i8 
LAND & WATER 
October ii, 1917 
Some Lighter Literature 
IT is an old saying that it is pleasant to play the fool at 
times • and if one remembers aright; this homely trutli 
was put on record by the same pen that wrote that it is a 
pleasant and comelv act to die for one's country. Ihese 
two Horatian tags are brought home to one by a book ot 
frivolous drawings which Mr. John Lane has just pubhshecl 
iTIie Neiv Eve: drawings bvFish; \vritten and designed by 
Fowl 3s. 6d.net). To keep up the idea we may add the result 
is good red herring for it does draw the mind away from the 
sadness and perplexities of these times. Readers of the 
Tafler will be familiar with these light and airy sketches ol 
officers and their best girls ; there is a fund of laughter in 
them- and it is just the sort of volume a host and hostess 
likes to have lying about the house. Jt would almost make 
a dentist's anteroom cheerful. 
***** 
The detailed biography of a Russian aristocrat given in 
'MichaiH (Hcinemann, 6s." net), affords a picture of Russian 
life before the revolution, and up to the first days of the 
war ; not only does it present the extravagances of Russian 
society, but " in portraying Michail with the minuteness 
characteristic of most Russian authors, it affords glimpses of 
the difference between tiie Russian character and the characters 
of western peoples. Michail's life is taken up at the point 
where he has become invf)lved in an intrigue which, to satisfy 
his sense of honour, can only be ended by a marriage that is 
distasteful to him; the story ends with his death in the 
course of the war, and between these two points there is given 
a sight of the man and his motives and actions. The author-^ 
whose name, by the way, is withheld— has succeeded in pre- 
senting her hero in such a way that we realise the Slavonic 
temperament — it is a different mixture of flesh and spirit, 
apparently, from that of the west ; more material in some things, 
less so in'others, and inclined to greater extremes in action. 
The story itself is full of dramatic incident, and well-told, 
but the ultimate impression produced is that there is the 
real Russia of pre-revolution days, and, as the sub-title of the 
book expresses it, the heart of a Russian. 
***** 
There is more than an echo of Kipling's Jungle Book about 
Tarzan of the Apes, by Edga.r Rice Burroughes (Methuen, 
2S. 6d. net), though Tarzan was brought up among apes in 
Africa, and the setting of the story is altogether different 
from Kipling's masterpiece of wild life. The author is 
evidently a keen nature student, and at the same time he 
tells a striking story, albeit rather crudely as far as the human 
part of it is concerned. How Tarzan learned to read while 
still ignorant of human speech, how he gained contact with 
his kind after he had reached manhood, and what manner of 
man he became after having spent nearly twenty years as a 
bea.st of a tropical forest, make good reading, without in- 
volving more strain on one's credulity than the great majority 
of novels. The test of the book lies in its last page, which 
promises a further volume devoted to Tarzan' s adventures ; 
we look forward with interest to the appearance of that 
second volume, proof that this book is well worth reading. 
Mr. Ridgwell Cullum, whose Triumph of John Kars has just 
been published (Chapman and Hall, 6s. net), evidently knows 
the Yukon district through practical experience of its evils 
and wonders, for he describes the mining town of " North of 
Sixty " with the facility that conies only of real knowledge. 
In this book he deals with a hidden auriferous area and the 
crimes which it caused, as also with the punishment of those 
crimes. Though there is nothing out of the ordinary in the 
plot of the story, 3'et the way in which it is told, and the big 
surprise which is sprung alike on the reader and the hero in 
the last chapters makes it a notable work, in addition to the 
sense of things northern which the author so subtly conveys. 
It is not a book for squeamish folk, for the author deals with 
hard life in a hard country ; it is. however, a novel that 
deals with realities, and all who have the faintest interest in 
the ways of the far north will delight in the book. 
***** 
Messrs. J. ]). Bere^ford and Kenneth Richmond have 
collaborated to produce tlie biography of a man whom they 
regard as the originator of a new system of philosophj-. 
IF. E. Ford, a Bioi^raphy. (Collins, bs. net), the result of their 
joint efforts is a book that will prove stimulating but not 
\-ery satisfying. Ford began by studying the wfirk of the 
great educationists from Comenius to Froebel, and set up a 
school pf his own in which he attempted to carry into practia^ 
the results of his studies. The school, finally, was shut down, 
and tlien Ford found that in order to learn to teach he had to 
burrow more deeply into the systems of life that are the result 
of ordinary teaching — he had to find out exactly where and 
how his own system had fallen short. He went east, and on a 
visit to Japan he died with his search unfinished, leaving 
a mass of note-books from which his biographers hope later 
to compile a statement of his philosophy of life. 
