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 CORNELL 
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 DESCRIPTIVE LIST 
 
 OF 
 
 NOVELS AND TALES 
 
 DEALING WITH 
 
 AMERICAN COUNTRY LIFE, 
 
 COMPILED BY 
 
 W: U. GRISWOLD, A. B. (Harvard.) 
 
 EDITOR OF "THE MONOGRAPH", A COLLECTION OF FIFTY-FOUR HISTORICA'^ AND 
 
 8IOQRAPHIOAL ESSAYS; AND OF "TRAVEL", A SIMILAR SERIES 
 
 DEVOTED TO PLACES. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE, MASS: 
 
 W; M. GRISWOLD, Publisher, 
 1890. 
 
^.^<^\i^'3 
 
 [ From the "School Bulletin," Aug., 1892. ] 
 
 We hope teachers will not fail t6 recognize the worli W. M. Griswold 
 iri dfting in his classified bibliography. He sends us a Desceifiive List 
 oi' Novixs AND Tales dealing with Life in Fkancb (Cambridge, 
 Mass., 1892, 8vo, pp. 94, $1.00), which is of immediate practical use t6 
 the teacher of French history as well as of French literature. 
 
 * [ Fro7n the "Central Chriatian Advocate " ] 
 
 Mr. Griswold has done an excellent work, which will be appreciated 
 by all librarians, and by many people of cultivated taste wh6 wish t6 
 get on the track of the best French fiction, or at least to secure some 
 guidance and information in regard t6 its qualities and characteristics. 
 His former "lists" have dealt with American City and Country Lifei 
 with Life in England, etc . . . Life in city and country, peasant life 
 and soldier life, the reckless and adventurous career of the free and 
 easy student in Paris, and the rude rustic among the mountains, — all 
 these phases of French life pass in review in the books which Mr. 
 Griswold has here catalogued. A guide like this would be invaluable 
 t6 a student of French literature, telling as well what t6 avoid, as 
 what t6 secure and read. 
 
 [From the "Boston Commonwealth," 13 Aug., 1892.] 
 
 If all libraries wer generously equipped with these Lists, the long- 
 suffering curator of books would find more pleasure in life. The com- 
 pilation and selection ar made with rare skill. The poor book drops into 
 deservd oblivion, while the worthy but neglected and forgotten good 
 book is restored t6 the eye of the world. 
 
 Some not too busy people make note of the name of a novel recom- 
 mended by a trustworthy critic, but when the time for use comes the 
 note seldom is at hand, and, if ready, generally givs the mere title and 
 no idea of the contents. But here is a series of brochures that contain 
 excerpts from the fairest critical notices, often from several sources, 
 and one is enabled to form a sort of judgment of choice without actually 
 glancing at the book itself. Of course, those dealing with foreign lands 
 must for the greater part be translations, since with few exceptions 
 the most truthful and vivid characterizations come from the compatriot 
 wh6 has summered and wintered his fellows. Few people realize the 
 patience, skill, and labor involvd in such an undertaking as the publica- 
 tion of these successiv lists, but those wh6 d6 should urge upon others 
 the use of so valuable a means of education and pleasure. As a series 
 of 'condensed novels' they ar interesting, too. 
 
Novels of American Country Life. 
 
 The object of this list is to direct ivaders, such as loould enjoy tlie k ind of books 
 here described, In a numlicr of nnuels, etisilij obtainable, bat lohich, in many 
 cases, hare been forgotten within a year or two after publication. Tliat the 
 existence of works of fiction is remembered so short a time is a pity, since, for every 
 neio book of merit, there are, in most libraries, a hundred as good or better, un- 
 known to the majority of readers. It is hoped that the publication of this and 
 similar lists will lessen, in some measure, the disposition to read an inferior new 
 book when superior old books, equally fresh to most readers, are at hand. 
 
 This list will be followed by others describing fiction dealing with American 
 City Life, and with lists of '' International" and Bomantic novels. The compiler 
 would be pleased to have his attention called to any works deserving a place which 
 have escaped his attention. It may be observed that, while excluding all which do 
 not deal tcith couyitry life, he has tried to include among these only such as are 
 well-written, interesting, and free from sensationalism, sentimentality, andpretense. 
 
 The selected ''notices^' here given are generally abridged. 
 
 ACHSAH [by rt : ,AI. F. RonND : Lee 
 & Shepard, 1S76.] "Th -ic Is u ocrUiin 
 smartness about'Achsah' wliicli may make 
 it popular in those rustic communities 
 where living examples of the moiJels 
 portrayed in its pages are to be found. 
 The heroine, Achsah, is a country girl, the 
 dauter of Deacon Sterne. This deacon 
 is the best-drawn character of the book; 
 his cunning, hypocrisy, and meanness 
 make him an amusing caricature of certain 
 Yankee faults. He bears the mark of 
 being drawn from life by a very bitter 
 enemy, who does not always hold 
 his hand when he is expressing his scorn. 
 The hero, Owen Itood, who accumulates 
 money by writing magazine articles — one 
 of them on Luther! — is a creature of the 
 imagination rather than of flesh and blood. 
 His troubles are of a familiar sort, and'are 
 easily cleared away as we approach the 
 
 end of the story. What is good in all this 
 is the' account of tlie unadulterated New 
 £uglaiid people ; less good is the roman- 
 tic part, and the plot is too light to bear 
 the superstructure." [Nation. 1 
 
 ADIRONDACK STORIES [by Phil- 
 ANDBK Deming, Hougliton, ISHO.] "Ge- 
 ographically, the AdirondacUs are at no 
 great distance from the Atlantic, but for 
 literary purposes they are very far west 
 indeed, and Mr. Deming's style and meth- 
 od show him to l)e distinctly related to 
 that group of writers who have their 
 head-quarters beyond the Rocky Moun- 
 tains. His subjects, chosen from a com- 
 mon, even rude life, are poetic and jjitched 
 in a low key, consisting mostly of some 
 bit of elemental pathos simply and sug- 
 gestively rendered. The most original 
 and striking feature of Mr. Deming's 
 work is his adherence to pure narrative, 
 
NOVr.r.S 01' A.MEJtK^.iN COUNTRY I.IFl 
 
 ALL ABOARD. [by "OLIVER Op- 
 ric," i. e., W: T. Adams: Bostuii, 
 Brown, Bazin & Co., 1856.] The author 
 "writes in the plain and direct style which 
 suits those whom he addresses, and ac- 
 complishes with gr&t tact a t:isk by no 
 means easy. We mean that he stimulates 
 the natural relish of the boy for out-door 
 exerjises and hardy sports, whilst he 
 inculcates the advantage of obedience, 
 disciplin, and good conduct. The little 
 tale is of home life. The boys of a large 
 school, near a lake, get tip a boat club, 
 under the superintendence of a retired 
 Captain. Boating is thfiir chief delight; 
 and the incidents which gro out of it ar 
 more varied and more amusing than you 
 might suppose, whilst thfiy ar skilfully 
 made to furnish ample occasion for moral 
 lessons. The admission of one blac sheep 
 — admitted under kindly promptings — 
 brings with it a train of evils, ending- in a 
 very wel-described adventure of juvenile 
 piracy. A gang of young rowdies carry 
 oS all the boats, and defiantly enc; 'p o.. 
 an island. In due course of time, how- 
 ever, the scamps ar routed, after having a 
 most dolorous time of it, and the happy 
 youngsters ar taut the difference between 
 lawless and lawful pleasures. Mr. Adams 
 
 has handled a difficult theme with great 
 credit." [Albion. 2 m 
 
 ALONE [by "Marion Harland," i. 
 e., M.. Virginia (Hawes) Terhuue: Kich- 
 mond, Va., 1S55.] "is a tale of Southern 
 domestic life — not negro life — but the life 
 of cultivated, wel-meaning, suflering and 
 striving white folk. It must hav some 
 local truth in it, for it is in its "fifth edi- 
 tion" ; yet ^ve can not recognise anything 
 peculiar to the South in its characters and 
 injidents. It shos, however, a sharp 
 insight into motivs, marking the ni§est 
 distinctions and shades of character with 
 a keen, firm touch, and without those 
 strong and exaggerated contrasts which 
 ar too often evidences of confused con5ep- 
 tions and imperfect execution. The her- 
 oin is not exactly au original creation, 
 but is a wel-deflned and skilfully develop- 
 character, and "Charley" and Mr. Lacy ar 
 agreeably drawn, while Miss Josephine is 
 almost too much of a vixen for the refined 
 society in which she is allowed to circu- 
 late. ThCre is more mutual complacency 
 and admiration, too, among the leading 
 friends than is compatible with a true 
 social intercourse. But the tone of the 
 work is subdued, and the religious spirit 
 healthful and liberal." [Putnam's Mag. 3 q 
 
 Ir 
 
NOVELS OV AMKRICAH COUNTKY LIFE. 
 
 and tlie strong, often dramatic effects 
 gained by discarding entirely the drama- 
 tic form. "We recall no. other writer who 
 has attempted to express so much in this 
 way. The story is told almost without aid 
 from the characters, who unburden them- 
 selves mainly throu the medium of the 
 author, in the "oratio obliqua." Sometimes 
 they are not allowed to speak at all ; Lida 
 Ann, the subject of a very true and ten- 
 der sketch, does not utter u. word while 
 her sad little life history is unfolded. The 
 reader is not called upon to be. pre- 
 sent at the scene, but merely to listen to a 
 relation of what has taken place; yet 
 such is the vigor and truth of Mr. 
 Deming's naiTative that we are transport- 
 ed thither despite the prohibition, and 
 only afterwards begin to wonder how 
 characters whose speech we have not 
 heard, whose actions are by no means 
 elaborately dwelt upon, have been made 
 so real and vivid to us. Mr. Deming pos- 
 sesses the art of turning at once to the 
 most effective point of his story and set- 
 ting it in a strong light. He writes in a 
 repressed, trenchant style, so weeded of 
 redundances that the few words which 
 remain seem doubly charged with mean- 
 ing. It is not often that a book made up 
 of fragmentary publications exhibits such 
 unity as we find in these Adirondack 
 stories. Not only is the scene the same 
 throuovit, but a certain steadfastness of 
 literary purpose is everywhere apparent. 
 There Is no unevenness, or shifting of 
 styles; the aim raised in the beginning is 
 pursued to the end. It is a book which 
 distinctly gains in value by being read as 
 a whole. It is only in that way that its 
 full significance as a picture of an out-of- 
 the-way life can be measured. Each 
 sketch is the story of a single character or 
 incident; the whole book is the history of 
 a community. The entire action takes 
 place within "the neighborhood," a term 
 including, apparently, about 20 miles of 
 Adirondack forest, and the individual 
 most carefully studied is the public senti- 
 ment of this district. Every event is 
 viewed not alone bv itself, but in refer- 
 
 ence to how the world, that is the knot of 
 men at a country-shop, regard it; and Mr. 
 Deming has learned the inconsistencies, 
 the harsh cruelty and warm, capricious 
 kindliness, of this omnipotent jury, as he 
 has noted the shifting aspects of the 
 Adirondack scenery, which forms a va- 
 riant frame-work for his dramas. His 
 landscape is caut by a few instantaneous 
 strokes, and is set before us full of moist- 
 ure, atmosphere, and movement." [At- 
 lantic. 2 
 
 AMONG THE LAKES [by W: O. 
 Stobdard, Scribner, 1883.] "A narra- 
 tive of life at a delightful country home, 
 where city cousins and country cousins 
 are reunited during the summer. It is 
 quiet and healthful in tone, and full 
 of mirth and cheerfulness. Piney Hunter, 
 the country boy, is a remarkably fine fel- 
 low. Bi, the city youth, has also points of 
 excellence, tho he does not especially 
 rouse our admiration. Any boy or girl 
 ' from 8 to 14, At to enjoy the book thoro- 
 ly." [Nation. 3 
 
 ANNIE KILBUEN [by W : D. How- 
 ELLS, Harper, 1888.] There is more 
 satire than pathos in this story, yet the 
 account of the domestic life of the clever 
 and generous, and (in spite of his one 
 "bad habit") attractive lawyer, is full 
 of pathos. It is a case of dipsomania 
 rather than habitual drunkenness which is 
 here presented, and no one who has lived in 
 a NeAV England town can fail to recog- 
 .-ize *'ie truth of this picture of a man, 
 well-born, well-educated, of unusual ability 
 and deeply interested in his profession, 
 yet ruined by drink. We have spoken 
 first of this character not because he is, by 
 any means, of the first importance in the 
 novel, but for the reason that his prototype 
 is appallingly frequent in New England 
 life, and has rarely been treated in litera- 
 ture except in publications avowedly 
 tracts, whose descriptions, if read at all by 
 the cultivated public, would of course be 
 subject to discount. — The other characters 
 are nearly all equally good; — the clergy- 
 man, able, earnest, self-sacrificing, inclined 
 to take the teachings of Jesus literally and 
 
NOVELS Ol' AMElflCAN COUNTRY LIlfK. 
 
 seriously, (therein roininding one of 
 ."Joshua Davklson"), and hence inevitably 
 falling out with his satisfied and selfish 
 parishioners, whose chief representative is 
 the typical smart business man of a small 
 town, here admirably drawn. The life of 
 the summer colony, again (the geography 
 of the place suggests Heverly) is brSt out, 
 especially in their relations to the towns- 
 people, in a delightfully humorous fashion. 
 It may be added that tho the motives of 
 the story are serious they are handled 
 with so much humor that the nari-ative is 
 as entertaining and amusing as it is true to 
 life. 4 
 
 APRIL HOPES [by W: D. Howells, 
 Harper, _ 1887.] "Mr. Howells shows 
 a light and exquisite touch in '-April 
 Hopes," a novel, it is safe to say, in 
 which all his finer qualities are seen 
 at their best. The story is for all the 
 world like a spring day when showers 
 and sunshine gracefully intermingle. 
 Story, we say, while in reality there is no« 
 story at all. Only an account of how two 
 young things fell in love with one another 
 and quarrelled and made up. and quar- 
 relled again, and made up again, and broke 
 offtlie engagement once more, and finally 
 made up for good and were married. And 
 how charmingly the afi'air is put before us 
 —all the foolish, silly, entrancing details 
 are there, and never does tlie author ex- 
 ceed the limits of probability or tlie canons 
 of good taste. It is like a pretty play, for 
 the narrative in the book is a poor penny- 
 worth of bread to an infinite deal of sack 
 in Shape of bright and sparkling dialog. 
 We sit and watch Dan and Alice at their 
 love meetings and their love quarrels, hear 
 them exchange their bits of romantic non- 
 sense, see them go throu their little deceits 
 and flights of tragedy and playing at 
 broken hearts, and listen while they utter 
 protestations of undying affection and 
 vows of unwavering faith. It is all very 
 pretty, very dainty, very touching, and 
 every one who assists at the performance 
 must feel that here at any rate is a bit of 
 reality. The doctrine of elective affinities 
 has no place in the world of "April 
 
 Hopes." "Girlhood," in the author's 
 view, "is often a turmoil of wild impulses, 
 ignorant exaltations, mistaken ideals, 
 which really reijresent no intelligent pur- 
 pose, and come from disordered nerves, 
 ill-advised reading, and the erroneous per- 
 spective of inexperience." When two 
 creatures thus constituted indulge in the 
 frantic eftbrt of trying to reconcile their 
 ideals the comedy and tragedy of court- 
 ship begin, for, as Jlr. Howells says once 
 more, "the difficulty in life is to bring ex- 
 perience to the level of expectation, to 
 match our real emotions in view of any 
 grejit occasion with the ideal emotions 
 which we have taut ourselves that we 
 aut to feel." The novel is truly a 
 charming production." [Boston "Literary 
 World."] Much of the action is at Cam- 
 pobello, and the descriptions of the scen- 
 ery are charming. ' 5 
 
 BEAUTY AND THE BEAST [by 
 Bayard Taylor, Putnam, 1872.] "In 
 the 4 stories we have named, and es- 
 pecially in 'Jacob Flint's Journey,' and 
 'Friend Eli's Dauter,' we find a native 
 charm and a fine local flavor that we should 
 not know where to match outside of Auer- 
 bach's tales. There is, with- an utter 
 diflesence of material, a natural similarity 
 of atmosphere in these Pennsylvania 
 and Germ:ui stories. They are alilve in 
 rusticity of event and character, and in 
 the country sweetness which hangs about 
 them like an odor of fields and woods, as 
 well as the unpatronizing spirit in which 
 simple people's life is regarded." [At^ 
 lantic. C 
 
 BETTY LEICESTER [by S.. O. Jew- 
 BTT, Houghton, ISS!).] "Possesses tho 
 vital toucli without which no incident 
 ■ can impress< itself ; with whicli the sim- 
 plest details are imbued with a real life 
 of their own. The descriptions of country 
 life and scenes are exquisite. There are 
 good sugg(-'sl ions to those wliose lives 
 have become so flxed in a narrow and 
 unchanging routine that even tho sim- 
 plest form of entertaining seems moment- 
 ous and overpowering. Everything 
 is invested with a simple and health- 
 
N<)\-EI.S OK AMURU'AN CdUNl'ilY lAVK. 
 
 AEDIS OLAN'EKDEN. [by Frank 
 1!: STOcKTdx: N.-Y., Dodd, 1S90.] 
 ''J;u-1c Surry iiiul jVrdis Uri'p Uic stiigo 
 throudtit the play; but it is with Dr. 
 Lester, wliuse flue manners, pure affec- 
 tion, anil persistent nobility of eliaracter 
 ar most efTeetivly delineated, that the 
 author makes us linger. Dr. Li>stir is 
 clearly the true hero of the stin-y, and from 
 tlie moment when he 'let down his long 
 leijs preparatory to slipiiing from the 
 l'en(,-e' until, at tlie' end, 'Ardis stei>])ed to 
 his side, and, stooping, kissed him,' he 
 wil liav the s\nipathy and love of the 
 'gentle' reader. ITe is most deliealely and 
 justly eonveiviHl and eonsistently portray- 
 ed. The reader knoes tio\y it is to lie with 
 him from the start, and from the start un- 
 derstands Ardis" feelins;- and how it must 
 all eome out ; and yet with a hopeless eager- 
 ness he eatehis every promis whieh for 
 a monuait britens the doctor's outlook. 
 ])r. Lester's relation to tlie heroin is not 
 a new one in novels, but it is made closely 
 individual by its iieculiar sliadiug ... To 
 us the iK'st episode is that in whieh the 
 heroin turns up in the C'lnverleys' studio 
 in New-York. It tliere is a bi'eak in tbe 
 interi'st of the story auywlierr, possibly it 
 preceded the introduction of the Cbiver- 
 leys; but with them came a frcsli iul'iision 
 of life niul incident, -.i new f;roui>iiif;' of 
 parts— a stroo^' 'spurt," if we may so speak 
 of it, which carries us to the wininu;;- post. 
 Tbe (.'hiverle\s ar deliglit ful and whole- 
 soun'; picked up, one would say, out of 
 life, and come to stay in the mind. Tbere 
 ar many ])ersons on the staije who come 
 and i;"o, lilliuii" the background witb a rich 
 Virginia life, and about it all a whole- 
 some atmt)svthere." [Critic. 5 h 
 
 3 1i 
 
HUMOROUS N(.A'ELS. 
 
 AKTEMXrS WARD, HIS TRAVELS. 
 C: FARK.ui Browne (1S34-0T): N.-Y., 
 Carleton, 1S65.] "Half the book con- 
 sists of miscellaneous narrativs and brief 
 romanfes: the other half is made up of 
 humorous reminisjen^es of travel to 
 "California and Bac." Our columns hav 
 sometimes profited by floating waifs of 
 the eminent shoman's humor— such as the 
 romance of "William Barker, the Young 
 Patriot." In this wel-knon hit of bur- 
 lesque, we recognize the motiv of Arte- 
 mus Ward's humor, and the reason of his 
 popularity. He appeals directly to com- 
 mon-sense, under a garb of absurdity. 
 Thfire is much plain, homely truth in what 
 he says so extravagantly, and his blunt 
 satire touches sensibilities which ar utter- 
 ly invulnerable to more delicate sarcasm. 
 His knoledge of the American character, 
 too, is peculiarly comprehensiv aud accu- 
 rate, and his habit of observation of social 
 life is keen and always activ. These latter 
 points ar espejially shOn in the chapters 
 headed "Affairs Sound the Village 
 
 Green," and "Agriculture," and in the 
 accounts of local doings at "Baldinsville." 
 But this clever writer is successful not 
 only in hitting off the prominent charac- 
 teristics of the groser phases of American 
 civilization, he displays equal felifity of 
 touch and keenness of wit in occasional 
 sallies at polished so9iety and at the follies 
 of current literature and journalism. 
 The chapters on Boston, JiTew-York, and 
 Richmond, and the romange of "Only a 
 Mechanic" illustrate his talent in these 
 particulars. The latter, which fils scarje- 
 ly two pages, is a remarkably pungent 
 satire, and is much better calculated than 
 any serious revue, however bitter in 
 telling, to purge silly story-writers of 
 thSir ridiculous con9eit. To congeit, in- 
 deed, and to puerility and imposture of 
 all sorts, Artemus Ward displays a hearty 
 enmity which is rooted in h! pringiples 
 and a good heart. His writings hav thfiir 
 moral, no less than thSir comic bearing." 
 [Albion. 5 J 
 
 3j 
 
NOVKLS or AMISUICAJS COUNTUV Lll'lS. 
 
 AS IT MAY HAPPEN [Pennsylva- 
 nia] = No. 192. 
 
 ASCHENBEOEDEL = No. 193. 
 
 ASCUTNEY STREET, [by Adeline 
 DuTTON (Train) Whitney: Loiulon, 
 Ward <& Lock, 1890.] "Mrs. Whitnry 
 has had a grfiat deal of practlje singe she 
 wrote 'Faith Gartney's Girlhood' [ No. 
 30 m ] but her readers wil probably agree 
 for the most part in plagiiig that meritori- 
 ous little story above all its successors. 
 'Ascutney Street' is no rival to it. Tragcs 
 of morbidity and sentimentality, affecta- 
 tions of style and moral tall talk wcr 
 observable iu the former work; tliuy ar 
 common in the new one. And yet when 
 the author allows herself to tel hrr quite 
 simple and pretty story straitforwardly, 
 forgetting self-consciousness and manner- 
 ism, thfire is again tlie genuin ring with 
 which her readers ar a<-quainte(l. Un- 
 fortunately this is too seldom the case, 
 and in trying to be pithy or profound she 
 is oftener than not tiresome and incom- 
 prehensible." [AtheniEum. 5 k 
 
 ASPENDALE = No. 194. 
 
 3k 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN COUNTRY LIITE. 
 
 BEREOTCE, [by M.. Hayden 
 (Green) Pike: Boston, Fhillips, 1S56.] 
 "a tale of the Passamaqiiockly [Maine] 
 region, has unusual merit. It is simple 
 and unpretending, but is marked, throu- 
 diit, by grfiat good sense, quie percep- 
 tions, poetic sensibility, and considerable 
 artistic skil." [Putnam's. 6r 
 
 BERTIE [ Phil'a, Hart, 1851.] "is a 
 Jforth-Carolina story, the hero of which 
 is a knoing Yankee, self-styled a Profes- 
 sor, wlio nranufactures hydraulic cement 
 and constructs cisterns. His adventures 
 in the old "North State ar made the means 
 of giving a lively and entertaining account 
 of the habits and character of its people." 
 [Southern Literary iMcssengcr. 6 t 
 
NOVELS OF AMEUICAN COCNTKY LIFE. 
 
 tul but constant Interest, from the begin- 
 ning, where Betty starts alone, with some 
 misgiving, for Tiileshead, to the very last 
 page, when she and her father are leaving 
 the quaint little village with real regret, 
 albeit to take up their wider life once 
 more." [Nation. 7 
 
 BETWEEN WHILES [by H.. (F.) 
 (H.) Jackson, Boberts, 1887.] "Is a 
 collection of tales which, with the 
 exception of the first and longest, have al- 
 ready been printed. And they very well 
 stand the test of being half forgotten after 
 a hasty reading in some magazine, and 
 then, years afterward, being read iigain. 
 In every case the memory of the story, al- 
 most as soon as the first sentence is read, 
 comes back in all its entirety, the charac- 
 ters seem lilie old friends, and there is 
 genuine pleasure in listening to their sim- 
 ple talk and breathing the wholesome odor 
 of their surroundings. The first story, 
 '•The Inn of the Golden Pear," was left 
 incomplete at the author's death, and one 
 regretfully wonders what she would have 
 made of the lives of Willan and Victorine. 
 The few chapters which but finish what 
 might be called the first episode are filled 
 at once with strength and subtlety quite 
 beyond anything else in the volume. In 
 spite of the sudden . infatuation of Wil- 
 lan, and the quaint romance of a bygone 
 time that would serve ordinarily to give 
 such a tale a tinge of unreality, there is a 
 naturalness, a pervading sense of being 
 close to life and nature, a vigor and grasp, 
 that compels one's interest and admiration. 
 But it is chiefly the purity, th(! elevation 
 and gentle fervor which throuout these 
 stories disclose their nuthor at her Pest, 
 and win the hearts of her warmest admir- 
 ers." [Nation. 8 
 
 BLUFFTON [by M. J. Savage, Lee S 
 Shepard, 1878.] "Is one of many books 
 of the same kind which are to be 
 written, and the public who see in it a 
 partial description . of what the public 
 thots and speculations are and have 
 been, will be grateful if the books 
 that ai-R to come are as good-humored, as 
 sincere, and no more inconclusive than 
 
 this one. The story is simple. The Rev. 
 M: Trafton goes from the East to take 
 charge of a church in the West. He has 
 no doubt of the orthodoxy of his creed or 
 of the firmness of his belief; and full of 
 hope and youth he means to live his life 
 strait out in the place where his work is 
 appointed. At first he is eminently suc- 
 cessful. The sermons, which come from 
 his heart, touch the hearts of his hearers. 
 He finds the one woman for him ; she ac- 
 cepts his oft'er, and life looks full of the 
 best and happiest promises, (iradually he 
 is found less than orthodox. A council is 
 called to consider his heresies, and before 
 it assembles, questions as to his personal 
 character and the purity of his life furnish 
 further food for inquiry. These, of course, 
 are triumphantly vindicated, but his mis- 
 beliefs are manifest, and his betrothed 
 counts him an infidel and refuses to break 
 her father's heart by marrying him. So 
 
 far all is natural and coherent Job's 
 
 asses and oxen are here represented by 
 travels in Europe for Mr. Trafton, after 
 ivhich he meets his former love in a sum- 
 mer-house in a gentleman's place in Cali- 
 fornia. They make it up at once; her 
 father is dead — we believe he left a compe- 
 tent fortune— and soon after Mr. Trafton 
 receives a call from a certain number of 
 people in New York who desires to hear 
 whatever he may have to say, and with 
 this nimbus neatly fitted round his head 
 the book closes." [Nation. 9 
 
 BOSCOBEL [N. Y. : W. B. Smith & 
 Co.] "Shows not very much skill in con- 
 trivance of plot or portraiture of character ; 
 but it is worth an hour's i-eading for the 
 pretty sketching of Florida scenery and 
 of the life thei'e of the winter sojourners." 
 [Nation. 10 
 
 CAPE COD AND ALL ALONG 
 SHOEE [by Charles Nordhofi'', Har- 
 per, 1869.] "The editors of this Magazine 
 [Atlantic] remember with pleasure ''ISl- 
 kanah Brewster's Temptation;" and we 
 fancy that thei-e are others who will be 
 glad to read it a second tirne-in this collec- 
 tion. It is no dispraise of them to say 
 that Mr. Nordhofl''s stories are all lights- 
 
NOVELS Ol' AMERICAN COUNTRY LIKE. 
 
 BROUGHTON HOUSE = No. 203. 
 
 BUEKETTS LOCK. [bvM.. Green- 
 WAY McClelland: N.-Y., Gassell, 
 1S89.] "The scene is laid among humble 
 folk on the banks of the James River 
 [Virginia], and in a hilly city easily 
 recognizable as Lynchburg. Without 
 Miss Murfree's verboseness and continu- 
 al digressions into irrelevant descriptions 
 of natural beauties unnotifed by her ac- 
 tor's, Miss McClelland's command of 
 mountaineer dialect is equal to the Ten- 
 nessee writer's, and she does not weary 
 us with it. The story is sad, simple, and 
 too short. Grannie and Polly ar strong 
 and piquante; Bob Kedd, a. representativ 
 of the class who win the love of every- 
 body and deserv nobody's. Hester is 
 pure, fine and hi; an artistic contrast to 
 her weak, vain, unfoi-tunate sister." 
 [Homemaker. ] — "The entire tone is 
 strong, unaifected, and sympathetic. The 
 miserable tragedy of Delia is touched 
 with pathos and quiet force ; the character 
 of Hester is admirable in simple and sin- 
 5ere outlines ; while the life of the section 
 is portrayed with many clever strokes. 
 The scenes whSre Hester listens to the 
 counjil of the relativs of Delia, planning 
 the doom of the betrayer, and the final 
 discovery of the double falsity of Rob 
 Redd, ar truly dramatic, and excellent in 
 proportion and in movement." [ Boston 
 "Literary World." 10 p 
 
 BURR-CLIFF [liy "Paul Creyton," i. e., 
 J: TowNSEND Trowbridge: Boston, 
 Phillips, 1854.] "is an amusing, rajy 
 little volume, consisting of a series of fam- 
 
 ily pictures, wel and truthfully drawn, in 
 which clouds and sunshine .alternate, but 
 the latter predominates. It presents, in 
 lively contrast, two families, the one living 
 in the country, independent, intelligent, 
 and wel-ordered, with a desire for self- 
 culture, and taste to enjoy nature's per- 
 fect works as spread out before them in 
 "Hil and verdant slope, woodland and 
 vale, and sparkling stream." The other 
 in a city, with scanty means, straining 
 every nerv to keep up appearanges, the 
 soul cramped by the shaclsles of artififial 
 life, the natural affections deadened. The 
 characters ar wel sustained ; the conversa- 
 tions lively and spirited. The book con- 
 tains some profitable hints in relation to 
 the treatment due to (5ur superiors in age, 
 quite apropos at the present time, when 
 the child may almost literally be said to be 
 Father of the man." [National Era.] — 
 It "tels the pleasant story of the people 
 who livd thSre and the people who went 
 thither to liv, the honest farmer of the 
 genuin New-England stamp, and his 
 sturdy sons and smiling dauters, the old 
 grandparents. Joyful and Hopeful by 
 name, just tottering down the hil of life, 
 the broken-down merchant seeking to hide 
 his disgrage in retirement, the fine city 
 lady, poor and dependent, yet scorning to 
 labor with her hands, the good clergyman, 
 the pedantic schoolmaster, the good chil- 
 dren and the nauty ones — all characters 
 which we ar sure must hav been sketched 
 from life, so truthful ar thHr outlines." 
 [Norton's Lit. Gazette. 10 s 
 
 BUTTONS INN = No. 206. 
 
 4q 
 
NOVELS (IF AMEiaCAN COUNTRY 1,1 KK. 
 
 •■easy things to understand,"' — aim ti> 
 please and entertain folk, and do not 
 grapple with problems of any kind, unless 
 perhaps the doubtful wisdom of forsaking 
 simple Cape Cod and country-town ways, 
 for the materializing and corrupting career 
 of newspaper men and artists in New 
 York. Elkanali Brewester barely over- 
 comes his temptation, and returns to tlie 
 Cape just in time to be true to Hepsy Ann, 
 while Stoffle McGurdigan actually suc- 
 cumbs, becomes a great editor, and breaks 
 faith with pretty Lucy Jones. Tho the 
 interest of these and the other stories of 
 the boolc is not complex, the satire is 
 wholesome and just, aud the reader will 
 scarcely escape being touched by the 
 pathos. 'I'he character in them is good 
 enuf to be true of the scenes of most of 
 tales which take us among places and 
 people seldom touched by magazine fic- 
 tion, aud not here exhausted. It seems to 
 us that Mehilabel Boffer's Cranberry 
 Swamp is the best of all." 11 
 
 CAPE COD FOLKS [by Sally P. 
 McLean, Boston, Williams, ISSl.] 
 "The author is so successful in her 
 sketches of real life tbat-it is a pity she has 
 not confined herself to them. It is only a 
 new illustration of the fact that the power 
 of reproduction is quite other than that of 
 creation. What slie saw or knew she has 
 given with vivid force. A note from the 
 publishers implies that some offense has 
 been taken at the fraukness of the por- 
 traiture of local manners, but surely not 
 by the delightful, impossible, actual "Ce- 
 dar Swampers" tliemselves, for the tone 
 of the book as a whole is one of hearty ap- 
 preciation : for one example, the recogni- 
 tion of the beauty and power of their sing- 
 ing, and the part played by such music in 
 a simple, primitive community — their one 
 fine art. The impression of the book that 
 will linger longest may be the refrain of 
 the hymns swelling and dying above the 
 monotone of the surf." [Nation. 13 
 
 CAPTAIN POLLY [by Sophie 
 SwETT," Harper, 1S89.] "Is a fine tale 
 of a wise' and courageous girl, who may 
 serve as a good model for other girls to 
 
 grow like, and also as a lesson in shame- 
 facedncss to buys for their silly airs 
 of superiority over their sisters. 
 Nothing shows more plainly the greater 
 nearness of boys to their savage ancestry 
 than the fiction which still holds among 
 them that it is they who hold the reins of 
 government. The Captain Polly of this 
 book was the natural and actual ruler of 
 her family, but that did not in the least 
 shalic the confidence of her brothers that 
 both their organization and their stock of 
 ideas were in every way superior to hers." 
 [Nation. 13 
 
 CHANCE ACQUAINTANCE, A. [by 
 W: D. HOWBLLS, Boston, 1S73]. " A 
 Chance Acquaintance' introduces some 
 of the people who had figured briefly 
 in 'Their Wedding Journey,' and weaves 
 for them a love story on Canadian ground, 
 in a way that shows that one need not be an 
 Arbuton to prefer the half-EurOpeau fla- 
 vor of that unamericanized part of the 
 country to the less romantic scenery of the 
 United Slates. But if the setting is partly 
 foreign, the story does not lose in interest 
 on that account, and the people who are 
 br6t before us are taken as types of two 
 very different kinds of Americans. The 
 heroine, Kitty Ellison, is a Western girl 
 who has had none of the advantages of 
 finishing schools, symphony concerts, and 
 I.,owell lectures, but lias been reared among 
 sensible people who have had their work 
 to do and who, besides attending to that, 
 had been sturdy Abolitionists at a time 
 when slavery had moredefenders than it 
 has now. From the glimpse we get of her 
 life it is easy to see how well it encouraged 
 the independence and individuality of her 
 character, and the humor which is so 
 prominent an American trait. The other 
 actor in the play is Mr. Miles Arbuton, of 
 Boston, who has had bestowed on him all 
 that the heart of man could desire— wealth, 
 good family, personal attractiveness of a 
 certain sort, education, foreign travel, so 
 that if young people had nothing better to 
 do than to serve as examples of the truth of 
 proverbs it would seem as if here were a 
 romance ready to break forth between two 
 
 5 
 
NOVKLS OF AMEKICAN COUNTRY LIFE. 
 
 Buch different people. The lack of resem- 
 blance lies, too, much deeper thau this. 
 Kitty has all the charm which must belong to 
 a young, pretty, kindly, sympathetic girl, 
 while Arbuton has all the narrowness, 
 coldness, and exclusiveuess which are 
 disagreeable when they are found in con- 
 trast with what one would naturally ex- 
 pect from all the advantages he possesses, 
 and, it must be said, with what one sees of 
 such people in the flesh. With Kitty, Mr. 
 Howells has been remarkably successful ; 
 he has drawn a really charming girl, and 
 how difficult and rare a thing that is to do 
 every novel-reader can testifiy. All her 
 part in the love-making, her innocence, her 
 readiness to be pleased, her kindness 
 towards Arbuton's foibles, her sensitive 
 dignity, her charming humor, belong to a 
 I'cal human being, not to the familar lay- 
 figure whicli, one day practical, the next 
 sentimental, goes tlirou the conventional 
 process of love-making with dull unifor- 
 mity in the writings of the majority of 
 novelists. The plot of the story is simply 
 that of the wooing of this lovely girl by the 
 cold Boston man, whose blue blood freezes 
 in his veins at jmy reference to the South 
 End of his native city. The story is very 
 prettily told, with its conclusion success- 
 fully hidden till the last from the prying 
 wonder of the reader. The many little 
 touches of humor whicli every reader of 
 Mr. Howells has learned to expect in his 
 works, and whicii have given him his place 
 as the best of the younger generation of 
 American humorists, are to be found con- 
 tinually in this novel. The descriptions of 
 the scenery, which must be familiar to 
 many, are well done." [Nation. 14 
 
 CIRCUIT RIDER, The [by E: 
 Eggleston; N. Y., Ford, 1874.] "Mr. 
 E: Eggleston's stories have had from 
 the beginning a great popularity with 
 a large circle of readers, and it has 
 been in many ways well deserved. They 
 are full of incident; all of these rapid 
 events occur amid scenes almost entirely 
 new to the Eastern reader and the new 
 generation of Westeners; and they have, 
 in a high degree, the element of dialectic 
 
 speech, which intrinsically for itself is a 
 popular element, and which, delusively 
 perhaps as often as really, confers upon 
 the personages of the story that appear- 
 ance of reality and individuality for which 
 the novel-writer has to watch so keenly 
 and work so hard. Another important 
 quality of Mr. Eggleston's books, and one 
 which does much to hold fast the sort of 
 readers whom his novelty and liveliness 
 attract, is his good nature, which never 
 fails to malce liim always kind to his char- 
 acters and keeps for him a constant supply 
 of a practical poetic justice which ensures 
 the marriage of the almshouse girl to the 
 hero of the tale, and makes out of the hero 
 the sheriff of the self-same county where 
 the regulators had nearly had him convict- ■ 
 ed for horse-stealing." [Nation. 15 
 
 COUNTRY BY-WAYS [by S.. O. Jew- 
 ETT, Houghton, ISSl.] "Miss Jewett hei-- 
 self seems sure only of catching and holding 
 some flitting movement of life, some frag- 
 ment of experience which has demanded 
 her sympathy. One of the stories, indeed, 
 Anclreio^s Fortune has a more delib- 
 erate intention, and we are led on with 
 some interest to pursue the slight turns of 
 the narrative; yet in this the best work is 
 in the successive pictures of the village 
 groups in the kitchen and at the funeral. 
 It would be diflleult to find a formal story 
 which made less draft upon one's curios- 
 ity than Miss Becky's Pilgriniage, 
 yet one easily acquires a personal regard 
 for Miss Becky herself. Miss Jewett's 
 sketches have all the value and interest of 
 delicately executed water-color land- 
 scapes; they are restful, they are truthful, 
 ■and one is never asked to expend criticism 
 upon them, but to talie theni with their 
 necessary limitations as household pleas- 
 lU'es. The sketches and stories which 
 make up the volume vary in value, but 
 they are all marked by grace and fine 
 feeling; they are thoroly wholesome; 
 they have a gentle frankness and rever- 
 ence which are inexpressibly winning, 
 when one thinks of the knowingness and 
 selfconsciousness and restlessness which 
 by turns characterize so many of the con- 
 
iiL!,M<ii:iiiis N()\ i.;r,.s. 
 
 CLOOKJMAKEli ('rhe),orlUo .Sayiii.ns 
 :uul Doilij;s of Sam Slick of Slii-kvillr. 
 [by T: t'liANiu.ioi: JlALUiriiniN ( 17117- 
 Iti(iu) : N.-Y., a veils.. I,s;!7-40.] "It fs SO 
 yoars sin9e Mr. IhiHImrlon iitlracti'd Uic 
 alli'Ution of a colonial ijulflic by writing 
 a series of letters recorLling tlie obsi'rva- 
 tious, Imniors, antl oiUlities of a travelin,^' 
 Yankee cloc-maker, who looked at life 
 with a shrcwil, jienetratinj;-, yet not un- 
 kindly e)e. Those who ar old enuf to 
 recollect the period in question wil re- 
 member that for a long while 'Sam Slick' 
 was 'the rage.' His sayings wer quoted 
 in every newspaper, and became inc'or- 
 porated In the popular slang. He aehlex- 
 cd a popularity almost equalling that of 
 ■Mrs Caudle', some years later; and he 
 was soon generally acjeptcd by the Kng- 
 lish public as a type of 'the Y'ankee' pure 
 and unadulterated. The book was, in 
 truth, a production of marked ability. 
 Sam Slick is one of those fictitious char- 
 acters which may really be termd crea- 
 tions ... Of course "the Clocmaker" 
 does not giv a complete idea of American 
 character, in which thiSre vv larger and 
 nobler elements ; but ( allowing for the 
 inevitable exaggeration of a caricature ) 
 he is true to a certain phase of transatlan- 
 tic life. Sam Is the regular Yankee trader 
 — 'cute,' wary, dodgy, humbugging, in- 
 congeivably audacious, abounding in self- 
 relianfe under all possible circumstances, 
 as little troubled with a 'nice conscience" as 
 the sailor in Chaucer, and yet in some 
 respects a good fello after all. In his 
 way, Sam is a genius. His impudence 
 alone is an inspiration. With little edu- 
 cation, and with a slimy accumulation 
 of slang covering his speech as mud and 
 
 cpoze i-nver tile liottom of an ol<l ship, his 
 nativ New-l'higland shrewdness makes 
 him almost a |ibilcjsopher. His vue of 
 life may Ije narro, Imt it is all the sharper 
 tor its narroness, and there ar not want- 
 ing touches of jiathos in the midst of the 
 hnnior." [London lioview, 1865.] — 
 " 'Sam Slick' deservs to be entered on (iiir 
 list of friends containing the names of 
 'I'ristram Shandy, the Shepherd of the 
 ■ Noetes iVmbrosiana^' and other rhapsod- 
 ical discoursers on time and change, who, 
 besiile the delights of thCir discourse, 
 possess also the charm of individuality. 
 Apart from all the worth of Sam's revela- 
 tions, the man is precious to us as a queer 
 creature — knoing, impudent, sensible, 
 sagacious, vulgar, yet not without a cer- 
 tain tact : and overfloing with a humor as 
 peculiar in its way as the humors of 
 Andrew Fairservice." [Athenajum.] — 
 "We can distinguish the real from the 
 counterfeit Y'ankee at the first sound of the 
 voice, and by the turn of a single sen- 
 tence; and we hav no hesitation in declar- 
 ing that Sam Slick is not what he pretends 
 to be ; that thSre is no organic life in him ; 
 that he is an impostor, an impossibility, a 
 nonentity. A writer of genius, even if 
 he write from imperfect" knoledge, wil, 
 as it wer, breathe the breath of life into 
 his creations. Sam Slict is an awkward 
 and hily infelicitous attempt to make a 
 character, by heaping together, without 
 discrimination, selection, arrangement, or 
 taste, every vulgarity which a vulgar 
 imagination can conceive, and every 
 knavery which a man blinded by national 
 and political prejudice can charge upon 
 niSbors whom he dislikes." [ C. C. Fel- 
 TON. 15 h 
 
 6t 
 
NOVKI.S OF AMICRIOAN COUNTKY LIFE. 
 
 CLOVERNOOK, or Kocollections of 
 diir Neighborhood in the West. [by 
 Alice Gary (1822-Tl) : JST.-Y., EedfieU, 
 1854:.] "The writer has depicted Western 
 scenes and characters, Western homes and 
 manners, with a fidelity and accuracy of 
 which those only who hav livd among 
 them ar capable. The old-fashioned 
 "Quilting Party," so common and so in- 
 dispensable in the days of our grand- 
 mothers, is painted to the life; and as we 
 i-ead her humorous description we almost 
 si for the simple, unartififial life of the 
 country, with its true hearts and honest 
 purposes. "My Visit to Randolph" re- 
 minds us of some of Dickens' lively 
 sketches; and Miss Matilda Hamersley 
 might pass for a second Mrs. Skewton. 
 The simple but beautiful pictures of life 
 among the poor, with its patient endur- 
 anfe for love's sake, and sacrifi9e of sel- 
 fish wishes for the comfort of the whole, 
 ar written with touching pathos, which 
 reaches the heart and calls forth its better 
 feelings." [National Era. 15 iii 
 
 COL. DUNWOODIE = No. 214. 
 
 COUNTER CURRENTS [So. Cali= 
 fornia] = No. 210. 
 
 6 w 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN COUNTRY LIFE. 
 
 tributions by women to our literature." 
 [Atlantic. 16 
 
 COUNTKY DOCTOR, A. [by S.. O. 
 Jewbtt, Houghton, 1884.] "It is a 
 positive pleasure to think how many 
 young voices will be reading aloud, 
 this summer, Miss Jewett's delightful 
 sketch of 'A Country Doctor.' We say 
 sketch, for tho the book has been heralded 
 as a novel, it is as strictly a sketch as any 
 of those which have won for her a now 
 most enviable fame. Miss Jewett's work 
 is as purely and finely New England as 
 Whittier's poetry. Her instinctive refine- 
 ment, her graceful workmanship, place 
 her second only to Mrs. A.. (Thackeray) 
 Kitchie. Her country doctor is unmistak- 
 ably a loving portrait from life. "We like 
 him and his friend all the better for a rem- 
 iniscence of the Doctor May and the Doc- 
 tor Spencer of 30 years ago. ISot that they 
 are in the least copies — only examples of 
 the same type. By the side of Doctor Les- 
 lie is a most gracious figure, first a wayward 
 child, then a girl of eager heart and steady 
 will. So far as the story follows the 
 thread of her fortune, and develops her 
 character, it might be called a novel ; but 
 plotin the ordinary sense it has none. . .At 
 the close, the heroine, looks forward to no 
 , happiness of wife or mother, but to the 
 profession — still unusual, tho no longer is- 
 olated — ^for which she had patiently trained 
 herself in medical school and hospital." 
 [Nation. 17 
 
 COUPON BONDS, [by J: T. Trow- 
 bridge, Boston : 1873.] "We think the 
 best of Mr. Trowbridge's stories, in the 
 new volume of them just published, is 
 The Man Who Stole a Meeting-House, 
 which we suppose our readers have not 
 forgotten. It deals, like all the others, 
 with the rustic character of New fug- 
 land, bringing out here and there its lurk- 
 ing kindness and delicacy, but impressing 
 you chiefly with a certain sardonic hard- 
 ness in it, — a humorous, wrong-headed 
 recklessness, which Mr. Trowbridge has 
 succeeded in embodying wonderfully well 
 in old Jedworth. The story is as good as 
 the best in this sort of study, and in struc- 
 
 ture it is as much more artistic as it is less 
 mechanical. In some of the other tales 
 the coming coincidence and surprise may 
 be calculated altogether too accurately: 
 all is plotted as exactly as if for the eflects 
 of a comedy. This is true in a degree of 
 Coupon Bonds, which is such a capital 
 story, and so full of human nature; and it 
 is almost embarrassingly true of Archi- 
 bald Blossom, and oi Breaching for Sel- 
 wyn. Mr. Blazay's Experience, The 
 Romance of a Glove, Nancy Blynn's 
 Lovers, and In the Ice, are better ; but 
 none are so good as The Man Who Stole 
 A Meeting House, which for a kind of 
 poise of desirable qualities — humorous con- 
 ception, ingenious plot, well-drawn char- 
 acter, and a naturally euvolved moral in old 
 Jedwort's disaster and reform — is one of 
 the best New England stories ever written, 
 to our thinking. They are all inviting 
 stories ; they all read easily." [Atlantic. 18 
 
 COUSIN POLLY'S GOLD MINE, [by 
 A.. E. ( ) Porter: Harper, 1879.] 
 
 "The brothers loved the same sweet 
 
 girl, Alice Leigh, and the more favored won 
 her; but the fortune which she br6t her 
 husband melted away. Their orphaned 
 children became the wards of their patient 
 and large-hearted uncle; and there is ad- 
 mirable poetic justice and a really artistic 
 convergence of diflTerent lines of destiny 
 in the end, where poor, miserly Polly 
 finds death in her fulfilled desires by fall- 
 ing into the pit excavated by the first 
 miners on her old farm, and the wealth 
 which she had clutched so blindly comes 
 by natural inheritance to Alice's children 
 and their adoptive father, and comes just 
 in time to lift from the brave shoulders of 
 the true hero of the tale the burden which 
 must soon have crushed them. It must be 
 confessed, however, that this plot looks 
 better in outline than with the author's 
 filling. There is absolutely no action in 
 the book, and the conversations, especially 
 of the more refined characters, are as prig- 
 gish and impossible as the situations; are 
 simple and veracious." [Atlantic. 19 
 
 DEEPHAVEN [by S.. O. Jewett, 
 Boston, 1877.] "The gentle reader of 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN COUNTRY LIFE. 
 
 this magazine [Atlantic] cannot fail 
 to have liked, for their very fresh and 
 delicate quality, certain sketches of an 
 old Nevy England seaport, which have 
 from time to time appeared here during 
 the last 4 years. 'J'he first vfas 'Shore 
 House,' and then came 'Deephaven 
 Cronies' and 'Deephaven BKcursions.' 
 These sketches, with many more stud- 
 ies of the same sort of life, as finely 
 and faithfuUy.done, are now colli'ctcd into 
 a pretty little book called 'Deepliaven,' 
 which must, we think, find favor with all 
 who appreciate the simple treatment of 
 the near-at-hand quaint and picturesq. 
 No doubt some particulur seaport sat for 
 ■Deephaven,' but the picture is true to a 
 whole class of old shore towns, In any one 
 of which you might confidently look to 
 find the 'Deephaven' types. It is sup- 
 posed that two young girls — whose young- 
 girlhood charmingly perfumes the thot 
 and observation of the whole bool; — are 
 spending the summer at 'Deephaven,' 
 Miss Denis, the narrator, being the guest 
 of her adored ideal. Miss Kate Lancaster, 
 whose people have an ancestral house 
 there; but their sojourn is used only as a 
 background on which to paint the local 
 life : the 3 or 4 aristocratic families, sever- 
 ally dwindled to 3 or 4 old maiden ladies; 
 the numbers of ancient sea-captains cast 
 ashore by the decaying traflic; the queer 
 sailor and fisher folk; the widow and old 
 wife gossips of the place, and some of the 
 people of the neighboring country. These 
 are all touched with a hand which holds 
 itself far from every trick of exaggeration, 
 and which subtly delights in the very tint 
 and form of reality ; we could not express 
 too strongly the sense of conscientious 
 fidelity which the art of the book gives, 
 while over the whole is cast a light of the 
 sweetest and gentlest humor, and of a 
 
 sympathy as tender as it is intelligent 
 
 Bits of New England landscape and 
 characteristic marine efiects scattered 
 throudHt these studies of life vividly local- 
 ize them, and the talk of the people is 
 rendered with a delicious fidelity." 30 
 DESMOND HUNDRED, The [by J.. 
 
 (G.) Austin, B'n, 1882.] "It is hard to say 
 whether this is intended as a novel of 
 American life or a religious novel, or 
 both. So far as the plot goes, it might 
 be of almost any country; but the 
 scene is laid partly in New Eng- 
 land, and most of the characters are New 
 England people, and the author has a 
 high estimation of New Enijlaud. Still, 
 the hero of the book is a clergyman, who 
 renounces the woman he loves and allows 
 his brother to marry her, and there is a 
 great deal about religion in the course of 
 the story. Several of the characters, 
 again, are English, and there is something 
 in the tone of the religion and of the love 
 which is not American. The author is 
 evidentl)' very much at home in New Eng- 
 land, and the more commonplace New 
 England characters and dialog in the book 
 are veiy good. The story opens with the 
 preparations for the reception in a New 
 England village of the popular Dr. Manoah 
 Sampson, who is bringing home his wife. 
 The novel, altogether, is above the aver- 
 age in the drawing of character, but in 
 plot is rather weak, and in places vague." 
 [Nation. 21 
 
 DAVAULT'S MILLS [by C : II : Jones; 
 LippincoU, 1876.] "This novel is well- 
 written, and displays here and there 
 pleasant touches of humor and intelligent 
 observation, but it lacks the compactness 
 which is needed for the successful treat- 
 ment of a story. The development of the 
 plot runs on too calmly, and the conver- 
 sations of the characters, altho natural 
 enuf in themselves, sometimes give too 
 little aid in bringing matters to the neces-. 
 sary crisis, so that the eager reader of 
 novels, accustomed to more fiery drafts, 
 will perhaps find this tale pall upon 
 his taste." [Nation. 32 
 
 DOCTOR OF DBANE, The [byM.. 
 (TowLB) Palmek, Lothrop, 1888.] 
 "A bright and well-written little book. 
 "Within its modest limits it holds an un- 
 commonly distinct and agreeable group of 
 portraits. Uncommon, too, is the percep- 
 tive quality which has taken note of in- 
 numerable subtleties of thot and feeling 
 
 8 
 
N0VE1.S OP AMElilCAN COUNTRY LIFE. 
 
 DEACON'S WEEK = No. 225. 
 
 DEVIL'S HAT [Penn.] = No. 229. 
 
 DI GARY [Virginia] = No. 230. 
 
 DISTRICT SCHOOL AS IT WAS 
 (The) . [ by Warren Burton (lSOO-66) : 
 Boston, Carter, Hendee & Co., 1833; 
 N.-Y., Taylor, 1838.] "The author of 
 this little book, if he does not relate what 
 he has seen, and that of which he has been 
 a part, is no careless observer of men and 
 women, boys and girls, matters and 
 things. He givs a lively description of 
 the 'Old Schoolhouse,' on the summit of 
 a bald hil, of its external appearance and 
 internal arrangement, of the female teach- 
 ers in summer and the male teachers in 
 Winter, of the urchins and youth who at> 
 tended, of the various kinds of disciplin, 
 of the things taut and how thfiy wer taut, 
 of the winter sports, &c. All this is con- 
 ducted with a good deal of dramatic effect. 
 
 At one time we ar moved by indignation 
 or pity ; and at another we ar excited to 
 latter, as the scene changes. ThSre is 
 abundance of action, comic, tragi-comlc, 
 and f ar9ical ; and our interest increases in 
 it, as it advances. The author groes upon 
 us as he proceeds, becoming more and 
 more natural and lively in his humor, 
 more true to life in his descriptions." 
 [ American Monthly Review.] — "The au- 
 thor is an artist of no ordinary power. 
 His descriptions, tho conflned to the hum- 
 ble sphere of the village school, ar inter- 
 esting from thiSir wonderful fidelity to 
 nature. We ar reminded by them of 
 Mount's Barnfloor Sketches, which in gra- 
 phick (sic) truth and expressiv simplicity 
 we hav rarely seen surpassed." [N.-Y. 
 Mirror, 1838.] Compare No. 127. 32 m 
 
 DR. HEIDENHOPF, = No. 232. 
 
 DOCTOR JOHNS = No. 233. 
 
 8q 
 
NOVELS OF AMKHICAN COUNTRY LIFE. 
 
 under the couditious of daily life, iind set 
 them down with a faithfulness that is ill 
 touch with nature, yet which never he- 
 comes odious by over-analyzing. W,e are not 
 perfectly sure tliat every feminine reader 
 will agree with the author in writing down 
 modesty as Dr. West's most impressive 
 trait, but we are sure that there will be 
 found in the book a happy alternation of 
 the thots which sparkle and those which 
 softly shine." pSTation. 23 
 
 DR. BKEEN'S PRACTICE [by W: D. 
 HowELLS, Boston, 1881.] -"Is a novel 
 of New England life, in which Mr. 
 Howells shows his usual skill and humor, 
 and more than an ordinary amount of 
 ingenuity. The plot is founded on an 
 idea which has, so far as we know, 
 not been utilized in Action before. Dr. 
 Grace Breen is a young New England girl, 
 who represents what Mr. Howells seems to 
 think the modern form of Puritanism, 
 this ancient faith taking in her a moral 
 rather than a religious form, and making 
 her conscience sensitive as regards all her 
 relations with fellow-creatures to a degree 
 unknown in parts of the world unaffected 
 by Puritan traditions. The scene of the 
 story is laid in a seaside "resort" known as 
 "Jocelyn's," where may be found the usual 
 New Ungland summer boarding-house, 
 with its visitors from all quarters. Grace 
 Breen having had some years before an 
 unfortunate love affair, in which ^e had 
 been badly treated by her lover, has adopt- 
 ed the practice of medicine, much as other 
 women enter convents or go out as mis- 
 sionaries— tho Mr. Howells intimates that 
 this is putting the case in rather an exag- 
 gerated way; but at any rate, she has 
 chosen this work with the intention of 
 giving her life to it and supporting herself 
 by it " [Nation. 25 
 
 EARNEST TRIFLER, AN [by M.. A. 
 Sprague, Houghton, 1879.] "This is a 
 clever little love-story of a sort that a 
 clever woman knows best how to tell. 
 Rachel Guerrin, the heroine, is a New 
 England girl, living in a secluded vil- 
 lage, thiou which a railroad has been 
 laid out. Two engineers come to the 
 
 place, representing two types familiar to 
 novel readers— one tho strong, earnest 
 man, given to deep and overwhelming 
 feelings, but poor at the expression of 
 them; the other a gay young buttei-fly, 
 charming in conversation, agreeable to 
 women from his gayetv and society, but 
 more given to expression than to emotion. 
 Both of these gentlemen fall in love with 
 Rachel, and of course, the strong, earnest 
 man married her. Rachel Guerrin is an 
 attractive picture of a girl, br6t up, as so 
 many girls are br6t up nowadays, in a re- 
 mote and sequestered corner of the world, 
 but admitted, throu literature of all kinds, 
 to a vicarious knowledge of men and 
 cities. Her relations with her two lovers 
 are well described, and her conversation 
 is always bright. Indeed, it is in her dia- 
 log that Miss Sprague is at her best. Her 
 conversations are always lively, if possi- 
 bly a little too witty for real life. The 
 other characters are not good. The strong, 
 earnest man does not justify the intense 
 interest he excites in Rachel's breast, and 
 tho Halstead is much better, it is really 
 Halstead in the act of flirting with Rachel 
 which makes up most of his character as 
 we see it. These flirtations are certainly 
 admirable, but flirtation does not alone 
 make a novel." [Nation. 25 
 
 EAST ANGELS [by C. P. WOOLSON, 
 Harper, 1886.] In this there is nothing 
 so fresh or remarkable as are the opening 
 scenes of Miss Woolson's Anne.' The 
 movement is intentionally languid, fitted 
 to the surrounding. Evert Winthrop 
 and Margaret Harold, the people to 
 whom Miss Woolson devotes most space, 
 are presented full blown, past the 
 period of growth, and the period of decay 
 still remote. Their completeness is 
 immediately recognized, their stability 
 taken for granted, and it is impossible 
 to stimulate concern about what they 
 do or think or feel. They are so essential- 
 ly of those to whom life brings no severe 
 tests, no moments when character reels 
 before temptation, that the emotional cri- 
 sis to which they are suTijected in the lat- 
 er chapters provokes neither fear nor 
 
 9 
 
NOVELS OK AMERICAN COUNTHY LIFE. 
 
 DOCTOR'S DAUGHTER (The) = No. 
 236. 
 
 DOUGLAS J^ARM (The) [byMAEY 
 Emily (N^eeley) Bradley : Appleton, 
 1856.] "is a pleasant sketch of life in 
 Virginia. The author writes fluently 
 and gracefully, and shos considerable skil 
 iu constructing a plot. Thfire ar no start- 
 ling events , and striking characters in her 
 story, which is a simple episode of ordin- 
 ary family life; but happily thSy ar not 
 needed. The best things in the book ar 
 the bits of talk among the farm negroes. 
 Th6y ar lafably characteristic.'" [Al- 
 bion. 34 r 
 
 9k 
 
NOVELS or AMERICAN COUNTRY LIFE. 
 
 EASTPOED [by "Wesley Brooke," i. 
 e.,G: Ldnt (1803-S5) : Boston, Crocker, 
 185S.] "is the exhibition of the life of a 
 New-England town throu the characters 
 of its prominent people. We hav nothing 
 like it for fidelity to the facts of Yankee 
 life. The characters, tho strongly indi- 
 vidualized, ar stil representativ. The au- 
 thor has happily seized the traits both of 
 the pastand the present generation, and the 
 interest of the volume depends in no small 
 degree on the exhibition of the struggle, 
 now going on in every New England 
 village, between old and . new fashioned 
 opinions, practiges and people. The 
 clergyman, the physician, the lawyer, the 
 politician, the trader, all hav to meet the 
 champions of new vues in theology, in 
 medi^in, in law, in polities, in reform, in 
 social life. The author leans toard the 
 conservativs — loves to giv them the best 
 of the joke and the argument, and is more 
 thoroly genial in depicting them, than in 
 portraying thfiir opponents; but he stil 
 represents the latter, not as mere embod- 
 ied opinions, but as men and women, and 
 some of the scenes in which thfiy appear, 
 and carry on the duel of controversy, ar 
 quite dramatic . . . The style of the vol- 
 ume is pure, sweet, graceful and vigorous. 
 It is equal to all the demands of descrip- 
 tion, narration, conversation, and discus- 
 sion, varying with unobtrusiv and flexible 
 ease with the variations in the writer's 
 moods, and with the changes in his inci- 
 dents. The power of description is quite 
 noticeable. The account of the shipwrec, 
 and the scenes in the woods of Maine, ar 
 especially vivid and true." [ Graham's 
 Magazine. 27 
 
 ENDURA = No. 242. 
 
 9 h 
 
NOVELS OK AMEKICAN COUNTUY I,IFE. 
 
 doubt. We know they will come out 
 without damage, and bloom on serenely 
 
 for many a diiy Garda Thorne is the 
 
 perpetual bud. On first acquaintance she 
 piques curiosity; even if the matter does 
 not suggest possibilities of development, 
 the reader instinctively looks ahead with 
 expectation. But Garda passes throu the 
 fires of life, her selfishness unimpaired, her 
 capacity for sleep undiminished, and, tho 
 it is not mentioned, probably fulfills the 
 only possibility of young girlhood which 
 we all scorn to contemplate — grows fat. 
 In the delineation of these characters, it is 
 clear that Miss "Woolson understands what 
 she means to do, and the fault Is compara- 
 tive worthlessness of design, not defective 
 execution. In representing the passion- 
 less, shallow, selfish Garda as a child of 
 the South and of Nature, she is perhaps at 
 fault; aside from her habit of dozing in 
 the sun, Garda is a dauter of the long- 
 conventionalized North. The numerous 
 passages descriptive of Florida are the 
 most agreeable and valuable in the book. 
 They are faithful, often vivid, and occa- 
 sionally reproduce the fantastic impression 
 made upon the imagination by the most 
 unreal and elusive of landscapes." [Na- 
 tion. 26 
 
 EASTFOBD [by G: LuNT, Putnam. 
 1855.] New England. 27 
 
 ECHO OF PASSION, An. [by G: P. 
 Lathrop, Houghton, 1SS2.] . . . "There are 
 passages of strong dramatic power, which 
 move one by the very slightness of the 
 means employed; and the conversations, 
 while charged with meaning, are not of 
 the teasing character of those in the for- 
 mer book, because they come from a more 
 real and intense feeling. But the strength 
 of the work is in its masterly developmrnt 
 of the central 'motif ; its unhesitating dis- 
 closure of the subtle self-deceit of Fenn, 
 making the lie tell itself throu the story; 
 its fine rendering of the noble wife and of 
 the half-vrilling temptress, whom we may 
 lionorably love and admire if we do not 
 happen to be in Fenn's situation. The ebb 
 and flow of the passion, its apparent 
 checks yet real accunuilatiou of power. 
 
 are true to nature, and the whole story is 
 remarkable for the skill with which very 
 natural and probable incidents are made 
 to present a spiritual conflict." [Atlantic.28 
 
 ELSIE VENNEE [by O. W. Holmes, 
 Boston: 1861.] ...."There is no need of 
 our analyzing "Elsie Venner," for all our 
 readers know it as well as we do. But we 
 cannot help saying that Dr. Holmes has 
 struck a new vein of New England ro- 
 mance, and the character of the heroine 
 has in it an element of mystery; yet the 
 materials are gathered from every-day 
 New England life, and that weird bor- 
 der-land between science and speculation 
 where psychology and physiology exer- 
 cise mixed jurisdiction, and which rims 
 New England as it does all other lands. 
 The character of Elsie is exceptional, but 
 not purely ideal. In Dr. Kittredge and 
 his "hired man," and in the principal of 
 the "Apollinean InstiLoot,"_ Dr. Holmes 
 has shown his ability to draw those typical 
 characters which represent the higher 
 and lower grades of average human nature ; 
 and in calling his work a romance he 
 quietly justifies himself for mingling other 
 elements in the composition of Elsie and 
 her cousin. Apart from the merit of the 
 book as .1 story, it is full of wit, and of 
 sound thot sometimes hiding behind a 
 mask of humor. Admirably conceived are 
 the two clergymen, gradually changing 
 sides almost without knowing it, and hav- 
 ing that persuasion of consistency which 
 men feel, because they must always bring 
 their creed into some sort of agreement 
 with their dispositions." [Atlantic. 29 
 
 END OF THE WORLD, The [by E : 
 Eggleston, N. Y., Jndd, 1872.] "It is 
 a pleasure to turn to so simple-mind- 
 ed and innocent a story as Mr. Eggleston's 
 "End of the WorkI," which is announced 
 on the title-page to be a love story, but 
 which is much more and much better in 
 its way than that. There are the young 
 man and the young woman who are per- 
 secuted and separated by heartless par- 
 ents; they also add to their sufferings by 
 misunderstanding one another; there Is 
 the fever, which is epidemic with heroes; 
 
 10 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN COUNTRY LIFE. 
 
 ENGLISH ORPHANS (Tlie). [by 
 M.. J.. (Hawes) Holmes: Appleton, 
 1855.] "A certain English gentleman is 
 the happy father ol three dauters, two of 
 whom emigrate to America before the 
 opening of the tale, leaving him with the 
 third. The young lady, poor thing, takes 
 it into her head to marry her music- 
 teacher; whSreat papa discards her and 
 the consef;ucnt babies. Hard times come 
 upon the young couple, and thfiy too ar 
 compelled to emigrate. Arrived in this 
 new world, after a time, death enters 
 thfiir circle. First the father dies, then 
 the mother, and a brave little boy, named 
 Frank ; while Mary, Ella, and Alice re- 
 main, the latter a mere infant. A certain 
 Mrs. Campbell, who in the end turns out 
 to be her ilnt, adopts Ella, a pretty dol 
 and as selfish as she is pretty ; but Mary, 
 who isn't a bit interesting, and little Alice 
 go to the Poor-house! — This American 
 
 Poor-house and its inmates ar admirably 
 described. ThCre ar the keeper, whose 
 wife is always sic ; Miss Grundy, a sort of 
 general factotum who keeps the paupers 
 in order; Mrs. Sal Furbish, a crazed 
 gentlewoman and wido, whose ruling 
 passion is correct grammar; and Uncle 
 Peter, a simple-minded old fello, who 
 plays doleful tunes on a bad violin. 
 Thfire ar other personages and other inji- 
 dents; but these make the cream of the 
 work. Of course Mary doesn't remain in 
 the Poor-house all her days. She makes 
 friends by the score ; has the benefit of a 
 good education ; becomes the mistress of 
 a, village-school, and finally marries a Mr. 
 George Morclaud, who came over in the 
 ship with her— a merry-hSarted chap, who 
 teased her as a boy, and loved her as a 
 man. Not much of a plot, perhaps ; but 
 thfire is much merit in the handling of it." 
 [Albion. 30 h 
 
 10 u 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN COUNTRY LIFE. 
 
 FAITH GARTNEY'S GIRLHOOD [by 
 Adeline Dutton (Tkain) Whitney: 
 London, Low, 1866.] "is a story wliich 
 every girl wil be the better for reading. 
 Free from tlie sicly sentimentalism and 
 dreary dulness wbicli characterises so 
 many moral stories, it teaches an admir- 
 able lesson without becoming distasteful 
 or tedious. Much of the same humor is 
 visible in it which enlivened "The Gay- 
 worthys" [No. 258], and the same quic- 
 ness of observation which enabled its 
 author to draw such pleasant pictures of 
 the quiet life of New England. Faith 
 Gartncy is the dauter of a man of busi- 
 ness who suffers losses, and the story of 
 her girlhood tels how her character is 
 refined and tempered by adversity. At 
 first, her life moves rather monotonously, 
 and she finds herself wishing "that some- 
 thing would hapxien" to giv free scope to 
 her energy ; but time brings with it sufll- 
 fient occasions for her to exert herself. 
 She is able to assist and nurse her father 
 during the troubles which come upon him 
 and the ilness to which thfiy giv rise, and 
 she finds in a number of other cases of 
 affliction and suffering fresh opportunities 
 for doing good. Life, which at first ap- 
 pears ijurposless, gradually reveals its 
 true meaning to her as she groes older, 
 and, as the fanijies of her childhood's days 
 giv playe to the realities which come with 
 the years in which she groes to woman- 
 .hood, she recognises the true priveleges 
 and duties by which her position in soci- 
 ety is attended." [ London Review. 30 m 
 
 FAMOUS VICTORY = No. 245. 
 
 10 q 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN COUNTEY LIFE. 
 
 FAR IN THE FOREST [Penn] = 
 No. 690. 
 
 FAR-AWAY MELODY (A). [by 
 M .. Elinor Wilkins : Edinburgh, Doug- 
 las, 1890.] "Mr. Douglas has done wel 
 to republish these excellent little stories. 
 The stories wer written, to quote the au- 
 thor's words, "about the village people of 
 New England." Thfiy ar studies of the 
 descendants of the Massachusetts Bay 
 colonists, in whom can stil be seen traces 
 of those features of wil and conscience, so 
 strong as to be almost exaggerations and 
 deformities, which chjiracterized thSr an- 
 cestors. The author has a keen sense of 
 heroism and all which is heroic, and she 
 presents it to us in various pleasing 
 shapes. ^ Fidelity to conscience character- 
 izes all the heroes and heroins of her 
 stories, however poor or ignorant or stu- 
 pid thSy may be. If a complaint must be 
 made it is that we ar not told cnuf about 
 the people who ar introduced. ThSre is 
 no elaboration; no attempt to trage the 
 groth of character or to exhibit the vari- 
 ety of its manifestations. Each story is 
 just an incident. The vail is lifted for the 
 moment from some commonplace life to 
 reveal the divinity which dwels therein, 
 and then immediately it is drawn down 
 again. We do not ask diir author to giv 
 us more elaborate stories. Probably she 
 knoes her powers best ; and many writers 
 would find it easier to compose elaborate 
 stories than to exercise the severe self- 
 repression which is necessary to keep the 
 sketches within these narro bounds. 
 Thfire ar 14 stories in each volume, and it 
 would beadifflculttask to determin which 
 is the best. None certainly is more beau- 
 tiful than that of Lois in ^' Bobins and 
 
 Hammers,'" and none more pathetic than 
 the little tragedy of "An Honest Soul." 
 Thfire is flue humor in "An Object oj 
 Love" and in ''An Unwilling Guest." 
 Persons of philanthropic' tendengies who 
 busy themselvs with trying to do good to 
 people against thSir wil might with advan- 
 tage take t5 heart the lesson taut in the 
 last-named story, and in the really touch- 
 ing Ingident recorded in ''A Mistaken 
 Charity." However purchasers may wel 
 be left to themselvs ; thfiy ar not likely to 
 leave any part of the books unread. 
 Grfiat literary power may be discerned 
 throu(5ut; indeed only a true artist in 
 letters could hav presented such subjects 
 as these eifectually." [Academy.] — "The 
 poetry of homely things receives good 
 illustration here. The breath of country 
 life comes refreshingly from its pages ; 
 lilacs, "apple-blos," "cherry-blos," balsam 
 and phlox breathe thfiir j^erf ume for us ; 
 green country lanes invite us to a ramble, 
 and many a gray, unpainted cottage opens 
 hospitable doors. The people ar, for the 
 most part, lanky, angular, middle-aged, 
 innogent and narro-minded ; the women 
 predominate, and thiSy wCar il-fitting, old- 
 fashioned calico and muslin gowns and 
 rule thfiir lives with almost morbid con- 
 scientiousness. The men ar ruf and ex- 
 acting and extremely "sot" in tbCir ways ; 
 but in men and women alike unsuspected 
 delicagy of sentiment springs up throu the 
 unpromising exterior, as the blue bel 
 peers out throu the creAi(;es of New- 
 Hampshire granit. The sketches sbo the 
 unliending pride, the strength of purpos, 
 and the hatred of hypocrisy which mark 
 the true rural New Englander." [Ep- 
 och. ] See, also. No. 55. 30 w 
 
 30 V 
 
NOVELS OK AMERICAN COUNTRY LIFE. 
 
 and filially, of course, they are married. 
 Tills is all told pleasantly eiiuf, and in a 
 way which every one will be glad to see 
 in a story which does not pretend to any 
 deep searching of the human heart, but 
 which will, we have no doubt, be very 
 popular among people who do not read 
 most of the best and h multitude of the 
 worst novels every year. But better than 
 that, to our thinldng, is the greater novel- 
 ty of the scene to which the author intro- 
 duces us, and the amusing people — Second 
 Advcntists, Western Methodist exhort- 
 ers, confidenee-men, and so forth — whom 
 he has sketched in a very lifelike way. 
 The plot of the story is certainly liackney- 
 ed, but there is considerable freshness in 
 the telling of it, and, above all, the author 
 deserves praise for the good-nature and 
 cheerfulness, and the lack of false senti- 
 ment, which together make the story bet- 
 ter than would its aterary merits alone.' 
 [Nation. 30 
 
 FARNELL'S FOLLY [by J : T. Trow- 
 BKIDGE, Lee iC- Shepard, 18S5.] "Tlie 
 facility with which Mr. Trowbridge 
 always writes is as apparent as ever in 
 his latest novel. The 400 and more 
 pages which ai-e required to tell the story 
 of 'Farnell's Folly' were, we may be sure, 
 not written painfully, nor yet carelessly; 
 but there is a rapidity about the style that 
 makes tlio movement of the story seem 
 tedious by contrast. As now and then 
 happens with facile writers, the points are 
 often so much insisted on that the charac- 
 ters, while not seemingly exaggerated, 
 still fail to seem natural. Then, a reader 
 objects even to the apparent assumption 
 that he has no discernment whatever. 
 The story is essentially American in its 
 qualities. Tlie people of Waybrook, their 
 environment and traditions, are all in 
 keeping with a village of Western New 
 York. Ward Farnell, whose magnificent 
 house w.as to have been his pride and be- 
 came his folly, is a type of the successful 
 American, led on to financial ruin by love 
 of display ; and sumo of the minor char- 
 acters are exec^llent from the way in 
 which the limitations of their birth and 
 
 nurture are portrayed, while their real 
 worth and honesty are not sunk out of' 
 sight. Tho the story is American, it is 
 not new; both the incidents and the 
 characters have an exasperating way of 
 seeming to have been already encount- 
 ered somewhere. This is ordina- 
 rily a mark of commouplaceness : yet it 
 may not be disagreeable to many who 
 have grown tired of the strained eflbrt for 
 novelty in much of the current fiction— the 
 painful search for queer t}pes and unused 
 material — to read a novel in which imagi- 
 nations are not asked to leave the earth, 
 nor even to dwell in strange places." [Na- 
 tion. 31 
 
 FIRST LOVE IS HEST [by "Gail 
 Hamilton," Estes & Lauriat, 1877.] 
 "The thesis of the title is established by 
 the record of the life of a young girl who, 
 after being disappointed by finding one be- 
 trothed lover worthless, marries, u mueli 
 better man, and in time learns to love him. 
 The story is told with considerable skill 
 and, of course, with abundant humor. It 
 is surprising to see how a writer 
 whose shrewishness — if we may be allow- 
 ed the term — has become notorious, should 
 be able to write a story so full of good- 
 humored satire and real sentiment. It is, 
 of course, not a great novel, but it is 
 bright and readable." [Nation. .33 
 
 FIVE HUNDRED DOLLAltS [by H. 
 W. Chaplin, Little ct Brown, 18SS.] 
 "The time is not lost which is spent in 
 making the acquaintance of the characters 
 in these 'Stories of New Unglantl Life,' 
 They may be plain people, without ro- 
 mance or legends of any sort, without any 
 tendency towards introspoclioii or fine 
 discrimination in the matter of motives or 
 spirituality ; but they have a firm hold on 
 the essentially worthy things in life and 
 character. It is a hold which they main- 
 tain by faith, and which serves them throu 
 every-day trials and keeps them up to a 
 high level of truth and right. The stories 
 are excellent as stories; they are fine in 
 the simplicity and quietness of their tone. 
 Their interest is unstrained and natural as 
 can be, yet it is always sufficient. They 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAJSt COUNTRY LIFE. 
 
 FAEMINGDALB. [by "Caroline 
 Thomas," i. e., Julia Caroline (Rip- 
 ley) Dorr: Appleton, 185i.] "If this 
 be a first book, it is a most promising one. 
 We tool< it up listlessly, a little alarmed 
 at its bulk; but we had hardly read a 
 page, before we felt assured that it was 
 something beyond the common run. Be- 
 ginning, middle, and end, it is wel- 
 sustained.— The tale is a simple one; 
 only the life-history of a couple of or- 
 phans, a uarrativ of trials and final 
 triumphs. But it is powerfully and beau- 
 tifully told, now rousing you to a bitter 
 but just indignation, and now waking the 
 tears and smiles of pathos and mirth. As 
 a picture of life and manners "Down 
 East," it seems to us to be life itself. 
 Towns like "Farmingdale" ar, we believe, 
 scattered all over New-England; and 
 men and women like uncle and ant Gra^ 
 ham, (how cordial diir detestation of the 
 latter) ar not rare. Cruel step-fathers, 
 hard-hearted ants, and the gardians of 
 the children of the dead generally, should 
 read "Farmingdale" and profit by it ; it 
 holds the mirror up to Nature fearfully. 
 And the young folk should read it also, 
 espegially the orphans; for it shos how 
 (rod raises friends for the helpless and 
 unprotected, and how much even the 
 weakest can accomplish, when th6y work 
 with earnest and willing hearts." [ Al- 
 bion. 30 w 
 
 11 X 
 
NOVELS 0¥ AMElUCiVJSl COUNTliY LIlfK. 
 
 FLUSH TIMES OF ALABAMA AND 
 MISSlSSIPri. [by Jo. G. Baldwin: 
 Applelon, 1S53.] "In the department of 
 humor we think it can not be questioned 
 that Southern writers hav excelled. The 
 Georgia Scenes [No. 37 d] — Major Jones' 
 Courtship by Thompson, and Simon Suggs 
 by Hooper, constitute an aggregate of 
 fun the like of which it would be difficult 
 to find in 6ixx literature, and here we hav 
 a new humorist, who, in 6ar judgment, 
 surpasses them all. The drolery of the 
 writer is irresistible, but apart from this 
 thfire ar grafcs of style which belong 
 peculiarly t5 him, and ar always appear- 
 ing in the most delightful manner." 
 [Southern Literary Messenger. 33 k 
 
 lit 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN COUNTllY LIFE. 
 
 are subdued without being dull ; they are 
 telling and sincere." [Nation. 33 
 
 FOE IN THE HOUSEHOLD, The [by 
 Caroline Chesbbro; Boston; 1871.] 
 "To those who read Miss Chesebro's 
 beautiful story as It appeared from month 
 to month in these [Atlantic's] pages, we 
 need not say much in its praise; for 
 its charm must have been felt already. 
 To one thinking, it deserves to rank with 
 the very best of American fictions, and is 
 surpassed only by Hawthorne's romances 
 and Mrs. Stowe's greatest work. It has a 
 certain advantage over other stories in the 
 freshness of the life and character with 
 which it is employed ; but it required all 
 the more skill to place us in intelligent 
 sympathy with the people of the quaint 
 sect from whom most of its persons are 
 drawn. It is so very quietly and decently 
 wrot, that perhaps the veteran novel-read- 
 er, in whom the chords of feeling have 
 been rasped and twanged like fiddle-strings 
 by the hysterical performance of some 
 of our authoresses, may not be at once 
 moved by it; but we believe that those 
 who feel realities will be deeply touched. 
 Delia Holcombe, in her lifelong expiation 
 of her girlish error, is a creation as truth- 
 ful as she is original ; and in her sufferings 
 throu her own regrets, the doubts of her 
 unacknowledged dauter, the persecutions 
 of Father Frost, the unsuspicious tender- 
 ness of her second husband, all the high 
 ends of tragedy are attained ; and the trag- 
 edy is the more powerful since in time it 
 has become a duty rather to hide than to 
 confess her deceit. No book of our time 
 has combined so high qualities of art and 
 morals with greater success than "The 
 Foe in the Household," for which, in the 
 interest of pure taste and sentiment, we 
 could not desire too wide a cuiTency." 34 
 FOR THE MAJOR [by C. F. WOOLSON, 
 
 Earper, 188S.] "We do, however, feel 
 
 very well acquainted with Mrs. Carroll 
 and the Major, who are the chief person- 
 ages of the book, living iu a mountain 
 village, presumably in North or South 
 CaroHna. Mrs. Carrol! is a woman well 
 on in years, who masquerades as a young 
 
 and childlike wife. . .It is not very difllcult 
 for his wife to support the character, 
 which she does with great adroitness. The 
 reader might imagine that her disguise 
 was to be stripped from her finally, and 
 that she was to be turned out of the story 
 in her true character, whereas all the dis- 
 illusionizing is done deliberately by her- 
 self, and it is seen that the one cause lor 
 the deception is its justification ; for love 
 was at the bottom of it : the love first of a 
 woman grateful to the man who came for- 
 ward to the relief of her and her child, 
 and then the same love and gratitude tak- 
 ing the form of devotion to the failing hus- 
 band. The deception, in which the dauter 
 joins, is all for the Major, and when the 
 Major dies the mask falls." [Atlantic] 
 The charm of the story,— the quiet, placid, 
 refined village life, is hardly indicated in the 
 foregoing exti'act. 35 
 
 FROM FOURTEEN TO FOURSCORE 
 [by Mks. Susan W. Jewbtt, Hurd & 
 Houghton, 1871.] — In the "introduction" 
 to this interesting story, the author in- 
 forms us that she wrote it "to please her- 
 self," — an assertion well sustained throu- 
 <5iit the book, in the character which she 
 has chosen to personate. It might easily 
 pass for the transcript of an old 'ady's 
 journal and reminiscences, written "with 
 no view to publication," but to gratify a 
 favorite grandchild. We do not mean to 
 imply that it is not also likely to please 
 others, but simply that it is not written 
 in the interest of any theory, or party, or 
 sect — that it is not didactic — that it cannot 
 properly be classed among the "religious" 
 novels, tho there is a good deal of r'iligion 
 In it — that it can hardly be called even a 
 "love story," if that means following the 
 checkered fortunes of two persons throu 
 many fears and joys, doubts and hopes, to 
 the inevitable conclusion. It is rather a 
 collection of several love-passages, with 
 quite the usual amount of cross-purposes, 
 united, however, by the author's personal- 
 ity, to whose own story the main interest 
 of course belongs. It belongs rather to the 
 "quiet" class of novels than the exciting, 
 yet it never degenerates into dulness. The 
 
 12 
 
NOVISLS OF AAIHUICAN OOUNTUV LIFE. 
 
 GAYWORTHYS (The). [by Ade- 
 line DUTTON (Train) Wiutnicy: I'.os- 
 lou, Loring, 1865.] "Storii'S of Ni'W- 
 EnglaiKl life hav " singular uharm about 
 them, which every reader must feel, but 
 which it is not easy to analyze. In thCir 
 deseriptioiis of the scenery on which thfiir 
 characters ar accustomej to gaze, and of 
 the old-fashioned homesteads belonging to 
 tliiSir farmers, we seem to recognize some- 
 thing of the sense of quiet enjoyment 
 which steals over the mind when the eye 
 takes in the tranquil beauty of an English 
 landscape, on a stil Sunday afternoon in 
 Autumn. All which we see appears to 
 speak of security and content; all nature 
 seems to rest, and something in the sun- 
 light, and the balmy air, and the seldom- 
 broken silenfe touches the nobler feelings 
 of the heart with its mute appeal. Throu- 
 oiit 'The Gayworthys,' we ar conscious of 
 this charm. The story of the chequered 
 lives of a few unimportant and undistin- 
 guished New-Englanders is so admirably 
 told, and thSir characters ar depicted with 
 so much vigor, color, and humor, that the 
 
 book is one which it is a real pleasure to 
 read, and having read, to remember. It 
 is interesting, if not exciting, as u. story, 
 and as a moral lesson it is admirable. Its 
 effect can not be other than beneficial, and 
 its teaching is as superior to that of most 
 sermons as its technical merit is to that 
 of the grfiat majority of novels. Stories 
 with u, moral ar apt to be dul ; but this is 
 as bright and sparkling as if it made no 
 pretensions to be improving . . . Very 
 pleasant indeed ar the pictures of country 
 life contained in the story, and of the 
 quiet New-England home in which the 
 Gayworthys dwel. Very sweet and 
 touching, too, ar „the family portraits, 
 from that of the father, old Dr. Gay- 
 worthy, the kind-hearted, simple-minded 
 patriarch, to those of Hulda and Ebene- 
 zer, the servants of the establishment. 
 The romance in the lives of two of the 
 dauters, Rebecca and Joanna, is portrayed 
 with true feeling and in very beautiful 
 language." [ London Review.] See, also, 
 No. 258. 36 p 
 
 13 s 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN COUNTRY LIFE. 
 
 mere scenery of the narrative is of tlie 
 slightest kinj, and somewhat too vague, 
 perhaps; but this is far from being the 
 case with the sl<etches of character, which 
 really form the true and permanent value 
 of the book, and are positive additions to 
 our spiritual portrait-gallery. Prominent 
 among these are "Aunt Rebecca," and 
 "Aunt Content"— the two most interesting 
 persons in the book, unless the narrator 
 herself be an exception. Both of these 
 have had their lifelong trials, arising in 
 each instance from disappointed love. 
 But in the one case the lover's death 
 brot the disappointment, and in the other 
 his mariage. There is also a similarity in 
 the two cases, in that both have sisters 
 for rivals ; but with the difference that the 
 sister of Aunt Eebecca is a successful 
 rival, and the sister of Aunt Content a dis- 
 appointed one. Yet the former could be 
 called successful only in a very literal and 
 worldly sense. She is aware that her 
 husband has given her but "a divided 
 heart," the unmarried sister being still the 
 most deeply loved. And in her treatment 
 of this very difficult relation, the author 
 seems to us to have shown rare delicacy 
 and truth of sentiment." [Nation. 36 
 
 GEMINI, [ Boberis, ISIS.] "...-An 
 extremely simple and sorrowful little 
 story, [Scene in New Hampshire] evi- 
 dently by a new author, but bearing a 
 stamp of quiet veracity which is allied 
 more nearly than we sometimes think to 
 the highest art. It is the humblest of 
 tragedies, and has nothing to do with 
 "terror," and little with passion; but it 
 does purify the heart by "pity," as we 
 read. The style reveals, on every page, 
 that deep and ample but hardly conscious 
 culture, still oftenest attained in solitary 
 places by those who go much to books for 
 their own sake only, and not because the 
 demands of conversation or the customs of 
 a social clique require it." [Atlantic] "It 
 is a singularly touching and realistic pic- 
 ture of village life. Along with the bare, 
 barren, narrow, and forbidding side of 
 New England life and character, it depicts 
 
 the homely domestic virtues, the high 
 sense of duty, the loyalty to conviction, 
 the quiet persistence, the tireless struggle 
 against opposing circumstance, which have 
 given New England its moral grandeur and 
 intellectual prseeminence." [Appleton's. 37 
 GIRL GRADUATE, (A) [by C. I'. 
 WOOLLEY, Boston, 1889.] "Is a product of 
 New England culture unimpaired. Every- 
 thing Is decorous and honest and uplifting, 
 and there is either no grammar at all, or a 
 great deal of it, very inflexible and stately. 
 The girl graduate has the grammar, while 
 her family and friends have it not; and one 
 of the problems which, at IS, confront her 
 is how she may gain an entrance into 
 those charming circles where it is believed 
 to be pretty evenly distributed. Maggie 
 Dean is the dauter of an illiterate machin- 
 ist, and would be described by an English- 
 man as "a young person educated above 
 her station." To Maggie's father, as to 
 thousands of American fathers of the same 
 class, the English phrase is meaningless. 
 They are accustomed to knowing that their 
 women are finer than they, and in their 
 hearts, are proudest when "one of the 
 girls" is like unto the owl for wisdom and 
 the bird of paradise for plumage. To those 
 fond and guileless men she cannot have 
 been educated above her station, for does 
 not her education makes her equal with 
 the best? It is left to the girl herself to 
 find out that it does not, and then comes 
 the bitter hour. In the story of the 'Bread- 
 winners', the worst consequences to a girl's 
 nature of recognition of this dissappoint- 
 ing truth are described with a stern dis- 
 regard of popular sentiment. It would be 
 pleasant to be able to believe that the 
 Maggie of that famous story is exceptional 
 and Mrs. WooUey's Maggie typical ; but we 
 fear that the anonymous author general- 
 ized from the wider experience, and that 
 his views about the effect of high-school 
 education upon the multitude were less 
 rosy. Still, it is cheerful to have Maggie 
 Dean purged of vulgar ambitious by the 
 fire of social snubbing, and developing a 
 refinement which does not always accora- 
 
 U 
 
NOVELS OF AMEUICAN t'KUNTRY LIFH. 
 
 GEORGIA SCENES [by A: Baldwin 
 LONGSTREET (1790-1S70) : Augusta, 
 Georgia, 1836.] "is most heartily wel- 
 come. The author, wlioever he is, is a 
 clever lello, imbued with a spirit of the 
 truest humor, and endowed, moreover, 
 with au exquisitly discriminativ and pen- 
 etrating understanding of character in 
 general, and of Southern character in 
 particular . . . Seldom hav we lafed as im- 
 moderately over any book as over this . . . 
 The second Article is "The Dance, a Per- 
 sonal Adventure of the Author" in which 
 the oddities of a bacwoods reel ar depicted 
 with inimitable for^e, fidelity and pictur- 
 esque effect. "The Horse-swap" is a vivid 
 narration of an encounter between the 
 wits of two Georgian jockies. This is 
 excellent in every respect — but espesially 
 in its delineations of Southern bravado, 
 and the keen sense of the ludicrous evinced 
 in the portraiture of the steeds." [South- 
 ern Literary Messenger. 37 tl 
 
 14 h 
 
NOVELS OF AMElilCAN COUNTRY LIFE. 
 
 pany the knowledge gained from books." 
 [Nation. 38 
 
 GOOD INVESTMENT, (A) [by W : J. 
 Flagg, Harper, 1S72.] "Is an account 
 of life in Southern Ohio, apropos of the 
 rise in the world of a bright young boy. 
 The story is unaffectedly written, the ro- 
 mance is pleasant, if not madly exciting, 
 no more are the ordinary flirtations of 
 other people, and we are glad to recom- 
 mend the book as a good step in the right 
 direction on the part of an American nov- 
 el-writer. There is a good deal of truth of 
 local coloring in the figure of the old man 
 whose lands were the subject of the invest- 
 ment. Not so good is the love-story, with 
 its haps and changes; and perhaps the 
 novel tries to contain too much, but, as 
 we say, it may be awarded a word of 
 praise." [Nation. 39 
 
 GRAYSONS,(The) [by E : Eggleston, 
 Century Co., 1888.] "Mr. Eggleston's 
 pictures of western lite are always worth 
 i-eading. In 'The Graysons' he has intro- 
 duced as one of his characters Abraham 
 Lincoln — the main incident of the story 
 being the acquittal of the hero of a charge 
 of murder throu Lincoln's dramatic ex- 
 posure, on the trial, of the perjury of the 
 principal witness for the prosecution. The 
 plot of the story is simple enuf, and is 
 made the means of introducing us to Illi- 
 nois life of a generation ago or more. 
 The dialect is carefully given, and most of 
 the characters drawn with distinct individ- 
 uality and interest. The Graysons them- 
 selves, Tom, Barbara, and the old mother, 
 are very well portrayed, and the attempts 
 to lynch Tom furnish lively reading. Mr. 
 Eggleston would probably disclaim all in- 
 tention to idealize, nevertheless he con- 
 trives to infuse a dash of romance into 
 early Western life which possibly is not 
 tme to nature, yet is not on that account 
 necessarily reprehensible." [Nation. 40 
 
 GREAT DOCTOR, (The) [ by Alice 
 Oaky] "is one of the best stories of life 
 in the middle West ever written." 
 [Howells. 41 
 
 GBEAT MATCH, (The) [by M.. V. 
 
 (Wells) Smith, Boberts, 1877.] "This 
 book is full of spring and summer coloring, 
 apt to the approaching season on theeve of 
 which it appears.and it drops from the press 
 with an inspiring click as of the first base- 
 ball which flies from the bat, announcing 
 the end of winter. It is in fine, a bright, 
 attractive story of base-ball matches, and 
 matches of a more gentle sort, agreeably 
 peppered with villainy in small quantities, 
 so as to sustain the relish. But there is so 
 much clever observation of character, such 
 charming description of nature, such ex- 
 cellent humor higlitened by refinement, 
 that the book— dealing with a popular 
 American theme hitherto untouched— is a 
 notable triumph of current story-writing." 
 [Atlantic. 43 
 
 GUAKDIAN ANGEL, (The) [by O. 
 W. Holmes, Fields, 1867.] 43 
 
 HANNAH 'I'HURSTON [by Bayard 
 Taylor, Putnam, 1864.] "....a very 
 remarkable book, a jeally original story 
 admirably told, crowded with lifelike char- 
 acter, full of delicate and subtle sympathy, 
 with ideas the most opposite to the au- 
 thor's, and lighted throuout with that play- 
 ful humor which suggests always wisdom, 
 
 rather than mere fun Yet there are 
 
 a dozen characters interwoven into the 
 plot of this book, everyone of whom is to 
 the reader as a remembered friend, a living 
 and moving figure, whom he can recognize 
 as if he were in the flesh, whose action he 
 can study, and in whom the slightest inco- 
 herence would startle him as incoherences 
 in actual life might do Hannah Thurs- 
 ton takes as her part the advocacy of 
 woman's rights, becomes a lecturer so 
 like, and yet so different from, the Dinah 
 of "Adam Bede," and at 30 renounces 
 mariage in favor of the mission she fan- 
 cies herself called to perform. She is at 
 the liight of her village influence, recog- 
 nized by all as a woman whom it is possi- 
 ble for men to love, yet witli something in 
 her beyond womanhood, when she meets 
 Maxwell Woodbury, Mr. Taylor's type of 
 a man, who may be shortly described as a 
 good "Rochester," and finds her theories 
 
 Ifi 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN COUNTRY LIFE. 
 
 imperfect. The plot consists in the giad- 
 ual victory of earthly love over Hannah's 
 dreamy imagination, the slow recognition, 
 worked out with exquisite art, of the great 
 truth that woman desires a place in the 
 world which is not that of man's equal 
 ally." [Spectator. 44 
 
 HAEMONIA [bvM.. A.Olnby, Mac- 
 millan, 1888.] "The most salient feature 
 of 'Harmonia' is its length, but, after en- 
 during for a season, one learns to pity, and 
 in a mild degree embrace, even as a so- 
 journer in some dull village passes from 
 apathy to observation, and thence to inter- 
 est in the prosy annals of the place. 'Har- 
 monia' disarms criticism by styling itself 
 a chronicle; wisely, for there is no plot, no 
 construction, no climax, but day upon day 
 of little doings. The persons are chiefly 
 English settlers of to-day in a wholly unre- 
 constructed Southern State [Virginia] 
 who are trying to build a town, farm the 
 land, and make their fortunes. Thejuxta- 
 nosition of English and the native blacks 
 makes a contrast in races effective and new. 
 The few white Americans who appear are 
 mainly "poor trash," or swindling land- 
 agents, or shirking clergymen. The ex- 
 ceptions are one or two American women 
 who, spite of the inevitable English ap- 
 pointments for American women of hob- 
 bies and divorces, are meant to be, and are, 
 attractive characters. In other words, it 
 is an English view of life on American 
 soil; the livers being English, under the 
 not unpicturesq phase of a new settlement 
 in a region comparatively old. It is ob- 
 servable that this gives the English a cap- 
 ital chance to have the best of it, and we 
 must own to sharing the wicked American 
 land-agent's regret that the foreign settlers 
 should buy the land, obtain influence, and 
 yet despise the privileges of citizenship. 
 The wicked land-agent's revenge even 
 Americans must deplore, but it is well to 
 allude to it, that those intending to read 
 the book may perceive that it is not wholly 
 without the scent of battle. There is bur- 
 glary, there is kidnapping, there are 
 snakes, but not to any uncomfortable ex- 
 
 tent. Naturally arise the discussions of a 
 thousand topics— personal, social, and po- 
 litical — which are treated with honesty 
 and spirit. The negro portraits are es- 
 pecially lifelike, tho not from most agree- 
 able originals. The English colony, as 
 hinted, absorbs most of the merit and the 
 spoils. Among its numbers are some very 
 real persons, and the chronicle of their 
 very real doings, told with humor and zest, 
 will have an attraction for those who like 
 pictures of life and manners rather than 
 form and dramatic quality — pictures, let it 
 be added, nearly coequal in extent with 
 the original occurrences." [Nation. 45 
 HIGH-LIGHTS [by C. (Whitney) 
 Field, Hougliton, 1886.] "It is rather a 
 pretty idyl, narracing how a neat-handed 
 I'hyllis, of rare domestic and intellectual 
 accomplishments, ensnared the heart of a 
 wandering knight of the pen and brush. 
 It is very nice to know that intellectual 
 giants on a holiday become as babes. The 
 melancholy 'Jaques' doing 'Silvius' unbe- 
 known would not offer a more refreshing 
 spectacle. The sophisticated intelligence 
 has some diflieulty in accepting the proba- 
 bility of such transformation, but to the 
 author of 'High-lights' it is evidently as 
 natural, easy, and positive a process as 
 breathing." [Nation. 4G 
 
 HILLSBOKO' FARMS [by S. D. Cobb, 
 1868.] 47 
 
 HIS GRANDMOTHERS [by H.. (S.) 
 Campbell, Putnams, 1877.] "In this 
 book (which surely has not a title suggestive 
 of amorous frenzy) we find the grandson's 
 wife's friend becoming engaged to the hus- 
 band's partner. While this concession is 
 made to the tastes of the inveterate reader 
 of novels, there is also a good deal that is 
 really entertaining in the poor wife's story 
 of the two grandmothers-in-law who plant- 
 ed themselves in her home. One was an 
 amiable, silly creature, while the other 
 was a domestic tyrant of the most virulent 
 kind. She bullied her granddauter and 
 petted her easily-beguiled grandson; she 
 hot a pig and cow, and then put the fami- 
 ly, excepting the grandson, on short allow- 
 
 16 
 
N<,)N'ELS or A.^IKKICAN COUNTliY Lll'li. 
 
 HILLS OF THE SHATEMUC [by SU- 
 SAN Warner (1S19-85) : Futnam, 1856.] 
 "has many of the characteristics of 'Quee- 
 chy,' [No. 117 s] but fewer of the faults. 
 Like that, it is diffuse, and in parts dul ; 
 but lilie that, also, it betrays marlced orig- 
 inality, vigor of eon5eption, lively dialog, 
 and, occasionally, beautiful description. 
 Nor do we find in this work what was a 
 recommendation to some, but an offense 
 to us, in her former work— a too frequent 
 and even violent introduction of peculiar 
 religious sentiments. The piety of it is 
 just as de9ided, but more lovely; the char- 
 acters hav more breadth and variety, and 
 the incidents, we think, ar managed with 
 grfiater artistic skil," [Putnam's, 46 r 
 
 16 s 
 
NOVKLS OK' AMKRICAN COUN] RV I.IFM. 
 
 ance of skimmed milk, making insufBcient 
 butter from the oream, while she sold two 
 quarts of good milk to a neighbor for her 
 own emolument. In a word, she exhaust- 
 ed nearly all the methods of refined cruelty 
 which have such frequent and crushing 
 eifect in the enforced intimacy of family 
 life. The story ends with the curtness of 
 one of Motlicr Goose'e melodies ; but there 
 is a good deal of humor in this amusing 
 sketch which could find bettor employment 
 in a real story. The writer has the unfort- 
 unate gift of clear-sightedness, and at times 
 she shows considerable cleverness, as in 
 lier description of her own character." 
 [Nation. 48 
 
 HIS LITTLE EOYAL HIGHNKSS 
 [by Ruth Ogdbn, E. P. Diitton & Co., 
 1SS7.] "Is a story of our New Jersey 
 coast In the vicinity of New York. We 
 recommend it as truthful, Vholesome. and 
 entertaining, and helpful in the cultivation 
 not only of good morals, but of literary 
 taste." [Nation. 49 
 
 HIS SECOND CAMPAIGN [ by M. 
 Thompson : Osgood, 18S3.] "Its opening' 
 description of a secluded mountain valley, 
 in Northern Georgia, and its residents 
 and belongings, is a prose idyl of exquisite 
 beauty, rich in the poetry and color of 
 rural life, and framing a figure of perfect 
 maiden loveliness. The story is told with 
 spirit and vivacity, and it is aflluent of 
 striking situations and incidents illustra- 
 tive of contrasted phases of the social life 
 of the South and North." [Harper's. 50 
 
 HONORABLE SURRENDER,(An) [by 
 
 M.. Adams, Scribner, 1SS3.] " 
 
 The heroine is living in the village of 
 Unity, beating the wings of her desires 
 and expectations against the bars of a nar- 
 row and monotonous fate. Until tl>e age 
 of 16 she has taken the ups and downs of 
 life with her father, a rather discreditable 
 and wholly shifty Irishman, till, finding a 
 grown dauter an encumbrance, he has let 
 her take up her abode with her mother's 
 New Sn^land kinsfolk, and here Mr. 
 Kenneth Lawrence finds her. The story 
 offers excellent opportunities, and the sit- 
 
 uations ai'e well chosen. The chief fault 
 of the book lies in the character of Alice, 
 who proves incapable of duty, love, or pas- 
 sion, and has little interest or sympathy 
 with life except for its value and conse- 
 quences to herself." [Lippincott's. 51 
 
 HOOSIER SCHOOLMASTER, (The) 
 [by E: Eggl,:eston , Judd & Co., 1S72.] 
 "The scene of the story is in Hoopolc 
 County, Indiana, a locality which we 
 hope, the traveler would now have some 
 difliculty in finding, and in a neighbor- 
 hood settled, apparently, by poor whites 
 from Va and K'y, sordid Pennsylvania 
 Germans, and a sprinkling of 'cute, dis- 
 honest Yankees. The plot is very simple 
 and of easy prevision from the first, being 
 the struggles of Ralph Hartsook with the 
 young idea in the district school on Flat 
 Creek, where the twig was early bent to 
 thrash the schoolmaster. He boards 
 round among the farmers, starting with 
 "old Jack Means," the school trustee, 
 whose son Bud, the most formidable bully 
 among his pupils, he wins to his own side, 
 and whose dauter, with her mother's con- 
 nivance, falls in love with him and resolves 
 to marry him. But the schoolmaster loves 
 their bound-girl Hannah, and makes en- 
 emies of the mother and dauter ; and they 
 are not slow to aid in the persecution 
 which rises against him, and enils in his 
 arrest for a burglary committed by the 
 gang of the neighborhood, including some 
 of the principal citizens of Flat Creek. Of 
 course it comes out all right, tho the read- 
 er is none the less eager because be fore- 
 sees the fortunate end. The story is very 
 well told in a plain fashion, without finely 
 studied points." [Atlantii^ 52 
 
 HOPE'S HEART-BELLS [by Sara 
 Louisa Obbrholtzer, Lippincott, 18S4.] 
 "in spite of its romantic title, is a very 
 pretty and sensible story of a rural Quaker 
 family, and, besides the pleasant diction 
 of the Friends, preserves their just and 
 kindly spirit and their quiet ways. Now 
 that the Puritan girl has had her turn in 
 literature and almost vanished, no heroine 
 quite so well fulfils the Novelist's ideal of 
 
 17 
 
N()\'1'.I.S OI<" AMICltlCAN COUNTliV Lll'E. 
 
 PIOMESPUN [by "T: Lackland," i. b. 
 G: Canning Hill: N.-Y., Hurd, 1S67.] 
 "is a very pleasant and sketchy book, full 
 of quiet pictui-es from the New-England 
 life of the past generation, redolent with 
 the sights and pleasures and experienfes 
 of the country. The articles on Sunday 
 in the Country, the Town Meeting, the 
 Country Minister, and the District School 
 ar extremely suggestiv." [ Church 
 Monthly. 50 s 
 
 HOMEWARD 150UND [by Ja. Feni- 
 MOEB Cooper (t, 1851 ) : Phil'a, Lea, 
 1838.] "is exclusivly a 'tale of the sea,' 
 of which element the reader never loses 
 sight. ThSre is no naval fight or change 
 of a fight; and, with the exjeption of the 
 romantick (sicl and hily wr6t scenes with 
 the children of the desert, the author has 
 pringipally relied for his efiects on the 
 delineation and contrast of character 
 among his dramatis personam. The uarra- 
 tiv is chiefly carried on by way of dialog ; 
 relieved whfire necessary by description; 
 and by means of those characteristick 
 (sic) and conversational sketches, and the 
 occasional 'stage directions' of the author. 
 
 the reader rapidly becomes as intimate 
 with Eve Effingham, her family, and her 
 lovers ; with Captain Truck, his mate, his 
 steward, aud th§ir subordinates ; with Mr. 
 Monday, an English commercial traveler ; 
 and Mr. Dodge, an American rank-loving 
 and mob-worshipping provin§ial editor, 
 as if he had himself traversed the Atlan- 
 tick (sic) and combated the Arabs in thfiir 
 company. Collectivly these personages 
 form an admirable gallery of portraits, 
 illustrating each his class. The author- 
 artist is, we think, entitled to hi com- 
 mendation, not only for his skil, but for 
 his impartiality. The portraits ar distin- 
 guished not merely as interesting and 
 effectiv specimens of Americans art; but 
 as faithful and spirited rcsemblanjes of 
 thfiir European pnd American arche- 
 types. The most or g nal and effectiv, the 
 most character stick (s c), edifying, aud 
 from its very exgess of excellence, oflen- 
 siv, is that of Steadfast Dodge, Esq. This 
 portrait alone would entitle Mr. Cooper 
 to a place among the first-rate literary 
 portrait-painters of his or of any age." 
 [N.-Y. Mirror, 1838. 466 
 
 17 p 
 
NOVELS OT? AMKKICAN COUNTRY I,IFB. 
 
 an inginue as the Quaker maiden, lor 
 her very limitations are an added charm, 
 making her remain forever in great pnrt 
 an umsophisticated child, seeing with the 
 pure, clear eyes of wonder, i-everence, and 
 faith. Hope herself is a very attractive 
 creation, and we are glad to liave her re- 
 tain the pretty "thee" and "tliy" in her 
 speech to the end of her history." [Lip- 
 pincott's. 53 
 
 HOUSE OF YORKE, (The) [by M.. 
 Agnes Tinckek: Gatholin Publishing 
 Society., 1S72.] ''This rather curious story 
 has in it much good feeling, much good 
 thinking, some pretty poetry in prose, 
 some clever tho sliglit sketching of charac- 
 ter, some very unreal and clumsily con- 
 structed simulacra of living human beings, 
 some humor, much refinement, which 
 seems to have been at one time pained, 
 but wliich attracts. As a novel, the 
 "House of Yorke" is not at all or very 
 little, skilful or interesting, tho there are 
 some good scenes and situations. Notably 
 there is a love scene between Miss Clara 
 and her lover which a very old novel- 
 reader will enjoy, as, indeed, he will enjoy 
 most which that young lady is and does 
 and says, as well as most whicli is said and 
 done and been by her father before her. 
 Those two figures stand quite lifelif e, es- 
 pecially when the young lady's notion of 
 a "Dick" is about, or the hero Carl — ^^a 
 most virginal conception, who being alive 
 would be meritorious of instant death. AH 
 the Yorke family, in fact, are apparently 
 taken from the life, and if they are hardly 
 a well-composed and well-painted group, 
 they make a very good photographic group, 
 well colored. We must praise also for its 
 interest some portions of the story which 
 seem to us very good as transcripts of the 
 th6ts and feelings of a child under certain 
 circumstances. Fresh, sincere, and inter- 
 esting this part of the book seems to us, 
 tho here and there marked by a crudeness 
 and want of reserve which speak of youth 
 in the artist, and of an untrained hand, 
 but which will not prevent her conciliating 
 the good-will of those who make her ac- 
 
 quaintance. There is, however, good 
 reading in this poor novel. One may read 
 it with great pleasuj-e if one is an enthusi- 
 astic Eoman Catholic; or even if one's self 
 is not an enthusiastic Roman Catholic, but 
 likes to observe the "flame of sacred vehe- 
 mence" and little sense in other people ; 
 and one may read it with a pleasant and 
 laudable triumph and indignation, if one 
 is a well-grounded protestant, and either 
 thinks the Pope of Rome a very designing 
 personage or a much misguided old man. 
 Our readers will find, besides these things, 
 some things that are good and pleasant, 
 .and for the sake of these they will readily 
 forgive the writer her violence of anti- 
 Protestantism. As she would perhaps tell 
 us in like case — she may very well be for- 
 given, because she evidently must have 
 personally experienced a very poor sort of 
 Protestantism or she would never have 
 turned Papist. With which piece of 
 abuse in return for all that we have en- 
 dured from her in going throu her book, 
 and with an invocation of the glorious and 
 immortal memory of the last King William 
 but one, the Dutch traitor, namely, who 
 won the battle of the Boj'ne, we take leave 
 of our agreeable author." [Nation. 54 
 HUMBLE ROMANCE, (A) [byM.. E. 
 WiLKiNS, Harper, 1SS7.] "These stories 
 of New ^England country people are writ- 
 ten with a power of characterization that 
 is unusually effective. The author has 
 seized upon a number of well-defined 
 types — the poor girl who has "lived out" 
 uU her life and finally runs away with the 
 peddler; the old woman who pieces quilts 
 for a living, and, fearing she has defrauded 
 her employers, rips them up and does her 
 work all over by mixing the pieces 
 again; the girl who promised her dying 
 lather to pay the mortgage, and does it, go- 
 ing without adornments and losing her be- 
 trothed; two old women taken from their 
 poor dwelling by well-meaning friends to 
 the "Old Ladies' Home," and languishing 
 in homesickness there till they finally de- 
 sert their luxurious quarters by stealth and 
 make their way baclc to their previous 
 
 18 
 
KOVELS Olf AMEKICAN COUNTRY LIFE. 
 
 HUCKLEBERRIES. [by ROSE 
 
 (Teury) Cooke ( t, 1892) : Houghlon. 
 1891.] "Whoever has tasted the delight 
 of gathering and eating huckleberries on 
 some rocky New-England hilsidc, or in 
 sweetferu-scented pasture, wil appreciate 
 the fitness of this title. All lovers of hu- 
 man nature relish the peculiar flavor of 
 the old New-England character-product 
 of stern and rugged natural surroundings, 
 ruled over by a capricious climate and 
 somewhat twisted by the force of spiritual 
 winds, prevalently easterly— and Mrs. 
 (;ooke has portrayed many differing types 
 of this character with all thSir delightful 
 inconsistencies. "GriV and "Odd Miss 
 Todd" illustrate that unexpectedness in 
 human nature which relieves the monot- 
 ony of existence everywhere, and causes 
 the uarro horizon of village life to broaden 
 out inimitably; while certain other stories 
 in the collection sho forth the steadfast 
 courage, the shamefaced tenderness, and 
 the dogged obstinacy {sometimes called 
 "pure cussednoss") which, in combina- 
 tion, produce the full-flavored human 
 fruit of New England soil. Mrs. Cooke 
 herself possesses the gift which she 
 ascribes to some of her characters, of see- 
 ing beauty hi its humblest manifestations, 
 and she also possesses a rarer gift — the 
 power of unsealing the eyes of others to 
 behold this beauty." [Nation. 54 r 
 
 18 m 
 
NOVKI.S or AMERICAN COUNTRY I.IFE. 
 
 iibode ; the little old maid devoted to her 
 cat, and doubting the existence of a bene- 
 ficent Providence when he is lost — these 
 are a few of the themes upon which Miss 
 WilUins employs her talent; and simple as 
 they are, she casts them into forms which 
 impress us by their faithfulness, their care- 
 ful reproduction of rustic traits, and then- 
 recognition of the human attributes of 
 love, devotion, forbearance, patience, and 
 honesty, which underlie the scant, pitiful, 
 narrow lives whose experiences and con- 
 dilions she describes so well. Miss Wil- 
 klns has a realistic touch that is singularly 
 effective, and at the same time her compre- 
 hension of inner motives is inspired by 
 the I'evelations of a refined imagination. 
 The simplicity, purity, and quaintness of 
 her stoi-ies set them apart from the out- 
 pouring of current fiction in a niche of 
 distinction where they have no [?] rivals." 
 [Boston "Literary World." 55 
 
 IN THE CLOUDS [by "C: E. 
 Ceaddock," Boughton, 1887.] "The 
 author's power of realizing the ruf native 
 types with which she deals is known to all 
 readers, as well as that subtlety by which 
 she discerns the core of sweetness and 
 goodness that is in them... To be sure, 
 the heroine, the beautiful, bewildered, 
 faithful, loving, fearless Alethea, with 
 that quaint and fleeting charm which we 
 have learned to know in her and in her 
 sister heroines, goes quietly mad, in the 
 pathetic and attractive guise which insanity 
 so often assumes in fiction. But we do 
 not greatly object to this ; young gii-ls in- 
 volved in such tragical coils do sometimes 
 go mad. A truer character than either of 
 these is the country lawyer Ilarshau, who 
 is ascertained with extraordinary accuracy, 
 and who lives in mind and person before 
 us.... But the various groups in the 
 mountaineers' cabins and moonshiners' 
 caves, in the county court-room, and the 
 "settlement" groceries, as well as in the 
 mirrored vestibules of the Nashville hotels 
 and the marble halls of legislation, are for- 
 cibly and faithfully done." [Howells. 56 
 
 IN THE DISTANCE [by G: P. 
 
 Lathkop, Osgood, 1882.] "It is Monad- 
 noc which is 'In the Distance,' dominating 
 the lives of the personages of the story, 
 tho the author, aware that this is not the 
 effect of mountains upon the immediate 
 dwellers thereby, imports his dramatis 
 personje, the keepers of a summer holiday 
 and the young new clergyman of the vil- 
 lage. This New England story is not 
 uninteresting, and some of the situations 
 are almost thrilling; but there was a sub- 
 tlety in the original conception which only 
 a stronger imaginative power could realize. 
 The hero has a force and a nobility which 
 compel belief in him; but we could wish 
 that he had been left to himself to discover 
 the folly and selfishness of his very self- 
 denial. Proofs of keen and delicate ob- 
 servation ai-e not wanting." [Nation. 57 
 
 IN THE GRAY GOTH ] "Of Miss E.. 
 S. Phelps' short stories we like most "In 
 the Gray Goth," an incident of life among 
 the lumbermen of the Maine woods, very 
 simple, powerful, and affecting, and of an 
 unstrained human quality which the gifted 
 author too seldom consents to give us." 
 [Howells] See "Men, Women and Ghosts." 
 
 IN THE TENNESSEE MOUNTAINS 
 [by "C : E. Craddock," Houghton, 1884.] 
 "A collection of detached stories not un- 
 frequently produces upon the mind the 
 rather unfortunate impression that any 
 one of them is more and better than all 
 taken together as a whole. Not so with 
 Mr. Craddock's. True, he needed to tell 
 but one story to prove his power as a sim- 
 ple narrator, who can catch a single inci- 
 dent, sketch in strong lines the few charac- 
 ters involved, and throw it all in high 
 relief against a broad background with a 
 power of conception and of execution 
 almost simultaneous. But the 8 stories 
 now grouped under the title of 'In the 
 Tennessee Mountains' present in their 
 total effect something much more than 
 mere short stories. We have not only one 
 mountain valley, but h whole country of 
 hills — not a man and a woman here and 
 there, but the people of a whole district — 
 not merely a day of winter or of summerj 
 
 19 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN COUNTRY LIEE. 
 
 but all the year A like felicity has 
 
 fallen to Mr. Craddock. His vivid pic- 
 tures of the rufuess and loneliness of a 
 wild country are not painted for their own 
 sake, but 1>ecause if we know them our 
 hearts will be stirred by the sorrow and 
 the joy of the life that is spent there. It is 
 a hard life : the men are uncouth and stern, 
 at the best; at the worst, wicked as only 
 borderers can be. The women are gaunt 
 and melancholy: "holding out wasted 
 hands to the years as they pass; holding 
 them out always, and always empty." 
 But side by side with them is that strange 
 miracle of young girlhood. We find it 
 again and again as we find the wild rose 
 lending tender beauty to the grim story. 
 It may be rather the result of the group- 
 ing of the stories than of any plan of the 
 writer, but he has enforced anew that say- 
 ing of George Eliot's : "In these delicate 
 vessels is borne onward throu the ages 
 the treasure of human affections." The 
 reader cannot forget them, for they remain 
 in his th6t as a saving grace to those law- 
 less communities. It is hardly needful to 
 add that the style is admirable, with 
 marked characteristics of its own which 
 extend beyond the mere expression, and 
 produce at times an effect of rhythm, not 
 of words, but of thdt — if such a thing 
 is possible. "The 'harnt' that walked 
 Chillowhee" has all the power of a pathet- 
 ic refrain in music." [Nation. 59 
 INSIDE OUR GATE [ by (J. (Chap- 
 lin) Brush, Boberts, 1889.] "A book 
 by the author of 'The Colonel's Opera 
 Cloak' is sure of a public, and those who 
 venture 'Inside Our Gate' will find whole- 
 some cheer. The book is not a story like 
 the former one — in fact, it is not a story at 
 all, but a chronicle of home life, such as 
 must appeal nearly to all who are set in 
 families, and must give to the solitary a 
 sense of domesticity. One would like, 
 provided one had not maltreated an ani- 
 mal, to be shriven at the hands of so gentle 
 and so humorous a priestess as presides 
 over this home altar. The story of her 
 housekeeping, her children, her maid-ser- 
 
 vants and their lovers, her cats and dogs 
 and birds, is full of naturalness and charm. 
 A humorous realism gives the book its 
 leading motive, altho pathos is not want- 
 ing. The chapter describing the scene be- 
 tween the Scotch servant, Tibbie, and her 
 braw wooer, the baker, is as amusing a 
 presentment of Caledoniani.sm as has found 
 its way into print." [Nation. 60 
 
 IS THAT ALL? [by Hakkiet W. 
 Pkeston, Roberts, 1877.] "Is as slight 
 as possible, altho, in a very innocent and 
 gentle way, it approaches the amusing. It 
 reads like the work of an inexporienced 
 hand, of some one who is not overburden- 
 ed with the results of long observation and 
 study, and who yet in time may be able lo 
 fill out substantially the wavering outlines 
 of figures introduced as human beings. 
 The characters are as unsubstantial as p.i- 
 per dolls, they are visible only when one 
 looks directly at them; when they are not 
 just before the reader, there is only a faint 
 line to denote their presence, whereas in 
 some books, one feels conscious of the 
 people he reads about almost as if he were 
 in the same room with tliem. A despair- 
 ing sense of this feebleness of touch would 
 seem to have inspired the author with the 
 appropriate title of the story, which de- 
 scribes the social complications of ■■•, win- 
 ter in an old-fashioned New Elngland 
 village. The plot, altho as transparent as 
 an enigma in a jest-book, manages to be 
 the means of introducing some mild social 
 satire." [Nation. 61 
 
 JOHN BRENT [by Theodore Win- 
 THROP, Ticknor, 1864.] "The scene is 
 placed in the wild AVestern plains, 
 among men entirely free from the restraints 
 of conventional life ; and the book has a 
 buoyancy and brisk vitality, a dashing, 
 daring, and jubilant vigor, such as we are 
 not accustomed to in ordinary romance of 
 
 American life Helen, the heroine 
 
 of the story, is a more puzzling character 
 to the critic ; but, on the whole, we are 
 bound to say that she is a new develop- 
 ment of womanhood. The Author ex- 
 hausts all his resources in giving "a local 
 
 20 
 
NOATILS Ol' AMBIUCAN COUNTRY LIFK. 
 
 ISLAND NEIGHBORS [Martin's 
 Vineyard ] = No. 276. 
 
 JACOB SCHUYLEK'S MILLIONS 
 [New-Jersey] = No. 759. 
 
 JAMES MOUNT JOY. [by AzKL 
 Stevens Eok (t, 1SS6): Appleton, 
 1850:] "The scene, characters, and plot 
 ar all purely American. No locality is 
 named, but it is evident to anyone at all 
 acquainted with the country that it must 
 be somewhSre in the [New] Jersey 
 Pines. It should seem improbable that 
 such a state ol society should exist within 
 a day's sail of so prosperous a city as Phila- 
 delphia, but it is nevertheless true, and 
 as far as we hav examined the work we 
 hav no doubt that it is a truthful repre- 
 sentation of what life in the Pines is, 
 and what by industry and enterprize it 
 may become." f National Era. 61 f 
 
 JOHN ANDROSS [Pennsylvania] 
 = No. 279. 
 
 JOHN BODEWIN'S TESTIMONY = 
 [ Idaho ] = No. 766. 
 
 20 k 
 
NOVELS Olf AMERICAN COUNTRY LIFE. 
 
 habitation and ii name" to this fond crea- 
 tion of his imagination, and he has succeed- 
 ed. Helen Clitheroe promises to be one of 
 those -'beings of the mind" wbich will be 
 permanently remembered." [Atlantic. 62 
 JOHN WARD, PREACHER [by 
 Margaret (Campbell) Deland, 
 Houghton, 1888.] "The author has here 
 given a picture of that 'rara avis' ii logical 
 Calvinist. Any real Calvinist is at this 
 hour rare ; one who accepts the full con- 
 sequences of his faith always has been. 
 J: Ward believed in the damnation of the 
 heathen, and more, in the damnation of all 
 who disbelieved in damnation — of all who, 
 to quote one of his elders, were not 
 '•grounded on hell." This is also professed- 
 ly the belief of thousands to-day, who yet 
 eat, drink, and are merry. J : Ward believ- 
 ed, suffered, crucified himself, and fell a 
 martyr to his faith at his own hands, in a 
 fashion logical, but hardly natural. One 
 must admire the sublime acquiescence and 
 loyalty of his wife; yet, in following her 
 course, it is impossible not to feel that the 
 alloy of a little natural self-assertion fur- 
 nishes a necessary working quality in the 
 imperfect affairs of humanity, and that 
 Helen Ward was nearly as great a foe to 
 domestic peace from one extreme, as were, 
 from the other. Psyche and Elsa of IJra- 
 bant. J: Ward's concerns, however, are 
 not the only, perhaps not the main, inter- 
 est of the book. The vilhige of Ashurst 
 supplies some charming scenes of country 
 life, drawn with the tender grace and 
 quaintness in which the poet of 'The Old 
 Garden' dipped an earlier pen. Dr. 
 Howe's figure is an especially individual 
 one. He is the genial rector of the village, 
 whose theology is wholly perfunctory, 
 whose kindness of heart is wholly real. 
 It is as impossible not to be fond of him as 
 It is to feel that in any crisis he would 
 prove a stronghold. Mammon has no 
 temptations for him, but common sense 
 has, in situations where common sense is 
 a blunder, or at least a crime. About the 
 village spinsters and the elderly village 
 bachelor, and the loves and rivalries and 
 
 incompleted lives of Asnurst, hangs an 
 old-time fragrance, as of a grandmother's 
 rose-jar; but only a modern novelist Cor a 
 Greek poet) could have stated and left un- 
 solved so many questions touching on 
 tragedy." [Nation. 63 
 
 JOLLY GOOD TIMES [by "P. 
 Thorne," Boberts, 187.i.] "Not only de- 
 serves its title, but the further praise of 
 being pronounced a jolly good book. We 
 took it up without much expectation of 
 reward, because country life has been a 
 hard-worked theme, and many of the sto- 
 ries about it have had nothing whatever to 
 recommend them beyond the natural at- 
 traction of the subject for city children. 
 On this occasion, however, the author has 
 something definite to tell. The Kendall 
 children and their neighbors and play- 
 mates live in the Connecticut Valley, not 
 far from Deerfield, and we itre given a 
 sketch of their life during one period from 
 the hreaking-up of winter till the appear- 
 ance of snow just after Thanksgiving. 
 The merit of the story lies in its evident 
 biographical truth. It is very plain that 
 "P. Thorne" writes from memory and 
 observation, and not from pure fancy. 
 The result is a charming local picture, 
 quite worth the attention of English boys 
 and girls, as showing what NeAV Dngland 
 life is in a respectable farmer's farailj' — 
 plain folk, who do their own work, but 
 entirely free from the low-comic variety 
 of Yankee talk and, mtmners too often 
 deemed essential to the success of a New 
 England story." [Nation. 64 
 
 JOSEPH AND HIS FRIEND [by 
 Bayard Taylor, Putnam, 1S70.] "is a 
 book of a different kind, addressed to a 
 less numerous class of readers — those who 
 prefer the pleasing manner in which a 
 story is told to ingenuity of plot or extrav- 
 agance in incident. It is a very quiet 
 story, indeed, of simple country Penn- 
 sylvania life, but it never relapses into 
 dullness, and it will teach the ethical |)ur- 
 pose of the writer more effectually than a 
 highly wr6t romance could do, Iho it 
 were it ever so exciting." [Scribner's 
 
 81 
 
NOVELS OF A^MKKICAN COUNIKY LIFE. 
 
 Monthly. 65 
 
 KAVANAGH, A TALE [byH:W. 
 
 LONGFKLLOW, Boston, 1849.] " 
 
 as far as it goes, Kavanagli is an exact 
 daguerreotype of New England lil'e. 
 We say daguerreotype, because we are 
 conscious of a certain absence of motion 
 and color, which detracts somewhat from 
 the vivacity, tho not from the trutli, of 
 the representation. From Mr, Pendexter 
 with his horse and cliaise, to Miss Man- 
 chester painting the front of her house, tlie 
 figures are faithfully after nature. The 
 story, too, is remarkably sweet and touch- 
 ing. The two friends, with their carrier- 
 dove correspondence, give us a pretty 
 glimpse into the trans-boarding-school 
 disposition of the maiden mind, which 
 will contrive to carry every day life to 
 romance, since romance will not come 
 to it." [J. R. Lowell, in North American 
 Review. 66 
 
 KING OF FOLLY ISLAND, (The) [by 
 S.. O. jEWETi", Houghton, 1888.] Miss 
 
 Jewett " is more touched by what is 
 
 cheery and lovely in them than by what is 
 gloomy and stern. They come to her in 
 idyllic shapes, if it be not a contradiction 
 , in terms to call the homely little dramas 
 in which they figure idyllic. Her knowl- 
 edge of ISew England, reveals the letter 
 as well as the spirit of what is most char- 
 acteristic therein, but somehow, as she 
 reveals it, the letter is illuminated with 
 the spirit. She has drawn no character 
 which is not true to his or her environ- 
 ment and temperament, which is not vital 
 and individual, and which does not think, 
 feel, and talk as the same person would in 
 life. If her readers do not feel this, it is 
 because they are ignorant of the people 
 who, and the manners which, are the sub- 
 jects of her art, not because her art is de- 
 fective. It is affectionate, pathetic, ex- 
 quisite. Nothing more exquisite than 
 "Miss Tempy's Watchers" was ever writ- 
 ten. [ E : H : Stoddard. 6T 
 LAD'S LOVE, (A) [by Aklo Bates, 
 Roberts, 1887.] This is a summer story, 
 and in its way, is perfect. The scenic back- 
 
 ground is given with admirable di.^tincl> 
 ness, the characters are all refined, the 
 incidents natural, the tall;, of which there is 
 much, clever and amusing in a high degree. 
 It is moreover, as befits a thoroly cheer- 
 ful story, the cliafl'and humor of youth, 
 rather than the wit and sarcasm of mid- 
 dle age, which, even wlien best deserved, 
 are apt to leave a somewhat melancholy im- 
 pression. "There is a good deal of what ar- 
 tists term 'atmosphere' in ' A Lad's Love' — 
 — a tale of summer life at Campobello. 
 [Compare "April Hopes"] . The wonder- 
 ful panorama of sea and sky, with a charm 
 of color that always sets one dreaming of 
 Mr. Blade's descriptions of the Hebrides, 
 are mirrored in these pages, and the usual 
 social drama of watering-place life is 
 graphically pictured The story is fur- 
 thered developed in the arrival of Mrs. 
 Van Orden's dauter, a young lady of 17 
 with the aplomb of 2.t, to whom in time the 
 "lad's" love is dexterously transferred by 
 the elder lady. The usual excursions and 
 picnics diversify the progress of the love- 
 maid ng (of which there is an abundance), 
 and the analysis of the emotional nature of 
 a young man of 20, of fine temperament, 
 ardent feeling, and deprived of a mother's 
 love, is perhaps, the finest thing in the 
 book, and is so subtly and delicately told 
 as to be quite worthy of Mr. Bates." 
 [Boston "Traveller." 68 
 
 LADY OF THE AROOSTOOK, (The) 
 [by W: D. Howblls, Houghton, 1879.] 
 "The demure "Lady" with her uncon- 
 scious, wild-rose freshness, has made 
 friends on all sides : the book has been al- 
 ready handed over to Art, and its good 
 things not merely enjoyed, but enjoyed in 
 the fastidious and epicurean way in which 
 Mr. Howells's writings always insist upon 
 being read. It is a style that does not aim 
 at large efl:ects, but in which a "point" is 
 made in every other sentence, and every 
 point tells. And there is something more 
 than realism in these pictures. Never per- 
 haps have the New England provincial- 
 isms been rendered in so attractive and 
 truly artistic a manner as in the delineation 
 
 22 
 
NOVELS OF AMBKICAN COUNTRY LIFE. 
 
 LANMERE. [by Julia Caroline 
 (Ripi.ey) Dorr: N.-Y., Mason, 1856.] 
 "Mrs. Dorr's second novel justifies the 
 praise we bestoed upon her first, "Farm- 
 ingdale" [No. 30w]. It is a truthful, 
 but by no means flattering, picture of 
 certain phases of life and thot in New- 
 IBn^land. The hard practicality and 
 naiTO sense of duty which is said to pet- 
 rify many otherwise estimable persons 
 Down-Bast, and represses or maddens all 
 who come in contact with them, could 
 scarcely be more strikingly and consis- 
 tently drawn. Mrs. Dorr's mind is a 
 clear and calm one; she thoroly under- 
 stands the evil she satirizes, and knoes 
 how to be just, even whfire she condemns." 
 [ Albion. 70 f 
 
 LAST ASSEMBLY BALL (Idaho) = 
 No. 786. 
 
 22 V 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN COlNTliY LIFE. 
 
 of the heroine, where they impart :ui indi- 
 viduality and a quaint lialf-awlvward grace 
 sucli as some Britisli novelists liavc drawn 
 from a use of the Scotcli dialect or of a 
 foreign accent. Lydia is a rare and diarm- 
 ing personation, a lieroine who is distinct- 
 ly and honestly countrified without a tinge 
 of vulgarity, and who, tho taking hut a 
 modest share in the convorsaliou of whicli 
 the boolv is full, never for a moment loses 
 her individuality or incurs the reproach of 
 tameness." [Lippincott's. 69 
 
 LAND OF THE SKY, (The) [hy 
 ■■Christian Eeid," Appleton, 1ST6.] 
 'trifling as it is, is pleasant reading, tho 
 more as a guide-book than as a novel. The 
 little band of southern youths and maidens, 
 who have already seen good service in 
 this author's stories, here rest from their 
 more serious labors and take a trip to- 
 gether tlirou the mountains in and about 
 the western part of North-Carolina. 
 This comparatively unknown region must 
 be full of interest to those who are not 
 afraid of ruf fare, and it is well described, 
 with all the attendant incidents of swollen 
 streams, slippery rocks, and steep climbs, 
 in this book. For the sentimental reader 
 there is a full supply of harmless flirta- 
 tions." [Xation. 70 
 
 LATE MRS. NULL, (The) [ by F. R : 
 Stockton, Scnbner, 1SS6.] "The book 
 is delightfully unmoral. The characters 
 go their several ways, undetermined by 
 any noble ends or high designs ; they be- 
 have like ordinary mortals in a world 
 which Is not troubled by strainings of con- 
 science ; there are dilemmas, but they are 
 not the dilemmas of a moral universe; 
 there is a logic, but it is the logic of cir- 
 cumstance, and rewards and punishments 
 are served out by a justice so blind as not 
 
 to know her left hand from her right 
 
 So we follow the inns and outs of the late 
 Mrs. Null and her fellow characters with 
 scarcely pny incredulity or sense of the 
 absurdity of their relation to each other, 
 chiefly because Mr. Stockton, with his in- 
 nocent air, never seems to be' aware of any 
 incongruity in their conduct It is, 
 
 however, when dealing with negro life 
 that Jlr. Stockton shows himself at his 
 best. He fairly revels in this side-show 
 of the world's circus, and takes an almost 
 childish delight in the exhibition of negro 
 character and life. We suspect that the 
 figure in the book which will linger longest 
 in the reader's mind is that of Aunt Patsy ; 
 and the iloscription of the Jerusalem Jump 
 with Aunt Tatsy's exit from the world 
 upon that occasion, is one of the most 
 carefully written, as it is one of the most 
 eftective, passages in the book. It is not 
 strange that Mr. Stockton should feel at 
 home with the negroes. They offer him 
 precisely that happy-go-lucky type of 
 character which suits the world of his 
 imagination. They save him the necessity 
 of invention, and he can abandon with 
 them that extreme gravity of demeanor 
 which he is obliged to assume in order to 
 give an air of reasonableness to his white 
 characters." [Atlantic. 71 
 
 LIKE UNTO LIKE [by "Sherwood 
 Bonner," Harper, 18TS.] '"Sherwood 
 Bonner' in this, her first novel, has touch- 
 ed upon a period in the struggle between 
 North and South which has been little 
 treated by novelists. The antagonists are 
 represented not in the smoke of battle, 
 but at that critical and awkward moment 
 when the first steps towards reconciliation 
 are being made. A proud but sociable 
 little Mississippi town is shown in the 
 act of half-reluctantly opening its doors to 
 the olBcers of a couple of Federal regi- 
 ments stationed within its bounds 
 
 Plot there is none, and of incident very 
 little. Light, often sparkling, conversa- 
 tions and charming bits of description fol- 
 low in ready succession like beads upon a 
 string. Lack of incident is atoned for by 
 charm of writing, and in the vivacity of 
 the scenes the reader disregards the slen- 
 derness of the connecting thread, or per- 
 haps forgets to look for it." [Lippincott's.73 
 
 LITTLE COUNTRY GIRL, (A)[2Jo6- 
 erts, 1885.] " 'Susan Coolidge' being 
 the author, it is not surprising to find this 
 an easy, natural, refined little story, inter- 
 
 23 
 
NOVELS OF AMEEICAJS COUNTRY LIFE. 
 
 LEDHORSE CLAIM [Idaho] = No. 
 
 786. 
 
 LIFE IN THE NEW WORLD [Ar- 
 kansas] = No. 291. 
 
 LIKE AND UNLIKE [ by AzKL Ste- 
 vens Rob 1 1, 1886 ) : Peterson, 1862.] 
 "We wonder how a book so tedious as 
 this ever found its way into print. We 
 confess to having read it throu, and the 
 its morality is unimpeachable, it is a book 
 which we can not praise. The hero enters 
 the scene at the age of 16 or 17, and from 
 first to last he is represented as a pattern 
 of goodness. He does nothing improper, 
 exhibits no frailties, makes no mistakes 
 such as the best of youth must sometimes 
 commit, and is a model and a teacher to 
 all around him. Such a, character is most 
 certainly misrepresented; and tho the 
 motiv in its production may hav been a 
 good one, it wil hav no effect. Books, to 
 do good, must make thfiir characters hu- > 
 man, subject to the same temptations, 
 trials and failings as living humanity. 
 Then let them attain perfection if th6y 
 wil, but let it be by struggles such as we 
 all must undergo in the same road." 
 [ Godey's. 71 v 
 
 23 s 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN COUNTRY LIFE. 
 
 LITTLE MEN [ by Louisa JIay Al- 
 COTT (t, 1S8S): Moberts, 1871.] "is 
 really a most charming booli, on a subject 
 of the first importance. "We hav many 
 excellent works on the training of chil- 
 dren, but few which come to the level of 
 the masses. Here, however, the subject 
 is ably put in the form of a narrativ which 
 can not fail to become popular . . . The 
 'little men' ar the pupils at Plumflold, a 
 school kept by Mr. Bhaer and his wife — 
 Uncle Fritz and Ant Jo — as thSir little 
 friends lovingly call them. The pupils 
 ar few, but these few form a somewhat 
 heterogeneous mixture. We hav boys 
 whose parents ar wel-to-do along with the 
 two heroes of the story — Nat, who used 
 to go 'fiddling round the streets,' and 
 Dan, 'the boy who sold the papers'— 'a 
 regular bad lot,' as he described himself. 
 This wil perhaps shoe English ideas of 
 what a select boarding-school 6t to be, 
 but fortunately Plumfield is in America, 
 whSre, of course, 'one man is as good as 
 another.' Nat is sent to the Bhaers by an 
 old friend of thSirs, Uncle Laurie; and, 
 after remaining some time at Plumfield, 
 thSy ar induged by Nat to receive Dan. 
 The latter, when he makes his appear- 
 ance, is decidedly 'a bad lot;' and, per- 
 haps, the most interesting part of the 
 book is the account of the way Uncle 
 Fritz and Aunt Jo went to work to drive 
 out of him the spirit of mischief and dis- 
 
 order, and fll him with a love of honor 
 and honesty. Kindness and sympathy ar 
 the means whSreby the boys ar ruled at 
 Plumfield. ThSy love and respect thCir 
 teachers, and fear to giv them pain by 
 doing wrfing. The lads ar put upon thfiir 
 honor, thiSy fee] this, and act accordingly. 
 ThSir peculiar likings ar carefully ob- 
 served by thSir gardians, and suitably 
 encouraged and directed. Every care is 
 taken t3 make Plumfield a happy home. 
 In summer the lessons ar short, the holi- 
 days Iflug ; all sorts of outdoor work and 
 amusements ar devised, and thiSy become 
 such a 'rosy, hearty, sunburnt set of boys' 
 as one could desire to see. Aunt Jo takes 
 it into her head that it would improve the 
 tone of the boys if she had some girls 
 among them, and accordingly this new 
 element is introduced. After giving it a 
 fair trial, she has the satisfaction of prov- 
 ing to Uncle Laurie that her plan has not 
 been a failure, as he predicted it would 
 be . . . Mrs. (sic) Alcott writes in a grace- 
 ful, easy, and fiuent style, has a grfiat love 
 of her subject, and knoes thoroly what 
 she is writing about. The result is that 
 she has produced a book which wil be 
 pleasant reading to old and young, while 
 to parents, and others having the care of 
 children, it wil be of grfiat value. The 
 children's amusements ar capitally de- 
 scribed, and thSirtalk is thoroly natural." 
 [ Examiner. 73 h 
 
 23 ss 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN COUNTRY LITE. 
 
 LITTLE NORSK (A) [by Hamlin 
 Garland : Appleton, 1S92.] "The "Lit- 
 tle Norsk," Blga by name, otherwise 
 called "Flaxen," is a child whom two 
 bachelor settlers on the Dakota plateau 
 undertake to rear. She is found in a nfi- 
 bor's hut, her mother lying frozen to 
 death by her side, while her father had 
 perished in the sno trying to get help. 
 The situation, delightful enuf while 
 "Flaxen" is a child, and produ5ing com- 
 plications when she groes into a woman, 
 is described both humorously and pathet 
 ically. The story, in fact, is distinctly 
 good; but perhaps the most striking thing 
 in it is the picture of the pitiless winter, 
 and of the delights of returning spring, 
 proportionately grfiat to the horrors to 
 which thfiy succeed." [Spectator.] — 
 "Th&e is something quaint, old-fashioned 
 and very sweet about the story. These 
 two men, living all alone in a cabin on the 
 
 dreary plains of Dakota, ar very amusing 
 and at times very pathetic when fate has 
 forced them into the orphan-asylum busi- 
 ness, as thfiy express it. One of them 
 brings this little dauter of Norwegian par- 
 ents home throu a terrific blizzard, nearly 
 losing his life in the effort to do so, and 
 his companion's hearts go out in love to- 
 ards the helpless little creature whose 
 dead mother lay in a cold and deserted 
 shanty miles away, and wh5se father was 
 lying buried in the sno in some ravine 
 beside his patient oxen. As long as she 
 wished to stay she would be his Flaxen 
 and he would be her 'pap,' the elder man 
 said, and the younger could content him- 
 self with the less honorable position of 
 uncle. She is thfiir joy and thSir in9entiv, 
 until she is old enuf to become a problem 
 the solution of which groes to be a very 
 serious matter to the two honest fellos 
 who hav undertaken it." [Critic. 73 m 
 
 23 1 
 
NOVELS OF AMEKICAN COUNTRY LIFE. 
 
 esting without being exciting. Tlie various 
 descriptions of Newport scenery are 
 graphic and charming ; the graceful refine- 
 ments of wealth and taste are pleasantly 
 sltetched. The books tends rather to make 
 the reader feel that life without all these 
 Softer adjuncts is hardly desirable Pei- 
 haps to counteract this tendency, the author 
 has given to "The Little Country Girl," a 
 stronger 'morale' than to her wealthy 
 cousins, and makes the happy ending of 
 the story turn on her clear-sighted recti- 
 tude of th6t." [ Nation. 73 
 
 LITTLE WOMEN [by Louisa M. 
 Alcott, Mobarls, 1869.] "Miss Alcott's 
 book is just such a hearty, unaffected, and 
 "genial" description of family life as will 
 appeal to the majority of average leaders 
 and is as certain to attain a kind of suc- 
 cess." [Nation.] "These dear "Little 
 Women," Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. are 
 already bosom friends to hundreds of 
 other little women, who find in their 
 experiences the very mirror of their 
 own lives. In Part First we find them 
 i natural, sweet girls, with well-defined 
 characters, which, in Part Second, are 
 developed to womanhood throu such 
 truthful and lifelike scenes as prove Miss 
 Alcott to be a faithful student of nature. 
 It Isn't '4 la mode' now to be moved 
 over stories, but we pity the reader 
 who can repress a few tears as well as 
 many hearty lafs over the lives of these 
 little women." [Galaxy. 74 
 
 LOUISIANA [ by F.. (Hodgson) 
 Burnett, Scribner, 1880.] "A lady from 
 New York, whose surroundings have been 
 those chiefly of literature and art, is alone 
 at a North Carolina watering-place, and 
 amuses herself with a new and interesting 
 type of Southern native humanity, a young 
 girl of great beauty and simplicity, but 
 utterly ignorant of the world in which 
 
 Miss Olivia Ferrol has lived The 
 
 pathos of the story, while there is a touch 
 of unreality about it, is fine and pervading, 
 while the special charm is in the pictures 
 of mountain life in North-Carolina. 
 The book is graceful, and if the plot is a 
 
 trifle artificial the execution is so skillfully 
 and affectionately done that we are almost 
 ready to forgive the author for limiting 
 herself as she has." [Atlantic. 75 
 
 LOVE AND THEOLOGY [ by C. P. 
 WOOLLEY, Osgood, 1888. "Mrs. 
 Woolley's novel has a very large infusion 
 of theology. The theology is of the "liber- 
 al" order, but the manner in which it is 
 presented should not repel anyone, for 
 the author plainly knows very well that 
 religion is more than theology, and the 
 spirit in which she writes is one of candor 
 and reverence for all fiiiths sincerely held. 
 The hero, Arthur Forbes, has graduated 
 from the divinity school and finds himself 
 no longer able to preach the Oalvinistic 
 creed in which he was reared. If this is 
 not exactly an uncommon experience now- 
 a-days, it is hardly less common a thing 
 that such a divinity student should be en- 
 gaged to a deacon's dauter. But substance 
 and character are given to Mrs. Woolley's 
 story by the fact that Rachel Armstrong 
 does not, as so many do in common life, 
 accept her lover and tolerale his heresy 
 unti) mariage shall have br6t them into 
 essential unity of belief. She deems him 
 an apostate : shut in as she has been from 
 the larger movements of th6t, which have 
 borne him away, she believes it her duty 
 to harden her heart against him, and if 
 nature and destiny had not been too strong 
 for her resolution, neither she nor her 
 lover would have marled. This strenuous 
 pair, who, tho they cannot live apart, 
 never come to think alike, find a more 
 common counterpart in the genial Chase 
 Howard, the rector of St. Andrew's, and 
 the lively Miss Fairfax, whose "advanced" 
 ideas on woman's lot find no difficulty in 
 mingling with her Broad-Church liberality. 
 The curious picture Mrs. Woolley gives of 
 the western church over which Arthur 
 Forbes is settled bears all the marks of 
 life. The author perceives the deficiencies 
 of crude "liberalism," as well as of strict 
 Calvinism, and offers an expression of the 
 vital faith to which both must come in the 
 convictions to which Rachel at last ad- 
 
 34 
 
NOVELS OP A5IKRICAN COUNTRY LIFE. 
 
 LONG LOOK AHEAD (A) [byAzEL 
 Stevens Roe (f, 18S6): ^.-Y., Derby, 
 1855.] "is the latest addition to a class of 
 books which hav rapidly come into 
 fashion on this side of the water. For 
 want of a better name, let us call them 
 American Novels. Unlike the fictions of 
 Cooper or any previous American novel- 
 ist, thfiy deal with men and manners, 
 purely American; one set with the. South 
 and Slavery, another with prim and 
 puritanic New-England. "Tempest and 
 Sunshine" [No. 154 t] and "Farming- 
 dale" [No. 30 w], ar respectivly fair 
 samples of each. In the same list with 
 "Farmingdale," but far belo it in point 
 of individuality and power, comes the 
 "Long Look Ahead." The scene is laid 
 in Coiin«cticnt, and the characters ar 
 mostly indigenous to that region. The 
 entire worldly all of two young men, C : 
 and A : Vincent, consists of a dilapidated 
 farm ; and the object of the book is t5 sho 
 how th6y rejuvenated it, by working early 
 
 and late, and taking long looks ahead. 
 Other matters ar intermingled; but the 
 gist of the alTair is a description of the 
 every-day life of a farmer, and a laudar 
 tion of it as the most independent life 
 which a man can lead. In the course of 
 the uarrativ a good many personages ar 
 introduged, but none which ar likely to 
 leave a mark on the reader's mind. ThSy 
 ar not drawn from life, but ar the tra- 
 ditionary characters of fiction. ThSre 
 ar a moral and energetic hero, 2 or 3 
 model young women, a Good-Samaritan 
 of a Colonel, and the requisit number of 
 "Chores" in the shape of nfibors, etc. 
 Thfiy talk a gr&t deal, but not remark- 
 ably wel. We learn nothing from thfiir 
 endless chat, except a few farming mem- 
 oranda ; how the old barn looks, newly 
 painted, what the colt is worth, and the 
 probable amount of the wheat crop! 
 And all this in the stiffest and properest 
 English." [ Albion. 74 m 
 
 24 p 
 
NOVELS OP AMERICAN COUNTRY LIFE. 
 
 heres.>' [Boston "Lit. World.'' 76 
 
 LOVE IN IDLENESS [by B. W. Ol- 
 NBY [Kirk], Lippincott, 1877.] "A 
 number of people, young and middle-aged, 
 are gathered for the summer in the beauti- 
 ful Connecticut country house of one of 
 them — a wealthy young bachelor. There 
 they all fall in love. "We can hai-dly say 
 that everybody falls it love with every- 
 body else ; but it is pretty nearly that. 
 Everybody is in love with some one ; and 
 the consequence, after a good deal of cross- 
 purposing and some suffering, is half a 
 
 dozen mariages It is absolutely 
 
 without plot, has hardly enuf coherence 
 to be called a story, is entirely without in- 
 cident. And yet it is very interesting 
 
 from the first page to the last The 
 
 book is strongly American ; but its Ameri- 
 cans are of the most cultivated classes." 
 [Galaxy. 77 
 
 MALBONE [ by T : W. HiGGiNSON : 
 Fields, 1SG9.] '-is a story which reveals 
 in every page the charm of a scholarly and 
 polished style. The characters are drawn 
 with firmness and delicacy; many of the 
 scenes are unusual and jjoetic, and the best 
 of them are powerfully elaborated. 
 "Hope" is a good ideal of a whole-souled, 
 noble woman, strong, true, earnest, loving 
 and winning love, as the sun attracts its 
 planets to resolve about it. "Malboue," so 
 confidently balancing upon the extreme 
 verge where unscrupulous selfishness be- 
 comes acknowledged villainy, and so con- 
 stantly saved from the worst consequences 
 of his faults by a harmonious tempera- 
 ment and kindly nature, is delineated with 
 the delicacy and skill which so subtle a 
 character demands. "Aunt Jane," with 
 her sound judgment and spicy, invigorat- 
 • ing wit, is a good offset to "Malbone's" 
 soft seductiveness, while jjoor little "Emil- 
 ia," so capricious, so passionate, and so 
 beautiful, whom the author shields from 
 the indignation of her friends and of his 
 readers — and shows his poetic feeling and 
 his art in doing so — by casting over lier a 
 double shield of mysterious unconscious- 
 ness and of perfect loveliness. Is a tropical 
 
 flower planted in an ungenial clime, who 
 soon throbs away her passionate, mis- 
 placed life, and finds repose in death." 
 [Galaxy. 78 
 
 MAN OF HONOR, (A) [by 6: C. 
 Eggleston, Judd, 1874.] "The scene is 
 laid principally on a Virginia family 
 homestead. The tale relates the adventures 
 of a gentleman who, among other things, 
 loses and recovers a large sum of money, 
 and very nearly loses his character, throu 
 no fault of his, at the same time. He is 
 arrested for debt in New York; he takes 
 part in a fox-hunt in Virginia; he is jilted 
 by a designing Northern girl, and loves 
 and maries a true-hearted Virginian, turns 
 out a born journalist, and altogether gets 
 himself into and out of difficulties in a 
 very creditable manner." [Galaxy. 79 
 
 MARGARET, [by Sylvester Judd, 
 lirthei-ts.'] "We do not propose to add 
 anything to the stormy and controversial 
 criticism excited by this book 25 years ago. 
 American it certainly is. A fair, impartial 
 portrait of American society it certainly is 
 not. Quaint, queer, original, minutely 
 accurate in its descriptions, but often false 
 in sentiment and philosophy, and crude 
 and uncouth in expression, it well deserves 
 a permanent place in American literature ; 
 but we should be sorry to believe it, with 
 all its glaring defects of both th6t and 
 manner, to be 'the most thoroly American 
 book ever written'." [Harper's. 80 
 
 MARSH ISLAND, (A) [by S.. O. JBW- 
 
 EiT, Houghton, 1885.] " Her feeling 
 
 for rural life and her clear comprehension 
 of rural people were never better displayed 
 than in this little story. A generous play 
 of late summer and autumn radiance 
 lights up its every nook and corner; it is 
 'mellow with warm color and odorous of 
 late fruits and flowers But all the in- 
 habitants of Marsh Island are human and 
 attractive, and the untiring industries of 
 the well-ordered household soothe one like 
 the rhythm of a song The more impas- 
 sioned side of life does not suit Miss Jew- 
 ett so well as the humorous and pastoral ; 
 but each detail about her heroine is attract- 
 
 25 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN COUNTRY LITE. 
 
 MAJSriTOU ISLAND [byM.. Grben- 
 WAY McClelland : Holt, 1892.J "The 
 title suggests Canadian ratlier than Caro- 
 linian associations . . . Immediate disil- 
 lusion felloes, however, as soon as one 
 reads a lew lines : the green, drizzly, slug- 
 gish swamps and lagoons of the middle 
 Atlantic coast open their f oliaged vistas ; 
 the flight of water-fowl whirrs throu the 
 pages; a humid, heavy atmosphere hangs 
 in the distanje, and a dilapidated Southern 
 mansion reveals itself with all its ancestral 
 belongings as the centre of the romange. 
 Here a, family circle is gathered upon 
 whom a blight or a mildew has fallen : a 
 spent and fallen ra9e inhabits the manor, 
 which seems like to be engulfed by the 
 encroaching swamp; the land is lo; the 
 water and the marsh envelop everything 
 in their haze and ooze ; a primitiv popu- 
 lation of fishermen and shingle-splitters 
 flit about on the canals and tarns of the end- 
 less water-waste and render the uncanny 
 spot uncannier stil. The author's pen is 
 powerfully descriptiv in its reproduction 
 of these landscape vicissitudes : too pow- 
 erfully, indeed, for the pleasure of the 
 reader, for one has a sense of sufibcation 
 under her dramatic interpretation of the 
 stil as wel as the 'live' and wriggling life 
 of the multitudinous swamp : her long 
 
 delineations ar so real, so vivid, so pictur- 
 esque that th6y overshado the personal 
 element in the story and dwarf it; the 
 sombre surroundings thro even intenser 
 gloom on the gloomy plot, and the artistic 
 balange of things is upset by the insistent 
 dominange of dark over bright. The story 
 is one essentially sad. Is it any wonder 
 that people go mad, that ra9es attenuate, 
 that emotional transcend intellectual ex- 
 perienges in such an environment? The 
 Alpine valleys ar full of 'orStins' whose 
 reason has ebbed from them under the 
 sinister influences of isolation, gloom and 
 morbid physical conditions. The Atlantic 
 wastes, in thfiir dismal constancy, thfiir 
 uninterrupted monotony, produge similar 
 pathological cfliects, which Miss McClelland 
 seizes for a vigorous but painful narrativ, 
 in which human suffering plays far too 
 prominent a part to be agreeable. Dr. 
 Irfine, Trigg, the idiot, Javan Anselm ar 
 definable people, with features which one 
 cannot help remembering, but the remem- 
 brance is hardly pleasureable, except in 
 the case of the first. Miss McClelland 
 paints insanity admirably ; her dialog, too, 
 is good; but her lengthened descriptions 
 hardly leave her space enuf to develop 
 character ; it is a diminutiv picture in a 
 very large frame." [Critic. 79 t 
 
 25 h 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN COUNTRY LIFE. 
 
 LOVE OP A LIFETIME = No. 299. 
 LUCYAELYN [New- York] = No. 
 
 300. 
 
 LUCY HOWARD'S JOURNAL [by 
 Lydia ( Huntley ) Sigourney 
 (1791-1865): Harper, 1858.] "is the 
 imaginary record of the daily life of a 
 young woman of 40 years ago, in whicli 
 all her tliots, feelings and emotions ar 
 noted down with equal grace and simplic- 
 ity. She passes throu the diseiplin of 
 school, travels about the country, marries, 
 becomes a mother, enters upon house- 
 keeping, and writes rejipes in verse, and 
 generally commends herself to 6iir liking 
 as a sensible and exemplary person. She 
 does not weai-y us with theories concern- 
 ing th^ sphere of woman, nor project 
 fantastical schemes of reform. Alto- 
 gether she may be commended to the ac- 
 quaintance of her sex most cordially — 
 the men, we think, would not generally 
 appreciate her humdrum amiability." 
 [ Southern Literary Messenger. 77 s 
 
 77 r 
 
NOVELS Olf AMIiUICAN COUNTRY LIFE. 
 
 MARRIED NOT MATED [by Alice 
 Gary (1S22-71): N.-Y., Derby, 1857.] 
 "is by far Miss Gary's best book, and it 
 affords us pleasure to praise it. We hav 
 several times had occasion to notice this 
 lady, sometimes a little severely, for what 
 we deemed her chief fault — the melan- 
 choly monotony of her writings. We hav 
 nothing of the sort to harp at in "Married 
 not Mated." Bating the moral of the 
 story, which is implied rather than dis- 
 tinctly stated, it is a pleasant and in many 
 respects a merry book. It is impossible 
 to read some chapters without lafing 
 heartily. Miss Gary has a rich vfiin of 
 quiet humor, which shos itself in the cre- 
 ation of two really comic characters, 
 characters of which any modern novelist 
 might wel be proud — Rache, an impu- 
 dent, free-and-easy domestic, and Uncle 
 Peter, or as his cards hav it, Mr. Samuel 
 P. J. T. Throckmorton, a second edition 
 of Pecksniff with original variations. 
 
 Both ar excellently drawn." [ Albion.] 
 — It "is a lively and agreeable story, told 
 with much freshness of feeling, a keen 
 insight into common life, and not a little 
 humor." [ Putnam's Mag. 80 p 
 
 MARTIN MERRIVALB X HIS 
 MARK, [by J: Townsend Trow- 
 bridge : Boston, PhiUipn, 1854.] "Thfire 
 is a, freshness about the humor, a depth 
 to the pathos, ii detail in the description, 
 an intimate acquaintance with human 
 nature, and an originality throu<5iit, 
 which, in these days of professional book- 
 making it is a satisfaction to meet . . . The 
 impulsiv, hopeful Martin, in love with 
 literature, but long unable to discover or 
 experience any of its "amenities," is a 
 character worthy of story. His treatment 
 at the hands of Boston publishers and 
 editors wil strike a sympathetic chord in 
 the memory of many a fledgeling in au- 
 thorship." [Norton's Lit. Gazette. 81 h 
 
 2.5 p 
 
NovuLS oi'- AMmmoAN (xhtn'I'iiy mfe. 
 
 ive, and nothing in recent liction is more 
 true, touuliing, and womanly than Doris' 
 journey to Westmarket in the autumnal 
 dawn to keep her lover at home from the 
 fishing-banks." [Lippincott's. 81 
 
 MATE OF THE 'DAYLIGHT' [by 
 S.. 0. Jkwett, Houghton, 1884.] "Miss 
 Jewett's stories need no commendation, 
 but we delay a moment to mark them as 
 another example, of which there are so 
 few among the works of women , of that 
 careful study which finds and brings out 
 what we have to call the negative side of 
 life. The world is accustomed to sucli 
 positiveness and downrightness of fact 
 and motive that it does not often realize 
 the force of what does not happen — the 
 meaning of not doing. Of the stoi-ies 
 before us, "The New I'arishioner" and 
 "The Only Son" are striking illustrations, 
 and, at the same time, are by far the most 
 interesting. Miss Jewett, moreover, has 
 a style, in the true sense, a manner of ex- 
 pression, fitting and beautiful, and her 
 own." [Nation. 83 
 
 MEN, WOMEN AND GHOSTS [by 
 E.. S. Phelps [Ward] : Fields, 1869.] 
 "These stories possess that peculiar quali- 
 ty which touclies the heart, the quality to 
 which we refer when we say of a singer 
 that she has "a tear in her voice." Sym- 
 pathetic and full of human kindness, there 
 is scarcely one of them, however simple it 
 may be, which does not contain thrilling 
 or really pathetic passages. The author 
 lias a keen sense of humor also, and her 
 style is delightfully fresh, unstudied and 
 attractive. "Kentucky's Ghost" is one 
 of the most vivid and thrilling ghost stories 
 we have read for many a day. "In the 
 Gray Goth," "One of the Meet," "Cali- 
 co," "No News," "The Tenth of Janu- 
 ary," are also excellent." [Galaxy. 83 
 
 MERCY I'HILBRICK'S CHOICE [ by 
 H.. P. Jackson, Roberts, 1877.] "The 
 style of this book is a model for study. It is 
 quiet and clear and strong. Everywhere 
 there is a calm and just selection of words, 
 moderation and delicacy of epithet; in 
 the pictures, whether of New England 
 
 scenery or manners, a kind of gentle and 
 unstudied fidelity. It is not and does not 
 pretend to be a typical love story. It is 
 merely the simple recital of a strange 
 heart experience, and a stiangely sad one. 
 A woman of the richest capacities, both 
 mental and affectional, meets in her early, 
 artless youth a man upon «'hom she some- 
 what eagerly bestows her heart, and who 
 proves only half worthy of it." [Atlantic.84 
 MIDSUMMER MADNESS, (A) [Ijy 
 E. [^\^.] (Olnby) Kirk : Osgood, 1S85.] 
 "This book is most refreshing. The scene 
 of the story is laid on the banks of the 
 great river Delaware, and a delicious 
 sense of open air, of trees and flowers, of 
 the many tinted lights of sunset, tinging 
 the broad river and the sky above, per- 
 vades the book The author limits her- 
 self strictly to the possible ; but she gives 
 us the bright side of nature — the sunshine, 
 
 the warmth, the color which we love 
 
 And very pleasant it is, and very grateful 
 to Miss Kirk we feel for so much that 
 is delightful. The lawns of the two large 
 country houses whose inhabitants form 
 the 'dramatis personiE' of the tale, slope 
 down to the banks of the great river; the 
 time, as the title indicates, is mid-summer, 
 and the weather is perfect. The story is, 
 of course, the old, old story; of plot and 
 incident it contains the minimum, and of 
 analysis of character the minimum also; 
 just enuf to account for the actions of the 
 different persons where they are not per- 
 fectly self-evident, and no more. But, 
 altho almost without plot or incident, the 
 interest of the story never flags from the 
 first page to the l:ist." [Spectator. 85 
 MISS GILBERT'S CAREER [by J. G. 
 
 Holland, Scribner, 1860.] " What 
 
 the moral loses the story gains. Our 
 author has lost nothing of that genuine 
 love of Nature, of that quick perception of 
 the comic element in men and things, of 
 that delightful freshness and liveliness, 
 which threw such a charm about the 
 former writings of Timothy Titcomb. 
 No story can be pronounced a failure which 
 has vivacity and interest; and the volume 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN COUNTRY MFF. 
 
 MEREIMACK [by DAT KELLOGG 
 Lee (1816-69): N.-Y., Bedfleld, 1854.] 
 "is distinguished lor naturalness of style, 
 easy flo of narrativ, and peculiarly inter- 
 esting revelations of the life and spiritual 
 experienjes of a factory girl." [ National 
 Era.]— "In many respects it is a unique 
 volume. As a picture of certain phases 
 of manners it is entitled to hi praise. 
 Mr. Lee is evidently wel acquainted with 
 the home and factory life of New- 
 England, and the reader fully shares his 
 kuoledge when he has done with him. 
 During the composition of his tale he 
 seems indeed to hav subjected his mind 
 to an exhausting profess, for he leaves 
 absolutely nothing to be imagind. A 
 great literary artist, like De Foe, may con- 
 trive to hiten his general effect by a 
 Flemish fidelity to truth ; but this in lesser 
 hands is apt to become tedious and unin- 
 teresting. This is not entirely the case 
 with Mr. Lee, for altho his narrativ 
 suffers from this defect, it has stil many 
 points of interest and is wel worth the 
 reading. He is clear, simple, even ele- 
 gant in style, with a certain freshness and 
 breadth, and a cordial sympathy for the 
 good and true." [ Albion. 84 k 
 
 2Bm 
 
NOVELS OV AMEIIICAN COUNTliY LIFE, 
 
 MILLIONAIRE OF ROUGH AND 
 READY = No. 839. 
 
 MINISTER'S WOOING = No. 840. 
 
 MISS BAGGS' SECRETARY [by 
 Clara L.. (Root) Burnham: Hough- 
 ton, 1892.] "is as pretty and bright a 
 little tale as one would care t5 fil an idle 
 h(5&r with. It boasts little originality of 
 plot, since the unexpected inheritance of 
 a grfiat fortune by a quiet, rustic little 
 body, who has but scant notion how to 
 use or enjoy it, is by no means a new situ- 
 ation in fiction. Its character-drawing 
 has but few subtle shades ; for its good 
 people ar inclined to be very, very good, 
 and its bad people to be horrid. But it is 
 told with so much freshness and so much 
 wholesom humor; its ethics ur so sound 
 and sweet; it has so much unmarred 
 youth and honest love and genuin sun- 
 shine in it, that one folloes it throudiit 
 with !i warmth of heirt which lasts into 
 memory ; and what better praise need the 
 little story ask? Moreover it boasts, de- 
 spite dur too sweeping assertion, one hlly 
 original character, in the 'Joodge,' a de- 
 lightful elderly parrot, of a pessimistic 
 and satirical turn of mind. The story of 
 a few summer weeks at West Point, 
 during which two youthful love stories 
 come to harmonious adjustment, is charm- 
 ingly told. We hav endless and most 
 fascinating glimpses of cadet life, from 
 which the most stoical reader can scargely 
 
 fail to gather at least a flush of the 'cadet 
 fever' which wc ar assured few sojourners 
 at West Point altogether escape. Aiid the 
 little love-scene upon the wind-blon, 
 daisy-carpeted hilside is as fresh and ten- 
 der and fetching a bit of youthful senti- 
 ment as we hav chanced upon in many a 
 day. [ Commonwealth.] — It is "one of 
 the freshest and most interesting stories 
 which hav come from the press in a long 
 while. Thfire is nothing especially starts 
 ling or original in the plot, nothing par- 
 ticularly novel or grfiat about the charac- 
 ters : thSy ar ordinary men and women 
 doing and saying the commonplace things 
 which make the sum of existence in the 
 everyday world. Herein lies the clever- 
 ness of its author, that she should hav 
 taken hold of such a story and invested it 
 with so much humor, so much sweetness, 
 and an interest so intensely human, that 
 one finishes the book, closes it, and puts 
 it away with the same feeling of regret he 
 might hav in parting from a delightful 
 companion with whom he has spent an 
 afternoon. Its sub-title describes it as a 
 West-Point romance, and the description 
 of a cadet's life is so good as to impress 
 officers with the idea that the manuscript, 
 in such particulars, was corrected by one 
 of their number. The action takes place 
 quite as much in New-York as at West- 
 Point, however." [ Critic. 86 t 
 
 2Rs 
 
NOVKLS OF AMERICAN COUNTRY I.IlfK. 
 
 before us adds to viyacity and interest 
 vigorous sketches of character and scenery, 
 droll conversation and incidents, a fre- 
 quent and kindly humor, and, underlying 
 all, ii true, earnest purpose, which claims 
 not only approval for the author, but 
 respect for the man." [Atlantic. 86 
 
 MISS TEMPY'S WATCHERS, 53= 
 "King of Folly Island" or "Tales of New 
 England." 
 
 MISS VAN KORTLAND [by F. L. 
 Benedict: Harper, 1870.] "is a most 
 entertaining novel. Just in what particu- 
 lar the charm lies, it is difficult to tell— 
 altho, perhaps, it owes much to the happily 
 chosen language in which the story is 
 told. The reader is carried along so 
 pleasantly, by the current of daily affairs, 
 that he forgets, until the book is laid down, 
 that there are some things iu it which were 
 trivial, not much that was unusual, and 
 nothing sensational. There was no plot 
 to goad us on, but, instead of the conven- 
 tional stage-effect, there was a pleasantly 
 told story of genuine men and women. 
 It is a tale of American society; and our 
 National characteristics and customs are 
 drawn with unusual fidelity. . . • There 
 is a good deal of sentiment, and here it is 
 honest and refreshing because there is uo 
 suspicion of affectation or shamefacedness 
 about it. The scene is laid in the region 
 of the coal-mines of Pennsylvania, and 
 the descriptions of mountain scenery — 
 which are never tedious, form not the 
 least interesting part of the book." [Over- 
 land. 88 
 
 MRS. BEAUCHAMP BROWN [by 
 J.. (G.) Austin, Moberts, 1880.] "Un- 
 less we had read it here we should never 
 have believed that life on the coast of 
 Maine could be so exciting, so cosmopol- 
 itan in its scope, so thrilling in its inci- 
 dents. There is a jumble of notabilities — 
 leaders of Boston and Washington society, 
 a Jesuit father, an English peer, a brilliant 
 diplomatist on the point of setting out on a 
 foreign mission, a Circe the magic of whose 
 voice and eyes is responsible for most of 
 the mischief which goes on, Anglican 
 
 priests, a college professor, collegiates, at 
 least one raving maniac, beautiful young 
 girls and "Yankee men and women. From 
 the company, Mrs. Beauchamp Brown 
 alone emerges with a distinct identity. 
 ....The Yankees are capitally done, and 
 the local color is excellent. There is not 
 much to be said for the other characters." 
 [Lippincott's. 89 
 
 MODERN INSTANCE, (A) by W: 
 D. HowELLS, Osgood: 1882.] "....The 
 sketches of country town life in Equity, 
 [Maine] the portraits of the old squire 
 andhis faded wife, of the humorous philoso- 
 pher in the logging camp, of Mr. Witherby 
 the journalist, whose conscience is kept in 
 the counting-room; the touches which 
 reveal the veneering of culture bestowed 
 by a small college on a mean man; the 
 rapid outlines of a lank Western village,— 
 these, and many more which recur as one 
 thinks of the story, remind one that the 
 hand has not lost its cunning. The famil- 
 iar glimpses of a woman's mind, also, 
 when that mind is like the upper drawer in 
 her bureau, reappear in the case of Marcia ; 
 and the passages between her and her 
 husband are new readings from the old 
 story, which Mr. Howells tells so well. 
 
 If Marcia is more thah an individual, 
 
 eccentric woman; if she is the product of 
 a life where religion has run to seed, and 
 men and women are living by traditions 
 which have faded into a copy-book moral- 
 ity, Bartley Hubbard represents a larger 
 and more positive constituency." [Atlan- 
 tic]. " We suggest that perhaps every 
 
 reader, however good or refined, feels in 
 himself or herself a resemblance to some 
 one of the common American types with 
 
 which it is filled As a work of moral 
 
 fiction 'A Modern Instance' is unequalled. 
 It is a picture of the career of a rascal of 
 the most frequent American pattern. He 
 is neither cruel nor a slave of his passions, 
 nor has he any desire to sacrifice others to 
 himself. On the contrary, he is very good- 
 natured and amiable, and likes to see 
 everybody happy about him. ]5ut of hon- 
 or or principle he has no idea whatever 
 
 27 
 
NOVELS OF AMEKlC^USt COUNTRY Ul'E. 
 
 MOODS, [by Louisa May Aicott: 
 Boston, Loring, 1865.] " 'From our 
 necessitifs of love arise o&r keenest heart- 
 aches and <5lir miseries.' Trite tho it be, 
 this truth is rarely realized, save in actual 
 sorro, or in the sympathetic perusal of 
 some sorroful tale. Such a tale is Moods 
 wherein the poet's th6t finds graphic and 
 touching illustration. We hav rarely met 
 a love-story in which power and pathos 
 ar so impressivly combined. In details, 
 as wel as in general effect, it deservs earn- 
 est praise. Conceived in an ideal atmos- 
 phere, which is consistently preservd, the 
 story yet rests upon the solid basis of life. 
 Its ingidents, if not espefially novel in 
 themselvs, ar sufficiently novel in th6ir 
 combination to arouse and sustain the 
 reader's interest. But its chief and char- 
 acteristic merit is something hier than 
 vitality in the regital of in9ident or the 
 portrayal of action. Its delineation of 
 character and its analysis of emotional 
 experien9e ar the elements of its intellec- 
 tual power. Its scene is laid in New- 
 England, and its narrativ describes the 
 fortunes and the moods of 3 persons, a 
 woman and two men, the former loved by 
 both the latter. Unless we greatly err, 
 
 the reader wil find that "Moods" is one of 
 the best love-stories yet produQed in 
 America. While no less delicate than 
 truthful in its delineation of the workings 
 of the master passion, it is instinct with a 
 hi purpos. It teaches a lesson, important 
 to youth, and not insignificant to maturity 
 — that, altho its necessity of love be not 
 satisfied, the heart should yet be true to 
 itself, nor seek to escape suffering by any 
 compromise with fate ... In the way of 
 special beauties, we might praise the sim- 
 plifity and naturalness of Miss Alcott's 
 style: the felicity of pictorial tints, the 
 fidelity, and the hearty home feeling of 
 her account of a "golden wedding;" the 
 delicate, tender, profound sympathy of 
 her analysis of Sylvia's sorro and Geof- 
 frey's anguish ; the tragic pathos and the 
 dramatic art of her chapter entitled 
 "Asleep and Awake;" and, finally, the 
 the brief picture of the death of Warwick, 
 which one sees dimly throu a mist of 
 tears. The faults of the story ar a certain 
 prolixity in the earlier chapters, super- 
 fluous explanation In the last one, and 
 lac of comprehensiv thoroness in the por- 
 trayal of characters." [Albion. 90 1 
 
 27 V 
 
NDVm.S OF AMERICAN COUNTJ4Y LIFE. 
 
 In fitct, for the oldfashioned notion of 
 principle lie has substituted a new idea — 
 that of the primary importance of "smart- 
 ness" — i. e., of that quality which enables 
 a man to get ahead of his f ullows by short 
 cuts, dodges, tricks, and devices of all 
 kinds which just fall short of crime." 
 [Nation. 90 
 
 MOKTAL ANTIPATHY,(A) [by O.W. 
 
 Holmes ; Houghton, 1886.] " Humor 
 
 und kindly satire abound, and the study of 
 a strange idiosyncrasy enables the novelist 
 to make use of much curious knowledge. 
 Maurice Kirkwood, a young man who is 
 brave, accomplished, and good-looking, 
 owing to a remarkable accident in infancy, 
 bus such a repugnance to the near presence 
 of young women, that any sudden contact 
 with them causes a violent derangement 
 of the heart's action, and endangers life. 
 
 He cherishes the hope that, as like 
 
 cures like, some lovely woman may lift 
 the curse from his life. And the curse is 
 removed at last in an American village 
 whichhe has chosen for a temporary abode. 
 
 The chief attractions of the narrative 
 
 are to be found in humorous incident, and 
 in the delineation of character. In Arrow- 
 head village, the Pansophlau Society is in 
 great favor among the students of the college 
 and the young ladies of the institute. Two 
 of these girls stand out prominent. . . The 
 book is full of passages touching on the 
 follies of the day, in which the geniality of 
 the writer conceals in large measure the 
 the severity of his satire." [Spectator. 91 
 
 MYSTERY OF METROPOLISVILLE 
 (The) [ by E: Eggleston; N. Y., 0. 
 
 Judd, 1873] "is very good Any one 
 
 who cares for a simple story well told, for 
 characters who are genuine people and 
 whose talk is always amusing, will get 
 satisfaction at the hands of Mr. Eggleston. 
 The book is full of humor, observation, 
 and a healthy spirit which is sure to leave 
 a good impression. [Nation.] Scene is in 
 Minnesota in 1857. 92 
 
 NEIGHBOR JACKWOOD. [by J : T. 
 Trowbridge. Sheldon & Go. 1858.] 
 "Parts of "Neighbor Jackwood" we 
 
 read with sincere relish and admiration; 
 they showed so true an eye for Nature 
 and so thoro an appreciation of the truly 
 humorous elements of New-England 
 character, as distinguished from the vul- 
 gar and lafable ones. The domestic inte- 
 rior of the Jackwood family was drawn 
 with remarlcable truth and spirit, and all 
 the working characters of the book on a 
 certain average level of well-to-do rustici- 
 ty were made to think and talk naturally, 
 and were as full of honest human nature 
 as those of the conventional modern novels 
 are empty of it. An author who puts us 
 in the way to form some just notion of the 
 style of thot proper to so large a class as 
 our New England country-people, and of 
 the motives likely to influence their social 
 and political conduct, does us greater ser- 
 vice than we are apt to admit." [ J. R. 
 Lowell in "Atlantic." 93 
 
 NEW ENGLAND BYGONES [by 
 "E. H. ARR"[i. e., iJOLLiNS] : Lippincott, 
 1880.] This little volume is a record of 
 life in a typical New-England farm-house 
 ."iO years ago. The scenes and incidents 
 are treated with the tenderness which 
 haunts all remembered childhood in a 
 pleasant and long-forsaken home. The 
 aspect of the country throu the varied 
 seasons, the routine of the in-door work, 
 the character of the village worthies, the 
 peculiarities of the village institutions, and 
 the special experiences und delights of 
 childhood are dwelt upon minutely and 
 faithfully. The whole forms a true picture 
 of New England life in the more remote 
 districts, with its stern and unamiable 
 features unsoftened, and its strong, hardy 
 characteristics unhightened. It stirs a 
 feeling of respect even while it fails to at- 
 tract admiration, or to walcen any regret 
 that the ideal it illustrates has passed 
 away." [Nation. 94 
 
 NEW SCHOOLMA'AM (The) [byH. 
 Alger : Loring, 1878.] "has some real 
 humor in it. It is the slightest of sketches, 
 describing the adventures of a rich young 
 girl who becomes tired of fashionable life 
 in the city and takes the place of sehool- 
 
 28 
 
NOVELS 01' AMERICAN COUNlllY LIFJC. 
 
 mistress in a village among tlie mountains. 
 She meets the giftetl and penniless artist 
 and tlicy marry. The author's little hits 
 at the country people anil the city people 
 who spend the summer in the country are 
 amusing." [Nation. 95 
 
 NEWfORT [by G: P. Lathkop, 
 Scribner, 1884.] "There is much careful 
 study of individualities and much felicity 
 of description in "Newport." It is not so 
 much a story as a picture, in which all the 
 component parts must be seen at once in 
 order to blend with, modify, set off, and 
 subdue each other. The author has a vei-y 
 good command of his subject, and sees 
 Newport in its different aspects and 
 phases, with its pageants, its amusements, 
 its faults, follies, and crimes, — "set about 
 by its dark purple spheres of sea," and 
 
 arched over by its lovely skies Mr. 
 
 Lathrop has succeeded iu producing chai- 
 acters who, without faults of art or taste, 
 go throu their parts, informing them with 
 a spirit at once graceful and frivolous, 
 petty and generous. He has avoided bolh 
 the grotesque and the heroic." [Scrib- 
 ner's. 96 
 
 NEXT DOOR [by Clara L.. Buenham- 
 Ticknor, ISSG.] "The excellences of 
 •Next Door' are not of the highest sort, 
 but they are as refreshing — in the general 
 lack of excellences of any sort — as a morn- 
 ing rain in a dry season. The tone is airy 
 and light, but never flippant, while the 
 story keeps unflagging pace with the style. 
 All throu, one is entertained rather than 
 interested; and it is very good entertain- 
 ment, too, lollowing the adventures of 
 Aunt Ann and her cat, and the develop- 
 ment of her nieces' love atiairs. It would 
 be hard to find two more pleasant, lovable 
 girls than Kate and Margery, in the first 
 Ijlace, or more worthy, suitable husbands 
 for them than J: Exton and Ray Ingalls, 
 in the second. Then it is pleasant to 
 accompany such characters throu scenes 
 so naturally and admirably done as the 
 girls' boarding-house life and their vaca- 
 tion in the country. It is a. great satisfac- 
 tion to read on in coufidence to the end. 
 
 with a tolerably safe assurance that you 
 will find no straining for effect, no posing, 
 nor, in fact, anything but straitforward, 
 genuhie work. The book is noticeable, 
 equally with its other good qualities, for 
 its freshness." [Nation. 97 
 
 NIMl-ORT [bylC.L. Bynnkr: ISoston, 
 Loclcwood, 1877.] "In many ways this 
 belongs to the better class of light stories. 
 
 It is the record of a family who lose 
 
 their money at their father's death. One 
 girl goes off to be a governess, another 
 stays at home with her brother; and their 
 adventures make the story, or at least they 
 would have made a very readable story if 
 all sorts of superfluous tragedy had not 
 
 been lugged in Hut where this fault 
 
 does not exist the book is full of cleverness. 
 The humor throuout is natural and easy ; 
 the people are described as a clever woman 
 sees them. In a word, it must be said 
 that the author has certainly shown con- 
 siderable ability in writing this readable 
 novel." [Nation. 98 
 
 NORWOOD, [by H: W. Bbecher: 
 Scribner, 1868] "We have felt, in reading 
 this novel, that the author had a faculty 
 whicli might be turned to pleasant account 
 in writing for the stage. This notion was 
 suggested less by dramatic management 
 of situations, or by sustained dialog, than 
 by a certain felicity in expressing the 
 flavor and color of New England life in 
 the talk. The range is narrow, and the 
 grade is not that of the highest comedy; 
 but here is representation, not mere study, 
 of character, &, so far, drama. We should 
 be sorry to yield this point; for it is one of 
 the few to be made in favor of the present 
 novel as a work of fiction.. . .Yet all 
 this is not to the exclusion of thot and feel- 
 ing, which give delight in their play 
 amongst the ins and outs of Yankee nature 
 and over the varied picturesqueness of 
 village neighbors and neighborhoods. It 
 would be a loss not to have read that de- 
 scription of a Sunday iu Norwood, or the 
 night-fishing or the nutting-party, or go- 
 ing to Commencement at Amherst; and 
 one could ill afford not to know the charm 
 
 29 
 
NOVELS OP AMERICAN COUNTRY LIFE. 
 
 of Quaker farm-life in Peunsylvania, as it 
 appears here after the fatigues of one of 
 the most wearisome and exhausting 
 of stories." [Atlantic] Norwood was 
 burlesqued in "Gnaw-wood, or New 
 England life in a Village, by H: W. B. 
 Cher." 99 
 
 OLD BATTLE-GIiOUND, (The) [by 
 J: T. Trowbkidgb, Sheldon, I860.] 
 •'whose name bears but an accidental 
 relation to the story, is an interesting and 
 well-constructed tale, in which Mr. Trow- 
 bridge has introduced what we believe is 
 a new element in American fiction, the 
 French Canadian. The plot is simple and 
 not too improbable, and the characters are 
 well individualized. There is a good deal 
 of pathos in the book, marred here and 
 there with the sentimental extract of 
 Dickens flowers, but it is in his more 
 ordinary characters that Mr. Trowbridge 
 fiiirly shows himself as an original and 
 delightful author. His boys are always 
 masterly. Nothing could be truer to 
 Nature, more nicely distinguished as to 
 idiosyncrasy, while alike in expression 
 and in limited range of ideas — or more 
 truly comic, than the two who figure in 
 this story." [J. R. Lowell in Atlantic. 100 
 
 OLD TRIENDS AND NEW [ by S.. 
 O. Jewett; Houghton, 1879.] "is a 
 collection of stories, all gracefully done, 
 and The Lost Lover and Madame Ferry 
 may be especially commended for the 
 delicate fancy they illustrate." [Na- 
 tion. 101 
 
 OLD HOUSE 15Y THE RIVER (The) 
 [by W: C. Prime : Harper, 1853.] "is 
 the title of a charming volume, full of 
 sweet pictures of rural life, overflowing 
 with tender and delicate sentiment, tho 
 free from sentimentality, and written in 
 a style of exquisite purity and grace, not 
 unworthy of Irving or "Ik. MarveL" 
 
 With its justly colored portraitures of 
 
 nature, its simplicity and truthfulness of 
 feeling, and its rare appreciation of silvan 
 life, it can not fail to be welcomed as a 
 beautiful addition to rural literature." [Har- 
 per's. 102 
 
 OLD MAID'S PARADISE, (An) [by 
 E.. S. Phelps [Ward] Houghton, 1885.] 
 "The old maid's paradise is a f 500 house 
 which Carona Somebody, spinster, has 
 built on the cliffs overlooking Fairharbor, 
 and where she spends a memorable sum- 
 mer. The trials she has with house plans 
 and carpenters, the perplexities of incipi- 
 ent housekeeping, the idiosyncrasies of 
 the Pomona-like maid-of-all-vyork, the 
 blundering kindness of brother Tom, 
 the cheerful and unconscious ignorance of 
 sister Sue, the vagaries of a black-and-tau- 
 terrier — these elements of fun are all used 
 to advantage, and as a background there 
 are glowing descriptions of sea and shore 
 in sunshine and storm, bits of jjathetic 
 'genre' from the lives of a fisher folk, 
 charming presentations of fascinating 
 '■types." The book is perhaps no more 
 than .1 trifle, but it is a trifle that could 
 come only from the practised pen of an 
 adept. The book has in it tlie zest of sea 
 breezes, the light and color of summer 
 days. Its humor is exquisite ; its pathos 
 is the pathos of simplicity." [Boston 
 "Literary World." 103 
 
 OLD NEW-ENGLAND DAYS [ by 
 Sophia M. Damon, Boston, 1888.] "The 
 insight which one gets of a phase of civiliz- 
 ation in America which has now nearly 
 passed away, throu such books as 'Old 
 New England Days' and 'Uncle 'Lisha's 
 Shop', is well worth having. Even tho 
 the stories, as such, are without literary 
 form or finish, and could more properly be 
 called a collection of anecdotes, there is 
 about them the spirit of the sturdy, honest 
 simplicity which has for so long character- 
 ized the rural population of New Eng- 
 land and which makes one regret its 
 decadence and gradual absorption, while 
 the realist novel-writer is describing its de- 
 moralization by the march of progress and 
 city boarders." [Nation. 104 
 
 OLD SALEM, [by "Eleanor Put- 
 nam": Houghton, 1886.] "Not a few of 
 our readers will remember a short series 
 of charming papers in the Atlantic, upon 
 the cupboards and shops of Salem, and 
 
 30 
 
NOVELS OF AMKKICAN COUNl'UY 1,IFK. 
 
 upon a "daine-Ncliool" there, wliich were 
 ilisliiiguished by simplicity and freslmess 
 of touuli, and seemed really to have absorb- 
 ed into their sentiment the not too oppress- 
 ive odor of antiquity which still lingers 
 about the streets and wharves of th:it 
 sleepy city. It would be difficult to write 
 about "Old Salem" without entertainment: 
 but tlie author of these papers had so deli- 
 cate a touch, so womanly a tenderness for 
 associations, and yet humor and fancy, 
 and alertness in 'catching the artistic out- 
 lines of character, together with such lov- 
 ing acquaintance with the scene, that the 
 pictures of 'Old Salem' which she promis- 
 ed would have been a rare treat. Of these 
 but one new one, and that a fragment, is 
 added to those already published— a slietch : 
 'My Cousin the Captain." [Nation. 105 
 
 OLDTOWN FOLKS [ by H. (B.) 
 Stowe, Fields, 1869.] "The story is 
 slight and unsensatioual, but the charact- 
 ers are admirably sketched, and the vai-ious 
 scenes present a picture of New England 
 life during the past century, in which the 
 charm of fiction is combined with the real- 
 ity of history. The good, warm-hearted 
 grandmother, who presides with such 
 genuine liindliness over her charitable 
 home, a beacon of light to the unfortunate ; 
 Aunt Lois, so severe and well disciplined ; 
 Miss Mehitable, with her large, loving na- 
 ture somewhat repressed by sorrow and 
 untoward circumstances, but only the 
 more deepened and refined, it may be, 
 upon that account; "Lady" Lathrop and 
 her dignified husband Parson Lathrop ; Sam 
 Lawson, the village do-nothing, the terrible 
 Miss Asphyxia — and indeed, all the char- 
 acters of the book, are as real and living 
 as any of tlie people, still clothed in flesh, 
 whom we may chance to meet." [Ga- 
 laxy. 106 
 
 OLDTOWN FIRESIDB STORIES [by 
 H. (Bbecher) Stowe, Osgood-, 1872.] 
 "Sam Lawson, who tells these stories, is 
 doubtless the most worthless person in 
 Oldtown; but compare his amusing streaks 
 of God-fearing piety, his reverence for 
 magistracies and dignities, his law-abiding- 
 
 ness, his shrewdness, his readhicss, with 
 the stolid wickedness, the indiUerence and 
 contempt of those back-woods i-ufiians for 
 everyone else, and you will have some 
 conception of the variety of the brood 
 which the bird of freedom has gathered 
 under her wings. To be sure, the back 
 woods have long been turned into rail- 
 road-ties and cord-wood, and Oldtown is 
 no more, but this only adds to the interest 
 and value of true pictures of them. Mrs. 
 Stowe, we thinli, has hardly done better 
 work than in these tales, which have lured 
 us to read them again and again by tlieir 
 racy quaiutuess, and the charm of the 
 shiftless Lawson's character and manner. 
 The material is slight and common enuf, 
 ghosts, Indians, British, and clergymen 
 lending their threadbare interest to most 
 of them; but round these familiar protag- 
 onists moves a whole Yankee village world, 
 the least important figure of which savors 
 of the soil and "breathes full East." The 
 virtues of 50 years and more ago, the little 
 local narrowness and intolerance, the 
 lurking pathos, the hidden tenderness of a 
 rapidly obsolescent life, are all here, with 
 the charm of romance in their transitory 
 aspects, — which, we wonder, will the 
 Hibernian Massachusetts of future times 
 appreciate? At least this American gener- 
 ation can, keenly, profoundly, and for our- 
 selves, we have a pleasure in the mere 
 talk of Sam Lawson which can come only 
 from the naturalness of first-rate art." 
 [Atlantic. 107 
 
 ONE SUMMER, [by Blanche W. 
 Howard: Osgood, 1875.] '-The word 
 "charming hardly expresses with sufficient 
 emphasis the pleasure we liave taken in 
 reading it; it is simply delightful, unique 
 in method and manner, and with a pecul- 
 iarly piquant fiavor of humorous observa- 
 tion. The plot, indeed, is commonplace : 
 a city young lady meets a city gentleman 
 while summering in a New England 
 village, with results dear to the lieart of 
 novel writers and readers. . • These de- 
 fects, however, as well as others that might 
 be pointed out, are of small moment in 
 
 31 
 
NOVELS OP AMERICAN COUNTRY LIFE. 
 
 comparison with those sterling qualities 
 which we have already mentioned as be- 
 longing to the book, and with the genuine 
 humor which pervades it lilce an atmos- 
 phere. This humor is of rare quality — 
 delicate and yet hearty, and racy without 
 being in the slightest degree vulgar." 
 [Applelon's. AOS 
 
 ONLY AN INCIDENT [by »K D. 
 Litchfield, Futnam, 1884.] has the 
 virtue of modesty which its title implies. 
 The author is quite at home among the 
 favored people of Joppa, [New York] 
 and touches their blind self-sufficiency with 
 a vivacity which is in no way allied to 
 spitefulness. This thoro familiarity with 
 the manners and habits of a small com- 
 munity may perhaps account for an 
 unconscious use in narrative of colloquial- 
 isms which are often vulgar and not 
 infrequently ungrammatical." [Nation. 109 
 
 OUE COUSIN VERONICA [by M.. 
 E.. WORMLBY [Latimer]: N. Y., Bunce, 
 1856.] "The scene is chiefly among the 
 mountains of Virginia, and the char- 
 acters are taken from the aristocracy of 
 the Old Dominion. In the unfolding of 
 the plot, we are, however, taken both to 
 England and the Northern States , giving 
 the writer an opportunity for several 
 contrasts of scenery and character, which 
 she uses with excellent artistic effect." 
 [Harper's. 110 
 
 PASTORAL DAYS [by W: Hamilton 
 Gibson: Harper, 1880.] "deserves and 
 will hold a distinct place in the literature 
 of rural New ^England. His point of 
 view Is not that of the philosopher, nor 
 even of the full-grown man humoring him- 
 self with reminiscence ; it is that of the boy 
 who has never ceased to be a boy, who 
 does not call up old scenes, but still lives 
 in them, and whose portraiture of country 
 life a generation ago is no more an effort 
 than to tell the exact name of "Hometown" 
 or the real name of "Amos Shoopegg." 
 This happy continuity of feeling deter- 
 mines the style of the narrative. Its char- 
 acter-painting is excellent, and all the 
 changes and circumstances of the New 
 
 England year are truthfully described." 
 [Nation. HI 
 
 PATTY'S PERVERSITIES. [ by Arlo 
 Bates: Osgood, 1881.] "Extravagances 
 of every description pervade this story. 
 "Patty" is, of course, the heroine of the 
 tale, and her "perversities" consist chiefly 
 in encouraging all the lovers she dislikes, 
 and snubbing systematically the one she 
 does love, for no reason that can be set 
 forth more concisely than the author has 
 done it. The successful lover is projected 
 as a softened Rochester, but appears to the 
 reader as a humdrum lawyer, resentful of 
 no ill-treatment and meekly in -lined to 
 accept the matrimonial yoke when his 
 mistress's perversities finally suggest that 
 consummation. There is a sharp young 
 lady with dyspepsia, who deals in epigrams 
 and is addicted to a constant consumption 
 of popcorn, a bowl of which she always 
 carries with her; a matron of extreme 
 silliness, who directs her life by the aid of 
 proverbs; a comic servant, and, finally, 
 a most extravagant mystery, whose com- 
 plications are so intricate and the elucida- 
 tion of which leads to so little that it is 
 really difficult to tell what It is all about." 
 [Nation. 113 
 
 PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND (The) [by 
 H. (B.) Stowb, Ticknor, 1862.] "Mrs. 
 Stowe Is never more in her element than 
 in depicting unsophisticated New England 
 life, especially in those localities where 
 there is practical social equality among 
 the different classes of the population. 
 "The Pearl of Orr's Island", the scene of 
 which is laid in one of those localities [the 
 Maine coast] is evei-y way worthy of her 
 genius. Without deriving much interest 
 from its plot, it fastens the pleased 
 attention of the reader by the freshness, 
 clearness, and truth of its representations, 
 both of Nature and persons. The author 
 transports us at once to the place she has 
 chosen as the scene of her story, makes us 
 as familiarly acquainted with all its sur- 
 roundings as if we had been born and bred 
 there, introduces us to all the principal 
 inhabitants in a thoroly "neighborly" way. 
 
 32 
 
. NOVELS OF AMKlilCAN t'OUNTliV LIFE. 
 
 PEOPLE At PISGAH. [by Edwin 
 W. Sanborn: Appleton, 1892.] "Tc'] 
 those who tlcsirc a touch of the good okl- 
 fashiond ooraic-ahnauac humor, such as 
 charmd the boyhood of persons now 55 
 years old, we can confidently recommend 
 this little book. There ar in it traQes of 
 later and very recent Ijnoledge — passages 
 which recall the trials for heresy, past, 
 or future, in which many take a lively 
 interest; but the staple of the booklet is of 
 the Sam Slick and Davy Croclcett period. 
 Drol incidents, with no congeivable pur- 
 pos in life except to raise a laf , ar set in 
 lively motion, one after another, with 
 breathless haste, until the misadventures 
 of the Rev. Dr. Van Nuynthlee of New- 
 York, who is the hero of the story, gets so 
 complicated that the reader wonders how 
 he wil ever escape from thSir snaky coils. 
 Nor in fact docs he, for the last page 
 leaves him at the mercy of Miss Prudence 
 Winthrop of Boston, who has set what she 
 is pleased to call her heart on marrying 
 Dr. Van Nuynthlee, but who has been 
 supplanted in his affections by the Widow 
 Suydam. His future torment may there- 
 fore be imagind. The first chapters of 
 the book ar iu a quiet, grave tone, not 
 without seriousness, but all this vanishes 
 as the plot reveals itself, and the fun of 
 the situations becomes too much for the 
 moderation of the author. He then lays 
 the rSins of his judgment on the mane of 
 hia drol fanjy, and away we go, throu all 
 sorts of rustic dilemmas, quite out of keep- 
 ing with the grave outset of the tale. 
 ThSre is a genuin humor in it, and much 
 skil and gra9e of style." [Springfield 
 Republican. 113 s 
 
 32 h 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN COUNTRY LrPB. 
 
 and contrives to impress us with a sense 
 of the substantial reality of what she makes 
 us mentally see, even when an occasional 
 improbability in the story almost wakes 
 us up to a perception that th,e whole is a 
 
 delightful illusion In the rest of the 
 
 population of Orr's Island the reader can- 
 not fail to take a great interest, ''Cap'u" 
 Kittredge and his wife, Miss Eoxy and 
 Miss Zephania I'ennel, are incomparably 
 good. Each affords matter enuf for a long 
 dissertation on New England and 
 human character. Miss Eoxy, especially, 
 is the typical old maid of Yankee-land, and 
 is so thoroly loveable, in spite of her idi- 
 om, her crusty manners and eccentricities, 
 that the only wonder is that she should 
 have been allowed to remain single. But 
 the same wonder is often expressed, in 
 actual life, in regard to old maids superior 
 in education, accomplishments, and beauty, 
 and her equals in vital self sacrifice and 
 tenderness of heart." [Atlantic. 113 
 
 PETER CAERADINE [by Caroline 
 ChesbbrC, Sheldon & Go: 1863.] "The 
 second title of this novel, "The Martindale 
 Pastoral," indicates its design and scope. 
 We think that there is no female writer in 
 America, who equals her in the power of 
 unfolding character. In this work she 
 has made a great advance upon any of her 
 previous efforts. She has a story to tell — 
 interesting, if not exciting to those who 
 have been accustomed to "thrilling" plots. 
 Her characters are here persons who 
 might really have lived in this world, and 
 the phases of their development are wr6t 
 with the conscientious care of a genuine 
 artist. "Without attempting to give an 
 analysis of the story and characters, we 
 content ourselves by saying that the culti- 
 vated reader will deem "Peter Carradine" 
 the best American novel which has been 
 written for years." [Harper's. 114 
 
 PILOT FORTUNE [by Marian C. L. 
 Reeves and Emily Read, Houghton, 
 1885.] "cannot be said to be strikingly 
 original either in plot or situation, but the 
 Nova Scotia fishing-village which makes 
 the background of the novel is so well 
 
 touched off, the local color so fresh an 
 unmistalcable, and the narrative so easily 
 and lightly given, that the book becomes 
 vivid and effective. There is little mere 
 description, but a few strokes of the pen 
 draw the picture for us so clearly that we 
 seem to breathe the crisp air of those high 
 latitudes all throu the story of Milicent and 
 her lovers." [Lippineott's. 115 
 
 POGANUC PEOPLE [by H. (B.) 
 Stowe, Fords, 1878.] "The old New 
 England rural life can hardly be too fully 
 and too minutely illustrated for those who 
 came too late to behold it, for the signifi- 
 cance of that life in the fast-cumulating 
 story of this nation is inestimable." [At- 
 lantic. 116 
 
 PRICE SHE PAID (The) [by F. L. 
 Benedict: Lippincott, 1883.] "is one 
 of the author's best, with the same ease 
 in delineation of character, the same viva- 
 cious and sparkling talk, which made "St. 
 Simon's Niece" a popular book. The little 
 drama here is played out in the picturesque 
 highlands of Pennsylvania, and the 
 story chiefly concerns the heroine's 
 dilemma about her lovers. There are, 
 indeed, two heroines, and the effect created 
 is of endless coquetries and prettinesses 
 and all the irresistible array of feminine 
 caprices. But the best character in the 
 story is Denis Bourke, a young Irishman 
 who carries off the honors as hero with 
 unusual dignity and reality. Mr. Benedict 
 has not been carried away by admiration 
 of the analytical novel of the period, and 
 his characters are developed by their own 
 expression of themselves." [Lippin- 
 eott's. 117 
 
 QUEEN HILDEGARDE [by L. E. 
 (Howe) Richards: Estes & Lauriat, 
 1.S89.] "is sweet and wholesome, with a 
 distinct purpose, yet without the appear- 
 ance of "preaching". Hildegardis Graham, 
 the petted only dauter of wealthy parents, 
 finds to her dismay that they are for the 
 first time to leave her behind when they 
 take a journey. Her sensible mamma, 
 fearing that Hilda is getting frivolous and 
 shallow in her artificial city life, decides 
 
 33 
 
NOVELS OK AMERICAN COUNTKV lAl'K. 
 
 PETER GOTT. [by J. Reynolds: 
 liostou, Jewett, 1856.] ''ThCre is a home- 
 ly simplicity in this story, added to a 
 vigorous, manly strength. Narrating the 
 life of Peter Gott, who as a "Cape Ann 
 fisherman" by good sense and persevering 
 industry accumulated a fortune without 
 forfeiting the respect and affection of his 
 acquaintances, the book describes with 
 much minuteness the manner in which 
 the fisheries ar carried on. Written some- 
 what in the Robinson Crusoe style, 
 entirely devoid of pretentiousness, aiming 
 only at a plain recital of facts without 
 rhetorical flourishes, it wil, by that class 
 which can appreciate it, be read with 
 grfiat pleasure. ThCre is no plot, no re- 
 markable adventures or hair-breadth 
 escapes. We find it diflicult to determin 
 in what particular such books hav thCir 
 especial charm — it must be in thCir truth- 
 fulness." [Criterion. 114 d 
 
 PETTI r.ONE NAME = No. 338. 
 
 331 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN COUNTKY LIKE. 
 
 PICTUllES OF COUNTRY LIFE [ by 
 Alice Gary (1822-71): N.-Y., Derby, 
 1S59.] "includes a series ol tales and 
 sketches of villagers, and insideuts of 
 their lives— felicitous in description, with 
 frequent pathos and tenderness." [Cen- 
 tury.] It "is a not unfit companion for 
 the record of 'Our Village' (No. 1657). 
 It is healthful, entertaining reading, and 
 the pleasure it is able to giv is as pure and 
 honest as it is gi-Cat." [Nation. 114 m 
 
 33 k 
 
NOVKLS OV AMERICAN COUNTRY LIPR. 
 
 PEUE AND I [by G: W: Curtis (t, 
 1892): N.-Y., Dix, 1856.] is "not large 
 in bulk nor pretentious in subject, yet 
 genial and gentle to the lull, and written 
 with so cunning carelessness that as you 
 saunter along from page to page you ar 
 scargely conscious of the rich soil which 
 lies beneath the surf age. We d5 not mean 
 that in these pleasant glimpses at the so- 
 cial world you shal flud a treatis on the 
 whole duty of man or a homily lor every 
 day of the week. We aver only that, 
 tingd tho it be with epicureanism, Mr. 
 Curtis' philosophy is wholesome and 
 kindly ; that he counsels a good use of the 
 world, not a deadly crusade against those 
 who abuse it; that he is too wise to dream 
 of extinguishing ostentation and folly, by 
 penned or spoken satire, contenting him- 
 self with the more practical object of re- 
 duging them to thfiir proper value in the 
 eyes of lookers-on. Herein he succeeds. 
 "Prue and I," a loving and contented 
 couple, form a connecting link for the 
 half-dozen papers here gathered, tho each 
 is able to stand alone. Our favorit is "My 
 Chateaux," for who is so poor in hopes, 
 so beggared in imagination, as not to on a 
 castle in Spain? Very delightfully, and 
 with some profit withal, ar tho tenures of 
 these Spanish estates investigated, and 
 the varied roll of thCir possessors called 
 over. If you hav not seen this amend- 
 ment on the Peerage Book, we advise you 
 to get it. Some other good tilings too, 
 you wil find appended — some in which 
 the style may remind you of "The Sketch 
 Book," and the tone of the "Essays of 
 Elia." " [Albion. 117k 
 
 3.3 q 
 
NOVFXS OF AMElilCAN COUNTRY LIFE. 
 
 QUALITY OF JIERCY (The) [by W: 
 Dean Howells: Harper, 1S92.] "is a 
 tract for tlie times. It is purely realistic, 
 and propounds a common problem of the 
 day, to whose solution the author offers 
 no aid. One meets again nearly every 
 character who figured in "Annie Kil- 
 burn" [No. 189]; Annie herself appears 
 but once or twice, and then for a moment 
 only ; but Putney, the Northwicks, the 
 Hilarys, Mr. Gerrish, ar personages of 
 the new chapters of life in Hatboro. The 
 frequent tale of the defaulter is told. 
 Northwick, who has long been the treas- 
 urer of a grSat corporation of which 
 Hilary is president, has for years, to use 
 his self-considerate phrase, been borroing 
 the funds of the company to speculate 
 with. The story begins just as this has 
 been found out. The president, because 
 he is all old friend of the family, givs 
 Northwick 3 days in which to replace the 
 the stolen money. "We hardly need say 
 that Northwick makes for Canada that 
 night. But he is not made of so strong a 
 stuff as he had thot. Exile often 
 breaks down the stoutest, and Northwick 
 weakens mentally and physically until he 
 would prefer an American jail to freedom 
 in Canada, and he voluntarily returns to 
 Hatboro, only to die on the way. In the 
 mean time his family hav stripped them- 
 selvs of all thfiy held, and his old friend 
 Hilary has robbed himself to make good 
 the speculations of Northwick. Disaster, 
 shame and obloquy hav been the result of 
 greed ; it is true the virtues of the Hilarys 
 and the firmly-rooted principles of the 
 defaulter's dauter shine more brightly by 
 contrast, but thCy do not offset the misery 
 caused by one man's sin. Nor does the 
 
 punishment of exile and ignominy better 
 Northwick; be pities himself and hugs 
 the hope that he may compromise,— that 
 with his previous record the world wil 
 not press him too hardly, that mercy wil 
 be granted; and he dies in this convic- 
 tion." [Springfield Republican.]— "It is 
 a better novel than "A Modern Instance," 
 because the author keeps more closely to 
 the story and indulges in fewer philoso- 
 phical digressions. It is a study of a re- 
 spectable bank defaulter. [San Francisco- 
 Chronicle.] — "Northwick seems to be a 
 type of men of his kind as true to 
 life as ar Silas Lapham [No. 357] and 
 Bartley Hubbard [No. 90]. The pleas- 
 ure to be derived from reading this study 
 is a purely literary one, and, grCat as that 
 is, it can not dispel the depression caused 
 by the subject's intrinsic pain. The au- 
 thor has, however, done his best to liten 
 inseparable gloom. Noti§eably inspiriting 
 is the reporter, — genial, light-hearted, and 
 kind in almost every relation of life, yet 
 perfectly unscrupulous when animated 
 by a desire to make a 'beat' in the interest 
 of his paper. The perusal of the' book 
 must increase the admiration of the 
 author's constant readers for the fidelity 
 with which he has pursued his chosen 
 way, — to present a series of pictures of 
 common American life. Thfiy must also 
 be impressed by that steady advange in 
 knoledge which is helping him in his 
 later works to represent his people as, 
 after all, more human than American. 
 And, without loss of brilliancy, his style 
 has gained urbanity, even tenderness, and 
 thus compels -<i personal affection throu 
 which intellectual admiration suffers no 
 detraction." [Nation. 117 p 
 
NOVELS OK AM15R1CAK COUNTRY LIFE. 
 
 QUAKER GIRL OF NANTUCKET = 
 No. 351. 
 
 QUAKER HOME (A), [by G: Fox 
 Tucker: Boston, Russell, 1890.] "The 
 wil point involve! is one of grfiat interest. 
 The book is pleasantly written, the anec- 
 dotes and scenes ar largely taken from 
 life, the descriptiv passages wil be readily 
 recognized by visitors to New Bedford, 
 and the volume is of exceptional value in 
 that, unlike other novels vcritten about 
 Quakers, it givs a graphic and extremely 
 interesting portrayal of the home-life, 
 habits, customs, vues and religious con- 
 victions, as wel as the beautiful traits of 
 that "peculiar people." [ Boston Tran- 
 script. 117 m 
 
 QUEECHY [by Susan Warner (1819- 
 85) : Putnam, 185i.] "is a book without 
 a parallel, except in the "Wide Wide 
 World" (No. 0401 ) ; and it is very hi 
 praise to say of it, as we can, that the 
 natural refinement and beauty of some 
 of the characters renders the book read- 
 able in spite of the surprising vulgarity of 
 most of them. Unless we ar very much 
 in error in <5iir inferen9es from her writ- 
 ings, this author has spent her days in a 
 quiet country life, — the happiest and best 
 
 of all medes of life, but one which is not 
 the best preparation for the painter of 
 f.ishiouable manners. lier country peo- 
 ple ar all true and forcible — coarse, but 
 never vulgar; and had all the characters 
 been made of such persons, the work 
 would hav been unexceptionable. But 
 when the Author attempts, as with the 
 greatest confidence she does, to describe 
 the best society of New-York, Paris, and 
 London, her failure is too gr(;at to be 
 absurd ; it is melancholy to behold the 
 working of a so ruinous mistake. Had 
 Dickens written many of this lady's hi- 
 society scenes, and introduced them as 
 exposures of the vulgarities into which 
 the loest jity shopkeepers and thfiir wives 
 and dauters fall by endeavoring to assume 
 the 'haut ton,' the satire would hav been 
 acfepted as a masterpiece ... To an Eng- 
 lish reader, the etTect of many portions of 
 "Queechy'' must be particularly ludicrous 
 and painful in this regard. For example, 
 Mr. Carleton , a man of ancient and noble 
 family, is not only a Methodist, but he 
 carries his religion into the ball-room, and 
 discourses of the one thing needful to his 
 partner in the dance." [ North British 
 Review. 1117 s 
 
 33 t 
 
NOVBLS or AMERICAN COUNTRY LIFE. 
 
 to leave her in the country for 3 mouths 
 with her own old nurse, now the wife of 
 a well-to-do farmer. The girl, called the 
 queen of her fastidious set at home, goes 
 to the farm, and finds all her high breed- 
 ing severely strained not to express openly 
 her disdain at her homely surroundings. 
 Preparing herself to be thoroly wretched, 
 she overhears a conversation between the 
 farmer and his wife, in which Dame Lucy 
 tries to explain the dear mother's plan ; 
 and the girl's wish to be some time what 
 her mother wishes, grows into a resolve. 
 The change comes almost too suddenly to 
 be artistic, but it is very welcome, and the 
 book goes on with interesting accounts of 
 her life and occupations at the farm. An 
 agreeable humor pervades the book with- 
 out in the least jarring upon the sense of 
 fitness." [Nation. 118 
 
 QUEER PRINCESS. (A) [by F.. Eaton, 
 Lothrop, 1888.] "A bright, quaint story. 
 "The Princess" is' a motherless little girl 
 reared by an adoring circle of elders. 
 Queer and precocious she is, but also sweet 
 and lovable. Her playmate and house- 
 mate, Dick, a poor boy educated and cared 
 for by Miss Minerva, an eccentric aunt of 
 the "Princess," is a noble little fellow, but 
 too refined for his antecedents. Various 
 other child-figures add to the drollery and 
 charm of the book, among whom Miss 
 Flora is the greatest oddity. The story 
 seems long-drawn-out, being a succession 
 of scenes rather than a brisk narrative, 
 and the style is peculiar; but the humor, 
 good sense, and warm-hearted feeling make 
 us forget the faults of the book." [Na- 
 tion. 119 
 
 RACHEL ARMSTRONG, m^" "Love 
 and Theology." 
 
 RACHEL'S SHARE OF THE ROAD, 
 [by Kate W. Hamilton : Osgood. 18S2] 
 "The dauter of a railway king, wrapped 
 in all luxury, Rachel's heart is loving and 
 
 her foot and hand ready Rachel's 
 
 opportunity lies among the few workmen 
 upon the road with whom she comes in 
 contact; and it is the skilful management 
 of incidents, essentially melodramatic. 
 
 such as railroad strikes, shop-burningS; 
 and the like, that the great merit of the 
 book is shown. To use so much of them, 
 and no more, as shall bring out the individ- 
 ual characteristics of the personages of 
 the story, requires a power of reserve not 
 often found out of the foremost rank of 
 novelists. The story is not much more than 
 a sketch, but the firm, delicate outlines, 
 and clear, pure color, prove a hand which 
 might succeed in more elaborate work." 
 [Nation. 120 
 
 RALEIGH WESTGATE [by 11.. (K.) 
 Johnson : Appleton, 1889.] "The writer 
 has evidently lived long enuf in New 
 England to become thoroly conversant 
 with the peculiarities of the people. She 
 displays a familiarity with their habits of 
 mind, their modes of speech and of living 
 that gives evidence of careful research. 
 The romance which connects these char- 
 acter-piclures is of an unusual type and 
 has a mystery interwoven with it which 
 lifts the book out of the commonplace. 
 The hero himself is an interesting study of 
 Individuality equally impressed by heredity 
 and by circumstances. The evolution of a 
 practical man from a dreamer is skillfully 
 delineated." [Homemaker. 131 
 
 RAYMOND KERSHAW [by Mama M. 
 Cox, Boberts, 1888.] "This story will 
 surely meet with the success it well 
 deserves. It is entertaining, it is helpful, 
 it is sweet and wholesome; its influence is 
 all for the gentle courtesies and amenities 
 of life, for a wide charity and good will 
 towards one's fellow beings ; it is written 
 in a clear and pleasing style ; and the story, 
 as a story, is engaging and of unflagging 
 interest... To relate how this young man, 
 aided by Alison, had the change made to a 
 farm which had been the father's costly 
 "hobby," how the two formed and carried 
 out a plan of laborious, self-sacrificing life 
 there, how each of the household worked 
 in his or her own way for the common 
 good, how they found time and means to 
 give holidays to the mill hands, who had 
 loved their father, how everything pros- 
 pered in the end — this seems to have been 
 
 34 
 
NO\'ELS OF AMERICAN COUNTRY SAUK. 
 
 the author's purpose." [Boston "Literary 
 World." 132 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF AUTON 
 HOUSE, [by "C. Avtot^:" Houghton, 
 1876.] "Children of a larger growth, as the 
 author admits in his preface, were the 
 immediate audience for which these rem- 
 iniscences were intended. ..It would 
 be an injustice to this little book to pass it 
 by among the ephemeral juvenile product- 
 ions of the year. It Is more than an irre- 
 sistibly droll family history ; it is a true 
 picture of the domestic life of a period 
 dating two generations back." [Na- 
 tion. 123 
 
 REVEREND IDOL (A) [by Lucrbtia 
 Noble: Osgood, 1882.] "is a study of 
 summer life, which will better repay 
 reading than critical examination. The 
 scene of the story is laid on Cape Cod in 
 vacation time, when the Rev. Kenyon 
 Leigh .-ind Miss Monny Rivers have got 
 nicely domiciled in a quiet boarding-house 
 — the one to work on his next winter's 
 sermons, the other to pursue her rather 
 solitary art-studies. The minister, tho a 
 discreet and earnest man, has been hope- 
 lessly and helplessly a "reverend idol" 
 among the women of the congregation, 
 and has fled to 'the Cape' for a few sum- 
 mer weeks to possess his soul in peace and 
 have the "usual half-holiday." He dreams, 
 poor man, that, so far as female idolatry 
 is concerned, he is safely "out of the busi- 
 ness." Miss Monny Rivers, who has been 
 more or less a reverend idol among the 
 young men, and is certainly a piquant and 
 charming girl, has come for a similar pur- 
 pose. That is, she, too, would like a half- 
 holiday from lovers The plot being 
 
 thus simple and old-fashioned, the scenery 
 is plain and easily moved, seldom shifted. 
 The reverend hero is drawn not as a rever- 
 end, but as a hero Given a lively spirit, 
 
 a saucy tung, but a good heart, an artistic 
 temperament, and an unbounded capacity 
 of worship for the unknown and unknow- 
 able qualities of the heroic In man, and we 
 have the ever old, ever new, and ever 
 delightful woman whom it Is always a 
 
 pleasure to see fall to the lot of a worthy 
 man." [Scribner's. 124 
 
 RICHARD EDNEY. [by S. JUDD: 
 Phillips, Sampson & Co., 1850.] "With 
 not a few faults, this is a capital book. 
 For the most part, it is fresh, vigorous, 
 and healthful ; it is generally simple and 
 natural ; its domestic scenes are drawn to 
 the life.; and the reader sees at once that 
 the whole is the result of real observation 
 and of true feeling. • -It is 'a tale, simple 
 and popular, yet cultured and noble, of 
 morals, sentiments and life,' pratically 
 treated and pleasantly illustrated; and its 
 hints on being good and doing good are 
 such as will commend themselves to the 
 intellect and heart of the heedful reader. 
 Tlie scene is laid in the neighborhood of 
 an interior town in far-off Maine, upon 
 the borders of one of its broad rivers, and 
 in the midst of a vast timber region, the 
 characteristics of which are depicted with 
 great po iver." [Knickerbocker. 125 
 
 ROCKY FORK [byM.. (H.) Cather- 
 WOOD, Lothrop, 1882.] "tells the story 
 of a few summer days in a little neighbor- 
 hood of farmhouses of central Ohio long 
 ago. The children are the central figures, 
 but there is a due background of older 
 people. The book has simplicity and 
 sweet homeliness. Very rarely has plain 
 country life been so faithfully described. 
 It seerns usually impossible to do it with- 
 out a tinge of vulgarity, which is just 
 what true American country-life escapes. 
 Some fine fibre in American nature, when 
 close to fields and woods and sky, keeps 
 it always noble, however rude the exterior. 
 If there is a hint, towards the end of the 
 book, that refined manners are of their 
 nature insincere, it is evidently a tribute 
 to some supposed prejudice of the sort, 
 not out of the writer's own conviction. 
 
 Her people are all graciously attractive 
 
 It is useless to try to transplant the child- 
 ren. They must be known in their own 
 woods and meadows. 'I'heirs was a bless- 
 ed world of happy "make-believes" where' 
 simple pleasures yet had charm." [Na- 
 tion. 126 
 
 Sb 
 
NOVELS OP AMERICAN COUNTRY LIFE. 
 
 RODERICK HUME [by C. W. 
 Bardeen, Syracuse, N. Y., 1879.] 
 "Somewhere in the early part of this cen- 
 tury was published a book, half humorous, 
 half descriptive, called 'The District 
 School as It Was.' It was in striking con- 
 trast to this "Story of a New- York Teach- 
 er." The scene was laid in New England, 
 which gave a local quality to be allowed 
 for; but, all allowance made, there is a 
 mighty change in 50 years between the two 
 stories. Then literature was cultivated, if 
 not "on a little oatmeal," yet under the 
 sternest conditions. Short sessions, scant 
 salaries, severe discipline necessary to in- 
 duce the refractory flock to begin the ascent 
 to I'arnassus, were the rule, and the teach- 
 er's place was supposed to be held by stress 
 of necessity. The times change however, 
 and we change with them, and trust^funds, 
 endowments, and shrewd speculation play 
 a prominent part in the more recent story. 
 To furnish a marketable article is the 
 object of the school management, and the 
 reputation and capacities of the teacher 
 are points to be scored in the game. The 
 under-te.ichers are a powerful and well- 
 connected body, and school events are also 
 village events. The book is vivacious, and 
 the Author knows the ground he describes. 
 ... .Mr. Bardeen, carrying his hero throu 
 hope, disappointment, folly, and despair, 
 brings him out with flying colors at the 
 close of the book." [Nation. 127 
 
 RODMAN THE KEEPER, [by Con- 
 stance F. Woolson: Appleton, 1880.} 
 "The writer of these sltetches, living in 
 the South for several years, has acquired 
 a just appreciation of the present state of 
 society in tliat region, and in her graceful 
 way she tells these stories of southern 
 life and manners, exercising her subtle 
 humor upon its faults and follies, and 
 dwelling with pathos upon its sorrows and 
 regrets. A woman's sympathetic heart 
 ever guides the pen of tliis charming 
 writer, who is always natural, but never 
 commonplace, and who will win an nd- 
 mirer in every reader of "Rodman the 
 Keeper." [Penn. Monthly.] Each of the 
 
 sketches has that breath of life in it which 
 belongs alone to what is called human 
 interest. In each the sympathy is awak- 
 ened and takes hold upon the life of some 
 human being with vital intensity. In each 
 a human life passes throu its ordeal, and 
 if the endings of the tales are for the most 
 part unconventional, they are not thi^ less 
 true, not the less artistic, not the less dra- 
 matic on that account .Miss "Woolson's 
 
 art is superb, and slie is lovingly faithful 
 to it." [N. Y. Eve. Post. 128 
 
 ROSE CLARK, [by "Fanny Fern :" 
 Mason Brothers, 1S56.] "The plot of the 
 story is of an unpretending character, free 
 from extravagant incidents and artificial 
 complications, and deriving its interest 
 from the natural pictures of life in the 
 experience of the heroine. Left an orphan 
 in infancy, and exposed to the usual trials 
 of adverse fate. Rose Clark develops a 
 sweet feminine nature, and wins both 
 sympathy and admiration by her noble 
 womanly bearing in the most perplexing 
 circumstances. Several striking episodes 
 are woven into the principal narrative, 
 highly spiced with the pungent satire for 
 which the authoress possesses a so remark- 
 able gift." [Harper's. 129 
 
 ROSE IN BLOOM, By L. M. Alcott, 
 Boberts, 1876. 
 
 ROSECROFT. [by W: M. F. Round. 
 Lee & Shepard, 1881.] "The plot ot 
 the story is based on such harsh unkind- 
 ness that we are glad to take refuge in its 
 improbability; but the village oddities are 
 worth knowing, and Mrs. Stowe herself 
 has done nothing better than the old 
 negress, unlettered Rachel, and her Bible 
 reading." [Nation. 1 30 
 
 ROXY [by E: Eggleston, Scribiier, 
 
 1878.] " Were it possible for a man to 
 
 have offered him the choice of his place 
 and epoch in the world, it is not to be sup- 
 posed that any sane person would select 
 a town in Southern Indiana at the date 
 
 of the Ti|)pecanoe campaign Yet such 
 
 things Dr. Eggleston saw in his youth, and 
 in such participated. We are no less sure, 
 after reading his vigorous, humorous, and 
 
NOVELS OF AMEKICAN COUNTRY LIFE. 
 
 (the theme cousidereU) marvelously pict- 
 uresque narrative, that he met them lilie a 
 man, than thiit he afterward grasped them 
 lilve a philosoplier, aud has now portrayed 
 them lilce a genuine artist. The boolt is 
 appropriately named after the heroine, 
 who is the centre of all its action, and on 
 whom, as on his worthiest subject, the 
 author has shed the strongest light and be" 
 stowed the most careful study. The 
 remarkable character of Eoxy Adams is 
 not only clearly conceived, but thoroly and 
 admirably developed." [Atlantic. 131 
 
 EUDDER CHANGE [by P. R: Stock- 
 ton, Scribner, ISaO.] "We would believe 
 that we are telling most of our readers 
 what they know when we remind them 
 that Rudder Grange is the fit name of an 
 abandoned canal-boat, which the reporter 
 of the story, his wife, servant I'omona, 
 aud a boarder took possession of aud 
 transfoi'med into a floating hut; that when 
 the canal-boat went under, in a sudden 
 storm, the Grangers transferred the title 
 to a less unique house, which they hired 
 and finally hot, in the country; and that 
 about these two houses, the water house 
 and tlie land house, most of the adventures 
 
 of these babes in worldliness gathered 
 
 Pomona, with her taste for violent read- 
 ing, her ingenuity in devices, and her ex- 
 perience as a newly marled bride, is a 
 positive contribution to the characters of 
 humorous literature. Indeed, the faith- 
 fulness with which the characters are 
 drawn gives the book a position much 
 above that of most contemporaneous fun. 
 There is conscientious literary work in it 
 and an unfailing healthfulness of play." 
 [Atlantic. 132 
 
 SAM SHIRK [by G: H. Dbvereux: 
 Surd & Houghton, 1871 ] "is a very 
 interesting and vivid picture of adventure 
 [in the Maine woods] in hunting, logging, 
 fighting with Indians, with enuf of a love 
 story Interwoven with it to add the neces- 
 sary human zest. The descriptions of 
 scenery are evidently the work of a lover 
 •,if nature, and the characteristic scenes of 
 the book, have the unmistakable flavor of 
 
 the woods, and show that the author is 
 intimately conversant with the free, whole- 
 some life of adventure which he describes." 
 [Monthly Rclig. Mag. 133 
 
 SAXE HOLM'S STORIES [2nd. Series, 
 by H.. (FiSKK) Jackson, Scribner, 
 1878.] "in this inxtance, are 5 short love- 
 stories, the anonymous writer evidently 
 being convinced that no other subject is 
 much worth treating. The book might 
 bear for motto the old doggerel : 
 "Oh! 'tis love, 'tis love, 'tis love 
 That makes the world go round." 
 Two of these stories are good — "Farmer 
 Bassett's Bomance" and "Joe Hale's Red 
 Stockings" — but the others float in an at- 
 mosphere of unreality. "Joe Hale's Eed 
 Stockings" might be true, every word of 
 it, and has pleasant pictures of sea and 
 shore, light-house and hospital, and of 
 human beings leading lives therein which 
 make it the more remarkable that the same 
 author should write such stuff as 'My 
 Tourmaline.' [Nation. 134 
 
 SEALED ORDERS [by B.. S. Phelps 
 [Ward], Hoberts, 1880.] "Miss Phelps 
 excels in stories of kindly and lonely 
 women, for the most part single, warped 
 into an eccentricity, 'which is quaint and 
 amiable, by a narrow life, withdrawn from 
 all the realities and activities of the world, 
 save the important exception of charity. 
 The best of these stories is of such a 
 woman, a poor dressmaker without friends, 
 who becomes, throu her goodness to all 
 who need a helping hand at tiie boarding- 
 house where she lives, the central figure 
 and main-stay of them all, albeit quite 
 unconsciously. TAe True Story oj 
 Guinever' has nothing to do with any- 
 thing real, but is prettily fanciful. Queen 
 Guinever, who is in this case the charming 
 little wife of a master carpenter, is saved 
 just on the brink of the catastrophe, and, 
 with her sorrowful lesson learned, brot 
 back to happiness. A somewhat similar 
 but less successfully told story, is ' The 
 Lady of Shalott.' The remaining tales 
 produce an unpleasant effect of what we 
 may paradoxically call the eccentricity of 
 
 37 
 
NOVELS OK AMERICAN COUNTIJY LIFE. 
 
 commonplace." [Nation. 135 
 
 SHADY SIDE, OR LIFE IN A COUN- 
 TRY PARSONAGE, (The) [by Martha 
 (S.) HuBBELL ; Jewett, 1853.] "This is a 
 new edition of a book too widely known 
 to ask for criticism. We are told that, at 
 its first appearance, no fewer than 50,000 
 copies were required to satisfy the demand. 
 If the circulation of the book serves, in 
 anj' degree, to waken our rural community 
 to a sense of their frequent injustice 
 touching the ministers of religion,— what 
 to give them and what to expect from 
 them, we hope the last edition may find as 
 many readers as the first." [Church 
 Monthly. 136 
 
 SIMPLY A LOVE STORY. [by P. 
 Orne, Cupples, l.sSo.] "The scenes are 
 ia a JNew England fishing-town, and are 
 described with all the invigorating interest 
 that comes of the peculiar life on its shore 
 and on its adjacent waters. The leading 
 actor is a sea-captain's dauter. . . . The 
 action is lively and holding, deriving par- 
 ticular interest from its opposition of 
 character and its counterplots. It is well 
 managed to lead up to an unexpected 
 finale." [Boston "Globe." 137 
 
 SIX TO ONE [by E: Bellamy, P?(^ 
 nam, 1878.] "Is as bright as any one 
 could wish. The One is a broken-down 
 New York editor who goes to Nantucket 
 to recruit; the Six are the maidens unto 
 whose mercies he falls, and they begin his 
 torture by promising one another not to 
 hold any private tSte-&-tfites with him. 
 Nevertheless, the end is seen from the 
 beginning. Two of them fall in love with 
 him, and he falls in love with only one, the 
 gentlest and shyest of all, whose pleasures 
 and emotions have hitherto been associated 
 only with the sea. This life-long, intimate 
 Inweaving of her moods with the changing 
 ocean-view makes the transition to a life 
 centred in human relations a difficult ex- 
 perience, and the conflict is the most 
 refined conception in the book, and is 
 
 pleasing until the denouement comes. 
 
 Except lor some melodrama and extremely 
 bad taste like this, and some remarkable 
 
 sallies of wit, the book has much merit." 
 [Nation. 138 
 
 SNOWBOUND AT EAGLE'S [by 
 Bret Harte: Houghton, 1886.] "is of 
 as little value as anything he has written. 
 Regarded as a story, it is worthless. Re- 
 garded in detail, for its bits of description, 
 keen conversations, witty sayings, it has 
 the excellences found in everything from 
 the same strong hand. Harte never makes 
 a slip in turning a sentence, or n, para- 
 graph, or a brief episode; but when the 
 story is nothing, and when in his excellent 
 handling of details he still does not make 
 any strikingly brilliant or humorous points, 
 readers will not care much for the book; 
 there is nothing in it but the technique, 
 and that interests only the specialist in 
 literary criticism. As in everything of 
 Harte's, the external sinoeritv. the careful 
 truth to nature, as far as her sights and 
 sounds go, is constantly marred by an 
 unreality, a theatrical insincerity, even a 
 defect of observation, in dealing with hu- 
 man nature." [Overlanil.] "The char- 
 acters are well drawn : J: Hale, the trans- 
 planted gentleman of culture; his weak 
 and slightly faded wife; his shallow- 
 minded but positive mother-iu-law ; Col- 
 onel Clinch, who strives to hit the happy 
 mean between law and lawlessness ; Zeenie, 
 the coarse backwoods beauty; and even 
 Ealkuer, the mysterious and moustached 
 villain pro tempore. George Lee, and 
 Kate, the heroine, so far as the story has a 
 heroine, are more feebly drawn; the 
 former is the familiar noble-hearted rascal 
 and rake, who never 'went back' on a 
 friend or insulted a respectable woman. 
 The blemish in the story is the unpleasant 
 flirtation of Lee and Mrs. Hale, and the 
 gratuitous soupgon of a similiar fault on 
 the part of Hale towards Zeenie. The 
 conclusion is mildly dramatic; we seem to 
 be transported to the theatre, and hear the 
 ladies adjusting their wraps and the gentle- 
 men hunting for their hats, in the uneasy 
 5 minutes before the curtain falls." [Crit- 
 ic- 139 
 SOMEBODY'S NEIGHBORS. [by 
 
 38 
 
r'JKVEI.M OV AMICUIOAN ('(HLMUV 1,11'E. 
 
 SllOKI'AC UEfULLl'XTlONS [by 
 "Wiilli'i- March,"' i. i-., Oulando I)(ii.i\ai! 
 W'li.i.CdX: N.-Y., Bunce, 'SoO.] "is :i 
 liiK', drlighU'iiI st(ii-\ . It is lino in I'viry 
 sense, not stained by a sini;le alleniptal 
 line writing. Tlie scene (if tbe stcii-y is 
 Detroit. "Onrs was a little auti(inated 
 city. Its inhaliilants N\cr mostly Frencli. 
 At the time I came upon the stage, the 
 transition to a modern American town 
 had scarcely begun. The body of the 
 population was stil of Wic- 'ancieii regime.' 
 The tew jVmerieans wer ofHfers, or ex- 
 olli5ers, of either the general or the 
 territorial government, and their families, 
 relativs, dependents, and friends, whom 
 they Inul persuaded to venture beyond the 
 "jumping-otF place," as Bufl'alo was then 
 termed. The spirit of emigration had not 
 been fully aroused, and the spirit of spec- 
 ulation, if felt at all, was confined to the 
 fur-traders, a class made up of all na- 
 tions.' The book pictures Detroit as a 
 small Paradise in those days. Living in 
 this pleasant place, misfortune comes 
 upon the March family. The father dies, 
 and the mother, with her three boys and 
 a girl, ar left to their on resources. The 
 account of thfiir struggles and thCir tri- 
 umphs make up this exquisit story, this 
 tine and faithful history of a family." 
 [Criterion.] — It is "a delightful picture 
 of life upon the Canadian frontier; full of 
 pictures delicately limned ; of humor ex- 
 quisitly touched ; of character finely 
 shaded — a fresh, spirited, true, and al- 
 most perfect book." [Mrs. Stephens' 
 Mag. 136 k 
 
 38 k 
 
NOVELS OP AMERICAN COUNTRY LIFE. 
 
 Rose (Terry) Cooke: Osgood, 1881.] 
 
 '■ Connecticut is seen once or twice in 
 
 tlie stories wliich follow, which all relate 
 toquiiintNew England life of the "Sam 
 Lawson" order, with much dialect, local 
 slang, and other familiar coloring, One of 
 the best is "CaZ Culver and the Devil." 
 Cal was the village do-nothing, with his 
 mind "nigh about made up" on an all im- 
 portant question:. . . .The titles of Mrs. 
 Cooke's stories are as suggestive as any- 
 thing further we can say of them — such 
 as "Dely's Cow," "Miss Beulah's Bon- 
 net," "Polly Mariner, Tailoress," 
 "Squire Valuers Conversion," a,xx6''Mrs. 
 Flint's 3faried Experience." [lioston 
 "Literary World." 140 
 
 SOUTH COUNTY NEIGH150R5 [by 
 Esther B. Carpenter, Moberts, 1888.] 
 "By "South County" is meant the Narra- 
 gansett region in Rhode-Island, which 
 has more people of peculiar character than 
 one would be likely to find anywhere else 
 in New England, unless it might be in 
 some out-of-the-way corner where an 
 aborifiiual element still lingers. A collec- 
 tion of country folk with more individu- 
 ality, more oddities, is seldom found 
 between the covei's of a book. The 
 sketches are bright, racy, with plenty of 
 mother wit, and each character as original 
 as if he or she were the only specimen of 
 the kind, yet all are vital with the human- 
 ity which makes the whole race kin. 
 "Bucolic and seafaring types" the author 
 designates them, and asserts that they are 
 "simply types, rather than likenesses" but 
 the reader will feci sure that they are 
 excellent dashes, at least, at portraiture." 
 [Boston "Literary World." 141 
 
 Sl'HINX'3 CHILDREN, (The) [by 
 Rose (Terry) Cooke, Ticknor, 1886.] 
 "Every page of 3Irs. Cooke's work shows 
 th6tful painstaking. 'The Sphinx's Chil- 
 dren' is but the name of a rather fantastic 
 [and almost unreadable] sketch which is 
 prefixed to a collection of the stories. One 
 One of them, '-The Deacon's Week," with 
 the sweet sobriety of its working-day piety, 
 has long ago made its way round the 
 
 world. The stories all contribute to the 
 impression of careful observation with 
 much loving sympathy, and of a constant 
 aim after the simplest and most effective 
 expression. So many of them are in a 
 minor key that the sadness becomes a 
 burden. In some shape or other, the ever- 
 recurring subject is the forbidding aspect 
 of New England [Connecticut] life, one 
 or two generations ago, and the revolt of 
 the younger or more ardent spirits against 
 it. The total eftect is to make it duller, 
 colder, harder, than it really was. One 
 drive along the old Connecticut turnpikes 
 will show proof enuf of the existence of 
 a large and generous life, side by side with 
 such homes as Mrs. Cooke has preferred 
 for her chief study. Her picture to be 
 complete should more fully include both. 
 At least, the apple blossoms come once a 
 year in New England." [Nation. 142 
 STEADFAST; [by Rose (Terry) 
 Cooke: Ticknor, 1889.] "Whatever 
 Mrs. Cooke writes is eagerly accepted by 
 her public, which is large and intelligent. 
 Her stories of New England life are the 
 best iu the language, none excepted. 
 "Steadfast," her first novel, is the suc- 
 cessor of "Somebody's Neighbors." The 
 scene is laid in a. hill township in Con- 
 necticut The studies of New England 
 
 character and manners of 150 years ago 
 aj-e able and conscientious Indisputa- 
 bly the finest part of the book is the episode 
 —it is hardly more— of Rachel Mather's 
 love and sufferings. Her mariage, her 
 long martyrdom and her beautiful mission 
 to husband and parish are depicted with 
 equal strength and delicacy. Esther, pas- 
 sion-driven, undisciplined, and tossed be- 
 tween alternate sinnings and repentings, 
 is an artistic contrast. What may be 
 called the second-class characters are, as 
 usual, in Mrs. Cooke's hands, inimitable. 
 She has done nothing better than Deacon 
 Ammi and Miss Tempy." [ Home- 
 maker. j^3 
 STILLWATER TRAGEDY, (The) 
 [by T : B. Aldrich : Houghton, 1880.] 
 "The motive of the story is a murder. The 
 
 39 
 
HUmOROUS NOVELS, 
 
 SPAKEOWGEASS PAPBES (The) 
 [by F: Swartwout C^ozzens (1S18- 
 69): N.-Y., Derbij, 1856.] is "a very 
 charming boolf, redolent of geniality, 
 gentleness, quaint humor, and sound phil- 
 osophy ; and if this praise appear at first 
 sight too hi, it wil, we think, be borne 
 out by careful examination. For the 
 moral lessons (which ar insinuated, rather 
 than inculcated by these playful effu- 
 sions) ar exgellent and greatly needed. 
 You hav lafed probably, from month to 
 month, over the mishaps and disappoint- 
 ments of the Sparrowgrasses in thSir 
 eftbrts at perfect rural bliss. But hav you 
 nothing noted of the contented, good- 
 tempered, and loving spirit which uiider- 
 the general tone of badinage? If so, 
 you hav read carelessly and unprofitably, 
 and wil do wel to read again. Depend 
 upon it, thfire ar not a few of us who hav 
 mentally "got the heaves, got 'em bad, 
 too," and go fuming and fussing throu 
 life to the annoyance of <5iirselvs and 
 others, because town and country, men, 
 women, public aflfairs and private, won't 
 come out presisely as we wish. In the 
 way of books, it might be advisable for 
 such vain searchers after the philoso- 
 pher's stone to try dieting for a while on 
 (C:) Lamb and Sparrowgrass." [Al- 
 bion.] — "Mr. Cozzens is a true humorist. 
 
 He unites the exuberance of fun, the 
 simple pathos, and the quic sympathy and 
 perception which make that most delight- 
 ful quahty which has been claimed by a 
 competent critic to be almost peculiar, in 
 its fullness, to modern literature. Deli- 
 cate sarcasm, truthful painting, pictur- 
 esque description, and gushing geniality 
 ar so harmoniously combined in the 
 Sparrowgrass Papers, that thSy seem to 
 us to be a most valuable addition to (5llr 
 hterature, and to plage the author amongst 
 the most promising of (Sir younger 
 writers. The sketches ar entirely free 
 from caricature; thfiy ar full of nature 
 and familiar life, and thSy sho in so spark- 
 ling detail, and ar a so lively and care- 
 fully studied commentary upon the 
 amusing episodes of country or suburban 
 experienge, that we can not dismiss them 
 merely as gay magazine papers. We ar 
 essentially a serious people. Satire which 
 has a sting, and a moral drift, is not un- 
 common iu <5iir literature. But pure fun 
 and sweet sarcasm ar not to be easily 
 sited, except from Irving. The Sparrow- 
 grass Papers ar of that grageful, humane, 
 and genial school ; and we shal easily be 
 pardoned diir natural pride that Mr. 
 Sparrowgrass first told in otir pages his 
 story of "Living in the Country." [Put- 
 nam's. 141 p 
 
HUJIOROUS NOVELS. 
 
 SQUIBOB PAPERS (The) [by Gt: 
 HoKATio Derby (1823-61): N.-Y., 
 Carleton, 1865.] "Ten years ago was 
 published a volume entitled "Phoenixlana, 
 or Sketches and Burlesques, by John 
 Phoenix," which received a cordial and 
 general welcome. It was composed of 
 miscellaneous articles of a humorous char- 
 acter, which had first seen the light in 
 California . . . The spirit of this book was 
 spontaneous, exuberant, and uncontrol- 
 able fun. That spirit stil wins applause 
 for "Phoinixiana." Mr. Derby has been 
 dead several years, and new humorists 
 hav sprung up, in this prolific American 
 soil — ^humorists of diverse gifts and of 
 singular talents. Yet "John Phcenix" 
 retains his supremacy in this particular 
 department of letters, sharing his king- 
 dom only, perhaps, with "Artemus 
 Ward." "We believe, too, that his reputa- 
 tion is destind to endure. His humor 
 cropped out of a substratum of truth, 
 and it pictured, as wel as IMed at, peculiar 
 phases of American manners and social 
 life. Sometimes, too, it went a little deep- 
 er, and curiously lit>up human nature. 
 This is seen as wel in The Squiboh Pap- 
 ers, as in its better knon predefessor. 
 This new volume has been made up of 
 selections from the unpublished writings 
 left by Captain Derby, 27 in number." 
 [Albion. 142 h 
 
 SQUIRREL irosr (The), [by FRAiq-K 
 R: Stockton: N.-Y., Century Co., 
 1891.] "The friskiness of the name of 
 the inn fits wel the story, which is as 
 nimble as one could desire. All the fig- 
 ures ar on the alert, and succeed in 
 pla9ing themselvs in the most unexpected 
 
 situations at every turn. In this, as in 
 other of Mr. Stockton's stories, thfire is an 
 od efl'cct produced by the old-fashioned 
 address indulged in by the men toard the 
 women. It really seems as if, in this 
 author's eyes, n woman wer a most unac- 
 countable creature." [Atlantic] — It is 
 "something like a Jonsonian comedy of 
 "humors," modern and Stocktouian, of 
 course, yet as fantastic in creation as any- 
 thing in the elder master's work. The 
 world of the eccentric persons who ar met 
 incongruously in the "Squirrel" is the 
 world of none of us, whatever dlir nation- 
 ality, and peopled of strange creatures. 
 The landlord of the inn re9eives summer 
 boarders, conditionally. Thfiy must be 
 friends of that irreproachable family, the 
 Rockmores of Germantown. No others 
 need apply. You may kno everybody 
 else in Philadelphia ; but unless the Rock- 
 mores kno you the "Squirrel" wil not 
 receive you ... A wild and genial 
 Irishman, a quaint spinster from a 
 niSboring village, a young lady of studious 
 tastes who acts as nurse to a pleasing and 
 useful baby, and the mother of this baby 
 help to cheer the landlord and his wife 
 by their company. Lastly, thfire is a 
 literary young man who does not kno 
 the Rockmores of Germantown, but is 
 introduced by a stratagem thrca the arts 
 of a charming young wide, the mother of 
 the baby. The love-making and match- 
 making, the plotting and counter-plotting, 
 which ensue beggar description. It is a 
 maze of pleasant devices, an imbroglio 
 which is excellently diverting." [ Satur- 
 day Review. 142 j 
 
 39 q 
 
NOVELS 01' AMKlilCAX COUNTRY LIKE. 
 
 first thing to be said about the authoi-'s 
 treatment of it is that it is not sensational. 
 The author has realized exactly how such 
 a tragedy would aflect a Kew England 
 village. And yet there is nothing in the 
 story in the nature of a police report. The 
 affair is idealized enufto remove it from 
 that. . .Mr. Aldrich knows the New Eng- 
 land girl. With a real and yet poetic hand 
 Margaret appears on the scene, with the 
 mingled sweetness and strength of her 
 class. The love scenes between Richard 
 and Margaret are tender and engaging. 
 . . -In his treatment of the labor problem, 
 is shown an insight and strength, in 
 regard to practical questions, which might 
 not have been demanded of a poet and a 
 romancer. We do not know anywhere a 
 more admirable description than he gives 
 us of a "strike." All its illogical passion 
 and futility are sketched to the life. Nor 
 will the reader find elsewhere a better por- 
 trait of a manufacturing village, with all 
 the grime of it revealed and nothing over- 
 drawn. Such pictures are apt to give the 
 reader a horror, and convince him that 
 living in them would be impossible for a 
 cleanly disposed person. But the author 
 gives the compensating aspects of the 
 place, and we see that residence in Still- 
 water would not be a martyrdom. The 
 whole book, in short, is sane and sensible. 
 [Hartford (Conn.) Courant. 144 
 
 STORY OF A BAD BOY, (The) [by 
 
 T: B. Aldrich, Fields, 1S69.] " 
 
 Much of Master Tom's "badness" was 
 comparative, and, perhaps, thrown into 
 unfair relief by the puritanic austerity of 
 the quaint New £ngland town [Ports- 
 mouth, N.. H.] wliere he lived, whose 
 inhabitants, "were many of them pure 
 Christians every day of the seven, except 
 the seventh." But Master Tom has his 
 faults, besides his disposition to evade the 
 Sunday School. He assisted in adding an 
 old stage-coach to a Fourth-of-July bon- 
 flfe; he joined a secret society of young 
 losels, yclept "The Centipedes," the walk 
 of whose various feet was ungodly; he 
 aided and abetted in the setting off of an 
 
 ancient and decayed battery, to the mid- 
 night aliirm of the people of Rivermovith ; 
 he changed the signs in the Rivermouth 
 streets ; he ran away to go to sea. All of 
 which is picturesquely, and, we fear, fas- 
 cinatingly set forth, with some account of 
 his loves for a wonderful pony, who 
 returned his affection, and a grown-up 
 lady, who didn't. The characters are well 
 drawn, tho not so well as to divide the 
 interest with the hero, who is, in fact, 
 himself a subordinate figure to the inci- 
 dents. There is good taste, as well as good 
 sense, in the treatment of the "fight with 
 Conway," and the ingenious elision of 
 merely coarse details. The love-scene, 
 where Tom's grown up Dulcinea charac- 
 teristically evades his passion, and settles 
 his status by "rumbling his hair all over 
 his forehead," is natural and half pathetic. 
 Taken altogether, Mr. Aldrich's little 
 friend stands a much better chance of liv- 
 ing in literature than many grown-up 
 heroes." [Overland. 145 
 
 STORY OF A COUNTRY TOWN. 
 (The) [by E. W. Howe : Osgood, 1S84.] 
 "The author has described a community 
 which feeds its higher life with a faith no 
 longer held as an aspiration, but as a 
 warning; the people, meanwhile, have 
 been dislocated from the conditions which 
 br6t them into healthy association with 
 the world. They are engaged in a sordid 
 struggle for existence; they have lost their 
 ideals, and the world seems to mock at 
 them. A more dreary waste than the 
 country town which Mr. Howe describes 
 could not well be imagined. It appears to 
 have no traditions, even, of beauty, and 
 certainly no anticipations of hope. It is 
 degraded spiritually and mentally, and 
 nature itself seems to take on the prevail- 
 ing gray hue, and to shut in upon the 
 narrowing circle of life. The circum- 
 stances of this life are recorded with a 
 pitiless fidelity . .It is a Western [Kan- 
 sas] town, — that is all we know. ■ He uses 
 a merciless frankness of speech, and there 
 is a remarkable candor in his manner ; it is 
 only when the reader has separated him- 
 
 40 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAX COUNTRY LIKE. 
 
 STOKY OF A ( HILD (THE) [ by Ma. 
 Wade (Campbell) Dbland : Houghton, 
 1892.] "is a book of siugular power and 
 charm. It is a study of imagiuativ child- 
 hood, with its wonderful capacity of self- 
 torture, its infinit refinements of self-pity, 
 its restless creativ faculty, its wild enig- 
 matic yearnings for the unspeakable, and 
 its impatient scorning of material limita- 
 tions. The revelation of these things is 
 effected as with a master-key. The sym- 
 pathy and insight ar so delicate, pene- 
 trativ, and intense as to suggest an in- 
 tuitiv projess. The Chaucerian phrase 
 "subtle-piercing" is the one adequate term 
 which expresses the peculiar quality of 
 the charm. It is a fine circumstan9e of 
 irony that the imaginativ child of the 
 story should hav a preoosious, shallo 
 little worldling for her chosen companion. 
 To Effie the serious and passionate at- 
 tempts of Ellen to realize her imaginativ 
 ideas appear to be nothing but play. Ellen 
 is just simply the "funniest girl" of her 
 aoquaintanje. The association of the two 
 is deeply pathetic and humorous as pre- 
 sented, the humor and the pathos of it 
 being suggested with admirable art, blend- 
 ed indefinitly as the joys and sorrSs of 
 childhood ar . . . Thfire is not a touch of 
 excess in the treatment of the extremely 
 delicate and complex situation. One such 
 touch, indeed, would sufil9e to imperil the 
 foundations of the work, but we find noth- 
 ing of the sort in this remarkable little 
 book." [Saturday Review.] — "Not only 
 has the author of John Ward [No. 63] ex- 
 jelled any of her previous works— so far 
 as style is cou9erned — in this volume ; she 
 has produced the most remarkable and 
 most intimate study of a child's mind we 
 kno . . . But the book is quite as much 
 
 40 t 
 
 a study of surroundings and ht-rcdity as 
 of the mind of a child with pagan instincts, 
 and a grandmother who seeks too severely 
 to curb them. It is easy to take in Old- 
 Chester, a hundred years behind the times, 
 in the opinion of such of its uativs 
 as hav left it for what thSy account as the 
 "grfiat world." One can easily picture it 
 as it "lies among the roling hils of Western 
 Pennsylvania, — hils which hav never 
 echoed with the scream of tlio locomotiv, 
 but ar folded in a beautiful green silenge, 
 broken only by the silken ripple of little 
 streams which run across the meados, 
 or throu the dappled shados of the 
 woods." In Old-Chester everybody knoes 
 everybody else, and livs like everybody 
 else. It is a puritanic community. ThCy 
 mark time by the notable transgressions of 
 others. A particular period is remember- 
 ed thus : "Henry Temple" — he is the am- 
 bitious worldling of the village — "voted 
 the wrong ticket the year th&e was a sno- 
 storm when the apple-trees wer in bloom." 
 You can with perfect ease take in all the 
 characters which figure in the story. Thfire 
 is Mrs. Dale whose life with the brilliant, 
 weak old man, her husband, has ossified 
 her conduct int5 a too stern rectitude. 
 Th&-e ar the Temples, — Henry, the world- 
 ling, who livs but little in Old-Chester; his 
 invalid wife; and his sister Jane, who 
 nurses that wife and, still more, an aft'ec- 
 tion for Tommy Dove, the mild apothc- 
 cai-y, whom, however, her brother has 
 driven from his house as not good enuf to 
 be her husband. Thfire is Mrs. Wright, 
 Mrs. Dale's nfibor, who, "despite her 45 
 years, was stil in the bubbling inconse- 
 quense of youth." Above all, thfire ar the 
 two children,— Effie Temple, the dauter of 
 the worldling, and Ellen Dale, who has in 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN COUNTRY LIFE 
 her more of her pagan grandfather than of grandfather had 
 her severely Christian grandmother. Effie 
 it is who, being a child of (comparativ) 
 luxury, teaches Ellen discontent with her 
 surroundings and her grandmother's 
 system of education. But Effie has not 
 the imagination or the resolution of her 
 playmate. Ellen is confined to her house 
 because she has struc the servant, Betsy 
 
 Thomas, and has declined to apologise for 
 the bio. Effie suggests that thSy shal run 
 
 away together. Ellen agrees, but Effie 
 
 turns coward at the last moment. So Ellen 
 
 runs away alone, saying to her faithless 
 
 companion : — "I'll write to you, tho I 
 
 don't think you ar a very good friend." 
 
 But besides the marked influenje of hered- 
 ity and surroundings on Ellen Dale, it is 
 
 that mysterious something apart from both 
 
 which means originality of character, 
 
 which constitutes her spegial fasjination. 
 
 She is a "Wordsworthiau child, and yet, 
 
 also, !i Shelleyan one,— inasmuch as her 
 
 imagination is always seeking t5 overleap 
 
 itself. We hav said enuf to sho that 
 
 thfire is no child in recent fiction better 
 
 worth making the acquaintauQC of than 
 
 Ellen Dale." [Spectator.]— "Miss De- 
 land has given a charming picture of life 
 
 in a New-England ( sic ! ) village. Here 
 
 time passes quicly— the inhabitants, thSir 
 
 houses, thfiir trim-bordered gardens, ar 
 
 all much alike— equally polite, reservd, 
 
 and gently critical of one another. But 
 
 the little town has its character. Th^re 
 
 the young person finds no scope : is, in 
 
 fact, kept in exemplary subjection. He is 
 
 taut that when he is in the company of 
 
 his elders and betters, it is to profit by 
 
 example, and be grateful for advige. But 
 
 into this little prim world is born a child 
 
 full of imagination and impulse, whose 
 
 been deemed a blac 
 sheep in Old Chester. This child, being 
 easily influen5ed, fel under the sway of a 
 minx in short dresses — dauter of a nfibor 
 who livd usually in New-York. Now this 
 precocious young person soon persuaded 
 her friend that submission to the Old 
 Chester ideal was absurd. And after 
 several attempts at rebellion — which br6t 
 dismay and grief to the grandmother and 
 household — the children made up thfiir 
 minds to run away. Wlen the fateful 
 moment came, Ellen was steadfast, but 
 the other's courage failed her, and thus 
 Mrs. Dale's granddauter went alone into 
 tha wide world. How she wandered and 
 suffered fatigue, fear and hunger, is very 
 prettily and naturally described, and long 
 before the 24 htfiirs absenje ended the 
 poor little wanderer had realized the folly 
 of her escapade. Also the love-story of 
 two elderly persons is described with 
 much tenderness and sympathy. Alto- 
 gether the book is a wholesome and faith- 
 ful picture of child-life — with a bacground 
 of grave experiences, gracefully touched." 
 [National Observer.] — "Not alone to the 
 author's earlier characters is little Ellen 
 Dale a happy foil, but to many latter-day 
 writings from other pens, in which a 
 preposterous ra^e of nondescripts pass 
 for real children. No one can read of 
 this child and not be touched to the in- 
 most consciousness by the living, breath- 
 ing reality of the little maid. Her head is 
 half in the clouds, half upon the affairs of 
 her elders; her warm little heart is full, 
 not of schemes of reforming her grand- 
 mother or of elevating the masses, but of 
 childish play and the reproduction in her 
 games of the delightful fairies, princesses 
 or martyrs of her reading." [Nation. 145 p 
 
 40 tt 
 
NOVELS OP AMBKICAN GOUNTKY LIFE. 
 
 self from the fascination of the style that 
 he perceives how completely the whole 
 book is spun from the brain of the writer. 
 ■ . . .Nature is as cheerless as human life, 
 and the book is a nightmare without the 
 customary self-conviction of the night- 
 mare." [Atlantic. • 146 
 
 SUMMER IDYL (A) [by "Christian 
 Rbid," Appleton, 1878.] "is a tranquil 
 and well-told story of summer leisure and 
 pleasant family life in the beautiful scenery 
 of the mountains of North Carolina. In 
 it one may find various and quiet pleas- 
 ure." [Nation. 147 
 
 SUMMER IN A CANON. (A) [by Kate 
 D. WiGGlN, JSoughton, 1889.] "Pleas- 
 anter far is Mrs. Wiggin's "A Summer in 
 a Canon." And this not only to Western 
 readers familiar with the sort of life 
 pictureil, but probably even more to those 
 to whom the outdoor summer, with no 
 postponements on account of the weather, 
 is first made real in these pages. It is a 
 simple story of the life of a party of bright 
 young people, guided by one or two wise 
 older ones, in a camping trip in Southern 
 California. Their fun and their mishaps 
 and their amusements and adventures, and 
 most of all their merry talks and spicy 
 letters, are made very interesting. There 
 is no sentimentality in the book, and the 
 one girl who tries to introduce a little 
 coquetry is vigorously disapproved by 
 these healthy young folk. This breezy, 
 outdoors life, with its moral and physical 
 healthfulness, its sparkling wit and kindly 
 fun, will cause the book to be loved by 
 young people, and by all older people, too, 
 whose hearts are still young." [Over- 
 land. 148 
 
 SUMMER IN LESLIE GOLDTH- 
 WAITE'S LIFE. (A) [by A. D. (T.) 
 Whitney: Tic/cnor, 1861.] ''The story 
 of the "Summer" is told in ii, charming 
 style, and abounds in happy hits and 
 suggestive th6ts at home and in the 
 mountains, and has many a capital 
 lesson." [Radical.] "Simple, natural, 
 and homely, th6tful, earnest, and 'human,' 
 we find on these pages one of the best 
 
 stories for young people, — and for old, too, 
 
 which was ever written Thus passing 
 
 lier holiday time among the mountains, 
 rattling over the stony roads or playing 
 croquet upon the lawn, climbing rocky 
 hillsides, or darning stockings and making 
 children's dresses. And when she went 
 to her home it was with a fuller heart and 
 a liper soul than that with which she had 
 left it, and you who go with her to the 
 story's end will feel yourself a debtor to 
 this young life. Leslie Goldlhwaite is 
 the figment of a novelist's brain perhaps, 
 but the humanity in her appeals to that in 
 your heart and ours, which recognizes it 
 as akin to il self." [Friend. 149 
 
 SUiMMER IN OLDPORT HARBOR, 
 (A) [by W. H. Metcalf: Lippincott, 
 1887.] "A breezy novel, full of the flavor 
 of out-door life, just the book to take up 
 at the sea-shore for an idle hour on the 
 veranda. It concerns principally the expe- 
 riences of a young doctor and his artist 
 chum, who come to Cup Island, near the 
 Connecticut shore, to pass their vacation, 
 and who are joined by the sister of one of 
 the young men and her nearest friend, who 
 bring with tliem Bid, a maid-of-all-work, 
 to superintend the cooking arrangements 
 of a very primitive cottage. The descrip- 
 tions of natural scenery are clever and 
 realistic, the character-drawing is gener- 
 ally very good, and Mr. Sandy, the village 
 postmaster and shop-keeper of Oldport, is 
 sketched with a good deal of humor." 
 [Boston "Gazette." ]50 
 
 SUZETTE [by M.. S. (N.) Tiernan : 
 SoU, 1886.] "is not exactly a picture of 
 Richmond [Va.] in the forties, being rather 
 a chronicle of pleasant family life. The old 
 city, with its generous homes and its tra- 
 ditions, fills in the edges' and the corners of 
 the canvas much after the fashion in which 
 the garden is introduced, or the hills, in 
 the pictures which artists describe as' 
 figures with landscape. Miss Tiernan 
 follows very closely the method of group- 
 ing by contrasts— the lonely little heroine, 
 almost a waif, in the chill grandeur of the 
 great house, and the beloved dauter and 
 
 41 
 
IIUJIOUOUIS NOVHLa. 
 
 SUT LOVESTGOOD'S YARNS. [by 
 G : Washingion Haeris (1814^69) ; 
 S.-T., De Witt, 1867.] "Of this 
 mythical personage, the last of the 
 band of American Humorists, so 
 called, we hardly kno what to say, except 
 that he has amused us some, wearied us 
 more, and disgusted us not a little. As 
 bad spelling is now deemed one of the 
 essentials of humor, we wcr pripared to 
 encounter it here, but we wer not pre- 
 pared, we confess, for the entire absence 
 of humor by which it is therein charac- 
 terized. The fault may lie in the writer, 
 who seems to hav no genius in that diroc_ 
 tion, or it may lie in the dialect which he 
 attempts to reprodufe. What this dialect 
 really is, we kno not, but we should say 
 at a venture that it was the mixed speech 
 of the "mean whites" of Tennessee and 
 Kentucky. The hero, Sut Lovingood, 
 describes himself as a "durn'd fool," but 
 
 is in reality anything else, being a smart, 
 tho ignorant country youth, with a. long 
 pair of legs and a great talent for running 
 fast, a strong passion for cheap whiskey, 
 and, if possible, a stronger passion for 
 "selling" his nfibors, and being "sold" by 
 them in turn, as in "Parson Bullen's Liz- 
 ards," "A Razor Grinder in a Thunder 
 Storm," "Sicily Burns's Wedding," "Old 
 Burns' Bull Ride," the whole volume, in 
 fact, being a glorification of the "sell," or 
 practical joke. Many of Sut's jokes ar 
 amusing, but most ar open to the charge 
 of coarseness. The coarseness in ques- 
 tion is partly in conception, and partly in 
 execution. An element of farce in its 
 loosest sense, meaning thSreby imjidents 
 of the most lafable description, strung 
 together without regard to probability or 
 possibility, is, in (5iir way of thinking, 
 about the only merit which Mr. Harris' 
 volume possesses." [Albion. LIO w 
 
 41 1 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN COUNTRY LIFE. 
 
 sister in tlie bustling life ol a home which 
 affection makes glad in spite of slender 
 means; two men, the one growing into a 
 lonely recluse, the other frank-hearted, 
 giving and winning confidence. The types 
 are none of them new, but they are saved 
 from being conventional by the freshness 
 of the author's fancy and the ingenuity and 
 originality of the incidents. The surround- 
 ings, too, are novel, for all Sonthetn cit> 
 ies are still very remote from us, and life 
 in them as it was forty years ago is utterly 
 different from the hurried rush of city life 
 today. A small circle, living ou, genera- 
 tion after generation, without change, 
 develops a community of interest known 
 nowhere else. The life was certainly nar- 
 row, yet its sympathies were thereby the 
 deeper. It is easy to call it indifferent, 
 idle, or by a harsher term, but in it all 
 there was a charm of placid leisure such 
 as survives in the pages of 'Sir Charles 
 Grandison.' " [Nation. 151 
 
 SWALLOW-BAEN [by J: P. Ken- 
 nedy: Putnam, 1851.] "Its quiet yet 
 forcible pictures are of that class which 
 live in the memory, because they are true 
 sketches of homely, every-day life. It 
 really does one's heart good to follow the 
 author in his limnings of country-life in 
 the 'Old Dominion' some 30 years ago; 
 the portraits of the characters who made 
 up her quiet and happy neighborhoods; 
 'the mellow, bland, and sunny luxuriance 
 of her old-time society;' the good fellow- 
 ship of 'Old Virginia;' its hearty and 
 constitutional conipanionableness, the 
 thriftless gayety of the people, their dog- 
 ged but amiable invincibility of opinion, 
 and that overflowing hospitality which 
 'knew no retiring ebb'." [ Knicker- 
 bocker. 152 
 
 TALES OF NEW-ENGLAND [by S.. 
 O. Jewbtt : Soughton, 1890.] "Eight of 
 Miss Jewett's stories, selected from her 
 previous volumes, make a group of quiet 
 pictures of quaint, homely people living 
 everyday lives in uneventful places. The 
 most delicate art gives interest to appar- 
 ently barren material. Without an effort 
 
 at creating an effect, the author presents 
 real life with reverential truthfulness, and 
 shows how even the most unprepossessing 
 people have their "history," worthy of 
 contemplation. Many of the characters 
 are New England "old maids," but most 
 of these cherish the memory of some 
 romance. The men are plain speaking folk, 
 and are not without their own important 
 life services. For a piece of exquisite lit- 
 erary art, there has been nothing published 
 lately in short stories more perfect than 
 "Miss Tempy's Watchers." Other stories 
 have their own charm." [Boston (Mass.) 
 "Journal." 153 
 
 TALLAHASSEE GIRL (A) [by 
 Maurice Thompson: Osgood, 1882.] 
 "abounds in crudities of thot and absurd- 
 ities of expression at which it is impossible 
 not to smile ; yet, it is quite the best of the 
 "Round-Eobin Series." Its sketches are 
 broken , but one catches from them the 
 charm of the faded dignity, the drowsy 
 afternoon calm of the old Southern capi- 
 tal. Lucie, the heroine, is a gracious fig- 
 ure, and it is in her portrait and in the 
 conception of the relations of the three 
 men of the story to her and to each other, 
 that the marked merit of the boolc lies. 
 The delicacy and reserve of handling with 
 which the main idea is developed, even in 
 the extravagance of style, suggest a musi- 
 cian who can compose a sweet and tender 
 harmony and yet knows not quite how to 
 manage the pedals. The surmise is ob- 
 vious that the book is a first effort. If so, 
 it is either a chance hit of unusual felicity, 
 or else it is the evident promise of some- 
 thing better." [Nation. 154 
 TENTING AT STONY BEACH [by 
 M.. L. Pool : Houghton, 1888.] "Humor 
 here occasionally degenerates into smart- 
 ness ; nevertheless it is for the most part 
 genuine humor, and it includes a lively 
 sense of character both among the South 
 Shore [Cape Cod] natives and the sum- 
 mer folk. The pretty girl of our civiliza- 
 tion, who pushes into the canvas homes of 
 the tenters, is caut with much of Mr. 
 James's neatness, while Yates, the "shif- 
 
 12 
 
NOVBLS OP AMERICAN COUNTRY LIFE. 
 
 less toot," and his beautiful energetic wife, 
 and Eaudy Rankin aud her husband, are 
 verities beyond his range. It is a pity 
 that Miss Pool does not hold her hand 
 altogether from caricature and melodrama, 
 but it must be owned she does not." 
 [Howells. 155 
 
 THEIE WEDDING JOUENEY [by 
 "W: D. Howells: Osgood, 1ST2.] " — 
 Basil aud Isabel March, after a broken 
 engagement, have marled, and, some weeks 
 afterward, start upon their wedding jour- 
 ney, having a horror of being looked upon 
 
 as a bridal pair Their journey is up 
 
 the Hudson, across New York to Niagara, 
 then to Canada, and thence home. Any 
 extracts we might make would give little 
 sense of the exquisite flavor of the whole, 
 and our readers will find content only in 
 reading the volume. It is a pleasant book 
 when you are tired, and when you are not ; 
 and, while it will entertain your hour of 
 leisure, it will assert its worth even in your 
 busier moments." [Overland. 156 
 
 THEOrHILUS AND OTHERS [by M.. 
 (M.) Dodge: Scribner, 1876.] "is not 
 fairly a novel : it is a collection of short 
 sketches. It is full of humor, and altho 
 there are at times signs of watering the 
 jokes, there is hardly one of the sketches 
 which is not entertaining. The first and 
 longest one, 'Dobb's Horse,' is a fair 
 sample of xMrs. Dodge's humor in its 
 derision of the seeker after pleasure in the 
 country. But perhaps the best is 'Miss 
 Malony on the Chinese Question.' 'Our 
 Debating Society Skeleton' also shows how 
 a good story can be well told. The book 
 is not one of great importance, and the 
 humor is of an irresponsible kind which 
 does not strike very deep, but it is always 
 innocent and agreeable." [Nation. 157 
 
 THOUSAND A YEAE (A) [by Mrs. 
 E. M. Bruce : Lee & Shepard, 1866.] "is 
 a romance full of reality. It describes the 
 trials of a clergyman and his family, living, 
 or rather starving, on inadequate salaries : 
 tho it belongs to the "Shady-Side" litera- 
 ture, it is written in a genial mood, and 
 abounds in wit and humor. If you would 
 
 know something of the unrequited toil of 
 a class of men(and of their overworked and 
 patient wives) to whom American civiliza- 
 tion owes a debt which can never be paid, 
 get the book and read it, and do something 
 to lift their heavy burdens." [Monthly 
 Rel. Mag. 158 
 
 THEEB GENEEATIONS. [by Sarah 
 A. Emery: Lee & Shepard, 1872.] "It 
 is a view of country life in Massachus- 
 etts in the closing years of the last; and 
 first of the present, centuries — a series of 
 sketches, it may be called, connected by a 
 story. In point of literary merit it is far 
 inferior to Mrs. Stowe's work ; but in min- 
 uteness and fidelity of description, and a 
 certain realism which it is not easy to 
 
 analyze, it must rank higher Its 
 
 scene is laid, for the most part, in and near 
 Newburyport, and many of its incidents 
 seem to be facts, or founded on facts. For 
 those who live, or have lived, in that 
 ancient city, the book will possess an in- 
 terest that we should in vain try to define ; 
 and all who have reverence for the past, 
 and care to know what life was in the 
 early days of the nation — every day life, 
 in one of the most notable communities of 
 New England — will find it an entertaining, 
 and, we believe, accurate report." [Boston 
 "Literary World." 159 
 
 TOMPKINS AND OTHER FOLKS [by 
 P. Deming, Houghton, 1885.] "Readers 
 of the magazines have already met ' Tomp- 
 kins and Other Folks.' However, the 
 stories lose nothing by being grouped, and 
 any one who enjoys encountering an old 
 acquaintance in good company will take 
 up the volume with pleasure. The chief 
 charm of the stories is their quietness; 
 after that, perhaps, in their suggestiveness, 
 tho they owe not a little to their tone of 
 kindly humor and mildness. Mr. Deming 
 avoids the disagreeable things in life ; his 
 stories show a disposition to be lively — 
 not from animal spirits, but from that 
 genial attitude of mind induced by looking 
 on the bright side. That Tompkins should 
 lose his illusions, aud turn from the enthu- 
 siastic hopes of his college days to auc 
 
 43 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN COUNTRY LIFE. 
 
 tioneering in Chicago, might be made to 
 seem a genuine tragedy. Yet most young 
 men are enthusiastic, their hopes have 
 some such ending as Tompkins' ; and Mr. 
 Deming prefers to dwell, in his pleasaut, 
 half-pathetic way, on the auctioneer's 
 unrOmantic love affair and his warm- 
 hearted remembrances of early days. One 
 or two of the stories ai'e hardly more than 
 sketches. ''The Court in Schoharie" is 
 nothing but the description of court week 
 in a slumberous, old-fashioned village 
 among the Catskills ; but it is done with 
 such a touch of sympathy—the iuiiuence 
 of the simple people and their humble, 
 picturesque surroundings on the old 
 Judge's remaining bit of sentiment is so 
 delicately suggested — that the piece is bet- 
 ter than a story would have been. This 
 sketch and "Mr. Toby's Wedding^ Jour- 
 ney'" make the best of the book : but throu- 
 out there is an evenness botli in matter and 
 in style that makes a choice almost entirely • 
 a matter of taste." [Nation. 160 
 
 TWO COLLEGE GIRLS [by H.. D. 
 Brown : Ticknor. 18S8.] "is an attempt 
 at a "Tom Brown" for a girls' college, — 
 presumably Vassar. Without succeeding 
 to the fullest extent, the book is an inter- 
 esting and amusing story of the life of the 
 girl undergraduate. The characteristics 
 of the New England girl are br6t into 
 sharp contrast with the Chicago girl, her 
 room-mate ; yet the differences are shown to 
 be more of early association and education 
 than inherent in the real characters of the 
 girls. The demure maiden whose home is 
 "seventy miles from Boston" never had 
 the chance to develop a frivolous liking 
 for frizzes and ribbons, and the Chicago 
 girl is not without her serious aspirations, 
 in spite 01 her giggling and fondness for 
 pickles. The influence of these two on 
 each other, mutual repulsion, gradually 
 disappearing on closer knowledge, is well 
 shown. Of course, the quiet girl captures 
 the brother of her room-mate, and at the 
 end is borne off to married felicity in 
 Chicago." [Overland]. "The heroine — 
 a singularly unattractive and provincial 
 
 young woman, of that narrow experience 
 and rigid integrity of nature typical of the 
 better class of New England farmers — 
 made her first exit from her village to take 
 her examinations for what was really her 
 entrance, not only to college, but to abroad 
 and healthful life. There she met the 
 hundred different types of people which 
 make up the great world. Intellectual 
 girls, rich and fashionable girls, girls of all 
 kinds, some of thera immeasurably her in- 
 feriors in acquirements, and yet possessed 
 of that nameless attraction whicli made , 
 them beloved by everybody, and which 
 she herself so conspicuouslj lacked. To 
 her chagrin, she discovered that good 
 scholarship was not the one standard of 
 judgment, and that to be loved and honor- 
 ed it was not enuf to have entered as a., 
 sophomore. For some months'she nursed 
 the natural pride which in her little New 
 England village had seemed to her a pledge 
 of her superiority, ^lntil her isolation be- 
 came unbearable. Then she came to recog- 
 nize the truth that without the grains of 
 sweetness and humanity, learning will 
 make neither a wise nor a happy woman. 
 Her college-life was thus truly an educa- 
 tion." [Critic. X61 
 TWO COMPTON BOYS [by A: HOPPIN : 
 Houghton, 1884.] "The audience, of 
 young and old, whom Mr. Hoppin capti- 
 vated with his 'Auton House' — may their 
 number never grow less— will experience 
 no disappointment on reading 'Two Comp- 
 ton Boys.' We have again a graphic 
 picture of Providence (and, to a consider, 
 able extent, of New England) life in the 
 youth of men now just past the middle age- 
 and one which the historian may accept as 
 trustfully as any chronicle he is likely to 
 depend upon. But whereas in 'Auton 
 House' we were made acquainted with 
 the 'vie intirae' of a single family, in 'Two 
 Compton Boys' the scenes are mostly away 
 from home, (not the same home if one may 
 guess), at school and afield, and there is 
 something like the evolution of a plot with 
 half a tragedy. The humor remains, the 
 comical illustrations are renewed, and an 
 
 a 
 
NOVKf.S OF AMKRICAN COUNTHY LIFE. 
 
 houi' of profitable relaxation can be 
 promised any one wlao follows the fortunes 
 of Dick Reydon and his sable 'alter ego' 
 Peez Fittz." [Nation. 162 
 
 TWO EUNAWATS. [by H. S. ED- 
 WARDS- Century Co., 18S9.] "Mr. 
 ' Itidwurds has a rare and charming, talent: 
 he reproduces the' negro in his multifarious 
 'fuuuiness' and tenderness and dramatic 
 tendencies with a completeness, a sympa- 
 thy, never before compassed by a South- 
 ern writer : his pathos brings instant tears ; 
 his humor is as spontaneous as it is human ; 
 and beneath both lies the most intricate 
 ffnowle'dge of negro character — grown 
 from life-long association, — loving appre- 
 ciation, and a power of throwing himself 
 into the 'm61(5e' of the rather mixed negro 
 nature which we have not before seen in a 
 writer ofhis 'section.' It is not the negro 
 alone, howevei', with whom he deals : he 
 is. equally felicitous in his delineations of 
 'cracker' experience. 'Elder Brown's 
 Backslide' is a capital tidbit of this kind, 
 and 'A Bom Inventor' is the moat amusing 
 "skit imaginable. There are three Negro 
 tales in this collection that show real 
 genius: 'Two Runaways,' 'Ole Miss and 
 Sweetheart,' and 'De valley an' de Shad- 
 der.' The middle story is as exquisite as 
 anything in Daudet: while all show an 
 uncommon dramatic power, which crops 
 out, too (decked with wreathing smiles and 
 fast following tears), in 'An Idyll of 
 Sinkin' Mount'in.' This is a thin volume, 
 but it is thick with suggestiveness and 
 promise." [Critic. 163 
 
 UNCLE JACK'S EXECUTORS, [by 
 Annette L. Noble, Putnam, 1880.] 
 "Uncle Jack was a country doctor, dead 
 before the book begins, and his executors 
 are 3 young women living together on the 
 old place with their aunt. A more cheer- 
 ful, optimistic collection of women it would 
 be hard to find. One is an artist, with 
 proclivities for surgery and medicine; 
 another is a writer; and the third the 
 general utility member. They have little 
 money besides what the two professional 
 sisters earn, but their life is a free and 
 
 unconstrained one. The aunt Is a cleverly 
 sketched, inconsecutive old lady, with a 
 little echo in her of Mrs. Nickleby, but 
 more reflnecj and less of a caricature. 
 Three men are introduced, one of whom, 
 Jerry Scudder, a well-to-do farmer, wishes 
 to marry the housekeeperly Dorothy, but 
 is easily persuaded by her to keep his 
 affections till she finds a wife for him, 
 which she does in Molly Howells. A 
 second is a young clergyman of sense and 
 
 spirit, and the third an editor We can 
 
 promise our readers a very agreeable hour 
 over the book. "It is not. Heaven be 
 praised, in the highest style of art, but it 
 is full of good nature and kindliness ; some 
 of the scenes are sketched with real humor, 
 and if the book seems amateurish, it has at 
 any rate a refinement and quality of fresh- 
 ness which we wish were more common in 
 professional work." [Atlantic. 164 
 
 UPON A OAS'I' [by C. Dunning 
 [Wood] : Harper, ItSS.] "is a very 
 amusing little story, and turns on the ex- 
 periences of a couple of ladies who, with a 
 longingfor a quiet life, "The world forget- 
 ting, by the world forgot," settle in "New- 
 broek" [ Poughkeepsie.] Little count- 
 ing upon this niche outside the world 
 becoming a centre of interest or a theatre 
 of events, the necessity of presenting their 
 credentials to the social magnates of the 
 place does not occur to these ladies, — one 
 the widow of a Prussian officer, and the 
 other her niece. They prefer to remain, 
 as it were, incognito ; and, pried into as the 
 seclusion of the new-comers is by all the 
 curious, this reticence soon causes miscon- 
 structions and scandals. The petty gossip, 
 the solemnities of self-importance, and the 
 Phariseeism of a country neighborhood 
 are very well portrayed, and, we fear, 
 without any especial exaggeration. The 
 story is told with unflagging spirit, and 
 shows quick perceptions and a lively feel- 
 ing for situations." [Lippincott's.] "A 
 novel quite fit and proper for summer read- 
 ing ; it is light and pleasant and extremely 
 entertaining. The action, which embraces 
 but the brief space of a summer, is rapid, • 
 
 45 
 
NOVELS or AMERICAN COUNTRY LIFE. 
 
 and, if never absorbing, is still never en- 
 tirely devoid of interest." [Nation. 165 
 
 VACATION IN A BUGGY. (A) [by 
 Maria L.. Pool, Putnam, 1887.] "A 
 very sparkling, entertaining narrative of 
 the adventures of two ladies who started 
 with !i buggy and a horse 'warranted 
 sound and kind in all harness,' for a tiip 
 throu Berkshire [Massachusetts.] The 
 The weather was intensely hot when they 
 started, they had a variety of amusing 
 adventures, and the description of scenes 
 and towns is very life-like. It is witty 
 and humorous, but very natural as well. 
 The two women were very courageous and 
 had A good time, as they surely deserved 
 it." [Hartford "Religious Herald." 166 
 VASSALL MOETON [by Francis 
 Parkman: Phillips, Sampson, & Co., 
 1866.] "is honorably distinguished from 
 most American novels by its hearty man- 
 hood, its simple and honest strenf;th. It 
 never lags, is nowhere tedious, but presses 
 to its purpose without halt or bend or any 
 book-making inflations The main ac- 
 tion of the piece is carried on in places 
 most familiar to us. New Yorlc and Bos- 
 ton and dear old Cambridge [Mass.] inter- 
 change on its broad stage with the Alps, 
 and the Lake of Como. We hear the pecu- 
 liar talk of our streets and country folk, 
 together with slight sounds of the lan- 
 guages across the sea, but none of them to 
 excess. There is but a touch and a hint, 
 and enuf is suggested. The volume, tho 
 soon read, comprises great variety, and 
 ministers to many kinds of emotion. It 
 has strokes of genial humor and of deepest 
 passion, tones of the most ordinary life and 
 
 the tramp of romantic adventure We 
 
 commend the book to the public for a 
 wholesome book, as well as a most engag- 
 ing one." [Christ. Examiner. 167 
 
 VILLAGE PHOTOGRAPHS, (by 
 Augusta Lakned, Holt, 1887.] "This 
 volume illustrates the fact that a village 
 offers as good opportunities for the obser- 
 vation of human nature, within limits, as 
 does the city, with the added advantage of 
 a country sincerity and hardiness of cha- 
 
 racter. This particular village is of the 
 New England type. Its inhabitants 
 have a familiar look as they come before 
 us in turn. There are the judge, the jack- 
 of-all-trades, the young man of genius 
 without an occupation, the recluse with a 
 dark romance, the ne'er-do-well, and the 
 good doctor, who belongs to the group in 
 which Holmes delights, and who is drawn 
 with a skill not inferior to his own. There 
 are women of all varieties of weakness and 
 strength of mind, schoolmistresses, old 
 maids, flirts, widows, in an abundance 
 that accurately indicates, one thinks, the 
 surplus of the sex. It is a long story 
 which the author tells. She has exhausted 
 the field, not in the sense of telling all that 
 is to be known, but in leaving out no detail 
 that belongs to the general impression. A 
 good many life-histories are related, not 
 as the novelist writes them, but in the way 
 in which they are really known to the 
 people of the town. One lives in the 
 place, as he reads, and finds out that there 
 is no secrecy possible for any of its inhabi- 
 tants. Sooner or later even the passing 
 stranger learns their affairs from start to 
 finish. The description of these human 
 matters makes the bulk of the book, tho 
 the course of the seasons and the natural 
 features of the woods and mountains and 
 "the pine barrens" are utilized to keep a 
 country atmosphere always present. The 
 rustics are true rustics, true Yankees ; and 
 whoever likes the "simple annals of the 
 poor" will find this volume full of reality, 
 and sometimes touched with homely 
 pathos." [Nation. 108 
 
 WALTER THOENLEY [by Susan R. 
 Sedgwick, 1859.] "Altho wearing the 
 garb of a fictitious work, this charming 
 domestic story is too rich in natural inci- 
 dents and familiar characters not to have 
 been founded in personal experience. Its 
 scenes have a singular air of reality, while 
 brightened with a true glow of imagination 
 and romance. In just and expressive 
 delineations of character, and in a high 
 tone of moral sympathy, the present 
 volume fully sustains the reputation of the 
 
 46 
 
INTERNATIONiX NOVliLS. 
 
 wajstdeeings and fortunes of 
 
 SOME GERMAN EMIGRANTS (The), 
 [by F: Geus'i-acker (1816-72) : Appleton. 
 1848, 210 p. ] "The substauge of this 
 eutertaiuuig book is evidently uo fiction, 
 tho the author has added certain roman- 
 tic flourishes to the main outline of his 
 story, which very sucsessf ully fulfils the 
 usual conditions of a novel. But it is 
 impossible to read many pages without 
 perseiving that he is telling what he must 
 hav seen, knon, and suftered — so minute 
 and 5ircumstantial is the narrativ : and as 
 he is gifted with considerable powers of 
 observing and describing, the reality of 
 his work renders it extremely life-like 
 and engaging ... At Bremen we ar first 
 introdufed to the party. ThSy ar of all 
 ranks-=— some merchants, a barrister, a 
 "Von" of the landed class, a clergyman 
 with wife and two fair dauters, sundry 
 mechanics and workmen of various 
 trades, and some dozen peasants — gather- 
 ed from dilferent parts of Germany . . . 
 How the love alTair of Bertha and Werner 
 ended, and in what manner the survivors 
 
 of the colony became fixed in a more 
 happy settlement, it is ni'cdless to relate. 
 Sufllfc it to say, that the fortunes of those 
 whom we hav learned to love in this 
 history take, on the whole, a, satisfactory 
 turn ; and that what we learn of the other 
 adventurers, — some of whom fall into sad 
 conditions and none of whom greatly 
 prosper, — seems to be quite as good as 
 thiSy had at all deservd. Mr. Gerstitcker 
 seems tS be a genial observer of the hu- 
 mors and ways of men, as wel as apt in 
 the business of daily life — with some 
 readiness in portraying both in a simple, 
 dramatic fashion." [Athenaeum.] — "We 
 ar not sure how much of this book is 
 truth and how much fiction ; but be that 
 as it may, it carries with it an air of grfiat 
 probability, and for aut we can see, may 
 be true to the letter ... It is full of inter- 
 esting in§ident, and the man who can 
 read 10 pages of it without wishing to 
 keep on, must hav the organs of both 
 curiosity and sympathy but very imper- 
 fectly developed." [American Literary 
 Magazine. 557 m 
 
 162 k 
 
NOVELS OF AMElilCAN COUNTRY MFE. 
 
 writer." [Harper's. 169 
 
 WAY DOAVN EAST [by Seba Smith, 
 Derby, 1855.] "The author's brain is 
 overflowing with Y;iukue traditions, local 
 nuecdotes, and personal recollections, 
 wliieh he reproduces with a freshness and 
 point, which always protect the reader 
 from satiety. The force of his descriptions 
 consists in their perfect naturalness. 
 They are never overcharged — never dis- 
 torted, for the sake of grotesque effect, 
 never spiced too highly for the healthy 
 palate — but read almost like literal tran- 
 scripts of Sew England country life, 
 before the age of railroads and telegraphs 
 had brushed away its iiiquant individual- 
 ity." [Harper's. 170 
 ^\- HAT-TO-DO-CLUB (The) [Rob- 
 erts, 1SS5.] "is a work of collaboration 
 by H.. Campbell and Mrs. Poole, the 
 former telling a pleasant, if not very orig- 
 inal, story of NeAV England life, the lat- 
 ter writing the letters in which the doings 
 of the "IJusy-Bodies," a New Jersey club, 
 are related for the instruction of the 
 "What-to-Do's." Both clubs are in search 
 of employment which shall be at once 
 interesting and profitable. The assurance 
 of the writers that each experiment is an 
 actual one, truthfully described, makes 
 the book a valuable storehouse of informa- 
 tion. The tone of it is admirable, sweet, 
 and healthful, making gentle household 
 things and home affections of the first im- 
 portance, and then trying to show what 
 occupations aie not incompatible with 
 them, either in fact or in spirit." [ Na- 
 tion. 171 
 WHITE HERON. (A) [by S.. O. 
 Jbwett: Houghton, 1886.] "Of Miss 
 Jewett's stories little can ever be said, ex- 
 cept to remark afresh on their beauty, 
 their straitforward simplicity, and above 
 all, their loving truth to the life of rural 
 New England not merely in its external 
 aspects, but in its very heart and spirit. 
 
 In view of the current misconceptions 
 
 of the Puritan temper which threaten to 
 fasten themselves upon history, such 
 authentic records of its rugged kindliness, 
 
 its intensity of personal affections, its 
 capacity for liberality, are invaluable. 
 Nor can one doubt that these 'bona-fide' 
 Yankees, yet lingering among the remote 
 farms, are the true descendants in char- 
 acter as well as blood of the original colo- 
 nists, if he will compare them with 'G: 
 Eliot's' studies of the farmer folk from 
 among whom they came. The community 
 of essential character, modified by 200 
 years of greater independence, more liberal 
 thSt, and harder effort, is unmistakable. 
 '•A White Heron" contains 2 or 3 stories 
 which are among the author's best, tho the 
 average of the collection is scarcely equal 
 to previous ones. The first story, "A 
 White Heron," however, is perfect in its 
 way — a tiny classic." [Overland. 173 
 
 WIND OF DESTINY (The) [by A. 
 S. Hakdy, Houghton, 1S86.] "is far 
 from being a bad novel. One cannot, of 
 course, expect every story which "turns 
 out the wrong way" to be a genuinely 
 powerful tragedy ; but, for the absence of 
 intense dramatic interest, one expects com- 
 pensation in the way of pathos or sur- 
 prise, and this Mr. Hardy luis managed to 
 give. In spite of a shadowy uncertainty 
 which vails the chief characters, there is a 
 genuineness about honest Jack Temple 
 which, just in time, saves the story from 
 seeming unreal. His is indeed the pathetic 
 figure of thetale, tho the lonely Schdnberg, 
 with his sad memories, seems to have been 
 meant for the part. And it is to Jack also 
 that one's sympathies go out, rather than 
 to Eowan Ferguson, the painter, when the 
 happiness of both is destroyed by the weat 
 woman who had loved Rowan and mar- 
 ried Jack. There is a quiet nobleness 
 sometimes in the aspect of an every-day 
 man of business who is capable of deep 
 feeling, and of showing it without osten- 
 tation, which is dear to the American 
 heai-t; and tho Mr. Hardy depends largely 
 upon his fatalism to replace natural mo- 
 tives, the misery of Jack Temple is plainly 
 apparent and very touching." [Nation. 173 
 
 WOMAN'S INHERITANCE (A) [by 
 Amanda M. Douglas : Lee & iShepard, 
 
 47 
 
HUMOROUS NOVELS. 
 
 WIDOW BEDOTT I'APEKS (The), 
 [by F.. Miriam (Bkkhv) Wiiitciier: 
 N.-y., Derby, 1S55.] "To all wlio ir.ve 
 pure scandal, gossip, and caricature, this 
 grotesque volume wil be hily acceptable . . . 
 If the keen, tho broad, satire of the book 
 be merited by <5iir rural friends, then the 
 less said by "countryfolk" against the 
 absurdities and selfishness of city life and 
 city manners the better. The "poitry" 
 in the volume wil produce many a hearty 
 laf, and on the whole, we feel gratitied at 
 making the humorous acquaintance ol' the 
 Widow Bedott." [Criterion.]— "It shos 
 the peculiarities of (5iir New-England [ ?] 
 n6bors, especially those of the Widow 
 Bedott. Jlost books of this sort overdo 
 the yankee vernacular. But the Widow 
 Bedott is perfect in her parts of speech, a' 
 model woman of the class to which she 
 belongs. She is ignorant and prejudiced, 
 mean, malicious, and quarrelsome, a 
 slanderer, and above all, an unwearied 
 fisher of men. The end of her being is to 
 entrap some fool into marrying her. Her 
 schemes and manoeuvres ar baffled for a 
 long time, thSy ar so profoundly transpar- 
 ent; but she finally catches a burning'and 
 a shining light— Elder Sniffles, a, Baptist 
 clergyman. If the 'materiel' of the 
 "Widow Bedott Papers" had been worked 
 into a consistent story, with a proper 
 surrounding of characters, scenery and 
 ingidents, th§y might some day hav filled 
 a curious niche in the history of Ameri- 
 can Kterature. As it is, thfiy wil be 
 widely read, largely lafed over, and then 
 forgotten. No permanent business can 
 be done on so small a capital as one char- 
 acter, even tho that one be the Widow 
 Bedott." [Albion.]— "Mrs. Bedott is a 
 vulgar, inconsolable wido, the centre of a 
 village sewing and literary gircle, herself 
 gifted with the art of writing "poitry" of 
 which we hav here some most admirable 
 spegimens. Singe the famous Caudle 
 Lectures, nothing like them has appeared 
 til Widow Bedott began to pour forth her 
 lamentations in "poitry," and to tel the 
 various methods she took to regain her 
 
 standing as a nnirried woman . . . The 
 village society of the rural districts of 
 Neiv-York ar pictured to the life. 
 Nothing can better eviden(;(; the fidelity 
 and graiihii' power of these pen and ink 
 sketches than the I'cnsure intlicted upon 
 the poor artist, from tho girclcs of society 
 in which she livd." [NationalEra. 0401 p 
 WIDOW SPRIGGINK (The) [byF.. 
 M. (BEitRY) Wuitciier: N.-Y., Carle- 
 ton, 1867.] is "another contribution to 
 American Humor, and, considering the 
 time when it was written, a creditable 
 one. It is not equal to the Widow Bedott 
 Papers [ No. 0401 p] , and it is much in- 
 ferior to the effusions of "Artemus 
 Ward," "John Phoenix," "Josh Billings," 
 and the rest of the later American humor- 
 ists. Mrs. Whitcher was a woman of 
 talent, who might hav done good things, 
 had she livd longer, and learned the art 
 of writing ; as it was, her compositions 
 hav a decidedly amateurish air, such as 
 we expect to find in the columns of coun- 
 try journals. TheWidowSpriggins, who, 
 by the way, is not a wido til after the 
 conclusion of her reminisgenges, is a sen- 
 timental country girl, of cheap education 
 and acquirements, whose head, such as it 
 is, had been turned by novel-reading. 
 Refusing a good match in hernativ village 
 of Podunk, she flies to an adjacent town, 
 whSre she opens a seminary, and meets 
 lots of adventures among the young men, 
 who ar attracted by her superior charms 
 and inteUJgense. She repels thSir ad- 
 vanges with scorn, as becomes a reader of 
 the "Children of the Abbey," and similar 
 hi-flon fictions, but finally capitulates to 
 Spriggins, whose relict she soon becomes. 
 Thfire is not much originality in all this, 
 nor, we congeive, much humor; if thfire 
 be, it is so clumsy that it escapes us : in a 
 word it is mere horse-play. That writing 
 of this sort should make a "sensation" in 
 country town, whSre everybody knoes 
 everybody else, and gossip is ready to 
 put the cap of the satirist on the nearest 
 head, we can believe; but further than 
 this, we can not go." [Albion. 0403 q 
 
 47 n 
 
NOVTLLS Ol- AMK.RICAN COUNTRY LIFE. 
 
 WOLFSDBN. [by J. B. ; Boston, 
 riiillips, 1856,] "The author givs evi- 
 den9e ol possesshig the true Yankee eye 
 and brain. His descriptions of the rural 
 life and character of New-England ar 
 fresh, accurate, and life-like, shoing that 
 certainty of grasp which proceeds from 
 cxperien9e as wel as observation. The 
 scenes in New-York and "down South" 
 ar comparativly failures. The pathos, 
 the passion, the dry, quaint, droll humor, 
 often verging on extravagan§e, ar all of 
 the peculiar Kew-England type. The 
 vigor and variety of power displayed in 
 representation of character, the feli9ity of 
 its separate scenes, and its easy mastery 
 of language and illustration, indicate that 
 it was not a first attempt." [ Graham's 
 Magazine.] — "As a work of art, it is 
 manifestly open to criticism ; the plot is 
 not particularly ingenious, and the style, 
 often vigorous, terse, and picturesque, is 
 sometimes careless and in bad taste, altho 
 never dul or commonplace. Vued, how- 
 ever, as a picture of New-England rural 
 life, it has, in (Jiir opinion, few equals. 
 The story of the child-hunt in the wild 
 Maine woods, the slSigh-rides and sing- 
 ing parties and path-brfiakings,' the in- 
 tenseiy-wrot tragedy of the blacsmlth 
 and his tempter, and the tender pathos 
 and simple beauty of some of the de- 
 scriptions ol life and Nature indicate the 
 ability of the author." [J: G. Whit- 
 tier. 173 s 
 
 WOMAN IN SPITE OF HEESBLP =. 
 No. 0406. 
 
 47 w 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN COUNTRY LIFE. 
 
 1886.] "is one o( the books which the 
 critic's feeling would lead him to spealc of 
 more impatiently thau his judgment would 
 sanction ; for the book is well-meant, it is 
 not without a respectable degree of pure 
 story interest, is free from coarseness, and 
 has a sensible moral. In fact, its defect is 
 is the same as that of the typical Sunday- 
 school book (save for the sentimentalizing 
 of religion, of which it is not guilty) — that 
 is, a pervasive atmosphere of the second 
 rate in intellect and taste. It is hard to 
 say how this comes in. The author makes 
 a very great point of good society, and 
 does not palpably break with the facts in 
 describing it; perhaps it is more by what 
 she fails to put in, that she succeeds in 
 being hopelessly second-rate. Her hero- 
 ines are admirable compounds of loveliness 
 and excellence, her heroes, Bayards ; and 
 they curry out their parts with reasonable 
 correctness; but while they move on 
 briskly thron the action of the piece (for 
 Miss Douglas has a very fair idea of the 
 construction and motion of a narrative), 
 they never live — they are merely embodied 
 ideas." [Overland. 174 
 
 YEAR IN EDEN (A) [by Hakriet 
 W. Preston, Boberts, 18S7.] "is saved 
 by the presence of 2 or 3 genuine and natu- 
 ral characters. They are not those to 
 whom most care is given, and who, in the 
 action, are most important. One is Pro- 
 fessor Griswold, clever, pushing, plausi- 
 ble, and untrustworthy; the others are 
 two old maids, the fine drawing of whose 
 insignificance contrasts curiously with the 
 woodenness and conventionality of those 
 who 6t to be significant. Women like 
 the Misses Midleton— dignified, content, 
 serene, for all their material poverty— are 
 to be found in every small community, but 
 very seldom have they been so delight- 
 fully shown to the world as by Miss 
 Preston. The only excuse for the intrigue, 
 an exceptionally disgraceful one even out- 
 side of Eden, Is that it brings out the finest 
 points of these sweet old gentlewomen. 
 The disgrace of their niece's flight with a 
 "married, middle-aged man" was needed 
 
 even to suggest to them that such a thing 
 could be ; how it could be in their own set, 
 among their own flesh and blood, they 
 would never understand. Nor, from the 
 author's delineation, does the reader 
 understand; he can only accept, with the 
 fulness of worldly knowledge, the possi- 
 bility. The passion which might impel a 
 man of fashion to a socially destructive 
 step does not exist in the well-dressed 
 stick which came as the serpent into Eden. 
 For the woman's part in the afifair there is 
 no reason, excepting that an Italian-Yan- 
 kee may be expected to be unbalanced, 
 and that the name "Monza" may impose 
 an obligation to be shocking." [Nation. 175 
 
 YOUNG MAIDS AND OLD : [by C. L.. 
 (Root) Burnham: Ticknor, 1888.] 
 .'This is another example of how well an 
 honest-hearted and modest woman may 
 amuse and entertain readers of her own 
 sex. Without one approach to dangerous 
 ground she has drawn the picture of a 
 good-hearted but flirty girl for one of her 
 heroines, and without one trace of prudish- 
 ness delineated extreme modesty, refine- 
 ment, and reserve in the other, while 
 involving both of them in cordial, honest, 
 happily terminated love-making. And on 
 that achievement we are heartily glad to 
 congratulate her. She is never dull, and 
 she never preaches, but her story leaves a 
 thoroly pleasant and desirable impression 
 on the reader's mind." [ Catholic 
 World. 176 
 
 ZEPH. [by H..(ir.) Jackson: Roberts, 
 1886.] "So careful a student of her art 
 was Mrs. Jackson, and so much knowledge 
 had she of how to study it wisely, that in 
 the few years between her beginning to 
 to write fiction and her death, she had 
 already so far ovei-come the more super- 
 ficial natural defects in her fiction, that 
 few readers would notice them at all in 
 Zeph. The plot of the story seems to us 
 incongruous, artistically speaking. It be- 
 gins with one motive, and seems to be end- 
 ing with another. Zeph's devotion to his 
 wife is the theme at the outset, and it 
 foreshadows a story of tragic loyalty, 
 
 m 
 
NOVELS or AMKRICAN COUNTRY I.rFE. 
 
 unchangeable to the end. Yet soon we 
 find this wife passing very easily out of his 
 life, anil after his divorce, his relation to 
 Miss Sophy becomes the theme; nor does 
 the assurance given by the sketch of the 
 intended close, that the story was to be 
 brot back to its original theme by the 
 death of the first wife, entirely meet this 
 objection. One cannot quite avoid the 
 suspicion that some ttnder-heiirteduess on 
 the author's part towards her characters 
 interfered with the carrying out of the 
 tragedy to its legitimate end." [ Over- 
 land. 177 
 ZURY. [by Jo. Kirki.and : Houghton, 
 1887.] "We cannot recall any fiction 
 worth mention before "Zury" dealing with 
 the middle West, except E: Eggleston's 
 stories, and Howe's two gloomy novels. 
 Mr. Kirkland in some respects excels 
 either of these authors. He writes with a 
 more assured pen, a more even and firm 
 literary training. He is never crude, and 
 
 is thoroly original, in the sense of never 
 depending on conventional types in char- 
 acter or incident, and copying nothing but 
 life. Nevertheless, he is not very individ- 
 ual, and either Mr. Howe's or Mr. Eggles- 
 ton's stories leave a much more distinct 
 mark on the mind than his. Perhaps by 
 his crude devices, pei-hapsin spite of them, 
 Mr. Eggleslon did attain "go;" and per- 
 haps by his unconscionable imitation and 
 ghastly sensationalism, perhaps in spite of 
 them, Mr. Howe is impressive. "Zury" 
 is full of excellences, yet it hardly im- 
 pi-esses itself on the reader. This ischiefly, 
 we should say, because the plot is not 
 pleasant, and the unpleasant element in it 
 does not make itself seem necessary and 
 inevitable, as it should in an artistic book ; 
 partly, too, because the style, admirable 
 tho it is— plain, direct, and full of intelli- 
 gence and quiet humor — has not that 
 highly readable quality which may be 
 called brightness." [Overland. 178 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Anonymous, ja* "Boscobel ;" "Gem- 
 ini," "The New Schoolma'am," "The 
 Shady Side," "Simply a Love-story." 
 
 Adams, M.., jpg* "An Honorable Sur- 
 render." 
 
 Alcott, L. M. ^F "Little Women." 
 
 Aldrich, T : B., I|3= "Stillwater Trag- 
 edy," "Story of a Had Boy." 
 
 "Arr, E. H." ([|3-"New England By- 
 gones." 
 
 Austin, J.. (G.), jpg' "Desmond Hun- 
 dred," "Mrs. Beauchamp Brown." 
 
 Bardben, C. W., oa" "Roderick 
 Hume." 
 
 Bates, Arlo, ^p8° "Lad's Love," 
 "Patty's Perversities." 
 
 Beecher, H : Ward, 153= "Norwood." 
 
 BELLAMY, E :, m^- "Six to One." 
 
 Benedict, F. L., 013" "Miss Van Cort- 
 land," "Price She Paid." 
 
 BERKSHIRE CO., MASS., J^- 
 "Vacation in a Buggy." 
 
 "Bonner, Shkrwood." [K.. S. Mc- 
 Dowell] llpg* "Like unto Like." 
 
 Brown, H.. D., ^iSf "Two College 
 Girls." 
 
 Bkuob, B. M., ua" "Thousand a Year." 
 
 Brush, C. (C), |Ipg° "Inside our Gate." 
 
 Burnett, E.. (U.) jpy "Louisiana." 
 
 Burnham, C. L.. (R.), ^fW "Next 
 Door," "Young Maids and Old." 
 
 Burton, W. ["District School"] m^- 
 No. 127. 
 
 Bynnbr, E. L., |ia= "Nimport." 
 
 CALIFORNIA, ua" "Snowbound at 
 Eagles" "Summer in a Canon." 
 
 Campbell, H.. (S.) J|3° "His Grand- 
 mothers" "What-to-do Club." 
 
 CAMPOBELLO, 813- "April Hopes," 
 "Lad's l^ove." 
 
 CANADA, UgS* "-^ Chance Acquaint- 
 ance." 
 
 Carpenter, Esther B., jpg* "South 
 County Neighbors." 
 
 Cary, Alice, J^" "Great Doctor." 
 
 Catherwood, M.. (H.), |I|3- "Rocky 
 Fork." 
 
 Chaplin, H. W., 113- "Five Hundred 
 Dollars." 
 
 Chesebro, C, |[i3= "Foe in the House- 
 hold," " Peter Carradine." 
 
 Clergymen, life of, |[pg° "Shady Side," 
 "Thousand a Year," also, Religions 
 Views. 
 
MtlOE. ONE COPY, $.60; TWO COPIES. ^ .76; THREE, $1,00; FOUR, $1.26; FIVE. $1.60; TEN, $2,00; FIFTEEN, $3.00. 
 
 DESCRIPTIVE LIST 
 
 OF 
 
 NOVELS AND TALES 
 
 DEALING WITH 
 
 AMERICAN CITY LIFE, 
 
 INCLUDINQ SOME WORKS DESCRIPTIVE OF COUNTRY LIFE OMITTED FROM PREVIOUS LIST. 
 COMPILED BT 
 
 W: M. GUIS WOLD, A, B. 
 
 EDITOR OF "THE MONOGRAPH", A COLLECTION OF FIFTY-FOUR HISTORICAL AND 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS; AND OF "TRAVEL," A SIMILAR SERIES 
 
 DEVOTED TO PLACES. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE, MASS: 
 
 W: M. GRISWOLD, Publisher. 
 1891. 
 
Novels of Ameeican City Life. 
 
 The object of this list is to direct readers, such as would enjoy the kind of books 
 here described, to a number of novels, easily obtainable, but which, in many 
 cases, have been forgotten within a year or two after publication. That the 
 existence of works of fiction is remembered so short a time is apity, since, for every 
 new book of merit, there are, in most libraries, a hundred as good or better, un- 
 known to the majority of readers. It is hoped that the publication of this and 
 similar lists will lessen, in some measure, the disposition to read an inferior new 
 hook when superior old books, equally fresh to most readers, are at hand. 
 
 Thislistwill be followed by others describing INTERNATIONAL, BOMAN- 
 TIC, ECCENTBIG and FANCIFUL novels and tales. The compiler would be 
 pleased to have his attention called to any works deserving a place which have 
 escaped his attention. It may be observed that the compiler has tried to include 
 only such works as are well-written, interesting, and free from sensationalism, 
 sentimentality, and pretense. But in a few cases, books have been noticed on ac- 
 count of the reputation of their authors, or their great popularity, rather than their 
 merit. 
 
 The selected "notices" here given are generally abridged. 
 
