Chapter VIII: Part 8

“A good sort!” He “a good sort!” An hour ago he would ... no, not have _laughed_; he would have sworn, to say the very least of it, at any one who had dared to say such a thing; for he would have known they meant it as an insult. But he neither laughed nor swore at this woman. He simply stood still and looked at her.

The clock in the church steeple up the stream struck ten.

“Ye’ll ’ave to look sharp,” said he, “or no one won’t take ye in to-night.”

She was shivering in the bitter air, and she could walk but slowly; still she walked alone.

He moved a few steps beside her, then stopped.

A sudden instinct that he could not have defined bade him send her on her way alone.

“Ye’ll do now,” said he, “won’t ye? Them’s the cottages—up there to yer right. You knock at the first door—there’s an old woman lives there—she used to be mother’s chum. She’d take ye in, if ’twas for nothing, but that ... if she only knowed....”

Nat blushed, and he was not in the habit of blushing, and stammered as he was not in the habit of stammering, for he did not know how to finish his sentence.

“Well, anyways ye’ve got the money,” concluded he, “and if it comes to that—there’s a ‘public’ at Hoo where they lets out beds. So you look sharp.”

“Good-night; and thank ye,” said the girl.

“Good-night,” answered he.

“I shan’t forget what you done for me,” said she.

“Oh, stow that,” he said.

He watched her as she moved slowly along: watched her till she had turned up the lane to the cluster of cottages, and waited to see if she would come back on it.

He put his hand in his pocket to feel for his pipe and matches; the matches were gone, and he remembered that he had used them to light the fire—yonder in his old home, on the hearth where his mother had been wont to boil the pot for his supper.

He turned and looked again.

The trail of smoke from the old chimney was thinner and fainter—but it was still there—ascending softly and steadily.

His heart was lighter at the sight of it, and he whistled gently to himself.

The girl had not reappeared; she must be housed and safe by now.

He set his face back whence he had come, and went on his way content.

A little bird twittered pitifully in the frost-bound hedge as he passed.

He searched for the place and found it; it was dying of cold and hunger.

He put it in his warm bosom within his coat; he thought that he would feed it when he got in, and that perhaps he might bring it back to life.

THE END

_Richard Clay & Sons, Limited, London & Bungay._

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THE MANXMAN

BY HALL CAINE

_In One Volume, price 6s._

=The Times.=—‘With the exception of _The Scapegoat_, this is unquestionably the finest and most dramatic of Mr. Hall Caine’s novels ... _The Manxman_ goes very straight to the roots of human passion and emotion. It is a remarkable book, throbbing with human interest.’

=The Guardian.=—‘A story of exceptional power and thorough originality. The greater portion of it is like a Greek tragic drama, in the intensity of its interest, and the depth of its overshadowing gloom.... But this tragedy is merely a telling background for a series of brilliant sketches of men and manners, of old-world customs, and forgotten ways of speech which still linger in the Isle of Man.’

=The Standard.=—‘A singularly powerful and picturesque piece of work, extraordinarily dramatic.... Taken altogether, _The Manxman_ cannot fail to enhance Mr. Hall Caine’s reputation. It is a most powerful book.’

=The Morning Post.=—‘If possible, Mr. Hall Caine’s work, _The Manxman_, is more marked by passion, power, and brilliant local colouring than its predecessors.... It has a grandeur as well as strength, and the picturesque features and customs of a delightful country are vividly painted.’

=The World.=—‘Over and above the absorbing interest of the story, which never flags, the book is full of strength, of vivid character sketches, and powerful word-painting, all told with a force and knowledge of local colour.’

=The Queen.=—‘_The Manxman_ is undoubtedly one of the most remarkable books of the century. It will be read and re-read, and take its place in the literary inheritance of the English-speaking nations.’

=The St. James’s Gazette.=—‘_The Manxman_ is a contribution to literature, and the most fastidious critic would give in exchange for it a wilderness of that deciduous trash which our publishers call fiction.... It is not possible to part from _The Manxman_ with anything but a warm tribute of approval.’—EDMUND GOSSE.

=The Christian World.=—‘There is a great fascination in being present, as it were, at the birth of a classic; and a classic undoubtedly _The Manxman_ is... He who reads _The Manxman_ feels that he is reading a book which will be read and re-read by very many thousands with human tears and human laughter.’

=Mr. T. P. O’Connor, in the ‘Sun.’=—‘This is a very fine and great story—one of the finest and greatest of our time.... Mr. Hall Caine reaches heights which are attained only by the greatest masters of fiction.... I think of the great French writer, Stendhal, at the same moment as the great English writer.... In short, you feel what Mr. Howells said of Tolstoi, “This is not like life; it is life.”... He belongs to that small minority of the Great Elect of Literature.’

=The Scotsman.=—‘It is not too much to say that it is the most powerful story that has been written in the present generation.... The love of Pete, his simple-mindedness, his sufferings when he has lost Kate, are painted with a master-hand.... It is a work of genius.’

LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 BEDFORD STREET, W.C.

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THE BONDMAN

BY HALL CAINE

With a Photogravure Portrait of the Author.

_In One Volume, price 6s._

=Mr. Gladstone.=—‘_The Bondman_ is a work of which I recognise the freshness, vigour, and sustained interest, no less than its integrity of aim.’

=The Times.=—‘It is impossible to deny originality and rude power to this saga, impossible not to admire its forceful directness, and the colossal grandeur of its leading characters.’

=The Academy.=—‘The language of _The Bondman_ is full of nervous, graphic, and poetical English; its interest never flags, and its situations and descriptions are magnificent. It is a splendid novel.’

=The Speaker.=—‘This is the best book that Mr. Hall Caine has yet written, and it reaches a level to which fiction very rarely attains.... We are, in fact so loth to let such good work be degraded by the title of “novel” that we are almost tempted to consider its claim to rank as a prose epic.’

=The Scotsman.=—‘Mr. Hall Caine has in this work placed himself beyond the front rank of the novelists of the day. He has produced a story which, for the ingenuity of its plot, for its literary excellence, for its delineations of human passions, and for its intensely powerful dramatic scenes, is distinctly ahead of all the fictional literature of our time, and fit to rank with the most powerful fictional writing of the past century.’

