Book Review Digest Devoted to the Valuation of Current Literature Reviews of 1920 Books (continued 33)

Boston Transcript p6 N 24 ’20 300w

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N Y Evening Post p27 O 23 ’20 320w

Springf’d Republican p7a D 26 ’20 60w

The Times [London] Lit Sup p800 D 2 ’20 100w

PORTER, ELEANOR (HODGMAN) (MRS JOHN LYMAN PORTER) (ELEANOR STUART, pseud.). Mary Marie. il *$1.90 (2½c) Houghton

20–8035

Her father had wanted to name her Mary, her mother Marie. Mary Marie was the compromise. But there had come a time when compromise seemed no longer possible, followed by separation and divorce. Mary Marie spends six months of the year with her father, six with her mother, and she tells about it in her diary. In one house she is Marie. In the other she tries to be Mary. But after awhile things get so mixed up she doesn’t know which she is, for she finds her mother trying to make her into a staid, dignified Mary, while her father seems to be encouraging the Marie side of her. And then she is the means of bringing the two together, and the book closes with a postscript that gives a glimpse of Mary Marie’s grown-up story.

Booklist 16:350 Jl ’20

“The book is very readable, and occasionally amusing.”

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Boston Transcript p8 My 29 ’20 420w

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N Y Times 25:26 Jl 4 ’20 600w

“The story falls short of what we expect from Miss Eleanor H. Porter.”

+ −

Spec sup p782 D 3 ’20 60w

“Beneath the light tone of the narrative may be observed a serious moral. The frequent misfortunes of divorce, especially where there are children, are pointedly apparent here. But Mary Marie will be loved for herself alone, for her quaint observations, for her unspoiled character, and for her earnest efforts to understand life.”

+

Springf’d Republican p11a Jl 11 ’20 600w

The Times [London] Lit Sup p637 S30 ’20 30w

PORTER, HAROLD EVERETT (HOLWORTHY HALL, pseud.). Egan. *$1.90 (2c) Dodd

20–15701

When Bronson Egan came back to Plainfield, Ohio, after four years of service in France, he found his status very different from what it had previously been. He went away the only son of a wealthy father, and practically engaged to one of the city’s most attractive girls. He came back to find his father dead, their business wrecked, and the girl reengaged to a stay-at-home. With characteristic determination he set himself to gain back what he had lost. It was not all plain sailing, however, for he had keen rivals in business as well as love. But he had staunch friends as well, and the end of the story finds him re-established in business on a firmer basis than before, and happy in the love of a girl who is more worthy of him than the fickle Mary.

“The business element is particularly well developed.”

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Booklist 17:73 N ’20

“Aside from occasional lapses, Mr Hall’s style is well adapted to his material, which is in part new.” C. K. H.

+ −

Boston Transcript p6 O 16 ’20 530w

“It is the substantial characterization which makes the book finally so satisfactory. Its fresh and rapid story-telling ought to win for it a large general audience.”

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N Y Evening Post p22 O 23 ’20 250w

“There is no letup in the interest, and the business element is especially well handled.”

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N Y Times p27 S 12 ’20 240w

“The present story is worthy of praise especially for the consistency and humanness of young Egan. Perhaps the financial and business sides of the book are a little too much to the front, but, as a whole, the novel keeps the reader’s attention on the alert, and it includes some exceedingly good character depiction.”

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Outlook 126:202 S 29 ’20 170w

“The novel exists for its narrative, which is neatly conceived and marks Mr Porter’s further growth in the art of story-telling. It flows along with agreeable humor, and the reader’s interest is sustained without recourse to theatricalities.”

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Springf’d Republican p9a O 24 ’20 580w

PORTER, REBECCA NEWMAN. Girl from Four Corners. il *$1.75 (2c) Holt

20–6861

A California story with scenes laid on a lonely ranch and in San Francisco. Margaret Garrison, disappointed in the man she loves, yields to Frederick Bayne’s sudden wooing and goes to live on his ranch in Mendocino county. The marriage is unhappy, but with fine courage she makes the best of it and trains her little daughter, Freda, to be true to the highest ideals. Most of the story has to do with the career of this daughter, who after her mother’s death goes to San Francisco where she passes thru many experiences, some of them tragic, and finally finds happiness and love.

“The story is entertainingly told, and toward the end a dramatic touch is thrown in.”

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N Y Times p26 Ag 1 ’20 260w

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Springf’d Republican p11a S 26 ’20 120w

POST, MELVILLE DAVISSON. Mystery at the Blue villa. *$1.75 (2c) Appleton

20–1695

Seventeen dramatic short stories by the author of “Uncle Abner.” The settings in these stories are selected from many fascinatingly remote, and also familiar places. In the title story the action takes place at Port Said, a refuge for human derelicts, “the devil’s halfway house,” where through cleverly playing upon a guilty man’s fear of the supernatural, a dying sculptor gets money enough to die in the way it pleases him. “The great legend,” narrated by a semi-French, semi-oriental gentleman sitting beside a fire made of bleached bones, on an undulating, moonlit desert of sand, takes us to the underworld of Paris. “The miller of Ostend” is a tale of Belgium. “The pacifist” is a story of the United States and a German spy. Other titles are: The laughter of Allah; The witch of the Lecca; The new administration; The Baron Starkheim.

“Though somewhat overdramatic and artificial, the plots are clever and interesting.”

+ −

Booklist 16:246 Ap ’20

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Dial 68:537 Ap ’20 40w

“The stories are well told and the people have much more character and individuality than is usual among inhabitants of mystery tales.”

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Ind 103:322 S 11 ’20 140w

“They have variety and freshness, and, if occasionally overemphasized, they are never trite.”

+ −

N Y Times 25:191 Ap 18 ’20 40w

“In the matter of untangling a crime or running a mystery to its lair Melville Davisson Post can give even the immortal Holmes himself quite a brush. His latest collection in no way falls short of the Uncle Abner tales.” E. C. Webb

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Pub W 96:1694 D 27 ’19 240w

“All have the merit of sustaining the reader’s interest up to an unexpected conclusion.”

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The Times [London] Lit Sup p442 Jl 8 ’20 50w

POST, MELVILLE DAVISSON. Sleuth of St James’s square. *$2 (3c) Appleton

20–18613

A book of mystery stories. There are sixteen in all, and in each of them Sir Henry Marquis, chief of the Criminal investigation department of Scotland yard, figures. He is not the Sherlock Holmes type of detective, for mystery and solution seem to run side by side, instead of being spread out like a pattern before him. Some of the tales Sir Henry reads from the diary of an ancestor. The titles are: The thing on the hearth; The reward; The lost lady; The cambered foot; The man in the green hat; The wrong sign; The fortune teller; The hole in the mahogany panel; The end of the road; The last adventure; American horses; The spread rails; The pumpkin coach; The yellow flower; A satire of the sea; The house by the loch. Many of the tales journey far afield from St James’s square for their setting. Some have already appeared in short story form in popular magazines.

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Booklist 17:160 Ja ’21

“The stories are short, piquant and cleverly maneuvered, though the mechanism which moves the puppets is sometimes a bit too evident and there is great lack of originality in the gestures made by them either when they pause or start up again.” N. H. D.

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Boston Transcript p6 N 24 ’20 500w

“They are not only unusual in construction; they are very well written, and with but few exceptions, close with a twist which will surprise even the skilled and habitual reader.”

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N Y Times p21 D 12 ’20 380w

“The author’s method is unusual and some of the tales are remarkably good.”

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Outlook 126:600 D 1 ’20 50w

Springf’d Republican p7a N 28 ’20 130w

POSTGATE, R. W. Bolshevik theory. *$2 Dodd 335

The book is a sincere attempt to state what Bolshevism is and what it is not—to clear away “the atmosphere of a dog-fight which surrounds this subject.” (Introd.) The author claims for it that it is neither pro-bolshevik nor anti-bolshevik. “It is a mere exposition. It is true that a certain amount of intelligent sympathy is necessary for the understanding of a point of view. The marks of some such sympathy may be traced in this book. This is inevitable, for it is merely the reflection of the author’s belief that bolshevik theories are neither inhuman ... nor logically ridiculous.... If these assumptions are not correct, then Bolshevism is not worth considering.” (Introd.) The contents are: What is Bolshevism? Controversies; The dictatorship of the proletariat; On dictatorship; The two roads; The pedigree of Bolshevism; Extracts and comments; Syndicalism, Blanquism and Bolshevism; Karl Kautsky; Industrial pacifism; The soviet; The future of the soviet. There are appendices and a bibliographical note.

+

Ath p441 O 1 ’20 190w

Reviewed by Jacob Zeitlin

Nation 112:20 Ja 5 ’21 210w

“R. W. Postgate has set forth in a clear and concise manner the facts about Bolshevism.”

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N Y Times p25 Ja 2 ’21 220w

Sat R 130:463 D 4 ’20 140w

“His historical allusions are not to be depended upon. Many of the rest of Mr Postgate’s references to the Bolshevists, past and present, and to General Denikin and other anti-Bolshevists, are equally unreliable.”

−

The Times [London] Lit Sup p430 Jl 8 ’20 1200w

POTTER, MIRIAM CLARK. Rhymes of a child’s world. il *$2 Four seas co. 811

A book of little verses for children. It is a collection of poems about the everyday things, child fancies, and lullabies. There are three groups of poems: In the house; Outdoors at play; Twilight songs. The illustrations are by Ruth Fuller Stevens. Many of the poems have appeared in the Youth’s Companion, St Nicholas and Little Folks.

“Such quaint imagery greatly appeals to the dreamy child. The illustrations by Ruth Fuller Stevens are especially charming and nicely adapted to the text.”

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N Y Evening Post p10 S 25 ’20 160w

“Deserves to be noted for its naturalness and fidelity to childish moods. It has a strong appeal to both old and young.”

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Springf’d Republican p12 O 20 ’20 70w

“Both verse and illustration have the subtle quality of imagination, even when their theme sounds realistic. These poems are amusing to children and well worth the attention of their elders.”

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Springf’d Republican p8 N 18 ’20 90w

POUND, EZRA LOOMIS. Instigations of Ezra Pound, together with an essay on the Chinese written character. *$3.50 Boni & Liveright 814

20–8532

“A collection of criticisms and essays, with an essay by Fenollosa on the Chinese written character, edited by Pound. There are short sketches of the modern French poets with quotations; a detailed appreciative criticism of Henry James and his works; another on Remy de Gourmont; a group including James Joyce, T. S. Eliot Wyndham Lewis, Lytton Strachey, the new poetry; essay by Jules Laforgue, an amusing commentary on Genesis, a discussion of Arnaut Daniel and some sharp raps at Greek translators, including Browning.”—Booklist

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Booklist 16:338 Jl ’20

“An important point, however, about Mr Pound’s critical writings, which has been generally neglected, is this: they do satisfy two very conspicuous demands of the American public; the demand for ‘constructive criticism,’ and the demand for ‘first rate school teaching.’” W. C. Blum

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Dial 69:422 O ’20 900w

Freeman 1:334 Je 16 ’20 550w

“The ‘Instigations of Ezra Pound’ have this virtue—they badger and bully us out of a state of intellectual backwardness.” Padraic Colum

+

New Repub 25:52 D 8 ’20 650w

−

N Y Times 25:293 Je 6 ’20 1300w

“Stimulating and provocative statements provide an intellectual shower bath.”

