Chapter VIII: Part 5: explains and illustrates the balance sheet, income statement,

and various other special reports and statements; Part 6 is devoted to
consolidation, including merger, lease and holding company; Part 7
takes up receiverships, reorganizations and dissolutions. Much more
space is devoted to general descriptions than to pure accounting
discussion.”—Ann Am Acad

“Mr Bennett has given added authority and interest to many of his
observations by frequent citations from some of the best known
corporations in the United States. In the preface and throughout the
volume there is abundant recognition of alternatives of procedure. Mr
Bennett’s volume will come to take rank. ... among the first ten or a
dozen titles that should be owned by every one seriously interested in
accountancy. The arrangement of the book makes it readily adaptable
for general reference by corporation officers and accountants. When a
new edition is prepared, it is to be hoped that more systematic and
thorough attention will be given to the index.” C. H. Scovell

+ =Am Econ R= 7:637 S ‘17 800w

“The book will probably serve as an excellent handbook for practical
business men who wish a broad view of corporate organization, finance
and accounting. The discussion is unusually clear, simple and
informing. Except for incidental suggestions, the book is likely to
have little value to the practicing accountant, for it is too general
in treatment, or to one interested in the more scientific aspect of
accounting because it is not sufficiently analytical. It may serve
very well, however, as a text for college classes on account of its
forms and clear descriptions.” J: Bauer

+ =Ann Am Acad= 72:227 Jl ‘17 430w

“Concise yet comprehensive.”

+ =Pittsburgh= 22:444 My ‘17 70w

=BENNION, MILTON.= Citizenship; an introduction to social ethics; with an introd. by D: Snedden. *$1 (3c) World bk. co. 323 17-20398

The author, dean of the school of education in the University of Utah
says, “This book is the result of six years of experimentation in
teaching ethics to college freshman and senior high-school students in
the University of Utah. The topics have been developed in class
discussion and afterwards written up by each student, who thus made
his own text.” Part 1 treats of the nature of society and social
problems; Part 2 deals with the social obligations of the individual
and the opportunities society offers each one for development thru
service. The book aims to meet the needs of the senior year in high
school and first year in college. At the end of each chapter are
questions and exercises on the subject matter of the chapter.

“On first thought the social-science teacher might feel that the book
has no interest for her. Should such be her conclusion, based on a
passing notice of the book, she will change her mind upon careful
reading. ... By making free use of the questions a teacher could make
the book the basis of a full semester’s work in social problems.”

+ =School R= 26:69 Ja ‘18 240w

=BENSON, ARTHUR CHRISTOPHER.= Life and letters of Maggie Benson. *$2.50 Longmans 17-31049

“The record of this life, largely by means of her letters, is made by
her elder brother. Margaret Benson was the daughter of the
distinguished Anglican clergyman who became archbishop of Canterbury
in 1883, and the story of her years is necessarily to some degree the
story of a family placed amid exceptional surroundings. ... Step by
step we watch the progress of Margaret Benson through life, viewing
the development of her mind and the eagerness with which she thought
and studied. Her letters are brief and graphic, but the essential
elements of her life, her work and her character are clearly
summarized by her brother.”—Boston Transcript

“Such lives as the life of Margaret Benson are among those worth
recording but that too infrequently give inspiration to the
biographer. ... As a contribution to the history of a remarkable
family, Mr Benson’s book is no less remarkable than as a contribution
to the study of a notable personality.” E. F. E.

+ =Boston Transcript= p6 O 24 ‘17 1750w

“Without moralizing or preaching, merely by recounting the simple
story of Maggie Benson’s life, he does indeed succeed in showing ‘how
life can be lived nobly.’”

+ =Cath World= 106:404 D ‘17 350w

“The life impresses her brother as a most useful one but he hardly
succeeds in persuading the reader.”

— =Dial= 64:30 Ja 3 ‘18 230w

“Mr Benson has thrown together a mass of notes and hurried
communications which can have very slight interest for any except
friends of the family. ... Mr Benson’s own additions in the way of
narrative and characterization are pleasantly written.”

– + =Nation= 105:543 N 15 ‘17 130w

“Dr Benson may rest assured that many readers, friends and strangers,
will thank him for bringing out a book which will certainly elevate
and strengthen and brighten them.”