=The Athenæum.=—‘Crowded with incidents.’

=The Observer.=—‘Many of the descriptions are picturesque and powerful.... As fine in their way as anything in modern literature.’

=The Liverpool Mercury.=—‘A story which will be read, not by his contemporaries alone, but by later generations, so long as its chief features—high emotion, deep passion, exquisite poetry, and true pathos—have power to delight and to touch the heart.’

=The Pall Mall Gazette.=—‘It is the product of a strenuous and sustained imaginative effort far beyond the power of any every-day story-teller.’

=The Scots Observer.=—‘In none of his previous works has he approached the splendour of idealism which flows through _The Bondman_.’

=The Manchester Guardian.=—‘A remarkable story, painted with vigour and brilliant effect.’

=The St. James’s Gazette.=—‘A striking and highly dramatic piece of fiction.’

=The Literary World.=—‘The book abounds in pages of great force and beauty, and there is a touch of almost Homeric power in its massive and grand simplicity.’

=The Liverpool Post.=—‘Graphic, dramatic, pathetic, heroic, full of detail, crowded with incident and inspired by a noble purpose.’

=The Yorkshire Post.=—‘A book of lasting interest.’

LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 BEDFORD STREET, W.C.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE SCAPEGOAT

BY HALL CAINE

_In One Volume, price 6s._

=Mr. Gladstone writes=:—‘I congratulate you upon _The Scapegoat_ as a work of art, and especially upon the noble and skilfully drawn character of Israel.’

=Mr. Walter Besant, in ‘The Author.’=—‘Nearly every year there stands out a head and shoulders above its companions one work which promises to make the year memorable. This year a promise of lasting vitality is distinctly made by Mr. Hall Caine’s _Scapegoat_. It is a great book, great in conception and in execution; a strong book, strong in situation and in character; and a human book, human in its pathos, its terror, and its passion.’

=The Times.=—‘In our judgment it excels in dramatic force all the Author’s previous efforts. For grace and touching pathos Naomi is a character which any romancist in the world might be proud to have created, and the tale of her parents’ despair and hopes, and of her own development, confers upon _The Scapegoat_ a distinction which is matchless of its kind.’

=The Guardian.=—‘Mr. Hall Caine is undoubtedly master of a style which is peculiarly his own. He is in a way a Rembrandt among novelists. His figures, striking and powerful rather than beautiful, stand out, with the ruggedness of their features developed and accentuated, from a background of the deepest gloom.... Every sentence contains a thought, and every word of it is balanced and arranged to accumulate the intensity of its force.’

=The Athenæum.=—‘It is a delightful story to read.’

=The Academy.=—‘Israel ben Oliel is the third of a series of the most profoundly conceived characters in modern fiction.’

=The Saturday Review.=—‘This is the best novel which Mr. Caine has yet produced.’

=The Literary World.=—‘The lifelike renderings of the varied situations, the gradual changes in a noble character, hardened and lowered by the world’s cruel usage, and returning at last to its original grandeur, can only be fully appreciated by a perusal of the book as a whole.’

=The Anti-Jacobin.=—‘It is, in truth, a romance of fine poetic quality. Israel Ben Oliel, the central figure of the tale, is sculptured rather than drawn: a character of grand outline. A nobler piece of prose than the death of Ruth we have seldom met with.’

=The Scotsman.=—‘The new story will rank with Mr. Hall Caine’s previous productions. Nay, it will in some respects rank above them. It will take its place by the side of the Hebrew histories in the Apocrypha. It is nobly and manfully written. It stirs the blood and kindles the imagination.’

=The Scottish Leader.=—‘_The Scapegoat_ is a masterpiece.’

=Truth.=—‘Mr. Hall Caine has been winning his way slowly, but surely, and securely, I think also, to fame. You must by all means read his absorbing Moorish romance, _The Scapegoat_.’

=The Jewish World.=—‘Only one who had studied Moses could have drawn that grand portrait of Israel ben Oliel.’

LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 BEDFORD STREET, W.C.

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THE HEAVENLY TWINS

BY SARAH GRAND

_In One Volume, price 6s._

=The Athenæum.=—‘It is so full of interest, and the characters are so eccentrically humorous yet true, that one feels inclined to pardon all its faults, and give oneself up to unreserved enjoyment of it.... The twins Angelica and Diavolo, young barbarians, utterly devoid of all respect, conventionality, or decency, are among the most delightful and amusing children in fiction.’

=The Academy.=—‘The adventures of Diavolo and Angelica—the "heavenly twins"—are delightfully funny. No more original children were ever put into a book. Their audacity, unmanageableness, and genius for mischief—in none of which qualities, as they are here shown, is there any taint of vice—are refreshing; and it is impossible not to follow, with very keen interest, the progress of these youngsters.’

=The Daily Telegraph.=—‘Everybody ought to read it, for it is an inexhaustible source of refreshing and highly stimulating entertainment.’

=The World.=—‘There is much powerful and some beautiful writing in this strange book.’

=The Westminster Gazette.=—‘Sarah Grand ... has put enough observation, humour, and thought into this book to furnish forth half-a-dozen ordinary novels.’

=Punch.=—‘The Twins themselves are a creation: the epithet “Heavenly” for these two mischievous little fiends is admirable.’

=The Queen.=—‘There is a touch of real genius in _The Heavenly Twins_.’

=The Guardian.=—‘Exceptionally brilliant in dialogue, and dealing with modern society life, this book has a purpose—to draw out and emancipate women.’

=The Lady.=—‘Apart from its more serious interest, the book should take high rank on its literary merits alone. Its pages are brimful of good things, and more than one passage, notably the episode of “The Boy and the Tenor,” is a poem complete in itself, and worthy of separate publication.’

