SOLANO, E. JOHN, ed. Field entrenchments; a manual of trench warfare based on official manuals. il*$1 National military pub. co. 355
This book reprinted from the second (1915) London edition, is said to have been “written by an engineer officer attached to the Imperial general staff,” who prefers to remain anonymous. It covers Spadework for riflemen; Hasty fire-cover; Fire-trenches; Communications; Concealment; Obstruction, and Shelters. There are eighty-seven illustrations.
“Copious illustrations, diagrams, and plans clarify the text.”
Soldier of France to his mother; letters from the trenches on the western front. $1 (2½c) McClurg 940.91 17-17991
An English edition of this work, translated by “V. M.,” was issued under the title “Letters of a soldier, 1914-1915,” with an introduction by A. Clutton-Brock. The translation for the American edition has been made by Theodore Stanton, who contributes an introduction, which is, he says, in part a paraphrase of the original French preface by André Chevrillon. The letters were written by a young French soldier who was in the war from its beginning up to April 6, 1915. Since that date he has been “missing.” An unusual spiritual comradeship existed between son and mother, and his letters to her reveal a soul sensitive to all the moods of nature and to loveliness in all forms. “Whatever happens, life has had beauty for me,” were his last written words.
“These letters contain many passages and ideas of unusual beauty.”
“Though pantheistic in its tenor, there is nevertheless a strong, earnest religious note in these letters. Though written from day to day in the trenches they nevertheless form a progressive whole like the stanzas of a poem. And exceptionally commendable is the translation of Mr Stanton. He has succeeded in carrying beauty from French into English, a task not always successful.”
“Expressing the mental and spiritual reactions of a highly-strung nature, the letters are too abstract to be popular, but they form one of the most remarkable literary expressions of the war and are of the stuff which lasts.”
“It must be a source of great comfort to the mother to feel that, after all, her son achieved in these letters something like complete artistic expression of his noble nature, to know of the wide recognition they have had in France, and to learn that now they are given in English to America, which needs their lesson and their inspiration.”
“Characterized by a grave and touching spirituality and an exceptionally deep filial affection.”
“One feature of ‘Letters of a soldier’ is his adoration of his mother. ... He is, perhaps, typically French in his powers of artistic vision; but he is neither French nor English in the most striking side of his book. He belongs to the rare order of philosophers who can reach serenity in a world of horrors. ... He had got beyond the idea of personal success: ‘To a child in a game it is a fine thing to carry the flag; but for a man it is enough to know that the flag will yet be carried. And that is what every moment of great august Nature brings home to me!’ ... This is the most remarkable book of its kind we have seen lately.”
“All through his reasoning is different from that of the British soldier, though the results are the same. Mr Clutton-Brock says: ‘It would hardly be possible for any Englishman to ignore the war so resolutely, to refuse any kind of consent to it; or, if an Englishman were capable of such refusal, he would probably be a conscientious objector. We must romanticise things to some extent if we are to endure them; we must at least make jokes about them; but if a thing is bad to a Frenchman, it is altogether bad; and he will have no dealings with it. He may have to endure it; but he endures gravely and tensely with a sad Latin dignity, and so it is that this Frenchman endures the war from first to last.’ ... In the writer of these letters love of beauty passes insensibly into his religion. His power of wrapping himself round with serenity as with a cloak when he has gazed on a hillbathed in colour or on a flower growing in the mud is remarkable. If his religion is far from orthodox, it is real.”
“All but two or three of the letters are addressed to his mother; and they are letters which, as Mr Clutton-Brock points out, no son would have been likely to write to his mother in any country but France. ... His letters tell very little of the actual operations of war. ... The interest of the book is independent of anything described or related. One reads it chiefly for the self-revelation of an unusual and fascinating personality. The writer is evidently one of the last men to whom soldiering would have appealed as a career. ... His natural outlook is almost as pacific as that of Mr Ramsay MacDonald.”
