In this merry jest is romance and knight errantry of old. The tale tells of one Duke Jocelyn of Brocelaunde, a puissant knight, but marred of face so that he despairs of winning the love of the beautiful lady Yolande. He dons his fool’s motley garb with cap and bells and sets out with one lonely, poorly garbed knight to act the part of the Duke’s envoy and press his suit. They meet with many adventures in the forest, fall in with Robin Hood, make friends and fight many a brave fight with and for him. Even the Lady Yolande is intrigued by the fool’s merry songs and after he has rescued her from a hated suitor, she yields to his love and openly declares it before the assembled knights of the Duke of Brocelaunde. Songs and rhymes, blank verse and prose mingle in the telling of the tale.
“He tells it for his young daughter’s edification, and has hit on a medium—his own swaggering prose and a sound, swinging, rough-and-ready metre—that suits both the matter and his now familiar manner.”
“This is a good Christmas book for the incorrigibly romantic, young or old.” Margaret Ashmun
“A pretty manner Mr Farnol has adopted for the telling of his latest story. Accepting the artifice for what it is one cannot deny that it makes good entertainment.” W. S. B.
“One of the most charming and delightfully whimsical fictional products that have come from the presses this year.”
“The choice of the genre is a very happy one for Mr Farnol; it admits of his wearing his heart on his sleeve and carrying his tongue in his cheek at one and the same time. In fact, this is such a tale as any father—did he but dispose of Mr Farnol’s vocabulary, humour and invention—would tell his daughter, providing her liberally with marvels to her taste and amusing himself with Shakespearian allusions that would escape her.”
FARNSWORTH, CHARLES HUBERT. How to study music. *$2.10 (3½c) Macmillan 780.7
Professor Frank M. McMurry in his introduction to the volume points out that the teacher’s method of teaching may unduly overshadow in importance the child’s method of study. This little book places the emphasis on the child’s method of study and takes the form of home conversations between the children and the adults of the family. It shows how a child’s appreciation of music requires a fertile home soil for its growth and how Jack’s initial “I hate music” can be changed into his final “I love music.” Contents: Difficulties in the study of music; How listen to music; How learn notation without awakening a dislike for music; How a child should learn to sing; How learn to play the piano; How learn to enjoy classical as well as modern music; How to select music; How make use of music in the family; Library of piano compositions.
“The unusual characteristic about the book is the fact that the problems are presented from the viewpoint of both pupil and teacher. In this respect it is better than a formal text would probably be. Indeed, the author evidently sought to exemplify his philosophy of teaching by the book itself.”
FARRAR, JOHN CHIPMAN. Forgotten shrines. (Yale ser. of younger poets) *75c Yale univ. press 811
“Mr Farrar has earned a reputation which foreruns this book of his with a war poem called ‘Brest left behind.’ He divides his poems in groups called Portraits, Songs for children and others, Miscellaneous and Sonnets. The first group of Portraits won the eighteenth award of the prize offered by Professor Albert Stanburrough Cook at Yale for the best unpublished verse by an undergraduate.”—Boston Transcript
“Beautiful in thought and expression.”
Reviewed by R. M. Weaver
“He gives us a fine sense of diversity of interests and a balance of form that is admirable.” W. S. B.
“Mr Farrar has achieved clear and tender outlines in the section called Portraits, and should be encouraged to proceed further.”
FARRISS, CHARLES SHERWOOD.[2] American soul. $1 Stratford co. 920
“An appreciation of the four greatest Americans and their lesson for present Americans.” (Sub-title) The four Americans are: George Washington; Abraham Lincoln; Robert E. Lee; and Theodore Roosevelt.
“On the whole, the author is quite happy in his attempt to draw the moral without overpainting the tale.”
