BOOKS.
THIS WEEK'S BOOKS. -
Tim most interesting books this week are the most serious. In The Last Years of H. M. Hyndman (Grant Richards) the late Mrs. Hyndman gave an intimate memoir of the character and personality of her husband. She did more : she set down with exactness and charm the occupations of her own mind during her married life. She therefore produced a vivid biography in a most convincing setting, and, by her selection of detail and the uniformity of her angle of view, made it a satisfying work of art. A translation of Dr. Egon Ctisar Corti's Leopold I. of Belgium is published by Messrs. T. Fisher Unwin. Leopold, by his astuteness and diplomatic ability, manoeuvred his nation into a position of great influence ; and Dr. Corti's book gives an impartial account of his sagacity. A book which we shall not need to commend to readers of the Spectator is Mr. J. St. Loe Strachey's Economics of the Hour (Hodder and Stoughton).
Mr. W. R. Lethaby describes the remains of Roman London, and suggests restorations for many incomplete monuments, in Londinium (Duckworth). A book which will no doubt become the chief authority on its subject is Mr. Arthur Waley's Chinese Painting (Berm). It is well produced, scholarly, and entertaining ; as an appendix there are some fifty reproductions. The most important addresses which were delivered at the recent meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science are collected and published by Messrs. John Murray.
Damaged Souls, by Gamaliel Bradford (Constable), contains eight studies of American historical characters, some of them rogues rehabilitated, the others heroes unmasked. A very lively book is Sir Philip Gibbs' Adventures in Journalism (Heinemann), in which we learn for the first time how he suspected and exposed the well-known explorer, Dr. Cook.
We have received from Messrs. Chapman and Hall, Together, by Mr. Norman Douglas—essays, it seems, and sketches of his travel in Germany. Mr. Douglas has the peculiar gift of making foreign countries a delight to stay- at-homes, without stirring them to energy ; but reading Mr. Doughty makes us continually grieve that we were not with him. Messrs. Duckworth have printed an authorized abridged edition of Mr. Doughty's Arabia Deserta entitled Wanderings in Arabia. Two books come from Mr. Seeker : Phoenix, a poetic drama by Mr. Lascelles. Abercrombie, and a translation of Gerhart Hauptmann's The Heretic of Soana. The only other novel worth mentioning is Mr. Hugh Walpole's Jeremy and Hamlet (Cassell).
Essays of a Biologist, which we have received from Messrs. Chatto and Windus, will be welcomed by the many who have followed Mr. Julian Huxley's recent contributions to periodicals. The interested layman will be relieved to fmd that the book is by no means technical or " stiff reading " : the subjects range from " Sex Biology " to a fantasy of "Philosophic Ants " and an essay on "'The Bird-Mind."
Tan LITERARY EDITOR.
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