SOLOGUB, FEODOR, pseud. (FEDOR KUZMICH TETERNIKOV).Created legend; auth. tr. by J: Cournos.*$1.35 Stokes 17-24700
“A powerful, deeply symbolical, and most original story, which has as a background the abortive Russian revolution of 1905. The hero is a poet with a vision of a less chaotic and more beautiful world than that in which he lives, and the heroine dreams of a day of freedom.” (Ath) “In this book many strange things come, now one and now another, into view. There are political meetings and riots, with hideous tales of Cossacks and official brutality; there is an attack upon the heroine by tramps; there are school inspections; there are spies, seedy villains, and many kinds of ruffians. There are mysterious children, of whom it would be futile to ask whether they are ‘alive’ or ‘dead’; there is a grove of Hellenic culture and nudity in a forest. ... The unity lies beneath the events and beneath the characters. It lies in the ideas, the philosophy ... for the yearning dreams of genius.” (The Times [London] Lit Sup)
“Some will say, with the police captain of the story, that Sologub writes every-day pornography, masquerading under high-sounding names. But even those who make such a foolish judgment will discover that Sologub did create a picture of Russia and Russian life, the outlines of which not even time can soften or cause to fade.” H. S.
“No greater contrast to ‘Tales of the revolution’ than ‘The created legend’ could be imagined. It is a symbolist novel; in it revolution is poetized, apotheosized, frequently, we regret to feel, sentimentalized. Many of the scenes in the tale are bathed in an atmosphere of delicate and clear beauty. Yet, every now and then we feel a decadence, a hint of decay, beneath the beauty. With all his fairy-tale simplicity, Sologub belongs to an older, a more sophisticated, a less healthful tradition than does Artzibashef.”
“‘The created legend’ is a little unfortunate in other respects than its ugliness. In his introduction Mr John Cournos tells us that the ‘legend’ embraces more books than this that he has newly translated, and that the original title of this member of the series is ‘Drops of blood.’ Moreover, the Russian means not ‘the created legend,’ but ‘the legend in the course of creation.’ ... There is more of magic in Sologub’s touch, perhaps, than in that of any among the modern Russian novelists whose work is becoming known in England. If this novel sometimes hurts with deliberate brutality it does more than heal the injuries.”
Some imagist poets, 1917; an annual anthology.*75c Houghton 821.08 (15-8258)
Six poets are again represented in the third annual volume of imagist verse: Richard Aldington, H. D., John Gould Fletcher, F. S. Flint, D H. Lawrence and Amy Lowell. Amy Lowell’s contribution to the volume is the series known as “Lacquer prints,” adapted from the Japanese. John Gould Fletcher contributes a notable poem on Lincoln.
“In the ‘Imagist anthology’ the work might almost be interchangeable, and one closes the book with a purely composite sense of it. Not that the composite technique lacks its individuality, one has a distinct impression of imagism as a cult, but the majority of the poems might be signed by the same name for all the impression they convey of the personality, the differentiating self, of the writer.” J. B. Rittenhouse
“Richard Aldington has a finer group of poems in this year’s anthology than the other two; this is also true of the poems by John Gould Fletcher and F. S. Flint. ... Imagism is an art-method which, expressing substance according to the degree of talent in the poet, is, though a younger, an accepted member in the verse forms of poetry. The survival of the ‘Some imagist poets’ anthology to a third annual issue is a good proof of its importance and influence.” W. S. B.
“The little group remains the same, whether in composition or in spirit. Nor is the offering of 1917 very different from that of 1916. ... The war is heard throughout the present volume: in Aldington’s ‘Field manœuvres,’ in Fletcher’s ‘Armies,’ a sombre yet vivid thing, and in Flint’s concern with ‘Searchlight’ and ‘Zeppelins.’” H: B. Fuller
“I recommend in ‘Some imagist poets’ the courage of its brevity. For the rest, the work follows its type—oracular, crepuscular, spectacular.” O. W. Firkins
“Mr Fletcher’s ‘Lincoln’ and one Whistler-like impression of ‘Moonlight’ make his selections foremost in the book. H. D. and F. S. Flint are least interesting. H. D.’s ‘Pygmalion’ has thought, but it is weakly expressed. D. H. Lawrence and Amy Lowell have added little to their reputations. Lawrence in ‘Terra nuvo’ adding mysticism to an apparent trial at the Dantesque. Amy Lowell is quite disappointing.”
SOMMERS, CECIL.[2]Temporary heroes, il*$1.25 (2c) Lane 940.91 17-27944
Letters from the western front to “The only ‘Phyllis,’” written “from all kinds of places, mostly unpleasant, in all weathers, chiefly rain, and at all sorts of odd times.” The period covered is from February, 1915, to July, 1916, and the grim happenings of those months, such of them as fall within the experience of this Scottish trooper, are none the less grim because of the punch which is put into the narrative. Neither rain, mud, plagues of the trenches, nor the crumpling up by shell fire can down his wit and sturdy courage. It is the invincible hero of Ypres and the Flanders front whom we see here; yet he, too, had a vulnerable heel. For we leave him after sixteen months taking sketchy account of passing days, on a Red cross barge able only to reiterate, “Isn’t it a terrible war?”
