BOOKS.
THIS WEEK'S BOOKS.
THERE are many more books this week, and a great number of pamphlets. The most important book is certainly Lady Frances Balfour's Life of Lord Aberdeen (Hodder and Stoughton). This is the Fourth Lord Aberdeen, who was Castle- reagh's Ambassador to Vienna, Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and later Prime Minister. He described himself as a minister of peace, but fate associated his memory almost entirely with some of the most unfortunate episodes of an unfortunate war. Lady Frances Balfour has a penetrating mind and a character which will not be overwhelmed by the mass of material at her disposal or the grandiose plan laid down by a previous would- be biographer. It will be interesting to see her intelligence piercing through the confusions of the Crimean War and analysing its bewildering ineptitudes.
There are two interesting books published by American Universities—Mr. Thomas J. Wertenbaker's account of The Planters of Colonial Virginia from Princeton, and a series of lectures on the After Life in Roman Paganism from Yale (both Humphrey Milford). Professor Franz Cumont has in the latter book chosen a particularly interesting subject, and one which has not, so far as I am aware, been discussed lately. Mr. Low Warren writes a practical book on Journalism (Cecil Palmer), a book whose technical and tabulated style is humanized by the most charming reproductions of steel engravings. The book is extremely sensible and informative. Incidentally, Mr. Warren tells some amusing stories. Professor Fleure's survey of the recent research which has been made on the origins of The Races of England and Wales (Benn Brothers) is a little book which should be interesting to archaeologists.
Miss Helen Douglas Irvine writes a monograph on The Making of Rural Europe (Allen and Unwin). Mr. Chesterton, In his introduction, emphasizes the importance of this type of study, a type of which this book seems to be a good example. Mr. Watson Lyle has written a life of Saint-Sains (Kegan Paul). There is only one other Life of this composer in England and that is negligible. The new book contains a number of musical illustrations. The Medici Society publish a Historical Record of The Buffs (sole agents W. J. Goulden). It is an interesting experiment in book production because of the very low price at which it is published, a volume of about 550 pages for 7s. 6d. The Committee were anxious to produce a book that would be within the reach of everybody, and over fourteen thousand orders have been received for it, largely from " Other Ranks " or their next-of-kin.
No plays or books of poetry of interest have appeared this week. but there are a number of novels, among which the most interesting seems to be Mr. Swinnerton's The Three Lovers (Methuen). I have, of course, not had time to read it, but there appears to be a domestic incident in it in which a baby is described as weighing " about ten stone." Ignorance
Previous page