=The Manchester Examiner.=—‘As surely as _Tess of the d’Urbervilles_ swept all before it last year, so surely has Sarah Grand’s _Heavenly Twins_ provoked the greatest attention and comment this season. It is a most daringly original work.... Sarah Grand is a notable Woman’s Righter, but her book is the one asked for at Mudie’s, suburban, and seaside libraries, and discussed at every hotel table in the kingdom. The episode of the “Tenor and the Boy” is of rare beauty, and is singularly delicate and at the same time un-English in treatment.’

=The New York Critic.=—‘It is written in an epigrammatic style, and, besides its cleverness, has the great charm of freshness, enthusiasm, and poetic feeling.’

LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 BEDFORD STREET, W.C.

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IDEALA

A STUDY FROM LIFE

BY SARAH GRAND

_In One Volume, price 6s._

=The Morning Post.=—‘Sarah Grand’s _Ideala_.... A clever book in itself, is especially interesting when read in the light of her later works. Standing alone, it is remarkable as the outcome of an earnest mind seeking in good faith the solution of a difficult and ever present problem.... _Ideala_ is original and somewhat daring.... The story is in many ways delightful and thought-suggesting.’

=The Literary World.=—‘When Sarah Grand came before the public in 1888 with _Ideala_, she consciously and firmly laid her finger on one of the keynotes of the age.... We welcome an edition that will place this minute and careful study of an interesting question within reach of a wider circle of readers.’

=The Liverpool Mercury.=—‘The book is a wonderful one—an evangel for the fair sex, and at once an inspiration and a comforting companion, to which thoughtful womanhood will recur again and again.’

=The Glasgow Herald.=—‘_Ideala_ has attained the honour of a fifth edition.... The stir created by _The Heavenly Twins_, the more recent work by the same authoress, Madame Sarah Grand, would justify this step. _Ideala_ can, however, stand on its own merits.’

=The Yorkshire Post.=—‘As a psychological study the book cannot fail to be of interest to many readers.’

=The Birmingham Gazette.=—‘Madame Sarah Grand thoroughly deserves her success. Ideala, the heroine, is a splendid conception, and her opinions are noble.... The book is not one to be forgotten.’

=The Woman’s Herald.=—‘One naturally wishes to know something of the woman for whose sake Lord Downe remained a bachelor. It must be confessed that at first _Ideala_ is a little disappointing. She is strikingly original.... As the story advances one forgets these peculiarities, and can find little but sympathy and admiration for the many noble qualities of a very complex character.’

=The Englishman.=—‘Madame Sarah Grand’s work is far from being a common work. Ideala is a clever young woman of great capabilities and noble purposes.... The originality of the book does not lie in the plot, but in the authoress’s power to see and to describe the finer shades of a character which is erratic and impetuous, but above all things truly womanly.’

LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN 21 BEDFORD STREET, W.C.

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OUR MANIFOLD NATURE

BY SARAH GRAND

_In One Volume, price 6s._

=The Daily Telegraph.=—‘Six stories by the gifted writer who still chooses to be known to the public at large by the pseudonym of “=Sarah Grand=.” In regard to them it is sufficient to say that they display all the qualities, stylistic, humorous, and pathetic, that have placed the author of _Ideala_ and _The Heavenly Twins_ in the very front rank of contemporary novelists.’

=The Globe.=—‘Brief studies of character, sympathetic, and suggesting that “Sarah Grand” can do something more than startle by her unconventionality and boldness.’

=The Ladies’ Pictorial.=—‘If the volume does not achieve even greater popularity than Sarah Grand’s former works, it will be a proof that fashion, not intrinsic merit, has a great deal to do with the success of a book.’

=The Pall Mall Gazette.=—‘All are eminently entertaining.’

=The Spectator.=—‘Insight into, and general sympathy with widely differing phases of humanity, coupled with power to reproduce what is seen, with vivid distinct strokes, that rivet the attention, are qualifications for work of the kind contained in _Our Manifold Nature_ which Sarah Grand evidently possesses in a high degree.... All these studies, male and female alike, are marked by humour, pathos, fidelity to life, and power to recognise in human nature the frequent recurrence of some apparently incongruous and remote trait, which, when at last it becomes visible, helps to a comprehension of what might otherwise be inexplicable.’

=The Speaker.=—‘In _Our Manifold Nature_ Sarah Grand is seen at her best. How good that is can only be known by those who read for themselves this admirable little volume. In freshness of conception and originality of treatment these stories are delightful, full of force and piquancy, whilst the studies of character are carried out with equal firmness and delicacy.’

=The Guardian.=—‘_Our Manifold Nature_ is a clever book. Sarah Grand has the power of touching common things, which, if it fails to make them “rise to touch the spheres,” renders them exceedingly interesting.’

=The Morning Post.=—‘Unstinted praise is deserved by the Irish story, “Boomellen,” a tale remarkable both for power and pathos.’

=The Court Journal.=—‘_Our Manifold Nature_ is simply fall of good things, and it is essentially a book to buy as well as to read.’

=The Birmingham Gazette.=—‘Mrs. Grand has genuine power. She analyses keenly.... Her humour is good, and her delineation of character one of her strongest points. The book is one to be read, studied, and acted upon.’

LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 BEDFORD STREET, W.C.

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THE EBB-TIDE

BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

AND

LLOYD OSBOURNE

_In One Volume, price 6s._

=The Times.=—‘This is a novel of sensation. But the episodes and incidents, although thrilling enough, are consistently subordinated to sensationalism of character.... There is just enough of the coral reef and the palm groves, of cerulean sky and pellucid water, to indicate rather than to present the local colouring. Yet when he dashes in a sketch it is done to perfection.... We see the scene vividly unrolled before us.’

=The Daily Telegraph.=—‘The story is full of strong scenes, depicted with a somewhat lavish use of violet pigments, such as, perhaps, the stirring situations demand. Here and there, however, are purple patches, in which Mr. Stevenson shows all his cunning literary art—the description of the coral island, for instance.... Some intensely graphic and dramatic pages delineate the struggle which causes, and a final scene ... concludes this strange fragment from the wild life of the South Sea.’

=The St. James’s Gazette.=—‘The book takes your imagination and attention captive from the first chapter—nay, from the first paragraph—and it does not set them free till the last word has been read.’