+

Springf’d Republican p11a Ag 8 ’20 320w

POWELL, CHARLES. Poets in the nursery. *$1.50 Lane 827

20–19194

To this collection of parodies on well-known poets, John Drinkwater writes an introduction to the effect that although parodies are usually a defilement of poetry and contemptible, these never outrage our love of poetry but exercise it in a very friendly intimacy. Mr Powell, he says, invariably catches his subject’s external manner with easy precision, the underlying spiritual force never evades him and he measures himself successfully against the poet’s impulse as well as against its formal expression. While Mother Goose furnishes the subjects the poets are: G. K. Chesterton, John Masefield, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Alfred Noyes, Rudyard Kipling, Henry Newbolt, William Watson, Austin Dobson, W. B. Yeats, Thomas Hardy, A. C. Swinburne, W. E. Henley, D. G. Rossetti, Walt Whitman, Omar Khayyám, Francis Thompson, Robert Browning, E. B. Browning, E. A. Poe, Alfred Tennyson.

“John Drinkwater’s introduction to ‘The poets in the nursery’ leads us to expect work of high distinction, and though we find traces of burlesque now and then, our expectations are realized.”

+

Springf’d Republican p6 N 1 ’20 200w

POWELL, E. ALEXANDER. New frontiers of freedom, from the Alps to the Ægean. il *$2.50 (5c) Scribner 914.9

20–7665

The author has traveled by motor car and by sea “from the Alps to the Ægean, in Italy, Dalmatia, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, Turkey, Rumania, Hungary and Serbia” and gives his impressions of what he saw in these countries during the year succeeding the armistice while they and their people were in a state of political flux. “To have seen millions of human beings transferred from sovereignty to sovereignty like cattle which have been sold—these are sights the like of which will probably not be seen again in our times or in those of our children” and, the author thinks, may serve to illustrate an important chapter in history. Contents: Across the redeemed lands; The borderland of Slav and Latin; The cemetery of four empires; Under the cross and the crescent; Will the sick man of Europe recover? What the peace-makers have done on the Danube; Making a nation to order. There are numerous illustrations from photographs.

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Booklist 16:300 Je ’20

“Major Powell gives an excellent description of d’Annunzio. He has brought the same keenness of observation and ease of style to the other portraits in this volume, which range from picturesque peasants to exiled royalties. His treatment of the political situation in the countries he visited is marked by clarity and fairness.”

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N Y Times 25:12 Jl 4 ’20 500w

“This narrative is spirited and colorful throughout.”

+

R of Rs 61:669 Je ’20 80w

“A book as interesting as it is instructive.”

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Springf’d Republican p9a O 31 ’20 250w

POWELL, LYMAN PIERSON, ed. Social unrest. 2v $2.50 Review of reviews co. 308

20–1056

“The two volumes entitled ‘The social unrest’ present the best current thought of leading authorities as now focussed on the industrial and social problems of the day. The opinions of President Wilson and ex-president Taft are set forth side by side with those of Karl Marx, Morris Hillquit and Sidney Webb. All schools of opinion have here at least the privilege of utterance. The material has been edited and coordinated by Dr Lyman P. Powell.”—R of Rs

Ind 103:319 S 11 ’20 60w

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Outlook 124:336 F 25 ’20 60w

R of Rs 61:223 F ’20 200w

“We fear the editor’s somewhat hesitant attempt to link up these pieces into something looking like a methodically arranged whole has not been successful—at least we are unable to tell what the plan of that arrangement really is. But it is the collection itself that counts, and this is of great interest.” B. L.

+ −

Survey 43:782 Mr 20 ’20 280w

POWER, RHODA. Under the Bolshevik reign of terror. *$2 McBride 947

20–2711

“A record of domestic experiences in a bourgeois household in Rostov, on the Don, during the old régime, the revolution, and the Bolshevik occupation.”—Brooklyn

Boston Transcript p8 N 22 ’19 500w

Brooklyn 12:71 Ja ’20 30w

“A lively and readable little book.”

+

Cleveland p104 S ’19 30w

“An intimate, readable account of Bolshevism is presented in this volume. The book is free from theorizing and statistics, but it tells of the practical effect of Bolshevism on people who lived through the first days of this sinister experiment.”

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N Y Times 24:465 S 14 ’19 240w

“Miss Power has given us a series of vivid sketches. They are impressionistic and full of power, but they must not be accepted as descriptive of general conditions.”

+ −

Sat R 128:204 Ag 30 ’19 120w

“An extremely vivid and interesting account of certain phases of the Russian revolution from the pen of an eye-witness. One would like to know how far this family, of the rich bourgeois type, was representative of its class. If there were many others like it, the appalling violence and bloodiness of the revolution cease to be matter of wonder.”

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The Times [London] Lit Sup p224 Ap 24 ’19 700w

PRATT, JAMES BISSETT. Religious consciousness; a psychological study. *$3.50 Macmillan 201

20–10634

“Professor Pratt’s point of view in the present volume is avowedly scientific. He aims to describe the religious consciousness as it presents itself for observation to the modern psychologist, that is to say, without any attempt to press behind phenomena into the realm of the unknown or the unknowable. An interesting feature of his treatment is a constant use of the results of recent questionnaires sent out to ascertain the present state of the religious consciousness among various classes of Americans. He has studied the forms of Protestantism in America. Roman Catholicism he has studied in Europe and at home. Finally, he has made his pilgrimage through India, Burma, and Ceylon, seeking initiation into the letter and the spirit of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Mohammedanism in mosque and shrine and temple, from peasants, teachers, priests, and holy men. The last five chapters of the book deal with mysticism.”—Nation

“‘The religious consciousness’ is a very good book. Dr Pratt knows his subject and he knows how to write about it. There is hardly a dull page in the nearly five hundred of this volume. Perhaps the most valuable quality of the book is its quiet sanity.” R. R.

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Freeman 2:22 S 15 ’20 360w

“His account of phenomena is remarkably fresh and instructive; and it differs commendably from some of its predecessors in emphasizing rather normal than exceptional types of experience.” S. P. Sherman

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Nation 111:506 N 3 ’20 1550w

Reviewed by G. E. Partridge

N Y Times p28 D 26 ’20 250w

PRENTICE, SARTELL. Padre. *$2 Dutton 940.476

19–13304

“[This book tells the] experiences of a Red cross hospital chaplain of the Dutch Reformed church, principally in Base hospital 101, at St Nazaire and in Evacuation hospital 13 where wounded were received straight from the battlefield. [It is] full of anecdotes revealing the bravery of individuals, and the gratitude of the French people toward Americans.”—Cleveland

Cleveland p16 F ’20 50w

“There is nothing particularly new in the narrative, although the fact that it comes first-hand from one who saw and lived the awful scenes he describes gives it a value of its own which cannot be gainsaid.”

+

N Y Times 24:516 O 5 ’19 500w

PRICE, EDITH BALLINGER. Silver Shoal light. il *$1.75 Century

20–16502

When Miss Joan Kirtland, who has left town very suddenly after a disagreement with Mr Robert Sinclair, finds that the Harbor View house cannot take her in, she is at a loss for a place to spend the night. Captain ‘Bijah Dawson comes to her aid and suggests that the light house people may take her in. As Captain ‘Bijah assured her, they are “cur’ous folks,” Jim and Elspeth Pemberley and their little son Garth, but their presence in this unusual situation is explained and Joan, who had meant to stay a night, then a week, remains all summer. Joan, who had thought she did not like children, is captivated by Garth and at the end of the summer learns that Mr Sinclair is his Uncle Bob. Jim Pemberley has aspirations toward the navy and there is a German spy episode in the story.

+

Booklist 17:78 N ’20

PRICE, EDITH BALLINGER. Us and the bottle man. il *$1.50 Century

20–14292

The story of three delightful children who play pirates and send out a message in a sealed bottle that brings a surprising answer and leads to a pleasantly mysterious correspondence. And then events take a serious turn. What had been play becomes reality and the “three poore mariners” become castaways indeed for the length of one dreadful night. Their rescuer is no less person than the Bottle man himself and a war-time romance is at the same time brought to a happy culmination.

“Although somewhat adult in point of view, the mystery and adventure will interest children from ten to twelve.”

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Booklist 17:78 N ’20

PRICE, JULIUS MENDES. On the path of adventure. il *$3.50 (5½c) Lane 940.48

20–11661

The author was war-artist correspondent for the Illustrated London News. The present work is a record of his adventures in the early months of the war, before the existence of war correspondents had been “officially admitted.” The book, he says, “does not in any way claim to be an addition to the formidable array of books on the technical side of the war. It is, on the contrary, merely a narrative compiled from the notes in my diary of a period during the early days of the war when I was ‘out’ to get all the material I could.... As my wanderings were entirely within the zone of operations, it is obvious that the incidents I have described were always more or less connected with the theatre of the war—but they were happenings rather behind the scenes than on the actual battle-front.” The book is illustrated with drawings from the author’s sketch book.

Ath p1387 D 19 ’19 50w

“One of the few interesting but not sordid personal narratives.”

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Booklist 17:66 N ’20

“Mr Price puts down his remarkable escapades and hairbreadth escapes as a sportsman and an artist. There is something beautifully impersonal in the style of his book. This makes of his book something unique in war annals, a book that is ‘beautifully and completely something,’ as Henry James might have said.” B. D.

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N Y Times p21 Ag 29 ’20 750w

Sat R 129:191 F 21 ’20 750w

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The Times [London] Lit Sup p698 N 27 ’19 50w

PRICHARD, HESKETH VERNON HESKETH. Sniping in France, with notes on the scientific training of scouts, observers, and snipers; with a foreword by General Lord Horne of Stirkoke. il *$5 Dutton 623.44

(Eng ed 20–12124)

“Major Hesketh-Prichard was of course, as a big game hunter, a natural sniper. He enjoyed sniping because it employed all his highly specialised hunter faculties to the full—sight, hearing, and all those analytical powers which hunters possess. His book is full of good stories. But what will make the book interesting to the soldier is the complete way in which Major Hesketh-Prichard manages to justify the art of sniping, and to show how intolerable it is to be opposed to a well-organised sniping side unless you can answer in kind. Major Hesketh-Prichard proves completely that it will always be worth while from the point of view of moral to maintain an efficient body of specialist snipers.”—Spec

“Before the war the author was known as a sportsman, traveller, and athlete. It is his other vocation, that of writer, which helps him not merely to give us information, but to give it in a form enthralling as any detective story.”