“Of books about the war there have been many, but few as likable as this modest collection of letters. Mr Sommers possesses a keen sense of humor; no bit of comedy escapes him, and he relates all sorts of tales, and gives them many clever touches of his own. Even when the joke is at his own expense he enjoys it. Long before the book ends the reader has come to have a very genuine liking for this young writer, a liking which is enhanced by the delightfully comic little sketches with which he has illustrated his letters.”
“There is little unrelieved tragedy in the book. The letters would be far less significantthan they are if the writer had not the sensibility to recognize the full horror of what is taking place, but he observes it from an angle which lets the horror be seen in quaint patterns.”
SONNECK, OSCAR GEORGE THEODORE.Suum cuique; essays in music.*$2.50 Schirmer 780.4 17-406
Mr Sonneck is the editor of the Musical Quarterly (New York) and has been chief of the music division, Library of Congress, since 1902. “Among the topics treated by him in this volume of essays are ‘Music and progress,’ ‘MacDowell versus MacDowell,’ ‘A national conservatory: some pros and cons,’ ‘A survey of music in America,’ and ‘Signs of a new uplift in Italy’s musical life.’ Also included in this volume are several interesting biographical studies—‘The musical side of our first presidents,’ ‘Benjamin Franklin’s musical side,’ and ‘Was Richard Wagner a Jew?’”—R of Rs
“‘Suum cuique’ is not a particularly alluring title for a book of essays on music, but O. G. Sonneck knows how to hold the attention of all who open this volume.” H: T. Finck
SORLEY, CHARLES HAMILTON.Marlborough, and other poems.*$1 Putnam 821
The author was a young poet and soldier who was killed on the western front in 1916. “Poetry seems to have been the natural expression of his mind, yet he hardly sought this expression until the last year of his life. In a certain mystic quality his poems are comparable to the early work of W. B. Yeats; in intense love of the very soil of his country, to the sonnets of Rupert Brooke; and in fatalism and ardent, heroic realization of the values of life and death to our own young poet so lately dead, Alan Seeger.” (R of Rs)
“This volume, as it stands, will, like the volumes of Rupert Brooke, afford convincing demonstration of what England is sacrificing in this war,—lives that would have shaped the thought and feeling of our country in the first half of the present century. It will bear testimony also to the type of men who, when the bolt fell in August 1914, hesitated not in offering their services to the nation.” G. D. Hicks
“The poetic work of Charles Hamilton Sorley, late of Marlborough college and sometime captain in the Suffolk regiment, has the double appeal of beauty and of pathos. It is astonishing that a boy of eighteen should have written poetry of so high an order filled with such precocious maturity of thought.”
“The six months that he spent in Germany before the war inspired him with respect and tolerance for our enemies. For the rest, we may note his intense love of Downland and of Marlborough. The later verses are unrevised, and often rough and halting in metre, but they have vision and an unaffected originality of imagery.”
“The third edition contains ‘illustrations in prose’ which Sorley’s friends will not like to miss. ... He was a careful letter-writer, and his letters, though they were probably written quickly, add materially to the value and dignity of this memorial volume.”
SOUINY-SEYDLITZ, LEONIE IDA PHILIPOVNA, baroness.Russia of yesterday and to-morrow. il*$2 (3½c) Century 947 17-18377
“Baroness Souiny is by birth a Czech, a native of one of the Balkan States, and married a Russian baron and lived ever since in Russia until she came to America, soon after the beginning of the war.” (N Y Times) Her first chapter, Awakening Russia, and her last, Russia of to-morrow deal with the revolution of 1917, the difficulty of bringing the Russian peasants to a realization of what democracy means, and what the provisional government really is. Other chapters deal with: The military party; Aristocratic women in Russian life and politics; German influence in Russia; America and Russia; Russian art, dramatic literature and music, etc. That on America and Russia argues that “Russia and America have so much to give each other of ethical, spiritual and practical values that the alliance of which Russians dream and which the Americans once declined must come about.”