=The Standard.=—‘Mr. Stevenson gives such vitality to his characters, and so clear an outlook upon the strange quarter of the world to which he takes us, that when we reach the end of the story, we come back to civilisation with a start of surprise, and a moment’s difficulty in realising that we have not been actually away from it.’

=The Daily Chronicle.=—‘We are swept along without a pause on the current of the animated and vigorous narrative. Each incident and adventure is told with that incomparable keenness of vision which is Mr. Stevenson’s greatest charm as a story-teller.’

=The Pall Mall Gazette.=—‘It is brilliantly invented, and it is not less brilliantly told. There is not a dull sentence in the whole run of it. And the style is fresh, alert, full of surprises—in fact, is very good latter-day Stevenson indeed.’

=The World.=—‘It is amazingly clever, full of that extraordinary knowledge of human nature which makes certain creations of Mr. Stevenson’s pen far more real to us than persons we have met in the flesh. Grisly the book undoubtedly is, with a strength and a vigour of description hardly to be matched in the language.... But it is just because the book is so extraordinarily good that it ought to be better, ought to be more of a serious whole than a mere brilliant display of fireworks, though each firework display has more genius in it than is to be found in ninety-nine out of every hundred books supposed to contain that rare quality.’

=The Morning Post.=—‘Boldly conceived, probing some of the darkest depths of the human soul, the tale has a vigour and breadth of touch which have been surpassed in none of Mr. Stevenson’s previous works.... We do not, of course, know how much Mr. Osbourne has contributed to the tale, but there is no chapter in it which any author need be unwilling to acknowledge, or which is wanting in vivid interest.’

LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 BEDFORD STREET, W.C.

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BY I. ZANGWILL

With A Photogravure Portrait of the Author

_In One Volume, price 6s._

=Morning Post.=—‘The merits of the book are great. Its range of observation is wide; its sketches of character are frequently admirably drawn.... It is extremely refreshing, after a surfeit of recent fiction of the prevalent type, to welcome a really clever work by a writer who is certainly not hampered by conventional prejudice.’

=The Queen.=—‘It is impossible to deny the greatness of a book like _The Master_, a veritable human document, in which the characters do exactly as they would in life.... I venture to say that Matt himself is one of the most striking and original characters in our fiction, and I have not the least doubt that _The Master_ will always be reckoned one of our classics.’

=The Daily Chronicle.=—‘It is a powerful and masterly piece of work.... Quite the best novel of the year.’

=Literary World.=—‘In _The Master_, Mr. Zangwill has eclipsed all his previous work. This strong and striking story of patience and passion, of sorrow and success, of art, ambition, and vain gauds, is genuinely powerful in its tragedy, and picturesque in its completeness.... The work, thoroughly wholesome in tone, is of sterling merit, and strikes a truly tragic chord, which leaves a deep impression upon the mind.’

=Jewish World.=—‘For a novel to be a work that shall live, and not merely please the passing taste of a section of the public, it must palpitate with the truth of human experience and human feeling.... Such a novel is _The Master_, Mr. Zangwill’s latest, and assuredly one of his best works. Interest in the story is sustained from beginning to end. From the first page to the last we get a series of vivid pictures that make us feel, as well as understand, not only the personality and environment of his characters, but the motives that compel, like fate, their words and actions.’

=Leeds Mercury.=—‘_The Master_ is impassioned and powerful, and, in our judgment, is vastly superior to _Children of the Ghetto_. From the first page to the last the book is quick with life, and not less quick surprises.... The impression which the book leaves is deep and distinct, and the power, from start to finish, of such a delineation of life is unmistakable.’

=Liverpool Mercury.=—‘The accomplished author of _Children of the Ghetto_ has given us in _The Master_ a book written with marvellous skill, and characterised by vivid imaginative power. It is not a volume to be taken up and despatched in a leisure evening, but one to be studied and enjoyed in many an hour of quiet, or to be read aloud in the family circle, when the toils of the day have given place to retirement and peace.’

LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 BEDFORD STREET, W.C.

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CHILDREN OF THE GHETTO

A Study of a Peculiar People

BY I. ZANGWILL

_In One Volume, price 6s._

=The Times.=—‘From whatever point of view we regard it, it is a remarkable book.’

=The Athenæum.=—‘The chief interest of the book lies in the wonderful description of the Whitechapel Jews. The vividness and force with which Mr. Zangwill brings before us the strange and uncouth characters with which he has peopled his book are truly admirable.... Admirers of Mr. Zangwill’s fecund wit will not fail to find flashes of it in these pages.’

=The Daily Chronicle.=—‘Altogether we are not aware of any such minute, graphic, and seemingly faithful picture of the Israel of nineteenth century London.... The book has taken hold of us.’

=The Spectator.=—‘Esther Ansell, Raphael Leon, Mrs. Henry Goldsmith, Reb Shemuel, and the rest, are living creations.’

=The Speaker.=—‘A strong and remarkable book.’

=The National Observer.=—‘To ignore this book is not to know the East End Jew.’

=The Guardian.=—‘A novel such as only our own day could produce. A masterly study of a complicated psychological problem in which every factor is handled with such astonishing dexterity and intelligence that again and again we are tempted to think a really good book has come into our hands.’

=The Graphic.=—‘Absolutely fascinating. Teaches how closely akin are laughter and tears.’

=Black and White.=—‘A moving panorama of Jewish life, full of truth, full of sympathy, vivid in the setting forth, and occasionally most brilliant. Such a book as this has the germs of a dozen novels. A book to read, to keep, to ponder over, to remember.’

=W. Archer in ‘The World.’=—‘The most powerful and fascinating book I have read for many a long day.’

=Land and Water.=—‘The most wonderful multi-coloured and brilliant description. Dickens has never drawn characters of more abiding individuality. An exceeding beautiful chapter is the honeymoon of the Hyams. Charles Kingsley in one of his books makes for something of the same sort. But his idea is not half so tender and faithful, nor his handling anything like so delicate and natural.’

=Andrew Lang in ‘Longman’s Magazine.’=—‘Almost every kind of reader will find _Children of the Ghetto_ interesting.’

