BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX OF WRITERS.
Buning, Arnold Werumeus, born at Uithuizen (Groningen), in 1846, and served in the Dutch navy from 1861 to 1876, when he was forced by ill-health to retire on a pension. He then settled in his native town, but afterwards removed to the Hague, where he now lives. He is the author of a great number of short stories, mostly more or less naval, and one or more novels, of which the principal is “The Burgomaster’s Inheritance” (Leyden, 1873), and frequently contributes to Eigen Haard and Elsevier’s Geïllustreerd Maandschrift. He is not remarkable for the subtleties of humour, his genius being more akin to the rattling fun and boisterous spirits of such writers as Captain Marryat and the late Henry Kingsley. But he can be touching too, and there is unaffected pathos as well as fun in the little volume, “Marim-Schetsen,” from which our extract is taken. The education of the orphan boy by his father’s old mate, “The Red ’Un,” who trains him up with unsparing rigour in the way in which all good sailors should go, is good in both ways; so is the sketch (in Verschillende Ouwe Heeren) of old Jan Hallema, the Hilligermond pilot.
Cats, Jacob,[[46]] born at Brouwershaven, in Zeeland, 1577; died September 12, 1660; and was buried in the Kloosterkerk at the Hague. He studied law at Leyden, and then travelled in France and Italy. Returning, he practised as a lawyer in his native town for some years. His health gave way, and he visited England in order to consult Dr William Butler, at Cambridge, but received no benefit. He went home to die, but was unexpectedly cured by a strolling alchemist. He then settled at Middleburgh, and married. His profession seems to have left him abundant leisure for poetry, and for enjoying the society of his family at his country place of Grypskerke. It was during this period he produced his “Emblems of Fancy and Love,” “Galatea,” “Mirror of Past and Present,” and “Marriage” (Houwelick). In 1621 he was appointed Pensionary (stipendiary magistrate) of Middleburgh, and in 1623 transferred to the same office at Dordrecht. In 1627 he was sent on a diplomatic mission to England, and knighted by Charles I. After his return he lost his wife, and dedicated to her memory the Trouwringh (“Wedding Ring”), published in 1635. In 1636 he was chosen Grand Pensionary of Holland, resigned his office in 1651, and in 1657 went on another unsuccessful embassy to England, where he delivered a Latin oration before the House of Commons. On coming back to Holland he retired to his villa of Zorgvliet, near the Hague, where he devoted himself once more to farming and poetry, and died at the age of seventy-three. He has always been a most popular writer in Holland, his mixture of canny morality and shrewd homely wit being in thorough accordance with the national genius, which found his long-windedness no drawback. His reputation for “soundness,” and his tendency to preach also, no doubt secured his popularity among a nation peculiarly suspicious of heterodoxy, frivolity, and anything “without a moral at the end,” though it must be said that his notions of propriety appear to be somewhat large when judged by present-day standards. It may seem difficult to believe, after all this, that he possessed the faintest spark of humour; but his shrewd mother wit makes him sometimes amusing, even to an outsider, and now and then he records a touch of that “detached outlook in life, which goes to the making of a real humorist.” Southey, who read Dutch among other things, and was probably introduced to a great deal of Dutch literature by the poet Bilderdijk, has a highly complimentary reference to him in the epistle to Allan Cunningham:
... “Father Cats,
The household poet, teacheth in his songs
The love of all things lovely, all things pure.
Best poet, who delights the cheerful mind
Of childhood, stores with moral strength the heart
Of youth, with wisdom maketh mid-life rich,
And fills with quiet tears the eye of age.”
Cats’ works used to occupy in Dutch households the position of the “Pilgrim’s Progress” and Fox’s “Book of Martyrs” in old-fashioned English ones. He is still popular, not only among his Protestant countrymen, but even in Belgium, and a complete edition of his works has lately been issued at Antwerp. It includes a large collection of proverbs, some of the quainter ones being given in the text. A translation of some of his “Zinne-Beelden” was published, under the title of “Moral Emblems,” by Richard Pigott, in 1860, in a large and handsome volume, with reproductions of the original woodcuts.
Cremer, Jacobus Jan, born at Arnheim in 1827, is now living at the Hague. He devoted himself for a time to painting, but in time entirely abandoned the pencil for the pen. He is most successful in his village stories, the best being located in his native “Betuwe,” which he calls “The Paradise of Holland.” The list of his works, which include novels, short stories, and sketches (published in serial collections), and plays, is far too long to reproduce. Like Dickens, he was at one time conspicuously successful in giving readings and recitations from his own works.
