Chapter V

Vidal, 74
Vulture, 175

W
Wagtail, 7
Wagtail, pied, 26, 27, 180
Wallace, 161
Warbler, 219, 220
Weaver-bird, 137, 183-189, 219
“White ant,” 182
White-breasted kingfisher, 4, 86
Widgeon, 8
Woodpecker, golden-backed, 84-88
Wren, 1, 219
Wren-warbler, ashy, 222, 223
Wren-warbler, Indian, 219-222
Wryneck, 84

_BY THE SAME AUTHOR_

BOMBAY DUCKS: An account of some of the Every-day Birds and Beasts
found in a Naturalist’s El Dorado · With Numerous Illustrations from
Photographs of Living Birds by Captain F. D. S. Fayrer, I.M.S.

ANIMALS OF NO IMPORTANCE

THE INDIAN CROW: HIS BOOK

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, and 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
THE WELL OF ST. CLARE
THE OPINIONS OF JEROME COIGNARD
JOCASTA AND THE FAMISHED CAT
BALTHASAR
THE ASPIRATIONS OF JEAN SERVIEN
THE ELM TREE ON THE MALL
MY FRIEND’S BOOK
THE WICKER-WORK WOMAN
THAÏS
AT THE SIGN OF THE QUEEN PÉDAUQUE
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, 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 ascetism, 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 pen 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.

BOMBAY DUCKS

AN ACCOUNT OF SOME OF THE EVERYDAY BIRDS & BEASTS FOUND IN A
NATURALIST’S EL DORADO

BY DOUGLAS DEWAR, F.Z.S., I.C.S.

With Numerous Illustrations from Photographs of
Living Birds by Captain F. D. S. Fayrer, I.M.S.

PRESS OPINIONS.

_Spectator._—“Mr. Douglas Dewar’s book is excellent. . . . A feature of the book is the photographs of birds by Captain Fayrer. They are most remarkable, and quite unlike the usual wretched snapshot and blurred reproductions with which too many naturalists’ books are nowadays illustrated.”

_Standard._—“The East has ever been a place of wonderment, but the writer of ‘Bombay Ducks’ brings before Western eyes a new set of pictures. . . . The book is entertaining, even to the reader who is not a naturalist first and a reader afterwards. . . . The illustrations cannot be too highly praised.”

_Daily News._—“This new and sumptuous book. . . . Mr. Dewar gives us a charming introduction to a great many interesting birds.”

_Pall Mall Gazette._—“Most entertaining dissertations on the tricks and manners of many birds and beasts in India.”

_Graphic._—“The book is written in a most readable style, light and easy, yet full of information, and not overburdened with scientific words and phrases. . . . The habits of the different birds are fully described, often in a very amusing and interesting manner.”

_Outlook._—“Pleasant reading, with pretty touches of the author’s own fancy; a good deal of information agreeably conveyed. . . . The illustrations are of an extremely high order, constituting not only a beautiful, but a really valuable series of portraits.”

_County Gentleman._—“Thoroughly entertaining to all who can appreciate either animal life as seen through practised eyes, or witty and humorous writing in any form. . . . The book is handsomely produced, and is altogether an attractive acquisition.”

_Illustrated London News._—“Mr. Dewar . . . has collected a series of essays on bird life which for sprightliness and charm are equal to anything written since that classic, ‘The Tribes on my Frontier,’ was published.”

_Indian Daily News._—“Mr. Dewar’s excellent book. . . . We sincerely hope that our readers will derive the same lively pleasure from the reading of this book as we have done.”

_Yorkshire Daily Observer._—“This handsome and charming book . . . the author has many interesting observations to record, and he does so in a very racy manner.”

_Dublin Express._—“Mr. Dewar’s account of the ‘Naturalist’s El Dorado’ is particularly captivating, and is rendered not the less so by the splendidly produced photographs of living birds.”

_Manchester Guardian._—“. . . A series of clever and accurate essays on Indian natural history written by a man who really knows the birds and beasts. . . .”