+ =Sat R= 124:444 D 1 ‘17 650w

+ =Spec= 119:651 D 1 ‘17 60w

“Her brother has performed his task lovingly and well. Arthur Benson’s
own contribution is in his fluent, modulated English; he supplies
delightful descriptions of English country life as his family lived
it.”

+ =Springf’d Republican= p6 D 4 ‘17 950w

“It cannot be said that as far as art goes his treatment of his
sister’s life marks any advance. The author with facile skill sets
forth the family facts which he has mostly given elsewhere; and he
includes a number of letters of all shades of interest. The attraction
lies rather in that Bensonian faculty for criticizing other Bensons,
as well as folk in general, which Maggie possessed in a large
measure.”

+ — =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p552 N 15 ‘17 1000w

=BENSON, EDWARD FREDERIC.= Freaks of Mayfair. il *$1.50 (4½c) Doran 18-1525

“In ‘The freaks of Mayfair’ Mr E. F. Benson pokes fun at some very
paltry people. Among them are the social snobs; the woman who makes
the fad of the moment into a religion; the man who will prattle to
anyone who purveys nice food; the cats of both sexes who pretend to be
kittens; and the automaton who is governed not by reason or impulse,
but by habit.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup

“Mr Benson is happier in his satire than in those long and rather
didactic efforts in fiction by which we have so far known him. ...
Compared with satire qua satire, the sketches are not of much account,
they are rather too obvious and laboured; but they amuse, especially
‘The perpendicular,’ which is decidedly the best.”

+ — =Ath= p46 Ja ‘17 100w

“What makes this volume so worth while is that one feels that it is
not inspired by a mere desire and delight in mocking, but that it
springs rather from an honest and profound detestation of all the
soft-brained and wasteful snobs and parasites that incumber a gasping
world. Mr Benson, you feel, is a philosopher as austere as Emerson.”

+ =N Y Times= 22:463 N 11 ‘17 900w

“Mr George Plank’s intricate patterns of lines and squares trick out
with much ornament things that are not worth any ornament at all. ...
When Mr Benson has finished with his freaks, the futility of what they
do compared to the effort they make to do it must be apparent even to
themselves. No defence is left to them; and we fear they are too
invertebrate to turn and say: ‘How came you, brother, when paper is so
dear, to describe us in a rivulet of print, meandering thro’ a meadow
of margin?’”

+ — =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p636 D 28 ‘16 350w

=BENSON, EDWARD FREDERIC.= Tortoise (Eng title, Mr Teddy). *$1.50 (2c) Doran 17-17423

This novel, the scene of which is laid in Sussex, was published in
England under the title, “Mr Teddy.” It is a gently humorous story,
with a slight plot, of youth, middle-age, and old age. Edward Heaton,
or “Mr Teddy,” as he is usually called, a kindly bachelor of forty,
devoted to his exasperatingly selfish mother, is “the tortoise.” Other
characters are the two middle-aged sisters, “Miss Marion,” who writes
stories for the parish magazine, and “Miss Daisy,” who looks after
their home; Mrs Vickary, clergyman’s wife and feline diplomatist, and
the youthful lovers, Robin and Rosemary.

+ =A L A Bkl= 14:129 Ja ‘18

“This is a far better story than ‘The Oakleyites,’ in which similar
material is handled with less spontaneity and freshness. Mr Benson has
no idea or ‘message’ to convey unless it be that the humours of
ourselves and our neighbours are among the best sources of refreshment
the Lord has given us, and that beneath them, we may flatter
ourselves, there wells many a pure fountain of kind feeling and honest
purpose.” H. W. Boynton

+ =Bookm= 46:491 D ‘17 350w

“In ‘The tortoise,’ a delightful tale of English village life, Mr E.
F. Benson displays again his peculiarly feminine outlook to great
advantage.”

+ =Dial= 64:77 Ja 17 ‘18 80w

“‘The tortoise’ is just good enough to read when there’s nothing
better around.” Harry Salpeter

– + =N Y Call= p14 Ja 12 ‘18 320w

“It is one of those quiet, human, very interesting tales which are so
rare and so difficult to write.”

+ =N Y Times= 22:434 O 28 ‘17 980w

=Outlook= 117:475 N 21 ‘17 40w

+ =Spec= 119:169 Ag 18 ‘17 30w

“Mr Benson has the intuition and deftness to make trivialities take on
importance.”

