Evening star., 1934-05-09
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
Margaret Cermond.


cause there are no new books to
write about, but because contact with
some cherished acquaintances of an
early age have been renewed.
The haunting dreams, in which
books and grab-bags, plants and SPELL
ing bees, fortune tellers and dolls, nov-
elites and pictures, cakes and what
nots, popcorn and hot dogs, whirled in
grOtesque shapes and In frantic haste,
on a merry-o-round spinning itself
crazily into a Maypole or an ocean
liner. have subsidized. The May day
street fair is over and the newspaper
women who staged it find their slum-
bers no longer disturbed by such
phantoms. Weary bodies are losing
their aches, nerves are losing their
tautness, anxious minds are at rest
and the after-thrills are fiourishing.
Perhaps a benefit fair, conducted
mainly for the purpose of establishing
a much-needed fellowship fund, has
no place in column devoted to new
books. But suppose such an event
leads to the recovery of long hidden
treasures, loved and enjoyed in the
days when fairy story, Self-imagined,
grew out of the pictures in big pom
derOus books, and when sleepy heads
nodded off into Slumber before mother
or father came to the end of the bed
time story?
This thrilling adventure of .redis-
covery greH out Of search for what
nots-those odds and ends Of all sorts
which, after serving their immediate
usefulness, are slowed away in attics
and cellars. lockers and cubbyholeS.
There were two big barrels, packed
when the family last moved, back in
the days when sugar was measured
out OF barrels and not packed in neat
little paSteboard boxes, and the corner
grocer was glad to give away few
'empties." They ought to contain odd
pieces OF china and glass, bric-a -brac
of one sort or another, maybe an old
teapot with a broken spout, or even
some antiquated coal oil lamps.
The accumulation of dust, coal dirt
and cobWebs was considerably more
oiscouraging than inviting, but at least
one Of those barrels had to come out
into the light of day.
x X );
More disheartening than the cob
webs and dirt on the outside were the
first discoveries on the inside, but as
the depths were reached the adventure
grew more exciting. And in the bot
tom? Books! Volumes known to have
once upon time been possessed, but
believed to have been lost in the
process of moving
Carefully wrapped in a protective
covering. the first book rescued from
its ignominouS imprisonment proved
to be one Of set of five in a hand
some edition of Victor Hugo's i'm
mortal Les Miserables" Could it be
possible that the others were there?
They were-every one of themi Man
ual labor ceased as page after page
was turned and memory drifted back
tC the period when reading the pic
lures" was the most delightful Of all
forms Of entertainment on rainy days.
Emotions crowded upon each other as
the volumes emerged from their dun
geon. 1t was difficult to determine
whether the greater Joy arose from
the recovery of books appreciated and
valued for their literary and historic
greatness or from the recollections OF
child-made stories, bearing no relation
to the text.
'Fantine." "Cosette." "Marius,"
Saint Denis" and Jean Vatican"
comprise the set. each volume con-
tanning nearly hundred illustrations
from designs by such eminent French
artists. as Lix. Valnay. E. Bayard
Brion. De Neuville, Scott. E. Norm
Vierge. Des Brosses. j. L. Laurens
BENEFIT. Ad. Marie. Hersent. E. Della
Croix, E. Zier. Haenen, H. Vogel and
a number by Victor Hugo himself
The set is one of a limited art edition
published in 1886 by George Rout-
ledge & Sons Of London and New
York. Through an evident sense of
modesty the translator is not identi-
fled, the accompanying predatory
note not even bearing initials:
mo other merit is claimed for the
following version of Les MiSerables'
than the most scrupulous fidelity, and
my chief anxiety has been to keep
myself out of sight and give the
precise meaning of every word as
written by the author. This line was
enforced on me by the following
passage in a letter which I received
from Victor Hugo:
Permit me to ask you to adhere
to the utmost fidelity in your task.
My book Is written to clear up and
combat prejudices in France. England
and the whole world. However. from
the moment when M. Esquiros is your
friend as he is mine. you cannot fail
to produce an excellent work. having
for guide and counselor that great
and noble mind"
x X *
No less exciting was the finding Of
companion edition, published two
years later by the same house, of
Alexandra Dumas The Count of
Monte Cristo." 1t was copyrighted by
Joseph L. Blamire and is also COM
posed Of five volumes, containing
nearly five hundred illustrations from
designs by G. Staal. J. A. Beauce,
PiSan. Laly, G. Lavielle, Janet Lange,
SUIDOilllcdu anu OlIleT EOleQ dTtlSlS Oh
France.
Big books and little books were
among the lot, all of them owned and
read by earlier generations. and some
of them Drowned and discolored by
age. One is "A Wonder Book" for
boys and girls, by Nathaniel Haw-
thorne, with an introduction by
George Parsons Lathrop. 1t is a
quantity Illustrated and decorated
copy of the Salem edition. published
by Houghton- -Miff1in. Another volume
is "A Child's History of England" by
Charles Dickens. published by Bel
ford, Clarke & Co. of Chicago and
New York. A green and gold binding
holds THE Story of a Bad Boy by
Thomas Bailey Aldrich, a Houghton
Mlff1in publication of 1880, and an
ornate brown and gold cover contains
Being a Boy" by Charles Dudley
Warner. 1t is profusely decorated
and illustrated with fascinating draw
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