Recent Reprints
The History of English Literature by Emile Legouis and Louis Caza- mian is a work so well-known as to be called simply 'Legouis and • Cazamian,' as one says' Liddell and Scott.' It now appears in a new edition (Dent, 18s.) with the chapters on the post-1914 era rewritten by Professor Cazamian. Students relying upon a famous name must be-warned to treat these chapters with reserve. In matters of opinion, especially of opinion about reputation, Professor Cazamian hardly possesses 'the tone of the centre.' Opinion apart,Nsome of his accounts of the literary persqnalities of living writers read very oddly; that of Henry Green, in particular, is a travesty. What is finally astonishing is that these chapters contain graVe inaccuracies such as mis-spelt names and wrong dates, culminating in an absurd confusion between not only the dates, but the actual content, of Brideshead Revisited and Put Out More Flags. Altogether these chapters are a regrettable production.
The OUP are proceeding with two collected editions. To their Dickens they have added Barnaby Rudge with an introduction by Kathleen Tillotson, and Christmas Books with an introduction by Eleanor Farjeon (12s. 6d. and 10s. 6d. respectively). This edition, which has the original illustrations, compares well with any of the existing collected editions which can be bought second-hand at prices around £10, with the additional advantage that you needn't buy any titles you don't want or already possess. It is a thoroughly work- manlike edition, and if it falls short of the Trollope (in which The Duke's Children, with an introduction by Chauncey B. Tinker, has now appeared at 25s.), that is clearly a matter of price. It would be possible to criticise the Trollope, but it would be a pretty graceless proceeding. These are beautiful volumes, a subject for deep pride in British book production, and the illustrations (which in the present volume are by Charles Mosley) are worthy of them. The Duke's Children, it may be added, is the last of the 'Palliser' novels.
The familiar Nelson Classics have begun to appear in a new dress -- maroon, blue, green and brown bindings and a variety of chaste wrappers. It cannot be said that these are distinguished productions, but they are honest, robust, and large-printed, and school librarians and others should note that at 4s. they are much cheaper than their principal rivals. Titles include a good selection of Jane Austen, the Brontes, George Eliot, Scott, Trollope and so on.
Of two new 'Alices,' both with Through the Looking Glass in the same volume, one from Dent at 1 Is. 6d. with the original illustra- tions seems to me to score over another from Wingate at 12s. 6d., with illustrations by Mervyn Peake. The Dent edition is in their Illustrated Children's Classics, a noteworthy series which has also Just taken in Mrs. Ewing's The Brownies and Other Stories, including the beloved 'Jackanapes.' This volume is only 8s. 6d.
Other new editions include: The Open Fields by C. S. and C. S. Orwin. Second edition of the book which was first published in 1938. (OUP, 30s.) Publishing and Bookselling: A History from the Earliest Times to the Present Day by Frank Arthur Mumby. A revised third edition of the book first published in 1930. (Cape, 28s.) Simpson's History of Architectural Development, Vol. 11: Early Christian, Byzantine and Romanesque Architecture, by Cecil Stewart. This new edition combines in one volume the end of the old Vol. I and Vol. II of Simpson's standard work, now brought up to date with recent work. (Longmans, 30s.) The Life of Reason by George Santayana. An-abridgement by the author and Daniel Cory in one (very capacious) volume of the original five-volume work. (Constable, 42s.) The Unhurrying Chase by H. F. M. Prescott. Admirers of The Man on a Donkey will be interested to learn that this much earlier historical novel is again available. (Eyre & Spottiswoode, 12s. 6d.)
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