 A15BAHAM PAGE, ESQ. [ by J: 
 Saunders Holt : Lippincott, 1869.] "To 
 read them is to get much the same kind of 
 pleasure that one finds in listening to the 
 talk of a shrewd, sensible old man, such as 
 one occasionally meets in out-of-the-way 
 country places, who, having spent all his 
 days in one spot, has been colored by his 
 surroundings to the very marrow, and 
 whose judgments on men and things, if 
 they have the defect of being provincial 
 and narrow, have also the virtue of result- 
 ing fairly from his own observations . . . 
 But usually he confines himself closely to 
 the matter he has in hand. That matter 
 is description of life and manners in the 
 little Southern village where he was born, 
 and where he lived all his days in the com- 
 fortable assurance that life had nothing 
 better or pleasanter to ofier than what 
 could be found within its limits. Content- 
 
 ment is certainly a virtue, and it is hard to 
 say who could practise it with gieater 
 hopes of success than a man situated as 
 '•Mr. Page" describes himself to have been, 
 who felt the pleasant conviction that to 
 be a gentleman was the chief end of man, 
 and that only a Southerner, the owner of 
 slaves, could ever hope to attain it. Under 
 such circumstances, a cheerful serenity 
 and a calm confidence in suiveying and 
 analyzing the meaner works of God's hand 
 could hardly fail to be engendered in any 
 bosom. Such was the result, at all events, 
 in "Mr. Page's" case; and, considering the 
 2 unaflfectedly pleasant books which, but 
 foi- this satisfaction with himself and this 
 thoro persuasion of the soundness of all 
 his positions, would certainly have been 
 less peculiarly pleasant, we find in our- 
 selves not the least disposition to quarrel 
 with it. Mr. Page has looked at life with 
 
 50 
 
NOVELS Of AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 eyes of a shrewd, humorous, and quiisi- 
 filosofical observer, and has told in an easy 
 and niitural way what he has seen and 
 what he has th6t about it." [Nation. 179 
 
 ACROSS THE CHASM, [by Julia 
 Magkddeu : Scribner.lSSo.] "This is done 
 throu the personality of Margaret Treven. 
 non, an exceptionally charming and unpre- 
 judiced Southern girl, who acquires her 
 first experience of Northern chaiacter 
 during a winter spent in Washington- 
 This is not a Hyperborean latitude for 
 studying Northern character, but even here 
 Margaret finds such a change from the 
 social customs and minor morals to whicli 
 she has been accustomed that it can only be 
 wondered what she would have found in 
 a chillier region — Boston, for instance. 
 The chief subject of her wonder and of her 
 animadversions is the careful anxiety with 
 which 'Northerners' choose their acquaint- 
 ances, shielding themselves from social 
 derogation and desirous to be intimate 
 only in 'the best circles'. She cannot un- 
 derstand why 'a lady born and reared 
 should even have to think of anything like 
 that' ; and is of opinion that it is too dis- 
 agreeable a puzzle 'to decide whom to 
 treat civilly and whom to snub' ; an idea 
 which is derided by her Washington cousin 
 as a 'hi-flown Soutliern notion' of too 
 general hospitality. This discriminating 
 Margaret is the centre of many pleasing 
 pictures of the liter aspects of social life, 
 and sits in serene judgment upon the con- 
 flicting claims of 3 lovers — an amiable but 
 indolent and 'shiftless' Carolinian, an 
 energetic and ambitious New-Yorker, and 
 a polished cosmopolitan who has out- 
 grown any special sympathy with either 
 section." [American. 180 
 
 ADVENTURES OF A WIDOW. The 
 [by Edgar Fawcett: Osgood, 1884.] 
 "In this social study, or rather satire, the 
 well known censor of fashionable life in 
 New- York assumes to wfi and judge the 
 different elements of society tli&e, to con- 
 trast the merits and demerits of various 
 cliques and to pronounce upon their com- 
 parative claims to respect, the chief types 
 chosen being ultra-fashionable and LITER- 
 
 ARY New-York. The connecting link 
 between these diverse elements is the 
 widow of promised adventures, I'auline 
 Varick, young, rich, of bluest Knickerbock- 
 er blood, who has gained dearly b6t ex- 
 perience from a short but unhappy 
 mercenary niariage. Disgusted with the 
 emptiness, frivolity, meaness of aim, and 
 poverty of achievement of the sociid circle 
 in which she had been trained to her 
 matrimonial bargain and sale, the aim of 
 her riper years is to make herself the 
 centre of a new and better form of society 
 of which the members shall be 'men and 
 women of intellectual calibre, workers, 
 not drones; thinkers, writers, artists, poets, 
 scholars.' Aided by the versatile and fas- 
 cinating Irish-American journalist, Kindel- 
 on, and a literary Mrs. Diires and her 2 
 ilauters, she succeeds in establishing her 
 'salon' and assembles in her luxurious 
 mansion the best which can be gathered 
 of literary and artistic workei's. Fresh 
 from contact with Mrs. Poughkeepsie's 
 circle of aristocratic pretension and idea- 
 less vacuity, she hopes to interest herself 
 in the society of historians, novelists, 
 essayists, poets, sculptors and painters. 
 But the experiment is not a success. H-er 
 assemblage of lions snap, snarl, and lacerate 
 each other and their hostess. Rude things 
 are said and done, egotists prate of them- 
 selves and theorists romp on their hobby- 
 horses unchecked." [American] — "We 
 should not wonder if some of Mr. Faw- 
 cett's portraits — perhaps all of them— had 
 been furtively done from life, and if he 
 nilt \M at the success with which he 
 has set a few obnoxious individuals in the 
 pillory of type. It is hard to feel, for ex- 
 ample, that in the company assembled at 
 Mrs. Varick's first salon— in Mr. Prawle, 
 Mr. Trevor, and Mr. Corson, the poets, 
 and in Mr. Bedloe, [ Roe ?] , the pietistio 
 novelist, 'who wrote 'The Christian Knight 
 in Armour,' we do not see caricatures of 
 authors familiar to us all. The appearance 
 of these figures is the signal for a good 
 deal of debate and criticism on books, au- 
 thors, reading, and the general intellectual 
 and literary life." [Bost."Lit. World." 181 
 
 51 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYEE. 
 The [by 'M : Twain:' American Pub- 
 lishing Co., 1876.] •'. . . The tale is very 
 dramatically wr6t, and the subordinate 
 characters are treated with the same grafic 
 force which sets Tom alive before us. The 
 worthless vagabond, Huck Finn, is entire- 
 ly delltful thiouout, and in his promised 
 reform, his identity is respected ; he will 
 lead a decent life in order that he may one 
 day be thot worthy to become a memljer 
 of that gang of robbers which Tom is to 
 organize. Tom's aunt is excellent, with 
 her kind heart's sorrrw and secret pride 
 in Tom ; and so is his sister Mary, one of 
 those good girls who are born to usefulness 
 ■ and charity and forbearance and unvarying 
 rectitude. Many village people and loca' 
 notables are introduced in well conceived 
 character; the whole little town lives in 
 tlie reader's sense, with its religiousness, 
 its lawlessness, its droll social distinctions, 
 its civilization qualified by it» slave-holding 
 and its traditions of the wilder West which 
 has passed away. The picture will be 
 instructive to those wlio have fancied the 
 whole Southwest a sort of vast Pike 
 County, and have not conceived of a sober 
 and serious and orderly contrast to the sort 
 of life that has come to represent the South- 
 west in literature." [Atlantic. 183 
 ALICE BKAND. [by Albert Gal- 
 latin Kiddle: Appleton, 1875.] ''The 
 author is very much in earnest about re- 
 producing the life of a given place and 
 period [ Washington, 1865-9] as it passed 
 under his eyes, and has done well to give 
 us portraits instead of purely typical fig- 
 ures. . . . The perspective and finish of 
 the book are unsatisfactory; background 
 and foreground are interchangeable; and 
 the love-story of Col. Mason and Ellen 
 lierwick far outstrips in interest that of 
 Frank and Alice. Mason's Congressional 
 experiences give rise to some rather inter- 
 esting passages, which, with the scenic and 
 somewhat questionable glimpses of lobby- 
 ing and pardon-broking operations, sug- 
 gest regions of research from which a 
 master mit draw something worthy the 
 pains. • . • But, with all its faults and its 
 
 weakness, 'Alice Brand' has vigor in It; 
 the sludy of the mischievous, honest, im- 
 petuous American youth, Grayson Vane, 
 is liot bad; and among American novels 
 which make a point of being water-marked 
 with their nationality, it will stand above 
 the average." [Nation. 183 
 
 AMBITIOUS WOMAN. An [by 
 Edgar Fawcbtt: Houghton, 1883.] 
 "This novel deals with the career of Claire 
 Twining, who Irom an early age has set 
 before herself the ambition of mounting 
 from a very liumble station to a hi posi- 
 tion in society, and finally accomplishes 
 her aim by unseruplous efibrts and the aid 
 of her exceptional beauty and charm,— a 
 charm which is strong enuf to beguile the 
 reader of her history into a sort of sym- 
 pathy with her, in spite of the crass selfish- 
 ness with which she avows and follows 
 sordid and intrinsically vulgar aims. 
 . . . The success of Claire in gaining a 
 position in this carefully defended oligar- 
 chy [in N. Y.] , her trials, and hazards, and 
 losses, and the manner in which she finally 
 snatches victory from defeat, must not be 
 forestalled for the reader. The aim of the 
 author is professedly to show the vanity 
 and worthlessness of her ambition, its 
 barren fertility, and the shallowness of 
 its selfish joys; but in his desire to excuse 
 his heroine and render her worthy of the 
 reader's sympathies, Mr. Fawcett makes 
 his point too well. The pomps and vani- 
 ties which are Claire's allurements are 
 depicted in too attractive colors. The 
 ginger is too hot in the mouth, and the 
 cakes and ale too savory, to be given up 
 without reluctance. The sad shadow of 
 satiety which infallibly follows the sun- 
 glare of such worldly joj's and successes 
 is not allowed to be seen at all. Claire 
 loses her fortune, to be sure, and concludes 
 to comfort herself with family affection; 
 but the reader may imagine that with a 
 return of her former wealth would come 
 former ambitions. Altogether there may 
 be reasonable doubts of Mr. Fawcett's 
 success in inculcating his moral, but there 
 can be none about the entertaining quali- 
 ties of his book. It is not only readable 
 
 52 
 
NOVKXS OF AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 but charming." [Americnn.] — "It is the 
 story of a. penniless girl, who, vinderstsind- 
 ing clearly what she wishes in life, under- 
 stands the time to seize and hold every 
 opportunity and make every step in her 
 career promote her ambition. The story 
 is in no respect a pleasing one, the charact- 
 ers being not only unlovely in themselves, 
 but with false tendencies which permit no 
 illusions. The heioine, Chiire, strikes us 
 as a somewhat wooden and conventional 
 person, limited and hindered by sordid 
 and prosaic ideas. Quite untouched by 
 the passion she inspires in her husband, 
 she find's nothing in his single-hearted 
 devotion which she is not ready to throw 
 away when reverses come. This is the 
 weakest .place in the book, and at the 
 same time offers Mr. Fawcctt his best 
 opportunity, for the wronged husband's 
 nobility and goodness at this crisis go far 
 to retrieve the story from commonplace- 
 The reality of Claire's final repentance and 
 atonement impresses us but feebly. Workl- 
 liness is not a temporary folly, which may 
 be assumed or dismissed at pleasure, but 
 is the result of d(ficient insit, narrow 
 sympathies, and a barren heart." [Lippin- 
 cott's. 184 
 
 AiMEEICAN POLITICIAN. An [by 
 F. M. Ckawfcied: Houghton, 1884.] 
 A clever, amusing, and interesting sketch 
 of Boston society, with some political 
 scenes tiuthfully and entertainingly done. 
 Most of the political matter however, is 
 dull, and a part is so preposterous,— not 
 to say childish — as to form n political 
 "Alice's Adventures." 185 
 
 ANGLOMANIACS. The [by CoN- 
 STAXCE (Caky) Haeeison: Cassell, 
 1890.] Tho only half as long as is usual, 
 this is a nearer approach to a successful 
 novel of american [New-Vork] society 
 than anything previously published. It is 
 full of shrewd observation and clever talk, 
 without sacrificing to these features its in- 
 terest as a stoiy. In the first three-quart- 
 ers of the book there is no occasion for un- 
 favorable criticism, except, perhaps, as to 
 the title, which is at least inadequate. The 
 struggle in which the heroine is involved 
 
 and her mother exclusively engaged is not, 
 except incidentally, the aping of english 
 manners ; — it is rather an example of the 
 constant eft'ort, always going on in a 
 wealthy soeiety, of the newly-enriched to 
 conquer a position among leading families. 
 The possibility of winning a title into the 
 bargain — may, or may not, add new inter- 
 est to the game. In this stoiy, the use of 
 the english connection appears to be to 
 serve as a fulcrum for Archimedes' lever. 
 —Towards the close of the story the author 
 appears to have spent her force, and lost 
 her interest, so that she cuts the knot of 
 the story instead of untwisting it, which 
 would have produced a more satisfactory, 
 tho a more laborious conclusion. 186 
 
 ANNALS OF P.EOOKDALE. [by F.. 
 (BooTT) Geeekough : Lippincott. 1881.] 
 "A pleasant idyllic picture of the New- 
 England village of 25 or SO years ago." 
 [Atlantic. 187 
 
 ANNE, [by C. F. "O'OOLson : Harper, 
 1882.J "If Miss Woolson has stood easily 
 at the head of American women novelists, 
 it is less because she has given us the best 
 than because she has given us little but the 
 best. In Miss I'heips we have to forgive 
 some superfluous sentiment; in Mrs. Davis 
 an extreme degree of the uncanny ele- 
 ment; iu Mrs. Burnett, the impossible 
 refinement other 'lower class' characters; 
 in Mrs. Spoftbrd, a Disraelish tendency to 
 mother-of-pearl bedsteads and diamond 
 studded thimbles. Miss Woolson makes 
 no demands of this sort upon our clemency. 
 Her longest sustained effort, the novel 
 'Anne', promised, for 400 pages, to be all 
 that we had learned to expect from her. 
 "When, therefore, toward the clo.se we find 
 that Miss Woolson resorts to melodramatic 
 clap-trap of the cheapest variety to unite 
 her lovers — that there is to be not only a 
 plot but a climax, and that they are all to 
 live happily ever after, the artistic mis- 
 take is so colossal, so incongruous, so in- 
 credible, that we are not merely disajjpoint- 
 ted ; we \&,L ■ ■ ■ The story divides itself 
 easily into 3 parts ; the first, a series of 
 clear, exguisite etchings, giving in distinct 
 tho colorless outlines a picture of the 
 
 53 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 pallid winters on the great northern lakes ; 
 the second, a water-color, giving a picture 
 of society, as illustrated by summer board- 
 ers, with all the fidelity of a fotograf, but 
 with a lit and color which are the author's 
 own; — the third, ii chromo — such a mix- 
 ture of murder and mariage, of heliotrope 
 and orange blossoms, that perhaps the 
 less said of it the better." . . . [Critic. 188 
 ANlSriE KILBURN. [by W:D. How- 
 ells : Harper, 1889.] "For the story of 
 her attempts, her failures, and her success- 
 es — in which last she is not rich— readers 
 must go to the.pages of what seems to us 
 the best book Mr. Howells has written. 
 Hp has certainly never given us in one 
 novel so many portraits of intrinsic inter- 
 est. Annie Kilburn herself is a master- 
 piece of quietly veracious art,— the art 
 which depends for its effect on unswerving 
 fidelity to the truth of nature; but because 
 she is painted in low tones, she stands out 
 from the canvas a little less distinct than 
 1 or 2 of the other figures. Mr. Peck, the 
 minister, is a striking character, a sort of 
 Savonarola in homespun. He is as en- 
 thusiastic in his way as Miss Kilburn is in 
 hers : tho while her enthusiasm is sanguine, 
 his is sombre, and he has a finer grasp of 
 the facts of life, because he sets his face 
 like a flint against pleasant illusions. If 
 the portrait of Mr. Peck be notably im- 
 pressive, that of the clever, superficially 
 cynical, but essentially kindly Bohemian, 
 Ealph Putney, is as notably brilliant. The 
 defect of the ordinary clever man of fiction 
 is that we do not hear his cleverness, we 
 only hear about it; but I'utney's clear 
 sited, biting persiflage sparkles and corus- 
 cates for Mr. Howells' readers, and is not 
 left to be accepted by them on vague re- 
 port. Above all, we feel that he is a 
 human being, not a mere costumed machine 
 for the turning out of epigrams; indeed 
 the main charm of 'Annie Kilburn' lies in 
 the fact that it arouses and maintains our 
 interest in the wholesome commonplaces 
 of human nature and human experience of 
 which we can never tire." [Spectator.] 
 See also notice in "Novels of Country 
 Life." 189 
 
 ANTONY BEADE. [by Robert 
 [T. S. ] Lowell: Soberts, 1874.] "This 
 story, 'lovingly written for all who have 
 been boys or are boys or like boys,' is 
 wholesome, hearty, human. It gives pict- 
 ures of life at a boy's school under Episco- 
 pal influences [-'St. Marks"] in a New- 
 England country town, [ Southboro, 
 Mass.] and of society in that little gossip- 
 ing world. The pivot of interest round 
 which the story revolves is the mystery 
 concerning the history of Antony Brade, 
 who is a charming yet thoroly boylike fig- 
 ure, and whose companions are described 
 to the life In thfiir studies, thSir mischief, 
 thiSirplay. Mr. Parmenter, [liurnett] the 
 fussy, meddlesome trustee of the school, 
 whose wealth, acquired in the sale of per- 
 fumery, gives him the airs of a lord of the 
 manor, is drawn with special felicity. Mr. 
 Lowell's 'New Priest at Conception Bay' 
 proved that he had rare power of giving 
 genuine pictures out of fresh and unwonted 
 scenes for men and women ; his present 
 book is successful in making picturesque 
 fases of life which are famihar to us, and 
 without formally inculcating any 'morals,' 
 is leavened with hi principles and Christian 
 spirit." [Unitarian Review. 190 
 
 ARTHUR BONNtOASTLE. [ by J. G. 
 Holland : Scribner, 1873.] "The moral 
 is well pointed therein, but conventional 
 verbiage, threadbare platitudes, feeble 
 clatter, and decorous intmity are wont to 
 be resented by resolute, impetuous souls 
 who are eager for the retarded denoue- 
 ment. . . .Whatever be the verdict in re- 
 gard to the literary merit of "Arthur 
 Bonnicastle," it is safe to predict for it a 
 genial, generous reception from those who 
 entertain a harmless, enthusiastic sort of 
 respect for florid simplicity, almost suflb- 
 cating propriety, and the most patient and 
 faithful indoctrination of moral lessons. 
 Over such the work will difl'use a cheering 
 caloric, and a mildly i)leasant radiance. 
 [Overland. 191 
 
 AS IT MAY HAPPEN [by "Trebor" 
 (Ro. S. Davis) : Porter & Coates, 1879.] 
 "first challenges attention by the claim 
 to be a novel of American life and charac- 
 
 54 
 
NOVELS OF AMEllICAX CITY LIFE. 
 
 ter. It is a novel of rather low life and 
 generally worthless eliaracter; and it is to 
 be hoped that this does not make it more 
 distinutively American, tho the author evi- 
 dently thinks it does. . . .There is an abun- 
 dance of disagreeable incident in the story, 
 and no lack, from the outset, of action; 
 but toward its close, surprises come tum- 
 bling down ; the author breaks into a kind 
 of war-dance, and there is something so 
 broadly farcical in his distribution of 
 princely fortunes and assignment of brown- 
 stone fronts to the (comparatively) virtu- 
 ous upon the last page that one wonders 
 if, after all, he may not have written this 
 book upon a wager as to how preposterous 
 a farrago the public would accept in the 
 way of domestic fiction. There are cer- 
 t:iin involuntary vulgarisms in the style, 
 however, — like the incessant u»e of 'tran- 
 spire' for occur, — which forbid the suppo- 
 sition of deliberate mockery. It is partic- 
 ularly liard to take a book of this sort 
 seriously and consider it with patience. 
 Yet, concluding it to have been written in 
 good faith, we are resolved to dwell on it 
 for a little, because, curiously bad as much 
 of the present performance is, it is yet 
 haunted by a strange kind of amorfous 
 possibility of merit. In the first place, it 
 has the indubitable advantage of a scene 
 laid in the Middle States. The very 
 quietude and indifierence of that region, 
 its neutrality amid the stress of effort and 
 the storms of faction which have raged on 
 either side of it for a hundred years, have 
 allowed the deposit oJ a soil, the exhalation 
 of a certain dreamy atmosfere. favorable, 
 or at least possible, for romance. . . . 
 Pennsylvania, the paradise of the lazy 
 and the byword of the progressive, whose 
 long drawn name, even, is compounded of 
 Quaker flegni & rustic monotony and ends 
 in a yawn. — Pennsylvania furnished scen- 
 ery for all those intense and original studies 
 of Mrs. (Harding) Davis, and for Bayard 
 Taylor's most powerful and symmetrical 
 novel, the Story of Kennett; and, thanks to 
 the fact that its antic action passes precisely 
 tbfire, even 'As it May Happen' is thoroly 
 invested with an atmosfere and equipped 
 
 with a landscape. It is also — what is yet 
 more unusual— equipped with a plot, 
 which the author is somewhat too impa- 
 tient to unravel, but which is ingenious if 
 not new; and thfire is real humor." [ At- 
 lantic. 192 
 
 ASCHENBROEDEL, [by K.. Cak- 
 RINGTON : Roberts, 1S82.] "The Aschen- 
 brOdel of this volume lived in an old- 
 fashioned house in an old-fashioned New- 
 England town. She had good books and 
 a sparkling mind ; a fun-loving, nature-lov- 
 ing, girlish spirit, in a vigorous, elastic 
 body, with no petty pride yet quite enuf of 
 the nobler sort; iimbition is as natural to 
 such a spirit as it is to that of the robust 
 boy who has his fortune to make. Alice 
 had the mental training and some of the 
 luxuries of the educated and refined, but 
 Ihe locus of the stranded. For, tho she 
 remembered better days, — a brother in col- 
 lege and college friendsof his, oneof whom 
 still existed in her mind as the ideal youth, 
 — yettheforluneofthefamily was not large 
 and her social mates, including the brother 
 and the ideal youth, were gone. Hooks 
 and magazines were hers, and the echoes 
 of a dislant intellectual life, an exhilarat- 
 ing sense of the possibilities of her own 
 nature ; but a depressing sense of the prob- 
 abilities of her futui-e." [Century. 193 
 
 ASPENDALE, [by Harriet Wa- 
 ters Preston: Roberts, 1871.] "The 
 quiet currant of this tale follows 2 friends, 
 Christine and Zoe, who have retired to a 
 Nevv-Bngland village; and its main in- 
 terest, as is usual in retired lives, is chiefly 
 derived from the conversations and thSts 
 which are set in the outer framework of 
 the story." [Religious Magazine. 194 
 
 AT DAYBREAK, [by "A. Stirling," 
 i.e., Annie Lydia (McPhail) Kimball : 
 Osgood, 1884.] "is a decidedly pleasant 
 little novel — somewhat faulty in construc- 
 tion, but still containing nice people and 
 written in agreeable language. It does not 
 caricature, and exaggerates very little ; it 
 is thoroly unpretentious: and it has an 
 agreeable air of freshnesss and originality. 
 The heroine is both sweet and natural and 
 the story ends well." [Overland. 195 
 
 55 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 AUTOBIOGRATHY OF A NEW- 
 ENGLAND FARM-HOUSE, The [ by N. 
 H. Chamberlaix : Carleton, 1865.] "The 
 valueofthis portraiture of JVew-England 
 life and associations lies in the ehiirm of 
 old romance, which Mr. Chamberlain, a 
 late convert from Unitariauism, and the 
 rector of a Connecticut parish, has thrown 
 into stern I'uritanism. What Kingslcy 
 has done to throw a fascination around the 
 Puritan maiden, he has done to soften the 
 hardness witli which we regard life in 
 New-England. It is a less skilful pen he 
 holds than Hawthorne's, but the delinea- 
 tion is often as exquisite. Mr. Chamber- 
 lain has done in prose what Longfellow 
 has done in the 'Courtship of Miles Stand- 
 ish.' He has not attempted the impossilde 
 thing, as did Sylvester Judd in his 'Mar- 
 garet;' but he has painted the familiar 
 scenes and incidents of the country life of 
 to-day, and of a century ago, with poetical 
 feeling and a delicate religious touch. He 
 lacks just the indescribable something to 
 make him v, poet, but his prose is all the 
 better because he is not a poet. The book 
 has its limitations, and a large class of per- 
 sons — the realists — will be entirely disap- 
 pointeil in it; the other class — who like the 
 home-touches of Whittier and the dream- 
 iness of Longfellow — will be delited with 
 It. The volume is open, too, to severe 
 criticism; it is much disjointed; it tends to 
 mannerism in style ; the story is incomplete 
 and unsatisfMctory." [ Chuich Month- 
 ly. 196 
 BASSETT CLAIM, The, [by H: 
 Rutherford Elliot: Futnam, 1SS4.] 
 '■is a story of AVasliiugton life witli the 
 usual set*''ng of legislative Intrigues kept 
 well in the background, while the real in- 
 terest depends upon the loves of young 
 men and women, and the struggles of the 
 former to get on in the world. The story 
 is very simple and very nalural, with just 
 - a dash of mystery at the end to give it a 
 romantic flavor. The people one meets in 
 ils pages make no pretence of being any- 
 thing more than ordinary human beings, 
 with some knowledge and cultivation, and 
 as a consequence turn out to be very pleas- 
 
 ant acquaintances. The most pleasant one 
 of all, perhaps, is old Tom 13assett. This 
 kindly old gentleman's influence is seen 
 here and there throuout, tho he dies almost 
 at the opening of the story, with the title 
 of his bin, 'for the relief of old Tom Bas- 
 sett,' upon his lii)S. His long life had been 
 spent mainly in efforts to have his and the 
 other French-Spoliation claims paid, and 
 the brevity of the few touches with which 
 the genial impression of him is given adds 
 to its distinctness The whole story, 
 In fact, is told with a directness, with now 
 and then a vein of spritly humor, which 
 relieve a somewhat open and iiieflective 
 plot. With more sombre treatment it 
 would have proved wearisome ; for there 
 is nothing absorbing in the fact that old 
 Tom's great-nefew should go to Washing- 
 ton to help forward the claim; nor that 
 his mother and sister should follow him; 
 nor that he should fancy himself in love 
 with a pretty girl, be jilted, and forget her; 
 nor even in the fact that his college chum 
 should have been all along in love with 
 Miss Bassett, and finally mary her. But 
 these simple elements are so well developed 
 tliat, with the frequency of lively conver- 
 sation and epigrams, and the slit air of 
 mystery, and the charm about Miss Shef- 
 field, the story is never dull. [Nation. 197 
 HETTER TIMES, [by Ellen [War- 
 ner] (Olney) Kirk: Ticknor, 1889.] 
 "One of the best is 'The Story of a Silk 
 Dress,' — It has so much variety of incident, 
 such fertility of invention, so free an infu- 
 sion of humor and humorous situations, 
 and so happy a sketching of quaint char- 
 acters, that it would bear, we think, to be 
 arranged as a 'pailor comedy', and would 
 be very much more lively and interesting 
 than many off'ered us iu that guise. The 
 one -which gives title to the volume, 'Bet- 
 ter Times,' is full of dramatic situations, a 
 strong, earnest story. 'These 'J'ales,' the 
 author says in a brief Prefatory Note, 
 "were written in the better times when she 
 was youngei-, and when stories made them- 
 selves out of instinct and sympathy, rather 
 than from experience or observation, and 
 when painstaking realism was not th6t of ; 
 
 56 
 
NOVELS OF AMERtCAJJ CITY LIFE. 
 
 but it must not be supposed from tbis tbat 
 they have not been earefullv eonsti'Ueted, 
 or tbat they Uiek a true art." [Amer. 198 
 
 IJONNYItOROUGII [by Adeline 
 DuTTOx (Traix) Whitney: Houghton, 
 1SS6.] "is H worthy suceessor to 'The 
 AVide, Wide World' and other 'tallcy' 
 bool;s, ill whicli the cliaiarters made muf- 
 fins, invented new readings of Bible texts 
 injected into Kew-En^landshmg, and were 
 jrenerally harmless idiots with a mania." 
 [Catholic World.] "Four people in it are 
 eventually maried; but besides courtships, 
 with the usual amount of allegory baffling 
 the intelligence of even quite sentimental 
 critics, there seems singularly little for one, 
 in the slang of the day, 'to catch on' to. 
 There is page after page, chapter after 
 chanter, of village gossip, or picnics, or 
 nice little meals, or heart-rending analysis 
 of motive, and quite incomprehensible 
 melafor and simile; but there seemsmuch 
 less of the charm which Jlrs. Whitney used 
 to infuse even into her wildest soarings 
 into the Infinite or divings into the Eter- 
 nal."— [Critic] '-It contains the usual 
 exasperating quantity of atl'ectations, epi- 
 grams, ejaculations, clasping of hands 
 dramatically over small matters, which 
 have been long destroying, in the esteem 
 of critical people, the work of a writer 
 who once promised so well. There is thot 
 underneath all tbis, and Mrs. Whitney's 
 people are always alive; but the growth 
 of this disastrous sentimentalism and man- 
 nerism upon her have sadly idienated 
 many who started in hopefully with her in 
 the day of 'Faith Garlney' and 'Leslie 
 Goldtliwaite'." (No. 149) [Overland. 199 
 
 BOSTOXIAXS, The, [ by H: James: 
 Macmillan, 1886.] "To speak after the 
 manner of Mr. James' distressingly con- 
 scientious charactei's, I am not sure that it 
 is quite rit for anyone to read 'The ISos- 
 tonians' throu, so long as anything useful 
 or eulertaining remains to be done on 
 earth. An anomalous young Southerner 
 gradually falls in love with a young girl of 
 uncanny, sibylline eloquence and charla- 
 tanic parentage. He has for his chief 
 rival an unwhoiesome lioston spinster of 
 
 disordered nerves who turns tragical over 
 the fear that her friend of friends may 
 make common cause with the tyrant-man. 
 A fealureless collector of bric-i-brac would 
 ratlier like to mary the hei-oiue himself. 
 The inevitable Europeanized young wid- 
 ow makes rather more ardent love to the 
 hero. He fails in a very interesting way 
 as a lawyer, a magazinist, and a child's 
 tutor. He proses, she proses, all prose. 
 At last there is an altogether supei-fluous 
 elopement, with hints that the happy 
 couple will starve before long, unless they 
 can live on her inspiration and bis political 
 recalcitrancy. That is about all, except 
 elaborate pictures of corner groceries, 
 cheap lodging-houses, and other things ot 
 like interest." [Lippineott'.x] "Another 
 chapter of 'The Bostonians' is kindly sup- 
 plied by "Hexrihtta James," in a tiny 
 pamflet [Bloomflekl, N. J. : .S*. 21. Hulin.'] 
 The author is quite rIt in feeling that the 
 true interest of the Tarrant-Eansom affair 
 lay, not in liow Ransom won Miss Tsu-rant, 
 but in bow they 'got on' after be had won 
 her. It is not impossible that the author 
 is also rIt in thinking that they did not 'get 
 on' at all; that .Mr. Ransom finally ran 
 away with Mrs. Luna, leaving Mrs. Ran- 
 som to go back with her baby to Olive 
 Chancellor, take up her life-work again, 
 and finally mary Burrage." [Critic. 200 
 lUlEAD-WIXXERS, The [by J: Hay: 
 Harper, 1884.] "Altho 'The Bread-Win- 
 ners' is called a 'social study' the writer 
 seems to have brflt to his task strong pre- 
 conceptions, not to say prejudices, and 
 adhered to them throucSiit the story with a 
 rigid consistency which does not belong 
 to actual life. He shows everywhere the 
 careful observation not of a liumorist, or 
 even of a man of the world to whom class- 
 differences, all outside manifestations of 
 human beings, are chaj-acteristic and sug- 
 gestive, but of a man of fastidious taste 
 who has been forced into over-close con- 
 tact with coarse habits and ruf talk and 
 shrunk back from them in disgust. Were 
 this an every-day story, the author's pre- 
 possessions would be a matter of little 
 importance. His all-couquering hero, 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 Farnliam, gifted with every distinction 
 and cliiirm, mit, all unnliallenged, put his 
 foot on the neck of the dragon he so easily 
 destroys, and win the plaudits of his ad- 
 mirers. But, dealing as he does with a 
 serious problem like that which the labor 
 question presents, one is surprised to find 
 a clever author, whose sit is accurate and 
 whose experience seems to liave been 
 something actual, apparently silting the 
 claims of his subject." [Lippincott's.] 
 "liutthe most vital contribution to the 
 social study, if not the central figure in 
 the whole composition, is the carpenter's 
 dauter, Maud Matchin. To the gallery of 
 national types — thus far a very limited one, 
 she forms a distinct and significant addi- 
 tion. Those who have noticed the type 
 will recognize at once the veracity of this 
 representation; and those who are not 
 familiar with it will understand, from the 
 decision with which she is modeled, that 
 Maud is no make-believe creature. A 
 beautiful, hard, sordid, and commonplace 
 girl, whose mind is warped by wild 
 desires for social advancement, she is the 
 exponent as well as the victim of a badly 
 regulated education in the public schools. 
 In this instance, the author has suggested 
 unflinchingly, and with a great deal of 
 discernment, one of the most curious and 
 perplexing fenoniena in that condition of 
 things which is known as American civili- 
 zation. Maud is not a pleasant person to 
 contemplate, but she is alarmingly real; 
 and her destiny, in marying a falsely ac- 
 quitted murderer, very likely intimates 
 only the tithe of the evil which develop- 
 ment of that sort of character is accomplish- 
 ing. Against the discouraging and possi- 
 bly exaggerated background in which 
 these coarser personages move, the author 
 sets his hero, Farnham, and his heroine, 
 Alice lielding, with her worldly, well- 
 disposed but somewhat blunt-minded 
 mother, surrounded by a group of outlined 
 figures who stand for society in [Cleve- 
 land.] It may be said in passing that the 
 tone and characteristics of a town or 'city' 
 of that description are conveyed by this 
 novelist almost to perfection,— a thing 
 
 which, so far as we remember, no one has 
 even attempted to do before." [Atlan- 
 tic. 201 
 BRETON MILLS, The, [by C: Jo. 
 Bellamy: Putnam, 1879.] "comes near 
 being a really powerful story. The author 
 calls it a romance, and therefore di>allows 
 being called to a strict account for knowl- 
 edge of human nature or probable succes- 
 sion of events ; but it is a pity, since lie has 
 experience and ability to do as well as he 
 does in the earlier part of the book, that 
 he should not have bestirred himself to 
 do a really good piece of work. As it is, 
 the story is like a chimera, which begins 
 with a human figure and ends with aiabes- 
 que. The Breton Mills are apparently 
 woolen mills, owned by one man. There 
 are 1000 worU-|ieople in these mills, and 
 the interest of the book consists in the ex- 
 position of the poverty of the operatives 
 and the imperious will of the owner — one 
 aspect of the strife between labor and cap- 
 ital. There are powerful pieces of de- 
 scription. The burning of the mill, wiih 
 the varying instincts and iufluences acting 
 on the operatives, who could have saved 
 it but do not, is very dramatic, and the 
 cautious endeavor on the part of Philip 
 Breton to deal justly and kindly, when he in- 
 herits the mill property, with the early 
 gratitude and subsequent discontent of 
 'the hands' is well described; but the 
 heroine of the love-story is an impossible 
 creature, who elopes with an eloquent 
 'workingnian's orator,' lives witli him for 
 more than a year, and then returns to her 
 father's house to be as much as ever the 
 'idol and the fancy's queen' of Philip 
 Breton. He marics her svitli enthusiasm, 
 in spite of the gravest doubts as to her 
 reputation, and presently flings up all his 
 plans^ gets rid of his mills, and flees with 
 his wife to Europe, siiice the speech and 
 the looks of those around express con- 
 tempt for her. Th is is a lame and impotent 
 coEiclusion, resembling the fall rather than 
 the riscofthe rocket. Nevertheless the book 
 is worth reading for its iuslt into the life 
 of the workers with their hands. There is 
 exaggeration and incoherence in the style, 
 
 58 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 but there is also some knowledpre ami some 
 sympathy." [Xatioii. 203 
 
 BUOUGHTOX HOUSE, The [by Bliss 
 Perry: 6'cribnei-, 1S90.] 'is one of the 
 
 least ambitious of stories almost without 
 
 plot or movement of the usual kind, and 
 yet full of the interest which character 
 always inspires. It is a bit of genre paint- 
 iug— quiet and delicate like 'Cranford,' 
 with humor and pathos just rippling the 
 placid surface. The Village of Broughton 
 is iu NeAV-England [Berkshire county] 
 far enuf from the railway to preserve its 
 rural simplicity. There is 'a level half- 
 mile of elm-arched street,' with the great 
 white Congregational church at one end, 
 and the Academy building at the other. 
 Midway between them, the broad, grassy 
 street widens into a gravelled space in 
 front of the village inn. The Broughton 
 House." [Life. 303 
 
 BROWXS, The, [by M.. Prddekcb 
 (Wells) S.mith : Hoberts, 1884.] "is the 
 simple and pi-etty story of some brit, pleas- 
 ant and sensible people, not too brit and 
 good for human nature's daily food. It 
 is by the author of 'Jolly Good Times,' 
 [No. 6i] aiid i£ not exactly 'jolly' itself, is 
 'good' and pleasing." [Critic. 204 
 
 BURGLARS IX PAUADISE [ by E.. 
 S. (Phelps) Ward: Houghton, 18SG.] 
 "is a continuation of 'An Old Maid's Para- 
 dise' [ 113" Xo. 103] that having been an 
 idyl, while this is mostly comedy. The 
 author mixes burlesque with realism, so 
 that iu the midst of reading what Corona, 
 or I'uelvir, or Matthew Liiuncelot, really 
 did, related with delicate truth to char- 
 acter, you are told with an unchanged air 
 of simple veracity of something which of 
 course they did not do, but only approxi- 
 mated. There is no danger of deceiving 
 the unwary, but there is of mixing flavors 
 incongruously." [Overland. 305 
 
 BUTTON'S IXX. [ by A. W. Tour- 
 gee: Roberts, 19&1.\ "The story of itself 
 really lias a genuine and wholesome inter- 
 est, and one follows the fortunes of Dolly 
 Button and her two worthy, generous 
 lovers with a feeling which grows to be 
 personal and warm-hearted. The success 
 
 in life of the hero is not fenomenal nor 
 undeserved, and there is not one who 
 has the true american spirit who will 
 think any the less of him for attempting 
 and achieving it. In fact, the modern 
 spirit all over the world deems the man 
 who does not want money as matei-ially 
 defective, andwould vote Plutarch's words 
 in praise of Coriolanus, that 'it is the bier 
 accomplishment to use money well than 
 arms ; but not to need it is more noble than 
 to use it' entirely obsolete." [Xation. 206 
 CAP.PET KXIGHT, A. [by "Har- 
 ford Flemmixg" i. e., Harriet (Hare) 
 McClellan: liour/hton, 1885.] "The 
 charm of the book, — for charm it has, — is 
 in its reproduction of refined manners and 
 those slit shades of ditference iu personality 
 which our modern conventional life af- 
 fords. The story is slit, — we are bound to 
 say that it is no more bewildering than the 
 streets of the city [Philadelphia] in which 
 its scenes are laid ; but as he reads one 
 grows lazily indifferent to the mere plot, 
 :md finds himself taking a cheerful interest 
 in the several persons of the story. It is 
 something to have a story of American 
 society which is as amiable and smooth as 
 much of our urb.an society is. In its way 
 it reinforces one's confidence in good man- 
 ners. One is reiiiindcd that the oidinary 
 amenities of life are not disregarded. He 
 may know this well enuf from his expe- 
 rience, but he will scarcely know it from 
 current fiction; and so, while 'A Carpet 
 Knight' will not stir his soul or take him 
 into a hily analyzed circle of human beings, 
 it will leave him with the comfortable 
 feeling that he has passed an agreeable 
 evening iu society without the necessity of 
 dressing his tired body and bracing his 
 mind for the purpose." [Atlantic.] — "In 
 the 'Carpet Knight' not a trace of rational 
 purpose is discoverable. It is made up of 
 chatter : to call it conversation were pro- 
 fanity. This chatter is pretty evenly dis- 
 tributed among a dozen or so of people 
 who live in I'hiladelphia, and one or two 
 who go thither occasionally from Boston 
 and New-Eochelle, wheuce they were 
 doubtless temporarily exiled by nfibors 
 
 59 
 
NOVELS OF AMBllICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 having a share of that irascibility which 
 accompanies moderate intelligence. It is 
 barely possible that the author had an in- 
 spiring idea — no other than to sing again 
 the joys and splendors of the 'Assembly,' 
 a sacred institution for wliich, as is well 
 known in polite circles, Philadelphia 
 exists." [Nation. 307 
 
 CECIL DREEME, [by TilEO. Wix- 
 THROP : Ticknor, 1S61.] "The incidents 
 of the novel occur in some of the best 
 known localities of New-Vork. Nobody 
 can mistake Clnizzlewit Hotel and Chrjs- 
 alis College. Every traveler has put up at 
 the first and visited some literary or artistic 
 friend at tlie second. Indeed, Winthrop 
 seems to have deliberately chosen the lo- 
 calities of Ills story with the special purpose 
 of showing that passions almost as terrible 
 as those wliich are celebrated in the trage- 
 dies of Aiskulos and Sophokles may rage 
 in tlie ordinary lodging-houses of New- 
 York. He has succeeded in throwing an 
 atmosfere of mystery over places which 
 are essentially commonplace; iind he has 
 done it by the intensity with whicli he has 
 conceived and represented the eternal 
 thots, struggles, and emotions of the men 
 and women by whom these edifices are 
 inhabited." [Atlantic. 308 
 
 CHANTICLEER: A Thanksgiving 
 Story. [ by Corxelius SIathews : 
 Boston, Munsey & Co., 1850.] "That a 
 period whicli — apart from its hler pur- 
 poses — is consecrated to good eating and 
 drinking should be likewise celebrated by 
 an appropriate literary offering, is a very 
 happy idea, which Mr. Miithews has pleas- 
 antly carried out. Our yearly festival of 
 Thanksgiving is connected witli all those 
 cherished recollections of youtli which 
 neither grow dim with age nor become 
 obliterated by the ceaseless turmoil of tliis 
 anxious life. It serves to recall the home 
 of early days, the faces and haunts and 
 cheerful gatherings of childhood; the 
 friends and relatives who sat around the 
 festive board in bygone times, whose mem- 
 ory is held in effeetionate reverence now. 
 'Chanticleer' is not exactly what may be 
 called a child's book, and vet it is intended 
 
 to appeal to the liearts of the young; to 
 teach a lesson which shall penetrate deep- 
 ly, and make a lasting impressing; to enlist 
 their sympathies in the cause of truth and 
 justice, and to lead them, by identifying 
 themselves with the personages of the 
 story, to make a suitable application. The 
 characters in this interesting little narra- 
 tive are all evidently drawn from nature, 
 and faithfully portray a class in New- 
 England which has existed since its early 
 settlement, and which we trust may be 
 fairly represented for many long years to 
 come." [Round Table. 309 
 
 CHEZZLES, The. [ by Lucy Gibbons 
 Morse: Hoiighton, 1SS8.] "This is one 
 of the freshest and in every way most 
 delltful books for young people, or rather 
 about young people, — for it will be read 
 with equal delit by persons of all ages, — 
 whicli we have seen in a long time. It is 
 in brief the history ol' a very agreeable 
 family of New-England folk, some of 
 them located for the time in Erance, the 
 chief characters being certain children 
 whose intelligence and vivacity give a bub- 
 bling charm to the volume from the first 
 page to the last. As in the best works of 
 this nature, "^'he Chezzles' has a not too in- 
 tricate yet definite story to tell. The char- 
 acter drawing is touched witli really hi 
 art." [American. 310 
 
 CHILDREN OF OLD PARK'S Tj*.V- 
 ERN, The [ by F.. A. Humphrey: Har- 
 per, 1886.] "is a very pleasant story of 
 the 'South Shore' of Massachusetts as it 
 was in the stage-coacli days, when AYeb- 
 ster was a member of political conven- 
 tions, and children with old-fashioned 
 names played old-fashioned games and 
 held their elders in due respect. Dolly 
 and Ned will delit the hearts of all rit 
 thinking young people. Their youthful 
 adventures about the quaint old tavern 
 and among the woods and marshes will 
 interest young readers whose tastes have 
 not been vitiated." [Nation. 311 
 
 CHILD OF THE CENTURY, A [ by 
 J: T. AVheelwright : Scribner, 1887."] 
 "This clever story is full of genuine hu- 
 mor, and not without several portentous 
 
 60 
 
NOVELS OK AMEltlOAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 morals. The child of the century is a 
 Bostou lawyer, who, lit the age of 30, after 
 a life of seclusion anil hard work, resolves 
 on an outing, and in the transatlantic pas- 
 sage liuds his plans for the study of Dante 
 seriously interfered with by the presence 
 of a certain black-eyed dauter of a Cincin- 
 nati clothing dealer. Sewell falls in with 
 various types of the traveling american, 
 and they are all admirably depicted. 
 "When he comes back he 'runs for Con- 
 gress' in a contest which many readers 
 will regard as historical. Political life in 
 Washington, as well as the social fea- 
 tures of that city, are skillfully treated.'' 
 [ Boston "Lit. World." 213 
 
 CHILDREi^ OF THE EARTH, [by 
 Annie Eobertson (Macfarlane) Lo- 
 gan: Holt, 1SS6.] "is a very original and 
 deeply interesting novel, full of plot, inci- 
 dent, spirited talk and character, and 
 never too improbable for belief. It deals 
 with tliat question — decidedly of the earth, 
 earthy— which novelists would much bet- 
 ter leave entirely alone unless they can 
 treat it as well as it has been ti'eated here: 
 the old, old problem of confused love and 
 duty, passion and law. . . . The extreme 
 cleverness, and the innate nobleness of 
 this conception, are hardly appreciat(^d on 
 the first i-eading, when the reader is ab- 
 sorbed in the interest of the book as a 
 mere story; but the fineness of it, as a 
 study of human nature, makes it really a 
 striking study of the conflict between good 
 and evil." [Critic. 213 
 
 COLONEL DUNWODDIE, Million- 
 aire [by \V: MuMFOUD Baker: Har- 
 per, 1S7S.] "is a .story of Southern 
 life since the war, and it is Southern 
 in spirit to heart's core; but we can- 
 not imagine anything better fitted to 
 warm the best hearts ara<mg us towards 
 that devoted region than this revelation of 
 what is in the best of theirs. . . . We are 
 introduced to a hero who presently be- 
 comes as real to us as Col. Xewcome, and 
 hardly less dear ; a chivalrous, fiery, faulty, 
 tender soul, the outlines of whose charac- 
 ter are so finely and firmly drawn for us, 
 at the very outset, that all his previous 
 
 and all his subsequent career, every act, 
 word, project, chimera, blunder, and 
 triumf, become logical, natural, necessary." 
 [Atlantic. 314 
 
 COLONEL'S OPERA CLOAK, The, 
 [by Christine (Chaplin) Brush: 
 lioberts, 1879.] "is simple and direct, 
 using an odd garment in the possession of 
 a hand-to-mouth Southern family as a 
 leading thread, and setting out neither to 
 Instruct nor to astonish, but simply to 
 amuse. It is also a character-sketch of 
 shiftless Southern people in Northern cit- 
 ies. . . . Leslie St. John, the heroine, 
 sets out to be nothing more than a 
 sweet, aft'ectionate little maid, and, in 
 being that, satisfies the reader, as well as 
 Tom Douglas." [Scribner's. 215 
 
 COLOR STUDIES [by T:Allibone 
 Janvier: Scribner, 1S85.] "Piquiuit, 
 novel and ingenious, these little stories, 
 with all their simplicity, have excited a 
 wide interest. The best of them, 'Jauue 
 d'Autimoine' is a little wonder in its dra- 
 matic effect, its ingenious construction, its 
 happy combination of exquisite comedy 
 with the intensity whicli touches the deep- 
 est springs of sympathy. The touch is at 
 once so delicate and so funny, so intellec- 
 tual, and so lafable, that to read the story 
 is to give one's self an hour of very keen 
 enjoyment." [ Critic. ] "While each 
 story is complete in itself there is an in- 
 genious dovetailing of interest and charac- 
 ter which makes it almost a continuous 
 work. 'Rose' and her delitful old father, 
 and 'Vandyke Brown,' whom she maries, 
 and several others, appear throudut the 
 series, taking, after their own adventures 
 have been given in detail, an appropriately 
 lower place to the fresh characters intro- 
 duced. The lucky title expresses the idea 
 exactly. The stories are all illustrative of 
 american artist life, and we risk nothing 
 in saying that the theme has never been 
 touched with a surer, neater hand. The 
 trials of young painters in their hard 
 period of obtaining recognition, the easy- 
 going life of the studios, the air of the 
 picture galleries and the bohemian living 
 rooms, are all litly yet pointedly indi- 
 
 61 
 
N0VKL8 OF AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 cated by Mr. Janvier, witli that other in- 
 sistence upon lionest love, vfhieh makes 
 the world go round for painters as for 
 meaner folk. There is very pleasant hu- 
 mor; the dialog is so good that we wish 
 there was more of it. In work of this 
 kind everything should be sharp, quick, 
 rit on the spot. It is a delitful little 
 book." [American.] "It is refreshing to 
 be able to say a word of hearty, thankful 
 praise about a volume containing 4 short 
 stories by Mr. Janvier. Novelists and 
 critics are continually bewailing the dearth 
 of materials for romance in America, most 
 conspiciously in New-York. Mr. Janvier 
 convinces us that the needful matter is all 
 about us, and that only the eye to see, the 
 heart to feel, and the tung to express have 
 been lacking. His simple, kindly stories 
 are fragments of the romance of Green- 
 wich Village, of Fourth Street and crooked 
 Tenth Street, and of all the region about 
 Jefferson Market. His characters are 
 chiefly toiling disciples of art, and in their 
 delineation the ideal and real are very 
 skilfully blended." [Nation.] "These 
 'Color Studies' are cleverly written, quaint- 
 ly humorous, and unaffected in style. 
 Notwithstanding their unpretentiousness 
 they introduce us to real people of the 
 sort whom it is a pleasure to know, and 
 whose lives and surroundings are invested 
 with ii more than fleeting interest." 
 [Boston "Lit. AVorld." 216 
 
 CONECUT CORNERS. [S.X., Mason, 
 1855.] "A novel of New-England life, 
 in which Dr. Lyman Abbott joined 
 hands with his brothers B: V. and 
 Austin." [Boston "Lit. "World." 317 
 
 CONVEXTION'AL BOHEMIAN, A, 
 [by Edmund Pendleton: Appleton, 
 1886.] "is a society novel, but the average 
 society novel is many things which it is 
 not. . . The only suggestion of the antique 
 is in the leading lady, who is introduced at 
 the advanced age of 30. . . The old girl has 
 long suffered the neglect or contempt of 
 novelists. She is between the young-girl 
 and the old-maid. She never had theingenu- 
 ousness of the one ; she never can have the 
 inflexibility of the other. The moral sever- 
 
 ity common t<> both is impossible to her. If 
 she had maried young, she would still be 
 'young Mrs. So-and-So'. If she ever does 
 raary, she is virtually the old girl still. 
 So the old girl whom the conventional 
 bohemian takes to illumine the domestic 
 hearth remains the reckless, whimsical, 
 unscrupulous Ang^le Weutworth, He 
 realized, too late, that perhaps the only 
 situation in life where the old girl cannot 
 rally her forces and shine is by the domes- 
 tic hearth. There is no good in trying to 
 depict the old girl as a lovable person in 
 life, or a person who, in fiction, can attract 
 the sympathies of rit-miuded persons. 
 The author has not tried so to depict 
 Angele. . . Except in the glibness of their 
 talk, none of the people are literary fig- 
 ures. They are real. . . But, on the 
 whole, the novel is clever and entertain- 
 ing. It is so singularly free from cant 
 that it may be deemed immoral by the 
 multitude who still confound freedom 
 from cant and hypocrisy with immorality. 
 The author's range of th6t and, perhaps, of 
 sympathy has been limited by his borizon 
 of observation ; but, as far as the th6t and 
 the sympathy go, they are clear and warm. 
 In the balance of judgment, the courage of 
 opinion, the passion and conviction of 
 some chapters, lies the promise of work of 
 wider scope and more catholic applica- 
 tion." [Nation. 218 
 COUNTER-CURRENTS [by SOPHIE 
 WiNTHROP Weitzel: Roberts, 1S89.] 
 "is a brit, piquant little book whose 
 scene opens in Southern Califor- 
 nia, and the life of tourists and health- 
 seekers in that favorite region of the fruit, 
 the flower, and the vine is agreeably de- 
 scribed. Along with these travel sketches 
 is developed a lively love story, four young 
 people are thrown together, whose fates 
 their friends and families have alreaiTy 
 allotted. This admirable arrangement is 
 upset by the spontaneous awakening in 
 the mind of each of the four of a genuine 
 passion. Change about is fair play, and 
 Dorothy and Sidney find their destinies 
 each in the other, and Fletcher and Elinor 
 ultimately come together. But there is 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 more in the well-told story than this. 
 Both Fletcher iuid Elinor fail to find in 
 their daily lives an outlet for their best 
 energies, and au answer to their deepest 
 problems. How Fletcher rejects the too- 
 easy, over-pleasant existence which is 
 urged upon liini, and after suflFering, as- 
 piration, and struggle makes a career for 
 himself in which he feels that he can do 
 good, is well worth a perusal. In fact, 
 'Counter Currents' is a brave, honest, 
 little book with ideas in it, and 6t to 
 find many readers." [American] "A 
 pleasant story of contemporaneous life, in 
 which simplicity of style, good taste, and 
 an agreeable optimism render one for a 
 while not very exacting of the author." 
 [Atlantic. 219 
 
 CKANSTOW HOUSE, [by Hannah 
 Anderson Hopes: lioston, Otis Clapp, 
 1859.] --A touching story of surteriiig, 
 struggle, and triumf over difliculties. 
 Sallie and I'eter, around whom the interest 
 of the story gathers intensely as it pro- 
 ceeds, are two beautiful characters drawn 
 with admirable skill. We are stronger and 
 belter for having known and loved 'Aunt 
 Maiy', even in idea. The book has the 
 rare merit of being a novel whoso interest 
 is unfiagging from the opening chapter to 
 the close, and of illustrating at the same 
 time the hiest spiritual truths, as shown in 
 practical life. You may read it for recrea- 
 tion in a leisure hour, or for cheer and 
 comfort in the path of duty, or of both 
 together; and there are not many books of 
 the class which will perform a more bene- 
 ficent use." [Religious Magazine. 230 
 CRAQUE-0'-DOO>I. [by M.. (Hart- 
 well) Catherwood: Lippinontt, 
 1881.] "A capital story . . . quite unconi- 
 monplace, following the social fortunes of 
 a young girl who is lifted out of the low- 
 est conditions of birth and intelligence into 
 a fine character and hi station, all throu 
 the notice, the instt, and the love of a rich 
 and cultivated man, a cripple, who sees 
 'the angel in the marble.' The scene and 
 characters are thoroly ainerican, and the 
 treatment fresh and original." [Boston 
 "Lit. World." 221 
 
 DAISY. [Continuation of "Melbourne 
 House"; Lippinoott, 186S.] "Daisy 
 Randolph, like her predecessors, Ellen 
 Montgomery, Elfleda Riiiggan, and the rest 
 of them, is a too good little girl, who makes 
 a triumfal passage from infancy to maiden- 
 hood, discomfiting sinners, fascinating and 
 confounding the ungodly with sit of so 
 much saintllness in so small a space, and 
 not only only earning a title to the goods 
 of the next world, but gaining a more than 
 tolerably fair share of those distributed in 
 this. Most people who read novels know 
 what and how Miss Warner writes . . . 
 With a sweet pathos she recounts her 
 sorrow at finding her father not quite up 
 to her standard of goodness, her trials and 
 prayers over the multiplication table, the 
 yearnings of her spirit over her 700 slaves, 
 and the good efi'ects on them of the prayer- 
 meeting which she established in her 
 kitchen, presiding herself at the mature 
 !ige of 11 years, and, as she says, impress- 
 ing them with the keenest sense of her 
 immeasurable superiority." [Nation. 222 
 DARKNESS AND DAYLIGHT [by 
 M.. J.. (Hawes) Holmes : Derfej/, 1850f] 
 "It is hard to understand how Mrs. Holmes 
 ever came to be ranked among those au- 
 thors whose rlt fo a place on the shelves 
 of public libraries has been disputed. 
 She has written somewhat of Southern 
 life, but most of her scenes are in New- 
 England. There is, however, very little 
 local coloring to them, and the dramatic 
 interest is slit. In spite of her literary 
 failings, there is a certain smoothness of 
 narration and litness of plot which have 
 made her a very popular writer, particu- 
 larly with girls and young women. The 
 aggregate sale of all her books is stated to 
 be about half a million, some reaching a 
 sale of more than 50.000 each. Her own 
 words furnish the truest commentary on 
 what she has done or tried to do. She 
 says: 'I try to avoid the sensational, and 
 never deal in murders, or robberies, or 
 ruined young girls ; but rather in domestic 
 life as I know it to exist. I mean always 
 to write a good, pure, n:itural- story, such 
 as mothers are willing their dauters 
 
 63 
 
NOVELS OF AMKEICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 should rend, iiud such as will do good in- 
 stead of li:irin.' Among iier best are 'Lena 
 Rivers,' 'Meadow Brook,' 'Darkness and 
 Daylight,' and 'Edith Lyle.' We notice 
 that her name is on the tabooed list sent 
 out by the American Library Association. 
 [ Hoston "Lit. World." 233 
 
 DAUGHTER OF BOHEMIA. [by 
 "Christian RMD:"i. e., F..E. (Fisher) 
 Tibrnan: Appleton, 1874.] "The scene 
 is laid in the South. The characters are 
 for the most part Southerners — the young 
 woman engaged to the young man, the 
 chattering widow, the peaceful Mr. and 
 Mrs. Middleton : not that there is anything 
 specially Southern about them; they are 
 like well-bred people the world over. The 
 other characters are Captain Max Tyndale 
 and Miss Norah Desmond ; the last named 
 is the dauter of Bohemia. We shall give 
 no analysis of the story: it well deserves 
 reading, not only for its plot, but also for 
 the clever manner in which it is told, and, 
 in great measure, for the excellent way in 
 which the characters, and particularly the 
 women, are drawn; Leslie Graham, with 
 her amiable, affi-ctionate, honest nature, is 
 well described, and in excellent contrast is 
 Norah — good, too, but in another way." 
 [Atlantic] "Like all "Christian Reid's" 
 books, this is a strained, exaggerated pic- 
 ture of unreal life. Its personages are in a 
 state of chronic nervous tension, loving or 
 hating — usually hating— with a vehemence 
 which must ultimately injure their fysical 
 health . . . Miss Reid's personages are sin- 
 gularly devoid of originality and vivacity, 
 and resemble well-dressed and decorous 
 puppets, manipulated by a not too skilful 
 hand." [Boston "Lit. World." 234 
 
 DEACON'S WEEK. The. [by Rose 
 (Terry) Cookb : Putnam, 1884.] "This 
 small, paper-covered volume, contains one 
 of the best of Mrs. Cool;e's stories, illus- 
 trated. All people who love the old ways 
 in New-England, and who have ever 
 "been to meetin" there — especially to "pro- 
 tracted meetin", — will appreciate Deacon 
 Emmons' (;hristian fortitude in relating 
 his week's experience, and Mrs. Cooke's 
 fine sense of New-England humor iu re- 
 
 porting the protracted "meeting". The 
 characters are well drawn and i- icy. The 
 illustrations, moreover, are quite as good 
 in their way as the story." [Critic] See, 
 also. No. 142. 335 
 
 DEARLY BOUGHT [by Clara L.. 
 (Root) Burnham: Sumner, 1884.] "is 
 a love story, of course, and there are 2 or 
 3 lines of love-making running throu it 
 side by side ; but they do not blur the 
 effect, and the individualty of the charac- 
 ters and the separateness of their action 
 are well preserved. The central interest 
 is furnished by the relations between 
 Lenore Payette and her aunt Deborah 
 Belden, with whom she has come to live 
 in quiet Alderley, an elm-shaded town, 2 
 hours' ride or so from Philadelphia. . . 
 Lenore has a hard time with Aunt Debo- 
 rah, but a pleasant time in Alderley, where 
 there is an agreeable set of people, includ- 
 ing several persons who become favor- 
 ites, and 1 or 2 curiosities. Among the 
 latter is Hepsy Nash, who lived as 'help' 
 at Elmdale from the time she was 14; and 
 chief of the former is Dr. Lemist, who 
 attends Lenore in more than a merely 
 professional capaidty, and gives her at 
 last a prescription which she is glad to 
 take. . . The writing is good. It is neither 
 soft, stiff, affected, nor artificial. The 
 dialog is lifelike and natural. There is 
 an unconsciousness and simplicity about 
 the style which are quite refreshing; a 
 composure and reserve of power wliich 
 belong to real ability." [ Boston "Lit. 
 World." 236 
 
 DEBUTANTE IN NEW-YORK SOCI- 
 ETY, A. [ by Rachabl Buchanan : 
 Appleton, 1888.] "Yet the heroine, altho 
 she has a nice sense of the minor refine- 
 ments of life, is neither frivolous nor alto- 
 gether worldly. She has a keen percep- 
 tion of the real meaning of life,— cares for 
 the what as well as the how, for realities 
 as well as the shining varnish. Thus with 
 these intimations of her possessing a really 
 firm character, we are a little surprised at 
 the worldly prudence she exhibits in 
 throwing over tlie'lover who half wins her 
 heart because he is poor. She is, In fact, 
 
 64 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 a very good type of the modern New- York 
 girl, who distrusts tniditioiis of love in a 
 cottage, and likes to liave a steam yacht 
 and a cottage at Newport. What strikes 
 us painfully in this rose-colored account 
 of fashionable society, is that such well- 
 bred people, in spite of their elegance and 
 fastidiousness, are coinpe'.led to live on the 
 perilous verge of vulgarity and to consort 
 with vulgar people. From the necessity 
 of making ricli manages there seems to 
 be no way to avoid familiarity with 
 people who murder the queen's english." 
 [American.] — "There is no kind of fiction 
 so silly or so profitless as this. Most of 
 the kind are at once offensive and ridicu- 
 lous, but the DiSbutante is only tiresome, 
 crude and very 'fresh.'" [Nation. 227 
 DEMOCRACY. [Holt, 1880.] "Its 
 aim, which is not wi-U represented by its 
 title, is to depict the political society of 
 Washington, tlie characteristics of the 
 class which cabaK and manoiuvres for the 
 pos.session of office and power. These 
 characteristics are all embodied in the 
 jjerson of senator Eatcliffe, tlie otlier fig- 
 ures of the same class, including the newly- 
 elected president, being either his tools.or 
 his victims, are mucli more faintly deline- 
 ated. The heroine, Mrs. Lee, is a widow, 
 rich, refined and intellectual, whose ab- 
 sorbed interest as a spectator brings her 
 into close intercourse with Ratcliffe, and 
 who is alternately fascinated and repelled 
 by his bold, astute and unscrupulous 
 course'. Her own conduct, and the dan- 
 ger of her marying Ratcliffe and becoming 
 an instrument of his ambition, arouses the 
 solicitude of her sister and of a chivalrous 
 friend, a Virginian of the old school, who 
 cherishes a secret and hopeless love for 
 her; and the combined efforts of the two 
 to save her from Uatclifle's designs form 
 the undercurrent of the action and bring 
 about the denouement. Among the 
 minor characters having little or nothing 
 to do with the plot are a couple of forein 
 envoys, lord Skye and baron Jacobi, whose 
 comments serve as a kind of chorus, and 
 Miss Virginiii Dare, who typifies the |>e- 
 cularities of the american young lady as 
 
 displayed in society. These are sufficient- 
 ly good elements for a story distinctively 
 and eharactistically american, and they are 
 handled with considerable skill. There is 
 no lack of continuity in the action, no dull- 
 ness in the description, no sign of languor, 
 indecision, or want of clear perception in 
 the management of tlie story or in the 
 writing. The style is crisp and pointed, 
 the conversations are generally entertain- 
 ing, there are many vigorous sketches of 
 characters and scenes, and many touches, 
 if not of humor, of a piquancy that may 
 pass for wit. . . . 'Democracy' is at 
 once a more brilliant and a more realistic 
 novel than "Through One Administra- 
 tion"; it was, in fact written with a more 
 distinct purpose. The writer had a clear 
 vision, and seized the most salient types 
 of American political men and presented 
 them with a swift smiting word. . . . 
 'Democracy' is, however, full of epi- 
 grammatic touches which suggest humor 
 without being exactly humorous, and show 
 an enjoyment of the subject itself, besides 
 a racy appreciation of the author's clever- 
 ness in treating it. There is, too, a deli- 
 cate liicrary aroma in 'Democracy' not to 
 be found in an equal degree in 'The Bread 
 Winners.' But the two books are not 
 without many points in common, and the 
 writerof each has the advantage of a clear 
 perception of what he has to say and the 
 wit to make others understand it as clear- 
 ly." [Lippincott's.] — "It will be remem- 
 bered that the point on which 'Democracy' 
 turns is the discovery by the lieroine that 
 the Secretary and ex- Senator had accepted 
 a bribe, and that she came to this knowledge 
 throu the revelation of "Carrington," who 
 was the confidant of" Mrs. Samuel Baker," 
 to whom as his widow, the said "Baker," 
 a notorious lobbyist, had left his papers, 
 among which were some that told the 
 story of the Senator's rascality. The lat- 
 ter is aware that this secret of his is known 
 to "(Jarrington" and therefore interests 
 himself in getting him out of the way, and 
 succeeds in inducing a brother Secretary 
 to send him to Mexico. Now for the co- 
 incidence, which can be verified by any 
 
 65 
 
NOVELS OF AMEKICAN CITY LIKE. 
 
 one who will consult the Springfield Jie- 
 publican of April 13, 1880, page 4, the 
 period referred to being tliat of the Dis- 
 trict of Columbiii ring; '-He (Huntington) 
 died, iind left in his wife's hands a li>t of 
 papers, among which were some wliieli 
 interested Mr. lihiine. These papers were 
 passed by Mrs. Huntington to a young 
 miiu named Frank Gassawuy. Mr. lilaine 
 became greatly interested in Mr. Gassa- 
 way's welfare, and sflt numerous important 
 appointments successively for him. Hi: 
 finally obtained for him a Government 
 position in California." [Corres. ''Kation," 
 1SS4. 228 
 
 DEVIL'S HAT, The [by Melville 
 Philips: Ticknor, 1887] "is a story of 
 the Pennsylvania oil regions, overflow- 
 ing with local color; indeed the story — 
 which is slit enuf, but told with intelligence 
 and good-breeding, and quite out of the 
 ordin;iry line in plot — seems used chiefly 
 as an excuse for descriptions of the oil- 
 mining. The title does not indicate any 
 Satanic legend in the story, the 'Devil's 
 Hat' was only the name given to a Iiat- 
 shaped hill, in which the hero of the story 
 sunk his well." [Overland. 229 
 
 DI GARY, [by Ji. Jacquelin-e Thokn- 
 TOVi : Appleton,lS~9.] "We have here a 
 delineation of the fortunes, or misfortunes, 
 of Southern life iit the close of the war, 
 during the period of reconstruction. The 
 scenes are natural and life-like, and the 
 general effect is good. We have said 
 Southern life; we mit better have said 
 Virginian, for it is the Old Dominion which 
 mostly furnishes the material. The tone 
 of the author is enthusiastically loyal to 
 the genius of Virginia, but the spirit and 
 temper of the work are excellent throuolit. 
 Its literary merit is above the average." 
 [Boston "Lit. AVorid." 230 
 
 DIVORCE [by Margaret Lee: ioi-- 
 ell, 1883.] "is a study of certain fases of 
 contemporary american life which is Trol- 
 lopean in its abject, literal fidelity. The 
 'milieu' she has cho.sen is intensely re- 
 spectable. Her people are rich, but not too 
 rich. They mingle in 'good' society and 
 live on Fifth Avenue, tho none of them 
 
 enter that New-Vork empyrean com- 
 posed of 'the 400' best families. They are 
 all christians— even the villain of the piece 
 "is a member of our church, he is in a good 
 business, he sings exquisitely." There is 
 nowhere throudJit the volume any attempt 
 made after brilliiincy in conversation or 
 what is called cleverness in narrative or 
 description. The conversations, never- 
 theless, Inive, besides the very great merit 
 of naturalness, that of continuously for- 
 warding the progress of the story at the 
 same time that they elucidate and bring 
 out character. . . . Constance, while a most 
 charming character, is yet not so rai-e a 
 type. On a solid foundation of the virtues 
 natural to the (!lite ot her sex, purity, sin- 
 cerity, lovingness, there has been reared a 
 solid superstructure of the supernatural 
 virtues. She maries a man whom she 
 wholly admires, and loves intensely and 
 unselfishly. He gives her in return the 
 West feelings of which he is capable. 
 Even in betraying her confidence, in squan- 
 dering her fortune, in descending at the 
 last 10 vulgar brutality and the long deceit 
 involved in getting a 'Connecticut divorce' 
 from her, ho never loses his consciousness 
 of her superiority nor his absolute trust 
 in her undying love for him. What he 
 does is simply to live out his own nature, 
 as she does hers." [Catholic World.. 231 
 Dli. HEIDENHOFF'S PROCESS, [by 
 E: Bellamy: Appleton, 1880.] "The 
 story opens with a realistic sketch of a 
 village prayer-meeting, at which a young 
 man who was knou n as a penitent thief 
 and a sincerely reformed sinner, but who 
 had apparently never forgiven himself, 
 i-ises at the last moment to relate a fase 
 of his experience. The confession of 
 which this is the end makes the little con- 
 gregation uncomfortable, but they pass out 
 into the air, and among them go a young 
 man named Henry Burr and a young 
 woman, the village coquette, Madeline 
 Brand. . . The village tragedy changes for a 
 time the course of youthful life, but soon 
 that is resumed in its customary form, and • 
 in the frolic of the summer Henry and 
 Madeline are br6t to the verge of be- ■ 
 
 66 
 
NOVELS OP AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 trothal. Just at this point, however, a 
 disturbing element appesirs in the arrival 
 from the city of a young clerk, who brings 
 a supposed hier degree of civility, and 
 the coquette begins her arts upon him. 
 Henry is driven to despair, and leaves the 
 village for the city where he tries to take 
 up a fresh life. He is drawn back by his 
 sincere love only to find th:it the clerk has 
 achieved a base victory over the coquette, 
 has deserted her, and that she has fled to 
 the city in her shame. He returns at once 
 and after a long search finds her, and then 
 begins his heroic effort to reinstate her. 
 He gives her his love still, but she In her 
 dullness has nothing but a miserable grati- 
 tude to offer him. She allows him to re- 
 main her friend, and she has no love left 
 for her betrayer. His calm persistence 
 makes Henry a pure and unattainable 
 saint in her eyes, and at length her indiffer- 
 ence and her dull languor give place to a 
 sense of her own unworthiness, and be- 
 cause she loves him she resolves to destroy 
 herself. . . So skillfully has the author man- 
 aged the dream, suppressing the grotesque- 
 ness in the conception of Dr. Heidenhofif, 
 that, in spite of the somewhat uncanny 
 nature of the subject, one has only to be 
 thoroly interested in Madeline to go 
 along with the story in simple credulity. 
 Scarcely, however, has his mind become 
 adjusted to the situation, before it is again 
 rudely pained by the brief conclusion. A 
 letter is at this moment brflt to Henry. 
 It is JIadeline's real good-by, before, like 
 George Bayley, she seeks to plunge into the 
 river of Lethe. The painfulness of the 
 story is genuine. There remains in 
 the reader's mind a tenderness for 
 the girl, a profound sadness. The 
 figure of Madeline throudlit the nar- 
 rative is admirably sketched, and the 
 change in her life is firmly and not senti- 
 mentally presented. Praise belongs also 
 to the truthfulness of the picture which 
 Mr. Bellamy draws of commonplace vil- 
 lage life. There is no caricature and no 
 sentimentalizing, but the rude love-making 
 and limited intellectual life are given with 
 a true touch. It often happens that a citi- 
 
 zen writing from recollection or observa- 
 tion of country life almost unconsciously 
 offers some comparison between the two 
 modes : there is nothing of that here. Mr. 
 Bellamy writes like one of the villagers, 
 yet with an intellectual power of selection 
 which one only so bred would not have. 
 We do not observe afalse note in the real- 
 ism of the story, and there is an abundance 
 of felicitous touches." [Atlantic. 232 
 DOCTOR JOHNS [ by Donald Grant 
 Mitchell: Scribner, 1866.] ''The pe- 
 riod dates from the war of 1812 and 
 reaches to 20 years ago. Mr. Mitchell 
 draws upon memory, not imagination, for 
 his materials. He has attempted to give 
 the story of 'certain events in the life of 
 an Orthodox minister of Connecticnt.' 
 It is not exactly a narrative of parish life, 
 nor of public service; but starting from 
 the humble parsonage in Ashfield, where 
 Dr. Johns is the central figure, he weaves 
 into the story from time to time such ele- 
 menls as set forth that home in all its 
 features, and at the same time throws 
 upon it enuf of the outside world to give a 
 good background for his portraits. There 
 are the I'uritan minister in his austere 
 theology; the Puritan spinster in her 
 worldly primness; the goodnatured 
 sinner called the Squire; the sharp, shrewd 
 deacons; the aristocratic families; the 
 headquarters of Satan at the village tav- 
 ern; the factotum of a country doctor; 
 the sharp-visaged, dyspeptic clerical 
 brethren of nfiboring towns; the varying 
 beauty and pleasant quiet of a New-Eng- 
 land home. The author paints all this so 
 that it stands before you in his pages. 
 Then he introduces forein elements to 
 contrast with the Puritan education. 
 The unfortunate child of a college, friend 
 is taken to the parsonage to be brot-up. 
 This AdSle becomes the heroine of the 
 book; she is one of those hasty, sensitive 
 girls who can be found only in France, 
 and her brTt, qnick, passionate life shows 
 in all its hideous deformity the naiTow- 
 ness and imperfection of the Puritan kind 
 of Christian nurture. There is also a 
 glimpse of city scenes There are the 
 
 67 
 
NOVELS or AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 delicate touches of life abroad. . . It is first 
 the quiet village; then the breath of the 
 world; then, the old village again where 
 all are going to live and die. It is only a 
 Connecticut village, not different 'for 
 better for worse' from a hundred others ; 
 but in it there is life enuf to malie a pas- 
 sionate story of 600 pages without even 
 then using one halt its materials. As for 
 its characters, tlie great figure of Dr. 
 Johns is foremost and central. He im- 
 poses the iron grasp of Puritanism upon 
 every one ; but he has a good heart never- 
 theless, and in spite of his religion there 
 is a great soul of goodness in him, and 
 men and women love him; and the little 
 Adele finds her way to his heart and she 
 becomes to him as a dauter. Ml". Mitchell 
 paints all these Congregational ministers 
 with full allowance for tlie influence of 
 what now seems a most arbitrary, severe, 
 and soulless religious system. Tiiey were 
 all men of whom more mSt have been 
 made, men who, thinking only of duty, 
 made life a gloomy warfare with the 
 Devil." [ Church Monthly. 233 
 
 DOCTOR SEVIER, [by G: W. Cable: 
 Osgood, 1884.] "The story of the book 
 may be ti'ue, and so far reasonable — we 
 make no point of that — but in its almost 
 unrelieved pain it is disagreeably true, if 
 true at all. . . It is depressing from first to 
 last. It has no plot, and it is solely con- 
 cerned with telling the pitiful story of 2 
 earnest young souls, — a husband and wife 
 — who, by no amount or exercise of vir- 
 tue, of labor and of self-denial, can get so 
 much as standing place in this prosperous 
 land, or not until the unequal struggle has 
 resulted in a success as hard as defeat. . . 
 The sketches of scenery, street life and 
 manners in ffew-Orleans are wonder- 
 fully vivid. The time is the 5 years or so 
 "befoh de wah" ; and the period of the 
 great struggle, and the feeling of that 
 epoch is deftly indicated. . . liut we fear 
 Mr. Cable's love of dialect is forcing him 
 to unpleasant extremes. There are irish, 
 germans and Italians in this hook, who 
 talk varieties of brogue." [American. 234 
 
 DOCTOR WILMEli'S LOVE [by 
 
 Margaret Lee : Appleton, 1868.] "is a 
 story which cannot fail to be attractive to 
 the genei-al reader. It contains enuf ac- 
 tion to prevent weariness, a plot \\ hich is 
 never intricate nor involved, and a range 
 of characters of which each one possesses 
 a distinct and individual interest. It is a 
 simple but well-sustaintd narrative of the 
 joys and sorrows, the aspirations and dis- 
 appointraenls, the struggles and tempta- 
 tions, of which our present society fur- 
 nishes daily examples. . . Altho the doctor 
 is, of course, the principal personage in 
 the book, he fairly divides the interest 
 with the pure and gentle girl whose his- 
 tory commands our warmest sympathies. 
 The main incidents of the story are such 
 as mit readily come within the experience 
 of a fysician. and the family may be con- 
 gratulated whose members, from choice 
 or accident, are enabled to rely for mental 
 and bodily aid upon so conscientious and 
 sympathetic a friend as Dr. Wilmer." 
 [ Round Table. 235 
 
 DOCTOR'S DAUGHTER (The) [by 
 "Sophie May," i. c. Rebecca Sophia 
 Clarke: Lee & Shepard, 1872.] "is a 
 little story of New-Eiigland country 
 people. It does not call for rapturous 
 applause, but it is certainly innocently 
 and good-naturedly written." [Nation. 236 
 
 DRONES' HONEY, [by "Sophie 
 May," i.e., R.. S. Clarke : Lee & Shepard, 
 1887.] "The title of this pleasant little 
 story is taken from u. passage in Plato: 
 'When a young man has tasted drones' 
 honey . . . then he returns into the country 
 of the lotus-eaters.' Rut altho there is an 
 idle and luxurious fellow, he is even at his 
 climax of epicureanism a worthy and ex- 
 emplary hero. He spends his summer in 
 a quiet New-England village and plays not 
 only an ornamental but a useful part at 
 picnics and other social gatherings. So 
 far from eating 'drones' honey,' he is a 
 fair sample of a working bee so far as all 
 politer obligations are concerned. There 
 are few startling incidents in the book; 
 but a vast amount of talking is done." 
 [ American.]— "It limps a little in plot 
 perhaps; but it is good enuf to leave the 
 
 68 
 
NOVFXS OF AMEKICAX CITY LIFE. 
 
 reader touclicU aud made tbotful as he 
 liiys it down, niid for sometime afterward. 
 Two sweet and uoble young women— the 
 one beloved, the other not; the friend- 
 ship existing between such women: these 
 are the main figures, and the main topic; 
 for the young man wnoni love leads him 
 to abjure 'drones' honey' and become a 
 worlier in the world, is rather .i figure- 
 head, tho an appropriate and eflective one. 
 Narransanc, the Maine village, is delit- 
 lully sketched." [ Overland. 237 
 
 E15B-TIDE. [by "Christian Reid," 
 i. e., F.. E. (Fisher) Tiernan : Appleton, 
 1872.] "In spite of a little flash of horror 
 in one of the shorter tales. Miss Reid 
 deals with nothing more deadly than the 
 flash of beauteous eyes. Her novel is 
 decidedly ■■> 'novel of society,' and is very 
 readable as such novels go. She has cer- 
 tainly the merit of making her men and 
 women talk like people of good breeding, 
 altho it must be said that they all lack the 
 cool composure which is supposed to be- 
 long exclusively to the worldling; but 
 then it is only beneath the mity impulse of 
 the tender passion that they ever speak at 
 all. The longer story from which the 
 volume takes its name is, perhaps, the 
 best; but there is no one of the shorter 
 tales which is without merit. If ihis 
 author would look to something hier than 
 the flirtations on hotel verandas, there 
 would seem to be no reason why she 
 should not write something better, some- 
 thing of more real interest. She has the 
 merit of avoiding many of the errors which 
 are made by the majoiity of novelists 
 upon such themes, and, apparently, she is 
 capable of seeing and describing niucli 
 more genuine passion than the rather 
 trivial manifestations of it which form the 
 only subjects of this volume. At any rate 
 one is justified in hoping for something 
 better, for this is good of its kind." 
 [ Nation. -*38 
 
 EDITH LYLE, see Darkkess and 
 Daylight. 
 
 EIGHT COUSINS, [by Louisa M. 
 Alcott: Eoberts, 1875.] -'There are the 
 same vigor, discrimination, chai-acter- 
 
 portraiture, and nicy dialog which char- 
 acterize all her writings. It is no mean 
 artist who can skilfully group a score or 
 more of prominent figures, and still bring 
 his hero or heroine into bold relief, at the 
 same time preserving tlie distinct individ- 
 uality of every leading character. This 
 Miss Alcott achieves with rare genius and 
 ability. She marshals her battalion of 
 uncles, aunts, cousins, nefews, and nieces 
 with the dexterity of a general, and every 
 one of them steps forth with military pre- 
 cision at the word of command. It would 
 be impossible to mistake the beautiful and 
 meek Aunt Peace, with hair as white as 
 snow and cheeks which never bloomed, 
 but ever cheerful, busy, and full of inter- 
 est in all that went on in the family, es- 
 pecially the joys and sorrows of the young 
 girls growing up about her, to whom she 
 was adviser, confidante, and friend in all 
 their tender trials and delits. Equally 
 impossible would it be to fail to discern 
 instantly the striking individuality of 
 Aunt Plenty— the stout, brisk old lady, 
 with a sharp eye, a lively tung, and a face 
 like a winter-apple, always trotting, chat- 
 ting, and bustling amid a great commotion 
 of stiff' loops of purple ribbon that bristled 
 all over her cap, like crocus-buds." [ Over- 
 land] see sequel '-KOSE IN liLOOM." 239 
 ELLEN STORY [by Edgar Faw- 
 CETT : E. J. Hale, 1876.] "is a pure love 
 tale. We do not lemember a novel in 
 which the attention is moie exclusively 
 occupied with the hero and heroine, and 
 with the circumstances attendant upon 
 the development of their love. . . The 
 scene is entirely at a great watering place, 
 Newport being plainly the one which the 
 author had in mind. The hero, a young 
 man of fine appearance, great wealth, and 
 well connected, is of course furiously the 
 fashion. [The heroine is] the poor cousin 
 of some newly rich and ultra fashionable 
 people, who are passing the summer at 
 the great hotel, to which they have brot 
 Miss Story almost in charity, she being 
 convalescent from a severe illness. The 
 choice proves to be not a very severe test 
 of Mr. Howard's power of conferring dis- 
 
 69 
 
KOVKLS OF AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 tinction ; for she is really the handsomest 
 woman, both in face and figure, at the 
 hotel, and a very hl-spirited, intelligent 
 girl withal. . . Mr. Howard and Miss Story 
 fall in love with each other, and she does 
 become the belle of the summer. The 
 incidents of their wooing are quite origi- 
 nal; but they are nevertheless not at all 
 forced, and they are managed very skil- 
 fully." [ Galaxy. 240 
 EMILY CHESTER [ by A.. MONCUKE 
 (Crane) SEEMiiLLER: Ticknor, J 864.] 
 "is more than an ordinary novel. Its ex- 
 cellences and faults are peculiar, and show 
 the writer to be » person of unquestion- 
 able genius and inslt. The interest of the 
 stoi-y grows out of the singular psychologi- 
 ical relations of the principal characters. 
 There is iio relief of by-play; no lesser 
 personages move across the stage and in- 
 terrupt the painful progress of the drama; 
 no gay flash of wit, no repartie, lits the 
 sombre picture ; there is not even the form 
 of a plot; nothing happens unexpectedly, 
 in fact nothing happens at all,, yet the 
 story is one of absorbing interest. The 
 only important event is the mariage of 
 the heroine; and the desolation and de- 
 spair which follow are inevitable, — inevit- 
 able, because they do not result from out- 
 ward circumstances, but from the conflict 
 of natures inherently inharmonious. 
 Emily Chester is a girl of vigorous intel- 
 lect, great ' clearness of perception, and 
 delicate but healthy nervous organization. 
 Lilfe all heroines, she is beautiful, — of a 
 grand and lofty beauty, according with 
 her character. It is her misfortune to be- 
 come, in early life, an object of passionate 
 devotion to a man with whom she has 
 great intellectual sympathy, but from 
 whom she experiences an absolute lysical 
 repulsion. At a time of great weakness 
 and prostration she maries him, but with 
 renewed fysieal strength this feeling of 
 repulsion returns with added force, and 
 continues until her death. Frederick 
 Hastings, the only other character of im- 
 portance, is a friend of Emily's early and 
 happy years, and an entire contrast to her 
 husband. Graceful, accomplished and 
 
 amiable, a perfect g;entleman in spirit and 
 life, he is entirely agreeable to her, and 
 her nature gladdens in his presence lilte a 
 flower in the sunshine. Crarapton, the 
 husband, meets her intellectual needs; 
 Frederick Hastings fulfils the cravings of 
 her heart. . . Emily's aversion to her hus- 
 band never becomes hatred, and never 
 prevents a grateful, admiring regard for 
 him. His stormy passions and iron will 
 never tempt him to take revenge for his 
 disappointment in any unworthy act. 
 His love and tenderness for his wife 
 strengthen and biiten to the end. And 
 Hastings, whose afl'ection for Emily ex- 
 ceeds in devotion and warmth what most 
 men call love, is, after her mariage. always 
 the friend, never the lover." [ Christian 
 Examiner. 241 
 
 EN DURA [by B. P. Moore: San 
 Francisco, 1885.] "is a story of 3 gener- 
 ations of a New-England family, who be- 
 ginning in the first as poor and rugged 
 pioneers, prospered, and in the third 
 found themselves heirs to an enormous 
 forein estate. The story is very . naive 
 and sincere, and (1 or 2 points excepted) 
 excites rather friendly feeling in the critic 
 by its spirit. It rambles on with little 
 reference to its plot, and an evident deter- 
 mination to put in about all the author 
 remembers of New-England, whether 
 it comes into the story or not. The New- 
 England that appears in it is evidently 
 drawn from boyhood memories; but the 
 mere fact that the village remembered is a 
 Baptist and Methodist village, shows that 
 it is not to be deemed a typical one. A 
 great deal of stress is laid upon the decay 
 of the New-England village, which is 
 credited largely to bigotry; but in view of 
 the way in which many towns in the 
 middle West thrive upon this same big- 
 otry, it is not worth while to join issue 
 upon the point." [ Overland. 242 
 
 FAIR I'HILOSOPHEE. (A) [by 
 "Henri Dauge:" i. c, Mrs. Hammond: 
 Harlan. 1882.] "We find this a pleasing 
 book, and one which recommends itself 
 for truth and good taste. The filoso- 
 fizing, the familiarity with serious au- 
 
 70 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 thoi'S, and tlie like, turns out to be no 
 pcilanlry, but simply the unaffected hiibit 
 of thOt and speech of that society whicli 
 is in a true sense the best. As a story it 
 is nothing: it is gracefully constructed, 
 and the narrative does not laji; still it 
 makes no point of what is teclinically 
 linown as 'narrative interest,' nor has it 
 any special originality. "What we value it 
 for is the picture, at once charming and 
 true to nature, of the sisters Drosfie and 
 Jo, — of the tone of thot and feeling and the 
 attitude toward the world in which they 
 lived. We do not remember ever to have 
 read a novel which kept Its scene entirely 
 inside one of those little groups of ameri- 
 can life which lie — and are glad to lie — 
 entirely outside the world of fashion; the 
 groups where books are read and written, 
 where the words of filosofical discussion 
 are commonplaces of chat, and all without 
 any sense of importance or ettbrt to stand 
 on intellectual tip-toes. The charm of 
 this intellectual life, its freedom from con- 
 ventionalities, its character of sweetness 
 and purity, its unanxious, earnestness, its 
 liability to unnecessary, painful contact 
 with a society of different standards: — 
 these are all well br6t out. . . Not the least 
 of the virtues of 'A Fair Philosopher' is 
 this hi conception of love, — a relief, in- 
 deed, to the reader after the monotony of 
 caprice and passion wliich make up love 
 in most novels. It cannot be said that 
 there are not in this novel slips of taste; 
 but these lapses do not seriously mar the 
 gentle, lit seriousness of the whole pict- 
 ure." [ Californian. 243 
 FAITH G.^KTNEY'S GIRLHOOD 
 [ by Adeline Du 1 1 on (Train) Whit- 
 ney: Loring, IS63.] "is a quiet, simple 
 story, noticeable for purity of tone and 
 delicacy of feeling rather than for vigor. 
 The style is admirable. If not a great 
 book, it is something better — a good one." 
 [Harper's.]— '•! should not dare to tell 
 how many times my copy has been read. 
 The secret of Its interest is that a girl's 
 nature is here pictured so trutli fully and 
 sympathetically that every girl just leaving 
 childhood behind lier finds here some 
 
 image of herself, and something, too, which 
 thrills and awakens her whole inner life. 
 The story is full of sentiment. It is gush- 
 ing, and tender, and innocent, and prob- 
 ably all true in any young girl. It is a 
 book which every such person should 
 read. It will stir and direct her sleeping 
 energies. Glory JlcWhirk is a beautiful 
 creation. The story is chiefly a series of 
 pictures of character; it is not artistically 
 or very carefully written; but the author 
 is a woman of genius, and she has u, true 
 sympathy with the life she describes. . . . 
 The author has constructed a clever plot, 
 and developed it throu a very interesting 
 succession of scenes, with natural charac- 
 ters ; tho most of the Faith Gartneys whom 
 we have heard spiak of It seem to think 
 the lieroiue is nniried to the wrdng man 
 afler all. And, we must confess, the 
 hearty lay lover appears to us to hi^e 
 decided advantages over the slltly lack- 
 adaisical young clergyman." [ Chui-ch 
 Monthly. 244 
 
 FAMOUS VIC'l'ORY (A) [Jansen, 
 McClurg & Co., 1880.] tho it has "a love 
 story running throu it, is really a satire 
 upon american politics, and as such has 
 made us laf here and there ■ . . Much of 
 the story's action goes on in a Connecti- 
 cut village, where the president has 
 his mills, where several suitors make 
 love to his pretty dauters, and where a 
 labor-reform agitation ends in a riot and 
 destruction of the great capitalist's proper- 
 ty. There is profanity in the book, of 
 course, and a good deal of loud and slan<;y 
 talk — for does not such belong to the sub- 
 ject? Hut it is written wilh much truth 
 to nature, and its sharp hits at certain 
 weaknesses of the national characler are 
 effective In no small degree. It is vigorous 
 if not powerful, and racy if not always 
 refined " [Boston "Literary World." 245 
 
 FATHER 15RIGHTH01'E.S. [by'-l'AUL 
 Ckeyton," i. e., J:Townsend Trow- 
 bridge ■.[Phillips, Sampson & Co., 1853.] 
 "Paul Creyton tells a capital story; draws 
 his characters with a firm hand; has a 
 deal of lurking fun in his composition: 
 and never fails to inculcate a good moral 
 
 71 
 
N0VKL8 OK AMKlilCAN CIl'Y LIFE. 
 
 lesson." [Chuveh Review. 24C 
 
 FIGS AND THISTLES, [by Alhio.n 
 WiXKGAR TouKGEE- Fovdg, 1879.] 
 '■Readers who have enjoyea E : Egglestou's 
 excursions into the land of Roxys and 
 Hoosier Sehool masters will lilce Jndge 
 Tourgfie's 'Figs and Thistles', which is a 
 story of life in the Western Reserve 
 [Ohio], told with quite as much careful 
 attention to realistic detail and faithful 
 reflection of ruf and rollicking character 
 as works of this class are usually to be 
 credited with, and with rather more liter- 
 ary ability. And we must confess that it 
 has often made us ISf, in spite of our tastes 
 and principles, which are steadily set 
 against slang and profancness and coarse 
 dialect, however true such touches may be. 
 Such books have a function in preserving 
 local traits which are fast disappearing 
 with the changing landscape; and they 
 are choice food, we vca-y well know, for 
 certain palates: tho for our part we pre- 
 fer fiction of a ditl'erent quality." [Hoslon 
 "Literary World."] — '-The story is of the 
 temptation of a conscientious hero who, 
 from obscure beginnings, has pushed him- 
 self throu college, into business success, 
 and into Congress; this is made particular- 
 ly trying, but his wife, who does excellent 
 duty as a 'dea ex maehina', steps in and 
 rescues her husband in a melodramatic 
 scene. The details are unimportant, and 
 the actual historical properties are used 
 exclusively as properties and have no 
 political interest. The merit of the book 
 consists in its showing of -the conjunction 
 of self-reliance and humorous tolerance in 
 american character, the origin and pe- 
 cularities of which form the puzzle that so 
 many forein travelers set themselves to 
 solve'." [ Nation. 247 
 
 FOOLISH VIRGIN (A) [by Ella 
 Weed : Harper, 18S3.] "is a young lady 
 just out of college, 'with a liberal education 
 on hi!r hands', and ready to devote herself 
 to 'frills', as her school girl vocabulary 
 tlesignates polite accomplishments. She 
 takes to china-paiuting, since 'in Cincin- 
 nati one must do something'. The story 
 is only what the author herself would call 
 
 a -skit'; and as to plot, nothing but a petty 
 vivacity makes it worth a hall-hour's read- 
 ing. The Cincinnati setting is a novelty. 
 It is drolly given, with a good deal of 
 'vraisemblance'— a sort of mean proportion- 
 al between ancient lioston and the true 
 West, wherever that may be. There is 
 seldom' found in the class to which the 
 book belongs a better bit of delicate satire 
 than the account of the lioston lady's ai-t- 
 lecture and the audience thereat." 
 [Nation. 248 
 
 FOOLS OF NATURE, [by Alick 
 15K0WN: Ticknor,lii>i1.] "The intrinsic 
 evidence of this clever stoFy is that the 
 author has had limited opportunities for 
 observation. Sarah Ellis is the ideal, and 
 far from a low one, of the New-England 
 woman novelist: she is a creature prone to 
 distort into caricature the divine faces of 
 duty, and love and truth. The young man 
 who maries Sarah is another ideal, far too 
 elegant a person ever to make a boai-ding 
 house his habitat. The New-England 
 village people, on the other hand, are 
 realistic studies, well characterized and 
 amusing, while the sketch of Linora, tho 
 verging on burlesque, hits hard at a fem- 
 inine propensity for providing one's self 
 with a romantic background." [Nation. 249 
 
 FOR A WOMAN, [by NouA Perry: 
 Ticknor, 1885.] "From Mr. Hawthorne's 
 pretensions undertakings and weak com- 
 pletions, we turn with real relief to Nora 
 J'erry's modest and charming little story. 
 It is among novels what her verses are 
 among poetry. It is fresh, healthful, and 
 refined, has plenty of feeling, yet nothing 
 dramatic, and is, we think, correct and 
 wise in its reading of life and love. Its 
 very completeness within its degree ex- 
 cludes much comment. It is not one of 
 the books which everyone should read; 
 but it is one which a great many people 
 should." [Overland. 250 
 
 FOR SUMMER AFTERNOONS, [by 
 "Susan Coolidge," i. e., S.. Chauncby 
 Woolsey: Soberts, 1876.] "A charm- 
 ing collection of stories about New-Eng- 
 land people and things, in time of peace 
 and war,— parted from each other by 
 
 72 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN' CITY LIFE. 
 
 ■lovely bits of verse. 'Mai-tiii' in the hos- 
 pital brings freshly back the terrible 
 earuest o( those days so far away, yet so 
 near to all of us who have lived tbrou 
 them; the 'Camp-JIceting Idyl' is very 
 racy; 'Under the Sen' is full of the color 
 of Mt. Desert. The dainty little volume 
 is a very charming companion for these 
 days when 'summer faiuts in the sky.'" 
 [ Unitarian Review. 251 
 
 FOR THE MAJOR, [by C. F. WooL- 
 sox : Harper, 18S3.] '-It is a very clever, 
 a very dramatic, and a very interesting 
 book. It is woven in one piece, firmly, 
 evenly, beautifully ; there are no seams or 
 thin places, (save one defect in the begin- 
 ning) of its construction. . . There are 
 beautiful touches in the book. Very 
 daintily is the society of 'Far Edgerly' 
 sketched in ; we can almost see Miss Dalley, 
 who was so devoted to Tasso; and we 
 smile whenever we think of poor Miss 
 Corinna. It ends beautifully, sweetly, — 
 we had almost said softly. "VYe feel as one 
 sometimes does on leaving the theatre. 
 The curtain is down, the stage is empty, 
 the lits are on I, and we pick up the bur- 
 den Of life again ; but for a little while the 
 music of the last act rings in our ears, and 
 our th6ts are with the people we have 
 watched so clo>ely. "We hate to leave 
 'Far Edgerly', and the Major, and those 
 two women and little Star. If the mission 
 of a novel be to interest and entertain, to 
 give us new and dcUtful friends, and to be 
 a pleasant .spot to think of and to go back 
 to, then it is the greatest success we have 
 had for many a day." [American] see 
 No. 35. 352 
 
 FOUR OAKS. [ by "Kamba Thorpe," 
 i.e.,E ..Whitfield (Ckoom) Bellamy: 
 Carleton, 1867.] '-This is a story of 
 everyday life iu which all the incidents 
 are probable, and, what is yet more rare, 
 the characters are all ijerfectly natural. 
 A number of men and women, differing 
 in age tlio not in station, are brot together 
 on terms of pleasant acquaintance, and 
 there is a more liberal allowance than 
 usual of intelligent men and brainless 
 nonentities, of sensible women and those 
 
 torments of modern society, women of an 
 uneertain age on the look-out for hus- 
 bands; and altho there are no villains, 
 there are mischief-makers enuf to occasion 
 unpleasant complications, which, together 
 with mysterious miniatures and family 
 secrets, combine to sustain an interest 
 which the events of the story would not 
 otherwise suffice to keep alive. The scene 
 opens in the pleasant town of Netherford, 
 where, after a severe round of introduc- 
 tions to the forefathers and relatives of 
 the heroine, we are |iresented to a charm- 
 ing, good-hearted, and beautiful girl,— a 
 little spoiled, rather self-willed, and some- 
 what too self-reliant, but so true and 
 honest, so free from all the vices which 
 attach to the fashionable and fast young 
 lady, that we are grateful to the author 
 who awakens our interest for a woman 
 equally endowed with vitality, modesty, 
 and common-sense. There is an absence 
 of all romance about a life pas.sed among 
 such restless and ill-assorted people as 
 form the society of Netherford, but the 
 author has refrained from giving us any 
 exaggerated or extravagant scenes; he is 
 throuoiit consistent and natural, and his 
 imagination has evidently been greatly 
 assisted by personal observation." [Round 
 Table. 253 
 
 FRIENDS [by E.. S. (Phelps) Ward: 
 Houghton, 18S1.] '-is simply the story of 
 a beautiful, tender, true-hearted young 
 woman, who loses a husband whom she 
 loves with her whole nature, and who 
 after a long widowhood, marles his most 
 intimate friend, a life-long acquaintance of 
 her own too. . . The interest of the book 
 is in the way the end is reached. It is a 
 study of 'the patient renewals of life, the 
 slow gathering of wasted forces, the 
 gradual restoration of landmarks and 
 symptoms of content, the gravely rebuilt 
 fire-sides, by whicli forever ears must listen 
 for the footsteps of the flood'. These are 
 traced with much delicacy in the woman's 
 case, and the growth and development of 
 love with much truth . to nature in the 
 man's. From the moment when he thinks 
 thiit to be the comfort of a dead friend's 
 
 73 
 
:S0VEL8 OF AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 willow is the most thankless position in the 
 world and wishes, 'honestly euuf.that John 
 were there to dp his own consoling,' until 
 the last sentence,— 'It was heaven on earth 
 to him at least. If to her it was earth 
 after heaven, what cured he," — the se- 
 quence of emotions and events is perfectly 
 logical. There Is no plot or action, there 
 are instead successive fases of feeling as 
 various and infallible as the fenomena of 
 stars or tides." [Atlantic. 354 
 
 FROM MADGE TO MARGARET 
 [by ''Carroll Winchester," I. e., Caro- 
 line G. (Gary) Curtis : Lee, 18S0.] "is a hist- 
 ory of development of chai-acter. Madge 
 is a girl 'born and bred in a fiu'mhouse' 
 who maries young, and goes to a life whol- 
 ly new to her and full of temptations. 
 The sti'uggle is how to bring a volatile but 
 brit and lovable wife to sympathize with 
 her husband and be trulj' his helpmeet. 
 The tone is excellent, the pictures of home 
 life, the i)arental and sisterly feeling, are 
 beautiful ; and it is altogether a sweot and 
 wholesome book." [Boston "Literary 
 World." 255 
 
 FROM HAND TO MOUl'H [by Aman- 
 da MixxiE. Douglas: Lee, 1877.] '-is 
 u, thoroly good, true, pure, sweet and 
 touching story. It covers precisely those 
 fases of domestic life which are of the 
 most common experience, and will take 
 many of its readers just whei'e they have 
 been themselves. The style is admirable 
 for its nervous compactness, naturalness, 
 is nowhere sacrificed for effect, and the 
 whole current runs with the spontaneity 
 and freshness of a mountain brook. There 
 is trouble 'in it, and sorrow, and pain and 
 parting, but the sunset glorifies the clouds 
 of the vai'ied day, and the peace which 
 passes understanding pervades all. For 
 young women whose lives are just opening 
 into wifehood and maternity, we have read 
 nothing better for many a day." [Boston 
 "Literary World." 356 
 
 GALLANT FIGHT, A [by -'Marion 
 Hakland," i. e., M.. Virginia (Hawes) 
 Terbune: Dodd, 1888.] "is a most 
 lady-lilie production, and may be recom- 
 euded as certain not to bring the blush of 
 
 shame to the cheek of the most innocent. 
 And yet the 'gallant fit' intended by the 
 title we take to be the long struggle kept 
 up by Mrs. Richard Phejpsnotto 'let on' 
 to him, or to anybody, that she knows 
 her husband has once been on the verge of 
 unfaithfulness to her. . . . Mrs. Terhune 
 has told her story in an interesting way. 
 Hut there is, as usual in her work, a cook- 
 book sort of flavor in it, an atmosfere of 
 tatting and tatling, and crochet work, and 
 aesthetic chromos, and general priamess, 
 prosperity and prettiuess, which makes 
 'ladylike' at once the most comprehensive 
 and descriptive of adjectives for it." [Cath- 
 olic World. 357 
 GAYWORTHYS (The) A Story of 
 Threads and Thrums, [by A. D. (T.) 
 Whitney: iorJn(7, — Low, 1S65.] "is a 
 story with pleasant delineations of ameri- 
 can rural life in the village of Hillbury, 
 and of the more pretentious society of the 
 seaport town of Selport. 'I'here is a pleas- 
 ant, racy flavor in the tale, but the style 
 would be better if it were quieter; it is 
 too staccato, and disturbs the reader. . . . 
 The episode of Gabriel Hartshorne, the 
 unspoken, 'kindness' between him . and 
 Joanna Gayworthy, is excellent, and 
 written with quiet power, which fills the 
 heart of the reader with reverence for the 
 simple heroism of the young man who 
 could put aside all his hopes to do a son's 
 duty by his poor old crazed father. The 
 disappointment of the two sisters, neither 
 of them knowing how the clouding of their 
 life had come to pass, is touching. The 
 character of the sailor is the picture of a 
 real hero ; indeed, the whole story gives a 
 glimpse of the lives of self-renunciation 
 which we may thank God are not rare in 
 the world. In the end, some of the thrums 
 and threads are woven into a comfortable 
 result: but only after much tribulation. . . 
 'The Gayworthy's is not u. lively novel; 
 but it is a book which no one can read 
 without feeling the better for it, for it 
 appeals to the best sympathies and instincts 
 of human nature." [Athenaium. 358 
 GENTLEMAN OF LEISURE (A) 
 [by Edgar Fawcett : Houghton, 1881.] 
 
 74 
 
NOVELS OP AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 Is an "admirable sociiil satire. 'A Hopeless 
 Case' prepareil uS to thiiilc well of his work 
 in this direction, but here he is perhaps 
 more happy than in the former booli. 
 Clinton Wainwright. an american by birth 
 butaeuropeau by education, is called by 
 business from London to New-York, and 
 is there introduced into 'society.' Ex- 
 pecting to find a democracy, he finds 
 an aristocracy, founded upon birth, 
 lineage, and other considerations, which 
 he supposed were entirely disregarded in 
 the politics and social life of America. 
 This is the key-note of the book, and it 
 enables Mr. Fawcett to do some clever 
 writing in a line in which he is particular- 
 ly clever. The story is not without a well 
 arranged plot, but the chief charm is the 
 admirable vein of satire which runs throu 
 it." [Calif ornian. 359 
 
 GLEN LUNA, [by "Amy Lothkop," 
 i. e., Anna \i. Warner : N.-Y., and London, 
 1852.] "This lengthy, but well-meant and 
 well-executed story may pair oft' with 
 'Queechy'. Like that novel, it is devoted 
 to the downward progress of gentility 
 towards poverty : — an argument, by the 
 way, of strange frequency in the domestic 
 fiction of America. In 'Glen Luna' too, 
 as in 'Queechy,' povejty is deprived of its 
 sting, and sacrifice of its difficulty, by the 
 angelic iiatuie of some among the sutfering 
 and struggling parties. If there be not 
 more of Arcady than of America in the 
 sweet-tempered, cheerful and graceful 
 heroines portrayed in these tales, the New 
 "World has great occasion to be proud of 
 its dauters. If their 'favor and prettiuess' 
 be somewhat flattered, the moral of books 
 like -Glen Luna' is not much the worse for 
 the flattery. Meanwhile, they are agree- 
 able to read; and this last of the flock not 
 the least agreeable." [ Athenaum. 260 
 
 GRANDISON MATHER, [by H: Har- 
 land: CasselU 1S89.] "But nothing can 
 be more attractive than such a study of 
 newly marled life as the author makes in 
 'Grandison Mather'. The scene is in New- 
 York, and the history is that of a young 
 literary man who maries a lovely girl, loses 
 his fortune throu the rascality of his agent 
 
 and retrieves himself throu his powers 
 and the inspiration of her faith and aft'eet- 
 ion. Their adversity will haVe thrills 
 and pangs enuf for the reader, who will 
 make ac(|uaiutance throu then) with the 
 facts of a LITE RARY utrag^Xc aa ihey 
 are ; ther? are times for holding the breath, 
 times of poignant defeat and disappoint- 
 ment, wlien one must look at the last page 
 to reassure oneself. Mr. Harland is a born 
 story-teller ; he attracts you from the first 
 word, and goes on to the end with a cum- 
 ulative interest." [ Howells. 261 
 
 GRANDISSIME5, see Romantic Nov- 
 els. 
 
 GUARDIANS (The) [ by HARRIET W. 
 Preston and L.. Dodge: Houghton, 
 18S8.] ''is a rather remarkable novel ; the 
 studies of character are elaboi-ate and 
 varied, the incidents are admirably arrang- 
 ed, the style is graceful and sparkling. 
 Some of the events in the story, such as a 
 clandestine marlage, a midnit conflagration 
 and a fatal ride, partake of the sensational, 
 but they are not treated at all In a sensation- 
 al way. 'The Guardians' is a novel far 
 above the average." [Boston "Lit. World.-'] 
 "In a certain balance between strength 
 and grace, between feeling and ration- 
 ality, between intensity and moderation, 
 the book not only bespeaks its double 
 authorship, but proclaims an authorship 
 of opposite sexes, if we surmise correctly." 
 [Critic] — "The interest is not dependent 
 on plot, but on the careful character study, 
 and the remaikably crisp and natural con- 
 versations. The scene where the boy 
 lover proposes a secret niariage to the 
 younger sister, to save himself from being 
 forced to mary the elder sister in accord- 
 ance with the plans of the masterful Mrs. 
 Eothery, is exquisitely droll. The action 
 also of the same two when a real passion 
 makes the girl regret the childish and 
 clandestine vows is well and spiritedly 
 drawn. A love affair of a very different 
 sort is that of the elder sister and her 
 gardian. The book is not a great one, 
 and probably was not written in expecta- 
 tion that it would be; it lacks the force, 
 scope, and depth, requisite to a great book : 
 
 75 
 
NOVELS OF AMElilCAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 but it certainly is a very pleasant book, 
 one tbat holds its readers unwearied, and 
 even stands the test of a second reading. 
 It bears no internal evidence of the dual 
 authorship, and the style is unifonnly 
 brit, clear, and intelligent." [Overland. 262 
 HAZARD OKNE\V FORTUNES, (A) 
 [by W: D. HoWELLS: Harper, 1890.] 
 "Looking on New-York from an outsider's 
 point of vue, he has wisely chosen his 
 cliaracters from the heterogeneous body of 
 new residents. This method gives him 
 striking contrasts of character. . . . Head 
 and shoulders above them all is Fulkerson 
 — the syndicate-man turned magazine 
 manager. He is a dellt from the first page 
 to the last, tho one can imagine him very 
 trying to a sensitive and proper man in 
 life. He is the flower of Western audac- 
 ity, shrewdness and optimism transplanted 
 to New-York. Daring schemes are his 
 inspiration. There is just the touch of 
 charlatanism about him which, in the rit 
 environment, would make him a show- 
 man. But you are not offf,ni.led, because 
 he has a fine, genial way of taking you 
 into his confidence and showing you 
 the beauties of the joke.— In the Dryfoos 
 family there is an echo of the Lapliams, 
 tho the characters are sufllciently difterent 
 to overthrow any charge of repetition. 
 The elder Dryfoos is a genuine study of 
 tlie traits of a Pennsylvania german in 
 unusual surroundings.— Hut the subtilest 
 bit of work in the book is Beaton, — selfish 
 and mean, weak-wilied, narrow-minded, 
 and hard-hearted; and aimless with all his 
 t:dentl He represents a not uncommon 
 fase of the artistic temperament which 
 many fascinating good fellows exhibit in 
 varying degrees." [Life.] — "Indeed, the 
 author is so much impressed with the mity 
 flow of human lite in the world of Nf" York 
 that he is scarcely conscious, as so genuine 
 a humorist would be, of the whimsical 
 nature of the enterprise which forms the 
 apparent cause of the story. (Basil March 
 moves to New-York for the purpose of 
 taking charge of a literary journal, which 
 is to be conducted upon a rather vaguely 
 described plan of co-operation.) ... He is 
 
 ranch more successful in his conveyance 
 of Lindau's german-silver english, and it is 
 when we come to Lindau himself, and to 
 Dryfoos, with his untamed dauters, his 
 pathetically conceived wife, and his mar- 
 tyr son, that we find ourselves in the heart 
 of the story and in the secret of Air. How- 
 ells' great gain as a novelist. We cannot 
 say that these figures are handled more 
 deftly than others which he has fashioned, 
 but they mean more. They ally them- 
 selves distinctly with greater problems, 
 with deeper insit of life, and our confidence 
 in Mr. Howells is increased because of the 
 wise reserve which he has used. They 
 are not instruments in his hand for break- 
 ing the false gods of the Philistines; they 
 are men and women into whom he has 
 breathed the breath of life ; but that breath 
 comes from a profounder inspiration than 
 he was wont to draw." [ Atlantic. 263 
 
 HEAET STORIES [ by T. HaKTLEtt : 
 Putnam, 1889.] "'I'he author's literary 
 record was a brief one, but reading these 
 exquisitely tender and pathetic little 
 stories, one cannot help a feeling of deep 
 regret that a life whicli promised so much 
 should have been cut oft' at 26." [ Boston 
 "Literary World." 264 
 
 HELEN TROY [by C. (C.) Harri- 
 son : Harper, 1881.] "is an advance upon 
 'Golden Rod.' The author has more 
 material and handles it better. The scenes 
 of the little drama are ijrettily set, whether 
 in the New-York drawing-room or on the 
 hillside at Lenox. 'I'he heroine we all 
 know— gay, too careless perhaps, but true 
 at heart, and strong and steady when trial 
 comes." [ Nation. 265 
 
 HE PHZI BAH GUINNESS [ by Silas 
 Weir Mitchell: Lippincott, 1880.] 
 "gives the title to a volume of 3 well-told 
 stories. The scenes of the first two are 
 laid in Philadelphia, and they deal with 
 the straitest sect of the Quakers. The 
 devices which these find allowable in their 
 relations with the people of the world, and 
 their jealous watchfulness lest one of their 
 number should slip from the fold, form a 
 good background to 2 pleasant little love- 
 stories, which are, however, in so low a 
 
 76 
 
NOVKLS OF AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 key that the tragic element of the secoml 
 seems a little incongruous. The thii-J 
 story, 'A Dnift on the IJank of Spain' is 
 more ordinary." [ Nation. 200 
 
 HERMAN, [by "E. FoXTOK," i. v., 
 S.. Ham.mond I'alfuey: Lee, I860.] 
 "The true power and pathos of the book 
 rise ever hi and hler, and all minor 
 defects are flooded out o( sit. It is no 
 small happiness that we have to do from 
 the beginning vcith a family hitherto wtll- 
 nl unknown in American noveldom, — a 
 family rich and not vulgar, beautiful and 
 not frivolous, liily educated and fastidious, 
 yet neither bitter nor disdainful,— refined, 
 honorable, serene, affectionate. We are 
 not merely told that they are so. We 
 mingle with them, we see it, and are re- 
 freshed and revived thereby. It is pleas- 
 ant to miss for once tlie worldly mother, 
 the empty dauter, the glare and glitter 
 of shoddy, the low rivalry, the degrading 
 strife, which can hardly be held up even 
 to our reprobation without debasing us. 
 Whether or not the best mode of inculcat- 
 ing virtue is that which gives us an ex- 
 ample to imitate rather than a vice to 
 shun, we are sure it is the most agreeable. 
 It is infinitely sweeter to be attracted by 
 the fragrance of Paradise than to be re- 
 pelled liy the sulfurous fumes of Pande- 
 monium. The contemplation of such a 
 home as this book opens to us is pleasant 
 to the eyes and good for the heart's food, 
 and to be desired to make one wise. A 
 pure domestic love shines throu it, tender, 
 tranquil, and intense. Its inmates are 
 daintily, delicately, yet distinctly drawn. 
 They are courteous without being cold, 
 playful without rudeness, serious yet 
 sensible, reticent or demonstrative as the 
 case may bo, yet in all things natural. It 
 Is not a book, it is life. Each is a type of 
 character matchless in its way, but each 
 is also a living soul, whose outward ele- 
 gance and grace are but the fit adjuncts of 
 its inward purity and peace. Even if such 
 a home never existed, we should still de- 
 fend its portrayal, as the Vicar of Wake- 
 field wrote his wife's epitaf during her life 
 that she mit have a chance to become 
 
 worthy of its praise. ... We know no 
 work of fiction so full as this of beauty 
 and wisdom, so free from folly, so resplen- 
 dent with intellectual life, and with moral 
 purity, so apt to teach, so graceful in the 
 teachins. We follow it with admiration 
 and sympathy, from its gay beginning, 
 throu all the pain, the passion, and the 
 peace, to the heartaclie of its closing pages, 
 —that close, supremely sad, yet strangely 
 beautiful. 'She sang to him, and ho slept; 
 she spoke, and he did not awaken.' " 
 [ Atlantic. 307 
 
 HESTEll STANLEY AT ST. MAllKS. 
 [by H. [E..] (L'REsooTT) Spofford: 
 Roberts, 1882.] "itrs. .Spofford in her 
 delitful story of 'Hester Stanley,' has 
 given us a surprise in demonstrating her 
 ability, under stern necessity, to do with- 
 out bric-^t-brac. The dormitories of the 
 boarding-school where the scene is laid are 
 as bare as they would have been in life; 
 not a single mother-of-pearl bedstead dares 
 to raise a silken canopy; and the garden is 
 an actual old-fashioned garden, instead of 
 the literary conservatory, only adapted to 
 the movements of a Tennyson's Maud, into 
 which Mrs. Spofford usually leads us. 
 She surprises us again by showhig a decid- 
 ed gift for humor. We recommend the 
 book to everybody," [Critic. 268 
 
 HOMESPUN YARNS [by A. D. (T.) 
 Whitney: Houghton, J887.) "are all 
 twisted to one issue — that is, to display her 
 intimate knowledge of the vues and ways 
 of Divine Providence. That a young girl's 
 cloth is Huffleient for her coat; that a 
 housewife's pickles are sailed to taste; 
 that lovers unite or separate,— all these 
 interesting mundane matters are I'cferred 
 to the direct interposition of God. Mrs. 
 Whitney no more means to be irreverent 
 than she means to be funny. She has been 
 writing in this fashion for so many years 
 that she doubtless feels herself familiar with 
 Deity without any diminution of awe. . . 
 Her constant devotion to a literal 'dens ex 
 machina' burdens her stories with an arti- 
 ficiality which is intensified by the studied 
 affoetation of her style. The people who 
 read them are still bound to the dark ages 
 
 77 
 
NOVELS OP AMEniCAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 of our fiction. They want the supernat- 
 ural and tlie imnatunil." [Nation. 369 
 
 HONEST JOHN VANE. [ by J : VV: 
 De Fokest : New Haven : Richmond & 
 Patten, 1875.] "In this counti'y, there 
 lias never been so good a political satire as 
 this; bui. its excellence as such is only one 
 of many. The malleable, blubberly good- 
 intention of the hero, who wealvens by 
 stress of circumstances into a prosperous 
 rogue, is very keenly appreciated, with all 
 the man's dim, dull remorse, his simple 
 reverence for men belter than himself, 
 his vulgar but efficient cunning with men 
 as bad or worse. You more than half pity 
 him, feeling that if such a soul as his had 
 been pro|)erly trained, it would by no 
 means have gone to the devil. Olympia 
 Vane, for some reasons, we should be in- 
 clined to think a still better work of art. 
 Her gradual expansion from the vulgar 
 belleship she has enjoyed among her 
 mother's boarders, from her "tuf flirtar 
 tions' with the imdergraduates of a college 
 town, into the sort of unhappy social suc- 
 cess of her Washington life, is graflcally 
 traced. Her sort of ricli, undelicate hand- 
 someness affects you like something you 
 have seen." [ Atlantic. 270 
 
 HONOR MAY. [by M.. Haktol: 
 Ticknor, 1866.] ''A bodk without slang 
 and vulgarism is singularly refreshing. 
 Hi-toned, gracefully written, bearing 
 the Impress of New-England without being 
 provincial, quiet and quieting, 'Honor 
 May' will win and hold readers of whom a 
 writer may well be proud." [Religious 
 Magazine. 271 
 
 HOPELESS CASE. (A) [by Edgar 
 Pawcbtt: Houghton, 1880.] "When we 
 look for a picture of American society we 
 are offered Mr. Fawcett's A Hopeless Case 
 and think ourselves well off with so enter- 
 taining a story. As a portraiture of one 
 fase of \ew-York society, it seems to us 
 exceptionally clever. Mrs. Leroy, Riv- 
 ington Van Corlear, Oscar Schuyler, Mr. 
 Gascoigne, and other ladies and gentlemen 
 are positively present, and the success is 
 attained by no elaborateness of touch, but 
 by a simple and truthful display of char- 
 
 acters needed to present a full group of 
 society figures. The placidity of ' their 
 unemotional life is made apparent to the 
 reader, and he does not feel that it is in- 
 sipid. The subtle grace and charm of the 
 do-nothing world has been reproduced to 
 a shade, and the petty ambition and dis- 
 content of the unfortunate aspirants to 
 fame in it are not allowed to disturb' the 
 even tone of the picture. Yet Mr. Faw- 
 cett knew very well that this flat back- 
 ground, however exquisitely painted, 
 would not of itself make a picture, and he 
 has projected from It; as a contrasting 
 object, the figure of Agnes Wolverton, 
 representing a life and society more in 
 earnest and moved by h!er impulses. If 
 the society was good. Miss Wolverton, 
 shot into it from another sfere, was to 
 reveal its insufficiency and to supply a 
 standard which should measure its short- 
 comings. It is perhapsthe misfortune of 
 the contrast that Miss Wolverton is less a 
 hJ-spirited, ingenuous and noble girl, 
 making the lit in which the other life is 
 read, than a somewhat angular, aggressive 
 and self-sufficient maiden, who enters the 
 arena not only with a misconception of 
 what lies before her, but with a misappre- 
 hension of wliat really constitutes the best 
 society. We are to be persuaded that it 
 was a hopeless case when Mrs. Leroy 
 attempted to transform her cotjsin into a 
 charming girl of society, and we grant 
 that the venture was not siiccessful : but 
 there is implied in all this that Agnes was 
 rit and loyal to an ideal, while Mrs. Leroy 
 was the delicate slave of a petted conven- 
 tionalism. Now we are not prepared to 
 accept Miss Wolverton's reading of the 
 case. We think the Van Corlear set were 
 bp,tter to her than she deserved, and that 
 instead of going off into blankneas after 
 undertaking to arrange society to her mind, 
 it would have been more becoming if she 
 had shown a little humility, and — we 
 are almost ready to add, — modesty^— and 
 disappeared from the Story hand in handi 
 with Mr. Livingston Maxwell. Her 
 society friends' were really forbearing 
 toward this inharmonious creature." 
 
 78 
 
NOVELS OP AMERICAW CITY LIFE. 
 
 [Atlantic. 273 
 
 HOUSE AT HIGH BlilDGE (The) 
 [by Kdgak Fawcktt: Ticknor, 1SS6.] 
 "seems to us quite the most successful 
 work of fiction that he h;is produced. It 
 Las. in the first place, the advantage of 
 having an interesting story to tell, concern- 
 ing itself with a situation arranged with 
 ingenuity, and lending itself to dramatic 
 treatment naturally. The characters em- 
 ployed to enact the story have been 
 chosen from everyday types, with the 
 loyalty to native and simple materials 
 which Mr. Fawcett has consistently 
 maintained in his essays in novel-writing; 
 and in tliis instance he has returned, for 
 his background, at least, to the common 
 folk treated with intelligence in 'An Am- 
 bitious Woman' [No. 184] . These people are 
 shown without palliation, in the practice of 
 their small economies, the exercise of their 
 doubtful tastes, and the pursuit of their 
 cheap ambitions,— the women living in 
 the fear of a social code derived from 'The 
 Complete Book of Etiquette,' and skilled 
 in shifts by which to make a show on very 
 little; the men faithful machines fori urn- 
 ing out the very little. . . The similarity of 
 the germ th6t of this novel to that of Mr. 
 "Anstey's" admirable -Giant's Robe' will 
 have struck all who may have read both 
 books. But the subject — that of the theft 
 of a manuscript and the publication of it 
 under the name of the thief, is an extreme- 
 ly interesting one, and we are glad to see 
 It treated once more and from another 
 point of vue; and, again, the new treat- 
 ment is in many ways very clever and 
 i.riginal. It is the young girl's lover in 
 Mr. Anstey's woi-k who commits the 
 wrong, and he rails in his suit throu ber 
 discovery of his baseness. This is a simple 
 and powerful way of using the idea; Mr. 
 Fawcett has involved it more, but his way 
 too has force and meaning." [ Church 
 Keview. 373 
 
 HOUSE OF A MERCHANT I'RINCE 
 (The), [by W: H: Hishop: Houghton, 
 1883.] "The most generous critics of Mr. 
 Bishop's novel will probably confess that 
 it is a little dull ; the most conscientious 
 
 will find themselves obliged to state that it 
 is very, very dull. The motive is good; 
 for altho the sudden disgrace of merchant 
 princes has long been a favorite theme with 
 novelists, Mr. Bishop's prince is not mere- 
 ly denounced as a forger, but proved not 
 to have been a forger, and yet shown to 
 have been very near to becoming a forger. 
 There is double point here, and the theme 
 could have been worked into a striking 
 short story, but the 400 pages into which 
 Mr. Bishop has lengthened it, and which 
 James Payn, or the author of 'Val .'strange', 
 or Mrs. Eiddell, or almost any French 
 writer, after choosing such a title, would 
 have filled with ingenious and mysterious 
 mercantile transactions, are padded with 
 the material which gives the sub-title to 
 the book— 'A Novel of New-Vork'; in 
 other words, with society gossip, hardly 
 above the level of what niit be gleaned 
 from the morning papers, and with the 
 latest information as to the decorative art 
 of fashionable rooms, even down to the 
 ruby-velvet mat and open-work table-cloth 
 of the dinner-table." [Critic. 374 
 
 HUNDREDTH MAN. (The) [by Fr. 
 R: Stockton: Scribner, 1887.] "Two 
 almost distinct stories here march side by 
 side. One of these motives is a wildly 
 farcical 'strike' in a New- york restaurant, 
 on the basis of a demand of the waiters 
 that they be allowed to wear dres.s-eoats 
 instead of aprons and jackets. The res- 
 taurant is owned by a pompous bank presi- 
 dent who makes the best part of his living 
 by selling oyster stews, but who is ashamed 
 to have the business known, and conducts 
 it throu a 'manager'. There is much broad 
 fun in the incidents bearing on this part 
 of the scheme, but there is subtlety about 
 it, too. When we come to what may be 
 tailed the second story we find a social fil- 
 osofer who deliberately sets himself to 
 break an engagement of mariage, because 
 he thinks the young man in question is not 
 worthy of the young woman in question. 
 He does this, heedless of the fac^t that the 
 natural consequence of a forcible taking 
 away of underpinning of that nature means 
 only one thing— the change of the young 
 
 79 
 
KOVELS or AMEEICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 woman's affections fi-om the unvvortliy 
 object to the aieiit which makes her real- 
 ize the uiiworthiiiess. Yet our filosofer 
 consistently maintains that he does not 
 want this hlly attractive girl lor himself, 
 and, iu fact, he does his questionable work 
 as he laid out to do and then leaves the 
 heroine to go into a 'decline' without 
 stretching out a helping finger, she being, 
 in the end. snatched f lom the d<'cline by 
 an honest fellow in whose protestations of 
 devotion she cannot but believe. The 
 admirers of Mr. Stockton will lind much 
 to jog their curiosity in these vivacious, 
 picturesque, and not seldom deeply mov- 
 ing pages." [American. 275 
 ISLAND NEIGHBORS (The) [by 
 Antoinette B. Ulackwell. Harper, 
 1S71.] "is a novel of amcrican life; but 
 of life within the limited sfere whose 
 boundai'ies correspond to the coast-lines 
 of Martha's Vineyard. ... It is so quiet 
 and unobtru.sive a story, the period of its 
 action is so bi'ief, its chai'acters are so few, 
 and its incidents so homely and unseiisa- 
 tional, that the reader will often pause and 
 wonder why he likes it so well. For there 
 is certainly a very potent charm in its 
 pages — a charm which one parts with re- 
 gretfully at the end. Perhaps it is the 
 salty flavor that exhales from it — a fresh 
 and bi'acing emanation that acts upon the 
 bla<iJ literary appetite like sea-air upon the 
 fysical. This hypothesis harmonizes so 
 well with the ardent admiration of sea-side 
 nature wliich j,Iows on evei-y page — every 
 one of which in saturated with briny love 
 and lore^that it is pleasantcst to accept it. 
 The Warren family, rich Bostoniaiis, hired 
 a furnished cottage on the island for the 
 summer. . . We have given only the thread 
 of the love-plot, without hinting at the 
 wealth of fresh and piquant entertainment 
 which is found in its descriptions of the 
 island amusements — of the ride to I'ainted 
 Clift's, of the camp-meeting, the fishing 
 parties, the drawing of the great seine, 
 the daily peregrinations and simple pleas- 
 ures of the children, and the thrilling 
 sketch of their peril in the great storm. 
 All these must be read to be appreciated; 
 
 and we can truthfully say that we have 
 never seen more cheerful and pleasing 
 pictures of a quiet summer life tlian they 
 present." [ lio.ston "Literary World." 276 
 
 JACOli SCHUYLiai'S MILLIONS, 
 see Romantic No\'ei,s. 
 
 JEAN MONTEITH, [by M.. Green- 
 WAY McClellanu: Zfo/i, 1SH7.J "Its 
 scene is a little settlement at Ihe foot of 
 the Cumberland range, its motif the loyal 
 devotion of a young girl to her father's 
 memory. It is a brave little story, of a 
 sort to help and not hinder the growth in 
 charactei' of anyone who reads it; and, 
 which must be counted for riteousness iu 
 these days of 'dialect', its characters as a 
 general thing speak a language which we 
 can read without the aid of a special lexi- 
 con of mispronunciations and verbal odd- 
 ities." [Boston "Literary World." 277 
 
 JESSAMINE [by "Marion Har- 
 LAND," i. e., M.. V. (H.) Terhune: 
 Carleton, 1873.] "is rather better than 
 such persons as have let 13 of her novels 
 go by unread mit think. It givis us an 
 account of the misery that may be wr6t in 
 the female heart by the hideous wiles of 
 the male flirt. No one who takes up the 
 book will expect to find it a formidable 
 rival of "Middlemarch." It will be found, 
 however, perfectly free from the question- 
 able morality and the uneasy examination 
 of a morbid heart which go so far towards 
 spoiling what should bean innocent form 
 of amusement. The machinations of the 
 flirt are well describetl, as well as the 
 heroine's perturbations; and if the story 
 is not a great one, it is yet a good one." 
 [ Nation. 278 
 
 JOHN ANDROSS [by Eebecca 
 [Blaine] (Harding) Davis: N.-Y., 
 Judd, 1874.] "is certainly a very readable 
 novel. Mrs. Davis writes well; with all 
 her grimneas she has a very agreeable 
 humor, and if about all the men there is a 
 certain exaggeration of their prominent 
 qualities, the women— both the serious and 
 sensible one whom the men of the story 
 deem dull, and the frivolous and pretty 
 one whom they with equal unanimity take 
 lor charming and loving — are ^■ery well 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 described. The scene of the story is laid 
 in western Pennsylvania, in the coal and 
 oil region, and in Philadelphia and Harris- 
 burg, and the local color is very well given. 
 . . . The plot turns on the sufferings of an 
 amiable but weak miin, who, partly by 
 his own fiiult and parllyby force of cir- 
 cumstances, has fallen into the power of 
 a 'ring', which needs his glib lung and 
 ready manners for aid in doing its dirty 
 worii ill buying members of the legislature. 
 . . . One should remember, however, that 
 even in works of fiction it would be very 
 hard to exaggerate the evil doings of Penn- 
 sylvania legislators and rings." [At- 
 lantic. 279 
 
 JOHN BODEVVIN'S TESTIMONY, 
 Bee Romantic Novels. 
 
 JOHN GODFREY'S FORTUNES. [ by 
 Bayard Taylor : Putnam, — Low, 1S64.] 
 "The first volume, in which we have the 
 hero's childhood, is full of clear, lit, trans- 
 parent sketches, full too of humor, and a 
 genuine artistic pathos. The sketches of 
 the Pennsylvania village life of the 
 child with his mother, of his school e.v- 
 perience, of his mother's death, of his ap- 
 prenticeship to his uncle, and the religious 
 revival in his uncle's church, of his literary 
 ambitions, of his first start in life on his 
 own account 'to teach school,' of the romp- 
 ing girl who wishes him to make love to 
 her and thereby frltens him out of his 
 wits, and of the composed young lady who 
 accepts his hi-flown devotion with so sly 
 an acquiescence, are all clear, brit, and 
 fascinating. . . When Mr. Taylor gets hie 
 hero fairly embarked in literary life in 
 New- York the sketches become more 
 blurred, and the more brilliant scenes are 
 somewhat irrelevant to the story, — being 
 introduced more for their intrinsic humor 
 or point than for their bearing on the 
 principal character. But some of these are 
 still very clever and piquant, — one especial- 
 ly of a transcendental poetess being at 
 least as good as any of the similar sketches 
 in 'Martin Chuzzlewit'. . . The Mr. Brand- 
 agee mentioned in this paragraf is a lit- 
 erary Bohemian, whose conversation,— 
 quick, rattling, full of real insit and viv- 
 
 acity,— is admirably sketched." [Specta- 
 tor. 280 
 
 JOBN THORN'S FOLKS, [by Angel- 
 INE (Gruey) Teal: Lee, 1884.] "The 
 'Western life' of the present study is not 
 so very far West; no further, indeed, than 
 the section so well portrayed in Eggleston's 
 novels; but the Indiana of -John Thorn's 
 Folks', is not that of the 'Circuit Rider' 
 and the'Hoosier Schoolmaster'; the north- 
 ern part of the state is more clearly allied 
 to the East, from which most of its inhabit- 
 ants have emigrated, than are the older 
 settlements iii the more southern portions, 
 and offers less bizarre and eccentric types 
 of (character. Tlie level and serene aspects 
 of the scenery have no doubt their effect 
 upon the residents. In this little study of 
 Western life there is certainly nothing 
 thrilling or sensational. The narrative 
 flows tlirou a rather uneventful course of 
 matrimonial misunderstandings, entangle- 
 ments, and threatened misfortunes to a 
 peacefnl and pleasant termination. The 
 story is, in fact, rather thin, yet in its very 
 moderation and modesty gives promise." 
 [American.] — "This book deserves a bet- 
 ter name. Something in the very word 
 'folks' suggests a hopeless combination of 
 poor dialect and still poorer story; but the 
 little tale, tho very simple and unpretend- 
 ing, is well written and interesting. The 
 'folks' are limited to John Thorn and Mrs. 
 'i'horn. popularly described as 'odder'n 
 odd.' The best of the book is in its quiet 
 pictures of homely country life, relying for 
 interest, not on absurd methods of speech, 
 but on quaint habits of thot and judg- 
 ment." [Critic. 281 
 
 JUST ONE DAY. [by J : Habberton : 
 Lockwood, 1879.] "This clever 'jeu d' 
 esprit' puts, in a capital way, the old 
 question of 'Which has the harder lot, 
 the mother wlio stays at home with 
 unceasing worry from the care of children 
 and the household, or the father, who 
 spends his working hours and much of his 
 leisure away?' The answer is given in no 
 uncertain strain, and the contrast of the 
 struggle on the part of the affectionate 
 wife to bear her heavy burden, and the 
 
 81 
 
NOVl'XS OF AMEIUCAX CITY LIFE. 
 
 cool assumption of tlie husband th:it lie 
 does his whole duty iu providing the 
 means of living, without any care as to 
 how it is used, so that his comfort is se- 
 cured, — is admirably put. The story rises 
 to a much hier plane than that of 'Helen's 
 Babies', and its numerous progeny, unless 
 this be counted the last of that long line." 
 [I'enn. 282 
 
 JUSTINA [by SopHY (VVin'THROP) 
 (Shkpi-ierd) Weitzel: Roberts, ISSC] 
 "is a novel of rather unusual merit. 
 It is at once imaginative and realistic, 
 and the story is related with a sort of 
 sympathetic vigor which is very attract- 
 ive. . . The plot is concerned with the 
 lionorable love of a woman for a man who 
 has been shamefully trapped into an early 
 and unhappy mariage. The interest turns 
 upon the strength of character shown by 
 the lovers, and their successful determin- 
 ation to do their full duty to themselves 
 and to society. The struggle lasts years; 
 it is painful but it is ennobling. . . It is a 
 powerful little tale." [American.] — 'Jus- 
 tina' has a moral. It is a study of that 
 delicate, but, to the pens of women, evi- 
 dently attractive question — the extent to 
 which the obligation of mariage is binding, 
 on account of the legal tie, when for any 
 reason the moral claim of Imsband or wife 
 has ceased to exist. . . The author, with 
 some daring, yet with perfect purity, takes 
 it as the straitforward and common-sense 
 vue, that where a third person stands legal- 
 ly between the himds of lovers, yet for any 
 reason has forfeited the rit to interpose 
 between their hearts, the situation should 
 be accepted just as it stands — the legal bar- 
 rier respected, the freedom for avowed 
 friendship and affection taken. . . Pa>s- 
 ing by this main point, we must add that 
 tlie social background of the study is well 
 drawn, refined and intelligent. The life 
 and manners of wealthy and somewhat 
 cosmopolitan people of intellect and station 
 in an aristocratic New-England village, 
 the tranquil charm of the jjlace, the seren- 
 ity and sweetness of manners, the influ- 
 ences which produce, as their final and 
 typical result, such a 'nice girl' as JIary 
 
 Beverly— all these are well cant." [Over- 
 land. 283 
 JUSTINE'S LOVERS [by J: W: Db 
 Forest: Harper, IS'S.] "is an exceed- 
 ingly clever story ... It contains the 
 cleverest characterization, the keenest in- 
 slt into motives, and the most delicate dis- 
 crimination of human varieties. . . It is, 
 in fact, a noticeably well-bred book. "We 
 tremble when the scene is shifted to Wash- 
 ington, but even the seemingly compulsory 
 search for a place under government can- 
 not make Justine vulgar. We respect the 
 author so uiifSinedly that we feel as if it 
 would be almost impertinent to hint that 
 she is telling her own experience; but we 
 may at least affirm that she has contrived 
 to inform her tale with an intense reality, 
 and that it fixes our attention and absorbs 
 our sympathies very much as the true 
 story of an extremely engaging young 
 woman would do." [Atlantic.]— -'That 
 at least a considerable portion of it is true 
 is evident— for in the Washington epi- 
 sode 'several very prominent personages 
 barely escape being named, and personal 
 feeling unmistakably enters into the clever 
 portrayal of that 'insolence of office' with 
 which oflice-seekers at Washington are 
 apt to become bitterly familiar. Prom 
 any point of vue, 'Justine's Lovers' is 
 piquant, and we should add pleasing, if we 
 knew how its feminine readers would regard 
 its naively frank revelations of the motives 
 and reasons which determine the average 
 woman's attitude towards mariage. Nev- 
 er, we think, have these determining rea- 
 sons been exhibited quite so bare of the 
 customary vestures of sentiment. .. Yet 
 the tone of the book is not at ail cynical, 
 nor docs it awaken a feeling of cynicism 
 in the reader. On the contrary, it has the 
 effect, which Burke said his experience of 
 life had had upon him, of making us think 
 better of mankind; and it is a con<dusive 
 tribute either to the author's skill or to 
 the essential ritness and verity of her her- 
 oine's character, that, in spite of Justine's 
 pliancy toward lovers, she retains not only 
 our sympathy but our respect to the last. 
 One thing concerning the story may be 
 
 82 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 affirmed with confidence, and that is that 
 it is thoroly readiiblp." [ Appleton's.] — 
 "'Justine's Lovers' was an attempt to 
 imitate the ordinary "woman's novel." 
 Not a critic in the U. S. questioned tlie sex 
 of the writer ; I loolied over all the reviews 
 sent to Harpers in order to see if this 
 would, be so." [Author's note to com- 
 piler. 284 
 
 KATHARINE EARLE. [by Adeline 
 (Trafton) Knox : Lee, 1874,.] "The best 
 part is the account of the heroine's child- 
 hood, which was spent in Poplar Street, in 
 Boston, a place venerable with tbe anti- 
 quity of 25 years. . . This is by no means a 
 wonderful novel, butthefrank, honestchar- 
 acter of the heroine is not at all badly 
 drawn, and there are no violent and 
 unnatui-al incidents." [Atlantic. 285 
 
 KITTY'S CLASS DAY [by LOUISA M. 
 Alcott : Loring. 1865 ;— Also in "Proverb 
 Stories."] "is a gni.cefully-told story 
 which relates the mishaps which befell a 
 little girl on the Harvard class-day in 
 consequence of her neglecting to sew the 
 facing on her dress, and trusting to bast- 
 ing-threads and pins. The results of her 
 negligence were hardly so serious as they 
 should have been made in the interests of 
 sound morality, since, by means of her 
 small troubles, she discovered' the general 
 good-for-nothingness of the youth with 
 whom she fancied herself about to fall in 
 love, and surrendered her heart instead, 
 before class-day was over, to a much more 
 satisfactory person : which seems as if 
 Kitty were rather to be congratulated on 
 her laziness." [Nation. 286 
 
 LAKEVILLE. [by M.. (Hbaly) liio 
 OT: Appleton, 1873.] "This not very 
 clever book has an interest and a present 
 value which 6t to bring it into.notice, be- 
 cause its chief merit, an admirable picture 
 of the garish life of one of our great West- 
 ern cities, is too delicately done to be 
 appreciated by a foreiner, who sees, when 
 he sees at all, only broad characteristics, 
 while the story is too completely native in 
 its tone to be anything but ignored by an 
 american. Lakeville is Chicago. . . The 
 reckless, comfortless existence of a com- 
 
 munity mad in the pursuit of sudden 
 wealth; its bald, hard, almost dreary 
 aspect; its narrow r.'inge of feeling, its 
 coarse excitement and its indescribable 
 vulgarity— 'Lakeville' sets forth with a 
 fidelity which one cannot altogethci; un- 
 derstand, so unshrinking is it. And here 
 ends what is in reality the only valuable 
 part of the book. The rest of the story is 
 laid abroad; a provincial french house- 
 hold, and the character of one of its in- 
 mates, 'une jeuue fille bieu elev6e,' are 
 cleverly sketched." [Penn. 287 
 
 LAST ASSEMBLY ISALL, see Roman- 
 tic Novels. 
 
 LAW UNTO HERSELF, [by R.. [B.] 
 (H.) Davis: Lippineott. 1878."] "Mrs. 
 Davis writes stories which can hardly be 
 called pleasant, and which frequently, as 
 here, deal with most unpleasant persons; 
 but there is an undercurrent of recognized 
 rectitude and a capacity for calling a spade 
 a spade which sets her writings in a cate- 
 gory far removed from french morality. 
 Slie is often worse than careless in her 
 language; but tho she shows bad taste in 
 various ways, or perhaps because of this, 
 she succeeds in giving a truer impiiession 
 of american conditions than any writer we 
 know except Mr. Howells, while there is 
 a vast difference between his delicately 
 illuminiited presentations of our social ab- 
 surdities and Mrs. Davis' grim and pow- 
 erful etchings. Somehow she contrives to 
 get the american atmosfere, its vague 
 excitement, its strife of effort, its varying 
 possibilities. Add to this a ccrlain intensi- 
 ty, a veiled indignation at prospei'ity, and 
 doubt of the honesty of success, and we 
 get qualities which make Mrs. Davis' 
 books individual and interesting if not 
 agreeable." [Nation, 288 
 
 LENA RIVERS, see Daricness and 
 Daylight. 
 
 LENOX DARE [by Virginia F., 
 Townsexd: Lee, 1881.] "is a fresh 
 and vigorous story. It is a portrayal 
 of a character which may perhaps not 
 often be found in tlie quiet, out-of-the-way 
 nooks and corners of our ameriean country 
 life, but, when found, is to be hily 
 
NOVELS Olf AMERICAN CITY LIFR. 
 
 prized as a national possession, for no- 
 where except in our own country do we 
 find existing just those condition which 
 are necessary for its development." 
 [ Penn. 289 
 
 LESSON IN LOVE (A) [by E. [W.] 
 (O.) Kirk: Osgood, 1881.] "la a very 
 good story. It is, besides, an americim 
 novel in the strictest sense, that is to say 
 not only are its characters, incidents, and 
 situations american, but it is direct, without 
 color, hardly romantic, and almost blealc. 
 . . . Accordingly, in the fruits of lier observ- 
 ation we have a very natural and credible 
 story. The hero is a busy lawyer, wliose 
 distinguished abilities are abundantly 
 recognized and make him a good catch. 
 His industry, however, has had the effect 
 of mailing him a good deal of a bear, and 
 he is rarely seen in society. Engaged as 
 counsel by the family attorney of Mrs. K.. 
 Warrington, he nevertheless finds his im- 
 agination touched by his fair client, and 
 before he really tnows it he is engaged to 
 her. . . On his side there is little sentiment, 
 and he has to ask himself whether he is 
 really in love or not, until he meets the 
 plaintiff in the suit to break his fiancee's 
 late husband's will, when he promptly 
 falls in love with her -in earnest. It per- 
 fectly fits with his character that he should 
 not perceive this, and, without much thflt 
 of infidelity, he continues to discharge his 
 duties to Katherine while he enjoys him- 
 self with little Doris, who is considerably 
 under 20 and exactly cut out for him. 
 His engagement is kept a secret throu his 
 fear of ridicule, and he has therefore, 
 plenty of opportunity for htly reprehensi- 
 ble conduct, which he indulges with the 
 serene, or at least only vaguely troubled, 
 conscience of a man absolutely selfish, 
 healthy, and active-minded. Doris recip- 
 rocates his feeling at once. This state of 
 things finally collapses throu its discovery 
 by Katherine, who bestows herself upon a 
 cousin (who has worshiped her for year) , 
 and Truax hies him to Doris and probably 
 has made her a miserable woman ever 
 since." [Nation. 290 
 
 LIFE IN THE NEW WORLD [ by "C : 
 
 Skalsfikld," i. e., Carl Postl : New-York, 
 1842.] "The only novelist who has shown 
 the manners of this country in at all 
 the rlt spirit was a German [Austrian] 
 whose stories, published under the pseu- 
 donym of Charles Sealsfleld, at intervals 
 from 1828 to 1842, attracted, it is said, a 
 great many readers; tho they have now 
 passed into deep obscurity. Sealsfield's 
 supreme advantage was that of an impar- 
 tial and very impressible mind, to which 
 the immense and varied stretches of our 
 many-chambered life were suddenly re- 
 vealed. The vast range, the richness of 
 the material, awoke an exhaustless enthu- 
 siasm in him, and his life was passed in 
 journeying throu every part of the States, 
 and into the outlying wilderness, and in 
 reporting, throu the medium of novels, 
 his curious and almost limitless discov- 
 eries. Nothing escaped him ; he did not 
 close his eyes to a single foible or error, 
 and all which he has to tell us of our man- 
 ners is based on a frame of fact as unyield- 
 ing and coldly certain as iron. Yet, with- 
 al, he possessed a comprehension of our 
 entire system and the quality of our na- 
 tional being which would be rare in a 
 native american. His 'Life in the New 
 World' is a series of novels opening one 
 into another with a continuousness which . 
 he must have caut from the Mississippi 
 and the Ued River, along whose shores 
 the scenery of the stories is unfolded ; and 
 ruf, diffuse, ragged in plan as they are, 
 they give a panoramic vue of american 
 character which is surely one of the most 
 singular things in literature. I say litera- 
 ture; yet you are haunted, in reading him, 
 by a suspicion that it is not fiction, but 
 hugely agglomerated fact, which you have 
 before you. And this is partly true. . . 
 In this story, or rather enormous frag- 
 ment,— all his books are more or less such, 
 — he uses a Pliiladelphian magnate with 
 the scarcely masked name of Stephen G— d. 
 In Rambleton, he tries the case of family 
 pride, and of american flirtation ; for thei'o 
 is something judicial in his whole treat- 
 ment of his themes. We have elsewhere 
 planter-life depicted, and slavery dlscues- 
 
 84 
 
SOVELS OF AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 ed. 'The Squatter Chief is a bold, bloody, 
 and yet vigorous story with n deep pathos 
 about it. Yet there is a rawness, a linger- 
 ing exaggeration, in these powerful fres- 
 coes. Sealsfield, tho ii profound genius, 
 missed being an artist." [ G: 1'. Latlirop 
 in Atlantic.]— '-German critiis,— H. JSthiS, 
 —for example, have long held up Seals- 
 field as a first-rate genius, and we now 
 find that Dr. Kapp, tho looking at him 
 from a different standpoint, concurs in 
 this vue. 'With what extraordinary suc- 
 cess,' he writes, 'did Sealsfield study and 
 observe these people. Even now ameri- 
 cans can learn certain features of their 
 character better from him than from the 
 best of their writers.' His works form so 
 many chapters 'of the history of civiliza- 
 tion, which he paints in truly seductive 
 colors. IJut their greatest attraction is due 
 to the fact that this modern history is 
 typical for the development of humanity 
 at large, and suggests many wSty points 
 with respect to its oldest history.' In Ger- 
 many, these works 'were literally devoured, 
 and were a regular topic of students' con- 
 versation, both among themselves and 
 with ladies.' In the United States, 'on 
 the most favorable reckoning, he can 
 have had only a few hundred readers, and 
 they forgot his books as soon as read. At 
 present he is here known 'not even by 
 name.' In the Uoston Public Libiary Dr. 
 Kapp could find only one of his works, 
 and 'no american literary history even 
 mentions his name.' This is hardly a fair 
 statement, for AUibone gives him fitting 
 notice, and refers to Griswold, tho the list 
 of his books, compared with Dr. Kapp's, 
 is defective." [Nation. 391 
 
 LITTLE JOANNA. (The) [by E.. W. 
 (0.) Bellamy: Jlpp;eJom,lST5.] '"Little 
 Joanna' is a story of Southern rural life, 
 very quiet and barren of incident, but 
 praiseworthy for refinement in thSt and 
 style and for skilful sketches of character. 
 The heroine is a girl of 15, the granildaut- 
 er of Judge Hasil, with whose widow she 
 lives. Another inmate of the house is a 
 middle-aged lady, known as Pamela, a 
 hard-working, hi-minded, but grim and 
 
 rather repulsive person. The widow her- 
 self, of hlly aristocratic antecedents, leads 
 an easy life in comparative poverty, dream- 
 ing of past grandeur. The closing pages, 
 in which the drama hastens to its close, 
 are more entertaining tlian their predeces- 
 sors, and the dcSnouement is satisfactory." 
 [Uoston "Literary World." 292 
 
 LITTLE JOURNEY IN THE WORLD. 
 (A) [by : D. Warner: Harper, 1890.] 
 '■Mr. Warner, also, appears to have been 
 struck by New- York as a mirror of mod- 
 ern life, but his attention has been concen- 
 trated on a single fase, — the insidiousness 
 with which wealth quielily acquired eats 
 into the finer nature. His theme is a very 
 simple one, but is played in many varia- 
 tions. The reader is introduced to a girl 
 of noble qualities and sensitiveness to im- 
 pressions, and is asked to witness how her 
 nature is slowly undermined by the silent 
 approaches of the enemy of all spiritual 
 things, the unrlteous Mammon. He will 
 observe no marked changes in the super- 
 ficial nature of the woman. She remains 
 tlirouolit the book as gracious, as kind, as 
 beautiful, as when she first appears to the 
 little chorus of the story, the nfiboring 
 circle in a town [ Hartford] , which dis- 
 cusses from time to time the problems 
 suggested by the tale. Her circumstances 
 change : she passes from this seclusion and 
 this little society of cultivated men and 
 women into the very conspicuous circles 
 of New- York society; she exchanges a 
 moderate living for one of steadily increas- 
 ing munificence, and, step by step, ri.ses in 
 the scale of splendor, until she has what, 
 in the eyes of the world, is a commanding 
 position, the wife of one of the richest men 
 in New-York, the mistress of a superb 
 establishment, in possession of all which 
 refined taste can buy, and unstained by 
 any breath of scandal. The task which 
 Mr. Warner set himself was to indicate 
 the slow but steady deterioration of the 
 woman herself at the core, the gradual 
 creeping in of the paralysis of her spiritual 
 faculties, the dying out of thiit fire-on-the- 
 liearth which was kindled and kept alive 
 in the sweet sobriety of her maidenhood." 
 
 85 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 [ Atliintie. 393 
 
 LITTLE PtJSSY WILLOW, [by H. 
 
 [E..] (B.) Stowe : J'ieZds, 1871.] '"This 
 also is chiirmingly illustrateil, and is a 
 sweet wliolesome story for girls, full of the 
 best flavor of the New-England country- 
 life, which no one describes so well as 
 Mrs. Stowe. The little maid who is born 
 in the bacli-couutry among the hills, to 
 whom Jlother Fern and little Mistress 
 Liverworth and Pussy Willow give their 
 gifts like the fairies of old, — the last the 
 'gift of always seeing the britside of every- 
 thing,'— grows up with helpful hands and 
 sunny heart, a cheery example of the best 
 thing that grows in this happy corner of 
 the earth. Meantime, littli; Emily Proudie 
 in New York is fiting the losing battle for 
 health and happiness, under the disadvant- 
 age of too many so-called advantages. It 
 is a good day for the wilted city damsel 
 when she is sent for recovery to the 
 country farm-house, where, she learns from 
 little Pussy Willow how to make butter 
 and to look at niiture, and to livefoi- other 
 people and not for herself alone." [Relig- 
 ious Magazine. 294 
 LITTLE SISTER. [by Jane 
 (WoOLSEY) Yakdlby: Roberts, 1882.] 
 '•That it is still possible to produce a fiction 
 of the old-fashioned type, simple, pure, 
 probable, and entertaining, the appearance 
 now and again of a book like 'Little Sister' 
 iigreeably proves. Honor Armytage, the 
 Little Sister of the story, is a young widow, 
 with two little children, and a pretty, will- 
 ful step-dauter, not many years her junior. 
 Poor, clever, proud with that self-respect- 
 ing pride which has in it no tinge of self- 
 love or self-seeking, full of sweet traits 
 and of inconsistencies no less sweet, loyal 
 to her heart's core to all old ties, but most 
 Joyal of all to truth, this Little Sister 
 strikes us as being as good a picture as has 
 often been given of what is distinctive and 
 best in american womanhood. For tho 
 Honor has Scotch blood in her veins, she 
 is essentially, american, too in the common 
 sense which underlies her kindliness ; and 
 while she has all the grace and refinement 
 of an euglish or french lady, there is about 
 
 86 
 
 her that flexibility, that gift of adapting 
 herself to circumstances, of living and 
 helping to live, which seems the peculiar 
 endowment of our country-women -at their 
 best. She is individual as well. Not 
 every american woman has the clear 
 honesty of soul which characterizes Hon- 
 or, and which leads her to take off her 
 widow's cap and lay it on the Are, the very 
 hour she realizes that her heart has opened 
 to a second love. . . To those who have 
 learned to demand pungent flavor and hi 
 coloring in fiction, this little story, with Its 
 simplicity in plot, may seem tame. We 
 commend it to those readers whose palates 
 are more fastidious or less vitiated, who 
 can discriminate between pink and scarlet, 
 and still enjoy in a book freshness, refine- 
 ment, and delicacy of handling." [ Bos- 
 ton "Literary World." 295 
 LITTLE UPSTART (A) [by W: H: 
 RiDBiNG: Clippies, 1885.] "is a brit 
 and clever novel. Its tit'.e is a grain off- 
 color, for the tinge of severity attaching to 
 that epithet does not deservedly character- 
 ize our judgment of tlie young lady whose 
 personal history and literary fortunes are 
 the subject of the tale. A literary novel, 
 the hook niit be called. Boston is its 
 scene, and Boston people, mostly, are its 
 characters. Its action is a sort of masquer- 
 ade. Throu a thin veil of fiction we dis- 
 cern a company of men and women, many 
 of whom, notwithstanding their disguises, 
 we are sure we know. . . The heroine is 
 a Vermont girl, barely out of her teens, 
 who from a journal she had furtively kept 
 has written a book, the publication of 
 which has made her famous and brot her 
 to Boston to be lionized. Here she falls 
 into the hands of a fat, coarse, loud Mrs. 
 Ames, a shoddy poet and social parvenue, 
 with an unctuous and occasionally tipsy 
 husband. Mrs. Ames, recognizing the gifts 
 and graces of Miss Belknap, clutches at 
 her and sets out to utilize her as a means 
 for her own advancement. Meantime, of 
 course, the mucli-talked-of young author 
 finds a lover, a member of an ancient and 
 honorable family, and in due time he and 
 jMiriam mary, and settle down in an apart- 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 meut on Beacon Hill, much to the disgust 
 of his lofty mother and sisters, who have 
 a great contempt for ilrs. Ames, and no 
 kindness towards any 'little upstart' whom 
 she may be cliaperonlng. Mrs. Ames' 
 struggles to getigtothe Denbigh set are 
 frantic, subtile, and amusing. She is a char- 
 acter, a caricature of her kind, and broad- 
 ly but effectively djawu." [Boston "Lit- 
 erary World." ' 296 
 
 LONG LOOK AHEAD. (.\) [by Azkl 
 Steve.vs Rok: Defb'j, ISoo.] "There is 
 much in this book which may by impa- 
 tient readers be deemed 'long-winded,' but 
 the book is a good book notwithstanding. 
 It has :i healthy, hearty, out-of-doors, 
 counlry air about it. and the details of 
 real amerii-an farm life are charming in 
 their natural homely delineations. There 
 are some long conversations in which dif- 
 ferent religious sects are made to talk to 
 one another, but it is managed in so kindly 
 and pious a spirit, and the results are so 
 full of plea'i:int incident and good feeling 
 that to lay the good counsel to heart would 
 more profit the reader than to be critical 
 and find fault because the action of the 
 story is somewhat di:layed. The character 
 of the hero, who goes about his work 'rit 
 off,' is drawn with spirit. The l50ok has 
 a decidedly anierican accent, but it is th;it 
 of a healthy nationality and not a vulgar 
 provincialism; and as a genuine picture of 
 americ.-m country life we recommend it 
 to our readers." [Athenseum. 297 
 
 LOVE IN THE NINETEENTH CEN- 
 TURY [by Harriet W. Preston: 
 Boberts, 1873.] is "a very pleasant, brit, 
 happy story with nothing morbid or sen- 
 sational about it. The narrative flows on 
 in a clear and healthful stream, interrupt- 
 ed by discussions which are natural and 
 sensible. This story calls itself a fragment, 
 and we ti'ust the author will complete it 
 when the 2 young people have had a few 
 years more of experience. Early manages, 
 made desirable by skillful, economical 
 habits, inexpensive tastes, rational modes 
 of enjoyment and reasonable wishes, will 
 do much to check the feverish ambition 
 and foolish extravagance which are under- 
 
 mining the purity and happiness of our 
 domestic relations. The influence of this 
 little book with its cheerful vues and 
 anticipations is all in the rit direction." 
 [Religious Magazine. 298 
 
 LOVE OF A LIFETIME. The [by 
 Carol.-ne G. (C.) Curtis: Cupples, 
 lcSS4.] "Its value lies less in its plot and 
 action than in its gniflc, natural, and life- 
 like delineation of New-England village 
 scenes and experiences of a certain type 
 a quarter of a century ago; not caricatur- 
 ing quaintness and oddity of figure and 
 temper and speech, but holding them up 
 to .speak for themselves." [Boston 
 "Literary World." 299 
 
 LUCY ARLY'N. [by J: T. Trow- 
 bridge: Tic7cnor,lS6G.] "The scene of 
 the story is Northern New- York : the 
 date is recent. Lucy Arlyn, the heroine, 
 is a girl of unusual intellect, quick sensi- 
 bility, and a deep, passionate nature. 
 Full of irrepressible longings after the 
 unimaginable .nnd the infinite, her restless 
 maiden fancy sis for she knows not what, 
 and nowhere finds it. Left without a 
 mother at an early age, and her father 
 absent, she is resigned to the care of a 
 widowed aunt with a mariageable dau- 
 ter, who does not si for the infinite but 
 distinctly wishes to be marled, and is, 
 perhaps, :i little envious of the superior 
 graces of her cousin. In this uncongenial 
 air our heroine, still seeking and finding 
 not. meets the son of a nSboring squire of 
 hi degree, who is the deadly enemy of 
 Lucy's father. The young man, too, is uo 
 common youth; of vehemi-nt passions and 
 a powerful imagination, he has been nursed 
 in luxury and is ignorant of self-control. 
 He, likewise, has a weakness for the infin- 
 ite; but with a genuinely masculine liking 
 for a tangible substratum for his imagin- 
 ings, he accepts this girl as a temporary 
 equivalent; and after some gentle but par- 
 donable attempts at opposition on her 
 jiart, an elopement and secret mariage 
 follow. He places her in a nfiboring farm- 
 house and pays lier stolen visits; but, to 
 deceive his father, who has forbidden the 
 mariage on pain of disinheritance, keeps 
 
 87 
 
NOVELS OF AMKRICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 up the forms of filial duty. Me:iiiwliile 
 the young man grows wciiry ; longings for 
 the infinite begin again to show them- 
 selves, and he becomes the leader of a 
 body ot spiritists then in the nfiborhood, 
 who are searching for hidden treasure 
 under the guidance of a half-crazy girl, 
 one of their number, who, lead by spiritual 
 mentors, has left an uncongenial mariage, 
 to fall deeply in love with our hero. 
 While these 2 pursue, hand in hand, their 
 search for things below the earth by 
 means of powers above it, poor Lucy is 
 left alone ; her child is born, and she en- 
 dures at once the igimminy of what the 
 world believes an unhallowed maternity 
 and the anguish of forsaken love. So we 
 are led on from episode to episode, from 
 tragedy to tragedy, till, at last, from Iliad 
 on Iliad of woes — fl-omde»pair, murder and 
 sudden death — we rest with grateful hearts 
 in the Fortunate Islands." [RoundT. 300 
 
 MAHEL VAUGHAN [by Maria Su- 
 sanna Cummins : Phillips,— Low, 1857.] 
 "is a quiet and intensely good story, about 
 a model heroine of the Queechy school, 
 wlio after doing her duty as a sister and a 
 dauter, finds at last her reward in a model 
 senator, whose declaration of love reads 
 Wke a maiden-speech. The book is care- 
 fully written; and the story keeps 'within 
 its banks' like the most orderly Thames; 
 but there is a lack of all freshness and 
 spirit. 'Aunt Sabiah' is the only character 
 who seems like a sketch from life. Her 
 sad, patient, shadowy existence is well 
 indicated, and the little reviving sparkle 
 in her old age of the one romance of her 
 life is very well put in, and touches the 
 reader like a strain of an old melody 'play- 
 ed in tune', and is far better than the more 
 labored and ambitious intentions of the 
 other portions." [Athenseum. 301 
 
 MC VEYS (The) [by Jo. Kirkland: 
 Houghton, 1888.] "is a very good novel. 
 The present story is a sort of sequel to 
 Zury: [No. 178."] But "The JtfcVeys" 
 stands sufficiently on its feet to prevent 
 one's ignorance of its predecessor from 
 being a great misfortune. Possibly if the 
 mistiness surrounding Zury's relation to 
 
 Anne and her twins were cleared away 
 more fully than it is by the allusions to her 
 editing a Fourierite newspaper in her 
 youth, and the not very explicit hints by 
 which she evaded Dr. Struflbrd's amusing 
 importunities, it would be less pleasant 
 reading. As it stands, it may be recom- 
 cnded safely. It is full of wholesome 
 lessons on a good many adverse points, pid 
 they have the merit of being given witliout 
 the least touch of didacticism. The talk, 
 let the speakers be wlio they may, is uni- 
 formly interesting and characteristic, and 
 almost always amusing into the bargain." 
 [Catholic World.]— "The life here drawn 
 has taken some steps in civilization beyond 
 the pioneer days of the thirties and forties 
 of the Illinois farming community; for 
 the railroad has come and towns are rising, 
 and there is hint of the coming greatness 
 of Chicago. But in its essence there is 
 but little difference ; it is still the extreme- 
 ly provincial lite of the fresh water com- 
 munity, sunk in filistinism, out of touch 
 with all the world, and flat as its prairie.s, 
 yet capable of producing strong and able 
 men, whose rugged virtues and familiarity 
 with overcoming obstacles saved th6 Union 
 in the days when a great idea moved the 
 whole land, and even the prairies felt the 
 conmion impulse. This life Mr. Kirkland 
 choose for his study. Pleasing he does not 
 make it, — that would require a false color- 
 ing of his picture, — but it is certainly in- 
 teresting as a study of the great shaping 
 forces, albeit somewhat in the ruf, that 
 make an american commonwealth. As 
 such it is full of hope for the future." 
 [Overland. 302 
 
 MADAME LUCAS [by— ( ) Wells: 
 Osgood, 1882.] "is a 6t. Louis story, [dis- 
 guised as St. Leon,] and with a beautiful 
 and clever Parisian widow for licroine, 
 who has come to the Mississippi Valley 
 capital to live on her fortune, loses it, loses 
 also her heart to a man who secretly has a 
 wife living: and finally, going baek to 
 France with a bruised heart, buries her- 
 self in a sisterhood. Madame Lucas is the 
 center of a lotos-eating set of AR TISTS, 
 musical and other, whose dialog Is report- 
 
 88 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 ed with some skill; aiul tlie discovery of 
 her lover's half-breeil wife on the shore of 
 one of the great lakes is managed witli 
 some dramatic eflect." [lioston "Literary 
 World." 303 
 
 MADONNA OF THE TUliS (The) [by 
 E.. S. (Phelps)A¥ard: //oMfr/itoWjlSSG.] 
 "is a very delltf ul little book from the hand 
 of a lady who has done some fine and some 
 doubtful things. It is the story of a fisher- 
 man and his family, and of his loss and 
 recovery, and all tlie little tragedy of a 
 temporary quarrel nearly turned into a 
 gi'eat one. But for the interposition of a 
 'sumnierboarder'thatcuriously and vulgar- 
 ly fine, banal, and unmeaning person, who 
 so often comes in to spoil the natural scene 
 in american romances, the story of the 
 hard-woiking wife, so tender and true, but 
 witli her spark of temper and quick im- 
 palience, and the ruf but loving sailor-hus- 
 band and all their brood, is at once cliarm- 
 ingly told and full of pathos and humor. 
 The ruf little house, so clean and brit 
 when all is well, so forlorn under the pres- 
 sure of sorrow ; the mother with her cliild- 
 ren, so faulty, and tender, and human; the 
 big fisherman, with his ruf ways and sup- 
 erstitions ; the salt, keen atmosfere of the 
 sea, and even the special ameriuanism of 
 'the instrument,' — are all delltful. natural 
 and true. We should have preferred to 
 escape the inevitable ^ne lady, so superior 
 to the other summer boarders in the in- 
 effable fineness of Beacon Street; but that, 
 perhaps, was too much to be hoped. We 
 do not pi-etend that Miss Phelps' little book 
 is a masterpiece, but it is very pretty, 
 natural and true." [Blackwood's. 304 
 
 MAN PROPO.:iES. [ Lee, 1880.] -Mr. 
 Hugh Prescolt is a business man in Bos- 
 ton, whomh is partner is about to ruin. 
 In his counting-house he has a nefevy, 
 Robert, a theological student, acting as his 
 secretary ; and there is a vei-y original per- 
 son among the clerks, named Amory. In 
 the end Amory jjroves the hero, having 
 the best material for the making of one. 
 He it is who enriches .^Ir. Prescott as well 
 as himself by buying stock in a copper 
 mine. He is a veiy original character ; and 
 
 ihe fatherly music-master, who goes to 
 Italy to find out about Phosbe's parentage, 
 is another. The girl herself is unique but 
 not impossible, and very attractive; we 
 like her; with her sincere spirit, her rare 
 voice and beauty as we first meet her; she 
 'wears well' tho her unusuahiess is mani- 
 fested in her clairvoyant experiences ; and 
 we are glad that she brings her fortune, 
 nobility, and love to the rlt man at last." 
 [lioston '-Literary World." 305 
 
 MAN STORY. A [ by Edgar Watson 
 Howe : Ticlcndr, 1886.] " 'The Story of 
 a Country Town' [ No. 146] won hi praise 
 from two critics who did not derive their 
 knowledge of Western life solely from 
 books. When Mr. Howells and 'M : 
 Twain' both certify that they have been 
 strui-k by such a picture, we may be sure 
 that it is worth looking at, at least, espe- 
 cially when there is more agreement than 
 we are wont to expect from critics as to 
 what the features of the picture are. 
 'Amid the prevailing harshness and arid- 
 ity,' says one of them, 'there are episodes 
 of tenderness and self-devotion that are 
 like springs of water out of the ground.' 
 '•Your pictures of the arid village life,' 
 .says the other, 'and the insides and out- 
 sides of its people, are vivid, and. what is 
 more, true. I know, for I have seen it all 
 and lived it all." The aridity, it should be 
 noticed, is inlicrent in the life described, 
 and not in the author. . . The scene is laid 
 in the very heart of the gi-eat Western 
 divorce country— that is, somewhere 
 wiiere divorce is regarded as a natural 
 consequence of any ill-assorted mariage, 
 and where' at the same time this does not 
 interfere with a hi development of fidelity 
 and affection between those fortunately 
 constituted mates who are designed for 
 each other by nature. Combined with a 
 good deal of literary cleverness, there is 
 what an artist would complain of as a 
 total lack of background. We feel that we 
 rtre in a new place, in a society without 
 any ■ past, without any associations, in 
 which (apart from the eternal passion 
 which keeps tiie world going) there is 
 nothing left of all which has made life in- 
 
 89 
 
XOVEi.S OV AMElilCAX CITY LrFE. 
 
 teresting and attractive except railroads as 
 a means of loeomotioii and 'dry-goods' as 
 its object. 'I'lie very language of the story 
 is not the english of literature, but a curi- 
 ous mixture, in which a literary flavor 
 contends with a strong disposition towards 
 bad grammar. Altogether, is this a new 
 species of literature, or is it merely a poor 
 and outlandisii species? Heaven forbid 
 that we should find any fault with it as 
 being Western. But what is it?" [!N";i- 
 tion. 306 
 
 MAX'S WILL (A) [by Edgar Faw- 
 CBTT: Punk, ISSS.] '-is a novel which 
 would serve as a tractate for tlie teetotalers. 
 It is the story of a man's struggle with an 
 inherited taste for drink, a battle lost time 
 and again, until delirium tremens scares 
 the poor fellow into a resolve which holds. 
 The drunkard's course from the flrsl; glass 
 of beer at a Columbia students' mock burial 
 to the fearful end is told with painful 
 particularity. Columbia men, by the way, 
 will not be pleased at the picture of 
 student life given by Mr. Fawcett, and 
 New- York society people will doubtless 
 find their own portraits somewhat too 
 black in the drawing. As in all of the 
 aulhor's work, however, there is a distinct 
 falling short of the object aimed at, and the 
 reader is all the time conscious of this, 
 tho he may not be able to analyze the 
 feeling. The characters are distinct enuf, 
 but not real enuf, and the minute details 
 of how and why the hero drinks every 
 glass of liquor, from one schooner of beer 
 to many sips of absinthe, are wearisome 
 rather than instructive. Tlie eflect on his 
 Bister of the father's murder in a bar-room, 
 in making her a temperance fanatic, and 
 her relations with her easy-going husband, 
 are better told." [Overland. 307 
 
 MARG.iRET. [by '-Lyndon," i. e., 
 Matilda A. Bright: Scribner, ISGS.] 
 "Simply and sympathetically told, with 
 entire freedom from straining after eflect, 
 and with unfailing good taste, this is al- 
 most a model of our idea of a pleasant 
 book. It deliberately relinquishes intensi- 
 ty for naturalness, and, we think, with 
 excellent eflect. It is not wine, but cool 
 
 water fresh from the spring. AVithout a 
 single absorbing situation, it is also witli- 
 out a single false uore. Yet it is far from 
 tame. The story of a sound, gentle, gen- 
 erous woman, and of a noble, earnest, 
 refined man, wlio lose years of youth and 
 love by the treachery of others, is surely 
 no dull episode, when all the characters 
 are life-like and all the conceptions are 
 clear and true." [liound Table. 308 
 
 MAllTIN CIICJZZLEWIT. [by C: 
 Dickens, 1844.] "Here are all our old 
 friends, Jefferson Brick, Col. Diver, Elijah 
 j'ogram, Chollop, and the rest of them in 
 a new dress, indeed, but as quaint and 
 impudent ajid as impossible to survey 
 without latter as ever. For our part, we 
 think that all our english censors, irom 
 Basil Hall and Mrs. Trollope down to 
 Lowe and lluskin, have served and do 
 serve a most useful purpose for the country 
 they criticise. There are still plenty of 
 amerieans who may be benefited by read- 
 ing 'Martin Chuzzlewit." [Round T'le 309 
 
 MARTIN'S VINEYARD [by Agnes 
 IIAUIIISON : Low, 1872.] "is'a very clever 
 novel, done in that 'low tone' which artists 
 love and lovers of art appreciate. It is not 
 a little curious that a tale so thoroly ameri- 
 can.so full of local lit and shade, should 
 come to us with an english imprimatur, 
 and the name of a writer known to us 
 only by some contributions to english 
 magazines. Quaker lifein a New-England 
 village was no doubt striking enuf to make 
 a lasting impression on a traveler alive to 
 novel eflccts, and to this we perhaps owe 
 the book, which, in the shape of a romance, 
 reproduces, very effectively, the 'interior' 
 of a Quaker household on the Massachu- 
 setts coast, with all its contrasts of that 
 quiet exterior Jto which all outward exhib- 
 tion of feeling is subdued, and of that 
 depth of passion which works witli the 
 more force because it is long .concealed. 
 But better even than tlie Quaker love- 
 story, better, too, than the clever sketches 
 of nature as seen in a New-England coast 
 village, is the life of the village: the var- 
 ious types are well-chosen, and made to 
 play their parts naturally and to the full 
 
 90 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 development of the story." [I'enn.] — '"A 
 domestic tale, not encumbered by too 
 many characters, unsullied by interludes 
 of Clime, and exciting a deep, yet quiet 
 interest, not by the book-malier's triclis, 
 but by tlie sliill of a writer who has evi- 
 dently studied closely, and to some purpose 
 the workings of the heart, it is a novel 
 which we can heartily commend. We are 
 taken far away from the scenes and circles 
 which have become so hackneyed, and are 
 introduced to a little island called Martin's 
 [Martha's] Vineyard, situated some 5 
 miles from the coast of New England. . . 
 Ill fact, the story is composed in tin artistic, 
 yet natural manner. Milly herself is a 
 charming creation. She is simply an un- 
 selfish, good-looking girl, who, romantic 
 tho she be, is an admirable house-wife, and 
 is unconscious of her cliarms." [Athe- 
 naeum. 310 
 MASTER. (The) [by M.. (Andrews) 
 Denison: Boston, Walker, 1862.] 
 "Among the lesser tales of the day is a 
 volume very interesting in its incidents, 
 and very charming in its spirit, — a tale of 
 a music-master, his household and his 
 friends. The charms, trials and perils of 
 the profession are sketched with great 
 felicity and beauty. The story is well 
 developed, easily winning and retaining 
 the reader's attention, — tho it hinges on a 
 quite unnecessary and painful mystery, 
 which is resolved at the end in a somewhat 
 theatrical tableau. Each of the characters, 
 with a curious skill, and without any 
 duplicating, is endowed with some speci- 
 alty of musical genius; and the serene, 
 noble figure of the Master, large-hearted, 
 gentle, and touched by great griefs, is 
 well worthy to be the central figure. The 
 contiast of the maidens, the brilliancy of 
 the younger man, the half-cynic wisdom 
 and tragic experience of the elder, the 
 crazed tenant of the 'den,' the proud, fond, 
 jealous wife, with the background of 
 Immbler life, and the picturesque sugges- 
 tion of Southern landscape as a foil to the 
 New-England city, make a gi-eat wealth 
 of material for so small a compass." 
 [Christian Examiner. 311 
 
 MEADOW UROOK, see Darkness 
 AND Daylight. 
 
 MELBOURNE HOUSE. [by Susan 
 Warner : Putnam,— Nisbet, 1865.] 
 "Daisy wishes to be religious, and having 
 read the commandment about the 'Sabbath- 
 day' she refuses to sing a song out of an 
 opera when desired to do so by her mother, 
 because she does not feel it to be rit. . . 
 Now Daisy acted up to her lit, and showed 
 a hi sense of principle — we do not complain 
 other; but we do complain against the 
 author for putting the father and mother 
 hopelessly in the wj-ong — setting them in 
 a cruel and persecuting lit and making a 
 child rise in judgment against them: — 
 it is bad teaching. Mrs. Randolph, the 
 mother, is utterly disagreeable and world- 
 ly iu all she says and does : the father is 
 a little better, but the aunt is vulgar. 
 Daisy alone is the preacher of goodness 
 and tlie exemplar for everybody. It is 
 not a good moral to teach children. The 
 office of a parent is sacred. At the age of 
 6 a spirit of reverent obedience to parents, 
 pastors and masters is better than any 
 amount of doctrinal accuracy." [Athe- 
 nieum. 313 
 
 MIDGE. (The) [ by H : CCYLER BuN- 
 NBK : Scribner, 1S86.] "Dr. Evert Peters 
 lives in the Trench quarter of New-lfork, 
 and by his generous services to a dying 
 woman, friendless in a strange country, 
 wins the affection of her little dauter. In 
 fact, the child is so devoted to him tliat in 
 spite of his first embarrassment at the situ- 
 ation, he cannot bring himself to part with 
 htr. Accordingly, 'the Midge', as he calls 
 the little foreiner, grows-up under his 
 protection, britening with her young life 
 his dim old rooms in Washington Square. 
 They enjoy the ease and freedom of a 
 harmless boheinianism, and are in a way 
 indifierent to social codes. Heroes and 
 heroine's always disjilay a sort of moral 
 somnambulism which enables them to walk 
 over slippery places utterly unconscious of 
 the dangers that lurk beneath, hence it is 
 not until 'the Midge' is 18 that the good 
 doctor begins in logical order to put 2 and 
 2 together, and makes the delilf ul discovery 
 
 91 
 
NOVEI.S OF AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 that the next thing in order for himself 
 iiikI 'tlie Midge' to do is to be maried. 
 Unlucldly he is just a little late : an entirely 
 superfluous and uninteresting youtli of 20 
 odd has jumped at the conclusion that the 
 young girl has been br6t up by the benevo- 
 lent minded doctor, at infinite expense and 
 pains, to contribute to his happiness, and 
 while our favorite hero is chuckling over 
 his own prospective felicity, he suddenly 
 awakes to the fact that the young people 
 arc engaged and wish to mary imme- 
 diately and go to housekeeping. There is 
 nothing especially original in all this, but 
 Mr. Bunner has told the little story so 
 pleasantly, with entire fidelity to nature, 
 and a little dash of humor without exag- 
 geration, that it makes one of tlie most 
 readable novels of the season." [ Anieri- 
 can. 313 
 
 MILLY [ by Lucy Ellbn Guernsey : 
 Loring, 1866.] "is an interesting and un- 
 pretending little book, in which certain 
 fases of school-girl life are truthfully de- 
 picted, and the various thots, feelings, and 
 motives of action incident to that period of 
 youth carefully analyzed. The story, tho 
 very simple, has a good purpose, and the 
 moral is inculcated with as little sermon- 
 izing as possible. . . We believe, however, 
 that the reader's favorite will be the ener- 
 getic, honest, and hopeful Priscilla. She 
 and her mother are by far the most sensi- 
 ble and worthy persons in the book; there 
 is a healthy moral tone about them, an 
 absence of all that is morbid or unreal, and 
 a cheerful submission to the crosses of life 
 truly refreshing. . . We cheerfully com- 
 mend 'Milly' to the perusal of aU young 
 people; they will not only be deeply inter- 
 ested in the simple story, but greatly ben- 
 efited by its wholesome influence." 
 [Round Table. 314 
 
 MINISTER'S CHARGE. (The) [by 
 W : D. HOWELLS, Ticknor, 1887.] "Lem- 
 uel liarker, the young New-England rustic 
 who goes to Boston, falls into temptation, 
 but into no temptation of the grosser sort 
 in which the true follower of the realists 
 would delit to wallow. The truth Is that 
 Mr. Howells, tho he professes to be a real- 
 
 ist and to describe life as it is, is not one. 
 He iiaints the life around him as be chooses 
 to see it. He fits his human beings for 
 presentation in the pages of a family maga- 
 zine and in novels which may be read by 
 every young girl. He impresses us as a 
 sincere and pure-minded gentleman who 
 arranges his groups, carefully chosen, each 
 member with his working clothes on, and 
 then fotografs them. . . Statii-a and JIanda 
 Greer, the giggling working-girls of "The 
 Minister's Charge,' are known by certain 
 tricks of manner and speech common to 
 the most frivolous class of Boston work- 
 ing-girls. But we learn nothing of their 
 inner lives — if they have any. Lemuel's 
 love-making in the boarding-house room is 
 innocent enuf; but we feel that it is not 
 Lemuel's tender New-England couscience 
 or Statira's principles which make it inno- 
 <:ent, but the fact that Mr. Howells {tho 
 invisible, and with an eye to the fact that 
 he writes for american families) is a most 
 careful chaperon.— The Rev. Mr. Sewell, 
 the minister whose amiable habit of telling 
 pleasant fibs has brot Lemuel to Boston, 
 is a charming character. He is true to life, 
 and, we must admit, something more than 
 a, fotograf . He ministers to a very respect- 
 able Boston flock; he is sincere in spite of 
 his amiable fibs; he wishes to do rit and to 
 be father-confessor to his people, without 
 the faintest knowledge of moral theology 
 or any training for the work, except a 
 good heart and some experience of the 
 human race in general, and the Bostonians 
 in particular." [Catholic World.]— "It is 
 lit with the most pervasive yet most deli- 
 cate and elusive spirit of fun. Even that 
 awful nitmare, the New-England eon- 
 science, loses all its grimness in the person 
 of Mr. Sewell, and becomes conscious of its 
 incongruity, despite the monitions of the 
 self-constituted gardian angel, Mr. Sewell's 
 wife. It is this spirit of humor that 
 makes it possible to preserve the friendli- 
 ness of the reader towards such every-dny 
 characters as Manda Grier and Statira, 
 and makes one follow with interest all the 
 scenes in the police court, in the Way- 
 farer's Lodge, and in the street cars, which 
 
 92 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 have excited the 1i-r of more than one 
 critic. Hut the hest character in the boolv 
 Is that of Lemuel. The author has, to he 
 sure, forsworn his own literary tenets 
 even when he seems most anxious to con- 
 form to them, for Lemuel is quite as much 
 an iileal, an improbability, as if he had 
 been drawn less awkward and countrifled. 
 It is a sort of accepted convention to praise 
 the homely virtues of the country at the 
 expense of the city ; but people who know 
 their world would not look very confi- 
 dently towards the rural districts for any 
 marked examples of purity and simplicity. 
 — Many of us, however, can find it in our 
 hearts to pardon iMr. Howells for cherish- 
 ing old ideals, and he certainly has suc- 
 ceeded in presenting a very captivating 
 picture of young, unspoiled, untrained 
 manhood, strong and uprlt, vet painfully 
 conscious of its own gaucherie. And one 
 of the most admirable eft'ects is produced 
 ,by the way in which the character of 
 Lemuel defines itself in the reader's mind 
 not so much by what he himself says and 
 does, as by the impression he makes upon 
 others." [ Lippincott's. 315 
 
 MISS MAKGEKY'S ROSES, [by E. 
 C. Meyers : Peterson, 1879.] "A simply 
 and sweetly told little story is 'Miss Mar- 
 gery's Roses,' witli only 4 people in it, 2 
 sisters and their lovers, with a rich and 
 fragrant garden round them, in the midst 
 of whose perfume acquaintance ripens 
 into friendship, and friendship into love; 
 and love makes a strange mistake, and one 
 disappointed but faithful heart is left long 
 to wait for its reward. The receiving by 
 one woman of an oral declaration of love 
 intended for anotlier, with a happy 
 mariage growing out of it, is not a com- 
 mon device in fiction, and we are not sure 
 that it would work smoothly in real life: 
 but here it is made to answer very well." 
 [ iJoston "Literary World." 310 
 
 MISS NANCY [ by Ida Kahm : Phil'a : 
 McKay, 1884.] "is an amusing little story ; 
 the britness occasionally degenerates into 
 mere smartness, but it is on the whole 
 entertaining. It paints the struggles in 
 society of a pretty country girl who spends 
 
 a winter in Philadelphia, and who is 
 pretty and brit enuf to enslave the royal 
 notice of the most desirable young gentle- 
 man in society until she crosses the Rubi- 
 con and goes to visit relatives on the 
 wrong side of Market Street." [ (Jritic. 317 
 
 MR. TANGIER'S VACATIONS, [by 
 E: E. Hale: Hoberts, 1888.] "Mr. 
 Tangier is a city lawyer who stops his 
 brain in tlie city just in time to prevent it 
 from running away with his life, and flees 
 to parts unknown for rest. The rest is 
 quicldy resolved into a lively interest in 
 the country community about him, and 
 thus the story gDCs on with a hop, skip, 
 and a jump, taking in all sorls of brit situ- 
 ations, and giving an opportunity for a 
 great variety of entertaining social schemes. 
 Mr. Hale's ingenuity never deserts him, 
 and his rattle is a most diverting com- 
 pound of sense and nonsense. ISefore one 
 knows it one has pulled the string and 
 gasped under a shower-bath of refreshing, 
 stimulating ideas." [Atlantic. 318 
 
 MRS. MAYIiURN'S TWINS [Phil'a, 
 1882 ] = Just One Day. 
 
 MRS. I'EIXADA [by "SIDNEY 
 LusKA," i. e., H: Harland: Cassell, 1886.J 
 "is a very good stoi-y, thoroly thfit-out, 
 well put together, and not painfully melo- 
 dramaiic even in its most striking situa- 
 tions. One cannot overlook the fact that 
 a story made up of telling incidents, 
 stiange coincidences, crimes, and casu- 
 alities, is of but little value; yet much may 
 be forgiven a writer who can throw such 
 an atmosfere of reality over the uncom- 
 mon happenings he tells about, and whose 
 characters are so distinct and interesting 
 in their personality. Arthur Ripley and 
 his chum, Julian Hetzel, are very pleasant 
 iicqua'niances. Mrs. Berle, their land- 
 lady — whose husband is a commercial 
 traveler and seldom at home — with her 
 host of relatives at their informal gather- 
 ings, makes a unique setting for Mrs. 
 .I.ehmyl. The inevitable cakes and wine 
 which are passed in Mrs. lierle's parlor, 
 the breezy mingling of english and ger- 
 man in the conversation, the music and 
 talk, and cigars, are all touches whicli 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 count. The peerless Mrs. Lebiiiyl, how- 
 ever, is the one for whom all the rest is 
 spresid out as a background. The vue of 
 the river from Beekman Place is for her 
 approval ; all the music and discussion of 
 "Wagner is apropos of her magnificent , 
 voice, and leads to her singing 'Lehn deine 
 Wang.' The chief objection to chai-acters 
 like Mrs. Lehmyl — in whom, long before 
 she becomes Mrs. Arthur Ripley, the 
 habitual novel-reader easily recognizes 
 Mrs. Peixada — is that as a set-off to some 
 evil-appearing fact of their lives, they 
 must be endowed with so many and so hi 
 excellences. They are apt to seem extrav- 
 agantly painted. It is an inevitable draw- 
 ba<;k, however, to any novel which has its 
 tragedy at the wrong end, that there must 
 always be a shadow over the lives of some 
 of the actors. We hope that "Sidney 
 Luska" will use his undoubted faculty for 
 story-telling in a way that will bring his 
 readers closer to humanity, and lead both 
 him and them entirely away from melo- 
 drama and sensationalism." [Nation. 319 
 
 MODERN nSHEliS OF MEN. 
 [Appleton, 1S79.] "The experience of a 
 young, untried clergyman among the 
 "Various Sexes, Sects and Sets of Chart- 
 ville Church and Community" are de- 
 picted with a lively pen, some typical 
 characters are presented and natural in- 
 cidents occur. . . The interest of the story 
 is sustained and satisfactory." [ Penn. 320 
 
 MORGESONS (The) [by E .. D. (13.) 
 Stoddard: Carleton, 1863.] "is worth 
 reprinting after more than 20 years since 
 its first publication. It is an intensely 
 New-England story. The life depicted 
 is narrow, provincial, and uninteresting, 
 but the characters have some of the stuff 
 in them which makes them worth draw- 
 ing. Technically, the best thing in the 
 story is its vigorous, condensed dialog. — 
 Sociologists have led us to believe that the 
 type of New-England woman depicted in 
 this story is almost obsolete; that life Is 
 4aily becoming for her a little gayer and 
 more reasonable." [ I/ife.] — "I was particu- 
 larly impressed vvith the childhood of the 
 heroine, and the whole of the first part of 
 
 the book. It seemed to me as genuine and 
 life-like as anything which pen and ink 
 can do. The latter part showed much 
 power, but struck me as neither so new or 
 so true. There are very few books of 
 which I retain any memory, so long after 
 reading them, as I do of 'The Morgcsons.' 
 I hope you will not trouble yourself too 
 much about the morals of your next work 
 — they may be safely left to take care of 
 themselves." [ Letter of N. Hawthorne, 
 1864. 321 
 
 MY DAUGHTER ELINOR [byF. L. 
 Benedict: Harper, 1869.] "deserves 
 the credit of being an ambitious, and in 
 some measure successful, effort to delineate 
 a kind of social life which american nov- 
 elists have seldcm undertaken, and in 
 which they have still seldomer achieved 
 any appreciable successes. . . It is some- 
 thing to have perceived that, for the pur- 
 poses of a society novel, the life of the 
 wealthier classes of New-York and 
 Washington, as beuig less provincial and 
 less given to notions and 'isms' than New- 
 England life, either in city or village, 
 offered some promising material, and that 
 political and financial crises afforded a 
 newer and more suggestive field for lively 
 writing than theological dogmas, the bur- 
 den of which is no longer very severely 
 felt, or than sociid questions which are 
 rapidly settling themselves without at- 
 tracting overmuch attention from 'society.', 
 ... It suffers, however, in some degree 
 from its excessive length, and to a much 
 greater one from the author's desire to be 
 always lively, effective, and brilliant in 
 his style, Brilliant, however, he never is, 
 but, on the contrary, often slipshod, al- 
 ways self-conscious, and sometimes even 
 boisterously loud." [Nation. 323 
 
 MY "WIFE AND I [ by Harriet [E..] 
 (B.) Stowe: Ford, 1871.] "may have 
 been meant to be more a lesson than a 
 dellt, and possibly should not be deemed a 
 novel, tho it is hard to consider it in tmy 
 other way. The plot is meagrely this : A 
 young country-bred college-graduate, who 
 goes to New- Vork and lives by literature, 
 maries, in spite of Mrs. Giundy, a young 
 
 91 
 
KOVELS OK AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 girl of wealth iiiul ftishioii, and they set up 
 housekeeping on one of the back streets; 
 and in a little house which the arti^ti« 
 feeling and domestic genius of the wife 
 have made beautiful, they live happily 
 upon -I, pittance of ^7,000 a year. Some 
 toilers in Grub Street would not think this 
 poverty; but Mrs. Stowe achieves for her 
 young people all the social hardsliip of 
 penury without its discomforts and priva- 
 tions. . . The purposes of the book are 
 good, and we suppose the sketches of the 
 women-reformers and she-Bohemians are 
 not too hiiy colored : but it seems to want 
 all fineness of touch and mellowness of 
 tone." [ Atlantic.]— "The opening chap- 
 ters are, by all odds, the most agreeable. 
 There are few more charming pictures of 
 life in a country parsonage than that in 
 whichshe introduces her hero; and if all 
 his aflFectional experiences were as delitful 
 as his earliest, we should find this book to 
 be almost peerless in modern fiction. The 
 transition is indeed painful from the inno- 
 cent bliss of his boyish courtship to the 
 conceited young-mannish ness of his col- 
 lege career, and later to the meretricious 
 glitter of New-York fashionable life. . . 
 The career of Henny Henderson is more 
 interesting than himself. He is a 'news- 
 paper man,' and in his acquaintance we 
 enjoy opportunities of seeing the inside 
 workings of journalism. We hope Mrs. 
 Stow(^ exaggerates in her description of 
 '•The Great Democracy," but her account, 
 no doubt, has a basis of fact, and is interest- 
 ing. We were specially amused by her 
 reference to the literary part of editorial 
 labor. . . In addition to its general merit 
 as a treatise on the woman question, there 
 are many admirable things in this book, 
 such as only Mrs. Stowe could do. The 
 author's observations on fashionable life, 
 and on our periodical literature, are 
 shrewd and forcible; and the general 
 filosofy of the work is vigorous and sound." 
 [Boston "Literarv World."] See iVE 
 A XD Uli NEIGHB ORS. 323 
 
 XELLYOFTRUKO [ by Mks. HORN- 
 Bf.owER: N. Y.,—Loto, 1857.] "is a 
 really pretty, natural story, coutalning 
 
 pictures of american country life and so- 
 ciety, which are clever without pretence ; 
 and there is throuoiit a tone of refined 
 good sense which we are glad to notice." 
 [AthenjBum. 324 
 
 NEXT DOOR, see Country Novels. 
 
 NO GENTLEMEN. [ by C L.. (Eoot) 
 Burnham: Chicago, Sumner, ISSl.] 
 ".Miss Hopeful Bounce, in the solitude of 
 her Pincland farm-house, conceived the 
 happy idea of advertising for summer 
 boarders, with the proviso that they were 
 to be wholly of her sex. Her modest 
 announcement, attracted the attention of 
 a party of Boston girls just graduated from 
 school and desirous of storing strength 
 against the trials and fatigues of their first 
 winter.. They accordingly engaged 
 board at Red Farm and walked, talked, 
 rode and climbed fences in maiden inde- 
 pendence, until they came to a proper 
 sense of the utility of the male element in 
 human society. Need it be said that the 
 author was all this time slyly engaged in 
 providing for the intioduction of this very 
 element? It beamed on Red Farm, and, 
 by degrees, changed acid to sweet, the 
 green rind to the ruddy; and when the 
 party returned to Boston, the winter's 
 battle was, for some of its members, 
 already won." [Critic. 325 
 
 NO. 40 [by Nannie W. Tunstall: 
 Richmond, McCarty, 1884.] "is anony- 
 mous, but capitally written, without a 
 ti-ace of effort or art, and with clear veri- 
 similitude to facts. It tells of a loveable 
 young girl, a stranger at the Hygeia. who 
 fires the affections of two gentlemen there, 
 one a Bostonian who loses the prize, the 
 other an old friend of her mother's, who 
 wins it. It is a pleasing little tale, with a 
 fresh piquant taste to it." [ Boston "Lit- 
 erary AVorld." 326 
 
 OLD-FASHIONED GIRL, (An) [by 
 Louisa M. Alcott: Roberts, 1370.] 
 "And yet it is a pretty story, a vei'v pretty 
 stoJ'y;and almost inexplicably pleasing, 
 since it is made of such plain material, and 
 helped with no sort of adventure or sen- 
 sation. It is nothing, in fact, but tlie«toi'y 
 of a little girl from the country, who 
 
 95 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 comes to visit a gay city [ Boston] fam- 
 ily, wliere there is a lasliioiiable little lady 
 of lief age, witli a snubbed younger 
 sister, ii gruff, good-bearted, mischie\ou3 
 brother, — as well as a staid, sensible papa, 
 a silly, sickly marama, and an old-time 
 grandmother. In this family Toly makes 
 herself ever so lovely and useful, so that 
 all adore her, tlio her clothes are not of 
 the latest fa!^hion, nor her ideas, nor her 
 principles; and by and by, after 6 years, 
 when she retui-ns to the city to give music- 
 lessons and send her brother to college, 
 Mr. Shaw fails, ;ind the heartlessness of 
 fashionable life, which his children had 
 begun to suspect, is plain to them, and 
 Tom's modish fianc(5e jilts him, and Polly 
 maries him, and Fanny Shaw g^ts the 
 good and rich and elegant Sydney, who 
 never cared for her money, and did not 
 make love to her till she was poor. That 
 is about all ; and as none of these people 
 or their doings ai'C strange or remarkable, 
 we rather wonder where the power of the 
 story lies. There's some humor in it, and 
 as little pathos as possible, and a great 
 deal of good sense, but also some poor 
 writing, and some bad grammar. One 
 enjoys the simple tone, the unsentimental- 
 ized facts of common experience, and the 
 truthfulness of many of the pictures of 
 manners and persons. IJesides, people 
 always like to read of kindly self-sacrifice, 
 and sweetness, and purity, and natural- 
 ness; and this is what Polly is, and what 
 her character teaches in a friendly and 
 unobtrusive way to everybody about her. 
 The story thus mirrors the reader's good- 
 will in her well-doing, and that is perhaps 
 what, more than any other thing, makes it 
 so charming and comfortable ; but, if it is 
 not, pleasing the little book remains, 
 nevertheless." [ Atlantic. 327 
 
 OLD FRIENDS AND NEW. [by S.. 
 O. Jewett: Houghton, 1879.] "It is a 
 rare gift to be able to use the materials 
 which lie close at everybody's hand. To 
 do this r.equii-es tact and skill, as well as 
 an observing eye and nicety of discrimina- 
 tion, and, moreover, such breadth of sym- 
 pathy, such a 'fellow-feeling' for one's 
 
 kind, that the events of tne most common, 
 matter-of-fact life seem worth the telling; 
 and all this Miss Jewett has. She is not 
 only one of the sweete^t and most charm- 
 ing of writers, but her pages have all along 
 suggestions helpful towards a kindlier and 
 hier way of living; not tacked on in the 
 shape of a moral at the end, but running 
 throu them like a golden thread." [ lios- 
 ton "Literary World."] — "Miss Jewett 
 will have an audience somewhat less 
 numerous than some of the other story 
 tellers, but she will have one whose 
 quality will be of the finest, and whose 
 admiralion will be of the heartiest. The 
 purity of her sentiment, the unstrained 
 felicity and naturalness of her style, the 
 tlioro likableness of all the people to 
 whom she introduces us, all conspire to 
 render her stories about as nearly perfect 
 in their way as anything can be. With 
 which uncompromising sentiment the 
 critic may as well take himself oil', before 
 he is tempted to some other enthusiastic 
 utterance." [ Good Company. 338 
 
 OLIVIA DELAPLAINK. [by Edgar 
 Fawcbtt: Tiaknor, 1S8S.] "'I'he scene 
 is in New-York, and tlie dominant note, 
 is the love of wealth and Ihe subordination 
 of every instinct to the necessity of push- 
 ing on to secure a good place in the world. 
 Hut Jlr. Fawcett's picture of fashionable 
 life is not an attractive one. His heroine, 
 a young girl reared in affluence, is cajoled 
 into marying a rich man, vastly her senior, 
 whom she supposes to be at the point of 
 death. He recovers and allows her to 
 find out that he gained a young and beau- 
 tiful wife by a successful ruse. . . The 
 story is unpleasant in the extreme, and 
 the only touch of humor to be found in 
 the book is in a scene at an Sth Avenue 
 boarding-house. This is extremely vul- 
 gar, but it is broad, natural vulgarity, 
 with an case and instantaneousness about 
 It which gives the characters reality. We 
 do not believe in being so nice that we 
 cannot bear the vulgarest of people when 
 they are acting naturally. But the vul- 
 garity of some of Mr. Fawcett's fine 
 people is too odious to be borne." [ Amer- 
 
 96 
 
NOVELS OP iMEKICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 iean. 329 
 
 ONLY AN INCIDENT [by G.. Denio 
 Litchfield : Putnam, 1S84.] "is one of 
 tbe most chiirming stories we have read 
 lately. At fli-st it seems only an amusing 
 study of village [i.e., Cazenovia, N. Y.] 
 life, but we soon see that both the humor 
 and the study are such as Miss AVoolson 
 mit have given us — and we could hardly 
 give it liter praise. When the story be- 
 gins to develop, tho it is only the hack- 
 neyed plot of a beautiful city girl with 
 lier fine clothes bewitching the heart of a 
 little country girl's lover, the treatment is 
 most original, and managed with power 
 as well as tenderness. For the city girl is 
 no idle flirt; she never l<nows that she has 
 captivated the lover — never tries for him, 
 never wants him, never accepts him. . . 
 She suggests capabilities, and altho she 
 seldom proves them, one is so conscious 
 of her perfect purity and candor that there 
 is charm in spite of selfishness. The 
 story, like the heroine, is unassuming, but 
 full of interest." [Ciitie. 330 
 
 OPEItETTA IN PROFILE (An) [by 
 "CZEIKA," i. 6., L .. E. Furniss : Ticknor, 
 1887.] "is one of the cleverest and 
 most entertaining skits we have bad 
 for many » day. It purports to be the 
 history of an attempt in a small suburban 
 town to raise money for the church 
 by an original operetta, full of local 
 hits. The subject is suggestive enuf 
 as a target for sarcasm, but the treatment 
 lifts the little theme quite out of the range 
 of ordinary burlesque, into the sfere of 
 really brilliant satire." [Critic. 331 
 
 ORIGINAL BELLE. (An) [by E: P. 
 Eoe: Dodd, 1885.] "Mr. Roe has scarcely 
 any of the qualifies which go to make a 
 first-rate novelist. His imagination is thin 
 and slow, his ability to create natural 
 people is not large, the conversations 
 which he finds for them are such as never 
 could be held outside a book, and his 
 style is one of undiluted commonplace. 
 That his books sell more widely than those 
 of any american novelist is nothing to his 
 credit. There will always be a larger 
 audience for such work as his than there 
 
 97 
 
 can be for the delicate art of Howells." 
 [Church Review. 332 
 
 OSBORNE OF ARROCHAR. [by A. 
 M. Douglas : Lee, 1890.] "Jliss Doug- 
 las has here attempted more and achieved 
 more than in the last book of hers before it. 
 That was a story of domestic economy, 
 and dealt with chickens and roses rather 
 than with feeling and character. The 
 present book offers a picture of Maryland 
 society in the ti-ansition stage, when the 
 traditions of aristocracy are fading, and 
 the practical spirit of the New South has 
 not obtained complete ascendency. The 
 heroine, one of a group of sisters dispossess- 
 ed of a family estate by an inconvenient 
 kinsman, becomes a clerk in a mercantile 
 house, in spite of the protest of her incapa- 
 ble mother. She has overheard certain 
 uncomplimentary remarks made by the 
 inconvenient kinsman mentioned, in regard 
 to the condition of the estate on his un- 
 expected return from the dead, or rather 
 from years of travel. These make her 
 cherish a bitter hatred for him, which fur- 
 nishes the proper 'motive' for the regula- 
 tion love tale between them, wberem her 
 anger is conquered gradually by his force 
 and magnanimity. He is the stereotyped 
 woman's hero, darlc, oriental, masterful, 
 Rochester-like. Two of the sisters also 
 have their love histories, and each is so 
 different from their elder sister, and from 
 each other, that the principle of heredity 
 seems to find little credence in Miss Doug- 
 las' eyes. N'evertheless, the characters, 
 principal and subordinate, are well drawn, 
 and the movement not more monotonous 
 than girl's stories of domeslic life have to 
 be. As a result it is pleasant reaaing, 
 without in any way being a powerful book, 
 and is read with something like interest 
 throu its four and a half hundred pages to 
 the inevitable result." [Overland. 333 
 OTHER GIRLS. (The) [by A. D. (T.) 
 Whitney: Osgood, — IjOW, 1873.] "In 
 this little book there is plenty of sorrow 
 and trial, but they are never depressing. 
 The details of the narrative about 'the 
 other girls,' what they did, what they 
 said, what they th6t, desired, suflered and 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 accomplished, have more analogy with 
 americau manners and cui-toms than with 
 english ones. The history of Hell liree 
 and Kate Sencer who went out to service, 
 and made such a paradise of their kitchen 
 as to tempt one to prefer it, for living in, 
 to the finest drawing-room that uphol- 
 sterer ever furnished, would not be possi- 
 ble as a literal experience in En!,'land; but 
 the spirit which animated the 2 girls, the 
 brit, cheery, helpful spirit, that makes all 
 their work, in kitchen and parlor, quite a 
 beautiful piece of life-work, — the .spirit 
 which would make 'drudgery divine, if 
 we would only let it,' and which would 
 help to drive away the dulness and com- 
 monplace which makes this world so 
 weary to our lives,— is possible eveiy- 
 where. We had marked a great many 
 passages for extract; but it is better that 
 people should buy and read for themselves 
 this most charming and helpful little work, 
 which is filled with thots which will give 
 rise to kindred th6ts and put ideas into 
 the minds of those who read it, which 
 may result in the pi'actice of unth6t-of 
 ways of showing help and kindness to all, 
 far or near. It is a most suggestive little 
 book, and, tho rather rambling, if judged 
 merely as a story, it takes in so many 
 pleasant things .and people, and tells of so 
 many different interests, that few would 
 wish it different from what it is." 
 [ Athenaeum. 334 
 
 OUR UNCLE AND OUR AUNT, [by 
 Amarala (Artbr) Martin: Putnam, 
 1889.] "Of all the books which have been 
 written with the purpose of ameliorating 
 the condition of women, there are few 
 which will prove more effective upon the 
 mind of the average voter, than 'Our 
 Uncle and Our Aunt.' The dry bones of 
 argument and fact are thrown into ihe 
 form of a lively tale, in which Uncle Sam 
 and his wife play a conspicuous part; and 
 the nearly impossible feat is accomplished 
 of awakening an interest in characters 
 which exist for the purpose of carrying on 
 a discussion." [Nation. 335 
 
 our OF THE QUESTION, [by W: 
 D. IIOWELLS: Osgood, 1ST7.] "Had 
 
 this little comedy been launched upon 
 the 'No Name' sea of literature, the wise 
 public would doubtless have declared that 
 there was the unmistakable touch of a 
 woman's hand in it; that it was quite 'out 
 of the question' for any man to have so 
 subtle .an intuition of feminine character. 
 But what is the proof of true genius, if 
 not the possession of this very 'double- 
 nature?' " [ Boston "Literary World." 336 
 
 PAGANS (The) [by Arlo Bates: 
 Holt, 1884.] '-is very clever and suggest- 
 ive. It describes the doings and opinions 
 of a knot of Boston artists and writers, — 
 Bohemians in freedom from conventional- 
 ism and contempt for the standards of 
 uncultured respectability, — not as regards 
 personal morality or exclusive devotion to 
 "wein, weib, gesang." To the common 
 canons of mOrality they add another which 
 they deem of at least equal wSt, — that no 
 honest man may do artistically poor work 
 because it is pecuniarily profitable. They 
 preach the virtue of living up to one's 
 ideals, even when these are not approved 
 by society, and when popularity and lux- 
 ury are thei'cby forfeited. The talk, of 
 which there is much, is always interesting 
 and sometimes brilliant. The book is 
 worth reading more than once, tho we 
 fancy that we owe its 'milieu' to the 
 imagination rather than the observation 
 of the author. — See, also, Notice of 
 sequel, "The I'hilistines." 337 
 
 I'ETTIIiONE NAME (The) [by 
 "Margaret Sidney,", i. e., Harriet Mul- 
 ford (Stone) Lothrop: Lothrop, 1886.] 
 "is a really unique and entertaining story 
 even for one of the long-familiar type 
 known as the 'tale of New-England.' 
 The plot turns on the foolishness of an old 
 man who has left all his property to his 
 son, and later to his dauter with heroic, 
 sacrifice on the part of the dauter, for the 
 sake of preserving the Pettibone name. 
 All this part of it is very weak, and decided- 
 ly not New England like; but incidentally 
 a great deal of genuine humor is woven in, 
 and the story as a whole is well worth 
 reading." [Critic. 338 
 
 PHILISTINES (The), [by Ablo 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 Rates: Tlcknor, 1889.] "Despite the 
 difficulty of depicting the spivituiil deteri- 
 oration of character, Jlr. Bates has been 
 successful in his further delineation of thu 
 decline of Arthur Fenton, wlio, as the 
 reader of 'The Pagans' will remember, on 
 his mariage with Edith Caldwell eschewed 
 Pagan principles for Philistine patronage. 
 Just whether the Bartley IIui>bard8 of 
 humanity, even in dress coats, are inspirit- 
 ing studies, is perliaps anotlier question. 
 The people of this new boolc are very much 
 those of 'The Pagans', with some inferior 
 additions; notably Mrs. Amanda Welsh 
 Sampson and her small coterie. There is 
 a broader field of action; we have human 
 nature on a, larger scale, brilliant social 
 pictures, and tallc on more varied subjects. 
 One cannot but ask, however, is it wise in 
 Mr. Bates, after so artistic a success as 
 that of 'The Pagans' to give us a series of 
 variations on the theme? All knew that 
 Grant Herman's mariage must be a failure ; 
 that Edith Fenton would be called upon to 
 go throu the test of fire in trying to live 
 up to her creed of the obligation of marled 
 love; that Fenton himself would easily 
 decend into every Avernus which tempta- 
 tion could afford; that Ninette could never 
 fulfil the complex requirements imposed 
 upon her; and while we are sensible of the 
 skill with which the author has traced the 
 subtle law of development of each of 
 their natures, we wish we had not been 
 invited to drink this cup to its dregs. The 
 book is full of clever situations, of master- 
 ful handling of material, of finesse, of 
 brilliancy of style, and of epigrams which 
 excite our warmest admiration." [Critics 39 
 
 PHOLBE. [by Miriam (Coles) Har- 
 ris: SougJitoii, 18si.] "'Kutledge', w6 
 have heard, still survives in successive 
 small circles which have more youth than 
 literary experience. For their sake, 
 'Phoebe' should be distinctly condemjied. 
 The early incidents are wantonly shocldng, 
 and all the rest would be possible only in 
 a world where neither logic nor morals 
 exist." [Nation. 340 
 
 PINK AND WHITE TYRANNY [ by 
 Hareibt [E..] (B.) Stowe: Boherts,— 
 
 Low, 1S71.] "is a short novel, showing 
 the beguiling ways of a pretty american 
 girl, whose sober-minded husband, having 
 begun by thinking her an angel, allows 
 her to spend his money, and makes no 
 complaint of 'the inflammation of his 
 weekly bills ;' but his eyes are opened when 
 he falls into misfortune, and sees her as 
 she really is, and indeed, rather worse. 
 Yet he magnanimously carries out Mrs. 
 Stowe's moral, and, instead of complain- 
 ing or deserting his wife, makes the best 
 of her, and loves her loyally to the day 
 of her death, and actually creates a loving 
 heart in her frivolous bosom. The 
 pictures of american fine ladies and the 
 frenehifled ideas of life and manners are 
 amusing, but the story is very silt, and 
 shows a state of society which is not 
 healthful or pleasant." [Athenajum. 341 
 
 PLAYING THE MISCHIEF [by J: 
 W: Deforest: Harper, 1875.] "main- 
 tains an aspect of consistency and truth 
 which puzzles us even if it does not con- 
 vince. No doubt It is rather trying to the 
 patience to concentrate our attention throu 
 every page of a long novel upon a woman 
 who, while she is, as the author describes 
 her 'beautiful, graceful, clever, entertain- 
 ing, and amiable,' is also a most incorrigi- 
 ble and heartless flirt, whose only per- 
 sistent motive in life is selfish greed, and 
 whose sole purpose, during our acquaint- 
 ance with her, is to swindle the govern- 
 ment. . . In spite of all defects, however, 
 whether of structure or of style, 'Playing 
 the Mischief is one of the liveliest and 
 most entertaining of recent novels, and we 
 are confident that no one who reads it 
 (unless it be a Congressman, who mit 
 perhaps find it depressing) will find fault 
 with us for recommending it." [ Apple- 
 ton's. 342 
 
 POLITICIAN'S DAUGHTEK. (A) 
 [by Myra (S.) IJamlin, Appleton, 
 18S6.] "Mrs. Hamlin has introduced us 
 to new scenes. She takes us to a Massa- 
 chusetts [Gardiner, Maine] town. A 
 Boston snob who fancies that the fact that 
 his great grand-father worked hard to live 
 around Plymouth Bock gives him a patent 
 
 99 
 
NOVELS OP AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 of nobility, walks home with Miss Har- 
 court (the politician's dauter) from cliurch. 
 . . . Miss Harcourt bears herself in a 
 spirited manner throucJiit the novel, re- 
 jects a typical politician's son, and maries 
 Bradley. After this she was, we presume, 
 translated alive to the hits where the 
 Boston Brahmins sit on hi and meditate 
 on their great merits. 'A Politician's 
 Daughter' is a clever story, sketched 
 rather than filled out. There are some 
 good satirical hits, and some speeches 
 worth remembering. The style is inter- 
 esting but careless; it is evidently the 
 work of a woman of I'efinement whose 
 observation of life is quick but not far- 
 reaching." [Catholic World.]— '-The 
 qualities of this first essay lie in streaks, — 
 some good and some poor. On the whole 
 the average is in favor of the author, who 
 should be encouraged to try again, and 
 they are not against the reader, who may 
 find an afternoon's entertainment in the 
 story. The 'politician' is of the true 
 Maine stamp, wliich has not proved of 
 the hiest quality of late; he has a shady 
 past and a lovely dauter; and the problem 
 of the book is whether this dauter shall 
 mary the man she loves, or Irving Chip- 
 man, who belongs to her father's political 
 set, and who by knowledge of the father's 
 secrets is capable of ruining him. The 
 dialog is weak in spots, and becomes 
 stilted and melodramatic; the descriptive 
 passages are strong, sometimes even 
 brilliant, and have the true touch of talent. 
 . . . This book is just to the virtues of old 
 New-England towns, alive to the beau- 
 ties of old New-England homes, appre- 
 ciative (with satirical asides) of 'JJoston 
 culture,' espouses the cause of the scholar 
 in politics and, in the case of the Maine 
 politician, holds the mirror up to nature." 
 [Boston ''Literary World."]— "A Poli- 
 tician's Daughter is written by a person 
 who appears to have seen politicians in 
 processions, perhaps, and their dauters in 
 galleries, but scarcely to have had a nearer 
 aud more intimate acquaintance." [At- 
 lantic] The author's father was a sen- 
 ator and ass't secretary of the Treasury; 
 
 her husband's father was governor, envoy, 
 senator, and vice-president. [ Boston 
 "Literary World." 343 
 
 POOE MR. J'ONSONBY. [by "Doro- 
 thy Forstbr" in : New-England Mag., 
 Nov. 1890.] This story, by a (to us,) un- 
 known writer, combines enuf good quali- 
 ties to make successful a much longer 
 work of fiction. It is interesting, and well 
 written; it shows perfect familiarity with 
 society without descending to personal 
 allusions or upholstery ; the characters are 
 described not only with knowledge but 
 with sympathy, and above all, the motive 
 is original, and the device of the plot well 
 concealed to the end. There is, too, » 
 serious side to the tale in that the heroine, 
 — a fine girl — who finds herself, unexpect- 
 edly, and undeservedly, in a painful sit- 
 uation, rlts herself without allowing her 
 ill-luck to spoil her temper or affect her 
 future. 344 
 
 PlilNCESS. [by M.. G. McClelland, 
 Molt, 1886.] "It is a pleasure to find a 
 new story by Miss McClelland, whose 
 'Oblivion', was so interesting and artistic. 
 'Princess' has the same clear-cut style, 
 artistic finish, and piquant coloring, and is 
 filled with the same shrewd observation, 
 comment, and picturing. The story is the 
 old one of an unhappily maried man woo- 
 ing an unsuspecting girl, and the treat- 
 ment at first bids fair to be so satisfactory, 
 that it is a disappointment to find that in 
 the opinion of the author love is enuf." 
 [Critic. 345 
 
 PRIVATE THEATRICALS, [by W: 
 D. HOWELLS: Ticknor, 1880?] "There 
 was not much seriousness about 'Out of 
 the Question' or 'Private Theatricals' ; if 
 there was a problem concealed in either it 
 was, as one mit say, a society problem 
 rather than a social one. But there was 
 unstinted sweetness and lit, a happy filoso- 
 fy, a subtle, delicate, unapproachable 
 humor, a style which touched all these 
 qualities with its charm, and was itself the 
 best of charms. It may seem wrong- 
 headed and whimsical to wish that Mr. 
 Howells had gone on producing work of 
 this character, for clearly we should, in 
 
 100 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 that case, have lost 'Silas Lapham' and 
 perhaps even 'The Undiscovered Country.' 
 But th? wish is born of the sincere con- 
 viction that such vyork is most congenial 
 to his talent." [Church Revievc. 346 
 
 PRUDENCE TALFREY [by T: B. 
 Aldrich: Osgood, 1S74.] "is a slit 
 slietch of New-England life, with numer- 
 ous bits of satire and humor. The story 
 opens with the young hero, John Dent, 
 penniless, and madly in love with his 
 uncle's ward. Prudence. Since he is 
 anxious to make u, sudden fortune before 
 marying. he leaves for the West in search 
 of gold-mines, but without any formal 
 engagement. In this new region he makes 
 his fortune, and loses it again by the 
 treachery of his partner, 'Nevins.' Mean- 
 while, Miss Prudence hears nothing from 
 him for a long time after his first letter, 
 and lends a not wholly unwilling ear to 
 the love-making of a Mr. James Dilling- 
 ham, a young clergyman wlio had lately 
 come to the place where she lived. News 
 is br3t to the uncle (who favors Dilling- 
 ham) that John is dead. Dent returns, 
 however, and it turns out that Dillingham, 
 the clergyman, is really Mr. 'Nevins' 
 himself. . . In this case his course has 
 occasioned the turning at the last of a 
 sketchy tale. of sentiment and Neiv-Eng- 
 land pharacter into a tale of clumsy in- 
 cident, and this is a rudimentary artistic 
 blunder." Scene: Portsmouth, N. H. 
 [ Nation. 347 
 
 PBUE AND I [by G: W: Curtis: 
 N.-Y.. Dix, 1856.] "is an american imi- 
 tation of C: Xamb— brit, sparkling, and 
 humorous. It is written with a good- 
 natured, self-complacent affability, which 
 disarms criticism. It chronicles only the 
 smallest possible beer, — but the beer is 
 sweet and wholesome. It is chirping, 
 cheerful, and inoffensive." [Athenie. 348 
 
 PURE SOULED LIAR (A) [Chicago: 
 Kerr, 1888,1 ">s a story of some merit. 
 At least it deserves notice for its choice of 
 locale, in that it takes us out of the round 
 of drawing-room and tennis-court life and 
 makes a bold stroke for something more 
 picturesque. The characters have a BO- 
 
 HEMIAN flavor, being liiainly students 
 in an art school, and the whole air and 
 movement of tlie little tale may be said to 
 be unusual. . . There is nothing unworthy 
 here, either in morals or art." [Amer. 349 
 
 QUAKER CITY. (The) [byG:Llp- 
 pard: P/u'Z'c, 1846.] "This novel was a 
 weird and awful book,— an attack on 
 society, in which Lippard spoke with the 
 frankness of a frenchman, and the venom 
 of an insane man. Society in Philadel- 
 phia was divided into factions. The 
 laboring class was on the author's side, 
 but the press generally condemned the 
 story as vicious and unnatural, and people 
 in hi places, who were said to have 
 appeared as characters in the book, were 
 outraged. . . More than 100,000 copies of 
 'The Quaker City' were sold, and it was 
 re-published in London, and also in Ger- 
 many, where it was issued over the nam.e 
 of F : Gerstacker." [American. 350 
 
 QUAKER GIRL OF NANTUCKET 
 (A) [by M.. K.. [CoNGuoN] (Jenkins) 
 Lek: Houghton, 1889.] "is the old 
 and hackneyed tale of the child cast up 
 by the sea, and the babies who are 
 'mixed,' but the dress of the old plot 
 redeems it; for Nantucket is a pictur- 
 esque setting for a story, and this, tho it 
 is almost a child's story in its simplicity, 
 yet takes the reader pleas.mtly into the 
 company of the amfibious dwellers on the 
 venturesome sand heap which braves the 
 Atlantic. The study of Quaker chai-acter, 
 both of the strict and the liberal types, is 
 very good. Of course the story winds up 
 all rit, the mystery is cleared away, and 
 both the waifs come to their own at last, 
 but not before the reader has learned to 
 like both boys and little women, quaker 
 and butterfly, whom he has seen grow to 
 be brides for them." [Overland.] — 
 "Charming, idyllic, dreamy, with the 
 unworldly purity of that isolated island, 
 the book is full of incident, of delitful 
 fancy, of clear characterization, and of a 
 reserve force which makes us hope the 
 author will in her next story try for deeper 
 trutlis." [Critic. , 351 
 
 QUEEN MONEY, [by E. [W.] (O.) 
 
 101 
 
NOVICLS OF AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 Kirk : Ticknor, 1888.] '"J'he author de- 
 scribes this life just as it is, any exaggera- 
 tion being due to misconception, not to 
 wilful or stupid misrepresentation. His 
 regret that It is not better or more is plain, 
 ■ and the feeling urges him to make the 
 most of the ardor, honesty, and good aspir- 
 ation which the country boy, Otto March, 
 brings to town with him, and of the refine- 
 ment and gentleness of that home where 
 he finds his sweetheart. He perceives, as 
 the unhappy Mr. Charniock says, that half 
 heartedness is a fault of the age — a conren- 
 ient absolutio*^ for Mr. Charnock and the 
 rest of us, if -H* were not obliged to reflect 
 that men and women make the age, and 
 that, therefore, each individual is responsi- 
 ble for his share of its defects and virtues. 
 For artistic purposes the author mit have 
 preferred that the indefatigable Arria 
 White should have had a more moving 
 grievance against her husband than his 
 disapproval of her salad dressing, and he 
 does faintly sujrgest one. If he had carried 
 the suf,'gestiou further, he would have 
 slandered his society. It is the americau's 
 naturally respectful attitude towards 
 women, his lunate respectability, which 
 saves our enormously wealthy, notoriously 
 unspiritual communities from moral cor- 
 ruption. It is the bad taste, the fysical 
 beauty and vivacity, the mental super- 
 ficiality and idleness of the Fanny Brock- 
 ways, which lead foreiners and hasty 
 native tourists to very unjust and false 
 conclusions." [Nation. 352 
 
 QUEEN OF SHEBA. (The) [by T: B. 
 Aldrich; Osgood, 1878.] "Mr. A's 
 books take one into good company, put 
 him at his ease, and provide for him an 
 entertainment which, if it be not hily 
 stimulating to his moral nature is, at least, 
 entirely free from every suggestion of evil. 
 This last novelette is perhaps the best that 
 he has written. John Flemming, the Im- 
 petuous lover of Marjorie Daw, reappears 
 in this story, without strongly reminding 
 us of his former self. The episode of the 
 New Hampshire village into which the 
 hero entered just as the inmates of the 
 insane asylum had escaped, after having 
 
 locked in their keepers, is snfiiciently 
 humorous ; and the sentiment of the story 
 which takes its rise from this incident is 
 cleverly and artistically managed." [Sun- 
 day Afternoon, 353 
 
 EALEIGH WESTGATE [by H.. (Ken- 
 DKicK) Johnson : Appleton, 1889.] is '-a 
 rather pleasing and original story. The 
 hero is a young man of hi antecedents and 
 reduced fortune, he becomes — a book 
 agent. The mingling of comedy and ideal- 
 ity makes the book entertaining, not only 
 in the vicinity of York and Kittery 
 [Maine]— the scene of the romance — but 
 wherever leisure invites to the reading of 
 lit literature." [Bos. "Lit. World." 354 
 
 EEAL FOLKS, [by A. D. (T.) Wiht- 
 KEY : Osgood. 1872.] "There is too much 
 preaching in Mrs. Whitney's book, that is 
 the truth. If it were to be read as a hom- 
 ily, there would be no fault to find, for it 
 teaches sincerity, charity, and all active 
 Christian usefulness. There is no object- 
 ion to religion in novels, we suppose, even 
 on the part of the Ideally heartless critic 
 whom Mrs. Whitney takes to task: and 
 certainly we all desire novels to be pictures 
 of human experience. The trouble with 
 hlly moralized novels is apt to be that they 
 are not pictures of human experience, but 
 the experience of preternatural automata, 
 and that the only real fOiks in them are the 
 bad ones, — the awful examples to be avoid- 
 ed." [Atlantic. 355 
 
 RESPECTABLE FAMILY (A) [by 
 Bay Thompson: Chicago, Donnelly, 
 18ti0.] "conforms to the conditions re- 
 quired of a good, readable, and useful story, 
 and is indeed all of that. The 'family' in 
 question is one living in the outskirts of 
 New-York city, the young and hopeful 
 member of which forms an honorable at- 
 tachment for a worthy but plebeian girl of 
 the nfiborhood; a step which is regarded 
 with great horror by his aristocratic 
 parents. Both the young man and young 
 woman behave, however, with great good 
 sense and discretion, and Iniheend con- 
 quer the natural but unwise prejudice 
 against their union, and are happily mar- 
 led ; the 'respectable family' entering Into 
 
 102 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 the festivities of tlic occasion with very 
 good grace." [liostou '-Lit. Woi-ld." 350 
 EISE OF SILAS I.APHAM. (The). 
 [Ijy AV: D. HowELLs: Ticknor, ISSo.] 
 '■It is very gratifying to be able to say, 
 after all the wonderful work Mr. Ilowells 
 has done, that perhaps his last book is the 
 best of all. It is always possible to criti- 
 cise Howells : to say that he sometimes 
 oversteps the line of good taste ; t;hat he is 
 at l)ottom cynical and never heartily sym- 
 ])athizes witli his characters, and so fails 
 to catch in his stories the final glow of 
 secret fire which would make them great 
 and very great. But it is much better to 
 appreciate what JMr. Howells is, than to 
 seek out the few things that he is not* 
 He is the most significant person in ameri- 
 can literature to-day, and still on the up- 
 grade; lie is the man who has given amer- 
 ican novel-writing Its standing; who has 
 achieved some virtues of in»!t and of ex- 
 pression that are new to literature. It is 
 impossible to do justice to the precision 
 and ))erfection with which he 'takes off' 
 every-day life and speech; and more than 
 tliat, he has only to turn his scrutiny upon 
 the most bare and uuromantic fase of life, 
 and the reader sees it in its true lit, as it 
 aijpear.s to the one that is living it. When 
 was the romance of business — the anxiety 
 and pain :uid desire that do, in fact, make 
 business life almost as full of iuman 
 emotion as love afi'airs — so br6t out as'in 
 'The Rise of Silas Lapham'? Moreover, 
 there is a warmer quality in this. than in 
 any previous book — a movement i^ard 
 the liier plane yet, that his admirers have 
 always longed to see him I'ise to. . . 15ut 
 waiving criticisms it remains that both the 
 love-roniauce and business romance are 
 carried throu with an almost unparalleled 
 comprehension of character and feeling, 
 and perfection in expressing them. |Lap- 
 ham himself is, of course, the central fig- 
 ure, and nothing could be 'more perfect 
 than the ruf man of success, all whose 
 gentlemanly virtues at bottom cannot 
 make him agreeable. No social study h:is 
 ever made so clear the inevitable differ- 
 entiations which create themselves in even 
 
 a democratic society." [Overland.] — 
 "Silas strikes us as an admirable charac- 
 terization. If he is in certain respects a 
 less original ])resentation than B:irtley 
 Hubbard, he is at least a hero who draws 
 more strongly upon the reader's sym- 
 pathies and takes surer hold of the popular 
 heart. In fact, Silas, wilh his big, hairy 
 fist, his ease in his shirt-sleeves, his boa>t- 
 lul belief in himself, his conscience, his 
 ambition, iind his failure, makes, if we in- 
 clude his sensible wife, the success of the 
 novel. . . While the Coreys try faithfully 
 to compass the best which is known and 
 thot in the world, the Laphams go to the 
 other extreme, and touch depths of ignor- 
 ance and vulgarity almost incredible for a 
 family living in Boston with eyes to see, 
 ears to hear, and, above all, money to 
 spend. . . But putting aside the humor and 
 comedy, the book has other points of 
 value, and as a study of a business-man 
 whom success floats to the crest of the 
 wave only to let him be overwhelmed by 
 disaster as the surge retreats, presents a 
 striking similitude to 'CC'sar Birotteau'. . . 
 Each man, broken and bankrupt, displays 
 in his feebleness a moral strength he had 
 not shown in his days of power: thus the 
 name 'The rise of Silas Lapham' means 
 his initiation into a clearer and more 
 exalted knowledge of his obligations to 
 himself and to his kind." [ Lippincott's.] 
 — "His portraiture of 'Silas' as a 'self- 
 made' man, ignorant in many ways, yet 
 keen, quick and intelligent in all direc- 
 tions, a pushing, energetic striver after 
 money, yet one who in the sorest pinch 
 refu-ics to do a dishonest act, a coarse- 
 grained man who yet possesses a fine 
 sense of the point where honor sets its 
 limit, a thick-skinned man who is yet sen- 
 sitive to tlio voice of conscience, — this 
 portraiture, we say, is entirely successful, 
 and the whole story, designed to develope 
 this character, and to pn^sent it as on ; 
 type of amcrican men, has artistic uni'y 
 and completeness." [American. 357 
 
 EOGER BERKELEY'S PROBATION. 
 [byH.. (Stuakt) Campbell: lioberCs, 
 1SS8.] '"J'his story is on the scale of a 
 
 103 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 cabinet picture. It presents interesting 
 figures, natural situations, and warm 
 colors. AVritten in a quiet key, it is yet 
 moving, and the letter describing the fort- 
 unate sale of Itoger's painting sends a tear 
 of sympathetic joy to the reader's eye. 
 Roger licrkely was a young american art 
 student in Taris, called home by the mor- 
 tal sickness of his mother, and detained at 
 home by the spendthriftncss of his father 
 and the embarrassment which had thereby 
 overtaken the family affairs. Ilopfer is 
 obliged for the time to abandon his art 
 work, and takes a situation in a mill, and 
 this trying diversion from his purpose is 
 his 'probation.' How he profits by this 
 loss is shown in the result. The mill-life 
 gives Mrs. Campbell opportunity to ex- 
 press herself characteristically in behalf of 
 down-trodden 'labor.' The whole story is 
 simple, natural, sweet, and tender." 
 [ ISoston ''Literary World." 358 
 
 ROLAND BLAKE, [by Silas W. 
 Mitchell : Houghton, 18S6.] '-The real 
 interest of the story is to be found toward 
 the end, in the uncommonly sweet and 
 idyllic love-stoi'y, with its touch of melo- 
 drama. If it were not for Dr. Mitchell's 
 firm grasp upon character, and the true 
 and discriminating hand with which he 
 paints it, together with his ability to inter- 
 est the reader in that process of character 
 .growth which interests him, all of the 
 story that precedes Blake's wooing by the 
 seaside (save the war-scenes) would drag, 
 — the milieu being thin, the 'dramatis per- 
 sons' scanty, and the action slow. But, 
 as we have said, the studies of character 
 are capital, and they would compensate 
 for much. Olivia is one of the purest girl 
 figures presented in fiction for a long time; 
 she is not less well understood than the 
 grosser and more worldly people of the 
 book, nor less solidly bodied-forth, but im 
 elusive and tender perfume hovers about 
 her, and for once we understand as well 
 as the author why the hero falls in love 
 with the heroine. . . And when we say 
 that Roland Blake is good, but hearty; hi- 
 minded, but not morbid; inflexibly true, 
 just, and uprit, but not a prig, and as 
 
 much alive as if he were the villain of the 
 book instead of the hero, the reader will 
 understand that Dr. Mitchell has done 
 something worth while. In seeing such 
 an excellent fellow safely marled to so 
 lovely a girl we have a hearty pleasure, 
 which we should not know how to justify 
 by canons of criticism. We must not 
 neglect to say that, tho Dr. Mitchell is as 
 true to real life as we could ask, lie sur- 
 rounds all his story, and especially the 
 courtship between these two, with a 
 tender, poetic atmosfere, whicl; is the final 
 charm of a charming novel." [Churcli 
 Review. 359 
 
 ROOT-BOUND [etc.] by Kosb(Terry) 
 Cooke: Congregational Pub. Society, 
 1885. 
 
 ROSE IN BLOOM [by Louisa M. 
 Alcott : Roberts, 1877.] "is the sequel 
 to 'Eight Cousins' [ No. 239] . and begins 
 with the return of Rose, Uncle Alicand 
 rhoBbe from their travels in Europe. The 
 cousins are united as before, with this 
 difference only, that during the 2 years 
 passed abroad, the indescribable change 
 between childhood and youth and maiden- 
 hood has taken place, and those who 
 parted as boys and girls meet as men and 
 women, and see each other with different 
 eyes. Rose, the heroine, is an excellent 
 girl, who gains the hearty admiration of 
 the reader for her filaiithropic plans, and 
 his hearty sympathy as well, in her doubts 
 and disappointments. The book is prse- 
 emineutly a love-story, and one in which 
 both young people and their elders will 
 find interest. Its tone is thoroly sweeti 
 and wholesome, bringing to mind in many 
 ways 'Little Women,' [ No. 74] and like 
 that it is full of brit and funny sayings and 
 doings, often so intermingled with pathetic 
 and tender touches that we feel uncertain 
 whether it behooves us most to laf or to 
 wipe our eyes." [ Library Table. 360 
 
 ROSES OF SHADOW. "[ by T : Russell 
 Sullivan: Scribner, 1885.] "A piece 
 of amateur water-color may easily produce 
 an agreeable sensation, despite the absence 
 of professional skill and confidence. There 
 is a quality of refinement about such work, 
 
 104 
 
NOVELS OK AMERICAX CITY LIFE. 
 
 tlie out-come of good-breeding and good 
 taste, which one ac-cepts with satisfaction 
 as a genuinely good thiu^r. This is what 
 makes Mr. Sullivan's timid novel, with its 
 faint strokes, a book better worth reading 
 than some which can more surely stand 
 the test of criticism. The quality of re- 
 finement which pervades it is an agreeable 
 quality. Even the club scenes take n 
 harmless impropriety ; there is no swagger 
 about them, and one feels that a man of 
 the world does not necessarily smell of 
 brandy. More than this, there is ;i dis- 
 position to depend for interest upon real 
 sentiment. One is honestly asked to care 
 for a man who has been disappointed in 
 love, and to be glad that a woman has 
 escaped an unhappy mariage. "We do not 
 know that any great thing is to be ex- 
 pected from this writer, but if he will 
 develop from a decorative into a construct- 
 ive artist and retain all his fineness of 
 tone, one has reason to hope for fiction of 
 a quiet sort which may be genuinely good 
 and interesting." [Atlantic] — "There is 
 a certain ingenuity In the story of "Roses 
 of Shadow.' It is not ii pretty, or wise, 
 or particularly entertaining story; but a 
 mere will-o'-the wisp of a plot keeps the 
 reader reading, from sheer curiosity as to 
 what it can all be about. The sequel 
 hardly proves worthy of the curiosity, but 
 the book is unique in its ability to keep 
 yon reading what you don't particularly 
 like." [Critic.] — "Granting all lhe.se de- 
 fects, the book is still very entertaining, 
 and does not in the end leave the im- 
 pression of sadness threatened by the 
 STiagara episode. The style is at once easy 
 and refined, conveying most happily that 
 atmosfere of good breeding and polite 
 society which is indispensable to the novel 
 of manners, but which so many of them 
 lamentably fail of. The descriptions have 
 the pleasant quality of not too much, ex- 
 cept perhaps the scenes at Xiagara, and 
 those are fine in themselves, only they 
 over-wfit the story. The bits of Boston 
 are picturesque and original, and this last 
 means the more that they come after Mr. 
 James and Mr. Howells. 01 characters 
 
 we find far more interesting than any of 
 the leading personages an Italian artist 
 and his Xew-Englaud wile, of an incon- 
 gruity and a sympathy each equally delit- 
 ful. The book unquestionably promises a 
 future." [Nation. 361 
 
 EUBINA [N.-Y., Gregory, 1864.] 
 "is a close and detailed picture of Wew- 
 England life and character. The poor 
 young orfans have a dismal time of it 
 among their hard and coarse relatives. 
 The sterner forms of Puritanism are well 
 depicted. The scene at the funeral of 
 poor Denis, with its harrowing and de- 
 nunciatory sermon over the corpse of the 
 innocent girl, is powerful and true. The 
 character of the 'help,' Debby, is drawn 
 from life and is admirably conceived and 
 sustained. The book is, however, melan- 
 choly and monotonous. So many young 
 and generous hearts beating themselves 
 loi-ever against the sharp stones of the 
 baldest utilitarianism; so many brit minds 
 drifting into despair in the surrounding 
 chaos of obstinate, stolid, and perverse 
 ignorance I It is a sadder book than 'The 
 Mill on the Floss,' of which it reminds us. 
 How the aspiring and imaginative must 
 suffer in an atmosfere so cold and billing !" 
 [Continental. 362 
 
 EllTLEDGE, see PHCEBE. 
 
 SAY AND SEAL. [by SuSAN & 
 Anna B. 'Wakner : Lippincott, 1860.] 
 "The scenes of this clever novel — for it 
 has great merit, notwithstanding its faults 
 of style, — are laid in the very unromantic 
 state of Connecticut. Not in a forsaken 
 and neglected hamlet, but near a brit, 
 thriving village, full of school committees, 
 bustling spinsters, busy workmen, and 
 money-making shop-kee|)ers. all unsofis- 
 ticated, but very shrewd. There is the 
 busy old housekeeper and her bustling 
 dauter, both bubbling over with simplicity 
 and activity. The inquisitive old maid, of 
 staid manners, and hily moral, is painted 
 to the very life. There is also a Mr. 
 Linden, an eccentric schoolmaster, who is 
 everybody's guest, talks learnedly on all 
 manner of subjects, and contrives not to 
 make himself understood on any. Mr. 
 
 105 
 
NOVELS OP AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 Linden is an excessively dull gentleman, 
 but our authors have succeeded in making 
 liim perform well an interesting part in 
 the story. The booli is a clever and well- 
 drawn picture of life in the country, and 
 our fair authors have succeeded in invest- 
 ing it with a deep interest, notwithstand- 
 ing the ruf quality of the materials they 
 had to work with. It may be objected 
 by some, that the dialog is at times heavy, 
 and perhaps too dift'uae." [Crayon. 363 
 
 SEA Island romance (A). [by 
 "Wji. Pekky Bkown, New York: 
 Alden, 1S88.] "It is with considerable 
 delicacy of touch that the character of the 
 Soulhern heroine is drawn. The texture of 
 the whole story is dainty and graceful. Its 
 outline issimple;merely thatof ayouth and 
 maiden who would fall in love with each 
 othei-, absolutely ignoi-ing the fact that 
 there had been a war before they were 
 born in which their fathers had been on 
 oppo.site sides. Hy turns one finds himself 
 in sympathy with the angry fathers and 
 with the youug culprits, with the Southern 
 planter and ex-colonel who despises his 
 thrifty Northern ex-general ngbor for 
 making money out of foslate rock, and 
 with the Northerner's scorn for the ex- 
 Confederate's, hauteur and overbearing 
 pride. The escape of the lovers is the case 
 of Lord Ullin's dauter dualized, for in this 
 modern instance the two fathers stand on 
 the sliore and beseech the storm to spare 
 each his child, which it happily does, and 
 they come back very securely united and 
 forgive iheir fathers for having tried to 
 separate them." [Critic. 364 
 
 SEACLIFF [byJ:W: DbFouest: 
 lioston, Phillips, 1859.] "is a very read- 
 able novel, artful in plot, effective in char- 
 acterization, and brilliant in style. 'The 
 Jlysteryof the Westervelts' is a mystery 
 whicli excites the reader's curiosity at 
 the outset and holds his pleased attention 
 to the end. The incidents are so contrived 
 that the secret is not anticipated until it 
 is unveiled, and then the explanation is 
 itself a surprise. The characters are gen- 
 erally strongly conceived, skilfully dis- 
 criminated, and happily combined. The 
 
 delineation of ilr. Westervelt, the father 
 of the heroine, is especially good. Irreso- 
 lute in thOt,inipotent in will, and only 
 occasionally fretted by circumstances into 
 a feeble activity, he is an almost painfully 
 accurate representation of a class of men 
 who drift throu life without any power of 
 self-direction. Mrs. Westervelt has equal 
 moral feebleness with less brain, and her 
 character is a study in practical psychol- 
 ogy. Somerville, the villain of the piece, 
 who unites tlie disposition of Domitianus 
 to the manners of Chesterfield, is the piti- 
 luss master of tliis female slave. The 
 coquettish Jlrs. Van Leer is a prominent 
 personage of the story; and her shallow 
 malice and pretty deviltries are most 
 effectively represented. She is not-only a 
 flirt in outward actions, but a flirt in soul, 
 and her perfection in impertinence almost 
 rises to genius. All these oharactej-s be- 
 tray patient meditation, and the author's 
 hold on them is rarely relaxed. A novel 
 evincing so much intellectual labor, writ- 
 ten in a style of careful elaboration, and 
 exhibiting so much sldll in the develop- 
 ment of the story, can scarcely fail of a 
 success commensurate with its merits." 
 [Atlantic. 365 
 
 SIDNEY, [by Ma. [Wade] (Camp- 
 bell) Deland: Houghton, 1890.] A 
 beautifully told story, whose pathos is 
 i-elievcd from paiufulncss by the frequent 
 interjiosition of delitf ully humorous scenes. 
 Its only fault is the unreal seeming of the 
 "milieu" which, tho charming, has the 
 effect of being a study after british novels 
 rather than from observation at home. "In 
 "Sidney," Mrs. Deland asks In a world 
 where death is inevitable, is it worth the 
 while to love? So far as one can reach her 
 conclusion throu the characteristic and curi- 
 ous impersonality and impartiality of her 
 style it is the Tennysonian. rather than the 
 Dantean view,— that " 'Tis better to have 
 loved and lost than never to have loved at 
 all," rather than that "it is truth the poet 
 sings That a sorrow's crown of soi-row is 
 remembering happier things." "Sidney" 
 is painted with a touch as firm and as 
 delicate as that which gave us "John 
 
 106 
 
NOVELS OP AMEUICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 TViml". The canvas is largei', anil more 
 crowiletl with fl^ures, anJ it is not the char- 
 acters who embody and present tlie pur- 
 pose who are most real, and therefore 
 artistically successful, hut tlie coHateral 
 and subordinate cliaracters, who, being in 
 tlie haclvground, have nothing to do l)ut be 
 comfortably natural and human. Sidney 
 lierself has almost as little hold on our 
 apprehension as has Undine: while Mrs. 
 Paul and Kate, and even pathetically color- 
 less little Miss Sally, come instantly 
 into our a<;ceptance with a step that rings 
 healthily clear on every day ground. Tlio 
 tale is of a man whose whole interest in 
 existence is so centred in liis wife that on 
 her death he becomes a pessimist. Sidney 
 is his only child, and from her infancy he 
 makes it his care to rear her in his own 
 beliefs: chief among them that love is the 
 most monstrous mistake and irony in the 
 universe, and is to be shunned as the most 
 dreadful pestilence of life. [The following 
 is from a review of "Margaret Jermine", 
 London, 1SS6: — "A peculiar father is re- 
 sponsible for the peculiar infancy, educa- 
 tion, and subsequent fortunes of the 
 heroine. In despair at the loss of his wife, 
 he rushes from the worship of love to an 
 opposite extreme, in which he discovers, 
 declares, and would fain propagate a fl- 
 losofy which shall exclude love, and here- 
 with suffering, from the human i-ace. He 
 is mad enuf to try the experiment in so- 
 ber earnest on his only child."] The pur- 
 pose of the tale is to show how Sidney ex- 
 changed tliese beliefs for others, more hope- 
 ful, if scarcely more usual, and how she 
 bore the tests imposed on her by this literal 
 change of heart. As we lyive said, the 
 dependent plots and subordinate charact- 
 ers are very delitfully done, and are very 
 living and instant in their appeal to our 
 human interest. The scenes between Mrs. 
 Paul and her son, and her son's very brill- 
 iant and very human wife, the Kate who 
 is emfatically the most signal success of 
 the book, are something quite wonderful 
 in their grafic truth and pungent humor. 
 Little Miss Sally, and her exasperating 
 lover, in whose final entrance into a mon- 
 
 astery we fervently acquiesce, are also 
 admirable types, tho we cannot, with Mrs. 
 Deland, deprecate the natural and whole- 
 some contempt of healthy minds, for the 
 man wlio, to the continual hurt of his fel- 
 lows, pauses to wG a strained and morbid 
 scruple against his obvious and honorable 
 duly. Despite the somewhat grayoitmos- 
 fere of the book, there are no tears in it. 
 It moves throudiit in the dry lit of earnest 
 purpose and well-wrot art; it takes its 
 place without challenge in the ranks of 
 thoroly good literature; and it adds a fresh 
 leaf to the enduring laurels won by the 
 author of "John Ward." [liostou Tran- 
 script.] — "It is so curiously destitute of 
 local color, so painstakingly supplied with 
 english frases, habits and names, that not 
 until after reading many chapters, and 
 turning back to satisfy speculation on this 
 point, is it found that Mercer, where the 
 scene is laid, is a manufacturing town 
 somewhere in Pennsylvania. True, the 
 americaii cloven foot peeps out, here and 
 there, in incidental allusions to 'ice-cream', 
 'the Perryville plank-road', and 'eggs at So 
 cents a dozen', but in cliief part, the tone 
 of the story is so denationalized as to sug- 
 gest affectation in the author. . . Little is 
 there beyond an occasional hum from the 
 world of workaday, a whiff of factory 
 smoke drifting across a paragraf, to sug- 
 gest that Mrs. Deland's men and women 
 iire of our time and land." [Critic. 306 
 
 SILVEP. PITCHERS, [by LouiS.i M. 
 Alcott: Iioberts,—Low, 1S7C.] "The 
 first story in Miss Alcott's volume is a 
 pretty temperance tale. It tells how three 
 b(!autiful young girls made a league to 
 induce the young men of their acquain- 
 tance to forswear the use of wine or 
 stimulants. The young ladies in Miss 
 Alcott's tale are americans, and the con- 
 ditions of american society are somewhat 
 different from ours, so that english girls, 
 whilst adopting the spirit, must carry out 
 the details according to their own sense of 
 ingenuity and propriety." [ Athen£euin.36T 
 
 SI.MPLE HEART (A) [by S . . Barn- 
 well Elliott: N.-Y., Ireland, ISS".] "is 
 the story of a man who failed — always a 
 
 107 
 
NOVELS Olf AMEltlCAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 pathetic subject,— and it is made more 
 pathetic because it was the mau's success 
 which wrot hi.s failure. A simple-hearted 
 carpenter in one of the ruf towns of 
 Texas, he became a preacher, and 
 raised the people to a level above his own, 
 until they cried out for finer manners, a 
 handsome church, and all which goes 
 therewith. The humor in the little tale is 
 as marked as the pathos, and while the 
 whole is told realistically, with no attempt 
 at rhetoric or analysis, it forms an imagina- 
 tive bit of insit into character and life that 
 redeems it from being a mere fotograf of 
 the commonplace and makes it a valuable 
 study as well as a beiiutiful and touching 
 story." [Critic. 368 
 
 SOCIAL EXrERIMENT (A) [l>y 
 Annie Eliza (Pidgeon) Searing : Put- 
 nam, 1885.] "is a quiet, refined, 
 elevated story, a little th n perhaps in 
 its portrayal of ijersonality, a little 
 lacking in color, somewhat too insist- 
 ent of ethical theories, but a pure, woman- 
 ly, helpful story, creditable alike to the 
 author's mind and heart. The influence 
 of 'George Eliot' is distinctly perceptible; 
 rather, however, in the governing motives 
 of the tale than in the method of its ex- 
 pression. The social experiment consists 
 in the transplanting of a pretty and intelli- 
 gent village girl to ii home of wealth in 
 New- York, where with native intuition 
 she soons adapts herself to her new sur- 
 roundings, and becomes a social success. 
 'She had a way of pushing unwelcome 
 thots behind her at all times, and without 
 distinctly planning to be selfish, took 'the 
 goods tliBfgods provide, nor asked the rea- 
 son why.' How the ties of her early years 
 titened when she thot them severed for- 
 ever, how at length she hears the message 
 that no real happiness can come to her 
 unless she takes up her burden, and by 
 self-sacrifice makes reparation for her sel- 
 fish neglect of duty; and how she returns 
 to the crude, hard conditions of her girl- 
 hood, to work out that self-sacrifice, and 
 how at last she finds peace — this the author 
 relates with sincerity and ejithusiasm, 
 appealing always to the better side of 
 
 human nature, and not often appealing in 
 vain." [Boston "Literary World." 369 
 SONS AND DAUGHTERS, [by "H: 
 Hayes," i. e., E. [W.] (O.) Kikk: Tick- 
 nor, 1887.] "There is, however, no such 
 reward in store for those who wearily 
 plod along with the 'Sons and Daughters' 
 of a suburb of Philadelphia. The im- 
 possible creatures of the vanishing romance 
 fulfilled their mission, such as it was, much 
 more satisfactorily than do these dreary 
 and insipid misrepresentations of actual 
 life and thot." [Nation. 370 
 
 STEP ASIDE (A) [by C Dunning 
 [Wood] : Hoiighlon, 1886.] "is a love- 
 story, with the old fashioned theme of love 
 versus luxury. We can hardly agree with 
 the morality of the conclusion, that a nnin 
 should mary his sweetheart before he sees 
 his way clear to support her, lest a richer 
 may steal her meanwhile; but the les.son 
 with reasonable limits — that is, that with 
 youth and health, love and a very simple 
 householding should be enuf for honest 
 hearts, and desii'e for luxury should never 
 stand in the way — is undoubtedly a sound 
 one. 'A Step Aside' has throu all its first 
 part quite an idyllic touch, with the fine 
 old french father, the pretty Pauline, and 
 the excellent Hugh. After the father's 
 death it darkens to a threat of the tragic, 
 in which the writer evidently feels uncom- 
 fortable, tlio she does not allow her hand 
 to tremble till she has carried the loveis 
 safe throu to a somewhat shorn and tem- 
 pered "happiness ever after'." [Overland.] 
 — "It is no lit thing to have done with so 
 firm a hand. To depict nice shades of 
 character and action without quibbling; to 
 present the commonplaces of life without 
 dwelling unnecessarily upon ignoble de- 
 tails; to be natural without being loose, 
 and real without using an H H H pencil; 
 to disclose the foundation of character 
 without eternally fumbling at the roots of 
 life; to be sturdily moral without being 
 goody-goody; to draw people who are 
 perfectly distinct without exaggeration of 
 their characteristics, — to do all this is to do 
 what belongs to a strong artist working in 
 severely plain materials: and this Miss 
 
 108 
 
NOVELS OP AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 Dannins has iiccomplished with a success 
 which excites our admiration, and leads 
 us to praise with scarcely a reservation 
 a book which is throu and throu an honest 
 piece of work." [Atlantic. 371 
 
 STORY OF A WALL-FLOWER [by 
 "Dorothy PRESC0TT",in Neuo-Emjland 
 jtfajaziJie, Jan. 1891.] deserves as much 
 praise, and for the same merits, as was 
 given to "I'oor Jlr. I'onsonby." These 
 tales are almost unique in that, being stories 
 of society, they show no traces of Imita- 
 tion, conscious or unconscious, of english 
 models, and in the striking originality of 
 the central situation. 372 
 
 STORY OF AX OLD NEW-ENG- 
 LAND TOWN, [Cupples, 1884] = No. 
 187. 
 
 STORY OF HELEN TROY see Helen 
 Troy. 
 
 STORY OF MARGARET KENT (The) 
 [by "H: Hayes," i. e., E. [W.] (O.) 
 Kirk: Tic/cnor, 1886.] "is neither a new 
 nor a pleasant one. It is told with a cer- 
 tain degree of facility, however, which 
 gives it the air of a commonplace, clever 
 piece of fiction-writing. There is no l;uk 
 of incidents or situations, nor of characters 
 not well enuf drawn to be worthy of praise, 
 nor yet poorly enuf drawn to deserve un- 
 qualified censure. The novel, in a word, 
 is commonplace throu(5ut. . . From the 
 character of the book as a whole, however, 
 one is inclined to think that the author has 
 tolerably succeeded in wiiat he set out to 
 do, and one remembers that 'Not failure, 
 but low aim is crime'." [Nation.] — "Its 
 interest is the more striking -because it 
 depends, in one direction, only upon perfect 
 simplicity of detail, and in another upon 
 the somewhat hackneyed sensationalism 
 of severe illnesses with remarkable cures 
 of the people whom it is desirable to cure 
 and the death of uncomfortable people 
 who are better out of the way. It is a 
 pity that it dwells upon a divorce, even 
 tlio the husband and wife are not divorced 
 after all, and there are rather too many 
 lovers in the story for belief, and the suc- 
 cessful one is apijarently the i-esult of 
 being obliged to haveahero of some kind. . . 
 
 For a society novel it gives the graceful 
 worldliness of fashionable New-York 
 with piquant vividness." [Critic. 373 
 
 STRANGEUS AND WAYFARERS, 
 [by S.. O. Jewett: Houghton, 1890.] 
 "Every such volume of her work is sure 
 to be delitful, and this well maintains the 
 regard we have given to those gone before. 
 In the hour of her hiest success she can 
 hardly have surpassed 'The Town Toor,' 
 or 'A Wiiiter Courtship' or 'By the Morn- 
 ing Boat.' In these, — as in all others, 
 indeed, — there is acute observation, deep 
 sympathy, a delttful humor, and a fine 
 literary art. No one, we think, writes 
 su<'.h short stories as Miss Jewett. Others 
 equal her at some points— may, at single 
 points, even surpass her; but the complete 
 result of her labor is a cameo, carved, 
 polished, and finished, which bears study 
 and yields pleasure at every point. She 
 has worked her New-England field well, 
 and has drawn so many characters from it 
 that one mit fear repetition, yet there is no 
 appearance of tliis. As human character 
 is so difterent the real artist can draw it in 
 a thousand different forms without repeat- 
 ing. And to our view Miss Jewett is a 
 true artist." [American. 374 
 
 S(:CCE.-5SFULMAN (A). [byJuLiEN 
 Gordon", i.e., Julia (Storrow) Cruger: 
 Lippincott, 1890.] "Daniel Lawton, at 
 the age of 45, after having led a studious 
 life among books, a progressive one among 
 men and affairs, and a negative domestic 
 existence as the husband of a worthyjjut 
 uninspiring woman and the father of happy 
 children, finds hinjself, by his enthusiastic 
 nomination for the governorship of his 
 state, the hero of the hour. All society is 
 open to him. His entrance into that social 
 stratum where living has become one of 
 the fine arts is throu the guidance of one of 
 those seductive women whose very fasci- 
 nation for men of character often consists 
 in their superiority to the 'beau mondc' 
 Constance Gresham was an 'elegante' both 
 by environment and temperament; but she 
 had the desire for fuller life, and she was 
 dangerous to Daniel Lawton for just that 
 reason. She recognized the force and the 
 
 109 
 
NOVELS OP AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 original feeling of the man; und these slie 
 wished to turn to account for lier glory : so 
 she made him tlie fasliion in her world, 
 lint the nicety of the question is not the 
 sincerity of the love hetween Mrs. tiresh- 
 am and Dan Lavvton ; it is the recognition 
 of the situation by Mrs. Lawton, and by 
 the reader, who, more clearly than that 
 stunned and groping woman, realizes that 
 this is one of the irrefutable facts of life, 
 especially of american political life. The 
 question is psychic, not ethical ; even Mrs. 
 Lawton in her dull pidn saw clearly that 
 while she had settled into an absorbed and 
 routine domesticity, hardly interesting 
 herself in her husband's career, he had 
 gone on doubling the 5 talents which had 
 been given bim until he was entering into 
 that rewiird which worldly capacity com 
 mands. It is here, when husband and 
 wife are driving together, when she speaks, 
 when he remembers all she has been to 
 him, that the story closes — how we shall 
 not divulge." [Critic. 375 
 
 SUPERIOR WOMAN (A), [by Jane 
 (Woolsey) Yaudley: Roberts, 1885.] 
 '■The style of the work is easy, un- 
 affected, and lucidly simple; its inci- 
 dents, tho by no means startling or even 
 strilcing, are such as are well adapted to 
 the end of developing the character of the 
 heroine. . . The scene is laid in the city ot 
 New-York and its environs, and the fact 
 that there is no exhaustive study of the 
 fashionable life of that city is one which 
 calls for grateful praise." [American. 376 
 
 :^USY L— 'S DIARY [by Eliza J.. 
 Gate.] "had a wide and deserved popu- 
 larity because of its purity of stylo and 
 delicate delineation of character. The 
 scene is laid in a New-Hampshire village, 
 and the story embodies much of what was 
 best and truest in New England country 
 life half a century since." [Boston "Lit- 
 erary World." 377 
 
 SWORD OF DAMOCLES (The), [by 
 Anna K.. (Green) Rohi.fs : Putnam. 
 1881.] "On the whole the influence of the 
 work is not bracing; there is the smell of 
 the lamp about it; it is morbid, sensation- 
 al, hysterical: it lacks repose, humor. 
 
 pronounced articulation and anatomy. 
 The style is wearisomely prolix, and the 
 conversation of the characters lias uniform- 
 ly a school-girl formality and Johnsonian 
 pomposity which is both tedious and comic. 
 As a study of New- York life, however, 
 the work deserves to meet success." 
 [American. 378 
 
 TAKEN BY SIEGE [Lippincott. 1887.] 
 "tells the story of a country boy who goes 
 to New-York to try his fortune as a jour- 
 nalist. Finally becomes managing editor, 
 and maries the prima donna. There is an 
 air of ingenuousness about the book which 
 half redeems it, but it is an iiinocent story 
 enuf." [Atlantic. 379 
 
 TENDER RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 IRENE JfACGILLICUDDY (THE) [by 
 Laurence Oliphant: Blackwood, — 
 Harper, ISTS.] "is worth noticing as an 
 attempt, which has evidently made a hit, 
 to portray from a foreign point of view 
 the manners of New-York. It is interest- 
 ing to notice what it is that has struck the 
 author as the leading characteristics of the 
 society which chiefly congregates in that 
 expensive quarter. The freedom and the 
 "smartness" of the young ladies, and the 
 part played by marled men of a certain 
 age in bringing them out, guiding their 
 first steps in society, presiding at their 
 d^but ill the "german." entertaining them 
 at evening repasts at Delmonico's — these 
 points had been already more or less suc- 
 cessfully touched ui>on. ]!ut the great 
 feature of New-York fashion is the eager- 
 ness and energy displayed by mariageable 
 maidens in what is vulgarly called "hook- 
 ing" a member of the English aristocracy." 
 [Nation. 380 
 
 THEIR PILGRIMAGE [by C: D. 
 Warner : Harper, 1886.] "is the fruit of 
 a happy idea, brilliantly conceived and well 
 carried out. The idea of twisting together 
 a love story and a panorama of travel is 
 indeed not new. . . Mr. Warner's story, if 
 such it may be called, has however, a much 
 wider range of scenery for its accommoda- 
 tion, iind is rather more a series of water- 
 ing-place sketches than a novel. As such 
 it is delltful. His fresh humor, his keen 
 
 110 
 
NOVELS OF AMEEICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 eye for the truits which distinguish the 
 commonphice from its brotlier common- 
 place, and his well-defined but equally 
 well-restrained sympathetic quality, iilwiixs 
 dashed with just !i touch of cynicism, and 
 sometimes, it must be admitted, yielding to 
 fits of fastidiousness. Nevertheless few 
 men could have tasted the changing fases 
 of suniMier life at all leading eastern water- 
 ing-places with a more just appreciation of 
 all, and it is instructive as well as delitful 
 to follow him." [.imoricnn. 381 
 
 THIEF IN THE NIGHT (THE). [by IT. 
 [E ..] (P.)SpOFFonD : Boherts, 1872.] "The 
 Impression which this novel makes is n 
 very curious one. The author sins against 
 reality both by improbabilities of fact and 
 impos.sibilities of sentiment. There is a 
 misplaced splendor about it, a lawdry 
 elegance, in which our New-England 
 'Ouida' dcllts, which is as incongruous as a 
 masquerade dress in a horse-car. The 
 characters flaunt about in brocades and 
 silks and satins; they dine off gold, and 
 never speak without alliteration. They 
 are as elegant as the ladies and gentlemen 
 on tailors' pattern sheets, but look to see 
 what tliey really are, and you find some- 
 thing equally oft'ensive by reason of its 
 silliness and its wickedness." [Nation. 382 
 
 THROUGH ONE AD MINISTR AT I ON 
 [by r.. [E..] (H.) Burnett: Osgood, 
 1SS3.] ''is the story, in its main lines, of a 
 young woman entering Washington society 
 just as a young officer in the army— who if 
 he had staid longer in Washington would 
 doubtless have W(in the young woman — 
 left for the frontier. After 8 years, Col. 
 Tredennis returns to find licrtha the wife 
 of a man who is llt-minded and selfish. 
 She has apparently thrown herself into 
 sociely fi'om a love of power and a pursuit 
 of happiness, but the retuin of the friend 
 .of her youth is the occasion for « better 
 knowledge of her. She has secretly I'c- 
 tained her love of him, whicli has grown 
 more intense withthedeclineof her respect 
 for her husband. Throu one administra- 
 tion we are allowed to seethe torture of 
 this unhappy woman. Outwardly she is 
 the britest, the gayest, of mortals, and little 
 
 Oil 
 
 by little these arts are made use of by her 
 luisband to accomplish corrupt ends. Col. 
 Tradennislooksonin anguish. He refuses 
 to abandon his faith in her, but that faith 
 nmst rest upon recollection and occasional 
 glimpses of her real nature; the sit which 
 is offered him is of a heartless, restless 
 woman. . . It is plain that Wash- 
 ington society has given Mrs. Burnett 
 much food for reflexion, and the lives of 
 the men and women who draw their bread 
 from official patronage ai-e depicted with 
 power and earnestness. There is much 
 that is in protest against corruption, and 
 there are glimpses of political life as seen 
 from the interior." [Atlantic.]— "The 
 hook is full of charm and intelligence. . . 
 It is exquisitely feminine, — full of the soft 
 frou-frou of silken gowns, the odor of 
 heliotrope, the sparkle of jewels on pretty 
 hands, and the flutter of gracefully wielded 
 fans. In fact, the interest of the book 
 centres in Bertha, who is one of the piet- 
 ticst figures in recent fiction : she fills the 
 stage, and the men, who are subordinate 
 characters, fall into appropriate positions, 
 — the professor, the fact of whose pater- 
 nity surprises himself, and who studies 
 Bertha,— Richard Amory, who is liertha's 
 husband and the father of her children, 
 but who, wrapped in love of himself and 
 his objects, allows her to become 'une 
 femme incomprise,'— Col. Tredennis, who 
 loved Bertha from the first, but did not 
 speak at the rit lime, hence is silent and 
 faithful, — Arbuthnot, in love with liertha, 
 senators, etc., all admiring Bertha and 
 revolving about her. — The Westoria Land 
 Scheme, which gradually absorbs Amory, 
 makes him use every effort in his power to 
 promote its success, and he puts his wife 
 into doubtful positions. — compelling her to 
 do a little lobbying for him with her circle 
 of admiring senators. But Bertha fits her 
 way throu her difficulties valiently to the 
 end, and we could wish her better reward- 
 ed at the last. The final solution of the 
 problem the incidents of the story have 
 created is pathetic and hopeless." [Lip- 
 pineott's. 383 
 
 THROUGH WINDING WATS, [by 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAX CITY LIFE. 
 
 Ellen W. Olney [Kirk] : Lippincott, 
 1ST9.] "Thei-e is alwiiys a catastrophe in 
 Jliss Olney'3 stories, but in this the emling 
 is better til an common. The interest does 
 not flag at all, tho we have found ourselves 
 giving a si of relief at its turning out so 
 well. There are some unhappy Ihings in 
 it, but the characters generally are noble." 
 [Boston "Literary "World." 384 
 
 TINKLING CYMUALS [by Edgar 
 PawCett: Osgood, 1SS4.] "'is designed 
 to show the hollowness of modern fashion 
 as contrasted with that land of ideals and 
 ideas which borders on the coast of that 
 other land called lioheniia. Leah Romilly, 
 its heroine, is the dauter of a lady who, in 
 her ardent youi li, had scaled the lecturer's 
 platform at a time when to do so involved 
 grave things. . . The end of this experience 
 is to leave Mrs. Romilly stigmatized for 
 life as a person of eccentric or immoral 
 notions. Her younj and beautiful dauter, 
 bred among reformers and 'earnest think- 
 ers,' hankers, with a perfectly natural 
 reaction, after that other world where 
 people are content to be beautiful and well 
 mannered and well dressed, to take things 
 lltly, amuse themselves easily and constant- 
 ly, and not worry about 'subjects'. This 
 world she finds in Newport, and she raaries 
 one of its denizens, a pet of society, cliai'm- 
 ing and ac<-omplished, who, with a rapid- 
 ity of decadence known only to the theater, 
 becomes within a twelvemonth an unmiti- 
 gated, drunken brute; and poor Leah 
 arrives at her real happiness only after his 
 opportune death further in the story." 
 [Boston "Literary World." 385 
 
 TRANSPLAN'l'ED ROSE (A) [by 
 M.. E.. (Wilson) Sherwood: Harper, 
 1S82.] "eari'ies its own scented atmosfere 
 and the britness of its coloring along with 
 it, and gives a detailed account of tlie splen- 
 dors of New York life, which, if material 
 and prosaic, has at least the merit of 
 intense realism. . . The society we enter is 
 not alone fashionable, it is correct; audit 
 is the author's function not only to show 
 the privileges and dellts of the few, but to 
 moralize upon the weaknesses of human 
 nature in not keeping itself wholesome 
 
 under the temptations of wealth and 
 position. The lieroine, Rose, a breezy 
 Western girl, comes to visit her aunt in 
 New-York, and meets successes which 
 are in t hemselves troubles, since she is I'aw, 
 untutored, undisciplined either by exper- 
 ience or good taste in the code of polite 
 manners. Her progress is, howcvei-, rapid 
 and the climax of her success (mariago to 
 an englishman of rank), shows, no doubt, 
 the fitting reward of virtue for all ameri- 
 can girls. If a thread of sensationalism 
 and melodrama had been excluded from 
 the little book, it would better have pre- 
 sented the ideas which the writer wished 
 to convey, besides being pleasanter and 
 more readable." [Lippincott's. 386 
 
 TRITONS [by E. L. Uynneu: Boston, 
 Lockwood, 1878.] "is a wholesome and 
 good humored tale of New- York life. . . 
 Both stories are above the average, and 
 impress oui' as being the facile work of a 
 clever and agreeable man. There is real 
 humor in each, especially in the too rare 
 appearances of the gentleman in Tritons 
 with a mania for china and interior decor- 
 ation. 'Our drawing-room', he remarks 
 casually at bi'eakfast, 'is couunonplace and 
 inartistic. My design is to have the floor 
 laid in 'Marcjueterie' of dillerent varieties 
 of irisho'ak: to have the walls covered 
 with Japanese stamped leather, with a 
 dado of ebonized cherry carved in cameo, 
 after a mediteval design of hunting scenes 
 and insignia for which I have drawings. 
 The cieling I shall have painted in panels 
 and cross-hatched with ebonized moldings, 
 while for the frieze I am going to have a 
 fai--simile cast of the Parthenon frieze 
 actually set in the wall. What do you 
 think of that, my dear?' — 'I think it will be 
 a jumble of an early english castle, a Jap- 
 anese palace, and a grecian temple, all 
 shaken up and poured into a yankee parlor : 
 and it will be fritful ; but then you know 
 I have no intuitive perception."— It is the 
 legitimate function of Jlr.Bynner's raillery 
 to touch olT'the follies of respectable 
 society. When he essays to irradiate with 
 a glare of unnatural cheerfulness the lodg- 
 ings of a crippled lireman, and to' reduce 
 
 0112 
 
NOVELS OF AMEniCAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 to a series of jingling rimes the 'short and 
 simple annals of the poor,' he fails." [At- 
 lantic. 387 
 
 TRUE TO A TYPE, [by Eo. Clel- 
 and: Blackioood, 1887.] "The hero of 
 Mr. Cleland's story of unpolished ameri- 
 can life is not an exact replica of Enoch 
 Arden, tho there are several points of 
 resemblance in the 2 characters. Josepli 
 Maylor is true to a type in a more tragical 
 fashion than the Laureate's hero, but the 
 pathos excited by his misfortunes is not so 
 pure and tender as that which is created 
 by the poem. . . The gifts displayed by the 
 author of 'True to a Type' are well suited 
 to the telling of a humorous narrative of 
 provincial existence in New £ng]and, 
 and it is a pity that Mr. Cleland was not 
 satisfied with a more commonplace plot. 
 As for humor, there is plenty of a kind." 
 [Athenaeum. 388 
 
 TKUMPS. [by G: W: CURTIS, Harper, 
 — ioto, 1861.] "The materials are drawn 
 from tlie many-colored exhibitions of fash- 
 ionable and commercial life in New York; 
 and they are wr6t into a cabinet of por- 
 traitures which vividly reflect the familiar 
 traits of the original." [Harper's] — "If 
 Ihis novel be, as it professes, a picture of 
 american town life, America in general, 
 and New- York in particular, must be a 
 dreadfully vulgar place. The vulgarity is 
 not on the surface, — not a vulgarity of 
 mere manner, diess, or accent,— hut a vul- 
 garity which is innate, that oozes out at 
 every pore; a vulgarity which seems to be 
 congenital, as naturalists say, and to have 
 been, moreover, handed down throu many 
 generations. The vulgarity of worldliness 
 pervades every page of this picture of New- 
 York society; it is as tho the universe 
 were jsuddenly changed into one great 
 stock-exchange, where to make money 
 and to spend it upon fine upholstery, fine 
 diimers, and fine dress are the being's end 
 and aim of all human creatures, — the chief 
 end of man and iiis whole duty. There is 
 no ideal, no disguise of science, art, fame, 
 or antiquity; it is all being in business and 
 making money in order to live in the 
 abundance of material luxury; or else, 
 
 01 
 
 being in business, to fail and become poor, 
 to live in a small house, and to wear a limp 
 white cravat, whicli, in this novel, at least, 
 is always the outward and visible sign of 
 having been unfortunate in business. If 
 this novel be a picture of the manners of 
 the day, all we can say is that America 
 must he a dreadful place to be obliged to 
 live in,— one great provincial town, with 
 no metropolis in the distance, where better 
 things mit at least be hoped for, whether 
 to he realized or not." [Athenaeum. 389 
 
 TULIP PLACE [by Virginia W. 
 .loriNSON : Barper, 1886 ] "even if it 
 does not strike one as a remarkably good 
 portrait of New-York, is nevertheless 
 full of a grateful vitality and vividness 
 which make it an extremely interesting 
 story. It has a little air of quaintness which 
 feems decidedly of forein influence, and all 
 its situations are too strained to be in the 
 least like Mr. Howells' realism ; yet it is all 
 entertaining and suggestive, and combines 
 so much humor, pathos, and thotfulness, 
 that the reader is sure to be delited with 
 it." [Critic. 390 
 
 TWICE MARRIED [by Calvin W. 
 Philleo : N.-Y., Dix & Edioards, 1855.] 
 is "a well-told rural story with carefully 
 studied descriptions of character and 
 scenes 'in the steady old state of Connec- 
 ticut. [Crayon.] — "Has two extremely 
 good points about it, — a short racy preface 
 and the quality of not pretending to be 
 more than it is, — viz., -,\. lively, readable, 
 amusing story of american rural life. The 
 incidents cannot he called very probable, 
 but when a reader is amused he does not 
 care to be critical. The'hero's character 
 is well drawn." [Athena;um. 391 
 
 TWO MEN. [by E.. D. (B.) Stoddard: 
 Bunce, 1865.] "The reader will find that 
 he has lited upon no ordinary novel. He 
 will read it eagerly for its interest, slowly 
 for its fullness, and he will lend it to those 
 among his friends who h.ave a sense for 
 the uncommon, an ear for rare and fine 
 melody, an eye for nature's scale of color, 
 a soul to which nothing human is forein. 
 By a majority of readers Mrs. Stoddard's 
 book wil I be called queer and nothing more ; 
 
 13 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 and, truly, nothing is easier than to find 
 fault with its anguliirities. its abruptness, its 
 needlessly sphinx-like wording ... Is it 
 ii Muse, this practical New-England 
 woman whose story lies equally in the 
 woods and in the kitchen, whose cake- 
 making goes on at the same time with the 
 pluckiiig-out of men's and women's souls 
 and holding them to the lit? It is precise- 
 ly this mingling of the homely and the 
 awful which gives 'Two Men' its quality. 
 The rude New-England sea-coast life, 
 with all its austerities, bears the relation to 
 the character of the book which the moorn' 
 of Yorkshire do to C Bronte's genius." 
 [Nation, ISSS, — by Emma Norton Ireland] 
 — "In plot, in character and treatment, 
 'Two Men' is one of the most original books 
 written by an american woman ; it is orig- 
 inal in its goodness and in its badness ; the 
 author's faults, like her merits, are al- 
 most wholly her own, and not Miss Shep- 
 herd's, as in the works of Miss Prescott 
 [Spofford] , nor C. Bronte's, as in the 
 works of Miss Harding [Davis]. . . Apart 
 from this intensity , the literature of the book 
 is excellent. The style is exquisitely clear 
 and sharp-cut: the reader is huriMed to the 
 end with a tireless succession of events, 
 and there is a peculiar pleasure and repose 
 to the interest in being made to rest at last 
 solely on the fortune of Philippa and Jason. 
 Altogether the novel must be accepted as 
 an original expression of american feeling, 
 and its characters,however exceptional, as 
 veritable american types." [Nation, 1S65, 
 — by W: D. Ilowelis. 393 
 
 UNCLE 'LISHA'S SHOP, [by Row- 
 land E. Robinson: Fnrest & Stream 
 Pub. Co., 1887.] '-Twenty-two sketches of 
 homely life in Vermont, as it was a gen- 
 eration ago. The sketches are continuous 
 in so far that they deal with the same char- 
 acters, who meet for the most part in the 
 shoe-shop of 'Lisha Peggs ... So much for 
 the mere external features of the sketches. 
 It would be a mistake to think that the 
 book belonged in the category of thread- 
 bare New-England dialect fiction. Mr. 
 Robinson has the art of a story-teller, and 
 the gift of portrait-painting; and ,when 
 
 now and then he touches upon the tender- 
 er side of this homely life, he does it with 
 ft sure hand. The compactness of his style 
 is remarkable, and his eye for picturesque- 
 ness in nature is keen and sympathetic. 
 The book is racy, but very close to Ihe 
 soil. It is long since we have seen so 
 masculine a treatment, and in spite of the 
 extreme Yankeeism of speech and frase, 
 the book impresses one as singularly fresh 
 and genuine." [Atlantic. 393 
 
 Ul' FROM THE CAPE. [byHicZKlci- 
 All BUTTBRWORTII : Estes, 1883.] "Tlie 
 plea is presented in the form of a pic- 
 tured contrast between a Boston family 
 and a Cape Cod family, the two heads of 
 which are brothers. The story is told by 
 Jefferson, the son of the Boston father. 
 The latter is 41, gray, careworn, sleepless, 
 and dragging himself into an early grave 
 with stocks, per cents, and chloral. The 
 mother is given to Newport, another son 
 is enjoying himself abroad, and the father 
 is slaving his life away in the effort to feed 
 the tastes of an ambitious, idle, and pleas- 
 ure-loving family. Jefferson is the single 
 exception, and his father's solitary comfort. 
 Uncle Eben, down on the Cape, where 
 Jefferson goes to visit, is QS, but looks 
 younger than his city brother : has lived a 
 quiet and peaceable life, in all godliness 
 and honesty, is content with such things as 
 he has on the old farm, and exhibits a sim- 
 ple, homely character. Aunt Desire, his 
 partner, is offered as the quaint and origi- 
 nal figure of the book, and makes some 
 amusement with her clam hakes, her un- 
 fortunate investments in the Rev. Dr. 
 Gamm's Colorado mines, and her visits to 
 Boston doctors." [ Boston "Literary 
 World." 394 
 
 UPS AND DOWNS. [byE: E.IIale: 
 iJofterJs,— Loio, 1873.] "This story, deal- 
 ing with the ruf and ready vicissitudes ot 
 practical life, contains greater variety of 
 incident and char.-icter. Without reveal- 
 ing the mechanism of his plot, we may say 
 that Mr. Hale traces the fortunes of a 
 young american from his college days, in 
 which he enjoys the advantage of inherited 
 wealth, to the time when, having lost all 
 
 OIU 
 
XOVICLS OF AMEKICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 by an sidverse sti'oke of fortune, he succeeds 
 in re-estiiblisbiiig himself in a position of 
 independencp, and shares his well-earned 
 prosperity with a cliarming bride. . . The 
 two heroines, Jasper's I5ertha and Oscar's 
 charming liuth, are simply delitful. Self- 
 reliant, as are all their country-women, 
 and plucky to the verge of rashness in 
 their battles with adverse circumstances, 
 they never lose the essential gentleness 
 which is so often mistakenly associated 
 with fysical or moral weakness. It is nota- 
 ble, too, that, having fSt their own way 
 most resolutely where the conflict was 
 needed, they do not disdain to find tlie best 
 reward of their success in the retirement 
 of domestic love." [Atlienseum. 395 
 
 VIRGINIA INHERITANCE, A. [by 
 E: 1'endleton: Appleton, 1S88.] '-Jlr. 
 W: Chatterton, of New York, is the ritful 
 owner of the Virginia plantation concern- 
 ed in this little story, but in order to claim 
 his inheritance he is obliged to dispossess a 
 poor, proud family of southern cousins 
 who have lived all their lives on the estate 
 in the full belief that it belongs to them. 
 Accordingly Felix Perry, a New-York 
 lawyer, is sent to Virginia to acquaint the 
 southern Cbattertons with the fact that 
 they have no legal rits to the place, and 
 thai they must renounce their sentimental 
 ones. Tbe lawyer does not find this task 
 easy. Accident leads him to the Chatterton 
 house and be becomes, against his will, do- 
 mesticated with the very people he h;is come 
 toputoutof possession . He makes his mis- 
 sion known and tries to find quarters else- 
 where but is treated with such magnificent 
 courtesy, and it is made so clear to him 
 that his presence on the spot is wholly 
 desirable, that he settles down more or less 
 contentedly to study the Virginia Chatter- 
 tons. They are one of the typical southern 
 families with which novels have made us 
 familiar. In fact our northern story- writ- 
 ers go to the South for picturesque ex- 
 amples and contrasts, just as english 
 novelists seek them in Ireland. From 
 this imaginative point of vue, the South is 
 an Ireland, unconqnered and unconquer- 
 able,— swelling with pride, prejudice and 
 
 0115 
 
 discontent; thriftless, impracticable, talk- 
 ing of millions without a penny in its 
 pocket, piquing itself on superior gentilily 
 and dining off a potato. AVhat the South 
 lacks, however, (in order to maintain the 
 parallel) is the Irish spirit of humor. 
 These Virginia Cbattertons, dilapidated 
 and out-at-elbows as they are, strike us as 
 too dull and solemn to be interesting. . . 
 Tbe scene soon cbanjies from Virginia to 
 New-York, where tbe southern Chatter- 
 tons arrive to establish theniseives. From 
 this point the interest of the story seems to 
 us submerged in the wider stream of char- 
 acter and events. Mr. Pendleton's study 
 of his New- York people is not so success- 
 ful as of his rather well-worn southern 
 types. Mrs. Denvers, for example, altho 
 given a striking part, does not play it in a 
 way to engage tlie reader's sympathy. 
 And indeed the general diSnoument is 
 rather too unpleasant for a story which 
 has made no pretension to soar hi or pene- 
 trate deep into character and motive. Its 
 purpose would have been better carried 
 out had it contained more lit and cheerful 
 effects." [American. 396 
 
 WAR OF THE BACHELORS (The) 
 [by G: F. Wharton: New-Orleans, 
 Wharton, 18s3.] "is a comedy, but it is 
 of an elevated tone ; it is clean and free 
 from coarseness ; it is written witli a good 
 deal of vivacity and bonhommie; it shows 
 really considerable wit and conversational 
 brilliancy, and as a minor of a fase of 
 Tfew-Orleans life, we cannot doubt that 
 it is accurate and vivid. As a composition 
 it lacks background, but its figures balance 
 well, and its dialog is well maintained. 
 As a book there is too much of it. Con- 
 densation would improve it." [Boston 
 '•Literary World." 397 
 
 WASHINGTON SQUARE, [by H: 
 Jamks: Harper, 1881.] '-Here the author 
 pushes his acceptance of the common- 
 place almost to the length of audacity, and 
 the story is painfully devoid of life, or 
 color, or movement, or any salient points 
 whatever. The hei-oine is the embodiment 
 of all that is common-place and flegmatic, 
 and pages of exhaustive analysis are ex- 
 
N0VKL8 OP AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 pended in defining and explaining tills 
 perfectly uninteresting and ordinary young 
 woman, wlio is laboriously shown to be 
 not wholly without the feelings common 
 to hum;mity. The substance of the matter 
 seems to be that no girl is too stupid or 
 inert to fall in love it any man should un- 
 dertake to make love to her, even from 
 interested motives. In the character of 
 Dr. I'enniman a good deal of clever insit 
 is shown, and there are plenty of well- 
 turned, slitly cynical remarks on the gen- 
 eral order of things; hut the story drags 
 sensibly from a lack of the dramatic sense 
 which enables an author to show, not that 
 the common-place is common-place, but 
 that beneath the common-place often lie 
 the elements of drama which are unper- 
 ceived by the ordinary observer." [Ameri- 
 can. 398 
 
 WATCHMAN (The) [by Ja. A. Mait- 
 land: N.-Y.,— ; Itoutledge, 1855.] "is 
 an interesting story of amerlciin life, full 
 of incidents which are put together like a 
 child's puzzle. No events in real life were 
 ever so clean cut and so well fitted. The 
 people who at the beginning of the book 
 were apparently without either name or 
 country find, in the last hundred pages, 
 not only friends and relatives of the liTest 
 respectability, but titles, estates, husbands, 
 wives, and all the various rewards which 
 in moral stories it is customary to bestow 
 upon deserving virtue, and which, being 
 always consoling to the reader's sense of 
 ])oetical justice, is perhaps the reason why 
 such stories continue to be read by ration- 
 al beings." [Athenseum. 399 
 
 WE AND OUR NEIGH I30RS. [by H. 
 (E..) (1!.) Stowe: New-York, Ford, 
 1ST5.] "This book brings us back to the 
 circle of friends we meet in ' My Wife and 
 I', and is superior to the earlier work. . . 
 Intellectual strength and beauty of style 
 are not to be found in tliis book ; but one 
 great merit it has : it is the record of quiet, 
 unobtrusive, evury-day life, which by 
 thotfulness make many sliare in the brit- 
 ness of a little home in a back street. It 
 shows the beauty and power of little acts 
 of self-sacrifice aud love, for which every 
 
 life has ample opportunity, and which 
 novelists are apt to overlook iu straining 
 after great deeds of heroism, which can 
 enter into but few lives." [Penn Month- 
 ly.]— "When a pet dog 'ticks' across the 
 room, and puts his nose between the 'slats' ;■ 
 when one young lady 'chippers', another 
 'snicker.s', [Mr. W: Black frequently uses 
 "sniggers" in the same sense. — W: M. G.] 
 and a third has 'milfs and tifl's', we 
 know not whether we are studying a 
 new and enlarged english language, or 
 merely a dialect chequered with express- 
 ive but local flowers of speech. Of gram- 
 mar, however, we think we do know 
 something; and we should be a little 
 surprised to hear a lady of good position, 
 on either side of the Atlantic, say, 'I don't 
 see as he has the least intention,' or, 'I 
 don't see what's to object to'. . . Mrs. 
 Stowe seems to advocate that kind of 
 intersexual friendship, which, in some 
 parts of our colonial empire, is called 
 'Muifining'. Mufiining, in itself, is a pleas- 
 ant amusement; at least, we have been 
 told so by experts ; but it is objected to by 
 stern and experienced mammas as not 
 conducing to the stern and serious busi- 
 ness of matrimony. Indeed, it is said 
 that muffins are seldom known to get 
 engaged to one another, tho of course 
 there may be exceptions. A male mufiin 
 is consequently looked upon by mammas 
 as a noxious person, who is of no use 
 himself, and frTtens away those who mit 
 be turned to good account. It must be 
 observed, too, that a muffin is not by law 
 or custom compelled to limit his patronage 
 to one young lady at a time; and there 
 have been cases known in which a large- 
 hearted male muffin has kept a whole 
 charming family single for several years, 
 and lias at last 'discovered the state of 
 his feelings' for an unknown chit of a girl 
 in an adjoining parish." [Athenieuin. 400 
 WIDE-WIDE WORLD (The) [by 
 Susan Warner: Putnam, 1851.] ''ap- 
 pears to have been written by an american 
 lady of the evangelical school; and its 
 special object is to show that human hap- 
 piness deijends less on the discharge of 
 
 0116 
 
NOVELS OF AMEKICAN CIIY LIFE. 
 
 social and moral obligiitions than on the 
 observance of certain conventional codes 
 of vcorship. As a work of art, we can say 
 but little in its favor; yet there are in it 
 such descriptions of americau scenery and 
 so nice portraiture of character — especially 
 female — as su<rgest the idea that the vyriter 
 is capable of better things." [Ath. 0401 
 
 WIDOW GOLDSMITH'S DAUGH- 
 TER, [by Julie P. Smith: Hartford, 
 Brown & Gross, 1870.] "Writing this 
 novel seems to have been a labor of love to 
 its author. To her, at least, her imaginary 
 world and its people have been convincing- 
 ly real, and she has painted them with a 
 brisk confidence in her subject, and in her 
 ability to do it justice, which is far from 
 unpleasant. . . bhe holds up vulgar and 
 commonplace people to ridicule in a way 
 which, to say the least of it, is not suggest- 
 ive of over-refinement on her part. Her 
 heroine, too, belongs to a type which seems 
 to be fatally prevalent in our native novels 
 —such of them, at least, as are written by 
 women — ^the young woman who is torment- 
 ed by a thii-st for knowledge, who studies 
 gernian while she washes her dishes, has a 
 french grammar surreptitiously hidden in 
 her mending-basket, and confounds her 
 enemies and moves her lovers with fond 
 pride by coming out at critical moments 
 with pleasing facts in history or the last 
 new thing in science. Still, much of Miss 
 Smith's work is rather efiectively done, 
 and the way in which she displays her 
 characters is often suggestive. Oddly enuf 
 too, it is her faults which are her virtues ; 
 and with a more restrained vivacity and a 
 keener sense of what 6t to be omitted in 
 maldng her studies from life, tho she mit 
 produce more unexceptionable work, we 
 doubt if she would be half so amusing as 
 she is at present." [Nation. 0402 
 
 WIDOW WYSE (The) [by H.. Marr 
 Bean: Boston, Cupples, 1884.] "is an 
 entertaining little book, good for its brevi- 
 ty, its swift movement, and its frequently 
 clever bits of character. It is stated that 
 Mr. Apthorpe is supposed to be the por- 
 trait of a well-known Boston wit [T: Ap- 
 pleton] , but there is little to suggest the 
 
 0117 
 
 trenchant sayings of the gentleman who 
 wished someone would be kind enuf to 
 tether a shorn lamb at the corner of Winter 
 and Tremont Streets during the winter 
 and spring. . . The real art of the book— 
 sltt and careless art, but none the less in- 
 genious and clever— is in the delineation 
 of the Widow Wyse : the fair young widow 
 with tliat supreme art of fascination which 
 is merely the ability to flatter— to make 
 everyone, from the butcher's boy, almost, 
 to Mr. Apthorpe, believe when he meets 
 her that for the first time in his life he is 
 appreciated. The skill, of course, lies in 
 the subtlety of the flattery, and this, so 
 difflcult to reproduce in Action, has been 
 very cleverly given. We are not told in 
 long paragrafs the woman's motives and 
 her successes, but we see her at work. 
 She flits from page to page, from friend to 
 friend, from plot to plot, from airy speech 
 to deliberate intrigue, with a capacity to 
 foresee what may be useful to her, perhaps 
 tomorrow, perhaps 5 years hence, which is 
 exceedingly well reproduced by the 
 author." [Critic. 0403 
 
 WILLIAM HENRY AND HIS 
 FRIENDS [by Abby (Morton) Diaz: 
 Osgood, ISIl.] "will have a cordial wel- 
 come from all the readers of the 'William- 
 Henry Letters.' The new book has, in 
 greater degree, the merits of the first, — 
 surprising unafl'ectedness, and singular 
 fidelity to nature. . . The material of the 
 book is of the simplest kind : it is merely 
 the diversions and adventures at the farm 
 during the summer in which Mr. Fry 
 boards there with William-Henry's grand- 
 mother. William-Henry has been home 
 some years from school, and throurfQt this 
 volume is seeking that place in a great 
 wholesale business which he gets at last. 
 He is a veritable young man, as he was a 
 true boy; and we believe there never were 
 more genuine persons in literature than 
 his cousins Lucy-Maria and Matilda, his 
 Aunt Phebe and his Uncle Jacob. The 
 sweetest moral is implied by the whole 
 course of the story, — tho it is scar<;ely a 
 story, — and it is full of a perfectly delltful 
 humor. Indeed, as a humorist, Mrs. Diaz 
 
NOVELS OK AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 must be recognizeil among the first who 
 amiably and profitably please." [Atlan- 
 tic. 0404 
 
 WOLF AT THE DOOK, (The) [Ro- 
 berts, 1877.] "is ii Boston story throu and 
 throu. Withoutgreat pretensions to either 
 originality, strength, or sharpness of outline, 
 it is free from the commoner faults, and 
 after detaining the reader for its hour will 
 suffer him to go on his way with a pleasant 
 impression. The interest turns on the 
 love-fortunes of a young heiress, whose 
 figure is very cleverly sketched, and to- 
 ward whom one finds a pleasant feeling 
 growing in his mind. By the 'wolf at 
 the door' is meant the loss of her large 
 property throu the manipulation of a pair 
 of scamps; a disaster from which relief 
 comes to her in the person of a faithful and 
 worthy lover, whom she had nearly lost 
 throu a misunderstanding caused by the 
 treachery of an acquaintance." [Boston 
 "Literary World." 0405 
 
 WOMAN IN SPITE OF HERSELF 
 (A .) [by J : CORDY Jeafpreson : Hurst, 
 1871.] "This powerfully-written and ex- 
 excitmg tale possesses several claims to 
 public attention. In the first place the 
 scene is laid in Canada, the oldest and 
 most picturesque of british colonies. 
 Every one who feels an interest in that 
 hospitable land will read with eagerness 
 and sympathy the excellent descriptions 
 of life in the old dominion — english and 
 french 'society', old-world habitans and 
 fresh importations from the green and 
 enthusiastic island, clerical and legal nota- 
 bilities, garrison loungers, and colonial 
 belles, are all presented to us in graflc and 
 well-ordered groups. The scenery of the 
 St. Lawrence aflbrds a theme for Mr. 
 JeaflFreson's descriptive power. In the char- 
 acter of Felicia Avalon, masculine in her 
 accomplishments and her spirit of inde- 
 pendent integrity, womanly in her enthu- 
 siasm and tenderness, her indignation and 
 despair, our author has given good evi- 
 dence of his creative originality. Not less 
 admirable is the generous simplicity, the 
 priestliness without arrogance or guile, 
 which characterize her brother Felix ; as 
 
 charming, tho less original, is the rare 
 nature of the hapless Jemmy, a type of those 
 femininely gentle spii'its occasionally to be 
 found combined with intellectual vigor 
 beyond the average of boyhood. When we 
 add to these merits that our author is never 
 dull, that his narrative never flags or fails 
 in continuous energy, we have said enuf to 
 indicate the general excellence of his 
 work." [Athenaeum. 0406 
 
 WOMAN'S UFA SON (A) [by W: D. 
 HowBLLS ; Osgood, 1883.] "is an inter- 
 esting contribution to the discussion of 
 self-help by women, in the form of a narra- 
 tive of Miss Hi'len Harkness' experience 
 from the time when she lost her father, her 
 lover, and her money until she recovered 
 her lover and was relieved from the pre- 
 dicament in which she found herself. Not 
 until she has sounded the gamut from dec- 
 orating pottery to serving behind the 
 counter in a fotograf shop is her lover 
 allowed to come to her rescue. He is kept 
 away by an ingenious series of disasters, 
 but the reader awaits bis final return with 
 a calm confidence in the uprltness of the 
 story-teller. . . Yet how thoroly enjoyable 
 this story is to anyone who knows the 
 originals I We are not certain that a famil- 
 iar acquaintance with Boston and Cam- 
 bridgeport and the Beverly shore can be 
 dispensed with in a satisfactory apprecia- 
 tion of the characters and situations." 
 [Atlantic. 0407 
 
 WOMEN'S HUSBANDS. [Lippincott, 
 1879.] "Of three good stories here repub- 
 lished the first is 'The Barber of Midas', in 
 which the course of true love is obstructed 
 by the curiosity and meddlesome fussiness 
 of a man who is intended to show that 
 these traits are not exclusively feminine 
 ones, and who fulfils the mission not too 
 obtrusively. 'The False Prince' portrays 
 the struggles of a snobbish man to hide his 
 vulgar antecedents. In 'Narcissus', the 
 third and best, the hero alienates by his 
 self-worship the woman whom he loves, 
 and maries her who only reflects his imago. 
 The latter dies but he loses his second 
 chance from the same cause, and passes his 
 life in unsatisfied longing for he knows not 
 
 0118 
 
NOVELS OF AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 what." [Nation. 0408 
 
 WORK, [by Louisa M. Alcott: 
 Bnberts, 1S73.] "The plan of the story is 
 simple. Tlie heroine, an orfan, whose 
 father has been a scholarly and refined 
 man, leaves, at 21, the roof of tlie rather 
 hard and coarse maternal uncle who had 
 frrudpjingly cared for her so far, and 'seeks 
 her fortune'. She becomes in succession a 
 housemaid, an actress, a governess, a seam- 
 stress, a companion, a copyist, and — after 
 due complications, of course. — a wife, and 
 illustrates in every one of these capacities 
 what is never once loftily assei-ted,— the 
 real dignity of work. In the qualities 
 which we usually associate with hl-breed- 
 ing. when we admire it most sincerely, — 
 courage, magnanimity, and delicate honor, 
 first of all in money matters, — Christie's 
 character is peculiarly rich : and he who 
 has proved that these qualities are quite as 
 often found in the obscure as in the splen- 
 did walks of life, has done much to bind 
 together the best of every class. Christie, 
 — honest, unfastidious, generous, brilliant, 
 affectionate Christie, is a hidy everywhere; 
 and following the checkered path we have 
 indicated, has worked out at 40 a rather 
 shadowed, but sweet and significant desti- 
 ny. She is but a ruf crayon sketch beside 
 the exquisite cabinet picture of Kitty Elli- 
 son, in 'A Chance Acquaintance,' but the 
 motif of both portraits is the same, the 
 grace and the glory of the same order of 
 womanhood is celebrated in both, vehe- 
 mently by the woman, chivalrously by the 
 man." [Boston "Literary World."] — "This 
 book, which covers a larger field than her 
 other stories, fully sustains Miss Alcott's 
 reputation. Vivacity, clearness, a strait- 
 forward directness and earnestness of pur- 
 pose, pathos, with much skill in filling out 
 the details, are among the hi qualifies 
 which carry us throu the story, with in- 
 creasing interest." [Helig. Magazine. 0409 
 YESTEUDAY. [by E.. WiNTHROP 
 JOHXSON : HrjU, 18S2.] "The book has a 
 positive moral interest as a picture of what 
 life may be made, or more, how a life may 
 even be redeemed; how one mistake, one 
 great sin it may be, need not bring utter 
 
 ruin, tho a man had no better faith in him 
 than this. The story leads over delicate, 
 even dangerous ground, but. throu(ilit, 
 conduct is judged with a temperance and 
 justice which commands respect in spite of 
 the lower motives. The rattling pace of 
 the opening chapters should not repel the 
 reader, and he will find himself repaid by 
 the picture of an actor's life from a novel 
 point of vue. Grace Delahay, the heroine, 
 is an ennobling example of the restraining 
 influence of a fine-souled woman even 
 when her direct efforts are thwarted, and 
 her only opportunity is the silent witness 
 of steady pure-living." [Nation. 0410 
 
 YOKE OF THE THORAH (The), [by 
 "Sidney Luska": Cassell, 1887.] "A 
 Jewish artist of repute in liis native city, 
 New-York, meets and falls in love with the 
 dauter of a yankee customer, liefore de- 
 claring himself he has a mental struggle 
 over the commandments in the Thorah 
 which forbid under pain of dire penalities 
 the mariage of a jew and a christian. 
 But the man conquers the jew and the 
 day for the wedding is fixed. Ellas then 
 confides his secret to his uncle, the rabbi, 
 who calmly tells him that the Lord will 
 interfere, and that the mariage never will 
 take place, and in apparent conformity 
 with the profecy Elias, in the midst of the 
 ceremony, is stricken with a epileptic fit. 
 The disease so affects his character that he 
 readily succumbs to his uncle's influence, 
 renounces Christine, and maries a Jewess. 
 . . . Mr. Harland has created several life-like 
 personages, notably the rabbi and old Ked- 
 wood, the rude, uncultivated, straitforward 
 father of Christine. Altogether the best 
 part of the book is that describing the 
 manners and customs of the german jews, 
 who are one and all depicted with grafic 
 power. Nothing could be better in their 
 way than Mr. and Mrs. Blum and Mr. 
 Koch, with their free and easy vulgarity 
 and warm hearts, or Tillie Morgenthan, 
 with her prosaic, flashy demeanor and 
 musical genius." [lioston "Literary 
 World." 0411 
 
 YOUNG GIKL'S WOOING (A) [by 
 E: P.Rob: Dodd, 1884.] "throws no lit 
 
 0119 
 
NOVBL8 OP AMERICAN CITY LIFE. 
 
 on the problem of his unquestioniible 
 popularity. The large annual circulation 
 of such unqualified trash may be an en- 
 couraging feign of the times to the senti- 
 mental moralist, than whom no human 
 being has less faculty for looking facts 
 in the face, for seeing life as it is, or for 
 properly conceiving what it should or mit 
 be. The thot that it is read at all must 
 depress those who believe that the average 
 literary taste is some measure of average 
 intelligence, of national soundness, mental 
 and moral." [Nation. 0412 
 
 ZACIIARIAH 'I'HE CONGRESSMAN, 
 [by Gilbert Ashville Pierce : Chica- 
 go, Donnelley, 1880.] "Its theme is 
 commonplace, and its workmanship is of 
 the cheap and salable grade. Zachariah is 
 
 a sensible Westerner, whose head — and we 
 may add whose heart— is turned by politi- 
 cal flattery and preferment, and whose 
 misfortunes begin with his election to office 
 and his removal to Washington. He 
 there forgets his old and worthy friends, 
 and forms new and dangerous ones, and 
 becomes a wiser man only by first being 
 made a sadder one. A certain verisimili- 
 tude underlies parts of the story, and there 
 is a quaint truthfulness in much of the 
 dialect which is woven into it; but its 
 purpose hardly goes further than mere 
 amusement, and in that respect it cannot 
 afford satisfaction to a very hi order of 
 taste. Some things in it are rather silly." 
 [Boston "Literary World." 0413 
 
 A revue, after all, is often in a strange language to every one not 
 acquainted with the book under discussion ; but if this has been read 
 the comments of the revuer have more significance, his points are 
 understood, and his praise or dispraise more keenly relished or disrelish- 
 ed. There is always great pleasure in comparing opinions, and no doubt 
 immense satisfaction in finding one's own discernment confirmed. So 
 much greater is the interest in reading a revue after, rather than before, 
 reading the book, that I often wonder whether this is not the best pur- 
 pose of criticism. If I may judge by my experience and personal 
 likings, a revue is of little interest unless the book is already, in some 
 measure, at least, familiar. But, if that is true, what, again, becomes of 
 the cash value of the re'snie ? Leaving this narrow monetary side of 
 the question, it is certain, I think, that the aggregate influence of book- 
 revues is an aid to literature. It may be difHcult to trace this influence 
 in many instances ; it may often glance without effect, and sometimes 
 repress rather than help deserving productions ; but as a whole, it no 
 doubt widens the knowledge of literature and nourishes the taste for it. 
 It is not, indeed, certain that literature would be possible to any large 
 extent if there were no heralds to proclaim and no chorus to celebrate 
 it. [O. K. Bunce. 
 
 0120 
 
I'RIOEi ONE OOPV, $ .80; TWO OOPIEB. f .70; THREE, |l.OO; FOUR. ^1.30; FIVE, ^1.00; TEN, $2.50; FIFTEEN, $3.00. 
 
 DESCRIPTIVE LIST 
 
 OP 
 
 INTERNATIONAL 
 
 NOVELS 
 
 COMPILED ET 
 
 ■W: M. GRISWOLD, A. B. 
 
 EDITOR OF "THE MONOQHAPH". A COLLECTION OF FIFTY-FOUR HISTORICAL AND 
 
 BIOQRAPHICAL ESSAYS; AND OF "TRAVEL," A SIMILAR SERIES 
 
 DEVOTED TO PLACES, 
 
 CAMBRIDGE, MASS: 
 
 W: M. GRISWOLD, Publisher. 
 1891. 
 
International Noyels. 
 
 The object of this list is to direct readers, such aswould enjoy the kind of books 
 here described, to a number of novels, easily obtainable, but which, in many 
 cases, have been forgotten within a year or two after publication. That the 
 existence of works of fiction is remembered so short a time is a pity, since, for every 
 new book of merit, there are, in most libraries, a hundred as good or better, un- 
 known to the majority of readers. It is hoped that the publication of this and 
 similar lists will lessen, in some measure, the disposition to read an inferior new 
 book when superior old books, equally fresh to most readers, are athand. 
 
 This list will be followed by others describing MUBOFEAN, BOMAN- 
 TIC, ECCENTBIC and FANCIFUL novels and tales. The compiler would be 
 pleased to have his attention called to any works deserving a place which have 
 escaped his attention. It may be observed that the compiler has tried to include 
 only such works as are well-written, interesting , and free from sensationalism, 
 sentimentality, and pretense. But in a few cases, books have been noticed on ac- 
 count of the reputation of their authors, or their great popularity , rather than their 
 merit. 
 
 The selected "notices" here given are generally abridged. 
 
 ABBE CONSTANTIN. [by Lcdo- 
 VIC Halevy : Munro,— Putnam, 1882, 
 Dodd, 1888-9.] "All american readers 
 of "Abbfi Constantin" will believe 
 that this success is well deserved, for 
 it is due to the charming portraits of 
 2 american girls. One of the authors 
 of that personiflcation of femi- 
 nine Parisianism, Froufrou, has now 
 attempted to draw a cousin of Lydia 
 Blood and Daisy Miller. Strange to 
 say, the attempt is a complete success. 
 Mrs. Scott and her sister. Miss Bettina 
 Percival, are true americans — and 
 they are true ladies. It is perhaps a 
 tribute to the purity of the american 
 character that the story in which these 
 ladies play the principal part is not 
 only altogether delitful, but as inno- 
 cent as it is interesting." [Nation. 401 
 
 ACCOMPLISHED GENTLEMAN, 
 An. [by Julian Sturgis : Appleton, 
 1879.] ''The scene of the story is laid 
 
 in Venice, and the descriptions of the 
 town and its sea and sky are charm- 
 ing; sunshine and moonlit illumine 
 the pages, and there is the lit touch of 
 the man who, however strong his 
 sensations may be, dreads above all 
 things to be 'heavy in hand.' There 
 is a piratical countess, a stout female 
 devotee of art, a boyish, knowing 
 young british peer, a foolish society 
 man for whose mariage we predict no 
 good, and then an enchanted island, 
 a youthful divinity and a gallant 
 wooer, a friendly friend and a maestro 
 full of good intent ; these last and the 
 Venetian setting make the charm of 
 the book. There are many felicities 
 offrase." [Nation. 402 
 
 ADELE [by Julia Kavanagh: 
 Hurst, 1857.] "is a charming novel, 
 full of delicate character-painting. 
 The workmanship is good throuout, 
 and the interest kindled in the first 
 
 111 
 
IKTERNATIOXAL NOVELS. 
 
 chapter • burns britly to the close." 
 [Athenseuiii. 403 
 
 ADRIAN LYLE, Phil'a, 1889, = 
 Gretchen. 404 
 
 AFTERGLOW, [by G: P. Lath- 
 rop: Soberts, 1877.} '-The subject is 
 found In the relations and experiences 
 of a set of americans resident in 
 Dresden, among whom mingle a 
 saxon and a prussian officer, an eng- 
 lishman, and 1 or 2 other people. As 
 a love-story it is thoroly pure and 
 wholesome, but in its analysis and 
 delineation of conflicting passions it 
 goes far deeper than ordinary works." 
 [Boston -'Lit. World." 405 
 
 AGATHA PAGE, [by I: Hender- 
 son: Ticknor, 1888.] '-The scene is 
 in Borne. The theme is an old one : 
 the virtuous man who maries a noble 
 woman for love, but who entertains, 
 later, a passing fancy for an ignoble 
 woman who conceives a passion for 
 him. Both women suffer greatly, the 
 man not very much, and the wife 
 comes out victorious and happy in the 
 end. The wife, Agatha Page, is half- 
 american, and has been bred at home ; 
 her cousin and rival, a full-blood 
 Italian, has on the contrary, been edu- 
 cated in a convent." [Cath. World. 406 
 
 ALMOST A DUCHESS [by 
 Olga de Longueiul : Boberts, 
 1884.] "is a very well told story . . . 
 not only distinctly foreign, but show- 
 ing on many pages the knowledge of 
 Prenoh. life with which few english 
 people are likely to be acquainted. 
 The plot turns upon the legality of a 
 mariage contracted by a frenchman in 
 England against the will of his parents 
 before he is 25. . . . Independently of 
 this plot, it possesses much interest 
 and gives with much ease and natural- 
 ness pictures of an english country 
 neborhood and glimpses of house- 
 
 hold life in France." [Lippincott's. 407 
 ALMOST AN ENGLISHMAN, [by 
 Moses Lewis Scudder: Putnam, 
 1878.] "A lawyer and a Bostonian 
 who have been college classmates, 
 cross the Atlantic in company with a 
 father and dauter returning to Eng- 
 land, and a husband and wife from Chi- 
 cago. The lawyer, Ketchum, isarabid 
 american. The Bostonian, Hill, is an 
 abject english admirer and copyist. 
 Ketchum's character is drawn sym- 
 pathetically. Hill's theoretically, but 
 there is a certain brute ability in the 
 way they are developed and discrimi- 
 nated. . . . Nevertheless, Ketchum is 
 the 'deus ex machina' who by his ener- 
 gy and shrewdness unravels all the 
 plots, detects the criminals, and pre- 
 pares the way for the reward of virtue. 
 At the last. Hill receives his english 
 bride from the hands of relatives, 
 whose hearts thrill with joyful relief 
 when they find that the Bostonian does 
 not expectorate upon their carpets, 
 while Ketchum appropriately maries 
 the widow of the Chicago, defaulter, to 
 whom he had prudently proposed 
 before her husband's release from the 
 body. Mr. Scudder makes a rather 
 good point when he represents the 
 english bride as reproving her husband 
 for despising his country, and bracing 
 him to patriotism ; but his prevailing 
 purpose seems to have been to make 
 both his britons and his yankees as 
 unpleasant as possible. " [Atlantic. 408 
 ALTIORA PETO, [by Laurence 
 Oliphant: Harper, 1883.] '-There 
 are 2 iVmerican girls, one of whom is 
 a great heiress, and both of A\'hom 
 represent our glorious country by 
 great freedom of manner and lan- 
 guage, combined with that purity of 
 heart which in Mr. Oliphant's vue of 
 the world, the absence of convenfion- 
 
 112 
 
INTEEKATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 allty tends to produce. They have 
 with them a terrible old companion 
 or chaperon named Hannah, who talks 
 lilse something between a Maine Yan- 
 kee and Buffalo Bill. Her conversa- 
 tion, masculine as it is, does not inter- 
 fere with her having an excellent 
 heart. . . Americans who feel sore over 
 the way english writers misrepresent 
 american girls, may derive a good deal 
 of consolation from the way in which 
 Mr. Oliphant treats english society. 
 As depicted by him, it is a combination 
 of Bohemia and Botany-Bay. It is of 
 course closely connected with the 
 world of finance, Altiora herself be- 
 ing the victim of a stupendous fraud 
 perpetrated by her financial gardians. 
 We say the book is an extravaganza, 
 partly because of the burlesque charac- 
 ter of the situ.ations; but the author 
 calls it a novel, and j)erliaps it is as an 
 international novel that it will have to 
 bejudged." [Nation, 409 
 
 AMERICAN, The [by H: James : 
 Osgood. 1877.] "The hero, Chiistopher 
 Newman, a self-made Yankee who 
 has gathered a great fortune before 
 the age of 35, and gone to Paris to 
 spend it, naively resolves to take him 
 a wife out of the Faubourg St. Germain, 
 gets the entree in a sufficiently unlike- 
 ly manner to that difficult stronghold 
 and very nearly succeeds in carrying 
 out his project. His wife is in fact 
 promised him by her hi-bred and fas- 
 tidious family. But when these po- 
 tentates see an unexpected chance of 
 marying her to an imbecile Irish lord 
 they break their pledge. The passive 
 bride, whose heart had really been 
 won, has just spirit enuf to baffle them 
 by going into a convent." [Atlantic] 
 '■The story is naif in the extreme — 
 almost what a Frenchman would call 
 brutal in its simplicity. A rich, pros- 
 
 perous, ignorant, wandering ameri- 
 can, fresh from San-Francisco and 
 potential money-making, and entirely 
 unacquainted with fine society, finds 
 himself in Paris ; and after a few ad- 
 ventures ... he announces, with the 
 utmost frankness and sincerity, his 
 intentions in a more important matter. 
 . . . His confidence in himself, tho so 
 unjustifiable, has always a certain 
 nobleness in it ; and he is never vul- 
 gar, nor commonplace, nor petty, but 
 has in him a large and magnanimous 
 nature — something princely and fine, 
 notwithstanding the sharp limitations 
 of his expei'ienoe, his ignorance and 
 false security. The Old World crushes 
 the representative of the New. It 
 erects before him a cruel, incompre- 
 hensible barrier, and sucks the soul 
 out of him, and remorselessly cuts off 
 all his hopes. He is no match for it, 
 tho he thinks at first that he is far 
 more than a match. This is the way 
 in which aristocratic France deals 
 with the American. It baffles him, 
 confounds him, cuts off his ambition 
 and his ideal, and makes an end of 
 what was to have been so good — his 
 future, the reward of his exertions, 
 the fine dream upon which he had 
 concentrated all his hopes." [Black- 
 wood's. 410 
 ANDEOMEDA, [by "G: Flem- 
 iNG,"i.e., Julia [Constance] Fletcher) : 
 Boberts, 1885.] '-The story opens in 
 Tirol where, at the homely white- 
 washed inn, are staying a frank, care- 
 less, keen-witted young Englishman ; 
 his life-long friend and confidant, the 
 marquis of San-Donato ; the elderly, 
 winning Agatha Dillon, and her lii- 
 bred, undemonstrative, beautiful 
 young half-sister, Clara Dillon, who 
 is supposed by the marquis to repre- 
 sent 'a modern Andromeda, chained 
 
 113 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 to the rack of an impossible engage- 
 ment, and dependent altogether upon 
 the intervention of hi Heaven, and a 
 Perseus for release.' But the first 
 few chapters involve a singnificant 
 change of parts. Clare rejects the 
 suit of the handsome, vacuous Clay- 
 ton, and becomes the affianced of the 
 marquis, not because she loves him, 
 but because of her •nomanly admira- 
 tion for his noble character, and pity, 
 perhaps, for his lonely fate. . . . One 
 always feels sure of Lord Irwin's 
 rollicking good-nsiture and of the cold, 
 proud, stately Gina's innate selfishness 
 and incapacity for affection. And then 
 there are clever bits of portraiture like 
 that of the emancipated governess, 'a 
 short, compact, active, little english- 
 woman of 45, with brit eyes and 
 smooth sandy hair and a very red 
 face and throat,' who had come abroad 
 'to digest her liberty.' . . . And as a 
 back-ground to all these human in- 
 terests we have luminous pictures of 
 scenery among the mountains of 
 Tirol, or on the sun-scorched shores 
 of Italy. 'Andromeda' may not be 
 a great novel, but it vindicates thoroly 
 the author's aim, and is a work varied 
 in motive, fresh and original in con- 
 ception, strong and finely finished 
 in style." [Boston '-Lit. World."] 
 '•If Andromeda has more of pure 
 narrative and less of drama than 
 the author has accustomed us to ex- 
 pect from her, it is still a very touch- 
 ing story of self-sacrifice, wrot with 
 great delicacy. . . . The tale is roman- 
 tic, if one ijleases to use the f rase ; but 
 90 long as there is any ideal left to 
 human consciousness, hearts will thrill 
 with the admiration of hl-heartedness. 
 Besides, ''George Fleming" knows 
 the power of a wise restraint. To it 
 she owes the artistic perfection of her 
 
 pictures, and from it no less comes 
 her fine discrimination in moral forces. 
 The healthful atmosfere of the book 
 gives it an importance apart from its 
 literary merit. The chief situation is 
 the same that has oftenest been used 
 for evil example— a woman betrothed 
 to one man, but loving his friend, who 
 in turn loves her. That the author 
 has chosen to show how pure and 
 noble souls may save themselves in 
 such peril, is another welcome witness 
 against the theory that a story cannot 
 be vivid or exciting without the ap- 
 peal to the passions of sense." 
 [Nation. 411 
 
 ARCHIE LOVELL, [by Annie 
 Edwards: Church, 1867.] ''We all 
 love Archie, and our sympathies spon- 
 taneously adapt themselves to every 
 situation of the fresh, unconventional, 
 venturesome, and innocent girl, whose 
 wilfulness gives so much zest to her 
 personality. . . . What grace, what 
 playfulness, what nautiness, what 
 freshness in her character! What a 
 charming and fresh personality, what 
 lively naturalness, what pointed pro- 
 test against coarseness and awkward- 
 ness do you discover in the develoxJ- 
 ment of her nature! . . . 'Archie 
 Loveir is a faithful, a bi-illiant, a 
 varied picture of English men and 
 women, modified by Continental 
 [French] experience." [Galaxy. 412 
 
 AT CAPRI, [by "Carl Detlef," 
 i.e., Clara Bauer: Porter & Coates, 
 1875.] '-is remarkable for its skillful 
 portraiture of character. The hero, 
 a sober and learned professor, is 
 thrown into the society of a young 
 widow, the baroness Valmont, who is 
 described, with little exaggei-ation, as 
 'the most bewitching woman in the 
 world'. Despite his infatuation, he 
 clings to his studies, comforting him. 
 
 114 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 self with tlje belief that his passion is 
 reciprocated. Indeed, it seems to be, 
 for the baroness lavishes upon him the 
 wealth of a seemingly boundless atfec- 
 tion. At last comes to him a terrible 
 blow ; he learns that she is betrothed 
 and soon to be marled. . . The little 
 baroness is certainly one of the most 
 original characters we have met in 
 Action, and the history of her career, 
 if not instructive, is singularly enter- 
 taining. The sketches of life at Capri 
 — in the little colony of artists, and 
 among the peasants — are well drawn, 
 and the account of the tarantella is a 
 remarkable specimen of grafic descrip- 
 tion." [Boston '-Lit. World." 413 
 
 AT THE ELEVENTH HOUR 
 IPutnam, 1882] = BALLROOM Re- 
 pentance. 414 
 
 AT THE EED GLOVE, [by K.. 
 S. Macquoid: -Hoj-pe}-, 1885.] Altho 
 the scene is laid in Bern, it is a typical 
 french story of french people with 
 freneh ideas and characteristics, and 
 it is french as well in the symmetry 
 of Its arrangements and elfects and its 
 admirable technique. . . Everything 
 is progressing to Madame's content, 
 when a little convent-girl, Marie 
 Peyrolles, comes to Bern to live with 
 her aunt, a glove-seller, whose sign in 
 the Spitalgasse gives the name to the 
 story. It would be a difficult "matter 
 to find a prettier piece of comedy 
 than that which ensues upon Marie's 
 advent. It is all simple, spontaneous, 
 and, on the part of the actors, entirely 
 serious, yet the effect is delltfully 
 humorous. Bern, with its quaint, 
 arcaded streets, its Alpine vues, and 
 its suburban resorts, makes a capital 
 background, and gives the group free 
 play to meet all sorts of picturesque 
 opportunities. The story is told with- 
 out any straining after clima,xes, but 
 
 with many felicitous touches which 
 enhance the effect of every picture and 
 Incident." [Lippincott's.] "In skil- 
 ful simplicity of the plot-construc- 
 tion, in lltness of artistic touch as 
 exhibited in the delineation of charac- 
 ter, and in general literary excellence, 
 this is the most perfect and enjoyable 
 of Mrs. Macquoid's works. . . . 
 Madame Carouge is sometimes the 
 object of pity, and sometimes a sub- 
 ject of amusement, but never alto- 
 gether repellant. One's sympathy is, 
 indeed, enlisted on the side of the 
 heroine of the story — for such she is, 
 in spite of the rivalry of the timid, 
 pretty shop-girl — in the opening chap- 
 ters, in which she is found united in a 
 loveless mariage of convenience to 
 Carouge. He dies when she is but 28. 
 'Ah ! but after all, I do not owe him 
 much,' the beautiful woman said ; -he 
 has wasted my youth. I am 28, and 
 I have not yet begun to live.' But 
 she has read and dreamed; and an 
 ideal lover is one of the inhabitants 
 of her dreamland. . . . But Mrs. Mac- 
 quoid may be forgiven any weakness 
 in her portrait of Madame Carouge, 
 for having given us Captain Loigerot, 
 so ridiculous in love, so poihpous in 
 manner, and yet withal so magnani- 
 mous a gentleman. When he discovers 
 how the land lies between Rudolf and 
 Marie, he not only retires from the 
 field with dignity, but he becomes the 
 chief agent in promoting their happi- 
 ness. One is pleased to see him, in 
 the last chapter, taking so kindly to 
 the r61e of god-father to the children 
 of the woman he loved sincerely after 
 his fashion. If 'At the Red Glove' 
 were merely a good comedy, it would 
 merit very hi praise. But it is some- 
 thing more and better."[Speetator.415 
 AUNT SERENA [by B. W. 
 
 115 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 (p;owAiSD) Teufel: Osgood, 18S1.] 
 '•is a stoiy of very unequal merit. In 
 'Aunt Serena' we have a picture of a 
 very sweet woman. . . . She takes her 
 beautiful niece to Europe. There, in 
 [Stuttgart], Kose meets the hero, 
 a man of talent, handsome and rich. 
 It is a very natural, straitf orward love- 
 story to its climax while listening to 
 'Lohengrin.' It would have been far 
 better if that had been the end, for 
 what comes after is as unnatui'al as it 
 is unpleasant. A lady whom Sidney 
 Bruce had once known. If not loved, 
 presents herself upon her own invita- 
 tion, at Aunt Serena's party for Kose's 
 birthday. She is a figure now familiar 
 to commonplace, the Circe of the Cleo- 
 patra pattern. The author endows 
 her witli every charm of person and 
 manner, especially the latter, and 
 yet on the next page she does that for 
 which 'repulsive' is only the mildest 
 word that can be used. Speaking 
 generally of the book, the fine New 
 England types in it did not need as a 
 foil the narrow walls of a German 
 pension, with its petty, gossiping 
 life, and occupants not only mean but 
 stupid." [jSTation. 416 
 
 BABYLON, [by [C:] Grant [Blair- 
 findel] Allen: Appleto7i, 1885.] 
 '•His theme is simple and manageable 
 — a faruier's boy in Western New- 
 York, and a peasant boy in England, 
 one of whom has a native genius for 
 painting and the other for sculpture ; 
 and the steps by which they escape the 
 bonds of circumstance, get to Rome, 
 where they meet, and win fame and 
 their sweethearts. In an affectionate 
 and somewhat naive way, which be- 
 guiles the reader to lay aside critical 
 judgment and enter into the spirit of 
 the thing with him, he follows his 2 
 lads along, as also the little peasant 
 
 girl whom he has destined for the young 
 sculptor." [Overland. 417 
 
 BALLROOM REPENTANCE, A 
 [by Annie Edwards: Bentley and 
 Tauchnitz, 1882.] ■•Whoever has the 
 patience to persevere beyond the first 
 100 pages will find himself, to his sur- 
 prise, rewarded. The component 
 parts of the novel — scheming mothers, 
 weak dauters. dissipated heroes, gam- 
 blers and gaming-tables — are so essen- 
 tially poor, and the style at first so 
 low in tone, that it is surprising to 
 find how good a story is developed 
 from the material. Peihaps the main 
 point to be noted is that it is interest- 
 ing: but the novelist is certainly not 
 devoid of power who can create a hero 
 with glaring faults and a heroine with 
 decided weaknesses, yet interest us in 
 both and prevent us from despising 
 either." [Critic] See '•At the 
 Eleventh Hour." 418 
 
 BEATRICE [by Jdlia Kava- 
 NAGH: Appleton, 18G5.] '•is spirited, 
 full of incident, written with correct- 
 ness and grace, and ornamented with 
 tasteful pen-and-ink sketches of love- 
 ly scenery." [Nation. 419 
 
 BELINDA, [by Rhoda Brocgh- 
 ton: Appleton, 1883.] Scene in 
 Dresden. "The author can be re- 
 freshingly funny, and the spritly sal- 
 lies of the shrewd, good-natured, 
 coarsely-ironical Sarah almost always 
 excite spontaneous latter. In the 
 range of current lit literature, it would 
 be hard to find truer sketches from 
 nature than Sarah, her grandmother, 
 andher-dogs. Here Miss Broughton 
 forgets to try to be wise and deep, 
 and is genuinely trivial, genuinely 
 worldly, almost as genuinely vulgar. 
 And on comp.aring 'Belinda' with the 
 author's earlier productions, it will be 
 seen that she has reached that stage 
 
 U6 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 of growth which recognizes self-limi- 
 tations, and has confined her attempts 
 at wisdom and profundity to occas- 
 sional abstract reflections, for origina- 
 ting which the most spiteful of us 
 will not hold her responsible, She 
 has cultivated a fine feeling for nature, 
 too, and sets her scenes effectively." 
 [Nation. 420 
 
 BEYOND RECALL, [by Ade- 
 line Sergeant: Holt, 1883.] 
 '•Another novel of the refined and 
 agreeable sort. It has eminently the 
 air of unaffectedly good society. Its 
 ladies are all more or less winning, its 
 gentlemen are gentlemen in spite of the 
 weaknesses of the lover. . . . The lo- 
 cality of the story is Eamleh, a subur- 
 ban village a few miles from Alexan- 
 dria, whither the gentlemen go to 
 business and the ladies shopping, by 
 a little local train. There is something 
 really fascinating in the little english 
 colony, with its social gayeties. its 
 friendly, informal spirit, its sensible 
 business men, its tropical gardens, 
 and its desert — more beautiful than 
 dreary^stretching around it. The 
 inexhaustible quaintness of the con- 
 trasting life of ancient Egypt, so 
 harmoniously flowing togethei'. sup- 
 plies one source of unfailing interest 
 throuout the book; however other 
 points fail to intei'est, one feels that 
 he knows Ramleh ; it remains among 
 his mental pictures; he even feels 
 attached to the village, as its people 
 did. The Egyptian politics, too, and 
 the culmination of the narrative in 
 the Alexandrian massacre, are in- 
 teresting, and free from the sensation- 
 al — as also, it must be admitted, from 
 the thrilling." [Overland. 421 
 
 BLEDISLOE [ by Ada M. Trot- 
 ter: Cupples. 1887.] ''is an attrac- 
 tive story of the invasion of a sleepy 
 
 english village by 2 brit american 
 girls, who win friends and lovers, 
 find a great deal to criticise, institute 
 some piquant comparisons and on the 
 whole have a thoroly good time. 
 Aunt Pen, a charming old maid; Bet, 
 a quaint serving-woman ; the hand- 
 some, selfish, sport-loving rector, who 
 wishes to clear himself of debts by 
 raarying his beautiful dauter; Keith, 
 a proud, austere, athletic artist in love 
 with Efiie ; Kent Beresford, a gruff, 
 good-hearted, many-sided lawyer ; 
 these are among the leading charac- 
 ters. The author has .in easy style ; 
 and her humor is fresh and invigor- 
 ating." [ Boston "Lit. World." 422 
 
 BLUE-STOCKING. A [by Annie 
 Edwards : Sheldon, 1877.] "The 
 heroine of the story is Daphne Ches- 
 ter, a young widow with a child, who, 
 living a secluded life in Jersey, was 
 in her extreme youth led into mariage 
 with a good-for-naut, who deserted 
 her, and died miserably, relieving her 
 of an intolei'able burden. She lives 
 with 3 maiden aunts at an old farm, 
 and is oppressed by the nionotoni'- of 
 her existence. . . For Daphne is very 
 beautiful in the fair, golden-haired, 
 Venus style. Rarely have the person- 
 al charms of a fair woman been more 
 deftly set forth — rather indicated than 
 described — in any of the many novels 
 of the day. "VVe feel rather than see 
 that she must have been enchanting." 
 [Galaxy. 423 
 
 BOURBON LILIES [byE.. [J—] 
 (Williams) Champney : Lockwood, 
 Brooks & Co.. 1878.] "is a particular- 
 ly graceful and finished little story, 
 showing much tenderness of feeling 
 and liveliness of mind. The scenery 
 and characters are almost exclusively 
 french." [Atlantic] "With the best 
 side of artist life in Paris, Mrs. Champ- 
 
 117 
 
rSTERNATIOXAL NOVELS. 
 
 ney is familiar ; and her stoiy. -nhich 
 is rather a sketch than a romance, 
 presents an agreeable picture of some 
 fases of that life. . . . The narrative 
 is enriched by legendary tales of the 
 locality. [Sundaj- Afternoon. 424 
 BUXDLE OF LETTERS. A. [by 
 H: Jajies.] . . . "In "The Europeans.' 
 'A Bundle of Letters' and "The Pen- 
 sion Beaurepas' one and the same 
 attempt is made to exhibit the whole- 
 some simplicity, the fresh, instinctive. 
 native virtue, of the american types 
 in contrast with the satisfaction, con- 
 ventionality, and lower moral ideas 
 and standards of the european. And 
 that these qualities are represented as 
 co-existing with other less desirable 
 and admirable characteristics — with 
 the narrow-mindedness of a Puritan 
 family and the vulgarity of noiiveaux- 
 riches tourists — merely proves the 
 fidelity of 3Ir. James' observation, 
 and gives to his creations the stamp 
 of genuine reality. The failure of the 
 Wentworth family to comprehend the 
 baroness Eugenia is a testimony to 
 their simple-minded purity of thot; 
 and the inefifeetual endeavor of Miss 
 Aurora Church to conduct herself like 
 one american-born tho european-bred 
 brings into relief the sincerity and 
 straitforwardness as well as the ple- 
 beian breeding of iliss Sophie Euck. 
 The fact that this purity and sincerity 
 of nature are attributed to persons 
 whom we recognize as 'common". — 
 low-placed in the social scale, is what 
 makes Mr. James' compliment to his 
 country the more significant : these 
 virtues, he implies, are every-day vir- 
 tues among us americans ; we take 
 them as matters-of-course. unaware 
 how precious they are and how far 
 from being the current of social life 
 in other countries." [Corres. Boston 
 
 '•Lit. "World." 425 
 
 BY THE TIBER, see Romantic 
 
 XOVELS. 
 
 CABIX AXD GOXDOLA [by C. 
 DVNXIXG [Wood] : Harper, 1886.] 
 '•contains several short stories, which 
 all show originality and vei-satility, 
 and strength both of conception and 
 st^-le. They are of every variety, 
 and all are good." [Critic] ••It 
 takes 11 tales to fill out the 200 pages, 
 and, as a rule, they are quite short, 
 airy, and lit; yet they strike one as 
 being more than sketches, after all. 
 Whatever may be the facts in the case. 
 one feels in reading them that they 
 were not dashed ofi" with recklessness ; 
 the}" seem to show the finishing marks 
 of a careful hand. It is entirely to 
 this finish of form and an engaging 
 delicacy of style that the stories owe 
 their charm, for there is nothing strik- 
 ingly original about them. . . . The 
 author's fondness for making a plot 
 of the simplest materials and for 
 turning the story on the very slltest 
 incidents is noticeable throuout. and 
 one finds one's self wondering, when 
 the volume is put aside, what there 
 was in it that interested him ; but the 
 interest is there, nevertheless.'' 
 [XatioD. 428 
 
 CAPTAIX MAXSAXA. [by Bjorn- 
 sox : Houghton, 1SS2.] ■•In -Captain 
 Mansana' the most considerable and 
 by far the most powerful story of the 
 3. Mr. Bjornson takes an Italian sub- 
 ject, the love history of a man whose 
 presence of mind, courage, love of 
 honor, whose fysical strength and 
 energ}'. dexterity and shrewdness, 
 rouse to the hiest pitch our expecta- 
 tions as to his future possibilities, but 
 at the same time fill us with solicitude. 
 The central scene in this singularly 
 simple but intensely dramatic narra- 
 
 US 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 tive is Mansana's conquest of the 
 affections of the piincess Theresa 
 Leaney under the advantage of a terri- 
 ble railway accident, in which the 
 lover's strength and prowess complete- 
 ly vanquish the lady's heart. . . . Man- 
 Sana's is a wild and tumultuous nature, 
 and after this his heart is touched for 
 a moment throu sympathy, by a young 
 girl. But Theresa follows him. re- 
 covers him to loyalty, and the story 
 leaves them happily mailed in Hun- 
 gary." [Boston "Lit. World." 427 
 CAELINO [by Giovakni [Dom- 
 ENICO] Edffini : Lippincott. 1870.] 
 "is nothing but the story of how a 
 simple and affectionate joung Italian, 
 in the quality of servant, subdues the 
 pride of an aristocratic master, and 
 becomes, in the baron's despite, his 
 sole support and most loved and val- 
 ued friend. . . . When the Baron is 
 thrown from his horse and made a 
 cripple for life, he remembers with 
 meekness and longing this despised 
 friend, and for the lest the story is 
 the account of their affectionate asso- 
 ciation. But it is full of charming 
 slietches of French and Italian charac- 
 ters and manners ; and tho it is brief, 
 yet if it is really the business of an 
 author to make his reader happier and 
 desirous of being better, then Mr. 
 Eufflni has here achieved success not 
 surpassed by that of any other of his 
 very delTtful books. We do not mean 
 to hint that the little story is artisti- 
 cally defective ; on the contrary it is 
 the best literature, and of a kind of 
 fiction, — simple, direct, and confident, 
 like that of Auerbach, Bjornson, and 
 Erckmann-Chatrian.-^which no one 
 born to speak english has yet had the 
 courage to attempt, tho it is evident 
 that nothing pleases english-readers 
 better." [Atlantic. 428 
 
 CHOISY. [by James P. SioRr: 
 Osgood, 1872.] "The chief charm of 
 this story is in its representations of 
 Parisian life, which surpass in spirit 
 and realism anything we have lately 
 read. The reader finds it hajd to be- 
 lieve that they are not the woik of a 
 Parisian. The picture of Paris on 
 race-day is marvellously vivid: and, 
 in a dozen sentences, the author makes 
 us at home in the Latin Quarter. To 
 the opera, the famous caf 6s, the Jockey 
 Club, the Mabille — indeed, to almost 
 every theatre of -fast' life in Paris — 
 he is a cicerone of few but sufficient 
 words, who knows whereof he speaks, 
 and is never tedious. The two best 
 characters in the book are Jack Somers 
 and Nina Choisy ; Charley Wales 
 represents the average 'fast' young 
 man, and Huntley is cast In a mold 
 that has been worn out in fiction. 
 Someis is a spring of perennial delit; 
 he never opens his mouth but to 
 amuse the reader, and his character is 
 a problem which one never grows 
 weary in studying. Of Nina Choisy 
 we can say only that her loveliness of 
 person and manner go as far toward 
 excusing Charley's sin as any merely 
 human considerations could do; the 
 reader admires while he blames her, 
 and pities the fair young girl whom 
 cruel fate has made the wife of an 
 imbecile old man. and whose untutored 
 heart yields itself at the first master- 
 ful summons. We have read many 
 better american novels, but not one 
 of more absorbing interest. It deals, 
 as we have said, with very prepossess- 
 ing varieties of vice; but thotful 
 readers, who apprehend the real sig- 
 nificance of Charley's sufferings and 
 of Nina's melancholy career, will find 
 in it a moral lesson which gains im- 
 pressiveness from the medium in 
 
 119 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 CHEVALIER OF PEXSIERI-VAXI 
 (The), [liy H: B. FULLKR: Boston, 
 Ciij>ples, 1S91.] '-It is always pleasant to 
 wander in spirit over a lantl so full of 
 beauty ami <o replete with historical and 
 artistie interest as Italy with an author 
 who knoes and appreciates it thoroly. 
 The book is a record of the wanderings 
 of a dilettante in the fine arts in pursuit 
 of rare expressions of genius. He 
 searches for relics in Etruscan tfimbs 
 only to be ashamed of his vandalism in 
 removing them ; he pursues a Perugino all 
 over Italy, only to find at Pisa that it is 
 not a Perugino at all but something rarer 
 stil — a Sodonia ; he looks for traces of the 
 Goths in Ravenna, and comes away con- 
 tent with bits of mosaic; and he rum- 
 mages in musty liookstalls in ^'enice in 
 the hope of finding an Aldine which 
 might hav been overlooked by the con- 
 noisseurs. The topics ar all handled in 
 a very graceful manner, touched by lov- 
 ing lingers trained to a perfect apprecia- 
 tion of the happiness to be obtained in 
 and throu them. Any one to whom the 
 beauty and interest in such things appeal 
 wil derive considerable enjoyment from 
 this little book, which ci5vers ground he 
 has probably gone over himself and to 
 which he is never loath tij return." 
 [Critic] — "The Chevalier's emotions ar 
 of the kind which should stir responsiv 
 thrills in the breast of the sentimental 
 traveler whose tastes tend tij art and 
 archseology, and Aldine imprints, and the 
 like. The author's descriptiv art is 
 pleasantly revealed in these sketches, tho 
 the persons introduced in a somewhat 
 discursiv narrativ ar closely vailed and 
 make a vague she. The Prorege of 
 
 Arcopia, the Duke of Avon, the agreeable 
 Contessa, Pensieri-Vani himself, ar mys- 
 terious, possibly illustrious Incogniti. 
 But most of UM hav met Occident, the 
 young untraveled American." [ Satur- 
 day Review.] — "The appearance of the 
 book with an additional chapter is very 
 welcome to those who hav made the 
 chevalier's acquaintance, and attbnU a fit 
 occasion for recommending him to those 
 who do not yet kno him as a charming 
 traveling companion: one traverses with 
 him a country too wel knon to be 
 regarded as a sho, but so loved that its 
 ex'ery road is fruitful of pleasure. Yet 
 delightful as the Italian atmosphere is, and 
 accomplished an interpreter as Mr. Fuller 
 i-i, his delicate satire so insinuates itself 
 throu the reader's mind that the very 
 marked style which challenges, and gets 
 his continual admiration along the way, 
 finally seems to exi^t in order to empha- 
 size the significance of the cavaliere's title. 
 It is true that we ar warned against tak- 
 ing things too seriously; we ar advised to 
 accept the cavaliere "as he is." And in- 
 deed th^re is no other way to take him ; 
 notwithstanding which one feels a half 
 humorous pity as one leaves the lonely 
 little dilettante with nothing in particular 
 to justify his existence, and the sense of 
 the fact irretrievably lodged beneath the 
 sensations of his passing h(Sur. And then 
 on the other hand, young Mr. Occident 
 and the extraordinary young woman who 
 givs up a public singer's cause to go home 
 with him to Shelby county, — thSy, too, 
 may hav thSir vain regrets later, and the 
 po^^ible prima donna wil be almost sure to. 
 The book is an exquisit bit of literary 
 work." f Springfield Republican. 428 s 
 
 119 r 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 COSMOPOUS. [by Paul Boukget: 
 N.-Y., 37. ,7. /cere, 341 pp., T((lt & Co., 
 343 pp., WaverUl Co., 341 pp., 1893.] 
 The sogiety described "is a group eora- 
 prisiuif several nationalities, and abiding 
 in Koine. It is the very best society, so 
 far as birth and wealth and the cultivation 
 of the world can malie the best. The au- 
 thor's serious motiv is to prove tlie per- 
 manenge of race; his hypothesis being 
 that, in moments of passion, when a man's 
 nature is deeply touched, ragial traits wil 
 sho . . . But thfire ar many moments when 
 his grSat creativ skil relegates theory to 
 oblivion, and these ar the moments when, 
 having reflected, we find that the theory 
 has been most cleverly elucidated. The 
 Countess Steno, and the wife of Boleslas 
 Gorlia, ar drawn with extraordinary forge 
 and finish . . . Two such characters 
 giv a novel literary distinction; and 
 a half dozen more, done with almost 
 equal understanding, truth, and par- 
 ticularity, confer fame." [Nation.] 
 — "By laying the scene in Rome, Mr. 
 Bourget is enabled to bring into close 
 relations a group of men and women who 
 differ widely both in thi?ir characteristics 
 and in th^ir artistic value. Some of them 
 strike us as old acquaintanges; the clever 
 and unscrupulous Jewish financier who 
 has set his heart on marrying his angelic 
 dauter to a once rich Roman noble, re- 
 duced to trading on a grSat name ; the 
 good-natured and cynical French writer 
 who wil do anything for his friends ex- 
 gept put himself to inconvenienge; the 
 American brother and sister with a faint 
 tinge of negro blood and the traditional 
 virtues and viges of the slave, — all these. 
 
 altho thSy play important parts, ar in 
 themsi'Ivs but supernumeraries. Four 
 people, however, take the stage by right — 
 the Countess Steno, the Marquis de Mont- 
 fanon, Boleslas Gorka and his English 
 wife. Caterina Steno, the descendant of 
 a long line of noble Venetians, reverts 
 directly to a type familiar to those who 
 kno anything of the social life of Venice 
 in the last century. She has many vir- 
 tues, few meannesses, and no morals in 
 our sense. She is generous, aficctionate 
 after her fashion, brave enuf to play for 
 hi stakes, and loyal while she loves. She 
 does not cheat herself, nor lie, from 
 choige, to others, and her nervs ar as 
 strong as her passions. From a moral 
 point of vue she is, of course, wholly to 
 be condemned, but looked at artistically, 
 she givs a degree of the same pleasure 
 which one feels before a portrait by 
 Tiziano of some woman who may hav 
 wrung hearts and ruined lives in her day, 
 but whose beauty is immortal and irre- 
 sponsible. The character of Maud Gorka 
 is much simpler. Mari'ied to a Pole 
 whom she dearly loves, her honest Eng- 
 lish nature has always suffered vaguely 
 from the subtle and tortuous element in- 
 herent in the Slavonic rages, and when 
 the tragedy comes which wrecs her hap- 
 piness, she behaves with a strict justige 
 and somewhat hard nobility which we 
 feel to be the only course possible to her. 
 The contrast of these two women is im- 
 mensely effectiv, and not too much 
 insisted upon, for Bourget has a keen 
 sense of what is called, in the slang of 
 another art, "values." " [Critic. 431 p 
 
 120 r 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 •which it is conveyed." [Boston "Lit. 
 World." 429 
 
 CHEIS. [by W: E : NOERIS : 31ac- 
 millan, 1888.] '-Here a^e emotional 
 incidents in plenty, but all is sweet 
 and biit, and, as we may say, above- 
 boaid. No shame either to character 
 or intelligence to have this pretty tale 
 on one's table, or to put it in the hands 
 of one's growing dauter. 'Chris' is 
 delltful." [American.] — "Mr. Norris 
 has written another entertaining story, 
 fresM, clean and readable. It is all 
 about a young english girl left an 
 orfan at Cannes, and sent to live 
 with an eccentric and miserly old 
 aunt in London. Three lovers gather 
 round her. two for her worth and one 
 for her money, and the course of the 
 story finds its interest in her parries 
 and thrusts in dealing with these 
 lovers, only one of whom deserves 
 her. Mr. Norris is a lit and pleasant 
 writer, with a vein of humor and a 
 knack for character drawing." Boston 
 "Literary World." 430 
 
 CONFIDENCE, [by H: James: 
 Houghton, 1880.] "As a bit of what 
 may be called social imagination, the 
 story is deserving of hi praise. Fiom 
 very slender materials Mr. James has 
 woven a complicated plot about the 
 distinctly defined heroes and heroines, 
 and the ins and outs of the game form 
 as entertaining a book as one can care 
 to read. The main hero, Bernard Lon- 
 gueville, is the thotful. clever fellow, 
 the observer, who is not uncommonly 
 found in Mr. James' stories ; and we 
 have, too, a new specimen of the 
 large class of chattering American 
 girls, one Blanche Evers, whose art- 
 less prattle is capitally given. The 
 other heroine is of sterner stuff, a 
 really serious character, and her 
 mother is the well-known American 
 
 matron, who when well on in years 
 does her hair in as complicated invo- 
 lutions as if she weie a girl in her 
 teens. The relations in which these 
 people stand to one another are suffi- 
 ciently intricate, and their social skir- 
 mishing does them credit. The chief 
 heroine. Angela, plays her part with 
 especial skill; her swift comprehen- 
 sion of the position in which she is 
 placed in regard to the two men — 
 which should serve against those 
 unhealthy alliances — and her handling 
 of the tangled threads at the end of 
 the book are certainly entertaining 
 reading." Scene: Siena & Baden. 
 [Atlantic. 431 
 
 DAISY MILLER, [by H : James : 
 Harper. 1879.] "The story of Daisy 
 Miller has a different motif from 
 the others. It is a purely american 
 picture; and the strange, beautiful, 
 dainty, innocent, and very foolish 
 little american girl, with her ignorant 
 defiance of all rules, is criticised and 
 condemned by americans abroad, not 
 by the society native to the places 
 which she scandalises. The wonder- 
 ful mother, and still more wondei'ful 
 little boy. are figures which must be 
 quite familiar to every frequenter of 
 f orein hotels ; but we nevei' met any- 
 thing so daring as Daisy herself. The 
 end of the story is unnecessarily 
 tragic. The poor little pretty trifler 
 mit surely have been shipped home to 
 Schenectady, and let off with her life.'-' 
 [Blackwood's. 432 
 
 DANGEROUS GUEST. A [by H: 
 Jackson: Harper, 1870.] "is a very 
 entertaining novel, the 'dangerous 
 guest' being a charming young f rench 
 girl, and the danger a wedding, 
 which despite the gardian care of 
 some officious intermeddlers, is con- 
 summated at the end of the story. 
 
 120 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOyELS. 
 
 The experiences of the f rench family 
 in England are very happily sketch- 
 ed, and the character of Josephine is a 
 very fascinating one." [Harper's. 433 
 
 DIANA WENTWOETH. [by Caro- 
 line Fothergill: Harpei\ 18S8.] 
 '■What would the english lady novel- 
 ist do without the english governess, 
 her woes, her trials, and hertriumfs? 
 •Diana Wentworth' is but a new vari- 
 ation on the old theme. Jacewo, a 
 dull little town in Posen, is her Vil- 
 lette, and John Garth waite, an english 
 civil-engineer employed on a new rail- 
 road between Jacewo and Berg, takes 
 the role of the burly young f ysician of 
 C. Bronte's books. That this book 
 suggests the comparison Is certainly 
 a point in its favor. The characters 
 are well-drawn, and the country, we 
 believe, is virgin soil in english fiction. 
 The fact that everyone except the 
 heroine and her lover are 'just hateful' 
 is. of course, quite in the style of this 
 sort of novel, and rather adds to the 
 interest." [Critic. 434 
 
 DOCTOR ANTONIO, [by Giovan- 
 ni [D.] KuFFiNi: Edinburgh, Con- 
 stable,— S.-Y., Budd,\mO.\ "But the 
 true and touching interest of the story 
 would carry a reader throu a much 
 heavier medium ; indeed, except that 
 they interrupt the flow of the narra- 
 tive, the details are not devoid of an 
 interest of their own. Lucy is one of 
 of the most charming impersonations 
 of an english girl we have met in the 
 course of many novels. The outline 
 of the story is simple; it derives its 
 charm from the grace and delicacy 
 with which the details are filled in, 
 and the stiong individuality inpressed 
 upon every point of character, scenery 
 or incident. The character of Sir 
 John Davenne is an admiiable little 
 bit of comedy, and there is a dash of 
 
 121 
 
 genuine, graceful fun about it, that 
 could scarcely have been given from 
 an english point of vue. The gradual 
 melting away of all the dear, proud, 
 stiff' old baronet's prejudices, and the 
 consequent fair play that is given to 
 his best qualities, and his gradual con- 
 version to his dauter's faith in Doctor 
 Antonio, is charming. — and so is the 
 happy pastoral life they all lead dur- 
 ing Lucy's convalescence." [Athen- 
 aeum. 435 
 DE. JACOB [by Matilda [Bar- 
 bara] Betham Edwards : London, 
 1864 ; Boberts, 1868.] "is a story which 
 partakes somewhat of the style of the 
 German novelists without their ex- 
 treme tediousness. It represents cer- 
 tain fases of life which afford but 
 little scope for uovelty or adventure, 
 but which nevertheless call out what- 
 ever there is of good or bad, of pas- 
 sionate or enthusiastic, in the nature 
 of every one. . . . Dr. Jacob is the 
 central figure to which all the others 
 are subordinate ; one of the most 
 skillfully drawn, original, and un- 
 satisfactory characters we have ever 
 met. A man of brilliant attainments, 
 not bad at heart, but seemingly de- 
 void of principle, with a profound 
 appreciation of all that is good in 
 others, and trusting to his intellectual 
 strength to keep him from the conse- 
 quences of his errors. Tho 60 years 
 of age, his attractions are so great that 
 he wins the love of a yery young girl, 
 whose affection is displayed with such 
 artless simplicity and yet with such 
 earnestness that we can scarcely blame 
 the doctor for lacking courage to re- 
 sist the temptation of loving in return. 
 . . . The scenes with poor little Kat- 
 chen are drawn with much delicacy 
 and are very touching. There is no 
 display of* remarkable power in any 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 portion of the book, but the interest 
 never flags, and altho it is not what 
 may be called a story with a bad end- 
 ing, yet the close of it is very unsatis- 
 factory." Scene is Frankfurt. 
 [Round Table. 438 
 
 DOCTOR'S DILEMMA, The [by 
 '■Hesba Stretton," i. e., Hunn.ih 
 Smith: Appleton, 1S72.'\ '-There is a 
 pleasing freshness in the plot of the 
 story, and its locale is comparatively 
 unfamiliar. It is well tho not bril- 
 liantly written . . . The French epi- 
 sode is exceptionally well told. Olivia, 
 in her second flit, obtains in London 
 a position as teacher in a school in 
 Trance. Going thither, she finds 
 that she has been deceived. — that the 
 pension is a myth, and she is left pen- 
 niless and friendless. Making her 
 way on foot toward the coast, she falls 
 into the hands of a kind curfi, remains 
 with him and his sister while a fever 
 desolates the town, nurses the sick, 
 and endears herself to all the villagers. 
 There her husband finds her. and there 
 he presently dies. This curii is one of 
 the most beautiful characters we have 
 met in fiction. But Tardiff'. the ruf 
 fisherman, loving Olivia with an ab- 
 sorbed and undying love, yet recog- 
 nizing his unworthiness, and content 
 to serve her for no reward beyond a 
 smile or a kind word, — Tardif is the 
 britest gem. The peculiarities of 
 life in the Channel Islands are 
 felicitously set forth, and the grand 
 scenery of that region receives appro- 
 priate recognition. The book is 
 pure in tone and elevating in its influ- 
 ence." [Boston --Lit. World." 437 
 
 DORA, [by Jclia Kavanagh: 
 Appleton, 1868.] '-Reverse of fortune 
 induced the family to seek retirement 
 and economy at Rouen, where Dora's 
 life began in earnest. . . . The quiet 
 
 life of a mediaeval lady was not for 
 Dora; she set about work in earnest, 
 and in the pursuit of artistic labor she 
 encountered one who was to become 
 the arbiter of her future destiny . . . 
 Richard Templemore, a widower, is a 
 finely-drawn character ; his intellects 
 ual superiority, fine taste and hi moral 
 tone are not inconsistent with the 
 weakness he displays in matters of the 
 heart. The situation of a man bound 
 to one woman by gratitude and to 
 another by love — under obligations to 
 the superior, but attracted to the in- 
 ferior by an uncontrollable passion — 
 is not uncommon in life.'' [Round 
 Table. 438 
 
 ELEANOR MAITLAND [by Cla- 
 ra (Erskine) (Clement) Waters : 
 Osgood^ 1881.] '-brings home an anier- 
 ican woman traveling in Germany, 
 followed by a titled german. who 
 wooes her amid diplomatic scenes in 
 WasMngton, finally to win her in 
 the face of his mother the countess. 
 The heroine, a widow whose only mis- 
 take in life was her first mariage to a 
 man she did not love, approaches very 
 near to being that rare character — the 
 perfect woman ... It is a work full of 
 thot, wit, beauty, and refinement ; the 
 pen has scarcely made one false stroke 
 in it throuout ; and the book will give 
 almost unalloyed enjoyment to a wide 
 circle of readers." [Boston "Lit. 
 World." 439 
 
 ELIANE [by Pauline (La Fer- 
 RONNAYS) Craven : Gottsberger. 1882.] 
 '-is a quiet story of french country 
 life with a number of interesting char- 
 acters, with pleasant sketches of 
 social ways, and with just enuf inci- 
 dent to sustain the somewhat undue 
 tendency to sentimentality which 
 crops up now and then, but is general- 
 ly repressed before great harm is done 
 
 122 
 
INTEENATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 to the reader's sensibilities . . . Eliane 
 is made unhappy, and Raynold de 
 Limings led to a mesalliance by the 
 obstinacy of the latter's mother, on 
 the other hand Blanche takes the man 
 chosen for her and is more than con- 
 tent." [Boston "Lit. World." 440 
 
 ERLACH COURT [by "Ossip 
 SCHUBiN," i. e. Lola Kurschner: 
 Lippincott, 1889.] ''is an excellent 
 spot for two of the subordinate char- 
 acters, a husband and wife who have 
 been indifferent to each other during 
 nine years of marled life, to fall deep- 
 ly in love with one another ; but the 
 fortunes of the pretty little heroine 
 are luckily soon transplanted to 
 Paris, and the proper sentimental 
 climax is reached, after,a due number 
 of obstacles have been overcome. 
 The brisk, gay Parisian atmosfere 
 makes a very pleasant antidote to ger- 
 man sentiment, and several of the 
 characters who are involved In the 
 history of Stella's fortunes are sketch- 
 ed with humor and vivacity. The 
 hero is somewhat less terrible than 
 most german heroes. He is 35, and 
 of course gray, and has the interest- 
 ing temperament which seems to be 
 always associated with premature 
 grayness. Without, he is all indiffer- 
 ence, within, all ardor, and we leave 
 the pretty young heroine at last in his 
 hands with entire confidence. The 
 telling of the tale goes easily and 
 smoothly, and we are sure that most 
 girls under 20 and women over 50 will 
 pronounce it 'a very pretty story'. 
 [American. 441 
 
 ERNEST CARROLL [by H: Grekn- 
 OUGH : Ticktior, 1859.] "is not so 
 much a novel as a narrative, pleas- 
 antly unfolded, with much anecdote, 
 many choice bits of art-gossip and 
 descriptions of life and scenery in Italy 
 
 and Austria." [Religious Mag. . 442 
 
 ESAU RUNS WICK. [ Putnam, 
 1882.] An abridged and altered edi- 
 tion of A Faithful Lover. 443 
 
 ESTELLE RUSSELL [ by M.. A. 
 Olney : Harper, 1870.) "is a uniformly 
 readable novel. Its scene is laid, for 
 the most part, in Toulouse, and the 
 author gives us some delTtf ul pictures 
 of society among the french Protest- 
 ants of that famous town. [Boston 
 '•Lit. World." 444 
 
 ESTHER'S FORTUNE. [ by Lucy 
 Cecilia (White) (Lillie) Hakte: 
 Porter & Coaies, 1889.] -'Our 
 sympathies are awakened at the out- 
 set in favor of the dejected-looking 
 american girl of 18, left alone in a 
 Munich apartment with a hired 
 piano, a porcelain stove, a small bed 
 with a suffocating coverlet, a single 
 roll of bread, and empty pockets. 
 This is Esther Bradford; the story is 
 of 'Esther's Fortune.' Miss Esther 
 finds friends in need among the Munich 
 professors, good-hearted fellows soak- 
 ed in music, beer, and human kind- 
 ness. A Miss Lisle takes her to 
 London as 'companion'. Here she 
 makes the acquaintance of many 
 pleasant people and places, is lionized 
 as a singer and discovers hitherto 
 unknown' relatives. She helps to 
 start homes for poor girls in the 
 metropolis, falls in love with and 
 maries a celebrated scientist, and bids 
 us adieu in a fine, old-fashioned gar- 
 den, holding our sympathy to the 
 last." [Critic. 445 
 
 EUNICE LATHROP, SPINSTER 
 [ by Annette Lucille Noble : Put- 
 nam, 1882.] "is clever and amusing. 
 The spinster heroine is a jolly little 
 woman, kindly affectioiied towards 
 most of the human race, and as unlike 
 the typical 'old maid' as possible. . . 
 
 123 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 A good story, told in an unusually brtt 
 and pleasant manner." [Penn Month- 
 ly.] "Eunice Lathrop has some inci- 
 dents so sensational that we should 
 have passed it by but for the very pret- 
 ty sketching in the earlier chapters. 
 The pictures of the life of the country 
 minister and his dauter are very deli- 
 cate." [Nation.] "It has a Massa- 
 chusetts beginning and end ; a London 
 middle; an Atlantic voyage; a selfish 
 man between 2 lovely women, who 
 could be happy with either were 
 t'other dear charmer away; a silent 
 lover, who comes into his inheritance 
 only on the last page, and an english 
 widow who dies abruptly of a pistol 
 shot under circumstances which point 
 to a murder and nearly get the halter 
 around an innocent man's neck. There 
 is also the 'widow's' whimsical found- 
 ling, a very amusing creation with 
 old-fashioned ideas, blunt talk, and 
 Papistical devotions ; and Eunice 
 Lathrop. a knowing spinster of the 
 true New England type. The story 
 has originality, wit, vivacity, and well 
 drawn characters. The style is care- 
 less, however. . . There is nothing 
 better in the book than the chapters 
 describing Mrs. Cudlip's London 
 boarding-house, which are written 
 feelingly. The author's individuality 
 is marked ; a twinkle in her eye and a 
 droll inflection to her voice bring the 
 reader at once into a merry mood, and 
 she certainly amuses." [Boston "Lit. 
 World." 446 
 
 EUROPEANS. The [by H : James : 
 Houghton. 1878.] '-We have here a 
 brother and sister of mixed Swiss and 
 American parentage, who have pass- 
 ed all their lives (they are both in the 
 neborhood of 30) on the Continent. 
 The sister. Eugenia, has made a mor- 
 ganatic mariage with a German prince. 
 
 which the regning family desires to 
 annul ; and the brother, Felix, tho a 
 pleasant fellow and a clever artist, is 
 virtually a penniless adventurer; so 
 the two come to seek their fortune 
 among their american cousins. These 
 prove to be people of wealth and the 
 hiest respectability, living puritanical- 
 ly and yet with dignified abundance 
 at a fine old country-seat. 7J miles 
 from Boston, and the equable currents 
 of suburban life are of course terribly 
 disturbed by this unlooked-for f orein 
 irruption. In the end, Felix wins and 
 carries away to the Parisian heaven 
 the younger and more enterprising of 
 his pretty cousins ; while Eugenia, 
 after a course of the most finished 
 coquetiy with a gentleman retired from 
 the India trade, returns as she came. 
 [Atlantic] — "The picture of the 
 Wentworths, as a typical American 
 fiimily, is an achievement of gen- 
 ius, and is sufficient of itself to 
 lift the story into the domain of 
 genuine creative art . . . Equally 
 skilful in the execution and much 
 happier as a conception is the char- 
 acter of her brother, Felix Young — 
 American by parentage. European by 
 birth and nurture, and Bohemian by 
 profession and practice. He is the 
 apostle, exponent, type, and exemplar 
 of happiness as a creed and as a stand- 
 ard of conduct; and his influence 
 upon the story is similar to that of 
 a joyous smile upon a beautiful 
 human face. The contrast between 
 european and american life on their 
 moral side, as exemplified by the 
 baroness, is only hinted at by the 
 author; but we have reason to be 
 grateful for the protest which Felix 
 Young embodies against the ascetic 
 ideals, the hyper-puritanic standards, 
 the strained conscientiousness, and 
 
 124 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 the distrust of everything wliieh takes 
 the semblance of pleasure for pleas- 
 ure's sake, which make american life, 
 in spite of a certain austere nobleness 
 and purity, the most colorless, joy- 
 less, fysically wearing and mentally 
 exhausting, in the world." [Apple- 
 tons'. 447 
 
 EXILES, The. [by 'Talvi', i. e., 
 Therese (von Jakob) Eobinson: 
 N. Y., lS54]="'J'he story describes 
 the varied fortunes, in this couutry, 
 of a couple of German emigi'ants, 
 from the hier walks of society, who 
 after a series of painfull}' disastrous 
 events, find a tragic winding-up of 
 their lustory in a remote town of Ver- 
 mont. The most striking merits of 
 the book are its vivid and subtle 
 delineations of passion, the admirable 
 fidelity of its character-drawing, its 
 frequent touches of pathos, its grafic 
 and effective descriptions of nature, 
 and its life-like, home-like pictures of 
 american manners." [Harper's. 448 
 
 FACE TO FACE [by Eo. Grant : 
 Scribner, 1SS6.] ''is an amusing 
 story in which the surface character- 
 istics of english and amei'ican life are 
 played with ; but does not the author 
 americanize his young woman a little 
 too deeply?" [Atlantic. 449 
 
 FAIR BAEBAEIAN (A) [by P.. 
 [Eliza] (Hodgson) Burnett: 1876? 
 Osgood, 1881.] "begins with the sur- 
 prise of Miss Belinda Bassett at the 
 unexpected arrival of an unknown 
 niece fi-om 'Meriker', with 6 trunks. 
 Five of these trunks were sent to the 
 attic ; there was room for one only in 
 Miss Belinda's little spare chamber, 
 of which the 'fair barbarian', Octavia 
 Bassett, proceeded to take unconcern- 
 ed possession. Oetavia's father is 
 Miss Belinda's brother, who had emi- 
 grated 30 years before "to get a place 
 
 where a fellow could stretch himself, 
 and she had not seen him since. Her 
 mother was a San Francisco actress, 
 who died when she was born. Octa- 
 via has learned that she was a great 
 favorite and 'awfully pretty', and 
 herself wears diamonds, silken trains 
 and satin furbelows, as it were, in 
 memory of her. With her finery, her 
 history, and her fi'eedom of speech 
 and manner, she overwhelms Aunt 
 Belinda. But the aunt is quite as 
 much fascinated as stunned, and 
 listens to Oetavia's stories of her 
 father's silver mines, with a degree of 
 interest approaching awe. In fact, 
 her experiences with Octavia amount 
 to a succession of shocks, which in 
 turn comnmnicate themselves to the 
 nebois, until Slowbridge is shaken to 
 its foundations. Miss Pilcher's select 
 seminary for young ladies is set on 
 fire with the tung of gossip. The 
 public curiosity, criticism, and censure 
 find a general leader in Lady Theobald, 
 a giantess of the social world, with a 
 pretty grand-dauter, Lucia. Lucia's 
 destiny is niariage with Mr. Burmi- 
 stone, the much detested agent of the 
 Slowbridge Mills ; while in the end 
 Octavia caps the climax of Her origi- 
 nal and independent career by mary- 
 ing one Jack Belasys." [Boston 
 '■Literary World." 450 
 
 FAITHFUL LOVER (A) [by K.. S. 
 Macqdoid : ^M?-s«, 1882.] ••is a tale 
 half French, half English, of an old 
 man cramped and embittered by early 
 disappointment, but won back to for- 
 giveness and charity at last by the 
 loving tenderness of his niece. Mrs. 
 Macquoid has plenty of materials 
 with which to fill in the details of her 
 work." [Nation] See No. 443. 451 
 
 FATE OF MAXSFIELD HUMPH- 
 REYS (The) [by E: Grant White: 
 
 125 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 Houghton, ]884.] "is altogether the 
 most direct and aggressive comparison 
 of english and american society yet 
 published in fiction. It exists merely 
 for the sake of the comparison ; the 
 'story' is well-nl as completely an 
 excuse as in the conversations of 
 'Evenings at Home', or similar in- 
 structive literature. The character- 
 drawing, however, is much more 
 ambitious ; and while not in the least 
 a work of genius, is conscientious and 
 consistent, and bears the appearance 
 of truthfulness in the main tiaits. It 
 must not be inferred from our calling 
 this the most direct and aggressive 
 comparison of English and American 
 society, that it is partial or intemper- 
 ate ; on the contrary, the vues express- 
 ed are eminently canUid, temperate, 
 and generous. . . The leading thesis 
 is that the best class of thoro-bred 
 americans are full as much gentlemen 
 as the best class of english — whom 
 they closely resemble, as by blood 
 entitled to do. Now it certainly seems 
 a little ignominious for a people, as 
 lor an individual, to enter into a dis- 
 cussion as to its good-breeding. Even 
 misrepresentations seem to be met 
 with more dignitj' by a serene indiifer- 
 ence than by discussion. If every 
 english novelist and critic should main- 
 tain that all amei-icans are vulgar, it 
 would seem. the most gentlemanlj' 
 rejoinder to say to ourselves 'So much 
 the worse either for England's knowl- 
 edge or its standai'ds', and continue 
 to produce men. and books, and jour- 
 nals that are not vulgar; if we do 
 this longenuf. no misapprehension can 
 possibly stand against the simple force 
 of fact." [Overland. 452 
 
 FLEUEANGE, seeEoMANTic Nov- 
 els. 
 
 FOEEGONE CONCLUSION, A. 
 
 [byW: D. Howells: Osgood. \?,75.'] 
 '•Mr. Howells has lived in Venice till 
 the melancholy beauty of its decay 
 has so taken possession of him that he 
 can describe all fases of its life more 
 perfectly than any other english pen 
 we know ; and against a background 
 of palaces and canals he creates a 
 picture of the drama of love, ever old, 
 yet ever new, which causes a soul to 
 dwell among the shadows of that 
 great past. The american mother and 
 dauter wandering forlorn in forein 
 lands, in quest of the health for the 
 elder which is never found, the artist 
 consul, the priest wearily going thiou 
 the round of offices which are a lie to 
 him. and dreaming over his inventions 
 till he wakes to find himself in love 
 with the young girl to whom he has 
 taut Italian, the group of lesser char- 
 acters, from gondolier to canonieo, 
 briefly di'awn, but instinct with life, 
 are delineated with the subtle skill of 
 portraiture, keen irony, and delicious 
 style, which makes a new book of Mr. 
 Howells' a literary event. The atmos- 
 fere of the 'Queen of the Sea' hangs 
 over all. Those who know Venice 
 inhale its unique beauty again from 
 these pages, and those who have never 
 floated on those still waters, away 
 from the common world, can see its 
 spirit reflected here, as the outlines of 
 its buildings and the hues of its skies 
 are imaged in the canals below them.'' 
 [Unitarian Review. 453 
 
 FOUK MEETINGS, [by H: James, 
 1879.] "Thei-e is another little sketch, 
 which is wonderfully pretty and 
 pathetic, and which he calls 'Four 
 Meetings'. It is the story of a little 
 New-England governess, whose 'dream 
 of life' it has been, as with Bessie 
 Alden. to go to 'Europe,' and who 
 saves her money with a kind of passion 
 
 126 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 for this end. She comes to Europe, 
 meets, and is immediately victimised 
 by, an ainerican cousin in France, to 
 whom her money is needful, and goes 
 back again penniless but uncomplain- 
 ing, having spent but ].3 hours in that 
 Europe for which she had so longed. 
 It is cruel. One instinctively puts 
 one's hand in one's pocket, wonder- 
 ing would it not have been possible 
 somehow to make up Miss Caroline 
 Spencer's loss. . . The picture of the 
 heroine, in its faint colors and delicate 
 outline, is very touching and gives us 
 a pang of sympathy, even tho we 
 feel that the pain is unnecessary, and 
 that surely the american lady at the 
 hotel must have managed some way 
 of making it up to the sufferer." 
 [Blackwood's. 454 
 
 FOREIGN MARRIAGE. A. [by 
 Virginia Wales Johnson: Harper, 
 1880?] '-Some would call it a more 
 powerful story of modern life at 
 Florence than 'The Neptune Vase' 
 is of Siena. It is a reproof of the 
 false ambition of american girls for 
 title-hunting abroad." [Boston "Lit- 
 erary World."' 455 
 
 FEERES (The) [by '-Mrs. Alexan- 
 der," i. e., Annie (French) Hector: 
 Holt, 1882.] "is a novel of english 
 life with a german episode, and it is 
 not easy to say which is the better 
 picture. — that of the reduced family in 
 their cheap London lodgings, or the 
 precise, quaint, hospitable, narrow 
 household at Dalbersdorf, and the 
 social and military dignities of the 
 little town of Zittau. Grace Frere, 
 the heroine of the story, is one of those 
 lovable, womanly, possible women, 
 whom "Mrs. Alexander" has the art 
 of depicting and making real, without 
 any insistent analysis or description. 
 The family group of which she makes 
 
 127 
 
 a part is all admirably done." [Bos- 
 ton "Literary World." 458 
 
 GABRIELLE DE BOURDAINE 
 [by Lily (Headland) Spender: 
 Harper, 1882.] "is a prettily told 
 story of life on one of the Channel 
 Islands. A side episode of secret 
 passages and mysterious chambers 
 adds nothing to the interest of it, 
 which centres in Gabrielle and her 
 father, a frenchman of strangely fall- 
 en fortunes." [Nation. 467 
 
 GENTLE BELLE (A) [by "Christ- 
 ian Reid". i.e., F.. E. (F.) Tiernan: 
 Appleton. 1878.] "opens in Florence 
 with an english gentleman dying, 
 leaving a pet dauter behind him. Her 
 life the story follows throu the usual 
 variety of joys and sorrows, to a 
 happy termination. She has, In some 
 respects, a marked personality, with 
 a strong mind, and veiy cultivated 
 tastes, and the development of her 
 character under discipline is the 
 author's leading motive.'' [Boston 
 "Literaiy World." 458 
 
 GIRTON GIRL, A [by Annie 
 Edwards : Harper, 1886.] "The title 
 is a misnomer. 'A Would-be Girton 
 Girl', or -Why Maijorie Bertrand did 
 not go to Girton,' would have been 
 moi'e exact. Nevertheless, we have a 
 pleasant story of the idling life of 
 english people in the picturesque set- 
 ting of a Channel Island. Tutor 
 and pupils present almost too obvious 
 a combination in the first chapter, but 
 their fortunes are so closely and clever- 
 ly interwoven with those of another 
 pair, an artist and the beautiful wife 
 to whose charn)s he is absurdly blind, 
 that the reader has the chance for a 
 good deal of speculation before the 
 happy ending ... In point of style 
 and still more of incident, the book is 
 brit and attractive." [Nation. 459 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 GOLDEN DAYS, [by Jeanie 
 Bering: Cassell, 1873.] >-Tliese 
 'Golden Days' are a pleasant record of 
 a girl's recollections of her school life 
 in a quiet, quaint gernian town. It is 
 entertaining, from the first taste of 
 •the black bread' to the last page, 
 when the narrator takes sori-owful 
 leave of the excellent Frau Alsberg 
 and her school companions. Some of 
 the incidents are more romantic than 
 would or could occur in an english 
 boarding-school; but the tone of the 
 book is good, and so pleasant, that it 
 really proves its claim to be the re- 
 membrance of Golden Days.'' [Athe- 
 nJEum. 460 
 
 GOLDEN MEDIOCRITY [ by 
 Edgenie (Ginukikz) Hamerton : 
 Soberts, 1886.] "is a pleasant story, 
 full of siuiple and natural feeling, and 
 oflfers besides a striking picture of the 
 contrast in domestic habits and ideas 
 of french and english jjeople of equal 
 rank and means. Mis. Pearce, her 
 son (a London litei'aiy man), and her 
 niece, spend an autumn holiday in a 
 provincial town in France, and be- 
 come intimate with the family of Mr. 
 Mol6, a savant, and a, gentleman of 
 some private fortune. Hfilene, the 
 pretty dauter of Mr. Mol6. is the 
 cleverest of housekeepeis and the 
 most skilful of cooks. Nowhere is 
 seen affectation, false pride, anything 
 which fosters extravagant habits : all 
 the members of the french family 
 unite in a thrift and good sense which 
 makes the large, difficult, expensive 
 methods by which english people try 
 to ensure domestic comfort seem the 
 most absurd and unnecessary outlay of 
 time and money. Just enuf of a love- 
 story winds in and out of the narrative 
 to set off the diversities of interests 
 and characters. The book is pleasant 
 
 to read, besides being full of animating 
 hints and facts, which, coming as they 
 do from the french wife of one of 
 England's most graceful and suggest- 
 ive writ(ji's, make it well worth read- 
 ing." [American.] — "It is subdued 
 in tone, but in admirable taste. The 
 interest is gentle but well kept up. 
 Mi's. Hamerton paints the inside of a 
 home. . . A pure and interesting stoiy, 
 which will do much to dissipate 
 american prejudice against the french 
 and to teach american mothers that 
 riches and extravagance are not nec- 
 essary to elegant and contented lives.'' 
 [Catholic World. 461 
 
 GKETCHEN [by "Eita." i. e., — 
 ( ) Booth: Lippiiicott, ISSQ.} "tells 
 of a pretty german girl betrayed into 
 a mock mariage by a young english- 
 man with weak eyes, whose clerical 
 friend, Adrian, after nmch ado, sets 
 tilings rit. Scene in England, Ger- 
 many, and Rome. "[Critic.]— "Rita's 
 hei'oine is suggestively named, but her 
 Faust is no necromancer — only an im- 
 pulsive, self-pleasingyouth. who trifles 
 with ingenuous simplicity. and tindsthe 
 social consequences too hard to face. 
 A very dainty spirit is that of IMargar- 
 et von Waldstein, in spite of the pas- 
 sion which ruins her. The theme is 
 sad, but the story is well told." [Athe- 
 naeum. 462 
 
 GLENN, [by B. W. (Howard) 
 Teufel.] see BONANriC XO VELS. 
 