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Ath p816 Je 18 ’20 180w

“Written in a style that makes it pleasantly acceptable to the general reader.”

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N Y Evening Post p12 N 27 ’20 220w

“His book is fascinating in its records of romantic individual tales and of cunning camouflage which are intended for the general reader, but we trust that the military authorities will not on this account overlook it. Major Hesketh-Prichard has a contribution to make to military science.”

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Spec 124:728 My 29 ’20 280w

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The Times [London] Lit Sup p293 My 13 ’20 900w

PRISONER of Pentonville, by “Red Band.” *$1.50 Putnam 821

20–8220

Poems written while the author was confined in Pentonville prison in London, between September, 1917, and May, 1918. They are written in varying meters and on different themes. Many are addressed to his wife, one is written on receiving news of his mother’s death, others recall scenes from boyhood, and one that brings to mind “Reading gaol” is written the day of an execution. The concluding poems record his sentiments as release approaches and there is an epilogue written after regaining liberty. Joseph Fort Newton, formerly of the City Temple, London, now of the Church of the divine paternity, New York, writes a foreword.

“The emotional sincerity which constantly contrives to break through a crust of indifferent and often absurd verse makes this series of prison meditations a very interesting and moving human document.”

+ −

Ath p495 Ap 9 ’20 80w

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Boston Transcript p4 My 12 ’20 950w

PRITCHARD, MYRON THOMAS, and OVINGTON, MARY WHITE, comps. Upward path; with an introd. by Robert R. Moton. il *$1.35 Harcourt 810.8

20–16516

The foreword to this collection of readings for colored children says: “To the present time, there has been no collection of stories and poems by negro writers, which colored children could read with interest and pleasure and in which they could find a mirror of the traditions and aspirations of their race. Realizing this lack, the compilers have brought together poems, stories, sketches and addresses which bear eloquent testimony to the richness of the literary product of our negro writers.” All of the contributors to the volume are negroes, among them Paul Laurence Dunbar, Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. DuBois, James Weldon Johnson and others who have made names in literature. In addition to these there are the less familiar names of negro educators, social workers, ministers and lawyers, and there is one explorer, Matthew Henson, who was with Peary at the Pole.

“The selections in it are ably chosen and present a great variety. But more important is the fact that it must accomplish its intent. For while giving pleasure, it will foster the love of tradition, and from the evidences of past accomplishment, an honest racial pride.” M. E. Bailey

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Bookm 52:305 Ja ’21 140w

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Boston Transcript p5 N 27 ’20 360w

“A collection of stories and poems by negroes—many of them very good. Perhaps whites can gain as much from it as can the blacks. The book would be suitable for junior high schools.”

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English J 9:549 N ’20 60w

Lit D p94 D 4 ’20 170w

PRYDE, ANTHONY. Marqueray’s duel. *$2 (1½c) McBride

20–7060

Marqueray, to all appearances, was a globe-trotter and a sportsman. In truth he was a secret spy in the employ of the British foreign office. His knowledge stands him in good stead against a certain Lord Marchmont, a millionaire Jew, implicated in illicit transactions in South America. The latter has allowed a poor innocent Irish girl, in reality Lady Marchmont, to consider herself duped by him and to be a “fallen woman,” after he had turned her adrift. Phyllida is found and rescued by Marqueray and his friend and cousin, Aubrey West. A romance grows up between Phyllida and Marqueray, who naturally wants to horsewhip Marchmont and free his beloved entirely from his clutches. Before this can be done a political election and much intrigue, involving West, intervene. In the end Marqueray is wounded by a shot from Marchmont who himself succumbs to his vicious morphia habit. Some fine touches of friendship and loyalty among men make one of the features of the story.

“The story drags somewhat in places; but ... the book as a whole may be read with a fair amount of satisfaction.”

+ −

Ath p414 My 30 ’19 120w

“Very good work. Readers who liked Stephen McKenna’s ‘Sonia’ will probably like this.”

+

Booklist 16:350 Jl ’20

“It is evidently Mr Pryde’s first novel, and it is far and above the majority of ‘first novels.’ He writes with a good deal of style, and his characterization is excellent to the least important actor on his London stage.” G. M. H.

+

Boston Transcript p4 My 19 ’20 540w

“The book is exceedingly well written, with a steady succession of incidents, always logical and never loosening their hold on the interest. The book is a long one, but it never becomes tedious.”

+

N Y Times 25:329 Je 20 ’20 500w

Reviewed by Isabel Juergens

+

Pub W 97:1288 Ap 17 ’20 260w

“A very clever romance.”

+

Sat R 128:346 O 11 ’19 100w

“It is decidedly melodramatic, but the melodrama is well done.”

+

Spec 123:154 Ag 2 ’19 30w

“The author displays much ability for character portraiture. As a romanticist he is not so capable.”

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Springf’d Republican p11a Je 27 ’20 650w

PRZYBYSZEWSKI, STANISLAW. Snow. *$1.50 Brown, N. L. 891.85

20–4039

“‘Snow,’ a play in four acts by Stanislaw Przybyszewski, translated into English by O. F. Theis, is a powerful production. A man and wife are living happily together. A brother comes in and falls in love with the wife. A woman friend comes in and the husband falls in love with her. Result—unfaithfulness and a double suicide.”—Springf’d Republican

“The types are not typical; they are primarily unconvincing. There is an intense and urgent attempt at drama which, were it only dramatic, would be Ibsen, even Wagner, in terms of men and not gods. The play is disappointing to read, because it does not grip; it is scarcely fitted for theatrical success, because it has insufficient sustained interest.”

− +

Boston Transcript p6 Mr 31 ’20 220w

“The beautiful diction and Maeterlinckian charm of the Polish original, are somewhat lost in translation.”

+ −

Cleveland p87 S ’20 50w

“‘Snow,’ which bears amusing internal evidence of its translation from a German original, is a characteristic phantasmagoria of the acutely hysterical. It is not without moments of sombre effectiveness. But action and passion are both, humanly speaking, in the void. The characters are haunted wraiths in an unrealized world who live and love and die equally without motivation.”

− +

Nation 110:435 Ap 3 ’20 200w

“The tale is true to life and truthfully presented and commendable for artistic qualities, but uselessly nerve-racking for all that.”

+ −

Springf’d Republican p8 Ap 8 ’20 100w

“Limitations of temperament may easily prevent a western reader from doing justice to characters who seem to him so morbid and neurotic, so pathologically introspective: nor can he see ‘Snow’ as a play for the western stage. Yet he must admit that the author shows at times profound psychological insight and can write occasional passages of power.”

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Theatre Arts Magazine 4:259 Jl ’20 230w

PUMPELLY, RAPHAEL.^[2] Travels and adventures of Raphael Pumpelly; ed. by O. S. Rice. il *$1.75 Holt

20–22545

The book is an abridged edition of the author’s autobiography, “My reminiscences,” for young readers. As a mining engineer, geologist, archaeologist and explorer, the author’s experiences, which transpired on our western frontier in it’s heroic days, on the mountains of Corsica, in China, Japan and Siberia, were many and thrilling and those portions of the original work have been selected that are most interesting to the young with only so much editing as was required to make a connected story. Appropriate illustrations have been added.

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N Y Evening Post p11 D 31 ’20 130w

PURDAY, HERBERT FRANK P. Diesel engine design. il *$7.50 Van Nostrand 621.43

(Eng ed 20–18166)

“This book is based on about twelve years’ experience of Diesel engines, mainly from the drawing-office point of view, and is intended to present an account of the main considerations which control the design of these engines. The author ventures to hope that, in addition to designers and draughtsmen, to whom such a book as this is most naturally addressed, there may be other classes of readers—for example, Diesel engine users and technical students—to whom the following pages may be of interest.” (Preface) Contents: First principles; Thermal efficiency; Exhaust, suction and scavenge; The principle of similitude; Crank-shafts; Flywheels; Framework; Cylinders and covers; Running gear; Fuel oil system; Air and exhaust system; Compressed air system; Valve gear; Index. There are 271 figure illustrations.

N Y P L New Tech Bks p32 Ap ’20 80w

PUTNAM, GEORGE PALMER, comp. Tabular views of universal history. il *$2.50 Putnam 902

19–16001

In this latest edition of the compilation the summary has been brought down to the peace conference in Paris; like former revisions, under the editorial supervision of George Haven Putnam. Two new maps are added showing the forfeited German colonies and Germany under the peace treaty, and there is a supplementary index covering events subsequent to August 1, 1914.

PUTNAM, MRS NINA (WILCOX).^[2] It pays to smile. *$1.90 (2c) Doran

20–19578

Miss Freedom Talbot, of Boston ancestry and birth, is the narrator of the story, and shares honors with “Peaches” Pegg as the heroine. Her family fortunes being at a low ebb, she answers an advertisement inserted by the millionaire Pinto Pegg for a chaperone for his daughter. This combination of money and breeding Pinto hopes will result in culture for the daughter. Their course in refinement includes a trip to Europe and a stay in California, in the process of which Miss Freedom receives perhaps as broad an education as “Peaches” does. Romance and mystery enter their lives, but after an exciting course, true love runs smoothly at last.

“The story is perhaps very improbable, but not unreal.”

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N Y Evening Post p17 D 4 ’20 80w

“Except as a study of the Boston governess and Peaches, showing how each reacts on the other, there is little to note. When the author ventures to work out a ‘plot’ she is singularly unconvincing.”

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N Y Times p27 Ja 9 ’21 650w

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Outlook 126:558 N 24 ’20 50w

“The early chapters describing the Talbot home on Chestnut street, Boston, are much the best of the book.”

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Springf’d Republican p7a D 26 ’20 140w

PYLE, KATHARINE.^[2] Tales of wonder and magic. il *$2 (3c) Little

20–19078

This is the third volume of old-world fairy tales and folk lore translated, adapted and illustrated by the author. The stories are: White as snow, red as blood, and black as a raven’s wing—Irish; The wonderful ring—East Indian; The three sisters—Georgian; The golden horse, the moon lantern, and the beautiful princess—Swedish; The lady of the lake—Welsh; The beaver stick—American Indian; The enchanted waterfall—Japanese; Fair, brown, and trembling—Irish; The demon of the mountain—Transylvanian gipsy; The Lamia—Hindoo; The three doves—Czech; Mighty-arm and mighty-mouth—East Indian; The beautiful Melissa—Louisiana; The castle that stood on golden pillars—Danish; The twelve months—Czech.