“More entertaining than authoritative.”
“A leisurely, chatty, well-meaning but unreliable, woefully incoherent book.” Abraham Yarmolinsky
“The baroness’s style sometimes suggests that she is herself subject to German influences. Her spelling was certainly made in Germany. ... She has little but good to say of Grigorii Rasputin, who ‘brought back the Czar to his people and the people to the Czar.’ The book, with its comments on literature, art and music, its descriptions of travel, its many entertaining anecdotes and trivialities and its sixteen full-page illustrations is well worth reading, but it must be read with caution, for it abounds in questionable judgments.” N. H. D.
“Most interesting is the author’s reaction to the revolution. She makes it very plain that she has little faith in the lasting powers of the democracy. ... Among other word pictures is one of the monk, Gregory Rasputin. The Baroness sees him as a simple peasant, absolutely patriotic and religious, a ‘Russian Billy Sunday.’”
“There is grace, charm, picturesqueness and ease in the literary manner of this book, but the volume is crowded with equivocations, contradictions and half-thoughts. The author’s point of view concerning the temper of the people and the future of the republic is disappointingly feudal. Her prejudices cling to her like barnacles.” D: Rosenstein
“Her pages are very readable, but the more one reads, the more does one wonder, or doubt, if she is justified always in her generalizations. And those doubts increase when one reaches the chapters in which she deals with recent events and discovers her point of view.”
“Possibly a little hectic, wordy, and hastily put together for the reader’s entire satisfaction.”
“It is evident that the writer possesses an acquaintance with her people that is the fruit not only of long familiarity but also of intelligent study. In them she has faith.”
SPENCE, LEWIS.Myths and legends of Babylonia and Assyria.il*$3 (3c) Stokes 299 17-4995
It is the author’s belief that this book will appeal particularly to the modern reader who loves the romance of antiquity. His aim has been “to provide not only a popular account of the religion and mythology of ancient Babylonia and Assyria, but to extract and present to the reader the treasures of romance latent in the subject, the peculiar richness of which has been recognized since the early days of archæological effort in Chaldea.” The book has eight color plates by Evelyn Paul and thirty-two other illustrations.
“The title of the volume is just a trifle misleading. Although most of the myths and legends of the Babylonians and Assyrians are rather fully presented, the book is after all more largely a discussion of the religion of these two peoples. The author has given his readers a fairly good presentation of that religion, but it is doubtful whether the book is one whit more interesting than many books in the field that are the work of specialists, and it was just this that the volume was intended to popularize. ... The book abounds in inaccuracies, hardly pardonable even in one who is not a specialist. The author has depended too largely upon older writings and upon men like Sayce and Hilprecht, neither of whom is particularly reliable. The black-and-white illustrations are good, but those in color by Evelyn Paul are neither artistic nor historically true.” T. J. Meek
“Mr Spence, our leading authority on Mexican archaeology and mythology, has here given a popular account of the religion and mythology of ancient Babylonia and Assyria, a subject which he knows well. With the general reader in view, he has endeavoured, not to separate the gold of romance from the darker ore of antiquarian research, but to blend romance and knowledge. The result, with a theme so rich in enchantment, is a picturesque and fascinating book, that, if it does not add to knowledge, will add extensively to the band of readers interested in comparative religion and ancient history. ... There is a first-class index.”
SPENCER, HERBERT.Man versus the state.*$2 (2c) Kennerley 301 16-23151
Mr Beale, the editor, has prepared this edition of Spencer’s essays for publication in the belief that they are particularly applicable to conditions in America at the present time. The essays, he says, were written by Spencer “to warn the English people against the blight of officialism.” The same danger of “over-legislation” and “over-administration” now exists in America, he believes. The essays are published with critical comments by prominent Americans, among them Elihu Root, Henry Cabot Lodge, E. H. Gary, Augustus P. Gardner, Nicholas Murray Butler and William Howard Taft.
“Particularly interesting are Elihu Root on ‘The new toryism’ and E. H. Gary on ‘Overlegislation.’ But it is no disparagement to any of these men to say that the clarity and dexterity in exposition that characterized Spencer put almost any man at a disadvantage whose writing is set side by side with these paragraphs dictated so long ago.”