 HAND & GLOVE, [by Amkua B. 
 Edwards, see FJiEXCII ^^0 VELS. 
 
 HEAPS OF MONEY [by .V: E: 
 NOKRis: Holt, 1882.] "must have 
 been one of his earliest attempts at 
 fiction ; and a very charming attempt 
 it is. The plot concei-ns the adven- 
 tures of a very interesting young 
 woman who not only desires, but 
 obtains, 'heaps of money.' The scene 
 
 128 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 is laid on the Continent [Dresden], 
 in part and among tiie incidents is a 
 cleverly managed affair of honor, in 
 the narration of which Mr. Norris 
 displays the same familiarity and sym- 
 pathy with the weakness and pettiness 
 of human nature which are the source 
 of so much of the attraction in "Matri- 
 mony', and while he undoubtedly un- 
 derstands its good as well as its bad 
 sides it is over the latter that in his later 
 book he lingers most lovingly . . . 
 When he wrote 'Heaps of Money' he 
 had observed and reflected less ; hence, 
 as a Jove-story, the earlier is the bet- 
 ter of the two. As novels, their posi- 
 tions have to be reversed. "[Nation.463 
 
 HEART OF STEEL. (A) [by 
 "Christian Reid: i. e., F.. E. (F.) 
 Tiernan : Appleton, 1883.] '-There 
 is in- the book much agreeable life 
 among pleasant-mannered people in 
 Paris and Home, tho they are never 
 quite interesting, in spite of a good 
 deal of guide-book information that 
 is parcelled out between them. It is 
 fair to say that the information is of 
 much the choicer kind, and it will 
 please a good many people who have 
 not already seen it in Mr. Hare's 
 various books." [Nation. 464 
 
 HECTOR [by Flora L. Shaw, 
 Boherts. 1881.] "may be described as 
 an english flower grown on french 
 soil, since Hector is a little orfan, who 
 is sent to France for awhile, and has 
 fine times at Saleret with the cousin 
 Z61ie who tells the story, with Grand- 
 mere, with Madelon the servant, with 
 Esquebesse the hunter and his 2 dogs, 
 with Baptiste the miller, and with 
 Marie-Anne the miller's maid. There 
 is always a charm in french landscape, 
 character, and incident ; and this book 
 has that charm in its most refined and 
 delicate forms. It is altogether a 
 
 sweet and pretty tale, and girls of 
 tender heart will be in love with the 
 handsome Hector from the frontis- 
 piece on." [Boston "Lit. World." 465 
 
 HER PICTURE [by P. G. Hamer- 
 TON (?) : Boberts, 1883.] "is a fi-ench 
 story, the action beginning at a chat- 
 eau near Pau, and being transferred 
 afterward to Paris and then to a 
 country-house at Montrfimy; while 
 there is a painter in it, and pictures, 
 and sweet music, and a good many 
 lines and tints which suggest Mr. 
 Hamerton, without anything, how- 
 ever, which equals the fotografic 
 distinctness and dramatic power of 
 'Marmorne'. . . There are a number of 
 lively people in the book, of a Parisian 
 sort ; there is an enfant terrible, who 
 makes some amusement; there is a 
 crusty old millionaire who dies at the 
 rlt time and leaves his money in the 
 rit place ; there is a good deal of merry 
 society incident and party conversa- 
 tion; there are some pleasing pictures 
 of french life; there is no villain or 
 villainy. The story is refined and 
 agreeable." [Boston "Lit. World. "46 6 
 
 HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST IT- 
 SELF. (A) [by Ma. O. (W.) Oli- 
 phant: Blackwood, 1886.] "The 
 contrast between the perfect simplic- 
 ity of a refined life in the seclusion of 
 a little town in Italy, and the artificial 
 existence in the great world of London 
 society, is very cleverly presented. . . 
 Frances Waring is a young girl living 
 in Bordighera with her father, who 
 is a lonely scholar. She knows 
 nothing of her past history. The few 
 people she knows occasionally go 
 •home,' — and frequently talk of 
 'home ;' but her father never goes 
 home, and never talks of it either, and 
 Frances dares not ask him. She de- 
 votes herself to her father's comforts. 
 
 129 
 
INTEBNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 He Is not above being particular about 
 his diiiner. and. in fact, is a selfish 
 man of the shy and sensitive type. 
 In her spare time, she sljetches and 
 reads, somewhat aimlessly perhaps; 
 but her life, if it is secluded, is a 
 thoroly healthful and natural one. 
 Suddenly it changes entirely. . . And 
 so it gradually dawns upon poor 
 Frances that she has a mother and a 
 sister of whom she had never heard. 
 How gradually it dawns upon her 
 throu the impatience of the stranger 
 her sister, and the half-ashamed, half- 
 ludicrous confessions of her father, is 
 inimitably told and described. Equal- 
 ly good is the description of the con- 
 sternation of the little english colony. 
 for any one 'in such a small commun- 
 ity' to have a wife alive and never let 
 any one know, was 'not quite respect- 
 able.' 'Bless me I' says the general; 
 'if the wife's all rit, what does the 
 man mean? Why can't they quarrel 
 peaceably, and keep up appearances 
 as we all do?" [Spectator.] This 
 novel is a sequel to '-A Country 
 Gentleman," for notice of which see 
 Descriptive List of English Nov- 
 els. 467 
 
 HYPERION. By H : Wadsworth 
 LONGFELLOvr : Boston, 1839. 
 
 IN A WINTER CITY, [by "Odida," 
 i.e. L.. de La Ram6: Lippincott, 
 1876.] "There is but little doubt 
 that in the future this accomplished 
 writer will be devoting her attention 
 to tales with a distinct moral purpose, 
 if not to the composition of tracts ; at 
 present, however, she employs hersSlf 
 in amassing material for future repent- 
 ance. It would be superfluous to say 
 that she writes like a rowdy who has 
 a certain feeling for things pathetic. 
 In this novel, with a great deal of 
 more than useless filigree, she nar- 
 
 rates with some skill the love of an 
 Italian duke for an immensely wealthy 
 english widow, who loses her fortune 
 when she maries again. 'Ouida' man- 
 ages, in spite of all her faults, to make 
 the people seem at times like some- 
 thing more than dissipated dolls." 
 [Nation. 468 
 
 IN CHANGE UNCHANGED [by 
 Linda (White) (Mazini) Villari: 
 Salt. 1877.] ''is a graceful story. 
 The author uses her advantage of 
 double nationality with a taste and 
 skill which reminds us of 'Quits' and 
 'The Initials'. The heroine is a lovely 
 young english widow named Edith 
 Henderson, who going abroad for a 
 Roman winter, and drifting towards 
 Florence in the spring, finds at Bellos- 
 guardo, first an art, nest an aunt, and 
 lastly a lover. We leave her made 
 happy in these 3 discoveries. We are 
 treated to a brit run into the Dolo- 
 mite region, and there are telling bits 
 of description here and there, but these 
 are suboidinated to the human inter- 
 ests, and the most picturesque part of 
 the book lies in tlie tenderly sketched 
 little home at Bell^guardo, and 
 its sweet, helpful inmate ; a picture 
 which more than one Florence habitufi 
 will recognize with a si and smile as 
 being from life. We commend this 
 pleasant story as full of interest." 
 [Boston '-Literary World." 469 
 
 IN THE WRONG PARADISE. 
 [ by Andrew Lang : Harper, 1887.] 
 "It mit be difficult to persuade manj' 
 good people that Mr. Lang ever had a 
 serious thot, except the unriteous one 
 of ridiculing missionaries in the per- 
 son of the Rev. Thomas Gowles and 
 in his adventures among the Phsea- 
 cians. The Rev. Gowles is indeed 
 rather a caricature, but some measure 
 of his cant, ignorance, and conceit is 
 
 130 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 unfortunately too frequently found in 
 those who undertake to Christianize 
 the heathen, whether at home or 
 abroad." [ Nation. 470 
 
 INDIAN SUMMER. [ by W: Dean 
 HowELLS: Ticknor, 1886.] '-We do 
 not know why the critic should hesi- 
 tate to call this the most wholly 
 charming thing which Mr. Howells 
 has given us. It is true that he has 
 written a considerable number of 
 volumes which may stand as so many 
 protests against such a judgment, but 
 there is not an -Indian Summer' among 
 them. It is not a book to analyse; it 
 is a book to enjoy. To inquire why 
 this lit, . slenderly-plotted, gay, wise 
 story satisfies every sense with which 
 we taste good literature, would be as 
 impertinent as to challenge the source 
 of a flower's perfume. His hero is 
 older than the conscientious, admir- 
 able young men of the early novels, 
 and the writer's outlook upon life is 
 that of a man older than the author of 
 'A Chance Acquaintance.' but the in- 
 creased age of both is the reverse of a 
 loss, and we fancy that, like Imogene. 
 no one will like Colville the less for 
 having lived past certain things, or 
 even for his rheumatic twinges and 
 his sleepiness after evening parties. 
 Colville is, to our sense, one of the 
 most thoroly likable figures in fiction. 
 His humorous goodness, his serious 
 honesty of purpose, — which for not 
 the first time in history accomplishes 
 its aims less straitforwardly than its 
 owner intends, — his nobility of heart, 
 his tireless amiability of spirit, above 
 all, if we may venture to say it. 
 his habit of taking life with all earn- 
 estness, yet with a drollery which 
 gives to all living a pleasant savor, — 
 these excellent qualities make such 
 a man as any of us mit be glad to 
 
 know. . . Mr. Howells' art in painting 
 womankind had never ampler oppor- 
 tunity than in this volume. Mrs. 
 Bo wen, Imogene Graham, and that 
 dainty little woman, Efiie Bowen, are 
 as complete and characteristic crea- 
 tions as he has given us. Imogene's 
 romantic girlishness, her womanly 
 self-abnegation, her ingenuousness, 
 her simplicity, and her ignorant cul- 
 ture are mingled without confusion, 
 and with the consent of the reader's 
 understanding, in a thoroly real young 
 gii-1. Mrs. Bowen is less dii-ectly ren- 
 dered by a series of delicate touches, 
 but she is not less successful; while 
 Efiie, after Colville, is the triumf of 
 the book.' She is a child of a sort not 
 altogether com mon in America, unfort- 
 unately, — the very pink of propriety, 
 of obedience, of all the childish vir- 
 tues. Her friendship with Colville 
 one would say is as prettily done as 
 anything of the kind in fiction, if there 
 were anything quite like it in fiction. 
 The story ends as the old-fashioned 
 reader would have it. That is the 
 manner in which Mr. Howells some- 
 tiaies refuses to have it; but when it 
 is so it is because life too would not 
 have had it so." [ Church Review.] — 
 "It may be called a demonstration of 
 the difference between youth and mid- 
 dle age. Theodore Colville, the lead- 
 ing man, is. at 40, still young in spirit, 
 and is rather than not disposed to 
 vote himself as belonging among 
 young people, until he forms an inti- 
 mate relation with an undoubted 
 young one, whereupon the emptiness 
 of his claim to youth becomes appar- 
 ent. Twenty years before the time of 
 the tale Colville had had a serious 
 aftaii- of the heart, in which he was 
 worsted ; after this lapse of a double 
 decade we find him at riorence 
 
 131 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 ngain where the early romance h:id 
 been acted, and thrown accidentally 
 into the company of a widow of his 
 age, who had been a friend of the 
 girl who had jilted him, and who knew 
 all the circumstances of that affair. 
 Thus Mrs. Bowen and Colville. both 
 being lonely and heart hungry, seem 
 in a manner providentially br6t to- 
 gether, and they are very adequately 
 matched ; but the game becomes curi- 
 ously crossed. With Mrs. Bowen 
 comes also on the scene a charmer of 
 tne young generation, and before long 
 the luckless Colville is in the toils of 
 a second Florence engagement, not 
 hovvever, with the results of anger, 
 bitterness and disenchantment of the 
 first. He Is a lover throu circum- 
 stances rather than by intention, and, 
 in the end, this romance, too, is vio- 
 lently closed; but to the satisfaction 
 of all parties, and 'Colville' maries 
 the widow, the woman who suits him', 
 who is suitable for him, and whom, if 
 he had but known it. he had loved 
 from the first. As we have said, this 
 seems sliter than it is. The art with 
 which these conflicting passions, at- 
 tractions, resentments, humors, are 
 Indicated is just as perfect as anything 
 in the best of Mr. Howells' work. 
 Especially engaging are Colville's 
 easy-natured tolerance, as we may 
 call It, of life; the intense enthusiasm 
 of the girl, Imogene Graham ; and the 
 sweetness of the child Efiie, who is 
 the unconscious instrument, at the 
 close, of ari-anging matters in their 
 proper shape." [ American. 471 
 
 INGEMISCO. [by -Fadettp.-' i. e. 
 Marian Colhoun Legare Beeves: 
 Slelock, 1867.] "No one who knows 
 anything of Southern literature will 
 be surprised to hear that we took up 
 this novel without great expectations 
 
 132 
 
 of pleasure or profit. We confess to 
 an agreeable disappointment. There 
 is, to be sure, one very reprehensible 
 Yankee in it. whose feet are of enor- 
 mous extent, who is extremely ill- 
 mannered, who speaks throu his nose 
 and refers to the battle of Lexington ; 
 but he has nothing to do with the story 
 and he fills but a very small space. 
 We nmst not begrudge the Southern 
 patriot who encourages literature 
 something for his money, and we get 
 ofl' easily if ^ve are made to swallow 
 the Yankee alone. We mit have had 
 'the true Southern gentleman'. 'Ihe 
 Baroness Tautphoeus has been the 
 exaniplar whom the author of 'Ingem- 
 isco' has followed, and she has learn- 
 ed something of that admirable writ- 
 er's charm. Tlie scene of her story 
 is Switzerland and Bavaria; her 
 characters are a wealthy Scotch fam- 
 ily with two human dauters, and 
 certain foreiners. counts and peasants. 
 whom they meet abroad; and the 
 story tells how the hl-spirited Margar- 
 et, betrothed to a good young gentle- 
 man whom she rather liked, fell in 
 love with Count Zalkiewski and was 
 by him loved and maried. There is 
 much pleasant-reading in the accounts, 
 full of little details of Swiss and Ger- 
 man life, of excursions which the 
 party make in Switzeiland and Ba- 
 varia; the loveaflairs of Margai-et and 
 Harry May and the counts Zalkiewski 
 and Falkcnstcin are very well man- 
 aged ; the people who talk and act are 
 living people; the author's style is 
 good, and in dialog unusually good. 
 The whole effect of the novel is health- 
 ful, cheerful, and every way pleasant. 
 •Fadette' is not the Baroness Taut- 
 phoeus; but even the echo of a sweet 
 sound is good." [Nation. 472 
 
 INITIALS. (The) [by Jemima 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 (Montgomery) ton Tautphous : 
 Bentley, — Peterson, 1850.] '-We have 
 seldom had occasion to welcome a 
 reprint with more unqualified satisfac- 
 tion ; it conies to us like a friend who 
 won the admiration of our earlier days, 
 and the appreciation of whose worth 
 the experience of maturer years con- 
 firms. At the time of its first pub- 
 lication this work was much read, and 
 excited considerable interest and hi 
 praise. The stj^le is easy, fluent, and 
 occasionally picturesque, and the 
 variety of incident, minuteness of de- 
 tail, fidelity of delineation, and mark- 
 ed individuality of the several charac- 
 ters prove the accurate observation of 
 the authoress as well as her excellent 
 powers of description. — -The Initials' 
 is a narrative of events occurring in 
 everyday life in Bavaria, and is at 
 once interesting, amusing, and in all 
 respects probable ; young people can 
 get nothing but good from reading it, 
 while those of all ages may profit by 
 some of its lessons. The plot of the 
 story is very simple, and consists 
 mainly of the experiences of a young 
 englishman who travels in Germany 
 lor the pui-pose of acquiring the lan- 
 guage and, at the same time, of gain- 
 ing some worldly knowledge. And 
 his ignorance of everything concern- 
 ing the country he is visiting affords 
 the author an opportunity of impart- 
 ing information concerning the opin- 
 ions, government, and domestic habits 
 of the dwellers in that land. — That 
 Hamilton, with his pride of family 
 and great expectations, should fall in 
 love with a handsome german girl 
 without any social position may not 
 seem to be improbable, but that his 
 admiration should be enduring to the 
 extent of sacrificing his prospects in 
 life by marying her, would, at first 
 
 glance, appear doubtful, and yet the 
 reader who has noted throuout the hi 
 moral tone, the strength of Hilde- 
 garde's intellect, her refinement, ac- 
 complishments, and extreme beauty 
 must feel that the character of Ham- 
 ilton rises in dignity from his appre- 
 ciation of hers, and cannot fail to 
 recognize the sterling qualities which 
 render him not only capable of self- 
 sacrifice, but worthj' of her devotion." 
 [Round Table.] — ••Miss Braddon may 
 do her worst, and Victor Hugo in 
 translation may do his ; but while 'The 
 Initials' holds its own, there need be 
 little fear of an utter perversion of the 
 taste of the fiction-loving public. We 
 venture even to set the new edition of 
 this charming story against the 1000- 
 and-1 editions of Mrs. Southworth's 
 novels, published by the same house, 
 and to find a little balance to their 
 credit as purveyors for american read- 
 ers. Stronger testimony in favor of 
 •The Initials' will hardly be required 
 of us ; but we are free to add that few 
 novels have remained at once so fresh 
 and so delltful in our memory, and 
 that we do not know where to turn 
 for a more pleasing love-story in a 
 thoroly realistic setting. We like it 
 better than any other of baroness 
 Tautphoeus' works, and we hope and 
 expect to see our opinion of it confii-m- 
 ed by the latest generation of which 
 we shall have cognizance." [Na- 
 tion. 473 
 INTERNATIONAL EPISODE. 
 (An) [ by H: James : Harper, 1879.] 
 '•It is the tui-n of his countrymen to 
 be specially pleased with his last per- 
 formance, because in it he has drawn 
 the best kind of american girl, — 
 gentle, proud, hi-minded. beautifully 
 bred, and fair to see, as a matter of 
 course. — who cannot for her life love 
 
 133 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 a biitish peer because he is a peci-, tho 
 most amiably disposed toward him, 
 and lieenly susceptible with regard to 
 the picturesque accessories and his- 
 toric dignity of his position. The 
 comedy has two acts, the first of which 
 takes place in New-York and New- 
 port, where the mai-quis of Lambeth 
 and his cousin. Mr. Percy Beaumont, 
 arrive in August, 'the season for 
 watermelons and Englishmen,' and 
 are received and entertained wilh a 
 lavish hospitality which is also uncal- 
 culuting, altho the noble visitoi-s can- 
 not believe it so. . . When the curtain 
 rises upon them in England, they 
 have undergone the most striking 
 transformation. Mi'S. Westgate has 
 dropped her twaddle, and is full of 
 spirit, finesse, epigram ; Miss Bessie 
 has developed into a model of maid- 
 enly dignity, capable of leading the 
 story to the dfinouement foreshadowed 
 above." [ Atlantic. 474 
 
 JET [ by Annie Edwaeds : Ap- 
 pleton, 1878.] "scrambles gailj' throu 
 the debatable land of shabby forein 
 societ}'. and carries a gleam of youth 
 and innocence with her". . . [ Na- 
 tion. 475 
 
 JOHN DOKKIEN. [ by Julia 
 Kavanagh: Appleton. IST.").] "The 
 many admirers of Miss Kavanagh's 
 'Nathalie' will welcome in advance 
 her new novel. It is a French story, 
 tho its principal personage is english. 
 We cannot follow out the plot, which 
 is fresh and interesting. All the prin- 
 cipal personages are life-like and in- 
 dividual." [Boston "Lit. World." 476 
 
 KICKLEBUEYS ON THE RHINE. 
 The [ by "VV: M. Thackeray : Smith, 
 1850.] "Everybody who has gone up 
 tlie Khein must have encountered 
 Kiokleburys by the score :— my lady 
 the mother, steeped to the chin in 
 
 worldly vulgaritj- — Mi'S. Millikon her 
 warlike, and the fair Fanny, her lov- 
 ing and lovely dauter. — not to speak 
 of the courier, Ilirsch, and tlie tall 
 footman Bowman, — the last a figure 
 as constant in Mr. Titmarsh's tale as a 
 white horse is in a picture by Wouver- 
 mans. Not every one, however, who 
 sees Kickleburys is able to describe 
 them in all the length and breadth of 
 their grandeur and of their small- 
 ness." [Athenaeum. 477 
 
 KINGS IN EXILE, see Romantic 
 Novels. 
 
 KISMET, [by "G : Fleming," i.e., 
 Julia [Constance] Fletcher : Rob- 
 erts, 1877.] "As long as there are 
 readers who care for a novel packed 
 from cover to cover with interesting 
 scenes, — a promising flirtation which 
 ripens into enthusiastic love-making 
 by which 3 persons are in turn made 
 miserable, so long such books as 
 'Kismet' will be liked. The scene 
 of the story is the Nile, the charac- 
 ters are for the most part voyagers on 
 that river, and descriptions of the 
 wonders which line its shores make 
 an imposing background to the litness 
 of the incidents. The setting of the 
 story makes the book really impress- 
 ive; the scenery is brot before the 
 reader not in the way a topografical 
 map is constructed, but by dexterous 
 touches which show that the anony- 
 mous author can rise above recording 
 the vicissitudes of a more or less con- 
 ventional courtship. But a good 
 many writers have shipwrecked just 
 at that, — which seems so easy and is 
 really so hard. All the good scenery 
 in the world will not make a dull 
 novel entertaining; but when, as in 
 the case here, the story is interesting, 
 the reader can only be grateful for 
 everything thrown in over measure." 
 
 134 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 [Lippincott's. 478 
 
 KNIGHT EEEATSTT [by "Edna 
 I.YALL,"i.e..AdaEllen Bayly: Apple- 
 ton. 188S.] '"while a somewhat hyster- 
 ical ijerfoi'inance, is a novel not with- 
 out power. It has a very marked 
 motive in the feeling of the leading 
 part, and the narrative is fresh, 
 varied, and picturesque. The hero 
 saci'ifioes his love and hope of hapjii- 
 ness to secure the reputation and 
 prosperity of his sister. The sacrifice 
 is made to appear not altogether un- 
 reasonable, while it has proper eleva- 
 tion and pathos. The story has, 
 moreover, an art atniosfere, and -mu- 
 sical people' may read it with inter- 
 est. But when all is said it is not 
 restful, as a really good book is sure 
 to be, but feverish." Scene Naples. 
 [ American. 479 
 
 KNIGHT OF THE BLACK FOR- 
 EST (The) [ by G.. Denio Litch- 
 field : Putnam, 1885.] "is a pencil 
 sketch, only, a piece of half-hour 
 work, but it is di'awn with dash and 
 spirit, with firmness and vigor, and 
 its life-likeness and animation go far 
 toward condoning for a certain loud- 
 ness of accent in the delineation of 
 one of the characters. . . Two young 
 american ladies are journeying with 
 their Aunt Sarah by way of Coin to 
 Bippoldsau in the Black Forest. . . 
 On reaching the hotel at Eippoldsau, 
 the gills first are treated to the appari- 
 tion of a real gernian count, and next 
 are overtaken by an american friend, 
 the lover of Lois, who has come all 
 the way across the water to declare 
 himself. Henceforth the story is a 
 lit and amusing comedy between the 
 count and the american on one side, 
 and the girls on the other; Betty 
 having a decided taste for a flirtation 
 under these romantic circumstances, 
 
 the count being not at all averse to 
 su(.'h an amusement for a passing 
 hour, and Prentiss & Lois having a 
 more serious time of it. Which of 
 the two men proved to be the true 
 Knight we will leave the book itself 
 to tell." [ Boston --Lit. World." 480 
 LA BEATA [by T: Adolphus 
 TitOLLOPE: Chapman, ISOl.] '-is a 
 novel of which there is nothing to say 
 but what is good. It is a charming 
 story ; and tho the theme is as old as 
 the woi'ld. it has the eternal and ever- 
 renewed freshness of life. The story 
 required to be very skilfully handled ; 
 and in his management of poor Beata 
 the author has shown himself an art- 
 ist as well as a thoro gentleman. 
 . . . Poor Beata is not a lawful wife, 
 nor has she been 'deceived,' as the 
 f rase is; but she is so young and un- 
 conscious of having done anything 
 wrong, that she has not, even when 
 abiindoned. an idea that slie has any- 
 thing to lepent of, but she sits down 
 patiently and submissively, without a 
 touch of bitterness, under desertion, 
 privation, and misery. -La Beata' is 
 not perfect, poor darling! But her 
 loyal, trusting affection, her uncom- 
 plaining gentleness, draw the heart of 
 the reader to her more than if she had 
 possessed liier qualities. Her ignor- 
 ance is kept clear of every tinge of 
 foolishness, and her sorrow is not in 
 the least wearisome. She is, far away, 
 the most touching heroine we have 
 met with since -Eva' in Maturin's 
 novel of -Pour et Contre'— a novel 
 few of the present generation are 
 likely to have read." [Alhenajum.] 
 —"It takes those familiar with its 
 scene as completely into the life and 
 moral atmosfere of Florence, as does 
 'The Vicar of Wakefield' into the rural 
 life of England before the days of 
 
 135 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 railways and cheap journalism. The 
 streets, the dwellings, the people and 
 incidents are so truly described, the 
 perspective is so correct, and the fore- 
 ground so elaborate, that with the 
 faithful local coloring and naive truth 
 of the cliaraoters. we seem, as we read, 
 to be lost in a retrospective dream. — 
 tho more so as there is an utter ab- 
 sence of the sensational and ihetorieal 
 in the style, which is that of direct 
 and unpretending narrative. The 
 heroine is a saintly model tho at the 
 same time a tlioroly human girl, — such 
 ■a one as the artistic, superstitious, 
 frugal and simple experience of her 
 class and of the place could alone have 
 fostered; the artist-hero is no less 
 characteristic. — a selfish, clever, ami- 
 able, ambitious, and superficial Ital- 
 ian, while the old wax-candle manu- 
 facturer, with his domicile, dauter 
 and church relations, is a genuine Flor- 
 entine of iiis kind. . . An english fam- 
 ily delineated without the least 
 exaggeration, and with the striking 
 contrasts such visitors always present 
 to the native scene and people of Italy, 
 adds to and emfasizes the salient 
 traits of the story." [Atlantic. 481 
 LAKEVILLE, see Novels of 
 AMEiiiCAN City Life. 
 
 LA MARCHESA. [by Paul 
 Heyse : Stocky 1887.] -'Everyone who 
 knows anything of contemporary ger- 
 man literature is familiar with some, 
 at least, of the 'Novellen' of Paul 
 Heyse. They are the most finished 
 works of art which have been pro- 
 duced in Germany during the life- 
 time of the present generation. In all 
 of them the writer seeks to be true to 
 the facts of life, but that does not 
 mean — as it means in the case of so 
 many writers who claim to be excep- 
 tionally faithful interpreters of reality 
 
 — that he devotes attention only to 
 commonplace or disagreeable ele-. 
 ments of human nature. His aim is 
 to penetrate to the inmost recesses of 
 striking: types of character, and to 
 give vivid representations of ideas 
 which appeal powerfully to the im- 
 agination. No living writer, either in 
 Germany or elsewhere, surpasses him 
 in the skill with which he makes a 
 short story an adequiite medium for 
 the expression of fresh and brilliant 
 conceptions, and the variety of his 
 tales is not less remarkable than the 
 strength, grace, and purity of their 
 style." Scene, the Riviera. [ Athen- 
 aeum. 482 
 LATIN QUARTER COURTSHIP, 
 (A) [by "Sidney Luska." i. e., H: 
 Harland: Cassell, 1889.] '-Both 
 books have the charm which can come 
 onh- from a wholesome and generous 
 tal(^nt dealing with the perennial 
 interest of young love. They are 
 very sweet ; they are pure and fine. 
 Perhaps the character in 'A Latin 
 Quarter Courtship' is a little more del- 
 icately touched ; after a year the young 
 lady doctor and the very american 
 painter in Paris survive in our thot 
 as figures treated with subtle art to an 
 effect of delltful humor." [Ho wells. 483 
 LAVINIA [by G. [D.] Ruffini: 
 N. Y., liiidd, 18G1.] "is extremely 
 interesting. . . The narrative flows 
 easily, and is sufficiently broken by 
 dialog, diary, and epistle to secure 
 variet}'. and prevent attention from 
 flagging. The scene shifts frequently, 
 and we are transfo-red from one place 
 to another, and from one set of char- 
 acters to another, but without un- 
 pleasant violence. . . The plot is intri- 
 cate, without being annoying; and 
 tho the general destiny of the hero 
 and heroine, with the principal second- 
 
 136 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 ary characters, is fairly foreshadowed. 
 yet the exiict way in which justice is 
 to be done, and the fates are to be 
 compelled, is held in abeyance almost 
 to the last. The characters are admir- 
 ably sustained, — Paolo, the demo- 
 cratic Italian artist, Thornton, his 
 friend and mentor, Du Genre, the 
 French realist, Salvator Rosa and his 
 betrothed, the Spanish Countess, and 
 her dogs, the Bishop Rodiparni ; the 
 brace of Roman swindlers, the english 
 Mr. Jones and his wife, and, above 
 all, the charming, mercurial, roman- 
 tic, and worldly Lavinia." [ Chris- 
 tian Examiner, 484 
 
 LEAH, [by Annie Edwards: 
 Sheldon. 1875. [ "Mrs. Edwards has 
 the advantage of being in her line de- 
 cidedlj' clever. This line is the Conti- 
 nental english of damaged reputation 
 — the adventurers, the gamblers and 
 escaped debtors, the desperate econom- 
 ists, the separated wives, the young 
 ladies without mammas who smolje 
 cigarettes and 'compromise' them- 
 selves with moustachioed foreiners. . . 
 Mrs. Edwards, as we say, is clever; 
 she infuses a certain force of color into 
 her picture of shabby gentility and 
 anglo-forein Bohemia, She describes 
 in tiiese pages, with a good deal of 
 eingnuity and vividness, .an english 
 boarding-house in the Rue Castiglione 
 [Paris] and if Thackeray has been 
 before her in •Philip' this is hardly 
 her f.ault. All women at heart, says 
 the familiar axiom, love a rake ; wheth- 
 er or no the author of Leah loves hers 
 we cannot say, bnt she portrays them 
 with a good deal of discretion. The 
 distinguished, depraved, and impecun- 
 ious Lord Stair is the best-drawn 
 figure in the present volume." [Na- 
 tion. 485 
 
 LIKE SHIPS UPON THE SEA 
 
 [by F.. E. (Terxan) TrOLLOPE: 
 Harper. 1883.] '-has a tragic incident, 
 but deals mainly with commonplace 
 people tho the latter set off very well 
 english commonplace against Italian or 
 rather roman types, which, if except- 
 ional from english standpoints, are 
 ordinary enuf in so mixed a world as 
 Rome. Nobody lias any money to 
 speak of; the burden of riches, the 
 ostentation of wealth, the hard brutal 
 force of it in the second-class novel, 
 are repulsive." [Nation. 486 
 
 LIL LORIMER. [by "Theo. Gift," 
 i. e., Dora Henrietta (Havers) Boul- 
 ger : Appleton, 1887.] '-A year or two 
 ago we read this book with great 
 pleasure; now we have re-read it 
 with undiminished enjoyment. We 
 have here plot, originality, pict- 
 uresqueness, brilliancy, tenderness 
 and humor. -Lil' is the story of a 
 poor little english Daisy Miller, bred 
 by hand — by which we mean a father's 
 hand, unguided by a mother's heart — 
 in South-America. There is a touch 
 of the author's skill in the mere title 
 of the book. She gives, with the fine 
 literary daring of one who means to 
 interest you in her methods rather 
 than in her ingenuity, the marled 
 name of her heroine on the cover : so 
 that you know, when you begin the 
 story, that Lil Hardy is to mary not 
 Melville, nor Pedro, but Max Lorimer. 
 The whole story is as clever and enter- 
 taining as this bit of literary courage 
 would lead us to expect. The local 
 color of the home in Uruguay is de- 
 litful. the transition to England, with 
 the same people set in new situations, 
 gives admirable opportunity for study 
 of character vs. environment ; and tlie 
 charactei- drawing is very skilful, from 
 the faulty but sweet little heroine and 
 faulty but attractive hero, to the over- 
 
 137 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 proud James Carnegie and the won- 
 derfully sweet and womanlj' Alice." 
 [Cricic. 487 
 
 LITTLE PETER, by '-Lucas 
 Malet" see List of French Novels. 
 
 LOVE OK MAKKIAGE by W: 
 Black, see List of English Novels. 
 
 MABEL STANHOPE [by Kath- 
 leen O'Meara: Roberts, 1886.] -'is 
 a story of life in a french boarding- 
 school, and the consequences of this 
 life. Charlotte Bronte made a moibid 
 and over-colored study of the french 
 [belgian?] pensionnat in 'Villette' 
 but the ill-nature of it, and the false 
 reasoning, make 'Villette' a sad book 
 in spite of its genius . Miss O'Meara, 
 having gotten nearer to truth and 
 nature, paints her picture with the 
 colors of life. . . Madame St. Simon 
 is drawn with scrupulous truth to 
 nature. This picture and another — 
 that of Miss Jones, the starving eng- 
 lish governess — are excellently done. 
 ... In contrast to the cold, calculating 
 and merciless Madame St. Simon we 
 are shown the unfortunate Miss Jones, 
 an old maid, ugly, penniless, and 
 homeless, but true, constant, and sin- 
 eere. Miss Jones is hurried to the 
 grave by madanie's parsimonious man- 
 ner of managing all parts of her 
 establishment not seen by the public. 
 She is a conscientious Protestant, and 
 a pathetic example of invincible ignor- 
 ance. . . The kindness of Mabel and 
 the girls to her is a beautiful episode. 
 She proves to be a true friend to the 
 heroine when Madame St. Simon's 
 true colors appear, Mabel, having 
 left school, declares to her father her 
 intention of becoming a Catholic ; he, 
 enraged, casts her off. She goes to 
 Paris, hoping to find a chance to teach 
 in Madame St. Simon's school. . . Miss 
 Jones dies, not seeing the truth, but 
 
 believing according to her lit, and 
 Mabel struggles on alone with tempt- 
 ation and privation. The climax of 
 the book — the discovery of the serpent 
 under the roses of love — is managed 
 without false and exaggerated color- 
 ing. Miss O'Meaia has done a good 
 thing in giving the world a novel 
 which is pure, natural, and interest- 
 ing." [Catholic World. 488 
 MADAME DE MAUVES [in '-A 
 PASSIONATE PILGRIM.'" by II: 
 James : Osgood, 1875.] "In "Madame 
 de Mauves" the spring of the whole ac- 
 tion is the idea of an araerican girl who 
 will have none but a french nobleman 
 for her husband. It is not, in her, a 
 vulgar adoration of rank.but a girl's be- 
 lief that ancient lineage, cii'cumstances 
 of the liiest civilization, and opportuni- 
 ties of the greatest refinement, must 
 result in the noblest type of character. 
 Grant the premises, and the effect of 
 her emergence into the cruel dayllt of 
 facts is unquestionably tremendous : 
 Baron de Mauves is frankly unfaithful 
 to his american wife, and, finding her 
 too dismal in her despair, advises her 
 to take a lover. But 'Madame' is the 
 strength of the story, and if Mr. James 
 has not always painted the kind of 
 women which women like to meet in 
 Action, he has richly atoned in her 
 lovely nature for all default. She is 
 the finally successful expression of an 
 Ideal woman which has always been 
 a homage, perhaps not to all kinds of 
 women, but certainly to the sex. We 
 are thinking of the heroine of 'Poor 
 Kichard' of Miss Guest in 'Guest's 
 Confession', of Gabrielle de Bergerac 
 in the story of that name, and other 
 gravely sweet girls of this autlior's 
 imagining. Madame de Mauves is of 
 the same race, and she is the finest, — 
 as truly american as she is womanly ; 
 
 138 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 at)d in a peculiar fi-agrance of cliaract- 
 er. in hei- purity, lier courage, lier in- 
 flexible hi-niindedness, wholly of our 
 civilization and almost of our climate, 
 so diflferent are her virtues from the 
 virtues of the women of any other 
 nation." [Atlantic. 489 
 
 MADAME DE PBESNEL. [by 
 Emma F.. Poynter: Holt, 1885.] 
 "Those who remember the nameless 
 charm of 'My Little Lady' will wel- 
 come 'Madame de Presnel' by the 
 same author; nor will it disappoint 
 them. It is original in plot, graceful 
 and refined in style, interesting throu- 
 out. It shows tlie Idnd of subtle 
 cleverness which Is its great attraction 
 in the title, which is not the name of 
 the heroine, but of the elderly lady 
 who moves the various heroes and 
 heroines to their proper positions on 
 the chess-board. The mingled dignity 
 and rashness of the true heroine are 
 admirably set forth. She is an en- 
 thusiast who bears the consequences 
 of ill-judged enthusiasm with the 
 finest courage." [Critic] — Scene is 
 in Gome. "It is a fine example of 
 what can be done to make a deeply 
 interesting story* with no appeal to 
 such motives. Hero and heroine are 
 again an elderly man and a ver^ young 
 woman in Italian surroundings, but 
 the diflficulties they encounter, the 
 doubts which separate them, are of 
 the kind which often recur in the 
 course of virtuous lives. Youthful 
 enthusiasm that gladly sacrifices itself, 
 maturer judgment which will dis- 
 charge honorable obligation at any 
 cost, sanguine recklessness, more self- 
 deceived than deceiving — out of these 
 elements are evolved situations 'that 
 are none the less stimulating because 
 they are elevating. The balance of 
 all the parts and the clearness of the 
 
 separate outlines gives a vivid effect 
 to the whole. The side figures are 
 not less attractive than the central 
 group. The young Laure and her 
 Italian husband are delitful. There 
 is no need to credit the author with 
 deep intention of showing the results 
 of mingling classes or races. Such as 
 there is falls naturally into the course 
 of the tale, and it is pleasant to find 
 again that refined, hl-minded side of 
 forein life, both french and Italian, 
 which had so admirable a presentation 
 in -Miss Bretherton." [Nation. 490 
 M'LLE DE MEESAC [by W: E: 
 NoiiRiS: Holt, 1880.] "is a story 
 which, it is to he feared, will not be 
 known so well as it deserves. The 
 author is comparatively obscure, but 
 he has written one of the best novels 
 which has appeared for some time. 
 The heroine is a french girl, living, 
 at the time the novel opens, in Al- 
 giers, and her lovers are two : one a 
 French officer, a man no longer young, 
 who has no very savory reputation, to 
 be sure, but is yet a man of the kind- 
 est heart and most tender nature; 
 while the other is a j'oung englishman, 
 with certain attractive qualities, that 
 by no means outwe his odious selfish- 
 ness, conceit, and arrogance. The 
 very skill with which the different 
 characters are drawn acts adversely 
 to the general popularity of the book ; 
 for the reader who is accustomed to 
 poorer work and to a dishonest hud- 
 dling aside of the hero's faults will 
 find it hard to judge of people whose 
 merits and defects are intermingled as 
 they are in life. Cynics may have ob- 
 served that all the engagements they 
 hear about are those of faultlessly 
 beautiful young women to perfect 
 young men, and those are the people 
 about whom novels are generally 
 
 139 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 written. Here, however, we have 
 very careful studies of character, and 
 of the complications which depend for 
 their existene on the nature of the 
 persons who fate is described. Yet 
 the problem is not complicated by a 
 dead wet of ethical considerations, 
 as in George Eliofs later novels, over 
 which morality hangs like a heavy 
 pall; but the question simply is how 
 these two men strike this simple, 
 good, but somewhat cold and self- 
 absorbed girl. The reader cannot 
 avoid the suspicion that the author 
 meant her to be more attractive than 
 interesting, and no one can avoid 
 curiosity about her fate. The teruiin- 
 ation of the story is disappointing, but 
 it is, perhaps, the only one possible; 
 iind is it not. after all, less sad than 
 either of the other alternative ending* ? 
 "Why a novel of the importance and 
 excellence of this one should be less 
 popular than AVhite Wings — a com- 
 monplace novel diluted with salt 
 water — it is not easy to say. In Mad- 
 emoiselle de Mersac we find an admir- 
 able clioice of opposite characters and 
 a capital study of living people." 
 [ Atlantic. 491 
 
 MADEMOISELLE MORI, see 
 List of Italian Novels. 
 
 MAE MADDEN [ by M.. Murdoch 
 Mason: Chicago,. Jansen, 1875.] ''is 
 a story of an american family in 
 Rome. The heroine, -Mae Madden.' 
 is a volatile, wilful, hair-bi'ained 
 young creature, who finds delit in the 
 gravest social improprieties, and, in 
 utter selfishness, gratifies her own 
 longings at any cost. She talks slang, 
 'goes wild,' frequently 'makes ahorse 
 of herself, and sometimes a 'black- 
 and-tan dog.' She receives the atten- 
 tions of a Piedmontese oiflcer. whom 
 she encounters on the street, and 
 
 cai'ries on a despesate flirtation with 
 him ; but is fortunately rescued by 
 Norman ^lann. who, possessing many 
 good qualities, is yet weak enuf to 
 Hiary her. The book belongs to a bad 
 school, and is in bad taste; but there 
 is much britness about it." [ Boston 
 ■•Literary World." 492 
 
 MAN-S A MAN FOR A' THAT. A 
 [ PwJnam, 1870.] "Whatever may be 
 the difference of opinion as to the in- 
 terest of the story, there can be none 
 as to its solidity, strength and clever 
 workmanship. The material is the 
 now I'ather common one of the advent- 
 ures and experiences of an american 
 family in Europe — chiefly in Rome. 
 Out of this she has wrot another love 
 story which, if it do not show the vivid 
 color and the animation which have 
 brilliantly distinguished some other 
 recent ventures in this field. Is at lea.st 
 wrot with much grace and care.'' 
 [ Boston "Literary W'orld." 493 
 
 MARRYIXG AND GIVING IN 
 MARRIAGE, [by M.. L.. (Stew- 
 art) MOLESWORTH : Harper, 1887.] 
 "This author is one of the few english 
 'lady novelists' who would be greatly 
 missed. She is safe ; she writes well; 
 she has lived among decent people 
 with so much comfort that she does 
 not find it necessarj' to run after inde- 
 cent ones. Her 'Marrying and Giving 
 in ilarriage' is a pleasant story of the 
 life of an english girl in France." 
 [ Catholic World. 494 
 
 MICHELINE [ by — ( ) Bersier : 
 Button, 1875.] "is a tale of french 
 life, rather novel in character. From 
 a vessel wrecked near Mont St. Michel, 
 a little american girl is rescued, and is 
 adopted, into the family of Bertrand. 
 the jailer. She grows up with Ivnn, 
 his son. and the two become warmly 
 attached. Together Wntx effect the 
 
 140 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 release of a prisoner, — a quite dramatic 
 episode. Bertrand leaves his post .and 
 buys a farm, and thus Micheline is 
 brot into contact with an english 
 family named Gordon. Ivon goes out 
 to America to join Mr. Gordon's son, 
 and there discovers Micheline's 
 brother, who is reunited to his sister,' 
 and in due time Ivon returns to 
 France, and maries Micheline. There 
 ai'e many pleasant slietches of life in 
 rural France and in Jersey in the 
 story, and a sweet tone characterizes 
 it." [Boston "Literai'v World." 495 
 
 MILLIONAIKE-S COUSIX (A) 
 [by Emily Lawless: Holt, 1885.] 
 '•is so slit an affair that we need not 
 delay to do more than give it hearty 
 commendation. The argument is by 
 no means a trite one. That poverty 
 should be no hindrance to true love is 
 an old theme. Wealth too, has its rits, 
 and the author has made out her case 
 vei-y forcibly. The scene is Algiers, 
 litly but picturesquely sketched, and 
 it still has the charm of novelty even 
 after -Mile, de Mersac.'" [Nation. 496 
 
 MISOGYNIST (The), [by Poth- 
 ERO : in Tales from Blackwood, N. S., 
 I.] "is an amusing record of the 
 defeat of a bore by a paradoxical hu- 
 morist he meets on his travels in 
 Normandie." [ Athenaeum. 497 
 
 MISS BAYLE'S ROMANCE [by 
 W: Fraser Eae : Holt, 1887.] '-has 
 excited not a little interest in England, 
 since most of the characters are not 
 only taken from real life, but gD throu 
 their several parts under their names, 
 so thinly disguised that they may 
 easily be identified. The Prince of 
 Wales figures conspicuously; Lord 
 Eandolph Churchill and Labouchere 
 also appear in person ; Mr. Yates is 
 called Mr. Atlas, and E : King, the 
 journalist and novelist, King Ed- 
 
 wards. Many others may easily be 
 recognized, and it would not be a diffi- 
 cult matter to give the real name of 
 the noble duke who has mines in Corn- 
 wall. Miss Chamberlain, of Cleve- 
 land, whose successes were so recent- 
 ly paragrafed. seems to have been the 
 protot3'pe of the heroine. Miss Alma 
 Bayle, the dauter of a Chicago specu- 
 lator, (called a banker in concession 
 to english prejudices). This young 
 and pretty american girl makes the 
 acquaintance of the Prince of Wales at 
 Monte-Carlo, then goes to England 
 and enjoys all the brilliant and varied 
 triumfs which belong to a beauty and 
 great heiress who has been singled out 
 for royal favor. As a study of ameri- 
 cans abroad the book has no si^ecial 
 originality. Miss Bayle conquers 
 wherever she goes, her aujericanisms 
 being deemed naive and charming. 
 She is a healthy, sensible, common- 
 place girl with an aptitude of getting 
 what she wishes out of life. Her 
 father, the millionaire, is the bes 
 drawn figure, and is so well put upon 
 the scene that we see him in almost 
 any relation of private and public life, 
 even understand his very clear finan- 
 cial operations. He is, in fact, a dis- 
 tinct and significant addition to our 
 gallery of national types." [Ameri- 
 can. 498 
 
 MISS BEETHERTON, see Eng- 
 lish Novels. 
 
 MISS ROVEL. [ by V : Chfebu- 
 LiEZ: Estes, 1875.] --The heroine is 
 one of the most original and striking 
 characters we have met in fiction. 
 She is a puzzle which it is at once 
 pleasure and despair to study. The 
 author indulges in a some violent as- 
 sumptions as to english social usages 
 in his account of Lady Eovel's status ; 
 but with this exception his work is 
 
 141 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 nearly perfect. Eaymond Ferra}', a 
 very learned and studious man, having 
 been deceived by a woman in early 
 life, becomes a hater of the sex, and 
 retires, with his sister, to a quiet home 
 in Geneva. By certain incredible 
 chances. Meg Eovel, an untamed girl 
 of 16, becomes an inmate of his house, 
 and he gets entangled with her roman- 
 tic fortunes. From hating her, he 
 comes slowly to love her, and at last, 
 having passed throu a labyrinth of 
 bewilderments, becomes her husband. 
 It is impossible to convey an idea of 
 the piquancy of this story, of the dis- 
 tinctness and vigor with which the 
 characteristics of the seveial person- 
 ages are portrayed. A fine humor 
 pervades the book, and there is a 
 wicked bathos in the surrender of the 
 magnificent voluptuary. Lady Eovel, 
 to the magnetism of a Weslej'an mis- 
 sionary." [Boston "Lit. World." 499 
 MES. DYMOND. [by Anne [Isa- 
 bella] (Thackeray) Eitchie : Har- 
 per, 1886.] "Mrs. (Thackeray) Eit- 
 chie never needs to be commended. 
 Her style has always the same grace- 
 ful flow, and it has not lost one shade 
 of its delicate refinement. In the 
 midst of fiction so often painful, so 
 often positively disagreeable, to open 
 one of her books is like turning from a 
 dusty hiway to a quiet garden softly 
 lited and sweet in perfume. There is 
 a life to be lived in the garden as well 
 as in the dingy street, and it is good 
 for us that once in a while some one is 
 glad to portray it. Not that Mrs. 
 Dymond always walked in flowery 
 paths. She had her sorrows, and 
 shared the sorrows of others, in a life 
 not so different from the most in its 
 experience as to make it worth the 
 telling for the sake of its incidents 
 alone. It is what she was in it that 
 
 gives to it its charm. Her power was 
 onh' that gentle power of a sweet and 
 truthful spirit to impart its own 
 quality to those about it. Under 
 its influence Injustice relents, the un- 
 willing yield, the selfish are ashamed. 
 This tenderappeal for sympathy to all 
 the hier, iliore refined side of our men- 
 tal and moral nature, which is always 
 found in Mrs. Eitchie's stories, more 
 than makes up for any lack in bold- 
 ness of conception or in strength of 
 grasp. Hor descriptions have always 
 had a unique value. Of mere word- 
 painting there has long been an ex- 
 cess in fiction. Her description is 
 even more than a fit and fine setting 
 for her personages. It opens our eyes 
 to the life of inanimate things and the 
 part they play in our human drama, 
 sometimes only the part of sympathy 
 taking on for our sake the colors of 
 the spirit. Or if they defy us, defeat 
 us, they win us ."ind help us again by 
 their calm, their friendliness of long 
 companionship. She has drawn many 
 pictures \Ahich no one forgets, and in 
 this story there are many to remember 
 with those in the "Village on the Cliff'.' 
 It is Prance again, but France in the 
 sad days of defeat, — of the siege of 
 Paris, of the Commune. They are not 
 pictures of battle-fields, not of blood 
 or of flame, but of what the women 
 saw as they sat with the children 
 shivering on the edge of the storm." 
 [Nation. 500 
 
 MOSAIC-WOEKEE'S DAUGH- 
 TER (The) [ by J. M. Capes : Bentley, 
 1868.] '••deals with an english family 
 resident in Rome, and contains inter- 
 esting pictures of Eoman manners and 
 society. The two english girls are 
 very agreeable young ladies, but the 
 Mosaic-Worker's dauter is the hero- 
 ine. Eoman politics are, of course, 
 
 142 
 
INTEENATION'AL NOVELS. 
 
 touched upon. There are spies and 
 banditti, seci'Pt arrests, and a romantic 
 mystery; also a priest, who is dread- 
 fully in love with one of the english 
 sisters, and suffers mucli in his mind 
 in consequence. All, however, ends 
 happily. There is an air of truthful- 
 ness and good feeling thi'ouout the 
 book, which makes it pleasant read- 
 ing."' [ Athenseum. 501 
 
 MY LITTLE LADY, see Eomantic 
 Novels. 
 
 NEPTUNE VASE (The) [by Vir- 
 ginia W. Johnson: Harper, 1881.] 
 '■is the charming story, charmingly 
 told, of a young oifan girl at Siena. 
 It gives a fascinating picture of Italian 
 life, and is. indeed, so saturated with 
 the Italian spirit that it is quite essen- 
 tial for tlie .imerican element in it to 
 be labelled. That it should be labelled 
 distinctly, we insist upon, for Katy 
 Osmond, adding to the dignity of the 
 lady "of the Aroostook" a sweetness 
 and gayety .all her own. is quite too 
 delitful a creation to be merged in her 
 Italian husband, agreeable as. we are 
 willing to confess, is the young pro- 
 fessor from Torino.'' [Critic. 502 
 
 NEW HYPERION (The). [by 
 E: Strahan, i. e.. Earl Shinn: 
 Lippincritt, 1874.] "To a work of 
 Saintine's we owe, with that sort 
 of indebtedness which the french 
 express by 'd'apres', 'The New Hy- 
 perion', a clever story of which we 
 have frequently had occasion to speak 
 in ijraise. The preface honestly gives 
 credit to S.aintine. but there is much 
 more originality in the work than the 
 scrupulous adapter lets be supposed, 
 and his britness and wit will thoroly 
 amuse his audience.'' [Nation. 503 
 
 NOKSEMAN'S PILGPJMAGE (A) 
 [by II. H. BOYESEN: Scrihner. 
 187.5.] "Tho we recognize in the 
 
 heroine traits that are characteristic 
 of m.any american young women, 
 they are combined with certain ele- 
 ments of character — a dignity, a grave 
 sweetness, which, we think, are not apt 
 to coexist with them. Especially, we 
 should say, she lacks the accent of 
 Boston girlhood, tho that is the city 
 from which she hails. We must not. 
 however, neglect to mention the many 
 skillful touches of character, both in 
 her portrait and in those of others. 
 Mrs. Elder is excellent. Too umch 
 cannot be said in jjraise of the way in 
 which Thora is rendered. — that deli- 
 cate, dreamy snow-maiden of the 
 north who seems like the ghost of 
 Varberg's haunting love for his 
 mother-land, and bears her disappoint- 
 ment with such sweet, pathetic silence. 
 — The whole description of the nor- 
 wegian homestead and the old grand- 
 parents is charming. Mr. Boj'esen is. 
 as }-et. more harmonious in his pictures 
 of Norway than in others." [Atlan- 
 tic. 504 
 NOT IN THE PROSPECTUS, [by 
 ''Parke Danforth." i. e., Hannah 
 Lincoln Talbot : Houghton. 1886.] 
 '•A brit, somewhat unskilful, but well- 
 bred story, in which the humors of a 
 personally conducted tour provide the 
 incidents which the author seems 
 hardly capable of inventing. The 
 humor and gayety of the book are its 
 sufficient excuse for being." [Atlan- 
 tic] '-It has no especial mission, but 
 is simply a story ; and a pretty and 
 refined one— unless it be deemed a 
 mission to wai-n the unwary against 
 the great European tourist excur- 
 sions. The experiences of the tourist 
 party are doubtless a little caricatured 
 and Mr. Messer likewise; but on the 
 whole, the lively account of both is 
 doubtless a warning well worth heed- 
 
 143 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 ing by the fastidious. "[Overland. 505 
 NOVEL WITH TWO HEROES (A) 
 [by Elliott Graeme: Griffin. ISli.^ 
 '■We congratulate the author on a 
 decided success. The story is written 
 in a lively and agreeable style, and, 
 in tolerably idiomatic english. The 
 scene is shifted from the university 
 town of Stildtlein [ IiOipzig ] with its 
 world-renowned conservatorium. to a 
 town on the english coast. We are in- 
 troduced to thehero on his way to Stadt- 
 lein, there to be installed as secretary 
 to Herr Bei'gmann, his father's friend. 
 Arnold Miiller is the son of a genius, of 
 one, that is, whose love for science 
 earned for him the contempt of his 
 father, and the inheritance of a younger 
 son. The simple life of the worthy di- 
 rector, — whose household consisted of 
 his wife, his maiden sister, Mala, (his 
 dauter.) and a mysterious old gentle- 
 man, known in his day as a famous 
 violinist, — is charmingly told. Sever- 
 al of the portraits are evidently 
 taken from life; in particular we 
 feel convinced that there must have 
 existed, if he does not exist now, 
 the counterpart of Herr Alexis Wall- 
 raf, the brilliant musical critic, whose 
 life is embittered by his absolute in- 
 capacity for original creation. The 
 violent aversion conceived by Wallraf 
 for the director's proteg6 is converted 
 into the strongest liking when he dis- 
 covers the unaflfected modesty and 
 genuine humility of the young com- 
 poser. But the interest of the story 
 is centred in Mala, the beautiful girl 
 who has inherited her father's genius, 
 and who, under different training, 
 would have developed into an artist 
 of the first rank, but who, thanks to 
 Herr Bergmann and Frau Martha, is 
 still, when on the threshold of woman- 
 hood, a simple gei'man maiden, her 
 
 heart wholly given to her cousin La- 
 cien." [Athenajum. 506 
 
 ODD TRUMP (The) [by J. G. A. 
 Coulson: N. Y., Bale & Son, 1875.] 
 '•is a tale of love, adventure and 
 ghosts. It shows some clcTerness, 
 and seems to be written by an ameri- 
 cau who has lived a good deal in 
 England, or, at any rate, is familiar 
 with many peculiarities of english 
 society. There are a good many char- 
 acters, one of whom is an amerioan, 
 and he is better drawn on the whole 
 than most americans are apt to be in 
 novels of english authorship. The 
 hero is the old-fashioned hero of novels 
 of a generation ago — a strong, brave, 
 tender-hearted, and honest young man, 
 who opens the ball by rescuing the 
 heroine from a watery grave and 
 closes it by raarying her. Tiie 'odd 
 trump' is not a winning card held by 
 one of the characters, but is the hero 
 himself. We have seen better novels 
 and we have seen worse. . . We do not 
 mean to say that the 'Odd Trump' is a 
 work of genius, but it shows a clever- 
 ness which is above belittling itself." 
 [Nation. 507 
 
 OLD BONIFACE [ by G : H : Pic- 
 ARD: N. Y., White, 1886.] --is an 
 entertaining, brlt little story, quite 
 unlike 'A Mission Flower' [see Roman- 
 tic Novels] but very delltful in a 
 way of its own. It deals with a lov- 
 able little american in England, with 
 2 interesting lovers, and several charm- 
 ing old ladies. The book is full of 
 amusing byplay, — old Boniface him- 
 self never appearing on the stage, but 
 having a decided influence on the for- 
 tunes of the young people. "[Critic. 508 
 
 ON BOTH SIDES, [by F.. C. 
 Baylor: Lippincott, ISSG.^ '-It is as 
 if the author wrote wrote her first 
 story, "The Perfect Treasure" to 
 
 144 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 sketch english social life as it appear- 
 ed to a small party of americans who 
 were domiciled at Cheltenham, and 
 afterward had the happy th6t of bring- 
 ing the english characters to America, 
 with a roving commission to discover 
 fases of american social life, and 
 incidentally to exhibit their own colors 
 in stronger lit than it was possible to 
 do at home. Many of the same per- 
 sons appear in '-The Perfect Treasure" 
 and "On this Side," and to all intents 
 and purposes the two stories may 
 answer as one. . . There is an exuber- 
 ance of good humor which keeps the 
 reader entertained without any severe 
 demand on his judgment, and it is long 
 since we have had so clever caricature 
 as is shown in Job Ketchum on the 
 nmerioan side, and Sir Robert Heath- 
 cote and Mrs. Sykes on the english. 
 Much is forgiven to one who makes 
 us laf honestly, and if on reflection we 
 think that Miss Baylor has sometimes 
 laid the color on rather thick, — that 
 she has br5t together in Job Ketchum, 
 for instance, too many incongruous 
 virtues and linguistic felicities, — we 
 are not prevented from asking our 
 friends rit and left to amuse them- 
 selves with a book so brit as to create 
 a sort of despair, as in the presence 
 of literary prodigality. The little 
 picture of the interior of a decayed 
 Virginian household, dashed off almost 
 at random, one may say, is so admir- 
 able that one cannot help wishing for 
 the same kind of work carried out 
 with sustained skill and the sort of 
 structural ability which is essential to 
 thoroly good work in Action." [At- 
 lantic. 509 
 ONE YEAR, [by F.. M.. Peard: 
 Roberts, 1871.] "This story is very 
 fresh and charming, with pleasant 
 pictures both of french and english 
 
 life, a good moral, and a happy end- 
 ing." [Old and New. 510 
 
 ONLY A CORAL GIRL. [by 
 Gertrude Ford : Harper, 1888.] '-The 
 coral girl is Margherita, the beautiful 
 dauter of a peasant women of Capri. 
 When she goes with her coral to the 
 hotel in Sorrento, Keith Ronaldson, a 
 a dashing young englishman, sees and 
 falls in love with her. She barely 
 knows how to read and write (even 
 this is improbable), but Keith maries 
 her and in 2 years' time she appears 
 in english society as a cultivated 
 woman, possessed of all the social 
 graces and capable of reading the 
 works of Herbert Spencer and Carlyle. 
 of course this is all absurd, but the 
 reader who is content to take it for 
 granted will have a strong, well- 
 written story to reward him for his 
 credulity. Margherita is a winning 
 specimen of womanhood, and her de- 
 votion to her well-meaning but rather 
 weali husband is beautifully express- 
 ed. Several society types are brot in 
 and depicted with vigoi-. The scene 
 changes from Capri to England and 
 back to Capri, with no attempt, how- 
 ever, at labored description. The in- 
 terest is purely a human interest and 
 does not depend on fine landscapes or 
 bric-a-brac. It is a strong, simple, 
 dramatic novel." [Boston '-Literary 
 World." 511 
 
 ON THE SCENT, [by Ma. Ma- 
 jendie: Hurst, 1887.] "The success 
 of the divining-rod in the hands of the 
 medium is grafieally described, and 
 its best result is to bring the heroine 
 into close terms of sympathy with her 
 young english lover. Besides this 
 leading incident, and the accurate 
 description of peasant life in Prance, 
 the author deserves some credit for 
 the marked distinctness with which 
 
 145 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 the various members of the ruined 
 county family of Demstone aie pre- 
 sented to the reader."[Athenaeum.512 
 
 OUR OWX SET. i.e., "Unter Uns." 
 [by "OssiP SCHCBIN," i. e., Lola 
 Kiirsehner: Gottsberger, 18Si.'\ '-This 
 is a captivating little novel, liter and 
 more dainty in touch than is usual in 
 german fiction, and showing a good 
 deal of skilful character painting. 
 The scene of the story is Borne, but 
 the story concerns only the group of 
 hi-born austrian diplomats there who 
 form 'Our Own Set', making intrusion 
 into their aristocratic circle a difficult 
 and dangerous thing to plebeians. The 
 heroine, Zinka. who is admitted as an 
 honorary member to this exclusive 
 circle, is a charming character, inno- 
 cently girlish, suspecting neither slit 
 nor evil. She suifers in discovering 
 the innate worthlessness of Sempaly, 
 who plays fast and loose with her 
 affections, but her healthy nature out- 
 grows her grief without embitter- 
 ment." [American. 513 
 
 PANDORA [in "The Author of 
 Beltrafio", by H: James: Osgood. 
 1885.] ''is by far the cleverest thing 
 in a miscellaneous collection. Pan- 
 dora is a representative of a new type, 
 the self-made american girl. She had 
 come from Utica, N. Y. and had taken 
 her parents to Europe ; and how count 
 Otto Vogelstein of the german legation 
 encounters her on her homeward voy- 
 age, and subsequently watches her 
 career at the national capital, Mr. 
 James relates with delitful humor. 
 The count learned that the self-made 
 girl was neither crude nor loud. She 
 was simply very successful, and her 
 success was entirely personal. She 
 had not been born with the silver 
 spoon of social opportunity, she had 
 grasped it by honest exertion. You 
 
 knew her by many different signs, but 
 chieflj', infallibly, by the appearance 
 of her parents. . . But the general 
 characteristics of the self-made girl 
 was that, tho it was frequently under- 
 stood that she was privately devoted 
 to her kindred, she never attempted to 
 impose them on society." [Boston 
 "Literary World." 514 
 
 PASSIONxVTE PILGRIM. (A) 
 [by H: James: Osgood, 1S75.^ "The 
 tales are all freshly and vigorously 
 conceived, and each is striking in a dif- 
 ferent way, while 'A Passionate Pil- 
 grim' is the best of all. In this Mr. 
 James has seized upon what seems a 
 very common motive, in a hero with a 
 claim to an english estate, but the char- 
 acter of the hero idealizes the situation ; 
 the sordid illusion of the ordinary am- 
 erican heir to english property becomes 
 in him a poetic passion, and we are 
 made to feel an instant tenderness for 
 the gentle visionaiy who fancies him- 
 self to have been misborn in our hur- 
 ried, eager world, but who owes to 
 his american birth the very rapture he 
 feels in gray England. "[Atlantic.515 
 
 POINT OF VIEW (The) [in '-The 
 Siege of London," by H : James : 
 Osgood, 1883.] '-Mr. James' subtlety 
 never appeared to better advantage 
 than in this clever bundle of letters. 
 When one considers that he has under- 
 taken to make americans, who have 
 been europeanized, return to America 
 and report on the country, either to 
 Europeans or to those of their own 
 special kind, one sees what a feat is 
 accomplished. These l:*^.ters are so 
 agile, so true to every wind of doc- 
 trine, so prospective, retrospective, 
 and introspective, that the reader is 
 lost in admiration. They are instan- 
 taneous mental fotografs, and among 
 the freshest of Mr. James' witty dc- 
 
 146 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 cisions Upon his country-men and 
 women. He even abandons himself, 
 in Marcellus Cockerel, to a certain 
 luxury of praise of things american 
 which has hardly a trace of irony, and 
 shows, better than anything in the 
 book, Mr. James' power of dramatic 
 assumption. One generally feels that, 
 however elaborately the various char- 
 acters are dressed, the voice is always 
 the voice of Mr. James, and that the 
 blessing intended for the chai'acter 
 falls upon the head of the spirited wit 
 who has planned the disguise; but 
 there is a downrit quality about Mr. 
 Cockerel's speech, a vehemence of 
 American assertion, which invests him 
 with a singular individuality. [At- 
 lantic. 516 
 PORTRAIT OF A LADY (The) 
 [by H : James : Houghton, 1881.] '-is, 
 as a whole, a hily remarkable and 
 moving tale, while in many of its parts 
 it is mai'velously dull, and while it is 
 everywhere injured by the essential 
 barrenness of the life depicted. . . 
 Every reader of contemporary fiction 
 6t to find time for this book, in spite of 
 its faults. . , The heroine sees and pas- 
 sionately desires the evil, and then flies 
 like an arrow towards the hated and 
 dreaded duty. One knows not whether 
 to call it childish worship of conven- 
 tion, or womanly fear of rebellion 
 against what had been fixed principles, 
 or true moral insit. In the result, 
 these come, in such a case, to much 
 the same thing. The contrast between 
 this perfect submission to the guidance 
 of the rit in the case of the heroine, 
 and the perfect if only momentary 
 overthrow of the principles of a reso- 
 lute and reflective man such as Caspar 
 Goodwood, gives occasion for one of 
 the finest scenes of the book. This 
 young Goodwood, with his squarejaw. 
 
 is a ver}' tiresome figure all throu the 
 eai-ly part of the book, and the out- 
 come shows him to be merely one 
 example of Mr. James' facility for 
 making, in the beginning, a nuisance 
 of what in time is seen to be a very 
 respectable minor character, or even 
 a character of the first importance. 
 Warburton and Ralph Touohett are 
 introduced as disagreeably as possible ; 
 but we grow to think hily of them. 
 The venerable banker shall receive 
 our honor. But as for the other char- 
 acters (excepting poor Pansey) it is 
 with difficulty that one can speak 
 politely of them. They are of various 
 degrees of wearisomeness. Since they 
 are rational animals, they in some sort 
 keep our attention whenever we I'ead 
 of them. But they are of a miserable, 
 puny, pigmy race ; it really concerns 
 us little to know what newspaper let- 
 ters they write when they are well- 
 meaning, or what dirt they eat when 
 they are vicious." [Californian.] — 
 '•The heroine of the novel, after reck- 
 lessly wasting her youth, maries a 
 selfish creature of the type of "Grand- 
 court," and the book ends with the 
 intimation that she may seek compen- 
 sation with a lover for the wa-etched- 
 ness of a mistaken mariage. The 
 story is told at interminable length ; 
 but that is the gist of it. It is a 'por- 
 trait' drawn without the least eifort to 
 show the noble, generous side of 
 humanity ; on the other hand it pain- 
 fully vivisects a mass of unwholesome 
 emotions, not worthy of attention for 
 themselves, and whose demonstration 
 leads to nothing in the way of warn- 
 ing and precept. The literary methods 
 with which readers have grown famil- 
 iar throu Mr. James' other books are 
 extravagantly used in this novel. 
 Such minute descriptions and suggest- 
 
 147 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 ions, such cross-examin.ations of his 
 puppets, our .luthoi- lias never before 
 indulged in ; the book is a bewilder- 
 ing; series of inquiries into motives, 
 and trains of obscure incentives lead- 
 ing into motives. And these motives 
 are, very few of them, things which 
 honest hearty souls care a fig about. 
 The whole proceeding is abnormal, 
 unreal, unhealthful. The humor is as 
 abundant, the irony as perfect, as we 
 are' accustomed to expect from this 
 quarter, and, if we could be satisfied 
 with a series of pictures of human 
 beings suggesting nothing of human 
 sympathy, longing, belief, or hope, 
 the peculiar manner of treatment mit 
 serve. AVe need only add that the 
 characters are chiefly the anglo-ameri- 
 cans to whose delineation Mr. James 
 has so consistently devoted himself." 
 [American. 517 
 
 . PRELATE. (The) [by I: Hender- 
 son: Ticknor, 1886.] "Helen Rath- 
 bone. Mr. Henderson's heroine, is 
 compelled to run the gauntlet of cal- 
 umnies which leave her for awhile 
 without a woman-friend in Rome. 
 She has done no harm. — but has carried 
 a message (a mysterious and blood- 
 curdling message, concerning which 
 the reader's imagination is compelled 
 to exercise itself in vain), from a 
 Jesuit to the Prelate Altieri. who has 
 left the Roman foi- the Old-Catholic 
 communion, and her zeal cost her 
 ■dear. Two ladies of hi rank see her 
 enter the rooms of Altieri, from which 
 she does not emerge until after dark. 
 Being a heroine, and thus appointed 
 to endure trying experiences, she be- 
 haves like the conventional heroine 
 when her reputation is endangered, 
 and utterly refuses to explain the 
 i-easons for this incomprehensible 
 breach of propriety. Feeling herself 
 
 bound by a sacred promise she is silent, 
 altho the worst motives are imputed 
 to her, altho her closest friends are 
 unequal to the ordeal of faith which 
 her attitude of mystery imposes. 
 Such Spartan firmness rouses our ad- 
 miration, but a little yielding, a little 
 rbunding oft" of the sharp angles of 
 Helen's perfection, would have endear- 
 ed lier to us more. Naturally, virtue 
 like hers is not left unrecognized, and 
 she is rehabilitated by the effort of a 
 Roman lady of the hiest rank and 
 social influence, who becomes her in- 
 timate friend. Helen is not however 
 one of those heroines who are destined 
 for the easy rewards of fate : she is 
 finally engaged to mary the prelate, 
 Altieri. but crossing each other in mid- 
 ocean the steamer on which Helen is a 
 passenger runs down the vessel in 
 which Altieri is returning, and he is 
 drowned. The book is stiff, animated 
 by little reality, rather dull, but it is 
 not commonplace, and possesses among 
 novels of its class distinct merits." 
 [American. 518 
 
 PROFESSOR (The) [by "Currer 
 Bell," i. e., 0.. (Bronte) Nicholls : 
 Harper. 1857.] "The heroine is a Swiss 
 girl. In humble but respectable life, 
 who becomes acquainted with the Pro- 
 fessor in ii, -pensionat' in Bruxelles. 
 Of a pure, unworldly nature — earn- 
 ing their daily bread by daily toil 
 — with no taste for the pretentions 
 and falsities of social life — and taut 
 by the hard and bitter lessons of ex- 
 perience to sacrifice the idols of fancy 
 to the worship of truth — these two 
 unique personages are soon drawn into 
 relations of unacknowledged sym- 
 pathy with each other, and tlie ripen- 
 ing of this sentiment into a more ex- 
 quisite passion forms the subject-mat- 
 ter of the story. The prominent char- 
 
 14S 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 acters in the scene are br6t into contrast 
 with an unprincipled, conceited, and 
 shallow frenchman, and an intriguing 
 woman of the same nation, who con- 
 ceals the spots of her nature beneath 
 a shining vail of decorum and gentle- 
 ness. A sturdy english humorist 
 plays an important part in the drama, 
 altho he is managed with less skill 
 than the leading personages." [Har- 
 per's. 519 
 
 QUEEN OF SHEBA (The) [by T : 
 B. Aldrich: Osgood, 1877.] '-is a 
 simple love-story, of which the scene 
 is laid partly in New-Hampshire and 
 partly in Switzerland. The author 
 thus finds opportunity to compare 2 
 countries which, in some respects, are 
 similar, and to draw some vivid word- 
 pictures of scenery." [Unitarian Re- 
 view. 520 
 
 QUITS, [by Jemima (Montgom- 
 ery) von Tautphous : Lippiiicott, 
 1866.] '-Baroness Tautphceus writes 
 easily, correctlj', and elegantly. Her 
 sliill in description is remarkable, and 
 herrepresentation of externals, of man- 
 ners and customs, of rural life, city life, 
 and fashionable life, is minute and 
 truthful. . . -Quits' has merit, first, as 
 a pleasant and good-humored sketch 
 of the englishman at home and abroad, 
 in London and on his travels, — and 
 next, as a more rare picture of life in 
 the mountain region of Southern Ba- 
 varia. In the scenes of the book there 
 is a charming reality and distinctness." 
 [Christian Examiner. 521 
 
 REVERBERATOR (The) [by H: 
 James : Macmillan, 1888.] "was worth 
 writing and is worth reading — two 
 things which do not always seem to us 
 true of the author's work, much as we 
 invariably admire his technique. . . 
 The heroine is very beautiful, with 
 fine lines, delitf ul color, and graceful. 
 
 unaffected, girlish manners. Her man- 
 ners, however, do not appear to be a 
 great part of her charm for Gaston 
 Probert, the only living son of a South 
 Carolinian settled for many years in 
 France. . . Gaston is not Francina 
 Dosson's only admirer. He has been 
 preceded by George M. Flack, whom 
 the whole Dosson family regard as a 
 great and elevated person on account 
 of his supposed dignity as an editor. . . 
 Fidelia has br8t the family abroad for 
 the second time, knowing that rich 
 american giils are said to do extreme- 
 ly well in the way of mariage -over 
 there', and she has no idea of giving 
 her to an american even if an editor. 
 Gaston meets Miss Dobson's entire 
 approval and is not slow in gaining 
 that of Francie also. His diflSculty 
 arises when he faces the thSt of pre- 
 senting the socially unpresentable 
 Dossons to his father and sisters. 
 However, he gets over that without 
 too much trouble. He is one of a 
 most united and affectionate family, 
 who appreciate the fact that his heart 
 is irrevocably engaged, and who end 
 by yielding, tho with some wry faces, 
 graciously made in private for the 
 most part, to Francie's innocent charm 
 and striking beauty. She is taken 
 into their interior, and Gaston's favor- 
 ite sister, by way of proving to the 
 little girl how fully they have adopted 
 her as one of themselves, tells her 
 quantities of family gossip, including 
 the fact that one of their relatives 'had 
 that disease — what do they call it? — 
 that she used to steal things in shops' ; 
 now, all this, and a good deal of a 
 still more scandalous nature, Francie 
 innocently repeats to Mr. George M. 
 Flack, whose disappointment with 
 regard to herself she pities." [Catholic 
 World.]— "The Proberts, father, son, 
 
 149 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 and titled dauters, are all presented 
 witli Mr. Jaine.s' utmost skill. Tlieir 
 mutual affection. their exquisite 
 manners, their fastidiousness of re- 
 serve towards the public, and tlieir 
 graceful abandon when thrown to- 
 gether. They represent the very 
 bloom of .french social culture 
 and exotic civilization, and, naturally, 
 when thrown into contrast with the 
 Dossons, who have no m.inner, no 
 reserves, no exclusiveness. no stand- 
 ards of taste, — whose whole idea of 
 life Is taking what comes easily, and 
 letting all go easily,— the effect is 
 striking.— The Proberts throw a veil 
 over their dissatisfaction with the 
 Dossons and summon all the charm of 
 their fine manners to theii' .aid. They 
 pet Franeie. talk to her freely, try to 
 majie her one of themselves by the 
 tenderest intimacy. Franeie accepts 
 it, but the 'French ideas' do not easily 
 assimilate with her vague american 
 notions. Happening to be thrown 
 into Mr. FlacK's societj', she confides 
 to him that she is surprised at some of 
 the complications of french life. Mr. 
 Flack draws her out. and the whole 
 revelation of what she has seen, heard, 
 and divined about the Proberts is un- 
 reservedly poured forth for the edifi- 
 cation of tha journalist. Naturally, 
 the whole account, exaggerated into 
 monstrosity and made indecent with 
 every sort of suggestion, is sent off to 
 the Eeverberator, and a foitnit or 
 so later the Proberts find all their 
 family histoiy. atrociously garbled, in 
 print. The situation is capitally han- 
 dled when al 1 the Proberts are ai-raigned 
 against Franeie, but we refer our 
 readei's to the story itself for the 
 sequel. Mr. Flack had flashed his 
 lantein into the privacy of a hl-mind- 
 ed family and had made a sensation. 
 
 The results of our obtrusive modern 
 journalism are clearly set before us, 
 and anybody may yeize the moral. 
 When Franeie, with a crowd of unuttei- 
 ed regrets and repentances thinks of 
 the mischief she has done, she vvonders 
 if all the lively, chatty letters, she 
 reads in the papers means, like this 
 about the Proberts, 'a violation of 
 sanctities, a convulsion of homes, a 
 burning of smitten faces, a rupture of 
 girls' engagements.'" [American. 522 
 
 EOBIN [by Louisa (Taylok) 
 Parr : Holt. 1SS2.] '-is agreeable and 
 readable, and holds the reader's sym- 
 pathies to the end. The story is not 
 a new one. and the first half reminds 
 one strikingly of 'Heaps of Money,' 
 with a father and dauter living on the 
 Continent, and a young englishman of 
 good family established as -ami de la 
 maison.' Robin is a fresh and frank, 
 purely girlish creation, and fulfils the 
 first duty of a heroine by being charm- 
 ing. The idle, pleasure-taking, fic- 
 titious life at Venice is well de- 
 scribed, and makes a picturesque 
 background for the play of the 4 prin- 
 cipal characters." [ Lippincotfs.] — 
 "It is a beautiful story of resistance 
 to temptation, and of the purification 
 and elevation of character in both 
 man and woman by such a struggle 
 for self-conquest. It is essentially 
 dramatic in the sense of action and 
 reaction of the personages of the story 
 upon each other." [ Nation. 523 
 
 ROCK OF THE LEGION OF 
 HONOR {Dej- Ftls der Ehrenlegion) 
 [by B. Auerbach: in ••Harper's 
 Maaazine." nov.-dec. 1870.] "tells 
 of the love of a young german lady 
 for a painter whom she meets in for- 
 ein parts. There is considerable clev- 
 erness in the drawing of some of the 
 people, especially of the heroine and 
 
 150 
 
INTEUNATIOXAL NOVELS. 
 
 her old schoolmates. The construc- 
 tion of the story is not its most .admir- 
 able point ; by tlie time the heroine is 
 out w.alking near where the artist is 
 painting [ in Switzerland] the leader 
 feels most marked premonitions of 
 the impending spraining of her anljle 
 a few pages further. This artist is 
 painting a rock, and calls it the rock 
 of the legion of honor because a 
 picture of his, representing it, had won 
 him that decoration." [Atlantic. 524 
 
 RODERICK HUDSON, [by H: 
 James: Osgood. 1S75.'] ■•The story is 
 finely conceived, and the book has an 
 indescribable charm. The history of 
 a genius must always be fascinating 
 and impressive, especially if it have 
 'vr.aisembL'ince', and the story of Rod- 
 erick Hudson's I'ise and fall is almost 
 terrible in its fidelity to psychological 
 ti'uth. But the great charm of the 
 hook lies in the atmosfere of Rome 
 which pervades it — the very flavor of 
 Italy. In no other work, except Haw- 
 thorne's "Marble Faun', is the Eternal 
 City made so familiar to our imagina- 
 tions. It infects one irresistibly with 
 the -Roman fever,' and we feel .is we 
 read that, if all roads do not in fact 
 lead to Rome, at least none is worth 
 traveling which does not promise to 
 lead there." [Appleton"s. 525 
 
 SARCASM OF DESTINY (The) 
 [by M.. E.. (W.) Shekwood: Apple- 
 ton. 1878.] '-is peculiar in one respect, 
 as being a story of american society 
 written by a person evidently a mem- 
 ber of what in America is called 
 society. The hero of this book is the 
 son of a hungarian fysician and an 
 english lady of rank. His wooing of 
 Nina, an american lady of french 
 descent and great wealth, is interfered 
 with by the discovery that he has a 
 wife living in the neborhood ; he dis- 
 
 appears, .and Nina, after some delaj-, 
 maries her kinsman, Vigee La Font- 
 aine, and goes with him to Paris. She 
 is established in the Faubourg, in the 
 imposing and gloomy hotel of her 
 mother-in-law, and her sister is at the 
 same time an ornament of the Ameri- 
 can colony. The relations and differ- 
 ences of the two sisters are well des- 
 cribed, and all the French part of the 
 book is written with 'connaissance du 
 fait.' Vigee becomes brutal, and the 
 same woman who was the wife of 
 Nina's lover turns up as Vig6e"s mis- 
 tress, and dies, leaving a cljild whom 
 Nina adopts and brings back to Amer- 
 ica with her. She loses her fortune, 
 endures hardships of many kinds, her 
 husband dies, and finally, of course, 
 she maries her first love, whose career 
 seems to be deemed peculiar and 
 unfortunate, but not particularly 
 blameworthy. The old lady. Miss 
 Brown, who is supposed to tell most 
 of the story, is cleverly sketched and 
 quaint, and there is a good deal in the 
 book besides what we have indicated — 
 a description of Washington during 
 the war, a lady traitor, a hi-toned 
 lover, a dip into english society, and 
 a subordinate love affair with suppress- 
 ion of letters, etc. Indeed, if we wish- 
 ed to be critical, we might say that 
 the book is a little like a j'oung minis- 
 ter's first sermon, beginning at the 
 Deluge and telling all he knows. On 
 the contrary, we do say that the book 
 has much liveliness and "pace." and 
 we have no doubt the author can 
 write a much better one. '"[Nation. 526 
 SEVEN YEARS, [by Julia Kav- 
 AVtAGH: Hurst. 1859.] '-Miss Kavan- 
 agh is always charming in her delin- 
 eations of french provincial life and 
 french interiors. She gives not only 
 the outward form and features of 
 
 151 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 things, but their internal meaning and 
 significance. This nialies all the dif- 
 ference betwixt wearisome trifling and 
 sagacious indication of character. 
 Tlie first story, which gives its name 
 to the booli, is one of the best stories 
 of tlie Ivind we ever read. As a worlj 
 of art it is most sliilfully contrived, 
 and as a worli of interest it is fascin- 
 ating. Out of very homely details — 
 with few incidents and no events — 
 with scarcely any change of scene, 
 and with characters whicli in their real 
 existence were, without doubt, very 
 trying to tlie patience of all who had 
 to do with them, Miss Kavanagh has 
 constructed a story of strong interest, 
 and without any strain after effect, 
 she has given to it a lii tone of true 
 heroism — she has invested the simple 
 'continuance in well doing' with a 
 dignity which is touching, because it 
 is true." [Athenaeum. 527 
 
 SIEGE OF LONDON. (The) [by 
 H: James : Osgood. 1883.] '-The story 
 is of an american adventuress who, in 
 her excessive power of adaption, 
 reaches an admirably simulated res- 
 pectability, and, having fascinated 
 Sir Arthur Demesne, finally turns his 
 defenses against himself. As a piece 
 of warfare, Mrs. Headway's siege is 
 conducted with admirable address. 
 The reader is puzzled to Ijnow how a 
 young woman, whose reported con- 
 versation, tho entertaining, is undeni- 
 ably the expression of a hard, vulgar 
 person, will succeed in making capture 
 of the englishman, who, if slow-witted, 
 has at any rate the sensibilities of a 
 gentleman. Time, of so much conse- 
 quences in most sieges, seems here a 
 dangerous element, and one would 
 suspect that Sir Arthur's wits would 
 at last catch-up with his instincts. 
 So they would, but Mrs. Headway 
 
 uses against him the very weapons 
 upon which Sir Arthur must rely. 
 He has an honor wliicli has been wrot 
 out of poor material in a long series 
 of generations, until now it has a 
 nobility of temper, and thus far Sir 
 Arthur Demesne has used it effective- 
 ly. At the critical moment Mrs. 
 Headway deftly wrests it from him, 
 and points its blade another waj'. It 
 is hardly worth while to look for any 
 deep meaning in this brilliant little 
 story. As a sketch of superficial 
 manners it is vivacious and very in- 
 telligible. The humor in the study of 
 the young diplomatist is capital, and 
 one may take a grim satisfaction in 
 seeing the very cautious Mr. Little- 
 more defeated by his own caution, and 
 left to all the dissatisfaction which a 
 too tardy I'esolution must have brot 
 him." [Atlantic. 528 
 
 SIGNOR MONALDINI'S NIECE, 
 see EoMANTic Novels. 
 
 SIGHTS AND INSIGHTS: [by 
 A. D. (T.) Whitney : Osgood. 1876.] 
 '•People who could talk in this way 
 or listen to it with enjoyment could 
 very well sit in their parlors at home 
 and reason themselves to Europe or 
 up the side of a house without incon- 
 venience. When it is known that cer- 
 tainly'a third of the book is made of 
 this curious jumble of sentiraentalit}', 
 religion, transcendentalism, and stam- 
 mering afl'ectation, the reader may feel 
 as inclined to fl)' from the novel as he 
 would from these people in life, with 
 their intense admiration for themselves 
 and their ways, and contempt for peo- 
 ple who do not boast of being synvpa- 
 thetic. and with their absolutelj' in- 
 decorous want of reserve. To outwe 
 faults of this magnitude (and we have 
 tried not to exaggerate them) there 
 must be something in the novel of 
 
 152 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 great merit, and what this is it is not 
 hard to find. Mrs. Whitney has gone 
 over the familiar traelc of European 
 travel, and she lias expressed anew 
 and with considerable accuracy the 
 impression made upon those who see 
 it all for the first time. The little 
 round Patience Strong made in Switz- 
 erland led her into no unknown by- 
 ways, but the beauty of the scenery 
 and its novelty really moved her, and 
 the nonsense left her when she was 
 not under the immediate influence of 
 her traveling companions. Pictures, 
 statues, ruins, and famous architect- 
 ure found in her a warm admirer, wiio 
 was sincere in her aduuration even if 
 at times a trifle incoherent. We have 
 here something more genuine and 
 better worth reading than the would- 
 be mystical talk of Gen. Rushleigh 
 and the rest. Another merit of the 
 book is that these characters whom 
 we have been abusing, have beneath 
 all their absurdities and narrowness 
 qualities which can only be admired." 
 [Nation. 529 
 
 SILVIA, [by Julia Kavanagh«: 
 Hurst. 1870.] '-Miss Kavanagh's her- 
 oine is charming. When we have said 
 this, we have nearly exhausted our 
 criticism ; for tho there is much pleas- 
 ant writing upon other points, and all 
 the subordinate parts have a distinct- 
 ness and oi'iginality of their own, it is 
 on Silvia and her fortunes that our 
 interest is concentrated, and tho sec- 
 ondary pictures are nowhere left in- 
 complete, siie stands out from the 
 canvas naturally and undoubtedly 
 predominant. We are first introduced 
 to her. an italian orfan of noble roman 
 p.arentage. as living at Sorrento 
 under the gai'dianshii^ of some distant 
 relatives, whose friendly but retired 
 villa she soon leaves for that of a 
 
 maried friend in France, a change to 
 which she looks forward with much 
 girlish glee and curiosity. Having 
 arrived at St. Rfimy, she is thrown at 
 first among a strangely assorted coterie 
 of english. who garrison the house of 
 Lady John Dory, one of those man- 
 ceuvring women of the world, who 
 for want of excitement, play chess 
 with human pieces, and whose char- 
 acter and satellites are very amusingly 
 described, and secondly finds a home 
 less gay, but not less vitally interest- 
 ing to her than she had anticipated, 
 in the chateau of Madame de I'Epine, 
 her early friend. That lady, having 
 been deserted by her husband, a worth- 
 less spendthrift, is living with her 
 father, a simple-hearted old french 
 captain who speaks english with zeal- 
 ous intrepidity, and her iialf brother 
 Charles Meredith, an engineer, and 
 the hero of Silvia's first romance. . . 
 How the good and bad of Silvia's com- 
 plex tho honest nature are developed 
 by this contact, till fickleness gives 
 way to faith, and the eager girl be- 
 comes the loving woman, is a pretty 
 story, and told with much subtle and 
 delicate knowledge of humanity. The 
 books abounds with humor of a quiet 
 sort." [Athenaeum.] — It is a story of 
 Italian and French life, in sketching 
 which the author manifests a charm- 
 ing aptness which could result only 
 from an intimate acquaintance with 
 their peculiarities. Some of her pic- 
 tures of scenery and country life are 
 delicious. Silvia is a winning charact- 
 er, and Dom Sabino Nardi is a quaint 
 and interesting personage, whom it is 
 a pleasure to know." [Boston "Liter- 
 ary World." 530 
 SOJOURNERS TOGETHER [by 
 Frank Frankpori Moore: Smith., 
 187.5.] '-is a pleasant little story 
 
 153 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 of a young man who comes to 
 stay at a Swiss hotel where, a year 
 before, he had met his fate. In the 
 meantime he has been thrown over by 
 the iadjf. . . He returns to his old 
 haunts, full of sweet and bitter fancies, 
 and before long meets his fate again 
 in the person of a young lady of charm- 
 ingly simple manners, the dauter of a 
 vulg.ar but good-hearted Citj' man. . . 
 This slit story is well told, and tlie 
 various "sojourners together" in the 
 Swiss pension are happily sketched. 
 It is a pleasant little tale, which we 
 can honestly recommend to our read- 
 ers." [Athenaeum. 531 
 
 SPIDERS AND FLIES, [by Pekcy 
 Fendall : Ward £ Downey, 1S86.] 
 '•Mr. Fendall does not depend upon 
 his plot in claiming our interest, and 
 solves any difficulties that may occur 
 in its development in a ruf-and-ready 
 fashion. The final episode in particu- 
 lar is abruptly and crudely hurried 
 throu. But in dialog and analysis he 
 shows decided promise and Is entirely 
 at his ease in slietching that section of 
 our society who by much residence 
 abroad have divested themselves of 
 their english reserve. And he has the 
 artistic merit of effacing his own indi- 
 viduality and leaving the reader to 
 judge entirely for himself as to the 
 faults and virtues of his -dramatis per- 
 sons'. The character of the heroine 
 is well drawn and consistent, and com- 
 mands our sympathies in spite of her 
 many faults." [Athenseum. 532 
 
 SPPJNG FLOODS, by Ivan Tck- 
 GENiEF, see Itomantic Novels. 
 
 STOEM driven [by M.. 
 (Healy) Bigot : Lippincott, 1877.] 
 '•is a book which any one may enjoy; 
 altho it may not be strikingly new or 
 original, the story is agreeably told. 
 . . . Lil. John Bruce, and Leigh Ward 
 
 are all good types of the men and 
 women of our world; and Issy, with 
 her lofty enthusiasm for art, scorn of 
 fashion, and short-cropped hair, is not 
 the least delitful acquaintance we 
 make. The pictures of Paris life 
 are good." [Boston "Lit. World. "533 
 STORY OF ELIZABETH (The). 
 [by A.. [Isabella] (Thackeray) 
 Ritchie: N. Y., Grcffor?/, 18G3.J "A 
 more lovable or natural heroine tlian 
 Elizabeth, it would be difficult to find. 
 Even in her nautiness and petulance 
 she is charming, and inspires the live- 
 liest sympathy and regard. She is 
 simple and unaffected, not hily en- 
 dowed intellectually, not wise, but 
 loving and lovely. And if sorrow 
 teaches her at last to be heroic, hers is 
 by no means a stilted heroism, for 
 she learns the hard lesson in so artless 
 and touching a way that it robs her of 
 none of her childlike grace. . . This 
 exquisite little story, when once read, 
 can never be forgotten. It must ever 
 be remembered with .affectionate inter- 
 est, inasmuch as it imparts its own 
 warmth .and glow to its readers, asso- 
 ciating itself closely with all pleasant 
 memories, such as 'song of bird and 
 hue and odor of blossom,' which in its 
 sweetness, freshness, and delicate col- 
 oring it much resembles." [ Christian 
 Examiner.] — "In Elly we have a her- 
 oine whom we cannot help grudging 
 to the world of fiction ; full of engag- 
 ing beauties, and still more engaging 
 faults ; shining in so fresh and simple 
 a loveliness ; adorning and enjoying 
 her beauty without vanitj^; artless 
 and childlike, and yet not without the 
 lustre of culture; loveablo without 
 any of the duly I'egistered qualities 
 which claim a fatigued admiration ; 
 at once trustful and wilful ; pitying 
 herself genuinely in her troubles, and 
 
 161 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 yet pitying others more; with an 
 innocent english mind and heart which 
 are easy to enter into and yet bathed 
 in a deep italian atmosfere; imagina- 
 tive but not dreamy ; witli a golden 
 cloud about her that neither dazzles 
 nor overshadows, Elly has, on the 
 whole, no rit to belong to a novel, 
 and it is the only thing which grieves 
 us as we close the book." [ Spec- 
 tator. 534 
 
 STEUGGLE (A) . [by Baknet Phil- 
 lips : Apple.tun, 1S78.] "Here we have 
 at St. Eloi a chiiteau and a foundry; 
 in the former a wealthy french iron- 
 founder, and the heroine — his beauti- 
 ful, impetuous, but hauty dauter, 
 about to be betrothed to a man of the 
 world, de Valbois, At the foundry a 
 one-armed j-ankee, the hero, an ex- 
 colonel, quiet, imperturbable, but 
 valued by his employer as an admira- 
 ble mechanic, a re.ady suggester of 
 the rit thing to make the iron quicker 
 and better and the machinery to go 
 when it is out of order. Then comes 
 the fi-anco-german war, the master is 
 struck down with illness, de Valboia 
 withdraws, Mr. Yankee runs the 
 works, advises everybody, cares for 
 his employer, and protects his dauter, 
 whose respect and gratitude gradually 
 deepens into love. But this man of 
 perfect judgment gives no sign of his 
 own affection until hauty mademoiselle 
 quite pouts because it has not shown 
 itself, and then the victory is com- 
 plete." [Penn Monthly. 535 
 
 SUMMER'S ROMANCE (A), 
 [by M.. (Healy) Bigot: Low, 1877.] 
 '■The heroine is of unknown parent- 
 age, only moderately accomplished, 
 and possessing a face which owes its 
 chief attractions to the fact that it is 
 expressive of a sensible mind and a 
 loving heart. She is utterly without 
 
 adventitious advantages, and it is 
 therefore no slTt evidence of talent 
 that our sympathies, at first grudg- 
 ingly given to the somewhat un- 
 promising heroine, grow gradually 
 warmer, and that at length we fall 
 desperately in love with her. The 
 hero is rather a poor creature for liis 
 position, but his defects are never 
 exaggerated or untrue to nature ; and, 
 after all, how few perfect heroes are 
 to be met in life! Again, the villain 
 of the story is only unprincipled, and 
 not a monster of crime. Of the sub- 
 ordinate chai'acters, the young italian 
 wife is a charming little sketch ; while 
 the aggressive preaching of Mrs. 
 Cardwell is humorously, but not too 
 humorously, described. Speaking of 
 this book as a drama, we may con- 
 gratulate the authoress on having 
 given us most attractive scenery — 
 so attractive, indeed, that we fancy 
 many readers will feel a strong desire 
 to visit Capri." [Athenaium. 536 
 
 SUN-MAID (The) [by Maria M. 
 Grant: Harper, 1877.] "is a very 
 pleasant story, and a well written 
 one ; the style being clear, vigorous, 
 and eloquent. The scene is mostly 
 laid in Spain, but introduces Spanish, 
 english, french, and russian charac- 
 ters. The hero is an english noble- 
 man; the heroine, the dauter of a 
 russian poet, — an exile. Both are 
 noble characters. Indeed, the whole 
 tone of the book is superior, and its 
 perusal leaves a sweet and beautiful 
 impression. "[Boston'-Lit. World. "537 
 
 SYBIL'S SECOND LOVE [by 
 Julia Kavanagh : Appleton, 1867.] 
 '•is an old-fashioned novel, easily 
 written, easy to read, not descending 
 into tragic depths, but treating of the 
 checks, changes, mortifications, and 
 dellts which fall to the lot of a heroine 
 
 135 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 cf 17. Sybil Kennedy is not remark- 
 able in tiny way except for being truth- 
 ful and straitforward. and slie conies 
 home from selrool at Brompton to her 
 fatlier's house on tlie western coast of 
 France expecting to And everyone as 
 honest as herself, and, of course goes 
 throu tlie usual and sad process of 
 attaining to worldly wisdom by bitter 
 experience of falsehood. Her father 
 is a mysterious irisiiman who has bot 
 a picturesque property on the wild sea 
 coast in order to build mills and make 
 rape oil; not a very romantic business 
 In itself, but carried on by Mr. Kenne- 
 dy in a dramatic way. . . Such a book, 
 which leaves the deep waters of life 
 untroubled, is not very interesting to 
 young people, who desire to anticipate 
 by their imaginations the strife and 
 suft'ering which have not yet reached 
 thSr hearts. But sometimes those 
 who are passing throu the struggle, 
 who are facing the realities of life, 
 turn away from the writer who touches 
 on them too closely, and seek rather 
 repose and a gentle distraction f roui 
 unquiet thot. To such we recommend 
 'Sybil's Second Love.' " [Round T.538 
 TANGLED [by Rachel Carew: 
 Chicago, Griggs. 1877.] "is an ameri- 
 ean production, of lit build. It is agree- 
 ably amusing, not by means of the 
 noisy horse-play which has made the 
 fame of some national humorists, but 
 from the very absence of it. The 
 sketch, too, has been carefully written 
 and well deserves the half-hour's at- 
 tention which would suffice for read- 
 ing it." [Nation.]— "The double and 
 twisted letters on the cover of this 
 little volume appropriately represent 
 the title. It is a humorous novelette 
 of life at a Swiss watering-place, 
 where the hero and heroine get Into 
 a 'maddening maze of things,' each 
 
 imagining the other to be insane— a 
 supposition which succeeding chapters 
 of accident confirm. This comedy of 
 errors proves more entertaining to the 
 reader than to the deluded tho not 
 demented couple, who are kept from 
 falling in love only by thots of ineligi- 
 bility for matrimony of persons in a 
 non-compos-mentis condition. The vil- 
 lain of the piece is mildly personated 
 by an english 'swell,' who tries to win 
 the maiden for himself, while confirui- 
 Ing her belief in the insanity of his 
 rival. Elteous judgment, of course, 
 overtakes him. The actual lunatic 
 appears to claim his kingdom of fool- 
 ishness, the mistake about the hero 
 is cleared up, and all ends happily." 
 [Library Table. 539 
 
 TENTS OP SHEII [by [C:] 
 Grant [ B.] Allen, Ghatto, 1887.] 
 "is romantic and picturesque in parts, 
 and pleasant to read. The plot in- 
 cludes an intricate family complica- 
 tion, an absurd will, a forgery, and 
 some love-making in Algeria. 
 There are 2 heroes and 2 heroines, 
 who, after a false start on the part of 
 2 of them, eventually pair oft' in a fit 
 and proper manner. Mr. Allen has 
 managed the necessary change in the 
 affections of one of the young women 
 most adroitly; and even when the 
 incidents are most improbable they 
 are nearly always clever. . . Indeed, 
 there are few chapters in Mr. Allen's 
 story which the reader will not find 
 thoroly aumsing." [ AthenoBum. 540 
 
 THELMA. [by "Marie Corelli," 
 i.e., Minnie Mackay: -ZJeniZfj/. 1887.] 
 "Tho it is called a society novel, the 
 first half, the best and most pleasant 
 portion, deals with fell and fiord in 
 Norway. Thehna is a beautiful and 
 accomplished Norse girl, the mother- 
 less dauter of an honest farmer ; she 
 
 15G 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 is discovered by a young english bar- 
 onet, who after sundry adventures 
 carries lier off in his yaclit. The inci- 
 dents are not of a particularly novel 
 kind, and indeed, the character and 
 actions of the rascally clergyman who 
 forces himself upon the heroine's 
 notice are neither pleasant nor natural ; 
 but the local descriptions are good, 
 and Thelma herself is fresh and life- 
 like. After her mariage the scene 
 changes to London." [Athenieum. 541 
 
 THEOUGH LOVE TO LIFE, [by 
 GiLLAN Vase: Harper, 1SS9.] "In 
 this novel, there is an almost confus- 
 ing rapidity of movement. It is a 
 work of great talent, impulsive, dra- 
 matic, and audacious, altho the 
 audacity is well curbed. Tlie writer 
 has knowledge of the world, and also 
 of literary effects; the contrasts of 
 serious and amusing pages are well 
 managed. It is not one of the novels 
 which will be read and I'e-read with 
 affection, but it is a brilliant, skilful. 
 and exciting story of english and 
 continental life." [ Boston "Liter- 
 ary World." 542 
 
 TO LEEWARD. [by Fr. M. 
 Crawford: Osgood, 1882.] "The 
 young lady who drifts 'to leeward' 
 so easily and completely is the dauter 
 of an english father and a russian 
 mother, bred in Rome. Her lover is 
 a dilettante englishman of unmingled 
 race, but who has spent his lite in 
 roaming about the Continent, writing 
 articles for magazines, and making 
 love to whomsoever may offer. He is 
 her lover, but not in the wholesome 
 english sense. The whole 'mise en 
 scene' is that, we have said, of a 
 french novel — a thing which, fortu- 
 nately, has never been adopted or 
 adapted into english. Leonora maries, 
 in the beginning of the book, a nat- 
 
 ural, genial, simple-minded Italian ; so 
 primitive a character, that little know- 
 ledge of the race is necessary to de- 
 scribe to us the kind, simple fellow, 
 who is quite satisfied with his wife's 
 very moderate affection for him. and 
 who is utterly indisposed to poke 
 under the surface, or make analytical 
 investigations into her heart and thots. 
 She maries hiin for no particular rea- 
 son except that he asks her, being 
 herself rich, and in the enjoyment of 
 all that society (in Rome) and the 
 liier education can give. Evil for- 
 tune, however, throws in her way, 
 when she begins to find her husband 
 tiresome, a certain Julius Batiscombe, 
 whom she had known and felt some 
 interest in before — the english literary 
 man "a bonnes fortunes.' 'He was 
 known to be an englishman or irish- 
 man by birth.' we are informed : but 
 In all ways he resembles much more 
 the american of whom we have much 
 previous knowledge in recent fiction." 
 [ Blackwood's. 543 
 
 TONY THE MAID [by B. W. 
 (Howard) Tedfel : Harper. — Low, 
 1888.] '-is a charming little stoiy. 
 Admitting that it is about nothing in 
 particular, and that one of its 2 char- 
 acters is glaringly inconsistent, 
 nevertheless it is charming." Scene 
 Switzerland. [Athenaeum. 544 
 
 TRAJAN, see Romantic Novels. 
 
 TREASURE TOWER OF MALTA 
 (The) [by Virginia W. Johnson: 
 Unwin. 1890.] "is a pleasant summer 
 story, in which hero and heroine are 
 legitimately youthful, affectionate at 
 sit, and artless in the expression of 
 their mutual tendresse. This popular 
 author has undoubtedly the artist's 
 gift of conferring atmosfere. Her 
 little love-idyl of Malta between 
 Lieutenant Arthur Curzon, and 
 
 157 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 Dolores, granddauter of an english 
 recluse long resident upon the island, 
 is charmingly framed in descriptions ' 
 of the place. One nilt thinli that 
 in no circumstances could the reader 
 of frequent novels be roused to inter- 
 est in the recital of a picnic ; but there 
 is refreshing novelty in a picnic of 
 modern fashionable folk on the shores 
 of St. Paul's Bay." [ Critic. 545 
 
 'TWIXT WIFE AND FATHER- 
 LAND \_Tinsley, 1875.] is written 
 "by some one who has caut the gift of 
 the baroness Tautphous of telling a 
 charming story in the boldest manner, 
 and of forcing us to take an interest 
 in her characters which writers, far 
 better from a literary point of vue, 
 can never approach. And the remark- 
 able thing is that we hardly know 
 why we feel an interest in the chief 
 characters. For example, the heroine 
 is like plenty of other english girls, as 
 far as anything goes which we hear 
 about her : she is well educated, im- 
 pulsive, given to keeping a diary, and 
 acting before she thinks ; and. yet the 
 authoress has managed to give her an 
 undefinable attraction which we are 
 persuaded that no reader will resist. 
 We cannot quite parallel her with that 
 most charming of all the heroines of 
 fiction. Hildegarde in the 'Initials'; 
 but she mit almost be. twin-sister to 
 another favorite of ours, Nora in 
 'Quits,' and her mother will pair off 
 very well with Mr. Nixon in the same 
 story. The scene lies chiefly in South 
 Tirol, first at Cortina (called in the 
 story Zuel, but otherwise not disguised 
 in the least) and afterwards at Meran ; 
 and the chief characters, after Camilla 
 herself, are Austrians and Tyrolese." 
 [Athenaeum. 546 
 
 TWO CORONETS, see Komantic 
 Novels. 
 
 TWO GIRLS, [by F: Wedmore-. 
 King, 1873.] '-Welvertree, the hero, 
 is a young man of the usual London 
 type. . . who shows his moral vigor 
 and something of intellectual self- 
 reliance, in seeking the experiences of 
 travel in so quiet a field as a remote 
 country town in Artois. Here he 
 meets two english residents, Bedding- 
 ly Aucott and his dauter Cicely. 
 There is much skill in the way in 
 which our author enlists our sympa- 
 thies with Aucott. . . Cicely is charm- 
 ing : 'Health had made nothing rude 
 in her, and sensitiveness nothing 
 weak. The whole face wore com- 
 monly a look fine and serene, which, 
 even more than the beauty of the 
 features, gave it distinction, because 
 it said (to those who understood 
 it) that she carried in her heart some 
 happy secret which litened all her 
 ways'. Such is Welvertree"s first love 
 and better angel, . . Then Welvertree, 
 between restlessness, pity, and admi- 
 ration of her beauty, not unmixed 
 with a sort of camaraderie in bohem- 
 lanism, makes the false step of promis- 
 ing manage in his turn. But Cicely, 
 free, and loving, now re-appears upon 
 the scene ; Aucott dies ; Welvertree 
 has, of course, brain fever; Irma 
 wages a fierce, tenacious struggle to 
 retain the one man she has loved. She 
 is too weak for the unequal contest. 
 Failing, she falls back on 'mother 
 Seine', the silent consoler of many 
 such wrongs as hers ; while Welver- 
 tree, who was never worthy of her 
 ardor, finds acceptance too readily at 
 the hands of one whose constancy is 
 still more loftily above him." [Athen- 
 aeum. 547 
 
 TWO LILIES, [by Julia Kavan- 
 AGH : Hurst, 1877.) ''This well-writ- 
 ten story introduces us at the outset 
 
 158 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 to the picturesque street architecture 
 of an ancient Norman town. In 
 such a scene, Edward Graham, the 
 architect, is naturally entranced. But 
 beauties of a more alldring type soon 
 present themselves. The rival lilies 
 are admirably contrasted. . . There 
 are some strong minor characters. ' 
 The aristocratic Mr. Bertram, who so 
 felt his natural rit to his position, 
 that his true n.anie of Jones seemed 
 justly dropped as inadequ.ite ; simple 
 Aunt Graham ; Sarah, the Scots' loyal 
 old servant; frivolous Mrs. Fay, and 
 honest Merle the builder, .are persons 
 whom one can remember. The weak- 
 est episode is that introducing the 
 impossible Mortlocks, partisans of 
 woman's rits in their least attract- 
 ive form, but even this has some 
 humor of the farcial sort." [Athen- 
 asum. 548 
 
 TWO OLD CATS, [by Virginia 
 W. Johnson: Harper^ 1882.] ''The 
 scene is laid on the slopes of the 
 Maritime Alps, at the borders of 
 France and Italy, at Monaco. Men- 
 tone, and thereabouts. The -two old 
 cats' are two old women. Miss Moir 
 and Miss Sherewell ; and the unfortu- 
 nate mouse between them is dainty 
 Annie Howard. The question ,at issue 
 is whether Miss Annie, american. shall 
 mary Arthur Cockburn. englishman; 
 and the question is of course decided 
 by the j'oung people in the affirma- 
 tive, notwithstanding the claws of 
 the 'two old cats,' and the importu- 
 nate rivalry of the fat and bald Mr. 
 Belmes. The charm of the story — 
 and it has a very positive charm — lies 
 in its loving description of the Med- 
 iterranean background, the refine- 
 ment of its materials and manner, and 
 the skill of its characterization ; little 
 Jessica of' pathetic fate, and Lord 
 
 Topover, being notable additions to 
 the figures named above. Miss John- 
 son has intellect, feeling, an arti.^t's 
 sense for what strikes and pleases the 
 eye, a gift of humor, sympathy with 
 all the better instincts of human 
 nature, and unusual literary skill. 
 All these are in this book." [Boston 
 '•Literary World."]— "It is but a trifle 
 of a story, and yet it is not trivial. ' 
 The love-story and the lovei's them- 
 selves are but secondarj'. We quite 
 know beforehand the handsome and 
 ingenuous pair who. after not too 
 much adversity, happily walk off the' 
 stage hand in hand. The charm of 
 the story is its setting — the shores of 
 the Mediterranean. The cats are 
 neither very old nor very bad — the ' 
 one with paws of velvet, soft and be- 
 guiling; the other stern, repellant,' 
 always ready for scratches, but both ' 
 equally selfish and self-seeking." 
 [ Nation. 549 
 
 UGLY DUCKLING (AN), [by H: 
 ErrOLL: Bentlexj, 1887.] "In the 
 remainder of the story the writer • 
 shows a ITtness of touch and sense of 
 humor which are in welcome relief to' 
 the sombre opening chapters. The 
 school life at Basel and Kate's first 
 romance are britly told, tho there is a 
 spice of caricature in the portraits of 
 the various male visitors at Miss 
 Schmidt's school. Here, too, ^'ftiafee ■ 
 the acquaintance of the good, f^ius 
 of the plot, the 'amurrioan'. Miss' 
 Susie Miller, a frank and kind-hearted ■ 
 rattle, with a great belief in her pow- 
 ers of persuasion, who ultimately 
 rescues 'the ugly duckling' from the 
 persecutions of an unscrupulous ad- 
 mirer. . . A really pretty episode in 
 the story is Kate's visit to a charming 
 country house, where, after having 
 hitherto always been bullied and- 
 
 159 
 
INTKllNATIONAI. NOVEI-S. 
 
 oppressed elsewheve, she is made so 
 much of that she can hardly believe 
 in lier good fortune. There is a good 
 deal that touches one in -An Ugly 
 Duckling,' and the poetic justice of 
 the d6noument is all tiie more welcome 
 from having been so long deferred." 
 [Athennsuin. 550 
 
 UNDER THE TEICOLOR. [by 
 Lucy Hamilton (Jones) Hooper: 
 Lippincott, ISSO.] '-The real object of 
 the booli is to give a slietch of the 
 members of the american colony, 
 who pass before us thinly disguised. 
 First come the "low americans' of 
 Mme. Magne's boarding-house, utter- 
 ly unable to appreciate any life beyond 
 that of their homes, with their bad 
 f rench. and their love of bargains at 
 the lion Marciie. . . We are then taken 
 to the quarter of the Arc de Triomphe 
 and shown the american nobility, 
 'mortified at the fact that they were 
 born under the stars and stripes,' -tlie 
 only f oreiners in Paris who are asham- 
 ed of their nationality.' They adore 
 fashion and rank and title, and try 
 theirbest to live near the rose if they 
 cannot quite be it, even turning Cath- 
 olic sometimes to win the social 
 heaven. Why not? As Henri IV. 
 said: Paris vaut bien une messe! 
 Another metiiod — but more expensive 
 —is to buy vicomtes and barons as 
 husbands for their dauters. Some of 
 them, liowever, prefer to adopt eng- 
 lish manners and talk, and to prostrate 
 themselves at the feet of english 
 swells; this class is increasing. An 
 interesting matter for observation is 
 the position of this aristocratic ameri- 
 can colony, as Mrs. Hooper describes 
 it, encamped on the outskirts of f rench 
 fashionable society, gazing longingly 
 upon a promised land into which they 
 cannot hope to enter, despised by the 
 
 people they most admire and despising 
 each other." [Nation. 551 
 
 UNFORESEEN (The), [by Alice 
 OT-Ianlon: Harper, 188,5.] '-The 
 opening scenes are in a Canadian 
 village. The Frcncli-Canadians are a 
 comparativelj' unwritten people, and 
 offer to the novelist a lield where 
 reality is almost one with romance 
 and picturesqueness. Miss O'llanlon 
 begins very well, but abandons her 
 fine opportunities for the attraction of 
 a conventional background to her 
 figures. The Mme. Vandeleur very 
 soon loses her distinctive 'Canadienne' 
 personalitj', she is a clever and bril- 
 liant adventuress, and her career is 
 logically drawn, from its obscure be- 
 ginning to its despairin'g end. She is 
 by no means typical, but she is possi- 
 ble. Claudia Estcourt, the contrast- 
 ing figure, is typical, and tho poetic 
 justice may cry for the punishment of 
 vanity, selfishness and cruelty, a wide 
 experience of life will commend the 
 author's infiexibility. The novel is 
 overladen with characters, and spun 
 out, but it is carefully constructed, 
 guided by taste and fine intention, 
 and, moreover, it is interesting and 
 enjoyable." [Nation. 552 
 
 VERA [by C L.. (Hawkins) 
 DE-IIPSTER : Smith, 1870.] ••is one of 
 these stories of which there is little 
 to be said ; that little, however, should 
 be praise. It is remarkable chiefiy 
 for the agreeableness of its style, for 
 its freedom from sensationalism — all 
 its incidents being natural, and, to a 
 large extent, historical. — foritsglimpse 
 of russian character, and for the 
 strength and individuality of its hero 
 and heroine. Col. St. John is not in- 
 troduced to us as a prodigy in any 
 respect ; he is •one of the simple great 
 ones,' brave, manly, modest, and sin- 
 
 160 
 
INTERNATIOXAL NOVELS. 
 
 cere; whose conduct Is altogether 
 consistent with his nature, as the 
 author uialjes it appear. Vfira is a 
 really charminoj creation : no wonder 
 Col. St. John, with his 40 years, and 
 his maimed arm, fell in love with her. 
 There is a womanly purity about her 
 which is more rare in novels than it 
 6t to be; and while her charactei- 
 exhibits no notably positive features, 
 it has a general effect of strength and 
 symmetry ruost agreeable to contem- 
 plate." [Boston • -Literary World."] — 
 '•Such is the first incident in the short 
 but interesting tale, the thread of 
 which is taken up again in Borne. 
 There is a great deal of good descrip- 
 tion of russian and continental life, 
 clear delineation of 2 gentle and yet 
 decided characters, and a sufficiently 
 exciting and happily concluded love- 
 tale in store for those who care to 
 iearn the fortunes of the admirable 
 V6ra." [Athenaeum. 553 
 
 VICTIMS. [ by "Theo. Gift," i. e., 
 D. H. (H.) Boulger: Holt, 1887.] 
 ••The charm lies wholly in the telling 
 of the story. The story itself is made 
 up from hackneyed material : a simple 
 little french girl, a strong and manly 
 englishman, cruel parents, a rich 
 french count, an elopement, a frustra- 
 tion, a forced mariage, a duel, a brain- 
 fever, death of the innocent "victim,' 
 and final mariage of the hero to the 
 strong fine english girl whom he 6t to 
 have known enuf to mary in the first 
 place. All this you are ready to de- 
 clare you have read already a hundred 
 times ; but you haven't — at least, not 
 told in the way this author tells it. 
 The story is made singularly pictur- 
 esque, chiefiy with the local color of 
 Bretagne, and there is great ai-t in 
 the way in which the author keeps 
 our sympathy to the end for the al- 
 
 most, but never quite, ridiculous sim» 
 plicity of the little french maiden. 
 We are permitted to see that if she had 
 had one-tenth the strength of the other 
 heroine, she would have been spared 
 half her woes ; and yet we can never 
 quite despise her lack of strength. 
 Altogether the story is in its way 
 original, entertaining and pretty, in 
 spite of its sadness and tragedy." 
 [Critic.]— '"Victims' is a story full of 
 life and movement, and with no lack 
 of plot. The contrivances are not at 
 all badly managed and fitted together, 
 . . . and the introduction of a Jew- 
 ish heroine and her relatives gives an 
 opportunity for details of Jewish life 
 and character, which add a certain 
 freshness of interest." [Athenae. 554 
 
 VILLAGE ON THE CLIFF (The), 
 [by A.. [I.] (Thackeray) Ritchie: 
 Smith, 1867.] -'To a select propor- 
 tion of novel-readers it is just possible 
 that a story devoid of horrors and 
 without an intricate plot may be an 
 agreeable change; especially when 
 such a story is related in good eng- 
 lish, and in the natural and graceful 
 style peculiar to the author of 'Eliza- 
 beth.' In -The Village on the Cliff 
 we have a hero and a couple of hero- 
 ines, all exceedingly like people we 
 have known all our lives. . . The ac- 
 count of Catherine's marled life 
 abounds in quaint and grafic touches 
 of Norman life and toanners. . . The 
 great charm of the work lies, after 
 all. not so much in the story, as in 
 the pleasant, unaffected manner in 
 which it is told, and the exquisite 
 pictures which are everywhere pre- 
 sented to the reader in 2 or .S well- 
 chosen sentences." [ Athenseum. 555 
 
 VIRGINIA [by Henriette A. 
 Duff : Bentley, 1877.] '-is a rather 
 pretty story. Since Hawthorne 
 
 161 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 wrote 'Transformation,' the sculp- 
 tor at Rome has been a favorite 
 hero with ladies and others who, 
 having spent a winter in the Eternal 
 City and been free of a studio or two, 
 like to convey their impressions in the 
 form of fiction. Until the end of Pa- 
 pal times, there was always enuf of 
 second-rate mystery and mild intrigue 
 going on to prevent the introduction 
 of such things from being as unnatur- 
 al as it would seem If the scene were 
 laid in any other capital. . . The story 
 gets its name from a young Eoman 
 countess with whom the sculptor is in 
 love, and also from a statue which he 
 makes, representing the Virginia of 
 the Eepublic and Maeaulay's Lay. 
 There is a rather puzzling connection 
 between the two ; for, tho the statue 
 is not modelled from the lady, observ- 
 ers persist in detecting a likeness, 
 which the artist will not acknowledge, 
 tho ultimately he breaks the statue, 
 rather than compromise the lady. 
 Howevei-, he maries her at last, and 
 all comes rit. As we have said, the 
 story is gracefully enuf told." [Ath- 
 enaeum. 556 
 VIVIAN THE BEAUTY, [by An- 
 nie Edwards : Appleton. 1879.] '-No- 
 thing of Mrs. Edwards' has pleased 
 us more than this. It is the simply 
 told story of simple life in a german 
 '■schloss". with little Jeanne, her tutor 
 and the houskeeper for chief figures. 
 'Vivian the Beauty' is an english act- 
 ress, one of a party subsequently in- 
 troduced upon the scene. We have 
 discovered no special object iu the 
 book, beyond the pleasant, easy enter- 
 tainment of the reiider, and this is 
 accomplished without too great a de- 
 mand upon his faculties." [Boston 
 '•Literary World." 557 
 WEEK IN A FRENCH COUN- 
 
 TRY-HOUSE (A), [by Adelaide 
 (Kemble) Sartoris: Loring, 1SC8.] 
 "There are writers whose grace rather 
 than their strength or beauty is their 
 charm, and whose manner and tone 
 qualify them for admission to the cir- 
 cle of the great ones and princes. 
 Such surely is Mrs. Sartoris, the 
 author of that delltful story -A Week 
 in a French Country-House',— with at 
 least one character admirable and 
 new in fiction — which no one ever read 
 who would not wish he had not, and 
 that it was still to read." [Nation. 558 
 WHO BREAKS— FAYS. [ by 
 Henrietta Camilla (Jackson) 
 Jenkin: Smith, ISGl.] "We have 
 seldom found a story possessing so 
 deep, absorbing, and well-sustained 
 interest, combined with such appar- 
 ent reality of incident, delicacy in the 
 pei-ception and delineation of charac- 
 ter, and such sympathetic analysis of 
 emotion that it assumes throuout 
 more the air of a true history than a 
 mere work of fiction. Refinement 
 and pure taste are everywhere pres- 
 ent ; the dialog is easy and flows with 
 a smooth, life-like current; the de- 
 scriptions of everj'-day life in France, 
 England, and Italy are simple and 
 ti-uthful." [Round Table.]— "The 
 story opens with the rather trite oc- 
 currence of a "f oreiner' poor yet noble, 
 who gives Italian lessons to support 
 himself, falling in love with his rich 
 and beautiful pupil, even as that 
 model of the "deeply, darkly, desper- 
 ately' delltful Thaddeus of Warsaw, 
 did before him, and under much the 
 same circumstances as those in which 
 Ruffini's I'aolo falls in love with Miss 
 Lavinia Jones. But it is pleasant to 
 see what a nice judgment of the nat- 
 ural consequence of education and 
 character and circumstances can make 
 
 162 
 
INTEIINATIONAI. XQVKLS. 
 
 out of this romantic and hackneyed 
 starting-point. It is a skilful biogra- 
 f er who can describe an entanglement 
 throu all its fases as justly, keenly, 
 sympathetically, as the entanglement, 
 in this book is described. No vulgar 
 partizanship betrays an inward pique 
 which the wounded novelist seeks to 
 avenge by relating it to the world. 
 The perusal of Lill's history would be 
 a real balm to a girl — and many a one 
 there is — who is or has been in Lill's 
 predicament; i. e., pursued by a su- 
 perior man whom she knows she 6t 
 to love, but whom, somehow, she can 
 not love. How tenderly, and yet 
 with what unflinching insit, are her 
 weaknesses dealt with! How the 
 delicate touches of humor ITten the 
 picture without ever rendering ridicu" 
 loiis the real suffering of the poor, 
 young, thotless. fashionable girl. 
 This author dissects with gentleness 
 and fellow-feeling, like a woman ; not 
 like a man who runs his sword throu 
 the Gordian knot of feminine com- 
 plexities, and holding up the ravelled 
 cords, cries, -There's your mental 
 formation, madam !' But if our enter- 
 tainer's sex is betrayed by her fine- 
 ness, it never is by her femineity. 
 She generalizes like a man. She is 
 free from affectation. She does not 
 permit one's feelings for either hero 
 or heroine to conflict with the justice 
 due to the other ; one is forced to 
 understand how there may be two 
 sides to a story." [Nation. 559 
 
 WINNIE'S HISTORY. [ by M. C. 
 M. (Senior) Simpson: Hurst, 1877.] 
 '■The scene is laid in France, and 
 the description of french society 
 seems drawn from experience. Tho 
 Winnie's hero, an untruthful, histri- 
 onic roue, is widely different from the 
 ideal she forms of her count, he has 
 
 163 
 
 the merit of being in love with her. 
 as far as his nature will permit ; and 
 their attachment appears to raise the 
 one from mere frivolity, and to en- 
 hance the unselfish simplicity of the 
 other. As fimile dies in time to pre- 
 vent further danger of unfaithfulness, 
 Winnie preserves her ideal, and is 
 happier in its possession than she 
 would have been in the unromantic 
 fruition of domestic happiness with 
 sober Stephen Armstrong — a hero of 
 a more genuine stamp. The charac- 
 ter of this energetic young politician 
 is lltly sketched, but is representative 
 of many of the more conscientious of 
 our rising public men ; while in aunt 
 Eunice, in the old french marquis, 
 and the general and his wife, we find 
 indications of appreciation of other 
 types of chai-acter." [ Athenreum. 560 
 WITHIN AN ACE. [by H. C. (J.) 
 Jenkin : Smith, 18G9.] "A quiet little 
 story, this is distinguished by the 
 same gracefulness M hich we have 
 before now commented on in the 
 author's style. At the end of a tale 
 like this it is, at first thot, amusing to 
 reflect, on looking back, how little of 
 real plot has sufficed to keep one's 
 attention wide awake. When we have 
 said that a fine, sterling specimen of 
 the genus gentleman (in the hiest sense 
 of the word) maries a girl, good and 
 clever at the core and perverse and 
 foolish on the surface, and that they 
 are -within an ace' of separating for 
 ever, till their good angel sets all 
 things strait, we have, in fact, told all 
 that the author has to tell. We need 
 hardly remark, therefore, that her 
 way of telling it is her chief merit: 
 add to this that her faculty of portrait 
 painting is of hi order ; and the whole 
 explanation of the author's success is 
 unfolded. The dear old duke (the 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 most fleginatic of his friends would 
 hardh' growl at th.it gush of enthusi- 
 asm), De Jenoay, Chattie, and Yj- 
 lande, are characters wiiich do not 
 stamp themselves on the reader's mind 
 by jerks and blows, buc by the same 
 silent, gradual influence which forms 
 true friendships in real life, stamp 
 themselves even more effectively." 
 Scene in France. [Athenajum. 561 
 
 WOMAX-HATER (A). [by 0: 
 Reade : Harper, 1S77.] "Sanitary 
 I'eform. the rit of women to become 
 medical practitioners, the grandeur 
 and beauty of noble music and the 
 unutterable despicableness of that 
 which is trivial — these are the burden 
 and moral of the book, the 2 former 
 being embodied in the person of Rho- 
 da Gale. M. D., anglo-american, and 
 the latter in La If losking, great singer 
 and anglo-dane. . . It has, what is lare 
 nowadays, a complex, skilfully-con- 
 structed plot; it is full of life, and 
 movement and vigor ; it offers a favor- 
 able example of the trenchant and 
 brilliant qualities of Mr. Reade's style ; 
 and the waywardness and mannerism 
 which have marred much of his later 
 work are far less conspicuous, chiefly, 
 perhaps, because the story was writ- 
 ten for anonymous publication. Read- 
 ers may feel but scant interest in 
 woman's rits, but when once they have 
 begun the story tney will be reluctant 
 to lay it aside." [Appietons'. 562 
 
 WON"! [by — (Leupold) Buxton: 
 Bentley, 1877.] '-The quiet, happy, 
 cultivated German home in which the 
 good heroine is discovered by the 
 characterless and under-bred hero, is 
 
 remarkably well drawn. The man 
 ners and customs of the Hamburg- 
 ers, the homely household routine, 
 the simple pleasures, the half-stolid, 
 half-sentimental ways of the men and 
 women, the odd mingling of art and 
 literature with pursuits which seem to 
 us almost childish, and the enthusiasm 
 about amusements wliich would be 
 voted a rather severe form of boredom 
 by our society, with its present hlly 
 peppered palate, are very well convey- 
 ed. This part of the narrative runs 
 easily, and there is even some humor 
 in the description of Claud Morel, the 
 painter, who is in love with Pearl 
 Gray, and of Lotta Steinmann, who 
 is in love with him ; of the solenmities 
 of the betrothal-party, when the gr<and 
 englishman and the pretty english 
 governess are exhibited as the 'Brauc- 
 paar', and undergo all sorts of queei 
 but kindly formalities ; and of the 'ice- 
 picnic' on the Alster." [Spectator. 563 
 
 WOODHILL: DeWitt, 1856,= THE 
 EXILES. 
 
 WORLD'S VERDICT (The) [by 
 M: Hopkins, Tickiwr : ISSS.j --is a 
 readable, intelligently written story 
 of dilettante americans living abroad ' 
 and enjoying themselves in the society 
 — apparently not too rigid in its stand- 
 ards — of similar unoccupied people. 
 The author records a mild protest 
 against this method of life by having 
 ills hero and heroine fall in love with 
 earnest peopie outside their social 
 lines, and throw the conventionalities 
 over to wed and go to work; but it is 
 all rather ineffective, and has a youth- 
 ful sound." [ Overland. 564 
 
 Wi 
 
Bear Mr. Griswold: 
 
 I am delighted with the notion of your list of 
 JVovels about Country Life in America and I think 
 you have most charmingly realized it. The book 
 will be useful to every book-lover, and critic, and 
 librarian : now that it satisfies it, I know that I have 
 always felt the need of just such a list. 
 
 W. D. Howells. 
 
PRICE! ONE COPY. $1.00; TWO COPIES, $1.75; THREE, $2.80; FOUR, $3-00i'FlVE, $3.26. SiX, $*.00; TEN, $8.00. 
 
 DESCRIPTIVE LIST 
 
 OF 
 
 ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 \v 
 
 COMPILED BY 
 
 : M. GRISWOLD 
 
 EDITOR OF '"THE MONOGRAPH". A COLLECTiON OF FIFTY-FOUR HISTORICAL AND 
 
 BIOQRAPHICAL ESSAYS; AND OF "TRAVEL", A SIMILAR SERIES 
 
 DEVOTED TO PLACES. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE, MASS.: 
 
 W: M. GlIISWOLD, Publisher. 
 
 1890. 
 
Eomantic Novels are divided into two clqaaesi — 4hose which are and 
 those which are not, historical. This list is devoted to the latter, but a few . 
 historical tales, in which history is at a minimum, have been included. 
 An excellent bibliogrQfy of Historical Fiction exists in the L. H. catalog 
 of the Boston Public Library. 
 
 " No author without a trial can conceive of the difficulty of writing a 
 romance about a country where there is no shadow, no antiquity, no 
 mystery, no picturesque and gloomy wrong, nor anythingbut a common- 
 place prosperity in broad and simple dayllt, as is happily the case with 
 my dear native land. It will be very long, I trust, before romance- 
 writers may find congenial and easily handled themes either in the annals 
 of our stalwart republic, or in any characteristic and probable event of 
 our individual lives. Eomance and poetry, ivy, lichens, and wall 
 flowers, need ruin. to make them grow." [ Nathaniel Hawthorne. 
 
 "Few things are more conclusively established in this commonplace ■ 
 day and practical land than the utter abolition of the romantic element of . 
 life. People who read Mrs. Radclifle and the Ledger — and there are 
 tiiose besides ourselves, we are credibly informed, who are in the habit of 
 readihg both — must often heave a si of regret for the vanished and 
 delTtful mysteries commemorated in those obsolete but fascinating pages. 
 Not th^ subtlest effort of imagination can again people the prosaic walks 
 of daily life with the weird shapes that haunted every nook and corridor 
 of Otranto's enchanted and enchanting castle. Tlie lonely wayside inn 
 which was wont to be tlie very nursery and stronghold of romance has 
 become disgustingly componplace and safe. No ingenious trapdoo* 
 opens to engulf the slumber' of the unsuspecting traveler ; no horrent 
 spectre with flaming eyes and hollow voice emerges from the wall to 
 menace and dismay ; no lovely and compassionate barmaid clambers in 
 at the window to warn of the 'murderous landlord and to save from his 
 sanguinary toils ; no foe the chance sojourner has to dread more deadly 
 than the susurrant mpsquito or the insidious cimex. The secret doors 
 and hidden stairways, and subterranean passages, the unbodied voices, 
 the irresponsible skeletons, and unaccountable knits who made beautiful 
 and thrilling the ways of a preternatural past, have forever disappeared. 
 That whole charming web of mediaeval romance the ruthless besom of 
 modern enlTtenment has swept into dust and oblivion. We are en- 
 compassed with an atmosfere of almost oppressive reality, , and it is a 
 genuine relief when some unusually ingenious murder or flagrant fall of 
 unsuspected respectability gives us a brief respite from the tyranny of 
 the commonplace." [ Round Table. 
 
EOMANTIC NOYELS. 
 
 The object of this list is to direct readers, such as would enjoy the kind of books 
 here described, to a nnmber of novels, easily obtainable, but which, in many cases, 
 have been forgotten within a year or two after pKllication. That the existence of 
 works of fiction is remembered so short a time is a pity, since, for every new book 
 of merit, there are, in rhost libraries, a hundred as good or better, unknown to the, 
 majority of readers. It is hoped that the publication of this and similar lists tcill 
 lessen, in some meastire, the disposition to read an inferior new book when supe- 
 rior oi.D books, equally fresh to most rea(l~ers, are at hand. 
 
 This list will be followed by others describing EUJiOPEAN, ECCENTBIC, 
 and FANCIEUL novels and tales. The compiler would be pleased, to have his 
 attention called to any works deserving a place which have escaped his attention. 
 It may be observed that the compiler has tried to include only such works as are 
 well-written, interesting, and are free from sensationalism, sentimentality, and 
 pretense. But in a few cases, books have been noticed on account of the repu- 
 ' tation of their authors, or their great popularity, lather than their merit. 
 
 T/te selected "notices" here given are generally abridged. 
 
 ADAM AND EVE. [by Louisa (Tay- a true cornish girl, racy of the soil, ami 
 
 ■LOK) rxRR: Lippincott,lSSl.] "Eve and botli the best cliiu-aeter of tl^e book and a 
 
 her motlier live in decent poverty in Lon- character of which most noi)eIists nilt be 
 
 lion. Robert, a young watchmaker, is in proud. She deserves a betti.r fate than 
 
 love with Eve, and after the death of licr slio meets in the original Robert, who, 
 
 mother tries to persuade her to remain with having come to Cornwall to see how Eve 
 
 him instead of going to her paternal uncle is getting nu. betrays the smugglers to the 
 
 in Cornwall. .She has imagination, how- revenue officers, and, after being the cause 
 
 ever and hi spiritst, and Robert, who is a of getting' one of tl^em hanged, is so atten- 
 
 'niethody', has small attractions for her five to him in his last hours as to captivate 
 
 <-ompared with the unknown cornish sit- Joan." [ Nation. 579 
 
 nation. Thither accordingly she repairs, ADVENTURES OF HARRY RICH- 
 
 and finds her relatives not only socially MOND. [l)y G : Merkditii; i'miWj, 1S7I.] 
 
 beneath her mother's station and education, ''Anyone.. . must have been struck with 
 
 hut smugglers as well. They are, how- a story the thread' of which was much 
 
 (tver. cordial and simple peojjle, and she harder to follow than is' usually the case, 
 
 speedily domesticates herself. Her cousin (lipsies and german princes were perhaps 
 
 Adam makes this easier to her by being a the principal figures left on the mind of a 
 man of education and energy and hi " chance reader; but there were also an 
 
 temper, and by winning her aftcction'-. irascible squire, an eccentric skipper, and 
 
 He is in turn beloved by his cousin Joan, a j'outh'who was as perplexing as any one, 
 
 105 
 
RO.MAMIC NOVELS. 
 
 for his name seemed at one time to be 
 Ilicliinoncl, at an6tlier Hoy. Now that the 
 book has appeared in a collected form, the 
 connexion of these curious _ figures has 
 become a little more distinct, and Ihe 
 whole story lias taken as cohca-cut shape 
 as any story of Mr. Jleredith is likely to 
 do. His method of narrating in short 
 staccato sentences, with an immense num- 
 ber of full stoiis, joined to his habit of 
 constantly changing his scene, and favor- 
 ing his readers with only the slitesi, possi- 
 « ble intiitation that n person who 3 lines 
 back was in Hampshire is now in Germany, 
 renders his novels by no means easy read- 
 ing, if We would understand what is going 
 on, and keep up with the progress of events. 
 He is also fond of exercising his reader's 
 ingenuity by giving only the very slitest 
 liint at the real causes of some of the tnost 
 important events. In the present book, 
 for instance, we are loft almost to oiir own 
 resources to understand why Harry Rich- 
 mond is set upon by i gipsies, at nit and 
 beaten almost to death— an incident upon 
 which hangs in a great measure the result 
 of the story. We understand that there is 
 a mistake ; but we do not know wlio was 
 the intended viclini and what was his 
 ofl'ense: we can say only, that altlio we 
 have an idea, we are by no means sure that 
 it is a rit one. Not but what we are in- 
 clined to think that Mr. Meredith is rit in 
 departing so far from the oi-dinary practice 
 of novelists as to leave his mysteries un- 
 solved, or at least not solved in that crude 
 way which is prevalent, and which gives 
 us only the same satisfaction that we gain 
 from reading a book ol' riddles, and turning 
 to the end to look at the answers. In the 
 same way we never know exactly what 
 was the parentage of Harry llichmond's 
 father. He believes himself to be the 
 legitimate son of a royal personage: bis 
 friends believe him to be the son, but 
 illegitimate; hutwchaveno intimation as 
 to the truth of cither theory, nor whether, 
 if untrue, Mr. Richmond is a conscious 
 swindler or a monomaniac. The author 
 jiei-haps rather suggests the formei-; we 
 incline to the latter and more charitable 
 
 vue. Such being Mr. Jleredith'scharactci-- 
 istics, it is not to be wondered at if we 
 decline to give any sketch of the plot of 
 this curious book. It is quite worth read- 
 ing; but it is itself a sketch in 3 volumes, 
 in spite of the extraordinary minuteness 
 of description. Tho we know nothing 
 about the gipsies, we feel certain that the 
 girl Kiomi must be drawn from life. She 
 is a wonderful creature, with her strange 
 fierceness and affection ; and we feel that 
 Mr. Meredith has done us almost a person- 
 al wrong in bringing her to harm, which, 
 moreover, from all we have ever heard oi 
 her race, seems an unnecessary stretch of 
 probability. As to the other prominent 
 characters, we must say that, while the 
 most of them are of a class almost as 
 strange to us as gipsies, iind we suspect in 
 some cases more imaginary, they are ad- 
 mirably consistent with themselves; and 
 given the circumstances, which are perhaps 
 hardly probable, would almost certainly 
 have acted as tbey are made to do." 
 [Athenaeum. - 580 
 
 AGNES SURRIAGE. [by E. L. 15YX-, 
 NEii : Ticknor, ISST.] "There is a charm 
 about this romance of colonial times 
 wliich engages the reader's sympathies at 
 the outset. The story is the familiar one 
 of Sir Charles Henry FranklanJ's love for 
 a beautiful girl whom he first saw busily 
 scrubbing the stairs in the inn at Marble- 
 lie^d. He brOt her to, Boston, had her 
 educated, made her his mistress, and~fiual- 
 ly marled her, 10 ye.irs later, in Lisbon, in 
 performance of a vow that he would do so 
 if he escaped from the grea.t earthquake. 
 It is a story which offers'flne opportunities 
 to a writer endowed with an abundance of 
 imagination. . . Up to the day of the eloi)e- 
 ment there is no criticism to make, and 
 Agnes is. throudiit, an ideal character. . . 
 Hut if the author does not always rise to 
 the situation, liisbook is good, and possess- 
 es in a rare degree that quality of atmosf ere 
 of the period which is so difficult of attain- 
 ment, in addition to an agreeable style, 
 which is suitably stately but never heavy." 
 ' [Nation. 5S1 
 
 ALCEbTIS [IIolt,lS-i.] '-is a grace- 
 
 IOC 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 lul. pleasing story, rather sad in tone, sind 
 is atlinlnible mainly for its sketclies of 
 eliaractcr. Its plot is silt, its personages 
 few, and its incidents hardly better thiin 
 commonplace. But the musical enthusiasm 
 which pervades it, and the writer's remark- 
 able pmver of delineating the operation of 
 musical passion, give it a charm which all 
 readers of delicate sensibilities, however 
 ignorant of music they may be, will eager- 
 ly acknowledge. . . In the delineation of 
 female character the author displays a 
 masterly, or rather subtile power. Lisa is 
 a grand woman ; her self-sacrifice seems 
 almost superhuman. lint that she was 
 only mortal we learn from the fact that, 
 as Plauen's wifi', she was peevish and 
 unamiable. 'In small troubles we believe 
 Lisa could vent her impatience: her deep 
 grief she kept to herself, and herheart was 
 not hardened.' But grand as she is, she is 
 hardly lovable, tho, perhaps, her nature 
 takes on a certain virility in sustained con- 
 trast with that of the sensitive and impul- 
 sive Sosqiiin, in whom the feminine 
 clement is very strong. CScile perfectly 
 realizes the common idea of a hanty, hi- 
 born girl, to whom 'noblesse oblige' is more 
 authoritative than the promptings of her 
 heart. Faustina, the retired singer, is a 
 well-drawn character, whcmi many read- 
 ers would like to see more prominent. 
 The book will find many admirers, not 
 only among lovers of music, but among 
 all who enjoy acute and refined analysis of 
 character, and faithful interpretation of 
 the passions. It is, in eflect, an exhibition 
 of the love of music and the love of woman 
 in joint yet antagonistic possession of a 
 fervid nature." [ISoston "Lit. World." 583 
 ALCHE.MIST (The). (Recherche de 
 I'.Absolu) [by HONORE db Balzac: N.-Y. 
 Jiud(l,lS6i.i "The wife and the dauter of 
 Claes are among the finest portraits in 
 story; and rarely indeed has love at its 
 most spiritual, its most intellectual and 
 yet its most passionate hits, been better 
 analyzed than in that of Josephine for her 
 husband. Slarguerite is more of a heroine, 
 but she is less human, Jess real than her 
 mother. For the alchemist himself we are 
 
 less able to feel admiration or sympathy 
 because we believe less than Balzac 
 probably did in the scientific basis of his 
 mad search. There may be a certain 
 grandeur in the passion for scientific dis- 
 covery which is willing to sacrifice not 
 only self, wife and children, the respect of 
 men, the honor of a family, upon the 
 shrine; yet if to the moral weakness which 
 accompanies tliis vast passion be added 
 such intellectual defect as to make, in the 
 19th century, a semi-aidicmist instead of a 
 sober man of science,,it is a poor shred of 
 grandeur after all. Probably the scientific 
 chemist of our day, as of Balzac's, 
 would say that there was nothing intrinsi- 
 cally impossible in the substance of Claes' 
 theories; but that as stated by him and as 
 investigated, they were from the outside 
 so vitiated, either hy madness or ignorance 
 that their victim has no more claim to our 
 sympathies as a martyr of science than any 
 other victim of an illusion. The pict- 
 uresqueness and vividness of Balzac in all 
 the 'properties' of his tale were never better 
 than in the surroundings of this : the 
 House of Claes is a flemish picture to 
 remain fixed in the mind, not only by its 
 external features, but by its expression, so 
 to speak,— its significance as the embodi- 
 ment of a race and a history.'? [Over- 
 land.] — "This, perhaps, more than any 
 other work by Balzac, is distinguished by 
 serenity of purpose, surety of touch, and 
 magnitude of wisdom. The large utter- 
 ances of afilosofer who had studied human- 
 ity to its depths and solved the problems 
 of thot and deeds, are here to be found 
 gleaming like jewels on every page. We 
 have said once before that to read Balzac 
 at his best and understandingly is a liberal 
 education. And we particularly commend 
 the masterpieces of the 'Com^dife Humaine' 
 to all who would comprehend the true 
 range and purport of fiction, and who, in 
 the perplexing vagaries and flat unprofit- 
 ableness of current literature, would have 
 in constant vue a mountain range by which 
 to take their bearings and guide their Steps 
 to the hits. We know of nothing more 
 certain to disgust a thotful person with the 
 
 167 
 
BOMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 pettiness of the great mass of eoutemponi- 
 ijv fiction than a systematic course of Hal- 
 zac." [liostoii "Literary 'Workl."] — "In 
 tliis tale selfishness— or, call it sel:f-occupa- 
 tiou — takes its most ideal form. Balthazar 
 Is the amiable man of science; with that 
 fanatical passion for speculation and ex- 
 periment which spares nothiijg and no one, 
 . . . The science of lialthazar has in it 
 something cruel. In real life, we fear, it 
 would hardly encounter suclia corrective 
 as is here found in the Sage's provident 
 dauter; the dauter of a mother murdered 
 by the anxieties belonging to the Sage's 
 wife. — Tlie tale, however, is excellently 
 told." [Athenseuni. 58* 
 
 , SAME ("BMhaziiv"), lioutledge, 
 
 1SJ9. 
 
 ,SAME("AIUahest"J,ifo6erts,1887. 
 
 AUCE LOUUAINE. [by R: DoDD- 
 EibGE iis.ACKMORK : Lnie, 1875.] "The 
 incidents ai-e rather more startling than 
 artistic, and the poetical justice which 
 straitens the tangled skeins of his story 
 is a little far-fetched. The machinery by 
 which the greek astrologer comes to the 
 rescue of his descendants would be clumsy 
 in most hands; but the romantic character 
 of the tale, the period of which is laid in 
 our last romantic epoch, that of the deadly 
 duel with Napoleon in the great wars, ren- 
 ders such a device not quite incongruous. 
 The disaster which befalls the old house of 
 Lorraine is ^certainly a 'dignus vindice 
 nodus' — nothing less than the loss by Hila- 
 ry, the young staff-officer of Wellington, of 
 £50.000 entrusted to his care for the pay- 
 ment of the army. Mischief so dire must 
 r.eeds have a woman's influence at the bot- 
 tom of it; and it is not the litest part of 
 Hilary's misfortune that it is the distract- 
 ins beauty of a treacherous young Spaniard 
 which renders him false to his kentish love 
 andcarelessof his military duty." [Athen- 
 seura. 5S4 
 
 ALKAHEST (The), Eoherts, 1887,= 
 THE ALCHEMIST. 
 
 ALL FOR LOVE, [by Eliza A.. Du- 
 puy:] "Duyckfiick, in his comprehen- 
 sive •Cyclopedia of American Literature', 
 [as well as Sledman, iu his far more comr 
 
 prehensive 'Library'] has not seen til to 
 include the name of Sliss Dupuy. If favor 
 with her readers is a test of excellence, 
 she isthe equal of Mrs. Southworth • but 
 let any one merely skim the many pages of 
 one of her poorly-constructed, loose-joint- 
 ed plots, and he shall echo the greek senti- 
 ment, "A big book isabigevil." The lack 
 of spontaneous humor, or of anything 
 approaching natural conversation, is, 
 noticeable in all these writers, but in im- 
 penetrable dullness Miss Dupuy stan,ds in 
 the front. Perhaps this sombreness is 
 needful as a fit setting for plots thick with 
 the horrorsof murder, bigamy, and poison. 
 As a specimen of her careless style, there, 
 is a scene in "The Discarded Wife" — a 
 conver.sation between two housekeepers, 
 which begins in the vernacular of the Mid- 
 dle States, develops into that of the South, 
 and ends in the broad dialect of the planta- 
 tion negro. Her best stoiy is undoubted- 
 ly "The Huguenot Exiles," in which she 
 relates the fortunes of her own family. 
 " The Discarded Wife", " The Cancelled 
 Will'",*"' The Hidden Sin", and "All for 
 Love", are the striking titles of her most 
 prominent efforts;. J. W. Davidson says 
 of her "Planter's Daughter" that "it is. 
 redolent of murder, madness, tears,, rob- 
 bery, revolvers, corpses and confusion." 
 Miss Dupuy was at one time under con- 
 tract to furnish 1000 columns annually to 
 the 'New-York Ledger'." [Boston "Liter- 
 ary World."] See also, notice of "How he 
 did it." 585 
 
 ALMOST A DUCHESS [by OlG4 
 (Grant) de Losgueiul: lioberts, 
 1884.] "is a delltf ul and entertaining story 
 without a single original element in it, yet 
 charmingly original in its combination of 
 hackneyed material. Tliere is the ugly 
 but devoted cousin; the fascinatingyoiing 
 duke; the illegal mariage; theplain young 
 relative with a dot, who becomes suddenly 
 beautiful with years, and as she herself 
 naively expresses it, by 'being extremely 
 particular about her clothes' ; the desertion ; 
 the managing mama; the repentance; the 
 sick-bed; the death; and the final mariage 
 with the devoted but homely cousin— with 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 all of which we have been faiiiiliiir f ri)m 
 youth. But the luaiiagemeut of these 
 details is entirely fresh ami charm- 
 ing." [(y'ritic. 586 
 
 AMONG ALIENS, [by F.. E. (Teu- 
 N.\N) Tkollopis : Blackett, 1890.] "Given 
 such time-honored ingredients as those 
 which go towards the making of Mrs. TroK 
 lope's new stoi-y , it would be difficult indeed 
 to produce any very original result. The ' 
 experience of a pretty young english gov- 
 erness, belonging to the weakly amiable 
 order of heroines, whose lot casts her into 
 the hands of the usual noble roman family 
 with patuician prejudice and inadequate 
 material resources, scaa"«ely possess the 
 excitement of novelty. The hauty and 
 ambitions princess Bastiani-Corleoni, her 
 unusually unprincipled son, together with 
 the priest full of orthodox priestly guile 
 and sublety, and the inevitable brigand, 
 ar^ almost as familiar to the untraveled 
 english reader as are roman churches, 
 streets, peasants, ejaculations, and all the 
 other properties, including the scenery of 
 the Italian landscape. These items are, 
 however, none the less attractive forUeing 
 old friends, and, indeed, Mrs. Trollope lias 
 succeeded in investing them with a fresh- 
 ness which is quite surprising.^ Catherine 
 Wilson, the elder sister, of robust charact- 
 er and considerable determination, adds 
 greatly to the merit of the story in her 
 telling of it. She is by far the most sijp- 
 cessful and least conventional character 
 in the book, and her simple personality 
 sheds a pleasant atmosfere of wliolesome- 
 ness and reality over all its situations, even 
 the most well-worn," [Athenaeum. 587 
 
 AMONG THE CHOSEN [ by M.. S. 
 Emkkson: SoU, 1884.] "is one of the 
 well-written sflbries of which we cannot 
 have too many, as a warning against 
 whatever may be the attractiveness of 
 life in 'communities' whose first law is 
 the subversion of human nature. The 
 uselessness, the suffering, tlie cruelty, 
 the deceits and treachei-ies and hypocrisy, 
 of such a life are well depicted; if the 
 alluring charm that fascinates the victims 
 even after trial, is made less evident, the 
 
 author is not to blame. Certainly the 
 reader does not succumb easily to the mag- 
 netism of the unctuous Father John, but 
 he knows that in real life thei'e are people 
 who do. The story is told with great vivid- 
 ness, the cliildren being especially well 
 managed, and the author has not forgotten 
 that many converts to 'the chosen' are sin- 
 cere and noble, whatever the leaders are. 
 The hl-spirited girl who resents, even 
 before she 'sees throu', the machinations of 
 Father John is a fine creation. The inter- 
 est in her fate is kept so intense that the 
 author accomplishes the purpose of the 
 book quite as well in letting her escape, as 
 in making her a victim to the bitter end." 
 (Critic. 588 
 
 ANTIQUARY (The) [by Sir Wa. 
 Scott :] "is a tale of humble Scottish life 
 and manners, the scene chiefly in a small 
 fishing town, the time the last 10 years of 
 the 18th century, the connexion with his- 
 torical events very slit." [ Boston "Liter- 
 ary World." ' 589 
 
 AUGONAUTS OF NOETH LIBERTY. 
 [ by [Fk.] Bket Haute : Houghton, 1888.] 
 There is 1 american story-writer who is 
 bothered with no limitations of art or ques- 
 tions of ethics, but whose sole province is , 
 to tell his tale and have done with it. Mr. 
 Bret Harte probably writes "out of his 
 head" as much as any novelist except the 
 purely imaginative or entirely sensational 
 ones. His landscapes, naturally and com- 
 pletely as they are drawn, with all thfcir 
 briefness, are taken from only the most 
 indistinct kind of memories, or from i 
 nothing at all, and his people come from 
 anywhere and everywhere. It is true that 
 they usually bring up on the Pacific Slope, 
 and that they invariably have something 
 interesting and amusing happening to 
 them. There are enuf surprises and 
 complications, for instance, turned ofiF in 
 the short tale 'A Phyllis of the Sierras' 
 to furnish many a writer with material for 
 volumes. But we have seen nothing of 
 late which can at all compare with 'The 
 Argonauts of North Liberty ' for brief 
 directness, for sustained and exciting 
 interest, or for subtle, strong suggestive- 
 
 169 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 ncss. The story "tells itself." and in an 
 hour's reading one compasses the entire 
 existence of 3 persons by simply knowing 
 how they acted at 3 important periods of 
 their Uvea. There is no need forminuiise 
 or details ; the drama is played, the curtain 
 is rung down promptly, and one's curiosi- 
 ty is satisfied. The last sentence of t^he 
 book completes the first chapter of the 
 story, and the circle is finished. The tale 
 is too neatly told, the coincidences and 
 contrasts are too effectively wrSt, and the 
 action too rapid and culminating to bear 
 marring by abridgment. But if one cares 
 for a story that is just simply a story (for 
 it is just simply a story), for characters 
 which have nothing to recommend them 
 but their human failings and passions, and 
 can put up with a very small portion of ' 
 wickedness which is never carried quite be- 
 yond the verge of respectability, one will 
 surely read the history of Deacon Salis- 
 bury's dauter and her two husbands." 
 [.Nation. 590 
 
 AlilADNE. [by "Ouida," i. e., L.. de 
 U iinmb.: Ohatto, 18T7.] "When the first 
 book, 'Held in Bondage,' appeared it was 
 easy to see that Lawrence was her standard, 
 but while the tone of "Guy Livingstone" 
 was sulficiently low— as all must acknowl- 
 edge—it had at least the merit of being 
 original, while in her imitation everything 
 that was objectional in his style was copied 
 in so coarse a fashion as to become repul- 
 sive. . . Altho the 'haute noblesse' figure 
 largely in her books, one never by any 
 chance stumbles upon even the shadow of 
 a lady or gentleman. Her men are never 
 gentlemanly: her women are never 
 womanly. There is a sort of fascination 
 in her language, and a certain power which 
 seizes on the fancy of boys and girls, and 
 even of older persons, who demand a small 
 excitement by way of amusement. There 
 is almost always an interest in her stories, 
 but it would be difficult to tell In what it 
 consists, for the, plots are never clever, the 
 characters are not distinctly individualized 
 and she has just her stock company. Each 
 book contains the same people. . .'Ariadne,' 
 her last, is by far tl^e best in tone, is bet- 
 
 ter written, and contains some really 
 charming descriptions of Rome, written 
 with a loving, tender appreciation of 
 nature and art that is quite astonishing. 
 As a story, it is utterly unsatisfactory. 
 The heroine — tho a g.enius, or because a 
 genius — is an imbecile. The other char- 
 acters do not amount to much, and tho 
 there is not so bad a taste in the mouth as 
 is generally left by her books, there is still 
 the trail of the serpent." [Library Table.] 
 — "On the one hand it is impossible for any 
 competent critic not to notice, and in 
 noticing not strongly to condemn, her fan- 
 tastic folly of style, the preposterous ped- 
 anti-y, and withal inaccuracy, of her 
 allusions, her hopelessly unreal moral 
 atmosfere, the wearisome overstraining of 
 her unnatural pathos, and the theatrical 
 glare which distorts, sometimes very 
 mischievously, her vues and representa- 
 tions of almost all subjects. There is con- 
 sequently a temptation to indulge in mere 
 sarcasm at these absurdities, and a danger 
 of failing to do justice to her merits — .the 
 merits of vivid presentation, of really skil- 
 ful handling of her preposterous materials, 
 and, especially in her later books, of true 
 sympathy with humanity, as she under- 
 stands it. These merits are not absent 
 from 'Ariadne', and we may add that it is 
 by no means badly constructed, and in 
 matter Of taste stands in favorable con- 
 trast to much of its autliQr's earlier wori. 
 The plot, indeed, requires that the heroine 
 should love more well than wisely, but 
 this part of the story is dealt with iitotfen- 
 sively, and in a manner quite within the 
 legitimate limits of art. Unfortunately,, 
 however, the book is decidedly dull; and 
 it is needless to say that the last word of 
 critical condemnation on a novel has been 
 said when this fatal verdict has been pro- 
 nounced. The book is dull — first, because 
 ofthe unceasing strain of false sentiment 
 and false pathos; secondly, because of its 
 utter remoteness from familiar and pro- 
 bable human life; and, lastly) because of 
 the almost superhuman folly of the allus- 
 ions, casual disquisitions, and ornamenta- 
 tion generally. . . The hero ^s exactly , the 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 same artless creation whom Madcap Violet 
 iiiiil every other sulioolgirl who writes a 
 novel at IG irnugiucs ani) always has im- 
 iiginpd. Very heivutiful, very rieli, very 
 clever, very wicked, with a niysleci- 
 ous fascination, and a total absence oi 
 liuart, he is about as new as the Pyramids, 
 and about as possible as the Chimajra: not 
 to mention that he is much less interesting 
 than either, and that his inspired tirades 
 upon subjects of literature and art are 
 jiimply appalling. The story is not com- 
 plicated. It is told by an old roman cob- 
 bler, a pleasant personage enuf, who 
 strikes us as being one of the most success- 
 ful of Ouida's creations. The cobbler finds 
 a prot6g6e in a young girl of wondrous 
 beauty, who has been left an orfan, and has 
 received from her fatlier, a sculptor of 
 more feeling than power, . nothing but a 
 multiplied portion of his artistic skill, and 
 an enthusiastic love for antiquity." [Athen- 
 a!um. 591 
 
 AUTISTE. [by Maria M. Grant: 
 Hurst, 1871.] "The friendship which 
 arises between the acconiplislied french- 
 man and liis favorite pupil- proves of infin- 
 ite service to Hazel wlien, maddened with 
 jealousy, she leaves the house of her gard- 
 iau and finds her way to London. Under 
 old Dalcourt's trainiuK, her. genius, and 
 with it her entire character, develops 
 rapidly, and the woman succeeds in for- 
 getting the great sorrow of the child. She 
 makes her debut at I'aris, takes tlie Paris- 
 ians by storh), and becomes the rage at 
 every capital in Europe; supporting her 
 ftieuds the Dalcourts meanwhile out of her 
 professional earnings. Her suUden dis- 
 appearance from the house of her gardian 
 was the occasion of a singular revolution 
 in the habits of the indolent, dreamy artist 
 who had in turn adopted, trained, and 
 worshipped his orfan child-ward. It is 
 not until he has lost -her that he realizes 
 the full force of his passion, and he spends 
 years in vainly wandering over Europe in 
 search of her. At last, when he has given 
 up aii hope of success, and has settled 
 down to the prosaic duties, of a landlord, 
 (;hance throws her.in his way at an Italian 
 
 watering-place, where she is playing under 
 her now famous pseudonym of 'La Listelle.' 
 -The two meet at the close of her perform- 
 ance, in the 'salie d'attente des artistes', 
 and there Lennard learns that he has been 
 loved and is loved still by this splendid 
 actress, who is ready, at a word from him, 
 to renounce her calling and her professionr 
 al reputation to become his wife. As old 
 Dalcourt remarked when he heard the 
 news. Hazel G my was 'artiste, maispoui- 
 tant feninie.' IJhey are maried then and 
 there, and return to England to begin 
 their new life. At this point the story 
 appropriately ends." [ Athenaium. 593 
 AT ODDS, [by J. (Jl.) VON Taut- 
 pndus: Bentley, 1863.] ''The baroness 
 Tautphdvis properly belongs to a rsither 
 past away school of novelists, which she 
 has refreshed and revived for us by varia- 
 tions derived from her large experience 
 of Continental society, — we mean the 
 school which (whether involuntarily or 
 didactically) sets forth a delicate and i-e- 
 flned prudence as the basis of social life, 
 and endeavors to measure characters and 
 careers with reference to that standard. . . 
 The author of 'The Initials' and 'Quits' 
 constantly reminds us of that playful, 
 secular school of fiction, so little now in 
 vogue, which believed in the divinity of 
 Good Sense, accepted without question the 
 conventional morality, and found its stim- 
 ulus less in warmth of feeling than in the 
 keen edge of occasional vepartie, and the 
 sharp contrasts of the diflerent schools of 
 manners in difterent classes of life or ditter- 
 ent national characters. The proprieties 
 are very difierenti of course, in the South 
 German society to which the Baroness 
 TautphOeus is accustomed, from those 
 which were acknowledged more than 50 
 years ago by english and Irish authoresses, 
 —but they predominate in exactly the 
 same way in the imagination of the writer, 
 and give the same kind of advantages and 
 disadvantages to her pictures. . . Still there 
 are great merits in the book. The german 
 counts are admirable pictures : the Direct- 
 or and Minna Pallersburg are sllter sketch- 
 es, equally life-like,— and the 2 half-sisters 
 
 171 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 nml their mother, tho as we have said, too 
 much crusted over with anglo-geriiian 
 decorum, or too intrinsically tame, corres- 
 pond with their piirts and are distinctly 
 cnuf conceived. Then it is always delitful 
 to get into Tirol under the haroness Taut- 
 phOus' guidance, for it always brings baclc 
 memories of blended magnificence and 
 simplicity, — of a hearty, childlike, and 
 statuesque peasantry, living in scenes 
 which fill and thrill the imagination ' sucli 
 as no other counti-y In Europe can yield 
 in equal measure." [Spectator. 593 
 
 AT THE ALTAR. [ by "E. WERNER," 
 i. e., E.. Blirstenbinder : Lippincott, 1872.] 
 "The novels of E. Werner are always 
 above the average of german fiction, and 
 they further possess the rare merit of in- 
 dividuality. In the one before us, the 
 author has taken his subject from the 
 vexed question of Protestantism versus 
 Catholicism. The hero is a priest who has 
 been forced into this profession while an 
 Inifant. Family reasons make it desirable 
 he should not know the story of his birth, 
 nil mely that he is sprung from a Catholic 
 father and a Protestant mother. liut the 
 Protestant blood makes itself felt. Tho 
 reared in all the traditions of his order, he 
 cannot wholly blind himself to its abuses. 
 His mental struggles are aggravated when 
 personal feelings come in contact with the 
 machmery of the Catholic Church, It is 
 vainly impressed upon him that he has 
 sworn allegiance at the altar, and that 
 before the pi-iest aiid the Catholic every 
 human emotion must be trampled in the 
 dust. ■ He cannot thus pacify his con- 
 science, carefully trained tho it has been: 
 he revolts, and betrays some discreditable 
 monastic secrets, turns Protestant, and 
 maries. This in brief is Ihe subject of the 
 novel, which is well constructed and well 
 sustained, and would beyond doubt be 
 perused with interest by english readers 
 but for tiie unsatisfactory manner in which 
 it [i. e., the Parker translation] is render- 
 ed into the language : all the german forms 
 and idioms are retained, and the novel is 
 simply and literally done, bu,t not trans-' 
 lated, into english. . . In short the book is 
 
 spoilt." [Athensum.]— "The twister] 
 translation is a good one." [Nation. 594 
 — , SAME, transl. by Parker, Lojb, 18T8. 
 — , SAME, ("Sacred Vows") transl. by 
 Ness, Semington. 1877. 
 "These novels, thanks to Mrs. Wister, 
 are as well known in this country as 
 they are at home. Critics have often 
 praised this lady, not only for her literary 
 skill, but for the extraordinary tact dis- 
 played in the choice of tales for translation. 
 Praise for the latter, however, is due not 
 to her, but to' the lately deceased editor of 
 the 'Gartenlaube', who, as was some years 
 since pointed out, called into lif^ a new 
 school of novelists, mostly women writing 
 pseudonymously, and some of whom — "E. 
 Marlitt', for instance, and "E. Werner"— 
 are to-day popular- in every european lan- 
 guage". . . "With these facts in his mind, it 
 strikes a foreiner as singular enuf that 
 german critics should speak of these fict- 
 ions with combined hatred and contempt. 
 A writer in a recent number of the Maga- 
 zin f iir die Litteratur cries out that they 
 are fit only for chambermaids and seam- 
 stres-ses, and otherwise describes them in 
 terms such as would be used in this country 
 only in reference to works beneath serious 
 criticism, such as those of Mrs. Holmes 
 and Mrs. .Southworth." [Nation. 595 
 ATELIER DU LYS (L'). [by Ma. 
 Roberts : London, 1876.] "The scene 
 is iaid in the time of the Revolution, 
 which- has inspired so many novelists, 
 but the history ' never impedes the ac- 
 tion, and altho there is plenty of what is 
 called 'local color', it always seems to 
 have its place and not^to be laid on with 
 any other object than to further the telling 
 of thetals. Thegeneral air of the time, the 
 alarm in everybody's heart, the way In 
 which the ordinary business of life went 
 on in spite of the manifold interruptions, 
 the certainty with which the different per- 
 sons adapted themselves to new ways of 
 living and dying, in a word, all the dlflci^ 
 ent impressions one gets from the memoirs 
 of the time, are admirably recounted here 
 without overburdening the story with de- 
 tails. The plot is aii ingeiMous one, and 
 
 172 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 the reaclpi-'s attention never flags. The 
 characters are diawii with great skill. A 
 young girl, EdmcSe, is the heroine, and all 
 sorts of dangers threaten her and her fort- 
 unes, and the reader Ijnows no peace of 
 mind, altho his anxiety is never really 
 too gr«at, until the babbling tung of lier 
 aunt and the clever machinations of the 
 villain can at last do her no harm." 
 [Nation. 596 
 
 — . SAME ["Noblesse Oblige"] , floZMS76. 
 
 AULNAY TOWER, [by B. "W. (How- 
 AKD) Teupkl: Ticknnr, 1885.] "There 
 Is a good situation in ' Aulnay Tower', but 
 the book may be said tot)e all' situation, 
 with little movement, no development, 
 and the very slitest free play of character 
 and motive. The scene is laid at the chat- 
 eau of the Marquis de Montaubau, not far 
 from Paris, at the moriient in the franco- 
 german war^when S^dan had been f5t, the 
 emperor was a prisoner, and the Germans 
 were iuvestins the capital. . . The Count- 
 ess Nathalie, a widow of 23, 'a beautiful 
 woman, young, pale, fair-haired, stately, 
 and forbidding,' confronts these invaders 
 of her private peace and enemies of her 
 country, intending to freeze them by her 
 hautiness, her indifference, her disdain, 
 but carries away from the first encounter 
 a haunting and rankling recollection of a 
 tall man in blue; while the tall man in 
 blue, Adjutant von Nordenfels, 'from the 
 moment she stood before the officers in 
 her cold protest and unrelenting pride.' 
 was maiily in love with the countess." 
 [Lippin<^t's.] — It is a "romance, almost 
 one of the old-fashioned sort, — even the title 
 is romantic, — and presents us the lovely and 
 lonely chatelaine of an ancient tower in 
 France, wooed by an ardent saxon lover, 
 stalwart and pensively interesting, almost 
 in the very midst of the bombardment of 
 Paris. . . Manette, the maid of the countess, 
 we find tedious and disagreeable. She be- 
 longs in one of the society plays, or in a 
 variety show." [American. 597 
 
 BALDINE. [by Karl Erdma^'n 
 Edler : Harper, 1887.] "Nothing is lack- 
 ing to render the charm of these simple 
 yet profotmd stones supreme. Plot, dia- 
 
 log, description, are all that could be 
 aslfed, and tliey are couched in exquisite 
 prose. AVitliout being in the least sketchy, 
 they leave much for the reader to fill in 
 from his heart and sympatliies, and tlie 
 delicate art of the writer is as convincingly 
 displaced in this respect as in that portion 
 of his tales which he has expressed in 
 words. The reader instantly comprehends 
 what is required of him. and it is only 
 when he reaches the end of the volume 
 that he realizes Jiow much has lain be- i 
 tween the lines, and what a triumf the 
 author has'scored in guiding him so deftly 
 and imperceptibly to supply it out of tlie 
 fulness of his nature, instead of himself 
 giving utterance to it. An outline of the 
 plots of these three life tragedies would 
 convey but a feeble idea of their dramatic, 
 poetic, and romantic worth, which the 
 reader must obtain at first hand." [Na- 
 tion. 598 
 BALLET-DANCER'S HUSHAND 
 (The), [by EnxEST Feydbad: Chicago, 
 Sumner, 1880.] "Chapter, second: the 
 beautiful Barberine puts on a different 
 dress, so to speak, assuming a character 
 which we begin to respect. In due time 
 the adored lover becomes her husband, 
 and the others are remanded to a distance, 
 liut this time the story enchains attention, 
 and we follow it to the end. It is the old 
 and ever-pitiable story of woman's unsel- 
 fish, unfaltering devotion to man, and of 
 man's egotistical, brutal inhumanity to 
 woman. . . These, of course, are the out- 
 lines of a powerful work, and for a freuch 
 novel we cannot quarrel with it. Only it 
 is inexpressibly j)ainful. The fiendish 
 cruelty of Saint Bertraud, the exquisite 
 tortures endured by Barberine, the 
 struggles of Poland under the clutch of 
 Russia, the stern vengeance which has its 
 way in the end, — all this makes a lurid 
 pictiu-e, which we can only buffer ourselves 
 to look upon for the masterly skill with 
 which it is drawn. The fidelity of 15ar- 
 berihe, the stern heroism of Eytmin, the 
 honest friendliness of Gaskell, alone illumi- 
 nate it. Those who have not nerve for a 
 trying spectacle should pass it by." [ Bos- 
 
KOMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 ton "Literary World." 599 
 
 ISALTHAZAR [ London, 1859] = THE 
 ALCHEMIST. 
 
 BANNED AND BLESSED [by "E. 
 Wekxbb", i.e., E.. Uttrstenbinder : Ltp- 
 pincott, 1884.] "is a vigorous and origi- 
 ijal story, excellently told, of one of tlie 
 Kreat nobles, living in his 'seliloss' among 
 the mountain-fastnesses, with a village 
 below hiin, of which all the inhabitants are 
 in a way his dependents, and at the same 
 time his enemies. Children shudder at his 
 name, all manner ot evil deeds are imputed 
 to him, the priest has cut him off from the 
 ehureh: in short, the Jord of Werdenfels, 
 in spite of his great lineage and his prince- 
 ly wealth, is almost a pariah. He is, nev- 
 ertheless, a victim rather than an oppressor 
 and the clearing up of the mystery which 
 encircles him is full of interest and anima- 
 tion. The setting of the story among the 
 glaciers and the snows, with the Ice- 
 Maiden lurking in the abysses to embrace 
 her prey, makes it weird and poetid Na- 
 ture works out the development of the 
 plot by sending down terrible spring floods 
 which threaten the village, and the work- 
 ing out of the story is very good. This 
 translation seems to us one of the best of 
 Mrs. Wister's, wlio always chooses [ ? see 
 No. 595] her work with discrimination." 
 [ Lippincott's.] "It can be lieartily recom- 
 mended to the lovers of the old-fashioned 
 romantic story, if any such survive. It 
 has a|l the requisites, from the hereditary 
 feud between priest and barop to the 
 doting fidelity of the old retainer." [ Na- 
 tion. 600 
 
 , SAME ("Enthralled & Released") 
 
 N.-Y., Knoz, 1SS6. 
 
 BASIL, [by [W:] W. Collins]. 
 "Mr. Collins can hide a secret better than 
 any man, he is a master of mystery; but 
 wiien once the secret is discovered, when 
 once the mystery is unravelled, his books 
 collapse at once, their interest perishes, 
 they are flat as conundrums to which you 
 have the answers. For to this writer plot 
 and incident are all in all, character 
 nothing. Ho has little spontaneity of hu- 
 mor, no reflexion, no aforistic wisdom, no 
 
 poetry, but little painting of scenery, and, 
 vfhat there is, not of the hle,st kind. He 
 relates his stories boldly and nakedly; he 
 pursues his plot With the directness and 
 pertinacity of a detective or a bloodhound. 
 From the beginning of the first chapter of 
 his work, he keeps his eye steadily fixed 
 on the last. So long as you have this book 
 open, you are spell-bound ; whenever you 
 close it, you feel you have been existing in 
 a world of impossible incidents, and hold- 
 ing converse with monstrosities. The 
 touches which make the whole woi-ld kin, 
 the humor which is a perpetual dellt, the 
 pathos which makes sacred, are not in 
 these books. Everything is tense, strained, 
 and unnatural." [ North British Rev. 601 
 
 BAY PATH (The), [by J. G. Hol- 
 land: Putnam, 1857.] "Stories about 
 the early settlers in New-England will al- 
 ways have an interest to the english reader. 
 It is the romance of american history. \ 
 'The Bay I'ath' is not a powerful tale, but 
 it is a very Interesting one. John Wood- 
 cock is an excellent character, with his 
 shrewd, quaint, good sense, and intractable 
 nature, his false position among a decor- 
 ous, orderly community, and their entire 
 inability to understand him or deal With 
 him. Mr. Moxon, the weak, foolish, 
 scrupulous, conscientious minister, with 
 his bewitched children, is a good charac- 
 ter, well worked out. The pictures of 
 early settler life are well drawn, the whole' 
 story is interesting, and has an air of truth 
 and reality which is hlly to be commended. 
 The style, too, is good and simple; and the 
 englisli is not american, which will be a 
 recommendation to readers on this side of 
 the water." [ Athenaeum. 602 
 
 BEAUTY OF AMALFI (The). [Lon- 
 don, 1852.] "We have here an Italian tale 
 after the dear old romantic fashion,— com- 
 pounded of gorgeous scenery, gay C9stume, 
 Jove wrecked by pride, political revolution, 
 and madness,^having the period of the 
 outbreak headed by Masaniello as its 
 date, — a peasant boy and girl for its lov- 
 ers, — and among its actors the Zingara, 
 that inscrutable old sorceress, who, meet 
 her when,' where, and how we will, is 
 
 174 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 always as acceptable as she is awful to old- 
 lasliioned readers of TOitiaiice. We need 
 say no more concerning 'The Beauty of 
 Amalfi', — suve and except that she is not 
 the least engaging, tho she is the last, of 
 her family." [Athenaeum. 603 
 
 BfiBEE [by '-Ouida" i. e., L.. de la 
 RaniC: Lippincott, 1S74.] "is one of 
 the most tenderly beautiful stories we ever 
 read. The heroine is a girl, left friendless 
 at a tender age, who supports herself by 
 the sale of flowers in the streets of Brux- 
 elles. she is a veritable child of nature, 
 knowing nothing of the great world, but 
 kind-hearted and simply good, it would 
 seem instinctively. One day, the eyes of a 
 famous painter fell upon her. attrauted by 
 her rare beauty. He becomes hei- friend,' 
 teaches lier to read, gives her books, and 
 thrusts back the liorizon of life before her 
 wondering gaze. Of course she learns to 
 love him with all the sti'ength of her vig- 
 orous nature. He is sorely tempted; but 
 his better nature conquers. . .This simple 
 little plot is developed « ith, exquisite deli- 
 cauy and occasional passages of intense 
 dramiitic power." [ Boston "Literary 
 World." 604 
 
 BEGG.'^R MY NEIGHBOR [by"E. 
 D. Gerard," i. e., D. Gerard & E. 
 (Gerard) Laszowska: Blackwood, ISSi.] 
 "can be most cordially praised. The 
 authors made a decided success with 
 'Reata,' a book which many people held, 
 not without reason, to be the best novel of 
 its season. But their new book is really 
 much better than 'Reata.' It is a well 
 constructed story, quite interesting enuf to 
 fix the reader's attention and stimulate his 
 curiosity, without any mysteries, improba- 
 bilities, or horrors. But while the story 
 would alone carry the reader along in spite 
 of its simplicity, or rather by reason of the 
 clearness with which it is worked out and 
 the natural manner in which the events 
 are made to follow each other, it is more 
 particularly as a study of character that 
 the novel will recommend itself. When 
 the reader has once got before him the 
 sketcfier of the 3 bi-othei-s who play the 
 chief men's parts and of the 2 cousins who 
 
 are the prinuipal ladies, he is ready to 
 pursue their history to the end, even tho 
 it were far less ably invented and told 
 than it is. The scene is in Poland except 
 for a short time, during which one of the 
 hj'Others, who is in the Austrian army, is 
 followed 10 the disastrous campaign of 
 1859. This brother is an admirable study. 
 In his noble character, where warm 
 hearteduess, spirit, devotion and truth, 
 along with a fascinating unconsciousness 
 of, his merits, are yet mixed with a good' 
 deal of weakness and a want of intellectual 
 vigor, the authors have presented a bit of 
 human nature itself. . . Vizia has just 
 missed being a beauty, and the ever-pres- 
 ent consciousness of the contrast between 
 herself and her cousin, whom she loves 
 most warmly, has given a bitterness to her 
 nature and hardened her features. But 
 whut she presents to-the world only hides 
 a character full of passion, self-denial, and 
 devotion — a character whiuh Balzac mit 
 have been proud to draw. He would have 
 done it more minutely, but he could not 
 have made the picture more complete and 
 striking. Kenia, the lovely cousin, a 
 child-like soulless creature, is also a true 
 study, but she is a less uncommon type 
 than Vizia. The same, may be said of 
 Lucyan, the polished scoundrel who has 
 no conscience and no remorse— only sel- 
 fishness almost without the excuse of 
 passion. It should be added that the good 
 taste and good sense of the authors com- 
 bined with a remarkable knowledge of the 
 world and a pleasant liking for fun, make 
 their book no less agreeable as an amuse- 
 ment than their ability makes it interest- 
 ing as a study." [Athenjeum. 605 
 BELLAH. [by Octave Feuillbt: 
 Simms & M'Bityre, 1850.] "For the 
 french novelist the struggle in Vendee will 
 always possess attractions similar to thosi-. 
 held out to the Scot by the wanderings and 
 wars of 'the Young Chevalier.' Mr. 
 Feuillethas here given us ample proof of 
 his ability to combine and wori; out the 
 picturesque materials of history. Ambus- 
 cade — escape — irregular warfare — old 
 houses divided against themselvesMove 
 
 175 
 
KOMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 miaiinderstandings — ^peasant fidelity— and 
 the affection of military comradesliip — are 
 well grouped and contrasted." [Athen- 
 iEum. 600 
 
 BERTHA'S ENGAGEMENT. [ by 
 A.. Sophia CWinterbotham) Ste- 
 phens.] "Readers of Mrs. SonthwortU 
 are generally readers of Mrs. Stephens, 
 whose works, filling at least 14 stout vol- 
 umes, are th6t by some to be of too excit- 
 able a nature to supply to an eager public 
 without restraint. Generally deemed a 
 less desirable writer than Mrs. South- 
 worth, she, lilse the latter, has relied for 
 her successes upon tlie mis-doings of hu- 
 manity — and humanity always likes to 
 hear of its short-comings. Most sensa- 
 tionalism chooses for heroes and heroines 
 the favorites of fortune, lords and ladies of 
 hi degree, who live in manorial halls, sit 
 on plush, diue off ancestral plate — all of 
 which is pleasing to the popula(te: but 
 Mrs. Stephens stoops a little lower than 
 this, and does best when telling of domes- 
 tic ways and humble people. Her ablest 
 performance [is] ' Fashion and Famine'' 
 [ which jiee] . Other of her more readable 
 stories are: 'The Jiejected Wife,"Ber- 
 tha's Engagement,' ' The Citrse of Gold,' 
 'Man-ted in Haste,' and' The Old Count- 
 ess.' It is hardly necessary to say that 
 titles like these decide the fate of sensa- 
 tional books, fully as much as any merit 
 or demerit contained within the covers." 
 [ Boston '-Litei'ary World." 60T 
 
 BETIIOTHED (The), [by A. BIan- 
 zoNi: Bentley, 1845.] "The Original is 
 regarded as the best picture of the times, 
 and the sweetest and most correct daguer- 
 rotype of Italian life which has appeared in 
 modern times. It at once gave its author 
 fame. The scenes of this enchanting story 
 lie amid the fairy shores of Lake Como. 
 Among its characters is Carlo Borromeo, 
 now the patron saint of Milano;and the 
 sufferings of that city from famine and 
 plague ai-e vividly depicted. The senti- 
 ment of the tale is as unexceptionable as it 
 is attractive and natural, — the characters 
 ably developed, the language elegant — and 
 over all broods the soft lit of the pleasant 
 
 south." [ Democratic Review. 608 
 
 , SAME ("Lucia the Betrothed"), N.- 
 
 Y., Deafborn, 1S34. 
 
 , SAME ("I Promessl Sposi"), Lam- 
 bert, 1855. 
 
 BIMBI: [by "Ouida", i. e., L.. de la 
 Rami : Chatto, 1882.] "Ouida is not, per- 
 haps, exactly the writer whom one would 
 select as a teller of stories for the young. 
 It is not that her incidents are sometimes 
 hardly suited 'virginibus puerisque;' it is 
 not that she may lead the youthful mind 
 astray by talliing about 'Bai-abbi'or by 
 disagreeing with the grammarians as to 
 the syntax or accidence of ancient and 
 modern languages, or even, iis in the pres- 
 ent volume, by leading them to suppose 
 that the silver groschen is. or was. an 
 Austrian coin. But there is in all her 
 writings a sort of pessimistic tone, a ten- 
 deiicy to make evil triumfant and good 
 unfortunate, and to insist on the baser and 
 more cruel elements of human nature, 
 which if carried into chiklren's books 
 would soon leave very, little heaven to lie 
 about them in their infancy. On the 
 whole, therefore, we were somewhat 
 agreeably surprised by this book. Out of 
 the 9 stories which it contains, 2, 'Moufflon' 
 and ' The Child of Urbino' are really 
 very pretty, tho in the case of the former 
 the author has been unable to refrain from 
 ending with one of those anecdotes of 
 cruelty to a dog which seem to possess a 
 morbid fascination for her. Of the re- 
 mainder, 2 or 3 are clumsy imitations of 
 Andersen, and the rest seem intended to 
 show that all grown people are" stupid or 
 brutal. Hut even the best have the fault 
 that nearly all stories for children have 
 nowadays: they are not really children's 
 stories, but studies of children, such as 
 their elders may appreciate, but themselves 
 never." [Athenseum. 609 
 
 BLITHEDALE ROMANCE (The), 
 [by Nathaniel Hawthorne : Ticknor,, 
 —Chapman, 1852.] "The reader is not to 
 imagine that 'The Blithedale Romance' is 
 a cold or prosy essay, done after the 
 fashion of a gilt pill, with a few incidents 
 enabling the reader to swallow its wisdom. 
 
 176 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 Tho rich in tli6t and suggestion, the tale is 
 full of mystery, suspense, ami passion, ox- 
 citing tlie strongest interest. JJesides 
 Zenobia, Holliugsworth and tlie poet-nar- 
 rator, the Blithedale [ i. e.. Brook F&rin] 
 community included the timid, p^ije girl, 
 Priscilla, — who appeared to have dropped 
 into the midst ol it Iroin the clouds, and 
 who joined the company witli no or no 
 more general idea than that of satisfying 
 her heart's yearning for shelter and es- 
 cape. Stern and self-engrossed as was 
 Hollingsworth,— nay, because of his stern 
 earnestness,— he contrived to fascinate 
 both Zenobia and Priscilla : the former re- 
 solving to place her wealth at his disposal, 
 — the other submitting her heart to him 
 long ere she guessed that it was gone from 
 her. The 2 women were thus brfit into 
 unconscious rivalry ; and excellently true 
 to nature is the manner — as tender as it is 
 real— in whi(,-h Mr. Hawthorne manages 
 to maintain the individuality of each. We 
 do not.reniember any study of the passion- 
 ate woman of genius, in which her whole 
 heart-struggle is so distinctly portrayed, 
 without the impression of what is.unfemi- 
 nine and repulsive being produced, as this 
 of Zenobia." [Athenaeum.] It "must 
 not be deemed a literal history of life 
 at Brook Farm, nor can the personages 
 in the book be identified as actual residents 
 there. Altho it has been said that "Zeno- 
 bia" is a portrait of Margaret Fuller, 
 Drake, the historian, denies the statement, 
 and Georgiana Bruce Kirby says : "There 
 was at the Farm a pretty, black-eyed girl 
 who, before coming there, had been used 
 as a clairvoyante for examining the pa- 
 tjents of a JJosion fysician. Young in 
 kuowled^re, as in years, she yet gave the 
 result of lier clear-seeing in scientific terms. 
 ,1 never knew whether her powers gave 
 out, or whether her confessor fiirbade her 
 to pursue her profession. I think it was 
 she who suggested 'Priscilla' to Haw- 
 thorne. 'Zenobia,' a friend of Miss [E.. 
 r. ] Peabody, was a resident at the farm." 
 Was the latter Mrs. Biscacianti, the 
 famous vocalist, then Eliza Ostinelli?" 
 [C:M.^Barrows. 610 
 
 BLOCK HOUSE ON THE PEAIEIE 
 (The), [by F: Spielhagen: London 
 Fuh. Co., 1882.] "'Deutsche Pioniere,' 
 one of the most agreeable of Spielhagen's 
 earlier stories, lies bfefore us today in a fair 
 and readable translation. The scene ia 
 laid in America about the middle of the 
 last century, and describes the life led in 
 those days by the german emigi'ants. The 
 adventures of tliese pioneers on tlie out- 
 skirts of civilization, the' hardships and 
 difficulties with which they had to cope, 
 are grafically told. In the course of the 
 tale the wars of the french and english 
 are introduced, as well as some account of 
 the Indian settlements and the sufferings 
 that befell the german settlers from these 
 nSbors. The whole story is healthier in 
 tone, more probable, and more objective 
 than is usual with ^pielhagen. There is 
 nothing exaggerated, nothing morbid in 
 tliese pages, and the characters are both 
 agreeable and well drawn." [Athe. 611 
 
 BLOODSTONE (The) [by Donald 
 MacLeod : Scribner, 1854.] "is the title 
 of an exciting story in the form of an 
 imaginative autoblografy, relating a sutf- 
 cessioVi of wild scenes and adventures in 
 german life, most of which are founded on 
 the experience of the writer in one of the 
 secret revolutionary societies of a german 
 university, of which the symbol was a 
 bloodstone cross. In spite of the essential 
 incredibility of the incidents which com- 
 pose the staple of tlje volume, it possesses 
 a strange, weird attraction, and is written 
 with undeniable originality and power. 
 The introductoiy portions, describing sev- 
 eral familiar scenes in the vicinity of New- 
 York, contain frequent passages of quiet 
 beauty, and will, we think, be most pleas- 
 ing to the generality of readers." [ Har- 
 per's. 613 
 
 BLUE RIBBON (The) [by Eliza 
 Tabor: Hurst, 1873.] "deals primarily 
 with the loves of an english farmer's son 
 and a german factory girl (he eventually 
 an inventor, she a singer) ; and. second- 
 arily, by way of landscape anil back- 
 ground, witli life in an english cathedral 
 town, sleepy and humdrum in its normal 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 existence, but kiudled periodically into 
 life by its recurring musical ■ festivals. 
 The artistic eutliusiasm of the heroine, 
 and the scientific energy of the hero are 
 aptly rendered, and the flitiness of the 
 former, tho a good deal overstrained (the 
 mesmeric influence of the villain Nottu- 
 rino, who has power at a moment's notice 
 to withdraw her completely from the pur- 
 suit of lier art among the simple friends 
 she has made in the cathedral town, and 
 bind her to his chariot-wheels in the two- 
 fold capacity of an artist and a lover, ap- 
 pearing to us impossible in so simple- 
 minded a dreamer as the gentle Gretchen), 
 is at worst an exaggeration of a possibility 
 in idealizing Germans." [Athenfeum.613 
 HON A VENTURE, [by G: W. Cable! : 
 Scribner, 1S88.] '"J'he noble simplicity 
 of a life like Bouaventure's would be wel- 
 come from any baud. From Mr. Cable's 
 it is doubly so; for, with the example of a 
 worthy life full of sincerity, of elevation, 
 and of sacrifice, made only the more lovely 
 because of the unconsciousne»s with which 
 it is given, one at the same time enjoys the 
 pleasure of surrendering one's imagina- 
 tion to Mr. Cable's, and following the 
 threads of his simple story, benefiting by 
 his exquisite workmanship, his minute 
 observation, and his artistic feeling, with- 
 out a th3t behind. One cannot seriously 
 find fault with the story of Uonaventure, 
 or, rather, the cluster of stories growing 
 out of his, and beautifully showing the 
 breadth and power of influence which a 
 simple, sincere, and hi-minded man may 
 wield. Tliey are so unpretentious, so de- 
 void of the claptrap and sensationalism 
 which the'public demands — and generally 
 gets,' one must sorrowfully admit— that a 
 sympathetic reader is not only pleased by 
 reading them, but also elevated and made 
 better. This not alone because the stories 
 are unaffected in their simplicity, and free 
 from the taint of melodrama, of course, 
 but because at the same time they are per- 
 vaded with a spirit of faith, a faith in the 
 nobility of truth, however homely, in the 
 beauty of unselfishness, however simple." 
 [Nation.] "The Grandissimes is one of 
 
 the great novels of our time, whereas 
 Uonaventure is simply one of tlie grace- 
 fulest romances, in Which hi motive, gen- 
 erous purpose, and picturesque material 
 answer for the powerfnl realities of tlie 
 •oiher. The facts of the case— the aspira- 
 tion and the heroic self-sacrifice of the 
 young Creole school-master among tlie 
 Acadians of Louisiana are given by a 
 species of indirection, a kind of tacking, 
 which I'ecalls Judd's method in his Mar- 
 garet, a book which Mr. Cable could not 
 have had in mind, but to which his w6rU 
 assimilates itself in the romantic atmos- 
 ■fere common to them both. It has its 
 charm, hut it silso has a misty intangibility 
 which baffles." [ HaVper's. 614 
 
 BOUND BY HIS VOWS [Lippin- 
 ■ cotes, 1873] =AT THE AL TAB. 
 
 BOW OF OKANGE RIBBON (The) 
 [by Amelia EdIth (Huddleston) 
 liARR : Dodd, 1S8T.] "is a story of New- 
 York in 1756, all alive with sturdy dutch 
 men and women, and brilliantly set off with 
 King George's soldiers. The antipathy of 
 •certain honest, godly Knickerbockers for 
 theyouiliful english representatives of the 
 flesh and the devil is discussed with a 
 great deal of humor and vivacity, and the 
 romance of the little dutch maiden with 
 the giddiest of the offenders is as sweet 
 and natural as tale of true love, not always 
 runningl smooth, can l)e. The atniosfere 
 of the story is thoroly old-time, and, 
 whether the separate pictures are liistor- 
 ically accurate or not, they make a pleas- 
 ant combination. The end is happy, and 
 that is pleasant, too, for to leave such 
 whole-souled, friendly, nice people in per- 
 manent unhappiness would be positive 
 grief." [Nation. 615 
 
 KKAVE WOMAN, by "E. Mahlitt": 
 Worthington,1891,^ SECOND WIFE. 
 
 BRETON MAIDEN (A). {Hurst, 1888.] 
 "Hei-e the tale of the great revolu- 
 tion, as it affected the Breton peasants and 
 their lords, is told in what — tho there is, 
 of course, no lack of painfulness— is on 
 the whole a pleasing and an interesting 
 manner. Tliere is a good deal which is hu- 
 man and simple, with less padding and 
 
 178 
 
EOMAXTIC NOVELS. 
 
 gruiHliloquent writing than is uaturiil to 
 the common historical novel. The 
 author has done wisely in confining 
 the action of her story to one place, 
 and in shunning Paris and direct 
 contact with the greater and better-known 
 events of the drama. Her knowledge ««f 
 the time is sufficient to keep her clear of 
 manifest errors, and, while she is by no 
 means 'steeped iu the literature of her sub- 
 ject,' or innocent of unassimilated history 
 books, her manner is often the reverse of 
 tedious. Her characters and incidents are 
 interestingly and simply unfolded, and, 
 instead of being merely a peg for history 
 and local color, are the backbone of her 
 story. The Breton maiden herself is a 
 nice, natural, and rather modern young 
 creature, and one has some sympathy for 
 her three lovers, who are not without in- 
 dividuality. Finally, there are some 
 touching scenes, and a good enuf sug- 
 gestion of the 'general sentiment' of iiri- 
 tagne and its people." [ Athenaeum. 616 
 BRIDE OF LAMMEUMOOR (The) 
 [by Wa. Scott, 1819.] "deals with 
 Scotland during the reign of William and 
 Mary, but making no use of public events." 
 [ Boston -'Literary World."] It "has been 
 described vei-y justly as the most Shal;s- 
 perian of all the Waverley novels. But 
 there is a peculiar character stamped upon 
 it, — the darkness of impending fate which 
 broods over it from the first, which is 
 never dissipated for a moment, and which 
 is rather hitened than relieved by the ab- 
 surdities of Caleb IJalderstone. In 'Kenil- 
 worth', and in 'St. Ronan's Well,' we are 
 often permitted to forget the tragic catas- 
 trofe which awaits us ; the clouds alternate 
 with sunshine, and the story is so told that 
 a more favorable conclusion would have 
 been nearly if not quite as consistent with 
 its general tone and tenor as the one which 
 takes place. 15ut in 'The Bride of I.am- 
 mermoor' it is impossible to shake off the 
 consciousness of coming sorrow from the 
 first moment to the last. If we did not 
 know the end it would still he impossible 
 to anticipate a happy one. In this respect 
 it resembles ratlier the greek tragedy than 
 
 Shakspere. The haunting voice is never 
 silent, and all the accessories of the plot 
 contribute to hiten its effects. The first 
 meeting of the future lovers in the forest- 
 glade, whither Ravenswood hud repaired 
 to seek an iutervue with the oppressor of 
 his family, half contemplating a dreadful 
 crime; the shot ringing from the thicket, 
 and father and dauter saved from sud- 
 den death by the hand which mTt other- 
 wise have been raised for a far different 
 purpose; the fountain with its ghastly 
 legend, the gloomy oaks tenanted by the 
 ominous raven who is sacred to the Lord 
 of Ravenswood ; the 2nd meeting of Lucy 
 and Edgar in the midst of a raging tempest 
 which breaks over them with redoubled 
 fury as they enter the ruined castle of 
 Wolfe's Crag, all that remains to Ravens- 
 wood of the property of his ancestors now 
 in the hands of Lucy's family : all these 
 elements of romance, mystery and terror 
 unite to bring us into a frame of mind in 
 harmony with the progress of the story, 
 leading us to watch the downward course 
 of the 2 devoted beings which form its 
 central figure in profound and unremitting 
 sympathy, but without the intervention of 
 a ray of hope." [ Macmillan's. 617 
 
 BRIDE'S FATE (The). [by Emma 
 Dorothy Eliza (Nbvitte) South- 
 wokth]. ''The austere reader, who of 
 course is acquainted with the lamous Mrs. 
 Southworth only by hearsay, may object 
 to set! her name iu a reputable journal of 
 criticism. She is wont to be deprecated 
 in public and devoured much in ijrivate. 
 as the continual replenishing of all her 
 books requisite in large libraries sufficient- 
 ly attests. From 1849 to 1872 a complete 
 set of her writings numbers 35 volumes, 
 [in 1888 the number had reached 56] . To 
 speak in detail of this female Lope de Vega 
 is impossible, — indeed it is unnecessary, 
 for her devoted admirers admit that to 
 i-ead one is to read all in substance; and 
 yet they do read all, and little else appar- 
 ently. How explain her remarkable pop- 
 ularity unless it is posited at once that ad- 
 miration of this sort is worthless and 
 counts for nothing? But this is unfair, 
 
 179 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 and not quite the truth. [ See No. 332.] 
 Understanding well tlie craving for what 
 is sensational and morbid in fietion, Mrs. 
 Southworth, by n Blvilful use of the fa.scin- 
 ations of crime, and by a systematic intro- 
 duction of horror as an element of literary 
 construction, has managed to cater so 
 successfully to certain tastes that she 
 stands easily at the head of this class of 
 the trashy school. In her later works she 
 seems to have regretted her earlier faults. 
 . . . Her style is clear, and .she tells her 
 story directly; hut the reader must accus- 
 tom himself to sudden breaks, as when, for 
 instance, in "The Changed Kride," he finds 
 an interval of 402 pages between one sen- 
 tence and the next consecutive one. 
 Judged by their popularity, Mrs. South- 
 worth's principal stories are : " The 
 Changed Brides'", " The Bride's Fate", 
 ''The Curse of Clifton," ["Fallen 
 Pride"^ , and " The Gipsy's Prophecy" — 
 [ Boston "Literaiy World."] See No. 473, 
 and "Cruel." 618 
 
 BEIGADIER FEEDERICK. [by 
 Erckmann-Chatrian : Appleton, 1875.] 
 "We are introduced to an almost idyllic 
 picture of the home of an old forester on 
 the borders of the "Vogesen ; listen to the 
 'short and simple annals' of his family; 
 watch the pretty love-making between the 
 brigadier's pretty dauter and a handsome 
 young forester who hopes to succeed him 
 on his retirement; share their brit hopes 
 and anticipations of the future ; hear with 
 incredulity the first vague rumors of war; 
 and then the guns of Wfirth and Phalz- 
 burg, the tramp of invading armies, the 
 fierce rapacity of the soldiery, and the 
 pains of exile, ending in death, and in 
 desolation which is worse than, death. All 
 is told in such wonderfully simple, easy, 
 and unpretentious style that the reader is 
 apt to think slltingly of the achievement ; 
 and it is only when he contrasts it with 
 the attempts of other writers in this field 
 that he perceives that the apparent natu- 
 ralness is simply the perfection of art." 
 [Appleton's. 619 
 
 BRIGAND'S BRIDE (The) [in 
 "Fashionable Philosophy (etc.)" by 
 
 Laurence OLirnANT : Blackwood, 1SS7. 
 Also in "Tales from Blacli:wood,"N. S., T.] 
 "i.s by far the best thing in the book. 
 From the beginning, where the narrator 
 considers the question "whether I should 
 enjoy myself most by joming the brigands. 
 or the troops which were engagpd in sup- 
 pressing them," to the end, where he 
 creates a panic in a small Italian town by 
 firing at the church bell with an air gun, 
 it is quite in the fearless old 'Blackwood' 
 fashion. No hler praise can be given to a 
 short story". . . "The escape of the writer 
 from the robber's clutches and the eccen- 
 tric but effective manner in which he pays 
 his debt of honor to the fair Valeria are 
 excellently told. He went a little far, we 
 think, but his love-making Is capital." 
 [Athenaium. 620 
 
 BY SHORE AND SEDGE, [by Fn. Bret 
 Haete : Houghton, 1885.] ". . . It is true 
 that these later isketches have not all the 
 dramatic force and beauty of the first 
 ones ; hut it is not deterioration of power, 
 so much as loss of novelty, that lessens the 
 eagerness of the public for them. 'An 
 Apostle of the Tules', has moreof the old 
 quality than almost anything the author 
 has lately done; 'Sarah Walker' in well 
 told, as everything from him is; and 'A 
 Ship of '49' is a very pretty story." 
 [Overland. 621 
 
 I BY THE TIBER, [by M.. Agnes 
 TiNCKER : Roberts, 1881,] "The author 
 has freely handled all the materials the 
 situation afibrds, giving us picturesque 
 sketches of Roman character, both of noble 
 and peasant, and artistically mingling 2 
 plots, each of which lends meaning 
 and interpretation to the other. The story 
 opens among familiar romantic models: 
 the southern moon shines, oleander and 
 , passion-flowei;« bloom, nitingales sing in 
 the orange-scented groves. Our author 
 has an ardent imagination, and can use all 
 these resources eloquently and skillfully, 
 seeing Italy not only with her eyes, but 
 Avith a heart which beats passionately in 
 response to all its enchantments. When 
 one has read throu these opening chapters, 
 which put the love of Vittorio before us. 
 
 180 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 ami begins tbe story of Valeria Ellswortli, 
 the trausition is almost as startling as 
 leaving a play -with all the ailjuncts of 
 music, rich scenery, foot-llts, etc., for the 
 cool sunny tlaylit outside." [Llppin- 
 cott's.] — "The Italian landscape glows 
 around us, the senses revel in its opulent 
 bloom and perfume. . . The hero is the sou 
 of a nobleman, and his mother is a peas- 
 ant. He is educated as a landscape 
 gardener, and as he grows is distracted by 
 the double Uature of his destiny and the 
 contrary tendencies of his nature. He 
 becomes the gardener of a roman noble- 
 man, and at once falls hopelessly in love 
 with his dauter, a beautiful, but hauty and 
 cruel girl. She is struck by his maiTellous 
 J, J, beauty, and tosses him a red rose. 'That 
 rose burned on Jiis heart with a fire never 
 to be extinguished.' Donna Adelaide 
 maries another, but intrigues with Vit- 
 torio ; then causes his death at the hand of 
 her emissaries, while a young lady artist 
 from America becomes innocently en- 
 tangled in the crime of the heroine, by 
 unintentionally witnessing the assassina- 
 tioi^ of the hero. It will be seen that there 
 is a strong resemblance here to the plot of 
 'the Marble Faun.' Indeed the inHuence 
 of that work upon the author is quite 
 apparent. , "VVe miss entirely, however, 
 the greek simplicity of style of Hawthorne. 
 The author of 'By the Tiber' is often 
 obscure and slovenly, and everywhere the 
 style is too exuberant and unprUned." 
 [American. 622 
 
 CAMILLA'S GIRLHOOD. [ by Linda 
 (Whitb) (Mazini) Villaki: Unwin, 
 1886.] "This is a readable, if not a very 
 exciting or intellectual production. A 
 mawkish einglish girl maries a beautiful 
 Italian, and in the first chapter says good- 
 by to him as he starts off shboting with an 
 ill-looking dog of a brother. The ill-look- 
 ing dog returns, having left the husband 
 at the bottom of a precipice. He wishes 
 to imprison the english wife, with a vue 
 to pocketing her money; but the usual 
 faithful english servant helps her mistress 
 to escape with her little girl, and they get 
 safely to England. . . An artist, a musician, 
 
 and 2 conspirators complete the dramatis 
 person^ of a piece which has a fair 
 amount bf go." [ Spectator. " 623 
 
 CANCELLED WILL, see ALL FOB 
 LOVE. 
 
 CAPTAIN FRACASSE [by TheO- 
 PHILE Gautier : Holt : 1880.] "presents 
 the adventures of a company of strolling 
 players of Louis XII's time— their vicissi- 
 tudes, collective and individual, their 
 miseries and gayeties, their loves and 
 squabbles, and their final apportionment 
 of worldly comfort— very much in that 
 symmetrical fashion in which they have so 
 often stood forth to receive it at the fall of 
 the curtain. It is a fairy-tale of Bohemia, 
 a triumf of the picturesque. . . The man- 
 ners, the morals, and the language of the 
 age of Louis XII. were much freer than 
 those of our time even in Prance; and 
 Gautier was not the artist to soften this 
 feature in any picture of the time which 
 he mit undertake to paint. . . All these 
 episodes, without exception, the translator 
 has remorselessly cut out, and has thereby 
 mutilated the story irretrievably as a work 
 of art." [Appleton's. 624 
 
 — , SAME, Piitnam, 1880. 
 
 CAPTAIN'S DAUGHTER (The) [in 
 "Russian Romance", by A. S. Pushkin : 
 King, 1875.] "narrates the adventures of 
 a young officer and his sweetheart, during 
 the troublous period in which Pougachcf 
 held at bay the forces of Catherine II. and 
 ravaged so great a portion of Eastern 
 Russia. The Lady-Eustic describes an 
 interesting Russian flirtation ; the "Snow- 
 Storm" gives an account of an extra- 
 ordinary incident, the mariage of a man 
 without his consent to a young lady who 
 th6t he was somebody else; the "Pistol- 
 Shot" is an excellent story; the "Moor of 
 Peter the Great" would have been more 
 satisfactory had it possessed an end ; the 
 " Undertaker" is a somewhat flimsy 
 sketch; but the "Station- Master" is a 
 touching story, simply and pathetically 
 told, almost worthy of a place in TurgiSn- 
 ief's 'Sportsman's Notes.' There is nothing 
 very new in it for it merely tells how the 
 pretty dauter of a provincial postmaster 
 
 ISl 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 eloped with a passing liiissar, but tlie way 
 in wbieli it is tolit is excellent. [Athc- 
 nieum. ] "This story docs not concern it- 
 self with any lesson, or with showing how 
 good or how bad, people ai-e,,I)iit is simpfy 
 an unadorned record', tokl in the most 
 charming way, of the adventures of a 
 young russian officer wha sees service a- 
 gainst some rebels,, and whose betrothal to 
 the heroine forms the romantic part of the 
 story. There is plenty of incident, and 
 the narrative is so-direct and! simple that 
 the reader becomes at once conscious' of a 
 masteV's hand.^ The hero's boyhood' is de- 
 scribed in two or three pages, and throu(5ilt 
 the book there is no superfluity of ex- 
 pression ; everything is set before us with 
 two or tjirec touches. The growth, of the 
 heroine's character from, shy gjrlishjiess to 
 mature strength-and courage throu- strange 
 adventures is- beautifully told.. The mock 
 Bzar, half cunning- andl half enthusiasm, 
 the hero's grimi servant — indeed, all the 
 characters— are admirably drawn." [Na- 
 tion. 635 
 
 . SAME, ["Majie"], transl. by M.. 
 
 H. Zielinska: Chicago,. .Mresem, 1877. 
 
 , SAME, transl. by J. Igelstrom: 
 
 €Uy'of London Pub. Co., 1883. 
 
 , SAME, CalciJllta, 1889. "Mr.. Godfrey 
 
 has translated Pushkin'* charming novel 
 iai the belief that no other english version 
 exists. . . It was- translated together with 
 some tales of LeiTnontof's, and published 
 anonymously sometime before the Crimean 
 War." [.^thenaium.] Book referred to 
 is "Sketches of Russian Life in the Cau- 
 casus, Ingram, 1853. 620 
 CAllDIXAL'S- DAUGHTER (The), [by 
 Cathakine a,. tWAUE) Wahfield.] 
 Mrs. Warfield enjoys a steady popularity 
 based upon her genuine ability, and some- 
 what, perhaps, upon the fact that all her 
 stories are connected in plot. In spite of 
 some objections made to her on the ground 
 .of a certain morbidness supposed to inliere 
 in all she does, it is not overpraise to say 
 that her gifts of a powerful imagination 
 and considerable fancy are merits which 
 eutwfi her faults. If a still greater ac- 
 quaintance with her would result in a 
 
 corresponding deurease in the reading of 
 Mrs. Ucnt/ or Mi.ss Dupuy, it would l)e a 
 gain." [Boston "Literary World." C2T 
 
 CARMELA. [by OlgaCantacu/kxk: 
 Tinsley, 1S80.] " 'Carmela' is a romance, 
 tho its events are those of the present day. 
 The heroine is without fault, and the 
 sentiment is of tho Mest kind. The story 
 is well contrived, and unblemislicd by any 
 thing which is not fit for thcTiiost ir.- 
 gcnuouH minds. It was suited for trans- 
 lation into english, many of the characters 
 and scenes in it l)eing english. [Athe- 
 nieuni. 028 
 
 CASTLE HOHENWALD (Die von 
 HolienwaUT) "[ by Adolf Stheckvuss: 
 Lippineott, 18T0.] "is a pleasajit story, brlt, 
 readable, and full of the true german 
 flavor. The most grafic point in the book 
 is that relating to a midnit attack, during 
 tlie war of 1870, and the escape of the 
 Uhlan ofHcers : materials so ably handled 
 that we feel that tho author has here 
 struck a vein which she [!] will do well to 
 develop more thoroly hereafter. The 
 story has also the merit, and a great merit 
 it is, of ending well." [ Boston "Literary 
 AVorld." 029 
 
 CASTLE OF OTRANTO. [by HOUACE 
 Walpole: 17G4.] "To us of the present 
 day this story is very nearly unreadable ; 
 it has more of the air of a caricature than 
 of a genuine attempt to attract adult 
 readers, and this feeling was shared by 
 many of the author's contemporaries. 
 What was absurd in its gigantic helmet 
 and childish terrors seemed also absurd to 
 them, but there were others who justified 
 the writer's assertion : "I have not written 
 the book for the present age, which will 
 
 endure nothing but cold common sen.se 
 
 I have composeil it in defiance of rules, of 
 critics, and of filosofers ; and it seems to 
 me just so much better (or that vei'y 
 reason." In other words, Walpole, a 
 delicate, fastidious man, familiar with 
 what was going on in France as well as 
 England, despised by his countrymen for 
 what seemed like ridiculous alTectation in 
 his finical love for antiquities and gothic 
 architecture, and for his indifference to 
 
 182 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 the rnf amusements of a rude time, was, 
 in fact, simply auticipatiiig his age by his 
 dissatisfsctiou with the meagre reasouable- 
 ness of its vue of life. The success of hia^ 
 book aud the enormous extent of his in- 
 fluence Showed that he was on the rit path 
 in his l&fable revolt. It was long before 
 the ghost that left its gigantic helmet and 
 sword about in his book was laid. It be- 
 came a stock figure of romance, and even 
 when, as in Mrs. Eadcliffe's novels, the 
 ghost itself evaporated into explicable 
 fenomeua, the grisly terror that his 
 presence or nfborhood inspires remained 
 a most useful source of entertainment." 
 [T : S. Perry.] "The tale, with its super- 
 natural horrors, which made the hair of 
 the juveniles of our grandsires' age, 
 "stand on end," is destined to perform 
 the same feat to the present and to unborn 
 generations. The Castle of Otranto is 
 the putative parent of a popuLir and 
 populous school of fiction. It has stood 
 the test of time, it has maintained its 
 original rank in the annals of fiction, and 
 it would be "gilding refined gold" were we 
 to waste space in superfluous Jaudatioiu" 
 [ Leader 630 
 
 CATHERnfE. [by Jules Saxdeauj 
 Moutledge, 1S60.] "The central figure of 
 the little society ot Saint Sylvian is a 
 priest possessed of all the excellencies lOf 
 Chaucer's and Goldsmith's parsons. . . He 
 has, however, one treasure in his liicce 
 Catherine, a girl of 17, called by all the 
 country round sometimes La Petite Vierge, 
 from a fancied resemblance to a picture of 
 our lady, sometimes La Petite Fie, from 
 her good deeds and her faii-y-like appear- 
 ance." [ Saintsbuiy. 631 
 
 CECIL CASTLEMAISTE'S GAGE, [by 
 Ouida: Lippincott, 1S67.] "Xotwith- 
 stiuiding the extravagance of this writer's 
 style and her incorrigible passion for 
 melodrama, there is a strength of imagina- 
 tion and a sustained vivacity about her 
 stories which will always ensure their 
 popularity and gain for them considerable 
 acceptation even with the fastidious. 
 Passion and copious flow of incident are 
 valuable elements in fiction, and 'Ouida' 
 
 displays them with au affluence rivalled 
 only by Miss Braddon. She belongs to a 
 new and very odd school of romancists^ 
 who maj be described as seeking to unite 
 in their novels the dusty lore of a cyclo- 
 pjiedist, the naive fervor >of a child, and 
 the interest of a fairy tale. , . The public 
 seem 'for the moment to fancy this kind 
 of writing, and if a mixture of Mother 
 Goose Jind Dr. Johnson suite the general 
 taste, it willof course be gratified. Some 
 of the tiiles in this volume are, however, 
 of a better .stamp than Jiiit be inferred 
 from this 'description, and contain unmis- 
 takable evidences of 5)0wer and artistic 
 feeling. The story of 'Deadly Dash,' for 
 all its alliterative title and incredible plot, 
 is excellent an its way, and there is comedy 
 in 'Lady Marabout's Troubles,'' which 
 few of 'Ouida's' female competitors can 
 approach. iEvery one of these novelettes 
 is hlly interesting, which is, after all, pci"- 
 haps, the best praise that can be offered." 
 [Bound Table. 632 
 
 CECIL DEEEME, by Ta. Winthrop, 
 = No. 20S. 
 
 CHANGED BRIDES, see BBIDE'S 
 FATE. 
 
 CHARLES AUCHESTEE I by E.. S.. 
 Sheppard: Harst, ISoS.] "is a novel 
 illustrative of a life devoted to the enthu- 
 siastic cultivation of sausical art. The 
 charactci-s are supposed to be taken from 
 life, and to represent the romance in the 
 history of several .eminent composers and 
 artists. Among those who are hrdt upon 
 the scene is Mendelssohn, whose rare, 
 enthusiastic -qualities are «et iorth in a 
 brilliant and impressive lit. The novel 
 contains many admirable specimens of 
 character-drawing. Its narrative por- 
 tions, altho unequal, are for the most part 
 of a superior order of composition, and 
 exercise a certain weird charm over the 
 imagination of the reader." [Harper's.] 
 "More thanordinarypains have been taken 
 by the pub Ushers to recommend this strange 
 book on tlie score of the personal por- 
 traits which it has been alleged to contain. 
 Week after week have lovers of music 
 been invited to read about Mendeksohn, 
 
 1S3 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 and Berlioz and Jenny Lind. Among 
 tiiose who care for tUe art, a considerable 
 stir lias been kept up with regard to tlio 
 authorship of the haif-crazy work, and 
 gOBsii) has been flung about i-especting its 
 truth, passion and beauty almost out-rhap- 
 sodizing the rhapsody with which its 
 pages overflow. . . It is a strange, wild, 
 affected, incongruous, mystical art-novel, 
 — iucomplete, incorrect, foolish, extrava- 
 gant, still displaying feeling without dis- 
 cretion, power without learning, and a 
 passion for music rather than a knowl- 
 edge of it." [Athenaium. 633 
 
 CHAKLOTTE TEMPLE [by Susanna 
 (Haswull) Eowson: 1790.] "written 
 in the stilted, sentimental style of the day, 
 still finds readers. In its main outlines it 
 is a true story. The real name pf Char- 
 lotto Temple was Charlotte Stanley, who 
 was thrown, on the streets of New- York 
 by hfer betrayer. Colonel Montrcsor, the 
 Colonel Montraville of Mrs. llowson's 
 novel. Like the villain of the story, 
 Colonel Montresor afterwards maried in 
 New- York. By a, strange Nemesis, his 
 eldest son became engaged to his dauter 
 by Charlotte Stanley. This part of the 
 story is told in the sequel to 'Charlotte 
 Temple,' which was published after Mrs. 
 Kowson's death under the title of 'Char- 
 lotte's Daughter.'" [Edinburgh Eev. 034 
 
 CHATEAU LESCURE [New- York, 
 Dunigan, ISoo.] "is a pretty little stoi-j', 
 told with grace and sinjplicity. The scente is 
 laid in Vendde, at the period of the Eev- 
 'olution ; the spirit and manners of the 
 time have been well caut, and Colonel de 
 Lescure, with his sorrows and brave 
 silence, would do credit to a story of far 
 more imposing proportions." [Athe- 
 na3um. C35 
 
 CHATEAU MORVILLE. [rbiladel- 
 phia, Claxton, 1872.] "From the style 
 and manner, it would seem intended for 
 the amusement of girls of 14 or 15; but it 
 would bo about one of the last books we 
 should olTer to a rational being of any age 
 lor cither amusement or instruction. A 
 more foolish or romantic story could 
 scarcely be put into the hands of a reader. 
 
 or one more calculated to furnish foolish 
 th6ts. The readers contemplated must be 
 solely girls, for no boy under any dearth 
 of. literature would read a dozen lines of 
 it'." [Athenajum. ' 036 
 
 CHILD OF THE REVOLUTION ( A ) . 
 [by Ma. Roberts: Satchards, 1SS7.] 
 "A story by the author of 'Mademoiselle 
 Mori' is always welcome, and in her last 
 essay, tho confessedly addressed to a small 
 circle, there is no falling-off in her charac- 
 teristic qualities of refined thotfulncss and 
 graceful portraiture. The scene is laid in 
 France. . . As a foil to this passionate 
 visionary, there is a delttful old chevalier. 
 . . . The chevalier's account of the fate of 
 his tragedy is most amusing. . . So com- 
 pletely does this amiable old man insinu- 
 ate himself into the affections of the read- 
 er, that it is quite a relief to learn aj the 
 end that his romance met the taste of the 
 day, and was published with success. It 
 seems to us, in conclusion, that the writer 
 has very happily hit the meaa.between a 
 mawkish romance of the Revolution and a 
 needlessly realistic picture of its horrors. 
 There is no shirking of the gloomy side of 
 that epoch ; but ^ho effect is none the less' 
 impx-essive from the entire absence of sen- 
 sationalism by which the story is marked." 
 [Spectator. 037 
 
 CHITA [by Laecadio Hear^: Har- 
 per, 1889.] "aftbrds atcxt whereupon Mr. 
 Howells m!t exultantly discourse of the 
 evils of "the romantic method." Tho* 
 author perpetrates almost every fault 
 which that almost able writer avoids with 
 repugnance; and even the qualities of 
 fervid imagination and dramatic intensity 
 which are undeniably displayed in Chita 
 do not redeem it from its too obvious 
 shortcomings of verbosity, rhetoric, and 
 slurring of minor, but essential, details. 
 Hysteria is not poetic force any more than 
 convulsions arc symptomatic of musculart 
 strength; and Mr. Hearn is occasionally 
 what admirers would call romantic, Tmt 
 what the unbiassed critic would term 
 hysterical." [ Academy. 638 
 
 CHRISTIE JOHNSTONE. [by 
 
 Chakles Reade : Ticldnor, l^S^. '. "Per-' 
 
 184 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 hups his most remarkable triumf is the 
 interest with which he invests the young 
 fish-woman, Christie Johnstone. Raising 
 her from all the low and disagreeable asso- 
 ciations which every reader connects with 
 the female vendor of fish, Mr. Reade has 
 created a character whose native refine- 
 ment, brit, clear intellect, and generous 
 impulses make the reader almost forget 
 amidst what scenes the beauty and strength 
 of her moral and intellectual life were 
 developed. Whether such a character 
 could exist and grow more strong and 
 more beautiful amidst such scenes is a 
 question that we need not discuss. But 
 Mr. Reade has drawn such a character and 
 made it noble, true, and beautiful." 
 [Christian Examiner. 639 
 
 CHRISTINE [by ^ouis Enault: 
 Roberts, 1ST4.] ". . . in purity and deli- 
 cacy is unexceptionable, and presents a 
 picture of feminine loveliness, of ideal 
 grace and finenesB, we mean, it is a love- 
 story, pure and simple; rather frenchy, 
 as the saying is, in its iilosofy and exuber- 
 ance of sentiment, but exquisitely refined, 
 pi(|uant, and vivid. Rarely has woman 
 received more delicate homage than the 
 author offers her in the character of Chris- 
 tine. . . Without being dramatic or in any 
 way startling, the story has a. lively and 
 unflagging action, and the interest of the 
 reader, lited at the ball, where the hero 
 and heroine meet for the first time, grows 
 to a great flame which broadens to the 
 end. The strength of the book is in senti- 
 ment; the two or three genuine love- 
 making scenes are master-pieces, — the 
 crossing of the lake, and the intervuc in 
 which the Count asks Christine to be his 
 wife, for instance. But the shadows in 
 this love-picture are even more lovely than 
 the lit, soft and pure tho it is. . . Women 
 will find in it a type of feminine loveliness 
 which they may well imitate, and a worthy 
 idol for their adoration in that noble 
 gentleman, Baron de'Vendel; and— but 
 when we have said that it is a charming 
 love story, need we use other arguments 
 to commend it to the attention of our fair 
 readers? It belongs to a class of novels j 
 
 185 
 
 which, unfortunately, has gone out of 
 fashion,— novels of pure sentiment. There 
 is not a crime or a 'sensation' of any kind 
 in it ; a few readers, we are sure, will find 
 in this deficiency a potent recommenda- 
 tion." [Boston "Literary World." 640 
 
 CHRISTMAS FORTUNE [Boston: 
 Williams, 1881] = Fortunes of Miss 
 Follen. 
 
 CHRISTMAS ROSE (A) [by R. E. 
 Francillon: Harper, 1888.] "is a 
 charming story. New and delitful in inci- 
 dent and in conception, quaint in treatment 
 and felicitous in characterization, there 
 breathes throucJut it an ideal loyalty which 
 seizes the reader and makes him, willy- 
 nilly, a staunch Stuart. Nicholas Fen- 
 wick's courage and hopefulness after forty 
 years of unsuccessful plotting in King 
 James' behalf, Rupert Cleve's renunciation 
 for his King, Hester's unflagging faith in 
 her husband, even Mistress Tarrott's ser- 
 vice to Hester, all embody an ideal love 
 and honor which quite befits the tide of 
 Christmas, when all the world, thi-ou some 
 compelling influence, puts on its best 
 thOts and does Its worthiest deeds." 
 [ Critic. 041 
 
 CHRISTOWELL. [ by R : D. Black- 
 MOHE : Harper, 1882.] "There is no danger 
 that the reader will drop the !)ook, or that 
 he will skip the pages. Perhaps the 
 author has nowhere br6t together stronger 
 contrasts, — the quiet pleasure of the father 
 and dauter among their vines in the gar- 
 den, the wild life on the moor, the placid 
 routine of village life, and the awful visi- 
 tation of the litning and the flame. Yet 
 once under the spell of the stosy-teller, we 
 find it all true and real." [Nation. 642 
 
 CIGARETTE MAKER'S ROMANCE 
 (A). [))y Fr. Mario.\ CflAWFORD: 3Iac- 
 millan, 189U.] "The cigarette maker and 
 bis companions in.the little back shop of 
 Herr Fischelowitz of Munich are only less 
 forein than Turks and Chinese ; they are 
 Poles and Russians, and one of tlicm is a 
 Cossack. Whatever their vices may be, 
 Mr. Crawford dwells most on their kind- 
 ness towards a man of superior birth aiid 
 gentle nature, whom misfortune has made 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 their fellow-workman. The unhappy 
 Count is a pathetic 'figure and really noble, 
 A'erifyins in his humble life the discredited 
 adage : Blood will tell. The poor polish 
 girl, "Vera,)rcvives another fast vanishing 
 belief— that in the beauty and strength of 
 woman's devotion. Tho happiness 
 (which comes to her at last) is rarely the 
 reward of the virtuous, it is occasionally, 
 and there is no reason always to ignore the 
 barely possible. There arc warmth, sym- 
 pathy, and sentiment in every chapter, 
 and these things make joy, especially just 
 after one has been mentally dwelling a- 
 moiig miserable snobs, the best of whom 
 has but the brain of a midge, a semblance 
 of a human heart, and never suggest the 
 possession of a possibly eternal soul." 
 [Nation. ^ 643 
 
 C'LAIJA MILITCH [by Ivan Tubgkn- 
 lEKF, 18S4.] "will bo published in the The 
 Independent [1S84.] "The publishers 
 say: 'The talc has not, so far as known, 
 appeax-cd cither in England or America; 
 and if it has been translated at all it cer- 
 tainly is not accessible to any large portion 
 of the reading public. The neglect of the 
 translators is, perhaps, accounted for by 
 the fact that this tale was not rendered 
 into french by the author, according to 
 his custom. [? See Critic, 8: 100]. There 
 are certain facts regarding the derivation 
 of the characters in "Clara Militch" which 
 are interesting. The princess of the story 
 is an exact portrait of a pai-isian celebrity, 
 a member of a french dyna.<itic family. 
 The consummate skill with which this 
 'ady's peculiarities are traced must ren'der 
 the character h!ly humorous to those who . 
 have frequented her salon. The character 
 of the heroine was, in all probability, 
 suggested to the author by the young 
 actress. Miss Kcyghin6, whose tragic fate 
 is remembered in tlic french capital." 644 
 
 CLAKISSA HAllLOWE. [by S : EiCH- 
 AiiDSON, 1T4S.] "That the heroine is one 
 of the noblest, sweetest, and loveliest con- 
 ceptions of woman ever drawn by the pen 
 of man ; that Lovelace, fiend as he is, so 
 works upon our sympathies that, in spite 
 of ourselves and our better nature, we can 
 
 hardly blame— or at least can scarcely be 
 surprised at — the fine ladies who entreated 
 the author to reform and spare him ; and 
 the interest of the story, as it advances, 
 makes the reader tremble in every nerve, 
 while the catastrophe awakens almost in- 
 supportable feelings of pity anil indigna- 
 tion and horror; that Clarissa herself, in 
 her father's gloomy mansion, in all the 
 weariness and grief and pain of her short 
 life, apiJears like an angel walking throu 
 the valk?y of the shadow of death, with 
 only the sacred lit of her own purity 
 around her; — all this is well known to 
 the select few who have had Ihe courage 
 to venture U)jon the 8 volumes, and who, 
 after a hundred temptations to throw them 
 aside, have come at last to be fairly lost>in 
 admiration of the wonderful and resifstless 
 power of the writer. Yet to the great 
 mass of modern readers the novels of 
 Richardson are no more familiar than the 
 sermons of Sherlock and Tillotson. The 
 subject of 'Clarissa Harlowe' precludes 
 even its mention in the polite circles of 
 the decorous and profoundly moral age 
 in which it is our privilege to live." [ Lip- 
 pincott's.] "No novel ever combined in a 
 more .striking degree deep realism and 
 lofty idealism. The conception of Clar- 
 issa's noble self and Lovelace, the ignoble 
 means by whose motive-means her history 
 is turned from point to sadder points, is 
 an antithetic conception of exquisite 
 beauty and diaI)olical vice such as we must 
 go far to equal and very far to surpass. . . 
 It may be urged that, even if the average 
 spirit we^-e willing, the average flesh would 
 be weak, for the iJerusal of a novel prov- 
 erbially enormous in bulk and frfited with 
 much moralizing in the spaces not devoted 
 to the elaboration of a plot harrowingly 
 tragical. But in the 2 recent editions of 
 'Clarissa' now uncjer notice, the dimen- 
 sions are moderate, aiid the direct moral- 
 izings reduced to a minimum, while the 
 engrossing interest, of tho plot remains, 
 and the exquisite insTts into female char- 
 acter, with the hi implied teachings and 
 tendencies of the book are uuimpaired." 
 [ Contemporary Keview. 645 
 
 186 
 
ROMANTIC NOYEJ-S. 
 
 , SAME, abridged, Boutledge, Tins- 
 ley, 1868. 
 
 CLOISTER AND THE HEARTH (The) 
 [byC: Reade, I860.] "is lilce a piece 
 of medieval life transported bodily into 
 the midst of us. It is in literature what 
 Kiimberg is in art, a thing as real as the 
 old city. . . We should say, putting aside 
 Sir "Walter and 'Notre Dame,' that there is 
 no other such historical novel. To open 
 Reade's masterpiece is to walk into a 
 world of living folk, not in fictitious cos- 
 tume or charged with archieological detail, 
 but at home among their natural sur- 
 roundings, all individual, unconscious of 
 our observation. . ." [Blackwood's.] See 
 A GOOD FIGHT. 646 
 
 CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE [by C: 
 Beside: Ticknor, 1855.] "is a well-told 
 story. It mit be called a narrated play. . . 
 There is a rapid movement, and a dramatic 
 vigor about it which makes an impression 
 we can liken only to an actual enjoyment of 
 changing scenes, picturesque tableaux, 
 and the presence of actors. "We feel that 
 gome one is giving us a graflc description 
 of a performance, seizing the salient points 
 of character and situations,^ and reproduc- 
 ing them in a narrative form : speech and 
 description glide into one another where 
 each is most expressive. Every character 
 in the story is well portrayed, and with 
 comparatively few touches, so few indeed 
 that we wonder how their individuality is 
 so well expressed." [CrayotJ.] "Of all 
 the writers of my day, he has seemed to 
 me to understand literary honesty the 
 least. On one occasion as he tells us, he 
 b6t from a french author ["G: Sand"] 
 the rit of using a plot taken from a play 
 ["Claudie"] which he probably mit have 
 used without such purchase, and also 
 without infringing any international copy- 
 rlt act. The french author not unnatu- 
 rally praises him for the transaction, tell- 
 ing him that he is "jm vrai gentleman." 
 The plot was used by Reade in a novel 
 [ "Clouds and Sunshine"] ; and a critic, 
 discovering the adaptation, made known 
 his discovery to the public. [ See Athe- 
 meum, 7 nov. 1S57] . "Whereupon the nov- 
 
 elist became angry, called his critic a 
 pseudonymuncle, and defended himself 
 by stating the fact of his purchase. In all 
 this he seems to me to ignore what we all 
 mean when we talk of plagiarisni and 
 literary honesty. The sin of which the 
 author Is accused is not that of taking 
 another man's property, but of passing 
 off as his own creation that which he docs 
 not himself -create. When an author puts 
 his name to a book he claims to have 
 written all that there is therein, unless he 
 makes direct signification to the contrary." 
 [ Anthony Trollope. 647 
 
 COLLEENS AWN (The), see WILLY 
 REILL Y. 
 
 . COLOMBA. [by Prosper Mekimee: 
 transL by A. B. Scoble, Bentley, 1853.] "A 
 slit sketch of corsican manners, showing 
 the retaliating vengeance of rival families, 
 .where murder takes the place of duelling 
 According to custom. There is no intricacy 
 or surprises of plot; but a peculiar fase of 
 lifeon that island is presented in a well- 
 translated sketch." [ Crayon.] "For the 
 lover of. tales of adventure among strange 
 scenes and curious passions this book will 
 have its charm. The heroine— a young 
 and romantic english lady and her father 
 are not among the best drawn characters 
 of the story; but they are not grossly 
 wanting in national traits and triumfs. . . 
 The Corsican however, is capital. Alto- 
 gether, the tale has dash, energy and live- 
 liness." [ Athenaium. 048 
 
 , SAME, Phillips, Sampson, & Co., 
 
 1856.] 
 
 CONSCRIPT (The) [by Erckmaxx- 
 Chatrjan : Smith, 1865.] "is oqj story of a 
 conscript, drafted in that last conscrip- 
 tion which was ordered after the re- 
 treat from Russia. It reads very much 
 like a real story, and is told with a quaint 
 simplicity and truthfulness which will win 
 the reader's heart. All those soldiers were 
 men once,' said a little boy, when taken to 
 see a revue, and this story resolves at 
 least one soldier back into the original man 
 out of which he was made. Joseph, tho 
 hero, is a good, honest alsacian lad, a 
 watchmaker's apprentice, full of simplicity 
 
 187 
 
KOSIANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 anil goodness of heart ; the Httle account 
 of his everyday life, of his love for Cath- 
 erine, how he vforkcd over-hours to take 
 her a, watch on her ffite-day, and their 
 happiness on that occasion, reads like an 
 idyl. Then the terrible news of the re- 
 treat, followed hy the last couscriptionj 
 when youths and hoys were taken to fill 
 the ranks which had hcen ravaged by 
 death, is described with the quiet, grafic 
 power of a fotograf. Poor Joseph tells 
 how he, tho lanie, was obliged to fulfil 
 his lot, and how he was earned away, 
 with despair in his heart, to join his regi- 
 ment. The life of a young recruit of that 
 period, the good comrades he met, the 
 charms as well as hardships of the life, 
 and, above all, ho w he became more manl^ 
 in character, showing incidentally how 
 war developes heroism as well as many 
 horrors, are well given. Joseph is charm- 
 ing throudiit. . . The little touches of ger- 
 man life in the towns where they were 
 quartered, the hatred to the French which 
 was on the eve of explosion, give a life 
 and truth to the picture." [ Athe. 649 
 COXSUELO. [by "G: Sand", i. e., 
 [AmantiucLucile Aurore (Dupiu) Dude- 
 vant: transl. by Fr. G: Shaw, Boston, 
 1S46; b])r F. Robinson, N. Y., 1851.] 
 "Consuelo is not one of those voluptuous 
 patrician beauties. The Venice she rep- 
 resents is that which toils and rows, and 
 browns in the fierce sun, — not that which 
 is lulled in the invisible seclusion of the 
 gondola, by soft rocking of the waters, by 
 drowsy chant of song, into all the dreams 
 of idleness. The romance of her history 
 is long, and mystical and strange, dealing 
 with wonders and mysteries which we 
 have no intention to enter into, and which 
 Injure the perfection of the tale iii point 
 of art, tho they never fail to carry on the 
 reader in a strange trance of interest like 
 the prolonged and endless stories of the 
 'Arabian Nights.' It is only its beginning 
 which is Venetian ; but that beginning is 
 enuf for our jJurposc; and places per- 
 manently one of the most delitful figures 
 in modern fiction within one of the most 
 beautiful of scenes. Consuelo is a musi- 
 
 cian. She is a child of the streets, the 
 dauter of a vagabond singer, who earned 
 her bread by her guitar and her voice in 
 caffis and pubUc places, giving to her child 
 neither training nor tradition beyond the 
 very rudiments of such law and self- 
 restraint as make existence possible. 
 Consuelo has no reputation to gard, no 
 prejudice of honor to get over, but has all 
 the freedom of the lowest social class, and 
 all the knowledge which is acquired un- 
 awares by children bred in the streets. . . 
 She lives in her garret unguided, except 
 by her own instincts, without support or 
 gardian ; and the reader feels nothing un- 
 natural, nothing overstrained, in the 
 simple goodness of- the hi, yet lowly 
 creature ; nor even in her intercourse with 
 her betrothed Anzoleto, who is not pure, 
 as she is, but who, nevertheless, has so 
 much of the cordial familiarity which a 
 lad has for his friend, and of the habitual 
 affection of a brother, mingled with the 
 sentiment which they both call love, that 
 even his youthful depravity is kept in 
 check by the conjunction." [Black- 
 wood's. e.'iO 
 
 COQUETTE (The) [by Hannah 
 (Webster) Foster: 1S02.] "is a novel 
 written in letters, in the old fashion, and 
 indeed its style is old fashioned, too, re- 
 minding one of Fanny Burney, Maria Re- 
 gina Roche, and other writers, more talked 
 of than read. The heroine, 'Eliza "SMiar- 
 ton,' is stated to have been aMiss Elizabeth 
 Wbitman. Pierpont Edwards figures, not 
 creditably, in the tale as 'Major Sanford.' 
 Several real people are put into the book 
 in different characters. He di#d in 1826, 
 and she in 1788. The singularity of the 
 book is its apparent truth. One knows 
 not whether the narrative is true or false ; 
 or, if true, how much fiction is mixed with 
 it." [Round Table. 651 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE (A) [byl.TUR- 
 genief: in "Galazy," dec. 1871.] "is one 
 of his gloomiest and most tragical— a story 
 to be shunned by those who have given up 
 pathetic and mournful things, and even by 
 some such as have not done so, but who 
 will not read uni'elieved tragedy. Still it 
 
 188 
 
KOMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 is, as we say, very Interesting as a stuily 
 of character. Tlie analysis is searching, 
 and we should say that its results are per- 
 fectly in accord with truth. It is a simply 
 told story ; Four young people, who have 
 known each other as children, are, as it 
 happens, hrfit together again in the first 
 prime ot their youth. They fall in love 
 and become engaged to be marled, but the 
 young men go away, and their love — part- 
 ly a poetic dream, partly passion, partly 
 luxurious trifling — early lades and cools 
 and the girls are deserted. By-and-by 
 Alexis writes to one of them ; not to the 
 one whom he has forsaken but to her sis- 
 ter, Maria Alexandrovna. Why he writes 
 he does not know, he says, tho the reader 
 sees why. And Alexis is not mistaken in 
 the belief which he evidently half-cherishes 
 that Maria will reply to him, and that soon 
 her heart will be interested. We must not, 
 however, tell the story on to its doubly 
 tragical and ruinous castastrophe, tho we 
 mit do so without interfering with its 
 principal -claims to attention, psychologi- 
 cal truthfulness, and its excellence of fin- 
 ished workmanship. It is a kind of read- 
 ing which one may perhaps feel a reluctance 
 to recommend. Still its ability, at all events 
 is not to be gainsaid, and its morbidness 
 one may ahnost expect to find acting as 
 its own antidote." [Nation.] "Two men 
 had passed the summer in the country 
 with two young girls, sisters, and had both 
 fallen in love with them and become en- 
 gaged. Neither engagement, hbwever, 
 came to any thing, one of the men was 
 about to mary another girl, when the other 
 wrote to her who had formerly been be- 
 trothed to his friend, giving this news and 
 begging permission to correspond with 
 her, which, after some reluctance she 
 grants. Their letters are only 15 in num- 
 ber, but they picture wonderfully the 
 state of the writers' mind. . But in spite 
 of this flaw, the story is veiy extraordinary 
 ou account of the pathetic interest of the 
 letters. We know hardly so faithful a de- 
 scription of failure and the disappoint- 
 ment it is sure to bring to others. There 
 Is not a superfluous word; we are not 
 
 shown how to grieve ; 'we have given us 
 merely the materials of grief , aiid no one can 
 read the story unmoved." [Atlantic. 653 
 COUNT KOSTIA. [by V: Ciiekbu- 
 LIEZ: SoU, 1S74.] "A russian nobleman. 
 Count Kostia himself, is living in a castle 
 on the Eheiu, trying to hide his deep dis- 
 gust for the female sex beneath an earnest 
 devotion to byzantino history. His mar- 
 iage had been an unhappy one, and he had 
 doubts of the legitimacy ot his o^ly sur- 
 viving child, a girl, whoso resemblance to 
 her mother is so hateful to him that he has 
 dressed her as a boy. The hero of the 
 story, Gilbert Savile, comes to the castle as 
 secretary to the count, and soon finds him- 
 self growing interested in this young 
 creature, whom he takes for a boy. He 
 succeeds in overcoming her— apparently 
 his— dislike, and finally, when he has dis- 
 covered his mistake falls in love with her. 
 At this juncture, by a series of most melo- 
 dramatic incidents, the count's doubts are 
 cleared, and he suddenly changes from a 
 more than half-mad domestic tyrant to a 
 most courteous and attentive father, and 
 all ends happily. This is the outline of the 
 novel, but it gives only a faint notion of" 
 the total impression. This framework is 
 hidden by much that is distasteful, for the 
 confusion of feeling about, the boy who is 
 really a girl is not an attractive thing, [ com- 
 pare Mrs. Jenkin's "Gain of a Loss"] 
 and in order to clear all the compli- 
 cations it is necessary to stir sonle 
 very turbid waters ; but in spite of these 
 defects there is so much imagination in 
 parts of the story, so much ready in- 
 vention, and so brilliant a wit, that the 
 reader, even if inclined to condemn, must 
 make large reserves of praise." [T: S. 
 Perry.] "Melodrama is good after its 
 kind, and novels after their kind; but in 
 such a novel as 'Le Comtc Kostia' or 'Le 
 revanche de Joseph Noirel,' we feel as if 
 we were almost before the foot-llts— as if 
 the witty dialog and sensational scenes 
 had been designed with reference to adapta- 
 tion to the stage. His whole use of in- 
 cidents is theatrical rather than literary; 
 the author exaggerates the importance of 
 
 189 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 the fysica] facts at every crisis in his 
 stories. Iii the theatre, the fact that every- 
 thing U seen from a distance and under 
 difficulties malvcs this admissible, but the 
 same thing cannot be said of literature. 
 At the theatre— or at any rate the melo- 
 drama—wo are all children, and maybe 
 tickled , with a straw or pleased with a 
 rattle, particularly if there is a change of 
 scene, and music to mark the points, when 
 the rattle or the straw is br6t forward; 
 but when we read, instead of seeing, we 
 revolt at the childishness of the means used 
 to excite our interest. MidnTt walks 
 among chimnej'-tops, swinging ih mid-air 
 over an abyss— even on a piece of new 
 rope— struggling with savage dogs, and all 
 such sporta are cheap, well-worn incidents, 
 which lend factitious importance to the 
 story. In very much the same way as 
 raising the voice in anger adds to the 
 soundness of the argument. It is in the 
 invention of scenes like these that Cher- 
 bulicz, when ho is not at his best, dellts. 
 To this form of art he has lent much 
 skill, so much Indeed that it is easy to over- 
 look the cheapness of some of these de- 
 , vices. Hugo has no sooner created an im- 
 possible situation than he is out among the 
 audience leading the applause; but Cher- 
 ))uliez wears an easier air of being amused 
 at his Ingenuity rather than profoundly 
 convinced of its value." , [Nation. 653 
 OOtrSTT OF MONTE-CEISTO (The). 
 [ claimed by Xlex. DUMas : Eoutledg&. ] 
 "Whatever analytical criticism may say of 
 the literary methods of the elder Dumas, 
 his magnificent series of romances, 'Les 
 Trois Mousquetaires' to 'Le Vicomtci de 
 Bragelonne,' remains an established fact, 
 and it is difficult to imagine any epoch in 
 the history of civiUzation when they will 
 not be the delit of multitudes. Alexandre 
 Dumas, with all his charlatanry, held the 
 magician's wand, and evolved from the 
 abodes of imagination and fancy shapes 
 which, whether they inspire pleasure or 
 terror, never fail to fascinate. The reader 
 who surrenders to his spell is for the time 
 lost to the sensations of every-day life, 
 and in a world of dreams finds nepenthe 
 
 for all sorrow. Such books arouse and 
 stimulate while they soothe the wearied 
 mind, and what a relief it is to turn, from 
 the commonplaces of contemporary 
 realism to revel for a few hours in the 
 creations of Dumas' fertile brain ! They do 
 not grow Stale with age. To the man or 
 woman of 30 they are as enticing as they 
 are to the' boy or girl of 16. There is 
 much in them which in moments of stern 
 reflection we mit wish away ; but no 
 healthy mind, we ire sure, could be 
 harmed by occasional contact with them. 
 They carry their own antidotes, and one 
 no more looks for a moral from them than 
 from the tricks of a prestidigitateur. It is 
 permitted sometimes in this valley of sor- 
 row that ^ the children of men shall be 
 children and ;find amusement in childish 
 things, and whfen the mood of pure enjoy- 
 ment is uppermost none minister to it 
 more effectually than the elder Dumas. . . 
 Among the mountainous mass of vol- 
 umes, good, bad ' and indifferent, upon 
 which Alexandre Dumas stamped his 
 name, * The Co&nt of Monte- CHsto' still 
 stands in the world's estimation as the 
 supreme efflux of his genius. Its un- 
 paralleled audacity of conception, its. as- 
 tonishing verisimilitude, its wonderful 
 array of incident, its dramatic force in 
 dialog, all combine to hold the attention 
 captive. Th(^ death of Faria, the escape 
 of DantiSs, the nit on the barren island, 
 the discovery of the hidden grotto, and 
 the innumerable train of events which 
 follow in the Chronicle of implacable 
 hatred and studied revenge — who having ' 
 once read, tjan forget them, or, uuforget- 
 ting, cares! not to read again and again?" 
 [Boston "Literary World."] "The 'Three 
 Muslvcteers' for example, of which Mr. 
 Thackeray was so fond, was written en- 
 tirely by Auguste Maquet, whose acknowl- 
 edged works prove that the claim advanced 
 on his behalf is not unfounded, while 'The 
 Count of Monte Cristo' was as notoriously 
 the work of Mr. Fiorentino, of whom 
 the same thing may be said." [ Fr. Hitch- 
 man in National Review. 654 
 COUNT SILVIUS [ by G : H0R5f : N.-Y. , 
 
 190 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 Harlan, 1SS2.J "takes us Into the midst 
 of a brilliant german city, and offers u» 
 widely differing groups of characters, ami 
 a plot intricate and almost exciting, except 
 that it is overladen with incident and en- 
 cumbered with some unreal and rather 
 clumsy contrivances. It is the story of a 
 noblo who is reduced to the necessity of 
 earning his bread, while In this book 
 Count Silvius, having shown that he could 
 gain a fortune after losing that which he 
 Inherited from his sires is rewarded by the 
 discovery of hidden treasure of enoiTnoua 
 value on the hereditary estate, which he 
 has bOt back. Altho he is the title-char- 
 acter, the greatest interest of the stoiy 
 turns upon the experiences of Ada Tur- 
 neyssen, which, if not exactly life-lite, are 
 exciting In a strange degree." [ Lippin- 
 cott's. 653 
 
 COUNTEEPAETS. [by E..S.. Shep- 
 PARD : Smith, 1854.] "There is not a page 
 in it of truth or simplicity to suggest a 
 doubt. "We lay it down with a vague im- 
 pression of glare and glitter, — a weariness 
 as of interminable babble about nothing, — 
 a sickening, half remorseful consciousness 
 of time wasted in mere sensual frivolity. 
 It is not, indeed, without occasional in- 
 ^lications of ability; but they serve only to 
 increase olir disgust, by marking the au- 
 thor as one who "6t to have known 
 better ;" and it cannot be denied that in 
 his [sic] word-painting, he has plenty of 
 brit colors at command, and blazes away 
 with them in a style which puts dayllt and 
 sunshine l^o shame, and can be equalled 
 only at Vauxhall." [Westminster. 636 
 
 COUNTESS EVE (The) [by J: H: 
 Shortiiousk: Macmillan, 1888.] "is a 
 slit story, without any of the historical 
 substance which, thoroly penetrated as it 
 was with a gi-eat power of imaginative 
 vision, gave its chief interest to "John 
 inglesant." Nevertheless, it is a remark- 
 able story, dealing with the mystical as- 
 pects of temptation in a manner which, 
 tho pure and free from any kind of 
 dangerous fascination, produces a pro- 
 found impression on the reader's mind. . . 
 Let us introduce the evil being who is, in 
 
 a sense, the chief character of tho piece, a 
 Mephistopheles, who is in general visil)le 
 only to one of his victims, tho on one 
 occasion at least he is half-perceived by 
 the other, and is discerned in all his hid- 
 eousness by the fine violiiiist to whom, 
 characteristically enuf, Mr. ShorthouSe 
 entrusts the duty of a kind of earthly 
 gardian angel. . . That picture of a 
 tempter who pours all his direct inspira- 
 tions of evil into the purer of the two na- 
 tures which he desires to bring to destruc- 
 tion, while he only encourages the less 
 pure nature to follow its impulses, and 
 gives it a new sort of confidence in its 
 powers, is originally conceived, and pos- 
 sesses a kind of subtlety which is wanting 
 even in Goethe's Mephistopheles. But 
 still more powerful, perhaps, is the pic- 
 ture of the effect which daily yielding to 
 temptation of this sort has upon the natu- 
 rally refined and fastidious but also selfish 
 nature of La Vallifire. As is usual with 
 him, Mr. Shorthouse insists on the elevating 
 influence of stateliness and historic asso- 
 ciations. La Vallidre finds the splendor, 
 the ceremony, the stately associations of 
 the count's chateau exerting over him a 
 subduing Influence which prevents him 
 from beiiig 'hold' in the sense in Vvhich 
 the tempter wishes to make, him bold." 
 [Spectator.] "All the admirers of Mr. 
 Shorthouse's works must find a peculiar 
 charm in 'Countess Eve,' which may be 
 called a mysterious prose poem rather 
 than a romance. It is the old story told in 
 a new way of Eve, Paradise, and the Ser- 
 pent; but here good triumfs instead of 
 evil, and Paradise is not lost. The i chief 
 characters are presented in a way to seize 
 and hold the imagination. The countess 
 is a beautiful woman marled to a man 
 much older, who lives in a world of his 
 own, brooding over memories of a pas- 
 sionate youth of which his young wife has 
 no part. Eve longs for sympathy and is 
 eager to feel and know all that belongs to 
 brit, hopeful youth ; and when La Valliere, 
 the actor, whispers to her 'the key to 
 Paradise is love,' it is not so much a rev- 
 elation as a oonfii'mation of her beliefs. 
 
 191 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 La Vallifire is a fascinating creation; an 
 actor not only by profession but by in- 
 stinct, tluding iu every situation a part 
 and play and a stalce to win by all the 
 subtle forces of bis striking personality. 
 At tbe least opportunity wbich seems to 
 promise enjoyment, be lets himself be 
 carried away; and the Countess Eve 
 possesses for him a mysterious attraction. 
 The drama which is unfolded from this 
 situation is not so much played by the 
 human actors, as it is developed by the 
 unseen presences within their hearts and 
 souls, which tempt, warn, allure, and 
 deny. Mr. Shorthouse's stories have a 
 charm of suggestion, an atmosfere, a glam- 
 or, which moves the fancy and touches 
 the heart with a sense of the strangeness, 
 the pathetic mystery of life. It is not 
 reality which he describes : his characters 
 live, move, and have their being in a realm 
 of fantasy, a world of beautiful but eerie 
 lits. We feel as we read, obscurely, yet 
 with a sense of its reality, the struggle of 
 the soul with teralJtations, and its victory 
 under the undying lits which faith has 
 kindled. 'The Countess Eve,' in particu- 
 lar, is a mystical but charming allegoi-y." 
 \ [American. 657 
 
 COXINTESS IRENE. [Blackwood, 
 1S88.] "There is generally something to 
 admire and still more to like In the novels 
 of the author of 'Caterina ;' and his 'Count- 
 ess Irene' is pleasant reading. Over and 
 above the charm of an uncommon britness 
 and subtlety of insit, there is a general 
 atmosfere of genial kindliness, which is 
 affecting without being in the least maud- 
 lin. The mutual regard between the va- 
 rious characters is as agreeable as their 
 author's esteem and affection for them; 
 but there is the same lack of certainty, of 
 balance, and of proportion as of old, and 
 therewith the same looseness of ensemble 
 and the same incoherence in the present- 
 ment. Countess Irene is quite on another 
 plan from pleasant Kate Harding or the 
 sympathetic Caterina; but she is as likable 
 as they , and her acquaintance is one to make, 
 Perhaps to enjoy her story to the full one 
 should have read 'Lauterdale' and followed 
 
 the fortunes of Caterina; such knowledge, 
 indeed, in a reader is now and then as- 
 sumed, but so modestly as quite to disarm 
 the critic, and render the common refer- 
 ence to Balzac and Thackeray altogether 
 unnecessary. The young countess is 
 scarcely a creation; but her personality is 
 distinctly fresh and piquant, and has 
 something about it of the mystery and in- 
 completeness of life. The author's knowl- 
 edge is somewhat cosmopolitan, and his 
 pictures of Viennese society are britly 
 real. If imything drags it is the storj' of 
 the polish singer and the sharks and 
 harpies about -her; they have, their inter- 
 est, but it is not sufficiently subordinated 
 to the main features of the story." [ Athc- 
 nasum. 058 
 
 COUNTESS OF BUDOLSTADT (Se- 
 quel to CONSUELO) London, 1851. 
 
 COURTSHIP AND MARKI AGE. [ by 
 Caroline Lee CWiiiting) Hentz.] 
 "Mrs. Hentz, who died in 1856, is now, 
 tho still much read, wanting somewhat in 
 iniblic estimation. Of northern birth and 
 education, she lived for many years in the 
 south, and southern life has furnished 
 material for her plots. It is amusing now 
 to read her apologetics, invariably intro- 
 duced, for the 'peculiar institution.' But 
 at one time she had many admirers, who 
 may remember the enthusiasm of callow 
 youth over her> 'Linda,^ or the ' Young 
 pilot of the Belle Creole.'' It is said that 
 93,000 copies of her writings were sold in 
 3 years ; but at present it is hard to com- 
 prehend this liking for her commonplaces, 
 her romanticism of the Augusta J. Evans 
 school, her now meaningless pictures of 
 the beneficence of the patriarchal system, 
 her heroines of 'aurora-borealian counte- 
 nance,' as she has it somewhere, and her 
 tiresome but spotless heroes, all of them 
 'sans peur, sans reprochc,' sans everything 
 in fact. Her merits are negative, for she 
 is not ungramraatical, and there is nothing 
 debasing in her plots. She may be fairly 
 ranked below Mrs. Southworth and Mrs. 
 Stephens, and put about on a par with 
 Miss Dupuy. Girls of 16 and upwards 
 still read her best remembered books: 
 
 192 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 .' The Planter's Northern Bride,' 'Er- 
 nest Linwood,' 'Courtship and Marriage,' 
 'Love after Marriage,' and 'Linda.'" 
 [Boston "Literary World."] See, also, 
 notice of "Linda." 059 
 
 COUSIN STELLA, (by H. C. (J.) 
 .Jenkin : Smith, 1859.] "We do not re- 
 menil)er to have read a book which has 
 charmed ns more for a long time than 
 'Cousin Stella.' It is an excellent novel, 
 written with great care; the interest is 
 well sustained, the characters are life-Hke, 
 and all act according to their nature, and 
 not by the arbitrary rule of the author's 
 will. Great subtlety is shown in the work- 
 ing of character; the incidents are sub- 
 servient, or, rather, they are, aa in life, 
 more the consequence of the acts and 
 motions of the human beings concerned 
 in them than the causes of weal or woe. 
 The story is well knit together ; there are 
 no weak joints or imperfect articulations; 
 it is an extremely well-written, well-con- 
 ceived story, with a degree of quiet power 
 and precision of touch which makes us 
 hope for a continuance of well doing. 
 The scene is laid chiefly in Jamaica, at 
 the time just previous to the passing of 
 the Act of Emancipation. The scones of 
 planter life are gfafic, and have the look 
 of being done on the spot." [ Athe. 060 
 
 CRADOCK liTOWELL. [by E: D. 
 Blackmoue: Harper, 18C6.] "The author 
 seems to have set about his work with an 
 oppressive sense of the duty of a novelist, 
 and has labored assiduously to impart to 
 his readers a vast amount of acquired 
 knowledge, together with some original 
 and peculiar specimens of fliosofy, frase- 
 ology admirably adapted to justify Talley- 
 rand's [?] saying that 'language was in- 
 vented for the concealment of th6t'. The 
 story of Cradock Nowell, not veiy new 
 but nevertheless interesting, is awkwardly 
 fold and sadly involved ; improbable sit- 
 uations are invented and family affairs un- 
 necessarily complicated, but the character 
 of the hero is well drawn, and the worthy 
 parson John Kosedow and the eccentric 
 Doctor Button mit leaven a much worse 
 book. . . A storm, in which an iudiaman 
 
 is wrecked, gives opportunity to Bull 
 and his son to exercise their courage 
 and intrepidity, and after n long contest 
 with the waves 8 senseless bodies are 
 washed ashore. Garnet's, bis son Bob's, 
 and a strange young woman, the latter 
 proving to be the dauter of Sir Cradock's 
 brother by an affghan woman. .. In de- 
 scribing a game of chess Mr. Blaekmorc 
 finds the cnglish language insuflicient, and 
 candidly, confesses: 'I am sorry and 
 ashamed, but I can't express these things 
 in english, for the language is rich in 
 ehiotion but a pauper in filosofy.' The 
 pedantry and ostentatious display of 
 learning with which the volume abounds 
 mit fairly be characterized as 'snobbish,' 
 while the ponderous and abortive attempts 
 at humor are even more tiresome than the 
 greek and latin quotations." [Round 
 'J'able. 001 
 
 CREEDS, [by Annie Edwards : Lon- 
 don, 1859.] "To this man, St. Just actually 
 contrives, and even plots, to give the beauti- 
 ful and noble girl whom he loves with all the 
 passion of a young man's first fondness. . . 
 but chiefly St. Just does this with the pur- 
 Iiose of removing finally from his path the 
 beautiful temptation which is the only ob- 
 stacle to his ambitious schemes. Such a 
 motive and such an action will seem to 
 many readers quite unnatural and in- 
 credible. Unnatural it is ; but incredible 
 only to those who do not Icnow the all- 
 dominating power of what we call the 
 priestly passion in such minds as those 
 have who are attracted by the hierarchal 
 power of the Roman Church. ... St Just's 
 power over Estelle is so great that she 
 yields; and, loving him with the grand 
 passion of her grand nature, she consents 
 to be maricd to the man whom she de- 
 spises." [Galaxy. 662 
 , SAME [ "Estelle" }, Sheldon, 1874. 
 
 CKESSY. [by [Fr.] Bret Harte: 
 Boston : Houghton, 1888.] , "Mr. Hartc's 
 stories are always charming, in spite of 
 the improbabilities with which they are 
 vCincd, and 'Cressy,' in which, the ele- 
 ment of improbability is a little more 
 marked than usual, will hold the attention 
 
 193 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 to the end. The hero is a young school- 
 master in Southern California, wlio be- 
 comes entangleJ with a fair but untutored 
 pupil^ We must confess that we cannot 
 sec why the author does not allow them to 
 mary and 'live happily ever afterwards,' 
 but he probably had occult reasons for 
 refusing his readers this consummation." 
 [Dial.] "The more Western stories we 
 read, the less we are tempted to advise 
 others to read them. Most of the people 
 written about are so irreelaimably vulgar 
 in their language, ideas, and manners as 
 to make association with them in literature 
 as disagreeable as it would be in life. 
 Such a sketch as 'Cressy' shows how diffi- 
 cult it is for even a very clever writer to 
 make sheer vulgarity interesting, for if 
 'Cressy' is not vulgar, she is nothing. 
 Howells succeeds In doing it, but then h^ 
 has a genius for this kind of writiOg, and 
 would by this time have founded a school, 
 except that he is inimitable. Mr. Harte, 
 in his earlier stories, struck a new v^in, 
 which, while it lasted, was very rich. Now 
 his literary ventures seem to be of a 'pros- 
 pecting' turn, and the yield of 'pay-ore' to 
 be less. The facility of narrative, the 
 power of sympathy, the pathos and hu- 
 mor are all there; but the incidents are 
 improbable, the characters are invented 
 and put together rather than created or 
 drawn from nature, and the result is 
 neither a f otograf nor a romance." [ N a- 
 tion. 663 
 
 CRUEL AS THE GRAVE. [byE. D. 
 E. (K.) Southworth: Peterson, 1871.] 
 Here, "Mrs. Southworth appears> in her 
 most oppressive and appalling aspect. 
 She tells us how a number of sentimental 
 people with sentimental names committed 
 every variety of sentimental deeds, and 
 how, after the villainous people had come 
 to grief, the moral people maried each 
 other and entered upon lives of sentimen- 
 tal happiness. All this is told in a style 
 which for weak sentimentality no one but 
 Mrs. Southworth has ever attained. — The 
 foregoing notice is one which applies with 
 absolute propriety to any one of Mrs. 
 Southworth's numerous works. They 
 
 differ from one another only in name, and 
 to a slit extent, in incident. They are all 
 weak, all sentimental, and all unworthy 
 either of extended praise or condemna- 
 tion." [Citizen. 664 
 CKUSADE OP THE EXCELSIOR 
 (The), [by [Fr.] Bret Harte : Hough- 
 ton, 1887.] "The good ship Excelsior runs 
 into a perennial fog bank off the coast of 
 Lower California, and is borne by an 
 ocean current into the harbor of Todos 
 Santos. It is a harbor withdrawn from 
 the world by the fog, so that for scores of 
 years it has not been visited by any ship. 
 The mystery is not explained why the 
 people of Todos Santos did not sail oiit of 
 the harbor, as they easily could, tho no 
 ship would enter except by accident. 
 Enuf that here is a Mexican 'gente de 
 razon,''petriiied in the customs of 00 years 
 ago, and so content with their afternoon 
 life as to care not at all for anything new. 
 But they arc surprised, and fraternize 
 with the american officers of the Excelsior 
 and her passengers. The ship is carried 
 oft' by a mutiny, and for 8 months tho pas- 
 sengers are incorporated in various rela- 
 tions with the people of Todos Santos. A 
 hit of tragedy closes the variegated plot. 
 Throu it all is recognized the fiuniliar and 
 pleasant cunning of the hand that holds 
 the pen. One wishes it did not shake so 
 often. It would be pleasanter if the con- 
 tinual fog that shrouds Todos Santos had 
 not so thoroly penetrated the story and 
 made the characters seem larger than they 
 were, moving in a misty way to do things 
 which no one ever thinks to do under a 
 clear sky. But of course this fringe of 
 unreality makes for the author an oppor- 
 tunity to dance his puppets in a more hu- 
 morous way. This he does with a skill 
 which inspires pleasure." [Overhand.] — 
 "Mr. Harte's stories invariably have tlje 
 charm which is inseparable from a well- 
 constructed narrative. He has always 
 something interesting happening, gener- 
 ally something amusing to note, and occa- 
 sionally something so near to nature that 
 it is beyond art. In spite of the uneveu- 
 ncss of his work, one never can doubt the 
 
 191 
 
KOM ANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 authorship of any page of it ; and tho his 
 may be in some respects a bad style, it is 
 none the less style, and is entitled to the 
 full ratio of influence which is accorded 
 to that illusive and indefinable element in 
 literature. . . The plot, while not at all 
 impossible or unreal, is still fanciful cnuf 
 to admit of continual surprises and absorb- 
 ing complications. Perhaps the concep- 
 tion of the Todos Santos community, 
 would be too much for a devoted realist to 
 forgive ; but to the ordinary novel-reader, 
 who seeks merely to be amused, the ludi- 
 crousness of the predicament into which 
 the matter-of-filet passengers of the Ex- 
 celsior" are thrown when arrested by the 
 Commandante of the Presidio as revolu- 
 tionists, is too delltful to admit of cavil. 
 Perhaps, too, an ardent admirer of the 
 commonplace in art mit take objection to 
 the figure of Senor Perkins, whose singu- ' 
 lar ambitions and queer conceits count for 
 BO much both in the machinery of the tale 
 and in the amusement which it afibrds. 
 But a just and deliberate estimate of the 
 story in all its aspects must admit that 
 Senor Perkins could not be spared, and 
 further, that nothing in the book could be 
 materially changed without its being 
 spoiled." [Nation. 66.5 
 
 CXJESE OF CLIT'rOlSr, see THE 
 BRIDE'S FATE. 
 
 CUKSE OF GOLD, see BERTHA'S 
 ENGAOEMENT. 
 
 CTEILL.Y [by J. (M) v. Tautphoeus : 
 Hurst, 1853.] "was a failure, for which 
 the authoress of the "Initials" must deem 
 herself indebted in one good novel to the 
 english public. She can easily write one, 
 if she will only give us a story of german 
 life as she sees it,- not as she reads it in 
 geiman novels. — Germans are no more 
 able to write novels than the English to 
 write diaries. A novel like "Cyrilla," 
 with the interest all-centered on a case of 
 bigamy, alid at the end of which, the 
 villain in a prisoner's van, meets the hero 
 and heroine in a hearse — a story full of 
 swooning, s^iddeu death, clairvoyance, and 
 duelling, is a good german novel, but of a 
 kind which should be written in the ger- 
 
 man language, and confined to german 
 readers." [Westminster. 066 
 
 DAXIRA [Chicago, Band,] 18SS = 
 JUDGMENT OF GOD. 
 
 DAPHNE [by "Rita", i. e.-( )Booth : 
 Lippincntt, 1880. ] "is an original, and in 
 some respects powerful, story, tho we do 
 not like it over well. There is too much of 
 willowy forms, and flushing cheeks, and 
 long, long embraces, and clinging kisses, 
 
 and that kind of thing what the critics 
 
 sotfletimcs call, we believe, the 'warmth of 
 the south.' It is a musical romance, 
 with its scene laid mainly in Florence 
 and Bologna, and with a young genius 
 of a violinist for its loading character; 
 the strange device being adopted of mak- 
 ing two violins, an A mati and a Stradiva- 
 riu9, alternate in the recital of events. 
 The point of the story is the separation of 
 2 fond lovers throu the treachery of a 
 rival, who thereby succeeds in marying 
 the lady. The story is one of much 
 passionate fervor, and is barely saved 
 from being a painful one." [Boston 
 "Literary World." 067 
 
 DARK COLLEEN(The) [by Harriett 
 (Jay) Buchanan: Bentley, \ii^~i.'\ "is 
 an interesting and romantic tale. . . Bis- 
 son, worthless as he is, has positive and 
 peculiar characteristics, and tho totally un- 
 able to value his wild iri&h bride; mIt have 
 made his artificial little french woman a 
 happy wife enuf. But it was a luckless 
 day for Eagle Island when the too amiable 
 Emile was cast upon its shores, ■ and not 
 again committed to the deep by its gloomy 
 and superstitious inhabitants. Very origi- 
 nal is the charm of the early days of poor 
 Morna's romance, the rugged grandeur of 
 her home, the picturesque habits and 
 primitive ceremonies, the tenderness and 
 ferocity of her melancholy keltic kindred, 
 relieved now and then by the humor of 
 Irish visitors of a better-known type, such 
 as Father Moy, the benevolent despot over 
 the souls, and, within large limits, the 
 bodiesof his flock; Baron O'Cloaskey, the 
 wandering piper, with his gentlemanly tho 
 impoverished father^ a 'cosherei-' quite of 
 the olden type, and his faithful ass, nearly 
 
 105 
 
EOMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 as patrician in his instincts, and scarcely 
 less dear to the affections of his owner. 
 But these alleviations serve merely to en- 
 , chance the tragedy of *he tale, the exile 
 and despair of Morna, and the long-suffer- 
 ing fidelity of her real lover, Truagh, who 
 for her salie can forego even the vengeance 
 on her betraver which fortune offers him 
 at last." [ Atheuseum. 668 
 
 DAUGHTER OF THE MALEPEIRES 
 (A) [Eeminatnn,lSS5,] = M'LLE DE 
 MALEPEIRE. 
 
 DEAD LAKE (The), and Other Tales. 
 1. by Paol Heysb : Leipzig : Tauchnitg, 
 1S70. ] "Heyse's stories are minute in de- 
 tails of emotions and feelings, but very 
 vague as to facts, and it requires great at- 
 tention to follow the thread, for they are 
 all enveloped in a sort of mist, which 
 breaks only at intervals, when the reader 
 is allowed to catch a glimpse of what he is 
 reading about, but he has to find his own 
 way as well as he can from very brief in- 
 dications : and this, to matter-of-fact en- 
 glish readers, who like to be told all about 
 everything, is not satisfactory." [ Athen- 
 aeum.] The tales are 'The Dead Lake,' 
 ' Doomed,"Beatrice' a.nd' The Beginning 
 and End.' 669 
 
 DEAD MARQUISE (The) by [Lbokt- 
 ARD Kip: Putnam, 1873.] "is the ill- 
 chosen title of a tale of the french Revo- 
 lution. It is in reality a pleasing little 
 ' ' Jove-story, prettily told, which has the 
 advantage of escaping from being horrible. 
 With that terrible background one has to 
 be careful to keep the tragedy from being 
 too prominent, and this Mr. Kip has 
 effected." [Nation. 670 
 
 DEAD SECRET (The), [by [W:] 
 W. Collins : Bradbury & Eoans, 18.57.] 
 "We recommend all our readers to re- 
 read the story in Its entire and perfect 
 form; to possess themselves of these 2 
 volumes, as an english classic not excelled, 
 we are bold enuf to say, in the whole 
 range of fiction, for constructive art, for 
 clear and ingenious narration, for chaste 
 and vigorous style, for generous and 
 healthful morality, not stuck upon its 
 chapters (as in novels with a 'purpose') 
 
 like a fylactery, or a ticket on a blind im- 
 poster's waistcoat, but breathing throu 
 the whole book an atmosfere of purity, of 
 kindness, of piety to God and man. . . 
 The wild, vast, rambling old house on the 
 desolate coast of Cornwall, flanked on 
 the one side by bare sea, and on the other 
 by bare moorland ; the long range of de- 
 serted and moldering rooms in which 
 'the Secret' lies hidden, like guilt withiij 
 the grave; the terror-stricken flit of the 
 servant, Sarah Leeson, from the house 
 where she has shut up, in the midst of 
 ghostly dust and silence, the record of the 
 tale which she would fain conceal; the 
 weary misery with which, throu success- 
 ive years, she wastes away in the consum- 
 ing fire of her remorseful conscience and 
 her superstitious dread; the strange yet 
 natural manner in which the chief char- 
 acters are br6t together, so that the plot 
 may be unravelled; the opening of the 
 deserted North Rooms, and the discovery 
 of the Secret ;^all these elements of ro- 
 mance produce a tale which Mrs. Rad- 
 eliffe herself never surpassed for awful 
 fascination, while, in other respects, the 
 superiority of the living writer to the 
 dead enchantress is too obvious to need 
 pointing out. Beautiful is the capricious, 
 womanly character of Rosamond Frank- 
 land, full of a pretty waywardness, yet 
 steadfast as Heaven Itself in her deyotion 
 to her blind husband. Most touching in 
 his affections for his forlorn niece, Sarah 
 Leeson, is the conception of the old Ger- 
 man, Buschmann; and here let us pause 
 to remark that the way in which this 
 simple, true-hearted old man relates cer- 
 tain matters in connexion with the history 
 of his niece is singularly aflecting, and 
 powerful without any gross show of 
 power— the occasional German idiom 
 lending peculiar intensity to the language. 
 We do not know any instance of gentle 
 pathos more moving than thS scene in 
 which the weary wanderer, relieved of 
 the tormenting secret, and lying in the 
 embrace of her from whom s!ie has been 
 so long and cruelly separated, tells of her 
 lonely desolation now past, and shows the 
 
 196 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 frail mementos with which she soothed it." 
 [LeKcler.] "He wrote one, a long time 
 .since, that we did like very much— "The 
 Dead Secret." Only, even then, his love 
 of sensation, and mystery, and horror in 
 general, led him to give a simple story, 
 with a lovely heroine not a bit too brit and 
 good lor human nature's daily food, a silly 
 title on account of which many people 
 whom the writer mit have been glad to 
 have for readers, shut the book out of 
 their circle, and turned the key upon it." 
 [ Scribner's. 671 
 
 DEAF MUTE (The) by I. TurGenibf, 
 = MOUMOV. 
 
 , DEEMSTEE (The) [by T: Hall Caixe ; 
 Appleton, 1888. ] "imposes a standard for 
 criticism different from any by which the 
 mass of modern fiction may fairly be 
 measured. The novelists who deals with 
 primitive human passions, developing 
 them throu circumstances which lead in- 
 evitably to tragic action, challenges com- 
 parison with the creators of grand imagin- 
 ative literature. The supreme virtue of 
 such literature lies in its power to lift peo- 
 ple to the hit of its theme, and to absorb 
 them in its action as absolutely as in 
 thrilling personal experience. The man 
 who achieves this effect with any sort of 
 completeness must have something in him 
 finer and rarer than literary talent, how- 
 ever brilliant and Intelligently trained. 
 Mr. Caine invites the test and stands it 
 with honor. His subjective drama is the 
 old and awful one of good warring with 
 evil. There are moments in the conflict 
 when man's will and reason count for so 
 little, when he seems such a puppet of 
 passion and accident, that we can believe 
 he has no control of the issues, and seems 
 to be looking on at a game, of dice played 
 by God and the Devil with human souls 
 for stakes. But the prevailing spirit is 
 stronger and more hopeful. No man is so 
 pei-fect that he may not fall into sin ; none 
 too bad for repentance and atonement. 
 The balance hangs trembling in suspense, 
 yet each man is responsible for its turning, 
 subject to no arbitary fate. In Dan Myl- 
 rea, the great figure of the novel, the fit 
 
 rages most fiercely. Here is, one of those 
 exceptional natures felt to Be equal to a 
 hi destiny, seen with pain and horror to 
 be going strait down to the gates of Hell. 
 Nothing short of fritful calamity can stop 
 such a man, once he has taken the wrong 
 path, and he must know in his soul that 
 he alone is reponsible for the wrong be- 
 fore spiritual purgation becomes possible. 
 The antagonistic forces which rage in Dan 
 have less play in his father, the Bishop, and 
 in Ewan Mylrea. It is a fit of temporary 
 wrath, a maddening sense of final, unpar- 
 donable outrage to long suffering love, 
 which hurries Ewan on to his share in the 
 culminating tragedy. It is in a moment of 
 solitude forthe lysical safety of his son that 
 the Bishop, with his faith in God's love and 
 mercy fallen away fi-om him, wishes to do 
 what would tarnish the whiteness of his 
 life and make his very riteousness a re- 
 proach to him. The Deemster alone seems 
 to be irreclainiably evil, and his nature has 
 the least affinity with the universal, is 
 largely a product of one age, one locality, 
 and peculiar personal opportunities. Tho 
 tragedy is foreshadowed from the begin- 
 ning, and sweeps along in a current of in- 
 creasing force to the end, its sternness is 
 relieved by the form in which the novel is 
 cast, irregular, unstudied, abounding in 
 sharp contrasts of lafter and of tears — the 
 form links literature inseparably with life. 
 The scene is the Isle of Man, in the be- 
 ginning of the century. Time and pKice 
 permit rugged picturesf|ueness, a certain 
 fysical storminess, and add a romantic 
 element like that which the Venetian 
 coloring gives to Othello's consuming 
 jealousy." [Nation. 972 
 
 DESPOT OF BROOMSEDGE COVE 
 (The) . [ by "C ; E. Craddock," i. e. M.. 
 N. Murfree: Houghton, 1889.] "The 
 scene is in the Tennessee mountains; the 
 persons are our old friends the mountain- 
 eers ; but the characters are new, the situ- 
 ations are fresh, and the action has a 
 pristine vigor. The whole effect is that of 
 rugged strength ; but there are passages, 
 episodes, incid,ents of surpassing delicacy 
 and beauty, and of a truth which delits 
 
 197 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 and uplifts. Tlie meeting of the hero and 
 heroine while thev take shelter from a 
 shower under a way-side tree is one of 
 these : it is simply perfect in its fidelity to 
 nature and to their characters and social 
 traditions. So far as we can recall, no 
 fact or trait in the people is overstrained 
 for the purpose of an effect ; an admirahle 
 verity gives you the sense of its presence 
 throudilt. The Despot is imagined in the 
 lipirit of this ; he is a poet who supposes 
 himself a sort of profetic agent of the 
 Alniity because he is so iilled with the 
 splendid and awful beauty of the Bible; 
 and the study of Marcella Strobe, good, 
 shrewd, earthly, limited to fact by her 
 affections and ambitions, but generous and 
 fine all the same, is even more subtle. 
 Her father and her grandmother— es- 
 pecially the latter, who is the bouffe ele- 
 ment of the piece— are triumfs of a skill 
 which we seldom find at fault in this book, 
 with its large group of finely differentiated 
 figures." [W:D. Howells. 673 
 
 DISCARDED WIFE, sec ALL FOE 
 L VE. 
 
 DISO'WrS'ED (THE). [by baron 
 Lytton (E: Bulwer), 182S.] "I left out 
 Buhver from my list,— perhaps you think 
 I was too scrupulous,— but the very atmos- 
 fere of his early novels is corrupt, and I 
 despise his sham fllosofy and pretended 
 profundity which looks so deep, and turns 
 out to be nothing but a cloud of words. 
 He is a vicious charlatan, whose company 
 I should avoid as I would that of any 
 plausible scoundrel in real life." [W: 
 P. Atkinson, 1860. 674 
 
 DR. CLAUDIUS [by Fe. Makion 
 Ckawford; Macmillan,. 18S3.] "is a 
 very simple story, with just enuf of mys- 
 tery about the Doctor's true place and 
 history to pique the reader's curiosity with- 
 out irritating it ; told with charming ease 
 and vivacity, with clear insit to human 
 nature, i\ith grafic portraiture of charac- 
 ter, with much intellectual power, and 
 with a direikness, force, and naturalness 
 which never falter. The style sparkles, 
 the book has many brlt and brilliant things, 
 the dialog is sharp and witty, and the 
 
 persons stand out with great distinctness 
 and individuality. There is positively not 
 an unpleasant thing about the story ; it is 
 as clean and fresh' as a flower-garden ; and, 
 while having no very positive aim, it is 
 refined and entertaining." [Boston "Lit- 
 erary "World."] "'Dr. Claudius' is a 
 love-story of that good old-fashioned order 
 which it requires some courage to adopt 
 in these days of mental analysis, where 
 the hero falls in love at first sit, and is in 
 himself an embodiment of everything that 
 is most heroic in man — a giant in strength 
 and stature, a lion in courage, a lamb in 
 gentleness. 'Dr. Claudius' is scarcely 
 more probable than 'Mr Isaacs;' but the 
 mystery is not so novel, i» indeed one of 
 the old and familiar mysteries which we 
 accept as pei-missible in romance not yet 
 grovm too old to enjoy the perennial dellt, 
 dear to the primitive imagination of a 
 prince in disguise. The hero bearing this 
 fairy character, his friend and confidant 
 was naturally aji english duke— that being 
 the condition of man which is most pop- 
 ular in the race to which Mr. Crawford 
 belongs. But his Grace was so pleasant a 
 fellow, and Dr Claudius himself, with all 
 his perfections, so delltfully heroic, naif,^ 
 as if br6t into being in the days of t,he 
 Admirable Crichton, that to the simple 
 reader the story will always be popular — 
 more popular, probably, than its prede- 
 cessor, which was not so easy to undei^ 
 stand. The strange feature in it is tlie 
 american — the only american Mr. Craw- 
 ford has as yet contributed to our knowl- 
 edge^the sybarite and millionaire banlcer, 
 who is presented to us in the most genial, 
 lit, only to turn in the most unexpected 
 and unaccountable manner into a villain — 
 a step which it is evident occurred to the 
 author as necessary only, after he had con- 
 ceived the character in a totally different 
 aspect." [ Blackwood's. 675 
 
 DON QUIXOTE, [by Cervantes.] 
 "We shall begin with the renowned his- 
 tory of Don Quixote, who always presents 
 something more stately, more romantic, 
 and at the same time more real to our im- 
 agination, than any other hero upon record. 
 
 198 
 
KOMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 His lineaments, his accoutrements, his and how he is treacherously set upor and 
 
 pasteboard visor, are as familiar to us as 
 the recollections of our early home. The 
 spare and uprit figure of the hero paces 
 distinct before our eyes ; and Mambrino's 
 helmet still glitters in the sun ! We liot 
 only feel the greatest love and veneration 
 for the knit, but a certain respect for all 
 those connected with him — the cvu-ate, and 
 Master Nicolas the barber— Sancho and 
 Dapple — and even for Eosinante's leanness 
 and his errors ! Perhaps there is no work 
 which combines so much originality with 
 such an air of truth. Its popularity is 
 almost unexampled ; and yet its real merits 
 have not been sufficiently understood. 
 The story is the least part of them ; tbo 
 the blunders of Sancho, and the unlucky 
 adventures of his master, are what natu- 
 rally catch the attention of ordinary read- 
 ers. The pathos and dignity of the senti- 
 ments are often disguised under the ludi- 
 crousucss of the subject and provtoke lafter 
 when they mit well draw tears. The 
 character of Don Quixote is one of the 
 most perfect disinterestedness. He is an 
 enthusiast of the most amiable kind — of 
 a naturfe equally open, gentle, and gener- 
 ous; a lover of truth and justice, and one 
 who had brooded over the fine dreams of 
 chivalry and romance, till the dazzling 
 visior.s cheated his brain into a belief of 
 their reality." [ Edinburgh Keview. 676 
 
 DOUBLE WEDDING, see THE 
 CAEDIiVAL'ifDA UGHTEE. 
 
 DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST 
 (The), [by C. M.. Yoxgb: Macmillan, 
 1S66.] '"This is one of 3Iiss Yonge's 
 prettiest and pleasantest stories. It is a 
 tale of a young burger maiden of the free 
 town of Ulm, in the middle of the loth 
 century, who is carried away to the castle 
 of one of the robber barons of Suabia, 
 situated on an eagle's crag, to nurse the 
 sick dauter of their race. How she com- 
 forts and teaches the poor child, bringing 
 a civilizing Infiuence into the ruf , boorish 
 lawlessness of the free-baron's household — 
 how she is beloved by the young baron, 
 who has been tamed by her gentleness and 
 goodness, — how he maries her secretly,— 
 
 killed, with his father and their retainers, 
 as they are on their road to make their 
 submission to the emperor, — and how he 
 spent his last breath in acknowledging his 
 young wife and commending her to the 
 care of the terrible old she-wolf, his 
 inother, is charmingly told. Dame Kuni- 
 gunde would gladly have bm-nt her for a 
 flitch, or put her into the oubliette, but 
 she did not dare ; and the gentle young 
 widow becomes the mother of twin sons — 
 Ebbo and Friedelmunde. The story of 
 their youth and of their mother's training 
 is the chief portion of the book. The 
 struggle of the old Alderstein rule of rob- 
 ber violence and Faustrecht, the glory of 
 being a free, independent baron, with the 
 civilizirig influence of religion and educu/- 
 tion, is very interesting. The difficulties 
 and perils of poor Christina, who has no 
 arms to meet them, except gentleness and 
 great good sense,— her gradual triumf, 
 and the transformation of the wild young 
 eagle-like baron into a noble knit,— the 
 death of the twin-brother, who is almost a 
 saint, — the return of the long-lost father 
 who bad been reported dead, but who had 
 endured a worse lot as a captive among 
 the Turks, — and the final end and crown- 
 ing of Christina's life-work, with her 
 grandchildren around her, honor and 
 prosperity in her domains, form altogether 
 a good picture of german life in the 15th 
 century." [ Athenajum. 6T7 
 
 DRED. [by H. [E..] (Bbechee) 
 Stowb: Phillips, Sampson & Co., 1856.] 
 "We can only say that we read it with an 
 interest that held us steadily to the page, 
 unwilling to skip a line,— except when the 
 pages werfi occupied with describing tbe 
 character or rehearsing the rant of 'Dred' 
 himself. . . Bating only this nuisance in 
 her pages, we ofler pur grateful thaiiks to 
 her for their wisdom, their rich humor, 
 their satire, and their indirect preaching 
 of true humanity and true rehgion in 
 place of fanaticism and stupid bigotry. It 
 is very easy for the papers to say that the 
 chief characters in the book are only re- 
 productions of those in 'Uncle '1 om's 
 
 199 
 
ROMAKTIC NOVELS. 
 
 Cabin.' But the assertion is not true. 
 Old Tiff is not Uncle Tom; nor is Nina, 
 Kva ; nor is Tomtit, Topsy ; nor arc any of 
 her diaracters duplicated. Fiction lias 
 no more striking or winning an embodi- 
 ment than Old Till". He alone would 
 stamp genius upon the work." [ Christian 
 Examiner. 678 
 
 EBERHAEDT, see ELIZABETH. 
 
 EKKEHARD [by Jo. V: VON 
 Scheffel: Loii>, 1872.] "is certainly a 
 novel which well merited the pains taken 
 in translating it, and the translation is ex- 
 cellent. Some readers, seeing on the title 
 page that the book is a talc of the 10th cen- 
 tury, may think that it must of necessity 
 bo stiff, and dull, and heavy; but 'Ekke- 
 hard' is exactly the reverse. It is full of 
 interest; the incidents arc (juaiiit; the 
 characters well drawn. The pictures of 
 convent life and scholarship seem to be 
 true, both to human nature in general and 
 to the modifications of the period. The 
 blandishments of tlie duchess, the am- 
 bitious love of Ekkehard, his disgrace and 
 sorrows, and his tinal restoration to health 
 of body and soul during hisTctreat at the 
 hermitage among the Alps, are well told. 
 The development of his sick fancies into 
 the vigorous work of a real poet is set 
 foitli with masterly insit. The whole 
 story reads like a, true piece of biografy, 
 and tho the characters lived a long time 
 ago, and the names of the places are hard 
 to cnglish tungs, the substantial interest of 
 the book will make it worth the reader's 
 while to surmount those difficulties." 
 [ Athena;um. 6*9 
 
 ELIZABETH. [ by Sophie (Ristaud) 
 Cottin: 1806; London, Whitiaker, 1SS0.] 
 "One takes up the new issue of this 
 famous story with a curious desire to see 
 whether it will reproduce the strong im- 
 pression it made on a first reading. It 
 seems a little less exciting, certainly, than 
 it did in our youth, the difficulties being 
 more quickly and more easily surmounted 
 than the modern novelist permits; but 
 there is the same sweetness and grace in 
 the tenderly told story, and we may hand 
 it over to the coming generation as a favor- 
 
 ite of our younger days without fear of 
 being scofl'ed at for our enjoyment of it." 
 [ Critic] . . ."Elizabeth is called shortly 
 after to another special intervue with her 
 sovran (it is needless to say that this scene 
 is laid in Germany), and, while waiting 
 for him in the room where her mother's 
 veiled portrait hangs, suddenly sees her 
 own face in the glass, and is struck by a 
 sudden resemblance which she has never 
 remarked before, and which in a moment 
 reveals to her the secret of her own life. 
 The reader is scarcely told in so many 
 words, but perceives at once that tho fa- 
 ther whom she has cursed is no other than 
 this tender fatherly sovran, who has 
 watched over her from her cradle with 
 the most pathetic care, and who shows, in 
 a double solicitude for her and her hap- 
 piness his penitence for his early error. 
 Perhaps this would scarcely be a moral 
 fable fol- the use of princes— but it is a 
 very pretty story, told with much tender- 
 ness and pathos, and with a touch of hicr 
 perception in that concluding scene". . . 
 [Blackwood's. 680 
 
 , SAJIE, Gottesberger, 1885. 
 
 ELIZABETH (ETC.) [by Beatrice 
 May Butt: Blackwood, 1869.] "It is 
 pleasant to receive another volume of tales 
 from the graceful pen of Miss Butt. They 
 have a strong family likeness, it is true, 
 especially in all beginning with a description 
 of landscape, and all being pitched in the 
 minor key; but as the descriptions are 
 good and the pathos does not deepen into 
 tragedy, the book is readable. . . In 'Eliza/- 
 lieth' and 'Eberhardt' only the writer ap- 
 proaches tragedy. In the former story 
 the lady of SchOnfeld and the Prince 
 involve their brltrspiritcd child in an 
 awakening to surrounding evil which will 
 affect her whole life, but not fatally, we 
 are led to think ; in the latter the passion- 
 ate resentment which Leigh Curwen feels 
 for her foster-brother's death is/ finally 
 allayed and replaced by a softer interest. 
 Great and bitter are the disappointments 
 incurred by the gentle heroines of these 
 tales, but none sorrows without hope." 
 [ Athenaeum. 681 
 
 200 
 
EOMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 ELSA AND HER VULTURE, Long- 
 mans, 1876= VULTUIiE MAIDEN. 
 
 ENDYMION. [ by the earl of Bea- 
 CONsriELD: Appleton, ISSO.] "An un- 
 coiiseious travesty of hi life runs throu the 
 book, nnd the travesty follows not from 
 the author's unfamiliarity ^vith the details 
 of this life, but from his importing into 
 the whole conception his own essentially 
 Cheap John estimate of life itself. There 
 is something marvelous in the worship of 
 Success which unilerlines Endymioii. 
 The hero of the bools, at least the young 
 man who gives the name to it, is an al- 
 most colorless effigy of humanity, who is 
 moved on throu 4he pages by the alternate 
 efforts of his sister and the woman whom 
 he admires, and afterward maries, to the 
 position of prime minister, a position ut- 
 terly remote from the logical consequences 
 of his intellect or will. He is the creature 
 of accident, friendliness, and destiny, and 
 as he is shoved along a step hier at each 
 turn of the story, the reader comes to 
 watch for his appearance a little hier up 
 with curiosity, but without the least ap- 
 prehension. The career of his twin, 
 Slyra, who finally becomes queen of a 
 nfiboring country, is more distinctly the 
 expression of her own will and determin- 
 ation, but the landing of these 2 characters 
 at the summit of supposed human ambition 
 is achieved with so mechanical a dexterity 
 that the author's supreme satisfaction in 
 the result appears positively childish. 
 The figures are so unmistakably puppets, 
 and the properties are so broadly theatri- 
 cal, that when one considers the place 
 which the author has held in english 
 political life it is impossible to resist the 
 feeling that Endymion is a man's play- 
 thing, and by a converse proposition that 
 the author, as head of the british cabinet, 
 has the attitude of a showman. The un- 
 reality of the book is not the unreality of 
 romance, but of the stiige. The counti-y, 
 the characters, the historic events, and es- 
 pecially the morals and the sentiments arc 
 all fictitious. There is a false bottom to 
 everything. It seems the easiest thing in 
 the world to find the living counterparts 
 
 of the several characters in the book, and 
 one with only ordinary knowledge of 
 modern England will readily name the 
 persons who may bo said to have sat to the 
 author for their portrait. But in what 
 docs the truthfulness of the likeness con- 
 sist? An author who has transplanted 
 images from his obser\ation into the 
 imaginary field of his novel or romance 
 pleases himself with the notion that his 
 characters have their own life in the book, 
 entirely independent of any life which 
 their prototypes may have led in the .actual 
 world, and he is apt to resent the impu- 
 tation of theft, or to deny that he has put 
 his friends into his book. In Endymion 
 one perceives that the likenesses are dis- 
 torted tracings of actual persons : they 
 bear to the originals the relation not of 
 paintings, but of waxwork ; there is a 
 simulation of reality, and not an individu- 
 al existancc as imaginary creations studied 
 from models in life. It must be added 
 that the artist of this wax!-work show has 
 given some vicious little twists to fea- 
 tures out of an apparent malice, and has 
 treated his images somewhat as a pettish 
 child sticks pins into her hapless doll. 
 The figure of St. Barbc, for example, is a 
 simulacrum of Thackeray, and the satire 
 is amusing, but not very refined nor com- 
 prehensive." [Atlantic] "The action of 
 the novel begins with the throes of the re- 
 form movement, at the time when (Jan- 
 ning is on his death-bed, and the Iron 
 Duke is the hope of conservative Eng- 
 land. Sidney Wilton, who represents 
 Sidney Herbert, afterwards Lord Her- 
 bert of Lea, the well-known brother of 
 the 13th Earl of Pembroke and Mont- 
 gomery, opens the novel, emerging from 
 White's Club, and coming at once into 
 conversation with a friend, Mr. Ferrar«, 
 an imaginary character made to do duty 
 as the father of Endymion Eerrars, under 
 which name the Earl of Beaconsfield has 
 clearly undertaken to describe certain 
 features of the careerof the Right Hon. B: 
 Disraeli. Endymion Ferrars has a twin- 
 wster Myra, another figment of the brain, 
 who strikes the key-note of her brother's 
 
 201 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 eliaracter and career wheu she says to 
 him, 'Power, and power alone should be 
 your absorbing object, and all the acci- 
 dents and incidents of life should only be 
 considered with reference to that main re- 
 sult.' The boy himself when he is first 
 introduced as a disdainful lad seven years 
 old in a velvet jacket with silver buttons, 
 announces that after going to Eton he is 
 to go to C'hristchurch and then into par- 
 liament. Queen Hortcnse comes into the 
 novel early, under the rather severe name 
 of Agrippina, and Napoleon III., as 
 Prince Florestan, with 'his graceful bow 
 that always won a heart,' who sets forth 
 from En!>land in a yacht, and conquers 
 his kingdom in ten days, after writing a 
 pretty little note to Lady Palmerston , who 
 figures in the book with her lord as Lord 
 and Lady Roehampton. Lord Beacons- 
 field makes nothing of anachronisms in 
 this curious production. He paints the 
 Eglinton Tournament, and makes Prince 
 Bismarck figure in it as the Count of Fer- 
 rol. Baron Lionel Rothschild appears as 
 Baron NeuchStel, Poole, the tailor, figures 
 as Vigo. Cardinal Manning plays a part 
 as Penruddocke, a prophet ordained in 
 Mayfair, who regarded Lord Russell with 
 well-bred honor. 'Soapy Sam' Wilber- 
 force, bishop of Oxford, appears under the 
 pseudonym of Dr. Comely. Lord Strang- 
 ford is introduced first as Mr. and then as 
 Lord "Waldshire, Milner Gibson as Mr. 
 Jorrocks, and Lord Melbourne as Lord 
 Montford. One of the best pen-pictures 
 in the book is that of Richard Cobden as 
 Joe Thornbcrry, whose thin, clear voice 
 was only less clear than bis statements; 
 Neither this, be it remembered, nor any 
 other portrait in the boolc, can be regarded 
 as a full length, and times, places, and 
 persons are so tossed and tumbled to- 
 gether that the earl can confidently deny 
 any given likeness . to be the likeness of 
 the person who sat for it in his mind." 
 [L: J: Jennings. 68a 
 
 ENTHRALLED AND RELEASED 
 [by "E.Werner:" N.-Y., Knox, 1SS5.] 
 "is simply a poorer translation of a very 
 good story translated by Mrs. Wister 
 
 under the title of 'Banned and Blessed.'" 
 —Which see. [ Critic. 683 
 
 , SAME (Raymond's Atonement), 
 
 Bentley, 1SS4. 
 
 EREMA. [by R: D. Blackmore: 
 Harper, 187".] "The scene is laid chiefly 
 in California, while a considerable part 
 of the action takes place there and in 
 New-Yorit and Washington. The 
 principal characters, it is true, are without 
 exception euglish or scotch, and even the 
 minor personages are Indian or mcxican 
 rather than american. . . The plot is more 
 coherent, the incident upon which it turns 
 is more moving, the solution is more skill- 
 fully withheld, antl the interest is more 
 continuously sustained, than in any 
 other of Mr. Blackmore's works, with the 
 possible exception of 'Lorna Doone'; and 
 his peculiar skill in depicting rustic char- 
 acter throu the medium of the local ver- 
 nacular seems to improve with practice. . . 
 In vue of the extremely small part which 
 love-making plays in 'Ercma,' and the 
 deep tragedy of its plot, it is surpassing to 
 find that the impression which it leaves 
 upon the mind, is, on the whole, agree- 
 able — the story is not only exciting but 
 enjoyable. A portion of this is due to the 
 humorous flavor which the author con- 
 trives to iijipart to all his delineations of 
 character, and the rest to the peculiar 
 vividness and beauty of his descriptions of 
 scenery." [Applcton's. 684 
 
 ERNEST LINWOOD [1856], se« 
 COURTSHIP & MAHEIAGE. 
 
 ERNEST MA LTEAVERS. [by BARON 
 Lytton.] "Such, considerably softened, 
 is the plot of what we deem a most object- 
 ionable book. However, our quarrel at 
 this moment is not with its teaching, but 
 with its extravagant pretentiousness. It 
 is an ordinary novel, — neither more nor 
 less, in execution not better than hundreds 
 of novels, and in its idea much worse. 
 Why it should be dedicated to the German 
 people; why it sliould be called 'The 
 Mysteries' ; why h should be :*an experi- 
 ment in typical fiction', and have an lesthe- 
 tic intention and a filosofical design, no hu- 
 man ingenuity can discover. . . The lan- 
 
 202 
 
EOMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 guage is never bold, vigorous, or terse; it 
 is sometimes eloquent, more rarely pic- 
 turesque; very often it degenerates into 
 mere ))ombast, or into a dilute mock-heroic. 
 And tliere is tlirou(5iit a manner, more 
 easily felt than described, which educated 
 people in general most 'carefully eschew. 
 This, which we may call the 'ever and a- 
 non' style, would of itself prevent the au- 
 thor from being a great writer. We hard- 
 ly like to call him vulgar ; but he tries to 
 be so superfine that he always reminds his 
 readers of the 'Court Journal' and of 
 tradesmen's circulars. "WTiy, for example, 
 need a man 'lave his face' instead of wash- 
 ing it y Why is a single servant 'a solitary 
 domestic' and a cabman 'a ministrant of 
 Trivia' ? The last expression looks like a 
 parody on Johnson, but there are several 
 others of the same kind. Thus we have 
 'pomarian crudities' instead of apples; 
 the vulgarism 'calligrafy' for writing, 
 and 'Somnambular accommodations' for 
 bed-rooms." [Westminster Review. 685 
 ERsILIA. [by EmmaF.. roYNTKK: 
 Holt, 18T6.] "For a pure, hl-toned, grace- 
 fully written story for summer holiday 
 reading, full of true and noble th6t, tender 
 and winning pathos, charming freshness 
 and vividness of description, and refined 
 and delicate fancy, and instinct with the 
 life of a generous, idealized, self-forgetting 
 tho passionate love, we can . heartily re- 
 commend 'Ersilia'. . . It is but a story of 
 life, a vivid presentation of the silent pa^ 
 thos and unobtrusive tragedy which is so 
 constantly interwoven with the web of or- 
 dinary life. The characters stand before 
 us in the reality of living and suflering 
 human nature — tho 3 of them at least be- 
 long to its hier rants ; and Ersilia herself 
 is as pure and sweet and flobly conceived 
 a female character as almost any in modern 
 fiction. . . If the story is a little too sad in 
 its course and its ddnoument, this is to a 
 great extent relieved by the noble par 
 tience, born of suffering, and the purifica^ 
 tion from selfishness which is the result of 
 the sharp discipline of life— by the atmos- 
 fere of peace which broods over the close. 
 . . . The scenery amidst which the events 
 
 of the story arc laid is mainly that of the 
 Pyrenees, southern France, and Paris— 
 tho in the too short glimpses given us of 
 the early life of Ersilia and Humphrey, 
 and in the closing scenes of the tale, we 
 arc among english meadows and orchards. 
 The romantic scenery of the TyrOniies — 
 misty mountain and foaming waterfall, 
 sunny valley and dark solemn ravine 
 is given vividly." [Canadian Monthly. 686 
 
 ESTELLE, by Annie Euwakds; Shel- 
 don, 1875, = CBEEDS. 
 
 EXPIATION [by Julia Caholine 
 (Ripley) DoiiR : LippincoU^ 1873.] "is 
 an interesting american story, with a back- 
 ground of lonely woods which protect the 
 rustic privacy of Altona, and a list of 
 characters which combine city culture and 
 country eccentricity. Patsy, the grim and 
 self-sacrificing 'help'. . . is the best de- 
 lineation in it, but the style is always live- 
 ly, always feminine and pure, and the con- 
 ception of a hi-bred, aristocratic family, 
 come to bury their mistakes and miseries 
 in a forest seclusion, would have been thot 
 worthy of being worked by Emily 
 Bront*. . .'ITie novel is full of local ameri- 
 can color, and'entices the attention from 
 the reader's first plunge to the end." 
 [ Lippincott's. 687 
 
 EXCHANGE NO ROBBERY, [by Ma- 
 tilda [Bakbara] Bbtham Edwards: 
 Harper, 1SS2.] "is a very pretty and very 
 improbable story, yet very 'vraisemblable.^ 
 It is of the sort which tempts a critic to teU 
 it ; but it would be a pity to reveal the secret 
 of the mystification, innocent at first, but 
 growing to a portentous and hazardous 
 state seci'et. Grand kinsfolk are elated 
 that the ducal house, 'so particularly un- 
 endowed in the female line, should pro- 
 duce such a paragon ;' and, for once, coiit 
 lession becomes no duty, and, in the end, 
 a pair of true lovers are happily 'fated by 
 a jest'." [Nation. 688 
 
 FALLEN PRIDE, see BRIDE'S 
 FA TE. 
 
 FAMILY FEUD (The), [by Thomas 
 Cooper: Boutledge, 1855.] "This 
 little book, bound in the devil's colors, 
 black and brimstone— printed in a type 
 
 203 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 as villainous as ever made the eyes of 
 a patient render ache — is for its freshness, 
 vigor, and variety worth any half-dozeii 
 of the novels which eome into the world 
 with all the honors of binding and topogra- 
 fy. Those who are not scared at the out- 
 set by its very unattractive appearance 
 will find themselves well rewarded. The 
 stor)- is anything but probable ; but there 
 are such life-like descriptions, and the in- 
 cidents arc so romantic, that the reader is 
 carried on to the end without delaying to 
 criticise. The account of 'the feud be- 
 tween the Uphams and the Dowuhams,'— 
 the origin of which nobody knows, except 
 that it is a famous feud that began beyond 
 the memory of man, and has been kept up 
 ever since by succeeding generations in 
 the town of Quarrelton, — is given with 
 great drollery, and affords a curious insit 
 into much parliamentary parish business, 
 and relieves the more serious part of the 
 story, which is also an hereditary feud, 
 having its rise iii bitter wrong- and crime. 
 There are, moreover, 2 villains of genuine 
 dye, such as we have not often the 
 pleasure of seeing circumvented and brSt 
 to shame. Poetical justice is at last satis- 
 factorily awarded, and all the feuds are 
 assuaged, not exactly by brotherly love, 
 but in a couple of happy manages, such 
 as one is always glad to hear about, 
 whether in prose or verse, or in life. The 
 short! scene in which the two old men 
 meet and are reconciled is admirable." 
 [ AtheuEeum. G89 
 
 , SAME, by J : Gottfried Kinkel, 
 
 in Tales from Blackwood, N. S., 21. 
 
 FAR IN THE FOREST, [by Silas 
 W . Mitchell : Lippincott, 1889.] '"The 
 scene of the story lies in the forest countries 
 of northern Pennsylvania where roads, 
 if made at all, were so bad as to be . almost 
 impassable ; where waj'S were unknown, 
 and where the only human activities in 
 the great woods were liunting and timber- 
 cutting. Life under these conditions is 
 necessarily of a rather heroic east, invol- 
 ving dangers, privations, and a sustained 
 battle against the forces of nature. But 
 with all the drawbacks to the beauties 
 
 mu\ refinements of civilization Dr. Mitch- 
 ell has yet given us in liessy Preston,— 
 who mit be called the heroine of the story, 
 a character not often matched, in actual 
 life or in fiction, for womanly force, sweet- 
 ness, and that powerful radiating charm 
 which is felt as much in this rude settli- 
 ment in the woods as in city drawing- 
 rooms. She is not a young woman ; and 
 when the story opens, she is watching by 
 the bedside of her dying husband, a weak 
 and self-indulg€nt man, whom she has 
 brotto these timber lands partly in the 
 hope of removing him from temptation, 
 and partly because the acres of forest she 
 owns here are her last and only possession. 
 "While Preston lies dying, liessy hears a 
 moan outside the cabin, and going to the 
 door finds an almost frozen man on the 
 threshold. Thus destiny brings Riverius, 
 a german hunter and scientist, into her 
 life, just as she loses the husband for 
 whom she has been forced to weep too 
 many tears in life to have many left to 
 mourn him novif that he is gone. Riverius 
 is, in his way, as fine a character as Bessy 
 herself, but more narrow, more concen- 
 trated, impatient of inferiority, and ob- 
 stinate in logic; judging his own require- 
 ments and those of others by the guage of 
 intellect rather than of the heart. The 
 plot of the story is delicate and Intricate, 
 and so naturally worked out that the 
 various events, — acting and re-acting on 
 the characters,— seem not to be events at 
 all, but mere steps in the unfolding of the 
 situation. . . . 'J'here, is not a single loose 
 thread in the story. Every character and 
 eveiy hicident is needed to bring about 
 the startling and admirable d^noument. 
 Nothing better than the dramatic climax 
 of the fire in the woods, the escape of 
 Riverius, and Ance Vickers' expiation, 
 is to be found in any fiction of the day. 
 Not, however, that the author has striven 
 for any sensational effects. The power of 
 work lies wholly in its naturalness, its 
 fidelity to everyday life, and the logic of 
 events. The writer has been everywhere 
 true, and the artistic v^lue is nowhere 
 spoiled by, redundance and exaggeration." 
 
 201 
 
ROMANTIC KOVELS. 
 
 [American. !» 690 
 
 FAKIXA. [by G: Meredith: Smith, 
 1857.J "Tho his tale has 'Farina' on its 
 label, let none tap it expecting anything 
 fragrant, or soft, or gentle. — Wild it is, 
 on the contrary, and impudent and fierce: 
 — full of a riotous, abundant fancy, such 
 as we have not fallen in with of late. It 
 is a masque of ravishers in steel, — of rob- 
 ber knits, who sat on their towers looking 
 up and down the gorges of the Eifel to 
 see what manner of prfiy mit be coming, 
 of water-women more terribly fascinating 
 than Loreley, — of monks nearly as sharp 
 iu dealing with the Great Toowell-kuown 
 
 as St. Dunstan himself. It has also a 
 
 brave and tender deliverer and a heroine 
 proper for a romance of Coin." [ Athen- 
 aeum. 691 
 FASHION AND p^ AMINE [by A.. S. 
 (W.) Stephens: Bentley, 1854.] "has 
 great defects. In the first place, an ameri- 
 can novel should be something out of the 
 beaten track of the common-place contrasts 
 of conventional society ; and tho the scene 
 of this romance is laid in or about the 
 "Upper 10000" and the "Fifth Avenue" 
 of the empire city, still the characters are 
 all french, and the treatment is very 
 english. In the next place, the plot is 
 grotesquely impossible, the leading mo- 
 tives of the action are grandly incredible ; 
 and the novel, from first to last, is spoiled 
 by an obtrusion of the flimsy filosofy iu 
 which some "females" indulge, when, 
 having got pen in hand, they begin to 
 point out how much better it is to be good 
 than bad. These are startling faults, and 
 yet the novel is far above the average, 
 and is read with engrossing interest. 
 This, we beheve, is because Mrs. Stephens 
 . has a decided genius for telling and devel- 
 oping a story. I'here is power — dramatic 
 power— here; and as it is, as she states in 
 her preface, her first novel, we are in- 
 clined to anticipate a series of successes 
 for her. The hero is a wholesale villain; 
 a polished Yankee gentleman, who does 
 all the men and undoes all the women ; 
 who commits forgeries, connives at em- 
 bezzlement; occasionally crosses his mind 
 
 with murder, deserts his wife in order to 
 leave room for a friendly d6baueh6, who 
 has b6t his rit in her, leaves his child to 
 starve, commits bigamy, and dresses 
 singularly well. Ho ii a mixture of Don 
 Juan and Ingo, with Dumas' vue of life ; 
 and he looks to us remarkably out of place 
 denned in the Astor House and immersed 
 in dollars. The heroine is the deserted 
 wife of this bold gentleman, who is incur- 
 ably ^ittached to him, but who allows the 
 friendly dfibauch^ to complete the bar- 
 gain; who goes with the d6bauch(S to 
 Europe, where he dies, she obtaining all 
 his wealth, which is boundless and accom- 
 plishes Monte-Cristo results, and who, re- 
 turning to New- York when her husband 
 is arranging his bigamy, appeals to him 
 for a redintegratio without disclosing her 
 affluence, and being rejected, punishes 
 him, after he has bigamised, by blazing on 
 him in all her splendor at a dramatic ball, 
 which she throws open to the whole Up- 
 per Ten Thousand. Result — suicide on 
 his part, and eternal misery on hers; but 
 a delltful ending in the secured happy iwr 
 ture of her restored child, who is an angel 
 — iu a french way — a flower-girl whg 
 calls "f-r-r-ish r-r-oses" in the streets. 
 This is the plot, which^, as we have said, 
 is rendered endurable by the vivid and 
 vigorous way in which the story is told 
 •and the characters are arranged." [ Lead- 
 er. 692 
 FATAL MARKSMAN (The), [by J: 
 A : Apel] "Prof. Masson says, ' seems 
 to be from the gerjiian, tho it is not stated 
 to be so.' It certainly does 'seem to be 
 from the german,' if ever a story did. 
 But are we really to believe that in these 
 days, when even to a music lover the 
 'universal cultivation of music' is becom- 
 ing more than sufficiently 'universal,'— 
 when it is impossible for 6 people to meet 
 and have 6 words of conversation unin- 
 terrupted by the bullets of the 'fatal 
 marksman' at the piano-forte in the corner, 
 — there exists among us an eminent scotch 
 professor who is ignorant of the existence 
 of a certain opera called 'Der Freischiitz,' 
 the story of which is told in DeQuincey's 
 
 205 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 'Fatal Marksman'? De Quincey, it must be 
 admitted, did not 'state' that the 'Fatal 
 Marksman' was a translation of the Story 
 which Kind, by the addition of another 
 character or two, turned into a libretto for 
 Weber. De Quiucey was an Opera-goer, 
 and from its first appearance in 1821 'Der 
 Freischiitz' had been so famous that per- 
 haps there could not possibly be u. man, 
 woman, or child who would not recognize 
 and hail at once the story which the libret- 
 tist had followed so closely. Among the 
 english translations of this remarkable 
 . story — which Weber seems to have read 
 in Apel's collection of ghost stdries as' 
 early as 1810,— the best known, after De 
 Quincey's, is that which appeared in a 
 volume called ' Tales of tlie Wild and 
 Wonderful,' published in 1852 by Hurst 
 & Co. It is there called 'Der Freiscliutz, 
 or the Magic Balls,' and is stated to be 
 'from the german of A. Apel.'" [Th. 
 Watts. 693 
 
 FAUSTINE [ by ' 'Eita," i.e. , ( ) 
 
 Booth: iijipracoH, 1882.] "is of the Ouida 
 type of story, but distinctly without the 
 badness. It is even remarkable for the 
 reserve with which the material is handled. 
 A scheming priest, a beautiful actress, an 
 ardent youth, have many times figured in 
 doubtful fiction, but in this book their ad- 
 .ventures are wrflt into a tale which may 
 safely be commended to lovers of thrilling 
 Incident." [ Nation. 694 
 
 FETISH CITY (The) [by F: Boyle: 
 In Tales from Blackwood, N. S., I.] "is a 
 well-imagined story of the discovery of 
 greek ruins beyond the Matabele territory." 
 [ Athenajum. 095 
 
 FICKLE FORTUNE [by "E. Wer- 
 ner": Bentley, 1884.] = WHAT THE 
 SPUING BROUGHT. 
 
 FipDLER OF LUGAU (The), ["by Ma. 
 EOBEHTS : Whittaker, 1888.] " 'The Fid- 
 dler of Lugau' is a pleasing little story, 
 tastefully written, as its authorship in- 
 sures. The scene is laid for the most part 
 in the saxOn town of Lugau, during the 
 early years of the century, affording a, 
 striking background for skillfully drawn 
 pictures of life in Germany during the 
 
 Napoleonic wars.* The presence of cer- 
 tain Netherlanders in the place, and that 
 of a few Wends, lend variety to the per- 
 sonages, and furnish complications for the 
 story, while the saxon hatred of Bona^ 
 parte, lacking completeness only by reason 
 of another hatred of Prussia, the distant 
 tramp of french troops, the suffering and 
 uncertainty of the times, make a grimly 
 effective setting for a tender little tale of 
 love and loyalty, wherein music is the 
 motive spring. The jealousies and re- 
 venges, professional and political, which 
 run side by side, the peals of church 
 chimes, and the eloquence of the violin, 
 the alarms of war, and the home life in 
 the families of Lugau, schoolboy tricks 
 and faithful love, make up the stoi-y. 
 Spite of the happy ending, it is a pathetic 
 little history, shadowed by war and by 
 the ever-touching tale of sensitive genius 
 meeting no recognition except from a 
 pair of loyal young hearts. All is told' 
 with exquisite refinement. The vividness 
 and charm of the local color make one 
 feel the. final change of scene to London 
 and t a merchant's household to be some- 
 thing of an anti-elimax. One would 
 rather have closed the book on the wooded 
 moor which lay round Lugau, spirit- 
 haunted, or at a saxon fireside with the 
 grandmother knitting in the corner." 
 [Nation. 696 
 
 FIOE D' ALIZA. [byALPHONSE de 
 Lamartine: Houghton,' 1868.] ^''This 
 new addition to the Eiverside Classics is a 
 fit companion to 'Undine' and 'Paul and 
 Virginia.' 'J'he simple while eventful 
 story of the love of the heroic Fior d' 
 Aliza and her devotion, even to death if 
 necessary, to her lover, was better adapted, 
 perhaps, to the poetical form in which its 
 author says it was originally his intention 
 to embody it, than to the prose, unadorned 
 tho not ungraceful. In which it appeared. 
 . . . But there still remains for an hour's 
 reading a very tender and touching story, 
 romantic, picturesque, and nearly tragic." 
 [ Round Table 697 
 
 FIEST LOVE, by I. Tukgenief, Allen 
 & Co., 1884. 
 
 206 
 
EOMAKTIC NOVELS. 
 
 FIRST VIOLIN (The) [by Jessie 
 FoTHKRGU-L : Holt, 1864.] "posseaseB that 
 namek's? quality which redeems and ex- 
 cuses all delects, \Yhich animates and vivi- 
 fies what would ordinarily be simply me- 
 chanical commonplace, which touches the 
 feelings while stimulating the Imagination, 
 and which interests and pleases in a way 
 that mere artifice can never achieve. . . 
 The scene is laid in Germany, the hero 
 being the leader of the orchesti'a In a 
 small city [ Diisseldorf] and the story as a 
 whole gives a lively and probably trust- 
 worthy picture of professional musical 
 life in the one country of the world where 
 Music ranks in dignity and in the ardor 
 which it arouses in its votaries with any of 
 the other professions and pursuits. The 
 character-drawing is particularly good ; the 
 incidents are cleverly managed if now and 
 then involving rather too much of coinci- 
 dence; and the local color is maintained 
 by very delicate and artistic touches. . . 
 It reads hke the spontaneous record of an 
 experience which had fired and inspired the 
 author's whole nature." [Appleton's. 098 
 
 FIVE-CHIMM]S^EY FARM [by A. M. 
 (Hoppus) Marks: Low, 18s7.] "has a 
 double plot, which does not cohere very 
 obviously. The home life of the Copleys, 
 an ancient landed stock in the Weald of 
 Sussex, seems outraged by an erratic scion 
 taking after his french mother, and spend- 
 ing his life among parisian factions. Both 
 f ases of existence are well described ; the 
 life of the farm and the country sounds 
 and sits are presented to us with a minute 
 vigor whiph invests them with an interest 
 not less than attaches to the stormy scenes 
 of french politics. The latter have evident- 
 ly been thoroly studied, and the de- 
 scription of the 3 days of 1848 would form 
 some striking chapters in a professedly 
 historical book. Perhaps the novel is a 
 little over-w6tcd by its discursiveness, but 
 the matter discussed is so interesting that 
 we are inclined, with the author, to let the 
 story wait. Still there is considerable 
 merit in the story ; Katie Copley is a brit 
 centre to the surrounding darkness of her 
 Parisian associates, and in Thrasybule the 
 
 posture-making yet passionate frenchman 
 who thinks he honors her with his 
 preference, she finds an admirable foil to 
 her self-forgetfuluess and modesty." 
 [ Athenaeum. 099 
 
 FLEUEANGE. [by Pauline (La F.) 
 Craven: Holt, 1873.] "The heroine, left 
 an orlan by the death of her father, a 
 french artist, finds a home with her uncle. 
 Prof. Dornthal, a wealthy gentleman of 
 Frankfurt, and her mother's brother. 
 She is very happy among her new friends, 
 for a time ; and well she mit be, for their 
 life as portrayed in these pages is para- 
 disaic in its serenity of mutual trust, and 
 activity of mutual sympathies. Suddenly 
 a banking-house, in which nearly the 
 whole of the professor's fortune was in- 
 vested, goes to ruin, and the family are re- 
 duced to comparative poverty. . . Fleu- 
 range rejoins her uncle's fiimily at Heidel- 
 berg, where some powerful scenes exhibit 
 to the reader in his true prominence the 
 hero of the book,— Clement Dornthal, who 
 has loved his opusin with a steadily in- 
 creasing fervor from the first. . .ThusFIeur- 
 ange found herself the arbiter of his fate. 
 She did not hesitate. She promised her 
 rival she would return at once to Ger- 
 many, and that the count should never 
 know of her presence or her errand in 
 Russia. Starting homeward next day, , 
 she saw the wedding party issuing from a 
 church, and caut a glimpse of the man she 
 loved, the husband of another woman. 
 Two years passed by quietly at Heidel- 
 berg, and at last her eyes were opened to 
 a knowledge of Clement's love; and re- 
 cognition and reciprocation were simul- 
 taneous." [Boston "Literary World." TOO 
 
 FLIP (etc.) [by [Fr.J Bret Harte: 
 Chatto, 1872.] "There is little or nothing 
 new in Mr Harte's new volume. It is true 
 that such stories as it contains are told 
 more or less cleverly, and more or less for 
 the first time. But they ate told in the 
 old way, with the old tricks and manner- 
 isms ; they take us over the old ground ; 
 they show us the old sort of characters ; 
 they exemplify the old faults and the old 
 merits ; and as we read we seem to have 
 
 207 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 read them all before, and to hare read 
 them many times. The names are changed 
 and the incidents have been shuffled and 
 dealt anew. But the game is the same ; 
 and the pack and tlie players and the stakes 
 are the same; and as we know exactly 
 what is to happen and who is to win, our 
 interest in the proceedings has Wapo- 
 rated." [Athena;um. 701 
 
 FOR THE RIGHT, [by Karl Emil 
 Franzos; Clarke, 18SS.]. . . " 'I have sel- 
 dom, if ever,' says Mr. 6: JfacDonakl, 
 'read a work of fiction which has moved 
 me with such admiration ;' and such an ex- 
 pression of feeling from such a man can- 
 not fail to awaken ht expectations. Un- 
 less we are much in error, a great majority 
 of the readers wliose ethical and artistic 
 perceptions are most trustworthy will feel 
 that these expectations have been amply 
 fulfilled, for the book of which Mr. Mac 
 Donald speaks with so much enthusiasm 
 is a story of exceptional beauty and eleva- 
 tion. In the ordinary sense of words 
 which have never been very finely diflier- 
 entiated, 'For the Eight' is a romance ra- 
 ther than a novel, tho the writer never re- 
 laxes his grasp of the real any more than 
 he loses sit of the ideal. It is a picture of 
 human nobleness contendiug with lonely 
 and heroic courage against almost omni- 
 potent ignoble forces. . . Taras Barabola 
 is an utterly unlettered peasant, living up- 
 on his farm in the village of Zulawce, in 
 the near presence of the great Carpathians. 
 ... So the story ends, and it seems fitting 
 that the dying words of a man who, how- 
 ever mistakenly, has lived for riteousness, 
 should be words in which he does justice 
 even to liimself. "We hope that what we 
 have said has sufficed to make it clear that 
 'For the Right' is a singularly noble and 
 beautiful book. To its • purely artistic 
 qualities we have done scant justice, but 
 they are of a hi and commanding order. 
 In his treatment of character, of incident, 
 and of the wild landscape which forms a 
 background for both, Mr. Franzos 
 proves himself a master, tho his book is 
 principally noteworthy not for these 
 things, but for the portraiture of its cen- 
 
 tral character, — a man of ideal nobleness 
 who is betrayed Into wrong by the mis- 
 take of supjiosing that he can transcend 
 human limitiitions. We should say that 
 the translation is a faithful rendering; 
 as engHsh, it is ,throu(Jiit admirable." 
 [ Spectator. 702 
 
 FORTUNATE LOVERS (The), [by 
 Margukrite oif Navarre: Bedway, 
 18S8.] "We have certainly no quarrel with 
 the translation of certain of the novels of the 
 'Heptameron,' the reversion to their old 
 title (not, il is true, either a vei-y authen- 
 tic or a very appropriate one)of 'The For- 
 tunate Lovers,' and the issuing of them in 
 a pretty volume. 'J'he Heptameron is an 
 exceedingly pretty book — a much prettier 
 book from the literary point of vue than 
 Miss Robinson allowed in her monograf— 
 a book the 'impropriety' of which has been 
 grossly exaggerated by people who have 
 never read it — a book of interesting and 
 rather puzzling authorship, and lastly, one 
 which strikes the key-note of a certain 
 time better almost than any other single 
 work. There has evidently been no diffi- 
 culty in selecting rather more than a third 
 of the whole collection, and the choice mit, 
 if the translator and selector had plesused, 
 have been larger. . . It is to degrade a 
 really charming work of art and of litera- 
 ture to make its chief attraction consist in 
 tittle-tattle about some real Emarsuittcs 
 and Nomerfides, or in the, fact that 
 some of the stories which Emarsuitte 
 and Nomerfide told so prettily and so 
 coolly were facts or gossip of the day. 
 Books are not preserved for 300 years by 
 such salt as this. It is because Marguerite, 
 or the set of ladies and gentlemen and men 
 of letters who clustered around her, man- 
 aged to make this tittle-tattle illustrate a 
 peculiar f ase of society in a really literary, 
 sometimes in a quasi-poetical fashion, that 
 tho 'Heptameron' is alive and charming." 
 [ Athenffium. 703 
 
 FORTUNES OF MISS FOLLEN (The) 
 [by Hannah ( ) Goox)\fm : Appleton, 
 1876.] "shows a marked improvement on 
 her earlier books, which smacked of the 
 school-room and the Sunday-school. In 
 
 208 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 this she takes broader vues of life, and 
 writes with the freedom derived from 
 contact with the world. The story is sim- 
 ple yet fresh. The heroine is a german 
 peasant girl, whose beauty and grace at- 
 tract some american visitors at Baden, 
 who learn to feel a deep interest in her 
 fortunes. She is uneducated, hut not ig- 
 norant, a superior musician, having had 
 instructions from Conrad Klaist, who has 
 learned to love her, but she is betrothed 
 to one liUdwig, a fine young peasant, and 
 is about to become his wife, when liis 
 mother and sister, who had opposed the 
 match, contrived to break it off. She is a 
 very lovely character,. almost too lovely to 
 be possible, and her refinement from 
 rusticity to intelligence and elegance is a 
 process quite too rapid and smooth to be 
 credible. Conrad is rather pathetic, and 
 one hears of his death in the army with 
 regret." [Boston "Literary World."] 
 A very charming story has been made of 
 the life of a german peasant girl, who is 
 born with a beauty of body and of soul 
 which gradually lifts her into refined life." 
 [Galaxy. ' 704 
 , SAME ("Christmas Fortune"), Bos- 
 ton, 1881. 
 
 FOETY-NISK [by "JOAQUIN" Mn.- 
 ler: Funk, 1884.] "as playgoers already 
 know, is thrillingly interesting, and pos- 
 sesses more coherenQe, both of plot and 
 style, than much of the author's other writ- 
 ing. It deals, of course, with those pathe- 
 tic histories of early California when 
 there was no telegraf to signal to the 
 world the suffering of whole villages by 
 cyclone or other general calamity and to 
 bring back substantial sj-mpathy; and 
 when the individual sufferer, with the pro- 
 verbial silence of the american hero, sim- 
 ply dropped out of line without a word. 
 There is less of the coarseness and more of 
 the ruf tenderness of Joaquin Miller than 
 we are wont to find in his work, with 
 much of that matchless power of vivid de- 
 scription which does not consist of mere 
 adjectives, and which it is impossible to 
 define, but equally impossible not to feel." 
 [Critic. 705 
 
 FOUR GHOST STORIES [by M.. L.. 
 (Stewart) JIoleswouth: Mncmillan, 
 1888.J "are graceful and attractive. 
 Ghost stories have always a certain charm, 
 but these 4 are remarkable for the pretty 
 setting which surrounds the thrilling part 
 of the narrative. 'Lady Farquhar's Old 
 Lady' is very touching; the scene lies in 
 an old irish country house. ' Unexplain- 
 ed,^ is a weird tale of a remote german inn 
 and an old cup and saucer." [Athe. TOG 
 
 FOUR PHASES OF LOVE, [by Paul 
 Heyse: Boutledge, 1857.] "The tales 
 have an impress of originality, and are 
 agreeably moralized. Two of the titles 
 are eccentric; — 'Eye-Blindness and Soul- 
 Blindness' and 'l?y the Banks of the Tiber.' 
 The v.irieties of passion are forcibly sug- 
 gested." [ Leader. 707 
 
 FREE JOE. [by J. C. Harris : ,S'CJ'(6- 
 ner, 1887.] "The stories bound under the 
 title "Free Joe' depict the life and charac- 
 ters with which he has already made us 
 familiar. The georgian negro, bond and 
 free, the poor white, and the mountaineer 
 are given enduring life by his pen. It 
 may be heresy to suggest it, but one feels 
 that his portraits of the southern aristo- 
 crat, as he was before the war, are no less 
 truthful. The rich young slave-owners 
 with rather provincial tung, vues and 
 clothes, who rejoice to sit by the hour in 
 the corner grocery with their heels in the 
 air, have a startling semblance of reality. 
 The war undoubtedly deprived them of 
 traditionally magnificent surroundings, 
 but it can hardly be responsible for a total 
 disappearance of the hauty mien tempered 
 by infinite condescension, the unvarying 
 elegance of diction, the chivalrous viitue, 
 with which fancy loves to Invest the old- 
 time despot. In all his stories Mr. Harris 
 prefers to describe the relation between 
 master and slave as one of loving pro- 
 tection and graceful devotion, rather than 
 one of brutal terrorism and craven fear. 
 The master is always a hero to his valet, 
 and the valet's love for the master passes 
 that of a brother. Fortunately for those 
 who like a pleasant tale, the author stands 
 apart from the crusade to divorce the true 
 
 209 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 aiicUlie hfautiful." [Nation.] "Mr. Har- 
 ris' southern sketches are always strili- 
 nig, from tlie genuineness of their liupan- 
 ity and their strong grasp of the deep 
 realities of life. The pathos of such a 
 story as 'Free Joe' would be almost too 
 pitiful if it adjdressed itself to our hearts 
 and consciences, and urged us to rit an ex- 
 isting wrong, instead of reviving thStful 
 reflexions upon the varied aspects of old 
 times in the South. There is, however, 
 just the difference between the fiction 
 which puts meaning and inspiration into a 
 gi-eat sweep of fieform, as, for example, 
 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' or 'The Annals of a 
 Sportsman ,' — and picturesque, touching 
 stories, Hlce these— that there is between the 
 vvorker who puts in the powerful yeast 
 which is to leaven the whole loaf and the 
 decorator who rounds it off and gilds it, 
 afterward. Not but that tales Uke' Little 
 Compton' and 'Free Joe' are as strongly 
 as gracefully told. But what they do is 
 not to shape and mold existing facts, but 
 to work up old traditions and revive and 
 prolong the last faint echoes of our civil 
 war. Pull of sombre and terrible pic- 
 tures as were the old days of slavery, they 
 furnish a mass of picturesque material 
 which no other fase of americau life pre- 
 sents. The faithful slave— the lit of whose 
 goodness and trutli and faithfulness only 
 serves to render his master's sins more 
 visible in the surrounding darkness, — is 
 dear to the heart of the romancer ; and it 
 is probable that he will for sometime con- 
 tinue to be a touching figure in our minor 
 fiction. Mr. Harris does not, however, 
 confine himself to pictures of bygone 
 days. The last half of the book describes 
 Georgia under the new regime." [Amer- 
 ican. • ' 708 
 FRESCOES, [by "Ouida" : Lippincott, 
 18S4.] "The five stories in Ouida's new 
 volume are all in dramatic form, and show 
 the keen, pitiless hand of the author in 
 customary exercise and power. The 
 longer of the sketches lends its name to the 
 book, and is the be.st of them. It j's clever, 
 powerful, harmless; brilliant with a cer- 
 tain brilliancy as is everything Ouida 
 
 writes; and it is interesting. An english 
 lady of family and property directs her a- 
 gent in Italy to send her an artist capable 
 of doing frescoes. . . The story is without 
 bitterness or bad blood of any sort. 'After- 
 noon,' one of the sketches which follow, 
 is based on the improbability of a man's 
 forgetting a girl whom he had maried and 
 deserted; afterwards, when she has be- 
 come a beautiful woman and a famous ar- 
 tist, fallipg in love with her; being denied 
 by her and teased by the denial until he has 
 been punished long enuf ; and then having 
 the fact disclosed to him, and coming into 
 possession of his own." [Boston "Liter- 
 ary World." T09 
 GAIN OF A LOSS (The.) [ by Hexiu- 
 ETTA Camilla (Jackson) Jbnkin: 
 LeypokU, 1869.] "It is some time since 
 we have encountered "the Jesuit" in an 
 english novel. He comes to lit again here, 
 and we are glad to find not one of his 
 typical and well known peculiarities want- 
 ing—he is as stealthy, as vwly, and' as un- 
 scrupulous as ever. As of old, his princi- 
 pal business is to "alienate into the coffers 
 of the church" all the propei-ty belonging 
 to other people which by hook or by crook 
 he can lay his hands on ; he is, in short, as 
 immoral in private and as hypocritical i;: 
 public as only the Jesuit of an english-' 
 woman's novel can everhope to be. [Com- 
 pare The Wellfields.] Poetical justice is 
 meted out to. him at last in a satisfactory 
 manner, not simply In that his machina- 
 tions come to naut, — that was to be ex- 
 pected—but his secret sins are discovered, 
 and he is dogged throudHt Europe by a 
 vindictive old woman whose meditated 
 vengeance is grimly foreshadowed thus : 
 "There are convent prisons where priests 
 do penance for the crimes of having been 
 found out." The novel contains;, also, a 
 njflmber of other romantic and rather hl- 
 strung personages— some of them remark- 
 able for their beauty, some for their good- 
 ness ; none, we think, for their superior 
 intelligence— vueing them, that is, from an 
 outsider's stand-point. As for the heio, 
 it is hard to say whether his personal 
 beauty, the mystery surrounding his birth, 
 
 210 
 
EOMAXTIC NOVELS. 
 
 or his staunch Protestantism, which is of 
 the muscular-Christian type, endears him 
 most to the heroine and to the reader. He 
 is by no means a bad fellow, altho to the 
 reader of many novels his character will 
 not seem startlingly original. The story is 
 pleasantly told, and will not, we supijose, 
 be found the less readable because it con- 
 tains plot and incident cnuf for one of 
 twice its length — not that it is itself short." 
 [Nation. 710 
 
 THE GALLANT LOEDS OF BOIS 
 DOKEE: ("Beaux Messieurs de Bois 
 DorCc) [by G : Sajtd: Dodd, 1890.] "was 
 one of her latest novels and one of the two 
 or three which were successfully dramar 
 tized. It occupies a middle ground be- 
 tween her passionate romances and her 
 pretty pastoral tales. Its time of action 
 is in the early part of the seventeenth 
 century, and it abounds in carefully 
 drawn and picturesque description of 
 the gentle manners, rude ways of livmg, 
 and chivalrous ideas of the lesser nobility 
 of that time. A tale of intrigue and 
 fiting forms the connecting chain of these 
 descriptions, and the romantic element 
 is not missing." [ Christ. Union. 711 
 
 GARDEN OE ARMIDA (The), [by 
 Ax.vE (Sheldon) Coombs : Cassell, 1890.] 
 "All that is most modern in vice, personi- 
 fied in an ameriean gentleman, contrasted 
 with the best approved antique virtues 
 bound up in an Italian nobleman, the two 
 somehow brStinto harmony by the gentle 
 widow, Rhoda Starr, who bitterly repents 
 not being good euuf to sacrifice herself to 
 the vicious and poetic Merriam, but who 
 is quite good enuf to deserve the love of 
 the saintly Di Loria— tnis makes 'The 
 Garden of Armida' perhaps dangerous 
 food for babes, but stimulating and whole- 
 some for grown people. There is just 
 enuf realism of the common sort to make 
 it certain that the author Is not fiting 
 windmills ; but the good Neapolitan is as 
 real as the wicked New-Yorker. As is 
 the case with all genuine antiques, he is 
 perfectly simple and natural, there is not 
 a trace of qualntness about him. The 
 scene of the story is in Italy, and its 
 
 pines and precipices, its oranges and ices, 
 get a fair share of attention ; but the reader 
 is so occupied with the people in the book 
 that he cannot weary of the scenery, and 
 does not even remark the paucity of inci- 
 dent and the absence of plot. Even the 
 wicked poet does something to justify our 
 Interest in him, at the end ; and tho he is 
 held up as an awful example, it is with a 
 mixture o* strength, tact, and rit pur- 
 pose, which secures just the proper degree 
 of consideration for the creature, and no 
 more." [ Critic. 712 
 
 GARDEN OF WOMEN (A), [by 
 "Sarah TYTLER",i. e., Henrietta Keddie : 
 Smith, 1873.] "Miss Tytler's rank hier 
 than the run of magazine tales, and, in 
 spite of her long sentences and occasional- 
 ly involved forms of expression, they will 
 be read with pleasnrfe, We have two con- 
 tinental stories in iorfoWe's surrender to 
 her Capitaine, and the tragic-comic love 
 afl'airs between the much-enduring mem- 
 bers of the princely house of Kurzheim. 
 It is diiflcult to select special instances of 
 the novelist's skill in so wide and various 
 a field, but the tale of Molly and Adam, 
 whose dour obstinacy works them so long - 
 a harvest of self-torture and discomfort, 
 is, perhaps, the most masterly sketch of 
 the peculiarities of scotch peasant char- 
 acter, while "London Pride" and "Love 
 lies Bleeding" are the flowers we should 
 choose from 'English Garden Plots;' 
 The story, too, called appropriately Btie, 
 of the fair young lady of quality who 
 loses her lover throu the terrilde misfor- 
 tune of small pox, recalls several "over 
 true" anecdotes of the plague, which 
 caused many a domestic tragedy a century 
 ago." ] Athenajum. 713 
 
 GEIER-WALLY \Appleton, 1876.]= 
 THE VULTURE MAIDEN. 
 
 GERMAN LOVE [by F : Max Mui.- 
 ler: Chapman, \9ai.'\ "tho poetical and 
 elegant in ^ts confessions, is so prolix and 
 so discursive, and the lovers talk so much 
 like Quarterly Revuers about poetry, and 
 matters of belief and resignation, more 
 serious still, that we feel that the labor of a 
 skilled translator has been somewhat 
 
 211 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 thrown away in rendering what is so long, 
 so learned, but so little like love-tallc. — 
 There is th6t in the boolt , hut small reality ; 
 and the thOt will chiefly please those who 
 would prefer to read the 'Papers of an 
 Alien' in the original." [ Athenoeum.] "It 
 relates in reminiscent form the love of 9. 
 young man for an invalid princess, who 
 who after much hesitation consented to 
 mary him. The stress of emotion, liow- 
 ever, put an end to her existence. There 
 is little life in the book ; but it has that 
 distant prettiness which 1>elongs by birth, 
 one would say, to german writers of idyllic 
 prose." [Nation.] "It is a 'fratras' of 
 the most insipid and siclsly sentimentality 
 expressed in hyperbolical terms, and with 
 'a nice derangment of epitafs' woi-thy of 
 Mrs. Malaprop." [ Westminster Eev. 714 
 
 , SAME, ["Memories"] translated 
 
 by G : r. Upton, Chicago, 1874. 
 
 , SAME, translated by G. A. M., 
 
 London, Mullan, 1877; Sonnenschein, 
 1884. 
 
 GIAjSTNETTO [by Ma. Majendie: 
 Holt, 1876.] "tho scarcely more than a 
 novelette in dimensions, is a very strong 
 and artistic piece of work. . . The story is 
 . of an Italian fisher-boy, who, dumb from 
 his birth, and passionately rebellious a- 
 gainst the infliction, suddenly recovered 
 his voice after a narrow cscaipe from ship- 
 wreck in a storm. The strange character 
 of this fenomenon, coupled with the boy's 
 stranger mood, caused the Superstitious 
 villagers to believe that Giannetto, like Dr. 
 Faustus of the legend, had entered into a 
 compact with the evil-one. He appears to 
 have shared this belief, and, tho he subse- 
 quently became a famous singer, he 
 deemed himself inevitably given over to the 
 Furies, and gradually degenerated into a 
 gloomy, morose, and violent man. Final- 
 ly, when on the verge of insanity or sui- 
 cide, he was saved by the faithful minis- 
 trations of a priest, who had devoted liim- 
 self for long years to this one object. The 
 narrative is intensely, almost painfully in- 
 teresting throu(Jtit; and the author finds 
 opportunities by the way to construct for 
 us some exceedingly vivid and charming 
 
 pictures of Italian scenery and social life." 
 [Appleton's .Journal. 715 
 
 GLORIA VICTIS [by "Ossir ScHU- 
 BiN": Gottesberger, 1886.] "is in every 
 way as fine as 'Our Own Set' [No. 513], and 
 in some ways finer. It goes deeper into the 
 heart of human nature, with clear inslt 
 yet sympathetic comprehension, and is 
 more powerful because more sad. The 
 story of a sinning mother whose ex,piation 
 lay in having to humiliate herself before 
 the son she adored is most beautifully 
 told ; and the story of the son is not less 
 strong and touching. Both stories are 
 full of minor points of fine artistic value, 
 and the final worth of the whole lies in the 
 dignity, solemnity and sympathy with 
 which a dangerous situation is dealt with." 
 [Critic. J16 
 
 GOLD ELSIE [by"E. Maelitt," i. e., 
 "Eugenie John : Lippincott, 1868, — Strah- 
 an. 1873.] "has much that is interesting 
 and attractive. When we look critically at 
 the characters and most of the framework 
 of the plot, we find, indeed, that there is 
 much exaggeration, and th.at idealism is 
 carried to an excess — the good and 
 chaiining being far too good and charm- 
 ing, while their opposites are systemati- 
 cally blackened. In spite of these faults, 
 however, the story is, pleasant and read- 
 able. We are interested in the heroine 
 who gives her name to it, and we recog- 
 nize the writer's claim to have such an 
 overpowering regard for her chief char- 
 acter as makes it impossible that she 
 should rest contented with merely natural 
 attractions. The description of Thurin- 
 gian forest scenery, of castle ruins, and 
 of peaceful german households, add great- 
 ly to the charm of the story." [ Athen- 
 Kium.] "We have taken so much pleasure 
 in reading this book that we really can not 
 find it in our heart to comment ungrate- 
 fully on the fact that in all essential de- 
 tails of plot and characterization it is an 
 almost exact reproduction of its predeces- 
 sor, 'The Old Mamsell's Secret.' [ "Gold 
 Elsie" was published 2 years before this 
 "predecessor' but the order was reversed in 
 the Wister translations.— W : M. G.] The 
 
 212 
 
EOMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 niitbor is still llting vigorously against her 
 ancient enemies, hypocrisy in religion and 
 inordinate pride of birth and social posi- 
 tion. "We find our interest in the story — 
 which is, however, quite well enuf man- 
 aged—entirely subordinate to the amused 
 admiration with which we regard its au- 
 thor. She is the heartiest of democrats, 
 and much the best advocate of the 
 woman's cause, as it appears in fiction, 
 whom we have seen. The typical german 
 woman, fair and rotund, who 'mends the 
 papa's hose' and plays for him the part of 
 a dutiful and overworlicd upper servant, 
 and is fitly rewarded therefor by ac- 
 companying him to the family club and 
 the festive beer-garden, has no recognized 
 existence in Miss Marlitt's ideal world. 
 Her heroines settle themselves firmly on 
 the rock of their own individuality, ''"'^ 
 being unusually well provided with the 
 weapons of personal beauty, innocence, 
 and genuine love for truth, 'moral eleva- 
 tion and spiritual growth,' do most sturdy 
 battle with cant and withHhe aristocratic 
 prejudices of their lovers. They come out 
 victorious, of course, and the heroes, who 
 combine in a curious fashion the peculiar- 
 ities of "Rochester" and "St. John Rivers," 
 get in the end most loving and obedient 
 wives. Really, both Elsife in this story, 
 and Felicitas in the former one, are alto- 
 gether delitful characters— and none the 
 worse for being idealizations rather than 
 portraits, since the idealization is of a 
 good kind, and will give young girls who 
 may read the books an impulse in the r!t 
 direction. We commend them to all novel- 
 readers — to many of whom the faults which 
 interfere somewhat with our enjoyment 
 of them — the author's over-fondness for 
 dramatic situations, for instance, her love 
 for ruined castles, buried treasures, and 
 artistically unfortunate secrets, which 
 finally provide the radical heroine with as 
 aristocratic a lineage as that of her op- 
 pressor—will very likely not seem ob- 
 jectionable." [Nation. 717 
 
 , SAME, transl. by L. P. Palmer, in 
 
 "Ladies Repository," march-nov., 1867. 
 
