THE WORKS OF ANATOLE FRANCE

It has long been a reproach to England that only one volume by ANATOLE FRANCE has been adequately rendered into English; yet outside this country he shares with TOLSTOI the distinction of being the greatest and most daring student of humanity now living.

¶ There have been many difficulties to encounter in completing arrangements for a uniform edition, though perhaps the chief barrier to publication here has been the fact that his writings are not for babes—but for men and the mothers of men. Indeed, some of his Eastern romances are written with biblical candour. "I have sought truth strenuously," he tells us, "I have met her boldly. I have never turned from her even when she wore an unexpected aspect." Still, it is believed that the day has come for giving English versions of all his imaginative works, as well as of his monumental study JOAN OF ARC, which is undoubtedly the most discussed book in the world of letters to-day.

¶ MR. JOHN LANE has pleasure in announcing that he will commence publication of the works of M. ANATOLE FRANCE in English, under the general editorship of MR. FREDERIC CHAPMAN, with the following volumes:

THE RED LILY
MOTHER OF PEARL
THE GARDEN OF EPICURUS
THE CRIME OF SYLVESTRE BONNARD
JOCASTA AND THE FAMISHED CAT
BALTHASAR
THE WELL OF ST. CLARE
THE ELM TREE ON THE MALL
THE WICKER-WORK WOMAN
AT THE SIGN OF THE QUEEN PÉDAUQUE
THE OPINIONS OF JEROME COIGNARD
MY FRIEND'S BOOK
THE ASPIRATIONS OF JEAN SERVIEN
THAÏS
JOAN OF ARC (2 vols.)

¶ All the books will be published at 6/- each with the exception of JOAN OF ARC, which will be 25/- net the two volumes, with eight Illustrations.

¶ The format of the volumes leaves little to be desired. The size is Demy 8vo (9 × 5¾ in.), that of this Prospectus, and they will be printed from Caslon type upon a paper light in weight and strong in texture, with a cover design in crimson and gold, a gilt top, end-papers from designs by Aubrey Beardsley and initials by Henry Ospovat. In short, these are volumes for the bibliophile as well as the lover of fiction, and form perhaps the cheapest library edition of copyright novels ever published, for the price is only that of an ordinary novel.

¶ The translation of these books has been entrusted to such competent French scholars as mr. alfred allinson, hon. maurice baring, mr. frederic chapman, mr. robert b. douglas, mr. a. w. evans, mrs. farley, mr. lafcadio hearn, mrs. john lane, mrs. newmarch, mr. c. e. roche, miss winifred stephens, and miss m. p. willcocks.

¶ As Anatole Thibault, dit Anatole France, is to most English readers merely a name, it will be well to state that he was born in 1844 in the picturesque and inspiring surroundings of an old bookshop on the Quai Voltaire, Paris, kept by his father, Monsieur Thibault, an authority on eighteenth-century history, from whom the boy caught the passion for the principles of the Revolution, while from his mother he was learning to love the ascetic ideals chronicled in the Lives of the Saints. He was schooled with the lovers of old books, missals and manuscripts; he matriculated on the Quais with the old Jewish dealers of curios and objets d'art; he graduated in the great university of life and experience. It will be recognised that all his work is permeated by his youthful impressions; he is, in fact, a virtuoso at large.

¶ He has written about thirty volumes of fiction. His first novel was JOCASTA & THE FAMISHED CAT (1879). THE CRIME OF SYLVESTRE BONNARD appeared in 1881, and had the distinction of being crowned by the French Academy, into which he was received in 1896.

¶ His work is illuminated with style, scholarship, and psychology; but its outstanding features are the lambent wit, the gay mockery, the genial irony with which he touches every subject he treats. But the wit is never malicious, the mockery never derisive, the irony never barbed. To quote from his own GARDEN OF EPICURUS: "Irony and Pity are both of good counsel; the first with her smiles makes life agreeable, the other sanctifies it to us with her tears. The Irony I invoke is no cruel deity. She mocks neither love nor beauty. She is gentle and kindly disposed. Her mirth disarms anger and it is she teaches us to laugh at rogues and fools whom but for her we might be so weak as to hate."

¶ Often he shows how divine humanity triumphs over mere asceticism, and with entire reverence; indeed, he might be described as an ascetic overflowing with humanity, just as he has been termed a "pagan, but a pagan constantly haunted by the pre-occupation of Christ." He is in turn—like his own Choulette in THE RED LILY—saintly and Rabelaisian, yet without incongruity. At all times he is the unrelenting foe of superstition and hypocrisy. Of himself he once modestly said: "You will find in my writings perfect sincerity (lying demands a talent I do not possess), much indulgence, and some natural affection for the beautiful and good."

¶ The mere extent of an author's popularity is perhaps a poor argument, yet it is significant that two books by this author are in their HUNDRED AND TENTH THOUSAND, and numbers of them well into their SEVENTIETH THOUSAND, whilst the one which a Frenchman recently described as "Monsieur France's most arid book" is in its FIFTY-EIGHTH THOUSAND.

¶ Inasmuch as M. FRANCE'S ONLY contribution to an English periodical appeared in THE YELLOW BOOK, vol. v., April 1895, together with the first important English appreciation of his work from the pan of the Hon. Maurice Baring, it is peculiarly appropriate that the English edition of his works should be issued from the Bodley Head.