FAY, CHARLES RYLE. Life and labour in the nineteenth century. *$8 Macmillan 331.8
“Though the title sounds as if ‘Life and labor in the nineteenth century’ were solely on economics, and though economics gets plenty of treatment, Captain Fay’s lectures cover the political history of England and its international adventures. It is only the fact that wars are not described that prevents it from being a history of England in the nineteenth century.” (N Y Times) “The volume contains the substance of the author’s lectures, delivered at Cambridge in 1919, to students of economics among whom were officers of the Royal navy and students from the United States army.” (The Times [London] Lit Sup)
Reviewed by G: Soule
“It is marred by a certain ignorance of American events, or at least American points of view.... But these evidences of careless historical reading and insufficient information about a foreign country, although they impair the value of Mr Fay’s book, do not prevent it from being a careful study of the economic life and free-handed study of its politics, written in a vivacious style.”
“Mr Fay attempts to develop no clear-cut definite theories. He does not indulge in the harmless but futile pastime of prophecy. One of the freshest and most original portions of the book is in the chapters in which Mr Fay traces the prevalence and disastrous consequences of ‘semi-capitalism,’ the stage of transition from domestic industries to manufacture.”
FAYLE, CHARLES ERNEST.[2] Seaborne trade. il *$7.50 (*12s 6d) Longmans 940.45
v 1 The cruiser period.
“From the outbreak of the war and the mobilization of the British fleet to the beginning of the submarine warfare, Mr Fayle covers every incident, every move of the Allied and the German fleets. He takes up in turn the flight of the Goeben and the Breslau to the shelter of the Dardanelles, the protection of the Atlantic terminals, the precautions taken to cover trade in the Far East, the situation in the South Atlantic, and the depredations of the Karlsruhe.”—Boston Transcript
“Altogether, ‘The cruiser period’ is a notable addition to the history of the war.”
FELD, ROSE CAROLINE. Humanizing industry. *$2.50 Dutton 331.1
“Miss Feld has written a story concerning one Struthers who, inheriting an industrial plant run on old-fashioned lines of benevolent despotism, tries to introduce modern ideas and overcomes one by one the obstacles created by a bad tradition. It is not fiction, but the method of telling enhances the impression of the author’s belief in good personal relationships and common sense as the most promising approaches to a humanization of industry. Incidentally, the book discusses in detail and with reference to successful experiments the merits of welfare, educational, insurance, pension, profit sharing and industrial representation schemes.”—Survey
Reviewed by G: Soule
“There seems to be one thing overlooked. In speaking of human relations, the author seems to have in mind kindliness, friendliness, charitableness—of which we have none too much. She does not mean anything as fundamental as the economic relationship of classes to one another, to the soil and natural resources, to the powers of government. She reminds me pathetically of the reformers who hoped to save the institution of slavery by inducing slave holders to treat their slaves and mules in a more kindly way.” B. C. G.
“It is a book that all employers of labor ought to read, because whether or not they have sensed that new era, or even entered upon it, they will find in it eye-opening ideas, helpful suggestions. It is a book that all laboring men who have begun to think ought to read, because it will set them on the right track in their thinking.”
FELLOWES, EDMUND HORACE, ed. English madrigal verse, 1588–1632. (Oxford English texts) *$6.25 Oxford 821:04
“This is a reprint of the known words of Elizabethan songs, arranged under their composers and, among these, under the particular type of song, with the names of the poets in the few cases where they are known. In all of these songs both words and voice part were paramount. For if, as in the first half of the book, they were madrigals (for from three to six voices), each voice was sovran in turn, and each vied with the other in the amount of meaning it could impress on the words. If, as in the second half, they were solos or duets, then they had the sketchy accompaniment of the lute, or the support of veiled and velvety-toned viols. The first are necessarily short, for the madrigal form required much repetition of words; pithy, for if a voice is only to be heard at intervals it should have something terse to say; and conventional, for you cannot put intimate sentiments into the mouths of half a dozen different people in succession. The second are more elaborate. They are all true lyrics in that they take one point and press it home.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
“To all who love the lyric, English madrigal verse will be a genuine delight. Its careful editing makes the musical construction quite clear, and the material is indeed a treasury of quaint verse.” C. K. H.
“A learned and careful work which only a scholar both in literature and in music could have brought to a conclusion.”
“Interesting and scholarly book.”