_Shooting Times._—“. . . a more delightful work than ‘Bombay Ducks’ has not passed through our hands for many a long day, and the way the themes are written are so much to the point. There is not a dull line in the book, which is beautifully illustrated. . . .”

_Truth._—“. . . A naturalist with a happy gift for writing in a bright and entertaining way, yet without any sacrifice of scientific accuracy. . . .”

_Western Daily Press._—“. . . The descriptions of the habits and characteristics of these ‘Bombay Ducks’ is a solid and welcome contribution to science, quite as valuable as the dry-as-dust descriptions of new species. . . .”

INDIAN BOOKS

KASHMIR: The Land of Streams and Solitudes. By P. Pirie. With
Twenty-five Full-page Plates in Colour, and upwards of 100 other
Illustrations by H. R. Pirie. Crown 4to (10 x 6½ in.). 21s. net.

_This book is the result of three years’ wandering on the outposts of
civilization, where author and artist proceeded by special permission
of the Governor of India, thus being enabled to penetrate far into the
wilds, especially along the Gilgit road, where, as a rule, none but a
sportsman or an officer on duty penetrates. The volume has numerous
illustrations reproduced in colour, line, and half-tone, and forms a
work in which Kashmir is described by pen, pencil, and brush. In the
colour illustrations the artist has caught the atmosphere as well as
the natural features of the country she so ably portrays._

RIFLE & ROMANCE IN THE INDIAN JUNGLE: Being the Record of Thirteen
Years of Indian Jungle Life. By Captain A. I. R. Glasfurd (Indian
Army). With numerous Illustrations by the Author and Reproductions from
Photographs. New and Cheaper Edition. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. net.

ORNITHOLOGICAL AND OTHER ODDITIES. By Frank Finn, B.A. (Oxon.), F.Z.S.,
late Deputy-Superintendent of the Indian Museum, Calcutta. With
numerous Illustrations from Photographs. Demy 8vo. 10s. 6d. net.

CEYLON: The Paradise of Adam. The Record of Seven Years’ Residence in
the Island. By Caroline Corner. With Sixteen Full-page Illustrations.
Reproduced from Photographs. Demy 8vo (9 x 5¾ in.). 10s. 6d. net.

_A comprehensive account of Life in Ceylon, written in a breezy and
bracing style. Almost every variety of subject interesting to human
nature one finds within its pages. The domestic life of the
Anglo-Cingalese, with its attendant worries in connection with the
native servants, is graphically and humorously portrayed. Many a hint
from this alone may be taken by the unsophisticated European
contemplating residence or even a visit to the Paradise of Adam, a hint
that might be of value in the expenditure of both time and rupees. The
narrative of the authoress’s gipsying in the jungle is intensely
interesting, instructive, and funny. In the many adventures narrated
one gets a keen insight into the lives and characteristics of peoples
beyond the pale and ken of the ordinary European in Ceylon. The
authoress makes it her business to see and become intimate with all:
hence this original and unique volume. With the hand of a born artist
she depicts scenes never yet brought before the notice, much less the
actual vision, of Europeans, for in this lovely Island there are wheels
within wheels, forming a complexity which, though a crazy patchwork, is
fascinating as it is picturesque. Caroline Corner secured the golden
key to this unexplored labyrinth, and by its magic turn opened for
others the portals of this wonderful Paradise of Adam._

JOHN LANE: LONDON AND NEW YORK

Transcriber’s Notes

--Retained publisher information from the printed copy (the electronic
edition is in the public domain in the country of publication).

--Corrected some palpable typos, including several botanical names.

--Moved all promotional material to the end of the book.

--In the text versions only, represented text font and size variations
(the HTML version preserves the presentation of the original):

--Text in italics is delimited by _underscores_.

--Subscripted numbers are preceded by an underscore, as in the formula
for water “H_2O”.

--Superscripted numbers are preceded by a caret, as in “45^o”.