N

(Eng ed E20–581)

“The book which comes from England with this title, ‘The child under eight,’ is a discussion of the kindergarten after the fashion that might have been found in an American book fifteen or twenty years ago. The titles of the various chapters indicate the temper of the writers. There are chapters entitled The world’s mine oyster, All the world’s a stage, Joy in making, In grassy places, etc. The book is not without some practical suggestions for work in the kindergarten, but in the main it is a defense of the kindergarten with some reference to modern movements in the treatment of little children.”—El School J

MURRAY, GILBERT.Our great war and the great war of the ancient Greeks. (Creighton lecture, 1918) *$1.25 (13c) Seltzer 938

20–13139

A comparison between the Peloponnesian war and the great war in Europe. The war between Sparta and Athens was the greatest war the world had ever known. “Arising suddenly among civilized nations, accustomed to comparatively decent and halfhearted wars, it startled the world by its uncompromising ferocity.” And it ended in a peace that was no peace and was followed by other wars, the outcome of which was death to both combatants. Drawing on the historians and dramatists of the time the author sets forth a picture that shows many striking similarities to our modern experience. In conclusion he expresses a hope that in spite of the terrible evils growing out of the recent war, we may make use of the opportunity to build a better international life out of the ruin. The work is dated November 7, 1918.

“Gilbert Murray’s translations are, as always, enjoyable, even though such words as ‘Niagara’ in the mouth of the Athenians make us a bit suspicious that other lively expressions also may be more Murray than Aristophanes.” J. W. Hughan

MURRAY, JOHN.[2]John Murray III, 1808–1892. il *$1.50 Knopf

(Eng ed 20–8871)

“John Murray III was the grandson of the John Murray (1745–93, originally MacMurray!) who founded the famous publishing house in November, 1768, and the son of John Murray, jr. (1778–1843), who is perhaps best remembered now as friend and publisher of Byron and as publisher of the Quarterly Review. Of John Murray III (1808–92) there was no account adequate at all, except mere facts in the Dictionary of national biography, until his son’s interesting article appeared in the Quarterly Review for January, 1919. The present little book consists of that article, revised and enlarged, followed by the father’s paper on the ‘Origin and history of Murray’s handbooks for travellers,’ and by some new letters to his family (1830–91), mainly describing vividly various travels abroad and at home.”—N Y Evening Post

“The letters are excellent reading, and we venture to ask for more, if more are to be had.”

“Interesting because of his participation in literary events of real significance, such as Scott’s announcement of his authorship of ‘Waverly’ and the publication of the ‘Origin of species.’”

“One misses such anecdotes and illustrations of literary life as might have been expected from a publisher in close contact with great writers.”

“This is a very interesting and welcome little book.” L. L. MacKall

“The memoir has the unusual fault of being too brief, but it does justice to its subject and adds a new and interesting chapter to the history of English publishing.”

MUSCIO, BERNARD.Lectures on industrial psychology. 2d ed, rev il *$3 Dutton 658.7

20–13083

“A book principally composed of a series of lectures given to general audiences at Sydney university.” (Survey) “These lectures discuss such topics as fatigue, muscle coördination, individual differences, scientific management, motion study, and other applications of psychology to the life of workers.” (R of Rs)

“Taken as a whole, Mr Muscio’s volume may be recommended particularly on account of its lucidity and common sense as providing what is probably the best short account yet published in this field. In certain places, however, these lectures are distinctly weak. The author sometimes betrays only a distant acquaintance with the statistical material of his subject. Another weakness of these lectures is their too great reliance on the anecdotal method.” P. S. Florence

“There is no other book for the general reader that states the case for a scientific handling of the human factor in industry more clearly or more convincingly.” B. L.

MUZZEY, DAVID SAVILLE.American history. il *$1.92 Ginn 973

20–10077

A prefatory note to this revised edition says, “Besides bringing the narrative down to the spring months of the year 1920, the author has entirely recast that part of the book following the Spanish war, and has made considerable changes in the preceding chapters. The changes are chiefly in the direction of added emphasis on social and economic factors in our history. New illustrative material has been added, the maps have been improved, and the bibliographical references brought down to date.” The work was first published in 1911.