=T. P. O’Connor in ‘The Weekly Sun.’=—‘Apart altogether from its great artistic merits, from its clear portraits, its subtle and skilful analysis of character, its pathos and its humour, this book has, in my mind, an immense interest as a record of a generation that has passed and of struggles that are yet going on.’

=The Manchester Guardian.=—‘The best Jewish novel ever written.’

LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 BEDFORD STREET, W.C.

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THE KING OF SCHNORRERS

=Grotesques and Fantasies=

BY I. ZANGWILL

With over Ninety Illustrations by PHIL MAY and Others

_In One Volume, price 6s._

=The Athenæum.=—‘Several of Mr. Zangwill’s contemporary Ghetto characters have already become almost classical; but in _The King of Schnorrers_ he goes back to the Jewish community of the eighteenth century for the hero of his principal story; and he is indeed a stupendous hero ... anyhow, he is well named the king of beggars. The illustrations, by Phil May, add greatly to the attraction of the book.’

=The Saturday Review.=—‘Mr. Zangwill has created a new figure in fiction, and a new type of humour. The entire series of adventures is a triumphant progress.... Humour of a rich and active character pervades the delightful history of Manasses. Mr. Zangwill’s book is altogether very good reading. It is also very cleverly illustrated by Phil May and other artists.’

=The Literary World.=—‘Of Mr. Zangwill’s versatility there is ample proof in this new volume of stories.... More noticeable and welcome to us, as well as more characteristic of the author, are the fresh additions he has made to his long series of studies of Jewish life.’

=The St. James’s Gazette.=—‘_The King of Schnorrers_ is a very fascinating story. Mr. Zangwill returns to the Ghetto, and gives us a quaint old-world picture as a most appropriate setting for his picturesque hero, the beggar-king.... Good as the story of the arch-schnorrer is there is perhaps an even better “Yiddish” tale in this book. This is “Flutter-Duck.”... Let us call attention to the excellence, as mere realistic vivid description, of the picture of the room and atmosphere and conditions in which Flutter-Duck and her circle dwelt; there is something of Dickens in this.’

=The Daily Telegraph.=—‘_The King of Schnorrers_, like _Children of the Ghetto_, depicts the habits and characteristics of Israel in London with painstaking elaborateness and apparent verisimilitude. _The King of Schnorrers_ is a character-sketch which deals with the manners and customs of native and foreign Jews as they “lived and had their being” in the London of a century and a quarter ago.’

=The Daily Chronicle.=—‘It is a beautiful story. _The King of Schnorrers_ is that great rarity—an entirely new thing, that is as good as it is new.’

=The Glasgow Herald.-=-‘On the whole, the book does justice to Mr. Zangwill’s rapidly-growing reputation, and the character of Manasseh ought to live.’

=The World.=—‘The exuberant and even occasionally overpowering humour of Mr. Zangwill is at his highest mark in his new volume, _The King of Schnorrers_.’

LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 BEDFORD STREET, W.C.

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THE PREMIER AND THE PAINTER

BY I. ZANGWILL AND LOUIS COWEN

_In One Volume, price 6s._

=The Cambridge (University) Review.=—‘That the book will have readers in a future generation we do not doubt, for there is much in it that is of lasting merit.’

=The Graphic.=—‘It might be worth the while of some industrious and capable person with plenty of leisure to reproduce in a volume of reasonable size the epigrams and other good things witty and serious which _The Premier and the Painter_ contains. There are plenty of them, and many are worth noting and remembering,’

=St. James’s Gazette.=—‘The satire hits all round with much impartiality; while one striking situation succeeds another till the reader is altogether dazzled. The story is full of life and “go” and brightness, and will well repay perusal.’

=The Athenæum.=—‘In spite of its close print and its five hundred pages _The Premier and the Painter_ is not very difficult to read. To speak of it, however, is difficult. It is the sort of book that demands yet defies quotation for one thing; and for another it is the sort of book the description of which as “very clever” is at once inevitable and inadequate. In some ways it is original enough to be a law unto itself, and withal as attractive in its whimsical, wrong-headed way, as at times it is tantalising, bewildering, even tedious. The theme is politics and politicians, and the treatment, while for the most part satirical and prosaic, is often touched with sentiment, and sometimes even with a fantastic kind of poetry. The several episodes of the story are wildly fanciful in themselves and are clumsily connected; but the streak of humorous cynicism which shows through all of them is both curious and pleasing. Again, it has to be claimed for the author that—as is shown to admiration by his presentation of the excellent Mrs. Dawe and her cookshop—he is capable, when he pleases, of insight and observation of a high order, and therewith of a masterly sobriety of tone. But he cannot be depended upon for the length of a single page; he seeks his effects and his material when and where he pleases. In some respects his method is not, perhaps, altogether unlike Lord Beaconsfield’s. To our thinking, however, he is strong enough to go alone, and to go far.’

=The World.=—‘Undeniably clever, though with a somewhat mixed and eccentric cleverness.’

=The Morning Post.=—‘The story is described as a “fantastic romance,” and, indeed, fantasy reigns supreme from the first to the last of its pages. It relates the history of our time with humour and well-aimed sarcasm. All the most prominent characters of the day, whether political or otherwise, come in for notice. The identity of the leading politicians is but thinly veiled, while many celebrities appear _in propriâ personâ_. Both the “Premier” and “Painter” now and again find themselves in the most critical situations. Certainly this is not a story that he who runs may read, but it is cleverly original, and often lightened by bright flashes of wit.’

LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 BEDFORD STREET, W.C.

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THE COUNTESS RADNA

BY W. E. NORRIS

_In One Volume, price 6s._

=The Times.=—‘He is a remarkably even writer. And this novel is almost as good a medium as any other for studying the delicacy and dexterity of his workmanship.’

=The National Observer.=—‘Interesting and well written, as all Mr. Norris’s stories are.’

=The Morning Post.=—‘The fidelity of his portraiture is remarkable, and it has rarely appeared to so much advantage as in this brilliant novel.’

=The Saturday Review.=—‘_The Countess Radna_, which its author not unjustly describes as “an unpretending tale,” avoids, by the grace of its style and the pleasant accuracy of its characterisation, any suspicion of boredom.’

