Books: New Anthologies

THE PLEASURE OF THEIR COMPANY (653 PP-)—Edited by Louis Kronenberger —Knopf ($5). Subtitled "An Anthology of Civilized Writing" this is a connoisseur's selection of fiction, poetry, drama, essays, in which "urbanity, irony, elegance, skepticism, sophistication, wit, play a leading part." Twenty-one' polished pieces by Petronius, Lucian, Voltaire (all of Candide), Saint-Simon, De Maupassant, Congreve, Pope, Henry James (all of Washington Square), Max Beerbohm, Virginia Woolf, Aldous Huxley, Henry Adams, etc. Excellent choices, in a finely printed volume.

HOTEL BEMELMANS (380 pp.)—Ludwig Bemelmans—Viking ($3). Most of the best of Bemelmans: 36 deft, witty stories of backstairs life in a plush Manhattan hotel, from earlier Bemelmans books (including all the stories in Hotel Splendide and Life Class), with three new stories added; lavishly decorated with the author's own chichi illustrations.