MARK TWAIN'S NEW BOOK. Crown 8vo. cloth extra, 6s. (uniform with 'A Tramp Abroad.') THE STOLEN WHITE ELEPHANT, &c. By MARK TWAIN. ""The Invalid's Story" shows the author at his best and strongest, and is equal to anything of the kind he has ever produced. Speech so quaint and extravagant, and yet so natural and right, as that of the suffering mail-man, who is one of the heroes of the romance, is not often achieved. It is worthy of the author of "Tom Baker's Cat" and the story of the Blue Jay and the account of Buck Fanshawe's funeral. As for the burlesque that gives its name to the volume, it is really good work. With "The Invalid's Story" it is enough to make the book a success.'-ATHENÆUM. 'The volume is full of Mark Twain at his best......Mark Twain's popular mission is to make people laugh; this he does so successfully as to overshadow his large possession of the rare quality of quick observation, combined with power of graphic delineation, which makes books of travel delightful reading.'-Sheffield IndePENDENT. 'Although the scene is laid in America the satire is just as applicable here, and will be heartily appreciated by all who have had any dealings with mysterious detectives.'-DAILY CHRONICLE. That Prince of American humorists, Mark Twain, has issued a volume which he calls "The Stolen White Elephant." It is made up of several chapters all marked by that strong common-sense which underlies everything that Mr. Clemens does, and full of wise cynicism. The first chapter-the Stolen White Elephant-is perhaps one of the best satires on the ineffectiveness of a detective police that could well be imagined. In excellence, however, it is equalled by many other chapters in the volume. Mark Twain's humour may be well misunderstood by some stupid people, but it must produce its effect where there is any keenness of intelligence; and its teaching, we venture to think, is all for good.'-SCOTSMAN. "The Stolen White Elephant" is one of the most amusing books that I have read for a long time. This is a collection of some of the latest of the clever author's minor writings, and I need scarcely say that it is marked by the most characteristic and abundant humour. Here is a volume which can be confidently recommended as an instantaneous cure for "the dismals." No man can look on it and not laugh. . . . The book is crammed full of entertainment, and no lover of original fun should fail to make its speedy acquaintance.' OTHER WORKS BY MARK NOTTINGHAM GUARDIAN. TWAIN. Revised and corrected throughout Small 8vo. THE CHOICE WORKS OF MARK TWAIN. by the Author. With Life, Portrait, and numerous Illustrations. THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER. cloth extra, 78. 6d. CHEAP EDITION, illustrated boards, 2s. A PLEASURE TRIP ON THE CONTINENT OF EUROPE: The Innocents Abroad, and The New Pilgrim's Progress. Post 8vo. illustrated boards, 2s. AN IDLE EXCURSION, and other Sketches. Post 8vo. illustrated boards, 2s. Crown 8vo. cloth extra, 7s. 6d. A TRAMP ABROAD. With 314 Illustrations. THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER. With 190 Illustrations. 7s. 6d. Crown 8vo. cloth MISSISSIPPI SKETCHES. With 300 Original Illustrations. Crown 8vo. cloth extra, CHATTO & WINDUS, Piccadilly, W. Demy 8vo. cloth extra, price 78. 6d. [In preparation. THE FUEL OF THE SUN. By W. MATTIEU WILLIAMS, F.R.A.S., F.C.S. OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. The work is well deserving of careful study, especially by the astronomer, too apt to forget the teachings of other sciences than his own.'--FRASER'S MAGAZINE. 'It is characterised throughout by a carefulness of thought and an originality that command respect, while it is based upon observed facts and not upon mere fanciful theory.'-ENGINEERING. Mr. Williams's interesting and valuable work called "The Fuel of the Sun."'-POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 'A most remarkable and carefully reasoned essay.'-ALL THE YEAR ROUND. 'In 1870 Mr. Williams published his very ingenious work entitled "The Fuel of the Sun."' THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. London: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, & CO. MUDIE'S SELECT LIBRARY. THE NEW YEAR-NOTICE. The following Catalogues and Lists are now ready for delivery : I. A New Edition of Mudie's Library Catalogue. II. A Revised List of the Principal Books lately added to Mudie's Select Library. This List contains an unusually large Collection of the Best Recent Works in every Department of Literature, nearly all of which have been especially commended by one or more of the leading Literary Journals. There is also now ready a Separate List of French and German Books. III. A New Edition of Mudie's Clearance Catalogue. This Catalogue comprises the Surplus Copies of many Leading Books of the Past and Present Seasons, and nearly Two Thousand other Popular Works (several of which are out of print) at the lowest current prices. IV. A New Edition of Mudie's Catalogue of Popular Books Strongly Re-bound in Half Roan. FOR PUBLIC LIBRARIES AND INSTITUTIONS. V. A List of Choice Books in Ornamental Bindings for Christmas Presents and New Years' Gifts. This List contains a large Selection of the Best Works of the Best Authors, in Morocco, Calf Extra, and other Ornamental Bindings, for Christmas, Wedding or Birthday Presents, and Prizes, and New Years' Gifts. MUDIE'S SELECT LIBRARY, LIMITED, 30 to 34 NEW OXFORD STREET, LONDON. 