Andrew Lang

If anyone believes that style does not appeal to the young readers, let him open Mr. Andrew Langs"The Animal Story Book"(Jazzybee Publishing), and read to any intelligent child of nine years Dumas description of Mysouf I., Mysouf II., and Pritchard, and note how soon Dumas becomes a living personality to the child. Then let him turn and read, out of the same book, the account of"Cowper and his Hares." Bess and Puss and Tiney were doubtless as interesting in their way as the dogs and cats and monkeys owned by Dumas; but the child does not care for them - he begs you to read more from Dumas. Young as the child is, Dumas has cast a spell around him - the spell of a sparkling and animated style. Mr. Langs"Animal Story Book"ought to delight both old and young, as one may find therein pen-portraits of most of the remarkable animals that have interested the world since primitive times. And because authors are, as a class, peculiarly fond of animals, the reader of this charming book is brought into intimate relations with Pliny, Th ophile Gautier, and many other remarkable men. This book is annotated with a rare extensive biographical sketch of the author, Andrew Lang, written by Sir Edmund Gosse, CB, a contemporary poet and writer

This book is the natural sequel of Social Origins and Primal Law, published three years ago. In Primal Law, Mr. J. J. Atkinson sought for the origin of marriage prohibitions in the social conditions of early man, as conceived of by Mr. Darwin. Man, in the opinion of the great naturalist, was a jealous animal; the sire, in e ach group, kept all his female mates to himself, expelling his adolescent male offspring. From this earliest and very drastic restriction, Mr. Atkinson, using the evidence of"avoidances"between kinsfolk in savage society, deduced the various prohibitions on sexual unions. His ingenious theory has been received with some favour, where it has been understood. Mr. Atkinson said little about totemism, and, in Social Origins, I offered a theory of the Origin of Totemism; an elaboration of the oldest of all scientific theories, that of Garcilasso de la Vega, an Inca on the maternal side, the author of the History of the Incas. Totems, he conceived, arose in the early efforts of human groups to differentiate each from the others. Mr. Max M ller and Dr. Pikler set forth the same notion, independently. The"clans,"or, as I say,"groups,"needed differentiation by names, such as are still used as personal names by savages, and by names easily expressed in pictographs, and easily signalled in gesture language. The origin of the group names, or sobriquets, once forgotten, the names, as usual, suggested a relation between the various name-giving objects and the groups which bore them. That relation was explained by the various myths which make the name-giving animals, plants, and other objects, mystic kinsmen, patrons, or ancestors of the groups named after them. From reflection on this mystic rapport between the objects and the human groups of the same names, arose the various superstitions and tabus, including that which prohibits unions between men and women of the same animal group-name, whether by locality or maternal descent.

The World's Desire is a classic fantasy novel first published in 1890 and written by H. Rider Haggard and Andrew Lang. 1] 2] Its importance was recognised in its later revival in paperback by Ballantine Books as the fortieth volume of the celebrated Ballantine Adult Fantasy series in January 1972. The World's Desire is the story of the hero Odysseus, mainly referred to as "the Wanderer" for the bulk of the novel. Odysseus returns home to Ithaca after his second, unsung journey. He is hoping to find a "home at peace, wife dear and true and his son worthy of him". 3] Unfortunately, he does not find any of the three, instead his home is ravaged by a plague and his wife Penelope has been slain. As he grieves, he is visited by an old flame, Helen of Troy, for whom the novel is named. Helen leads him to equip himself with the Bow of Eurytus and embark on his last journey. This is an exhausting journey in which he encounters a Pharaoh who is wed to a murderess beauty, a holy and helpful priest, and his own fate.