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This volume is a scholarly compilation that brings together the surviving passages of Arrian, Quintus Curtius, Diodorus, Plutarch and Justin which recount Alexander the Great’s campaigns in Afghanistan, the Punjab, Sindh, Gedrosia and Karmania. Edited by the distinguished J. W. McCrindle, a former principal of Patna’s Government College and Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society, the work opens with a series of contemporary reviews praising its careful editing, extensive glossaries, maps and biographical notes. The front matter includes a prefatory essay on the book’s publication history, followed by McCrindle’s own introduction containing a concise life of Alexander, copious annotations, and a full index, all designed to make the ancient sources accessible to modern readers.
The text reflects the nineteenth‑century tradition of learned translation, employing a formal yet readable prose style that balances literal fidelity with explanatory commentary. It will appeal to historians of antiquity, classicists interested in Alexander’s eastern conquests, and serious students of early Indian history who value primary source material supported by detailed scholarly apparatus.
The opening · free to read
Vol. I.
BERNIER’S TRAVELS IN THE MOGUL EMPIRE. An entirely new edition, with illustrations, and reproductions of maps from early editions. By ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE, Mem. As. Soc. Bengal, F.S.A.Scot. Cr. 8vo, pp. liv + 500. Price 6s. nett.
The old translation has now been revised and edited in very scholarly fashion.—_The Times._
This is a scholarly volume, and bodes well for the success of the Miscellany.—_The Scotsman._
The New Miscellany ... has been right worthily inaugurated by a reprint of Bernier’s Travels in India, which must delight the scholar and lover of books.—_The Bombay Gazette._
An almost perfect instance of careful, painstaking, and judicious editing.—_The Pioneer._
The excellent editing, as well as outward get-up ... are a guarantee that this new venture ... will supply a long-felt want.—_The Times of India._
The student will know how to prize the work, and the general reader will find it very interesting reading.—_The Manchester Guardian._
Since their first appearance in Paris, in 1670, many have been the reprints and translations of Bernier’s Travels.... With all this, however, the book itself is not easily accessible. In offering the English Public a new edition of it, Messrs. Archibald Constable and Company have therefore no need to apologise. It is a fact that until this publication no really satisfactory edition has existed. It is now edited not only with great care, but also with a laudable regard to the needs of the general reader.—_The Anti-Jacobin._
The book abounds with curious scenes and anecdotes of native life in India, amusing in themselves and interesting for comparison with the ways, habits, and ideas of modern India.... The running glossary of Indian terms and words is very useful; so are the brief notices of distinguished persons and remarkable places mentioned in the text; there is also a chronicle of Bernier’s life, a bibliography of his works, and an excellent index.—_The Speaker._
The book is of almost indispensable necessity to the reader of history, being accurate and painstaking to a high degree.—_The Academy._
The volume has been admirably edited and illustrated. The numerous allusions in the text to individuals, places, productions of art and industry, etc., are well explained in brief but sufficient notes, which contain the results of careful research in contemporary historians, and of an intimate personal acquaintance with Indian life and industry at the present day.—_The Scottish Geographical Magazine._
Vol. II.
POPULAR READINGS IN SCIENCE. By JOHN GALL, M.A., LL.B., late Professor of Mathematics and Physics, Canning College, Lucknow, and DAVID ROBERTSON, M.A., LL.B., B.Sc. With many Diagrams, a Glossary of Technical Terms, and an Index. Cr. 8vo, pp. 468. Price 5s. nett.
The authors lay no claim to originality, but have exercised a judicious choice in the selection of subject-matter.... The narrative style which has been adopted by the authors will make the book acceptable to general readers who are anxious to make acquaintance with modern science.—_Nature._
It is hardly to be expected that this second volume of Constable’s Oriental Miscellany will meet with such universal acclamation as the first volume, which consisted of Bernier’s Travels. But when rightly considered, it equally shows the thoroughness with which the publishers have thrown themselves into the enterprise.—_The Academy._
While the essays are such as would attract and instruct a general reader, they appear to have been written specially with a view to the needs of Indian students approaching the study of science for the first time.... They are well adapted to this end, and cannot fail to create in their readers a desire to push their knowledge further.—_The Scotsman._
The new volume of Constable’s Oriental Miscellany would have delighted Macaulay and the champions of “Occidentalism” in Indian education in Lord William Bentinck’s day.... Messrs. Gall and Robertson ... have prepared a collection of essays which will be at least as acceptable to the general reader as to the student, in which the results of the most modern researches in physical science are brought up to date.... In each case the subject is treated in a clear and interesting way ... it is a most commendable undertaking.—_The Bombay Gazette._
The title sufficiently indicates the lines on which the two collaborators have worked. Theirs is no dry-as-dust text-book; it is rather a collection of scientific facts forming chapters in what has aptly been called the romance of science.... Messrs. Archibald Constable and Company have a particular interest in this country, and their Oriental Miscellany is so well edited, printed, and published, that it is easy to predict for it a wide popularity.—_The Madras Mail._
The second volume of Constable’s Oriental Miscellany, just published under the above heading, has been designed to meet an undoubted want, and will hardly yield in usefulness to any in the projected series.... While elementary principles are explained with sufficient clearness to enable the work to be used independently of other text-books, the compilers have devoted much attention and space to many of the results of scientific researches which have mainly distinguished the present century. The Darwinian theory, for instance, is not only admirably summarised in itself, but we are furnished with a useful précis of the arguments pro et con, together with an account of the more recent discoveries of paleontologists which have strengthened the doctrine of the evolution of organic beings, and an outline of the views regarding it of the savants of all nations. The book is one which should secure a large number of general readers, who will find in it a vast store of useful information placed before them in a peculiarly readable and acceptable form.—_The Pioneer._
This is a popular treatise covering a very wide range of subjects.... A well-written book like a modernised Lardner, or a fin-de-siècle edition of the Scientific Information for the People of the “Useful Knowledge Series.”—_The Educational Times._
The authors write about what they know, and they write with clearness and precision, and on the topics which they discuss they have spoken with that accuracy which comes from full knowledge.... The value of the book is enhanced by a glossary of technical terms, which will be of the utmost possible use to the beginner, and also of use to those who are somewhat advanced in their studies.—_The Aberdeen Daily Free Press._
Vol. III.