+ =Springf’d Republican= p13 Ja 20 ‘18 500w

“Once more Mr Benson takes us into a quiet little set of ‘nice’ people
in a provincial town, or village; and once more he studies them with a
tenderness at once shrewder and blunter than Mrs Gaskell’s, but not
less attractive.”

+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p272 Je 7 ‘17 370w

=BENSON, OSCAR HERMAN, and BETTS, GEORGE HERBERT.= Agriculture and the farming business. il *$3.50 Bobbs 630 17-7062

The preface says that this book attempts “what has not yet been
accomplished for the farmer—the bringing together in one simple
non-technical volume of a wide range of practical scientific
information directly related to the every-day problems of the farm and
home.” The object of the authors has been to bring together in
convenient form a wide variety of information that is now scattered
thru reports and bulletins, etc. In addition to chapters covering the
usual subjects, farm management, farm crops, live stock, etc., there
are chapters devoted to: The farm home; The automobile and the farmer;
Extension education and the farmer; Extension education by means of
boys’ and girls’ club work, and other miscellaneous subjects. Mr
Benson is connected with the United States Department of agriculture,
and Mr Betts is author of “Better rural schools.”

“An admirable general work. ... Well illustrated.”

+ =Agricultural Digest= 1:460 My ‘17 60w

“There is vast deal of material touched upon between these covers, but
it is not always clear upon what principle it is organized and
distributed. ... This volume does pretty much all that can be done in
500 pages towards a manual of information, of laboratory experiment,
and of field practice. Whether the feat is worth attempting, remains a
question.”

=Nation= 103:521 N 30 ‘16 270w

=N Y Br Lib News= 4:71 My ‘17

=BENSON, STELLA.= This is the end. *$1.35 (3c) Macmillan 17-29334

The author has a way of her own in telling a story, as one who has
read “I pose” will know. Simplified, the story she now tells is of an
English girl who leaves home in war-time to become a London
‘bus-conductor. Hoping to find her, her family starts out on a motor
car journey around the English coast, following clews thrown out in
the girl’s letters. Only one of them, her brother, home on leave,
knows that the “house by the sea” of which she writes is fancy and
make-believe. For these two, brother and sister, have always played at
that game together. They have lived in a secret world, which later,
comes to an end for the girl with the news of the brother’s death in
France.

“Cleverness of a somewhat forced type mars the effect of this volume.
The author has both imagination and insight, but her sarcastic gifts
are apt to run away with her.”

+ — =Ath= p253 My ‘17 70w

“In ‘I pose’ her recklessness seemed a little too real for comfort,
her modernity too desperate, her feminine nature set too defiantly
against any sort of simple emotion or faith. The impression is renewed
in this second novel, or fantasy.” H. W. Boynton

— =Bookm= 45:533 Jl ‘17 500w

“Starts like an essay on modern philosophy, continues like a
confession, goes at a bound into fiction, shifts into the manner of a
Kipling fairy tale, and ends in perfect consistency with them all.”

+ =Dial= 63:117 Ag 16 ‘17 550w

“Another very modern, and rebellious, and essentially sentimental
affair.”

=Nation= 104:737 Je 21 ‘17 230w

“In spite of its many pathetic efforts at cheerfulness, and even
gayety and whimsical humor, it is this effect of utter hopelessness
which remains in the mind of the reader after closing the slender
volume.”

=N Y Times= 22:238 Je 24 ‘17 400w

“A book so kaleidoscopic in its changes from mockery to tenderness,
from realism to fantasy, defies the ordinary canons of criticism. We
must not omit to note Miss Benson’s gift for verse—whimsical and
mystical—or her suggestive and vivid treatment of the mysteries of
existence. ... In fine, this is a book to bewilder the old, to perplex
the middle-aged, and to enrapture the very modern young.”

=Spec= 118:593 My 26 ‘17 930w

“Miss Benson often irritates when she means to stimulate; and if we
have dwelt on this at some length it is because the irritation spoils
our enjoyment of gifts of fancy and expression not often met with.
There is an imaginative tenderness in what she writes about certain
dead soldiers which shows her sensibility to be delicate, rare, and
true.”