MYERS, ANNA BALMER.Patchwork; a story of the “plain people.” il *$1.75 (2c) Jacobs

20–5190

The “plain people” is what the religious sects, Mennonites, Amish, etc., in the Pennsylvania Dutch country are called. Phœbe Metz was a child of the “plain people” and this is her story from the time she was a quaint, unusually interesting and original little “Dutchie” of ten until she told David Eby that she would be his wife. She was fond of the world and its vanity, her golden curls and pretty clothes. She was frank about it; she could not be anything else but honest. And she had the courage, likewise, to go her own way, sorely as she grieved and shocked Aunt Maria. She went to Philadelphia to study music; tasted and loved the world’s glitter; saw some of its wickedness too; but when it came nigh to brushing the bloom off her youth, she escaped unscathed to her beloved country. There among the people and things that were a part of her very life she found herself, and when David returned from the war with but one leg, they both knew how much they had cared since they were children. There is much charm in the book’s local coloring.

“Entertaining but with less convincing dialect and background than Mrs Martin’s ‘Tillie.’”

“There is a good deal of information about the ‘plain sects,’ their ways and speech and ideas, in this perfectly innocuous little story.”

MYERS, FREDERIC WILLIAM HENRY.Human personality and its survival of bodily death. *$4 Longmans 133.9

“This well-known work first appeared about sixteen years ago in two volumes, each of about seven hundred pages in length. The text is here materially condensed, and most of the appendices, which occupied about half each volume and contained examples of phenomena analysed in the text, are omitted. A short biographical sketch of Myers is included.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup

“As Myers’ theory develops to include more and more unusual phenomena it preserves its persuasiveness and elasticity: Myers’ patient skill is indeed the most attractive feature of the book.” J. W. N. S.

Reviewed by Joseph Jastrow

MYERSON, ABRAHAM.[2]Nervous housewife. *$2.25 (4½c) Little 616.8

20–21011

“Every practicing physician, every hospital clinic, finds her a problem, evoking pity, concern, exasperation, and despair.” (Introd. note) By examining the various causes and forms of nervousness in housewives, from merely deënergizing neurasthenia to highly pathological cases, from all points of view, the book seeks to stimulate the trend toward greater individualization in women, and to promote a more constructive and intelligent rebellion against old-established conditions and discontents. The book is indexed and the chapter headings are: The nature of “nervousness”; Types of housewife predisposed to nervousness; The housework and the home as factors in the neurosis; Reaction to the disagreeable; Poverty and its psychical results; The housewife and her husband; The housewife and her household conflicts; The symptoms as weapons against the husband; Histories of some severe cases; Other typical cases; Treatment of the individual cases; The future of woman, the home, and marriage.

“Written sympathetically and sensibly for the housewife herself to read.”

“There is a note of pessimism about the book, despite its wholesomeness, that strikes a discordant chord here and there. But on the whole the book is sane, frank without being indelicate, wise, and fairly well-written.”

NALKOWSKA, SOFJA RYGIER.Kobiety (women). il *$2 (3c) Putnam

21–492

This novel of Polish life has been translated from the Polish by Michael Henry Dziewicki. It takes the form of self-revelations of a beautiful, intellectual and self-centered girl—the transitional woman. Nothing matters to her but her own sensations, her own experiences. From the height of a coldly reasoning, logical intellect she surveys passion, coquettes with it, longs for it and, when it comes rejects it—from an inherited instinct of chastity. In the words of a rejected lover, she was: “A bundle of theories, of sentimental scepticism, of self-assurance.... A poor frightened bird always popping its head under its wing!” But then this particular lover was only a splendid specimen of physical perfection. At the end, discouraged and bewildered, Janka returns to her old professor, who had been sorely grieved when she had disappointed his hopes for her and had turned her back upon science. The confessions are in three parts: Ice-plains; “The garden of red flowers”; A canticle of love.

“Specifically a story of Polish life, this very unusual book reveals the secret springs of all human life. To read it after a long course of the mediocre, superficial writing through which a reviewer, in the course of his duty, must wade is like emerging from the subway and drawing pure air into the lungs. The translator has done excellent work and the Benda drawing is distinctive.”