 GOLDSMITH'S WIFE (The) [by 
 
 Henriette Etiennettb Fanny (Ar- 
 NAUD) Reybaud : Appleton, 1878.] "con- 
 tains a charming brigand, melancholy, cul- 
 tivated, devoted to his mother's portrait 
 and another man's wife, a defender of 
 helpless women, and a, possessor of 
 luxurious apartments in a lonely moun- 
 tain pass; but his sins find him out and he 
 dies at the block." [Nation. 718 
 
 GOOD FIGHT (A), [by C: Reade: 
 IJarper,l9a9.'\ "Mr. Reade has taken this 
 little record, which would never have be- 
 come historical but for the accidental con- 
 sequences of the loves of Gerard and ilar- 
 garet, and wr6t it into a story of exquisite 
 grace and delicacy. A dead and half 
 forgotten fact, he has warmed it into fresh 
 life, and given it all the beauties with /> 
 which his brilliant imagination could en- 
 dow it. Tho shorter and simpler than 
 most, it is certainly inferior to none of hia 
 other works. Perhaps its simplicity is its 
 first merit. The extravagant peculiarities 
 of style which over-laid his two longest 
 books have almost entirely disappeared in 
 this. Here the narrative is for the most 
 part as unostentatious as the events are 
 natural. But its power is remarkable. 
 Altho the regularity with which the inci- 
 dents follow one another is such that they 
 may all be anticipated, yet the interest in 
 them never fades. There is nothing 
 startlingly new in the whole story. On 
 the contrary, it follows pretty closely the 
 old formula of troubled true-love until 
 the Closing chapter, when triumfant vir- 
 tue sets In. But this takes nothing from 
 the effect. All is so clear and vivid in de- 
 scription, so glittering with gleams of wit, 
 relieved hy soft shadows of purest pathos, 
 so full of the spirit of tender humanity, 
 that the reader finds no reason to com- 
 plain, except that the end is so speedily 
 reached." [Atlantic. 719 
 
 GRANDISSIMES (The) [by G: W. 
 Cable : Scribner, 1880.] "is a diversion 
 in favor of the old romance. Nevertheless, 
 in painting the old Creole life of New- 
 Orleans at the beginning of the century 
 he has in effect broken new ground, and, 
 as the soil is rich, one's first impression is 
 
 213 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 that he has contented himself witli merely 
 overturning it. But, rich as it is, it needs 
 an artist to exploit it with the success 
 shown in 'The Grandissimes,' and Mr. 
 Cable is a literary artist of unusual 
 powers . . . THe result is inevitably the 
 happy one that the reader shares his en- 
 thusiasm before he suspects its existence, 
 and — as we have admitted — is led into re- 
 ferring the merit of the book to its material. 
 On the whole, one finally reflects, however, 
 this is the homage a work of talent always 
 exacts, and it is entirely probable that the 
 actual Creole milieu in 1802 was as prosaic 
 as actuality always appears till the chron- 
 icler arrives with his magic lenses. The 
 poetic vfiin in Mr. Cable is well developed 
 and defined, and the picture he conjures 
 from the Louisiana levees and . swamps is 
 jsteeped in sentiment. It has an atmosfere 
 and fragrance quite its own throu which 
 it communicates itself and its meaning 
 palpably to the senses." [Nation. 720 
 
 GEAZIELLA [by A. DE Lamautine: 
 translated by W. 'C. Urquhart: Sotien, 
 1871.] "purports to relate the author's ex- 
 periences in early youth, while rusticating 
 on the coast of Italy. He renders a ser- 
 vice to a fisherman's family, and becomes 
 installed in their cottage. With one of the 
 inmates, a lovely girl named Graziella, he 
 falls in love. Her parents propose to make 
 her the wife of a wealth y cousi n : but the girl 
 objects, and runs away in the nit. Her 
 young french lover finds her under re- 
 markable circumstances; but never re- 
 turns, and soon afterwards hears of her 
 death. The story is full of pathetic beauty, 
 tinged with french filosofy-and the enthu- 
 siasm of a young poet's . iinagination." 
 [Boston "Literary World." 731 
 
 , SAME, transl. by Eunnion, Jan- 
 sen, 1875. 
 
 , SAME, transl. by NonwooD, 
 
 Charing Cross Pub. Co., 1876. 
 
 GREAT EXPECTATIONS, [by C: 
 Dickens: 18.^7.] "Pip, the hero of the 
 book, is a youth suddenly promoted from 
 the smithy of his brother-in-law, Joe Gar- 
 gery, to the position of a young gentleman 
 of great expectations. But neither Pip 
 
 nor the reader suspects, till they are told, 
 whence these expectations are derived, 
 and then Pip and the reader are equally 
 sui-prised. Joe Gargery is one of the un- 
 couth beings with a heart as huge as his 
 body, of whom Dickens is so fond, whose 
 simplicity of nature confounds the world- 
 ly sagacity of shrewd inen. And Dickens 
 makes his readers no less fond of him. 
 The great blundering, ungrammatical, 
 overgrown Joe, a kind of domestic Titan, 
 helpless in speech, and of no education, 
 is pathetic from his aflectionate fldelity, 
 and sublime throu the naked instinct of 
 duty. . . Miss Havisham is the most emfa- 
 tTc sketch of character. She was the vic- 
 tim of some bitter nuptial disappointment, 
 and in her grey age her crazed brain holds 
 her the prisoner of that tragical moment. 
 She lives in her, chamber garnished for the 
 bridal, wearing her nuptial v6il and dress 
 which have grown yellow with time, tot- 
 tering upon her cane about the table upon 
 ^hich the bride cake molds and the ghast- 
 ly candles burn the whole- year round. 
 The object of her life is to destroy the 
 peace of men — to break their hearts in re- 
 venge for her own grief. She is old and 
 withered, and can inflame no hearts with 
 her beauty, so she cherishes a young and 
 superb girl, whom she has educated to be 
 her avenger. The convict is a bold picture 
 i.s Dickens' most vigorous vfiin ; and Wera- 
 mick, the clerk of the criminal lawyer, 
 who is a lawyer's clerk in town, and a 
 quaint, simple human beihg in the country, 
 is one of those exquisitely humane touches 
 which show the master ' of his art. Mr. 
 Jaggers, the criminal lawyer, who knows 
 all the evil doers and who seems capable 
 of all their crimes, is curiously contrasted 
 with his clerk." [ G : W : Curtis. 723 
 
 GREAT LADY (A^ [by "J: van 
 Dew ALL," i. c., A: Kuhnc: Lippincott, 
 1873]". . . is not unreadable, being a som- 
 bre tale of which the scene is laid iu 
 Poland, a country of which one hears 
 willingly, in 1863." [Nation. 733 
 
 GRElFteNSTEIN. [by Fr. M. Craw- 
 ford: Macmillan, 1889.] "Mr. Craw- 
 ford has written about people of many 
 
 2U 
 
EOMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 nationalities, bat never, perhaps, has he 
 been more imbued with the national spirit 
 ho infuses into his uharacters, nor more 
 carried away by the fascination of the 
 local coloring with which he enriches his 
 canvasf, than in 'Greifeusteiu.' It is a 
 novel of germau life ; and he has made 
 the book distinctively german by skillfully 
 interpenetrating scenes, characters, and 
 story with ideas, customs, traditions, 
 which belong to germans and to germans 
 alone. He is a brilliant painter, and likes 
 large eflccts which waylay, startle, and 
 dazitle the reader. The descriptions of 
 germau student life in the present novel 
 arc, in their way, the best piyt of the 
 book. . . With less skillful treatment, and 
 with less careful preparation of the i-ead- 
 er's mind for some horrible dCnoument, 
 this scene would have been too r'evolting, 
 too barbarous. As it is, the author has 
 invested it with the stern majesty of the 
 loftiest tragedy. The event has loomed 
 behind the story from the begiuuiug. 
 There has been sin, and there must be ex- 
 piation. Then the inherent qualities in 
 the grim, stern old men ; the acceptance of 
 military necessity, their feeling of personal 
 honor; their habit of indomitable courage; 
 — all these characteristics render logical 
 and possible a brutal and materialistic 
 punishment which suits the dark ages 
 better than ours." [American.]— "The 
 type of human nature depicted in this 
 book, which is distinctly one for novel- 
 readers to be thankful for, is that of the 
 old-fashioned german country gentleman. 
 And this requires to be drawn special 
 attention to, because the story cannot l)e 
 thoroly appreciated by any one who does 
 not bear in mind the scrupulous respect 
 for honor, both of families and individ- 
 uals, which is characteristic of that type. 
 . . . All the persouages, save one, are of 
 the heroic order,— knTtly, Brave, self-con- 
 trolled, strong to do and to suffer, and un- 
 hesitating in <!hoosing death rather than 
 evil. Honor, is to them no myth, but a 
 fact, a priceless possesision, a household 
 idol for which every other consideration is 
 to be sacriticed, "a law having rules, and 
 
 conditions, and penalties, and rewards, all 
 defined in the heart, and all equally be- 
 yond the range of the intelligence'. . . And 
 it is with a shuddering sense of inevitablc- 
 uess that one beliolils them dealing out 
 fierce justice (according" to their code) 
 with a pitilessness wliich is rendered ex- 
 cusable by the fact of their being every 
 whit as pitiless for themselves as they are 
 for others. Hilda von Sigmundskron is a 
 maiden worthy of the knStly gentlemen 
 amongst whom she moves as heroine. 
 Beautiful, fearless, true, gracious, and un- 
 changing, she is an attractive and unique 
 figure, distinguished by a dominant 
 strength of character that is really little 
 short of sublime. [ Spectator. 734 
 
 GUENN. [by B. W. (HOWARD) Teu- 
 FFX: Osgood, 1SS3.] '-The story of 
 'Guenn' is so brlt and sympathetic, so well 
 setofl'by a background of suggestive and 
 charming pictures all tinged with delicate 
 hues of sentiment, that few will hesitate 
 to. pronounce it u, very delitful book. 
 Much of the freshness of reality is felt in 
 every description, and so many fugitive 
 and elusive traits of nature have been 
 gathered at a happy moment of opportuni- 
 ty that it becomes evident that the author 
 has been faithful in observation and study 
 of some actual Plouvenec. . . She has 
 given Us the study of a girl, wild, passion- 
 ate, and proud, untamable as the wind. 
 whose exuberant and unexhausted feelings 
 are all spent on a generous love for the ar- 
 tist who paints her picture. The artist 
 Hamor is clearly a woman's hero, — beau- 
 tiful with a 'tC'te de Christ,' cool, delicate, 
 lesthetic, subordiiiating every faculty and 
 every passion to his love for art." [ Ljp- 
 pincott's.] "It is a brave venture to choose 
 a subject so sad that only great riferit in 
 the telling of the story can ever bring the 
 reader back to it. . . It is pleasant to give 
 to the rest thoro and hcaJty praise. . . The 
 story has in it al] the possibilities of the 
 tragedy that is at.once the most sensational 
 and the most commonplace in fiction. It 
 is no ordinary power which makes such a 
 story original in plot, and faithful to truth 
 in the conditions in which it was imagilicd. 
 
 215 
 
KOMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 . . . 'Guenn,' tlie fairest and the sbyest of 
 girls amoiij; tlie iisher-folk in a little eoast- 
 village of Bretagne, is coveteil anil won 
 by an artist for his model. AVakencd to 
 new life by contact with finer natures, 
 the girl throws her whole soul into her 
 hopes for the success of her picture, and 
 into her devotion to the artist. The worli 
 done, he departs as litly as he came, and 
 the poor child is broken-hearted, not dis- 
 lionored; and therein appears the original- 
 ity of the story." [Nation. 725 
 "guy LIVINGSTONE, see No. 591. 
 GUY MANNERING [ by Wa. Scott: 
 1815.] "is without historical connections 
 other than those of social details ; such as 
 smugglers, gypsies, and the like. Scene 
 in Scotland, and the«time mlt be a genera- 
 tion later than that of 'Waverley.' Sleg 
 Merrilies.is one of the charascters." [ Bos- 
 ton "Literary World."] "Siii Walter 
 Scott, that beloved writer, who, to quote 
 George Eliot, 'has made a chief part in the 
 happiness of many young: lives,' had, as 
 Goethe said, 'a wholly new art, with laws 
 of its own.' Neman knew better how to- 
 tell J, story, or appreciateif more keenly 
 the value of a good plot. But the con- 
 struction of a Waverley Novel, admirable 
 tho it be, is not its chief distinction. The 
 charm of these immortal tales is to be 
 found in the vlvitt imagijiation , the quit* 
 humor, the picturesque description, the 
 keen sense of natural beauty^ the recog- 
 nition of what is noble as well as what is 
 grotesque in human life, which, inspire* 
 every page, The soul of Scott breathe* 
 throu them all, giving them unity, color, 
 and poetical vitality. No modern writer 
 has hadsuch fame, not only in England,but 
 on the Continent., 1,500,000 copies of his 
 novels are said to have been sold in France 
 before 1830, his popularity has not waned 
 since, and no author has more richly de- 
 served his fame. For Scott is one of the 
 healthiest and purest of writers, as he was 
 the most manly and lovable of men. It is 
 his humanity, his large heartednes», which 
 make him akin to Shaksperc. In one 
 sense, of course, there can be no compari- 
 son between these poets, but in the art 
 
 which elevates and sweetens human life, 
 Shakspere and Scott are brothers." 
 [Spectator. 726 
 
 GYPSY'S PROPHECY, see BBIDE H 
 FATE. 
 
 HARRY LORREQUER [by C : Leveu : 
 Chapman, 1847.] "wa.s the first, and is 
 in many respects the best, of Mr. Lever's 
 stories. It displays all his excellence in 
 perfection ; it takes us ^;ompletely into the 
 marvellous laud which he has made his, 
 and throu which he travels, with so much 
 ease and satisfaction. All the pleasures 
 of life are spread before us ; wit, wine, 
 and women filing and loving, daring 
 leaps, abJird hoaxes, mad Irishmen. We 
 iire led from story to stoi-y, and have good 
 things thrown before us in profusion ; and 
 it is all done so pleasantly. The monkeys 
 who stay at home cannot help liking to 
 hear the traveled monkey talk ; and we 
 are obliged to a writer who can almos,t' 
 persuade us that life painled in 'Harry 
 Lorrequer' is a real or a possible life. 
 What a passage throu the vale of tears we 
 should make of it, if we could but come 
 upon the land of this Mandeville of fiction, 
 where every day we could get intq a scrape 
 and peril our life, only to emerge with 
 gi-eatcr gloi-y and the securest safety; 
 where men with the gayest irish songs and 
 the best irish jokes were always gathered 
 round the most sparkling bowls, and no 
 one had ever anything to do, or suffer, or 
 repent of !" [ National Review. T27 
 
 HEART OF MIDLOTHIAN (The) 
 [by Sir Wa. Scott.] "is probably the 
 best known of Scott's novels. G : Robert- 
 son is a young man of family who has 
 taken to evil courses and is now the as- 
 sociate of smugglers and robbers. He is 
 handsome, bold, reckless, and in his way 
 g-enerous ; and having somehow made the 
 acquaintance of Effie Deans, then living at 
 home with her father, and her half-sister 
 Jeanie, he falls sincerely in love with her, 
 and tho he becomes her seducer is even at 
 that time only dissuaded from marying 
 her by his companions. A cliild is born 
 which mysteriously disappears; Eflie is 
 arrested on a charge of child-murder, 
 
 21G 
 
Missing Page 
 
Missing Page 
 
EOMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 is the foundation wliereon is constructed 
 the exciting novel before us, which weaves 
 the legend into the possible circumstances 
 of a human being's life with remarkable 
 skill, so as to make every detail of the life 
 correspond exactly to what had been p're- 
 dicted, and yet not to introduce anything 
 ^yh^ch is not explicable by natural causes. 
 So cleverly is this done, that even when 
 one has finished the book, one cannot say 
 with certainly whether the heroine is 
 meant to be a fulfilment and verification 
 of the old tale, or merely a person whose 
 career strangely lent itself to the impres- 
 sion that the legend had been something 
 more than a legend. . . The book contains 
 thrilling and novel situations, stirring ad- 
 ventures spiritedly told, and plenty of 
 material to keep up the attention and in- 
 terest, from beginning to end." [Specta- 
 tor. ] Tlie same idea is used with great 
 eflect in a tale of absorbing interest (scene 
 in Germany and Italy) called The Por- 
 trait of Concitta P— , by "E. Gerard" in 
 "Longman's Magazine," Feb. 1891. 735 
 
 HIDDEW SVS. see ALL FOR LOVE. 
 
 HIDDEN TREASURES LbyFrPlAUD- 
 MAS, 1852.] "is an interesting tale of the 
 Prussian war against Bonaparte. It is 
 neatly tho somewhat mechanically con- 
 structed, and is, we take it for granted, a 
 translation from the gemian. There is 
 good grouping of character in the story. 
 It relates the fidelity of an old soldjer to 
 his colonel's family, who havebeen cheated 
 out of their heritage by a wicked attorney, 
 — and how the soldier buries in a forest a 
 certain chest containing papers of conse- 
 quence to the colonel's family. Young 
 Sigismund is a spirited figure such as boys 
 like to read about) — and there is enuf of 
 tlje horrors of war in thfe tale to awaken 
 love of peaceful life. The opening chap- 
 ter, in which the french soldiers chase the 
 old veteran and his old horse 'All,' is 
 grafic and interesting, and in many parts 
 of the story there are a freshness and a 
 healthy vivacity which are very pleasing." 
 [Athenaeum. 736 
 
 HIGHER THAX THE CHURCH [by 
 W.. (Birch) v. IIillekx : Gottesberger, , 
 
 1882.] : "Hans loves Marie Ruppaehcr, but 
 Marie's father despises an 'artist' and will 
 not listen to his suit. At last, however, the 
 stern parent consents, but only on the 
 condition that Hans shall carve a (jcw al- 
 tar which shall be 'hier than the church.' 
 Hans sets to work, and ingeniously crowns 
 the new altar with an overbending mass 
 of carved foliage, whose, central branch 
 touches the roof of the choir. 'Mr. Rup- 
 pacher', he calmly says, when his work is 
 done, 'look above you, the altar here is 
 exactly one foot hier than the church, and 
 yet it stands within it. I have merely 
 bent th,e top'. And so Hans wins his 
 bride. The story is simply and sweetly 
 told." [Boston "Literary World." 737 
 HOHENSTEINS (The), [by F: SPIEL- 
 hagen: LeypoMt, 1870.] "The story 
 opens in the spring of ''K48; and deals with 
 3 generations of the Hohenstcin family 
 then living, and variously aftecting and 
 affected by the political and i-evoUitionary 
 activity of that year and the following 
 one. . . Munzer, an ardent patriot, and a 
 revolutionary politician, is the real hero of 
 the book, and is powerfully drawn. . . In 
 the Hohenstein family, we have the usual 
 rich and despotic head of the family, the 
 usual interested and seiieming heirs, and 
 the female villain, who is rather a 
 special possession of gei-man novelists,. l)ut 
 who in this instance is unusually genuine 
 and coherent, tho decidedly improper; we 
 have the good young man who is poor and 
 wearisome, with the profligate favorites of 
 fortune, his coasins — in short the usual 
 dramatis persome; but the life of the book 
 is the incubation, the bursting forth and 
 the collapse of a political movement, and 
 here Spielhagen has been a true artist, and 
 has focussed the lit on Munzer's figure. 
 This man, variously gifted, influential, 
 beloved, and sincere, whom^ we see first as 
 the centre of a great and hopeful activity, 
 we follow throu the tragic mistakes and 
 failures of his life to its close (which, by 
 the way, is the best managed thing in the 
 book), and forgive him his long speeches 
 for the sake of the earnestness in him."' 
 [Nation. 738 
 
 219 
 
KOMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 HOMOSELLE [byM.. Spear (Nicho- 
 las) Tiernan: Osgood, 18S1.] "is a 
 eharmiiig addition to Southern literature. 
 Dealing with life on the James Eiver un- 
 der the|pld regime, it is written with a 
 tact and delicacy and cleverness which 
 leave the fact of the author's Southern 
 sympathies to be surmised merely from 
 the abundance of local color . . . The con- 
 versation of the story, even to the love- 
 making, is brit and pithy." £ Critic. 739 
 
 HONOR; or. The Slave Driver's Daugh- 
 ter, [by Stephen G. Bulkinch: Spen- 
 cer, 1864.] "In this interesting volume, 
 the suilerings and injustices caused by 
 slavery find a vivid and yet a fair por- 
 traiture. There is no passion or partisan- 
 ship in the colors; no extravagance or 
 special pleading in the representation. 
 Nor is there a singte atteftipt at 'fine writ- 
 ing'. The ijlot is well-conceived and well 
 br6t out. The interest deepens, with 
 properly accumulating effect, to the close. 
 In the development of character there 
 is variety, united with distinct characteri- 
 zation, and a fine exhibition not only of 
 the loftier and more delicate sense of 'hon- 
 or' but of christian principle. We heartily 
 wish this graceful work of an accomplished 
 New England writer mit take the place of 
 much of the heated, turgid, and tawdy 
 composition which runs throu so many 
 modern novels." [Church -Monthly. 740 
 
 aoUE WILL COME ('Ihe). ["Und 
 Sie kommt, doch I") by W.. (BiKCH) vON 
 HiLLERN : Tauchnitz, — Gottesberger, 
 1S8L] "Historical in the sense that its 
 scene is laid in a period iiOO years back, is 
 this ''I'ale of an Alpine Cloister.' In 
 truth, however, it belongs to no particular 
 period or place, but it is one of those in- 
 tense stories of passion and suflering, of 
 sin and its expiation, which represent 
 nothing which could have happened any- 
 where at any time, but which shake the 
 soul and fire the imagination. Such a 
 story has almost nothing in common with 
 the modern novel, which aims to give a 
 realistic and recognizable picture of life : 
 its scale of portraiture is gigantesque, its 
 characters are demigods or demons, the 
 
 emotions which it depicts are superhu- 
 man in their intensity, and its situations 
 conform not to the probable or the possi- 
 ble, but to the dramatic unity of the au- 
 thor's conception." [ Appletou's Jour. 741 
 
 HOUSE OF PEN ARYAN (The), [by 
 Jules Sandeau : with "Notary's Daugh- 
 ter," byL.D'Aulney,Ben«e2^,lS78.] "The 
 picture of KeniSe de Penarvan, last of her 
 race, burying her yoiith and^ beauty for 
 years in the joint composition of a history 
 of her house— her collaborator being a 
 most admirably original copy [if the 
 oxymoron be allowable] of Dominie Samp- 
 son— waking up to real life when she finds 
 that there is still a Penarvan alive and in 
 danger of the 2 unpardonable sins of lib- 
 eralism and a mesalliance, captivating and 
 maryihg him almost against his will, 
 forcing him into the ranks of the Chouans, 
 where he meets his death, bringing up her 
 dauter, to whom she never forgives her 
 sex. In stern seclusion, turning her off at 
 once for marrying a bourgeois, and only 
 at last melted into humanity by her grand- 
 child, is in many ways an admirable one. 
 ... If 'La Maison de rena:rvan' and its 
 ffellows are not acceptable to every mood 
 of every mind, that is a drawback which 
 they share with a good deal of literature. 
 It may perhaps require a little time to ad- 
 just the eye to 'the subdued atmosfere of a 
 region 'where the world is quiet', where 
 there is passion enuf , but passion which 
 rarely tears itself to tatters, and c4n live, 
 and sometimes die, without shrieking and 
 attitudinising. But when the eye gets its 
 focus it is apt to rotui-n to the spectacle, 
 and to be greatly refreshed and delited 
 thereby. 'I"o use once more in an altered 
 and happier form, words which were ap- 
 plied to Mr. Sandcau by a greater than he 
 in days long gone by. 'Quand on I'aura 
 trouv6, on saura le garder'i" [Saints- 
 bury. 743 
 
 , SAME, in "Lilies of the Valley", 
 
 Tauchnitz, 1879. 
 
 HOUSE OP THE SEVEN GABLES 
 (The), [by Nathaniel Hawthorne: 
 Ticknor, 1851.] "While the story is reg- 
 ularly couyergent to a d6noument, after 
 
 220 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 the manner of the novel proper, it is at 
 the same time a perfect pieture-gallery of 
 scene and character. It is a most success- 
 ful attempt to connect a bygone time witli 
 the very present that is flitting away from 
 us. It is a legend, prolonging itself from 
 an epoch now gray in the distance, down 
 into our own broad day-l!t, and bringing 
 along with it some of its legendary mist ; 
 and the story has its moral, moreover, for 
 it illusti'ates the truth that the wrong-do- 
 ing of one generation lives into the suc- 
 cessive ones, and divesting itself of every 
 temporary advantage, becomes a pure and 
 uncontrollable mischief. . . The sketch of 
 the progress and final completion of the 
 seven-gabled edifice is admirably artistic; 
 and the weird picture of its founder, 
 found dead in his apartment on the day 
 of his 'house-warming' is woi-thy of the 
 pen of Scott." [Knickerbocker.] — ... 
 "The scene, which is laid In the old Puri- 
 tanic town of Salem, extends from the 
 period of the witchcraft excitement to the 
 present time, connecting the legends of 
 the ancient superstition with the recent 
 mai-vels of animal magnetism^ and aflbrd- 
 ing full scope for the Indulgence of the 
 most weird and sombre fancies. Destitute 
 of the hily-wr6t manifestations of passion 
 which distinguished the 'Scarlet Letter,' 
 it is more terrific in its conception, and 
 not less intense in its execution, but ex- 
 quisitely relieved by charming portrait- 
 ures of character, and quaint and comic 
 descriptions of social eccentricities." 
 [ Harper's. 743 
 
 HOUSE ON THE MOOR (The) [by 
 M. O. (W.) Oliphant: Surst, 1S60.] 
 "is very interesting, and the interest 
 deepens as the story proceeds. In the 
 first volume the germ of hate, and the 
 morbid brooding over a long past injury, 
 are seen beginning their deadly growth. 
 There is a quiet tragic power in the 
 picture of the lonely, house, the joyless 
 fire-side, the unloving household, which is 
 better than anything we remember by the 
 same author." [Athenaeum. 744 
 
 HOUSEHOLD OF BOUVEKIE [ 1860] , 
 see GABDINAL'S DAUGETEB. 
 
 HOW HE DID IT. [by E. A.. Dupuy: 
 Peterson, 18TJ.] "Miss Dupuy is a south- 
 ern lady who writes novels, in which 
 there is a curious combination of all the 
 faults and weaknesses which can well be 
 contained in a work of fiction. 'How He 
 Did It' may be taken as a fair sample of 
 her skill as a novelist. Its plot is prepos- 
 terous, its Incidents absurd, its characters 
 impossible, and its style utterly wretched. 
 There may have besn weaker novels 
 written ; but if so, we have never had the 
 misfortune to meejt them." [Citizen. 745 
 
 HUGUENOT EXILES, see ALL FOE 
 LOVE. 
 
 HUNCHBACK OF NOTEE DAME 
 [Bentley, 1843; N.-Y., Dick, 1862] = 
 NOTRE DAME. 
 
 IP, YES, AND PERHAPS, [by Ed- 
 ■WARi) E. Hale : Ticknor, 1868.] "So to 
 write a fictitious narrative that you shall 
 deceive even the very elect ; to invent out 
 of whole cloth a story which shall actually 
 beguile numberless cool, sensible people, 
 into fully believing every word you say — 
 this requires such genius as few men be- 
 sides Mr. Hale possess. . . It is not merely 
 truthfulness to nature which marks Mr. 
 Hale's works ; that is too tame an expres- 
 sion ; he absolutely takes you out of the 
 domain of fancy, and compels you to 
 believe that you are not only reading a 
 record of what actually occurred, but a 
 part of which you saw, or heard of, or 
 read at the time ; said point of time being, 
 of course, years ago, but not so far off 
 that your memory does not hold some 
 trace of the story. You read more famous 
 works of fiction than Mr. Hale's, with tlie 
 flattering comment of 'How true to life 
 this is !' But you read ' The Man without 
 a Country,' and 'My Double,' with the 
 feeling that this is life itself; it is a leaf 
 out of the writer's own experience, and 
 you enjoy being the first to whom he has 
 confided the story. To cheat the sense 
 into an involuntary belief that the imag- 
 inary persons were realities, and their 
 haps and mishaps were actual occurrences 
 —that is the audacity of genius. . . Nor is 
 this pecuhar charm of reality all which 
 
 221 
 
EOMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 the author of these unpretending tales 
 brings to his work. A wholesome Jesson 
 — not too prominent — points every tale, 
 and throu the whole there gleams a thread 
 of quaint humor which reminds one of 
 some of the older english writers. . . There 
 are 11 sketches or stories in the book, 
 every one of which is good, and none con- 
 taining a dull line." [ Overland. 746 
 ' IMMENSEE. [by Th. [Woldsen] 
 Storm: Phil'a, L^poldt, 1S64.] "This 
 little story is pei-haps unrivalled in ger- 
 man fiction for its extrepe simplicity and 
 pathos. It opens with a sketch of an old 
 man, in one of the quiet towns of the 
 Eheinland, returning from his walk at 
 the close of an autuma day to his comfort- 
 able library, full of the books and pictures 
 in the midst of wliich he had dwelt so 
 long, and where, in the gathering dark- 
 ness, he sits now to muse and to rest. 
 And presently a moon-beam falls across 
 the portrait of a well-remembered face, 
 and he munners 'Elizabeth' and dreams 
 of the long-goSe years,— of his merry 
 childhood and ^lappy home. The story 
 which follows of the 2 children Reinhardt 
 and Elizabeth, — how they grew up to- 
 gether, and strolled in the meadows, and 
 were lost ih the forest together, — is so 
 very brief, and the event which parts 
 them so very common, that one would be 
 wholly at a loss to understand the fascina- 
 tion of the narrative from the mere state- 
 ment of its incidents. While Reinhardt 
 is absent at the university, Elizabeth is 
 maried to anotlier,— to his friend Eric, a 
 very worthy person, preferred, of course, 
 by the .young lady's mother. Several 
 years afterwards Reinhardt visits them; 
 them suddenly tears himself away, and 
 never sees again the child he had loved in 
 his youth, or the maiden he loves still in 
 age, but, buried in books, he masters his 
 grief, and forgets the world. And there 
 is as little in the thot as in the style to 
 make the story remarkable. The effect of 
 it is 'rather in that touch of beauty and of 
 sadness which we recognize in the concep- 
 tion of a life bllted thus at the bteginning. 
 
 utter and so hopeless which is left^for a 
 time in every human heart by the disap- 
 pointment of its early hope,— still more by 
 the severing; as it were, of two beings so 
 closely united in the memories of child- 
 hood that they seem to have been but the 
 two-fold expression of a single life. It is 
 a poem exquisite rather for what it sug- 
 gests than for what it says. Like the 
 faint murmur of music as it steals throu 
 the leafy forests of a summer's day, it 
 touches you in the dreamy stillness, not 
 with a sense of its own melody, but of 
 the ineffable sadness of the emotions it 
 awakens. Life seems to grow stiller as 
 you read. There ,is no tumult of the 
 streets in it, no excitement of business,, 
 no struggle of ambition, no bitterness of 
 hatred, nothing of the wrath of the world, 
 as, with the noise of great rivers rushing 
 on to the sea, it storms throu the congre- 
 gations of men, — ^but only subdued voices 
 and shadowy forms, — only the ghost of a 
 buried hope^ and the dismay of a vacant 
 life. It unfolds no filosofical vue of love, 
 analyzes none of its elements, determines 
 none of its conditions. Yet the very sor- 
 row it suggests so briefly and so simply is 
 more eloquent than the best efforts Of 
 reasoning or of rhetoric." [ Christian Ex- 
 aminer. 747 
 
 IX HIS NAME, [by E:- E. Hale: 
 Boberts,lSn.i "The Rev. E. E. Hale's 
 Waldensian story, 'In His Name,' is the 
 best thing he ever wrote, and one of the 
 best things ever written by anybody — a 
 sweet and noble embodiment in romance 
 of the truest christian life of the Middle 
 Age, and truer christian life was never 
 known." [Boston "Lit. World." 748 
 
 IN OLE VIRGINIA. [byT: Nelson 
 Page: Scribner, 1S3Y.] "Collectively, 
 Mr. Page's tales form an epic, historical 
 and tragic. After reading them we see 
 one figure with the certainty and distinctr 
 ness of actual vision. Called by no matter 
 what name, that figure is always the same 
 — a young man, exquisitely fine of nattire, 
 gentle, chivalrbus, hot-blooded, at once the 
 pink of courtesy, courage incarnate, and 
 honor's self.. He can think no evil, biuch 
 
 232 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 less do it. Born to lordship, bis life-path 
 cut strait thron gardens of roses that never ^ 
 fade. Almost before he comes to his own, 
 his princedom is but an empty name ; the 
 roses are all thorns, he falls before the 
 cannon's mouth, his dead fingers twined 
 about his so-called country's flag. That is 
 the beautiful figure bv which, be it true to 
 life or false, a capable- story-teller has 
 chosen to perpetuate the south which f6t 
 and died. That is the figure which vivifies 
 all the incidents, serious, melodramatic, 
 and comic, and illumines every picture of 
 family and plantation life. Mr. Page, 
 like all who are notable in the rising ,host 
 of southern writers of fiction, does not 
 recite the epic impersonally as an outside 
 observer, nor does he put it in the mouth of 
 asurvivorof the ruling class. The glory 
 of the master is told by the lips and iu the 
 language of the slave. - Thei'e is' nothing 
 more curious or interesting in this creative 
 literature of the New South than the ap- 
 parently spontaneous and almost uniform 
 choice of the negro and his dialect as the 
 mediums best fitted to lay bare the heart 
 of the Old South. The obvious reasons 
 for the selection, such as greater oppor- 
 tunities afforded by it for plcturesqueness, 
 for novelty, and for eccentric humor, are 
 not sufiicient wholly to account for it. 
 Nor is it convincing to remark flippantly 
 that all the gentlemen perished in the war, 
 or to attribute to the authors a desire to 
 correct a widespread belief in the horrors 
 of the past conditions' of servitude. The 
 selection is not deliberate and calculated, 
 but rather a strange- general" impulse, in 
 obeying which probably not one of the 
 authors perceived any singular signifi- 
 cance. The thorogoing abolitionist may 
 discover here the hand of fate, retributive 
 and compensatory. The tradition of 
 splendor and supreme distinction is 
 handed down by those upon whose labor 
 they Were founded. and_ for whose sake 
 they were annihilated . .'. The only ex- 
 ample in the volume ot a character not 
 drawn in dialect, yet full of life and free, 
 is that of the Colonel in "Polly." The au- 
 thor has so thoroly imagined the hard- 
 
 drinking, hard-riding, freely profane old 
 'planter, that the wprds exactly descriptive 
 come to him with perfect ease and natur- 
 alness." [Nution. 749 
 
 IN THE CAKQUINEZ WOODS [by 
 [Fb.] Bhet Harte: Houghton, 1888.'] 
 "is artistically perfect. The great forest 
 takes possession of the imagination from 
 the first, with its dim reaches, its many- 
 voiced silences, its illimitable vastness, 
 and makes a background against which 
 the feverish human drama which invades 
 it for a moment, and is swallowed in its 
 destiny, impresses one with an efl'ect of 
 tragedy and pathos. The mysterious 
 sounds and fantastic shadows of the 
 gloom, the bear's dance, the strange toreh- 
 llted party, with its hideous interruption 
 of the solitude, are excellently done. 
 And at last the splendor and terror of the 
 woods on fire, the stampede of the wild 
 beasts, and the end of Teresa and Low, 
 are described with both beauty and force. 
 . . . 'In the Carquincz Woods' is a book to 
 charm and move any reader." [Lippin- 
 cott's. 750 
 
 IN THE ENEMY'S COUNTRY, [by 
 Anna H. Druey : London, Griffith, 1891.] 
 "We need not say much more in praise of 
 this volume than that it takes for its sub- 
 ject much the same theme as that treated 
 by Erckmann-Chatrian in their stories, 
 and that it does not suflTer from the com- 
 parison which is thus suggested. It is 
 described on the title page as 'A Story of 
 1813,', and the scene is chiefly laid in the 
 little town of Stenbriick, the hero and 
 heroine being a youUg ' Parisian and the 
 dauter of an english doctor. The b^te noir 
 of the tale is a Jew usurer, who makes 
 himself generally odious. The story will 
 well repay perusal." [Spectator. 751 
 
 INCUKABLE. [by Paul Heyse: 
 Nutt, 1890.] "The heroine is a hi-spirited 
 girl, who has been sent to Meran for her 
 health, and believes herself to be dying. 
 At the same place there is an equally ht- 
 spirited young man, who is also supposed 
 to be on the verge of the grave. How 
 they meet one another, and what comes of 
 their discussions about life and death, the 
 
 223 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 heroine records In her diary, tlirou which 
 alone the tale is told. The materials are' 
 rather slit, but the author displays his 
 usual mastery of the principles of con- 
 struction, and his striking power of re- 
 vealing the essence of character without 
 direct description. Altho less interesting 
 than some of Heyse's more famous writ- 
 ings, the story gives a good idea of his 
 method, and it is admirably translated." 
 [ Athenaium. 753 
 
 IHTDIANA [ by G : Sand : Peterson, 
 1S50.] "may be said to be the first of her 
 independent works, and it shows the first 
 bloom of that freshness which never de- 
 serted her ; yet it was written by a ma- 
 ture woman who had experienced, or 
 sufliered, or imagined she had sufTered, all 
 she expressed . . . Altho we dislike launch- 
 ing out in language which may pass for 
 an afiected imitation of the French, 'In- 
 diana' was veritably the cry of a soul in 
 anguish — the outlircak of an overstrung 
 nature which finds relief in lamenting and 
 denouncing its wrongs. Even when she 
 is most morbid in her exaltation, when 
 her hi-floWn sentiments seem most false, to 
 common-sense and sound principles, there 
 is an unmistakable air of conviction in 
 them which persuades you of her earnests 
 ness. You feel you are being carried oiT 
 your legs in spite of your better judgment. 
 You cannot withhold your sympathy, 
 altho you would faininvoke your convic- 
 tions to help you to harden your heart . . ^ 
 Indiana is nothing but sentiment and 
 passion ; altho of a more refined nature, 
 and somewhat more hlly educated. She is 
 as little self-governed, and fully as cap- 
 able of follies, as the unhappy Souu, her 
 wami-blooded foster-sister. Like one of 
 the volcanoes of her tropical latitudes, 
 repressed emotions in subdued ebullitions 
 have been wearing her fragile frame and 
 wasting her delicate charms. She has a 
 boundless yearning for sympathy and 
 tenderness, and from her girlhood.she has 
 been accumulating treasures of love, which 
 she sis for an opportunity of lavishing . . . 
 Bred in the seclusion of a southern island, 
 peopled by slaves and monej'-makijig 
 
 slaveholders, the chances of such a miracle 
 are overwhelmingly against her. Her im- 
 aginative nature is altogether antagonistic 
 to the interested motives of a hlly practi- 
 cal society ; she is inevitably predestined 
 to point a moral as to the cruelty of those 
 iildissoluble marriages of 'convSuance'. . . 
 There is not a suggestion of grossness, or 
 coarseness, and deJicate and even danger- 
 ous topics are handled in the least 
 objectionable way." [ Blackwood's. ] 
 "Anyone now taking up 'Indi.ana', 
 for exapiple, would perhaps find it not 
 quite easy to understand how the book 
 produced such an effect. Our novel-wvit- 
 iug wom£n of to-day commonly feed us on 
 more fiery stuff than this. Not to speak 
 of such accom,plished artists in impurity 
 as the lady who calls herself Ouida, and 
 one or two others of the same school, we 
 have young women just promoted from 
 pantalettes, who can throw ydu off such 
 glowing chapters of passion and young 
 desire as would make the rhapsodies of 
 'Indiana' seem very feeble milli-and-water 
 brewage by comparison. Indeed, except 
 for some of the descriptions in the open- 
 ing chapters, I. fail to see any extraordin- 
 ary merit in 'Indiana' ; and towards the end 
 it seems to me to grow verbose, weak, and 
 tiresomg." [Justin McCarthy, in 1870. 753 
 IRENE, [by Olga Cantacuzene- 
 Altieri: Warne, J8S7.] "This story 
 reminds us of 'Ouida' in her sober moods. 
 The Marquis Miraldi, a rou6 who has little 
 character or fortune left to him, maries, 
 much against his will, a greek girl whom 
 he has abducted. Her father has out- 
 Avitted him. He leaves her for yesrs at a 
 ruined castle, which is the only fragment 
 left of his hereditary possessions. There, 
 under the old eur6, she grows into an ac- 
 complished woman. The reader will, of 
 course, guess the result. The Marquis 
 falls in love with his wife, finds her, it 
 seems, utterly indifferent ,to him, and tor- 
 ments himself with the fear that he has 
 lost her love forever. The old cur6, his 
 nefew the artist (who, It may be supposed, 
 entertains a hopeless passion for the de- 
 serted wife) and the Marquis' worldly 
 
 221 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 mother, are described with great skill. 
 'Irene,' in short, is an interesting and 
 wholesome story." [ Spectator. 754 
 
 ISHMAEL [byM.. E.. (Braddon) 
 Maxwell : Maxwell, 1SS4.] "must take a 
 place as one of the most remarkable of 
 "Miss Braddon's" works. In it she has 
 given a vivid picture of Paris under the 
 Second Empire from its beginning to 1S6S. 
 The extent of her intimate knowledge of 
 every sort of detail of the period is really 
 surprising, and it is hardly necessary to 
 say that it is worked into her story with 
 consummate skill. In passing touches she 
 has admirably hit off the characteristics of 
 most of the chief historical figures of the 
 period, and she has succeeded equally well 
 with some more elaborate studies. If her 
 industry is surprising the vigor of her de- 
 scription is no less so. Her account of the 
 coup d'(Stat is as exciting a bit of narrative 
 as any novel-reader could wish for, and is 
 as vivacious, as if it had been by an eye-wit^ 
 ness. Her picture is all the more interest- 
 ing because it has been her object to give a 
 picture and not so much to point a moral. 
 She vues the whole from various stand- 
 points, and she is no more inclined to in- 
 dulge in too wild a condemnation of the 
 crimes and recklessness of the rule of 
 Louis 'Napoleon than she is to be dazzled 
 by its splendor." [ Athenajum. 755 
 
 ITALIAN (The), [by A.. ("Ward) 
 Radcliffe: 1797.] "There are terrible 
 scenes scattered with profusion in almost 
 every chapter, relieved by vivid descrip- 
 tions of Italian scenery. The adventures 
 of Vivaldi among the ruins' of Paluzzo, 
 possess the hiest interest, — and the terrific 
 scenes on the sea-coast in the ruined tower, 
 where Schedoni, as he is about murdering 
 Ellena, discovers her to be his dauter, are 
 painted in the deepest tragic style." 
 [ American Review. 756 
 
 IVANHOE. [by Wa. Scott.] "Eng- 
 land, nominally in the time of Richard I., 
 bufthe scenes arc really a make-up of the 
 manners of more than one period, and are 
 among the most grandly picturesque 
 which Scott has drawn. Saxon and Nor- 
 man are seen in contrast; old forest, bar- 
 
 onial hall, and tented field." [Boston 
 "Literary 'World."]— "I am still a reader 
 of Scott, and never appreciated the quali- 
 ties of "Ivanhoe" so completely as on 
 rea<ling that master-piece last year. Of 
 all authors, it is Scott who has given me 
 the greatest sum of pleasure, and that of a 
 very, healthy kind." [P. G. Hamerton. 757 
 IZA'S STORY, [by "G .. Ramsey," i. 
 >.•., Kathleen O'Meara: Hurst, isTU.] 
 "The author of 'Iza's Story' has chosen a 
 theme which has absolute novelty to re- 
 commend it, and she handles it with much 
 power and skill, and with an intimate 
 knowledge which impresses itself at once 
 upon the reader. The intimate home-life 
 of the Poles, the relations between the 
 hier and lower ranks, and characteristic 
 peculiarities of their 'ways', are all un- 
 known to us. The political miseries, the 
 national disasters and suflerings of the 
 Poles, have occupied our attention, and 
 obtained our sympathy, but of the peo- 
 ple, in the same, sense as we understand 
 other foreiners set in the framework of 
 fiction, we really do not know anything. 
 Miss Ramsey's novel therefore instructs 
 while it interests, and presents many a 
 strangely fascinating picture of a people 
 richly endowed with noble and romantic 
 qualities, and with that essential grandeur 
 of soul and of manners, which was the 
 ideal of the old chivalry. 'Iza's Story' is 
 a powerful and melancholy love-tale, in 
 which the chief actors are hl-born and pa- 
 triotic Poles, pursued by the vengeance of 
 the Russian government, and ultimately 
 falling under its stern, irresistible power. 
 Prince Kasimir, a great Lithuanian noble, 
 and his castle of Raraslaw in Podolia; his 
 daughter, the Princess Iza, and her friends 
 and servants ; the nCboring grandees ; the 
 peasants, so intensely feudal in their loyal- 
 ty and affection, so ardently religious, so 
 utterly unUke the peasantry we are all fa- 
 miliar with, are deeply interesting. In 
 telling the sad, touching, heroic, dramatic 
 story of their lives. Miss Ramsey illus- 
 trates it by fresh and vivacious pictures of 
 national customs, festivals, and sentiments 
 totally forein to our notions. The author 
 
 223 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 introduRos her readers to some truly hi, 
 noble, and lovable types of polish char- 
 acter. . . . Nor is her work wanting in that 
 quality which renders characteristic illus- 
 tration most strilving and true, — the quali- 
 ty of humor." [ Contemporary Rev. 758 
 
 JACOB SCHUYLER'S MILLIONS [ liy 
 T: Dunn English: Appleton, 18S5.] 
 "is an anonymous novel; evidently 1)y a 
 new [!] hand, which deserves favorable 
 notice for the freshness of its scene, and 
 leading characterization. It is devoted to 
 an elaboration of the old dutch dwellers 
 on the Hudson, about the Hacliensacli;. 
 The Hudson has been pretty well exploited 
 by the flctionists, but this curious range of 
 country seems to have hitlierto escaped. 
 The present author knows his ground 
 well, and the sketches of character and 
 environment are not without value. The 
 story itself is to our taste flavorless, altho 
 it is very sensational. 'Jacob Schuyler' 
 died without making a will, or he secreted 
 it so effectually that the heirs could not 
 find it. At all events there is a tremend- 
 ous and exciting hunt for the missing 
 document, and therefrom grow the nu- 
 merous incidents which form the Ijody of 
 the book. It is clever in a wayj and the 
 interest is certainly well sustained." 
 [ American . 759 
 
 JACK HORNER, [by Mary S. (N.) 
 Tiernan: Houghton, Mifflin & Co.,] 
 "How favorable are the Chances of war to 
 young" women who take a wrong turn in 
 the early stages of love-making is shown 
 in Mi;s. Mary Tiernan?8 'Jack Horner'. 
 Boadicca Disney, the little Confederate 
 Treasury clerk, who so imprudently falls 
 in loVe with a War Office cleric as poor as 
 herself, is first helped to a rich and gener- 
 ous tho rather .antiquated huB))and, 
 and then rid of him by means of a cold 
 cant on picket duty. And Madeline 
 Key comfortably loses one husband and 
 misses another in order that she may join 
 hands with the rit one, who meets her 
 last. Life in the Capital of the Confeder- 
 acy in the final year of the "War is the 
 staple of the tale. Skirmishes with 'those 
 people' beyond the Potomac and with that 
 
 other enemy. Poverty, who had long i)e- 
 fore captured Richmond, are its principal 
 incidents. The astonishing fashions at a 
 Government reception, and the still more 
 astonishing refreshments served at Bo' 
 Disney's 'EjAemeral' Saloon, the junketing 
 parties to drink spring water, the story of 
 the ^family plate', lodted in happier days 
 from a Mexican church, are among the 
 comic ones. Among the more romantic 
 happenings are the search for a yankee 
 spy, and the ci^nnonading which Madeline 
 and her esoori undergo all nit in a de- 
 serted village. All this coil of love 
 and war and mistalies by the dozen goes 
 on about the cradle of the Christmas waif, 
 Jack Horner, whose secret we prefer that 
 the reader should find out for himself. 
 We assure him that if he 'sticks in his 
 thumb' in the book, he will find it a 
 'plum' of lit literature, and will be well 
 content to 'sit in a corner' until he has de- 
 voured it." [Critic. 760 
 
 JANVEDDEH'S WIFE [by Amelia 
 E. (H.) Bakr : JJodcl, 1885.] "is a story of 
 the Shetland norsemen, homely and simple, 
 but full of picturesqueness and vigor. 
 Tlie situation is a common one — a cold, rlt- 
 eous wife, quite the pattern saint, yet full 
 of the narrow pride and vanity of a small, 
 self-centred nature, driving a sweet tem- 
 pered, unstable husband to the inn, to the 
 fishing, anywhere away from home and 
 her conscious correctness. Whether or 
 not the habits of life and th6t among an 
 isolated people be truthfully described, the 
 reader gets the impression of truth, which 
 is the essential. The handsome ne'er-do- 
 well's fenomenal rise in the british navy 
 recalls the legends of the Reformed Pirate, 
 while the final measui-e of bliss is im- 
 probably full' and divided with a too care- 
 ful impartiality. But for the sake of little 
 Jan's welcome home to his heroic father, 
 splendid in gold lace and buttons, what is 
 feeble and tame may be over-looked ; and, 
 indeed, it is somewhat captious to refer to 
 defects in a boolc so unpretentious and at- 
 tractive." [ Nation. 761 
 
 JANE EYRE [by C. (Bronte) 
 NiCHOLLs: Smith, 1847.] "is, to our 
 
 226 
 
KOMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 mind, the best of the Bront(5 novels in 
 point of interest and of literary execution : 
 it has the best story to tell, and it tells it in 
 the most condensed and effective manner. 
 In spite of some defects of conception, 
 Rochester's character is not impossible or 
 improbable. He lays himself open, in a 
 measure, to be burlesqued, after the amus- 
 ing fashion of Mr. Bret Harte's Condens;ed 
 Novels ; his 'grimness' is a trifle over-enif a- 
 sized, it must be confessed ; yet he is a 
 flesh and blood man as the heroes of 
 other novels are not. We must grant, 
 moreover, that the author was not re- 
 sponsible for the feeble and flashy imi- 
 tations of this cliaracter in the stories of 
 succeeding writers." [Boston -'Literary 
 World."] " 'While groping, amid these 
 empirical studies, 'Jane Eyre' drew me 
 from deep to deep. The passion of that 
 boolv, at once burning and purifying, was 
 not then for me, nor was the ethical ques- 
 tion it raised ; but the miracle it wr8t was 
 for me. ( I was as if yielded to a mystical 
 realm canopied by a strange firmament, 
 whose meteors and comets, however weird, 
 I understood and beheld without fear. 
 The fulfilled dreams and presentations, 
 the cry of lovers, heard and answered 
 across long leagues, the vampire wife, 
 were provided for in nature's new appar- 
 atus not disclosed in my law-book." [M. 
 D. Conway.] "I know no interest more 
 thrilling than that which she has been able 
 to throw into the cliaracters of Rochester 
 and the governess, in the 2d volume of 
 'Jane Eyre'. She lived with those char- 
 acters, and felt in every fibre of the heart, 
 the loggings of the 9ne and the sufierings 
 of the other. And therefore, tho the end 
 of the book is weak, and the beginning 
 not very good, I venture to predict that 
 'Jane Eyre' will be read among english 
 novels when many whose names are now 
 better known shall have been forgotten. 
 'Jane Eyre' and 'Esmond' .and 'Adam 
 Bede' will be in the hands of our grand- 
 children, when 'Pickwick', and 'Pelham' 
 and 'Harry Lorrcquer' are forgotten ; be- 
 cause the men and women depicted are 
 human in their aspirations, human in 
 
 their sympathies, and human in their 
 actions." [Anthony Trollope.] This 
 novel "possesses the charm of style, cul- 
 ture, and a breadth of th6t to which 'Jane 
 Eyre' cannot make the slitest pretense. 
 We have always deemed 'Jane Eyre' 
 greatly overrated. It was a publisher's 
 success, just as 'Romola' was a publisher's 
 failure. Yet no one would dream of 
 comparing the 2 novels. The success of 
 'Jane Eyre' was undoubtedly owing to its 
 sensational scenes. The artist rejects the 
 very ^jassages which made the fortune of 
 that tale. They oifend against the first 
 principles of art. The want of knowledge 
 of the world and an absence of true char- 
 acter, as opposed to mere characterization 
 oflend even less critical readers." [West- 
 minster Review. ' 762 
 JANUS, [by E: I- Stevenson: Bel- 
 ford, 1889.] "We will not sketch the plot, 
 which is one of character working throu 
 incident, rather than of incident revealing 
 character, except to say that the leading 
 person, a young musical genius, is awalt- 
 ened temporarily to a sense of the power 
 which exists in pure love, only to fall back 
 and have his life blackened by the insidi- 
 ous encroachment on his nature o^ the 
 power of evil resident in a false woman 
 and responded to by Ms weakness. There 
 is a little stiffness in some of the drawing, 
 as in the case of Alexis, and not enuf is 
 made of Johann Steins; but the book must 
 be taken as a sketch, and with the limita- 
 tions of a sketch conceded it is a strong 
 piece of work. 'J'he mutations of Moritz 
 Reisse's nature are not only truthful, they 
 are portrayed with naturalness and with- 
 out too much recourse to comment by the 
 author. Nadine, the temptress, is well- 
 conceived and consistent; the only fault 
 one can find is rather a grave one, to be 
 sure. The reader is scarcely bewitched 
 by her, and has to take her power over 
 Moritz too much on faith ; but the depth 
 of her intrigue is made very distinct; she 
 is thoroly explained, and explained by the 
 course of the story. We are especially 
 pleased by the reserve which the author 
 shows in dealing with the more specifically 
 
 227 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 musical parts of the boolc. We are so ac- 
 custonicd to a moony treatment of music 
 and musicians in fiction that it is a relief to 
 find the subject used as an art, and not as 
 a sentiment." [ Atlantic. 763 
 
 JESS. [byH: R. Haggard: Smith, 
 18S7.] " 'King Solomon's Mines' deals with 
 the marvelous, the incredible, we may say 
 the impossible. 'Jess' deals with real life ; 
 nothing is narrated which mit not be 
 strictly, literally true. It is the study of a 
 strange and fascinating being, a story of 
 noble love and, devotion, not shrinking 
 jfrom crime and daring to face death. 
 The tone of the book is decidedly sad; the 
 central idea is that of an immense sacrifice, 
 the liackground is the shame and dishonor 
 of England. . . . Jess Croft and her .sister 
 Bessie are orfans and live with their uncle, 
 Silas Croft, an englishman who has farmed 
 in the Transvaal for 50 years. Bessie is 
 the younger, a lovely, happy maid, un- 
 troubled by thSt; Jess, 3 years her sister's 
 senior, is by no means an ordinary person. 
 She is small, slit, and pale, with marvel- 
 ous dark eyes, and an immense latent 
 capacity for romantic love and devotion. . . 
 We will not anticipate and deprive our 
 readers of the harrowing pleasure of read- 
 ing the story, told in Mr. Haggard's most 
 striking manner, of how Jess laid down 
 more than her life for her lover and her 
 sister." [Athena;um. 764 
 
 JEWS OFB.\ENOW (The) [by K! 
 Emil Franzos : Appleton, 1883.] "we re- 
 cortimend to all who seek in works of fiction , 
 not the gratification of a passing moment, 
 but that which alone gives real and perma- 
 nent value, viz. : the artistic reproduction 
 of life. The scene is laid in a Vodolian 
 ghetto, and the personages are at first sit 
 as unprepossessing — nay, repellant— as 
 polish Jews are apt to be in reality. But 
 a master-hand is revealed in the art where- 
 with we are subtly forced to recognize the 
 humanity und_erlying these grotesque and 
 uncouth externals, and to sympathize 
 with human passion, suffering, and en- 
 durance in this outlandish environment. 
 The sketches are all subdued and low in 
 tone, and offer no sensational points ; but 
 
 the author is a born story-teller, who 
 never allows our interest to flag, and who 
 displays genuine dramatic force iti his 
 handling of characters and situations." 
 [Critic. r 765 
 
 JOHN BODEWIN'S TESTIMONY 
 [by M.. [Anna] (Hallock) Foote; 
 Ticknor, 1886.] "well sustains the reputa- 
 tion won by the author. The story is one 
 of a Western [ U. S. ] mining district 
 where the r!t of ownership in a lucrative 
 mine is in litigation, and J : Bodewin is 
 the witness on whose evidence the issue of 
 the suit virtually turns. He has strong 
 reasons for unwillingness to testify ; and 
 the merit of the story consists in the play 
 of motives which sway hiin in contrary 
 directions, and in the skillful adaption of 
 the incidents of the tale to exhibit theif 
 working, as also the results which follow 
 his final decision. There is less of direct- 
 ly local coloring and dialect than is usual 
 .in american stories dealing with the classes 
 here represented ; and the reader is to ex- 
 pect his satisfaction to arise from careful- 
 ly drawn types of character, and dramatic 
 fitness of detail — in which event he will 
 not be disappointed." [Academy. 766 
 
 JOHN INGLESANT [by J: H: 
 Shorthouse : Macmillan, 1882.] "will be 
 one of the memorable books of the year. 
 The author terms it— dreading, perhaps, 
 to hear it called an historical novel— a 
 filosofic romance ; but whether considered 
 as filosofy or as romance, it is alike re- 
 markable. As filosofy, it is a wonderfully 
 clear exposition not only of the catholic 
 church, but of the differences of belief in a 
 church which professes that it can have no 
 difference of belief, as a romance it is thrill- 
 ingly interesting; and as historyi^lt illumi- 
 nates the time in which the scene is laid 
 —that of Charles I.— as fine acting illu- 
 minates a play of Shakspere. The author's 
 power as a story-teller is shown in his 
 tacitly saying to the reader, 'My hero is 
 weak ; buti defy you to despise him.' The 
 hero is, indeed, the tool of a Jesuit, but so 
 noble a tool that we forgive him for being 
 one ; he loves a woman not by any means 
 . above the average, but because he is true 
 
 228 
 
EOMAKTIC KOVELS. 
 
 to her, we respect his marriage ; and he is 
 willing to die with a lie which disgraces 
 him on his lips, that the lie may Siive the 
 honor of a king whom he does not greatly 
 love, and serve the purpose of a religions 
 party to which he does not openly belong. 
 ... It will be seen that the book is not 
 one to be read lltly. In style, it is admir- 
 able. Neither the interest of the story, 
 the clearness of the theology, nor the vivid- 
 ness of the history owe anything to sensa- 
 tional event or to excited rhetoric; but 
 the reader is held from the very preface 
 by the power of expression which is 
 neither the eloquence of Macaulay's Kew 
 Zealander, nor the rhetoric of Kuskin, nor 
 the jewelled fervor of Lothair ; it is the 
 calm, almost stately utterance of things 
 which yet moves one strongly with a sense 
 of color. Perhaps the difference is that 
 the brilliancy of Macaulay, Ruskin, and 
 Disraeli is a fictitious glow cast over com- 
 mon subjects ; while that of the author of 
 'John Inglesant' is the splendor of a brill- 
 iant subject treated with very simple 
 language." [ Critic. 767 
 
 JOSEPH NOIREL'S REVENGE, [by 
 V: Cherbulikz: Holt, 1873.] "The 
 action, which at the outset promised to be 
 lit and amusing, with merely- so much of 
 tenderness and pathos as may belong to 
 the hier comedy, becomes by degrees deep7 
 ly tragical, and ends in a catastrofe which is 
 saved from beilig horrible and revolting 
 only by the shadows which forecast and 
 the softening strains which attend it. In 
 point of construction and skillful handling 
 the story is as effective as french art alone 
 could have made it. . . Marguerite Mirion 
 is invested with all the fascination which 
 beauty of face, simplicity of mind, purity 
 of soul, sweetness of disposition and joy- 
 ousness of spirit can impart. . . It is in 
 simple obedience to the will of her parents 
 that she marries Count Roger d'Ornis, and 
 is carried from her happy home at Mon-. 
 Plaisir to a dilapidated castle in the Jura, 
 where there are no smiling faces or loving 
 hearts to make her welcome — where, on 
 the contrary, she meets only haiity, spite- 
 ful or morose looks and a chilling and 
 
 gloomy atmosfere. It is Marguerite alone 
 who, in the terrible struggle of fate, and 
 of clashing interests and desires, rises to 
 the hit of absolute self-abnegation; and 
 this not tbrou any sudden development of 
 qualities or intuitions forein to her pre- 
 vious modes of th6t, but by the simple ap- 
 plication of these to the hard and compli- 
 cated problems which have suddenly con- 
 fronted her." [ Lippincott's. 768 
 
 JOURNAL OF A SUPERFLUOUS 
 MAN. [with 3IUMU,\>y Ivan [S.] 
 Tuhsenief: N. Y., Funk, ISSi.] "These 2 
 stories are unquestionably to be ranked 
 among the author's masterpieces. Their in- 
 comparable power has a, spontaneity and 
 impressiveness akin to that of nature her- 
 self." [Boston "Literary World".] "The 
 'Diary' is less interesting than most of 
 Turgenief s work, but its theme is a good 
 one . the sufferings of a class which exists 
 in some form in all countries, aristocrats 
 by birth or official station, to whom "no- 
 blesse oblige" means that they must not 
 earn their living by such means as are^used 
 by the lower classes, while utterly unpro- 
 vided for the position where they find 
 themselves." [ Critic. 769 
 
 JUDGMENT OF GOD (A). ["Ein 
 Gottesurteil") by "E. "Werner," i. e., 
 E.. Biirstenbinder : Munro, 1889.] 
 "Danira and her brother have b^en 
 captured by the austrian commandant [ in 
 Dalmatia] as orfan children, and whilst 
 the boy is retaken by his insurgent kins- 
 folk, the girl remains at the castle to share 
 the education of the soldier's danter 
 Edith. Gerald, the betrothed of Edith, 
 arrives, and Edith finds herself of less 
 value than his soldierly ambition, whilst 
 Gerald's arrival accelerates matters, and 
 Danira escapes to rejoin her people. 
 Against her tribe the aspiring young officer 
 is sent. The two meet when he has been 
 tempted into danger by the stratagem of 
 the insurgent' chief. Danira can save 
 Gerald only by showing him the wild 
 sanctuary of the rocks where no blood 
 may be spilt : 'The Wilaquell endures nor 
 blood nor vengeance.' The insurgent 
 chief dares the protecting spirit of the 
 
 229 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 '■\Vilaquell," and— a "judgment of God"— 
 
 his Jife is the penalty. The scenes in 
 
 >vhich Jove and pride of race on both sides 
 
 struggle for mastery, are ■well given." 
 
 Spectator. 770 
 
 , SAME ("Danira"), Chicago, 
 
 Band, ISSS. 
 
 KATE KENNEDY [by— ( ) Newby: 
 Newby, 1865.1 "The heroine is a beautiful 
 orfan, whose father has left her an enor- 
 mous fortune on condition that she 
 marries n young nobleman, Lord Werter. 
 If, however, she refuses the alliance, the 
 money is to go to a charity. Such a will 
 mit be supposed to place the young peo- 
 ple in si great difficulty; but fortunately 
 Kate has no heart (or rather thinks she 
 has none), and franlily accepts Lord Wer- 
 ter Ijy letter before she has ever seen him. 
 Thus all seems to be comfortably arranged ; 
 but a certain young hero comes in the way, 
 who, tho much despised at first (being on- 
 ly a young surgeon) , obtains Kate's affect- 
 ion by degrees, and convinces her that it 
 is better to be Mrs. Smith than to wear a 
 coronet. Of course, Kate has to write to 
 the Earl and explain the altered state of 
 affairs. Instead of threatening her with 
 an action at law, he behaves lilie a true 
 gentleman, and is willing to release her; 
 but he still cherishes a hope of being able 
 to secure her, and entreats her to meet 
 him in the midst of his noble relatives at 
 "Werter Hall on the 10th proximo, and 
 then and there formally accept or reject 
 him. Tlie arrangement is not so inconven- 
 ient as mit be supposed, since she has 
 promised to be married to Mr. Smith on 
 that day, and it is agreed that they shall 
 go up to the Hall together, settle the little 
 affair with the earl, and then pi-oceed with 
 their more important business. The great 
 day arrives, and Kate, blushing in her 
 bridal robes, gives her hand to the earl, 
 but oiily in frendship and gratitude, for it 
 is about to be bestowed for life on another. 
 The disappointed nobleman behaves with 
 dignity and propriety, but implores her to 
 look him once in the face before leaving 
 him forever; and then, what is her sur- 
 prise to see that the earl and Mr. Smith 
 
 aM identical! The extreme improbability 
 of this plot is compensated to a great ex- 
 tent by the care with which it is worked 
 out, and the interest which we are made 
 to take in Earl Smith's chivalrous experi- 
 ment." [ Athenaeum. 771 
 
 KATHEKTNE AND THE MOMENT 
 OF FORTUNE, [by F : W: Hacklan- 
 DER : Bentley, 1S56.] "Most of the pei-soii- 
 ages who figure in the tale belong to the 
 humbler ranks of life ; the heroine herself, 
 the cherry-lipped, black-eyed, black-hair- 
 ed, oval-faeed, graceful Katherine is a 
 fiower-seller, and dauter of a washer- 
 woman ; but there is another beauty, Eosa 
 by name, concerning whose relations to 
 the 'moment of fortune' the reader soon 
 learns to be curious. The latter part of 
 the history introduces these persons into 
 a court atmosfere with a regent as the 
 centre-piece, and barons and ladies revol- 
 ving about them in vicious, glittering cir- 
 cles. The episodes and groupings are 
 skillfully contrived, and suggest the idea 
 that the writer is copying from living 
 models. We have found 'Katherine' an 
 uncommon and interesting novel— qXiite a 
 contrast, in its spirit and simplicity, to 
 the vapid 3 volumes composed of half- 
 sentences in false french and of hysterical 
 english which are announced as 'now 
 ready' for ever." [ Leader. 773 
 
 KING OF THE MOUNTAINS (The). 
 [byEDMOND [Pr. Valentin] About: 
 Boston, Tilton, I860.] "The story is sup- 
 posed to be told by a young german botan- 
 ist. He proceeds to Greece with the pur- 
 pose of herbalizing in the mountains. Car- 
 ried away by a scientific enthusiasm, he be- 
 comes the prisoner of a remarkable brigand, 
 Hadgi-StavroSjthe 'King of the Mountains.' 
 He is not alone in his captivity. An en- 
 glish lady and her dauter— the former a 
 striking portrait of a class of weak and 
 consequential tourists, and the latter a 
 thing to be admired and loved by any ger- 
 man, or any american, for that matter, 
 under the circumstances supposed— are 
 the hero's fellow-prisoners. The greater 
 part of the book is taken with a de- 
 scription of the character, positions, re- 
 
 230 
 
EOMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 sources, habits and influences of the 
 brigand chief ; the temporary captivity of 
 the party, who are made prisoners for the 
 sake of a large ransom." [ Kuicljerbock- 
 er.] "As 'Tolla' was the roman question 
 dramatized, so is the 'King of the moun- 
 tains,' the greek question dramatized. 
 Keither of these semi-political novels seem 
 to us so sweet, so far-reaching as frer- 
 maine ; but the present one in wit, in hu- 
 mor, in admirable character-sketching, is 
 unequalled by any other work of the au- 
 thor's, unless it l)e the novelette, 'Trente 
 et Quaraute'. If ever there was a mirror 
 held up to english and american humanity 
 it is that now wr6t of the mingled glass 
 and quicksilver which enter so largely into 
 this witty frenchman." [ Dial. 773 
 
 KINGS IN EXILE, [l^y Alphonse 
 Daudbt : tr. Ciavequin, Tinsley, 1880.] "In 
 this story is shown the degradation of a 
 king, of lUyria, we are told, who having 
 l)een driven from his throne by a revolu- 
 tion, takes refuge in Paris until such time 
 as his people shall have grown tired of 
 governing themselves. This King Chris- 
 tian II. is an easy-going pleasure-loving 
 young fellow, without enthusiasm, caring 
 only for enjoyment, who much prefers the 
 easy joys he finds in Paris to the cares of 
 ruUng a remote kingdom. His wife is a 
 very diflerent person. She has the most 
 earnest desire to see her husband, or their 
 young son, on the throne of his ancestor.H. 
 She believes fully in the divine ritof kings, 
 and she chafes under exile. She is wholly 
 indifferent to her husband, except as the 
 possible filler of a throne, and her life is 
 spent, not in forgiving, so much as in 
 trying to hide and condone, his many 
 villainies . . . Without sermonizing, with- 
 out contempt for the poor king, Daudet 
 has written what is a serious defense of 
 uprit conduct, simply by showing a weak, 
 vicious man, and the consequences of his 
 faults ... As to the way in which the 
 characters are drawn, too much cannot be 
 said in praise. They are. all set vividly 
 before us by their position, while the pa- 
 thetic story is one that is every day re- 
 peated before our eyes in other circles of 
 
 society. But a king who is worthless 
 seems more worthless than, say, a worth- 
 less coal-heaver, and a woman like this 
 queen, who 'incedit regina,' adorned with 
 every virtue, wins our sympathy at once 
 from the contrast between her hi estate, 
 even when in exile, and her heart-break- 
 ing sufterings. She endures everything 
 with a proud patience which sets in a 
 more shameful lit her paltry Imsband's 
 misdeeds, aad she suffers doubly, as an 
 outraged wife ^and as a betrayed queen. 
 It is this exalted setting which gives 
 the book its really poetical flavor; what 
 would have been touching under any 
 circumstances is only the more touching 
 on account of the magnitude of the inter- 
 ests involved, and the boolc is a real con- 
 temporary tragedy." [Atlantic] — "Dau- 
 det describes tlie life of the Prince of Orange 
 ("Axel") under a disguise so thin as to be 
 none at all. At the same time he has work- 
 ed with an idea ; the idea wan fresh ; he has 
 taken pains, and the result is a novel of 
 much power, containing several character 
 which may live as types." [ Athenaeum.] 
 "The chai-m of the book, for it has charm, 
 we need hardly say, as well as repulsive- 
 ness, lies in the tenderness with which 
 royalty is treated throu(5ilt. Even such a 
 character as Christian II. hardly makes 
 his painter cynical, and the pathetic beau- 
 ty of heroism and devotion in FrSdftrique, 
 in Elysie JVKraut, in the old duke of 
 Rosen, even in his unfortunate sou Her- 
 bert — all sacrificing life, love, honor, 
 fortune, to that crown of Illyria from 
 which the king has had the precious 
 stones pried out to pay his scandalous 
 debts— makes a picture of fallen royalty 
 hardly to be surpassed. The portrait of 
 the little prince, too, is touched by genius ; 
 the child, the last of a worn-out race, yet 
 the one hope of his mother and her 
 friends; a little flame of hfe shooting up 
 in him when his father has abdicated in his 
 favor, as if in answer to his daily prayer 
 that God would make him a good king; 
 and then, tbrou a miserable accident from 
 which his constitution has no strength to 
 recover, the loss of sit, health, courage, 
 
 231 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 hope, all but the love of the mother whose 
 pride and ambition have till now been as 
 strong as her love. Among the children 
 of history and fiction we hardly know a 
 more exquisitely painted figure than this 
 little Leopold of Illyria." [Spectator.] 
 The king and queen are the ex-king and 
 queen of Naples; the duke of Palma is 
 Don Carlos, the queen of Galicia is Isa- 
 bella II., Don LSonce is Alfonso XII., tiie 
 king of Westphalia is Georg V. of Hanno- 
 ver. 774 
 
 , SAME, Boston, Lee, 18S0. 
 
 .SAME, Chiqago, Sand, 1S90. 
 
 , SAME, transl. by Ensor, Sout- 
 
 ledge, 1890. 
 
 KING'S TALISMAN (The) or the 
 young Lion of Mount Hor. [by Sylvan- 
 rs Cobb Jr., Boston, Elliot, 1865.] 
 "The mere sale of a book is deceptive. 
 Before you decide upon its probable char- 
 acter or claims, ascertain who buys it. 
 Fame is not conferred by the number of 
 copies sold, nor by the multitude of 
 readers, but by the quality of those who 
 read. "The Londbn Journal" sells 
 300,000 copies every week. But it never 
 made a'fame. Mr. Pierce Egan is its 
 chief writer. He fit to be a rich man, if 
 he gets his share. But he is certainly not 
 famous. His stories are probably read by 
 10 times as many people as Thackeray's or 
 Dickens', but they are not a part of en- 
 glish literature. So with Mr. EcynoldS. . . 
 Perhaps you have commiserated the un- 
 happy drudge who was compelled to scrib- 
 ble endless stories of nothing for a scanty 
 living. . . Spare your sorrow, then. The 
 income of the worthy Eeykolds, whose 
 name you will find in no Cyclopedia 
 of Literature, is |70,000. Now the 
 exact conditions of this success are incal- 
 culable. To call stories trashy does not 
 explain it, for thfire are plenty of trashy 
 stories which arc not in the least popular. 
 Th6re is an american writer who has a 
 large english audience. Probably all the 
 works of all american authors together are 
 not so widely read as those of Mr. Syl- 
 VANUS Cobb, who is not known exactly 
 as 'an american author', altho we are all 
 
 familiar with his name. If Mr. Cobb's 
 worldly fortune bear any proportion to 
 the fortune of his writings in finding 
 readers, and we hope they do, he is a 
 very comfortable citizen. Now there are 
 printed every week and every month 
 stories which are apparently no better and 
 no worse than his, whose difterenee from 
 his it, would be difficult to describe or to 
 perceive, and yet -they have no particular 
 success, and the editor of the Ledger 
 would not probably care to pay very large 
 sums for them. Yet you may enumerate 
 all the conditions of a fine novel, and per- 
 haps not find Mr. Cobb's to conform in a 
 single point. And you may lay down all 
 the requirements of popular success, and 
 still be unable to say why Mr. Com does 
 not succeed and Mr. Cobb does." [ G : 
 "W : Curtis. 775 
 
 LADDEU OF LIFE (The) [by 
 Amelia Blakdford Edwards: Eovt- 
 ledge, 1857.] "is an uncommonly spasmod- 
 ic production. Miss Edwards belongs to the 
 startling school, which rises above sense 
 and grammer. Her pages coruscate with 
 fosforic figures of speech, miraculously 
 brilliant eyes, litning glances, strange 
 fire, blue-branching veins streaking pale 
 brows under piles of rich glossy hair. 
 Miss Edwards seems to have been infected 
 with wide-wide-worldism." [Leader. 776 
 
 LADY ATJDLEY'S SECEET [by M.. 
 E .. (Braddon) Maxwell, 1858.] "The 
 perversities of literaiy destiny are certain- 
 ly strange. "■' Miss Braddon is conducted by 
 inscrutible fate to the novelist's desk, there 
 to squander a forty-eleirk power of per- 
 sistent penmanship in turning romance in- 
 to ridicule. She has little imagination, an 
 indifl'erent taste, and no humor; yet she 
 has written nearly 2 score of novels, 
 which have been read by hundreds of 
 thousands of readers, and the pages of 
 which are unstained, as far as we are 
 aware, by anything worse than sensational 
 lism and vapidity." [Spectator. , 777 
 
 LADY BELL [by"S.. Tytlek," i. e., 
 Henrietta Keddic : Strahan, 1873.] "is a 
 specimen of the semi-historical novel, and 
 has a spice of freshness which will com- 
 
 232 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 mend it to those who are weary of the 
 uniformity of what passes among novelists 
 for a picture of modern life. The pair of 
 charming ladies whose history is sketched 
 for our entertainment are cast in their 
 early w^omanhood upon the times which 
 witnessed the disruption of the american 
 colonies, and just preceded the heroic era 
 of the struggle with Bonaparte. . . Launch- 
 ed upon the world and on her own re- 
 sources, she finds refuge first with, the 
 great actress, whom she worships with all 
 the ardor of her simple but apprehensive 
 nature ; and next becomes companion to 
 the most gpod-natured and stuijid of 
 educated country ladies, whose fatuous 
 warm-heartedness is not the worst thing 
 in the book. Her random reasoning about 
 the inherent wickedness of uncles is un- 
 commonly refreshing. Afterwards, when 
 the wickedness of a dififerent style of hus- 
 band, the elegant rou(5 of Chevely. drives 
 Mrs. Sundon also forth upon the world, 
 the two young exiles set up an elegant 
 hennitage together, on the model of Lady 
 Eleanor Butler and Miss Pbnsonby, the 
 once-famed ladies of Llangollen. 'I'his 
 tranquil interval is but of short duration; 
 and when the death of Trevor has freed 
 the young widow of 18, she returns 
 to the town, which was to her as to so 
 many, the native heath on which alone 
 real existence was attainable. In London 
 she meets her fate, and Captain Fane is 
 far from an ill-drawn portrait of an honest 
 warrior. . On the whole this is a graceful 
 and readable story." [^thenaeum. 778 
 
 LADY RUSTIC, see CAPTAIN'S 
 DA UOHTEB. 
 
 LADY WITH THE RUBIES (The), 
 [by "E. MARLiTT,"i. e., Eugenie John: 
 Lippincott, 1885.] "A, great rambling 
 german house, with suites of disused a- 
 partments shut away from sunshine,-and 
 air and "haunted by vanished forms and 
 silent voices, while its open rooms are 
 tenanted by a nest of gentlefolk of all de- 
 grees of relation, — some united by love 
 and others at swords' points,— olTers a 
 lively field for the romancer. 'Belief in 
 the Powers of Darkness will never die so 
 
 long as poor hOman hearts love, hope, 
 and fear,' is the moral, so to speak, of the 
 book ; and the author has used with good 
 effect this vein of superstition which 
 'makes the whole world kin.' Little Mar- 
 gayete's encounter with the family spectre, 
 her flit from home, her lonely and terrify- 
 ing nit, are touchingly described ; and, in 
 fact, the book is full of pretty child-pic- 
 tures, which enhance the pleasantness 
 and charm of the love-story." [ Llppin- 
 cott's. 779 
 
 , SAME, ("Lady with the Garnets") 
 
 Stock, 1886. 
 
 LAJLA [by Jens Andreas Fbiis: 
 Putnam, 1888.] "is an attractive tale of 
 northern Norway and the Lapps.' The 
 human interest of the story is not without 
 a primitive charm, but the raison d'fitre 
 of the book is to be found in the descrip- 
 tions of the nomadic life of the Lapps 100 
 years ago, their wanderings from mountain 
 to coast and back again with the season's 
 change, their meek acceptance of their 
 position as a race inferior tO: the Norwe- 
 gian, and their pathetic opposition, not- 
 withstanding, to a merging of their lan- 
 guage in that of the 'hauty Daro'. The 
 reindeer plays a conspicuous part in the 
 pages of Lsyla, necessarily, since he is to 
 the Lapp life, liberty, and currency ; and 
 one reads the tale with a bracing sense of 
 driving the fleet animal over crisp snows 
 lltened by auroral flashes or by the mid- 
 nlt sun." [ Nation. 780 
 
 LAMPLIGHTER (The), [by Maria 
 Sus.vNNA Cummins: Boston, 1857.] 
 "Whither are gone those stories which, a 
 few years ago, could not be printed fast 
 cnuf,— 'The Lamplighter', and the rest of 
 that brood? They are hidden under the 
 dust in the alcoves, or have been carted 
 off to the pulp mills. Could mind of man 
 have fancied an oblivion so swift for those 
 favorites of the public? Could mortal ten 
 have foretold its present fate for the 
 'Wide, Wide World'?— a story now quite 
 dropped out of sit, but once the town's 
 rage, and whose heroine I remember as a 
 sort of inexhaustible human watering 
 cart with the teai: tap always turned on." 
 
EOMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 [Galaxy. ^ 781 
 
 LAST ALDINI (The). [byG: Sand: 
 Churton, 1S47.] Here "principle is made 
 to triumf over passion, but under circum- 
 stances which tempt the reader to regard 
 it as Quixotism. Nello, the gondolier, 
 loving and beloved, refuses to marry a 
 beautiful woman of rank, lest he should 
 injure the idol of his afl'ections by lower- 
 ing her position in society. This would 
 be well if the idol were one to merit wor- 
 ship; but the first pages of the novel in- 
 troduce us to the lady in question, — 
 Bianca, as a person by no means careful 
 of the world's opinion ; and so weak, and 
 frail and fickle, that when Nello breaks 
 oft" the connexion , we commend his pru- 
 dence rather than his virtue. The self- 
 sacrifice intended to be portrayed assumes 
 almost the form of self-interest." [ West- 
 miuster.J '"G s Sand has here recounted 
 the adventures of a typical artist, an opera 
 singer, who had the good fortune to win 
 the affection of a countess, and also, 15 
 years afterward, to fascinate her dailter, 
 the last scion of a noble race; but who 
 had the courage and wisdom to resist the 
 advances of both ladies. On the othej^' 
 hand, the prosaic truth is sometimes told 
 very plainly. The artist is occasionally 
 represented as neither very fortunate nor 
 very virtuous." [Satioual Review.] 
 "Take again that exquisite little story, 
 'La Deniiere Aldini;' I do not know 
 where one could find a finer illustration of 
 the entire sacrifice of man's natural im- 
 pulse, i)assion, interest, to what mit al- 
 most be called an abstract idea of honor 
 and principle. I have never read this 
 little story without wondering how many 
 men one ever has ki:own who, placed in 
 the same situation as that of Nello, th^ 
 hero, would have done the same thing, 
 and yet so simply and naturally are the 
 characters wrot out the incidents described , 
 that the idea of pompous, dramatic self- 
 sacrifice never enters the mind of the 
 reader, and it seems to him that Nello 
 could not do otherwise than he is doing." 
 [Justin McCarthy. 782 
 
 LAST OF THE MOHICANS (The), 
 
 see LEA THER-8 TO CEING TALES. 
 
 LAST ASSEMBLY BALL ('J'he) [by 
 M.. [Akna] (Hallock) Foote : /fottt^A- 
 ton.) "is a close study in the inchoate 
 society of Leadville, a typical mining city. 
 Mrs. Foote looks deep into the apparent 
 chaos, and shows the struggling forces 
 which are at work to shape the social 
 structure ... It is not a pleasant picture, 
 it must be said, and the reader feeling its 
 truth is the more thankful that the peculiar 
 f ase it shows is a transient one ; that altho 
 this is a truly historical novel, it will, in a 
 few years, be ancient history. The ele- 
 ments have been put into the flask and 
 thoroly shaken; soon they will adjust 
 themselves, the chemical affinities will do 
 their work and the laws of gravity fix the 
 level of each individual. Then equilib- 
 rium, more or less stable, will be estab- 
 lished, and the result of the process will 
 be clear. But Mrs. Foote holds the flask 
 before us just at the moment ot mixing, 
 while the chemical action is most fierce, 
 the dregs stirred with the upper layers, 
 and the whole compound indeterminate 
 and cloudy. The social chemist may be 
 able to gather some facts from observing 
 the process, and so 'The Last Assembly 
 Ball' will have its permanent value, even 
 thp it is not a pleasant story." [Over- 
 laud. 783 
 
 LE EEVE. [by Smile Zola: Fetei- 
 son, 1889.] "Mr. Zola appears to have 
 written 'The Dream' with the idea of 
 showing his critics that he can write with 
 perfect purity if he so desires. The re- 
 sult is one of the most exquisite romances 
 in any language, told with a beauty of 
 style which even a poor translator cannot 
 conceal. The whole atmosfere of the book 
 is sweet and true. Ang^lique, the saintly 
 embroiderer for the cathedral of Beau- 
 mont, is a beautiful figure, and the roman- 
 tic world in which she has her inmost be- 
 ing is opened to the reader with a master's 
 hand. "VV'e should especially commend 
 'Le IMve' to two classes of readers — those 
 persons who take pleasure in Zola's usual 
 filth and those who have been so far re- 
 pelled by the report of it as not to read it 
 
 234 
 
r.OMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 stall. We hope the first may leavn how 
 much finer an ai-tist the author is when he 
 regards purity as one law of life, and we 
 know that the second will acknowledge 
 the genius of Zola, which they may have 
 doubted." [Boston "Literai-y World.] 
 "In 'Le Efive', Mr. ?ola has attempted to 
 show that his studies of the lowest forms 
 of life have not unfitted him to treat a 
 theme of mystical purity, hut it is im- 
 possible to congratulate him on having 
 achieved a complete success. There are 
 passages of marvellous beauty in his pic- 
 ture of the girl bred in the shadow of an 
 old cathedral, who developes a fervid 
 imagination which, fed on the glories of 
 the Church and the legends of the saints, 
 absorbs her whole being, and culminates 
 in an ecstasy of love for one almost as far 
 above her as the angels." [ Athenseum.784 
 
 LEATHER-STOCKESTG TALES (The^. 
 [by Ja. Fbnimorb Cooper: 1823-27.] 
 "Were it not for one great creation, we 
 should have to pronounce Cooper unsuc- 
 cessful in the delineation of character. 
 "Leather-Stocking" is, indeed, a most 
 memorable and heroic yet pathetic figure, 
 as living and impressive almost as any we 
 know, and we should be sori-y to believe 
 that the world will ever willingly let die 
 the delltful books which tell of his battles, 
 his friendships, his unhappy love, his in- 
 tegrity and grand simplicity of character, 
 his ungrudging sacrifices for others, his 
 touching isolation, and his death on the 
 lonely prairie. American fiction has no 
 other such character." [ Spectator.] "The 
 order of the Leatherstocking Tales is (1) 
 The Deerslayer, (2) The Last of the 
 Mohicans, (3) The Pathfinder, (4) The 
 Pioneers, (5) The Prairie. 185 
 
 LEAVES FBOM THE LIFE OF 
 A GOOD-FOR-NOTHING, Lippincntt, 
 lS90.=MEMOIBii OF A GOOD-FOB- 
 NOTHING. 
 
 LED HORSE CLAIM (The) [by M.. 
 [Anna] (Hallock) Foote: Osgood, 
 1883.] "has the striking merit of a very 
 distinct purpose, so far as literary form 
 goes, and of keeping very closely to that 
 purpose. It may be only the unconscious 
 
 fidelity to experience which gives the 
 story so purely and simply from the 
 woman's point of view, but the merit is 
 none the less true. Picturesque and 
 graceful description is likely to be a 
 woman's forte, but the fine balance which 
 keeps Jlrs. Foote's eye and hand true is a 
 rare power. Not even the sharp contrasts, 
 the swift tragedy of the wild mining-life 
 tempt her to venture imagination, but so 
 much the more powerful is her picture of 
 the women waiting at home. It seems 
 something more than a chance coincidence, 
 that the return to the older life in the East 
 appears now in more than one novel. 
 Whereas once there was only the escape 
 from it to the more brilliant possibility of 
 the West, now more than one comes back 
 in story to the old home, and finds a 
 friendly lit in the sky, a content in the 
 hills, a sense of refuge in what was once 
 a hated narrowness. All the years from 
 Plymouth Rock to the Golden Gate are 
 embodied in the home of the "Led-Horse 
 Gulch" and the home at "Little Rest" on 
 the New England hillside. It is hard to 
 say which picture is the better; but by 
 way of minor figures, one must go far to 
 seek even in a novel a more gracious pair 
 than the 2 boys, half-brothers of the hero. 
 They are most slitly sketched, but one- 
 half the readers will flatter themselves that 
 they were once such boys, and the other 
 half will know that they have at some time 
 loved and watched over their like." [ Na- 
 tion. 786 
 
 LEFT-HANDED ELSA [byRo.E: 
 Francillon: Loving, 1879.] "is an 
 honest little story. It has an odd mixture 
 of reality and diablerie; but just that is at- 
 tractive to some people, and homely 
 honesty and truth at last win the day." 
 [Nation. , 787 
 
 , SAME, in Tales from Blackwood, 
 
 N. S., 23. 
 
 LEFT OUT ON LONE STAR MOUN- 
 TAIN [in "On the Frontier," by Bret 
 Harte : Houghton. 1884.] "the justifica- 
 tion of this book lies in the third of its 3 
 sketches. Here we have a composition 
 which in all its details exhibits Mr. Harte's 
 
 235 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 best maimer. Here in the rugged moun- 
 tain solitude is Lone Star cabin ; here are 
 the 5 picturesque partners of the played- 
 ont claim, whimsically known to each 
 other as the RIt and Left Bowers 
 (brothers), Union Mills (who had once 
 patched his trousers with the branded 
 fragment of an old flour-sack), the Judge 
 (a singularly inequitable Missourian) , and 
 the Old Man (whose downy lip proclaimed 
 him still in his teens). For 5 years these 
 5 partners have been toiling at their claim, 
 with nothing to show for it but debts, 
 lost credit, and disgust. Four of them 
 are plotting to 'vamose the ranch,' desert- 
 ing the Old Man to sole ifiheritance of the 
 claim, the debts, and the dangers. The 
 shamefaced, shambling way in which they 
 perfect their plot, and steal forth on the 
 performance of it, is done to the very life. 
 You can see the i men as they steal away 
 from the cabin. And in the midst of it, 
 the Old Man, all unsuspecting their 
 treachery, hopeful and true to his partners 
 to the Inst, is out on the mountain side 
 still prospecting. And Lol the sudden 
 avalanche discloses the auriferous seam, 
 for which they have so long been search- 
 ing, and he hurries back with the joyful 
 news, and meets his skulking partners, 
 and confronts their disheartened spirits 
 and traitorous purijoses with his discovery, 
 and they are just in time to save them- 
 selves from the final step ... It is but a 
 touch — those last words, but it illumines 
 the whole scene with a flood of kindly 
 feeling, and lifts the reader to a hi outlook. 
 The picturesqueness in this story, the 
 pathos of it, the life-likeness of the group 
 of discouraged miners, their down-heart- 
 ed desertion of their comrade, his lofty, 
 unselfish devotion to the common interest, 
 the swift turn in their aflairs towards 
 prosperity and brotherhood ; these are the 
 traits of one of Ilarte's better portraitures." 
 [Boston "Literary World." 788 
 
 LEONE [byL:MoxTl: Osflroo£«,]882.] 
 "There is a great deal to please in 'Leone'. 
 It has to do with brigands, romantic cap- 
 tures, and surprises, but it is not sensation- 
 al. The style is pure, graceful, refined; 
 
 the characters are outlined in successive 
 strokes of self-revealing portraiture; th^re 
 is variety of incident and a well constructed 
 plot which baffles while it does not con- 
 fuse. The heroine is a beautiful american 
 girl who is neither a chatterbox nor a 
 blueVstocking. There is a noble-minded- 
 captain of banditti without a trace of melo- 
 drama about him. Two itaiian artists, a 
 monk, and the father of the heroine form 
 the principal drumatis persome. The 
 scene is entirely in Italy, where the author 
 is so much at home as to be able to do- 
 scribe a simrise with some degree of fideli- 
 ty to nature. There is of course a love 
 aflair in which the fiery itaiian is placed in 
 picturesque contrast with the sweet calm- 
 ness of the less emotional dautcr of the 
 North, altho we hardly pardon Edith for 
 giving up her Silvio so readily. The 
 r«.pidity of the action, careful marshal- 
 ling of scenes, and skillful d^noument show 
 dramatic talent of a ht order." [Boston 
 "Literary World." 789 
 
 LES SlISEEABLES. [by V: HuGO: 
 trans. Wilbour, 7^. y^ Carleton, 1862.] 
 "From this bare abstract, the story does 
 not seem to promise m,uch pleasure to 
 novel-readers, yet it is all alive with the 
 fiery genius of Hugo, and the whole re- 
 presentation is so Intense and vivid that it 
 is impossible to escape from the fascination 
 it exercises over the mind. Few who 
 take the book up will leave it until they 
 have read it throu. It is morbid to a de- 
 gree that no eminent english author, not 
 even Byron, ever approached ; but its mor- 
 bid elements are so combined with senti- 
 ments abstractly christian that it is calcula- 
 ted to wield a more pernicious influence 
 than Byron ever exerted." [Atlantic] 
 "It is a production of extraordinary pow- 
 er, in whatever lit regarded. The char- 
 acters are original, marked and drawn 
 with sharp distinctness; the scenes are de- 
 scribed with minute fidelity, and yet with- 
 out redundance of epithet; and the plot 
 of the story, tho by no means complicated, 
 is intensely interesting. It moves on 
 more slowly than the course of mpst 
 french novels, and there is no attempt to 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 produce surprises or startling effects. 
 'J'here is a singular union of calmness and 
 tragedy, and the last impression is at once 
 pleasant and painful . . . We shall not at- 
 tempt to give an analysis of a story in 
 which so much of the interest is in the de- 
 tails of description, and in the beauty of 
 style. Each of the 5 boolis into which it. 
 is divided is complete in itself, and mit be 
 given as a separate sketch. The bishop, 
 and his household of 2 ■»X)men quite un- 
 like, make an admirable cabinet picture. 
 The porti-ait of a perfect christian pastor 
 has never been more beautifully drawn. . . 
 Another striking character is the convict 
 Jean Valjean, who is Introduced first to 
 show the consequences of unjust judicial 
 sentence and harsh penal administration, 
 and afterwards, in his changed and re- 
 generate condition, as a mayor, to show 
 what may be done by one man of energy 
 and influence . . . Fantine, the heroine of 
 the story, does not appear until the third 
 book. She is first shown in one of those 
 characteristic Parisian groups, — students 
 and their grisette companions taking a 
 holiday. The inevitable issue comes iu 
 desertion, shame, poverty, struggle be- 
 tween womanly pride and maternal love. 
 The beautiful, pure, and confiding girl be- 
 comes gradually, throu the succession of 
 persecutions, mishaps, and miseries which 
 follow her, a jealous, reckless, abandoned 
 woman, held to virtue only by the love of 
 her child. Incidentally, iu connection 
 with this child, we have glimpses of the 
 brutal side of peasant life. Fantine dies 
 at last in comparative peace; but her 
 death is only the end of a victim to society. 
 "We can feel for this poor creature only 
 pity."' [Christian Examiner.] "Victor 
 Hugo is not a moralist, for instance, be- 
 c.iuse he does not paint human life. He 
 is a rhapsodist in sentiment and a cari- 
 caturist in delineation. He is like DorC. 
 His works are grotesque and powerful, 
 but they are all unreal. They are not 
 men and women in his pages more than 
 the figures arc truly human or the houses 
 actually brick and stone in Dora's sketches. 
 . . . The reading world has been going 
 
 into factitious hysterics over 'Les Miser- 
 ables' of Victor Hugo, and. will say that 
 Thackeray's 'Philip' is the same old story. 
 No man is foolish enuf, let us hope, to 
 remonstrate with public opinion; but, 
 speaking of old stories, what is 'Les 
 Miserables' ? Its moral is that a bad man 
 may have good traits. But the treatment 
 is in such excessive chiaroscuro, it so 
 blazes and darkens, that the figures glim- 
 mer and glower and reel off in fantastic 
 diablerie. The man is so good that the 
 influence is lost, and the story vanishes 
 like a fairy tale."— [G: W: Curtis.]— 
 "This much it is rtt to say iu condemna- 
 •tion of theWork. But we think the world 
 of today and of future generations will 
 prefer to estimate the book in a manner 
 which wilj allow a warmer recognition of 
 its merits as a work of art and a romance. 
 'J'hus criticized, it must be pronounced 
 one of the mastei-pieces of the age which 
 produced it. Faults, eccentricities, re- « 
 dundancies, extravagances, errors against 
 good taste, it unquestionably has. Any 
 critic who liked the task mit devote an 
 essay to these. But when the most invidi- 
 ous criticism had done its worst, the im- 
 mense power, the noble character of the 
 book would remain uninjured. The 
 foundation for half-a'dozen great reputa- 
 tions mit be discovered in its pages. Per- 
 haps no hier praise could be given to the 
 work than to say that, heralded as it was 
 by months and months of the mo>t vehe- 
 mentprelimin.iry laudation, hily wrOt up 
 as public expectation had jiurposely been, 
 the world was not disappointed in the end. 
 The presence of genius is felt by the 
 reader in every chapter and page. A deep 
 insit into human nature, a warm and al- 
 most passionate sympathy with human 
 suflering, a pictoi'ial power scarcely rival- 
 ed in our days, n dramatic force which 
 strikes out new and thrilling effects in 
 every new situation, an inexhaustible 
 variety of character, incident, and illustr.i- 
 tion, and a vivid eloquence absolutely un- 
 equalled by any living author of the same 
 class, — these are some, and only some, of 
 the leading qualities." [Westminster 
 
 237 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 790 
 
 ■Wraxall, London 
 
 Hapgood, Crowell, 
 by "\T: Haufl-, J. 
 
 Review. 
 
 , SAME, trans. 
 
 and N. Y., 1S03. 
 
 — , SAME, trans. 
 ISST. 
 
 LICHTENSTEIX, 
 Blackwood, 1S60. 
 
 LIXDA. [by C. L. (W.) Hentz: 1S30.] 
 "The school-girl of the period will hail 
 with dclit the announcement of the 
 Messrs. Peterson that they are about to 
 publish a complete edition of the novels of 
 the late Mrs. I-Ieutz. Her books have 
 ahvays.bcen d'ear to the extremely juvenile 
 mind. They introduce the reader to ?uch 
 delitful young men with classic brows • 
 and raven hair, and to such superbly 
 beautiful and romantic dauters of the 
 Sunny South, that it is impossible for the 
 young heart not to be drawn towards such 
 perfect creatures, and for the young in- 
 tellect not to admire the author who 
 created such sweet boons in the shape of 
 lovers, and who described them with such 
 wealth of flowery and poetic diction. 
 Especially has 'Linda' been fortunate iu its 
 wonderful popularity. There has, proba- 
 bly, never been another book which has 
 been hid under so nianV virgin pillows, 
 and suffered from so much maidenly bread 
 and butter, as has 'Lind.a'. It has been 
 the solace of countless Suudays in young 
 ladies' seminaries, and has rivaled its 
 kindred, but Imore material milk and 
 water, in the affections of parlor boarders. 
 It is, therefore, fortunate, in vue of this 
 remarkable popularity, that Mrs. Hentz' 
 novels are entirely blameless. Exeei)t in 
 . the one respect of utter vacuity, there is 
 no fault to be found with them. Their 
 estimable author <liscovercd that literary 
 milk and water would meet with a large 
 demand among the customers of the in- 
 nocuous beversige which is known by that 
 attractive name. She therefore set her- 
 self to provide for this demand, and for 
 many years pursued the business with 
 eminent success. To criticise severely 
 such stories as 'Linda', and its numerous 
 companions is quite impossible. The 
 author intended to make them as weak 
 
 238 
 
 and foolish as the school-girl heai-t could 
 wish. She had an undoubted rit to pursue 
 herlwork, and deserves our gratitude for 
 not writing vicious as well as foolish books. 
 If her stories are worthless they are at 
 least harmless, and he would be morose 
 and cruel indeed who would deprive the 
 girlish mind of the pleasure of reading 
 them in stolen moments by the lit of sur- 
 reptitious gas,, or behind the artfully 
 raised lid of the school-room desk." 
 [Citizen and Round Table. 791 
 
 LITTLE DORRIT. [byC: Dickexs: 
 1S56.J "Xo sooner have you read a few 
 pages than you seem to be in the midst ef 
 the world and daily life, with all its in- 
 finite varieties and currents. No novelists 
 iu english literature have this power of 
 putting the reader, and interesting him in 
 the characters as a part of the world, so 
 much as Fielding, Thackeray, and Dick- 
 ens. Their novels are not so much the 
 story of the isolated fortunes of individ- 
 uals, as vast panoramas of great masses 
 of the world. In this way they have a 
 kind of cosmopolitan interest. It is not a 
 thin thread of story which you pursue, so 
 attenuated often that it is not strong enuf 
 to sustain attention, but you move, Ifif, 
 and cry with a crowd. There is in 
 'Little Dorrit' plenty of that pungent 
 satire with which Dickens always bears 
 down upon great national abuses. Xo- 
 thing in all his writings is better in its 
 way than the Circumlocution nffl.ce. It 
 is broad satire, yet how cuttingly true, 
 and how purely english ! The stupid con- 
 fusion of the impotent young othcial, who 
 lives in precedents and an agonized and 
 reveVend chaos, when he drops his eye- 
 glass — which is symbolical of the entire , 
 humbug of the system of which he is a 
 cipher^s admirably drawn and severely 
 dramiitic . . . One thing must forcil)ly 
 strike every american reader of this and 
 other stories of Dickens. ^ It is the intense 
 englishism of the tale. There are certain 
 conditions imperative upon a novel, which 
 it seems almost impossible to attain in 
 America, a kind of pieturesque per- 
 spective, a romantic association of place 
 
KOMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 and systems, which are entirely unknown 
 to us. Thus the scene of 'Little Dorrit' is 
 London, and all the local painting is, 
 doubtless, strictly true. But how would 
 it be possible to treat Xew-York, or any 
 american city. In that way? We have no 
 romantic setting for novels. What are 
 you to do with Broadway, with the Park, 
 with Avenue B, ? Of course there are 
 plenty of characters, and life enuf, but 
 there are no mellow distances, no grimed 
 and venerable buildings and places. All 
 these must be renounced in an american 
 novel." [G: W: Curtis. 793 
 
 LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY. [by 
 F.. [Eliza] (H.) Burnett: Scribner, 
 1S86.] "It is hard to find words hi enuf in 
 which to commend this charming stoi^. It 
 is only a child's tale, but it is not the less 
 genuine literature, and so worthy of any 
 one?s attention ... It is easy to call the 
 story well-plotted and -^'ell written, but 
 that does not explain why it sometimes 
 clutches us at the throat and presses the 
 moisture from our eyes before we are 
 aWare. In truth, ittouches in thesimplest 
 and directest fashion the main chords of 
 human feeling; it Is dignified by an atmos- 
 fere of honest sentiment which a fine re- 
 serve rescues from the natural and almost 
 inevitable fall into sentimentality. We 
 suppose, if the truth must be told, his 
 young lordship is too fine a fellow to have 
 been a real boy, and we are inclined to 
 hope that behind the scenes in which Mrs. 
 Burnett has chosen to show us this manly, 
 frank, sweet-tempered peer in embryo he 
 indulges a small nautiness or two, if only 
 that he may be a friend, on something like 
 equal grounds, of the verj' recognisable 
 human boys and girls who will make his 
 acquaintance throu his biografer. We do 
 not know any reason why he should not 
 be aa charmingly unselfish as he is, how- 
 ever, nor why he should not be brave and 
 simple-minded, thinking no evil; and as 
 these are the essentials of his character 
 and make the point of the book, we need 
 not question his other perfections, es- 
 pecially since Mrs. Burnett has the art of 
 flattering us to belief in their reasonable- 
 
 ness while we read of thorn. His conquest 
 of his surly and ill-favored grandfather, 
 the Earl, by means of his innocent attribu- 
 tion to him of all the virtues, is admirably 
 conceived, and carried out with touching 
 truth ; and it is not only his grandfather 
 who is the better for the knowledge of 
 Lord Fauntleroy's generous young heart. 
 He carries love and sunshine with him, 
 and every one who knows him is the hap- 
 pier for his living. By the subtlest and 
 least didactic means, Mrs. Burnett implies 
 this as the inmost meaning of her story ; 
 that this fruit of character is the chicfest 
 good of life for every one of us. 'It was 
 really a very simple thing, after all', she 
 says — 'it was only that he had lived near a 
 kind and gentle heart, (that of his mother, . 
 who is scarcely less well done than little 
 Lord Fauntleroy himself) 'and had been 
 taut to think kind thSts always, and to 
 care for others. It is a vei-y little thing, 
 perhaps, but it is the best thing of all. 
 He knew nothing of earls or castles ; he 
 was quite ignorant of all grand and splen- 
 did things ; but he was always lovable be- 
 cause he was simijle and loving. To be so 
 is like being born a king." [Church 
 Review.] "It is full of spirit' and originality, 
 of brit surprise and captivating sweetness. 
 It reminds one of some graceful allegretto 
 or scherzo coming with gay relief and 
 charm among slower and sadder strains — 
 of life or art. The beautiful child-nature 
 of the little hero is rendered with the 
 utmost felicity. His small lordship is 
 meant to be, and is irresistibly winning. 
 Perhaps the best thing in the book is the 
 clear showing of his innate nobility — a 
 strength and sweetness of character quite 
 independent of circumstances or condition, 
 which conquers even the hardhcartedness 
 of the selfish old earl, his grandfather. 
 This may not suit believers in total de- 
 pravity, but to any other readers, old or 
 young, we recommend the story as most 
 fascinating; and tho as previously hinted. 
 It is almost too charming for reality, there 
 are not wanting touches of humor and 
 pathos to make it lifelike." [JS'atiou.] 
 "It is already too well known and too 
 
 239 
 
EOMAKTIC NOVELS. 
 
 rrnK-li admirpil to need futlior words of in- 
 troiliic'tioii : Ijutit is n pleasure to dwell willi 
 omfasisupoiiaiiytliingso perfect of its kind. 
 It is ]iiiiuant, amusing, iiistruutive. beauti- 
 ful, and not uiiuatura'i : and it lias an excel- 
 lent tlio iniohti'usive moral. 'NVliile not 
 written .iljovo llie childien's heads, its 
 literary ciuality is soniethin<; which the 
 children can not wholly appretiiate. There 
 is, therefore no one wliom 'IJttIo Lord 
 Fauntlcroy' will not please. The child of 
 C will listen with delit to the pretty story, 
 and the man of CO will not regret being 
 called upon to read it aloud to the 6 ycar- 
 olil. It is full of touches which betray an 
 insitinto human nature like Hans Ander- 
 sen's or the Autocrat's. Such is the capi- 
 tal way in which Mr. Hobbs' prejudice 
 against earls is overcome as soon as he is 
 able to associate with them in even the 
 mildest way. These, of course, will not 
 be wholly appreciated by the very youth- 
 ful readers; but neither will they friten 
 them away from the rest of the dainty 
 story of a little fellow making his way in 
 life by simple lovablencss and lovingness." 
 [ Critic] "The scene is nominally laid in 
 New- York s and in England ; it is really 
 laid in that delitful and inii)0ssible country, 
 a near nCbor to fairy-land, which was first 
 (tiscovered by Dickens, where the good 
 people arc so vcrj' good, and bciutiful in 
 mind and manners and body as they are 
 incharactcr, where the funny people are 
 too funny for anything, and the bad peo- 
 ple are horrid, yet so little set in their 
 wicked ways that the slitest tiling, as a 
 kind word or act, or the innocent trust of 
 a little child, has been known to turn them 
 from very bad people to very gooil ones. 
 This story of the 7 year-old amcrican boy 
 who lives among all sorts of queer people 
 in New-York, and is discovered to be the 
 heir to an earldom, who goes to England, 
 astonishes the aristoeraoy by his beauty 
 and bravery and delitful bonhommie, wins 
 the ailfeetions of the tenantry on his an- 
 cestral acres, softens the heart of the grim, 
 cruel old earl his grandfather so that he 
 turns into a sort of little Cheeryble, and 
 rewards his old friends Mr. Hobbs tlie 
 
 grocer and Dick the boot-black with a ' 
 muniticence that is unknown out of fairy- 
 tales and Christmas-books,— this story is 
 simply a stroke of genius." [Lijipin- 
 cottV. 793 
 
 LITTLE MAID OP AC'ADIE (A) [by 
 Mahia.n Coi.hol'n JjKGahe Keeves: 
 Applelon , ISSO.] "is a clever domestic story 
 of the Canadian border, having a pathetic 
 interest and showing some skill in the arts 
 of construction and expression. The 
 'little maid' seems rather a neglected 
 good'for-nothing at the outset, but de- 
 veloiis under experience and native force 
 of character into a personage who chal- 
 lenges respect." [American. 794 
 
 LITTLE MOOKLAND PRINCESS 
 (The) [by "E. Marlitt," i. e., Eugenic 
 .)ohn:tr. liyA.L. (F.) Wister:7-y)pntcrtiJ, 
 1872.] "is a skillful blending of the fanciful 
 with the real, the latter element being made 
 subordinate without being absolutely dc- 
 ticient. In other words, the charm of these 
 stories lies not so much in their fidelity to 
 Nature as in the graceful and agrccaiilc 
 visions which they summon before the 
 Tiiind^ . . The earlier scenes, in which the 
 heroine, ignorant of her origin and un- 
 consciQus of her attractions, runs wild up- 
 on the moor, have , a peculiar attractive- 
 ness, and show to advantage that fresh- 
 ness of fancy which is the author's hiest' 
 gift, avid which lends to her pictures 
 something of the fascination with which 
 the roseate tints of morning invest the 
 commonest landscape." [ Lippincott's.] 
 "Neither Miss Marlitt nor 'her readers 
 appear to tire of the pretty stories in 
 which low-born virtue triumfs over aris- 
 tocratic pride and prejudice, and in which 
 german Lutheranism is always held up to 
 open scorn. For our part, we confess to 
 sharing in the pleasure which the rest of 
 her public doubtless get from her per- 
 formances, and to finding her last story, 
 despite its similarity to its predecessors, 
 as entertaining as the first one. There is 
 an innocent freshness about them in 
 despite, as it were, of their author, for she 
 seems to have an ever-present sense of her 
 responsibilities as a social reformer. She 
 
 210 
 
liOMAKTlC KOVFXS. 
 
 succeeds better as a story-teller, however, 
 than a^s a preacher." [Nation.]— "There 
 is a young girl br6t up in the country, a 
 gentleman of inidtlle-age who falls in love 
 with Tier at first sit, an absent-minded 
 father; various \ persons who draw the 
 girl into difficulties, from which her el- 
 derly lover rPS(!nes her, and n faithful old 
 servant, to whom she flics, in order to be 
 brfit back by the said lover. But this par- 
 ticular heroine is so very wild and child- 
 ish, that she evidently Ot to have been 7 
 instead of 17; and it passes even the most 
 indulgent novcl-rcadpr's powers to be- 
 lieve that Jlr. Claudius"large, blue, fiery 
 eyes' could have seen anything attractive 
 in her."' [Spectator. 795 
 
 , SAME ("Little Princess of the 
 
 Bloor") transl. by Sprague, in Ladies' 
 depository, Jan.-Dec.. 1872. 
 
 , SAME, ("Princess of the Moor") 
 
 Tauchnita, 1S72. 
 
 , SAME, Ward & Lock, 1882. 
 
 , SAME, transl. by Slide, Seming- 
 
 «on,lSS3. 
 
 LORD KILGOBBIN. [byC:LmT?R: 
 Harper, 1872.] "It is, unfortunately, very 
 seldom that one finds a novelist whose 
 work, extending over so many years, 
 , shows only steady improvement, but such 
 is the case with the novels of the late Mr, 
 Lever. His military novels, with the 
 young dragoons ever ready for fiting, and 
 for love or punch-making, were, and will 
 be for a long time, the delit of youth, but 
 in these novels of his later years there is 
 the same britness, a much acuter study of 
 char,icter, and the evidence of a much 
 wider experience. 'iStr Brooke Fos- 
 brooke' is on&of this sort which can be re- 
 commended. 'That Soy of NorcotVa', 
 altho of less merit, is very readable ; but 
 perhaps the best of all is his last, 'Lord 
 Kilgobbin.' The scene of this story is in 
 Ireland, and the author has drawn an ad- 
 mirable picture of the gloom and dulncss 
 of its country life, and of the interruptions 
 to this duhiess which Fenianism and irish 
 devotion to causeless brawling are capable 
 of producing. The characters are numer- 
 ous, and are sharply sketched ; there are 
 
 many irish, a greek princess, young ^en- 
 glishmcn, officers, adventurers, a motley 
 and entertaining crowd. One of the most 
 amusing one of them all is one Alice, who 
 is simply a civilian succssor to the soldier- 
 ly heroes of the earlier novels. Instead of 
 madly galloping in the charge, or jangling 
 his spurs in the ball-room, he, while yet a 
 young man in college, writes for all the 
 best psipers in Europe instructing states- 
 men in their craft, and taking all sides of 
 every political (juestiou , . , The two 
 young women arc well drawn; and, in a 
 word, the interest we are made to feel in 
 the characters, the skill shown in telling 
 the story, the good nature and refinement 
 of the author, make this a very readable 
 novel." [Nation. 796 
 
 LORENZ STARK, see Jl/^ Til A WUZ. 
 
 LORENZO BENONI. [by Giovaxxi 
 [P.] RurriNi: Chapman, 1S5S.] The au- 
 thor "has narrated, in this charming book, 
 his school-boy republicanism, his connex- 
 ion with Mazzini (called Fantasio),and his 
 part in the conspiracies and revolution of 
 18S1. His elder brother was shot by the 
 Sardinian government, and he was able to 
 escape to Paris only by a most romantic tilt 
 and swimming across the swollen Var be- 
 fore the Sardinian police." [Athe- 
 nicum. 797 
 
 LORNA DOONE [by R: D. Black- 
 moke: 1809.] "is one of the stories which 
 gain and grow on you by repeated read- 
 ing. It is a perfect handbook to some ot 
 the most picturesciue districts of Devon- 
 shire, and a storehouse of Legendary and 
 arch:eological information. Tet that is 
 perhaps among its lesser merits. For no 
 living novelist is more master of the art of 
 introducing one to the innermost nitimacy 
 of his personages. Our liking for John 
 Ridd changes, like that of Lorna, into 
 aflection and esteem, as we learn to ap- 
 preciate the striking and straitforward 
 qualities of that sturdy representative of 
 the cnglish yeomanry. Nor is Lorna her- 
 self less of a reality to us ; while the casual re- 
 ferences to such personages as the savage 
 Chancellor bring out the man to the life 
 in his coarseness and moral defoimity.. ." 
 
 241 
 
KOMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 [BlaclcwoocVs. 798 
 
 LOST MAIfUSCBirT (The). [by 
 ' GusiAV Fkeytag: Chapman, 1S65.] 
 "However, the professor's (search brings 
 us hito viirious .^cenes ami strange com- 
 pany. It leads us first to Eossau, where 
 rastead of finding the MS., the professor 
 takes himself a wife; it then brings us 
 back to the university, and shows us the 
 ways of professors and students; last of 
 all it carries us to a small court afflicted by 
 a prince who sutlers under the same mal- 
 ady as the Cirsars. Details of country 
 life and farming, the visit of a learned 
 country lady, an adventure with gypsies, 
 a controversy between professors about 
 a forged leaf of Tacitus, a professors' bail, 
 a studcut»' 'commerz,' a students' duel, 
 an inaugtiration of a rector, a long-stand- 
 ing quarrel between 2 ncbors, court in- 
 trigues and scandal, the pranks of a mis- 
 chievous' young prince and t^le Machina- 
 tions of a mischievous old one, an attempt 
 on the life of the professor .and the honor 
 of his wife, are some of the incidents 
 arbitrarily connected with the search for 
 the lost Tacitus . . . But the d6noimient of 
 the whole story disappoints us, and has a 
 melodramatic look which is neither In 
 keeping with the outset, nor equal to the 
 parts we have specified." [Athena-uni. 799 
 - — , SABOE, Chicago, Open Court 
 Pvb. Co., JSOl. 
 
 LOST MOUKTATN (The), [by [T:] 
 JfAYxr, Emi)^] "The real cause of the 
 popularity of Rcid's novels, which, as re- 
 gards 1 or 2 of them, may last long, is 
 that they gratify not the boyish, but the 
 human love for pure romance, for stories 
 in which there .are practically fairies, tho 
 they arc called mcxicau ladies, and genii, 
 tho they arc dressed as american filibus- 
 ters, and devils, tho they appear as Don 
 Rafaels or Antonios; and probabilities are 
 set aside, and every thing happens as it is 
 convenient it should happen, and nobody 
 cares a dump whether there arc any l.iws, 
 human or divine, or not. Adventures 
 , are adventured, and the adventurers fall 
 
 into fritfu) dangers, and get out of them 
 again l)y wonderful means; and laws. 
 
 literary or other, are simply a burden . . . 
 It is to be rid of the coercing, con'ii)ress- 
 ing, and therefore limiting chain of cause 
 and efl'ect,— to set the imaginatioti free, 
 and let it revel for a moment in an uncon- 
 ditional world. It does revel, and we all 
 like the momentary sensation even altho 
 wc are all the while critical enuf to be 
 annoyed with our own pleasure . . . liut 
 we can dispense with it, and find pleasure 
 even in Maync Beid, and the marionnettes 
 which caper in the glowing air, furious 
 storms, and vast over scenery of tho slopes 
 from the huge mexican plateau. "VVe see 
 no harm in the enjoyment; it is only 
 'Jack , the Giant Killer' for the grown-Ups ; 
 and we firmly believe that some day -Etj- 
 manee will again be a widely popular 
 form of fiction. Man grows gloomier and 
 gloomier, but the- childlike element in 
 him is happily not dead yet." [Spec- 
 tator. 800 
 LOTHAIR. [by the kam. of Beacons- 
 FIKLU : Appleton, 1870.] "A hero implies 
 a heroine; in this case we have three, 
 whose various form of relation to the hero 
 are happily enuf conceived . . . Tho 
 Church of Eome, in the person of Cardi- 
 nal Grandison, havin<> marlted him for 
 her own, wc are invited to see what part 
 the world shall play in contesting or con- 
 firming her infiuence. VTe have, in the 
 first place. Lady Corisande, the lovely ■ 
 dauter of a mTty duke, a charming 
 girl and a good Protestant; in the second, 
 we have Miss Arundel, equally lovely, 
 and a keen Papist; and lastly, we have 
 the "devine Theodora", an Italian patriot, 
 married, oddly enough; to a "gentleman 
 of the South" of our own country. Jew- 
 els, castles, horses, riches of every kind 
 arc poured into the story without measure, 
 without mercy. But there is a certain 
 method, after all, in the writer's madness. 
 His purpose — his instinct, at least— has 
 been to portray with all possible complete- 
 ness a purely aristocratic world." [At- 
 lantic] Key to Lothair: The Oxford 
 Professor, Goldwin Smith; "Grandison," 
 Cardinals Manning and Wiseman; 
 "Lotbair", Marquis of Bute. "Catesby", 
 
 242 
 
ROMANTIC NOVF.LS. 
 
 Monseigneiir Capel. Duko and Duchesis, 
 Dulce and DucLess of Abcrcorn. The 
 Bishop, Bishop Wilberforce; "C'orisande", 
 either of the Ladies Hamilton. [Notes 
 and Queries, 9 Jan. 1886. 801 
 
 LOTE AFTEE MARRIAGE see 
 COUBTSHIP AND MABRIAGE. 
 
 LOVE AND MIRAGE; or the Wait- 
 ing on an Island. [ by Matilda B. Ed- 
 wards : Sictchiniton, 1800.] " 'Love and 
 Mirage' is a pretty and sentimental storj' 
 delicately told. Arthur Venning and his 
 younger brother Hervcy go off to an 
 island which is not gcografieally defined, 
 tho it is described as *'a veritable Eden 
 under the northern star." Here they 
 come across two lovely German sisters, 
 jind fall in love with them. Arthur's 
 friend, however, refu.-cs his offer, on the 
 ground that a disgrace is attached to her 
 family throu the conduct of an elder 
 sister. The girls go away, but on the 
 same island Arthur discovers a prince's 
 castle and a mysterious lady; and here 
 there is a second fase of love-making. 
 Tlie mysterious lady turns out to be the 
 eldest of three sisters, the author's con- 
 fidence must be preserved as to the fate 
 of the two unfortunate ladies on whom 
 Arthur Venning had successively be- 
 stowed his preference. This "out-of- 
 door romance" is well worth reading for 
 its own sake. It is painful in a sense, but 
 extremely pathetic, and with a good deal 
 of pastoral charm." [Athena>um. 862 
 
 LOVE OR PRIDE? [Adapted from 
 the Swedish, by Annfe "Wood : Bentley.] 
 "The book reminds us somewhat, in 
 manner, of the liter style of baroness 
 Knorring, and is a tolerably good exam- 
 ple of the second-rate class of Swedish 
 romances, stronger iu incident than plot, 
 but always innocent and pretty. The 
 plan of the story slltlj' recalls 'The Heir 
 of Redclyffe.' A young man of immense 
 fortune determines to become a tutor in a 
 noble family, in order to accustom him- 
 self to self-restraint and obedience. Of 
 course, there is a proud and lovely dauter, 
 with whom he falls in loVe, and, equally 
 of course, she declares a reciprocal pas- 
 
 sion a few hours before his rank and 
 wealth are revealed. Her own family be- 
 comes ruined, and the ti-devant tutor 
 buys the estate and ]iresents it to h(!r 
 brother." [Athcn;cum. , 803 
 
 LOUISA [byK.. S. Macquoid: Har- 
 per, 1SS5.] "is one of those stories which 
 are really works of art in the skill with 
 which what is thrilling is mingled with 
 what is exquisite; so that every possible 
 story-reader will find in it something to 
 his taste. Nothing could be simpler than 
 the material. Nothing happens in the 
 book from beginning to end. There is an 
 absolute dearth of incident; but the cun- 
 ning of the writer keeps the reader per- 
 fectly absorbed in the development of 
 character and the action and re-action up- 
 on each other of varying temperaments, 
 until a fit of jealousy affects the reader 
 like an incident, and the play of the pas- 
 sions seems the most exciting of dramas. 
 'Local color' of whatever nature, is always 
 a great feature for a book ; but if we could 
 choose our local color, we should probably 
 always say, 'Let it be of Italy'. The 
 story of ' Louisa' is vivid with this rich 
 • Italian coloring, sometimes of scenery, 
 sometimes of character, as in the cleverly 
 drawn servants and the admirable portrait 
 of the count — for once a lovable Count. 
 There have been times when we were 
 ready to denounce any novel which rested 
 its claim to interest on illegal love or jeal- 
 ousy ; but altho this element is one of the 
 pivots for 'Louisa', it is used in a way to 
 disarm criticism and even win applause. 
 The love of the countess for the serene 
 englishman is not mad passion, but intel- 
 lectual devotion. The calm, intellectual 
 'Louisa', the jealous but gentle count, the 
 impulsive Francesca, the clever american 
 widow, the interesting englishman, about 
 whom, simple and uiijssuming as he is, 
 all these inflammable characters revolve, 
 make together a story which is at once as 
 dramatic as a play, and as delicate as a 
 dream." [Critic. 804 
 
 LOYALTY GEORGE [by Louisa 
 (Taylor) Parr: ffolt, 1888.] "is a 
 stoi-y of Devonshire coast life during 
 
 243 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 the ilays succeeding the french wars, 
 when 'Bony' was the name which fritened 
 nauty children into Hecraly beha\ior, 
 when stories of the press gang were mem- 
 ories as well as I'omance, and smugglers 
 had little troul)le to ply their trade. 
 Scores of novel writers have made the 
 times and places familiar, notably Mrs. 
 GasUell, whose 'Sylyia's Lovers' will in- 
 evitably come to mind as one opens Mrs. 
 Parr's book. But the times and places 
 lent themselves to fiction so readily that 
 one is only glad to meet them again, and 
 'Loyalty George' is in no sense an imita- 
 tion. If we have with Mrs. Gaskell 
 climbed these [these? not Yorkshire?] 
 cUtts and looked upon this sea. hurried to 
 the sands to see the fishing boats come 
 in, hunted birds' nests in the rocky walls, 
 pushing a way throu gorsc and bramble, 
 listened to the sea stories of soldiers and 
 sailors, and passed the time of day with 
 fishwives, it is with a guide of a humor 
 more subtle than even Mrs. Gaskell's that 
 we walk the streets of the twin villages, 
 Ferrers and Fairstoke, and sit at the vil- 
 lagers' tea tables, or listen to Mrs. Coode's 
 private interpretation of Providence. 
 The heroine, with her disreputable sur- 
 roundings, is so sweet and loyal a vaga- 
 bond that it is a pity she fixed her aftec- 
 tions on a man who knew how to love 
 better than to trust, and that so she had 
 to be sacrificed to the needs of -a, tragic 
 consistency. Dunchy^ the deaf boatman, 
 with his malodorous past, and his wise 
 afljection for his little maiden friend, is a 
 character to be put among the realities; 
 so, too, the gentle Wesleyan minister; 
 while Mrs. Coode is not unworthy of the 
 hand that drew Sister Glegg and Sister 
 Pullet."— [Natipn 805 
 
 LUCK OF ROARING CAMP (The), 
 [by [Fr.] BitET JUrif.: Fields, ISIl.} 
 "is but one very b'ef tale out of a dozen. 
 It is a narrative of a .short life — that of a 
 baby — in one of those curious colonies of 
 gold-diggers. It bears every evidence of 
 being true to the life, as a picture studied 
 from the life mlt be expected to be. 
 It is full of rude figures, without a pre- 
 
 tense at civilisation even— much less refine- 
 ment-men without conscience or re- 
 straint, careless in body and in mind, and 
 ruf as the rocks they work among; yet it 
 is long since we have read anything so 
 touching . . . Nothing is softened in 
 the picture— there is no sentiment- no- 
 body is reminded of the innocence of his 
 own cradle in words, as so many moralist 
 humorists would take pleasure in remind- 
 ing him. The camp is not changed at 
 once into a nursery Bethel. But neverthe- 
 less, the whole community, in which 
 there is not a single woman left, gets grad- 
 ually absorbid in the child, and with a 
 shame-faced submission to the soft new 
 yoke which is thus put upon its neck, it 
 knows not how, grows a little cleaner, a 
 little quieter, a little kinder, with a clumsy 
 surprise at itself which is perfectly well 
 rendered and thoroly natural. . ." 
 [Blackwood's. 806 
 
 MACLEOD OF DARE [by W: 
 Black: Harper, 1879.] "is much more 
 like a great poem than a great novel. It 
 begins like a modern talc, but it ends like 
 an ancient ballad. We have noticed bc" 
 fore that the halves of some of Mr. Black's 
 best eflbrts do not entirely correspond, 
 He seems to have a constitutional ob- 
 jection to ending on the common chord. 
 In 'Macleod' his theme is extremely, poet- 
 ically, simple. There are really only 2 
 characters : the untamed, and intrepid, yet 
 gentle and chivalrous. Highland chief, with 
 a chorus of wild retainers; and the fine 
 London lady, the actress spoiled by flattery 
 and ffiining, with her natural 'entourage' 
 of relatives and friends. The lover is 
 impassioned, generous, constant; the lady 
 beautiful, of course, selfish throu timidity, 
 fickle, and shallow . . . Macleod of Dare 
 is a book of a thousand for its unity and 
 fire. It is eloquent, tender and pro- 
 foundly touching. It soars to a hit of 
 simple passion seldom attained in those 
 sofistieated days, but it topples over at 
 the very last, and misses the crown of 
 ultimate symmetry." [ Atlantic] -The 
 "customary relation between the princi- 
 pal characters is exactly reversed, and it 
 
 214 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 is a trusting, faitliful, and noble-natured 
 man whose life and happiness are wreelsed 
 upon the shoals of misplaced aflcction. 
 Partly for this reason, and partly because 
 of the overwhelmingly tragical catastrofe 
 of its close, the story will probably be less 
 popular than most of the author's previous 
 ones; yet it contains some of his very best 
 work, whether in the portrayal of charac- 
 ter, the artistic adjustment of incident, or 
 the poetical description of scenery ... In 
 many cases the disenchantment follows so 
 close upon the charm that no great harm 
 is done ; but when the comedy is played 
 with an intense, passionate, fine-strung 
 nature like Macleod's, the result is likely 
 to be tragic, whether, as would commonly 
 be the case, the victim summons resolu- 
 tion to brave his fate and silently endure 
 the inevitable, or whether, as in the more 
 soul-piercing catastrofe of Macleod of 
 Dare, his dethroned and distempered rea- 
 son prepares for both betrayer and victim 
 an oblivion-luring draft of 'Death's black 
 wine'." [Applcton's. 807 
 
 MADAME DELPHIXE. [by G : W. 
 Cable: jS'cri'ftHer-, 18S1.] "The characters 
 move in the quaint, half oriental New- 
 Orleans of other daj's. There is a group 
 of singularly interesting persons,— an ideal 
 pirate sanctified by a great and sudden 
 love; a beautiful quadroon, sad with all 
 the tragedy of her class; a wise, liberal, 
 noble-hearted priest, and a few admirably 
 sketched minor characters." [Amcr. 808 
 
 MADAME THERESE. [byERCKMANN 
 and Chatrian : - Scribner, ISdO.] "The 
 story is told in the simplest manner by 
 one who was a boy at the time of the 
 scenes described, and lived in a little vil- 
 lage in the midst of the Vogesen with his 
 uncle, a filanthropic old doctor, a filosofcr, 
 and a lover of peace, but ready to be 
 awakened by that great volcanic move- 
 ment which began to upheave all Europe 
 in 1792. Without any apparent purpose 
 of making the novel historical, the authors, 
 in their descriptions of the village dis- 
 cussions over the ominous rising of the 
 french people, and of the military move- 
 ments and spirited engagements which 
 
 sweep ruthlessly over the quiet village, 
 give a glance into the strange, unsettled 
 life of the time, which brings it before us 
 with wonderful reality and distinctness. 
 Madame Thcrese is a vivandiire of rare 
 elevation of character, who is left for dead 
 in the streets of the village, after a fierce 
 conflict in which her soldier comrades are 
 engaged with the austrian troops, and res- 
 cued by the good Dr. from the inhuman- 
 ity of the villagers and from the ven- 
 geance of the A ustrians." [Galaxy. 809 
 
 MADEMOISELLE [by F.. M.. Peaiid : 
 Smith, 1890.] "is a pretty little story 
 telling of the days of the war of ISTO, and 
 the Commune. It is pnt into the mouth 
 of a young country girl, who goes to Paris 
 to visit a sister, and finds herself wcll-nl 
 unprotected in all the hoiTors of the time. 
 There is notliing original or remarkable 
 about it; but it is simply and nicely told, 
 and the personality of the narrator is well 
 sustained. 'Mademoiselle' is a heroic 
 figure, not exceeding real or moving, per- 
 haps, but a fine conception of womanhood, 
 and, as such, worthy of admiration." 
 [Athena-um. 810 
 
 M'LLE DE MALPEIRE [by Hexri- 
 ETTE E. F. (A.) Reybaud: in "The Al- 
 bion", 3d to 31st. Jan., 1857.] "is an interest- 
 ing story, told in a simple, unafteeted 
 manner. The. plot is very slit, and the 
 characters, tho distinctly marked, are by 
 no means elaborated; they are mere 
 sketches, outlines of persons who lived 
 and suffered in the early days of thefrencli 
 revolution, and the incidents are narrated 
 with such apparent truthfulness and can- 
 dor as to leave the impression on the 
 mind of the reader that experience rather 
 than imagination had suggested them. 
 The heroine, Marie, is the dauter of the 
 baron of Malepeire, a staunch loyalist, 
 whose wife, Madame la Baronnc, is a fine 
 lady of the 'old school',' born and bred 
 among the hicst in t^he land, and imbued 
 with all the ignorant prejudices that ren- 
 dered the aristocracy so blind to the dan- 
 gers which surrounded them. Marie is 
 rather wearied by her mother's constant 
 regrets and never ending complaints 
 
 245 
 
.ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 about the loneliness of their country life, 
 their want of society, the distance of their 
 chiiteaii from her heloveil Paris, and the 
 life of exile to which she is condemneil, 
 and as her childhood has been passed among 
 the mountains, altogether secluded from 
 the great world, she hah naturally imbibed 
 many of the new opinions which were 
 freely uttered by the discontented peasan- 
 try in the nfiborhood. 'I'he consequence 
 is that when the marquis of Charapeau; 
 bcrt arrives at Malepeire to claim the 
 hand of tlie baron's beautiful dauter she 
 takes refuge in the arms of a stalwart 
 peasant, who is utterly incapable of appre- 
 ciating the saerilice which she makes in 
 . marrying him." [Round Table.] "Jtiss 
 Shore has made a good translation of Mrs. 
 Refbaud'si well-known story, which has 
 atti-acted more than one generation of 
 novel-readers. Its cleverly conti'ived 
 cflccts and the pathetic character of the 
 of the setting relieve the sombrcness of 
 the central narrative, iuid that which 
 chiefly takes the fancy is not the mui'dcr 
 committed by the outraged wife, but the 
 mystery surrounding the last of the 3Iale- 
 peires in her after life, which is dramati- 
 cally sustained to the close. C:Iieade's 
 keen apprcciat\on of the romantic elements 
 of crime committed under certain except- 
 ional circumstances led him to adopt Mrs. 
 lieybaiid's plot in his 'Story of a portrait' 
 [ ?] , which is rather a remodelling than a 
 rendering of 'M'lle de Malepeire'. He un- 
 dpubtedly deepened the dramatic interest; 
 but there must be many l-eaders who will 
 be glad tohave the original tale in a literal 
 cnglish version." [Athena?um.] "Now, 
 this story, "The Picture", has either been 
 borrowed by C: Rcade from the owner of 
 it, foi- the sake of its better "setting", or 
 has been purchased by him- from the 
 owner, with an occult understanding that 
 the credulous araerican public shnll in the 
 transaction be laudaWy cozened, whether 
 b6t or borrowed, the plot, the essential 
 fases of dialog, and the accessory de- 
 scriptive i^addiiig, to the minutest detail, 
 are abstr.icted from "The Portrait in My 
 Uncle's Dining-room.?' [Corrcs. Xatiou.811 
 
 ,SAME(''AVTiereshiillhofindherf"), 
 
 American News Co., 1S67. 
 
 , SAME, ("AVhat the papers re- 
 vealed") in The /St. James Magazine, 
 1S68. 
 
 , SAME ("The Portrait in my un- 
 cle's dining-room"), [reprinted from "The 
 Month"] , Littell & Co., 1870. 
 
 , SAME ("The Old M'sieur's Sa- 
 
 crct"),|C'arZe«0)i, 1882. 
 
 .- — , SAME ("The Picture"), [free 
 translation by C : Reade] Harper, 1S84. 
 
 , SAME ("A Daughter of the Malo- 
 
 peires"). Remington, ISSii. 
 
 MADEMOISELLE MORI. , [by 3lA. 
 ROBKIMS: Boston, Ticknor, 1860.] 
 ''This is a remarkable book; by a j)erson 
 familiar with Rome and with the Ro- 
 mans, who has thdt seriously and felt 
 deeply in regard to their character and 
 fortunes, who has studied with keen and 
 sympathetic imagination the hearts of the 
 people, and observed closely the outward 
 asjiect and common shows of the city. 
 The story is well constructed, and has the 
 essential merit of interest. STot only are 
 the characters distinctly presented, but 
 there is in them, wliat it is rare to find in 
 the personages of our modern novelists, 
 a rare and natural development, which is 
 cxhibiteil not so much by what is said 
 about them as by their apparently uncon- 
 scious words and acts ... The book, in- 
 deed, has a double character. It is not a 
 mere novel ; for it contains, in addition 
 to its story, a sketch of the course of 
 public afliiirs in Rome during the 3 mem- 
 orable years from the accession of Pius 
 IX. to the fall of the Republic. . . The 
 author has not the genius Of Mr. Haw- 
 thorne, but the descriptions which the 
 book contains of Roman scenes and places 
 are full of truth,. and render the common, 
 everyday aspect of streets and squ-ares, of 
 gardens and churches, of popular customs 
 and social habits, with equal spirit and 
 fidelity. The interest of the story is sus- 
 tained by the distinctness witl^ >yhich the 
 localities ii\ which it passes arc depicted." 
 [ Atlantic. 813 
 
 3IAID OF KILLEENA (The), and 
 
 210 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 Other stories. [ by W : Black : Macmil- 
 lan, ISli.] "The prmcipal olio, hiiil iu 
 those isles bejoveil o( his rriucess Sheila, 
 will remind the reader of his most successful 
 novel. It is a Highland love-story, dealing 
 with the simple people and manners of 
 the Hebrides. Ailasa Macdonald is a 
 lit heroine for such an idyl. She has 
 much of the grace and strength of charac- 
 ter we were cliariiied by in the "Prin- 
 cess j" but being a simple peasant girl, is 
 a less elaborated and less complex study. 
 Queen Tilu's Wager is humorous, and 
 shows tjiat the author has an eye for 
 other scenes and jieople than those of 
 Scotland. The desperation of Charlie's 
 love is vividly displayed iu his atrocious 
 clahn to the honor of vulpicide, when the 
 fair Franziska Zahler desires a yellow 
 fox-skin. A Fight for a Wife is farcical 
 and funny, tho perfectly extravagant. . 
 The True Story of a Billiard Club coii- 
 tains some awful revelations of the ad- 
 vance made by 'woman' in the art of 
 revolutionary combination^ and the fu- 
 tility of man's attempts at resistance." 
 [Atbeiucum. 813 
 
 MAID OF SKER (The). [byR: D. 
 Br.ACKJroiiE : Harper, 1872.] "The story 
 ~ opens in 1872, and closes soon after the 
 battle of the Nile, iu 1798, in which Davy 
 was a prominent participant. Its pictures 
 of life in a little welsh seacoast town, 
 naturally develiJpcd in the progress of 
 the narrative, are very cftective, and the 
 stoi-m and the shipwreck, and the scenes 
 which follow, are described with thrilling 
 power. The autlior has evidently been a 
 close student of welsh life and character, 
 and sketches them with great skill of 
 satire. From Newton-Nottage the exi- 
 gencies of the story transfer Davy to 
 Devonshire, where he has some very 
 strange adventures and becomes aoquaint- 
 ed with parson Chowne. This man, — a 
 demon in human form— holds his parish 
 under the sternest tyranny, scofls at reli- 
 gion, and scorns all the restraints of civil- 
 ization and society. His life is a long 
 defiance of God and man, and his death 
 by hydrofobia is a fitting end to it. We 
 
 are at a loss for words in which to convey 
 au idea of this dreadful man, in whom 
 there seems to have been nothing human 
 but his form. Dramatic and fascinating 
 as are his figure and the events wiiicli 
 cluster about it, it is taxing the reader's 
 credulity too far to ask him to believe 
 that such a state of society e.visted in 
 England within a century— a whole com- 
 munity crouching like dogs under the 
 lash of the parish priest, who cared for 
 public opinion only because he made it, 
 committed the most heinous crimes un- 
 questioned, and acknowledged responsi- 
 bility to no power, human or divine. 
 The Introduction of a community of 
 savages, too, brutish humans, who scornoil 
 habiKmeiits, and fed on bugs and roaches, 
 proteges of the fierce Tarson, seems to us 
 to be a rather bold stroke of the imagina- 
 tion. But it should not be understood 
 that the general efl'ect of the story is re- 
 pulsive or extravagimt. On the contrary, 
 its leading characteristic is humor — a 
 queer unaccountable humor — which per- 
 vades almost every sentence of the ad- 
 mirable Davy; and there are not a few 
 passages full of tenderness and pathos." 
 [Boston "Literary World." 814 
 
 MALBONK, see No. 78. 
 
 MALCOLM, by G: JfcicDonald, see 
 notice of sequel: THE- MARQUIS OF 
 LOSS IE. 
 
 M.\]Sr WII'HOUT A COUNTRY, (The) 
 [by E: E. Hale: Ticknor,, 1SC4.] 
 "When the war had passed it was found • 
 that a new classic had been added to 
 american literature. It is impossible to 
 conceive of a time, as long at least as the 
 United States remains a nation, when the 
 story of 'The Man Without a Country' 
 shall not be able to stir the american heart. 
 Its art is like most successful art, simple, 
 quiet, and spontaneous. A hi moral par- 
 pose gives energy to the narrative, and' 
 the management of the details is singular- 
 ly felicitous. No wonder that people ap- 
 ply to the author for a glimpse at Philip 
 Nolan's scrap-books, or that government 
 officiuls acknowledge the substantial truth 
 of the tale [ ? ] . It is one of those stories 
 
 247 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 which are realistic in the best sense of the 
 woi-il. It has the elements of an enduring 
 and uuimpcacliable veracity." [Boston 
 "Literary Worlil."] See, also, IF, YES 
 AND PERHAPS. 815 
 
 MANON LESCAUT [by AntoinkFu. 
 PUKVOST D' Exiles: trans, by A. AV. 
 GvtiDRY : Belford. 18S9.] "Mr. Gunilry 
 regards this book in a diflercnt lit from 
 Mrs. Grundy : with him it is » classic, anil 
 soalllmt Mrs. Grundy agree; yet Mrs. 
 Grundy mit be somewhat puzzled to say 
 why she puts her fan up when the book is 
 mentioned. To the reader who comes up- 
 on it by accident it seems dull and com- 
 monplace ; no impropriety could be more 
 iHecorously and blamelessly set forth; 
 there i» not a simper in the book. One 
 iaa only to accept the intrigues as in the 
 course of nature, and one has a mild 
 narrative of personal adventure^ told se- 
 renely and with proper grace." [ Atlan- 
 tic. 81C 
 
 , SAME, London, ,7. nomas, 1841 ; 
 
 Bost( n, /?. Buggies, 1S45. 
 
 MAEBLE FAUN (The) [by Nathan- 
 iel Hawtkokxei Tieknor, 1S60.] "is 
 a fascinating story. And yet, when we 
 turn back to it, the material of plot and 
 incident is meagre, eompared with the 
 array of circumstance, complication of 
 events, and all the cunning machinery by 
 which a novel generally moves on to an 
 end carefully adjusted to the means 
 employed. It is almost a story without an 
 «nd, and we have heard much disconteiit 
 that things were not made plainer in the 
 last pages. Many good people arc looking 
 lor a sequel which shall discover if Doua- 
 tello's curls really hid the Faim's furry 
 ears, and whether Jliriani had Cenci blood 
 in her, and what became of Hilda in those 
 days when the Virgin's lamp went out, 
 and the doves were unfed, and Ivenyon 
 wretched, and just who the queer union 
 of spectre, model, and Capuchin was. 
 But, as a story, and for the excitement of 
 I>lot and issue, the book would seem to 
 have little beside this mystery. For the 
 characters are few, and the events, save 
 the one fearful crime, not marked and 
 
 striking. Its fascination lies deeper than 
 the romantic interest excited by deft 
 handling of stirring adventures and 
 strange destinies, and by the portentous 
 followings of consequence, throu remark- 
 able crises, to a nicely fitted close, where 
 all get justice and the riddles are all solved." 
 [Christian Examiner.] "Donatellois the 
 opposite of Arthur Dimmesdalo. One ia 
 the type of intense intellectuality ; he is all 
 mind, heart, conscience ; and his body is 
 comparatively weak. The other typifies 
 ihc fysical in man; be is an animal, 
 speaking and thinking ; he is an Adam be? 
 fore the fall, his heart full of simple joy, 
 his life empty of cares and sorrows, the 
 trusted friend and playmate of nature. 
 Remorse has now to act upon a stronger 
 subject than Dimmesdale, anil itself is 
 weaker than before. The attendant cir- 
 cumstances, which in The Scarlet Letter 
 tended to sharpen pain and to quicken its 
 action, now act to soothe it. Hilda brings 
 her purity; Kehyon, his friendly care; 
 Miriam, her love. The Faun has changed 
 indeed, but for the better. That supreme 
 moment of self-denial, that release from 
 the bondage of a purely selfish sorrow, , 
 that glimpse of something really worth 
 while to live for, which came to Arthur 
 Dimmesdale only in death, br6t added life 
 to Donatello. The test had put a new 
 element into his being. R m rse had de- 
 veloped him. 'In the blatk depths, the 
 Faun had found a soul.'" [G: P. 
 Ijithrop.] "It was sketched out", the 
 author says, in the preface, "during a 
 residence of considerable length in Italy, 
 and was rewritten and prepared tor the 
 press in England." He proposed to him- 
 self "merely to write a fanciful story, 
 evolving athOtful moral, and did not pro- 
 pose attempting a portraiture of Italian 
 manners and customs." And yet, so 
 faithful lye the descriptions of objects and 
 scenery in Rome, that it mit serve a 
 visitor to that city as a guide-book. Those 
 who see in the "fanciful story" a deeper 
 meaning may regard the work as an al- 
 legory, illustrating the "war of sense with 
 soul". Vued In this lit, it would be easy 
 
 248 
 
ROMANTIC KOVELS. 
 
 to imagine the animal instincts imperson- 
 ated in Donatcllo; the moral sense, in 
 Miriam; ffisthetic taste, in Kcnyoii; aud a 
 severe type of probity, in Hilda. In the 
 conduct of the story, the reciprocal in- 
 ^uence of these qualities would produce 
 the "transformation." [C: M. Bar- 
 rows. 817 
 
 MARGARET [by Slie B. Berthet : 
 Loudon, Weir, lS4o.] "is an interesting 
 tale. The scene is laid in a sequestered 
 valley among the french Alps. The 
 principal man of the valley, Martin Simon, 
 styled by the inhabitants King of Peloux, 
 without any ostensible source of wealth, 
 has performed wonders in the valley, the 
 whole of which is his property . . . The 
 rumor was raised that Martin Simon had 
 discovered a gold mine in some of the 
 almost inaccessible mountains surround- 
 ing the valley ... At the appointed hour 
 all the parties meet at the rendezvous. 
 Each, believing himself to be exclusively 
 the favored party, is for getting rid of the 
 others, and a regular fit almost ensues, 
 which is stopped by Simon's proposing to 
 conduct them to the gold mine, which is 
 situated near the summit of a hi peak, 
 accessible only by a rude sort of stair 
 formed of piled blocks of granite, aud 
 that only on one side. After gratifying 
 their curiosity, he reminds them that nit 
 is coining on, and that they must immedi- 
 ately descend, which they reluctantly do. 
 When all are safe in a cavern, Simon fires 
 a train of gun-powder, which, exploding, 
 undermines the only approach to the 
 gold mine; the rocks roll down into the 
 valley with horriljle din, and the gold- 
 mine is forever cut oft' from human ac- 
 cess." [Westminster Review. 818 
 
 MARGARET MULLER. [by — ( ) 
 Bersier : Seeley, 1872.] "This unpretend- 
 ing tale deserves to be read by everybody 
 to whom the example of kindness, self- 
 denying generosity, and courage, will be 
 an incitement 'to go and do likewise,' — 
 not, pei-haps, in a, repetition of the actual 
 facts, but in works of a like spirit, which 
 in one shape or other lie ready to the 
 hands of each one of us. The stoi-y itself 
 
 is delitful : it is almost worthy of Erck- 
 mann-C'hatriau." [Athenajum. 819 
 
 MARGERY, [by G: Ebers: Golta- 
 berger, 18S9.] "It is the first business of 
 a novel, as of any other work of art, to 
 'enjoy' people, and they never attain their 
 final end in any other way. 'Margery' 
 eminently fulfils that purpose. Its read- 
 ers must feel themselves indebted to the 
 man who could so wholesomely aud so 
 fully entertain aud recreate their minds. 
 The time of the story is the first half of 
 the loth century, the place old Nurnberg, 
 the actors all cathoKcs, and the narrator, 
 Margery Schopper, one of the 2 most 
 charming young women lately introduced 
 into fiction, the other being her dearest 
 friend, Anna Spi( sz-. But the tale depends 
 so little upon plot or motive, and so much 
 upon style and character-sketching— the 
 latter done with bold strokes and no 
 niggling— that no attempt at condensation 
 could do it any justice. It is full of in- 
 cident, too, and what looks like excellent 
 local color." [Catholic World. 820 
 
 MARIA WUZ [by Jean Paul F: 
 RiCHTER] and LORENZ STARK [by J: 
 Jakob Excel: Longman, ISSl.] "Xo 
 task in prose translation could be much 
 harder than to give an idiomatic and in- 
 telligible version of Jean Paul, with that 
 abrupt and rapid fancy of his, for which 
 no combination was too elaliorate, no 
 allusion too remote, no digression too 
 sudden or too long. The first part of this 
 dainty little volume is a hily successful 
 attempt to defy these difticulties. Maria 
 Wuz, 'the merry-hearted Dominie' of 
 Auenthal, is among the earliest and 
 simplest of Riehter's romances : a charm- 
 ing little idyl, of less than 50 pages, which 
 6t to meet a warm welcome from cnglish 
 readers who appreciate 'Sartor', and who, 
 if justly weary of the imitators of Carlyle, 
 may still be able to relish his more genial 
 and tender literary progenitor. 'J"he 
 second tale, by Excel, is an interestiug 
 picture of middle-class life in the last cen- 
 tury." [ Spectator. 821 
 
 MARIE, by Pushkin, = The Captain's 
 Daughter. 
 
 249 
 
EOMAXTIC NOVELS. 
 
 JI AEIK DE BERIf IEEE [ by W : GlL- 
 MOKK SIMMS : Lippincott, 1833.] "is a 
 Htory of New Orleans, all about an old 
 house and seuri't passages, and a ghost 
 mystery, solved by the trapping of an art- 
 ful father confessor with the wax mask of 
 a dead man's face. The story Is well 
 told." [Westmnstcr. 822 
 
 MABJORIE'S QUEST [by Jeanib 
 T. . . (Gould) Lixcoln: Osgood', 18T2.] 
 "is a story for 'young people' who 
 arc not disposed to look too critically iuto 
 a novel for a study of character, or an 
 enunciation of social problems, but quite 
 ready to be satisfied, as long as there are 
 plenty of interesting Incidents, and every- 
 thing comes rlt at last. The book before 
 us fulfils these conditions admirably. 
 Marjorie, the heroine, is twice lost herself, 
 besides having to find her father; loses 
 her memory ; gets it back again ; rides 18 
 miles into the Confederate camp (the stoiy 
 is written from a unionist point of vue), 
 to have an intei-vue with General Early, 
 in order to speak to the character of a 
 prisoner, who, tho she does not know it, 
 is her old playmate and future lover; saves 
 him ; finds her father ; and at last marries, 
 or is to marry the rit man who has been 
 marked out for her, since as a boy of IC 
 he played with her, a child of 10. Of 
 course there must be a little shade In this 
 cheerful picture. So we have the nauty 
 little girl and the ill-natured big boy, 
 whom we have been familiar with from a 
 very early age, and we have a wicked old 
 woman who steals Marjorie, and a man 
 who somehow knows all about her first 
 disappearance, and comes at the rit time 
 to tell her where to find her father, and 
 gets killed directly aftenvards; but these 
 are, as all the world knows, necessary as 
 examples of what happens to bad people, 
 and do not spoil our pleasure at the satis- 
 factory disposal of all persons. Well, a 
 story of this kind is not h! art, but it Is 
 pleasant as serving to show that there is 
 still some demand among young people in 
 America for the same kind of simple 
 amusement as has satisfied them in all 
 ages, and that, love of children and 
 
 reverence for parents flourish no less in 
 the "Sew "World than in the 01<1. As to 
 the children, indeed. Miss Gould intro- 
 duces us to some of the most delitful with 
 whom we are acriuaiuted." [Athe- 
 na-um. 823 
 
 MARMOENE [by rillLlP GILBERT 
 Hamekton: Blaclcwnnd, ISTS.] "We 
 seem to see tbe very spot in the wooded 
 hits of Bourgogne whdre these strange 
 ( vents took jjlacc. Still more unusual, 
 there is no character-painting in this 
 strange book. We are not excited by 
 analysis of motives or anatomy of passions. 
 '1 he book is a narrative throud&t, simph , 
 Btraltforward, and reticent. The story 
 enthrals the reader, and leaves an impres- 
 sion of power entirely controlled and ui- 
 der discipline, which of Itself is a streugll- 
 enrd sensation. Not often do we meet 
 with this sentiment of fresh cool strengtl', 
 able to grasp its subject thoroly, to mai - 
 age it calmly, and to resist all those cur- 
 rents of emotion and tradition which 
 shape a novel into the mold of its kind, in 
 most cases whether the author will or 
 not . . . 'i'he very atmosfere of the dis- 
 trict, which is curiously unlike the ISflng 
 country which we realize under tho name 
 of Bourgogne, is in the book; and the old 
 house of Boisvipfirc, morne, silent, shut 
 in with its surrounding woods, is like a 
 fotograf — while the happier dwelling of 
 Munnorne itself gives one of the truest 
 sketches of a thoroly french country- 
 house which we remember to have met in 
 english literature." [Blackwood's.] Time: 
 the war of 18T0. 824 
 
 MAROUSSIA, A MAID OF U- 
 KEAINE. [by "T. J. Stahl", i. e., P : 
 Jules Hetzel: Paris, 18T8,>-Z)odrf, 1891.] "is 
 a story of deyotion and heroism such as 
 flowers out of russian despotism.. The 
 end is sorrowful enuf, but the sacrifice 
 which it records is the fit end of a most 
 beautiful and significant life. Such a story 
 of patriotic matyrdom is like a trumpet 
 call." [Atlantic. 825 
 
 MARQUIS DE LETOEIERE. [byEu- 
 GKNE Sue : Boston, Nichols, 1873.] "We 
 think no more enjoyable story will issue 
 
 250 
 
EOMAKTIC KOVELS. 
 
 from the press this year, than this duinty 
 little volume. It exhibits the best quali- 
 ties of freneh fiction,— grace, spiitlineAs, 
 epignimmatlc vigor, and admirable deft- 
 ness of characterization, and not one of 
 its Iliad ones. It proves — vrfiat the reader 
 of fiction mit reasonably doubt — that it is 
 possible to make an intertaining novel 
 with very little, or not any love-making. 
 Love-scenes drawn by a skillful hand are 
 pleasant to read ; but we are sure no one 
 will lament their absence in this book." 
 [Boston "Literary World." . 820 
 
 MAllQUIS JEANNE HYAtJlNTHE, 
 see TEACHES OF THE VIOLIN. 
 
 MARQUIS OP CAEAHAS (The) [by 
 H. [E..] (F.) Spoffokd : i?o6erts, 1882.] 
 "is powerful, fascinating, and brilliant, 
 romantic to a degree which is almost fan- 
 tastic, and descriptive of entirely improb- 
 able people in utterly impossible situations. 
 There is the usual elegance of surround- 
 ings; it is not enuf that a young man's 
 name should be Gascoigne instead of 
 Smith ; he must spell it with a 'y' to si^it 
 the fastidious taste of the author, and it is 
 never to be forgotten for a moment that 
 her marquis could have been a marquis if 
 he had chosen. Mrs. Spofford can do 
 nothing without a great many ruby rings 
 and superb gardens and heroes whose 
 faces are an 'impersonation of impassioned 
 splendor." [ Critic. 827 
 
 MARQUIS OF LOSSIE (The). [byG: 
 MacDonald: Lippincott, 1877.] "Mal- 
 colm, the hero, is a favorite groom of a 
 Scotch nobleman and also his legitimate 
 son, tho ignorant of his relation till in- 
 formed by his father on his death-bed. 
 His half-sister, Florimel, dauter by a 
 second wife, succeeds to the title and es- 
 tates of the Marquis. Malcolm is possessed 
 of evidence that his mother, tho believed 
 to be dead, was living when Florimel was 
 born, so that his sister has neither title 
 nor name. But throu affection for her he 
 suppresses the facts, and serves as groom 
 to the Marchioness of Lossie, not reveal- 
 ing the true state of the case till the close 
 of the story, and then only in order to 
 prevent his sister's marriage with a dis- 
 
 solute earl. While acting as her groom in 
 London, he wins the heart of a lady of hi 
 rank, and finally her hand, which is given 
 while he is believed to be but a stable-boy. 
 The principal characters are strongly 
 drawn, and there is no lack of incident 
 and romance. No one can read such a 
 story without receiving good impulses. 
 In both the plot and the minor incidents 
 there is, however, a hi degx-ee of improbar 
 bility ; and the dellted reader can not for- 
 get that conversation like these between 
 Countesses and grooms never occur in life, 
 least of all in engllsh life." [ Boston "Lit- 
 erary World." 828 
 
 JIARBIAGE OF MOIRA FERGUS 
 [ in Lady Silverdale's Sweetheart, by W : 
 Black : Low, 1876.] "belongs in an epi- 
 sodical way to the most delltful of Mr. 
 Black's novels — 'The Princess of Thule.' 
 They will not be sorry to hear a little more 
 about the manners and customs of the in- 
 habitants of "The Lewes," and to have a 
 glimpse at Sheila Mackenzie (now Mrs. 
 I^avender) in the settled life which has 
 succeeded to the early troubles of her not 
 over well-assorted marriage. Lavender 
 himself has improved since the reader 
 fii"st made his acquaintance, but of his 
 friend and mentor, Ingram, we have only 
 a hint, tho, as before, he appears as the 
 practical man who gives good advice in an 
 emergency. This story ends happily 
 enuf." [Athenajum. 829 
 
 MARftlED IN HASTE, see SEB- 
 TBA'S ENGAGEMENT. 
 
 MARRIED TOO EARLY, [by S.. B. 
 WiLLETTS: Brentano, 1885.] "The 
 better type of southern fiction is repre- 
 sented by this unpretending story. The 
 tone is dignified and restrained, the style 
 quiet and clear, the quality pure and 
 wholesome, and the interest decided. 
 The time is that before the Civil War, tho 
 the 'peculiar institution' is nowhere prom- 
 inent. Plantation life in several fases 
 afibrds the background.^ The beginuing\ 
 is at Charleston, the scene shifts to the 
 sand-hills of Aiken, and then to the lower 
 Mississippi Valley and New Orleans; 
 later there are digressions to Europe and 
 
 251 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 to the Nortli, with a vue in particular of 
 Nantucket and of its village of doll- 
 houses (Siaseouset) on the ocean side. 
 There are 2 persons in the book who are 
 'married too early', Gertrude Moreland to 
 Philip Rodney, and Fred Masterton to 
 nttle Theresa, the german girl. There is a 
 reasonably happy married life in both 
 cases, with some alternation of clouds and 
 sunshine, and with a measure of variety 
 in incident amounting almost to plot. At 
 last Philip dies, and Masterton and Ger- 
 trude, who had been early lovers, come 
 together forthe remainder of their years. 
 The book wins respect." [Boston ''Lit- 
 erary World." 830 
 MARTIN CHUZZLE"mT. [by C: 
 Dickens: 1S44.] "I do acknowledge 
 that Mrs. Gamp, Micawber, Pecksnilf,- 
 aud others have become household words 
 in every house, as tho they were human 
 beings ; but to my judgment they are not 
 human beings', nor are any of the charac- 
 ters human which Dickfcns has portrayed. 
 It has been the peculiarity and the mar- 
 vel of this man's pow^er that he has in- 
 vested his puppets with a charm that has 
 enabled him to dispense with human 
 nature. There is a drollery about them 
 (in my estimation, very much below the 
 humor of Thackeray) which has reached 
 the intellect of all; while Thackeray's 
 humor has escaped the intellect of many. 
 Nor is the pathos of Dickens human. It 
 is stagey and melodramatic. But it is so 
 expressed that it touches every heart a 
 little. There is no real life in Smike. His 
 misery, his idiocy, his devotion for Nich- 
 olas, his love for Kate, are all overdone 
 and incompatible with each other.' But 
 still the reader sheds a tear. Every reader 
 can find a tear for Smike . . . Tho they 
 are not human beings, we all remember 
 Mrs. Gamp and Pickwick. The Boffins 
 and Veneerings do not, I think, dwell in 
 the minds of so many. Of Dickens' style 
 it is impossible to speak in praise. It is 
 jerky, ungrammatical, and created by 
 himself in defiance of rules— almost as 
 completely as that created by Carlyle. To 
 readers who have taut themselves to re- 
 
 gard language, it must, therefore, be un- 
 pleasant. But the critic is driven to feel 
 the weakness of his criticism, when he 
 acknowledges to himself— as he is com- 
 pelled in all honesty to do— that with the 
 language, such as it is, the writer has 
 satisfied the great mass of the reader." of 
 his country." [Anthony Trollope. 831 
 
 MARUJA [by [Fr.] Beet Harte: 
 Houghton, 1S86.] "is clever. The ner- 
 vous, energetic style tells to advantage in 
 a tale like this of the wilful and beautiful 
 Maruja— with her odd mixture of puritan 
 and Spanish blood and her queer assort- 
 ment of lovers — where surprises are con- 
 stantly awaiting one, and the approach 
 to a tragedy is just near enuf to keep one's 
 interest pitched hi . . . "With the tramp 
 lover, the successful one, with the brit 
 sayings of the civil engineer, and the 
 amusing figure of the California Aladdin, 
 one can forgive the occasional want of 
 simplicity." [Nation. 832 
 
 MARY ANERLEY [by R: D. Black- 
 more: Harper, ISSO.] "is a Yorkshire 
 tale of such proportions and variety that 
 we can not attempt an epTtomfi of its plot, 
 and must be content with saying that its 
 characters are very numerous, and divided 
 into 4 or 5 sets, each of which illustrates a 
 difterent tho convergent action ; that it is 
 partly a sea-story, the hero being first a 
 daring smuggler and afterwards a junior 
 lieutenant on the 'Victory' at Trafalgar; 
 and, in fine, that it contains the elements 
 of 2 or 3 ordinary novels, and elaborates 
 them all with ease. The time is the be- 
 ginning of the century, and the book is a 
 picture of english life which has a real 
 value as well as a romantic interest." 
 [Nation. 833 
 
 MASTER OF BALLANTRAE (The). 
 [byRo. L: Stevekson: Cassel, 1889.] 
 "A tale of more unmitigated gloom, with 
 less admixture of any consolation human 
 or divine, it has seldom been our lot to 
 read . . . From beginning to end the 
 brothers of Durrisdeer hate each other 
 with boundless and unchangeable animosi- 
 ty. There is no relenting on either side, — 
 even less perhaps on that of the virtuous 
 
 252 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 and otherwise tender-hearted brother than 
 ou that of the reprobate. We are made to 
 Iccl that his utter odiousucss, falsehood 
 and sclfishuess have been revealed with 
 such pitiless distinctness that Henry hates 
 iu James the incarnation of every evil 
 quality . . . There are abundance of beau- 
 tiful sketches of Durrisdcer and the sur- 
 rounding country. But in the story itself 
 the sun never shines, the air is lowering 
 and ominous, a constant consciousness of 
 calamity, of wrong and iiijustice, brood- 
 ing over the house. In the midst of this 
 gloom, however, the two prominent fig- 
 ures revealed to us are masterly . . . The 
 Master of Ballautrae is thus, even when he 
 risks his life for it, without faith or princi- 
 ple, a mere interested adventurer. He is 
 afterwards a vulgar traitor betrayiug his 
 friends to the government, sucking the 
 very life-blood of his family by a pretense 
 of danger which no longer exists for him, 
 — a pirate on the seas, by land a chevalier 
 de rindustrie, living by his wits wherever 
 he goes, betraying everybody who trusts 
 him : he is full of taunt and intolerable 
 mockery, a man with the gift of driving 
 others almost mad with his tung, as well 
 as of putting a remorseless knife into 
 them with the greatest coolness if they 
 happen to come in his way. This monster 
 is, however, the most channing and dellt- 
 ful of men. He is gay and polished and 
 debonair; he has every social gift, and, 
 in addition to everything else, a percep- 
 tion of character and of goodness." 
 t Blackwood's. 834 
 
 MATT [ by Eg. Buchanan : Appleton, 
 18S5.] "is a very brit and amusing bit of 
 narrative. It has none of the extravagant 
 scenes and descriptions which are scatter- 
 ed throu Mr. Buchanan's longer stories. 
 The pleasant personality of the young 
 artist wlv> goes gypsylng in a caravan 
 shines throu all his erratic behavior, and 
 Matt, whenever she appears, manages to 
 conduct herself with the cool indepen- 
 dence which may naturally belong to a 
 girl who 'wasn't born at all, but come 
 ashore.' The events of the last chapter 
 are huitied, and the reader has to give up 
 
 ti-ying to reconcile the very unprincipled 
 Mr. Mouk's knowledge that Matt was true 
 heir to all his acres with his ignorance 
 of the existence of the fatal prayer-book 
 and the marriage lines. The puzzle, how- 
 ever, is not so annoying as to detract from 
 the pleasure of a story told directly add 
 frankly for the story's sake." [Nation. 835 
 MAUPKAT [by "G : Sand:" transl. 
 by Hays, Churton, 184T.] "opens with 
 a grafic sketch of the state of France prior 
 to the revolution, and the manners and 
 influence of the nobility in provinces dis- 
 tant from the capital." [Westminster.] — 
 "The plot, which turns ou the moral edu- 
 cation of a fierce, undisciplined boy, un- 
 der the guidance of a refined, hi-spirited 
 girl, enables the writer to avoid drawing 
 the perfection of love by drawing the im- 
 perfection . of an unformed character . . . 
 And certaiuly the picture of the 3 cousins, 
 Edm^e and Bernard is exquisitely drawn, 
 and the gradual progress of the education 
 conceived with great nicety of thdt and 
 worked out with admirable skill. Edm6e 
 caut in the robbers' stronghold of Roche- 
 Mauprat, purchases her delivery from 
 disgraceful violence by a vow never to 
 belong to anyone but Bernard, then a hot 
 headed young savage . . . The compre- 
 hension of this, the realization to himself 
 of the fact that a woman would rather 
 die than allow herself to be brutalized to 
 his level, is the great awakening force 
 which stimulates him to a new life. It is 
 impossible to describe the beauty with 
 which the action of EdmSe's influence is 
 conveyed. 'Mauprat' is not written ac- 
 cording to an euglish model. The hand- 
 ling is broad. George Sand tries to im- 
 agine clearly, and she certainly expresses 
 openly, what would be the real feelings 
 of a hot-blooded boy. She neither shrinks 
 from the subject of fysical sensations, 
 nor vfiils it in the obscurity of penny-a- 
 lining eufemisms; But if she is so far 
 truer to nature than would here be th6t 
 decorous, she is also true to nature iu a 
 manner which is truly admirable. She is 
 true to the power of purity, to the sus- 
 taining force of generous thdts, and to 
 
 253 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 the docility of a passion great eiiuf to be 
 humble." ' [ National Review. 836 
 
 , SAME, transl. by Lord, Boberts, 
 
 1870. 
 
 , SAME, transl. by Miller, Laird, 
 
 1891. 
 
 MEDUSA, [etc.] [by Adelaide (Kem- 
 BLE) Sartoeis: Loring, 1868.] "This 
 volume of sketches is to be praised, like 
 its predecessor, 'A "Week in a French 
 Country House' [No. 558], as giving in its 
 fulness the pleasure which one gets from 
 a perfectly easy, graceful, unaffected, and 
 yet thoroly artistic style. We do not 
 know of more delltful lit reading, and 
 have found our enjoyment of them quite 
 unimpaired by several re-perusalSi The 
 theme of nearly everyone of these sketches 
 is music — the well-known love of their 
 1 author for that art, and her successes in 
 it, furnishing her with material which^ is 
 wonderfully well adapted to her peculiar 
 literary talent. The little romance which 
 gives its name to the volume, and which 
 most nearly resembles an ordinary story, 
 having in it a curious love episode, and 2 
 shadowy appearances which bear an odd 
 resemblance to a hero and heroine — is the 
 least successful. Like the rest; it is of 
 course full of charming writing; but the 
 pleasure one gets from that is quite disso- 
 ciated ^rom any interest in the story. 
 Mrs. Sartoris is neither a romancer nor a 
 novelist; but we know nd one who excels 
 her in the use of artistic \angaage— in the 
 faculty of so sketching persons and places 
 tttat her presentation leaves in the reader's 
 mind a clear and definite impression which 
 he feels to be precisely that which he was 
 intended to receive. There is, we think, 
 not one page of either of her books from 
 which we mit not quote passages which 
 would amply prove our case. We con- 
 tent ourselves, however, with advising 
 everyone who can take dellt in the man- 
 ner, without making too serious demands 
 upon the matter, of hooks to read them at 
 once." [Nation.] See PAST HO URS.SSI 
 MEMOIRS OF A GOOD-FOR-NO- 
 THING, [by Jo. VON ElCHEXDORFV: 
 Leypoldt, 1866.] "The tale which Mr. 
 
 Leliind translates so gracefully is an ex- 
 travaganza, in marked contrast to all the 
 other romances of Eichetidorff, inasmuch 
 it is purposely farcical, and they are 
 serioiis;but we imagine it does not difl'er 
 from them greatly in its leading qualities 
 of fanciful incoherency and unbridled 
 feebleness. An idle boy, who is driven 
 froip home by his father, the miller, and 
 is found with his violin on the road to 
 nowhere by 2 great ladies and carried to 
 their castle near Vienna,— who falls in 
 love with one of these lovely countesses, 
 and runs away for love of her to Italy, 
 and, after passing throu many confused 
 adventures there, with no relation to any- 
 thing which went before or comes after, 
 returns ■ to ther castle, and finds that his 
 lovely countess is not a countess, but a 
 poor orfan adopteil by the great folk,— 
 and so happily ma'n'ie's her,— this is the 
 Good-for-Nothing and his stoiy. A young 
 student of the german language, struggling 
 throu the dusty paths of the dictionary to 
 a comprehension Of the tale, would per- 
 haps think it a wonderful romance, when 
 once he had achieved its meaning; but 
 being translated into our pitiless english, 
 its poverty of wit and feeling and imagin- 
 ation is apparent ; and one is soon' vf eary 
 of its mere fantasticality." [Atlantic] — 
 It "is one of those artistic, bohemian, 
 serai-mystical tales' of love and niiusic and 
 wander-years of which 'Wilhelm MCister* 
 is the head and front. The old castles are 
 the old castles of Goethe ; the orange-trees 
 and pine-forests, the wandering minstrels, 
 students and painters all have their proto- 
 types in that universal romance. The 
 characters, especially the women, with 
 their mysterious disappearances, their 
 bewitching songs and Lorelei-like ad- 
 vances to bewildered youths, are lineal 
 descendants of the filosofic-a?sthfetic dames 
 of the second part of 'Wilhelm Meister.' 
 The Good-for-Nothing, or Taugenichts, is 
 a youthful gardener's assistant, with a 
 lively imagination, a disgilst for honest 
 toil, and a romantic habit of falling in love 
 with nymf-Iike beauties oii a hi plane, 
 as he supposes, of society. His pursuit 
 
 254 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS, 
 
 Of a fair lady leads him over tjie mount'' 
 aius to the land whcj-c the oranges grow, 
 and throu a variety of pleasing and fan- 
 tastic adventures which bring him back 
 at last to the old castle from which he 
 started, where he is united in marriage 
 with the lady of his love, and the mys- 
 teries of the plot are explained— after tne 
 manner, again, of 'Wilhelm Meister.'" 
 [Critic. 838 
 
 , SAME ("Leaves from the- Life of a 
 
 Good-for-Nothiug") Lippincott, 1889. 
 
 MEMORIES, = GERMAN LOVE. 
 
 MILLIONAIRE OF ROUGH AST) 
 READY (A) [byPB. B. Harte: Hougli- 
 toH, 1887.] "liret Harte, like Homer, 
 sometimes nods in telling his tales of the 
 Argonauts, liut . in 'A Millionaire of 
 Bough and Ready' he is very wide awake. 
 His crisp, firm, direct style is the best 
 possible medium for the stories he has to 
 tell. Here he effectively teaches the lesson 
 that circumstances do not bring happiness, 
 and above all, that riches may bring worse 
 evils than poverty. The story is a work 
 of art without the exaggeration which 
 mars some of his other stories and 
 without their false sentiment. A miner 
 named Slim finds gold at last. Hut, 
 having tasted by anticipation the joys of 
 wealth, he is stricken with paralysis. Al- 
 vin Mulrady, instead of squatting on the 
 land, went to the owner, Doh Ramon 
 Alvarado, and offered to manage a farm 
 'on shares'. Don Ramon and his son, 
 Don Ciesar, are drawn truthfully and 
 delicately. ThSir hi-breeding gives them 
 even in poverty an incalculable supe- 
 riority over their rich but vulgar nfibors."' 
 [Cath. World. 839 
 
 MllinSTER'S "WOOING (The), [ly 
 H. ^eeohek) STOVfE : ricfoior,— ZJoio, 
 1859.] " 'The Minister's Wooing' is a 
 love tale, a, religious novel, and a historic 
 —or, rather, biografic— fiction, all in one. 
 Regarded as the first, it deserves, almost 
 unqualified praise . . . The scheme of that 
 part of the story on which the rest of the 
 naiTative is hung is simple and pretty 
 enuf. The drama opens with a teorparty 
 in the parlor of the Widow Scudder, who 
 
 is a lady blessed with a small farm and a 
 gambrcl-roofed cottage on the outskirts 
 of Newport, a charming dauter (the 
 heroine),— a sweet little maiden just 
 emerging fi-om childhood,— and a hi repu- 
 tation for the possession of ^faculty' . . . 
 The good man is a bachelor, something 
 over 40 years of age, and besides ofliciat- 
 ing zealously amongst his congregation, 
 ministering to his afllicted black brethren, 
 and writing a profound system of divin- 
 ity, finds time to act to the fair Mary 
 Shudder (his landlady's dauter) the part 
 that Abelard did to H^loise. lie is her 
 tutor in religious and secular studies, and 
 she, in return, instructs him in the art of 
 loving ; but unlike HiSloise of old, Mary 
 conceives for him only that reverential 
 affection which a young maiden naturally 
 entertains for her pastor, who appears to 
 her as the expression of all the goodness 
 that is possible in humanity. The Widow 
 Scudder would gladly see her dauter love 
 the pastor dearly, enuf to wish to be his 
 wife; but the meek, gentle child, wilful in 
 one thing only, bestows her heart on a 
 wicked scapegrace of a cousin, James 
 Marvyn, who having run away to sea, 
 returns from forein countries to laf at the 
 sanctimonious ways of the godly people 
 of Newport, and to question the doctrine 
 of election and predestination . . . Instead 
 of being drowned, James Marvyn has 
 returned rich. The rest of all this pretty 
 romance can be imagined. Mary ac- 
 knowledges to , James that he has her 
 heart ; but she is, nevertheless, determined 
 to keep her promise,- her solemn engage- 
 ment to good Dr. H., and bids her lover 
 not to hinder her from doing her duty. 
 There is a pause of uncertainty and sus- 
 pense. The awful day draws nearer ; but 
 ere it has arrived, a jolly little dressmaker, 
 Miss Prissy, who acts the part of an 
 amiable sprite all throu the play, informs 
 the Doctor of the state of the case. The 
 fine-hearted man takes all the sorrow of 
 the position to himself, surrenders the 
 timid child he loves so dearly to the man 
 of her choice, and sets his face resolutely 
 forward to do his duty in that uuwedded 
 
 255 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 life which it seems Proviclence has de- 
 signed for him ... If the booli should 
 become popular, its success will be won, 
 not by its polemical qualities, but by the 
 winning graces of the heroine and her 
 little friend of the great world, Virginie." 
 [Athenaeum. 840 
 
 MIRAGE OF PROMISE (A) [by Har- 
 riett Pennawell Belt: Lippincott, 
 18S6.] "is a beautifully written story of 
 the early part of this century. It does 
 not claim to be an historical romance, but 
 much of actual history is interwoven in it, 
 and a vivid picture is given of the suffer- 
 ings of abolitionists as well as slaves in 
 the conflict that waged for so many years 
 before the actual war. The scene in the 
 hero's rooms when the mob threaten him, 
 is a capital picture, and the entire story is 
 a novel of vivid and pictux-esque effects 
 illustrating the sternest truth, and certain 
 therefore to give pleasure to both 'roman- 
 tic' and 'realistic' readers." [Critic. 841 
 
 MISSION FLOWER (A) . [by G : H : 
 Picard: N.-y., M'hite, 1885.] "Those 
 who enjoyed Mr. Picard's 'A Matter of 
 Taste' will come to this new novel with 
 expectations of choice literary work, a 
 refined and delicate atmosfere, gentle 
 irony, dainty humor, and careful study of 
 character. All this they will find, and 
 more. This new story has fresh elements ; 
 is placed in a section of the country not 
 yet made over-familiar to us by writers; 
 is planned and carried out with exquisite 
 skill ; deals with the deepest emotions of 
 human hearts; is tender, is tragic; and 
 has the power of holding the reader's in- 
 terest in a tense strain, tho it is not over- 
 wr6t or untrue to life in its portrayal of 
 the complexities which involved the 6 
 men and women who are the chief actors. 
 The period covered is short ; the scene, a 
 valley in what the author designates as 
 'midland country' of America; the per- 
 sonages are Manuel Silva, of Spanish and 
 english parentage ; Dona Solace, his nomi- 
 nal ward ; Roger Paradise, who has come 
 from England with his sister Nellie; 
 Madame Clement, who is .the head of a 
 sisterhood from Port Royal ; and Father 
 
 Caron, Superior of the great mission 
 called St. Xavier's-in-the-Valley . . . After 
 a brief moment of rapture, she has the 
 truth from her lover's lips — he did kill her 
 father, but in self-defense. The crisis, 
 towardsTvhich everything has been mov- 
 ing, has this almost unlooked-for feature 
 of Dona's love, for her admission jus.t re- 
 ferred to has left us mystified. She is a 
 new kind of heroine in american fiction, 
 as the finely-delineated Silva is a new 
 hero. The chapter which shuts them off 
 from each other is one of intense power 
 and painfulness. He has told her all . . . 
 Silva, who has our sympathy (we have 
 had a suspicion of the crime from the 
 first) , gives himself up, but the authorities 
 will not accept him; and after great pros- 
 tratio'n he is nursed back to partial health 
 by Nellie, and promises to follow her and 
 her brother to England, but the end 
 comes in a different way. Such are the 
 leading features of a story of such con- 
 , summate skill, that as a purely artistic 
 piece of work it deserves to be placed be- 
 side 'Ramona.'" [ Boston "Literary 
 "World." 842 
 
 MR. ISAACS [by Fu. Marion 
 Crawford : Macmillan, 1883.] "thoroly 
 deserved the reputation it made. As a ro- 
 mance of eastern life, open, by its very na- 
 ture, to those encounters of the magical 
 which are forein to our colder, prose-' 
 belonging still, notwithstanding modern 
 habits and western culture, to the period 
 of the 'Thousand and One Kits' — the at- 
 tractions of mystery, wonder, passion and 
 romance, the latter all modern, the former 
 all antique, which united in this book, 
 were very great. The hero himself in 
 his complicated personality was so real, 
 altho so improbable, that there was no- 
 thing to be said against him." [Black- 
 wood's. 843 
 
 —- — SAME, [parody] "Mr. Jacobs, A 
 tale of the drummer, the reporter, and the 
 prestidigitateur," by Arlo Bates, Bos- 
 ton, Clarke, 1883. 
 
 MRS. KNOLL YS. [ in The Sentimental 
 Calendar, by F : J. Stimson : Scribner, 
 1887.] "Tho at times a too pronounced 
 
 256 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 literary manner is perceptible, a con- 
 scious effort for unconsciousness, there 
 run throu the sketches strains of gentle- 
 ness and tenderness, wtth flashes of 
 worldly wit and fun, which help to make 
 a very attractive stj-le." [Nation. 844 
 
 JIISTRESS OF IBICHSTEIN (The) 
 [by Fribderikb ( ) Hexkel: Hrdt, 
 1884.] "is one of the good old-fashioned 
 court stories, full of intrigue and plot, 
 secret rooms and secret marriages ; sensa- 
 tional, it is true, but sustaining the inter- 
 est to the end. It Is at least original in 
 having for a heroine a young lady who is 
 neither very good nor very bad, but cold 
 and scornful, and doubtless somewhat 
 startled herself when she learned from the 
 will that she had been selected as heiress 
 because 'in her I was charmed to find a 
 person capable of acting with heartless- 
 ness, seltlshness, and cold understanding.' 
 The story is well worth reading." [Crit^ 
 ic. 845 
 
 JIODERN MEPHISTOPHELES (A), 
 [by LoursA May Alcott: Roberts, — 
 LoiD, 1877.] "At times the story is 
 enigmatical, the parallel is not very closely 
 maintained, and the author's diction, 
 never mean, often becomes so sublime 
 as to be unintelligible." [ Athenaeum. 846 
 
 MODEKX MIDAS (A). [Man of Gold) 
 by Maurice Jokai : Worthington, 18S5.] 
 "Maurice Jokai reveals the complex and 
 hily romantic fortunes of 'A Modern 
 Midas' most skilfully. The selection of 
 fields comparatively fresh to the English 
 reader, and of characters nearer to nature 
 than the ultra-civilized ladies and gentle- 
 men whom most of our novelists struggle 
 to mold into heroic form, gives him a 
 great advantage for dramatic purposes. 
 Very probably the fact that few of us are 
 on terms of familiar intercourse with the 
 dwellers by the lower Douau may add 
 much to the charm of the story, for we 
 are not called upon to determine what 
 passions or emotions are natural or possi- 
 ble to a multitude of Greeks, Turks, and 
 Hungarians. From the moment that 
 Timar and Timea appear in the grain- 
 laden vessel on the Douau, the reader 
 
 must mentally let himself go. .Timar is 
 the supercargo, and Timea the dauter of 
 Ali Tschorbadschi, flying, with great 
 treasure, it is whispered, from the wrath 
 of the sultan. Tschorbadschi dies on the 
 voyage, and Timar gets possession of his 
 priceless jewels in a way which, not to put 
 too fine a point on it, is far from honest. 
 He thus lays the foundation of the fortune 
 of Midas and of the great unhappiness of 
 Timar. His practical restitution by mar- 
 riage with Timea is vain, and vain, too, 
 are his enormous public charities. The 
 man is afllicted with a mora! nature which, 
 to quote the author, "longed for honesty, 
 human i-espect, filanthropy, and self-sacri- 
 fice ; but by a strange and sad destiny he 
 had, throu temptations too great, for him 
 to withstand, become a man whom others 
 esteemed and honored, but who must 
 despise himself." Only on "Xo Man's 
 Land," cut off from the world by the 
 waters of the Donau, can Timar find any 
 peace for his soul. And even here there 
 is always the sting that Namoi, the loving 
 Eve of his Paradise, knows nothing of his 
 true position, and nothing of his cold, 
 faithful, wronged yfiie, Timea. The 
 methods which the author adopts to free 
 Timar from his burdens, insuring long 
 life and happiness, are not at all in har- 
 mony with the english standard of morals, 
 nor has he been trammelled by any preju- 
 dice in favor of the final reward of good and 
 punishment of evil. He has, however, 
 followed the prompting of a thoroly artis- 
 tic nature, and br6t his story to a logical 
 and natural if unrlteous conclusion." [Na- 
 tion.] "Those to whom J6kai Mor is a 
 time-honored name will not be gratified to 
 see him dubbed 'Herr,' and called 'the V : 
 Hugo of the german tung.' That the trans- 
 lation is not direct from the magyar is self- 
 evident, and that it is from the german is 
 equally clear. In many respects 'Tiraar's 
 Two Worlds' may not only be regarded as 
 its author's masterpiece, but as a master-- 
 piece of european literature. Had 'Monte 
 Cristo' never been written, Timar mlt 
 never have made his fortune ; but there is an 
 individuality about the Hungarian's per- 
 
 257 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 sonagcs the famous f renchinan's do not pos- 
 sess. Altho the work possesses much of 
 that oriental profusion of lucitlent charac- 
 teristic of huugarian fiction, anil the changes 
 of fortune and variety of adventures which 
 beset the hero seem, to the occidental mind, 
 to savor qf the miraculous, the thread of 
 the Uile is never lost sit of, uor do the pei^ 
 sonages ever lose their respective individ- 
 ualities. To all classes of novel-readers 
 the story should prove attractive." 
 [Atheuajum. 84T 
 
 -^— , SAME ("Timar's Two Worlds") 
 Blackwood, 1SS8. 
 
 MONSIEUU MOTTE [hy G.. King: 
 'S.-Y., Armstrong, 1888.] "is acoUection of 
 4 stories illustrative of Louisiana life 
 and character. Miss King's creole studies 
 have a quality of fineness which is fi'e- 
 qucntly lacking iii Mr. Cable's work in 
 this sort. The ^Marriage of Marie Mo- 
 deate'' strikes us as the most charming of 
 these stories, tho in this, as in the other 
 tales, SlLss King falls into an error that 
 destroys the illusion. She makes her 
 characters speak a mixture of french and 
 english. Their dialog should be wholly 
 in french or wholly in correct euglish 
 translation." [Atlantic. 848 
 
 MOOR OF PETER THE GREAT, see 
 CAPTAIN'S DAUGHTEB. 
 
 MORE SAIL THAN BALLAST, [by 
 C. A. Montresor: Allen, 1889.] "Miss 
 MoutrSsor has taken as the ground-work 
 of her story a passage which will be 
 familiar to readers of Carlyle, referring to 
 certain domestic reforms introduced into 
 the court of Carl Eugen, duke of Wiirtem- 
 berg. With the assistance of KOrner and 
 Vely she has treated the historical incidents 
 with some degree of verisimilitude. The 
 duke himself and his friend Franziska von 
 Hohenhcim appear in this narrative as 
 their traditional repute mit have led us to 
 expect, and we seem to get a fair idea of 
 life and manners in the Ludwigsburg of 7 
 score jxars ago. The greater part of the 
 volume, however, is occupied with the 
 fortunes of Hans Hitter, a musician with- 
 out much moral ballast, with his thoroly 
 human wife, Olga, and with their friends, 
 
 as to most of whom history is silent. The 
 story is romantic, and quite prettily told." 
 [ Athenujum. 84t< 
 
 MOSAIC WORKERS (The): and 
 ORCO. [by G: Sand, i. e., A. L. A. (Du- 
 pin) Dudcvant: London, H, Cf, Clarke. 
 1844.] "The mosaic 'mastei's' of "Venice 
 are the heroes of this tale; and we may 
 remark that it docs not contain a sentence 
 to which the most fastidious reader could 
 object." [ Westminster Review.] "It can- 
 not fail to delit the reader and inspire him 
 With an interest in art and artists. The 2 
 master mosaists, or workers in mosaic, of 
 which it treats are Francesco and Valeric 
 Zuccato, who were commissioned by the 
 Senate of Venice to execute some of the^ 
 mosaics in Saint Mark's. In describing 
 and illustrating their character and career 
 the author is niturally led to touch upon 
 events and persons of historic importance, 
 so that her work presents a lively picture 
 of Venetian life {it the period, while it is 
 penetrated throud&t with a lofty artistic 
 enthusiasm." [ Athenasuffl. 850 
 
 , SAME, ("Mosaic Masters"), tr. by 
 
 AsHURST, London, 1847 (177 pp.) 
 
 , SAME, in "The Crayon", Jan.- 
 
 Sept., 1856. 
 
 MOUMOU. [by Ivan Turgenief : In 
 Lippincott's Magazine, Apr., 1871.] 
 "Like everything of Turgfinief's, it is 
 deeply tragical : but there is a poetical ele- 
 ment which relieves the sombemess, and 
 which brings it about that the effect which 
 he produces is not, on the whole, de- 
 pressing; unprosperous and sad tho his 
 conclusions may be. Perhaps it is that he 
 so surely in every 'case gives us, amid 
 much which may be base, sordid, cruel, 
 and unhappy, some aspect of human na^ 
 ture which is so lovely or so strong that 
 we cannot but feel in the end elevated and 
 strengthened. Even the cruel inscrutable- 
 ness of fatei and man's subserviency to it 
 —a that very familiar to TurgfeniePs mind, 
 is in a way very elevating and strengthen- 
 ing. And were it not, we Should say that 
 this writer has never presented it without, 
 as we have said, giving us at the same 
 time some vivid presentation of some 
 
 258 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 beautiful or strong quality lu the victim 
 which causes us to rise unsaddened and 
 even braced. This is to be truly tragical 
 in the best sense. Compare, or rather 
 contrast, with this the effect produced by 
 the reading of another great master of the 
 sombre and tragical, Hawthorne. Turgfr- 
 nlef 's very great merits as a poet, as a de- 
 lineator of character, as a thinker, and as 
 a stoi'y-teller it would be well if our read- 
 ing public appreciated more fully than it 
 does. This tale of "Mou-mou" is a simple 
 little thing as regards its story, and will be 
 best enjoyed by readers who have some 
 training in the reading of poetry, and not. 
 so much eryoyed by those who care more 
 for novels strictly so-called. It treats of 
 some passages in the life of a russian serf, 
 a gigantic deaf-mute. It is exquisitely 
 pathetic and beautiful with true beauty, 
 both in the few and slit details and in the 
 main conception." [Nation.] "There are 
 some half-dozen of Turgfinief 's short stories 
 absolutely perfect, each in its way, but 
 none perhaps quite so exquisitely as 'Mou- 
 mou' shows the artist's power to trans- 
 figure to our eyes the tendernesses, 
 passions, agonies, which He beyond speech 
 and almost beyond sign in the silent heart 
 of a strong, simple man. Carlyle gives 
 the tale mention in one of his letters, and 
 awards it hS praise. The tragedy of the 
 httle story, is, like all Turgtoief's tragedy, 
 of the most hopeless kind. No vista of 
 happiness opens out of the harsh, savage 
 facts of every-day life. We can see no 
 prospects for Moumou except that of dog- 
 ged endurance : no good comes out of the 
 evil he has endured and must continue to 
 endure. There is no consciousness either 
 for him or for us that his suffering is made 
 important even by its relation|to the gener- 
 al sense of human struggle and heroic ex- 
 ample." [Lippincott's Magazine.] In 
 Mumu the chord of pathos is sounded 
 with an art so exquisite that it ceases to 
 be art; it has the supreme reach of the 
 whole gamut of human sympathy, and its 
 appeal is irresistible. The materials are 
 so simple that one wonders how such an 
 effect is produced. It is only the story of 
 
 a poor deaf and dumb serf, a mute 
 Herakles, whose love for a little dog works 
 as a transforming element in his life, and 
 yet, as Turgfinief unfolds it, the narrative 
 becomes a profound revelation of charac- 
 ter. It is full of human possibilities. We 
 see that we, under like conditions, mit 
 have felt and acted thus. The intense 
 sympathy becomes at times painful. The 
 expression of the elementary emotions is 
 almost loo realistic. How carefully each 
 detail is worked into place; and nothing 
 superfluous, nothing which does not have 
 a vital part in the desired result! the 
 minor perspnages, those that appear but 
 once or twice in the course of the tale, are 
 outlined as firmly and truly as if foto- 
 grafed from life. Moumou will bear a 
 great amount of study; it marks out a 
 whole method in fiction." [Boston "Lit- 
 erary World". 851 
 
 , SAME ("The Deaf-Mute") in La- 
 dies' Mepository, feb., 1873. 
 
 , SAME, transl. by Gersoni, Funk, 
 
 188i. 
 
 MY HOME IN THE SHIRES, [by Eosa 
 BlACKENZiB Kettle: Weir, 1876.] 
 "This pleasantly written volume derives 
 its interest from the description of Italian 
 country life, rather from any english ex- 
 jieriences. The heroine, dauter of an en- 
 glishman by an Italian mother, is much 
 perturbed in childhood by the circum- 
 stance that the tenure of her country 
 home by her faraily depends on the 
 pleasure of a distant and unknown rel- 
 ative. The fact that Guy L'Estrauge is 
 half austrian, as she is half Italian, does 
 not tend to make her more sympathetic 
 with this ogre of the nursery. At length, 
 Guy comes home, and, as Mr. Lester, he 
 wins Slargaret's aflfections, and so com- 
 pletely belies her ideal of him, as to prove 
 a good fairy to her Italian connexions, 
 and even to give his only dauter in mar- 
 riage to a fantastic patriot of that nation. 
 Tho by no means exciting, this is a reada^ 
 ble and pleasant tale." [ Athenaeum. 853 
 
 MY LITTLE LADY, [by Emma P.. 
 Pointer: Holt, 1872.] "It is to be doubt- 
 ed, if the author will ever create a char- 
 
 259 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 acter more channing and lovable than 
 Madelon, the Little Lady. Madelon is 
 the only child of Monsieur Linders, an 
 adventurer, a professional gambler. 
 From city to city, from watering-place to 
 watering-place they roam ; living in hotels, 
 in lodgings, always gay, never alone, but 
 having no true home, no real friends. At 
 last the poor, reckless, unprincipled, but 
 loving father dies suddenly in a Paris 
 hotel, and the 10 year old Madelon would 
 have been left to the mercy of the Jand- 
 lady, but for the accidental presence of a 
 young english surgeon, who has seen her 
 .0 years before at a gerraan spa and 
 learned to pity and love the pale, elf-like 
 child. The adoration which Madelon had 
 felt for her father she transfers to Mon- 
 sieur Horace, the young surgeon; and, 
 tho he disappears from her life for years, 
 the devotion never wavers. Madelou's 
 life in the convent of which her A unt was 
 the Superior, her escape, her refuge with 
 Jeanne Marie, a village inn-keeper, her 
 going alone to the gaming tables at Spa, to 
 win a fortune for Monsieur Horace, her 
 strange rencontre with him there,— all 
 these scenes are vividly told, and are by far 
 the best in the book." [Scribner's. 853 
 MY LOEDCOSrCEIT [by "ElTA",i. e., 
 Eliza M— J— (Gollow) Booth: Maxwell, 
 18S4.] "opens well, but the interest flags 
 when the heroine becomes engrossed in her 
 babies. Kita is almost as fond of babies 
 as 'Miss Mathers,' and writes quite as 
 much pretty nonsense about them. It is a 
 charming trait, and one for which the 
 reader is very thankful, for he soon learns 
 that all the baby talk may safely be 
 skipped. It does not at all interfere with 
 the story— it is, in fact, wholly irrelevant. 
 In 'My Lord Conceit' the two babies are 
 killed with a sudden ruthlessness which 
 would have made even Dighton and For- 
 rest shudder. Perhaps "Rita" was afraid 
 of herself, and saw no end to her story if 
 those babies were to go on talking. An- 
 other attraction in the book is an Italian 
 villain who really is a quite first rate vil- 
 lain—one who not only lives by his vil- 
 lainy, but makes it the chaim of his life. 
 
 It is his recreation as well as his profession, 
 and one rather regrets that he makes such 
 a mess of it in the end." [ Athenaeum. 854 
 
 MY UNCLE BENJAMIN [by Claude 
 Tillier: Boston, Tucker, 1891.] "is a 
 fascinating sketch of the manners and 
 customs of the 18th century. By a few 
 masterly strokes Tiilier has endowed his 
 chief character with flesh and blood and 
 placed him in full life before the reader. 
 It is a rare creation, one of those which 
 by a blending of the real and the ideal 
 become the common property of all times 
 and places, and are handed down with- 
 out ever becoming trite or tiresome. The 
 style is simple, concise and direct; the 
 narrative natural and without reserve, 
 combining a genuine feeling for nature 
 and mankind." [Critic. 855 
 
 MYSTERIES OF THE PEOPLE (The) 
 or The Story of a Plebeian Family for 
 2000 Years. [ by EUGENlirSuE : 1849 ; N.-Y., 
 Clarke, 1867.] "To afford the readers 
 of fiction a new sensation — to awaken in 
 their minds a powerful interest for a large 
 portion of the human race whose history 
 has rarely been invested with much of the 
 romantic element — and, above all, to im- 
 part, throu the medium of a story of un- 
 paralleled length and infinite variety, an 
 amount of instruction the acquirement of 
 which would necessitate years of severe 
 study, is a task which none but a man of 
 the hiest order of genius, combined with 
 warm sympathies for all humanity, could 
 hope to accomplish." [Round Table. 856 
 
 MYSTERY OF THE LOCKS (The), [by 
 Edgar Watson Howe: Osgood. 1884.] 
 "An old, failing town, by a sluggish 
 Western river ; a gloomy, uncanny man- 
 sion, on lonely hill-top, with a tradition 
 of ghostly footsteps coming and going 
 over its stairs and corridors ; a handsome, 
 cultivated stranger, who hides his identity 
 under an assumed name, and lives alone 
 in the gloomy house ; a girl, a dainty speci- 
 men of sporadic beauty and genius ; a vil- 
 lain as ugly and captivating as ever ap- 
 peared in the pages of fiction ; an almost 
 equally fascinating ne'er-do-well ; a lurk- 
 ing shadow of danger threatening the 
 
 260 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 happiness and life of the stranger; a coterie 
 of quaint gossips; an 'ancient maiden,' de- 
 lltful in her sharp-spolten antiquity; a 
 dreary baclsground of decayed shops and 
 warehouses, of mist and rain and mud, of 
 sluggish waters roused to a fury of de- 
 struction ; and a climax of grotesque, hl- 
 wr6t tragedy — these are the elements 
 going to make this strong, vivid, striking- 
 ly original, uncouth, impossible— possible 
 novel. The impression left after a perusal 
 of the book is anything but agreeable ; it 
 is like that which remains from the in- 
 spection of some terrible realistic painting 
 like Rembrandt's 'Anatomical Lecture;! 
 and yet one cannot deny the sombre genius 
 empToyed in its production. It is indi- 
 cative of Mr. Howe's essentially artistic 
 power, that he occupies himself very little, 
 if at all, with mere description. Before 
 he has finished 2 chapters, the reader has 
 in mind as clear and definite a picture of 
 the decaying river-town of Davy's Bepd 
 as if he had spent a life-time within its 
 borders, and yet with how few, firm, 
 broad touches does the author convCy his 
 meaning! And so of the men and women 
 who figure in these pages— they are unlike, 
 most of them, any of the men and women 
 we have known ; but we do not" think for 
 a moment of doubting their reality. They 
 are flesh and blood ; in speech and manners 
 they are untrammeled by our limiting 
 conventionalities ; even the exquisite por- 
 trait of the heroine ('the only flower in a 
 community of weeds') has a wild grace 
 which differentiates her from all other 
 pretty and accomplished women ; and the 
 love-making toward the close of the book 
 is as fresh and artless as true passion and 
 natural refinement can make it." [ Boston 
 "Literary "World." 857 
 
 MYSTERIES OF UDOLPHO (The), 
 [by A.. (Ward) Eadclifpe: 1794.] 
 "The opening chapters breathe the spirit 
 of domestic peace and enjoyment. The 
 peasants in the twilit shade dance on the 
 banks of the Garonne, 'after the use of 
 mild antiquity,' and in the distance we 
 behold 'the long waving line of the 
 Pyrenees' ... It is impossible to specif y 
 
 261 
 
 all the beauties of this gorgeous romance. 
 There are in it some fine descriptions of 
 Venice, with its isles, palaces and towers, 
 rising from the water and reflected on its 
 calm surface ; gondolas flit by, from which 
 issue soft music and sweet voices, adding 
 to the beauty of summer seas and moon- 
 lit-nlts . . . The transition from the gay- 
 ety and glittering splendor of Venice to 
 the gloomy and savage grandeur of the 
 Castle of Udolpho is described in Mrs. 
 Radcliffe's happiest manner. The castle 
 is filled with mysterious sounds, gloomy 
 corridors, banditti, vaults, trap-doors, ap- 
 pliances and means which the lovely 
 authoress knew how to use so well. An- 
 nette, the chattering, superstitious waiting 
 maid, has her heart and mind occupied, 
 and Emily comes in for her share of 
 trouble, anxiety and heartraches, but is at 
 last amply rewarded both in wea,lth and 
 love. Terhaps the scenes and adventures 
 at Chateau La Blanc possess the hiest in- 
 terest. The disappearance of Ludovico, 
 (from a haunted chamlxjr,) after reading 
 a fritful tale ; the visit of Emily, at midnit, 
 to the apartments of the marchioness, 
 which had been closed for 20 years ; their 
 magnificence and gloom, the black pall on 
 the bed, articles of dress scattered around 
 the room; the strange resemblance of 
 Emily to the marchioness, which likeness 
 is hitened by her putting on her vfiil, and 
 touching the lute whose strings had been 
 silent thi'ou so many long years ; the deep 
 silence ;— all these are described in a sol- 
 emn and affecting manner." [American 
 Review. S58 
 
 NANON [ by "G: Sand": Roberts, 
 1890.] "is the prettiest of stories, — so pret- 
 ty, so pure that it cannot be called french 
 at all. It is a talc of peasants in eastern 
 France just prior to the Revolution, and 
 the story is so enveloped in green woods 
 and pastoral ways, such tinkling waters 
 and rural sweetness, that it becomes a 
 poem before many pages are wrot, and 
 one follows its autobiografic revelations 
 as quietly yet as intently as the lamb 
 follows his mother . . . Gradually, how- 
 ever, sounds more harmonious areiheard. 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 Nanon ajid her, now, armless lover go 
 back to tbe old home aud tlie old ways, 
 and live beautiful lives of love and , grati- 
 tude, and their, union shovrs the , compljetc 
 reconciliation of peasant and proprietary 
 class." [Critic. 859 
 
 KARKA. "fby KATHLEEN O^Meaka : 
 Bentley, 1888.] "These are the. raw 
 materials of a story rich in jpicturesquely, 
 conceived characters, in effective incidents, 
 and in pathetic situations. The story qf , 
 Ivan Gorff is specially interesting as an 
 illustration of the manner jn which the> 
 condition of things in Russia may betray 
 a man naturally noble-minded into crime 
 of dastardly character ; and yet, wWle the 
 authdrevidently feels keenly the force of 
 her impeachment, she does not lose her 
 head, and 'Narlia' mit, easily be regarded 
 either as an assault upon rijssian auto<;racy, 
 or upon the utterly unscrupulous revo- 
 lutionary movements by which it is, as- 
 sailed. Apart, however, from all political 
 significance, the book is a th5ro]y interest- 
 ing, well-constructed, and well-told story." 
 [ Spectator. 860 
 
 NESTLENOOK. [by Leonard Kip: 
 Putnam, 1880.] "There are some people, 
 in the book^ whose, love affairs. serve to 
 llten the somewhat sprious tone of the, 
 main plot. The story as an attempt at an 
 american romance has considerable merit. 
 The author has hit upon just the tone 
 which alone is capable of lending a roman- 
 tic lit to the.praof^ical, progaic outline of 
 american life, but he is more successful 
 with his tone than with the execution of 
 the details of his picture. A romance pf 
 this sort to be good needs to be perfect, 
 and Mr. Kip is not a master of romance. 
 The book is chiefly interesting as a sug- 
 gestion of what mit be, done in ypmantic 
 writing with the materials afforde;d by 
 ordinary modern life," [Nation. , 861 
 
 NEW ANTIGONE (The) . [by— Barry : 
 Maomillan, 1887.] -"I'here is a. provoking, 
 nuality to 'The New Antigone.' It is so 
 good that we long to have it a little better. 
 There is great charm in the opening chap- 
 ters. Their scene is the beautiful country 
 feat of an earl, their dramatis persons 
 
 are ladjes and gentlemen described oy one 
 who knows the species ; there is a flavor 
 of art and antiquity to redeem the com- 
 monplace of rank jind prosperity, and a 
 beautiful entourage is wpll and picturesque- 
 ly sketched. And the 'New Antigone? is 
 a delitful creature, jp spite of the fact 
 that she is dauter to a. well-born nihilist 
 SiUd thorply imbued with all his wildest 
 notions. It is in the carrying out of these 
 principles, ip which she puts an innocent 
 credence, that she shipwrecks, her, life and 
 that of her lover. But the stpry is what 
 it teims itself, a romance rather than a 
 novel, and with ajl,its flaws, has a redeem- 
 ing originality about it which lends it in- 
 terest." [Boston "Literary World-?' 863 
 
 NEW PRIEST IN CONCEPTION BAY 
 (The) [by Eo. T. S. Lowell : Boston, 
 Phillips, 1858.]; "brings.,i?a into perfectly 
 fresh and unhackpeyed scenery and man- 
 ners, in the island of , Newfoundland; 
 certainly as unknown to most of us as if 
 it had never been found at all. Its great 
 charm lies in its descriptions of the life 
 and -character of the primitive fishermen, 
 among whom the story is placed, and the 
 constant lovely bits of word-painting, sea, 
 sky, and shore, in that lonely region, 
 given with such lingering and constantly 
 recurring dellt, that one sees well what 
 dear companions they were jp the author's 
 island lite." [ Christian Examiner.] Itis"a 
 book of power and beauty, combining 
 tjue pathos with irresistible humor, master- 
 ly ip its delineation of character, hsly poet- 
 ic in its descriptions, betraying ip the 
 strength and compactness of its language its 
 author's familiar acquaintance with the 
 masters pf our . tung, and giving in the 
 guise of a mpst attractive story well put 
 and telling arguments for the faith of En- 
 land's Church. This book from , the first 
 established its claim upon popular favor, 
 as striking put a new path ia our literar 
 ture, and giving us fresh and living crea- 
 tions attractive from their originality, and 
 br6t before us with unusual skill." 
 [Church Mpnthly. 863 
 
 NEW RACE (A), [by. "GOLO. Rai- 
 MUND", i. e., Bertha (Heyn^ Erederich, 
 
 262 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 ISIO-SS i Lippincott, 1880.J "■WTiat>ptiflty 
 so pure, what sweetness so sweet, as that 
 of a really" piire, teweet German story, 
 such as the judicious [see No. 595] 
 Mrs. Wister now gives us? It is short, 
 graceful, and tender; full of the warm lit 
 which glimmers over the' Rhein, redolent 
 of the virtues of charity and consecration. 
 It opens, to be sure, with a dark chapter 
 of fauiily wrongs, but the worst comes 
 first, and the end is peace. The bid 
 Zahrenburg, the central scene of the story, 
 stands before us like a pieture; and the 
 figure of Eva von Zahringen is one Of 
 angelic loveliness. There is a re'al fresli- 
 ness in the scheme by which she seeks to 
 make restitution to young Waldemar for 
 the injury which has been done him in 
 her name; but when, iu her disguise, sTie 
 enters his toother's service, to minister to 
 him in his blindness, it is easy eniif to 
 foresee the conclusion. The restoration 
 of his dye-sit by a stroke of Iltning is an 
 uncommon piece Of good fortune," but we 
 do not kn5w that it is incredible. The 
 beauty of the story is in the quietness of 
 its movement, the loftiness of its motive, 
 and the simplicity of its style." [Boston 
 "Literary World".]— " 'A New Eace'. is 
 the rather misleading title of Mrs. Wis- 
 ter's latest ti-anslati'on, which has the 
 qualities, albeit a good deal diluted, of its 
 predecessors. The hiel-oine; whose mother 
 has been wrongfully deprived by her 
 husband's family of her fortune, is rein- 
 stated by her grandfather, who accom- 
 plishes the task, however, by very sharp 
 practice, which his desire for reVetfge 
 justifies to him. After his death she at- 
 tempts to! redress the wrong her cOusih 
 has sufiered at his hands, and her success 
 'is followed by their happy marriage, and 
 'the new race' 'which grows in the old 
 castle promises to inherit only the virtues 
 of its ancestors— a fulfilment Which would 
 certainly entitle it to k new label. The 
 story, it will be seen', is suiHciently mild, 
 tho ithas romantic episodes." [Nation. 864 
 NICHOLAS NICKLEBY; [by C: 
 Dickens': 1839,] "As for the charities of 
 Mr. Dickens, multiplied kindnesses which 
 
 he ha^ conferred upon us all ; upon our 
 children; upon people educated and un- 
 educated ; upOh the myriads here and at 
 home, who speak our common tung ; have 
 hot yofe, have not I, have not all of us, 
 reason to be thankful to this kind friend. 
 Who soothed and charmed so many hours, 
 br6t jileasure and sweet lafter to so many 
 homes ; made such multitudes of children . 
 happy, endowed us with such a s'tyeet 
 store of gracious th6ts, fair fancies, soft 
 sympathies, hearty enjoyments? There 
 are creations of Mr. Dickens' which seem 
 to me to rank as personal benefits, figures 
 so delitful, that one feels happier and 
 better for knowing them as one docs for 
 being br6t into the society of very good 
 men and women. The atmosfere in which 
 these people live is wholesome to breathe 
 in; you feel that to be allowed to speak to 
 them is a pergonal kindness. You come 
 away better for your contact with them, 
 your hands seem cleaner from having the 
 privilege of shaking theirs. Was there 
 ever a better charity sermon preached in 
 the world . than Dickens' ' Christmas 
 Carol?' I believe it occasioned immense 
 hospitality throu(5iit England; was the 
 means of llting up hundreds of kind fires 
 at Christmas time; caused a wonderful 
 dut-pounhg of Christmas good feeling ; of 
 Christmas punch-brewing ; an awful slau- 
 ter of Christmas turkeys, and roasting and 
 basting of Christmas beef. As for this 
 man's loVe of children, that amiable organ 
 at the back of his honest head must be 
 perfectly monstrous. All children 8t toy 
 loVe him. I know two that dp', and read 
 his books ten times for once that they 
 peruse the dismal preachments of their 
 father. I know one, who, when she is 
 happy, reads 'NICHOLAS NICKLEBY;' 
 when she is unhappy, reads 'Nicholas 
 Nickleby;'vyhen she is tired, reads 'Nich- 
 olas Nickleby ;' when she is in bed, reads 
 'Nicholas Nickleby;' when she has nothing 
 to do, reads 'Nicholas Nickleby ;' and when 
 she has finished the book, reads 'Nicholas 
 Nickleby' over again. This candid young , 
 critic, at ten years of age, said : 'I like Mr. 
 Dickens' books much better than your 
 
 263 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 books, papa,' and frequently expressed 
 her desire that the latter author should 
 write a book like one of Mr. Dickens' 
 books. "Who can? Everyman must say 
 his own thdts in his own voice, in his own 
 way : lucky is he who has such a charming 
 gift of nature as this, which brings all the 
 children in the world trooping to him, and 
 being fond of him." [W: M. Thack- 
 eray. 865 
 
 NIGEL FORTESCUE. [byW:WEST- 
 Ai,L : Ward, 18S9.] " 'Nigel Fortescue' 
 fulfils very well the requirements of what 
 are called in the trade "adventure books." 
 Sueh books are not to be judged from a 
 literary standpoint, being written to catch 
 what one must call the taste of a class of 
 readers who have no literary taste." 
 [ AthenjEum. 866 
 
 NINETY-THREE, [by V: [M..]HuGO: 
 1814.] "Throu all his works, what a mix- 
 ture of genius and grotesqueness, of majes- 
 ty and absurdity I Take his 'Ninety-Three' 
 
 a novel monstrously nonsensical and 
 
 surprisingly splendid a novel demon- 
 strating that to pass from the ridiculous 
 to the sublime, as well as the other way, 
 needs but a step. With what magnetic 
 power one of its first incidents, the rush- 
 ing about of the loose gun on shipboard, 
 is wrOt out ! You begin by despising the 
 frivolity of the scene, and momentarily 
 wait to see the writer ludicrously break 
 down in his preposterous attempt at im- 
 posing on your credulity. By degrees the 
 situation is filled in till each successive ob- 
 jection of skepticism is somehow spirited 
 away, and even the forein reader, sym- 
 pathetically following the working of the 
 french mind, is startled at his yielding. 
 The episode of the roving cannon ranks 
 with the devil-fish scene in the 'Toilers of 
 the Sea,' where also the reader finds ap- 
 preciated horror overcoming his first im- 
 pulse of contemptuous incredulity." [ Gal- 
 axy. 867 
 
 NO RELATIONS [Sans Famille), by 
 Hectok Malot : Lippincott, 1880.] "is 
 the story of a foundling picked up in the 
 streets of Paris, nurtured by a peasant 
 woman, and finally, after divers adven- 
 
 tures, discovering his ritful connexions. 
 There is nothing original in this plot: 
 what makes it so is the extremely skilful 
 treatment it receives at the hands of Its 
 author. From first to last the fortunes of 
 little Remi form a series of vivid and 
 grafic pictures, true to life and thoroly 
 pure and excellent in tone. Whether 
 trudging at the heels of old Vitalis the 
 showman, with Joli Cocur, Capi, and Zer- 
 bino, or floating in the Swan with Mrs. 
 Millegan and Arthur, or exhibiting in 
 company with little Mattia, his sworn 
 comrade, or shut up for dark' days of 
 starvation in the Truyfire mine, or earn- 
 ing the cow for Mother Barberin, or in 
 the custody of the London thieves who 
 personate his parents, he is everywhere 
 the same truthful, afl'ectionate, loyal 
 child." [Boston "Literary World." 808 
 
 NOBLE SACRIFICE (A) [by Paul 
 Feval: Srentano, 1888.] "is a fiction 
 of the troublous times of the rebellion in 
 Bretagne in the 17th century. It is a 
 tale of noble lords and lovely ladies, with 
 dungeons, escapes, and a grand wedding 
 at the end. The romance is as satisfac- 
 tory as a good fairj'-story, and is so well- 
 written that the pleasure is complete." 
 [Critic. 860 
 
 NOBLESSE OBLIGE, see ATELIER 
 1)U LYS. 
 
 NORICA [byA:HAGEN: J. Chap- 
 man, 1852.] "is a simple story, narrated in 
 a quaint, pleasing manner. The rich 
 Frankfurt merchant visits Niirnberg, 
 with the vue of gratifying, in his simple 
 way, his tastes for art and science. He 
 arrives on the festal day of St. Sebaldus, 
 the patron of the city ; and in one of the 
 processions he cast his eyes on a maiden 
 whose modest beauty henceforth hauntsl 
 his imagination. The heroine of the stoiy, 
 after many pretty mysteries and fluctua- 
 tions between hope and disappointment, is 
 wooed and won, finally accompanying the 
 worthy Heller to Frankfurt. On this 
 thread of romance the author skilfully 
 strings several entertaining legendary 
 episodes. But, while instructiva, it never 
 loses the unity and vivacity of a tale", and 
 
 261 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 while unexciting in its incidents, it is hily 
 romantic." [Westminster Review. 870 
 NOTEE DAME DE PAEIS [by V: 
 [M..] Hugo: Little & Brown, 18S7.] 
 "was Hugo's coup d'essai in fiction, and 
 it stands by itself, a work, so far as we 
 know, without parallel — a piece of mediie- 
 val life and of universal tragedy, vivid, 
 terrible, appalling. To think that Quentin 
 Durward, fresh and simple, was just then 
 walking into that lurid Paris, with its 
 gloomy tumult and horror, to him a glo- 
 rious daylit city, full of wonder and 
 delit ! The honest, open record may no 
 doubt suflFer in some points as compared 
 with the other, in which the' intensity of 
 the effects suggest a constant flicker of 
 torch-lit and all the fantastic shadows and 
 illuminations of nit, rather than any shin- 
 ing of the sun. But Claude FroUo and 
 Quasimodo, and even Esmeralda, are all 
 spectres which vanish in the distance, 
 wild semblances that breathe of fever and 
 fancy ; while the manly Scot and the solid 
 figures about him stand fast as men and 
 friends. Human nature with the one is 
 ever cordial and honest and kind, which, 
 all miseries notwithstanding, is its ordinary 
 strain ; but with the other it is dark, hap- 
 less, tragic, — a thing of misery struggling 
 among blind and tcrril)le forms, uncom- 
 prehended or unknown." [ M. O. (W.) 
 Oliphant.] "Esmeralda is a charming 
 creation. She is a gypsy girl who gains 
 her living by dancing in the public thoro- 
 fares of the Paris of a former age . . . 
 She displays her visible beauties freely to 
 the crowd ; and yet she is chaste as assur- 
 edly no gypsy girl and dancer in the pub- 
 lic streets ever was . . . For this young 
 creature, so graceful and so modest, we 
 could have wished one of those lovers so 
 common in romances — some young man 
 of hi birth and great wealth — to extricate 
 her from the grovelling impurities by 
 which her outside only had been sullied, 
 and elevate her to rank and fortune by 
 making her his wife. But Mr. Hugo has 
 disposed of her differently: he has 
 made her enaniored of a captain in the 
 gendarmerie of Louis XI. The creature 
 
 who can love Esmeralda as she 6t to be 
 loved is the poor bell-ringer, Quasimodo. 
 . . . deaf, hunch-backed, one-eyed— who 
 lives sequestered in the farthest recesses of 
 the cathedral, and has grown to manhood 
 almost unvisited by the lit of day. Noth- 
 ing can be more touching or more naif 
 than the scenes between Esmeralda and 
 Quasimodo on the platform of the tower. 
 The unconquerable repugnance of the 
 maiden, struggling with a gencle feeling 
 of compassion, for the poor bell-ringer — 
 her efforts to reconcile herself to that 
 countenance, so ungrateful and repulsive 
 a mirror of a delicate and sensitive soul — 
 the anxieties of Quasimodo, his devoted- 
 nesR, his intelligence — the sort of grace 
 which love imparts to this monster — the 
 conversations between these two beings, 
 when Esmeralda softens towards the un- 
 fortunate bell-ringer, and permits him to 
 remain a short time by her side ; all this 
 belongs, no doubt, to another world , but 
 it is all interesting and touching ; and if 
 we may say with truth that it is over- 
 drawn, it is an ingenious overdrawing of 
 one of those all-but-impossible passions 
 which we yet occasionally meet in life; 
 between hideousness and beauty, old age 
 and youth — between two beings, one of 
 whom loves, but cannot be beloved ; the 
 other loves not, but is unable to hate. 
 Mr. Hugo's writings appear in more 
 favorable colors when remembered than 
 when read. In that gentle and pleasing 
 impression which a book leaves on the 
 memory, the exaggerations disappear, the 
 asperities are softened, the superfluities 
 retrenched, the excesses of an ill-regu- 
 lated imagination are blotted out, and the 
 overdrawn figures (for they are all over- 
 drawn, even when the original concep- 
 tion is in nature) are replaced by genuine 
 and simple ones. Seen from a distance, 
 Esmeralda and Quasimodo are beautiful 
 creations of a romantic fancy." [West- 
 minster Review. _ 871 
 
 , SAME ("The Hunchback") Bent- 
 ley, 1856; IT.-Y., Dick, 1862. 
 
 OBLIVION [byM.. Gretsnway Mc- 
 CLELLi\j}D : Holt, 18S.5.] "shows striking 
 
 265 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 ability on tlie part of its author, and ability 
 of a hi sort. Freeh and vigorous in hand- 
 ling, with a certain exaggerated Jorce of 
 feeling as well as expression, and realplct- 
 ui'esque power, it stands head and shoulders 
 above the rank and file of ordinary fiction. 
 The scenery and people and dialect of the 
 North Carolina mountains, among which 
 the scene of the story is laid, are , admira- 
 bly rendered, with true pathos and humor. 
 The plot turns on an accident. A lady, 
 traveling alone with her child, is sur- 
 prised by a freshet at a river-side inn. 
 The house is swept away, most of its 
 occupants lose their lives, the child is 
 killed, but the lady is rescued with mind 
 and memory utterly alienated by a blow 
 on the head. For 3 years this hapless 
 stranger lives among the i-uf but kindly 
 mountain folk, who adopt her into their 
 lives, as it were, and give her the name of 
 'Lady.' Gradually her powers of speak- 
 ing english return, apd a certain interest 
 in and ability for every-day matters, but 
 all the past is still a blank to her up to the 
 nit of the freshet. Dick Corbyn, a splen- 
 did young mountaineer, learns the road 
 from pity to a passionate love, and she is 
 on the eve of marrying him, when a 
 second illness re-awakens the slumbering 
 memory, saves her from innocent crime, 
 and restores her to her old life and the 
 husband who has long mourned her as 
 dead." [Boston -'Literary "World." 873 
 ODDS AGAINST HER. [by Marga- 
 ret Russell Macfarland: Oassell, 
 188S.] "Family life with us is so simple, 
 and the descent of landed property so 
 equitable, that it is hard ^o fully realize 
 the intrigues incident to a state of society 
 where -exist primogeniture and entail. 
 In 'Odds Against Her,' Margaret Russell 
 Macfarland gives us a picture ofi the in- 
 ternal dissensions which divided a noble 
 german family. A crusty, erratic old 
 count; his headstrong sons and ncfew; 
 a beautiful, intriguing fussian, beloved of 
 2 of them, herself determined to marry 
 for his wealth the one she did not love ; 
 a little american girl, the dauter of the 
 old Count's runaway eldest son and there- 
 
 fore [ f] heiress to the family estates, — 
 such are the characters of whom the story 
 is woven. The story is well told, 
 in a simple direct style, but is decidedly a 
 development of plot rather than of char- 
 acter." [Critic. 873 
 
 OLD COUNTESS, See BERTHA'S 
 ENGAGEMENT. ■ 
 
 OLD CREOLE DAYS, [by G: Wash- 
 INGTOK Cable: Scfibner^ 1879.] "The 
 fugitive sketches of G: Cable, collected 
 under the attraotlye title of 'Old Creole 
 Days,' are as fresh in matter, as vivacious 
 in treatment, and as full of wit as were 
 'The Luck of Roaring Camp' and its auda- 
 cious fclIowS when they came, while they 
 are much more humane and delicate in 
 feeling. The scene of all these 7 sketches 
 is laid in New Orleans, and certainly no 
 other city on this continent ever began to 
 exhibit such bizai're conjunctions of race 
 and lively clashings of race prejudice as 
 did the igulf city during the earlier half of 
 the present century, — ^for a generation or 
 so after the cession of Louisiana . . , Mr. 
 Cable draws powerfully upon his reader's 
 emotions also, touching rapidly and surely 
 the stops of laf ter and of tears. Some of 
 his plots are better made than others, and 
 occasionally he is almost over-dramatic, 
 relying solely upon the action of his pup- 
 pets, and hardly pausing or condescending 
 to explain suflSciently, in his own person, 
 to make his motive intelligible. But again, 
 in the smiling tale of Madame DiSlicieuse, 
 the construction is perfect,— airy as 
 gossamer, and yet firm as steel. 'The 
 Belles Demoiselles Plantation' is the 
 most pathetic of the 7 legends.' Jean-ah 
 PogMeZim Is darker and grimmer in its 
 tragedy but singularly impressive. 'Pos- 
 son Jone' is exquisitely droll. One and 
 all have an ardor, a spontaneity, a grace of 
 movement, a touch of fire, which are 
 severally present as elements, and sum- 
 moned in that rarest of endowments, 
 an original and delltful style. Mr. Cable's 
 dialogs are so concise and complete that 
 quotation cannot illustrate them. Each 
 one is a dramatic whole, which to break 
 is to mutilate." - [ Atlantic. 874 
 
 266 
 
EOMANTIO NOVELS. 
 
 OLD FRENCH CHATEAU NEAR 
 TOULOUSE (The) [by Edgak W. 
 Davies: Boston, Loving, 1870.] "is a 
 nice, lively, bugaboo story, apparently ol 
 DV)dern times; a suitable mixture of 
 haunted castles, gypsies, grated vaults, 
 smugglers, battles in the dark, and tlie in- 
 evitable english peer traveling with his 
 family. Things seemed a little 'mixed' at 
 the end ; but this is natursd, and in the 
 course of the story there are various points 
 from which the reader does not see his 
 way out at all, which we take to be the 
 object of a mysterious plot." [Nation. 875 
 
 OLD KENSINGTON [by A.. I Isa- 
 bella] (Thackeray) Ritchie : Harper, 
 1373.] "needs no words of ours to commend 
 it to a'host of readers. It is a more ambi- 
 tious story than any she has yet written ; and 
 if it is inferior to her Story of Elizabeth 
 [No. 533] , which reads like trutii itself, it 
 may yet be deserving of praise. The story 
 is long and quiet ; the plot is ingenious, tho 
 perhaps a trifle artificial ; but the char- 
 acters are all well drawn, and the whole 
 novel is marked by a repose which is 
 never dulness. Miss Thackeray iilways 
 draws young girls and children well, and 
 here, with the honest, frank girl in con- 
 trast with her crafty friend, her usual 
 skill does not desert her. Dorothea's 
 earnest and affectionate nature is admirar 
 bly described. Especially good is the way 
 in which is told the gradual decay of her 
 love for Robert Hetley, as she sees him 
 grow, and she gets a clearer vue of his 
 vanity and selfishness. The story abounds, 
 too, in clever, but not too clever, remarks 
 about the different characters, and of 
 delicate descriptions of scenes and places." 
 [Nation. 870 
 
 OLD MAM'SELLE'S SECRET.-^(The) 
 by "E. Maklitt," i. e., Eugenie John: 
 Lippincotf, 1867.] "A more charming 
 story, or one which, having once com- 
 menced it, seemed moi'e difl[icult to leave, 
 we have not met for many a day. The 
 abtruse and often incomprehensible 
 theories -with which germat^ novels are so 
 frequently burdened find no place in these 
 pages, nor are they crowded with any 
 
 strange fllosofioal speculations. Nature, 
 its outward form and beauty; Iife,itsquiet 
 enjoyments, its Aruel injustices, its bitter 
 diasensloiiS; man, and the heart of man, 
 the author has thoroly studied ; and the 
 strongly-marked characters— few in num- 
 ber, but all of importance to the narrative 
 — ^^stand out before, us as complete human 
 beirigs, their faults aiid their perfections 
 skilfully laid bare, their motives and their 
 actions clearly defined . ;. But the power 
 and ability of the author are not fully 
 called forth until a later period Of the 
 story. In the terrible conflicts between 
 love and pride by which both man and 
 woman are equally, tho from different 
 causes, torn, the contrast between man's 
 fierce struggles and the inner workings 
 of the woman's spirit, strong • by nature 
 and strengthened by adversity, are drawn 
 with nice diseriminatioh, and display on 
 the part of the 'writer a freshness and 
 vigor of th6t sometimes uttered with 
 fierceness, but never exaggerated o|i' Un- 
 real." [liouud Table.] "The mystery in 
 'The Old Maid's Secret,' when it comes to be 
 revealed, is the record of a deed of dis- 
 honesty committed by the old maid's 
 father, and concealed by her from motives 
 of filial duty; but it has really very little 
 to do with the story. The history of an 
 orf an girl forced upon the reluctant charge 
 of a bitter, harsh-tempered woman, who, 
 without knowing all the pain and grief 
 she causes, crushes • down the child, de- 
 priving her of all ' education and even of 
 common kindness— training her to domes- 
 tic drudgery without the wages — despising 
 her because her father was a conjurer: 
 the child in spite of this upbringing, grow- 
 ing up a bea,utiful young woman, having 
 been secretl|f taut and trained by the old 
 maid. Aunt Cordula. , The teldest son 
 loves her, but he is too proud of his re- 
 spectability to marry the dauter of a eon- 
 juror, and she is too proud to accept him; 
 but they are reconciled in the end. He 
 discovers that his 'house' has shared the 
 ill-gotten wealth, and the girl forgives the 
 past. After much storm and tempest and 
 violent emotion,' restitution is made, and 
 
 267 
 
EOMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 all ends happily. The style is very hl- 
 flown ; the story is often obscure and enig- 
 matical ; but there is a substantial interest 
 in it, which will carry the reader to the 
 end." [AtheniEum. 877 
 , SAME ("Secret ol the Old Mademoi- 
 selle), transl. by Sprague, in iaiiies' Be- 
 pository, May-Oct., 1868. 
 
 , SAME ("Old Maid's Secret"), Stra- 
 
 han, 1871. 
 
 OLD MONSIEUR'S SECRET, Carle- 
 ton, 1882, = M'LLE BE MALEPEIRE. 
 
 OLD MORTALITY, [by Sir Wa. 
 Scott: 1816.] "Scott is one ol the poets 
 (we may call poets all the great creators In 
 prose or in verse) of whom one never 
 wearies, just as one can listen to Beethoven 
 or watch the sunset day by day with new de- 
 llt. I think I can read the Antiquary, or 
 the Bride of Lammermoor, Ivanhoe, 
 Quentin Durward, and Old Mortality, 
 at least once a year afresh. Now Scott is a 
 perfect library in himself. A constant 
 reader of romances would find that it 
 needed months to go throu even the best 
 pieces ol the inexhaustible painter of 8 lull 
 centuries and every type ol man ; and he 
 mit repeat the process of reading him 10 
 times in a lifetime without a sense ol 
 latigue or sameness. The poetic beauty 
 ol Scott's creations is almost the least ol 
 his great qualities. It is the universality 
 ol his sympathy that is so truly great, the 
 justice ol his estimates, the insit into the 
 spirit ol each age, his intense absorption 
 ol sell in the vast epic ol human civilisa- 
 tion . . . Such is Scott, who, we may say, 
 has done lor the various lases ol modem 
 history, what Shakspere has done lor the 
 manifold types ol human character. And 
 this glorious and most human and most 
 historical ol poets, without whom our 
 very conception ol human development 
 would have ever been imperfect, this man- 
 liest, and truest, and wildest ,ol romancers 
 we neglect lor some hothouse hybrid ol 
 psychological analysis, for the wretched 
 imitators of Balzac, and the jackanapes 
 Irasemongering of some Osric ol the day 
 who assures us that Scott is an absolute 
 Philistine." [F: Harrison. 878 
 
 OLD TUNE (The). [byH.F. Craven: 
 Tinsley, 1876.] "The author has earned 
 the credit ol a happy th6t in selecting lor 
 his hero the nearly lorgotten author ol the 
 tune ol 'Rule Britannia'. His plot deals 
 with the loves ol the composer and Miss 
 Cecilia Young, and the story is prettily 
 told, Irom the first appearance ol the 
 young lady j,s a ballad-singer on a snowy 
 Christmas nft, to the eventual triuml of 
 Ame's affection over the wiles of a de- 
 signing widow and her bullying brother. 
 Captain Flabberly, like too many others in 
 the story, is a purely farcical personage ; 
 but the bold scheming ol these reprobates 
 lor the hand and lortune ol the "poor 
 simple fiddler" Is, at any rate, less excru- 
 ciating reading than the gloomy sentiment- 
 alism which pervades most modern novels. 
 Cecilia's character is piquant, a pleasant 
 mixture ol modest simplicity and shrewd- 
 ness, and the gentle good laith ol the hero 
 is picturesque and pleasant. 'The Old 
 Tune,' tho by no means transcendental in 
 its aims, is a readable and lively story, tho 
 the plot is naively improbable, and the wit 
 occasionally a little thin and overstrained." 
 [ Athenaeum. 879 
 
 ON THE EDGE OF THE STORM, [by 
 Ma. Roberts: Putnam, 1869.] "With- 
 out any especial merits beyond its good 
 taste and cleverness, which, however, are 
 qualities rare enul to be noteworthy when- 
 ever they are lound, this story is still very 
 pleasant reading. Its scene is laid in 
 France, and the time is the beginning of 
 the Revolution. What has pleased us 
 most in it is the even-handedness with 
 which the author deals with both parties 
 in the contest, neither making the aristo- 
 crats all angels nor the republicans all 
 fiends, but describing both with im- 
 partiality. The same evenness is found 
 in other respects throudht her work, her 
 characters being all well and carefully 
 drawn. Another pleasant thing about it 
 is the care with which painful scenes and 
 incidents are avoided, while, at the same 
 time, one is made to see the possible ease ■ 
 with which the reader's feelings mIt have 
 been harrowed." [Nation. 880 
 
 268 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 OTS THE HEIGHTS, [by Berthold 
 Auerbach: Leypoldt, 1867.] "We do 
 not wish to do this book the injustice of 
 telling its story in a hasty and necessarily 
 imperfect manner, and shall mei'ely in- 
 dicate its main current, in order to speak 
 intelligibly of the th5t which underlies it, 
 and honorably distinguishes it from the 
 rank and file of recent novels. The story 
 turns, then, us we have said, upon the re- 
 quited love of the king for a maid of honor 
 to the queen, a woman not only as young 
 and beautiful as her rival, but even equal- 
 ly beloved by her husband. She is, how- 
 ever, a woman full of romantic feeling, 
 and lives habitually on hits of sentiment 
 and enthusiasm which the king finds slltly 
 fatiguing. Irma, on the other hand, has a 
 charming vivacity, a fine and untram- 
 meled intellect, and an aversion from all 
 laws but those of her nature, which make 
 her attractive by contrast with the queen 
 and doubly so by sympathy with the king. 
 . . . These letters throw a bomb-shell into 
 the midst of the king's domestic arrange- 
 ments. The queen had long been the 
 only person at court who was unaware of 
 the true state of thiugp, and she has been 
 kept from the kilowlcitge only by her own 
 purity and her confidence in that of others. 
 Her anger and contempt for those who 
 have violated her trust are doubly bitter 
 for this reason. She upbraids the king for 
 the deceit practised on her, and declaring 
 that his guilt and Irma's death must al- 
 ways remain a barrier between them, 
 lives thereafter in a state of virtual separa- 
 tion from him. Irma, however, is not 
 dead. Almost at the moment when about 
 to accomplish her design of suicide, she 
 was saved by Walpurga, a peasant woman 
 who had lived for a year in the palace as 
 nurse. "Walpui-ga is a charming character, 
 lull of naivete and goodness, and some of 
 the most delitful writing in the book con- 
 cerns her and her household belongings. 
 With her, Irma lives on a farm in the 
 mountains for i years, occupying her 
 time in carving on wood, and her thdts in 
 speculating on the problem of her exist- 
 tcuce . . . The theme of sin and expiation 
 
 is one constantly recurring in fiction : but 
 we remember no instance in which it is 
 treated on grounds so lofty. We all know 
 how Hawthorne used it— the positive form 
 in which evil appeared to him, and the 
 terrible immortality with which he en- 
 dowed it. His books, therefore, notwith- 
 standing their artistic power, are morbid 
 and depressing. Like his Hester Prynne, '• 
 we chafe, and grow rebellious under the 
 too heavy yoke imposed upon us. Mr. 
 Auerbach, on the contrary, does not out- 
 rage the individual, altho he rigidly cir- 
 cumscribes his individuality. His heroine, 
 voluntarily shut out for years from all 
 companionship with her equals and all in- 
 tercourse with books ; with the memory 
 of her Bjn always before her, and saying 
 to herself, 'I will quietly bear the conse- 
 quences of my actions alone by myself, 
 looking for no material or spiritual help 
 from without', has the rare courage to 
 contemplate things as they are, and arrives 
 at last at a state which is neither resigna^ 
 Won nor despair, but a calm serenity in 
 which the outworn consequences of the 
 past drop from her, and she has a rit to 
 say: 'Whatever may have happened, it 
 is atoned for. There is a renewal of life, 
 a deliverance achieved out of ourselves." 
 [Nation.] "In "On the Heights' there is 
 at once a large and exacting plan, and a 
 worthy execution of it. It is a wonderful 
 double poem, running on in 2 currents of 
 narrative, which now meet and bjpnd, 
 now separate widely. The simple life of 
 the village on the mountains, and the 
 elaborate and formal life of the court, and 
 the same human nature in the actors and 
 the spectators of both ! Finely conceived 
 also are the characters in both groups — 
 Walpurgis and her husband and the vil- 
 lage inn-keeper on the one side, and the 
 king, the queen, and the Countess Ida on 
 the other. N^owhere else in modern ger-| 
 man fiction tave we a book which comes 
 so near to the novels of Goethe in their 
 union of artistic simplicity with deep 
 meaning." [ Peun Monthly . 881 
 
 ONLY AFlDDLinj. [by Hans Chris- 
 tian Andersen : N. Y., Hurd, 1870.] 
 
 269 
 
EOMANTIC: NOVEtS. 
 
 "In their childliood, this little Naomi and 
 Christian (the tiddler) meet, and he never 
 ceases to love her throu all the changes of 
 fortune which lift her so far above him, 
 when the count takes her and rears her as 
 his own dauter. She grows to be a brliliant, 
 lovely, wicked girl, who attracts all which 
 is bad from her surrouudingii. She has a 
 strong brain and a strong will, and sub- 
 mits them both to a hamlsome, ignorant 
 savage, — a gypsy circus rider, with whom 
 she elopes and with whom she wanders 
 about Europe iu a man's dress. But final- 
 ly she marries a french mai-quis, and is 
 left in perf ectiprosperity and unhappiness ; 
 while poor Christian, the musician, having 
 failed to Win the .fame on which he had 
 set his heart, greatly for her sake, dies in 
 poverty and loneliness. This is an out^ 
 line of a work which is full of the nvost 
 charming llts, the most melancholy 
 shadows, the most pathetic blending of 
 both." [Atlantic. 883 
 
 OKCO, See MOSAIC- W0BKME8. 
 
 ORTHODOX [by Dokothea Gerard : 
 Longman, 1888.] "is a fresh, brit, and ab- 
 sorbing story, pui-porting to be written to 
 an austrian officer, and telling in the ■ first 
 person how his comrade, Rudolph von 
 Ortenegg, fell into the hands of the polish 
 Jews ; how he fell in love with the beauti- 
 ful Salmoe, and all the complicated and 
 disastrous results." [Boston "Literary 
 World."] "In 'Orthodox' we have a strong 
 and dramatic story, characters drawn 
 with unflinching power, no scenery, no 
 setting, except. what is necessary; no soft- 
 ness, no beauty, and only the sad and 
 stern side of what we call romance. 
 Count Ortenegg's love story cannot be 
 called attractive ; it is, in fact, told with a 
 certain reticence, not to ■ say coldntesS, 
 which makes it more like a man's work 
 than a woman's. There is hardly one 
 superfluous word in the book, and every 
 slitest touch Is in its rit place, leading to 
 the catastrofS. This masterly directness 
 is uncommon . . . Ortenegg himself, with 
 his persistent self-deception, his proud, 
 unswerving faith in human nature, even 
 iu Jewish nature, generous and noble hero 
 
 as he Is meant to be,' has the common 
 •■;weak'ness of heroes : he is a little unnatur- 
 al ... It is the Orthodox Jews of a town 
 in austrian Poland who give the story its 
 name. They are the chorus of the drama. 
 . . . But of a.11 the characters in the story, 
 the cleverest and most original id Surchen, 
 imp of darknes* as she is, the lovely little 
 incarnation of all the vices that have ever 
 been ascribed to the Jewish character . . . 
 In sh6rt, 'Orthodox' is an extretaely clever 
 Stoiy. It will be percfeived that it is also 
 a painful • story, and many readers, no 
 doubt, will feel themselves injured by the 
 end of it. For our part, we admire the 
 courage Of a writer Vho dares to bring 
 her story to its most likely and natural 
 end." [Spectator. 883 
 
 OTHJttAR. [ by "OuiDA," i. e., L.. de 
 laRam^: C/iMtOj 1886.] "This novel 
 bears the aame of a man, but its chief 
 interest consists in the ' analysis of a 
 woman's character. It is a continuation 
 of Princess Napraxine; both books t.e- 
 serve perUsal for their careful and artistic 
 reMisati'ou of a very Original' conception of 
 female character, — whether drawtt from 
 life or evolved out of the depths of the 
 author's inner consciousness, we are 
 ■puzzled to determine. Can KirkS exist 
 without the faintest trace of sensualism, 
 and can a woman breathe absolutely with»- 
 out the instincts of passion and of ma- 
 ternity? Princess Napraxine, afterwards 
 Countess Othmar, is made to do so, and 
 her personality is so vividly rendered ih 
 these pages, that notwithstanding her 
 apparent incongruities and impossibilities, 
 she lives and breathes and interests us far 
 more than either of her rivals can do, 
 lovely. Innocent, and loving women tho 
 they be. She is the spoiled child of fof- 
 tune, th«C_queen of society, beautiful as a 
 flower, brilliant as a diamond, with a keen 
 intellect and a powerful understanding, a 
 woman's Wit and a man's courage, chaste 
 as an icicle, and proud as Lucifer. In 
 Spite of her coldness (or, perhaps, be- 
 cause of it) men are attiawted to her, as 
 moths to the candle; she rejoices in her 
 power, and amuses herself with the ador- 
 
 270 
 
EOMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 ation of her slaves, but feels no more pity 
 for them than the senseless flame can do 
 for the singed wings and shrivelled 
 corpses of its victims. Partly cosmopoli- 
 tan by birth, entirely so by education, she 
 is equally devoid of patriotism and of 
 religion. To her, all creeds, all countries, 
 all prejudices, are alike sources of curiosity 
 and objects of contempt; she neither loves, 
 nor hates, nor believes, but coolly £(nalyscs 
 every emotijon and every passion vyhich 
 crosses her path. A careful hut unloving 
 mother, a cold tho faithful wife, tolerant 
 of folly, indulgent of weakness, impatient 
 only of sentiment, she yet possesses noble 
 instincts, which occasionally ,flash throu 
 all the selfishness, cruelty, and cynicism 
 which distinguish her. She iS( a woman 
 'fashioned like a sword'— .a most courtly 
 rapier doubtless, cold, true, and cruel as 
 steel— one who mit have played a great, 
 part in life, if fate had br6t her the occa- 
 sion of heroism, bjif whose finer qualities 
 have been left to rust in the lap of luxury 
 until her life is full only of. the weariness 
 of satiety. She is a female Solomon, 
 weary of all things, and wise in.all things, 
 more especially in the science of love, 
 much as Solomon himself must bave been. 
 . . . The history of thi&ice-queen's awaken- 
 ing is told with some art, and the dcSnou- 
 ment shows much dramatic power. 
 When she finds reason to believe that her 
 husband's neglected adoration has been 
 transferred to another woman, ;the pas- 
 sions of ordinary female humanity sud-, 
 denly awaken in her, much to her sur- 
 prise and disgust." [ Spectator. . . 884 
 OTTILIE [by "Vernon Lee" i. e., 
 Violet Paget: Umoin, 1883.] "isashortand 
 slit story, pleasantly and. carefully wrjtten. 
 The characters are german, the scene is 
 laid in 2 small german towns, and the 
 time chosen is .the last quarter of the 18th 
 century. ' The tale is one of sisteriy 
 affection. Called upon to choose between 
 her young brother and her lover, the 
 sister prefers her brother's -happiness to 
 her own. The brother, less self-denying, 
 makes a foolish marriage, afterwards is 
 separated from his wife, and ultimately 
 
 finds consolation in the unchanging 
 affection of his sister. The author lets the 
 reader have a glimpse of Germany in the 
 "Sturm und Drang" period, and vividly, 
 and without tediousness shows society 
 changing from the old to the ,. new ideas. 
 The story is pathetic without beingpassion- 
 ate, and is elaborated with sufficient care 
 and restraintto deserve to be caljed an idyl." 
 [Athena;um.] "Her story certainly vin- 
 dicates the author's claim to the privilege 
 of presenting "imaginary lives in a quiet 
 imaginary german town.'.' They are sad 
 and solitary folk, leading shallowed lives, , 
 but the remoteness of that sUK calm life 
 is a lestful picture amidst the hurry of 
 ours." [Nation. 885 
 
 OUT OF THE WORLD. [by M.. 
 (Heal Y) Bigot : iow, 1875.] "Very much 
 'out of the world' isthesccneof MissHea- 
 ly'sstory laid, even in a solitary littlePyre- 
 nean village, the old chateau of whic^, 
 tenanted by the marquis of Varenne, 
 a Legitimist nobleman, poor, but of an- 
 cient family, is one of the kind with 
 which we, have long been familiar . . . 
 Miss Healy has managed, not unskilfully, 
 to complicate this clement in her story by 
 making her heroine, tho french by birth, 
 american by education : and consequent- 
 ly, when she arrives at the chateau of the 
 Varenne family, and finds out that a plot 
 is formed to marry her, whether she will 
 or not, to 'count Paul', eldest son of the 
 old marquis, it is not so much a sense of \ 
 the injustice which a marriaga de conve- 
 nance may do to a possible lover 'waiting 
 in the vale of years' as a spirit of republi- 
 can independence, which makes her re- 
 solve to hate the proposed suitor ... So 
 far. Miss Healy has told her story pleasant- 
 ly enuf : the characters are natural, the 
 incidents probable, and both act and re- ' 
 act in a consistent manner." [Athe- 
 naeum. 880 
 
 OUTBREAK OF THE FRENCH REV- 
 OLUTION (The). [by Erckmann- 
 Chatrian: Bentley, 1871.] "The story 
 is told by an old soldier of the First Revo- 
 lution, who was born to the hard and 
 cruel lot of a peasant under the old 
 
 271 
 
EOMAI^TIC NOVELS. 
 
 regime. The scene lies in an Elsass village. 
 . . . Marguerite, liis ilauter, is also his 
 friend and assistant : on her first introduc- 
 ticn she is only a young girl, but she 
 grows before the reader's eyes into a 
 young woman;— 'it is no wonder that 
 Michel falls in love with her. The picture 
 of the misery and abasement of the peas- 
 ants, — the little stream of life from the 
 outside world which comes with Chauvel, 
 and the gradual awakening amongst the 
 younger men of a sense that it is only 
 justice, that in addition to paying taxes, 
 they should also know how they were 
 spent, — the "gradual consciousness that 
 they, too, are human beings, — and their 
 loyal faith that if the king only knew of 
 their misery and oppression he would give 
 them help, — is all vividly set forth. It is a 
 domestic drama going on in the midst of 
 the great events which were to change the 
 face of the world." [Athensum. 887 
 
 , SAMEC'The States-General") , 1877 
 
 OWL'S NEST (The), [by "E. Mar- 
 LiTT". i.e., Eugenie John: Lippincott, 
 18S8.] "This latest translation from Miss 
 Marlitt's [ sic : fancy speaking of "George 
 Eliot", as "Miss Eliot"] legacy of novels, if 
 not quite up to the mark of 'The Little 
 Moorland Princess' [No. 795] and other 
 of her earlier books, is yet a very good 
 story. It gives a picture of the intrigues 
 and jealousies of a small german court, 
 where Claudine, the heroine, passes un- 
 scathed throu a fiery ordeal of criticism 
 and slander. The situation becomes pain- 
 ful when the young duchess, stricken by a 
 mortal disease, is at last enlitened as to 
 the court gossip about the duke and 
 Claudine. The struggle of the wife who 
 believes herself wronged, at least in feel- 
 ing, by her friend and confidant, is veiy 
 delicately and naturally given. [Compare 
 plot of 'On the Heights'.] The duchess 
 has too little strength to bear such excite- 
 ments. Her very life seems at stake when 
 Claudine, rising to the hits of feeling which 
 prompt heroic self-sacrifice, offers to give 
 her blood to save the duchess. This oper- 
 ation of 'transfusion' is rather a favorite 
 one with novelists, and is always effective, 
 
 altho it is perhaps more uniformly success- 
 ful in fiction than in life. The story is 
 best at its close, and comes out to the 
 satisfaction of the reader." [American.] 
 "Mrs. Wister lifts the gift of translation 
 into one almost of creation, for it is the 
 spirit of the original which she seizes, and 
 at times puts into better form than the 
 author. 'The Owl's Nest,' her latest ren- 
 dition from the german of E. Marlitt, has 
 the many delltful characteristics which 
 have so individualized that author. It is 
 a story of court life, and one gets domestic 
 pictures of german men and women, of 
 their constrained social attitude towards 
 one another, of their forein point of vue — 
 pictures which satisfy an interest which 
 amounts to curiosity in readers of a 
 different type and nationality. Marlitt's 
 women, his [sic] heroines especially, are 
 always charming. The fine integrity with 
 which she bore herself as friend to the in- 
 valid duchess, the tact with which she re- 
 pelled the duke's protestations, the disre- 
 gard which she showed to the criticisms 
 of gossip, her delicate reasonableness in 
 the strained and diflScult relations which 
 had sprung up between her lover and her- 
 self, display a character of . sweetness and 
 strength. As in all of Marlitt's court- 
 stories, a mild current of intrigue flows 
 along, without ever breaking into a stormy 
 surface." [ Critic. 888 
 
 PARISIANS (The). [by baron 
 LyttoN: Harper, 1874.] "The time is 
 the period immediately preceding the war 
 of 1870 and ends with the siege of Paris. 
 The undei^lot is managed with great skill. 
 Until we have almost reached the conclu- 
 sion, there is no clue to the mystery of 
 Louise Duval, andfwhen the secret is un- 
 folded, it turns out by no means as the 
 acutest novel reader would have expected. 
 Paris society, with its salons and clubs 
 and cafCs, passes before us. There are 1 
 or 2 of the old noblesse, some chevaliers 
 d'industrie, devotees of the Bourse, 
 sharpers, bohemians and workmen, The 
 canvas is crowded ; but the characters do 
 not jostle one another." [ Canadian 
 Monthly. 889 
 
 272 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 PASCAREL. [by "OuiDA", i. e., L.. de 
 la Eamfi: Chapman, 1873.] "A work, 
 not of rich nature, but ol hlly wr6t art, 
 with art itself, and genius and Italy for 
 its theme, 'Pasoar&l' Is far in advance of 
 Ouida's earlier novels. Those who liked 
 them will be disappointed in this book ; 
 those who shunned them as flippant or 
 immoral, while they guessed at the hidden 
 power of the author, will find in 'Pas- 
 earil' the accomplishment of the promise 
 of 10 years. The story is a simple one : — 
 the heroine, a deserted girl of half-eng- 
 lish, half-italian blood, — the hero, a 
 strolling tuscan player of noble family. 
 She loves him with the innocent love of 
 an almost child. He loves her, too, as 
 Wilhelm Meister loved Mignon, but has a 
 mistress with him, passing as his sister. 
 Jealousy causes the peasant-girl to reveal 
 Pascarfil's deceit, and thus blast 2 lives. 
 The heroine recovers the position of her 
 father; Pascar^l becomes great and fa- 
 mous, and, after years of misery, the 
 lovers meet and love again. A charming 
 novel, tho somewhat overburdened with 
 allusions not quite gracefully introduced." 
 [Athena;um. 890 
 
 PASSE ROSE [by Arthur Sher- 
 burne Hardy : Souglitpn, 1889.] "is al- 
 together charming ; neither In plan nor ex- 
 ecution, neither in scenes, In characters, nor 
 in style would we have it other than it is. 
 And yet the time chosen is the time of 
 Charles the Great, more than 1000 years 
 back, therefore ; and he who compasses a 
 space so great, and so adjusts it to the vue 
 that his reader, while conscious both of 
 the strangeness and the charm, is neither 
 repelled by awkward modernisms nor 
 Irritated by cheap and ill-chosen archaisms, 
 cannot be less than a consummate artist. 
 The story is not one to be talked about 
 and discussed in parts, for, altho it has 
 both well-contrived plot and incident in 
 plenty, it yet remains in memory as a 
 series of charming pictures, so delicately 
 conceived and finished that they seem to 
 rise spontaneously, like a mirage, and 
 one's impulse is simply to enjoy, and to 
 call others to enjoyment. Yet the work- 
 
 manship is substantial and masterly, and 
 the characters stand out clear cut and full 
 of life. Who will ever forget Passe Eose 
 again, her beauty, her vigor, her pure love 
 and sane sweet womanliness, after once 
 making her acquaintance?" [Catholic 
 ■World.] It "is an exquisite piece of litera- 
 ture but it has no more hold upon the facts 
 of life than a 'Marchen.' Fairyland, or, at 
 least, the land of mediaeval romance, is the 
 home of the figures in this story. We can 
 hardly look upon them as creatures of 
 flesh and blood, or upon their emotions as 
 those of prosaic mankind. This matter 
 of standpoint clearly understood, the 
 reader who is prepared to give himself up 
 to the poetical imaginings of the writer 
 may be prepared to enjoy himself rarely. 
 Guy of Tours, the Prince Charming of 
 the tale ; Passe Eose, the warm blooded 
 proven9al maiden ; the great king himself, 
 and the men and women of his court, are 
 all creations of a singularly vivid imaginar 
 tion, and all inhabit, with peculiar fitness, 
 their realm of fable. Descriptions of the 
 kind which it is fashionable to call 'word- 
 pictures' abound in these pages, being 
 very acceptable. And all together, scenes 
 and figures and passions, have a very 
 genuine tho subtle charm for minds weary 
 of realism and glad to breathe for a while 
 the liter and purer air of fancy." [Dial.] 
 "The design seems to have been rather to 
 take a time remote enuf to allow free 
 play to the fancy, and a picture of people 
 swayed by the simple passions and im- 
 pulses of humanity, undisguised by 
 modern conventions. These Franks and 
 Saxons are barbarians, not because of the 
 rudeness of their manners and style of 
 living, for these arc not made prominent 
 in the narrative, being softened to an ex- 
 tent that will make thejudicious antiquari- 
 an grieve, but because they act throu fear, 
 or love, or hate, unmixed with policy, and 
 unrestrained by inherited self-control. 
 For this reason the bad are very bad, and 
 the noble are as boundless, in their gen- 
 erosity and self-sacrifice, — the same person 
 may indeed be either bad or good as the 
 one side or the other of his nature Is ap- 
 
 273 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 pealed to, but at the moment the ruling 
 motive hasfree course. The king, for in- 
 stance, has no curb for his passions, his 
 cruelty roused by opposition is terrible, 
 and yet appealed to by Passe Bose's art- 
 less tale, his magnanimity ; is equally 
 boundless. Eothilde, gentle maiden the 
 she is, marks her victim for death with- 
 out a tremor, and even Passe Kose pauses 
 not lor an instant to learn the fate of her 
 rival, whom she has thrown over the 
 battlement. Brother Domlnjc,, under the 
 influence of a superstitious fear, is no 
 more of a reasoning being than his ass ; 
 and lured by the voice of the temptress, 
 his yielding is sudden and complete in 
 in spite of his monkish frock. In short, 
 these people are children.; Their brains 
 can hold .but one idea; and that idea is- 
 followed with absolute, abandon. Dealing 
 with his unmixed colors, Mn Hardy has 
 wr6t a fiction which is like a stained glass 
 window, besides which some of the modem 
 realistic work looks like a fotograf." 
 [Overland. 891 
 
 , PAST HOURS. [by , Adelaide 
 (Kemble) Saetoris: iSmi(h, 1881.] 
 "Tbo mrs, Sartoris' slit sketches and 
 stories cannot possibly be called.important, 
 they are full of a characteristic grace and 
 humor. As mit, perhaps, have been ex- 
 pected, they chiefly turn on some point 
 connected with the, life and history of a. 
 great musician. But, on the literary side, 
 the two stories of 'Medusa' imd 'Judith' 
 are quite the most interesting and power- 
 ful. There is a peculiar weird vein run- 
 ning throu the former, which is rather 
 frcnch than euglish, and gives it a certain 
 strangeness, i 'Judith' is but a fragment. 
 The wilful little heroine is excellently 
 described. The finished story, as we 
 gather from the preface, would have been 
 sad enuf ; that warm, petulant, impulsive 
 heart would have dashed itself to pieces 
 in a hard struggle with the restraints of 
 society. Genius would have br6t fame, 
 but would have been no security against 
 trial and temptation." [Athenaeum. 893 
 PATHFINDER (The), [by Ja. Feni- 
 MORE Cooper, 1840.] f'l have just read 
 
 'The Pathfinder', and it has given me a 
 still hier opinion thou ever both of 
 Cooper's head an'd heart. It is an admir- 
 able production, full of noble pictures of 
 exalted virtue in the humbler paths of 
 life. The characters of, 'The Pathfinder' 
 and 'Mabel Dunham' are noble concep- 
 tions. Tie old salt-water captain, also, is 
 a masterpiece, with his nautical wisdom, 
 his contempt for fresh water, and his 
 pointrno-point logic." [Washington 
 Irving. , 893 
 
 PAULPATOFF. [by Fr. M. Craw- 
 ford : Houghion, 1887.] "The opening 
 scenes are so good that did but the rest of 
 the story fulfil what they promise, there 
 would remain little to be desired. Mr. 
 Crawford,— always an effective scene 
 painter,— launchqs the characters admir- 
 ably, with a rich oriental backgrounds, 
 brilliant without false color, and elabor- 
 ate without improper detail, and sets in 
 motion in their behalf a succession of 
 novel and exciting incidents . . . These 
 are the two chief personages of the story : 
 Paul Patoflf, and his brother Alexander, 
 who is paying him a visit. The brothers 
 are far from being congenial in tastes or 
 habits. Paul is discreet and sensible, and 
 disciplined to perfect self-command; 
 while Alexander — a spoiled child— insists 
 on the gratification of his most aimless 
 impulses in order to dispel his ennui. 
 He overrides all his brother's warnings 
 that he is in a strange country, among 
 strange people, and lafs at the turkish 
 customs. He addresses a vfiiled woman 
 with an impertinent compliment. This 
 breach of propriety enrages Paul, and 
 the brothers quarrel. The quarrel is 
 followed shortly by Alexander's mys- 
 terious disappearance while he is looking 
 on at some religious rites in the mosque 
 at St. Sophia. He vanishes, is nowhere to 
 be found, and there is not even the faint- 
 est clue by which to follow him. It is an 
 unlucky circumstance for Paul that he is 
 known to have quarreled with his brother, 
 for not a few believe that he has mur- 
 dered Alexander. So far the situation is 
 interesting. A mysterious disappearance 
 
 274 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 is an effective beginning for a sensational 
 story. But Mr. Crawford proceeds to 
 spoil the efl'ect lie has created by intro- 
 ducing a variety of new characters, 
 scenery and incidents, which eclipse each 
 other. He brings to pass strange events, 
 describes hallucinations, mysterious en- 
 counters. The scene shifts from Con- 
 stantinople to the Black Forest, and 
 thence to England. Mr. Crawford is used 
 to traveling the earth as if h« possessed 
 the magic carpet of the arabian tale. A 
 mad doctor and a patient whose sanity 
 or insanity is one of the problems pre- 
 sented to the reader, become two of the 
 leading characters, and the tangle of 
 events is not a pleasant one, altho a love- 
 story is finally resolved by a conclusion 
 wilder than anything in the Thousand and 
 One Nights." [ Athenaeum. 894 
 
 PEARL POWDER, [by Anmb Ed- 
 wards : BeniZe^, 1890.] "'Pearl Powder' 
 belies its name. There is nothing of the 
 rouged and white-leaded sort in it but the 
 face of old Lady Joan Carr, a relic of the 
 mid 18th century. And even she is so nat- 
 urally drawn, in a soft half-Ut, that from 
 amusement we pass to liking; and not 
 even the morning toilet scene, where she 
 moralizes on her shipwTecked beauty for 
 the benefit of her young friend, excites 
 any feeling of repulsion. The heroine is. 
 all the more charming because she is not 
 perfect. She pledges her hand to Oliver 
 Arden and gives her heart to Henri Ger- 
 maiue, alias Listen, but we cannot blame 
 her much. The artist, Oliver, is the weak- 
 est character in the book, and is happily 
 very little in it, being away most of the 
 time. Liston, on the contrary, is a < flue 
 gentleman of the old school, with a 
 mystery about him which, when dispelled, 
 discloses some folly, but more generosity. 
 Philippa, who is also generous, loses her 
 lover to save him. Later, when she falls 
 heiress to Lady Joan's wealth, her gen- 
 erosity prompts her to throw herself and 
 her fortune at Arden's feet, who, having 
 at this time grown sensible, accepts them. 
 The scene is near London. The wars of 
 the Consulate thunder in the distance. 
 
 Lady Joan, who brings to bear the ex- 
 perience and the knowledge of scandal 
 gleaned in a long and not too virtuous lite 
 in behalf of the innocent Philippa and the 
 reckless Germaine, gives card parties by 
 tallow-candle lit at Carr's Polly, and dies 
 in a blaze of wax-tapers over the card- 
 table, 'fiddlers playing, Ilts ablaze, the 
 house looking on.' " [Critic. 895 
 
 PEG WOFFINGTON. [ by C : Reade : 
 1852.] " 'Christie Johnstone' and 'Peg 
 Woflington' had a great success. Their 
 crisp, sparkling, compact sentences went 
 off like the volleys of a well drilled regi- 
 ment. There was a dramatic intensity of 
 interest and rapidity of action which were' 
 inspiring after the slow evolution of elabo- 
 rate plots. The very brevity of the books 
 seemed to. be brilliancy. The style had a 
 happy audacity which was irresistible. 
 It A^as fresh, too, and poetic; and there 
 seemed to be a certain earnestness under 
 the stinging persiflage. The books pro- 
 moted Mr. Reade immediately to a place 
 among the chief living english novelists ; 
 and it was pretty clear why he was so 
 popular." [G:W: Curtis. 896 
 
 PENELOPE'S SUITORS [by E. 
 Lassetter Bynner: Ticknor, 1887.] 
 "is a charming little story. Mr. Bynner 
 has been bold but not reckless. He has' 
 avoided tragedy, even intensity, and has; 
 simply told, in Mistress Penelope Pel- 
 ham's words, why she threw over her 
 young lover, Edward Buckley, and 
 wedded the Governor, Richard Belling- 
 ham. In the writing of this stsort diary 
 the author's cleverness is most evident, 
 because the author is nowhere to be de- 
 tected. Neither Mr. Bynner nor any 
 other man appears in a line of it. Its in- 
 nocence and unconscious cunning, its sim- 
 plicity and skittishness, even its neat sar- 
 casm, are all pure maidenly.'' [Nation. 897 
 
 PERE ANTOINE'S DATE PALM, 
 [by T: Bailey A LDRICH : in "Margery 
 Daw," Ticknor, 1873.] "Mr. Aldrich's 
 first essay in fiction was strictly romantic. 
 It was that little story, called 'P6re An- 
 toine'8 Date Palm', printed nearly 20 years 
 ago. Hawthorne gave himself the pleas- 
 
 275 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 ure of writing to the young poet in recog- 
 nition of its charm. Its tragedy is of an 
 airier sort than his own ; it is rather allied 
 to the pathos of Mr. Curtis in his 'Prue 
 and I' [No. 348] slietches; hut the master 
 of romance felt its exquisite art with sym- 
 pathetic satisfaction." [ Atlantic. 898 
 
 PHILOSOPHER'S STONE (The), hy 
 H. DB Balzac, N.-Y., Winchester, 1834. 
 
 , SAME ("Balthazar"), London, 
 
 1859. 
 
 , SAME ("The Alchemist"), N. Y., 
 
 1861. Which See. 
 
 , SAME ("The Alkahest"), Boston, 
 
 1887. • 
 
 PICTCKE (The), "by C : Reade," See 
 M'LLE DM MALEPEIBE. 
 
 PILLONE [by Wilhblm BEKGseE: 
 Lockwood, 1878.] "is a charming story. 
 The bandit of our childhood reappears in 
 the most gorgeous costume, with under- 
 ground passages leading in every direction, 
 a purse full of unset jewels, and all proper 
 apparatus. "We had forgotten what a de- 
 Iltful creature he is ; how he deceives and 
 outwits the stupid police, whom we feel 
 to he our natural enemies ; by what feats 
 of strength, if necessary, he transcends all 
 their foolish combinations; how he blows 
 up old castles in a thrice ; and where luck 
 goes against him, how naturally he takes 
 refuge in the crater of Vesuvius and there 
 bides his time. There is nobody like him, 
 and when the story is threaded together 
 with telegraf lines, railroad trains, and 
 modern politics, the effect on our nerves 
 is doubled." [JIation, 899 
 
 PIONEERS (The), see LEATHEB- 
 8T0CKING TALES. 
 
 PISTOL SHOT (The), see CAPTAIN'S 
 DAUGHTER. 
 
 PLANTER'S DAUGHTER, see ALL 
 FOB LOVE. 
 
 PLANTER'S NORTHERN BRIDE 
 see GOVBTSHIP AND MABBIAGE. 
 
 PLfiBISOITE (The) = S TOB Y OF 
 THE PLEBISCITE. 
 
 PORTRAIT m MY UNCLE'S DINING- 
 ROOM = M'LLE DE MALEPEIBE. 
 
 PORTRAIT OF CONCITTA P.,by"E. 
 Gekakd", see HIDDEN PICTURE. 
 
 PRAIRIE (The), see LEATHER- 
 STOCKING TALES. 
 
 PRETTY SISTER OF JOSE (The) [by 
 F.. [E.] (Hodgson) BUKNETT : Scrib- 
 ner, 1889.] "is a short story of IHadrid 
 — a love-story full of the passionate vehe- 
 mence of the South. Pepita had soft, 
 langorous dark eyes, which lured men on 
 to love h^r. But in her soul she had 
 neither womanly compassion nor the ten- 
 derness that comes from loving. Scorn 
 and a mocking men-iment she felt even 
 towards Sebastino, the brave young 
 matador whom all the women adored 
 when he stood so proud and courageous 
 in the bull-fit. And she sent him away 
 with little jibing taunts, and she l&fed at 
 his profecy that some time she would 
 know what suffering was, and that some 
 time she would catch at the device which 
 she now trod under her feet and pray for 
 the love of its owner. And he went his 
 way, and Pepita's eyes grew grave ; and 
 in a year it all came true. She knew 
 what it was to love and to suffer, and the 
 device which she caut and hid in her 
 breast was covered with blood from his 
 torn shoulder. Dramatic, simple as na- 
 ture is simple, with a charm of youth and 
 fervor, the story has throu it the warm 
 vivid coloring which comes to our cold 
 northern clime only at the sunset hour, 
 and which in Spain is the very day and 
 nature and life itself." [ Critic. 900 
 
 PRINCE OTTO, [by Ro. L: Steven- 
 son: Roberts, 1886.] "The romantic por- 
 tion of it is delitfully romantic, — a tale of 
 the emotions, never overwr6t or melo- 
 dramatic. The scene is laid in the moun- 
 tains of Germany and the feeling of the 
 freedom and freshness of this region is 
 admirably caut. The last chapters of the 
 book, describing the reconciliation of 
 Seraphina and the Prince, her husband, 
 are simply idylic, and are full of the most 
 exquisite touches of that literary art 
 which effaces the signs of its own hand!, 
 work. Mr. Stevenson is certainly a 
 genuine lover of nature, and his descrip- 
 tions have the true feeling, altho not at all 
 trumpeted, or apparently put in except as 
 
 276 
 
KOM ANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 a matter of routine. But his petty ger- 
 inan principality and its court, its schem- 
 ing prime minister, gossipy atmosfere, 
 intrigues, etc., are palpably stage proper- 
 ties." [American.] "They are pure 
 romances, intenijed only to excite and en- . 
 tertain — and yet about Prince Otto a sort 
 of moral clings, in the miseries of both 
 Prince and Princess on their throne with 
 discord, and their happiness, as common- 
 ers, with love. It is, take it all in all, a 
 rather tender and romantic tale ; and take 
 it in detail, a sprltly and entertainingly 
 humorous one. Nothing could be more 
 demurely amusing than situation after 
 situation. The encounters between the 
 english tourists and the Prince and Prin- 
 cess are especially good." [Overland. 901 
 PRINCE RODERICK, [by Ja. Brins- 
 LEY Richards : Bentley, 1879.] "Moral- 
 hunters will be disconcerted by 'Prince 
 Roderick,' for while perfectly unobjection- 
 able it is eminently non-moral ; but pleasure 
 seekers will find their reward in its pages, 
 which are full of sparkle and life. There 
 is abundance of satire in it, <but it is of 
 that tolerant kind which suggests a lurking 
 sympathy for the object satirized. He 
 tilts at everybody in a partial, but cheer- 
 ful cynicism, from the prince who never 
 could see any harm in what he did, down 
 to his secretary's soldier servant addicted 
 to the use of hair-dye. He is sincerelv 
 fond of his heroine, but he scruples not to 
 describe her as reduced to a state of im- 
 becility by her love for a weak and eccen- 
 tric Hamlet of the 19th century. The author 
 is no respecter of persons. A 11 ranks and 
 creeds and races are ridiculed alike. The 
 canvas is perhaps overcrowded with 
 figures, and few are drawn without a 
 touch of caricature. The author's sole aim 
 has probably been to amuse, and in this 
 he has been signally successful, tho such 
 success cannot be obtained without pre- 
 judice to the verisimilitude of the story. 
 Life is not altogether made of the unfore- 
 seen, and the constant and kaleidoscopic 
 mutability of the characters In 'Prince 
 Roderick', coupled with the strongly far- 
 cical nature of several of the incidents 
 
 therein recoraea, gives the whole book a 
 fantastic and unreal coloring . . . Altho 
 the prevailing tone of the story is comic, 
 oreven farcical, the few serious incidents 
 which occur are handled with sincerity 
 and force . . . Mr. Richards has the trick 
 of investing his characters with a whimsi- 
 cal and airy caprice which renders them 
 attractive in spite of their lack of all solid 
 qualities and virtues. The book is fall of 
 good sayings . . . The minor personages 
 — Montenegrins, Bulgari^s, german 
 students, and operarsingers, court chap- 
 lains, and party politicians — are drawn 
 with a vigor and skill possible only to one 
 who has seen a good deal of Continental 
 life and studied it in a sympathetic spirit." 
 [ Athena;um. 902 
 
 PRINCESS AMELIE. [ Roberts, 1883.] 
 "It is a little romance of rare beauty ; an 
 idyllic picture of innocence and brltness 
 and love, set admidst historic scenes and 
 characters which by contrast enhance its 
 charm. Its new version of the theme of 
 'Noblesse Oblige' shows an ideal side even 
 to the loveless and compulsory marriages 
 which are among the most objectionable 
 essentials of an aristocratic regime. The 
 heroine of this story accepts the distaste- 
 ful alliance to which her ambitious kins- 
 man condems her, in a spirit of self-sacri- 
 fice and real devotion to her family and to 
 what she deems the general weal, en- 
 nobling what is otherwise discordant and 
 ignoble. Tho mismated with a sullen and 
 rebellious boy, her fate is eventually a 
 happy one. The manner in which this 
 end is attained it would not be fair to in- 
 dicate, as the half mystery which veils the 
 sequel is maintained with some care by 
 the author. It would be diflicult to match 
 elsewhere the delicate beauty of those 
 later scenes of the story in which Princess 
 Amfilie fulfils a prpfecy and finds her fate 
 under the cherry bows. The historic 
 characters incidentally introduced are 
 touched in lltly but with grafio clearness." 
 [American.] "While dealing with historical 
 episodes and lords and ladies of hi degree, 
 it is an almost perfect little book. There 
 is much originality besides delicate skill. 
 
 277 
 
EOMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 in the way the author has taken one of the 
 royal marriages of the last century, where 
 a grand duke of 11 marries a great heiress 
 half a dozen years older, and wovfen into 
 it a love-story of real charm. The book 
 shows careful reading, but is never pe- 
 dantically encumbered with what is non- 
 essential, and contemporary personages 
 and historical events drop into their 
 places naturally and without destroying 
 the vraisemblance." [ Lippincott's. 903 
 PKmCESS' CASAMASSIMA (The) 
 [by H: James: ilfacmi'Wam, 1887.] "is a 
 great novel ; it is his greatest, and it is in- 
 comparably the greatest novel of the year 
 in our language. It has to do with social- 
 ism and the question of richer and poorer, 
 which grows ever more burning in our 
 day. And the scene is contemporary 
 London. Its people are the types which 
 the vast range of London life affords, and 
 they are drawn not only from the hiest 
 and the lowest, but from the intermediate 
 classes, who are so much more difficult to 
 take alive. The Princess Casamassima 
 is our old acquaintance, ]VIiss Light, of 
 Eoderick Hudson [No. 525] fame, come 
 with her beauty and splendor to forget her 
 hated husband in semi-sincere sympathy 
 with the London socialists, and semi-per- 
 sonal love-making with the two hand- 
 somest. The hero is the little, morbid, 
 manly, aesthetic bookbinder Hyacinth 
 Bobinson, son of an english lord and a 
 french girl, who kills her betrayer. For 
 the climax, Robinson, remembering his 
 mother, kills himself,— inevitably, not ex- 
 emplarily — rather than shoot the political 
 enemy whom the socialists have devoted 
 to death at his hand." [ W : D. Howells.] 
 "It is the best thing he has done, if we 
 leave out his short stories. The Princess 
 has no principle, no constancy, no morali- 
 ty; but she is clever and interesting. 
 Hyacinth Robinson is a type, perhaps 
 somewhat too refined, of the state of mind 
 to which unsuitable education and impos- 
 sible aspirations, joined with a taste for 
 luxury, bring a great class of young men. 
 He is singular only in having skilled hands 
 and in using them as a workingman in 
 
 love with his work. He is led by the 
 princess into loving her . . . The novel 
 has no story ; but the play of character on 
 character is direct, and there is little tire- 
 some analysis. The 'prince and Madame 
 Crandoni, the honest german lady with 
 the Italian name, are genially painted, and 
 are as true to their national natures as 
 Thackeray's De Florae". [Catholic 
 World. 904 
 
 PRINCESS NAPRAXINE, see OTH- 
 MAR. 
 
 PRINCESS OF THE MOOR, Tauch- 
 nitz, 1872, = LITTLE MOORLAND 
 PRINCESS. 
 
 PRINCESS OF THULE (The) [by TV: 
 Black: Harper, 1874.] "is a novel full of 
 romance and pathos. "We recall few 
 heroines of modern fiction more charming 
 or more lovable than Sheila Mackenzie, 
 She is a woman perfect in her nobleness, 
 humble-minded, but full of Htland pride, 
 full of sympathy for the poor and suffer- 
 ing, and womanly enuf to show her 
 sympathy in the most natural ways, despite 
 her snobbish surroundings during her 
 married life in London. This entire 
 absence of affectation and snobbishness con- 
 stitutes her chief charm. She is the cen- 
 tral feature of the book, and the story 
 tells of her sweet and gentle efforts to 
 make a man of Mr. Lavender, who, when 
 she marries him, is an attractive and 
 talented snob, but whom she succeeds in 
 the end in making a true man . . . Mr. 
 Black'^s style is admirable for its force and 
 its purity. His wonderful descriptive 
 powers have been already displayed in 
 his earlier works. He seems to delit in 
 describing the everchanging sea and rich- 
 ly-colored sky of Borva, and the primitive 
 manners and the honest and simple Jives 
 of the fisher peasants over whom Sheila's 
 father ruled by Hlland hereditary [f] 
 rlt." [Penn. Monthly.] "Its grand de- 
 scriptions of rocky shores and broad 
 waters would, of themselves, make this 
 book worth reading. Its pictures of the 
 Hebrides under the changeful skies of 
 their short summer are full of breeze and 
 color . . . 'The girl was somehow the 
 
 278 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 product of all the beautiful aspects of 
 nature around her. It was the sea that 
 was in her eyes^ it was the fair sunlit that 
 shone in her face, the breath of her life 
 was the breath of the moorland winds.' 
 Lavender, the careless, pleasure-loving 
 artist, transplants this delicate northern 
 flower to the hot-house air of London, 
 where she pines and withers until his 
 neglect drives her to escape into the free- 
 dom of her natural life, only to find its 
 content and brttness gone. Her loss 
 startles Lavender back to the knowledge 
 of his better nature, and after due pen- 
 itence, and the discipline of hard work 
 which wins him fame while making him 
 worthier of her, they meet again in a 
 reconciliation which is very pathetically 
 and charmingly told." [Scribner's. 905 
 PROPHET OF THE GREAT SMOKY 
 MOUNTAINS (The) [by "C: Egbert 
 Craddock," i. e., M.. Noailles Murfree : 
 Houghton, 18S5.] "is a remarkable story. 
 It has the charm of freshness in the 
 type of. life it delineates, of beauty in 
 its descriptions of natui-al scenery, and of 
 vigor and subtlety in the presentation of 
 character . . • The main interest of the 
 tale, considered as » development of 
 human experiences, concentrates about 
 the love-story of Dorinda Cayce, and the 
 spiritual struggles and destinies of Hiram 
 Kelfeey, the introspective, ignorant, noble, 
 but half-crazed preacher and 'profet' of 
 the Big Smoky Mountain district. Their 
 2 lives touch each other at many points. 
 . . . Dorinda is throudiit a distinctly con- 
 ceived, beautiful and noble character. 
 One wonders, indeed, how so much fysi- 
 cal loveliness as is hers could blossom out 
 of such a family-stock as the brutal, 
 whiskey-drinking tribe of the Cayces. 
 It is like the gorgeous flower which bursts 
 forth from the uncouth and savage cactus- 
 hedge, but there is nothing impossible 
 about it. And from the first moment of 
 , her apparition, holding the plow-handles 
 on the June morning of the first page of 
 the volume, to the last glimpse of her, 
 brooding over the Profet's conjectured 
 transit like Elijah to the skies, she is in every 
 
 way a creature of womanliness, purity, 
 and lit ... One of the great charms of 
 this author's writing is the beautiful and 
 subtile delineation of the aspects of fysi- 
 cal nature amid the scenes of which her 
 actors have their being. Nothing can sur- 
 pass the frequent felicity of these de- 
 scriptions and the delicacy of observation 
 which they indicate." [Andover Re- 
 view. 906 
 
 PROVENCE ROSE (A), [by "Ouida," 
 i.e., L.. De La Ram6:in "A Dog of 
 Flanders' [etc.] Lippincott, 1871.] "People 
 accustomed to Ifif at 'Ouida; will temper 
 their justice with mercy and their contempt 
 with respect and liking after reading her 
 'Provence Eose',which is innocent, pretty, 
 and touching. The Provence rose is a 
 rose-tree in a poor girl's room." [Na- 
 tion. 907 
 
 QUEEN OF SPADES (The) [by Al. 
 Pushkin: In LippincoWs Magazine, 
 Sept. 1876.] "'has the genuine russian 
 tinge of tragedy, and, while it does not 
 suggest that eminence which Pushkin en- 
 joys in another field of the imagination, it 
 is not without both ingenuity and a certain 
 kind of power." [ Nation. , 908 
 
 QUICKSANDS, [by Adolf Streck- 
 FUSS : Lippineott, 1884.] "In the selection 
 of 'Quicksands' for translation, Mrs. Wis- 
 ter has shown her well-known discrimina^ 
 tion [ ? See No. 595] . 'Quicksands' is a 
 frank romance, making no shamefaced 
 compromise with realism. The hero, 
 Egon von Eman, is superlatively daring 
 and accomplished, and in the heroine, 
 Elise von Osternan, the virtues strive for 
 mastery. It is no blemish that most of 
 the people talk by the page, making 
 opportunities to express lofty moral sen- 
 timents. One does not think, "What 
 bores ! no human being ever talked in that 
 strain" ; but rather, "How tjuly beautiful 
 and refreshing it would be to meet human 
 beings who talked just in that way." The 
 first situation is capital. The contrast be- 
 tween Egon von Eman, meditating suicide 
 to escape from a superabundance of this 
 world's goods, and Golliet Pigglewitch, 
 prompted to the same act throu lack of 
 
 279 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 them, is very effective. We are not Mission Indians of Southern California, 
 
 moved to tears by Egon's rhetorical cyni- 
 cism, or by the life and sorrows of the 
 wretched Pigglewitch. On the contrary, 
 the sense of comedy, not tragedy, in the 
 situation is uppermost, and the bargain 
 struck between the two despairing mortals 
 excites the liveliest curiosity about coming 
 complications. Tho the story hardly ful- 
 fils its first promise, the intrigue is carried 
 on very well, especially until the sur- 
 prising candidate takes leave of Castle 
 Osternan, and in Berlin resumes his identi- 
 ty as Egon von Ernan. Many of the sub- 
 ordinate characters are old in german 
 fiction, but, being necessary to the develop- 
 ment of the plot, and being kept in due 
 subjection, they are not tiresome. We are 
 so impressed by the romantic nature of 
 everybody and everything, that we regard 
 Bertha von Masscnburg with all the dis- 
 favor properly accorded to the proud, un- 
 rlteous sisters of Cinderella. Until the 
 book is closed, it never occurs to us that 
 her device for keeping Egon and Elise 
 apart was a very trivial one for a clever 
 woman of the world. It is only after re- 
 flexion that we see any improbability in 
 the blasfi Egon's swift and sure conversion 
 to the paths of rectitude. And no amount 
 of reflexion would convince us that Elise, 
 as Frau von Ernan, could degenerate Into 
 a terrible curtain-lecturer, or that she and 
 Egon could be less than happy ever after." 
 [Nation.] "Itis another example of the un- 
 erring instinct [ fffWSo. 595] with which 
 Mrs. A. h. Wister detects the best ger- 
 man fiction of the day and rehabilitates It 
 for amerlcan readers." [ Boston "Liter- 
 ary World." 909 
 RAMONA. [by H.. Maria (Fiske) 
 (Hunt) Jackson : Eoberts, 1885.] "There 
 is a rare idyllic charm in the opening 
 chapters, where she gives a picture of an 
 old Spanish rancho and Its Inmates: the 
 household life, the pastoral occupations, 
 the time-honored religious ceremonials, 
 into which is carried a deep and simple 
 fervor, are all described with the vivid 
 and effective touches which mark the ar- 
 tist. In taking for her hero one of the 
 
 she must have been confronted with diffi- 
 culties had she not thus carefully prepared 
 the scene for him. As it is, Alessandro 
 rouses sympathy and Interest at once, and 
 like all the rest of the characters, lives, 
 moves, and pleads for himself and his 
 race. There Is no hasty or superficial 
 work In the story, which is beautifully 
 and pathetically told. There is no de- 
 clamation and no argument, and the read- 
 er is impressed not so much by the au- 
 thor's vues and convictions, as by the 
 vital and inexhaustible meaning of real 
 action and suffering." [Lippincott's,] — 
 "We find here "the mellowness of a long- 
 continued pastoral form of civilization as 
 witnessed in the remains of the mexican oc- 
 cupation of California. The contrast ex- 
 tends to the treatment, for Mrs. Jackson 
 shows a ripeness of art and a richness of 
 color which make one feel that he has 
 come unexpectedly upon a Murlllo in lit- 
 erature. The story is not a new one. A 
 girl bred as a foster-sister to a boy whose 
 mother is coldly just to the alien and pas- 
 sionately devoted to the child of the house, 
 is secretly loved by the generous youth, 
 but returns the love only as a sister. 
 Then comes a stranger, who .shows her 
 what the power of love is. The alliance 
 Is held disgraceful by the mother, who, 
 obeys a sense of family pride when she 
 has no obedience to give to family love. 
 The lovers flee, are married, pass throu a 
 terrible experience which ends in the vio- 
 lent death of the man, and the widow Is 
 rescued In dire extremity by the foster 
 brother, who has gone in search of her 
 after the mother's death, and now recov- 
 ers her to ease and quiet, finally marrying 
 her, or that part of her which has not died 
 with her husband. It will tax the cred- 
 ulity of the. reader to tell him that the 
 story wr6t from such materials is one of 
 the most artistic creations of american lit- 
 erature. Nevertheless, the most jaded 
 novel-reader and Indlanfobist may be 
 trusted to finish the book, If once induced 
 to enter upon a reading. We will answer 
 for it that as such a reader glides upon the 
 
 280 
 
KOMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 smooth, gentle current of the earlier chap- 
 ters he will forget his prejudices, and he 
 borne quickly along by the hastening cur- 
 rent." [Atlantic. 910 
 KAPHAEL. [by A. DE Lamartine : 
 McClurg, 1890.] -'It is a painful fact that 
 one lives to outgrow one's love for 
 Lamartine, to re-read his once enthralling 
 romances wjth an accompanying con- 
 sciousness that there is a good deal of 
 printed matter in the book, — to po- 
 po his moon-struck heroes, wandering 
 about in the wake of other men's wives, 
 syihgby nit under the vault of heaven, 
 and by day filling page after page of a 
 journal with melodious lamentings about 
 the cruelty of fate, aud finally lying down 
 to die in solitude, lamented only by village 
 folk ignorant of their sad. heart histories! 
 'Raphael', however, whose memoirs, 
 newly translated, are told in the linked 
 sweetness of Lamartine's beautiful prose, 
 will hold his own as a classic of the great 
 revival of romantic literature that made 
 memorable the early days of this century." 
 [Critic. 911 
 RARAHTJ. [by "PlEKBE LOTi," i. e., 
 Jules Viand: McClurg, 1890.] "The 
 translation hardly gives us the indescriba- 
 bly sweet, melancholy sentiment of the 
 original. The pretty Polynesian idyl is 
 sad, but the sadness is not in the fact, it is 
 in the temperament throu which "Loti" 
 looks at the world and which tinges every- 
 thing he sees. It is a poetic temperament, 
 contemplative and sensuous, receiving 
 complete impressions instantaneously, and 
 uttering them in a vivid, penetrating, 
 fragmentary way. In a dozen discon- 
 nected passages he conveys perfectly the 
 exotic charm which the islands of the 
 Southern Pacific have for the wandering 
 European. One can hear the ceaseless 
 roar of the ocean breaking on encircling 
 coral reefs, and the sob of the perfumed 
 winds in primeval forests. In the same 
 detached, forceful fashion, we are made 
 to realize the enchanting grace of the 
 tahitian girl, Karahu . , . The letters of 
 Rarahu to Loti are like oriental love-songs, 
 a naive declaration of profound passion 
 
 revealed in exquisite imagery." [Na- 
 tion. 912 
 
 RAYMOND'S ATONEMENT. ['-Gc- 
 banntundErlOst.) by "E. ■WEENER,"i. e., 
 E.. Btirstenbinder : Bentley, 1884.] 
 "Werner is the onegerman novelist whose 
 works appear to be popular in England. 
 This is to a great extent due to the ex- 
 cellence of the english versions. 'Ray- 
 mond's Atonement' is hardly equal in in- 
 terest to 'Success; and How He Won It,' 
 but it has plenty of incident and romance, 
 and is free from the stifl:'ness of expression 
 which often mars a translation." [ Athe- 
 naeum.] see No. 600. 913 
 
 , SAME ("Banned and Blessed"), 
 
 Lippincott, 1884.— WHICH SEE. 
 
 , SAME ("Enthralled and Re- 
 leased") N. Y., Knox, 1886. 
 
 REATA. [by "E. D. Gekakd", I.e., 
 Dorothea Gerard and Emily (Gerard) Las- 
 zowska: Blackwood, 1880.] "It is long 
 since we have read a story in which excel- 
 lence of plot and excellence of character 
 painting are so well combined. From the 
 first page to the last the reader is thoroly 
 Interested in the story . . . Such evenness 
 of execution, such admirable balance be- 
 tween the interest of the story, the in- 
 terest of the characters, and the mere inter- 
 est of the local coloring, is very rare ... One 
 great charm of the book is in the character 
 of the heroine, Reata, who is half of ger- 
 man, half of mexican blood. The wild fun 
 of her first capricious practical joke, the 
 romantic desire to be loved for herself 
 alone, and not for any extraneous advan- 
 tages she mit possess, which gradually in- 
 duces her to coiitinue for a time in earnest 
 the deception which had begun in fun ; 
 the deep personal pride, and the contempt 
 she feels for what she begins to discern 
 doubtfully in her lover's character, which 
 hardens this intention into a serious de- 
 sign, and the embarrassment she ex- 
 periences when she has to confront serious- 
 ly, in European society, the results of a 
 mad freak conceived in the solitai-y free- 
 dom of a mexican forest, are all admira- 
 bly painted, and so painted as to make 
 what would otherwise seem an impossible 
 
 281 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 plot perfectly natural ... All the scenes in 
 Mexico are admirable." [Spectator. 914 
 RECHA. [by Porothea Gekard: 
 Blackwood, 1S90.] "has the same singular 
 power as its companion story "Orthodox", 
 but intensified ; for its strength, simplicity, 
 and directness are even greater, the char- 
 acters are fewer and more thoroly worked 
 out, the descriptions are more vivid, the 
 tragedy is darker and more hopeless. It 
 is better art too, we think, that the story 
 should be allowed to tell itself, instead of 
 being told by a friend of the hero, as in 
 Orthodox. Recha is another of those un- 
 flattering pictures of Jewish and christian 
 life in Austrian Poland, in painting which 
 Miss Gerard shows such talent;— we mit 
 say genius, for these stories give the read- 
 er a certain thrill which cannot be the 
 work of any amount of mere cleverness. 
 . . . For the Jew, like Shylock, like so 
 many Jews in fiction, was not all made 
 of stone. It was with him, too, "My du- 
 cats and my dauter," and he was ready 
 to lose 10,000 florins rather than let his 
 dauter marry a christian. The beauty of 
 Recha was used by her villainous father 
 — ^who had however, a well-grounded 
 faith in her power of taking care of her- 
 self — to draw foolish fish into his net. The 
 young ofiicers found it hard to refuse her 
 anything; and it was by her persuasion 
 that Theodor signed that terrible bond, at 
 the same time falling desperately in love. 
 Recha is a very powerful study.- Her 
 pride, her courage, her strong sense, her 
 aspirations, the secret religious doubts 
 into which she is drawn by circumstances 
 and by an irresistible sympathy to confide 
 to Theodor ; the intense sadness of a life 
 which, for a soul like hers, is nothing but 
 one long degradation 5 and yet the loyalty 
 to her father which stands between her 
 and every kind of happiness, — all 4hese 
 make a noble and touching character. It 
 was not only Recha's beauty which 
 roused such passionate devotion in Theo- 
 dor. His long pleading, her long re- 
 sistance, seem only to gain in strength 
 from standing out against that unutterable 
 dreary background of Horoweska, the 
 
 half-built, miserable, decaying galician 
 town. And when at last Repha finds fate 
 and love too strong for her, these lovers 
 have a rendezvous so dismal, so tragic, 
 that one cannot from the first believe in 
 any happy end to the story." [Spectar 
 tor. 915 
 
 RECHERCHE DE I/ABSOLU, trans- 
 lations of , see ALCHEMIST, ALKA- 
 HEST, BALTHAZAB, FHILOSO- 
 PHEB'S STONE. 
 
 RED CROSS (The). [Si Tinsley, 
 1880.] "The Red Cross is hlly romantic 
 and hily improbable. It is, however, 
 readable. The scene is laid in France at 
 the time of the war of 1870. The hero is 
 a member of the Red Cross fraternity, 
 who is quartered in a french house and 
 falls in love with the fotograf of a young 
 french girl. Her brother, a prisoner of 
 war, returns the compliment by falling in 
 love with a german girl. After the usual 
 complications all ends with marriage 
 bells." [Athenreum. 916 
 
 REJECTED WIFE, see BEBTHA'S 
 ENGAGEMENT. 
 
 REPROACH OP ANNESLEY (The) 
 [by "Maxwell Gray", i. e., M. G. 
 Tuttiet: 1889.] "has unjisual merit. It 
 abounds in passages of more or less poetic 
 prose, descriptive of nature in her various 
 moods. Many of these are fine in a way. 
 TheVords are well chosen and full of 
 color, the sentences are musical ... There 
 is more than one sufiicient reason which 
 mit prevail to set asunder, with their free 
 will, a man and woman between whom 
 exists that unique and pure passion which 
 alone deserves the name of love, and 
 which Maxwell Gray essayed to describe. 
 For the most part she has imagined it 
 very well. But, granting ■ its existence, 
 it is not in nature that a man laboring un- 
 justly under the suspicion of a foul crime, 
 from which he can clear himself by incon- 
 testable evidence, should not do so to the 
 woman he loves, when that is the only 
 obstacle to possessing her; especially 
 when, as is the case with Edward Annes- 
 ley, the truth could not injure any living 
 soul. With this serious exception, Max- 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS; 
 
 well Gray has managed the details of her 
 Btory with much skill. Her manner ol 
 telling it is rather jerky and disconnected, 
 the successive chapters being apt to come 
 upon one with a certain shock of mipre- 
 paredness. The book is a clever one, 
 nevertheless, and more than usually worth 
 reading." [Catholic World. 917 
 
 RETURN OF THE NATIVE (The) 
 [by T : Haudy : Bolt, 1879.] "loses the 
 rit to be classed among the really great 
 novels only by reason of being devoted 
 too assiduously to the portrayal and dis- 
 section of a type of character which is 
 repulsive in proportion to the vividness 
 and fidelity with which It is painted. 
 Eustacia Vye will remain a living reality 
 in the mind of the reader long after the 
 conventional men and women of other 
 novels have receded into the shadow 
 land of memory, and her tragic fate lends 
 a certain mournful and pathetic dignity to 
 her figure ... A certain instinctive 
 modesty of the person is said to be the 
 last of the purer sentiments lost by a wo- 
 man as she sinks below the horizon of 
 respectability; but Eustacia Vye never 
 had such a sentiment to lose. She quite 
 evidently and consciously looks upon her 
 beauty, and her capacity for passionate 
 ardor of feeling, as so many instmments 
 for the procurement of those pleasures 
 and excitements which she craved ; and 
 her quarrel with life was that the narrow 
 conditions of her life did not allow these ad- 
 vantages to be availed of to the full. One 
 feels a certain apprehensiveness in follow- 
 ing the successive steps of such a char- 
 acter; and profoundly sorrowful as is 
 that final castrofe, to most readers it will 
 bring a sense of relief and a conviction 
 that the impulse which carried Eustacia 
 to Shadwater Weir was the happiest of 
 her rwayward and Unpromising life." 
 [Appleton's. 018 
 
 ROBERT HELMONT [by Alphonse 
 Daudbt: Eoutledge, 1880.] "is a book 
 which no lover of its author's exquisite 
 art can afford to pass unnoticed. Less a 
 story than a panorama of character, scenes, 
 and events in the suburbs of Paris during 
 
 the german occupation , it has the pulsating 
 fervor of reality, and it portrays, with 
 subtle perceptiveness, the not wholly 
 imaginary experiences of a poetic mind 
 confronted by the terror, the destitution, 
 the tragic chances of war." [ Boston 
 "Literary World." 919 
 
 ROBINSON CRUSOE, [by Daniel 
 Foe, called Defoe: 1719.] "It is not 
 Robinson Crusoe we care about, but the 
 account of his adventures, the solution of 
 the problem of how to live under the cir- 
 cumstances. His name calls up the idea 
 not of a man, but of a story. Say 'Lear', 
 and you think of a man ; you have the im- 
 age of the white-haired king— the central 
 point, about which the division of his 
 kingdom, the disafl'ection of his dauters, 
 the terrors of the tempest, the soft pity 
 and sad death of Cordelia, group them- 
 selves in subordinate places : say 'Robin- 
 son Crusoe' and you see a desert island, 
 with a man upon it ingeniously adapting 
 his mode of life to his resources; the 
 imagination of a solitary existence, repro- 
 duced in a special form with wonderful 
 vividness, consistency and particularity, — 
 there is the source of our interest. It 
 would be to impugn the verdict of all 
 mankind to say Robinson Crusoe was not 
 a great wort of genius. It is a work of 
 genius — a most remarkable one — but of a 
 low order of genius. The universal ad- 
 miration it has obtained may be the ad- 
 miration of men : but it is founded on the 
 liking of boys. Few educated men or wo- 
 men would care to read it for the first 
 time after the age of five-and-twenty. 
 Even Lamb could say it 'holds its place 
 only by tuf prescription.' But the boy 
 revels in it. It furnishes him with food 
 for his imagination in the very direction 
 in which, of all others, it loves to occupy 
 itself. It is not that he cares for Robin- 
 son Crusoe,— that dull, ingenious, sear-far- 
 ing creature, with his strong mixture of 
 cowardice and boldness, his unleavened, 
 coarsely sagacious, mechanic nature, his 
 keen trade instincts, and his rude religious 
 experiences; the boy becomes his own 
 Robinson Crusoe — it is little Tom Smith 
 
 283 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS; 
 
 himself curled up in a remote corner of 
 llie play-grounil, who makes those trouble- 
 some voyages on the raft, and rejoices over 
 the goods he saves from the wreck ; who 
 contrives his palisade and twisted cables 
 to protect his cave; clothes himself so 
 quaintly iu goat skins; is terrified at the 
 savages; and rejoices in his jurisdiction 
 over the docile Friday, who, he thinks, 
 would be better than a dog, and almost as 
 good as a pony." [ National Review. 930 
 
 ROMAIN KALBKIS. [ Les Adventures 
 de R— C— , 1869.) by Hector Malot: 
 Phil'a, Porter,1878.] "Mr. Malot has all the 
 vivacity and delicate humor which are 
 characteristic of the best french writers. 
 The hero of this story is a most interesting 
 and entertaining personage, and his in- 
 ventor does not find it necessary to spice- 
 his adventures with the horrors which . 
 engUsh authors seem to find indispensable. 
 The story of how Roland and Mr. de 
 Bihoret lose themselves in a fog on the 
 sands, and how they are saved by the 
 ready wit and presence of mind of the 
 boy, is excellent." [ Spectator. 921 
 
 , SAME ("Roland Kalbris"), Lon- 
 don, Hutchinson, 1890. 
 
 ROMAN SINGER (A) [by Fr. Marion 
 Ckawfoud: Houghton, 1888.] "is a good, 
 honest story, vigorously told . . . Here is 
 the passionate, Romeo-like lover, the 
 northern Juliet, the obdurate father, the 
 hoary villain, the castle with the maiden 
 immured in its tower, the rescue, the mar- 
 riage, and the unreconciled father— all the 
 •stock, well-worn, and acceptable proper- 
 ties of the novel — transmuted into a story 
 / of today , and presented with the well-re- 
 strained garrulousness of a profes.sor 
 who has a story of his own, which he 
 won't tell. What more could one ask? 
 The charm of it is that while it mit have 
 been melodrama it is not; that the sit- 
 uations are not impossible, nor hlly wrot, 
 yet are ingenious and follow in swift suc- 
 cession ; that the romantic element, while 
 fervent is not blatant ; and above all, that 
 the love which is the theme of the book is 
 honest and straitforward ... It may be 
 said of this book — and it is a fine thing to 
 
 say of any novel — that it really does carry 
 one away, and when one comes back one 
 is none the worse for the adventure." 
 [Atlantic] "Mr. Crawford has br6t for- 
 ward for his latest hero a handsome 
 peasant youth with a tenor voice, who 
 takes the stage at 20 with ^clat and success, 
 bewitches the ears of all Europe, gains 
 wealth and eminence at once, wins the 
 heart of a young and nofcle lady, and 
 carries her off from her appointed suitor 
 with the prowess of a young Lochinvar. 
 "We are Inclined to say that the best point 
 of the story is in the telling of it, for there 
 is a naif garrulity and an artless self-com- 
 placency about the professor who plays 
 the part of raconteur which go far to re- 
 lieve the rest of the characters of their 
 lack of reality . . . But the story, whether 
 striking or trivial, flows on all the time 
 with freedom and joyousness, like water 
 from a fountain." [ Lippincott's. 923 
 
 ROMANCE OF A GERMAN COURT 
 (The). [Le Roi de Thessalie) by "Aky 
 EciLAW" : Bemington, 1886.] '-The book 
 is the story of the well-known scandal of 
 the treatment by the grandduke of Hessen 
 of the Princess Kalomine . . . The tale is 
 a dramatic story, full of power and pathos, 
 and admirably told. How far the details 
 of the romance correspond with the de- 
 tails of the true story, only the king of 
 Thessaly himself could say. Whether 
 they be true or false, they are related with 
 consummate art, and it is impossible for 
 anyone to read the book without having 
 his soul purged by the passion of pity and 
 sympathy for the unfortunate heroine, 
 and without being completely carried 
 away by the grace and force of the teller 
 of the tale." [ Spectator. 923 
 
 ROilANCE OF BEAUSEINCOURT, 
 see CABDINAL'S DAUGHTEB. 
 
 ROMANCE OP BOLLARD (The) 
 [by M.. (H.) Catherwood: Century 
 Co., — Unwin, 1886.] "is more than a 
 romance in name. It is a bit of the real 
 thing at last, and proves that Mrs. Cath- 
 wood is amongst the few who know how 
 to animate the past and to recreate bygone 
 deeds of heroism — is, iu fsfct one of the 
 
 284 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 chosen few in whom the lit of true ro- 
 mance is still burning. The tragic figure 
 of Dollard, leading the handful of brave 
 men who hurled themselves against the 
 hordes of Iroquois, is historically familiar, 
 but we find the episode now for the first 
 time 'done into' fiction. This is matter 
 for wonder, but not for regret, for tho it 
 is an event, as one may say, to the man- 
 ner born, it has but waited lor the touch 
 of the true magician. Of the many ro- , 
 mances imbedded in histoi-y none is, per- 
 haps, more inspiring than Bollard's. It 
 has all the elements of real romance, and 
 Jlrs. Catherwood's treatment of the his- 
 torical side, and her introduction of fresh 
 materia], mal^e it quite an artistic and 
 striliing bit of work." [ Athena;um. 924 
 ROMANCE OF THE FOEEST (The), 
 [by A.. (Wakd) Eadcliffe: 1799.] 
 "Mrs. Kadcliffe's inspiration was a genuine 
 sensibility to the beautiful, the wonderful, 
 the adventurous. However little an eWve 
 of art, she was, in this regard, a child of 
 nature, whose voice, however latent, she 
 inly heard and emfatically interpreted; 
 thus adding to the english novel, already 
 rich in social pictures, the ineiTable charm 
 of imaginative, picturesque, and inspiring 
 impressions, long since neglected for more 
 finished and artistic creations, but still in- 
 stinct with a native force and feeling that 
 mark an era in english fiction." [H: 
 Th. Tuckerman. 925 
 
 EOMOLA. [by "G: Eliot," i. e., M .. 
 A.. (Evans) Cross: Smith, 1^1Z.'\ "The 
 purely imaginative part of the story is far 
 more powerful than the historical. The 
 ideas of the time when the revival of 
 learning took place had quite possessed 
 themselves of "George Eliot's" mind, and 
 had stirred her into a wonderful imagina- 
 tive effort. But her conceptions of the 
 purely imagined figures,— of Bardo, of 
 Baldassare, and of Tito, — are far greater 
 than her study of Savonarola ... In 
 looking back on the story, Savonarola 
 fades away from the scene. It is Bardo, 
 the old enthusiast for the greek learning, 
 or the fitfully vindictive gleam of Bald- 
 assare's ebbing intellect as flashes of his 
 
 old power return to him, or the supple 
 Greek's crafty ambition which stands out 
 in one's memory, while the devout and 
 passionate Dominican is all but forgot- 
 ten." [Spectator.] "There are few things 
 requiring a more delicate touch than such 
 stories as that of Tessa and her little onts ; 
 yet what an air of idyllic beauty is thrown 
 over the episode by her ignorance and 
 their innocence! "George Eliot" is al- 
 ways charming in the treatment of 
 children; they have not yet become the 
 theatre of those conflicts which she hates, 
 and she loves them without distrust or re- 
 morse. How admirably this episode is 
 made to show that a man may be a villain 
 and yet have soft affections, and a noble 
 woman be jealous of something hier than 
 mere personal fidelity. In her treatment 
 of Baldassare the author displays all the 
 qualities on which we have remarked. 
 His remorseless vlndictiveness and thirst 
 for blood seem to her so near an approach 
 to lunacy, that she makes him mad when- 
 ever he has a chance of action. It mit be 
 insinuated that this is done in order that 
 the avenging sword may hang a little 
 longer over Tito's head, and it is but an 
 artifice to prolong the effect of the hover- 
 ing Nemesis of his hate. But there are no 
 artifices in "George Eliot's" art. The true 
 reason is, that she docs not sufficiently 
 sympathize with such depths of passion to 
 give them adequate expression ; they are 
 so repugnant to her that she hardly com- 
 passionates the wronged old man, "and 
 certainly does not sufBciently display those 
 features of his character which caused 
 him to be successively forsaken by the 
 woman he loved and by the boy he had 
 adopted and tenderly cared for. How 
 was it that he who so longed to be loved 
 was denied all answer to his yearnings 
 where he had set his heart? It was only 
 because his vindictive hate had so debased 
 him, even in the mind that conceived his 
 character, that no room was left for sym- 
 pathy ; and the savage animalism of his 
 passions, lowering him to the brutes, made 
 George Eliot less than humane to one who 
 had put oft" what alone interests her as 
 
 285 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 distinctively human. This concentration 
 of self in the reckless pursuit of a per- 
 sonal gratification: is the strongest ex- 
 pression of that tendency in our race 
 which is» uniformly decried throudilt 
 "Eomola," whether it shows itself in the 
 luxurious self-indulgence of Tito or in the 
 noble Bomola when she essays to throw 
 off the trammels of a life which no longer 
 answers to her ideal." [Westminster 
 Eeview. 926 
 
 ROSE OF DISENTIS (The), [by [J :] 
 Heikrich ZscHOKKE : Slieldon, 1873.] 
 "The scene is laid chiefly in the' swiss 
 mountains, toward the end of the last 
 century, at the time when Austria and 
 France were contending for the possession 
 of that part of the country in which 
 Disentis lies . . . The background of the 
 •fetory is one of war and treachery, while 
 in the foreground stands out the heroic 
 character of the enthusiastic and patriotic 
 Flavian, his pleasing sister, the countess 
 of Schauenstein, and the charming Vien- 
 nese whom he loves. He is an old fashion- 
 ed hero, full of fire and love, and of con- 
 tempt for the low and sordid- ambitions of 
 the mass of mankind, devoted to every- 
 thing noble and good, and withal, and 
 above all, a fiting man. His characters 
 represents a type that has almost com- 
 pletely disappeared from modern litera- 
 ture ... Of course the novel ends happi- 
 ly." [ Galaxy. 927 
 
 ROSINE [ by J ; G : "Whytb Mel- 
 wiLm : Toronto, Lovell, 1877.] "is a vivid 
 story, in a rapid, lively style, of the terri- 
 ble days immediately preceding the french 
 revolution . . . The style is vivid and live- 
 ly, and the action well-sustained ; and tho 
 there are no profound studies of character, 
 no psychological analysis, no introduction 
 of the hier problems which did not then 
 apparently much trouble men's th6ts, we 
 close the book with the feeling that it is a 
 pleasantly told story, well conceived and 
 executed, and with a good deal of histori- 
 cal vralsemblance." [Canadian Mo. 928 
 
 SACEED VOWS [ Bemington, 1877, 
 Ward and Lock, 1886.] =.4 T THE 
 ALTAB. 
 
 ST. GEORGE ASTD ST. MICHAEL. 
 
 [by G : MacDonald.] "Even in 'St. 
 George and .St. Michael,' where the author 
 sets himself to tell a pleasant tale of the 
 english civil wars after the manner of 
 Scott, the noticeable thing is his character- 
 istic mode of treating gthe relations be- 
 tween his puritan hero and royalist 
 heroine. Parted at first on account of 
 their conflicting opinions, Dorothy and 
 Richard join hands and hearts at last, not 
 because of any convcrsioo of vues, but be- 
 cause they have been led by the simple 
 following of conscience to a hier con- 
 ception of ti-uth, and have learned to 
 recognize each other's sincerity of soul 
 and steadfastness of duty, and to value it 
 infinitely beyond any mere coincidence of 
 opinion. This romance is proof that Mr. 
 MacDonald, however seldom he may 
 choose to do it, has the power to make a 
 story which is interesting for its own sake, 
 and that it is from no lack of inventive 
 ability in the author that his novels in 
 general have so little of plot and incident. 
 When he does dear in those, they are apt 
 to be of a bold and striking kind." [Bos- 
 ton "Literary World." 929 
 
 ST. EON AN'S WELL [by W'a. ScOTT.] 
 describes "life at a wateringplace in Scot- 
 land in the author's time. A gloomy and 
 painful story." [Boston "Lit. Worid."930 
 
 ST. TWEL'MO: or The Cuneiform 
 Cyclopoedist of Chattanooga. [ by C : H : 
 Webb:N. Y., C.S. Webb,lS!Sr.] "How 
 much 'St Elmo' desei-ves ridicule and how 
 hard it must have been to make an effective 
 travesty of it sufficiently appear from 
 this, that Mr. Webb has been able to in- 
 corporate with St. Twel'mo whole pages 
 of 'St. Elmo'. His premeditated absurdi- 
 ties are so exactly in keeping with Miss 
 Evans' unconscious silliness that only one 
 who remembers 'St Elmo' would ever 
 suspect in 'St. Twel'mo diversity of 
 authorship;— to use Mr. Webb's joke, 'a 
 little Evans leaveneth the whole lump.' 
 We have not critically compared Mr 
 Webb's former burlesque which this one, 
 but 'Sti Twel'mo' appears to us almost as 
 amusing as 'Liffith Lank'; not quite as 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 good, for to burlesque Miss Evans' book 
 properly there would be necessary a far 
 more protracted course of tbe jim-jims 
 than that described' by Mr. ^Vebb the 
 other day, and we can hardly require a 
 humorist to make delirium tremens a 
 habit, even for the sake of getting on a 
 level with MisS Evans. A good deal of 
 Mr. Webb's fun is aimless, as fun 6t to be, 
 but in his serious use of it he does a ser- 
 vice to the cause of sense in Mterature — a 
 service which, if he likes, he can vastly 
 increase — which entitles him to thanks." 
 [ISratiou. 931 
 
 SALAMBO [by Gustave Flaubekt, 
 1821-80: transl. by Chartres, Vizetelly, 
 1886.] "is an archaiological novel of the 
 hiest pretensions. Salambo is a Cartha- 
 genian princess ... It is not e^sy read- 
 ing, nor is the book in the least agreeable ; 
 but it displays in the blest degree what is 
 called the historical imagination. There 
 are passages in it in which the literary 
 expression of that refined, subtilized and 
 erudite sense of the picturesque which 
 recent years have brSt to so hi a develop- 
 ment, seems to have reached it hiest 
 level." [H: James. 933 
 
 , SAME, tr. by Sheldon, London. 
 
 Saxon, 1885. Transl. bad. 
 
 SANT' ILAEIO [by Fr. M. Ckaw- 
 roRD: iliacnu'Ham, 18S9.] "is the continu- 
 ation of 'Saracinesca' — the continuation 
 but not the conclusion of that much- 
 praised talc. On the contrary, for after 
 taking his amused and interested reader 
 throu nearly 450 pages of exciting in- 
 cident, bloody battles, family feuds, for- 
 gery, blackmail, suicide, unwarranted 
 jealousy and renewed confidence between 
 his man-ied lovers, Sant' Ilario and Coro- 
 na, and such other solids, liquids, and 
 confectionery as he is continually spread- 
 ing before the public, Mr. Crawford 
 leaves Faustina and Mr. Gonache still un- 
 provided with a suitable d^nouraent for 
 their remarkable adventures and their ro- 
 mantic love.?' [Catholic World. 933 
 SCARLET LETTER (The) [by Na- 
 thaniel Hawthobne: Ticknor, 1850.] 
 "is a psychological romance. It is a tale 
 
 of remorse, a study of character, in which 
 the heart is anatomized, carefully, elabor- 
 ately, and with strikingly poetic, and dra- 
 matic power. A woman in the early days 
 of Boston becomes the subject of the 
 discipline of the court of those times, and 
 is condemned to stand in the pillory, and 
 wear henceforth the scarlet letter A at- 
 tached to her bosom. She carries her, 
 child with her to the pillory. The other 
 parent is unknown. At this opening 
 scene her husband, from whom she had 
 separated iu Europe, preceding him by 
 ship across the Atlantic, re-appears from 
 the forest, whither he had been thrown by 
 shipwreck on his arrival. He was a man 
 of cold intellectual temperament, and 
 devotes his life thereafter to search for his 
 wife's partner and a fiendish revenge. 
 The young clergyman of the town, a man 
 of a devout sensibility and warmth of 
 heart, is the victim, as this Mephistophe- 
 lian old fy^ician fixes himself by his side, 
 to watch over him and protect his health, 
 an object of great solicitude to his parish- 
 oners, and, in reality, to detect his sus- 
 pectetl secret and gloat over his tortures. 
 This slow, cool, devilish purjjose is per- 
 fected gradually and inevitably. The 
 wayward, elfish child, a concentration of 
 guilt and passion, binds the interests of 
 the parties, but throws little sunshine 
 over the scene. These are all the charac- 
 ters, with some casual introduction of the 
 grim personages and manners of the 
 Ijeriod, unless we add the scarlet letter, 
 which in Hawthorne's hands, skilled to 
 these allegorical, typical semblances, be- 
 comes vitalized as the rest. It is the hero 
 of the volume. The d(5uoument is the 
 death of the clergyman on a day of public 
 festivity, after a public confession, in the 
 arms of the pilloried, branded woman." 
 [Knickerbocker.] "There is in his works 
 a mixture of puritan reserve and wild 
 imagination, of passion and description, 
 of the allegoNcal and the real, which some 
 will fail to understand, and which others 
 will positively reject,— but which, to our- 
 selves, is fascinating, and which entitles 
 him to. be placed on a level with Brockden 
 
 287 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 Brown [ ! ] and the author of 'Eip Van 
 "Winkle'. 'The Scarlet Letter' will in- 
 crease his reputation with all who do not 
 shrink from the invention of the tale ; but 
 this is more than ordinarily painful. We 
 recollect no tale dealing with crime so sad 
 and revenge so subtly diabolical that is at 
 the same time so clear of fever and of 
 prurient excitement. The misery of the 
 woman is as present in every page as the 
 heading which in the title of the romance 
 symbolizes her punishment. Her terror 
 concerning her strtinge elfish child presents 
 retribution in a form which is new and 
 natural : — ^her slow and painful purification 
 throu repentance is crowned by no perfect 
 happiness, such as awaits the decline of 
 those who have no dark and bitter past to 
 remember. Then, the gradual corrosion 
 of heart of Dimmesdale, the faithless 
 priest, under the insidious care of the 
 husband (whose relation to Hester is a 
 secret known only to themselves,) is ap- 
 palling ; and his final confession and ex- 
 piation are merely a relief, not a reconr 
 ciliation. — We are by no means satisfied 
 that passions and tragedies like these are 
 the legitimate subjects for fiction : we are 
 satisfied that novels such as 'Adam Blair' 
 and plays such as 'The Stranger' may be 
 justly charged with attracting more per- 
 sons than they warn, by their excitement. 
 But if Sin and Soitow in their most fear- 
 ful foi-ms are to be presented in any work 
 of art, they have rarely been treated with 
 a loftier serenity, purity, and sympathy 
 than in the 'Scarlet Letter.' The touch of 
 the fantastic befitting a period of society 
 in which ignorant and excitable human 
 creatures conceived each other and them- 
 selves to be under the direct 'rule and 
 governance' of the Wicked One, is most 
 skilfully administered. The supernatur- 
 al here never becomes grossly palpable : — 
 the thrill is all the deeper for its action 
 being infinite, and its source vague and 
 distant." [Athenieum.] "It touches the 
 lowest depths of tragic woe and passion — 
 so deep, indeed, that the representation 
 becomes at times almost ghastly. If Jona- 
 than Edwards, turned romancer, had 
 
 dramatized his sermon on 'Sinners in the 
 Hand of an Angry God,' he could not 
 have written a more terrific story of 
 guilt and retribution than The Scarlet 
 Letter." [E: P. Whipple. 934 
 
 SCOTTISH CHIEFS (The), by J.. 
 Porter, 1809. 
 
 SEAGULL ROCK, [by [Leonard Syl- 
 vain] Jules Sandeau: Low, 1872.] "A 
 story more fascinating, more replete with 
 the most rollicking fun, the most harrow- 
 ing scenes of suspense, distress, and hair- 
 breadth escapes from danger, was seldom 
 before written, published, or read. It is 
 all set in a framework of lovely family life 
 and affection, which gives the finishing 
 touch to the charm which envelops the 
 book from the first page to the last. The 
 story of 'Sea Gull Eock' is thSroly french : 
 the boys are all french boys, the fathers 
 and mothers are french, and all the people 
 in the little sea-board hamlet in Bre- 
 tagne are french too." [ Athen^um. 935 
 
 SECOND WIFE (The). [by"E. Mar- 
 litt", i. e., Eugenie John : Lippincott, 
 1874.] "We rarely encounter a novel which 
 we can read with so much pleasure and can 
 commend so unreservedly. It is a strik- 
 ing psychological essay, a masterly study 
 of character, and at the same time a vivid 
 and fascinating picture of life. The the- 
 atre of the story is very narrow, the ac- 
 tion being confined almost exclusively to 
 one house, and its burden resting on the 
 shoulders of 4 or 5 persons of both sexes. 
 . . . The incidents of the story are in- 
 tensely, tho not sensationally dramatic, 
 and the reader's interest increases from 
 the arrival of the bride to the simple but 
 sufiicient and satisfactory dinoument . . . 
 The countess embodies in beautiful union 
 the hiest ideal of womanhood and the 
 most intelligent ideas as to .feminine cul- 
 ture. In lier it is demonstrated that a 
 woman may cultivate her intellect with- 
 out prejudice to her heart; that she may 
 write and paint and study science with- 
 out neglecting those softer duties which 
 attach to her sex. The victory of the 
 countess' intellect over her husband's 
 honest but sturdy prejudices is not less 
 
 288 
 
ROMANTIC KOVELS. 
 
 signal and admirable than the'triumf of 
 her purity'and devotion over the niauhin- 
 ations of the priest and the 'Hoffitnar- 
 schal'." [Boston "Literary World."] 
 "The heroine, a poverty-stricken countess 
 by birth, marries a baron, whose sole pur- 
 pose iu marrying is to affront » woman 
 with whom he had formerly been in love, 
 but who had married a loftier suitor ; now 
 this faithless one was a widow, and in 
 love with ,him, but his pride and vanity 
 alone control him. The baroness is the 
 second wife, and has a very hard time in 
 her new home — what with her husband, 
 a vicious old uncle of his, an odalisque 
 living in a house in the garden, and a 
 priest, who is continually coming and 
 going, and watching everything with his 
 black eyes, and making love to her. It 
 would be hard to say which of the char- 
 acters is the greatest caricature. The 
 whole book is overdrawn, strained, and 
 absurdly unnatural; still it is 'from the 
 german', and will be read, as if the Ger- 
 mans were famous for writing novels, 
 and only once in a while wrote a dull one 
 by accident." [Nation.] — "The german 
 novel and novelette are apt to be a terror 
 to the reader and revuer. Badly writ 
 ten and composed, dull, full of 'drowsy 
 placidity', and void of wit and humor, to 
 get throu them often demands a combina^ 
 tion of qualities rarely forthcoming, 
 namely, dogged determination, a sense of 
 duty, fixity and singleness of purpose. 
 And even when reader or revuer is en- 
 dowed with these virtues and peruses to 
 the bitter, end, he is likely to get nothing 
 more profitable than the indigestion 
 which, if Heine is to be believed. Father 
 Ehein got from swallowing the verses of 
 Nicholas Becker." [ Spectator. 936 
 
 SECRET MISSION (A) [by Emily 
 (Gerakd) Laszowska : Blackwood, 
 1891.] "contains an apt contrast of char- 
 acter between 2 polish brothers, a lively 
 delineation of the rustic life of a country 
 not known to englishmen, a strong 
 clement of female love in 3 different as- 
 pects, and a narrative not marred by pro- 
 lixity. Brotherly love is the cardinal 
 
 feature of a 'Secret Mission,' and the al- 
 most fatherly care of Fclieyan Starowolski 
 —the patient agriculturist who, abiding 
 on the remains of his ancestral acres, 
 furnishes his young and brilliant brother 
 with the means of a wider life of distinc- 
 tion in the gennan service — is more than 
 matched by the self-sacrifice of Roman in 
 his turn, who tears himself from ambition 
 and fi-om the imperial chai-ms of Biruta 
 Massalowska to redeem Felicyan from 
 Siberia at the price of his life." [ Athe- 
 uaium. 937 
 
 SHALONSKI FAMILY (The) [by 
 "Eugenia Tur," i. e., countess Salias: 
 Eemington, 1882.] "is a pleasant story, 
 simple and fresh, and healthy in tone. 
 In it a young girl describes the quiet life 
 led by the family of which she formed a 
 part previous to the french invasion of 
 Kussia, and the troubles which came upon 
 the peaceful household when the enemy 
 approached. 'J'he subject has been often 
 treated by russian writers, and it has been 
 turned to excellent account by Count Leo 
 Tolstoi, whose '"War and Peace' is indebted 
 to it for some of its most powerful chap- 
 ters." [Athenoeumi 938 
 
 SHE. [by H: R. Haggaed: Harper, 
 1B87.] "It is said that 13 american issues 
 of 'She' are in circulation. The fact must 
 naturally be gratifying to the author, but 
 it is not distinctly creditable to the literary 
 taste and cultivation of Americans. 
 Gross impossibilities without number, 
 pages of platitudinous reflection, a smatter- 
 ing of learning, scenes which are indecent 
 — all that is 'She' and that is all 'She' is. 
 Nevertheless, thousands of people have 
 read 'She' and probably thousands more 
 are waiting for a chance. In the face of 
 this spectacle, the only criticism of any 
 value would have to take the shape of an 
 essay on the advantages of not knowing 
 how to read." [Nation. 939 
 
 SHE'S ALL THE WORLD TO ip;. 
 [ by T : Hall Caine : Harper, 1885.] "The 
 title is as misleading as it is un\yorthy. 
 On the wild west coast of the Isle of Man 
 the author has heard and idealized the 
 "history of a love that was lost and a love 
 
EOMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 that was won, of death that had no sting 
 and the grave that had no victory." He 
 has written a poem in strength and beauty 
 of idea, in artistic unity and complete- 
 ness, and in the harmony between the ex- 
 pression and the scenes, incidents, and 
 thdts presented. It inculcates no more 
 direct moral than may be derived from 
 an extended and sympathetic contem- 
 plation of life. Every day, somewhere, 
 an heroic deed is impelling a weak or 
 erring multitude toward well-doing and 
 hl-thinking; of the multitude, there are 
 some to whom the nature of the heroism 
 pleads so especially that the impulse be- 
 comes a controlling power. Christian Myl- 
 rea was weak, selfish, untrustworthy, 
 measured by just such standards of hu- 
 man conduct, yet we may believe that the 
 splendid devotion of Danny Fayle effected 
 a moral revolution in the man, and that 
 the memory of it would shine before him as 
 a star llting the way to better things than 
 he had ever known. The author believes 
 such a result to be possible, and his moral 
 has a much wider significance than that of 
 many works which discuss exclusively 
 situations and sentiments of austere, con- 
 ventional virtue. It is the moral inevita- 
 bly taut by martyrdom even for a mis- 
 taken cause, and by that art which, re- 
 presenting only the sublime, the lieroic, 
 and the beautiful, is the hiest." [Na- 
 tion. 940 
 SHOOTING THE RAPIDS, [by AL. 
 INNES Shand: Smith, 1872.] "Yet, 
 these deductions made, a story of much • 
 Interest remains, replete with the varied 
 experiences of the man of the world and 
 of action, accurately descriptive of many 
 fases of modern life, on a. scale far wi(Jer 
 than that of mere conventional society, 
 keen and clear if not profound in delin- 
 eation of character, original, so far as ac- 
 curate powers of observation and repro- 
 duftioncan be called original, and every- 
 where rendered grafic and vivid by an eye 
 for scenery, the gift of the soldier and the 
 poet, priceless to the reader who would 
 follow and assimilate a narrative. For 
 the latter quality, the changing scene,r— 
 
 290 
 
 laid sometftnes at campanian' villas, some- 
 times in roman piazzas, now among the 
 hill? and glens of the Schwarzwald, and 
 again in the ruder moorlands of thenorth- 
 umbrian border,— has afforded ample 
 scope. For the delineation of character 
 the various actors in these scenes,-^Martin 
 Hardcastle, Garibaldian and queen's 
 messenger, half knit-errant, half buc- 
 caneer,— Gaboche, the financier and wire- 
 puller, low-bred, greedy, profligate, a 
 noxious particle floated to the surface of 
 seething Parisian life,— stout old Von 
 Heppen stall— Napoleonic De Eocheguyon, 
 — diplomats, forein ministers (not distant 
 likenesses to life), — healthy, steady, coun- 
 try gentlemen, — unwholesome, feverish 
 votaries, of the turf and the Stock Ex- 
 change ; last of all, as a refieshing con- 
 trast, some true english ladies,— present a 
 suflicient and suggestive field . . . There 
 is not a spark of romance in it from first 
 to last. As we have seen, it is far from 
 tame : both the incidents and the charac- 
 ters command and rivet our attention." 
 [Athena?um. 941 
 
 SIliYL SPENCER [ by Jambs KENT : 
 Putnam, 1878.] "has a wholesome, old- 
 fashioned atmosfere about it. It is well 
 in these days to be reminded of the mate- 
 rial and the influences which built up the 
 country, and this book gives a sense of 
 the steady resolves and severe sacrifices 
 which were needed to win freedom. An 
 imaginative outline of the hl-toned feder- 
 alist gentleman, a very well drawn yan- 
 kee private, and a deacon who is quite 
 unlike Mrs. Stowe's deacons, furnish some 
 of the material for the story, which is free 
 from anachronisms (so far as we have 
 observed), and of its kind good." [Na- 
 tion. 942 
 
 SICILIAN ROMANCE (The) [by A.. 
 (Ward) Radcliffb: 1792.] "glows 
 with all the splendid hues of a southern 
 climate, and is well worthy of its title. 
 From the first page, describing the ruins 
 of the Castle of Mazzine, to the last, the 
 interest is deep and absorbing— the char- 
 acters are depicted with force and truth, 
 and stand boldly from the canvas. After 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 reading a few chapters tlje fair authoress 
 lays her spell upon you, — a lit appears 
 throu the broken window-shutters of an 
 apartment belonging to, a division of the 
 castle whitSi had for many years been 
 shut— Vincent, an old and confidential 
 servant of the marquis suddenly dies be- 
 fore he can make confession of some 
 grievous sin wfiing on his heart; voices 
 and groans are heard from deserted apart- 
 ments, while more than echoes talk along 
 the walls, and shadowy forms glide by in 
 the obscurity. 'Sicilian Groves, or Vales 
 of Arcady,' are painted in a style equal to 
 Claude, and the savage grandeur of rude 
 magnificence has all the force of Salvator. 
 There is no lack of life in this work ; there 
 are plenty of hairbreadth escapes, faith- 
 ful lovers, cruel fathers, stern abbots, 
 banditti, ruinous castles ; while the convent 
 bell is heard in the twilit hour, or comes 
 borne solemnly along on the midnit air. . . 
 The most delicious portion of the Ro- 
 mance is the description of swiss scenery 
 around the abode of La Luc, a pastor, 
 whose character is one of the finest in the 
 entire range of fiction ; one whose life was 
 passed 'in the deep Sabbath of meek self- 
 content'." [American Eeview. 943 
 SIGNOK MONALDINT'S NIECE. [ by 
 M.. Agnes Tincker: Roberts, 1879.] 
 "This is not so much {i novel as a romance. 
 The first thing which charms us in the 
 book is that it removes us at once from 
 daily life, american or english : and it not 
 only carries us amid distant scenes and 
 forein people, but out of the circle of 
 those commonplace characters, circum- 
 stances, sentiments and emotions to de- 
 lineate which faithfully appears to be the 
 West aim of most modern story-tellers . . . 
 A few lively pages bring several pictures 
 of Roman life before us. There is in this 
 description, and throucilit the book, not 
 good word-painting alone, but the im- 
 pression of that which constitutes the 
 power or charm of a face, a locality, an 
 inanimate object, a time of the day or nit 
 — that characteristic look, whether, habit- 
 ual or fugitive, which every true artist 
 endeavors to seize." [Lipplncott's.] 
 
 "The literary grace and refinement of the 
 book are exceptional . . . Yet the fine 
 workmanship is the least of its attractions. 
 The greatest and rarest is its fullness of 
 feeling,— a sad, unfathomable flood, over 
 whose hi surface, made smooth and tran- 
 quil by the very repression of the waters, 
 the tenderest love-story since Doctor An- 
 tonio [No. 435] glides quietly, until it shocks 
 us by its final plunge. The 2 principal 
 characters seem almost ideal personages ; 
 the exquisite heroine, gentle, proud, and 
 spotless, harassed and saddened, but never 
 ' once moved from her serenity of soul by 
 the sufibc>ting espionage and insulting pre-- 
 cautionary measures of her vulgar gard'-- 
 ian; and the king of men who lovesi her 
 from the hit of his throne with so glorious, 
 an ardor, tho, until the very last, maj' be, 
 with such a magnanimous mindfulness of 
 the barrier between them. These two and 
 their love are thus hlly romantic, they are 
 linked with admirable skill to the common- 
 place beings around them ; the latter are 
 depicted with the lit and accurate touch 
 almost of a f rench society novel, the in- 
 tensest situations appear unforced, and 
 we believe absolutely even where we read! 
 with most emotion." [Atlantic. 944, 
 
 SIMON [by "G: Sand," i.e., A. L.. 
 A. (Dupin) Dudevant: Churton, 1S4:7.]| 
 "is presented with a play of cross pur- 
 poses, very tantalizing and very aimless. 
 Simon loves M'Ue FougftrA and M'lle 
 Fougfires loves Simon. Their rank in life 
 is unequal; but as both despise aristo- 
 cratic prejudices, and are, in other re- 
 spects, persons of very independent char- 
 acter, why mademoiselle will not marry 
 Simon till she has nearly turned his brain 
 with the misery of hope deferred, appears 
 an inexplicable enigma ; and its solution 
 in the last chapter, by the most improba- 
 ble and painful reminiscences (not after 
 all very clear or intelligible) does not 
 amount to a reasonable justification of 
 apparent caprice." [Westminster Ee- 
 view. '' 945 
 
 SIMPLE STORY (A), and Nature and 
 Art. [byE.. (Simpson) Inchbald : 1791, 
 De La Rue, 1880.] "A new generation of 
 
 291 
 
ROMANTIC NOVF.LS. 
 
 readers will find the 'Simple Story' what 
 their grandmothers found it, a liarrative 
 of strong interest, excellently told. It is 
 divided into 2 sections, which relate re- 
 spectively the fortunes of a mother and a 
 dautcr of the aristocratic class, the 
 husband of the first and father of the 
 latter being a priest of very commanding 
 character, who on succeeding to an eng- 
 lish peerage is released from his vows. 
 The incidents arc forcible and often ro- 
 mantic, and not such as mit be expected 
 -from the title. The characters of the 
 priest, Dorriforth, Lord Elmwood, is 
 said to be studied from that of John 
 rhilip Kemble. 'Nature and Art' is a 
 sliter and less distinguished performance, 
 yet very readable, and with some strongly 
 emotional situations." [ Athenocum. 946 
 
 SIK PERCrVAL. [by J: H: SHORT- 
 HOUSE : Maemillan, 1887.] "The author 
 shows a sense of fitness in putting this 
 story into a woman's mouth. He appears 
 to recognize the truth that men will hear 
 of knitlincss and devotion more readily 
 from a woman, and will lielieve in it more 
 cordially. The story itself is of a young 
 englishman who seeks for the Holy Grail 
 in 19th century fashion. The pictures of 
 a refined society dravvn in the early part 
 of the book are exquisite. One can accept 
 the grace, and let the painter's idealism 
 refine the whole memory and knowledge." 
 [Atlantic. •* 947 
 
 SLaVe king (The) [Bug Jargal, 
 1826] by V: [M..] HUGO: London: 
 Library of Romance, ViZZ, Smith, 1852. 
 
 , SAME ("Bug Jargal") N.-Y., 
 
 Mowatt, 1844. 
 
 , SAME ("The Noble Rival, or 
 
 Prince of Congo") London : Pierce, 1845. 
 
 , SAME ("Jargal") N.-Y., Carle- 
 ton, 1866. 
 
 'SMOKE, [by Ivan [S.] Turgeniek: 
 transl. by Sprague, Ladies' Repository, 
 Jan.-July, 1868.] "Turgfinief thinks, feels, 
 hates like a Russian, and writes like a 
 frenchman. We mIt add that it seems as 
 if he must have loved like a madman, and 
 reasoned like a filosofdr, all his Hfe. The 
 charm of the strangely-mingled passion. 
 
 and analysis of passion, of history, and 
 subtile satire on history, in his stories can 
 hardly be' described. One can not read 
 them without an absorption so great as to 
 be exhausting. It is as If , by s6me miracle 
 of expanded or multiplied personality, 
 one were to be actor, audience, and critic 
 all at once, in a most exciting play . . . 
 'Smoke' is one of the most powerful of 
 novels. Its leading interest, like that of 
 so many of his stories, centers in the 
 short-lived but irresistible passion which a 
 man feels for a woman whom he only 
 partly trusts, respects less, and really does 
 not love, yet for whose sake he breaks 
 his betrothal vows, abandons all the pur- 
 poses and hopes of his life, and except for 
 her capricious and cowardly drawing 
 back at the last moment would have 
 plunged with her into utter disgrace and 
 ruin . . . His words are distinct yet 
 reticent : intense as passion itself can be, 
 yet forever decorous of sound ; true and 
 real, but neither naked nor drunken." 
 [ Scribner's. 948 
 
 , SAME, Holt, 1872. 
 
 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S, [by 
 Fr. B. Hartb: Houghton, 1886.] "The 
 story is too good to be told except by the 
 book. The grotesqueness of life in the 
 mountains in the stage-cosch days is kept 
 well under control, tho the temptation to 
 overdo it must have been strong. Yet 
 Harte does not neglect his opportunities, 
 and the expressive slang of the colonels, 
 captains, and judges, the nonchalance of 
 the "old-timers" when a coach Is robbed, 
 as well as the wonderful scenery of the 
 Sierras, all have their due w6t in making 
 the story pleasant and taking. The un- 
 conscious raetamorfosis of John Hale from 
 the precise, law-abiding Bostonian to the 
 comical figure presented before his wife 
 after a week's hunt for the hiwayman, — 
 when Mrs. Hale objects to his hat, to his 
 trousers being rolled up over his boots, 
 and to the familiar bearing which had 
 bceiji assumed towards him by the colonels 
 and captains— is delicious. As a rule, the 
 slang is of the soil." [Nation. 949 
 
 SNOW MAN (The) [ by "G: Sand," 
 
 292 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 i.e., A. L. A. (Dupin) Dudevant: Sob- 
 erts, 1870.] " ia a novel of surpassing in- 
 terest. It is a novel, pure and simple, 
 unburdened with fllosofy and unmarked 
 by those idiosyncrasies ol the author 
 which, while beautifying some of her 
 books to the eye of culture, have made 
 them 'caviare to the general.' The action 
 of the story moves with a grace which 
 charms, and a rapidity which gives no 
 respite to. the reader's attention; the 
 scenes are strange, the characters such as 
 novel-readers rarely meet, the plot is vig- 
 orous, and worked out with pleasing 
 effect. The scene of the story is Sweden 
 a century ago; Baron Olans, despotic 
 ruler of half a province, is 'the Snow 
 Man.' He gives a great entertainment at 
 his castle, of several days' duration, and 
 hundreds of guests are assembled. For 
 their amusement he has hired Christian 
 Waldo, a player of marionettes, who has 
 made a sensation, not only by his per- 
 formances, but by the mystery which sur- 
 rounds him. This Waldo is the leading 
 character in the book,and we know of 
 none other in fiction which takes a 
 stronger hold upon the reader's sym- 
 pathies. He proves to be the lawful heir 
 of the barony, and comes to his own at 
 the end of a series of events which the 
 reader follows with increasing interest. 
 The pictures of Swedish life and society, 
 and the magnificent descriptions of win- 
 ter scenery, slSing tournaments, and bear- 
 hunts, fill most acceptably the interstices 
 of the plot. We have . never read a novel 
 which we could more unreservedly com- 
 mend as absorbingly interesting and un- 
 exccptionally wholesome." [ Boston 
 "Literary World." 950 
 
 SNOW STORM (THE) by A. S. Push- 
 kin, see CAPTAIN'S DAUGHTER. 
 
