Mevieic of lifcigus, 1/9/13. 



■29 



BOOKS IN BRIEF. 



€zar Ferdinand and His People. By John 

 Macdonald. (Jack, 12s. 6d.) 



This topical and interesting account of tlie 

 early history and later development of 

 Bulgaria and its rulers contains just the 

 information needed in a pleasantly read- 

 able form. Bulgaria is likened to a stream 

 which, after running fast and furiously 

 for a period, disappears underground, 

 coming again to the surface. It is said 

 that Eu.ssian soldiers in the Turkish cam- 

 paign oif 1828 were surprised to discover 

 a. Slavic race between the Danube and the 

 Balkans, and somewhere about 18G0 Mr. 

 Sliaw Lefevre, travelling to Constanti- 

 nople, passed through the group of pro- 

 vinces, then under Turkish Pashas, which 

 is now officially Bulgaria. He was struck 

 with the natural richness of the country — 

 and with its desolation. When in 1890 

 Mr. Lefevre visited the country a second 

 time he found a parliamentary people 

 governed icoiistitntionally, democratic to 

 the core, quick at learning all that Europe 

 could profitably teach them, advancing by 

 leaps and bounds. It is just this period of 

 thirty years of which we get here a vivid 

 account, illu.strated by pictures and por- 

 traits, and prefaced by the story of that 

 fijist vigorous, if not brutal, life before 

 that five hundred years, during which 

 practically the Bulgarian people as a 

 people were non-existent. Mr. Macdon- 

 ald has teld his story well, and presents 

 the Czar Ferdinand -and his consort as the 

 able pair events have proved them to be. 



Slam. By Pierre Loti. (Laurie.) 



When a traveller who is a poet and a 

 writer of romantic books begins to tell 

 about h-s travels one would need tO' be 

 a poet also to describe the charm felt in 

 following in ,his footsteps. Pierre Loti 

 had always had foreshadowings of what 

 his futare life was to be. In his childish 

 imagination he had seen him.self a sort of 

 legendary hero. He had travelled in 

 thought "long before he had been enabled 

 to do so in reality, so that it is sm.all 

 wonder that when he tells us how, out of 

 the depths of Siam, he saw the star of 

 the evening rise over the ruined Angkor 

 we ourselves are lifted into the regions of 

 romance. 



A Tour Through South .America. By A. S. 

 Forrest. (Paul, 10s. 6d.) 

 Mr. Forrest claims to be neitlier explorer, 

 scientific historian, nor political theorist, 

 bat he has set down his impressions of a 

 fascinating people and country during 

 many months' teuring through South 

 America, particularly in the Panama zone. 

 The section dealing with the canal is of 

 particular interest. To many the chief 



charm of the book will be found in the 

 illustrations, of which there are 14.5. all by 

 the author. 



Trans-Himalaya. (Vol. 111.) By ,Sven 

 Hedin. (Macinillan. 15s. net.) 



This tliird volume of Sven Hedin's mar- 

 vellous account of his two years' adven- 

 turous travelling in Tibet is as full of 

 charm as were the former volumes: more- 

 over, for all those who have not had a 

 chance of reading them, there Avill be the 

 added help of a recapitulation of some of 

 the work which Sven Hedin formerly de- 

 scribed. Beautifully illustrated, the vol- 

 ume is a delight to the eye as well as a 

 source of instruction and a means of fill- 

 ing the blank places in the map of Tibet. 



Towards Liberty. By Lucy Re-Bartlett. 

 (Longmans, Green & Co., Is.) 



In a little book of seventy-four small pages 

 packed with wisdom, Mrs. Re-Bartlett 

 sheds a new light upon the Suffrage move- 

 ment, and has given us three essays which 

 men and women, suffragists and antis, 

 alike would do well to read, because of 

 her just and impartial view, and the splen- 

 did ideal set before her readers. The gist 

 of her message is that freedom can only 

 be assured to any part of a nation when 

 it is spiritually readj' for it; that the 

 women of England as a whole are not 

 thus ready; the average woman cannot 

 get past the thought of the personal 

 family happiness. The true value of mili- 

 tancy is to energise other women, and to 

 show them that by the poverty of their 

 own spirit they are retarding the pro- 

 gress of the s])irit of man. 



Messufjes jrom the Unseen. (Daniel. Is. net) 



A series of messages from a loving and 

 loved wife to her 'husband and family. 

 They come chieHy througli automatic 

 writing <liiiiiig sittings with the family. 

 Some of the letters are very beautiful, one 

 especially, concerning the origin of re- 

 vivals, which are said to be caused by 

 bands of spirit helpers whose special Avork 

 it is to bring home spiritual truth and 

 love to seeking souls. If any special area 

 is seen by them to be favourable they con- 

 centrate their forces there, so that wliat 

 at first seems but a little spark of light 

 will gradually spread into a great eon- 

 fiagration. 



The Ili'iuhjuurti r licmiit. By Bicliard 

 Dehan. (Heinemann. 6s.) 



The publication in l>ook form of these 

 twenty-three short stories by "Richard 

 Dehan "' is a further proof of the extrn- 

 or<linary versatility of this remarkable 

 woman, who, as Ototliilde Graves, pas.st^il 



