Good Paperbacks In Record Number

The variety of paperbacks on sale around town continues to burgeon, and many companies are following Penguin's lead into heavies and semi-heavies.

Heinemann have dipped a cautious toe into the pool with Priestley's Literature and Western Man, a fairly safe bet, but they have a long way to catch up with Macmillan's publication of Keynes General Theory.

The Ages of Man: A Shakespeare Anthology selected and arranged by George Rylands; Mercury-Heinemann paperback. If selection and arrangements are literary virtues, then Rylands' book may aspire to virtue, but, like Tennyson on Gardening, anthologies, in picking the pearls, may leave behind the meat of the oyster. Worthwhile at 12/6 for picking quotes in that annual English I exercise of gamesmanship.

Literature and Western Man: J. B. Priestley. Mercury-Heinemann paperback. 18/-. Priestley's prodigious jog-trot through five centuries of European literary tradition is a worthwhile acquisition for any Stage I student who wishes a broad general picture and signposts for further reading, but the Priestley dogma should not be taken as gospel. However, his judgments are always entertaining: the Romantic age was one when "the literary ego inflated like a monstrous balloon" and was populated by "roaring giants, half-mad with egoism."

The Stories of Colette: [unclear: tr.] Antonia White. Mercury Heinemann paperback. 12/6. Antonia White's lively translations do full justice to Colette's penetrating perception.

Shakespeare: The Histories: L. C. Knights. British Council "Writers and their Work" series pub Longmans, Green & Co. A competent sketch in limited space by a first-rate Shakespearian.

Salvation Jones: Barry Mitcalfe Mate Books. 7/6. Mr. Mitcalfe jumps on the Crump bandwagon in search of the Great New Zealand Character, but Salvation Jones, loosely characterized, strikes one only as a rather poor schoolboy boast.

One Foot at the Pole: Jim Henderson. Whitcombe and Tombs. 17/6. In contrast, Jim Henderson's description of his trip to Antarctica for the NZBC is genuine New Zealand stuff. Mr. Henderson's boyish enthusiasm for everything he sees and does is infectious. It is also a piece of good reporting, and the facts of IGY and the Furthest South are easily digestible. Spec. Corres.