FELSTEAD, SIDNEY THEODORE. German spies at bay; comp, from official sources. il *$2 Brentano’s 940.485
“This is a record of interest, exactly recording the actual work of our Secret service and the particulars of the chief German spies whom it traced and dealt with, and exposing the error of much of the panic about spies in England which at one time prevailed.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
“Mr Felstead is not dull, nor truthfully can one think, brilliant. Those who are interested in spies will be reading for information (possibly thrills), and herein the author is enthusiastically cyclopedic.”
“Mr Felstead has written an amusing as well as an instructive book, and he seems to have steered cleverly between the rocks of reticence and indiscretion.”
FENWICK, CHARLES GHEQUIER. Political systems in transition; war-time and after. *$3 Century 342
The book is one of the Century New world series of which W. F. Willoughby is general editor. Since the war, the author holds, the question of the organization of the state and the scope of the functions it is to perform has become once more an open one, for the war has made it clear that there are some serious defects in the machinery of government that call for radical amendments to our constitutional system. The relative strength and weakness of the several political systems and the probable line of future reconstruction, form the subject of the present study. Contents: Part 1, Political ideals and demands of war; War a test of democratic government; The constitutions of the great nations on the eve of the great war; Part 2, Changes brought about by the war in the political institutions of European countries; Countries with autocratic governments; Countries with democratic governments; Part 3, Changes in the political institutions of the United States; The war and the constitution; War powers of the president; Emergency legislation adopted by Congress; Changes in the organization of the government; The separate state governments: new legislation and new administrative activities; Part 4, Problems of reconstruction in the United States raised by the war; New ideals of democracy; The program of political reconstruction; The program of international reconstruction; Index.
“An excellent account of the shake-up in governments produced by the war, full of material which must be included in any adequate history of it.” E. N.
“The volume is a valuable compendium of war measures in the belligerent nations and of the political problems which the war has left.”
“He writes with eminent fairness, and writes only to inform. He achieves his aim strikingly. Sometimes he falls into the error of taking a phrase at its face value. Since even small things are important in a work of this kind. Professor Fenwick should be more careful about his dates.”
FERBER, EDNA. Half portions. *$1.75 (2c) Doubleday
The nine short stories of this collection are: The maternal feminine; April 25th, as usual; Old lady Mandle; You’ve got to be selfish; Long distance; Un morso doo pang; One hundred per cent; Farmer in the dell; The dancing girls. They are stories of life as it is lived in Chippewa or Winnebago, Wisconsin, or on South Park avenue, Chicago. Some are stories of war time. One is an Emma McChesney story. They are reprinted from the Ladies’ Home Journal, Metropolitan, Colliers, and other magazines.
“All these stories and all these pages are thronged with real men and women, and in them Miss Ferber continues to display not merely her skill at story telling, but also her greater skill at breathing into them the breath of life. Reality and imagination combine equally in their making.”
“Miss Ferber’s talents go to polishing the bright pebbles of life, rather than to touching the bedrock of reality, but there’s no denying the world would be duller without an occasional pretty pebble.”
“The highest praise you can give an author in these days is to say that his or her book is ‘thoroly American,’ from which, alas, it does not necessarily follow that it is an excellent piece of workmanship. Edna Ferber’s ‘Half portions,’ however, wins on both counts.”
“Miss Edna Ferber is not thoughtful about the affairs of the world. She simply does not let herself think. If some one would endow Miss Ferber, and make it no longer too expensive for her to think or bring a story to an honest conclusion, she might become a sort of American Arnold Bennett.” Ludwig Lewisohn
“It is a book that is thoroughly enjoyable and laughable from beginning to end.”
FERBER, EDNA, and LEVY, NEWMAN. $1200 a year. il *$1.50 Doubleday 812
A three-act play in which a university professor gives up his $1200 a year position in the university to earn $30 a day in a mill. He immediately becomes popular as a labor leader and lecturer and is in demand all over the United States, but it is only when he is offered a salary of $5000 a week in the movies that the magnate who owns the university as well as the mill is moved to consider the question of an adequate salary for a professor.
“Interesting to read. One would like to see it acted.”
“The complications hold the kernel of genuine comedy, but instead of cracking their nut, Miss Ferber and Mr Levy have contented themselves with merely painting funny faces on the shell.” L. B.