Q

QUENNELL, MARJORIE, and QUENNELL, CHARLES HENRY BOURNE. History of everyday things in England. v 2 il *$4.50 (v 1 and 2 in one volume *$9) Scribner 914.2

(Eng ed 19–6495)

“The second volume of a history which applies real historical research to the making of children’s books. As in the first book the authors have described changes in building, furniture, dress, and games as ‘history in stone, wood, and fabrics.’ It is their desire to present work as a ‘joyous sort of business’ which shall give boys and girls the desire to take the pains with their labors which distinguished the craftsmen. Bibliography. Index.”—Booklist

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Ath p127 Ja 23 ’20 90w

“Charming volume.”

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Booklist 16:247 Ap ’20

“This second part is not nearly so good as its predecessor. Its authors have been spoilt by success, and the latter pages of the book in particular show, to put it mildly, signs of haste. The first chapter, on the sixteenth century, is the best.”

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Sat R 129:435 My 8 ’20 1150w

“The second part is as original and as fascinating as the first, and those who read the first will know that no higher praise can be given.”

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Spec 124:145 Ja 31 ’20 1000w

QUICKENS, QUARLES, pseud.^[2] English notes. $15 L. M. Thompson, 29 Broadway, N.Y. 817

20–6982

“In 1842, not long after the appearance of Charles Dickens’s irritating ‘American notes,’ there was published anonymously in Boston a work bearing for its title an obvious parody—‘English notes for very extensive circulation by Quarles Quickens.’ This book is now reprinted by Lewis M. Thompson of New York, with an introductory essay designed to prove that the person who hid under the pseudonym of ‘Quarles Quickens’ was Edgar Allan Poe. Joseph Jackson and George H. Sargent supply an introduction and notes, and the publisher has added two portraits of Poe.”—Springf’d Republican

“The book is valuable as a curiosity rather than as a masterpiece of Poe’s style.”

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Boston Transcript p6 Je 23 ’20 260w

“The truth is that the pamphlet is mostly dull, a ponderous parody. Its merit today is that it has served Mr Jackson for an excellent and entertaining piece of detective work. In its present form, with this foreword, ‘English notes’ must have a place on the shelves of every collector of Dickens or of Poe.”

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Nation 111:382 O 6 ’20 410w

N Y Times p9 Ag 1 ’20 2800w

“Unfortunately, the attribution of the work to Poe is sustained by neither internal nor external evidence.”

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Springf’d Republican p6 Jl 19 ’20 600w

The Times [London] Lit Sup p305 My 13 ’20 160w

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The Times [London] Lit Sup p595 S 16 ’20 600w

QUILLER-COUCH, SIR ARTHUR THOMAS (Q., pseud.). On the art of reading. *$2.75 Putnam 028

20–16869

The spirit of the volume can perhaps best be illustrated by two extracts from the preface: “The real battle for English lies in our elementary schools, and in the training of our elementary teachers. It is there that the foundations of a sound national teaching in English will have to be laid, as it is there that a wrong trend will lead to incurable issues,” and “that a liberal education is not an appendage to be purchased by the few; that humanism is, rather, a quality which can, and should, condition all our teaching; which can, and should, be impressed as a character upon it all, from a poor child’s first lesson in reading up to a tutor’s last word to his pupil on the eve of a tripos.” Contents: Apprehension versus comprehension; Children’s reading; On reading for examinations; On a school of English; The value of Greek and Latin in English literature; On reading the Bible; On selection; On the use of masterpieces; Index.

“We find it as hard to conceive that undergraduates did not enjoy hearing these lectures on ‘The art of reading’ as that ‘Q’ did not enjoy delivering them. The elements of an ideal professor were always in him. To communicate a gusto, a vivid and thrilling delight in literature for its own sake, as a delectable duchy where no passport, save the fact of your own enjoyment, is required, is a gift given to few. ‘Q’ is among them.” J. M. M.

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Ath p234 Ag 20 ’20 2000w

“Especially useful to elementary teachers.”

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Booklist 17:147 Ja ’21

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Dial 70:108 Ja ’21 50w

“As an advocate of books, I know of none so well equipped in perspective to give advice as Quiller-Couch; as a precepter, I have met with no one on whom the burden of his task has rested so lightly, so agreeably, so sympathetically, as on him. Out of the fullness of his enjoyment he speaks, and it is refreshing to observe how jealously he tries to rescue the books he loves from the palsied grasp of the pedagog.” M. J. Moses

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N Y Times p5 Ja 2 ’21 2650w

“Original points of view, apt quotations, and genial play with the subject characterize the volume.”

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Outlook 126:690 D 15 ’20 60w

Sat R 130:219 S 11 ’20 1500w

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Spec 125:472 O 9 ’20 1050w

“The style is too discursive, there is too much quoting, some of the long sentences puzzle one on first reading. And yet what a professor of literature! Why do not all universities secure men like this King Edward VII professor?”

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Springf’d Republican p8 Ja 6 ’21 570w

“Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch in his lectures shows that he has the interests of the children and of the young men strongly at heart. His are not the accustomed utterances of the professor of literature at an ancient university. They are not in the great style nor, in their form, are they learned. They abound in irrelevances, with a touch of facetiousness that is often tiresome, and occasionally they breathe the unction of the pulpit rather than the gravity of the chair. The lectures were doubtless more effective in their delivery than in their printed form.”

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The Times [London] Lit Sup p557 S 2 ’20 3350w

R

RADICE, SHEILA (JAMIESON) (MRS ALFRED HUTTON RADICE). New children; talks with Dr Maria Montessori. *$1.50 (4c) Stokes 371.4

20–15392

The object of the book is to sketch in broad outline the Montessori system of teaching, for which and for Dr Montessori’s insight into child psychology, the author has a profound admiration. She holds that with a full recognition and adoption of the Montessori methods, the psycho-analyst’s vocation will be gone. Contents: Dr Montessori in England; Two Montessori schools; The Montessori apparatus; Dr Montessori herself; Dr Montessori as a lecturer; The ethical basis; The psychological basis; What is psychology? The psychology of the new-born; What is suggestion? What is music? Montessori and Bergson; Training for citizenship; Training for vision; Liberal education; A new theory of work; The education of the adolescent; The new children; The English nursery school; Appendices; Bibliography.

“In spite of a good deal of vague romanticism and loose writing the book leaves the impression that Dr Montessori herself is an unusually sane and sensible personality, who regards her own methods as not necessarily final.”

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Review 3:480 N 17 ’20 250w

“Her book is quite entertaining. It is also exceedingly combative. Like many of those who believe in Mme Montessori, she regards any criticism of the Dottoressa’s methods as almost blasphemous and quite wanton and unnecessary.”

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Spec 124:619 My 8 ’20 900w

“The book is fragmentary and, as the author herself admits, ‘somewhat hastily done.’ Since the range of topics is so wide, the argument is brief and sketchy, giving glimpses of vistas for possible exploration rather than settling the discussion.” A. E. Morey

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Survey 45:136 O 23 ’20 510w

RADZIWILL, CATHERINE (RZEWUSKA), princess (COUNT PAUL VASSILI, pseud.). Secrets of dethroned royalty. il *$3 (6c) Lane 920

20–9932

These secrets pertain to the love affairs of royal personages and the book is accordingly divided into three parts, Russia, Austria, and Germany. The author seems possessed of much intimate knowledge and the book is well illustrated.

Boston Transcript p6 Ag 4 ’20 350w

“There is not much, of course, in all this that is new, but some of the instances are not well known, and now and then the author throws a light upon familiar incidents that makes them more intelligible to the American reader.”

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N Y Times 25:25 Jl 18 ’20 490w

RAEBURN, HAROLD. Mountaineering art. il *$3.75 Stokes 796

“In this volume an endeavour has been made to trace and indicate the broad principles of climbing and mountaineering, from ‘bouldering’ to the conquest of the highest summits of the earth. The book is the outcome of more than twenty years’ experience as a climbing leader in many parts of the Asio-European continent, and on almost every kind of rock, snow, and ice formation. In preparation for it, almost every published work on climbing and mountaineering, in English, and in the principal continental languages, has been consulted.” (Introd.) The book is in five sections: Mountaineering art; British mountaineering; Alpine mountaineering; For the lady mountaineer; General principles. The chapter on dress for women climbers is contributed by Ruth Raeburn. The work closes with a short list of books, glossary, and index.

“In general Mr Raeburn’s technical chapters are first-rate. His remarks on rock, snow and ice work are stamped by the seal of expert and up-to-date knowledge. Of exploration, bivouacs and camps he writes with the knowledge that many years of wandering in unexplored ranges have yielded him. On equipment he has also much to say which is new and needed saying. The book, as a whole, suffers a little from redundant chapters.” Arnold Lunn

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Ath p579 O 29 ’20 1050w

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Boston Transcript p3 D 4 ’20 250w

“It is severely practical and written for use, not for entertainment. The numerous illustrations have all been chosen with regard to their instructional rather than their pictorial value. Mr Raeburn writes with conviction and refreshing candour.”

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Spec 125:819 D 18 ’20 900w

“Apart from the instruction he gives to the novice, Mr Raeburn has done the mountaineering public a service by composing a work which sets forth the latest views on the best mode of ‘climbing and mountaineering.’”

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The Times [London] Lit Sup p529 Ag 19 ’20 820w

RAGOZIN, ZÉNAÏDE ALEXEÏEVNA, ed. and tr. Little Russian masterpieces. 4v *$7.70; ea *$1.25 Putnam 891.7

20–18302

A collection of Russian stories brought together with the object of presenting American readers “with a selection which may not only prove acceptable in itself, but reveal to them some less familiar aspects of Russian thought and character.” There is an introduction, repeated in each of the four volumes, by S. N. Syromiatnikof, who also contributes biographical notes. There is one volume devoted to the work of Pushkin and Lermontof. Authors represented in the others are: Lesskof, Dombrovsky, Dostoyefsky, and Tolstoi; Saltykof-Stchedrin, Mamin-Sibiriak, Slutchefsky, Niedzwiecki, Uspensky and Helen Zeisinger; Staniukovitch and Korolenko.

“The stories that she presents are fresh, original, and full of dramatic incident. It is one of the most interesting collections ever got together. Her translation reads with exemplary smoothness and accuracy; she is a mistress of English style.” N. H. D.

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Boston Transcript p5 N 13 ’20 500w

“That there are here many names not familiar to the casual reader of Russian literature is not among the least attractions of the collection.”

