Bill Platypus's
Paperbacks
I am beginning to feel nostalgic for the quiet days of summer, now that the paperbacks are pouring out for the autumn rush. All I can do is give you a hint of what is in store for you, in your armchair by the fireside. First, some good wintry reading from Pan Classics George Eliot's The Mill On The Floss (40p) and Charlotte Bronte's VIllette (40p). These are not the works of young and unknown authors, so 1 won't trouble you with comments about style and plot. Let me just say that the editions which Pan have produced are clear and neat, that the print is not toe ';mall and that they're very reasonably priced.
A marvellous book from Penguins now: Alan Moorehead's The White Nile (£2). Before anyone cavils at the price, Platypus urges you to see a copy. It is the most elaborate, and most decorative paperback I have seen for some time. The text itself is ambitious enough, but the itinerary is supplemented with lavish illustrations and drawings. It should remain a classic of its kind, and Penguins are to be congratulated on their good taste.
Congratulations of another kind to Paladin Books. They have recently reissued Roland Barthes' Mythologies (50p) in the translation of Annette • Levers. M. Bathes is still un-.— known to the general reading public, and editions like this may help to redress the balance. His writing is cryptic enough without any abbreviation from me, but this book is best seen as an eclectic and colourful introduction to that vexed field of 'structuralism.' The essays here range from analyses of striptease and wrestling to the iconography of Abbe Pierre, all of them treated with that irony and lucidity which comes from'4 an entirely alien view of the world and its toys.
But if it is all too much for you, Faber have recently issued in paperback Migraine (£1.60) by Oliver Sacks. I found this, as a layman hitherto untouched by the disease, a fascinating and lucid commentary upon a disorder that attacks many millions of people. It details its symptoms, its context and its history. Unfortunately, I am something of a hypochondriac, and I can already feel something coming on . . . so, quickly, to another Faber paperback designed to soothe the most restless of nerve-ends; Walter De La Mare's Selected Poems (70p). He is a poet who has, as they say, been unjustly neglected — or known for a few more obvious pieces than his whole range would justify. This selection chooses pieces from his very early work, in 1906, and continues up to the late poems of the 'fifties. For damp evenings.
And for long evenings, Everyman Paperbacks have reintroduced The Diary of Samuel Pepys in three volumes (£1.15 per volume). I have never found it entertaining reading, especially not with the rather small print which Everyman are using. I now have a headache — hypochondriacs get ill, too. But for the millions who like to delve into the minutiae of one man's past, this edition should be a cheap and handy reference.
Another kind of diary is now provided by Penguin English Library. It is Oscar Wilde's De Profundis And Other Writings (35p). While Platypus has never appreciated the martyrology of Wilde, this particular selection is wide enough to be entertaining. It includes some of Wilde's more notorious prose-pieces, such as 'The Soul of Man Under Socialism,' and a small collection of his verse. This last is better than is generally suspected, and I would like to see a larger edition of it.
I don't want to labour the point, but to return to the theme of sick-beds Penguin have just started a 'Library Of Nursing.' The venture sounds a little grotesque, but there is some point to it. Four paperbacks have already appeared, all on different systems — The Digestive System, The Respiratory System, The Endocrine System and, last but not least, The Urological System (all at 90p).
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