Dekker, Edward Douwes, best known by the pseudonym of Multatuli, was born at Amsterdam, March 2, 1820. He went to Java in 1840 or 1841, with his father, the captain of a vessel, and shortly afterwards obtained a Government clerkship. After a succession of appointments in different places, at one of which he made the acquaintance of the lady who afterwards became his first wife,[[47]] he became “Assistant Resident” at Lebak,—a post which he threw up in 1856, because the Governor-General would not listen to his representations with regard to the extortion and tyranny practised by the native chiefs, and (indirectly) by the Dutch Government. Coming home, he embodied his opinions and experiences in the novel of “Max Havelaar,” which, crude and formless as a literary production, startled the reading public with its origin and audacity, and, having regard to the effect it produced, may fitly be called the Dutch “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” For some time after landing in Holland he and his family were in the greatest distress, as through his hasty resignation he had forfeited the pension which would have been due to him in another year or two. He obtained some grudging help from his wife’s relations, who offered to provide for her entirely if she would leave him, and were righteously indignant at her refusal. With the appearance of “Max Havelaar” his success as a literary man was assured, and from thenceforth he was able to live by his pen, though continually harassed by debts (he was careless, generous, and extravagant, and had a constitutional incapacity for accounts), controversies, and quarrels, well or ill founded, with friends or foes. After the death of his first wife, he was married a second time—to Mej. Schepeles—and made his home in the Rhineland, first at Niederingelheim, and then at Wiesbaden. He died at Mainz, in February 1887. Perhaps his best work is to be found in the Ideen (filling in the collected edition of his works some seven volumes). They are a kind of continuous rambling causerie, contributed to a Dutch daily, the Dageraad, and ranging over every possible topic, full of aphorism, paradox, epigram, and with an occasional story woven in here and there. The most important of these is the delightful fictitious biography of Wouter Pieterse, which, though certainly not an autobiography, incorporates many of the experiences of his childhood and youth. It was never finished, and proceeds in a most capricious manner, being frequently interrupted by digressions for dozens of pages together, and then suddenly taken up again. Some extracts are given from this and other parts of the Ideen. Most of his other works, except the dramas “The Bride in Heaven” and “The School for Princes,” are of a more or less occasional and fugitive character. But Multatuli’s position is not to be measured by the mere number and extent of his works. He is a distinct force in modern Holland, and a name to conjure with to the younger generation of Dutch readers.
Eeden, F. van, is the editor of the Nieuwe Gids, and author of novels, sketches, critical articles, &c., besides the poem “Ellen,” and some plays, including the comedy from which our quotation is taken, and a farce, “The Student at Home.”
Foore, Annie, is the pseudonym of Mevrouw W. J. F. Ijzerman, whose maiden name was Francisca J. J. A. Junius, daughter of a learned theologian, the minister of Tiel. She was born at the latter place in 1847, and married an engineer, at Padang, Sumatra, in 1873. Her principal works are the novels, “The Colonial and his Superior” (1877), “A Family Secret,” “Florence’s Dream,” and several volumes of short stories. The specimens in the present volume are taken from “Family Life in the East Indies.” She has great power of observation, a fine sense of humour, and an easy flowing style of narrative, though sometimes her stories are defective in construction. Her pictures of colonial life are admirable. For the translation of the story “Unbidden Guests,” I am indebted to Miss Margaret Farquharson, of Selkirk.
Huygens, Constantijn, born 1596, at the Hague. His godfathers were the Admiral Justinus von Nassau and the City of Breda; he was named after the “constancy” shown by the latter to the House of Orange. He enjoyed a singularly complete and brilliant education, studied law at Leyden, and became, in 1625, private secretary to Prince Frederick Henry. He was on friendly terms with Hooft, Cats, and the beautiful and talented daughters of Roemer Visscher,—Anna and Tesselschade. Like Cats, he had visited England (in 1618), where he made the acquaintance of John Donne, whose poems he afterwards translated, and whose influence is visible in his writings. He was knighted by James I. in 1622. He married in 1627, and the loss of his wife, ten years later, was the great affliction of his life. He had four sons, the second being the celebrated mathematician, Christian Huygens, and one daughter. He continued his political activity till 1672, when, being to a certain extent superseded on account of his advanced age, he devoted himself to literature and (like most Dutch gentlemen) to gardening at his villa of Hofwijk, near the Hague; he died there in 1687. His works are of various kinds,—didactic and descriptive poems (“Batava Tempe”), satires (“The Costly Request”), epigrams (we give a few translations), the frightfully coarse farce of “Trijntje Cornelis” (taste of the times again!), &c. His best poem is “Oogentrost” (Eye Comfort), dedicated, in 1647, to a friend, Lucretia van Trello, who feared she was going blind. He also wrote a Latin autobiography, under the title “De Vita Propria Sermones.” He published his collected poems under the title “Corn Flowers.” Personally he seems to have been in every way worthy of respect, and is described as “one of the most lovable men that ever lived.”
