“The House of Quiet” is an autobiography, and something more—a series of very charming essays on people and life—particularly rural life. The writer has placed himself in the chair of an invalid, an individual possessed of full mental vigour and free from bodily pain, but compelled by physical weakness to shirk the rough and tumble of a careless, unheeding, work-a-day world. Cheerfully accepting the inevitable, he betakes himself to a little temple of solitude, where he indulges himself in mild criticism and calm philosophy, exercising a gift of keen observation to the full, but setting down all that comes within his ken, with quaint and tolerant humour and tender whimsicalness. He writes with a pen dipped in the milk of human kindness, and the result is a book to read time and again.
THE THREAD OF GOLD. By A. C. Benson.
The Guardian says:—“The style of the writing is equally simple and yet dignified; from beginning to end an ease of movement charms the reader. The book is abundantly suggestive.... The work is that of a scholar and a thinker, quick to catch a vagrant emotion, and should be read, as it was evidently written, in leisure and solitude. It covers a wide range—art, nature, country life, human character, poetry and the drama, morals and religion.”
THE PAINTERS OF FLORENCE. From the 13th to the 16th Centuries. By Julia Cartwright (Mrs. Ady). With Illustrations.
Mrs. Ady is a competent and gifted writer on Italian painting, and presents in these 350 pages an excellent history of the splendid art and artists of Florence during the golden period from Cimabue and Giotto to Andrea del Sarto and Michelangelo. Those who are taking up the study of the subject could not wish for a more interesting and serviceable handbook.
A LADY’S LIFE IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. By Mrs. Bishop (Isabella L. Bird). With Illustrations.
The Irish Times says:—“‘A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains’ needs no introduction to a public who have known and admired Mrs. Bishop (Isabella L. Bird) as a fearless traveller in the days when it was something of an achievement for a woman to undertake long and remote journeys. Mrs. Bishop is a charming and spirited writer, and this cheap edition of her work will be heartily welcomed.”
THE LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE. By William Garden Blaikie. With Portrait.
This is the standard biography of the great missionary who will for ever stand pre-eminent among African travellers.
DEEDS OF NAVAL DARING; or, Anecdotes of the British Navy. By Edward Giffard.