Introductory material (continued 5)
Reading edition
Westminster Gazette.
“It is extraordinarily refreshing, by turns jaded and perplexed as we are with sex problems and complications arising out of the married state, to watch, absolutely without their aid, the birth and development in this joyous, radiant being of the Sorrow Soul.”
Glasgow Herald.
“This thoughtful and able story.”
Liverpool Post.
“A charming literary effort and clever study.”
The Guardian.
“Stella Morecombe is one of those rare heroines whose charm is felt by the reader as well as described by the writer.”
Crown 8vo, cloth, 4s. 6d. net.
IN THE WAKE OF KING JAMES.
By STANDISH O’GRADY,
AUTHOR OF “ULRICK THE READY.”
Athenæum.
“No one now living writes a better story of adventure than Mr. Standish O’Grady.... It has every quality that is of value in such a story.... It ought to be devoured for pure delight by all the young people in the kingdom.”
The Speaker.
“A robust and excellent piece of work.... Mr. Standish O’Grady must be warmly congratulated upon so unequivocal a success as he has achieved in this thrilling romance.”
Manchester Guardian.
“A striking and powerful romance of love and adventurous peril.... Mr. O’Grady is to be congratulated and thanked for a spirited piece of imagination, full of swing and vigour. This story, at any rate, does not ‘buckle and bow the mind to the nature of things,’ but quickens the pulse and stirs the blood in the name of chivalry.”
Scotsman.
“The tale is vivid and vigorous above most, and there is about it a fine briny flavour of the Atlantic.... Old Thomas is certainly a villain of the first water, and what is more to the purpose, a villain of a new type.”
Freeman’s Journal.
“Without any disparagement to the power and brilliancy of any of Mr. O’Grady’s work, we think that we have here perhaps the most interesting and finished of his novels.... The hero’s adventures, mishaps, and captivity in the grim old hold of his malevolent cousin, and his final rescue by the quick-witted and courageous Lady Sheela, will be read in the volume before us, and we will not spoil the reader’s enjoyment of the full flavour of those startling adventures by any attempted foretaste. ‘In the Wake of King James’ will undoubtedly do much to increase the already high reputation of its author.”
Weekly Irish Times.
“Do you want to read a thoroughly fresh and stirring romance? If you do, get Mr. Standish O’Grady’s last novel, ‘In the Wake of King James.’ ...The wild work that goes on in the old castle, and the hair-breadth escapes ... should be enough to quicken the pulses of the most sluggish-blooded reader.”
Crown 8vo, 3s. 6d. net.
DR. VERMONT’S FANTASY,
AND OTHER STORIES.
By HANNAH LYNCH.
Athenæum.
“Original observation and a rare reticence of detail.”
Daily Chronicle.
“Miss Lynch has proved in previous work that she has at command the most precious of gifts, the gift of charm. These stories are all, more or less, interpenetrated by it. Nor is the working of it in us merely while we read. It recurs unbidden in the ‘sessions of sweet, silent thought.’”
Vanity Fair.
“Miss Hannah Lynch’s new volume, ‘Dr. Vermont’s Fantasy,’ is the finest piece of feminine literary work, take it all in all, that has been accomplished in Great Britain during the present generation. Miss Lynch belongs to no school; she has chosen the best models here, there, and everywhere, and formed her own style. I cannot say what model has been dearest to her; but the general effect is Greek—the massive dignity, the repose—with the exception of the story ‘Brases,’ which is supposed to be written by an excitable Frenchman—the cold simplicity keeping in check but never conquering the rich warm temperament of the Irish author.... Her matter in the average cheap and skilful hands would win immediate recognition, so abundant and full of interest is it.”
Dundee Advertiser.
“The climax, great because of its very simplicity, shows that the authoress has a very rare gift as a writer of fiction. In its entirety the collection offers not only something new, but something that will remain attractive. It might be the work of any one of the best French writers. Not that the style is copied. It is the work of one who has not only studied French fiction as a scholar, but who has herself marked and pondered over the life from which she has drawn her men and women.”
Scotsman.
“This writer’s work is distinguished among the host of similar productions that clamour for public attention to-day by being much stronger than the ruck. The pictures of life of to-day are recognisable ... they have no mawkishness in tone, and, while laying the shadows heavily in, do not forget that the prime office of the literary, as of the other arts, is to please. The skill they show in giving literary shape to the less obvious moods and phases of feeling that a present-day reader must recognise as peculiar to his own generation is remarkable; and there is not one of the stories that has not its own peculiar variation of this consistently maintained interest.”
Crown 8vo, 4s. 6d. net.
IN THE HEART OF THE HILLS:
A NEW ENGLAND STORY.
By SHERWIN CODY.
