BOOKS.
THIS WEEK'S BOOKS.
Miss Kav SINCLAIR'S new volume, Uncanny Stories (Hutchin- son), is full of the most alarming illustrations, some in half- tone and some in line, by M. Jean de Bosschere. Some happily-inspired reviewer said of the pictures in Lady Into Fox that they were "credulous." These of Uncanny Stories give just the effect of the secretary who sees the ghost in Mr. G. K. Chesterton's Magic. It frightens us to see M. de Bosschere so frightened. It is a book to the reading of which I greatly look forward.
There are not many books this week, but among them per- haps rather an unusual proportion that look attractive. For instance, there is a new book of essays by Mr. Walkley, More Prejudices (Heinemann). Among them are studies of " En- chanting Bores," "Proust the Man," "Dramatized Novels," and a most interesting discussion of that old grievance; that theatrical critics do not do justice to actors. I look forward, too, to reading the essay on" Real Chinamen," which promises to be a general discussion of the "practicable pump "dilemma.
A book with a very attractive subject is one by Mr. Lewis Muniford called The Story of Utopias : a Study of Ideal Com- monwealths and Social Myths (Harrap). I wonder whether the author makes any analysis of the psychological nature of the people who invent Utopias Modern psychologists have told us so much lately of the evils of an escape into a phantasmagorial world. It is an evil in which I find it difficult to believe. Mr. Mumford's story can, we suppose, hardly come down to that most charming of Utopias so lately sketched for us by Mr. H. G. Wells in his Men Like Gods.
An advance copy of some new stories by M. Nikolay Gogol has reached us from Messrs. Chatto and Windus, The Overcoat, and Other Stories. They are translated by the admirable and indefatigable Mrs. Garnett, to whose work English literature owes so much.
The Labour Publishing Company have issued another
volume, The Builders' History, a history of the building trade, an ungracefully bound but most charmingly printed volume. It is delightful to see that these new publishers should be taking so real an interest in typography. I am not sure that I like the fancy rule at the top of the page, but the general set out of the print on the page and the chapter headings are all delightful, and the book, in spite of plum-coloured cloth, gives a general effect of suavity and consideration.
A book with some charming pictures in it is one by Mr. Ashley-Cooper, introduced by Mr. E. V. Lucas, on the Humble- don Cricket Club between 1772 and 1790 (Jenkins). It gives a most attractive account of the third Earl of Dorset and the elegants who played with him.
Messrs. Benn issue another volume of their beautiful Players' Edition of Shakespeare. This is Cymbeline, and is illustrated by Mr. Albert Rutherston. The colour reproduction is most successful. I hope to return to a more detailed
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