Keller, Gerard, born at Gouda, February 13, 1829. He was for some time stenographer to the Dutch parliament, and afterwards editor of the Arnheimsche Courant. He is a clever journalist, and voluminous writer of fiction, in which latter department he would appear to have been influenced by Dickens. His earliest novel, “The Tutor’s Family,” appeared in 1857; “Overkompleet,” the sketch from which our extract is taken, appeared in a volume with other short stories in 1871, but has been reprinted in a complete edition of his “Novellen,” of which three volumes have already seen the light. Among his other novels we may mention “The Mortgage on Wasenstein” (1866), “The History of a Halfpenny, and other Stories” (1872), “Off the Rails” (1872), &c. He is also the author of several volumes of travel-sketches, among which we may mention four illustrated quarto volumes, “Amerika in Beeld en Schrift,” and a lively description of a tour in Scotland (“Een Uitstapje naar de Schotsche Hooglanden”), which has appeared quite recently. Keller acted as a newspaper correspondent in France during the Franco-German War, and his experiences there resulted in two books, “Paris Besieged” and “Paris Murdered.” Besides all this he has written several comedies, and numerous contributions to periodical literature, and is now, we believe, the editor of the monthly magazine, Vreemd en Eigen, having previously edited, at different times, Kunst Kroniek and the Geldersche Almanach. His style has a lightness of touch, perhaps due to French influence, and conspicuously wanting in all but some of the most recent Dutch authors, with the exception of Multatuli.
Lamberts-hurrelbrinck, L. H. J., is a young writer, living at Leyden, who has published more than one collection of short stories, mostly dealing with the province of Limburg and its people. His first volume, “Limburgsche Novellen,” was reviewed, with perhaps undue severity, in De Gids for July 1890—a judgment which, it is said, was not altogether uninfluenced by party spirit. A later volume is “Van Limburg’s Bodem.” The sketch in the text appeared in Elsevier’s Maandschrift for September 1892, and is to a certain extent founded on fact.
Lennep, Jacob van, one of the best known of modern Dutch writers. Belonging to a literary family, he was born at Amsterdam in 1802, studied at Leyden, and took a law degree in 1824, and settled as a lawyer at Amsterdam. In 1854–56 he was a member of the Second Chamber of the States-General. He died at Oosterbeek (Gelderland) on August 25, 1868. His literary industry was so prodigious that we cannot attempt to give a list of his works, which were chiefly poems, novels (published in a collected edition of 19 vols.), plays, and historical studies. Perhaps his best novel is “Klaasje Zevenster,” from which the bit of description we have quoted is taken. We give his comedy, “The Village on the Frontier,” entire.
Seipgens, Emile Anton Hubert, born at Roermond (Limburg), August 16, 1837. He was at first in the brewing business, but is now a teacher of German language and literature in the “Rijks Hoogere Burgerschool” of his native town. He has written several plays, some of them in the Roermond dialect, and two or three volumes of short stories, most of them strongly “Limburgsch” in local colour. The extract here given is taken from the volume entitled “In en om het klein Stadje” (Amsterdam, 1887). Another collection is entitled “Langs Maas en Geul.” He is an occasional contributor to the monthly magazine De Gids, and also to Elsevier’s “Illustrated.”
[1]. The oldest “Chambers of Rhetoric” (or Collèges de Rhétorique—the name probably originated in the French influence introduced by the House of Burgundy) date back to about 1400, or some years previous. The oldest would seem to be the “Alpha and Omega,” at Ypres, and the Antwerp “Violieren” (wall-flowers). The most famous, perhaps, is the Amsterdam association, “De Eglantier,” better known perhaps under the name of its motto, “In Liefde Bloeiende” (Blooming in Love). They held poetical competitions, placed upon the stage (usually with great magnificence) plays written and acted by their members, and arranged the most splendid pageants and processions on the occasion of any festival or public rejoicing. They also celebrated festivals of their own, the most important of which were known by the name of Landjuweelen. In 1496 a great Landjuweel was held at Antwerp by twenty-eight societies, at which the Eglantier gained the first prize. But the most famous of all was the Landjuweel of 1561, also held at Antwerp, beginning on the 3rd August, when the chambers of Brabant and Flanders vied with one another in magnificence. The Brussels society, “The Book,” was represented by 340 members, all on horseback in crimson mantles. This festival was revived on the occasion of the jubilee of the Belgian Academy of Antiquities, August 1892.