Mr. Beresford contributes very little to our knowledge of 
Ford; he has made a great attempt to picture the man, but 
the attempt has not succeeded, and, in his " notes " on Ford's 
philosophy, a vague discoursiveness renders the chapter 
irritating. Mr. Richmond, on the other hand, gives a clear 
view of the man and his system which,. as is stated, is 
that of a man who lived before his time. Many will quarrel 
with I'ord's conclusions, and will reject his postulates in 
great measure, but all to whom the future of the race is of 
interest would do well to study Mr. Richmond's exposition of 
a somewhat remarkable man. 
There is a great similarity between the work of Mrs. Edith 
Wharton and that of Thomas Hardy, in spite of the great differ- 
ence in the setting of their story, and the fact that Mrs. Whar- 
ton deals with American character and scenery. In her latest 
worK, Summer, (Macmillan, 6s. net), Mrs. Wharton portrays 
an ill-educated girl in a New England village ; the girl ex- 
periences a grand passion with a town-bred man, who regards 
their love as a mere incident ; later, the girl's guardian marries 
her to save her name — and that is all the plot. But the picture 
of the tiny village, overshadowed by " the mountain " where 
the girl was born ; the actuality of the characters, and the 
way in which the author has got inside these people anc 
made them alive, moving against real scenes, are much akii. 
to the work that Hardy has done, for the little commonplace 
story is lifted up to the plane of tragedy, made vivid and power- 
ful. The figure of lawyer Royall, the girl's guardian, is 
arrestingly drawn, more by implication than direct statement. 
There is more of implication than statement, as a matter of 
fact, in the whole book, which is as artistic a piece of work as 
its author has yet produced. 
THE LATEST BOOKS 
THE RED PLANET Byw j iockf gs. 
** A very real and human stnrv of thr> War." — Daily Graphic. 
*' Tt is a raacterly piere of characterisation, and is associated with a drama 
full of Pinotionai thrill?; and ingenious strokes of comedy." — Sunday Times. 
THE NEW EVE 
Pictures by " .\. H. FISH." Text by " FOWL." Roj'al 4(0. 
3s. net. 
A new rollpctlnn of Eve Pictvircs by " FISH," who 14 more entertaining 
than ever. 
TEMPORARY HEROES 
By CECIL SOMMKRS. Illustrated by the Author. 3s. 6d. 
net. First edition sold on publication. 
'* Behind thp rattle and patter(alwoys very -shrewd and shrewdly expressed) 
is a dplicacy and chivalry of attitude which makes these letters extremely 
attractive, and coinpel'^ for their writer ou r great respect." — Morning ^^.': 
KHAKI COURAGE 
By CONIXGSBY DAWSON. Crown 8vo. 3s- 6d. net. 
This book has run through edition after edition in U.S.A., and is being 
given to recruits, as the best picture of the passion for sacrifice which 
inspires our men's courage. 
POEMS OF WEST AND EAST 
By V, SAC KVI f.I.E-WEST (the Hon. Mrs. Harold Nicolson) . 
Crown 8vo. 3s. 6fl. net. - 
OUR GIRLS iN WAR-TIME 
Bv JO^'CK DENNVS. With Topical Versos by HAMPDEN 
GORDON. Crown 4to. 3s« 6a. net. 
A companion volume to " Our Hospital A. B.C." Miss Dennys here depicts 
women workers in all the professions and trades which have opened up to them 
SERBIAN FRONT IN 
By E. P. STEBBING. With Illustra- 
tions and Maps. Crown 8vo. 6s. net. 
The author, who was on the spot, h.i5 had exceptioral opportunities of 
seeing the lighting in that the atre oi war. 
AT THE 
MACEDONIA 
ODES TO TRIFLES *"° r«Jy"£?s**" 
By R. M. KASSIE, Sergt. 3th Canadian Infantry. Crown 
8vo. 3s> 6d. net. 
"Humorous verse, by a member of the Canadian Kxpeditionary^ Force, in 
whieh every stanza gets well home ; written with a refreshing air of con- 
viction anrl a real wit which scintillates the more sharply because not a 
word of it rould be spared."— 7~A^ Time^. 
JOHN LANE, The Bodley Head, Vigo St., W.I 
Write tor IXUrvmN LIST. 
