6 APRIL 1901, Page 27

A Birthday Book from the Writings of John Oliver Hobbes.

Selected and arranged by Zoe Procter. (J. Lane. 3s. 6d. net.) —There is something absurd—except, indeed, as a permanent source of somewhat doubtful jokes—in these "birthday books." Some of the quotations must be exquisitely inappropriate. As "John Oliver Hobbes" expresses herself with considerable force, this collection is something like a powder magazine. But it is a scat of seal to a writer's vogue.