“The authors have challenged serious criticism by calling the play a ‘comedy’ and by permitting the publishers to proclaim it a ‘timely satire.’ It is an amusing and clever farce, containing many touches of skilful character depiction.” Jack Crawford
“As a vehicle for amusement ‘$1200 a year’ is both ingenious and satisfying. Its characters are human, its situations vivid. It portrays with little exaggeration the wretched circumstances of our little world of scholars with sympathetic and understanding treatment. But what of that other world? Have not the authors exaggerated the affluence of mill labor to crown their dramatic purpose?”
Reviewed by A. E. Morey
“Rather a good story, though highly illogical and incredible.”
FIELDING, WILLIAM JOHN. Sanity in sex. *$1.75 (3c) Dodd 176
The past few years have seen a remarkable change in the public attitude toward sex. The ban of secrecy has been largely removed and the need for rational sex education is generally recognized. The author’s purpose in this book has been “to subject the social processes responsible for these changes to a thorough analysis, classifying all the important factors and tendencies involved, and to give as concise and accurate an account as possible of this historic period of the sex-educational movement.” (Introd.) Subjects covered include: the government’s campaign of sex-education, sex-education in the army, venereal disease, sex hygiene in industry, sex education in the public schools, the relation of sex knowledge to marriage, sex ignorance and divorce, birth control, and psycho-analysis, and the final chapter discusses economic sufficiency as a basis of sex hygiene. There is a classified bibliography of seventeen pages, followed by an index.
“Mr Fielding is not an alarmist; he strikes more than a note of hope in his account of the work which the United States government did with the army during the war.”
“The book for the most part quotes authorities worth considering, and is modern in its attitude, but overestimates the theories of psycho-analysis, and is weakened by rather easy generalizations.”
FIFE, GEORGE BUCHANAN. Passing legions. il *$2 (2c) Macmillan 940.477
“How the American Red cross met the American army in Great Britain, the gateway to France.” (Sub-title) The work of the Red cross commission in Great Britain was almost wholly with passing troops, on the way to the front or returning, and the aim of the author has been to bring out those features of the service which distinguished it from that of other commissions. Among the chapters are: A call through the storm; When the commission was born; Where a million men went by; The incoming legions at Liverpool; Here and there in Britain; The bluejackets of Cardiff and Plymouth; With the army to Archangel; The unbreakable link with “home.”
“Even now, books of the war continue to be written, and Mr Fife’s is among the distinctly lesser lights of the contest. He writes in a business-like but boresome monotone.”
“The opening story of the book is a story of heroism almost unbelievable, yet intense in its realism, pathos and altruism. Great as is the Otranto story, it but serves to fix the attention on what is to come and so onward to the ‘valedictory’ is read a succession of just such tales.” E. J. C.
FILENE, CATHERINE, ed. Careers for women. *$4 Houghton 396.5
The object of the book is to give vocational information to high school and college women, to supplement the work of vocational advisors in schools, and to help decrease the number of “square pegs for round holes.” It is composed of articles written expressly for the book by a number of specially qualified contributors and its compiler, Miss Filene, is the director of the Intercollegiate vocational guidance association. The vocations considered are grouped under the headings: Accounting; Advertising; Agriculture, etc.; Architecture; Arts and crafts; Business; Dramatics; Education; Finance; Government service; Health services; Home economics services; Industrial work; Institutional work; Insurance; Law; Library work; Literary work; Motion-picture work; Museum work; Music; Newspaper work; Personnel work; Physical education; Politics; Religious work; Scientific work; Secretarial work; Social work; Specialists; Statistical work; Vocational training. Suggested readings accompany most of the chapters and there is an index.
“By far the most practical and complete book in its field. Will be useful in any library.”
“It should be of great value to high-school and college students and the new graduate. The suggestions are, on the whole, sound.”
“Differently as the various authors write, there is uniformity in one respect—in the brisk, snappy, pungent way in which they push their points at you and make you see the picture.”