 SOUCI. [by Julia H. Twells: 
 Lippincott, 1878.] "Souci, a wild little 
 waif of the Paris streets, who grows to be 
 prima donna, is the heroine of a tale of 
 misplaced constancy. She idealizes the 
 boy friend of her wandering days, and 
 when she meets him again struggles to 
 recover his allegiance, which he has long 
 
 forgotten. In a sense she has outgrown 
 him, tho her superiority to the brave, 
 sincere soldier is not marked. Even in 
 youth her impetuousness and passion 
 rather repelled him, and he breaks no 
 pledge When he abandons himself to a 
 hopeless love for Viola. But the ten-ible 
 disappointment of the hopes for which 
 Souci has so faithfully waited is a blow 
 sad enuf to win the sympathies of the 
 most cynical, and the castastrofe by which 
 poor Tonis is removed from a stage on 
 which he has no place is powerfully and 
 tragically described. Souci's true mettle 
 shows itself among the horrors of that 
 blood-stained glen, where she finds her 
 soldier dead. She is quite of that french 
 type of woman which both for good an d evil 
 has so much more gi-andeur than the men. 
 Viola is a patient and pure-hearted ger- 
 man, as brave as Souci, and possessing an 
 endui^nce which does not require hope to 
 sustain it. The idyllic picture of life at 
 Vogogna is not the least happy portion of 
 the story. Tonis is as little successful 
 there as poor Souci with him. When the 
 englishman has destroyed his hopes, Tonis 
 leaves the glen, and so misses the oppor- 
 tunity of supporting Viola in the darkest 
 hour of her trouble. His subsequent 
 generosity at Paris to the starving pair of 
 maidens awakens all the gratitude he 
 could wish, but no change of fealty, tho he 
 Certainly does more to deserve it than the 
 easy-going Mr. Eawdon. The numerous 
 characters have much distinctness and 
 originality, and the common national 
 types are described with skill. With the 
 moon-struck Heinrich Hablemann we have 
 little sympathy. Whether the lapse of 
 Souci after her misfortunes into a humble, 
 loving woman, who is content to reward 
 the long fidelity of her old patron, is alto- 
 gether probable may be doubted ; but at 
 any rate, it is a restful conclusion of a 
 series of storms and sorrows." [Athe- 
 naeum. 951 
 SPPJKG FLOODS, [by Ivan [S.] Tur- 
 Genief: .Hb^i, 1874.] "Those who know 
 Turgfinief only in an english dress have 
 here what is perhaps the best of his novels. 
 
 293 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 Like many which he has written, it is a 
 painful story ; the tragedy it describes is 
 of the ^ost melancholy sort. Sanin, the 
 hero, a young Russian of 21 or 22, happens 
 to be detained in Frankfurt on his way 
 back to Russia from Italy, and just as he 
 is about to leave that city he goes by 
 chance into a cai6, where he finds a 
 family in great anxiety over a boy who is 
 lying in a prolonged fainting-fit. He 
 manages to bring the boy to his senses, 
 and the others, who are Italians, in their 
 gratitude will not let him go. He spends 
 the evening, and having missed the dili- 
 gence, he very willingly consentsJio spend 
 a few days in the city. The dauter of the 
 house. Gemma by name, is engaged to an- 
 other man ; but Sanin, fearing no danger' 
 goes about with her a, great deal, and 
 soon manages to fall in love with her, 
 and she with him. A quarrel with some 
 ofScers, ending in a duel, in which Sanin 
 makes a much better appearance than her 
 betrothed, gives her an excuse to throw 
 the last named over and to accept Sanin. 
 He, in order to get money cnul to settle in 
 Frankfurt, goes reluctantly to "Wiesbaden 
 to sell his estates in Russia to an old 
 school-friend of his ^ho is there with his 
 wife. It is with wonderful beauty that 
 this first part of the story is told ; nothing 
 could exceed the delicacy with which 
 Turgtoief describes the young man's ar- 
 dor and the modest pride and reserve of 
 Gemma. He leaves her without dreaming 
 of the possibility of any mischance, for 
 merely a 3 day's absence ; but in that time 
 his friend's wife, a beautiful coquette, and 
 worse, manages to make him interested in 
 her and to win him as her lover. He de- 
 spises her, but he cannot escape her 
 snare. He is unable to return to Gemma. 
 She, however, does not die of a broken 
 heart; she marries someone else a few 
 years later, while Sanin drags out a miser- 
 able, remorseful, broken existence. No 
 analysis of this sort can give a fitting idea 
 of the merits of the story. What we have 
 said of it may read as if 'Spring Floods' 
 were some ordinary f rench novel ; but in 
 point of fact this story is elevated above 
 
 such works by the great and touching 
 beauty of the innocent part and the 
 solemn- impressiveness of the rest. No 
 adjectives can do justice to its vividness. 
 It is a chapter out of life. In that way the 
 novel is both natural and moral." [ Na- 
 tion.] "We must express our feeling of 
 its great power. Nowhere else do we 
 believe the terribleness of a guilty passion 
 has been so nakedly and unsparingly por- 
 trayed, and rarely can the beauty of the 
 lawful love it ruins have been so sweetly 
 touched. It is an awful tragedy, far be- 
 yond the power of any comment to im- 
 part ; the reader must go to the book itself 
 for a full sense of the fatal spell that binds 
 the weak-willed but well-pvlrposed hero, 
 and the intolerable shame and despair to 
 which it leaves his wasted life." [At- 
 lantic. 992 
 
 SPEINGHAVEN. [ by R : D, Black- 
 more: Harper, ISST.] "Mr. Blackmore 
 could never write another 'Lorua Doone', 
 so let us take 'Springhaven,' and be thank- 
 ful for Dolly Darling and Faith, for the 
 rare bits of his characteristic description, 
 for the glimpses he gives us of his love for 
 dumb creatures, for the portraits of true 
 heroes, afad, most, for his ildelity to hu- 
 man nature in depicting the ruf but kindly 
 fisher folk and gossips. Altho the author 
 has taken so much pains to make Nelson 
 and Bonaparte objects of interest, they 
 are altogether overshadowed by the ob- 
 scure Tugwell and Stubbard, capital char- 
 acters out of real life, and the lovable old 
 Admiral Darling, with his sweetness and 
 fidelity, and the simplicity of his humor 
 that he is never conscious of himself ... 
 It is a strong and fine novel, with breadth 
 in its conception and careful finish in its 
 details ; vigorous in treatment, but with 
 that underlying delicacy of sentiment 
 which is a charm in Mr. Blackmore's 
 books; and a genial feeling towards hu- 
 man kind." [Boston "Lit. World". 953 
 
 STATES-GENERAL (THE) = OUT- 
 BREAK OF THE FBENCH BEVO- 
 LUTION. 
 
 STATION-MASTER, see CAPTAIN'S 
 DAUGHTER. 
 
 294 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 STEADFAST : tte Story of a Saint and 
 a fiinner [by Rose (Terry) Cooke: 
 Ticknor,lS81 ; Triibner, 1890.] "ia a 
 fine story of New-England life in the 
 later colony days — fine because it is just 
 as faithful to the permanent and univer- 
 sal characteristics of humanity, as it is to 
 the features of the time and place in 
 which its incidents are set. Several peo- 
 ple deserve the name of sinner In Mr. 
 [sic] Cooke's narrative; at least 2 women 
 and 1 man are saints, being free from con- 
 scious malice, and capable of any reason- 
 able self-sacrifice. However, quite apart 
 ' from the title and its inferences, 'Stead- 
 fast' is a thoroly good and life-hke story, 
 which anyone mit be glad to read." 
 [ Athenaeum. 954 
 
 STELLA [by Fanny (Lewai.d) 
 Stahu: Low, 1884.] "without being in any 
 wise great, is decidedly readable, and the 
 translation is more than commonly easy. 
 The scene is laid in and near Rome in 
 1845, and the election of Plo Ifono is in- 
 troduced. The author does not wander 
 into long desci-iptions, Tiut keeps in busi- 
 ness-like fashion to her love story, which 
 tells how 2 men loved a fair roman maid- 
 en, while she loved a third, who did not 
 care for her. It is just a prose version of 
 Heine's exquisite lyric of the old, old 
 story which is ever new, and which 
 breaks the hearts of those to whom it 
 chances to befall." [ AtheniEum.* 955 
 STOKY OF AN AFRICAN FARM 
 (The) [by "Ralph Iron", i. e., Olive 
 SCHKBINEU: Ghapman, 1883.] "shows 
 considerable power. Mr. Iron has fol- 
 lowed no recognized model of romance, 
 but contrives to tell his tale in a series of 
 studies illustrating the wild life of an 
 ostrich farm, and setting before the read- 
 er with striking vigor the problems which 
 trouble a strong intelligence and an imtig- 
 inative ambition remote from any possi- 
 bility of culture. His descriptions are 
 wonderfully grafio, and his pathos is 
 forcible.. The book is too melancholy to 
 be altogether pleasant; but Mr. Iron 
 obviously writes about what he knows 
 with a successful result which is well de- 
 
 served." [Athenaeum. 956 
 
 STORY OF A STRANGE MARRIAGE 
 (The), [by H.. Falconer: Reming- 
 ton, 1883.] "The central thread of its 
 plot is the rescue of an earl's dauter from 
 the grave by a german carpenter, which 
 exploit introduces a love story as pretty 
 and delicate as the reader could wish. 
 Perilous as the theme may sound when 
 thus barely stated, the author has known 
 well how to handle it, and the result is a 
 decidedly charming romance. Fritz 
 Hilbner, with his wife and their grown 
 children, secures our sympathy at the out- 
 set of the story, and so prepares us for 
 the unfolding of his pleasant life history. 
 Miss Falconer's readers will be grateful to 
 her for selecting scenes and characters so 
 little hackneyed ; for eschewing the con- 
 versational platitudes supposed to be ap- 
 propriate to these ; and for relying upon 
 the unsofistieated interest of a genuine, 
 homely, but altogether exceptional story 
 of love and wedlock." [Athenajum. 957 
 STORY OF KENNETT (The) [by 
 Bayard Taylor; N.-Y., ffitrd, 1866.] 
 "is singularly straitforward, unpreten- 
 tious, and impersonal in style. The tale 
 is simply and not ineffectively told. It is 
 pitched in a noticeably low key. But it 
 leans toward the en-or of lack of incident 
 (not, perhaps, of interest) and towards 
 that monotony which usually follows the 
 diffuse explication of unimportant truth 
 in place of more entertaining, if less com- 
 mon, fiction. It is a record of a place 
 rather than of persons ; for Kennett is a 
 township of Pennsylvania. The object 
 of the book is obviously to depict the 
 former country Mfe of that region. The 
 time is the end of the last century . . . Mr. 
 Taylor here furnishes us with a picture of 
 simple, unstrained, matter-of-fact, every- 
 day life, placed among the beautiful hills 
 and charming valleys around his home, 
 with every feature of which he claims the 
 familiarity of an old acquaintance. The 
 traditions and habits of the people among 
 whom the greater part of his life has been 
 passed, the rustic dwellers and the legends 
 of the country,— in themselves buthome- 
 
 295 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 spun materials for a work of fiction,— iu 
 bis hands have all the charm of novelty 
 which Goldsmith invested the everyday 
 life of the family of the rrimroses, till, in 
 their way, 'The Story of Kennett' and 
 'The Vicar of Waliefield' may be regarded 
 as true pictures of the simple manners 
 and customs of rural England and Amer- 
 ica at the date in which the action of either 
 tale is placed." [Round Table. 958 
 
 STOllY OF NOEL (The) [by "Ouida", 
 i. e., L.. de la Uami : in "A Dog of Flan- 
 ders," Tauchnitz, 1871.] "has a bad 
 ending, as both a good story-teller and a 
 good story-reader would say ; but, taking 
 us into Flanders as it does, among the 
 peasantry, and telling its tale of domestic 
 affection and boyish aspiration iu art and 
 love, it pleases the reader by the goodness 
 of feeling which pervades it, and by the 
 comparative freshness of the scenery in 
 some of the incidents." [Nation. 959 
 
 STORY OF THE PLEBISCITE (The), 
 [by Erckmann-Chatrian : Smith, 1872.] 
 "... Those two men of genius "rolled 
 into one" have taken Christian 'VPebber, 
 miller and 'maire' of the village of Roth- 
 alp, in the valley of Netting, l)etween Lor- 
 raine and Elsass, his wife Catherine, his 
 dauter Gredel, and a son named Jacolj, 
 as the characters who represent the peas- 
 antry under the imperial regime." [ Athe- 
 Uieum. 9G0 
 
 , SAME ("A Miller's Story of the 
 
 War") N.-Y., 1872. 
 
 STORY OF THREE SISTERS (A) [by 
 Cecil Maxwell: Holt, 1876.] "is a 
 charming novel, with a pensive strain in 
 it which belongs especially to those novels 
 that treat of the domestic misery caused 
 by Imllying or ill-tempered relatives, or by 
 those wise people who interfere in love- 
 affairs. The three sisters were reared 
 amid all the dreariness which seems to 
 sit like a cloud -on english country-life. 
 The proper heroine is the second one, 
 Pamela, a most attractive girl, with a na- 
 ture as surely bound to be miserable as 
 sympathy and a sort of helpless innocence 
 can make it. Her lovers are well de- 
 scribed, and indeed the reader cannot 
 
 help noticing the large amount of obser- 
 vation and intelligent interest which the 
 writer shows, and regretting that it should 
 be given to so perishable a monument, 
 for probably in 10 years the book will he 
 as much forgotten as the daily news- 
 papers of to-day. Meanwhile, however, 
 it is decidedly pleasant to read. Its pathos 
 is touching." [Nation.] Time: reign of 
 George III. 961 
 
 STORY OF VITEAU (The), [by Fit. 
 R: Stockton: Scribner, — Low, 1885.] 
 "We have here a stirring tale of adven- 
 ture, the scene of which is laid in Bonr- 
 gogne in the 13th century. There are 
 knits and ladies, squires and pages, monks 
 of the Inquisition and robbers of the for- 
 est. Jasto, the worthy Imgand ;ivho poses 
 as a scholar, is a comical person." [Athe- 
 naeum. 9G3 
 
 STRANGE STORY (A). [byBAKON 
 Lytton : Low, 1862.] "It is a mortifying 
 reflexion that a very clever man, who has 
 been Secretary of State, and a conspicu- 
 ous member of Parliament, should write 
 such intolerable rubbish as thi.%and should 
 condescend to identify himself in ever so 
 transient a manner with all the blue fire, 
 hollow turnips with tiery eyes, magic 
 lanterns, and fortune-telling, of which it 
 is made. It is perhaps still more irritat- 
 ing that, instead of being content with 
 telling his silly story to those who are 
 foolish enuf to like it, and going about 
 his business, he should put on throudUt 
 the airs of a christian filosofer. The pre- 
 face, the notes, the reflexions, and calm 
 rebukes of the venerable christian sage, 
 are stuffed with matter of this kind, and 
 are so many ways of saying. Know all 
 men, that tho I am talking nonsense, and 
 playing the fool, 1 am nevertheless a 
 great scholar and profound filosofer. You 
 will be pleased to observe that tho this is 
 mere play, it is the play of a giant. I 
 could if I chose overwhelm you with 
 science in all its branches . . . No, doubt, 
 ho is not only a good but a very eminent 
 novelist; but tho he struts as if he knew 
 all mysteries and all knowledge, he has 
 never written anything serious worth 
 
 296 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 reading, except a few pamflets . . . The 
 Caxtons was a re-cast of Tristram Shandy, 
 and the Strange Story is made up in about 
 equal parts of 'Godwin's St. Leon' and 
 'Dumas' M(!moires d'un M(5dicin', the 
 whole being crowned, in the famous 
 scene of the 'Veiled Woman and the 
 Giant Foot', with an adaptation of the 
 hol)goblin scene in the Freischiitz." 
 [ London Review. 963 
 
 STRANGE TRUE STORIES OF LOU- 
 ISIANA. [ by G : "W". Cable : Scribner, 
 1890.] "Everything in the collection is 
 good, with agreeably varied time and 
 place, and with naturally contrasting joy 
 and woe. Some are so coherent, so full 
 of opportune coincidence and unlooked- 
 for compensations, that one needs to 
 have had wide experience to know how 
 easily they may be true. Few french 
 comedy-writers, for instance, have ar- 
 ranged a neater knot and climax with 
 more deliciously comic minor situations 
 than those unfolded in an episode of the 
 life of Attalie Brouillard. Retri1)utive 
 justice in hi tragedies never meted out 
 more appropriate punishment than the 
 death decreed to Mme. Lalaurie, the 
 fiendish woman who, 60 years ago, kept 
 splendid state in the "Haunted House of 
 Royal Street." Decidedly, the more of 
 such true stories that Mr. Cable can un- 
 earth, the better shall he be beloved of 
 critical and uncritical readers." [Na- 
 tion. 964 
 
 STRANGE WATERS, [by Ro. E: 
 Fraucillon : Bentley, 1878.] "Andrew 
 Gordon, the fanatic and self-torturer, 
 who lives so entirely for music as an art 
 as to crush his own affections, and do his 
 best to reduce the gifted Jewess his wife, 
 and her patient but not musically gifted 
 dauter, into machines of wood and wire 
 for expounding his ideal, is interesting 
 for his concentration of energy, and the 
 intensity of the fire which, under a cold 
 exterior, consumes his soul. When by a 
 ^strange blow heis stricken with deafness 
 before his work is concluded, his faith in 
 its future carries him throu even the trial 
 of having to stand aside without reaping 
 
 the hiest form of personal reward. The 
 last scene of his earthly struggle, when 
 the ears of the deaf are unstopped, and 
 he reaps in a short hour the reward of 
 hearing his opera,— successful, and made 
 successful by the sudden repentance and 
 assistance of the wife so long estranged 
 from him, has a good deal of grandeur in 
 it. One's mundane sympathies, however, 
 are all with the ignorant italian woman, 
 who cares only for the man, and nothing 
 for that art in the name of which he so 
 gracefully thanks her. The good, culti- 
 vated, restrained and oppressed Celia has 
 a character of her own, too, in spite of all 
 her father's efforts." [ Atheuajuni. 965 
 STRATHilORE. [by "Ouida", i.e., 
 L.. de la Ram(5, 1866.] " 'Ecce iterum !' 
 Here is the learned "Ouida" once more 
 flinging about all the volumes of the biggest 
 cyclopedias. Here she is again with her 
 big talk and little sense. Here she is 
 with her old blunders and her new follies. 
 We have watched her from the day when 
 she first broke forth in 'Strathmore' into 
 her dog-Latin and Greek, and let loose 
 her cheap scraps of Italian and indecent 
 Spanish oaths ; and have noted with inter- 
 est her progress in blundering in 'Chan- 
 dos', with its grouse in Devonshire, and 
 its copper-colored beeches as old as the 
 Druids. By this time we are thoroly ac- 
 quainted with all the peculiarities of her 
 delirious style. We could tell it in the 
 dark. We could distinguish it by the 
 flavor of her fine writing, and the pecu- 
 liar air of her blunders. Hers mit, in 
 short, be called the servants'-hall style. 
 It bears the servants'-hall mark ... A 
 repletion of ignorance peculiar to the 
 lady's-maid marks each chapter. The 
 characters, too, unmistakably breathe the 
 lady's-maid's ideal . . . For love, the lady's 
 maid gives us the passion of animalism; 
 for wit, the sparkling of putrescence. If 
 there is anything good, it is sure to be 
 borrowed. And, unlike the cock in the 
 fable, the lady's maid does not find a 
 jewel in the dung hill, but discovers a 
 dung hill for the jewel. Finally, the 
 lady's maid's women are about as much 
 
 297 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 like nature as millineTs' blocks, and her 
 men as hair-dressers' dummies." [Lon- 
 don Eeview. 966 
 
 STRING OF PEARLS (The), [by 
 G : P. R. Jambs.] "This author has 
 taut us how readily the novel-reading 
 public acquiesces in a few simple c<»nven- 
 tions in the composition of the historical 
 novel. Let there be a party of travelers 
 journeying at eventide over a fertile plain 
 in Auvergne; a conversation formed out 
 Of the permutations and combinations of 
 such frases as, "I 'troth," "By'r Lady," 
 "Grammercy," and "Gadso," or the sub- 
 stitution- of "palfrey" for horse, and 
 "housings" for horse-furniture; and the 
 reader's imagination is forthwith adjusted 
 to a tale of the middle age, anywhere be- 
 tween the First Crusade and the time of 
 the League; and this understanding, once 
 established between writer and readers, 
 proceeds steadily and uninterruptedly 
 thrpudUt, altho they l^now, and he knows ' 
 that they know, and they know that he 
 knows that they know, that the ideas 
 enunciated, the jargon in which they are 
 expressed, the scenery, characters, inci- 
 dents, and general accessories, never had 
 any counterpart in any time or country on 
 this earth." [London Review. 967 
 
 SUN MAID, see No. 537. 
 
 SWIFTER THAN A "WEAVER'S 
 SHUTTLE [by Ja. W. Gambiek: 
 ilson^enschein, 1887.] "is fresh and 
 stirring, tho based on nothing newer than 
 "original sin" in various guises. A really 
 exciting novel such as this, depending for 
 interest on plot and counterplot, is just 
 now as welcome as rare. The action, 
 which is quick and clear as well as com- 
 plex, has a good deal o^ reality about it ; 
 and with all the mining and counter-min- 
 ing there is no Jack of character, miners 
 and counterminers being every one of 
 them individual, mostly exceeding wicked, 
 or at the least self-seeking . . . Such a 
 personality as Hcraa, the gorgeous 
 Greek, has often been attempted, but not 
 so successfully as here ; the perfection of 
 her beauty and her extraordinai^ mental 
 capacity are dazzling even in print. The 
 
 union in her nature of unscrupulousness 
 and selfcinterest on a large scale with 
 natural goodness and mercy is excellent, 
 while the story of her treatment of the 
 love-sick and despairing Rosalie is a pretty 
 piece of writing. There is interest, too, 
 tho the rendering is somewhat silt, in 
 Rosalie, Nellie, and their companions, 
 while the villain in chief is all, and more 
 than all, one's fancy painted. There is 
 about the book an unusual directness and 
 plain speaking, with a surprising absence 
 of anything like sentiment." [Athe- 
 nicum. 968 
 
 SYLVESTEES (The): or The Out- 
 oasts [ by Matilda [ B.] B. Edwaiids : 
 LippincoU, 1872.] "is the story of a 
 young english lady, with property and a 
 mind of her own, who gets interested in 
 socialism, or more truly, perhaps, in some 
 socialists, whom she has met abroad, and 
 who come to her in England in abject 
 poverty. She puts them on their feet, 
 gives them a farm, and falls in love with 
 one. We will not tell the story, but we 
 recommend it to our readers. The lead- 
 ing socialist Pere Sylvestre, is admirably 
 drawn, with just that apparent exaggera- 
 tion which in fact is only realism. There 
 is not a word of ill-nature or of fanaticism 
 in the author's treatment of this subject, 
 and that in itself is singularly meritorious 
 in a work which treats of socialism.?' 
 [Nation. 969 
 
 SYLVIA'S LOVERS, [by E.. Clbg- 
 HOKN (Stevenson) Gaskell: Smitk, 
 1863.] "The story of 'Sylvia's Lovers' is 
 laid in humble life, and is related chiefly 
 in broad dialect, which, altho it gives the 
 local color, is a drawback to the comfort 
 of the reader. But for true artistic work- 
 manship we think 'Sylvia's Lovers' supe- 
 rior to any of Mrs. Gaskell's former 
 works. The scene of the story is laid at a 
 fishingrtown on the Vorkshire coast; 
 the time, the close of the last century, 
 when the war with France was rife, and 
 press-gangs were in all their cruel author- 
 ity." [Athenaeum.] "Mrs. Gaskell has, 
 we fear, mislaid the pen which wrote 
 'Cranford: It is difficult to imagine 
 
 298 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 that charming tal©, with its wealtii of 
 quiet power and restniined and therefore 
 infectious emotion, the work of the same 
 hand as these 3 volumes of unreal or ex- 
 aggerated sentiment. That was written 
 as tho its author were relating a series of 
 facts known to her from childhood ; this 
 is composed as tho every sentence involved 
 an effort, and every scene depended for 
 interest on a visibly manufactured agony. 
 The plot is almost as old as fiction, but it 
 has seldom been treated with more con- 
 tempt for probability, or the nature of 
 ordinary human beings. Sylvia herself is 
 a character who never can have existed, 
 and can only be accounted for by remem- 
 bering that Mrs. Gaskell is a writer who, 
 belonging to one breed of english people, 
 passes her life in watching and describing 
 another." [ Spectator. 970 
 
 SYRLIN [by "Ouida", i. e., L.. de la 
 Kam£: Lippincott, 1890.] "has every 
 conceivable fault except that of being dull. 
 The hero and most of the other charac- 
 ters are sticks, there is no more move- 
 ment than in a frogi-pond, there is no 
 story, and the long-drawn agony which 
 takes its place is uninteresting as a chronic 
 toothache. Syrlin is an actor, a man of 
 genius,, the natural son of a Bourbon 
 prince. He is the most conventional spec- 
 imen of the unconventional hero which 
 we know of. He is received in the blest 
 english society, which, as we know from 
 Ouida's former novels, is completeiy eaten 
 .with ennui. He falls in love with a mar- 
 ried woman, and excites her husband's 
 jealousy. He spouts Coppte's poetry and 
 speculates about socialism. He has his 
 revenge on the needlessly jealous husband 
 by writing him up in a play. The heroine 
 of the play draws unwelcome attention to 
 the lady in the case; the lady draws his 
 attention to that little circumstance ; and 
 he goes oiT and shoots himself, leaving the 
 reader as happy as • a small boy at an ac- 
 cident. Still there is on almost everjK 
 page some mark of talent; and .'Syrlin' 
 will be read because, if its author had so 
 chosen, it mit have been worth reading." 
 [Critic. 971 
 
 TALE OF TWO CITIES. [by C: 
 Dickens: 1859.] "In epical unity, in 
 power of imagination, in breathless and 
 tragic interest, in masterly delineation of 
 the inward and outward aspe(!t of nation- 
 al life in an utterly gloomy period, [the 
 revolution of 1789] and in the portraiture 
 of the noblest self-sacrifice, rising into 
 sublimity at Jast, it would not be easy to 
 find a parallel to the 'Tale of Two Cities.' 
 The last 'Idyl' of Tennyson and the con- 
 clusion of the 'Tale of Two Cities' -strike 
 the hiest and sweetest note in modern lit- 
 erature, if not in all english literature. 
 In the poem. King Arthur is depicted as 
 a man fulfilling , the reiiuirements of the 
 christian ideal of human character, with- 
 out forfeiting perfect respect i for his man- 
 liness; and in the novel, Sydney Carton 
 oflers his life, with the most utter self- 
 renunciation, for the happiness of the 
 woman he loves." [G;W: Curtis. 973 
 
 TALES FROM BLACKWOOD. 
 [ Blackwood, 1800.] "This number con- 
 tains several startling and eflfective stories, 
 told in language at once powerful and vigor- 
 ous, and the incidents of which arc all wr6t 
 to the very blest pitch of excitement. "An- 
 tonio di Carara", the "Vision of Caglios- 
 tro," and "The Haunted and the Haunt- 
 ars" are severally perfect masterpieces of 
 ingenious construction, and it ^would be 
 impossible for any reader, having once 
 plunged into the midst of one of these ex- 
 citing narratives, to withdraw his eyes 
 from the pages before arriving at its con- 
 clusion. . Antonio di Carara," ' which is 
 placed at the beginning of the present 
 volume, is a tale of Padua, laid in the 
 time of the Emperor Franz, in which the 
 chief characteristics of the Italians, re- 
 venge, and the lengths to which they will 
 go in order to gain their darling object, is 
 subtly and vividly delineated. " Tke 
 Haunted and the Haunters" is a tale of 
 so intense, thrilling, and ghostly interest, 
 that we will not anticipate the reader's en- 
 "joyment Qf it." [Leader. 973 
 
 TARANTELLA. [by Mathilde 
 Blind : Boberts, 1885.] "ThroucJiit the 
 first book the fidelity of the delineation of 
 
EOMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 South German life does not compensate 
 for its lack of vitality. Not till the second 
 boolt does the autlior show tbe hits to 
 which she can rise, and indicate the peaks 
 beyond to which she may aspire. There 
 is a genuine sense of the picturesque and 
 dramatic in making the destiny of apoor 
 violinist, Emanuel, turn on u, chance visit 
 to Capri, where he plays for a beautiful 
 girl, Antonella, so that, as the supersti- 
 tion goes, she may dance out the venom 
 of a tarantula's bite. In the virtuoso's 
 narrative of his life his nature is admir- 
 ably revealed . . . Antonella comes on the 
 scene first as the Countess Stargia; she 
 occupies the 'belletage' in the house with 
 'frau prof essorin' Lichtenfeld ; she piques 
 the gossips of the coffee parties, and pat- 
 ronizes the little Minna. She is a taran- 
 tula of a kind most attractive to the wom- 
 an novelist, and it would be interesting to 
 know whether men avoid her as a model 
 throu discretion or disbelief in her ex- 
 istence. In her cruelty and infamy she is 
 a type of a large class of women, born, 
 let us say charitably, as destitute of moral 
 sense as a savage." [Nation. . 974 
 
 TEACHER OF THE VIOLIN (A). 
 [byJ:H: Shorthouse: Macmillan, 
 1888.] "After sq much crude nonsense 
 there is a distinct relief in taking up this 
 collection of Mr. Shorthouse's short stories 
 where 'The splendor falls on castle walls 
 and snowy summits old in story,' in which 
 the author summons noble and familiar 
 figures and permanent and beautiful ideals 
 of thot and imagination. There is always 
 a quiet serious charm about Mr. Short- 
 house' work, and if he errs a little on the 
 side of intense sentiment, it is always the 
 best and truest sentiment. His perception 
 is deep and fine and true. We like his 
 persistent note of aspiration, self-abnega- 
 tion, fidelity, and wish that it could be 
 made more audible in this generation 
 which listens too little to such voices. 
 'A Teacher of the Violin' is a pleasant 
 story of the career of a music-loving boy 
 in Germany, and the description of the 
 influences at work upon the lad's mind 
 when he heard the winds sweeping throu 
 
 the woods is very delicate and full of 
 charm. All the stories are good and we 
 find something fine and chivalrous even 
 in the names of 2 of them, 'The Marquis 
 Jeanne Hyaclnthe de St. Pelaye' and 'The 
 Baroness Helena von Saarfeld.' We gain 
 an impression of fine manners and noble 
 character, and in each tale the expectation 
 is fully answered. It is indeed an un- 
 usual pleasure to come upon so graceful 
 and symmetrical work which brings up 
 the old ideals and 'sets the wild echoes fly- 
 ing' from the old time world of poetry and 
 romance." [American.] The Marquis 
 Jeanne Syacinthe de St. Pelaye seems 
 to be the best. It is a 'little classic' in a 
 hi sense of the term. These short stories, 
 no less than the author's longer works, 
 exhibit a literary art which is rare even 
 among our careful writers ; in them we 
 find also the spiritual touch that marks 
 'John Inglcsant' [No. 767] as one of the 
 noblest of english novels." [ Dial. 975 
 TEMPLE HOUSE. [by E.. Drew 
 (Barstow) Stoddard : Carleton, 1867.] 
 "To tell the story is not to take the edge 
 ofi' the reader's appetite. The house 
 which gives its name to the story is an 
 ancestral mansion in a New-England 
 seaport. In process of time it has been 
 built about and walled in by the encroach- 
 ing town, so that with its garden and few 
 trees it has become isolated, but not more 
 so than the persons who occupy it, who 
 have withdrawn themselves almost wholly 
 from the scrutiny of their townsmen . . . 
 Mathematicians have amused themselves 
 with speculations as to the possibilities of 
 life in a world where there is a fourth 
 dimension of space. Mrs. Stoddard's art 
 aims at quite as difficult a problem, the 
 exemplification of life in one where there 
 is only a single dimension : her world has 
 thickness, but no length or breadth. The 
 density of the atmosfcro throu which the 
 reader follows her characters is immeas- 
 urable. One feels now and then that the 
 sun is shining, but no direct rays reach 
 the landscape ; only such lit as makes its 
 way throu the circumjacent vapor. The 
 singular thing about it is that the reader 
 
 300 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 is convinced that if the cloud would only 
 lift, he would see figures of remarkable 
 force, beauty, and symmetry. There 
 they all are, these men and women in this 
 New-England seaport; they have names 
 something like other human beings ; they 
 have 3 meals a day; they smoke; they 
 read ; they talk, occasionally. One catches 
 glimpses of various human proceedings, 
 and feels that the author meant her per- 
 sons to be real, yet the show goes ou be- 
 hind a thick glass screen ; if we could only 
 get this screen out of the way, we think 
 we mit get a clear vue ; every one is near 
 enuf, but there is this dense medium 
 throu which we see them and their ac- 
 tions. We are aware that by this confu- 
 sion of terms we are not clearing the 
 mystery of the book at all, but we are try- 
 ing to convey to the reader something of 
 the Impression, made on our mind by this 
 intense, provoking, startling, and nSt- 
 mareish^book. The Philistine in us is 
 constantly on the point of jeering; the 
 poor little profet who occupies the hall 
 bed-chamber of our mind is quite as often 
 holding up his finger in warning." [At- 
 lantic. STS 
 TEVEEINO [by "G : Sand", i. e., A. 
 L. A. (Dupin) Dudevant; N.-Y., Fet- 
 ridge, 185.=).] "is one of her prettiest 
 tales." [Nation. 9T7 
 THADDEUri OP WARSAW. [ by J . • 
 Porter, 1803.] "and 'the Scottish Chiefs' 
 (1810) still hold their own. Thaddeus, a 
 polish refugee teacher of languages, is 
 described by Sophia Egerton 'as a soldier 
 by his dress, a man of rank from his 
 manners, an Apollo from his person, and 
 a hero from his prowess.' " [ Quarterly 
 Review. ^''^8 
 THAT BOY OP NORCOTT'S. [by 0: 
 Lever: A'mifA, 1869] "Novelists may be 
 rufly divided into 2 classes; those who 
 know nothing, and those who know some- 
 thing and have repeatedly told it. Mr. 
 Lever belongs to the last class. But if he 
 repeats himself, he does it with such new 
 graces that we willingly forgive the 
 offense. He is, perhaps, the only living 
 novelist of whom it may be said that he is 
 
 never dull . . . Young Nof-cott accepts a 
 clerkship in a Jew business house. Here 
 he falls in love with the Jew's only 
 dauter. Sara Oppovich sends him on a 
 mission of imijortance into Hungary. At 
 the house of a Hungarian noble he 
 encounters Madame Cleremont, who is 
 now his father's wife or mistress, as the 
 courts may decide. His father is away on 
 a hunting expedition, in which he re- 
 ceives a fatal wound. Madame Clermont 
 hurries away from the scene as fast as 
 her immense wardrobe will allow. And 
 the curtain falls upon the marriage of young 
 Sir Roger and Sara Oppovich. Such is 
 the bare outline of the story. The interest 
 is entirely In the characters." [Westmin- 
 ster Review. 979 
 
 TUEKLA. [by W: ARMSTRONG: 
 Lippineott, 1887.] "Thekla is a pcasantgirl 
 of Bavaria, with a marvelous voice. She 
 is sent to Vienna to study by her miserly 
 father, who hopes one day to win a 
 fortune from her prospective career as 
 an opera singer. Prom the time of her 
 first appearance in public her success is 
 great ; she becomes the intiihate friend of 
 the Princess Weissenberg and is loved by 
 Count Larisch, but refuses to forsake her 
 career to become his wife, because she 
 feels bound to make good her father's de- 
 mands. At a critical moment, however, 
 she inherits a large estate, the half of 
 which she makes over to her father, after 
 which she marries the count. The story 
 is pleasantly written and has some humor 
 in the portrayal of the minor characters. 
 The descriptions of musical perform- 
 ances are admirably done and the wooing 
 of I'hekla is made a charming idyl." 
 [ Boston "Literary World." 980 
 
 THREE MUSKETEERS (The), 
 [claimed by Alexander [Davy] Du- 
 mas : Boutledge.'l " 'Of your heroic 
 heroes,' writes Thackeray, 'I think our 
 friend Monseigneur Athos, Count de la 
 Prere, is my favorite. I have read about 
 him from sunrise to sunset with the ut- 
 most contentment of mind. He has 
 passed throu how many volumes? 40 ? 
 50 '! I wish for my part there were a 
 
 301 
 
BOMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 hundred more, and would never tire of 
 him rescuing prisoners, punishing ruffians, 
 and running scoundrels throu the mid- 
 riff with his most graceful, rapier. Ah 1 
 Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, you are a 
 most magnificent tiao. I think ■ I like 
 D'Artagnan in his own memoirs best. 
 Dumas glorifies him, and makes a mar- 
 shal of him if I remember ritly. The 
 original D'Artagnan was a needy adven- 
 turer who died in exile very early in Louis 
 XIV'b reign. Did you ever read the 
 Chevalier d' Barmenthalf- Did you ever 
 read the Tulipe Noire^&s modest as 
 a story by. Miss Edge worth. I think of 
 the prodigal banquets to which this 
 Lucullus of a man has invited me with 
 thanks and wonder. To what a series of 
 splendid entertainments he has treated 
 me ! Where does he find the money for 
 these prodigious feasts?' They say that 
 all the works bearing Dumas' name are 
 not written by him. Well? does not the 
 chief-cook have aides under him? Did 
 not Eubens' pupils paint on his can- 
 vasses? Had not Lawrence assistants for 
 his back-grounds? "—"The 'Three Mus- 
 keteers ', for example, of which Mr. 
 Thackeray was so fond, was written en- 
 tirely by Augusts Maquet, whose ac- 
 knowledged works prove that the claim ad- 
 vanced on his behalf is not unfounded." 
 [ Fr. Hitchmau in National Review. 981 
 
 TLMARS TWO WORLDS = A MOD- 
 EBN MIBAS. 
 
 TO THE BITTER END [by M.. E.. 
 (Braddon) Maxwell : Maxwell, 1872.] 
 "is carefully, written, and even re-written, 
 and yet it is full of all the old ruf vigor 
 and dash, the keen sense of the many 
 pleasures and evijoymehts of life, the love 
 of green fields and blue skies, and pleasant 
 gardens, and the quick impatience of all 
 that is hollow and conventional ... As 
 for the story itself, it is sufiieiently simple, 
 and here and there is told very prettily 
 and naturally,, and with evident feeling. 
 . . . Such is the 'situation'— an eflfective 
 one, it must be admitted^ And Miss 
 Braddon takes much pains in working it 
 up into an elaborate climax and catastrofe. 
 
 which, when all is sqiid and done, has 
 about it far less of the sensational element 
 than mit have been expected." [ Athe- 
 na:um. 982 
 
 TOILERS OF THE SEA, by V : HUGO : 
 Xow), 1867, see No. 867. 
 
 TOLLA [by Edmund [F. V.] About: 
 Edin., Constable, 1855.] "is a perfectly 
 charniing tale. The incidents of this little 
 story are very simple, but they are made 
 of absorbing Interest by the artistic 
 mastery with which the writer transports 
 us beneath the skies of Italy, and shows 
 us the life of the modern Italian grandee, 
 or the romantic barbarism still existing in 
 the Italian peasant; by the living, unexag- 
 gerated reality of the characters ; and by 
 the pure and tender spirit which' breathes 
 throu the whole narrative, and tempers 
 the french point and vivacity of the style. 
 Since George Sand's "Andre" we remem- 
 ber no picture of character at once ami- 
 able, infirm, and selfish, superior to this 
 of Lello, and the delicacy of the touches 
 which indicate the love of the peasant 
 Menico for his hl-born mistress, is a kind 
 of excellence which "Sand" has never 
 attained." [ Westminster Review.] "Tolla 
 was a social satire on the habits of the loilg- 
 desceuded romau nobility. But the satire 
 was softened by an engaging picture of 
 the simple heroine, and by admirable 
 sketches of the domestic life in the gloomy 
 interior of one of the poverty-stricken 
 roman palaces. It was relieved by bril- 
 liant fotografs of the Campagna and Sa- 
 pine hills, with shepherds in their sheep- 
 skins, shaggy buffaloes, savage hounds, 
 ruined aqueducts, huts of reeds, vine- 
 yards, ollveyards, gardens of wild-flowers, 
 fountains overgrown with mosses and 
 maidenhair, and all the rest of it." 
 [Blackwood's.] — "We learn that Tolla is 
 a i-eal story, that. the letters it contains 
 are translations of the letters written by 
 ■Vittoria Savorelli, and published in Rome, 
 and that the Invention of the author is 
 confined to the manipulation of this story 
 into a novel: thus he had to vary the 
 monotony of the single situation which 
 the story has, to surround the principal 
 
 S02 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 actors with minor actors, and to person- 
 ify the public. The way in which he has 
 done this shows that he possesses the true 
 artistic capacity." [ Leader. 983 
 
 TOM CRINGLE'S LOG. [by Michael 
 Scott: Blackwood, 1S62.] "This boolc 
 Is a reprint from Blackwood's Magazine 
 of 1830, which gained from a hi 
 authority the praise of being 'the most 
 brilliant series of Magazine papefs of the 
 time.' We can say, from personal ex- 
 perience, that they are not the sort of 
 thing to put in a boy's way when he,6t to 
 Icurn his lessons ... Having read this 
 book: with all a boy's relish for illicit 
 pleasure, we now find, after the lapse of 
 more years than we like to reckon, that 
 the task of revuiug it is rendered easiei' 
 when it comes in the shape of a, new 
 edition, to entice from their tasks, a new 
 generation of school-boys.; When we 
 say that Tom Cringle was a midshipman, 
 and that this book is the history of his 
 adventures. It may perhaps be thSt that 
 the reading public has had enuf of such 
 books . . . Tom's adventures among the 
 smugglers, privateers, or pirates, who 
 in those daj^s haunted the West Indian 
 seas, are various, and told with admirable 
 spirit and grafic power. He gets kid- 
 napped by some American*^, part of the 
 crew of 'the tidy little 'Wave',' one of 
 whom, he says, told , him that 'If I was 
 tired of my life, he calculated that I had 
 better speak as loud again' . . . We can 
 only hope that all readers of this and 
 other chapters of 'Tom Cringle's Log' 
 win be as well pleased with them as we 
 have been, on our last as well as on our 
 first perusal." [ Saturday Review. 984 
 
 TRAGIC COMEDIANS (The), [by 
 G : Meredith : Chapman, 1881.] "There 
 is a process familiar to those who have 
 studied latin composition by the name of 
 oratio obllqua. Mr. Meredith's 'Tragic 
 Comedians' is a study In oblique narra- 
 tion; he has turned the 1st person of his 
 original into the 3rd and added comments. 
 It accordingly becomes somewhat difficult 
 to see what there is in the book to criti- 
 cize. The plot and much of the conver- 
 
 sation are duo to Mrs. von Racowltza, and 
 the interest its characters arouse Is as 
 much owing to historical suggestion as to 
 the art of the novelist. What remains as 
 Mr. Meredith's is his style, and this, as 
 everyone knows, is peculiarly his. Mr. 
 Meredith has a habit of condensing epi- 
 grams into adverbs and allegories into 
 adjectives, which render his sentences 
 stimulating, but at the same time some- 
 what hard reading ... It is somewhat 
 difficult to judge this novel 'on its merits.' 
 If we had not r,ead Mrs. von Racowitza's 
 book we mit have placed 'The Tragic 
 Comedians' very hi among the brilliant 
 productions with which Mr. Meredith has 
 enriched english fiction. And certainly 
 readers who are Ignorant of the original 
 will do well to read Mr. Meredcth's adap- 
 tion, which is as stimulating In style, and 
 at least as lucid in arrangement, as any- 
 thing else he has given to the world." 
 [Athena;um. 985 
 
 TRAIL OF THE SERPENT (The) 
 [by M.p E.. (Braddon) Maxwell: 
 Ward & Lock, 1861.] is "very spiritedly 
 told. It begins with. 2 murders and a 
 suicide, diverges into an attempt at poi- 
 soning, and has a dumb detective police 
 officer, with a half-mad scapegrace un- 
 justly convicted of murder, as its heroes. 
 ISiose who like an english novel re- 
 sembling in its incidents, a french ro- 
 mance, and repeating in its best-written 
 passages many of the peculiarities of 
 Dickens, will bo greatly pleased with 
 'The Trail of the Serpent.' » [London 
 Review. 98G 
 
 TRAJAN, [by H: F. Keenan: Cos- 
 sell, 1885.] "The title page of Mr. Keen- 
 iin'Si novel, Trajan, without being dis- 
 tinctly apologetic, may not unreasonably 
 be taken to disclose the author's conscious- 
 ness of that characteristic of his work 
 which will be most likely to invite criti- 
 cism. If the reader becomes impatient, 
 as he very likely will, at the frequent 
 eddies which divert the stream of the 
 narrative, he will please to remember 
 that the authoi* forewarned him, when he 
 began his voyage, that the course was not 
 
 803 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 clear. Mr. Keenan's Iiero is a young 
 american artist, living in Paris at the hit 
 of the Second Empire, and critical of the 
 times throu his affiliation with men who 
 afterward were active, in the scenes which 
 followed sedan. The other principal 
 characters are the members of a rich, cul- 
 tivated american family, and of a french 
 family which for 2 generations had been 
 domiciled in America, but had returned 
 to its more natural french circumstances. 
 The time of the story is the year between 
 May 1870, and May 1871, with necessary 
 references to the history of the several 
 characters. The place Is chiefly Paris 
 and its nfiborhood, with occasional brief 
 transfers of action to America. It will 
 be easily seen how lurid a background 
 was possible for the figures which are to 
 engage the reader's attention." [ At- 
 lantic. 987 
 
 TEANSFORMATIOK, see MABBLM 
 FAUN. 
 
 TRANSFORMED, or Three Weeks in 
 a Lifetime [by Florence Montgom- 
 ery: Lippincott, 1886.] "is like all 
 Miss Montgomery's books, written to in- 
 culcate moral and religious truth, and 
 shows how the ministrations of a good 
 little boy softened a hard worldly heart. 
 John Ramsay has devoted his life to the 
 acquirement of wealth for the sake of be- 
 ing able to buy back the lost family estate. 
 By the time he has gained his coveted 
 riches, he has, nevertheless, lost all capac- 
 ity for pleasure. All the illusions which 
 make life beautiful have flatly vanished ; 
 family ties are meaningless and old asso- 
 , ciations devoid of pleasure. Many of the 
 scenes between the old man and the little 
 boy are handled with a delicate sympa^ 
 thetic touch, and the book is well suited 
 for those who like a story, but prefer that 
 it should not invade the territory of man's 
 actual existence." [American. 988 
 
 TRASEADEN HALL [by W. G. 
 Hamley: Blackwood,. 1882.]' "is cer- 
 tainly above the average of contemporary 
 english novels. The plot develops too 
 slowly, and the action perhaps extends 
 over too long a period, but these defects 
 
 hardly strike the reader; he floats on, 
 down a gentle stream of rational and 
 agreeable reading which, tho never very 
 exciting, is never either frivolous nor 
 morbid. The scene is laid partly in a 
 country town In England, and partly in 
 Spain and Portugal. The time extends 
 from the beginning of the Peninsular war 
 to the Beace so deadly won at Waterloo. 
 The representation of the country town 
 life is fotograflc rather than pictorial, 
 thereby sometimes recalling Miss Austen ; 
 but regimental life, whether at home or 
 abroad, in peace or in war, is painted out 
 of a fulness of knowledge which permits 
 of idealization without any sacrifice of 
 accuracy. We have perhaps said enuf 
 to show that it is well worth reading." 
 [Westminster Review. 989 
 
 TRICOTRIN. [by"ODlDA", i. e., L.. 
 De la Kam6.] "The passionate subtlety 
 and vigor which distinguished the works 
 of C Bronte are translated by 'Ouida' 
 into sensuous animalism glossed over with 
 words which rather indicate impurity 
 than hide it. In the first there was some- 
 thing refreshing and healthful, despite 
 the gloom in which the authoress con- 
 stantly enveloped" her pictures, a gloom 
 like that in which Beethoven liked to 
 compose ; in fhe second, we get theatrical 
 llts half down, a melodramatic strumming 
 of fiddles, and a notion of something going 
 on under the stage which is done in a 
 few houses at Christmas under the mistle- 
 toe." [ London Review. 990 
 
 TRUMPET MAJOR (The) [byT: 
 Hakdy: Smith, 1880.] "is not Mr. 
 Hardy's best, but it has much of his best 
 work in it, and the subject is one calcul- 
 ated to show the author in his happiest 
 lit. The heroine, Anne Garland, belongs 
 to a class of women who are found only 
 In Mr. Hardy's novels. Anne is person- 
 ally lovely and attractive ; she is, moreover, 
 amiable. Innocent, and generous and ten- 
 der-hearted, and yet she makes woful 
 havoc of the heart of a worthy man. 
 She is selfish, as Mr. Hardy's heroines are 
 selfish,— not wilfully or intellectually, but 
 by dint of her inborn, involuntaryj uu- 
 
 801 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 conscious, emotional organism. She 
 i-ecognizcs John Lovcday's goodness, his 
 self-abnegation, his lovableness; and she ' 
 can no more justify herself in not loving 
 him than she can in loving his scamp of a 
 brother; nevertheless, and despite all 
 obstacles of self-respect, gratitude, and 
 expediency, she marries Bob, and sends 
 John to die on a Spanish battlefield. It is 
 Mr. Hardy's dellt to show his chosen 
 women doing these things;, a hasty criti- 
 cism mit deem him cynical, but to us thfe 
 judgment seems uncalled for. The truth 
 is, such a character is not only picturesque 
 in itself, but the cause of pieturesqueness 
 in others, and is, therefore, eminently 
 suited for literary purposes. Compare a 
 woman lilie Anne Garland with a woman 
 lilte — to take an extreme case — David 
 Copperfleld's Agnes, or any of Scott's 
 pattern heroines. Wben a woman is 
 governed by reason, conforms to the can- 
 ons of respectability, obeys the dictates 
 of prudence and strict propriety, and 
 sacrifices herself on the altar of what she 
 is pleased to deem her womanhood, the 
 less we hear of that woman [ in Action ] , 
 the better we are content. What we wish, 
 and what artistic beauty demands, is 
 color, warmth, impulse, sweet perversity, 
 pathetic error ; an inability to submit the 
 heart to the guidance of the head, a hap- 
 piness under conditions against which a 
 rational, judgment protests ; and all this, 
 and more, we get in Anne Garland and 
 her kindred . . . The story, from beginning 
 to end, is conceived and put together with 
 capital ingenuity." [Spectator. 991 
 
 TWO CORONETS, [by M.. Agnes 
 Tincker: Houghton, 1889.] "Several 
 of the characters are Americans; and in 
 defiance of all dramatic unities, the scene 
 constantly shifts from Italy to Maine, 
 while the time covers the long period em- 
 braced between 1830 and 1874 . . . 'Two 
 coronets' indicates the titles and estates 
 of the heroine, Beatrice, bom the ritful 
 heiress of the Giorgini and Alinori, but 
 who becomes the victim of a conspiracy 
 by which her father is killed outrit, and 
 her mother so cruelly calumniated that 
 
 she dies of grief, while Beatrice herself is 
 left to grow up nameless and penniless, a 
 dependent in the very houses which rit- 
 fully belong to her. The real story is of 
 Beatrice and her life-long efibrt to regain 
 her name and property ... In contrast 
 with Beatrice is Atalanta, the american 
 girl, who comes to Italy and finds her 
 fate involved in that of the Alinori and 
 Giorgini. Atalanta is a, charming creat- 
 ure, and her caressed and garded girl- 
 hood, surrounded by tenderness, worship, 
 and exclusion, showing as it docs all that 
 Beatrice 6t to have had, but lost, must be 
 accepted as a sort of vindication of the 
 elder woman who has had to fit for her 
 own, and contest every inch of her way. 
 The book is full of charm, touched every- 
 where by the felicities of a style which is 
 the author's own , and as poetic and deli- 
 cate as it is individual." [ American. 992 
 TWO DAUGHTERS OF ONE RACE. 
 [Die Andere) by "W. Hbimburg", 
 i. e.. Bertha Behrens: Worthington, 
 1889.] "That a riovel which has no plot, 
 hardly any incident, and very few char- 
 acters, may be entertaining is proved by 
 this one. Helena and C'arlotta von Wer- 
 themare the 2 dauters in question. Hel- 
 ena tells the story; but it is her sister 
 whose selfishness and caprice, pride, and 
 recklessness make it. The 2 girls with 
 their grandmother, reduced to poverty,, 
 are befriended by old-time acquaintances, 
 the Von Rodens. Helena falls in love 
 with Fritz von I'.oden and he with Car- 
 lotta; but Carlotta marries a princeling 
 from whom she has to be divorced 'for 
 court reasons ;' Fritz goes to the war in 
 France, comes home wounded, and re- 
 covers from his wound and his passion 
 to conceive a new one for Helena. Car- 
 lotta also marries again, and that is all. 
 But the pictures of the simple and refined 
 home life of the Von Rodens ; the glimpses 
 of the ridiculous little court of Rotenburg, 
 witfc its palace finished in the style of the 
 first french empire; the pranks of the 
 young- prince with his tit-rope dancers, 
 his elefant and his actors, leave not a dull 
 page, and the reader soon begins to feel 
 
 305 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 some regard for the stupidest and least 
 respectable ol the persons to whom he is 
 introduced." [Critic. 993 
 
 TWO LITTLE WOODEN SHOES. 
 [by "Ouida", i. e., L.. Dc la Ram6: 
 Chapman, 1874.] "The earlier portion 
 of Ouida's new story is, in spite of the 
 writer's mannerisms, pleasing and inter- 
 esting. Evidentlyj the author took at 
 first a great deal of trouble with the char- 
 acter of B6b6e,' and with success. She 
 also has bestowed much pains on the 
 descriptions of liruxelles and the nfibor- 
 ing country in the first chapters ... But 
 these are minor' faults; and the tale is so 
 graceful, and the writer's power so con- 
 siderable, that readers will forgive even 
 the more serious defects we have men- 
 tioned." [AtheniEUm. 994 
 
 UNCLE TOM'S CABIN, [by H. 
 [E..] (B.) Stowe :, Boston, V^etceSS, 1852.] 
 "It has always seemed to us that the anti- 
 slavery element in the 2 former novels by 
 Mrs. Stowe stood in the way of a full 
 appreciation of her remarkable genius, at 
 least in her own country. It was so easy 
 to account for the unexampled popularity 
 of 'Uncle Tom' by attributing it to a 
 cheap sympathy with sentimental filan- 
 thropyl . . . We had the advantage of 
 reading that truly extraordinary book for 
 the first time in Paris, long after the 
 whirl of excitement produced by its pub- 
 lication had subsided, iu the seclusion of 
 distance, and with a judgment unbiassed 
 by those political sympathies which it is 
 impossible, perhaps unwise, to avoid at 
 home. We felt then, audi we believe 
 now, that the secret of Mrs. Stowc's pow- 
 er lay in that same genius by which the 
 great successes in creative literature have 
 always been achieved,— the genius that 
 instinctively goes rit to the organic ele- 
 ments of human nature, whether under a 
 white skin or a black, and which disre- 
 gards as trivial the conventional and fac- 
 titious notions which make so large a part 
 both of our thinking and feeling." [ Ja. 
 It. Lowell.] — "There are certainly some 
 curious aspects of this comparison. A- 
 larmists as to the undue influence of 
 
 forein literature may well take note of 
 the fact that of these 10 leading favorites 
 ' all but 2 are of american orlgiu. Curious 
 is also the disappearance not only from 
 this list, but from the wider detailed list, 
 of some earlier favorites,- as Miss Edge- 
 worth. Most extraordinary of all is the 
 prolonged supremacy of 'Uncle 'I'om's 
 Cabin', which excels all competitors by 
 nearly 2 to 1 ; and this among a race of 
 children [of public schools in Cambridge, 
 ^Jass.] bonl long since slavery was 
 abolished! One eager little girl in the 
 seventh grade, and therefore probably 
 about twelve years old, writes at the head 
 of her abstract of 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' : 
 "I think this book is lovely. I cried more 
 over this book than any other." It is 
 interesting to note, moreover, that this 
 ardent young reader has a name unmis- 
 takably Irish." [T : W. Higginson. 995 
 
 UNDER A CHARM j Bentley,l'Sn = 
 VINETA. 
 
 UNDER SLIEVE-BAN [by Ro. E: 
 Fkancillon: Holt, 1881.] "is a regular 
 Irish story of the Lever type, full of gay- 
 ety and spirits, crowded with adventures 
 and 'situations', interesting for its narra- 
 tive rather than for the character paint- 
 ing, piquant, rapid, and humorous. In 
 construction and execution it is a drama 
 rather than a novel . . . From beginning 
 to end there is a sort of effervescence of 
 wit and fun, and a collection of 'bulls' 
 mit be made from its pages that would 
 reflect credit upon Sir Boyle Roche him- 
 self." [Appleton's. 996 
 
 UNDER THE STORK'S NEST [by 
 Adolf E. Katsch: Lippincott, 1875.] 
 "is a queer story. It is full of incidents, — 
 a duel, a false marriage, murders, mysteri- 
 ous disappearances, etc., which make a 
 really fascinating drama. Intrinsically 
 objectionable and repulsive- as these ma- 
 terials are, they are so treated by the au- 
 thor that their effect is not seriously un- 
 pleasant. The plot of the story is rather 
 harum-scarum, and the style is eccentric; 
 but pleasant humor and many odd situa- 
 tions make the took readable." [ Boston 
 "Literary World." 997 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 UNDERTAKER (THE), see CAP- 
 TAIN'S DA UGHTEB. 
 
 VANITY FAIR. [1S47.] "Pew more 
 fascinating novels were ever written. 
 All Thackeray is in it. All the^acrid, 
 remorseless sarcasm, &\\ the rollicking 
 fun, all the easy banter^, all the, wonder- 
 ful flow of slang, of which no gentleman 
 was ever perhaps a more thoro master. 
 This was his first work; written while he 
 had his reputation- : to make, and which at 
 once made his reputation. There Is no 
 cirelessness in it ; every scone is elabor- 
 ated to the last degree of minuteness ; and 
 the result is an effect of perfect case, such 
 as none but a master can hope to attain. 
 And the strangest feature of the whole 
 book is the keen relish which the writer ■ 
 evidently has for his work. Never was 
 gathered such an odious company ; never 
 such a coil of swindling, hypocancy, in- 
 trigue, and unmitigated folly unrelieved 
 except by the tireless devotion of poor 
 Dobbin to the flattest of Amelias: and yet 
 Thackeray not only revels himself among 
 this 'tas d'hommes perdu« de dettes et de 
 crimes', but makes us enjoy it, almost as 
 much as he. What other writer could, 
 out of such materials, make any l)ut the 
 most disagreeable of books? To us, no 
 one mark of Thackeray's genius is more 
 striking than this,— that, in ".Vanity Fair" 
 as in his other novels, but more in this 
 than in the others, we read from end 
 to end this niostdismal of histories, sur- 
 rounded by scamps of- every description, 
 by schemers, rakes, misers, cowards, and , 
 fools ; annoyed, protesting, provoked, but 
 fascinated. Only Dobbin's foolish fidelity 
 redeems the wretched story, as Colonel 
 Newcome's foolish fondness, retleems an- 
 other, hardly less wretched.^' [Christian 
 Examiner.] — "Vanity Fair, tho not in my 
 opinion the best, is> the best known of 
 Thiiekeray's works. Readers, tho they 
 are dellted, are not satisfied with it, he- 
 cause Amelia Sedley is silly, rbecause 
 Osborne is selfish, because Dobbiu is ridic- 
 ulous, and because Becky Sharp alone is 
 clever and successful, — while at the same 
 time she is as abominable as the genius of 
 
 a satirist can make her. But let him or 
 her who has read the book think of the 
 lessons which have been left behind by it. 
 Amelia is a true loving woman, who can 
 .love her husband even tho he be selfish — 
 loving, as a woman should love, with 
 enduring devotion. Whatever is charm- 
 ing in her attracts ; what is silly repels. 
 The character of Osborne is necessary to 
 that of Dobbin, who is one of the finest 
 heroes ever drawn. Unselfish, braVe, 
 modest, forgiving, affectionate, manly all 
 over,— his is just the character to teach a 
 lesson.. Telia young man that he 6t to bo- 
 modest, that he 6t to think more of the 
 heart of the girl he loves than of his own,, 
 that even in the pursuit of fame he should" 
 sacrifice himself to others, and he will 
 ridicule your advice and you too. But if 
 you can touch his sentiment, get at him in 
 his closet,— or perhaps rather his smoking 
 room,— without his knowing it, bring a 
 tear to his eye and perhaps a throb to his 
 throat, then he will have learned some- 
 thing of that which your less impressive 
 Jeoture was incapable of teaching! As for 
 Becky Sharp, it is not only that she was 
 false, unfeminine, and. heartless. Such, 
 attributes no doubt arc in themselves, un- 
 attractive. But there is not a turn in the 
 tolling of the story which, in spite of her- 
 success, does not show the reader how 
 little is gained, how much is lost, by the 
 exercise of that depraved ingenuity." 
 [ Anthony Trollope. 998 
 
 VENETIA. [by Lord Beaconsfield : 
 1837.] "Better in some respects was 
 'Venetia' which quickly followed 'Henri- 
 etta Temple', and which has for its central 
 th6t the intetise love of a dauter for her 
 unknown father, separated from her as 
 Byron was from Ada. In many other 
 respects there is a close reproduction in 
 'Venetia' of incidents and exhibitions of 
 temperament in Byron's career, and no 
 loss Shelley's. As the melancholy events 
 in the lives of the 2 poets were of very re- 
 cent occurrence when the novel was 
 written, its use of them, especially its 
 blending of them with fictitious events, 
 was perhaps unwarrantable; but as a 
 
 30T 
 
EOMANTIC KOVELS. 
 
 Study Of cnaracter and conduct In certain 
 strange ISses, cunqingly wr6t out without 
 much plot, 'Venetia' is superior to most 
 of Disraeli's novels." [Athenseum, 999 
 VESTIGIA, [by "G : Fleming", i. e., 
 Julia Constance Fletcher : Roberts, 1884.] 
 "Italy is again the scene, but in exchang- 
 ing Kome for Livorno, and in choosing her 
 characters from humble folk, the author 
 has I placed herself on new ground. Yet 
 to name the characters in 'Vestigia' is to 
 suggest familiar and oft-tried combina- 
 tions—an old fisherman and his lovely 
 dauter, an ardent young patriot with his 
 foster brother, handsome, gallant, pre- 
 vailing, and, in the background a secret 
 society striving to win liberty by the hard- 
 est of tyranny. But the reader who pre- 
 supposes therefrom a commonplace novel 
 will' find that he has never been so com- 
 pletely and agreeably surprised. Such a 
 story puts the revuer to e?:treme disad- 
 vantage. To praise it as it deserves would 
 be treason to his readers as well as to the 
 author, for due comment upon the plot 
 would betray its secret. Not that the in- 
 terest, the surpassing charm of the story 
 depends on mystery, or on involved in- 
 trigue. It is not the solving of a riddle, 
 but the development of 2 or 3 simple, 
 noble motives ; and the conclusion, how- 
 ever tragic, throws over the whole pre- 
 vious story a clear white lit of truth and 
 purity . . . Thfire is only so much of the 
 fair Italian sky and sea as to throw into 
 relief the figures ; but so deft so sympa- 
 thetic is the choice, the few pages give 
 the sense that all Italy is in the book. 
 It is like a returning sunshine to feel that 
 humble life need not be low life, that 
 laborious days need not be sordid and 
 base, that hope, filial love, and unsel- 
 fish devotion illumine the poorest home." 
 {Nation.]— "The originality of the story, 
 the touching pathos of the plot, the minor 
 excellences compared with the vivid por- 
 trayal of character and the hi moral pur- 
 pose which pervades and dominates all", 
 give it hi value, "The scene is laid in 
 Italy, but we are not detained by descrip- 
 tions of its beauty nor charmed by the 
 
 subtle witchery of sky or land or sea. 
 The writer is too intent upon the tragedy 
 in which the characters are involved to 
 linger by the way, oy revel in the soft 
 charm of the sunnj land. 'Vestigia' 
 deals with the great questions of civil 
 liberty and the divine rit of kings ... In 
 accepting the mission, the struggle be- 
 tween love and duty is finely shown, and 
 the strength and weakness of the brilliant 
 youth are br6t out with genuine power. 
 In the passages between the lovers we 
 are refreshed by the pure and elevated 
 tone, the sweet sincerity and perfect 
 trust." [Manhattan. 1000 
 
 VICAR OF "WAKEFIELD (The) [by 
 Oliver Goldsmith : 1786.] "is a prose 
 idyl, the first domestic novel. It is also 
 the first novel which contains no inde- 
 cent expression. To critical eyes it ap- 
 pears full of absurdities, inconsistencies, 
 and improbabilities. The maxims seem 
 sententious, the villain a stage ruffian, the 
 incognito of BurchCll a theatrical mys- 
 tery. Yet results only prove the truth of 
 Goldsmith's advertisement, that a book 
 'may be amusing with numerous errors.' 
 The 'Vicar of Wakefield' is better known 
 than many works of a more nearly per- 
 fect character : few books have furnished 
 so many literary allusions. Full of .practi- 
 cal wisdom, cheerful fontentment, hu- 
 morous observation, and without a touch 
 of malice, it has the added charm of the 
 unconscious ease of perfect simplicity. 
 Dr. Primrose is one of those characters 
 which posterity never allows to die ... 
 No greater praise can be bestowed upon a 
 book than Goethe's testimony, that it 
 exercised a soothing influence over his 
 mind at a crisis in his mental history, and 
 inspired him with a new ideal of life and 
 letters." [Quarterly Eeview.] "It has 
 been truly said of the Vicar that it con- 
 tains more improbabilities than can be 
 found in any other work of the same 
 length, and yet it remains the most popu- 
 lar and delitful novel in our language." 
 [Spectator. 1001 
 
 VILLETTE [by C (Bronte) 
 NiCHOLLS.] "There are 8 method? pf 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 treating the human aharacter, correspond- 
 ing to the 3 principal classes into which 
 the fraternity of novelists may be most 
 appropriately divided. In the flrst of 
 these classes are to be placed the favored 
 few, whom STature has gifted with real 
 conceptive genius. They paint not so 
 much what they have seen, as what 
 imaginative Intuition enables them to 
 shadow forth from the recesses of their 
 minds. They form an ideal ; and instinct, 
 rather thau experience, convinces man- 
 kind of its inherent truthfulness. Millions 
 of people have felt Hamlet or Lear to be 
 natural characters, not because they ever 
 saw anybody like them, but because a 
 h!er sense than sit is appealed to, and 
 something within bears witness to their 
 reality and consistency throudtit. Of this 
 hier order of story-tellers, C .. Bront6 may 
 be accepted as the type. She goes to the 
 v^ry core of her characters and works 
 gradually outward. Their closest secrets 
 are those she knows the best, and interests 
 us most about. Their outward demeanor, 
 the events of their life, the evolution of 
 the tale, concern us merely as evidencing 
 the process which is going on .within. 
 We compare them with nothing but our 
 consciousness, and unhesitatingly pro- 
 nounce them to be true." [London Re- 
 view. 1002 
 TINETA. [by "E. Werner", Bos- 
 ton, Gill, 1877.] "German novels have 
 for a long time been popular among amer- 
 icau readers, who have swallowed in- 
 discriminately whatever publishers have 
 seen fit to give them; but among the 
 rather motley collection thus made, "Wer- 
 jier's novels deserve good mention. Vi- 
 neta deals mainly with life near the 
 . Polish frontier during the revolution of 
 1863; but it is by no means filled with mat- 
 ters^ not belonging to a novel. On the con- 
 trary, the usual subject of fiction has due 
 prominence, and a new turn is given to 
 the story of the young girl with 2 lovers, 
 to which the picture of political intrigue 
 and rebellion forms an impressive back- 
 ground. Often in german novels there is 
 to be noticed a tendency to exaggerate the 
 
 qualities of the different characters : the 
 indolent man, for example, never lifts a 
 finger ; the ruf man is always ruf as truly 
 as the genteel lady of the game is always 
 genteel ; but here there is no such work- 
 ing in plain tints without llts and shad- 
 ows. The mental ripening of 'Waldemar, 
 the frivolity of Leo, the frankness of 
 Wanda, were clearly seen by the author 
 and are clearly portrayed. The plot is an 
 ingenious one, and the chance it gives the 
 author to draw the various conflicting 
 interests of the ambitious princess, for 
 instance, who is intriguing for Poland, 
 and of her son, who is averse to such 
 doings, of the girl who is enthusiastic in 
 behalf of her down-trodden country, etc., 
 has not been neglected. There are very 
 few recent german novels with more life 
 in them than this. The reader does not 
 have a sort of sympathetic pain with the 
 subject, which is, as it were, dragged out 
 to cover more space than it should prop- 
 erly do ; on the contrary, there is decided' 
 I'cpose and certainty in the author's treat- 
 ment. The legend of Vineta, it may be 
 said, by the way, has wonderfully little to 
 do with the story, which is good, for all 
 that." [Atlantic] "It has. the interest 
 attaching to a fresh scene and unfamiliar 
 types. It relates the gradual triumf of the 
 spell of love over the national family 
 prejudices which divide a polish countess 
 and a german landowner in her native 
 country. Both are ardent patriots, and 
 both are influenced by family circum- 
 stances which place them in the strongest 
 antagonism. But, in the end, the manly 
 honesty and nobleness of Waldemar pre- 
 vail over the hostility which Wanda tries 
 to cherish against the enemy of her coun- 
 try and the supplanter of her race, and 
 the victory is complete when she saves 
 the german from a murderous attack of 
 her own countrymen, and when Walde- 
 mar at the risk of his own life rescues her 
 father from the russian vengeance for his 
 share in unsuccessful insurrection. The 
 characters of the main actors, and of 
 Princess IJaratowska, whose affection is 
 as hard to be won by the son of her first 
 
 309 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 marriage as is the hand of her equally 
 patriotic niece ; of the sensitive professor, 
 whose devotion to his pupil first tames the 
 harsher elements in Nordeck's nature; 
 and, in a sitter way, of the merry Gretch- 
 en, and her unlucky admirer, the fussy 
 officer of police, are exceedingly well 
 drawn; while, more Germanico, there is 
 a funny bit of mysticism in the story, 
 which plays a vague part in uniting the 
 discordant alfections of the lovers." 
 [Athenaeum.] — "Novel readers owe a 
 debt of gratitude to the translator of this 
 fascinating story. The translation [ Tyr- 
 rell ] is so well done that one would never 
 suspect the book to be othei( than of 
 english origin, and the narrative is so 
 absorbing that few who take up the book 
 will lay it down without finishing it . . . 
 Nearly all the fascination of the book 
 centres round the commanding figure of 
 the hero, and the skill with which the 
 reader is gradually drawn into feeling an 
 intense personal interest in his sorrows, 
 his bitter struggles, and his dangers and 
 triumfs is of no mean order . . . How 
 the struggle between love and race ended 
 we must not disclose. "We have revealed 
 enuf to make known the characters of this 
 story, and can assure its readers, that its 
 interest is maintained to the last page." 
 [Spectator. 1003 
 
 , SAME) ("Under a Charm"), Bent- 
 ley, 1877. ' 
 
 VIOLETTA. [ from the German of 
 Ursula Z. von ManteufFel : Lippin- 
 cott, 1SS6.] "The blas6 reader of romances 
 will sit up late over this one; and the 
 most inveterate disciple of the new school 
 will enjoy this spirited and tender story, 
 which is by no means destitute of plot and 
 Incident, tho owing its interest equally to 
 the perfection of its detail. The book is 
 quite a novelty as a variation of the 
 popular version of a prima-donna in 
 private life, tho the new-version is by no 
 means a goody-goody one ; and every per- 
 sonality in it, tho there are more than the 
 usual number of characters, is as clearly 
 and carefully drawn as if each were the 
 only one. The story is thus remarkable 
 
 for its even perfection ; it has not a dull 
 page, nor a superfluous paragraf , nor an 
 uninteresting character in it, and it has 
 the great merit of giving on the whole a 
 noble view of life." [Critic. 1004 
 
 VISCOUNT OF BKAGELONNE, see 
 COUNT OF MONTE CBISTO. 
 
 VULTUEE MAIDEN (The), [by "WlL- 
 
 HEMINE (BiRCIiyvON HiLLERN; Taucll- 
 
 nitz, 1876.] "A brutal father, a wilful dau- 
 ter, a swarm of lovers, all daring mountian- 
 eers, superstitious retainers, rivalries, fits, 
 a peace-making priest, with faith in 
 images, furnish elements for a tragedy, 
 the scene of which is the savagely roman- 
 tic Oetzthal. Elsa, the dauter, is the 
 pride of her father, the Head-peasant, be- 
 cause of her strength and fearlessness. 
 Before her 14th year she, hanging by a rope 
 over a precipice, captures a young vul- 
 ture, kills the parent bird, and is known 
 always afterwards as Vulture Elly. Two 
 years later, she sees a handsome young 
 fellow who has killed a bear — Bear-Joseph, 
 and falls so entirely in love with him, that 
 no other aspirant has the smallest chance 
 of winning her. Sunshine fills h.er heart, 
 but is soon driven out by a blow from her 
 father's staff, which lays her senseless. 
 That blow she never forgives : it changes 
 her whole nature. A lover is forced on 
 her : she knocks him down with an axe ; 
 is banished to the uppermost pasture 
 among the glaciers, and in that dreary 
 spot endures solitude and suftering while 
 her heart grows harder. Does Bear- 
 Joseph care for her? that is her one ab- 
 sorbing thot. She had met him, in a 
 furious storm, one day carrying a helpless 
 maiden across a pass; and from that 
 moment feared the worst. Her father 
 dies. She goes down to her old home, 
 becomes Head-peasantess , but Bear- Joseph 
 holds aloof, and one day moofes her at a 
 dance. In her rage, she promises to 
 marry the man who shall lay him dead. 
 Remorse seizes her on hearing rifle-shots, 
 she rushes forth in the darkness, hears 
 faint cries for help from the deep, misty 
 gorge of the roaring Ache :. insists on be- 
 ing let down by a rope, a fearful adventure ; 
 
 810 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 but is at length hauled up, with Beai> 
 Joseph in her arms, deM or . dying. The 
 wouiulcd man recovers; the young gir), 
 whose appearance had caused so much 
 trouble, turns out to bo a sister, not a 
 sweet-heart, and, in the end. Vulture 
 Elly and Bear-Joseph are married . . . 
 The book is worth reading; it presents 
 "a powerful picture of, the inner life of a 
 tyrolcan village." The story, however, 
 notwithstanding the marriage, is essential- 
 ly atragedy." [Athenaium. 1005 
 
 , SAME ("Geier-Wally"), Apple- 
 ton, 1876. 
 
 , ("Elsa and her "Vulture") • transl. 
 
 by Wallace, Longman, 1876. 
 
 WANDA, [by "Ouim", i. e., L.. 
 De la Ram«: Lippineott, 1888.] "The 
 scene is laid in the mountain fastnesses of 
 Austria; and those who remember Oui- 
 da's descriptions of scenery will be glad to' 
 find themselves with her, no longer in 
 rose-scented boudoirs, but under the clear 
 shining skies of snow-covered hills, with 
 keen breezes in the air, and stars glitter- 
 ing in the frosty heavens. The surround- 
 ings are still elegant . . . But this time, it 
 is a noble woman who wears the ivory 
 velvet and pearls, living in her beautiful 
 castle a life stately and' austere; and 
 Wanda will, we believe, take her place 
 among the great heroines of fiction. It is 
 a story of loye, but it is the love of a hus- 
 band and wife ; the long courtship is full 
 of dignity and sweet reserve, and the 
 picture given of nine years of married 
 happiness is one which we believe has 
 never been excelled ; while it is perhaps 
 unnecessary to add that the children play 
 a part in the drama unequalled for ex- 
 quisite appreciation of children's natures. 
 Husband and wife separate at last, not 
 because they are tired of each other, or 
 have been unfaithful ; but because the 
 wife has diWovered that in one point her 
 husband has deceived her, and she is a 
 woman to believe that where there is one 
 iraud there can be no truth. Sympathy 
 is curiously enlisted for the husband ; for 
 he is no mere base-born impostor. In 
 assuming the title to which he had no r!t 
 
 tho he wore it so well, he wronged no 
 ritful heir; and that he had inherited 
 illegally his instincts of a gentleman and 
 his desire for luxury only hStens one's 
 appreciation of his temptation . . . The 
 story is br6t to- an exquisite and artistic 
 close, with forgiveness sealed by death." 
 [Critic. 1006 
 
 WAR AND PEACE [by Lyof N. 
 Tolstoi : Gottsberger, 18870 "'s incom- 
 parably his greatest book. It has been 
 called the russian epic, and in the vastncss 
 of its scope as Inthe completeness o^ its 
 performance it is not unworthy the nkme. 
 It is the story of the great conflict between 
 Koutouzoft' and Russia and Bonaparte and 
 Prance ; it begins some years before Aus- 
 terlitz, and it ends when Borodino and 
 Moscow are already ancient histoi-y. The 
 canvas is immense; the crowd of figures 
 and the world of incidents it is made to 
 contain are almost bewildering -. . . But 
 when all is said in blame which can be, so 
 much remains to praise that one scarce 
 knows where to begin. His pictures of 
 warfare are incomparable. None has felt 
 and reproduced as he has done what may 
 be called the intimacy of battle— the feel- 
 ings of the individual soldier, the passion 
 and excitement, the terror and the fury, 
 which, taken collectively, make up. the 
 influence which repi'csents the advance or 
 retreat of an army in combat. But, also, 
 in a far greater, degree none has dealt so 
 •wonderfully With the vaster incidents, the 
 more tremendous Issues." [Saturday 
 Review. 1007 
 
 WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE 
 (A.), [by Fk. B. Hakte: Chatto, 1889.] 
 "The ward herself is a delitful creature, 
 and the mingling of courage, frankness, 
 impulse, and refinement, real innocence, 
 and arch, lovely girlishness, in her 
 mother's story, and her own pathetic 
 ■ignorance, are described with skill not to 
 be surpassed. The dashing originality of 
 the notion of the "trust" is captivating, 
 and the group of men who furnish the 
 action of a story composed of humorous 
 - and pathetic .elements after the unique 
 fashion of Mr. Harte, is perhaps his most 
 
 311 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 remarkalile achiev.cment in prose." 
 [Spectator. 1008 
 
 WATERS OF HERCULES (The), [by 
 "E. D. Gbrakd", 1. e., Dorothea Ge- 
 rard and Emily (Gerard) Laszows- 
 KA : Blackwood, 1885.] "With an unusual 
 play of fancy in the design, and consider- 
 able originality in the treatment, 'The 
 Waters of Hercules' must be pronounced 
 a most agreeable work of fiction. But its 
 chief merit lies in the local coloring, which 
 in itself, and quite apart from the story, 
 charms the reader. The scene is laid in 
 Lower Hungary, on the borders of Rou- 
 mania, and the people, scenery, and 
 superstitions of this wild region are vivid- 
 ly depicted. The whole story turns upon 
 the Gaura Dracului, a fathomless abyss 
 ' hidden in the heart of the densely wooded 
 mountains, whfire, according to an ancient 
 legend, a roman soldier, of the time of 
 Trajan, had slain his wife in a frenzy of 
 jealousy. A young german Professor 
 accidently discovers the spot, and is so 
 fascinated by it that he marks a tree close 
 by with the intention of revisiting it at 
 some future time and thoroly exploring 
 the chasm. Twenty years later, crippled 
 by an accident, he is ordered to the sulfur 
 springs of Hercules, situated in the ad- 
 jacent valley of the Djerhis, when the 
 chance finding of an old MS. in his desk 
 recalls to the Professor his youthful en- 
 thusiasm for Gaura Dracului, and at the 
 same time fires his dauter— the heroine of 
 the tale — with the determination to dis- 
 cover it. She encounters almost insur- 
 mountable difficulties, arising partly from 
 the arduous and perilous nature of 
 the ground, but still more from the super- 
 stitious secrecy of the natives. We will 
 not spoil the story by following the 
 search in detail; suffice it to say that the 
 d(inoument is artistically br6t about and 
 some hily dramatic incidents introduced." 
 [Westminster Review.] "The terrible 
 legend of 'Gaura Dracului' is admirably 
 told. The grim fatality with which the 
 awful rift in the solid earth is still invested, 
 the inexorable demand of the god for 
 human victims at fixed periods, with the 
 
 strange lingering belief in the legends of 
 the pagan times teld by the bohemian 
 and roumanian peasantry, make the 
 desired impression upon the reader . . . 
 The resumption of the legend, the 
 weaving of it with the modern story, 
 which it invests with a captivating mystery 
 and awe; the local traits of scenery and 
 manners, the incidental persons and 
 illustrative sketches; the haunting in- 
 fluence of the legend upon Gretchen's 
 mind ; the fine scene in which the action 
 reaches its climax, and the grim fulfilment 
 of the fatal exaction of the god ; all these, 
 and other features of the story, deserve 
 cordial recognition and praise. For us, 
 'The Waters of Hercules' possesses a 
 charm which surpasses that of its roman- 
 tic interest and narrative power ; it is the 
 author's love of Nature. To the beauty of 
 hills and valleys, woods and streams, her 
 heart and fancy are attuned ; and her dcr 
 scriptions are at once pictorial and melo- 
 dious. The finest pages of this charming 
 book are some in which the author dis- 
 courses of the woods in spring, and of 
 the vast, lonely grandeur of the Donau." 
 [Spectator.] "It is a thoroly charming 
 story, made of so many pleasing elements 
 as to seem like a delitful jumbling of 
 several of the best stories we remember— 
 'The Initials [No 473] the 'Roi des Mon- 
 tagues, [No. 773] and others of such goodly 
 company. It is long, but the interest,— 
 sustained first by a gentle curiosity as to 
 the fate of the earnest german doctor and 
 the firm little coquette (as mercenary as 
 Bella Wilfurand much more engaging), 
 and later by a forcible and clever mingling 
 of hi tragedy with graceful comedy— does 
 not lapse for a moment. The characters 
 are well drawn with a distinctness of in- 
 dividuality which makes them almost 
 equally entertaining. The mercenary 
 Gretchen, the frivolous little countess, the 
 stern, strong doctor, the 1st, irrepressible 
 Tolnay, the pert boy, the flegmatic English- 
 man, the tragic and indolent roumanian 
 princess who was 'fond of caves',— these 
 would make the story an admirable one, 
 even without so thrilling and mysterious a 
 
 312 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 plot." [Critic. 1009 
 
 WELLFIELDS (The) [by Jessie 
 Fothergill: Bentley, 1880.] "is in 
 some respects the best story written by 
 the author of 'The First Violin.' It is, of 
 course, a love story, and the scene is laid 
 partly in Germany, in that sort of artistic 
 society which the author describes so' well, 
 and partly in England. Jerome Wellfield 
 is a young man of extraordinary beauty 
 and accomplishments, the heir of an old 
 family once Catholic. There is also close by 
 a Jesuit priest, who determines, after the 
 manner of Jesuits, that the best thing for 
 Jerome Is that he should marry Nita and 
 return to the fold, bringing the property 
 under the control of the Church. For 
 this purpose he schemes and intrigues. 
 His plan works admirably. He contrives 
 to establish a complete mastery over the 
 weak character of Jerome, and to fill him 
 with the idea that it is essential to him to 
 break off his engagement with Sara Ford 
 and marry Nita Bolton . . . This outline 
 gives a poor idea of the story. The de- 
 scription of the means by which Father 
 Somerville establishes his hold upon Well- 
 field, and brings about his marriage, is ad- 
 mirably done, and the whole plot of the 
 novel is managed with a firmer hand than 
 the author has hitherto shown." [Na- 
 tion. ^ 1010 
 WHAT THE SPRING BBOUGHT. 
 [Frijhlingsboten) by "E. Werner", i. e., 
 E.. Burstenbinder : N.-Y., Munro, 1880.] 
 "A german novel" in which the interest 
 never flags, whose characters are natural 
 and well drawn, and which is free alike 
 from sentimentality and literary pretence, 
 is a fenomenon rare enuf to be worth 
 noting. All these virtues, and more, are 
 offered to the reader of "E. Werner's" 
 'Frlihlingsboten'. The plot is the old one 
 of a contested inheritance, complicated 
 by the fact that the possessor and the 
 claimant have been bred as brothers, and 
 are very fond of each other, and by the 
 additional circumstance that both love 
 the same woman. The heroes are as 
 opposite in appearance and in character 
 as they are iu fortune : the one handsome. 
 
 llt-hearted, careless, and affectionate; the 
 other distinguished-looking, industrious, 
 flrm-willed, imposing. How he discov- 
 ered the flaw in his cousin's title to wealth 
 and 6ta<^ion need not be detailed here. 
 The enforcement of his claim would in- 
 volve the forfeiture not merely on the 
 young count's part of his position, but the 
 sacrifice, also, not of personal but of fam- 
 ily honor. The ritful heir, therefore, 
 resolves upon silence. But of course the 
 young count discovers the secret, and, 
 as the only way out of the difficulty, 
 allows himself to be run away with and 
 hurled over a precipice. The tale thus 
 becomes a tragedy, but, given the circum- 
 stances, both the end and the steps which 
 lead to it are natural. The d^noument is 
 not suspected till one comes upon it in 
 the last chapter, and one rises from the 
 book without feeling any of the disgsst 
 often produced by the blue lits and other 
 melodramatic devices by which the real 
 pathos of such a story is too often ob- 
 scured." [Nation. 1011 
 , SAME ("Fickle Fortune"), Lon- 
 don, 1884. 
 
 WHERE SHALL HE FIND HER? 
 American News Co., 1867 = M'LLE DE 
 MALEPEIBE. 
 
 WHERE THE BATTLE WAS 
 FOUGHT, [by "C: Egbert Craddock," 
 i. e.,M.. NOAILLES Murfreb: Osgood, 
 1884.] "In spite of structural offenses, the 
 book impresses one as the work of a man 
 of strong, vivid imagination. His repre- 
 sentation of character, where the character 
 is, so to speak, in a state of nature, is un- 
 commonly vigorous. We do not care 
 much for the villain and his accomplices, 
 but the moody Estwlcke and the chjvalrio 
 "Vayne are capitally delineated. The 
 women, too, are excellently discriminated, 
 tho they play a very subordinate part in 
 the story. Antoinette, tho not the hero- 
 ine, is better drawn than Marcia. There 
 are, besides, special scenes in the book 
 which show a strong hand. Such is the 
 gambling adventure, in an early chapter. 
 It has very little to do with the develop- 
 ment of the plot, but we suspect it will 
 
 313 
 
HOMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 remain longest in the reader's mind ; and 
 it has a value, not understood when 
 first read, aa explaining the mind ol Cap- 
 tain Estwicke. The pictures of ruf Ten- 
 nessee life are also good, altho one is 
 constantly afraid that the author is about 
 to press the pathos too far.' The tempta- 
 tion to exaggerate, not the actual feeling 
 of ruf men and women, but the express- 
 ion of that feeling in terms which belong 
 to more analytic minds, is one which 
 seems to be a sore one to this author." 
 [Atlantic] "We know of no author save 
 Hawthorne, who could, like him, have in- 
 vested the battle-field, the bridge, and the 
 river with just such adjuncts of human 
 passion, pathos, and mystery. The 
 tramp of the advancing columns, the 
 cries and moans of the wounded and 
 dying, which belonged to that old, half- 
 fofgottteu battle, are made a refrain to 
 which the writer returns on almost every 
 page with melancholy iteration. But such 
 results appertain to poetry and romance, 
 not to the- domain of the novelists. The 
 whole setting of the stoi-y abounds in 
 picturesqueness, and the presentation of 
 the various figures who go throu their 
 parts is in almost every instance both 
 brilliantly and effectively done . . ; Not 
 one of the characters but enjoys a chance 
 to do something striking and characteris- 
 tic. There is also rare and delicate skill 
 shown In the minor incidents, and they 
 all reveal iu logical sequcnec.the traits and 
 passions of the men and women behind 
 them ... But, in spite ,,0f a certain 
 woodenness in the plot and an over-subtile 
 and complex set of characters, we find 
 Mr. Craddock's book ' singularly im- 
 pressive, fulfilling much in those hSest re- 
 quirements where american novelists 
 , haye generally disappointed us." [Lip- 
 pincott's. 1012 
 
 WHITE LIES [by C: Reade: TMift- 
 ner, 1S57.] "is written with Mr. Readc's 
 usual dash. A rattling fire of italics and 
 interjections, backed by a great artillery 
 of capitals and short paragrafs, distin- 
 guish his style. He adopts french idioms 
 freely, and defends his system in a pre- 
 
 face. In spite of his afi'ectation and 
 bumptious arrogance, he is really an 
 artist. He has french characters, and he 
 makes them thoroly french. They talk, 
 think, and act frenchi The story is re- 
 markable for its ingenious exposition of a 
 few of the endless intricacies • of female 
 character. Mr. Beade would have us 
 think that he knows women off-hand. He 
 marshals Madame before us, and turns her 
 in and out with a juggler's ease of leger- 
 demain ; and alter it isi over, has the air 
 of posturing to an astonished people to 
 ask them what they think of that for a 
 show? Adam could not have done so 
 much, 'tis certain. Mr. Eeade is never 
 bewildered by his Eve. He labors to ex- 
 pose the original woman, bare of all her 
 shifts, for the benefit of noodles." [ West- 
 minster Review.] — "The narrative Is of 
 the last century, the chief locality is a 
 chateau in Bretagiie ; the principal person- 
 ages are Madame de Beaurepaire, her 
 dauters Laure and Josephine, Jaeintha a 
 maid, St. Aubin a friend of the family, a 
 hero or two of iron fabric, and lovers 
 proper for each of the damsels. These 
 gentry become involved in misfortunes, 
 and a long history unwinds iu order to 
 make them all happy again. In the first 
 volume many chapters pass without the 
 slitest dramatic action; they are made 
 almost wholly of description, ejaculation, 
 and dialog; in the second the narrative 
 moves with more spirit; in the third, altho 
 interrupted by i large digressive passages, 
 it becomes comparatively Interesting." 
 [Leader. 1013 
 
 :-, SAME ("The Double Marriage"), 
 
 Chatto, 1S82. 
 
 WHITE MONTH (The) [by F.. M .. 
 Pbard : Smith, 1880.] "opens with an ad- 
 mirable description of the scenery in the 
 more desolate part of Br^tagne, and an 
 equally admirable Sketch of the chief 
 characters in the book, the priest, and the 
 heroine, then 'little Marjor'. The current 
 of the story joins, in the end, the great 
 stream of the. german war, and assumes a 
 more vivid interest. But from the be- 
 i ginning it attracts and pleases, not only by 
 
 311 
 
EOMASTIO NOVELS. 
 
 the skillful management of incident and 
 eUaracter, but by the feeling which the 
 reader h,as from the start, that he has be- 
 fore him a real work of art. There is no 
 feeble or casual stroke in the picture; 
 everything is done with a purpose, and 
 produces its eflect." [ Spectator.] "The 
 heroine is a Breton maiden charming enuf 
 in her single self to make all her readers 
 hope that she is real. Marguerite has 
 many virtues and as many misfortunes ; 
 but the author is not hard-iearted nor un- 
 kindly, and , she leads her heroine into 
 difficulties only to have the pleasure of 
 bringing her out of them, and of making 
 her as happy as possible. All this she 
 does, and does with a certain union of in- 
 telligence and charm, of inslt and accom- 
 plishments, which makes her little, book 
 uncommonly pleasant reading . . . Her 
 landscapes and interiors, too, are very 
 neatly and prettily done ; they have the 
 quality of being quiet and faithful in them- 
 selves and of producing a picturesque and 
 vivid impression on their readersr Al- 
 together, 'The White Month' is a book of 
 exceptional freshness and force, and one 
 that should certainly have as many, ad- 
 mirers as readers." [Athenaeum. 1014 
 
 WHITE WINGS, [by W: Black: 
 Harper,. 18S0.] "A tender, graceful 
 love-story, with feeling flecked by touches 
 of gay humor and healthy pathos un- 
 tinged by tragedy, set in a frame-work 
 of winds and waves,.cliffs, skies, and the 
 al^rnate glow and gloom of Highland 
 weather and Highland landscape as seen 
 from a yacht^ and told in Mr. William 
 Black's clear and excellent English, could 
 hardly fail to please. Such a story is 
 White Wings." [Literary World. 1015 
 
 WIFE TO ORDER (A) [byF:GEK- 
 STAECKER : Boutledgc, I860.] "possesses 
 much to interest and even to excite the 
 reader, being full of strong dramatic situ- 
 ations, and exhibiting every now and then 
 considerable skill in the delineation of 
 character ; the language is, moreover, easy 
 and graceful and adapted both to illustrate 
 and enliven the incidents of the novel . . . 
 In this slit anal}'si8, we have made no 
 
 mention of a most skilful and interesting 
 underplot, which is, perhaps, the most 
 exciting portion of the book; but it is 
 too complicated to . admit of any mere 
 outline of its leading characteristics." 
 [Leader. lOlG 
 
 WILHELM MEISTER.''[by J: W. 
 VON Goethe : Bohn, 1852.] "Ask 19 out 
 of 20 moderately educated persons what 
 they think of Wilhelm Meister, and the 
 answer will probably be— "I think it an 
 immoral book; and besides, it is awfully 
 dull : I was not able to read it." What- 
 ever truth there may be in the first ha^f of 
 this judgment, the. second half is a 
 sufficient guarantee that the book i§ not 
 likely to do any extreme injury in cnglish 
 society. Parents may let it lie on the 
 •drawing-room table without scruple, in 
 the confidence that for youthful minds of 
 the ordinary cast it will have no attract- 
 ions, and that the exceptional youthful 
 mind which is strongly arrested by it is of 
 too powerful and peculiar a character to 
 be trained according to educational dog- 
 mas. But is Wilhelm Meister an im- 
 moral book? We „think not : on the con- 
 trary , we think that it appears immoral to 
 some minds because its morality has a 
 grander orbit than any which can be 
 measured by the calculations of the pulpit 
 , and of ordinary literature, [t is said that 
 some of the scenes and incidents are such 
 as the refined moral taste of these days 
 will not admit to be proper subjects for 
 art, that to depict irregular relations in all 
 the charms they really have for human 
 nature, and to associate lovely qualities 
 with vices which society makes a brand 
 of outlawry, implies a toleration which is 
 at once a sign and a source of perverted 
 moral sentiment. Wilhelm's relation to 
 Marianna, and the charm which the reader 
 is made to feel in the lawless Philina, - 
 many incidents which occur during Wil- 
 helm's life with the players, and the 
 stories of Lothario's in the present, 
 preterite, and future, are shocking to the 
 prevalent english taste. It is no answer to 
 this to say— what • is the fact— that 
 Goethe's pictures are truthful, that the 
 
 315 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 career of almost every young man brings 
 him in contact with far more vitiating ir- 
 regularities than any presented in the ex- 
 perience of Wilhelm Meister ; for no one 
 maintains that all fact is a fit subject for 
 art . . Everywhere he brings us into the 
 presence of living, generous humanity — 
 mixed and erring, and self-deluding, but 
 saved from utter corruption by the salt of 
 some noble impulse, some disinterested 
 eflbrt, some beam of good nature, even 
 tho grotesque or homely. And his 
 mode of treatment seems to us precisely 
 that which is really moral in its Influence. 
 It is without exaggeration; he is in no 
 haste to alarm readers into virtue by 
 melodramatic consequences; he quietly 
 follows the stream of fact and of life ; and 
 waits patiently for the moral processes of 
 nature as we all do for her material 
 processes." [ Leader. 1017 
 
 WILL (The) [ by Ernst Eckstein : 
 Qottsberger, 1885.] "is a decidedly clever 
 and agreeable novel. The movement is 
 founded on a promise made by a young 
 man not to break the scales of a package 
 handed to him on a death bed, unless he 
 should have exhausted every earthly 
 hope and should find himself 'in misery 
 from which there was no possible escape. 
 Bound by this solemn pledge, the youth 
 sets out to conquer the world. He has 
 the hardest kind of a time of it and is 
 often Inclined to think that the period for 
 opening the mysterious document hqs 
 arrived, but each time manfully sets to 
 work again. At length he wins a secure 
 place in the hurly-burly, when it also 
 happens that the paper is opened, tho 
 there is no need of it. Then it is found 
 that the hero instead of being of obscure 
 lineage is of noble race and vast inherif)- 
 arice. He has however made his name 
 and fortune, which are of more value to 
 him than the fruits of accident or chance." 
 [American. 101§^ 
 
 WILLY KEILLY AND HIS DEAR 
 COLLEEN BAWN: a Tale founded on 
 Fact. [by W: Cauleton: London, 
 Hope, 1855.] "This is a charming story, 
 a kind of Irish chivalry poem. Mr. Carle- 
 
 ton has the good luck never to leave Irish 
 ground, nor to go far from the Irish peas- 
 antry, amongst whom his strength of 
 delineation chiefly lies. There is a good 
 deal of extravagance and exaggeration, 
 no doubt; but the whole story is founded 
 upon incidents so romantic that no fiction 
 can exaggerate the actual truth. The 
 character of old Squire Folliard is true to 
 the Irish human nature as developed in 
 that class and in that day. As to the 
 'dear Colleen Bawn,' Mr. Carleton suc- 
 ceeds admirably in impressing upon the 
 reader the reality of her beauty . . . Willy 
 Reilly himself is a darling, and there is an 
 atmosfere of romance and nobleness about 
 him which can scarcely fail to win all 
 hearts." [ Athena;um. 1019 
 
 WOOING OP CATHERINE (The), 
 [by Emma. F.. Poynter: Hurst & 
 Blackett, 1886.] " 'In an Inn Garden' 
 is a very short piece, — a kind of literary 
 instantaneous fotograf, so real, so vivid, 
 that the scene will dwell in the reader's 
 memory as tho be had himself assisted at 
 the dejeuner k deux, where the grisette 
 takes silent farewell of her nonchalant 
 lover. She loves him, and he is tired of 
 her; and she knows it, and will not be- 
 tray her knowledge of his faithlessness . . . 
 The best tale in the series is called 'An 
 Island Grave.' It tells of the escape of 
 a Jacobite gentleman after Culloden . . . 
 The tale is of the simplest, its whole inter- 
 est centring in the devotion of the two 
 hunted creatures to each other, and in the 
 presence of mind and affection of the wife 
 and mother, who sees her child sicken 
 and die without any power of relieving 
 its suflFerings — a sacrifice to the safety of 
 its father who, in the supreme moment of 
 its death, secures his escape by her ready 
 wit and courage. We have seldom read a 
 more moving narrative, or one which, 
 appeals more forcibly to the noblest in- 
 stincts of human nature. 'A Tragic 
 Hero' is .imusing, even, absurd, and gives 
 us the impression of being a true story, 
 as it certainly is not a very uncommon 
 one. This cannot be said of the last piece : 
 ' The Story of a Qod-dauter' is an extra- 
 
 316 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 ordinary flit of imagination, telling of a 
 luckless passion which turns into a grim 
 fate, pursuing the hapless heroine with , 
 unceasing and pitiless persistency. In 
 vain does her sense of duty, of family 
 honor, save her once from its fatal at- 
 traction ; she succumhs to it at last, help- 
 less as the moth in the can,dle." [ Spec- 
 tator. 1020 
 
 WORLD WENT VERY WELL THEN 
 (The), [by Wa. Bksant: Harper, 18SS.] 
 "Take it all in all, we have never read 
 anything of Mr. Besant's which seems to 
 us so agreeable as this. It is full of 
 spirited action and delttful situations,not- 
 withstanding that there are inconsistencies 
 in the characters of his hero, with which 
 we should be inclined to quarrel had we 
 the time. The book is free from the 
 strained moral and social speculations 
 with which Mr. Besant is so prmie to 
 strew the pages of his novels of more 
 modern life. The time of the story is the 
 middle of the last century. The scene is 
 Deptford town on the Thames, the very 
 gates of London, and the decks of the 
 ships that carry the hero in his expeditions 
 to and fro. The business of life was 
 simple enuf then; love, war, and ad- 
 venture filled up the measure of man's 
 conception. And if loyal Bess clung with 
 meek and desperate devotion to an un- 
 worthy lover, it need not in the life of 
 torpor of these modem days seem a 
 violent price to pay for lite — for to her 
 poor prifnitive soul, love was life itself. 
 Mr. Besant is never so much at his best as 
 when he contents himself with the simple 
 annals of the virtues and failings of 
 human nature, the former of which he 
 uses with so much charm and for the 
 latter of which he has so much charity." 
 [Critic. 1021 
 
 W-UTHEEING HEIGHTS, [by Emily 
 Brokte: 1850.] "The accumulated hor- 
 rors of the close, however possible in fact, 
 are wanting in the one quality which jus- 
 tifies and ennobles all admissible horror 
 in fiction: they hardly seem inevitable; 
 they lack the impression of logical and 
 moral certitude. All the realism in the 
 
 work will not suffice to convey this im- 
 pression; and a work of art which wants 
 it wants the one final and irreplaceable 
 requisite of inner harmony. Now in 
 'Wuthering Heights' this one thing, need- 
 ful is as perfectly and triumfantly at- 
 tained as in 'King Lear' or 'The Duchess 
 of Malfi,' in 'The Bride of Lammermoor' 
 [No. 617] or 'Notre-Dame de Paris' [No. 
 871]. From the first we breathe the 
 fresh dark air of tragic passion and 
 presage ; and to the last the changing wind 
 and flying sunlit are in keeping with the 
 stormy promise of the dawn. There is 
 no monotony, there is no repetition, but 
 there is no discord. This is the first and 
 last necessity, the foundation of all labor 
 and the crown of all success, for a poem 
 worthy of the name; and this it is that 
 distinguishes the hand of Emily from the 
 hand of Charlotte Bronte. All the works 
 of the elder sister are rich in poetic spirit, 
 poetic feeling, and poetic detail ; but the 
 younger sister's work, is essentially and 
 definitely a poem in the fullest and most 
 positive sense of the term." [Swin- 
 burne.] — -'Wllh "Wuthering Heights" we 
 found it totally impossible to get along. 
 It begins by introducing the reader to a 
 perfect pandemonium of low and brutal* 
 creatures, who wrangle with each other in 
 language too disgusting for the eye or the 
 ear to tolerate, and unredeemed, so far as 
 we could see, by one single particle either 
 of wit or humor, or even psychological 
 truth, for the characters are as false as 
 they are loathsome," [ North British Re- 
 view. 1022 
 
 YELLOW MASK (The), [by [W:] 
 W. Collins: N.-Y., Dix, 1855.] "For 
 dramatic interest, and for artistic skill in 
 the conception of its plot, as well as its 
 development, we think it far superior to 
 any novel of the day." [Crayon. 1023 
 
 Y'OUNG PHILISTINE; and other 
 Tales. [ by Alice Corkran ; Burns and 
 Oates, 1887.] "We find here a deli- 
 cacy of touch, a fine humor, and a 
 pathos wiich give to these little stories 
 something of the charm and finish of a 
 miniature. The first tale, ' The English 
 
 317 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 • 
 
 Teacher at the Convent,' tates hold of producing only grotesques, which bring 
 
 the reader by its fine portraiture, its down on him JSfter and derision. 'Pire 
 
 quaint coloring, and its underglow of PerrauWs Legacy' strikes altogether a 
 
 passion . .. . Two of the other stories are new note ; the strange little story is a 
 
 based on a sad conception^that , of the thing apart. It is to be hoped that Miss 
 
 obscure, unknown artist, penetrated with Corkran may before long briilg out an- 
 
 intense love for his ax-t, but ignorant, other volume of such charming studies." 
 
 powerless to inform his ignorance, and [Athenxum. 1024 
 
 Noyels are as a rule written for the young, and from their pages 
 most young men and women get their first picture of ' life ; they supply 
 the gorgeous scenery, the heroic characters, and the thrilling events of 
 those day-dreams on which the fancy of youth; dwells, and so furnish 
 unconsciously its ideals for future life. With regard to love and mariage, 
 for instance, novels are the soirees from which in early, life, long before 
 we can know anything about the matter from experience,, we derive 
 some of our most deeply-rooted pre-conceptions. Most people in mature 
 life can look back upon some one or two novels which suggested to them 
 new objects of existence«^a clearer insit into the poetry of life. [Nation. 
 
 ' ^Every year the influence of revues has less to do with the circulation or 
 failure of a book. The public mind enlarges itself, and must be fed with 
 printed matter of some kind. Readers ave gluttons, not conaisseurs, and 
 so the cannons of taste are set at naut, and the niceties of intellectual 
 and imaginative work meet less and less appreciation." [ Spectator. 
 
 "Thpre are multitudes ■vyhq habitually fead a good deal, and much to 
 their satisfaction, whose provision of books is almost entirely drawn 
 from the middle and lower classes of literature. Very many of them, in- 
 deed, have read Dickens, some few Thackeray, wholly or partially ; 
 but for them, Miss, Austen wrote drivel, and Sir Walter Scott prosy 
 inanity. They would as soon attack John Locke as '-'George Eliot" ; 
 and if they read a book of Mrs. Oliphant, they feel as if they had had 
 a Sunday in the middle of the week. , They like M^. Craik well enuf, 
 ' because, tho didactic, she is sentimental. They take Miss Braddon 
 and "Ol'ida" as the salt and spice of their reading; but what they live 
 upon is the enormous mass of novels and stories which fill the pages of 
 cheap periodicals and seiTe as ballast to the circulating libraries. It 
 seems, then, that the laws of demand and supply account for the 
 existence of thousands of novels, and since thousands of novels are 
 required and manufactured, it is reasonable enuf to expect that they 
 should lose the character ■^f works of art, and be as commonplace as the 
 daily bread to which we have already likened thenl." [ Spectator. 
 
 818 
 
PRIOE; ONECOPY, $2.00; two COPIS, $3.50; three, $6.00; FIVE, $7.00; TEN, $IO.O0i TWENTY, $1,006. 
 
 DESCRIPTIVE LIST 
 
 OF 
 
 BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 COMPILED EV 
 
 W : M. GRISWOLD 
 
 EDITOR OF "THE MONOGRAPH", A COLLECTION OF FIFTY-FOUR HISTORICAL AND 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS; AND OF "TRAVEL", A SIMILAR SERIES 
 
 DEVOTED TO PLACES. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE, MASS. : 
 
 W: M. GRISWOLD, Publisher, 
 
 1891. 
 
DESCRIPTIVE LIST OP NOVICLS. 
 
 It IS a very pleasant thing to liuish reading a book and feel that one 
 has made a charming new acquaintance. Men and women who are en- 
 tirely congenial and delltful are by no means common in this world, even 
 if one lives in the midst of its best society ; and some of our dear friends 
 are people who live all the year round in the little three-walled houses made 
 by book-covers. Yet their every-day life is as real to us as ours; their 
 houses and their fortunes and misfortunes are well known to us, and we are 
 sure of a thousand things about them that we never saw in print. The 
 inner circle of our friends mit be a broken one if it were not rounded 
 and completed with such companionships as these. But one thinks not 
 so much of the luxury of having these friendships as of the necessity 
 for them, and of the good it does everybody to know nice people, of the 
 elevating power a novel may have if it carries its readers among people 
 worth knowing. It is certainly a great force in raising the tone of so- 
 ciety ; it is a great help in the advance of civilization and refinement. 
 A good story has a thousand readers where a biografy has ten. Who 
 is not better for having associated with the ladies and gentlemen to whom 
 certain novelists have presented us? One instinctively tries to behave 
 his very best after meeting them, and admires their hospitality, their 
 charity, their courage in adversity, their grace and good-breeding. How 
 many tricks of speech and manner we have caut in such society ! How 
 often we have been moved to correct some carelessness or rudeness, of 
 which we were unconscious until they taut us better ! Trollope, Miss 
 Thackeray, Mrs. Oliphant, a hundred others, have unwittingly done 
 much more than entertain us with their stories : they have taut many 
 people good manners ; they have set copies for us to follow in little 
 things and great. To have spent a Week in a French Country House-=- 
 as I hope we have all been lucky enuf to do — will save us from seeming 
 awkward on any repetition of that charming visit. If we have never been 
 abroad at all we feel that when we are in France, by and liy, and go 
 into the country, it will not seem at all strange. It is a pity that so little 
 is known of our pleasant people from the story-books. The best of 
 our gentlemen and ladies have kept very much to themselves ; at any rate, 
 they have few representatives in fiction, and do not mix much with the 
 familiar types of character in American novels. Do they have them- 
 selves privately printed, and are they rit to be so shy as they are, and 
 to keep their fashion of doing things to themselves? Are the authors 
 who write about american life afraid of seeming to copy forein stories 
 if they say too much of the people who, from a social point of vue, are 
 best worth knowing and reading about? The country life and local 
 dialects and peculiarities, "with their ridiculousness and pathos, the ener- 
 gy and restlessness and flashiness and unconveutionality, the ostentation, 
 of americans have been held up for us to look at again and again. There 
 are many of our nebors across the water who think the american girl of 
 the period, with whom they have become acquainted, is the best type 
 that can be found. It is too bad that there have been so few stories of 
 agreeable, hi-bred american men and women, and that our best society 
 has been so seldom represented in fiction. It is certainly not Ipecause it 
 does not exist, and more boolcs which show us such characters as these 
 woTild do much good. [Atlantic. 
 
Beitish Noyels. 
 
 Tlie object of this list is to direct readers, such as would enjoy the hind of hooks here 
 described, to a number of novels, easily obtainable, but which, in many cases, have been for- 
 gotten within a year or two after publication. That the existence of works of fiction is 
 remembered so short a time is a pity, since, for every new book of merit, there are, in most 
 librarii:^, a hundred as gooa or better, unknown to the majority of readers. It is hoped that 
 the publication of this and similar lists will lessen, in some 7neasure, the disposition to read 
 an inferior NEW book when superior OLD books, equally fresh to most readers, are at hand. 
 
 This list will be followed by others describing EUROPEAN', ECCEXTRIC, and 
 FANCIFUL novels and tales. The compiler would be 2>leased to have his attention called to 
 any works deseroing a place which have escaped his attention. It may be observed that the 
 compiler has tried to include only such works as are well-written, interesting, and free from, 
 sensationalism, sentim.entality, and pretence. Bui in a few cases, books have been fioticed on 
 account of the reputation of their authors, or their great popularity, rather than their merit. 
 
 The selected " notices " here given are generally abridged. 
 
 ACADEMICIAN (The) [by H: 
 Erroll: Beniley, 1888.] "impresses 
 one as being pleasant and lit, yet by no 
 means shallo. The heroin, a charming 
 person, improves as her story advances, 
 for her ' niceness ' is sufiBciently quali- 
 fied to preserve her from any suspicion 
 of insipidity. The dialog is smart and 
 neat, but is never fatiguingly over clever 
 or over subtle The book's main in- 
 terest is artistic." [Atlienajum. 1025 
 
 ACROSS THE GAllDEN WALL 
 [by — ( ) Greene: F. V. White, 
 188G.] "is a little comedy which occu- 
 pies tlie reader's attention very pleas- 
 antly. A novel which affords simple 
 relaxation, and makes one forget to 
 criticize, should meet with grateful rec- 
 ognition. " [Athenaeum. 1036 
 
 ADAM AND EVE = No. 579 
 
 ADAM BEDE [by" G: Eliot," i. e., 
 
 M ,. A., (Evans) Cross: Blackwood, 
 1859.] "is remarkable, not less for tlie 
 unaffected saxon style which upholds the 
 graceful fabric of the narrativ, and for 
 tlie naturalness of its scenes and char- 
 acters, so that the reader at once feels 
 happy and at home among them, than 
 for the general perception of those 
 universal springs of action which con- 
 trol all society, the patient unfolding of 
 those traits of humanity with which 
 commonplace writers get out of temper 
 and rudely dispense. The place and 
 the people and the language ar of the 
 simplest ; and what happens from day to 
 day, and from year to year, in the period 
 of the action, mit happen in any little 
 village. We do not kno where to look, 
 in the whole range of contemporary 
 fictitious literature, for pictures in 
 which the sober and the brilliant tones 
 
 320 
 
UniTISU NOVKLS. 
 
 of Nature blond with more exquisit 
 harmony than in tliose which ar set in 
 every chapter of ' Adam Bede.' Still 
 life — the harvest-fleld, the polished 
 kitchens, the dairies, with a concentrated 
 cool smell of all that is nourishing and 
 sweet, the green, the porches which 
 hav vines about them and ar pleasant 
 late in the afternoon, and deep woods 
 thrilling with birds — all these wer never 
 more vividly and yet tenderly depicted. 
 The characters ar drawn with a free 
 and imjjartial hand, and one of them is 
 a creation for immortality. Mrs. Poyser 
 is a woman with an incorrigible tung, set 
 firndy in opposition to the mandates of 
 a heart, the overdoes of whose sympathy 
 and love keep the circle of her influence 
 in a state of continual irrigation. Her 
 epigrams ar aromatic, and she is strong 
 in simile, but never ventures beyond her 
 depth into that of her author." [Atlan- 
 tic. 1027 
 
 ADDIE'S HUSBAND [by — ( ) 
 Smythies: Appleton, 1885.] " is charm- 
 ingly told, and so full of tender human 
 feeling, with such an unmistakable 
 moral, as to the absurdity of secrecy be- 
 tween husband and wife, and the wicked- 
 ness of anybody cherishing malignity, 
 that one closes the book feeling that one 
 has gained a good deal more than even a 
 pretty story." [Critic. 1028 
 
 ADMIRAL'S WARD (The). [by 
 "Mrs. Alkxanuer," i. e., Annie 
 (French) Hector : Jlolt, 1883.] " There 
 is a fineness about the whole life in this 
 book which was sometimes missed in the 
 author's previous novels. It is the old 
 story of the gain and the loss of an in- 
 heritance, but imagined with motivs so 
 unusual, and situations so unexpected, 
 as to giv it positiv originality. The in- 
 cidents ar simple, almost homely, but 
 every-day life is transformed to some- 
 thing like poetry by the patience of the 
 
 heroin in her humble duties, and by the 
 beautiful, enduring affection of the 2 
 women of whom love and fate mit hav 
 made enemies. The 'Admiral' and 
 Mrs. Crewe, ' who does not take lodgers, 
 but only consents to receive a gentleman 
 or two, personally recommended ' ar of 
 the best of the whimsical oddities witli 
 whom Mrs. Alexander enlivens her tales 
 
 — best, becaus drawn witli more re- 
 serve. The plot develops so quietly 
 that there is no suspicion of the catas- 
 trofe until the last moment. It startles, 
 but it proves its fitness, for it makes 
 the reader at once turn back to re-read 
 the story in the lit of it. Too often tlie 
 end of a novel is only like the solution 
 of an enigma. The tangle untwisted, 
 one cares no more, but, as in this case, 
 real skill will lead to a result which im- 
 pels us to turn back and judge of char- 
 acter by our knoledge of final deeds.'' 
 [Nation. 1029 
 
 ADRI.VN BRIGHT [by — ( ) 
 Cadv : Harper, 1884.]' "will giv the 
 same sort of pleasure to the reader that 
 he gets from some of his acquaintances 
 
 — people whose goings-on seem to him 
 altogether unwarrantable, who never 
 accomplish much, nor say anything to 
 be remembered, but who are brit, chatty 
 people, who always hav a good time, and 
 ar always ready to share it with their 
 friends. The hero and heroin could not 
 be of less account and maintain their 
 positions. One takes but a mild interest 
 in their fortunes as compared with the 
 ways and deeds of a family of artist as- 
 sociations and occupations, as nearly 
 bohemian as the respectability of Wel- 
 beck street will permit. It is rather a 
 curious study, the pass to which bche- 
 niianism has come under the influence of 
 the aesthetic craze, and the author has 
 succeeded very well in rendering it with 
 hearty appreciation and yet keeping all 
 
 321 
 
BRITISH NOVKLS. 
 
 the time her little smile of amusement." 
 [Nation. 1030 
 
 ADRI.\N VID.VL. [by W : E : Nor- 
 Ris: Harper, 1885.] "Mr. Norris' 
 novels always bring before us living men 
 and women, and they ar always interest- 
 ing. Adrian Vidal is, if anything, su- 
 perior to the author's previous works. 
 It is a study of modern life, rather re- 
 markable for its realism, and its anal- 
 yses of character ar clever without be- 
 ing overwrot, pitiless, but never cynical. 
 The tale foUoes a portion of tlie career 
 of a young novelist, and the plot turns 
 on certain infelicities which arise soon 
 after his marriage. Having on one side 
 an easy-going nature, a keen suscepti- 
 
 ability in exposing social shams and er- 
 rors, would be superfluous. Mr. Thack- 
 eray's name on the title-page, and his 
 acute, sarcastic, almost bitter face for 
 the frontispiece, say all this to those who 
 hav read his former works. Tliis one, 
 in neither interest, nor in the peculiarities 
 of the author in style, nor in the char- 
 acters he portrays, falls behind them. 
 Pliilip, the hero, is made to struggle 
 tlirou his early life entirely at the mercy 
 of his Levites and Samaritans. Consid- 
 ering the disposition and proclivities as- 
 cribed to him by the author, the wonder 
 is excited why everyone did not pass 
 him by, and why so many dared to stay 
 tlieir steps and offer him aid. lie is a 
 
 bility to flattery, and a, fondness for so- , ruf, loud, boisterous fello. Becaus his 
 
 ciety, and on the other a jealous disposi- 
 tion and a mind wholly domestic in its 
 tastes, one quickly recognizes the ele- 
 ments of an unhappy destiny which re- 
 quires something more than mutual con- 
 fidence, and this Adrian and his wife 
 attain only after bitter experience which 
 comes near to driving them apart for- 
 ever Nor should we forget to men- 
 tion the author's gift of humor which 
 bubbles unobtrusivly on every page. 
 Altogether a more thoroly readable 
 novel than Adrian Vidal we hav not 
 met for many a day." [Boston " Literary 
 World." 1031 
 
 ADVENTURES OF HARRY RICH- 
 MOND = No. 580. 
 
 ADVENTURES OF PHILIP CThe), 
 Showing who Robbed him, who Helped 
 him, and who Passed him by. [by W : 
 Makepeace Thackeray : 1862.] "The 
 title tells what plan the author has pur- 
 sued in writing it. He has carried out 
 that plan well. To say that the book is 
 interesting, original, full of singular 
 humor, containing passages which ex- 
 cite our wonder and amazement at the 
 author's penetration and almost unique 
 
 father was a polished villain (having 
 early discovered this plea^^ing fact) he 
 immediately sets about being as different 
 as possible. Deeming polish insincerity, 
 and politeness treachery, he ostenta- 
 tiously exhibits disdain for these pleas- 
 ing social qualities. Being large in 
 frame, and strong, and red-haired, he 
 can sho to some purpose his aggressiv 
 and quarrelsom, yet not ungenerous 
 temper. He alienates those wlio try to 
 be his friends by his determination to 
 indulge his head-long independence of 
 speech or action. He insults people he 
 does not fancy, ignoring the bonds of 
 past obligations. In consequence of 
 these little singularities, he has several 
 enemies, and one is strongly inclined to 
 add to their number. Nevertheless, he 
 lias a friend, the Little Sister, the most 
 like a woman of anything in the book, 
 who clings to him with a blind adoring 
 love which is neither useless nor fruit- 
 less. Again and again, this little woman, 
 poor, disgraced, to all appearance pow- 
 erless, comes to the aid of this great 
 burly son of her adoption, and saves 
 him and his Charlotte, and his children 
 
 322 
 
llltlTISU NOVKLS. 
 
 almost from starvation,'' [Church 
 Monthly. 1032 
 
 AGAINST TIME [by Alex. Innks 
 Shand : Smith, 1870.] " is a really in- 
 teresting novel, free from cant, verbiage, 
 or undue sensation — tlie work of a man 
 endowed with a clear and fertil fancy, 
 who can describe the scenes and people 
 of tlie present day witliout depressing 
 the reader with the sense of tlieir vul- 
 garity, lie is modern, but not mean, 
 and imaginativ without being maudlin. 
 Equally at home in the City and on the 
 Highland hills, he giva a vivid and en- 
 thusiastic, yet truthful, description of 
 
 both The characters ar all excellent, 
 
 and many original." [Athen. 1033 
 
 AGATHA'S HUSBAND [by Dinah 
 Mauia (Mulock) Craik : Chapman, 
 1850.] " is, in its strong interest, a pain- 
 ful book ; and for tills reason it is more 
 likely to be a favorit with the young, 
 the hopeful, and the enthusiastic — who, 
 after all, ar the great novel readers — 
 than with those whose lives and thots 
 belong to the sober realities of life, and 
 whose experience of sorro inclines 
 them to shrink from the exposition of 
 mimic woes. Agatha herself is drawn 
 with such power and delicate skill tliat 
 she livs in tlie memory with the individu- 
 ality of a well-knon personage. She is 
 a true woman of the hi-toned class. 
 Her ' husband,' tho apparently repre- 
 senting the author's ideal of a man, 
 pleases us much less. The simile of 
 the ' oak and the ivy ' is all very pretty 
 for poetry, and possibly for sylvan vege- 
 table life. But the human ivy, we sus- 
 pect, sometimes groes sadly tired of 
 doing all the twining, and at any rate 
 would like tlie oak to bend its branches 
 and somewhat reciprocate the embrace. 
 Nevertheless, we kno tlifire is a large 
 class of women who admire the ' style ' ; 
 and while a tender-hearted, demonstra- 
 
 tiv man is often in life wedded to a 
 shrew, or an automaton, we as- usually 
 find hi, generous-natured women lavish- 
 ing their affection on some calm, stern, 
 self-possessed ideal, like the Nathanael 
 of the present volumes." [Ladies' Com- 
 panion. 1034 
 
 AGNES HOPETOUN'S SCHOOLS 
 AND HOLIDAYS [by Ma. Oliphant 
 (Wilson) Oliphant : Macmillan, 1872.] 
 " is a very pleasant story. The heroin 
 is a rather bad-tempered and intractable 
 little girl, who, throu painful disciplin, 
 learns how to be good and useful." 
 [Boston "Literary World." 1035 
 
 AILEEN FERRERS, [by Susan Mou- 
 ley: //; S. King, 1874.] " Those who 
 prefer quality to quantity of fiction will 
 here not be disappointed. The young 
 lady with the pretty Irish name is an 
 admirable heroin, whose sound sense, 
 womanly heart, and fine discretion by 
 no means detract from her character as 
 the central figure of a neat little ro- 
 mance. Nor is Aileen alone in the 
 possession of qualities which, however 
 they may influence our common life, 
 are generally deemed quite unworthy of 
 fiction. Aileen's patrician aunt and ple- 
 beian grandmother vie with each other 
 in the justness of their vues, and the 
 tact with wliich they treat their young 
 relativ." [Athenaeum. 1036 
 
 AIRY FAIRY LILIAN, [by Ma. 
 (Argles) Hdngerpokd : Lijjpincott, 
 1879.] " We hav here a thoroly de- 
 litful novel, to be read with interest, 
 lafed over, and enjoyed from beginning 
 to end by everybody who likes to look 
 into english country life in its sunniest 
 mood, to kno intimately a small party 
 of pleasant people, to be a party to 
 sparkling and witty conversation, to 
 make the acquaintance of one of the 
 most engaging young ladies whom recent 
 fiction has presented, and to watch the 
 
 323 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 course of 2 very pretty love affairs throu 
 a tortuous and troubled groth to a happy 
 consummation. Tlie book is as fresh, 
 fragrant, brit, and exhilarating as a 
 June morning. The only clouds in the 
 sky ar made to be radiant ; no dis- 
 agreeable villains ar allowed; no taint 
 debases the life recorded ; Lady Chet- 
 wood is just a lovely old lady; and the 
 ' airy fairy Lilian' is all which the epi- 
 thets attached to lier name suggest. The 
 dainty social slang in which slie and her 
 irrepressible cousin Taffy indulge, givs 
 special zest to tlie book." [Boston 
 " Literary World." 1037 
 
 ALDERSYDE [by Annie S. Swan, 
 N.Y., Carter, 1880.] is "a quaint, 
 tender, pathetic story, illustrativ of a 
 fase of the social life of the Scottish 
 border seventy years ago." 1038 
 
 ALDYTH. [by Jessie Fothergill : 
 JI. S. King, 1877.] " There is some 
 power in Miss Fothergill's domestic 
 story. The sad trials tlirou wliich Al- 
 dyth passes (first in refusing, from a 
 sense of duty to her younger sisters, to 
 emigrate with the man to wliom she is 
 engaged, and lastly in being treacher- 
 ously supplanted in his love by her 
 younger sister, when 10 years of waiting 
 have spoiled lier looks) serve only to 
 make her character hier and purer than 
 before. The minor personages hav all 
 their distinctiv traits. Tlie style is 
 simple and correct." [Athen. 1039 
 
 ALEC FORBES of Howglen. [by 
 G ; MaoDonald : Hurst, 18G5.] " It is 
 sonietliing to rejoice the heart that even 
 in these days a novel can be written full 
 of strong human interest without any 
 aid from melodramatic scene-painting, 
 social mysteries, and the fysical force of 
 incidents. ' Alec Forbes ' is merely the 
 history of some of the inhabitants of an 
 obscure village in the north of Scot- 
 land. A country lass, left an orfan, 
 
 and a, boy, the son of a wido, a little 
 better placed in the world, ar the main 
 figures in the story ; but innumerable 
 threads of interest ar interwoven with 
 them : the human hearts by which they 
 all liv ar opened to the reader ; and 
 this is the real source of interest — an 
 interest deeper and stronger than can be 
 woven out of mere circumstances, how- 
 ever complicated or perilous The 
 
 sketclies of university life in Glasgow 
 ar very good ; the temptations and fall 
 of Alec ar firmly handled, and the 
 friendship of the whimsical and learned 
 librarian is admirably introduced and 
 worked out. But the reader must read 
 for himself; no account of the story 
 would giv any idea of the profound in- 
 terest which pervades the work from the 
 first page to the last. ' Alec Forbes ' is 
 the work of a poet. The ballads and 
 poems, which ar introduced here and 
 th^re, ar all touched with grace and 
 beauty." [Athenaeum. 1040 
 
 ALEXIA, [by Eleanor C. Price: 
 Bentley, 1887.] " It is not often that so 
 much delicate art is displayed in the 
 telling of so slit a story. Not only is 
 the plot so skilfully interwoven with the 
 finer passion of the tale that it is almost 
 spun, as it wer, out of the very texture 
 
 of that passion but all the sketches 
 
 of character ar complete to j ust the same 
 extent and depth, so that we seem to be 
 looking at a fine bas-relief where every 
 figure is definitly, tlio only superfi- 
 cially, chiselled out, and each is in keep- 
 ing with the others. Miss Price tells us 
 quite truly and simply at the conclusion 
 of her tale : ' This is only a sketch of a 
 few years in a girl's life, and there is no 
 need to carry it on any further. Alexia 
 and Charlie wer, of course, meant for 
 each other from the beginning; they 
 wer lovers always, and I shall be sur- 
 prised if they do not continue lovers to 
 
 324 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 the end. They wer neither of them 
 faultless, and both made mistakes in 
 their lives, which mit very easily hav 
 severed them for ever.' But what inter- 
 ests us in this brief but delicate story is 
 the beauty and simplicity of the work- 
 manship, — the perfect ease with whicli 
 not only the hero's and heroin's far from 
 faultless characters ar drawn and made 
 visible, but the secondary figures ar 
 sketched in, so as to enhance the vivid- 
 ness of the principal interest In a 
 
 story so slit, we hav seldom seen so 
 true an art displayed, so much iinish 
 and simplicity in delineating the relation 
 between the characters, and so much 
 skill in weaving a plot wliich shall really 
 ^express, as human destinies very rarely 
 seem to express, botli what is truest and 
 ■what is faultiest in the characters con- 
 cerned, and that shall correspond so 
 accurately, and yet so naturally, to the 
 expectations and wishes of the reader." 
 i[Spectator. 104:1 
 
 ALFRED HAGART'S HOUSEHOLD 
 ;[by Alex. Smith: Strahan, 18GG.] "is 
 
 a very charming tale Quiet, thoroly 
 
 :good, capitally told, with every here and 
 thdre a sprinkle of really beautiful, po- 
 etic prose. There is also a relish of 
 imild Scottism, not only wh^re the char- 
 :acters speak, hut wlifire the author him- 
 self speaks, which is of itself a charm 
 in these days of clipped hedges and wire 
 fences. The book mit almost hav for 
 its second title ' Quarrels made up.' The 
 chief figure in it next to its hero, is a 
 rich old aunt, who has fallen out with 
 her well-descended niece for marrying 
 beneath her, but who does all kind 
 things under her crabbed surface of 
 pride : one great kind act above all 
 others, buying a partnership for Alfred 
 Hagart, of which, to the end, the recip- 
 ient never knos. Then we hav a lovers' 
 quarrel, very well told, and nobly ad- 
 
 justed, by the working of a hint given 
 by the same original old lady. Next to 
 her character, the best drawn in the book 
 is that of Alfred Hagart himself. The 
 intermixture of the folly of the head 
 with the wisdom of the heart ; the com- 
 bination of restlessness and yearning for 
 change with safe anchorage in affection 
 and respect for a good wife, ar capitally 
 described." [Contemp. Review. 1042 
 
 ALICE DUGD.ALE. [with " Why 
 ITrau Prohmann " by Anthony Tkol- 
 lope: Isbister,W82.'\ " Mr. TroUope 
 fully succeeds in making Alice Dugdale 
 really lovable and charming, in spite of 
 the drudgery in which she is always en- 
 gaged, the unroraantic butteriness of her 
 little brother's kisses, and the much 
 pricked fore-finger which has gone throu 
 so many trials in the mending of torn 
 clothes. Nay, he makes, as, of course, 
 he 6t to make, the buttery kisses and the 
 pricked forefinger essential parts of the 
 lovableness of the girl who carries her 
 dignity so well throu all her trials, and 
 wins her prize at last, by virtue, almost, 
 of her resolv to thro it away." [Specta- 
 tor. 1043 
 
 ALICE GRAEME \_Chapman, 1868.] 
 " is a charming story. The personages 
 ar well-drawn, and with the exception 
 of the one incident (the father's ac- 
 ceptance of the proposal of a french 
 nobleman to hav Alice taken abroad and 
 educated for a public singer), all is quiet 
 and life-like. The peaceful household 
 and sunny garden of the scotch school- 
 master touch the reader like a pleasant 
 home wh^fe he would like lo dwell ; the 
 motherly Mrs. Graeme, the stern father, 
 the old grandmother, ar like good dutch 
 portraits. The sudden shame and grief 
 which come to them throu thSir son, the 
 sorro which overtakes the beautiful Alice 
 ar well done. The mystery of aflliction 
 which is meted out to the whole house- 
 
 325 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 hold, is full of subtle teaching in the 
 good that is worked out of trials which 
 seem only dark and hard and cruel at 
 the time. The picture of Alice when 
 forsaken by her lover, her misery and 
 her temptations ar well told. The 
 author justifies the seeming cruelty of 
 the trial by the beauty and delicacy with 
 which the purifying influence of sorro 
 is shon. Alice begins by being a lovely 
 girl; she ends by becoming an angel." 
 [Athenaeum. 1044 
 
 ALICIA TENNANT [by F.. M., 
 Peard': Bentley, 1886.] "is a story of 
 good society, written in that pleasant and 
 refined style to which readers of Miss 
 Peard's books ar accustomed. Her 
 characters ar well drawn, even the men, 
 one of whom is particularly good, a pre- 
 cise, well-bred gentleman, studious and 
 irreproachable, but a dreadful bore ; and 
 tho as a rule thi^y ar a little wanting in 
 incisiveness, there ar delicate touches 
 
 about them which ar admirable but 
 
 Miss Peard has been cruel in bringing her 
 story to so sad an end." [Ath. 1045 
 
 ALL IN THE DARK [by Joseph 
 Sheridan Le Fanu : Harper, 1866.] 
 " is a simple story excellently told, a 
 reproduction of certain quaint fases in 
 life, which, while they display no lofty 
 power, ar marked by much artistic ex- 
 cellence, and a series of pictures and 
 incidental descriptions not extraordi- 
 narily brilliant, but evidently drawn and 
 colored after nature. The mind of the 
 reader is never unduly excited by over- 
 wrot scenes of passion, and not even a 
 sprinkling of crime disturbs the smooth 
 current of the story, which fioes so 
 easily and is so charmingly related that 
 each character seems to be the por- 
 traiture of an old friend whom we rejoice 
 to meet, and from whom we ar unwilling 
 to part even when assured of his ultimate 
 felicity." [Round Table. 1046 
 
 ALL SORTS AND CONDITIONS 
 Of men. [by Wa. Besant and Ja. 
 Rice: Harper, 1882,] "One of the 
 most attractiv elements in the stories of 
 Besant and Rice has been the genial be- 
 lief in human nature, and we ar not 
 surprised to find this becoming at last 
 the dominant element in a, story written 
 with a purpose. ' All Sorts and Condi- 
 tions of Men ' is the record of a young 
 lady who, having become an lieiress by 
 her father's immense operations in beer, 
 decides to forego the privileges of her 
 position, and liv among the people from 
 whom she has sprung. She is convinced 
 that she can do more good by her pres- 
 ence than bj her money, but she very 
 prudently takes the money too; estab- 
 lishes herself as a dressmaker, under an 
 assumed name, in a co-operative associ- 
 ation wh6re the employees ar given 
 opportunities to rest, to eat, and to play 
 tennis ; and finally builds • A Palace of 
 Delit' for the poor. She discards all 
 knon theories of political economy, and 
 it is an excellent point in the story that 
 she labors, not to foster a spirit of con- 
 tent in the humble, but to rouse discon- 
 tent with misery and wretched surround- 
 ings which is knon, when it appears in 
 hi circles, by the name of aspiration. 
 To the same boarding-house comes a 
 young gentleman who, having learned 
 that he was not entitled by birth to the 
 social privileges he had enjoyed, decided 
 to return to his people and become a 
 cabinet-maker." [Critic] — " Rice 
 and Besant worked together with ease. 
 One or both of them was gifted with a 
 sort of french vivacity of description 
 and narration which prevented their 
 stories from ever being dull, and one or 
 both of them had a considerable power 
 of humorous caricature — enuf to make 
 extravagant characters entertaining when 
 most unreal Among other queer 
 
 826 
 
BRITISH NOVKLS. 
 
 characters is an american lieir, who 
 has come to England to get his rits and 
 be restored to his title. He and his wife, 
 respectable citizens of Canaan City, 
 N.H.I ar knon among their friends as 
 Lord and Lady Davenant, but their 
 claim to the name has not received legal 
 recognition, oing to a difficulty in mak- 
 ing out the chain of descent. This 
 difficulty is never overcome, but they, 
 like everybody else in the book, ar taut 
 a wholesom lesson, and kindly provided 
 for out of the ample purse of the benev- 
 olenf heroin." [Nation. 1047 
 
 ALMA [by Emma ( ) Mar- 
 
 shall: Sonnenschein, 1888.] "is a, 
 simple offering to the now neglected 
 shrine of poetic justice. Out of hack- 
 neyed materials is woven a graceful, 
 tho improbable romance of the struggles 
 and ultimate success of a girl reduced 
 by poverty to teaching." [Ath. 1048 
 
 AMERICAN SENAT014 (The) [by 
 Anthony Trollope : Chapman and 
 Hall, 1877.] " mit just as well have 
 been called ' The Chronicle of a Winter 
 
 at Dillsborough' This name will 
 
 conjure to readers of Mr. TroUopo's 
 books a picture of pleasant recollec- 
 tions. Dillsborough is not, it is true, a 
 cathedral city, nor even an assize town; 
 but is buried in the depths of the coun- 
 try and apparently exists for no purpose 
 whatever. This is Mr. Trollope's proper 
 ground. He has made it familiar to his 
 readers, but they see it again and again 
 without weariness. Those who try to 
 analyse the charm will fail to detect in 
 what it consists. The detail is minute, 
 often, as it seems, irrelevant, but th^re 
 is an indefinable humor running throu 
 it, and all helps to produce the general 
 effect." [AthenfEuni. 1049 
 
 AMONG STUANGERS [by " E. S. 
 Maine" ^ S'mtVA, 1870.] "is simple and 
 unpretentious, but is told in so fresh and 
 
 graceful a manner as to render it most 
 
 acceptable It will be seen that the 
 
 story is of the simplest kind ; but the 
 book possesses a charm rarely to be 
 met. Naturally and pleasingly writ- 
 ten, it should find a place in many 
 a home circle." [Athenasum. 1050 
 
 AMOR VINCIT [byM.. E. Martin: 
 yVard ^ Downey, 1887.] " is a pretty, 
 unpretentious story of a girl who was 
 kidnapped from her mother by her 
 grandmother, and who does not seem to 
 hav been in any sense the worse for it. 
 She is brit and loving, the favorit of 
 all whom she meets ; and two or three 
 eligible young men ar in due time 
 captivated by her charms. To one of 
 these, the humblest in worldly advan- 
 tages, she is attracted ; and tho her 
 mother turns out to be a fine lady, and 
 eventually recovers her lost child, the 
 legend of the title-page is illustrated by 
 the romantic fidelity of Lois Stanley. 
 The central incident of the narrativ is 
 painful, but it is not too obtrusiv, since 
 the reader is interested from the begin- 
 ning in the love story of Lois and Alan. 
 The kidnapping grandmother, too, is not 
 so repellent as mit be supposed." [Athe- 
 .nasum. 1051 
 
 AMY WYNTER [by T : A. Pink- 
 ERTON : Tinsley, 1880.] " is a pleasant 
 story of simple life, warm with kindly 
 feeling and redolent of natural charms. 
 The prolog is a romance in itself, and 
 serves, as a good prolog must, to secure 
 the interest of the reader for the more de- 
 tailed narrativ which folloes." [Athe- 
 naeum. 1052 
 
 ANGUS GRAY, [by "E. S.Maine" : 
 Smith, 1878.] " The characters of 
 Eveleigh and his dauter ar well im- 
 agined and successfully developed. The 
 sudden fury which places the easy-go- 
 ing unprincipled virtuoso in such immi- 
 nent danger, his wild despair and the 
 
 327 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 ALMOST A ITEROmE [by E . . S . . 
 Shepparu: Hurst, Tirknar, 1859.] 
 "may fairly take its placje among tlie many 
 which liv liappily throu a season, and ar 
 then forgotten. Ernest Loftns, its hero, 
 is so unslcilled in the ways of men as to 
 be "almost a heroin" . . . The plan siiC5ceds 
 admirably. Ernest sets 6ft' with his £20, 
 leaving the old servant so disconsolate 
 that he wil eat nothing but bread and 
 cheese, and continues his menial work 
 during the whole epoch of his wealth. 
 Meanwhile the hero, when he has only 
 sixpence left, finds a friend in a philan- 
 thropic nobleman, who has established u 
 mad-house, using, tij keep the patients in 
 order, a young lady who is possessed of a 
 marvelous magnetic intluen9e. ^^'ith her 
 Ernest falls in love, but insanity runs in 
 her blood, and marriage is therefore im- 
 possible. "We need not folio him throu 
 the 3 years in which many lafable, even 
 despicable, weaknesses ar mixed with 
 several strong qualities. The develop- 
 ment of his character is an impossible 
 one, and the author in painting it, has 
 endeavored to combine colors which can 
 not effectivly be blended. A much worth- 
 ier creation is that of Loftus' friend, 
 Arnold Major, a man who struggles 
 bravely against a crowd of troubles, and, 
 in the end, stands victoriously upon them. 
 His persistent love, marred as its work- 
 ing is by jealousy and pride, is power- 
 fully described. He and the sparkling, 
 wayward, noble-hearted woman who be- 
 comes his wife ar the true hero and 
 heroin. The book has cleverness and 
 good purpos, which make it worth read- 
 ing; but it also has many failings." [ Ex- 
 aminer.]— "If ever the pulses of a wom- 
 
 an's soul wcr laid bare, thfiy ar so in this 
 book; and this is done quite as much by 
 what is written in the character of the 
 professed relator of the story who is a 
 man, and in the description of the hero 
 and Ills life, as by the thots and acts 
 which ar attributed to her whom the 
 author styles "almost a heroin." This 
 "almost," by the way, is a bit of aftecta- 
 tion which has only its shado of reason in 
 the fact that "Horatia" is not a faultless 
 and (happily) impossible creature, but 
 only one of the loveliest, most lovable, 
 and most loving of women. The story 
 can not be told in epitome ; for its inci- 
 dents ar trifling, disconnected, every-day 
 occurences. The interest of the book is 
 to lie found in its characters and in its 
 masterly portrayal of emotion, and its 
 exquisitly delicate anatomy of passion ; — 
 not only of the master passion, love, but 
 of all others. Its hero and its heroin ar 
 London people of hi birth and culture : 
 he, poor, and a man of letters ; she a rich 
 independent woman of fashion. Oddly 
 enuf thiSy do not see each other til the 
 story is half told, altho it proves in the 
 end that thfiy hav met before to thCircost; 
 and no small part of the development of 
 the grand passion to the workings of 
 which the book is devoted is made throu a 
 description of thfiir behavior, while a 
 third person (the relator) is talking to 
 each about the (5ther. The style of the 
 book certainly can not be commended for 
 its ijurity, its clearness, or its eloquence. 
 It is fragmentary, disjointed, elliptical, 
 aft'ccted, and contaminated with not a 
 little slang. The thot, too, which this 
 style conveys is feverish and hi-strung." 
 [Albion. 1048 f 
 
 327 c 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 breaking down of all his prejudices 
 under the reaction of unexpected relief 
 ar forcibly dramatic. The true nobility 
 which, overlaid with selfishness in the 
 father, has unfettered sway in his inno- 
 cent, unselfish child, and atones for the 
 perversities of both, reflects credit on the 
 writer. Angus is more commonplace, 
 but in gentle manliness contributes as 
 much as he gains from his educated 
 friends." [Athenaeum. 1053 
 
 ANNE FUKXESS. [by F.. Eleanor 
 (Teenan) Tkollope : Chapman, 1871.] 
 "It is impossible here to do justice to 
 the rare merits of ' Anne Furness.' By 
 adopting the autobiografic form the au- 
 thor has voluntarily encountered pecul- 
 iar difiiculties, with which a true artist 
 alone can cope successfully. In saying 
 that the author has succeeded, we mean 
 that we recognize evidences of genius — 
 marvellous imaginativ power, delicate 
 humor, and great power of analyzing 
 character. The subject of the memoir 
 is a woman of a rare type, with all the 
 instincts, tact, and sympathy, without 
 the littleness of the feminin nature. 
 Her lot is cast in the neborhood of a 
 town in Yorkshire. Much of her early 
 life is spent in the house of her grand- 
 father, with whose nature and household 
 she feels herself more in sympathy than 
 at home, and there she meets, while 
 a mere child, a scotcli lad, whom she 
 worships from the first." [Ath. 1054 
 
 ANNE WARWICK, [by Georgiana 
 Marion (Craik) Mat: Hurst, 1876.] 
 " The hero's one thot is to secure the 
 heroin from want. Hence he prevails 
 upon her to marry him on what he sup- 
 poses to be his death-bed. But she is not 
 to kno what his real object is. She is to 
 look upon it as the half-capricious request 
 of a man doomed to die. The reader, of 
 course, forsees that he recovers. How 
 she la won to love him is the real sub- 
 
 ject of the story, which is told with 
 much skill. The diplomacy of Mrs. 
 Travers is especially clever. The 
 reader will not find many novels more 
 readable and pleasant than this." 
 [Spectator. 1055 
 
 ANNIS WARLEIGH'S FORTUNES, 
 [by "Holme Lee," i. e., Harriet 
 Parr : Smith, 1864.] "From tliis 
 point the interest of the story naturally 
 increases, and is sustained without a 
 check to the close. The character of 
 the heroin, a wild and wilful little soul, 
 who, tho in poverty and subjection, has 
 all the instincts of her class, and all the 
 family spirit in her disposition, is grafi- 
 cally drawn, and ably and consistently 
 worked oiit, as is the retribution or the 
 destiny due from the hands of ideal jus- 
 tice to all connected with her. There 
 is plenty of variety, both of scenery and 
 incident, in these pages, and many 
 agreeable pictures of quiet domestic life 
 in rural rectories and sea-side cottages. 
 That the whole ends happilj' for Annis 
 Warleigh, and those who had cherished 
 and benefited the little wildling in her 
 days of peril and adversity, we need not 
 say." [London Review. 1055a 
 
 ANTHONY FAIRFAX [Bentley, 
 1885.] " is pleasant and full of promise. 
 The author has not aimed hi, but the 
 interest is maintained throuout and the 
 characters ar consistent and true to 
 nature. The secularist working man 
 and his wife ar excellent portraits, and 
 in Beatrice Clare we hav a charming 
 picture of a healthy and rit-minded 
 girl. Thfire ar abundant evidences 
 in the pages of this novel of a close, 
 but not unkindly study of human 
 nature." [Athenasum. 1056 
 
 APRIL DAY (An) [by Philippa 
 Prittie Jbphson : i?". V. White, 1883.] 
 " is well named. ThSre is the tearful 
 britness of the spring about Kathleen 
 
 328 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 Desmond's love idyl. When the gallant 
 hussar seems to love and ride away thSre 
 is a sad contrast between tlie sombreness 
 of her lonely days and the pleasant 
 companionship in the glen which made 
 her country life so endurable ; and in 
 proportion to the melancholy which, in 
 spite of herself, has overshadoed her 
 brave tho tender heart is the joy which 
 dispels all sorro when her warrior 
 returns. We ar bound to say tliat in 
 life the earl who makes so praiseworthy 
 and adventurous an eflfort to learn the 
 character of the charmer who has be- 
 witched his son would hav promptly 
 married her himself; but both Lord 
 Lowestoft and Mr. Desmond ar models 
 of chivalry, and Kate's constancy is 
 undisturbed by selfish machinations. 
 Tliere is enuf which is local in descrip- 
 tion to mark the scene of action suffi- 
 ciently ; but this graceful story is a love- 
 tale, and not a book on the savage 
 realities of life in Ireland." [Athe- 
 nasum. 1057 
 
 ARMOREL OF LYONESSE. [by 
 Walter Besant : Harper, 181)0.] "Of 
 all tlie novelists Mr. Besant is the most 
 fertil, tluent, and uniformly agreeable. 
 Dear to him is every kind of romance, 
 and doubly dear the romance of love. 
 He can tell a stirring tale of military 
 adventure, a pathetic tale of the griev- 
 ances of the poor, the sorroes of the 
 oppressed ; an amusing tale of transient 
 fashionable follies — but he is most at 
 home and most attractiv when he is 
 leading young lovers throu deep waters 
 of affliction to joy everlasting. The 
 romance of ' Armorel of Lyonesse ' is 
 a very pretty one, packed full of roman- 
 tic events and situations for which no 
 
 apology is offered The singleness of 
 
 her devotion to her prince wlien, after 
 several years, she finds him again, a 
 pauper and bond slave to a cruel-hearted 
 
 villain, is quite beautiful to dwell upon ; 
 so ar the combined delicacy and pluck 
 with which she forces him to strike for 
 freedom and lay the villain lo. Laying 
 him lo is no child's play, for his villainy 
 is not vulgar and superficial; it is subtle, 
 intellectual, with ramifications many and 
 deep. He preys upon the brains of the 
 needy, buying very cheaply tliflir stories, 
 th6ir poems, thSir paintings, and, thus 
 being enabled to pose as a universal 
 genius, waxes fat, famous and fashionable 
 at tli^ir expense. Thanks to the fidelity 
 and courage of the girl from Scilly, his 
 discomfiture is complete. Nobody can 
 feel quite sure after reading ' Armorel 
 of Lyonesse ' that the most cunning sin- 
 ner may not dig pits for his betrayal, 
 or that riteousness never triumfs in a 
 wicked world." [Nation. 1058 
 
 ASPEN COURT. [by [C: W:] 
 Shirley Brooks : Bentley, 1855.] 
 "Mr. Brooks has written no book to 
 compare with this in matter — so full 
 of thot', humor, and observation. To 
 a style at all times lit, airy, brilliant, 
 he has now added more serious graces. 
 We hav the airy satire, the fresh ex- 
 pression, the humorous suggestion; but 
 we hav these in a closer relation than 
 was the wont of this lit and graceful 
 writer, to the more sacred symjvithies of 
 immanlife." [Athenaeum. 1059 
 
 ASPHODEL [by M .. E .. (Braddon) 
 Maxwell: Maxwell, 1881.] " is a story 
 written in Miss Braddon's later manner. 
 It does not depend upon intricacy of 
 plot, upon crime or mystery ; it is as 
 simple a tale as could be contrived, 
 with its interest centered upon one char- 
 acter. The style is wonderfully easy 
 and fluent; the conversations ar brill- 
 iant, pointed, and vigorous; and the 
 description, of which there is a, great 
 deal, is always vivid enuf not to be 
 tedious. The tale is one of mutual 
 329 
 
BKITISII NOVELS. 
 
 love at first sit. The early scenes ar 
 charming. There is a school girl 
 sketching in the forest of Fontaine- 
 bleau while her friend sits apart doing 
 wool-work. A stranger looks over the 
 artist's shoulder, amused at her energy, 
 and makes a comment upon her work. 
 Then comes an extemporized picnic, 
 and next day a more or less accidental 
 meeting at the chateau. The girl is 
 perfectly frank and perfectly inquisitiv, 
 and amongst other tilings finds out that 
 the stranger is engaged to be married. 
 Soon afterwards she goes home, and 
 wlien her sister's fiance appears, he 
 turns out to be the stranger of Fontaine- 
 bleau. Then the trouble begins. Both 
 strive against their love, and it is not 
 till near the end of the story that it 
 bursts out on botli sides. The power of 
 the author is shon not so much in her 
 invention as in the ease with wliicli she 
 makes events suit her purpose and hap- 
 pen so naturally as to leave the itnpres- 
 sion that tliey could not hav been 
 otherwise. Here and thSrc a, masterly 
 touch is obvious. The love of the two 
 sisters for eacli other shoes an imagina- 
 tion and delicacy wliich those who hav 
 read only the author's earlier works 
 would hardly expect from her. The 
 book also shoes skill of a kind which is 
 rather to be regretted. Having really 
 but a short story to write. Miss Braddon 
 fills it out by taking her people to 
 Switzerland, when tlie book becomes 
 in effect what used to be called a ' pict- 
 uresque tour.' But in spite of all this 
 the reader will find himself forced to 
 admit that it is readable throuout." 
 [Athenajum. 1060 
 
 AT ANY COST [by "E: Gar- 
 rett," i. e., I .. Fyfie Mayo : Oliphant, 
 1884.] " is the old story of the good 
 boy and tlie bad boy, without the old 
 ending. Tlie heroes do not meet with 
 
 their traditional fate : outward prosper- 
 ity comes to them both, but they bear it 
 with a difference. Robert Sinclair and 
 Tom OUison are nativs of the Shet- 
 land Isles ; it is among ' the crags and 
 storms of the far, far North ' tliat we 
 first make their acquaintance. They 
 set forth to seek their fortune. Cold 
 and selfish Robert Sinclair is bound for 
 a Surrey village whSre his mother's old 
 friend, the miller, is to take liim in, 
 while the brave and cheery Tom Ollison 
 is to be assistant to an old London book- 
 seller. On the road they came across 
 Mr. Brander, a rich stockbroker, and his 
 dauter. The handsom face and brit 
 ways of Tom Ollison attract Mr. Brand- 
 er, but the attraction is not mutual ; Tom 
 draws back, and his more worldly-wise 
 companion steps into the breach, and 
 the journey becomes Robert's stepping- 
 stone to fortune. His sojourn in Surrey 
 is short ; he is taken into Mr. Brander's 
 office. London life tries the lads, and 
 brings out their strength and their weak- 
 ness. The tale is admirably told, and 
 we can strongly recommend it." [Athe- 
 naeum.] — The book " is quietly, calmly 
 written, and is the story of one who be- 
 lieves in having not love, or money, 
 or power, ' at any cost,' but truth. 
 Nor does it refer to religious truth, 
 but simply the truth about our- 
 selves and others, too often con- 
 cealed from mistaken ideas of what 
 is best. The plot, tho the hackneyed 
 one of an illegitimate child deserted by 
 his mother, is original in having the 
 child knoing always who he is, and the 
 mother ignorant that the man who has 
 sheltered her is her son, while he knoes 
 that he is her son.'' [Critic. 1061 
 AT FAULT [by Hawley Smart: 
 Chapman, 1883.] " is a tale which he 
 who' runs may read. No psychical analy- 
 sis or subjectiv filosofy causes mis- 
 
 330 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 givings in the heart of the unspeculativ 
 reader who likes his fiction lit and 
 frothy. The gravest problem in the 
 book is the dual identity of Fossdyke or 
 Foxborough, the mysterious adventurer 
 who is at once a ' topping ' solicitor in 
 rural Philistia and manager of a bohem- 
 ian music-hall. [Compare the plot of 
 'The Hundredth Man,' — No. 275] As 
 tlie hero has a wife to share either fase 
 of his fortunes, it may be supposed how 
 complicated is the strain upon his ener- 
 gies and affections. His secret is not 
 unravelled until the violent close of his life 
 at the hands of an enemy, who, having 
 endeavored to trade on his discovery of 
 tlie truth, makes full use of the mystery 
 to escape for some time the hands of 
 justice. On the whole, the plot is well 
 imagine'J and sustained. Marlinson, the 
 old-fashioned inn-keeper, Sturton, the 
 Radical, but fashionable tailor, and 
 other minor characters ar very lifelike." 
 [Atlienaium. 1062 
 
 AT HIS GATES, [by Ma. O. 
 (Wilson) Oliphant : Scribner, 1873.] 
 "Robert Drummond, a painter of fair 
 repute, has a wife (Helen) and adauter, 
 whom he maintains in comfort by the 
 practice of his profession. Reginald 
 Burton, a cousin and rejected suitor of 
 Helen, and now a rich merchant, becomes 
 a frequent guest at Drummond's house, 
 and infects him with tlie itch for rapid 
 money-getting. Finally the artist is 
 induced to become a director, with Bur- 
 ton, in a great banking-house. Not 
 long after. Burton withdraws from the 
 institution, pleading a press of other 
 
 business At last the bank 'bursts,' 
 
 and Robert finds that he has been a tool 
 for working the ruin of many of his 
 friends who had intrusted their funds 
 to the bank. He writes a letter to his 
 friend Dr. Maurice, announcing his 
 intention to leave the world, and adds : 
 
 ' Burton and Golden hav done it.' 
 
 Secretly he disappears How time 
 
 brot about its revenges, how, in many 
 years, fact after fact cropped out, 
 throing a gleam on the mysterious 
 tragedy; how, almost simultaneously, 
 Burton fled, a hunted fugitiv, and 
 Drummond, a white-haired, broken man, 
 reappears on this earthly scene, — 
 the telling of all this makes up the 
 bulk of the story. But, long before 
 this consummation, a new generation of 
 personages come on the stage, — chil- 
 dren of the original characters, — com- 
 plicating the relations of these, and 
 adding the disturbing element of love 
 to the already tempestuous res gestse. 
 Mrs. Oliphant is not a mere fabricator 
 of fiction; she is a thinker, a filosofer; 
 and for the development of a plot 
 whicli is in no respect remarkable, she 
 has created sundry characters, original, 
 individual, and finished, with a consci- 
 entious fidelity and power of handling 
 which ar unmistakable marks of gen- 
 ius. The strength of the story is in its 
 characterization." [Boston " Literary 
 World." 1063 
 
 AT SIXES AND SEVENS [by A. 
 Weber: Mozley ^ Smith, 1877.] "de- 
 fines the relations of an amiable party 
 of youths and girls in a pleasant village 
 in the valley of the Thames. The 
 heroin is the self-sacrificing eldest 
 dauter of an absent-minded student and 
 his invalid wife, who occupy the village 
 rectory. A very charming specimen of an 
 enthusiastic yet sound-headed maiden is 
 Grace Mrs. Wyatt, and the two ex- 
 cellent old maids, who ar alone in their 
 thoro understanding of their favorit, 
 ar well drawn portraits. There is also 
 an Oxford don, with an insit into char- 
 acter not common in the race, wlio is 
 evidently described from some living 
 model." [Athenaeum. 1064 
 
 31 
 
NOVELS OK AMEKIC'AM L'CIINTKV LIFE. 
 
 ATHOL [ by M. E. H. Pott : N.-Y., 
 
 Yoitnr/, 1873.] "is the modest title of a 
 singularly pure, modest, wel-written and 
 interesting novel. The main point on 
 which the narrativ turns is on which has 
 always proved a favorit with women nov- 
 elists, to whom the sight of a young girl, 
 gradually and unconsciously failing in 
 love with a grave, staid, strong, manly, 
 middle-aged gardian seems to hav had a 
 grfiat, and to some minds, unaccountable 
 attraction. But if the essence or most 
 suggestiv element of the plot is not origi- 
 nal, the fresh, naive, wholesome manner 
 in which it is treated, and the distinct and 
 strongly-marked individualities of the char- 
 acters, giv the story itself an indestribably 
 fresh and healthy air, reminding one of 
 the odor of new-mon hay . . . The charac- 
 ters ar drawn with gr^at distinctness and 
 attention to detail; the plot, tho stale, is 
 nicely elaborated ; the descriptiv passages 
 ar vigorously drawn ; and the whole tone 
 of the book is pure and noble. Alto- 
 gether we recommend it warmly to every 
 lover of healthy and legitimately exciting 
 fiction." [Arcadian. 5p 
 
 3r 
 
liKITlSlI NOVELS. 
 
 ATHE LINGS (The) [by Ma. Oli- 
 PHANT (Wilson) Oliphant : Blackwood, 
 1857.] " is written witli simplicity and 
 tenderness. The story is, in some re- 
 spects, original; and altlio the main in- 
 cident has an ancient tinge, the author 
 never loses for a moment her power of 
 making the situations and characters pe- 
 culiarly hers. Without outlining the 
 drama, we may mention that it turns 
 upon three moral gifts, bestoed by na- 
 ture upon 3 of the personages, and 
 that this conception is cleverly kept 
 in vue from first to last, without being 
 strained into disagreeable prominence." 
 [Leader.] — "Two sisters and one 
 brother, a father, a mother, and baby 
 twins, lived in Islington and comfort on 
 £200 a year. The elder sister is an au- 
 thor ; the younger a beauty ; the brother 
 is a boisterous boy who gets articled in 
 a lawyer's office, and helps by his acu- 
 men and energy to save the family prop- 
 erty and defeat the bad man of the 
 book, Lord Winterbourne; the twins 
 remain subordinate and come in for the 
 ladies' petting; the father and mother 
 
 ar also in the background The 
 
 author is clever : she can describe soci- 
 ety : Mr. Agar, the old epicurean exqui- 
 sit, and Mrs. Edgerly, the vapid woman 
 of fashion, ar well touched; and th^re 
 is a dainty naturalness in the sisters 
 which makes it pleasant to remember 
 them." [Westminster Review. 1065 
 
 ATHERSTON PKIORY [by L. N. 
 CoMYN : Esies, 1874.] " is a story of 
 english life, marked by refinement and 
 healthful morality. Its heroin, Lisa, is 
 a young girl of the harum-scarum order 
 whose moral and intellectual reformation 
 is effected gradually, but surely, by the 
 influence of love. The masculin in- 
 strument in the case is a. very grave, 
 dignified, and, so far as personal charms 
 ar concerned, an unattractiv man. 
 
 The book is filled with details of d;iily 
 life in a large middle-class family, and 
 is entertaining in a quiet way." [Bos- 
 ton " Literary World." lOGG 
 AUNT DIANA [by RosaNoucuette 
 Carey: Lippincott, 1888.] " is a pretty 
 tho sentimental story about a girl named 
 Alison Merle, who, under the inspira- 
 tion of one of those delitful maiden 
 aunts, unhappily more commonly found 
 in fiction than in life — an earnest, in- 
 fluential, self- controlled maiden aunt, 
 full of talent and benefactions, always 
 appearing with help in her rit h;ind at 
 the rit moment — does a hard bit of 
 duty well, and helps and changes the 
 moral attitude of her whole family. 
 There is one rather exciting episode 
 with an embezzling clerk, but otherwise 
 the plot is simple, and enuf is to be 
 learned from Alison's experience to 
 make the book good reading for those 
 who, like her, wish to do the rit thing tho 
 at the cost of their temporary comfort 
 and pleasure." [Boston " Literary 
 World." 10C7 
 AUNT MARGARET'S TROUBLE 
 [by F ,. Eleanor (Teknan) Trollope : 
 Chapman, 186G, — Peterson, 1SG7.] "is a 
 simple and touching little story which 
 comes to delit us witli its pure and re- 
 freshing influences It is a tale of un- 
 selfish love and devotion ; of cruel wrong 
 and just retribution ; of noble thots and 
 aims in all which regards human life ; 
 of womanly tenderness ; of christian 
 resignation and forgivness. Tliere is 
 nothing startling in incident or style, 
 nor is tlie plot remarkable for original- 
 ity ; but there is a secret charm about 
 Aunt Margaret whicli attracts us to her 
 in her early childhood, and causes us to 
 resent the injustice slie is made to suffer 
 — which enlists all our sympathies for 
 the loving and confiding girl — and 
 which, while sharing the sorro so cruelly 
 832 
 
BRITISH NOVKLS. 
 
 brot upon her young heart by another's is quite unlike any thing else she has 
 treachery, causes us scarcely to regret produced, and it will certainly enhance 
 the bitter trials throu which, in after her reputation. It is a story of mis- 
 life, her hier nature is developed chief wr6t by idle tale-bearing. The 
 
 The whole tone of the book is thoroly 
 healthful, and tho, from the nature of 
 the story, necessarily tinged with sad- 
 ness, it is wholly free from any morbid 
 tendency ; on the contrary, Margaret, 
 after the first gush of sorro, accepts her 
 situation heroically — the lit and joy- 
 ousness of life had gone; but th^re was 
 serious work before her, and in its ac- 
 complishment she found consolation." 
 [Round Table. 1068 
 
 AUNT KAOHAEL. [by D : Christie 
 MauKAY : Macmillan, 1886.] . " ' A Rus- 
 tic Sentimental Comedy ' is a very modest 
 sub-title for as dainty a bit of literary 
 work, combining romance and humor, 
 as we hav had for many a day. The 
 book is, in its way, a gem — one of 
 those richly humorous tales which ar 
 all the more amusing becaus the actors 
 in the drama hav not the least con- 
 sciousness that they ar funny. The 
 story moves with the greatest precision 
 and dignified solemnity, while the au- 
 dience is not convulsed with laf ter, but 
 listens and looks on with a not less 
 pleasing sense of being well entertained 
 by persons who hav no intention of enter- 
 taining anybody. The story is nothing 
 compared with the perfectness of each 
 chapter in a series of little genre 
 pictures as delicate in finish as they ar 
 clever in conception." [Critic. 1069 
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF M : RUTH- 
 ERFORD, see "IlEVOLnTiosr in Tan- 
 nek's Lane." 
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SLAN- 
 DER (The) [by " Edna Lyall," i. e., 
 Ada Ellen Bayly : Appleton, ISQl .'] "is 
 a half-pathetic, half-humorous novelette 
 exhibiting the clever powers of Miss 
 Lyall in a new lit. ' The Autobiografy ' 
 
 idea is worked out with much spirit and 
 originality." [American. 1070 
 
 AUTUMN MANOEUVRES, [by M. 
 Moore: Bentley, 1886.] "There is 
 ■a, lodg in a garden of cucumbers at 
 Netherby whSre a jealous wido and her 
 3 charriiing dauters dwell in strict seclu- 
 sion ; and the reader will understand 
 that in this situation thfire ar the 
 makings of a pretty story. The wido 
 seems to be a particularly silly specimen 
 of her sex, for she has labored to keep 
 her dauters out of the reach of possible 
 suitors for no better reason than that 
 her husband died of a sunstroke. But it 
 is eventually proved to her satisfaction 
 that sunstroke is not hereditary, and that 
 the children of the sunstruck ar not 
 specially in danger of being moonstruck. 
 So the manoeuvres ar fairly successful, 
 from the day when the military besiege 
 the wido's fastness by way of the 
 garden wall, to the day when tlie last of 
 their enemies surrenders at discretion." 
 [Athenaium. 1071 
 
 AYALA'S ANGEL. [By Anthony 
 Trollope : Chapman, 1881.] "Mr. 
 Trollope has a knack of converting prev- 
 alent tases of thiit into flesh and blood, 
 so that in an individual may- often be 
 recognized the embodiment of some 
 characteristic peculiarity of society, or 
 some form of idea which is common to 
 most of us ; and evidence of this power 
 is to be met in the book now under con- 
 sideration. By dint of subtle apprecia- 
 tion of character and of these arts, 
 which must surely result from an 
 unusual quickness in feeling the social 
 pulse, he accomplishes a feat which no 
 less able writer could perform, and 
 takes his readers pleasantly throu 3 
 
 333 
 
BKITISH ISOVELS. 
 
 AUNT ANXE [Ijy Lucy (Lane) Cuf- 
 TORd: Bentley, 1S92.] "is one of the 
 most charming stories it has Ijeen oiir 
 good fortune to meet in a \ery long while. 
 It is as fresh anil original as it is human. 
 Few people hav gone throu tlie world 
 without knoing an ant Anne ; most people 
 hav a similar product in thfiir on families, 
 others hav met her amijng thfiir friends. 
 It was no easy task to portray her faith- 
 fully and not disgust one thoroly with 
 her. As it is, dur patience is 6ften ex- 
 hausted hy her, olir Interest and sympa- 
 thy never. Her intense pride, her court- 
 liness and dignity of manner, her liind- 
 heftrtedness and generosity, her utter 
 disregard of all indebtedness to trades- 
 people, whom she loolcs upon as inferiors 
 who must be content to wait until it is 
 the pleasure of thSir superiors to remem- 
 ber their bils, and her perfect simpli5ity 
 of mind and character, which enables any 
 designing person to impose upon* her to 
 the last extent, prepare us fully for her 
 inconsequent career, with its pitiful con- 
 clusion. As thfire is nothing more divert- 
 ing than ant Anne in her more prosper- 
 ous days, so thSre is nothing more touch- 
 ing than that same old lady in the midst 
 of her shame and her disappointment. 
 She is simply delightful." [Critic] — 
 "The old lady is 'digne' in every way, 
 perfectly independent, perfectly irre- 
 
 sponsible . . . But we trust that every 
 reader wil make *,lic acijuaintanfe of ant 
 Anne for himself. We can assure him 
 (or her) that he knoes nobody lilci' her in 
 fiction. To kno her in life might be per- 
 haps a mingled pleasure, but in print she 
 is at once the most original and most 
 true creation which we hav met for a 
 long time. The present writer has fol- 
 loed the old lady throu the severe test of 
 a magazine mouth by month, disappointed 
 when the younger people tilled the scene, 
 and ant Anne ceased to be the first figure, 
 but with inifailing interest in the old 
 heroin, with all her big words and queer, 
 irresponsible ways. Her love-story is 
 ridiculous, but most touching and pathetic, 
 and true. She herself is never for a 
 moment ridiculous, even when she makes 
 us laf ; and throu all those portions of the 
 story in which she 6t to be most absurd, 
 it is the tears which we find it difficult to 
 restrain, and the old, forlorn figure in her 
 trouble wrings cffir heiirts. Mrs. Cliflbrd 
 has done nothing before at all equal or to 
 be spoken of in the same breath with this 
 delicate and most aftecting picture. To 
 rec;eive it from hands accustomed to por- 
 tray "worldly women," is a surprise as 
 wel as an extraordinary pleasure. The 
 outside is almost worthy of Miss Austen ; 
 the heart much deeper than anything Miss 
 Austen ever touched." [Spectator. 1066 v 
 
 332 m 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 AUSTIN ELLIOT. [ 1 ly H : Kingsley 
 [1830-7C]: r(V7.«(;r, 1863.] "It warms 
 the heart lo read such a, book. We can 
 not say, indeed, that there is anything 
 profoundly original or afl'ecting in tlie 
 plot of the story ; but thfire is nature, life, 
 character, genuin feeling in every page of 
 it. A manly spirit, a tender heart, a 
 liberally cultivated mind, and a deliQiously 
 humorous habit of seeing and of thinking, 
 all these contribute to make it one of the 
 few vital works in the literature of this 
 scribbling century. It is a booli to be 
 loved; and one loves it— not because it 
 denoun5es duelling, not because it sug- 
 gests that the organization of society is 
 not altogether perfect, and that a little 
 tinkering, now and then, has its uses — 
 but because it deals so directly and hon- 
 estly with men and women as thiSy ar, 
 inculcating lofty prin9iples and encourag- 
 ing noble ideals. It has, in short, the 
 combined fasQination of strength and 
 sin5erity. Its writer had a story to tel, a 
 
 story eloquent of love, honor, fidelity, and . 
 all the gracjcs of delicate culture — and he 
 has told that story in the simplest and 
 most direct style. We shal not undertake 
 to analyze his plot, nor to point out ex- 
 cellences which the sympatlietic reader 
 wil readily discover without guidance; 
 but we wish to record, in the strongest 
 language, our approbation of the boolc, 
 both as to manner and matter. Like 
 "Ravenshoe" [No. 1723 J, it is an earnest 
 exponent of the dignity and Ijeauty of 
 manly virtue; and the weak friends of 
 abstract goodness, who write novels in 
 pr?ise of rectitude, antl thereby — so far as 
 in them lies — bring it into contempt, may 
 herein study with profit the example of a 
 sturdy champion of the Riglit, who hits 
 from the sholder, and at whom it would 
 not be safe to laf. Excepting Thackeray, 
 we remember no moilern novelist who has 
 I'xercised a better influence over the age, 
 than H : Kingsley." [Albion.] The time is 
 thatof the repeal of the cornlaws. 1069 k 
 
 333 m 
 
BKITISII NOVELS. 
 
 voluinos, without the usual aids of plot 
 and Inoident ; tlie thread of the story in 
 ' Ayala's Angel ' is too slit to be called 
 a plot, yet the book is amusing, in 
 spite of that deficiency.'' [Spectator.] — 
 " Ayala is a charming creation. Hating 
 the dull life at her uncle's, she is yet 
 true enuf to herself and her ideals to 
 refuse 3 eligible offers. The story is 
 written with great skill, and the reader 
 succumbs to the attractions of the red- 
 haired Jonathan long before Ayala does. 
 Mr. TroUope has a genius for being 
 generous to foibles. He hates the harsli- 
 ness of life and manner developed so 
 often, alas ! merely by the necessity for 
 small economies; ... .yet he reminds us 
 here tliat life at tlie 'bijou' had a 
 charm and ease and affectionate hospi- 
 tality apt to be lacking whc^re minds ar 
 too closely occupied with the payment of 
 debts." [Critic. 1072 
 
 AZALEA [by Cecii, Clayton: Ilar- 
 per, 1877.] "takes its name from the 
 pretty, flower-like heroin, a young girl 
 born in Lugano of a hebrew mother and 
 an english father. She becomes an 
 orfan when a child, and goes to England 
 
 to liv with her grandfather The rest 
 
 of the story floes on in a quiet lim- 
 pid stream, neither quarrel nor mis- 
 understanding interrupting the course 
 of true love, and not a single murder, or 
 sensational incident of any kind appear- 
 ing to disturb the dreamy calm which 
 gradually takes possession of the reader's 
 senses." [Library Table. 1073 
 
 BABY'S GRANDMOTHER (The). 
 [by Lucy Bp;thia (Colquhodn) AVal- 
 ford: Iloli, 1884.] "No one is more 
 successful than Mrs. Walford in gather- 
 ing a dozen people and making them as 
 interesting as our own friends. She 
 has grouped this set about a beautiful 
 woman, whose charm thdre can be no 
 denying. It is her method to make 
 
 people talk, and thereby sho the de- 
 velopment of character. This accounts 
 for the length of tlie book in proportion 
 to the number of incidents. How the 
 author could work out of the situation 
 anything like a happy issue was an 
 anxious question while the story was 
 running in ' Blackwood.' It may be 
 said that the knot is cut, not untied. 
 Still, it is as true to human experience 
 that death should sometimes make a 
 way out as that it should often stop the 
 path. There will be two sides taken as 
 to whether Lady Matilda should hav 
 forgiven Challoner, yet that is only a 
 proof of the reality of the creation, for 
 life is seldom so convincing as to make 
 all judgments agree. At least the 
 author has shon great skill in enlisting 
 the reader's sympathy. He, too, resents 
 the assumptions of the Hanwells, and 
 he feels that the punishment has been 
 severe enuf for the almost unconscious 
 sin of too easy compliance with tlie 
 sister's ambitious schemes. Mrs. Wal- 
 ford's work needs no praise for anyone 
 who knoes ' Mr. Smith.' To her new 
 readers this book is a better token of 
 her powers tlian anything since tlmt 
 first. She not only succeeds in making 
 her heroin worthy a man's despair : she 
 makes in Teddy a perfectly new figure 
 in fiction ; and by that one trait of hi- 
 minded reticence wliich she bestoes on 
 poor Mary Tufnell, she wins for her 
 what would hav seemed impossible — 
 respect and regret." [Nation. 1074 
 BACHELOR OF THE ALBANY 
 (The), [by Makmion W. Savage; 
 1847.] "From first to last this story was 
 told delitfully. It still remains in a 
 great measure, altlio among his minor 
 works, the novelist's masterpiece. The 
 name of the book was ' The Bachelor of 
 the Albany,' the hero of it being Mr. 
 Peter Barker, a thoroly humorous crea- 
 
 334 
 
BUITISII NOVELS. 
 
 tion. This rollicking fun was surpassed 
 by the drollery and the more caustic 
 vivacity running throu the incident re- 
 lating here to the oddly-contrasted 
 households of the Spreads and the Nar- 
 rowsmiths — the former so winning, the 
 latter so repulsiv. Almost as good as 
 the delineation of tlie Bachelor himself 
 was that of Dean Bedford, the jovial 
 pluralist, resident at Far Niente." 
 [Athenaeum. 1075 
 
 BACHELOR'S BLUNDER (A), [by 
 W: E: NoRKis: Holt, 1880.] "We 
 hav endeavored, in noticing some pre- 
 vious books of this author, to express 
 our hi appreciation of his grafic powers, 
 and his rit to be reckoned one of the 
 leading english novelists — one who has 
 been compared to Thackeray in liis 
 delicate humor and Ids ready seizure of 
 ithe foibles, as well as the virtues of 
 rmankind, and to Anthony TroUope in a 
 rcertain minuteness of finish in the de- 
 picting of people and of scenes. This 
 istory of a natural and unsofisticated girl 
 in the miOst of the intense worldliness 
 .of moaaiin (english society, and of a mar- 
 mage (dallberately vued in advance and 
 Ibyiboth parties as one entirely of con- 
 'v6nance, is not one of the author's best, 
 'but affords an excellent iield for his char- 
 acteristic modes of treatment. We ob- 
 serv in the style the same naturalness and 
 frankness as in earlier writings; and to 
 any readers not yet acquainted with Mr. 
 Norris we coiiiniend his works as likely 
 to .Tlford much pleasant literary recrea- 
 tion." [Boston "Lit. World." 1076 
 BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 
 (The), [by W : E : Norris : S. Blackeit, 
 1890.] "Mr. Norris has never had a 
 happier thot for a novel, nor worked 
 out his idea more felicitously, than in 
 this brit story. The conspirators wer 
 4 spoiled children of society, who 
 formed a, mutual protection league 
 
 against the wiles of the piscatory sex, 
 agreeing with each other that if either 
 of them ' saw that he was about to com- 
 mit suicide ' by swalloing a hook, he 
 should consult his felloes, and be bound 
 by their decision for the space of 6 
 months Evidently there is room for 
 any amount of spritly writing within 
 the 4 corners of that agreement, and 
 Mr. Norris is spritly on every page. 
 His title is not so appropriate as it mit 
 be, for the conspirators ar not baffled 
 in the object which they set before 
 themselves. The story has two heroins, 
 and in the end there ar only 2 bachelors 
 left to lament, after greedily snatching 
 at the bait, that they wer contempt- 
 uously thron back into the water. 
 The ' Baffled Conspirators ' is inten- 
 tionally slit, but it is thoroly pictu- 
 resque and sparkling." [Athenaeum.] — 
 " There is less body in this one-volume 
 story than in any of Mr. Norris' pre- 
 vious works but, in its slit way, it is 
 simply perfect. The masters of hi 
 comedy ar much rarer than the masters 
 of either lo comedy or melodrama; but 
 Mr. Norris is one of them, and his pres- 
 ent story never lapses from the true hi- 
 comedy tone." [Spectator. 1077 
 
 BANNING AND BLESSING [N. 
 Y., — Whittaker.'} "is a first-rate story 
 of quiet life in a secluded n^borhood near 
 the sea, with plenty of picturesque char- 
 acters and incidents. It is written in 
 good style by one who knoes how to 
 interest and hold the attention of boys, 
 girls, and all who ar young in spirit." 
 [Critic. 1078 
 
 BARBARA ALLAN, THE PRO- 
 VOST'S DAUGHTER, [by Ro. Cle- 
 LAND : Blackwood, 1889.] " Thfire is 
 a great deal of charm about ' Barbara 
 Allan'; it deals with extremely dull 
 people, and contrives to make them in- 
 teresting in spite of thfiir dulness. The 
 336 
 
BKITISII NOVELS. 
 
 portrait of the provost in his success 
 and in his decadence siioes real ability, 
 and the other characters, tho here and 
 there improbable, form, as a whole, a 
 pleasant and natural picture. The 
 author seems well acquainted with 
 scotch life, and manages his dialect well 
 — it is genuine without being incom- 
 prehensible." [Athenaeum. 1079 
 
 BARBARA HE ATHCOTE'S TRIALS 
 [by EosA NoucHETTE Cakey : Lippin- 
 coit, 1885.] "narrates the liome life of 
 an agreeable family, in which the au- 
 thor is chiefly concerned in differen- 
 tiating the characters of 4 sisters. 
 ' Barbara ' herself seems built on the lines 
 of iVIiss Alcott's ' Jo,' and her ' trials ' 
 ar chiefly the misunderstandings she 
 suffers throu her bluntness and candor. 
 The tale throuout is pleasing and brit." 
 [American.] — " Given a family of girls 
 well contrasted, utterly untrammeled, and 
 each in possession of a will and a way of 
 her on, materials for a romance ar not 
 hard to find; and in telling the story of 
 the Heatlicotes Miss Carey seems to 
 hav jotted down a series of events ex- 
 actly as they fell out in life. Thdre is 
 plenty of sentiment but its expression is 
 dealt out with a sparing hand; th^re 
 ar pretty sylvan scenes, and the wood- 
 paths, the warm homesteads, the mead- 
 oes and fields all enter into the story 
 and make a pleasant part of it." [Lip- 
 pincott's. 1080 
 
 BARBARA'S HISTORY, [by Amelia 
 Blandford Edwards : Ifurst, 1804.] 
 " Just as Mrs. Radcliffe used to season 
 her stories with the requisit amount of 
 ghostly horrors, capable of explanation 
 in the last chapter, so has Miss Edwards 
 effected a compromise between her 
 sense of rit and the depraved appetite 
 of the public, giving zest to her romance 
 by the introduction of a bigamist who, 
 as the curtain falls, is proved to be a 
 
 man of exemplary character." [Athe- 
 naium. 1081 
 
 BARCHESTER TOWERS, [by An- 
 thony Trollope : Longmans, 1857.] 
 " Thus [this novel being a continua- 
 tion of the history begun in ' The War- 
 den'], Mr. Trollope has not to contend 
 against the difficulty of interesting us, at 
 the outset, in his personages or in his 
 narrativ; we ar by no means strangers 
 in Barchester; but he has, perhaps, to 
 meet a worse diflBculty, — that of pro- 
 longing successfully the interest of a 
 tale which seemed some time ago to hav 
 been brot to a natural conclusion. Yet 
 we doubt whether ' Barchester Towers' 
 is not a more satisfactory book than 
 ' The Warden ' ^ it is certainly more 
 dramatic in its construction ; the charac- 
 ters ar more varied; an infusion of 
 romance gives litness, and britness to 
 the ecclesiastical picture." [.Athenaeum.] 
 See DOCTOR THORNE. 1082 
 
 BARREN TITLE (A) [by T. W^ 
 Speight; Harper, 1886.] "opens ex- 
 ceedingly well and is original throuout." 
 [Critic. 1083 
 
 BARRINGTON'S EATE. [Boston, 
 1883.] = SELF-CONDEMNED. 
 
 BASIL GODFREY'S CAPRICE [by 
 "Holme Lee," i. e., Harriet Parr: 
 Smith, 18C8], "is a graceful, healthy, 
 and thoroly pleasant story of true love, 
 enduring trials, trusting throu absence, 
 giving no heed to false reports, but feel- 
 ing them to be false by the talisman of 
 its truth, and finally clearing away all 
 obstacles by virtue of its royal nature. 
 The difficulties and obstacles ar such as 
 wer inevitable from the nature of things 
 — not fantastic fancies, nor the cobwebs 
 of conventionality. The difficulties ar 
 genuin ; they ar met in good faith, 
 and yield to the true hearts which en- 
 counter tliem. Nothing is more re- 
 markable throuout this story tlian the 
 
 33G 
 
ISltlTIsn KOVEI.S. 
 
 strong common sense which underlies 
 the romance. Basil and Joan do not 
 make miseries for themselves ; they do 
 not sin against the loyalty of each other 
 by mistrust, nor do they torment each 
 other by freaks of self-sacrifice which 
 sin against justice as well as gener- 
 osity." [Athenaeum. 1084 
 
 BASIL PLANT (A) [by Ethel 
 CoxON : Bentley, 1881.] "enforces a 
 moral against the unequal yoking of the 
 artist with the philistine. A worldly 
 Delilah shears away the strength of 
 Roland Trench, a young man with the 
 artistic temperament and full of hi pur- 
 poses, but too susceptible, as is the man- 
 ner of artists, to mere external beauty. 
 Eve Goring understands him, if she 
 somewhat idealizes liim ; and in sliting 
 her affection for that of Gertrude Auley 
 he makes the false step which it is too 
 late to retrieve, when, after the tragic 
 end of his first marriage, he is united to 
 the woman whose influence niit hav en- 
 abled him to realize his hiest ambition. 
 The tale is simplq, but strongly told." 
 [Athenajum. 1085 
 
 BASIL ST. JOHN. \_Edmonston. & 
 Douglas, 1866.] " We breathe here a 
 pleasant West Highland atmosf ere which 
 givs charm to a, narrativ somewhat 
 wanting in incident. The descriptions 
 which it contains of the Sutlierland- 
 sliire mountains and rivers ar as 
 truthful as th^y ar picturesque, and the 
 author shoes a thoro acquaintance both 
 with the scenes he describes and the 
 people who inhabit them. It is a pleas- 
 ure to meet with a novel in which titled 
 personages figure, without any solecisms 
 betraying the author's ignorance of the 
 world in which such persons move.... 
 The hero goes to a shooting-box in the 
 Highlands, and falls in love with a young 
 lady who possesses every charm but that 
 of wealth. His grandfather compels 
 
 him for a time to give up the object of 
 his affections, but eventually yields on 
 finding that a very eccentric old general 
 is ready to settle a fortune on her. Mean- 
 time, Basil's chief friend, an excellent, 
 but poor government clerk, named 
 Charlie Ilay, wins the hand of Miss 
 Susan Mackenzie, an heiress of exten- 
 sive possessions The ladies ar 
 
 charming. Evelyn Moncrieff and Susan 
 Mackenzie ar two delitful studies, the 
 trusting, kindly nature of the one, and 
 the independent, noble spirit of the 
 other being excellently described. Two 
 so striking figures, set off by so pictu- 
 resque a background, ar quite enuf to 
 render the book attractiv." [London 
 Review. 1086 
 
 BATEMAN HOUSEHOLD (The). 
 [by Ja. Payn : Hall, Virtue Jf Co., 
 I860.] " We can not speak in compli- 
 mentary terms of this somewhat lengthy 
 narrativ of complicated misfortunes, 
 misdeeds, and misadventures, in which 
 there is not a single point of interest for 
 the reader. All the characters ar ill- 
 conceived and ill-developed, without 
 any individuality or purpose. The in- 
 cidents ar generally commonplace, or, 
 if otherwise, forced and exaggerated. 
 The author evidently delits in rendering 
 probable the improbable, and possible 
 the impossible ; he also deals too much 
 in the revelation of horrors to allow him 
 to develop his story in a natural or 
 artistic manner. The book, however, 
 betrays evidences of natural capabili- 
 ties ; and we hav no doubt that had Mr. 
 Payn been more careful in his delinea- 
 tions and less indiscriminate in his 
 choice of a subject, the result would 
 hav devolved greater credit upon him- 
 self, and been decidedly more satisfac- 
 tory to the reader." [Leader. 1087 
 BE AUCH AMP'S CAREER, [by G : 
 Meeedith : Chapman, 1875.] "A prompt 
 337 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 amount of compression which should 
 bring ' Beauchamp's Career ' down to the 
 proper limit and form of a work of art 
 would make it a really admirable book. 
 As it is, its cleverness and striking brill- 
 iancy ar lost in a sea of froth and foam. 
 It is not interesting ; it is not even co- 
 herent. The story does not develop ; 
 the characters act spasmodically, talk 
 wildly, and the end is grievous. It is well 
 knon that a living british admiral was 
 the prototype of Beauchanip, — but even 
 that knoledg fails to giv the chronicle 
 of his career an air of reality. In fact, 
 to our thinking, the one novel in which 
 Mr. Meredith has distinctly grasped his 
 idea and realized it to his readers in a 
 way worthy of his undoubted power, is 
 ' Diana of the Crossways ' ; all the 
 others furnish brilliant kaleidoscopic 
 hints of what mit be beauty, but ar not 
 worked out in a perfected novel." [Amer- 
 ican.] — "We hav not hitherto found 
 Mr. Meredith easy to read, and in ac- 
 knoledging the greatness of his power in 
 this instance hav had to silence some 
 prepossessions or some principles. Real- 
 istic the book certainly is not, unless we 
 stretch that elastic term to cover a case 
 in which the inner truth burns throu an 
 outside of sufficiently conventional eng- 
 lish-novel material ; — squires, lords and 
 ladies, country-house sojourning, parlia- 
 mentary elections, dining, poaching, 
 yachting, and all ; with a gallic back- 
 ground of an unhappy marriage and 
 love of the elderly french n^bor's wife. 
 Out of this collection of antiquated 
 properties a great, fresh, and noble ideal 
 of conduct evolves itself in the charac- 
 ter of Eeauchamp, the valiant young 
 aristocrat turned democrat." [W : J). 
 Howells.] — " They say that he draws liis 
 men and women from the men and women 
 he knoes; that Sir Austin Feverel, for 
 instance, is himself; that the Kedworth 
 
 of ' Diana of the Crossways ' is his idea 
 of F : Greenwood ; that the hero of ' Beau- 
 champ's Career ' is a compound of admi- 
 ral Maxie and Auberon Herbert; the 
 Vernon Whitford of ' The Egoist ' is 
 a portrait of Leslie Stephen ; the Diana 
 and the Dacier of his last book the Mrs. 
 Norton and the Sidney Herbert of 40 
 or 50 years ago." [Critic. 1088 
 
 BEAUTIFUL EDITH, The Cliild- 
 woman. [Boston, Loring, 1877.] 
 "It was in an evil moment that the 
 author chose this name for her novel. 
 It is a most unfortunate title, suggesting 
 the most oppressiv silliness, while in 
 fact the story is as entertaining and 
 clever as any which has appeared for 
 some time. It would be, perhaps, too 
 much to say that it is as good as ' The 
 Wooing O't,' but it is very like that 
 favorit, while it is free from the some- 
 what snobbish aw of the aristocracy 
 which marred ' Mrs. Alexander's ' novel. 
 But the amount of cleverness, the 
 knoledge of the world, of observation, 
 of kindly humor which has produced 
 this story is very unusual. Take any 
 one of the characters, — ■ Mrs. Lisle, 
 for instance — and it will be hard to 
 say in what respect the resemblance 
 to life could be made greater." [Na- 
 tion. 1089 
 
 BEAUTIFUL WRETCH (The) 
 Etc. [by W: Black: Macmillan, 1881.] 
 "Those qualities which hav made Mr. 
 Black's writings so widely popular — his 
 good sense, his geniality, and his delicate 
 humor — go a long way towards making 
 ' The Beautiful Wretch ' a. successful 
 
 tale The very young man who is 
 
 brother to the beautiful wretch and 
 several more pretty sisters is perhaps 
 the best figure. He is drawn with won- 
 derful fidelity, vivacity, and humor. It 
 is equally impossible to help lafing at 
 and liking him. As for the heroin, her 
 
 338 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 nickname is the one thing about her to 
 which one must object." [Ath. 1090 
 
 BEDE'S CHARITY [by " Hesba 
 Stretton," i. e., Hannah Smith : Dodd, 
 1872.] " is by no means an exciting tale. 
 It does not deal with complications of 
 the lieart, but rather with the exercise 
 of christian virtues. It is a, religious 
 story ; but it has merits which we would 
 gladly see in profane works — simplicity 
 and naturalness. It lacks vulgarity, and 
 that is, perhaps, even rarer praise for 
 religious tales than those of other sorts." 
 [Nation. 1091 
 
 BELINDA [by Maria Edgeworth.] 
 " is superior to Patronage in construc- 
 tion and in liveliness of interest. Here, 
 too, we hav to remember that whatever 
 lack of freshness the characterization 
 may hav for us is due to the multiplica- 
 tion of novels at the present time and 
 the countless number of our fictitious 
 acquaintance. The story of Belinda, 
 the good angel of the fashionable world- 
 ling, Lady Delacour, is cleverly told, 
 with a plenty of wit and of animated 
 dialog, and the author cannot help it if 
 her sinner is the most interesting person 
 in the book." [Boston "Literary 
 World." 1092 
 
 BELL OF ST. PAUL'S (The) [by 
 Walter Besant: (7/ia«o, 1890.] " mit 
 hav for its second title ' The Belle of 
 Bankside.' She is the dauter of a, poet 
 
 not the same but a prize fiter, and the 
 two take the ovation to themselves ; 
 Althea again, in her boat, in a wonder- 
 ful, Turneresque sunset — these ar pict- 
 ures which will remain in the reader's 
 fancy and to which he will turn again 
 ere he takes up a, fresh volume." 
 [Critic] — "The hero comes home 
 as a prosperous australian youngster to 
 search out, by his mother's behest, the 
 
 decaying remains of her family 
 
 With this good old ' revolution-and-dis- 
 covery ' plot ar interwound two minor 
 plots : the story of a child b6t by a be- 
 nevolent but eccentric doctor from the 
 gypsies, and educated to the full of 
 modern education in the fond belief that 
 this will develop in him not only all the 
 mits, but, as Mr. Carlyle mit hav said, 
 all the 6ts ; and the story of a minor 
 bard. That the man of pure science 
 turns out a greedy, heartless young 
 scoundrel, and the man of pure litera- 
 ture an amiable, chivalrous old dotard 
 may be anticipated ; but, still, tho these 
 ar interesting studies enuf, they ar not 
 the main charm of the book." [Acad- 
 emy. 1093 
 BELLES AND RINGERS [by 
 Hawlet Smart: CAapman, 1880.] "is 
 a lively story of two pairs of lovers and 
 the anxieties of a match-making mama. 
 It is the slitest and frothiest of social 
 sketches When an author knoes his 
 
 -a poet of whom no one has read ground, and refrains from cynicism or 
 
 These elements will be gratefully re- 
 ceived by the old-fashioned reader, who 
 likes his novels seasoned with plot and 
 mystery ; but Althea roing the australian 
 to Chelsea, or taking him throu the 
 Southwark slums to sho him whfire once 
 stood the Globe Theatre, the Falcon Inn 
 and Paris gardens ; Althea in her turn 
 being led, by the poet, past the tavern 
 haunts of his old associates, while Fleet 
 Street rings with applause of The Poet, 
 
 exaggeration, it is not unwholesome that 
 the better side of conventional life 
 should sometimes be presented. The 
 dramatis personae, tho occasionally friv- 
 olous, ar strait-forward, honest specimens 
 of english men and women of th^ir 
 class ; and even Lady Mary and the in- 
 triguing old bachelor Pansey hav kind 
 hearts beneath their worldly crust of 
 small diplomacy. The heroins are well 
 contrasted, and the denoument is as 
 
 339 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 happy as befits a, merry tale." [Athe- 
 niBum. 1094 
 
 BELTON ESTATE (The) [by An- 
 thony Tkollope : Harper, 186G.] "is a 
 very readable, if not a very exciting 
 tale. Clara Amcdroz draws our sympa- 
 thy, if she does not win our love ; Will 
 Belton is a fine fello, — one of nature's 
 noblemen ; and Captain Aylmcr, a fine 
 gentleman in the world's very question- 
 able acceptation of that ambiguous 
 term. In these 3 characters, we hav 
 the major premise, minor premise, and 
 conclusion- of the book. Clara is de- 
 cidedly our major premise, — a very 
 good, brave, and sensible girl of 26." 
 [Church Monthly. ] — " Mr. Trollope 
 is intent on a life-like, external reality; 
 he holds tlie mirror up, not to nature, 
 but to the exterior of a hily artificial 
 society; he strives that the people in his 
 pages shall precisely correspond in 
 language, tliot, taste, and behavior, to 
 the millions of ordinary beings who 
 form the population of Great Britain. 
 He catches the last mode, and is never 
 more than a. month behind the Paris 
 fashions. He is a great artist to sketch 
 tlie lace shawls, and artistic bonnets, and 
 undulating dress?s, in which his per- 
 formers go tliron their parts. The re- 
 semblance to contemporaneous life is 
 exact, and the slitest incongruity catches 
 our eye and provokes criticism. We 
 watch his young ladies and gentlemen 
 with the same scrutinizing exactness 
 which enables us, uniiesitatingly, to de- 
 fine the social position of our fello-guests 
 at a dinner party. We kno , for instance, 
 that the young ladies by no means be- 
 long to the cream of society, and lapse 
 occasionally into absolute vulgarisms ; 
 and we kno this by some one of a hun- 
 dred tiny tests with which the author 
 has provided us for the purpose of gaug- 
 ing them. Everything depends on re- 
 
 semblance, as the resemblance is one 
 which everybody is able to test; the 
 task of securing and maintaining it is one 
 which few people like Mr. Trollope ar 
 clever enuf to achieve successfully." 
 [London Review. 1095 
 
 BEN MILNER'S WOOING [by 
 "Holme Lee," i. e., Harriet Parr: 
 Roberts, 1877.] " is a pearl among novels, 
 so fresh and pure. Pattie is the dainti- 
 est and most bewitcliing of heroins — a 
 perfect brier-rose, like the Ileidenroslein 
 Goethe sings. And dear honest Ben is 
 such a true matter-of-fact 19th-century 
 lover!" [Boston "Lit. World." 1096 
 
 BENEDICTUS [by Emily Marion 
 Harris : Chapman, 1887.] " will prove 
 attraetiv to all readers in love with 
 noble th6t and graceful fancy. Some 
 acquaintance with ' Estelle ' is taken for 
 
 granted People as good in th^ir 
 
 way as Estelle Hofer, the twins, and the 
 eccentric M. Becquer ar worth knoing 
 in any stage of development. Thdy 
 ar of the kind who master the reader's 
 attention till insensibly he interests him- 
 self in all their affairs, listens to their 
 talk, and even takes to guessing their 
 thots. Seemingly unremarkable and 
 seldom overstrained as thSy ar, they 
 gradually become entertaining and sym- 
 pathetic enuf to make parting a regret. 
 ' Estelle ' shoed that the writer pos- 
 sesses a thoro knoledg of Jiidaism, 
 as it pursues its unchanged and solitary 
 
 existence Estelle in her union 
 
 of feminin softness with mobility and 
 strength of character is touching and 
 excellent. The twins, in a different way, 
 ar even better." [Athenajum. 1097 
 
 BERTRAMS (The) [by Anthony 
 Tkollope : Chapman, 1859.] "has 
 the same amount of acute and sarcastic 
 perception of life and character as dis- 
 tinguishes his former productions 
 
 The two characters which stand out in 
 
 310 
 
BUITISII NOVELS. 
 
 the strongest relief ar George Bertram Kavanagh lias produced The french 
 
 and Caroline Waddington, his cousin. 
 The first is a young man of plain ex- 
 terior, but of cultivated and fastidious 
 mind, of hi and ultra-romantic principles 
 of honor and disinterestedness, and 
 passionately attached to Caroline Wad- 
 dington. The lady is beautiful, accom- 
 plished, hi-spiritcd and wayward, but 
 with a touch, and but a touch, of world- 
 liness. Slie, too, is secretly attached to 
 George Bertram. The uncle, a money- 
 getting millionaire, on whom his nefew 
 and his grand-dauter ar to a certain ex- 
 tent dependent, is desirous of seeing 
 them married, in order that he may hav 
 heirs to his vast wealth. A series of 
 misunderstandings arise between the 
 young people, and an estrangement en- 
 sues, which results in Caroline Wadding- 
 ton giving her hand, but not her heart, to 
 Sir Henry Harcourt Th^re ar sev- 
 eral episodes of no very inferior interest ; 
 one in particular — the loves of a young 
 clergyman, Arthur Wilkinson, and Adela 
 Gauntlet —which contrasts agreeably 
 with the love passages in the life of the 
 hero and heroin." [Leader. 1098 
 
 BESSIE, [by Julia Kavanagh: 
 Ilurst, 1872.] " Of Bessie herself, it 
 is superfluous to say that she is naive 
 and charming, conscientious, affec- 
 tionate, and unselfish. She is a, born 
 hero-worshipper, as most heroic natures 
 ar. In spite of coldness and discourage- 
 ment, and all the mysterious circum- 
 stances which surround the life of 
 Elizabeth De Lusignan, Bessie remains 
 stA,nch to her belief in the integrity and 
 virtue of her friend; while her on 
 love-story, the story of a real passion, 
 which groes upon her unconsciously, 
 until gratitude and early associations 
 convince her reason that she is attached 
 to her morose and exacting cousin, is 
 one of the best bits of autobiografy- Miss 
 
 life at Fontainebleau is well 
 described." [Athena;um. 1099 
 
 BESSIE LANG, [by Alice Corkkan: 
 J. Blackwood, 1876.] " ' Bessie Lang' is 
 a variation of a sad old story. A capti- 
 vating stranger comes into a village, falls 
 in love with a country girl, wins her 
 love from the worthy country lover, 
 earries her away, and finally deserts her. 
 But, if the story is an old one, the writ- 
 ing Is pure and graceful. Thfire ar 
 brit glimpses of beautiful scenery, and 
 good bits of human character. The de- 
 scription of the girl, dying and bequeath- 
 ing her child by another father as her 
 last and only gift to the lad she had for- 
 saken, may seem unnatural, but it is 
 touchingly pathetic." [Atlien. IIOO 
 
 BETIIESDA. [by " Barbara El- 
 BON," i. e., Lenora B. Halsted : Mac- 
 millan, 1884.] " The reader must not 
 consider it as a novel, scarcely even as a 
 romance, but rather look upon it as a 
 ps3'chological study. The characters de- 
 lineated ar few, and the incidents related 
 fewer. The whole force of the sloly mov- 
 ing narrativ is concentrated in the pre- 
 sentment of a man and a woman, alike 
 gifted and strong, mutually attracted by 
 powerful sympathies, yet held apart 
 from closeness of union by the unloved 
 and unloving wife of the man, who 
 stands between them. For awhile Rene 
 persuades Bethesda that the conflicting 
 elements of the situation can be recon- 
 ciled by a close friendship under the 
 guise of a literary co-partnership, but 
 they soon discover that Platonic love is 
 (as Cherbuliez says) ' not a house, but 
 a tunnel'; and Bethesda, — a really 
 strong and noble character, — awakes to 
 the dangers of their situation, finding no 
 ground safe under her feet but entire 
 renunciation of her lover and utter sep- 
 aration of their lives and interests. 
 341 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 " Rene has not the same conscientious 
 impulse to thdir separation, but loyally 
 submits to what he deems the over- 
 strained scruples of the woman, and 
 they part with mutual love and sorro.'' 
 [American. 1101 
 
 BETWEEN THE HEATHER AND 
 THE NORTHERN SEA [byM.. Lins- 
 KiLi, : Harper, 1884.] " is a careful and 
 refined story. There is » good deal of 
 sentiment and a great deal of quotation ; 
 but a really admirable thing is the de- 
 lineation of the artist-father whose life 
 is made «. picturesque and effectiv 
 illustration of the pathos in the life of 
 genuin workers whose work is never 
 available." [Critic. 1102 
 
 BETWEEN TWO LOVES [by Ame- 
 lia Edith (Huddleston) Barr : Dodd, 
 1889.] " is a charming story of english 
 provincial life. Jonathan Burley's love 
 fur his mill, his delit in the whirring 
 music of the looms, his interest in the 
 hands, his sturdy self-respect, his human- 
 ity, and his broad vue of life, ar fases of 
 tiuman nature which we believe ar fast 
 being starved out of existence No- 
 thing, however, mars the insit, the deep 
 knoledge of human strength and weak- 
 nes's of the other characters. One is 
 swept on with the impulses of the life 
 which stirred them. The abounding 
 faith in human goodness, the simple 
 naturalness of the village life, the beauty 
 of the writing and the solidity of the 
 work hav produced a charming story." 
 [Critic. 1103 
 
 BEYMINSTRE [by Ellen Wal- 
 lace: N.Y., Rudd, 1856.] "is a book 
 we can cordially recommend: — it is 
 clever and interesting, the two cardinal 
 virtues of a novel. The hero is drawn 
 with spirit and individuality. His qual- 
 ities ar not smoothed down to the per- 
 fectness which is de rigueur for the 
 heroes and heroins of fiction. He is 
 
 essentially a gentleman, tho he is full 
 of defects ; and, what is worse, behaves 
 in the worst manner to the heroin. 
 Regina, the heroin, is charming: she 
 behaves well, but not too well to secure 
 the reader's sympathies. All the other 
 characters in the book partake of the 
 nature of human beings ; and the story 
 itself, altho slit, is well and firmly 
 woven." [Athenaeum. 1104 
 
 BITS FROM BLINKBONNY [by 
 J,: Strathesk: N.Y., Carter, 1882.] 
 "is a story unpretending enuf, but with 
 the inimitable scotch flavor. If heroin 
 there be, it is a faithful servant-woman ; 
 but the chief incident is the leaving of 
 manse and kirk by her master, tlie 
 minister, at the ' Disruption ' of 40 years 
 ago." [Nation. 1105 
 
 BLACK ABBEY [by Mav Cromme- 
 LIN : Low, 1880.] "deserves a good 
 word from all who can discriminate 
 between careful workmanship and in- 
 artistic looseness The characters ar 
 
 an absentee landlord, who shoes him- 
 self only about once in G months, staying 
 just long enuf to make everybody miser- 
 able; his 2 grandchildren, with a little 
 ward, Nannie Wliite; a presbyterian 
 minister, his nefew, and his grand- 
 child. The master of Black Abbey, 
 Mr. de Burgo, is a repulsivly selfish 
 and cruel old man, and the author 
 describes somewhat too minutely the 
 severity of the treatment which he ac- 
 cords to the little girls. He is perhaps 
 the least natural character in the book. 
 The children gro together, and Hector 
 manages to win the love of both Nannie 
 and Bella, whilst Ailie captivates Luke 
 Cosby. It is with the love story of the 
 two first-mentioned girls that we hav 
 principally to do ; and this story is as 
 pathetic as any one could wish it to be. 
 The real heroin of the book, Nannie 
 White, is charmingly drawn, and we ar 
 
 342 
 
BRITISH NOViiLS. 
 
 enpfTossed in her good and evil fortunes 
 to tlie last page., Bella Hawthorn is a 
 handsom Delilah, who successfully tries 
 her wiles upon the simple giant Hector, 
 to the great grief of the scrupulous old 
 minister. She is less distinctly sketched 
 than her rival, but still thSro ar signs 
 that the author has devoted a good deal 
 of labor to the portraiture of the two 
 girls.'' [Athenaeum. 1106 
 
 BLACK SPIRITS AND WHITE 
 [by F .. Eleanor (Ternan) Xkollope : 
 Appleton, 1877.] " is a good novel both 
 in plot and in treatment, in its concep- 
 tion of character, and in its delineation 
 of the mental and moral changes brot 
 about by the working of circumstances. 
 The gradual debasement of Sir Cosmo 
 and Lady Lowry ; the softening and re- 
 fining effect upon Dr. Flagge of his 
 hopeless affection, as far as (Enone is 
 concerned, while all the rest of his 
 offensiv personality is left as detestable 
 as before ; the moody and fitful un- 
 happiness of the poor little artiste, as 
 the conviction of her fate opens sloly 
 before her ; all these ar wr6t with 
 delicate and strong liandling. But the 
 chief attraction of the book lies in its 
 vivid and lovely portraiture of Mary 
 Lowry, in whom the author has drawn 
 an ideal of womanly sweetness and 
 strength, while at the same time she 
 has made her deeply interesting." [Bos- 
 ton " Literary World." 1 107 
 
 BLANCHE SEYMOUR [Lippincoit, 
 1873.] "is simply the story of the love 
 of a young and charming girl for a man 
 who was unworthy of her. It is not 
 made a pretext for tragic denunciations 
 of heartless men, nor of pathetic appeals 
 for sympathy for neglected maidens ; it 
 is nothing more than a, picture of a not 
 uncommon life, which everywhere is 
 agreeably set before us. The author's 
 great merit consists in the commendable 
 
 naturalness of all her characters. She 
 is, too, very amusing with her side- 
 remarks and the feminin cleverness 
 which is to be seen on every page. In 
 fact, except for the small tragic pang at 
 the end of the book, which occurs at 
 what is perhaps the only solution of the 
 complication of the plot, we hardly 
 know a more entertaining novel than 
 this." [Nation. 1108 
 
 BLUE BELL OF RED NEAP, see 
 JOr/N THOMPSON: 
 
 BLUE RIBBON (The), [by Eliza 
 (Tabor) Stephenson: //oirpej-, 1874.] 
 "We kno few more delitful novels. It 
 is a story of life in a cathedral town, tho 
 ecclesiastical personages do not figure 
 prominently in it. The hero is a young 
 man who rises from obscurity to emi- 
 nence in the world of science, and the 
 heroin is a german girl, employed in the 
 same factory. The latter is a musical 
 genius, and this endowment, as often 
 happens, brings her into trouble, from 
 which she happily escapes. The tone 
 of the book is singularly pure and 
 quiet, and the sketches of society, es- 
 pecially the reports of the courteous 
 contests between Mesdames Balmain 
 and Ballinger, ar very skilfully done. 
 The effect of the book is ennobling, and 
 its interest never flags. We take pleas- 
 ure in commending it as a thoroly good 
 novel." [Boston "Lit. World." 1109 
 
 BLUEBEARD'S KEYS, Etc. [by 
 A.. I.. (Thackeray) Ritchie: Smith, 
 1874.] "No doubt the taste for these 
 (we can hardly say, ' this kind of,' for 
 they ar unique) daintily and delicately 
 told little stories must be acquired, like 
 that for dry wine, and like that too, we 
 must not take them in too large a quan- 
 tity, or our sense will become deadened 
 to the aroma, and conscious only of the 
 dryness ; for, indeed, the stories ar of 
 the simplest, and please far more by 
 
 343 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 reason of the delicacy and accuracy of 
 the drawing, and the just proportions of 
 all the parts than hy a vivid interest 
 which tlie subjects ar lilsely to Icindle 
 in us. [Athenaeum.] See FIVE OLD 
 FRIENDS. 1 1 lO 
 
 BLYTIIE HOUSE [by R. F. H. : 
 Virtue, 1SG4.J "is a very interesting 
 story, pleasantly told. Tlie moral is 
 not set fortli in words; but a sweet and 
 gentle spirit pervades tlie whole, like 
 a delicate fragrance, which imparts a 
 pleasure to tlie reader independent of its 
 literary merit. The story is simple, 
 and tliSre ar occasional observations, 
 arising from the incidents, which slio 
 
 a graceful goodness of heart The 
 
 reader will find pleasure in foUoing the 
 liistory of Ida Bernstein to her adoption 
 into the family of the kind Dr. Blank 
 and his ijleasant sister Milly, and her 
 Iiappy marriage to her benefactor, all of 
 which is charmingly narrated. The old- 
 fashioned, quaint mansion in which they 
 liv makes an agreeable framework to 
 the 3 chief personages." [Ath. 1111 
 
 BONNIE LESLEY [by — ( ) 
 
 Martin : Griffith ^ Farran, 1878.] " is 
 spirited, interesting, refined, and hu- 
 morous, and deals, not obtrusivly, but 
 amusingly, with the movement In favor 
 of ' lady-helps.'. ... And a charming 
 
 story it is But we can well forgiv a 
 
 little bad english in our pleasure at the 
 fascinating description of Bonnie Les- 
 ley, not only bonnie, but handsom, 
 activ, lively, and humorous ; more prac- 
 tical, perhaps, than imaginativ, but with 
 that perfect health of mind and body 
 which diff"uses cheerfulness by its mere 
 presence with a power almost magical. 
 Tier more sensitiv sister is also more 
 conventional, and when the two ar left 
 poor and orfans, is shocked with Les- 
 ley's boldness in accepting the offer of 
 Lady Thornley." [Spectator. 1112 
 
 BORN COQUETTE (A), [by Ma. 
 (Argles) IIunoekford: 8. Blackett, 
 1890.] " Every reader who knoes what 
 is what opens a novel by the author of 
 Molly Bawftwitha feeling of pleasant ex- 
 pectation The author has never drawn 
 
 a more attractiv and life-like group than 
 tliat formed by the members of the De- 
 laney household, and th^re hav not been 
 many heroins of fiction so wilful, so per- 
 verse, even so cruel, and yet so irresist- 
 ibly fascinating, with tliat indescribable 
 fascination which is peculiarly irish, as 
 Nan Delaney, the ' born coquette.' " 
 [Spectator. 1113 
 
 BOUDOIR CABAL (The), [by Eus- 
 tace Clare Guenville Murray : Smith, 
 1875.] " Mr. Paradyse ' is the educatee, 
 not the educator of his disciples,' and 
 ' intends to bring forward a motion 
 (backed by agitation out of doors) to 
 pledg the House of Commons to the pro- 
 gram of the Home Rulers.' To meet this, 
 Mr. Paramount moves a counter-set of 
 resolutions, declaring ' that in the opinion 
 of this House it is inexpedient to debate 
 such a momentous question as the dis- 
 memberment of the empire until the 
 voice of the whole people has been ap- 
 pealed to, and that in consequence this 
 House is of opinion that the time has 
 arrived for enfranchising those of her 
 Majesty's subjects, of both sexes, who 
 hav reached the age of 21 'years,' and 
 so on, till we feel for a moment half in- 
 clined to believe we ar reading history. 
 Upon this piece of tactics on the part of 
 the Conservative leader, the story in a 
 great measure turns ; becaus the young 
 Lord Mayrose, with whose affairs the 
 book deals, sticks to his leader, and gets 
 promotion, but deeply offends more than 
 one of the 'ruling houses,' whose mem- 
 bers ar not all prepared for universal 
 suffrage, and hav, therefore, formed a 
 ' cave,' and sit In it, furious against 
 
 Sii 
 
JSKITISII NOVKLS. 
 
 tlic'ir former colleagues. Thereupon, 
 too, the ladies of tliese families sho 
 themselves fiercely hostil to Mayrose, 
 who has also committed the crime of 
 marrying the dauter of a City knit, and 
 the heiress to estates wliich had once 
 belonged to his family. Out of this feud 
 rise divers difficulties, which meet tlie 
 unlucky hero in every walk of life, he 
 all the while trying to act on the most 
 uprit motivs The author has some- 
 what of Balzac's genius for invent- 
 ing a society, and certainly, while we 
 move in it, it seems strangely life-like. 
 Take Lord Beaujolais, the great M. F. 
 II., inventor of bits and harness, with 
 his ' mity, determined face, adorned 
 with a floing hay-colored beard, and 
 piercing blue eyes,' who tries experi- 
 ments in Grosvenor Square ; or Lord 
 Ilornette, the prospectiv head of the 
 great ducal family of Drone, (who bear 
 ' an escutcheon of drones rampant, with 
 the motto "Sans raiel ni fiel,"' dry, 
 ' cantankerous,' disagreeable, yet not 
 without some humor and much queer 
 chivalrous feeling ; or several other prom- 
 inent characters, not perhaps including 
 the hero, who is too much the ideal young 
 nobleman for his features to be quite 
 distinguishable ; but, for the rest, we 
 see them all as plainly as possible. Of 
 course, a good deal of the book is of the 
 nature of a- political squib, but it is not 
 unamusing; and we may congratulate 
 the autlior, since whatever we may 
 think of his political vues he can put 
 together an interesting story." [Athe- 
 naeum. 1114: 
 BRAMLEIGIIS OF BISHOP'S FOL- 
 LY (The) [byC: Levee: Smith, 18C8.] 
 "ar a family of wealthy parvenus, who, 
 tho the head of the house, Col. Bram- 
 leigh, has married the dauter of an earl, 
 hav never been able to take the posi- 
 tion in society which many of them 
 
 covet. They ar divided into 3 camps. 
 Lady Augusta, who has avowedly mar- 
 ried for money, livs in Rome, and 
 keeps her life and her interests distinctly 
 separated from those of any other mem- 
 ber of the family ; Col. Bramleigh is 
 supported by his dnutcr Marion, and 
 his second son. Temple, a budding di- 
 plomatist. The third camp is composed 
 of the eldest son, Augustus ; the young- 
 est son. Jack, a sailor ; and a dauter 
 Nellie. These last ar honorable, strait- 
 forward people, whose only ends in life 
 ar to ' liv and let liv,' and ' love and 
 let love.' A claimant for the Bramleigh 
 estate appears in the shape of a young 
 Frenchman, who signs himself Count 
 Pracontal de Bramleigh. His introduc- 
 tion, and the very respectable claim he 
 is able to advance, serv to bring to lit 
 the characters of the various members 
 of the family — Marion, who has mar- 
 ried an old diplomatist. Viscount Cul- 
 duff, and Temple, treat him as an 
 impostor. Colonel Bramleigh fits him 
 resolutely, by fair means or foul, until 
 excitement brings on death by apoplexy. 
 Augustus, Jack, and Nellie, who com- 
 pose what may be called the peace 
 party, resign occupation of tlie estate, 
 and depend upon their exertions for 
 support until the question of proprietor- 
 ship shall be settled. Lady Augusta ar- 
 ranges to retain her interest in the estate 
 by marrying the Frenchman should his 
 attempt prove successful. Accident re- 
 veals documents proving the claim to be 
 unfounded. The claimant disappears, 
 the whole family is restored to its rits, 
 
 and the story ends In the reader's 
 
 admiration of the wit of the dialog, and 
 the power of the characterisation, in- 
 adequacy of plot and want of art in the 
 conduct of the story ar almost forgot- 
 ten." [Fortnightly Review. 1115 
 BRANDRETHS (The), [by A. J. 
 
 345 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 Beresfokd Hope : Burst, 1882.] 
 "After the success of 'Strictly Tied 
 Up,' the author had some justification for 
 continuing in a second book the history 
 of the principal characters of his former 
 novel. ' The Brandreths ' is a pleasant 
 book to read, but it is not a good novel. 
 It is an unusual treat to the reader of 
 novels to find himself in the company 
 of a man of the world who is also a man of 
 wide knoledge and culture, and one who 
 possesses the power of writing with ease 
 and with point." [Athenaeum. IIIC 
 BRAVE LADY (A) [by Dinah 
 Maria (Mulock) Ceaik : Burst, 1870.] 
 " is the dauter of a french emigr6, who 
 is a viscount, and also a dancing-master. 
 The lady marries an irish parson, the 
 only son of a wealthy but vulgar mer- 
 chant; and the history of the married 
 life she leads with this parson consti- 
 tutes the book. This life is most com- 
 monplace. The parson is rather an 
 inferior man, who, without being ex- 
 actly a brute, makes his clever wife ex- 
 perience a most trying time of it from 
 his selfisiiniss, want of ability, and lack 
 of rectitude. The merchant becomes 
 bankrupt and dies. The parson there- 
 upon has to take a curacy in England ; 
 and, what with a large family and a 
 small income, he finds his life anything 
 but a rosy one, notwithstanding the 
 companionship of his wife. Things gro 
 worse and worse, and the parson, hav- 
 ing embezzled funds entrusted to him 
 for building purposes, is on the eve of 
 being found out, when the rector dies, 
 leaving the whole of his large fortune to 
 the 'brave lady.' For a, time there is 
 a lull in thfiir troubles; but the husband 
 does not improve in conduct with the im- 
 provement in his monetary matters, and, 
 by diverse acts of misconduct of a some- 
 what trivial but irritating nature, wearies 
 his poor wife almost to death, until. 
 
 finally, partial misery becomes complete 
 misery, and the children all die within a 
 remarkably short time : the husband 
 folloes ; and the ' brave lady ' is left all 
 to herself for some years, then dies 
 peacefully, and the novel ends. This is 
 not a promising subject ; but the author's 
 style is so good that the work is reada- 
 ble, and no hier tribute could be paid to 
 the power of this writer than in saying 
 that a reader will be able to go throu the 
 3 volumes without being bored." [Athe- 
 nseum. 1117 
 
 BRIARS [by A. M. Munroe : 
 Griffith, Farran ^ Co., 1890.] "is a 
 pleasant and genial tale of a snug estate, 
 of its manly owner, of his companion- 
 able son, and of the more or less com- 
 panionable and liappy creatures brot 
 into contact with them. There is a good 
 character-plot in the story, exceptionally 
 good and interesting ; its men and women 
 ar fair samples of the better class of 
 refined gentlefolk, and most of them ar 
 decidedly piquant." [Athenajum. 1118 
 
 BRIDGEr [by Matilda Barbara 
 Betham Edwards: Burst, 1878.] "is 
 happy in its conception, and, in spite of 
 some traces of haste, fairly successful in 
 setting forth some interesting characters. 
 Mr. Starffe, the hard-working, simple- 
 minded curate, who is the better, as only 
 a good man could be, for setting his 
 affections on an ideal which is in all 
 respects but that of moral wealth com- 
 pletely out of his range, is the most 
 pleasing, and in spite of his awkward- 
 ness, the most dignified figure set before 
 
 us Helwyse is all that is womanly and 
 
 charming, and she does rit in preferring 
 the aspiring workman JFreeland, to the 
 slitly conventional, and somewhat super- 
 fine artist, Kingsbury But the main 
 
 merit of the tale is the delineation of its 
 principal character Bridget, the impul- 
 siv child, the motherly elder sister of a 
 
 346 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 young family, half French, half Irish, 
 who thro themselves in thSir orfaned 
 helplessness on the already overbur- 
 dened resources of thfiir uncle, a city 
 clerk. ... Acting with unhesitating con- 
 fidence on that promise, she makes her 
 appearance 2 years afterwards and quar- 
 ters herself upon him, reminding him 
 of his promise to assist her in study- 
 ing for the stage His horror and 
 
 despair ar gradually allaved, till the 
 selfish man about town is reclaimed and 
 chastened into the adoring husband, and 
 Bridget is developed from a thotless girl 
 into a loving woman." [Athen. 1119 
 
 BROKEN TO HARNESS, [by Ed- 
 mund Yates : Maxwell — Loring, 1864.] 
 " The hero is strong, manly and good at 
 heart. A better work of fiction has not 
 for many a week come under our notice. 
 From beginning to end we hav read it 
 with lively interest, and we lay it aside 
 with an agreeable sense of refreshment 
 and increased strength. Readers of every 
 class will find in the story a liberal fund 
 of amusement ; and th^re ar those who 
 will thank the author for certain wise 
 lessons and many fine pictures. Taken 
 as a whole, it is a man's novel, dealing 
 far more with Bohemia, club-rooms and 
 masculin absurdities, than with the re- 
 finement? and graces of woman's life. 
 But, tho it is a man's novel, women will 
 relish it; for throuout its diverse scenes 
 thfire is a chivalric and unobtrusiv recog- 
 nition of feminin goodness Apart 
 
 from Barbara's troubles, the story con- 
 tains much good matter. The sketches 
 of the club-life of authors and artists ar 
 capital. Enuf has been said of Mr. 
 Yates' cleverness and power ; but we 
 have scarcely done justice to the unaf- 
 fected amiability and manliness which 
 ar amongst his most agreeable qualities." 
 [Athenaeum. 1120 
 
 BROTHER GABRIEL, [by Matilda 
 
 Barbara Betham Edwards : JTurst, 
 1878.] "Three friends, an american 
 archaeologist, a young english governess, 
 and an irish monk, become acquaintedin 
 a town of southern France. The inti- 
 macy between Delmar and his cousin 
 soon ripens into love, while the effect of 
 intercourse with both on Brother Gabriel 
 is enlitening, delilful, and, finally, 
 fraut with pain. For the ardent devo- 
 tee of Romanism learns to chafe at the 
 spiritual bondage of the monastery, and 
 the vowed celibate to feel the thrills of 
 a passion which startles and shocks him. 
 When Delmar reveals too late that he 
 has a wife beyond the seas, and Zoe is left 
 alone with the feelings that she would 
 but cannot eradicate, a strange chain of 
 incidents leads her to taking up her 
 abode with Gabriel, now an outcast 
 from his convent, and alone and helpless 
 in the world. They liv as brother and 
 sister in a remote part of Finistere, till 
 the falseness of their position is br6t 
 home to them, partly by the censorious- 
 ness of their nfibors, partly by Gabriel's 
 inability to maintain their romantic com- 
 pact. To Zoe's distress, her simple- 
 minded protege discovers purely manly 
 aspirations, and she is conscious, at the 
 same time, that their fulfilment is impos- 
 sible to her. When Delmar reappears, 
 Gabriel acts witli an unselfishness which 
 lately would hav been impossible in the 
 childish scholar of the cloister, and puts 
 an end to Zoe's conscientious struggles 
 by withdrawing from the field. There is 
 a good deal of power in the way in which 
 
 Gabriel's development is traced 
 
 Zoe is less interesting, but very wom- 
 anly. Delmar presents little scope for 
 observation. The minor french person- 
 ages ar aptly described." [Ath. 1121 
 BROWN AS A BERRY, [by G s 
 Douglas : Tinsley Bros., 1874.] " The 
 heroin is naive and unselfish, passionate 
 347 
 
BKITISII NOVELS. 
 
 yet pure, and just such a. groth as niit 
 liav been expected from a wholesom 
 yet uncultivated soil. Briefly (for we 
 cannot describe such minute and fleeting 
 traits as giv charm to the undeveloped 
 cliaracter of a girl of 17) she is, from the 
 time we make her acquaintance, as she 
 jumps from her school-room windo, a 
 neglected girl in a french pension, to 
 that in which we find her learning her 
 capacities for love and suffering .... 
 qualified to engross the interest of those 
 who read her history. Our anxiety to 
 learn whether Ferrier's love, which she 
 has most innocently won in many a 
 pretty scene of tender raillery, is to 
 stand the strain of treacherous miscon- 
 struction ; whether the inevitable expla- 
 nation between two such frank spirits is 
 to take place in time; finally, whether 
 the estimable but inconvenient Dods is 
 to be induced by fair means to resign 
 the truculent part of a Minotaur, or as 
 a last resource to break his respectable 
 old neck, — is intense enuf to thro into 
 the shade our critical appreciation of 
 nlinorpoints in the story." [Ath. 1132 
 
 BROWN PORTMANTEAU (The) 
 [by Curtis Yorke : Jarrold, 1889.] 
 "is one of several stories which ar not 
 badly contrived, and ar told in a rapid 
 and efiectiv fashion without analysis or 
 comment. There ar times when it is 
 pleasantly soothing to the mind to run 
 throu such stories of what mit happen 
 to anybody any day." [Ath. 1123 
 
 BROWNLOWS (The) [by Ma. Oli- 
 PHANT (Wilson) Oliphant : Black- 
 wood, 1868.] "is perhaps the most artistic 
 of Mrs. Oliphant's works. There is not 
 a careless page, not a slovenly sentence 
 in the whole. The materials ar slit, 
 tlie characters ar few. The story, to 
 be appreciated, must be read throu, and 
 not dipped into for scenes. The prog- 
 ress may seem slo, and the steps by 
 
 which the drama moves ar very 
 minute, and much in contrast with the 
 ruf and ready slapdash which too many 
 modern novelists affect. Mrs. Olipliant 
 is not afraid of her trouble ; and if the 
 reader is impatient, so much the worse 
 for him ; he will get all the less good 
 out of a subtle story. . . . The author 
 knoes how to stay the storm she has 
 raised, and to wind the skein she has 
 tangled. The ending of the story is 
 very skilfully managed. The reader 
 will lay down the book with regret that 
 the curtain has dropped, and that Jack, 
 Sara, Pamela, Powys and Mr. Brown- 
 low hav vanished, that he may hear no 
 further about their after-fortunes, nor 
 even kno what becomes of the malicious 
 Nancy Christian, who did so much ill to 
 everybody, — nor hear whether Mrs. 
 Swayne and Betty at the Lodge lived 
 contented under the new dynasty, — 
 nor whether poor old cross Mrs. Fennel 
 grew reconciled to the changed state of 
 affairs; but such unsatisfied question- 
 ings ar only a tribute to the author's skill 
 in telling the story." [Ath. 1124 
 BURGLARY (A), [by E. A. Dill- 
 wtn: Tinsley Bros., 1883.] "The 
 plot is very fresh and clever, and by no 
 means an impossible one. The two 
 heroins ar sketclied with a great deal 
 of skill and truthfulness, and there is a 
 buoyancy about the book, and especially 
 about the out-of-doors life it contains, 
 which is unhackneyed and very refresh- 
 ing, after the ordinary drawing-room 
 novel. Ethel's indolent sweetness, be- 
 nevolence, and hi principle ar sketched 
 with great delicacy ; and Imogen's hi 
 spirits, fresh enthusiasm, and awkward 
 attempts to make herself useful in life 
 
 present a true and pretty picture 
 
 Miss Dillwyn has a good deal of humor. 
 The closing half-page in which Imogen 
 accepts the young gentleman wliom she 
 
 848 
 
BUITISU NOVELS. 
 
 has previously refused, closes a very 
 ingenious and agreeable story with a 
 touch of agreeable banter which pleas- 
 antly relieves tlie inevitable sentiment." 
 [Spectator. 1 125 
 
 BURIED DIAMONDS [by " Sakau 
 Tytler " i. e., Henrietta Keddie : Chaito, 
 188G.] "is a domestic sort of story in 
 which the principal events ar the ex- 
 periment made by Bennet Gray in en- 
 tering the family of her intended husband 
 as a stranger and a governess, and the 
 ruin which tlireatens that family from 
 the dishonesty of one of its members. 
 ....Jane Prior, her sister, and Bennet 
 Gray ar good specimens of the modern 
 learned lady ; — Jane a little too superior 
 in her on esteem, but both of them very 
 womanly. Mrs. Prior, a little under- 
 valued by everyone but her son, is a 
 pleasant portrait of a lady of the last 
 generation, and beneath her gentle out- 
 lines decision and courage await occa- 
 sion for development." [Athen. 1126 
 
 BY LOVE AND LAW [by Liz- 
 zie Alldriuge: Smith, 1878.] "is 
 altogether pleasing, dealing chiefly 
 with painters and painting. .. .Of the 
 heroin we shall only say that she is 
 fascinating by her simplicity and direct- 
 ness of character, and that there is 
 nothing ' heroic ' about her. Her father, 
 who is at his wits' end to make the 
 two ends meet and yet to keep up the 
 position of the family, must also be 
 drawn from life." [Athenaeum. 1127 
 
 BY MEAD AND STREAM [by 0: 
 Gibbon: Chaito, 1884.] " is a pleasant 
 book, like its title. The love of single- 
 hearted Madge Heathcote is of a stancher 
 type than that of her friend Philip 
 Hadleigh, but they ar an honest pair, 
 and come in an edifying way throu the 
 troubles caused by the eccentricities of 
 their seniors, and the sudden overthro 
 of Philip's mental balance by the pos- 
 
 session of wealth. The charm of the 
 
 book lies in its rusticity But the 
 
 reader in remembering this story will 
 recur to the meads and streams of 
 Ringsford and its nSborhood and the 
 peaceful contrast of the cjuiet country." 
 [Athenajum. 1128 
 
 BY THE WESTERN SEA : A SUM- 
 MER IDYL, [by Ja. Baker: Long- 
 mans, 1889.] The author "is fairly 
 entitled to call his new story a summer 
 idyl, tlio it does, in a sense, turn on 
 courtship and marriage. It is imbued 
 with the simplicity of nature, it shoes 
 the working of two human souls in 
 harmony with the soul of nature, and it 
 is a picture complete in itself. The 
 leading characters ar a crippled artist 
 and a lovely girl with poetic aspira- 
 tions, and between these two tlifire ar 
 passages of great tenderness and truth. 
 The hero has a well-tempered mind, 
 reflected in a beautiful face, as fre- 
 quently happens with the heroes of 
 fiction who hav been crippled by ac- 
 cident 'By the Western Sea' is 
 
 pleasant reading for a summer day." 
 [Atlienajum. 1129 
 
 CAN YOU FORGIVE HER? [by 
 Anthony Tkollope: Chapman, ISGi.'] 
 " Alice Vavasor, whom we ar asked to 
 forgiv, is not a captivating heroin ; 
 but a well-conceived and far from im- 
 possible young woman, who chafes under 
 and breaks an engagement to an excel- 
 lent, hi-minded gentleman, not, as she 
 tells herself and her friends, becaus 
 she has discovered that she is not good 
 enuf for him, but becaus she has, half 
 unconsciously, become deeply infected 
 with the 19th century idea, that thSre 
 was something important for her to do 
 with her life — in other words, she was 
 restless and craving for excitement, and 
 her heart failed her when she th6t of 
 long quiet evenings in the monotonous 
 
 849 
 
BRITISH NOVKLS. 
 
 comfort of a country house. With his 
 usual skill in depicting the working of 
 lialf-acknoledged motivs, and tlie influ- 
 ence of slit causes in determining the 
 most important actions, Mr. Trollope 
 has. placed his heroin in circumstances 
 which ar admirably adapted to make her 
 conduct appear natural, if not inevitable, 
 and he succeeds in interesting us in a 
 struggle which we feel has many coun- 
 terparts in life." [Westminster Re- 
 view. 1130 
 
 CANON'S WARD (The) [by Ja. 
 Payn : Harper, 1884.] " is interesting, 
 but it lacks harmony between the inci- 
 dents and tliCir surroundings. The 
 characters fit well enuf in the placid at- 
 mosfere of scliolarly life. Elderly men 
 and women with soft faces and voices, 
 and, about them, ingenuous youth, all, 
 old and young, devoted to one opening 
 rose, make another of those gracious 
 pictures by which english life has become 
 so pleasantly familiar. Such a setting 
 should belong to a very different plot. 
 Sorro comes surely even to such tran- 
 quil homes, but so strong is the feel- 
 ing that it could come only gently, that 
 it is a bio to meet a secret marriage at the 
 beginning. The husband is at once 
 drowned, and tl\e secret is knon to but 
 one man, who uses it to force the can- 
 on's ward to marry him. This leaves 
 the story without a hero in the ordinary 
 sense, for after such an outrage, the 
 reader can only detest him. The canon 
 is a suggestion of the dear old Warden, 
 and lie bears his reverses quite as pa- 
 tiently. But tliurein appears the supe- 
 riority of the master hand. The Warden 
 is left in his patience, but the canon's 
 fortune is restored by one of the 
 staple devices of the novel-writer." 
 [Nation. 1131 
 
 CAPEL GIRLS (The), [by "E: 
 Garrett," i. e., I,. Fyfie Mayo : Tinsley 
 
 Bros,, 1876.] " There is little sensation- 
 alism here, neitlier is thfire any morbid 
 dissection of fashionable vices, yet the 
 book is interesting as a picture of a 
 family circle, such as we may see any 
 day. The plot is evidently meant only 
 as a peg for the characters, and tlie latter 
 ar possessed of considerable individual- 
 ity One of the best portraits is that 
 
 of the eldest of the sisterhood, who is 
 so charming a creation that many girls 
 who read of her may be almost recon- 
 ciled to the possibility of becoming some 
 day old maids. All the dramatis per- 
 sona; ar simply drawn, and we ar spared 
 that straining after effect to which 
 most modern novelists ar so much ad- 
 dicted. Neitlier ar there any painful 
 endeavors to be clever and witty. In 
 fact, the book is a homely chronicle 
 of a homely family, and consequently 
 will meet extensiv sympathy." [Athe- 
 naeum. 1132 
 CARITA. [by Ma. Olipiiant (Wil- 
 son) Oliphant : Smith, 1877.] " Agnes 
 Burchell, to satisfy her desire for an 
 ideal, leaves a very commonplace and 
 ill- ordered home, full of discontent and 
 petty wrangling, to become attaclied in a 
 probationary state to a sort of anglican 
 convent called ' The House.' Every- 
 thing about this convent is admirably 
 described. The place itself, the people, 
 and their ways ar all treated with a 
 kindly humor, the result of a compre- 
 hension of the motivs and aspirations 
 wliich bring such things into existence. 
 ' Comprendre c'est tout pardonner. 
 Agnes is soon discovered to hav no 
 ' vocation,' and accident brings Oswald 
 Meredith across her path. Mrs. Oli- 
 phant shoes a remarkable grasp over 
 and insit into her character as lier 
 ideal shifts from t'fie wide and rather 
 impersonal vision of doing good to the 
 poor, to the vain, and exceedingly worldly 
 
 350 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 but charming, Oswald." [Atlienseara.] 
 — " Carita is an excellent story, so sim- 
 ple and in good measure uneventful that 
 the plot of it hardly needs to be men- 
 tioned. To be sure, at the beginning of 
 the hook there is brot in a woman who, 
 to avoid tlie slo torture of inevitably 
 painful death, takes poison. But apart 
 from tliis everything moves as smoothly 
 as only Mrs. Oliphant's skill can direct 
 the course of novels." [Nation. 1133 
 
 C.4STE. [by Emily Jolly: Hurst, 
 1858.] " There is much which is ex- 
 tremely good in this novel. The story 
 is interesting, and it is well written. 
 Tlie heroin is the dauter of a tradesman 
 who has educated her far above her nomi- 
 nal station. Slie being very proud and 
 very ill regulated, chafes at the station 
 of life in which slie has been born. Slie 
 first, out of pride, refuses a, man above 
 herself in rank whom she loves, and 
 ,then,.out of spite, marries another, also 
 her superior in social position, whom she 
 detests, and the result is what mit hav 
 been expected. The tradespeople of tlie 
 ibook ar refined and idealized .... Tlio 
 for the interest of the story that may be 
 allowed,. it does not add to its reality or 
 probability." [Athenseum. 1134 
 
 CASTLE BLAIR, [by Flora L. 
 Shaw : Paul, 1878.] "The scene is laid 
 in Ireland, and the characters ar 
 Adrienne, an orfan, niece of Mr. Blair, 
 and 3 other young persons, the nieces 
 and nefew of the same gentleman, who, 
 indeed, as a bachelor, seems to hav been 
 hardly dealt with by fortune in the matter 
 of other people's children. The three 
 ar wild and riotous ; the cousin acts 
 the part of healer and moderator. The 
 narrativ is vigorous and lively, full of 
 picturesque effect, and sometimes ris- 
 ing to a very considerable amount of 
 interest." [Spectator. 1135 
 
 CASTLE DALY [by Annie Keary ; 
 
 Phil'a, Porter, 1875.] " is a novel of more 
 than ordinary merit. It deals mainly 
 with life in Ireland, in tlie years of 
 the faiiiin and the Smith O'Brien rising; 
 and these elements, tragic and romantic, 
 ar handled with remarkable power. 
 The author's pictures of the country in 
 the grasp of hunger, of the peasantry 
 ground, as it wer, between pure fysical 
 pain and the rage of fierce patriotism, 
 ar far superior to the average portrayals 
 of collectiv suffering. The pastoral life 
 of the Irish is depicted with sympathetic 
 skill. Castle Daly was the home of a 
 squire, who had married an english 
 wife. They hav 3 children, — all ap- 
 proaching maturity, — 2 boys and a 
 girl. The oldest son has been educated 
 in England, and finds Ireland not much 
 to his taste ; the others ar irish in every 
 thot and act. We cannot trace the 
 plot of the story ; it is sufficient to say 
 that, having passed throu strange and dra- 
 matic vicissitudes, the recital whereof 
 is extremely interesting, the oldest 
 son marries an english girl, and Ellen, 
 the dauter, marries an englishman. 
 
 The author's mood is happy, 
 
 adapting itself to all circumstances with 
 good effect; and when she discourses 
 seriously, she talks well." [Boston 
 ' ' Literary World." 1 1 36 
 
 CASTLE RACKRENT. [by Maria 
 Edgeworth ; 1800.] " That Miss Edge- 
 worth had the irish humor as well as the 
 irish wit is manifest in Castle RacJcrent, 
 which she calls a piece of ' good- 
 natured raillery ' rather than a serious 
 satire. It is Thackerayean in its rol- 
 licking extravagance, yet, in spite of 
 the author's disclaimer, it has enuf re- 
 semblance to the reality of certain types 
 of Irish character to giv point to the cari- 
 cature." [Boston " Lit. World." 1137 
 
 CASTLE RICHMOND [by Anthony 
 Trollope : Harper, 1860.'] " is a story 
 
 351 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 of Ireland, told with a rich and racy 
 humor, and ornamented with several of 
 those mirth-provoking characters to 
 be found only on irish soil. It differs 
 materially from Lever's novels, is more 
 refined in tone, and less given to ex- 
 aggeration. The plot is well constructed, 
 and skillfully developed. The interest 
 of the story, too, is maintained unbroken 
 to the end, and tlie reader puts the book 
 aside, satisfied with the author, with tlie 
 story, with the ending." [Crayon. 1138 
 CFIANNINGS (The), [by Ellen 
 (Price) Wood: Bentley, 1862.] "To 
 scbool-boys or to the families of school- 
 boys, we can imagin nothing more 
 charming than the first perusal of this 
 book. It will probably be read again 
 and again ; and it is certain that it can 
 never be read without profit both by 
 parents and children. It is essentially 
 a book for young people, yet it will 
 interest tlie fathers and mothers of the 
 rising generation. It is, in fact, merely 
 the simple history of a certain eventful 
 6 months in the lives of 2 large families, 
 the Channings and the Yorkes. In an 
 old cathedral town, containing within 
 its sacred precincts a collegiate school, 
 liv these 2 families. The Yorkes are a 
 harum-scarum race, badly bred by a 
 foolish irish mother, of hi rank but 
 small income. The Channings ar care- 
 fully educated, the wish to do their 
 duty thoroly being the chief object of 
 their existence. The Channings and 
 
 Mr. Ketch, the great enemy of the 
 school-boys and the victim of their 
 choicest tricks, ia a capital character; 
 and Jo Jenkins, the clerk, so humble 
 and faithful to his master, so terribly 
 henpecked at home, and so beloved 
 and respected abroad, wins all our sym- 
 pathy and afiection. It is impossible 
 not to read every word with interest, 
 and we feel real regret at parting with 
 them." [Athenaeum. 1139 
 
 CHARLES DAYRELL, see "LADY 
 STELLA." 
 
 CHELSEA HOUSEHOLDER (A) 
 [by Emilt Lawless: Holt, 1883.] 
 "is Muriel Ellis, a girl of just that 
 gentle independence of spirit which is 
 so much more attractiv than positiv 
 softness, or outrit strongmindedness. 
 She is enuf of an heiress, too, to play 
 very prettily at being an artist. The 
 hero is a clergyman of Broad Church 
 affinities, a puzzle to his kindred. 
 While the book is not of great power, 
 
 it has an individuality quite marked 
 
 The descriptions of country landscape 
 ar singularly happy." [Nation. 1140 
 
 CHEQUERED LIFE (A) [by — ( ) 
 Day; Hurst, 1878.] "deals with life and 
 its pleasures and pains, with love and 
 marriage, and the blunders occasion- 
 ally made in both, which ar so hard to 
 remedy; but it is a. genuin story, of 
 
 well-sustained interest It is open 
 
 to the objection that between 2 such 
 amiable and perfectly well-intentioned 
 
 the Yorkes ar all much of an age persons as Lord Rewe and his innocent 
 
 The story is slit and unimportant. The 
 merit of it lies in the detail, and the 
 extreme truthfulness and simplicity in 
 which it is related. We feel, while 
 reading it, as if we had been living all 
 our lives in the old town, and knew each 
 college-boy by sit, and met the good- 
 natured, jovial bishop and the stiff, 
 dignified dean every time we went out. 
 
 girl-wife, so ignorant of the world into 
 which she had stepped out of her convent 
 schoolroom, tl;^t she actually looked 
 upon the pleasant vices of which she 
 heard for the first time as deadly sins, 
 silence and estrangement of so long 
 duration would not, in life, hav been 
 produced by anything said by a third 
 party The sentiments and conduct 
 
 352 
 
KEITISH NOVELS. 
 
 of Valentina ar entirely consistent with 
 her education and her character, witli 
 the shock of her introduction into a 
 world in which men ar free to indulge 
 in vice unblamed, and women ar sup- 
 posed to kno all about it, but to be quite 
 unaffected by that knoledge in their re- 
 lations with thSir brothers, their lovers, 
 and their husbands. — The truth is told 
 in this novel; the woman's side of the 
 matter is strongly, but delicately set 
 
 forth It is well to hav a picture 
 
 of the mind of a good, honest, sensitiv 
 woman, loving, true, pure, full of the 
 enthusiasm of love and respect which 
 comes from lofty teaching concerning 
 the meaning of duty and marriage, 
 — of her acute shame and indignation, 
 her horrified distrust and bewilderment 
 when she finds herself established for 
 life among people, who, holding hi 
 places in the world, treat all which she 
 abhors, without rendering count of it to 
 herself, with the complacence of fa- 
 miliarity and indifierence. The family 
 party into which the young girl from her 
 convent school is admitted is a perfectly 
 respectable one, as the world measures 
 respectability." [Spectator. 1141 
 
 CHERRY RIPE [by Helen (Math- 
 ers) Reeves : Bentley, 1878.] " is a dis- 
 gusting book. Not that it is coarse or 
 delicately obscene. The diseased mo- 
 rality which Miss Mathers teaches is 
 sicklied over with a nasty appearance of 
 religious principle which makes it only 
 10 times more odious." [Ath. 1142 
 
 CHILDREN OF GIBEON (The) [by 
 Walter Besant : Harper, 188G.] "is 
 one of Walter Besant's most charming 
 stories. The ease and grace, the deli- 
 cate humor, the sweet humanity, which 
 always distinguish his work, ar all thfire, 
 while a deep problem underlies the 
 whole, and the sympathetic suggestion 
 of the trials of work-women make the 
 
 entertaining story also a th6tful one. 
 The problem is whether we o our triiits 
 to birth or breeding, and the mother of 
 the heroin thinks she has solved it in 
 favor of breeding, when she brings up 
 her own little girl and the little girl of a 
 poor woman in ignorance as to which is 
 which, with the result that both develop 
 into gentle, interesting maidenhood. 
 Such a plot is full of material and 
 ' points,' around which Besant's delicate 
 fancy plays brilly and sweetly. The two 
 girls ar introduced to the working man's 
 son who is brother of one of them, and 
 accept the situation, as they stand hand 
 in hand, with the pretty little introduc- 
 tion, ' We ar your sister Polly.' The 
 little touches which folio ar full of human 
 nature, when the real lieiress seeksto be 
 the poor girl, while the poor girl feels it 
 to be aristocratic instinctthat she cannot 
 bear the thot of leaving fashionable com- 
 fort, and when the heiress inadvertently 
 learns that she is the heiress, but keeps 
 the secret patiently and nobly till the 
 time comes when it must be revealed. 
 Altogether the story is as pretty a one as 
 we hav had for many a day, and it must 
 be a hard heart which is not touched by 
 it to finer issues." [Critic. 1 14!} 
 
 CHOICE OF CHANCE, [by W: 
 DoBsoN : Uawin, 1887.] "Something 
 in the quiet style, the pathetic and hu- 
 morous touches, perhaps the natural and 
 simple autobiografical form and the 
 wholesome and pleasant relations be- 
 tween a mother and dauter (who, by the 
 way, ar not a mother and dauter, where- 
 by hangs the tale), reminds one a little 
 of ' My Trivial Life and Misfortunes' — 
 a book which had a kind of character of 
 its on. The title is ill chosen. A sensa- 
 tional element, by no means of the best 
 quality, pervades a story which, if rather 
 fragmentary and disconnected, is pleas- 
 ant reading. The heroin and narrator 
 
 353 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 excites some interest and liking, and tlifire 
 ar a good many characters, amiable if 
 somewhat slit, and altogether clean of 
 hackneyed and conventional touches." 
 [Athenaeum. 114:4: 
 
 CHRISTIAN'S MISTAKE, [by Di- 
 nah Maria (Mulook) Craik : Hurst, 
 181)5.] " Christian is an orfan, the dauter 
 of a gentleman of birth and education, 
 and of great musical genius, but who lost 
 his position from his habits of drunken 
 profligacy. The sympathy of the reader 
 is secured for Christian, and kept up 
 to the end. Her father happily dead. 
 Christian has been a, governess in a re- 
 spectable tradesman's family, and from 
 their house she has just been married 
 when the story begins. Dr. Grey, the 
 husband, is described as a great scholar, 
 a gentleman of most sweet and gentle 
 nature, a man more like a father than a 
 husband. His first marriage had not 
 been happy, and he had been taut pa- 
 tience throu a weary course of domestic 
 disciplin. His marriage with Christian 
 had been one of real love, which is very 
 delicately touched by the author — it is 
 made both natural and interesting, and 
 the reader's sympathy goes with it." 
 [Athenseum. 1145 
 
 CHRISTr CAREW [by May (Lap- 
 fan) Hartley : Holt, 1880.] " is a quiet 
 and simple Irish story told with much 
 nativ wit and a true keltic flavor; e. g. , 
 ' There's elegant drowning at the end of 
 the pier, Master Lanty, if you'll only 
 consider it,' is the remark of an exas- 
 perated nurse to a veritable enfant terri- 
 ble about to ' go fishing ' thither. The 
 characters ar well distinguished, and 
 set forth with much ease, evidently from 
 life in many cases, and tho the book is 
 too long and the author neglects the 
 elementary maxim that all episodes 
 should conduce to the general action, 
 and tho we must' regard as premature the 
 
 judgment of an admiring critic who 
 thinks her the successor of George 
 Eliot, we can cordially commend the 
 book as more interesting and decidedly 
 abler than its class." [Nation. 1146 
 
 CHRISTY JOHNSTONE = No. 639. 
 
 CHRONICLES OF CARLINGFORD 
 (series), See " THE DOCTOR'S 
 FAMILY," " SALEM CHAPEL;' 
 ''PERPETUAL CURATE," " MISS 
 MAJORIBANKS," " PH(EBE JUN- 
 IOR." 
 
 CHRONICLES OF GLENBUCKIE. 
 [by H : Johnston : Edinburgh, Douglas, 
 1889.] The disruption of the Scottish 
 church " supplies the clever author with 
 a convenient pivot on which the parochial 
 politics of his Ayrshire village may re- 
 volv, and enables him to call into vivid 
 life and action the ruf-hewn elders, the 
 weavers and soutars of Glenbuckie. We 
 hardly kno what minute piece of local 
 portraiture to cite ; whether the courting 
 of the doctor and his housekeeper, Mrs. 
 Forgie, whose gentle soul is so often 
 confused by the wandering discursivness 
 of that fllosofic wooer, or the more 
 practical union of the betheral and the 
 'oo-leddy, the piteous story of poor 
 Maggie Winlestrae's ruin, or the loutish 
 advances of Richie Necbikin to his Jean. 
 
 Space fails to tell of Janet Pyat, 
 
 the minister's maid, a, much more ener- 
 getic divine than tliat worthy man, — of 
 Mysie the Spae-wife, or of Mrs. Hap- 
 lands and her inferior half. Suffice it 
 to say there ar no weak sketches in this 
 gallery of originals, which lovers of 
 Lowland Scotland will do well to study." 
 [Athenaeum. 1147 
 
 CICELEY'S CHOICE [by — ( ) 
 O'Reilly : Bell S; Sons, 1875. J " is a pleas- 
 ant story. There is a good deal of humor 
 in the way Ciceley's character is treated ; 
 the picture of her as a young girl of IG, 
 full of faults, butbrit, brave, and honest. 
 
 354 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 and with the promise of plenty of good 
 sense to he developed hereafter. Her 
 mistakes and her passionate, irapulsiv 
 temper, ar touched with a loving hand 
 and ar true to the unformed but fas- 
 cinating nature of a young girl. It is a 
 book for girls, but gron people will also 
 enjoy reading it." [Athenaeum. 1148 
 
 CINDERELLA. [S : Tinsley, 1876.] 
 " We hav nothing but praise for this 
 quiet little story, tho the title, we must 
 say, rather fritened us. The vein of 
 applied fairy tales, first so happily struck 
 out by Miss Thackeray [see No. 1110] 
 lias, as Arteraus Ward would hav said, 
 been ' done too muchly.' There is cer- 
 tainly a want of sensation in this little 
 book, and those who like their literature 
 strong would better seek it elsewhere. 
 But there ar others, we think, to whom 
 this simply-told love-story will come 
 quite refreshingly, after all the gushing 
 immorality with which we ar surfeited. 
 Some of the characters, particularly 
 the family of the parvenu, ar cleverly 
 sketched, and th^re ar one or two 
 charming descriptions of scenery." 
 [Spectator. 1149 
 
 CITY GIRL (A), [by J : Law : Vizet- 
 elly, 1887.] " Within the compass of 190 
 pages Mr. Law has given his readers a 
 little romance of the East End which is 
 wanting neither in pathos nor in force. 
 The epithet ' realistic ' is distinctly mis- 
 leading as applied to ' A City Girl.' It 
 is true that we move in squalid sur- 
 roundings, but the author's method of 
 treating his materials is wholly void of 
 the Zolaistic taint. He is at heart some- 
 what of an optimist, and possesses the 
 gift of a genial sympathy for those with 
 whose vues he is not in accord. Daudet 
 and Turgenief hav been his models 
 rather than Zola, tho we doubt whether 
 either of those great writers would hav 
 contrived so happy an ending for what 
 
 threatened to be a tragedy." [Athe- 
 nseum. lloO 
 
 CLARISSA TIARLOWE =No. 645. 
 
 CLAVERINGS (The), [by Anthonv 
 Trollopb: Smith, 1867.] "The hero, 
 Harry Clavering, is a young fello of 
 good family and acquirements, but of 
 small means, whose first love, Julia Bra- 
 bazon, rejects him on account of his 
 poverty, and marries a. nobleman of 
 great wealth. At the moment when his 
 mind is bitterest towards the woman 
 who, as he thinks, has betrayed him, and 
 stands therefore in greatest need of 
 affection which shall restore it to self- 
 respect, Clavering meets Florence Bur- 
 ton. Tho fortune has denied Florence 
 either money or family, in other respects 
 it has not been ungenerous. Clavering 
 accordingly ere long is betrothed to her. 
 But the old love is not yet quite extinct. 
 Julia Brabazon, now Lady Ongar, 
 returns rich and a wido to offer 
 herself to the man she has always 
 loved. Clavering is sorely tried, and 
 the story of the diflSculties by which he 
 is beset supplies the principal interest of 
 the novel. He is a gentleman, however, 
 and, in spite of some weakness of char- 
 acter, keeps the reader's respect throu- 
 out the story. He marries accordingly 
 the girl to whom he is affianced, and 
 Lady Ongar is left to muse disconsolately 
 over the proverb, — 'She who will 
 not when she may, when she will she 
 shall hav nay.' Slit as is this story, 
 it is deeply interesting." [Fortnightly 
 Review. 1151 
 
 CLEMENCY" FRANKLYN [by Annie 
 Keaey : Macmillan, I85G.] " is a 
 charming story, well written and well 
 told. It is a book to be read for the 
 pleasure it will giv, and it is a book to 
 be given to young girls for thfiir profit. 
 The reading will be an innocent pleasure, 
 without any of the dulness that too often 
 355 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 marks innocent pleasures for its on. 
 Th^re is a zest in the story, — simple as 
 it is, — a delicate discrimination of char- 
 acter, and a faculty for putting the 
 various personages into action, which 
 giv life and reality to the work. The 
 tale is slit, and the skill of tfhe author 
 has been bestoed upon the delineation 
 of character rather than upon the elab- 
 oration of incident Out of all the 
 
 cross purposes, disappointments, and 
 mistakes, a, better order of things arises 
 than all the schemes and day-dreams 
 which human self-will had purposed. 
 The story is very satisfactory, and al- 
 tho it may be a reversal of the usual 
 order to make the heroin change her 
 mind about her hero, Clemency makes 
 the rit man happy at last, and the 
 reader, if he be of our mind, will heart- 
 ily sympathize with him." [Ath. 1152 
 COLOiSrEL CHESWICK'S CAM. 
 PAI6N. [by Flora L. Shaw : Long- 
 man, 1886.] " A novel by the author of 
 ' Hector' [No. 465] has been a pleasant 
 anticipation, which is pleasantly realized. 
 ' Colonel Cheswick's Campaign ' is not a 
 great book, but it is a charming story. 
 The love of father and dauter forms the 
 main theme, which is worked out throu 
 all the manifold incidents of the attract- 
 iv life of an english country-house. A 
 wider horizon bends round the whole, 
 encircling with the english fens the 
 egyptian sands. It would have been too 
 much to expect, on the larger scale, the 
 simple perfection of ' Hector.' Neither 
 introspection nor analysis is part of Miss 
 Shaw's method, and to fill her canvass 
 she employs a number of minor figures 
 which crowd each other, and which we 
 could gladly hav spared. Not of these, 
 however, is the beautiful old pair, in 
 their death not divided. The main fig- 
 ures stand out very clear. It is no small 
 power of characterization which, almost 
 
 without a comment, makes us under- 
 stand the complex nature of the colonel 
 and his wife. The latter, trivial, foolish, 
 selfish, we can still see is lovable to the 
 fond eyes of her loyal dauter. In the 
 colonel is combined that reckless, happy- 
 go-lucky spirit which justifies self-indul- 
 gence which is even cruel to wife and 
 children; and yet, in his place at the 
 head of his regiment, he is the duteous, 
 brave, ardent soldier. It was an early 
 comment that the daughter, Ailsa, is only 
 Zelie (from ' Hector ') or Phyllis Browne 
 (from the story of that name) gron. No 
 one will admire or love her the less for 
 that: it is very hi praise." [Nation. 1153 
 COLONEL ENDERBY'S WIFE [by 
 
 "Lucas Malet," i.e., Rose G 
 
 (Kingsley) Harrison : Kegan Paul, 
 1885.] "is an especially strong and thot- 
 
 f ul novel The book tells the story of 
 
 a heartless woman v^ho wrecks the life 
 of a trusting middle-aged husband — 
 not by vulgar crime, but by mere heart- 
 lessness and selfishness. [Compare plot 
 of " Marcia."] If the subject appears 
 trite it is the baldness of this statement 
 which makes it so. It is anything but 
 trite, being strikingly original, pas- 
 sionate and impressiv." [American.] — 
 " It is poignant, grievously pathetic, 
 a fateful, disheartening book, but it is 
 unquestionably clever, and when a work 
 of art is clever, it is idle to quarrel with 
 the artist becaus it is what he has made 
 it, and not something else more agreeable 
 to the taste of the reader. Our taste 
 inclines towards art which does not seek 
 to reproduce life, with its bitter cruel- 
 ties, its inexorable hardness, but rather 
 to waft us out of life into a golden age, 
 to make us ' lie down in green, past- 
 ures ' and to lead us ' beside the still 
 waters.'" [Westminster Review. 1164: 
 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE 
 (A) [by Julian Stukgis : Hurray, 
 
 356 
 
BKITISII NOVELS. 
 
 1889.] " is something like what a comedy 
 should be — britand vivacious, rapid and 
 amusing, yet with occasional touches 
 and suggestions of deeper feeling. The 
 cynicism is cheery rather than depress- 
 ing, and there ar some typical men and 
 women litly and knoingly sketched. 
 The dialog is spritly and natural, and 
 such things as pathos or tragedy ar but 
 distantly hinted at. The tactics and 
 sparrings of the ' smart ' folk, the as- 
 sembled guests of the rich and unappro- 
 priated young man of property, ar given 
 with gaiety and humor." [Ath. 1155 
 COMETH UP AS A "FLOWER [by 
 Rhoda BRonGiiTON: Appleton, 1868] 
 " is a, simple narrativ of events occur- 
 ring daily in social life, and is told in 
 the form of an autobiografy, of which 
 the heroin — the truly lovable, charm- 
 ing, warm-hearted Nelly Lestrange — is 
 
 supposed to be the writer Early in 
 
 life she acquires a painful knoledg of 
 the bitter pangs, the heartburnings and 
 humiliations of genteel poverty, which 
 her brief experience teaches her is the 
 heaviest load undsr which a man can 
 
 groan Poor Nelly's troubles wer not 
 
 occasioned by poverty alone, however— 
 tho that may hav been one of the re- 
 mote causes of her subsequent more 
 serious griefs — but the absorbing pas- 
 sion of her life, her love for Richard 
 McGregor, her hero, — this love, 'which 
 was her doom,' was the source of all the 
 happiness she knew, of all the misery 
 which her gentle but passionate nature 
 was called upon to endure. The picture 
 of her life is a piece of pure womanly 
 character-painting, in all respects con- 
 sistent and natural, and her thots and 
 aspirations ar always in perfect harmony 
 
 with her surroundings No word 
 
 comes from McGregor — duns, bills, 
 creditors, torment the poor father, his 
 health fails, and the old story of Robin 
 
 3.5 
 
 Gray is enacted again, only Sir Hugh 
 Lancaster is not an old man, but a good- 
 hearted, not over-attractiv young one. 
 This struggle between human love and 
 filial duty forces our sympathies into 
 a painful region of casuistry; Nelly's 
 strength is tried to the utmost, and in 
 the conflict her pure, steadfast love is 
 sacrificed. Slie had withstood the doubts 
 which McGregor's silence and Dolly's 
 sneers forced upon her, but she could 
 not see her father's honored head bowed 
 to the dust, and, looking bravely and 
 resolutely upon the blit which had fallen 
 upon and withered all her life's spring 
 and freshness, she determine to accept 
 Sir Hugh and try to make him happy. 
 The scenes ar full of painful interest, 
 naturally drawn, beautiful in the tender- 
 ness which shoes itself toward the death- 
 stricken father — sad in the hopeless love 
 which still yearns toward the lost and 
 
 absent one Throuout the book th^re 
 
 ar passages of truly poetic thot, and a 
 vein of quiet humor which is really 
 charming. The dialog is buoyant, some- 
 tiniies witty, never vulgar ; and the au- 
 thor possesses the happy faculty of 
 shoing that earnestness and power ar 
 perfectly consistent with purity of feel- 
 ing and expression." [Round Table.] — 
 " We hav here a, little love story so 
 fresh and unhackneyed in feeling that 
 we hav read it with a great deal of pleas- 
 ure. Its plot is one of the barest and 
 simplest illustrations of the proverbial 
 rufness of the course of true love, and 
 the characters belong, with perhaps one 
 exception, to typ'es perfectly familiar in 
 recent fiction ; but the story is told with 
 a directness, and the characters drawn 
 with a freedom and grace, which quite 
 giv the book the autobiografical air which 
 it assumes. The exception to which we 
 refer is to be found in the person of the 
 heroin, who is also the narrator of the 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 Story. She smells neither of breail and 
 butter nor of the stables, two almost 
 equally odorous extremes between which 
 the heroins of most english novels vi- 
 brate, and is at the widest remove from 
 the metafysical and strong-minded non- 
 descripts affected by our writers. She 
 is merely a very genuin little girl, in- 
 nocent, passionate, and with a genius for 
 loving, the story of whose love and 
 troubles is told with a simplicity and 
 truth to nature which we think quite 
 exceptional. There is in the book no 
 attempt at any profundity of th6t or sen- 
 timent to which such a girl would not 
 naturally be equal ; the incidents ar not 
 striking, and the conclusion is much too 
 melancholy. Still we recommend it." 
 [Nation. 1156 
 
 COMIN' THKO' THE RYE. [by H .. 
 Buckingham (Mathers) Keeves ; 
 Bentiey, 1875.] "In spite of a certain 
 coarseness in its humor, and occasional 
 solecisms in its diction, thCre is a great 
 deal of power in ' Comin' thro' the Rye.' 
 The heroin groes before our eyes from 
 the ' tom-boy ' stage of girlhood to an ex- 
 cellent specimen of loving and truthful 
 womanhood. ThSre is originality in the 
 tragic plot, and an unceasing current of 
 rather rollicking fun, which saves the 
 tragedy from becoming sombre. There 
 is something lifelike and, at the same 
 time, artistic in depicting George and 
 Nelly when engaged in the most serious 
 of discussions at the gravest crisis of 
 Nelly's perilous love-story, as conduct- 
 ing tlifiir conversation in the close con- 
 finement of two neboring piles of hay. 
 George, whose sound sense and tender 
 thdtfulness make him the safest of ad- 
 visers and the most chivalrous of un- 
 selfish lovers, finds virtue, to a degree 
 less common in novels tlian in life, its 
 on reward." [Athenaeum.] — -"AH the 
 rowdiness of Miss Broughton's stories is 
 
 to be found here — if anytliing rather ex- 
 aggerated — with a love-story different 
 from hers in its strict preaching of ex- 
 alted morality. The best part of the 
 book is tliat which describes the hero- 
 in's childhood ; the accounts of her 
 ' governor's ' domestic tyranny, his bad 
 temper, and her pranks with ber brothers 
 and sisters, ar very amusing, and indeed 
 they narroly escape being pattietic. 
 When the love-story 'appears, tlie book 
 falls off. Good taste is not this writer's 
 strong point. Indeed, her vulgarity is 
 amazing in quantity and quality, but yet 
 she is brit, and her book is in its way 
 entertaining. There is a great deal 
 which is natural in the telling of the 
 story, and a great deal of life in it. 
 Slapping on the back, pillo-fits, and 
 romps of every sort crowd the book ; 
 but the heroin, who never opens her lips 
 except to talk the loudest slang and 
 make irreverent remarks about her f 1- 
 dors, is a well-drawn creature, and her 
 two lovers, the good one wliom she does 
 not like, and the bad one whom she 
 prefers, ar by no means sticks. The 
 plot is not a very new one, but it is told 
 so as to leave a lump in tlie throat of the 
 unfastidious reader." [Nation. 1157 
 COMMON SENSE, [by — ( ) 
 
 Newby: London, Newhy, 186G.] "We 
 hav read this novel with pleasure. It is 
 a healthy, sensible, and interesting story. 
 The title is sober, and scarcely indicates 
 the hi order of qualities which ar illus- 
 trated in the narrativ. But ' Common 
 Sense ' is a wide domain, touching genius 
 upon one side, hi principle upon tlie 
 other ; it is an eminently practical virtue, 
 and has the peculiar property of enabling 
 its possessor to folio out his resolutions. 
 The readers of the novel before us will 
 sec for themselves how interesting this 
 
 mattcr-of fact virtue can be made 
 
 This is an old story, but it is told in a 
 
 358 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 fresh, unhackneyed manner. Martin 
 Lorimer, the son, develops the lieroism 
 of common sense. The father and 
 mother ar both crushed by thSir mis- 
 fortune, unable to meet the emergency, 
 or to act in any way. Martin, the boy, 
 acts with an honest, clear- sited boy's 
 wisdom; he does nothing which is super- 
 human, but he day by day acts up to the 
 lit which is in him, developing his strong 
 energy and unflinching will, groing in 
 wisdom and in moral stature, and by 
 the simple faculty of hard work and 
 steady perseverance he works throu all 
 difficulties, and restores the fortunes of 
 the family. The mode in which he does 
 it is interesting, and the reader's sym- 
 pathy is thoroly engaged. ThSre ar 
 no strokes of fortune, nor mysterious 
 secrets, to change the face of afi^airs : 
 the only talisman by which Martin 
 Lorimer descends to the ranks, and, 
 from being a workman in an iron- 
 foundry, at a few shillings a week, rises 
 to become a master and a man of wealth 
 and influence, is energy and good sense, 
 guided by religious principle. There is 
 a touch of romance in the charming 
 wife he wins, but the interest is 
 concentrated on Martin and his 
 father; the change which misfortune 
 works in the poor man is pleasant to 
 folio, and the setting free of his good 
 qualities from thfiir original alloy is 
 cleverly done." [Athenasum. 1158 
 CONINGSBY. [by Lord Beacons- 
 field, 1844.] " (whose hero must be 
 identified as regards character and 
 temperament, but hardly the incidents 
 of his life, with the late Lord Lyttleton) 
 — we see how a clever youth, intended 
 by his grandfather the duke of Mon- 
 mouth (wlio is a caricature of the late 
 Marquis of Hertford), to be a, model 
 Tory of the old fashioned school, breaks 
 loose from his training, and becomes a 
 
 leading member of the Young England 
 
 party Conspicuous associates with 
 
 Coningsby in this movement ar Oswald 
 Milbank and Henry Sydney, who remind 
 us only too strongly of Mr. Gladstone 
 and Lord John Manners in thdir young 
 days; and among two or three score of 
 other well-knon persons, women as well 
 as men, introduced into the book, by no 
 means the least remarkable is baron 
 Alfred Kothschild as the duke of Sidona." 
 [Athena:um. 1159 
 
 CODLINGSBY. [by W: M. Thack- 
 eray.] " We marvel if Disraeli could 
 ever again write one of his Oriental 
 absurdities, after his trick had been so 
 mercilessly exposed, his fustian so 
 ludicrously reproduced, his style sur- 
 passed with such ease even in those 
 parts upon which he most piques him- 
 self. It seems to us that if he had been 
 laboring under the author's delusion up 
 to that time, he could not continue in it. 
 lie may hav believed his melodious 
 assemblage of words was eloquence, and 
 that his descriptions had a gloing truth 
 about them, until Thackeray shoed him 
 how easy such eloquence is, how Holy- 
 well-street can be painted with an Orien- 
 tal brush which shall make the Rose of 
 Sharon gro in its gutters, and the splen- 
 dors of Damascus glitter in its back- 
 parlors." [Leader. 1160 
 
 CONST ANTIA [by B. C. Price: 
 Low, 1876.] "has a good deal of merit. 
 
 Of ' Constantia,' a most refined, tho 
 
 rustic lady, we can but say that she is 
 the product of an old-fashioned educa- 
 tion Mrs. Luttrell and Lady Heath, 
 
 a trenchant old lady and inconsequent 
 one, ar admirably contrasted, and all 
 parties hav something to say." [Athe- 
 nseum. IIOI 
 
 CONTRADICTIONS, [by F.. M.. 
 Peard : Bentley, 1883.] " Dorothy Leigh 
 is a fresh creation, as pleasant as anything 
 359 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 which can be found in the fiction of the 
 year. Not that she is distinctly original 
 or heroic, but she is a 'very woman' 
 in the best sense of the term, shoing lii 
 spirit in suffering as well as in triumf, 
 and combining with infinit grace and 
 tenderness a courage which disarms the 
 spite of her enemies. Slie stands in con- 
 trast witli a proud and more beautiful anti- 
 heroin, will) schemes unscrupulously to 
 rob her of her lover, and contrives to mis- 
 lead her in such a manner as to cause a 
 
 good deal of misery On the whole 
 
 the author has succeeded in producing a 
 delitful narrativ in which the charms 
 more than compensate for the short- 
 comings." [Athenaeum. 1163 
 
 COQUETTE'S CONQUEST (A) [by 
 "Basil,"!, e., R: Ashe King: Harper; 
 1885.] " is a well written and ingenious 
 account of a young lady who married a 
 liero so ideal that he mit have stepped 
 out of, instead of into, a novel, and who 
 thus attained the social position of her 
 day dreams, only to find herself the 
 most miserable woman in all England. 
 Apart from this excellent moral, the 
 detail of the story is entertaining." 
 [Critic. 1163 
 
 CORINNA. [by "Rita,"!, e., Eliza 
 M. J. (GoUow) Booth: Maxwell, 1885.] 
 " The heroin is graceful and gracefully 
 described. Tlie lively little countess 
 Nina, coquettish and worldly, whom we 
 meet in her company at the outset of the 
 story, is a. good foil to the beautiful, 
 single-hearted, and imaginativ author 
 and poet who is her traveling compan- 
 ion." [Athenaeum. 1164: 
 
 COUNSEL OF PERFECTION (A) 
 [by "Lucas Malet," i. e.. Rose G. 
 (Kingsley) Harrison : Appleton, 1887.] 
 " is a refreshing novel of a merit quite 
 above the average. There is a grace 
 and delicacy in the style and in the air 
 of the story which recalls that happy 
 
 hour when was made the acquaintance 
 of ' The Story of Elizabeth ' [No. 534]. 
 The resemblance ends with these traits, 
 for in the unwilling cynicism of the 
 present volume ar touches which recall 
 the elder rather than the younger Thack- 
 eray. The characters ar few, but of a 
 distinctness which never hardens into 
 exaggeration, and shoes the work of the 
 
 artist no less than of the writer Dr. 
 
 Casteen's dim study, the sparkling air of 
 Switzerland, the mossy churchyard of 
 Bishops-Marston, each lends itself in 
 turn finely to the writer's deeper use. 
 The wit which plays throu the book 
 keeps the atmosfere free from miasma, 
 and if it does pitilessly lit up some ugly 
 troubles which beset humanity, it also 
 brings into cheerful clearness the fil- 
 osofy which can outliv and liv down 
 worse woes than Lydia Casteen's." 
 
 [Nation.] — " Love does not hav its 
 
 whole beginning and end in the emotion 
 of child-lovers, completely as young peo- 
 ple may think it does. That fine arro- 
 gance of youth which will hav it that 
 sweet-and-twenty is the heart boundary 
 is a pretty spectacle enuf, but it shoes 
 only the knoledg and experience which 
 Twenty mit be expected to hav. The 
 heroin of ' A Counsel of Perfection ' has 
 never loved until she is nearer 40 than 
 20, yet we dare affirm that a completer 
 demonstration of the strength and eleva- 
 tion of that passion has seldom been 
 made than in the case of Lydia Casteen. 
 
 She- has never knon the buoyancy 
 
 and hope of youth, and she had, when 
 the story opens, definitly settled her life 
 in line with the dust-covered existence 
 of her father. At last, in a holiday 
 most begrudgingly allowed her, she 
 meets Anthony Hammond, a bachelor 
 of uncertain age, worldly, cynical, a 
 man entirely unworthy of her, as the 
 author makes no secret of intimating. 
 
 360 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 This man Lydia loves, and the awaken- 
 ing is one of tlie most sadly-sweet pict- 
 ures of abandon and faith we hav ever 
 read. She loves this most imperfect 
 hero, — but she does not marry liira. 
 Hammond is a trifler, and at first sets 
 out to amuse himself with an unusual 
 experience. He also pains Lydia by an 
 appearance of wrong-doing which is 
 worse for her than any neglect. But 
 her penetrating beauty of character 
 works at last its full sway on the sensi- 
 bilities of her admirer; he is brot to his 
 knees, only to be told that the happiness 
 of both is more certain in parting. This 
 climax is the point of especial original- 
 ity and strength of the book. Every 
 sensitiv reader must rejoice that the 
 woman for whom he has conceived so 
 sincere an admiration has escaped the 
 doubtful good of a marriage with such a 
 man, wliile Lydia is left in the lasting 
 possession of an imaginativ and emo- 
 tional glo of feeling which we realize to 
 be a far better thing for her than an 
 illusion which, in the other event, would 
 certainly be dispelled, leaving her in- 
 deed wretched. More than this we need 
 only say that the book is excellent in 
 construction and expression." [Ameri- 
 can. 1165 
 
 COUNTERPARTS = No. 656. 
 
 COUNTESS KATE, [by C. M.. 
 YoNGE : Mozley, 1876.] "It is hard to 
 realize that the sickly Heir of Redclyffe, 
 and the charmingly humorous Countess 
 Kate come from the same hand." [G. R. 
 Tomson. 1166 
 
 COUNTRY COUSIN (The) [by F.. 
 M.. Peard: Harper, 1889.] "is a very 
 readable little story. It has rather an 
 original situation for its raison d!^tre. 
 The country cousin as knon in fiction 
 is commonly described as noble, pure- 
 minded, and simple-hearted. She is 
 usually br6t out in strong contrast 
 
 against the shams of city life. She is 
 almost invariably put in opposition to 
 the cold-hearted, scheming city 'girl. 
 But in this case the country cousin is at 
 first extremely shy, and looks simple 
 and ingenuous enuf to deceive the elect; 
 but she soon loses her apparent naivete 
 and adapts herself most kindly to the 
 ways of fashionable society. Within an 
 incredibly short time she became the 
 most worldly-wise girl in London. Her 
 rival, the truly charming and unselfish 
 Lady Millicent, who had been out many 
 seasons, was not at heart nearly as frivo- 
 lous as the country cousin. But the 
 innocent face took the prize, and the 
 empty-headed, vain little country girl 
 succeeded in winning Lady Millicent's 
 lover, and then made him a very bad 
 wife. The story has a certain piquant 
 flavor which makes it amusing reading." 
 [Boston "Literary World." 1167 
 
 COUNTRY GENTLEMAN (A) [by 
 Ma. Oliphant (Wilson) Oliphant ; 
 Harper, 1886.] "and its sequel ar worthy 
 of the only legitimate successor in Eng- 
 lish literature of Miss Austen. The first is 
 the better. It is told with all Mrs. Oli- 
 phant's command of quiet humor, and 
 that gentle sub-acid quality which is not 
 satire or irony, but which answers the 
 purpose of either. ' A Country Gentle- 
 man' introduces one of the most out- 
 rageous prigs in existence — a young 
 man spoiled by his woman relativs. He 
 marries a wido of an affectionate disposi- 
 tion, of perfect manners and knoledge 
 of the world — a country gentlewoman 
 with a touch of haute noblesse. Mrs. 
 Oliphant is much at home in the delinea- 
 tion of persons who liv in those quiet, har- 
 monious, luxurious interiors which she 
 loves as backgrounds. She has no equal 
 in her understanding of the ' social busi- 
 ness' of life, and no superior in her man- 
 ner of describing a well-bred woman. Her 
 
 361 
 
BBITISH NOVELS. 
 
 domestic comedies and tragedies ar not 
 brfit about by the vulgar sensationalism 
 of chance. They arise from the conflict 
 or harmony of character, as they do in 
 real life. A House Divided against 
 Itself [See also No. 467.] is a sequel to 
 ' A Country Gentleman.' The prig has 
 lived a lonely life, apart from his wife, 
 in the Riviera. His dauter Frances is 
 with him ; his dauter Constance, and his 
 step-son, Lord Markham, the main cause 
 of his separation from Ills wife, hav re- 
 mained with their mother in London. 
 Frances Is a simple and sweet young 
 girl, bred by an Italian nurse. Her 
 amazement when she finds herself trans- 
 ported from the simplicity of Italian life 
 to the artificiality of London is great. 
 She cannot understand the innuendoes 
 of those around her, half-tolerant, half- 
 condemnatory, of the immoral lives of 
 the young men she meets and hears 
 of. Her honesty and purity hav thfiir 
 effects, one of which is the reconcilia- 
 tion of her fatlier and mother, altho the 
 reader who has folloed them carefully 
 cannot help wondering how long this 
 will last." [Catholic World. H6S 
 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER [by 
 Th. KussELL Monro : Chapman, 187S.'] 
 "is rather an amusing story of county- 
 town life, its social jealousies, feuds, 
 and alliances. Both the Trevors and 
 the Brooms ar well described, and Miss 
 Penelope, the leader of fashion at Olton 
 Priors, is a genuin lady With the ex- 
 ception of Conrad and his female con- 
 federates, thfire is no utterly repulsiv 
 portrait, tho the vulgarities of some of 
 the Olton worthies ar amusingly set 
 forth. Misfortune sometimes brings 
 people out of the commonplace; , and 
 Mrs. Broom and her offensiv son sho 
 themselvs in far better colors when real 
 difficulties succeed their social struggles. 
 The denoument is the marriage of Diana 
 
 Trevor, the well-born heroin, with the 
 hero, a timber merchant, of yeoman 
 origin, but educated, and of fine moral 
 proportions. The book is free from 
 snobbishness, in spite of tlie delicacy of 
 the subject, and tho unambitious, is not 
 without its moral." [Athenaeum. 1169 
 
 COURTING OF MARY SMITH, [by 
 F: W: Robinson: Hurst, 1886.] "To 
 write an interesting love-story in which 
 the heroin is a pretty and hi-rainded 
 girl of 19, and the hero a rugged, pro- 
 saic millionaire, an illiterate Lancashire 
 cotton-spinner of 55 — to bring such a 
 love-story to a satisfactory and even to 
 a beautiful end mit well be pronounced 
 impossible. Yet it is what Mr. Robin- 
 son has achieved. In truth, we should 
 not go too far in saying that the attrac- 
 tion to a noble-minded girl like Mary 
 Smith of a passion like that of Lovett — 
 a passion deeper and purer and more 
 self-abnegating than perhaps a younger 
 man could feel for any woman — is one 
 of the finest studies which any of our 
 novelists has produced of late years. 
 Mingled with the cotton-spinner's love 
 of Mary Smith is a, deep worship of 
 ' the sweet glory of youth,' a reverence 
 for the mystery and wonder of a beauti- 
 ful girlhood, which could hav been 
 rendered only by an english writer of 
 the middle classes, among whom that 
 which is lovely in the Puritanic idea 
 may be said to flourish and liv. To 
 read such a book as this is to strengtiien 
 the soul with a moral tonic." [Athe- 
 nseum. 1170 
 
 COUSIN HENRY, [by Anthony 
 Trollope : Harper, 1880.J " In ' Cousin 
 Henry' we hav one of those curious cliap- 
 ters of english family history which 
 Mr. Trollope is so skillful in reciting, 
 and which in his hand become so nearly 
 like leaves out of a veritable history. 
 The disposition of a large estate is made 
 
 362 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 to turn upon the mislaying and virtual 
 concealment of a will, by which incident 
 the wishes of the testator ar frustrated, 
 and Cousin Henry is allowed to enjoy a 
 good fortune instead of the nice and 
 pretty Isabel for whom it was intended. 
 But not ' enjoys,' for Cousin Henry's 
 conscience givs him no peace while he 
 guiltily possesses the secret of the will's 
 hiding place, and not until its discovery 
 do things rit themselvs, and all go 
 well." [Boston "Lit. World." 1171 
 
 COUSIN MARY [by Ma. Oliphant 
 (Wilson) Oliphant: Partridge ^ Co., 
 1888.] " introduces us to acountry squire 
 
 and his family Of course the curate 
 
 marries Cousin Mary, and in spite of 
 much mystery and conspiracy, including 
 a madman who acts as a ghost, that 
 well-knon device of the novelist in diffi- 
 culties, they liv more or less happily 
 throu the remainder of the solitary vol- 
 ume.'' [Athenaeum. 1172 
 
 COUSINS, [by Lucr Bethi* (Col- 
 qdhoun) Walford: Holt, 1879.] "It 
 is almost incredible that a rational man, 
 in proposing for a young woman, should 
 so muddle his meaning as to make his 
 letter read like an offer for her older 
 sister [compare plot of " My Neighbor 
 Nelly," 1866] ; or that having committed 
 such a bStise, he should duly acquiesce 
 in tlie consequences, and achieve expla- 
 nation only when out of his mind with 
 brain fever. Barring improbability, 
 however, the plot is cleverly carried 
 out, and the story thoroly well done 
 and entertaining." [Boston " Literary 
 World." 1173 
 
 CRACK OF DOOM (The) [by W: 
 MiNTO : Harper, 1886.] " has some 
 originality and a good deal of brit- 
 ness; and had the author been able 
 to cut away more completely from the 
 conventionalities of tlie english society 
 novel, he rait hav produced a really 
 
 noteworthy book. The story is ingen- 
 ious, the thread ou which it hangs — 
 viz., the approach of a comet to the 
 earth — original, and the intrigues with 
 stock-market, love, and society, of an 
 adventurer, personating an imaginary 
 austrian count, ar raised to the dignity 
 of a psychological study by the happy 
 thot of developing imposture into mono- 
 mania. The conversations among scien- 
 tific and literary people ar real and brit 
 — such talk as does go on among them, 
 instead of such as does duty for it in 
 most novels; indeed the conversation 
 is enuf above the level of the book to 
 cause surprise." [Overland. 1174 
 
 CRADOCK NOWELL =No. 661. 
 
 CRANFORD. [by E.. Cleghorn 
 (Stevenson) Gaskell ; Chapman, 
 1853.] "This collection of sketches should 
 prove a permanent addition to english 
 fiction. Possibly, it was not begun on a 
 settled plan ; but if this was the case, the 
 author early became alive to the happy 
 thot pervading it; since she has wr6t it 
 out just enuf and not too much — so as 
 to produce a picture of manners, motivs 
 and feelings which is perfect. Her 
 theme, it is true, has not an iota of 
 romance or poetry or heroism in it such 
 as will attract lovers of excitement. 
 There ar no wicked and hardened rich 
 people — no eloquent and virtuous pau- 
 pers in ' Cranford.' The scene is a small, 
 drowsy town, the persons ar a few fool- 
 ish and faded gentlewomen of limited in- 
 comes, moving round the young dauter of 
 a deceased rector, as central figure, and 
 th^ir gentilities, thSir sociabilities, th^ir 
 topics, and their panics fill many pages. 
 But the beauty of the book lies in this, — 
 that our author has vindicated the ' soul 
 of goodness ' living and breathing and 
 working in an orbit so limited and 
 among beings so inane and so frivolous 
 as those whom she has displayed. 
 863 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 CRANTTOED. "Tlii.s is not a book tS 
 be desfribeil or criticised utlicr than by a 
 couple iif words of advice — Hi^ad it. It is 
 aboolv you sliould judge for yourself. If 
 we told you it contained a story, that 
 would be hardly true — yet read Only a doz- 
 en-pages, and you ar among real people, 
 getting interested about them, afl'ected by 
 what affects them, and as curious to kno 
 what wil come of it all as if it wer an 
 affair of your on. Wc should mislead you 
 if we said that here is a book remarkable 
 for the finish of its descriptions, the accur- 
 acy with which its characters ar drawn, 
 the charm which it gi\s to a variety of 
 natural pictures of life — in short the etc., 
 etc. which mark the good humor and hi 
 satisfaction of the critic, quite as much as 
 the particular merits of the writer. The 
 real truth is that 'Cranford' contains hard- 
 ly a bit of formal description from first to 
 last, that not a single person in it is thot 
 worth a page of the regular drawing and 
 coloring which is the novelist's stoc in 
 trade, and that of variety it has only as 
 much as a dul little town might at any 
 time present you, with a par9el of not very 
 wise old^naids for its heroins, and, for its 
 catastrophe, the failure of a county bank. 
 But watch the people introduced from 
 chapter to chapter — see them unconscious- 
 ly describe themseivs as thSy reveal thfiir 
 foibles and vanities — observ, as you get to 
 kno them better, what unselfish and solid 
 kindnesses underlie thfiir silly, trivial ways 
 —and confess that the writer of this unpre- 
 tending little volume, with hardly the 
 help of any artifice the novelist most relies 
 upon, and shoing you but a group of the 
 most ordinary people surrounded by the 
 commonest occurrences of human life, has 
 
 yet had the art to interest you as by some- 
 thing of your on experience, a reality you 
 hav actually met and felt yourself the bet- 
 ter for having knOn . . . Everybody who 
 has any business is of course ort' to the 
 busy, commercial Drumble, distant 
 only 20 miles, and < ranford is left 
 to a batch of faded old maids and wid- 
 os, very poor but remarkably genteel, hav- 
 ing a thoro distaste for that sour-grapes — 
 man, and tolerant cinly of Mr. Hoggins 
 the surgeon and Mr. Hayter the rector as 
 corporeal and spiritual necessities. For a 
 chapter or so, indeed, one man does suc- 
 ceed in planting himself at Cranford — and 
 a thoroly good man he is ; but his voice is 
 too large for the rooms, and his ways too 
 broad and hearty for the place, and, tho 
 one finds it diftieult to read what befalls 
 him with unmoistened eyes, yet it is felt 
 on tlie whole to be better that he should 
 disappear, no matter by what means. 
 Miss Matilda, or Miss Matty as she is more 
 frequently called, is quite the heroin of 
 the book. Before it ends, we hav taken 
 her entirely into tfur hearts — her and the 
 whole of her little history ... It is all a 
 piece of genuin truth — the reflection of a 
 thousand such kind and blameless histories. 
 Miss Matty is living by herself now, for 
 sister Deborah is dead, and she has many 
 old-fashioned prejudices, and silly little 
 weaknesses and ways, — but thi?re is such 
 a riteous nature underneath them, such 
 a true and tender heart, such a noble re- 
 gard for what is just to others even at the 
 cost of injustice to herself — that the im- 
 pression of all that human goodness, mak- 
 ing itself felt in such simple, quiet, unro- 
 matic guise, has a thoroly delightful effect." 
 [ Examiner. 1175 -|- 
 
 363 V 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 Touches of love and kindness, of simple 
 self-sacrifice and of true womanly ten- 
 derness ar scattered throuout the record; 
 and with no appeal and for no applause, 
 but naturally and truthfully just as thfiy 
 ar found in the current of life. Then 
 thfire is a rare humor in the airs and 
 graces of would-be finery which the 
 half-dozen heroins display, — in their 
 total ignorance of the world, in their 
 complacent credulity, in their irritable 
 curiosity about all wliich touches matri- 
 mony. The main figure, Miss Matilda, 
 Is finished with an artist's hand. Her 
 gentleness of heart and depth of affec- 
 tion, her conscientious and dignified 
 sense of rjt, her perpetual shelter under 
 the precepts and counsels of beloved 
 ones who hav gone before, — invest 
 the character with an interest which is 
 uniqne when her weakness of intellect 
 and narroness of training ar also con- 
 sidered. Thfire is not a single blemish 
 of inconsistency to be pointed out; in 
 short from first to last there is hard- 
 ly a solitary incident which is not 
 of every day occurrence. After its 
 kind, this tale cannot be recommended 
 too cordially." [Athenaeum.] — "I first 
 read the book wlien a girl in short 
 dresses. I recently re-read the story, 
 and am moved by the second read- 
 ing to say a word in its favor. You 
 see with stereoscopic clearness the prim 
 little parlors, and really look in on the 
 precise tea-parties, where the widoes 
 and spinsters of the almost manless 
 town meet so often for social enjoyment. 
 Th^re is such a quietly eloquent plea 
 in behalf of the " maiden ladies " under- 
 neath the little story. And our girls 
 of to-day mit go to bible classes for 
 many years and hear less beautiful 
 illustrations of moral heroism than Miss 
 Jessie Brown's sisterly devotion, and 
 dear gentle Miss Mattie's unobtrusiv 
 
 and self-sacrificing life giv us. It 
 would be hard to read of Miss Mat- 
 tie's pathetic order to hav her caps 
 ' somewhat in the style of the Hon. Mrs. 
 Jameson's ' without a quiver of the lips. 
 And when the sister tells of poor Peter's 
 life from his baTjy-days to his going to 
 India, we see the boy as distinctly as he 
 appeared to her simple, loving heart." 
 [Corres. Boston " Lit. World." 1175 
 
 CREEDS = No. Cfi2. 
 
 CRIPPS THE CARRIER [by R: 
 Doddridge Blackmore : Harper, 
 1876.] " is a tale of life in a very rural 
 town ; most of its personages ar humble 
 and rude ; but the plot is unique, and 
 the portraiture is very skilful. The 
 hero — and the villain — is Luke Sharp, 
 a lawyer, who devises a most startling 
 plot to possess himself of a large estate, 
 by abducting the dauter of Squire 
 Ogland, with the intention of uniting her 
 to his own son. So craftily did he lay 
 his plans, and so propitiously did For- 
 tune befriend him, that the missing girl 
 was proved to be dead, and a slab erected 
 over her remains. But some feeble 
 forces wer at work counter to the law- 
 yer's schemes, of which the chief instru- 
 ment was Zachary Cripps, one of the 
 most original and perfectly drawn char- 
 acters we ever met in fiction. The 
 development of the plot is gradual; but 
 the reader's interest never flags, and the 
 denoument is at once hily tragical and 
 poetically just." [Boston "Literary 
 World." 1176 
 
 CROOKED PATH (A), [by "Mrs. 
 Alexander,'' i.e., Annie (French) 
 Hector: //oW, 1889.] "Mrs. Alexan- 
 der's novels used to be excellent read- 
 ing, but thfiy ar groing poorer. ' A 
 Crooked Path ' is the story of a stolen 
 will, and neither the plot nor the charac- 
 ters rise above the most commonplace 
 sensational level. It is long drawn out, 
 
 364 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 and mucli padded with irrelevant matter. 
 It is one of tliose stories which hav no 
 raison d'etre, and leaves the impression 
 of having bored tlie writer as well as the 
 reader. A brilliant writer like Mrs. Alex- 
 ander should not be forced to grind out 
 a new novel every year'. Her books ar 
 losing their freshness, and very soon 
 will hav few, if any, readers." [Boston 
 " Literary World." 1177 
 
 CROSS OF HONOR (The), [by 
 Annie (Thomas) Cudlip : 18C4.] " We 
 congratulate Miss Thomas that she has 
 turned aside from the path towards 
 which in her former novels she so much 
 inclined, and has in this one given us 
 a charming story of domestic life, in 
 which the interest is sustained throuout 
 without the aid of vulgar sensation, 
 horse-slang, or demi-mondeism ; whfire 
 the characters, with very slit exception, 
 speak and move precisely as the same 
 sort of people mit speak and move in 
 every-day life, and whfire the plot, with- 
 out being complex, is so well managed 
 that, by apparently natural incidents, the 
 several personages of the story ar brot 
 into close connexion, and the whole is 
 invested with the air of a real history." 
 [Round Table. 1178 
 
 — , SAME ("Married at Last"), 
 Peterson, 186fi. 
 
 CULMSHIRE FOLK. [Macmillan, 
 1873.] " The women's warfare, with its 
 ingenious littleness, its unceasing activ- 
 ity, and its direful collateral effects upon 
 the unoffending Doctor, is liily enter- 
 taining, especially when Mrs. Dirable, 
 smarting under a repulse by Lady Culm- 
 shire, falls foul of Cecil Stanley's objec- 
 tionable aunt, and her pet methodist 
 minister On the whole, the Culm- 
 shire folk seem to hav had a tolerably 
 pleasant life, enlivened with consider- 
 ably more funny people and good stories, 
 than folk out of Culmshire hav to boast 
 
 of. They ar occasionally unhappy in 
 the course of the 3 volumes, but they 
 ar never bored, and they interest one 
 about all their small affairs as small 
 communities cannot interest, unless they 
 be cleverly drawn." [Spectator. 1179 
 CURATE IN CHARGE (The), [by 
 Ma. Oliphant (Wilson) Olipiiant : 
 Macmillan, 187C.] " Those who like 
 novels of character will not be disap- 
 pointed in this. There is little incident 
 in the story, the whole .action of which 
 is confined to a country parish, of which 
 Mr. St. John, the gentlest and most 
 unworldly of men, has been for 20 years 
 curate in charge The absentee rec- 
 tor dies abroad, and the home of many 
 years is threatened. The living is in the 
 hands of a college, and naturaljy falls 
 
 to the lot of the next clerical fello 
 
 So agreeable and cultured a. young 
 parson mit hav been thot to hav a soul 
 above a country parish, but ' a man 
 cannot liv for china,' and so it came 
 about that Mr. Mildmay came down to 
 Brentburn, and brot upon him the indig- 
 nation of Cicely St. John. How could 
 she help but feel it? ' It is injustice, 
 if It was the Queen herself who did it. 
 But perhaps papa is rit; if he does not 
 come some one else would come. And 
 he has n heart. I do not hate him so 
 much as I did last nit.' Herein is the 
 gist of the story. Cicely finds he has a 
 heart, and the process of that discov- 
 ery is the staple of a charming tale." 
 [Athenaeum. J ■ — " 'The Curate in 
 Charge ' is one of the simplest but most 
 perfect of Mrs. Oliphant's shorter tales. 
 Th6re is only the slitest scrap of narra- 
 tiv ; but how fresh, how tender, how 
 true to nature it is — a village idyl, in 
 which the simple english life and the 
 simple english landscape ar touched 
 with a softly pathetic lit. It is a distinct 
 conception — absolutely graceful be- 
 365 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 cause absolutely simple — like a soap- 
 bubble or a greek play or a. Rafaelle. 
 There is nothing by the way or out of 
 the way ; nothing which does not lend 
 itself to the progressiv development 
 of the history. If life could record 
 itself as on a, fotografer's glass we kno 
 that this is the record which it would 
 leave ; there is the unambitious exact- 
 ness, the homely sincerity, the inevita- 
 bleness. And yet there is something 
 more, — there is the imagination which 
 realizes the immense pathos of human 
 life, — of life, that is to say, into which 
 no special adventure or misadventure 
 enters, but which simply as life is so 
 fundamentally sad, so intrinsically » 
 tragedy." [Blackwood's. 1180 
 
 DADDY DARWIN'S DOVECOTE, 
 [by Juliana HoRATiA (Gatty) Ewing : 
 Roberts, 1885.] "Prom exaggerations 
 and discords between intention and exe- 
 cution, it is like turning to the perfection 
 of a flower to open Mrs. Ewing's last 
 sketch. ' Daddy Darwin's Dovecote ' is 
 less than ' Jackanapes ' only in that its 
 simpler, homelier theme does not offer 
 quite so full felicity of subject. How 
 well done was ' the setting of a wild 
 graft on an old standard ' is told from the 
 talk of two old gaffers gossiping on a 
 sunny wall. There is the same delitful, 
 suggestiv commentary in homely prov- 
 erb or tender household word as made 
 her earlier story a poem." [Nation.] — 
 "This slit but very pretty little story 
 has about it a delitful breath of rural 
 english life. Jack March is an Edge- 
 worthian hero of probity, industry and 
 thrift, and his progress to prosperity 
 and happiness is quite what mit be 
 deemed the legitimate result of such 
 morality. ThSre is, moreover, a sweeter 
 and purer strain of feeling in his story 
 than is always found in such deductions 
 from utilitarian filosofy." [Ameri. 1181 
 
 DAISY AND THE EARL [by Con- 
 stance Howell : Tinsley, 1877.'] " is a 
 pretty story, which leaves a distinct and 
 pleasing impression. Daisy is a very 
 fresh, unsoflsticated country girl, of 
 gentle birth; the Earl a somewhat blase 
 young man. She falls in love with him, 
 and lets out her secret in the most -art- 
 less way possible, never fancying for a 
 moment but that he returns her affec- 
 tion. The scene of this disclosure, the 
 Earl's surprise, concealed by him al- 
 most instantaneously under a well- 
 assumed appearance of interest, but 
 not quite enuf to deceive the girl, her 
 shame and grief and courageous asser- 
 tion of her dignity, — all this is very 
 prettily told. We recommend the reade;- 
 to folio the story to its close. He will 
 not think the time misspent." [Specta- 
 tor. 1182 
 
 DAISY CHAIN (The), [by C. M,. 
 Yonge: J. W. Parker, 1857.] "To 
 young ladies generally, whose sunny 
 ringlets confess to teens, perhaps even to 
 those presumably young ladies who hav 
 ceased to count birthdays, the ' Heir 
 of Redclyffe' and other equally nice 
 and pretty tho somewhat lengthy stories 
 which hav been floing from the same 
 facile and agreeable pen ar treasures of 
 harmless intellectual recreation. We 
 hav heard of a young lady who is in the 
 habit of perusing that bepraised tale 
 continuously and perennially, reading 
 it over and over again as often as she 
 arrives at the last sentence. ' The Daisy 
 Chain ' is more for the delit of tliat ' epi- 
 demic sect ' of enthusiastic but severe 
 young devotes, who are addicted to the 
 cultivation of pastoral theology, with the 
 sister sciences of gothic architecture and 
 mediaeval upholstery.'" [Leader. 1183 
 
 D.AMOCLES [by Ma. Veley : Smith, 
 1882.] "is a story interesting, even 
 fascinating, from first to last, — unique 
 
 366 
 
BKITISH NOVELS. 
 
 and picturesque in conception and exe- 
 cution, clever all throu, and often power- 
 ful ; but difficult to criticise fairly, with- 
 out greatly impairing the dramatic effect 
 of the first-half of the book to those 
 who ar reading it. They, however, 
 must accept this warning, if they wish 
 to enjoy it thoroly, and take our ver- 
 dict as sufficient, without reading fur- 
 ther, that it is a story which richly 
 repays the trouble of the reader. The 
 style is simple, forcible, and refined, 
 
 and the english perfect However, 
 
 the reader of tliis notice must not sup- 
 pose that the story is all sad. The con- 
 versations ar lively and most amusing, 
 tlie minor characters cheerful, and their 
 little individualities lafable ; but the 
 humorous passages depend too much on 
 tlie context for quotation. The de- 
 scriptions of scenery, and the few words 
 here and there which giv reality to 
 shades of color and to landscape, ar 
 delicate. Altogether, ' Damocles ' is a 
 llelltfuj book, and we may confidently 
 affirm that not only did the sword never 
 fall, but that the fear of it passed out of 
 JRachel's busy lifeJeaving only a shade of 
 -sadness behind." '[Spectator. 1184 
 DANIEL ©ERONDA [by "G: 
 :Eliot" i. e., M.. A.. (Evans) Cross: 
 Blackwood, 187G.] " is an sesthetically 
 melancholy story. One groes sober over 
 it. It has few stained windoes throu 
 which strays the lit of humor and geni- 
 ality. It has a gloomy interior, sugges- 
 tiv of solemnity and gloom. It offers us 
 no lafter, few cakes and ale ; and, in this 
 deficiency, it fails as a picture of hi eng- 
 lish life. In point of characterization, it 
 is far beyond comparison. Deronda him- 
 self, if not quite true to nature, is abso- 
 lutely unique. The influence of the sus- 
 picion that he nurses hebrew blood in his 
 veins, casts its sombre shado over his 
 whole life. We see it in the habits of his 
 
 daily walk, in his taste and tendencies ; 
 and it has its most conspicuous manifes- 
 tations in the memorable intervues witli 
 his mother. The sweet tenderness of 
 his nature attracts us, while his sombre 
 mien and manner repel. At his introduc- 
 tion, one likes him. His treatment of the 
 wilful Gwendolen, on their first meeting, 
 is simply admirable, — cool, gentlemanly, 
 earnest, yet reserved. We pass on to 
 Gwendolen's home life; to its hypocrisy, 
 to its pretensions, its strivings between 
 fashionable exigencies and stern neces- 
 sity. We get a glinips of this rash 
 young girl's nature in her flirtation with 
 Reginald ; and the idiosyncrasies of Mr. 
 and Mrs. Gascoigne and thSir dauter 
 stand out in clear relief in the compli- 
 cations which result from this callo 
 affectional entanglement. The other 
 members of Gwendolen's household ap- 
 peal to us with no special force. She is 
 queen among them, — nay, a tyrant; 
 and, loving her mother witli all the 
 force of her strong nature, sets up her 
 proud self, always icy and immovable, 
 toward her. [Boston " Literary World."] 
 " Wliat novels 6t to be,' she declared, 
 ' is something you can turn to for 
 pleasure and amusement — to forget 
 one's troubles, and to relax one alto- 
 gether. Something like dear Miss Aus- 
 ten's which one can read when one 
 has a, headache, and which make one 
 laf. I'm sure I love Miss Bates, and 
 Mrs. Elton, and Mr. Collins, and all 
 those dear, ridiculous people. It's a 
 perfect delit to get among such old 
 friends. But as for ' DANIEL DE- 
 ROND.V,' it's as dull as a sermon, and 
 50 times more difficult to understand. 
 And I believe everyone agrees with me 
 in their secret souls, only they dare 
 not say so in this intense age. Call 
 that a novel ! I don't think myself 
 stupid, but I declare I've read a whole 
 
 367 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 page without the words conveying a 
 
 single i^limmering of an idea Well, I 
 
 don't quarrel with people writing filosof- 
 ioal, or nietafysical, or any other sort of 
 learned treatises ; make them as deep 
 as you like, and let learned people read 
 them; but don't call them novels, 
 and delude me into taking them up. 
 Now her early ones, I grant you, ar 
 novels — simple and full of human in- 
 terest. I allow the genius in Adam 
 Bede, and Mill on the Floss, and Silas 
 Marner, but since she turned intense, 
 I beg not to be forced to read any 
 more of her books." [Character in 
 novel by Mrs. H. Martin. 1185 
 
 DARK COLLEEN (The) =No. 668. 
 
 DARK AND FAIR, See "One of 
 Us." 
 
 DAUGHTER OF FIFE (A) [by 
 Amelia Edith (Huddleston) Barr : 
 1886.] "is sweet and wholesom, and 
 has a kind of virile energy and crispness 
 which is very attractiv. The scene 
 opens at the fishing hamlet of Pitten- 
 loch, the tiniest of towns, a place 
 almost unapproachable except by the 
 sea. These fisher-folk had characters 
 which had been molded by their sur- 
 roundings, and wer intensely religious, 
 holding to the belief, ways, and modes 
 
 of speech of their ancestors Not the 
 
 least merit of this pure, uplifting, and 
 charming story is the old fashioned 
 love, the simple, honest wooing and 
 winning, without the analysis and self- 
 questioning of so many modern novels. 
 Mrs. Barr's style is clear and strong; 
 her literary workmanship that of an 
 artist; her spirit, sentiment, teaching, 
 sound and sweet ; she has the real 
 staying power, and knoes what to say 
 and what to leave unsaid. Given all 
 tliese qualities, and a unique scene 
 witli individuality of characters, we 
 hav an uncommonly picturesque and 
 
 admirable novel." [Boston " Literary 
 World." 1186 
 
 DAUGHTER OF IIETH (A), [by 
 W: Black; I860.] "There ar two 
 specialties in Mr. Black's writings for 
 which we must always be grateful. The 
 first is a strain of true chivalrie feeling 
 towards women and tlieir relations with 
 men, and the second is the great beauty 
 of some of his descriptions of scenery. 
 In his best works, such as the ' Daughter 
 of Heth,' this tender feeling for women 
 is very noticeable ; and the account of 
 the refining influence of Coquette, the 
 heroin, upon the disorderly household 
 and ruf children of the Scotch rector, 
 is most cleverly and even pathetically 
 painted. Indeed, this is by far the 
 finest of Mr. Black's works, and the 
 only one, in our opinion, which can be 
 thoroly praised as a whole. [Spec- 
 tator. 1187 
 DAUGHTER OF THE GODS (A) 
 [by J.. Stanley: Hurst, 1886.] "is 
 very pretty. Tliat is a description which 
 specially suits the easy-floing, love- 
 making story, in which the author is 
 disposed on the whole to take cheerful 
 vues of life, or at any rate to make nice 
 people happy forever afterwards. The 
 divinely tall and fair young lady is one 
 Verena, who falls into the clutches of a 
 villain at the age of 16, and subse- 
 quently meets an ideally perfect middle- 
 aged man, whose love is proof against 
 every strain, and whose confidence in 
 Verena is finally rewarded. The dauter 
 of the gods endures niu'Sh sorro, and 
 all throu the story tli^re ar stern black- 
 bearded kings, and one or two sharp- 
 tunged queens, waiting to' see her die. 
 Amongst other good points in the book 
 tliere ar many clever little feminin 
 touches which make the female char- 
 acters stand out and liv. The lieroin's 
 spiteful friend Kate, who ensnares her 
 
 368 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 future liusband on the Underground 
 Railway, is a capital sketch." [Athe- 
 naeum. • 1188 
 
 DAUGHTER OF THE PEOPLE 
 (A) [by Georgiana Marion (Craik) 
 May: Harper, 1887.] "is a pretty and 
 healthful story, in which the dauter of 
 the people nobly givs up the young 
 artist who is nobly willing to marry her, 
 while in the end another noble young 
 lady comes into her kingdom. Not the 
 least excellent point in the story is the 
 evident fact that, fine as was the soul of 
 the dauter of the people, it was a great 
 deal better and wiser that the mesalliance 
 did not take place. The climax of many 
 stories on the plan of ' Tliat Lass o' 
 Lowrie's ' is romantic and effectiv, but 
 in life any mesalliance is to be regretted, 
 and Mrs. May in her story has tried to 
 be just to both sides of the question." 
 [Critic. 1189 
 
 DAVID ARMSTRONG. \_Blackwood, 
 1880.] " The most striking character 
 in the book is that of the hero. Whether 
 he is a study from life or not, we do not 
 pretend to say, but, at all events, he 
 seems to be a study from human nature ; 
 tho he may never hav existed, yet th^re 
 is no reason that he mit not hav done 
 so. The genius in humble life has been 
 frequently represented in fiction, but 
 we think he has never been treated more 
 satisfactorily than in the present instance. 
 The hero is no ethereal being, with hec- 
 tic cheeks and soul too big or brain too 
 busy for the body which it wears out ; 
 he is, on the contrary, a giant in body 
 as in mind, tall, handsom, and strong. 
 Brave, tender-hearted, honest, clever, 
 never appearing in the faintest degree 
 conscious of his superiority to other 
 men, he goes strait on his way, invent- 
 ing and working at models in the inter- 
 vals of his regular occupation, not out 
 of vanity, or — uritil the last — out of 
 
 any very definit desire to benefit his 
 fello men, but merely becaus, when an 
 idea comes to him and takes hold of 
 him, he can not help trying to carry it 
 
 out But it is not only as an inventor 
 
 that David Armstrong is portrayed. We 
 ar shown his strong, earnest, simple, 
 impressionable nature going Ihrou vari- 
 ous fases of life, and gradually molded 
 
 by its trials and temptations All the 
 
 scenes and characters ar taken from the 
 poor, and giv us the impression of being 
 drawn by one who is not only a genuin 
 student of human nature, but also so 
 sympathetic with humanity as to appre- 
 ciate the ' good which is to be found 
 everywhere in it. Consequently, we 
 hav no picture of utterly repulsiv vice 
 and villainy; and even the evil Peter 
 Dobson has a redeeming touch of love 
 for his idiot son. The characters ar 
 natural and well-drawn, especially the 
 stern, yet loving, old mother, and the 
 quiet, self-contained, unselfish Hannah 
 Watson, with her gray life of hopeless 
 love, and unceasing labor for others." 
 [Spectator. 1190 
 
 DAVID, COPPERFIELD [by 0: 
 Dickens : 1850.] " is the most finished 
 and natural of his works ; it is more than 
 good. The boyhood of the hero ; the 
 scene in the church ; the death of his 
 mother ; the story of Peggotty — poor 
 Little Em'ly; that touching love, so 
 true, so perfect, and so delicate and pure, 
 which the ruf old fisherman has for his 
 lost niece, cannot be surpassed. The 
 mello strength and matured vigor of 
 style, the modest ingenuousness of Cop- 
 perfield's relation of his progress in lit- 
 erature, supposed truthfully to portray 
 Dickens' career; the cliild-wife, her 
 death, and David's final love for Agnes; 
 all rush upon our memory, and put for- 
 ward their claims to be admired. The 
 original characters ar all good, and the 
 
 369 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 family of Micawber form a group as 
 original aa was ever drawn by Mr. 
 Dickens. The dark and weird character 
 of Rosa Dartle, and the revolting one of 
 Uriah Heep, ar the only painful ones 
 in tlie book. But they ar full of fine 
 touches of nature, which also illumin 
 the dark drawing of the Murdstone." 
 [London Review. 1191 
 
 DAVID ELGINBROD. [by G: 
 MacDonald : Hurst, 1863, — Boston, 
 Loring, 1869.] " D : Elginbrod is a 
 Scotch peasant, such a one as Burns 
 would hav gloried in, dignified, self- 
 respectful, expressing himself always 
 with force and vigor, and embodying a 
 deep sentiment of piety in words which 
 speak the simple needs and aspirations 
 of his heart. The peculiarity of manner, 
 and the veneration of good blood and 
 ancient lineage inherent in the Scottish 
 breast, ar made auxiliary to the devel- 
 opment of this character, which is 
 stamped, as it wer, with the impress of 
 reality by the use of appropriate dialect. 
 The old man's dauter is an exquisit 
 sketch, inheriting the hier aspirations 
 and deeper feelings which lay at the 
 base of David's own nature, delicately 
 reserved and self-abnegatory, but strong 
 in her devotion to principle ; a ministering 
 angel to her suffering friend, and worthy 
 of the love which crowns her happiness 
 at last." [Round Table. 1192 
 
 DAYS OF MY LIFE. [by Ma. 
 Oliphant (Wilson) Oliphant : Hurst, 
 1857.] " Hester Southcote is the dauter 
 of a country gentleman ; she is intro- 
 duced walking home, when 2 strangers 
 meet her. One of them is Edgar South- 
 cote, her cousin, long supposed to be 
 dead, who is coming to claim his patri- 
 mony and disinherit her. Expelled, 
 with her father, from the Cottiswoode 
 estate — on which he had long lived — 
 she becomes the companion of his 
 
 morose retirement. He is a reserved, 
 harsh man, who has sapped every source 
 of human felicity, and whose cynical 
 pride is an hereditary taint in the char- 
 acter of Hester. After a laps of some 
 years, proposals of marriage reach her 
 from her cousin, and she rejects them, 
 fancying they hav been offered in pity. 
 Hester enters into society, and meets 
 Harry Edgar, a, gentleman after her 
 kind, to whom her affections ar speed- 
 ily surrendered, and who, ere long, is a, 
 suitor at her father's house. Of course, 
 he is no other than the rejected cousin 
 under an assumed name — but tho to 
 the reader the artifice is, from the first, 
 transparent, Hester is deceived, and the 
 improbability is not, perhaps, too striking 
 for a novel. The lady becomes Edgar's 
 bride. Upon this event reposes the 
 entire structure of the story. Hester, 
 after a brief honeymoon, is brot to her 
 future home — the Hall of Cottiswoode 
 — and discovers the deceit which has 
 been practised upon her. Upbraidings 
 folio. Hester, poisoned by her inherited 
 pride, refuses to liv in a home to which 
 she has been lured; but, after many 
 wretched days, returns to her husband 
 with an heir to Cottiswoode. Such is 
 the story. The author writes with her 
 usual fine capacity for the picturesque, 
 her preference for simplicity, her knol- 
 edge of certain types of character, and 
 her invariable good sense, good feeling, 
 and good taste. No part of the narrativ 
 is uninteresting, and the reader is not 
 bewildered by boundless contiguities of 
 digression." [Athenaeum. 1193 
 
 DEAD SECRET (The) = No. 671. 
 
 DEAN AND HIS DAUGHTER, [by 
 A. C. Phillips : Ward ^ Downey, 
 1887.] " The heroin (who tells her 
 story) is not without good points. 
 Even for the reader she possesses a cer- 
 tain indefinable attraction ; while a round 
 
 370 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 half dozen or bo of ' gilded youth ' of 
 different types ar completely ' boled 
 over ' by her. It is felt that she is 
 beautiful, but thSre is not a syllable of 
 description concerning her appearance. 
 The poor creature has a singularly hard 
 time of it on the whole ; but the easy- 
 going filosofy which carries her along is 
 greatly in her favor. A friend and com- 
 panion, one Ethel Fortescue, encourages 
 her to,a still closer walk with joy, and a 
 calmer, if not more heavenly, frame. 
 The said Ethel is a rather battered woman 
 of the world and of a racy conversation 
 
 and habit But she makes an excellent 
 
 friend in an emergency, and sticks to 
 Miriam bravely through good report 
 and ill." [Athenaeum. 1194: 
 
 DEAR LADY DISDAIN, [by Justin 
 MoCakthy : Grant ^ Co., 1875.] " The 
 situation is cleverly devised, and we 
 must confess that, having ourselves gone 
 very near to falling in love with Lady 
 Disdain, we may perhaps take a pre- 
 judiced vue of the way in which she 
 
 acts towards her lover The book is 
 
 never dull ; the incidents ar well woven 
 into the story ; and, tho the plot is not 
 intricate, the interest is excellently kept 
 up, and the book is brit and healthful 
 throuout." [Athenaeum.] —"Mr. Justin 
 McCarthy has not always succeeded in 
 writing the best novels in the world, 
 but his last one — ' Dear Lady Disdain '— 
 is certainly deserving of commendation. 
 The heroin, whose nickname givs the 
 title to the book, is an attractiv creature, 
 as honest as possible, with a sort of 
 manly generosity and heartiness which 
 distinguish her from most heroins, and 
 bring her close to some real human be- 
 ings. The name. Lady Disdain, does 
 not suit her over well, for, so far from 
 being disdainful, she has a very pleasing 
 comradsliip with every one she meets. 
 The men ar reasonably well drawn ; the 
 
 successful lover is somewhat vague and 
 misty, but the aspiring barber. Natty 
 Cramp, and the lover of old china, 
 Ronald Vidal, ar well set before the 
 reader — the former especially. Throu- 
 out, Mr. McCarthy has shon his earnest 
 desire to improve, and his knoledge of 
 the right method by holding his hand 
 and not overdoing either the unattractiv 
 or the ridiculous side of what he has un- 
 dertaken to describe. In what he has 
 written about this country this discretion 
 is very noticeable, and he has avoided 
 the easy temptation to make too much 
 of its lack of fascination and rawness. 
 Even Natty Cramp, whom many story- 
 writers would hav blackened with 
 obloquy, is treated with great fairness, 
 and there is something very pleasing in 
 the lack of exaggeration in describing 
 the woman's -rits advocate — Miss Sibyl 
 Jansen." [Nation. 1195 
 
 DEEMSTER (The) = No. 672. 
 
 DEERBROOK. , " I hav recorded a 
 list of the novels that I deem to hav 
 been of use to me in tlie formation of 
 character They ar 'Robinson Cru- 
 soe,' ' Helen,' ' DEERBROOK,' by Miss 
 Martineau, 'Jane Eyre,' ' Coningsby,' 
 'The Heir of Redclyffe,' 'The Wide, 
 Wide World,' 'Pride and Prejudice,' 
 Dickens' ' Christmas Carol,' and ' Peu- 
 dennis,' or any other of Thackeray you 
 choose." [ E : Everett Hale. 119G 
 
 DELICATE GROUND [N.Y.], See 
 " Ordeal for Wives." 
 
 DELICIA [by Beatrice May Butt : 
 Holt, 1879.] "is charming; lo in tone 
 and careful in construction, it describes 
 a little corner of the world and a few 
 people with uncommon freshness and 
 originality. The dull London square 
 wh^re the action passes is a piece of 
 reality, and the lives led thSre, with their 
 blunders, retrievable and irretrievable, 
 their weakness and strength, their hopes 
 
 371 
 
BRITISH NO\^■:LS. 
 
