MEMORIES OF SIXTY YEARS AT ETON, CAMBRIDGE AND ELSEWHERE. By Oscar Browning. Illustrated. Demy 8vo. 14s. net.
THE STORY OF DON JOHN OF AUSTRIA. By Padre Luis Coloma, S.J., of the Real Academia Española. Translated by Lady Moreton. With Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 16s. net.
⁂ “A new type of book, half novel and half history,” as it is very aptly called in a discourse delivered on the occasion of Padre Coloma’s election to the Academia de España, the story of the heroic son of Charles V. is retold by one of Spain’s greatest living writers with a vividness and charm all his own. The childhood of Jeromin, afterwards Don John of Austria reads like a mysterious romance. His meteoric career is traced through the remaining chapters of the book; first as the attractive youth; the cynosure of all eyes that were bright and gay at the court of Philip II., which Padre Coloma maintains was less austere than is usually supposed; then as conqueror of the Moors, culminating as the “man from God” who saved Europe from the terrible peril of a Turkish dominion; triumphs in Tunis; glimpses of life in the luxury loving Italy of the day; then the sad story of the war in the Netherlands, when our hero, victim of an infamous conspiracy, is left to die of a broken heart; his end hastened by fever, and, maybe, by the “broth of Doctor Ramirez.” Perhaps more fully than ever before is laid bare the intrigue which led to the cruel death of the secretary, Escovedo, including the dramatic interview between Philip II. and Antonio Perez, in the lumber room of the Escorial. A minute account of the celebrated auto da fe in Valladolid cannot fail to arrest attention, nor will the details of several of the imposing ceremonies of Old Spain be less welcome than those of more intimate festivities in the Madrid of the sixteenth century, or of everyday life in a Spanish castle.
⁂ “This book has all the fascination of a vigorous roman à clef . . . the translation is vigorous and idiomatic.”—Mr. Owen Edwards in Morning Post.
THIRTEEN YEARS OF A BUSY WOMAN’S LIFE. By Mrs. Alec Tweedie. With Nineteen Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 16s. net. Third Edition.
⁂ It is a novel idea for an author to give her reasons for taking up her pen as a journalist and writer of books. This Mrs. Alec Tweedie has done in “Thirteen Years of a Busy Woman’s Life.” She tells a dramatic story of youthful happiness, health, wealth, and then contrasts that life with the thirteen years of hard work that followed the loss of her husband, her father, and her income in quick succession in a few weeks. Mrs. Alec Tweedie’s books of travel and biography are well-known, and have been through many editions, even to shilling copies for the bookstalls. This is hardly an autobiography, the author is too young for that, but it gives romantic, and tragic peeps into the life of a woman reared in luxury, who suddenly found herself obliged to live on a tiny income with two small children, or work—and work hard—to retain something of her old life and interests. It is a remarkable story with many personal sketches of some of the best-known men and women of the day.
⁂ “One of the gayest and sanest surveys of English society we have read for years.”—Pall Mall Gazette.
⁂ “A pleasant laugh from cover to cover.”—Daily Chronicle.
THE ENGLISH AND FRENCH IN THE XVIITH CENTURY. By Charles Bastide. With Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 12s. 6d. net.
⁂ The author of this book of essays on the intercourse between England and France in the seventeenth century has gathered much curious and little-known information. How did the travellers proceed from London to Paris? Did the Frenchmen who came over to England learn, and did they ever venture to write English? An almost unqualified admiration for everything French then prevailed: French tailors, milliners, cooks, even fortune-tellers, as well as writers and actresses, reigned supreme. How far did gallomania affect the relations between the two countries? Among the foreigners who settled in England none exercised such varied influence as the Hugenots; students of Shakespeare and Milton can no longer ignore the Hugenot friends of the two poets, historians of the Commonwealth must take into account the “Nouvelles ordinaires de Londres.” the French gazette, issued on the Puritan side, by some enterprising refugee. Is it then possible to determine how deeply the refugees impressed English thought? Such are the main questions to which the book affords an answer. With its numerous hitherto unpublished documents and illustrations, drawn from contemporary sources, it cannot fail to interest those to whom a most brilliant and romantic period in English history must necessarily appeal.
THE VAN EYCKS AND THEIR ART. By W. H. James Weale, with the co-operation of Maurice Brockwell. With numerous Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 12s. 6d. net.
⁂ The large book on “Hubert and John Van Eyck” which Mr. Weale published in 1908 through Mr. John Lane was instantly recognised by the reviewers and critics as an achievement of quite exceptional importance. It is now felt that the time has come for a revised and slightly abridged edition of that which was issued four years ago at £5 5s. net. The text has been compressed in some places and extended in others, while certain emendations have been made, and after due reflection, the plan of the book has been materially recast. This renders it of greater assistance to the student.
The large amount of research work and methodical preparation of a revised text obliged Mr. Weale, through failing health and eyesight, to avail himself of the services of Mr. Brockwell, and Mr. Weale gives it as his opinion in the new Foreword that he doubts whether he could have found a more able collaborator than Mr. Brockwell to edit this volume.
“The Van Eycks and their Art,” so far from being a mere reprint at a popular price of “Hubert and John Van Eyck,” contains several new features, notable among which are the inclusion of an Appendix giving details of all the sales at public auction in any country from 1662 to 1912 of pictures reputed to be by the Van Eycks. An entirely new and ample Index has been compiled, while the bibliography, which extends over many pages, and the various component parts of the book have been brought abreast of the most recent criticism. Detailed arguments are given for the first time of a picture attributed to one of the brothers Van Eyck in a private collection in Russia.
In conclusion it must be pointed out that Mr. Weale has, with characteristic care, read through the proofs and passed the whole book for press.
The use of a smaller format and of thinner paper renders the present edition easier to handle as a book of reference.
COKE OF NORFOLK AND HIS FRIENDS. The Life of Thomas Coke, First Earl of Leicester and of Holkham. By A. M. W. Stirling. New Edition, revised, with some additions. With 19 Illustrations. In one volume. Demy 8vo. 12s. 6d. net.