“Both for its merit as a model of the way in which occupational information should be presented, and for what it signifies in the modern outlook of thoughtful college women and, it may be added, of college men as well, this book is noteworthy. The publishers deserve mention for the most attractively printed book in the field of vocational guidance.” Meyer Bloomfield
FILLMORE, PARKER HOYSTED. Shoemaker’s apron. il *$2.50 (5½c) Harcourt
This is the author’s second book of Czechoslovak fairy tales and folk tales with illustrations and decorations by Jan Matulka. It is a companion volume to the earlier collection and contains besides the fairy tales five nursery tales and a group of devil tales. They are not so much translations as a retelling of other versions to suit the English-speaking child. The fairy tales are: The twelve months; Zlatovlaska the golden-haired; The shepherd’s nosegay; Vitazko the victorious. The shoemaker’s apron is one of the devil tales.
“An interesting collection of twenty stories drawn from original sources and retold with simple charm.”
Reviewed by A. C. Moore
FINCH, WILLIAM COLES-, and HAWKS, ELLISON. Water in nature, il *$2.50 Stokes 551
“W. Coles Finch and Ellison Hawks, two English scientists, have contributed to the Romance of reality series a volume entitled ‘Water in nature.’ In it they deal scientifically, and at the same time entertainingly, with practically all of water’s manifestations in the natural world, including its relations to cloud, atmosphere, ocean, rain, hail, snow, ice, glaciers, springs, rivers, lake, waterfalls, mountains, caves, rocks, reefs, and corals.”—N Y Times
“Any one who is interested in natural phenomena will find fascinating reading in this résumé of popular science.”
FINDLAY, HUGH, ed. Handbook for practical farmers. il *$5 Appleton 630
A comprehensive handbook “dealing with the more important aspects of farming in the United States.” (Sub-title) Special chapters have been contributed by practical experts in different parts of the United States. Subjects covered include the various farm and garden crops, farm animals, the care of milk and the curing of meat on the farm, farm buildings, running water, the use of explosives, the care of tools, fence posts, roads, the farm loan system, farm records, pets, weeds, etc. There are 258 illustrations and an index. The editor is lecturer on horticulture in Columbia university.
FINDLAY, JOSEPH JOHN. Introduction to sociology, for social workers and general readers. (Publications of the University of Manchester) il *$2 Longmans 301
“The central theme of sociology, as conceived by Professor Findlay and lucidly expounded in this excellent introduction to a comparatively new, extremely comprehensive, but somewhat elusive science, is ‘the definition of social groups, their classification and their relations to each other.’ The treatment is systematic, though some problems of considerable importance, such as the institution of land tenure, have had to be omitted. The first five chapters are devoted to principles. The second part relates to types of social grouping, such as family, state, religion, and occupation. In the third part, which is concerned with organization, the positions of the leader, the official, and the representative, are discussed: and there is an analysis of the instinct of loyalty.”—Ath
“A valuable part of his book is the admirable list of references to contemporary and other authorities.”
“The author, while primarily an educational administrator and not a professional sociologist, nevertheless has attained a definite grasp of certain fundamental principles in the science of society. His book is a very thoughtful piece of work, but the reviewer confesses to losing his way frequently in the course of the argument.” A. J. Todd
FINNEY, ROSS LEE, and SCHAFER, ALFRED L. Administration of village and consolidated schools. *$1.60 Macmillan 371
“This book has been written especially to meet the needs of principals of small schools and to serve as a textbook in those institutions where young men and women are in training for the administration of village schools. Its five parts discuss, respectively, Governmental administration, The principal’s personal-official relations, Adapting the school to the needs of the child, The business side, and Miscellaneous.”—Boston Transcript
“It gives valuable and practical charts and tables and is fraught with helpful suggestions. It will be very useful to those who know how to discriminate and are not too slavishly bound to the letter.”
“The book is written in a style that ought to appeal to teachers and school officers who have not enjoyed the opportunities of an elaborate training.”
FIRKINS, OSCAR W. Jane Austen. *$1.75 (3c) Holt 823
A critical and biographical study of Jane Austen, falling into three parts: The novelist; The realist; The woman. Part 1 is a searching and unsparing analysis of the six novels, with particular reference to plot. Part 2 is a more brief and general treatment of the characters. Part 3, the biographical section, is a study of Miss Austen’s personality as revealed in her letters and reflected in the novels. Notes and an index come at the end and the whole is prefaced by verses, “To Jane Austen,” from the author’s pen, reprinted from the Atlantic Monthly.