281 REGENT STREET, AND 2 KING STREET, CHEAPSIDE. 2 vols. demy 8vo. cloth extra, with nearly 100 Illustrations, 288. SOCIAL LIFE IN THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. BY JOHN ASHTON, Author of Chap-books of the Eighteenth Century' &c. "Mr. Ashton has selected an interesting subject, and has done justice to his choice. There can be no doubt either of Mr. Ashton's diligence in collecting his materials or of his good sense in refraining from intruding himself unnecessarily upon the reader. We are grateful to him both for his industry and his reserve. Even a man who is well versed in the diaries and correspondence of Queen Anne's time will find something that is new to him in every chapter....On these subjects, and on every curiosity of Queen Anne's reign, Mr. Ashton has much to say, and he tells his story with good taste and without unnecessary amplification. His volumes will serve a double purpose. They will amuse the ordinary reader of the day, and instruct the student of English manners in the habits of a time which has never failed to attract.'-ACADEMY. 'Two handsome and portly volumes, which should excite a double interest and command a double sale, owing not only to the literary merits of the work, which appear to me to be considerable, but also on account of the volumes presenting an admirably expansive field for the activity of the Grangerites.-G. A. S., in ILLUST. LONDON NEWS. The successful writing of such books as Mr. Ashton's requires peculiar faculties: capacity for research in a supreme degree, with quick instinct for what is typical and expressive, and tact of representation; the power of effective grouping, and, above all, lightness of touch and solidity and sobriety of judgment. Mr. Ashton, who showed most of these qualities in his "Chap-books of the Eighteenth Century," has not failed in his bolder and more difficult enterprise. All out-of-the-way corners he has looked into and ransacked, not only the newspaper, but novels, journals, diaries, and such State papers as are accessible; and he has arranged his vast miscellany of facts so well, and written in a style so crisp, clear, and attractive, that we can safely prophesy for the volumes a very wide acceptance....In such a lively, appetising manner does Mr. Ashton conduct us through the whole circle of social life in the stirring period he deals with.'-NONCONFORMIST. Mr. Ashton is not a violent disciple of so-called Queen Anne Furniture, nor yet a reviler of the present day, but simply a collector and searcher out of curious details and insignificant facts, which become significant when brought together and systematically arranged. Mr. Ashton has had the reign of Queen Anne for his period, and has sought, found, and ordered a host of little facts mentioned in contemporary literature, which illustrate the domestic and social life of the period. The compilation is very able and interesting, and the illustrations, taken from contemporary prints, are a very valuable addition.'-MANCHESTER EXAMINER. 'Mr. Ashton has produced, beyond a doubt, the most accurate and readable picture of social life under Queen Anne that has yet been published..... The book can be opened anywhere and read with pleasure and profit.' --MORNING POST. 'With commendable diligence Mr. Ashton has assembled a vast number of "documents," advertisements, and what not, which he has skilfully grouped in chapters illustrating the education, food, dress, amusements, science, art, and manners of the time. His book is, in fact, a valuable and trustworthy collection of ʼn émoires pour servir. In these pages the reader may wander at will in that lesser London of which Covent Garden and Leicester Square were the centres. With Mr. Ashton's book all things are feasible, provided the reader carry with him a decent amount of curiosity and a fairly good memory. And as Mr. Ashton, with commendable and indeed unusual honesty, gives chapter and verse for his statements, our pilgrim may be moderately sure that his imaginings will possess a certain verisimilitude.'-ATHENÆUM. We can promise the public a good deal of real entertainment from these two volumes. Mr. Ashton has made a careful study, and gives us what we may fairly call an exhaustive history. It has often been done before, but never to our knowledge so completely; and the book, moreover, has this special recommendation: that it is enriched with a variety of illustrations, copied faithfully from the original prints "in all their uncouthness and reality."