ORDER FORM

__________________________________________ 190
To Mr. ______________________________________
Bookseller
Please send me the following works of Anatole France
to be issued in June and July:
THE RED LILY
MOTHER OF PEARL
THE GARDEN OF EPICURUS
THE CRIME OF SYLVESTRE BONNARD
for which I enclose _________________________
Name ____________________________________
Address _________________________________
JOHN LANE, Publisher, The Bodley Head, Vigo St. London, W.

DEVONSHIRE CHARACTERS AND STRANGE EVENTS By S. BARING-GOULD, M.A., Author of "Yorkshire Oddities," etc. Demy 8vo, 21s. net. With 58 Reproductions from Unique Portraits, etc. (Uniform with this Volume.)

A FEW PRESS OPINIONS. Daily News.—"A fascinating series ... the whole book is rich in human interest. It is by these personal touches, drawn from tradition and memoirs, that the dead men, surrounded by the curious panoply of their time, are made to live again in Mr. Baring-Gould's pages."
Westminster Gazette.—"Fascinating reading ... a book which is 'cider and cream' to West Country folk, and is extremely interesting to all who are attracted by human documents which are out of the common."
Globe.—"For a Christmas present to a West Countryman Mr. Baring-Gould's book is unsurpassed.... The volume is full of good stories."
M. P. Willcocks in Daily Chronicle.—"The writing of such a book as 'Devonshire Characters' is a kind of intelligent ancestor worship.... The illustrations are curiously fascinating, and there are fifty-eight of them in the book, which has also an excellent index."
Scotsman.—"Full of out of the way learning, and always brightly written ... an uncommonly interesting and instructive book...."
Times.—"... A more entertaining crew than these Devonshire Characters it would be impossible to find; and the book that perpetuates their memory is excellent reading from cover to cover...."
Pall Mall Gazette.—"... No writer of modern times has so fully breathed the spirit of the West as Mr. Baring-Gould...."
Birmingham Post.—"Mr. S. Baring-Gould shows himself to be very much alive in 'Devonshire Characters,' and we cannot recall a case in which his astonishing literary s energies have been put to more interesting use ... a handsome as well as interesting addition to every library...."
Western Daily Mercury.—"... We can most strenuously advise all Devonshire men and women who have either a love for their county, or a love for a good book, or both, to buy 'Devonshire Characters.' They will never regret it."
Guardian.—"... The eccentric lives and the evil courses of the odd and the profligate have ever afforded more stirring reading than the improving careers of the good, and where we might idly turn the pages of Prince, we must needs follow with keen interest the roads traversed by Mr. Baring-Gould's villains and eccentrics, often to the gallows, or the county gaol, or into the weird old legends of the West...."
Daily Telegraph.—"... His latest work will probably enjoy a longer popularity than anything else that he has done. It is a work that for all West Country folk will have a lasting fascination, dealing as it does with a large number of worthies and unworthies, celebrated people and notorious people, who have been associated with the county."

WEST-COUNTRY BOOKS

THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF ROBERT STEPHEN HAWKER, sometime Vicar of Morwenstow in Cornwall. Edited by C. E. Byles. With numerous Illustrations by J. Ley Pethybridge and others. Demy 8vo. 7s. 6d. net. [Popular Edition.
FOOTPRINTS OF FORMER MEN IN FAR CORNWALL. By Robert Stephen Hawker, of Morwenstow. Edited, with an introduction by C. E. Byles. With Portraits and many Illustrations by J. Ley Pethybridge. Crown 8vo. 5s. net.
CORNISH BALLADS AND OTHER POEMS. Being the Complete Poetical Works of R. S. Hawker. With an Introduction and Notes by C. E. Byles, and numerous Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 5s. net.

THE KING'S GENERAL IN THE WEST. Being the Life of Sir Richard Grenville, Baronet (1600-1659). By Roger Granville, m.a., Sub-Dean of Exeter Cathedral. With Illustrations. Demy 8vo (9 × 5¾ inches). 10s. 6d. net.

THE WESSEX OF THOMAS HARDY. By Bertram Windle. With nearly 100 Illustrations by Edmund H. New. Crown 8vo. 5s. net.

THE CHRONICLE OF A CORNISH GARDEN. By Harry Roberts. With 7 full-page Illustrations of an Ideal Garden and a Cover-design by F. L. Griggs. Crown 8vo. 5s. net.

CORNISH SAINTS AND SINNERS. By J. H. Harris. With numerous Drawings and a Cover-design by L. Raven Hill. Crown 8vo. 6s.

SIR BEVILL: a Romance. By Arthur Christopher | Thynne. With 7 Illustrations by J. Ley | Pethybridge, and a Portrait of Sir Bevill | Granville. Crown 8vo. 6s.

A CHILD OF THE SHORE: a Romance of Cornwall. By S. M. Fox. Crown 8vo. 6s.

NOVELS BY M. P. WILLCOCKS A MAN OF GENIUS. With Illustrations by Winifred Story. Crown 8vo. 6s.
THE WINGLESS VICTORY. Crown 8vo. 6s.
WIDDICOMBE. Crown 8vo. 6s.

JOHN LANE: The Bodley Head, London and New York.

NOTICE

Those who possess old letters, documents, correspondence, MSS., scraps of autobiography, and also miniatures and portraits, relating to persons and matters historical, literary, political and social, should communicate with Mr. John Lane, The Bodley Head, Vigo Street, London, W., who will at all times be pleased to give his advice and assistance, either as to their preservation or publication.