Current Literature
CHEAP EDITIONS
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ONE of the most encouraging features of the contemporary book-market is the widespread success of the cheap edition. There are about a dozen well-known libraries of these editions today, made up of modern books of proven worth and popu- larity, which between them Include nearly all the distinguished books of the present century. A' great deal 'of taste and vision on the part-of-their publishers is behind the choice of books which are thus reprinted ; they are intended not for the casual or chronic book-borrover, Who generally demands his books on the `instant of Iiriblieittirin whether he depends for them upon the resoyrces of his friends or upon a.eirextlating library, but for the daserimirinting book-buyer who ;does not want his'ahefi-es41194ered up" with works of merely-ephemeral interest and WIni; these days Iff, houses pd flats, does not want books he dbesVish to possess to take up too much space. These hool&trelherefore compact in size and, since people-are once ifibre"---'beenming"conscious bf the appearance of their books, comely in appearance as well— in some eases much more so than the original editions. Their print is almost invariably good, 10 ;what is most important of all they are quite astonishingIF'clieap for what they offer. The best known of these libraries probably Messrs. Cape's excellent ` Travellers' Library,' -which costs 3s. 6d., a volume,- and continues to put the reading public regularly in its debt- with well-chosen additions. The latest-recruits to its imposing. company are Richard 'Jefferies'..The Amateur Poacher and Wild Life in a Southern -County, both of them sufficiently well. known to do without recommendation; Algernon Blackwoodhc Adventures before Thirty and Middleton Murry's Aspects of Literature. Adventures before Thirty must be one of the best and oddest pieces of autobiography that has ever been written. It records the ten years, between the ages of. twenty and thirty, that the author -spent in Canada and Ike United States, and the curious adventures be met with while engaged in a number of pc-cups:alma sufficiently odd in-:themselves. It is a ..delightful .book," _and. well worth reprinting., Mr. Murry's book of critical essayS was first published in 1920; before the author's gifts as a literary critic had begun to be overshadowed by his activities in other spheres. The repub- lication of this book Olivia to remind 'Us *fiat very good literary critic indeed he is; verytew better Collections of critical
essays have been published in recent years. •
The same sort of reader who will welcPme Mr., Murry's book will wish, to acquire Mr. T. S. Eliot's Elizabethan Essays Which' has recently been' added to the comparatively yoking but extremely flourishing Faber Library.' It will appeal both to tlitise,WhoAreinterested in the Elizabethan dramatists and to thoSe iiiv,ho are altercated' in Mi. Eliot, and for those unfortunate enough to have no previOus acquaintance with his criticism there could be no better introduction. (Messrs. Atethuen's (Fountain Library,'. incidentally, was enriched a short time-ligo with a neW;edition of Mr. Eliot's first book of collected critical essays, The -Sacred Wood, and it would be an odd reader indeed whO would. not think the 2s. 6d. for which it is now. available well spent.) Another recent addition to the Faber Library,' which like the ' Travellers' Library'' costs 3s. -6&aNolume, is Mr. A. G: Streets delightful story of the countryside, Strawberry Roan;-which will commend itself to the reader. who also likes.-TJie, Amateur Poacher. Messrs. F4ber's other library ,icp,ruiti, the ` Rose and Crown Library,' will 'already be familiar to anyone who looks out for OA printing and bobk-prodaetion. Its volumes cost 5s. each, and are models of their kind. The latest books to be ineluded in it aren/ffe. C.' E... M.' Joad's belligerent autobio- graphy, Under the Fifth Rib, Mr. Walter de in Mare's delightful Desert Islands, and Mr. Peter Quennell's A Superficial Journey to Tokyo and Peking. To Messrs; -Cape's `Life and Letters Series,' which comprises non-Action books ; previously pub- lished at anything up to a. giiinea and now made available at 4s. 6d., the most recent additions are - Miss Elisabeth RObins' entrancing Theatre and Friendship, which if it col- ' tamed nothing else would be made memorable by the numerous lettersTrom Henry James which it includes, and Miss Margaret Wilson's very illuminating study of penal systems and reforms, The Crime of Punishment. To the ' Phoenix `.Library;'' in which. Messrs. Chatto and Windtis republish in .a delightful format at 3s. 6d. the most distinguished of their bookS;.has been added one volume which anyone who has not already read will immediately wish to acquire—Mr. Aldous' HtixleyN last and most 'mordant novel, Brave' Nein World. . Mr: Richard • Aldington's Soft Answers will also be a popular addition, This volume contains four longish tales of which one—the satiric biographical. fantasia, Stepping Heavenward—is a masterpiece of its kind. Three other books which will not lack purchasers are Mr. J. W. N. Sullivan's Limitations of Science, Mr. Richard Hughes' poems, ConfessiO Juveiris, and Mi. William Faulkner's novel, Light in August. ' = To turn-from reprints of modern books to reprints of old, the" event of the season has undoubtedly been Mr. Basit Blackwell's one-volume edition of Shakespeare, which is pub- lished at Os. The plays are arranged in chronological order (or, at all events, in a sequence with which most modem scholarship will not quarrel), and the text is that prepared by the late A. H. Bullen for the Shakespeare Head Press. The type is clear and attractive, the paper is good, and the plan adopted for the plays of centring the name of the speaker is a decided advantage. Altogether the book is a great achieve- ment : it is good tUlooli at and not too bulky to handle with comfort. The first twelve volumes of the ' New Temple Shakespeare,' which Messrs. Dent are publishing at 2s. each, have also appeared. * Itr?"31: R. Ridley is the general editor, and seems to have done his work with marked ability. His text is, -4: eQnservatisVi! with moderniz.ed.sp,elling but, punc- tuation. WhielkaPproxiniates "to the Enza6ethaii. Each play has a preface, an extremely interesting feature of which is the inclusion of extracts from previous criticisms by famous critics. The plays are beautifully printed in Monotype Garamond, with very pleasing designs by Mr. Eric .Gill, and charmingly bound.-- Altogether the edition is as useful and attractive as any available. Also from Messrs. Dent have come six additions to the invaluable Everyman's Library,'- bringing itS" grand total to • the almost astronomical figure i of 911. The new-volumes are-Kaiit's-Critique-or Pure Reason, with an . introduction by:. Dr. A. p. Lindsay, an excellent selection from Heine's prOse and poetry, Sheliedrin's The Golovlyerd- Family;' "erijci34b1e vOltime of -Table Talk, a selection from de.Maupassant's Short Stories, and. an excellent selection from Dryden's Poetry,:roade by Mr. Bonamy Dobree., Finally, two reprints which do not fall within the territory of cheap editionv- 'Messrs.-Hutchinson haVe produced a very handsome-edition of Wy,cherley's Country Wife,_ with eight colour-plates and numerous other illustrations by Mr. Steven Spurrier. The play 'IS' well printed, with clear type and pleasantly wide margins;..and-Mr: 'Spurrier's dedorations are attractive and appropriate. The price of the edition is 31s. 6d., which is :certainly ziotinexpensive_, but will not seem an exor- bitant for edition of this magnificence to the kind of reader for whom- it is presumablyintended. Also from Messrs. Hutchinson comes a two-voligne edition of Fielding's Tom Jones, "with illustrations by Mr. W. R. S. Stott, and priced a1 15s. Sixteen of the illustrations are four-colour plates, and _there are countless black and white decorations. Either of these two books 'Would make an excellent Christmas-present for someone who cannot read Wyeherley or Fielding in the less ostentatious form which at least one of the editions pre• viously rderredAzrnAdqt _ :
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