AURENG-ZEBE, a Tragedy, by JOHN DRYDEN, and Book II. of THE CHACE, a Poem, by WILLIAM SOMERVILE. Edited, with Biographical Memoirs and Notes, by KENNETH DEIGHTON, Editor of Select Plays of Shakespeare. With a Portrait of Dryden, and a coloured reproduction of an Indian painting representing the Emperor Akbar deer-stalking. Cr. 8vo, pp. xiii + 222. Price 5s. nett.
An interesting reprint of Dryden’s tragedy.... If any one wishes to realise by an hour’s easy reading the vast gulf which separates our knowledge of India and our conceptions about India, at the close of this 19th century, from the views of our ancestors about India in the last quarter of the 17th century, we recommend this book to his notice. Mr. Deighton’s copious and suggestive footnotes will render the perusal both profitable and pleasant.—_The Times._
The volume, like its predecessors, is admirably got up, and is enriched by a fine portrait of Dryden, and a capital reproduction of a highly curious and interesting Indian picture exhibiting the youthful Akbar at the chase.—_The Scotsman._
Mr. Kenneth Deighton supplies a short biography of Dryden, and a just estimate of his dramatic power, taking due notice of the improvement in the later tone of a poet who was largely made by his surroundings, and had to write to please.... Ample notes, suited to the capacity of the Indian student, are incorporated in the volume.—_The Glasgow Herald._
Vol. IV.
LETTERS FROM A MAHRATTA CAMP. By THOMAS DUER BROUGHTON. A new edition, with an Introduction by the Right Hon. Sir M. E. GRANT DUFF, G.C.S.I., F.R.S., Notes, Coloured and other Illustrations, a very full Index, and a Map. Crown 8vo, pp. xxxii + 274. Price 6s. nett.
Forthcoming volumes, in active preparation
LIFE IN ANCIENT INDIA. By Mrs. SPEIR. A new edition, revised and edited by Dr. ROST, C.I.E., Librarian, India Office.
RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS OF AN INDIAN OFFICIAL. By Major-General Sir W. H. SLEEMAN, K.C.B. A new edition, edited by VINCENT ARTHUR SMITH, Indian Civil Service.
STUDIES IN MOHAMMEDANISM, Historical and Doctrinal, with a chapter on Islam in England. By JOHN J. POOL. With a Frontispiece and Index, pp. xvi + 420. Cr. 8vo, full cloth. Price 6s.
An interesting survey—all the more readable, perhaps, on account of its informal and even discursive arrangement—of Mussulman faith, practice, and history.... A conspicuous feature of Mr. Pool’s work is the account of the Moslem propaganda, which Mr. Quilliam, a Liverpool solicitor, is now prosecuting in that city.... It is tinged by no rancour or contempt, and exhibits a conscientious endeavour to appreciate the Mohammedan standpoint. As a “popular text-book,” dealing with some of the most picturesque aspects of Islam, it deserves more than ordinary attention.—_The Times._
Mr. Pool ... has done good service in publishing this popular exposition of the doctrines and real character of Islam. So far as he errs at all, he errs on the side of too much leniency to Mohammedanism.... Mr. Pool’s too favourable account of the Moorish régime in Spain is the only part of his book that is open to serious question. The rest of the volume is both readable and instructive. He has evidently studied Islam with great care, and he states his own views with exemplary moderation.—_The Spectator._
The chapter which gives information on this matter [Islam in Liverpool] is naturally the most interesting in the volume.... As to the other parts of Mr. Pool’s book it is difficult to speak too highly. His account of Mohammed and his system is fair and full, abounding in all kinds of illustrative anecdote.—_The Glasgow Herald._
In the forty-one chapters of this volume the promise of the title is well kept, and every aspect of Islam faith and practice is discussed in a clear, comprehensive, and interesting manner.—_The Liverpool Mercury._
These Studies in Mohammedanism are conspicuously fair. The writer is devotedly attached to Christianity, but he frankly and gladly acknowledges that Mohammed was a man of extraordinary powers and gifts, and that the religion which bears his name has done incalculable service to humanity in keeping the sublime truth of the unity of God before the eyes of the non-Christian world steeped in polytheism.—_The Bradford Observer._
This volume will be found both interesting and useful to the general reader, as supplying in a convenient form a very good outline of the rise and development, with an account of the more salient features, of the Mohammedan religion. There are short chapters also on the Turks, Afghans, Corsairs, crusades, literature, architecture, slavery, etc., which convey much public information in a pleasant style.—_The Scottish Geographical Magazine._
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