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Springf’d Republican p9a O 31 ’20 180w

RAGSDALE, LULAH. Next-besters. *$1.75 Scribner

20–11498

“Robert Lee Poindexter—‘The boss’—was of the old South, the courtly and sweet-natured master of the ancient and impoverished plantation of Cherokee in Mississippi. But Pat and Polly, the Misses Poindexter, were very modern, up-and-coming young people, who shouldered both hard work and responsibility and evolved an energetic philosophy, though Patricia was only twenty and Polly was just eighteen. The story of their work and responsibility, and of how their philosophy resulted in action is the story of ‘Next-besters.’”—N Y Times

Booklist 17:73 N ’20

“A pretty and amusing little story that is always entertaining, and not without charm. Assuredly, ‘Next-besters’ is a pleasant piece of ‘light reading’ for a summer day.”

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N Y Times 25:26 Jl 25 ’20 390w

“An excellent story for young people.”

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Outlook 125:541 Jl 21 ’20 40w

RAINE, WILLIAM MACLEOD.^[2] Big-town round-up. il *$2 (3c) Houghton

20–19181

This is the story of one of those bronzed, big-hearted westerners, whom fiction so often presents to us riding over the plains of Arizona. But in this novel, Clay Lindsay is functioning in the very heart of civilization, in no less a metropolis than New York city, but the traditional characteristics of the wild-west story are all here. There is the bad-man, Clay’s natural enemy, personified in Jerry Durand; there is the beautiful heroine, Beatrice Whitford; and there is the weak easterner, Clay’s rival in love, Clarendon Bromfield. All these and various minor characters play their accepted parts in the drama of romance and gun-play, with the inevitable happy ending for the deserving.

“Full of exciting situations, profanity and crude humor.”

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Booklist 17:160 Ja ’21

“They used to put these stories into paper covers with the luridest scene in red and yellow on the jacket. Now—but it’s Diamond Dick just the same, sandpapered a little, but otherwise not much changed.”

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N Y Evening Post p10 N 27 ’20 190w

“Mr Raine has written many another good story of the West, which he knows so well, but he will find it hard to beat this one.”

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N Y Times p23 Ja 30 ’21 580w

“The story has ‘punch.’”

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Outlook 126:558 N 24 ’20 30w

RAINE, WILLIAM MACLEOD. Oh, you Tex! il *$1.90 (2c) Houghton

20–6711

A story of the Texas Panhandle in the period following the Civil war. Jack Roberts, a line-rider for Clint Wadley, one of the big cattlemen, gets into trouble with Wadley’s son Rutherford and gives him a well-deserved trouncing. This is unfortunate, for Jack has just been promoted and is in love with Wadley’s daughter Ramona. A few hours after his dismissal, he enlists with the Texas Rangers. Rutherford Wadley, who has become involved with a band of cattle rustlers and outlaws, is shot by one of them. Suspicion falls on a young Mexican and to save him from a lynching mob, led by the real murderer, Jack puts up a brilliant bluff and risks his own life. His later adventures have to do with the pursuit and capture of the Dinsmore gang and the winning of Ramona.

Booklist 16:350 Jl ’20

Cleveland p72 Ag ’20 40w

“A fascinating story from beginning to end—in spite of its well-worn material.”

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N Y Times 25:326 Je 20 ’20 700w

“An exciting, old-fashioned tale of the western cattle country.”

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Springf’d Republican p7a N 21 ’20 100w

RAINSFORD, W. H.^[2] That girl March. *$1.50 (*8s 6d) (1c) Lane

20–20431

Curiosity draws Philip Gray to Blaisham. Some thirty years before, his mother, falling in love with the chapel minister, had defied her family, run away with her lover and been disowned in consequence. And now, father and mother dead, the son had returned to look on her old home. He does not reveal his identity and does not learn that his aunt, Lady Delwyn, has set her lawyers on his track, bent on reconciliation. In the meantime he meets and falls in love with Edith March, niece of one of the neighborhood farmers. The reconciliation with the aunt takes place, but in his new position Philip finds that his wooing does not proceed smoothly. However he has some of his mother’s spirit and “that girl March” stands in no awe of Lady Delweyn and it ends well.

“If this tale is representative of Mr Lane’s selection of first novels, that selection must be astonishingly excellent, for Mr Rainsford, or possibly Miss Rainsford, spins an enchanting yarn. The only fault of the novel is its length. Here and there, it drags a trifle.”

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Boston Transcript p7 D 4 ’20 240w

“This book is not cheap or unsuccessful in an ordinary sense. It is simply 366 pages with the book not there. One constantly apprehends cleverness, vividness—but gets not one clear visualization in much description.”

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N Y Evening Post p10 N 20 ’20 170w

N Y Times p26 Ja 2 ’21 330w

“‘W. H. Rainsford’ adopts a method that irresistibly recalls the seaside acrobat courting attention by means of ridiculous somersaults as a prelude to the display of more special powers. These affectations being suddenly discarded, to reappear only intermittently, it becomes possible to take a mild—a very mild—interest in the fortunes of Philip Gray.”

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The Times [London] Lit Sup p583 S 9 ’20 510w

RAINSFORD, WALTER KERR. From Upton to the Meuse with the Three hundred and seventh infantry. il *$2 (4c) Appleton 940.373

20–2288

The volume is a history of the 77th division and of the 307th regiment. This division Colonel J. R. R. Hannay in the introduction calls the cosmopolitan division of New York city, “New York’s own.” He also states that this division consisting of men unused to the sturdy activity of outdoor life conducted itself as the most perfectly trained and disciplined army in the world. The sketches and photographs in the book are of the best, the author being a graduate from the École des beaux arts, Paris, in 1911. Besides the introduction by Colonel Hannay, the foreword by General Alexander, and two poems by the author, the contents are: Camp Upton; With the British; Lorraine; The chateau du diable; Across the Vesle; Merval; Sheets and bandages; The forest of Argonne; The dépôt de machines; The surrounded battalion; Grand Pré; The advance to the Meuse; The home trail; Appendix.

“Very telling photographs and drawings which suggest a beauty which is the antithesis of war.”

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Booklist 16:238 Ap ’20

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Boston Transcript p11 Ap 24 ’20 850w

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Cath World 112:116 O ’20 370w

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Outlook 125:223 Je 2 ’20 200w

“Captain Rainsford has succeeded in making his narrative clear, expressive, and entertaining—thanks in good part to a never failing sense of humor. We must give credit, too, for his having provided the maps necessary to follow his narrative—a too unusual provision in books about the war.”

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Review 2:464 My 1 ’20 460w

R of Rs 61:445 Ap ’20 170w

RAMSAY, ROBERT E. Effective house organs. il *$3.50 (3c) Appleton 659

20–2516

A book treating of “the principles and practice of editing and publishing successful house organs.” (Sub-title) Chapter one describes a house organ as “a small magazine or newspaper published once a month, sometimes more frequently, sometimes less, and made up wholly or in part of advertising from the house sending it out.” The treatise which is profusely illustrated with specimen pages of typical house organs, falls into three parts. “Part 1 lays down the underlying principles of editing and publishing house organs of all classes. Part 2 gives you the actual practice among successful house organs in applying principles previously laid down. Part 3 is made up of appendices containing valuable reference data on the general subject of house organs which may be of use to both student and practitioner.” There is an index.

“A book much needed by the amateur editor in business organizations.”

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Booklist 16:228 Ap ’20

“His style is easy and readable.”

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Boston Transcript p6 Jl 28 ’20 240w

“The book contains many interesting examples of how a sound knowledge of psychology is valuable in producing a successful house organ.”

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N Y Times 25:296 Je 6 ’20 160w

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The Times [London] Lit Sup p585 S 9 ’20 220w

RAPEER, LOUIS WIN, ed. Consolidated rural school. il *$3 Scribner 379.17

20–4557

This is the first comprehensive treatment of the subject and contains articles by leading specialists and successful workers in this field. Its object is to elucidate the general aim of the consolidated school: social efficiency, with its subordinate aims of vital, vocational, avocational, civic, moral efficiency. It shows how the new method fosters cooperation, and socialization, how children may be physically and mentally changed by suitable methods and how the consolidated school can furnish opportunity for a school farm, homes for teachers and a community centre. The first chapter, National and rural consolidation, and many of the subsequent chapters are by the editor, Louis W. Rapeer. Other chapters are: The American rural school, by Philander P. Claxton; Community organization and consolidation, by Warren H. Wilson; Rural economics and consolidation, by T. N. Carver; The growth of consolidation, and Transportation of pupils at public expense, by A. C. Monahan; A visit to a consolidated school, and The country girl and the consolidated school, by Katherine M. Cook; Methods and facts of consolidation, by W. S. Fogarty; The difficulties of consolidation, by L. J. Hanifan. The book is indexed and has a bibliography.

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Booklist 17:14 O ’20

“The book is to be commended on its attempt to use the problem approach to the various topics.”

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El School J 21:231 N ’20 450w

School R 28:796 D ’20 240w

RASHDALL, HASTINGS. Idea of atonement in Christian theology. (Bampton lectures, 1915) *$5.50 Macmillan 232.3

20–9571

“Mr Rashdall traces the history of the doctrine of the atonement down from its pre-Christian origins through the New Testament, and then by way of the Apostolic fathers, the Latin theology, the Schoolmen, and the Reformers down to modern times. His main interest lies in the controversy between the subjective and the objective types of atonement doctrines.”—Nation

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Ath p412 Mr 26 ’20 420w

“Even so competent and scholarly a discussion as this of Mr Rashdall’s carries with it a suggestion of belonging to a stage which we have left behind us. Those who are acquainted with Mr Rashdall’s work will find the sincerity and thoroughness of discussion which they have learned to expect from him.” R: Roberts

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Nation 110:624 My 8 ’20 750w

“This is one of the most important theological works that have appeared for more than a generation. Its quality is scientific.”

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Spec 124:311 Mr 6 ’20 1750w

“It is probably the most important constructive treatise on systematic theology which has been published by an English divine during the present century. Parts of it will be found difficult by readers who are not experts in theology, for it deals with problems of great complexity. But it is both subtle and lucid; it is a unity and not patchwork; and, as compared with the reticence of some fairly recent work, it is remarkably outspoken.”

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The Times [London] Lit Sup p250 Ap 22 ’20 1550w

RASKIN, PHILIP M. Songs and dreams. *$1.25 Stratford co. 811

20–9428

In a foreword the author tells something of the conditions under which his poems have been written. He learned English after the age of nineteen, published his first book of verse in English, with an introduction by Israel Zangwill, in London in 1914, and has since come to New York where he now makes his home. The poems are in five groups: Love and longing; Autumn flowers; Echoes of exile; Chequered shadow; The dawn of a nation. Some of the poems in the third group, such as To free Russia (1917), The Torah and “No news” are racial in theme, but the one purely Jewish section of the book is the concluding one, devoted to the Zionist ideal.