Scotsman.
“The tale is told in a simple, straightforward way, and the peace that is in the everlasting hills pervades and inspires it.”
Glasgow Herald.
“An extremely pretty and natural story quaintly and simply told, and has a rural atmosphere that is very alluring to the jaded palate.”
Illustrated London News.
“A delightful story.... It is some time since we have read a sweeter love-scene than that with which the book happily closes; and, indeed, throughout you feel yourself in Arden.”
Crown 8vo, 3s. 6d. net.
VENUS AND CUPID;
Or, A TRIP FROM MOUNT OLYMPUS TO LONDON.
BY THE AUTHOR OF
“THE FIGHT AT DAME EUROPA’S SCHOOL.”
Nottingham Express.
“This fantastic romance is calculated to offer delightful amusement to a multitude of readers, and ought to have a great run of popularity. It is a long time since we have read anything so provocative of laughter. The idea of the book is most happy and humorous; and its development leaves nothing to be desired. Every chapter is full of fun and frolic, and it is impossible to find a dull page from the beginning to the end of the story. It would be unfair to disclose the particulars of this unique ‘personally conducted tour’; but we warmly recommend holiday-makers and all others who are on the look-out for a lively and entertaining book to secure a copy of ‘Venus and Cupid,’ and if they do not find in it magic to brighten a wet day at the seaside, they are quite free to anathematise the reviewer. Our verdict is that a more mirth-provoking romance has seldom if ever been published.”
Birmingham Post.
“The story is thoroughly consistent, that having accepted the position—the visit of these august personages to earth—all the details are worked out in harmony with this conception, with abundant fun and humour and fancy. Cupid—or Q, as he is called—is the most delectable little rogue, and we were quite sorry to say good-bye to him.”
Crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d. net each volume.
EMANUEL.
By HENRIK PONTOPPIDAN.
Translated from the Danish by Mrs. Edgar Lucas.
Illustrated by Miss NELLY ERICHSEN.
Daily Chronicle.
“Extremely interesting story ... most delicately delineated, and charms us by its idyllic grace and purity.”
Manchester Guardian.
“As a novel pure and simple the book is altogether out of the common, and the firmness of its character-drawing, the sympathetic rendering of nature’s background, and the prominence given to the life of the clergy, it reminds one not a little of the work of Ferdinand Fabre, the novelist par excellence of French clerical life.”
Glasgow Herald.
“Among the many Scandinavian works that have of late appeared in an English dress, few have worn it with a more charming air than this tale of Henrik Pontoppidan’s, for a really excellent version of which we have to thank Mrs. Lucas.... The tale is told in a fashion that recalls, among our own writers, the intimate knowledge and loving descriptions of Miss Mitford or Mrs. Gaskell. It is not very far from being a work of real genius.”
UNIFORM WITH THE ABOVE.
THE PROMISED LAND.
Pall Mall Gazette.
“A story simple and strong, with much quiet pathos, keen analytic power, and graphic picturing of character and place. It is a book to read, enjoy, and muse over, both for its domestic and political interest.”
Scotsman.
“It is told with so equable an art and with so much fidelity, both to the general life which a reader of any nationality can understand, and to the local conditions to Denmark, that it is always full of a quiet intense interest. The English version is throughout well done, and it has the advantage of a series of pleasant illustrations from the pen of Miss Nelly Erichsen.”
Manchester Guardian.
“It is impossible to read it without feeling that Henrik Pontoppidan is an artist of the first rank.”
Crown 8vo, cloth. 3s. 6d. net.
THE STORY OF A MARRIAGE.
By Mrs. ALFRED BALDWIN,
AUTHOR OF “WHERE TOWN AND COUNTRY MEET,” ETC.
Illustrated by J. AYTON SYMINGTON.
Pall Mall Gazette.
“We have not seen for some time anything that, without any suggestion of imitation, more vividly recalls the manner of George Eliot than do some of Mrs. Baldwin’s characters.”
National Observer.
“Mrs. Baldwin has a very pleasant humour of her own, and a rare gift of characterisation.”
Athenæum.
“‘The Story of a Marriage’ shows considerable promise for the future of its author. It contains several excellent character-sketches, drawn with real humour and insight.”
St. James’s Gazette.
“Uncommonly well written.”
Crown 8vo, cloth, gilt top. 3s. 6d. net.
THE SHADOW ON THE BLIND,
AND OTHER GHOST STORIES.
By Mrs. ALFRED BALDWIN,
AUTHOR OF “THE STORY OF A MARRIAGE,” ETC.
Illustrated by J. AYTON SYMINGTON.
Leeds Mercury.
“For those who love a good, downright, thrilling tale of the supernatural, just the thing.”
Pall Mall Gazette.