“The underlying conception of this edition was an entirely admirable one; its execution has come very near to tragedy. ... Gathering about him in massed formation the heavy artillery of American conservatism—Mr Root, Dr Butler, Judge Gary, Mr Taft—Mr Beale has prefaced Spencer’s essays by a series of prose lyrics which, while they may gratify the few remaining adherents of the Spencerian philosophy, are otherwise valuable only as a somewhat inept expression of the ideals of the last age.” H. J. L.
“For the man or woman who wishes to see clearly just what problems the United States is facing, and which must be worked out to our best national advantage, there is no better contribution to political thought than this volume of economic and sociological wisdom founded upon the broad philosophical foundation that ‘those forces that create and develop nations are not to be restricted by prohibitory acts of legislatures.’”
SPIEGEL VON UND ZU PECKELSHEIM, EDGAR, freiherr.Adventures of the U-202; an actual narrative.*$1 (4c) Century 940.91 17-6334
The title-page tells us the author is commander of the U-202, and a copyright notice says that the book is published by arrangement with the New York World, but it is not stated whether the book is a translation or an original account, whether it was first written for German or for American readers. It gives an account of the routine on a German submarine, of the thrills and dangers encountered, of the methods of attacking enemy ships, of tracking them down or escaping from them, and finally describes the joyous homecoming of a U-boat crew.
“The author is possessed of complete knowledge of under-sea craft and its methods. His technical account of the U-boat in operation and of the life of those who man it, is worth reading.”
“References to the hated English are sometimes unnecessarily vituperative, as was only natural. The book is decidedly out of the ordinary, and will arouse even the jaded reader of war narratives.” P. F. Bicknell
“Presents us with a ‘peculiar’ sea-faring psychology. It crops out in the bombastic manner of our dare-devil hero and his stage-strutting crew. Compare this stuff with the modest, straightforward narrative of a real sailor such as Captain König of the ‘Deutschland!’ The book does not bear a single German official endorsement.”
“An exciting and thoroughly interesting book. It has in it a good deal of out-and-out information about submarines and submarine warfare. And it gives its readers many a thrill. It has its place in the public’s war library.”
SPINDLER, FRANK NICHOLAS.[2]Sense of sight.*$1.25 Moffat 17-23764
“The aim of this volume is to tell the story of the wonderful power of vision in plain English and in a readable way, and yet keep true to the scientific facts and theories. There is a chapter on visual illusions, and another analyzing the visual type of mind. The book closes with a chapter on Hygiene of the eye and of vision.” (Boston Transcript) This volume is one of the new series “Our senses and what they mean to us.” One other volume has also been issued, “The sense of taste,” by H. L. Hollingworth and A. T. Poffenberger.
“Though elementary, the book is enlightening; though detailed, it is comprehensive.”
“It rarely rises above meagre adequacy; and it is in a measure unfortunate that so important a subject fails of any distinctive handling. The arrangement of the chapters is admirable.”
“One is pleased to find so much useful information presented in comparatively few pages and couched in simple, popular language.” Medicus
SPINGARN, JOEL ELIAS.Creative criticism: essays on the unity of genius and taste.*$1.20 (5½c) Holt 801 17-15179
The first essay in this book, The new criticism, was published in 1911, after its delivery as a lecture at Columbia university. It was regarded at that time as quite iconoclastic in its ruthless destruction of time-honored standards. Added to it in this volume are three other essays: Dramatic criticism and the theatre; Prose and verse; and Creative connoisseurship. A note on genius and taste, a reply to a criticism of the first essay by John Galsworthy, is given in an appendix.
“What Mr Spingarn fails lamentably and completely to realize is that the conception of the drama as ‘a creative art born in the brain of the playwright’ and as something inextricably concerned with theatres and actors are not irreconcilable at all.” F. I.
“Prof. Spingarn’s views should awaken as much debate on their reappearing as when first promulgated.”
“He demolishes more decayed and genteel traditions than the Victorians can justly be taxed with; and in the face of new realities his enthusiasm is so keen and clear-sighted that we wish that he would give us a few examples of the art besides this spirited defence of it. We wish indeed that he had written a longer book; for the subjects he deals with are very complex, and many of the interesting things that he says would be still more interesting if they were discussed more fully.”
SPRING, LEVERETT WILSON.History of Williams college. il*$3 (4c) Houghton 378 17-15570
Professor Spring for twenty-three years held the chair of English literature at Williams college, and is now an emeritus professor. The opening of the college is described and the history is brought down to date, but “a detailed survey of the present administration is not attempted.” There are eighteen illustrations, nine of them pictures of college presidents, and nine appendixes, one of which gives “Williams volunteers, graduate and non-graduate, in the Civil war and their rank.”