-ST. JAMES'S GAZETTE. Mr. Ashton proved his thoroughness in his "Chap-books of the Eighteenth Century," and in these two volumes he has gathered a great mass of material illustrating the habits and manners of that age of which the furniture has for some time been so popular. Mr. Ashton's woodcuts from contemporary prints are well chosen and well executed, and his book goes through the whole of life, from the nursery to the grave; from Newgate, with its women-flogging and "pressing," to the opera and the hunting-field,'-GRAPHIC. Small crown 8vo. cloth extra, 5s. THE PRINCESS AND CURDIE. By GEORGE MACDONALD, LL.D. With 11 Illustrations by JAMES ALLEN. Full of quaint fancies and charming impossibilities; very pretty and ingenious.'-MANCHESTER EXAMINER. 'If little folk do not sympathise deeply with the doughty young champion's gallant and successful efforts to rescue the poor bewitched King, thereby winning the honour of the hand of the Princess Irene, some strange change indeed must have taken place in the feelings of young readers.'-DAILY NEWS. The book is in many parts a glowing poem, rich in the most delightful imagery, and breathes throughout the healthiest moral tone. It will be specially prized by thoughtful children.'-GLASGOW MAIL. By the same Author, small 8vo. cloth extra, 3s. 6d. GUTTA-PERCHA WILLIE, THE WORKING GENIUS. MESSRS. MACMILLAN & Co.'S BOOKS FOR PRESENTS By JOHN RICHARD GREEN, M.A., LL.D., &c. The Making of England. With Maps, 8vo. 16s. A Short History of the English People. Readings in English History. Selected and History of the English People. 8vo. 16s. each. Jn 4 vols. Vol. I. EARLY ENGLAND. — Foreign Kings-- By CHARLES KINGSLEY, M.A. Madam How and Lady Why; or, First Prose Idylls, New and Old. CONTENTS:-A Charm of Birds; Chalk-stream Health and Education. New Edition. Tom Brown's Schooldays. By an OLD BOY. Crown 8vo. 6s. each. Hereward The Wake. Essays. and Social Lectures and Scientific Lectures and Essays. Out of the Deep. Words for the Sorrowful. Tom Brown at Oxford. By the Same Author. By WILLIAM BLACK. Crown 8vo. 6s. each. A Princess of Thule. Strange Adventures of a Phaeton. Illus- The Maid of Killeena, and other Tales. MACMILLAN'S GLOBE Shakespeare's Complete Works. Edited by W. G. CLARK, M.A., and W. ALDIS WRIGHT, Robinson Crusoe. Edited after the Original Sir Walter Scott's Poetical Works. Green Pastures and Piccadilly. The Beautiful Wretch: The Four Mac- LIBRARY. Price 3s. 6d. each. Virgil. Rendered into English Prose, with Introductions, Notes, Analysis, and In dex, by J. LONSDALE, M.A., and S. LEE, M.A. Horace. Rendered into English Prose, with Intro- Burns's Complete Works. Edited from the Now Publishing in Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d. cach. ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. Edited by JOHN MORLEY. Macmillan & Co.'s New Illustrated Catalogue of Gift-Books free on application. MACMILLAN & CO., Bedford Street, London, W.C. [Immediately. DECORATION FOR JANUARY. PRICE NINEPENCE. Contains a quarto imperial Etching of The Gossips in King Priam's Corridor;' Two Ink-Photos, quarto imperial, of Ancient Modes of Trial-Ordeal by Fire and Ordeal by Combat' by Moyr Smith: Two full-size Designs for Frieze Panels, by J. Sykes; Two Circular Panels by W. J. Pearce; Seven Examples of Ornamental Ironwork in South Kensington Museum, by J. Storrie; Thirty-six Examples of Ancient Greek Heads and Headgear; 'Lawn as white as driven snow,' and 'Take those lips away,' Decorative Pottery, by Minton, Hollins, & Co.; Original Design for Decoration at end of Drawing Room, by J. Moyr Smith; Ornamental Panel by E. W. Poley; Tapestry Curtain Designs, by Geo. Allen, Fred. Margetson, and Chas. C. Garlick; Sketches of Picturesque Archtecture in L' Ardenne, including Views of Houses at Dinant; Spirelets on the Meuse; Han-surilesse; Illustrations of the Caves of Han, from sketches taken on the spot, including the Throne of Pluto,'' Les Mysterieuses,' The Precipice,' The Trou de Belvaux,' The Styx,' 'The Trou de Han,' &c. Prizes are offered for Sketch Designs for Wall and Ceiling Decoration. Now ready, Vol. IV., with etched extra Frontispiece, and full of Tinted & other Illustrations, bound in cloth, price īs. 6d. London: SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON, 188 Fleet Street, E.C. NEW BOOK OF POPULAR SCIENCE. Crown 8vo. cloth extra, 7s. 6d. SCIENCE IN SHORT CHAPTERS. By W. MATTIEU WILLIAMS, F.R.A.S. F.C.S. 'Mr. Mattieu Williams is undoubtedly able to present scientific subjects to the popular mind with much clearness and force; and these essays may be read with advantage by those, who, without having had special training, are yet sufficiently intelligent to take interest in the movement of events in the scientific world.'-ACADEMY. 