CURRENT LITERATURE.
NEW VOLUMES IN "EVERYMAN'S LIBRARY."
In spite of the war, " Everyman's Library " (J. M. Dent and Sons, ls. net per vol.) continues to grow and to supply good literature in a cheap and handy form. Probably many copies of the series are already in the hands of the British population in Flanders. J. R. Green's Short history of the English People now appears in two volumes, edited by Mr. Cecil Jane. To obtain so cheaply such an account of the growth of the liberties for which we are fighting to-day is indeed a blessing for those who do not mind the necessarily close print. Except for a brief epilogue, Green did not carry his history beyond Waterloo, but for this edition Mr. R. P. Farley has added three concise chapters, somewhat dry compared with Green, to continue it to 1914.-A third volume which has reached us is Mr. C. J. Hogarth's translation of Gogol's Dead Souls. We have been so properly and so constantly bidden of late to read this and other Russian novels, that it is unnecessary to do more than remind the English public that this is the surviving remains (for portions were burnt by the author) of the chief work of the father of modern Russian fiction. The travels and adven- tures of his quick-witted, unscrupulous hero, the inimitable Chiohikov, are so told as to give a picture of Russia and Russian life before the emancipation of the serfs which makes more impression than many histories or studios by foreigners.
A fourth new volume of the series is the Life of the First Duke of Newcastle, Royalist commander, exile, playwright, and country gentleman, written by his adoring wife, whose style as biographer and letter-writer so delighted Lamb. To-day one is struck by the account of his discussion with Hobbes upon the possibility of human flight. The Duke rightly declared it impossible on anatomical grounds that a man should take wings for use like a bird. We must also quote a saying of his recorded by his wife " Without a well-ordered force, a prince doth but reign upon the eourtesie of others." With the biography are republished Duchess Margaret's account of her own life and her "Sociable Letters."
Previous page