“The general reader may find not a little to attract him in the descriptions of college life a century ago and in the biographical sketch of Mark Hopkins.”
“It will hold its field alone, for no history of the college has appeared for many years, and its most exhaustive predecessor contains an intermixture of much historical matter upon Williamstown. The author has proportioned it in an unusual way. The history of the institution proper is held within bounds which leave abundant space for an account of the college life of the more eminent alumni of Williams, and to a certain extent of their later careers.”
“The author’s text might well have been more vivid.”
“A well-written and appropriately illustrated history. Any history of Williams must necessarily be largely given up to biographical sketches of personalities who as presidents and professors have built up the institution. Although always a small college, relatively speaking, Williams has, throughout its history, exerted an influence in the nation out of all proportion to its size.”
“This is not a mere retelling of a story already twice told, but is an authoritative narrative, based upon painstaking researches, which have brought to light a considerable amount of new material having to do especially with the earlier years of the college. ... This well-proportioned, informing, and thoroughly readable book should be attractive to all interested in the early life of New England and in the history of American education.”
SPRUNT, JAMES.[2]Chronicles of the Cape Fear River, 1660-1916. 2d ed $4 Rosa P. Chiles, 142 A st., N.E., Washington, D.C. 17-10368
A revised and enlarged edition of a work that was privately printed by the author in 1915.
“The additions, amounting to exactly one hundred pages of text, are supplemented by six rare maps and a thoroughly adequate index of forty-four pages. The most important additions are ‘Wilmington in the forties,’ eight papers by John MacLaurin which originally appeared in the local newspapers; three reports on Wilmington trade, 1815, 1843, 1872; the sketch, by Miss Rosa Pendleton Chiles, of the distinguished French scientist Alyre Raffeneau Delile, vice-consul in North Carolina (1802-1806); and an extended history of Wilmington churches.” (Am Hist R)
“The book’s most interesting chapter remains ‘Blockade running,’ slightly extended. This volume constitutes a contribution, of permanent value, to the historical literature, not only of North Carolina, but also of the United States.” Archibald Henderson
“The book is more even than a rarely complete local history. It is a valuable contribution to general history, giving as it does a summary—admirable in its terseness and clarity—of the events in one of the most historical sections of the United States from the time of its exploration and settlement down through the Civil war to the present. A Confederate himself, Mr Sprunt’s personal experience in ‘blockade running’ gives authority to his descriptions of that science. Sketches of the old plantations, of quaintly interesting social customs, of historic localities and individuals, add to the value as well as to the interest of a book, whose vast detail is carefully marshalled and clearly presented.”
“Merely as a contribution to local history this volume is of more than ordinary importance, because of the unusual care that has been given to its preparation, and the excellent literary form in which it now appears.”
SQUIRE, JACK COLLINGS.Tricks of the trade.*$1.25 Putnam 827 (Eng ed A17-1182)
“One of the most diverting books of parody in recent years. Its range is wide—from Pope to Davies—and almost as many styles of parodic writing are exhibited as there are styles of parodies. In the first half are ten imitations of the work of contemporary writers, mostly poets. In the second are ten duplex parodies.” (Dial) “Wordsworth rewrites ‘The everlasting mercy,’ Mr Masefield gives us his version of ‘Casabianca,’ Henry James revises the church catechism, Lord Byron takes liberties in the ‘Don Juan’ stanza with ‘The passing of Arthur,’ and, most brilliant of all, Gray rewrites his ‘Elegy’ in the cemetery of ‘Spoon River.’” (Spec)
“These burlesques are frequently criticisms of no mean order.” Odell Shepard
“Mr Squire has already proved himself a master of the art of travesty, and his ‘Tricks of the trade’ is a pure joy. For here we have no crude verbal mimicry, but an appropriation of the spirit of the original, with just that amount of exaggeration and perversion required to pillory its weakness. As a sustained ‘tour de force’ the burlesque on Mr Masefield, ‘the poet in the back streets,’ is perhaps the most deadly burlesque on the violence of the new ‘School of real human emotion’; but we are not so sure that the parody of Mr Belloc in his satirico-comic vein is not even cleverer, for it is a burlesque on a burlesque.”
