⁂ “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 With its numerous hitherto unpublished documents and illustrations, drawn from contemporary sources, it cannot fail to interest those to whom a most brilliant and romantic period in English history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.