“Despite Israel Zangwill’s opinion that ‘the best of Mr Raskin’s poems might have been written by Robert Browning,’ there is much in them that is merely ‘pretty work’—though the same thing might be said, heaven knows, of the famous Victorian poet. In fact, the first of this volume, dealing, as it does, with love, is fairly puerile. But toward the end of the volume we happen upon a collection of poems entitled ‘The dawn of a nation’ which contains one or two verses worth while. The one poem which makes the collection notable is that called ‘After the British declaration.’”

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Boston Transcript p6 S 8 ’20 380w

RAVEN, CHARLES E. Christian socialism, 1848–1854. *$6.50 Macmillan 335.7

“This work is based on the Donellan lectures delivered by the author, who is dean of Emmanuel college, Cambridge, at Trinity college, Dublin, in May, 1919. It traces the ‘Christian socialist’ movement from its origin in the reaction against the ‘laissez faire’ principles of the early 19th century to the apparent failure of the effects of Maurice, Neale and Ludlow in 1853, after the passing of Slaney’s act, which gave recognition to the cooperative movement. The concluding chapter deals with the ‘Foundation of the working men’s college’ after the breakdown of the earlier hopes of the Christian socialists.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup

“The volume as a whole is a genuine contribution to English economic history and will doubtless be received as such. Mr Raven would have been a little more convincing in some parts if he had been less profuse in praising his heroes and at the same time had shown more charity for Mrs Sidney Webb and other critics of the Christian Socialists.”

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Nation 112:sup247 F 9 ’21 410w

“Mr Raven’s contribution to the history of economics is valuable, and has obviously entailed much research. But he does not go deeply enough into the philosophic and historic interrelation of things, such as the relation of socialism to liberalism, or to anarchism, or to naturalism and supernaturalism.”

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Sat R 130:397 N 13 ’20 1700w

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Spec 125:405 S 25 ’20 1300w

The Times [London] Lit Sup p538 Ag 19 ’20 100w

“Mr Raven has found a good subject for a book and has studied it industriously. The best part of his book is his account of the men who made the movement, especially of Ludlow, a man far less known than he deserves to be. But it is a pity that he tries to exalt his heroes by depreciating every one else.”

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The Times [London] Lit Sup p594 S 16 ’20 2100w

RAYMOND, E. T. All and sundry. *$2.25 (3½c) Holt 920

(Eng ed 20–6135)

The book consists of a collection of striking pen pictures of prominent contemporaries in politics and letters, as seen through a brilliant and witty man’s eyes. The author’s avowed object is to show the “accredited hero,” as he really is and not in the effulgence of a halo. Among the sketches are: President Wilson; Georges Clemenceau; John Burns; G. K. Chesterton; Sir Eric Geddes; Dean Inge; Rudyard Kipling; Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; Robert Smillie; Harold Begbie; Lord Robert Cecil.

Ath p31 Ja 2 ’20 60w

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Booklist 16:344 Jl ’20

“The book is full of important facts brought together in an accessible form. But Mr Hutchinson has little penetration and suffers in any comparison that is drawn between his work, which may be admitted to be good, and the work which is entitled to be called excellent of some recent writers.” Theodore Maynard

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Bookm 51:682 Ag ’20 650w

“He is particularly good in his vivid sketches of John Burns, G. K. Chesterton, Rudyard Kipling, Robert Smillie, and Lord Robert Cecil.”

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Freeman 1:382 Je 30 ’20 150w

“The inside analyst should be in a class by himself, and generally is. Mr Raymond demonstrated that he was one of the leaders of that class in ‘Uncensored celebrities,’ and ‘All and sundry’ is merely the second volume.”

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N Y Times p16 S 12 ’20 2200w

“His second volume of character sketches is a worthy companion of his first. No one will maintain that the portraits are all equally successful, that all are speaking likenesses.” Archibald MacMechan

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Review 3:130 Ag 11 ’20 1450w

“Entertaining and chatty essays.”

+

R of Rs 62:112 Jl ’20 50w

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Springf’d Republican p8 O 4 ’19 130w

“A mind full of ideas and a flowing pen are as exhilarating a combination as a wet sheet and a flowing sea. But they tend to run away with one. ‘All and sundry’ does—or do—not escape this danger. Nor does it altogether escape the contagion of war-time opinion. But it is a refreshing volume.”

+ −

Springf’d Republican p9a Jl 4 ’20 1100w

“No man can seriously pretend that he is able to write with equal authority on the Prince of Wales, Marshal Foch, President Wilson, M. Clemenceau, the Bishop of London, Mr Hilaire Belloc, Sir Thomas Beecham, and Mr Frank Brangwyn—to take only a few names at random. Another unfortunate thing for Mr Raymond is that in his ‘Uncensored celebrities’ he had picked out the largest plums. However, even here Mr Raymond has his effective flashes, for he is a clever draughtsman with the pen, especially upon political subjects. There is real humour, as well as observation.”

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The Times [London] Lit Sup p729 D 11 ’19 950w

RAYMOND, E. T. Life of Arthur James Balfour. il *$3 Little

20–20922

“Most distinct as an individual, Mr Arthur James Balfour belongs to an easily recognisable type, represented both in England and France by a number of statesmen who owe their fame less to any specific performance than to the impression created by their intellectual brilliance.... He has always been credited with an indefinable superiority over his performances. They have been notable; but it is vaguely felt that the man is more notable still; in the midst of his greatest failures he was more interesting than other men in their most triumphant success. With others the “might-have-been” is a reproach: with men like Mr Balfour it is a tribute: they please in disappointing.” (Chapter I) The book is indexed.

“Wit, irony, detachment—these a writer must have if he is to ‘do’ Mr Balfour, and Mr Raymond has them. Why then does he leave us unsatisfied? At bottom, we think, because he does not bring the philosopher and the politician into any real relation.” S. W.

+ −

Ath p808 D 10 ’20 1050w

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Booklist 17:153 Ja ’21

“His book is not ‘A life’ in any vital sense; it being a mere enlargement of a ‘Who’s who’ entry, with a few comments and quotations thrown in. There are, to be sure, some bright and witty things in the book.” F. P. H.

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N Y Call p8 Ja 9 ’21 520w

“Concise and serviceable biography.”

+

R of Rs 63:110 Ja ’21 110w

“Mr ‘Raymond’s’ biography of Mr Balfour is an entertaining book. He states the facts fairly, and his comments are lively and on the whole sympathetic. But the author is obviously conscious of difficulties.”

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Spec 125:856 D 25 ’20 780w

“He has not, in spite of the claim put forward in the title, produced what is commonly understood by a biography. The study is, in the first place, limited to a single aspect of Mr Balfour’s many-sided personality, and, in the second place, objective; but to say that is, by no means, to deny that it is worth reading. Within its limitations, it is brilliantly clever.”

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The Times [London] Lit Sup p727 N 11 ’20 900w

RAYMOND, GEORGE LANSING.^[2] Ethics and natural law. *$2 Putnam 171

20–11578

“Intuitionalism is restated and made to account for all our ethical judgments. Conscience is asserted to be the basis of obligation, and the whole ethical problem is treated on psychological basis, as a conflict of the desires of the mind and of the body. All the particular problems treated, among them courtship and marriage, social pleasures, commercial and business relations, government, are solved by the exhortation to keep the mind’s desires uppermost.”—Springf’d Republican

Springf’d Republican p9a O 24 ’20 140w

“The student of ethics will considerably fortify his knowledge of the history of ethical thought by reading the book, especially the first twelve chapters.”

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The Times [London] Lit Sup p862 D 16 ’20 440w

READE, WILLIAM HENRY VINCENT. Revolt of labour against civilization. *$1 (*3s) Longmans 331

(Eng ed 20–9138)

“The author’s main thesis we shall best summarize in his own words:—‘Progress in civilization does always and everywhere manifest the working of a single and fundamental law—the greater the necessity of things, the smaller their importance.’ To pass on to the application of his thesis to the present situation, we find him in whole-hearted opposition to the ideal, as he conceives it, of Bolshevism, and the labour movement in general. In this he detects the main and imminent danger to civilization. The conflict between the Allies and the Germans was, he holds, of comparatively minor importance, not because he defends or justifies our enemies, but because he discovers no plain or clear-cut conflict of principle. The real danger he descries in the attempt, on the part of the so-called working-class, to evade or reverse his fundamental law of civilization, to make the satisfaction of the most primitive needs the only social activity of any value or deserving of any reward.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup

Ath p1410 D 26 ’19 100w

Reviewed by H. J. Laski

Nation 110:594 My 1 ’20 200w

“Mr Reade has no specific remedy to propose: that indeed is a merit of his essay, which is intended to make the reader think furiously, and which achieves its purpose.”

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Spec 123:735 N 29 ’19 200w

Survey 43:782 Mr 20 ’20 180w

The Times [London] Lit Sup p679 N 20 ’19 300w

“Mr Reade’s book is one that provokes to disagreement; but for all that, perhaps even because of it, it demands to be read. After all, mere assent or dissent matters little compared with the pleasure to be derived from contact with so vigorous and sincere an intellect, and though we may traverse every one of his conclusions, it is with the sense that Mr Reade is, at least in spirit, on the side of the angels.”

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The Times [London] Lit Sup p728 D 11 ’19 1350w

READE, WINWOOD. Martyrdom of man; with an introd. by F. Legge. *$2.50 Dutton 909

“This book was published in 1872. Its author’s first intention was to write on the part which Africa had played in the world’s story. But the conception grew under his hands until it became a full-fledged philosophy of history. His guiding principle of explanation is given in the last pages of the book. ‘I give to universal history a strange but true title—“The martyrdom of man.” In each generation the human race has been tortured that their children might profit by their woes.’ The successive stages in this painful upward struggle he designates as war, religion, liberty, and intellect, and to each of them he devotes a section of his book. But another stage is yet to be traversed: we must in the interests of right thinking rid ourselves forever of anthropomorphic religion. It was mainly owing to Reade’s attack on Christianity that his book was passed over in disdainful silence by so many. ‘The martyrdom of man’ has now reached its twenty-first edition.”—Review

“Everything is made simple and clear with a few bold strokes, and the multiplicity of the trees never obscures the woods. The lively style is an added stimulus to the reader, for the author possessed an undeniable talent for direct and forcible statement. When he becomes enthusiastic in his narrative he can revivify the past as tellingly as Macaulay, whom he resembles also in the crispness of his sentences.” W. K. Stewart

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Review 2:629 Je 16 ’20 1000w 550w

Springf’d Republican p10 Mr 19 ’20

RECOULY, RAYMOND. Foch: the winner of the war. *$3 (4½c) Scribner

20–3252

This volume has been translated from the French by Mary Cadwalader Jones. The author has been closely associated with Marshal Foch as a brother-in-arms and in his estimation the co-ordinated military talent in the Allied leaders found its highest expression “in the keen intelligence and strategic genius of their generalissimo—Foch.” The account of Foch’s career in the great war is preceded by a short description of his family and earlier life. Contents: Some glimpses of Foch; His family and his career; His lectures at the Ecole de guerre; In command of the twentieth army corps; At the head of the ninth army; The pursuit and the check; The battle of Flanders; The French offensive of 1915; Verdun; The Somme; A visit to Foch; The change of command; Foch, generalissimo; The widening battle; Illustrations, maps, index.