[2]. The plot of the “Bride in Heaven” is briefly this:—Many years before the opening of the play, Major Huser had killed Baron Van Bergen in a duel. There was no personal enmity between the men,—indeed they were intimate friends; it was only public opinion and a barbarous etiquette that forced on this ending to a trifling dispute. Huser was broken-hearted at the way it ended: he accepted the charge of Van Bergen’s only son as a sacred trust; and when he died, shortly afterwards, made his own son, Gustaaf, promise to be a friend to young Van Bergen at any sacrifice. Van Bergen turned out wild and dissipated, and Gustaaf redeemed his promise by taking on himself a forgery committed by his friend when in desperate straits for lack of money at the university. No one knew the truth of this affair but himself, Van Bergen, and the latter’s worthless valet, Frans. The proofs of the whole were contained in certain letters in Van Bergen’s possession. Huser disappears from society, and is supposed to have fled the country. As a matter of fact, he is getting his living as a music-master, under the name of Holm, and as such he is introduced to us in the play. His principal pupil is Caroline, daughter of a high government official named Van Wachler,—a shrewd, honourable, and upright man, of simple tastes, meeting with little sympathy from his fashionable and affected wife, with her would-be French manners, and the aristocratic connections she will not allow him to forget. Mevrouw Van Wachler is young Van Bergen’s aunt, and exceedingly anxious to marry her daughter to the scapegrace, who, for his part, is not unwilling to accept such a way of escape from his embarrassments. Her husband is less dazzled by the match, and declares his intention of letting his daughter choose for herself. He questions her, and finds that her affections are set on Holm. Holm, who has meanwhile awakened to the fact that he is in love with Caroline, has made up his mind that he must leave without a sign; but Van Wachler’s genial kindness wins his secret from him, and, finding that the statesman respects him for himself, and is willing to take his position and his past for granted, and that all he has to do is, to consent to the engagement, he can only shut his eyes for the moment, and accept the offered happiness. In the second act, which, with a few unimportant abridgments, is given entire in the text, General Van Weller, brother to Mevrouw Van Wachler, and the elder Huser’s old friend and comrade, returns from the Indies, determined to clear up the mystery of Gustaaf Huser’s disappearance, and is unwittingly helped on to the right track by Frans. In the third act, Holm and Van Bergen meet—the best side of the latter comes uppermost, and he has a passing mood of repentance and reconciliation. But Frans’ influence is too strong; he is persuaded to take a base advantage of his rival, and tells the Van Wachler family, in Holm’s presence, that the latter is not only passing under a false name, but is an outlaw and a convicted felon. Holm (who had previously made up his mind, for the sake of their old friendship and his promise to his father, to renounce Caroline, in the hope that her love—could he succeed in winning it—might save Van Bergen) is stunned and driven to despair by this treacherous attack, goes home to his lodgings, and is about to commit suicide, when he is interrupted by a visit from a man whose children he saved from a fire a year ago, and who has now brought them to see him. This man (Wolf) discovers his purpose, and does not leave till he has persuaded him to forego it. Scarcely has he gone, when Caroline comes in. She tells Holm that she has come to bid him farewell, but that nothing that has happened can make any possible difference to their love. If she may not belong to him on earth, she will be his bride in the other life, and wait for him there. So they part.
Van Wachler is full of indignation at the way in which he considers himself to have been deceived by Holm, but Van Weller arrives in time to explain everything,—tells the whole story, sends for Holm, or Huser, and sees his old friend’s son triumphantly righted, while Van Bergen retires in disgrace. (See A Rascally Valet, p. [65].)
[3]. Strictly speaking, “Dominie,” in Holland, is a title reserved for ministers, the old-fashioned designation of the schoolmaster being simply “Meester.” But as the former title has, with us, become inseparably attached to the latter profession, it has been thought best to use it as the translation of “Meester.”
[4]. Equivalent to the French garde-champêtre and the German Feldschütz,—an official who is something between a gamekeeper and a policeman. His duty is to patrol the fields and orchards with a gun, and see that nothing is stolen.
[5]. Readers of Motley will not need to be reminded that this was the name of William the Silent’s murderer.
[6]. “Wethouders:” corresponding to the “selectmen” of a New England village.