+ — =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p152 Mr 29 ‘17 650w

=BENTON, ALEXANDER HAY.= Indian moral instruction and caste problems: solutions. *$1.40 Longmans 17-13834

“The British government in India has, according to the author, made
three mistakes in dealing with the educational problem and the book
may be regarded as a study of the causes of those mistakes and of
possible remedies for the evil results. ... Mr Benton suggests that
toleration should be substituted for neutrality; and toleration he
explains to be ‘impartial favour for all religions, with maintenance
of the law.’ Mr Benton’s suggestion is to found a committee in each
district for religious and moral instruction, empowered to draw up a
religious and moral syllabus; and this syllabus would ‘contain a
narrative of the barest facts of Christ’s life simply told, with the
most important gospel precepts embodied.” (Int J Ethics) “This scheme,
he suggests, should be first introduced in the higher schools and
colleges, ‘where the plague spot is to be found,’ rather than in the
elementary schools.” (The Times [London] Lit Sup)

“The treatment of the caste problem seems to us to be somewhat
inadequate. ... A similar criticism may be passed upon the treatment
of the subject of religious toleration. ... Here again the defect is
chiefly due to lack of space and it may be left to the reader to fill
in the gaps and to apply to present day problems the truths enunciated
in the past and expounded by Mr Benton. We have nothing but praise for
the masterly way in which Mr Benton with the scholarship of a
statesman is not content merely with stating the problem and
suggesting temporary and superficial remedies but insists on referring
his readers to the fundamental principles underlying the problems set
forth. But some of his remedial measures are dangerous.” M. C.

+ — =Int J Ethics= 27:544 Jl ‘17 570w

“We hope that Mr Benton’s thoughtful study will commend itself to the
British as well as to all governments concerned with the education and
welfare of Asiatic wards.”

+ =Nation= 106:42 Ja 10 ‘18 1550w

“The failure of the educational system being assumed, many minds have
been directed for many years to find a remedy, or, at least, a
palliative. Mr Benton’s book is a thoughtful contribution for this
purpose. But ... his proposals are open to serious political
objections.”

+ — =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p65 F 8 ‘17 780w

=BERCOVICI, KONRAD.= Crimes of charity. *$1.50 Knopf 361 17-15181

“It is the contention of Konrad Bercovici that in being a remedy for
one evil, organized charity has become itself an even greater evil to
be combated. ... His charges are not made for the common reasons that
it is a futile palliative, that it works toward graft and expenses
wasted in red tape, but for the more vital reason that it becomes an
actual force of detriment and oppression to those it is supposed to
aid.”—Boston Transcript

“It is a very strong book whose pictures come very truly from the
heart of reality.” D. L. M.

+ =Boston Transcript= p6 Ap 21 ‘17 1000w

“In spite of the extreme position of condemnation taken by the author
as the result of his alleged experiences as an investigator, the book
is worth reading as showing the possible need of a change of method
along certain lines.”

+ =Cleveland= p93 Jl ‘17 50w

“Many of the charities condemned by the author of ‘Crimes of charity’
would certainly not be considered forms of ‘organized charity’ by
those who are supposed to know what these words stand for. ... But the
book is chiefly devoted to the work of a large relief agency,
apparently a Jewish relief society in New York, and the author finds
his opportunity to observe the methods of the society by becoming what
he calls a ‘charity spy.’ ... Is it necessary to say that such
dishonesty is not really the method of organized charity in America.
The language of the author is extremely violent throughout. ‘This
stupid ass in charge of the poor,’ ‘This spiritual hog,’ are typical
of expressions found throughout the book. His conduct is almost
equally violent. ... Whatever the faults of organized charity may be,
they are certainly not set forth in this volume of hysterical
stories.” Edith Abbott

– — =Dial= 62:478 My 31 ‘17 1200w

“The testimony given by the author is not melodramatic, but a
revelation made by one who has studied at first hand conditions that
are pathetic, thrilling, and revolting.”

+ =Lit D= 55:37 S 22 ‘17 200w

=Pittsburgh= 22:687 O ‘17 90w

=Pratt= p11 O ‘17 20w

“A preposterous attack.”