'The title of Mr. Mattieu William's "Science in Short Chapters" exactly explains its subject. Clear and simple, these brief reprints from all sorts of periodicals are just what Angelina may profitably read to Edwin while he is sorting his papers, or trimming the lamps, if (like some highly domesticated Edwins) he insists on doing that ticklishi bit of house-work himself. In this case "The Social Benefits of Paraffin" would have a special fitness, and might be followed by "The Colouring of Green Tea" in the case of a young couple anxious to spare their nerves. "The Origin of Soap" has a prehistoric smack about it; while "The So-called Volcanic Bombs in Ireland" leads us to suspect that nature occasionally leagues with man in the work of agitation. "Home Gardens for Smoky Towns" is full of useful suggestions. "The Philosophy of the Radiometer" shows that Mr. Williams can dive deep as well as skim the surface; and "The Oleaginous Products of Thames Mud" will be consoling to those who are compelled to use butyrine, and who yet would fain eschew the fatnodules which are coagulated from the soapsuds carried down by our London sewers.'- GRAPHIC. Few writers on popular science know better how to steer a middle course between the Scylla of technical abstruseness and the Charybdis of empty frivolity than Mr. Mattien Williams. He writes for intelligent people who are not technically scientific, and he expects them to understand what he tells them when he has explained it to them in his perfectly lucid fashion without any of the embellishments, in very doubtful taste, which usually pass for popularisation. The papers are not mere réchauffés of common knowledge. Almost all of them are marked by original thought, and many of them contain demonstrations or aperçus of considerable scientific value.'-PALL MALL GAZETTE. Mr. Williams points out that there is a growing want in these busy times for short accounts of scientific matters, and he has kept this demand in mind when he was producing the book. The chapters range from such subjects as science and spiritualism to the consumption of smoke. They include a dissertation on iron filings in tea, and they discuss the action of frost on water-pipes and on building materials. The volume begins with an article on the fuel of the sun, and before it is concluded it deals with Count Rumford's cooking A Simple Treatise on Heat,' &c. stoves. All these subjects, and a great many more, are treated in a pleasant, informative manner. Mr. Williams knows what he is talking about, and he says what he has to say in such a way as to prevent any possible misconception. The book will be prized by all who desire to have sound information on such subjects as those with which it deals.'-SCOTSMAN. 'An interesting mélange of general reading written in a lively and pointed style. Mr. Williams evidently does not believe that "one science only will one genius fit," for in this volume he writes in a familiar tone on subjects varying from the world of insects to the worlds in space, from the source of our coal supply to its limits and uses, including its relation to the domestic fireplace; solids, liquids, gases, facts, fictions, and theories are also handled. While, however, the little learning in those chapters cannot be a very dangerous thing, some readers may be thereby prompted to drink deeper of the Pierian spring.'-GLASGOW HERALD. This is a book full of very pleasant and, on the whole, easy reading. The author has here collected some of his numerous contributions to various periodicals, with a view of supplying a growing want of these busy times, when so many of us are prevented by the struggles of business from sitting down to the consecutive systematic study of a formal treatise. He has, probably without thinking of it at the time he resolved to publish his essays in book form, also succeeded in producing a book which may be taken up at leisure by those familiar with the subjects upon which he writes, but who may now and then like to refresh their memory on certain points........ Mr. Williams has selected subjects which are likely to be interesting to all readers who are sufficiently intelligent to prefer sober fact to sensational fiction, but who, at the same time, do not pretend to be scientific specialists. But the book is by no means "dry" reading.'-IRON. The author writes pleasantly, and does not treat scientific subjects in the dry manner so commonly used in describing such matters as "The Great Ice Age," or "Meteoric Astronomy."-MORNING POST. "To the scientific world Mr. Williams is best known by his solar studies, but here he is not writing so much for scientists as for the general public. It has been the aim of his life to popularise science, and his articles are so treated that his readers may become interested in them and find in their perusal a mental recreation." SUNDAY SCHOOL CHRONICLE. We highly recommend this most entertaining and valuable collection of papers. They combine clearness and simplicity, and are not wanting in philosophy likewise.'-TABLET. CHATTO & WINDUS, Piccadilly, W. |