“While Captain Recouly’s is not a very inspiring study of one of the few men of undoubted military genius in the late war, it does help the reader to some understanding of the man and to make clearer to him the battles fought by Foch.”

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Ath p273 Ag 27 ’20 230w

Booklist 16:241 Ap ’20

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Springf’d Republican p8 Je 4 ’20 450w

REED, EARL H.^[2] Tales of a vanishing river. il *$3 (5c) Lane

20–22228

The river was the Kankakee, near the southern end of Lake Michigan, and once the main confluent of the Illinois. Once it lapped its leisurely course with many ramifications through low marsh lands, teeming with natural beauty and bird life, the home of the Miami and Pottowattomie Indians. Now the Indians and the beauty and the birds are gone and a mighty ditch of straight-channelled course has drained away the marshes. The book is an attempt at the interpretation of the life along the river that has vanished and is illustrated with sketches by the author. The contents are: The vanishing river; The silver arrow; The brass bound box; The “Wether book” of Buck Granger’s grandfather; Tipton Posey’s store; Muskrat Hyatt’s redemption; The turkey club; The predicaments of Colonel Peets; His unlucky star.

“All have a rich flavor of newness, of freshness, of originality.” E. J. C.

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Boston Transcript p4 Ja 15 ’21 620w

“When you establish yourself in front of a wood fire in an easy chair with an hour or two of leisure to look forward to, an excellent book to have at hand is ‘Tales of a vanishing river.’”

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Ind 103:442 D 25 ’20 100w

“Mr Reed writes with a queer, mellow philosophy and humor and in a gently meandering style which seems to recapture something of the slow, placid course of the river whose loss he mourns.”

+ −

N Y Evening Post p10 Ja 8 ’21 230w

“They are invariably quaint and whimsical. Perhaps the most diverting is ‘The “wether book” of Buck Granger’s grandfather.’ Like the companion volume on the dunes of Lake Michigan, this work is rather unusual in character and invariably entertaining.”

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Springf’d Republican p6 D 27 ’20 420w

REES, ARTHUR JOHN. Hand in the dark. *$2 (1½c) Lane

20–13345

A house party at an English country home is going on. The guests are at dinner when they are startled by a woman’s shriek of horror, followed by the report of a pistol. They flock upstairs, to find Mrs Heredith, a bride of three months, the victim of murder. The police start investigations which result in the arrest of Hazel Rath, the daughter of the housekeeper. Altho she pleads innocence there are many suspicious things in her conduct which she refuses to explain. Philip Heredith, husband of the murdered girl, does not believe her guilty, and hires a private detective, who suspects Captain Nepcote, a house guest at the time of the murder. Then, from an unexpected quarter, comes a clue to the actual criminal, who had planned his crime with such diabolical skill and cunning, aided by chance, that it was only by as strange a chance that he was ever discovered.

“A detective story above the average, though to some readers it will seem too long drawn out and to others too tragic.”

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Booklist 17:160 Ja ’21

“The details are rather gruesome, but the plot is one of the best of the year.”

+

Cleveland p107 D ’20 40w

“Mr Rees has set before the reader a mystery whose blind and baffling qualities are likely to puzzle and lead astray the most astute and skillful of lovers of detective fiction. For the author writes well, with a good, forceful, interesting style, makes graphic and pleasing pictures of his background, and puts vitality and individuality into the delineation of his characters.”

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N Y Times 25:26 Jl 25 ’20 620w

“The book is better written than the average crime tale.”

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Outlook 125:647 Ag 11 ’20 50w

“In this detective story the murderer is really ingenious, and will not easily be discovered. Mr Rees has spent too much time at the beginning in picturing old-world details, and elsewhere by being ‘literary’ he delays the action of the story which is everything in a tale of this sort.”

+ −

Sat R 130:525 D 25 ’20 130w

“Mr Rees spins us with deft entanglements another of his first-class mystery yarns.”

+

The Times [London] Lit Sup p781 N 25 ’20 80w

REES, BYRON JOHNSON, ed. Modern American prose selections. $1 (1c) Harcourt 810.8

20–10539

A selection of some twenty examples of modern American prose. The compiler’s aim has been to bring together examples of “typical contemporary prose, in which writers who know whereof they write discuss certain present-day themes in readable fashion.” Among the selections are: Abraham Lincoln, by Theodore Roosevelt; American tradition, by Franklin K. Lane; Our future immigration policy, by Frederic C. Howe; A new relationship between capital and labor, by John D. Rockefeller, jr.; My uncle, by Alvin Johnson; When a man comes to himself, by Woodrow Wilson; The education of Henry Adams, by Carl Becker; The struggle for an education, by Booker T. Washington; Traveling afoot, by John Finley; Old boats, by Walter Prichard Eaton.

Booklist 17:147 Ja ’21

REID, FORREST. Pirates of the spring. *$1.90 (2c) Houghton

20–26325

The story is of a boy, Beach Traill, not clever at books, but of unusual integrity of character, and of his friends. They are all at the same school, three of them, and a fourth has recently been added as a sort of disturbing element. This fourth is Evans, a handsome, intellectual, timid lad, a bit off-caste socially, and somewhat lacking in manly spirit and upstanding courage. Troubles come, partly through bad influence, partly through irrepressible animal spirits, but the boys’ uprightness finds a way out. Beach wins out with his widowed mother and against a suitor of hers whom he detests. Beach and Miles fight it out in fierce battle which rivets their friendship. Palmer, the most clever, subtle and daring of the three, holds his own through his strong sense of justice, and it is in him that Beach eventually discovers, with an exuberant sense of happiness, his real friend.

Ath p338 Mr 12 ’20 500w

“There is no climax in the story, but only the flow of everyday happenings, no progress but the development of the boys’ characters; and the whole is told in a narrative of quiet beauty.”

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Booklist 16:246 Ap ’20

“Lovers of boys will appreciate the sympathetic understanding of Mr Reid’s portraying. The story gives added pleasure in its descriptions of the countryside and is altogether an artistic delight.”

+

Boston Transcript p4 Ap 7 ’20 360w

“The narrative is of a singular though very quiet beauty—a beauty gained partly by the writer’s marvellous closeness to his subject, partly by his cool tenderness, partly by his sense of the almost pagan interpenetration of nature and the lives of his characters.”

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Nation 110:305 Mr 6 ’20 260w

“‘Pirates of the spring’ is less a story than a study of character development during the troubled and turbulent years of adolescence, a study handled delicately and sympathetically; with much subtlety and many deft touches of humor. It is of course admirably written.”

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N Y Times 25:148 Mr 28 ’20 400w

Review 2:310 Mr 27 ’20 500w

+

Sat R 130:40 Jl 10 ’20 100w

“One thinks of this book with Richard Pryce’s ‘Christopher,’ Hugh Walpole’s ‘Jeremy’ and E. F. Benson’s ‘David Blaize.’ But discriminating taste will accord a higher degree of artistry to Mr Reid’s work than to the efforts of these able delineators of adolescent boyhood. The mentality and philosophy of boyhood are an open book to Mr Reid.”

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Springf’d Republican p11a Mr 21 ’20 600w

“The boys are boys, and not merely the mouthpieces of ideas.”

+ −

The Times [London] Lit Sup p173 Mr 11 ’20 220w

REIK, HENRY OTTRIDGE.^[2] Tour of America’s national parks. il *$4 Dutton 711

20–18059

“Colonel Reik’s book brings out the distinctive features of the greatest of these western parks. He shows that no two of them are alike, that each is worth seeing on its own account. While he has not attempted to write a guide book in the ordinary sense of the term, his chapters contain much of the kind of information that is sought in guide books and that will be found indispensable to anyone attempting a tour of the parks for the first time.”—R of Rs

+

N Y Evening Post p30 O 23 ’20 270w

Reviewed by B. R. Redman

+

N Y Times p9 Ja 9 ’21 100w

+

R of Rs 62:672 D ’20 160w

REPINGTON, CHARLES À COURT. First world war, 1914–1918. 2v *$12 Houghton 940.48

20–22246

“Colonel Repington in two stout volumes has recorded his ‘personal experience’ of the great war, and in so doing has given to the public the first of the great books of the war that is not simply military, political or diplomatic, but a combination of each that is focused on the personal activity and relationship of a single individual who was behind the scenes and in touch with almost every phase of the war. These pages of personal experiences during the war are a ‘contribution towards the elucidation of the truth so far as I was able to ascertain it at the time, and will, I hope, enable many to understand better the events of these memorable years,’ Colonel Repington declares. They are given from his diaries as he scrupulously kept them, recording the most trivial incidents innocently tucked away in some social engagement of chance meeting of soldiers, statesmen, journalists, or comments of the larger events which followed each other with such amazing rapidity.”—Boston Transcript

“Colonel Repington is, in fact, so simple that we cannot take any interest in him. His views on the war, in any important sense, are negligible. The only portions of his diary of any interest are his items of political and military information and the light he throws on prominent personages connected with the war. For the rest, and except when his professional interests are awakened and he gives lists of troops and ‘wastage’ figures, the whole diary is at the gossip level.”

− +

Ath p436 O 1 ’20 1250w

Booklist 17:149 Ja ’21

+

Boston Transcript p4 O 20 ’20 1150w

“Colonel Repington moves between a bloodbath and a stale spittoon, and is apparently prouder of dipping his pen in the latter than in the former.” Shane Leslie

−

Dial 59:64 D ’20 1050w

“The book is a curiosity. We have not been able to find in it the slightest evidence that Col. Repington, viewing the supreme tragedy of secular history, was even remotely aware of its human implications. He could observe a world convulsed, and report upon it without compassion, without gravity, without understanding.” Lawrence Gilman

−

Freeman 2:499 F 2 ’21 1800w

“As a diarist he is intimate and unaffected and racy and explicit like Pepys, and he is almost as disconcertingly complete.”

+

Nation 111:786 D 29 ’20 320w

“The self-assurance of Colonel Repington is to be noted. It is to that self-assurance, plus his vanity, that we owe this monumental book. But if we do not get too weary of his ‘practically no English articles are read and discussed except mine,’ we may find illumination—most of it unintentional—in his accounts of his work running to and fro between the generals, the politicians and the press.” F. H.