— =Springf’d Republican= p19 O 14 ‘17 60w

=BERENSON, BERNARD.= Study and criticism of Italian art, v. 3. il *$3.25 Macmillan 759.5 (17-14402)

“Of the six essays in this volume, five relate to Venetian painting in
the fifteenth century. They have been selected because they deal with
points for which there was no room in another book, published under
the title of ‘Venetian painting in the United States: the fifteenth
century.’ Two essays, however, on Carpaccio’s ‘Glory of St Ursula’ and
‘A Carpacciesque Madonna in Berlin,’ stand somewhat apart, being
chiefly essays in method. A paper on Leonardo da Vinci is an attempt
at a revaluation.”—Ath

=Ath= p197 Ap ‘17 80w

“It is equally hard to accept our critic’s final appraisal of
Leonardo, whom he would put down to Botticelli’s level. And still
harder is it to share his implicit tenet that the art of the Far East
gives us a norm by which Leonardo’s painting, and presumably all other
painting, is to be measured. ... Even if Leonardo does not seem wholly
to come to his rights in this remarkable essay, the incidental
criticism and the fresh point of view are boldly significant.” R:
Offner

+ — =Dial= 63:447 N 8 ‘17 1850w

“Offers besides the reprinted papers a novelty and a sensation in a
revaluation of Leonardo da Vinci. Mr Berenson describes whimsically
his gradual liberation from the spell of legend and his final view
that Leonardo is barely a great artist, rather a charming draughtsman
obfuscated by the discovery of counterpoise and chiaroscuro. We by no
means share the individual appreciations, or depreciations, upon which
Mr Berenson’s view is based. ... The whole volume is good reading
whether for the amateur or for the professional student.”

+ =Nation= 104:663 My 31 ‘17 430w

“Nor will the admirer of Leonardo be much troubled by the dubious
studio works with which Mr Berenson tries to fortify his case. The
essence of his attack is that knowledge, science, logic, and attention
to technical problems are ruinous to the artist. Such a sweeping
generalization does not stand the test of inquiry.”

=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p91 F 22 ‘17 1200w

=BERENSON, BERNARD.= Venetian painting in America: the fifteenth century. il *$4 Sherman, F: Fairchild 759.5 16-25230

“Gathered and amplified into a book, Mr Berenson’s conclusions, known
to us through his serial studies in Art in America, have gained in
persuasion and consequence. Mr Berenson, finding an adequately
representative sequence of Venetian paintings in our collections, has
grouped them historically; and adopting the discursive method of his
avowed master Morelli, he has made them the pretext for discussion of
almost all problems incident to their study. ... As one might expect,
the central figure in the book is Giovanni Bellini, and the central
problem, his chronology.”—Dial

=Ath= p307 Je ‘17 60w

“One of the most significant works of reconstructive criticism that
have appeared in recent years on the subject of Italian painting. It
teems with incidental criticism, æsthetic evaluations, and valuable
hints of attribution. ... The 263 pages of text are abundantly
illustrated with one hundred and ten reproductions and provided with
two tables and two indexes.” R: Offner

* + =Dial= 62:64 Ja 25 ‘17 2500w

“Alike for enjoyment and for minute consideration of attributions and
chronology the book must be read widely. Thanks are due the publisher
for making what must have been a pretty costly book accessible at a
price possible for students.”

* + =Nation= 104:316 Mr 15 ‘17 720w

“Whatever one may think of the author’s method, the volume shows
insight and enthusiasm and contains valuable information on the
subject with which it principally deals.”

+ =Springf’d Republican= p19 My 20 ‘17 570w

=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p166 Ap 5 ‘17 90w

“If the book fails wholly to satisfy, the scheme on which it is
planned must be held in some measure responsible. The author has
attempted to rewrite the history of the Venetian school in terms of
the pictures representing that school in America. These are of very
unequal merit, and though interest in them doubtless gave Mr Berenson
the principal stimulus for his work, it is a little unfortunate for
its permanent value that it was not planned on cosmopolitan lines.”

