Romance of the Planets

Abstract

Miss PROCTOR must certainly be counted unfortunate in having brought out this little book just before the discovery of the extra-Neptunian planet, Pluto. She has narrowly missed being the author of the one up-to-date book on the planets, and the romance of the discovery is by no means the least interesting aspect of it. However, she is in time for the forthcoming opposition of Eros, and her diagram of the path of the asteroid on that occasion should be of particular interest just now. The book is the fourth of a series dealing with the various bodies in the solar system. “These books have no scientific pretensions,” says the preface, “nor do they deal with heavy celestial mechanics or troublesome mathematics; rather do they incline to an account of the latest theories and advances in astronomical research given in an entertaining, conversational manner.” Books of this kind will always have their use, and “The Romance of the Planets” may be recommended as a very readable and accurate account of its subject, requiring the minimum of intellectual effort on the part of the reader. The question of the habitability of the planets is well to, the fore, and is treated historically with numerous quotations. Quotations, in fact, are a prominent feature of the book, and are usually apt, though it is with something of a shock that we find Tennyson's almost hackneyed lines:

Romance of the Planets.

Mary Proctor. Pp. xii + 272 + 8 plates. (New York and London: Harper and Bros., 1929.) 7s. 6d. net.