=The Daily News.=—‘_The Countess Radna_ contains many of the qualities that make a story by this writer welcome to the critic. It is caustic in style, the character drawing is clear, the talk natural; the pages are strewn with good things worth quoting.’

=The Speaker.=—‘In style, skill in construction, and general “go,” it is worth a dozen ordinary novels.’

=The Academy.=—‘As a whole, the book is decidedly well written, while it is undeniably interesting. It is bright and wholesome: the work in fact of a gentleman and a man who knows the world about which he writes.’

=Black and White.=—‘The novel, like all Mr. Norris’s work is an excessively clever piece of work, and the author never for a moment allows his grasp of his plot and his characters to slacken.’

=The Gentlewoman.=—‘Mr. Norris is a practised hand at his craft. He can write bright dialogue and clear English, too.’

=The Literary World.=—‘His last novel, _The Countess Radna_, is an excellent sample of his style. The plot is simple enough. But the story holds the attention and insists upon being read; and it is scarcely possible to say anything more favourable of a work of fiction.’

=The Scotsman.=—‘The story, in which there is more than a spice of modern life romance, is an excellent study of the problem of mixed marriage. The book is one of good healthy reading, and reveals a fine broad view of life and human nature.’

=The Glasgow Herald.=—‘This is an unusually fresh and well-written story. The tone is thoroughly healthy; and Mr. Norris, without being in the least old-fashioned, manages to get along without the aid of pessimism, psychology, naturalism, or what is known as frank treatment of the relations between the sexes.’

=The Westminster Gazette.=—‘Mr. Norris writes throughout with much liveliness and force, saying now and then something that is worth remembering. And he sketches his minor characters with a firm touch.’

LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 BEDFORD STREET, W.C.

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A VICTIM OF GOOD LUCK

BY W. E. NORRIS

_In One Volume, price 6s._

=The Speaker.=—‘_A Victim of Good Luck_ is one of those breezy stories of his in which the reader finds himself moving in good society, among men or women who are neither better nor worse than average humanity, but who always show good manners and good breeding.... Suffice it to say that the story is as readable as any we have yet had from the same pen.’

=The Daily Telegraph.=—‘_A Victim of Good Luck_ is one of the brightest novels of the year, which cannot but enhance its gifted author’s well-deserved fame and popularity.’

=The World.=—‘Here is Mr. Norris in his best form again, giving us an impossible story with such imperturbable composure, such quiet humour, easy polish, and irresistible persuasiveness, that he makes us read _A Victim of Good Luck_ right through with eager interest and unflagging amusement without being aware, until we regretfully reach the end, that it is just a farcical comedy in two delightful volumes.’

=The Daily Chronicle.=—‘It has not a dull page from first to last. Any one with normal health and taste can read a book like this with real pleasure.’

=The Globe.=—‘Mr. W. E. Norris is a writer who always keeps us on good terms with ourselves. We can pick up or lay down his books at will, but they are so pleasant in style and equable in tone that we do not usually lay them down till we have mastered them; _A Victim of Good Luck_ is a more agreeable novel than most of this author’s.’

=The Westminster Gazette.=—‘_A Victim of Good Luck_ is in Mr. Norris’s best vein, which means that it is urbane, delicate, lively, and flavoured with a high quality of refined humour. Altogether a most refreshing book, and we take it as a pleasant reminder that Mr. Norris is still very near his highwater mark.’

=The Spectator.=—‘Mr. Norris displays to the full his general command of narrative expedients which are at once happily invented and yet quite natural—which seem to belong to their place in the book, just as a keystone belongs to its place in the arch.... The brightest and cleverest book which Mr. Norris has given us since he wrote _The Rogue_.’

=The Saturday Review.=—‘Novels which are neither dull, unwholesome, morbid, nor disagreeable, are so rare in these days, that _A Victim of Good Luck_ ... ought to find a place in a book-box filled for the most part with light literature.... We think it will increase the reputation of an already very popular author.’

=The Scotsman.=—‘_A Victim of Good Luck_, like others of this author’s books, depends little on incident and much on the conception and drawing of character, on clever yet natural conversation, and on the working out, with masterly ease, of a novel problem of right and inclination.’

LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 BEDFORD STREET, W.C.

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THE POTTER’S THUMB

BY FLORA ANNIE STEEL

_In One Volume, price 6s._

=The Pall Mall Budget.=—‘For this week the only novel worth mentioning is Mrs. Steel’s _The Potter’s Thumb_. Her admirable _From the Five Rivers_, since it dealt with native Indian life, was naturally compared with Mr. Kipling’s stories. In _The Potter’s Thumb_ the charm which came from the freshness of them still remains. Almost every character is convincing, and some of them excellent to a degree.’

=The Globe.=—‘This is a brilliant story—a story that fascinates, tingling with life, steeped in sympathy with all that is best and saddest.’

=The Manchester Guardian.=—‘The impression left upon one after reading _The Potter’s Thumb_ is that a new literary artist, of very great and unusual gifts, has arisen.... In short, Mrs. Steel must be congratulated upon having achieved a very genuine and amply deserved success.’

=The Glasgow Herald.=—‘A clever story which, in many respects, brings India very near to its readers. The novel is certainly one interesting alike to the Anglo-Indian and to those untravelled travellers who make their only voyages in novelists’ romantic company.’

=The Scotsman.=—‘It is a capital story, full of variety and movement, which brings with great vividness before the reader one of the phases of Anglo-Indian life. Mrs. Steel writes forcibly and sympathetically, and much of the charm of the picture which she draws lies in the force with which she brings out the contrast between the Asiatic and European world. _The Potter’s Thumb_ is very good reading, with its mingling of the tragedy and comedy of life. Its evil woman _par excellence_ ... is a finished study.’

=The Westminster Gazette.=—‘A very powerful and tragic story. Mrs. Steel gives us again, but with greater elaboration than before, one of those strong, vivid, and subtle pictures of Indian life which we have learnt to expect from her. To a reader who has not been in India her books seem to get deeper below the native crust, and to have more of the instinct for the Oriental than almost anything that has been written in this time.’