+ — =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p195 Ap 26 ‘17 750w

=BERESFORD, JOHN DAVYS.= House-mates. *$1.50 (1½c) Doran 17-12391

The main interest in this story lies in the author’s analysis of the
character of Wilfred Hornby, a young architect, shy, awkward,
conventional, brought up “to divide society into categories.” “His
early experiences at home, at school, and in the architect’s office,
his love affairs and engagement to his cousin Gladys—a poseuse to the
backbone ... are related with comparative brevity. Then comes the day
when, for the first time in his life, obliged to act for himself, he
takes lodgings on the ground floor of the old house in Keppel street,
a house inhabited by all sorts and conditions of men—and women.
Resolved though he is at first to have nothing to do with his
fellow-lodgers, proud of his isolation, he is gradually, inevitably
drawn into the life of the house. And presently he comes to know all
these ‘House-mates’ of his, and one of them is the girl with whom he
quickly falls honestly and deeply in love.” (N Y Times) In Keppel
street Wilfred learns to alter his standard of values and comes to the
“simple realization of [his] essential equality with the rest of
mankind.”

“When all is said, it is by far the most vital and most appealing of
all Mr Beresford’s novels.” E. F. E.

+ =Boston Transcript= p6 S 8 ‘17 1300w

* =Nation= 105:292 S 13 ‘17 750w

“The hand of the craftsman continues to work, though the materials are
of a quality so much thinner and cruder than those he customarily
uses.”

+ — =New Repub= 13:387 Ja 26 ‘18 380w

“The book is written in a style somewhat easier than are the majority
of Mr Beresford’s novels, but it does not quite rank with his best
work—not with ‘A candidate for truth,’ for instance—though it is, of
course, well worth reading and decidedly interesting. The development
of Hornby’s character, which is the core of the book, is in every way
excellent. The product of his narrow, middle-class, Sabbatarian
surroundings, the brief spells of emotionalism for which he is unable
to find a name, his hesitations and mistakes, and that honesty which
lies at the root of his character—all these are portrayed with sure,
firm strokes. ... In the last pages of the story we are given a brief
glimpse of the result of the war and of several weeks’ service in the
trenches on this especial temperament.”

+ — =NY Times= 22:322 S 2 ‘17 1050w

“Not by any means the equal of Mr Beresford’s ‘These Lynnekers.’ The
incidents are disagreeable and in one case revolting, and the young
man who narrates the history of his younger days is much more
interested in his own psychological development than the reader is
likely to be.”

— =Outlook= 117:100 S 19 ‘17 50w

“If, however, the book has no great central purpose, so that there
seems to be no place where the reviewer can take hold, it brings out
two big Beresford ideas—freedom from restraint, whether that restraint
be stereotyped art or stereotyped thought, and democracy.” Doris Webb

+ — =Pub W= 92:808 S 15 ‘17 500w

“Its purpose is to show the influence of a strange group of human
beings in drawing out and molding the spirit and character of a
sensitively introspective young man. It is a carefully wrought
picture, and a keenly analyzed situation, differing widely from the
character of work Mr Beresford has done heretofore. ... It is not a
particularly easy or entertaining story to read.”

+ =Springf’d Republican= p15 S 23 ‘17 660w

=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p104 Mr 1 ‘17 480w

=BERESFORD, JOHN DAVYS.= The Wonder. *$1.40 (2c) Doran 17-8200

The story of a child prodigy. Victor Stott was the son of the most
famous man of his time in England. It was the father’s ambition to
raise up a son who should take his place. The father was a champion
cricketer; the son turned out to be a Wonder. Abnormal in appearance,
his well-developed and sturdy child’s body appearing frail in
comparison with his massive head, Victor Stott seemed, so far as those
who tried to puzzle out his case could ascertain, to possess
illimitable understanding. Nothing in the universe, unless it was the
mystery of his own personality, was hidden from him. He had a strange
power over every one who came in contact with him. There was one being
only who could defy that power. This was the idiot boy, who tried
dumbly to claim a kinship with the Wonder. No-mind and absolute-mind
were brought into contact in these two. As Henry Challis, the
scientist, explained the Wonder, he represented finality, giving a
glimpse of what a world would be without ignorance and without
mystery.

Reviewed by H. W. Boynton

=Bookm= 45:315 My ‘17 400w

“All the elements of wizardry in this story can only be suggested. It
is told consistently with all the verisimilitude of a scientific
document, with an occasional footnote and a mention of actual men that
can not fail to delude the reader, at least for the moment, into
thinking that he is having set before him the life story of a prodigy
that actually existed. As to his fate, ... it brings the story to a
logical and a sensible conclusion.” E. F. E.