“A handful of weird stories, as calculated to ‘freeze our blood’ as were the Fat Boy’s revelations to the Maiden Aunt. Are a welcome collection for the lovers of the supernatural.”
Scotsman.
“Believe or disbelieve it as you like; at least you cannot deny that it is a capital story and well told.”
Athenæum.
“The author shows considerable skill in working up to a climax.”
Crown 8vo, cloth, 2s. 6d. net. each.
THE ILLUSTRATED NOVELS OF
ALPHONSE DAUDET.
Tartarin of Tarascon.
Tartarin on the Alps.
Kings in Exile.
Artists’ Wives.
Recollections of a Literary Man.
Thirty Years of Paris.
Jack. 2 vols.
Robert Helmont.
Globe.
“A very pretty edition, excellently printed on good paper,—the attractively bound volumes should be much in request.”
Glasgow Herald.
“A very readable and enjoyable version. The little volume is neatly and tastefully bound; and if Daudet’s other works are to follow in the same style, the whole collection will be a charming one.”
Scotsman.
“The book, which is a history of literary Paris of the time, as well as a record of the author’s own life and work, ranks as one of the classics among French books of its kind. It will be a boon to many to be enabled to read in English a book which is a model of easy style, and delightful in its frank estimates of men and books.”
Weekly Sun.
“Mr. Dent has been at pains evidently to give to the exterior of these volumes a daintiness and an elegance suitable to their tone; and certainly the volumes are in an exquisite dress. The translations, too, are so good, that one often forgets that one is not reading an original work—which is the highest praise one can bestow on a translation.”
Dundee Advertiser.
“The publishers have spared no pains to render the volume attractive. It is daintily illustrated and prettily bound, and exterior and interior are alike attractive.”
Illustrated London News.
“It is hardly too high a compliment to the illustrations of this new edition to say that they are as exquisitely humorous as the text of which they double your enjoyment.”
Square fcap. 8vo, cloth, gilt top, Illustrated, 2s. 6d. net. each.
THE IRIS LIBRARY.
Glasgow Herald.
“The Iris Library volumes are so dainty and beautiful, that one always takes up with pleasure a new one. All that good type, good paper, and pretty binding can give in the way of attraction these books have.”
TRYPHENA IN LOVE.
By WALTER RAYMOND.
Times.
“‘Tryphena’ is far the best work that Mr. Raymond has yet given us.... It is a work of art; nowhere redundant, nowhere deficient, steeped in sterling human nature, and instinct with quaint humour.”
MAUREEN’S FAIRING.
By Miss JANE BARLOW.
Freeman’s Journal.
“Some of the best writing Miss Barlow has yet done ... filled with a fidelity to Irish nature, marvellous in its closeness. Since Rudyard Kipling gave us his Wee Willie Winkie, new fiction has contained no character to match with Mac.”
MRS. MARTIN’S COMPANY,
AND OTHER STORIES.
By JANE BARLOW.
Spectator.
“The first in this little volume is a perfect gem of bright delineation of the mixed simplicity and faith of the Irish people. Nothing could possibly be told with happier touches of both human and devout fancy than this beautiful story.”
A RINGBY LASS,
AND OTHER STORIES.
By MARY BEAUMONT.
Leeds Mercury.
“Half a dozen stories, every one of which is a gem, and every gem of which is set in brilliants.”
A MODERN MAN.
By Miss ELLA MACMAHON.
Pall Mall Gazette.
“This extremely clever sketch, with its subtle analysis and almost pitiless dissection of character and ‘motives,’ is as intensely modern ‘as they make them.’”
CHRISTIAN AND LEAH.
Translated from the German of Leopold Kompert, by Alfred S. Arnold.
Birmingham Post.
“The tales are tenderly told, and the life of the Ghetto is made very real to us as we read, and beautiful as well as real. There is amid the sordid surroundings ... an ever-present dignity and sublimity of conception about the great mysteries of life, and a moral purity, which win respect and admiration.”
THE WITCH OF WITHYFORD:
A ROMANCE OF EXMOOR.
By GRATIANA CHANTER.
Pall Mall Gazette.
“Charmingly told with a simplicity and delicacy that marks an ability above the common.”
WHERE HIGHWAYS CROSS.
By J. S. FLETCHER.
Guardian.
“A charming idyll. Thoroughly original and cleverly worked out.”
A LOST ENDEAVOUR.
By GUY BOOTHBY.
Saturday Review.
“An exceedingly effective story; he grips the reader from the outset, and holds him to the end.”
LIVES THAT CAME TO NOTHING.
By GARRETT LEIGH.
Pott 8vo, cloth, gilt top, 1s. 6d. net each volume.
Odd Volumes Series.