“He is often clever and always readable.”
“The advantage of this microscopic, literal measurement is that it prepares the way for an exact delineation of Jane Austen’s production and character. If the final picture lacks an inconsequent sureness, it is full of fine perspectives and fresh values.” C. M. Rourke
“He paints a sort of cubist portrait of Jane Austen, which would pass unrecognized were it not labeled with her name. He has succeeded in imagining a Miss Austen who is ‘one vile antithesis’. In ‘creative criticism’ does the critic create the author in his own image?” H. E. Woodbridge
“A book both new and worth reading. He has looked at Miss Austen more through his own eyes, and less through the eyes of her many illustrious eulogists, than any other writer I know of. Even when he is in harmony with the opinions of Miss Austen’s posterity one feels his first-handedness. Not one of his more heretical opinions exists for the sake of saying something new.”
“Although his book is written in so flowing and altogether charming a style that it is a pleasure to read it, I could not help wondering why he thought it worth doing at all. Certainly, no one that reads it will be tempted to fly to Jane Austen. Quite the contrary!” Gertrude Atherton
“Minute analysis of individual characters, their consistency and temperaments, is carried a little too far for any but the devoted admirers who have every one of Miss Austen’s novels firmly in remembrance.”
FISCHER, HERBERT ALBERT LAURENS. Studies in history and politics. *$5.65 Oxford 904
“When the Right Honorable Herbert Fisher took up the onerous duties of a Minister of the crown on the British Educational board ... the heavy labors in the service of the English youth left him little time for writing and research. The studies collected in his latest volume are, therefore, not new, but are reprints of various magazine articles written, for the most part, between five and ten years ago, though here and there retouched and supplemented. Three of the eleven essays deal with French politics; three with the history of history; two with Napoleon; one with British imperial administration; one with the value of small states; and one with the resurgence of Prussia.”—Nation
“The studies are all amply worth reading.” Preserved Smith
“Interesting and thoughtful essays.”
“Mr Fisher’s essays will interest everybody who cares either for history or for politics, and, most of all, those who care for both.”
FISHER, IRVING. Stabilizing the dollar. *$3.50 Macmillan 338.5
“[In this book] first there is a twenty-five page summary. Then there is the main body of the text, 125 pages, in which the same arguments that appear in the summary are amplified. Finally there is an appendix of 171 pages in which practically the same points are gone over again, only this time with a strong emphasis upon ‘technical details.’ Thus we have a boiled down encyclopedia addressed to three separate levels of attention, or perhaps of intellect, all within the modest confines of one small volume. Professor Fisher believes that the high cost of living is caused by a shrunken dollar, just as the low cost of living from 1873 to 1896 followed an enlarged dollar. The purchasing power of the dollar is at all times, so he easily proves, uncertain and variable. His remedy is to make the dollar more or less valuable, according as prices are rising or falling by adding or substracting from its weight in gold.”—Unpartizan Review
“The close association between economic and political problems at the present day warrants for this book the attention of political scientists.”
“This book is well arranged for summary or detailed reading.”
“Many prominent economists indorse the plan. The question of its practical application is a distinct and different affair. Be that as it may, the book is provocative of thought and deserves a wide reading.” G. M. J.
“The plan is presented with elaborate simplicity and persuasiveness, and an exhaustive discussion of technical details, alternative plans, and precedents.”
Reviewed by C. C. Plehn
“It is a duty to direct attention to Professor Fisher’s plan, and it is agreeable to add that he makes its study easy.”
“For the advanced student of currency and price movements the six appendices will prove of special interest.” E. R. Burton
+ |Survey 44:541 Jl 17 ’20 420w |The Times [London] Lit Sup p369 Je 10 ’20 120w
“In ‘Stabilizing the dollar’ we have not necessarily the final word, but the most complete exposition as yet of a great, fundamental reform whose inevitableness the reviewer cannot doubt.” A. W. Atwood
FISHER, JOHN ARBUTHNOT FISHER, 1st baron. Memories and records. 2v il *$8 (6½c) Doran