=Boston Transcript= p8 Mr 31 ‘17 1050w

=Nation= 105:456 O 25 ‘17 500w

“Throughout the book we feel restraint. Now and again in elusive
realism possible analogies in the life of Jesus are hinted at,
analogies which are never pressed—from that pitfall the author is
saved by his understanding of how only in little flashes historical
analogy may appeal to the imagination. But for the familiar and barren
query, ‘What would happen if Jesus appeared on earth today?’,
Beresford plainly substitutes in effect the more stimulating query,
‘What would have to happen today to produce the effect Jesus once
produced?’” E. C. P.

+ — =New Repub= 13:53 N 10 ‘17 1900w

“Mr Beresford’s new story is quite unlike any of his previous novels.
It is, indeed, a peculiar book, and one is not at all certain whether
the author intends it to be taken partly at least, as an allegory. ...
But one thing at least seems fairly certain—it is a book about which
people will disagree.”

=N Y Times= 22:113 Ap 1 ‘17 500w

“The workmanship of the book is notable; its intent is presumably
satirical, but it is also, to us at least, unfathomable.”

=Outlook= 115:710 Ap 18 ‘17 200w

=Pittsburgh= 22:649 O ‘17 20w

“In ‘The wonder’ Mr J. D. Beresford has satirically pilloried certain
methods of education and taken a fling at the sum of human knowledge.”

+ =R of Rs= 56:553 N ‘17 210w

=BERGER, MARCEL.= Ordeal by fire; tr. by Mrs Cecil Curtis. *$1.50 (1c) Putnam 17-26261

This story of the first days of the war follows the development of a
man who is transformed from a sceptic and cynic to a loyal and ardent
patriot. Michel Dreher is in Switzerland when he learns that war has
been declared. For a moment he entertains the idea that he need not
return to his country. That he does so is due to a sense of his social
position rather than to patriotism. He takes up his duties as a
sergeant half-heartedly, but as the war progresses he gradually
undergoes a change. Shortly before he had met a young French girl who
attracted him greatly, but since love and marriage had no place in his
cynical scheme of life, he had passed her by. But with his new
seriousness he comes to think of her more and more often and the
Epilogue, which carries the story into 1915, pictures their union. The
author is a sergeant in the French army.

=A L A Bkl= 13:314 Ap ‘17

“It is grimly terrible, but not morbid.”

+ =Bellman= 22:303 Mr 17 ‘17 260w

“This, evidently, is a book of deeper mood and meaning than the now
famous ‘Gaspard’; here are Gaspards in their natural setting and
relation to the great theme as a whole—the great theme of France at
war, which has here its finest interpretation in fiction thus far.” H.
W. Boynton

+ =Bookm= 45:93 Mr ‘17 550w

“A vivid translation of a story that throbs with life.”

+ =Cath World= 105:543 Jl ‘17 160w

“The story is told in the first person with all the characteristic
incident and spirited dialogue to be expected from a French writer
handling such a theme.” P. F. Bicknell

+ =Dial= 62:306 Ap 5 ‘17 180w

“‘Ordeal by fire’ does for France something very much like what ‘Mr
Britling’ and ‘The vermilion box’ have done for England. It shows how
the war came home to France.” H. W. Boynton

+ =Nation= 104:404 Ap 5 ‘17 180w

+ =Nation= 104:491 Ap 26 ‘17 950w

“Whatever M. Berger, himself a sergeant in the French army, was solely
responsible for in this book has been admirably done. ... But the work
of the translator leaves much to be desired. ... One closes the book
with a strong desire to read it in French.”

+ — =N Y Times= 22:26 Ja 28 ‘17 700w

+ =Springf’d Republican= p17 Mr 18 ‘17 150w

+ =Wis Lib Bul= 13:158 My ‘17 40w

=BERLE, LINA WRIGHT.= George Eliot and Thomas Hardy; a contrast. *$1.50 Kennerley 823 17-30753

In a preliminary chapter the writer shows that it is Eliot and not
Hardy who furnished a basis upon which rational idealism may be
developed,—one which, while acknowledging facts, recognizes also the
relation of the spiritual elements in life to the grosser material
forces. George Eliot’s idealism has been in the direction which
subsequent generations have found most sound. Hardy, on the other
hand, is the romantic decadent. His characters never pass from a lower
to a higher spirituality but are bound on the wheel of life which
inexorably breaks them in its revolution. Following a statement of
these fundamental principles of difference are essays that show the
striking contrast in treatment of both weak and good women; that
indicate how both novelists struck the same rock in the creation of
men—both making the minor characters real men, their principals, men
of straw; points out the differences of goal in their love
stories,—Eliot attaining wisdom higher than ourselves thru suffering
and pain, Hardy descending to licentious, often brutal love; finds
saneness in the treatment of old age; and closes with an illuminating
estimate of radical and reactionary types with the deduction that
Eliot was the radical and Hardy the reactionary.