[7]. Doe wel en zie niet om (Do well, and don’t look behind you), was the motto of the Knights of the Union. King Louis of Holland (Napoleon I.’s brother) was but an indifferent Dutch scholar, and the tradition goes, that, having to preside at a chapter of the above Order, he was provided with a French phonetic version of their motto, as follows: Doux lainsi nid d’homme. With the aid of this guide to pronunciation he is said to have acquitted himself all right; but on another occasion he came to grief by describing himself as the “friend and rabbit” (Konijn, quasi koning, king) of his audience.
[8]. The Dr Watts of Holland.
[9]. A society at Amsterdam, which, besides fulfilling the usual functions of a club, holds picture exhibitions and gives concerts, and founded the zoological gardens in that city (hence often referred to as “Artis,” tout court), to which its members have free right of entry. Membership in “Artis,” as implied in the text, is a trustworthy guarantee of respectability.
[10]. The hierarchy of Dutch etiquette is as follows, beginning from above:—Mevrouw, Juffrouw, Vrouw.
[11]. I.e., confirmation.
[12]. Erroneously so. For, even though this is not humour, it is quite true that jokes of this sort are given out as such; and Master Pennewip’s question can only have referred to this. The wig’s doubts are therefore unfounded, and I would recommend to it the attentive perusal of Professor Oosterzee’s treatise, “De Sceptici mo caute Vitando.”
[13]. Two outlying districts of Amsterdam.
[14]. “L’eau de reine,” i.e., “eau de la reine de Hongrie,” known in England as “Hungary water,” a fashionable perfume and restorative when eau de Cologne as yet was not. Dutch ladies used to take it to church with them instead of smelling-salts. Juffrouw Pieterse’s version of the word is pronounced as spelt, the y being long like that in the English word my.
[15]. Intended for “marchand de parapluies.” The words in the above form were the refrain of a favourite Amsterdam street song some seventy years since.
[16]. The official known in a Dutch church as Kerkmeester combines in himself functions analogous to those of the English clerk and churchwarden, or the Scottish beadle and precentor.
[17]. The Nes is a low part of Amsterdam, full of taverns and music-halls of the worst description.
[18]. 20 stivers = 1 florin = 1s. 8d.
[19]. 5 stivers.
[20]. Two Leyden theological professors in the early part of this century.
[21]. The “Authorised Version” of Holland, published by order of the States General, and in consequence of a resolution of the Synod of Dort, in 1610. It was completed in 1634.
[22]. “Rederijkers” (i.e., “rhetorikers”) Kamer is the name given to the literary societies which still flourish at the Dutch universities. The name has come down from the fifteenth century, and the most famous societies were those of “In Liefde Bloeiende” and “De Eglantier,” further reference to which will be found in the Introduction.
[23]. There are two provinces of Limburg; one of them being part of Belgium, the other of the Netherlands. In the latter (which is the one meant here) the people are Romanists and call themselves Flemings, not Hollanders.
[24]. Fourth part of a stuiver.
[25]. This story appears to have several morals, the reader being left free to choose the one most in accordance with his own views. The author himself is strictly impartial. Perhaps the most obvious is, that it is not good to match your wits against those of the Roman Catholic clergy, unless you have capital to back your opposition, and not always even then. M. Seipgens does not obtrude his own views, and we are not quite sure whether the conclusion is meant to be serious and edifying, or whether there is an underlying pointe d’ironie. The story gives a lively picture of life and manners in the Limburg district, that picturesque and little known region which, though part of Holland, is in some respects so un-Dutch. The language spoken there is less like Dutch proper than some broad and harsh dialect of German, such as they speak about Cologne. After some hesitation between the two, we have given this sketch of Seipgens’ in preference to “Kobus Mulders’ Vote,”—which also turns on politics and clerical influence, and is, in some respects, more characteristic; but the crisis—when Mulders and his family are cut off by the flood—comes too near tragedy for such a book as this.
[26]. The scene of this play is laid on what is now the frontier between Holland and Belgium,—the time is 1830,—when the southern provinces of the Kingdom of Holland revolted. The Liberal (French) party allied itself with the Clerical Ultramontanes against the Government, and the news of the Paris Revolution precipitated the outbreak of a riot at Brussels (August 25), which soon spread over the country.
[27]. This is an allusion to one Kissels, who had been getting his living by exhibiting a whale’s skeleton at Amsterdam, and joined the Belgian side on the outbreak of the war.
[28]. A Flemish expletive.
[29]. “Up with Orange!” the Dutch national war-cry.
[30]. I.e., is born to be hanged. The site of the gallows is the Rabenstein in old German ballads.