Reviewed by H. W. Boynton

“Considered in detail, it is a curious, sometimes brilliant, and often ludicrous work. We do not know whether the writer, for all her subtlety and power of detachment, is the least aware of what an absurd figure she has produced in Janka, this portentous type of modern youth. The book is indeed surprisingly uneven, subtle and extravagant, balanced and preposterous in turn.”

NAPIER, MARGARET.Songs of the dead. *$1.50 Lane 821

20–17909

In his introduction to these poems Edward Garnett says of them that they are unlike anything else; that they are not a “normal” product; that they are a rough diamond from a matrix suggesting comparison with the author of “The marriage of heaven and hell”; that in the simplicity and intensity with which they banish from our sight everything extraneous, alien to their passion, they are a lesson in poetry; and that, with the conception that when we die we live on in the grave, in our memories, in our anguish, in our desires, they are a lesson in passionate feeling.

“They are poems of frustration, imperfect verbal equivalents of great spiritual experiences, greater in intention and conception than in realized execution. Miss Napier writes in free verse, in a curiously tortured style full of inversions (one has the feeling that she is trying to express, by the unnatural quality of the style, the more than normal intensity of her emotion).”

NATHAN, GEORGE JEAN, and MENCKEN, HENRY LOUIS.American credo. *$1.75 Knopf 814

20–3354

One hundred and three of the one hundred and ninety-one pages of this “contribution toward the interpretation of the national mind” (Sub-title) are preface, excused by the authors on the ground “having read it, one need not read the book.” The authors’ contention is that “deep down in every man there is a body of congenital attitudes, a corpus of ineradicable doctrines and ways of thinking, that determines his reactions to his ideational environment.” While the preface consists of ratiocinations on these attitudes, doctrines and ways of thinking the book itself is a collection of maxims and traditional tenets that are supposed to make up the mental equipment of the ordinary man. The first one reads: “That the philoprogenitive instinct in rabbits is so intense that the alliance of two normally assiduous rabbits is productive of 265 offspring in one year.” Other examples are: “That Henry James never wrote a short sentence”; and “That German peasants are possessed of a profound knowledge of music.”

“None but a captious critic could find fault with the fact that the authors’ preface occupies fully two-thirds of the book, for in that space the truth about America and its inhabitants is told as it has not been for some time.” G. M. H.

“The stringing together of widely held fallacies does not constitute an ‘American credo’ any more than a collection of ‘want’ ads makes a job. It does not describe, explain or interpret anything. The authors themselves do not know American character, even in its major aspects, but only its ludicrous or despicable blemishes.”

“On the whole we do not gather from this repertory of popular fallacies any very definite picture of American mentality. But one can get from the latter half, at any rate, which does great credit to the authors’ ingenuity, a good deal of entertainment.”

NATHAN, ROBERT.Peter Kindred. *$2 (2c) Duffield

20–1889

The story of a boy’s school and college life, and his first contacts with the outer world. Peter’s father sends him to Phillips Exeter with the vague intention of giving him a gentleman’s education. The two years in this school are followed by four at Harvard and the story traces the quiet unsensational development of his mind and character. He makes friends, is converted to Carverism—the economic creed of a popular professor, and in his junior year meets Joan, a Radcliffe student. Peter and Joan are married the year after his graduation. They set up housekeeping in a New York tenement and work and play together and test out their theories of life. The story ends with the birth and death of their child.

“Unluckily there is not quite enough ‘to him’ to command and hold our interest and concern at the exacted pitch.” H. W. Boynton

“The reader possessed of sufficient pertinacity to work his way through the first two hundred pages of ‘Peter Kindred’ will find in the last part of the book a realistic sketch of youthful theories and ideals at war with the economic facts of life.”

“The story is well thought out and well written. Mr Nathan has put a great deal into his work and has taken it seriously. That in itself is more than can be said for many writers of current fiction.”

“The boy is a tolerably nice boy, and he does and thinks and says the things a tolerably nice boy would. We do not deny that he is true to fact. But what of it? Who cares? Since the author has failed to make us care about him as a person?” H. W. Boynton

NEALE, REGINALD EDGAR.Electricity. il $1 Pitman 621.3

20–16269

“In this book the author attempts no more than a review of the general nature of electricity, the methods of producing it and the services to which it is applied.” (Preface) The book is illustrated with forty-five figures in the text. It is issued as one of Pitman’s common commodities and industries series.