“Although we may laugh we cannot deny that he tells us more about Mr Belloc, or Mr Wells, or Sir H. Newbolt than many serious and industrious articles where the gifts and failings of these writers are scrupulously weighed to anounce. ... Of the parodies of modern writers, that of Mr Shaw seems to us the least successful.”
STACPOOLE, FLORENCE.[2]Advice to women.*$1.25 Funk 618.2 17-12840
This work on “the care of the health before, during, and after confinement, with hints on the care of the new-born infant and an appendix on what to get ready for a baby” has been revised from the fifth London edition to conform to American practice, by Lydia E. Anderson, president of the state board of nurse examiners, University of the State of New York. Two interesting chapters tell what modern science has done to lessen danger and suffering in childbirth.
“The work of an Englishwoman high in rank as a teacher of health, and especially of obstetrics, is here supplemented by the revisionary service of an American woman equally deserving confidence. It is a book for women, by women, for the common welfare.”
STACPOOLE, HENRY DE VERE.François Villon: his life and times, 1431-1463.*$2 Putnam (Eng ed 17-26321)
“My object is to present to you François Villon, one of the strangest figures in all literature, and one of the greatest of French poets,” says the author. His method is to study Villon, the man, thru his writings. “Villon,” he says, “had the magical power of turning himself into literature.” First, however, he describes the France of Villon’s day.
“There is appreciative literary criticism yet the book moves like a story. ... Mr Stacpoole published a translation of Villon’s poems in 1914.”
“Mr Stacpoole is as picturesque as his theme, as vigorous as the time he depicts, as romantic as his hero. We get a clear view of the fifteenth century in France from his pages, and as complete an understanding of Villon as is possible in the circumstances. If Villon still seems mythical when we close Mr Stacpoole’s book, it is because he will remain a character who is all the more appealing because of the glamour of romance that enshrouds him.” E. F. E.
“However much Mr Stacpoole may take from the French biographers in facts, the able criticisms are his own. ... Mr Stacpoole shows good critical taste in his estimate of the worth of the various ballads, and he includes good poetic translations of most of them, as well as free prose renderings of the legacies.” Nellie Poorman
“Interest is added to Mr Stacpoole’s book by a series of very satisfying verse translations of some of Villon’s less-known poems.”
“This book tells us nothing save that Mr Stacpoole admires Villon in so far as he understands him, but that he does not understand very much. Mr Stacpoole had the opportunity of performing a valuable service. He might have translated M. Champion’s volumes, and so given a work of profound scholarship and exquisite taste the larger public which it deserves. ... Mr Stacpoole would, we suppose, say that his book was not written for those who already knew Villon—that it was, in fact, ‘un oeuvre de vulgarisation.’ If so, it was superfluous.”
STACPOOLE, HENRY DE VERE.Sea plunder.*$1.30 (2½c) Lane 17-11465
Moral questions do not trouble Captain Blood and his friend Billy Harman. If the two German owners of the vessel Captain Blood commands want to cut a Pacific cable, that is their responsibility, not his. What the object of these two plotters really was is never learned, for the first message intercepted on the cut cable tells them that England and Germany are at war. As a matter of fact, they are not. This was one of the false alarms that preceded the real one of 1914. But for all that the message changed the course of this story. The second adventure of the book has to do with a wrecked Chinese ship, said to be carrying twenty thousand dollars in gold; the third takes the two adventurers back to the South seas.
“We do not know, now that Jack London is gone, where to match Mr Stacpoole’s absolutely simple, straightforward, and forcible way of telling a story of outlandish adventure.”
“A better group of sea yarns, or of yarns better told would be hard to find. ... Along with the wisdom of his seafaring men Mr Stacpoole drops bits of his own, notably his accurate characterization of the attitude of Ireland toward England.”
“Mr Stacpoole’s gift for telling a racy, thrilling adventure story is well established, and this product of his pen sustains his reputation.”
STANARD, MARY MANN PAGE (NEWTON) (MRS WILLIAM GLOVER STANARD).Colonial Virginia: its people and customs. il*$6 Lippincott 975.5 17-30734
“Historical and genealogical in character, this work is based neither upon history-books nor tradition, but upon sources that are not accessible to the ordinary reader—old diaries, old newspapers, and letters, shop-bills and inventories, and other documents throwing light on the personal and social life of the Virginians in colonial days. ... Mrs Stanard describes the relations between old Virginia and the mother country and the intricacies of Virginia class-relationships, and throws light upon hundreds of genealogical questions that have hitherto been in dispute.”—Lit D
“The labor of preparing so exhaustive a work as this must have been very great, and the author is to be commended for the excellent manner in which the interest is maintained to the very last.” E. J. C.