“On every page of Miss Berle’s book is evidence of the futility of
writing such a study.” E. F. E.

— =Boston Transcript= p9 N 24 ‘17 780w

“As worked out by Miss Berle the thesis becomes fruitful of excellent
criticism, at once ethical and æsthetic, as the best literary
criticism always is. Only the last chapter gives one pause. In her use
of the words ‘radical’ and ‘conservative’ Miss Berle is somewhat
arbitrary, and in a manner that may lead to confusion in the minds of
many readers.”

+ — =Nation= 105:697 D 20 ‘17 200w

“The book is decidedly interesting and well phrased, but one feels
that while the radicalism of George Eliot has been properly valued by
the author, there are emendations that might be suitably made to the
estimate of Hardy.”

+ — =R of Rs= 57:217 F ‘18 70w

=BERTSCH, MARGUERITE.= How to write for moving pictures; a manual of instruction and information. il *$1.50 (2½c) Doran 808.2 17-17069

The author is director and editor for the Vitagraph company and the
Famous players film company. “Her complete discussion of the writing
and production of the photoplay is followed by warnings against
hackneyed themes, which she classifies, and a presentation of
unhackneyed possibilities.” (Springf’d Republican) The last four
chapters deal with the censorship and the educational possibilities of
moving pictures. The illustrations are from photographs. There is no
index.

=A L A Bkl= 14:49 N ‘17

“The literature of scenario-making is already bulky, but Miss
Bertsch’s manual is well worth a place in it.”

+ =Springf’d Republican= p15 Ag 19 ‘17 90w

=BETTS, FRANK.= Saga plays. *$1.25 Longmans 822

There are three plays in this collection: The passing of Sinfiotli;
Ingiald Evilheart, and The sword of Sigurd. Writing in 1917, the
author says in his preface, “The plays were completed in April, 1914,
by one who did not believe that great wars were any longer possible.
Especially in ‘The sword of Sigurd’ he used the traditional motif of
the sword to stand in his imaginations for all the adventurous and
creative life of men. There is now need for the actual and physical
sword as well as the Sword of the Spirit. ... The writer finds nothing
to alter on this account. ... ‘The sword of Sigurd’ is not intended to
be a complete play. It is a prologue to a play, as yet unfinished,
dealing with the death of Sigurd.”

“They present tragic episodes from the ‘Volsungasaga,’ and the terse,
grinding dialogue is strong and dramatic, and a fair imitation of that
in the translated sagas. But though a prose different from that of
real life is tolerable in a translation, where one unconsciously makes
allowances, it gives a sense of unreality here without evoking the
right poetic atmosphere.”

+ — =Ath= p411 Ag ‘17 100w

“Through their likeness and unlikeness to the conditions of our own
strenuous days Mr Betts’s three plays come apt to the moment. Even in
the days of laughter and dancing, peace and overflowing garners they
would have been found exciting, exalting work. ... The dialogue seems
to thrill and quiver; and though we are always kept close to the
matter in hand, the suggestions of thought on fighting, on adventure,
on honour, on religion and fate, set the mind at work outside the
scope of the stories here vividly and dramatically told.”

+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p246 My 24 ‘17 900w

=BETTS, GEORGE HERBERT.= Class-room method and management. il *$1.25 Bobbs 371.3 17-13425

“Part 1, which is devoted to a discussion of general method, makes use
of what Professor Betts calls the ‘four cardinal elements which
comprise method.’ These to him are (1) the determination of aim, (2)
the selection of material, (3) the organization of subject-matter for
instruction, (4) presentation or the technique of instruction. He
states the outcome of instruction in the elementary subjects as (1)
fruitful knowledge, (2) right attitudes, (3) applied skills. ... In