“It is remarkable how complete and accurate is the information given. The reader is, however, hurried on unpleasantly fast, and is never allowed to pause where his interest is aroused.”

NEIHARDT, JOHN GNEISENAU.[2]Splendid wayfaring. il *$2.25 Macmillan 978

20–27591

“As a poet, picturing the savage adventure of the early days of the Yankee invasion of the plains and mountains, Mr Neihardt has already won his reputation: his theme is huge and his powers are not unworthy of it. In his new volume, a prose volume, he appears again in his chosen domain, now as an historian. The period taken is 1822 to 1831, the event is the career of Jedediah Smith, who in the eight years of his adventurous maturity was the first American leader to discover the central overland route to California—later the great immigrant and trade route—and to measure the length of the Pacific coast from Los Angeles to the Columbia.”—Bookm

“Mr Neihardt gives unity and verve to his volume by making Smith the central spirit: but it is in a truly epic mode that the story is conceived, and hence there could not be less than a picturesque emphasis upon the companions of the hero, among them Ashley and Henry, builders of the fur industry, and the trapper Hugh Glass who is the subject of one of Mr Neihardt’s best-known poems.” Hartley Alexander

“All this is fascinating reading, suggesting the lurid tales, much sought and pored over, in boyhood, but while it is fascinating, it is history, history of the growth of the United States; as important as the occupation of the older states and the taking of the central portion of the present union.” J. S. B.

“This task has evidently been a labour of love, for Mr Neihardt has not felt impelled to follow the pattern of angular, unimaginative recital into which so many books of this kind fall.” L. B.

“A parallel work by, say McMaster, and called, say ‘Western exploration from 1822–1831,’ would have been a valuable contribution to the history of the West; but ‘The splendid wayfaring,’ as the title plainly shows, is more than that; it is an American prose epic, an absorbing tale of courage and endurance.” Walter Franzen

“Mr Neihardt has for the subject of this prose story one of the truly dramatic themes of American history.”

“Mr Neihardt has allowed himself a rather lofty flight in his opening paragraphs, where he links his tale up with that of the western progress of the Aryan races. In a number of other places a tendency to ornate language may be observed. But in other respects ‘The splendid wayfaring’ has compelling force.”

“Mr Neihardt has succeeded in giving some epical quality to his heroes and painting, as he intended to do, the mood of their adventures.” M. C. C.

NEKLIUDOV, ANATOLII VASIL’EVICH.[2]Diplomatic reminiscences before and during the world war, 1911–1917; tr. from the French, by Alexandra Paget. *$8 Dutton

(Eng ed 20–10794)

“A Russian diplomat’s frank statement of what he learned as Minister to Bulgaria during the Balkan wars of 1912 and of 1913, supplemented by his observations during the world war, when he was serving as Minister to Sweden, and Ambassador to Spain. Writing in the firm conviction that all who took part in the tremendous events of those years now belong to ‘an irrevocable past,’ M. Nekliudov speaks as freely concerning his contemporaries as if they were actually dead.”—R of Rs

“M. Nekliudov, with his tears and his discontents, is not a very interesting person. The best part of his long book is the record of his ambassadorship in Sweden during the war, and in his comments on certain Russian statesmen such as Stürmer and Protopopoff he has something to say that is not without interest.”

“The style is more than clear and studiously temperate: it is at times eloquent and pathetic, and throughout tinged with the philosophy natural to a cultured gentleman. The English of Alexandra Paget is so good that it must, we think, be ranked as a first-rate translation.”

“Having lost his emperor, his country and his sons, this former representative of a departed system sees no necessity to guard certain of those secrets which go to make up the mystery of diplomacy. In consequence of this break with the past which fate has forced upon him M. Nekliudov is interesting and informative.”