=The Leeds Mercury.=—‘_The Potter’s Thumb_ is a powerful story of the mystical kind, and one which makes an instant appeal to the imagination of the reader.... There is an intensity of vision in this story which is as remarkable as it is rare, and the book, in its vivid and fascinating revelations of life, and some of its limitations, is at once brilliant and, in the deepest and therefore least demonstrative sense, impassioned.’

=The National Observer.=—‘A romance of East and West, in which the glamour, intrigue, and superstition of India are cunningly interwoven and artfully contrasted with the bright and changeable aspects of modern European society. “Love stories,” as Mr. Andrew Lang once observed, “are best done by women”; and Mrs. Steel’s treatment of Rose Tweedie’s love affair with Lewis Gordon is a brilliant instance in point. So sane and delightful an episode is rare in fiction now-a-days.’

LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 BEDFORD STREET, W.C.

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FROM THE FIVE RIVERS

BY FLORA ANNIE STEEL

_In One Volume, price 6s._

=The Times.=—‘Time was when these sketches of native Punjabi society would have been considered a curiosity in literature. They are sufficiently remarkable, even in these days, when interest in the “dumb millions” of India is thoroughly alive, and writers, great and small, vie in ministering to it. They are the more notable as being the work of a woman. Mrs. Steel has evidently been brought into close contact with the domestic life of all classes, Hindu and Mahomedan, in city and village, and has steeped herself in their customs and superstitions.... Mrs. Steel’s book is of exceptional merit and freshness.’

=Vanity Fair.=—‘Stories of the Punjaub—evidently the work of one who has an intimate knowledge of, and a kindly sympathy for, its people. It is to be hoped that this is not the last book of Indian stories that Mrs. Steel will give us.’

=The Spectator.=—‘Merit, graphic force, and excellent local colouring are conspicuous in Mrs. Steel’s _From the Five Rivers_, and the short stories of which the volume is composed are evidently the work of a lady who knows what she is writing about.’

=The Glasgow Herald.=—‘This is a collection of sketches of Hindu life, full for the most part of brilliant colouring and cleverly wrought in dialect. The writer evidently knows her subject, and she writes about it with unusual skill.’

=The North British Daily Mail.=—‘In at least two of the sketches in Mrs. Steel’s book we have a thoroughly descriptive delineation of life in Indian, or rather, Hindoo, villages. “Ganesh Chunel” is little short of a masterpiece, and the same might be said of “Shah Sujah’s Mouse.” In both we are made the spectator of the conditions of existence in rural India. The stories are told with an art that conceals the art of story-telling.’

=The Athenæum.=—‘They possess this great merit, that they reflect the habits, modes of life, and ideas of the middle and lower classes of the population of Northern India better than do systematic and more pretentious works.’

=The Leeds Mercury.-=-‘By no means a book to neglect.... It is written with brains.... Mrs. Steel understands the life which she describes, and she has sufficient literary art to describe it uncommonly well. These short stories of Indian life are, in fact, quite above the average of stories long or short.... There is originality, insight, sympathy, and a certain dramatic instinct in the portrayal of character about the book.’

=The Globe.=—‘She puts before us the natives of our Empire in the East as they live and move and speak, with their pitiful superstitions, their strange fancies, their melancholy ignorance of what poses with us for knowledge and civilisation, their doubt of the new ways, the new laws, the new people. “Shah Sujah’s Mouse,” the gem of the collection—a touching tale of unreasoning fidelity towards an English "Sinny Baba"—is a tiny bit of perfect writing.’

LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 BEDFORD STREET, W.C.

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THE LAST SENTENCE

BY MAXWELL GRAY

Author of ‘The Silence of Dean Maitland,’ etc.

_In One Volume, price 6s._

=The Standard.=—‘_The Last Sentence_ is a remarkable story; it abounds with dramatic situations, the interest never for a moment flags, and the characters are well drawn and consistent.’

=The Saturday Review.=—‘There is a great deal as well as a great variety of incident in the story, and more than twenty years are apportioned to it; but it never seems over-crowded, nor has it the appearance of several stories rolled into one. _The Last Sentence_ is a remarkable novel, and the more so because its strong situations are produced without recourse to the grosser forms of immorality.’

=The Daily Telegraph.=—‘One of the most powerful and adroitly-worked-out plots embodied in any modern work of fiction runs through _The Last Sentence_.... This terrible tale of retribution is told with well-sustained force and picturesqueness, and abounds in light as well as shade.’

=The Morning Post.=—‘Maxwell Gray has the advantage of manner that is both cultured and picturesque, and while avoiding even the appearance of the melodramatic, makes coming events cast a shadow before them so as to excite and entertain expectation.... It required the imagination of an artist to select the kind of Nemesis which finally overtakes this successful evil-doer, and which affords an affecting climax to a rather fascinating tale.’

=The Glasgow Herald.=—‘This is a very strong story.... It contains much rich colouring, some striking situations, and plenty of thoroughly living characters. The interest is of a varied kind, and, though the hero is an aristocrat, the pictures of human life are by no means confined to the upper circles.’

=The Leeds Mercury.=—‘It shows a command of the resources of the novelist’s art which is by no means common, and it has other qualities which lift it far above the average level of the circulating library. It is written with a literary grace and a moral insight which are seldom at fault, and from first to last it is pervaded with deep human interest.’

=The Queen.=—‘Maxwell Gray has a certain charm and delicacy of style. She has mastered the subtleties of a particular type of weak character until she may be almost called its prophet.’

=The Lady’s Pictorial.=—‘The book is a clever and powerful one.... Cynthia Marlowe will live in our memories as a sweet and noble woman; one of whom it is a pleasure to think of beside some of the ‘emancipated’ heroines so common in the fiction of the day.’

=The Manchester Courier.=—‘The author of _The Silence of Dean Maitland_ gives to the reading world another sound and magnificent work.... In both these works Maxwell Gray has taken “Nemesis” as his grand _motif_. In each work there sits behind the hero that _atra cura_ which poisons the wholesome draught of human joy. In each is present the corroding blight that comes of evil done and not discovered.’

LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 BEDFORD STREET, W.C.

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THE NAULAHKA

A Tale of West and East

BY RUDYARD KIPLING AND WOLCOTT BALESTIER

_In One Volume, price 6s._

=The Athenæum.=—‘There is no one but Mr. Kipling who can make his readers taste and smell, as well as see and hear, the East; and in this book (if we except the description of Tarvin’s adventures in the deserted city of Gunvaur, which is perhaps less clear-cut than usual) he has surely surpassed himself. In his faculty for getting inside the Eastern mind and showing its queer workings Mr. Kipling stands alone.’

=The Academy.=—‘_The Naulahka_ contains passages of great merit. There are descriptions scattered through its pages which no one but Mr. Kipling could have written.... Whoever reads this novel will find much of it hard to forget ... and the story of the exodus from the hospital will rank among the best passages in modern fiction.’

=The Times.=—‘A happy idea, well adapted to utilize the respective experience of the joint authors.... An excellent story.... The dramatic train of incident, the climax of which is certainly the interview between Sitabhai and Tarvin, the alternate crudeness and ferocity of the girl-queen, the susceptibility of the full-blooded American, hardly kept in subjection by his alertness and keen eye to business, the anxious eunuch waiting in the distance with the horses, and fretting as the stars grow paler and paler, the cough of the tiger slinking home at the dawn after a fruitless night’s hunt—the whole forms a scene not easily effaced from the memory.’

=The Glasgow Herald.=—‘An entrancing story beyond doubt.... The design is admirable—to bring into violent contrast and opposition the widely differing forces of the Old World and the New—and while, of course, it could have been done without the use of Americanese, yet that gives a wonderful freshness and realism to the story. The design is a bold one, and it has been boldly carried out.... The interest is not only sustained throughout, it is at times breathless.... The Maharajah, the rival queens, the pomp and peril of Rhatore, are clearly Mr. Kipling’s own, and some of the Indian chapters are in his best style.’

=The Speaker.=—‘In the presentation of Rhatore there is something of the old Kiplingesque glamour; it is to the pages of Mr. Kipling that one must go for the strange people and incidents of the royal household at Rhatore.... It is enough to say that the plotting of that most beautiful and most wicked gipsy, Sitabhai is interesting; that Sitabhai is well created; and that the chapter which describes her secret meeting with Tarvin is probably the finest and the most impressive in the book.’

=The Bookman.=—‘The real interest of the book is in the life behind the curtains of the Maharajah’s palace. The child Kunwar, his mother, the forsaken Zulu queen, the gipsy with her wicked arts, are pictures of Indian life, which even Mr. Kipling has not surpassed.’

LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 BEDFORD STREET, W.C.

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CORRUPTION

BY PERCY WHITE

_In One Volume, price 6s._

=The Speaker.=—‘In his first book, _Mr. Bailey-Martin_, Mr. White gave us a remarkable picture of the sordidness of life in a suburban household. In the present volume he rises to a higher social level, and treats of rising members of Parliament, of political leaders, and even of Prime Ministers.... The sketches of types are both forcible and true.’

=The Pall Mall Gazette.=—‘None can travel over his brightly-written pages without being gladdened by the little flashes of epigram which light up the scene for us, or stirred by the shrewdness and worldly wisdom which he has put into the mouths of his characters. One of the charms of the book lies in the conviction that its author knows the world, and is full of a broad, full knowledge, and therefore sympathy with the foibles, passions, and sins with which it abounds.... It is a sermon preached on the old Æschylian text, that the evil doer must always suffer. The book is a drama of biting intensity, a tragedy of inflexible purpose and relentless result.’

=The Daily News.=—‘Will appeal to many tastes. There is intrigue enough in it for those who love a story of the ordinary kind, and the political part is perhaps rather more attractive in its sparkle and variety of incident than the real thing itself.’

=The Daily Telegraph.=—‘_Corruption_ more than fulfils the brilliant promise of _Mr. Bailey-Martin_.... As its title indicates, it deals with the political and social cankers of the day, which it lays bare with a fearless and unerring touch.’

=The Standard.=—‘The scenes in the South of France are particularly well done; without any attempt at local colour Mr. White has caught the atmosphere skilfully, and there are one or two clever touches of which he appears unconscious. Taking the book as a whole, it is written with ease and knowledge, and has about it nothing of the amateur.’

=The Graphic.=—‘A very able piece of work.’

=Black and White.=—‘The risqué situation is wrought with brilliance and subtilty.... Mrs. Mannering recalls Becky Sharp; and Carew is a typical man of the day.... Mr. Percy White assuredly takes rank with the foremost of the society writers.’

=The Globe.=—‘A graphic picture of social life.’

=The Glasgow Herald.=—‘The characters are well conceived and cleverly portrayed; the dialogue is crisp and sparkling. There is not a dull moment in the volume.’

LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 BEDFORD STREET, W.C.

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MR. BAILEY-MARTIN

BY PERCY WHITE

With a Photogravure Portrait of the Author

_In One Volume, price 6s._

=The Times.=—‘Mr. White has written an audacious book.’

=The Athenæum.=—‘Mr. White, with the aid of the necessary qualities—dry humour and delicate irony—succeeds nearly all the time.... The character is one exceedingly difficult to portray.... Mr. White has resisted the temptation to force and exaggerate the note, and this is probably the secret of his success.’

=The Speaker.=—‘There is cleverness enough in _Mr. Bailey-Martin_ to furnish forth a dozen novels.... It shows not only a remarkable knowledge of contemporary life, but a keen insight into character, and a considerable degree of literary power.’

=The Daily Telegraph.=—‘The book teems with smart sayings and graphic characterisations, and cannot fail to make a mark among the cleverest novels of the year.’

=The Daily Chronicle.=—‘The book must be pronounced a well-nigh unqualified triumph.’

=The Literary World.=—‘_Mr. Bailey-Martin_ is one of those books whose opportune arrival serves to reconcile the critic to his task.... Bright, fresh, vigorous in action, and told with a wealth of incident and humour.’