[31]. “Grease” here has the sense of what is figuratively called “palm-oil.”
[32]. An illustration of comfortable, “Philistine” selfishness. The pumping is supposed to be going on either on board a leaking vessel, or at a break in the dykes.
[33]. I.e., cotton and pepper.
[34]. This is puzzling at first sight, but apparently is a comparison between the three nations in point of foresight and prudence,—the knife standing for anything needed in case of emergencies. The Hollander is always prepared, the Frenchman never, the Scot makes assurance doubly sure.
[35]. Another uncomplimentary proverb has it that the Portuguese apprentice wants to cut out clothes before he knows how to sew.
[36]. Lit. “Madam my consort.”
[37]. This marriage would be legal in Holland.
[38]. Two-wheeled trap or dogcart (a Malay word).
[39]. Chinese trader.
[40]. Kabaja is a long loose jacket, and sarong the Malay petticoat, forming the usual morning dress of Dutch ladies in the Indies.
[41]. Njo is the Malay title given to the eldest boy in a family (like baba in Hindustani); for a girl it is Nonnie.
[42]. “No.”
[43]. Sambal answers to the curry of British India, and is as various in its composition.
[44]. Broth.
[45]. The Javanese equivalent to “ayah.”
[46]. See Introduction.
[47]. She was Everdine Huberte, Baroness Wynbergen, a portionless orphan of good family, whose property, seized by rapacious relatives, afterwards cost him a series of lawsuits. Having picked up a lady’s handkerchief at a ball, he chose to interpret the initials worked on it as “Eigen Heard Wel Waard” (“A hearth of one’s own is worth much”) and at once declared his intention of finding and marrying the owner. She is the Tine of “Max Havelaar.”
LIBRARY OF HUMOUR
Cloth Elegant, Large Crown 8vo, Price 3/6 per vol.
VOLUMES ALREADY ISSUED.
THE HUMOUR OF FRANCE. Translated, with an Introduction and Notes, by Elizabeth Lee. With numerous Illustrations by Paul Frénzeny.
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“French wit is excellently represented. We have here examples of Villon, Rabelais, and Molière, but we have specimens also of La Rochefoucauld, Regnard, Voltaire, Beaumarchais, Chamfort, Dumas, Gautier, Labiche, De Banville, Pailleron, and many others.... The book sparkles from beginning to end.”—Globe (London).
THE HUMOUR OF GERMANY. Translated, with an Introduction and Notes, by Hans Müller-Casenov. With numerous Illustrations by C. E. Brock.
An excellently representative volume.—Daily Telegraph (London).
“Whether it is Saxon kinship or the fine qualities of the collection, we have found this volume the most entertaining of the three. Its riotous absurdities well overbalance its examples of the oppressively heavy.... The national impulse to make fun of the war correspondent has a capital example in the skit from Julius Stettenheim.”—New York Independent.
THE HUMOUR OF ITALY. Translated, with an Introduction and Notes, by A. Werner. With 50 Illustrations and a Frontispiece by Arturo Faldi.
“Will reveal to English readers a whole new world of literature.”—Athenæum. (London).
“Apart from selections of writers of classical reputation, the book contains some delightful modern short stories and sketches. We may particularly mention those by Verga, Capuana, De Amicis.... Excellent also are one or two of the jokes and ‘bulls’ which figure under the heading of newspaper humour.”—Literary World (London).
THE HUMOUR OF AMERICA. Selected, with a copious Biographical Index of American Humorists, by James Barr.
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THE HUMOUR OF HOLLAND. Translated, with an Introduction and Notes, by A. Werner. With numerous Illustrations by Dudley Hardy.
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THE HUMOUR OF IRELAND. Selected by D. J. O’Donoghue. With numerous Illustrations by Oliver Paque.
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THE HUMOUR OF SPAIN. Translated, with an Introduction and Notes, by S. Taylor. With numerous Illustrations.
To be followed by volumes representative of England, Scotland, Japan, etc. The Series will be complete in about twelve volumes.
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ENGLISH FAIRY AND OTHER FOLK TALES.
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Selected and Edited, with an Introduction,
By Sir GEORGE DOUGLAS, Bart.
With Twelve Full-Page Illustrations by James Torrance.
IRISH FAIRY AND FOLK TALES.
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With Twelve Full-Page Illustrations by James Torrance.
IBSEN’S PROSE DRAMAS.
Edited by WILLIAM ARCHER.