ASTECK’S MADONNA,
AND OTHER STORIES.
By CHARLES KENNETT BURROW.
Manchester Guardian.
“It is turned out with all the daintiness we have learned to expect from its publishers. If its contents are an earnest of the standard of workmanship to be maintained in the remaining volumes, we can look forward to them with pleasure. Each one of the nine stories is technically a work of art.”
To-Day.
“The daintiest, lightest, and best printed book I have ever seen at the price. The first two pages are enough to show that the author has great gifts, a sense of the fitness of words, an ear for the rhythm of fine prose—a style, in fact. But he has more than these. He has observed keenly and felt deeply the moods of nature and of human nature. He writes with knowledge, and from the heart. Two main ideas I find informing the book—a love of the great peace that lies near the heart of nature, and of the courageous spirit (born of that peace) which enables a man to look life in the face, fight its battles, and enjoy its fruits.”
KIRIAK;
Or, THE HUT ON HEN’S LEGS.
Translated from the Russian of Count Sailhas by Mrs. Sutherland Edwards.
Scotsman.
“The simplicity of the story, and the truth and delicacy of touch with which its pathetic central figures are drawn, give the book a rare charm.”
World.
“Told with a rugged force, and unstrained pathos, and a mastery of simple yet beautiful imagery that reflect the unmistakable literary genius of Count Sailhas, its author.”
IN RUSTIC LIVERY.
By GEORGE MORLEY.
The Literary World.
“His name will have to be written down whenever a list of worthy suppliers of short stories is being made.... Mr. Morley has given us a little book of distinct charm and individual flavour, and we record our thanks with a marked sense of pleasure.”
THE CLOSING DOOR.
Authorised Translation from the German of Ossip Schubin by Marie Dorothea Gurney.
Glasgow Herald.
“Its chief attractions lie in the skill with which it blends pathos and humour, the vividness of its sketches of Austrian society, and the high moral tone which pervades it. As a further attraction, in as far as the British reading public is concerned, it has been excellently translated.”
Scotsman.
“Both characters and action are depicted with a humanity that makes the pleasing effect of the story independent of local colouring. It is a healthy and a delightful story, and will stimulate its author’s growing popularity in this country.”
MAN.
By LILIAN QUILLER-COUCH.
Scotsman.
“Every sketch is cleverly built round a dramatic situation, and none of them ever wholly loses sight of the poetical aspects of its subject.”
NOW READY.
AMOS JUDD.
By J. A. MITCHELL.
THE NOVELS OF H. DE BALZAC.
An entirely new translation of the Comédie Humaine. Edited by George Saintsbury. Translated by Miss Ellen Marriage and Mrs. Clara Bell. With 3 Etchings in each volume by W. Boucher and D. Murray-Smith. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d. net.
For Large Paper Edition apply to the Booksellers.
The following volumes are already published:—
The Wild Ass’s Skin. The Chouans. Eugénie Grandet. The Quest of the Absolute. The Unknown Masterpiece. A Bachelor’s Establishment. Pierrette and The Abbé Birotteau. The Country Doctor. The Cat and Racket. Ursule Mirouet. Old Goriot. The Atheist’s Mass. La Grande Bretêche. César Birotteau. Modeste Mignon. The Village Parson. Béatrix.
The following volumes are in active preparation:—
The Peasantry. A Harlot’s Progress. 2 vols. About Catherine de Medici. A Woman of Thirty. A Lily of the Valley. Lost Illusions. 2 vols. Seraphita. The Seamy Side of History. Cousin Betty. Cousin Pons, &c. &c.
Athenæum.
“The volume is got up with the taste the publishers have taught the public to expect of them.”
Times.
“Certainly few English critics are better qualified than Mr. Saintsbury to write either a general introduction such as he here gives, dealing with Balzac’s life and the general characteristics of his work and genius, or a series of prefaces such as he promises for each succeeding volume.”
Glasgow Herald.
“The translation (‘Old Goriot’) has been done by Miss Ellen Marriage, and is characterised by that accuracy and fluency of style which, in the five or six volumes already contributed by her to the series, have shown her thorough competency for as difficult a task as a translator could undertake. It has the singular merit of being so idiomatic and natural that those who do not know the original might easily take it to be an English story of Parisian life, and yet so true to Balzac’s manner that those who are familiar with him will recognise many of his peculiarities even in the version, and almost find themselves doubting whether they are reading him in French or English.”
Glasgow Herald.
“Mrs. Clara Bell, who is responsible for these stories (‘La Grande Bretêche’) has again done her work with remarkable skill and fidelity. We have read through the version of ‘La Grande Bretêche’ with the original before us, and we have not found a single passage with which the most exacting critic could fairly find fault.”