BUNYAN FOR JUVENILES

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 150, 21 December 1929, Page 23

BUNYAN FOR JUVENILES

"The Children's John Bunyan." By ' Arthur Mee. London: Hodder and Stoughton.

.Mr. Arthur Mcc, a London journalist of great versatility, for some years past, has given rather less attention to moulding public opinioß by the editorial process than to cultivation of the tastes of children for the best there is in English literature. He has prepared for their reading the authorised version of the Bible, the plays of Shakespeare, a history of England (in "Little Treasure Island"), and introduced them to hejoes'and heroines. He has founded a child s encyclopaedia, in short he has made* the literary needs of children his special care and has supplied his own .well-stored mind and long journalistic experience in the attractive presentation of facts with astonishing success. In his earlier years Mr. Mcc was»a journalist who always had his facts ready for anything that might happen—a terrible shipw.reck, some startling political change, or an outstanding act of philanthropy; no matter what the item of news might be, Mr j Mcc could always be relied upon to furnish footnotes and precedents.' He had the card-index complex. With children ever athirst for facts there could have been few, if any, contemporary English journalists better qualified to satisfy them. Now he has I brought out his "Children's John Bunyan.'.' One could'well understand that some of the plays of Shakespeare might need the blue pencil before being given to children, and language of the Bible lie-nothing if not outspoken;.but "The Pilgrims' Progress" and "The Holy War" surely did not need Bowdlerisins Nevertheless, Mr. Mcc has done it, and has abridged the two works in the process. It did not seem necessary to alter the phraseology as Mr. Mcc has done when comparing his version with that of the Religious Tract Society's edition of 1826, which was identical with the text as it was at Bunyan's death in 1688. That edition contained some words now obsolete, but in general "The Pilgrims' Progress" and "T,he Holy War" published by the Religious I Tract Society in 1826 could certainly have been read by children, and it needs very little, if any, explanation to them at this day. But Mr. Mcc has very skilfully shortened the two allegories, but has sacrificed little of the picturesqueness of Bunyan and nothing of the teaching he sought to impart by | them. Mr. Mcc regards the authorised version of the Bible, Shakespeare's works, and Bunyan as the glories of English literature and as in the nature of the miraculous. The volume in review includes "The .Pilgrims' Progress," /The Holy War," "Grace Abounding," B.unyan'B own story of his imprisonment, with an almost verbatim account of his indictment, trial, and defence, and his retrospect; also a personal, account of Bunyan by an anonymous friend, but probably Rev. George Cokayne, a London preacher in whose pulpit Bunyan had been permitted to preach. Bunyan himself in his apology for "The Pilgrims' Progress" wrote: This book is writ in such a dialect, As may the minds of listless men affect. It seems a novelty, and yet contains Nothing but sound and honest gospel strains. And.this verse is a fair description of the simplicity of the language employed. Mr. Mee's version of the great allegories is simple too, and if there is any doubt about some of the words, there will be found a short glossary at the end of the book.

The type is bold, large, well spaced, and easy to read. As might be expected in a book specially for juvenile readers, careful attention has been paid to illustrations. Some of the pictures are reproductions in monochrome of the works of Millais, Watts, and Burne-Jones, some in colour and tint are by anonymous artists, and there will be found representations of the bronze panels in relief by Frederick Thrupp now in the doors of the Bedford Meeting House, depicting scenes from "The Pilgrims' Progress." Altogether there are some seventy pictures embellishing the text.