NEWDecameron; second day. *$1.90 McBride

20–8740

The first volume was published last year. Like it this second volume is a collection of short stories by different authors, each story in keeping with the character of its narrator. Contents: Jim of Moloch’s bar, by Francis Carco: Bread upon the waters, by Michael Sadleir; The history of Andrew Niggs, by Basil Blackwell; The tool, by W. F. Harvey; The master-thief, by Dorothy L. Sayers; The affair of the Mulhaven baby, by M. Nightingale; The vase, by Camilla Doyle; “Once upon a time” by Bill Nobbs; A prayer perforce, by M. Storm Jameson; Salvator Street, by Sherard Vines.

“In spite of serious inequalities in the work, the total result is undoubtedly entertaining. In all the stories there is evidence of careful workmanship, a preoccupation with literary means which is highly satisfactory save when it aims at effect with too unchastened self-consciousness.” F. W. S.

“Some of them are excellent, some rather poor and a few unequivocally dull. Heralded simply as ‘Salvator street’ comes the surprise of the book. In it Sherard Vines has succeeded in creating a character besides writing the best story of the volume.”

“The idea of vocational guidance in the telling of tales is not altogether conducive to the best flights of the imagination. The obligation to relate the sort of story that a master-printer, a poet, or a psychic researcher would be apt to relate seems to have put a restraint upon most of the contributors.” L. B.

“‘The new Decameron,’ to carry on its excellent plan, must be, like the ‘Canterbury tales’ which its general method recalls, more variously human in substance and in modulation. Their inventiveness in plot and ingenuity in structure are remarkable. But these are not high qualities in fiction. ‘The new Decameron’ needs not, indeed, cheerfulness, but sunlight; less smell of the charnel house and more of the earth.”

“The structure of the book is cleverly contrived, and in reading it the fact that this is the work of several hands does not obtrude itself too violently. At its best the book is artistic, and it is always elegant. The remoteness, the wickedness, and the nervous dread of crudity dissociate the authors from the literary giants of past times. All the contributors give an impression of literary taste, and not one of them has generated a ‘human document.’”

NEWBOLT, SIR HENRY JOHN.[2]Book of good hunting. il *$3.50 (*10s 6d) Longmans 799

20–18594

“Sir Henry Newbolt has put together many interesting stories about sport. Elephants, lions, and tigers come first: then there are chapters on deer-hunting and fox-hunting, with many extracts from Mr Masefield’s fine poem, ‘Reynard the fox,’ and a closing chapter on fishing. In his introductory chapter, ‘On the nature of sport,’ he states the arguments for and against sport, and insists very strongly on the value of true sportsmanship to the national character.”—Spec

“Sir Henry Newbolt writes so pleasantly that he will attract readers of all ages.”

“From a literary or sporting standpoint, the book is equally attractive.”

“The instances of hunting experiences chosen by Sir Henry are admirably described, and compel the reader to share the excitement of the hunter. He brings out all the concomitants which differentiate sport from killing.”

NEWLAND, H. OSMAN.Romance of modern commerce. il *$2 Lippincott 380

20–3902

“The book is, as described in its sub-title, a popular account of the production of a number of common commodities. It collects a mass of miscellaneous information about wheat and other cereals, tea, coffee and cocoa, rubber, tobacco, cotton, silk, wool, timber, paper, fruit and wine, cattle and leather, vegetable and mineral oils, furs and feathers, precious stones and metals.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup

“Informative and of varying interest. Could be used by upper grades and high schools.”

NEWMAN, ERNEST.Musical motley. *$1.50 Lane 780.4

20–1630

A series of papers by an English musical critic. Among the titles are: “L’enfant prodigue”; On instruments and their players; On musical surgery; Criticism by code; Futurist music; The best hundred scores.

“Mr Newman is a musician of the nineteenth century. This must not be taken to mean that he is an old-fashioned pedant who is out of touch with new developments. On the contrary, he is intensely interested in modern music and has no sentimental illusions about that of the past. Music is for him always a thing of the living present.” E: J. Dent

“Mr Newman is never dull, even when he is grave.” H: T. Finck

“The chief attraction of Mr Newman’s book, besides its dry humor, is its lack of dogmatism and its corresponding illumination of speculative points.” M. H.

“He differs from a good many fashionable critics in his familiarity with the works of the ancients, and in testing the moderns by standards which these critics are either ignorant of, or refuse to accept. Perhaps the wisest and sanest passages in the book are those in which he differentiates the originality that counts from that which does not.”