 HISTORY OF DAYID flUIE^K, 
 (The) [by M.. A.. (AitNOLD) Ward: 
 Macmillan d; Co., 1892.] "is an 
 account of the life of a man from Ijoyhoocl 
 to maturity. David is iutroduced to us as 
 a child in the north of England. The 
 scene is afterward changed to JIanchester, 
 where it remains, except during an ex- 
 pedition to Paris, til the end . . . 'David 
 Grieve' is partly a religious book : it 
 fdlloes David throu the changes in his be- 
 lief, as wel as throu his temporal fortunes. 
 Here it is that Jlrs. AVard shos her greatest 
 power; just as the religious thot in 'Robert 
 Elsmere" is what gave it its grfiat interest. 
 But David's th6ts and aspirations wil not 
 interest the reader as Robert Elsniere's 
 did. ThSre is throudut a sense that, tho 
 you hav never read just this before, you 
 hav read in other books something very 
 like it. It maintains the interest throudilt 
 better than 'Robert Elsmere;' It is more 
 natural ; and its characters ar, perhaps, 
 more real. But it does not appeal, as 
 'Robert Elsmere' did, to everyone who lias 
 thot over his religious belief, and doubted 
 and believed and doubted again." [ Com- 
 monwealth. ] — "All who hav read "David 
 Grieve" with intelligent thotfulness can not 
 fail to agree that the impression it leaves 
 is one of depressing disappointment. 
 While the workmanship and what might 
 be called the spiritual texture of the book 
 ar just as fine as in 'Robert Elsmere', the 
 touch even more firm and sure, and cer- 
 tain portions of it far more brilliant than 
 anything to be found in the latter, we can 
 hardly as a whole look upon it as much 
 better than a failure. ... It is all interest- 
 ing and fascinating from the first, and 
 the author brings enthusiasm to her 
 
 task too, ytt, to quote her words, it 
 somehow "all dies into spaye, like the 
 flaming corona of the sun," and leaves no 
 mark or lasting effect of any kind behind 
 it. Tho most brilliant portion of the book 
 is beyond question the Paris episode, and 
 no one with even the spark of an artist in 
 his or her composition can fail to be de- 
 lited with the general treatment of it all. 
 The glimpses given here and thCre of 
 Paris, of its light and color and gaycty and 
 joyousness and general charm, ar admir- 
 able, and giv one a better picture of the 
 grfiat and wonderful city than pages of 
 description. True, the general situation, 
 the relation of David to Elsie, is bad enuf, 
 quite as much so as in the better French 
 novels, but with what exquisit taste and 
 dehca^y and refinement it is all handled ! 
 After this, however, the story seems to 
 flatten out. We do not think it necessary 
 that David should repent those few weeks 
 in Paris in saccloth and ashes all the rest of 
 his life. They ner to be deplored of course, 
 as every fall from perfect purity and recti- 
 tude is to be deplored, — diir hearts ar 
 somehow lull of sorro for liim, — but we 
 can not think that he committed an oftense 
 past all pardon. For on his part, at least, 
 it was not a surrender to a mere attraction 
 of the senses ; his heart was in it, he was 
 not infringing on the rights of any one 
 else, and moreover he was not only will- 
 ing but anxious to marry and devote his 
 life to the woman, if she had consented. 
 But for his marriage with a woman so 
 inferior as Lucy, whom moreover he did 
 not lo\e, (and surely a loveless marriage 
 is not the least immoral relation in the 
 world) th(3re seems no excuse and no rea- 
 son whatever.'" [ "Stuart Sterne." 1192 k 
 
 370 h 
 
- ■, J ( 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 and failures, ar genuin. Miss Butt is 
 a keen but gentle observer of human 
 nature, and tlie pauses and levels in her 
 plot ar true to life. Betty Stevens is a 
 very attractiv and very original crea- 
 ture, whose future rather wc-s on the 
 reader, and Delicia, with her gentle 
 weakness, rectitude, and ingrain refine- 
 ment, is delitful." [Nation.] — It "is 
 remarkable for its delicate truth- 
 fulness, its moderation and simplicity, 
 its occasional wit, naif and irresisti- 
 ble, and thoroly refined, also for a 
 certain quaint but hi-bred plainness of 
 manner, a blending of perfect polish 
 
 with utter absence of parade The 
 
 characters ar very deftly balanced and 
 discriminated, their destinies most nat- 
 urally intertwined. There is not a 
 melodramatic situation in the whole 
 book, hardly, one would say, a. dramatic 
 one, until it is remembered how seldom 
 the retiring author speaks in her on 
 person, how entirely and with what en- 
 tire clearness the tale is told by the 
 dramatis personse." [Atlantic. 1197 
 DENXIS UOXNE [by Ansie 
 (Thomas) Codlip : Tinsley, 1864.] "is 
 a cheerful, entertaining story, dealing 
 with more tangible matters than the dis- 
 tresses of extreme refinement. The 
 writer has evidently a strong sense of 
 humor, and enjoys unmasking the weak- 
 ness of some of our conventional bat- 
 teries, and exhibiting the mean compound 
 of spite and petty jealousies, which is 
 often their chief ammunition. The 
 heroin, a beautiful, scheming adven- 
 turess, who fancies herself too poor to 
 carry a co:iscience or a heart, contrives 
 to entrap and marry a peer by a method 
 as ingenious as it is novel. Her char- 
 acter is well drawn throuout ; but even 
 better is that of Jlrs. Donne, her rival 
 in beauty and coquetry, who outrages 
 the moral sense of a cathedral town by 
 
 37 
 
 appearing with the new bishop in her 
 train, and entirely subjugates, for the 
 time, the bishop's chaplain, thereby 
 causing the rupture of his engagement 
 to a harmless young lady, very respect- 
 able, but wholly uninteresting, and suf- 
 fering sadly from comparison with the 
 radiant lady who could giv appreciativ 
 sympathy and words which fire am- 
 bition, instead of flat raatter-of-fact 
 congratulations. The real heroin is Ste- 
 phanie Fordyce, as honest and true- 
 hearted a damsel as the others ar false 
 and scheming, and who is given, with 
 true poetical justice, to the chaplain 
 aforesaid — the only man in the book 
 who deservs her." [Westminster Re- 
 view. 1198 
 
 DERRICK VAUGHAN, NOVELIST 
 [by "Edna Lyall," i. e., Ada Ellen 
 Ba,j\y: Appleton, 1889.] " like so many 
 heroes of women novelists, is too near 
 perfection. However, Derrick's really 
 noble traits and his renunciation of self 
 and of the girl he loved, from a sense of 
 duty to his disreputable old father, com- 
 mand both pity and admiration. Freda 
 Merrifield, the girl, does not for a long 
 time comprehend the position, and un- 
 derrates him, but discovers her mistake 
 before it is too late, and the brave, loyal, 
 patient, long-sufiering Derrick is re- 
 warded in the end. Not the least inter- 
 esting portions of the story ar those 
 where the author reveals something of 
 her personality in Derrick's aspirations 
 and trials in writing his novels." [Boston 
 ' ' Literary World. " 1199 
 
 DESPER.ATE REMEDIES, [by T : 
 Hardy : [lolt, 1874.] " It is rit to say 
 to such readers of ours as formed hopes 
 of Mr. Hardy's work from ' A Pair of 
 Blue Eyes,' that this is hardly wortli 
 their reading. The heroin has the charm 
 of girlish naturalness which he contrives 
 to impart to all his women, and thfire ar 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 strong impressions of cliaraoter in other 
 persons of tlie story. But they ar not 
 mastered by his imagination; they feebly 
 change into something else, at times; 
 and the plot is a wearisom confusion of 
 motivs and purposes, in wliich thfire is 
 little color or deflnitness or probability." 
 [Atlantic. 1200 
 
 DIANA OF THE CROSSWAYS [by 
 G : Meredith : Harper, 1885.] "easily 
 takes the first place among Mr. Mere- 
 dith's clever, subtle, and often baffling 
 novels, from the fascination of its cen- 
 tral figure and extraordinary vitality and 
 movement of the whole story. The 
 author has chosen a theme which stirs 
 alike sympathy and curiosity. His her- 
 oin is no graceful abstraction labeled 
 with all feminin graces and virtues, but 
 a real woman whose daily life, crying 
 necessities, problems, loves, friendships, 
 triumfs, and humiliations ar clearly re- 
 vealed to us : not only by the skill of 
 the romancer, but from our traditions 
 of that dazzling, charming dauter of 
 Sheridan's knon to all the world as Caro- 
 line Norton, and who is the prototype 
 of Diana Warwick. The story shoes 
 the career of a woman of unusual wit, 
 beauty, and fascination married to an 
 uncongenial husband, who, soon discov- 
 ering that he commanded neither the 
 affection nor respect of his wife, grew 
 antagonistic, then jealous, and finding 
 suspicious circumstances attending her 
 intimacy with a man of hi rank and po- 
 sition sued for a. divorce. He did not 
 prove his case, and Diana Warwick re- 
 mained legally a wife, altho separated 
 from her husband. She supported her- 
 self by her pen, kept up a charming and 
 costly little house, and drew about her a 
 choice and brilliant coterie of friends. 
 Diana is a character who exactly suits 
 Mr. Meredith's powers. She is a true 
 woman, exuberant, incoherent, unequal; 
 
 she perpetually utters epigrams, gets off 
 witticisms which convulse her hearers, 
 and altho her epigrams ar labored 
 and her wit tortuous, we see the dimple 
 about her charming lips and the lit in her 
 irish eyes, and accept the sky-rockets as 
 a rich illumination." [American.] — 
 " ThSre ar many who so frankly re- 
 gard Mr. Meredith's novels as ' told by an 
 idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying 
 nothing,' that total extinction of fiction 
 would seem to them preferable to a re- 
 construction in harmony with his theories. 
 On the other hand, thfire are some who 
 love him, laud him as ' one of the 
 breed of Shakspere and Moli^re ' and in 
 whose breasts the brutal insensibility of 
 tlie larger faction rouses the angriest 
 passions. It is a case wh^re the security 
 of the middle way tempts one to brave 
 its imputed ignominy. Dispassionate 
 judgment suggests that few authors hav 
 Mr. Meredith's store of wise, far-reach- 
 ing ideas, and that for expressing them 
 obscurely he is beyond compare. Then 
 his w^ork cannot be separated from an 
 obtrusiv personality. By a wanton 
 interpolation of venom in the narrativ, 
 thfire is ever present a sour, malicious 
 being who blits delicate fancy and 
 poisons the tip of the shaft flying strait 
 to the core of existence. A perpetual 
 display of ill temper is not excused even 
 by his honest, scathing contempt for 
 sham virtue, sham decency, and for all 
 the shuffling hypocrisies which the world 
 heaps into a rampart of defense against 
 the shock to self-love consequent on 
 looking fairly at the facts of life and the 
 mainsprings of action." [Nation.] — 
 " It is full of mannerisms, ruf and 
 unshaped in parts, tedious and even dull 
 in others, but throu this outlying crust 
 of superwordiness gleam here and thSre 
 the facets of one of nature's jewels. 
 Diana is truly a fascinating creature, 
 
 ;7.3 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 whom we see in side-lits, as it wer, 
 never full-face ; and she is palpitating 
 with life, overfloing with witty sayings, 
 a centre of resplendent womanhood. " 
 [Boston " Literary World." 1201 
 
 DICK CHICHESTER, [by E. M. 
 RoACu : Arrowsmith, 1890.] The 
 scene "is a type of that rural England 
 of which Barsetshire is the most famous 
 example, and out of its politics and so- 
 ciety and love-making a very pleasant tho 
 somewhat placid story has been evolved. 
 The presence of but one villain would 
 have lent animation to the plot, for as it 
 stands the only obstacles in the way of 
 the happiness of the principal characters 
 ar put there by themselves." [Athe- 
 naeum. 1202 
 
 DICK NETHERBY [by Lucy Bethia 
 (CoLQUHonN) Walford: Holt, 1882.] 
 " is a plain story of temptation, the yield- 
 ing, the punishment, and the final struggle 
 into a new life of the hero, a humble 
 
 country lad The side figures ar 
 
 drawn with that same lit, accurate touch 
 which gave us Lord SufFrenden in ' Mr. 
 Smith'; and in 'Troublesome Daugh- 
 ters ' Marjorie, the britest, truest por- 
 trait of a girl of the period which has 
 ever been painted." [Nation. 1203 
 
 DICK'S WANDERINGS, [by Jdlian 
 SinKGis : Houghton, 1882.] "If this 
 open-hearted young hero, Dick Hartland, 
 is too typically british to be knon to us 
 precisely as he is fotograf ed, — with his 
 obsequious tenants, and his ambition to 
 educate a constituency — he is true enuf 
 after a particularly charming fashion, to 
 world-wide human nature, to arouse 
 much sympathy, and to waken an 
 especial interest. The history of Dick's 
 boyhood days is related at the outset, 
 with sufficient minuteness to sho him 
 then the father of the man. An affec- 
 tionate, quick-witted, self-reliant young 
 fello, he is generous to a fault, and pure- 
 
 minded as a woman. He groes, studios, 
 and investigates unhurriedly, and finally 
 falls in love with a pretty american girl. 
 A series of small misunderstandings 
 keep the lovers apart for many uncomfort- 
 able months ; but fiite is kind at last, and 
 a roseate glo of happiness illumins the 
 final pages of the book, to everybody's 
 satisfaction.'' [Cali:^rnian. 1204 
 
 DINGY HOUSE AT KENSING- 
 TON (The). ICassell, 1881.] "The 
 heroin is a comely, brit, affectionate, 
 rather commonplace girl, whom the 
 writer introduces with the remark that 
 ' her name was Polly, and her nose 
 turned up.' Iler career is complicated 
 betiyeen the attentions of two lovers, 
 and the impracticable selfishness of a 
 
 meagre and miserly father Robert is 
 
 an admirable study of the honest, limited, 
 commonplace, obtuse, warm-hearted 
 youth, whose ambition never looks 
 beyond a partnership in ' the firm,' and 
 whose ideas of love and marriage ar of 
 the strictly domestic, humdrum, and 
 unromantic order. He is manifestly 
 unfitted to do justice to Polly's require- 
 ments, and thfire is much good comedy 
 in the description of their relations ; and 
 viflien it finally appears that the marriage 
 is fated to take place, we ar distressed 
 on his account scarcely less than on hers. 
 The situation here is so sympathetically 
 felt by the author that she makes the 
 reader share her feeling; and all our 
 respect for Robert's moral character, and 
 our liking for his natural goodness do not 
 prevent us from protesting with Polly 
 against the inevitable woollen comforter 
 which he persists in wearing round his 
 neck, or from understanding how it was 
 that ' his cheery voice always carried 
 dismay to Polly's heart.' Richard 
 Brandford, the other hero, tho well 
 introduced and described, does not im- 
 press us nearly so much, in spite of his 
 
 374 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 aristocratic qualities. We ar told that 
 he is reserved, clever, handsom, and 
 iraperturbahle ; but we ar nowhere told 
 that he does anything worth a man's 
 doing or a woman's loving. This, of 
 course, does not prevent Polly's loving 
 him ; and we ar bound to say that the 
 incident is probable enuf, and further, 
 that we accept it wi^h the better grace, 
 inasmuch as it affords opportunity for 
 the development of some very charm- 
 ing traits in Polly herself. Ricliard 
 TJrandford ' never said a word that her 
 heart could find food in remembering; 
 but in refusing to let her conquer him, 
 he conquered her.'" [Spectator. 1205 
 DISHONORED, [by " Theo. Gift," 
 i. e., Dora Henrietta (Havers) Boulger : 
 Hurst, 1890.] "The subject— the 
 mental agony suffered by a peculiarly 
 noble-minded girl on discovering that 
 th^re is a stain upon her birth — is fruit- 
 ful of pathos, and if the writer shoed 
 as much power in developing a story 
 as in imagining individual scenes and 
 In sketching characters, Theo. Gift's 
 charming book mit hav secured a more 
 than efemeral success. The portrait of 
 the heroin is both winsom and vivid, 
 and there ar some scenes — especially 
 the one whSre she is compelled to listen 
 to the pleadings of Mrs. Rice on behalf 
 of her love-stricken son — which blend 
 pathos with humor so ably that they 
 mit pass for the work of a more am- 
 bitious novelist than we take Theo. Gift 
 to be. The descriptions of Stoneliam — 
 the hily self-respecting Stonehamites 
 — and especially of the good Noncon- 
 formist folk who attend the chapel to 
 admire, in an intensly critical spirit, the 
 Eev. John Rice's sermons, would hav 
 been more remarkable than they ar 
 had they preceded and not foUoed 
 Mrs. Oliphant's marvelous descriptions 
 of the Nonconformist world in ' Salem 
 
 Chapel ' Old Mr. Benison, the father 
 
 of the heroin, who underneatli his rug- 
 gedness of manner hides a nature so 
 loving that his life is wasted in the for- 
 lorn hope of the return of the wife who 
 has betrayed him, is sketched in a few 
 pages with that easy strength which 
 only an entire sympathy with the char- 
 acter depicted can lend to any writer. 
 It, indeed, lifts the story into litera- 
 ture." [Athenseum. 1206 
 
 DISSOLVING VIEWS. [byLENORA 
 Blanche (Alleyne) Lang : Harper, 
 1884.] " The author doubtless had her- 
 self in mind when she makes her heroin 
 say, ' Any book I wrote would inevi- 
 tably be for women. The moment a 
 man took it up he would drop it. I kno 
 a man drops a woman's book as if he 
 had taken up a jelly-fish.' Still, the 
 story is quite worth while as a lively 
 picture of a London season. A good 
 deal of the talk is evidently borroed, 
 not made, and the diversions of the 
 moment — greek plays, cricket, aes- 
 thetic teas, and all the rest, ar well set 
 forth. The heroin is engaged to the 
 wrong man, but marries tlie rit one.'' 
 [Nation. 1207 
 
 DISTURBING ELEMENT (The). 
 [by C. M.. YoNGB : Appleton, 1879.] " A 
 wonder among books ; a tale from Miss 
 Yonge in which saints' days ar hardly 
 mentioned — daily service not at all ; in 
 which there is not even one of those 
 noble beings, compounds of the loftiest 
 birth and the finest sentiments, whose 
 existences find their nutriment in the 
 history of the peerage and ' the ritual 
 year of England's Church'; in which no 
 description of the exquisit anguish en- 
 dured by those distant descendants of 
 noble families who ar obliged to con- 
 taminate their lives by trade rends the 
 soul of American readers. ' The Dis- 
 turbing Element' is a simple, natural 
 
 376 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 story — telling of the home-work of two 
 old ladies who help the lassies of a little 
 seaside town, first to a sense of their 
 ignorant inaccuracy, then to a little 
 careful and thoro work, and to the 
 various mental and moral rectifications 
 which attend on work well done." [Na- 
 tion. 1208 
 
 DITA. [by Margaret Majendie : 
 Blackwood, 1877.J " Dita, or Perdita, is 
 the pet name of the heroin of a rather 
 pretty story. A benevolent bookseller 
 adopts the orfan heiress of a Highland 
 family, disoned throu the treachery of 
 an ambitious uncle. He persuades his 
 mother, from whom he conceals the 
 proof of the child's legitimacy, to coun- 
 tenance the wrong he does to the mem- 
 ory of his brother and the wife he 
 secretly married. Lady Grisel is rather 
 a pathetic character, but the author's 
 tender-heartedness seems to hav pre- 
 vented her working out her original 
 conception, which, at the outset, ap- 
 pears to hav projected a sterner and 
 more tragic figure. As it is, the lady's 
 womanliness overpowers her pride, and 
 what the story gains in pleasantness it 
 loses in grandeur." [Athenaeum. 1209 
 
 DIVIDED [Eemington, 1881.] " is a 
 simple story of every day life, life in 
 good society, amongst refined people in 
 easy circumstances. The heroin is a 
 charming, wayward girl, who loves 
 wh^re her mother thinks she 6t not, and 
 weakly marries a richer man at her 
 mother's bidding. The hero tries to folio 
 a similar course, but fails on the eve of 
 his wedding day, and in less than a year 
 his first love is a wido. From this point 
 a commonplace story would advance 
 towards a commonplace ending, but 
 'Divided' is not a commonplace story. 
 The heroin will not use her liberty as a 
 well regulated heroin mit be expected to 
 do. The girl's character is only begin- 
 
 3-1 
 
 ning to unfold, and, as it is worth the 
 reader's while to study the process for 
 himself, no more need be said about it 
 here. Opinions may differ as to the 
 poetical justice of the conclusion of this 
 story, but it is, at any rate, sufficiently 
 fresh and unhackneyed, and at the same 
 time natural, to make it pleasant read- 
 ing." [Athenaeum. 1210 
 
 DR. HERMIONE. [Blackwood, 
 1890.] " A clever story this, and emi- 
 nently readable. If the author's inten- 
 tion was to sho that feminin aspirations 
 after professional success ar apt to 
 come o grief, ' Dr. Hermione ' is a 
 decided success. Clever, enthusiastic, 
 devoted to her work, and possessed of 
 means which set her above the diflScul- 
 ties that encumber most women in her 
 position, Hermione, it is easy to see, 
 will be a failure as a fysician. She falls 
 in love with a young man who can 
 hardly be deemed good enuf for her. Is 
 it worth while, the reader is disposed to 
 ask, to take such a world of pains to 
 attain an end which is, after all, so 
 willingly abandoned? [Compare 'Dr. 
 Breen's Practice ' (No. 25).] But what- 
 ever we may think of the construction 
 or the meaning of the story, that it is 
 ' readable from cover to cover ' is be- 
 yond a doubt." [Spectator. 1211 
 
 DOCTOR OF BEAUVOIR (The). 
 [by W: Gilbert : Tinsley, 1869. J " Mr. 
 Gilbert has the true secret of getting to 
 the heart of things; it would be difficult 
 to find a life containing fewer incidents 
 than that of the Doctor of Beauvoir, 
 who does not tell us even his name ; and 
 yet he has contrived to make it thoroly 
 interesting. This autobiografy is writ- 
 ten exactly as a parish doctor mit be 
 expected to write, only that the total 
 absence of all pretence and effort and 
 the skill with which the narrativ is knit 
 together betray a practised artist. The 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 Doctor of Beauvoir is also a hero, and, 
 apparently, without being in the least 
 conscious of it. The manly,' uncom- 
 plaining spirit in which he bears his 
 troubles, and the courage with which he 
 makes his modest and useful way in the 
 world, sho qualities of a fine nature, and 
 of one which would hav done well in 
 any walk of life. The background of 
 family affection, and the different mem- 
 bers of the home circle, who, altho only 
 sketches, hav an individual interest for 
 the reader, add to the pleasant elements 
 in the book. The account of the ' poor 
 patients ' is charming, and has the ap- 
 pearance of being perfectly true. The 
 interest of the story is real and substan- 
 tial, and the closing chapter of the Doc- 
 tor's life, when he is left quite alone 
 in the world, is not only touching but 
 cheering. The Doctor will, we think, 
 exercise as good an influence on his 
 readers as he did among his patients and 
 n^bors of Beauvoir." [Athen. 1212 
 DR. THORNE. [by Anthony Trol- 
 LOPE : Chapman, 1858.] "Mr. TroUope 
 is strong and indefatigable, and we ar 
 thankful for the robust, vigorous, and 
 amusing novels he bestoes upon us. He 
 has a real sense of fun, — a thing not 
 common in these days. We can promise 
 a hearty \kf to all who undertake ' Dr. 
 Thorne,' a laf which does good to the 
 lafter, not cynical and cruel, but hearty 
 and sympathetic, and thfire ar so few 
 books now-a-days which make us \ki. 
 Th^re is genuin humor in ' Dr. Thorne,' 
 not strained or ambitiously displayed, 
 but arising from the natural play of the 
 characters, who ar real creatures of 
 human nature, flesh-and-blood, vigor- 
 ously and broadly drawn — they would 
 
 nobody can do without hnn.'" [Athe- 
 naeum. 1213 
 
 DOCTOR WORTLE'S SCHOOL, [by 
 Anthony Trollofe : Chapman, 1881.] 
 "The mystery which shrouds the con- 
 nexion between Mr. and Mrs. Peacocke, 
 which so severely exercises the con- 
 sciences of sundry spinsters, matrons, 
 and clerical gossips, and drives the 
 warm-hearted Dr. Wortle to the verge 
 of lunacy, is revealed at the outset, and 
 the remainder of the book is occupied 
 in describing, with much skill and a 
 good deal of quiet pathos and humor, 
 the effect produced by the discovery, on 
 a number of average, but by no means 
 equal or identical, minds." [Athenasum.] 
 " Mr. TroUope's tale is more than inter- 
 esting, more than ingenious ; it is brac- 
 ing, which is much to say of a story 
 dealing with delicate conjugal relations. 
 Many novelists undertake the deline- 
 ation of vice and its consequences with a 
 sincere desire to make sin hideous ; even 
 Zola has at heart a terrible warning in 
 his ' realism ' ; but he who would hav 
 a garden must not only pull up weeds, 
 but plant flowers. Mr. Trollope has 
 planted flowers, not by depicting the 
 troubles of a man who sins; but by draw- 
 ing a man who sins and does not even 
 rtpent, yet who accepts the conse- 
 quences of his sins with a frankness, 
 manliness, and patience which leaves us 
 intensely impressed with the fact that 
 honesty is — not the best policy — but 
 best, whatever the policy." [ Critic. 1214 
 
 DOCTOR'S FAMILY CThe). [by 
 Ma. Oliphant (Wilson) Oliphant : 
 Blackwood, 1863.] "A little, lithe Aus- 
 tralian fairy, she has seen her silly sister 
 ruined by her lout of a husband, —and 
 
 be likenesses if they wer not types the children groing up savages, and 
 
 Dr. Thorne is the good genius of every- calmly takes them all on her shoulders, 
 body in the book, and is repaid by being brings them to England, and plays in Car- 
 indispensable — whether loved or hated, lingford earthly providence, — keeping 
 
 377 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 the husbanrlin order, ruling the children, 
 doing all which the fretful wife is too 
 helpless to attempt, too silly to thank her 
 for accomplishing. Women hav done all 
 this often enuf in fiction as well as 
 reality, but it has been from lore, or 
 pity, or religious emotion, or some feel- 
 ing which rises in its intensity to the 
 hit of passion. But the speciality of 
 Nettie is that she does all this, not from 
 any of these motivs, but from the im- 
 puls of what seems to her common- 
 sense, and is common sense strengthened 
 and made activ, cool, and sensible, by 
 
 an idea of duty The merit of her 
 
 creation, in an artistic sense, is that slie 
 has placed her heroin in sucli a position, 
 yet made her simply a girl, a natural, 
 warm-hearted, impulsiv being, always 
 alive with humor and incisiv good 
 sense, addicted to clever rapid chatter, 
 and as free from the self-consciousness 
 of virtue as she is from priggishness. 
 .... But Nettie is none of these, only 
 one of those girls whom most men hav 
 met once in life, who add a, manlike 
 efficiency and decision to their feminin 
 acuteness of perception and capacity for 
 enduring love, and yrJ:\o, when once 
 understood, make those to whom that 
 fortunate comprehension is given listen to 
 arguments about woman's want of capac- 
 ity with a smile wliich has in it some 
 tolerant scorn. Who has not seen such 
 a being, girl or woman, with a head as 
 clear as her heart is soft, whose instincts 
 ar as safe guides as other people's expe- 
 rience, whose perception never errs as 
 to character, or as to the road whicli 
 must willingly or unwillingly at last be 
 pursued, who cannot speak vaguely or 
 diffusely if she would, and who is called 
 by weak men satirical because she can- 
 not help being pointed. It is impossible 
 to read the ' Doctor's Family ' with the 
 eager attention enforced by ' Salem 
 
 Chapel,' but very few readers will lay it 
 down without feeling themselves the 
 happier and the stronger for their inti. 
 mate personal acquaintance with Nettie 
 Underwood." [Spectator. 1215 
 
 DOLLY [by F.. [E,.] (Hodgson) 
 Burnett: Phila., Porter, 1877.] "is 
 a story of English domestic experience. 
 A group of motherless sisters ar the 
 leading characters, one of whom, MoUie, 
 is made just to escape the greatest dis- 
 aster of a woman's life. The figure- 
 drawing is spirited, and the dialog salient 
 and good. Dolly's and Grif's misunder- 
 standings are well portrayed for the 
 teaching of ardent young lovers that 
 they should not be jealous and fall out by 
 the way." [ Boston " Literary World."] 
 — ' ' The heroin is an attractiv girl wlio 
 is a capital combination of coquetry and 
 kindness ; the troubles which beset her 
 and her brothers and sisters ar calcu- 
 lated to wring the heart, not excessivly, 
 but in discreet moderation, while a good 
 ending closes the book." [Nation.] — 
 " ' Dolly ' and " Theo ' ar not strikingly 
 new stories, with their accounts of the 
 happiness, after much suffering, of very 
 charming girls, who gro in out-of-the-way 
 places, breathing the air of genteel pov- 
 erty, which they exchange very naturally 
 for the perfumes of the gilded drawing- 
 room. It is not the plots which ar note- 
 worthy, but the animated, fascinating 
 style in which these threadbare incidents 
 ar recounted. Where so many novel- 
 writers ar pompous or affected, Mrs. 
 Burnett is as simple, as natural, and as 
 amusing as any one could wish. For 
 me, I find her hi spirits and her pathos 
 much better reading than the cold dis- 
 cussion of a ' problem ' in 'That Lass 
 o' Lowrie's ' and the willful accumulation 
 of distressing incidents in ' Surly Tim.'" 
 [Atlantic] — " Upon the principle that it 
 is better to read a good book twice than an 
 
 73 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 indifferent one once, we welcome an old 
 friend under a new title in ' Vagabondia.' 
 Dolly as ' Dolly,' was altogether de- 
 litf ul. Revised by the author and veiled 
 by the temptingly suggestive title we 
 quote, she allures us as irresistibly as 
 when we made her acquaintance. Jolly, 
 deep-hearted, rattle-pated Dolly, is our 
 darling as ever, but Toinette, Grif, Mol- 
 lie, Annie, and the ubiquitous cherub 
 Tod, to whom we ar introduced as he 
 ' sits in the coal-box, eating Phil's 
 fusees,' interest us with the freshness of 
 new creation, draw upon our heart- 
 strings, with the tender violence of old 
 loves. We ar not sure that Mrs. Bur- 
 nett did not giv us her best wine at the 
 beginning of the feast of which we never 
 tire." [Homemaker.] — "We ar not 
 sorry to miss the storm and stress of her 
 recent novels, and we think the drollery 
 and overfloing good humor of ' Vaga- 
 bondia,' a fair exchange for them. The 
 male reader, at any rate, who does not 
 fall in love with Dolly or MoUie, Aim6e 
 or Toinette, must be hard to please. But 
 we ar sure that all will be delited to be 
 admitted to that slipshod but otherwise 
 charming household." [Critic. 1216 
 DO?^ JOHN, [by Jean Ingelow : 
 Roberts, 188.5.] "The mo^t/ seems to 
 be hackneyed ; but it is not so, for here 
 we hav the time-honored expedient of 
 changing children at nurse treated in an 
 entirely unprecedented, and yet perfectly 
 plausible fashion. The irresponsible 
 young wet-nurse whose imagination has 
 been fired, and her lit head turned, by 
 an immense consumption of the Action 
 furnished by a cheap circulating library, 
 makes, in the first instance, in mere 
 wantonness, the experiment of substitut- 
 ing her child for the one which had been 
 confided — somewhat too unquestion- 
 ingly — to her care, while a severe epi- 
 demic of scarlatina took its long course 
 
 throu the nursery of her employers. 
 Again a chain of curious and very cred- 
 itably-devised chances favor — almost 
 necessitate — the maintenance of the 
 deception ; and at length it comes about, 
 throu the sudden death, by accident, of 
 her accomplice in the dangerous game 
 she had been playing, that the nurse her- 
 self is not entirely certain whether it is 
 the Johnstone baby or hers which the 
 family reclaim, while she is herself pros- 
 trated by severe illness. The fritened 
 woman keeps her guilty and yet rather 
 absurd secret for a little while, but then 
 the miserable confession will out, and 
 the unhappy parents who hav been the 
 victims of this enraging trick find that 
 they can do no better than pack the un- 
 principled nurse off to Australia, adopt 
 the other child, and bring up the twin 
 boys exactly alike. The history of the 
 groth of their characters, and the de- 
 velopment of their fates, is a singular 
 and affecting one. It is the best told of 
 Miss Ingelow's tales, — the most direct 
 and dramatic and symmetrical ; and, in 
 short, Don John is, to our mind, a 
 beautiful little story; a finished and 
 charming specirifen of that minor eng- 
 lish fiction which is often as good, from 
 a literary point of vue, as the best pro- 
 duced elsewhere." [Atlantic. 1217 
 DONALD GRANT, [by George 
 MacDonald ; Paul, 188i.] " How- 
 ever it must be confessed that in laying 
 down ' Donald Grant ' the most grateful 
 of readers — and surely the author of 
 ' Sir Gibbie ' and ' Within and Without ' 
 has many grateful readers — is obliged 
 to confess that Dr. MacDonald has been 
 suffering from an attack of kleptomania, 
 and does not supply us with such good 
 material as when he came by it lawfully. 
 Nothing need be said of his pilferings 
 from Mrs. Radcliffe. He mit inform us 
 that in helping himself to her ' proper- 
 
 379 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 ties ' he is only folloing tlic example of 
 Sir Walter Scott, whoso ' Woodstock ' 
 was found on search to be stuffed with 
 her paste jewels, and who, instead of 
 shoing any penitence, gloried in the 
 cleverness of the theft. But the coun- 
 sel for tlie prosecution, after citing the 
 sound tho startling critical maxim that 
 literary robbery can be justified only 
 when accompanied by murder, produces 
 a witness who has survived being robbed 
 by Dr. MacDonald — Mr. Slieridan Le 
 Fanu to wit, the plot of wliose ' Uncle 
 Silas ' has been bodily transferred to the 
 pages of ' Donald Grant.' Ill-gotten 
 gains never prosper. Dr. MacDonald 
 finds his pillage as much in his way as 
 Lady Cork did a hedgehog she once car- 
 ried off from a garden for want of better 
 prey, and his story pursues its mild path 
 almost oblivious of tho incident that the 
 villain has tried to murder liis heroin 
 for the sake of her fortune." [Contem- 
 porary lie view. 121S 
 DONOVAN, [by "EdnaLyall.'M. b., 
 Ada Ellen Bayly : Appleton, 18S6.] 
 " The author of ' Donovan ' and what 
 may be called its sequel, ' We Two ' is 
 a pretty fair preacher, but a better 
 novelist. She carries a good story and 
 a religious controversy side by side throu 
 two thick volumes with indisputable suc- 
 cess. She keeps both well in hand, 
 guiding her people skilfully throu strange 
 vicissitudes, and in argument always 
 putting the rit thing in the rit mouth. 
 The arguments ar far from original, so far 
 that they seem to us profitless iteration, 
 but they ar also so fair that it is at times 
 possible to forget that the author is the 
 soul of orthodoxy. She means to call 
 in wanderers from the christian. fold, 
 but she neither asserts dogmatically, 
 nor threatens, nor scolds. She provides 
 people of absolute faith, people of little 
 faith, and people of no faith, and treats 
 
 all with impartiality. She displays 
 serious thot, some liumor, a good deal 
 of knoledg of life's by-ways, a, joy in 
 the good, with or without creed, and a 
 wide charity for sinners. The promi- 
 nence of her serious raotiv presupposes 
 some prolixity and dulness, but it is easy 
 to get tlie whole of the story and tlie 
 gist of the arguments without weari- 
 ness." [Nation. 121$) 
 
 DORIE [in "A Maiden Fair," by C: 
 Gibbon: Maxwell, 1886.] "is a pretty 
 sketch of a laf ter-loving english maiden 
 who at first does not kno her mind, but 
 in the end makes up very satisfactorily 
 to her harassed lover for the searchings 
 of heart she has caused him." [Athe- 
 niEum. 1230 
 
 DOROTHY, [by Ma. Agnes (Col- 
 ville) Paul; Oxford, ParTcer, 1858.] 
 " ' Dorothy ' is an excellent little story. 
 ThSre ar no exciting incidents nor hily- 
 wrot sentiments, but a great deal of ex- 
 cellent delineation of character. Dor- 
 othy herself is well drawn, and her 
 progress from a self-willed, selfish, 
 spoiled, domineering young woman to 
 a well-regulated, self-controlled, rational 
 being, is true to nature and extremely 
 interesting. The sketcli of her step- 
 mother is happily hit off, and is a life- 
 like bit of portrait painting." [Athe- 
 n^um. 1221 
 
 DOROTHY FOX [by Louisa (Tay- 
 lor) Parr : Strahan, 1871.] " is a com- 
 plete success from the first page to the 
 last. There is not a character in whom 
 we' do not feel an interest. And the 
 success is won by legitimate means — 
 careful studies of life, and careful char- 
 acter drawings. Altho the story is in a 
 great measure taken up with scenes from 
 Quaker life, yet it is full of worldly 
 knoledg. Here for instance is a bit of 
 wisdom : — ' Love without money can 
 not giv happiness ; but money without 
 
 380 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 love, tho it may not giv happiness, can 
 giv many things wliich enable you to 
 bear your life very contentedly.' And 
 this wisdom of the market-place is ex- 
 cellently illustrated in the character of 
 Lady Laura, who preferred her dismal, 
 unhealthy house, to all other houses, 
 however cheerful and healthy, if in a, 
 less aristocratic situation." [Westmin- 
 ster Review. 1223 
 
 DOUBLE DUTCHMAN (The) [by 
 Catherine Childar: Ifurst, 1884.] 
 " is above the average of novels of its 
 kind. It deals britly and grammati- 
 cally with scenes of quite modern social 
 life. Mrs. Hazlewood and her 3 dauters 
 ar eminently modern. Judith, the out- 
 spoken, dashing beauty, is the most in- 
 teresting figure, so tender and strong a 
 heart underlies her almost masculin 
 manner. She is the good genius of her 
 sister Blanche, the shy, gentle student 
 of the ' sweet girl graduate ' type." 
 [Athenaeum. 1223 
 
 DOUBLES AND QUITS, [by Law- 
 rence W. M. Lockhart : Blackwood, 
 18G9.] "Two military gentlemen very 
 much resemble each other, and ar always 
 crossing each otlier's path. After this 
 has gone on so far as to create some 
 enmity, one of them. Captain Bruce, re- 
 ceives a billet at the opera from a young 
 lady who mistakes him for Captain 
 
 Burridge He visits at Mr. Badger's, 
 
 her uncle's, and is at first received as 
 Captain Burridge. The mistake is 
 cleared up in time, but in the meanwliile 
 Bruce has fallen ' in love ' with her 
 sister Rose, and is placed on 'calling' 
 terms with the family. Mary, the 
 young lady who had sent him the billet 
 at the opera, is ' in love ' with Burridge ; 
 but Burridge, tied to an odious, immoral 
 woman, who is he knoes not wh^re, is 
 tung-tied and cannot propose. How 
 these confusions ar cleared up, and 
 
 each of the gentlemen marries the girl of 
 his choice at last, it would not be fair to 
 tell." [Contemporary Review. 1224 
 DOUBTING HE.\RT (A). [by 
 Annie Keary: Macmillan, 1880.] 
 " Thfire is a restful quality in Miss 
 Keary's writings, which makes them 
 always acceptable to one who is weary 
 of the excitements oflFered by much of 
 current fiction. In this story we hav 
 the experiences attending a mother's 
 efforts to marry and settle her dauters ; 
 with the result to them of some trial and 
 disappointments, and the advantage to 
 the reader of graflc portraitures of a 
 peculiar aspect of english domestic life. 
 Thfire ar many touching passages which 
 must be read entire in their connexion 
 to be enjoyed, and indeed the whole 
 book is one not to be missed. It ' turns 
 out' beautifully.'' [Boston "Literary 
 World."] — "A character who de- 
 serves mention is old Madame Florimel, 
 the english wido of a french count, 
 and Wynward Anstices' relativ. She 
 livs at Roquette, and some of the scenes 
 in the book — not the least important 
 either — ar laid here. One, of almost 
 idyllic beauty, called ' Madame's Ffite,' 
 givs a charming picture of a french 
 village match-making. Madame de 
 Florimel takes a strong fancy to the 
 pure-hearted, honest, and impressionable 
 Emmie West, and forms a plan for 
 matching her to her kinsman, — a plan 
 which comes at one time to a miserable 
 shipwreck, causing Emmie much sor- 
 ro. But ' all things find rest at their 
 journey's end,' and, on the whole, we 
 ar not disposed to quarrel at the fate 
 to each assigned. One thing we may 
 say in conclusion, and we deem it hi 
 praise. There is no villain in the book, 
 no character of extravagant wickedness. 
 All ar human — the good and the bad — 
 and tho some may be shadoy and distant, 
 881 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 never impressing their individuality on 
 the reader, none ar repellent. Even the 
 Kirlcmans ar tolerable, the worst of 
 them, the old millionaire, being kept 
 quite in the background. As for the 
 old judge, Sir Francis Rivers, we get to 
 like him much ere the story is over. 
 Successful, easy-going, worldly, kind- 
 hearted and disappointed man as he is, 
 the iine traits of his mind come out 
 when bitterness and sorro overtake 
 him." [Spectator. 1225 
 
 DRAMA IN MUSLIN (A), [by 
 G: Moore: Vizetelly, 1886.] "Mr. 
 Moore can depict human beings in an 
 original and consistent fashion ; he can 
 tell a story well, and he has an excel- 
 lent eye for effect, so that his novel is 
 picturesque, well constructed, and full 
 
 of human interest It is as well 
 
 to say that ' A Drama in Muslin ' is not 
 
 fit ' for the drawing-room At the 
 
 same time it is not too much to say that 
 it is one of the ablest and most original 
 novels of the year. It has been Mr. 
 Moore's object to make a study of the 
 life of a group of girls in good society. 
 By laying the scene in Ireland he has 
 secured the advantage of strong con- 
 trasts and good opportunities for his bit- 
 ing humor. His picture of Dublin 
 in the season is exceedingly clever." 
 [Athenaeum. 1226 
 
 DRAUGHT of LETHE (A) [by Rot 
 Tellet : Smith, 1891.] "is an exceed- 
 ingly clever book Of course, in a 
 
 story of tills kind, character-drawing is 
 subordinated to plot-weaving: but the 
 sketches of Vaux, the non-exhibiting 
 painter, with his surface cynicism and 
 his underlying kindness, and of Mr. 
 Badgerly, the intervuer, whose being's 
 end and aim is the procuring of piquant 
 ' copy,' ar thoroly life-like and enter- 
 taining. — The only serious artistic blot 
 Is the introduction of that horrible epi- 
 
 sode, the attempt of Dr. Falck to mur- 
 der his rival by means of his new 
 anaesthetic. It is quite unexpected, it 
 stands out of all relation to the action, 
 and has the look of being an afterth6t 
 which is quite out of place in a book 
 that is otherwise so admirably planned." 
 [Spectator. 1227 
 
 DRIVER DALLAS, [by J: Strange 
 Winter," i. c, Henrietta Eliza Vaughan 
 (Palmer) Stannard : Harper, 1887.] 
 " Captain John Dallas is » stalwart, 
 honest, clear-eyed young fello ; and 
 when the bewitching Mabel Rivers, 
 left motherless, comes to Drive to make 
 her home th(5re with his sister Betty and 
 his great-aunt Miss Aurora, the result 
 usual in such contingencies folloes. The 
 course of love does not run at all 
 smoothly, however. Mabel assumes 
 for the time being the character of a 
 coquette, when a handsom officer of 
 the Lancers appears on the scene." 
 [Boston " Literary World." 1228 
 
 DUKE'S CHILDREN (The) [by An- 
 thony Trollope: Harper, 1880.] 
 " is, like all Trollope's novels, an ex- 
 tremely simple story. It belongs to the 
 series, in which the Duke of Omnium 
 and Phineas Finn and his wife appear, 
 and narrates the fortunes of the duke's 
 eldest son and dauter. Lord Silver- 
 bridge has two love-affairs, one with 
 Mabel Grex, the fortune-hunting but 
 attractiv dauter of a ruined earl, and 
 the second with an american girl. Miss 
 
 Boncassen, whom he finally marries 
 
 Meanwhile he is disappointed in other 
 things. His dauter, a charming girl, falls 
 in love with Frank Tregear, who, tho a 
 gentleman, has no rit to dream of such 
 good fortune as marrying the dauter of 
 the Duke of Omnium. This attachment 
 the duke does his best to break up, of 
 course without success. In the end 
 Frank Tregear marries Lady Mary, 
 
 382 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 just as Lord Silverbridge marries Miss 
 Boncassen, and the duke consents. 
 This is the sum and substance of the 
 story, and th^re could scarcely be less." 
 [Nation. 1239 
 
 DUKE'S DAUGHTER (The) and 
 THE FUGITIVES [by Ma. Oliphant 
 (Wilson) Olipiixst ■■ Blackwood, 1890.] 
 " is a story of very hi life indeed, since 
 it tells of the Duke of Billingsgate, 
 head of the house of Altamont, and of 
 his dauter. Lady Jane, who falls in love 
 with a man of inferior rank — wealthy, 
 and athoro gentleman, but not up to the 
 mark of what the duke thinks fitting 
 for his only dauter. Thdre is another 
 duke in the story, and duchesses, and 
 lords and ladies, and just a glimps of 
 a royal personage. Mrs. Oliphant re- 
 joices in the portrayal of these exalted 
 people ; and it is needless to say that 
 they ar all instinct with life and verisi- 
 militude, being as remote from the color- 
 less fantasms of the professedly fash- 
 ionable novelist as they ar from the crude 
 monstrosities of the incompetent tyro 
 in fiction. Since the death of Anthony 
 TroUope we hav had no one who could 
 so faithfully and appreciativly depict 
 in words the pompous, overweening, 
 intractable duke, who, subject to the 
 common and vulgar lot of humanity, 
 worships the fetish of his extravagant 
 pride even at the moment when it is 
 
 shattered and pulverized It is Lady 
 
 Jane Altamont with whom the story is 
 mainly concerned, and the relations of 
 father and dauter are drawn with a skil- 
 ful hand. [Athenseum. 1230 
 
 DUMBLETON COMMON [ by 
 Eleanor Eden: Bentley, 1867.] "is a 
 charmingly pleasant book; it is full of 
 genial kindheartedness, and thSre is a 
 thoroly well-bred tone throu-out. The 
 story itself is as slit as can hold together ; 
 but every individual in it has a distinctiv 
 
 character, and is made of flesh and 
 blood, with a reasonable soul to match. 
 The reader is effectually interested in 
 the characters, all and sundry, from dear 
 'little Miss Patty,' the narrator of the 
 annals of Dumbleton, to the Lady 
 Venetia Verney, the siren and fine lady 
 
 of the book Dumbleton Common is 
 
 about 5 miles from London, and readers 
 will giv it the exact locality they please ; 
 we hav our own idea of the particular 
 spot indicated, but we do not wish to 
 impose it on our readers. As for the 
 story, we will not detail it, but recom- 
 mend all who wish to have a lit, pleasant 
 book, to get it for themselves." [Athe- 
 naeum. 1231 
 
 EAKL OF EFFINGHAM (The) [by 
 Lalla M'Dowell : Tinsley, 1877.] " is 
 pleasantly told, and will repay the ex- 
 penditure of time necessary to get throu 
 it. It is an Irish story, tho its scenes 
 shift from Galway and Dublin to London. 
 The distinctions between the several 
 pictures of irish and english life ar 
 well marked, in framework, background, , 
 coloring, and association; and whilst 
 the former ar racy of the genuin char- 
 acter and tone of the Emerald Isle, the 
 latter ar scarcely less grafic and legiti- 
 mate imitations of good originals It 
 
 is before all things a brit and interesting 
 novel, with much to recommend it; and 
 it deservs to be received with favor. 
 The story is a pretty one, and the heroin 
 is thoroly charming ; the characters ar 
 all well drawn, and the style, tho not 
 perfect, is good." [Athenaeum. 1232 
 
 EAST LYNNE [by Ellen (Price) 
 "Wood: Bentley, 1861.] "is one of the 
 best novels published for a season. 
 The plot is interesting, intricate and 
 well carried out ; the characters ar 
 life-like, and the writing simple and 
 natural. There is nothing forced, 
 nothing disjointed or unfinished about 
 
 383 
 
BKITISU NOVELS. 
 
 it; no discrepancies in the story." 
 
 ' ' East Lynne was a romance — a 
 love .story of the most exciting and 
 complicated nature ; it may hav been 
 a little exaggerated in parts — it may 
 hav had trifling discrepancies — por- 
 tions of the story may hav been im- 
 probable ; but no one can deny that 
 ' East Lynne ' was a work of absorbing 
 interest, this interest being concentrated 
 in the conjugal life of a lawyer in a 
 country town, and in the fate of his two 
 wives." [Athena;um. 1234: 
 
 EFFIE OGILVIE [by Ma. Oli- 
 PHANT (Wilson) Oliphant : Macmil- 
 lan, 1886.] " is one of Mrs. Oliphant's 
 ever charming stories, in which, as 
 usual, even hackneyed plot and time- 
 honored situations ar turned to favor 
 and to prettiness. There is novelty in 
 the turn given to the crisis, keen in- 
 sit in the study of a proud young girl's 
 heart, and ingenuity in the way things 
 ar br6t out rit, without the railway 
 accident or tyfoid fever, by wliich most 
 novelists rid themselves of one hero too 
 many." [Critic. 1235 
 
 EFFIE'S GAME [by Cecil Clay- 
 ton: H. S. King, 1873.] "is a sim- 
 ple, pretty love-story. Effie and her 
 sister Constance go to liv with a bach- 
 elor uncle, who has a general's com- 
 mand in Portsmouth. Constance's for- 
 tunes ar easily told. She finds a 
 match of a most prudent and respect- 
 able kind. Nor is there anything very 
 remarkable or heart-breaking about 
 EflSe's. A young aide-de-camp, who 
 has nothing but his pay, falls in love 
 with her, proposes, is accepted, and 
 then cries off. EfBe consoles herself 
 with a rapidity which speaks much for 
 her good sense. For a moment we ar 
 allowed to suppose that a respectable 
 post-captain, of the same stamp as the 
 respectable colonel who secured Con- 
 
 stance, will be the happy man ; but a 
 brilliant writer in the Piccadilly, a 
 journal which we congratulate on pos- 
 sessing so eligible a person on its staf, 
 steps in before and carries off the prize. 
 In truth, the book is of very slit texture 
 but it is well written. The cliaracters 
 ar not very profound studies, but they 
 move and act, and, above all, talk like 
 human beings, and we hav liked read- 
 ing about them.'' [Spectator. 1236 
 
 EGLANTINE [by Eliza (Tabor) 
 Stephenson: Harper, 1876.] "is one 
 of the pleasantest stories of the day. 
 More charming pictures of english 
 country life we hav never seen. " 
 [Boston "Literary World."] —" The 
 narrativ is one which mit hav been 
 written for her on satisfaction by a 
 refined and cultivated woman, whose 
 life had been spent ' far from the mad- 
 ding crowd's ignoble strife,' whose 
 experience had scarcely transcended 
 the bounds of the domestic affections, 
 but who had passed beneath the chas- 
 tening hand of sorro. Skilful as it is 
 in construction, however, the strength 
 of the book lies in its character 
 sketches." [Appleton's. 1238 
 
 EGOIST (The). [by G: Mkre- 
 DITH : Paul, 1879 : Roberts, 1888.] " No 
 summary can do justice to the clever- 
 ness of Mr. Meredith's characters. 
 The Egoist livs for himself; but the 
 vues he takes of that self and the 
 duties of his position ar so lofty as to 
 be ideal. Called by Providence to be 
 the greatest magnate in his county, it 
 is not for him to frustrate the intentions 
 of fate by seeking the society of those 
 who ar his equals or possibly his supe- 
 riors. A baronet, he mistrusts the 
 peerage. London he feels to be de- 
 structiv of all individuality, but at 
 Patterne Hall his talents hav room to do 
 themselves justice. Th§re he is in his 
 
 384 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 clement, worshipped by the country- 
 side in general, and by Laetitia Dale, 
 the dauter of a half-pay officer, in par- 
 ticular Wliile Laetitia Dale's history 
 
 exposes tlie cruel side of egoism, Clara 
 Middleton brings to lit the ridiculous- 
 ness of it. An admirable contrast to 
 Laetitia, she makes a delitful heroin. 
 With her sense of fun, and healthy in- 
 stincts of liberty and enjoyment, she is 
 more than a match for 20 egoists. The 
 distress Sir Willoughby causes her is 
 nothing to the agonies she makes him 
 undergo. Mr. Meredith, tho he has 
 created these two charming pictures of 
 womanhood, does not allow himself to 
 be diverted from his main object — the 
 
 pursuit of egoism Mr. Meredith's 
 
 style is a cross between Mr. Carlyle's 
 and Mr. Browning's, if such a com- 
 pound be imaginable. It is a nut con- 
 fessedly hard to crack. He is so artifi- 
 cial as to seem to hav lost the power of 
 using straitforward language. The 
 simplest statement becomes an epi- 
 gram ; his epitliets contain the pith of 
 elaborate metafors ; his nietafors ar 
 like the bursting of rockets, which sho 
 new aspects of familiar scenes in a 
 flash of fantastic lit. The objections to 
 such a method of composition ar ob- 
 vious. It is perhaps enuf to say that it 
 is apt to be unintelligible." [New 
 Quarterly Mag.] — "The Egoist is 
 ' monstrous clever ; ' and to be that is a 
 great deal, — but it is no more than tliat. 
 ....That impression is never given by 
 the Egoist, supremely clever as very 
 much of it is. The insit of it is often so 
 keen and penetrating, and its expression 
 so clear-cut, that one strong tho not abid- 
 ing result of it is a sense that in Sir 
 Willoughby Patterne Mr. Meredith has 
 created an illusion by reproducing a 
 real man, vued from the coolly critical 
 standpoint of his felloman. Here, one 
 
 feels inclined to say, is the self-seeking, 
 vain, egoistic heart of ' that kind of 
 man ' laid bare, not as he appears 
 to himself and wishes to appear to 
 women, but as he looks under the lens 
 of a singularly disinterested fraternal 
 regard. And, to be just to Mr. Mere- 
 dith, that seems to be precisely wliat he 
 aimed at — not to paint one egoist, but 
 to give 'a chosen sample, digestibly'; 
 to condense into an acrid yet nose-tick- 
 ling essence the mildly unpleasant odor 
 of a whole garden full of dahlias and 
 London-pride. And as he aimed at that 
 result, and hit it, he must be acknol- 
 edged an artist, often supremely adroit in 
 his manipulation, and irresistibly comic 
 in his achievement." [Catholic World.] 
 — "I should never forgiv myself if I 
 forgot ' The Egoist.' It is art, if you 
 like, but jt belongs purely to didactic 
 art, and from all the novels I hav read 
 (and I hav read thousands) stands in a 
 place by itself. Here is a Nathan for 
 the modern David, here is a book to 
 send the blood into men's faces. Satire, 
 the angry picture of human faults, is 
 not great art ; we can all be angry with 
 our n^bor ; what we want is to be shon 
 not his defects, of which we ar too con- 
 scious, but his merits, to which we ar 
 too blind. And ' The Egoist ' is a 
 satire ; so much must be allowed ; but 
 it is a, satire of a singular quality, 
 which tells you nothing of that obvious 
 mote which is engaged from first to last 
 with that invisible beam. It is yourself 
 that is hunted down, these ar your 
 faults that ar dragged into the day and 
 numbered, with lingering relish, with 
 cruel cunning and precision. A young 
 friend of Mr. Meredith's (as I have the 
 story) came to him in agouy. ' This 
 is too bad of you ' he cried, ' Wil- 
 loughby is me ! ' [sic .'] ' No, my dear 
 fello,' said the author, ' he is all of us.' 
 385 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 I hav read ' The Egoist ' 5 or 6 times, 
 and I mean to read it again ; for I am 
 like the young friend of the anecdote — 
 I think Willoughby an unmanly but a 
 very serviceable exposure of myself." 
 [Ro. L: Stevenson. 1239 
 
 ELIOT THE YOUNGER [by Ber- 
 nard Barker : Tinsley, 1878.] " at least 
 merits the praise of being lively and 
 entertaining. It is smartly and some- 
 times wittily written. The father of 
 ' Eliot the Younger ' is a figure dra^n 
 not without considerable skill, and talks 
 in a way which we do not the less enjoy 
 becaus it reminds us very strongly of 
 Miss Austen. The intellectual man, 
 placed in the midst of rural society, and 
 married to the most liberal minded of 
 women, and finding a certain satisfuc- 
 tion in «. quiet sarcasm which no one 
 about hira understands, is a person 
 whom we ar glad to hav met." [Spec- 
 tator. 1240 
 
 ELIZABETH MORLEY [by K .. S. 
 Macquoid : Bristol, Arrowsmitk, 1889.] 
 " .... is pleasant and not uninteresting. 
 It is the story of a misunderstanding 
 between husband and wife on their 
 wedding tour, and if thdre is a little 
 insufficiency in the reason of the dis- 
 sension, Mrs. Macquoid may say that 
 her story is therefore true to life.'' 
 [Athenaeum. 1241 
 
 ELSIE [by A. C. M. : Macmillan, 
 1875.] "is a pretty rural tale at 
 the outset There is little that is re- 
 markable in the character of the selfish, 
 but not wholly rascally male actor in 
 Elsie's misfortune. The girl is a more 
 substantial entity, tho she is unnaturally 
 influenced by fear of a Calvinistic father. 
 A true Lowland lass would har shon 
 more spirit than our unhappy friend. 
 But thSre is much pathos in the recon- 
 ciliation between the poor girl and her 
 parents, and the miller is a well drawn 
 
 sketch. The scene in which the hard, 
 proud old man, blind and chastened by 
 mortal illness, recognizes by her voice 
 the child whom he has prayed his eyes 
 may never more behold, is one which 
 will linger in the reader's memory." 
 [Athenaeum. 1242 
 
 ELSIE GREY [by Cecil Clarke: 
 Griffith, 1881.] "is an honestly-told, 
 simple, and straitforward story, without 
 veneer, and with no straining after 
 grand effects. The heroin is the niece 
 of a bricklayer whose wife is house- 
 keeper in the city; where liv all the 
 
 leading personages From Barbary 
 
 Court the scene is shifted, about the 
 middle of the tale, to a quiet Saxon 
 town, and here again we hav some 
 simple and truthful description, appar- 
 ently based on personal acquaintance 
 with the locality. Throuout tlie book 
 there ar currents of gennin Romance, 
 with barely a fleck of crime or gust of 
 passion to disturb the even flo." [Athe- 
 naeum. 1243 
 
 EM. [By M. Bramston : Ward ^ Co., 
 1817.] " The feat of overleaping the 
 conventionalities in his wooing speaks 
 well for the strength of the hero's affec- 
 tion. Fortunately his j ustification is very 
 complete, for Emily Madock, the pretty 
 grand-dauter of the old Devonshire 
 farmer, is a, pure rustic, with no half- 
 bred gentility about her, and full of all 
 the good impulses which lead her to 
 
 take training well Indeed, it is the 
 
 merit of the author that, without much 
 resort to incidental subjects of interest, 
 she manages to make all her characters 
 distinct, if not ambitious in their pro- 
 portions. The best of them is Em, a 
 by no means faultless tho very winuing 
 heroin, who learns much in the period 
 of suspicion and humbled pride which 
 separates her for a time from happiness." 
 [Athenaeum. 1244 
 
 886 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 EMILIA IN ENGLAND, [by G: 
 Meredith : Chapman, 18G4.] " Parts of 
 it ar undeniably clever, and some of 
 the scenes ar strong and natural, as 
 for example wliere Emilia pleads with 
 the father of her lover to obtain his 
 consent to their marriage, tho she knoes, 
 but will not apprehend the fact, that he 
 is engaged to another woman ; and also 
 the intervue between Lady Charlotte 
 and her unstable lover. The character 
 of Emilia is the best sustained in the 
 book. Perhaps this may be becaus we 
 ar less sensitive to aberrations and ex- 
 travagances in ' forein ' natures than in 
 our on more familiar and more evenly 
 balanced english contemporaries. Then 
 too Mr. Meredith can draw better a 
 character entirely unconventional and 
 exceptional, than an ordinary figure in 
 modern society dress. The Miss Poles 
 ar overdrawn to the point of caricature, 
 and Mrs. Chump, tho sometimes amus- 
 ing, is often disgusting, and has the tung 
 of an Irish Mrs. Gamp. Every now and 
 then thfire is a glorification of ' english 
 beef and beer ' that is almost Rabelaisian 
 in its proportions, and with which the 
 present generation cannot easily keep 
 pace. Force and wit Mr. Meredith 
 undoubtedly has, but he wants the 
 faculty of lucid representation and the 
 delicate perception necessary to make 
 a novelist of the first rank." [Ameri- 
 can. 1245 
 
 EMMA, [by J.. Austen : 1816.] " So 
 far as mere story goes Emma does not 
 equal Pride and Prejudice. It is prolix, 
 and the misapprehension under which the 
 heroin acts throuout, and which furnishes 
 the chief motif, is so patent to the reader 
 that the story as such falls flat. The 
 characterization, however, is as admir- 
 able as any in Pride and Prejudice. 
 If not so notable for balance of mind 
 as the agreeable Elizabeth, Emma is a 
 
 more lovable heroin, and we find hep 
 all the more interesting for the little 
 flits of her lively fancy and her impul- 
 siv foolishness; while good sense never 
 makes itself more attractiv than when 
 combined with dignity, intelligence, and 
 a genial temper as in the person of 
 Mr. Knightly. Nothing of its kind 
 could be better than the portrait of 
 Mr. Woodward, the father of Emma; . 
 his kindness of heart and gentle fussi- 
 ness, his amiable twaddle and benevo- 
 lent bestoal of trivial advice, make him 
 as delitful an old woman as Miss Bates 
 herself, the humble friend and ndbor, 
 whose cosy, gossipy presence was so 
 welcom at the great house as a solace 
 in the occasional absence of the beloved 
 dauter. In all these tales the portrai- 
 ture is less humorous than satiric, but . 
 it is a not unkindly satire : the author's 
 wit has sharpness but no malice. It is 
 the clever comment of a woman of ob- 
 servant and rational mind upon the folly 
 and foibles of the human nature she has 
 seen about her." [Boston "Literary 
 World." 1246 
 
 END OP A LIFE (The), [by Edkn 
 Phillpotts : Arrowsmith, 1891.] "It 
 must not be imagined, however, that the 
 book is all villainy. The two sisters, 
 Mary and Rose, ar delitfuUy natural 
 studies of pure and truthful womanhood 
 — truthful, that is, in all but the one 
 deceit for which thSy and theirs suffered 
 so sorely, but which was justified, if 
 
 deceit is justifiable In short, 'The 
 
 End of a Life ' is well written, well con- 
 sidered, and well planned. The plot Is 
 original, the characters ar distinctly 
 pictured and ably grouped, the dialog is 
 excellent and thSre ar not a few true 
 and striking sayings ; and tho the central 
 figures ar hateful, th^y ar meant so to 
 be." [Athenaeum. 1247 
 
 ENTANGLED. [by E. Fairfax 
 387 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 Btekne: ffarper, 1885.] "Written 
 with a refinement of style and depth 
 of sentiment which mit make it the 
 kind of story which ladies delit in for a 
 summer afternoon, it is also noticeable 
 for a strength and intricacy of plot 
 which will hold the reader most fastidi- 
 ous in requiring power in a story throu 
 fascinated hours of close reading. Its 
 situations ar all a little strained, if you 
 analyse them closely, yet none of them 
 aflfects one as absolutely unnatural ; and 
 th^re ar certainly many thrilling ones. 
 But the grace of style is such that neither 
 the most sensational of the incidents 
 nor the well-sustained mystery of the 
 plot appeal to one as earnestly as cer- 
 tain single scenes, like that when 
 Colonel Woodworth hangs the portrait 
 of his detested son-in-law among those 
 of his ancestors." [Critic. 124:8 
 
 ENTHUSIAST, [by Caroline Fotu- 
 EKGILL ; Ward ^ Downey, 1887.] 
 "Miss Caroline. Fothergill tells very 
 well the story of an original and rather 
 fascinating heroin, who has a secret 
 which, even when revealed, leaves a 
 mystery unexplained The hero dis- 
 covers her secret — that she is married 
 and separated from her husband, she 
 admits the fact, and, while wishing 
 that the secret shall be kept, refuses to 
 answer several of the young man's 
 questions. He is a most unamiable 
 person, and makes it his object in life 
 to discover all the rest, to hold the 
 heroin in his power, and bide his time. 
 The story then goes into a new channel, 
 and the end of this episode is that the 
 heroin marries a second time. The 
 inner mystery is admirably kept up, 
 and the ultimate explanation has the 
 advantage of being simple." [Athe- 
 naeum. 1249 
 
 ESTELLE. [by Emily MARIO^f Har- 
 ris: Sell, 1878.] "The sensitiv and 
 
 shrinking, but no less strong and patient 
 nature of Estelle forms a fine contrast 
 to the narroness of her strict but 
 loving parents, and to the impetuous 
 self-indulgent character of her lively- 
 younger sister. The hebrew household 
 is planted in an old and picturesque 
 setting, a quaint mansion in a cathedral 
 town, in the sit and n^borhood of the 
 gray pile which symbolizes an antago- 
 nistic creed. To such a fancy as Estelle's 
 no root of bitterness springs up to mar 
 the solace of such calm surroundings, 
 tho to her orthodox father the position 
 seems rather to intensify the isolation 
 in which he glories. It is against his 
 will, tho he is too proud and unsuspicious 
 to feel concern about the matter, that a, 
 perilous intimacy groes up between his 
 young dauters and a christian family. 
 Th^y are in fact ' taken up ' by a pair 
 of conventional young ladies, who hav- 
 ing formed very esoteric notions of 
 Judaism, ar at first charmed with the 
 novelty of cultivated simplicity in an 
 unexpected quarter. Estelle is a noble 
 woman. Her days end as they begin, 
 in the promotion, not the fruition of 
 happiness of the hiest kind. She is an 
 artist without living for art; sorro as 
 much as joy continues her education to 
 the end." [Athenaeum.] — ^ See "BEIVE- 
 DICTUS." 1250 
 
 ESTHER [by Rosa Nouchette 
 Carey: Lippincott, 1887.] "we can 
 cordially recommend, both as pleasant 
 reading, and as leaving behind it help- 
 ful and profitable impressions of life 
 and character. It is an old story told 
 anew, of the struggles of a widoed 
 mother, who has to face poverty with a 
 large family of children, and gain by 
 dint of hard work and persistent efforts 
 the daily maintenance which has hith- 
 erto come without thot. The motivs 
 which actuate the two eldest dauters of 
 
 388 
 
BRITISH SOVELS. 
 
 the family ar br6t into contrast, and a 
 good moral is to be drawn from thfiir 
 different careers. One is carried away 
 by lofty enthusiasm, and wishes to do 
 only what captivates her imagination 
 and inspires her hiest energies. The 
 other, Estlier, is a girl of the rit sort, 
 and putting poetry and picturesqueness 
 out of sit, tries to perform the duty 
 which lies nearest. She tells the story, 
 and altho it is a diflScult task to sho that 
 one's self is invariably in the rit and the 
 other in the wrong,, — she continues to 
 do it without injuring our impressions 
 that she is a brave, sensible girl, who 
 deservs the good fortune which comes 
 to her like the reward of virtue in a, 
 fairytale." [American. 1251 
 
 ESTHER DUDLEY'S LOVERS. 
 j;by— ( ) Daniels: Sheet, 1874.] 
 The "characters, bad and good, ar 
 liicely balanced; by which we do not 
 mean that they ar so moderated as to be 
 .mediocre, but that they ar tolerable 
 approximations to concrete and eom- 
 
 posit humanity Esther, young and 
 
 .loving, and informed too late that the 
 .object of heriafCections has been always 
 .true, lis on the verge of being false to 
 her promis, or sacrificing her peace 
 of mind and her husband's happiness. 
 How the difSculty mit have been solved, 
 we kno by sad experience of shattered 
 hearts and broken vows, of elopements 
 by moonlit, of death .beds, whSre con- 
 sumptiv heroins peri.sh as loquacious as 
 the swan. Miss Dudley backs out of 
 her engagement, and telling her story 
 fully to an honorable man, meets his 
 forgivness, and, in a sense, his grati- 
 tude. This natural conclusion, well 
 told, exhibits more of what may fairly 
 be called character, than could have 
 been set forth in several volumes of 
 a tragedy of errors. Mr. Carrington, 
 pompous, narro-minded, and selfish in 
 
 his normal mood, comes out on ah 
 emergency in the character, unusual in 
 fiction, of a hi-bred gentleman, wliile 
 Esther, losing, by a first Nemesis, the 
 dignity upon which she stood in her 
 inexperience, shoes that true woman- 
 hood can be- honest as well as senti- 
 mental. This moral of itself would 
 stamp a tale less distinguished than the 
 present by really careful work in its 
 subordinate parts. The characters ar 
 all good, Mrs. Hartleton admirable; 
 and we can accord to the author the 
 rare tribute of unqualified praise." 
 [Athenseum. 1252 
 
 EUSTACE DIAMONDS (The), [by 
 Anthony Trollope : Harper, 1872.] 
 " The more prominent characters ar 
 quite fresh, and th^re is a. background 
 of old friends from ' Phineas Finn,' 
 and ' Can You Eorgive Her? ' which 
 serv to giv a home-like air. Mr. 
 Trollope forestalls any possible accusa- 
 tion of want of originality in the con- 
 ception of his principal character, by 
 calling Lady Eustace, at the outset of 
 the story, an ' opulent and aristocratic 
 Becky Sharp,' but the very fact that her 
 beauty, position and wealth giv her 
 such immense advantages over her less 
 fortunate prototype, lessens the resem- 
 blance. A better comment on the text 
 of ' Honesty is the best policy ' could 
 hardly be made than the history of her 
 career affords, and her unbounded ca- 
 pacity for lying makes it impossible 
 to unravel the mystery of the diamonds, 
 and thus brings about sudden turns in 
 the story which both amaze and amuse 
 the reader. Frank Greystock and Lucy 
 Morris ar less uncommon and more 
 agreeable characters. The former is not 
 an unfair representation of a man of the 
 world, with expensiv tastes, who has 
 his way to make and is not very scrupu- 
 lous as to the manner of making it, but 
 389 
 
EKITISII NOVELS. 
 
 poor little Lucy with lier brave heart 
 and generous temper, is surely worthy 
 of a better fate than she is likely to 
 meet in marrying such a, man." [Penn 
 Monthly. 1253 
 
 EVAN HARRINGTON; or HE 
 WOULD BE A GENTLEMAN [by 
 G: Meredith: 1861.] " is .a story of 
 contemporary life, full of subtlety and 
 spirit, depending for its impression upon 
 the skill and detail with which its char- 
 acters ar delineated. It is — curiously 
 enuf, and perhaps unconsciously — a 
 tale in which the women ar more 
 variously and strongly pronounced than 
 the men, and they ar the cleverest and 
 most effectiv actors throuout. The 
 ' argument ' is the love of a tailor's son, 
 whom Nature made a gentleman, for a 
 baronet's dauter, whom Nature also 
 made a lady. Thfire is no mawkish 
 moralizing in it, but the simple and fre- 
 quent experience of all society confirms 
 the justice of the plot. The book is 
 quiet, but most interesting, from the 
 author's ability to state the shadoy, 
 evanescent, and glimmering emotions 
 that play throu every sensitiv mind br6t 
 in contact with what it despises as 
 prejudice, and yet cannot exactly es- 
 cape. The Countess is a portrait of very 
 great skill — so is Rose — so is Evan 
 himself — so is his mother. The moral 
 of the book is not that every tailor is as 
 much a gentleman as every nobleman, 
 but simply that gentlemanhood is de- 
 termined by causes that cannot be cal- 
 culated, and may appear in a tailor's 
 son and not appear in an earl's. Its 
 farther moral is the picture of the 
 perfectly heathen spirit of modern 
 christian society which stigmatizes one 
 man becaus he is useful, and worships 
 another becaus his great-grandfather 
 
 was useful In Evan Harrington 
 
 we ha» one of the most fascinating 
 
 heroes of the modern novel. Usually 
 the fascinating people in novels do not 
 fascinate. But Evan does. Rose's love 
 is perfectly intelligible. Every girl who 
 reads the book will fall in love with 
 Evan, and that not becaus he is de- 
 scribed with tinted ink as a, pirate, or a 
 statesman or a, saint, or a hero ; nor 
 becaus he is invested with some obscure 
 antecedents full of the possibility that 
 he is a king's son after all. There is 
 nothing of this : nothing of the rose 
 romance. The book is pure daylit 
 throuout, dear young lady. Mr. Evan 
 Harrington is a tailor's son; but he is 
 somehow so essentially noble and 
 lovely, that it is like the warmth of a 
 
 June air, inevitable and universal 
 
 And Rose, surely she is a true-hearted 
 girl ; and her mother. Lady Jocelyn, 
 a most womanly woman. Every one 
 must admire the cool, neutral tint of the 
 story, while the passionate romance of 
 love is touched with a power which few 
 possess. Among the many novels it is 
 remarkable for its masculin nerve — a 
 tone which springs from knoledg. Too 
 many of the clever novels, now a days, 
 which ar written by women, lack a 
 centre of gravity. They ar vague and 
 unsatisfactory. Apparently they ar the 
 product of intolerable ennui — with 
 obscure aims and efforts, but without ex- 
 perience. A great novel is written by a 
 man of great genius, whether he hav 
 experience or not. Genius is vicarious. 
 It interprets for us emotions it never 
 itself experienced." [G : W : Curtis.] — 
 "Evan is not a bad fello, manly and 
 hi-minded enuf; but he has a weakness 
 not uncommon in the ' heroic ' char- 
 acter, which does not usually abound in 
 common sense ; he neglects the very 
 obvious and immediate duty of an 
 honorable man to explain his false 
 position, and afterwards stoically per- 
 
 390 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 forms monstrous works of supererogation 
 and self-sacrifice for a principle, and 
 this conduct in due time is of course 
 rewarded by the heroin. The scheming 
 countess with her little forein languors 
 and affectations is an admirable figure, 
 as is also ' Mrs. Mel,' the stern em- 
 bodiment of duty, and the cheery little 
 hen-pecked brewer. The book has the 
 weakness of novels, that of opening with 
 more strength than it closes; but, in 
 spite of rather lengthy and dragging 
 passages to fill out the relentless 3 
 volumes, there is a fresh, racy atmosfere 
 throu the pages, a vigorous wit and 
 strong human sympathy with all classes 
 of men, which make very refreshing 
 reading. [American. 1254 
 
 EVIL GENIUS (The), [by [W :] 
 WiLKiE Collins: Harper, 1886.] "In 
 these days of many, and pleasing, books, 
 a book which enthralls the attention is 
 almost as rare as in the days when the 
 publication of any book was an event. 
 Wilkie Collins' ' Evil Genius ' is one of 
 these absorbing stories, and It is all the 
 more remarkable and enjoyable for not 
 thrilling by the methods usually em- 
 ployed by its author. Wilkie Collins 
 has been essentially one of the writers 
 whom we regard as born to amuse us ; 
 and even his greatest admirers will be 
 surprised at what they find to admire in 
 this latest work — a depth, a tenderness, 
 a wise and gracious insit, which has not 
 relied on anything meretricious or 
 startling in effect for the interest it 
 inspires, and which has created a really 
 noble, as well as entertaining, novel. 
 The story is on the hackneyed subject 
 of an unhappy marriage; but th^re is 
 nothing liackneyed in the treatment, tho 
 the events ar all moral events in the 
 development of character, utterly inde- 
 pendent of striking incident. The pre- 
 cision of style, the concentration on the 
 
 subject in hand which never lets the au- 
 thor wander off into tiresome by-paths, 
 the quickness of the movement, the ex- 
 ceeding ingenuity of telling situations 
 constantly varied but never in the least 
 improbable, the deep pathos, the de- 
 licious absurdities of the Evil Genius, 
 who, by tlje way, is a mother-in-law, 
 and the underlying, never conspicuous 
 but always interfused, moral, lift this 
 tale to a hit never reached by what 
 is merely entertaining." [Critic] — 
 " The opening of the story, after a 
 prelude which is », minor tale in itself, 
 is not altogether unusual — the young 
 governess whose beauty and gratitude 
 for kindness shon to her prove danger- 
 ously seductiv to her employer, and 
 the child who by close association of 
 pupil with teacher becomes passion- 
 ately attached to her. But the devel- 
 opment is not commonplace, and its 
 shifts and changes of evil and of good will 
 enchain the reader's attention and inter- 
 est We may especially recommend 
 
 this story becaus of its pleasant ending 
 and the absence of that concentration of 
 horrors found near the close of some 
 of this author's novels." [Boston "Lit- 
 erary World." 1255 
 EYE FOB AN EYE (An), [by 
 Anthony Tkollope ; Harper, 1879.] 
 " We hav here a tale shoing the evil 
 consequences of weakness of character. 
 This, at least, is the only moral we can 
 extract from the story, which is not al- 
 together a pleasant one, turning, as it 
 does, on the base behavior of the son of 
 an earl to a pretty young Irish girl, her 
 ruin, his desertion, his murder by her 
 mother, and the consequent confinement 
 of the latter in a private asylum. The 
 story is a painful one; for the weakness 
 of the young man in refusing to marry 
 Miss O'Hara is not made tragic but sim- 
 ply weak, while the repulsivnesj of her 
 891 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 disreputable father is made so glaring 
 that the reader is at times left in doubt 
 whether a marriage is not as entirely out 
 of the question as the young man feels 
 it to be. It is needless to say that all the 
 story is well told. Mr. Trollope has the 
 art of narration to perfection." [Nation.] 
 — " Similarly tragic in its close, and even 
 more painful in its course, is ' An Eye 
 for an Eye,' which is a shorter novel than 
 many he has written, hut quite as inter- 
 esting as any. It is the old story of a 
 loving woman suffering from a selfish 
 man the crudest wrong which it is pos- 
 sible for him to do her, with the added 
 element of a horrible revenge taken 
 upon him by the infuriated mother of his 
 victim. As in everything he writes, Mr. 
 TroUope's purpose here is to sho the 
 heartlessness of much of the english 
 pride of family and name ; and with this 
 he associates some other lessons which 
 giv the story a strong, tho not direct, 
 moral bearing. [Boston " Literary 
 World." 1257 
 
 FAIR BARBARIAN (A) [by F.. E.. 
 (Hodgson) Burnbtt : Osgood, — Warns, 
 1881.] "is an excellent little story. 
 Without the passion which Mrs. Burnett 
 ehoed she could powerfully portray in 
 ' That Lass o' Lowries,' it shoes minute- 
 ness of observation combined with a 
 freshness amounting to originality. 
 Thfire is, too, a touch of liumor of that 
 delicate kind which Mrs. Gaskell pos- 
 sessed so richly — Indeed, the early part 
 of Mrs. Burnett's story will probably 
 remind every reader of ' Cranford ' [No. 
 1175]. The brilliancy of the contrast 
 between the pretty, fashionable american 
 girl and the staid society into which she 
 is plunged at her aunt's in a small town 
 in England is the essence of the happy 
 invention upon which the book depends. 
 The story is short enuf to prevent the 
 effect from losing any of its britness, and 
 
 it is an artistic , touch which brings the 
 tale to an end so as to raise a smile and 
 complete the general impression of lit- 
 ness and vivacity. Not content with the 
 fair barbarian alone, Mrs. Burnett has 
 given a picture of another charming 
 girl of the opposit kind, an english home- 
 staying young lady, timid, tender- 
 hearted, and stanch. Both ar so admir- 
 ably drawn and so fascinating that one 
 hardly knoes which to prefer." [Athe- 
 naeum. 1358 
 
 FAIR TO SEE [by Lawrence W. 
 M. LocKHART : Blackwood, 1871.] "is 
 precisely the book for those who wish to 
 be amused, and not to be perjjlexed with 
 any moral questions or doubts. The 
 narrativ is rapid, the characters natural, 
 the conversations humorous, and the 
 author knoes thoroly the ground he goes 
 over. One especial recommendation we 
 can give to the story — that tho it deals 
 with military and sporting men, there is 
 nothing whatever of the 'Guy Living- 
 stone ' tone about it. It is thoroly 
 healthy. The scenes abroad remind us 
 of some of the best of Lever's tales. 
 The plot, too, is good." [Westminster Re- 
 view.] — "' Fair to See 'is an exceedingly 
 readable novel. The cliaracters ar two 
 officers, one an enamored youth, the 
 other a friend ; two scotch girls, one a 
 flirt, the other sincerity itself. It is a 
 very simple tale of a certain passion 
 not wholly unfamiliar to the novelist, 
 and it is very well told — in fact, it is 
 just what a novel that is to be read once 
 6t to be. At times it is very amusing, 
 and it is never dull." [Nation. 1259 
 
 FAITH AND UNFAITH [by Ma. 
 (Argles) Hungerford : Smith, W?,2'\ 
 " is well written, amusing, and decidedly 
 readable. It is just one of the pleasant, 
 dawdling narrativs of life in country- 
 houses and town-houses which appear in 
 such interminable succession, and whose 
 392 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 average ability is so remarkably hi." 
 [Araeriean. 12G0 
 
 FALLEN ANGEL (A). [Vinsley, 
 1878.] "The heroin's will is so pure, 
 and her imagination is so hitoned, that 
 not the faintest stain of circumstance 
 can affect her; while the woman who 
 accidentally, one may say, becomes a 
 lawful wife givs a sad example of the 
 coarseness which must accompany a 
 mercenary marriage. Laura's repulsiv- 
 ness is the greatest drawback to the 
 pleasure of the book, but the description 
 cannot be called untrue, any more tlian 
 Harlowe's deterioration after his crimi- 
 nal desertion of Mildred is other than 
 the usual result of selfish policy. The 
 early scenes of love-making in the coun- 
 try ar spritly and idyllic ; the farewell, 
 when Harlowe first learns the nature he 
 has gone so near to injure, is dignified 
 and tender; and tho, in some parts, a 
 little condensation mit hav been efiected, 
 the book, on the whole is promising." 
 [AthenEeum. 1261 
 
 FALLEN FORTUNES, [by James 
 Patn: Appleton, 1876.] "Those who 
 remember the novels they read, and 
 who now hav a distasteful impression of 
 some of Mr. Payn's recent writings, 
 will be able to do that author more jus- 
 tice and to think of him more kindly if 
 they will look at his last story. Here, 
 as elsewhere in his work, the main in- 
 terest of the reader is the whereabouts 
 of a fortune, which is always a fascinating 
 subject. Mr. Dalton loses all his money, 
 and his family at once finds how much 
 pretence there is in all the assurances of 
 affection they had hitherto received. It 
 would be unfair to tell the plot of the 
 story, which is so ingeniously constructed 
 and well managed that even the reader 
 who knoes how generous Mr. Payn is 
 with his millions in the last chapter is 
 kept in an unpleasing state of doubt as 
 
 to whether, after all, the supply may not 
 have given out, so that all the virtuous 
 characters will be left sweeping cross- 
 ings when the book ends. While the 
 plot is good the drawing of the characters 
 is much better. It is not too much to say 
 that there is hardly an unlifelike person 
 in the story — unlifelike, that is to say, so 
 far (and it is not far) as the people ar de- 
 scribed at all. Mr. Dalton, for instance, 
 is not only said to be amusing, he is 
 amusing; he makes good jokes and tells 
 good stories and tells them well. His 
 dauter Jenny also shoes herself as hi 
 spirited as she is announced to be, so 
 that the reader does not lack for enter- 
 tainment. Another good character is 
 Mrs. Campden. Her coldness and self- 
 ishness, and power of giving offense, 
 ar so far beyond the invention of even 
 the most suspicious soul that they bear 
 the earmark of being observed and not 
 imagined. How it has happened that 
 Mr. Payn, after writing so much which 
 was no more than the empty, lifeless 
 shell of a good novel, should hav sud- 
 denly bloomed into such comparativ 
 excellence, it would be hard to say." 
 [Nation. 1262 
 
 FALSE AND TRUE, [by Eleanor 
 Eden: Booth, 1859.] " ' Baston ami 
 its Inhabitants ' was a lively, sketchy, 
 pleasantly improbable story. ' False 
 and True ' is an improvement on the 
 first in many respects. It is written 
 with more care and more unity of pur- 
 pose — it is amusing and fictitious, — all 
 the incidents fall out as in a comedy, and 
 ar rounded off into a happy conclusion, 
 such as the reality of things would hav 
 scarcely brot to pass. Vamela Dynely, 
 with her honesty and brusquerie, has a 
 pleasant ruf flavor. Vere, the curate, 
 cousin and half hero of the book, is 
 unfinished. Alba St. Maur, about 
 whom a great deal of fuss is made by 
 393 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 everybody, is a natural young lady, 
 with a susceptible heart and fine voice. 
 She, of course, prefers the Birmingham- 
 gilt love of the dashing and fascinating 
 Dudley Hareourt to the true, tho rather 
 dull gold of Louis Delorme. But she 
 gets better treated in the novel than she 
 would by even-handed Justice. The 
 true lover bides his time, — a coup de 
 th63,tre makes him a baronet, — Alba 
 comes to her judgment and a sense of 
 his merits, — her false love is banished 
 in a way worthy of Theodore Hook, — 
 Vamela marries the rit man — and all 
 ends as happily as possible. The book 
 is lit and brit and of the stuff of which 
 farces ar made." [Athenasum. 1263 
 
 FALSE HONOR [by T : Bentley : 
 E : Walker, 1879.] " is a clever and 
 amusing story, original in plot and in 
 many of its incidents ; so strongly 
 tinged, however, with the dramatic 
 element, that we never lose a sense of 
 unreality in the characters introduced. 
 The book purports to be a picture of 
 some fases of London society. We do 
 not kno why it would not answer all 
 requirements for the popular comedy, 
 even to the last scene." [ Boston 
 "Literary World." 1264 
 
 FAMILY AFFAIR (A), [by "Hugh 
 Conway," i. e., F : J : Fargus : 
 Bolt, 1885.] It " is a pleasant thing 
 for a popular author to leave behind 
 him a novel worthy of lasting favor. 
 
 It is less the story — the plot — 
 
 tho that is strong, original, and im- 
 pressiv, than the detail, which charms 
 lastingly. The characters, the con- 
 versations, the social incidents, ar 
 fairly delitful, and the Talberts ar a 
 creation as enjoyable as Dickens' famous 
 brothers. The housekeeping idiosyn- 
 crasies of the charming Horace and 
 Herbert, making it possible for them to 
 identify a doubtful little boy by the 
 
 fact that he wiped his shoes before 
 daring to enter their house ar a constant 
 fascination." [Critic. 1265 
 
 FAMILY FEUD (The) = No. 689. 
 
 FAMILY FORTUNES [by " E : Gar- 
 KETT," i. e., I .. Fyfie Mayo : Dodd, 
 1882.] "is well worth reading, — a sim- 
 ple, natural chronicle of a few lives, with 
 little incident and less love-making, 
 but with much shrewd observation of 
 men and things. The real heroin is 
 the family servant, whose acute remarks 
 reconcile us even to the painful scotch 
 dialect." [Critic. 1266 
 
 FAR ABOVE RUBIES [by C. 
 Eliza Lawson (Cowan) Riddell : 
 Lippincott, 1867.] "is an interest- 
 ing and simple story, gracefully and 
 fluently written, pure and healthful in 
 tone, depicting scenes and characters 
 for which it comes within the experience 
 of nearly every reader to find a paral- 
 lel ; and, if it be wanting in that power 
 and depth of th6t which hav hitherto 
 marked the writings of this versatil 
 and most industrious novelist, it is 
 nevertheless surrounded by that pleas- 
 ant quiet atmosfere which renders novels 
 of country life particularly refresh- 
 ing. The narrativ runs smoothly, 
 undisturbed by any violent or stirring 
 events, and is interspersed with many 
 charming descriptions and sensible re- 
 flexions which hav the merit of not being 
 wearisom.'' [Round Table. 1267 
 
 FAR FROM THE MADDING 
 CROWD, [by T: Hardy: Smiih, 
 1874.] " Sensationalism is here all 
 in all. If we analyze the story we shall 
 find that it is nothing but sensationalism, 
 which, in the hands of a less skilful 
 writer, would simply sink the story to 
 the level of one of Miss Braddon's 
 earlier performances. Take the career 
 of Gabriel Oak, who is the least sensa- 
 tional of the chief characters. He loses 
 
 394 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 the whole of his property in a sensation 
 scene of 200 or 300 sheep being driven 
 by a dog over a precipice. He finds his 
 mistress in a sensation scene of blazing 
 rieks. He regains her estimation in 
 another sensation scene of thunder and 
 litning in the same rick-yard. So the 
 story progresses in a succession of 
 sensation scenes. But sensation scenes 
 ar no more Mr. Hardy's strong point 
 than they ar G : Eliot's. The scene 
 in which Troy woos Bathsheba with 
 his sword is a piece of mad extrava- 
 gance, fit only for the boards of some 
 transpontine theatre. The wliole chap- 
 ter is simply a burlesque upon the 
 cavalier poet's lines, ' I'll make thee 
 famous by my pen, and glorious by my 
 sword.' Mr. Hardy has not done tlii.-i, 
 but only made the one step from the 
 sublime to the ridiculous. Of course 
 Mr. Hardy has had good reasons for 
 dealing us such a dose of sensation. 
 He knoes what true art is, but he pre- 
 fers, in this story at least, to giv his 
 readers a bastard substitute." [West- 
 minster Review.] — "'Far from the 
 Madding Crowd ' depends for its interest 
 not so much upon an exciting plot, as 
 upon natural delineations of character, 
 keen observation of nature, shrewd 
 remarks, and quaint humor. The scene 
 is laid among homely rustics and sheep- 
 farmers, of whom it can truthfully be 
 said, in the well-knon words of Gray, 
 that : — 
 
 ' Far from the madding crowd's ignoble 
 strife, [stray. 
 
 Their sober wishes never learnt to 
 Along the cool sequestered vale of life, 
 
 They kept the noiseless tenor of their 
 way.' [Canadian Monthly. 1268 
 
 FELIX HOLT, THE RADICAL. 
 [by "G: Elioi" i. e., M.. A.. 
 (Evans) Cross : Blackwood, 1866.] 
 "Beyond the plot thSre is in George 
 
 Eliot's new novel a portrayal of charac- 
 ter and of english country life whose 
 exquisit fidelity can scarcely be realized 
 except by those who hav gone throu 
 those midland regions with which her 
 story is connected. All who hav with 
 charity and interest studied the charac- 
 ters of the best dissenting ministers, 
 will feel with gratitude that the charac- 
 ter of Mr. Lyon is a faithful picture of 
 
 many a. faitliful man There is a 
 
 notable change in the tone of G : Eliot 
 since the appearance of ' Adam Bede ' 
 [No. 1027]. Her style is quieter, her 
 spirit calmer, her social protestantism 
 less bitter. In humor, certainly Mrs. 
 Holt falls mucli behind Mrs. Poyser — 
 than whom, by the way, no more origi- 
 nal character has appeared in Englisli 
 fiction since Pickwick." [Hound 
 Table. 1269 
 
 FELLOW-TOWNSMEN, [by T : 
 Hardy: Harper, 1880.] "Anything 
 from Mr. Hardy's pen, however slit, is 
 worth reading; th^re is little of the 
 dramatic in it, which is unusual, and the 
 women ar rather shadoy, which is still 
 more so ; but thdre is the same insistence 
 upon the irony of fate, and the same in- 
 timation that if you let things take their 
 course in this world they will turn out 
 sadly and impotently, but in general 
 bearably — or at least this happens 
 oftener than other novelists ar apt to 
 think." [Nation. 1270 
 
 FERNYHURST COURT, [by F: 
 Pakthenopb (Nightingale) Vernet : 
 Strahan, 1871.] " We ar indebted to the 
 author of ' Stone Edge ' for another ex- 
 cellent story. We cannot call to recol- 
 lection a book in which women, as dis- 
 tinguished from feminin lay figures, 
 have played so distinguished and di- 
 versified a part Our author should 
 
 win the gratitude of her sex for a series 
 of charming portraits of what hundreds 
 395 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 of english ladies ar and may be. May 
 Dinlsdale stands out their queen by rit 
 divine. The story of her love, fairly 
 and naturally won, not lavished on the 
 least vrorthy object, after the fashion of 
 most heroins, reveals to us the charac- 
 ter, nowhfire formally described, of a 
 pure, hi-minded, warm-hearted, honest 
 
 english maiden Other varieties, — the 
 
 worldly mother, the Belgravian woman 
 of fashion, the limp but loving girl, who 
 leans for support upon a curate, — ar 
 described with kindliness and skill ; and 
 the male actors, tho not one of them 
 but the Squire is quite worthy of their 
 gentler relativs, hav all their places and 
 functions in the tale. Not a few sound 
 and honest observations on society, in- 
 stinct with Liberal thot of the hier type, 
 contribute to the value of a book which, 
 on every ground, will well repay peru- 
 sal." [Athenaeum. 1271 
 
 FERNLEY MANOR [by — ( ) 
 Daniels: N. Y., Brady, 1866.] "is a, 
 pleasant picture of old-fashioned coun- 
 try life. The story is a simple one, fairly 
 and unaffectedly told. ThSre is a care- 
 fulness and truth in the delineation of 
 tlie characters not always observable in 
 works which claim a hier place in modern 
 fiction." [Round Table. 1272 
 
 FIVE CHIMNEY FARM = No. 699. 
 
 FIVE OLD PRIENDS AND A 
 YOUNG PRINCE, [by A .. I .. (Thack- 
 eray) Ritchie: Smith, 1868.] The 
 five tales ar not so much the 5 old tales 
 of childhood rationalized and ' improved,' 
 as the frase is — that is, having all their 
 poetry and beauty taken out of them — 
 but transformed into a second and nobler 
 
 meaning But where other writers 
 
 hav so ignominiously broken down. 
 Miss Thackeray has won her greatest 
 success. WhSre they always prove dull 
 and wooden, she is lit and graceful, — 
 wh^re they paint with heavy, coarse 
 
 strokes, she sketches with the most deli- 
 cate touches Lastly, we must not 
 
 forget the many touches of real poetry, 
 pictures of the sea, and of the earth, of 
 spring and of harvest, which ar scat- 
 tered up and down these tales in such 
 profusion. We have selected ' Jack the 
 Oiant-killer ' for especial praise, but it 
 perhaps contains less poetry of this kind 
 than many of the others." [Westmin- 
 ster.] See "BLUE BEARD." 1273 
 
 FLOWER AND THE SPIRIT (The) . 
 [by Fkederika Macdonald : Black- 
 wood, 1887.] "The opening chapters 
 ar excellent, hitting off the humors of 
 the strange cosmopolitan society of a 
 Bloomsbury boarding-house with much 
 
 humor and point There is humor, 
 
 too, in the sketch of Stephen Bloxam, 
 the heroin's step-father, whose perpetual 
 vacillation between self-reproach and 
 self-compassion is cleverly illustrated. 
 
 In contrast with such actualities we 
 
 hav the heroin and her old danish friend, 
 representatives of ascetic mysticism 
 and romanticism respectivly. The lat- 
 ter is a thoroly sympathetic personage, 
 charmingly drawn." [Atheneeum. 1274 
 
 FOOLS OF FORTUNE [by F: 
 Boyle: Chapman, 1876.] " must not 
 be confounded with the average novel. 
 It is rather bohemian, but full of life, 
 movement, picturesque scenes, and 
 brilliant talk. Literary men should 
 certainly read it, as thSre is much in it 
 which concerns them." [Westminster 
 Review. 1275 
 
 FOR BETTER FOR WORSE. [Bos- 
 ton, Burnham, 1862.] "The author 
 of this charming novel has had the hard- 
 ihood to marry her heroin at the begin- 
 ning of her story. We find much to 
 praise in this well-told story and very 
 little to dislike or blame." [Church 
 Monthly. 1276 
 
 FOR CASH ONLY, [by Ja. Payn : 
 
 390 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 Chatto, 1882.] " Mr. Payn has long ago 
 established a certain reputation as a 
 romance writer. His strength lies in 
 llie narration of wild and more or less 
 impossible adventures. But when, as in 
 ' For Cash Only,' he comes before us as 
 a painter of men and manners, he is far 
 less successful. He wastes a good deal 
 of virtuous indignation on a recent well- 
 knon novel, whose title he thinly veils 
 under the pseudonym of ' Butterflies ' 
 ['Moths'], but in so doing he loses sit 
 of the old proverb about people who liv 
 in glass houses, for the picture of mor- 
 als with which he presents us is 'little, 
 if at all, less revolting than that which 
 he condemns, with the aggravating cir- 
 cumstance of being inflnitly more vul- 
 gar." [Westminster Review. 1277 
 FOR LILIAS [by Rosa Nouchette 
 Cakey: Bentley, 1885.] "is a thoro- 
 ly wholesom and charming story, in 
 which types of graceful womanhood pre- 
 dominate, tho the writer has given us 
 one finished portrait in Capel Frere, 
 whose whimsical fancies reconcile the 
 reader to that absence of hearty humor 
 noticeable in most books by women. 
 The plot is eifectiv in that it affords the 
 writer full scope for the delineation of 
 domestic life, in which she excels, and for 
 the development of the character of the 
 heroin, who is no paragon, but never- 
 theless a striking and attractiv figure by 
 reason of her very faults. Miss Carey's 
 method is none the less successful 
 becaus it is a little old-fashioned ; the 
 dialog is easy and natural, but singu- 
 larly free from all approach to slang; 
 and her latest work will maintain, if it 
 does not advance, her reputation as a 
 genial and refined writer." [Athenaeum.] 
 — "In 'For Lilias,' the author avails 
 herself of all the agreeable traditions of 
 english fiction ; th^re ar warm and well- 
 lited rooms, well-to-do people, regular 
 
 meals, afternoon tea, plenty of bread 
 and butter, and a gentle ripple of friend- 
 ly, soft-voiced conversation. This may 
 not be original or exciting, but ' ways 
 of pleasantness and paths of peace,' ar 
 refreshing to the critic, who believes 
 that altlio the novelist should not sacri- 
 fice his meaning to the recjuisitions of 
 mere agreeableness, out of regard for 
 art and the taste of his readers, he 
 should still hav beauty in some degree 
 or other as his chief end in vue." 
 [Lippincott's. 1278 
 
 FOR OLD LOVE'S SAKE [by Maria 
 G. Fetherstonhaugh : Bentley, 1882.] 
 "is avowedly a prose expansion of Mr. 
 Gilbert's comedy ' Sweethearts,' and 
 the theme has not suffered in the hands 
 of the novelist. The story is slit enuf, 
 but those who do not despise a mere 
 love tale will not be disappointed in tlie 
 troubled course run by the loves of 
 Cornet Dundas and Lady Margaret. 
 She is proud, tho honest enuf ; he hot- 
 tempered ; and the two manage ■ to be 
 strangers to their better selvs for some 
 five-and-twenty years, when the cornet, 
 now a general, makes his peace with the 
 woman he left in pique as a girl. Not 
 an unparalleled situation ; but it is drawn 
 with a lit hand, and yet not without 
 pathos. The gravity of Dundas' em- 
 barrassment, when his pledge has to be 
 exchanged with one kept faithfully for 
 years, and the question arises, ' Wh^re 
 the devil did I put that rose?' makes 
 a good foil to his almost too easy re- 
 covery of his place in Margaret's affec- 
 tions." [Athenaeum. 1279 
 
 FORPERCIVAL. [by Margaret Ve- 
 ley: Lippincott, 1878.] " It is not often 
 the critic's happy lot to be able to praise 
 a book unreservedly, but we can truly 
 say that For Percival is a most lovely 
 story, one of the most charming works 
 of fiction which hav appeared for the 
 397 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 last ten years And this book is in- 
 
 finitly better, both for the pleasure it 
 givs and for the influence which it may 
 exert, than books remarkable only for 
 the extraordinary talent and cleverness 
 displayed by their autliors. It shoes ad- 
 mirable drawing of character, especially 
 in Lissy, — absorbed in her love, and sen- 
 sitiv to every breath of coldness, — in the 
 proud, frank, passionate Lottie Blake; 
 and in Percival himself, an instance of 
 that rare union of strength of mind, 
 honesty of purpose, and gentleness of 
 heart, which more than any other, prob- 
 ably, attracts the deepest affection of 
 women. But th^re is something better 
 than the most skilful description or the 
 shrewdest observation : there is sympa- 
 thy, and a great deal of it. In the au- 
 thor of this story we hav a person who 
 answers The New Republic's definition 
 of a woman of culture: one who 'as I 
 speak of love or sorro, makes me feel 
 that she herself has knon them ; as I 
 speak of ambition, or ennui, or hope, or 
 remorse, or loss of character, makes me 
 feel that all these ar not mere names to 
 her, butthings.' Perhaps the best idea we 
 can giv of the author is by saying that 
 if we can imagin the George Eliot of 
 Middlemarch, minus filosofy and Greek, 
 and plus a certain all-pervading gentle- 
 ness, we shall hav before us the writer 
 of For Percival." [Boston " Literary 
 "World." 1280 
 
 FOR RICHER, FOR POORER [by 
 "Holme Lee," i. e., Harriet Parr: 
 Smith, 1870.] "is precisely the sort of 
 book which mit be expected from the 
 author of ' Sylvan Holt's Daughter ' and 
 ' Basil Godfrey's Caprice.' It is the 
 story of a young clergyman of ability, 
 but precarious health, who goes throu 
 many struggles with an attached wife; 
 but, at last, finds himself blessed by for- 
 tune, and may reasonably be expected to 
 
 ' liv happily ever after.' Equally 
 
 true ar the descriptions of the little in- 
 land town, with its microscopic squab- 
 bles, jealousies, and cliques, whfire Mr. 
 Lampleigh commences his career, and 
 the miniature sea-coast community — a 
 cross between » rural parish and a 
 watering-place, wh&e he begins life 
 again as a curate. It is not a novel of 
 thrilling interest; but most people will 
 read it with pleasure, and those who 
 delit in domestic scenes will accord to 
 it still bier praise." [Athenasum.] — 
 "Holme Lee's success does not end 
 with her sketches of north country man- 
 ners and scenery. We hav never 
 before met so charming pictures of 
 Bretagne. How the actors pass and re- 
 pass from Cumberland to Bretagne, and 
 how they liv at the Villa de I'Esperance, 
 the reader must find out for himself- 
 We hav dwelt so long upon the setting 
 of the tale that we ar unable to do justice 
 to the characters. But th^re ar few 
 people who will not take an interest in 
 the lives of Robert Rawstroun and Nan." 
 [Westminster Review. 1281 
 
 FORTUNE'S BUFFETS AND RE- 
 WARDS [by E. D. Pkimrose : Unwin, 
 1886.] "is a study, rather close than 
 masterly, 'of some fases of university 
 life in Edinburgh. Its strength is of 
 the conscious and conscientious kind, 
 but there is plenty of keen observation, 
 quick intelligence, and insit into char- 
 acter. The moral intention is unmis- 
 takably hi, and the realism of one side 
 of the picture, tho unpleasant, is not 
 
 coarse for coarseness' sake But the 
 
 book, tho it is redeemed by more than 
 one example of quiet courage and un- 
 obtrusiv heroism, is scarcely cheering. 
 
 The process by which the students 
 
 and their ways ar presented is foto- 
 grafic. Their adventures, friendships, 
 hoaxes, and foregatherings ar evidently 
 
 398 
 
BKITISH NOVELS. 
 
 as liVe the real thing as can be. Throu 
 all this realism runs a vein of something 
 akin to romance." [Athenaeum. 1282 
 FORTUNE'S MARRIAGE [by Geor- 
 GiANNA Marion (Craik) Mat : 1882.] 
 " is a fine instance of what mit be termed 
 the novel of conversation. It is almost 
 a drama. The characters who ar for the 
 most part before the reader ar only 3 ; 
 the dialog, throu which the author works 
 out her story, is handled in a masterly 
 way ; and the whole work has a certain 
 natural charm, a grace and skill in por- 
 traiture, an impression of refined real- 
 ism, that has no parallel in the produc- 
 
 making, but it is full of a lively knoled,:; 
 of the world,* and of rattle almost always 
 amusing and now and then very clever. 
 
 The story is cleverly contrived, and 
 
 the conversation brit, with just enuf ten- 
 dency to flippancy to bring the reader 
 into that state of mind half-way between 
 amusement and superciliousness, which 
 most conciliates his self-love. The 
 author understaads more classes than 
 one : perhaps his best male sketch is that 
 of an assistant in a dispensary, subse- 
 quently a professional fotografer, who is 
 a very vulgar-minded young person ; and 
 his best female sketcli is that of a vain 
 
 tions of any contemporary novelist and shoy young woman, — a chemist's 
 
 Briefly Ronald Glyn, the thriving bar- 
 rister of 30, a well-meaning but cold and 
 irather egotistical man, found few points 
 of sympathy with Fortune Denbigh, the 
 warm-hearted girl of 20, who had been 
 ■.petted all her life. It was Ursula, Ron- 
 ald's maiden-sister, who acted as dea ex 
 •machina, and brot about the union of 
 'these two, until, like Benedict and Bea- 
 trice, they succumbed to one another's 
 icharms. The incidents leading up to the 
 marriage ar cleverly managed ; and the 
 subsequent estrangement, culminating on 
 the one hand in wounded pride, and on 
 ■the other in pathetic resignation, is no 
 less admirably wrot out. During a 
 .period of separation and sorro. Fortune 
 .learns the virtues of self-restraint, and 
 Ronald at the same time begins to realize 
 what he has lost. Nothing could surpass 
 in delicacy the story of that second woo- 
 ing, in which the man found himself 
 repelled by the woman who had once 
 
 been at his feet The situation is 
 
 novel and piquant ; and it is carried to 
 obvious ending with exquisit delicacy and 
 tact." [Boston "Lit. World." 1283 
 FOUR CROTCHETS TO A BAR. 
 \^Smith, 1881.] " There is no elaborate 
 character-drawing, and no elaborate plot- 
 
 dauter, — who becomes his wife, and 
 whose beauty he describes as taking his 
 breath away — 'She's just like pepper- 
 mint and water.'" [Spectator. 1284 
 
 FOUR MACNICOLS (The) [by 
 W: Black: Harper, 1.882.] "is only a 
 bit of A sketch which the reader will 
 wish longer, of brave, hearty scotch 
 fisher-lads. It has in it all the best 
 traits of Mr. Black's work, and the pe- 
 culiar charm with which he always de- 
 picts life upon the sea. It has, too, a 
 special wisdom, in that the boys work 
 their way up in a natural manner. No 
 miraculous discovery, no prodigy of 
 benevolence smooths the path for them; 
 they make their modest fortune with 
 only such help as diligence and perse- 
 verance may expect." [Nation. 1285 
 
 — , SAME, with A Beautiful 
 Wretch. Macmillan, 1881. 
 
 FOUR SCHOOLFELLOWS. [Skeet, 
 1878.] "The 4 schoolfelloes in the 
 french convent, tho not very attractiv, 
 ar not uninteresting. Thfire is some- 
 thing rather grand about the proud 
 beauty Adrienne de Coralac, who loses 
 at one fell stroke her wealth, her beauty 
 and her lover, and parts with the latter 
 with a scorn which hides effectually the 
 399 
 
BK1TI8II NOVELS. 
 
 terrible wound she sustains. Old Lady 
 Caroline is somewhat too fantastic in 
 her cynicism to be quite real, but she, 
 as well as the other matrons, is consist- 
 ent in her oddities. Gertrude Calverly 
 is both womanly and spirited, and is 
 well rid of the selfish barrister who so 
 nearly married her for her wealth. On 
 the whole, thSre is cliaracter in the 
 story, which involrs a large number of 
 parts in general ably sustained." 
 [Athenaeum. 1286 
 
 FOXGLOVE MANOR [by Ro. 
 BtJCHANAN : Chatto, 1884.] " is a power- 
 ful study. Mr. Buchanan has firmly 
 grasped the character of a man of a 
 sensuous and even refined imagination, 
 but without any moral fibre. Tho the 
 man is a clergyman the author disclaims 
 the intention of making an attack upon 
 the clergy generally, but he has made 
 an opportunity for a, great quantity of 
 controversial matter by introducing as 
 the chief contrast to the clergyman a 
 professed agnostic. Mr. Buchanan has 
 drawn the central figure with consum- 
 mate skill, and told his story with great 
 vigor, directness, and rapidity of narra- 
 tion. At the opening the clergyman is 
 set clearly before the reader, fascinated 
 by the charms of art and religion, and 
 yet haunted by doubts as to his creed, 
 keenly sensitiv to opinion, emotional, 
 and vaguely ambitious. He is half 
 attracted by the unconcealed adoration 
 of a simple little girl when,' in the midst 
 of one of his impassioned sermons, he 
 sees before hira the face of the woman 
 he had once loved. She is married, and 
 has come to liv in his parish. Then be- 
 gins the story of his moral failure, and 
 Mr. Buchanan has revealed the work- 
 ings of his mind and his spiritual degra- 
 dation with complete success." [Athe- 
 nseum. 1287 
 
 FRAMLEY PARSONAGE, [by An- 
 
 thony Trollope : Smith, 1861.] "Too 
 many hundreds hav read this beautiful 
 novel for it to be necessary to giv any 
 account of it as a story. Everyone who 
 reads novels at all is familiar witli the 
 little brown Lucy, and how she won the 
 golden prize at last, and chiefly by seem- 
 ing not to care for it; with Mark 
 Roberts, soft, easy, pleasure-loving; and 
 dear Fanny, all that a pretty young wife 
 and mother should be ; with Lady Luf- 
 ton, despotic ahd benevolent, narro and 
 generous, proud and Christian-hearted; 
 with Mr. Sowerby, eaten by creditors 
 and the great duke; with Griselda 
 Grantly, that matchless mirchioness, 
 who gave to dress what others would 
 giv to passion, or to pleasure, or to 
 
 heaven Here is a man's book, written 
 
 by a man in a tlioroly masculin spirit 
 and with every adjunct and circumstance 
 mMe, as the French say, to the back 
 bone. We regard this work of Mr. 
 TroUope as matchless in its way, being 
 so perfectly pure and yet so manly, such 
 fitting food for men, but with no odor 
 and no savor which shall hurt the tender- 
 est maiden." [London Review. 1288 
 FREDA [by — (Smedley) Hart: 
 Bentley, 1879.] " is a most entertaining 
 book. ' Freda' happened to come in the 
 revuer's way as a book to be read for 
 pleasure, and not for business, and he 
 can therefore say in the most unhesi- 
 tating way that he found it a delitful 
 story. To say that it is eccentric would 
 not be an exaggeration. Such creatures 
 as Freda, happily for the peace of male 
 mankind, are not found wandering about 
 the world ; but they ar not the less at- 
 tractiv to read about. Of course, she 
 represents something in life ; she is a 
 type of a number of very inferior reali- 
 ties, but tlie writer has contrived, with- 
 out making her in the least unnatural, so 
 to glorify and idealize her, to make her 
 
 400 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 SO charming, so naive, so amusing, that 
 we recognize in her a creation of singu- 
 lar merit. To hav made so striking an 
 addition to that gallery of imaginary 
 portraits which a reader's mind possesses 
 is no slit achievement in a novelist, and 
 the author of Freda has attained it. As 
 a tale, it is needless to criticise it. Of 
 course, it is hily improbable, but the im- 
 probability is quite in keeping witli the 
 whole of the book. We ar better 
 pleased with such delitfiil creations as 
 these, than we hav often been with char- 
 acters drawn on the strictest rules of 
 art, and plots constructed with a most 
 dutiful regard to probability. We feel 
 that we hav not given our readers the 
 least idea of what Freda is, and can only 
 recommend them to find out for them- 
 selvs. Men will probably sliare our 
 enthusiasm, but some women will think 
 it silly." [Spectator. 1289 
 
 FREDERICK RIVERS; INDE- 
 PENDENT PARSON, [by Florence 
 ( ) Williamson : Williams ^ Nor- 
 
 gaie, 1864.] " The author's object is 
 to sho the vulgarity, narro-mindedness, 
 intolerance and petty tyranny which 
 prevail in Dissenting circles when a min- 
 ister of more enlarged and liberal vues 
 than the majority hold, dares to act in 
 
 accordance with his conscience Mrs. 
 
 Williamson exhibits a good deal of abil- 
 ity in the development of her characters, 
 and her book is clever and striking. 
 Frederick Rivers, the hero, is a Dissent- 
 ing minister who, while admiring the 
 courageous protest of the old Puritans 
 against tyranny in Church and State, 
 heartily dislikes the gloomy and forbid- 
 ding principles they hav transmitted to 
 the nonconformists of the present day. 
 He sees no harm in the theatre ; he is 
 fond of secular literature ; and altogether 
 he is a frank, open-hearted, genial, we 
 mit even say jolly, young fello, with a 
 
 world of energy and serious thot in him, 
 nevertheless. Necessarily, he is perse- 
 cuted by the narro-natured tradesmen 
 and their wives who ' sit under him ; ' 
 and he has other trials as well. His 
 sweet-souled, quiet, helpful wife dies in 
 the course of tlie story, whicli ends in 
 his second marriage to another equally- 
 charming woman, Effie Holmes, who, 
 her father having been ruined by the 
 dishonesty of a clerk, has been getting 
 her living as a shop-woman, and thereby 
 mortally offending her rich and selfish 
 uncle. The story is altogether slit, tho 
 it includes an underplot in which this 
 uncle is duly br6t to shame and unhap- 
 iness. Too much of mere talking, de- 
 scription, and discussion is the great 
 fault of the book, which, however, shoes 
 also a great deal of humor, observation, 
 and good sense." [London Review. 1290 
 
 FRERES (The) = No. 456. 
 
 FROM BIRTH TO BRIDAL [by — 
 ( ) Day: Iltirst, 1873.] " is a whole- 
 som and pleasant novel, with plenty of 
 fresh air, free country life, and talk 
 about children and dogs in it. The girl 
 whose story it tells is an original charac- 
 ter, but quite natural, and very charm- 
 ing Then thfire is an admirable little 
 
 episode, in which a quiet, sensible, un- 
 selfish, fair-minded man wins his wife's 
 love, without letting her discover that he 
 has suspected the lack of it. The story, 
 very simple in the beginning, gradually 
 groes into a complication involving a 
 difficult situation, a father and son being 
 respectivly in love with the same person. 
 This pisition is so skilfully treated, with 
 such nice delicacy and simple grace, that 
 while all that is pathetic in the story is 
 put forward with power and effect, no 
 unpleasant impression is produced." 
 [Spectator. 1291 
 
 FROM MOOR ISLES [by Jessie 
 Fothekoill: BentUy, 1388.] "is pre- 
 
 401 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 eminently a pretty story. It has delicate 
 sentiment and picturesque scenes, and 
 the language has at times a quality quite 
 musical. The reader may make his 
 clioice of a hero, for our attention is 
 divided between the devoted gardian of 
 the young Inez, and tlie casual violinist 
 who was tlie victim of a bluff at the des- 
 tructiv game of poker which lost him his 
 estate. One may choose, too, his heroin, 
 whether it be Alice Ormerod, who spent 
 her life in unreciprocated love for tlie 
 fitful oner of Moor Isles, or Inez, who 
 foUoed the dictates of her heart in spite 
 of external surroundings wliich seemed 
 to impel her in other directions. Miss 
 Fotliergill, in all she does, shoes a liter- 
 ary instinct of the first order." [Critic] 
 
 — " Brian Holgate is a really fine pres- 
 entation of the artistic temperament, a 
 temperament which Miss Fothergill 
 understands thoroly, both in its weak- 
 ness and in .its strength. The early 
 chapters, in which Brian is the promi- 
 nent figure, ar the strongest in the book ; 
 and tlie noble portrait of Alice Ormerod 
 makes them the most attractiv as well. 
 Never, indeed, has Miss Fothergill given 
 us a more graciously molded heroin 
 than this Yorkshire dauter of the people 
 who is Brian's good genius ; and prob- 
 ably most novel-readers will be dis- 
 appointed that her loving devotion does 
 not receive what they will deem its 
 natural reward ; but we incline to think 
 tliat this is one of the cases in which the 
 old fairy-tale ending — ' They wer 
 married, and lived happily ever after- 
 ward' — would have been a sacrifice of 
 imaginativ veracity to superficial ef- 
 fectivness." [Spectator. 1292 
 
 FROM THE HEATHER HILLS [by 
 
 — ( ) Perks: Surst, 1887. J " is a 
 graceful, interesting, and pleasant story. 
 As may be inferred from the title, it is 
 largely an out-of-doors book, and it is 
 
 not one of those books in which nature 
 smells of the lamp, but rather one which 
 answers us by some intangible suggestion, 
 that the writer has had long and loving 
 familiarity with the springy moorland 
 carpet and the keen moorland air. Even 
 when Peggy Dalrymple is taken by Lady 
 Erinwood from her Highland home into 
 the whirl of a London season, we hardly 
 lose the out-of-doors feeling, for 
 " ' She brings the scent of heather with her. 
 To sho in wliat sweet glens she grew ; — 
 Whene'er slie trips in any weather, 
 She steps as if she trod on heather, 
 And leaves a sense like dropping dew.' " 
 [Spectator. 1293 
 
 GABRIELLE VAUGHAN [by M.. 
 E. Shipley: Seeley, 187G.] "has tlie 
 merit of increasing in interest as the 
 story proceeds. Tlie scene and actors 
 ar at first unattractiv. A struggling 
 doctor's family in the outskirts of Lon- 
 don does not promis to afford anytliing 
 exciting in the way of incident, and a 
 large household kept in submission to 
 domestic disciplin doeanot at first seem 
 likely to present any extraordinary varie- 
 ties of character. Yet, tho the circum- 
 stances of Miss Shipley's lieroin ar 
 sombre, and tlie episodes of her story 
 tame, Gabrielle is so consistent in her 
 adherence to duty, so steady in her un- 
 selfishness and submission to petty slits, 
 so capable of self-sacrifice in the more 
 important matter of her engagement to 
 Gilbert Selwyn, that in the end she 
 secures the reader's sympathy, and one 
 takes more pleasure in her final liappiness 
 than at first seems possible. The draw- 
 back from one's complete enjoyment of 
 her triumf arises from the vexatious and 
 unnecessary nature of tlie trial to which 
 she is exposed. Gabrielle is the artistic 
 member of a commonplace family. It 
 will be seen tliat the story has notliing of 
 the sensational kind to recommend it; 
 
 402 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 that in spite of its neutral coloring, sev- 
 eral situations and dialogs ar sketched 
 with much force and truth to nature, and 
 tliat the large party of youtlis and 
 maidens ar drawn with much clear dis- 
 tinction of th^ir several characters, 
 should be sufficient to recommend tlie 
 book to those who ar content with an 
 unpretending 'moral tale.'" [Athe- 
 naeum. 1295 
 
 GARDEN OF EDEN (The) [Bent- 
 ley, 1882.] " is the work of a cultivated 
 and observant mind, and possesses merits 
 wliich raise it above the level of medi- 
 ocrity It is thoroly readable, unex- 
 ceptionable in tone, and written in an 
 
 intelligible and pleasant style The 
 
 hero, John Clifford, and tlie heroin 
 Altliea Biron, ar clearly, even power- 
 fully drawn cliaracters, and each 
 possesses a distinct and marked indi- 
 viduality. Tliey ar not puppets ticketed 
 with some form of vice or virtue whieli 
 they ar continually called upon to dis- 
 play, nor ar they dummies, introduced 
 in tlie first cliapter, with a minute de- 
 scription, to which the progress of the 
 story adds not a single feature. They 
 ar more life-like creations, whom tlie 
 reader feels he comprehends better 
 every moment while the plot is being 
 developed." [Athenajum. 1290 
 
 GARDEN OF MEMORIES (A) 
 [etc.] [by Ma. Velev : (t, 1887) Mac- 
 millan, 1887.] "contains three stories, 
 all of them somewhat slender in texture, 
 but all worked out with much delicacy 
 and skill. W-c can imagin the old pict- 
 uresque garden, a genuin ' rus in urbe,' 
 which is the bone of contention between 
 Mary Wynne and Thomas Brydon, — she 
 wanting to keep it becaus it is associated 
 with a sweet sentiment, he eager to buy 
 it becaus he sees in it the only possible 
 way of furnishing improved dwellings 
 for a population in whose welfare lie 
 
 feels a keen interest. And the conflict 
 between these two sentiments impresses 
 us as being real, and one In which it is 
 possible to feel a genuin interest. And 
 there is skill, too, in the way in which 
 the two ar ultimately reconoiled. In 
 ' Mrs. Austin,' a young man falls pas- 
 sionately in love with a woman older 
 than himself; half out of compassion, 
 half from affection which her lover's 
 passion has called into being, she makes 
 up her mind to accept him, and lo ! lie 
 lias clianged. The third story is another 
 variation on tlie familiar theme that 
 first-loves ar often variable. The lover 
 in ' Mrs. Austin ' is a fine young fello, 
 in spite of liis fickleness ; the other char- 
 acters, both in this and the third story, 
 fail to interest us." [Spectator. 1297 
 GARSTANGS OF GARSTANG 
 GRANGE (The), [by T: Adolphus 
 Trollope : Smith, 1809.] . . . . " In their 
 way we hav lately read nothing better 
 than the sketches of the firm of Slow- 
 comb and Shgo, solicitors In Silchestcr. 
 The temptation to burlesque in tlie case 
 of Mr. Sligo must hav been very great. 
 A foUoer of Mr. Dickens would most 
 assuredly hav given us a. gross carica- 
 ture, where Mr. Trollope has finely 
 shaded off the character. Mr. Slow- 
 comb, altho we do not see so much of 
 him, with his old-fashioned watch chain 
 and seals, hanging like a kitchen clock's 
 pendulum, and his anecdotes about the 
 county families and their secrets, is 
 equally well sketched. But the real 
 power of tlie book Is shon in the skillful 
 way In which the plot is gradually devel- 
 oped, and brot to a climax only in tlie 
 last chapter. Plot-interest is excessivly 
 difficult to manage. The plot-Interest of 
 such writers as l/c. Willcie Collins and 
 Miss Braddon Is not the plot-interest 
 of true art, but of a kind akin to the 
 morbid curiosity which is excited by an 
 403 ' 
 
UKITISII NOVULS. 
 
 Old Bailey trial. Mr. TroUope's plot is 
 dependent upon tlie development and 
 evolution of his eharactera." | West- 
 minster Review. 1298 
 
 GENTLE AND SIMPLE [by Ma. 
 Agnes (Colvillk) Paul : Paul, 1878. J 
 " is a good story, and of a kind that de- 
 mands a hearty welcom, in these days of 
 insolently-careless writing and lo motivs 
 in the literature of fiction. It is admir- 
 ably written, in a style which corallines 
 ease and carefulness, and it is as re- 
 fined as it is clever The schem- 
 ing german girl is an admirable foil to the 
 noble and uprit Millicent, but the con- 
 trast is never drawn coarsely, nor ar the 
 two brot face to face in any broad 
 rivalry." [Spectator.] — " ' Gentle and 
 Simple' is a pleasing novel of character. 
 . . . . In spite, however, of her treatment 
 at the hands of her purse-proud uncle and 
 her plebeian aunt, in spite of the doubtful 
 attentions of awortliless fortune-hunter, 
 and the enthusiastic patronage of her 
 cousin, Millicent is a marvel of delicacy 
 and good feeling." [Atliena;ura. 1200 
 
 GENTLEMAN VERSCnOYLE. [by 
 Lahra M. Lank: Low, 1875.] "The 
 plot is simple, almost commonplace. 
 The style, however, is free from blem- 
 ish ; some of the characters ar well 
 drawn, and in their delmeation the 
 author displays considerable knoledge 
 of human nature. Tlie tone of the 
 book is healthful throuoiit, and the 
 author, tlio venturing to deal with 
 questions not generally i?upposed to fall 
 within a woman's province, treats them 
 in a thotful, temperate, and reasonable 
 manner. What we most like is the 
 tender, charitable, and sympathetic feel- 
 ing evinced, and the care the author 
 takes to avoid making the dramatis 
 personaj unnaturally vicious or virtuous. 
 .... The book is characterized by deli- 
 cacy and refinement. [Athen. 1300 
 
 GEOFFRY nAMLYN [byH: Kincs- 
 i.ky: Macmillan, 1857. J "is full of 
 power of the most varied and different 
 kinds, descriptiv, analytical, and humor- 
 ous. We do not kno in fiction a com- 
 plex character better described or more 
 tlioroly analysed than tlie heroin, who, 
 as her father regretfully says, ' is not 
 a lady,' but a passionate village girl, 
 with a tropical nature, an unregulated 
 brain, and all tlie instincts of an actress 
 of the loer type. The portrait of this 
 girl, with her fierce, yet not hateful 
 egoism ; her capacity of mixing real 
 emotion and histrionic abandon ; her 
 rude, and, so to speak, animal, yet 
 true affection for lover, husband, son 
 and friends j her lawless wilfulness, and 
 her latent capability alike of a goodness 
 to wliich she never reaches, Iier nature 
 being too vulgar, and a criminality to 
 which she never falls, her training and 
 circumstances being too favorable, i.s a 
 work of the hiest art, and shoed in II : 
 Kingsley not only unusual powers of 
 observation, but power of description of 
 a severely restrained kind, such as is 
 given only to the masters of fiction." 
 [Spectator. 1301 
 
 GEORGE GEITII OF FEN COURT 
 [by " F. G. Trafford," i. c, C. Eliza 
 Lawson (Cowan) Riodkll: Tinsley, 
 1803.] " is an excellent novel, power- 
 fully and carefully written. George, the 
 runaway clergyman, the plodding man 
 of business, with the secret which has 
 darkened his life, but also developed 
 his energy and strength o_f purpos, is an 
 excellent portrait, lie has thron away 
 his gown, clianged Ids name and become 
 ii man of hard work, — giving himself 
 no rest that he may earn money to re- 
 trieve the fatal error into which he has 
 been led as a young man. The reader's 
 interest in the man and his fortunes is 
 thoroly aroused ; he has been so deeply 
 
 404 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 wronged, not only by his on act of which 
 he is conscious, but by the wrong of an- 
 other, which has changed the aspect of 
 his fortune. ThrouiJut lie is a deeply 
 injured man, but he is so strong, so up- 
 rit, and, above all, so full of hard work, 
 that the reader never deems him a 
 victim; he is fiting a brave battle, and 
 only for a foul bio, a, treachery against 
 which he could scarcely Iiav garded, he 
 would hav won the victory. When he 
 is struck down, he endures like a man. 
 Few heroes of novels win the respect 
 of the reader like George Geith. Tlie 
 other characters ar well drawn. Mr. 
 Molozane, the, proud gentleman ruined 
 by mining speculations, is excellent. 
 Beryll, the young dauter, is a charming 
 creature. The incidental sketches of 
 character ar all good; as ar also the 
 descriptions of tlie city, of tlie country, 
 both in summer and winter. We ab- 
 stain from telling the plot becaus we 
 recommend our readers to get the 
 book for themselves." [Athen. 1303 
 
 GEORGY SANDON. [Boston, 18G5.] 
 = A LOST LOVE. 
 
 GERALD [by Eleanoii C. Price : 
 Chaiio, 1885.] "if only a story, is an 
 original and interesting one. The last 
 few chapters, on life in Cape Ooloiiy, 
 ar written with a good deal of power, and 
 the touch at the close is to be com- 
 mended both from the artistic and the 
 moral point of vue. It is a pleasing in- 
 novation for a heroin witli two lovers, 
 who marries the wrong one, not to be 
 released by her husband's death from 
 her unfortunate fetters, to marry at last 
 the nt one. Theo is not released, but 
 learns to love her chains." [Critic] — 
 ' Gerald ' is a very pretty tale, with enuf 
 of continuous interest, cliaracter, and 
 lively dialog to keep the reader pleasantly 
 engrossed Theo is a hi-bred, dis- 
 dainful young lady, whose features ar 
 
 constantly liting up with a fine scorn, and 
 who likes to tell her friends in word and 
 action, especially when she is going 
 against tlieir wishes, that she always 
 does what she cliooses. Fortunately, 
 however, she nearly always chooses to 
 do the rit thing at the rit moment, from 
 happy instinct and pure goodness of 
 heart, so that nothing very mischievous 
 comes of her obstinacy." [Ath. 1303 
 GERALDINE AND HER SUITORS. 
 [by M. C. M. (S.) Simpson: Ilursi, 
 1881.] " There ar people .whom even 
 tlie unsocially disposed greet with alac- 
 rity wherever they may come across 
 them, and whese books the burdened 
 revuer and the most rit-minded reader 
 alike take with a smile of serene con- 
 sciousness that they will find in them 
 neither bad sense nor bad grammar, 
 neither ill nature nor slang, and neither 
 be introduced into the society of ruffians 
 or profligates, nor yet into the blinding 
 splendor of that company of Olympos 
 to which Lord Beaconsfield is good enuf 
 to act the part of Hermes. Among 
 these universally-welcom people, Mrs. 
 Simpson has for some years taken her 
 
 place In turning out these smooth, 
 
 brit, and well-written novels — ' Win- 
 nie's History,' [No. 560], and ' Gerald- 
 ine ' — she is always ' mistress of the 
 situation,' dealing with her subject with 
 perfect ease and tact, and tlie grace of a 
 gentlewoman. Her heroin in tliis book 
 is a young wido, a pleasant variation on 
 the perpetual theme of chits of 18 en- 
 dowed not only with all the solid sense 
 of 28 but also with the savoir-faire and 
 knoledg of the world to be acquired at 
 80. The story of tliis charming wido is 
 prettily told, and placed In a partof South 
 Wales. Everything in the book is 
 perfectly natural, and the talk, of which 
 there is abundance, is never tedious." 
 [Spectator. 1304 
 
 405 
 
BRITISIt NOVELS. 
 
 GIANT'S ROBE (The) [by F : 
 Anstev [GnTiiRiE] ; Appldon, 1884.] 
 "is a very clever book. It is satirical 
 but not cynical, amusing but not shallo ; 
 ■without being in the least didactic, it 
 preaches a powerful sermon, and the 
 moral it draws is that dear to the heart 
 of Mrs. Opie : ' Nothing is safe but the 
 trutli.' The hero is a young man with 
 many pleasing traits and much surface 
 brilliancy which make him attractiv to 
 all about him, but the truth is not in 
 him, and the literary imposition into 
 wlucli he is allured appears to him a 
 venial error — so long as he is not found 
 out. It is not till the very last of the 
 peacock plumes is torn from the poor 
 shivering jackdaV that he sees liimself 
 as he really is, and is brflt to the state 
 which the mystics call ' vastation,' in 
 which the planting of a, new life be- 
 comes possible. Such a. theme for a 
 story sounds grim and severe, but in 
 point of fact its treatment is not at all in 
 the tragic vein. The brilliancy of the 
 style is that of hi comedy, and thfire is a 
 kindly tolerance of tone which extends 
 even to the deeper-dyed villain of the 
 story. Ideal goodness is sustained in 
 the character of Mabel, who is as charm- 
 ing as hi spirit, intelligence, rectitude 
 and feminin softness combined can 
 make one." [American.] — "As it is 
 neither fantastic nor funny, extended 
 comparison between it and ' Vice Versa ' 
 would be idle. It is a more solid and 
 thdtful work than Mr. Anstey's earlier 
 novel. The plot is an excellent one ; 
 the characters ar well chosen, and the 
 expression, if not always free, is never 
 inadequate, often happy. The author 
 has already been accused of stealing his 
 central situation, but his preface ac- 
 knoledges a. debt to the intrigue of a 
 Christmas story. Fortunately it makes 
 little difference whether the incident is 
 
 borroed or not, since the treatment is 
 strikingly original and vigorous. Mark 
 Ashburn's appropriation of his friend's 
 accepted manuscript is something more 
 than a common theft for money and no- 
 toriety ; it is the extreme expression of 
 belief in his on literary talent ; it is the 
 forlorn hope upon which hangs the fate of 
 his hitherto unappreciated ' Sweet Bells 
 Jangled.' In the drawing of the vain, 
 shallo, but not wholly worthless Ash- 
 burn, every stroke tells. While his 
 literary hallucination lasts, he does in- 
 famous things, and is eomparativly 
 happy. Forced admission of his mis- 
 take about the quality of his genius 
 brings some dim perception of the ex- 
 tent and variety of his errors, and pangs 
 of remorse for the suffering and sorro 
 so uselessly heaped upon Ilolroyd. 
 Then his natural impulse to help other 
 people, chiefly that he may be comfort- 
 able, takes possession of him, and he 
 tells the truth.'' [Nation.] — " The story 
 of ' Tom Singleton' [by W. F. Synue: 
 Chapman, 1879.] turns upon the diffi- 
 culties which arose from a man's ap- 
 propriating to himself the glory and the 
 profits of a play, the manuscript of 
 which had been sent to him from India 
 by his friend the hero. The author's 
 invention is happily contrived." Com- 
 jiare, also, plot of No. 273. [Atlie- 
 naium.] 1305 
 
 GIDEON FLEYCE [by H : W. 
 Lucv : Holt, 1883.] " created, it is re- 
 ported, a sensation in London becaus 
 of its life-like sketches of certain well 
 kuon public characters. This may well 
 be, but the book challenges admiration 
 on its merits as a story, and will be read 
 with pleasure by readers who kno noth- 
 ing and care as little about London nota- 
 bilities. It combines various kinds of 
 merit more or less rare by themselvs, 
 and rarer still in combination. Its style 
 
 406 
 
BBITISH NOVELS. 
 
 is attractiv in its artful, or rather, ar- 
 tistic simplicity. Its plot is more in- 
 tricate and more full of surprises than 
 one is accustomed to look for now-a- 
 days, and, tho horering on the brink of 
 melodrama, never actually loses its air 
 of every day, newspaper reality." [Na- 
 tion. 1306 
 
 GILBERT KUGGE [by H : Jack- 
 son: Harper, 1866.] " is a very clever, 
 gracefully written story. The hero is 
 the well-born young gentleman who 
 starts in life under the most favorable 
 auspices, is lured away from his first 
 love by a city beauty with whom his suit 
 eventually prospers, only tliat she may 
 jilt him heartlessly upon the discovery 
 that lie is the offspring of a mesalliance, 
 hitherto successfully concealed by his 
 family from himself and the world ; 
 poverty and other misfortunes accumu- 
 late about him that his character may 
 be purified by adversity in the ortho- 
 dox manner, which being happily ac- 
 complished, and having furthermore 
 achieved success, as usual, in litera- 
 ture, he wooes for the third time his 
 first love, is accepted, and married; 
 while retributiv justice in various forms 
 overtakes the evil-minded." [Round 
 Table. 1307 
 
 GIRL HE DID NOT MARRY (The), 
 [by IzA DuFFUs Hardy : Wiite, 1889.] 
 " Thf're is much pathos in Miss Hardy's 
 description of a wayward, hi-spirited, 
 lafing coquette gradually being reduced 
 by several bitter experiences to a sad 
 and solitary woman. It is a pitiful 
 story, but it is redeemed by the really 
 lifelike character of Hazel, who under 
 her frivolity and heartlessness, as far 
 as wooers ar concerned, bears a cour- 
 ageous and a tender spirit, and has that 
 strong family affection which is the 
 deepest feeling of many of the best of 
 her sex The book is britly 
 
 written, and the author wins our sym- 
 pathies for the luckless heroin." [Athe- 
 naeum. 1308 
 GIRL'S ROMANCE (A). [Edin- 
 burgh, Edmonston, 1867.] " The story 
 is as natural as it is graceful, and it has 
 the merit of being very touching and 
 pathetic without leaving a painful im- 
 pression. So many of the romances 
 which we meet now-a-days ar either 
 hopelessly vapid and unmeaning, incur- 
 ably morbid, or repulsivly unnatural, 
 that it is a real pleasure to lit unex- 
 pectedly upon one which is pure and 
 fresh and healthy, which tells a charm- 
 ing love-story in a style deserving of hi 
 praise, and which throuout teaches an 
 excellent lesson in an unobtrusiv man- 
 ner It is a very simple story, 
 
 with little incident in it, its merit arising 
 chiefly from the excellence of its de- 
 lineation of one character. Janet Rad- 
 way has been bred almost alone. Her 
 mother is an invalid, her father a 
 scholar, almost always absorbed in his 
 
 studies And so she groes up 
 
 enthusiastic -and romantic, eager to 
 solv the mysteries of life, and little 
 qualified to bear the sorroes which they 
 involv. Chance throes her in the way 
 of a wandering artist, who greatly ad- 
 mires her, and amuses himself by flirt- 
 ing with her. He means no harm, and 
 he has no idea of intentionally deceiving 
 her, for he is not entirely heartless. But 
 he is sufficiently selfish to allow himself 
 the pleasure of winning this young and 
 confiding heart, and cold enuf to be able 
 to withdraw and leave it to grieve for 
 its loss without troubling himself about 
 its sorroes. ThSre is great charm in 
 the description of Janet's almost over- 
 whelming joy when she finds out that 
 he cares for her, and her belief that a 
 happy time is at last beginning for her, 
 and the pictures in which she figures by 
 
 407 
 
BKITtSlI NOVELS. 
 
 his siilc, vhilo wanilermg tlirou tlie 
 woods or by tlie rivcrsido, ar full of 
 
 life and color Life gains by 
 
 degrees a firmer bold over her ; the pos- 
 sibility of happiness again enters into 
 her meditations, and she learns to look 
 calmly back on the past, and to estimate 
 at its true worth the character of the 
 man wliom she used to adore. At the 
 same time she learns tlio value of such 
 a true affection as that which a very 
 different man from tlie romantic but sel- 
 fish artist who won her girlisli heart has 
 felt for her since the days of his boy- 
 hood. The conclusion of tlie story is 
 well managed, there being a very dra- 
 matic scene just before its close. It is 
 a book of very decjided and unusual 
 merit. We ar sure that we sliall dcserv 
 the thanks of our readers, many of 
 whom mit be led by the modesty of its 
 appearance to overlook it, if we induce 
 tlieni to read this cliarming record of ' A 
 Girl's Romance.'" [London Kev. 130t> 
 GIRTON GIRL (A), [by Annie ( ) 
 Edwakds: Bentley, 1886.] "The girl 
 never goes to Girton ; neither is slie tlie 
 chief personage of the story. Neverthe- 
 less, she is a charming and original girl. 
 .... The true ' niotiv ' of tlie story, 
 apart from the love troubles of Geoffry 
 and Marjorie, is very like that of 'Ought 
 We to Visit Her?' The selfish, indo- 
 lent, half-cynical worthlessness of the 
 man in both novels and .... Dinah's 
 character ar worked out perfectly ; tlie 
 little touches of unreasonableness, due 
 to her entire ignorance of that kind of 
 life in which Gaston is a blase adept, ar 
 supplied with great skill. The reader's 
 sympathy with her is sometimes taxed 
 a little, but it never quite givs way. 
 And the britness and movement of the 
 story, sarcastic and sardonic as it is, 
 around the honest, frank, honorable, 
 loving woman's figure in the centre, ar 
 
 very pleasant. The married flirt, of the 
 confidential, ' incomprise' kind, with a 
 facility for depreciating men's wives, 
 with a deadly skill, tho she is charm- 
 ing to and concerning her husband in 
 public, is always a success in the hands 
 of Mrs. Edwards. She has never sur- 
 passed the typical flirt of this novel, 
 Linda Thorne." [Spectator. 13 lO 
 
 GLAMOUR. [by " Wandkrer : " 
 Sonnenschein, 188G.J "The hero of 
 tills pleasant and readable book is a 
 young man who is somewhat of a para- 
 gon without being a prig, and is sorely 
 perplexed as to whether or not he shall 
 marry a charming, sensible, and in every 
 way desirable girl, becaus he cannot be 
 sure that he is in love with her. Tho his 
 opinion inclines to the contrary, he is, 
 nevertheless, quite open to conviction; 
 and as, on recounting his symptoms to, 
 and taking counsel with, various friends, 
 he finds they ar all confident of his 
 amatory condition being what it should 
 be, he supposes they must be rit, and 
 marries accordingly. Thanks partly to 
 his, and partly to his wife's merits, 
 they get on happily, except twice, when 
 chance brings him in contact with a 
 woman who has a fascination for him, 
 and whom he no sooner sees, than he 
 flirts with her in a manner most unbe- 
 coming to a married man. On both 
 occasions, retribution foUoes swiftly." 
 [Spectator. 1311 
 
 GLENCOONOGE [by R: Brinsley 
 Sheridan Knowles : Blackwood, 1891.] 
 "is a well-written and litly-conceived 
 story At Glencoonoge the nar- 
 rator stumbles upon a pretty romance, 
 which begins in a sufliciently common- 
 place fashion, groes upon one as it devel- 
 ops, and gradually passes throu the fiises 
 of mystery and denoument." [Athe- 
 naeum. 1312 
 
 GLENNAIR [by II.. Hazlett : 
 
 408 
 
BRITISH NOVKI.S. 
 
 Phila., Claxton, 1800.] "is a simple, 
 but by no means uninteresting story, 
 the scene of which is laid in tlie Higll- 
 laiuls of Scotland. Tlie diction is 
 familiar; the incidents, tho somewliat 
 commonplace, hav all the charm of 
 probability, and tlicre is a general tone 
 of directness pervading the narrativ 
 wliicli suits well its subject. The cliar- 
 aeters of the cliief personages ar nicely 
 l)alanced ; they ar neither marvels of 
 goodness nor monsters of iniquity, but 
 just sucli men arid women as we meet 
 every day, with the same proportional 
 mixture of good and evil. Tlie author 
 does not present us witli a series of in- 
 credible adventures ; slie passes quietly 
 tlirou the shaded paths of private life, 
 conversing with gentle natures and pa- 
 tient sufferings." [Round Table. 1313 
 GOLDEN BAR (A), [by E. M. (Tay- 
 lor) Archer: Ilurst, 1883.] "Old 
 Squire llaseltine is a county magnate, 
 with a grand park and house, which bear 
 the name of their lord. As death draws 
 near, he meets for the first time pecun- 
 iary embarrassments. lie cannot leave 
 his property to his eldest son, who has 
 died ; nor to his younger son, with whom 
 he has quarreled ; and he cannot take it 
 
 with him Suddenly tliey come 
 
 to understand each other, — but whether 
 throu an increase of wisdom, — each of 
 them having learned that pride is not a 
 thing to be prouil of, and that true love 
 is not a thing to bo spurned, — or throu 
 some skilful device of the lawyers allow- 
 ing each to be happy, in spite of the 
 codicil, and witliout eitlier of them con- 
 descending to humiliation, we sliall not 
 record. The tale is wholly free from 
 the pretentious bad taste now so com- 
 mon. It is written with singular felicity 
 of style, and uniform purity and refine- 
 ment; it abounds in lively dialog and 
 vivid description; and while it is free 
 
 from all which is ' sensational,' it does 
 not lack scenes of passion, in the hier 
 sense of that' often misused word." 
 [Spectator. 1314 
 
 GOLDEN BUTTERFLY (The), [by 
 Wa. Besant & Ja. Rice: N. Y., 
 1874?] "We hav here a rather clever 
 educational idea joined to another 
 marked quality of Mr. Besant's mind — 
 his love for exaggeration ; so that as a 
 whole story it is simply an extravaganza. 
 Every character, with the exception of 
 Jack Dunquerque and Capt. Ladds, is 
 overdrawn, altlio faithful enuf to cer- 
 taiaparallels of truth. Gilead P. Beck, 
 the nervous, loquacious, egoistic, whole- 
 souled american, who, thanks to the 
 luck of the Golden Butterfly, ' struck 
 lie,' is a type everyone knoes off the 
 stage. Delitful, genuin Phillis Flem- 
 ing, the charming illustration of the very 
 suggestiv educational experiment, is 
 alas ! an impossible girl. The twins ar, 
 we ar glad to say, more conceited- im- 
 beeils than we find in life, broad as that 
 latitude is. Yet the book is remarkably 
 clever. Could anything be keener in its 
 sarcasm against modern dilettanteism 
 than tlie talk of the twins over their 
 picture and their poem? Who does not 
 enjoy the droll satire of that inimitable 
 dinner of autliors which Gilead Beck 
 gave in hopes that the literary lions 
 would sho tlieir points, and tlie satire of 
 the points which they did sho — appre- 
 ciation of mulligatawny, clear, and 
 an intimate knoledge of horseracing? 
 Taken in connexion witli the description 
 of the vulgar display, the menu cards, 
 the allegorical fountain, the Stars and 
 Stripes, the rock-oil lamp, and the fact 
 that the man of oil felt instinctivly that 
 he was being guyed by the great moral- 
 ists — a more spontaneous bit of humor- 
 ous writing could scarcely be conceived." 
 [Critic. 1315 
 
 409 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 GOLDEN MILESTONE (The) [by 
 Scott Graham : Wyman, I SSo.} "records 
 some ' passages in the life of an ex- 
 Confederate officer,' and tiie Virginian 
 whose unexpected claim to represent the 
 elder branch of the family of Stacpoole 
 Court has so far-reaching an effect upon 
 the fortunes of liis englisli cousins, is a 
 good specimen of an american gentle- 
 man. It is obvious to the practised 
 novel-reader that the union between 
 Radcliffe and his fair cousin is merely a 
 matter of time, and that in tins will be 
 found the solution of the difficulty. 
 Love at first sit is seldom entirely un- 
 appreciated by its object; and when Rad- 
 clifiFe imperils his life to save that of 
 Dulcie's objectionable brother lie wins 
 entire forgivness for his imaginary of- 
 fenses. .A good deal of the story is 
 taken up with the struggles of Dulcie 
 and her father in the provincial town to 
 which tlie latter, after his ruin, has be- 
 taken himself as an organist ; and the 
 more or less vulgar society of Westlake, 
 with its petty system of persecuting those 
 it does not understand, is very fairly 
 described. There is a tolerable and not 
 exaggerated yankee, or naturalized yan- 
 kee who acts the good fairy all round, 
 and combines dollars with infinit good 
 nature." [Athenaeum. 1316 
 
 GOLDEN SHAFT (The) [by C: 
 Gibbon: Chatto, 1882.] "is a genuin 
 work of art, fashioned out of materials 
 which mit seem meagre but for the skill 
 with which they ar manipulated. The 
 actors ar few in number, and hav not the 
 prestige of exalted rank, great wealth, 
 or even exceptional personal attributes. 
 The scene lies in the south-west of 
 Scotland, in a small town and its 
 nfiborhood. Tho there is no lack of in- 
 cident, there is little which verges on 
 the sensational. Nevertheless, the story, 
 even from the first chapter, fixes the at- 
 
 tention and enlists tie sympathy of tlie 
 reader, and the interest never flags. 
 Wherein the charm consists it is not 
 difficult to say. Entire naturalness in 
 the march of events, and in the dialog, 
 force and delicacy in the delineation of 
 character, telling descriptions of scenery 
 and atmosferic conditions, sound moral- 
 ity, and good, unaffected writing — such 
 is thte bill of fare here offered." [West- 
 minster Review. 1317 
 
 GOOD MATCH (A) [by Amelia 
 Pkrrikr: N. Y., Ford, 1873.] "is 
 an amusing, hoydenish novel, told in 
 the first person by a poverty-stricken 
 young woman. She livs with grand 
 but also poverty-stricken relativs, wlio 
 ar trying in vain to marry her to a 
 vulgar, but rich and aged widoer, who 
 livs at Texton Hall, the seat of Lord 
 Texworth. Lord Texworth himself h.as 
 disappeared from human ken in order 
 to make enuf money to buy back his 
 estates, which, under stress of poverty, 
 he had sold, with the rit of buying tliem 
 back at the same i)rice at the end of 25 
 years. The heroin falls in love with a 
 young and handsome stranger, and the 
 two ar married. Of course he turns 
 out to be the missing oner of Texton 
 Hall, and, after some years of hard 
 work, they liv in happiness and afflu- 
 ence. The plot is as transparent as it 
 is artificial ; but the story, altho it does 
 not always preserv the elegant propri- 
 eties which should adorn the noble line 
 of Texworth, is often funny enuf." 
 [Nation. 1318 
 
 GOSAU SMITHY (The). [by 
 Louisa (Taylor) Parr: Daldy, 1874.] 
 " Mrs. Parr's tales ar not wanting in 
 graceful passages. Some of tliem ar 
 rather sad, as that of ' The Gosau 
 Smithy,' a story of Swiss peasant life, 
 in which a. pair of faithful lovers ar 
 ruthlessly drowned in tt lake. 'La 
 10 
 
immsii NovEr.s. 
 
 Bonne Mere Nannatte,' too, has a painful 
 history, tho her self-sacrifice and fidehty 
 bring their reward in tlie evening of her 
 days. 'Little Nan ' is tlie pathetic story 
 of an orfan girl, whose early life among 
 a. set of kind-hearted tramps, and later 
 trials under the severe disciplin of a 
 'respectable' school, produce a dis- 
 cord which mars lier girlisli days, tho 
 in the end she finds happiness as the 
 wife of a good man, who attempted to 
 be her benefactor in childhood. The 
 second volume consists of love-tales in 
 a hier grade of society, mostly natural 
 and pleasing, tho a little inclined to bo 
 ' goody.' Yet they smack of observa- 
 tion, and ar true cnuf to that peaceful 
 type of nature to which the author is 
 wise in confining her attention.'' [Athe- 
 na!um. 1310 
 
 GRAPE FROM A THORN (A) 
 [by Ja. Pavn: Harper, 1881.] "is a 
 hily amusing novel. The amusement 
 consists in the delineation of a group 
 of clviracters collected at a watering- 
 place. The plan of tlie story is simple, 
 and the author's effort is chiefly ex- 
 pended on portraiture and dialog. Tlie 
 result givs a new and enlarged sense of 
 Mr. Payn's powers. lie writes here 
 with a delitful humor and even with 
 occasional brilliancy, and nothing could 
 be better in its way than some of the 
 touches with which he takes off the 
 follies and vanities of a set of fash- 
 ionable people. [Boston "Literary 
 World." 1320 
 
 GREAT EXPECTATIONS. = No. 
 722. 
 
 GREAT GULF FIXED [by 
 "Gerald Grant," i. c., Gertrude 
 Grant (f, 1883) Tinsley, 1877.] " is 
 not a conventional novel. Neitlier is 
 it more than reasonably sensational. 
 The hero is not perfect; nor is the 
 heroin divinely beautiful. The char- 
 
 acters ar neatly and naturally, rather 
 than powerfully drawn. The women 
 ar womanly without being insipid, and 
 the leading lady is a charming creature. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Lane, the little cosy, 
 comfortable, good-hearted middle class 
 couple, ar well described; and it is 
 possible to feel that we hav knon them 
 somewhere." [Athena;um. 1321 
 
 GREATEST HEIRESS IN ENG- 
 LAND (The) [by Ma. Oupuant 
 (Wilson) Olipiiant : Ifurst, 1880.] 
 . . . . " is noticeably good among tlie 
 great number of Mrs. Oliphant's good 
 novels. The story runs along so pleas- 
 antly and maintains the reader's interest 
 so completely throuout, that one hardly 
 cares to pick it to pieces in order to 
 slio how cleverly it is put together. 
 The heiress and her friends ar depicted 
 both before and after she comes into 
 her fortune. The society is chielly that 
 of a provincial town. First one sees 
 the people enuf to understand them and 
 to form some opinion upon their cliar- 
 acters ; then the heiress becomes great, 
 and begins to be petted and courted by 
 the women, and made love to by the 
 men, and thus an excellent opportunity 
 is created for working out the diversities 
 of ordinary people." [Athenajum.] — 
 See SIR TOM. 1322 
 
 GREEN HILLS BY THE SEA 
 [by H. C. Davidson: Ifurst, 1887.] 
 " is a story of the Isle of IVIau. 
 With none of the fierceness which cer- 
 tain latter-day novelists affect, the book 
 has . enuf of personal atmosfere and 
 grace of manner to compel the atten- 
 tion and to silence, for the time being, 
 the noise of the world without. Noth- 
 ing, perhaps, either in fiction or life, is 
 so pleasant as to fall into the spirit of a 
 tiny Island, except to escape from it 
 when the spell ceases to work. In ' The 
 Green Hills by tho Sea,' in spite of di- 
 ll 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 gressions and unnecessary complications 
 ■wliicli somewhat mar its symmetry, tliis 
 spell outlivs the reading, and even the 
 reruor may feel regret in laying down 
 the fatal ' last of three.' .... The 
 author's forte consists in getting his 
 readers well into a certain train of 
 thot and emotion, and there holding 
 them in contentment with a skill which 
 amounts to art The appear- 
 ance, the atmosfere, and the general 
 ' sentiment ' (so to speak) of Manxland 
 ar vividly felt and rendered ; yet imag- 
 inativness of treatment and softness of 
 outline ar preserved throuout." [Athe- 
 naeum. 1323 
 GREEN PASTURES AND PIC- 
 CADILLY [by W: Black : Macmillan, 
 1877.] "begins very pleasantly. Has 
 not Mr. Black a simple and peculiar 
 grace of literary entrance ? On this 
 occasion it seems charmingly proper 
 that we should o to an old and much- 
 admired acquaintance. Queen Tita of 
 the Facton, our introduction to a new 
 heroin, and one of the loveliest and 
 most clearly individualized of them all. 
 Lady Sylvia Blythe. We like her 
 scotch lover too, and entirely believe in 
 liim. Balfour, whose name is historic 
 if he is in trade (so aristocratic do we 
 all become in the charmed ' Liberties ' 
 of english fiction !) — Hugh Balfour, of 
 the hi mind, the hard head, the true 
 heart; of enlitened and wary but un- 
 grudging benevolence ; of strict but 
 unsentimental sense of honor, scorn- 
 ful integrity, and hauty, quarrelsom 
 temper." [Atlantic] — " We hav not 
 scrupled to tell a good deal of the 
 story, becaus no one's stories suffer less 
 than Mr. Black's from such treatment. 
 We ar never tempted to look at the end ; 
 for the secret of their success lies much 
 more in the manner than the matter. 
 Ilis people ar real people, and pleasant. 
 
 too, as a rule; and they say and do 
 pretty much what we hear said and see 
 done when we ar among persons and in 
 places whCre we like to be. His genius 
 resembles very closely that of Mr. 
 TroUope, but his taste is better ; he is a 
 purist when the elder writer is a nat- 
 uralist [realist?]." [Athenaeum. 1324 
 
 GREEN PLEASURE AND GREY 
 GRIEF [by Ma. ( ) (Arglks) Hun- 
 GERFORD : Smith, 1885.] " ia what many 
 of its readers will be inclined to call a 
 sweetly pretty story. Thfire is no ques- 
 tion as to its sweetness and prettiness, 
 for it is full of delitful love-making, 
 and is told with dainty tenderness by 
 one who understands both idyllic love 
 and the art of romantic writing. The 
 author is never tired of describing the 
 happy intercourse of fresh young hearts, 
 and foUoes with evident zest the fortunes 
 of 3 pairs of lovers throu the chequered 
 course of their mutual passion. Per- 
 haps her story would hav been better 
 described by an inversion of the title, 
 for the grey grief is not allowed to over- 
 whelm the pleasure of any character 
 who figures in its pages." [Ath. 1325 
 
 GRISEL ROMNEY. [by M.. E. 
 (Fraser-Tvtler) Greene : M. Ward, 
 1881.] " The reader who asks, when he 
 has finished ' Grisel Romney,' what has 
 carried him throu the story without any 
 feeling of tediousness, will not easily 
 find an answer. That it is written with 
 good-feeling and good-taste, in a style 
 which never offends by incorrectness or 
 extravagance, is the chief merit which 
 
 he will be able to find in it But 
 
 these criticisms will probably not occur 
 till the end of the story has been reached ; 
 and that it should hav been reached not 
 only without difficulty, but with pleasure, 
 is no slit commendation." [Spec. 1326 
 
 GUIDE, PHILOSOPHER, AND 
 FRIEND [by — ( ) M.vnim ; Griffiih, 
 
 412 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 1884. J "is well worth reading. The 
 guide, filosofer and friend is Phillis 
 Carr, charming anil distinguished, but 
 penniless, who consents to act as bear- 
 leader to a rich mushroom family. The 
 mushrooms ar good, honest folk ; in spite 
 of being homely and unfashionable they 
 ar true gentlefolk, and they win upon us 
 as we folio them in their timid siege of 
 London. The son of tlie house, a Iiand- 
 som, silent, and true-hearted young 
 giant, inevitably falls in love with 
 Phillis, and the course of his love does 
 not run smooth. The by-play is pretty, 
 and the earnest, downrit Dick Harrison, 
 the hard-working East-end curate, is 
 very amusing." [Athenajum. 1337 
 
 GUILD COURT, [by G: Mac- 
 Donald : ITurst, 18G7.] " When we 
 speak of ' Guild Court ' as a very enter- 
 taining story, abounding with whole- 
 som interest and wise counsel, it must 
 be understood that our commendation 
 of the book is addressed specially to a 
 select class of readers, who ar capable 
 of appreciating the author's method, and 
 do not accuse a novel of unreadableness 
 merely becaus it lacks the devices of 
 sensational artifice, and to be enjoyed 
 must be examined instead of ' skimmed.' 
 .... Tom Worboise defeats the dis- 
 honest contrivance of his selfish father, 
 and rehabilitates himself in the respect of 
 his nebors and the heroin's love. Even 
 those who only value prose fiction for 
 the excitements which may be derived 
 from it, will acknoledg that this latter 
 part of ' Guild Court ' is capital." [Athe- 
 n8eum, 132S 
 
 HAGAR [by M.. Linskill (t, 1891) : 
 Clarke ^ Co., 1887.] is " a delicate and 
 tasteful piece of work. The love of 
 Christopher Fane for Hagar makes a 
 beautiful little story, strongly tinged, 
 indeed, witli the melancholy throu which 
 Miss Linskill seems to regard her world. 
 
 but very attractiv. In fact, this time 
 she has put a certain constraint on her- 
 self, and not buried the happy lovers 
 under the landslip which overwhelms 
 poor Phil. She may take our word that 
 the story is not the worse for it." 
 [Spectator.] — " We can heartily recom- 
 mend ' Hagar.' Even those who hav 
 once read it will, we ar sure, read this 
 picturesque story again with pleasure, 
 so fresh and touching in its simplicity is 
 it. Miss Linskill is in her element upon 
 her Yorkshire coast, with its ruf but 
 good-liearted country-folk, and its wild, 
 fascinating beauty. Her Yorkshire dia- 
 lect is capital, and Hagar, with her shy, 
 girlish love for her idol — the poor vil- 
 lage schoolmaster, — is a most charming 
 character." [Spectator. 1329 
 
 HALF A MILLION OF MONEY 
 [by Amelia Blandfokd Edwards : 
 Tinsley, 18G6.] "in spite of some ex- 
 travagances, is one of the pleasantest 
 novels of the season. It is full of crisp 
 writing and easy dialog. The writer 
 has lived in a world of books, and has 
 also made the world her book. The 
 title alone 6t to render the work popular 
 in a country whSre the 11th cummand- 
 ment, ' thou shalt not be poor,' if not 
 always obeyed, is always feared. But 
 the book givs far more than the title 
 promises. The hero, who has been bred 
 in the wildest part of Switzerland, in- 
 herits four millions, and a wicked 
 cousin. The young savage, up to the 
 time of his windfall, does not kno what 
 a Bank of England note is. The barba- 
 rian is ignorant of I. O.U's. Civilization, 
 however, acquaints him not only with 
 the latter, but with forgeries. Good 
 society shoes him ingratitude, and other 
 polite vices. The work is full of clever, 
 incisiv sayings, and is marked by an 
 absence of all vulgarity." [Westmin- 
 ster Review, 1330 
 413 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 HAND OF ETIIELBERTA (The), 
 [by T : IIaudy : //b«,.18G7.] " In tak- 
 ing up Mr. llarJy's new story, one in- 
 stantly re-discovers how great is tlie 
 charm of a book in which tlio style evory- 
 wliure givs token of a sensitiv personal 
 touch from the author, where the words 
 do not, as in average novels, shrivel and 
 harden into their ordinary aspects, but 
 continually freslien in the quiet dew of 
 thot which the author lets fall upon 
 every detail. ... In Ethelberta 
 th^re is certainly no lack of interest of 
 a kind which must be acceptable to a 
 wide variety of readers. The heroin is 
 abutter's dautcr who, from governessing, 
 has passed into London society as the 
 dauter-in-law of Lady Petherwin ; and 
 the strange predicament of her parent- 
 age, together with her personal attrac- 
 tions and the raotiv of marrying in a way 
 to profit her poor relativs, which greatly 
 complicates her love-affairs, — these ele- 
 ments ar all of lively efficacy. The 
 turns of the plot, at the close, ar ex- 
 tremely clever and absorbing." [Atlan- 
 tic. 1331 
 HANNAH, [by Dinah Maria (Mu- 
 lock) Craik: (t, 1887) ITarper, 1871.] 
 " Hannah Thelluson is such a woman as 
 Mrs. Craik delits. to draw, and such as 
 few writers can draw so well. She ad- 
 mires beauty of soul, and invests with 
 it all her heroins. While we do not 
 find Hannah herself to be really fasci- 
 nating — becaus, probably, her charms 
 ar too spiritualized to affect our earthly 
 judgment — we yet admire her as the 
 embodiment of the very hiest qualities 
 of womanhood, sympathize with her 
 throu her long trials, and rejoice in her 
 final bliss. She is the only character 
 in the story to which the thotful reader 
 can giv his unqualified approval. Ber- 
 nard, tho drawn with great skill, and a 
 character in some respects re.ally novel. 
 
 sometimes merits a feeling a little 
 milder than contempt ; but he ' comes 
 out strong ' in the end. Of the other 
 personages in the story little need be 
 said ; they ar all mere foils to set off the 
 principals. The incidents ar few in 
 number, and not striking; in fine, there 
 is little in the book to divert attention 
 from the leading actors in a quiet, tho 
 intense, drama. One of the most beauti- 
 ful things in the story is Hannah's love 
 for Rosie, in the setting forth of which 
 there ar frequent touches which prob- 
 ably no one but a mother [!] could hav 
 effected, and which will bring tears to 
 many maternal eyes. While, as we hav 
 said, ' Hannah ' is a painful story, it is 
 absorbingly interesting. No novels of 
 the time, we think, ar so influential as 
 this author's, in promoting a love for 
 moral beauty, and developing those 
 virtues which, in the language of Mr. 
 Butler ' — Grace and gladden all our 
 Saxon homes.'" [Boston "Literary 
 World." 1332 
 
 HAPPY WOOING (A) [by H. 
 Cliffe Halliuav : Hurst, 1889.] is "a 
 capital bit of comedy. The earlier part 
 of it is poor as regards literary effect, 
 but as the plot develops one becomes 
 thoroly interested. A young lady and 
 her supposed gardian ant arrive from 
 Pelican Island, and as they ar reputed 
 to be millionaires they create a great 
 sensation. Their names ar Jennie and 
 Minnie Money, and they ar wooed rit 
 and left for their great wealth. There 
 may be such nincompoops in the peer- 
 age as Viscount Daffodil and the Hon. 
 Robin Redwood, but scarcely any, I 
 sliould think, so absolutely devoid of 
 sense and grammar. One makes love 
 to Jennie and the other to Minnie, and 
 each learns to his horror that all the 
 money has been left to the girl wooed 
 by his friend. In the end a fine young 
 
 414 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 fello, Valentine Silver, carries off the 
 ant; and Adam Asli, an out-at-elboes 
 scribbler, who makes a gigantic success 
 with a novel, wins the other. Upon the 
 wedding-day genuin surprise is evoked 
 by the discovery that the two ladies ar 
 sisters, with £250,000 each, besides real 
 estate galore. They hav resolved to 
 yield only to the feeling of love for 
 themselvs alone; and the end justifies 
 the means, tho it causes considerable 
 scandal and remains a nine days' won- 
 der." [Academy. 1333 
 
 HARD CASH, [by C : Reade : Black- 
 wood, 1864.] " Tlie book which re-in- 
 troduces us to the pair we left [in 
 'Love me Little, Love me Long'] in 
 the first glo of bridal happiness is en- 
 titled ' Hard Cash.' The Hard Cash of 
 thff work is David Dodd's cash, £14,000, 
 which in those 20 years which hav 
 passed since we saw him, lie has 
 amassed for his cliildren. He is 20 
 years older, when we see him, every 
 day of it. He is all mello experience, 
 benignity, the softened, widened soul of 
 natural cliarity which it requires years 
 to develop. That is the only change 
 which has come over him. [Black- 
 wood's. 1334 
 
 HARRY BLOUNT [by Philip Gil- 
 bert IIamerton : Roberts, 1875.] "is 
 a wholesom, brit, and interesting story. 
 It gives pleasant and faitliful pictures of 
 english school-life, ami grafic sketches 
 of hunting and yachting adventures, 
 and embodies some useful moral lessons 
 together with considerable practical in- 
 formation." [Boston "Lit.World." 1335 
 
 HARRY MUIR [by Ma. Oliphant 
 (Wilson) Oliphant : Ilurst, 1853.] 
 ' ' tho sad ' is over true ' — a real picture 
 of the weakness of man's nature, and 
 tlie depth of woman's tenderness — and 
 in its sadness true to the country in 
 which the scene is laid. From the in- 
 
 troduction of Harry Muir, his case will 
 be perceived to ,be hopeless ; it is the 
 manner in which out of its bitterness 
 gracious influences and pure affections 
 ar developed, which givs the charm to 
 the tale. Some of Martha Muir's less 
 amiable peculiarities ar exaggerated 
 in an old relativ. Miss Jean Calder — 
 who is one of those grim, parsimonious 
 crones who figure often in domestic 
 tales of the ' North Countree.' The 
 narrativ has its relief of serene sun- 
 shine, amidst so much gloom, in the 
 loves of Cuthbert and Rose — and, to re- 
 peat our praise, is not one to be entered 
 on or parted from without our' regard 
 for its writer being increased." [Athe- 
 naeum. 1336 
 HARVEYS (The) [by H: Kings- 
 ley: Tinsley, 1871.] is a "slit but 
 readable story ; — instinct with the 
 author's peculiarities of thot and style. 
 The conversations ar terse and animated 
 and really like tlie speech of every-day 
 life. The Harvey family do not fail to 
 sho a great variety of individual pecul- 
 iarities, and resemble one another only 
 in the bohemianism and generous reck- 
 lessness which thSy inherit from a 
 puzzle-headed and simple-hearted father. 
 Mr. Harvey, much exercised by theolog- 
 ical scruples, yet too humble to regard 
 his fine scent for mare's-nests as a 
 feather in his intellectual head-gear, 
 devoted to his family, yet as incapable 
 of providing for them as a hen for 
 her adopted ducklings, and struggling 
 cheerily and patiently with a very sordid 
 entanglement of pecuniary troubles, is a 
 sketch which would be well worth more 
 complete development, wer not the 
 type unfortunately common. In the 
 autobiografy of the young artist, his 
 favorit son, we hav an amazing series 
 of adventures compressed into a field of 
 very limited compass. In the school- 
 
 415 
 
lllllTISlI NOVELS. 
 
 life so capitally described) in tlio struggle 
 of his artistic novitiate, in his relation 
 to the congeries of religious and 
 theatrical fanatics which surround his 
 disastrous but amusing experience of 
 german dungeons and duelling, the 
 buoyancy of young Harvey's character 
 produces the very complications which 
 set it forth to such advantage." [Atlie- 
 nsBum. 1337 
 
 HATPTERCOURT [by M.. L„ 
 (Stewakt) Moleswokth : Ilolt, 1878.] 
 " is ii singularly pure, graceful, simple, 
 anil pleasing story, with an air of refine- 
 
 as regards most of the characters, it is 
 
 almost devoid of faults The 
 
 plot of the story, if not novel in its 
 essential features, is made interesting 
 by the manner in which it is developed, 
 and by numberless little incidental re- 
 finements and devices. It has a mys- 
 tery in it, but not a harroing or portentous 
 mystery — in fact, one foresees very 
 early in the story what the general course 
 of things is likely to be ; but the charm 
 of the tale is enhanced rather than di- 
 minished by tliis transparency, becaus 
 we ar constantly called upon to admire 
 
 raent and lii-breeding about it the simplicity, naturalness, and dexterity 
 
 She takes men, women, and things as she 
 finds them, and all she attempts to sho is 
 that the life and possible experiences of 
 two young ladies in the quietest of coun- 
 try rectories ar adequate and attractiv 
 materials for the novelist willing to make 
 
 the best of them The narra- 
 
 tiv never becomes exciting, but the in- 
 terest is steadily maintained throuout." 
 [Appleton's. 1338 
 
 HAWORTH'S [by P.. Eliza 
 (Hodgson) Burnett : Scribner, 1879.] 
 " is a strong story but not a good 
 one. The people to whom it introduces 
 us ar not in any sense good company ; 
 and th^re is very little in the book to 
 inspire a generous sentiment or to 
 quicken a wortliy purpose. ' Life ' 
 enuf, of a certain sort, the book con- 
 tains ; but it is a kind of life of whicli 
 most of us kno far too much already ; 
 the writer deservs no thanks who 
 makes us liv It over again, and seeks to 
 awaken in us a savage pleasure as its 
 tragedy goes on before our face." [Good 
 Company. 1339 
 
 HE THAT WILL NOT WHEN HE 
 MAY. [by Ma. Olipiiant (Wilson) 
 Oliphant : Macmillan, 1880.] "This 
 is a novel which no one can read with- 
 out pleasure. In plot, in treatment, and 
 
 wherewith the successiv complications 
 ar introduced and unravelled. Tlie idea 
 of introducing, out of a clear sky, a 
 claimant to an estate the inheritance of 
 which was supposed to be as settled as 
 tlie succession of the seasons, is not 
 unknon to novelists, but to make the 
 disinherited gentleman deserv his fate 
 by the whimsical and empty perversity 
 of liis disposition is a delitful stratagem, 
 and renders the good-humor of the 
 reader imperturbable throu all vicissi- 
 tudes. Again, the honesty, simplicity, 
 and mingled gentleness and firmness of 
 the 'little gentleman' who represents 
 the disturbing element in the tale is a most 
 happy variation upon the conventional 
 treatment in such cases. And Mr. Paul's 
 love affair is ingeniously contrived to 
 sound an accompaniment to the pre- 
 vailing sentiment of the story, and at 
 the same time to humiliate the objec- 
 tional persons, and to gratify the well- 
 disposed ones." [Spectator. 1340 
 HEALEY [by Jessie Fotiiergill : 
 (t, 1891) Harper, 1875.] "is a rather 
 unpleasant novel, but givs evidence of 
 considerable originality and power; 
 tlifire is nothing liumorous, or even 
 cheerful in it, except the denoument, 
 wlifire the lovers ar married. But they 
 41G 
 
BKITISII NOVELS. 
 
 ar lovers of an odd sort, and their 
 courtship by no means realizes the ideal 
 felicities of that relation. The heroin 
 is a remarkable character; there is a 
 strong heroic element in her nature, and 
 tlio slie does not fascinate the reader, 
 she gains a strong hold upon his respect 
 and interest. There is notliing roman- 
 tic about her; she is plain, ami attractiv 
 only to those who hav learned to love 
 her. The scene of the story is laid in 
 Lancashire, and the dialect of that 
 region is often puzzling to the reader." 
 [Boston " Literary World." 1341 
 
 HEART SALVAGE. [by K.. 
 (Saundeks) Cooi'BK : Chatto, 1884.] 
 " This collection goes to sho that the 
 author of ' Gideon's Kock ' has not lost 
 her skill, and several of her tales ar 
 marked by a good deal of pathos. Tlie 
 fiery, unhappy, warm-hearted, unsuc- 
 cessful Tom Bailey is a figure one will 
 remember, tho his secret trouble is only 
 the fancied estrangement of a friend, 
 and tho his more palpable sufferings ar 
 the commonplace troubles of unromantic 
 poverty in a suburban villa. Besides 
 Tom, his good wife and gentle dauter ar 
 well described in ' By the Stone Ezel.' 
 The Harpers of Min-y-don ar more 
 picturesque in their surroundings. Tho 
 characters of the father and son — the 
 former full of tlie weaknesses as well 
 as the strength of genius, and shalloer 
 tlian the son even in his art, tho for that 
 reason more at his ease in its exercise 
 and so far more successful — ar well 
 contrasted. And the filial devotion of 
 Lewis is touching. ' The Silver Line,' 
 tlie story of a feat of courageous hu- 
 manity, and some smaller tales make up 
 a sufficient issue of wholesom provender 
 for summer idleness." [Athen. 1342 
 
 IIEAKTII GHOSTS [by H : Jack- 
 son : Ijow, 1871.] "would hav been 
 more appropriately named, ' The Chron- 
 
 41 
 
 icles of Market Mudling,' but for the 
 suggested comparison with the charm- 
 ing stories of Mrs. Oliphant 
 
 "We recommend these narrativs as 
 wholesom and agreeable reading." 
 [Athena;um. 1343 
 
 HEARTSEASE [by C. M.. Yonoe : 
 Oxford, Parker, 1855.] " is the most 
 true looking story we hav read for 
 a long time. It is simple enuf. The 
 honorable Capt. MartinJale has fallen 
 desperately in love and married in 
 a great hurry, quite unknon to his 
 father, the dauter of a country lawyer ; 
 Violet is little more than a child, — 
 she is the ' Heartsease ' of the book, and 
 a charming creature. She is not en- 
 dowed with any talent, nor any great 
 strength of character, — with notliing 
 but the simple idea that she must do her 
 duty; and her gentle, straitforward 
 simplicity works like a charm upon tlie 
 whole family. Her amiability and gentle- 
 ness mature gradually into hi principle 
 and firmness, ^without losing their un- 
 conscious gracefulness." [Athenaeum.] 
 — " ' Heartsease ' is a novel whose suc- 
 cess would not speak well for our 
 national literary taste, did we not kno 
 that tli^re is always a large and respect- 
 able reading public with no taste at all, 
 but plenty of comfortable leisure which 
 hangs terribly on their hands, when 
 neither gossip nor tea is going forward. 
 The book docs not much exercise even 
 the most ordinary impulse which leads 
 to reading — curiosii;y ; and can lay 
 claim in no hi degree to any dramatic, 
 
 narrativ or descriptiv excellence 
 
 Of insit into character, analysis of human 
 passion and emotion — of intellectual 
 strength,, we find no trace." [Westmin- 
 ster Review.] — " The virtuous men and 
 women of Miss Yonge ar so free from any 
 touch of earthliness, and ar characterized 
 by a purity so far removed from anything 
 7 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 which is met among everyday persons 
 that th^y ar sure to be enthusiastically 
 admired by all lovers of morbid intel- 
 lectual and spiritual fenomena. On the 
 other hand, her bad people ar so wholly 
 and preposterously bad that no one 
 could dream of imitating them, and 
 their acquaintance can not, therefore, 
 contaminate her readers. The colorless 
 creatures whom Miss Yonge mistakes 
 for women, and the weak and feminin 
 beings whom she presents as her ideals 
 of manly perfection, hav no element of 
 interest to the normally healthy mind. 
 Still, thfire is a very large number of 
 people who admire these novels, and 
 regard Miss Yonge as an infinitly nicer 
 writer than, say, — C : Reade." [Round 
 Table. 1344 
 
 HEATHCOTE [by EllaMacMaiion : 
 Ward ^ Downey, 1889.] " is a pretty and 
 lifelike, rather gushing story of a cathe- 
 dral town. The heroin is the arch- 
 deacon's dauter, and the hero is sub- 
 editor of a daily paper. The sub-editor's 
 father was a music-master; but as his 
 mother belonged to an old and proud 
 .family, which had proved its pride by 
 rejecting the dauter who disgraced it, 
 Heathcote Grant was admitted to be 
 superior to liis position, and his presump- 
 tion in falling in love with the beautiful 
 Violet Ward was not so overweening as 
 it mit otherwise hav been. Th^re is 
 some good drawing in this story ; the 
 characters ar decidedly like human 
 beings, and its tone is hi and well sus- 
 tained The love story is ad- 
 mirably contrived, and wijl giv pleasure 
 to every one who reads it." [Ath. 1345 
 
 bEIR OF REDCLYFFE. [by C. 
 M.. Yonge: 1850.] " Thfire is another 
 class of novels — novels of the domestic 
 class — which has also a great influence. 
 I recollect hearing Mr. Guizot say, that 
 the literature of France would match 
 
 (by which, of course, he meant would 
 beat) all our literature, with one excep- 
 tion, and that was our domestic novels. 
 He said : ' In science we match you ; in 
 poetry we match you (the in that he is 
 quite in error) ; in history we match you ; 
 but we hav not anything in our literature 
 like " The Heir of Redclyffe" and your 
 [other?] domestic novels. All books of 
 that class ar peculiarly english. They ar 
 books describing a virtuous domestic life. 
 They do not go to the tragic or dramatic 
 for interest, but they draw it from the 
 simple springs of natural life. This we 
 hav not in the literature of France.' 
 Our previous want of acquaintance with 
 this Pusey-novel arose from no barbar- 
 ous indifference to the important literary 
 events of our age and country. We 
 abstained from reading it, solely from the 
 dread of the effect which it mit liav in 
 unfitting us for enjoying any other 
 works of fiction afterwards. We wer 
 well aware, from our knoledge of the 
 disastrous influence in this respect, which 
 the work had exercised over that large 
 and discriminating portion of the read- 
 ing public of England which is chiefly 
 composed of curates and young ladies. 
 Among other sad cases, in our circle 
 of acquaintance, we met two which 
 especially struck us. One instance was 
 that of a. curate (still living, and still, 
 throu the scandalous neglect of his 
 friends, unprovided with proper accom- 
 modations in an asylum for the insane) , 
 who, after reading 'The Heir of Red- 
 clyffe,' expressed himself critically in 
 these terms : ' There ar only Two 
 Books in the world. The first is the 
 " Bible," and the second is the " Heir of 
 Redclyffe." ' The other instance is still 
 more afflicting. A young and charming 
 lady, previously an excellent customer 
 at the circulating libraries, read this fatiil 
 domestic novel on its first appearance' 
 18 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 some years ago, and has read nothing 
 else since. As soon as she gets to the 
 end of the book, this uninteresting and 
 unfortunate creature turns back to the 
 first page and begins it again. Her 
 family vainly endeayors to lure her to 
 former f arorits or to newer works ; she 
 raises her eyes from the too-enthralling 
 page, shakes her head faintly, and 
 resumes her fascinating occupation for 
 the 1000th time, with unabated relish. 
 Her course of proceeding, when she 
 comes to the pathetic passages, has 
 never yet varied. She reads for 5 
 minutes ; and goes upstairs to fetch a 
 dry pocket handkerchief, comes down 
 again and reads for another 5 minutes ; 
 goes upstairs again, and fetches another 
 dry pocket handkerchief. No later than 
 last week it was observed by her family 
 that she shed as many tears and fetched 
 as many dry pocket-handkerchiefs as 
 ever. Medical aid has been repeatedly 
 called in; but her case baffles the doc- 
 tors. The heart is all rit, the stomach 
 Is all rit, the lungs ar all rit, the extremi- 
 ties ar moderately warm. The skull 
 alone is abnormal. [Compare No. 1344.] 
 This is the -story of the Pusey-novcl 
 which is the Wonderful Lamp not to be 
 found in France The charac- 
 ters by whose aid the story is worked 
 but, ar simply impossible. They hav 
 no types in nature, they never did hav 
 types in nature, they never will hav 
 
 types in nature Throuout the 
 
 book up to the scene of his last illness, 
 Sir Guy is the same lifeless personifi- 
 cation of the Pusey-stricken writer's 
 fancies on religion and morals, literature 
 and art. He is struck speechless with 
 reverence when a rhapsodical description 
 of one of Raphael's Madonnas is read 
 to him. lie occupies 3 summers in 
 studying the Morte d'Arthur (not Mr. 
 Tennyson's poem, but the old romance) 
 
 and, in spite of this romantic taste, when 
 he gets to Italy he will not read the 
 magnificent descriptions of scenery in 
 ' Childe Harold ' becaus Lord Byron 
 was a profligate.'' [C: Dickens.] — 
 " Here ar Sir Guy Morville and 
 poor little Amy, both of them vir- 
 tuous to a degree which would hav 
 put Miss Edgeworth's most exemplary 
 characters to the blush, yet Guy, after 
 being bullied and badgered throu the 
 greater part of his short life, dies of 
 the fever which should hav carried off 
 Philip; and Amy, besides being left 
 widoed and heartbroken, givs birth to a 
 dauter instead of a son, and so forfeits 
 the inheritance of Redclyffe. On the 
 other hand, Philip, the most intolerable 
 of prigs and mischief-makers, whose 
 cruel suspicions play havoc with the 
 happiness of everybody in the story, and 
 whose obstinate folly brings about the 
 final disaster, — Philip, who is little 
 better than his cousin's murderer, suc- 
 ceeds to the estate, marries that very 
 stilted and unpleasant young person 
 Laura (who is after all a world too good 
 for him), and is left in a blaze of glory, 
 a wealthy, honored, and distinguished 
 man. It is true that Miss Yonge, whose 
 conscience must hav pricked her a little 
 at bringing about this unwarranted and 
 unjustifiable conclusion, would hav us 
 believe that he was sorry for his misbe- 
 havior, and that his regret was sufficient 
 to equalize the perfidious scales of jus- 
 tice." [Atlantic. 1346 
 HEIR OF THE AGES (The) [by 
 Ja. Patn: Harper, 1882?] "is one 
 of the delitful stories which may not 
 liv forever as literature, but ar as wcl- 
 cora as the flowers which bloom in the 
 spring when they appear. Besides its 
 humor and epigrammatic charm, the 
 story has the merit of a dramatic and 
 novel denoumeni, which, instead of end- 
 419 
 
niilTISU NOVELS. 
 
 less happiness after a long series of cat- 
 astrofes, -Bmcls up •with a catastrofe 
 after the liappiness." [Critic] The nio- 
 tiv seems to hav been suggested by the 
 literary career of George Eliot. 1347 
 
 HEIR WITHOUT A HERITAGE 
 [by E. Fairfax Bvrrne : Bentley ij- 
 Son, 1887.] "is undeniably clever. 
 .... Brit Judith RomiUy is bred in 
 a strait sect of Dissenters. To the nar- 
 roness of her religious creed is added 
 the narroness of the middle class be- 
 fore the poor gent y has at all amalga- 
 mated with it. The description of life 
 ill Wesleyan circles at the beginning of 
 the century is probably true enuf . Old 
 llomilly and his wife ar kindly speci- 
 mens of a race which had many virtues 
 not seen conspicuously in their descend- 
 ants, altho the mill-oner saw nothing 
 but dishonesty in labor combinations 
 and his charming old wife believed in 
 the verbal inspiration of the Bible. An 
 ardent spirit like Judith's naturally 
 would revolt against her home ; and 
 when an enthusiast like Gervase Ger- 
 mayne made it his business to enliten 
 her intellect, and inspire her with doubts 
 of the truth of her creed, there was 
 scarce the semblance of a struggle. 
 .... Gervase is a fine character, 
 apart from a little young-mannishness; 
 he behaves like a gentleman at the fire, 
 and in the matter of the sale of an 
 estate ; while his forgivness of the 
 picturesque ruffian Uick Blakedeane, 
 and the method in which he returns 
 good for evil, quite transcend the ex- 
 pectations we ar led to form of him at 
 the outset." [Atlienasum. 1348 
 
 HELEN BLANTYRE [by A. E. A. 
 Maiu : Smith, 1873.] " herself is a 
 pleasant specimen of a simple, fresh- 
 hearted young girl, and the friends of 
 her sex who surround her ar fairly 
 described. Lady Jane Wynchester is 
 
 a genial, wortlly^ soul; Agatha Blantyre 
 something more — a woman with hi 
 principles, but soured and case-hard- 
 ened by an early disappointment in life. 
 .... On the whole, the characters 
 engage our interest, and the story is a 
 fairly interesting love-tale of the modern 
 school." [Athenaium. 1340 
 
 HENRIETTA TEMPLE. = No. 730. 
 
 HER DEAREST FOE. [by " Mrs. 
 Ai-EXANDKR," i. u., Aunic (French) 
 Hector: 7/o«, 1870.] The author here 
 " recovers, in part, her descent, but 
 hardly reaches the grade of her first 
 book. Her best characteristics, how- 
 ever, ar manifest in ' Her Dearest Foe,' 
 which will be read with the quiet, 
 reasonable enjoyment which results 
 from natural pictures of life, marked 
 sketches of character, and an unvarying 
 spirit which sustains tlie reader's inter- 
 est. The plot of the story is not compli- 
 cated, and is quite possible Mrs. 
 
 Travers is very nearly a perfect woman, 
 but the author has made her, in one or 
 two cases, unnatural and untrue to 
 herself. Lee has nmcli espieglerie, and 
 makes an admirable foil for grand Mrs. 
 Temple. Tho not so satisfying a novel 
 as ' The Wooing O't,' this should rank 
 next in merit to that popular book. It 
 is admirably pure in tone, and, tho not 
 didactic, teaches useful lessons." [Boston 
 " Literary World." 1350 
 
 HER GREAT IDEA [by Lucv 
 Bktiiia (Colquiioun) Wai.foui) : /fott, 
 1888.] " contains 7 stories. All ar of a 
 humorous nature, and that Mrs. Wal- 
 ford possesses a fund of humor every 
 reader of her novels knocs. In these 
 tales she is seen at her best — the crisp, 
 nervous style, the keen but never ill- 
 natured satire, the ready command of 
 interesting situations all going to the 
 enhancement of the reader's enjoyment. 
 Nothing could be better in their way 
 
 420 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 than PauPs Blunders, A Tumbler of 
 Milk, and Ada." [Boston " Literary 
 World." 1351 
 
 IIEIl MOTHER'S DARLING [by 
 C. Emza Lawsox (Cowan) Riddei.l ; 
 Tinsley, 1877.] "is as pleasant a 
 character as Mrs. Riddell has ever in- 
 troduced. Left fatherless and poor at 
 an early age, and soon afterwards losing 
 lier invalid mother, she makes use of 
 her talent as a singer to support herself, 
 whicli she does very bravely and honor- 
 ably, tho, oing to the unscrupulousness 
 of some of her companions she does not 
 escape slander. Tier adventures in the 
 strange world to which Miss Rodwell in- 
 troduces her, the contrast between her 
 .lii-minded and womanly nature and tlie 
 .coarser clay of such as Archer and tlie 
 Kodwell, her stay with some rich 
 'vulgarian' relativs, and tlie final 
 Ihappy resolution of all her difficulties, 
 make up in their relation "a very read- 
 able novel." [Athenajum. 13512 
 
 HEU SECOND LOVE. = ^ LOST 
 .LOVE. 
 
 HER TITLE OF HONOR, [by 
 "Holme Lek", i. e., Harriet Parr: 
 King, 1871.] "Tlie plot is slit and tlie 
 story lacks proportion, but the author has 
 displayed several good qualities which 
 tcompensate for these defects. Pengar- 
 ■von, on tlie Cornish coast, is the chief 
 scene of the story ; and Francis Gwynne, 
 the son of a miner, is the hero, whose 
 career without being vicissitudinous is 
 described witli sucli skill as to interest 
 any novel-reader not hopelessly a slave 
 to sensational literature. Some of tlie 
 
 a love story of the most modern kind, 
 in wliich the passion is so unobtrusiv 
 and reasonable that it is discovered only 
 by those most interested when the 
 circumstances ar all in its favor, and 
 it could almost be done without. Olivia 
 and Jack ar poor, but Olivia has rich 
 relativs in whose house she meets a 
 Mr. De Renzi, a brilliant man of the 
 world, who amuses himself iu Parlia- 
 ment and elsewhere with a wliolc-soulcd 
 devotion to that employment, as the 
 son of a great London financier should. 
 He, however, falls in love with Olivia, 
 and liis fatlier's consent is won by coup- 
 ling the marriage with a splendid business 
 ojiportunity. After her engagement, 
 Olivia is introduced to tlie cream of 
 tlie cream of english society, including 
 vulgar Americans, manufacturers' wives 
 from Manchester, insufferably rich 
 Londoners, cynical Frenchmen, dull 
 poets, and a duke or two. But tho the 
 reader finds it enjoyable, Olivia does 
 not like it. She and De Renzi quarrel, 
 and it begins to dawn upon her that she 
 loves Jack. He makes a similar dis- 
 covery, and they ar married in the last 
 chapter. There ar many more than 
 usually clever passages in the book ; it 
 is thoroly readable, and almost too uni- 
 formly amusing." [Critic. 1354 
 IIERIOT'S CHOICE. [by Rosa 
 NoiJCiiKTTE Cakey : Bentley, 1880.] 
 "The principal feature of the book, 
 except a consistently polemical purpose 
 in the High Church direction, is the 
 great inferiority of the male to the 
 female characters. Mildred is vividly 
 
 characters ar admirably sketched described, and brings a fine nature be- 
 fore us ; Olive, the poetess, is also an 
 original conception, and mit be drawn 
 from life, and the rest of the pleasant 
 group of maidens hav their special 
 attributes; but the imbecil clergyman 
 and the brutal squire, — Richard, the 
 421 
 
 Altlio the characters lived at the end of 
 the last century, their ways ar our ways 
 and their lives ar our lives." [Athe- 
 najum. 1353 
 
 HERIOTS (The) [by H: Stuart 
 Cunningham: Macmillan, 1890. J "is 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 opinionativ young ' priest,' who mar- 
 ries the heiress, and Polly's moon- 
 struck lover, ar all sad specimens of 
 the worst half of humanity." [Athe- 
 n«um. • 1355 
 
 HERO (A) etc. [by Dinah Maria 
 (Mulock) Craik : (t, 1887) Harper, 
 1853.] contains 3 stories. " The hero is 
 a boy, but a true hero; and the story, 
 related by a bachelor uncle to a group of 
 nefews and nieces, is designed to slio 
 that heroism is not a matter dependent 
 on age or sex, hi or lo birth ; that the 
 hero is not, ex officio, girt with a sword; 
 nor is it essential that he slauter others, 
 or be slautered himself. ' Bread upon 
 ike Waters; a Governess's Life,' is the 
 title of the second story, and is suffi- 
 ciently descriptiv to convey an idea of 
 its spirit. ' Alice Learmont ' closes the 
 volume. In this the scene is laid in 
 Scottish cottage life." [N. Y. "Literary 
 World." 1356 
 
 HERO cxtxt:i{ew. = prescotts 
 
 OF PAirPHILON. 
 
 HESTER [by Ma. Oliphant (Wilson) 
 Oliphant : Macmillan, 1884.] " should 
 rather hav been called ' Catherine,' for 
 the reader's interest is more warmly be- 
 stoed upon the proud, masterful, loving 
 old lady, who receives so scant measure 
 of gratitude from those she has be- 
 friended and adopted, than upon the 
 equally proud and passionate young girl, 
 who has youth on her side when the 
 hardest trial of her life besets her. 
 Tho at the opening of the story Catherine 
 cannot endure the hi-spirited dauter of 
 John Vernon, yet Hester is really her 
 counterpart, and when a great bio falls 
 upon them, when Hester loses her lover 
 and Catherine the son of her old age, 
 when disappointed affection and trust ar 
 more grievous to bear than the repeti- 
 tion of financial trouble supposed to hav 
 been vanquished long before, the two 
 
 noble souls draw togetlicr, and under- 
 stand that their repulsion was meant only 
 to unite them finally. All the story of 
 Catherine's second struggle, the success 
 of which cannot mend tlie broken heart 
 which the discovery of Edward's heart- 
 lessncss, not his dishonesty, has caused, 
 is pathetic and impressiv." [Athe- 
 naeum. 1357 
 HESTER'S VENTURE [by Ma. 
 Roberts : Longmans, 188G.] " ' Hester's 
 Venture 'is long without being tedious, 
 wholesom, but never mawkish, and 
 marked throuout by the kindly wit, re- 
 fined protraiture, and acute perception 
 which hav been observable in former 
 works by the same hand. Thfire ar at 
 least half a dozen finished studies of 
 character and as many clever sketches. 
 Of the former, Olivia Vane, the actress, 
 ' a lovable, faulty creature, with a divine 
 spark in her,' whose ' moral squint ' 
 brings such trouble on the heroin and 
 herself; Mrs. Torrington, a charming 
 picture of serene old age ; her grandson 
 John and his lo-born wife ; and lastly, 
 Hester herself, with her hi-bred scorn of 
 all pettiness, her courage and conversa- 
 tional charm, ar perhaps the most suc- 
 cessful." [Athenaeum. 1358 
 HIDE AND SEEK [by [W:] Wilkie 
 Collins: Bentley, 18.5-i.] "is a well- 
 intentioned novel, exposing the dreari- 
 ness of the existence of a religious 
 family of the middle class, and the evil 
 influences of a ' sound and serious ' 
 education on an impetuous and warm- 
 hearted youth." [Westminster. 1359 
 HIGHER LAW (The), [by E : Mait- 
 land : Chapman, 1870.] " The art with 
 which tliese characters, altho all good, 
 ar made to differ, and with which tlieir 
 several idiosyncracies ar brflt out, is not 
 slit. Sophia and James ar so constituted 
 as to render a union between them, if it 
 could take place, essentially a ha{)py one, 
 
 422 
 
imiTISlI NOVELS. 
 
 by reason of the affinity of their natures. 
 Similarly, Margaret and Edmund wer 
 ' made for one another.' By a, great 
 misfortune, James and Margaret ar 
 thron together before they meet their 
 several affinities, and James falls in love 
 with Margaret. Slie, on the other hand, 
 altho experiencing a most friendly af- 
 fection for him, is quite untouched by 
 that divine fury and passion of love 
 without which no wedded pair ar likely 
 to be happy. James perceives her cold- 
 ness, but trusts that time will change the 
 friendly into a lover-like attachment, 
 and persuades Margaret to marry him. 
 Their married life is not a happy one. 
 Margaret's coldness remains unchanged 
 altho she esteems her husband, and tries 
 in every way to please him. The hus- 
 b.ind's anger and misery at the want of 
 reciprocity in his affection is vented on 
 his wife and himself alike, and causes 
 great unhappiness to both. While they 
 ar living in this state Edmund Noel, a 
 friend of the husband, but up to that 
 time a stranger to the wife, comes to 
 them. Instantaneously the capacity for 
 passionate love, which had slumbered so 
 long in Margaret's nature, is awakened 
 at the sit of the being for whom by the 
 ' liier law ' of nature she has been in- 
 tended, and with wliom she 6t to hav 
 been mated. The love is mutual, and 
 soon acknoledged between the two ; but 
 altho they permit themselvs many en- 
 dearments, their respect, and affection 
 for James prevent them from yielding 
 to temptation. The struggle of the af- 
 fections and the lives of the unhappy 
 trio ar given with great force | and 
 simple as the tale may seem from tliis 
 account of it, the reader will find much 
 to interest and excite in the way it is 
 told. The end is as happy as the cir- 
 cumstances will permit. James May- 
 nard is killed. Margaret, after a decent 
 
 interval, marries her lover." [Athe- 
 najum. 1360 
 
 HIS COUSIN BETTY, [by F.. M.. 
 Teard; Bentley, 1888.] "Betty, the 
 blunt, impetuous, half-boyish, but gently 
 bred and lovable heroin, does not seem 
 at all a likely person to be drawn to the 
 quiet, prim, and iit first sit rather prig- 
 gish hero ; and indeed the acquaintance 
 of the cousins begins with a quite un- 
 reasonable amount of dislike, not to say 
 
 hatred, on Betty's side Very 
 
 cunningly poor Betty is persuaded that 
 John is in love with her, and still more 
 cunningly — for this feat requires greater 
 delicacy of treatment — John is per- 
 suaded not only that Betty loves him, 
 but that she expects him to make her an 
 offer of marriage. The stratagem suc- 
 ceeds ; but before the wedding, Jolin has 
 discovered one half of the truth, and 
 shortly afterwards Betty discovers the 
 other. The situation is both interesting 
 and pathetic, for the poor girl has given 
 the love which she supposed to be spon- 
 taneously sot, while the man's passion is 
 only less absorbing and less certain of 
 itself becaus it has been artificially 
 forced into a hurried maturity. We will 
 not tell more of the story, which from 
 this point onward becomes less and less 
 dependent upon mere incident ; but it is 
 difficult to praise too liily the deftness, 
 the subtlety, the fine imaginativ Insit 
 which mark the book from the time when 
 the hero and heroin ar drawn into the 
 wretched labyrinth, to tlie happy day in 
 which, haying threaded all tlie devious 
 mazes, they emerge upon the brit open 
 land which lies beyond. ' Ills Cousin 
 Betty,' whether regarded from the in- 
 tellectual or the literary point of vue, is 
 a singularly able and attractiv novel." 
 [Spectator. 1361 
 
 IIIS HELPMATE, [by Frank Bak- 
 KKTT : Appleion, 1887. J " This author 
 
 423 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 HIS GRACE. [Ijy \V: i: : NoRRrs: 
 Methuen, 1892.] "Of all tlie imagiiiary 
 dukes with whom we are iicciuaiiitetl, Jfr. 
 Norris' is the most delightfully human. 
 His grace of Hurstbourne is a grown-up 
 boy, — boyish in his tastes, in his reckless- 
 ness, in his frank gooil-nature, most boy- 
 ish of all in his iletermination to outshine, 
 baffle, and in every way discomfit that 
 very adult cousin, Paul Gascoigne, whose 
 wealth and cleverness make the contest 
 from first to last a very unequal affair. 
 Of course, we know all along that the 
 duke will be victorious; and there is real 
 cleverness in the adoption of the expedi- 
 ent by which, in the final encounter, the 
 duke's strong muscles rather than his wits 
 extricate him from the very tight, place in 
 which he finds himself. The struggle on 
 the floor of Gascoigne's chambers for the 
 possession of the document with which 
 the better-eciuipped combatant has threat- 
 ened a 'coup-de-grace,' may not be war- 
 fare of the legitimate kind, but it has a 
 barbaric magnificence, and, dramatically, 
 it is one of Jfr. Xorris' happiest ettVcts." 
 [.Spectator.] — "In construction, as in 
 writing, Mr. Norris has eminently 'le 
 style coulant,' which is a very different 
 thing from mere fluency. Ills novels hav 
 the virtues of the oyster in an old, a vul- 
 
 gar, but an excellent apolog — thfiy "go 
 down so easily." Tbfire may not be very 
 much in 'His Grace.' AVhen Mr. Norri.s. 
 in the first few pages, has introdii(;cd you 
 to the self-depreciatory nan-ator, and to 
 his Eton friend who comes into a duke- 
 dom and offers him a sort of agency just 
 when he is very mucli dowii on his luc, 
 and tij the narrator's sister who, being 
 penniless, has engaged herself to a harm- 
 less, but not charming, parson widoer, 
 and to the duke's cousin, who has had the 
 ready money left him, and is a detestable 
 creature — yon smile superior and say "I 
 kno what is coming." You ihi kno what 
 is coming; but you entirely mistake Mr. 
 Norris' cleverness if you think that lie is 
 not perfectly aware of your knoledge, and 
 resolved to talce advantage — a quite good 
 and craftsman-like advantage — of it. 
 Pleased with yourself, you ar also pleased 
 with Mr. Norris, and with the ornaments 
 and surprises which prevent your satis- 
 faction from being mere patronage. ^Vnd 
 then it goes down so easily! Thfire ar no 
 checs, no breaks, no puzzles, no false 
 notes. It is lilce a very good dinner, 
 whfireof you hardly remember tlic details, 
 but ar aware, after diiicstion, that all was 
 and is peace. There is a touch of great- 
 ness in this," [Academy. 1361 q 
 
 423 t 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 has been identified with sensational 
 novels, but this one is mainly domestic. 
 It Jias a spice of exciting incident, but 
 the interest as a whole is subdued. It 
 is a brit and wholesom little tale.'' 
 [American. 1362 
 
 HIS SISTERS, [by Herblrt P. 
 Earl: Low, 1887.] "Mr. Earl has a 
 pleasant story to tell of certain young 
 men and maidens, of a quiet english 
 type, set in a quiet background. Th6re 
 ar several heroes and heroins, who re- 
 ceive impartial treatment at the author's 
 liands, and who rouse impartial, if not 
 quite indifferent interest in the mind 
 of the reader; and thSre is at least 
 one cold and calculating villain, of a. 
 sort not unusual in fiction, who makes a 
 great deal of mischief before his time of 
 reckoning comes. He is a lawyer, with 
 an inordinate taste for other people's 
 money ; and he contrives to indulge his 
 taste pretty freely. Of course there 
 is a virtuous young man on liis track, 
 and in the end he gets his deserts. But 
 Mr. Earl does not overdraw all his char- 
 acters. Some of them are thoroly nat- 
 ural creatures, in whose joys ami sorroes 
 it is easy to sympathize ; and if the nar- 
 rativ is not very exciting, at any rate it 
 deals witli persons and things as they 
 ar." [Athenaeum. 1363 
 
 HISTORY OF A WEEK (The) [by 
 Lucr Bethia (Colquiioun) Wali-ord : 
 Blackwood, 1886.] " is eminently a femi- 
 nin work. It has a good deal of clever 
 tho slit study of character. The 2 
 shallo and flirting, but essentially good- 
 hearted sisters, the cousins of the heroin, 
 ar a pleasant contrast to some of the 
 equally shallo, but spiteful young women 
 who seem to form the ideal of some 
 novelists ; and the heroin herself is 
 identifiable." [Athenaeum. 1364: 
 
 HOLLYWOOD. [by Akme L. 
 Walker: S: Tinsley, 1880.] "A 
 
 good book, simple in plot and unobjec- 
 tionable in its manner of narration, is 
 ' Hollywood.' It is a tale of true love 
 and of the interruptions by which its 
 
 course is impeded Miss Walker 
 
 is natural and simple throuout. She 
 weaves her i)Iot quietly, without hurry 
 or strain, and eschews the gaudy-colored 
 threads by M'hich a feebler worker or a 
 novice would hav been tempted. Iler 
 characters, tho not commonplace, ar or- 
 dinary types of humanity^ they do what 
 we should expect of them at the rit mo- 
 ment, and possess our sympathies bccaus 
 they do not excite our ridicule or dis- 
 gust. There is no villain to speak of in 
 tlie book, and no impossible hero ; the 
 interest excited is perfectly legitimate, 
 and the inconsistencies fairly intelligible. 
 ' Hollywood ' is likely to please its readers 
 without taking^ them by storm ; it is a 
 book which cannot offend and cannot 
 leave a bad impression." [Atli. 1385 
 HOME AGAIN [by G: MacDon- 
 ald: Appleton, 1888.] "is not in the 
 author's old vein, being less elaborate, 
 less didactic, and less solemnly thotful ; 
 but much tenderness and feeling under- 
 lie the britness and spirit of the new 
 story ; and perhaps the tenderness has 
 all the more chance of making itself felt 
 where the lesson is needed, for being 
 concealed a little more than usual under 
 the cleverness. There is a too painfully 
 appropriate moral worked out unrealis- 
 tically at the close, when tlie thotless and 
 almost cruel hero suddenly melts into 
 all the most desirable f iises of unexpected 
 manliness, common sense, filial devo- 
 tion, and affectionate res])ect for the rit 
 woman; but Ids nauty ways ar worth 
 reading about, even if his conversion is 
 felt to be purely a literary one ; and the 
 first part of the volume is really very 
 entertaining. The ins and outs of both 
 fashionable and literary snobbery ar 
 
 Hi 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 well worked, and the reader will delit 
 in much intellectual by-play of spirited 
 thot and talk." [Critic] — " The hero 
 goes home to the father he has looked 
 down upon becaus a farmer could not 
 be a gentleman, and in the loving, 
 wise companionship of a true-hearted 
 man, under the tonic influence of his 
 sturdy, sensible cousin Molly, and with 
 honest work to do, he groes into wor- 
 thy manhood. Such a story, earnest, 
 th6tful, far-reaching in its purpose, is 
 good to read and to think about." [Bos- 
 ton "Literary World." 1366 
 HOME SWEET HOME [by C. 
 Eliza Lawson (Cowan) Kiddell : 
 Tinsley, 1873.] "consists of the autobi- 
 ografy of a girl, wlio, on the death of an 
 affectionate and somewhat puritanic 
 grandmother, with whom her early years 
 hav been spent, is transplanted from her 
 nativ soil, a stratum of small dissenting 
 trades-people in a provincial nuborhood, 
 to the somewhat different region of mus- 
 ical and theatrical Bohemia. Anne, who 
 has been early left an orfan, inherits 
 from her father a strongly artistic bias, 
 possessing likewise the endowment of a 
 gloriims voice. The conflict of feeling 
 is dcci.led mainly by the insidious influ- 
 ence of a german musician who is ac- 
 quainted with some friends of hers in 
 the country, and has had the sagacity to 
 foresee in Anne's voice a possible source 
 of emolument to himself. The charac- 
 ter of this wily Herr Droigel, with his 
 effusiv demonstrativness and sentiment, 
 his calculating regard for the main 
 chance, and dogged tho not ungentle 
 tenacity of purpose, his flo of talk, 
 liis amazing candor, his unchivalrous 
 diplomacy, is the best part of tlie book. 
 The adventures of Anne under liis roof, 
 her zest for her art, her distaste for its 
 profession when her eyes ar opened to 
 the knoledge of certain hard facts of 
 
 the life she has to lead, constitute the 
 substance of the three fairly readable 
 volumes." [Athenaium. 1367 
 
 HONOR BLAKE. [by — ( ) 
 Keatinge : King, 1872.^ " The heroin 
 is one of the most genuin characters whom 
 we hav for a long time met in Action. 
 The scenes abroad ar sketched with great 
 spirit. The chapter ' Bayonne ' in the 
 first volume is alone worth scores of or- 
 dinary novels. Mrs. Keatinge can de- 
 scribe the wild coast scenery and the fir 
 woods with the same skill with which 
 she can paint Honor's first ball. The 
 episode about the Simmonds family, and 
 the story of the forged check ar also 
 told, the first with some humor, and the 
 second with some dramatic power." 
 [Westminster. 1368 
 
 HONOURABLE ELLA (The) [by 
 the Earl of Desart : Ilurst, 1879.] 
 " is a lively book. The author's caustic 
 humor, his vivacity, his witty and un- 
 expected comparisons, make his pages 
 sparkle, and giv the reader many a pleas- 
 ant laf The conversation, for 
 
 instance, between the vulgar millionaire 
 and Lady Lorton, is as much over done 
 as if it had been written for a farce to 
 be played before a very undiscriminating 
 
 audience Lord Desart certainly 
 
 succeeds in keeping his readers in a 
 good humor. He is never dull, and if 
 he has a taste for moralizing at times, 
 and is delited to gird at the follies of so- 
 ciety, he does it shortly and sharply, and 
 lets one see that his own estimate of hu- 
 man nature is not that of the worn-out 
 cynic." [Athenaeum. 1369 
 
 HONOURABLE MISS (The) [by 
 " L. T. Meade : ", Methuen ^ Co., 1891.] 
 " is a brit and lively story, with a fine 
 heroin, whom it really does one good to 
 read about. The vulgar people of the 
 country town where the little drama is 
 played ar sometimes a little tiresom. 
 
 423 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 Perhaps it mit be said that the comedy 
 sometimes verges upon farce. But tlie 
 novel is worth roadini;." [Spec. 1370 
 HONORABLE MISS FERRAED. 
 [by May (Laffan) Hartley : Beniley, 
 1877.] " S;nce we read Miss Edge- 
 wortli's Castle Rackrent [No. 1137] we 
 remember no such grafic pictures of life 
 among the spendthrift class of Irish gen- 
 try as is here afforded. It is a singularly 
 original story, told with a pre-Rafaellite 
 fidelity to detail, a steady sacrifice of 
 romantic effect to truth, which make it 
 read like a real history. Helena Fer- 
 rard, its heroin, a beautiful, tameless, 
 utterly untrained creature, is dauter of 
 Lord Darraghmore. The ancestral home 
 has long since passed from his hands, and 
 he and his family ar, to all intents and 
 purposes, vagrants, living here and th^re, 
 banqueting with ruf profusion when the 
 quarterly stipend is paid in, and starving 
 for the rest of the year. ^ . . . The 
 interest of the tale centers in the for- 
 tunes of the wayward and beautiful 
 Helena. At one time she is sent to 
 some maiden ants in Bath ; but alas ! 
 the process of civilization is too bitter 
 for her, and after a f ortnit of regular 
 and decorous living, she escapes to her 
 wild brood in Ireland. Continually in 
 hope, we ar continually disappointed; 
 and when, at last, she turns from tlie 
 fairer fortune which mit hav been hers, 
 and to which the deeper instinct of her 
 heart invites her, and folloes her peas- 
 ant lover to America, it is with a con- 
 striction of grief and regret that we see 
 her vanish. Did she really come? It is 
 hard to accept the story as a mere story, 
 and to say this is to offer hi praise to 
 the story-teller." [Boston " Literary 
 World."] — " It is rustic Ireland that is 
 now described, and the central figure is 
 a wild irish girl, the dauter of a ruined 
 peer. Helena Ferrard groes up unedu- 
 
 cated and uncared-for, foUoing the sor- 
 did vicissitudes of her father's shiftless 
 life, and without companions except 
 her ruf poaching brothers Ac- 
 cordingly, we think none the less of her 
 for preferring the love of the honest 
 young farmer, with whom she seeks 
 a wider and more tolerant world in 
 Canada, to the equal devotion of the 
 educated Englishman, whose kindness 
 has been so constantly directed to her ; 
 her first allegiance is untarnished, and 
 the wrong she does to Satterthwaite 
 never dawns upon her. It is of a piece 
 with her rejection of her ant's kind 
 overtures, and yet in neither case is 
 there mere ingratitude." [Ath. 1371 
 HORRID GIRL (A). \_Beniley, 
 1876.] "The lady who is unjustly 
 characterized as a ' Horrid Girl ' is one 
 Mary St. Felix, who, in her old age, 
 tells some incidents of her life to her 
 nieces, or ratlier allows them to read 
 some old letters which relate them. 
 Mary's worst fault is having been rather 
 hoyden, having caut some wild habits, 
 including that of swearing, from the 
 sailors and other ruf characters in whose 
 company the motherless girl spent a 
 portion of her childhood. On the 
 death of her grandfather she goes to 
 a school which is kept by a pair of 
 very evangelical ladies, kind souls 
 enuf, but naturally apt to be scandal- 
 ized at their fiery pupil. She is much 
 relieved by the diversion of going to 
 spend some time at a large country 
 house whijre under the easy rule of 
 a good-hearted but vulgar dowager, 
 young men and maidens do much as 
 they list, in the way of amusement 
 
 and intrigue Mary groes out of 
 
 her reckless girlishness into a very lov- 
 able young woman. Her conduct is good 
 and true to nature, at least to the nature of 
 a thoroly honest and affectionate girl, 
 
 426 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 gifted with gooJ spirits and healthy 
 nerves." [Athenajum. 1372 
 
 HOSTAGES TO FORTUNE. [by 
 M.. E,. (Buaduon) Ma.xwell : Ilar- 
 per, 1875.] "It would he hard to find 
 a more unequal writer in her field than 
 
 Miss Braddon Her ' Hostages 
 
 to Fortune' is one of her successes. 
 It tells the story of an easy-going self- 
 indulgent London litterateur who, tired 
 by his work and his social duties, flies 
 for rest to a distant spot in Wales, 
 where he falls in love with a very 
 charming country girl. Altho he has 
 already decided the question of marriage 
 in the abstract unfavorably, he was led 
 to break his resolution, and he married 
 her and brot her to London. Thi^re he 
 fitted a house for lier extravagantly and 
 wasted his hard-earned substance in 
 little dinners, old china, etc., until 
 bankruptcy stared him in the face. The 
 wicked people ar a Mrs. Brandreth, an 
 actress, who had formerly been engaged 
 to him, but had tliron him over to make 
 a better match, and wlio, being now a 
 wido, is anxious to marry him, but who 
 becomes a fury on account of Iier second 
 love, and the other is a wealthy pursuer 
 of pleasure who falls in love with his 
 wife. These two come to bad ends, 
 while the man of letters resumes domestic 
 life in Wales, well out of the way of 
 danger.'' [Nation. 1373 
 
 HOUSE ON THE MOOR (The). 
 = No. 744. 
 
 HOUSE PARTY (A), [by " Ouida," 
 i. c.,L., DelaRame : Lippi^cott, 1886.] 
 " The last story inihe little volume, en- 
 titled ' A Rainy June ' is all that saves the 
 production from absolute worthlessness. 
 This little tale is told with striking 
 cleverness in a series of letters, and in 
 its least effects, Ouida's artistic skill 
 comes out in clear relief. It is cynical, 
 but the cynicism is often delitfuUy 
 
 amusing and compels a l;if." [Ameri- 
 can. 1374 
 
 HOUSEFUL OF GIRLS (A), [by 
 " Sarah Tytler," i. e., Henrietta Ked- 
 die : Smith ^ Innes, 1889.] "The author 
 has considerable knoledge of girl nature, 
 and she has found a congenial theme in 
 her present story. Tlie four sisters, 
 Annie, Dora, Rose, and May Millar, 
 ar charming in their different ways. 
 Their characters ar developed by the 
 bracing necessity of taking their on 
 paths in life when the county bank 
 fails, and the good old doctor, their 
 father, loses his savings." [Athenjeum.] 
 — Compare plot of " Not like other 
 Girls." 1375 
 
 HOW IT ALL HAPPENED, etc., 
 [by Louisa (Taylor) Parr : Strahan, 
 1871.] contains "not one good story, 
 but a wliole collection of good stories. 
 Each is excellent in it^ way. ' How it 
 all Happened ' is a tale of two mar- 
 riages, which happen in the most im- 
 probable way, but to which Mrs. Parr, 
 by her happy humor, which wards off all 
 criticism, contrives to give the air of 
 
 probability Mrs. Parr is as happy 
 
 in describing forein characters and forein 
 scenerj-, as those of her nativ land. 
 We most heartily recommend her vol- 
 umes to all those who can appreciate 
 true humor and true pathos." [West- 
 minster Review.] — "The author has 
 solved the problem of being domestic 
 without being tame. This is partly the 
 result of her undoubted power of de- 
 scription and her insit into character, 
 and partly of the kind of life which she 
 describes — life mostly of the quiet rus- 
 tic sort lurking in old country towns 
 and odd seaside villages, which hav not 
 yet been crushed into uniformity by the 
 march of 'progress.'" [Athen. 1376 
 
 HUGH MOORE, [by Evelyn Stone : 
 Blackwood, 1885.] "A yacht in the 
 
 427 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 Ionian sons, a goldon evening in Corfu, 
 tlio cngliah oner of tlie yacht and his 
 companion, younger son of an irisli lord, 
 a Mily consul and his i)rctty dauter, with 
 the intriguing spirit of her Levantine 
 mother strongly developed — such is 
 the opening scene and such ar the lead- 
 ing characters of this acceptable story. 
 The impressionable young irishman is 
 the hero whose adventures ar related 
 in terse cnglish, studded with natural 
 incidents and dialogs. Th6re is nothing 
 out of the ordinary beat in Hugh Moor's 
 experiences, and when the reader knoes 
 that thi5re ar more heroins than one he 
 may make a tolerably confident surmise 
 as to the development of the plot which 
 dates its origin from that autumn trip 
 in the Mediterranean." [Athen. 137,7 
 
 HURST AND HANGER [Paul, 
 188G.] " is an attractiv picture of a group 
 of families in hier middle-class life, and 
 concerns itself with loves and affections 
 of the younger members, coming to an 
 end only when the entire company hav 
 been settled off in well-assorted couples, 
 after many chances and changes, and 
 without the slitest reason for anxiety as 
 to their future lot in life. Apart from 
 the usual lottery of love th^re is not 
 
 much in the way of incident It 
 
 is not a rare thing to meet a story 
 which rests its claims on nothing more 
 exciting than the vicissitudes of domestic 
 affection and conventional courtship, but 
 it is rare to find one in which the feeling 
 is so true and the descriptions so deli- 
 cate as in ' Hurst and Hanger.' " [Athe- 
 naeum. 1378 
 
 IDA CRAVEN [by Jessie ( ) Ca- 
 bell : Holt, 1876.] " is a very good novel. 
 Its subject is the married life of a young 
 woman, who, after a scrappy education 
 in different parts of Europe , when still 
 very young, marries an east Indian offi- 
 cial 20 years her senior. She takes this 
 
 step without loving him, as much from 
 a careless curiosity about her fate as 
 from any other motiv, while at the same 
 time she loves him as much as she does 
 any one. When in India she tries to 
 be a good wife, but her romantic dreams 
 ar far from satisfied, and when she has 
 much idle and lonely time on her hands 
 the appearance of an attractiv but slitly 
 scampish former lover arouses her from 
 her apathy and threatens to cause con- 
 siderable confusion. . . . But she 
 has eyes to see her duty, and does it; 
 she turns off her filandering lover and 
 tells her husband, who swalloes tlie pill 
 as well as he can ; and in time the cur- 
 tain falls on a reunited and happy couple. 
 These few lines do but scant justice to 
 the clever way in which the author has 
 drawn the heroin's character and has 
 foUoed its groth from the stony-hearted 
 indifference of youth to its maturity 
 throu experience." [Nation. 1379 
 IDEALA [E. r. Allen, 1888.] "is a 
 strange but intensely interesting volume. 
 It is not a novel, but a portrait of a 
 single character ' by suffering made 
 strong,' a character full of inconsisten- 
 cies and warring impulses, lofty aspira- 
 tions and sensuous promptings — the 
 character, in fine, of a woman who, to 
 quote the author's words, ' had gone 
 down to the verge of dishonor, but whose 
 goodness had raised her again above the 
 best.' Ideala is certainly one of the 
 most original figures to be encountered 
 in the whole range of contemporary 
 fiction, but she is at the same time one 
 of the most unmistakably true to life. 
 The author is in love with his creation, 
 and he certainly succeeds in rendering 
 the brilliant and wayward personality of 
 his heroin singularly attractiv to the 
 reader. The descriptiv passages ar pic- 
 turesque, an.l the dialog dashed with 
 humor." [Athenaeum. 1379A 
 
 428 
 
BBITI8II NOVELS. 
 
 ILL-KEGULATED MIND (An) [by 
 K.. Wylde: Ilolt, 1880.] "is a curious 
 and somewliat strained little story, but 
 full of vividness and pathetic interest. 
 None of the people would probably be- 
 have in life as they do in the book, but 
 that does not necessarily lessen the 
 pathos and prettiness of the story in 
 these days of almost too much realism. 
 The characters stand out with singular 
 clearness, and the story is one to linger 
 in the mind." [Critic. 1379B 
 
 ILLUSIONS [by H. Musgrave : 
 Bentley, 1887.] " mit well hav been 
 called ' Disillusions.' The sweet women 
 characters, drawn with much care, ar all 
 more or less rudely awakened from the 
 dreams of human perfection in which 
 their visionary training had allowed them 
 to indulge, and scarcely one of them is 
 happy enuf to keep her illusions to the 
 end. It is true that they come across un- 
 favorable specimens of the illuding sex. 
 .... Her sisters ar only less delitful 
 ohan herself." [Athenaeum. 1380 
 
 IN A CATHEDRAL CITY [by 
 BiiKTHA TnOMAS : Bentley, 1882.] " is a 
 slit but pretty story. The most promi- 
 nent character is a young man of humble 
 birth, endowed with a fine voice, who, 
 after having been looked upon as a, 
 black sheep and a ne'er-do-well in his 
 nativ place, becomes a member of the 
 choir of ' St. Martin's Minster.' There 
 ar some love passages between him and 
 Elsie Ford, a pretty little dressmaker, 
 who has fled from a worthless husband. 
 Leonard tempts her to cast off her fet- 
 ters, but she resists in spite of her 
 liking for him ; and when he is br6t out 
 in London, and makes a sensation, he 
 soon displays the worst side of his 
 nature. Elsie's husband comes to a 
 tragic end, and a modest lay clerk is 
 eventually rewarded for a love much 
 more genuin and faithful than that of 
 
 the inconstant young tenor. There is 
 some very charming work in Miss 
 Thomas' volumes." [Athenaeum. 1381 
 
 IN DURANCE VILE, [by Ma. ( ) 
 (Argles) Hungerford : Lippincoit, 
 1885.] " The work of ' The Duchess ' 
 is noted for its unevenness ; but in this 
 collection of short stories she is at 
 her best. The best is A Week in 
 Killarney , which is a most entertain- 
 ing, and at the same time most natural, 
 description of the woes of a young 
 couple who had undertaken to chap- 
 eron on a trip throu Ireland a young 
 lady with 2 lovers. We ar not at all 
 sure that we hav not enjoyed it as much 
 as the similar adventures of the famous 
 'Phaeton.'" [Critic. 1382 
 
 IN EAR LOCHABER. [by W : 
 Black: Harper, 1888.] The author's 
 "delineation of the 'dour Scotch,' the 
 stiff-necked, Eree-Church Scotch, who 
 swear by the Covenant and hate the Es- 
 tablishment, who ar incomparable kill- 
 joys, is an illustration of justice without 
 mercy. He givs credit for many recog- 
 nized virtues to the minister and even to 
 his elders and their wives. He refrains, 
 too, from suggesting that almost every 
 one of them may be possessed of a cruel 
 and vindictiv spirit of fanaticism. But 
 he doesn't like the ' unco guid ' nor wish 
 any body else to like them ; he is glad to 
 get off to the moor and heather, and sing 
 the hospitality, the prodigality, the im- 
 pulsiv, warm-hearted shiftlessuess of the 
 keltic Highlanders. Arriving at ' Far 
 Lochaber ' he is delitedly at home, and 
 infects the reader with his sense of 
 pleasure." [Nation. 1383 
 
 IN GLENORAN [by M. B. Fife : Ed- 
 inburgh, Oliphant, 1888.] "is a pretty 
 tale of Scottish village life. The good 
 genius of the story is Kate Cameron, the 
 minister's dauter. She, while suffering 
 from a cruel disappointment in her lover, 
 
 429 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 tries to comfort her poorer friends and 
 to act as peace-maker. Too much 
 sympatliy is demanded for Allan Camp- 
 bell, a ne'er-do-well, spoiled by his 
 devoted sister. Nevertheless one folloes 
 his fortunes and those of Miss Kate with 
 interest." [Athenfeum. 1384: 
 
 IN LONDON TOWN, [by K.. Lee : 
 Beniley, 1884.] " The stammering 
 young assistant at the British Museum, 
 with his wonderful shyness and his 
 solid worth; the girl who has been be- 
 wildered by lectures and ' bier education,' 
 and who is rescued from the terrors of 
 Girtou by the aforesaid assistant; the 
 old museum-haunter, who vainly tries to 
 establish his claim to a title and property, 
 and ends by starving himself, and worse ; 
 the dauter of this man, by an Italian 
 mother, who shares her father's garret 
 and nurses a Socialistic hatred of the 
 rich in her tempestuous heart — all these 
 ar well imagined and designed, and 
 they ar by no means arbitrary creatures 
 wherewith to people the floors of a 
 London lodging-house. Much depends 
 upon the telUng ; and in describing these 
 personages, with that of the Perseus 
 who delivers the little Andromeda out 
 of her garret, Mrs. Lee has been for 
 the most part hily successful. No doubt 
 she puts occasional temptations in the 
 path of a hypercritical reader, who mit 
 find something to \ki at here and th^re, 
 and something on which to base a serious 
 homily. But ' In London Town ' is an 
 unusually interesting story, and it treats 
 sundry topics of the day in a well- 
 informed and rational manner." [Athe- 
 nffium. 1385 
 
 IN LOW BELIEF [by MorleyKob- 
 ERTS : Appleton, 1890.] "is clever enuf 
 to hav a very distinct success. It is an 
 intense love-story, but its every incident 
 goes to illustrate the prevalent ideas, 
 habits and characteristics of half a 
 
 dozen men who occupy a group of 
 studios in London. All the men ar 
 ' bohemians,' and the heroin is a ' model.' 
 ThSre is no effort made to sho off any of 
 the characters under hi lits, — quite the 
 reverse, — but no one can help feeling 
 that the story helps rather than hinders 
 our faith in the real greatness of hu- 
 manity. The hero is a literary man ; he 
 haunts his friends' studios, and is some- 
 thing of an art critic. He wastes a good 
 deal of time, as they all do, and we see 
 the gropings of genius in pursuit of its 
 true work; — its patient waiting with an 
 instinct that if one waits long enuf, 
 something must drift up from the un- 
 
 knon Success has not sapped 
 
 the integrity of any of this little coterie, 
 and they nurse thi^ir illusions and folio 
 th^ir ideals with the most disinterested 
 
 disregard of consequences This 
 
 is a shiftless, unthrifty way of living, 
 but it is at any rate enuf of a contrast 
 to the rich, sordid, materialistic world we 
 hear most about, to enable us to believe 
 that th^re may exist a possible medium 
 if the balance be ritly struck. The 
 story lies entirely outside tlie world of 
 society. Its climax concerns only 3 
 people, each of whom has gone throu an 
 arduous struggle. Thfire ar 2 touching 
 intervues between Armour and Torring- 
 ton , who ar in love with the same woman, 
 which sho the power of the author, and ar 
 indeed the triumf of the book. The effect 
 produced by the heroin is also something 
 to be remarked. She can hardly be de- 
 scribed, for she creates lier atmosfere, 
 moves in it, and carries it with her from 
 studio to studio. But to discern how 
 modest, pure, and charming a woman 
 may be, even without the ordinary con- 
 ventions and safegards which society 
 imposes, the reader must go to the book." 
 [American. 1386 
 
 IN ONE TOWN [by Edmund 
 
 430 
 
BKITISII NOVELS. 
 
 Downey; Ward ^ Downey, 188C.J 
 " tho a little pragmatical and matter of 
 fact, is not uninteresting. It has no 
 hits and depths, but confines itself en- 
 tirely to the commonplace joys and 
 mishaps of every-day men and women, 
 including an old sea-captain, a friendly 
 ship-broker, a. sailor-lad, a giddy clerli 
 or ti\o, a nice young woman, and 
 so forth. The various dealings of these 
 characters with each other ar described 
 without much spirit or excitement, and 
 the story is eked out with some of the 
 usual business of narrativ fiction. 
 Tliere is the ' Auld Robin Gray ' busi- 
 ness, and the stolen will business, and 
 a shipwreck, and a, few other familiar 
 .incidents ; but, all put together, the 
 action of ' In one Town ' does not 
 amount to anything like a sensational 
 ;roraance. The author has written for 
 .quiet and mildly disposed readers, and 
 for them he has written successfully. 
 ■It is a great thing in these days to con- 
 ceive and write an unobjectionable 
 .story." [Athenaeum.] — "The scene 
 is an old seaport in the south of 
 Ireland, and several chapters ar de- 
 •voted to the.talkiof the shippers — each 
 man of them a character. The story is 
 •that.of a girl, who pledged herself on 
 thcieve of his sailing on a long voyage, 
 but was forced by her mother into a 
 marriage with Captain McCorraick. 
 While the latter is absent the old lover 
 return?, and then begins her struggle 
 between love and duty, made desperate 
 by the rumor tliat her husband's vessel 
 has gone down, but when further word 
 comes that it is not true, she tlianks God 
 tliat she can meet him with the con- 
 sciousness that she has ' sinned only in 
 thot.' However, the worthy captain is 
 really lost at sea, and in the end the 
 lovers ar married. Many threads of 
 other lives ar made to cross the chief 
 
 story, and the every-day events in the 
 old seaport ar made to go rit along 
 as they would outside of a book." [Bos- 
 ton " Literary World." 1387 
 
 IN SILK ATTIRE. [by W: 
 Black: Tinsley, 18G9.] "Allowing 
 for the improbability which lies at the 
 root of this novel, and which leads to 
 some minor faults of the same kind, we 
 say at once that it is thoroly pleasant 
 and readable, marked by much and 
 varied cleverness. Mr. Black's plot is 
 not in itself a new one. The unavoid- 
 able rivalry between 2 girls who ar in 
 love with, and almost equally loved by, 
 the same man, has often been treated. 
 But in the present instance, the contrast 
 is not so strongly felt as usual. Both 
 girls ar worthy, both ar unselfish, and 
 each seems to wish the other to win." 
 [Athenaeum. 1388 
 
 IN THAT STATE OF LIFE [by 
 Hamilton Ainfi : Smith, 1871.] " is a 
 very charming story. The character 
 of Sir Andrew Harrieson, whose family 
 was so Intolerably proUd, yet not too 
 proud to add to its wealth by marriages 
 with plebeian heiresses is a sketch in 
 
 which the author excels We 
 
 shall not spoil the reader's pleasure by 
 telling him the way in which Mr. Aid6 
 undoes the knot which )ie has so skil- 
 fully tied. We shall simply say that the 
 last chapters in the book ar by far the 
 most interesting." [Westminster Re- 
 view. , 1389 
 
 IN THE FLOWER OF HER 
 YOUTH, [by Mabel Collins : White, 
 1883.] "She is the dauter of a burly 
 man of letters, large-hearted, extrava- 
 gant, careless of opinion, but with a 
 genuin love for the dauter who has 
 been his comrad since her infancy and 
 her mother's death. Alone with her 
 father in the country she groes to be a 
 charming girl of 17, with all the imagi- 
 
 431 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 natiT side of her nature strengthened by 
 a purely literary and poetic education. 
 ... So Lil becomes Mrs. Newman, 
 and few pictures ar prettier than that 
 of love in a suburb which maintains its 
 charms for some 5 years of domestic 
 life. Then, when office-work and do- 
 mesticity ar beginning to pall upon 
 ' Charlie,' comes a change of fortune ; 
 the Newmans, now rich people, visit 
 Kome, and the bio falls which darkens 
 Lil Newman's life. Very striking is the 
 description of what occurs in the ilex 
 
 serious portions of the story. Tlie 
 whole plot hinges on womanly devotion, 
 on a love for a sinner wliich proves 
 stronger than loathing for his sin. Hap- 
 pily, the object of the heroin's mingled 
 feelings turns out to be wholly innocent 
 of this imaginary offense, and the cur- 
 tain descends amid showers of kisses." 
 [AthensBum. 1392 
 
 INCHBRACKEN [by Ro. Clelano: 
 Glasgow, Wilson, 1883.] "itself was 
 an estate lying near Kibundle, a little 
 scotch village so far away from tlie 
 
 grove in the Ludovisi gardens world that they knew the time only fron 
 
 Adelaide can talk of art with her eyes 
 full of unshed tears, and presents a de- 
 licious problem to the art-loving husband, 
 who thinks he knos all about his wife's 
 resources in that line." [Athen. 1390 
 
 INTRUST. [liyMA.OLiPiiANT (Wil- 
 son) Oliphant : Longmans, 1882.] 
 " Its interest turns on the contrast be- 
 tween the noble simplicity of Anne, 
 who is as royal as her name, and the 
 ' comparativness ' of Mr. Cosmo Doug- 
 las, the rising man of business and con- 
 ventional clubbist. Mr. Douglas is 
 quite presentable both in manners and 
 morals, and there is nothing more life- 
 like in the book than the struggle be- 
 tween his horror of making an impe- 
 cunious marriage, whicli from liis point 
 of vue will be disastrous to both parties, 
 and his feeling that a young man on his 
 promotion cannot afford ' to behave 
 bad'y ' to alady." [Athenseum. 1391 
 
 IN WHITE & GOLD, [by Mrs. E. 
 H. W1LLIAM.S0N : Ilurst, 1888.] "With 
 all its inconsistencies and improbabili- 
 ties is a pretty story, wanting neither in 
 strong situations nor in graceful narra- 
 
 tiv However, if they had 
 
 been rational mortals the story mit hav 
 been told in 1 volume instead of 3, and 
 we should hav lost a good deal of agree- 
 able flirtation, alternating with the more 
 
 the watch of the mail-coach gard. The 
 lady of Inchbracken, the Laird of Auch- 
 lippie, and the minister of the Free 
 Church, ar all people who niit hav 
 stepped out of one of Mrs. Oliphant's 
 novels. The story is quite of her kind, 
 vivid in its delineations of the hard- 
 headed, opinionated Scotchman. The 
 reader is likely to turn a second time to 
 some of the chapters." [Nation. 1393 
 
 INCHFAWN. (N. Y., 1887.) = TI/E 
 O'DONNELLS OF INCHFAWN. 
 
 IS HE POPENJOY? [by Antiionv 
 Trollope: Harper, 1878.] "The in- 
 terest of this novel gathers under 3 
 heads : the problematic legitimacy of an 
 italian-born heir to an english title, the 
 problematic birth of another heir to the 
 same, the Italian claimant having died 
 in infancy ; and the problematic issue of 
 ■a, double-and-twisteil flirtation between 
 several married people and others. 
 These various problems ar closely and 
 curiously interlaced, and their solution 
 cleverly postponed until all is ready for 
 a happy consummation. Mr. TroUope 
 uses his old colors, familiar by reason 
 of many past combinations, but he mixes 
 them with undiminished skill, and lays 
 them on with an almost perfect touch. 
 His people, as usual, ar of all sorts, 
 strongly marked and violently oontrast- 
 
 432 
 
BRITISII NOVELS. 
 
 Ing; Lady Mary is a very spirited and 
 lovely figure, and the Dean, her father, 
 we like in spite of his obvious faults." 
 [Boston "Literary AVorld." 1394 
 
 IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN [Chap- 
 man, 1877.] " will be appreciated more 
 on its cheerful side, as a well written 
 and amusing picture of Irish life. Thfire 
 is nothing exaggerated in its humor, but 
 it is tlie britest and pleasantest story of 
 its kind which we hav seen for some 
 time, and the thfire ar suflBcient uncon- 
 scious hibernianisms, 'up a declivity' 
 for instance, to sho its nationality, the 
 style is fairly correct. The family at 
 Drury Castle ar most life-like and 
 natural, not the least so pretty Marney. 
 Th^re is plenty of comedy in the per- 
 tinacious love-making of Mr. Peter 
 Dakins." [Athenjeura. 1395 
 
 IT WAS A LOVER AND HIS 
 LASS, [by Ma. Oliphant (Wilson) 
 OupHANT : JIarper, 1883.] "From 
 fine frases and strained self -questionings 
 it is delitful to turn to the gentle sim- 
 plicity of Mrs. Oliphant's people. True 
 story teller that she is, the coming of a 
 new book of hers givs the same assur- 
 ance of sweet, fresh pleasure as the 
 tidings that the June roses ar in bloom. 
 She takes us this time to Scotland, 
 where we first knew ' Katie Stewart,' a 
 life time ago for some of us. Th^re is 
 old Sir Patrick, who lived twice as long 
 as was expected, and his son, who was 
 as old as himself. Thfire is the manse, 
 full of gay voices, whither, for the sake 
 of the bonnie Kate, come ' the lang- 
 leggit laddies ' ; and the dim old manor- 
 house whSre sit the ladies of Murkley, 
 Margaret queening it bravely — queen- 
 regent only, tho she be — and Jean, 
 that sweetest of all women, ' an old 
 maid who is still a young one.' Above 
 the village rises their father's folly, a 
 great palace uninhabited and unfinished ; 
 
 white and splendid, but all naked, 
 vacant, and silent. The hero is a preux 
 chevalier, and the heroin, tho with a 
 very distinct self of her on, is another 
 of the tender, impulsiv, hi-hearted 
 girls whom Mrs. Oliphant has so long 
 loved to draw." [Nation. 1390 
 
 JACK THE GIANT-KILLER. See 
 FIVB OLD FRIENDS. 
 
 JACKANAPES [by Juliana Ho- 
 KATIA (Gatty) Ewing : Roberts, 1884.] 
 "is a most beautiful little story. Its 
 literary art is as perfect as its moral 
 lesson is ennobling. The skill and taste 
 which framed for its humor and pathos 
 so appropriate a setting will rarely be 
 surpassed." [Nation.] — " These, Jack- 
 anapes, Daddy Darwin, A Short Life 
 ar beautiful little tales, simple, even to 
 the simplicity that is generally dedicated 
 to children, yet only one of them could 
 properly be called a, child's story. Two 
 of them ar pitiful, and a sensitiv child 
 would cry hard over them, yet they ar 
 not in the least morbid, but hav in a hi 
 degree that sentiment of even romantic 
 courage, knitliness, and love of duty 
 which comes out with an unexpected 
 charm from under the prosaic english 
 character." [Overland. 1397 
 
 JAMES HEPBURN [by Sophie 
 F. F. Veitcii : 1888.] "is a story of 
 significant power, filled with unusual 
 and even tragic incidents, and yet far 
 removed from the sensational order of 
 fiction. Rarely indeed, in fiction or 
 out of it, does one encounter so strong 
 and noble a character as the Rev. 
 James Hepburn, but he is none the less 
 thoroly human from his ruf and almost 
 uncouth exterior to his honest, uprit, 
 courageous, loving heart. The talc in- 
 volvs the fate of many personages, all 
 well and carefully individualized, and 
 the benign and wholesom influence of 
 the good minister on the little Scottish 
 
 433 
 
BRITISH NON'BLS. 
 
 IRON COUSIN (The) or Mutual Influ- 
 ence, [by M.. v.. (NOVELLO) Clarke: 
 Applelon, 1854.] "The two principal 
 characters ar a young girl of genius, char- 
 acter and independence, invested with ex- 
 traordinary personal attractions, but, from 
 a defectiv education, self-willed, blunt, 
 hauty and domineering; and her cousin, 
 a young man, clear-sited, wel disciplined, 
 self-con troled, calm, profoundly affection- 
 ate, severely just, of unbeudiug wil. The 
 theme, of course is the mutual attraction 
 and repulsion, the curious play of affinities 
 between them, by which each modifies 
 and improves the character of the other, 
 until both melt into one." [National 
 Era.] — "The chief interest is attached to 
 the fortunes of the heroin, the child of an 
 unfortunate marriage, and the orphan 
 niece of a kind-hearted, uncultivated, 
 squire. Kate as a child is od, clever, beauti- 
 ful, and affectionate ; but self-willed, ob- 
 stinate, and provoking, full of love for an 
 old nurse and her uncle, both of whom 
 indulge her in everything, but not disijos- 
 ed to sho respect for any one else until she 
 meets her "Iron Cousin," who exercises a 
 
 str6ng and beneficial influence over her 
 career. An Kate groes into girlhood and 
 womanhood her mind becomes developed 
 under the operation of u fitful and acci- 
 dental profess of education, her influence 
 upon the squire is strongly felt, some of 
 the finer chords of his character ar touch- 
 ed, and from being a mere country gentle- 
 man, hunting and drinking, he becomes 
 a very loveable person, and enlists (5Iir 
 sympathies to no small extent. This por- 
 tion of the story is told with gr&tskil, and 
 evinces an accurate knoledge of character 
 such as few writers possess. Fermor 
 Worthington groes from boyhood to man- 
 hood with a character in which the sense 
 of duty and self-control ar predominant ele- 
 ments ; but he is rather tiresome in his per- 
 petual goodness, and while dur author is 
 very happy in shoing his influence upon 
 Kate, hers upon him is imperfectly ex- 
 hibited. Many of the minor characters ar 
 admirably sketched, such as the old nurse 
 Matty, the fashionable Miss White, with 
 an unexceptionably polished surface but 
 neither depth nor heart, and the quiet, 
 gentle monitress Ruth." [Atlas. 1393 r 
 
 432 p 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 hamlet is dcpicteil in a very impressir 
 way. The theme, of course, is not new, 
 but it is treated in ii new way, with a 
 quiet, irresistible air of reality. Miss 
 Veitcli has a distinct and eloquent style 
 and the purely literary cliarm of the 
 bool£ is sonictliing to be tliankful for. 
 Her method is that of George Eliot, 
 and she does not suffer by the com- 
 parison, becaus it is never imitativ ; it is 
 rather the spontaneous expression of her 
 mind." [Boston "Lit. World." 1398 
 JAX OF THE WINDMILL, [by 
 Juliana Hokatia (Gatty) Ewing : 
 Roberts, 1876.] " A more perfect book 
 than this we think we never read. It 
 passes all the tests of successful author- 
 ship witliout a failure. Its plot is 
 original, its action lively ; and that its 
 characters seize upon our sympathies, 
 the reading of it will fully demonstrate. 
 Into the family of Eobert Lake, the 
 wind-miller, a child was brot and left to 
 be cared for. He at once took an equal 
 place in the family with the other 
 children ; the mother seemed to love 
 him even more than her on. The child 
 was called Jan, and was strongly pre- 
 cocious. He manifested unmistakable 
 marks of genius, having a, strong fond- 
 ness for drawing We cannot weave 
 
 into the meagre outline of the story the 
 warm and life-like portrayal of country 
 life, which is really the sweetest charm 
 of the book. Temptations to quote assail 
 us on every page — all kinds of matter, 
 descriptions of nature, pathos, violence, 
 
 sentiment of the finest Strength, 
 
 knoledge of human nature, great dis- 
 criminating power, concise and effec- 
 tiv narrativ, a gentle humor, argument, 
 and description, characterize this book, 
 which we do not hesitate to pronounce 
 the best of its class." [Boston " Liter- 
 ary World." 1399 
 JANE EYRE = No. 762. 
 
 JANET, [by Ma. Oliphant (Wilson) 
 Olipiiant : Ilurst, 1891.] " The few who 
 can appreciate fine workmanship em- 
 ployed upon any not unworthy theme, will 
 find in this novel much pleasant reading. 
 At first it bids fair to be one of the quiet- 
 est of quiet books ; for when Janet, after 
 the death of her ilnt, begins her career 
 as a governess in the house of the gentle 
 old wide, Mrs. Harwood, her lines seem 
 to be cast in a place which is certainly 
 pleasant enuf, but is as certainly de- 
 cidedly humdrum. . . . It is the dis- 
 covery by Janet of the well-concealed 
 skeleton in the Harwood family cup- 
 board, and her something more than 
 indiscreet action in revealing it to Mere- 
 dith, which really bring about the catas- 
 trof e ; and the situations in the third 
 volume, which hav freshness of inven- 
 tion as well as vigor of presentation, ar 
 of a kind to appeal to the lover of ex- 
 citing narrativ as well as to an admirer 
 of good workmanship. It Is clear that 
 Mrs. Oliphant's hand has lost none of its 
 cunning, and while 'Janet' does not 
 rank with her most noteworthy perform- 
 ances, it is certain to be enjoyed." 
 [Spectator. 1400 
 
 JANET'S HOME. [by Anxie 
 Keary: Macmil/ an, 1863.] " To write 
 a novel which contains no startling in- 
 cidents — indeed, scarcely any incidents 
 at all — no elaborate plot, no characters 
 out of the common range of human 
 experience, and no grand flits of passion 
 or pathos, and yet to make it interesting 
 and impressiv, is undoubtedly evidence 
 of great ability. This is what we find ac- 
 complished in ' Janet's Home.' The story 
 records the everyday life of a middle- 
 class family with some ratlier hi connex- 
 ions, and does so with a simple, realistic 
 power which enlists our sympathies at 
 once. It is the air of actual experience 
 which givs the tale its charm. We find 
 
 434 
 
BKITISH NOVELS. 
 
 it difficult to believe that we ar not read- 
 ing some veritable autobiografy, or to 
 forbear fancying that we hav, at some 
 time, met the characters described, and 
 shared in the emotions they ar made to 
 suffer." [London Review.] — " Tliehome 
 is a type of many english firesides ; the 
 father bravely earning the daily bread 
 as head-master of a, school, and giving 
 professional lectures besides ; the mother, 
 fond, careworn, and a little tiresome, 
 living only in and for her children. She 
 can never forget that she was well-born, 
 the ritful heiress to u, large property 
 when she gave her hand to Mr. Scott, u, 
 poor tutor, and has taut her children 
 to think of their mother's early history 
 as a dream of fairy land. The characters 
 of the i children of which the family 
 consists ar well drawn, and that of 
 Janet, the narrator, is made to unfold 
 itself gradually and naturally amidst the 
 cares, distractions, and sorroes of her 
 home. A great calamity, the failing 
 sit and ultimate blindness of her father, 
 calls forth the latent strength of her 
 dreamy imaginativ nature, which excites 
 a deeper interest than that of her softer 
 and beautiful sister. The character of 
 Lady Helen Carr, the disappointed, 
 false-hearted woman of the world, is 
 well drawn, and also that of her clever 
 son, who, while yet in his early 
 youth, has discovered that ' naut is every 
 thing, and everything is naut ' and has 
 written a poem which is intelligible only 
 to readers under 20." [West. 1401 
 JANET'S REPENTANCE in 
 'Scenes of Clerical Life' [by "G: 
 EnoT : " 1866.] " is the last and longest 
 of the 3 clerical stories. The subject 
 of this tale mit almost be qualified 
 as '^cabreux.' It will be difficult for 
 realism to go further than in the adop- 
 tion of a heroin stained with the vice 
 of intemperance. The theme is un- 
 
 pleasing; the author chose it at her 
 peril. It must be added, however, tliat 
 Janet Dempster has many provocations. 
 Married to a brutal drunkard, she takes 
 refuge in drink against his ill usage ; and 
 the story deals less with her lapse into 
 disgrace than M'ith her redemption, 
 throu the kind offices of the Reverend 
 Edgar Tryan.'' [H: James. 1402 
 JEAN, [by — ( ) Nkwman : Harper, 
 1875.] "The name of Mrs. Newman 
 is strange to us, but if she writes any 
 more novels as good as 'Jean,' it is 
 likely to become familiar and beloved. 
 'Jean' is one of the very best novels 
 of the year, — satisfactory in almost 
 every respect, — fresh, brit, novel in plot, 
 shrewd in characterization, anl singu- 
 larly felicitous and forcible in the de- 
 velopment of points. The heroin spends 
 her childhood in a boarding-school, 
 friendless and contemned. When she 
 is 16, her father recognizes her, and givs 
 orders that she shall make her home in 
 the family of his sister, a wido with 2 
 gron children. He makes ample pecun- 
 iary provision for her, and her tint's 
 family make her welcom. Sha is 
 13,fed at for her unworldliness ; but the 
 strength and brilliancy of her nature 
 soon assert themselvs. Her cousin Maud 
 has long expected to marry Nugent 
 Orme, a rich ndbor. He is at first con- 
 temptuous of Jean, but soon learns to 
 admire and presently to love her. He 
 inspires a like passion in her, and an 
 accident makes their attachment knon. 
 Maud is transformed from an elegant, 
 well-bred girl to a fiend. News comes 
 of Jean's father's death. He seems to 
 hav died without making a new will, and 
 his property goes to his sister. Jean 
 flees, unable to endure Maud's persecu- 
 tions. She goes to London, seeking the 
 position of governess, and has an expe- 
 rience of positivly fascinating interest. 
 
 435 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 The episode of the Drakes — two old 
 ladies, sisters, who had not spolcen to 
 one another for 30 years — is one of the 
 most original and well-executed ' tours ' 
 we hav ever seen; and few can read, 
 without tears, the story of Jean's rela- 
 tions with Lady Koughton, who, as the 
 reader will at once suspect, is her 
 mother. We cannot name a tittle of the 
 excellencies of the book, which is re- 
 fined, very entertaining, and full of 
 truth and good lessons. Tliere ar few 
 novels that we can commend so heart- 
 ily." [Boston " Literary World." 1403 
 
 JESSIE CAMERON, [by Rachel 
 BiiTLEK : Blackwood, 1857.] " A simple 
 story simply told is a boon to literature, 
 and ' Jessie Cameron ' wfis more than 
 a pile of fashionable novels in the criti- 
 cal scale. The narrativ is quiet and 
 vigorous. The 'Scotch' is excellent — 
 natural, and never intrusiv. The cen- 
 tral figure is a leal lassie, and how she 
 loves, and proves her wortli, we recom- 
 mend our readers to find out for tlicm- 
 selves. Th(?ro is nothing to criticize, 
 for thSre is nothing to condemn." 
 [Westminster. 14:04: 
 
 JEWEL OF A GIRL (A) [by May 
 Ckommelin : Ilursi, 1877.] "is well 
 written and pleasing tlirouout. From 
 the first we ar charmed with the gentle 
 Miss Ina and with her strong-willed 
 niece. But th^re is one part which has 
 a quite unusual fresliness and force. 
 Bridget Colbert, looking back with pride 
 to her old huguenot ancestry, and at the 
 same time feeling the .cruel pinch of 
 need, made all the worse by the nebor- 
 hood of the place where her family had 
 once been wealthy and prosperous, de- 
 vises ii plan such as is often imagined 
 but very seldom executed. The relig- 
 ious troubles which had exiled her family 
 to Ulster had sent another branch of it 
 to Holland. To the head of this branch 
 
 she writes. She details her circum- 
 stances. Will he look out for employ- 
 ment for her? Then the scene of the 
 story is transferred to Holland. Here 
 thSre is no mistaking the touch of fa- 
 miliar acquaintance. The dutch family 
 and its belongings ar charmingly de- 
 scribed, and the relations of Bridget with 
 her wayward pupil and her lovers form 
 a picture full of interest." [Spec. 1405 
 JOAN, [by RiioDA Brocgutox : Ap- 
 pleton, 1877. J " Given a hi-bred, noble- 
 looking girl, with ripely, dewily red lips, 
 a milk-white throat, and a willoy form, 
 and an amorous gardsman, 5 feet 11 in 
 his shooting boots, with wicked gray 
 
 eyes Joan herself is altogether 
 
 charming — quite the most hi-minded 
 and lovable girl in the gallery of Miss 
 Broughton's heroins. . . . Joan who 
 has been reared in all the comfort, 
 refinement, and luxury which wealth can 
 command, at the outset of the story 
 suffers a reverse of fortune throu tlie 
 sudden death of the relativ upon whom 
 she has been dependent, and is plunged 
 at once into poverty. She goes to liv 
 with an ant and two cousins — girls — 
 all warm-hearted, but horribly vulgar. 
 Her journey to her new home, at which 
 she arrives in a butcher's cart, is told 
 with much humor; and her new life, 
 and the constant jar which the tawdri- 
 ness and coarseness of her surroundings 
 produce in her, ar described with truth 
 and power." [Canadian Monthly. 140O 
 JOHN, [by Ma. Oliphant (Wilson) 
 Olipiiant : Blackwood, 1870.] "John 
 is simply insufferable. Pious, stupid 
 and bilious, it is simjjly incredible that 
 any girl in full possession of her facul- 
 ties could fall in love with him. lie 
 does not hav a single point in his favor, 
 unless we except the one shining quality 
 — that he says little. As to the young 
 lady, she is a trifle better, but not much. 
 430 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 She giggles, and is one of those ' giddy, 
 vain tilings ' whom we ar always hearing 
 of,, altho she is supposed to improve 
 towards the end of the tale. The only 
 sensible person in the book is the cruel 
 father, who is much to he pitied in being 
 surrounded by such trying people as the 
 dauter, John and John's parents. Had 
 this been the work of a novice, we 
 should not, perhaps, have spoken out so 
 plainly ; but we ar justly entitled to be 
 indignant when Mrs. Oliphant wastes her 
 powers so thoroly as she does in this 
 ' love story.' " [Athenaeum. 1407 
 
 JOHN-A-DREAMS. [by- Julian 
 Stcrgis : Appleton, 1878.] " It is a relief 
 to turn from a french novel, however 
 clever, to an easy, natural, healthful, 
 but withal interesting story like this. 
 .... The hero is a near kinsman, 
 but not a dependent, of a wealthy 
 baronet; he loves, and is loved by, his 
 kinsfolk ; he cherishes a close affection 
 for an excellent young lady connected 
 with the family, of which, however, he 
 is himself not thoroly aware. Then he 
 travels in Italy, where he is fascinated 
 by the lovely voice and not unlovely 
 character, of the dauter of a somewhat 
 ' shady ' countryman. But he breaks 
 away in time from the charmer, and 
 returns to his true love, whose hand, 
 after some trials, a natural result of the 
 break in his allegiance, he at length 
 secures. The style of the earlier chap- 
 ters, describing the hero's boyhood, is 
 delitful, and the conversations ar natural, 
 spirited, and often hily amusing." [Bos- 
 ton " Literary World." 1408 
 
 JOHN BOWERBANK'S WIFE, See 
 TWO MARRIAGES. 
 
 JOHN CALDIGATE. [by Anthony 
 Teollope : JTar^er, 1879.] " The hero 
 makes a fortune in Australia, and after 
 his return, woos and wins the dauter of 
 an old banker at Polking, near Cam- 
 
 bridge. After the marriage has taken 
 place, and a son has been born, the sin 
 of John's Australian life crops out in 
 the form of the woman aforesaid, with 
 whom it appears that Caldigate had a 
 liaison, and who claims to be his wife, to 
 the exclusion of the very lovely lady 
 
 now enjoying that position 
 
 The report of the trial is extremely 
 interesting, and we ar kept in a state of 
 tension till the end, when the verdict of 
 'guilty' is pronounced, and John Cal- 
 digate is sentenced to be imprisoned for 
 2 years. How he gets out again, how 
 Euphemia Smith is proved to hav per- 
 jured herself, and never to hav been his 
 wife, and how the story ends happily, we 
 forbear to explain. As a study of char- 
 acter alone the novel is well worth read- 
 ing." [Boston " Literary World." 1409 
 JOHN HALIFAX, [by Dinah Ma- 
 ria (MnLOOK) Craik : Hurst, 1856.] 
 " The hero has risen from the loest 
 dregs of society to fortune and position 
 by the force of innate integrity of char- 
 acter and determined energy of will. He 
 is often placed in somewhat improbable 
 situations, but his conduct never fails to 
 be marked by courage, mother-wit, and 
 a triumfant sense of honor and propriety. 
 The brave affectionateness of Ursula, her 
 sweet conjugal devotion, and her unfail- 
 ing womanly dignity in every change of 
 scene, admirably blend with the robust 
 virtues of John Halifax, and create a 
 perpetual interest in their fortunes. Few 
 passages in recent fiction ar more touch- 
 ing than the closing chapter of this novel, 
 which completes a, domestic history, 
 marked throuout by simple pathos." 
 [Harper's.] — "A boy who begins by be- 
 ing a farm-servant until he is 14, and who 
 then is employed in a tan-yard to fetch 
 the skins from market, mit possess all the 
 fine characteristics bestoed on John Hali- 
 fax, — his self-reliance, his energy, his 
 
 437 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 integrity, his passion for self -improve- 
 ment, — but lie would not — he could 
 not — attain the bearing and manners of 
 a gentleman ; he could not by mere ef- 
 fort of self-culture attain the tone of 
 good society. . . . The story is, how- 
 ever, interesting; the attachment be- 
 tween John Halifax and his wife is 
 beautifully painted, as ar tlie pictures of 
 their domestic life and the groth of the 
 children. The strife between the broth- 
 ers when they discover they ar each at- 
 tached to the same object is vigorously 
 drawn, and the conclusion of the book 
 is beautiful and touching." [Ath. 1410 
 
 JOHN JEROME [by Jean Ingelow : 
 Roberts, 1886.] "is a work so full of 
 wit, humor, wisdom, and charm, that we 
 not only recommend it to every reader, 
 but should like to insist that it should be 
 read. For it is full of a delicious qual- 
 ity which only the reader can feel. It 
 seems quotable from beginning to end, 
 and yet to quote is to lose the setting, 
 which is an essential part of the dainty 
 and exquisit little pictures. It is not 
 ■a, story, and yet it indicates a delitful 
 story." [American. 1411 
 
 JOHN MAIDMENT [by Julian 
 Stuegis : Appleton, 1886.] "is a 
 wholesom novel, well-written, manly, 
 and having » purpose. John Maidment 
 is a handsom, strong-brained, well-edu- 
 cated young englishman. He starts in 
 life encumbered by only one thing — a 
 debt of gratitude. He sacrifices his 
 convictions and principles to success. 
 He gains all that he wishes, and yet, 
 tho no outward calamity overtakes him, 
 tho he has married an earl's dauter who 
 adores him, tho he seems on his way to 
 the cabinet, he feels that he has not 
 gainedthe truest success. Mr. Sturgis 
 manages his story with consummate 
 skill." [Catholic World. 1412 
 
 JOHN NEWBOLD'S ORDEAL. 
 
 [by T: A. PiNKERTON : Sonnenschein, 
 1889.] " The liero is the son of an 
 archdeacon, a young man heallhy in 
 body and in mind, who can do nothing 
 but what is straitforward, and who con- 
 sequently runs his head against all 
 kinds of obstacles. The moral stone 
 walls which giv John Newbold most 
 trouble ar fortunes and nice young 
 women ; he could hav a wife and a for- 
 tune more than once if he would take 
 them both together ; but he is the sort 
 of man who is always seeing difficulties. 
 Without much plot, the story is interest- 
 ing and pleasantly written, with many a 
 natural and artistic touch." [Athe- 
 na3um. 1413 
 
 JOHN SMITH. [by — ( ) 
 Cradock : Chapman, 1878.] " Of 
 course it turns out that the real name 
 is not Smith, but something more aristo- 
 cratic ; so that Mary's friends ar spared 
 the humiliation which threaten them. 
 Apart from this blemish, Mrs. Cradock 
 has written a pleasant enuf story, con- 
 taining nothing repulsiv, and very little 
 that is unnatural. Nearly all the many 
 characters ar such as we should be 
 delited to reckon amongst our acquain- 
 tance; and indeed the narrativ is, on 
 this account, almost monotonous for 
 want of relief. ' John Smith ' is a 
 story on which every reader is likely to 
 pass favorable judgment." [Ath. 1414 
 
 JOHN THOMPSON, BLOCKHEAD, 
 [by Louisa (Taylor) Parr : Lip- 
 pincott, 1871.] " Many of our readers 
 will remember that very pretty story, 
 ' Dorothy Pox,' and will be glad to see 
 more work by the same author. The 
 volume contains 10 tales from her pen, 
 some of which ar very good. But if 
 th^y ar not all equally good, they hav 
 in common certain merits which ar 
 rarer in stories than is pleasant for 
 either writer or reader. Love, and oc- 
 
 438 
 
BUITISII NOVELS. 
 
 casionally jealousy, is the burden of the first series of these papers, we 
 
 them. There is no complex plot to 
 baffle us, no great wit to fascinate us, 
 nothing but a pretty tale, tolil witli con- 
 siderable humor, and with such gra- 
 cious enthusiasm tliat one is interested 
 even in the flimsiest of tlie sketches. 
 The Blue Bell of Red Neap is rather 
 longer tlian the rest, and may be taken 
 as a very good example of tlie autlior's 
 merits, wliich ar simplicity, naturalness, 
 and delicacy." [Nation. 141t> 
 
 JOHNNY LUDLOW. [by Ellen 
 (Price) Wood : (f, 1887) Benlley, 1874- 
 80.] " Shrewd observation, a certain 
 vigorous realism, and a power of pathos, 
 used, for the most part, quietly and witli 
 good taste, hav characterised these sto- 
 ries all along. Mrs. Wood distinctly in- 
 creases her reputation by being able to 
 claim tlie authorship. To be quite can- 
 did, we did not think that she could hav 
 done so well. It is the restraint, the 
 moderation in the use of her power, 
 which especially strikes us as something 
 that the author's longer tales would not 
 hav led us to expect. Take, for instance, 
 ' East Lynne,' with its extravagant inci- 
 dents, its more than tragical, — its melo- 
 dramatic situations ; or sucli a book as 
 ' The Shadow of Ashlydyat,' witli its 
 dismal scenes, to which the word 
 ' pathos ' seems quite inappropriate, and 
 we hav something whicli differs, toto 
 coelo, from Johnny Ludlow, with its 
 subdued tones and carefully moderated 
 style. Mrs. Wood shoes tliat she does 
 not need to walk us over a battlefield or 
 throu a hospital to move our hearts, but 
 can bring all tlie effect she wants out 
 of a plain, simple story of life as it 
 is, and persons who may be conceived as 
 possible. To prolong such criticism 
 as this, however, would be ungracious. 
 Let us say at once that having had the 
 pleasure of speaking very hily of 
 
 hav found in these volumes a successor 
 scarcely equal, indeed, but not unworthy. 
 Johnny Ludlow is the ward of a Worces- 
 tershire squire ; and lie relates in these 
 stories his experiences and observations. 
 A slit tliread of connexion runs throu 
 tliem, but they may be read separately 
 witli quite sufficient understanding. 
 Johnny acts as a sort of chorus ; sonie- 
 tiraes he plays a minor part. In every 
 ease he tells the story, and the admirable 
 way in whicli Mrs. Wood preservs throu- 
 out tlie genuinly boyish tone is not the 
 least of the merits of her book." 
 [Spectator.] — " Johnny is an observant 
 scliool-boy, with a gift of reading charac- 
 ters by fysiognomy, whoso healthy coun- 
 try life affords him opportunities of 
 exercising his faculty upon a number of 
 oddities in different walks of life, and 
 his descriptiv powers upon not a few 
 domestic tragedies. Tlie stories, altho 
 essentially distinct, ar threaded by the 
 presence in each of tliem of the narrator 
 and his immediate connexions. Botli 
 lads ar pleasant portraits, and go far to 
 relieve tlie sombreness which from the 
 choice of subjects, pervades many of 
 the stories. On tlie whole the author 
 shoes vigor in description, and a certain 
 strong grasp of such traits of humanity 
 as strike her, but fails somewhat in 
 delicacy of handling, makes her dialog 
 too ruf and vernacular to be altogether 
 suitable to the supposed narrators." 
 [AthenaBum. 1416 
 
 JOISTATHAN [by Christina C. Tka- 
 SER (Tytlek) Liddell : IIoU, 1875.] " is 
 a drama of the common people : it has 
 no glitter, no pomp ; but a deep pathos 
 pervades it, to which the inevitable trib- 
 ute is of tears. Readers of 'Mistress 
 Judith ' need not be told with what 
 fidelity the author paints the fases of 
 rural society, and the features of rural 
 
 439 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 character ; the same ar characterized in 
 this story, whose tints, liowever, ar far 
 more sober. The most notable and 
 beautiful character in tlie book is Jon- 
 athan, who sacrifices even his love — such 
 a love as only a- pure, strong man can 
 feel — to the obligations of friendship. 
 His mental struggle over the temptation 
 to betray Falk's guilt, and thus prevent 
 him from marrying the woman he 
 (Jonathan) loves, is delineated with great 
 power, and the estrangement between 
 him and Andrew is indicated witli re- 
 markable delicacy. Andrew is less in- 
 dividual ; but his steadfast trust in his 
 old friend, givs him a dignity which it 
 is impossible not to admire. The char- 
 acter of Falk is made effectiv by its 
 very simplicity. He stands out a man 
 of good intentions, of good repute and 
 good life; his one error is unexplained, 
 and he drops out of the story with singu- 
 lar naturalness. Miss Linn is an ad- 
 mirable figure ; one can almost see the 
 britness of her gray eyes, and feel the 
 sunny emanations from her presence. 
 That she would marry Falk, tho not lov- 
 ing him, was a venial fault ; for her blind 
 mother urged her on, and the toil of 
 teacliing was hard, and the Falk gar- 
 dens wer lovely." [Boston "Literary 
 World." 1417 
 
 JOSHUA HAGGARD'S DAUGHTER, 
 [by M.. E.. (Braddon) Maxwell: 
 Maxwell, 187G.] " Tlie plot depends for 
 its development upon analysis of char- 
 acter, rather than complication of inci- 
 dent. A minister of the most stern and 
 uncompromising type marries a pretty, 
 flaxen-haired child — a waif, from a com- 
 pany of strolling players, — wliom he has 
 picked up by the roadside. For the rest, 
 it is almost that of ' The Winter's Tale,' 
 but very few readers of Miss Braddon 
 would giv her credit for the skill with 
 which she has worked her idea out. 
 
 Thc^re is a local color and a ' liumor 
 of the soil ' about ' Joshua Haggard's 
 Daughter,' which givs evidence not so 
 much of careful study as of an ability to 
 produce good and lasting work." [Athe- 
 nasum. 1418 
 
 JOYCE, [by Ma. Oliphant (Wilson) 
 Oliphant : Macmillan, 1888.] "Tho 
 young lady whose portrait is the last 
 addition to Mrs. Oliphant's gallery will 
 prove no discredit to the collection. A 
 decidedly gracious figure is that of 
 Joyce, gentle-born and peasant-bred, 
 cultured in virtue of her innate attrac- 
 tion to what is noble, sympathetic as she 
 would not hav been by a more artificial 
 training. Her constancy to duty reminds 
 one, at a distance, of ' Jeanie Deans,' 
 whose words she uses touchingly when 
 she is recovered by her father and in- 
 troduced to the soft charms of the 
 Thames at Richmond. . . . Scotch, 
 above all, is pragmatical Anilrew Ilalli- 
 day, with his self-sufliciency, whicli he 
 takes for ' proper pride,' and his infor- 
 mation, wliich he takes for culture. 
 ThSre is pathos in tlie ignorance of 
 dour, stiff, tender Peter Matheson; 
 nothing but provocation and vulgarity 
 
 in the educated school-master 
 
 Another good portrait is sharp-witted 
 Mrs. Hayward, the colonel's command- 
 ing officer, and step-mother to the 
 heroin, whom she tries not to like. On 
 the whole, there is much good reading 
 in ' Joyce.'" [Athenasum. 1419 
 
 JUNTA, [by M.. A. Olney: BlacTc- 
 wood, 1878. J " The heroin is all which 
 is noble, pure and unselfish; her pa- 
 tient sweetness wins upon us even when 
 we ar almost moved to contempt by 
 the unresisting feebleness of the poor 
 ' trembling slave,' as one of her friends 
 describes her. She is crushed and 
 broken by what she endures, but not 
 soured or hardened; and in this, as in 
 
 440 
 
nitlTISH KOVEI.S. 
 
 many other respects, the narrativ of her 
 eufiferings is made to seem thoroly con- 
 sistent and natural. The majority of 
 tlie characters ar clear and life-like, and 
 the reader who once makes acquaintance 
 ivith them is not likely to leave the 
 book unfinished, in spite of its monoto- 
 nous melanclioly. The scenes borroed 
 from Italian history ar treated with 
 vigor and success. The deatli bed of 
 the old marchese, the champion of re- 
 publicanism and ' humanity,' yet ac- 
 cepting the kingdom as a compromise, 
 and insisting upon the ministrations of a 
 priest, in order to leave what he consid- 
 ers a wholesora lesson of conciliation 
 beliind him is well done." [Ath. 1420 
 
 JUST A LOVE-STORY, [by " L. T. 
 Meade:" i. e., — ■ Smith: BlackeU, 
 1890.] " Nothing of the kind could be 
 sweeter, simpler, or more innocent. 
 Tliis is a story of an author's troubles, 
 and of one girl's love and of another's 
 magnanimity. The contrast between 
 Patty Beaufort and Elizabeth Cunning- 
 ham is admirably brot out. Mr. Beau- 
 fort is almost too good a specimen of the 
 genus irritabile ; but Louis Stanhope is 
 not represented as much of a hero. He 
 is, indeed, notliing better than a strait- 
 forward young englishman." [Spec- 
 tator. 1421 
 
 JUST A WOMAN, [by E.. ( ) 
 EiLOART : Bentley, 1871.] "Christine 
 Ruddfield is a noble type of woman- 
 hood. Gifted with beauty and genius, 
 all those powers which we venture to 
 think render really great characters quite 
 superior to that distinctness of position 
 which women ar now rebelling against as 
 an injustice to thSir sex, and endowed 
 with the tenacity of attachment and sus- 
 ceptibility to disinterested love which is 
 one of the hiest attributes of woman, — 
 she leads throu long years of secret sorro 
 a life of self-denial for the sake of an 
 
 injured sister; sacrifices her early hopes 
 for the benefit of the object which in- 
 spired them ; withstands with rare con- 
 stancy the shafts of misrepresentation, 
 and never suffers the intensity of her 
 particular affections to" narro the range 
 of her activ and large-hearted benevo- 
 lence. It argues some kindred spirit to 
 conceive such a character ; it is a proof 
 of genius to bring it home to others ; to 
 invest it with life and attractivness ; to 
 giv it voice and action. When we say 
 that in this leading character the author 
 has thoroly succeeded, we mit fairly add 
 that this portrait alone would render the 
 book worth reading. But it abounds 
 also in other pictures draAvn with no 
 small degree of skill. Country-town 
 life is grafically treated." [Ath. 1422 
 JUST IMPEDIMENT [byR: Pkyce : 
 Ward (5" Downey, 1891.] " is a rare 
 example of the way in wliich a novel 
 should be wrot. Mr. Pryce's work re- 
 calls the style of Teuillet by its clear- 
 ness, conciseness, its literary reserv, and 
 
 brilliancy of touch Mr. Pryce 
 
 is realistic in the true sense. He handles 
 fearlessly the uglier side of life as well 
 as its pleasing and conventional surface, 
 when it is necessary to Ms purpose. But 
 when he deals with repulsiv matters he 
 does so with a rare art, and M'ith a clear 
 and sure discretion Neverthe- 
 less the path which leads to the final 
 crisis is full of pleasantness. Mr. Pryce 
 has steeped himself in the subtle charm 
 of London, which he reproduces rather 
 than describes. The main actors in the 
 drama ar filled with the breath of life. 
 The hero and heroin ar both delitful, 
 so is Lady Heron. The conversations 
 ar excellent and full of point. Every 
 reader would be prepared to kill his 
 fatted calf for Billy, most warm-hearted 
 and dreadful of prodigals. It is impos- 
 sible not to share in his anxiety lest his 
 441 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 tot should ' get lecturin' ' when he for- 
 sakes his very evil ways and returns to 
 the domestic hearth. The Fate which 
 suddenly appears with a bared sword in 
 the path of the happy lovers is as re- 
 morseless as in a greek tragedy, and 
 wholly free from melodrama." [Athe- 
 nffium. 1423 
 
 KATHARINE REGINA. [by Wa. 
 Besaxt : Arrou-smiih, 1887.] "Then 
 the little volume may be read either 
 quickly or sloly. One can dash throu it 
 with one's interest sustained in every 
 page, or take time to note the artistic 
 method of its arrangement, the happy 
 irony of circumstances, and the vein of 
 buoyant earnestness which runs throu it 
 all without cropping up too obviously. 
 It is a model of Avhat a short story should 
 be." [Athenteum. 1424 
 
 KATHLEEN [by I.. Harwood : 
 Hurst, 1808.] "The author of 'Ray- 
 mond's Heroine ' is entitled to our thanks 
 on two grounds. Besides the gratitude 
 which critics feel to the writer who givs 
 them a work which deservs a second pe- 
 rusal, we ar obliged to her for the excel- 
 lencies of abook which more than justifies 
 the hi opinion which we expressed of her 
 capabilities when passing judgment on 
 her previous story. Litly and closely 
 written, and remarkable for the ingenuity 
 of a very unusual plot, ' Katlileen ' is 
 the strongest and most exciting narrativ 
 which we hav read for many a day. 
 .... Erom a desire to say nothing 
 which mit lessen the reader's interest, 
 we hav spoken vaguely of the details of 
 its plot ; but we hope we hav said enuf 
 to satisfy all lovers of a good novel that 
 they will find diversion in the pages of 
 'Kathleen.'" [Athenaeum. 1425 
 
 KATIE STEWART [by Ma. Oli- 
 PHANT (Wilson) Olipelant : 1850.] " in 
 delicate pathos and grace, reached a point 
 wliich the writer at her best has never ex- 
 
 ceeded — which indeed it would be very 
 diilicult for any writer to do.'' [Black- 
 wood's. 142G 
 KENELM CHILLINGLY, [by Baron 
 Lytton : Harper, 1873.] "We trust 
 there ar still readers who may be per- 
 suaded to take up this interesting novel ; 
 for, with all its faults, it is interesting, 
 and it is not an unworthy curiosity whicli 
 makes one anxious to read what is so 
 nearly the last word of a man who, for 
 nearly 50 years, has been steadily writing. 
 The novel is full of capital things ; wit, 
 knoledg of the world, and generous 
 sympathy with goodness, ar to be found 
 on almost every ^age. Admirable ar the 
 letters of both Kenelm and his father ; 
 Cecilia is well drawn ; there is plenty 
 of caricature in the descriptions of 
 the ' Wandering Minstrel,' Mivers the 
 critic, and others, but generally thfire is 
 a very fair vue of men, and the exagger- 
 ation in these cases is at times very slit. 
 On the whole, we hav good cause to be 
 grateful for a story which shoes so much 
 sympathy for the young, such constant 
 belief in all which adorns and softens 
 life. We may look leniently on the 
 faults, in consideration of the undimmed 
 kindliness of heart which is so conspicu- 
 ous in the novel, and also in considera- 
 tion of the fact that the author is now a 
 much less seductiv example of all sorts 
 of literary faults than he was 20 or :^0 
 years ago [See Nos. 674, 085, 903'. 
 .... It is a melancholy fact, tlio we 
 may easily allow ourselvs to be too 
 melancholy cnrer it, that the most artifi- 
 cial writer of the last 2 generations — or 
 almost the most artificial, for we must 
 recollect Disraeli — should hav been at 
 the same time one of the most popular. 
 .... No one could deny his talent ; 
 and thflre was a humbug about him that 
 imposed upon and pleased the undisoern- 
 ingi This is by no means unusual. We 
 
 442 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 suppose, for instance, that Dickens' ex- 
 cruciating pathos and fearful Tiny Tims 
 and Little Pauls got him 10 readers for 
 one who appreciated his distinctiv and 
 good gifts. So of Bulwer ; the Aspira- 
 tion and tlie Ideal which made him justly 
 the lafing-stock of his best admirers wer 
 to himself and his worse admirers the 
 bread of life.'' [Nation. 1427 
 
 KEPT IN THE DARK, [by An- 
 TiioxY Trollope : Chaiio, 1882.} "The 
 plot is simple. The story turns on the 
 concealment, by a woman from her 
 future husband, of the fact tliat she has 
 already been engaged to another man. 
 The husband, of course, learns it in the 
 end from the man, and is made furious 
 by the discovery, imagins in his jealous 
 rage all sorts of additions to the story, 
 refuses to liv witli his wife, leaves her, 
 but after an interval of separation is 
 again completely reconciled. There is a 
 naturalness about the tale which makes 
 it pleasant reading, tho no one can help 
 feeling that the wife is punished rather 
 too severely for a concealment which is 
 not oing to any desire to deceive, but to 
 ii combination of perfectly innocent 
 niotivs. The husband's misinterpreta- 
 tion of the facts when they come to his 
 knoledge, is what mit hav been ex- 
 pected." [Nation.] — "Mr. TroUope 
 excels in describing girls, thfiir little 
 vanities, their ways, thfiir thots; he is 
 especially happy in his portraiture of 
 nice, thoroly english girls, who ar de- 
 cidedly a type by themselves, and well 
 worth knoing, whether in fiction or in 
 life. Cecilia is no exception ; one learns 
 to kno her, understand her and love her, 
 and one can almost go along with her in 
 the difficulty she made for herself by 
 putting off speaking, as she did from 
 day to day, for what seemed at the time 
 good and warrantable reasons, till it was 
 too late, and her life and her f^te wer 
 
 taken out of her keeping The 
 
 mixture of temlcrness and liumor witli 
 which the girl's love troubles ar treated 
 is a happy specimen of Mr. TroUope's 
 insit and observation, and is a very good 
 
 bit of character-painting Mr. 
 
 TroUope has no love for women who go 
 in for rits and advanced vues, and he evi- 
 dently thinks that ridicule is the best 
 weapon with wliich to assail tliem, — 
 and exceedingly ridiculous poor Miss 
 Altifiorla manages to make herself. It 
 is a very pleasant little book, altogether ; 
 we feel intimately acquainted with all 
 the characters, we sympathise thronout 
 with the heroin, and ar spitefully delited 
 when Miss Altifiorla meets her match." 
 [Spectator. 1428 
 
 KILCORRAN [by Maria G. Petii- 
 ERSTONnAUGii : Bentley, 1877.] "has, 
 nothing exciting about it, notliing even 
 original. The 2 principal characters ar 
 each engaged when tliey meet. One 
 gets his engagement broken off; the 
 other marries, and her husband has to 
 be killed to make way for the obvious 
 end. . . . It is not the story which 
 givs 'Kilcorran' its interest, but tlie 
 characters. The heroin is charming. 
 She is a brit, fearless, honorable little 
 girl of the best type. It is quite rit 
 that she should be the central figure in 
 the story." [Athcnajum.] — " It is a 
 bit of an Irish story, adorned with the 
 gusliing sub-title of ' Fair, fair, with 
 golden hair.' A very good story. Presh, 
 clear, pleasing. The theme is a hopeless 
 attachment springing up between a young 
 man and a young woman who ar ' other- 
 wise engaged.' " [Boston " Literary 
 World." 1429 
 
 KILMENY. [by W: Black: Low, 
 1870.] " Here is a simple story, which is 
 pure in its style, and wholesom in its 
 moral, without any want of vigor in deline- 
 ation of character or power to sustain a 
 
 443 
 
BRITrSH NOVELS. 
 
 simple butodginal story from beg'mningto 
 the end. We will not betray any portion of 
 tliis story, since that would interfere with 
 the reader's pleasure, but we may tell 
 him — if his appetite has not had its 
 edg destroyed by sensational romances 
 
 — that it is a story which will please, 
 perplex and interest him from the first 
 chapter to the last, and yet thfire is no 
 
 glamor in it This sort of gray 
 
 sky alternates with sunshine and positiv 
 storm about 3 cleverly-traced characters 
 
 — Hester Burnham, Bonny Lesley (who 
 is not the Kilmeny of the book) and 
 Polly "Whistler. They come before the 
 reader, alone or in groups, as soft, clear 
 and natural as figures by Meissonier. 
 The passages in which they appear rest 
 upon the mind like memories of pictures 
 done by a master-hand. Even the sub- 
 ordinate characters ar marked by touches 
 which keep them fresh in the memory." 
 [Athenaeum. 1430 
 
 KING ARTHUR [by Dixah Maria 
 (Mulock) Craik: (t, 1887) Harper, 
 1884.J "is a return to the strong and 
 beautiful stories with which its author 
 first charmed us. It is much the best 
 thing she has written lately, and besides 
 its interest as a touching story, full of 
 clever points as well as pathos, it is 
 original in taking for a heroin, not the 
 typically ' sweet ' woman, but the strong 
 woman, with a. will and insit and a 
 determination not to be imposed upon.'' 
 [Critic. 1431 
 
 KING'S BAYNARD [by M.. A.. 
 Danet (Norbury) Gifkord : Hurst, 
 1866.] " is pleasant and readable. It is 
 interesting without being over-exciting ; 
 its tone is satisfactory, and it is told in an 
 easy style. It Is a story of society written 
 by one to whom good society is familiar, 
 and whose pictures of gentlemen and 
 gentlewomen may be accepted as genuin 
 portraits. The hero is a little too good. 
 
 and the villains ar somewhat hard in 
 outline and crude in coloring; but the 
 heroins ar very pleasant. One little 
 sketch, that of Miss Town-Eden, is es- 
 pecially charming. Altogether, the book 
 maybe cordially recommended." [Lon- 
 don Review. 1 432 
 
 KINGSDENE. [by Maria G. Feth- 
 ERSTONiiAUGH : Bentley, 1878.] "We 
 wish to speak litly of the shortcomings 
 of ' Kingsdene,' becaus it possesses cer- 
 tain excellent qualities. It is fresh and 
 lively, and yet there is not a trace of 
 that sort of impropriety with which, one 
 is almost ashamed to say, women gener- 
 ally delit to flavor their novels. It is 
 written with far more correctness than 
 usual; and if tlie story is wanting in 
 originality, it is told directly. The hero- 
 in's character has evidently pleased the 
 author. On the whole ' Kingsdene ' is a 
 brit, pleasant, readable book." [Athe- 
 naeum. 1433 
 
 KIRSTBEN. [by Ma. Oliphant 
 (Wilson) Oliphant : Macmillan, 1890.] 
 "The merit of Mrs. Oliphant's latest 
 story lies not in any strange path of in- 
 cident or change of groove. To many 
 thSre ■will be almost a sameness in the 
 accessories. An old scotch country- 
 house, the inevitable old servant, the 
 maiden ant, the ponderous minister, the 
 ailing wife, the ' long-leggit' laddies, 
 the buxom girls — we hav seen them or 
 their like before. But the true human 
 nature, in its inflnit variety, which cus- 
 tom cannot stale, has seldom been more 
 freshly treated;" [Athenaeum. 1434 
 
 KIT AND KITTY, [by R: Dod- 
 dridge Blackmore : Harper, 1890.] 
 " The story is a very charming piece of 
 work — so charming that it forces one to 
 consider whether the common belief that 
 Lorna Doone [No. 798] must for ever 
 stand alone and unapproachable, as well 
 by its author as by other novelists of the 
 
 444 
 
BEITISH NOVELS. 
 
 period, is, after all, more than a fond 
 superstition. Not that the present fic- 
 tion takes the hier imagination hy any- 
 thing lilce so powerful a hold as its great 
 predecessor. Kitty Fairthorn, sweet as 
 she is, stands as remote from Lorna's 
 unique and lofty charm as the ideal 
 dairy-maid from the ideal duchess, and 
 Downy Bulwrag, tho a remorseless ruf- 
 fian, is by no means so convincing in 
 his villainy as Carver Doone. But Kit 
 himself, the loving and soft-hearted and 
 forgiving, who stands compassionate 
 above his deadly enemy and says truly : 
 ' I have been throu 10 times worse 
 than death, and the lesson I hav learned 
 is mercy,' is, on the whole, as pleasant 
 a figure as one shall meet in the entire 
 collection of contemporary fiction. True 
 lie is only a market-gardener, earning 5s. 
 a week and his board from ' Corny the 
 topper,' his close-fisted, wider-hearted 
 uncle, and having no ambition beyond 
 that of dwelling in peace with Kitty 
 while he diligently brings his fruits and 
 vegetables to thSir hiest perfection. 
 .... It is delitfully old-fashioned 
 in its whole scheme and lay-out, and al- 
 tho the secret of Kitty's mysterious ab- 
 sence is sufiioiently well kept to bafile 
 the most penetrating novel-reader, yet 
 when it is divulged it turns out to be 
 of a piece with the narro simplicity of 
 
 all the rest Still no reader 
 
 of the latter novel is likely to care 
 much for it unless he is still capable 
 of being interested in very primitiv eng- 
 lish rural life and can be charmed by 
 Vtie most innocent, pure, and honest 
 sort of love." [Catholic World. 1435 
 KITH AND KIN [by Jessie 
 FoTiiERGiLL ; (t, 1891) Sentley, 1881.] 
 " deservs to rank, in grace of touch 
 and sustained interest, with the author's 
 earlier stories. Its hero is a certain 
 Bernard Aglionby, only child to the dis- 
 
 inherited son of a North Country squire. 
 He is earning a living as clerk in a ware- 
 house. Accident brings liim into con- 
 tact with his grandfather, and the 
 meeting unmasks a deception practised 
 on the old man years before by which 
 he was made to believe that his grand- 
 son was adopted and provided for by 
 rich friends of his mother .who rejected 
 all aid from himself." [Boston " Liter- 
 ary World."] — " Thfire is in it enuf 
 genius — that is, enuf imaginativ in- 
 sit, vital realisation of character, and 
 dramatic prejcntation of situation — to 
 place it almost in the first rank of 
 
 english fiction The situations 
 
 ar strongly conceived and splendidly 
 handled All the scenes be- 
 tween Bernard and Judith testify, both 
 in conception and execution, the hand 
 of a master ; and one scene in particular 
 .... has that grasp, vividness and 
 directness of treatment wliich impress 
 us as we ar seldom impressed by any 
 thing in contemporary fiction. Equally 
 fine, — tho fine in beauty and pathos 
 rather than in simple power — ar the 
 scenes in Delphine's Studio, whSre 
 Rhoda Conisbrougli delitedly exhibits 
 her sister's sketches to Randulf, and 
 the touching intervue between Delphine 
 and Sir Gabriel Danesdale, wlien the 
 old man comes to plead his son's cause, 
 and has to retire sorroful anl disap- 
 pointed, but more than ever convinced 
 that his boy has made a, noble choice." 
 [Spectator. 1436 
 
 KITTY, [by Matilda [Barbara] 
 Betham Edwards : Hurst, 1869.] 
 " The fascination which holds all the 
 male characters in this novel spell 
 bound at the feet of the heroin, is, to 
 some extent, communicated to its 
 readers. None of the men can exactly 
 explain the cause of their devotion ; the 
 reader cannot quite account for his 
 
 445 
 
BEITISH NOVELS. 
 
 interest. Like tlie heroin, indeed, tlie 
 story is lively and clever, but it is 
 also disappointing . . . Tlie artistic 
 Bohemia which the author sketches 
 with such ability, is of an impossible 
 vulgarity. We hif at Polly Cornford 
 it little too heartily, especially when 
 she breaks out in proverbs, as she does 
 in a marked way with the beginning of 
 the second volume. Perry Neeve, too, 
 is given to trespassing on the indulgence 
 of society ratlier more tlian is customary 
 with the wildest artists, and the abnor- 
 mal development of his eccentricities 
 at the supper given after his marriage 
 is far from reconciling us to the large 
 share tliey hav had in tlie conduct of 
 the story. Still, these scenes of artist 
 life ar amusing ; thSre is a certain dash 
 in every description ; the dialog is brit 
 and sparkling, and Miss Edwards' farce 
 has the more refined air of comedy." 
 [Athenajum. 1437 
 
 LADY ANNA. [by Anthony 
 Tkollope : Harper, 1874:.] "We 
 hav here a young woman of hi birth, 
 who has been kept out of her on by 
 the misdeeds of her father, coming 
 finally into possession of an enormous 
 property. She lias already engaged 
 herself in the time of her obscurity to 
 a young tailor [compare No. 1254.] and 
 the book is made up of the attempts of 
 a doll-like earl, her cousin, to marry her 
 and so get money enuf to maintain his 
 title. All of Lady Anna's friends and 
 relativs urge his claims ; but she keeps 
 to her word, marries the tailor, and 
 makes over a large share of lier money 
 to her cousin — for Mr. TroUope always 
 has a large unclaimed fortune for the 
 consolation of young heroes crossed in 
 love." [Nation. 14.'i8 
 
 LADIES LINDORES (The) [by 
 Ma. Oliphant (Wilson) Oliphant : 
 Blackwood, 1883.] " — the dauters of 
 
 a gentleman who has been living a 
 needy life abroad, but succeeds to a 
 scotch peerage just as his girls gro 
 up, and is th(5reby changed from a some- 
 what useless dilettante to a stern, 
 scheming man-of-the-world, — ar to the 
 lasting sorro of the elder and the scorn 
 and dismay of the younger made the 
 pawns in the game of social ambition 
 their father is engaged in. ' Poor Lady 
 Car,' the gentle and refined, but not 
 beautiful elder sister has just been 
 handed over to the coarse grasp of 
 brutal Pat Torrance, a newly wealthy 
 laird, who treats this last trofy of his 
 importance according to his nature ; 
 and Edith is the subject of much 
 anxiety to Lord Lindores, and of more 
 to ' Rintoul,' when J : Erskine, who 
 has been educated in England, comes 
 as a young man to his modest inheri- 
 tance near Lindores, and gradually be- 
 comes acquainted with the strange 
 world of which his liouse of Dalrulzian 
 is to him the centre. He has knon the 
 ladies in their happier and poorer days, 
 and is by no means conscious of the 
 damage his presence is doing to the 
 elaborate plans which surround him. 
 True love triumfs, and Edith takes 
 the sober young laird in preference to 
 the excellent, but rather comic mar- 
 quis whose hand is pressed upon her." 
 [Athenaeum.] — "Tlie little neborhood 
 has in it a less attractiv group of people 
 than those we ar used to expect from Mrs. 
 Oliphant, but she could not tell a dull 
 story. [? See notice of John.] It is a 
 tale of suffering scarcely compensated 
 by a late-come happiness, ' a wistful pale 
 sky, clear shining after rain.' The tragic 
 part of the story is well contrived. The 
 reader feels that moral justice is done, tlio 
 legal acumen is entirely at fault. The 2 or 
 3 delitful old servants ar worth knoing." 
 [Nation.] — See LADY CAR. 1439 
 
 446 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 LADY BABY [by Dorothea 
 [Gerard) Longard : Blackwood, 1890.] 
 " is an entertaining norel dealing with the 
 oppresslv treatment by tlie scarce mature 
 heroin of the hearts of her hereditary 
 enemy, Sir Peter Wyndhurst, and of a 
 thiSroIy blase man of tlie world, Mr. 
 Carbury. The scene is on the scotch 
 border, whfire Lord Kippendale, Lady 
 Baby's fatlier, has a fine estate, main- 
 tained by the revenues of an english 
 copper-mine. The mine is drowned by 
 the sea in consequence of reckless 
 blasting, and, the family being reduced 
 to comparativ poverty. Lady Baby 
 breaks her engagement with Sir Peter, 
 unwittingly encourages Mr. Carbury, 
 and innocently plunges her unhappy 
 family into embarrassments of all sorts. 
 The ' Dea ex machina ' wlio delivers 
 them is a Miss Maud Epperton, a female 
 fortune-hunter of a new type, who, 
 having fairly netted Sir Peter, instead 
 of marrying him, brings about a recon- 
 ciliation; and whose interest in Lady 
 Baby's brother leads her to the discovery 
 of a new copper-mine on the Kippendale 
 property. She finally spoils what Sir 
 Peter calls her 'artistic possibilities, 
 by marrying a iretired tallo merchant." 
 ICritic. 1440 
 
 LADY BEAUTY [by Alan Muir : 
 Low, 1882.] "is the youngest, and 
 after the rule of fairy tales, the best of 
 3 sisters. Of ;the other 2, one is a 
 beauty and the other a blue-stocking. 
 ' Lady Beauty ' is simply a good and 
 charming woman wlio seeks to do her 
 duty in life, and does not forget that 
 one important part of that duty in a, 
 woman is to please. The moral of the 
 story, if so formidable a word is to be 
 used of a thoroly simple and unaffected 
 book, is how much blessing and hap- 
 piness may come from carrying out 
 such a theory of life. The heroin, of 
 
 course, has a love-story, and it is as 
 prettily told as anything of the kind 
 which we hav seen for some time. 
 Sophia — that is this delitful young 
 woman's name — is quite perfect in 
 this particular character, as indeed 
 she is in most parts of life. It is no 
 small proof of Mr. Muir's that he makes 
 her as interesting after her happiness 
 is secured as before." [Spec. 1441 
 
 LADY CAR. [by Ma. Oliphant 
 (Wilson) Oliphant : Longmans, 1889.] 
 "Those who hav read that tragic book 
 ' The Ladies Lindores ' will regret to find 
 that Lady Car, the gentle creature who 
 was handed over to the rude grasp of ruf 
 Pat Torrence, fails in 'the sequel' to 
 find any compensation for her youthful 
 sufferings . . . The ideal hero she 
 made of her old lover E : Beaumont, to 
 whom she is married after her rude 
 master, the navvy's son, leaves her a wido 
 with two black-broAved children, was to 
 be a knit errant of the pen and platform , 
 a man who by inspired verbosity was 
 to redress social evils, and hasten the 
 apotheosis of the simple citizen. But 
 Beau has become elderly and lazy. [Com- 
 pare plot of No. 1448.] . . . Tom 
 Torrance, that carnal youth, who has 
 assimilated all the newflon insolence and 
 innate brutality of the moneyed loer 
 orders, is in his frankly antagonistic 
 way nearly as sad a disappointment as 
 his gentlemanly step-sire. Nor is the 
 dauter much more satisfactory. With 
 twice Tom's brains and sympathy, she is 
 quick to recognize and resent on his 
 belialf her mother's disapproval. Yet 
 Janet has her merits. She has some of 
 her motlier's apprehension and a little of 
 her tenderness." [Athenajum. 1442 
 
 LADY DENZIL, See NEIGHBORS 
 ON THE GREEN. 
 
 LADY HETTY. IDaldij, 1875.] " Hu- 
 mor and some wit ar here blended with 
 447 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 shrewd observation. The story is also 
 suggestiv of serious thot. LaJy Hetty, 
 with her tangled and incomplete, tho not 
 unhappy love-story, the minister with his 
 proud humility and struggles with a feel- 
 ing which he thinks must lead to a com- 
 promise with duty, — all hav the quintes- 
 sence of their several natures envoked 
 by the Socratic irony of a subtle quest- 
 ioner . . . With these we will take 
 leave of one of the most genial stories we 
 hav lately met, tho its plot is not untinged 
 with sadness." [Athenaeum. 1443 
 
 LADY ISABELLA, See NEIGH- 
 BORS ON THE GREEN. 
 
 LADY JANE [by Ma. Oliphant 
 (Wilson) Oliphant: Harper, 1888.] 
 " has the inexplicable charm of all novels 
 which succeed in being delitful in long 
 paragraf s. It is not too much to say of it 
 that it is an exquisit love-study, told with 
 an airy and delicate grace. Its chief 
 charm is in the gracious refinement of 
 its tone and in the picture it givs of 
 maidenly simplicity mingled witli wom- 
 anly dignity ; thSre is much britness in 
 it." [Critic. 1444 
 
 LADY LEE'S WIDOWHOOD, [by 
 E: Brdce Hamley : Blackwood, 1854.] 
 " This is a pleasant book. The charac- 
 ters ar not very complex specimens of 
 human nature, but they ar britly colored, 
 and drawn with spirit. The character of 
 Col. Lee is of a hier class, and well 
 worked out. The contrast between him 
 and liis swindling associate is delicately 
 marked, and th^re is a certain pathos in 
 the ruin which overtakes him. The 
 incidents ar not such as to excite any 
 anxious interest ; but it is a brit, health- 
 ful book, with a dash of hearty humor 
 in it." [Athenaeum. 1445 
 
 LADY OF LAUNAY (The) [by 
 Anthony Trollope : 1878.] " is a very 
 clever and pretty story, having, you may 
 say, but 2 scenes and 3 figures. The 
 
 ' Lady of Launay ' is a conscientious, 
 family-proud woman, whose lo-born but 
 lovely adopted dauter becomes betrothed 
 to her manly and well-beloved son 
 Philip. A very attractiv pair thOy ar, 
 but the Lady of Launay does not ' see 
 It.' Poor Bessy is sent off in semi-dis- 
 grace to a protectress in Normandie. 
 But Philip has his way, after all, liis 
 mother finally relenting. This is the 
 whole of it, but how the heart is made 
 to wai-m toward the deserving and 
 persecuted lovers, and yet what respect 
 one conceives for the stern parent. 
 Her conversion in the end makes quite 
 a saint of her." [Boston " Literary 
 World." 1446 
 
 LADY RESIDENT (The) [by Ham- 
 ilton Page: Macmillan, 1880.] "has 
 practically no plot, and can scarcely be 
 styled a novel, but the entirely imagi- 
 nary picture of life as it mit be in a uni- 
 versity town of which u, ladies' college 
 was a leading feature affords the author 
 scope for delineations of character 
 and a great deal of amusing dialog. 
 Bertie Ravenshaw is a hi-spirited and 
 warm-hearted girl with intellectual as- 
 pirations, and the desire of whose young 
 life is the freedom and opportunities of 
 cultivation afforded by college life. 
 She is supported by her father, a shrewd 
 but kindly observer of his favorit 
 dauter's character, and thwarted by an 
 acute but commonplace mother . 
 So discursiv a book is somewhat hard to 
 estimate, but, in spite of inequalities in 
 construction, it has the merit of being 
 eminently readable. The author has a 
 keen eye for modern varieties of crotch- 
 eteers, and is as sympathetic with the 
 simplicity of children." [Ath. 1447 
 
 LADY SILVERDALE'S SWEET, 
 HEART (etc.) [by W: Black: Low- 
 1876.] "is a sad little sketch of the 
 gradual discovery on the part of a man 
 
 448 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 who, at the age of 40, has married his 
 old love of many years ago, that youth- 
 ful ideas do not bear translating into the 
 prose of middle life [compare plot of 
 No. 1442] ; and illustrates the great 
 truth, which, however, is seldom ad- 
 mitted, that far more often than not, 
 man is the sentimental, woman the prac- 
 tical animal. We certainly do not 
 blame Lady Silverdale, with two dautera 
 nearly gron up, for preferring her 
 house, in Belgrave Square, to a villa at 
 Ouchy; and yet we cannot but sympa- 
 thize with Frank Chestnut's disappoint- 
 ment at seeing the romance of his life 
 vanish irrevocably just as he seemed to 
 hav found it at last." [Ath. 1448 
 LADY STELLA, [by H: Solly: 
 Ward Sf Downey, 1888.] " ' Charles Day- 
 rell ' had many admirers ; th^re was no 
 contesting the hi aim of that fresh and 
 adventurous story of human effort and 
 development. The hero's friends will 
 be able to folio his fortunes in ' Lady 
 Stella and her lover ' — for Charles 
 Dayrell is the Lady Stella's lover. A 
 good part of this new story is poetry, 
 filosofy, quotations, agnosticism, and 
 love, well mixed and delitful. The pro- 
 tracted struggle between the hero and 
 heroin, two strong-minded yet transcen- 
 dental natures, is finely described, and 
 when the reader groes accustomed to the 
 atmosfere in which they breathe and talk, 
 he will probably be very much taken by 
 the author's account of them. In fact, 
 Mr. Solly's romance is of a distinctly su- 
 perior character, without any straining 
 of a word which has been soiled by much 
 ignoble use. Stella and her lover pass 
 under a yoke of severe disciplin, and 
 they beat their music out at the cost of 
 a great deal of fysical suffering. Their 
 reward, if it is not without an element 
 of chastening sorro, is at any rate en- 
 joyed in common." [Athenaeum. 1449 
 
 LAIRD OF NORLAW (The), [by 
 Ma. Oliphant (Wilson) Oliphant : 
 Hurst, 1858.] " Scottish character and 
 Scottish manners ar the topics of her 
 theme, with a racy blending of Scottish 
 feeling in its old and its modern forms. 
 Mrs. Elphinstone of Norlaw is the mother 
 of an extremely reduced house of 3 
 sons. She combines in herself the feudal 
 family pride of an ancient chief, with 
 the religious faith of a covenanter, and 
 the rusticity of a straitened scotch far- 
 mer's wife ; while a national sagacity 
 and resolution dominate over all. Her 
 eldest son, Huntley, has at the bottom 
 some of his mother's pride of family 
 and of landed substance. But that 
 social atmosfere, which reaches almost 
 as far as the air itself, has shun him the 
 necessity of burying his feelings in his 
 breast, so as not to interfere with the 
 worldly struggle he sees before him. 
 Patrick, the second son, is intuitivly a 
 ' practical man.' Altho scarcely kno- 
 ing anything by experience beyond his 
 nativ district, the newspapers he has 
 seen and their reports of steamboats, of 
 the railway experiment just begun, and 
 of the other wonders connected with the 
 mity changes steam was even then work- 
 ing, hav given him lit. He has a con- 
 viction that the family dreams ar of the 
 past, and must be throu aside by a man 
 who has his bread to win and his way to 
 make. The yungest and favorit son, 
 Cosmo, is a loftier likeness of his 
 father. A poetical spirit elevates and 
 refines the good-natured but weak and 
 somewhat selfish character of the sire — 
 selfish, that is, in no coarse and vulgar 
 way . . . The story of the novel is 
 of course the career of these 3 sons. 
 Huntley emigrates to Australia, deter- 
 mined to acquire means to discharge 
 the encumbrances on the land of Nor- 
 law. Patrick, throing aside the notions 
 449 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 of scotch gentility, resolvs to become an 
 engineer, ani begins by studying the 
 mechanical part as a workman. Cosmo 
 devotes himself to discovering a first 
 love of his father's, whose memory 
 tho she jilted him was green to the last, 
 and her name uttered in his dying mo- 
 ments. This devotion does not alto- 
 gether originate in romance — tho there 
 is a romance connected with it, and 
 which shaded his mother's life. The 
 validity of a will and the succession to 
 an estate depended upon discovering 
 ' Mary of Melmar ' or proving her death. 
 With the separation of the family con- 
 sequent upon these resolvs the interest 
 of the story will probably begin for the 
 library reader. In a critical sense, the 
 introductory narrativ and scenery pos- 
 sess the most quiet attraction. They 
 hav not indeed the movement, variety 
 of persons and incidents, or the sur- 
 prises of the latter and larger section. 
 But these things rather partake of the 
 character of the general novel in their 
 conception, tho possessing freshness 
 from the style of the author. Her 
 original observation and minute life- 
 like painting mingled with reflexions 
 appear more distinctly In the scenes at 
 Norlaw." [Spectator. 1450 
 
 LANCELOT WARD [by G: Tem- 
 ple: Harper, 1884.] "is delitful; the 
 plot being simple and unpretending, 
 without resort to complications unneces- 
 sarily hideous, and the style possessing 
 that unconscious finish of tone dear to 
 the critic's heart. The conversations 
 ar admirable, and the individuality of 
 the characters perfectly distinct, while 
 every character is deserving of its por- 
 traiture. It is a story to be read, not 
 for the sake of the ending, but for its 
 continued unwearying level of excel- 
 lence. The gentlemen ar not too gen- 
 tlemanly, the heroin is not too heroic, 
 
 450 
 
 the simple country girl is not too simple ; 
 hut, dealing with average hnman nature, 
 there is a pleasant intimation that on 
 the whole human nature is a good thing 
 — as we all kno it is." [Critic. 1451 
 
 LAXD AT LAST [by Edjiund 
 [Hodgson] Yates : Chapman, 1866.] 
 " is a love story, enlivened with sketches 
 of bohemian character and life. It in^ 
 trodnces a few people whom we should 
 like to kno at their firesides, and as 
 many persons whom we should not like 
 to meet anywhere. The Bohemia thus 
 brot under notice is that of painters 
 and picture-dealers ; and in describing 
 the tone and ways of pipe-smoking ar- 
 tists, the writer exhibits the same lit- 
 ness of humor which made the popu- 
 larity of his sketches of literary and 
 dramatic Bohemia." [No. 1120. [Athe- 
 nseum. 1452 
 
 LAODICEAN (A) [by T : Hardy : 
 Holt, 1881.] " is a pleasing story, with 
 some brit character drawing, and some 
 agreeable incident . . . The heroin, 
 a dauter of the people, succeeds by pur- 
 chase to the possession of the castle and 
 estate of an old and ruined family, and 
 the complications of feeling and inci- 
 dent groing out of this juxtaposition of 
 the old and the new giv the author fit 
 opportunities, — more, in fact, than he 
 has availed himself of. The story goes 
 on to elaborate the conflict in this young 
 woman's breast between folloing her 
 natural bent in loving a person of her 
 on class, and an attempted reconstruc- 
 tion of the old family throu marriage 
 with one of its poor and disreputable 
 offshoots." [American.] — " Mr. Hardy 
 is an ingenious novelist, and he has 
 managed to convey to the mind of the 
 reader a subtle doubt with regard to her 
 character which pervades the book al- 
 most to the end. Somerset falls in love 
 with her, and in the end marries her. 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 but the obstacles thron in the way of 
 this termination ar numerous . . . 
 Mis%Power's feeling for Somerset has 
 now reached a point far removed from 
 the Laodicean mean of lukewarmness, 
 and she determins to rit the wrong she 
 has done by hunting him up and con- 
 fessing her error. Her pursuit of him 
 is attended with some difficulties, but 
 the reconciliation is in the end com- 
 plete. At the last moment, the old 
 castle, which has been the scene of so 
 much of the story, and has seemed to 
 exist as a sort of gloomy fate overhang- 
 ing the lovers, is burned by the incen- 
 diary hand of Dare, leaving Somerset 
 and his wife to begin their new life freed 
 from the moldy associations of the 
 past." [Nation. 1453 
 
 LASSES OF LEVERHOUSE (The) 
 [by Jessie Fothergill: (t, 1891) 
 Hurst, 1888. J "is a 'story revived,' 
 having made its first appearance when 
 as yet ' The First Violin ' was not. It 
 is a sketch of a healthy, poverty-stricken 
 Lancashire family, done in something 
 of a Broughtonesque vein, but with less 
 smartness and flippancy in the dialog, 
 and an undercurrent of stronger feeling. 
 There ar pretty touches of humor and 
 pathos in the picture of child life, and 
 th^re is some character as well ; but the 
 general effect is not of strength nor cer- 
 tainty, and the blindness inflicted upon 
 one of the ' lasses ' is both unnecessary 
 and unkind." [Athenaeum. 1454 
 
 LAST CHRONICLE OF BARSET 
 (The) [by Anthony Trollope : 
 Harper, 1867.] "has all the good 
 qualities of his other works — the ex- 
 ceeding naturalness of the dialog, the 
 homely fidelity to englisli character of 
 the men anl women, the absence of all 
 coarse appeals to sympathy, the entire 
 freedom from all straining after effect. 
 But its superiority to his other stories 
 
 arises from his selection of a situation 
 as deep in its pain as any that could be 
 brot within the range of ordinary eu- 
 glish experience. We hav a country 
 curate miserably poor — that is common 
 enuf . He is placed in a parish mainly 
 inhabited by a population less stolid 
 perhaps than a purely agricultural peas- 
 antry, but whose better wages induce only 
 greater surliness ani a somewhat coarse 
 independency. Then this curate is a 
 man of fiercely intense piety and strong 
 character, a ripe scholar, full of an- 
 tique learning, but almost mad from the 
 pressure of the daily, hourly, biting ills 
 which come from household want. As 
 a clergyman he is br6t into a kind of 
 contact with the hiest personages of the 
 neborhood, and thus the peculiarities 
 of his character become the public prop- 
 erty of village gossips of all ranks. He 
 is accused of having stolen a cheque ; 
 the facts tell against him ; even his best 
 friends fear that, driven wild by debts 
 and duns, he may hav committed the 
 crime ; and his wife, heroically patient 
 and loving, half thinks that he must be 
 mad when he cannot tell even her how 
 he got it. This in itself is a striking 
 situation. The depth of the man's an- 
 guish as he tries to realize that he — 
 with his hi conscientiousness, his ever- 
 rigid preaching of duty, and his stern 
 vues of the holiness of a moral life — is 
 held to be a thief ; the awful dread of 
 the wife that this crowning calamity, 
 her husband's public disgrace as a felon, 
 is coming on, and that he is perhaps in- 
 sane, present a combination of as keen 
 an agony as is possible in ordinary 
 englishlife. To these elements is added 
 another which hitens and yet relieves the 
 whole. The curate's dauter, a graceful 
 girl — drawn in slender outlines, but 
 with suggestiv touches, — is loved by a 
 gentleman of the county, who, before 
 
 451 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 the cloud had come on the poor man's 
 home, had almost declared himself . He 
 hesitates for a moment, but Is drawn on 
 by circumstances and his love to act a 
 chivalrous part, anj his constancy — not 
 heroically unflinching, but still natural 
 and true, — keeps, as it wer, a bit of 
 blue sky in the upper distance, even in 
 the darkest part of the story ; while 
 the comparativly petty vexation of his 
 father at the impending mesalliance is 
 good foil, most artistically designed, to 
 the gaunt and deep agony in the other 
 parsonage home. We do not remember 
 any situation in any modern novel in 
 which the pure tragedy of the circum- 
 stances is so deep ; for it must be borne 
 in mind that the sufferers ar people made 
 sensitiv by early refinement and edu- 
 cated thOt; that they cannot hav even 
 the solace of suffering in solitude, for 
 the pain is a public event ; and that be- 
 caus thi?y ar of the educated classes 
 their sufferings come clearly home to our 
 conception and consciousness." [J. H. 
 Stack.] — . . . " The dramatis personse 
 — church dignitaries, church drudges, 
 church hangers-on, pleasant people, 
 vulgar people, designing people — old 
 acquaintances and n2w, ar alike admir- 
 able . . The decline and death of 
 dear old Mr. Harding, who, as the War- 
 den of Hiram's Hospital, was our earli- 
 est friend in Barsetshire, is exquisitly 
 pathetic. With all these people Mr. 
 Trollope's descriptions — his bits of 
 mental anatomy, his analysis of actuat- 
 ing motivs, his exposure of meannesses 
 and pettinesses — ar fine. His observa- 
 tion has taut him not only what a man 
 will do and what he will feel in given 
 circumstances, but what the man will do 
 and feel whom he has under considera- 
 tion." [Bound Table. 1455 
 LAST OF HER LINE (The), [by 
 Eliza (Tabok) Stephenson : Hurst, 
 
 1879.] " It must be said that the pict- 
 ure of these two old ladies, if over- 
 worked, is at least a real picture, 
 recalling something of the manner of 
 Mrs. Gaskell, without her humor, and too 
 diffuse. The reader cannot fail to hav 
 a kindly feeling towards the author, for 
 her writing shoes refinement, and, if it is 
 not impertinent to say so, a very estima- 
 ble character." [Athenaeum. 1456 
 
 LAST OF THE IIADDONS (The) 
 [by — ( ) Newman : Tinsley, 
 
 1878.] " is far from being a sensational 
 novel, yet is extremely interesting. The 
 chief merit of the author consists in 
 the harmony and logical sequence of 
 her plot, and the consistency of the 
 dramatis persons. The heroin rises to 
 a hi standard of unselfishness, yet some- 
 how her self-denial never seems un- 
 natural. All the other characters ar 
 well-drawn, and the distinction between 
 conventional and true vulgarity is skil- 
 fully illustrated. There is also some 
 originality in several of the characters, 
 yet, tho none of them is hackneyed, 
 we cannot but feel that we liav come 
 across them, or mit any day meet with 
 them in life. Humor is not usually a 
 characteristic of female novelists, but 
 in ' The Last of the Haddons ' there ar 
 one or two touches which in a quiet 
 way are very humorous. The book is 
 throuout pure, refined, and amusing." 
 [Athenaeum. 1457 
 
 LAST OF THE MORTIMERS (The) 
 [by Ma. Oliphant (Wilson) Oli- 
 PHANT : Hurst, 1861.] "is a charming 
 book — simple, quaint and fresli. As 
 in ' A Life for a Life,' the story is 
 carried on by two different people — 
 not by lovers, as in that case, but by 
 two women — one, a quiet, inoffensiv 
 maiden lady of fortune, timid, nervous, 
 and unsofisticated ; the other, a young 
 officer's wife, a frank, lively, affection- 
 
 452 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 ate girl, devoted to ' Harry ' and the 
 baby, and thinking herself only too 
 hily favored in being able to add to 
 Lieut. Langliam's happiness. Very poor- 
 the young couple ar after a runaway 
 match, but very gay anl happy . . . 
 With the help of some old books and 
 pictures, and a few coincidences, it 
 transpires that Milly Langham [born 
 Mortimer] is the next heir to the old 
 ladies at the Park, and she is joyfully 
 acknoledgod, and taken out of her 
 poor lodgings and made a pet of, while 
 Harry is away fiting. The mystery of 
 the Italian Count must be unravelled 
 from the book, as it would be unkind to 
 spoil the pleasure of its future readers 
 by detailing the whole of the very ingen- 
 ious plot." [Athenaeum. 1458 
 LATE LAURELS, [by H : Stcart 
 Cunningham: Longmans, 186i.] "To 
 those who remember ' Late Laurels ' 
 when it first appeared, its republication 
 will giv an opportunity of appreciating 
 its merits more fully, and the favorable 
 anticipation which ' Wlieat and Tares ' 
 may hav raised in others, "will not be 
 disappointed. Indeed there is a decided 
 advance both in the design and the 
 execution of the latter work, tho the 
 canvas is small and the characters few. 
 To paint the contrast between the sim- 
 ple force of a noble nature, and the 
 artificial, factitious brilliancy of a cliar- 
 acter altogether molded by the influ- 
 ences of modern society, is the object 
 attempted in ' Late Laurels,' and it has 
 been ably achieved. The style is always 
 pure, and often brilliant, and the dialog 
 displays considerable mastery of that 
 peculiar lit repartie which would prom- 
 ise the author success in comedy. If 
 the people in ordinary society seldom 
 talk with such point and wit as flo 
 naturally from Florence Vivian and 
 her friends, and if they never display 
 
 their well-bred cvnicism so ostenta- 
 tiously, it must still be granted that 
 the atmosfere of half-real, half-affected 
 despair, moral and intellectual, which 
 pervades modern drawing-rooms, has 
 rarely been better indicated, or its 
 modes of expression more accurately 
 reproduced." [Westminster. 1459 
 
 LAUREL BUSH (The), [by Dinah 
 Maria (Mulock) Craik: Harper, 
 187G.] "One gets a world of counsel 
 anl comfort from Miss Mulock's novels. 
 She seems to put her heart in them, and 
 from the vicissitudes of every-day life 
 draws lessons which linger and impress. 
 ' The Laurel Bush ' is a simple little 
 story, with common-place scenery, and 
 few characters." [Boston ."Literary 
 World." 1460 
 
 LAW AND THE LADY (The) . [by 
 [W:] WiLKiE Collins: 1874.] "In 
 spite of the utter poverty of language, 
 the entire absence of humor, the lack of 
 any one character in whom any interest 
 is felt beyond curiosity, and the painful 
 suspense into which the reader is plunged 
 in the very first page, and kept to the 
 close, ' The Law and the Lady ' must be 
 read throu by those who venture upon the 
 opening chapter. It is not fair to state 
 what the plot is, so as to giv any key to 
 it, but we may indicate generally the 
 materials used in its construction. With 
 an audacity almost amounting to wicked- 
 ness, the novel opens with the marriage 
 of the hero and heroin, a gentleman and 
 lady of good fortune and family. The 
 match is all but forbidden by the rela- 
 tivs of both; why offensiv to the hus- 
 band's mother is the grand secret which 
 torments the reader until the book is 
 finished. The wife, Valeria, discovers 
 in the first week of wedlock that she 
 has been married under an assumed 
 name ; she resents the indignity, yet 
 passionately loving her deceitful* mate 
 
 453 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 suffers it not to cool her love, the it 
 expites her curiosity until it masters her 
 devotion to him, and one step slie takes 
 to discover why this was done leads to 
 a separation, as it reveals to her a terri- 
 ble episode in the life of her husband, 
 which has necessitated his assumption of 
 a false name — he has been tried for a 
 crime, and the verdict was ' Not Proven.' 
 Confident that this verdict should hav 
 been ' Not Guilty,' she devotes herself 
 to searching enquiry into the facts, and 
 is rewarded for all her anguish, her 
 toils, her unshaken faith in her hus- 
 band's innocence, by the discovery of 
 evidence which fully clears him from all 
 taint of guilt. The unravelment of the 
 plot is accomplished in Mr. CoUins's 
 unrivalled style ; the reader is led off on 
 false scents to rit and left by the most 
 ingeniously puzzling suggestions, until 
 all is ripe for a startling revelation of 
 facts, which justify the husband in his 
 great deceit, explain the mother's severe 
 condemnation of his marriage, clear the 
 mj'stery of both to his wife, and re- 
 warding her for her fidelity by restoring 
 a husband who oes the proof of his 
 innocence to the wife he has loved and 
 wronged. That is a dish to satisfy to 
 repletion the lovers of — a good story." 
 [Canadian Monthly. 1461 
 
 LEADEN CASKET (The) [by Ma. 
 (Kaine) Hunt; Chatto, 1880.] " is a 
 Efcvel of various excellencies, and the 
 story is of suiHcient interest to giv 
 continuity to the several episodes which 
 form its main merit. The dramatis per- 
 sonse ar, for the most part, a collection 
 of character sketches, and the incidents 
 ar studies of different society crazes, 
 from the vagaries of the ' aesthetes ' to 
 the extravagance of the ' professional 
 beauties.' These somewhat disjointed 
 fragments ar deftly woven into the 
 semblance of a whole along the thread 
 
 of a needlessly Improbable plot, princi- 
 pally by the skill of the author in keep- 
 ing her pictures in a lo tone. The 
 heroin, the dauter of an east-indian 
 englishman, is reared in the family of 
 her uncle, who, finding that she has been 
 left to her on devices throu the neglect 
 of a novel-writing ant, and is better 
 acquainted with sensational novels than 
 with studies suitable to her age, de- 
 spatches her to his sister in the coun- 
 try . . . Recalled to London she de- 
 velops into a sensible young woman. 
 Her Ant introduces her into society, 
 but only the literary and ' aesthetic ' 
 portion of it, and when her mother 
 suddenly appears from India she finds 
 her dauter wearing the costume of her 
 great-grandmother. All this is quickly 
 changed, however, and Lady Brooke 
 mortgages to a fashionable dressmaker 
 her dauter's chances of a wealthy 
 marriage for the necessary wardrobe for 
 court circles, precipitates the young 
 woman a last time into the aesthetic 
 whirlpool, in order to carry off the only 
 eligible man, a rich young lord, and then 
 lanches her dauter as a professional 
 beauty. The latter proves refractory, 
 and finally, after the melodrama alluded 
 to chooses the ' leaden casket ' and is 
 appropriately happy. The ' nincompoop- 
 iana'is admirably done for lit satire." 
 [Nation. 1462 
 
 LESLIE TYRREL [by Geoegi- 
 ANA Marion (Craik) May : Loring, 
 1867.] "is a very agreeable story. 
 The personages ar few, and the inci- 
 dents simple, yet the interest never 
 flags : a large part of the dialog consists 
 of love-making, yet it is neither affected, 
 silly, sentimental, nor dull. The char- 
 acters ar all pleasing, and the book is 
 one of the few novels which we hav 
 found too short." [Southern Review.] 
 . — "It is one of those charming little 
 
 454 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 sketches — it can scarcely be called a, 
 novel — which at once rivets the atten- 
 tion and commands the sympathy of the 
 reader, rendering him incapable of clos- 
 ing the book until he has completed its pe- 
 rusal. The situations ar neither new nor 
 unusual, but the character of Leslie is 
 drawn witli great skill and discernment, 
 and evinces a just perception of all which 
 is good and noble in woman's nature. At 
 the outset we ar not prepared to suc- 
 cumb to the controlling influence of this 
 self-reliant and determined young wo- 
 man ; but by degrees she wins upon us 
 by the purity and sincerity of her truly 
 affectionate nature, and Frank Arnold 
 rises in our estimation as he gradually 
 learns to appreciate her real value, and 
 to love her with the earnest devotion 
 which such a, woman unquestionably 
 deservs. A strong-minded woman Lee- 
 lie undoubtedly is, according to the best 
 and most correct acceptance of the 
 term, and if all who aim to be so re- 
 garded would emulate her nobleness of 
 character, and become in reality what 
 they desire to be thot, the terra would 
 no longer be used as one of opprobrium, 
 but as a distinctiv mark of respect and 
 admiration. The quiet, unobtrusiv way 
 of Leslie's life, her tender and judicious 
 care of children, her gentle ministering 
 to the sick, and the hi moral purpose by 
 which she is guided under all circum- 
 stances, ar described with such simplic- 
 ity and apparent truthfulness, that we 
 ar led to believe in the absolute exist- 
 ence of such a woman, and to indulge 
 the hope that the writer has drawn her 
 sketch less from imagination than from 
 experience. In presenting such a por- 
 traiture to the world the author not only 
 confers a pleasure upon her readers, but 
 renders a service to her sex." [Round 
 Table. 1463 
 
 LESS BLACK THAN WE'KE 
 
 PAINTED, [by Ja. Payn: Chaito, 
 1878.] " Mr. Payn's eloquent por- 
 trayal of the character of a hi-minded 
 actress should win him the thanks of 
 that profession . . . When circum- 
 stances again draw them together, Lucy 
 declines to be managed, and the 2 ardent 
 spirits start in wedded life without the 
 approbation of their friends. How Lucy 
 comforts herself with her spendthrift 
 husband, and after grievous trials makes 
 a man of him, and secures her on hap- 
 piness, is the gist of the story — a story 
 as well told as it is wholesom. The dif- 
 ferent actors in the piece ar well placed 
 upon the stage. Thfire is much human- 
 ity about Dick and the rector, the game- 
 keeper, and Squire Pole. The women, 
 too, ar well imagined, which is note- 
 worthy in a masculiu author." [Athe- 
 naeum. 1464 
 LETTICE LISLE [by F .. Parthe- 
 NOPE (Nightingale) Verney : Smith, 
 1870.] "deservs her pretty name. 
 Her lot is cast among an old-fashioned 
 society of farmers and fishermen. It is 
 refreshing in the days of hi pressure 
 and sensation to come across a novel 
 which it is a pure relaxation to read, and 
 the charm of which consists in good dia- 
 log, grafic but not needless description, 
 and characters drawn from nature, creat- 
 ures of common daylit, not ' crea- 
 tions' of a dyspeptic fancy. Lettice is 
 what Americans mit call an ' all-day ' 
 heroin, who makes up for want of 
 sublimity by the ' staying ' power of a 
 strong but gentle nature. In childhood 
 she endures tlie yoke of an ignorant 
 and puritanic grandmother with exem- 
 plary fortitude, and returns the love of 
 the poor gentleman, her yeoman uncle, 
 witli a dauter's piety. In early woman- 
 hood she is embarrassed by the attentions 
 of the 2 lovers, and being a girl of that 
 period, is honest to both. We hear little 
 
 455 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 of her later days. Her story is a simple 
 one, but well told, and deserving of 
 gratitude, in that it describes a charac- 
 ter which englishmen still admire, and 
 which is not yet extinct among us. The 
 subordinate characters, tho inferior in 
 interest, ar good types of the better side 
 of an age which is passing away, and in 
 their speech is a ring of the forest and 
 the sea." [Athenaeum. 1465 
 
 LIEUTENANT (The) [by Emelt 
 Marion Harris: Bell, 1882.] "is a 
 peaceful story, its main theme being the 
 romantic friendship between little Mon- 
 ica Carr and a young officer on duty in 
 the Tower. Monica is a delitful, quaint, 
 imaginativ child, and her conversations 
 with her friend ar excellent. A still 
 more refined conception is the character 
 of her sister Louie, who rewards in a 
 different way the pains spent upon her 
 by a somewhat puritanic, but gentle 
 and hi-minded mother." [Ath. 1466 
 
 LIFE rOK A LIES (A) [by Di- 
 nah Maria (Mulock) Craik : ffar- 
 per, 1859. J " is a bold, instructiv, and 
 even fascinating book. There is the 
 same clear insit into human nature, 
 the same clever dissecting of its 
 most eccentric elements, the same 
 graceful and pure style, which distin- 
 guish all we get from the pen of this 
 gifted lady." [Crayon. 1467 
 
 LIFE'S AFTERMATH [by Emma 
 ( ) Marshall: N.Y., Duiton, 1876.] 
 "is one of the best stories we hav re- 
 cently read, — fresh in matter, refined 
 and elevating in manner, and peopled 
 by some personages whom it is a 
 blessing to kno. Most of these ar 
 Quakers, and very charming ar the 
 glimpses of their placid life. The at- 
 mosfere of the book is delitful, — un- 
 alloyed purity ... In "Winifred, we 
 find one of the few successful efforts to 
 portray an absolutely ingenuous, con- 
 
 science-dominated maiden, whose love is 
 as pure and perennial as a mountain 
 spring. A few more sunbeams in these 
 pages would hiten their charm ; but 
 th6re ar several passages of exquisit 
 pathos, which truly illustrate the ' lux- 
 ury of grief.' " [Bostdn " Literary 
 "World." 1468 
 
 LIFE'S LONG BATTLE "WON [by 
 " E : Garrett," i. e., I .. Fyfie Mayo ■ 
 Dodd, 1889.] "is in every sense good 
 reading. With quite sufficient plot, in- 
 cident, and story to keep up interest, its 
 strength lies chiefly in its characters. 
 Not the least attractiv of these is that 
 one which, standing behind the scenes, 
 and busy only in bringing tlie personages 
 of the little drama before the audience, 
 has been unable to prevent its shado 
 from looming behind them all. Life- 
 like and interesting as they ar, the gos- 
 siping Gibson woman, gentle Lesley 
 Baird, common-sense, shrewd, practical, 
 and yet unworldly Clementina Kerr, the 
 2 old Scotchwomen, Alison Brown, 
 and Jean Haldane, patient and lov- 
 ing-hearted Mrs. Crawford, and the 
 womanly, aspiring Mary Olrig, — the per- 
 sonality of 'Edward Garrett 'is, on the 
 whole, the predominant attraction of the 
 book. A woman, one would say, who 
 has knon how to love and how to suffer, 
 and who has been won to wisdom throu 
 both experiences. Shrewd, too, and ob- 
 servant, with as quick an eye for a foi- 
 ble or a fault as for a natural virtue or a 
 grace." [Catholic "World. 1469 
 
 LIFE'S MISTAKE (A) [by — ( ) 
 Cameron: Ward ^ Downey, li>S&.'] "re- 
 turns to the old, yet ever new story of 
 ' Auld Robin Gray,' and her version of 
 the ' life's mistake ' is pretty and pathetic. 
 Here, as in the ballad, the girl who is 
 faithless to an absent lover at the bidding 
 of her father tells the tale of her weak- 
 ness, and does not spare herself; but the 
 
 456 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 sympathy of the reader, as is meet and 
 rjt, remains with the old man rather than 
 with the young one. At any rate, this 
 is so before the story ends, and it must 
 be confessed that the young lover is well 
 able to take care of himself. The plot 
 is brit and cheerful on the whole, both 
 hero and heroin eventually proving the 
 truth of the motto, according to which, 
 if hearts cannot be torn away ' by 
 sudden wi-ench,' yet love may sink by 
 slo decay. As 2 new loves rise to 
 replace the love which sinks, the reader 
 is amply consoled for his sympathetic 
 sorro, and he puts down the book with a 
 feeling of satisfaction. Thfire ar 4 to 
 sympathize with instead of 2, and at 
 least twice 4 in whom it is impossible not 
 to be interested." [Athenseum. 1470 
 
 LIFE'S SECRET (A), [by Ellen 
 (Price) Wood.] Mrs. Wood "is se- 
 curely enthroned in the affections of her 
 readers, in virtue of an unsullied career. 
 Her worst enemies can never accuse her 
 of an attempt to soar for u, subject 
 above the beneficent institutions of her 
 nativ land. The modest coroner's in- 
 quest, the homely justice-room, the 
 unassuming smuggler's cave, ar full of 
 inspiration for her ; and she is thoroly 
 consistent. She resorts to no garnishes 
 for her plain english fare, but servs up 
 murders and mutton, suicides and rice- 
 pudding, stolen cheques and thick bread 
 and butter; and as she never fails to 
 say an emfatic grace over each heavy 
 meal, she satisfies alike the appetite, the 
 taste, and the conscience of her readers." 
 [Spectator. 1471 
 
 LIGHT THAT FAILED (The), [by 
 RuDYARD Kipling : Ward ^ Lock, 1890.] 
 "Fresh from its perusal, we willingly 
 on to having read it with great pleasure, 
 and we think no one can put down ' The 
 Light that Failed ' without giving it the 
 hearty word of praise it deservs . We find 
 
 ourselves carried away by its dash, its hu- 
 mor, its pathos ; and our first idea is that 
 here is a bit of life fotografed for us by 
 an experienced hand. The outline of the 
 story is simple in the extreme ; indeed, 
 it can hardly be said to possess a plot at 
 all. Dick Heldar, the hero, falls in 
 love with a little girl, who has, as well as 
 himself, the misfortune to be under the 
 care of a female virago calling herself a 
 gentlewoman. After u, long separation, 
 the 2 meet again by chance. Dick is 
 now a ' special artist ' and war-corre- 
 spondent, and Maisie is giving herself up 
 to art. The point of the book lies in 
 the question whether she loves Dick well 
 enuf to marry him, or whether she 
 prefers the pursuit of art, for which she 
 has no real talent." [Spectator. 1473 
 
 LIL. [Lippincott, 1878.] = KIL- 
 CORRAN. 
 
 LIL \^Roherts, 1889.] "has its scene 
 in a quiet english village. Its attractiv 
 characters ar Dr. Murray, his 5 boys, 
 and his dauter Lil who is laid up with a 
 spinal complaint. Ken Wyat, the heir 
 to the manor, and his cousin Sylvia who 
 comes from far Australia to dispossess 
 him. The plot is simple, and the 
 character-drawing lit but firm in touch. 
 The charm of this writer is in her 
 wholesom faithfulness to the quiet life 
 she describes, and the unaffected teach- 
 ing she gathers from experience." 
 [Boston " Literary World." 1473 
 
 LILLIESLEAF: Concluding Series 
 of some Passages in the Life of Mrs. 
 Margaret Maitland of Sunnyside, [by 
 Ma. Oliphant (Wilson) Oliphant ; 
 Hurst, 1855.] "is in our thinking 
 superior to the beginning, and this we 
 take to be about the most satisfactory 
 compliment we can pay the author. 
 ThCrc is a vein of good simple sense run- 
 ning throu, for which no reader can fail 
 to be thfi better." [Athen^um. 1474 
 
 457 
 
BRITISH NDVELS. 
 
 LIFE FOR A LIFE (A.) [ by Dinah 
 Maria (Mulock) Craik (t, 1SS7) : 1839.] 
 "Its reiiders will be mauy ; l)iit those who 
 strictly sympathise with its vuos of life 
 must be comparativly few. The thread of 
 its iiarrativ is the birth, grOtli, aud con- 
 summation of the love of two singular 
 characters, under singular circumstances. 
 Theoflora Johnson is the second dauter of 
 a clergyman. Her elder sister has personal 
 attractions, but a narro soul, tho an earn- 
 est one ; her younger sister is a beauty, 
 shallo in feeling and in th6t, but with that 
 ever smiling good-nature which in the 
 every-day life of woman so wel compen- 
 sates for the absence of unusual intelli- 
 gence. Theodora has a broad, deep, placid- 
 seeming, but really impetuous nature, and 
 a keen, wel cultivated mind ; liut to these 
 she joins a person, not ugly or even dis- 
 agreeable, but simply insignificant, and 
 not distinguished for gra^e or breeding. 
 She is neglected, and eaten with envy; 
 when she accidentally meets a Dr. Urqu- 
 hart, who is her masculin counterpart. 
 They gradually, but with the sureness and 
 certainty of fate, approach each other, 
 and finally ar united by the bonds of a 
 love, which, they being what they ar, 
 makes them inseparable, in soul at least, 
 for life. But there is a slight difficulty in 
 th^ir way. Dr. Urquhart has a gloom 
 hanging over him from the first; audit 
 proves that in his boyhood he, in a soli- 
 
 tary fit of drunkenness, unintentionally 
 killed the elder brother of Theodora, who 
 was a bad fello, and had led him into the 
 very exgess which terminated so fatally 
 to his tempter. The tale is told in a some- 
 what singular style. We look over the 
 sholders of Theodora and her lover as thfiy 
 write thCir diaries. This form of narra- 
 tion has the advantage of directness in its 
 relation of the inner experience of the 
 principal characters, which in this case 
 could not be so wel protrayed, perhaps, 
 in any other manner. It belongs to the 
 class of psyi.'liological novels which is now 
 so notably on the increase, and the interest 
 of which depends not in the variations of 
 the fortune of the characters, but in their 
 emotional and intellectual experience un- 
 der circumstances which ar established at 
 the outset of the narrativ, or soon after 
 it . . . It is one of the gloomiest, a.nd, 
 in spite of the final marriage of its hero 
 and heroin, one of the most hopeless aud 
 depressing books we ever read. It con- 
 tains, however, many fine studies of char- 
 acter; prominent among them being that 
 of the heroin. Her sisters, too, ar sketch- 
 ed into the picture with boldness, spirit 
 and knoledge ; and her father is a fine type 
 of the man who allows his religious faith, 
 almost, but not quite, to crush his art'ec- 
 tionate and charitable nature." [ Al- 
 bion. 
 
 456 k 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 LITTLE CHATELAINE (The), [by 
 the Earl of Des.iet : Sonnenschein, 
 1889.] "Charlie Garland — the weak 
 man who cannot see, except at times, 
 that his ruin and that of the pet dauters 
 whom he fondles, and who repay him 
 with the whole love of their childish 
 hearts, is attributable to his personal 
 selfishness — is a common character, 
 but he tells his story uncommonly well 
 before he dies. ' Captain Carr,' the 
 truer friend of poor Geraldine and 
 Ethel, is a gentleman in the finest 
 details. Major Dobbin may hav sug- 
 gested him, but the suggestion is faint. 
 Fortunately for him, Gerry is not an 
 Amelia. Lord Desart supplies plenty of 
 animated description, and genial Lord 
 Liscannor and his 3 Irish dauters in their 
 nativ land form an excellent sketch. 
 John Joxam, the book-maker, and the 
 amusing butler and his better half will 
 not be forgotten by the reader of ' The 
 Little Chatelaine.'" [Athenaeum. 14:75 
 
 LITTLE WORLD (A) [by G: 
 Manville Fenn : King, 1877.] "is a 
 story of humble life, not badly sketched. 
 Jared Pellet, the organist, is one who, 
 with much natural refinement, has not 
 the counter-balancing element of hard- 
 ness which enables a man to be success- 
 ful in the world. Accordingly, in mid- 
 dle life he finds himself glad to accept 
 the management of the organ at St. 
 Kunwald's, which enables him just to 
 maintain his large family in decent 
 poverty. From this post he is near 
 being expelled, an undeserved slur upon 
 his honesty having alienated his friends, 
 the kind-hearted vicar and church war- 
 den ; and it is on his conduct under this 
 trial that one thread of the narration 
 depends . . . The author takes, for 
 the most part, a kindly vue of human 
 nature, and his book will be read with 
 interest." [Athenaeum. 1476 
 
 LOB LIE [by Juliana Horatia 
 (Gatty) Ewino: Bell, 1873.] "is a 
 story which neither young nor old will 
 read throu without having their feelings 
 strongly moved. It is the history of a 
 child whose natural or unnatural par- 
 ents hav left him exposed under a bush 
 of broom. The infant is found and 
 adopted by 2 of the dearest and most 
 primitiv of old ladies; they call him 
 John Brown, and try their best to rear 
 him in a god-fearing manner, and to 
 make him a useful member of society ; 
 but the child inherits gypsy blood and 
 gypsy ways. He is the most fascinating 
 of nauty children, idle to the back-bone, 
 and with that restless adventurous nature 
 to which comfort and a quiet life ar 
 irksom, whilst all restraint or coercion is 
 simply intolerable. The boy runs away 
 and finds hardships to his heart's content. 
 Home-sickness and the recollection of 
 his kind benefactress come over him on 
 the other side of the world. He makes 
 his way back, a cabin boy, as he went 
 out ; and then ashamed to go back, he 
 lingers about the barracks in a town, 
 running errands for the soldiers and 
 forming a boy's friendship, full of wor- 
 ship and admiration, for a magnificent 
 Highlander. The pathos and beauty of 
 this little episode will go to the heart of 
 every reader. The boy returns to his 
 old friends, but too ashamed to sho him- 
 self til he has made some amends, he 
 hides in a stable and does the work 
 secretly, and the neborhood declare it 
 is the old family brownie come back to 
 bring luck to the house. Of course he 
 is discovered and welcomed by the old 
 ladies and all the neborhood. The real 
 love and gratitude which hav been roused 
 keep him tolerably industrious, and he 
 does not run away again, tho the tramp's 
 nature never quite dies out in him. The 
 story is delitful." [Athenasum. 1477 
 
 458 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 LOGIE TOWN. [l3y"SAKAH Tyt- 
 LBR," i. e., Henrietta Keddie : Ward ^ 
 Downey, 1887.] "Miss Tytler's new- 
 volumes ar likely to be read with appre- 
 ciation by those who feel old associations 
 stirred by a clever and truthful descrip- 
 tion of life in an old-fashioned scotch 
 town. That the dialect is good goes 
 without saying, and the dramatis per- 
 sonas ar numerous and fairly original. 
 Mrs. Mally, of course, suggests Meg 
 Dods at once, but it is by way of con- 
 trast, tho probably the aristocratic old 
 dame of the Crown oes her literary ex- 
 istence to her ruder prototype. The 
 contrasted ' beaux ' of Logic Town — 
 Adam Lauder, with his strong health 
 and gay spirits, and the sentimental, 
 rather supercilious Steenie Oliphant — 
 ar less complete portraits than ar the 
 female figures, yet hav much individu- 
 ality. Those who can be touched by 
 scotch humor and scotch pathos will 
 find plenty of both in ' Logic Town.' " 
 [Athenaeum. 1478 
 
 LONG SUMMER'S DAY (A) [by 
 M. C. M. Simpson: Smith, 1873.] "is 
 unpretentious, aiming at nothing more 
 remarkable than the description of a 
 country girl's experience of a London 
 season, [compare No. 1168.] It is written 
 in a cheerful spirit, the crumpled rose- 
 leaves being few and far between . . . 
 Mrs. Hamilton is a good-humored woman- 
 of-the-world, with better principles than 
 ar sometimes supposed to appertain to 
 that character ; Lily is a pleasant child ; 
 Mrs. Barlow is a well-drawn sketch of 
 a selfish invalid. Of the men, a lively 
 old vicar, of a school less common than 
 it was, strikes us as the. best. The tale 
 goes off trippingly." [Athenaeum. 1479 
 
 LOOK BEFORE rOU LEAP, [by 
 "Mrs. Alexander," i c, Annie 
 (French) Hector : Bentley, 1865, 
 {Holt, 1882.)] " Mrs. Alexander sel- 
 
 dom writes a dull novel and she has the 
 art of making use of the improbable 
 in such a way as to make it seem natural, 
 and yet not lose its interest. Her tender- 
 ness of heart will not permit her to 
 bring her characters to bad ends, and 
 ' Look Before You Leap ' is far from 
 being a tragedy. Yet there is suffering 
 enuf in it to bring a tear to the eye of 
 a sympathetic reader; in fact, the de- 
 scription of poor Marie Delvigne's dis- 
 tress and misery when, on her wedding 
 day, her husband falsely accuses her of 
 imposing upon him and leaves her, is 
 heartrending. The women ar good 
 throuout, and the men ar far from bad, 
 tho as a woman ' Mrs. Alexander ' 
 understands, and is able to describe, 
 better the operations of the feminin 
 than the masculin mind and heart. But 
 the ingenuity with which the improbable 
 incidents of the tale ar worked together 
 is really its most remarkable feature. 
 That Marie should be able to hide her- 
 self away in London, notwithstanding 
 the activ search which is going on for 
 her, is probable enuf, but what shall 
 we say of her falling in with, and being 
 protected and sheltered by, her husband's 
 half-brother, without either discovering 
 who the other is? And yet, oing to 
 the quarrel between Neville and Wat- 
 son, all this seems natural enuf in read- 
 ing it." [Nation.] — " The hero of the 
 story, Capt. Neville, elopes with a pretty 
 governess whom he takes to be an heir- 
 ess. In the first transports of his dis- 
 appointment he treats her with an un- 
 warrantable cruelty, whereon she quits 
 him, and for a year he is made to pay 
 the penalty of his fit of ill-temper by 
 separation' from the woman he loves 
 and by complete ignorance as to her 
 fate. In the end all is happily arranged, 
 the impecunious and reunited pair ar 
 furnished with an incom, and the true 
 
 469 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 LITTLE MINISTER (The) [by Ja. 
 Matthew Baurie: Cassell, 1891.] 
 "There could hardly be better evidence of 
 the reality of the author's powers than the 
 charm exercised by this story, in spite of 
 the absurdity of its plot. It may be 
 from some defect in the Southern im- 
 agination, but to us the heroin who is 
 the pivot round whom the story all 
 revolvs, is even vexatiously impossible. 
 A girl who is at once a lady and a gypsy 
 of the fields, who is one minute the fiancee 
 of a peer, and the next a barefooted Egyp- 
 tian, dancing with a tamborine in the 
 streets of a Scotish fishing-village, who is 
 all goodness and forever lying, whij is at 
 home with all classes and an object of sus- 
 piciou to all, who is full of wild blood and 
 mad caprige, and falls in lo\ e with a bit of 
 an "Auld-Licht" minister solely because 
 of his virtues, is an incredible and even 
 preposterous figure. AVe can never forget 
 her, or avoid the reflection that, for all the 
 author may say, she could never hav been 
 there, or hav done that, or hav said, either 
 as lady or as Egyptian, what she did say. 
 The love of the Little Minister for her is 
 like the love of a mortal for a kelpie, so 
 unnatural and improbable that the ac- 
 count of it givs an impression like that 
 which would be produced by a book half 
 written in prose, and half in wild snatches 
 of lyric poetry. It jars throudut with the 
 realism of the rest of the book, which is 
 Mr. Barrie's true element. For he is 
 realist first of all, in the healthiest and 
 truest sense of the word. It has become 
 a fashion to call him a humorist and mas- 
 ter of pathos ; whose insight is so deep and 
 his heart so broad, that he perceives alike 
 
 the pathos and the humor— tho more per- 
 haps the pathos than the humor— which 
 lie hidden in common events and common 
 folk, especially when both ar Scotch." 
 [Spectator]— "The story is told liy that 
 dominie whose acquaintance is made in 
 'A Window in Thrums' [No. 1820 p.] It 
 is a poetical, passionate story, with a plot 
 so romantic as to appear quite olil-fashion- 
 ed. An Auld-Licht minister is, after all, 
 but a man, especially when at the age 
 of twenty-one. AVhcn Gavin got the 
 "call" to Thrums, and was able to estaljlish 
 his devoted mother in the manse, the 
 troubles of life seemed to lie behind and 
 the future shon fair, provided his physical 
 vigor should prove equal to the demands 
 of Thrums for loud-voiced denunciation 
 of all things natural and agreeable to weak 
 humanity. Poor Gavin had not counted 
 on an "Egyptian limmer" coming danging 
 out of limbo, strait into his cut-and-dried 
 life, dictating heaven or helforhim by 
 the ring of her voice and the light of her 
 eyes. But when, at last, lie understands 
 the wonderful, terrible forge which sweeps 
 away all his wel-knOn self, except his 
 stanch integrity, then let Thrums rise and 
 with imprecation stone him from its limits. 
 Babbie is his and the joy thereof passes 
 understanding. Mr. Barrie leaves us in 
 doubt about the action taken by Thrums 
 when the news of the marriage over the 
 tongs was confirmed, but the inference 
 from the behavior of "lang Thamnuis" is 
 that thSy accepted what couldn't be helped, 
 and proceeded to vindicate outraged ri- 
 teousness by proving to Babbie how far 
 from a bed of roses is the lot of a minister's 
 wife." [Nation 1475 m 
 
 458 i. 
 
BKITISn NOVELS. 
 
 heiress with a truer admirer." [Bos- 
 ton " Literary World." 1480 
 LOST BATTLE (A) [by Eleanor 
 C.Price: Edinburgh, Douglas, 1878.] 
 " leaves us satisfied, and ready to do jus- 
 tice to the excellence of the author's 
 drawing of her characters . . . Thfire 
 ar no monsters of vice or paragons of 
 virtue, but people such as one may often 
 meet, with their several characteristics 
 just sufficiently accentuated to save them 
 from being commonplace. Perhaps the 
 best is the foreman of the quarry, in 
 whom the educated artisan is depicted to 
 a nicety, sober, honest, cleanly, but al- 
 lowing self-respect to verge closely on 
 selfishness, and tho not neglecting duties, 
 thinking still more of rits. But it is in- 
 vidious to select whfire all ar good." 
 [Athenaeum. 1481 
 LOST IDENTITIES [by M. L. 
 Tytler : Sonnenschein, 1888.] -'is a 
 story which may giv reasonable satis- 
 faction. Its language is hi flou and not 
 always correct; its incidents ar often 
 sensational and sometimes melodramatic ; 
 but thSre is no doubt about the buoyant 
 and pathetic freshness wliich character- 
 izes the narrativ from beginning to end. 
 It is based upon the old foundation of it 
 pair of changeling babies. The heroin 
 is supposed to be the child of nobody 
 in particular, and as she takes this very 
 much to heart, and refuses to ally her- 
 self to the man she loves, some years 
 of wretchedness hav to be endured be- 
 fore things ar finally put rit. With such a 
 threadbare theme ' Lost Identities ' mit 
 hav been a terribly commonplace story ; 
 yet it is nothing of the kind. The author 
 has a sympathetic heart, and she makes 
 her reader sympathize with her charac- 
 ters—a score of children, the heroin and 
 a dozen or so of her unsuccessful lovers, 
 several old men and women, and a fairly 
 worthy hero. Most of these people ar 
 
 pleasant, some of them positivly charm- 
 ing; and the interest of the story, hily 
 colored as it is, compensates for a num- 
 ber of little shortcomings in its manner 
 and method." [Athena;um. 1483 
 
 LOST INHERITANCE (The) 
 [1852.] "is a gentle, agreeable story, — ■ 
 so free from folly, exaggeration and 
 bombast as to be more than ordinarily 
 grateful. This said, however, the re- 
 vuer has little to add : since the au- 
 thor's effects ar made by continuous 
 narration and description — and not by 
 violent surprises, brilliant aforisms, or 
 hily-wrflt dialog. The heart-story of 
 Marion Harcourt, and the slo cure 
 (not without its relapses) wrot on the 
 suspicious, cynical man by the truthful, 
 sensible, and not insensible, girl could 
 not hav been shon in shorter compass." 
 [Athen^um. 1483 
 
 LOST LOVE (A) [by " Ashford 
 Owen," i. k., Annie Ogle: Smith, 
 1855, — Loring, 1876.] "is a little 
 story full of grace and genius.. The 
 incidents ar slit and common, such as 
 mit be picked up either in the streets 
 of London, or in the most stagnant 
 town. There is little or nothing hily 
 colored, either in character or emotion. 
 The story resembles a delicately fin- 
 ished outline rather than a fully colored 
 picture .■ — It is the heart which mag- 
 nifies this life, making a truth and 
 beauty of its on. — The opening of the 
 life which lies at the root of the dull, 
 cheerless, uneventful career of the 
 heroin has a. deep and touching interest 
 which would be too painful wer it not 
 for the skill with which the conclusion 
 is so managed as to leave the reader 
 indifferent to what is called ' a happy 
 ending.' After foUoing poor Georgy 
 throu the deep love which made her 
 life, we feel that it was ' well with her' 
 at the last; and we leave her without 
 
 460 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 unavailing pity. We recommend our 
 readers to get the book. No outline of 
 the story would give them any idea of 
 its beauty." [AthensBum, 1855.] — " It 
 is but an hour's reading, but the hour 
 is one of rare and memorable pleasure." 
 [Leader, 1858.] — It " is a very 
 pleasant love-story, peopled by some 
 very nice persons. Georgy, the heroin, 
 is betrothed to Stephen Anstruther, 
 who goes away soon after their engage- 
 ment for 3 years' absence. Georgy, liv- 
 ing with unpleasant relativs, repents her 
 rashness, and refuses to marry Anstru- 
 ther. She leaves her home and goes to 
 London to Mrs. Erskine, the mother of 
 the man she had learned to love. He loves 
 her, too, and they ar betrothed. But 
 Cornelia Everett, his old love, is in the 
 same house, and Georgy suspects that 
 his heart has returned to her. She tells 
 him this, and breaks their engagement. 
 He marries Cornelia, and Georgy mar- 
 ries Anstruther, and presently dies." 
 [Boston " Literary World."] — " In 
 reprinting ' A Lost Love,' the publisher 
 has done something more like a personal 
 favor to certain people than he probably 
 knoes. I am not going to revue it, — 
 and I wished to speak of it only becaus 
 of the curiously enthusiastic foUoing — 
 worship, cult — which it has among certain 
 refined american women. I do not kno 
 anything about the fact, but I should 
 doubt, on general principles, whether 
 it has equally a cult with english women. 
 My observation is that it was expressly 
 written for some 10 or a dozen ladies 
 of my acquaintance, who read it 15 or 
 20 years ago, and who hav since gone 
 about proselyting people to it . . . 
 It is not at all an exciting story, I should 
 say : the scene is largely that everlast- 
 ing english country house, which is in 
 its£lf almost enuf to render any action 
 and person loathsom ; but the manner 
 
 46 
 
 in which the skeptical reader is con- 
 victed of his former hardness of heart 
 and darkness of mind, as the story pro- 
 gresses, must be hily gratifying to the 
 early Lost Lovers, — as I may call 
 them. What should be so wonderful 
 about a young girl's not getting the 
 man whom she loves, and who loves 
 her as much as, if not more than, he 
 loves the brilliant woman who does ^et 
 him? That is the author's secret, and 
 you ar made to kno that it is a very 
 great matter, — a matter of life and 
 death. The book is truth and life, 
 treated with consummate, unfailing, un- 
 insistcnt art." [Atlantic, 1876. 1484 
 
 LOST REPUTATION (A) IStocJc, 
 1887.] " is an affecting story, not original 
 in plot or general construction, but 
 treated in such a manner as to make it 
 fresh and attractiv. Graham Murray, 
 the hero, is the only son of a scotch 
 laird, and he loses his reputation by 
 associating with an unscrupulous swind- 
 ler whom he knoes to be detested by his 
 father . . . But from this point on- 
 ward all is natural and engrossing and 
 pathetic. Language and reflexions, 
 incidents and conversations, ar alike 
 simple and in good taste. The reader 
 will folio Graham's later fortunes with 
 interest to the end, and will be rewarded 
 by a conclusion which, if not altogether 
 free from shado, is purely artistic and 
 true to life." [Athenfflum. 1485 
 
 LOST SIR MASSINGBERD [by 
 Ja. Payn : Low, 1864.] "is a story, 
 which, having professedly more of the 
 characteristics of romance than the 
 ordinary works of fiction, is calculated 
 rather to amuse the young than to 
 entertain the reader of matured and 
 cultivated taste. If any one be desirous 
 of reopening his mind to early impres- 
 sions, or should wish to realize his idea 
 of what his childish predelictions prob- 
 1 
 
lilllTISII NOVELS. 
 
 ably wer, he may hav recourse to this 
 truly extraordinary narrativ. The pre- 
 ternatural gloom with which the annals 
 of the Heath family ar overshadoed ; 
 the unexceptional and increasing iniquity 
 with which each successive generation is 
 credited ; the glaring and acknoledged 
 depravity which renders every scion of 
 the family tree an outcast almost from 
 civilized society while living, and insures 
 him, at his end, a reception in uncon- 
 secrated ground, — remind one, with 
 a pleasant thrill, of the imperfectly- 
 knon antecedents of Bluebeard and of 
 certain passages in the memoirs of the 
 Life and Times of Dr. Faustus. To this, 
 altho the modern agencies of Bow St. 
 runners and one-pound notes ar intro- 
 duced, the wonderful and woful end of 
 the hero, which, in its horrible retrib- 
 utiv justice, has a touch of the gro- 
 tesque, not a little, indeed, contributes." 
 [London Review. 1486 
 
 LOVE ME LITTLE, LOVE ME 
 LONG [by C: Reade: Harper, 1859.] 
 "is exquisitly simple in conception, 
 and the narration is mostly full of ease 
 and grace, altho the unfolding of the 
 plot is less direct than mit hav been ex- 
 pected from an author who professes so 
 deep a regard for the dramatic order of 
 development . . . The whole work is 
 as spritly and agreeable a love-story 
 as any onglish writer has produced, — 
 always amusing, often flashing with 
 genuin wit, sometimes inspiring in its 
 eloquent energy." [Atlantic] — "Da- 
 vid Dodd, beautiful, tender, simple, 
 rit-minded soul, chivalrous as Don Quix- 
 ote, guileless as a child, fine seaman, 
 impassioned lover. One's heart warms 
 to the man so broadly, simply, forcibly 
 drawn, who is no fool and no piece of 
 perfection, but one of the finest human 
 creatures who has ever set foot in a 
 book, and that is saying a good deal. 
 