+ −

New Repub 24:274 N 10 ’20 3500w

“He has produced an extraordinarily interesting gossip-book which will doubtless be widely read and extensively commented upon. It is apparent from the briefest characterization of this amazing book that it is on the delineation of society in the war that the readers will linger longest. It is one long indiscretion.” W. C. Abbott

− +

N Y Evening Post p2 N 27 ’20 1350w

“To an American reader the chief criticism to be made of all these accounts of luncheons, dinners and concerts in the company of the rich and fashionable is that they are intolerably wearisome. Colonel Repington continually speaks of the play of wit in these high circles, but gives very few examples of it.”

+ −

N Y Times p1 O 24 ’20 2400w

Reviewed by E. L. Pearson

Review 3:376 O 27 ’20 340w

“In short, his tendency to take his hostesses overseriously, apart from some waste of space, does little to impair the value of an enlightening book. His taste may be a bit at fault but rarely his judgment.”

+

Review 3:559 D 8 ’20 800w

“This is the best book on the war that has appeared, and we hope it is the last. Everybody is sick of the war, its horrors and its squabbles, and wants to forget it. The excellence of the book consists in its twofold claim on our attention. There is the exhaustive criticism of the conduct of the war by a military expert of European reputation: and there is the picture of manners in that section of society ruled by American women, drawn by one who lived in its favour.”

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Sat R 130:260 S 25 ’20 1450w

“Go into a shady part of the garden, or better still, into a damp shrubbery and lift up some big flat stone. Underneath you will find a quantity of crawling creatures, disturbed by the light so suddenly let in upon them.... Such a garden adventure recurs irresistibly to the mind as one reads Colonel Repington’s diary of the war years.... As to the enlightenment which his book should bring in regard to the way in which public affairs are too often handled, as to the advantages of the lessons to be learnt, and finally as to the value of this first step in the reform which comes with knowledge, we have no doubt whatever.”

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Spec 125:434 O 2 ’20 2900w

REPPLIER, AGNES. Points of friction. *$1.75 (4c) Houghton 814

20–19680

Essays reprinted from periodicals. Six have appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, two in the Century, one in the Yale Review and one in the Nation. Contents: Living in history; Dead authors; Consolations of the conservative; The cheerful clan; The beloved sinner; The virtuous Victorian; Woman enthroned; The strayed prohibitionist; Money; Cruelty and humour.

“Keen and original, upholding recognized standards.”

+

Booklist 17:106 D ’20

“I find myself liking best the essay on ‘Dead authors,’ because it gives us more of the humor we have come to look for in Miss Repplier’s presentment of human error. But I confess myself at a disadvantage in dealing with her: I have almost never found myself failing to agree with her on any essential point, and my appreciation is apt to take the form of gratitude for the distinguished expression of what would seem to civilized people to be obvious.” K. F. Gerould

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Bookm 52:265 N ’20 290w

“Miss Repplier upholds many wholesome truths which in these days seem in danger of oblivion, and her ironic shaft pierces many a sham notion high in popular esteem. The noble art of the essay suffers at her hands neither diminution nor dishonor. ‘Points of friction’ is a stimulating and eminently readable book.”

+

Cath World 112:386 D ’20 680w

“A halfscore of the delightfully keen-witted and observant papers which Miss Repplier is kind enough to write from time to time for the enjoyment of appreciative readers. They are always welcome and invariably worth while.”

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Outlook 126:470 N 10 ’20 50w

“It would not be amiss to call Miss Repplier the Chesterton of America. Both are Tories of a sort, lovers of the good things mankind has found by long toil and is now so childishly anxious to discard.”

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Review 3:563 D 8 ’20 400w

“Miss Repplier’s essays are sound in workmanship and sound but not granitic in thought. Not often does finished and pungent phrasing serve merely as a covering for thin or tawdry ideas. Usually there is an edge to the thought, and it will be found suggestive to those who may not accept all its implications.”

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Springf’d Republican p6 Ja 10 ’21 680w

REW, SIR ROBERT HENRY. Food supplies in peace and war. *$2.25 (*6s 6d) Longmans 338

20–4724

“In this essay, Sir Henry Rew considers briefly the world’s supply and demand and the extent to which the United Kingdom met its own demands for food before and during the war, and then discusses the outlook now that the war is ended.... [He concludes] that the cries of ‘Famine!’ are wide of the mark, inasmuch as nature, upon which the recovery of agriculture mainly depends, never goes on strike. He thinks that after the harvest of 1921 Europe will be producing as much food as before. He evidently believes that the Germans are deliberately exaggerating their troubles. He defines the British nation’s interest in agriculture as two-fold—to secure the maximum quantity of food, and to maintain the maximum number of persons on the land. He points out that insurance against famine caused by war implies not only a large wheat crop, but also a large stock of cattle, since milk and fat are as necessary as bread. He concludes with a reminder of the importance of the human factor in agriculture and the necessity for a life of wider scope and variety in the villages.”—Spec

“A very sane and reasonable discussion of the food problem.” T. N. Carver

+

Am Econ R 10:590 S ’20 260w

“It is written in popular style and in this lies its real value.”

+

Ann Am Acad 90:173 Jl ’20 80w

“This book is not very big, but it is full of information and of sagacious comments on the facts set out for the reader’s benefit.”

+

Ath p428 Mr 26 ’20 160w

“Sir Henry Rew has the happy and unusual faculty of making statistics interesting. The book was badly needed, for it is highly important that the average man should realise the facts.” E. J. Russell

+

Nature 105:320 My 13 ’20 950w

+

Spec 124:464 Ap 3 ’20 250w

“The book is stimulating, authoritative and well worth reading.” B. L.

+

Survey 44:309 My 29 ’20 440w

REYMONT, WLADYSLAW STANISLAW.^[2] Comédienne. *$2 (2c) Putnam

20–20943

The story is translated from the Polish by Edmund Obecny and relates the fate of a young actress. Janina Orlowski is driven from home by an insanely tyrannical father, whose choice of a husband she has refused. Her ambition is to become an actress and she goes to Warsaw and is taken on by a third-rate company. Her experiences there are a series of disillusionments, the actors she meets are not interested in art but are a sordid, coarse lot. She falls into dire poverty and on the verge of starvation and about to become a mother, she commits suicide.

“It is almost inconceivable that the novel has lost anything in translating, so delightfully lyric are the descriptions of the Polish countryside, so poignant the characterization, so diverting the dialogue.” W. T. R.

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Boston Transcript p4 D 4 ’20 770w

REYNOLDS, GERTRUDE M. (ROBINS) (MRS LOUIS BAILLIE REYNOLDS). Also Ran. *$1.90 (2c) Doran

20–19180

Jacynth Pennant had spent her early life away from her home, having been adopted as a baby by an aunt. When she returned to it as a young lady, she found an air of mystery enveloping everything. Her father, though affectionate, was unhappy and worried. The neighborhood had not ceased talking about the murder of Guy Warristoun some time before. His brother Ranulf was suspected of the murder, but acquitted upon the testimony of a chauffeur. Ran subsequently disappeared and had not been heard of since. Shortly after Jacynth’s return, he unexpectedly put in his appearance once more. When he persuaded Jacynth to marry him after a short acquaintance, her impelling motive of acceptance was that her father was under heavy obligations to him. He explained as his reason for asking her that he wanted to put it out of her power to marry his cousin Hector, a worthless fellow with whom she was half in love, and to whom, though his lawful heir, he did not wish to leave his property. His one biggest reason he did not give—he was in love with her. How she came to realize this, after doubt and heartache for both is the culmination of the story, and in the process of its development is revealed the true explanation of Guy’s death and the chauffeur’s part in it.

“Though not always convincing the story is wholesome and ingenious and will interest men or women.”

+

Booklist 17:160 Ja ’21

“The tale, although not very convincing and one in which it would be easy to pick holes, is ingenious and interesting.”

+ −

N Y Times p25 O 3 ’20 400w

“The author makes a fairly interesting book with a happy ending to this rather hackneyed theme.”

+ −

Spec 125:216 Ag 14 ’20 50w

REYNOLDS, MYRA. Learned lady in England, 1650–1760. il *$2.25 Houghton 396

20–26551

The book is one of the Vassar semi-centennial series, published in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Vassar college. Although it is specifically limited to the learned women in England in the period between 1650 and 1760, the first chapter is devoted to those before 1650, beginning with Juliana Barnes, who, although a nun, wrote a book on “hunting, hawking and fishing” in 1481. The outcome of the research is that in all ages “there have been individual women who by force of native endowment and through some favorable conjunction of circumstances, have risen into prominence in realms not ordinarily open to the women of their time,” but they have been isolated cases and “what was actually accomplished in the century before 1760 was a lavish sowing of seed, a steady infiltration of new ideas, a breaking up of old certainties as to woman’s place in domestic and civic life, and an accumulation of examples proving women capable of the most varied intellectual aptitudes and energies.” Contents: Learned ladies in England before 1650; Learned ladies in England from 1650–1670; Education; Miscellaneous books on women in social and intellectual life; Satiric representations of the learned lady in comedy; Summary; Bibliography; Index; and illustrations.

+

Booklist 16:331 Jl ’20

“It is an interesting and original piece of work and covers ground that has hardly been touched before.” Martha Plaisted

+

Bookm 51:689 Ag ’20 300w

Reviewed by C. M. Rourke

Freeman 2:68 S 29 ’20 1400w

Reviewed by Dorothy Brewster

Nation 111:sup419 O 13 ’20 800w

“Years of research must have been devoted to gathering materials for this illuminating treatise. The presentation is clear and orderly; nor is it anywhere swamped by the multitudinous and clear-cut detail.”

+

Review 4:18 Ja 5 ’21 400w

RHEAD, GEORGE WOOLLISCROFT. Earth- (5c) Dodd 738

(Eng ed 20–8046)

The author of this volume, we are told by H. W. Lewer in the foreword is a practical potter and, moreover, an artist and art examiner in pottery to the board of education. With his help, therefore, it is hoped that the collector will be enabled to discriminate between well authenticated examples and worthless specimens and probably forgeries. “The book covers the whole story of British earthenwares from those of the Slip and Salt glazed period, now more and more sought after, to the less coveted but still interesting specimens of the early nineteenth century.... The illustrations include many rare examples from well-known collections.” (Author’s preface) Among the contents are: Early British, mediæval and sixteenth century wares; Slip wares; English Delft wares; Wedgwood; Contemporaries and followers of Wedgwood; Lustred wares; The makers of image toys and chimney ornaments; Glossary of terms; Bibliography; Index.

“The subject of Mr Woolliscroft Rhead’s work is so enormous that we can hardly complain of inadequate treatment, but it is less well written than Mr Young’s [‘The silver and Sheffield plate collector’] and less likely to be useful. His spelling and phraseology are also sometimes at fault. It is further extremely inconvenient that the plates are not numbered, which makes reference to them a complicated matter.”