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“We seem at last to be shown men and women as they are; and at first it is more than we can endure.... All Ibsen’s characters speak and act as if they were hypnotized, and under their creator’s imperious demand to reveal themselves. There never was such a mirror held up to nature before: it is too terrible.... Yet we must return to Ibsen, with his remorseless surgery, his remorseless electric-light, until we, too, have grown strong and learned to face the naked—if necessary, the flayed and bleeding—reality.”—Speaker (London).
Vol. I. “A DOLL’S HOUSE,” “THE LEAGUE OF YOUTH,” and “THE PILLARS OF SOCIETY.” With Portrait of the Author, and Biographical Introduction by William Archer.
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Vol. IV. “EMPEROR AND GALILEAN.” With an Introductory Note by William Archer.
Vol. V. “ROSMERSHOLM,” “THE LADY FROM THE SEA,” “HEDDA GABLER.” Translated by William Archer. With an Introductory Note.
The sequence of the plays in each volume is chronological; the complete set of volumes comprising the dramas thus presents them in chronological order.
“The art of prose translation does not perhaps enjoy a very high literary status in England, but we have no hesitation in numbering the present version of Ibsen, so far as it has gone (Vols. I. and II.), among the very best achievements, in that kind, of our generation.”—Academy.
“We have seldom, if ever, met with a translation so absolutely idiomatic.”—Glasgow Herald.
Crown 8vo, about 350 pp. each, Cloth Cover, 2s. 6d. per vol.
Half-polished Morocco, gilt top, 5s.
COUNT TOLSTOÏ’S WORKS.
The following Volumes are already issued—
A RUSSIAN PROPRIETOR.
THE COSSACKS.
IVAN ILYITCH, and other Stories.
MY RELIGION.
LIFE.
MY CONFESSION.
CHILDHOOD, BOYHOOD, YOUTH.
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF WAR.
ANNA KARÉNINA 3s. 6d.
WHAT TO DO?
WAR AND PEACE. (4 Vols.)
THE LONG EXILE, and other Stories for Children.
SEVASTOPOL.
THE KREUTZER SONATA, AND FAMILY HAPPINESS.
Uniform with the above.
IMPRESSIONS OF RUSSIA
By Dr. Georg Brandes.
BOOKS AT 6/–.
VAIN FORTUNE. By George Moore. With Eleven Illustrations by Maurice Greiffenhagen.
MODERN PAINTING. A Volume of Essays. By George Moore.
PEER GYNT: A Dramatic Poem. By Henrik Ibsen. Translated by William and Charles Archer.
AMONG THE CAMPS; OR, YOUNG PEOPLE’S STORIES OF THE WAR. By Thomas Nelson Page. (Illustrated.)
THE MUSIC OF THE POETS: A Musicians’ Birthday Book. Edited by Eleonore D’Esterre Keeling.
THE GERM-PLASM: A Theory of Heredity. By August Weismann, Professor in the University of Freiburg-in-Breisgau.
DRAMATIC ESSAYS.
EDITED BY
WILLIAM ARCHER AND ROBERT W. LOWE.
Three Volumes, Crown 8vo, Cloth, Price 3/6 each.
Dramatic Criticism, as we now understand it—the systematic appraisement from day to day and week to week of contemporary plays and acting—began in England about the beginning of the present century. Until very near the end of the eighteenth century, “the critics” gave direct utterance to their judgments in the theatre itself, or in the coffeehouses, only occasionally straying into print in letters to the news-sheets, or in lampoons or panegyrics in prose or verse, published in pamphlet form. Modern criticism began with modern journalism; but some of its earliest utterances were of far more than ephemeral value. During the earlier half of the present century several of the leading essayists of the day—men of the first literary eminence—concerned themselves largely with the theatre. Under the title of
“DRAMATIC ESSAYS”
will be issued, in three volumes, such of their theatrical criticisms as seem to be of abiding interest.
THE FIRST SERIES will contain selections from the criticisms of LEIGH HUNT, both those published in 1807 (long out of print), and the admirable articles contributed more than twenty years later to The Tatler, and never republished.
THE SECOND SERIES will contain selections from the criticisms of WILLIAM HAZLITT. Hazlitt’s Essays on Kean and his contemporaries have long been inaccessible, save to collectors.
THE THIRD SERIES will contain hitherto uncollected criticisms by JOHN FORSTER, GEORGE HENRY LEWES, and others, with selections from the writings of WILLIAM ROBSON (The Old Playgoer).
The Essays will be concisely but adequately annotated, and each volume will contain an Introduction by William Archer, and an Engraved Portrait Frontispiece.
Crown 8vo, Cloth, Price 6s.
MODERN PAINTING.
By GEORGE MOORE.
