommended to purchase Chambers' Encyclopedia of Knglish Literature, in three volumes, for indispensable information. We .should be inclined to add "Rooks that Count" (A. and C. Reaek).

MENTAL STOCKTAKING. The book closes with a very fine chapter under the above heading, from which we may quote: '"Ureal hooks do not spring from something accidental in the great men who wrote them. 'They are the effluence of their very core, the expression of the life itself of the authors. And literature cannot be said to have served its true purpose until it has been translated into the actual life of him who reads. It does not. serve until it becomes the vehicle of the vital. . . . You savor the cadences from .Marcus Aurelius: This day 1 shall have to do with an idle, curious man, with an unthankful man, a railer, a crafty, false or an envious wan. All these ill qualities have happened unto him, through ignorance of that which is truly good and truly bad. Rut T that, understand the nature of that which is good, that only is to be desired, and of that which is bad, that it only is truly odious and shameful: who know, moreover, that this transgressor, whoever lie he, is my kinsman, not by the same blood and seed, but by participation of the same reason and of the same divine particle—fcow can I be hurt?' And with these cadences in your ears you go and quarrel with the cabman!"

"Within the Law," which Williamson's produce here next Tuesday, is listed as one of the best selling books in America at the moment. Sir Win. Robert Nttoll has for the better part of half a century been the trusted guide, and counseller of a multitude of book-lovers. "A Bookman's Letters" (Hodder and Stoughton, -1/U) are chatty memories of writers and books written by this kindly anil candid , critic whom we have known so long as '"Claudius Clear." The pen portrait in the Bookman "Gal- [ lery" for January is Mr. W. 11. Max- \ well, whose banned book, "The Devil's '. Garden," was reviewed in this column a ifew weeks ago. NOTES. SOME NKW NOVELS f -"'The Way Home," by lia.iil King, [ author of "The Inner Shrine." (London: Metluieu and Co., Ltd.) This is an intimate and detnilecT psy- .' chological study of a man's attitude lot wards the accepted tenets of Hie Christian religion. It is a somewhat mor- . bid. though original, study, written in '. an able manner. While yet unable to r enjoy the story, it is so powerful a presentation of tlie frankly mean -ins and , pettinesses of its hero, that one is com- \ pelled to read to a finish its lour hundred odd closely-printed pages. And . yet. despite its morbid detaii, the story is optimistic, and we are led on to find the way to a better life, a way leading '_ to glory.

""The Golden Road." by L. M. Montgomery, author of "Anne of the (■'reen Cables." "The Storv Oir!," etc. (Boston: L. C. Pane ami t'o.; l!ll,"i). Miss Montgomery is the Ethel Turner of America, or, shall we say. Ethel Turner is the .Montgomery of .Australia? Anyhow, in company with either "store gill" we meet a delightful crowd of happy, joyous, irresponsible youth, far from the maddening crowd 'of streets and sky-scrapers. We meet them in jolly old orchards, kitchen gardens, green meadows, snug, roomy houses, around the Yuletide iog, or at Thanksgiving dinner. "The Golden Bond" is a capital girls' book, and will be read with avidity by healthy, spirited maidens, who have already met "the story girls." What more she has to say will be of interest. "No Place like Home." by .Ino. Tievena. (London: Constable and Soul. This is a typical novel, and deals in plain language with the bousing' problems of the agricultural laborer of England. Conditions such as many of us have seen are here depicted with great fidelity. Herded in low thatched shanties, whose mouldy floors and mildewy leaves and ceilings reek with dank, noisome smell. Conditions are revealed which forbid any such thing as modest v. cleanliness or health. The book makes some shrewd remarks upon politicians seated on Government and Opposition benches at Westminster, indicating that the poor are but the shuttle-cock of parties. It serves as a powerful indictment of the land-owning classes of England to-day. ['") Rooks for review from Air. A. S. Rrooker, the R.K. Bookshop, Devon Sf.