 4G2 
 
 The fun in him, the unconscious poetry, 
 the benign mildness and charity, the 
 simple, unaffected courage and strength, 
 ar not to be surpassed — unless it is by 
 the utter unconsciousness of the man 
 that there is anything in him which is 
 admirable or unusual. Mr. Reade 
 makes hira gro into the maturity of 
 middle age before our eyes, melloing 
 the young seaman into the experienced 
 commander with a skill which com- 
 mands our hiest plaudits . . It is 
 not a hook which it is usual to distin- 
 guish as Mr. Reade's masterpiece ; but 
 of all the little library before us, it is 
 the one to which we turn with the warm- 
 est partiality. Thfire is so little in it 
 which we can wish out of it — so little 
 redundancy, so much originality, — 
 such truth and naturalness, such charm- 
 ing ease and undemonstrativ power. 
 It is not a great work like the ' Cloister 
 and the Hearth ' [No. G4G. ] . It is a little 
 idyl, a homely poem. Only one of the 
 2 most deeply concerned is even im- 
 passioned; th^re ar few sensational 
 events, — none, indeed, except the 
 voyage, but yet the story attracts us 
 like music. Lucy is like the ' melody 
 that's sweetly played in tunc' She is 
 not brilliant, splendid, commanding, 
 like Mr. Reade's first favorit. The 
 grand charm about her is that she is a 
 perfect lady — courtesy is almost her 
 passiou . . She is sweet to every- 
 body, taking every one's feelings into 
 consideration, smoothing matters every- 
 where, sparing no pains, excusing, pet- 
 ting, putting pretty glosses upon all 
 the doubtful proceedings of her relativs. 
 Thus she glides about the story in 
 maiden meditation fancy free, softly 
 eluding a lover at every corner, very 
 happy in her freedom and her youth, 
 and the affection of her friends. She 
 is so sweetly in tune among all the 
 
bhitish novels. 
 
 jars of the surrounding figures, that she 
 soothes the reader and the writer, as 
 well as the other personages in her little 
 drama. Th^re is something in the 
 idea of this soft, tender, passionless 
 feminin creature which has always had 
 a wonderful power. Passion is grander, 
 but it is, in its way, always a descent from 
 that pedestal on which chivalry has 
 placed the abstract woman — a creature 
 above passion, spotless as sno, almost 
 insensible, affectionate, serene, and 
 sweet, with none of the thrills and 
 throbs of feeling which belong to the 
 senses rather than to the heart." 
 [Blackwood's. 1487 
 
 LOVE, OR MARRIAGE? [By W : 
 Black: 3 vols., Tinshy, 1868.] "is 
 rather an original novel, and by no 
 means a dull or uninteresting one. The 
 tale is simple enuf , but well told, and in 
 .that lies its chief charm. There ar 2 
 heroins, Fanny Glencairn and Marie 
 Kirschenfeld, and 2 heroes to corre- 
 spoad, C : Bennett and Mr. Helstone. 
 The latter is an atheist, and a bitter 
 opponent oi the custom of marriage. 
 With the exception ,of these blemishes, 
 he has no particular faults. Charles 
 and Mr. Helstona contend for the love of 
 Fanny • Glencairn, who is a pretty but 
 hily independent young lady. Charles 
 has the best of ' the rivalry at first, but 
 the lady's independence of character in- 
 duces her to listen to Mr. Helstone's 
 theories of religion and marriage, and 
 she becomes captivated by his brilliant 
 ability, and ultimately coincides with his 
 opinions and theories. As a sequel, she 
 becomes Helstone's mistress, with the 
 tacit consent of her mother, who has 
 been also convinced by Mr. Helstone, 
 and leaves her father broken-hearted. 
 Charles nursed by Marie . . . soon 
 forgets his misery, falls in love with his 
 kind nurse, Marie, and marries her, and 
 
 the pair ar perfectly happy. Whether 
 the other couple ar equally blest, or 
 whether any or what punishment ulti- 
 mately descends upon them, we ar not 
 told by Mr. Black. This certainly 
 sounds a very strange kind of a story 
 to found a novel on, and one which 
 in most hands would make the book 
 unreadable. We must, however. In 
 fairness state that all coarseness of ex- 
 pression is avoided, and thothe facts we 
 hav mentioned ar not obscurely told, they 
 ar not forced upon the reader's notice." 
 [Athenaeum. 1488 
 
 LOVE STRONG AS DEATH, [by 
 Rose Burbowes : Remington, 1878.] 
 "The plot, tho simple is interesting, 
 the characters ar original, and the story 
 is full of tenderness and refinement. 
 The author, however, has too daringly 
 ventured on the improbable, in making 2 
 brothers so much alike that the woman 
 who loves one of them is for a, series 
 of weeks deceived by the resemblance. 
 The title is well justified by the con- 
 tents of the book, and a very pretty 
 little tale of wooing and winning is 
 told. The account given of the gradual 
 refining, taming and awakening to love 
 of a young hoyden is decidedly attrac- 
 tiv. As a contrast, the villain of the 
 story is a. little too atrocious for thij 
 civilized and conventional age and coun- 
 try. Usually women hav little sense 
 of humor, but this writer is an exception, 
 and if the reader is here and thfire 
 moved to melancholy, he is many times 
 excited to lafter." [Athenaeum. 1489 
 
 LOVEL THE WIDOWER, [by W: 
 M.Thackeray.] " It seems as if much 
 mit be said, and without any unseernly 
 strain, of such stories as ' Vanity Fair ' 
 [No. 998] and ' Lovel the Widower.' 
 They ar certainly lamentable pictures of 
 human nature. If Life wer only that, 
 it would be hardly worth living. Ex- 
 
 4G3 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 actljr, an;l tliore the' satirist begins. 
 ' See what it may be ; what it often is. 
 Be warned; be simple, lionest, pure.' 
 That is the moral of such books and of 
 such pictures. They do inlirectly, in- 
 versely, what others do directly and 
 positivly. But certainly the artist may 
 choose whether he will warn you or win 
 you. For a long time it seemed to be 
 thot essential that the hero of every 
 novel should be brave and handsom, 
 rich and strong, and picturesque ; and 
 that the heroin should be beautiful and 
 graceful. That fashion has gone by. 
 Major Dobbin is very tall and very 
 gawky ; but what a. man he is compared 
 with Pelham, or Vivian Grey, or Ivan- 
 hoe ! — who' ar not men at all, but 
 school-girls' puppets. The point of de- 
 parture of Thackeray, and all tlie real- 
 ists in Art, is dependence upon nature." 
 [G: W: Curtis. 1862. 1490 
 
 LOVER OR FRIEND? [by Rosa 
 NoucHETTE Cakey : Bentley, 1890.] 
 " concerns a noble fello broken in health 
 by wounds received in the struggle which 
 won for him the Victoria Cross, who 
 hides a love which mit hav been re- 
 turned, until such time aa he can un- 
 dertake the responsibilities of marriage, 
 only to discover, when he is in a position 
 to make his declaration, that he has been 
 forestalled by a younger and more im- 
 petuous rival. There is also a sub- 
 story, the central figure in which is a 
 fascinating but vaguely unsatisfactory 
 wido introduced to us as Mrs. Blake, 
 who turns out to be in reality the wife 
 of a living huslDand named O'Brien, who 
 for the crime of forgery has been sen- 
 tenced to a long imprisonment, and 
 whose involuntary intrusion upon the 
 woman who has made herself dead to 
 him comes, of course, at the most in- 
 opportune moment. [Compare plot of 
 ' Tale of a Lonely Parish.'] The two 
 
 stories ar, however, so skilfully wedded 
 that they ar practically one, for Mrs. 
 Blake, or O'Brien, is the mother of 
 the handsom, loyal-hearted Cyril, who, 
 by winning the love of Audrey Ross, has 
 unwittingly robbed the strong and tender 
 Michael Burnett of a hope which, faint 
 as it is, has been for years his most 
 cherished possession." [Spectator. liOl 
 LOVERS' CREED (The), [by F,. 
 S.. (J.) Hoet: Chatto, 1884.] "Here 
 there is no lack of incident cunningly 
 fitted, all captious objections being fore- 
 seen and provided against . . Ma- 
 vis Wynn is a heroin with just enuf 
 strength of character, and the Bassets, 
 father and son, ar attractiv, manly 
 figures. Add to these merits the pleas- 
 ant bits of french domestic life, and 
 a style which is familiar without 
 vulgarity." [Nation.] — The cause, 
 duration, and ending of this estrange- 
 ment must not here be told ; the reader 
 will find it well worth his while to take 
 the whole story, as its author chooses to 
 tell it, with its fluctuating interest, its 
 rather humdrum style, its bits of Latin, 
 and its quiet simplicity and tenderness. 
 Capt. John's betrothed is a charming 
 character." [Athenaeum. 1492 
 
 LOVING AND SERVING [by 
 "Holme Lee," 1. e., Harriet Parr: 
 Smith, 1884.] " is a pleasant stor^ in 
 which the heroin meets just enuf un- 
 happiness to hiten the happiness with 
 which she is ultimately rewarded. ThSre 
 is a succession of pictures of comfort- 
 able home-life passed in an atmosfere of 
 goodness ; the incidents ar not exciting, 
 hut they ar always pleasing." [Athe- 
 naeum. 1493 
 LOYS, LORD BERESFORD (etc.). 
 [by Ma. ( ) Akgles Hcnoerpord : 
 Smith, 1883.] (" These) 17 short tales 
 ar harmless, spirited little love-stories ; 
 some pretty, and even a little touching ; 
 
 404 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 some absurdly farcical, — witness ' The 
 Dilemma' and the one in which Snooks, 
 at the suggestion of a friend, proposes to 
 4 sisters at the same ball, to help him 
 out of the scrape in which his first thot- 
 less proposal has involved him ; but all 
 deal with exceedingly pretty girls, and 
 handsome felloes with handles to their 
 names ; and everything happens in 
 beautiful summer, and all comes delit- 
 fully rit in the end, tho not always with 
 sufficiently poetical justice . . . The 
 slitness of the tales will be indicated, 
 when we say that ' Lydia,' for example, 
 is a brief account of how Lord Fenton 
 begs Lydia not to cultivate the acquain- 
 tance of a certain gentleman ; how Lydia 
 indignantly refuses to grant his request, 
 and does so in offensiv language ; and 
 how, after a few days of misery, they 
 fall into each other's arms. ' Krin,' 
 again, merely narrates how Corinna 
 Crofton got locked in a ruin with Lord 
 Eowden, [compare plot of ' Quits '] 
 and came home as the future Lady Row- 
 den, which appeased mamma's displeas- 
 ure for the frit her prolonged absence 
 had given her." [Spectator. 1494: 
 
 LUCKY YOUNG WOMAN (A), [by 
 F. C. Philips : Ward ^ Downey, 1886.] 
 " We can besto unstinted praise on the 
 unflagging spirit and genuin humor with 
 which Mr. Philips tells his story. Sir 
 Hugo Conyers, a sort of aristocratic 
 Pecksniff, is an exceedingly clever 
 sketch, while Marcia, the ' lucky young 
 woman,' is an excellent specimen of 
 a hi-spirited and straitforward girl, 
 whose indiscretions ar the result of her 
 confidence. The tone, while remarkably 
 unreserved, is n3ver unwholesom. The 
 author's fllosofy, if earthy, is distinctly 
 optimist." [Athenaeum. 1495 
 
 LUCY CARTER, [by T: C. Jdnior : 
 Sonnenschein, 1887.] " No one who 
 considers what ar the essentials of » 
 
 pleasant work of fiction will be dis- 
 posed to take Mr. Junior to task for his 
 minor defects of style, or for a certain 
 want of finish in the working out of 
 his ideas. The narrativ itself is natural 
 and straitforward, tho one of the inci- 
 dents with which it concludes mit well 
 hav been dispensed with . . . The 
 simplicity, directness, and quiet good 
 taste of the story ar conspicuous. The 
 heroin is admirably drawn, and her 
 actions ar inspired by delicacy and good 
 feeling throuout." [Athenaeum. 1496 
 LUCY CROFTON [by Margaeet 
 Oliphant (Wilson) Oliphant : Hurst, 
 1859.] "is a sequel to a former one- 
 volume story by the same author ; but it 
 stands intact and intelligible in itself. 
 It is a piece of home-painting, very 
 nicely touched. The interest is quiet, 
 but it is sustained, and made up of the 
 simplest material. A happy marriage 
 overshadoed to the wife by the one great 
 sorro of her life, the loss of her only 
 child in its first infancy, — the husband, 
 kind, loving, indolent, a rich country 
 gentleman, whose very ' ease ' chokes 
 up his talents, rendering them unfruitful 
 — an orfan relativ whom thSy adopt, 
 and whose self-possessed reticence and 
 perfect ability to take care of her in- 
 terests, ar the chief personages of the 
 book. Lucy Crofton's serene deport- 
 ment, and skilful manoeuvring to obtain 
 her ends, and always to be in the rit to 
 give no shado of handle against herself, 
 is cleverly done. The faint struggla 
 betwixt herself and her Ant, who, whilst 
 vaguely feeling that all is not rit in her 
 extremely sensible and well-deported 
 young companion, is also conscious that 
 she is no match for her, the aggravat- 
 ing obtuseness of the husband, and his 
 perverse commendation of Lucy on all 
 occasions as 'an excellent girl,' — is all 
 shon with a quiet humor which prevents 
 
 465 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 the Story from seeming slo ; and when, 
 at the very last, Lucy throes off the 
 mask, amply justifying her iint's dislike 
 of her, the realer feels pleased, tho even 
 the stickler for poetic justice will, we 
 fear, hav been so far biased by Lucy's 
 cleverness and prudent management of 
 her affairs, that even he will be rather 
 glad that she carries her point at last, 
 and wins everything she had set her 
 heart on attaining. The secret of this 
 very slit and simple story giving pleasure 
 is, that the persons ar painted not in black 
 and white, but in flesh color, as human 
 nature should be. There is no affected 
 or exaggerated sentiment in the story, — 
 it all rings true ; the inner hidden life of 
 the wife, and the sorro of her bereaved 
 motherhood, into which her husband, 
 kind and good as he is, cannot enter, is 
 touched with a skill and delicacy which 
 attests its truth, whilst it keeps clear of 
 becoming wearisom or morbid." [Athe- 
 naeum.] — "It is another of Mrs. Oli- 
 phant's clever little stories, always satis- 
 factory, always interesting, always com- 
 pletely different from anything she has 
 written before." [In the case of " L. C." 
 this is not strange, as the book was pub. 
 in 1859. — W: M. G.] [Critic. 1497 
 LUNA, [by M. C. Helmore : Smith, 
 1873.] "Miss Helmore's little story is 
 slit enuf , but it attains the modest aim 
 proposed. It is the tale of some per- 
 sonages in fashionable life, redeemed 
 from insipidity, or worse, by the influ- 
 ence of pure and passionate affection. 
 Diane or 'Luna' is a charming heroin, 
 tho capable of silly freaks, and devoid 
 of any sound training which mit hav 
 prevented the dilemma in which she 
 finds herself placed. Lancelot, a lazy 
 dandy, more harmless than most of his 
 kind, is elevated by being surprised into 
 agenuiu passion . . . For the home- 
 life we hav nothing but praise, and 
 
 Minnie and lier Irish cousin ar admirably 
 suited to their friend. The soldiers, too, 
 ar good in their excellent tho heavy way, 
 and deserv their success with a dainty 
 group of damsels." [Athenaeum. 1498 
 MABEL'S PROGRESS. [by F.. 
 Eleanor (Ternan) Trollope : Chap- 
 man, 1867.] " In orderthatthe hero and 
 heroin may come to an understanding be- 
 fore the end, the fair Mabel, the triumfant 
 young actress, who has refused Clement 
 Charlewood's proffered love when he 
 was rich and she was poor, is compelled 
 to make something very little short of a 
 point-blank offer to him when their 
 positions ar reversed . . . There is 
 not much plot, but the narrativ is in- 
 teresting and eventful, and the char- 
 acters ar well designed and carefully 
 finished, and the tone and language ar 
 pure and good throuout. ' Aunt Mar- 
 garet's Trouble,' tho well written and full 
 of character, was somewhat deficient in 
 life anl movement. Thfire is no such 
 deficiency here. The difference between 
 the former and the present work may be 
 in some part likened to that which exists 
 between a secluded village and a busy 
 metropolis, or between a solitary and 
 plodding student and an accomplished 
 man of letters. The humor of the dia- 
 log, and the epigrammatic remarks oc- 
 casionally thron in by the author, form 
 an agreeable seasoning, and the ground- 
 work of the story is natural and sensible, 
 while at the same time it deals too much 
 with the ups and downs of life to be 
 open to the charge of tameness. Among 
 the most amusing scenes ar the oc- 
 casional tilts between Miss Fluke — • 
 a strong-minded and ultra-evangelical 
 young lady, — and Penelope Charle- 
 wood, equally strong-minded, but not 
 addicted to the distribution of tracts. 
 Some of Penelope's retorts ar excel- 
 lent; but her humorous sallies ar 
 
 4CG 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 scarcely more provocatiy of lifter than 
 her stolid antagonists' utter inability to 
 tind'erstand them." [Athenseum. 1499 
 
 MACDERMOTS OF BALLYCLO- 
 RAN (The) [by Anthony Tkollope : 
 1847.] "was in some respects a bet- 
 ter book than some of its successors. 
 Treating of Irish life and character with 
 plenty of humor and vivacity, but in a 
 more earnest spirit than Lever's works, 
 then at the hit of their popularity, it set 
 forth very cleverly the social and po- 
 litical evils which the author wished 
 to guide english opinion in helping to 
 cure . . . But apart from its preach- 
 ings, ' The Maedermots ' was cleverly 
 constructed and britly written." [Athe- 
 naeum. 1500 
 
 MADAME [by Ma. Oliphant (Wil- 
 son) Oliphant : Harjper, 1885.] "is 
 sllter than we hav had of late from Mrs. 
 Oliphant, but it is a beautiful treatment 
 of a subject by no means common, — the 
 devotion of a dauter to the father's 
 second wife, who has been grossly 
 wronged by him in a momentary fit of 
 impatience." [Nation. 1501 
 
 MADAME FONTENOY [by Ma. 
 Roberts: J. ^ C. Mozley, 1865.] "is 
 a quiet, and pleasing story of domestic 
 life . . . Madame Fontenoy — strict, 
 stately and sedate, of simple habits and 
 austere manners — is sketched with some 
 skill; while Helena, her granddauter 
 and adopted heiress, reared under the 
 shado of her ancient relativ — a shado 
 as real and distinct on her mind as that 
 of the cathedral on the house in which 
 she lived — and who finds, at the death 
 of her protectress, that she is completely 
 isolated in the world, and has not a 
 single recollection, aspiration, or thot in 
 unison with the rest of her family, — is 
 so drawn as effectivly to interest the 
 reader. Other characters — • Helena's 
 mildly sarcastic papa; Annette, her 
 
 busy unimaginativ sister; Roger, the 
 young vicar, whose mind is totally 
 absorbed In the manifold and apparently 
 almost incongruoas duties of a country 
 parson; and Robert Leicester, who is 
 the first to understand and appreciate 
 the stranger in the family — ar agree- 
 ably and truthfully outlined, if not very 
 grafically defined. The solution of the 
 story, by which reconciliation is effected, 
 confidence restored, and all difficulties 
 cleared away, is at once ingenious, 
 simple, and satisfactory." [London 
 Review. 1502 
 
 MADAME LEROUX [by F.. Eleanor 
 (Ternan) Trollope : 1890.] "is clever 
 and well-written. The conception and 
 presentation of the numerous characters 
 ar throuout admirable, and the only 
 structural defect of the story is what in 
 a picture we should call want of com- 
 position. There is no sufficiently strik- 
 ing centre of narrativ interest, for tho 
 Madame Leroux is the strongest, most 
 original, and most interesting of the 
 author's characters, her place in the 
 narrativ is subordinate to that occupied 
 by her dauter Lucy, who is the real 
 heroin . . . The opening chapters, 
 which deal with life at Enderby Court 
 and in the village of Westfield, ar 
 especially attractiv; and not less so ar 
 those devoted to the bohemian circle of 
 Mr. Hawkins, and to the relations exist- 
 ing between Mr. Tudway Didear, the 
 dentist and the 'young ladies' whom 
 he employs as secretaries." [ Spec- 
 tator. 1503 
 MADAME SILVA'S SECRET [by 
 E.. EiLOART : Hurst, 1869.] " is a 
 very pleasant, readable novel, with a 
 gentle interest which will neither fatigue 
 nor unpleasantly excite the reader 
 . . . Madame Silva herself is the 
 charm of the hook. How a poor, broken- 
 down, timid and foolish woman can be 
 467 
 
BRITISH NOVIiLS. 
 
 made to enlist so much sympathy as we 
 feel for Madame Silva testifies to the 
 skill and delicacy with which the charac- 
 ter is drawn. Madame Silva is a gentle- 
 woman, and that fact is kept in vue 
 throu all her weakness and poverty, and 
 if the truth must be told, all her tiresome 
 foolishness ; hut the refinement of her 
 nature is so inherent and true to the life 
 that the reader feels as much affection 
 for her as ' Mrs. Captain ' or the terrible 
 Mrs. Hitchcock, who both make them- 
 selves her gardian angels. The glimps 
 given of Madame Silva's life in the old 
 days is touching." [Athenaeum. 1504 
 MADCAP VIOLET [by W: Black: 
 Harper, 1877] " is certainly a readable 
 novel, and indeed it deservs much more 
 than this faint praise, for it is in many 
 ways one of the best, if not the very 
 best, of this writer's stories. It oes its 
 great merit, for the most part, to the 
 capital way in which the heroin is not 
 described, but brot before the reader 
 with all her fascination and those quali- 
 ties which in combination with unfortu- 
 nate circumstances bring the book to a 
 gloomy end. We see her first at school, 
 the leader in every kind of mischief, 
 and Mr. Black takes considerable pains 
 to impress upon his readers, by the 
 prominence he givs to her escapades, 
 what a curious compound the girl ia of 
 wilfulness, impulsivness, and affection, 
 while at the same time it is made clear 
 that her education has done nothing in 
 the way of remedying her faults. She 
 is ill-treated at home by her step-mother, 
 and spoiled by her father ; at school she 
 knoes no authority, and is very conscious 
 of her freedom from responsibility; and 
 the other influences of her life, her 
 relations to George Miller and to the 
 Drummond family, ar not of a sort 
 certainly to repair the harm that has 
 been done. In writing at this date about 
 
 the novel, it may he fairly taken for 
 granted that every one has read it, and 
 there is no need of referring vaguely to 
 the complications of the plot from dread 
 of disclosing it to those who do not yet 
 kno the story. Assuming this, it is fair 
 to say that all those things which wer 
 intended in part to prepare us for an 
 inevitable mornful end hav more cer- 
 tainly the effect of making us fond of 
 the heroin." [Atlantic. 1505 
 
 MADE OR MARRED [by Jessie 
 FoTHEKGiLL : (f, 1891; Bentley, 1882.] 
 "is a pleasant, quiet tale, containing 
 nothing exciting or striking, very slit 
 and unpretentious, not aiming at depth 
 of plot, close study of character, or 
 great effect in any way, but carefully 
 finished, and good as far as it goes. 
 The title is explained by the story turn- 
 ing upon a disappointment in love, 
 whereby the hero imagined his happiness 
 to hav been marred, but by which it 
 eventually proved to hav been made.'' 
 [Spectator.] See No. 1646. 1506 
 
 MADELON LEMOINE [by Alicia 
 A. (Adams) Lapfan : Lippincoti, 1879.] 
 " Not since ' Margaret Chetwynd' [No. 
 1523] and ' Through a Needle's Eye ' 
 [No. 1849] hav we read so thoroly good 
 and enjoyable a novel of its kind as this. 
 Madelon is a lovely woman, with an 
 unknon history, who settles in a town on 
 the west coast of England, and becomes 
 by turns a source of blessing, a mark 
 for gossip, an object of love, and a, 
 victim of trial, until in the end she wins 
 the reward of her goodness and sweet- 
 ness. Around her stand the representa- 
 tiv figures in an english picture, con- 
 ventional it is true, but drawn with much 
 power and lifclikeness . . . Seldom 
 is it that a novel which covers so much 
 ground as this introduces so little which 
 is disagreeable in person or incident. 
 Yet the moral contrasts ar strong, and 
 
 468 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 the finest lessons of self-abnegation, of 
 heroism, of repentance, of patient con- 
 tinuance in Trell-doing, of maidenly 
 purity anj manly courage, in a word, of 
 duty, ar taut in impressiv forms . . . 
 and at other points the author has com- 
 mand of a pathos to which we har been 
 compelled to surrender." [Boston 
 " Literary World." 1507 
 
 MADONNA MARY, [by Ma. Oli- 
 PHANT (Wilson) OlipsaNt ; Hurst, 
 1866.] "The principal charms of the 
 work ar the subtle humor, fineness of 
 touch, and seeming ease with which 
 Mrs. Oliphant delineates and contrasts 
 her numerous characters . . . Nor is 
 the author less successful in her pict- 
 ure of the domestic circle to which 
 Madonna Mary returns on the death of 
 her husband, bringing with her the 3 
 boys, whose education becomes hence- 
 forth the chief care. Nothing but true 
 poetic insit could bar enabled Mrs. 
 Oliphant to bring her readers, face to 
 face with the unselfishness and womanly 
 purity of ant Agatha, in whose heart, 
 deeper than the strorig love which she 
 bears to all her kith and kin, there 
 burns, inextinguishable for years, al- 
 most unrecognized by herself, a sacred 
 lamp of maidenly affection for one 
 whose wife she mit hav been had he 
 been as simple, brave and strong as she. 
 Very pathetic — all the more so becaus 
 the circumstances of the case ar not 
 wanting in something which borders 
 closely on the ludicrous — is the joy of 
 this old spinster on learning after her 
 lover's death that throuout his long career 
 of selfish dilettantism he had cherished a 
 sentimental tenderness for the woman to 
 whose devotion he had responded with 
 neglect." [Athenaeum. 1508 
 
 MAID ELLICE. [by " Thbo. Gift," 
 i. e., Dora Henrietta (Havers) Boul- 
 ger: Eolt, 1878.] "The heroin is a 
 
 charming creation, and one mit go far 
 without finding a pleasanter and more 
 real picture of english country life. 
 The quiet home, the eccentric and 
 strong-hearted squire, the manly Oxford 
 lad, the morbid discontent of the sister 
 combine into a perfectly natural group, 
 and the story is told with great power. 
 It portrays simple and strong characters 
 which may be enjoyed apart from the 
 dark plot which finally involvs it, and 
 out of whose shado it at length emerges 
 more admirable." [Nation. 1509 
 
 MAIDEN ALL FORLORN (etc.). 
 [by Ma. ( ) (Argles) Hukgekpord : 
 Ward, 1885.] " Tho 'A Maiden All 
 Forlorn ' is only the first of a number of 
 stories, it contains as much romance and 
 incident as many novels of the full 
 regulation length. It mit claim to be 
 considered as a novel condensed, and the 
 same remark would apply to at least one 
 other story in the present collection. 
 All of them ar lit and brit. ThSy ar, at 
 the same time, harmless enuf, full of 
 comical situations, and fraut with com- 
 fort and encouragement for pretty young 
 women not yet engaged to wealthy young 
 men. The ease with which the forlorn 
 maiden, for instance, slips into a great 
 fortune which has a very endurable en- 
 cumbrance attached to it is a little more 
 than remarkable. But it is safe to say 
 that the reader who once begins to take 
 an interest in Ronny and Cecil Rivers 
 will not care much whether the story of 
 their good fortune is probable or not. 
 They deserv to be happy ; and very im- 
 probable things ar wont to take place 
 for such as deserv happiness." [Athe- 
 na!um. 1510 
 
 MAIDEN FAIR (A) etc. [by C: 
 Gibbon : Maxwell, 1886.] " The princi- 
 pal story is laid in Scotland, and it need 
 not be said that the fair maid of New- 
 haven and her sailor lover ar admirably 
 
 469 
 
HRITISII NOVELS. 
 
 protrayed. The character of Bell Car- 
 gill — strange mixture of ruf ness and 
 tenderness — and the pathetic end to 
 which disappointment in the ' sumpish ' 
 son she has toiled for directly leads, ar 
 the most original bits of the story, tho 
 all the characters ar natural and locally 
 true." [AthensEum. 1511 
 
 MAJOR AND MINOR, [by W: E: 
 NoRRis: Bentley, 1888.} " The history 
 of Brian Seagrave's love for Beatrice 
 Huntley is certainly not new in its main 
 features. One can hardly think of a 
 novelist who has not tried his hand at 
 least once on a similar situation ; but it 
 always remains pleasing to read of a 
 young fello, who is in everyway worthy 
 and hi-minded, loving hopelessly above 
 his- station, and finally being loved in 
 return, and perhaps suitably rewarded. 
 There is a sense of consolation for the 
 young men readers in such a tale. And 
 the young ladies, who, we ar told, now 
 form the chief audience for novelists, 
 will always, one fancies, be partial to 
 such a history ; especially if it turns out 
 as charming as Brian's affair." [Na- 
 tion.] — " The action is divided between 
 Brian's struggles and Gilbert's Nemesis. 
 Miss Huntley, the beautiful heiress who 
 constitutes herself the instrument of his 
 punishment, is a wonderfully clever 
 creation, perhaps one of Mr. Norris' 
 greatest triumfs in brilliant and subtle 
 portraiture . . . But apart from this, 
 our enjoyment is unalloyed, for ' Major 
 and Minor ' is a thoroly brit story, rich 
 in lifelike character and pleasant hu- 
 mor." [Spectator. 1512 
 
 MAJOR LAWRENCE [by Emily 
 Lawless: Jloli, 1887.] "is a novel of 
 the kind one lays down with the praise, 
 ' a very pretty story.' Thfire is nothing 
 new in it, the plot being the old one of a 
 staid bachelor falling in love at last with 
 the girl he had knun as a child, and 
 
 marrying her in her widohood after her 
 first luckless marriage with a youth of 
 her on age. All of this we hav had 
 many times before ; but there is a good 
 deal of grace and spirit in the telling of 
 it this time, and the book is extremely 
 readable." [Critic] — " It shoes the 
 hand of an fexpert in novel-writing. Its 
 well-defined form, its clear and ingenious 
 characterizations, its expressiv and elas- 
 tic language, make it hily readable. It 
 will find many pleased readers of its flo- 
 ing style, its brit epigram, its agreeable 
 incident and charming conversation." 
 [Nation. 1513 
 
 MALCOLM. [by Geoege Mac- 
 Donald: Lippincott, 1874.] "To say 
 that a, story is written by George Mac- 
 Donald implies that it is inspired by the 
 power of a peculiarly rich and delicate 
 imagination, a true and beautiful ideal- 
 ism, a pure and noble filosofy of life, 
 and, last but not least, a deep, far- 
 reaching si)iritual insit . . . The story 
 has more of a plot than some of the 
 author's works, but its interest depends 
 much less upon that than upon the por- 
 trayal and development of character, the 
 exquisit and poetical descriptions, and 
 the beautiful thflts with which it is pro- 
 fusely enriched. The little town of 
 Portlossie, with its Seaton or sea-town; 
 the old castle and church, with the few 
 thatched cottages clustering about them; 
 the sandy beach, with its rocky cliffs 
 and grass-covered downs ; ar so vividly 
 painted, as to become to us real places 
 which we have seen and knon." [Cana- 
 dian Monthly. See notice of sequel, No. 
 828. 1514 
 
 MANSFIELD PARK, [by J.. Aus- 
 ten : 1818.] "Miss Austen is so good 
 at her best that we the more regret the 
 inferiority of Mansfield Park, Sense and 
 Sensibility, Northanger Abbey, and Per- 
 suasion. It is only justice, however, to 
 70 
 
UUITISU NOVKL8. 
 
 estimate an author by his strength rather 
 than by his weakness, and to value him 
 or her according to the worth of the 
 best which is given us. Miss Austen's 
 imagination was neither rich nor wide- 
 ranging; her mind was practical rather 
 than poetic, her intelligence shrewd and 
 activ rather than fine or subtle. Her 
 personal experience of men and man- 
 ners was narro, and she wisely contented 
 herself with portraying the characteris- 
 tics of the quiet middle-class she moved 
 in." [Boston "Literary World."] — "It 
 is none the less an exceptional case to 
 find a lady under 40 who has read Mans- 
 field Park or The Absentee ; and with 
 those who hav, it has been more a mat- 
 ter of duty than inclination — a tribute 
 of respect to the taste and judgment of 
 elderly friends, or a sort of compromise 
 with thOir conscience, by the reflexion 
 that they are perusing works of sterling 
 merit instead of what they ungratefully 
 call the ' trash ' of circulating libraries." 
 [Lippincott's. 1515 
 
 MARCH IN THE RANKS (A) 
 [by Jessie Fothergill : (f, 1891) IIoU, 
 1889.] "is such a healthy novel that it 
 is a pleasure to read it. It deals with 
 the struggles and successes of a family 
 of clever young people who hav to 
 make their way — a situation which al- 
 ways enlists one's sympathy. Godfrey 
 Noble is a strong character. In his de- 
 cided individuality, which is far from 
 eccentricity, and by his bearing in the 
 various trying situations in which he is 
 placed, he givs an impression of posi- 
 tiv manliness. In the midst of the 
 morbid sensationalism of to-day, it is 
 pleasant to encounter a courageous, sim- 
 ple nature like tliis. In the cliaracter 
 of Hilla, the author strikes a. subtle 
 bio at Woman's Kits. She shoes how 
 an intellectual woman can rise by her 
 exertions to a hi and responsible posi- 
 
 tion, and yet that these very exertions 
 so undermine her strength that she be- 
 comes unfitted for her work and is al- 
 most forced to accept the more protected 
 and dependent position of a wife. It 
 may be said that it is not Hilda's work 
 alone which weakens her, but every 
 woman has a soul history, and even our 
 intellectual sisters would not wish to be 
 exempt. On finishing the book one 
 does not cast it asile as one does most 
 novels, but keeps it to lend or re-read." 
 [Critic. 1516 
 
 MAKCHCROFT MANOR [by C. A. 
 Roberts: Remington, 1882.] "is a 
 pretty love story, in which a double 
 thread of interest is well sustained, and 
 the heart's history of 4 exceptionally 
 nice and fortunate young people is told 
 with freshness and simplicity. Olive 
 and Ella Maloney ar the dauters of an 
 eminent fysician, who allows them to 
 spend a good deal of their time with 
 their ant, the wife of a country rector. 
 Here they ar seen by the young squire 
 and liis friend Osborne. The girls ar 
 a delitful pair, fine in nature and charac- 
 ter ; and whilst their lovers ar in every 
 way worthy of them, the course of thfiir 
 love is interrupted by more than one 
 misunderstanding, caused by somewhat 
 exaggerated scruples and points of honor. 
 In the end, however, all comes rit, and 
 the reader is allowed to put down the 
 book in good humor with everybody." 
 [Athenaeum. 1517 
 
 MARCIA. [by W: E: Nobbis : 
 Murray, 1891.] "When a young lady 
 meets a man whose fortune and social 
 standing ar such as to command the 
 approval of her family, whose character 
 is good, whose personal appearance is 
 not unpleasing, and who seems to be 
 as much attached to her as it is within 
 the range of masculin capacity to be at- 
 tached to anjbody, parents and gardians 
 
 471 
 
BUITISH NOVELS. 
 
 in general ar of opinion that slie would 
 be extremely unwise to refuse him . . . 
 Marcia givs a description, from girl- 
 hood to middle age, of the career of a 
 woman who acts on the above mentioned 
 principle, with the discouraging results 
 that incompatibility of taste and char- 
 acter leads speedily to estrangement be- 
 tween her and her husband . . . Eus- 
 tace is conscientious, sincere, and capa- 
 ble of true love in his stern, cold fashion, 
 but is unsympathetic, rigid, formal, 
 and outwardly unemotional ; Marcia is 
 vain, frivolous, pleasure-loving, and too 
 purely egostistical to be really fond 
 of any one but herself ... Of tlie 
 two, he is unquestionably the least to 
 blame, but in fiction, as in life, a person 
 so devoid of sympathy as he is dfjes not 
 easily excite it in others, and therefore, 
 whilst pitying him sincerely, and indig- 
 nant at his wife's abominable behavior 
 lo him, one cannot help thinking that 
 perhaps, after all, her conduct was not 
 altogether to be wondered at. Tlie 
 book strikes us as one of the cleverest 
 which Mr. Norris has produced, tho, 
 until toards the end, hardly the most 
 agreeable. The study of everyday 
 people which it contains is so good as 
 to be rendered painful during the first 
 volumes by its very excellence ; for the 
 men and women ar so like life that they 
 bring home to one the pettinesses and 
 unworthinesses of human nature with 
 disagreeable force . . . Fortunately, 
 however, the third volume makes amends, 
 and enables us to leave off with a plea, 
 sant taste in the mouth, by introduc- 
 ing a sort of fresh hero in the shape 
 of Marcia's son, a charming young fel- 
 lo who, with his sweetheart. Lady 
 Evelyn, servs to reconcile us once 
 more to our common humanity, and 
 whose love-making by land and sea, at 
 golf and yachting, is told delitfuUy, and 
 
 rouses a keen interest and sympathy." 
 [Spectator. 1518 
 
 MARGARET AND HER BRIDES- 
 MAIDS, [by A.. (Caldwell) Maesh- 
 Caldwell : Ilurst, 1856.] "We may 
 save ourselvs the trouble of giving any 
 lengthened revue of this work, for we 
 recommend all who ar in search of a 
 fascinating novel to read it. They will 
 find it well worth their while. There is 
 a freshness and an originality about it 
 quite charming, and there is a certain 
 nobleness in the treatment both of sen- 
 timent and incident wliich is not often 
 found. The morality is not enforced by 
 sententious preaching, but by the skilful 
 management and careful working out of 
 the story. We imagin that few could 
 read it without deriving some comfort or 
 profit from the quiet good sense and un- 
 obtrusiv words of counsel with which 
 it abounds. The story is very interest- 
 ing ; it is the history of 4 schoolfellos. 
 Margaret, the heroin, is, of course, a 
 woman in the hiest state of perfection, 
 and so falls rather too smoothly, and 
 with too little imlividuality, to lay much 
 hold on our sympathy ; but Lotte — the 
 little wilful, wild, brave, fascinating 
 Lotte — is the gem of the book, and, as 
 far as our experience goes, she is an 
 original character, — a creation, and a 
 very charming one ." [Athenaeum.] — "It 
 is a novel of domestic life, in which the 
 plot, apparently simple, is yet artistic 
 and skilfully managed. The thread of 
 life of the bridesmaids is held with that 
 of the bride, the development of char- 
 acter, distinctly marked in each, pro- 
 gresses throu a series of natural events. 
 . . The book is charming. Its moral 
 is unexceptionable, its characters well 
 drawn, its plot and incidents simple 
 and natural, and its interest sustained 
 from beginning to end." [Continental 
 Monthly. 1519 
 
 472 
 
aiRITISIt NOVELS. 
 
 MARGARET CHETWYXD [by 
 Susan Morlev: Lippincott, 1878.] 
 "as a source of pure, wholcsom, and 
 unalloyed enjoyment, surpasses any of 
 the others. It is a story of large pro- 
 portions and careful workmanship, 
 marred by no extravagances of style, 
 nor monstrosities of character, nor im- 
 probabilities of incident, nor vulgarities 
 of wickedness; but full of agreeable 
 people, and engrossed with an interesting 
 family history, which takes the reader 
 into the very intellectual, social, and 
 spiritual interior of the mother country, 
 presenting at almost every point a picture 
 which it is a pleasure to look upon. 
 Thfire is an indescribable air of good 
 breeding about the book, wliich sets it 
 apart by itself from the great mass of its 
 kind, and tho th^re may be places in it 
 which ar weak as compared with tlie 
 general fabric, it is as a whole singularly 
 well designed, woven and colored; a 
 work in which any cultivated taste must 
 find great satisfaction." [Boston ' ' Liter- 
 ary World." 1530 
 
 MARGARET JERMINE [by "Fatr 
 Madoc"; Macmillan, 1886.] "is the 
 work of one who knoes more of women 
 and children tlian of men. A peculiar 
 father is responsible for the peculiar 
 infancy, education, and subsequent for- 
 tunes of Fayr Madoc's heroin. In de- 
 spair at the loss of his wife, he rushes 
 from the worship of love to an opposit 
 extreme, in whicli he discovers, declares, 
 and would fain propagate a filosofy 
 which should exclude love, and there- 
 with suffering, from the human race. 
 lie is mad enuf to try the experiment in 
 sober earnest on liis only child. Her 
 desolate, wayward childhood is pathetic, 
 and pretty, too, in a way [Compare plot 
 of No. 366] . Mrs. Minimy and her dau- 
 ter ar charming. The mother is a genial 
 ' prattler among men,' a rather worldly, 
 
 but amiable and naive old lady." 
 [Athenaeum. 1531 
 
 MARGARET MAITLAND. See 
 MERKLAND. 
 
 MARGARET MALIPHANT. [by 
 Alice ( ) Carr : 1889.] "The 
 
 subject of this story is liow an anxious 
 sister schemed and labored to make 
 two beautiful young people think they 
 wer in love with each other, out of the 
 purest and most generous motivs in the 
 world — • a motif not unlike that in 
 ' Emma,' but managed, we need scarcely 
 say, in a very different way : tho it is 
 hard upon Miss Margaret, after her in- 
 nocent but silly scheming, to hav her 
 lover carried away by the beautiful sis- 
 ter, whose happiness she was so anxious 
 to secure, tho not in that way. This 
 sister, however, in her beauty and rea- 
 sonableness, is charmingly drawn, and 
 so is the mother, and the ways of the 
 homely but refined yeoman's house.'' 
 [Blackwood's. 1533 
 
 MARGERY TRAVERS. [by A. E. 
 N. Bewicke: nurst, 1878.] "The 
 heroin is perhaps a little too reckless to 
 be so successful a schemer, and the 
 pretty. Italian girl, who is the most 
 injured of many victims in the novel, is 
 a little too much idealised. We cordially 
 like the american heiress, Lottie Spluck, 
 and ar grateful to Miss Bewicke for 
 letting her recover from the threatened 
 consumption, which, for so fritfuUy 
 overworked an expedient in fiction, is 
 admirably used, and with novel effect; 
 and we ar glad that the virtuous hero, 
 after having been cruelly jilted by 
 Margery, marries the kindly, sweet- 
 natured, original little yankee girl. The 
 vicious hero is good enuf for Margery, 
 and tho he is penitent, and also married, 
 at the end of the third volume, we hav 
 no doubt that they plague each other a 
 good deal, in that untraveled country to 
 
 473 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 which people in novels retire after the 
 honeymoon." [Spectator. 1523 
 
 MARION FAY. [by Anthony 
 Tkollope: Harper, 1882.] "Mr. 
 TroUope has here written a long story, 
 and used for it materials which hardly 
 hav the recommendation of novelty. 
 Th^re is a marquis of Kingsbury, who 
 has much trouble with his family, and 
 especially with his second wife ; there 
 is his son, Lord Hampstead, who falls 
 hopelessly in love with Marion Fay, a 
 poor quaker girl ; and his dauter. Lady 
 Frances, who engages herself to a post- 
 oflSee clerk, Mr. G: Roden. The quaker 
 girl dies, leaving Lord Hampstead in- 
 consolable, while George Roden turns 
 out to be an Italian nobleman, and 
 Lady Frances makes him !i-appy . . . 
 There is some lo comedy introduced 
 throu the medium of the adventures of 
 a vulgar young woman named Clara 
 Demijohn and a pair of rivals for her 
 hand. There is a great deal of love, 
 but very little incident . . . The best 
 drawn character is that of Mr. Sam 
 Crocker, whose vulgar vanity, self- 
 assertion, curiosity, good humor, and 
 untruthfulness make altogether quite <<, 
 perfect modern cad." [Nation. 1534 
 
 MARJOKIE BRUCE'S LOVERS. 
 See MR. LESLIE. 
 
 MARJORY [by " Milly Deane," 
 i. e., — ( ) Erskine : Macmillan, 
 1872.] "is a most unambitious tale of 
 the sufferings of a charming young girl, 
 who falls in love with a young man, and 
 who then is tortured by the famil- 
 iar passion — jealousy. More serious 
 troubles, too, befall her, anl the result 
 is that we hav a very good story. It is 
 told with the utmost simplicity, and we 
 hardly kno any novel that we should 
 so soon recommend as a model . . . 
 But any one who reads this story will 
 see for himself its apparent simplicity 
 
 (it really contains a great deal of art) 
 and will feel the direct singleness of im- 
 pression which it makes upon him. The 
 supernatural part is admirably managed ; 
 the quiet tone of all the rest makes 
 this seem possible and very impressiv. 
 There is in some books a way of making 
 even ghosts almost as awkward and un- 
 natural as the shadoy heroes and heroins 
 of the story. The girl's feelings ar well 
 told, quietly and decorously, as she suf- 
 fered; it reads as would a true story toll 
 by a good narrator, who was wise enuf 
 to kno what to leave out. There is no 
 rule for the writing of good stories, tho 
 there ar certain conditions which the 
 author must bear in mind if he wishes to 
 do satisfactory work. But in such mat- 
 ters example is better than precept, and 
 once more we recommend ' Marjory ' to 
 writers as well as to readers who would 
 like a pretty tale." [Nation. 1526 
 
 , SAME [by F.. E„ Georgina 
 
 (Baynes) Brock: Longman, 1880. 
 " The author has tried to present stud- 
 ies of life in an english cathedral town, 
 mainly among the middle class. The 
 method is desoriptiv rather than ana- 
 lytical, and the characters ar at times 
 vague and shadoy. But the author has 
 considerable skill in sketching natural 
 scenery, as may be seen from the de- 
 scription of a hot day with which the story 
 opens. The heroin is an old-fashioned 
 girl." [Boston " Lit. World." 1527 
 MARK RUTHERFORD'S DE- 
 LIVERANCE, [by W. Hale Smith: 
 Trahner, 1885.] "No reader of the 
 ' Autobiografy of Mark Rutherford ' 
 can hav forgotten the last words of the 
 editor : ' I can only hope that it may be 
 my good fortune to find the materials 
 which will present him in a somewhat 
 different lit to that in which he appears 
 now.' So strong U the abiding sense 
 that the life was an actual one that we 
 
 474 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 open the sequel, ' Mark Rutherford's 
 Deliverance,' with the involuntary ex- 
 clamation — ' The hope has been re- 
 alized ! ' But we ar no better able than 
 before to settle the question whether the 
 book is a purely iraaginativ creation, or 
 a fearlessly candid and exact self-por- 
 traiture. The writer has not lost one 
 bit of his skill, whether it comes from 
 an elaborate training or is a gift of in- 
 spiration. The brief story is resumed 
 at the point wh^re Mark finds a slender 
 occupation as correspondent for a coun- 
 try paper. The one fortunate chance 
 of his life throes in his way again the 
 lady to whom he was early engaged, and 
 from his marriage to her come the few 
 happy hours of his life. ' If a man 
 wants to know what the potency of 
 love is, he must be a menial; he must 
 be despised . . I cannot write poetry, 
 but if I could, no theme would tempt me 
 like that of love .to such a person as I 
 was — not love, as I say again, to the 
 hero, but love to the Helot.' He, had 
 called liimself commonplace, truly enuf, 
 so far as education, opportunities, cir- 
 cumstances go ; but the impulse of 
 honesty, the clear-sitedness, and the 
 fidelity to awakened conscience which 
 nervd him to close against himself the 
 one narro opening offered him to the 
 world's comforts, ar above common- 
 place. Call it motiv, fibre of nature, 
 or grace from above — ■ whatever one 
 may — the same superiority of nature 
 which carried him out of the darkness of 
 his early Dissenting surroundings, sur- 
 vived in the hard, joyless round in which 
 the remainder of his life was spent. It 
 manifested itself in the effort of which 
 not one in a thousand of his class among 
 working people would hav been capa- 
 ble, to do good to the suffering souls 
 about him. His personal problem was 
 no longer how to escape from a false 
 
 position, from insincerity, but how to 
 keep for his soul some vision of the in- 
 visible, while toiling to utter weariness 
 for bare existence. Mark Rutherford 
 kept it by trying to bring some knoledge 
 of it to his fello-men. For this reason 
 the later part of the life will appeal to 
 the sympathy of a wider circle of readers 
 than the first. However much the 
 opinions of some of our sects may 
 resemble those of the english Dissenters 
 of 40 years ago, their homes and their 
 ways ar very remote from us. On the 
 otber hand, the poor — not the starving, 
 but the poor who hav only the narroest 
 bit of the day for living their on lives 
 when work is done — these offer the 
 most urgent problem of the moment. 
 Thfiir hearts Mark Rutherford knew, for 
 he was one of them. The history of his 
 efforts to reach and comfort those worse 
 off than himself ot to be closely and 
 humbly studied by all those who ar now 
 thinking about help for the working 
 classes." [Nation. 1528 
 
 MARRIAGE, [by M.. Ferriek : 
 1818.] "Miss Ferrier was not a Miss 
 Austen . — ■ she more closely resembles 
 Miss Edgeworth; but her amusing and 
 wholesom stories well deserv to be read 
 and remembered, and it is to be hoped 
 that this revival of them may meet with 
 the success it merits. The later editions 
 hav been poor in type and the text was 
 mutilated, so that Mr. Bentley should 
 receive the thanks of all lovers of fic- 
 tion for the favor he has conferred upon 
 them." [Athenaeum. 1529 
 
 MARRIED AT LAST. [N. Y., 1864.] 
 r= CROSS OF HONOR. 
 
 MARRIED BENEATH HIM [by 
 Ja. Payn : Macmillan, 1805.] " is a 
 thoroly lively ani diverting book, anil 
 sufficiently interesting to induce the 
 reader who begins it to go to the end ; 
 but th^re is not a character in it for 
 
 475 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 which anyone can care in the least, ani 
 it contains nothing calculated to dwell 
 in the memory, beyond some tolerably 
 humorous scenes and a rariety of jokes, 
 good, bad and indifferent. As for moral, 
 it has none, unless it be that a house- 
 maid may not prove a good wife for 
 a literary man ... Its plot defies 
 criticism by its absurdity, and most of 
 the characters ar carelessly and feebly 
 drawn. But th^re ar a few which ap- 
 pear to hav been sketched from life, 
 and their merits make up, to a certain 
 extent, for the defects of their com- 
 panions . . . The best characters ar 
 those of Mr. Jonathan Johnson,- editor 
 of the Paternoster Porcupine, and his 
 colleague, Mr. Percival Potts, a jour- 
 nalist greatly given to classical quota- 
 tions. These 2 literary gentlemen ar 
 very amusing companions, and we can 
 conscientiously state that their acquaint- 
 ance is well worth making." [London 
 Review. 1630 
 
 MARVEL, [by Ma. ( ) (Akgles) 
 HuNGEEFOKD : Ward ^ Downey, 1888.] 
 " The ingenious author of ' Molly Bawn' 
 is as readable and ridiculous as ever. 
 She has discarded the present tense, but 
 remains constant to her quotations and 
 'ingrammaticisms' . . The final 
 
 cause of life as conceived by the writer 
 is flirtation ; we never remember to hav 
 encountered a male character in any 
 of her books who seemed to hav any 
 serious occupation. The nearest ap- 
 proach to it in the present story is the 
 manufacture of bustles for dolls by Mr. 
 Kitts." [Athenaeum. 1531 
 
 MARY BARTON [by E.. Cleghokn 
 (Stevenson) Gaskell : Chapman, 
 1840.] " is a most striking book. It is 
 an appropriate and valuable contribution 
 to the literature of the age. It embodies 
 the dominant feeling of our times — a 
 feeling that the ignorance, destitution 
 
 anl vice which pervade and corrupt 
 society, must be got rid of. The ability 
 to point out how they ar to be got rid 
 of is not the characteristic of this age. 
 That will be the characteristic of the age 
 which is coming. Compare Mary Bar- 
 ton with the Evelinas, Cecilias and Be- 
 lindas [No. 1092] which superseded the 
 Romances of the Forest [No. 925], the 
 Children of the Abbey, and the Haunted 
 Towers of the age which preceded 
 theirs ! Mary Barton is no heiress, 
 nursed in the lap of luxury, without 
 knoing how it comes to her — refined, 
 generous, capricious, indolent — dying 
 first of ennui, then of love, and lastly 
 falling a prfiy to a fortune-hunter, or a 
 military swindler. Mary Barton is heiress 
 of the struggles, vicissitudes and suffer- 
 ings consequent upon the ignorance and 
 prejudices of the society into which she 
 is born.'' [Westminster Review. 1532 
 MARY MAKSTON. [by G: Mac 
 Donald: Low, 1881.] "William Mars- 
 ton, the father of the heroin, is a hi-prin- 
 cipled, religious, and honorable man, 
 who keeps a shop in partnership with a 
 man who is just the reverse, but whose 
 roguery he never finds out. Tho Mars- 
 ton is a Baptist deacon, we ar not 
 troubled with his peculiar ideas, as what 
 is made prominent about the man is 
 his intensely conscientious and sincere 
 practice of that morality and religion 
 which ar — or ot to be — common to all 
 denominations. We do not see much 
 of him, as he dies before the end of the 
 first volume ; but the impress of his life 
 remains permanently stamped upon his 
 dauter, who, tho never bier in the social 
 scale than a shop woman, and becoming 
 at one time a lady's-maid, is yet ever a 
 lady in heart and feeling, because ever 
 simple, true to herself, unselfish, and 
 free from any shade of mauvaise honte, 
 in whatever circumstances she may 
 
 47C 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 be placed . . . The book contains 
 many carefully drawn characters. 
 Thc're is Hesper, the well-born young 
 lady, who is sold by her parents to the 
 rich, elderly, Ticious Mr. Redmain. 
 Hesper loathes the bargain from the 
 bottom of her heart, but has not stam- 
 ina enuf to resist the pressure put upon 
 her ; and there is a striking and pathetic 
 chapter describing, first, the intervue 
 with her mother, when the latter informs 
 her of the hateful marriage which she 
 is expected to make, and subsequently 
 Hesper's turning in despair to her cousin 
 Sepia, as the only human being who 
 may, she thinks, love her. Sepia, how- 
 ever, is one of those altogether evil and 
 heartless women who may justify the 
 common belief that when a woman is 
 bad she is worse than any man ever 
 is ; and so it is, of course, worse than 
 useless to look for counsel or help 
 from her . . . Another very interesting 
 character is that of Letty, the ignorant, 
 impulsiv, well-meaning, affectionate 
 girl, living with a hard, unloving, old 
 ant, and a grave, kindly, very superior 
 cousin Godfrey, who wishes to educate 
 her to his on level. Letty believes in 
 and looks up to hira with her whole soul, 
 but aw anl reverence alone do not 
 satisfy the girl's nature ; she wearies 
 almost unconsciously of the seriousness 
 and sternness of her surroundings, and 
 yearns instinctivly after something liter, 
 briter, more demonstrativ and playful. 
 This she finds in the homage of the 
 ardent, gay, superficially clever Tom 
 Ilelmer, whom she marries, and whose 
 affections stray sadly far from his poor 
 wife." [Spectator. 1533 
 
 MARY ST. JOHN [by Rosa 
 NoucHETTE Carey: Bentley, 1882.] 
 "is a simple little story told with un- 
 provoking simplicity. Miss Carey shoes 
 a pleasing power of delineating the liter 
 
 traits of character, and refrains from 
 trying to depict any very strong passion. 
 Her most able study is that of a beau- 
 tiful woman, with a natural taste for 
 refinement and luxury, married to a 
 poor curate in the Bast-end, always 
 revolting against her life, and yet sus- 
 tained in it by her deep love for her 
 husband. The heroin, if not a common- 
 place character, is, at all events, one 
 well knon to every novel-reader; and 
 the young men ar equally drawn after a 
 recognized model." [Athen. 1533a 
 MASTER OF HIS FATE. [by 
 Amelia Edith (Huddleston) Bakr : 
 Dodd, 1888.] "Again Mrs. Barr has a 
 Yorkshire story ; its few characters a 
 rich, shrewd mill-oner, h;s handsom 
 son, his sister-in-law, Edith Bradley, and 
 Perkins the lawyer. These 5 ar abso- 
 lutely all who hav much part in the tale 
 except old Samuel Yorke, but thOy fill 
 the foreground in fine, strong portrait- 
 ure, and ar vital beings. Amos has 
 elected that his only son shall be a mill 
 oner; the son prefers to be a lawyer; 
 neither will yield after having said the 
 word, and Jo leaves his home forever in 
 consequence ; the ant also departs ; Jo 
 tries in vain to earn money by his pro- 
 fession, falls in love with Edith, the 
 heiress of Luke Bradley, who was 
 a deadly fo to Amos, and marries her. 
 The position of husband to Mrs. Braith- 
 waite becomes galling, made especially 
 bitter becaus she still leavs the manage- 
 ment of the estate in the hands of 
 Perkins, instead of transferring it to her 
 husband. Jo comes to a manly resolu- 
 tion, apprentices himself for two years 
 to Samuel Yorke, his father's old friend 
 in Manchester, and learns cotton spinning, 
 confident that at the expiration of that 
 time he will hav gained his self-respect 
 and that of his wife. Jo and Edith, 
 Amos and Aunt Martha, all being made 
 
 477 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 of sterling stuff, with practical sense, 
 hearts warm at the core, and principle, 
 the result Is easily foretold. It is a 
 sound, sweet book, so captivating that 
 the reader will not hiy it down till the 
 last page is reached ; full of humor, de- 
 litfully set forth in the person of Amos, 
 who is ii, most original being^; and full 
 of sunshine from the genial and lovable 
 Jo." [Boston " Lit. World." 1534 
 
 MATRIMONY [by W: E: Nokkis : 
 Smith, 1881.] " has almost all the 
 qualities which make a good novel — 
 that is, a good man's novel . . . 
 We congratulate Mr. Norris on the 
 constant variety and vivacity of his 
 scenes and events, and on the truth and 
 humor of his drawings of character. 
 The book is wonderfully rich in types. 
 Even the young heroes hav an individu- 
 ality which is rare. The first hero is 
 Claud Gervis, a young fello of excellent 
 parts, who has been reared in the course 
 of ■-■ wandering youtli by a father who 
 rarely says a kind thing, and never does 
 an ungenerous act. He has the sense 
 to appreciate and like this bitter old 
 diplomatist, who is a fine gentleman 
 first, and in the second place, a, human 
 being who has been soured by a mis- 
 fortune which would hav injured any 
 temper." [Saturday Review.] — "The 
 story is interesting, tho not thrilling; 
 but the charm of the book lies in its 
 bits of talk and of characterization. It 
 has been called cynical ; but there ar 
 two kinds of cynicism ; that which tries 
 to make things not actually ridiculous 
 appear so, and that which simply enjoys 
 the ridiculousness of things which ar 
 ridiculous." [Critic. 1535 
 
 MATTER-OF-FACT GIRL [by 
 ". Theo. Gift," i. e., Dora Henrietta 
 (Havers) Boulger : Tinsley, 1881.] 
 ' is an honest-hearted little maid, tied 
 by force of circumstances to a tyranni- 
 
 cal old Ant and a coarse and not too 
 devoted sweetheart in her father's rank 
 of life, that of u, peasant farmer. 
 "Berrie's' loyalty to her home, and es- 
 pecially to her father, keeps her true 
 for a long time to this unequal engage- 
 ment, in spite of the half-acknoledged 
 influence of an admirer of a different 
 calibre, who has unwittingly opened her 
 eyes to the existence of a contrast she had 
 not hitherto suspected." [Athen. 1536 
 
 MAY [by Ma. Oliphant (Wilson) 
 Oliphant : //«rrf, 1873.] "is one of the 
 best novels of theyear." [Ath.] — "May 
 herself is essentially f eminin and natural, 
 loveable and tender, but planned on a 
 nobler scale than is usually assigned to 
 the marriageable young ladies of novels. 
 
 . . Here we have a woman still young 
 and beautiful and fresh, but with a fine 
 matured dignity and common sense which 
 enrich the etory with possibilities of ac- 
 tion denied to callo innocence." [Satur- 
 day Review. 1537 
 
 MAYOR OF CASTERB RIDGE 
 (The) ['oy T: Hakdy: Holt, 1886.] 
 " will be welcomed becaus of its intro- 
 duction to a fresh company of those 
 english rustics who, if not real, ar as 
 good as real, in Mr. Hardy's stories. It 
 is, besides, a strong, vivid story, which 
 makes one ask if th^re is any english 
 novelist who combines in better measure 
 the qualities of a great story-teller than 
 Mr. Hardy." [Atlantic. 1538 
 
 MEADOWLEIGH [by M.. A.. Man- 
 ning : Bentley, 1864.] "is a tale with 
 a mild, pleasant interest, refined and 
 gentle, as refreshing as a breath of coun- 
 try air . . The materials of the tale ar 
 slit enuf ; Miss Clairvaux, a benevolent 
 elderly gentlewoman, whose originality 
 borders on eccentricity, takes, from 
 motivs of kindness, a young girl to be 
 her companion, — the dauter of an ar- 
 tist, who has died, and left his family 
 
 478 
 
BUTTISH NOVELS. 
 
 in reduced circumstances. Miss Clair- 
 vaux is a charming person, drawn with 
 a delicate and firm touch ; with all her 
 peculiarities of temper and manner, she 
 is a genuin english lady, about whom it 
 is pleasant to read. Eleanor Graydon, 
 her protegee, is a very nice young 
 woman, who enjoys living with Miss 
 Clairvaux; and well she may, for their 
 life at Three Parks is a tempting picture 
 of elegant thrift and rural comfort. 
 ' Meadowleigh' is a good picture of a 
 retired, quiet, and rather dull english 
 village, and the style of society is well 
 described." [Athenaeum. 1530 
 
 MEADOWSWEET COMEDY (The) 
 [by T: A. PiNKERTON : Vizetelly, 1886.] 
 "is a short and hily readable novel, 
 smart without being flippant, and tren- 
 chant without being cynical. Mr. 
 Pinkerton has a good eye for portraiture 
 and a fair insit into character. He seems 
 to hav a considerable knoledge of the 
 world and of books, and can use it witli- 
 out affectation The description 
 
 of comfortable upper middle-class so- 
 ciety with which the story deals is ex- 
 cellent." [AthenEBum. ' 154:0 
 
 MERE CHILD (A) [by LuctBethia 
 (Colquhoun). Walford ; Blackett, 
 1888.] "is a capital specimen of its 
 author's agreeable style. It is rcfresh- 
 ling to read a story in which there is no 
 bad character and no pretension to any 
 other aim than those of pleasing the 
 reader. The characters ar sketched 
 with artistic decision, and the setting of 
 the story, both in the Highlands and in 
 London, is excellent." [Athenaeum.] — 
 " There ar few writers more successful 
 than Mrs. Walford. If her limits ar 
 natural, she is an instance of the ad- 
 vantage of restriction ; had her experi- 
 ence or her imagination been wider, she 
 mit hav done different work : she coul 1 
 not hav done what she has done^ better. 
 
 nor so well. A Mere Child is one of 
 the pleasantcst of her stories. It does 
 not come near ' The Baby's Grand- 
 mother,' [No. 1074] for either origi- 
 nality of conception or nicety of finish ; 
 but wild little Jerry of Inchmarew, with 
 her boy's love of out-door life, and her 
 great lady's sense of the grandeur of her 
 position, makes an amusing, life-like, and 
 very pretty picture. Nor could any- 
 thing be truer than the figure of Mrs. 
 Campbell ; we must hav knon Jerry, and 
 this was precisely the grandmother she 
 had. We ar sorry to admit that BcUen- 
 den, too, was fact. Why so charming a 
 girl should be wasted on so selfish, 
 commonplace, and wholly inferior a 
 man, is a melancholy mystery. It is a 
 mystery which confronts us in all Mrs. 
 Walford's books. She draws us very 
 winning portraits of women : her men — 
 or at least her young men — are uni- 
 formly of a lo type in character and 
 manners." [Church Review. 1541 
 
 MERKLAND. [by Ma. Oliphant 
 (Wilson) Oliphant: Colburn, 1851.] 
 " The Athenaeum was one of the first to 
 recognize in Mistress Margaret Maitland 
 an old-world quaintness and gentle pathos 
 truly welcom in days like these. It 
 should seem as if in her second venture 
 tlie author of tliat story liad tried to add 
 to tliose gifts the excitements of won- 
 der and strong interest, — and in some 
 measure she has succeeded. The efforts 
 of Anne Ross to clear the fame of her 
 brother cannot be watched without as 
 much trust as curiosity ; — the trust 
 naturally engendered by her steadfast 
 determination, — the curiosity adroitly 
 kept alive by the far-scattered traces 
 which serv as her clue and taper throu 
 the maze and throu the ' mirk mid- 
 nTt.'" [Athenaeum. 1542 
 
 META'S faith [by E.. (Tabor) 
 Stephenson: Ilurst, 1869.] "the a 
 
 479 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 sober and tranquil tale, deficient in ac- 
 tion and notably devoid of stirring inci- 
 dents, creates strong interest by the 
 naturalness and force of several of its 
 delineations of character, and by the 
 cleverness witli which it inculcates cer- 
 tain wholesom lessons respecting the 
 affections and moral life of men and 
 women in the middle and later terms of 
 existence . . On these and other kin- 
 dred points the lads and lasses differ 
 from tlie author of ' Meta's Faith,' who 
 insists that a middle-aged widoer, or an 
 outwardly austere old maid, is as capable 
 of romantic affecticm as any boy and 
 girl now for the first time plunging into 
 love's sweet madness. In a manner 
 which will win the ■ approval, and in 
 some cases the gratitude of mature 
 novel-readers, this doctrin is very deli- 
 cately and cogently urged by the scribe 
 who displays her sex in sucli passages as 
 the one in whicli slie remarlcs : ' Life at 
 Percy Cottage, as is generally the case 
 whdre a household consists of a very 
 moderately gifted woman, was a ratber 
 worretting process. A family witliout 
 the masculin element is something like 
 an egg witliout salt, or a dish of trifle 
 without tlie concealed ring which im- 
 parts such wonderful flavor and piquancy 
 to the rest of the compound. Women 
 wer never intended to cluster in close 
 boros, paying their taxes, looking after 
 their rits, slipping along tiirou the world 
 without tliat whole^om, disciplinary fric- 
 tion which the presence of tlie sterner 
 sex is so well calculated to produce. 
 Even if a man can do nothing else in a 
 house, he seldom fails to giv the women 
 about him abundant opportunities for 
 self-denial, and so brings out the noblest 
 part of their nature.' In tlie same ven 
 of humor the author observs — ' But a 
 man does more in a general way than 
 keep the women about him from having 
 
 time to think too much of themselvs. 
 Tho undeniably productiv of an untold 
 amount of trouble in the shape of hot 
 dinners and carefully prepared sauces, 
 and various other little gastronomical 
 dainties for which he has a natural ap- 
 petency; and tho when, having seen him 
 safely off to his oflSce or warehouse after 
 a good breakfast, his wife is conscious 
 of a bounding sense of independence 
 until such time as he comes home again 
 to dine ; still a man, if he is worthy the 
 name, and not just a mere machine for 
 bread-gathering and rent-paying, does 
 bring with him a clear, invigorating, 
 health-promoting air into the house. 
 He supplies the needful oxygen without 
 which the lit of liome-life is apt to burn 
 dim, and the atmosfere to become 
 stifling.' " [AtheniKum. 1543 
 
 MIDDLEMARCri [by ■' George Eli- 
 ot," i.e., M,.A.. (Evans) Cross: Black- 
 wood, 1872.] is "the one novel which 
 alone will make its mark on the age, the 
 one book which will outliv all its fellos, 
 the book from which future generations 
 will learn not only our outward lives, 
 our daily doings, but our inmost thots 
 and aspirations. As to its supreme liter- 
 ary merits, there can be but one opinion. 
 Upon this point critics ar unanimous. 
 Style has never reached such perfection 
 of art. Humor of so rare a quality has 
 not been given to the world since the 
 days of Shakespeare.'' [AVestminster 
 Keview.] — "This discrepancy between 
 fact and comment excepted, the figure of 
 Dorothea is nobly conceived and exquisit- 
 ly finished. She commands the reader's 
 admiration in spite of her illusions, 
 altho it can hardly be said that she wins 
 his love. Her victory over the shalloer 
 nature of Rosamond is complete in every 
 respect — and is altogether the most 
 powerful passage in the work. Doro- 
 thea's second marriage is also dwelt upon 
 
 480 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 as the unfortunate result of ' the mean- 
 ness of opportunity.' Having first mar- 
 ried a cold-blooiled pedant, ' old enuf to 
 be her father, in a little more than a 12- 
 month after his death she gave up her 
 estate to marry his cousin — young enuf 
 to be his son, with no property, and not 
 veil-born.' Will Ladislaw was a some- 
 what rash, capricious, and petulant 
 young reformer, but this second mar- 
 riage was one of mutual affection. 
 ' They wer bound to each other by a 
 love stronger than any impulses which 
 could have marred it.' Still the author 
 thinks that a love-match, happy as this 
 one admittedly was, was another mis- 
 take. Dorothea's life was necessarily a 
 life of emotion, and her affections wer 
 satisfied. But her great ideal was to 
 remain forever unfulfilled ; her person- 
 ality had been lost in her husband's, and 
 not remained for her but the activities 
 of domestic life." [Canadian. 1544 
 MIGNON". [by " Mrs. Forkester,'- 
 i. e.,— ( ) Bridges: ITurst, 1877.] 
 The author "has had the courage 
 to folio the maxim that the chief in- 
 terest of a woman's life is probably to 
 be found after her marriage. Anfl she 
 does it, too (and this is a still greater 
 difficulty), without going too far into 
 dangerous ground. Mignon is a beauti- 
 ful girl, with whom a man of middle- 
 age falls frantically in love, and whom 
 he marries, knoing well that she cares 
 nothing for liim. The story of their 
 after-life is well told, and Mignon is 
 well contrasted with another fascinating 
 creature, Kitty by name, who begins 
 with very mercenary professions indeed, 
 but ends by being much better than she 
 professes. The Nemesis which over- 
 takes at last the heartless Mignon is 
 finely described, and the justice which 
 brings a deservd punishment on Raymond 
 I'Estrange is not the wild imagination of 
 
 that name which has the epithet ' poet- 
 ical ' attached to it, but a genuin reality. 
 Genuin realities, too, ar the men, wliom 
 Mrs. Forrester draws with quite unusual 
 force. This is a good story well told." 
 [Spectator. 1545 
 
 MILDRED [by Georgian.*. Marion 
 (Craik) Mav: Harper, 18fi8.] " is a' 
 thoroly well-conceived, well-sustained, 
 and artistically developed story. The 
 characters hav meaning, consistency, 
 and genuin resemblance to possible 
 human beings throuout ; and the author 
 has shon not only fertility of invention, 
 but admirable self-restraint in the touch- 
 ing incident which forms the climax and 
 catastrofe." [Round Table.] — "It is 
 very pleasantly and unaffectedly written, 
 has a well-conceived heroin, and a hero 
 who, tho he may possibly hav prototypes 
 in nature, certainly has none in recent 
 fiction." [jSTation. . 1546 
 
 MILL ON THE FLOSS (The) [by 
 "G: Eliot," i. e., M.. A.. (Evans) 
 Cross: Harper, I860.] "is emfatically 
 a story of destiny. From first to last 
 there is a fate pursuing tlie heroin which 
 she cannot escape, and which casts its 
 baneful shado over every incident of 
 her life. With a warm and yearning 
 heart, an overfloing affection, a pas- 
 sionate desire to love and to be loved, 
 she is tormented even in childhood by 
 the constant feeling of her shortcom- 
 ings, and a too sensitiv conscience poi- 
 sons every spring of happiness in her 
 nature. Struggling as she advances to 
 maturity with the great mystery and 
 burden of existence, groping blindly in 
 her ignorance, searching for the patli cf 
 duty, but always in doubt, and distress, 
 and anxiety, suddenly the lit flashes 
 upon her . . . She develops into a 
 superb and beautiful womanhood, the 
 clouds of domestic misfortune and pov- 
 erty which hav so long hung over her 
 
 481 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 seem to break away, and if not a briter, 
 a more tranquil anil cheerful future 
 opens before her. But her evil angel 
 is still thSre, to inflict a. new form 
 of suffering — the most poignant which 
 a woman can kno — that of a deep, 
 absorbing, hopeless passion — a passion 
 which is returned, but which she cannot 
 indulge without ruin to the happiness of 
 those who ar nearest and dearest to her 
 heart, without requiting by the basest 
 ingratitude a more than sisterly affec- 
 tion. Every reader must hav observed 
 how in the last part of this novel the two 
 leading characters appear to be urged 
 forward in their disastrous course by a 
 power which is beyond thfiir control, and 
 against which the most strenuous reso- 
 lutions, the most fearful self-conflicts, 
 the most bitter tears — all the struggles 
 of pride, of friendship, of honorable 
 feeling, of womanly delicacy, and manly 
 shame — ar of no avail. Thfire is noth- 
 ing. finer in the whole range of fiction, 
 but the fatalism which underlies all 
 the author's writings is nowhere so 
 strikingly manifested. The world may 
 blame them, but we cannot; and the 
 unutterably mornf ul effect of the close 
 is not marred by a single misgiving 
 with regard to her who lies in Dorlcote 
 churchyard, lost in the final triumf of 
 love and self-sacrificing devotion, and 
 by whose grave we can stand and weep, 
 as that of one wliom we had ourselvs 
 knon and loved with the intensity of 
 years." [Lippincott's.] — "This very 
 elaboration, tardy and idle tho it may 
 seem, was necessary to the completion 
 of the author's plan, and ^ in our 
 eyes — instead of being a blemish upon 
 a fair story, is one of its principal 
 charms. On this account, the book 
 will be less popular, and fewer persons 
 will admire it wholly ; but, as thotful 
 readers draw near to the end of the 
 
 narrativ, and anxiously hasten on past 
 trial, temptation, and conflict, to the 
 dreaded and yet inevitable downfall, 
 muse mornfully over the agony and 
 remorse which folio, and sloly close the 
 volume upon tender forgivness and final 
 joy, they will be thankful for the far- 
 seeing genius which, by this gradual 
 process of education, enable them to 
 understand clearly the fateful scroll at 
 last unfolded to them, and which, if they 
 hav read in the true spirit, has made them 
 wiser and better." [Atlantic. 1547 
 
 MINE IS THINE [by Lawrence 
 W. M. LocKH.ART : Blackwood, 1878.] 
 "is a tale of the most amusing and 
 agreeable order, full of picturesque 
 situations and piquant events, brisk in 
 conversation, sustained in interest, 
 abounding in humor." [Atlantic] — 
 " As far as the plot and characters go, 
 we hav nothing but praise to giv it. 
 It is really delitful to read a story of 
 love-making between a gentleman and 
 lady in the good old fashion." [Athe- 
 naeum.] — "Who Cosmo Glencairn 
 really is, and how he eventually marries 
 Esme Douglas, we leav the reader the 
 pleasing task of finding out for himself, 
 tho we think the actual catastrofe is 
 somewhat hurried, and not very artisti- 
 cally br6t about. One merit Col. Lock- 
 hart possesses to a, remarkable degree 
 . . . He excels them all in the way in 
 which he presents to his readers, in 
 every position and under all circum- 
 stances, that rare plant of home groth, 
 so difficult to describe, so impossible to 
 analyse, but so easy to recognise, — an 
 english gentleman." [Spectator. 1548 
 
 MIRIAM'S MAKRIAGE. [by K.. S. 
 Macquoid : Smith. 1872.] "We may 
 congratulate the writer on having con- 
 structed, out of very ordinary materials, 
 an interesting narrativ, which evinces 
 insit into the various conflicting ele- 
 
 482 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 nieuts which go to make character . . . 
 Our sympathies ar so strongly enlisted 
 on her siJe as the story proceeds tliat 
 wc tremble when her happiness is im- 
 perilled by the appearance of a formid- 
 able rival, and we feel that we could 
 never forgiv the author if, at the end 
 of all her troubles, none of which result 
 from any fault of hers, Nancy should 
 not be rewarded by the full fruition of 
 the love which, passionate as it is, is 
 yet dwarfed by hers. We may assure 
 i-ntending readers that poetical justice is 
 Hieted out to every personage in whose 
 future any possible interest is likely to 
 be felt." [Atheneeum. 1549 
 
 MIRK ABBEY [by ,Ta. Payn : 18fi7.] 
 " is at once extravagant and feeble, im- 
 probable and commonplace ; the char- 
 acters ar vaguely conceived, and the 
 plot unskilfully carried out." [London 
 Review. 1550 
 
 MISADVENTURE, [by W : E: 
 NoRRis: Blackeit, 1890.] "Mr. Norris 
 has a manner of treatment peculiarly 
 his, so that it makes little difference to 
 his admirers what subject he takes in 
 hand, old or new, conventional or 
 original. Like a painter who clings to 
 the quiet and sober style which happens 
 to suit him best, and disdains to vie with 
 the vivid colorists whose pictures draw 
 the uninstructed crowd, he is best ap- 
 preciated by those whose taste he has 
 cultivated. In ' Misadventure' we hav 
 nothing fresher than a country girl with 
 a train of lovers — the despised sailor, 
 whose race for a wife is something like 
 the race of tlie tortoise against the hare ; 
 the free handed young man who is in- 
 volved in a fatal ' misadventure ' with 
 her brother, and who comes to a violent 
 end ; and the traveled oner of a nObor- 
 ing estate, who is mixed up with a 
 russian lady of a decidedly intriguing 
 bent, and who also comes to a violent 
 
 e-nd. These ar familiar types, and their 
 haps and mishaps ar equally familiar ; 
 but Mr. Norris plods on with his story 
 in an easy, unbroken, mildly cynical 
 fashion, and makes himself interesting 
 without visible effort." [Athen. 1551 
 MISS BRETHERTON [by M., A.. 
 (Arnold) Ward: Macmillan, 1884.] 
 "was sure of a kind of early popularity 
 based on the personal element, so to 
 speak, which the public would read into 
 it, whether the author intended it or no. 
 Miss Bretherton is' said to be Miss So- 
 and-so. The american man of letters is 
 such an one; the hero, another veritable 
 personage. The world of fashion will 
 thus be content ; but this first wave of 
 success will meanwhile hav carried the 
 book within reach of eyes which will see 
 the inadequacy of this surface comment, 
 and will appreciate its depth and its fine- 
 ness. Tho the heroin is an actress, it is 
 not in the least a story of the stage. 
 The motif underlying the plot and action 
 is the insufficiency of natural gifts, and 
 the mistake of the world's easy accept- 
 ance of them. True of ail the arts, it is 
 most true, most evident, in that of the 
 stage ; above all, if the actor be a wom- 
 an. In a few incidents so briefly told 
 as sometimes to be broken, we hav a 
 concrete presentation of the problem. 
 How shall an exceptional natural endow- 
 ment of fysical perfection, with no in- 
 heritance of cultivation from the past, 
 no accumulation of personal thi'it and 
 experience, reach the hits of artistic ex- 
 cellence? Will Undine find a soul? . . . 
 We hav to trace the steps of Miss, 
 Bretherton's development. Sometimes 
 thSy ar given rather by hints or in flashes 
 than in full detail, but the story affords 
 manifold suggestions as to training in 
 art, not for the stage only, but in any 
 perfected skill. The love of Eustace 
 Kendal for Isabel makes no part of her 
 483 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 artist life, tho he is most vitally con- 
 nected with it. To her, till the very 
 last, he is only a judge, an authority, an 
 embodied standard. In the relation be- 
 tween them Jlrs. Ward has attempted, 
 and, it seems to us, worked out with rare 
 and delicate insit, u. situation of great 
 difficulty. Blankly put, it is. How can a 
 man, with only himself and a moderate 
 fortune to offer, address a woman on 
 the hits of fame? Over and over, again 
 novelists hav evaded the question by 
 bringing the man to help or to rescue at 
 the moment of failure. In that guise 
 conies Kendal's first vision of his hith- 
 erto unsuspected love — a dying fame, a 
 forsaken and discrowned beauty, finding 
 in his affection a fresh glory and an all- 
 sufficient consolation. Her triumf leaves 
 him no hope. He watches her on the 
 nit of her reappearance, conscious that 
 the moment is so vital, so desperate, 
 that life on the other side will bear the 
 mark of it forever. When it is over, he 
 knoes that in the halo of her great success 
 she stands afar off from him, divided by 
 an impassable gulf from the love which 
 cries to her, unheard and hopeless, across 
 the darkness. Yet by chances of life so 
 simple, so inevitable, as to seem only 
 daily human experience, these two, so 
 wide apart, *ar brot to the common 
 ground where neither wealth nor fame 
 can separate, where only the heart's 
 need and the heart's love can ask and 
 giv." [Nation.] — "The main interest 
 lies in tho fact that it is all about Miss 
 Mary Anderson. Whether the picture 
 is true to life or mostly fanciful is a 
 question of no moment. In either case 
 it will satisfy those readers who like 
 prying into the private life of an actress, 
 while those who look for some touch of 
 art in fiction will be disappointed. Tho 
 the book is well written and is obviously 
 the work of a woman of much ability 
 
 and knoledge, it is not in any true sense 
 a novel ; it is merely a talk about Miss 
 Anderson and her friends." [Atlie- 
 najum. 1553 
 
 MISS DEFARGE. [by E.. [Eliza] 
 (Hodgson) Burnett : Lippincott, 1887.] 
 " The influence' of character in very 
 unpromising surroundings forms its 
 theme . . . Miss Defarge sets things 
 rit by single-minded intrepidity. She 
 comes as a governess in a house of 
 which the master is a wicked baronet, a 
 drunken, gambling scoundrel, tho fort- 
 unately for the most part an absentee, 
 the mistress cowed and helpless, the 
 eldest son a boor, the children savages, 
 and the servants thievs. The governess 
 conquers them all, except the wicked 
 baronet, who is conveniently shot at a 
 gaming table at Homburg. She givs 
 her eldest charge a very severe whip- 
 ping, she infuses some spirit into the 
 mother, makes the heir take the man- 
 agement of the estate, and even dares 
 to dismiss the ' wicked, slippery, good- 
 looking housekeeper.' However diffi- 
 cult these achievements seem, Mrs. 
 Burnett is well able to carry her reader 
 along with her, and the journey is all 
 the more pleasant for the company of 
 a charming goddess in shabby white 
 merino, unconscious of her beauty, in- 
 consequent, and idle, but unselfish and 
 kind-liearted almost to the point of 
 nobleness." [Athenaeum. 1553 
 
 SAME. [" A Woman's Will"], 
 
 Warne, 1887. 
 
 MISS EORRESTER. [by " Annie 
 Edwards:" Tinsley, 1865.] "The 
 tale of ' Miss Forrester ' is unhealthy ; 
 it has not the excuse of being a study of 
 morbid anatomy of human nature, for 
 the characters ar utterly unreal. Mrs. 
 Edwards is not true to herself nor to the 
 talents intrusted to her : in writing such 
 novels as ' Miss Forrester ' she is em- 
 484 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 ploying them to do mischief to the ut- 
 most of her power." [Athenaeum. 1554: 
 
 MISS GASCOIGNE [by C. Eliza 
 Cowan Riddkll: Appleton, 1884.?] 
 " is a beautifully told little story, artistic 
 in plot and in detail. The author ac- 
 complishes wliat really requires very 
 great skill : she puts her heroin in a 
 ridiculous position, and yet never lets her 
 appear ridiculous. This in itself is no 
 mean triumf ; and the whole story deals 
 with picturesque situations, never im- 
 probable, set in a frame wor]£ of delltful 
 humor and thijroly keen insTt into hu- 
 man nature. Miss Gascoigne is past the 
 youthful age supposed to be essential to 
 a heroin ; but she is not without adorers. 
 So neatly is it all managed, that your 
 imagination is constantly exercised as to 
 who will eventually carry the day — the 
 boy lover, the aristocratic suitor, or the 
 impertinent curate, who for some reason 
 or other you suspect may turn out to be 
 less impertinent than appears on tlie 
 surface; or whether, indeed, Miss Gas- 
 coigne may not decide to braid St. Cath- 
 erine's tresses. And even then the one 
 who triumfs is not the one you expected. 
 [Critic. 1555 
 
 MISS MACKENZIE, [by Anthony 
 Trollope : Harper, 1865.] "Miss 
 Mackenzie is a worthy gentlewoman, 
 who, coming at the age of 36 into a com- 
 fortable little fortune, retires to enjoy 
 it at a quiet watering-place, whfire in 
 course of time, she is beset by a brace 
 of mercenary suitors. After the laps 
 of a year she discovers that she holds 
 her property by a wrongful title, ' and 
 is compelled to transfer it to her cousin, 
 a widoed baronet, with several children, 
 who, however, gallantly repairs the in- 
 jury thus judicially inflicted, by making 
 her bis wife." [Nation. 155(5 
 
 MISS MARJORIBANKS [by Ma. 
 Oliphant (Wilson) Ouphant : Black- 
 
 wood, 186G.J " is perhaps the cleverest 
 of all of the extremely clever chronicles 
 of Carlingford, and is indeed a great 
 triumf . . . Th6re is more both of 
 satire and of sympathy in the admirable 
 figure of Miss Marjoribanks than in any 
 other which we remember by this author, 
 unless it be that of Mr. Tozer, tlie but- 
 terman. Th^re is something in the con- 
 ception of Lucilla Marjoribanks which 
 reminds us, — completely different as 
 the external world in which she moves 
 is, — of 'Emma' [No. 1246.] . . . The 
 picture of Lucilla and her father, and 
 the sort of society at Carlingford of 
 which she is the centre, is one of the 
 hiest skill. Indeed it is seldom enuf 
 that one reads throu 3 volumes about 
 mere social manoeuvres with such sus- 
 tained interest and continual food for 
 the sense of humor." [Spectator.] — 
 " Miss Marjoribanks is the dauter of 
 the dry, unromantic, hard-headed doctor 
 of Carlingford, who is left, early in the 
 story, a not inconsolable widoer. Mrs. 
 Marjoribanks having been for years a 
 somewhat tiresom invalid, her departure 
 from the scene is almost a relief to the 
 doctor; but Miss Marjoribanks, who is 
 sent home on the occasion from the 
 boarding-school at which she is being 
 educated, takes a very different vue of 
 her father's feelings. The first chapter 
 contains a most amusing account of her 
 return, her attempt to play the part of 
 the devoted dauter over which she 
 has so often wept as described in 
 novels of sentiment, and the utter frus- 
 tration of her plans due to the callous- 
 ness of the doctor, whose heart is not in 
 the least broken and whose feelings 
 refuse to be soothed by his dauter's en- 
 tirely unlooked for attempts at consola- 
 tion. Lucilla is obliged to postpone for 
 a time the realization of lier dreams, and 
 to go back to school for 3 years more ; 
 
 485 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 but at the end of that time she returns 
 to Carlingford full of ideas which ar 
 truly great, and bent on filling a really- 
 grand position. Having made up her 
 mind that her father must be dull and 
 lonely in his solitary house, and that it 
 is impossible his life can be a pleasant 
 one as long as he has no one to take care 
 of him, she resolvs to devote her ener- 
 gies, which she feels ar great, to the 
 task of being ' a comfort to her dear 
 papa.' Nor is this all. Besides taking 
 care of his interests, other occupations 
 await her. The state of society in Car- 
 lingford appears to her entirely unsatis- 
 factory, and she deterrains to reform it. 
 There is no one to take the lead in 
 social matters — no master mind to sway 
 less competent intellects, to guide them 
 into new directions of th6t, and to teach 
 them to form correct conclusions on 
 subjects to which they hav hitherto paid 
 little attention. All this she determins 
 to do herself, and the story shoes how 
 thoroly she succeeds in all she under- 
 takes '. . . The doctor, who has a keen 
 sense of humor, is greatly tickled by the 
 grand air with which his dauter occu- 
 pies her new position, and acquiesces 
 with an inward chuckle in her gravely 
 announced determination to be a com- 
 fort to liim," [London Review. 1557 
 MISS MISANTHROPE [by Justin 
 McCvktiiy: Chatto, 1877.] is "a 
 charming portrait of a girl whose story 
 brings her into an amusing and lively 
 company. Minola herself with her 
 premature and innocent cynicism, which 
 breaks down at the first touch of true 
 affection, is consistent and well sus- 
 tained throuout; and the men she 
 comes in contact with ar fairly real 
 specimens . . . Very good fun is made 
 of the heroin's third admirer, Mr. 
 Blauchet, the poet ... A fourth lover, 
 Mr. Sheppard, is a smug Philistine,- who 
 
 is totally antipathetic to her, but whose 
 prosaic persistency has its respectable 
 side. In the end the happiness of 
 Minola and Heron is secured by pretty, 
 trivial Lucy Money making a sacrifice 
 which all three ar generously emulous 
 of making. The denoument is perfectly 
 natural-and artistic, and a hopeful moral 
 is conveyed without preaching." [Athe- 
 najum. 1558 
 
 MISS MOLLY [by Beatrice Mai- 
 Butt : Blackwood, 187G.] " is a charm- 
 ing little tale, of a slit kind, but without 
 a flaw. We do not say that it proves 
 genius, or even very great talent in the 
 author. Thfire is no great breadth 
 of character-painting in it, for ' Miss 
 Molly ' is about the only person in it 
 whom, when the tale is done, we really 
 kno ; but then, there is no particular 
 reason why we should kno more. It is 
 in her that the whole charm of the story 
 centres, and one does not much expect 
 or desire to understand the other figures, 
 except so far as thdir relation to her is 
 concerned, and that is easily understood 
 without understanding the details of 
 their individual natures. Unfortunately, 
 we cannot, without spoiling this fasci- 
 nating little story, giv our readers any 
 adequate insit into the charms of Miss 
 Molly. If we gave them u, picture of 
 her before her troubles begin, they 
 would think too little of her ; and if 
 afterwards they would miss the real 
 beauty of the sketch, tiie mingled con- 
 trast and harmony between her gaiety 
 and the depth of her devotion." [Spec- 
 tator. 1559 
 
 MISS MONTEZAMBART [by M.. A. 
 (Iloi'pus) Marks: 1885.] " for readers 
 who ar sensitiv to the delicate, sleepy 
 charm of village life, will bo one of the 
 most successful of this autumn. Tlie 
 old Gloucestershire village, with its 
 simple pleasures of nature and scandal. 
 
 486 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 the quaint interior of the parson's house, 
 the parson himself, tlie general effect of 
 life being a more or less tranced sur- 
 vival of energies which rusted long 
 ago." [Boston " Lit. World." 1560 
 
 MISS OONA McQUARRIE, sequel 
 to ALFRED JIAOART, which see. 
 
 MISS SHAFTO. [by W: E: Nor- 
 Kis: BenUey, 1889.] "There is no 
 novelist of our time whose work exhibits 
 a greater equality of excellence than Mr. 
 Norris . . . AVe kno that in his books 
 we ar certain to find the results of keen 
 observation, shrewd reflection, and brit, 
 fresh humor, embodied in a story made 
 attractiv by thoroly capable literary 
 craftsmanship. Mr. Norris' work is 
 good all round, but it is as a humorist 
 that he shoes himself at his best, and in 
 ' Miss Shafto ' this special gift is dis- 
 played very pleasantly. The love-story 
 of the heroin and the aristocratic sculp- 
 tor. Lord Walter Sinclair, tho pleasantly 
 told, is not of absorbing interest : we 
 enjoy it mainly becaus it is the means 
 of introducing us to the entertaining 
 circle which is composed of the horsey, 
 hard-headed, but loyal-hearted young 
 nobleman. Lord Loddondale, the ineffa- 
 bly conceited aesthetic poet, Mr. Basil 
 Merely, who servs as a butt for the 
 caustic humor of that terrible but 
 charming old maid, Miss Nell Travers, 
 and Mrs. Lammergeier . . . The good 
 things of the two ladies would in them- 
 selves suffice to make ' Miss Shafto' a 
 very brit book; but there can be little 
 doubt that Lord Loddondale is Mr. Nor- 
 ris's crowning success." [Spectator.] — 
 " Mr. Norris writes of good society with 
 refinement and good taste, in a pleasing 
 style, and with a careful and yet easy 
 avoidance of any touch of what mit 
 offend the most sensitiv reader. But 
 whatever he does is done gracefully." 
 [Athenseum. 1561 
 
 MISS TOMMY [by Btkah Maria 
 (Mulock) Cuaik : Macmillan, 1884.] 
 " is a very simple, sweet, and tender 
 story of a queer old lady, whose full 
 name was Thomasina.'' [Boston "Liter- 
 ary World."] — " The tale is an exceed- 
 ingly simple one ; its unaffected narrativ 
 is undisturbed by any exciting passages, 
 and quietly unfolds a story within a 
 story — of two young lives whose pros- 
 perous love is interrupted by some tran- 
 sient adversities, and of two other and 
 older .lives which had drifted asunder 
 when life was young, and had come 
 together again when it was old, but was 
 still rich in the capacity of tranquil hap- 
 piness." [Harper's.] — " Tlie story con- 
 cerns itself mainly with the quiet loves 
 and sorroes and joys of two middle- 
 aged, indeed, rather elderly people, 
 rather than with the stormier youthful 
 passions which form the stock-in-trade 
 of the ordinary writer of fiction. So 
 far, indeed, from being a romance, 
 ' Miss Tommy ' is hardly even a novel ; 
 it is little more than an exquisitly 
 sympathetic study of a. single situa- 
 tion — the revelation of a love which for 
 j'ears has been a sacred secret, at a time 
 when the day of love's warm delit has 
 been left behind, and only its tranquil 
 joys remain." [Spectator. 1662 
 
 MISS WILLIAMSON'S DIVAGA- 
 TIONS [by A.. I.. (Thackeray) 
 Ritchie: Smith, 1881.] "in spite of 
 its unpleasing title, is a very interesting 
 volume of stories. The peculiar grace 
 which belongs to all Miss Thackeray's 
 writings is never better displayed than 
 in short stories. These ar slit enuf — 
 mere threads of fiction on which to string 
 tlie pretty pearls of Miss Thackeray's 
 sweet ideas and tender thots, and grace- 
 ful turns of frase, but they answer their 
 purpos well enuf. There is a story of 
 love . playing at cross purposes which 
 
 487 
 
BKITISII NOVELS. 
 
 ends happily enuf in a box at a tlieatre 
 wliere ' llomeo and Juliet ' is being 
 performed, affording a pretty contrast 
 between the fortunate love on tlie one 
 side of the footlits, and the unhappy 
 passion presented on the other. Then 
 tliere is a ghost story whieli, as far as 
 its supernatural element is concerned, 
 must be pronounced but poor enuf, and 
 there is of course a story about an old 
 French town, and a tale in which Miss 
 Williamson herself figures as heroin. 
 No one of the stories leaves much to be 
 carried away by the memory, nothing, 
 that is to say, beyond a pleasant recol- 
 lection of agreeable ideas and delicate 
 language." [Westminster Review. 1563 
 MR. BUTLER'S WARD, [by F.. 
 Mauel Robinson : Vizeielly, 1885.] 
 " After the heroin, the dauter of a mur- 
 dered bailif , having received her educa- 
 tion in a french convent, has half for- 
 gotten her tragic childhood, and married 
 an artist, she livs almost constantly in 
 England, and her life is that of the 
 typical happy matron, merging her 
 nationality and youthful prejudices in 
 complete devotion to her husband. This 
 marriage occurs very early in the book, 
 and Deirdre goes throu her most moving 
 experiences after she has become a wife. 
 Between the death of her father and the 
 birth of her baby the feelings which 
 possess her mind ar not very intense, or 
 at any rate they ar not described with 
 much intensity. But her story is, per- 
 haps, all the more natural on that ac- 
 count; and Miss Robinson has so far 
 succeeded in her aim as to produce a 
 conspicuously natural romance. A quite 
 unusual fidelity in reproducing the in- 
 terior life of young married people is the 
 distinguishing mark of the story, which, 
 without being a masterpiece, is both ar- 
 tistic and simple ... It may be recom- 
 mended as a charming book, poetically 
 
 conceived, and worked out with tender- 
 ness and insit." [.Uhena;um. 1564 
 
 MR. II.iRRISON-S CONFESSIONS 
 [with " Lizzie Leigh," by E., C. S. 
 Gaskell: Chapman, 1855.] "is a 
 genuin bit of comedy, from the same 
 mint as gave out ' Cranford.' The 
 steadiness with which the gay and clever 
 young fysician was beleaguered by the 
 old maids and widoes of the country 
 town in which he had pitched his tent, 
 is a thing to giv young bachelors in like 
 circumstances a shudder; — since f.w 
 among them may really be able to extri- 
 cate tUemselvs so felicitously as our 
 young man is made to do." [Ath. 1565 
 
 MR. LESLIE OF UNDERWOOD, 
 [by M.. Patrick : Smith, 1870.] " The 
 author of ' Marjorie Bruce's Lovers ' is 
 well enuf knon to the novel-reading 
 public to dispense with any introduction 
 beyond her name on the title-page, which 
 is a guarantee of a prettily conceived, 
 wcdl-arranged, femininly written ro- 
 mance. This is a story with 2 heroins 
 and a hero.'' [AthenaBum. 1560 
 
 MR. SMITH. [by Ldcy Betiiia 
 (^CoLQUHoux) Walford : I/olt, 1875.] 
 "A short, stout, gray man, miildle- 
 aged, a bachelor and rich, comes as a 
 stranger to settle near the village of 
 Eastwold. The vulgar genteel fam- 
 ilies of the place ar distracted between 
 the professional advantages and social 
 disadvantages of calling upon him, till 
 they discover, late in the day, that ' the 
 county ' knoes him. The beauty among 
 a set of flirting motherless sisters had 
 given such heart as she had to giv to u. 
 snob of a soldier, who kisses her at 
 home and denies her in the better 
 houses of the neborhood ; but for mar- 
 riage she schemes to catch the ricli, 
 middle-aged man, honored with the 
 friendship of eligible acquaintance. 
 Mr. Smith, thinking no guile, and 
 
 488 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 equally grateful to kind friends of all 
 sorts and conditions, falls in love with 
 the beautiful girl, but can hardly bring 
 himself to believe that the prize is for 
 him. He thinks no scandal nor will 
 listen to it. And then, suddenly, on 
 the eve of his marriage, he died. His 
 life and his death If ft the book, as they 
 lifted Eastwold, out of what had other- 
 wise been a dead level of unendurable 
 vulgarity. The soldier and girl marry; 
 but with eyes opened to see their un- 
 worthiness and with a ' quickened sense 
 of the compass of human feeling ' from 
 having once knon a simple noble christian 
 gentleman, Mr. Smith." [Macmillans'.] 
 — " Mr. Smith had a flavor and a humor 
 entirely his on. The artless vulgarities 
 of the Hunt family could hardly hav 
 been more carefully studied or more 
 faithfully represented by the creator of 
 the immortal Mrs. Bennett; but in the 
 conception of her hero, — the plain, 
 modest, pious, instinctivly chivalrous, 
 and inevitably honorable english gentle- 
 man, — with the simplicity of his love, 
 and the perfectly unconscious disinter; 
 estedness of his motivs, Mrs. Walford 
 givs proof of hier sympathies and deeper 
 estimates of human nature than wer 
 often betrayed — whatever may hav been 
 felt — by heii accomplished model. Lord 
 Sauffrenden is another delitful type, not 
 in the least romantic, or ideal, except 
 in the fine touch, at once lit and firm, 
 with which he is drawn ; and his wife is 
 another; while the story of the vain, 
 yet not ignoble heroin, and of her moral 
 awakening and virtual regeneration by 
 the brief, humble, wistful passage throu 
 her life of one thoroly good man, is as 
 well told as possible. Indeed, excellent 
 as is the faculty of characterization shon 
 in Mr. Smith, and racy the humor, the 
 most remarkable thing about the little 
 book is a certain sober unity and mas- 
 
 terly simplicity of method, — a resolute 
 subordination of all details to the gen- 
 eral design." [H. W". Preston. 15C7 
 MR. WYNYARD'S WARD [by 
 "Holme Lee," i. e., Harriet Parr: 
 Smith, 1867.] " is a story which, if not 
 very deep or strong, at all events is very 
 attractiv and touching. Thfire is not 
 much plot in the book, nor is that which 
 exists over-probable. But the heroin's 
 character is charming, very true and 
 life-like, and marked by a number of 
 those agreeable little peculiarities which 
 giv a pleasing individuality to a, ficti- 
 tious personage. Pennie Croft is left 
 by her father under the gardianship 
 of Mr. Wynyard, a well-meaning but 
 weak-minded country gentleman, who 
 not only contrives to run throu his 
 property, but is led by an unprincipled 
 attorney into unconsciously performing 
 the same feat with respect to the money 
 of his wealthy ward. But as this per- 
 formance of his is not discovered for 
 some time, she is long deemed a great 
 heiress. The scenes ar very good in 
 which she is depicted while visiting 
 among her relativs, who ar of an in- 
 ferior class to that in which she lias 
 been reared, her father having made 
 his money by lucky speculations. The 
 contrast which her unenljtened cousins 
 offer to the members of the cultivated 
 family circle in which she has moved 
 is well expressed, and so is the effect 
 which the commonplace life they lead 
 has upon the spirits and feelings of one 
 whose tastes have been educated and 
 refined, and in whom aspirations hav 
 been ventured for something hier than 
 the ordinary aims of an unreflecting 
 middle-class family. She makes the 
 acquaintance of a neboring land-oner 
 who possesses ' the charm of a great 
 sorro ' and gradually she loses her heart 
 to him. He, who has been crushed by 
 
 489 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 adverse fate, and has given up all hopes 
 of happiness, suddenly finds a change 
 wrot by her in all the current of his 
 being, and u, flood of unfamiliar sunlit 
 pours in upon his path whenever she 
 appears. The story of their courtship 
 is charmingly told, and there is some- 
 thing so frank, and brave, and strait- 
 forward in all she says and does, that 
 it is impossible not to feel a strong 
 personal liking for her. Such a good, 
 trusty, probable little heroin is worth 
 any number of the unreal adven- 
 turesses, the impossible criminals, with 
 whom some novelists delit to shock us. 
 We ar the better for having been in 
 Pennie Croft's presence; her healthy 
 talk and honest th6ts ar to one who has 
 been condemned to much reading of 
 sensational romance, what a fresh sea- 
 breeze is to the weary denizen of an 
 inland city." [London Review.] ■ — ■ 
 " Foremost amongst the qualities which 
 make the goodness of this clever and 
 charming tale ar a freshness of style 
 and a peculiar newness of arrangement 
 and manipulation in the presence of 
 much which shoes Holme Lee's readi- 
 ness to profit by the example of other 
 artists . . No purer, briter, or more 
 delitful tale has for many a day come 
 under our notice.'" [Athenasum. 1568 
 MRS. ARTHUR [by Ma. Oliphant 
 (Wilson) Oliphant : Hurst, 1877.] 
 "tells of the only son of a baronet, who 
 falls in love with the handsom, but 
 vulgar and ignorant dauter of a tax- 
 collector in a London suburb. His 
 family oppose the match as best they 
 can; his most intimate friend remon- 
 strates with him with the usual suc- 
 cess, and the bad-tempered Nancy soon 
 attains the position she had so longed 
 for. The husband, Arthur Curtis, finds 
 the awakening from his dreams anything 
 but pleasant. His wife shocks him by 
 
 her taste in dress ; he takes her to Paris, 
 but the pictures, the theatres hav no 
 charm for her, and she sis for her 
 congenial home. They return to Eng- 
 land and lead an utterly miserable life 
 together, until, in an access of uausu 
 ally violent rage, she runs away from 
 her husband antl returns to her family. 
 Arthur leaves the country to take a dip- 
 lomatic position at Vienna, but in time 
 Nancy sees her follies and devotes her 
 energies to self-improvement. Grad- 
 ually, by some unexplained process, 
 she becomes like other people ; she 
 manages to charm Arthur's father and 
 mother before they kno who she is, 
 and the book ends well. Nothing could 
 be better than the description of the 
 poor young fello's infatuation and his 
 impatience of opposition. But nothing 
 could be saintlier than his behavior 
 after his marriage, when his wife gave 
 frequent exhibition of her ungoverna- 
 ble temper. Mrs. Oliphant draws the 
 unhappiness of the poor hero with a 
 clever pen, and too much cannot be said 
 in praise of her description of Nancy's 
 family. Alongside of the main love- 
 story runs an account of the love the 
 remonstrating friend bears for Arthur's 
 sister, which is a very different piece of 
 business from the romance of Arthur's 
 life. It is in just such subjects of 
 social complications in english life that 
 Mrs. Oliphant is at her best. The man- 
 tle which Miss Austen first wore and 
 Mrs. Gaskell inherited now covers her 
 sholders ; but it is made over to suit 
 the present fashion, and it is a most 
 useful as well as becoming garment." 
 [Nation.] — " The good youth who 
 makes the mistake of marrying Nancy 
 Bates does not do much to excite the 
 reader's sympathy ; tho his affliction at 
 finding he has married the tax-collector 
 and his wife, as well as sisters Matilda 
 
 490 
 
BEITISII NOVELS. 
 
 an:l Sarah Jane, both aclrairable in their 
 way, is sufficiently well founded. In 
 describing these really good specimens 
 of a certain class the author by no 
 means makes tlie mistake of allowing 
 no moral virtu to those who ar totally 
 without refinement, tho how nearly par- 
 allel gentleness and virtu run is a lesson 
 the little back parlor at Mr. Bates' mit 
 bav taut any one but a lover. Of two 
 different types of sisterly affection, hon- 
 est Matilda Bates and Lucy Curtis ar 
 excellent specimens ; while the sketcli 
 of Hubert's gentlemanly selfishness is 
 an outline for an excellent picture." 
 [AtheuEeum. 1509 
 
 MRS. FENTON. [by W: E: Noii- 
 Kis : //o^i, 1889.] " Mr.Norris is never 
 less than entertaining, even in his liter 
 efforts. The heroin is a clever austral- 
 ian adventuress who swoops down upon 
 a fortune not ritfuUy hers, captures it, 
 and with it the good graces of half of 
 London, and all but succeeds in winning 
 a noble prize, the heart of the man she 
 loves. Withal, she is so generous and 
 so merry and charming in her way, that 
 she captivates the reader as well, and 
 we ar half sorry when she is exposed 
 and disappears from the scene, leaving 
 her lover to wed the somewhat color- 
 less girl, and be liappy after a dull and 
 regular fashion." [Boston "Literary 
 World." 1571 
 
 MRS. GEOFFREY. [byMA.( ) 
 (Argles) Hungerfori) : Smith, 188L] 
 "The Irish maiden who enchants and 
 marries Mr. Geoffrey Rodney is a very 
 charming heroin, and as a love story the 
 tale of her adventures is worthy of the 
 author of ' Phyllis.' The talk between 
 this honest-hearted pair is especially 
 lively, and tho amorous enuf it is 
 neither gushing nor silly. To be able 
 thus naturally to reproduce the dialog 
 of lovers without immediately becoming 
 
 intolerable to the general reader is a 
 remarkable gift, tho \ve trust tlie author 
 will be wisely sparing in its exercise. 
 For the characters, Geoffrey is a manly 
 fello, a trifie slangy, perhaps, but a 
 gentleman ; while liis thoroly worldly 
 mother and the conventional and rather 
 cool-tempered Violet Manser form a 
 good contrast to the impulsiv Mona. 
 The process of Mona's reconciliation to 
 these outraged relativs, who ar by no 
 means prepared to welcom her entrance 
 into the family circle, is well told." 
 [Athenasum. 1572 
 
 MRS. HALLIBURTON'S TROU- 
 BLES, [by Ellen (Price) Wood: 
 Bentley, 18G2.] "The scene is laid in 
 the same old cathedral town in which 
 dwelt the Channings [No. 1139.] . . . 
 The great merit of the book is the true 
 and simple manner in which every scene 
 and character ar depicted. They may 
 be all living human beings for aut we 
 kno. The bad ar perhaps a, little too 
 bad ; they ar seen always on the worst 
 side, and the good, again, ar drawn like 
 Queen Elizabeth, with no shadoes. But 
 still they ar real, and we kno them and 
 .believ in them, and take an interest in 
 them ; and tho the story is long and not 
 always lively, we ar compelled to read 
 on to the end, and to see the last of the 
 Ilalliburtons. The. moral and religious 
 principles inculcated are unexception- 
 able." [Athenajum. 1573 
 
 MRS. HORACE [by Alex. Kepler: 
 Semingion, 1887.] "does much to set 
 off the directness and simple pathos of 
 his study of two lives, for which he 
 fully secures the interest of his readers. 
 Rosa Horace is a woman of an easily 
 recognized type, who never ceases to 
 be a girl, forever young in heart, with 
 a girl's exulting sense of liberty and 
 power, rarely conscious of an earnest 
 soul within, yet capable of a deep and 
 
 491 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 abiding fidelity to the man who first 
 awakened lier from her moral sleep. 
 Tlie sketch is well executed, and the 
 touches take the shape of incidents 
 rather than of reflexions. Reflexions 
 there ar in plenty — many of thera in- 
 spired by Jlr. Kepler's appetite for good 
 food and moral conundrums. But he 
 has drawTi his heroin witli a loving hand, 
 and in virtue of this the reader will 
 freely forgiv him." [.Vthenajum. loT-t 
 MISTRESS JUDITH, [by Ciiris- 
 
 TISA C. FUASER (TyTLEr) LiDDELL : 
 
 Law, 1874. J "Those who hav read 
 that most delicious of modern stories, 
 ' Under the Greenwood Tree,' will 
 understand what we mean Avhen we 
 describe this book as an idyl of rural 
 life. Tho less worldly and humorous 
 than that book, it cannot fail to recall 
 pleasant memories of it, and in respect 
 to the almost exclusiv rusticity of its 
 scenery and personnel deservs to be 
 classed with it. Xot only docs ' Mistress 
 Judith ' lack humor, but it is really pain- 
 ful; yet despite this sombreness, which 
 will, perhaps, repel the average novel- 
 reader, it is a charming and wholesom 
 story. Its personages liv within the 
 narro limits of an obscure hamlet, 
 whtTein the several acts of » homely 
 little drama ar enacted under quiet skies 
 and with the simplest imaginable sur- 
 roundings." [Boston " Literary World."] 
 — ' ' AVe do not ever remember to hav read 
 a story more perfect of its kind than 
 ' Mistress Judith ' ; and since ' Sylvia's 
 Lovers' [Xo. 970], we hav not read a 
 sadder one. Indeed we can hardly 
 imagin the frame of mind in which a 
 person could compose, and still more, 
 write such a story, ending in sorro hope- 
 less and irreparable to those who ar 
 left alive at the end of it. Of course, 
 as in all perfectly sad stories, misunder- 
 standing is the cause of the sorro, 
 
 aggravated in the present instance by 
 treachery. We question Iiow far an 
 author less great than the greatest has a 
 rit to employ such a motiv : there seems 
 to he a kind of profanity in thus handling 
 a grief almost too great for human 
 nature to bear, especially when it is told 
 with all the vividness given by common- 
 place surroundings." [Athen. 1575 
 MRS. KEITH'S CRIME [by Lucy 
 (Lane) Clifford: Bentley, iss.j.] "is 
 marked by a total absence of plot and 
 incident, and of the kind of interest 
 which has been usually thot necessary 
 to novels ; and oi-s its interest to the 
 fact that it is a picture of a state of 
 mind which has met these problems 
 with a negativ answer, and finds the 
 world empty of all but human love. 
 Human love under such an aspect seems 
 to gain a strange new intensity. It finds 
 a vast legacy, as it wer, suddenly put at 
 its disposal. That craving for the in- 
 flnit which no belief or unbelief can 
 repress, losing, as far as consciousness 
 goes, its eternal object, stimulates 
 imagination to create one within the 
 limits of mortality. The mother who 
 believes her love for her child to be but 
 a drop from the ocean which surrounds 
 her can but acquiesce in all the appoint- 
 ments of supreme care ; the mother who 
 regards her love as an ultimate and 
 original reality, finds it u. law to itself. 
 Mrs. Clifford's heroin learns that the 
 disease which is preying on both her and 
 her child is to make her its first victim ; she 
 feels that in the universe is no parental 
 care greater than hers. "We cannot sec 
 any harm in the overdose which givs the 
 child a painless death, from Mrs. Clif- 
 ford's point of vue ; and we presume 
 that she intends her title to indicate the 
 different moral ideal belonging to her 
 creed and that which it is to supersede. 
 Mrs. Keith ends her child's life as the 
 
 492 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 go;l in whom slie has ceased to belieye and on the verge of marrying some one 
 
 takes it : she givs it the best she has to 
 giv. It is a decision of unselfishness 
 as absohite as that of tlie divine appoint- 
 ment. Slie deprives liersclf of tlie sweet 
 sohice of tliose offers of service wliicli 
 ar her lioaven, lest they should be 
 missed when she is not tliere to giv 
 them." [Contemporary Review. 1576 
 
 MRS. LANCASTER'S RIVAL, [by 
 Er.EAXoii C. PitiCK : Low, 1880.] " Tlie 
 heroin eclipses Mrs. Lancaster in the 
 eyes of two men, — in the heart of one, 
 and the calculating judgment of the 
 other ; and wo folio the complications 
 which ar the results of this rivalry, if it 
 is to be so called, with unwearied in- 
 terest. The cliaracters of the men ar 
 particularly well drawn. Tfle sailor 
 lover, the bluff old captain, and the 
 chivalrous rector ar 3 excellent portraits, 
 s;u'h as should alone make the fortune 
 of a novel." [Spectator.] — "It is 
 neatly written, well imagined, and care- 
 fully done, and may be read with not a' 
 little pleasure. The third volume is 
 completed by a novelette called ' Miss 
 Monckton's Marriage,' which is ingen- 
 iously turned and forms acceptable 
 reading." [Athenajum. 1577 
 
 MRS. LORIMER [by "Lucas 
 Malet," i. e., Rose G. (Ivingsley) 
 Harrison : D. Appleton, 1880.] "is 
 called a ' sketch in black and wliite ' 
 from the fact that the heroin at the open- 
 ing of the story appears in morning for 
 her young liusband, and at the close ' in 
 a gown of soft, ivory-white cashmere,, 
 plentifully trimmed with rich old lace;' 
 tlie white, liowever, being symbolical 
 not of second love and marriage, but of 
 the shroud in wlucli she is too soon en- 
 folded ... In the remaining pages the 
 Vicar seeks her only to be repulsed ; she 
 meets her first love, who proves to be 
 less interesting than she had supposed, 
 
 else, and she refuses to marry her 
 Platonic friend for no reason perceptible 
 to the reader, and returns to her iint's, 
 where she dies. This is all, and it is cer- 
 tainly very little, but the padding is a 
 series of short, pleasant essays on the 
 events of every-day life which ar cer- 
 tainly interesting and well-written. It is 
 a book to be read quietly, not with any 
 impatience to kno the end ; and such as 
 like digesting a chapter thoroly will find 
 much food for reflexion, and tranquil 
 enjoyment of good things, in the keen 
 analysis of character and motiv, and tlie 
 shrewd comments upon men and tilings." 
 [Critic. , 1578 
 
 MRS. MAINWARING'S JOURNAL 
 [by Emma ( ) Marsiiam, : Seeley, 
 1873.] "is tlie tale of a quiet married 
 woman's life, from the day when she ar- 
 rives, a girlish bride, at the quaint house 
 in a cathedral town where her husband 
 livs and has his business, to the time at 
 which she celebrates her golden wedding, 
 with her children and grandchildren 
 arounil her. If it is not very stimulating 
 food for the intellect, its appeals to the 
 heart ar often forcible, and its literary 
 skill, tho of no unusual order, is sufficient 
 to prevent resentment on the part of 
 those who detect under the guise of a 
 novel tlie very sufficient modicum of ser- 
 mon which is artfully submitted for their 
 digestion . . . This is the acme of good 
 story-telling ; and accordingly, altho the 
 subject-matter is tame, and altho the 
 religious element in the book will deter 
 a large number of readers from its peru- 
 sal, its method should attract the notice 
 of more pretentious writers." [Athe- 
 naeum. 1579 
 
 MRS. MERRIDEW'S FORTtTNE. 
 See NEiailBORS O.V THE QREEN. 
 
 MISUNDERSTOOD, [by Florence 
 Montgomery ; N. Y., Jlz7idolph, 1877.] 
 493 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 "This little and unpretending etory is 
 about children rather than for them, 
 being written evidently with the intent 
 of warning parents against the danger 
 of partiality, and of illustrating the pain- 
 ful sense of isolation which may come 
 upon a tender-licarted child, who feels 
 that upon another is lavished the whole 
 affection in which he would only too 
 gladly hav a share, but for which he is 
 too proud to ask. The story is well 
 written, and has some very touching 
 passages. It is, neither long nor elabo- 
 rate." [Boston" LiteraryWorld."] — " It 
 is the story of two little motherless boys, 
 whose father honestly tries to do his 
 duty by both, altho his affection for the 
 delicate little ' Miles ' is greater than 
 for his more robust and reckless brother. 
 The writer's sympathy with the joys and 
 sorros of childhood, and keen appre- 
 ciation of their natures, ar evidenced 
 in every page ; and their naturally dra- 
 matic thots and actions lose nothing throu 
 her representations . . . There ar pleas- 
 ant little bits of poetical descriptions of 
 nature, and it is quite easy to see liow 
 the brit skies, beautiful fields, and wav- 
 ing trees tempted the restless ' Hum- 
 l)lirey,' and how his activ imagination 
 dellted to linger over the fatal and for- 
 bidden pond, where the old tree stretched 
 a limb over the water, so exactly like 
 the one described by ' Uncle Charlie,' 
 in a story of wild adventure. It is not 
 surprising, either, that u, father should 
 believe that a, child so full of life and 
 health, so careless and happy . under 
 every circumstance, would be quite in- 
 diiferent to an extra caress or word of 
 affection for his more delicate brother ; 
 and it is almost as much of a shock at 
 tile last, as it was to the father, to find 
 out how simply the boy had accepted 
 liis share of affection as a part of an 
 inexorable system of things, wliich he 
 
 mit comprehend when he grew to bo a 
 man, but now could only receive un- 
 questioningly. The pathos of tlie clos- 
 ing chapters is characterized by the 
 same quiet good-taste which pervades 
 the humorous parts." [Overland. 1580 
 MITCHELHURST PLACE [by 
 Margaket Vk LEV : (f, 1887) Macmillan, 
 1884.] "is admirable in style, and tjiis 
 terse, vivid, and nervous style is not 
 wasted on platitudes. Miss Veley's 
 pages ar brit with flashes of insit, and 
 abound in touches of sympathetic ten- 
 derness . . . The story rivets the atten- 
 tion from the first page to the last, and 
 the writer's management of the plot is 
 perfect. Keynold Harding, the purpos- 
 less and ill-tempered son of a dauter of 
 the ruined house of Rothwell, visits the 
 home of his motlier's ancestry (his 
 father's father had been a pork-butcher) 
 and there meets his fate in Barbara 
 Strange. She had already met hers in 
 Adrian Scarlett, a brit, good-humored 
 artist and poet, and a previous visitor to 
 Mitchelhurst Place. But she tliut her 
 love was not returned, and is brot, with- 
 out loving him, into such relations with 
 Reynold, that she would hav married 
 him if he had asked her. It is impossi- 
 ble to speak too hlly of the skill and 
 delicacy with which this portion is 
 worked out. Reynold is moved by his 
 love for Barbara to write a letter whicli 
 will put liim on the road to wealth, and 
 secure him, as he has reason to hope, 
 the hand of the woman who has trans- 
 figured him. How that hope was baffled 
 tlie reader must discover for himself; 
 and we can only assure him that the 
 discovery is well worth making." [Spec- 
 tator. 1581 
 MODEL FATHER (A), [by I): 
 Christie Mukuav : Harper, 1882.] 
 " The model father is Montgomery Bas- 
 sett, a tall, portly person, with a pale 
 
 494 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 magenta nose, and a rich bass voice in 
 which tlie oner takes prodigious pride. 
 Mr. Bassett enjoys a certain fame as an 
 interpreter of Shalcsperian parts on tlie 
 London stage, and is knon as a star in 
 tlie provinces. When his pretty dauter 
 Mary falls in love with the handsom Jack 
 Cameron, the impecunious but prorais- 
 , ing artist, Mr. Bassett, having an eye to 
 his future, naturally objects, and tries 
 to force her into a marriage vt-ith young 
 AVeatherly, a good-natured weakling 
 . . . The course of true love runs 
 smooth at tlie last, and in the final chap- 
 ter there is an affecting reconciliation. 
 The strength of the story is in the por- 
 trayal of Bassett's personality and char- 
 acter, which is of singular life likeness, 
 altho with here and there a touch 
 of exaggeration." [Boston "Literary 
 World." 1582 
 
 MODERN GREEK HEROINE (A) 
 [Ilurst, 1880.] "The heroin's experi- 
 ences ar gained amongst englisli and 
 french people, clergymen and artists, 
 and the narrativ clings to England all 
 throu . . . But the romance is strong 
 enuf to stand on its merits, without any 
 assistance from its title . . . Miss Val- 
 ettas is carefully drawn after an ideal 
 which has several distinctly greek char- 
 acteristics. She is subtle, ingenious, 
 full of resource, large-hearted in adver- 
 sity ; she is insincere, untruthful, a 
 schemer, and an actress — yet frank 
 and candid at intervals, and especially 
 with those whom she likes. Wliether 
 sincere or insincere, her creator molds 
 her in such form that the reader loves 
 her throuout, and admires her even 
 more than lie loves. The author may 
 be congratulated on a pretty and clever 
 story." [Athenaeum. 1583 
 
 MODERN LOVER (A), [by G: 
 Mooiiii : Tinsley, 1883, Chicago, Laird, 
 1890.] " What Tito Melema was in 
 
 the grand life of Romola, ' A Modern 
 Lover ' is in the several lives of three 
 women who love him, trust him, and 
 sacrifice themselves to him, each in a 
 different way, and according to the oppor- 
 tunities afforded them by his various 
 nee^ls at the time. Of the refined and 
 poetical tone and atmosfere of the book 
 which gave ns an unrivalled picture 
 of moral good-for-nothingness in old 
 fiorentine days, there is no trace in this 
 essentially modern story ; they ar re- 
 placed by plain pros*, and realism 
 which, while it is not coarse, and, unlike 
 the tone of the ' naturalistic ' writers, 
 does not offend, takes the gilt off the 
 gingerbread of sentiment, and ignores 
 romance in a more thorobred style than 
 we ar accustomed to, except in the 
 utterances of professed cynics. This 
 author is not a cynic ; he not only recog- 
 nises, but he respects goodness, purity 
 and disinterestedness, and altho the 
 story he tells is all about the woful 
 waste of those feelings upon a person 
 absolutely unworthy of them, he is 
 quite alive to the pity of it, and givs his 
 readers the notion that he would hav 
 liked to make Lewis Seymour a better 
 fello, if he could. He cannot, liowever, 
 for ' A Modern Lover ' is not a bit of a 
 built-up story ; it has a very uncommon 
 note of spontaneity ; it tells itself, and 
 its faults ar the defects of its qualities 
 of moderation and sincerity. The book 
 has more power than the story ; the 
 characters hav more interest than the 
 incidents ; the first volume is the best 
 as a conception and a composition, but 
 the third is superior to it as a picture of 
 society : it givs a clearer evolution of 
 character without exaggeration, and a 
 vue of modern life, which, while it is 
 tinged with pessimism, is not scornful 
 or bittur, but on the whole tolerant and 
 good-humored ... It would be diffi- 
 
 495 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 cult to praise too hlly the strength, 
 truth, delicacy, and pathos of the inci- 
 dent of Gwynnie Lloyd, and the admir- 
 able treatment of the great sacrifice she 
 makes when, in his utter destitution, and 
 under the influence of his threat to com- 
 mit suicide, she consents to sit to Lewis 
 Seymour for the nude figure of Venus. 
 Tlie incident is depicted witli skill and 
 beauty. The author does not again 
 reach that point ; his later materials are 
 more commonplace . . . Mr. Moore's, 
 then, is not an ideal novel ; it is a study 
 from life, and lifelike,' — more's tlie 
 pity ! It is faulty, but always interest- 
 ing ; it has both pathos and humor, and 
 it is pervaded by a frank, revealing 
 spirit wliich tells of observation of men 
 and tilings, intelligent, not malicious, 
 and commonsensical. The world and 
 its ways neither take in this writer, nor 
 do they disgust Mm ; he sees the poetry 
 of things, but he knoes that it is the 
 prose of them which lasts." , [Specta- 
 tor. 1584 
 MOLLY BAWN. [by Ma. ( ) 
 (Argles) Hungerford : Lippincott, 
 1878.] " Anyone who delits in repar- 
 tee, or in the exquisit charm which 
 sometimes half extenuates the cruelty 
 of flirtation, should read ' Molly Bawn.' 
 Altlio the story is well constructed, 
 and the simple plot affords strong 
 characterization and many interesting 
 situations in the development of the 
 relations betiveen Mr. Amherst and his 
 3 grandchildren, each of whom is the 
 only child of a detested marriage and 
 receives from him open maltreatment 
 and frequent insult; and altlio the 
 minor characters ar well marked and 
 amusing, the central interest is in the 
 captivating power of Molly and her 
 readiness to use it. She has a talent for 
 flirting, and in her it is a graceful sin. 
 The fault in moral quality which injures 
 
 the story is the skill which has made her 
 actions seem so much the product of 
 nature 'as to be irresponsible, so that the 
 anger which they continually excite is 
 like that felt at the barbarities of chil- 
 dren. She pulls a man's happiness to 
 pieces as a 3-year-old demolishes a costly 
 toy, and treads on her lover's feelings 
 as if tbey wer of no more consequence 
 than a cat's tail. This goes on until she 
 is sobered by an unexpected misfortune, 
 and opportunity is offered for the de- 
 velopment of noble qualities. Still, 
 with all her charms, her gifts of youth 
 and beauty and song and wit, and all the 
 prettiness of her ' petulant, quick re- 
 plies,' we confess to a gladness that sucli 
 explo>iv bonbons ar not the daily fare 
 of men. It would indeed be but a sorry 
 world if she and her peer. Lady Straf- 
 ford, wer representativs of many women. 
 The other great charm of the book is its 
 conversation, which is plentiful, brtt, 
 amusing, and never flags." [Nation.] — 
 "In the case of 'Molly Bawn' we ar 
 for a. time propitiated by the saucy 
 graces of the Irish heroin and the genuin 
 ardor of feeling which she appears to 
 kindle in her numerous admirers. And 
 since, if man, woman, or book cannot 
 be useful, it is doubly incumbent upon 
 them to be agreeable, it may be worth 
 while to inquire a little more carefully 
 what it is which makes this frivolous 
 'Molly Bawn' so uncommonly 'fetch- 
 ing.' It is partly, perhaps, the entire 
 and audacious naturalness of most of the 
 conversation . . And the insignifi- 
 cant portion of the book which is not 
 slang is in very nice, plain, few-syllabled 
 english. There is also a good and quite 
 fresh situation among the minor charac- 
 ters, where the parties to a marriage of 
 the coolest convenience knon in the 
 hiest circles, who had agreed to separate 
 directly after the wedding ceremony. 
 
 496 
 
BKITIBH NOVELS. 
 
 meet accidentally, and fall honestly in 
 love with each other." [Atlantic. 1585 
 MONA'S CHOICE [by " Mr.s. Alk.x- 
 ANDEE,'' i. e., Annie (French) Hector: 
 F. V. White, 1887.] " is a very good 
 specimen of Mrs. Alexander's familiar 
 workmansliip. The ' choice ' is, we need 
 hardly say, a choice of lovers. Mona, 
 who is an orfan, is introduced into 
 society by a wealthy ant, and fre- 
 quently meets a certain Captain Lisle, 
 ii singularly attractiv man, to whom, be- 
 lieving that he loves her, she givs her 
 liL^art. Lisle, on his side, has not been 
 untouched ; but when Mona is left desti- 
 tute, the Captain is too self-regardful to 
 risk marriage with a penniless girl, and 
 instead of proposing to her himself, sug- 
 gests that she should accept the addresses 
 of his rich but very clumsy and shy friend, 
 Waring. Out of consideration for her 
 ^nt, Mona accepts Waring's offer, tho she 
 frankly tells him that she has no love to 
 giv ; but when, just before the marriage, 
 her ant dies, she feels that she cannot go 
 on with the sacrifice, and breaks off the 
 engagement. She sees nothing of either 
 Lisle or Waring for some years, which 
 ar spent partly with an old friend, whom 
 she assists in giving music lessons, and 
 partly witli an eccentric scotch uncle, 
 who takes her with him to his northern 
 home. At tliis place the two men re- 
 appear, and Lisle now claims her love; 
 but Mona, having discovered the differ- 
 ence between gpld and pinchbeck, rejects 
 his suit, and givs herself, this time 
 finally and unreservedly, to the faithful, 
 loyal. Waring. The story is pleasantly 
 told, and some of the subsidiary charac- 
 ters ar specially good. Mr. Craig, Mona's 
 uncle, is, indeed, a. triumf of truthful 
 and humorous delineation ; and we tliink 
 that on the whole, ' Mona's Choice ' 
 must be deemed Mrs. Alexander's best 
 novel." [Spectator. 1586 
 
 MONKS OF TPIELEMA (The), [by. 
 Wa. Besant & Ja. Rice : Chatto, 1879.] 
 "Mr. Besant's love for caricature finds 
 here an open field and no favor. No 
 English nobleman was ever so simple- 
 minded as to carry his theories of the 
 elevation of the tenantry to the point 
 of marrying one of his dairy maids out 
 of pure altruism. The motiv of the 
 book, the order of Thelcma, is directly 
 traceable to Besant's studies in old French 
 literature. It is the transformation and 
 modernization of a religious order into a 
 very delitful community of clever people 
 whose motto is 'Fay ce que vouldras,' 
 and whose patron saint is Rabelais. 
 Here also is occasion for one of those 
 barbed shafts of irony. It is personi- 
 fied in the person of Rondelet, fello of 
 Lothian, and directed against certain 
 tendencies in exclusiv literary coteries 
 to believe that within their holy circle 
 they alone contain the profet of the new 
 Messiah of the hier culture. But on 
 the whole, one is baflled a bit that 
 Besant should permit a matter so closely 
 connected with his favorit idea about 
 thd elevation of the working classes to 
 be conceived , in seriousness and exe- 
 cuted only in levity." [Critic] — " But 
 perhaps still better handled is Mr. Paul 
 .Rondelet [Wa. Pater?], the profet of 
 that mysterious School of Thinkers wlio 
 ' keep the Renaissance bottled for theni- 
 selvs,' circulate little poems, liv well, si 
 over the ignorance of their elders, and 
 talk of the ' hier thot, the nobler aim, 
 the truer method.' Nothing is more 
 characteristic of Rondelet than his woo- 
 ing of Miranda, the abbess and the 
 heroin. He is driven to this step by 
 the awful thot that his f elloship is about 
 to expire, and that he will hav literally 
 no means on which to liv the hier life, 
 except by taking orders. He, therefore, 
 offers to share that life with the richest 
 
 497 
 
BKITISII NOVELS. 
 
 and most beautiful woman of his ac- 
 quaintance. He is good enuf to say 
 tliat. in woman the hicr receptivity 
 alone is required." [Atlienajum] — "In 
 this picture of life thoroly pleasant and 
 perfectly luxurious, untroubled by any 
 responsibilities, never invaded by satiety, 
 undisturbed by jealousy, and safe from 
 the selfish passions which will intrude into 
 tlie best defended paradise , the aspirations 
 of a worlilling's better nature find their 
 ideal ; Avhile that whicli is worse finds a 
 satisfaction wliich is not too grossly cyni- 
 cal in the kindly satire directed against 
 tliose wlio ar not content with acknoledg- 
 ing social wrongs, but madly try to set 
 them rit." [Spectator. 1587 
 
 MONKSFORD [S; Tinsley, 1879.] 
 "is a pleasant story of life in a, pro- 
 vincial town, not the domestic life of a. 
 family or two, but the life of the town 
 itself, of the gentry and professional 
 men, of the mayor and corporation, of 
 the officers and the inhabitants in 
 general . . . Other incidents, which 
 mit hav been stale and commonplace 
 enuf in the hands of a clumsy story- 
 teller. But there ar matters treated in 
 these annals of Monksford which stir 
 finer chords and wake otlier music than 
 questions of municipal government." 
 [Athena3um. 1588 
 
 MOOR COTTAGE (The) [by May 
 Beverley: Macmillan, 1861.] "is a 
 good little innocent story, the interest 
 not very exciting; but the spirit in which 
 it is written kind and genial. The good 
 people who set an example and the mid- 
 dling people who ar intended to profit by 
 it, ar all pleasant in their way ; there is no 
 false pathos nor affected sentiment to dis- 
 turb the reader's good-nature. Thfire is 
 a gentle humane influence perceptible 
 throu the book ; and when the course of 
 true love runs strait, the reader feels 
 pleased, and sympathizes, mildly it may 
 
 be, but quite sincerely, with the fortunes 
 of the characters." [Athenajum. 1589 
 MOORLAND COTTAGE CTlie) 
 [by E.. Cleoiiorn (Stevenson) Gas- 
 KEL : Chapman, 1850.] "like 'Mary 
 Barton,' is a tale of passion and feeling, 
 developed among what may be called 
 every-day people : — but, unlike ' Mary 
 Barton," it is not a tale of class-suffer- 
 ings and class-interests. It is merely 
 a story intended to soften tlie heart and 
 sweeten tlie charities at cliristmas time 
 by tlie agency of pity and sympathy. 
 The idea is simple, but the execution 
 is of no common order. The characters 
 ar nicely marked. Mr. Buxton, the 
 great man of the town, — his saint-like 
 invalid wife — Mrs. Brown, with her 
 jealous hardness towards her dauter 
 and her credulous indulgence of her 
 son — ar as well made out as they ar 
 artfully, because artlessly, contrasted 
 . . . Rarely has woman drawn a fairer 
 study of self-sacrifice in woman than 
 our author in Maggie Brown ; and if 
 we refrain from quoting some of the 
 scenes in which this is developed, it is 
 simply becaus we will not take the edg 
 off the reader's curiosity with regard to 
 ^ story of so deep interest and whole- 
 som moral : — for wholesom beyond the 
 usual fashion of novelists is tlie form 
 of Maggie's self-sacrifice, and her stand- 
 ing for those rlts which in life count for 
 so much while in fiction they are dis- 
 regarded as it wer by receipt." [Athe- 
 naeum.] — " So healthy and powerful 
 and pathetic a story of woman's love, 
 woman's endurance, and woman's gen- 
 erosity, claims honor, not merely for its 
 on sake, but as illustrating a taste 
 among english authors and readers, 
 for work in which fancy and feeling 
 graciou-ly consort with, and ar harmon- 
 ized by, virtue and reason." [Ladies' 
 Companion. 1500 
 
 498 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 MORALS or MAY FAIR (The), 
 [by Annie Edwards: 185". N.-Y., 
 Sheldon, 1873.] " Another of Mrs. Ed- 
 wards' novels has been exhumed by her 
 enterprising publisher, and we presume 
 tliat many who hav been entertained by 
 lier later stories will be inveigled into 
 buying this her first one. We can as- 
 sure them, however, tliat tliey will be 
 disappointed. Occasionally, it is true, we 
 find a frase wliich givs proniis of tlie 
 cleverness slie has since shon, but sucli 
 exceptions ar rare ; and we ar put off 
 witli a, very sensational story of a disa- 
 greeable kind — of the love, namely, 
 between one married man and anotlier's 
 wife, all of which is told with a certain 
 amount of force, but witli a greater 
 amount of crudeness." [Nation.] — 
 Mudie refused to circulate one of " Mrs. 
 Edwards' " earlier novels ; we suppose 
 this is the one. 1591 
 
 SAME (" Philip Earnscliffe ") 
 
 [^American News Co., ISUC] 
 
 MORNING GREY [by G. M. : Ward, 
 1885.] "is made most entertaining and 
 readable by a, crisp and lively style, a 
 playful humor, and an occasional spice 
 of real wit. But, altho amusing epi- 
 sodes ar in the majority, the chief inter- 
 est centres in the fortunes of the heroin, 
 a sympathetic character of considerable 
 charm. Her relations with a little boy 
 friend ar touchingly told, the interchange 
 of lit and shade being skilfully managed. 
 Thfire ar plenty of quaint and incisiv 
 sayings in these pages, but they hav the 
 merit of being justified by the context, 
 and do not suggest any conscious effort 
 on the author's part. ' G. M.' is partic- 
 ularly felicitous in hitting off the foibles 
 of provincial society." [Athen. 1592 
 
 MOTHER'S IDOL (A) [by Lvdia 
 Hope: Tinsley, 1882.] "is a Capt. 
 Davenel, who falls in love with the 
 governess of Hs niece, very much to his 
 
 mother's annoyance. Mrs. Davenel, the 
 wife of a worthy magistrate, keeps her 
 house, and all it contains, in exemplary 
 order; she is, in fact, a commander-in- 
 chief of the sternest type, whom no one 
 can thwart or disobey, unless it be the 
 object of her maternal adoration. The 
 heroin says of her, quaintly enuf, that 
 one always had a sort of apologetic, 
 guilty feeling in Mrs. Davenel's pres- 
 ence, as if one wer an uncompleted 
 effort. It is certainly much to the credit 
 of the little governess that she is able to 
 conquer the whole house of Davenel. 
 How her engagement to the idol pros- 
 pered, and what end she made to her 
 chequered career, may be learnt from 
 the pages in which Miss Hope has related 
 her experiences. The relation is simple 
 and pleasant, tho there is no attempt to 
 soar much above the level of straitfor- 
 ward narrativ." [Athenaeum. 1593 
 MY BRIDES [by Emily G. Nesbitt : 
 Ncwhy, 18G9.] " is a very readable and 
 pleasant tale . . Truthful, frank of 
 speech, and overfloing with strong nat- 
 ural affections, Dorothy finds out that 
 to secure the hai)piness of her father and 
 cousin, and other persons who ar dear to 
 her, she must amend her manners, get 
 the better of her unruly hair, conquer 
 her hoydenish propensities, and acquire 
 the tender touch and delicate tone which 
 do not come of tlieir on accord to dam- 
 sels of her sort, and having made this 
 discovery by the lit of affection, the 
 same illuminator shoes her how to re- 
 move her faults and assume the gracious 
 qualities with which Nature omitted to 
 endow her. From a clumsy, boisterous 
 girl she becomes the unselfish and con- 
 siderate woman, to whom every one 
 comes for sympathy in joy and comfort 
 in trouble. Of course she is everybody's 
 bridesmaid, and in the autobiografic frag- 
 ment to which we ar indebted for the 
 
 499 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 pleasure of her acquaintance, sjie lets us 
 into tlie secrets of her friends' loves antl 
 joys and sorroes . . . The story which 
 ends thus agreeably is by no means an 
 important or perfect acliievement; but 
 whilst under perusal it has so strong and 
 wholesom an effect, that it would be 
 sheer ingratitude to qualify praise of its 
 goodness with needless talk about its 
 shortcomings." [Athenaeum. 1594 
 MY DUCATS AXD MY DAUGH- 
 TER [by H.iY IlLSTiiR & Wa. Wiivte : 
 C K. Paul, 1884.] "does not lack 
 variety of character and incident. Tho 
 the plot and situations ar far from novel 
 or ingenious, their development is not 
 uninteresting. The story begins with a 
 filanthropic capitalist's disastrous at- 
 tempt to improve the condition of the 
 working man and found ' the factory 
 of the future.' It turns with marked 
 deliberation upon the benefit accruing 
 to the son from one of the misguided 
 father's acis of kindness. It foUoes 
 this son throu failure at college , failure 
 injournalism, failure in love, and makes 
 sudden prosperity tlie crucial-test of char- 
 acter. It is rather a bol 1 protest against 
 the traditional efficacy of adversity, and 
 in the hero the author depicts success- 
 fully a nature which is commoner than 
 moralists choose to believe." [Nation.] 
 — "Not only is it extremely well writ- 
 ten, but it treats several widely diverse 
 fasesof life with a sureness of delineation 
 and fulness of detail to be acquired only 
 from experience. Many of the charac- 
 ters are finished studies, and all ar thor- 
 oly human and life-like. Two of them 
 ar so finely drawn as to call for more 
 especial notice ; one is a rigid scotch 
 Puritan, narro, bigoted, austere, yet un- 
 derneath this repulsiv crust the real 
 nature of the man is lovable and estima- 
 ble; lie is just, faithful, affectionate and 
 grateful. Under extreme stress of af- 
 
 fliction, his unyielding armor of self- 
 rlteousness falls from him shattered, and 
 leaves him humbled and perplexed. It 
 is an unusually keen and delicate psy- 
 chological study. The other is editor of 
 a London daily paper, and author of a 
 book called ' Martyred Humanity,' a 
 man of consummate ability, not a charla- 
 tan. Too often in novels we hav to take 
 the author's word for the cleverness and 
 learning with which certain of his per- 
 sonages ar accredited, but such is not 
 the case here ; the reputation of the 
 editor of The Forum is fully borne out 
 by his conversation, which is really brill- 
 iant." [Westminster Review. 1595 
 MY ENEMY'S DAUGHTER, [by 
 Justin McCarthy : Harper, 1870.] 
 " The enemy in question is a very rich, 
 proud and insolent M.P. ; and his dau- 
 ter, if not very new or strange, is very 
 tender, sweet, and true. She is loved by 
 the hero, a mediocre singer, who has 
 first loved and lost u, german girl, — ■ 
 later a great priraa-donna and wife of 
 an Italian patriot. Of course Emanuel 
 Banks marries Lilla Lyndon, and the 
 irreclaimable M.P. is duly carried off by 
 the avenging gout of his class. This is 
 the outline, not very surprising or prom- 
 ising, of a singularly good novel, — 
 good enuf in plot, and thoroly good in 
 tone and conduct of character . . . The 
 hero, in whose mouth the story is put, is 
 also pleasant, a manly, generous fello, 
 whom you like. Italian conspirators we 
 do not get on well with, nor with opera- 
 singers of any nation ; but we ar bound 
 to say that Mr. McCarthy has managed 
 these contrary people with great skill. 
 No part of the book is dull. A hi level 
 is kept, and the story abounds in neat 
 and truthful touches, capital sketches 
 and studies of persons and places." 
 [Atlantic] — The leading character is 
 drawn from G: H: Lewes. 1596 
 
 600 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 MY TRIEND JIM [by W: E: NoR- 
 Ris : Macmillan, 1886.] "is certainly 
 one of the author's best stories. Its 
 charm is difficult to analyze, as it lies 
 chiefly in the shrewil yet genial interpre- 
 tation of human nature. It is realistic 
 in making use only of the average inci- 
 dents in life of the kind depicted ; and it 
 strains nothing for the sake of romance, 
 allowing the good sometimes to die 
 young and undeservedly, and the wicked 
 often to triumf so far as this world's 
 goods are concerned. One can hardly 
 tell what the story is, thfire seems to be 
 so little of it when one would sum it up ; 
 yet the reader will find nothing more 
 entertaining for a summer afternoon or 
 .a winter evening. The style is precisely 
 ■that of the perfectly unpretentious, 
 .strait-forward, keen-sited, yet by no 
 means remarkable young man, who is 
 rsupposed to tell the story." [Critic] — 
 " Mr. Norris' brit and lively story is 
 ■perhaps the best he has written. It is 
 very unambitious, containing no very 
 striking type of character, and not de- 
 pending either on any ingenuity of plot 
 or on exciting incidents. But it is a 
 .finished piece of work, both as a novel 
 lOf character and as a narrativ. The 
 simplicity of style and the gentle humor 
 lead one to guess that Mr. Norris has 
 taken Goldsmith as his model, and if 
 that be so it should be added that he has 
 avoided the dangers of imitation. At 
 all events, he has written gracefully and 
 in good taste, and if at times one wishes 
 for a little more vigor, criticism is dis- 
 armed by the author's modesty. The 
 principal character is a heartless and en- 
 tirely selfish woman of the world, but 
 Mr. Norris refuses to be so harsh as to 
 bring even her to a bad end. Here he is 
 doubtless rit,for the picture would hardly 
 liav been complete if she had not been 
 perfectly successful." [Athen. 1597 
 
 MY rglENDS AND I [by Julian 
 Stl'egis : Holt, ISSl.j "is a fresli, 
 original and charming contribution to 
 literature. It contains 3 short stories. 
 In the first, — one of those tales of 
 hero-worship always enjoyable and in 
 this case especially so, — the delicious, 
 unconscious egotism of the old fello sup- 
 posed to be telling the stories is won- 
 derfully ■well sustained. Th(?re is little 
 plot to any of the stories : but the breezy 
 style, and the gentle, genial tone which 
 the real author manages to giv while 
 quoting the narro one of the supposed 
 author, make the book a wonderfully 
 attractiv one.'' [Critic. 1598 
 
 MY GUARDIAN. [Appleton, 1879.] 
 " We hav found not a little pure and 
 wholesom enjoyment in this story of a 
 little orfan girl. It is simply and sweetly 
 told, and pre-eminently a book for 
 mothers and dauters." [Boston " Lit- 
 erary World." 1599 
 
 MY INSECT QUEEN [Bentley, 
 1869.] "is a fanciful name for a very 
 I!t, brit, readable novel. The story 
 purports to be told by a country doctor, 
 of sufficiently good birth and fortune to 
 make him one of the gentry. He is a 
 ■B'orthy, good-hearted fello, a bachelor, 
 who has the amusing peculiarity of be- 
 lieving that he can marry any, if not 
 every, pretty girl he sees, and he makes 
 filandering love to .all in the neborhood, 
 in a half-gallant, half-fatherly fashion 
 ... He is, however, a good fello in 
 spite of being an old coxcomb ; and he is 
 'a gentleman, after all,' as somebody 
 says of him. He falls into the toils of a 
 little coquette. Miss. Monica Greys- 
 brooke, who is very destructiv to the 
 hearts of all the men who come near 
 her, and she herself at last becomes en- 
 tangled amongst her own snares. She 
 is the ' Insect Queen ' regnant over the 
 heart of the doctor at the period of the 
 
 501 
 
BKITISU XOVKLS. 
 
 story. Thfire is an innocent mystery 
 running throu the book, which is clev- 
 erly handled ; and there ar sharp 
 sketches of character and of country 
 society. The story is altogether a 
 clever, pleasant novel." [Athen. 1600 
 
 JIY LADY CLARE [by E.. Eil- 
 oart: F. V. White, 1882.] "is an ex- 
 tremely readable novel. As the plot is 
 apparent at a glance, tliere is no unfair- 
 ness in saying that it is based upon the 
 inequitable possession of Hailsham Hall, 
 the property of the Crewe family. Jlr. 
 Robert Crewe had run away with his 
 wife to Scotland, wliere the form of 
 marriage there valid was duly gone 
 throu. After the birth of Anthony 
 Crewe, the document shoing his legiti- 
 macy was lost, and u second ceremony 
 was performed, by the english chaplain 
 of a Continental watering place. Acci- 
 dent, reveals this to the younger brother, 
 Charles, who claims the estate, whicli 
 Anthony, to avoid disgracing his parents, 
 at once surrenders. Later, as the eldest 
 son of Robert Crewe, he succeeds to the 
 fortune of Mr. Vane, his father's old 
 friend. How DoUie Crewe becomes the 
 mistress of Hailsham, how she learns 
 tlie crime of her mother, Mrs. Charles 
 Crewe, how she loves her cousin Ran- 
 dall, and how all ends satisfactorily, 
 must be gathered from the book. DoUie 
 herself is fresh, natural, and charming." 
 [Spectator. 1601 
 
 lir LADY LUDLOW [by E.. 
 Cleghorx (Stevexsox) Gaskell . X.- 
 Y., 1882.] "is in some respects similar 
 to ' Cranford' [Xo. 1175]. In the 
 latter the humorous portraits of the 
 circle of quaint old gentlewomen ar 
 doubtless taken largely from life ; ' My 
 Lady Ludlow ' is probably an imagina- 
 tiv conception, and to our mind a very 
 charming one ; while the humor of the 
 little book, if not so unfailing as that 
 
 of Cranford, is, perhaps for that rea- 
 son, the more delTtful." [Boston 
 "Literary World." 1602 
 
 SA:ME, in ROUXn THE SOFA. 
 
 MY LITTLE GIRL [by Wa. 
 Besaxt & Ja. Rice: Tinsley, 1873.] 
 "is as disagreeable a book as one often 
 finds. It is a story reeking in its most 
 innocent passages with brandy-and- 
 soda, and with accounts of black mis- 
 tresses, mock marriages, illegitimacy, 
 gambling, horse-racing, and every form 
 of evil-doing, which cannot fail to hav 
 a bad effect upon readers who may 
 mistake its vulgarity for profound 
 knoledge of the world, and its offensiv 
 description of human degradation for a 
 valuable picture of human nature and 
 civilized society. It is, in fact, a 
 shocking book, and it is not rendered 
 more tolerable by the mock jocoseness 
 and artificial sentiment with wliich it is 
 filled." [Nation.] — "Let it be under- 
 stood at once, that with all its faults, 
 and everything to the contrary notwith- 
 standing, we unhesitatingly recommend 
 this charming little book. It is by turns 
 fantastic, improbable, sentimental, oc- 
 casionally insipid, too often even dis- 
 agreeable, and yet it is undeniably in- 
 teresting. But that is not its only, nor 
 nearly, its greatest charm ; it abounds 
 in quaint humor, in beautiful little 
 tender passages, and in exquisit bits of 
 description." [Spectator. 1603 
 
 MY MARRIAGE. [Roberts, 1881.] 
 " The story is quickly told : a girl who 
 has married a, rich, admirable young 
 man after a sliort acquaintance, not 
 becaus she loves him, but bccaus she 
 believes the arrangement will be of 
 general service to her burdened family, 
 she being one of a number of dauters 
 in a vicarage, spends her time for sev- 
 eral months in acquiring the love wliich 
 should hav been precedent to the mar- 
 
 502 
 
BUITISH NOVELS. 
 
 riage, the only obstacle to the acquisi- 
 tion being her obstinacy and her 
 passionate affection for one of her 
 sisters. Iler husband, a model of pa- 
 tience and stupidity, loves her in the 
 grave manner which is becoming in 
 such cases, and after a series of mis- 
 understandings and petty accidents, 
 subdues her somewhat obtuse heart. 
 What renders the reader iVnpatient of 
 this couple is that they are both so 
 unnecessarily blind and incapable." 
 [Atlantic. 1604 
 
 MY MOTHER AND I [by Dinah 
 M.vRiA (Mulock) Ckaik ; Ishister, 
 1874.] "is sure to hav a, greater 
 number of admirers than any other 
 novel this season. We cannot reckon 
 ourselvs amongst them. We hav but 
 little sympathy with the heroin. We 
 regard one-half of the fine-spun senti- 
 ment as namby-pamby nonsense, and 
 the other half as mere morbidness. We 
 ar quite aware tliat in saying this we 
 differ from the rest of the world." 
 [Westminster Review. 1005 
 
 MY NEIGHBOR NELLY. See 
 NEIGHBORS OiV THE GREEN: 
 
 MY OWN CHILD [by Florence 
 (Makkyat) (Church) Lean : Apple- 
 ton, 1876.] "is refined, ladylike, and 
 fully interesting. An orfan girl, left in 
 charge of an utterly unsympathetic 
 maiden ant, falls in love with a neboring 
 student, and a promise of marriage 
 passes between them. The ^nt exhausts 
 the resources of tyranny in the effort to 
 subdue the little rebel ; but the latter 
 effects her escape, and is married. The 
 happy pair go to Paris, wh6re Hugh 
 dies. The wido goes to her grand- 
 father's, in Ireland, and there givs birth 
 to a babe, of whose education tlie grand- 
 mother at once assumes control. When 
 May is gron, she goes with her mother 
 to Bruxelles, whfire they encounter Lord 
 
 Annersly. Tie offers himself to the 
 wido, who loves but rejects him ; then to 
 the dauter, wlio becomes his wife, and 
 soon dies. In Sir John Power and his 
 wife, and Mrs. Delancy, we find some 
 fair character-drawing; and the story 
 throuout is pervaded by a sad but strong 
 interest." [Boston "Lit. World." 1606 
 
 MY QUEEN \_Appleion, 1879.] " is 
 an heiress, and the tale runs on her love 
 for a poor cousin, Max, — and lier 
 money, the barrier that disturbs its 
 course till she takes a fever in nursing 
 his wretched tenants. Then his pride 
 givs way, the troubles ar cleared away, 
 and the very pretty and well told story 
 comes to its happy end. One may ask 
 why should it liav been written : Ciii bono? 
 We giv it a welcom, knoing how much 
 our vigor, moral and mental, depends on 
 associatioh with others whose interests 
 and pursuits ar not ours, and that to 
 many this rubbing of minds must come 
 largely from books like this, which givs 
 a half-hour's chat with charming people." 
 [Penn Monthly. 1607 
 
 MY TRIVIAL LIFE AND MISFOR- 
 TUNE \_Blackwood, 1883.] "is a work 
 of great ability, by one who observs 
 keenly and sees deeply into character.' 
 She has the power of presenting real 
 people. Description and analysis hav not 
 made them mere bundles of qualities and 
 defects — the lay figures which often 
 stand for human nature in the work of 
 even the better sort of novelists. The 
 Trivial Life is passed chiefly at a dull 
 country house. So dull is the house, 
 and so lively is the author's picture of it, 
 that the reader feels oppressed by it 
 himself, and is therefore ready to giv to 
 tlie heroin that warm sympathy which a 
 skilful writer must always try to get. 
 Tho she endures the life shado, as no 
 man could hav endured it, she suffers 
 terribly from its crushing monotony, its 
 
 503 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 aimless punctuality, the repetition of the 
 same useless occupations, the ever-re- 
 curring remarks about tlie weather, and 
 the daily wonder as to whether what 
 happens every day will happen again. 
 Worst of all, however, is the evangelical 
 piety of the unt who, subject to the abso- 
 lute authority of her maid, is mistress 
 of the house." [Athenaeum. 1608 
 
 MYSTERY OF MRS. BLENCAR- 
 ROW (The). [by Ma. Oliphant 
 (Wilson) Oliphant : BlackeU, 1800.] 
 " A sketch thron off by a, practised 
 hand should hav had a little more 
 motif than we can find in the rather 
 sordid mystery of Mrs. Blencarrow. 
 The misery of a sensible and withal 
 sensuous woman who has contracted a 
 secret m irriage with a handsom dullard 
 cannot be and is not overdrawn in the 
 story of this unhappy lady. Kitty 
 Bircham is lifelike, as far as she goes, 
 but she is rather a slit Miss Hoyden. 
 There is no moral in the story, which 
 is so far well ; but it is somewhat sad, 
 and not so suggestiv as usual." [Athe- 
 naeum. 1609 
 
 NAME AND FAME, [by A. S. 
 EwiNG Lester and Adeline Ser- 
 geant: Bentley, 1890.] "The authors 
 hav endeavored, with more success than 
 mit hav been expected, to justify a 
 bold step across conventional bounda- 
 ries. Lettice Campion avows to Alan 
 Walcott, a married man, that she will 
 come to his arms whether or not he 
 obtains the divorce he is justified in 
 seeking. Alan, a poet and a man of 
 hi refinement, has been put for years 
 to the most terrible torture by an 
 unfaithful and malignant wife ; he has 
 suffered unjustly at the hands of the 
 law as the result of her violence and 
 deliberate falsehood; in Lettice he has 
 found his equal in mind and his supe- 
 rior in generosity anl candor; Lettice 
 
 has believed in him when his life was 
 shadoed by disgrace, and has braved 
 hostil opinion by receiving him when 
 released from prison, and when he had 
 not another friend in the world ; and to 
 these circumstances of inducement may 
 be added the all-important fact that 
 Lettice is in love." [Athenasum.] — The 
 original of the hero (as in " My Enemy's 
 Daughter," and "Heir of the Ages") 
 seems to be G: H: Lewes. 1610 
 
 NANCY [by Rhoda Broughton : 
 Bentley, 1873.] "pleased the author's 
 established admirers less than any of 
 its predecessors, but had previously 
 undiscovered attraction for readers who 
 had not cared about her former works. 
 There was more heart in ' Nancy,' more 
 true womanhood, and much less sugges- 
 tion of a mental attitude which mIt be 
 described as having its fysical counter- 
 part in slang, hands-in-poeket, cigar- 
 in-mouth, devil-may-careishness. The 
 quick observation, and the odd, piquante 
 way of putting things, which made the 
 author's preceding stories attractiv, wer 
 as fresh as ever in ' Nancy,' and tho the 
 ideal of the story was not u, very lofty 
 one, it was hier than its forerunners." 
 [Spectator.] — " ThSre ar plenty of 
 smart things and plenty of amusing 
 things in ' Nancy,' and very few indeed 
 which ar tlioroly coarse. Nancy, like 
 all Miss Broughton's heroins, is a girl 
 with a mind above her life, and the his- 
 tory of her young experiences is admir- 
 ably told, and is full of delineations of 
 every-day adventures of a large family. 
 This part of the book mit be described 
 as the ' autobiografy of a tom-boy.' In 
 the second volume she is wedded, and 
 we hav an equally clever treatment of 
 married life between two persons, both 
 good and true, who hardly suit each 
 other." [Athenaeum. 1611 
 
 NEIGHBOURS [by M.. L.. (Stew- 
 
 504 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 art) Moleswoetii : Ilatchards, 1889.] 
 " is a graceful study of life in a country 
 town. Pretty, shy Susie Thicknesse is 
 one of a motlicrless family ruled over 
 by an admirable, but stern elder sister, 
 anxious above all to keep her flock from 
 the world and the wickedness tliereof. 
 To the quiet place come a family out 
 of the great world — not wicked, not 
 even frivolous, but branded in the stern 
 Lavinia's eyes as titled and traveled. 
 Susie and her sisters ar drawn towards 
 the new-comers, and then begins a strug- 
 gle between the old ways and the new — 
 silent, but none the less deadly. How 
 the fit is fot, and how true worth wins 
 in the end, Mrs. Molesworth tells in her 
 charming way." [Athenaeum. 1612 
 , NEIGHBOURS ON THE GREEN. 
 [ by Ma. Olipiiant (Wilson) Oli- 
 I'liANT : Macmillan, 1889.] "Several 
 of these 9 stories ar among the best 
 things she has written. Tho published 
 anonymously, the authorship of ' My 
 Neighbour Nelly' and its successors was 
 an open secret to any reader with a feel- 
 ing for style ; and the publication of 
 that exquisit novel ' A Rose in June ' 
 [No. 174.'?], rendered it obvious to the 
 outside world, as several characters wer 
 common to the novel and the short 
 stories. A general idea of the nature 
 of the rare treat here provided may 
 perhaps best be given by saying that in 
 its pages Mrs. Oliphant does for a quiet, 
 refined, almost aristocratic rural com- 
 munity, just what Mrs. Gaskell did for 
 an equally quiet, almost equally refined, 
 but decidedly less aristocratic urban 
 community in the pages of ' Cranford.' 
 [No. 1175; compare also, No. 1231.] 
 Dinglefield Green is a village ' far from 
 the noise and smoke of town,' inhabited 
 by a little colony of well-bred, well- 
 mannered people who hav somehow 
 drifted towards the quiet, lovely spot. 
 
 and, one by one, hav pitched their tents 
 thdre. Some of the tents ar more 
 imposing than others, for tho Sir T: 
 Denzil at the lodge, and Mrs. Spencer 
 and Lady Isabella, who liv together 
 not far away, ar decidedly rich, Mrs. 
 Stokes and the Merridews ar certainly 
 poor; while Mrs. Mulgrave, the kindly, 
 middle-aged chronicler of her nebors' 
 lives, is troubled by neither poverty nor 
 wealth . . . This story of 'The Stock- 
 broker at Dinglewood,' with its opening 
 of brit refined comedy, and its sad, 
 almost tragic close, has a wider range 
 than some of its companions, and is, we 
 think, among the finest, tho it seems 
 ungracious to make comparisons when 
 all ar so charming. The tale which 
 occupies the place of honor is a delltful 
 record of the beginning and end of a 
 blunder, which, strange as it seems, — 
 has been made more than once in life, 
 where it has not always been rectified 
 so happily as it is rectified here ; but 
 even 'My Neighbour Nelly,' graceful 
 as' it is, must yield the palm to the 
 story of 'Lady Denzil,' the digni- 
 fied, sweet, sympathetic queen of Din- 
 glewood, whose sad secret, kept for 
 so many years, is so suddenly and 
 so startlingly revealed. The close of 
 ' The Scientific Gentleman ' is power- 
 ful, and such stories as 'Lady Isabella' 
 and 'Mrs. Merridew's Fortune' could 
 not well be better than th^y ar; but 
 it is in ' Lady Denzil ' that Mrs. Oli- 
 phant's genius touches its hi-water 
 mark." ^Spectator. 1C13 
 
 NELLY'S MEMORIES, [by Kosa 
 NouciiETTE Cakey : London, 1868; 
 Lippincott, 1880.] " Nelly is an english 
 girl who is left by her mother's death in 
 charge of a family of children; and 
 her experiences relate to the duties, 
 responsibilities, and trials which she 
 encountered in that position. Her story 
 
 505 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 is sweetly told, and has that Indefina- 
 ble but perfectly distinct charm which 
 attaches to so much english fiction of 
 the less ambitious sort." [Boston " Lit- 
 erary AVorld." 1614 
 
 NEW ANTIGONE = No. 8G2. 
 
 NEW GODIVA (A) [by Stanley 
 Hope: LippincoU, 1880.] "is a novel 
 of full proportions, and of more than 
 ordinary ability and interest, written 
 with a good deal of power and self- 
 command, introducing many pretty little 
 touches of landscape, but characterized 
 chiefly by its strong portraiture of the 
 leading personages, and, in particular, a 
 wife whose devotion to an invalid and 
 unfortunate husband nervs her to a 
 sacrifice in his behalf which few true 
 women would offer. The nature of the 
 offering we will leav the reader to 
 find out for himself ; simply saying that 
 the title furnishes a suggestion of it, 
 and that the point of the story is re- 
 vealed with the greatest delicacy, and in 
 a way to avoid offense to the most refined 
 and sensitiv taste. The steps by wliich 
 the wife advances to her supreme resolu- 
 tion, and the thotless and selfish igno- 
 rance with which her husband drives 
 her on, ar depicted with great skill and 
 strength. ThSre is sometliing almost piti- 
 less in the fate which crowds them both, 
 but th^re is a happy ending, and the 
 sorroes of poverty ar forgotten." [Bos- 
 ton " Literary World." 1615 
 
 NEW REPUBLIC (The), [by W: 
 IIuREELL Mallock : SpotUswoode , 
 1878.] " If cleverness wer the one 
 thing needful in a book, ' The New 
 Republic' would loav little to be de- 
 sired. Only a man of wit, and of much 
 confidence in his wit, would hav dared 
 plan such a work ; but tho the author's 
 interest in his performance flags a little 
 after his brilliant outset, his epigrams 
 ar not eiliausted before the close . . . 
 
 A young man of fortune and distinction 
 assembles at his sea-side villa a party 
 comprising the chief leaders of english 
 thCt, — some typical representativ of 
 each of the contending schools. The 
 disguises ar so thin that even the ameri- 
 cau reader is in no danger of mistaking 
 the characters. Matthew Arnold comes 
 under the name of Mr. Luke, Ruskin as 
 Mr. Herbert, Professor Jowett as Dr. 
 Jenkinson, Huxley and Tyndall as Mr. 
 Storks and Professor Stockton, and a 
 certain Mrs. Singleton, who has pub- 
 lished rather nauty and enormously 
 silly poems, figures as Mrs. Sinclair. 
 Then there ar Mr. Rose, a prse-Raffael- 
 ite poet and critic, presumably Mr. 
 Pater; Mr. Saunders, a. particularly tuf 
 and unscrupulous young materialist, 
 identified with Professor Clifford ; Lord 
 Allen, a modest and boyish peer, of im- 
 mense wealtli and benevolent purposes ; 
 a rather hazy and sentimental Scotch- 
 man who has seceded from the kirk to 
 join the ranks of free thot, and sug- 
 gests G: MacDonald; a charming Miss 
 Merton, wlio is a devout Romanist; 
 Lady Ambrose, a thoro woman of the 
 world , with manners so delitf ul that they 
 impart a certain fascination to a positivly 
 defectiv intelligence; Mr. Leslie, the 
 intimate friend of the host, who givs us 
 some of the keenest ' mots ' with which 
 the book is adorned, but who is heart- 
 sick over tlie death of the woman whom 
 he had loved in secret, and so cannot 
 openly morn; and finally the host him- 
 self. Otto Laurence, who also fancies 
 himself in a state of deep disenchant- 
 ment with ' life, love,' literature, and 
 ' all things,' yet Avho' is swayed by ro- 
 mantic and re-actionary impulses toward 
 Mr. Herbert and Miss Merton. Tho 
 fact that the author of the volume 
 appears to divide his on languid and 
 fluctuating opinions about equally be- 
 
 506 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 tween tliesB two friends tonrls rather to 
 confuse the personalities of Leslie anil 
 Laurence, but u, little care will keep 
 tliera distinct, and the portrait of Lau- 
 rence, the host, in the first chapter is one 
 of the most caustic bits in the book." 
 [Atlantic. 1616 
 
 NEWCOMES (The), [by W: Make- 
 peace Thacker.iy : Smith, ISoS.'] "Let 
 us say a word about ' The Newcomes.' 
 The story lingers and loses itself will- 
 ingly in those bypaths of humor and 
 sentiment which ar worth all the beaten 
 tracks of all the most exciting novels in 
 the world. To enjoy Thackeray de- 
 mands the palate of a degustateur, not 
 the gross appetite of a novel-reader, 
 ravenous for plot and incident. To 
 drain a number of the Newcomes at a 
 draft is to drink Lafitte or Clos-Vougeot 
 in pewter, and to insult your host by 
 swalloing wliat you ar expected to sip, 
 and pouring down your mouth what you 
 sliould first taste with the breath of your 
 nostrils. Thackeray's stories, we say, 
 ar to be sipped like the finest and rarest 
 wine ; and it is neither to his praise nor 
 to his shame, but simply to his liking, to 
 invite none but the epicures of life's 
 various feasts of joys and sorroes to his 
 select table. Only those who hav shed 
 their illusions and passed throu a prema- 
 ture cynicism into a larger and more 
 complete filosofy of life — less bitter 
 and more compassionate, less trustful 
 and more sympathetic, saddened rather 
 than sad, and smiling genially throu 
 unshed tears at human weakness and 
 human vanity' — only those can feel the 
 subtle charm of a humorist like Thack- 
 eray." [Leader.] — "In ' The New- 
 comes 'whose fortunes it is so pleasant 
 to folio from month to month, as they 
 t'ms acquire a reality, and become, as it 
 wer, a part of the actual circumstance 
 of life, Thackeray will undoubtedly con- 
 
 vert to his side the many of the gentle 
 sex who hav hitlierto refused allegiance 
 to him upon tlie ground that all his 
 women wer either fools or knaves, 
 while the heroic gentlemen who did not 
 believe that, like Dobbin, all heroes 
 must hav clumsy hands and feet, and 
 be great gawky louts, will find that 
 Thackeray is of their opinion. For, to 
 the ladies, Etliel, if we mistake not, will 
 be lovely without the weakness which is 
 so deprecated in Amelia, and brave and 
 noble without the subtle knavery of 
 Mrs. Rebecca Crawley. And, to the 
 gentlemen, the father of Clive Newcome 
 will prove to be just such a father as 
 every son would be glad and proud to 
 remember, — such a father as he could 
 never recall, after all tlie long years of 
 life, and when he saw his on grand- 
 children around him, without an affec- 
 tionate melancholy quite beyond tears 
 . . . We therefore heartily advise 
 all the friends about our chair to enrich 
 their lives with the monthly perusal of 
 this tender and touching, as well as 
 severe and amusing, story. It is a great 
 mistake that it is dull to read stories in 
 numbers. You hav to take life in num- 
 bers. You ar compelled to wait patiently 
 until every day is regularly issued. How 
 long ar the denoiimeQts in coming ! How 
 eagerly and delltedly, or how anxiously 
 and sorrofuUy, you await the crisis ! It 
 is sure to come. It comes sometimes 
 rather more quickly than you hoped. 
 The story ends suddenly. Two lovers 
 ar married, and go into endless fes- 
 tivity ; perhaps you may be one ! Or 
 thfire is a bell tolling — perhaps for you ! 
 Besides, we hurry on so rapidly that if 
 you wait until the convenient monthly 
 number has swelled into the volumes of 
 a complete work, you ar likely never 
 to find the moment for attending to it. 
 There ar many adherents of this chair 
 
 607 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 who complain bitterly that they hav 
 not read Copperfield, for instance, or 
 Bleak House, becaus they did not read 
 it in numbers when they mit iiav taken 
 it just before dinner, or in the cars, or 
 just before going to bed — in fact, at a 
 hundred times when they would , not 
 think of beginning a book. And lo ! 
 after a, dozen or score of such spicy 
 hours scattered throu a year, not felt by 
 their loss, but only by their pleasant 
 gain, the book would hav been read, 
 and read with enjoyment. For it 
 must be remarked, too, that it is quite 
 a peculiar enjoyment. You speculate 
 about the fate of Ethel Newcome — you 
 hope, you 'fear, you doubt, as you do 
 about your cousin Jane, or your niece, 
 the gentle Annie. You digest the whole 
 matter. You taste the tale drop by 
 drop. You forecast probabilities, you 
 balance chances. The book becomes a 
 graceful arabesque arounil the actuali- 
 ties of life." [G: W: Curtis. 1017 
 NINE DAYS' WONDER (A) [by 
 Hamiltos Aid^ : Osgood, 1875.] " is 
 a short and simple story, which pre- 
 sents some novel complications, the un- 
 folding of which is very interesting. A 
 rich widoer is living in a village, happy 
 in the possession of a lovely dauter. 
 During the latter's absence a lady 
 comes to him, in whom he recognizes 
 her whom he had loved in youth. Slie 
 is still beautiful and fascinating, and the 
 widoer's th6ts turn to marriage. Kate, 
 the dauter, comes home, and tells her 
 father about a yung officer whom she 
 loves. Presently this officer arrives, 
 tells Mr. Vavasour his sad history, — 
 how his father was a villain, and how 
 his mother had deserted her husband, 
 fleeing with another man. Mrs. Fitzroy 
 recognizes in him her son; he resolvs, 
 for her sake, and in vue of her proba- 
 ble marriage with Mr. Vavasour to 
 
 abandon his suit. But the mother, 
 stained tho she was, would not permit 
 this sacrifice, and with the vows of Mr. 
 Vavasour thrilling in her ears, departs 
 to return no more. So the yung officer 
 and Kate wer married. There is a 
 good deal of pathos in this story, and 
 its pictures of a gossiping neborhood ar 
 lively." [Boston " Lit. World." 1018 
 NO N.VME. [by [W:J Wilicih Col- 
 lins : Low, 1862.] "The third class of 
 readers iinds its undoubted chief in Jlr. 
 Wilkie Collins; here there is neither 
 insit into character, as in the first in- 
 stance, nor careful imitation of txter- 
 nals, as in the second. On the contrary 
 the characters ar moral monstrosities ; 
 not shocking only becaus they ar too 
 monstrous to suggest the idea of their 
 possibility, while the resemblance to life 
 is the very faintest possible, and only 
 just sufficient to enable author and 
 reader to forget the fictitiousness of the 
 whole . . . We ar forever on the verge 
 of a crash; a look, a word, a piece 
 of ribbon, a stray envelope, a late train, 
 a talkativ maid, or a careless postman 
 — may at any moment tumble the whole 
 fabric to the ground. We hold our 
 breath til the author has safely landed 
 us in the next secure position, and 
 allows us a few moments' rest before 
 another entanglement, another crisis, 
 another stroke of luck, another fortu- 
 nate escape . . All this is, we think, 
 ii little overdone in ' No Name : ' 
 the reader really gets too fiurried, and 
 his attention is too hard-worked, to be 
 compatible with artistic enjoyment. We 
 arrive at the close almost as exhausted as 
 at tho end of a difficult cross-road railway 
 journey ; there hav been half-a-dozen 
 different trains, any mistake in any one of 
 which would hav marred our traveling 
 for the day ; the carriage which took us 
 to the station was within a second of 
 
 508 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 being too late ; we hav been within u. 
 few yards of a collision ; in each train 
 we hav unexpectedly met an old ac- 
 quaintance ; we hav several times lost 
 our luggage, and recovered it bymiracle. 
 All is over now ; but one's nerves ar 
 shaken, the mind still continues to hope, 
 calculate, prepare for disaster, or devise 
 expedients for success ; our host mer- 
 cifully dismisses us to bed, and our 
 troubles haunt us in our dreams. The 
 thousands who hav devoured ' No 
 Name ' as it appeared, hav probably ex- 
 perienced the same sort of fluttering 
 spirits, nervous anxiety, and weary rest- 
 lessness." [London Review. 1619 
 
 NO NEW THING. [by W : E: 
 NoRRis : Holt, 1883.] " The story 
 revolvs about the career and fortunes of 
 an anglo-italian boy, who is adopted by 
 the kind-hearted heroin, and the analysis 
 of his pleasure-loving, superficial char- 
 acter is very good. It is his fate, and 
 leads him a strange dance , throu failures 
 and misfortunes and mistakes, and a 
 good many lies, to a queer end. The 
 contrast of his selfish, facile disposition 
 witli tlie stronger and simpler english 
 characters with whom he is thron in con- 
 tact is well drawn, as is also the contrast 
 between his subtle half Italian intellect 
 and their coarser mental fibre. Tlie 
 story is very natural." [Nation. 1620 
 
 NO SAINT, [by Adeline Sergeant : 
 Macmillan, 188G.] " So true a picture 
 of middle-class life and its religious 
 aspirations is most welcom. The writer 
 has chosen for her central figure a man 
 on an entirely different intellectual 
 platform from hers, and has succeeded 
 in rendering him both interesting and 
 admirable. Added to a fine feminln 
 perception she has a dispassionateness 
 and a sense of humor, tho the latter 
 quality is greatly restrained by the 
 sombre character of the story . . . It is 
 
 a fine feature in the writer that she is 
 always ready to recognize the existence 
 of noble qualities under unprepossessing 
 exteriors. Mrs. Crockett, an eccentric 
 and angular little woman, vegetarian, 
 homoeopath, teetotaler, and anti-vacci- 
 nationist, nevertheless by her acts of 
 unselfishness and delicate reticence 
 fairly proves her kinship with the heroic 
 souls of the earth. The attitude of 
 aristocratic orthodoxy towards bourgeois 
 dissent and vice vers^ is pointedly set 
 forth, but with perfect impartiality; and 
 thfire ar some admirable chapters de- 
 scribing the false position of a girl 
 belonging to tlie latter class, who 
 marries into the ranks of the former, 
 but oing to her husband's death has 'to 
 accomplish her elevation ' without his 
 help. In short, ' No Saint ' is a story of 
 remarkable merit." [AthenaBum. 1621 
 NOBLE BLOOD, [by Julian Haw- 
 thorne : Appleton, 1884.] "Nothing 
 is more certain than that Mr. Hawthorne 
 can do very pleasant work, except the 
 fact that for some unconscionable reason 
 he chooses to do a good deal which is 
 very unpleasant. It is a pleasure to 
 record that ' Noble Blood ' shoes him at 
 his best; not becaus it exliibits weird 
 imagination about things which never 
 wer or 6t to be, but becaus it is human, 
 possible and pretty. This may seem 
 slit praise to those who would like Mr. 
 Hawthorne to be always Hawthornesque ; 
 but in being enjoyable, 'Noble Blood' 
 will appeal to a much wider class of 
 readers. The mise-en-scene of the 
 opening chapters is delicious ; the genial, 
 breezy, lovely bit of description is 
 foUoed by a. tale which, if little more 
 than a story, is nevertlieless an enter- 
 taining story, full of irish humor, and 
 leaving one with an impression that life 
 after all is worth living, and human 
 nature worth loving." [Critic. 1622 
 
 609 
 
BKITISH NOVELS. 
 
 , SAME ("Miss Cadogna"). 
 
 Chaito, 1884. 
 
 NOBLE LIFE (A). [by Dinah 
 Maria (Mulock) Craik: Harper, 
 18G6.] " The story of ». man born 
 cruelly deformed and infirm, with a 
 body dwarfish, but large enuf to hold a 
 large heart and clear brain, — and of 
 such a man's living many years of pain, 
 happy in the blessings which his great 
 wealth and hi rank, and, above all, his 
 noble nature, enable him to confer on 
 every one approaching him, — could 
 hardly hav been told more simply and 
 pathetically than it is in this boolf , but it 
 mit certainly hav been told more briefiy. 
 The one slit incident of the fiction — 
 the marriage of the earl's protegee and 
 protectress and dearest friend to his 
 worthless cousin, who, having learned 
 that the heirless earl will leav her his 
 fortune, wins her heart by deceit, and 
 then does his worst to breali it — -occurs 
 when the book is half completed, and 
 scarcely suffices to interest, since it is 
 so obvious what the end must be ; while 
 the remaining pages, devoted to study 
 of the earl's character, do not develop 
 much which is new in literature or 
 humanity. Still, the story has its charm : 
 it is healthful, unaffected, and hopeful ; 
 and most people will read it throu and 
 be better for having done so." [Atlan- 
 tic] — It is "intensely moral in its 
 character, but not healthily moral be- 
 caus the goodness of the chief character 
 borders on ' namby pamby.' " [London 
 Review. 1623 
 
 NOR LOVE, NOR LANDS [by 
 Cecil Griffith: Tinsley, 1873.] "is 
 a picturesque tale of rustic life. The 
 plot is silt, and the characters few ; but 
 th^re is a grafic power in the description 
 of scenes and people which will leav 
 more than one mental fotograf on the 
 reader's memory. The action proceeds 
 
 alternately in a decayed mansion, fallen 
 upon evil days and the uses of a farmer's 
 homestead, and a town in the neborhood. 
 The latter is described principally in its 
 social aspects, which we vue in the 
 hi-polite society of retired tradesmen; 
 the former is more tenderly dwelt upon, 
 being the home of an ancient race, who 
 hav declined to the rank of yeomen, but 
 retain in their adversity something of the 
 strong character and traditional pride 
 which raised them in old times to pros- 
 perity." [Athenaeum. 1624 
 NORA'S LOVE TEST. [by M.. 
 Cecil Hay: Harper, 1877.] "Mrs. 
 Hay differs from a good many writers of 
 fiction in this, that she takes the trouble 
 to invent a complicated plot, whereas 
 many of her craft seem to regard that 
 part of their occupation as an obsolete 
 and superfluous bit of trouble. She by 
 no means stops th^re, however, for the 
 dry bones of the plot ar hidden beneath 
 a good deal of talk and action. ' Nora's 
 Love Test ' concerns itself in a tlioroly 
 new fashion with the persecuted country- 
 girl, ignorant of the world and its ways, 
 as penniless as only pretty-faced heroins 
 can be, and tells how she is snubbed by 
 envious yung women who notice that 
 Mark always gets her into a corner and 
 talks to her in a lo, earnest voice when 
 they ar singing, but how, not otherwise 
 than as a perfect lady, she manages to 
 say the last word, which is of a sort 
 to confound and abash the would-be 
 snubbers and drive them to shoing 
 before Mark (who draws liis on conclu- 
 sions) how bad tempered the sweet- 
 looking, hily educated Victoria and 
 Genevieve can be. Of course this 
 yung person at the proper time comes 
 into the possession of a large fortune by 
 a, series of incidents which do credit to 
 Mrs. Hay's head, and, it may be added, 
 to her heart, for Nora deservs a generous 
 
 510 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 reward for the unflinching way in which 
 she performs the intricate duties of the 
 leading lady of the story. This is not 
 a novel which will be very well knon a few 
 years hence, unless the supply of novels 
 should miraculously come to a sudden 
 end ; but for a season it will deserv to be 
 read, and any one who does not find it 
 better than 3 novels out of 5 has made a 
 very good selection." [Nation. 1625 
 
 NORTHAM Cloisters [Sm-ith, 
 
 1882.] "is a quiet study of a little 
 provincial university, and the loves and 
 misunderstandings of 3 gentlemen and 
 3 ladies, who settle down as comfortably 
 at last as the lovers of the sweet Mid- 
 summer Nit, when the Puck of real 
 life has opened their eyes to their blun- 
 ders . . . Her style is quiet and medita- 
 t;v even, as becomes the subject-matter 
 with which it deals, and confirms the 
 promise of ' Alcestis' [No. 582] in that 
 respect. Moreover, it co-exists with a 
 distinct power of working out and an- 
 alysing still-life, even commonplace 
 character, in a progressiv way which 
 5ne can watch with interest . . . The 
 life in ' Northam Cloisters ' is made up 
 of quiet characters and quiet deaths, 
 homely flirtations and misunderstand- 
 ings ; small pdlitics, collegiate and ec- 
 clesiastic; and agreat deal of music . . . 
 The 6'lovers,'with another yung lady of 
 a loer class of life interfering at one 
 period, who looks at first as if she mat be 
 nauty, but soon dispels any such danger- 
 ous suspicions, ar all in their ways well 
 drawn, particularly tlie heroin, Althea, 
 who leaves a sweet and womanly im- 
 pression." [Spectator. 1626 
 NORTHANGER ABBEY, [by J.. 
 Austen: 1816.] "Mr. Payn holds 
 up to admiration the courage of Miss 
 Bronte's remark about J.. Austen's 
 novels : — 'I kno it's very wrong, but 
 the fact is I can't read them. They hav 
 
 511 
 
 not story enuf in them to engage my 
 attention. I don't want my blood curdled, 
 but I like it stirred. She strikes me as 
 milk-and-watery, and to my taste, as 
 dull ' . . But this imperious craving 
 for a story, this desire to hav the blood 
 ' stirred,' if not curdled, by fiction, be- 
 trays a certain puerility of literary feel- 
 ing, and when it goes so far as to render 
 any clever person insensible to the ex- 
 traordinary humor and literary piquancy 
 of such a writer as Miss Austen, it really 
 does limit their horizon to a very un- 
 fortunate extent. Such limits may well 
 be expected of what Miss Austen some- 
 wh(^re calls ' strong, natural, sterling 
 injignificance ; ' but they disappoint one 
 in Miss Bronte and in Mr. Payn. One 
 passes over it in people remarkable, to 
 use another of Miss Austen's admirable 
 expressions, ' for want of sense, either 
 natural or improved,' but it always 
 shocks one when a man or woman of 
 real imagination confesses to feeling no 
 dellt in those most wonderful and per- 
 fect of all miniature pictures." [Spec- 
 tator. 1627 
 NORTHERIST LILY (A), [by Joanna 
 Hakkison : Macmillan, 1886.] "The 
 story of Elsie Ross is one of the most 
 touching things we hay lately read, and 
 like all writers who hav the gift of true 
 pathos, Miss Harrison has the keenest 
 appreciation of humor. A ' Lily among 
 Thorns " is the second and more ap- 
 propriate title of the book, for first in . 
 her northern home. with her intensely 
 ' dour ' and proud but loving father, and 
 afterwards in England among worldly 
 and other-worldly matrons, maids, and 
 men, Elsie's ingenuous purity con^asts 
 with all who surround her. Not that 
 thdre is an unmitigated bad character 
 in the book, nor, if we except some 
 hoidenish girls, is th^re a really vulgar 
 one, which is another blessing . . . Her 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 men and women talk exactly as people 
 do talk, and in th^ir talk reveal the 
 great variety of th(5ir characters." [Athe- 
 n;eum. 1628 
 
 NOT LIKE OTHER GIRLS, [by 
 Rosa Nouciiette Carey : Lippincott, 
 1884.] " It is a refreshment of soul to 
 turn to anything so brit and sweet as 
 ' Not Like Other Girls "... The story 
 ranks with the best of its kind ; and the 
 kind is a very good one, which leaves 
 would-be filosofy and pretentious theo- 
 ries quite out of sit, and givs us the 
 home life of gentle, hi-hearted maidens. 
 A dauter's devotion, and the old-fash- 
 ioned fidelity of lover to lady, still oifer 
 worthy opportunities to the novel-writer. 
 There is something curious in the differ- 
 ence in a story of this calibre, by an 
 english hand and an american one . The 
 latter is more ambitious, puts more ideas 
 into it, intends to mean more ; but the 
 former rounds out and finishes by add- 
 ing a host of details which make the 
 picture more interesting as well as more 
 beautiful. Some people may say the 
 difference is in the life itself, but it is 
 not yet proved 'that it is not for want of 
 some special faculty, call it perhaps 
 literary patience, which will gather a 
 full store, and then spare no pains to 
 use it all to the utmost advantage." 
 [Nation.] — "The 3 yung women char- 
 acterized by the title of ' Not Like Other 
 Girls' ar not, it may be hoped, so very 
 unlike the rest of their sex, after all, 
 since they ar 3 brave, activ, sensible 
 girls with so wholesom a taste for work 
 that while in affluence they make their 
 dresses, and when reduced to poverty 
 . turn their talents to account in making 
 dresses for other women, instead of try- 
 ing to gain a foothold in the over- 
 (•rowded tho possibly more ' genteel ' 
 occupations of governesses or compan- 
 ions . . . How they achieve social suc- 
 
 cess, also, in spite of their industrial 
 pursuits, and ar asked in marriage by 
 the cream of the nfiboring bachelors, 
 and ar finally restored to affluence by a 
 rich relativ from India, ar mere matters 
 of detail, not essential to the point of 
 the story, but adding to its agreeable- 
 ness." [American.] — "The story of 
 the Misses Challoner, who ar ' not like 
 other girls,' shoes their unlikeness to their 
 compeers to be merely superior adaptabil- 
 ity and cleverness, charm and energy. It 
 is an engaging history of a family, con- 
 sisting of a mother and 3 dauters, who 
 ar suddenly reduced from easy circum- 
 stances to poverty. There is no vague- 
 ness in the recital : the girls ar clear 
 headed enuf to see all the difficulties 
 and dangers of their position, and can- 
 vass them at once. Altho pretty, refined 
 and clever enuf to hold their place in 
 society, they hav no special accomplish- 
 ment or talent which mit enable them 
 to be governesses : so they resolv to 
 turn to account their skill in dress-mak- 
 ing ; and this is effectivly done in a 
 little, dull, sea-side town wh6re their 
 enterprise makes a nine-days' wonder. 
 There is a cheerful naturalness and 
 good sense about the heroins, and an 
 attractivness besides, which win the 
 reader's liking, and it is inevitable, we 
 suppose, that such pretty damsels should 
 enlist the sympathies of all sorts of gal- 
 lant knits who rush to their rescue.'' 
 [Lippincott's. 1629 
 
 NOT WISELY, BUT TOO WELL 
 [by RiiODA Brougiiton : Tinsley, 
 1867.] " is, comparativly, free from the 
 faults which provoked so much hostil 
 criticism in the author's first novel [No. 
 1156] . . . The theme of both stories 
 is an unwise and disappointed affection, 
 and in each the leading character is a 
 girl whom love has the power of send- 
 ing into almost mad raptures, and who. 
 12 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 under its Influence, is capable of per- ated air which is Erin in essence. The 
 
 forming the wildest and most unreason- 
 able of actions. In each story, also, 
 the greatest stress is laid upon the 
 strength and stature, the thews and 
 sinews, of the hero, and a great deal 
 more is said than is at all necessary 
 about his ' vine-tendril hair,' the ' stately 
 column of his throat,' ' the knotted 
 muscles ' of his arm, his deep chest, 
 and his broad sholders. Kate Chester, 
 the lady who loves too well, is a beauty 
 of the irregular kind, her nose being 
 slltly turned up, and her hair inclining 
 in hue to red. But she is so brit and 
 animated, and her figure is so charm- 
 ingly proportioned and so provokingly 
 plump that she wins all hearts, and 
 almost reduces her commonplace sister, 
 Margaret, to despair by carrying off 
 from her all her admirers. Unfortu- 
 nately for her peace of mind, she gains 
 the affection of a Col. Stamer, and in 
 return she givs him her whole heart. 
 The chief merit of the book — and it is 
 great— lies in the description of her 
 love, of the joy with which at first it 
 fills her being, of the fierce restlessness 
 which it brings upon her afterwards 
 when disappointment begins to over- 
 shado it, and lastly of the blank despair 
 to which it surrenders her when all 
 hope of its being rewarded has passed 
 away." [London Review. 1630 
 
 NUGENTS OF CARICONNA 
 (The) [by Tighe Hopkins : Ward ^ 
 Downey, 1890.] " ar all which can be 
 desired by those who enjoy lit char- 
 acter studies divorced from too much 
 plot and incident. The opening chapter 
 is quite delltful, nor is the rest disap- 
 pointing. It has lately been our fate to 
 read more than one so-called irish novel 
 with no irish flavor about it. But this is 
 distinctly irish in feeling from first to 
 last with a whimsical yet not exagger- 
 
 effect is produced by artistic and quite 
 simple means. Thfire is no description 
 in the ordinary sense — the whole thing 
 is conveyed to the reader in the surest 
 and happiest manner. Humor, truth, 
 kindliness of feeling, and good taste 
 ar the principal ingredients. Miss Bar- 
 bara, who keeps house for her brother 
 Anthony, and Anthony himself, ar an 
 excellent pair. In a certain quality, 
 which we call quaintness, only for want 
 of a less hackneyed word, these two ar 
 not alone. Most of the people in the 
 story ar human, natural, and individ- 
 ual to an uncommon degree, and their 
 talk is like them." [Athenaeum. 1631 
 
 OCCUPATIONS OF A RETIRED 
 LIFE (.The) [by " E: Gakrett," i. e., 
 I.. Fyfie Mayo : RouUedge, 1868.] " is a 
 very pleasant story, written in an easy, 
 graceful style, abounding in good say- 
 ings, in charity, and in common-sense. 
 Thfire is nothing in it which can prop- 
 erly be called a, plot, and very little 
 incident, but a good deal of character- 
 drawing very well done, and a good 
 deal of sound reflexion on manners and 
 life. The story is the autobiografy of 
 an old bachelor who has lived in Lon- 
 don long enuf to become rich, and then 
 retired into the country and gone to 
 house-keeping with his maiden sister, 
 who is the character of tlie book, a 
 somewhat shrewish person in appear- 
 ance, but in appearance only, her out- 
 ward sharpness masking a world of 
 inward tenderness . . . Some of the 
 minor characters of the book ar very 
 pleasant, and one of them, at least, 
 Ewen McCallum, the proper hero of 
 the book, and a real hero, is made by a 
 few stray touches to stand out vividly." 
 [Nation. 1633 
 
 ODD COUPLE (An) [by Ma. 
 Oliphant (Wilson) Oliphant : Phil'a, 
 
 513 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 Porter, 1876.] " portrays a milder and 
 more frequent form of marital un- 
 happiness, which leads to the separation 
 of the husband and wife. The father 
 retains the dauter and the mother takes 
 the son, and both suffer from Mrs. 
 Oliphant's gentle satire, who always 
 writes as if she had observd countless 
 households and was never weary of 
 describing the amusing scenes which 
 took place before her. Her field is a 
 narro one ; she seldom goes outside of 
 the parlor in her simple but charming 
 stories, but on her ground she is without 
 a rival. She is a worthy successor to 
 Jane Austen." [Nation. 1633 
 
 O'DONNELLS OF INCHFAWN 
 (The), [by " L. T. Meade," i. e., E.. 
 Thomasina (Meade) Smith : Harper, 
 1887.] " The plot is conventional, but 
 the characters ar interesting, and fit 
 naturally into the scenes in which they 
 play a part. The author, tho very kind 
 to their virtues, is not blind to those 
 peculiarities which do not exactly en- 
 dear the Irish to other nations. The 
 O'Donnell tenantry ar impulsiv, tur- 
 bulent, absolutely ignorant, and hope- 
 lessly lazy. If they could, by honest 
 work, extract subsistence from the 
 land, they would wither in despair. 
 Thfire would be no excuse for begging 
 and picturesque starving, for mysteri- 
 ous conspiracies, and for incredible 
 noise about wrongs. But noise and 
 notoriety hav become essential to them, 
 and with plenty of these, their bliss is 
 completely expressed in such a vision 
 as that inspired by the th6t that the 
 evicted O'Donnells wer coming to their 
 on again." [Nation. 1634 
 
 OLD HOUSE IN THE SQUARE 
 (The), [by Alice "Weeer : RouUedge, 
 1883.] "There ar some stories which 
 hav the quiet homely merit of a dutch 
 picture, and Miss Weber's is of that 
 
 order. No involved plot wearies us in 
 its unraveling, no very brilliant sallies 
 dazzle us as we read, but we enter with 
 a certain satisfaction into the life of the 
 Bertrams, and thgre is a, gentle charm 
 in the family chronicle. We kno all 
 the children who liv in the old house — 
 giant Roger, fiery Fergus, and dreamy 
 little Jane, on her beloved Peg, or Pega- 
 sus, the wooden horse who Uvs in the at- 
 tic. We feel that thfiy ar all real and we 
 like them." [Athenaeum. 1635 
 
 OLD INIQUITY [by Phcebe Allen : 
 Sonnenschein, 1886.] "is a simple and 
 pleasant tale, without pretensions to be 
 anything else. The nauty old man who 
 furnishes it with a name is comical enuf , 
 however malicious ; but it is the story 
 of Elizabeth Laurence and her lovers 
 which Miss Allen sets herself to tell. 
 The reader will like Elizabeth, and will 
 tolerate Ivo Carmichael as her favorit 
 and for her sake. He will laf at the 
 discomfiture of old Richard Smith, and 
 still more at the disappointment which 
 he inflicted on the too sympathetic Mrs. 
 Grey. And he will not be ungrateful 
 for his hour of mild and modest enter- 
 tainment." [AtheuiEum. 1636 
 
 OLD MAN'S LOVE (An). [by 
 Anthony Trollope : Harper, 1884.] 
 " The ' old man' fell in love with his 
 orfan ward, and she, out of gratitude, 
 promised to marry him, when all the 
 while she had a true lover far away, she 
 knew not wh^re. Three years before 
 the lover had left her, without a word 
 of love spoken between them, and had 
 promised to come back to her, but in all 
 this time she had heard no word from 
 him, and for aut she knew she mit never 
 see him again. Besides, was it certain 
 after all that he loved her? Under these 
 circumstances she promised to marry 
 good Mr. Whittlestaff, old enuf to be 
 her father. The very day she made this 
 
 SU 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 promise, who should come in to claim 
 her, but the long lost lover. He hail 
 been at the diamond fields to make his 
 fortune, and hail made it." [Boston 
 ' ' Literary World ." 1 63 7 
 
 OLD ORDER CHANGES (The) 
 [by W: HnKEELL Mallock: Putnam, 
 1887.] " is a novel of considerable abil- 
 ity. The social problem discussed is 
 that of poverty and of the revolt against 
 aristocracy . . . For the rest, the book is 
 decidedly readable ; many a point is put 
 with brilliant precision and memorable 
 slirewdness ... As a story it has some 
 merit : its characters ar picturesque, and 
 talk well, and with distinctly preservd 
 individuality ; and th(5re ar many bits of 
 good observation, as when Miss Consuelo 
 accomplishes something with ' that tact 
 which rarely deserts a woman until she 
 is so much in love that her happiness 
 hangs upon its exercise.' His hero, 
 upon whose words the whole story 
 hinges, is, however, a weak and fickle 
 person.'' [Overland. 1638 
 
 OLIVE BLAKE'S GOOD WORK 
 [by J: CoRDY Jeaffreson : Chapman, 
 18C2.] "is extremely interesting. The 
 plan does not reveal itself to the guesses 
 of the sagacious reader until he comes 
 face to face with the solution at the 
 author's appointed time . . . With all 
 faults found and objections made, the 
 reader will not fail to read the book 
 from first to last for the sake of the 
 story, and he will return to its pages for 
 the sake of many noble and excellent 
 sentiments which in the interest of fol- 
 loing the story he may not read with the 
 attention they merit." [Ath. 1638a 
 
 OLIVER'S BRIDE, [by Ma. Oli- 
 PHANT (Wilson) Ouphant : H'drd ^ 
 Downey, 188G.] " The incident on 
 which this novel is founded is sad and 
 sordid enuf, the only relii'f to its sombre 
 character being found in Grace's noble 
 simplicity. Oliver Wentworth, on the 
 
 eve of his marriage with Grace, a 
 woman worthy of all devotion, is sum- 
 moned to the dying bed of an unhappy 
 and unworthy creature, with whom he 
 has had such relations as, now that his 
 conscience is awakened by contact with 
 a hier nature, he dares not ignore. So 
 he goes and marries Alice on her death- 
 bed, with a miserable hope that the 
 sacrifice need not cost him much in 
 time, or in tlie pain of revelation to the 
 woman who respects as well as loves 
 liim. Alice d5es soon release him, but 
 tlie gratification of her last wish so far 
 revives her for a time that Oliver has to 
 make the confession he shrinks from so 
 unutterably. Grace, in the best manner 
 of womanhood, not only forgivs, but 
 approves what she thinks to hav been 
 his duty. [Compare plot of No. 1897.] 
 It is a slit tale, but the picture of a good 
 woman is noble, and should give male 
 readers much food for reflexion." 
 [AtheuiEum. 1639 
 
 OLIVIA RALEIGH [by W: Eollet 
 Synge: (t, 1891) Lippincott, 1877.] "is 
 a pleasing and innocent tale. It is lit and 
 can be read throu in half an hour, but it 
 cannot fail to leave an agreeable im- 
 pression. This is but little to say about 
 a book, but it is more than nine-tenths 
 of the novels published deserv, and 
 applies with justice to this story, which 
 is neither remarkably clever nor by any 
 means thrilling." [Nation. 1640 
 
 OMBRA. [by Ma. Oliphant (Wil- 
 son) Oliphant: Hurst, 1872.] " Tho 
 the sorroes and perversities of Ombra oc- 
 cupy an almost undue share, our interest 
 is from first to last concentrated in her 
 charming cousin, an original portrait of 
 a brit yung englishman with a character 
 and a temper of themselvs good enuf to 
 raise a worse book to popularity." 
 [Athenseum. 1641 
 
 ON TRUST [by T: Cobb: Ilarst, 
 1891.] " is eminently english without 
 
 515 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 being dull, for Mr. Cobb has managed 
 to keep up a good deal of interest in the 
 fortunes of his characters till the end. 
 One may feel that it is just a little too 
 ' kept up,' as it vrer, and that certain 
 things which occur to delay the denou- 
 ment ar forced rather than inevitable ; 
 yet there is cause for gratitude all the 
 \^same. The leading situation is not a 
 bad one for a novel of the kind, and 
 is not so overworn by constant use 
 and misuse, that the mere introduction 
 of it sets the reader yawning. On the 
 contrary, he gets interested in the drama 
 and this in spite of some improbabilities 
 in its working and a little not unnatural 
 confusion at the close. The heroin is a 
 nice creature, and there ar others who 
 interest becaus they ar natural and well 
 drawn. Mrs. Svvanley is rather humor- 
 ously done, tho occasionally too farcical. 
 On the whole, ' On Trust ' is anything 
 but dull." [.Athenaeum. 1642 
 
 ONCE! TWICE! THRICE! AND 
 AWAY ! [by M.vy Probyn : Reming- 
 ton, 1878.] "is a pretty little love- 
 story. It is that and nothing more, for 
 there is no plot, no character-drawing, 
 and no incidents except those which 
 mark the course of a romantic court- 
 ship and a runaway match. A yung 
 artist comes to a nobleman's country- 
 seat to paint the portraits of his lord- 
 ship's dauter and nefew, who ar engiiged 
 to be married. He saves the heiress' 
 life, falls in love with her, talks over her 
 mother with great ease, and wins her 
 affection; and, in the most ingenuous 
 manner, the two lovers take matters 
 into their on hands, cut the knot which 
 has fettered many more skilful folks 
 than they, and marry. All this will 
 sho clearly enuf that Miss Probyn is a 
 novice at the art of fiction ; but th^re ar 
 sufficient grace and tenderness in the 
 romance of Dudley Wyld and Diamond 
 FitzOswald to make one pass lltly over 
 
 the improbabilities and incompleteness 
 ' of the rest of the story.' " [Ath. 164;} 
 
 ONE ANOTHER'S BURDENS [by 
 M.. E. Mann: Bcniley, 1890. J "is a 
 pretty and carefully written story. 
 Libbie Strong is a healthy and natural 
 yung creature, who tells her sister the 
 most refreshing home truths. Mr. 
 Elgard is a fair success in the matter 
 of villains. Miss Mann fortunately re- 
 lents so far as to end with the happy and 
 long-deferred marriage of two of the 
 martyrs, tho with incorrigible obstinacy 
 her last word is a morbid question 
 as to its advisability, most inappro- 
 priately placed in the mouth of our 
 courageous and cheerful yung friend." 
 [Athenseum. 1644 
 
 ONE OF OUR CONQUERORS, [by 
 G; Meredith : Chapman, 1891.] "Mr. 
 Meredith has great merits, as we all 
 kno, and it has long been the pride of 
 his admirers — we mit call them his en- 
 thusiasts — to aver that while his writ- 
 ings ar caviare to the general, they ar 
 nutritious to the superior mind. Nutri- 
 ment, however, both for mind and body, 
 may be so conveyed as to l?e almost im- 
 possible to swallo, and Mr. Meredith's 
 tales, and very notably this one, is writ- 
 ten, it must sadly be confessed, in such 
 a florid, inflated, execrable style that it 
 would take a very mucli better story 
 than the present one to atone for it. 
 Story, indeed, would seem to be the very 
 last thing the author aims at, the book 
 being simply a theme on which may be 
 hung variations of fraseology." [L. B. 
 (C ) Walford.] — " ' One of our Conquer- 
 ors,' by G: Meredith, will be liked by a, 
 certain class of readers only ; the class 
 which likes G: Meredith's novels. To 
 others the hard cracking of the nut will 
 not be paid for by the quantity of the 
 meat within, however superior its qual- 
 ity. These novels may be taken as the 
 intellectual tonic their devoted admirfirs 
 10 
 
BKIT18H NOVELS. 
 
 claim them to be ; but few people take 
 tonics for pleasure, and none savor them 
 with satisfaction. Meredith givs us 
 character, and he givs us emotion, but 
 all so piled hi with verbiage, actual ver- 
 biage, even tho intellectual, that ' char- 
 acter' is pressed flat and proportionless, 
 and emotion squeezed dry of all effect. 
 The present story has all the Meredith 
 mannerisms. The wise people chop 
 ■ logic after the manner of sausage ma- 
 chines; the foolish ones never escape 
 the presence of their pet foolishness, 
 whatever it may be." [C. Tribune.] — ■ 
 ' ' The initiated may be left to analyse 
 the elements of greatness in this book. 
 To the reader bred on intelligible litera- 
 ture, the game seems hardly worth the 
 candle. He finds characters enigmati- 
 cally named whose story, simple in its 
 main lines, is so swathed in envelopes of 
 frases which constantly suggest occult 
 meaning as to make him wonder if he is 
 not at work upon the inversion of a 
 parable. The book is apparently loaded 
 to the muzzle with meaning, and the re- 
 sult is likely to be nearly fatal to the 
 innocent reader who touches it off." 
 [Atlantic. 1645 
 
 ONE OF THREE [by Jessie Foth- 
 ekgill: (t, 1891) Holt, 1881.] " consists 
 of two stories, of which the first is de- 
 cidedly the best. The plot is the not 
 unusual one of a lovely heiress disguised 
 as the governess of a sickly and exact- 
 ing boy; but the story is treated with 
 originality, and possesses at least one 
 very unusual feature in the fact that 
 the hero is not the best man of the book. 
 Moreover, the marriage is neither the 
 ideally blissful one of old-fashioned 
 romances, nor the miserable one of 
 more modern fiction ; the hero is simply 
 the man whom the heroin loves. The 
 second story is Made or Marred [No. 
 1506. J " [Critic. 1646 
 
 One of us. [by Edmund Ran- 
 
 dolph: Low, 1882.] "The talji is ex- 
 cellent all throu. We cannot recall 
 anything quite like it, with the same 
 mingling of good breeding, ' irresponsi- 
 ble chatter,' and wit so deftly placed 
 that it seems frankly accidental, except 
 the talk in a novel by the late Count 
 Jarnac, called ' DarTe and Fair,' prob- 
 ably quite unknon to the present gener- 
 ation, but which is an extremely enter- 
 taining book. "We could not exactly 
 describe why it is that Mr. Lessenden 
 reminds us of Sir Charles Rocking- 
 ham, and the banter of ' One of Us ' of 
 the wide-ranging, witty absurdities of 
 Cammy, Vinny, and the incorrigible 
 but irresistible Lord Walter of that 
 novel ; we only kno that we hav never 
 enjoyed any book since ' Dark and Fair ' 
 in precisely the same way that we hav 
 enjoyed ' One of Us.' Of course, the 
 tone of Mr. Randolph's story is more 
 large and liberal, and its dramatis per- 
 sonse ar more various and representativ. 
 Sir Charles Rockingham would never 
 hav tliot of admitting a Yankee tourist 
 to his learned and leisurely retreat, and 
 no Yankee tourist would hav kn5n what 
 to do, had he found himself th^re. Mr. 
 Randolph introduces a delltful Yankee 
 at Haversham, likewise an Irishman, of 
 whom we deeply regret to see so little ; 
 and a certain Skipwith, who has not 
 been approached since Major Pendennis' 
 time. Not that he is like Mr. Thack- 
 eray's masterpiece, but that he is as 
 good in his way, and for so much, or so 
 little, as we see of him. And then th^re 
 ar the ladies, — Mrs. Indigo Smythe, 
 who is a charmingly natural, frank, 
 clever creature, much oppressed by her 
 gorgeous, golden-calf -like condition, but 
 with a fine talent for organization and 
 ' raise en sc6ne ; ' the two scheming 
 women who do the mystery and mischief 
 of the story . . . Mrs. Golightly is a 
 gem. She is not absolutely novel; she 
 
 517 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 has been sketched before, but rarely 
 with such fidelity, impartiality, and 
 moderation . . . Thus happily intro- 
 duced, Mrs. Golightly is, as may be 
 supposed, a delltful element in the story, 
 which is at once more and less than a 
 story, being a singularly fascinating 
 book." [Spectator. 1647 
 
 ONLY THE GOVERNESS. [by 
 Rosa Nouchette Carey : Bentley, 
 1888.] " Miss Carey's novels may be 
 compared to a tranquil backwater out of 
 the main current of the turbid stream 
 of modern fiction. The graces and 
 charities of domestic life ar treated by 
 her with never-failing sympathy and re- 
 finement. It is not that she closes her 
 eyes to the existence of evil or suffer- 
 ing, for in the pages of her new novel 
 the general placidity of the story is 
 varied by occasional passages in the 
 minor key, so to speak. ' Only the 
 Governess ' has no dwelling on the sor- 
 did or repulsiv actualities of life. The 
 female characters largely predominate ; 
 indeed. Miss Carey has given us a whole 
 gallery of portraits of womanhood in its 
 most gentle and attractiv fases. The 
 hero and good genius of the story has 
 hardly a redeeming vice. The style is 
 that of a cultivated writer throuout." 
 [Athenaeum. 1648 
 
 ORANGE LILY [by May Ckomme- 
 lin: Hurst, 1879.] "is really a charm- 
 ing story, one which, without any sur- 
 prise in its plot, by simple power of 
 description and vivid presentment of 
 character, arrests and holds fast the 
 attention. The writer has a quite un- 
 common skill in using both humor and 
 pathos ; thSre will be but few readers 
 who will not find both tears and lafter at 
 hand while they read . . . The interest 
 of the heroin's life centres in a love, 
 which groes with her groth, for a cotta- 
 ger's son who has to struggle with the 
 
 difficulty of social inferiority, and who 
 manfully overcomes it. Nothing could 
 be better drawn in its way than the 
 ' Lily's ' sweet and gentle steadfastness ; 
 and Tom is a specimen of the best type of 
 northern irishmen. The minor charac- 
 ters, the gentle ladies of the Hall, the 
 noisy, kindly stepmother, and ' big John," 
 the ruf, honest lover, who seeks, but in 
 no dishonorable way, to fill the place 
 of the absent Tom, ar all excellently 
 sketched. This is a book far above the 
 average." [Spectator. 1649 
 
 ORDEAL FOR WIVES (The) [by 
 Annie Edwards: Hurst, 1864; N. Y., 
 Sheldon, 1873^L*^S^^ inferior to Mrs. 
 Edwards' KW^stories, and bears much 
 stronger resemblance to the sensational 
 novels of Rhoda Broughton than to any 
 better models. But there is besides 
 much of the humor, of the keen obser- 
 vation, which make her later writings 
 so very readable." [Nation. 1650 
 
 ORDEAL OF RICHARD FEVE- 
 REL (The) [by G: Meredith: Lon- 
 don, 1859.] " givs us the history of a 
 motherless boy who is reared by his 
 father, according to an exact 'system' 
 founded on carefully framed theories. 
 Sir Austin is a man of formula ; every 
 fase of human expression is summed up 
 in epigrams and antitheses. His iiobbies 
 ar many, but as a parent he proceeds to 
 train Richard on the principle that a boy 
 should be kept ignorant and therefore 
 innocent; he should enjoy entire free- 
 dom within certain bounds, so as to giv 
 his powers and ambitions free play, but 
 must be watched and garded by a never- 
 ceasing espionage, in order that he shall 
 imbibe no idea concerning the mysteries 
 of a man's existence. When he ap- 
 proaches the age of 18, every effort is 
 made to prevent his finding any sugges- 
 tions of love and love-making in his 
 surroundings, or any temptation to meet 
 
 518 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 anything youthful and pleasing of the 
 feminin kind. Nature abhors a vac- 
 uum, however, and this void is filled. 
 At the very moment Sir Austin intends 
 to lay the top brick on his ' system ' Rich- 
 ard falls in love, and in spite of every 
 obstacle marries against his father's will. 
 The remainder of the story is unnatural 
 in situation, complex in treatment, and 
 the end is grievous. The novel may en- 
 force a strong moral, but it pushes to 
 extremes the desire to pluck good out 
 of evO." [American.] — " It is a story 
 with a most comic beginning, and a most 
 tragic end. Tlifire ar many characters 
 which ar almost perfectly drawn, if we 
 allow for the medium used and pecul- 
 iar treatment which the artist adopts. 
 Among them, the reader cannot miss 
 those of Adrian Harley, the old nurse, 
 Berry, and the yung scapegrace. Rip- 
 ton. The book is certainly not what Mr. 
 Meredith calls elsewhere of the ' rose- 
 pink ' order. It occasionally treats of or 
 alludes to subjects which ar very impor- 
 tant, but ar as rarely met in novels as 
 they ar frequently met in life. Yet it is 
 not realistic, tho it mit in some quarters 
 be deemed morbid." [Spectator.] — It 
 is " a book which, we cannot forbear to 
 say, 6t never to fall into the hands of a, 
 boy or girl, or of any one in sickness or 
 depression of mind. The result will in- 
 evitably be bad." [Boston " Literary 
 World." 1651 
 
 ORLANDO, [by Clementina Black : 
 Smith, 1880.] The heroin " has rev- 
 eled in the woman's triumf of being 
 coveted by coveted men; and then at 
 last she herself begins to covet too late. 
 Yet throuout she does not cease to 
 claim our respect, whilst her story 
 touches us more deeply than that of any 
 of the men and women with whom she 
 is brot in contact. She. remains pure 
 and lovable to the end, even when, with 
 
 a supreme effort, she puts aside the cup 
 of consolation which Orlando holds to 
 her lips. For a moment, by the last 
 deceit which love has power to practise on 
 her heart, she dreams that she may be 
 happy . . . Thfire is a pathetic charm in 
 Miss Black's stories which must compel 
 the sympathy of her readers. ' Orlando' 
 has beauties, and even blemishes, which 
 wer not clearly manifested in the earlier 
 work, but it is distinctly a clever, wliole- 
 som, and affecting romance." [Athe- 
 naeum. 1652 
 ORLEY FARM [by Anthony Tuol- 
 LOPE : Chapman, 18GI.] " is, we think, 
 the most interesting, as it is certainly 
 the most powerful and the most care- 
 fully finished of Mr. TroUope's novels. 
 In spite of a good deal which is tedious, 
 and more that is commonplace, the story 
 is well conceived, and its details worked 
 out with marvellous industry. Readers 
 of all classes will dellt in Sir Peregrine 
 and his grandson, Judge Stavely and his 
 dauter, the tragi-comedy of Mr. and Mrs. 
 Furnival's ' querelle de menage,' and the 
 broad fun of the Christmas festivities 
 in Great St. Helens. But it is on the 
 character of Lady Mason that the au- 
 thor has expended the most study, and 
 which is worked out with his best dra- 
 matic efforts. Opinions will differ as to 
 his success, and still more as to the 
 possibility of developing such a charac- 
 ter in the midst of such surroundings. 
 For us, we cannot think it altogether 
 successful. Lady Mason comes before 
 the reader as a woman oppressed for 20 
 years by the secret consciousness of a 
 crime ; we ar told of her extraordinary 
 strength of character and of lier devoted 
 love for the son for whose sake licr 
 crime was committed, and we ar made 
 to feel that her beauty of person and a 
 certain irresistible attractivness win for 
 her a place in the dry heart of Mr. 
 
 519 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 Furnival, her counsel, the romantic love 
 of poor old chivalrous Sir Peregrine, 
 and the beautiful affection of Mrs. 
 Orme. It may be that, as the reader 
 suspects her guilt from the first, he is 
 intended to feel the contrast between 
 the outward woman, wlioni all love and 
 respect, and the inner blit upon the soul, 
 which makes him dislike while he pities. 
 At any rate, this is the result; we see 
 only a poor wretch, whose power over 
 the hearts of the good and' pure we be- 
 lieve, but do not understand . . . How 
 far it is consistent with the true princi- 
 ples of art to associate a crime [forgery] 
 and its f ritful and inevitable fruits with 
 careful fac-similes of the decorous and 
 prosaic characters which Mr. Trollope 
 knoes so well how to draw, we hav no 
 space to discuss. But whatever may be 
 its faults, there ar scenes and passages 
 in ' Orley Farm ' which abundantly sho 
 that the autlior can touch the finer and 
 more plaintiv chords of the heart with a 
 true and delicate hand, as well as exhibit 
 to an unpoetical generation its linea- 
 ments in unadorned and unmitigated sim- 
 plicity." [Westminster Review. 1653 
 OUGHT WE TO VISIT HER? [by 
 Annie Ed\vard§: Sheldon, 1872.] "is 
 one of the best novels which has ap- 
 peared in a long time. The heroin is 
 Jane Theobald, who before her marriage 
 was a dancer, or about to become one, — 
 at any rate of origin and associations 
 altogether bohemian. The people who 
 will not visit her ar the relativs of Mr. 
 Theobald, and all the respectable people 
 in Chalkshire, among whom he takes 
 her to liv after a free, happy, hap-haz- 
 ard life on the Continent. [Compare 
 plot of No. 1634.] It would be a pity 
 to tell the story, further than to say that 
 the pretty, good-hearted, witt}', charm- 
 ing victim, shunned for no reason by 
 these good people, and deserted by her 
 
 worthless husband, who takes up an 
 old flirtation with an old reprobate fine 
 lady to beguile the dulncss of Chalk- 
 shire, comes near being driven into 
 wickedness, but is saved on the way to 
 elopement by one of those sudden fevers 
 which lie in wait in novels, and is recon- 
 ciled to her husband, and joyfully leaves 
 Chalkshire witli him and goes back to 
 thfiir free life on the Continent. Dull 
 respectability and convention ar too 
 much for them, and they must fly or be 
 crushed; yet she has done no wrong. 
 The merit of the story is in the clear- 
 ness with which Jane's cliaracter is por- 
 trayed as of that strength and simple 
 goodness and fidelity wliicli perhaps as 
 often go with a fair face as with a plain 
 one; and in the evident reality of the 
 pictures of society. Since Thackeray 
 we do not kno better studies of social 
 meanness and feebleness ; and all is 
 done with temperance and self-restraint 
 wonderful in woman." [Atlantic. 1654 
 OUR LITTLE ANN [iJoJerts, 1886.] 
 " is a pleasant little story by an author 
 who has an eye for the kindlier attri- 
 butes of the race and could not make a 
 villain if she tried, much less introduce 
 one into her households of gentle moth- 
 ers, brotherly brothers, and the friend- 
 liest of people who rescue such estrays 
 as the simple Ann. Thdre is a vein of 
 sentiment running throu her, of which 
 she seems half shy and half ashamed, 
 making a pretty mockery of it, but 
 blending it in most fittingly with the 
 lovers of Will and Ann, and with the 
 idyllic life of Ann at Filbert Farm, her 
 fondness for the boy Hal, his fealty to 
 her and tlie tenderness of the old man 
 who livs his lost youth over again in 
 this little Irish governess. ThSre is a 
 sweet and pure atmosfere about the 
 book; pictures of a genuin home, tlio 
 a humble one, in London, and also of 
 
 520 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 rustic liritig amidst the dellts of country 
 ways and scenes ; and the influence 
 leads to more confidence in human 
 nature and a feeling that the world is 
 not so bad as has been represented." 
 [Boston " Literary World." 1655 
 
 OUR MUTUAL FRIEND, [by C: 
 Dickens: 1805.] " The ' Boffin, Wegg, 
 and Venus business ' is no doubt full of 
 farce, but of farce so excellent, so 
 genuinly l^fable, that it would take us 
 back almost as far as Martin Chuzzle- 
 wit to come upon anything of Dickens' 
 production more admirable after its 
 kind. On the other hand, Mr. Ward is 
 not half severe enuf when he says, 
 ' What sfere or section of society would 
 feel itself especially caricatured in the 
 Veneerings or in thSir associates, — the 
 odious Lady Tippins, the impossibly 
 brutal Podsnap, Fascination Fledgley, 
 and tlie Lammles, a couple which suggests 
 nothing but antimony and the Chamber 
 of Horrors? Caricature such as this, 
 representing no society which has ever, 
 in any part of the world, pretended 
 to be good, corresponds to the wild 
 rhetoric of the superfluous Betty Higden 
 episode against ' the gospel according 
 to Podsnapery ; ' but it is in truth satire 
 from which both the wit and humor hav 
 gone out. An angry, often spasmodic, 
 mannerism has to supply thdir place.' 
 This is true enuf, but it does not express 
 half adequately the sense of disgust 
 which this ostentatiously self-riteous bit 
 of vulgar and flaunting moral satire pro- 
 duces on the mind. It is not merely 
 that it is so bad, but that the author is 
 so pleased with himself, almost in such 
 rapture with himself, for every dull or 
 heavy stroke of his brush. He givs 
 himself all the airs of a noble evangelist, 
 while he shoes the vulgarity of this 
 sleekly-bad society in a travesty at least 
 as purblind and dreary as tlje conven- 
 
 tional selfishness and hard-heartedness 
 which he was seeking to expose. Thfire 
 is something in Dickens, when he aban- 
 dons his part of humorist to play that of 
 a spiritual purifier, which is to our mind 
 beyond measure repellant. More than 
 self-confident, at once shoy and shabby 
 'in his moral make-up, at once proud 
 of his spiritual functions, and without 
 even an incidental flash of that self- 
 suspicion and self-distrust which alone 
 could hav enabled him to fulfil them." 
 [Spec. 1656 
 
 OUR VILLAGE, [by M.. Rdssell 
 MiTFORD : Low, 1840.] " We hav often 
 wondered that this, one of the most 
 charming books of country life which 
 has ever been written, has been so long 
 suffered to remain inaccessible, — not 
 forgotten, indeed, by the older genera- 
 tion, who must remember its brit, lov- 
 ing descriptions of rural life, whether 
 animate or inanimate, but unknon to 
 the yunger . . . The cheery, cultured 
 lady, with her inseparable comrade, the 
 greyhound May, is a delitful compan- 
 ion." [Spectator. 1657 
 
 OVERMATCHED. {F. W. J. Baker, 
 1877.] " This is a clever, well-written 
 story. An elder son is disinherited and 
 robbed of the property which the late 
 repentance of his father would hav 
 given to him, by the wickedness of the 
 yunger brother's wife. The tale of how 
 things ar br6t rit, how the promis is 
 kept which the injured man has exacted 
 from his son that he will never consent 
 to enjoy the ancestral estate, except in 
 his rit — for it has come into the hands 
 of an heiress, the yunger brother's 
 dauter, — all this is told with excellent 
 effect." [Spectator. 1658 
 
 OWEN GWYNNE'S GREAT WORK. 
 [by Augusta Noel; Macmillan, 1875.] 
 " Owen Gwynne is a painful scholar, 
 smitten late in life with the ' cacoethes 
 
 521 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 scribendi ' and urged to exertions beyond 
 his power by an ambitious wife. Both 
 ar pathetic portraits, tho their selfishness 
 is combined with much not ungenerous 
 self-deception, and the woman, at any 
 rate, is buoyed up by hope and a pride 
 which is not selfish. To enable the 
 bodily machine to stand the strain of 
 authorship, this anxious couple call their 
 artist son from Rome, and make him 
 exchange for humble bread-winning as 
 a banker's clerk, the career wluch is 
 dearer to him than anything but duty. 
 Lance is a fine character, tho the touch 
 of dourness inherited from his mother 
 mars the grace of his self-sacrifice, and 
 in the crisis of his life makes him un- 
 forgiving to a woman whose fault arose 
 from loving much. Readers will be 
 moved to sorro by Mary's death, and as 
 infinitly relieved as was Owen when the 
 too precious ' History of the Fifteenth 
 Century ' is lost in a shipwreck, and 
 all hearts gladdened except poor Mrs. 
 Gwynne'sby the removal of the family." 
 [Athensum.] — "A novel like this, in 
 the modern tumult of hl-oolored fiction, 
 is like a bit of blue in a thunderous sky. 
 ' It is a novel of a thousand, and fame is 
 the just reward of its writer. Very 
 quiet it is, and in its later pages, very 
 sad; but a refined grace pervades it, 
 whose charm never relaxes. It is full 
 of gentle wisdom, set forth with a sin- 
 gular eloquence of laconism ; thfire is 
 hardly a superfluous word in its pages, 
 and not a frase or figure which will not 
 bear the test of criticism. In artistic 
 and literary respects, it is a nearly 
 perfect book." [Boston " Literary 
 World." 1659 
 
 P.\IR OF BLUE EYES (A), [by 
 T: Hardy : IIoU, 1873.] " No just novel- 
 reader can complain that he has not 
 full measure of most delicious love- 
 making, in this very pretty story. In 
 
 fact, thSre is no stint of that mental 
 sweet (if it is mental), and the quality 
 is so delicate that it does not cloy. But 
 the author had need to lavish it with a 
 generous hand, for he brings his ro- 
 mance to but a sad close at last, of 
 which we feel it our duty to forewarn 
 all tender-hearted readers, who do not 
 want character, or life, or subtile anal- 
 ysis, but marriage, and marriage and 
 again marriage, in a novel. To be sure 
 thfire is marriage in A Pair of Blue 
 Eyes ; but it is not the marriage of the 
 two people who 6t to marry ; the author 
 effects a compromise ; the heroin marries 
 the wrong person — and dies. We try to 
 carry it off litly, but we will privately 
 on that poor, pretty Elfrida's fate has 
 been an affliction to us, and that we 
 would willingly hav had her innocent 
 guile, her simple duplicity, bring her to 
 a happier if less probable end than they 
 do. Her character is nearly all th6re is 
 of the book, tho neither of her lovers is 
 drawn with a touch wanting in distinct- 
 ness . . . She has no pride, she has 
 only love ; she has no arts save in love 
 . . . We cannot giv any just idea of 
 how gracefully and modestly all this 
 pure analysis of character is managed 
 . . . The charm, the sweetness, the 
 tenderness of the story ar not excelled 
 by its truth; and for a good, solid, in- 
 tolerable bit of tragedy, we commend 
 its close as something which may al- 
 most stand beside the close of Liza." 
 [Atlantic. • 1660 
 
 PARIAH (The), [by F: Anstev 
 [Guthrie] : Smith, W99.'] "The charac- 
 ter who givs the title to the book is the 
 yung man, Allen Chad wick, the under- 
 bred, neglected son of a vulgar father, 
 who, finding himself in middle-age a 
 man of wealth, determins to take hia 
 boy out of the sordid surroundings in 
 which his early years hay been spent, 
 522 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 and giT him a position to which, as he 
 imagins, his on money entitles him. 
 Chailwick pere is, however, compelled 
 to realize the force of the homely 
 proverb about the silk purse and the 
 sow's ear. He makes the acquaintance 
 of a well-bred, worldly, impecunious 
 wido with her eldest dauter Margot, and 
 the father and mother, inspired by 
 motivs superficially different but essen- 
 tially identical, conspire to bring to- 
 gether the loutish lad and the beautiful, 
 proud, wilful girl, whose charms eclips 
 her faults, save in those moments when 
 her faults blind us to her charms. The 
 scheme is a failure, and as an alternativ 
 method of establishing himself and son 
 in good society, Mr. Chadwick marries 
 the wiJo, and Allen finds himself (jno 
 of a family by every member of which 
 he is more or less openly detested and 
 despised. The situation is a, pathetic 
 one for the poor lad, uncivilised cub as 
 he is, raised from the region of con- 
 tempt into the region of sympathy by 
 an obvious doglike devotion, and n 
 latent capacity for heroism, and even 
 for real refinement of chivalry. The 
 combination described thus briefly may 
 seem somewhat unreal, but the portrait 
 as drawn at full length by Mr. Anstey 
 is a triumf of harmonious art . . . The 
 picture is powerful, but it is too p.ain- 
 f ul ; we ar harroed all throu, and im- 
 aginativ compensation is ruthlessly de- 
 nied us." [Spectator. 1661 
 PARISH OF HILBY (The) [by— ( ) 
 Mann : Stock, 1883.] " is a sensible, 
 characteristic, and thoroly entertaining 
 ' story of a quiet place.' It is refresh- 
 ingly straitforward. The picture of 
 still life in the heart of an english 
 county may not be particularly attrac- 
 tiv for the lovers of intensity in tone and 
 color, but it is very careful painting 
 nevertheless. She givs some glimpses 
 
 of the ' merry England ' of our day 
 which will charm the majority of her 
 readers. Few more genuin or delltful 
 romances hav recently made their ap- 
 pearance.'' [Athenajum. 1662 
 
 PARLEY MAGNA, [by E: Wiiit- 
 aker: Smith, mCt.'] " We really think 
 there ar few readers, however biases, who 
 could easily put down tliis book without 
 finishing it. It contains plenty of tokens 
 of original thot and careful writing, 
 and, moreover, is instinct throuout with 
 an honest and commendable purpos. 
 Altho the amusing denizens of the 
 gossiping village furnish matter for th6t 
 apart from the main interest of the 
 story, it is in the history of Arthur's 
 character, as developed by the refining 
 fires of passion resisted and temptations 
 overcome, the simple but not unheroic 
 triumf of a pure and generous nature 
 over the stumbling-blocks which warm 
 imagination and soft-heartedness cast 
 in its path, that the best part of that 
 interest will be found." [Athen. 1663 
 
 PARSON GARLAND'S DAUGH- 
 TER. See TWO MARRIAGES. 
 
 PASSION IN TATTERS (A) [by 
 Annie (Thomas) Cudlip : Chapman, 
 1872.] " is certainly a book which 
 cannot fail to be entertaining. The 
 author has a happy knack of introduc- 
 ing a variety of totally distinct charac- 
 ters. We hav the fast yung lady of 
 thebohemian type, — ■ the vacillating but 
 enthusiastic artist, distraut by loving in 
 the wrong place, — the traveled yung 
 gentleman of ' god-like beauty ' — the 
 stately old lady, full of kindly impulses, 
 — the crafty governess, — and the pro- 
 fessedly religious but uncharitable wife 
 of a country vicar ; and all ar admirably 
 depicted . . . The plot is well carried 
 out and you ar brot only to the brink 
 of the precipice. The authoress does 
 not admit a. breach of the 7th com- 
 523 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 PASSAGES FROM THE LIFE OF 
 Jilts. JIAltfiAKET MAITLAND [by 
 JU. Olipiiant (Wilson) Olipiiant: 
 1S49.] is "a book wbich cUarmcd 
 and soothed us when wc wer young, 
 ami whicli we can tead oxer stil on 
 summer da>s and winter nigljts with 
 undiminished satisfaction. JIrs !Mar<,'arct 
 JIaitland is no echo and no wraith, but a 
 real living woman, set iu the midst of the 
 loving, hoping, fearing, stirring little world 
 of a Scotch rural parish. The pla<;e in (Jiir 
 regard that dear old lady of .Sunnyside 
 originally achieved she keeps, and we 
 think of her always as a person whom we 
 hav knon. Her story is very simple, but 
 her way of telling it is delightful; and 
 when, after the lapse of a few years, she 
 takes up the thread of it again, and in 
 Lilliesleaf [No. 1474] relates the married 
 trials of the dear bairns whose early days 
 arthe britest passages in her on life, we 
 take it up with her, and listen to the story 
 as if it concerned personal friends. 
 It is a grfat merit in a writer when she can 
 thus compel us to realize her characters, 
 and it is a power which Mrs. Oliphant pos- 
 sesses in a very hi degree. Mrs. Mait- 
 land has had her griefs, and very 
 bitter they ar, but the main story is that 
 of her brother's children, Claud and Mary, 
 at the manse of Pasture-Lands, and of 
 Grace, a little lassie whom .she rears in 
 simple, pious ways, quite unwitting that 
 her charge is an heiress. In her sweet 
 bright maidenhood Grace is reclaimed by 
 her selfish father, and put under the care 
 of his fashionable sister, to be mysteriously 
 suppressed, and, if possible, bullied out 
 of her inheritanfe which is derived from 
 
 her il-uscd mother. Grace, however, 
 b&irs a hi spirit, and having discovered 
 the truth she calmly resists her persecutors. 
 AVe ar xery inditlcrent to this part of her 
 adventures. She is much more at home 
 at Sunnyside than in Edinburgh ; and her 
 heart being given to Claud Maitland before 
 she is carried away, she returns eventually 
 in triumph,having defeated wicked father, 
 bad ant, and foolish suitor, with her gar- 
 dian's commands not to quit Sunnyside 
 again at anyone's bidding but his; and 
 who should this gardian (a sarcastic old 
 bachelor) be, but the lost love of Mrs. 
 Margaret Jfaitland ! Betw een Claud and 
 Grace ib&rc ar no ditliculties but such as 
 true lo\ e makes light of, and soon over- 
 comes ; but between Mary and Allan El- 
 phinstone tliGre ar wiSight)- obstructions, 
 fears, and sorros of his on causing, and 
 which we kno wil hav thi-ir sequel when 
 the two ar married, and the first series of 
 the Sunnyside Chronicle ends. During 
 the interval which elapses before Mrs. 
 Margaret Maitland again takes up her pen 
 the clouds hav begun to gather about the 
 house of Lilliesleaf; and that she has a 
 prescience of them is clear, from the sad- 
 dened strain in which she resumes her 
 narrativ ... At sight of the young genera- 
 tion of 'Jliss Mary's four darlings', 'Miss 
 Marget' catches some of her old servant's 
 cheerful and wise philosophy. Was th^re 
 ever a sweeter picture than this, tlio you 
 see the shado of an invisible trouble in the 
 baeground of it?... ThCre is heartache 
 in the .story of 'Lilliesleaf,' but not heart- 
 break, for love abides stil between the one 
 who strays away and those who stand fast 
 by duty." [British Quarterly. 1663 v 
 
 523 r 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 mandment; neither is th^re anything 
 coarse. She delineates the working of 
 the female mind with an artistic touch, 
 and we congratulate her on having 
 produced .i novel which is fit to be 
 read." [Athenajum. 1684 
 
 P.A.SSION'S SLAVE, [by E : Ashe 
 King: Appleton, 1890.] " Thfire ar 
 some novels — not too many — • in 
 which the good characters ar good, but 
 the bad ar merely indifferent. Such is 
 ' Passion's Slave,' its hero, the ' slave ' 
 in question, being a very respectable 
 yung land-oner; the Vicar, his nefew, 
 and the Vicar's niece Kate, amiable and 
 mildly interesting; but the yung land- 
 lord's wife and her lover as dull as 
 vicious folk generally ar in life. But 
 in Biddy Devine the author has touched 
 a point above what yung ladies, to 
 whom novels ar a necessity of life, mit 
 be supposed to be content with. Biddy 
 is a gem of the purest water, who shines 
 amid the troubles of the Carew family 
 like u, diamond set in bog-oak. Her 
 simplicity in dealings with the butcher 
 and the grocer, her broad vues on money 
 matters, her lack of conscience — what 
 should she, or an angel, do with a con- 
 science?. — her superstitious terrors and 
 ingenious speculations about the powers 
 and immunities of irish banshees on 
 english soil, mit redeem a dull book 
 wer it conceivable that the writer of 
 such a book could hav created her. The 
 author does not overtax her capacity in 
 making lier do double duty, accounting 
 for the success of his heroin's novel, 
 and warming and illuminating hia on." 
 [Critic. 1665 
 
 PATRICIA KEMBALL [by Eliza 
 (Lynn) Linton: Chatio, 1874.] "has 
 the first merit of a romance : it is in- 
 teresting, and it improves as it goes on 
 . . . We advise our readers to send for 
 it." [Athenaium. 1666 
 
 PATTY [by K.. S. Macquoid: 
 Harper, 1871.] "is a novel of more 
 than ordinary merit. It is the story of 
 a yung girl in humble life, who suddenly 
 becomes rich. Just before this stroke 
 of good fortune she had met an artist, 
 who, fascinated by her remarkable 
 beauty, asked her to be his wife. She 
 loved him or thot she did, and they wer 
 betrothed. Becoming a rich woman, 
 she repelled him, and, going abroad, 
 gained a passable education, and soon 
 married a wealthy gentleman. By 
 chance the artist, who was married to 
 a lovely girl, is employed to paint her 
 portrait. She endeavors to reassert 
 her dominion over him, and some serious 
 complications ensue, which ar described 
 entertainingly. The characters of Patty 
 and Nuna ar drawn with much skill, and 
 the closing pages of the story ar in- 
 tensely interesting." [Boston " Literary 
 World." 1667 
 
 PAUL FABER [by G: MacDonald : 
 Lippincott, 1879.] "is an activ, able 
 atheist, whose Mestlife is his profession, 
 and the book describes his gradual con- 
 version by means of the severe experi- 
 ences of his life, applied and explained 
 by the clergyman of the parish. He is 
 called to see a beautiful stranger whom 
 he finds at his second visit almost dead 
 from loss of blood. He transfuses 
 blood from his arm and saves her life. 
 He falls in love with her, and, knoing 
 nothing of her antecedents, marries her. 
 After a time she is wr6t up to confess to 
 him that she has been another man's 
 mistress. He rushes away and when he 
 returns finds her gone. He endeavors 
 to put a good face on the matter, and to 
 go about his work as usual, but falls 
 into a severe illness and suffers in every 
 way, discovering, by the by, that a little 
 girl whom he has seen groing in the 
 village is an illegitimate child of his on. 
 524 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 Mrs . Taber is all the while hidden in the 
 neborhood with a friend, and her hus- 
 band being called in to her, again 
 performs the operation of transfusion, 
 without recognizing his patient. We 
 see in some of the english papers entliu- 
 siastic praise of this book, and we do 
 not profess to hav said all that may be 
 said in its favor, but we doubt if it is by 
 books like this that men ar convinced or 
 sins abated." [Nation. 1668 
 
 PAUL FOSTER'S DAUGHTER, [by 
 Button Cook : Low, 1865.] " It was the 
 brilliant success of his excellent novel 
 ' Paul Foster's Daughter ' in which he 
 drew with a masterly hand so many 
 portraits from the life, studies for the 
 most part in the Bohemia of art, wlijch 
 finally determined him to make literature 
 his profession. Tliis, perhaps tlie most 
 varied, fresh, and original, if not the 
 most hlly finished of his stories, was 
 always prized by him." [Athen. 1669 
 
 PAUL'S COURTSHIP [by " Hesba 
 Stretton," i. e., Hannah Smith: C: W. 
 Wood, 18G7.] " is deserving of much 
 praise. It is a work ably planned and 
 cleverly executed. Tho it relates almost 
 wholly to love, tlie 'old, old story' is 
 retold with a grace which renders it not 
 only very readable but even impressiv 
 . . . Paul is a medical man of inde- 
 pendent means, who, together with his 
 brother Kufus, and his sister, Mrs. 
 Margraf, reside at a place called Monk- 
 moor. In the same town dwells an 
 elderly lady, Mrs. Aspen, who, conceiv- 
 ing herself to be a poetess, collects a 
 number of her poems for publication. 
 This character ia very cleverly drawn. 
 There is much good humored irony in 
 tlie description, and the dreams of the 
 poetess at the prospect of seeing herself 
 in print ar related with real humor. To 
 assist her in this ambitious design, she 
 advertises for an amanuensis. A yung 
 
 girl, named Doris Arnold, responds to 
 the advertisement, and after a short 
 time takes up her abode with Mrs. 
 Aspen. Between these two thfire pres- 
 ently arises a very warm friendship. In 
 Doris Arnold we hav the nucleus of 
 the book; the centre from which tlie 
 whole of the interest radiates. Three 
 men fall in love with her, of whom one 
 is Paul Lockley, Rufus another, and 
 It deformed painter named Atcherly 
 another . . . The sacrifices which this 
 triple love necessarily eiftails awakens 
 no doubt as to their probability. They 
 ar exactly as they would hav occurred in 
 real life: and tliey ar narrated with a 
 simplicity which captivates the ear, 
 whilst it lends additional beauty to the 
 pathetic portions of the story." [Lon- 
 don Review. 1670 
 PAULINE. [by Lucy Betiiia 
 (Colquhoun) Walford : Uolt, 1885.] 
 " Much is made and skilfully, in the 
 first and last parts of the story, of the 
 local color of the Hebrides. Th^re was 
 an almost passionate intensity in certain 
 portions of ' Pauline,' suggesting anotlier, 
 and perhaps hier order of power than 
 any which the earlier book had revealed, 
 — one touching upon the veritably tragic. 
 This book certainly had a moral. A 
 good woman is not to marry a bad man 
 with the vain hope of making him better. 
 Such devotion is not useless, merely, 
 but sinful. On this austere text, the 
 author, in the person of her saint-like 
 yet perfectly simple and natural heroin, 
 not so much preaches a homily as makes 
 a plea, — a tearful, regretful, yet in- 
 flexible plea. "We recall few passages 
 in modern fiction more seriously beauti- 
 ful than the last scene vouchsafed to us 
 of her pensiv story, in which she re- 
 ceives the tidings — told carelessly and 
 incidentally — of the violent end of the 
 man she loved." [Atlantic. 1671 
 
 525 
 
ROMANTIC NOVELS. 
 
 PELHAM. [by Baron Lytton 
 (lSOo-73): London, 1827. ]■ "Pelliani," 
 "Devereaiix"and "Paul Cliftbrd" ar works 
 of which the tendency is lo bring into re- 
 pute folly and vi9e, and even crime — works 
 from the perusal of which we arise with 
 much the same feeling as if we had escaped 
 from lo, disreputable, and impure com- 
 pany, into which we had unwillingly been 
 brflt by ac9idental 9ircumstauces, — with a 
 sense of contamination, a feeling as if our 
 mind had been soiled by the contact of the 
 grossness and vi^e around us" [ Amer. 
 Monthly Review. ] — "We pronounce any 
 man a perni9ious humbug who professes 
 to inculcate useful and ennobling lessons 
 of duty, and does the very reverse ; who 
 dresses sophistry and vi9e in the garb of 
 wisdom and virtue, and thus deludes the 
 thotless into worship of the monsters, 
 whose hideous mien, if undisguised, would 
 fil them with hatred. And does not Mr. 
 Bulwer do this? Ar not all his works sat- 
 urated with voluptiousness, replete with 
 false and meretri9ious vues of life? And 
 does he not at the same time assert that he 
 is applying fiction to the most salutary, the 
 
 most elevated purposes? We make 3 dis- 
 tinct charges against the author of the 
 Pelham, or rather of the Falkland series,— 
 for the republication of that precious mass 
 of filth, after the 9elebrity of the writer 
 was established, indicates a desire t6 hav it 
 regarded as entitled to the honors of the 
 first born darling. We assert that his 
 characters ar for the most part full of 
 afl'ectation and exaggeration ; that his 
 philosophy is in the main but sounding 
 brass and tinkling cymbal, and that he is 
 wholy defl9ient in that hi moral sense, that 
 perception of the beauty and sublimity of 
 religion, without which a novelist can 
 never succeed in giving a true picture of 
 life, in unfolding the mysteries of exist- 
 ence, and in improving his fello-men. 
 He is the most artifi9ial writer, we hav no 
 hesitation in saying, of the day ; more 
 addicted to frigid ecsta9ies and studied 
 enthusiasm than any of his fellos. We 
 never seem to see the in9idents he relates 
 or hear the dialog he puts into the mouths 
 of his characters ; but always to hear him 
 repeating the latter and describing the 
 former." [ Amer. Monthly Mag. 896 m 
 
 275 k 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 PEARL [by Emily Jolly: Ilurst, 
 18G8.] "is u, refined and charming 
 story ; the incidents and characters ar 
 managed with delicate subtlety; and 
 tli6re is a careful finish about each 
 character -which raises the story into a 
 work of art . . . Mrs. Doynton is a 
 dear old lady. The other characters ar 
 more sharply designed and less finished ; 
 they serv to thro out the delicate col- 
 oring of Pearl and Mrs. Doynton." 
 [Athenaeum. 1672 
 
 PEN [Roberts, 1888.] "is a sweet 
 little story, well written and well con- 
 ceived. Both the sisters, Pen and little 
 Tre, ar charming, and Sandy and his 
 love-affair enlist from the first a sym- 
 pathy which his red hair and yello-green 
 eyes hav no power to do away with. 
 The book is entirely wholesom and to 
 be commended." [Catholic World.] 
 — " Penelope and Theresa Brand, to 
 whose fortunes the tale relates, ar the 
 children of a shiftless and not very 
 mefitorious artist, who has married, 
 against the wishes of her family, a rich 
 man's dauter. The marriage is never 
 forgiven, and the children gro in poverty, 
 but so long as th6ir sweet mother livs 
 , her influence keeps her husband toler- 
 ably strait. When she dies he goes to 
 the bad rapidly, takes to drink and 
 opium, and little Pen, just 15, with all 
 her mother's capacity for self-devotion 
 and all the honorable instincts of a 
 lady, has to face debt, disgrace, and 
 penury, with but one friend to turn to 
 for aid. This friend is Sandy Mac- 
 Claren, a man yunger and better off 
 than Louis Brand, but still from some 
 odd attraction his warm friend and the 
 devoted servant of his wife and children 
 . . . How Pen redeems her promise 10 
 years later we must leav to be found out 
 from the book, which will be found full 
 of the delicate charm which characterizes 
 
 the older stories of its author." [Boston 
 "Literary World."] — "It is a tale of 
 early trials, ending happily throu the 
 girl's strength of character and nativ 
 virtue. The author shoes the possession 
 of real feeling and of good taste, an;l 
 she has an effectiv style. The pathos of 
 the book is unforced and touches a true 
 and responsiv note. The moral tone is 
 hi, and better recreation and instruction 
 than it offers could hardly be asked." 
 [American. 1673 
 
 PENANCE OF JOHN LOGAN 
 (The), [by W: Black: Low, 1889.] 
 "Of the 3 stories 2 ar good enuf to 
 lead one into the temptation of over- 
 praising the unezpected. It is at all 
 events a pleasure to read ' The Penance 
 of John Logan,' and 'Romeo and Juliet,' 
 and one cannot help saying that they 
 seem better than Mr. Black's recent 
 novels. The third story, 'A Snow 
 Idyl,' is a, story of love and salmon- 
 fishing, in regard to which one must 
 be thankful that tli^re is no yachting 
 in it. ' The Penance of John Logan ' 
 is so well contrived, so britly told, and 
 so lifelike that its simple pathos is 
 irresistible." [Athensum. " 1674 
 
 PENDENNIS. [by W: Makepeace 
 Thackeray: (t, 1863) 1850.] " Pen- 
 dennis is an unsteady, ambitious, clever 
 but idle yung man, with excellent 
 aspirations and purposes, but hardly 
 trustworthy. He is by no means such 
 a one as an anxious father would wish 
 to put before his son as an example. 
 But he is lifelike. Clever yung men, 
 ambitious but idle and vacillating, ar 
 met every day, whereas the gift of per- 
 sistency in a yung man is uncommon. 
 The Pendennis fase of life is one into 
 which clever yung men ar apt to run. 
 The character if alluring would be dan- 
 gerous. If reckless, idle conceit had 
 carried everything before it in the 
 
 626 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 story, — if Pendennis had been made to 
 be noble in tlie midst of bis foibles, — 
 the lesson taut would hav been bad. 
 But the picture which becomes grad- 
 ually visible to the eyes of the reader 
 is the reverse of this. Tho Pendennis 
 is, as it wer, saved at last by the endur- 
 ing affection of two women, the idle- 
 ness and tlie conceit and the vanity, the 
 littleness of the soi-disant great yung 
 man, ar treated with so much disdain as 
 to make the idlest and vainest of male 
 readers altogether for the time out of 
 love with idleness and vanity. And as 
 for Laura, the yunger of the two 
 women by whom he is saved, she who 
 becomes his wife, — surely no female 
 character ever drawn was better adapted 
 than hers to teach that mixture of self- 
 negation, modesty and affection which 
 is needed for the composition of the 
 ideal woman whom we love to con- 
 template.'' [ Anthony TroUope. J — ■ 
 ' ' Here we hav 2 characters totally dis- 
 tinct, as different in their daily life and 
 habits as it is possible to conceive, 
 and yet each marking the author's self- 
 consciousness, each in thfiir degree a 
 prototype of the man. We refer, of 
 course, to Pendennis and Warringtofl. 
 Some hav thot that in the latter he drew 
 himself, and at first sit it seems natural 
 to couple the thfitful, grand, slitly cyn- 
 ical, becaus hard-tried man, smoking 
 his lonely pipe in his chambers, and 
 wearing his tattered clean shirt, with the 
 sarcastic, vigorous writer ; this may seem 
 more natural than to couple the latter 
 with the prig Pendennis, — selfish, dan- 
 dified, preferring claret to beer, con- 
 ceited, vain, and spoilt, and yet with 
 Thackeray's on honest heart, which 
 eschewed vice, and tried hard and 
 successfully against the power of the 
 Evil Jfature to withstand temptation." 
 [Westminster Review.] — "My father 
 
 scarcely ever put real people into his 
 books, tho he of course found sugges- 
 tions among the people with whom he 
 was thron. I hav always thot that th^re 
 was something of himself in Warring- 
 ton. Perhaps the serious part of his 
 nature was vaguely drawn in that char- 
 acter. Th^re was also a, little likeness 
 to his friend E: Fitzgerald, who always 
 lived a very solitary life." [A.. I.. 
 (T.) Ritchie.]— "Yet as to Warring- 
 ton, we must quote Thackeray against 
 his dauter. When Pendennis was pub- 
 lished, he sent a copy to one of his in- 
 timate friends, G: Moreland Crawford, 
 Paris correspondent of the ' News,' 
 who had nursed the novelist throu the 
 long and dangerous illness which nearly 
 put an end to Pendennis. The copy 
 was accompanied by the f olloing letter : 
 ' You will find much to remind you of 
 old talks and faces, — of W: J: O'Con- 
 nell. Jack Sheenan, and Archie Arch- 
 decne. Thfire is something of you in 
 Warrington, but he is not fit to hold a 
 candle to you, for taking you all round, 
 you ar the most genuin fello that ever 
 strayed from a better world to this. 
 You don't smoke, and he is a consumer 
 of tobacco. Bordeaux and port wer 
 your favorits at the Deanery and the 
 Garrick, and War. is always guzzling 
 beer. But he has your honesty, and, 
 like you, could not posture if he tried.' 
 Warrington, therefore, seems to hav 
 oed his being to the novelist's acquaint- 
 ance with Crawford, altho there is un- 
 doubtedly [and possibly unconsciously] 
 much of Thackeray himself in it, — 
 more, perhaps, than in the character of 
 Pendennis." [Lippincott's. 1675 
 
 PENRUDDOCK [by Hamilton 
 Aide : Osgood, 1873.] " is a good novel. 
 It is written as an autobiografy , and 
 sets before us the youth and early man- 
 hood of a man who leaves his home and 
 527 
 
BKITISII NOVELS. 
 
 makes the best way he can in the great 
 world. He is an honest, simple-hearted 
 yung fello, a favorit with all except 
 his relativs ; but his enthusiasm and 
 over-confidence in others as well as in 
 himself ar continually getting him into 
 hot water. All his deeds, the most 
 innocent as well as those which ar 
 rather dubious, ar harshly_ judged, the 
 ears of the girl he loves ar filled with 
 calumnies about him, and his life is 
 by no means an easy one. A german 
 lady, who is 10 years older than he, 
 is a kind friend and counselor to him, 
 but this fact is not ignored by a censo- 
 rious world . . The author has written 
 a very readable novel, which we trust 
 givs an exaggerated representation of 
 the improprieties of London society." 
 [Nation. 1676 
 
 PERIL [by Jessie !Fotheegill : (f, 
 1891) Holt, 1886.] "does not disap- 
 point readers who remember ' The First 
 Violin' [No. 698] and 'Kith and Kin' 
 [No. 1436]. It is long, elaborate, and 
 somewhat involved ; but it is not tedious, 
 and at times is startlingly vivid and in- 
 tense. It is the story of a yung lady 
 with a ' temper,' who rarely does any- 
 thing but what is dangerous, and who 
 wrecks her peace and the fortunes of 
 the man she loves by the caprice of a 
 vengeful moment. But th^re is food 
 for reflexion in the very evident fact 
 that the girl's ' temper' is due to circum- 
 stance as well as temperament, — to the 
 people who did not love or understand 
 or disciplin her, as well as to her on 
 recklessness ; while some of the scenes 
 ar powerful enuf to make it that really 
 ingenious and rare thing, a novel which 
 suggests thot while dealing with what is 
 sensational." [Critic. 1677 
 
 PERPETUAL CURATE (The) [by 
 Ma. Oliphant (Wilson) Oliphant : 
 Blaclcwood, 1864.] "the perhaps it 
 
 contains no single sketch quite so fresh 
 and full of humor as Tozer, the dairy- 
 man and principal chapel-warden of the 
 Independent congregation at Carlingford, 
 is a more perfect work than ' Salem 
 Chapel' [No. 1756] mainly becaus it 
 has no vein of melodramatic alloy like 
 that otherwise inimitable story . . The 
 workmanship is not only good but sin- 
 gularly uniform ; there ar skilful intel- 
 lectual touches in every page, and even 
 when the last thread of the story is 
 displayed, we read with quite as miich 
 interest as before, to the very last page, 
 confident that the minute strokes of insit 
 and humor with which every character 
 is shaded will not cease till the end. In 
 ' Salem Chapel ' the rubbishy element 
 connected with Susan's romance sounded 
 so striking a discord in the tale, that we 
 had to reassure ourselves repeatedly 
 that we wer under no delusion as to the 
 realistic power of the more striking 
 features. Here there is nearly perfect 
 keeping in the whole . . For the rest, 
 the critic has little to do but to point 
 out the many slTt but admirable sketches, 
 llted by a delicate humor which seldom 
 exaggerates even by a, hair's-breadth, 
 which the tale contains . . . The dismay 
 with which the rector's wife sees her 
 husband, of whom up to her marriage 
 she had hoped to make a hero, indulging 
 in what she thinks almost malignant 
 feelings against his rival, and eagerly 
 catching the idle gossip unfavorable to 
 him, the despair with which she tells 
 herself that these petty feelings would 
 not hav gained any hold on him had they 
 not waited so patiently for their marriage 
 during those 10 years for his promotion, 
 the feminin sagacity with which she 
 half controls her regrets and half vents 
 their bitterness on the unlucky curate 
 who fans her husband's clerical ani- 
 mosity, ar blended most delicately with 
 
 528 
 
BttlTISll NOVELS. 
 
 tlie OTer-nicety of a woman still half 
 a spinster in habits and tastes. The 
 glaring pattern of a drawing-room 
 carpet with which the previous rector 
 had provided the rectory, and which it 
 was thot too expensiv to replace, is an 
 especial theme of constant irritation to 
 poor Mrs. Morgan, — not that humorous 
 irritation which a woman would feel to 
 whom such matters had assumed their 
 rit subordination in life, — but the 
 grave irritation which they would cause 
 to one who had long looked forward to 
 marriage as the beginning of a full true 
 life, and yet found it setting in motion a 
 variety of petty annoyances, and cares, 
 and trials of temper which had never 
 before beset her . . . The great artistic 
 merit of the story is the evenness of 
 the literary workmanship. Almost 
 every page is saturated with delicate 
 and earnest observation of life and 
 character." [Spectator.] — See MISS 
 MARJORIBANKS. 1(578 
 
 PERSUASION. [by J.. Austen: 
 1810.] "Whatever draws attention to 
 Miss Austen is a boon to mankind and a 
 benefit to literature, and it would not 
 be easy to find anything about her and 
 her novels which would not be pleasant 
 to read, if the treatment be only appre- 
 ciativ and the style good. It is only too 
 lazily delltful to wander in spirit about 
 the lanes of Highbury with Emma 
 Woodhouse, [No. 1246] or linger in 
 the glades of Mansfield Park, [No. 
 1500] with Pannie Price, or look out 
 on the sea from the Cobb of Lyme 
 Regis with Anne Elliot, or accompany 
 Elizabeth Bennett [No. 1697] to her 
 pitched battles at Rosing's or her triumf 
 at Pemberly. We could read Miss 
 Austen's novels almost for ever, and 
 anything concerning them has, of course, 
 its borroed charm." [Spectator. 1679 
 
 PETRONEL. [by Flokence (Mar- 
 
 byat) (Chuech) Lean ; Sentley, 1870.] 
 "Petronel is a yung lady of somewhat 
 explosiv and fiery temperament, but very 
 charming and lovable, — whose story is 
 pleasantly told. She is the dauter of a 
 'bohemian' artist, who, having eloped 
 with a lady of rank, deserts and leaves 
 her dependent for the last offices of 
 friendship, and her dauter for parental 
 care on tlie kindness of their cousin . . 
 At length, when an unusually sharp pas- 
 sage of arms between her cousin Marcia 
 and her charge has compelled the Doc- 
 tor's interference, he selects a school 
 for her at Antwerp, whfire is laid the 
 second scene of Petronel's history . . . 
 A happy reconciliation of the family 
 party forms an appropriate end to a slit 
 but ably-written story." [Athen. 1G80 
 
 PHANTOM PUTURE (The) [by 
 H. S. Merriman: Bentley, 1889.] "is 
 readable for several reasons. It intro- 
 duces the bar-room life of struggling 
 ^ literary men, actors, medical students 
 and others who turn nit into day; it 
 describes a David and Jonathan sort of 
 friendship ; and it contains a pretty love 
 story . . . The friendship between Cro- 
 zier and Valliant is delicately handled — 
 between the strong, steadfast sailor and 
 singer, and the brilliant artist, who con- 
 ceals beneath a careless, rather dissi- 
 pated mask the consciousness that his 
 days are numbered, and that he is in the 
 grip of mortal disease.'' [Athen. 1681 
 
 PHARISEES, [by — ( ) Ed- 
 
 wards : Maxwell, 1884.] " The Phari- 
 sees ar the county folk who welcom, 
 after 9 or 10 years of australian exile, 
 yung Squire Oldcastle with his wife 
 Star, formerly an actress, on whose 
 account principally he had gAne into 
 banishment [Compare plot of No. 
 1634] . . . He is gradually made to 
 feel ashamed of his wife, to think that 
 she stands in his way, and to act with 
 
 629 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 cruelty toward her, even when he fan- 
 cies that he is playing an unselfish part. 
 The situation is complicated by his 
 yunger brother Errol, who falls madly 
 in love with Star, and by his friend 
 Major Peveril, tho both these men in 
 their different ways ar guided by honor- 
 able motivs, and by a desire to befriend 
 the unfortunate wife. Guy and Errol 
 ar worked at by the author with much 
 care, and with some success, but it is 
 Star who holds our attention fixed 
 throuout. She is prouder in her soul 
 than all the Oldcastles, and better, and 
 more worthy to be loved. Her pride 
 leads her throu great sufferings, and 
 subjects her to much insult and humili- 
 ation. The author does not shrink from 
 painting scenes of tragic intensity, and 
 her novel is painful in the hiest degree. 
 But its power is unquestionable, and 
 the reader becomes engrossed in watch- 
 ing the martyrdom of a wayward, 
 over-sensitiv, and yet noble woman. 
 The story is far above the average." 
 [Athenfflum. 1682 
 
 PHILIP EARNSCLIPFE. [Amer. 
 News. Co., 1866.] = MORALS OF MA Y 
 FAIR. 
 
 PHILISTIA [by ' ' Cecil Power," i.e., 
 [C : ] Grant [Blairpindel] Allen : 
 Chatto, 1884.] "is an unusually clever 
 novel. It has a very apparent political 
 and social bias. The most prominent 
 characters ar Socialists, and all the intel- 
 lectual and cultivated men in the book 
 are represented as thoroly convinced of 
 the absolute truth and riteousness of the 
 Socialist doctrin, even tho self-interest 
 may restrain them from personally obey- 
 ing its dictates ... It is the spirited 
 and pithy dialog which givs to ' Philistia ' 
 its undoubted superiority to the ordinary 
 run of novels ; for it must be confessed, 
 the incidents ar farcical, and not a few 
 of the personages either exaggerated or 
 
 unnatural; and th^re is, too, a jumble 
 of classes which is quite bewildering. 
 For instance, 'Little Miss Butterfly,' 
 the dauter of a small grocer in a petty 
 town, is depicted as the very akme of 
 elegance, cultivation, and refinement; 
 yet with her surroundings, how could 
 she escape being what G: Eliot called 
 ' spotted with commonness ' ? And this 
 is no solitary example : few indeed of 
 the characters ar the legitimate outcom 
 of th^ir antecedents. But the gravest 
 drawback to Mr. Power's work is its 
 marked Socialistic teaching. It is mis- 
 chievous to disseminate error in an 
 attractiv form, and no error could be 
 more signal than that which attributes 
 to a social scheme of human devising, 
 the power to suspend or materially mod- 
 ify a great natural law like that of the 
 struggle for existence.'' [Westminster 
 Review.] — " Thfire is a quiet, pleasant 
 tone about ' Philistia ' which recom- 
 mends it to one's liking in spite of an 
 occasional straining of the socialistic 
 note. If Ernest le Breton is somewhat 
 tiresome at first, in the pertinacity with 
 which he obtrudes his socialism on all 
 with whom he comes in contact, we for- 
 giv him afterward for the troubles his 
 conscientiousness and his principles 
 bring him into, for his quiet resignation 
 and gentleness under their wet. The 
 main thread of the story runs very 
 simply. Le Breton is driven by his 
 opinions from his tutorship of Lord 
 Exmoor's son, and then from his school- 
 mastership, on the strength of which he 
 had married, into journalism. Here, 
 but for the help of friends, he would 
 hav starved, again on account of his 
 opinions, until the success of his pam- 
 flet on the poor of London brot him 
 prosperity and the editorship of a social- 
 ist paper. The tale is told mildly, yet 
 with vivid incidents, and with minor 
 
 530 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 threads ingeniously woren in, which 
 make it full of interest. There is no 
 study of a social fase, as in 'Alton 
 Locke,' no sensational use of social- 
 istic organizations, as in ' Sunrise'; but 
 merely the recognition that there is a 
 new faith groing up which is already 
 strong enuf to be the guiding motir in 
 the lives of some men of culture and 
 breadth, as well as men of narro and 
 intense ideas." [Nation. 1683 
 
 PHINEAS FINN. [by Anthony 
 Trollope : 1868.] " In writing ' Phin- 
 eas Finn' I had constantly before me 
 the necessity of progression of character 
 — of marking the changes in men and 
 women which would naturally be pro- 
 duced by the laps of years . . So 
 much of my inner life was passed in 
 their company, that I was continually 
 asking myself how this woman would 
 act when this or that event had passed 
 over her head, or how that man would 
 carry himself when his youth had be- 
 come manhood, or his manhood declined 
 to old age. It was in regard to the old 
 duke of Omnium, of his nefew and 
 heir, and of his heir's wife. Lady Glen- 
 cora, that I was anxious to carry oTit 
 this idea ; but others added themselvs 
 to mind as I went on, and I got round 
 me a circle of persons as to whom I 
 knew not only their present characters, 
 but how those characters wer to be 
 affected by years and circumstances. 
 The happy, motherly life of Violet 
 Effingham, which was due to the girl's 
 honest, but long-restrained love ; the 
 tragic misery of Lady Laura, which was 
 equally due to the sale she made of her- 
 self in her wretched marriage ; and the 
 long suffering but final success of the 
 hero, of which he had deserved the first 
 by his vanity, and the last by his con- 
 stant honesty, had been foreshadoed to 
 me from the first . . . Lady Laura 
 
 Standish is the best character in ' Phin- 
 eas Finn ' and its sequel ' Phineas 
 Iledux ' — of which I will speak here 
 together. They ar, in fact, but one 
 novel, tho they wer brot out at a con- 
 siderable interval of time . . . But I 
 found that the sequel enjoyed the same 
 popularity as the former part, and 
 among the same class of readers. 
 Phineas, and Lady Laura, and Lady 
 Chiltern — as Violet has become — and 
 the old duke — whom I killed gracefully, 
 and the new duke, and the yung duchess, 
 either kept their old friends or made 
 new friends for themselvs." [Author's 
 Autobiografy. 1684 
 
 PHINEAS REDUX, [by Anthonv 
 Trollope : Harper, 1874.] "Many 
 novel-readers will recall with pleasure 
 Mr. Trollope's Phineas Finn, wliich in 
 some ways is among the best of his 
 stories, and they will welcom a continu- 
 ation of the adventures of the yung 
 irishman who made a great many friends 
 in his struggle with life, as depicted in 
 the earlier volume, and by his disap- 
 pointed hopes of success as he ap- 
 proached middle age. We left him then 
 returning to Ireland to marry the simple 
 girl whom he had first loved, and in 
 Phineas Iledux we hav him returning 
 to London, a widoer, after 2 years' ab- 
 sence, and once more taking part in 
 politics." [AtUntic] — See EUSTACE 
 DIAMONDS, PRIME MIN., etc. 1685 
 
 PHGEBE, JUNIOR [by Ma. Oli- 
 phant (Wilson) Oliphant : Hurst, 
 1876.] " purports to be a last chronicle 
 of Carlingford, and the reader will not 
 regret the renewal of his acquaintance 
 with that typical old-fashioned town. 
 The present chronicle deals with the 
 fortunes of the minister's dauter whose 
 father and mother, finding the jealousies 
 of their nebors too much for them at 
 the outset of their married life, emi- 
 
 531 
 
BKITISH NOVELS. 
 
 grate to the Iforth, and finally to Lon- 
 don, raising tliemselvs in the social 
 scale of dissent by these changes, and 
 dropping in the process much of the 
 belligerent nonconformity which vras 
 natural in tlieir former position. The 
 fllosofy of hereditary dissent, as op- 
 posed to the mental attitude of the origi- 
 nal separatist, ii amusingly analyzed, 
 tho no fair-minded person will accuse 
 her of an unfriendly spirit; and types 
 of character differing as ■widely as Cop- 
 perhead the contractor and Sir Robert 
 Dorset and Mrs. Tom Tozer ar effect- 
 ivly sketched in the author's happiest 
 manner. Phoebe is capital. The self- 
 possession with which she guides herself 
 throu the difficulties of her position as 
 a thoroly educated girl, who has quite 
 left her relativs behind in a social point 
 of vue, but whose polish has gone suffi- 
 ciently deep to make her act toards 
 them without the slitest indication of 
 meanness, or false shame, is excellent. 
 Her honesty (which was an effort to the 
 fair bourgeoise) in this case proves the 
 best policy as also does the frankness 
 with which she accepts both the task 
 of civilizing and cherishing the loutish 
 Clarence Copperhead, and the gage of 
 battle promptly thron down by her future 
 father-in-law. Every one will sym- 
 pathize with her clever defeat of that 
 gross specimen»of the monied proletariat 
 ... Of course a, perfect lady would 
 hardly hav gone in for the prize, with 
 or without the expectatioji of such a 
 struggle to retain it ; but Phoebe is not 
 perfect, nor quite a lady, and obtains in 
 her Clarence the opening she desires for 
 further social success." [Atlienseum.] , 
 — "When Mrs. Oliphant writes about 
 yung girls she is sure to be entertaining, 
 and generally she shos herself in her 
 best nereis a worthy folloer of Miss 
 Austen, while there is hardly one, even 
 
 of those most hastily written, into 
 which she does not put some few pages 
 of such simplicity and apparent artless- 
 ness that the reader wonders why all 
 domestic tales ar not like hers. ' Phoebe, 
 Junior' shos both her excellences and 
 her faults. There is a great deal which 
 is clever in it. Phoebe is well drawn, 
 and all of the family life of Ursula 
 and her yung sister U well described. 
 The difference between the two yung 
 men, one of whom is a nonconformist 
 while the other is a churchman, is 
 set before us in n. most lifelike way. 
 But what is disappointing is the up- 
 shot of the whole story. AYhy should 
 Phoebe, after all, marry the man she 
 _does? That termination is a disappoint- 
 ing one, and, if it was intended for 
 satire, it is too suddenly thrust upon the 
 reader to make him sure of the inten- 
 tion. AVe become too fond of Phoebe 
 not to pity her fate, and, with all her 
 faults, she seems too sensible a girl to 
 choose such a fate. Still, Mrs. Oli- 
 phant knoes her public better than we 
 do." [Nation. 1680 
 
 PHYLLIS [by May (Laffan) 
 Hartley: Smith, 1877.] "is a love 
 story of the post-nuptial period, which 
 has a great deal of merit and interest, 
 tho it is not strikingly original, and has 
 the one recommendation which tells 
 most strongly for a book intended to be 
 amusing, — it amuses ... In ' Phyllis ' 
 we find a very fresh and pleasant atmos- 
 fere . . . The author writes perfectly 
 good English, and she possesses both 
 refinement and humor . . . The story 
 of the girl- wife, whose husband has 
 Ignorantly done her a great wrong, and 
 who is content with the liking which an 
 unawakened heart givs him, until he 
 shall be able to win a warmer and more 
 satisfying sentiment, would hav been 
 more true and pleasing without the inci- 
 
 532 
 
BRITISH .NOVELS. 
 
 dent of Sir Mark Gore, a comiuonplace 
 and over-done specimen of the false 
 friend and unprincipled man of society. 
 It is much to the honor of the lady who 
 has written this clever and interesting 
 novel, that she fails in all the scenes of 
 dangerous flirtation, while she succeeds 
 perfectly whure the sentiments and the 
 difficulties with which she deals are en- 
 tirely honest and natural." [Spec. 1687 
 
 PHYLLIS BROWNE, See No. 1153. 
 
 PIQUE. [by S.. (Stickney) 
 Ellis : Smith, 1850 ; Boston, Loring, 
 1863.] " The manner of narration is 
 so easy, earnest, and pleasant as to hav 
 enticed us on from chapter to chapter, 
 with a charm which is by no means of 
 every week's experience." [Athenae- 
 um.] — "It is probably destined to be- 
 come as popular as the novel of which 
 it frequently reminds us — ' The Ini- 
 tials ' [No. 473]. The characters de- 
 velop throu spirited conversations, 
 always natural and without exaggera- 
 tion. The pages are never dull, the 
 story being varied and full of interest. 
 It is a :ta:le of the affections, of the 
 home circle, of jealousies, misconcep- 
 tions, perversions, feelings, the inci- 
 dents groing naturally out of the 
 defects and excellences of the individ- 
 uals depicted. We commend ' Pique ' 
 to all lovers of refined, spirited, and 
 detailed home novels." [Continen- 
 tal. 1688 
 PLAYWRIGHT'S DAUGHTER 
 (A) [by Annie Edwards : Bentley, 
 1884?] "is an admirably told story. 
 It is not^the story, but the telling of it, 
 which is striking, for we hav had much 
 the same material before, but seldom 
 do we hav such spirit in the render- 
 ing of a more than twice-told tale." 
 [Critic. 1689 
 
 POINT OF HONOR (A), [by 
 Annie Edwards : London, also Har- 
 
 per, 1863.] "The heroin remains at 
 Chesterford, leading her solitary life 
 and loving him. Meantime the vicar, 
 a man of strong nature, much tender- 
 ness, and great tact, whose character 
 is admirably drawn, loves Jane, and 
 bides his time. After 10 years, how- 
 ever, Mohun returns, walks into Jane's 
 parlor, and asks her to be friends with 
 him. She, loving him no less than 
 ever, asseijts gladly . . . But, altho she 
 forgivs, she will not receive him again 
 on the old footing, and he drives off 
 with his handsome adventuress wife, 
 and Jane loves and is married to Mr. 
 FoUett. The story is told with great 
 yet with very simple skill, and the char- 
 acters of the few personages ar revealed 
 rather than portrayed." [Galaxy. 1690 
 
 POLLY [Tinsley, 1867.] " is essen- 
 tially a village portrait. The author 
 pays a flying visit to a garrison town 
 wh^re some amateur theatricals ar go- 
 ing on, and occasionally peeps into the 
 palace of a bishop ; but with these ex- 
 ceptions the incidents ar transacted in a 
 village, the changes of scene not extend- 
 ing beyond the vicarage, the mansion 
 house, and the inn. Polly Churchill, 
 the heroin, is one of those charming 
 characters far less frequently met 
 in the fiction of modern days than 
 we could wish . . . She is merely a 
 simple, true-hearted little girl, the 
 dauter of a parson; she looks after a 
 crowd of little brothers and sisters, and 
 is a devoted believer in one of the most 
 worthless parents who ever existed." 
 [London Review. 1691 
 
 POOR GENTLEMAN (A), [by 
 Ma. Oliphant (Wilson) Oliphant: 
 Hurst, 1889.] "The contrast between 
 the boisterous family life of Penton 
 Hook and the solemn grandeur of Pen- 
 ton Hall, wh^re old Sir Walter rSgns 
 childless but for an only dautor and her 
 533 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 elderly husband, is not all in favor of 
 the latter. Mrs. Oliphaut has not lost 
 the art of delicate contrasts in female 
 character. Ally and Anne ar a charm- 
 ing pair of sisters, and th^ir gentle 
 mother is admirably described. Of the 
 men there is less to be said. Mr. Rus- 
 sell Penton, the prince-consort of the 
 queen regnant at the Hall, has the most 
 individuality. His gentle disapproval of 
 his wife's attitude to the heirs of entail, 
 and his generally loyal and tactful sub- 
 mission to the necessities of a position 
 which bores him to an extent none of 
 his family circle quite appreciates, ar 
 excellently set forth. For a lazy, ac- 
 quiescent sort of a man he manages to 
 hav a great influence in the rit direction 
 over his wife, who, in spite of her prej- 
 udices and force of character, is sen- 
 sitiv to his inarticulate judgments on 
 her vues and ways . . . Rochford, the 
 smart yung lawyer, is only a sketch. 
 The filosofic old roadman is another. 
 ' One like me, as sits here hours on end, 
 with naut afore him but the clouds 
 flying and the wind bloing, learna a 
 many things.' One would hav liked to 
 hear more of them." [Athen. 1692 
 POOR SQUIRE (A), [by "Holme 
 Lee," i. e., Harriet Parr : Smith, 1882.] 
 " It is always a pleasure to read one of 
 ' Holme Lee's ' novels, a pleasure not 
 a little increased when we turn to them 
 from the tedious frivolities or dismal 
 moods of passion and crime with which 
 some writers would amuse or instruct. 
 The ' Poor Squire ' is a love-story, pure 
 and simple . When we ar introduced to 
 the hero, he has had his disappointment. 
 His father, offended by the too evident 
 ennui which the girl to whom he is 
 engaged 8h()s in her first visit to the 
 family home, leaves away from him the 
 greater part of his wealth. He is now 
 a poor man, and her friends break off 
 
 the match. Some years afterwards, 
 their influence makes her contract a new 
 engagement, a grand match, for the new 
 lover is a duke, only old enuf to be her 
 grandfather. But tho. Squire is stirred 
 to rebellion, and she, too, when she 
 finds that he is faithful to his old 
 passion, asserts herself. Thfire ar no 
 grand emotions, no harroing scenes, or 
 startling surprises. The tale has just 
 the quiet charm which surrounds the 
 Squire's home, ' a land of ancient 
 peace.' But we folio it with unfailing 
 interest, so natural is everything, so 
 graceful the touch with which the 
 author brings her men and women be- 
 fore us." [Spectator. 1693 
 
 PORTIA, [by Ma. ( ) (Aroles) 
 Hongekpokd: Lippincott, 1882.] 
 " There is an exceeding amount of 
 excessiv playfulness in the pages of 
 'Portia,' for a novel with so formi- 
 dable a secondary title as ' By Passions 
 Rocked.' A serene and slender mystery 
 does, indeed, try to meander gracefully 
 among the puns and frolics of the heroes 
 and heroins, and a great deal of agony 
 is piled suddenly on the last page ; but 
 on the whole the book is amusing rather 
 than tragic." [Critic] — " It is a rather 
 painful story, told in this author's spritly 
 manner — ■ always in the present tense — 
 of a man's love for a woman, which she 
 rejected becaus there was an ugly story 
 afloat of his being a forger. She be- 
 lieved it. By-and-by the besotted old 
 clerk who had really committed the 
 forgery confesses his crime, and Portia 
 turns to her old lover, but it is too late." 
 [Boston " Literary "World." 1694 
 
 PREMIER AND THE PAINTER 
 (The) . [by J. Freeman Bell : S. 
 Blackett, 1888.] " The theme is politics 
 and politicians, and the treatment, while 
 for the most part satirical and prosaic, 
 is often touched with sentiment, and 
 
 534 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 sometimes even with a fantastic kind of 
 poetry. The several episodes of the 
 story ar wildly fanciful and ar clumsily 
 connected ; but the streak of humorous 
 cynicism which shos throu all of them 
 is both curious and pleasing. Again, it 
 has to be claimed for the author that — as 
 is shon to admiration by his presentation 
 of the excellent Mrs. Dawe and her 
 cookshop — he is capable of insTt and 
 observation of a hi order, and therewith 
 of a masterly sobriety of tone." [Athe- 
 naeum. 1695 
 PRETTY MISS BELLEW. [by 
 " Theo. Gift," i, e., Dora Henrietta 
 (Havers) Boulger : Beniley, 1876.] "To 
 readers looking for a fresh, pretty, and 
 wholesom story, with a good deal of 
 honest sentiment, some pathos, and in 
 places a considerable strength of passion, 
 we commend Mr. Giffs latest book . . . 
 The realness of his people is so firm, 
 and the charm of his yung heroin so 
 abiding, that he is able to take the most 
 curious liberties in talking about them." 
 [Atlantic] • — "The author has told 
 very cleverly a story of home life, with 
 a heroin modern, independent, thoroly 
 natural and without a tinge of fastness. 
 It is a capital study of character, and if 
 it convinces any would-be heroins that 
 everything natural in character is certain 
 to be interesting, it will add some tone 
 to the great army of men who are 
 searching for home life of the rit kind. 
 The readers aimed at would probably 
 observ that the hero is quite a useful 
 example of how not to do it for men. 
 He is the stereotyped englishman, dellts 
 in his rufness, asks the girl he loves to 
 marry him as he would his ' tiger ' to 
 bring him his boots. It is needless to 
 repeat our conviction that the hero, when 
 introduced into the sfere of home life, 
 will adorn it as all english husbands do." 
 [Peun. 1696 
 
 PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. [by 
 J.. Austen: 181G.] 'An often quoted 
 passage from the diary in Lockhart's 
 ' Life ' contains the fullest recognition 
 of this. ' Read again, and for the third 
 time at least. Miss Austen's finely 
 written novel "Pride and Prejudice." 
 That yung lady had a talent for describ- 
 ing the involvmcnts and feelings and 
 characters of ordinary life which is to 
 me the most wonderful I ever met with. 
 The big bow-wow strain I can do myself 
 like any now going; but the exquisit 
 touch which renders ordinary, common- 
 place things and characters interesting 
 from the truth of the description and the 
 sentiment is denied to me. What a pity 
 such a gifted creature died so early ! " 
 But much more, of course, than "truth 
 of sentiment and description " goes to 
 the creation of Jane Austen's power and 
 charm. A profound inslt into the 
 workings of the calmer and commoner 
 human feelings and motivs — this and a 
 marvellously subtle humor wer the two 
 gifts which she was the first to bring in 
 anything like profusion to the "novel of 
 manners." And the purest novels of 
 manners, in the sense in which I hav 
 endeavored to define the frase, her 
 stories ar. They giv, and they confine 
 themselvs strictly to giving, a picture 
 of life as it presents itself under the 
 most rigid rules of social convention, 
 with only such actions described, such 
 characters and feelings depicted, as 
 these rules permit of being displayed.' " 
 [A. Trollope.] — " Pride and Prejudice 
 must be deemed, on the whole, her best 
 book. The heroin, Elizabeth Bennett, 
 is, in the frase of Miss Austen's day, a 
 fine yung woman, clever and agreeable, 
 good-looking and good-tempered, tho 
 with ii hi spirit which enables her to 
 hold her on in all situations ; and she is 
 well matched with Darcy, who, in spite 
 
 535 
 
DKITISH NOVELS. 
 
 of his aristocratic prejudice and stifE 
 manner, is a thoro gentleman. All the 
 figures in this novel ar well drawn, par- 
 ticularly those of the pompously stupid 
 Collins, and of Mr. Bennett with his 
 cynic fllosofy, under which he hides his 
 disappointment at his matrimonial mis- 
 take, and the satiric humor with which 
 he revenges himself upon his wife and 
 yunger dauters for their exasperating 
 silUness." [Boston " Lit.World." 1697 
 
 PRIME MINISTER (The), [by 
 Anthony Trollope : Harper, 1876.] 
 "Formerly, whenever Mr. Trollope had 
 written a new novel, it was customary 
 for critics to giv full descriptions of his 
 style, and to say that it was much more 
 like such a representation as is given by 
 a fotograf than like one of Turner's 
 paintings, for instance ; but now every 
 one kno^s only too well how Trollope 
 writes, and pretty nearly what measure 
 of sentiment and romance he is to 
 furnish us in the story which he unwinds 
 like so miich tape. ' The Prime Min- 
 ister ' stands true to the author's old 
 traditions, and why it Is not as good, or 
 as bad, or as indifferent as some 20 
 others of his less successful novels, it 
 would be hard to say. Thfire is the 
 dose of political life, as the title of the 
 novel suggests, wherein we read of our 
 old friends, the Duke of Omnium and 
 Lady Glencora his wife, and then for 
 the body of the novel we hav the story 
 of the unhappy married life of the 
 english woman who took the bit be- 
 tween her teeth and married, against 
 everybody's advice, the disreputable 
 Jew. There is about it all a calmness 
 which is not classic, nor yet by any 
 means romantic, and which is as monot- 
 onous as the bricks in the walls of city 
 houses which belong to no school of 
 architecture." [Nation. 1698 
 
 PRIMROSE PATH, [by Ma. Ou- 
 
 PHANT CWilson) Oliphant : Hurst, 
 1878.] " A prettier or more idiomatic 
 scotch story it would be hard to find, 
 and tho its subtler touches will be lost 
 on the general reader, the refinement of 
 its humor anl the picturesqueness of its 
 descriptiv setting cannot f^,il to be to 
 some extent appreciated. The picture 
 of the gray, turreted manor-house, the 
 home shared by Margaret with the 
 stately old father, and John and Bell, 
 faithfuUest of ancient serving-folk ; the 
 contrasted beauty of the english grange, 
 with ' its mass of flowers and leafage 
 and blooming old walls,' in which she 
 leads the more conventional existence 
 preferred by her anglicised sisters, ar 
 both excellent in their kind ; while thfire 
 is not a character without individualit}'." 
 [Athenajum. 1699 
 
 PRINCE FORTUNATUS. [by W: 
 Black: //arpe?-, 1890.] " Mr. Black's 
 singing hero loves above his station, only 
 to hav his affection bllted by a ' no,' 
 sweeter, however, than another's ' Yes.' 
 After a proper season of self-abnegation 
 and desperate follies, winding up in 
 brain-fever, he consoles himself with 
 the faithful adoration of a young Italian 
 person no better than himself socially, 
 and rather worse artistically. No genius 
 is needed to extend these simple sorroes 
 into a very dull romance; the wonder 
 here is, that, interwoven with equally 
 simple joys, they make a very readable 
 story, which gently stimulates curiosity 
 to the end, and then modestly effaces 
 itself from memory." [Nation. 1700 
 
 PRINCESS OF THULE, = 905. 
 
 PRINCESS SUNSHINE [by C. 
 Eliza Lawson (Cowan) Riddell: 
 Ward ^Downey, 1889.] "is a pretty, 
 domestic, ' middle-class' tale. But the 
 best part of it, perhaps, is the description 
 of the old fashioned house, in the sub- 
 urbs of London 25 years ago, in which 
 
 636 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 Gregory Gifford, author and pressman, 
 labors to support the ungrateful gentil- 
 ity of his commonplace sisters, and the 
 airs and graces of his would-be fashion- 
 able yung brother. For nooks and 
 corners of the London which is disap- 
 pearing Mrs. Eiddell has the sympathy 
 which is essential to good description. 
 Of the characters, Gregory is a mar- 
 vellous example of unobtrusiv sacrifice 
 of self for family loyalty and ties of 
 honor, such as is uncommon, but for- 
 tunately not unknon in daily life. 
 Sunshine, as becomes her, rewards her 
 patient hero at last, in spite of the 
 faded ' ladies ' who oppose her." [Athe- 
 na3um. 1701 
 
 PRIVATE SECRET AKY (The), 
 [by G : ToMPKYNS Chesney : Black- 
 wood, 1881.] " Apparently, the whole 
 work has been produced for the sake of 
 the one figure to which reference has 
 been made, and no competent reader 
 will fail to perceive that Robert Clif- 
 ford's private secretary, Hilda Reid, is 
 a remarkably interesting and indeed 
 masterly creation . . . She is repre- 
 sented as beautiful, but her beauty does 
 not seem to hav been of that type 
 which especially appealed to her lover ; 
 and apart from fysical charm, th^re is 
 nothing to excite, but everything to re- 
 pel passion in a purely business relation 
 with u, yung lady who, so far as can be 
 seen by him, is distinguished mainly by 
 good business habits, unfailing reserv, 
 a suspicion of satire, and a noteworthy 
 ability to take care of herself. To de- 
 pict such a woman with unflinching ve- 
 racity and with no softening of the 
 angles of character, and at the same 
 time to represent her as inspiring a love 
 which is made to seem natural and even 
 inevitable, is a task of amazing diflEi- 
 culty, but it is performed here with the 
 ease of effortless strength, and it is only 
 
 on reflection that we perceive how great 
 a triumf of subtle and delicate art has 
 really been achieved. We ar reminded 
 of ' Jane Eyre ' [No. 762] not only by 
 the central character, but by the central 
 situation. Clifford, the employer and 
 lover of Hilda, is represented as in 
 somewhat peculiar circumstances. He 
 is the possessor of a temporary income 
 of £5,000, but this income is forfeited, 
 in the event Of his marrying anyone but 
 his cousin . . . He confides to Hilda 
 his love and his embarrassment, and 
 pleads for her consent to a permanent 
 union consecrated only by mutual love 
 and fidelity. At first, Hilda is firm in 
 her refusal. She has had no religious 
 training, and holds no religious belief, 
 and is free from conventionality of thot ; 
 but she feels that wer she to consent 
 she would be degraded in her eyes, and 
 ultimately in the eyes of her lover. 
 She has, however, miscalculated her 
 strength and the strength of the forces 
 brot to bear against her. She is 'proof 
 against her lover's pleadings, and even 
 against his reproaches ; but when she 
 has sent him from her side, she goes to 
 see her little brother at the school wh6re 
 Clifford's money has placed him, and 
 th^re a plea is made which she cannot 
 resist. Tho a silent plea, it is more 
 effectual than the spoken one. The 
 agonized, look on the face of the little 
 boy — too yung to understand more 
 than that something is wrong — when 
 she hints at a return to his old life, is 
 too much for her; it is something that 
 her imagination has not grasped, and 
 she can hold out no longer . . . Apart 
 from considerations which could appeal 
 only to a religious mind, the argument 
 for her lover's plea was logically un- 
 answerable ; for the circumstances wer 
 such that by giving way to him she 
 could injure none but herself, while 
 
 537 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 she could giv unspeakable joy to those 
 dearest to her, and help and comfort to 
 many more . . We will not spoil the 
 pleasure of intending readers by follo- 
 ing the process by which the tangled 
 web in which Clifford and Hilda hav en- 
 meshed themselvs is at last partially 
 disentangled. Enuf has been said to 
 sho that thC-re is in ' The Private Secre- 
 tary' a sufficiently strong element of 
 human interest to make it well worth 
 reading." [Spectator. 1703 
 
 PROBATIOK [by Jessie Foiiier- 
 gill: (t, 1891) Bentley, 1880.] "is to 
 be cheerfully and unreservedly com- 
 mended. It is a well told, thoroly 
 healthful novel, abounding in effectiv 
 and sympathetic touches, such as only 
 an amiable and intelligent student of 
 one's kind can command. The scene of 
 this pleasant tale is laid in a Lancashire 
 cotton-manufacturing district during the 
 cotton famiu of 18G3. The distress and 
 suffering of that melancholy period 
 form a darker background to the 
 homely and romantic expe^rieuce of the 
 several artistically individualized char- 
 acters which figure in the interesting 
 drama here unfolded." [Penn.J — 
 " Altogether, ' Probation ' is the most 
 interesting novel we hav read for some 
 time, and we can giv no better proof of 
 this than the paucity of oUr critical 
 notes, conspicuous by their absence ; 
 for criticism is forgotten when the in- 
 terest is real and sustained, and when 
 the style and sentiments do not in- 
 terrupt, by arousing a spirit of antag- 
 onism. We closed the book with 
 very real regret, and a feeling of the 
 truest admiration for the power which 
 directed and the spirit which inspired 
 the writer ; and with determination, 
 morsover, to make the acquaintance of 
 her other stories . . . She is equally 
 approciativ of the eager, wealthy girl. 
 
 who, in impatience of the useless idle- 
 ness of her class, becomes a hot de- 
 fender of woman's rits, as of the clever 
 and cultivated man who gets her to 
 work, instead of raving; and finally 
 modifies her opinions and subdues her 
 antagonism, by the power of his love." 
 [Spectator. 1703 
 
 PROFESSOR'S DAUGHTER (The), 
 [by A. EuBULE Evans : 1882.] " Thi^re 
 is much spritliness in the sketch of the 
 foibles of the rich old Ant and the 
 feats of the little german professor. 
 The shade of G: Eliot falls upon the 
 pages ; — the earnest yung doctor is 
 surely a descendent of Lydgate." [Athe- 
 n£eum. 1 704 
 
 PRUDENCE, [by Lncv Cecilia 
 (White) (Lillie) Hakte : Harper, — 
 Low, 1882.] "This novelette will serv 
 as a pretty sketch of aesthetic life. It 
 is not powerful, but it is attractiv in 
 its graceful pictures, and will not fail 
 to appeal to the feminin mind, throu 
 its delicate little details of dress and 
 situation. Throuout the story runs a 
 thread of stronger fibre, which is 
 worked out in the characters of 
 Helena Armory and Jonas Fielding, and 
 the book is wholly free from vulgarity, 
 — no small praise to the taste of the 
 author, when a story deals with ' JEs- 
 thetic London.' It is amusing to see 
 the evident admiration, not to say 
 reverential aw, with which the author 
 speaks of this enchanted ground; but, 
 after all, if pretty colors and picturesque 
 attitudes may not be admired, it would 
 go hard with those who kindly do their 
 best to contribute to the pleasure side of 
 social existence. The story is but a 
 sketch, but it is a sketch suggesting some 
 reserv power." [Spectator. 1705 
 
 PUT YOURSELF IN HIS PLACE. 
 [by C: Reade : Sheldon, 1870.] '■ Suc- 
 cessfully to resist the machinations of 
 
 538 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 the Trades, and to oTercorae the shy, 
 aristocratic instincts of the yung gentle- 
 woman, who has nothing in common 
 with the hero but youth and a taste for 
 carving, is the problem which Mr. Reade 
 has to solv. As it is throu the artistic 
 and inimitable manner in which this is 
 done that the story becomes a work of 
 genius, a mere outline of the incidents 
 would neither do the author justice, nor 
 satisfy the reader . . . Considered, 
 then, as a work of art, quite free from 
 that quality of genius which defies 
 analysis, it is an extraordinary pro- 
 duction. If it lacks the exuberance of 
 genius, it has at least no wasted power. 
 Every incident tells. Even the poetry, 
 which Mr. Reade uses but sparingly, 
 bears upon the plot ; the mysteriously 
 ITted winJoes of the old church, the 
 legend of the Gabriel hounds, the ' bad 
 music ' of the flawed grindstone, all 
 prove to hav a purpose beyond their 
 intrinsic interest, and giv us that double 
 pleasure of which we hav spoken. It is 
 only when the book is finislied, that the 
 reader really begins to appreciate the 
 completeness of that skill which has 
 held him often breathless over its pages." 
 [Overland. 1T06 
 
 QUAKER COUSINS [by Agses 
 Macdonnell : Harper, 1879.] "is a 
 pleasant, readable story, which givs the 
 history of an orfan boy and girl left by 
 their devout quaker mother to the care 
 of almost nnknon cousins. The pros- 
 perity, the ill-doing, and the downfall of 
 these cousin.?, and the steady rectitude 
 and disinterested fidelity of the cheated 
 wards, make the story . . . Mrs. 
 Burton, we think, is rather a favorit of 
 the author, who describes with much 
 care her muffled worldliness, her shallo 
 content, and eternal striving for her on 
 ends. Our favorit is rather Mr. Forbes- 
 Stokes, who, cheated into marrying an 
 
 unloving beauty, gradually and pain- 
 fully rectifies his lot by sheer nobility 
 of nature. The opening of the story, 
 which describes the life and household 
 and the death of Susan Marsland, is 
 very good indeed." [Nation. 1707 
 
 QUATREFOIL. [by M.. Deane : 
 Chapman, 1883.] " M.. Deane's geese 
 ar all swans ; and most of lier ganders 
 may be included in the same category. 
 If the 4 delTtful sisters who ar hinted at 
 in the title of this delTtful story had been 
 described as the pretty and natural geese 
 that they ar, and not as the superb birds 
 which it was almost impossible for them 
 to be, the record of their fortunes 
 would hav been no less attractiv, whilst 
 it mit hav been even more simple and 
 pleasing. They ar welsh girls, living 
 on a retired part of the southern coast, 
 neglected orfans, and bound by a bond 
 of exquisite love and confidence. A 
 wandering artist discovers the four- 
 leaved shamrock, and the usual conse- 
 quences folio . . . The welsh scenes hav 
 ii glamor ; but the account of the house- 
 keeping in London is singularly pathetic 
 and amusing." [AthcuEeum. 1708 
 
 QUEEN MAB. [by Julia Kavanaoh : 
 Iturst, 1863.] " Mr. Ford's character 
 is very tenderly drawn, and the reader's 
 sympathy with him never fails . . . 
 The rest df the book is taken up with 
 the efforts of Mr. Ford to make some 
 atonement to Mabel — the name of the 
 child left at his door — by earning money 
 for her. The £500 found with her had 
 set him on liis legs and given him a fresh 
 start in life, and with varying fortune 
 he never fell back into beggary. The 
 mutual attachment between him and 
 Mabel is touching. Queen Mab, as she 
 is called, is charming ; the story of her 
 life in the family is extremely well 
 done ; the gentle, scrupulous maiden 
 ant, who after the mother's death 
 
 539 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 keeps t'ae house, is a good element, and 
 Mab is well trained by her . . . The 
 book is well worth reading, it is well 
 and solidly written, and the interest 
 is sustained to the last page. It illus- 
 trates Miss Kavanagh's leading article 
 of faith, which pervades all her novels — 
 the idea of a love existing throu all trials, 
 wliich nothing can change or weaken, 
 and upon which time and absence take 
 no effect. This is very beautiful and u, 
 true ideal, but considering how short 
 human life is, and how soon youth 
 passes and old age comes on, we could 
 wish that Miss Kavanagh would be 
 more merciful to her characters." 
 [Athena;um. 1709 
 
 QUEEN OF CONNAUGHT (The) 
 [by IIakkiet (Jay) Buchanan : Bent- 
 ley, 1875.] '■ one would suppose to be 
 written by an irishman : — the handling 
 of long words is sometimes more bold 
 than accurate. But the picture of iri.sll 
 life would be deemed libellous if penned 
 by an englishman. The queen is one 
 Kathleen O'Mara, a yung Irish lady of 
 hi descent and romantic patriotism, who 
 endeavors to preserv in th£'ir primitiv 
 vigor all the customs of feudal, or 
 rather clannish, hospitality, — and, as 
 far as possible, to revive the glories of 
 the nativ princes from whom she is 
 descended. As these projects require 
 wealth, and the O'Maras hav long been 
 groingpoor, she overcomes her prejudices 
 so far as to marry a rich englishman, to 
 wliom she eventually becomes sincerely 
 attached. Her husband, a generous and 
 honorable man, is, on his- part, devoted 
 to her, and willingly supports her in 
 projects which move rather his curiosity 
 than his admiration. The two natures, 
 however, ar on all points of feeling 
 divided by the national characteristics of 
 each, and misunderstanding soon arises, 
 which is fostered, for their on purposes, 
 
 by every member of Kathleen's numer- 
 ous family, from the priest to the 
 poorest ' coshera' in the hall. Only at 
 last, when her passionate heart is 
 broken by the treachery of all around 
 her, which culminates in an attempt to 
 murder the open-handed stranger to 
 whom most of them o their bread, does 
 she recognize the full worth of the 
 brave man whom she has been taut to 
 undervalue as cold and ungenerous. 
 There is much merit in the contrast 
 between 2 fine natures of different 
 national types, and great varieties of 
 the peasant species ar fully described, 
 whose traits, however, do not seem to be 
 deemed as repulsiv as thfiy certainly ar." 
 [Athenaeum. 1710 
 
 QUEEN OF THE COUNTY (The) 
 [by A.. (Caldwell) Marsh-Cald- 
 well: (t, 1874) Burst, 1804.] "is 
 the record of a good woman's life, and 
 much of it has the air of being the 
 genuin recollections of life and manners 
 as they existed in an age gone by, tlio 
 not so long passed away as to be with- 
 out a charm for the present generation. 
 The story of the heroin's early years, 
 the nursery life of a large family, the 
 sketches of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and 
 Gateshead 80 years ago ar charming . 
 The iirst volume is occupied with the 
 history of the youth and maidenhood of 
 the heroin and her sister ; it is ii pleas- 
 ant picture of 2 good, happy girls in the 
 secluded house in Devonshire ; the old- 
 fashioned mode of education, and the 
 3,000 punctualities insisted on, ar told 
 with freshness and spirit ; the friendship 
 of the 2 sisters, their innocent confi- 
 dences, their rambles throu the deep 
 lanes, will be read with pleasure even in 
 these days of sensational novels, becaus 
 they ar true to a pure type of girlish life. 
 The return of Du!ce to her home, full of 
 yunger sisters, and the gradual ripening 
 
 540 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 of her girlhood into womanhood, under 
 the warm and gentle influence of her 
 mother ar charmingly given. The event- 
 ful dinner-party, at which Dulee meets 
 Peter Maladean, is told with a pleasant 
 simplicity which secures the reader's 
 sympathy." [Athenaeum. 1711 
 
 QUEEN'S HOUSE (The) [by Liz- 
 zie Alldridge : Bentley, 188G.^ "ia ex- 
 ceedingly pleasant reading — so pleasant, 
 indeed, that such an expression seems 
 scarcely adequate. Its great charm con- 
 sists in the descriptions of the Tower 
 and its surrroundings. In these she dis- 
 plays a delicacy of touch and powers of 
 observation and imagination beyond the 
 common order . . . All the same, there 
 is much directness and honesty of pur- 
 pos in the execution of some of her 
 characters, and she makes no secret of 
 her regard for one or two. In Alison, 
 the heroin, she takes peculiar delit, and 
 her readers will be likely to agree with 
 her ; for Alison is such a creature of 
 health, sweetness, and (as it wer) a 
 certain subtle unripeness, held in com- 
 bination by a strong dash of individual 
 reality, as is not usual in modern fiction." 
 [Athenaeum. 1712 
 
 QUEENIE. [by May Crommelin : 
 Burst, 1874.] " 'Queenie' Demerie is 
 one of an orfan family of 5, who liv 
 under the gardiansliip of a thin, hard 
 ant, and stout, choleric uncle, at the 
 family mansion of Ballymore, in the 
 north of Ireland . . . We need not de- 
 tail the whole story. By and by, of 
 course, all goes merry as a marriage 
 bell, and Queenie gets what many women 
 never get, — the rlt man at last, in spite 
 of an intriguing wido — • and a lost for- 
 tune, for her uncle consents to the match 
 with the poverty-struck Wyverne out of 
 pure contradiction to his wife. The 
 story is, it will be seen, almost purely 
 personal and devoid of plot, but it is 
 
 not without interest, and it is here and 
 there clever." [Spectator. 1713 
 
 QUEENIE'S WHIM [by Eosa Nou- 
 CHETTE Carey: Lippincott, 1881.] "re- 
 lates the adventures of 2 orfan sisters, 
 the elder of whom supports the yunger 
 by teaching. They find a friend in one 
 of the boarders at the school where they 
 ar oppressed, who invites them to visit 
 her in her country home. There the 
 opportunity of taking the village school 
 at a comfortable salary is accepted, when 
 ' Queenie ' falls heir to an immense for- 
 tune, which it is her ' whim ' to conceal 
 for a year, and still to appear among her 
 friends as the village school-mistress. 
 Of course her reason is the dislike of 
 her friend's brother for heiresses, and of 
 course she does not acknoledg it. It 
 is needless to state that this brother's 
 affairs become involved soon after, and 
 ' Queenie ' induces the rector to lend the 
 gentleman £2,000 of her money in his 
 name. The rector's sister inadvertently 
 discloses the true source of the loan, and 
 the beneficiary, who has by this time 
 fallen in love with ' Queenie,' decides 
 that he must discharge his debt before 
 he breathes his devotion. This a legacy 
 enables him to do with but little delay." 
 [Nation. 1714 
 
 QUESTION OF HONOUR, [by W. 
 Cosmo Monkhouse Chapman, 1869.] 
 ' ' Side by side with the story of Jermyn, 
 the literary man, runs that of Stuart 
 Orme, a gentleman who has married, 
 after the scotch fashion, a hl-spirited 
 girl, who, believing afterwards that the 
 marriage is not genuin, and that she is a 
 clog to her husband, runs away from 
 him and hides herself. After she has 
 been absent a good many years, Stuart 
 falls in love with another girl (who is 
 very happily drawn) , and the knot has to 
 be cut in one way or another. How it is 
 cut we hope a gopd many persons will 
 41 
 
BIIITISH NOVELS. 
 
 flnii out by going to the book. There is 
 not an unreal or slovenly figure or char- 
 acter in it. Many of the persons strike 
 us as beingdrawn from life.'' [Contem- 
 porary. 1715 
 QUIET LIFE (A) [by F., (Hodgson) 
 BuKNETT : Peterson, 1879.] includes "2 
 short stories. In the first we hay a, 
 rector's dauter dying of a broken heart 
 throu unrequited love — a pathetic and 
 saddening picture ; the other, The Tide 
 on the Moaning Bar, tells the old story of 
 man's inhumanity to woman, and of her 
 consequent despair and death. Neither 
 is in any sense powerful, tho neither is 
 unworthy of the author." [Boston " Lit- 
 erary World." 1716 
 QiriXSTAR. [by E.. Taylor : Edin- 
 burgh, Edmonston, 1873.] " The com- 
 monplace life of commonplace people in 
 a small scotch town does not, at first sit, 
 promis to be interesting, and there is 
 neither diversity of incident nor any great 
 intricacy of plot to make up for the tame- 
 ness of the subject ; yet, so marked ar the 
 natures of the homely folk described, so 
 fully do they liv and move before us, that 
 we hav not seen many novels this season 
 which we should be inclined to rank 
 above it." [Athenaeum.] — \^Putnam,.~] 
 "It is ii novel which contains a great 
 deal of cleverness rather than a clever 
 novel. It givs an account of many of 
 the inhabitants of a scotch village, de- 
 scribing every one with intelligence and 
 humor. The writer is a very sharp-eyed 
 person, who manages to see into the 
 secret hearts of many characters, and 
 who puts them before us very clearly. 
 The story is very simple, even, it mit 
 seem disproportionately so to the thoro- 
 ness with which the people ar described, 
 and there is something cloying in the con- 
 tinual flo of epigram, and something dis- 
 appointing in the way in which what 
 would, in more skilful hands, be the 
 
 material of many novels, is lost sit of 
 by the author." [Nation. 1717 
 
 RACHEL GRAY [by Julia Kava- 
 nagh: Hurst, 1850.] "is a charming 
 and touching story, wrot from the hum- 
 blest and simplest of materials ; but the 
 interest is genuin, and the story is nar- 
 rated with grace and skill. A yung 
 seamstress, neither beautiful nor clever, 
 is the heroin. Thdre is neither lijve 
 nor the shado of a lover in the whole 
 book, — the heroin begins and ends 
 unmarried, — yet the interest is sus- 
 tained, and the reader's sympathy never 
 fails. The sombre, homely details 
 amongst which Rachel's life is passed 
 ar made beautiful and almost saintlike, 
 by the gentle, single-minded obedience 
 with which they ar fulfilled. No one 
 can read the story and not feel a good 
 influence from it. The characters ar 
 vigorously sketched, and hav a life-like 
 reality." [Athenaeum. 1718 
 
 RACHEL RAY [by Anthony Teol- 
 LOPE : Chapman, 1865.^ " is richer than 
 any other of Mr. Trollope's many works 
 in two of the qualities which hav made 
 him an eminently popular novelist. 
 Like the name of its heroin, the tale is 
 homely, with a cheery lit pervading its 
 homeliness ; but by the delicacy of its 
 delineations of feminin character, and 
 by the pleasant humor animating its 
 sketches of ordinary domestic experi- 
 ences, it is far removed from the merely 
 readable and entertaining stories of 
 practised writers. Its incidents ar but 
 the events which every inhabitant of a 
 country town can match from tlie occur- 
 rences of his daily life, or from the 
 treasures of local gossip . Even the 
 charming love-passages of the hero and 
 heroin, — his dashing confidence and her 
 simplicity at the outset, their subsequent 
 misunderstandings and final reconcilia- 
 tion, — derive their interest in no degree 
 42 
 
BKITISII NOVKLS. 
 
 from uncertainty as to the fate in store 
 for them. At every stage of the story, 
 after Rachel has incurred her grim sis- 
 ter's disapproval by ' walking with a 
 yung man,' it is clear that the truthful, 
 pure, hl-spirited girl will, in the end, 
 marry ' the yung man,' and that the 
 yung man will make her an excellent 
 husband, notwithstanding his imperious 
 airs and firm conviction that Devon- 
 shire 6t to giv up drinking cider, and 
 the entire universe concede to the will 
 of the masterful Mr. Luke Rowan." 
 [Athenajum. 1719 
 
 RALPH WILTON'S "WEIRD [by 
 "Mks.Alexahder," i.e., Annie (French) 
 Hector: Bentley, 1875.] "describes 
 prettily how an honest soldier defie.d 
 fortune in the person of a wealthy and 
 patrician uncle, and married for love a 
 bohemian sort of yung woman. The 
 lady turns out well ; we find at last that 
 she :is really her husband's long-lost 
 cousin and the ritful heir to the for- 
 tune he magnanimously throes away. 
 In spite of the plot being so far com- 
 monplace, the story runs well in the 
 artistic hands of the author; the char- 
 acters ar definit, the heroin charming, 
 and the result , agreeable to the reader." 
 [Athenaeum. 1 720 
 
 RANALD BANNERMAN'S BOY- 
 HOOD, [by G: MacDonald: Loii- 
 don, 1871. J "Ranald is a man writing 
 the life of his boyhood; and that boy- 
 hood is gilded with ' the lit of the setting 
 sun.' It has a. look of romance and 
 mystery seen in the dim distance, and 
 yet it is the real ordinary and somewhat 
 hard life of 3 motherless hoys, in a 
 Scottish village. The incidents ar triv- 
 ial and common; the glamor of dear 
 ' long ago ' hangs over them, and they 
 ar touched in the spirit of tender rev- 
 erence, with which every good man 
 regards his father, and the home of his 
 
 youth. It may bo that oven these ele- 
 ments would not hav made of it the 
 charming book it is, if it had not also 
 been written by a poet, who can so 
 penetrate common things with the spirit 
 of love and tenderness and beauty that 
 (for the moment at least) the reader's 
 on life shines with the lit reflected from 
 its pages, and his heart gloes under the 
 influence of the lessons of ' plain living 
 and hard [sic] thinking,' which ar here 
 set forth." [AthensBum. 1721 
 
 RARE, PALE MARGARET [Low, 
 1878.] "deals with a. bevy of boys and 
 girls, all well bred and well disposed, 
 amongst whom the heroin exercises a 
 strong, salutary influence . As they gro 
 up she is, of course, loved by more than 
 one of her companions ; and quite enuf 
 is made of the rival passions to relieve 
 any sense of excessiv juvenility in the 
 plot. Indeed, some of the latter scenes 
 ar thoroly effectiv." [Athenajura.] — 
 "There is nothing especially ' rare ' or 
 ' pale ' about the Margaret who is the 
 heroin of this story. She is a hi-spirited 
 girl, who loves both open-air life and 
 books, and who would scarcely be dis- 
 tinguishable from her felloes but for the 
 accident of a divided and doubtful love. 
 Circumstances hav created a peculiar 
 relation between her and a yung nubor, 
 a man of culture and even genius, and 
 of commanding moral qualities, but 
 suffering under the affliction of being 
 a deaf-mute. On the other hand her 
 heart is solicited by a less romantic but 
 not less sterling affection on the part of 
 the Vicar's son, a gallant yung sailor. 
 This love-history, entangled as it is 
 with that of a village beauty, is told 
 with much vivacity. "We folio it with 
 interest, while we recognise in its 
 personages genuin types of character. 
 Of these personages, perhaps some of 
 the less important ar the most skilfully 
 
 543 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 drawn. Nothing in the book is better 
 than Margaret's shallo, clerer mother, 
 with her art of sympathetic talk." 
 [Spectator. 1 722 
 
 RAVENSHOE. [by H : Kingslet : 
 Boston, Tichnor, 1862.] " The whole 
 tone and spirit of the book ar thoroly 
 english. It represents the best aspect of 
 english life, character and manners. 
 Whatever is most generous, heroic, 
 tender, and true, is here to be seen, and 
 not drawn in colors any more flattering 
 than it is the rit of fiction to use. "We 
 think the author carries us too much 
 into the stable and the kennel ; but 
 this, we need not say, is also english. 
 But we hav yet to mention what we 
 deem the hiest charm of this charming 
 book, and that is the combination which 
 we find in it of healthfulness of tone 
 and earnestness of purpos. A healthier 
 book we hav never read. Earnestness 
 of purpose is apt to be attended with 
 something of excess or extravagance ; 
 but in ' Ravenshoe ' th^re is nothing 
 morbid, nothing cynical, nothmg queru- 
 lous, nothing ascetic. The doctrin of 
 the book is a reasonable enjoyment of 
 all which is good, with a firm purpos of 
 improving the world in all possible ways. 
 It is one of the many books which hav 
 appeared of late years which sho the 
 influence of the life and the labors of 
 the late Dr. Arnold. It is as inspiring 
 in its influence as a, gallop over one of 
 the breezy downs of Mr. Kingsley's 
 Devonshire. It is, in short, a delltful 
 book, in which all defects of structure 
 and form ar atoned for by a wonderful 
 amount of energy, geniality, freshness, 
 poetical feeling, and moral elevation." 
 [Atlantic. 1723 
 
 RAYMOND'S HEROINE [by I.. 
 Haevtood: Hurst, 1867.] "is told in 
 simple, solid, and dainty english ; such 
 english as Daniel and Taylor wrote, we 
 
 should say, for it floes and rolls in 
 unforced, limpid sweep ... Its tale is 
 written by one who has a master's eye 
 for scenery, and that in the double 
 sense; an eye for a landscape, — for 
 the peculiarities of moorland, sward, 
 wood, water, village — and also for the 
 moral significance of these visible 
 marks, for what may be called the 
 sentiment of external nature The 
 pretty fineries, and the weird and yet 
 monotonous misery of the busy town 
 and port, ar only less strongly marked 
 by character than the surroundings of 
 Black Moor Farm. Then, again, we 
 hav real conversation in this book, not 
 the stilted and mechanical fraseology 
 nowhere to be heard except in bad 
 novels and bad plays." [Athen. 1724 
 
 READY MONEY MORTIBOY [by 
 Wx. Besant & Ja. Rice: Tinsley, 
 1872.] "is not a book which we should 
 recommend yung people of eitlier sex 
 to read ; and yet it is a clever book, not 
 without grave faults both of style and 
 of tone, it is true, but one which 
 no man who has experience of life can 
 read without being the better for it." 
 [Athenaeum.] . — " Nothing could be 
 more healthful in tone than this story. 
 Its incidents ar original, its treatment 
 dramatic, and its atmosfere that of the 
 broadest humanity. There is no playing 
 with souls, no hot-bed forcing of emo- 
 tions, no straining after psychical effects 
 — nor on the other hand is there any 
 reflexion. The story is a straitforward, 
 vigorous, and withal humorous narrativ 
 of events. It has, besides, a sound 
 moral. Retributiv justice of a Lear- 
 like order arrives without waiting for 
 the life-to-come.'' [Critic. 1725 
 
 REBEL ROSE (The). ^Harper, 
 1888.] "The scene is London, whfire 
 the Honorable Mary Stuart Beaton, a 
 legitimate descendant of the Stuarts, 
 
 544 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 ani a very striking reproduction in face 
 and figure of queen Mary, has come to 
 press her claims to some estates be- 
 queathed to one of her ancestors hut 
 confiscated . . . She is a most charming 
 yung girl, who presently leads into 
 captivity, ivholly without intent to do 
 so, and with no effort save that uncon- 
 sciously exercised by her beauty and 
 pure womanly charm, the two men 
 most able to advance her cause in the 
 House of Commons — Sir Victor Cham- 
 pion, the Liberal leader, and Rolfe 
 ■Bellarmin . . It is not a great novel ; 
 it allows itself to be laid down without 
 difficulty, altho it must be taken up 
 again with pleasure. But it shoes an 
 easy and sympathetic mastery in nearly 
 all its touches, and a keen insit in human 
 nature in both its noble and its meaner 
 aspects. It is written, too, in singularly 
 even and well-bred english, which is 
 always quite equal to the stress laid 
 upon it by the exigencies of the business, 
 the sentiment, or the passion of the 
 moment. And as all of these, tho natural 
 and real, ar yet lifted out of the rut of 
 the ordinary tale of contemporary life 
 and manners, chiefly, perhaps, by the 
 skill with which Mary Beaton herself 
 and her would-be Bothwell ar invested 
 with imaginativ chaim, the book fairly 
 deservs the title of a romance rather 
 than a novel." [Catholic World. 1726 
 
 RECTOR'S WIF-E. = VALLEr OF 
 A HUNDRED FIRES. 
 
 RED AS A ROSE IS SHE. [by 
 Rhoda Broughton: Appleton, 1870.] 
 " Throuout this romance thOre is a 
 great and explicit loathing of all persons 
 in sickness, poverty, old age, or calam- 
 ity of any kind except unhappy love, 
 and most of the virtues ar put where 
 they belong, amongst the humbugs. 
 You may say that the characters ar 
 vulgar in their lives and words, but it 
 
 is all nothing to the vulgarity which 
 appears when the authoress speaks of 
 herself in a parenthetical passage. 
 There is no denying that she has dash ; 
 but you -can not call it anything better. 
 Her wit would not save a well-meaning 
 book, but a very little wit goes a great 
 way in a reckless or evil book." [Atlan- 
 tic. 1727' 
 RED HOUSE BY THE RIVER 
 (The), [by G: Douglas: Tinsley, 
 1876.] "The author of 'Brown as a 
 Berry' [No. 1122] has produced a read- 
 able little story. Thfire is a good deal 
 of pathos in the love of Elna Heron 
 for her cousin Robert, who is a fine 
 specimen of an ambitious, self-respect- 
 ing man, shrewd on all points of worldly 
 knoledge, and an able judge of char- 
 acter, except where the most important 
 domestic event of his life is to depend 
 upon his choice. Of course, such a 
 man wastes the tenderness of his first 
 passion upon the most flity and fickle of 
 all his feminin acquaintance, who is all 
 the time to jilt him, and does so when a 
 gentleman seems inclined to take the 
 carpenter's place in his absence, ex- 
 cludes every one else from Robert's 
 attention and finds easy room for re- 
 pentance when her fashionable swain 
 has deserted her. There ar many 
 touches which sho appreciation of char- 
 acter ; and the local peculiarities of the 
 scene (the east coast of Scotland) ar 
 well preservd." [Athenseum. 1728 
 RED TOWERS (The), [by Elea- 
 nor C. Price: Bentley, 1889.] "The 
 author of 'Alexia' [No. 1041] has 
 charm, ease, and lltness of manner, 
 and her latest novel is more than well 
 planned, well told, and well sustained; 
 it has also a way of its on — a way 
 which seems more simple and natural, 
 and less the result of art, than it is. 
 The truth is that, of its kind, ' The Red 
 
 545 
 
BKITISII NOVELS. 
 
 Towers ' could not easily hav been 
 better. The author has a knack of 
 ■compelling the reader to take an interest 
 in her puppets. Without seeming to go 
 far belo the surface, she has an almost 
 unerring instinct as to the manner in 
 which people speak, think, and gener- 
 ally comport themselTS. Her creat- 
 ures never surprise by exploding into 
 new and incredible developments ; they 
 gro logically, according to circum- 
 stances and the unalterable law of their 
 being. The dialog, too — which is ap- 
 propriate, and nearly always apt — is a 
 pleasure in itself; while th^re ar at 
 least 2 or 3 people to be fond of, and 2 
 or 3 more to be watched with the inter- 
 est of a pleased uncertainty." [Athe- 
 naeum. 172J> 
 REGENT ROSALIND. [Tinsley, 
 1878.] " It is pleasant to meet a book 
 of so ' old-fashioned ' a type, — old- 
 fashioned in the sense of being cool, 
 quiet, sedate, and unpretending, like the 
 lavender silk gowns and the black silk 
 modes of our grandmothers. It is to 
 be hoped that th^re exist even now a 
 certain number of yung persons whose 
 taste is sufficiently unvitiated to permit 
 them to read this simple story — written 
 in unusually good english, and which 
 deals with nothing out of the way of 
 the homely life of thousands of english 
 homes — with appreciation and interest. 
 The 'situation' is not a novel one; we 
 hav made the acquaintance of a great 
 many yung ladies on their leaving 
 school ' for good,' and taking their po- 
 sition as mistress of a widoed relativ's 
 household, and we hav generally been 
 interested in them, even when they hav 
 not been such imposing personages as 
 Mrs. Oliphant's Miss Marjoribanks 
 [No. 1557], or Mr. TroUope's Mary 
 Thorne [No. 1213]. Miss Yonge's re- 
 sponsible yung people ar indeed too vir- 
 
 tuous, too self-conscious, and too full 
 of a technical kind of scrupulosity, to 
 interest us ; but even for them we feel 
 concerned when the ' Daisy Chain ' [No. 
 1183] seems quite endless, and the 
 ' Pillars of the House ' ar 13. The au- 
 thor of ' Regent Rosalind ' has drawn a, 
 brit, honest, lovable, pleasant girl's por- 
 trait for us, and the accessories ar all 
 natural and well-developed." [Specta- 
 tor. 1730 
 
 REPENTANCE OF PAUL WENT- 
 WORTH (The). [Beniley, 1889.] 
 " Th^re is much variety of character 
 and much literary excellence . . In 
 Muriel Ferrars the author has drawn 
 a decidedly charming portrait, and it U 
 consistent with her true and loving 
 nature that, in spite of the sad knoledge 
 she acquires of the stains and flaws in 
 her ideal, her affection for the man re- 
 mains. But there is infinit sadness in 
 the shock which awakes her to the fact 
 that this man has deceived her in the 
 vital point of his marriage at the mo- 
 ment he won her love. Harder still is 
 the fate of this girl who learns so cruel 
 a lesson at 19, when she takes the advice 
 of an austere young cleric, and puts, as 
 she thinks, a barrier, in the shape of a 
 loveless marriage, between herself anl 
 the treacherous suggestions of her 
 heart. Utterly contrasted with the 
 course of Muriel and Wentworth's 
 affection is that of her sister's attach- 
 ment to the clerical hero aforesaid. 
 Philip Irvine is vowed to missionary 
 work in East London, and has resolved 
 to assume no domestic ties which can 
 hinder him in his work. The descriptiv 
 portions of the book, the Swiss and Ital- 
 ian scenes especially, ar generally well 
 written, and the minor characters dis- 
 tinct, tho the lovers engross most of the 
 interest." [Athenaeum. 17.'tl 
 
 RETURN OF THE NATIVE 
 
 546 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 (The). [byT: Hakdy: Smith, 1879.] 
 "On this heath Mr. Hardy places a 
 retired sea-captain with his granddauter, 
 a handsom, dissipated civil engineer, 
 who has failed in his business, and 
 now keeps the lone inn ; the wido of a 
 farmer, herself the dauter of a gentle- 
 man; her niece; and her son, the Nativ 
 who returns. He comes from Paris and 
 an uncongenial occupation, with culture 
 and a burning desire to help his fello 
 men ; he comes into the midst of crass 
 superstition, wh^re witches abound, 
 and fried adder's fat is a specific 
 against an adder's bite ; and, a half -un- 
 conscious positivist, (for at one time he 
 thinks of taking orders) he resolvs to 
 d'Bvote himself to teaching and raising 
 the Egdon folk. Can Eustaeia Vye 
 help him in this — the sea-captain's 
 granddauter, a glorious woman as he 
 tliinks, one of larger culture and hier 
 aims than those about her, and on that 
 very ground considered as a witch by 
 the simple heath folk? Surely not, for 
 she loathes the heath, to which she is 
 not ' nativ.' Weymouth is to her the 
 world, and Paris almost a dream of 
 heaven, the band on the parade sweeter 
 music than the wind on the desolate up- 
 land, the flagged pavement suits her 
 feet better than do the white quartz 
 paths of the hill side. The bitter dis- 
 illusioning of this eager, passionate girl, 
 to whom one man's love seems to offer 
 a means of escape, whose sensuous 
 nature is attracted, on the other hand, 
 by a flashy, handsom scamp ; the pa- 
 tient acquiescence of Clym Yeobright, 
 the Nativ, in what he cannot control ; 
 his no less persistent struggle with what 
 can still be bent to his ends, ar two of 
 the elements in a tragedy of no common 
 power and sadness. There is also the 
 pathetic severance between a noble 
 mother and a noble son, throu a misun- 
 
 derstanding; thSre ar failed purposes, 
 and death, which, when it comes un- 
 timely, is an insult and an impertinence 
 to life. The sombre heath is the back- 
 ground to all, the weird sounds of this 
 heath ar the constant orchestral music." 
 [New Quarterly Magazine. 1732 
 
 REVOLUTION IN TANNER'S 
 LANE (The), [by W. Hale Smith: 
 Putnam, 1887.] "Appreciativ readers 
 of that remarkable book. The Autobiog- 
 raphy of Mark Rutherford, which ap- 
 peared a couple of years ago, will need 
 but the mention of this new novel by the 
 same writer to induce them to purchase 
 it. Neither Mark Rutherford nor his 
 friend Mr. Shapcott appears here, but 
 the story is of the same grim, uncom- 
 promising sort . . . With a powerful 
 touch, not free from cynicism, the author 
 sets before us the contracted life of the 
 people of Cow fold, with their narro hori- 
 zons, intellectual, social, and religious. 
 In this part of the story, too, th^re is a 
 central unhappy marriage of a thotful 
 tradesman to the silly dauter of the min- 
 ister. The revolution is a church revo- 
 lution which results in the overthro of the 
 gross ministerial hypocrit. This is no ro- 
 mance of love and wedded bliss in the last 
 chapter, but a moving tale of ' martyrs 
 without a csuse,' of visitation upon the 
 good and true for the sins of others, — a 
 record drawn from ' a world of incom- 
 pleteness, a sorro swift, and consolation 
 laggard,' which the llt-minded will shun, 
 the cheerful dismiss with a si, and which 
 others will read with the same mingled 
 feelings with which they face the spec- 
 tacle of life itself in which romance 
 plays so small a part, and where the best 
 solution reaches us as it reached Maggie 
 TuUiver [No. 15i7J." [Boston " Liter- 
 ary World." 1733 
 
 RHODA FLEMMING [byG: Mere- 
 dith: London, 1805.] "is as superior 
 
 547 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 to 'Emilia in England' [No. 1245] as if 
 it wer the work of another man. The 
 labored, almost uncouth style, and the 
 distorted, exaggerated character-drawing 
 hav well-nl disappeared. There is a, 
 touch of Browning now and tlien in the 
 speech, and in the dramatic presentation 
 of one or two of the scenes ; but the 
 book is full of warmth and life and ac- 
 tion; the story, with a slit pause in the 
 middle, interesting throumit, and is not 
 spun out to undue length. Some of the 
 characters ar vividly distinct, and almost 
 all hav life and individuality, if one or 
 two ar somewhat incomplete. The first 
 part of the story is idyllic and charming, 
 with the picture of the old farm in the 
 midst of the blooming kentish landscape ; 
 the tlinfty mistress, the gloing flower 
 garden, and the two handsom dauters 
 who ' carried erect sholders, like crea- 
 tures not ashamed of shoing a merely 
 animal pride, which is never quite apart 
 from the pride of developed beauty.' 
 But a shade soon comes over this sunny 
 landscape, when Dahlia, the beautiful 
 elder sister, goes to London, and loves 
 and trusts her, lover too well, and brings 
 shame to her father, and locks the heart 
 of Khoda, the yunger, in iron bands 
 which seem to hold her whole nature 
 rigid till she has found, and as she thinks 
 rited, her beloved sister. Mr. Meredith 
 IS impatient of the tame and common- 
 place in incidents and characters. He 
 cannot subdue his voice to the regulated, 
 well-bred monotone of conventional 
 speech; or, to borro an illustration from 
 decorativ art, his hand is too ruf and 
 quick and bold for the skilful lo-relief 
 which Mr Korris and Mr. 11: James em- 
 ploy so cleverly. Rhoda is the best drawn 
 figure. Her strong and restrained na- 
 ture has become over-concentrated in 
 her isolated life. Iler pride has gr()n 
 fierce, her tenderness hard, and her vi- 
 
 sion narro. Her obstinacy at last shatters 
 her poor sister's returning gleam of long 
 deferred happiness. The knoledge that 
 she too had been mistaken and had some- 
 thing to repent of is the solvent which 
 at length melts the proud nature ; and 
 we hav a glimpse of her tamed and soft- 
 ened, in the keeping of the lover who had 
 deserved her so well." [Amer. 1734 
 
 RIGHT AT LAST, etc. [by E.. Cleg- 
 horn (Stevenson) Gaskell: Harper, 
 I860.] " Mrs. Gaskell has been singu- 
 larly successful in domestic stories. 
 These ar here collected, and will prove 
 a welcom offering to the numerous 
 readers who hav learned to prize the 
 exquisit felicity of delineation, the saga- 
 cious judgment of character, and the liT 
 moral tone which distinguish the produc- 
 tions of the author." [Harper's. 1735 
 
 ROBERT ELSMERE [by M.. A.. 
 (Arnold) Ward : Macmillan, 1887.] 
 " is a great novel. It will attract the 
 lover of the best literature becaus of its 
 literary power and charm, and it will 
 gain the absorbed attention of all men 
 and women who see tliat religion, ' the 
 most overwhelming of human interests,' 
 as Mrs. Ward calls it, is undergoing a 
 transformation . . . The author has 
 made so much use of actual personages 
 for her leading characters, she has drawn 
 Thomas Hill Green, the Oxford pro- 
 fessor of moral filosofy, so frankly, for 
 instance, as the Henry Grey of this 
 book, and the whole temper of her story 
 is so realistic, that one reads Robert 
 Elsmere much as if it wer an actual 
 biografy. Probably Arnold Toynbee 
 has furnished more than one feature for 
 the portrait of Elsmere." [Boston " Lit- 
 erary World."] — "Of ' Robert Elsmere," 
 after what Mr. Gladstone has said, who 
 will dare to deny that it is a great work? 
 Yet Mr. Gladstone's enthusiasm is itself 
 evidence that the merit of it is not as a 
 
 548 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 novel. Mr. Gladston3 is many-sided, but 
 lio has never proved himself to be a lover, 
 student, or critic of lit literature. Had 
 ' Robert Elsraere ' been ' lit,' he could 
 not hav admired it. The librarians class 
 it among novels and romances ; but it 
 provides the parsons with subjects for 
 pulpit discourses, and is, really, an over- 
 gron theological tract. It marks, too, 
 more than any other work of our 
 time, the overweening self-consciousness 
 which has attacked our fiction and is 
 sucking away its vitality. What an 
 exhibition of feeble sentimentality ! 
 Everywhere ' trembling lips,' ' blanched 
 faces,' ' deadly paleness,' men and women 
 dropping into chairs, wringing their 
 hands, flinging themselves into eacli 
 other's arms, sobbing, bursting into bitter 
 tears . Thackeray spoke of novels as 
 ' sweets loved by all people with healthy 
 literary appetites.' The popularity of 
 such books as ' Robert Elsmere ' points 
 rather to the morbid craving which indi- 
 cates dyspepsia." [Wa. Lewin.] — " But 
 when all is said by way of criticism, how 
 much remains to admire ! No (3ne wlio 
 had not steeped himself in the atmosfere 
 of Oxford and its changing currents 
 could write so feelingly and unerringly 
 of its outer and inner life. No one who 
 had not been born to generations of cult- 
 ure, sprung from a race britisli and 
 bookish to its core, could picture so in- 
 timately its intellectual fases. No one 
 who knew not the hills and dales of 
 Westmoreland and the downs of Surrey 
 as well as the electrical, throbbing heart 
 of London could hav rounded this story 
 as its author has done. Profounder 
 minds than Mrs. Ward's may pick flaws 
 in reasoning and errors in judgment, but 
 as an expression of the intellectual life 
 of to-day, especially of that side of it 
 which touches on science in its bearings 
 on theology, if is a remarkable book. 
 
 Ponder this history of ' a soul on fire ; ' 
 note the development of tlie austere, pu- 
 ritanical Catherine into perfect woman- 
 hood, the portrayal of the hard, selfish, 
 stunted nature of Langliam, the creation 
 of the wilful, human yet aerial-like 
 Rose Leyburn, the delineation of the 
 hunted Newcome, the cynical Wendover, 
 the hearty, happy Flaxman and the pas- 
 sionate Mme. de Netteville, — surely a 
 woman who can thus create, develop and 
 delineate so varied elements as these — 
 pit against each other almost every knun 
 type in the great whirling, complex 
 world about her, — not only possesses a 
 marvellous power but is mistress of it. 
 Unforgettable pictures rise to the mind 
 as one revues his reading — the scene on 
 the crags wb^re Elsmere woos Catherine 
 in the nit-winds ; that other one , where 
 he tears open his heart to her while hers 
 is breaking; the chapter where they 
 humble themselvs before each other and 
 life begins anew for them ; the last tense 
 chapter, with the death-bed scene in Al- 
 geria. And in thinking over that terri- 
 ble nit when Langham questions the 
 little soul and conscience left to him, 
 we ar perhaps forgetful of the tender 
 fireside duet, wherein the impulsiv child. 
 Rose Leyburn, opens Jier life to him as 
 a flower unfolds to the sun . . With the 
 death of its founder, we see no more of 
 the ' New Brotherhood.' The needs, the 
 conditions, the promises of the present 
 age ar therein typified. To perfect and 
 fulfil them will take ages yet. We ar 
 shon the Promised Land ; then the pen 
 is silent : its attainment is not even prof- 
 esied. Hope is held out, but no pledge 
 offered. Such forbearance as this de- 
 servs the name of art." [Saturday 
 Review. 173(> 
 
 ROBERT FALCONER, [by G: 
 MacDonald: Hurst, 1868. j "Robert 
 is a scotch laddie brot up by his granJ- 
 549 
 
EKITISII NOVELS. 
 
 mother, who is a fine religious charac- glossy style, the easy progress of the 
 
 tcr; a strong Calvinist, and deeply relig- tale, the faint satire, tlie clever way of 
 
 ions, with no conception of any religion talking about anything and everything 
 
 apart from her creed, but with a, heart charmingly — these are here in friendly 
 
 full of loving kindness, and a sense of naturalness . . A. man of easy-going 
 
 justice which is stronger even than her 
 love. She has one heart-grief — her 
 only son, the father of Robert, has gone 
 to the had, and after a career of drunk- 
 enness and debauchery in which he 
 wasted his fortune and broke his wife's 
 
 disposition, who has been a. skalawag 
 all his early life, finally comes home to 
 his family and palms himself off for the 
 decent fello that he afterward becomes, 
 tho everyCne, without being able to 
 prove it, feels sure that he is a rogue. 
 
 heart, he has utterly disappeared in a There is a clever, shrewd old society 
 
 slou of degradation . . . When he is 
 free to go out into the world, — after a 
 long and difficult training, in which all 
 hope or desire for any personal happi- 
 ness has been taken from him, — he givs 
 himself up to the search for his father, . 
 and in the course of that quest he goes 
 about doing good in the dens of London 
 misery, working out the author's ideas 
 of the principles and method upon which 
 such things should be done. Whilst 
 Robert is undergoing the training of 
 education and circumstances the reader 
 is in sympathy with him ; but when he 
 becomes the author's idea of a perfect 
 filanthropist, he has acquired a touch 
 of self-consciousness, which mars the 
 effect." [Athenaeum. 1737 
 
 ROBERT ORD'S ATONEMENT, 
 by Rosa Nouchette Caeey : Tinsley, 
 1873. 
 