“The book is always interesting, often gay, reading. The essays on the classics are apt, but do not go far enough; that on the grotesque is tentative, that on obituaries might have been omitted. We should have liked some more like ‘Originality in music’ and ‘Quotation,’ and that on Bishop Blougram in partibus, which are full of sound judgments delivered with a light touch.”

NEWSHOLME, SIR ARTHUR.Public health and insurance: American addresses. $2.50 Johns Hopkins 614

20–12817

“Sir Arthur Newsholme has for thirty-five years been an active figure in the public health profession of Great Britain and for eleven of those years has served as principal medical officer of the Local government board. In the fall of 1919 he came to the School of hygiene and public health of Johns Hopkins as lecturer on public health administration. The book just published is made up of addresses delivered to public audiences in the course of visits paid to various university and medical centers in America.” (Survey) “It is largely devoted to the present state of public health in England and to the progress in public health policy that has been realized within the last fifty years.” (The Times [London] Lit Sup)

“The sections which describe the wonderful progress made in dealing with tuberculosis and child welfare in England during the past few years will prove of absorbing interest to the specialist. There is hardly a chapter in the book, however, which should not be read by every social worker for its value as a contribution to the philosophy of social reform.” C.-E. A. Winslow

NEWTON, ALMA (MRS ALMA NEWTON ANDERSON).Jewel in the sand. *$1.35 (6c) Duffield

20–1890

A beautiful girl, Cynthia, tells her story in detached episodes: how she left her barren, loveless New England home to come to New York and study music; how after her first success love came to her. The perfect soul union is marred by the man’s duality. She goes away, has more half mystic experience, becomes more and more spiritualized as she struggles with poverty and is at last rescued by the man who had always loved her unselfishly, had renounced her and had waited. He marries her and takes her home to the East.

“By dealing with life more realistically than she has yet done Alma Newton has deepened the effect of those unique spiritual qualities that have from the first distinguished her work.”

NEWTON, W. DOUGLAS.Westward with the Prince of Wales. il *$2.50 (2½c) Appleton 917.1

20–17402

The author, as special correspondent, accompanied the Prince of Wales on his tour through Canada and the United States and gives his impressions of the Prince, the cities and country through which they passed, and the receptions they received, in an entertaining chatty way.

“He has a distinctive and pleasing style. His volume is as good-humored an account of travels as has appeared for some time.”

“He draws an intimate and charming portrait of the Prince, and furnishes at the same time, an entertaining view of Canada and some cities of the United States as they appear to an intelligent Englishman.”

“Gaily, vividly, even wittily, Mr Newton sets forth what he saw; unimportant and unpretentious as this record of a transcontinental journey across Canada is, it will inspire readers to go and do likewise. Mr Newton writes in a vein of amused appreciation.”

NEWTON THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTION.Newton chapel. $1.50 (2c) Am. Bapt. 252

20–8357

A selection from the chapel talks delivered during the year 1918–19 by members of the faculty of the Newton theological institution. The first is on The meaning of the New year, by President George E. Horr. Among those that follow are: How Jesus looked at men, by Winfred N. Donovan; The compelling power of Jesus’ personality, by Henry K. Rowe; Freedom and service, by James P. Berkeley; The inner life, by Samuel S. Curry; The joy of forgiveness, by Frederick L. Anderson; The spirit of expectation, by Richard M. Vaughan; James Russell Lowell and the preacher, by Woodman Bradbury. The chapel talks are supplemented by seven addresses at the conference of the Baptist leaders of New England.

“On the whole the talks are unified, interesting, and excellent examples of little sermons.”

“The clergy expect the scientist, the historian, the statesman to stick to known facts, and then wonder why the church does not succeed better while the preacher is permitted to soar off into the realms of the imagination and preach as sacred truth that which finds its origin in theory and its expression in cant. Of course there are good things in the book, much sound advice, many godly admonitions, but it is proper to call attention to a dangerous method of preaching which succeeds in little else than furnishing ground for scepticism.”

NEXÖ, MARTIN ANDERSEN.Ditte: girl alive! *$2 (2c) Holt

Back to Index Next