Page:Thaïs - English translation.djvu/248

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THE WORKS OF ANATOLE FRANCE 3. The Garden of Epicurus. A Translation by- Alfred Allinson. 4. The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard. A Trans- lation by Lafcadio Hearn, ^ During the autumn and next year will appear the remaining volumes, including Joan of Arc. All the books will be published at SIX SHILLINGS each, with the exception of Joan of Arc. f[ The format of the volumes leaves little to be desired. The size is Demy 8vo (9 X 5f in.), and they will be printed from Caslon type upon a paper light of weight but strong in texture, with a cover design, a gilt top, end-papers from designs by Aubrey Beardsley, initials by Henry Ospovat. In short, these are volumes for the bibliophile as well as the lover of fiction, and form perhaps the cheapest library edition of copyright novels ever published, for the price is only that of an ordinary novel. H The translation of these books has been entrusted lo such competent French scholars as Mr. Alfred Allinson, Mr. Frederic Chapman, Mr. Robert B. Douglas, Mr. a. W. Evans, Mrs. Farley, Mr. Lafcadio Hearn, Mrs. Wilfrid S. Jackson, Mrs. John Lane, Mrs. Newmarch, Mr. C. E. Roche, Miss Winifred Stephens, and Miss M. P. Willcocks. 11 As Anatole Thibault, dit Anatole France, is to most English readers merely a name, it will be well to state that he was born in 1844 in the picturesque and inspiring surroundings of an old bookshop on the Quai Voltaire, Paris, kept by his father. Monsieur Thibault, an authority on 18th century history, from whom the boy caught the passion for the principles of the Revolution, while from his mother he was learning to love the ascetic ideals chronicled in the Lives of the Saints. He was schooled with the lovers of old books, missals, and manuscripts ; he matriculated on the Quais with the old Jewish dealers of curios and objets d'art ; he graduated in the great university of life and ex- perience. It will be recognised that all his work is permeated by his youthful impressions ; he is, in fact, a virtuoso at large. H He has written about thirty volumes of fiction. His