“Altogether the book is one that will appeal to every one who is curious about our historic past. The ways of our forebears and the interest of the book are heightened by the large number of illustrations it contains.”
“This is a handsome, well-illustrated, well-planned, and comprehensive volume.”
“Mrs Stanard is known as an enthusiastic student of the Old dominion’s archives, and is the wife of William G. Stanard, secretary of the Virginia Historical society and editor of the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography.”
“Although perhaps the book contains little that is new, it brings scattered material together in graphic compilation.”
STANLEY, ELEANOR JULIAN (MRS JAMES LONG).Twenty years at court. il*$4.50 Scribner (Eng ed 17-21843)
Eleanor Stanley, whose private letters are here collected by Mrs Steuart Erskine, was maid of honor to Queen Victoria from 1842 to 1862. “A very few letters have been put into the book which are not by Miss Stanley.” (Spec)
“Perhaps nothing could better witness the fascination of these letters and wide appeal than the fact that a second edition has so quickly followed their publication a year ago. ...Clearest of all the pictures she presents are those of the simple home life of the English royal family.”
“No one, we think, will read them without enjoyment—it is difficult to say why. ‘It went off pretty flat,’ said Fanny Burney describing an evening spent in the Georgian court circle. Most evenings at the early Victorian court might be said, by these accounts, to have gone off very flat indeed, and yet Miss Eleanor Stanley makes us want to hear about them.”
“Sprightly, revealing and readable. ... In her pictures of people in the spheres of court and diplomacy there is much covert sarcasm. ... As Miss Stanley grows older she discloses a greater interest in politics, and her notes on political events generally get to the nub of the matter with few wasted words.”
“Miss Stanley’s letters are authentic. ... On the whole the editing is well done, with a number of useful little footnotes giving the names, titles, and dates of the numerous great people who are mentioned. The reader, however, may justly complain of the want of an index; of the want of any reference, or of anything more than the merest hint, with regard to many of the great events of the time; and of the absence of the necessary few words of explanation which would have rendered intelligible certain letters that the ordinary reader of to-day cannot fully understand. ... As a historical document the book is disappointing.”
STANTON, STEPHEN BERRIEN.Hidden happiness.*$1.25 (4c) Scribner 170.4 17-7478
The short essays of this volume have something of an Emersonian flavor. “Remember, all is law. It governs every little act of life—every success, every failure. Things happen according to principles which we can put ourselves in accord with and win, or go counter to and lose. Control then thy destiny by obedience to them. I have no wish other than that of the universe—why should I?” This quotation indicates very fairly the author’s attitude. He writes of: Joy’s neutrality; Ambition; The eternal bulwarks; Influence; Pros and cons of companionship; The trumpet of to-day; The marrow of existence; Ultimate economy; Letter and spirit, etc.
“The volume bristles with sane and sensible advice, with fine bits of figurative writing and with unforgettable epigrams.”
“Aphorisms for sane and cheerful living. There is nothing original in Mr Stanton’s optimism or in his advice. But he states his confession of faith in the clearest and most vigorous terms.”
STEEL, MRS FLORA ANNIE (WEBSTER).Marmaduke.*$1.40 (1½c) Stokes (Eng ed 17-26885)
The scene of this melodramatic tale is laid in Scotland and the Crimea in the “forties” and “fifties.” The leading characters are “the sardonic old rake, Lord Drummuir, who marries a ballet-dancer and reduces her to respectability, who keeps his children in perpetual tremors by his evil temper; his gallant soldier son, the Hon. Marmaduke Muir, always hard up and always trying to get money out of the old man; Marrion Paul, a girl of noble mind but supposed humble origin, who loves Marmaduke from childhood and becomes his guardian angel, and the faithful soldier-servant of the hero, who cherishes a hopeless passion for the heroine and talks broad Scotch with mildly comical effect. ... The book includes a fire, a battle, a shipwreck, two sensational escapes from drowning, a frustrated elopement, a carriage accident, and a house of shame.” (Sat R)
“A very improbable and old-fashioned, but not altogether unentertaining novel.”