SOME PRESS NOTICES.
“Of the very few books on art that painters and critics should on no account leave unread this is surely one.”—The Studio.
“His book is one of the best books about pictures that have come into our hands for some years.”—St. James’s Gazette.
“If there is an art critic who knows exactly what he means and says it with exemplary lucidity, it is ‘G. M.’”—The Sketch.
“A more original, a better informed, a more suggestive, and let us add, a more amusing work on the art of to-day, we have never read than this volume.”—Glasgow Herald.
“Impressionism, to use that word, in the absence of any fitter one,—the impressionism which makes his own writing on art in this volume so effective, is, in short, the secret both of his likes and dislikes, his hatred of what he thinks conventional and mechanic, together with his very alert and careful evaluation of what comes home to him as straightforward, whether in Reynolds, or Rubens, or Ruysdael, in Japan, in Paris, or in modern England.”—Mr. Pater in The Chronicle.
“As an art critic Mr. George Moore certainly has some signal advantages. He is never dull, he is frankly personal, he is untroubled by tradition.”—Westminster Gazette.
“Mr. Moore, in spite of the impediments that he puts in the way of his own effectiveness, is one of the most competent writers on painting that we have.”—Manchester Guardian.
“His [Mr. Moore’s] book is one that cannot fail to be much talked about; and everyone who is interested in modern painting will do well to make acquaintance with its views.”—Scottish Leader.
“As everybody knows by this time, Mr. Moore is a person of strong opinions and strong dislikes, and has the gift of expressing both in pungent language.”—The Times.
“Of his [Mr. Moore’s] sincerity, of his courage, and of his candour there can be no doubt.... One of the most interesting writers on art that we have.”—Pall Mall Gazette.
WORKS BY GEORGE MOORE.
Crown 8vo, Cloth, Price 3s. 6d. each.
TWENTIETH EDITION.
A MUMMER’S WIFE.
“‘A Mummer’s Wife’ is a striking book—clever, unpleasant, realistic.... No one who wishes to examine the subject of realism in fiction, with regard to English novels, can afford to neglect ‘A Mummer’s Wife.’”—Athenæum.
“‘A Mummer’s Wife,’ in virtue of its vividness of presentation and real literary skill, may be regarded as in some degree a representative example of the work of a literary school that has of late years attracted to itself a great deal of notoriety.”—Spectator.
EIGHTH EDITION.
A MODERN LOVER.
“It would be difficult to praise too highly the strength, truth, delicacy, and pathos of the incident of Gwynnie Lloyd, and the admirable treatment of the great sacrifice she makes.”—Spectator.
SEVENTH EDITION.
A DRAMA IN MUSLIN.
“Mr. George Moore’s work stands on a very much higher plane than the facile fiction of the circulating libraries.... The characters are drawn with patient care, and with a power of individualisation which marks the born novelist. It is a serious, powerful, and in many respects edifying book.”—Pall Mall Gazette.
Crown 8vo, Cloth, Price 6s.
VAIN FORTUNE.
With Eleven Illustrations by Maurice Greiffenhagen.
A few Large-Paper Copies on Hand-made Paper, Price One Guinea net.
A VOLUME of ESSAYS by GEORGE MOORE.
Crown 8vo, Cloth, Price 6s.
MODERN PAINTING.
Crown 8vo, Cloth, Price 5s.
THE STRIKE AT ARLINGFORD.
Play in Three Acts.
COMPACT AND PRACTICAL.
In Limp Cloth; for the Pocket. Price One Shilling.
THE EUROPEAN
CONVERSATION BOOKS.
FRENCH
SPANISH
ITALIAN
GERMAN
NORWEGIAN
CONTENTS.
Hints to Travellers—Everyday Expressions—Arriving at and Leaving a Railway Station—Custom House Enquiries—In a Train—At a Buffet and Restaurant—At an Hotel—Paying an Hotel Bill—Enquiries in a Town—On Board Ship—Embarking and Disembarking—Excursion by Carriage—Enquiries as to Diligences—Enquiries as to Boats—Engaging Apartments—Washing List and Days of Week—Restaurant Vocabulary—Telegrams and Letters, etc., etc.
The contents of these little handbooks are so arranged as to permit direct and immediate reference. All dialogues or enquiries not considered absolutely essential have been purposely excluded, nothing being introduced which might confuse the traveller rather than assist him. A few hints are given in the introduction which will be found valuable to those unaccustomed to foreign travel.
London: Walter Scott, 24 Warwick Lane, Paternoster Row.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
- Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling.
- Archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings retained as printed.