 ROGER NORTH, [by — ( ) Bkad- 
 SHAw: Sonnenschein, 1885.] "The 
 author has succeeded in investing an 
 every-day romance with considerable 
 charm, the result of keen and sympa- 
 thetic observation of country society . . . 
 This is in no way a remarkable book, 
 but it is thoroly agreeable reading." 
 [Athenaeum. 1 738 
 
 ROGUE (The) [by W: E: Noeris : 
 Holt, 1889.] "is in the delltful vein of 
 the author's best books . . . The humor, 
 the knoledge of men and affairs, the 
 
 woman, and there ar yung people who 
 fall in love and marry." [Critic. 1739 
 ROMANCE OF A GARRET (The) 
 [by Sydney WuiTiSG : Chapman, 1867.] 
 " is lit and readable, and contains a very 
 pleasant story. There is not much plot 
 in it, and what there is servs chiefly as a 
 series of props on which to hang the 
 author's experiences as a journalist; but 
 its tone is so pure, and at the same time 
 so genial, tliat no one can fail to be 
 delTted with it. It is chiefly the record 
 of the discouraging, but ultimately suc- 
 cessful, struggles of a needy man of 
 letters, who is obliged to take up his 
 quarters in an attic . . . The love-story 
 is as charming an idyl as has ever been 
 made to grace the somewhat prosaic 
 records of London life." [ London 
 Review.] — "But tho Mr. Whiting's 
 scenes of London literary life ar truth- 
 fully drawn, they do not convey the 
 whole truth. The shadoes, tho deep, ar 
 not deep enuf. The lit is too brit. Not 
 all of us, who ar literary men, hav, like 
 the hero of Mr. Wliiting's tale, noble 
 relativs and friends who on shooting- 
 boxes. Our luck does not come so 
 easily as Ids, tho we drink tlie full cup 
 of all his troubles. This is the great 
 fault of all tales of London literary life, 
 even of Thackeray's 'Pendennis.' The 
 world hears only of the successful writ- 
 ers. The great charm, however, of the 
 
 550 
 
BKITISII NOVELS. 
 
 book is the O'Alsoy. He is, so far as 
 we ar aware, unique in english litera- 
 ture. And yet every literary man knoes 
 some O'Aisey, with his unblushing, 
 good-natured impudence, and utter 
 want of all principle and morality." 
 [Westminster lleview. 1 740 
 
 ROMANCE OF A SHOP (The), 
 [by Amy Levi- : Cupples, 1889.^ "The 
 story is of 4 sisters, left orfans, who 
 attempt to support themselvs in London 
 by fotografy. The different characters 
 of the sisters and the various ways in 
 which their new life affected their dis- 
 positions ar admirably described. The 
 strong-minded Gertrude, the conven- 
 tional Fanny, the industrious Lucy, and 
 the beautiful Phyllis win places in our 
 affections, and ar real persons to us 
 before we close the book. The writer 
 does not content us by merely picturing 
 the outer lives, but she lets us see the 
 hopes and fears, the temptations and 
 sorroes, which came to each sister 
 inJivilually while they lived together. 
 Besides these character sketches the 
 writer givs us a delTtf ul picture of bohe- 
 mian London and tlie artist life. She 
 takes us to picture exhibitions and studio 
 receptions, and with an artist's love of 
 contrast presents us often to a repre- 
 sentativ of conventional middle-class 
 life in the shape of the sisters' rich but 
 disapproving ant Caroline. Bohemian 
 London with all its fascinations is of 
 course full of perils for yung, unchap- 
 eroned girls. In the sad story of poor 
 little Phyllis' life and death we ar shon 
 the dangerous side of what otherwise 
 would be the most charming society in the 
 world." [Boston "Lit. World." 1741 
 
 ROSAMOND FERRAES [by M. 
 Bramston: S. p. C. K., 1878.] "id a 
 well-written, healthful and most inter- 
 esting story, which we can cordially 
 recommend; gron people will read it 
 
 with as much pleasure as ynng ones." 
 [Athenaeum. 1742 
 
 ROSE IN JUNE (A), [by Ma. 
 Oliphant (Wilson) Oliphant : Hurst, 
 1874.] "Mrs. Oliphant has written 
 nothing more delicate than ' A Rose in 
 June ' . . . She paints still life with a 
 lltness of touch which is unsurpassed. 
 This is at once her weakness and her 
 strength. The hand which lifted the 
 veil from the homesteads of Carlingford 
 and disclosed a turmoil of passion still 
 sweeps the finer chords of the human 
 instrument with rare skill . . . Her 
 latest novel is the story of a summer 
 shower . . . The wife is a woman nobly 
 planned, yet by no means perfect. On 
 her, when the rector dies penniless, falls 
 the burden of maintaining the family. 
 But she is no longer passiv. Rose has 
 a poor lover at sea, and a rich lover at 
 hand, and Rose's heart is at sea. Her 
 mother determins that the girl shall 
 learn the meaning of self-sacrifice, shall 
 sell herself for the benefit of her 
 brothers and sisters, and she is already 
 engaged to the rich suitor, when her 
 family becomes prosperous again. Rose, 
 bound by her engagement, throes her- 
 self on the mercy of her affianced 
 husband, and he releases her, not with- 
 out reproaching the mother. It is an 
 idyllic story. There is pathos in it, but 
 not the depth of pathos which was 
 fathomed in Nettie Underwood [No. 
 1215] ; th^re is humor, but not the 
 breadth of humor that played upon 
 Pigeon and Tozer [No. 1756]" 
 [Academy. 1 743 
 
 ROSE TURQUAND [by Ellice 
 Hopkins: Macmillan, 1876.] "pos- 
 sesses the charm of style, culture, and 
 breadth of thot. So far as art is con- 
 cerned, it is nearly perfect. We may 
 or may not agree with the writer's vvies, 
 and we may or may not answer the 
 
 551 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 great problem of life as Rose Turquand 
 does, but tliis has nothing to do with 
 art. It would be hard in contemporary 
 fiction to match the early scenes in 
 which the life of this poor desolate 
 orfan is painted — her attachment to the 
 good-hearted but somewhat narro-souled 
 pedant of a tutor — the agony of her 
 parting with him, and the conflict of 
 emotions which is ever going on in her 
 mind . . No one, in short, can possibly 
 read ' Rose Turquand ' without feeling 
 his hier nature awakened, his sympathies 
 widened. It is a book to be read and 
 re-read." [Westminster Eeriew.] — 
 "Most readers will be a little repelled 
 by the opening chapters, so vulgar ar 
 the rising generation of Adairs and so 
 hard and unnatural their mother, a lady 
 with projecting eyes, who indeed be- 
 comes still more outrageous as the story 
 proceeds. But they will do well if 
 they hav courage and persevere ; the 
 little weakly waif of a heroin really 
 turns out to be a character worth 
 knoing; and tho her adventures ar of 
 a homely character, they ar sufficiently 
 stirring to prove the true metal of a 
 noble and self-sacrificing nature. In 
 small matters and in great she shos 
 herself womanly and admirable." [Athe- 
 n£eum. 1744: 
 
 KOSSMOYNE [by Ma. ( ) (Argles) 
 HcNGEEFOED : Smith, 1884.] " is a 
 pretty story, in which all the ladies ar 
 charming and almost all of them in 
 love, and most of the men nice and all 
 of them in love. That, at any rate, is 
 the impression left upon the reader, 
 and it is accurate if one or two minor 
 characters ar not taken into account. 
 As to them thfire is uncertainty only 
 for want of more minute information. 
 Probably the coachman and the cook and 
 the tenants had their love affairs as well as 
 the ladles and gentlemen. But the story 
 
 is not at all ridiculous. It is very pleas- 
 antly told, with plenty of spirit, and a, 
 great deal of archness and womanly fun." 
 [Athenseum.J — [Lippincoii.] "It is 
 a pretty and amusing little love story. 
 The scene is laid in Irel.ind, and there 
 is much of the always enjoyable irisll 
 humor. The yung, very yung lovers, 
 ar very entertaining, but best of all ar 
 the delitful maiden Ants, never better 
 than when trying to reconcile love and 
 disciplin." [Critic. 174:5 
 
 ROUGH HEWN [by — ( ) Day : 
 Ilurst, 1874.] " exhibits vivi:lly the 
 groth of a strong nature, which is im- 
 proved and refined by conflict with the 
 trials of life. Edmund Barton, like 
 many energetic people in uncongenial 
 circumstances, shoes symptoms of turn- 
 ing Ills activity into wrong directions. 
 Confined to the life of a clerk in a 
 small town, he is beginning to get in- 
 volved in petty dissipations, and more 
 seriously in a love affair with a girl who 
 is no match for him in education or 
 character. At this crisis, he conceives 
 a real attachment for another yung 
 woman, who is above him in both 
 respects. The impression awakens him 
 to a more worthy vue of life, and he 
 wrenches himself from his unpromising 
 surroundings, and seeks a better field 
 for his energies in the ruf life of 
 Australia. Rose Lester, who thus 
 proves his good genius, is a pleasant 
 specimen of womanhood (as indeed ar 
 all the female characters), and the 
 interlude of her attachment to Ashley, 
 and its effects in ripening her to receive 
 the mature affection of Barton when he 
 returns a wiser man to the haunts of 
 his boyhood, ar very well told." [Athe- 
 naeum. 1746 
 
 ROUND THE SOFA. [by E.. 
 Cleghorn (Stevenson) Gaskell : 
 Low, 1859.] "On this account we 
 
 552 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 always look forward with pleasure to 
 any work by the author of ' Mary Bar- 
 ton' [No. 1532]. Here we hav no fear 
 of slip-shod sentences — of fantastic 
 torturings of speech, of turbid and con- 
 fused imagery. The language is always 
 clear, and pure, and sparkling, like the 
 water of a mountain rill. There is no 
 fine writing in ' Rouni the Sofa.' The 
 very excellence of the style is proved 
 by the fact that we ar at a, loss to pick 
 out pieces for quotation. We cannot, 
 however, refrain from quoting a pas- 
 sage from the charming tale of ' Lady 
 Ludlow,' in which that most delTtful of 
 grand old ladies is speaking about 
 flowers . . . It is a relief to come upon 
 writing like this, after reading such 
 works as 'Queechy' [No. 260] and 
 ' Amy Herbert,' and the whole of that 
 race of which the ' Heir of Eedclyffe ' 
 [No. 134G] is the crown and glory. It 
 is like a draft of good clear ale to a 
 stomach surfeited with ginger-beer and 
 lemonade. There is one other specialty 
 of all the writings of this author, to 
 which we cannot help alluding. We 
 hav in them none of that mixture of re- 
 ligion and romance which is the bane 
 of our modern literature. There is no 
 attempt to enforce the doctrine of justi- 
 fication by faith, throu a dialog between 
 the angelic heroin and her earnest 
 lover . . . Poor Clare, a weird north- 
 country story, and The Ifalf- Brothers 
 seem to be new. Even if we wished it, 
 it would be scarcely possible to tell in a 
 few words the thread of any of these 
 stories. To all our readers we can 
 most sincerely recommend these vol- 
 umes as worth reading for the stories 
 alone, and almost, if not better, worth 
 reading for the sake of the writing." 
 [Leader. 1747 
 
 RUSTIC MAID (A) [by A. Peice : 
 Low, 1885.] "is a very pathetic story. 
 
 more or less melancholy in every chap- 
 ter, and yet sufficiently graceful and 
 tender to sustain the interest. The 
 heroin loses her mother in early child- 
 hood, and her father is separated from 
 her by a cruel wrong. He is restored 
 only to bllt her happiness, and to destroy 
 the proud belief in him which she had 
 cherished. This is the chief motiv of 
 the story, and around it clusters an 
 abundance of pure and pleasant incident, 
 with s.ome admirable characterization 
 and not a little entertaining by-play . . . 
 Those who like a quiet novel with a 
 true touch of pathos in it will take 
 kindly to 'A Rustic Maid.'" [Athe- 
 naeum. ' 1 748 
 RUTH, [by Mrs. E.. Cleghorn 
 (Stevenson) Gaskell : Chapman, 
 1863.] " The heroin is a dress-maker's 
 apprentice, an orfan, alone in the world, 
 a creature full of graces, — and, there- 
 fore, marked out for temptation. The 
 misery of her apprenticeship is well 
 described, becaus it is not exaggerated 
 with a vue of exciting false sympathy. 
 Her employer is no ogress, — she is 
 merely a self-interested woman, pinched 
 and prasoccupied by her struggle with 
 narro fortunes. Nor ar the chances 
 which fling Ruth into error superflu- 
 ously romantic. While attending on 
 the ladies at a public ball, she is seen 
 by the partner of a spoiled beauty, — 
 she is subsequently thron in his way by 
 chance, and the sad but strange conse- 
 quences ensue which it is needless to 
 specify . . . Mr. Bellingham is just be- 
 ginning to weary for another world than 
 that of her smiles, when he is seized 
 with a fever at the little inn in Wales 
 . . . Now begins the important part of 
 the story, — the lesson of Faith, Hope 
 and Charity to inculcate which the tale 
 in hand has been undertaken. — The 
 ill-starred outcast is not deserted in her 
 
 553 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 anguish. — Ruth has, by chance, fallen 
 in with a Dissenting clergyman, by 
 ■whom the nature and the circumstances 
 of her error hav been early discerned. 
 He is present at the crisis of despair 
 which threatens her death, — is touched 
 with compassion, — and resolvs, almost 
 instinctivly, to succor and to save her. 
 Summoning to his aid a maiden sister, 
 they nurse the desolate outcast throuout 
 her illness, and take her home with 
 them. — She is to be domesticated with 
 them from thenceforth." [Athenfeum.] 
 — " Mrs. Gaskell's clear insTt andgenuin 
 Christianity ar shon in the novel, which 
 deals with another deep social ques- 
 tion; viz., how a society which calls 
 itself christian should treat a fallen 
 woman. Tho it may be said that Ruth 
 is an exceptional person, and that it is 
 the rule rather than the exception which 
 society must regard, the book is a stir- 
 ring and noble appeal and protest against 
 the merely worldly judgment which con- 
 demns without discrimination and with- 
 out mercy. The book is remarkable 
 for its perfect good taste, for its lack of 
 exaggeration and of that sentimentality 
 which is the counterfeit of real senti- 
 ment." [Boston " Lit. World." 1749 
 SAD FORTUNES OF THE REV. 
 AMOS BARTON (The). [In Scenes 
 from Clerical Life.] " Of the 3 tales, I 
 think the first is much the best. It is 
 short, broadly descriptiv, humorous, and 
 exceedingly pathetic. The Sad Fortunes 
 of the Reverend Amos Barton ar for- 
 tunes which clever story-tellers with a 
 turn of pathos, from Goldsmith down- 
 ward, hav found of very good account, 
 — the fortunes of a hapless clergyman 
 in daily contention with the problem 
 how upon £80 a year to support a wife 
 and 6 children in ecclesiastical gentility." 
 [H : James.] — "We hav the image 
 of the poor clergyman — not brilliant — 
 
 not a favorit with his parishioners — 
 unable to cope with his turbulent vestry 
 — shabbily dressed — thinking all the 
 while of the little mouths at home 
 which he finds it hard to fill; then of 
 his invalid wife, wasting away before 
 the bloom of youth is passed, but every 
 moment sweeter in his eyes as the final, 
 hopeless, irrevocable parting draws 
 nearer and nearer; then his silent, 
 speechless misery by the death-bed, and 
 a simple intimation of a visit, years 
 afterward, to the grave where all his 
 happiness lies buried : this is the whole 
 story ; but, alas ! no less lifelike than 
 true." [Lippincott's.] — " The very 
 first of these, produced without any 
 previous indication of power, in the 
 maturity of her years, affected the world 
 at once to enthusiasm, and she never 
 struck a stronger or deeper note than 
 in the simple story of Amos, or rather 
 of Millie Barton, the poor curate's mild 
 and lovely wife, the mother of many 
 children, the smiling domestic martyr, 
 whose little tragedy has taken a place 
 among our most cherished recollections 
 as completely as if we had been mem- 
 bers of the little rural parliament which 
 discussed her simple story. The power 
 and the pathos of the most remarkable 
 beginning, and its heart-breaking catas- 
 trof", does not prevent it from being at 
 the same time full of all the humors of 
 a fresh and unexplored country, delitful 
 in indications of rustic character, and 
 in those wise sayings of village sages 
 which afterwards rose in Mrs. Poyser 
 to the climax of proverbial wisdom." 
 [Blackwood's. 1750 
 
 SAGE OF SIXTEEN, [by Lwct 
 
 BeTHIA ( COLQUHOUN ) Walfokd : 
 Blackei ^ Hallam, 1889. J "Mrs. Wal- 
 ford has written of all sorts and con- 
 ditions of girls, but so far she has not 
 discovered so sweet and likable a heroin 
 
 554 
 
BKITISH NOVELS. 
 
 as Elma, ' a sage of 16.' She endears 
 herself to everybody ia the story — and 
 out of it — by her glad-hearted, winning 
 ways and her simple little kindnesses. 
 She is welcom wherever she goes ; 
 amongst the ' best people ' or amongst 
 the 'half-and-halfs,' with whom she is 
 particularly in sympathy. The nicest 
 thing about Elma is that she is utterly 
 ignorant that she has adopted a mission 
 of any kind. She is one ' whom nature 
 leadeth,' and it is into pleasant ways and 
 places that she and those about her ar 
 conducted. If th^re is a fault to find it 
 is that Elma is perhaps a shade too irre- 
 sistible in her influence, too invincible, 
 and too entirely unspoiled by circum- 
 stances, and that those who seek to 
 emulate her may find their task less 
 easy than it looks. But her story is 
 decidedly pleasant and healthful, and 
 it is a relief to find thSre is something 
 besides ' slumming ' to be done by unsel- 
 fish people." [Athenaeum. 1751 
 ST. AGNES' BAY. [Low, 1864.] 
 " The main idea is very original, and 
 the narrativ is fresh and lively . . . 
 Still the conception of the various 
 personages is good, and the old doctor, 
 especially, with his alternate fits of 
 angry madness and vigorous friendship, 
 has in him the making of a very telling 
 character. The whole story is supposed 
 to be included in the short space of a 
 few days, during which a yung Cam- 
 bridge graduate is dwelling, from some 
 curious whim, in a ruined tower perched 
 upon a sea-washed rock . . . How all 
 is explained at last, and the hero finds 
 himself possessed of a father, a, wife, 
 and everything which he can possibly 
 wish; all these things ar clearly br6t 
 about in 200 pages without omission 
 or overcrowding in the development of 
 the narrativ. An ' Old Cantab ' finds 
 more life in a tiny bay than some 
 
 novelists in a crowded city, and puts as ■ 
 much incident in a week as many writers 
 can sto away in a year." [Athen. 1752 
 
 ST. MARTIN'S SUMMER [by 
 Shirley Smith : London, 1880.] "is 
 not an ill told story. There is freshness 
 and variety in it, and some of its charac- 
 ters ar very prettily conceived . 
 There is ease of manner and expression 
 both in the descriptions and in the con- 
 versations, which enable the reader to 
 go trippingly throu without any great 
 stumbling or cause of offense. We ar 
 introduced to at least 4 very pleasant 
 yung ladies, and at least 4 worthy men, 
 whose fortunes ar told in a natural and 
 lively vein, with much spirit and abun- 
 dance of lit and frivolous detail. The 
 whole story is, in fact, narrated as a 
 man or woman of the world would be 
 likely to tell it to a group of friends." 
 [Athenseum. 1753 
 
 ST. MUNGO'S CITY [by " Sarah 
 Tytler," i. e., Henrietta Keddie: 
 Ohaiio, 1884.] " will interest a wider 
 circle than the ' Glasgow bodies,' of 
 whom the author givs such an apprecia- 
 tiv account. The local coloring is rich 
 and vivid . . . but the sterling sense 
 and honor of the ruf, self-raised man 
 of business, Auld Tam, hav a, deeper 
 interest, and we cannot but think he will 
 be appreciated by students of character 
 . . . Not less lifelike ar the characters 
 of the 3 Misses Mackinnon — very 
 natural their fencing with the kindly 
 anxiety of Tam Drysdale when he in- 
 deavors to find a pretext to save them 
 from what is literally starvation, and 
 with stern politeness they do their best 
 to make his purpos ineffectual. The 
 mess in which they involv themselves 
 by burning the will which has unequally 
 distributed the long expected inheritance 
 from Strathdivie is more comic, but 
 hardly less pathetic. A pleasant con- 
 655 
 
BKITISH NOVELS. 
 
 trast to these too austere gentlewomen of 
 the olden time is sweet Eppie Drysdale, 
 a perfectly idyllic heroin." [Ath. 1 754: 
 
 ST. OLAVE'S. [by Eliza (Tabor) 
 Stephenson: Hurst, 1863.] "This 
 charming novel is the work of one who 
 possesses a great talent for writing, as 
 well as some experience and knoledge 
 of the world." It ia distinguished by 
 "discrimination of character, depth of 
 thot and felicity of expression. It is 
 the work of an artist . . . The scene 
 is laid in an ancient cathedral city. 
 The heroin is a brit, sunshiny little 
 creature, full of youth and hope, with 
 ' a fitful maiden-like freedom in her 
 ways and an unschooled gracefulness in 
 her simple speech.' Living with a very 
 old and infirm ant, Alice Gray amuses 
 herself in the best way she can, and her 
 favorite pastime, after the Bruces come 
 to St. Olave's, is to hear David playing 
 long overtures and symfonies of his on 
 composing. Janet likes to watch the 
 gay little figure flitting about the quiet 
 old house ; and David is pleased to keep 
 Alice enraptured at his side . . . David 
 says nothing, but the thot of Alice is 
 never absent from his mind ; and hence- 
 forth the quiet, gray organist has but 
 one aim in life — to distinguish himself, 
 to make money, to become worthy of 
 Alice Gray, to be able to meet her on 
 terms of equality." [Athenaeum. 1765 
 
 SALEM CHAPEL [by Ma. Oli- 
 PHANT (Wilson) Oliphant : Black- 
 wood, 1863.] " will take a permanent 
 place in english literature. There is 
 scarcely any other tale of the present 
 day which, for truth and humor and 
 living effect, could take its place 
 beside G : Eliot's ' Scenes of Clerical 
 Life,' without being hurt by the com- 
 parison; but this, — that portion of it 
 at least which relates to ' Salem Chapel,' 
 and its organization, — mit fairly do so 
 
 . . . The Mildmay melodrama is what 
 almost any novelist could do as well or 
 better than the author of ' Salem Chapel,' 
 and we could wish that in some new 
 edition the Mildmay film mit be skilfully 
 removed from the book, and the simple 
 squabbles of the Salem Independents 
 left in all thfiir purity, — not that we 
 would on any account object to the 
 yung Independent minister's passion 
 for Lady Western;. — that is an essen- 
 tial and most artistic element of the 
 story, — the azure background, without 
 which the life of the Salem dissenters 
 would lose half its vivid humor and 
 many of its distinct features. Bat 
 while this touch is true to art, the story 
 of kidnapping and all but murder which 
 groes out like a. fungus on the Lady 
 Western side of the story, is scarcely 
 true artifice even. Having relieved our 
 minds with this protest, we may pass to 
 those features of the tale which we 
 could scarcely praise too hily if we 
 would. Mr. Vincent is the ambitious 
 son of a minister of the Independent 
 ' connexion,' and has just taken charge 
 of Salem Chapel, Carlingford. He is 
 a -yung man of taste and refinement 
 much above the level of Homerton Col- 
 lege, but still penetrated with the max- 
 ims of the Independent school, and full 
 of that youthful belief in eloquence, 
 and argument and religious sentiment, 
 which fancies that it can vanquish the 
 world . . . All this is really wonder- 
 fully drawn, — with a delicacy and skill 
 of which we can giv but very imperfect 
 proofs in the limits of a single article. 
 The two most perfect pictures in the 
 story ar Tozer, the butterman and princi- 
 pal deacon of Salem Chapel, and Mrs. 
 Vincent, the yung minister's mother. 
 The latter is an etching of marvellous 
 delicacy and art, with every line and 
 shado separately touched in — the 
 
 556 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 former, a vigorous cartoon of massiv- 
 effect and vigorous outline, represent- 
 ing a man who attaches us sc much per- 
 sonally that it seems a real privation 
 not to hav been able to join the ' 'Omer- 
 ton students ' in that testimonial pre- 
 sented to him for his great ungrammatical 
 speech in Salem Chapel on behalf of the 
 liberty of the ministry and against the 
 tyranny of the ' connexion.' To^er, the 
 butterman, is such a character as we 
 should hav thot scarcely any one but 
 G: Eliot could hav drawn. Throu all 
 the vulgarity of its surface thfire is so 
 much genial strength and breadth, so 
 much vulgar manliness, so much intelli- 
 gence in the shopocratic shrewdness, so 
 much true mettle behind the stratum of 
 butter and bacon, such a liberal feeling 
 within the limit which Salem ideas and 
 the narro personal vues of his woman- 
 kind impose, that Tozer, who in the 
 opening of the story servs to represent 
 the vulgar pettiness of ignorant congre- 
 gational aims, seems before its close to 
 be a figure of more true dignity, tho, 
 perhaps less intellectual significance, 
 than even the yung minister." [Specta- 
 tor. 1756 
 
 SANDRA BELLONI. = EMILIA 
 IN ENGLAND. 
 
 SARA [by Julia Bostille (David- 
 son) Chetwynd : F. V. White, 1887.] " is 
 a tale of misunderstanding between hus- 
 band and wife, told with rather happy 
 contrivance as to the little accidents 
 which in novels nearly always, and in 
 life sometimes, hav important conse- 
 quences . . . The heroin is well drawn 
 and makes rather an amusing figure. As 
 the story groes to be more concerned 
 with her its interest increases. There 
 ar some good bits of character in the 
 minor people." [Athenaeum. 1757 
 
 SARA CREWE [by P.. [Eliza] 
 (Hodgson) Burnett : Scribner, 1888.] 
 
 "is a very pretty, interesting, and well- 
 written story . . . Sara livs in a London 
 boarding-school, where she is petted and 
 made much of until the death of her 
 only parent leavs her in poverty. Then 
 she is kept on as a drudge . . . She 
 becomes an ill-used, neglected little one, 
 with no friend but her doll, and no 
 solace but a love for reading and a won- 
 derful capacity for 'supposing things.' 
 ... Of course it all comes rit in the 
 end. Sara livs for a, M'hile in what 
 seems a fairy tale made real, finding her 
 cold, ugly attic transformed in some 
 magical way into a nest of elegant com- 
 fort, new clothes supplied by unkniJn 
 hands, dainty suppers lying ready for her 
 when she climbs the garret stairs tired 
 out at nit. Then her real, flesh-and- 
 blood benefactor comes to lit, and Sara 
 leavs Miss Minchin's for kindness and 
 luxury in a home of her on." [Catholic 
 World. 1758 
 
 SARAH DE BERENGER. [by Jean 
 Ingelow : Roberts, 1885.] "A poor 
 woman, of extraordinary character, the 
 wife of a convict just transported, unex- 
 pectedly falls heir to a competence ; and 
 in order to secure it, for the benefit of 
 her two baby girls, from the possible 
 future claims of their worthless father, 
 she assumes a different name, takes the 
 position of their servant, and rears them 
 as orfau gentlefolk, of whose income, 
 slender for their false position, altho 
 amounting to wealth for their true one, 
 she passes for the scrupulously honest 
 trustee . A great deal of skill is shon in 
 the contrivance of slit chances, whereby 
 the self-devoted author of tliis pious 
 fraud is continually enabled to escape 
 detection ; and it was clever to conceive 
 of her as aided, however unwittingly, by 
 the inveterate folly and freakishness, the 
 long pampered eccentricities, of the 
 wealthy and addle-pated spinster who 
 
 557 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 finally leavs her money to the convict's 
 children. The drawback is that the 
 thing was, after all, so outrageous a 
 fraud that our gratification at its success 
 ,is felt to be uncomfortably immoral. 
 Moreover the bizarre central figure of 
 Sarah de Berenger, tho happjly enuf 
 imagined, is not well developed. She 
 just fails of being an entirely credible, 
 and therefor legitimately amusing char- 
 acter. The latter part of the story, 
 from the time when the mother is forced 
 finally to sever herself from her children 
 and go back to her rehabilitated convict, 
 is painful, but powerful also ; especially 
 in the way in which we ar forced to share 
 both the poor wife's dispassionate con- 
 viction of the reality of her husband's re- 
 pentance, and her invincible repugnance 
 for his person." [Atlantic. 1759 
 
 SCARBOROUGH FAMILY (The) 
 [by Anthony Teollope : Harper, 1883.] 
 " is a picture of english life taken in 
 his usual fotografic way ; it opens well, 
 drags throu the middle, and gets better 
 again at the close. It concerns the for- 
 tunes of a county family, but has a 
 dash of lo life for comedy, some fox 
 hunting, a love affair in which the lady's 
 family raise fruitless objections, and so 
 on . . . The central figure of the book, 
 however, is. not the hero, but old Mr. 
 Scarborough, who is a terrible rascal, 
 judged by ordinary standards, but who, 
 notwithstanding his defiance and viola- 
 tion of all law, human and divine, gains 
 the reader's regard, partly becaus in Mr. 
 Trollope's commonplace world, he is a 
 very uncommonplace man . . All 
 this Mr. TroUope has great difficulty in 
 making seem probable, but interesting it 
 certainly is. In reading this last of his 
 long series of successful novels, in the 
 lit of the admitted fact that they repre- 
 sent English life more clearly than the 
 works of any novelist of our day, we 
 
 hav been reminded of one striking 
 feature of english life as he describes 
 it, in which the criticisms brut out by 
 his death was not dwelt on as much as it 
 deservs to be. We refer to the extraor- 
 dinarily strong, coarse flavor of money 
 which pervades them. In most american 
 novels, as in american life of our day, 
 money is generally avoided or looked at 
 and spoken of askance, as if there wer 
 something belittling about appearing to 
 think too much of it. In Trollope's 
 novels, the action of the book generally 
 revolvs in some way about a question of 
 £., o., d., whether a man may marry the 
 woman he loves, whether a yungster 
 shall go into a profession or emigrate, 
 whether a son shall honor or despise his 
 father, — all questions, practical or sen- 
 timental, become a simple matter of 
 money, until in the end the reader gets 
 an impression of english society as a 
 country pervaded not merely by a com- 
 mercial, but by a positivly sordid tone. 
 How much of this is due to England and 
 how much to Mr. TroUope, we must 
 leav others to determin ; but as to the 
 fact we think we can hardly be mistaken, 
 for we never lay down one of his novels 
 without regretting that in so rich a conn- 
 try as England it should always seem as 
 if th^re wer rather too little money to ' go 
 round' comfortably, and easily, and ex- 
 pansivly." [Nation. 1760 
 
 SCENES OF CLERICAL LIFE, [by 
 " G : Eliot " : Blackwood, 1857.] = SAD 
 FORTUNES, MR. GILFIL'S LOVE- 
 STORY, JANET'S REPENTANCE. 
 
 SCIENTIFIC GENTLEMEN (The). 
 See NEIGHBORS ON THE GREEN. 
 
 SCOTCH FIRS, [by " S.. Tttlek," 
 i.e., Henrietta Keddie : Smith, 1878.] 
 The first " is a well told tale, and the 
 principal and his wife, Marget, and the 
 wily Highlander, ar all racy of the soil. 
 The second narrativ, that of a minister's 
 
 558 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 visit to London, and the change of hia 
 
 ♦ vnes on the subject of the stage, is 
 
 * equally well imagined, and enforces a, 
 generous moral." [Athenaeum. 1761 
 
 SCOTCH "WOOING (A) [by J. C. 
 Ayrton : King, 1875.] "has a good 
 deal of merit. Arundel Fielding has 
 a character which groes upon us as the 
 tale proceeds. At first we see her 
 under the unfavorable influence of a 
 sudden change from english country 
 life, gentle in its traditions, easy-going, 
 uncommercial, to life in a scotch indus- 
 trial town, among scotch bourgeoisie, 
 wh^re she finds sweetness and lit lying 
 at a considerable distance from the sur- 
 face, and everything except the hospi- 
 tality of the nativs jarring dissonant 
 from the impression and axioms of 
 her childhood. ' Touch not the cat, 
 but the glove ' is the motto which at 
 first sit seems appropriate for the 
 guidance of all intercourse at Lairy. 
 Not till some stirring experiences hav 
 touched her does she learn to value the 
 strong feeling which underlies the ex- 
 terior angularity of such ruf-hewn 
 specimens as her uncle Carmichael, 
 and.the disputatious earnestness of her 
 uncompromising but devoted lover. 
 When she does recognize the honesty 
 of their attachment her hi and truthful 
 nature finds the discovery very satis- 
 factory. In the revulsion of feeling 
 which foUoes, it is natural to her 
 womanly ardor to condone even grave 
 faults such as the frantic and unpar- 
 donable jealousy of Stewart, which so 
 nearly wrecks their mutual happiness. 
 This is essentially n. novel of charac- 
 ter." [Athenaeum. 1762 
 
 SCUDAMORES (The), [by P. C. 
 Philips & C. J. "Wills : Gardner^ Co., 
 1890.] " Th^re is movement enuf in 
 ' The Scudamores ' for 2 or 3 novels, 
 if not for a play. It is full of down- 
 
 rlt characters, english and american, 
 polished and unpolished, serious and 
 comic; and th^re is not a villain 
 amongst them. The situations ar well 
 conceived, and as thi5re ar to 4 or 5 yung 
 people, and two old widoers do the 
 matchmaking and the matchmarring, 
 the authors contrive to escape from the 
 trite and commonplace into an atmos- 
 fere of wholesom freshness, they put 
 no strain upon their readers, and con- 
 sequently secure their attention with- 
 out effort or difficulty. The cleverness 
 of their story is all on the surface. 
 It is a narrativ of incidents and 
 humors, and it eschews analysis as com- 
 pletely as it avoids reflexions and 
 morals." [Athenaeum. 1763 
 
 SEABURY CASTLE [by Cecil 
 Hope: Lippincott, 1869.] "is an exceed- 
 ingly pretty and simple story. The 
 principal personage is a man of hi 
 moral character and great dignity. Sen- 
 sitiv to a fault, he allows a disappoint- 
 ment in early life to cast a gloom over 
 all his after years, which, tho it is never 
 wholly dispelled, is in some measure 
 relieved by the society of 2 very 
 charming girls, his orfan nieces, whose 
 groth and culture he watches over with 
 parental care. In due time these 
 yung ladies, of course, fall in love ; but, 
 as they choose wisely, altho they do 
 not escape suffering, and in one case 
 a terrible catastrofe takes place, still 
 their path is not strewn with the thorns 
 which spring up in the way of modern 
 heroins. The story is rather sketchy, 
 but not encumbered with underplot 
 nor surcharged with incidents, nor yet 
 so destitute of them as to be without a 
 considerable portion of life interest," 
 [Round Table. 1764 
 
 SEAMY SIDE (The) [by "Wa. 
 Besant & Ja. Rice : Appleton, 1880. J 
 " is a very readable tale. Its novelty 
 659 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 in the way of chaTaeter is an Albino 
 boy, and a very original character he is. 
 The story deals with a mystery of birth, 
 a worthless scamp of a brother, a vol- 
 untary and sacrificial disappearance, 
 and the bare rescue from undeserving 
 hands of a, large property. Anthony 
 Hamblin, who is one of its central 
 figures, is a fine man to meet even in a 
 novel." [Boston "Lit. World." 1765 
 
 SEARCH FOR BASIL LYNU- 
 HURST(The). [by Rosa Nouchette 
 Caket: Lovell, 1889.] "The scene is 
 a country nSborhood, with its quiet, 
 conservativ society, its great place, its 
 squire's family, and its rectory. The 
 squire's family consists of two dauters, 
 one of them a wido ; and the ' search ' 
 is for her son, abandoned when an in- 
 fant by his mother in a paroxysm of 
 half delirium, caused by cruel treatment 
 from the husband with whom she has 
 made a runaway match. Out of these 
 materials is made an entertaining novel, 
 brit, well-bred, and gracefully told." 
 [Boston ' ' Literary World." 1 766 
 
 SECOND SON (The) [by Ma. 
 Oliphant (Wilson) Oliphant : 
 
 Macmillan, 1888.] "is far from being 
 the best of its author's stories, but 
 th^re ar good points and situations in it, 
 and there is that fidelity to truth in minor 
 details which none but artists possess, 
 and oing to which the reader is impressed 
 with a sense of harmony which allows 
 him to appreciate the plot and narrativ. 
 Very admirable and consistent is the 
 butler in her book, himself not a promi- 
 nent person, but in his solemnity, and 
 his appreciation of the tragedies and 
 comedies around him, over which he 
 rises in a sense superior, how good a 
 modern substitute for a garrulous greek 
 chorus ! How just the sentiments of 
 Pouncefort, the family lawyer; how 
 clever the glimps of the scotch gardener. 
 
 who thot to add Lily Ford to his floral 
 collection, and of the London fysician 
 and the country apothecary ! The plot 
 is not complicated, but every way suffi- 
 cient to produce a domestic tragedy, and 
 the irony of fate is the ' ower-word,' 
 or refrain, to which one listens." [Athe- 
 naeum.] — " It is a strong story, clearly 
 planned, allowing for much interplay 
 of character, involving several strik- 
 ing episodes, and its conclusion, altho 
 easily foreseen, is not at all common- 
 place. The description of the old 
 manor house is an attractiv bit of real- 
 ism. There livs squire Mitford, a 
 choleric, self-willed old widoer with 
 his 3 sons — Roger, an accomplished 
 man of the world devoted to the ' busy 
 idleness of country life ; ' Edmund, at 
 the outset of the book a rather motiv- 
 less dreamer; Stephen, a noisy, im- 
 perious young fello with no manner or 
 morals to speak of— and here, too, 
 dwells Nina, an interesting specimen of 
 the english girl transferred from the 
 school-room to the drawing-room, and, 
 for want of other resources, passing 
 her time in eavesdropping and the ex- 
 change of scandal with the servants. 
 In the keeper's lodge ar the Fords, 
 with their beautiful, slender, golden- 
 haired dauter, Lily. In the fine new 
 mansion on the hill, not far away, is the 
 sensible yung heiress, Elizabeth Travers. 
 These, with Pax, the rector's elderly 
 dauter, ar the chief characters, and 
 readers of Mrs. Oliphant's novels do not 
 need to be told that they play their parts 
 well." [Boston " Literary World."] — 
 "As a, study of character, with deep 
 feeling associated with perfectly simple 
 and realistic incidents, it is one of the 
 best novels of the year. The grouping 
 of the 3 brothers around the one woman 
 is admirably managed; and Lily is a, 
 new creation . . . The choleric old 
 
 660 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 Squire is a strong feature ; and his indig- 
 nation when he learns, not that Stephen 
 has tricked Lily, but that having meant to 
 trick her, he had found the yung woman 
 too ' smart ' for Mm, is wonderfully 
 natural and amusing. '' [Critic. 1767 
 SECOND THOUGHTS, [by Khoda 
 Brohghton : Appleton, 1880.] "Yes, 
 second th6ts ar best ; and Miss Brough- 
 ton's present way of illustrating and 
 enforcing that maxim is entertaining. 
 It is a very clever process of psycholog- 
 ical art by which she brings round Dr. 
 Burnet and Gillian, who at the outset 
 ar back to back, so to speak, until they 
 ar face to face. Little by little you see 
 them turn — she from her antipathy 
 and scorn, he from his indifference and 
 neglect. Only, the end is foreseen from 
 the beginning, and th^re is little in the 
 book to pique the reader's curiosity. 
 Some of the best things in it ar the 
 contemporary portraits, as we will call 
 them : Gillian's bedridden old father, 
 a very perfect character-sketch; the 
 meek and docile squire Marlowe and 
 his majestic and commanding dauter 
 Jane, who furnish between them much 
 amusement; the stiff Miss Burnet, the 
 doctor's spinster sister, well framed in 
 her stately London drawing-room; and 
 last, but not least, the sentimental and 
 poetical Challoner, beneath whom lies, 
 we must think, an intended caricature 
 of the whole Swinburne-Rossetti school." 
 [Boston "Literary World."] — "Miss 
 Broughton has here dropped her sen- 
 sational and somewhat hoydenish tone, 
 and] has given us as pretty and proper 
 a love-story as one would care to read. 
 The old process of the taming of a 
 ahrew has seldom been more neatly and 
 effectivly depicted; and, aside from its 
 sparkle and vivacity, the story possesses 
 qualities which make it really valuable 
 as a picture." [Appleton's. 1768 
 
 SELF-CONDEMNED, [by Ma. 
 (Raine) Hunt: CAaifto, 1883.] " Bar- 
 rington is n writer, and he and Miss 
 Carey fall desperately in love, she 
 under mental protest, he with selfish, or 
 at least, thfltless, disregard of Roger 
 Hackbloch's prior claims . . . Some 
 use is made of the cooking school at 
 Kensington, thSre ar touches of the 
 literary and histrionic elements in the 
 course of the story, in which Wentworth 
 Wilbraham, a scapegrace son and Kitty's 
 persecutor, is the unhappy victim. The 
 strength of the book lies in the portrayal 
 of eccentric characters, and their con- 
 trasts, and in the naturalness, to the ex- 
 treme point of simplicity, of the delinea- 
 tion of feeling, motiv, and conduct. 
 There ar many lafable things in the 
 book — lafable like the absurd actions 
 of absurd people which we see going on 
 before our eyes every day." [Boston 
 " Literary World." 
 
 , SAME [" Barrington's Tate."] 
 
 Roberts, 1883. 
 
 SELF OR BEARER [by Wa. 
 Besant: Ohatto, 1889.] " is full of 
 fun. It is, in brief, the story of a poor 
 doctor who became a viscount and was 
 extremely uncomfortable, and then lost 
 his title and became happy. This is not 
 the gist of the plot, but the fun of it 
 depends upon this incidental contrivance 
 of circumstances. It is not often that 
 so much good reading is found in one 
 volume." [Athenseum. 1769 
 
 , SAME, with TO CALL HER 
 
 MINE. 
 
 SEMI- ATTACHED COUPLE (The), 
 [by Emily Eden: Bentley, I860.] "It 
 has really done our heart good to read 
 this lit, slit, pleasant novel. It is clever, 
 very clever, — tho we hav read dozens 
 of novels with more talent in them ; but 
 we hav read very few which ar so pleas- 
 ant as this ' Semi-Attached Couple,' 
 
 561 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 SEMI-DETACHED IKITTSE (The), 
 [by Emily Eren (1TH7-Cn) : npulU'U, 
 1S59.] "ThSre is freshuesK of hiiinor and 
 good-humor in this little stovy. It is full 
 of a frank, sOL'iahle feelin;;-, of tlio liter 
 sort of talk which is one of the charms of 
 good society, and of the sound instinct 
 which exists whSre true human courte- 
 sies ar honestly exchanged, and kindly or 
 affectionate relations can spring out of 
 them. Character-painting so entirely un- 
 pretending in its manner, and so perfect 
 of its sort, as that which gi\s to this novel 
 its value as a work of art, is not often to 
 be found among the novelists who do not 
 stand in the front raidi. The author has 
 not attempted mit}' things but, after its 
 pleasant way. the 'Semi-Detached House' 
 is in many respects iierfect. The heroin 
 is n very young and happy bride, whos(.' 
 husband is for a few months withdrawn 
 from her by a diplomatic appointment 
 after the first half-year of marriiige. She 
 is a good girl, weak in health, and strong 
 in imagination, lively, fastidious, and a 
 little spoilt. Blanche can not, during her 
 husband's absen5e, stay with her father- 
 in-law, because he thinks it a good joke to 
 call her Blanket; nor with her brother-in- 
 iaw,''because be would cdimt the cost of 
 her keep ; nor with her ant, because the 
 
 doctor who would attend her thfre wCars 
 creaking boots. Her dodor has deter- 
 jnind that she shal )iv cnit of town, and 
 her husljand accordingly has rented for 
 ber a furnished villa on the Thames, to 
 which Ihfire happens to be anijther and a 
 smaller house attached, inhabited, as she 
 learns from her sensible ant Sarah, by 
 llopkinsons . . . As to the fastidiousness, 
 tlie story tels that altho both the Hopkin- 
 son and the Chester households set oTJt 
 with strong prejudiQes fotmded upon 
 fan<;y, altho Lady Blanche was connected 
 Only with the aristocra9y, and ^frs. Hop- 
 kinson, the wife of a sturdy sea-captain, 
 was really fat and unlettered, and wore 
 mittens,— a good heart was the life of eac.-h 
 of the two homes, the young bride and 
 the motherly old lady each knew and did 
 her duty to her nebor, and throu the little 
 oflifcs of human kindness simply render- 
 ed, became large debtors Lo each other. 
 Neborly feeling is, in fact, I he topic of the 
 story, the supertifial difl'eren^es of rank, 
 person, and manner ar lost sight of in 
 the unaffected interchange of kindly 
 words and deeds . . . The spirit of the 
 book we hav described, but its story we 
 do not mean to disclose. Let it be cheer- 
 ful reading lo the idler, and welcome re- 
 laxation to the worker." [Exam. 1770 a 
 
 661 X 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 oing to the spirit of kindness, charity, 
 and good-breeding which pervades every 
 page, we may say every line. Th^re ar 
 brit little touches of humor which pre- 
 vent the goodness becoming oppressive, 
 giving a sparkle and briskness to the 
 whole. There ar no set descriptions, 
 and the story reads more like the scenes 
 of i» genteel comedy than a novel." 
 [Athenseum. 1770 
 
 SENIOR PARTNER (The) [by C. 
 Eliza Lawson (Cowan) Riddell ; 
 Harper, 1881.] " is a novel which will 
 last — no small recommendation to peo- 
 ple of busy brains, who turn to a novel 
 for refreshment on the same principle 
 that they go to see a, good comedy. It 
 is so solidly, carefully done, that th^re 
 is no temptation either to skip it or 
 skim it. It is in this respect more like 
 TroUope's work than we should hav 
 supposed a woman's could be. Much 
 of it has that same fotografic fidelity. 
 Robert McCuUagh — ' plain auld Rab ' 
 — is the head of a commercial house in 
 London, but one where everything is 
 scotch — ' deeply, darkly, beautifully 
 scotch.' His one virtue is his unswerving 
 honesty, as, cold of heart and hard of 
 head, he makes his loveless way to fort- 
 une. Such a man must needs be harsh 
 to his children, and the plot deals mainly 
 with his injustice to his son Robert and 
 the heaping of coals upon his head by 
 Robert's noble wife. But the interest 
 is less in that side of the story than in 
 the contrast between McCuUagh and 
 Pousnett, who is the veritable ' Senior 
 Partner.' The contrast is never ob- 
 truded, but left to impress itself on the 
 reader's mind in the development of 
 events : Rab, always crabbed, repellant, 
 grasping, but always with the fine fibre 
 of strict honor iu his nature : Pousnett, 
 winning, suave, plausible — speaking 
 never a falsehood, but, equally, speak- 
 ing never the truth." [Nation. 1771 
 
 SENIOR SONGMAN (The), [by 
 Eliza (Tabor) Stephensox : Harper, 
 1883.] "Whoever has knon the brood- 
 ing sunshine, the creeping shados, the 
 delicious quiet which make the charm 
 of a cathedral close, will recognize the 
 scenes of this story of ' The Senior 
 Songman.' The romance is a double, if 
 not a treble, one, the first interweaving 
 with the placid monotony of the close 
 and a drowsy town the passionate hopes 
 which waken under an Italian sky. The 
 second blooms and fades, or reopens to 
 glad fruition in the very home of the 
 songman as he goes in and out, ever 
 graver and sadder with the pain of 
 memory and the keen disappointment of 
 present loss. ThSre ar two heroins. 
 No two could be more different in their 
 nature or their fate, but to each of them 
 came the truest peace which either could 
 hav asked, ' the peace of living up to the 
 best they knew.' The chords ar minor 
 chords, but patience, endurance, for- 
 givness and faith make the music a 
 tender harmony. The Senior Songman 
 will be remembered as a gentle and 
 modest companion in the little group of 
 which the Warden of Hiram's Hospital 
 is first." [Nation. 1772 
 
 SENSITIVE PLANT (A) [by E. & 
 D. Gerard, i. e., Emily (Gerard) Las- 
 zowska& Dorothea Gerard: Paul, 1891.] 
 " is in many ways an able and pleasant 
 book. The irascible Sir Alec, who 
 makes a point of complaining of every- 
 thing and disagreeing with everybody, 
 is as entertaining in fiction as he would 
 be terrible in life, and as a specimen 
 of the perfectly amiable and perfectly 
 tactless woman. Miss Penny, who is 
 never daunted by ill-luck in ' breaking 
 things ' to her ' dear brother,' is simply a 
 masterpiece. Mr. d'Osbon, the epicure, 
 whose slolybut steadily groing passion 
 for Janet is rooted iu his belief that she 
 was the compounder of a certain wonder- 
 
 5G2 
 
BUITISH NOVELS. 
 
 ful lobster souffle, is drawn with rather 
 coarse strokes; but he is amusing — -at 
 any rate, for a time." [Spectator.] — 
 " A pale, frltened child, whose natural 
 timidity has been suffered to gro un- 
 eheolted and unheeded until it has de- 
 veloped intb a sort of savage shyness, 
 something absolutely painful to herself 
 as well as to the beholder, is the heroin. 
 . . . The scene is changed to Venice, the 
 child becomes a woman and struggles 
 alone with the self-asserting world ; but 
 the change from the hard, cold northern 
 country in which she was born to the 
 soft southern beauty of Italy has a 
 happy effect upon her, and she livs 
 and blooms in the sunshine which has 
 come into her life at last." [Critic] — 
 ' ' The entire motif of the story is the 
 analysis of the painful shyness of an 
 ingenuous girl, whose childhood has 
 been shadoed by many circumstances 
 tending to make her shrink into herself. 
 The authors hav done their part with a 
 good deal of success, not the least being 
 the fact that they manage to make 
 Janet's nervous misery, which is at first 
 only not contemptible, become gradually 
 subordinated to that unselfishness which 
 is really a deeper-seated attribute of her 
 character, and which eventually entitles 
 her to the reader's consideration. Hon- 
 est and loving as she is, we do not, any 
 more than her lover, feel a particle of 
 respect for her until she rushes, as she 
 supposes, into moral danger to save him 
 from death, after the fashion of a valiant 
 hen partridge or most magnanimous 
 mouse. The local setting of ' the Mim- 
 osa,' the old house and policies left 
 stranded in a grimy district of Scottish 
 coal fields, the sundial under the cop- 
 per beech, the glen in which Janet first 
 meets her lover, ar all real and suit- 
 able." [Athenseum. 1773 
 SEVENTY TIMES SEVEN [by 
 
 Adeline Sekgeant : Edinburgh, OH- 
 phant, 1888.] "is a very beautiful, 
 powerful, and pathetic story, the general 
 effect of which we can best describe by 
 saying that the book has reminded us 
 very frequently of one or two of the 
 best novels of Jessie Fothergill. We 
 do not mean that the new story is at all 
 imitativ, or that we can lay our finger 
 here and th^re upon special parallelisms 
 or reminders ; but that the general 
 handling, especially the conception and 
 grouping of character,' does undoubtedly 
 recall the total impression left by such 
 books as Probation [No. 1703] and Kith 
 and Kin [No. 1436], tho in intensity of 
 passionate imagination. Seventy Times 
 Seven must certainly take rank belo the 
 last named story, —one of the most im- 
 pressiv novels which has been written 
 since the days of C. and Emily Bronte." 
 [Spectator. 1774 
 
 SHADOW OF ASHLYDYAT. [by 
 Ellen (Price) Wood : Bentley, 1864.] 
 ' i It is in the working out of the main fact, 
 and in the variety of incidents involved, 
 that the strength and charm of the story 
 lie. We think that Mrs. Wood has dealt 
 too leniently with the gay and gallant 
 G : Godolphin, whose sins bring so 
 much wo upon innocent persons ; but 
 even the female reader will be con- 
 strained to forgiv Miss Charlotte Pain, 
 unprincipled as she is, for the sake of 
 her thoro good-nature. T : Godolphin ig 
 a noble character. The episode of Ethel 
 Grame, the girl to whom he is engaged, 
 is skilfully managed. Maria, the wife 
 of G : Godolphin, is sure of the reader's 
 sympathy ; she is a sweet and perfect 
 wife — too perfect, for if she had ex- 
 pressed her on good sense with more 
 emfasis, it would hav been better, tho 
 not so pleasant, for the erring Mr. 
 George. In all the details of the per- 
 sonal and private troubles which folio 
 
 663 
 
BKITISH NOVELS. 
 
 SENSE AND SENSIBILITY. [ by J .. 
 AUSTKX: Benlleij. 1S33.] "As the nov- 
 els o( Miss Austen never weary, thSir 
 interest is never lost; for, as in tlie prints 
 of Hogarth, we find fre.sh matter for 
 admiration upon every renewal of oiir 
 acquaintance. Her faljles ar of the sim- 
 plest construction; her incidents in the 
 common course of things; and her char- 
 acters ar extraorilinary only in the truth 
 of their delineation. The story she tels 
 in all her works is the story of hum;in 
 nature in its most familiar phases. ThCre 
 ar no exaggerations, and no deficiencies, 
 and it is by the completeness of the \ue 
 of character that the fulness of the effect 
 is produced. The persons described ar 
 such as we meet every day, but we liav 
 never seen their peculiarities in connexion 
 with thfiir causes of action. The scene is 
 before us with all the reality of the world, 
 and, free from the engrossment of acting 
 apart in it, we discover points of interest 
 which a divided attention had overlooked. 
 The commonplace characters of the tovi'n 
 and the village ar the characters which 
 Miss Austen makes of interest by making 
 them thoroly understood. In the story 
 before us what an example of the worth- 
 less is Mr. J: Dashwood — not worthless 
 as implying vice, but the negativ of 
 worth, of which common character Miss 
 Austen has evinced a perfect comprehen- 
 
 sion, and presented various illustrations. 
 Mr. Dashwood is incapable of a generous 
 sentiment or a benevolent action, but he is 
 a rigid observer of all the laws of the 
 world, and we kno full wel that so really 
 despicable a man would pass as a pattern 
 of propriety. He has a wife all selfish- 
 ness and worldliness, to whom he looks 
 with veneration, consecrating all her 
 foibles, and admiringly magnifying her 
 littleness . . . Mrs. Ferrars is another ex- 
 cellently drawn character; one of those 
 creatures cankered with wealth, the 
 tyrants of the money-box, the capricious 
 despots of the last wil and testament, who 
 make those about them slaves of expecta- 
 tion, tormenting them with fears of dis- 
 appointment, and causing the interested 
 hopes of thfiir death to be fraut with 
 miseries and abasements during thfiir 
 lives. Her merit considered, her perfec- 
 tion in one style. Miss Austen is the worst 
 appreciated novelist of her time. She 
 labored under the disadvantage of having 
 the inferior stamp of circulating library 
 popularity put up n her works, before 
 the superior judges had become acquaint- 
 ed with them, and recognized thfiir hi 
 degree of excellence. The Quarterly Re- 
 view was the first critical authority which 
 did justice to her merits, and that after 
 the grave had closed over her modest 
 genius."^ [Examiner, 1833. 1773 v 
 
 562 X 
 
BRITISH NOVJEL8. 
 
 the great catastrofe of the Bank, Mrs. 
 Wood has shon skill ; but it must not 
 be supposed that ' The Shadow of Ash- 
 lydyat ' is an oppressiv book — the 
 reader's interest is never sacrificed, and 
 it is a book which he may return to with 
 pleasure." [Athens3um. 1775 
 
 SHADRACH [Bell, 1879.] " is a 
 very charming story. The modesty, the 
 good taste and withal the vigorous per- 
 formance of these delitful volumes 
 (which ar ' dedicated with tender and 
 reverent gratitude to the memory of 
 Annie Keary ' ) , warrant the reader in 
 believing that a worthy recruit has been 
 enlisted in the service of a public. If 
 these impressions ar just, more than the 
 mantle of Miss Keary has fallen on the 
 sholders of the writer to whom we ar 
 indebted for the romance of ' Shadrach.' 
 It is not that the narrativ is at all times 
 sustained on the hiest levels, that the 
 workmanship is always of the finest and 
 subtlest, that the conception is thoroly 
 original, the plot faultlessly propor- 
 tioned, or the style without blemish. 
 'Shadrach' has its faults. It is, per- 
 haps, too ambitious ; its characters and 
 incidents ar here and th^re a little vague 
 and overdrawn; its motivs, always lofty 
 and pure, occasionally defy the efforts 
 of the artist and elude her grasp. Ad- 
 mitting all this , this story is one which 
 may charm even the exacting and fastid- 
 ious." [Athenaeum. 1770 
 
 SHANDON BELLS, [by W: Black : 
 Harper, 1883.] "In ' Shandon Bells' 
 we welcom a book which charms at the 
 outset, and, if it does not maintain its 
 fascination till the end, puts a sting of 
 regret into our memory of it almost 
 better than complete satisfaction. Mr. 
 Black has indeed a supreme gift of en- 
 dowing his women with charm, — a 
 charm so ethereal and elusiv that it is, 
 happily, to be felt and not described. 
 
 And Miss Kitty Eomayne, besides mak- 
 ing both the hero and the reader fall in 
 love with her, writes love-letters which 
 ar the treasure of the book, written with 
 an overflo of fancy and feeling which 
 the author has rarely surpassed. That 
 the pretty, faithless, mercenary Kitty 
 wins our heart, while to Miss Chet- 
 wynd's excellences and perfections we 
 remain obstinately indifferent, may be 
 true to every-day experience, but is, we 
 think, one of the faults of the book. 
 Master Willie Fitzgerald, the hero, is a 
 very pretty hero indeed, ■ — modest, lov- 
 able, clever, endowed with a, warm 
 heart and a capacity for intense senti- 
 ment which puts him wholly out of the 
 category of modern heroes. The story 
 of his entrance into London literary life 
 is capitally given ; and, ideal and fanci- 
 ful as Mr. Black's imaginativ flits may 
 be, his realism is always the simplest." 
 [Lippincott's. 1777 
 
 SHE WAS YOUNG AND HE WAS 
 OLD. [by M., L.. (Stewart) Moles- 
 worth: Tinsley, 1872.] "We ar in- 
 troduced to the heroin at a pensionnat, 
 in Switzerland, whSre an englishlady is 
 living with her two dauters, under the 
 care of Mr. Montluc, a worthy little 
 ' pasteur,' whose chiSf claim to recogni- 
 tion lies in his being the husband of 
 Mrs. Montluc. — Mrs. Urquhart is hope- 
 lessly ill, and Eleanor, that her mother 
 may die happy, consents to marry her 
 gardian, Mr. Marshall, a prosaic, pom- 
 pous, but unaffectedly honest and 
 simple-minded country lawyer . . . Once 
 established as the wife of a middle-aged, 
 humdrum attorney, immersed in busi- 
 ness, Eleanor begins to feel, tho she 
 was slo to realize, ' the galling yoke of an 
 uncongenial, unsympathetic marriage,' 
 and would hav found her isolated life 
 intolerable but for the little sister on 
 whom all her passionate tho undemon- 
 
 564 
 
BRITISH irOYELS. 
 
 strativ affection was lavished . . . We 
 cannot do more than allude to the admir- 
 able touches which the writer has hit off 
 many of the weak points of provincial 
 life. This is a book which we can 
 honestly recommend." [Athen. 1778 
 
 SHEBA. [by " Eita," i. e., Eliza 
 M. J. (Gollow) Booth: White ^ Co., 
 1889.] " The author retains her power 
 of original portraiture of women, and 
 Sheba, intellectual, imaginativ, and 
 passionate, will hold a conspicuous 
 place in her gallery. The tragic history 
 of the wild australian girl, after her 
 easy-going, but loving father's death, 
 and when she has escaped from the 
 thraldom of petty people with snobbish 
 social aims, but no aspirations like hers, 
 turns upon the terrible moral problem : 
 given a loveless and sin-dishonored mar- 
 riage, and an irregular connexion begun 
 in ignorance, but riveted by sympathy 
 and passion, which is the true marriage, 
 which the outrage upon nature ? It is 
 not quite certain how far the author is 
 in sympathy with Franz Muller, the old 
 german violinist, who shakes Sheba's 
 faith in the orthodox creed." [Athe- 
 naeum. 1778a 
 
 SHEPHERDS ALL AND MAIDENS 
 FAIR, [by Wa. Besant & Ja. Rice : 
 Chatto, 1879.] " A wholesom contrast 
 is here drawn between the vigorous 
 honesty and purity of the yung Cana- 
 dian farmer, the suspicious isolation of 
 his long estranged father in England, 
 the crushed affections and acquired 
 timidity of his father's ward Lettice 
 Langton (a heroin as pretty as her 
 name), and the precocious development 
 of vulgar vice in the foolish yung 
 clerk, her brother. The localities ar 
 drawn with a descriptiv power which 
 enhances the contrast of characters, 
 and makes a picturesque setting to the 
 story." [Athenaeum. 1779 
 
 SILAS MARNER. [by "G: Eliot": 
 Blackwood, 1861.] " A poor, dull- 
 witted, disappointed Methodist cloth- 
 weaver ; a little goldeurhaired foundling 
 child ; a well-meaning, irresolute coun- 
 try squire, and his patient, childless 
 wife ; — these, with a chorus of simple, 
 beer-loving villagers, make up the 
 dramatis personae. More than any of 
 her other works, ' Silas Marner,' I 
 think, leavs upon the mind a deep im- 
 pression of the grossly material life of 
 agricultural England in the last days of 
 the old regime, — the days of full-orbed 
 Toryism, of Trafalgar and of Waterloo, 
 when the invasiv spirit of french domi- 
 nation threw England back upon a sense 
 of its insular solidity, and made it for 
 the time doubly, brutally, morbidly 
 english. Perhaps the best pages in the 
 work ar those telling the story of poor 
 Marner's disappointments in friendship 
 and in love, his unmerited disgrace, and 
 his long, lonely, twillt life at Raveloe, 
 with the sole companionship of his 
 loom." [H: James.] — "It has less 
 variety, its pathos is more quiet, the 
 dialogs ar sometimes tedious instead of 
 amusing, and the humor seems more an 
 accident than an element of the book. 
 The tale begins tragically and ends 
 quietly . . . But Silas Marner is a 
 masterly creation. It is evident that 
 the author, with even more than her 
 usual singleness of purpos, has concen- 
 trated all her power on the artistic • 
 development of this, her leading charac- 
 ter, and her efforts hav met signal suc- 
 cess. The successiv changes sloly wr6t 
 in this man's soul by the vicissitudes of 
 his life ar portrayed with marvellous 
 effect. The insit which enables 6 : 
 Eliot to lay bare so thoroly the heart, is 
 equalled only by the rare skill shon in 
 delineating these hidden springs of th6t 
 and action, which being so subtile and 
 565 
 
EKITISH NOVELS. 
 
 undefined, ar more difficult to embody 
 than to conceive. In depicting the soli- 
 tary life of the outcast weaver, the 
 author has also clearly solvd the prob- 
 lem of how the love of gold for its on 
 sake alone can become, in a nature 
 generous as well as intense, not only an 
 absorbing passion, but an all-satisfying 
 enjoyment. No one, after reading 
 Silas Marner's nitly revels over his 
 shining hoard, can wonder at such an 
 infatuation, even while forced to de- 
 plore it. The loss of tliis gold, and the 
 dawning of a new life upon the en- 
 feebled intellect and heart of the weaver 
 throu the gentle influence of a child, 
 which not only brOt him nearer to God 
 but to the world, is most tenderly and 
 charmingly told. And the gradual way 
 in which the transformation is effected 
 commends itself particularly for its 
 naturalness." [Christ. Examiner. 1780 
 SIMPLE STORY (A). [by E.. 
 (Simpson) Inchbald, 1791.]. "Open 
 to criticism on many points , bdth literary 
 and artistic, as it is, its appeal to what is 
 tender and true in human nature is so 
 genuin that the cool analyst is disarmed, 
 and lured to recognition of the faith and 
 feeling, the fondness and despair, in 
 two eager, exacting, devoted, but per- 
 verse hearts. The magnetism of the 
 story is its pathos, wherein few works 
 of fiction excel this of Mrs. Inchbald's, 
 who gave to this quality a new charm, 
 and a hitherto unappreciated value as a 
 means and method of imparting vital 
 human interest to fiction. Nature and 
 Art, tho similar in tone, is less complete 
 and impressiv in this regard. The 
 ' Simple Story ' marks a transition period 
 in novel-writing, when the mutual inter- 
 action of character, softened and in- 
 spired by sentiment, creates a new world 
 of emotional experience." [H : Th. 
 Tuckerman. 1781 
 
 SIMPLICITY AND FASCINATION, 
 [by A.. Beale: ^OTWey, 1855.] "The 
 only foolish tiling in this novel is its 
 title, which is certainly enuf to deter 
 any but an adventurous reader from its 
 pages. Those who begin will, however, 
 find their virtue rewarded by as pleasant 
 a novel as they would wish to read on a 
 winter's day. It is a well-drawn picture 
 of domestic life ; the characters ar well 
 contrasted, and the situations and inci- 
 dents ar interesting. Aunt Betsey and 
 Uncle Timothy ar our favorits ; Jessie, 
 the mother-sister to her family, is charm- 
 ing, — which is saying no little for a 
 model heroin. The book ends happily, 
 and even a misanthrope must hav hopes 
 of a world whfire so many happy mar- 
 riages can take root and flourish. ThSre 
 ar as many couples as in a country 
 dance ; and altho the figure is a little 
 complicated, yet the rit partners find 
 each other at last, and everybody mar- 
 ries precisely the rIt person. If the 
 candid reader had been consulted ever 
 so much he could not hav arranged 
 matters more to the contentment of 
 everybody concerned." [Athenfeum.] — 
 [£ee. ] ' ' Simplicity and Fascination is 
 unique in its pleasant old-fashioned 
 directness, plainness, leisurely detail, 
 and its great propriety, sincerity, and 
 kindliness of spirit." [Overland. 1782 
 
 SIR AUBYN'S HOUSEHOLD [by 
 Sigma: Tinsley, 1878.] "is the love- 
 story of two sisters, one of whom is a 
 beauty, the other, at least by compari- 
 son, plain. The writer has had the 
 courage to contravene the common tra- 
 dition in such a case ; he makes the 
 beauty the finer and the more interesting 
 character of the two. How she givs 
 her heart away, and what comes of it ; 
 throu what rapids and ruf places the 
 current of her love has to run, and how 
 it finds itself at last in .peace, is very 
 
 6e<j 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 attractivly told. The characters ar 
 natural, if not striking; they talk like 
 possible creatures, they never cease to 
 interest us. The story is, inJeed, 
 scarcely the ' plain unvarnished tale ' 
 which the author is pleased to call it. 
 The lover is found to be something like 
 a prince in disguise ; the heroin passes 
 throu adventures which ar doubtless 
 possible, which may even be probable, 
 hut which ar certainly romantic, and 
 scarcely enter into the calculable con- 
 tingencies of life in the 19th century. 
 But we do not kno that the book is the 
 worse for the introduction of this more 
 novel and exciting element." [Specta- 
 tor. 1783 
 
 SIR BROOK FOSBROOKE. [byC: 
 Lever: Blackwood, 1866.] "Several 
 years hav passed since Mr. Lever gave 
 us so good a novel as ' Sir Brook Fos- 
 brooke,' in which we encounter much of 
 the pungent humor and mad frolic of his 
 earlier tales, combined with certain 
 hier qualities which ar looked for in 
 vain in his most popular stories. The 
 drama opens in the mess-room of a reg- 
 iment quartered at Dublin, with a scene 
 which introduces us to a party of mili- 
 tary men, who ar chatting about the 
 dissipations and scandals of the Irish 
 capital with that caustic sprltliness which, 
 according to novelists, characterizes the 
 ordinary conversation of officers ; and 
 from this lively introduction, -written in 
 the author's happiest style, readers glide 
 without effort into the body of the viva- 
 cious and vigorous narrativ." [Athe- 
 naeum. 1784 
 
 SIR FELIX TOY [by Ddtton Cook : 
 Low, 1865.] "is a story of every day 
 life, with nothing sensational or extrav- 
 agant about it — a story which deals 
 with persons who for the most part inlt 
 appear, at first sit, commonplace, and 
 even uninteresting. Sir Felix occupies 
 
 the most prominent position, or perhaps 
 shares it with Lydia Finch, the lady who 
 ultimately becomes his wife ; but the 
 pains which Mr. Cook has bestoed 
 upon his principal performers hav not 
 rendered him careless about the minor 
 personages of the drama. Mr. Foy, the 
 baronet's brother, an amiable, eccentric, 
 untidy clergyman, with a constant smile 
 and ' a habit of nodding his head in a 
 kindly approving way, no matter what 
 sort of observation mit be addressed to 
 him,' is so pleasant a character that we 
 ar sorry not to hav more of his com- 
 pany. Especially charming is the story 
 of his quiet, unspoken love for Alice 
 Pratt — ayung lady in his parish, with 
 very attractiv eyes, and a chin ' charm- 
 ingly fashioned, nibbed, as it wer, with 
 a dimple.' Then thSre is Lady Casey, 
 the baronet's ant, a spirited old lady, of 
 a vagrant disposition, with a great belief 
 in sherry as a specific for all sorts of 
 ailments, both mental and bodily, who 
 spends her life in roaming about, able 
 to hold her on with all she meets, and 
 indulging in utterances of an original 
 and spicy nature." [London Rev. 1785 
 SIR JAMES APPLEBY [by K.. S. 
 Macquoid : Harper, 1887.] " is an orig- 
 inal and entertaining story, in which a 
 yung man who givs up law for literature 
 exerts a decided influence on the for- 
 tunes of the characters by working a 
 true story into a romance. The romance 
 is read by people who folio the advice 
 in ' Dombey and Son ' to make an ap- 
 plication on't,' with important results to 
 all concerned." [Critic. 178-8 
 
 SIR JOHN [by Christiana J., 
 Douglass: Hurst, 1879.] "is a good, 
 old-fashioned Scottish tale, — a calm, 
 domestic narrativ. It has abundant 
 interest, without any straining after the 
 sensational . . . Jenny Setocun's lovers 
 ar drawn with much appreciativ taste, 
 567 
 
BRITISH NOyi;L8. 
 
 and the contrast between them is finely 
 and firmly brot out. Jenny's friend, 
 too, has a pretty loye. story, which 
 finally ripens into an , ar;rangement 
 such as men's sisters perhap,^. more fre-, 
 quently intrigue for than accomplish." 
 [Athenseum. 1787 
 
 SIR PERCIVAL [by J : H : Short- 
 house : Macmillan, 1887. J "is perfect, 
 and tho unpretentious it is beautiful in 
 its simplicity. Sir Percival is a very 
 modern lad, and the story is that of two 
 girls who loved him ; both hl-bred andi 
 noble-hearted, tho' one was an ascetic 
 and one a religious and social radical. 
 The story is beautifully told, and tlio 
 the situation is a little strained, and.both 
 girls ar a little morbid, thSre is a charm 
 in the fascination of the style which 
 makes the book a grateful oasis in the 
 desert of realism. It is a, very little 
 book, and one longs for more of its cool 
 purity and gracious, aristocratic charm." 
 [Gritic] — " It leaves an impression of 
 being elevated and made better, and its 
 moral beauty, spirituality, and nobility of 
 motiv make mosti recent novels seem 
 leaden, earthly and commonplace in 
 comparison." ■.;.(;Spectator..r.i . 1788 
 
 SIB TOM. [hy Ma. OliphanT (Wil- 
 son) Oliphant : Macmillan, 1884.] 
 " There is no indication in 'Sir Tom' 
 of any failure of Mrs. Oliphant's well- 
 knon incisivness and ease, but the story 
 will not be remembered as one of her 
 happiest efforts. Perhaps that is partly 
 the result of the uninteresting and 
 common-place figure of Sir Tom him- 
 self. Having spent a rather purposless 
 and not very innocent life, principally 
 abroad, he marries, in his forties, a 
 yung heiress of unusual innocence, who 
 enables him throu her fortune to take a 
 leading part in his county for which he 
 becomes M. P. He is good natured and 
 sincerely fond of his wife and infant 
 
 son ; but his tenderness does not carry 
 him the length of consenting to her deal- 
 ing with her money according to the 
 tenor of her father's will, nor his rever- 
 ence to that of refraining from inviting 
 into his house a certain Contessa di 
 Forno-Populo and h-n protegee Bice, the 
 former lady an acqvJaintance of his bo- 
 hemian days, and t]je Jatter of entirely 
 unknon parentag%„ and history. The 
 principal part of thg story deals with the 
 endurance by poor Lady Randolph of 
 her husband's neglect under the influ- 
 ence of his fascinating friend — endur- 
 ance which Gulmirifltes in the sharp pain 
 of discovering, on what seems good au- 
 thority, that Bice, the brit yung Italian, 
 with the morals of a savage and the im- 
 pulses of an affectionate child, the only 
 one of the party xho feels an honest 
 friendship for heri is her husband's 
 dauter.. One 'of the best parts of the 
 book is the contrast between the open- 
 hearted Biceji who looks upon her pat- 
 roness's efforts to trade her away in 
 matrimony as the most natural thing in 
 the world, and the almost equally simple 
 Lucy Randolph, who employs all the 
 means in her power to prevent what she 
 deems a revolting act of human sacri- 
 fice. Bice's relations, too, with the ex- 
 cellent Jack Trevor, a fine specimen of 
 the mingled priggishness and calloness 
 which blend with better qualities in the 
 ' sixth- form ' boy, and with that superior 
 person M'Tutor, Jack's guide, filosofer, 
 and friend, ar very amusing." [Athe- 
 naeum. 1789 
 SISTER [Smith, 1888.] "is a 
 domestic story of a superior kind, and 
 deservs an appreciativ welcom. The 
 language is pure, and this is the more 
 satisfactory becaus the narrativ is not 
 stiff and awkward, but has the freedom 
 too often secured at the sacrifice of 
 grace, if not correctness. That on 
 
 568 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 which the author may specially congrat- 
 ulate himself is that he can produce the 
 natural manner, expressions, acts, and 
 expedients of ordinary men and women 
 without suggesting anything like slavish 
 imitation. The ' Sister ' who is the 
 central figure of the story is the eldest 
 of a family of i girls, who lose first 
 th^ir mother and then th^ir father, but 
 ar kept fairly safe against the buffets 
 of fortune by their good sense, their 
 staunch friends, and, above all, by the 
 more than motherly care of ' the hen,' 
 as Jane Anderson is lovingly called by 
 her yunger sisters. Two of the four 
 ar made thoroly happy in the orthodox 
 sense of marrying well; and the other 
 two ar left, at the close of the story, 
 possibly just as happy in another way, 
 tho their path to happiness is thorny. 
 Th^re is really not much more in the 
 book than the love stories of the sisters, 
 but these stories ar treated in such a 
 way that the reader will not be likely 
 to crave for more excitement." [Athe- 
 nffium. 1790 
 
 SISTERS OF OMBERSLEIGH 
 (The) [by Rosa Mackenzie Kettle : 
 Unwin., 1888.] "reminds us of Miss 
 Austen. It is a placid bit of gentle life, 
 in which, however, the characters ar 
 distinct enuf. Agnes, the shy, unde- 
 monstrativ wife of a brilliant husband, 
 who has married in haste to repent at 
 leisure, is an excellent study, while her 
 far more attractiv sister Isabella is in 
 her way as pathetic a figure. The style 
 is classical, with an old-fashioned ring 
 about it. Altogether, slit in texture 
 as it is, the little story has more indi- 
 viduality than most modern novels." 
 [Athenasum. 1791 
 
 SIX TO SIXTEEN, [by Juliana 
 HoRATiA (Gatty) Evving : (t, 1886) Beil, 
 1875.] "The author shoes a fine insit into 
 character in her portraits of infantine 
 
 humanity, and the groth of Margery 
 and her friends into brit and lovable 
 girlhood is traced with rare simplicity 
 and corresponding skill. Mrs. Ewing's 
 story for girls is a pretty little volume sug- 
 gestiv of many moral deductions, but 
 never wdted with the least taunt of 
 ' preachiness ' — in which a small family 
 party of boys and girls tell th^ir stories 
 and reveal th^ir characteristics in a 
 picturesque and unobtrusiv fashion. 
 Girls, who reason partly with their 
 hearts, should hav more leisure than 
 men for this complete development. 
 This brit and suggestiv writer is respon- 
 sible for apparent deviation from the 
 grooves of the revuer's duty. To re- 
 turn to them, we may say that we hav 
 rarely met, on such a modest scale, 
 characters so ably and simply drawn." 
 [Athenasum. 1792 
 
 SKIRMISHING [by Henrietta 
 Camilla (Jackson) .Tenkins : (f , 1885) 
 N.Y., Leypoldt, 1866.] "is a' simple 
 and touching story, delicately conceived, 
 and breathing throuout a spirit of kind- 
 liness and christian charity, and a sym- 
 pathetic love and appreciation of all 
 which is beautiful in nature and elevating 
 in thot. The characters ar mere sketches, 
 but marked by so distinct individuality 
 as to render elaboration unnecessary. 
 The scene is laid in the pleasant village 
 of Eden, far from any hi-road . . The 
 greatest interest centres in her child, 
 whose sad and touching story awakens a 
 feeling of deep sympathy akin to that 
 which one experiences for ' Mignon.' " 
 [Round Table.] — " Altho of a liter char- 
 acter than ' Who Breaks,' and shorter, 
 we think it more complete. The racy 
 dialog is racier. The plot unfolds with the 
 dash and rapidity of a french comedy. 
 The plot is a gem of a plot. There is a 
 spicy little mystery whose catastrofe ia 
 positivly a surprise even in these days ; 
 669 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 and yet not a bit of a. forgery or a par- 
 ticle of the Braddon machinery Is em- 
 ployed. It is the kind of a story which 
 suggests dramatization, only that by 
 making a play of it the clcTcr descrip- 
 tions, and the scraps of filosofy scattered 
 thronout, would be lost. We read of 
 all sorts of old ladies in books, sharp, 
 or senile, or benevolent, or pious, but 
 rarely one of that kind which is rare 
 enuf , but still to be found in life — 
 an old woman who adds experience to 
 ability without extinguishing the warmth 
 and spontaneity of youthful feeling; 
 who joins to that fine result a quick wit, 
 a keen sense of the ridiculous, a touch 
 of defiance of public opinion, the ut- 
 most benevolence, and a mind well 
 stored with the reading and events of the 
 day. Mrs. Lescrimi^re remembers her 
 part, too, in the revolution. She tells an 
 apt story well. Her good-humored an- 
 tagonisms to british prejudices is dellt- 
 ful. Her ruling principle is expressed 
 in the motto quoted from her on the 
 title-page : 'Never repent a good action , 
 however it turns out for yourself.' 
 Such a person in one's house would be 
 a perfect specific for all sorts of selfish- 
 ness and moroseness ; we ar not sure 
 that it is not a partial cure just to read 
 of her." [Nation. 1793 
 
 SMALL HOUSE AT ALLINGTON 
 (The) [by Anthony Trollope : Smith, 
 1864.] " is a capital sketch of country 
 life, with its quiet pleasures and quiet 
 sorros, — its ineffable sameness and 
 appalling dulness. To this ar added 
 pictures of London boarding-house life, 
 and several scenes in hi life . . . The 
 character of Mr. Crosbie is also well 
 drawn, — hie struggle between love of 
 rank, position, property, — and inno- 
 cence and simplicity, is given with a 
 minuteness and truth that can be rarely 
 equalled. The misery he entails upon 
 
 himself, not so much by his wrong-doing 
 as from the inherent nobleness of his 
 nature, is run into its minute moral 
 results. We cannot help sympathizing 
 with liim in the manly way in-which he 
 accepts the results of his villainy, and 
 resolvs to liv the hiest life in his power 
 with his wife, whom he does not love. 
 The two female characters ar master- 
 pieces. Fresh, natural, simple, full of 
 life and feeling and foibles, they move 
 before us as living characters." [Chris- 
 tian Examiner.]—. " Does any body wish 
 to kno where to find the best and nicest 
 girls in all England — the kindest, the 
 purest, the pleasantest young ladies we 
 hav ever met — at least in a book? 
 They used to live in the ' Small House 
 at Allington.' For aut we kno Miss Lily 
 Dale livs with her mother still. And if 
 th^re ar no better and nobler men in 
 the world than such as Mr. Trollope has 
 yet introduced to her acquaintance, we 
 would hav this most lovable of women 
 abide still in her maiden home. Crosbie, 
 Adolphus Crosbie of Sebright's Club, is 
 a selfish, heartless coward, a slave to the 
 vain pursuit of social ambition ; Johnny 
 Eames, with all his frankness and good 
 feeling, is deficient in strength of mind. 
 Neither of these could be worthy of Lily 
 Dale. We like the custom which Mr. 
 Trollope has adopted, — that of bringing 
 into a later story, among its background 
 figures, a few of the most interesting 
 characters of a former tale. [See Nos. 
 1082, 1213, 1288, & 1909.] Thdre is 
 the dear old warden [compare No. 1131, 
 end], that pattern of christian meekness 
 and fidelity, whom Crosbie meets at the 
 cathedral door of Barchester; th^re is 
 the pushing and prosperous archdeacon, 
 with his dauter. Lady Dumbello, a mere 
 monument of fashionable elegance, a 
 superb and stately belgravian doll. In 
 the same manner, if Mr. Trollope pleases, 
 
 570 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 vre shall again see Lily Dale. She Will 
 make the most agreeable and estimable 
 of old maids. It will be such a comfort 
 to her mother, the wido, that Lily should 
 remain at.the Small House — it will be 
 such ii, blessing to the children of Dr. 
 and Mrs. Crofts at Guestwick, — that 
 for Mrs. Dale's sake and for Bell's sake, 
 whom we care to see happy as well as 
 Lily, \7e would rather not hav her mar- 
 ried and carried away." [London Re- 
 view. 1794 
 
 SNAPT GOLD RING (A) [by F: 
 "Wedmore : Smith, 1871.] "is, if we 
 may venture to say so, a bohemian novel, 
 but not unpleasantly bohemian. Ring- 
 ley and Warner ar unmistakable Bo- 
 hemians, of a hier class, however, 
 than we generally meet. It is the old 
 story, which will go on repeating itself 
 as long as th^re ar artists and poets in 
 this world, and pretty faces to enchant 
 them. Our Shelleys will, to the end of 
 time, fall in love with simple girls who 
 cannot understand them. And so ensues 
 the tragedy of life, ending only in death. 
 Mr. Wedmore's book is full of life and 
 spirit; th^re is not a dull page. It 
 abounds with sparkling criticism on 
 books, pictures, and men. It is, in short, 
 the very reverse of the ordinary circulat- 
 ing novel." [Westminster Review. 1795 
 
 SOAP [by Constance Macewen ; 
 Simpkin, 1886.] "is a sparkling little 
 romance and is so much the reverse of 
 shallo, that one not accustomed to such 
 style and diction mit look for an even 
 deeper significance than really underlies 
 the surface . . . There is the rich and 
 fantastic Gautier, who determines to be 
 loved for himself, not for the sake of the 
 ' soap ' which ' made ' him, and is still 
 the source of his fortune. To this end 
 he accomplishes his metamorfosis into a 
 poor but portly german professor, of a 
 vaguely speculativ turn, ani proceeds 
 
 (successfully) to induct the mystic Miss 
 Ben-Israel into the deeper mysteries of 
 intellectual' affinities and others . . . 
 Besides her power of expression and 
 fancy and her understanding of many 
 fases of human nature. Miss Macewen 
 has a whimsical humor, often bordering 
 on extravagance, which is really a very 
 pleasing feature of her writing, much 
 more so than a certain unprofitable mist- 
 iness which occasionally overtakes her. 
 A keen, not to say trenchant vue of 
 society is always present, with the ex- 
 cellent result of spurring the dulled 
 mind to fresh interest in and observation 
 of its surroundings." [Athen. 1795a 
 
 SOME DAY OR OTHER [by J.. M. 
 Kifpen: Tinsley, 1879.] "is pretty, 
 moderately exciting, happy in its issue, 
 and consolatory to the hearts of all true 
 and faithful lovers. Th6re is no great 
 fault to be found with its matter or its 
 manner." [Athenajum. 1796 
 
 SOME OF OUR GIRLS, [by E.. 
 ( ) EiLOART : S: Tinsley, 1875.] 
 " The dramatis personsB ar 4 inmates of 
 one household — a yung heiress, who, at 
 the outset of the story, is under medical 
 care for an indisposition which has deeper 
 than fysical causes ; Polly BroOke, a 
 tradesman's dauter and governess in the 
 doctor's family ; Susan, a cockney ser- 
 vant of the modern school ; and Madge, 
 a work-house waif, sullen and debased 
 by her pauperism, and despised for it by 
 her fello-servant. The interest of the 
 tale depends on the progress by which 
 these four, isolated from each other as 
 they ar at first by their several accidents 
 and by a vast amount of natural antago- 
 nism of character, ar drawn together by 
 circumstances into relations more con- 
 sistent with nature and morality." [Athe- 
 naeum. 1797 
 
 SON OF HIS FATHER (The) [by 
 Ma. Oliphant (Wilson) Oufhant; 
 571 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 1837.] " is one of Mrs. OUphant's strong 
 and fine stories which captivate the in- 
 terest and at the same time educate the 
 soul. The story is that of a yung f ello 
 ■vrhose mother fears he has inherited the 
 unfortunate traits of his scapegrace of a 
 father ; and altho the mother is a, little 
 overdrawn in her capacity for cold, stern 
 judgment, she is nevertheless a type, 
 and the story is told with intensity and 
 fascination." [Critic. 1798 
 
 SON OF THE SOIL (A) [by Ma. 
 OupiiANT (Wilson) Olifhant, : 18G5.] 
 " Colin Campbell is a scotch lad, who 
 makes liis way from the shores of his 
 nativ Loch Lomond to one of the pulpits 
 of his national kirk, gathering on the 
 road the best honors of Glasgow and 
 Oxford scholarship. This would contain 
 but little romance in itself, but the poor 
 farmer's son rather oddly saves twice 
 from drowning the youthful heir of an 
 english aristocrat. This complication 
 with the family of a wealthy baronet in- 
 volvs the son of the soil in a fruitless 
 flirtation, first with tlie baronet's niece, 
 on whom the handsom, manly, brilliant 
 yung Scot made considerably less im- 
 pression than she did on him ; while the 
 second rescue threw yung Campbell 
 into a dying sickness which sent him to 
 Italy for health, whi^re he found another 
 affair of the heart, which eventually, 
 and after much not over-smooth running, 
 grew from pity into affection, and from 
 this into wedlock." [Nation. 1799 
 
 SONS AND DAUGHTERS, [by Ma. 
 OuPHANT (Wilson) Oliphant : Black- 
 wood, 1890.] " The best thing in it is the 
 discovery by Gervase — the sensitiv, ul- 
 tra-refined, hypercritical moralist, who 
 nearly loses a healthy-minded girl who 
 loves him rather than accept a sum of 
 money from an unknon hand — of his 
 father, who has taken bankruptcy so 
 easily, living, obscurely with a yung 
 
 wife and family. Old Mr. Burton's un- 
 easy shamefacedness when he meets his 
 son under these novel conditions, and the 
 mutual relief with which they part, ar 
 in Mrs. Oliphant's best manner. But on 
 the whole the book is very slit, tho we 
 hav never yet been able to call the author 
 dull." [Athenfeum. 1800 
 
 SOPHY CARMINE. [by "J: 
 Strange Winter," i. c, Henrietta Eliza 
 Vaughan (Palmer) Stannard : Lovell, 
 1889.] " Does anybody ever tire of J : 
 Strange Winter and her delltful army 
 people? Here in Sophy Carmine ar 
 many of our old acquaintances — Booties 
 and his wife, and their inimitable little 
 maids, Lil and Mignon, and comrads, 
 and the demure Sophy, for whom the 
 match-making Mrs. Booties means to 
 secure a husband during the Christmas 
 visit at Ferrers Court — succeeding two- 
 fold better than she had dared to hope. 
 It is deliciously told, arch, and dainty, 
 and captivating; and the denoAment is 
 all one could wish." [Boston " Literary 
 World." - 1801 
 
 SPRIG OF HEATHER (A) [by 
 Gkraldine Butt: Ward, 1878.] "is 
 picturesque in its tragedy, and domestic 
 in its happier fases. It deals with pleas- 
 ant people who crumple thC'ir rose leavs 
 for lack of serious trials. Marjory Gil- 
 mour, waiting for her lover, falls in love 
 with another in his absence. The. dis- 
 carded suitor, being a gentleman, with- 
 draws from the field." [Athen. 1803 
 
 SQUIRE ARDEN. [by Ma. Oli- 
 phant (Wilson) Oliphant ; Hurst, 
 1871.] " The interest which attaches to 
 the principal character arises from the 
 strange freak of destiny which places an 
 open-hearted youth, emancipated by a 
 forein education from the conventional 
 trammels of english society, in the po- 
 sition of an innocent usurper of the 
 possessions and honors of an old family. 
 
 .572 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 The Ardens, with their cherished exclu- 
 sivnesa and vindictiv traditions — the 
 Thornieighs with their almost naive self- 
 surrender upon the altar of fashion — 
 the commercial Pimpernels, with their 
 unblushing and out-spoken vulgarity — 
 the cynicism of the doctor, — the worldly 
 shrewdness of the family lawyer, — the 
 EEsthetic radicalism of Lord Newmarch, 
 most priggish of patrician doctrinaires, 
 ar all equally strange and perplexing to 
 our honest and long suffering hero. Yet 
 tlie dignity of an uprit and pure con- 
 science sustains him worthily, alike in 
 the lesser troubles of his uneasy emi- 
 nence and in the more tragic downfall of 
 his fortunes. We ar never indeed less 
 inclined to despise him, gentle and ten- 
 der-hearted as he is, than when the real 
 value of his manhood is tried by the 
 cruellest of tests, the collapse of all the 
 ties which his affectionate nature had 
 assimilated to himself in his prosperity. 
 When he finds himself a stranger in the 
 domain he has been taut to regard as an 
 ancestral home — when the maiden of 
 his choice resigns him as a sacrifice to 
 the claims of society, — when his sense of 
 justice compels him to enrich a bitter 
 and insidious enemy, — and when one 
 whom he has learned to love as a sister 
 forsakes him to unite herself to his rival, 
 he parts from all with resignation, even 
 with a sad satisfaction in the thot that 
 his out-spokcnness has enabled him to 
 reinstate the matronly good fame of the 
 wife of his most fatal enemy. Yet th^re 
 is nothing overdrawn or unnatural in his 
 mental attitude." [Athenaeum. 1803 
 SQUIRE LISLE'S BEQUEST, [by 
 A.. Beale: Hurst, 1883.] "The 
 character of Aveline is uncommonly 
 pleasing. A sweeter picture of a girl we 
 hav seldom seen. The frcnch retired 
 teacher, too, is excellently drawn . . . 
 Praise, too, must be given to the drawing 
 
 of the characters of the 4 sisters. Their 
 resemblances and their differences ar 
 marked with a skill which is nothing less 
 than subtle. We much admire the tact 
 with which Miss Beale has worked out 
 the development, which a nature substan- 
 tially the same in these 4 women, a na- 
 ture petty and narro, but not radically 
 evil, receives under the various circum- 
 stances under which they ar placed." 
 [Spectator. 1804 
 
 SQUIRE OF SAITDAi-SIDE (The) 
 [by Amelia Edith (Huddleston) 
 Bark: Clarice, 1887.] "is a quiet, unsen- 
 sational, but by no means uninteresting 
 story of family life, and is thtiroly well 
 written and healthful in tone. Here and 
 there may be found a touch of sentimen- 
 talism ; but tli^re is no mawkiness and 
 there is. no preachiness, for which we 
 cannot be too thankful, as these ar the 
 besetting sins of books written with an 
 eye to the liter requirements of the re- 
 ligious public. The scene is the Lake 
 District, and Mrs. Barr's descriptions 
 could hav been written only by a loving 
 observer of nature. She has also a keen 
 eye for character; her conversations ar 
 natural; and her incidents happily 
 chosen." [Spectator. 1805 
 
 SQUIRE'S LEGACY (The), [by 
 M.. Cecil IIav : (t, 188C) Ilursi, ^ 
 1875.] " There is sufficient mystery in 
 the story to sustain the interest evenly 
 and without effort; the people ar nearly 
 all pleasant and natural. We fancy 
 that the sympathies of most readers will 
 be with the yung squire rather than 
 with the romantic and somewhat feminin 
 yung lawyer who, by virtue of his being 
 the heroin's accepted lover, is, we sup- 
 pose, the rltful hero of the tale; we do 
 not wonder that tho Doris never wavers 
 in allegiance to Kenneth, she occasion- 
 ally yields to the charm of Scot 
 Monkton's chivalrous affection. How 
 573 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 eyerybody who deservs to be happy is 
 made so, including the readers of the 
 story, who will be sure to see very early 
 in the story whom Boris 6t, in the 
 eternal fitness of things, to marry, we 
 hav no intention of disclosing. The old 
 lawyer is, we should say, a sketch from 
 life, and the 2 ants, Michal and Joan, ar 
 charming." [Spectator. 1806 
 
 STAND FAST, CRAIG-ROYSTON ! 
 [by W: Black: Low, 1891.] "Never 
 has the author been more true to th^ 
 national characteristics than here, but 
 for that very reason we think the figure 
 which is pathetic to us may be repugnant 
 to the mass of readers, who hav little 
 tolerance for rodomontade, and less for 
 genteel poverty. Yet, granted a hl- 
 strung, poetic temperament, saturated 
 with all the ballads and lyrics which hav 
 rung throu tlie North, given a lifelong 
 hope, dear to patriotic pride, bllted to 
 the extent of confusing a reason never 
 very sane ; add privation and penury 
 and the struggle of a liauty spirit to 
 ignore the pressure of lo circumstances, 
 and such a character as the hero of this 
 book merits pity and not contempt . . . 
 And Mr. Black knoes how to relieve the 
 monotony of Bethune's rather sordid 
 surroundings. To say nothing of the 
 lilts of song which diversify his mono- 
 logs, his dauter Maisrie, as tender as 
 her name, whose honesty is as intuitiv as 
 the moral confusion of her grandsire ; 
 her excellent english lover, a typically 
 straitforward gentleman ; and the more 
 conventional, but not less vivid minor 
 portraits, afford an excellent foil to the 
 central figure. Lord Musselburgh and 
 his wife, tlio slltly sketched, suffice to 
 contrast the modern actualities of so- 
 ciety with the imaginary world in which 
 the enthusiast has his being." [Athe- 
 naeum. 1807 
 STAKLING (.The), [by Norman 
 
 Macleod: N.-Y., Dodd, 1875.] "One 
 sees here how much it is in a novelist's 
 favor to hav settled social custom to 
 rest upon, for we fancy it is largely 
 from that source that the little story 
 draws its wholesom quietness and solidity. 
 To this is added a fair measure of 
 literary skill, however, which is by no 
 means so unimportant a factor of success 
 as many of our indigenous geniuses 
 would seem to consider it. Thus it 
 happens that a careful, educated writer, 
 not confused by fclie notion that with him 
 alone rests the duty of revealing to the 
 world the real nature of an entire na- 
 tional life, is able to make a, credible 
 and sufficiently entertaining story out of 
 the love of an old soldier and his wife 
 for a bird wliich excited some scotcli 
 cliildren to noisy merriment on the 
 Sabbath, and which the parish minister 
 held sliould be put to death. The dis- 
 grace and anxiety which for a time 
 overshadoed them, and the circumstances 
 which br6t all rit again, ar detailed with 
 a good deal of obviousness of edification 
 and some padding, it is true, yet with 
 the ease and completeness which come of 
 a good school. In respect of construc- 
 tion and simplicity of key ' The Star- 
 ling ' is commendable." [Nation. 1 808 
 STEPHEN THE SCHOOLMASTER 
 [by M.. E. Gellie: Griffith, 1879.] 
 " is called by its author a story without 
 a plot, but it has as much plot as the 
 majority of love-stories. It foUoes the 
 chequered fortunes of its hero from in- 
 digent boyhood to comfortable maturity, 
 and it traces the disturbed current of a 
 true and romantic affection into smooth 
 waters and a happy haven. Without 
 lacking the savor of a good novel, the 
 book is simple and pleasing ; nothing 
 which could possibly be obnoxious is 
 forced down the reader's throat, and 
 thfire ar no bad people to ruffle our 
 
 574 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 serenity. In fact, the story mit serv 
 for an easy introduction to tlie mystery 
 of love, wliich no parent or gardian 
 need be afraid of placing in the hands of 
 an unsofisticated girl." [Ath. 1809 
 
 STIFF-NECKED GENERATION 
 (A), [by Lucy Betiiia (Colquhoun) 
 Walfoed : Blackwood, 1889.] "An 
 uncommonly brit and captivating girl is 
 the Rosamund who is the heroin of this 
 very readable story. It is her mother 
 who stands for a stiff-necked generation, 
 and who, insisting upon her dignity as 
 ' Lady Caroline,' wife of plain Mr. Lis- 
 card, so restrains her brilliant dauter 
 that she breaks loose in an unexpected 
 way and becomes engaged to the uncul- 
 tivated Major Gilbert, instead of falling 
 in with the maternal plan and fixing her 
 affections on her cousin, Lord Hartland. 
 There is a most delltful match-making 
 ant Julia, whose character is drawn 
 with some touches which remind one of 
 Miss Austen. Tliere ar tlie loud sisters 
 of the major and the 2 or 3 family 
 groups, all very life-like. Lady Caro- 
 line's sudden death, just after the en- 
 gagement, is made one means of opening 
 the eyes of Rosamund to her mistake, 
 and thenceforth all the circumstances 
 move strait towards the denoument, 
 which comes as ant Julia would hav it, 
 in spite of the poor girl's determination 
 to do her duty by her betrothed. In the 
 sudden development of manly traits in 
 the major the author has slion much 
 skill, and she invests the close of his 
 career with such a pathos that he 
 becomes the true hero. There is a good 
 deal of human nature in the father and 
 the irrepressible Catherine ; the glimpses 
 of home life ar excellent, and the story 
 has throuimt an atmosfere of reality. ' 
 [Boston "Literary World."] — "Rosa- 
 mund is sufficiently like other girls to be 
 quite willing to idealise a clever, kindly 
 
 yung nian, and then to fall in love with 
 her ideal, but she likes to do her ideal- 
 isation for herself; and Lady Caroline, 
 with the shortsitedness not unusual in 
 her tribe, is so persistent in her pane- 
 gyrics on Lord Hartland, that in his 
 direction there is no vacant space in 
 which Rosamund's imagination can ex- 
 ploit itself. What more natural than 
 that she should turn from the solid but 
 repelling perfections of the yung peer 
 •o the more shoy and superficial attrac- 
 tions of the dasliing soldier, Major 
 Gilbert? We feel that it is not > only 
 njitural but almost inevitable ; and it is 
 certainly inevitable that in the case of a 
 girl like Rosamund, the illusion should not 
 be permanent . . . Mrs. Walford's most 
 complex, and also most successful crea- 
 tion, is undoubtedly Major Gilbert. He 
 is a thoroly vulgar person, utterly de- 
 void of the tact which comes from tlie 
 quick feelings of a gentleman, and he is 
 placed before us in a series of situations 
 in which we see liim to the very worst 
 advantage ; but beliind his vulgarity 
 th^re is character; — there is even a 
 certain nobleness, and we ar made to 
 realise the latter as fully as we realise 
 the former. Subtlety of handling wliicli 
 results in simplicity of effect is always 
 fine art, and the portrait of Major 
 Gilbert seems to us very fine art in- 
 deed." [Spectator. 1810 
 
 STOCKBROKER AT DINGLE- 
 WOOD, See NEIOIIBORS ON THE 
 GREEN. 
 
 STOKESLEY SECRET (The) [by 
 C. M.. Yongk: Mozley, 18G1.] "is 
 one of Miss Yonge's family histories, 
 containing as many little boys and girls 
 as ' The Daisy Chain.' It is rather con- 
 fusing and difficult at first to distinguish 
 one of the 9 yung Merrifields from the 
 others, but they gro upon us by degrees, 
 and their various characteristics stand 
 75 
 
BKITISH NOVELS. 
 
 out clear and distinct toarJa the end. 
 There is something natural and true in 
 the picture of school- room life ; the little 
 nautinesses, the petty teasings, the small 
 vexations, will be familiar to every 
 member of a l.vrge family. Miss Fos- 
 brooke, the yung governess, is a dellt- 
 ful personage." [Athena-um. 1811 
 STORY OF A SHORT LIFE (A) [by 
 
 JOLIANA HoKATlA (GaTTY) EwINU (f, 
 
 188C) N. Y., Young. 2 "surpasses every 
 thing the author had done, and is a little 
 master-piece. We hav spoken of it as 
 pathetic, but its pathos is not that of weak 
 sentimentality ; on the contrary, the tale 
 is as strong as it is touching, as natural 
 as it is tender. The story of the handsom, 
 brilliant, spoiled boy, instructed in the 
 nobleness of tlie family motto ' Lactus 
 sorte mca,' and remembering to shout it 
 . appreciativly as he rides away to what 
 he feels to be the greatest joy of liis 
 yung life, only to find that it leads him 
 to his greatest sorro, is most beautifully 
 told ; and tlie account of his suffering and 
 death is all the better for not being tliat 
 of a morbid ' little Paul,' but that of a 
 headstrong, activ youth, whose patience 
 under trial comes only with an effort." 
 [Critic. 1812 
 
 STORY OF VALENTINE AND 
 HIS BROTHER, [by Ma. Oliphant 
 (Wilson) Oliphant : Ifarper, 1875.] 
 " The plot is quite original, and is in- 
 geniously wr6t out. Lord Eskside's 
 son marries a gypsy girl, who, having 
 given birtii to twin boys, unable to 
 endure the restraints of civilization, 
 disappears. Several years later, slie 
 secretly leavs one of the boys at his 
 grandfather's house, whfire he is recog- 
 nized and adopted. How, finally, all the 
 members of the family ar reunited is 
 told^ in a pleasant narrativ, in which a 
 charming little love-drama is fittingly 
 enacted." [Boston " Lit. World." 1813 
 
 STRAIGHTFORWARD, [by "Holme 
 Lep:," i. e., Harriet Parr: Smith, 1878.] 
 " Thfire is always a peculiar pleasure in 
 coming back, after other experiences in 
 the field of literature, to one of ' Holme 
 Lee's ' novels. They ar always carefully 
 executed, for tho she writes much, she 
 does not so over-task her pen as to be 
 obliged to hurry its work. And they 
 hav always a clear, wholesom purpos. 
 ' Straightforward ' is one of the best. 
 The hero is a foundling, and the story 
 tells us how he wins his way in tlie world 
 in the matters both of fortune and of 
 love. The author has not, indeed, the 
 courage to make him absolutely in lepen- 
 dent of all antecedents, and givs him, by 
 a sort of afterthflt, a respectable parent- 
 age. But when he fits his battle with the 
 world, and wins the love on which his heart 
 was set, he is practically ' filius nullius.' 
 And a very fine, manly fello he is, quite 
 true to the word which is the motto of his 
 story. A better picture of a real man, 
 quite free from all affectations and mean- 
 nesses, we do not kno in the range of fic- 
 tion ; and we take it to be no small proof 
 of genius that it comes from a woman's 
 hand. The hero's boyhood makes a 
 pleasant picture ; pleasant, too, the de- 
 scription of the golden hours which he 
 spends at the Italian lakes with the 
 darling of his childhood, now gron to 
 womanhood. Of a more sombre color ar 
 the scenes in his nativ town, where he 
 has to liv down the suspicions in which 
 the eccentric behavior of a friend has 
 involved him. The minor characters, 
 too, hav a genuin and natural look, the 
 most cleverly and subtly drawn being, 
 perhaps, Mr. Douce, the vicar, one of 
 those men, personally blameless and 
 even aiming at good, who can do so 
 much harm by narro-mindedness and 
 want of courage, lending thC'ir prestige 
 to abuses which they really hate, becaus 
 
 57G 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 th(5y ar too timid to welcom the necessary 
 movements of reform. This is an ex- 
 cellent novel, which we can recommend 
 without reserv." [Spectator. 1814: 
 
 STRANGE ADVENTURES OF A 
 HOUSE-BOAT (The), [by W: Black: 
 Harper, 1888.] "The responsible 
 heads ar the two who figure in the 
 ' Phaeton,' in ' White Wings,' and other 
 romances. But the central figure is an 
 american girl, Miss Peggy Rosslyn, 
 whose saucy wit and delltful freshness 
 of character make her one of Mr. Black's 
 most charming heroins. The descrip- 
 tions ar not so felicitous as those of the 
 earlier book, a canal tying the course of 
 the voyage too closely. Tlie plot is far 
 too much of a repetition, if so slit a 
 story can be said to hav any. But after 
 all is said, Mr. Black is surpassed by 
 nobody in the genuinness and the fresh- 
 ness of his heroins, and Americans may 
 welcome Peggy as best the attempt to 
 depict an american girl which any 
 british author has yet made. [Ameri- 
 can. 1815 
 
 STRANGE ADVENTURES OF A 
 PHAETON (The) [by W: Black: 
 Macmillan, 1872.] " is a charming 
 book, full of beautiful scenery, and just 
 such a brit and pleasant thread of story 
 as beguiles the reader on . . . The 
 journey made by the faeton is from Lon- 
 don to Edinburgh, tlirou many villages 
 and towns which hav fallen out of knol- 
 edg of travelers ; and from the silvery 
 reaches of the Thames to the moors 
 and burns of the Border, there occur 
 landscapes enuf to make a picture- 
 gallery well worth having to refresh 
 one's mind with in stormy days. The 
 party thus traveling carries with it, too, 
 a romance — a delltful yung lady with 
 a guitar, and an equally delltful yung 
 lover, who is characteristically, but not 
 fatiguingly, german. How this romance 
 
 floes on along the pleasant road, throu 
 all the summer sits and sounds, with 
 comments upon everything which comes 
 across the traveler's path, and all man- 
 ner of amusing discussions and disquisi- 
 tions, the reader must find in the book. 
 There is even room for complications, 
 for an unhappy rival, and a considera- 
 ble amount of that uncertainty which is 
 so dear to the novelist, and everything 
 comes to a delltful conclusion." [Black- 
 wood's.] — "The yung people fall in 
 love, as in duty bound, and the elderly 
 couple look on approvingly. ' In this 
 wise they went throu the sweetly-smell- 
 ing country, with its lines of wood and 
 hedge, and its breadths of field and 
 meado' . . . We folio them under a 
 spell of enchantment, woven of soft and 
 rich colors, sweet and spicy scents, and 
 tender melodies. Th6re is a glamor 
 over every scene, over the great parks, 
 the open downs, the green woods, the 
 stretches of heath, the picturesque vil- 
 lages, the breezy hills, the silver lakes, 
 the splendid road-ways lined with hedge- 
 ros, the old-fashioned inns, the quaint 
 towns, and the broad sweeps of meados, 
 sometimes glimmering in the sunlit, 
 and sometimes shining in the white rays 
 of the moon. Even the rain does not 
 interfere with our enjoyment. It only 
 givs an opportunity for varying the 
 pictures, of bringing in the soft grays, 
 and hanging lit mists about the woods." 
 [Scribner's.] See also Nos. 813, 1015, 
 1324, 1815. 1816 
 
 STRATHROWAN IChapman, 1878.] 
 " is a love story pure and simple ; or, 
 if it is complicated at all, the com- 
 plication is due to the existence of 
 one or two tributary streams of love 
 floing into the main current. The 
 simple tale which thus appeals to the 
 reader is acceptable by its thoro ingenu- 
 ousness, which characterizes both the 
 177 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 manner of the narratiy and the majority 
 of the personages who play their part in 
 it. It is long since we hav found, in the 
 production of an unknon writer, the 
 picture of a family so engaging, so un- 
 sofisticated, and, as a rule, so natural, 
 as that of General Clifford, in wliifth the 
 delitf ul character of the heroin sparkles 
 like a good stone well set. The author 
 lias been happy in the delineation of 
 Helen Clifford, and has traced the course 
 of her love with constant pathos, deli- 
 cacy, and even subtlety. Her story and 
 the story of her suitors ar told freshly, 
 pleasantly, in a vSin of unpretentious 
 art. One feels that the book is good to 
 read, notbecaus its writer has thot it out 
 deliberately or labored over it painfully, 
 but becaus he has conceived a noble 
 and lovely character, and has delineated 
 it with a tender solicitude." [Athe- 
 naeum. 1817 
 STRICTLY TIED UP [by A. J. 
 Bekesford Hope: Ifarsi, 1880.] "is 
 entertaining. It is Irish in subject, 
 Irish in spirit, and written in the easy, 
 dashing, humorous style which has char- 
 acterized some of the best english fiction 
 liaving its origin on the other side of the 
 channel. The scheme of the story is 
 well proportioned, and worked out in all 
 its complications with nmch care and 
 skill. The author evidently knoes his 
 ground, and rarely conveys to the mind 
 of his reader so much as a suspicion 
 that he is overdrawing his characters 
 for the sake of effect, or painting liis 
 scenery with briter colors than ar 
 warranted. If the plot confines the 
 reader chiefly to Ireland and amongst 
 ii'lsll people, this is by no means exclu- 
 sivly the case. He finds Inmself at 
 different times in the midst of a London 
 season, in Lincolnshire, at Bath . . . 
 ' Strictly Tied Up ' is thoroly a novel 
 conceived in a lit and happy vein, and 
 
 scarcely even demanding a serious 
 thot." [Athenaium.] See THE BRAN- 
 D RET [IS. 1818 
 
 STRUGGLE FOR FAME (A), [by 
 C. Eliza Lawsos (Cowan) Riddbll; 
 Harper, 1883.] " One story has a hero, 
 tlie other a heroin, the corresponding fig- 
 ures in either ease being of minor con- 
 cern. Both struggle for fame in the 
 world of literature, ' that land which 
 has no itinerary — no finger-posts — no 
 guides — it is a lone, hapless country ' 
 . . . The story offers more than the 
 usual number of entertaining figures. 
 In contrast to the heroin is a lady of 
 quality, who publishes at lier on ex- 
 pense. 'She can't write a bit — but 
 she sells.' And in contrast to each other 
 ar the publishers, Vassett of the old 
 school, cautious, honest to the last fibre; 
 and Felton, the ' Cheap Jack,' without 
 a scruple." [Nation. 1819 
 
 SUCH A GOOD MAN. [by Wa. Be- 
 SANT & Ja. Rice: with 'Twas in Trafal- 
 gar Bay: Chatto, 1879.] "The satire 
 upon some of our social, especially our 
 mercantile idols, is here more pro- 
 nounced. The great Sir Jacob Escomb, 
 ironmaster and financier, is hardly a 
 caricature of some very ill-favored 
 fetishes which hav had their day. A 
 farcical adventurer, genuinly in love with 
 the astute wido who has twice disap- 
 pointed him, makes an absurd, the un- 
 unlikely contrast to the ponderous 
 filanthropist." [Athenseum. 1830 
 
 SUCH IS LIFE, [by May Kendall : 
 Longman, 1889.] "A little group of 
 yung people of hi aspirations, and a 
 serious way of taking life, ar the persons 
 to whom we ar introduced in a lovely 
 rural home. By hap of ill fortune they 
 all come to London, where the stuff 
 they ar made of is put to the test ; and 
 it bears the strain. The pure and loyal 
 artist Lionel, and brave Nan, — who 
 
 578 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 spends herself for others, — fin J the 
 deep peace thSre may be in self -surren- 
 der and acceptance of the inevitable. 
 The rarely sincere Jim falls into line 
 with the great, uncounted army of 
 those whose ideals hav proved false, 
 and whose loves liav been misplaced, 
 but who can go on with thSir lives, 
 loyal to truth and to themselvs. Readers 
 of Miss Kendall's From a Garret will 
 hav seen in these tender and touching 
 studies and stories the qualities of this 
 book — the same sympathy, and clear 
 insit, probing to the deeps of the heart — 
 the same delicacy, refinement, dignity, 
 subtle analysis, and charm of expres- 
 sion." [Boston "Lit. "World." 1821 
 SUNSHINE AND SH.iDOW 
 [Newby, 1856.] " is a well written 
 story. It has a wholesom moral; and 
 we can recommend it to those in search 
 of a book to read aloud." [Ath. 1822 
 SURRENDER, [by Leslie Keith 
 [Johnston] : Loio, 1881.] The char- 
 acters ar drawn with skill, and th^ir 
 individuality is sustained throuout. The 
 story is carefully constructed . . . The 
 book is well written, but in looking on 
 the dreamy world which surrounds 
 Joyce Daring we seem somehow to 
 remember Miss Thackeray . . . The 
 by-play in the book is charming. Th^re 
 is Miss Felicia, the little old maid, who 
 has secretly adored Colonel Loveday 
 for years, but is brave and meek enuf 
 to giv place to her yung niece. ThSre 
 is Tina, Joyce's sister, a heartless, self- 
 indulgent little flirt, who poses always as 
 an innocent child and gracefully shirks all 
 responsibility. And thdre ar two sisters, 
 Barbara and Freda Dewhurst, with their 
 bachelor establishment. On the wliole, 
 ' Surrender' may be safely recommended 
 to all who care for a pleasant tale pleas- 
 antly told." [Athenaeum. 1823 
 SUSAN FIELDING, [by Annie 
 
 Edwards: Sheldon, 1869.] "Portia 
 Ffrench, however, is a, very creditable 
 study. She is intended to be the 
 type of the ambitious woman of the 
 world, and thus to work as a foil to the 
 virtues of Susan Fielding. In point of 
 fact she is much more intelligent, agree- 
 able, and in every way more attractiv, 
 than the immaculate Susan, and every 
 reader will at once prefer her, selfish 
 as she is, to her perfect, tiresom little 
 country friend. Portia is an exceed- 
 ingly careful and truthful study from 
 life. In her we see the modern fashion- 
 able yung lady of english and american 
 society. She is liandsom, accomplished, 
 and possessed of more than the usual 
 feminin share of strong good-sense. 
 She prefers the ease and luxury of 
 wealth to any other earthly blessing; 
 and, as for matters beyond the earth, 
 she never givs them a thot. She would 
 be kind and gracious to every well-bred 
 person wer it in her power, and would 
 be a true and affectionate wife to a man 
 who could support her in the style which 
 to her is synonymous with comfort. 
 Without money herself, it is necessary 
 for her to seek it in marriage, and hence 
 it is quite impossible for her to lose 
 time in an impracticable passion for a 
 lover who possesses less than half a 
 million. Nevertheless she is not heart- 
 less or selfish save in matters which 
 concern her object in life — a rich mar- 
 riage. Neither is she without noble 
 possibilities, could she be freed from 
 the necessity of fortune-hunting. No 
 one has comprehended the real nature 
 of the fashionable girl of the period 
 more fully than Mrs. Edwards, and her 
 embodiment of this conception in Portia 
 is exceedingly creditable to her powers 
 of mental and moral analysis, and her 
 capacity for accurate and forcible por- 
 trait painting. " [Round Table. 1824 
 79 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 SUSSEX IDYL (A) [by Clemen- 
 tina Black: Tinsley, 1877.] "is in 
 every way what its title implies, for the 
 story has much freshness and grace, 
 and its pictures hav a distinct local 
 coloring and a fidelity to nature . . . 
 But at the same time its reproductions 
 of country life ar unquestionably clever 
 and conscientious, its pathos is genuin, 
 its style is natural." [Athenaeum. 18iJ5 
 
 SWEET SEVENTEEiSr. [by 
 
 Aktiiuk Locker : Chapman, 1866.] 
 " Those writers of fiction who season 
 thfiir pages with mysterious crime and 
 repulsiv vice, should study the modes 
 by which Mr. Locker captivates the 
 imagination of his readers with scenes 
 alike humorous and innocent. Instead 
 of making them endure his characters 
 by rousing a morbid curiosity as to the 
 sequel and result of a startling com- 
 mencement, he leads them to enjoy his 
 story by inspiring them witli personal 
 interest in its characters. From first to 
 last the book is fresh with nature and 
 unconstrained pleasantry. The actors 
 ar neither tame nor commonplace ; 
 the incidents bear no resemblance to 
 the conventional arrangement of story 
 tellers ; and yet the drama so impresses 
 us with a sense of its fidelity to human 
 nature and society that we seem to en- 
 counter old friends and familiar faces 
 in every scene. Nor is this success the 
 less noteworthy becaus much of it is 
 due to the writer's prudence in confining 
 his delineations to the kinds of life 
 with which he is thoroly acquainted. 
 The world described is that of pro- 
 fessional men and merchants, clerks, 
 and petty tradesmen; and with such 
 never-flagging humor does Mr. Locker 
 set forth the ways and tempers of the 
 various persons who ar made to illus- 
 trate this comparativly humble life, that 
 no idle reader will feel aggrieved by 
 
 the one fault of u, tale which runs to 
 more than twice the length of an ordi- 
 nary novel." [Athenajum. 182G 
 
 SYLVAN HOLT'S DAUGHTER [by 
 "Holme Lee," i.e., Harriet Parr : Smith, 
 1858.] "is a fascinating yung woman, 
 With whom we recommend our readers 
 to make acquaintance. The work is the 
 best proportioned and best sustained 
 story the author has written . . . Throu- 
 out thfire is evidence of great care and 
 painstaking. It is well and solidly writ- 
 ten. Th^re is nothing slit or superficial. 
 The author has evidently wished to do 
 her best, and she has succeeded in writ- 
 ing a novel which is well worth reading, 
 and which possesses the cardinal virtue 
 of being extremely interesting." [Athe- 
 niEum. 1827 
 
 SYLVAN QUEEN (A) illurst, 
 1880.] " is a picturesque and very pleas- 
 ing story. Rural scenes, more or less 
 unsofisticated characters, a quaint and 
 almost affectedly old-fashioned style of 
 narration, combine to make it read litly 
 and smoothly enuf . . The principal 
 merit consists in its brit little pictures of 
 country life and character." [Athe- 
 nsEum.] — " In the village, nothing can 
 be more happy than the sketches of the 
 jolly landlady ; the gossipy, plausible 
 pedler ; the nervous, plaintiv house- 
 keeper ; and the taciturn, but civil and 
 trustworthy gamekeeper. The Sylvan 
 Queen is his dauter, and her beauty, her 
 ambition, her coquetry, her thoro, clever, 
 household womanliness, her genuin and 
 passionate devotion to her father, ar 
 sketched with great ability." [Specta- 
 tor. 1828 
 
 SYLVIA'S LOVERS = No. 970. 
 
 TALE OF A LONELY PARISH (A), 
 [by Fr. Marion Crawford : Macmil- 
 lan, 1886.] "Mr. Crawford here excels 
 all his former work, and in his pleasant, 
 floing fashion has given us an interesting 
 
 580 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 Story, consistent, relieved by touches of 
 humor, and made various by the well 
 studied characteristics of a quiet group 
 in a country place, consisting of 2 
 women, 3 men, a, child, and a dog." 
 [American. 1829 
 
 TERRIBLE TEMPTATION (A) 
 [by C: Reade: Ghatto, 1872.] "is 
 intensely interesting. Its plot is singu- 
 larly original, the action is exciting, and 
 the characters ar drawn with great vigor 
 . . . It is no worse than the majority of 
 modern novels. These hint at, half con- 
 ceal, and gloss over vice. Mr. Reade 
 speaks of it in plain terms , as a positiv 
 element in human life and society which 
 will not be winked out of sit. Looking 
 at the story with exclusiv reference to 
 its power of entertainment, we must pro- 
 nounce it very successful : the reader's 
 interest increases from page to page ; the 
 cardinal event of the plot is skilfully 
 veiled, and not until the closing pages ar 
 reached does the author explain, just 
 what the 'Terrible Temptation' was." 
 [Boston " Literary World."] — ■ " Mr. 
 Reade denies, in an explanatory preface 
 to this novel, that he ever intended to 
 make ;the ' .temptation ' one to commit 
 adultery, f orthe sake of securing an heir ; 
 but lin so saying, he confesses failure. 
 Everybody who read the book thot that 
 this was its motif. [Spec. 1829 
 
 THAT CHILD, [by Ma. Roherts : 
 WhiUaker, _ 1681 .'] "This is a well 
 written story of yung people which older 
 readers will find of interest. A little 
 girl is the survivor of a railway accident 
 and is taken as ward by Philippa Beau- 
 mont, who brings her up without much 
 training. She is a wild creature altho 
 noble-hearted, and when Miss Philippa 
 dies and is succeeded by Miss Priscilla, 
 the two do not get on very well. Avice 
 forms a friendship with the old anti- 
 quary, Simon Ashbury, who teaches her 
 
 music. He givs his time to the writing 
 of a history of his nativ town, and pro- 
 poses to use his fortune in publishing 
 the work ; but j ust before his death he 
 burns the precious manuscript and leavs 
 his money to Avice. The characters, as 
 one mlt expect from the authorship, ar 
 all skilfully drawn, and the account of a 
 child's emotions and experiences is very 
 faithful and very true." [Boston " Lit- 
 erary World." 1830 
 THAT LASS O' LOWRIE'S [by F.. 
 [Eliza] (Hodgson) Burnett : Scribner, 
 1877.] " has a somewhat fantastic plot, 
 whose narration shoes plenty of humor 
 and pathos and a good deal of power. 
 The story is briefly this : Joan Lowrie 
 works at the mouth of a mine. Her 
 father, a savage miner, conceives a 
 great hatred for a, pleasant yung civil 
 engineer who has occasion to correct 
 him for opening his safety-lantern iti 
 the mine against the rules. He has, 
 moreover, a habit of beating his dauter 
 when he is drunk. She is touched by 
 the kindness of the engineer to her 
 when she is suffering from a bio 
 given by her father, and in return she 
 saves him from her father, helps rescue 
 him half dead from the mine after a 
 terrible accident, and finally consents to 
 marry him, seeing that he had long been 
 in love with her . . . Now it is one 
 thing to be told in a poem, wh^re defects 
 of dress and education ar not forced 
 upon the reader's attention, that King 
 Cophetua married a beggar maid, but it 
 is another and very different thing to 
 hav a similar story told in prose with all 
 sorts of realistic details. In the one 
 case we see love a rule for itself, and 
 it is easy to imagin that in the fairy land 
 whfire the scene is laidthSre is not much 
 difference between kings and beggar 
 maids, but when the romantic story is 
 told of our contemporaries, and we hav 
 
 681 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 abundant proof of Jean Lowrie's abso- 
 lute ignorance, and see liow ungram- 
 matically she spoke, and that she was, 
 in fact, totally unfitted, so far as educa- 
 tion goes, to be tlie companion of u, 
 child 8 years old, it is impossible to 
 avoid thinking with some concern of 
 the future married life of Mr. and Mrs. 
 Derrick. Indeed, everyone will but too 
 surely feel that she will never be fitted 
 to be tlie yung engineer's wife. Read- 
 ing, writing, and cifering ar only u. 
 small part of what is needed before this 
 girl could be turned into a civilized 
 being [compare No. 1410J and it is a 
 mistake for an author to giv such a con- 
 clusion to so clever a novel as this is in 
 many respects." [Nation. 1831 
 
 THAT OTHER PERSON [by Ma. 
 (Raine) Hint: Lippincott, 1887.] ''is 
 of the hier grade, with a lesson of 
 charity for an unfortunate girl which 
 is unmistakable. Unusual treatment at 
 the hands of the novelist a forsaken 
 mistress — ' that other person' — ■ re- 
 ceives [compare No. 12G1J, and it is this 
 girl, Hester, wlio is the true heroin, and 
 not ' Zeph,' the beautiful yung wife 
 who drives her liusband away by lier 
 insane jealousy. The characters of the 
 antiquary and liis wife ar delicately 
 drawn, and so ar those of John Simonds 
 and the noble-hearted old Doctor; no 
 one is perfect, and no one is altogetlier 
 bad; the different persons introduced 
 act much like human beings, so that 
 naturally it becomes a pleasure to folio 
 them from day to day, and see what is 
 to be the outcome. The action takes 
 us into a pleasant region, and the de- 
 scriptions of scenery, of both out-of-door 
 and in-door life, add to the attractions 
 of a book which is well worth reading." 
 [Boston ' ' Literary World . " 1 832 
 
 THAT UNFORTUNATE MAR- 
 RIAGE, [by F.. Eleanor (Ternan) 
 
 Trollope : Beniley, 1889.] " Those of 
 us wlio hav learned the art of content- 
 ment ar satisfied to forego originality — ■ 
 in the sense of novelty — if we can now 
 and then find a book which recalls the de- 
 llts of the old times, when a novel some- 
 times justified its name. Such a book 
 as ' That Unfortunate Marriage,' which 
 reminds us often "of the work of Miss 
 Austen and still oftener of Mrs. Gaskell ; 
 indeed, some of the sketches of life in 
 Oldchester mit hav come strait out of 
 the pages of ' Cranford ' [No. 1175]. 
 The strong-minded and large-minded 
 Mrs. Dobbs and her faithful admirer 
 and ally, Jo Weatherbead, who believs, 
 not without reason, that she is a pearl 
 among women, ar a delitfnl pair, but 
 the most perfectly Gaskellian characters 
 ar the Piper sisters . . Pleasant com- 
 pany is also to be found in the society 
 of the good-natured organist, Sebastian 
 Bach Simpson, whose mere name would 
 hav crushed the vitality out of a less 
 lit-hearted musician ; but with all her 
 musical people, professionals and ama- 
 teurs, Mrs. Trollope is evidently at 
 home; and the chapters devoted to them 
 ar the liveliest and britest portions of a 
 book which is of lltness and britness all 
 compact . . . Really good lit comedy 
 can be enjoyed in any mood, and becaus 
 it is provided here, ' That Unfortunate 
 Marriage ' is a book for every reader and 
 for every season." [Spectator. 1833 
 THEREBY [by " Fayr Madoc : " 
 Blackwood, 1885. J "is distinguished by 
 a happy audacity of method, a crisp style, 
 and a dialog which is always lively and 
 occasionally witty. ' Fayr Madoc ' in- 
 troduces us to a circle wh^re servants 
 and filanthropists, politicians and men 
 and women of fashion, meet on common 
 ground, and the discussion of social and 
 religious problems which arise out of 
 these meetings is conducted with con- 
 
 682 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 siderable spirit and versatility. There is 
 also no lack of sensational incident, and 
 the lovemaking is carried on in a fashion 
 tliat is at once original and entertaining. 
 The plot is decidedly fantastic, and some 
 of the details ar clumsily contrived. 
 But such defects ar readily condoned 
 when the general result is so exhilarat- 
 ing. The characters Ar all well drawn, 
 tho the author shoes to most advantage 
 in the delineation of women . . . The 
 whimsical vein, perhaps, suits ' Fayr 
 Madoo ' best, but there is a good deal of 
 serious thut incisivly expressed in the 
 pages of ' Thereby.' The author has a 
 decided turn for epigram, and the con- 
 versation is enlivened by many felicitous 
 sayings which hav the additional merit 
 of spontaneity. In fine, th^re is food for 
 reflexion as well as for mirth in ' There- 
 by,' and we shall welcom with pleasure 
 any future work from the pen of a brit 
 and amusing writer." [Athen. 1834: 
 THIRD MISS ST. QUENTIN (The) 
 [by M,. L., (Stewart) Molesworth : 
 Ilatchard, 1888.] " is a contemporary 
 version of Cinderella. Some years ago 
 we had a similar adaption, on a smaller 
 scale, from the delltful pen of Miss 
 Thackeray [compare Nos. 1149 and 
 1273] . . . Mrs. Molesworth's adher- 
 ence to the main structural lines of her 
 classic original is cliaracterized by as 
 much fidelity as the prosaic conditions 
 of real life will allow. Of course, the 
 godmother has lost her supernatural 
 powers, and the purai)kin coach, its rat 
 horses, and mice footmen, ar exchanged 
 for more familiar modern representa- 
 tivs, while the Prince is only a very 
 charming yung english baronet ; but so 
 long as we hav the elder sisters, and the 
 ball, and the 12 o'clock departure, and 
 the loss of the slipper and the finding 
 of the slipper, and the happy marriage of 
 the Prince and Cinderella, what more do 
 
 we want? ... At last, however, Ella's 
 eyes ar opened ; she wins at once her 
 sister and her prince, and a very pretty 
 story comes to an appropriately happy 
 ending." [Spectator. 1835 
 
 THIRLBY HALL, [by W : E : NoR- 
 Eis : Ilarper, 1884.] " The love-making 
 in ' Thirlby Hall' is, like all Norris' 
 love-making, consummately well done, 
 and the hero's infatuation for a certain 
 Lady Constance Milner is managed with 
 cleverness and dexterity : the reader un- 
 derstands the worth of it, and, while he 
 believes in its present reality, feels sure 
 that Charley Maxwell will finally be led 
 out of the temptation and delivered from 
 the evil of forgetfulness of his early 
 love. Loosely twisted altho the threads 
 of the novel seem, they ar nevertheless 
 held by a strong and careful hand, and a 
 hundred causes working together bring 
 an excellent denoument. The date of 
 the story is 30 years ago ; but we trust 
 that the retrospectiv tone which per- 
 vades it is merely a part of the novelist's 
 stock-in-trade, and that Mr. Norris is a 
 yung m.-in [born 1847] with half a cen- 
 tury before instead of behind him, which 
 he may devote to the writing of books 
 like ' Matrimony ' [No. 1799] and 
 ' Thirlby Hall. ' " [Lippincott's. 1836 
 
 THIS INDENTURE WITNESSETH, 
 [by Ma. (Raine) Hukt : Low, 1875.] 
 " Audrey, with many prejudices and in- 
 firmities of temper, is still a noble 
 specimen of an english maiden. It is 
 well for her in the end that she learns to 
 love her honest cousin, the shopkeeper, 
 whose manly faithfulness earns its re- 
 ward in due time." [Athenaeum. 1837 
 
 THIS WORK-A-DAY WORLD, [by 
 "Holme Lee," i.e., Harriet Parr: 
 Smith, 1875.] " This yung person, 
 Winifred Hesketh, is, we must admit, as 
 charming a heroin as we hav met for 
 many a day. The dauter of the elder 
 583 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 son of a London merchant, who has 
 married a successful milliner in a small 
 town, she is left fatherless at an early 
 age . . . Whether as a ' half -boarder ' in 
 a yung ladles' school, or as a governess 
 in aristocratic families, or when her one 
 love-passage has ended in regret, or in 
 the alternate successes and disappoint- 
 ments of authorship, she is a pleasant 
 picture of an unselfish, unselfconscious, 
 thoroly self-reliant woman." [Athe- 
 naeum. 1838 
 THOMAS [by Lucy (Lane) Clif- 
 ford: in "Tales from Blackwood," N. 
 S., I.] " — a story of an errand-boy who 
 develops into an accomplished doctor and 
 marries the dauter of the house in which 
 he cleaned knives and boots, is declared 
 to be that of a real personage, which, 
 of course, disarms any criticism of the 
 probability of his good fortune." [Ath- 
 enaeum.] — The tale is interesting and 
 charmingly told. 1839 
 THOMASINA [by Ma. Agnes (Col- 
 ville) Paul: King, 1872.] " hei'self, is 
 at first a delitful child and afterwards a 
 charming girl, until she marries, and 
 then the story comes to an end : if we 
 had not been acquainted with her from 
 her birth we should, perhaps, hav been 
 no more interested in her than in any 
 heroin of a pleasant and well-written 
 story, who falls in love with the wrong 
 man and flies in the face of her family 
 traditions ; but, having watched her 
 course from the time when her mother 
 was inclined to offer objections to the 
 hereditary christian name of the ladies 
 of the Bertram family, and throu child- 
 hood to womanhood and marriage, we 
 regard her with different feelings. The 
 merits of the book depend so much more 
 on character than on incident that it 
 would be absurd to giv any sketch of the 
 story ; and the style being rather ' plain 
 in its neatness' than sparkling or epi- 
 
 grammatic, extracts would not giv a fair 
 idea of it. So we will only assure our 
 readers, that if they read ' Thomasina,' 
 and do not agree with us when they hav 
 read it, their moral tone must stand in 
 great need of elevation, or else the culti- 
 vation of their taste must hav been sadly 
 neglected." [Athenaeum. 1840 
 
 THORNEY HALL, [by "Holme 
 Lee," i. e., Harriet Parr: Smith, 1855.] 
 " Miss Grisel's example has a living in- 
 fluence ; and tho she did not herself see 
 the hope of her life realized, it still 
 bears its fruit in the next generation. 
 One of the grandsons of her yunger 
 brother determins to restore the family 
 to its ancient consequence ; it is one of 
 those determinations which is the incar- 
 nation of a strong will, seldom failing to 
 work out its fulfilment. He is attended 
 by his sister, — named Grisel, after 
 their great-ant, — who, without an idea 
 of being anything more than a plain, 
 conscientious yung woman, anxious to 
 do her duty day by day as it arises, 
 stands beside her brother, strengthening 
 him, watching over him, devoting herself 
 to him so long as he needs her, — then 
 leading her life as a wife and mother, — 
 seeming to take up the tangled and 
 troubled web of her ant's life, and work 
 it out to a true and worthy result. The 
 story of the fortunes of the brother and 
 sister is extremely interesting. The 
 character of Hugh Randal is well drawn 
 and sustained : his success in the grand 
 object of his life — the restoration of the 
 family to its former state — and the 
 mortal sorro which dims all the beauty 
 of the hope almost as soon as realized, 
 giving him days of darkness instead of 
 joy, giv an interest to the book, which is 
 only kept from being tragic by the skill 
 with which it is softened into ' the milder 
 grief of pity.' " [Athenaeum. 1841 
 
 THORNICROFT'S MODEL. [by 
 
 684 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 "Averil Beaumont," i. e., Ma. (Raine) 
 Hunt: Chapman, 1873.] " Thorni- 
 croft is an artist sufficiently eminent to 
 draw a school round hlra, and to attract 
 a certain amount of aristocratic patron- 
 age. Both these facts exercise over his 
 rather morbid and self-conscious nature 
 an influence which is specially unfavora- 
 ble to anything like abandonment of his 
 egotism in favor of idyllic love. Yet he 
 is effectually attracted by the complete 
 womanliness of a gentle girl whom he 
 picks up by chance, one of the jewels 
 which, according to novelists, ar to be 
 found amidst the most sordid of sur- 
 rounding circumstances. Th^re is some- 
 thing pathetic in the way in which the 
 connexion which Thornicroft's profes- 
 sion at first establishes between the fair 
 model and himself leads to the connubial 
 relation; on one side such a complete 
 sacrifice ; on the other, such a mistaken 
 estimate of the strength of a transient 
 sentiment. Very sad is the misunder- 
 standing which groes out of the inequal- 
 ity of true passion between this ill- 
 matched pair ; too facile expression of 
 all that amounts to sentiment on one 
 side, too unpractised an articulation of 
 real devotion on the other." [Athe- 
 naeum. 1842 
 THORPE REGIS, [by F.. M,. 
 Pbaed: Smith, 1874.] "The plot is 
 simple, the interest turning upon the 
 effect of an unfounded suspicion of his 
 honor on the mind of an ambitious and 
 hi-spirited yung man. Anthony Miles 
 is a pleasant type of academical youth 
 at 24, ii little of a prig, and very much 
 of a despot — full of ineffable yearnings 
 to sweep and garnish this old world — 
 animated by a cheerful tho unconscious 
 feeling of merit, — more dependent than 
 he would at all allow on the ndborly 
 sympathy in all quarters which he takes 
 for granted. Wh^re pathos is to be 
 
 found humor is seldom lacking; and, 
 accordingly, we hav an undercurrent of 
 irony which involvs and defines nearly 
 every actor in the tale. We would 
 gladly draw attention to the Mannerings 
 and others of the minor personages ; but 
 as the book is a good book, we trust our 
 readers will make their acquaintance for 
 themselvs." [Athenaeum.] — " It is en- 
 titled to the praise which is due to 
 naturalness, purity of sentiment, and 
 grace of style. The scene is laid in a 
 sleepy village, of whose aspect and 
 external characteristics a charming 
 picture is sketched in the opening 
 pages." [Boston " Lit. World." 1843 
 
 THREE BROTHERS (The) [by Ma. 
 Oliphant (Wilson) Oliphant : Apple- 
 ton, 1870.] " is one of Mrs. Oliphant's 
 quiet, interesting, natural, and every 
 way healthful stories, in which th^re ar 
 no abnormal characters, no harroing 
 prolongation of plot and counterplot, 
 and no improbable transitions. A 
 father's will puts his sons on a. 7 
 years' probation before they ar allowed 
 to kno the disposal of the property, 
 and tli^ir behavior, adventures, and 
 attachments form the plot of an ex- 
 cellent story." [Scribner's. 1844 
 
 THREE CLERKS (The) [by An- 
 thony Tbollope : (t, 1882) Bentley, 
 1857.] "whose histories ar narrated, 
 belong to two government offices, and 
 in a quiet family at Hampton Court they 
 find their counterparts — 3 graceful 
 girls, of whom one Is proud in her 
 passion, another capricious, another 
 wild. Perhaps the differences of their 
 natures ar more strongly marked than 
 Mr. Trollope intended. However, he 
 now presents himself with a romance of 
 modern love, and subtly and delicately 
 has he developed it, but without hanging 
 before his groups a gauz of theatrical 
 unreality pallidly glimmering with moon- 
 685 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 shine. The spirit of the book is healthy, 
 natural, and vigorous . . . Without dis- 
 closing too much of the plot, we will 
 add tliat the conclusion of the story is 
 adroit and satisfactory, ' the everlasting 
 fitness of things' being held in vue, 
 without the introduction of any repulsiv 
 catastrofe. Yet by many readers the 
 principal charm of tliese volumes will 
 be attributed to their rapid and sparkling 
 flo of ironical portraiture — toned down, 
 as the finest irony invariably is, by 
 interludes of wise and wholesom serious- 
 ness." [Leader.] — " Two of his char- 
 acters he confesses ar drawn from real 
 persons. Sir Gregory Hardlines was 
 intended for, and recognized to be. Sir 
 C : Trevelyan, then ' the Great Apostle 
 of the [by TroUope] much loathed 
 scheme of competitiv examination,' and 
 therefore a special object of his dislike." 
 [Westminster. 1845 
 
 THREE FEATHERS [by W: 
 Black: Harper, 1875.] " deservs 
 many admiring readers. It is not so 
 flawlessly delltful as ' A Princess of 
 Thule ' [No. 905], becaus, probably, it 
 deals with a life less strange and roman- 
 tic ; but it amply illustrates the author's 
 peculiar skill in the delineation of char- 
 acter, and the description of scenery, 
 and his pervading grace of rhetoric. 
 Wenna Rosewarne, the heroin, is a very 
 original and charming personage, and 
 her affectional complications, in which 
 she bears herself with admirable dignity 
 and conscientiousness, invest her with 
 an indescribable interest. She betroths 
 herself to an old and by no means 
 attractiv baclielor, and presently be- 
 comes aware that her heart is given to 
 another. This other, Harry Trelyon, is 
 a rich aristocrat, possessed of a terrible 
 temper, and thoroly selfish. The re- 
 forming influence of Wenna upon him 
 is indicated with singular skill. Mr. 
 
 Roscorla, the bachelor, is also a very 
 original person and we kno little better 
 worth in fiction than the account of his 
 feelings and conduct during his engage- 
 ment. This story seems to combine in 
 just proportions all the elements of 
 entertainment, — humor, pathos, skilful 
 analysis of cliaracter, and graceful com- 
 position. [Boston "-Lit. World." 1846 
 
 THREE GEOFFREYS (The) \_Allen 
 ^ Co., 1889.] " is likable 'just becaus 
 it is simply, quietly, and not unskilfully 
 told. It is of the domestic type, and 
 tho one or two rather surprising things 
 do occur, they ar not presented in too 
 thrilling a way ; neither ar the majority 
 of the people who figure in it too brlt or 
 good for e very-day use. Tiie villain, 
 too, is not so deeply dyed as to be quite 
 out of harmony with his surroundings. 
 The heroin in particular has notliing 
 remarkable about her,, being only 
 natural and quietly attractiv ; but that is 
 much. The eldest of tlie 3 has a pretty 
 hard time of it, but he meets his round 
 of misfortunes wisely and well, and 
 even generously." [Athenaium. 1847 
 
 THROSTLETHWAITE. [by Susan 
 MoRLEY : King, 1875.] " The scene is 
 laid in the Lake district. It is of the 
 quiet and domestic order, but does not 
 lack the interest arising from an apt 
 contrast of characters. The shiftless 
 selfishness of Leonard Harrington, whicTi 
 culminates in positiv dishonor, is keenly 
 brot into relief by the frank simplicity 
 and courage of the girl whose lore is 
 the best achievement of his life. Very 
 sloly and painfully does she learn to 
 rate her attractiv suitor at his proper 
 value, and as gradually does she recog- 
 nize the worth of the manlier lover who 
 finally supplants him." [Athenaeum.] 
 — " ' Throstlethwaite ' is another reada- 
 ble story, the main interest of which lies 
 in a yung girl's troubles with one lover 
 
 686 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 who is unworthy of her, and her final 
 freedom from him, and her attainment 
 of greater happiness with another man 
 much more deserving of her. She is 
 well drawn, and in good contrast with 
 her stands her fashionable married sis- 
 ter. The two yung men, too, ar natural 
 and lifelike, and altho the villains of 
 novels ar apt to carry with them a strong, 
 unmistakable odor of brimstone, in this 
 case the evil heart is hidden beneath a 
 calm, but not too calm, exterior, and the 
 good young man is no shadoy supporter 
 of all the virtues, but is a very good 
 copy of ahuman being." [Nation. 1848 
 THROUGH A NEEDLE'S EYE 
 [by " Hesba Stretton," i. e., Hannah 
 Smith : Dodd, 1878.] " is a description 
 of a few lives livd almost entirely in a 
 seaside village. It tells how love and 
 wrongdoing, temptation and repentance, 
 worked together to shape and to alter the 
 quiet ways of the Squire and his family, 
 and those committed to their charge. A 
 picture, not exactly vivid but careful and 
 finally effectiv, is drawn of the old house 
 and its inherited acres, which was as a 
 weapon in tlie father's hands, a stum- 
 bling-block and a snare to his successors, 
 and which had so strong a hold on the 
 affection of all three. Justin, the hero 
 of the story, is tempted to belie his true 
 self in order to possess and manage the 
 land he has loved all his life ; and his 
 wrongdoing and his repentance and its 
 consequences make the story (witli 
 due accessories), and it is told with 
 truth and delicacy. It is true to the laws 
 of life that tho Justin can clear his on 
 soul and restore twofold, his dauter, 
 who is the lit of his eyes, should suf- 
 fer from her knoledge of his frailty, 
 suffer from its consequences falling on 
 herself, and, unable to construct a new 
 life out of the ruins of the old, should 
 fade and die. Thfire is a true and kindly 
 
 perception throuoiit the book, and thSre 
 is a, marked absence of melodrama and 
 of snobbishness." [Nation.] — " Hesba 
 Stretton's fame is little, but her work is 
 admirable, and her latest story, so com- 
 pact and complete, that even to one who 
 does not much mind its earnest moral 
 purpos it must be very restful and satisfac- 
 tory reading . . . The tale is always free 
 from cant, but it becomes deeply serious 
 in tone. The author does not scruple to 
 enforce the text which she has taken for 
 a, title, and sho the narro and perilous 
 entrance of the man whom ambition has. 
 misled into the kingdom of peace and 
 spiritual honor. His expiation is a sore 
 one . . . Th§re is a depth, a verity, 
 about the completed story which no brief 
 outline can properly represent. The 
 minor characters ar all clearly con- 
 ceived : Richard, the half-unwilling rep- 
 robate ; Leah, the village girl, who loved 
 him so coarsely yet so truly in his prime, 
 and servd him joyfully in his helpless- 
 ness ; the Methodist preacher at the Itt- 
 house ; while the mother of Justin and 
 Kichard,.and Mrs. Cunliffe, the worldly 
 wife of the unworldly curate, ar deline- 
 ated with abundant humor. The action 
 of the tale is natural, smooth, and 
 steady ; the style unstudied, but without 
 blemish ; the impression which it leavs 
 wholesom, grave, and sweet. Once 
 more our thots recur to G : Eliot. That 
 ' Hesba Stretton ' is less than she, goes 
 without saying, but she is not immeasur- 
 ably less. Her very limitations may serv 
 her as a sort of artistic defense. She 
 has studied in the same nobly realistic 
 school as the greatest of recent novelists, 
 and excess of power will never betray 
 hemdnto a disregard of proportion." 
 [Atlantic. 1849 
 
 THROUGH THE LONG NIGHTS, 
 [by Eliza (Lynn) Linton : Harper, 
 1884?] " She plans a good story, works 
 587 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 it out neatly and makes it long. But 
 she does not possess the faculty of ex- 
 citing sympathy with her characters, 
 without which, tho he speak with the 
 tung of men and of angels, the novelist 
 is fatally lacking. There is about her 
 descriptions a smoothness as of ice 
 which chills one, and all about her writ- 
 ing an air of self-sufficiency which holds 
 you aloof from close contact even with 
 so much of emotion as it contains. 
 ' Through the Long Nights ' is the story 
 of a yung girl, who to repair the family 
 fortunes, was deceived into marrying a 
 rich man whom she did not love. A 
 year after her marriage, the lover who 
 was represented to her as dead comes 
 back, and she goes off with him. She 
 has, however, but a short time of happi- 
 ness, as he soon dies of consumption, 
 and she of grief." [Critic. 1850 
 
 THROWN TOGETHER, [by Flor- 
 ence Montgomery: LippincoU, 1872.] 
 " We would defy the coldest cynic, the 
 most experienced novel-reader, to read 
 ' Thrown Together ' throu with tran- 
 quility. Many will remember ' Mis- 
 understood ' [No. 1580] by the same 
 author, a work which was by no means a 
 screaming farce, and this tale is quite as 
 tearful as that one. The book simply 
 narrates the struggles of a yung girl of 
 a sensitiv disposition, who is snubbed by 
 her cold-hearted mother and unappre- 
 ciated by her careless father ; she has a 
 cousin, a boy, who is petted by a doting 
 widoed mother ; and these two children, 
 being thron together, work upon one 
 another's characters and giv the plot of 
 the story, as well as the name. Nina's 
 reserv and sensitiv pride ar melted by 
 the boy's frankness and simplicity ; a 
 series of domestic tragedies softens the 
 flinty hearts of the parents and we see 
 two peaceful households without any 
 traces of flirtation. The agonies, 
 
 temptations, and bewilderments of these 
 yung people ar told with really re- 
 markable power, and when one remem- 
 bers the widespread delusion of parents, 
 that children hav no characters, but ar 
 to be manufactured into the semblance 
 of some favorit model, — which delu- 
 sion is probably necessary to persuade 
 parents to be unceasing in their care of 
 their children, — ^itis easy to see that a 
 book of this sort may be of great ser- 
 vice. The sufferings of children ar 
 often, to our thinking, much greater 
 than those of gron people, their reasons 
 for grieving ar so capricious, their reti- 
 cence so singular, and, moreover, their 
 wo is so total, so absolute, they hav not 
 the power of abstracting anything from 
 their suffering which shall console them, 
 and so their feelings ar keener then than 
 at any time of their life. That parents 
 forget this and fail to understand their 
 children, is well knon, and to point out 
 this truth is the design of the story. 
 We hope it may be kept on a hi slielf 
 away from the children, who ar ready 
 enuf of themselves to take morbid vues 
 of life, and that it may not turn out to 
 be a sort of ' Uncle Tom's Cabin,' to 
 be used in the nursery for the propaga- 
 tion of a society for the abolition of 
 parents." [Atlantic] — " The girl was 
 a sensitiv, proud little thing, and was by 
 no means appreciated by her parents ; 
 the boy was his mother's joy; gradually 
 the children became friends, obdurate 
 parents ar tamed by the example of 
 the children and by domestic affliction, 
 so that the book ends happily. It would 
 be well, we think, if all parents wer to 
 read this book ; to some it may seem 
 exaggerated, yet we fancy that thfire is 
 nothing in it but what mit be true, and 
 indeed is true, of the lives of many 
 children. One is so inclined to forget 
 his childhood, or to clothe it with a purely 
 
 88 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 imaginativ interest, and thfireby to lack 
 sympathy with his children, that they 
 often really hav good ground for their 
 belief that their father and mother never 
 wer yung." [Nation. 1851 
 
 THYME AND RUE [by Ma. B. 
 Cross: Hurst, 1890.] "is a pretty 
 and an entertaining story, told with suffi- 
 cient cleverness on the basis of a, fairly 
 novel plot. A man whom his friend 
 describes as having been ' the brilliant 
 prizeman and the most distinguished 
 scholar of his year,' audacious, elo- 
 quent, a ' gourmet,' but a dealer in 
 freaks and fads, suddenly flees from 
 civilization with his motherless dauter 
 Juliet, and sets up the ideal of the 
 Simple Life, to which he intends as far 
 as possible to convert the world. A 
 nSboring wido with one son adds her- 
 self to the communion ; and what more 
 natural than that the yung people should 
 be destined for one another by their 
 ambitious parents. The girl is an 
 heiress, tho slie does not kno it; and a 
 sensible lawyer, discovering the eccen- 
 tric arrangements of tlie filosofer's 
 household, contrives to get her away, 
 and place her with some good people 
 who teach her the ways of the world. 
 The story of her adventures will afford 
 the sympathetic reader a great deal of 
 pleasure and amusement; and perhaps 
 it may be interesting to kno beforehand 
 that the yung man who was left behind 
 in the community of the Simple Life 
 also comes to kno the ways of the 
 world, and that after a, decent interval 
 he meets Juliet again. The story is 
 complex, and holds more than a sifigle 
 romance ; for ' thyme and rue gro both 
 in one garden.' " [Athenaeum. 1852 
 
 TO CALL HER MINE (etc.). [by 
 Wa. Besant: CTiatto, 1889.] "Mr. 
 Besant must hav been working hard 
 when he wrote the stories now pub- 
 
 lished. The pressure put upon a suc- 
 cessful novelist is most severe, and in 
 some cases it has a disastrous effect. 
 Mr. Besant's work shos signs of the 
 stress under which it has been produced ; 
 but he is so well equipped tliat he can 
 always fill his pages with interesting 
 matter. With a little more leisure, 
 perhaps, his imagination would be more 
 varied and free, and his best is so 
 good that one wishes he could never 
 be compelled to do anything less than 
 his best. The volume contains 3 stories. 
 One of them, Katherine JRegina, has 
 already been revued. [No. 1424], 'To 
 Call Her Mine ' and Self or Bearer 
 [No. 1769] ar the other two. Both ar 
 good stories, full of incident and con- 
 trivance, and Mr. Besant, as he is 
 wont, forges the chain of destiny with 
 hearty bios, so that the evil which over- 
 takes the wicked and the happiness 
 which is attained by the good seem 
 thoroly satisfactory. But much of the 
 interest of Mr. Besant's books lies in 
 what in other books would be called tho 
 padding. For one reader who skipped 
 pages in ' All Sorts and Conditions of 
 Men ' [No. 1047] for the sake of the 
 plot, hundreds must have put up with 
 the plot for the sake of the padding; 
 and really in ' To Call Iler Mine ' the 
 descriptions of Dartmoor ar the most 
 enjoyable part of it." [Athen. 1853 
 TOM BROWN'S SCHOOLDAYS, 
 [by T : Hughes : Boston, Ticknor, 
 1857.] " In a, spritly tone, a, school- 
 boy's adventures at Rugby under Arnold 
 ar dashed off, — with rather too much 
 dash perhaps, and a little too much 
 criticism of all tho rest of mankind, — 
 but still in a vivid, humane, and truly 
 religious spirit. One gets somehow an 
 impression, that bird's-nesting, wrest- 
 ling, racing, quarter-staff, football, and 
 the logical ' clenched fist,' (varied, may 
 
 589 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 be, by courses of the rhetorical ' open 
 hand,') ar the grand apparatus of an 
 english education. The brutality of the 
 fagging system, and the odd compound 
 of riotous lawlessness and an almost 
 military disciplin in a great school, ar 
 left just the painful problems thfiy wer 
 when Dr. Arnold took such a school for 
 his liveliest type of hell. Yet, in a 
 way one hardly understands, this is the 
 soil in which the hardy Brown stock 
 thrives ; and along with its ruf vigor 
 gets initiated by degrees in all gentle 
 and generous, as well as manly ways." 
 [Christian Examiner. 1854: 
 
 TO.\I BROWN AT OXFORD, [by 
 T : Hughes : Boston, Ticknor, 1861.] 
 "The author does not, on a superficial 
 examination, seem to deserv the wide 
 reputation he has obtained. "We hunt 
 his books in vain for any of those ob- 
 vious peculiarities of style, thot, and 
 character which commonly distinguish 
 a man from his fellos. Ho does not 
 possess striking wit, or humor, or 
 imagination, or power of expression. 
 In every quality, good or bad, calculated 
 to create ' a sensation,' he is remarkably 
 deficient. Yet everybody reads him 
 with interest, and experiences for him a 
 feeling of personal affection and esteem. 
 An unobtrusiv, yet evident nobility of 
 character, a sound, large, ' round-about' 
 common-sense, a warm sympathy with 
 english and human kind, a practical 
 grasp of human life as it is lived by 
 ordinary people, and an unmistakable 
 sincerity and earnestness of purpos 
 animate everything he writes. His 
 ' School Days at Rugby ' dellted men 
 as well as boys by the freshness, geni- 
 ality, and truthfulness with which it 
 represented boyish experiences ; and 
 the Tom Brown who, in that book, 
 gained so many friends wherever the 
 cnjlish tung is spoken, parts with none 
 
 of his power to interest and charm 
 in this record of his collegiate life. 
 Mr. Hughes has the true, wholesom 
 english love of home, the english delit 
 in rude fysical sports, the english hatred 
 of hypocrisy and cant, the english fidelity 
 to facts, the english disbelief in all piety 
 and morality which ar not grounded in 
 manliness." [Atlantic. 1855 
 
 TOM SINGLETON, [by W. Fol- 
 lettSynge: (f, 1891) Chapman, 1819.'] 
 " Tom is a fine fello, and modest. He 
 is, however, nobody's ideal knit, but a 
 real, living, actual person, who takes the 
 ups and downs of his life with quiet, un- 
 boastful courage, — is a good son, a 
 true lover, a faithful friend, and a very 
 clever man. The reader likes him 
 cordially, and perhaps likes his father 
 still better . . . Thfire is evidently a, 
 great deal of drawing from life in this 
 story, but from life surveyed in a 
 cheerful spirit by kindly eyes. The 
 incidental sketches ar very happy, and 
 the author is especially to be congratu-* 
 lated on Miss Vavasour. There has 
 not been a more amusing spinster in 
 fiction since the immortal Miss Pratt, 
 of Miss Ferrier's second best novel, 
 ' The Inheritance,' and she is so genuinly 
 good with all her oddities, that she does 
 not contradict or clash with the bon- 
 homie which pervades the book . . 
 The story ends happily, after it has 
 wound throu some troublous ways. It 
 leavs an impression of a cheerful, manly, 
 reverent mind, and a hlly cultivated in- 
 tellect; thSre is not a jarring note in it; 
 it is, as we hav said, a book which be- 
 cijmes a friend." [Spectator. 1856 
 
 TOO SOON [byK.. S. Macquoid : 
 Harper, 1873.] "is a simple story of 
 a yung girl's disciplin, — the painful 
 processes by which her nature was puri- 
 fied of selfishness. It is quite unpre- 
 tentious in plan, quiet in action, and in 
 
 590 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 nowise remirkable save for its subtle 
 and instructiv analysis of the heroin's 
 mental operations ; but we unhesitat- 
 ingly coramenil it as an exceptionally 
 profitable novel. We like it especially 
 for its recognition of the old-fashioned 
 sentiment of love, which is coming to 
 b3 tabooed in modern fiction, and which 
 the author shoes to be quite consistent 
 with hi intellectual endowments and fine 
 culture." [Boston " Lit. World." 1867 
 
 TOWER GARDENS (The), [by 
 Lizzie Alldkidge : White, 1883.] "The 
 narrativ is of the domestic kind, but 
 there is a picturesqueness in the setting 
 [compare No. 14:66], in the description 
 of the bachelor uncle's dwelling, etc. 
 For the rest, it deals with the loves of 
 Uncle Harbuckle's nieces, and the con- 
 stancy of their widoed mother, a, natural 
 flirt, to the remembrance of her dead 
 and ruined husband. The triumf of her 
 first love over a considerable temptation 
 in the shape of a comrad of the late 
 captain's, and a sharer of many common 
 memories, is one of the best told things." 
 .[Athenaeum. 1858 
 
 TRAGIC MUSE (The) [by H: 
 J'AiiES : Houghton, 1890.] "is the 
 story of a yung lady of dubious extrao- 
 'tion and vulgar surroundings, who yet 
 possesses 'the artistic temperament so 
 strongly that she pursues the rocky way 
 to professional eminence. She is aided 
 much in this by a yung diplomat, who 
 struggles long between his love for her 
 and his ambitions. The artistic moral 
 of the story is further enforced by the 
 introduction of an ambitious yung poli- 
 tician, who resigns a seat in parliament 
 in spite of the pressure exerted on him 
 by his political sweetheart, to pursue 
 the divinely inspired calling of a portrait 
 painter . . . All these characters dis- 
 course mucli and admirably on art, — 
 dramatic, pictorial, and general, and an 
 
 interest in these subjects is necessary 
 for full delTt in the book. Possibly it is 
 this artistic tone, of which James is 
 surely a, master, which makes The 
 Tragic Muse of special interest." [Over- 
 land. 1859 
 
 TRAP TO CATCH A SUNBEAM 
 (A), [by — (PLANCiijfi) Mackarkess (f, 
 1881) : 1850.] " Fewwriters since Miss 
 Edgeworth's time hav been so successful 
 as Mrs. Mackarness in pointing out the 
 value of domestic virtues. It is from the 
 wholesom character of its teaching that 
 ' A Trap to Catch a. Sunbeam ' will liv 
 in the hearts of its many readers for 
 years to come." [Athenaeum. 1860 
 
 TRANSPLANTED, [by M.. E.. 
 Phaser (Tytler) Greene : Benlhy, 
 1883.] " The story is graceful and touch- 
 ing. The orfan girl, half english, half 
 Italian, with her simple faith in Mr. 
 Frank, the hero of her childhood, and 
 Mr. John, the kind old rector, who would 
 gladly hav been something nearer to her 
 had not his gentle self-restraint for- 
 bidden, is a pretty picture. The book 
 closes, as most readers will desire, with 
 a glimps of hope for her early lover." 
 [Athenaeum. 1861 
 
 TRUE MARRIAGE (A) [by Emily 
 Spender: Hurst, 1878.] " is a thoroly 
 pleasant and satisfactory book, without 
 being too hily pitched, either in desiga 
 or in execution. It is a genuin story of 
 human concerns and interests, such as 
 ar met in the world of every day ex- 
 perience. Mrs. Spender writes as one 
 who knoes life from the fact of having 
 lived, and of having watched with clear 
 perception the life of her friends and 
 acquaintance ; and this givs the charm 
 which mere imitators never possess." 
 [Athenaeum. 1863 
 
 TRUE OF HEART [by "Kay 
 Spen": ViHue ^ Co., 1868.] " is an 
 unpretending but very charming story, 
 
 591 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 TOJr JONES [bjH: Fii-.r.Dixd (1707- 
 54) : 174!).] "is tlie gi'^'at prose epii' of 
 English literature . . . lu it, Fielding has 
 comprehended ii larger variety of incidents 
 and characters under a striiter unit)- of 
 story than in .Joseph Andrews ; but he has 
 given tij the whole a tone of worldliness 
 which does not mar the delightful simplici- 
 ty of the latter. As an expression of the 
 power and breadth of his mind, however, it 
 is altogether his greatest work, and in the 
 union of distinct pictorial representation 
 with profound knoledge of practical life, 
 is unequaled by any novel in the lan- 
 guage ... It would almost -eem tu argue 
 an unreasonable skeptii'ism tn doubt the 
 existence of such a veritable personage as 
 Si|uare. lover of Plato and Molly Seagrini, 
 with his brain full of transcendental mo- 
 rality, and his heai't full of deseendental 
 appetites ; of Thwackum, malignant orator 
 of grace, and most graceless of boisterous 
 maliguants :of Ensign Xortherton,the very 
 pink of rakes, braggarts, and upstarts, 
 with his profane disrespect for "Homo," 
 his contempt of all learning associated lu 
 his mind with pedagogic flagellations, and 
 his exultation at deceiving his father out 
 of his intention of making him a parson, 
 of Blifil, the most sublime of didactic cox- 
 combs, with his deep and solemn sham- 
 ming of virtue, so completely a Ijypocrit 
 that he almost congeals himself, and seems 
 more an appearange than a being; of All- 
 worthy, in whose delineation the author's 
 whole beneficenge of heart overflocs ; and 
 of Tom himself, with his unguided heart 
 gloing with all the impulses, disinterested 
 and sensual, and allowing each to act of 
 its own wil, — singere, generous, aflection- 
 ate, and unprincipled. But, abrj\e all, 
 what shal we say of Squire Western, next 
 
 590 
 
 to Falstatrthe most universally popular of 
 comic creations, and as geniun a lump of 
 clay and passion as ever started into being 
 under the magical touch of a humorist;' 
 His shrewdness, his avarige, his coarse 
 kindness, his sense-defying .Jaeobitism, his 
 irresistible unreasonableness . . . All these 
 go to make a character so natural and yet 
 so eci.cntric, as to disturb oTir faith in the 
 dogma that reason is tbeseparatingline be- 
 tween man and beast ... AVe ar, in fact, 
 made acquainted thrcm this book with 
 England as it was in the middle of the 18th 
 century. Every personage, from lord to 
 chamber-maid, — every incident, — every 
 description of costume, or amusement, or 
 fashion of dress,— every form of colloquial 
 speech, vulgar or delicate, — every allusion 
 to political parties— is a mine of infor- 
 mation : and the whole givs the lie direct 
 to half the impressions we derive from 
 history, and enables us to grasp the reality 
 and substance of the national life." [E. 
 P. Whipple, 1840]— "Fielding entered 
 fully into passion, and is the only writer 
 who has undertaken to trat.c it throu the 
 double action of the heart and the senses 
 the whole theory of which he lays down 
 with his customary mixture of philosophy 
 and wit. Undoubtedly the humanity of 
 Jove was never so wonderfully anatomized 
 as in that most wijnderful of all stories. 
 That Fielding was master of all the 
 springs of the passion can not be 
 doubted by any reader of 'Tom Jones.' or 
 of another novel less widely kuon, but not 
 less remarkable for its power, in which he 
 has portrayed it with I'onsummate success 
 in its hiest and purest form, relieved of all 
 sensual accessories, and existing only in 
 the sweetness of its trust, its fortitude, 
 aud patlenge." [ Albion. 1855 k 
 
 m 
 
BK1TI8II NOVELS. 
 
 descriptiv of a f ase of human life which 
 is within the experience, and carries 
 with it the sympathy, of a large class of 
 persons. The heroin Joes not travel 
 beyond the circle of domestic life, and 
 with her individual biografy she givs us 
 glimpses of refirted, not fashionable so- 
 ciety, and portraitures of quiet scenes 
 of english country life, which ar very 
 charming. In Ellen we find the picture 
 of a true woman ; not a remarkable one, 
 nor one of that exaggerated class whose 
 moral strength teaches them to despise 
 happiness, but a sensible, refined, and 
 practical woman, who, not born to work, 
 yet, when her mother is suddenly re- 
 duced from affluence to comparativ 
 poverty, resolvs to become the bread- 
 finder for the family, takes a situation 
 as governess, and, instead of presenting 
 the usual picture of patient martyrdom 
 and ill-requited labor, applies herself 
 cheerfully to her duties, and finds in 
 her vocation a sfere for the exercise of 
 useful talents and a source of infinit 
 gratitude. The characters ar natural, 
 the men, women, and children ar such 
 as we find them in real life, and the 
 scenes throu which they pass ar neither 
 inconsistent nor improbable." [Round 
 Table. 1863 
 
 TRUE STORY OF A BILLIARD 
 CLUB = No. 813. 
 
 TRUE TO LIFE [Macmillan, 1874.] 
 " is one of those rare stories which one 
 feels happier for having read. It is not 
 funny or jubilant ; there is no conven- 
 tional optimism or manufactured glad- 
 ness in it; on the contrary, the sole 
 touch of adventure turns upon a family 
 migration in anticipation of a death, 
 which afterwards takes place ; but it is 
 full of the cheerfulness of duty, piety 
 without the least suspicion of cant, and 
 a reasonable, well-disciplined vue of 
 life and estimate of its responsibilities. 
 
 We kno no finer picture in modern fic- 
 tion than that of Mr. Eversley and his 
 dauters, nor a prettier simple love-story 
 than that of Ahce Eversley and Alice 
 Sherborne. We cannot too hily com- 
 mend yung people who talk good sense 
 in good english." [Spectator. 1864 
 
 TRUST (The), [by Jean le Peijr : 
 Tinsley, 1877.] " Tho in outward char- 
 acteristics the Friends to whom we ar 
 introduced hav a general resemblance 
 to each other, each of them has a strong- 
 ly marked nature of his or her on, and 
 the gradations from John Cave, the 
 ' mity stif, disagreeable Friend,' to 
 loquacious Becky Wilson, who repre- 
 sents the extremest unreserv of which 
 her sect is capable, ar both numerous 
 and fine. The heroin whose autobiog- 
 rafy we read is happy in the possession 
 of a most amiable pair of grandparents, 
 whose sedate goodness has nothing re- 
 pulsiv about it, and thSre is grandeur 
 as well as kindliness in Joseph and 
 Sarah Ellis which will make a, pleasant 
 and lasting impression on the reader. 
 Even in dealing with the darker charac- 
 ters in the tale, the hypocritical .Jilks, 
 and unprincipled worldling Bob Graham, 
 there is a deal of redeeming humor 
 which litens the shados. Bob's boyish 
 wickedness, tho sadly profetic of the 
 selfishness of his maturity, ar lafable 
 enuf, the escapades at the fair and on 
 the river being such as gron people can 
 pardon for the sake of thSir audacity. 
 There is, of course, a tender love tale run- 
 ning throu the story." [Ath. 1865 
 
 TWO KISSES [byHAWLEY Smart: 
 Loving, 1877.] " will be found to be 
 very entertaining. It is what is called a 
 society novel, describing the career of a 
 yung wido, who, having buried a worth- 
 less husband, marries again. The plot 
 is an ingenious and, what is more, a 
 probable one, if we make allowances for 
 
 592 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 a little straining here and th^re ; and the 
 people ar clever and cleverly drawn. 
 There is a great variety of character 
 introduced to the reader : a somewhat 
 disreputable freebooter, whose position 
 between respectability and swindling is 
 not very certain, a sleek villain, a sen- 
 sible husband of a coquettish wife, a 
 very charming yung girl, a would-be 
 novelist, etc., and every one of these 
 persons givs the reader a very agreeable 
 impression of the author's humor and 
 habit of observation." [Nation. 1866 
 
 TWO LOVES, [by — ( ) Mar- 
 tin : Tinsky, 1878.] " Mr. W-: Black's 
 Uhlan Baron [in No. 1999] is one of the 
 finest fellos in or out of romance, and in 
 this novel we hav another hero who is 
 half german, and that is the best half. 
 Max Wray is a good, true, brave man, 
 and if he is -a, little too sentimental for 
 the time, he makes up for it when he is 
 in the midst of ' the slings and arros of 
 outrageous fortune.' One of Dora Lee's 
 two loves is a worthy object, and th^re 
 is something quietly and genuinly pa- 
 thetic in the way in which he takes 
 his punishment in the first instance, ad- 
 ministered, as it is, under the influence 
 of a mistaken notion of the rit and hon- 
 orable thing for her to do, by Dora Lee. 
 Of course, in life (in which a family 
 secret of the kind that makes all the 
 mischief and misery in the story mit only 
 too easily exist) Dora would simply tell 
 Max 'all about it.'" [Spec. 1867 
 
 TWO MARRIAGES [by Dinah 
 Maria (Mulock) Ckaik : (f, 1887) 
 Harper, 1867.] " contains two stories, 
 each illustrativ of sad experiences in 
 life, and each descriptiv of home scenes 
 under different aspects, delicately, sim- 
 ply, and thotfuUy depicted. Tho lack- 
 ing in power, the whole work is per- 
 vaded by a spirit of hi principle, of 
 morality, a genuin love of nature, and 
 
 tender sympathy for the sorros and suf- 
 ferings which flesh is heir to . . This 
 paragon of commercial integrity becomes 
 the bridegroom of a beautiful girl, more 
 than 30 years yunger than himself, who 
 marries him in disobedience to her 
 father's will and who leads a life of 
 hopeless resignation, endeavoring to ful- 
 fil her duties as a wife, until consump- 
 tion relieves her of the heavy burden. 
 Not that Sir John Bowerbank was an 
 unkind husband — • far from it ; but poor 
 Emily had long before her marriage 
 given her heart to another, and while 
 she honored the old man and appreciated 
 his goodness, yet to love him was out 
 of the question. And so she died of 
 what sentimental people call a broken 
 heart, but in other words, from the havoc 
 made by an unresting and oppressed 
 spirit upon a frame too fragile to resist 
 its influences. In the second story 
 there is an old clergyman whose whole 
 life and character ar more complete, 
 more artistically drawn than anything 
 of the kind we hav met for many a 
 day." [Round Table. 1868 
 
 TWO RIVAL LOVES [by Annie 
 L. Walker: White, 1882.] "is a story 
 more remarkable for the interest attach- 
 ing to 2 or 3 of the characters than for 
 originality of plot, tho the arrangement 
 by which the hero is enabled to keep an 
 estate, which neither he nor the reader 
 believes to be his ritful property, is not 
 without ingenuity ; and the hearty ear- 
 nestness with which the hero strives to 
 make a beggar of himself is a novel 
 feature also, and would be stranger still 
 wer it not prompted by his love for a 
 yung and beautiful wido. Virginie is 
 delitful, and Marston would hav been 
 strangely constituted if he had not felt 
 her charms . . . We seem to be already 
 acquainted with ' Miss Lydia,' but if 
 that kindly fussy little woman has her 
 
 593 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 prototype in former novels, Lucilla, 
 tho slltly drawn, strikes us as fresh in 
 conception. She is a girl to be liked 
 and loved, and one feels sorry, on reach- 
 ing the end of the story, to find her 
 still unmarried . . . Enuf to say, that 
 the man must be a hardened novel- 
 reader who will read ' Two Rival Loves ' 
 without emotion and pleasure." [Spec- 
 tator. 1869 
 
 UNCLE ANGUS [by M.. S. G. 
 Nichols: Saunders, Otley, ^ Co., 
 1865.] " deals with what may be called 
 the behind-scenes of journalism; in 
 its dramatis personse figure an editor, 
 his wife and dauter, a. literary specula- 
 tor, and a poetical contributor, and with 
 the fortunes of a magazine, entitled the 
 Polyanthus, ar closely woven the for- 
 tunes of all the more prominent charac- 
 ters in the story [compare plot of 
 Nos. 263 and 1777] . . . The exposure 
 of this would-be contributor's device 
 for detecting editorial ' laches ' 6t to 
 fall like vitriol on the consciences of 
 the conductors of the ' magazines and 
 weeklies : ' the leavs of the manuscripts 
 which they returned to him, marked ' not 
 suited,' had been ingeniously gummed by 
 their author before he sent them, and 
 they went back to him gummed no less 
 compactly." [London Review. 1870 
 
 UNCLE BOB'S NIECE, [by Leslie 
 Keith [Johnston] : Ward, 1888.]"Uncle 
 Boh is a ruf and simple Scotchman who 
 has made his pile in the new world, and 
 comes back to spend it on his niece in 
 the old. The author paints her char- 
 acters remarkably well. The heroin 
 is as charming as her uncle, and a good 
 deal more refined, whilst the best yung 
 man, tho his goodness Is of a somewhat 
 vapid sort, is human in every way. A 
 financial villain plays his part throuout 
 the narrativ, and is very nearly too much 
 for the millionaire." [Ath. 1871 
 
 UNCLE JACK (etc.). [by Wa. Be- 
 sant: Barper, 1885.] "Whatever else 
 a book by Mr. Besant may be, one may 
 safely conclude that it will be readable 
 and amusing; that it will take sound 
 vues of life; that it will not humor fads 
 or crotchety theorists ; that it will ' sho 
 up ' the mean and selfish and scoun- 
 drelly people without mercy; and that 
 all the good and pretty and well-behaved 
 people will get what they wish and be 
 happy. The very existence of such 
 books in these times when stupid and 
 foolish and morbid novels unduly 
 abound is a mental solace akin to the 
 knoledge of some refreshing retreat by 
 sea or mountain when the dog star is in 
 the ascendant. These stories ar in Mr. 
 Besant's best v^in, and therefore to be 
 read with dellt. Every one will be in- 
 terested in the fate of Uncle Jack's 
 charming nieces, who ar for a time the 
 victims of an unjust will ; and in the 
 just fate dealt out to Miss Antoinette 
 Baker and the other conspirators who 
 try to get the property from the ritful 
 heirs, and dedicate it to the ' cause.' 
 ' Sir Jocelyn's Cap ' is a clever travesty. 
 As for ' A Glorious Fortune,' it is 
 delltful. Perhaps the Ambler family 
 is made too mach of, but ' Johnny' is 
 an original, and the villain is disposed 
 of in a wholly new way — he becomes 
 a mere county respectability!" [Bos- 
 ton " Literary World." 1872 
 
 UNDER A CLOUD [by Ma. Rob- 
 erts : Eatchards, 1888.], "contains 
 much to attract and to please, but more 
 by the way than in the main track of 
 the story, more in the manner than in 
 the matter. It is impossible to take 
 much interest in tlie vagaries of so ob- 
 stinate and wrongheaded a person as 
 Magdalen Rideolph, but it is pleasing to 
 see how the yung lovers and the crusty, 
 friendly squire lead her back to sense 
 
 594 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 and reason." [Athenaeum.] — After the 
 crash, when the hero has fled from the 
 country, ruined and disgraced — for he 
 had embezzled trust money — she sees 
 lier fault, and is stricken with the keen- 
 est remorse. She refuses to liv with 
 her uncle, an old country squire — a 
 most charming character — but retires 
 with her only dauter to a, farm house 
 on his estate, wh^re she Uts a life of 
 the utmost seclusion. It is at this point 
 that the story begins. The old squire, 
 who is a most ardent admirer of land- 
 scape painting, is struck by the picture 
 of a struggling yung artist, who on 
 inquiry turns out to be the chief sufferer 
 by Mr. Rideolph's failure. He buys 
 his picture, and invites him to his house. 
 There, while at work, the yung painter 
 makes the acquaintance of the heroin, 
 who has, he discovers, a wonderful 
 talent for drawing. In the end, poetic 
 justice is done, and Walter Kennedy 
 receives what he counts of far more 
 value than his lost fortune . . . Alto- 
 gether, the book is worthy of the hiest 
 praise." [Spectator. 1873 
 
 UNDER ONE ROOF. [by Ja. 
 Payn : Chatto, 1879.] " Mr. Payn is a 
 master in the art of making bricks with- 
 out straw. It would be unjust if the 
 critic did not stop to admire the skill 
 which misses no opportunity for digres- 
 sions, and even make opportunities for 
 them almost without seeming to do so. 
 Thfire ar probably few commonplaces 
 in the english language and hardly any 
 stock newspaper metafors, similes, and 
 allusions which ar not to be found col- 
 lected here, as the title happily suggests, 
 under one roof. Mr. Payn has in his 
 time written a great many stories, some 
 of which, no doubt, plenty of readers 
 will remember to hav read with pleasure. 
 It would be impertinence to make any 
 suggestions to so practised an author ; it 
 
 must only be regretted that he knoes his 
 business so well. His kindliness and 
 good humor, which ar apparent throuout 
 this book, giv a pleasant complexion to 
 his writing, but they ar only an allevia- 
 tion to the ennui caused by reading a 
 very commonplace story." [Ath. 1874 
 UNDERTHE GREENWOOD TREE, 
 [by T: Hardy: JToH, 1872.] " Thdre 
 ar few pleasanter stories than ' Under 
 the Greenwood Tree.' It is an idyl of 
 english peasant life, so fresh and sweet 
 and real, that in reading it one seems to 
 be looking at a fine painting. It is a 
 love-story in which the hero is a carter, 
 and the heroin a school-teacher, — he 
 simple and sincere, she a beauty, and a 
 large bit of a flirt. Tlieir wooing is 
 not specially romantic ; but its circum- 
 stances ar wholly fresh, and the sketches 
 of life and manners in the hamlet whSre 
 the scene is laid, which illustrate its 
 progress, ar positivly unique. The at- 
 mosfere of the book is sweet with the 
 odors of a fair english landscape; the 
 hum of bees ; and the lo of kine ; the 
 rustle of leaves animate its pages ; and 
 a peaceful summer-sky, with short-lived 
 little rain-clouds dotting' it here and 
 thSre, broods over the whole delltful 
 drama. So simple and pure and whole- 
 som a story we hav rarely seen." [Bos- 
 ton " Literary World."] — "Fancy Day, 
 the new school-teacher, is the heroin of 
 the story, and she has no fewer than 3 
 lovers . . . The story ends with a 
 pretty marriage scene. The secret of 
 her attractiv duplicity remains locked in 
 the breast of the clergyman and in her 
 on. The character of Fancy is ad- 
 mirably drawn. The author certainly 
 manages to convey the impression that 
 he is a believer in the natural fickleness 
 of the maiden heart, but his belief does 
 not lead liim into denunciation; on 
 the contrary, he makes this fickleness 
 595 
 
BtiriSH NOVELS. 
 
 not merely not repulsiv, but agreeable. 
 The descriptions of village life, and of 
 the village choir singing, and choir sere- 
 nading, and choir festivities, ar very 
 good. On the whole, we do not kno 
 when we hav read a more interesting 
 and pleasing book." [Galaxy. 1876 
 UNDER THE LIMES, [by E. M. 
 (Taylor) Archer : Macmillan, 1874.] 
 "This is one of those quiet, simple, 
 stories that most modern novel-readers 
 cast aside with disdain as not sufficiently 
 exciting for thSir tastes, but which find 
 in a few thotful persons of well-bal- 
 anced minds a hearty and appreciativ 
 welcom. It is admirable by reason of 
 its refinement and purity, its freedom 
 from vicious personages and repulsiv or 
 even rude incidents ... To delineate 
 the operations of 4 natures under the in- 
 fluence of the passion of love was the 
 main task of the author, and she has 
 succeeded marvellously. The sweet, 
 womanly reticence of Rose is most lov- 
 able ; but the equally womanly indeci- 
 sion of Etta is most artistic. The con- 
 duct of her relativs with Sebastian, the 
 clear analysis of her feelings towards 
 him, and the processes by which she 
 passes from what she thot was fond 
 affection to the state of calculating his 
 claims and deciding against him, repre- 
 sent the most delicate work which falls 
 upon the novelist. Due praise should 
 be awarded to the character of Sir Law- 
 rence, which, tho slity is very effectiv. 
 There ar few other personages in the 
 story than those named ; but one of 
 these, a ritualistic clergyman, is a fine 
 creation. What we especially like in 
 this novel is its serenity and natural 
 sweetness. The author has no hobbies, 
 no friends to belaud, no enemies to pun- 
 ish; no reader will find his prejudices 
 shocked in her pages, or be led into 
 troublesom speculations. The book is 
 
 an expression of warm humanity, and 
 its refinement and tender beauty ar 
 beyond praise." [Boston " Literary 
 World." 1876 
 
 UNEXPECTED FARE. (An) [by 
 "Maxwell Grey," i. e., M. G. Tuttiet : 
 in Tales from Blackwood, 3d series.] 
 " is a brit littletale. It tells what results 
 may flo from earls' sons chafing under 
 conventionalism and driving hansom 
 cabs as a relief to their feelings, and 
 barons' dauters, whose ' english blood 
 boils at the thot of restraint,' setting 
 up as independent workers to avoid 
 pressure on the subject of matrimony. 
 Mark Forrester's equivocal description 
 of the pursuits of his rit honorable 
 parent and family, and Olive de Wyn- 
 ter's shortlived fury at the trick he pl.iys 
 on her, ar happily imagined." [Athe- 
 UiEum. 1877 
 
 UNFORESEEN (The) [by Alice 
 O'Hanlon: Harper, 1886.] "is a very 
 clever and artistic story of the olden 
 sort, full of intrigue, plot, and surprises. 
 It relates how a Lady Macbeth of hum- 
 ble antecedents worked her way to quite 
 unprecedented successes in the aristo- 
 cratic world, only to find herself de- 
 feated at the moment of culminating 
 pride. The story is exciting and enter- 
 taining ; but the execution is something 
 more than that. The style is unusually 
 good for a novel of the kind, and the 
 story is far above the average for its 
 quality of construction and expression." 
 [Critic. 1878 
 
 UNLESSONED GIRL (An) [byM.. 
 Emma (Le Breton) Martin : Marcus 
 Ward, 1881.] "is short, pleasing, well- 
 written, and has a natural plot and 
 wholesom characters, several of whom 
 ar drawn with something of that talent 
 which distinguishes Mrs. Gaskell's deli- 
 cious ' Cranford ' [No. 1175] so far 
 as regards observing and reproducing 
 
 596 
 
BRITISH NOVKLS. 
 
 minute touches of every day domestic 
 life, wliicli at first sit may appear insig- 
 nificant, but yet go far to giv an accu- 
 rate idea of peoples' dispositions. Mrs. 
 Martin has two heroins, who act most 
 effectually as foils to each other. One 
 is the pretty Gladys Byrne, who has 
 spent all her life in a wild irish home, 
 and is consequently totally ' unlessoned ' 
 in tlie great school of the world ; whilst 
 the other one, Janet Ellison, has never 
 been settled long anywhere, but has 
 always been knocking about -with her 
 mother from place to place, and habitu- 
 ally pinched for money, so that -worldly 
 wisdom has become a second nature to 
 her . . . She is deceitful and full of 
 faults, but is excellently drawn, and we 
 must confess to having foUoed her ad- 
 ventures with even greater interest than 
 those of the legitimate heroin. There 
 is something pathetic in Janet's acute 
 consciousness of her outward defects, 
 her ceaseless struggles to rise superior 
 to them, the way in which slie makes 
 the best of whatever happens, her 
 stoicism, her rare fits of self-pity, and 
 her passionate desire to be first in the 
 affections of some man or other . . . 
 The scene whSre she proposes to Russel 
 is very good, and mit almost be studied 
 as a model of tact and delicacy by any 
 plain -woman resolvd upon securing, at 
 all hazards, an unwilling lover; the 
 proceeding is made to appear so nearly 
 rit and natural, that we almost lose sit 
 of the unwomanliness and unworthiness 
 of Janet's despairing endeavor ... In 
 Janet, mind evidently predominates over 
 heart, but in her cousin Gladys we hav 
 a complete contrast to this. Gladys is 
 almost the slave of her feelings, — con- 
 stant, devoted, truthful, chivalrously 
 anxious to help the weak and oppressed, 
 ever ready to attribute to people -what- 
 ever good qualities they chose to assume, 
 
 unsuspicious of evil, and unselfish." 
 [Spectator. 1879 
 
 UNTIL THE DAY BREAKS [by 
 Emily Spender: Bdntley, 1886.] "is 
 a delitful story. Cecilia Tremayne is 
 very well drawn, and is in every way a 
 fine character, lofty, courageous, and 
 self-sacrificing. ThSre is more earnest- 
 ness about the book as a whole than is 
 found in the great majority of novels, but 
 it is not earnestness of the sort -which 
 bores and repels a reader in quest of 
 entertainment." [Athensum. 1880 
 
 UNSPOTTED FROM THE WORLD 
 [by — ( ) GoDEREY : Bentley, 1883.] 
 " is a very touching story. The unself- 
 ishness of the tender elder sister and 
 the naivet6 of the ardent yunger one, 
 whose first love is exposed to so cruel 
 it rebuff at the hands of the cautious 
 man of the world on whom she has 
 lavished the freshness of a sincere, if 
 not very courageous nature, ar charm- 
 ingly contrasted. It is hard on Dolly 
 that the man she loves and the sister she 
 loves hardly less should be driven by 
 circumstances to turn to her to make 
 their union complete ; but in her self- 
 renunciation she finally attains some- 
 thing more than the domestic happiness 
 without which Psyche, the butterfly, 
 must hav pined to death." [Ath. 1881 
 
 URSULA, [by Es. M. Sewell : iorasr- 
 man, 1858.] " Here we hav a sweetly 
 written story of domestic life, — a book 
 to warm the family affections. Some of 
 the family scenes ar exquisit in their 
 warm simplicity, and it is hi praise to 
 say that, with a distinctly religious pur- 
 port, Ursula is neither didactic nOr 
 wearisomly serious. The author, tho 
 capable of real pathos, writes often 
 with a gay heart which gladdens the 
 reader." [Leader. 1882 
 
 URSULA'S LOVE STORY [byGEK- 
 TKUDE (Hext) Parsons : Surst, 1869.] 
 
 597 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 "has a, picture of contemporary man- 
 ners, of more than ordinary merit. Its 
 tale is fresh, interesting, and in the 
 main well told ; its language is simple 
 and correct, and its characterization is 
 not wanting in power. Evidences of 
 culture ar frequent in its pages over 
 which hangs a pleasant aroma of refine- 
 ment and good taste .. . So much of 
 the strength and beauty of the story lies 
 in dialog and in grace of narration and 
 description, that a mere outline givs no 
 just idea of the work. Ursula is ad- 
 mirably depicted. Her first intervue 
 with Mrs. Daynham wins for her the 
 reader's entire sympathy, and her sub- 
 sequent behavior is womanly and rlt- 
 minded. Irrational as is her attempted 
 self-sacrifice, it has a moral grandeur 
 which redeems its absurdity. Edgar 
 Eavenel, Mrs. Daynham, and all the 
 characters, even to the most subordi- 
 nate, ar life-like. Their gossip and 
 actions, loves, betrothals, and marriages 
 ar well described, and constitute with 
 the main interest a very pleasant novel." 
 [Athenasum. 1883 
 
 VAGABONDIA. [Scribner, 188^.1 = 
 DOLLY. 
 
 VALENTINA [by Eleanor C. 
 Price: Chatto, 1882.'] " is a graceful, 
 cheerful, fairly clever sketch of charac- 
 ter. The heroin is a wayward girl, not 
 happily situated in the way of gardian- 
 ship or early training, who is guilty of 
 many indiscretions, and who is con- 
 stantly proving the truth of the adage 
 that evil is wr6t by want of thot far 
 more than want of heart. She plays 
 rather fast and loose with the hearts of 
 her friends, not having much herself. 
 As her brother-in-law says of her, she is 
 a mad-cap who has never been trained. 
 ' Everybody wants breaking in — some 
 more, — some less — she decidedly 
 more.' However, she falls into pretty 
 
 good hands, and they break her in; not 
 cruelly, for that would hav broken her 
 altogether, but naturally and gradually, 
 and by allowing her better self to de- 
 velop. One indeed^ her second hus- 
 band— tries to manage her in the other 
 f£>shion, somewhat as he would hav 
 tried to tame a horse or a dog, but he 
 fails egregiously. The latter stage of 
 the story is told with noteworthy skill, 
 and nothing could be better or more 
 delicate than the passage between the 
 unhappy Valentina and the mother of 
 the man who has 15ved her purely an 1 
 unrequited from the .beginning. As for 
 the conclusion of Valentina's history, 
 the author tells it with more than ordi- 
 nary taste and feeling.", [Atlien. 1884 
 VALLEY OF A HUNDRED FIRES 
 (The) [by Julia C. Steetton : London, 
 1867.] "is a most pleasing story of 
 domestic life, in the delineation of 
 which the author evidently excels. The 
 scene is laid in "Wales, in the midst of 
 some of its loveliest scenery,, and the 
 characters ar drawn with so much sim- 
 plicity and evident truthfulness that we 
 at once recognize them as beings in 
 whose presence we delit, whose pleas- 
 ures and interests we ar glad to share, 
 whose trials and sorros ar reflected in 
 our hearts. The excellent pastor, with 
 his honest zeal, his passionate love of 
 nature, his tender and genuine apprecia- 
 tion of all which is good and worthy in 
 mankind, and his beautiful and helpful 
 wife, make conquest of our affections 
 when they arrive with their baby, and 
 throuijiit a long and not particularly 
 eventful life, we ar content to bear 
 them company, and part from them 
 regretfully at the close. There is no 
 pretense of a plot, but the record of 
 lives worthily spent, and of sorros borne 
 with fortitude, can never fail to interest 
 the reader, if the author be careful to 
 
 598 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 avoid the unpardonable sin of being 
 wearisom, and in the present instance 
 thfire is so much variety thron round 
 the several scenes and descriptions that, 
 without being brilliant, they ar agree- 
 able and often impressiv." [Round 
 Table. 1885 
 
 SAME (" The Rector's Wife ") . 
 
 IPeterson, 1867.] 
 
 VANITY FAIR = No. 9^8. 
 
 VENUS' DOVES [by Ida Ash- 
 TVORTii Taylor: Harper, 1884?] " tho 
 belonging to the liter class of novels 
 meant merely to entertain, does more 
 than entertain, and is at once original, 
 amusing and graceful. Some reliance 
 is placed on the time-honored foolish 
 misunderstanding, and thSre ar signs 
 of unhappy marriages and marriages for 
 money ; but every situation is delicately 
 treated, and the signs never amount to 
 more than signs, while the conversa- 
 tions ar brit, the people interesting, 
 and the moral, without being obtrusiv, 
 healthful and unmistakable. The heroin 
 has faults, and the way in which she 
 nearly wrecks all her happiness by de- 
 manding happiness as a rit instead of 
 taking it as a gift, is a lesson, as well as 
 a pretty story." [Critic. 1886 
 
 VERY YOUNG COUPLE (A) [by — 
 (Smedley) Hart: M. Ward, 1876.] "is 
 a very pleasant and lively little tale, 
 vivid in its interest, and the harroing 
 part of it not too prolongel for endur- 
 ance, not too artfully shaded to leav 
 a loop hole for the entrance of a beam 
 of hope. The very yung couple ar 
 spirited as well as yung ; they marry on 
 £175 a year without any conception at 
 all how small expenses add up . . . 
 Moreover, the lively rattle of the story 
 is not better painted for us than the 
 tension of its deeper interest and the 
 happy exultation of its close." [Spec- 
 tator. 1887 
 
 VICAR OF BULLHAMPTON (The), 
 [by Anthony Trollope : Bradbury, 
 Evans ^Co., 1870.] " As the author has 
 shunned the history of Carrie Brattle's 
 fall, it is difficult to estimate the amount 
 of merit in her subsequent reformation. 
 That she is pretty and affectionate is 
 nearly all we kno of her : we see that she 
 is harshly regarded by many selfish rela- 
 tivs, but whether the hardness of her 
 father or the tenderness of Frank Fen- 
 wick, the clergyman, has more true love 
 in it, it is hard to say, or whether the jus- 
 tice of the one is less admirable than 
 the mercy of the other . . . Thfire ar 
 many TroUopean lawyers and clergy- 
 men, 5ne thoro old gentleman, and the 
 miller's wife, one of Nature's ladies, 
 Lord St. George, a 19th-century improve- 
 ment of his father the marquis, a, dis- 
 senting preacher, of a type which is, we 
 hope, uncommon, and a gallant captain, 
 who rescues Mary Lowther from a mar- 
 riage with the vicar's importunate friend, 
 and so givs the story an orthodox con- 
 clusion. On the whole Mr. Trollope 
 deservs our gratitude both for his story 
 and his moral, tho we must protest 
 against any confusion between the self- 
 ish fears of those who ar harsh to th^ir 
 unfortunate relativs, and an honest 
 pride of race." [Athenaeum. 1888 
 
 VICAR'S DAUGHTER (The), [by 
 G:MacDonald: Roberts, Vil'i.l "The 
 present is a genuin, pleasing home-story, 
 which floes along, brook-like in its natu- 
 ralness, its banks dotted here and th^re 
 with rare and fragrant flowers of fancy. 
 Ethelwyn Percival is permitted to tell 
 her story in her way — a sensible, prac- 
 tical, live woman, innocent of all dreamy 
 sentimentalities, or morbidly religious 
 tendencies — a refreshing, healthy speci- 
 men of well-organized womanhood." 
 [Overland.] — " Dr. Geo. MacDonald is 
 hardly to be congratulated upon his suc- 
 599 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 C0S3 in Ms last novel, unless, indeed, an 
 artful concealment, or rather attempted 
 concealment of bis personality, and his 
 masquerading in petticoats, with a per- 
 petual harping upon the joys of ma- 
 ternity, and the discomforts of preg- 
 nancy and the terrors of confinement 
 alleviated by chloroform, can be deemed 
 an admirable intellectual feat . . . He 
 is at home in the nursery, in fact, he 
 shos a proficiency in the care of yung 
 children that must make mothers, tor- 
 mented by careless and ignorant nurses, 
 SI with envy ... If almost any other 
 writer wer to draw such a character for 
 a heroin, as if under the opinion that 
 women wer nothing but producers and 
 caressers of babies, and semi-hysterical 
 housekeepers for their husbands, we 
 feel confident that the women would 
 be the first to raise an outcry against the 
 narro-minded cynicism of such a vein. 
 They would naturally demand that some 
 credit should be given to hier feminin 
 virtues, to their grace, their dignity, 
 their purity, to the real loftiness of their 
 minds." [Nation. 1889 
 
 VICAR'S PEOPLE (The) [by G: 
 Manvillb Fenn : Pwtnam, 1882.] " ar 
 the inhabitants of a Cornish village, half 
 mining, half fishing. Thither comes a 
 yung engineer, brit, steady, and sturdy. 
 How he won friends and enemies, suf- 
 fered doubts of the most cruel kind, 
 but finally triumfed over everything — 
 even the powers of nature, — makes a 
 very interesting story. The novelty in 
 its setting is the great ruins of the 
 deserted mine down which fortune after 
 fortune has gone. ' Wheal Carnac ' 
 seems as real a monster, devouring men, 
 bodies and souls, as any dragon of 
 mediaeval legend." [Nation. 1890 
 
 VICISSITUDES OF BESSIE FAIR- 
 FAX (The) . [by " Holme Lee," i. b., Har- 
 riet Parr: Smith, ls74.] " ' The Vicissi- 
 
 tudes of Bessie Fairfax ' is an agreeable 
 novel of the utmost simplicity, recounting 
 in a natural way a probable story. The 
 heroin's vicissitudes ar not startling ; she 
 has both a step-father and step-mother, 
 to be sure, and some of her relativs 
 ar of hi birth, and some of her asso- 
 ciates ar of humbler Jjarentage ; she has 
 various lovers, and they hav life-like mis- 
 understandings, and at last she marries 
 the man of her choice, and all ends well 
 without the introduction of any unnec- 
 essary horrors." [Nation. 1890a 
 VIDA [by Amy Dunsmuir : Macmil- 
 lan, 1880.] " is a pleasant piece of writ- 
 ing, the various characteristics of the 
 minor figures enhancing the common- 
 sense and simplicity of the rustic 
 heroin. Vida is the dauter of a minis- 
 ter on the coast of Arran — a man not so 
 much originally cold-uatured as numbed 
 into selfishness by a humdrum life. 
 The loss of her mother, which crushed 
 the affection of Vida's father for his 
 child, left the maid to gro up under the 
 superintendence of an old scotch nurse 
 of the ancient and faithful pattern. It 
 was Nannie's care which sent her forth 
 by herself on that adventurous errand 
 of a morning call which led to the at- 
 tachment of her Ufe, and Nannie's anx- 
 iety for the future which secured the 
 advantages of school education for the 
 yung plodder in greek and latin in her 
 father's study. Next to Nannie's faith- 
 fulness the' disinterested love of Mr. 
 Jeffrey is the best thing which befalls 
 Vida's childhood. When, in after years, 
 that chivalrous lover makes the mistake 
 of revealing the attachment to his yung 
 pupil, and Vida mistakes for a season 
 the impulse of gratitude for love, the 
 rectitude and unselfishness of both con- 
 vert what mit hav been an unpleasant 
 incident into one of the best parts of 
 the story." [Athenaeum. 1891 
 
 600 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 VILLETTE [by C. (Bronte) 
 NiCHOLLS ; Smith, IS53. 2 "is a work 
 of astonishing power and passion. 
 From its pages thSre issues an influence 
 of truth as healthful as a mountain 
 breeze. Contempt of conventions in 
 all things, in style, in th6t, even in the 
 art of story-telling, here visibly springs 
 from the independent originality of a 
 strong mind nurtured in solitude. As 
 a novel, in the ordinary sense of the 
 word, 'Villette' has few claims; as a 
 book, it is one which, having read, you 
 will not easily forget. It is true that 
 the episode of Miss Marchmont, early 
 in the first volume, is unnecessary, 
 having no obvious connexion with the 
 plot or the characters ; but with what 
 wonderful imagination is it painted ! 
 Wh^re shall we find such writing as in 
 that description of her last nit, wh&e- 
 in the memories of bygfine years come 
 trooping in upon her with a vividness 
 partaking of the last energy of life? 
 It is true also that the visit to London 
 is unnecessary, and has many unreal 
 details. Much of the book seems to be 
 br6t in merely that the writer may 
 express something which is in her mind ; 
 but at any rate she has something in her 
 miud, and expresses it as no other can." 
 [Westminster. 1892 
 
 VIOLIN PLAYER (The) [by 
 Bektha Thomas ; Bentley, 1880.] 
 " has a satisfactory theme and is a well- 
 constructed story ... In studies of 
 character the book is unusually rich. 
 The author understands the artistic 
 temperament throuout, and has traced 
 it in a musician and ia a sculptor, in a 
 woman and in a man, with great skill. 
 No less able is her delineation of the 
 character of a fascinating woman of the 
 world, a person with artistic taste but 
 not an artist." [Athenaeum. 1893 
 
 VITTOKIA [Sequel to " EmUia," 
 
 by G: Meredith: London, 180G.] 
 " has perhaps been one of the least 
 popular of Mr. Meredith's novels, 
 becaus of the repelling nature of the 
 theme and the huge proportions of the 
 book. But in its filosofy, its knoledge 
 of human nature, its superb diction, its 
 epigrammatic vividness, it will be found, 
 if the rit point of vuo is gained, not 
 inferior in value as a social study to any 
 of its stately companion?." [Ameri- 
 can. 1894 
 
 VIVIAN GREY [by Lord Beacons- 
 field : 1826.] " took the literary, so- 
 cial, and political worlds by storm . . . 
 Notwithstanding the many flashes ' of 
 genius in it, the novel would find few 
 readers now wer it the production of an 
 unknon writer, but it was in complete 
 harmony with the scandalous and scan- 
 dal-loving tastes of the society to which 
 it was offered, and throu its prepos- 
 terous burlesque of the things and 
 thots around him was always expressed 
 the daring individuality of the author. 
 Neither Lord Lyndhurst nor Lord Clan- 
 ricarde may hav been intentionally 
 caricatured as the Marquis of Carabas ; 
 Foaming Fudge may not hav been pur- 
 posly designed as a burlesque of Lord 
 Brougham, nor Charlatan Gas of Cann- 
 ing, nor Fitzborn of Sir Robert Peel, 
 nor even Stanislaus Hoax of Theodore 
 Hook : but none the less wer all these 
 and nearly all the other persons in the 
 book exaggerated reproductions, some 
 clever, and some clumsy, of the char- 
 acters and temperaments of actual per- 
 sons conspicuous when the tale was 
 written." [Athenaeum. 1895 
 
 VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS 
 (A) . [by Caroline Fothergill : 
 Ward J- Downey, 1888.] "The man 
 with a mad wife who falls in love with 
 a more attractiv maiden is not exactly a 
 novelty in fiction [compare No. 762], 
 
 601 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 but unexacting readers may find quite 
 as much of sentiment and entertain- 
 ment as tliSy care for in Miss Fother- 
 gill's new version. Tlie style is very 
 good. Thi^re is no fault to find witli it, 
 and the dialog is managed as gracefully 
 and easily as the description. Welsh 
 scenery and town life ar painted with 
 equal facility." [Athenseum. 1896 
 WAGES OF SIN. [by "Lucas 
 Malkt," i. e., Rose G. (Kingsley) Har- 
 rison : U.S. Booh Co., 1891.] "James 
 Colthurst was an artist, a man of great 
 talent, who had forced n recognition 
 from his countrymen, and _placed him- 
 self at the top of the ladder of fame in 
 the artistic world of London. In his 
 early youth, while a student in Paris, he 
 became entangled with a woman by 
 whom he had a child, and to whom he 
 always felt himself in a measure bound 
 becaus she had supported him, by ques- 
 tionable and unquestionable means, 
 when he was ill and starving. He 
 became the head of one of the art- 
 schools in London, and thdre fell deeply 
 in love with a rarely gifted woman who 
 was his pupil. At first, knoing that his 
 past life had rendered him unworthy of 
 her, he made up his mind that he would 
 never ask her to be his wife. Finding 
 that she returned his love, however, his 
 resolution weakened and th^y liecame 
 engaged. His mistress, hearing that he 
 was to be married, sot his fiancee and 
 told her the whole story of his life with 
 her. On the spur of the moment, his 
 sweetheart gave him up, but was soon 
 convinced she had been too hard upon 
 him, and was determined to recall him. 
 In the meantime, the woman who had 
 made the mischief was dying of con- 
 sumption, and had sent for James Colt- 
 hurst's intended wife to come to see 
 her. Once arrived Mary sent instantly 
 for James to come and make his peace 
 
 with the dying woman [compare plot of 
 No. 1639]. It is just here that the ex- 
 treme improbability of the ' The Wages 
 of Sin ' comes in. Mary renounced 
 her lover forever, not in anger or in 
 scorn, but becaus she deemed it rit tliat 
 he should belong to a woman whose 
 hours wer numbered, tho she knew 
 that his life would be ruined by her 
 decision. It was not surprising that lie 
 threw himself from a cliff and was 
 dashed to pieces." [Critic. 1897 
 
 WARDEN (The). [by Anthony 
 Trollope ; 1855. ] See Nos. 1082, 
 1455. 
 
 WATERDALE NEIGHBOURS 
 (The) [by Justin McCarthy : Tinsley, 
 1867.] " is a good novel — well-written 
 in good nervous english, — brit and em- 
 fatic, without any appearance of striving. 
 The story is interesting, the characters 
 speak as people in life talk when they 
 hav anything to say ; and all talk well. 
 Each one has his or her individuality, 
 and thC-y speak for themselves. The in- 
 terest lies in the frank reality of the 
 characters, who folio their fortunes re- 
 gardless of author or reader. This givs 
 a freshness to the boolc which is as grate- 
 ful as a draft of sparkling water from a 
 wayside rock to a thirsty traveler. The 
 story turns on the power of a, true and 
 genuin nature to overcome strokes of 
 adverse fate, sorro, disappointment, and 
 even grave mistakes in life and practice ; 
 making all work together to a mature 
 and perfect groth of character." [Athe- 
 naeum.] — " It is 'a book which no one 
 can read without pleasure, nor close 
 without regret ; it is interesting but never 
 sensational, picturesque but not exagger- 
 ated, unaffected and natural without be- 
 coming M'earisom or insipid. The story 
 opens in a retired portion of Switzerland, 
 where an English clergyman and his 
 wife ar sojourning, and accidentally be- 
 
 602 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 come acquainted with Ralph Lennon, the 
 hero." [Uound Table. 1898 
 
 "WAY OF THE WORLD (The) . [by 
 D: Christie Murray : Harper, 1884.] 
 "The history of . Mr. 'William Amelia 
 and his paper, ' The Way of the World,' 
 may be taken as a satire on the society 
 journal and the methods of its editor. 
 The man and vocation fit each other, and 
 worldly prosperity ensues. Mr. Amelia 
 is diligently and delltfuUy snubbed, but 
 that is small comfort, since inability to 
 recognize a snub is part of his fortunate 
 nature. The characterization is a clever 
 and amusing piece of work — so clever 
 and amusing that it almost excuses the 
 author for whipping up choice items 
 from the daily papers before the ink 
 dries, and presenting them to us as fic- 
 tion. At the same time it shoes him 
 scourging with the left hand what he 
 imitates with the rit. He holds Mr. 
 Amelia up for detestation as an unscru- 
 pulous gossip, knoing that the spice in 
 the dish is, for a great many readers, tlie 
 inferential identification of Mr. Amelia 
 [E. Yates?] with very interesting cur- 
 rent gossip." [Nation. 1899 
 
 WAY WE LIVE NOW (The), [by 
 Anthony Trollope : Harper, 1875.] 
 "The good american will find in this 
 novel not only an entertaining story of 
 modern life, butalso a j ustification for his 
 love of country. Whatever hard things 
 hav been said in times past of America 
 by english travelers, english newspapers, 
 and english writers, no description of 
 ordinary american life at th^ir hands was 
 ever made blacker than this picture of 
 english civilization by Mr. Trollope . . . 
 The novel contains descriptions of sev- 
 eral kinds of life — the great world ; the 
 yunger club life ; genteel country life and 
 humble country life ; and we ar allowed 
 to get a glimps or two of the journalistic 
 world and of commercial life, and of 
 
 course learn a good deal of the condition 
 of the matrimonial market . . . Mr. Trol- 
 lope's picture of literary life is entertain- 
 ing. We hav heard something before 
 now of that dislionest tribe, the critics, 
 and it hardly needed the amusing corre- 
 spondence of Lady Carbury, the doting 
 mother of Sir Felix, with the 3 editors 
 of the Bee-hive, the Morning Break- 
 fast-Table, and the Evening Pulpit, on 
 the subject of her venture, ' Criminal 
 Queens,' to sho the real relation between 
 authors and the conductors of the press. 
 How Lady Carbury cajoles one editor 
 and throes herself on the mercy of a 
 second, and allows a third, without too 
 much reproof, to kiss her in a moment 
 of frenzied admiration, need not be told, 
 nor how little her manoeuvres help the 
 sale of ' Criminal Queens.' Poor Lady 
 Carbury, whose severe literary labors ar 
 only varied by the performance of the 
 maternal duty of letting her son in at 
 day-break, when he is in a condition 
 which renders the use of his latch-key 
 difficult, has u, hard life, and it would 
 hav seemed only fair for the author to 
 hav disposed of Sir Felix in some way. 
 But tho he is terribly mauled on one 
 occasion by honest John Crumb, who 
 suspects him, not without reason, of 
 dishonorable designs with regard to the 
 yung woman John desires to marry, he 
 makes no sort of resistance, but allows 
 himself to be beaten like a cur, and so 
 preservs his valuable existence, to the 
 inevitable future misery of his mother. 
 Paul Montague, the honest yung man of 
 the book, is so extraordinarily weak that 
 we cannot help wondering that he comes 
 out as well as he does. He is always 
 getting into some mess, either being en- 
 gaged to one woman when he is rapidly 
 becoming interested in another, or gamb- 
 ling, or getting his property involved, or 
 entangling himself in some other way. 
 
 603 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 He is well drawn, as all the characters in 
 the book ar, but, one asks, why should 
 so feeble a creature be thAt worth draw- 
 ing at all? He is in love with Hetta 
 Carbury, and has been engaged to Mrs. 
 Hurtle, an araerican wido, who has killed 
 her man and been divorced from her 
 husband, but with all her eccentricities 
 is perhaps the nicest person in the book; 
 and with Hetta her cousin Roger Car- 
 bury is also in love. Roger is an honest 
 country gentleman, who is almost re- 
 moved from the main current of the 
 story, and who evidently thinks that ' the 
 way we liv now ' is not at all a good way 
 to liv." [Nation. 1900 
 
 WE TWO [by " Edna Lyall," i. e., 
 Ada Ellen Bayly : Appleton, 18S6-] "is 
 beautifully written, so that the style 
 sustains one throu the length, and cer- 
 tain striking and dramatic situations at 
 times relieve the monotony with start- 
 ling vividness. It is chiefly remarkable 
 as a book written in the interests of what 
 is knon as revealed religion, which yet 
 has an atheist for a hero — and really a 
 hero ; while the heroin, altho a converted 
 atheist, is none the less a clear-sited, 
 liberal thinker. Besides being radicals, 
 the father and dauter ar journalists, and 
 the book is full of clever transcripts of 
 the vicissitudes in the life of these 
 ' two.' Incidentally, of course, th^re is 
 a love-story." [Critic] — " It givs the 
 history of a father and dauter whose 
 tender and intimate relation is defined 
 by the title . . . She clings to her father, 
 who is misunderstood, hated and de- 
 nounced, and feels with all the warmth 
 of her woman's heart the worth of the tie 
 which binds them. Thfire ia much which 
 is truthful and winning in the book, and 
 the character of both father and dau- 
 ter rouse our interest and sympathy." 
 [American^ 1901 
 
 WEARING OF THE GREEN (The). 
 
 [by "Basil," i.e., R: Ashe King : 
 Ohatto, 1885.] " When hav we read a, 
 more delitful story than ' The Wearing 
 of the Green'? It opens as the typical 
 irish story, with the eharming iri-h 
 girl ; and it holds us from the first page 
 to the last with the genuin fascination 
 of the wit and humor, the drollery and 
 pathos, the winning warm-heartedness 
 and contagious llt-heartedness, of that 
 pathetic and interesting people." [Critic] 
 — "He who loves a rosy cheek, and the 
 nativ grace of irish womanhood, painted 
 on a background of uncompromising 
 green, shall here find as pretty a story 
 as he wishes. The mingled simplicity 
 and guile, the humor and geniality, the 
 brogue and the politics of Erin, do not 
 possess an equal charm for everybody, 
 and there ar people with sufficient prej- 
 udice to decline beforehand the reading 
 of a tale in which these things make up 
 the whole plot and narrativ. ThSy will 
 do themselves an injustice, however, if 
 thSy refuse to read ' The Wearing of the 
 Green,' for it is a brlt and pathetic 
 novel, with good characters and a lively 
 style." [Athenffium. 1903 
 
 WEEWIFIE. [by Rosa N. Cakey: 
 Tinsley, 1869.] " May every bachelor 
 we kno be as well-mated as more than 
 one husband in this pleasant story, al- 
 beit Fay has her humors, — and so with 
 some other charming women enshrined 
 in this book. It is a joy to be among 
 them." [Athena:um. 1903 
 
 WELLFIELDS (The) = No. 1010. 
 WENDERHOLME [by Philip Gil- 
 bert Hamf.rton: Roberts, 1877.] "pro- 
 fesses to be a study of Yorkshire life 
 and character, but the representativ 
 nativs who talk dialect and the middle- 
 class mill oners who develop into mil- 
 lionaires ar not half as well depicted 
 as the people of gentler breeding, the 
 poverty-stricken Prigleys at the parson- 
 
 604 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 age, with their patrician sympathies an J 
 thCir cruelly outraged tastes, and Colonel 
 Stanburne, the commander of the militia, 
 and his hi-born wife. Lady Helena. 
 These last ar admirable. Colonel Stan- 
 burne is that very rare personage in 
 fiction, a living gentleman — manly, 
 kinJ-hearted, unintellectual, thoro-bred, 
 lavish, — lapsing into pecuniary ruin 
 more throu courtesy to otliers than in- 
 dulgence to himself. His wife is a hi- 
 spirited creature, a great deal more 
 clever, conscious, and cautious tlian he, 
 wiser, but not so sweet-natured, an 
 exceedingly real woman, both in her 
 pitiless anger at the discovery of her 
 husband's foUy and in her sudden and 
 deep repentance for her severity." [At- 
 lantic. 1904 
 
 WHAT SHE CAME THROUGH 
 [by " S., TvTLER," i. e., Henrietta 
 Keddie : Dadly Isbister S, Co., 1877.] 
 " is a pleasant book. Pleasant in style, 
 which neither aims at flippant brilliancy 
 nor descends to important declamation 
 or gush, but is that of a cultivated lady, 
 — natural and pleasant in the persons 
 and places with which the story deals, as 
 well as in the happy end to which it is 
 brot. At the same time other characters 
 besides the heroin hav to come throu 
 their share of troubles enuf to make 
 the story resemble life ; and while the 
 happy conclusion is sufficiently probable 
 it is also sufficiently unexpected for 
 fiction, and givs the reader genuin sat- 
 isfaction. The heroin is a girl of gentle 
 birth on her father's side, at whose death 
 she and her sister wer left almost with- 
 out money and with only two relativs." 
 [AtliensEura. 1905 
 
 WHAT THE WORLD WOULD 
 SAY? [byC: Gibbon: Bcniley, 1875.] 
 " The Major falls genuinly in love with 
 Bess, and, when she finds slie is thwarted 
 by the indifference of Austin, and her 
 
 father fails in a rich marriage he pro- 
 jects for her, in a moment of pique she 
 elopes with the soldier. Then comes 
 the narrativ of thfiir poverty and strug- 
 gles, and our author, by very natural 
 degrees, converts the tolerance with 
 which she first regards her husband to 
 duty and affection. The dramatic in- 
 terest in the story is confined to tlicte. 
 But incidently we ar introduced to 
 many characters worth knoing. Killiwar 
 is an amusing and worthy Highlander; 
 Miss Janet's oddities ar pathetically 
 humorous ; the gate-keeper is a fine 
 specimen of the reckless Scotchman;" 
 [Athenaeum. 1906 
 
 WHAT YOU WILL [./. W. Parker, 
 1858.] "is full of cleverness and char- 
 acter. The incidents ar not numerous, 
 and one, constituting a sort of turning 
 point, is nothing more than a common- 
 place ; but the writing is natural and 
 pointed, the Illustrations of human 
 nature ar vivid, and th^Te ar some 
 charming sketches of home life. The 
 clergyman of Acton Bars is an admirable 
 portrait, somewhat in Mr. Trollope's 
 style ; but the best part of the narra- 
 tiv is described as ' The winding-up of 
 the thread ; ' it is most tenderly con- 
 ceived and most touchingly developed." 
 [Leader. 1907 
 
 WHAT'S IN A NAME? [by S.. 
 DouDNEY : Ilodder, 1883.] " is « very 
 romantic story. One H : Jervaux mar- 
 ries secretly a girl belo him in social po- 
 sition, and thereby offends his family. 
 He dies, leaving one child; and, we ar 
 led to believ, that his wife does not long 
 survive him. The child is adopted by 
 his grandparents. Thfin a wido lady, 
 who undertakes her education, appears 
 upon the scene. Who this lady is, 
 how she is avenged upon one who had 
 wronged her in former times, we may 
 leav for the readers to find out. The 
 
 G05 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 tale is written with considerable power." 
 [Spectator. 1908 
 
 WHEAT AND TAKES [by H: 
 Stcart Cunningham : Harper, I860.] 
 " is a capital story. Fresh, sparkling, 
 and cheerful as a summer's morning, 
 it has also the hier elements of a first- 
 class novel, in its striking delineations 
 of character, in its fidelity to life, and 
 in the essential nobleness of its senti- 
 ment and its filosofy. With some free 
 and easy conversations, which may 
 scandalize those who would treat the 
 church and all its adjuncts as especially 
 sacred, it has a good sense ia its vue of 
 things sacred, as well as things worldly, 
 which is very refreshing after the cant 
 of so-called religious novels. [See No. 
 1346.] It may not increase reverence 
 for bishops, deans, archdeacons, or pop- 
 ular preachers, but it will foster respect 
 for manliness, generosity, frankness, 
 and all christian virtues. Its vivacity 
 never degenerates into slang, nor does 
 it overstate the graces or faults of any 
 of its personages. It is, we hav no 
 doubt, a very faithful picture of the 
 life in an english sea-side town." [Chris- 
 tian Examiner.] — "This \s 3. natii/ral 
 work. It will please all readers, whose 
 tastes and human feelings hav not been 
 utterly obliterated by the blood-and- 
 thunder ' sensation ' romances of the 
 time . . . Altho th^re is nothing very 
 novel either in its incidents or situations, 
 the reader is agreeably interested to the 
 close. Like most other modern stories, 
 it is chiefly concerned with what may 
 be described as the superficial aspects of 
 ' the course of true love ; ' but, unlike 
 most stories, so charmingly ar all these 
 adjusted and exposed, that the entire 
 work becomes an exquisit picture of 
 life. Trifles hav no undue importance. 
 We ar not requested either to wail over 
 exaggerated grief, or to prance with 
 
 spasmodic joy. Thfire is neither the 
 sickly whine of sentiment nor the lugu- 
 brious plaint of morality. The charac- 
 ters ar natural, and vividly portrayed. 
 The bits of description occur gracefully, 
 and sometimes with excellent dramatic 
 effect. The conversations ar skilfully 
 managed. We seem to be hearing the 
 unaffected talk of clever people, who 
 ar always spritly and often brilliant. 
 And throuoiit, the story is pervaded with 
 a spirit of genuin humor, refinement, 
 good sense, and feeling, which makes it 
 altogether delitful." [Knickerbocker.] 
 — "The man of whom all men speak 
 good becaus he does well to himself; 
 who makes cleverness take the place of 
 hard work, and taste that of conscience ; 
 and to whom ' the world appears merely 
 an " I writ large " ' has no doubt always 
 been u, recognized character, tho it has 
 been left to comparativly recent writers 
 to formulate him. Probably the ruffer 
 manner of a more plainspoken time kept 
 him in his place ; it may be doubted, 
 indeed, whether even Tito Melenja [No. 
 926] , the type for all time of this char- 
 acter, could really hav risen to. influence 
 in the Florence of his day, and whether 
 he is not a modern man projected on an 
 ancient state of society. However this 
 may be, he flourishes now, and several 
 writers of our time besides G : Eliot 
 hav studied him with precision. He is 
 an old acquaintance of Mr, Justice 
 Cunningham. Middle-aged people 
 remember as 5ne of the cleverest short 
 novels which th6y ever read a book 
 called ' Wheat and Tares,' in which is 
 sketched a brilliant yung man of this 
 sort." [AthenEeum. 1909 
 
 WHEN I WAS .. LITTLE GIKL. 
 [by Eliza (Tabor) Stephenson : Mac- 
 millan, 1871.] " The stories read 
 very like the genuin recollections of the 
 real girlhood of a charming woman, for 
 
 606 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 such a childhood could not help derelop- 
 Ing into a graceful and excellent woman- 
 hood. Tlie stories ar generally cheer- 
 ful; but th^re is one which will bring 
 tears into the eyes of all who read it. 
 For simplicity and pathos we hav seldom 
 read anything more touching than the 
 death of little Callie ; but the book ends 
 cheerfully and it will be pleasant reading 
 for gron people as well as for children." 
 [Athenaeum. 1910 
 
 WHEN WE TWO PARTED, [by 
 S.. DouDNEY : Maxwell, 1885.] " Th^re 
 is much to praise and little to find fault 
 with in this homely romance. The 
 nonconformist minister and his sur- 
 roundings, his puritan dauter and her 
 lively maid, and the humors of his 
 congregation ar drawn with a thoroly 
 sympathetic hand. Shrewd sayings in 
 -a. sententious form ar scattered thickly 
 throuoiit these pages, and prove the 
 author to be a close but kindly student 
 of humanity. She possesses, moreover, 
 a vfiin of quiet humor which emerges 
 pleasantly at times, as well as an artistic 
 restraint which spares the reader un- 
 necessary details." [Athenaeum. 1911 
 
 WHERE TEMPESTS BLOW, [by 
 M. W. Paxton : Ward ^ Downey, 
 188S.] " So unpretentious is the open- 
 ing of this novdl, that not until the 
 middle. of the first volume is reached 
 does the ireader irealize the welcbm 
 truth that he :has lit upon an uncom- 
 monly clever and engrossing novel . . . 
 Thfire is a great deal of local coloring, 
 but the freshness and Immor of these 
 pictures of scotch provincial life can 
 not fail to enlist the sympathy of the 
 reader by their truth and unconvention- 
 ality . . . Out of simple materials the 
 author has wr6t a singularly effectiv 
 story, steadily advancing in interest, and 
 concluding by a simple and artistic 
 denoumeut. We hav read ' Whfire 
 
 Tempests Blow' with genuin pleasure. 
 The style is vigorous and unaffected, 
 and in keeping with the bracing moral 
 atmosfere which pervades the whole 
 story." [.AthenEEum. 1912 
 
 WHICH SHALL IT BE ? [ by 
 " Mrs. Alexander," i. e., Annie 
 (French) Hector: Bentley, 1866; Holt, 
 1874.] "If we call this a remarkable 
 novel, it is less for what it performs 
 than for what it promises. In itself it 
 is rather a series of studies than a 
 finished work, and the reader will find 
 it a curious study rather than an inter- 
 esting novel . . . Madame de Fontarce, 
 born Blake de Ballyshanahau, is not 
 only a new character, but is drawn 
 with consummate art. Her outward 
 appearance and her menage ar not new 
 to us; but her religious principles, her 
 cheap charity, her way of living on 
 others and dying for them, ar sketched 
 to perfection." [AtheniEum. 1913 
 
 WHITE HEATHER. [by W '. 
 Black: Macmillan, 1885.] "Mr. 
 Black here displays more than one 
 attractiv quality of his art as a writer 
 of fiction, and it is fortunate both for 
 his readers and for himself that some 
 of these qualities ar much fresher, at 
 any rate in th^ir manifestations, than 
 others. Mr. Hudson and his dauter, 
 for instance, who ar foUoed in their 
 holiday pilgrimage throu the Scottish 
 heather, ar american studies of the best 
 kind, and will win their way at once to 
 the heart aS' well as to the critical 
 approval of the reader. Still more 
 directly will his heart be reached by the 
 gentle Meenie, a veritable scotti-sh las- 
 sie, drawn in Mr. Black's tenderest, if 
 not his strongest style. Ronald Strang, 
 the keeper, is the true hero . . . The 
 verses constitute another element of 
 freshness." [Athenaeum. 1914 
 
 WHITE HOUSE BY THE SEA 
 
 607 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 (The") [by Matilda [ Barbara ] 
 Betham Edwards : Smith, 1857.] "is 
 a novel of a, class now uncommon, 
 being made of love, pure ami simple, 
 and in the form of an autobiografy. 
 The heroin has two passions . . . The 
 tender-hearted reader, however, must 
 not despair; th^re is balm in Gilead, 
 for the yung girl quaffs a sweet nepenthe 
 of second love, and livs with her hus- 
 band in a place of pleasantness whSre 
 all her paths ar peace. Then returns 
 the false one, base and haggard, and 
 begs to be forgiven, which being done, 
 he disappears throu the shrubbery and 
 embarks for the East. It is a tale told, 
 apparently, by a youthful writer, and 
 may be commended to readers old enuf 
 to sympathize with its ecstacies of joy 
 and grief, and not too old to believe 
 in heart-blits and breathing passion- 
 flowers." [Leader. 1915 
 WHO IS SYLVIA? [by A. Price : 
 Harper, 1883.] "There is a 'bar 
 sinister ' in ' Who is Sylvia? ' and so 
 much misery descends upon her lovely 
 liead that it would be well to ■ read the 
 last chapter first, and then with a free 
 mind to enjoy the always charming 
 country life from which the book is 
 made. Sisterhoods afford new ground 
 for the novelist, and the scenes in St. 
 Mary's Refuge sho them at their best 
 and worst." [Nation. 1916 
 WILD HYACINTH [ by — ( ) 
 Kandolph : Lippincott, 1875.] "is a 
 very good novel, rich in good sense, 
 pleasant pictures of english life, and in- 
 structiv sketches of character. Its tone 
 is exceptionally refined, and its moral, 
 tho not emfatic, is excellent . . . The 
 author is very severe on ritualism and 
 woman's rits ; but these subjects ar not 
 prominent features of the story. The 
 characters ar drawn with great skill." 
 [Boston " Literary World." 1917 
 
 WILFRED CUMBERMEDE [by 
 G: MaoDonald: Ilurst, 1871] "is ex- 
 tremely original, clever and interesting. 
 But the fact that it satisfies these condi- 
 tions will not make it popular in the face 
 of one defect: we mean the want of 
 continuity in the narrativ, in which ar 
 many lacunae which one would like to 
 see filled — perplexities which remain 
 unsolvd, motivs which ar left unex- 
 plained, actions which ar never ac- 
 counted for . . . The good-hearted, 
 unworldly uncle to whose singular wis- 
 dom in dealing with children the boy 
 oed whatever happiness of his boyhood 
 he knew ; the worldly lawyer, — his 
 antitype — in whose fysiognomy the 
 unerring instinct of the child read the 
 base nature his conduct revealed, 
 Charley Osborne, his school and col- 
 lege friend, ruined by his father (an 
 evangelical) from whom he inherited an 
 abnormal sensibility, and who hated his 
 son for not having inherited also the 
 dogmas of his school ; Clara Coningham, 
 a woman capable of infinit good and 
 infinit baseness, if the motiv wer th^re; 
 and above all Mary Osborne, the 'Atha- 
 nasia ' of his dream who concealed, behind 
 the veil of a commonplace, expressionless 
 countenance, a nature more divine than 
 human, — in all these the reader will 
 find tokens that Mr. MacDonald's hand 
 has not lost its cunning. But besides 
 the faculty of drawing character, Mr. 
 MacDonald has a wonderful gift of 
 word-painting, which is shon more 
 especially in his descriptions of alpine 
 scenery, but comes out whenever he has 
 an occasion to make language supply the 
 lack of pictorial illustrations." [Athe- 
 n«um. 1918 
 
 WILFRED'S WIDOW [by — 
 (Smedley) Hart : Bentley, 1883.] "is 
 a thoroly amusing book, the interest of 
 which carries the reader on throu every 
 
 608 
 
BHITI3H NOVELS. 
 
 page of a sufficiently brief story. We 
 must say, however, that we hav seldom 
 read a story so lively which is open to 
 the old criticism that the bad character 
 of the novel is more interesting than any 
 of the good characters with which she 
 is br6t into unfavorable comparison. 
 It shos a good deal of that quiet humor 
 in which women, when they hav any 
 humor at all, so often excel. The story 
 opens with a picture of the deepest 
 grief. News of Wilfred's death has just 
 reached his family, who belong to the 
 stiffest county society. Then foUoes 
 the announcement that he had been mar- 
 ried in Australia, and that his wido is 
 coming. She arrives, and every one is 
 captivated by her surpassing beauty. 
 But she shoes a strange forgetfulness 
 or ignorance of all sorts of details with 
 which Wilfred's wido Ot to hav been 
 familiar [compare plot of ' Mrs. Fen- 
 ton '] . . The pictures of refined 
 country life ar excellent; and the 
 yung wido's astonishment, her vulgarity 
 and cleverness, and the absurd influence 
 of her beauty sho a keen power of ob- 
 servation and a sort of genial shrewd- 
 ness which charm the reader and interest 
 him in the story, altho he cannot fail to 
 see what the conclusion is to be. The 
 author's warm sympathy prevents her 
 insTt into character leading her to become 
 cynical. She succeeds in the cleverest 
 way in raising a kind of pity for the 
 ' wido ' at the very moment when her 
 wicked imposture is unmasked. The 
 style is brit and simple throuout, without 
 any affectation of cleverness, and the 
 characters appear to unfold themselves 
 in whole chapters of self -analysis." 
 [Athenseum. 1919 
 
 WILL DENBIGH. IRoberts, 1877.] 
 " Herter Kenrick, its heroin, is a fresh, 
 lovable bit of drawing. Her pretty 
 rages and jealousies, her warmth, her 
 
 impulsiv speeches, and loyalty to old 
 friends and fixed ideas, ar well depicted, 
 and very like the girls we kno in life. 
 Of Will Denbigh, the ' nobleman,' we 
 cannot say as much. He is a little too 
 deep and earnest and self-abnegating, a, 
 little too unlike mankind out of novels, 
 to excite our full sympathies. No Such 
 fault, hovTever, is to be found with Miss 
 Kenrick's other lover, Frank Halliday, 
 who is admirably natural; spoilt, attrac- 
 tiv, versatil, uncertain." [Boston " Lit- 
 erary World." 1920 
 
 WINNA [Charing Cross Pub. Co., 
 1878.] "is interesting. The people 
 ar ' nice,' and altho th^y hav their ' little 
 weaknesses ' they never scare us by get- 
 ting into any serious scrapes, or into 
 doubtful company. The scene of the 
 first half of the story is laid in Italy, at 
 the house of a baronet. To him enter 
 his nefew and his niece Winna, who 
 hav agreed to meet th^ir widoed mother 
 on her way from India to Florence . The 
 society of Florence seems to be cleverly 
 sketched, without any attempt at word- 
 painting or picturesque writing . . , 
 The scene changes to the Devonshire 
 village . . . She continues to entertain 
 us by brit passages of shrewd obser- 
 vation and characterisation . . . Each 
 character has an individuality . . . The 
 story is readable and thoroly pleasant 
 throuout." [Spectator. Iy21 
 
 WINTER STORY (A) [by F.. M.. 
 Peard: Roberts, 1877.] "is of rare 
 excellence from every point of vue. 
 Th^re is about it an air of good breed- 
 ing — an artistic completeness, symmetry 
 and finish — which sets it quite apart by 
 itself . . . The landscape of the south 
 of England is pictured with a loving and 
 faithful hand. The atmosfere is fresh, 
 pure, invigorating. The child life of 
 Ronald and Jess, the earlier remorse 
 and later peace of Philip, the gentle and 
 609 
 
BRITISH Nf)^^!I,S. 
 
 "\^aNDOAY IN THRUMS (A). [by 
 Ja.mes M. Bai!RIE: CVrs.sc/?, isill.] "To 
 the pleasure givt-n by the recorils ol life 
 iu the hamlet of Thrums, it is difficult to 
 say whether humor or pathos contributes 
 most. The grinding poverty, all the 
 more severe because decent and self- 
 respecting, the stern and unyielding 
 religious creed practiced by tliesc poor 
 weavers, the patience and dignity with 
 which both poverty and "the decrees of 
 God" ar borne, touch the heart with pity, 
 while the pictures of thSir vivid curiosity 
 as t5 thfiir nfibors, and the pains they 
 take to satisfy it, and the conduct of their 
 love affairs, ar replete with a quiet humor 
 that is very taking. The author, tho prin- 
 jipally occupied with the history of ijne 
 family, givs glimpses of T'nowhcad, Tam- 
 mas Haggart, the minister — not Mr. 
 Dishart [See Xo. 1475 m], his wife, and 
 others of the village. The glimpses of 
 Hendry's life open with the pleasing ex- 
 citement attendant upon the minister 
 leaving for a Sunday, and the conjectures 
 as to the personality of the supply, and, 
 more interesting yet, the probable lodg- 
 ing of the supply. Jess, Hendry's wife, 
 and the dauter, Leeby, ar fairly beside 
 themselvs with curiosity, and finally tri- 
 umphant over certainty of knoledge. 
 This description is full of dry humor and 
 naturalness. Stil more amusing is the 
 call which Hendry, Leeby and the domi- 
 nie make upon the minister, during which 
 Leeby assumes a downcast aspect and 
 dumb manner, which de9eives even the 
 minister's wife into a Ijelief in her dulness, 
 but the dominie listens as Leeby on her 
 return home tels her mother the exact 
 particulars as to the furnishings of the 
 manse, of the darned spot in the carpet 
 
 under the table, the worn plage in the 
 chair cover and the chamber fire-irons 
 which don't match. The interest of lh( sc 
 sketches lies in the regital of the homely 
 pleasures, the pitifully small amiiitions of 
 the family (the struggles to attain a bead- 
 ed cloak ar of a gravity sufligient for the 
 conduct of a state), the sweetness of thCi-r 
 affection, thfiir pride in Jamie the son, 
 and the bitterness of his neglcil and final 
 desertion which ar told by the sympa- 
 thetic onlooker, who deeply pities tho he 
 can not help. In this book perhaps more 
 than in any other, Barrie evinges his ap- 
 pregiation of the Scottish character. 
 Jlany sentences contain whole ^'olumes of 
 evidence as to the mingled narroness and 
 ambitions of the people." [ Spring- 
 Held I'lcpublican.] — "These reminiscences 
 of a very old man ar grouped about a 
 lame woman who, for 20 years or more, 
 silt at a windo looking down the brae 
 toards the town with the dismal name of 
 Thrums. The daily life of the decent 
 poor is pretty much the same the world 
 over, always commonplace, frequently 
 dismal. It is no more interesting in fic- 
 tion than in reality, unless the people who 
 ar obliged to put up with it hav some 
 inborn strength, or grace, or purity which 
 can't be destroyed by hard ccjuditions. 
 Such people Jlr. Barrie has chosen tij tel 
 about very simply and plainly, as befits 
 his subject. To appreciate the story fully, 
 one must hav some ac(|uaintance with 
 English as it is spoken from Maidenkirk 
 to .lohn o'Groat's House, tho enuf is told 
 in the uncorrupted tuug to giv an idea of 
 the fine spirit inhabiting Jess Hendry's 
 poor body, and of the gr(?at love with 
 which she inspired family and nfibors." 
 [Nation. 1920 p 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 true Hester, quaint farmer Ben and his 
 strong-minded wife, and the ins and outs 
 of the Pollard Farm, make up an ' en- 
 semble ' of uncommon attractivness. 
 The author writes with a reservd 
 power, pleasantly mingles the humorous 
 with the pathetic, and with great skill 
 brings a spring-time of life and joy to 
 succeed the ' winter ' of grief, loneli- 
 ness and despair with which her open- 
 ing pages ar chilled." [Boston "Liter- 
 ary World." 1922 
 
 "WITH HARP AND CROWN, [by 
 Wa. Besant & Ja. Rice : Tinsley, 
 1875.] " The heroin has the advantage 
 of most heroins, in that she has some 
 value as an ideal. She is patient, loving 
 and womanly ; an energetic worker in 
 the world without the cant of strong- 
 mindedness ; and faithful to a deep at- 
 tachment without hysterics or selfish- 
 ness. Her story is not an uncommon 
 one ; she simply finds that the love of 
 men does not bear the test of separation 
 like that of women; her struggle with 
 the world leaves external wounds, which 
 impair instead of enhancing the only 
 beauty for which her hero loved her; 
 and she has to resign the happiest of her 
 hopes in favor of one who has not earned 
 them . . . Owen, the schoolmaster, is 
 good and genial ; the impetuous hearti- 
 ness of his plans for regenerating society 
 is excellent. Another figure at the zero 
 point of moral excellence, is the sub- 
 lime Lillingworth, the hermit of Low- 
 land street, who deliberately contem- 
 plated the purchase of immortality by 
 the production of clap-trap and sensa- 
 tion memoirs." [Athenieum. 1923 
 
 WITHIN SOUND OF THE SEA 
 [by C. L.. (Hawkins) Dempster : 
 Paul, 1878.] "is a novel of a kind 
 wliich is not at all too common ; short, 
 natural, picturesque, never tedious, and 
 thoroly healthful." [Contemporary lie- 
 
 view.] — " The author of ' Blue Roses ' 
 writes delltfuUy. In her present tale the 
 scotch scenes ar particularly well-done. 
 Only those who kno Scotland well will 
 be able thoroly to appreciate their truth- 
 fulness. The description of the literary 
 and scientific society at Edinburgh, when 
 ' yung Robert ' is at the university, is 
 particularly good, and is not overdone 
 by fine writing. We can most thoroly 
 recommend the story to all persons 
 seeking a sound, wholesom novel." 
 [Westminster Review. 1924 
 
 WITHIN THE PRECINCTS, [by 
 Ma. Oliphant (Wilson) Oliphant : 
 Smith, 1879.] " The heroin is Lottie 
 Despard, the dauter of Captain Des- 
 pard, a gentleman of Irish descent and 
 fallen fortunes, who has recently been 
 elected one of the chevaliers . . . We 
 feel greatly for these two yung people, 
 whose troubles come home to us vividly ; 
 and we cannot repress a throb of sincere 
 sympathy when their jaunty, pretentious 
 father, in his shabby coat with the 
 flower in the buttonhole, brings matters 
 to a climax by providing them with a. 
 stepmother in the person of an atrocious- 
 ly vulgar and flippant yung dressmaker, 
 who is a mesalliance even for him, and 
 turns the already miserable home liter- 
 ally upside down . . . How Lottie wins 
 a lover, considerably above her in 
 society, and how she is innocently and 
 unconsciously br6t to the brink of ruin, 
 is touchingly told ; our sympathies go 
 entirely with Lottie throuout the story, 
 and she wins our affection involuntarily. 
 Within the Precincts is a pleasant, 
 cheerful bit of life, with its touch of 
 romance and sentiment, its clever but 
 harmless irony, and its fidelity to human 
 nature." [Boston " Lit. World." 1925 
 
 WIVES AND DAUGHTERS, [by 
 E.. Cleghorn (Stevenson) Gaskell: 
 Harper, 1865.] " In ' Wives and 
 
 610 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 Daughters ' Mrs. Gaskell added, we 
 think, to the number of those works of 
 fiction — of which we cannot perhaps 
 count more than a score as having been 
 produced in our time — -which will out- 
 last the duration of their novelty and 
 Continue to be read and relished for a 
 hier order of merit. Besides being the 
 best of the author's tales — putting 
 aside 'Cranford' [No. 1175], that is, 
 (which as a work of quite other preten- 
 sions 6t not to be w^d against it, and 
 which seems to us manifestly destined 
 in its modest way to become a classic) 
 — it i^ also one of the very best novels of 
 its kind. So delicately, so elaborately, 
 so artistically, so truthfully, and heartily 
 is the story wr6t out, that the hours 
 given to its perusal seem like hours 
 actually spent, in the flesh as well as the 
 spirit, among the scenes and people de- 
 scribed, in the atmosfere of their motivs, 
 feelings, traditions, associations. The 
 gentle skill with which the reader is 
 sloly involved in the tissue of the story ; 
 the delicacy of the handiwork which has 
 perfected every mesh of the net in 
 which he finds himself ultimately en- 
 tangled; the lltness of touch which, 
 while he stands all unsuspicious of lit- 
 erary artifice, has stopped every issue 
 into the real world . . . these marvel- 
 lous results, we say, ar such as to com- 
 pel the reader's warmest admiration, and 
 make him feel, in his gratitude for this 
 seeming accession of social and moral 
 knoledge, as if he made but a poor re- 
 turn to the author in testifying, no mat- 
 ter how strongly, to the fact of her 
 genius." [Nation. 1926 
 
 WIZARD'S SON (The) [by Ma. 
 Oliphant (Wilson) Oliphant : Uar- 
 per, 1884.] "is in the author's less 
 pleasing manner, the plot being of the 
 mysterious and exciting kind ; but she 
 manages her old castle and her en- 
 
 chanter or her ghost better than any 
 body else now writing can. The reader's 
 approval of the tale will vary in propor- 
 tion to his willingness to put up with 
 unexplained mysteries, but all will agree 
 in the charm of the yung girls. ' Hes- 
 ' ter ' is as delitf ul as any whom Mrs. 
 Oliphant has drawn, while so different 
 from the others as to strengthen the 
 opinion long prevailing in circles whfire 
 her books ar enjoyed, that slie must 
 take each one carefully from life, for 
 how could one imagination supply so 
 many?" [Nation.] — "It is a. book 
 which comes so near to positiv greatness 
 that the sudden and amazing falling-ofE 
 in the final chapters moves one to a 
 species of exasperation. A very com- 
 monplace yung man falling hSir to an 
 ancient and ghost-encumbered inherit- 
 ance in Scotland afforded a matchless 
 opportunity for the calm and candid 
 consideration of the relations between 
 the canny and the uncanny , between the 
 comforts of modern civilization and the 
 venerable fenomena of second-sit. The 
 story is accordingly conceived in a 
 quaint spirit of equal hospitality to the 
 two sets of influences ; and it is most 
 skillfully sustained to the last, being 
 made to move smoothly and, so to 
 speak, naturally along the narro line 
 between the possible and the impossible. 
 The human characters ar as distinct as 
 need be, — altogether such as ourselvs, 
 and visited only from time to time by 
 the ' blank misgivings of a creature 
 moving about in worlds not realized ; ' 
 the ' revenant ' is entirely ' comme il 
 faui.' All goes weirdly and well up to 
 the moment of the final catastrofe, 
 which it would hav been so easy, one 
 would think, to manage with the same 
 fine and faultless ambiguity. If only 
 the haunted tower had been made to 
 crumble without warning of its inevi- 
 
 611 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 table decay, putting forever beyond the 
 reach of investigation the mysteries 
 which had pervaded it, the conclusion 
 would hav been perfectly consistent and 
 credible, and the reaction in the reader's 
 mind would probably hav been toward 
 wonder and faith. The lovers mit still 
 hav been buried beneath the ruin, and 
 then exhumed alive, if their merciful 
 author absolutely would. But the an- 
 tiquated and tawdry machinery of the 
 secret chamber, the mystic lamp, the 
 winking portrait, and the alchemist 
 ' properties ' generally test our credulity 
 too severely, and make us more than 
 half ashamed of the sincerity of our 
 interest. Loch Houran tower is reduced 
 to the rank of the Castle of Udolpho 
 [No. 858]." [Atlantic. 1927 
 
 WOMAN OF MIND (A) [by — 
 (Jerrold) Smith: iow, 1879.] "is a 
 pleasant tale told in a pleasant and 
 unaffected manner. The style is fresh 
 and brit, the characters simple and 
 straitforward, without a touch of that 
 obnoxious fastness with which too many 
 novelists think fit to pander to a corrupt 
 taste. Her heroin, if a woman of mind, 
 is none the less a woman of heart." 
 [Athenaeum. 1928 
 
 WOMAN'S KINGDOM (The) [by 
 Dinah Maria (Mulock) Craik : Har- 
 per, 18G8.] " as a love story is a success. 
 It is not easy to conjure so much out of 
 so little ; and the author deservs credit 
 for liaving made so readable a book 
 with only ' speaking parts ' in it . . . 
 But Letty, the bad angel of the book, is 
 truly amusing; her airy selfishness, 
 meant to be very wicked, is piquant and 
 excessivly diverting. Her author called 
 her into being to teach yung people 
 liow wicked it is to flirt and break yung 
 men's hearts, by pretending to love 
 them. But the yung persons will see 
 that a fatal error had been made in 
 
 Letty's anatomy, by leaving out a heart ; 
 consequently, they will be diverted by 
 her old speeches, and may possibly si 
 that they ar not so beautiful as this, 
 heartless yung woman is represented as 
 being. And, after all, is tli^re not a 
 certain flavor of wildnoss in the human 
 heart that revolts at the prospect of such 
 a dead level of humdrum goodness as 
 that which we ar morally certain must 
 be the lot of the married Doctor and 
 Edna? " [Overland. 1929 
 
 WOMAN'S VICTORY (A) [by 
 Agnes C. Maitland : Tinsley, 1876.] 
 " is a thOtfuUy written story . . . Wyn- 
 ward, a thdtful and noble sort of man, 
 has married a cold-blooded lady of 
 fashion, who is attracted to him by his 
 fortune, and soon ceases to conceal the 
 indifference she feels for his aspirations. 
 [Compare plot of ' Marcia.'] The 
 falling of the unequal yoke is described 
 with painful fidelity. After the pair 
 hav long lived separate c5mes the ac- 
 quaintance between Acton and Miss 
 Colquhoun. Some scenes of terrible 
 trial which the latter pass throu together 
 awake in the man the conciousness of 
 his true feelings for the woman. In a 
 moment of pain and weakness he reveals 
 his secret. They part in an agony of 
 love and shame, never to meet again. 
 Helen, who is most wed down by what 
 she thinks her guilt, is enabled, by a 
 strange turn of fortune, to save the life 
 of tlie woman to whom she oes an act 
 of reparation, and perishes in doing so. 
 Such is the outline of the tale, and its 
 powerful conception is equalled by the 
 skill of its gradual development. The 
 victory of poor Helen over her rebellious 
 heart involvs a desperate conflict, but 
 she comes out from it in the full pos- 
 session of those faculties which throuout 
 her short life hav been devoted to the 
 good of others. The incidents of life 
 
 612 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 in a manufacturing town, which include 
 the memorable famin during the ameri- 
 can war [compare 'Probation'], ar told 
 with a viyidness which denotes either 
 actual experience or large powers of 
 observant sympathy." [Athen. 1930 
 
 WOMAN'S WILL, [by F.. [E..] 
 (H.) Burnett, Wame, 1887.] = MISS 
 DEFAROE. 
 
 WOODLANDERS (The) [by T: 
 Hardy: Harper, 1887.] "is a story of 
 the present epoch, yet it seems better to 
 describe Shakespeare's England than the 
 England of our on time ; the England of 
 May-poles, midsummer-eve wanderings 
 in haunted woods, all sorts of rustic cus- 
 toms and old time observances. It is 
 indeed the magic of the triumf of Mr. 
 Hardy's art that he has thus wr6t im- 
 perishably into the mosaic of his novels 
 the vanishing poetry, and traditions of 
 old England. The story before us is 
 too hily and subtly colored by the 
 author's genius to be fairly told except 
 as he has told it. It is in a hi degree 
 fascinating, but it is also one of the 
 dreariest and most hopeless of books." 
 [American.] — " The Woodlanders is a 
 disagreeable novel ; th^re is no disguis- 
 ing this melancholy conclusion. It 
 arouses the keenest sympathies on the 
 part of the reader, may, indeed, if he 
 be of sensitiv fiber, wring him with 
 anguish, and leav him at the last, baffled, 
 stupified, cast down. The quality of 
 inevitableness is thSre, and glvs the 
 book hi rank as a work of art, but the 
 inevitableness is too irresistible, too im- 
 placable. Edgar Fitzspiers is a monster 
 of selfishness — a man who, while en- 
 gaged in a shameful intrigue with a 
 village wench, is pursuing the courtship 
 of the sweet girl who soon becomes his 
 wife, and whom within a, few months he 
 forsakes for the companionship of an 
 adventuress. And when one nit it is 
 
 th6t that Fitzspiers has been killed by a 
 fall from his horse, these 3 women meet 
 and shed th^ir tears together ; while the 
 wife, altho in love with another — poor 
 Giles Winterbourne, the most pathetic 
 of all these victims of circumstances — 
 the wife, wooed again by the returned 
 husband, succumbs to his blandishments 
 and consents to a reunion before the 
 grass has gron upon the grave of the 
 guileless, chivalric lover who gave up 
 his life to save her from open shame. 
 By the side of Giles Wenterbourne Mr. 
 Hardy places another figure whose con- 
 sistency of purpose and unyielding fidel- 
 ity, ar equally pathetic and devoid of 
 fruition. Mary South is a supremely 
 successful embodiment of homely, faith- 
 ful love, one who, made to play a thank- 
 less and even absurd part, at the last 
 touches sublimity." [Boston "Literary 
 World." 1931 
 
 WOODLEIGH [by F : W : Kobin- 
 son: Hurst, 1859.] "is a good novel, 
 and one which will be read with interest 
 not merely for the story — the interest 
 of which is kept to the last — but for the 
 knoledge of human nature and life-like 
 characters it contains, with the sound 
 common sense which is so deficient in 
 most novels, but which is one of the 
 especial attractions of the author of 
 ' The Wild-flower.' There is no hi flon 
 description of beautiful heroes and 
 heroins ; the characters ar all poor 
 earthly mortals, as plain as one meets 
 in every day life, and painted with all 
 their imperfections on their heads, as 
 a warning to others with the same 
 faults — as novel characters should be 
 . . . Woodleigh is not a novel to be 
 read and thron aside ; it will be found 
 quite as interesting in the second 
 perusal. The author possesses two 
 excellent qualities requisit for the 
 novelist, namely, — a great knoledge 
 C13 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 of character and the art of telling a 
 story." [Leader. 1932 
 
 WOOED AND MARRIED [by 
 Rosa Nocohette Carey : Lippincott, 
 1876.] " bears in its title a rather 
 frank avowal of those subjects which 
 writers of fiction hay seldom found it to 
 their interest to eschew. Here we hav 
 our old friend, the poor governess, ap- 
 parently insignificant and girlish; but, 
 altho she has a way of yielding to her 
 quick temper, she has the good fortune 
 to interest a number of people in her, 
 and in time, after much delay, she mar- 
 ries the squire ' with the quizzical eyes.' 
 Th^re is in all this a good deal of ' gush- 
 ing ' ; but thfire is less of it when the 
 author fairly buckles down to business, 
 and it is her digressions which ar the 
 most tiresome things in the book. There 
 is besides this a more serious fault — 
 the wholesale slauter and maiming of 
 so many of the characters. Rheumatic 
 fever, dislocated ankles, blindness, 
 heart disease, hunting accidents, and 
 sudden death make the story almost as 
 alarming reading as a report of sewage 
 commissioners ; but then th^y supply 
 incidents enuf to interest the most 
 callous." [Nation. 1933 
 
 WOOING O'T (The), [by "Mrs. 
 Alexander," i.e., Annie (French) Hec- 
 tor : Holt, 1873.] " Mrs. Berry is a good 
 type, and so is the polished and scound- 
 relly M. de Bragance, who after he has 
 married the wido and got hold of her 
 property, begins his travels not only 
 with her but with another lady no better 
 than she should be, not troubling him- 
 self afterward much about the formor, 
 who finds a refuge in England . . . 
 Maggie Grey, the heroin, with her 
 familiar eyes of changing blue, pensiv, 
 sensitiv, — shy mouth, indescribable nose, 
 frank, open forehead, delicately turned 
 neck, and pretty figure, beloved by 
 
 Lord Torchester, her cousin John 
 Grey, and by the hero, Geoffrey Traf- 
 ford, always modest, always natural, 
 alvi-ays charming, has not infrequently 
 been met by novel-readers ; while Traf- 
 ford himself, the aristocratic, sarcastic, 
 witty, traveled man of the world, who 
 at 32 has exhausted its pleasures, and 
 who, tho ' steady,' would ' stick at noth- 
 ing which he wanted very much,' who is 
 always a perfect gentleman, however, 
 with inflnit depths of possible passion 
 in his dark eyes, which makes all women 
 say instinctivly to themselvs, ' How he 
 could love ! ' who deeply loves Maggie 
 and is deeply loved not only by her but 
 by a legion of other women — Geoffrey 
 Trafford, too, has been playing his part 
 for a long time." [Galaxy. 1934 
 
 WORLD WE LIVE IN (The) [by 
 Oswald Crawford : Chapman, 1884.] 
 " is a capital novel. It is lively and 
 sparkling throuout, and one can only re- 
 gret that it is so short. The story is ex- 
 cellently contrived, and told not merely 
 in an easy and racy style, but with 
 admirable skill. The action all takes 
 place in the course of a few days at a 
 country house. The house party fur- 
 nish the characters, and an excellent 
 party they make. They ar drawn with 
 a firm hand, and stand out distinct and 
 intelligible. ' The World We Live In' 
 will be popular with men as well as with 
 women. It is the sort of novel which 
 men like. Not much burdened with 
 analysis, and free from disquisition, and 
 description, it is full of good spirits, and 
 love, and bits of good criticism. It is a 
 pleasure to find a writer who takes a 
 cheerful vue of life and is ready to be- 
 lieve well of human nature, and who yet 
 writes like a man of the world, and, if it is 
 not impertinent to say so, like an educated 
 gentleman too." [Athenseum. 1935 
 WORLD'S VERDICT, [by " Annie 
 
 614 
 
BBITISH NOVELS. 
 
 Edwards : " Hurst, 1861.] " We could 
 not giv a, sketch of the story without 
 greatly diminishing the reader's pleasure 
 when he gets the book, for it contains 
 a story, an I a very good one, worked 
 out with all the art which is necessary 
 for concealing art. The only question- 
 able point in the mere execution, is 
 whether the first chapters, in which the 
 hero, saddened by his wretched fate, is 
 introduced to the reader at Brighton, 
 should hav been the first chapters, or 
 not. But the best beginning of a tragic 
 tale is sometimes difficult to find; and 
 poor G: Rutherford mit not hav excited 
 the reader's attention, if he had not been 
 introduced on his first starting in life 
 as an artist. The character of Laura 
 Bellayne is powerful in Its truth ; thSre 
 is no word too much or too little about 
 that woman. Vain, weak, coquettish, 
 false, heartless, cold and sensual, yet 
 beautiful outwardly, with brain and his- 
 trionic talent enuf to act any part they 
 choose for th^ir selfish ends, such 
 women hav the power to lure the love 
 of the best men, if those men ar too 
 yung and unworldly to be aware of their 
 dodges. Laura is a fine specimen of a 
 bad woman — very different from Becky 
 Sharp ; but as clever a sketch as the 
 latter is a finished picture. Laura, with 
 her large, soft, hazel eyes, her small, 
 white hands, and her graceful figure, is 
 as clear to the mind's eye as the won- 
 derful, piquante, plain, white-sholdered 
 Becky." [Spectator. 1936 
 
 WrNCOTE [by — ( ) Erskine : 
 Holt, 1875.] "is a very quiet story, re- 
 markable for its pleasant pictures of 
 village society, and its delineation of a 
 noble family reduced almost to indi- 
 gence, and restored by marriage into a 
 rich plebeian family. Three of the 
 feminin characters ar very lovely, — 
 Phoebe, the heroin, Rose Cooper, and 
 
 the brave, strong, yet tender-hearted 
 Camilla." [Boston '■ Literary World."] 
 — "Mrs. Erskine's heroin is a yung 
 girl who has been brot from Rome, 
 wh^re she was the much-tried' dauter of 
 a blind and starving artist, to officiate 
 as companion to an ancient lady, under 
 the eye of the latter 's dauter, a strenu- 
 ous old maid of charitable pursuits and 
 a romantic history. Miss Camilla, the 
 old maid, is extremely good, and the 
 author has happily commingled in her 
 composition the disagreeable and the 
 sympathetic. Thi^re ar various other per- 
 sons, especially a certain Lydia Ashton, 
 a yung lady who ' goes in ' for the 
 hiest aesthetic culture. She is very 
 well done, her companions ar litly but 
 happily touched, and the story, albeit 
 rather tame, is agreeable and naturally 
 unfolded. It has a compactness and 
 symmetry which denote an artistic in- 
 stinct, and it is , in a good sense of the term, 
 a ladylike book." [Nation. 1937 
 
 YOUNG MISTLEY. {Bentley, 1888.] 
 " Except in a few scenes in which some 
 melodramatic f orein conspirators play an 
 eminently futil part, the characters of 
 ' Young Mistley ' ar well drawn and in 
 effectiv contrast ... It is a graceful 
 and pleasing story, with an attractiv 
 heroin and a gallant hero, equally suc- 
 cessful in diplomacy and private theat- 
 ricals. The author has a wholesom 
 regard for chivalrous adventurers, and 
 metes out hard words to the disciples of 
 asceticism, who ar described as ' dam- 
 sels who mistake, in themselves, bodily 
 weakness for mental wo, dressing in 
 sombre misshapen garments In order to 
 pass on the belief to others.' Nor is 
 the pathetic side of life unrepresented 
 in these pages. Laurence Lowe is an 
 interesting figure, a taciturn, steadfast 
 man who had ' stood by ' all his life." 
 [Athenjeum. 1938 
 
 615 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 YOUNG MRS. JARDINE. [by Di- 
 nah Makia (Mdlock) Craik: Hurst, 
 1879.] " It requires courage to write a 
 book, nowadays, in which the sentiment 
 is healthful and the characters healthy. 
 This book takes us back to a few such 
 simple ideas as love, truth, honor, and 
 embodies them in strong personifications. 
 Th^re is a refreshing optimism which 
 abounds on every page, altho now and 
 then degenerating into ' gush.' Th^re 
 is no striking originality in the story or 
 the people it tells of. Roderick Jardine 
 fell in love with a young girl whom he 
 saw by the lake side at Neucliatel, 
 and afterward discovered to be Silence 
 Jardine, the dauter of the kinsman, who 
 had died . . . The poverty was the 
 graceful, self-respecting poverty of the 
 Swiss protestant community, and the 
 picture of Silence is drawn with affec- 
 tionate eagerness, as presenting a not 
 unknon type of puritan loveliness. 
 Roderick was enchanted with the village 
 refinement of life into which he was 
 suddenly thrust . . . The book is chiefly 
 an account of the love, life, and strug- 
 gles of this yung couple. Roderick is 
 unused to poverty, is ashamed to work 
 at first, and learns the lesson with some 
 bitterness of heart, coming out nobly, 
 however, at the last. ' Young Mrs. 
 Jardine,' who is, perhaps a trifle over- 
 drawn, is an unselfish and devoted 
 character. We hav no hesitation in 
 pronouncing the book worthy of the hi 
 reputation of its author." [Californian 
 and Atlantic. 1939 
 
 YOUNG MUSGRAVE. [by Ma. Oli- 
 PHANT (Wilson) Oliphant : Macmillan, 
 1878.] " Pity that a thoroly successful 
 writer should be stirred by the natural 
 but rather childish ambition to sho that 
 his or her power is not limited by one 
 style, or one tone of feeling, or to the 
 description of one class of people and 
 
 6 
 
 manner of life. Mrs. Oliphant is so 
 thoroly admirable — so unrivalled in 
 her peculiar department (country-town 
 life, and the strife between Church and 
 Dissent at the vicarage, the chapel 
 house, the squire's and the grocer's) — 
 that it is to be regretted that she should 
 try her hand at what approaches ro- 
 mance, — the castle, the lake, the fells, 
 the gypsies, the madman, and the mur- 
 derer [compare Nos. 744 and 1927]. 
 And yet this story had nearly been a 
 success. We read the first volume with 
 great pleasure and some genuin delit. 
 The decaying grandeur of the castle, 
 the bleak fells, and the gleamy lake, 
 bordered by its storm-beaten pines, ar 
 described with a striking picturesque- 
 ness ; and in keeping with them ar the 
 wiry old squire, who has been a hard 
 man in his day, tho venerable and re- 
 spectable now, — for, as Mrs. Oliphant 
 rather cynically observes, ' age has a 
 way of counterfeiting virtue, which is 
 generally very successful;' and Mary, 
 his dauter, a timid, gentle, loving old- 
 maid, still blushing at the recollection 
 of her admirers, who devotes herself to 
 her old father and a little niece and 
 nefew ; and the said niece and nefew — 
 motherless children — the former a most 
 attractiv picture of the motherly instinct 
 in little girls, which is capable of nerv- 
 ing them to unwonted courage, but which 
 givs way quickly to the timidity of the 
 child and the dependence of the woman." 
 [Spectator.] — " It contains many ele- 
 ments of a first rate novel. Had. Mrs. Oli- 
 phant only been content to tell a simple 
 story instead of straining her inventiv 
 faculties to the utmost in order to con- 
 struct a far-fetched, intricate plot, in- 
 tended to keep on the tipto of expectation 
 to the end of the third volume, herpreseut 
 book would be a truly charming work . . . 
 The interest of the story depends on the 
 16 
 
BRITISH NOVELS. 
 
 author's nice discrimination of character, 
 sympathetic insit into child life, true 
 sentiment, and fine descriptir power. 
 She has what Carlyle calls the faculty 
 of ' seeing.' In a few words, sometimes, 
 she not only renders the outer aspect 
 of nature, but its inmost expression. 
 Some of her descriptions rise to the 
 hit of poetry." [Athenajum. 1940 
 Z.\IDEE. [by Ma. Oliphant (Wil- 
 son) Oliphant : Blackwood, 1856.] 
 ' ' A charming family at a country house 
 in Cheshire ar about to celebrate the 
 coming of age of the hSir ; the father 
 has long been dead. A few days before 
 the grand event, Zaidee, the orfan child 
 of a yunger brother, finds inside an old 
 book in a deserted garret, a lost will, — 
 by which the estate is bequeathed to her 
 
 father, and consequently she is the 
 ritful heiress to the Grange. Dread- 
 fully shocked at this discovery, she 
 mopes about the house, not daring to 
 destroy the document, and yet made 
 miserable by keeping it, — her sorro 
 betrays her and her secret is surprised ; 
 the fatal document is read by the family, 
 who all aeknoledge it as genuin, — an! 
 cousin Zaidee, driven to despair because 
 her cousin will not accept the estate as a 
 gift, obtains a very apocryfal letter of 
 introduction to a family in London who 
 ar in want of a nursery governess . . . 
 All these impossibilities ar, however, so 
 well and pleasantly narrated that the 
 reader is carried along, step by step, 
 until it pleases the author to unravel the 
 tangle of affairs." [Athenaeum. 1941 
 
 "Who read english books? American young people read them — to 
 their own undoing. Much has been said of the evil results of the reading 
 of cheap sensational novels upon boys and girls. They are advised not to 
 read these bad books, but to take good books. Thousands of our young 
 people never see the dime-novel type of book because they have plenty of 
 good novels, well written, refined, interesting, moral in tone, and apparently 
 without any harmful tendency. Now the larger part of these (in a literary 
 sense) excellent books are written in England by english authors, and are 
 read by american young people to their lasting injury, and to the injury of our 
 time and country. These english writers intend no harm ; their books are 
 strictly moral and convey many good and noble lessons ; and yet the books do 
 lasting harm, and to their influence can be traced much of the false pride, 
 incompetency, idleness and vice to be found in our cities. These harmful 
 lessons in so many english novels are writ between the lines — unread, yet 
 clearly understood and believed . . . It is impossible to say what is the exact 
 influence of these books on our young people. It is clearly not for good. 
 Do they not explain in part much of the idleness, the false pride, the secret 
 worship of rank that fills their minds ? At any rate, they are un-american 
 and we do not want them.'' [Maurice Thompson in Critic. 
 
 617 
 
PRICE: ONE COPY, ^1.00; TWO COPIES, $1.50; THREE. $2.25; FOUR. $3.00; FIVE, $3.25; SIX, $*,00; TEN, $6.00. 
 
 DESCRIPTIVE LIST 
 
 OF 
 
 NOVELS AND TALES 
 
 DEALING WITH 
 
 LIFE IN FRANCE. 
 
 COMPILED BY 
 
 W : M. GRISWOLD, A. B. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE, MASS: 
 
 W : M. GRISWOLD, Publisher, 
 
 1892. 
 
French Noybls. 
 
 The object of this list is to direct readers, such as would enjoy the kind of books 
 here described, to a number of novels, easily accessible, but which, in mdntj cases, 
 have been forgotten loithin a year or two after publication. That the existence of 
 works of fiction is remembered so short a time is a pity, since, for every new book 
 of merit, there are, in most libraries, a hundred as good or better, unknown to the 
 majority of readers. It is hoped that the publication of this and similar lists will 
 lessen, in some measure, the disposition to read an inferior new book when supe- 
 rior OLD books, equally fresh to most readers, are at hand. It may be observed that 
 the compiler has tried to include only such works as are well-written, interesting, 
 and are free from sensationalism, sentimentality, and pretense. But in a few 
 cases, books have been noticed on account of the reputation of their authors, or 
 their great popularity , rather than their merit. 
 
 The selected ^'notices" are generally abridged. 
 
 This list will be followed by others describing QMUMAN, EGCENTBIG, and 
 FANCIFUL novels and tales. 
 
 ABBfi CONSTANTIN, by L. Hal- 
 EVY, = No. 401. 
 
 ABBE'S TEMPTATION (The). 
 [Faute de 1' Abbe Mouret.) by Emilb 
 Zola : Peterson, 1879.] "The Abbe is 
 pastor of a village church. He falls il. 
 The means resorted t6 for his cure 
 bring him int6 the companionship of a 
 wildly fascinating yung girl, under cir- 
 cumstances which favor the groth of an 
 absorbing passion between the tw6. 
 The priest 16ses not only his heart but 
 his head. The pair, exalted int6 an un- 
 natural state, ar left t6 themselvs, like 
 another Adam and Eve in Paradise. 
 The conflicts which the soul may un- 
 dergo hav seldom been depicted with 
 greater intensity and exuberance — 
 some would say extravagance — of im- 
 agination than in the scenes in the 
 
 lonely glades of Paradon. But the 
 awakening comes. He returns t6 his 
 altar, under the retribution of re- 
 morse; she makes expiation by death. 
 Throu the whole romance runs the 
 deep undertone of the most fervent 
 type of roman-catholic faith and piety ; 
 and around the ill-fated lovers pass 
 and repass the forms of a few ecclesi- 
 astics and villagers, wh6 variously 
 contribute t6 the liter or graver ele- 
 ments in the tragedy. The power in 
 this original and striking tale is not to 
 be denied, but it is far from being of a 
 wholesom kind." [Boston "Literaiy 
 World." 1943 
 
 .SAME ("The, Abbe Mouret 's 
 
 Transgression"), London, 1880. 
 
 AD£;LE, by J. Kavanagh, = No. 
 403. 
 
 61S 
 
FliENCH NiiVKI,S. 
 
 ABBE TIGltAXK (TlicJ. [Iiy Kkk- 
 i>iNAM> F.uiitu: X.-V., Ford, 1S75.] 
 "ThCre is something pi^Jitivly startliiii,' in 
 the fleverucss :ur1 mnelty of this book. 
 Comp:iring it with otlier stories of ec.clesi- 
 astieal life, from Le M audit [Xo. 2207] 
 to Barchester Tnv)ers [No. 1082] it 
 resembles none except perhaps one or two 
 of Droz" sketches, which :ir faint and 
 slight beside it. Th(Sre is no skctchiness 
 in the • X\)]>(- Tigraue' ; it is a full and fin- 
 ished picture in n, masterly manner. It 
 would be difficult to say whether the outer 
 or the inner life, the words or the deeds 
 of the personages, ar most strikinyly and 
 truthfully portrayed. The scene is laid in 
 a little town hidden among the hils, of 
 which any one who has been in the south 
 of France has seen the like, with narro, 
 crooked streets, a small but ex5itable 
 torrent spanned by a stone bridge, and a 
 grand cathedral — an old quarter of res- 
 pectability and religious houses, a new 
 quarter of factories and poverty. The 
 lay element plays but a subordinate part., 
 tho as ably handled as the rest. The mag- 
 nates of the town ar ecclesiastics, and thfiy 
 ar many masters, oing to the afflux of 
 religious orders and dignitaries tij this 
 favored spot. Of course the bishop is 
 hiest in position, but the Abbe (_'apdepont, 
 vicar-general, etc., nicknamed the Abbe 
 Tigrane, almost counterl)alaii(,es him by 
 personal weight." [ Lippincott's Jlaga- 
 zine. 1943 s 
 
 618 d 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 AFTER-DIN.NER STOEIES, by 
 Balzac, N.-l'., 1889] contains The 
 Bed Inn, M'me Firmiani, TTie Grande 
 Breteche, M"me de Beauseant. 1944 
 
 ALAIN FAMIIA' (The). [by 
 Alphonse Kakr: (t 1890) London, 
 Cook & Co., 1853.] '-Mr. Karr seems 
 to kno and to love the district where he 
 has laid the scene of the story. The 
 christening of a new boat, with which 
 the novel opens, — the simple orisons 
 and fearful suspense of those left at 
 home when their loved ones ar out at 
 sea in stormy weather, — with number- 
 less like scenes and traits, endear the 
 tale t6 us, and giv it a close hold on 
 the hefirt. — There is character in Pul- 
 chfirie's experiences of parisian semi- 
 nary life : there is humor in the 
 miserable attempts of the Malins t6 
 act the patronizing grandeur of 
 country aristocrats, the humor shading 
 naturally intd pathos when the 'seig- 
 neur' becomes impoverished." [Athe- 
 naeum. 1945 
 
 ALBERT SAVARUS, by Balzac, 
 in Comedie Humaine. 1946 
 
 ALCHEMIST (The), by Balzac 
 .= No. 583. 
 
 ALIETTE ['-LaMorte"] by Oc- 
 TAYE Feuillet: TTanje, 1886. 1947 
 
 ALKAHEST, by Balzac, = No. 
 583. 
 
 ALL FOR GREED. [by [M.. 
 Pauline] Rose (Stewart) Blaze, 
 called ''baroness" and "de Bury":* 
 Littell, 1868.] "Those only wh6 hav 
 lived for a long period in France, and 
 hav become familiar with life in the 
 provinces, can appreciate the faithful 
 description which the author givs of 
 the habits and customs, the ignorance 
 and prejudice, and the marked peculiar- 
 
 *"Why? Blaze is Blaze, — son of Blaze the 
 musician." — P. Chasles in Athenaeum, 28 Bee. 
 
 1872. 
 
 ities of persons niiiving in very narro 
 circles and dwelling in districts remote 
 from the capital. There is, of course, 
 a noble vicomte, proud of liis ancestry, 
 an unsullied representativ of his 
 ■•order', and "true to his name" throu 
 all the vicissitudes of fortune, living 
 in the ancestral chateau in a condition 
 of discomfort t6 which no well-t6-d6 
 tradesman would submit. . . The only 
 expedient for enlivening the dulness of 
 daily life among these quiet iieople 
 seems t6 consist of a murder, and as 
 one is sure t6 occur when the com- 
 munity arrives at the last stage of 
 stagnation, its introduction is not only 
 appropriate but looked for; and this 
 incident, with its consequences, its 
 mystery, the trial of those who ar 
 wrongfully accused, the devotion of 
 the yung girl wh6 saves her lover at 
 the risk of her reputation, and the 
 final discovery of the culprit, form the 
 ground work of this very interesting 
 narrativ." [Round Table. 1948 
 
 ALMOST A DUCHESS, by OlCxA 
 (Gkant) de Longueiul,,= Nos. 407 
 & 586. 1949 
 
 AMERICAN (The) [Paris] = 
 No. 410. 
 
 ANDRf:, by "G : Sand" (Paris, 
 1835) London,. Churton, 1847. 1950 
 
 ANDRfi CORNELIS, by • Paul 
 Bourget : S. Blackett, 1889. 1951 
 
 ANDREW THE SAVOYARD, [by 
 [C:] Paul de Kock : (t, 1871)London, 
 Simms, 1847.] "Humor is not the 
 only characteristic of de Kock ; he has 
 another virtue, — the truth of his pict- 
 ures of life and society. In the repic- 
 sentations of humorous scenes he may 
 be charged with exaggeration, but 
 when he c5mes t6 the quiet develop- 
 ment of character, by means of social 
 and familiar scenes taken from common 
 life, he is t6 be equaled by only one 
 
 610 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 writer of our country. The resem- 
 blance between the novels of Paul de 
 Kock and those of Jane Austen Is as 
 strong as can exist between the pro- 
 ductions of a Parisian author and 
 those of an English lady. The hum- 
 orous scenes of the f oreiner undoubt- 
 edly turn upon incidents, and ar 
 supported with an extravagance, 
 unknon to our countrywoman ; but 
 when they come t6 the nice distinct- 
 ions of character, t6 the play of 
 domestic life, t6 the detection of the 
 small springs on which society hangs, 
 and t6 the accurate representation of 
 nature, whether it be the nature of a 
 bao-shop or of a drawingroom, of a 
 village or of a city, they ar alike and 
 unrivaled . . . Andrew the /Savoyard 
 is perha'ps the most truly pleasing of 
 all these romances ; it is the le:ist dra- 
 matic, and the least lively, but it is 
 full of truth, and breathes an air 
 of purity and innocence . . . Andrew 
 and his brother, — mere children, — set 
 oft' to seek their fortunes in Paris, and 
 the novel is the history of their re- 
 spectiv adventures, for their fortunes 
 ar different." [Foreign Quarterly 
 Review, 1830.] "Paul de Kock est 
 consolant: jamais line prfisente I'hu- 
 manitfi sous le point de vue qui attriste. 
 Avec lui on rit et on espere." [ Cha- 
 teaubriand. 1952 
 
 , SAME (abridged) in John- 
 
 stone''s Magazine ^Museum, Feb. -Mar.. 
 1838.] 
 
 ANGfiLE'S FOETUNE [by Andre 
 Thedriet : Peterson. 1880.] '"A clerk 
 in a lawyer's ofBce in a provincial 
 town of France has a pretty dauter, 
 wh6 chafes under the restraint of her 
 Hfe and cherishes a secret ambition to 
 go on the stage. One of the yunger 
 clerks, Eene des Armoises, a llt- 
 headed and selfish aspirant for poetic 
 
 fame, has become her ideal, and when 
 he goes to Paris t6 seek his reputation 
 her heart goes witii him. Meanwhile, 
 her father brings home as ii lodger 
 another clerk, Joseph Toussaint, a 
 country youth wh6 is the Virtue of 
 the little Morality. He is captivated 
 by the girl, but overpowered with his 
 modesty . . . The girl has already 
 fallen in with Eenfi, and her lover, 
 the moral Joseph, presently appears. 
 The relations begun in Bay continue 
 in the new scene. Re.n& receives 
 Ang61e's afieotion as a tribute t6 his 
 poetic sensibilities, and honest Joseph 
 is the true friend wh5 does all the 
 good deeds for which Eene gets 
 credit. The attempt t6 go on the 
 stage is a failure, the promised for- 
 tune vanishes in smoke, and the selfish 
 poet, after having gone as far as he 
 cared t6 in pleasure, offers t6 make 
 the gigantic sacrifice of poverty and 
 discomfort in witness of his noble 
 character. The girl abruptly leaves 
 him and her other friends, in order t6 
 giv him liberty, and finally comes 
 bac in wretchedness t6 Paris, at the 
 opening of the siege. Eene has mean- 
 while made a prudent and uncomfort- 
 able marriage, and has taken himself 
 out of the country for safety. Joseph 
 is the noble volunteer, and after the 
 war marries Angele and adopts her 
 child as his." [ Atlantic] — "The tale 
 is full of the truest and deepest les- 
 sons, as indeed is everything which 
 this w)'iter givs us. His pictures, if 
 they introduce wrong-doing and its 
 fruits, always leave a final impression 
 for virtue and truth." [ Boston "Lit- 
 erary World." 1953 
 ANNETTE; or The Lady of the 
 Pearls, [by Alex. Ddmas: N.-Y., 
 F: A. Brady. 1863.] "The plot is 
 complicated, and the translation flo- 
 
 C20 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 ing and spirited ... No sense of lit or 
 wrong ever seems t6 dawn upon the 
 heroes or heroins of this school. The 
 events gro entirely out of human in- 
 cidents, passions, and interests — con- 
 science has no part t6 play in the 
 involved drama. After passing throu 
 seas of naive intrigue and innocent 
 vice, we ar quite astonished at the 
 close to be lauded upon a short Mor- 
 al." [ Continental. 1954 
 ANTOINETTE [by G: Ohnet: 
 Lippincott. 1889.] "is a translation 
 of 'La Grande Marniere.' ... In a 
 general way we may say with entire 
 fairness that Ohnet's writings ar not 
 writings which it is worth anyone's 
 while t6 concern himself about. He 
 is forever concerned with mysteries 
 of crime, expressed in a voice of sidy 
 sentimentality, which t6 discriminat- 
 ing readers must be extremely disa- 
 greeable.'' [American. 1955 
 
 ANTONIA. [by "G: Sand," i.e.; 
 Amantine Lucile Aurore (Dupin) 
 Dudevant: (t 1876.) Soberts, 1870.] 
 "None of G : Sand's novels ar more per- 
 fectly artistic and finished than tliis 
 love idyl ; which seems to exhale the 
 fragrance of the rare exotic lily after 
 which it is named. It is perfectly 
 pure in tone and romantic, the style 
 is masterly in Its transparent siinplic- 
 itj', the characters ar true, beautiful 
 and noble. The discussion of fllosofi- 
 cal or social topics which characterize 
 so many of her novels ar not t6 be 
 found in this book, but, as a romance, 
 it has a distinct beauty and perfection 
 in which it stands unrivaled." [ Gal- 
 axy. 1956 
 
 APOSTATE (The), by Eiinest 
 Daddet : Appleton, 1889. 1957 
 
 ARCHIE LOVELL by "Annie 
 Edwards," [ Boulogne ] = No. 412. 
 
 AEOUND A SPRING [ by [ An- 
 
 toine] Gustave Droz : Holt, 1870.] 
 "deservs t6 be read. It givs with a 
 kei'n. incisiv toiich the characteristics 
 of society in France. The story is J 
 slit so far as incident goes ; but it is ' 
 suggestiv. The idea which underlies 
 it and which it illustrates, is the, posi- 
 tion in which the men of old families 
 witli a long line of ancestors at theii- 
 bac. but, whose possessions ar dis- 
 sipated and who hav nothing left but 
 the expensiv habits which i-epresent 
 past magnificence, find themselvs be- 
 fore men wli6 hav risen from nothing, 
 wh6 hav achieved all the power wiiich 
 the possession of money can giv, com- 
 bined with the genius for organizing 
 vast and lucrativ schemes of material 
 improvement." [ Athenaaum. 1958 
 
 ARTIST'S HONOR (An), by Oc- 
 tave Peuillet : C'assell, 1891. 
 
 ASSOMMOIR (L') [by Smile 
 Zola: Peterson, 1879.] is --both 
 poorer and less bad than we had sup- 
 posed. It is neither so good as a 
 literary product, nor is it so bad as a 
 moral quantity. The story takes its 
 name from a groggery, around which 
 its incidents may be said t6 revolv; 
 and when we get down t6 its "raw 
 materials" they ar found t6 be drunk- 
 enness, illicit love, quarreling and 
 brutality. At the same time, the 
 handling is not needlessly coarse, tho 
 we suspect the translator may hav 
 deodorized the original t6 some ex- 
 tent. In the present form the work 
 hardly shos the exceptional realistic 
 power which has been claimed for it, 
 and can be read without great pain or 
 ■ disgust by anybody wh6 may wish 
 t5 kno what it is. We cannot call it 
 agreeable reading, but its lessons for 
 the vicious and abandoned ar not to 
 be mistaken." [Boston "Literary 
 World."" 1959 
 
FRKNOII NOVELS. 
 
 ATELIER DU LVS (The) [1789] 
 = No. 596. 
 
 ATHEIST'S MASS (The), by Bal- 
 zac, in Fame & Sorrow. 
 
 SAME ("The Freethinker'') in 
 
 We are All, by S : Phillips, Sout- 
 ledge. 1854. 1961 
 
 ATTIC PHILOSOPHER (The), 
 [by fijiiLE Sodvestre: [t, 1S54.) 
 Appleton, 1S57.] ' -Tlie happy man wh5 
 pujbl ishes his journal is a virtuous, ben- 
 eficent hermit, wh6 prefers exemption 
 from care, excitement and responsi- 
 bility — a life of modest fortunes and 
 little kindlinesses — 16 a strife in the 
 more bustling arena of enterprise 
 where the vicissitudes ar more ex- 
 hausting, and the prizes more bril- 
 liant. He scarcely ever goes int6 the 
 streets without dding or planning 
 some little fllanthropic surprise or 
 witnessing some good action. Pressed 
 t6 exchange his clerkship, with its 
 humble salary, for a position of great- 
 er risk and proinis he declines ; apos- 
 troflzing Poverty as his gardian-angel, 
 — his nmsic as his incentiv and his 
 I'eward. Struc down with a fever, — 
 on recovering, he finds that he has 
 been tended more affectionately and 
 sedulously by the humble persons 
 wh6ta he has befriended than by the 
 rich among his kinsfolk. SSiiie of the 
 incidents of the year embraced within 
 the compass of his journal ar grace- 
 fully touched : — let us instance the 
 pleasure-party t6 Sevres of the tw5 
 old maids." [ Athenaaum. 1962 
 
 AULNAY TOWER [ 1870-71 ] = 
 No. 597. 
 
 BAGPIPERS (THE). [ "Les 
 Maitres Sonneurs") [by "G: Sand," 
 i. 6., Amantine Lucile Aurore (Dupin) 
 Dudevant: Boberts, 1890.] "The 
 charm of this crisp woodland romance 
 lies largely in the harmony of its soft 
 
 62: 
 
 gray colors, its simple passions, the 
 poetry of its upland scenery, and the 
 sweetness of the author's style ... Its 
 theme is deliciously rural, full of the 
 tinkle of silvery brooks, the twitter 
 of birds, the chatter of Bourbonnais 
 peasants, the uiusic of 'musettes,' the 
 sits and smels of pastoral romance . . . 
 In "G : Sand" the country is the coun- 
 try : genuin, unmistakable, in sit, 
 smel, ^ound ; her country folk ar the 
 ancient peasantry. There is no arti- 
 ficiality or soflstioation about her tales 
 of the provinces : they ar as locally 
 distinct in their large horizons, their 
 murmuring woods, their niity waters 
 as Auvergne, Berry, Bourbonnais can 
 be from the asfalt of the boulevards 
 or the emasculated landscape of the 
 Bois. In the 'The Bagpipers' there 
 is all the ineflfaceable charm of great 
 landscape-painting set with simple 
 human passions which play and coun- 
 ter-play, contend and sport with each 
 other in a fashion altogether human. 
 . . . The characters tel the story 
 among them in a truly fascinating 
 way. It is of provincial- laborers wh6 
 love the bagpipers and their old-fash- 
 ioned music, the ways and wander- 
 ings of muleteers, the loves and hates 
 of simple people who til the soil and 
 hav their rivalries : al)')ut all of which 
 flo the coronation-robes of G : Sand's 
 noble style in a way which lifts these 
 rustic existences t6 a plane with 
 works of the hii'st artistic excellence, 
 and makes one read t6 the last line of 
 the charming work." [ Critic. 1963 
 
 BALL AT SCEAUX (The), by 
 Balzac, in The Cat; also in The 
 Vendetta; also ("Emily'") in Cham- 
 bers' Pocket Miscellany, vol. X. 1964 
 
 BALTHAZAR, by Balzac. = No. 
 
 58:;. 
 
 BA1?BER OF PARIS (The), by DE 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 BAEOLAIN [by Gustavb Droz: 
 Holt, 1873.] "is .. ti-iigica' little romauje 
 which draws the reader along \Yith it Ijy 
 every line in CAery page . . . Scieutitic and 
 stupid, Professor Babolain enters the 
 world of Paris armed with his inno^ense, 
 his uncle's legacy, his deep learning and 
 his utter ignoran9e. A couple of adven- 
 turesses, mother and dauter, swoop down 
 upon him as lawful prfiy, and he is quicly 
 a doting husband and a terrified son-in- 
 law . . . His wife never melts, exQept 
 when he givs her diamonds, and, after 
 finding a leisure moment to giv birth to a 
 baby, rushes oft' to Italy with Count 
 Vaugirau, folloed promptly by a certain 
 Timoleon. This Timoleon, who loves 
 her unsuccessfully, is the beneflQiary of 
 poor Babolain, borroing his money at the 
 same time that he tries to borro his wife, 
 and returning with outrageous reproaches 
 to the hero impoverished and desolate . . . 
 As the abused victim, starving and rag- 
 ged, treads the road of sacrifice to death, 
 diir sympathy is checked by the conscious- 
 ness of his unmitigated and needless 
 pliancy, until we withhold the tribute of 
 sorro due to a Lear or a Pere Goriot [No. 
 220C.] The novel however, tho sketched 
 out extravagantly between hyperbole and 
 parable, fairly scintillates flith brilliancies 
 and good things : we could hardly indicate 
 another imported novel of the length 
 containing so much . . . The translator 
 reveals his (luality by calling pantaloons 
 'pants'." [Lippineotf's Magazine. 1962 p 
 
 622 k 
 
KUHXCH NOVELS. 
 
 BARBER OF PARIS (The). [by 
 [C:] ]>Air, DE KOCK ( + 1871): Phil'a, 
 Carey, Isp/).] -Du Kock occasionally 
 rejeivcs a i;(joi.l share of abuse from vari- 
 ous English critics of the newly-raised 
 school of elegan90 and aristocra9y— who 
 delight to see mankind in embroidered 
 coats and satin smalls, and vote cxei-y 
 man a 'mauvais sujet' who does not figure 
 in silk stockings. A novel, to be good in 
 thfiir estimation, must he devoted to the 
 sayings and doings of the fashionable 
 world— a close portrayal of human nature 
 is of small avail, unless the characteris- 
 tics (jf hi life form the text — in otlier 
 words, the sterling value of the melal is 
 not of so much importance as tlie fashion 
 of the make . . . Paul dc Kock is a painter 
 of life as it is — his pagi'S teem with excel- 
 lenge, but his readers require the posses- 
 sion of a certain worldly experience before 
 thSy can perjeive the full value of Ibe 
 scenes presented to thfiir notifo. Notwith- 
 standing the volatility of the class of 
 people from wliich he selects his subjecis, 
 th&e is less of 'outrance' or caricature in 
 his delineations than in the pages ol 
 Slarryat, altho, in other points, tl]6re is 
 much similarity between the two. I)e 
 Kock's works wil exist when many of tlfe 
 popular writers of the ilay ar forgotten. 
 ''The Barber of Paris" is thi' most pow- 
 erful in its elleets of all the authoi''s 
 works. Lively narrativ, startling but 
 natural incident, and grfiat diversity of 
 wel-sustaineil character, combine to make 
 it the most agreeable reprint of tlii' sea- 
 son." [Phil'a '<tentleni:in"s Mag.' 1964 p 
 
 622 m 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 KOCK. London. 1839, ^^^ No. 1952. 
 BEATEICE. by Julia Kavanagh, 
 [Provence ] = No. 419. 
 
 BELL AH [Vendee, 1793] = No. 
 606. 
 
 BELLS (THE) [ L(> Juif Polonais], 
 by Erckmann-Chatkiajst : Tinsley, 
 1872. 1966 
 
 . SAJIE, '-The Polish Jew." 
 
 BERTHA'S BABY = Papa, Ma- 
 ma & Baby. 1967 
 BESSIE, [by Julia Kavanagh: 
 Hurst, 1872.] ''Of Bessie herself, it is 
 superfluous t6 say that she is naive and 
 charming, conscientious, affectionate 
 and unselfish. She is a born hero- 
 worshiper; in spite of coldness and 
 discouragement, and all the mysteri- 
 ous circumstances which surround the 
 life of Elizabeth de Lusignan, Bessie 
 remains stanch in her belief in the 
 integrity and virtue of her friend ; 
 while her on love-story, the story of 
 a real passion, \vhich groes upon her 
 unconsciously, until gj'atitude and 
 early associations convince her reason 
 that she is attached t5 her morose and 
 exacting cousin, is 5ne of the best bits 
 of autobiografy Miss Kavanagh has 
 produced. Plow far such minute 
 analysis of maiden meditation is de- 
 sirable, how far it wil be possible for 
 Bessie's yung-lady admirers ever to be 
 Bessies themselvs, is another ques- 
 tion. Of the minor personages, the 
 women ar the best. Miss Russell, 
 infirm in body, and positiv and petu- 
 lant in mind, — smooth-spoken, treach- 
 erous Miss Dunn, — Mademoiselle, a 
 tender type of old-maidenhood, — ar all 
 touched with a skilful band . . . 
 Life at Fontainebleau is well de- 
 scribed." [Athenaeum. 1968 
 BIGARREAU, by Andre Theu- 
 lilET, in MoOern Age. .June-July, lySJ. 
 BLACI-i; PEARL (THE), by V. 
 
 Sardou, in Lippincott's Mag., Sept., 
 1872. 1970 
 
 BONNE MARIE [by '-Henri 
 Greville" : i. e., Alice M .. Celeste 
 (Pleury) Durand, Peterson, 1878.] 
 "is a very attractiv and original story, 
 foUoing an unusual line but fresh and 
 coherent." [ Nation. 1971 
 
 BOURBON LILIES [Paris] = 
 No. 424. 
 
 BRETON JOINER (A), by E. Sou- 
 VESTRE, in Museum, 1836. 1972 
 
 . SAME ('-A Peasant Prome- 
 theus"), in Living Age, 13 Jan.. 1877. 
 
 BRETON MAIDEN (A), [1793] 
 = No. 616. 
 
 BRIDE PICOTfiE (A), [by Ma. 
 Roberts: Bemrose, 1882.] '-This is 
 a charming little story, the point of 
 which consists in the self-denial of a 
 little worker in lace, wh5, tho she has 
 re-disoovered for herself the particular 
 stitch which constitutes the secret of 
 the lace Point d'Argentan, yet con- 
 ceals her discovery, In order not t6 
 disappoint the one remaining lace- 
 maker who has inherited the secret 
 and wh6, after a long struggle, has 
 made up her mind t6 reveal it to the 
 crippled girl with sucli a .genius for 
 lace-making. This is a kind of self- 
 denial which is probably even rarer in 
 the world than martyrdom itself, and 
 very delicately has the accomplished 
 authoress of Mademoiselle Mori [No. 
 812] worked out the character and the 
 story of La Brisarde. and of Lise, the 
 heroin of this delitful tale. We hav 
 not read for manj'- years a tale of 
 greater beauty and simplicity.'' 
 [Spectator. 1973 
 
 BRIGADIER FREDERIC [ 1870- 
 71] = No. 619. 
 
 BRITTANY & LA" VENDfiE, [ by 
 Kmile Souvestre: Ed., Constable, 
 1S.:i.t: N.-Y.. Diji, Edwards & Co., 
 
 623 
 
FUENrri XO\'ELS. 
 
 1857, 301 pp.] contains, besides the 
 Bretiii;iie tales of the original, The 
 Bargeman of the Loire (from "Sous 
 les Filets"') and The La.taretto-Keeper 
 from -'En Quarantaine.'' The tales 
 translated from orij^inal ed. ar : The 
 Kijuriijan. The miUe Boat, The Treas- 
 ure Seeker, Tlie Groach and the Ka- 
 kous. The Chouans, The Virgin's God- 
 child. 1974 
 
 BROTHEi; GABRIEL = No. 1121. 
 
 BROTHERS RAXTZ.VU (The). 
 [Les Deux Freres) by Emile Ercic- 
 MANN tt P : Alex. Chatrian (f. 1890) 
 Low, 1S7.3.] "The scene is the villageof 
 Chaumes, in the Vogesen. and the 
 story is told by the old schoolmaster. 
 The "tw5 brothers" hav quarreled 
 over their inheritance, and bring — the 
 one his son, and the other his dauter, 
 t5 hate each other fiercely. The chil- 
 dren fall in love, and the book ends 
 with the birth of a child wh5 wil re- 
 unite the divided properties of his 
 grandfathers. The story is slit almost 
 ti5 a fault, but as a study of village 
 life nothing could be more full of 
 interest to readers of a hi tone of 
 mind. Those who like sensation, and 
 even those wh5 require plot or pas- 
 sion, must turn elsewhere.-' [ Athe- 
 naeum.] --The story of this terrible 
 passion, this 'id6e fixe' common t6 two 
 beings perverted by the love of "pro- 
 putty" in every shape, is sometimes 
 deeply tragical, sometimes perversely 
 ludicrous, always told with the simple 
 directness which givs t6 the Erckmann- 
 Chatrian creations their irresistible 
 •vraisemblance'. Along-side of it 
 runs the simple story of the school- 
 master's life, with an admirably con- 
 veyed unconscious contrast in its 
 contented poverty, its Intellectual 
 iiidustry,its tranquil, homely afl'ectioiis 
 and joys. The timid, time-serving. 
 
 cautious wife, who is perpetually 
 driving Florence to risky outspoken- 
 ness by her warnings against his 
 siding with either Jean or Jacques, is 
 a charming comic element in the 
 drama." [Spectator. 1975 
 
 BUREAUCRACY. [ Les Em- 
 ployes) by HONORE "DE"* Balzac: 
 Boberts. 1889.] "Monsieur Rabour- 
 din. head of a bureau, and next in 
 succession t6 the position of chief of 
 division, is a statesman [ We should 
 say business-man — G. ] rather than a 
 politician, and conceives acomprehen- 
 siv scheme for reform. Rabourdin's 
 scheme called for a large reduction in 
 the number of officials, with a corres- 
 ponding doubling and trebling of sal- 
 aries. To commend this t5 his minis- 
 ter he makes a list of all the clerks in 
 his division, and annotates it as a 
 guide when the time for dismissals 
 comes. The list is seen, and a stolen 
 copy made by an underling, a cause 
 of disaster t6 Raboiirdin. The chief 
 of the division is il with a mortal il- 
 ness, and the story of the book is 
 made of the successful efforts of the 
 incapables to get one of their number 
 appointed over Rabourdir/s head. In 
 this they.ar almost foiled by the coun- 
 ter stratagems of Rabourdin's wife, 
 wh6, faithful to him and his interests, 
 and a noble character, is yet enuf of a 
 frenchwoman t6 make the most of her 
 personal attractions t6 aid his cause. 
 The scene being Paris, and the stoiy 
 a tale of intrigue, all readers of Bal- 
 zac wil expect t6 find a dishearten- 
 ing picture of ]il<', and a gloomy end- 
 
 *"It was not til be became famous tbat he 
 began to use the aristocratrc prefix; in his ear- 
 lier years he was plain M. Balzac. Ibelleve it is 
 more than SQspected that the pedigree repre- 
 sented by this DE was as fabulous (and quite as 
 ingenious) as any that be invented for bis 
 heroes." — B: James. 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 ing." [Overland. 1976 
 
 BUT YET A WOMAN. [ by Ar- 
 thur Sherburne Hardv : Houghton, 
 1883.] "Not so with the gracious 
 creatures t6 either of wh6m the title 
 of 'But yet a Woman' niTt be applied 
 — Ren6e. the delicate maiden, with 
 all the fearless ease of innocence; 
 Stephanie, the woman of the world, 
 'of a strange confidence and natural- 
 ness, blended with a dignity which 
 was almost imperious.' The other 
 characters ar not unfamiliar, the el- 
 derly Frenchmen, with their nitly 
 game of piquet, the priest, the polished 
 journalist, the yung doctor; but it is 
 only in the choicest and finest french 
 work — the best of Cherbuliez, for in- 
 stance — that they ar presented with 
 anything like the delicacy t6 be found 
 here. The story is strong and orig- 
 inal withal. The reader wil find all 
 his conjectures as t6 plot, — not disap- 
 pointed, but contradicted and surpass- 
 ed. There is no smiling Kirke t6 
 deplore, but a woman, noble, tho 
 sorely tempted. wh6 could strike the 
 death-blo t5 her happiness rather than 
 win it at the price of shame _ and 
 treachei-y. The Spanish episode, the 
 hapless fate' of Felisa, is a model of 
 its kind, telling a tale Of guilty pas- 
 sion not for the sake of excitement, 
 but for the Nemesis. It wer a pity to 
 forestall the story, but without d6ing 
 so it is not easy t5 giv it the praise it 
 deservs. The style is exquisit in Its 
 limpid clearness ; and, while we ad- 
 mire the beauty of description and the 
 power of characterization which givs 
 us living human beings, not critical 
 analyses, we ar inclined tb put fore- 
 most the conversations. To make 
 people talk as they d6 in the salon of 
 M. Michel is a rare success." [Na- 
 tion.] — "It is long since we hav seen 
 
 the liner qualities of womanhood so 
 generously and so subtly displayed as 
 In these figures. The minor charac- 
 ters also ar delicately touched, es- 
 pecially Father le Blanc, and the 
 flavor of the story given by the reflec- 
 tion and comment is always fine and 
 gracious. It is a positiv pleasure t6 
 take up a book so penetrated as this is 
 by pure and noble thSt, and marked 
 by so hi a respect of the author for 
 his work." [ Atlantic. 1977 
 
 CADET DE COLOBRIERES (The) 
 [ by Henriette Etiennette Fanny 
 (Arnaud) Eeybaud: Phil'a, Carey 
 & Hart, 1847.] "is a very spritly and 
 interesting tale, in which the difficult- 
 ies of the old 'noblesse' ar very hu- 
 morously contrasted with their indomi- 
 table pride. One is reminded, in the 
 struggles of their decayed fortunes, of 
 the domestic diplomacy of the Vicar 
 of Wakefield." [Democratic Rev. 1978 
 
 CAMILLE = LADY OF THE CA- 
 MELIAS. 
 
 CAMILLE [by Valerie (Bois- 
 SIER) DE Gasparin : Edinburgh. 
 Edmonston, 1867.) "is a regular story 
 with a lover, a heroin and a charm- 
 ing soldier brother, wh6 belongs t5 
 the army of Africa, and wh6 is as 
 dashing and impetuous as if he came 
 out of one of the Dumas' novels, but 
 good and gentle and afTectionate as 
 the heart of any maid or mother could 
 desire. The lover is fascinating, full 
 of genius, and already a distinguished 
 man, with one of the grandest of hu- 
 man natures ; but he declines t6 be- 
 lieve in revealed religion. Caraille is 
 a christian, and tho she loves him as 
 passionately as even he can desire, 
 she refuses t6 become his wife, and 
 allows him t6 go alone : and tho 
 her heart is nearly broken, she holds 
 fast t6 what she feels t5 be her first 
 
 i;2:) 
 
FRENCH NOVF.LS. 
 
 duly. The struggle is extremely wel 
 drawn. The temptation, the sorroful 
 victor.v over herself which leaves her 
 nearly dead, is told with human sym- 
 pathy and genuln feeling. Tliere is 
 truth to human nature throuout, es- 
 pi'ciully in the reaction after all is 
 over and it is too late. But Camille 
 dues not end miserably ; she goes 
 throu lii-r trial bravely, but not too 
 bravely ; she is charming throuout." 
 [ Athcnasum. 
 
 , SAME, in Hours at Home, mar. 
 
 1S68, seq. 1979 
 
 CAXOX\S DAUGHTER (The), 
 
 by E. About, in Canadian Monthly, 
 
 apr. 1S72; also in Ladies' Repository, 
 
 Nov.-Dec, 1873. Strassburg. 1980 
 
 CAPTAIN FRACASSE, by Gau- 
 
 TiER, [ 1498-1515 J == No. 024. 
 
 CAKLIXO [Riviera] = No. 428. 
 
 CASTLE IX THE WILDERNESS 
 
 (Le Chateau des Desertes, Paris, 1847) 
 
 by "G: Sand," in Dwight's Journal, 
 
 1857. 1981 
 
 , SAME (^-The Castle of Pic- 
 
 tordu") Edinburgh, Gremmell, 1884. 
 
 CAT AND BATTLEDORE (The). 
 ["Maison du chat qui pelote") by 
 HoNORE '-DE" Balzac: ioui, 1879.] 
 '•The tales ar all of good quality, but 
 they ar scarcely of Balzac's best, nor 
 ar they of his most characteristic 
 brand . . . Only perhaps, in A Double 
 Family is something like a glimpse of 
 the Balzacian cosmos, with its singu- 
 lar fysical and moral conditions, 
 vouchsafed . . . The Ball at Sceaux, 
 with the pleasant little story of The 
 Purse and the more characteristic one 
 of Madame Firmiani, is probably most 
 suited t6 a purely english taste." 
 [ Athenssum. 1982 
 
 CATHERINE, by Sandeau, = No. 
 631. 
 CATHERINE'S COQUETRIES, a 
 
 626 
 
 tale of country life, by Camille De- 
 bans, Worthinrjton, 1890, 174 pp. 1983 
 CENTULLE: a Tale of Pau [by 
 Denys Shavne Lawlok: Longman. 
 1874.] '-This is a pleasant, refined, and 
 ingenious book. It pej-sonally con- 
 ducts the reader throu the Pyrenees 
 and the Basque provinces, in company 
 with an imaginary pair of friends. wh5 
 meet interesting people and undergo 
 cuiious adventures. Tlie story comes 
 t5 a melancholy ending, except in the 
 case of one pair of happy lovers, wh5 
 ar all they should be ; but as the gen- 
 eral award is in strict accordance witli 
 morality and political justice, we must 
 not complain. The idea of interweav- 
 ing this charming volume of descrip- 
 tion with a story was a happy one ; 
 the writer has opportunities for legiti- 
 mate indulgence in enthusiasm, which 
 would hav been out of place in the 
 merely grave and more conventional 
 book of travel. In the latter caisacity 
 it is valuable and minute. One closes 
 it feeling that one knoes the country. 
 with all its present faculties and 
 attractions, and all its past historic 
 reminiscences and personages." [Spec- 
 tator. 1984 
 CESAR BIROTTEAU, see HIST- 
 OMT, FTC. 
 
 CESETTE [by Emile Poovillon. 
 Putnam, 1882.] "is a story whicli 
 comes from a clear artistic impulse, 
 apparently as spontaneous as nature, 
 and as simple in its methods ; not a 
 line seems forced, and not a color 
 exaggerated. It is a picture of peas- 
 ant life, homely and realistic in its 
 details, yet suffused with idyllic grace 
 and charm. . . . Each page suggests a 
 Millet-like picture, — peasants setting 
 forth t6 their morning toil, the soing, 
 the threshing, the winnoing. the 
 shepherdess returning with her floe ; 
 
FltENCH NOVELS. 
 
 yet there ai- few words wasted on 
 mere description. C6sette's artless 
 love, and Jordi's more complex 
 emotions, being called one way by his 
 passion for the little shepherdess and 
 the other by the promis of decisiv ad- 
 vantage from Rouzil's money, makes 
 a pleasant little comedy, which ends 
 in the rit way. . . The book is a very 
 dainty translation of a charniiny and 
 finished little worlc. which w(! hope 
 may be read and appreciated." [Lip- 
 pinootts'. 1985 
 
 CHATEAU LESCURE [Vendee, 
 1793.] = No. 635. 
 
 CHOISY [Paris], = No. 429. 
 
 CIIOUANS (THE), by Balzac, 
 [Bretagne, 1798-9.] N.-V., Street, 
 1891: Chicago, Rand (42.'! pp). Laird 
 & Lee, 1891. 1986 
 
 CHRIS [Riviera] = No. 430. 
 
 CINQ-MARS, by A. de Vigny 
 [1640-2.] London, Bogue, alsoJSout- 
 ledge. 1987 
 
 CLARA MILITCH, by Turgkniep, 
 [Paris, 1865-70] = No. 446. 
 
 CLAUDE BLOUET [Les Soufl- 
 rances de C.-B., in '-Nouvelles In- 
 times". Paris, 1870.] by Andre Theo- 
 EiET, in Old & New, Feb., 1870. 1988 
 
 CLEMENCEAU CASE (THE) by 
 Alex. Dumas: Chicago, Laird, 
 1891. 1989 
 
 CLORINDA ["Son Excellence 
 Eugene Rougon") by Emile Zola : 
 Peterson, 1880.] '-is outwardly de- 
 cent. The author is stil wading in 
 the gutter but It is a gutter which runs 
 around -a. palace, and the sewage of a 
 court is, t6 say the least, scented. 
 Clorinda is the gilt (not golden) orna- 
 ment of the court of Napoleon III ; 
 and Eugene Rougon [Rouher], wh5 
 divides the interest of the story with 
 her, has become a minister, and rises 
 or falls according t6 the whim of his 
 
 master. The hiest circles during the 
 flush days of the empire ar constantly 
 before the reader, and some person- 
 ages already notorious — the duke of 
 Morny, for example — m6ve amidst 
 them in thin disguise. Clorinda is a 
 lobbyist among courtiers; wli6 pays 
 costly prices for political favors for 
 her friends, and, finally, t6 cap the 
 climax of her career, she returns one 
 day from Fontainebleau wearing the 
 glistening badge of an impei'ial alli- 
 ance. The veil thron around her 
 character and course is as thin as the 
 gauze with which alone she sometimes 
 protects her person in the presence of 
 her guests ; but we wil say this for 
 Zola, that in this book he has managed 
 t6 be as little offensiv as it would be 
 possible td be in dealing with such a 
 subject. The book shos the corrupt- 
 ion, political and social, of the Nap- 
 oleonic rSgime with a masterly hand. 
 The descriptions of the baptism of the 
 Prince Imperial, of the fetes at Com- 
 piegne, and of the charitable '-sale" 
 at the Tuileries, sho a wonderful com- 
 bination of simplicity and power." 
 [Boston '-Literary World."]— '-The 
 book contains some of Zola's best 
 work ; the study of each incident is 
 exhaustiv, and at times subtle enuf t6 
 sho a different f ase t6, and awaken a 
 different judgment in, different minds 
 — an effect justly t6 be called artistic, 
 and thoroly antagonistic t6 his most 
 impressiv 'naturalism'. "[Nation. 1990 
 CLOUD & SUNSHINE by G: 
 Ohnet, Vizetelly, 1887, g@^ No. 
 1955. 
 
 COLOMBA, [Corsica] = No. 648 
 COL. CHABERT, by Balzac. g@^ 
 Fame and Sorrow. 
 
 , S-VME ("The Countess witii 
 
 Two Husbands"') in New Mirror, 27 
 July to 9 sept., 1837. 1991 
 
 627 
 
FEF.XCH NOA-El.s. 
 
 rLEMEX( KAU ( ASE (The) [by Al- 
 EXANDiiK Dr.MAs: I'iiris, 18C6; Phil'a, 
 Crawford, l.sl)2.] "is an iniiigiuiiry 
 cause cilebre. Tlir hero uf the novel, ot- 
 to speak in strict keeping witli the form 
 ol the work, the defendant in this "extra- 
 ordinary ea>e" is the illegitimate son of a 
 poor yonng needlewoman, who, after 
 haAiiig- committed the one great fault 
 leads a respectable and industrious life. 
 She sends Pierre, wlien he is 10 years old, 
 to a first-rate boarding school ; but before 
 doing so, she reveals to him the melan- 
 choly secret of his birth, telling him that, 
 in consequence of this degradation, he wi) 
 be exposed to humiliating vexations and 
 insults. The foreshadocd sufl'erings of 
 Pierre ar only too soon and painfully real- 
 ized . . . CKmenceau becijmes a suc- 
 cessful sculptor, gaining fame and fortune 
 at a much earlier period than usually falls 
 to the lot of artists ; he enjoys also univer- 
 sal esteem on account of his hi qualitiis, 
 among which the preservation of his 
 moral purity, in spite of the manifold 
 temptations by which artists ar surround- 
 ed, is emphatically commemorated. His 
 happiness seems to hav reached its cul- 
 minating point when he makes the 
 acquaintance of a young countess of 
 dazzling beauty . . . Cli5menceau's passion- 
 ate love is returned by Iza; but her 
 mother scorns the idea of throing away 
 her beautiful dauter on an artist, however 
 celebrated and wealthy. She has in vue 
 a Russian prince. The princely marriage 
 however, fails, and Iza throes herself in 
 Cl^menceau's arms 'sans gdne et sans 
 facon.' The "6nigme 6ternelle" makes 
 
 him a declaration of V>\y in so "emanci- 
 patcil" a maimer that it 6t to deter him 
 from a matrimonial alliance with her. 
 Besides, he has also received several anon- 
 ymous hints reflecting severely on her 
 character; but he sees only the incarna- 
 tion of beauty before him, and can not 
 free himself from the latal infatuation . . . 
 ClCmenccau's happiness is beyond de- 
 scription, but, alas ! the honeymoon is not 
 over ere the infatuated lover detects some 
 ugly traits in his wife's character, and 
 after some time, he is plunged into the 
 deepest misery by the discovery not of 
 one lover, but of n whole nest of lovers 
 favored by the dauter of the Polish ad- 
 venturer. His mothiT dies of grief at 
 seeing tlie disgrace of her son's wife, and 
 Ctemenceau, repudiating the idea of kill- 
 ing his bride, repairs to Italy to solace his 
 broken spirit by an assiduous devotion to 
 art. But life has no longer any charms 
 for him, and even art cannot heal his 
 smarting wounds. He might hav hnger- 
 ed on and consumed his life in quiet 
 grief, but, hearing that he is an object of 
 pity and derision to his friends, he starts 
 in a tit of rage for Paris. He finds his 
 wife leading a life of royal luxury, » fact 
 not to be wondered at, she being the 'fem- 
 me entretenue' of a prince. Once more he 
 is overpowered by her fatal beauty, and by 
 his on stil more fatal sensuous feelings. 
 He sees her in her boudoir amidst the mute 
 witnesses of her shame, and "condones" 
 her guilt. Once more he asks her — "M' 
 aimcs-tu?" Half-asleep, she answers, 
 "Oui," and he quietly plunges a knife into 
 her heart." [ Albion. 1989 
 
 627 m 
 
FKENCH NOVELS. 
 
 COLONEL'S DAUGHTER (The), 
 [Kenee Miuiperiii. Paris, 1864.] by E. 
 ifc J. DB Goncourt; London, 1883. 
 [It purpovts to be by "W. S. Hay- 
 waid."] 1992 
 
 COMEDIE HUMAINE (The) [by 
 HONOEE ■•vk" Balzac: (t, 18.50.) 
 Chatto, 1879.) "consists of an intro- 
 duction and 3 of the author's shorter 
 tales, — 'La Bourse,' "Gaudissart 11," 
 and 'Albert Savarus'. '-The first is 
 inucli better done than was the version 
 contained in No. 11)82." [Athe. 1993 
 
 COMPANION OF THE TOUK OF 
 PRANCE (The), [by "G: Sand," 
 i. e., Amantine Lucile Aurore (Dupin) 
 Dudevant (t, 1876): [Paris, 1840] 
 London, Churton, 1848.] "'A -Com- 
 panion' is a member of a tirades' 
 union; the "Tour of France," refers 
 t6 the wandering of artizans from 
 town t6 town, after the custom de- 
 scribed in Wilhelm Meister^s Appren- 
 ticesliip [No. 1017.] The hero is the 
 son of a carpenter, and the design of 
 the author appears t6 hav been t6 
 paint the ideal of a man of the people, 
 aiming at hier objects than wealth or 
 station, and devoting himself t6 the 
 solution of the social problems most 
 intimately connected with the welfare 
 of his class." [Westminster Review. 
 
 . SAME (-'The Journeyman 
 
 Joiner"), N.-Y., Graham, 1847. 1994 
 
 CONFESSOR (THE), g@=> UN- 
 DEE THE BAN. 1995 
 
 CONQUEST OP PLASSANS 
 (The). [ by Emile Zola : Peterson, 
 1879.] '-Here we hav a stern, self- 
 controlling priest, indomitably resist- 
 ing the seductiv worship of an infatu- 
 ated woman. He comes off conquer- 
 or, and she. baffled and defeated, 
 perishes. This is the true '-conquest 
 of Plassans." The author's motiv is 
 executed with firmness, directness. 
 
 and clearness. But the whole atmos- 
 fere of the piece is somber and for- 
 bidding; there is nothing pleasant in 
 its situations ; the dfinoument is dire- 
 full y tragic and we cannot thinls 
 that the specific utility of the book is 
 au offset to its general unwholesom- 
 ness." [Boston "Lit. World." 1996 
 
 CONSCRIPT [The], by A. [D.] 
 Dumas: New- York. 1835. 1997 
 
 , SAME, by Euckmann-Chat- 
 
 KiAN [Alsace, 1812-14] = No. 
 649. 
 
 CONSUELO, = No. 650. 
 
 COQUETTE'S LOVE (A), [Notre 
 Coeur] by G. de Maupassant, N.-Y., 
 Belford, 1890. 1998 
 
 , SAME (--Notre Coeur") Chi- 
 cago, Laird, 1890, 307 pp. 
 
 CORINNE, by A.. L.. G. (Neck- 
 er), baroness Stael-Holstein, 
 Carey, '36 ; Warne, '84, ^=- No. 2004. 
 
 COSETTE. [byK.. S. Macquoid: 
 Ward & Downey, 1890.] "Cosette 
 chooses one love for herself whilst 
 her friends choose another for her; 
 and there ar the usual complications, 
 which ar told with good taste and 
 feeling. The story has very little 
 incident, but much play of character, 
 so that the men and women wh6 act 
 their parts in the comedy appear 
 almost real. The experiences of 
 Cosette ar decidedly touching, and 
 her fate is well contrived to support 
 a french rather than an english vue 
 of the theory and practice of court- 
 ship." [ Athenajum. 2001 
 
 COUNT DE PERBUCK (The), by 
 F: Soulie, London, Newby, 1839.2002 
 
 COUNT KOSTIA, = No. 653. 
 
 COUNT OF MONTE-CRISTO = 
 No. 654. 
 
 COUNT XAVIER. [by "Henry 
 Greville". i.e., Alice M. . Celeste 
 (Fleury) Durand: Ticknor, 1887.] 
 
 628 
 
KRENCH N(i\ELS. 
 
 CONFESSIONS OF A CHILD OF 
 THE CEN'TURY (Thf) [by Alfred hk 
 MusSBT (1810-57) : Clik^ago, Sergei, 1893.] 
 "Men ar always laflng at what thSy 
 call "women's men," us portrayed in the 
 feminin novel; but "men's men" as often 
 astound women, until tbCy ar ready to go 
 to thtir male relativs andast: "Ar you 
 really like thi>? Did you ever do such 
 thing> a.s that? Do you suppose my hus- 
 band and my sons ar at all like the men in 
 this book? Such a character is "Octave" 
 in these 'Confessions.' This very hysteri- 
 cal young person of 19, who has run the 
 gamut of all the vige ac5esible to him in 
 Paris, is the victim of a moral malady 
 which renders him unable to believe in 
 cither sin9erity, generosity, or virtue. 
 His passions of doubt, remorse and other 
 emotions tSar him to tatters, and he is for- 
 ever being consumed by grief or convulsed 
 with tears. Now and then, he opens his 
 heart to joy and tranquil happiness : one 
 of the most notable of these occasions 
 being when he was about to stab a most 
 admirable young woman in her sleep, 
 [compare No. 1989] but was prevented by 
 the sight of a little blac cross upon her 
 heart. After having beheld this, he is at 
 once "converted," and, to use with respect 
 an old phrase, he "enjoys religion." He 
 is in fact, so changed that he at once 
 passes the young woman, who has out lof 
 pure philanthropy ruined herself — hoping 
 to regenerate him — to the man whom she 
 really loves, and who, tho poor and named 
 Smith, is hily respectable. As the book is 
 written by Alfred de Musset, it goes with- 
 out saying that thSre ar some fine ■ things 
 
 in it : the opening chapters, which describe 
 the moral condition of the people after 
 a war of invasion and defeat, being espe- 
 cially remarkable." [L.. Stockton, 1893.] 
 "It is to Alfred de Musset that many of 
 (i : Sand's exquisit 'Lcttres d'un Voyageur' 
 ar addressed. She often repeats in them 
 how truly she had loved him, even at the 
 very moment when she betrayed him. . . 
 'The Confessions' wer written while he 
 was writhing under the anguish caused by 
 his mistress' faithlessness, and the whole 
 tenor of its contents is therefore strongly 
 imbued with the violen5e of personal feel- 
 ing. Altho these felebrated 'Confessions' 
 assume the form of a novel, they ar evi- 
 dently, a narrativ of the author's life. The 
 treachery of a heroin is the pivot upon 
 which revolv all the events of the stoi-y. 
 Slic is shon to the reader in every form 
 which the mind of the writer, mad with 
 passion, could depict; now, under the 
 appearance of the light, heartless woman 
 of the world — now, with all the tranquil 
 homish charm of virtue — and then, again, 
 under the bright dazzling colors of the 
 courtezan. No details, however cynical, 
 ar omitted. The author seems to hav 
 traced his thots as thiy presented them- 
 selvs in rapid succession to his mind, with 
 all thfiir nativ singularity of contrast, 
 hight of coloring, and crudity of expres- 
 sion. Th(Sre is, doubtless, much to be ad- 
 mired in the work ; but thSre is something 
 too nearly akin to indelicacy in exposing 
 to the public gaze the private feelings 
 and thSts which recur constantly during 
 the course of the narrativ, to award it 
 unqualified praise." [Albion. 1994 vn 
 
 628 k 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 "The story is very slit, and the plot 
 so simple as t6 be almost hackneyed ; 
 but the freshness of treatment, and 
 the grace and humor of the style, 
 make it a most delltful little book. 
 The old count's funeral, the devotion 
 of the old servant and the obsequious- 
 ness of the new one, the momentary 
 temptation of the hero, the accidents 
 which enable him t6 triumf over 
 temptation, and finally the young 
 scapegoat's stratagem of the dyna- 
 mite plot t6 get himself recalled t6 
 the love from which he has been ban- 
 ished, ar all told with inimitable 
 humor and vividness." [ Critic. 2003 
 
 CORINNE. [by A.. L.. Gkr- 
 MAINE (Necker) baroness Stael- 
 Hojlstein: Boston, 1808, 2 v., 12°; 
 London, 1856, 8°.] "One faculty the 
 author possessed in an extraordinary 
 degree, — the faculty of delineating 
 character. She had the power of ex- 
 hibiting it both by a few brit touches 
 of epigrammatic force, and by a long 
 and unobtrusiv course of minute and 
 delicate delineation . . . Never was 
 there a more successful example of 
 true and delicate delineation than her 
 •character of 'Comte d' Erfeuil' in 
 Corinne ; and it possesses the rare 
 merit of being not only a vivid and 
 consistent portrait of an imaginary 
 individual, but of one in wh6ra ar 
 embodied all the most amiable pecu- 
 liarities of the coiintry t6 which he 
 belongs. No one can folio this per- 
 sonage throu the tale without being 
 better acquainted, .with the French 
 character." [ Foreign Quarterly Re- 
 view. 2004 
 
 COUNTESS EVE (The) = No. 
 657. 
 
 COUNTESS SAEAH, by G: Oh- 
 NET: Vizetelly. 1885; N.-Y., Waverly 
 Co.. 1890, 8®=- No. 1955. 
 
 COUNTRY DOCTOR (The) [by 
 H0N0E15 "DE" Balzac ( t, 1850) : 
 Roberts, 1888.] "has for its theme 
 the good work wrot by a man wh6 
 relinquishes his on career, settles in a 
 primitiv region and applies all his 
 powers t6 raising and benefiting the 
 ignorant and debased peasantry whd 
 hav hithertS maintained only a pre- 
 carious existence from the results of 
 their soing and reaping in a wretched 
 soil, with neither health, hope, nor 
 hefirt t6 rouse them out of a dul, 
 almost imbe^il stagnation. Balzac, 
 wh6 paints town and city life in so 
 sombre colors, tearing the veil from 
 their secret sins and mysteries, ap- 
 palls us with the conviction that there 
 is no cure for the terrible disease 
 which is sapping the health of all 
 modern society, takes quite a difier- 
 ent tone in recounting t6 us the simple 
 details of Dr. Benassis' enterprise, 
 and describes a veritable Arcadia. 
 The doctor has found the peasantry 
 sic, both in body and mind, tending 
 toards crfitinism, living in hovels, il- 
 fed, il-kept, heartless and wicked. 
 Int6 the little community he has in- 
 fused health, good sense, good living, 
 which hav brot about freedom from 
 vice and crime. Dr. Benassis' early 
 motiv in devoting himself t6 the re- 
 generation of this people had been t6 
 overcome personal agony and revolt 
 at his failure in life. He is one of 
 Balzac's typical personages ; a truly 
 grgat soul, simple, affectionate, with- 
 out vanity or pedantry, wise, equit- 
 able and patient. There is benefit 
 and stimulus t6 be gained from read- 
 ing the quiet chronicle, and we ar 
 glad t6 see that hopefulness and be- 
 lief can be breathed even from Bal- 
 zac's pages." [American. 2005 
 COURTIER OF MISFORTUNE 
 
 629 
 
FRKNCH NOVELS, 
 
 (The) [by Eustace Claire Gren- 
 viLLE Murray : ( f, 1881) In "French 
 Sketches" Smith, 1878.] "is a fervent 
 and devotedly loyal Bonapartist, and 
 he risks his life, when all is over with 
 the emperor and his army, t6 carry a 
 letter from her husband t6 the Em- 
 press ... In time t6 come, when the 
 imperial tragedy shal hav faded int6 
 the distance, and shal be invested 
 with romance, 'la rSv6rence de I'im- 
 pfiratrice' may take its place among the 
 historic pictures which illustrate the 
 troubled story of Prance, and the 
 lives of those wh6 in that fantastic 
 and fierce country hav been born t6 
 greatness, hav achieved it, or hav had 
 it thrust upon them." [Spectator. 2006 
 COUSIN BETTE. [ by HonoriS 
 "DE" Balzac (t, 1850.) Boberts, 
 1888.] "Balzac aspired to paint 
 f rench life, especially parisian life, in 
 all its aspects, — 'the great modern 
 monster with its every face,' t6 use 
 his on words ; and in no one of his 
 novels is his insit keener, his cSloring 
 bolder, or his disclosures of the cor- 
 ruptions of city life more painfully 
 realistic than in 'Cousin Bette.' Lis- 
 beth Fischer, i. e. , Cousin Bette, is a 
 peasant woman, and in spite of 25 
 years of parisian life, a peasant she 
 remains . . . But tigerish as ar some 
 of Bette's instincts, she is stil a wom- 
 an within our kee, — we can under- 
 stand and feel for her. It is t6 
 Crevel, t6 the baron, t6 the infamous 
 Marnififes that we go for types of a 
 corruption which sickens us of our 
 common humanity. It is a picture 
 before which we shade our eyes and 
 turn awaj'. Stil there ar contrasts 
 and varieties of character, throu 
 which as throu a rift ill the blac 
 clouds comes a hint of britness. For 
 example, there is supreme delicacy of 
 
 touch in the portrait of Adeline Hulot 
 and of her dauter Hortense, in wh6m 
 nature and art have united t6 make a 
 charming character. So far as it is 
 an exposition of the passions, the 
 lust, the greed, the hatred and jeal- 
 ousy of mankind working out events 
 under the veil of social fenomena, it 
 is a very great book, but it is a terri- 
 ble one. Not one of the series shos 
 more breadth, skil, and sympathy 
 with every characteristic of the great 
 f rench author than does this." [ Amer- 
 ican. 2007 
 COUSIN PONS [ by Honor]£ "de" 
 Balzac (t, 1850.): Boberts, 1886; 
 London, Warne, 188Q; N.-Y., Munro, 
 1888; Bonner, 1891.] '-continues the 
 series grimly entitled 'La Comfidie 
 Humaine,' and shos like the rest the 
 vanity, the heartlessness, the greed of 
 Parisian life,— all those sordid vices of 
 civilization, which here thro int6 re- 
 lief the inexhaustible tenderness and 
 worth of a friendship between 
 tw6 men. Both ar musicians. Pons 
 began his career by winning a prize 
 as a composer, then dropped t6 the 
 dead level of mediocrity, and makes 
 a living by giving lessons and con- 
 ducting the orchestra of a theatre. 
 Schmucke, a German, is a pianist t6 
 an adapter of scores for Pons' orches- 
 tra. Poor and lonely, the tw6 men 
 liv t6gether, and giv each other not 
 only companionship, but entire sj'm- 
 pathy. Schmucke, wh6 is a senti- 
 mentalist, is entirely happy in this 
 life, but Pons, over and ab6ve his 
 friendship for the German, has tw6 
 passions ; he is both a gourmand and 
 a virtuoso. For years he has been able 
 t5 gratify his love of good dinners by 
 dropping in daily at the tables of his 
 rich relativs ; and by knoing all the 
 curiosity-shops and being always on 
 
 630 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 the alert t6 secure whatever is valu- 
 able and rare, he has made a collec- 
 tion fit t6 rouse the envy of all the 
 connaisseurs . . . How he destroys 
 himself, how he is momentarily re- 
 instated as a welcome and honored 
 guest only to be turned out as a 
 pariah ; how his collection is appraised 
 and how the beasts of prey gather 
 about the IreSrt-broken man ; all this 
 the reader will discover. It is a som- 
 bre and terrible picture, — the friend- 
 ship of the tw6 men (which lasts t6 
 the grave and beyond the grave) help- 
 ing only t6 render the cruelty and 
 greed of every other character in the 
 book more hopeless and more intoler- 
 able." [American. 2008 
 
 , SAME ('-Poor Relations"), 
 
 London, Simpkin. 1880. 
 
 CRIME OF SYLVESTEE BON- 
 NARD (The) [by Anatole 
 France: Harper, 1890.] "is a charm- 
 ing story . . . Sylvestre, the old book- 
 lover, is a most lovable creation : his 
 very crime is endearing. His kidnap- 
 ping of Jeanne seems the most natu- 
 ral thing in the world, and so dSes 
 his fatherly jealousy of the young stu- 
 dent wh6 is in love with her. The 
 book is full of quaint scenes.'' [ Crit- 
 ic. 2009 
 
 CRIQUETTE. [ by Ludotic 
 
 Hali^vy: Chicago, Band, 1891.] 
 '•Hal6vy has a talent for writing very 
 sweet, attractiv stories . . . Criquette 
 is a most charming character. We 
 begin with her as a little girl selling 
 flowers and barley-sugar t6 the pass- 
 ers-by in the streets of a suburb of 
 Paris. We folio her throu her first 
 efforts in a juvenile part on a provin- 
 cial stage, and thence t6 her first great 
 theatrical success at the Porte St. 
 Martin. Her mother dies while she 
 is there, and she is adopted by an 
 
 actress only t6 be turned over later t6 
 a hard, cold woman, wh6 raises 
 [ sic ! ] her properly but without a 
 particle of afiection. The girl's 15v- 
 ing nature starvs in this atmosfere, 
 and she runs away and takes refuge 
 with a young friend wh6 has always 
 been kind t6 her and wh6m she genu- 
 inely believes she loves. She is great- 
 ly his superior, however, and awakens 
 at last t6 a realization of the fact that 
 she has outgron him. She remains 
 perfectly loyal, tho, even after he 
 deserts her. and refuses t6 accept the 
 happiness which another oflers her. 
 She feels that she belongs t6 her first 
 love, but she givs her life for her 
 second, dying of fever contracted 
 while nursing him in the hospital at 
 the close of the german war. The 
 charm of the story lies in the beauty 
 of Criquette's character, and in the 
 tender interest with which she in- 
 spires us." [Critic. .2010 
 
 DADDY GORIOT = FEME 
 GOBIOT. 
 
 DEAD MARQUISE (The) [ 1789 ] 
 = No. 670. 
 
 DELPHINE. [by A.. L.. Ger- 
 MAINE (Necker), baroness Stael- 
 HOLSTEIN : Phil'a, Carey, 1835.^ '-Our 
 sympathies ar so stronglj' enlisted on 
 her side, and she is exhibited in so 
 interesting a lit. that whatever our 
 judgments may decide, our hearts at 
 least ar made t6 tel us that if she and 
 society ar at variance, it is rather 
 society which 6t t6 be remodeled, 
 than that Delphine should be turned 
 aside from the wel intentioned c5urse 
 of her enthusiastic errors." [ Foreign 
 Quarterly Review. 1834. 2011 
 
 DENISE. [by Ma. Roberts: 
 London, Bell, 1863; N.-Y., Gregory, 
 1864.] "The promise of goodness if 
 not excellence given in "Mademoiselle 
 
 631 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 Mori" (No. 812.) is more than ful- 
 filled in this chaimlng tale, which 
 endeavors t6 portray a side of f renoh 
 life which has not been sufficiently 
 regarded. The author's aim is t6 
 paint existence in a quiet, sunny, self- 
 absorbed town of Southern France, a 
 town chattering busily about its local 
 affairs, the feast of its patron saint, 
 the conduct of its mayor, the d5ings 
 of its gentry, but altdgether careless 
 of the intrigues, ambitions and splen- 
 dors of the Tuileries. The subject 
 indeed is regarded from an english 
 point of vue; the coloring is english : 
 but notwithstanding its insular treat- 
 ment, the picture is a veritable repre- 
 sentation of french manners, and wil 
 please those wh6ni it describes scarce- 
 ly less than those for whdm it is es- 
 pecially written."' [Athenaeum. J — 
 '•There is a strange charm about this 
 book. The story is common enuf, 
 the characters have nothing original 
 in their conception, and yet we ar fas- 
 cinated by the detailed truth of the 
 portraiture . . . Mademoiselle Le Mar- 
 chand, an odd old maid, with a genius 
 for painting, is really the character 
 of the book. Denise, the heroin, is 
 quietly and faithfully drawn. Va- 
 rious picturesque f ases of the catholic 
 faith ar artistically managed, while 
 the faith itself is not treated with 
 much courtesy." [ Continental. 2012 
 DEVIL'S POOL (The) [by'-G: 
 Sand," i. e.. Amantine Lucile Aurore 
 (Dupin) Dudevant (t, 1876) : N.-Y., 
 W. H. Graham, 184A] is '-the most 
 perfectly idyllic composition of mod- 
 em times. The characters ar as real as 
 the scenery. Everything is in keep- 
 ing, and it is because the harmony is 
 so perfect, while the theme is so 
 simple, that we call the tale idyllic ; 
 but if it had been less wel and artisti- 
 
 cally written, it would stil hav been a 
 pleasing story of rural life. It is not 
 the fruit of any theory about human- 
 ity." [Saturday Review.]— "The 
 books wh6se scenes ar chiefly laid in 
 the country wil, we believe, be G : 
 Sand's surest title t6 immortality. 
 In these you fil your lungs with the 
 fresh air from the 'landes' and the 
 mountains. You hear the rush of the 
 mountain torrents, the murmur of the 
 gently-floing brooks, the rustle of the 
 leaves in .the summer breeze, or the 
 sying of the autumn breeze thi-ou the 
 branches. The simplest and most 
 perfect of all is 'La Mare au Diable.' 
 ... In point of genius, and perhaps 
 of interest, we must giv the palm, as 
 we h.iv said, t6 'La Mare au Diable.' 
 The triumf of its art is in its extreme 
 simplicity. The story is woven out 
 of a single adventure — the best part 
 of it is in the incidents of a single nit ; 
 the personages ar a laborer in home- 
 spun, a little peasant girl, and a child. 
 It would seem incredible that the 
 author of the passionate 'Indiana' 
 could hav made so much of such slit 
 and simple materials. Eor once she 
 has discarded all her socialist fancies ; 
 she dispenses with her analysis of 
 artificial passion, and is working after 
 nature pure and unadorned." [ Black- 
 wood's. 2013 
 
 . , SAME ("Enchanted Lake"), 
 
 London, Slater, 1849. 
 
 , SAME (-'Haunted Marsh") 
 
 with ''Old Convents," London, 
 Simms, 1851. 
 
 , SAME (--Haunted Pool"), 
 
 N.-Y., Dodd, 1890. 
 
 . , SAME ('-Lovers' Pool"), N.- 
 
 Y., Bedfield, 1871. 
 
 DIANE, [by K.. S. Macquoid : 
 Ghatto, 1875.] '-The story is the old 
 one : love at first sic on the man's part, 
 
FRENfH NOVELS. 
 
 and not long after on the woman's, 
 — misunderstanding, jealousy, separ- 
 tion, reconciliation, marriage. But 
 the events succeed each other natu- 
 rally and there is just enuf doubt as 
 t6 the parts which the various char- 
 acters ar going t6 play t6 keep our 
 interest alive. Madame Poulain, 
 Diane's intriguing rival, is perhaps a 
 little too wicked t6 be in harmony 
 vfith the general key of the story and 
 the young baron wh6m we expected t6 
 turn out a second Arthur Donni- 
 thorne (No. 1027.) is almost too good 
 for human nature ; but f rerich people, 
 whether good or bad, ar less conven- 
 tionalized than english people." 
 [AthenaBum. 2014 
 
 DIANE CORYAL [ by Kathleen 
 O'Meara : Roberts, 1884.] "is so wel 
 written, and givs so graceful and 
 faithful a picture of provincial life, 
 that it takes its place in the pleasant 
 list which comprises such novels as 
 'Denise' and 'The Eose Garden.' Ac- 
 quaintance with the french provinces 
 seems t6 suggest books like these, 
 where everything picturesque in the 
 pretty towns, with their quaint houses 
 with gables and shining pinnacles, 
 thedresses, the household customs and 
 belongings, is carefully sketched, each 
 dainty detail indicated, even if only 
 half colored with human likeness and 
 passion. This fresh and delicate little 
 story is peculiarly felicitous in its 
 treatment of french ideas and man- 
 ners, and no one can fail to enjoy the 
 picture given of life at the abbaye 
 . . . The plot of the novel is Auld 
 Robin Gray, but freshly and spontan- 
 eously enuf told t6 please the reader. 
 •Diane, wh6 is a fine character, wins 
 sympathy and affection from the out- 
 set, and holds it until the end." 
 [Lippincott's.] — '-A young french 
 
 girl, brot up among artists, '16ses her 
 mother, gets engaged t6 one of her 
 painter-friends against his father's 
 wish, goes t6 liv with some elderly 
 cousins in Picardie, hears a false re- 
 port of her lover's marriage t6 another 
 woman, and in her despair and loneli- 
 ness marries one of her cousins. 
 "When she is the wife of Robin Gray 
 young Jamie turns up again. Mean- 
 while the situation is sufficiently 
 tragic t6 giv interest t6 the story, 
 even tho the experienced reader knoes 
 that in a novel of this kind things ar 
 pretty sure t6 come rit at last. The 
 only fault is that, as so often hap- 
 pens, the husband is a far more inter 
 esting figure tlian the lover t6 wh6se 
 welfare he has t6 be sacrificed. But 
 in novels, at least, youth wil be 
 served ; and we can only be grateful 
 when the author carries this maxim 
 int6 effect in the english rather than 
 in the french method." [ Athenjeum. 
 
 , SAME ("The Old House in 
 
 Picardy"), Bentley, 1887. 2015 
 
 DR. ANTONIO [Riviera] = No. 
 43.5. 
 
 DR. RAMEAU, by G: Ohnet: 
 Lippincott, Lovell, Band, Waverly Co., 
 1889. ^^ No. 1955. 2016 
 
 DOCTOR'S FAMILY (The) [by 
 [M. . Alfred] Jules Girardin -.Bout- 
 ledge, 1876.1 "isdelltful. It is a tale of 
 domestic life in a country town. The 
 lit, pleasant zest of the original style 
 is wel preserved. It exhibits a side of 
 french life healthful and admirable, 
 shoing that the usual "french novel" 
 does not represent the life of the mass 
 of people in France."* [Athe. 2017 
 
 DON JUAN, by Balzac. London, 
 Scott. 1890. 2018 
 
 * There is a proverb that one swallo does not 
 make a summer. Compare Andrew Lang on 
 French Novels in The North Amer. Review^ 
 Jai ., 1S82.— F: M. G. 
 
 633 
 
KRENCn NOVELS. 
 
 DORA [Rouen], by Julia 
 Kavanagh, = No. 438. 
 
 DOUBLE FAMILY (A), by Bal- 
 zac, in THE CAT AND BATTLE- 
 DOME. 2019 
 
 DEEAM OF LOVE (A) by Zola, 
 Chicago, Laird, 1891, = No. 784. 
 
 DUCHESSE ANNETTE (The), 
 Chicago, Laird, 1891, = No. 1954. 
 
 DUCHESSE DE LANGEAIS 
 (The) [by Honore '"de"' Balzac: 
 Hobe.rts, 1886.] '-is a tedious tale as 
 if told alter dinnei' by a guest wh6 
 for the most part drowses but occa- 
 sionally rouses himself t6 startling 
 power. Few things of Balzac illus- 
 trate better how his liarrativ faculty 
 gets the better of him. It runs on 
 and on. It is with him as H: Taylor 
 said of Macaulay, "his memory 
 swamps his mind." The story is in 
 reality all told in the prelude of the 
 convent scene . . '. It is as if the nov- 
 elist played with his characters — 
 doomed and plainly declared t6 be 
 doomed — as a cat plays with a half- 
 dead mouse.'' [ Overland. 2020 
 
 DUKE'S MARRIAGE (The). 
 IBentley, 1886.] The author -has 
 made the french character the 
 subject of study under the various as- 
 pects of Breton, — peasant and noble, 
 bureaucrat, imperialist, and demagog ; 
 and if he is a bitter opponent of re- 
 publicanism, it must be admitted that 
 he is at least as vigorous in exposing 
 the rottenness of the Second Empire. 
 The Dulse himself is a fine and gener- 
 ous fello, but we can hardly resent 
 the endless embarrassments which 
 sever him so long from his bride when 
 they afford the writer scope for admir- 
 able delineation of country life, gentle 
 and simple. Jer6me Juva, the priest, 
 is a touching figure, and one of the 
 strongest situations in the book is 
 
 that which arises out of the sudden 
 shattering of his belief in miraculous 
 apparitions. On the other hand, there 
 is no little humor in the account of 
 the imprisonment in Paris of Little- 
 point, a, respectable english solicitor, 
 and the compromising circumstances 
 of his release along with a batch of 
 socialists on the downfall of the Em- 
 pire. -The Duke's Marriage' may be 
 read, both by those who ar fond of 
 France, like the author, and by all 
 wh6 appreciate a clever and original 
 story told with plenty of life and 
 spirit and an abundance of epigram." 
 [Athenseum. 2021 
 
 EDMEE (Les Dames de Croix- 
 Mort) by G: Ohnet: Warne, 1886, 
 8@^ No. 1955. 
 ELIANE = No. 440. 
 EMBARRASSING WIFE (An)— 
 [ 18i pages ] . by G. Droz, in Moder)i 
 Age, Apr. 1883. 2022 
 
 ERSILIA [Pyrenees] = No. 686. 
 ESTELLE RUSSELL [ Toul- 
 ouse] = No. 444. 
 
 EUGENIE [by Beatrice May 
 Butt: Holt, 1877.] "is a simple, 
 quiet story of home-life, having throu- 
 out a certain delicacy of touch which 
 is very pleasing. The characters ar 
 few, but clearly drawn; and while as 
 a story it is disappointing and unsat- 
 isfactory, we ar constantly charmed 
 by the fresh, natural way in which it 
 is told." [Boston "Lit. World." 2023 
 EUGENIE GRANDET [ by Ho- 
 nor£ "de" Balzac (t, 1850) : N.-Y., 
 Winchester, 1843 ; Budd, 1860 ; Bonner. 
 1891 ; London, Boutledge, 1859 ; Bos- 
 ton, Roberts, 1886.] "has amongst 
 Balzac's countless tales, the almost 
 singular merit, that it may be read, by 
 a man without indignation, and by a 
 woman without a blush. It is, as it 
 wer. a dutch picture of an interior— of 
 
 634 
 
PEENCH NOVELS. 
 
 the family and society of a penurious 
 merchant of a country town. The 
 details ar painted with vivid accuracy, 
 and the characters ar worked-up with 
 equal originality and truth. The 
 character of Eugfinie Grandet herself, 
 combining the gentleness of her suh- 
 missiv mother with something of the 
 shrewdness and firmness of her avari- 
 cious father is ably conceived and 
 happily executed." [Quarterly Re- 
 view, 1836.] — Eugfinie "shines out 
 from Balzac's gallery of women with 
 a beauty and charm beyond all others, 
 and her reality givs worth to the 
 gr§at novelist's conceptions of differ- 
 ent female characters. That he should 
 hav knon how t6 draw a Eugenie 
 makes the dauters of Fere Goriot, 
 and the Duchess of Langeais more 
 credible. The character of Eug§nie 
 is that of a perfect woman ; it is por- 
 trayed within close limits, it is true, 
 but limits wide enuf t6 include sweet- 
 ness, fortitude, faith, constancy, no- 
 bility and passion, — everything, in- 
 deed, which endears and sanctifies 
 woman t6 the imagination. She is at 
 the beginning of the story a weed 
 shaken by the wind at any thSts of 
 displeasing her father, the old miser, 
 wh6 domineered his household, for- 
 bidding, depressing,' thwarting every 
 generous Impulse which he could gov- 
 ern. It is impossible for reality or 
 imagination t6 surpass the picture of 
 sordid gloom, apathy and dulness 
 which Balzac paints with a wonder- 
 ful minuteness and completion of de- 
 tail as a bacground for the human 
 lives wh6se secret he is tb disclose. 
 You feel here the grimness, the bare- 
 ness, the hideousness of the Grandet 
 mfinage: you shiver with Madame 
 Grandet and Eugfinie as they cower 
 over the foot-warmer in the chilly 
 
 autumn days before the fire is llted : 
 you experience ennui at the scanty 
 meals, the silence, the gloom, the In- 
 tolerable wet of a perpetual and 
 crushing tyranny. This girlhood had 
 been the long preparation for Euge- 
 nie's womanhood, which begins with 
 the advent of her coiisin from Paris. 
 The little love idyl which ensues, the 
 occasional talks in the garden, the one 
 long deep kiss in the passage, is a 
 momentary break of sunlit in a long 
 life of gloom. But Eugfinie believs 
 for a time that she possesses a secret 
 of happiness which no one can rob 
 her of. Her cousin goes away, but 
 he is t6 return ! A vain hope, but a . 
 long sweet hope;, if a falsehood, a 
 blessed falsehood which transmutes a 
 gray, monotonous, isolated existence 
 int6 one linked t6 all which makes the 
 worth of human experience. Her 
 cousin, like everyone else in the book 
 except Eugenie, her mother, and 
 Nanon the servant, is sordid, faithless, 
 willing t6 sel his soul for gain. Eu- 
 genie redeems his honorable name, — 
 promotes his ambitious marriage in 
 Paris, and she goes on her on loveless 
 and joyless way. It is one of the 
 most sombre of sombre pictures. 
 One mit ask if Eugfinie's faith and 
 love and religion and goodness wer 
 not a lit unseen, — a fountain wholly 
 wasted, — poured out in a desert which 
 refreshed no thirsty soul. But it is 
 not so.. She has one consolation 
 which enriches her life ; she has given 
 her gift, and everything is made en- 
 durable by the faithfulness of her on 
 heSrt." t American. 2024 
 
 EVANGELIST (The), [by Al- 
 PHONSE Daudet: Peterson, 1883.] 
 "We hav seldom read a more painful 
 book. It is unrelievd . gloom. This 
 writer has been called 'the french 
 
 635 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 Diukens.' but it is certain tliat 'Boz' 
 would never hav become so popular 
 as lie was if he had given himself t6 
 the morbid studies in which Daudet 
 dellts. L' Evang61iste tels a story of 
 religious zeal and intolerance so un- 
 natural, depressing, and subversiv of 
 common human feeling, that the read- 
 er's patience is put t6 the test on every 
 page, and he must hav a strong men- 
 tal stomach wh6 can digest it at all. 
 It develops a picture of f ranch Prot- 
 estantism which, if true at all, must 
 certainly be exceptional, and not char- 
 acteristic. It has been stated that 
 Daudet, on being taken t5 task for 
 this book, declared that it was found- 
 ed on facts connected with the experi- 
 ence of his family. It may, therefore, 
 be necessary t6 concede that such an 
 episode, as that of 'L'EvangSliste' 
 has occurred in the history of the 
 extremest side of the religious move- 
 ment in Prance, outside the catholic 
 church, and that the author is to that 
 extent justified in making it the basis 
 of a book, but the circumstances cer- 
 tainly cannot be accepted as more 
 than an episode, historically, while, 
 as a literarj' work, the story inflicts a 
 painful labor upon the reader." 
 [American.] — "We ar inclined t6 call 
 'L' Evanggliste' his finest work, and 
 the one which most nearly approaches 
 artistic perfection. — It is a story of 
 direct and pitiless power. It is like a 
 greek tragedy in its simplicity, and in 
 the suggestion of an overriding and 
 irrevocable fate against which all 
 strife is vain. The Evangelist is a 
 cold, proud, imperious, bigoted wo- 
 man, controlling enormous wealth in 
 the propagandisni of a hard and narro 
 form of religion ; going strait before 
 her, tho her husband kils himself be- 
 cause of her frigidity, and tho a 
 
 mother goes mad because her dauter 
 is taken from her by a pseudo-relig- 
 ious 'camp-meeting-revivaP ecstasy. 
 This figure of Jeanne is drawn with 
 extraordinary vigor and sobriety, and 
 is worthy to stand side by side with 
 the 'IJeligieuse' of Diderot; indeed, 
 as excess of one kind is as bad as ex- 
 cess of another, 'L'Evangeliste' is 
 nearly as horrible as 'La Keligieuse.' 
 — The subject is of special interest 
 here, where the same bigotry is much 
 more frequent, altho perhaps less 
 pernicious than in France, as all 
 readers of Eggleston's excellent 
 stories [ Nos. U. 30, 40, 52, 02, 131. ] 
 wil remember:" [ Nation. 2025 
 
 , SAME, ("Port Salvation"), 
 
 Chatto, 1883. 
 
 EXTRACTS PROM THE MS. OP 
 DR. BERNAGIUS [ "Les Clieutes du 
 docteur Bernagius," Paris, 1873] by 
 LuciEN Biaet: in rme. Aug.-Dec, 
 1880. 2026 
 
 FACINO CANE, by Balzac, in 
 LOUIS LAMBEBT 2027 
 
 , SAME ("Gold"), in 8H0BT- 
 
 EB STOBIES. 
 
 FADETTE = LITTLE FADETTE. 
 FAME AND SORROW. [byHo- 
 NORiS "DE" Balzac: (t, 1850.) iJo6- 
 erts, 1890.] "The 6 tales ar 6 chal- 
 ices brimful of unction, quivering 
 with a play of beauty and sorro which 
 captivates at the start. All ar sad. 
 One, Col. Chabert [No. 1991], shos 
 the sublimity of resignation t6 a fate 
 undeserved. In another an artist 
 winged with fire and caprice mates 
 himself with a Parisienne wh6m he 
 loves passionately for — a month, and 
 then dismisses down the dismal lane 
 of disillusioned women. The story of 
 Chabert has a greek severity of out- 
 line, a keenness of logic, and a pathos 
 in its climax shoing the hiest art. In 
 
 636 
 
FRBNCH NOVELS. 
 
 '■The Purse,^ gentler elements meet and 
 hai-monize in an end beautiful and 
 tranquil as a mldsuQimer evening." 
 [Critic. 2028 
 
 FANNY, [by Ernest Feydeau 
 ( t. 1873 ) : Paris, 1858 ; N.-Y., Long, 
 I860.] "Edward, wli6 is a mere boy, 
 is in love with Fanny. This is natu- 
 ral enuf . Fanny, whe is decidedly an 
 old girl, wh6 has been married for 15 
 years, and has three children, is not 
 less desperately in love with Edward, 
 wh6m she regards with a most charm- 
 ing sentiment, in which the timid 
 passion of the maiden blends grace- 
 fully with the maturer regard of an 
 Snt or a grandmother. This is not 
 quite so natural. Certainly, it can 
 hardly be that she is fascinated with 
 Edward, wh6 is the most disgustingly 
 silly young monkey t6 be found in 
 the whole range of french novels. 
 But the mystery is at once disclosed 
 when we read the description of Fan- 
 ny's husband. He is 'a species of bull 
 with a human face.' "His smile was 
 not unpleasing. and his looli without 
 any malicious expression, but clear as 
 crystal.' We begin to comprehend 
 his inferiority t6 Edward, — 16 sympa- 
 thise with the youth's horror at the 
 sit of this obnoxious husband, 'wh6 
 seems t6 him,' as Mr. Janin says in 
 his preface, 'A hero — what d6 I say? 
 — a giamt ! — 16 the loving, timid, f ra- 
 gil child? 'In fine, a certain air of 
 calm rectitude pervaded his person.' 
 Execrable wretch ! could anything be 
 more repulsiv t6 true and delicate sen- 
 timent? 'I should say his age was 
 about 40.' Our wrath at this atrocity 
 can hardly be controlled. It seems as 
 if Mr. Feydeau, by collecting In one 
 individual all the qualities which most 
 excite his abhorrence and contempt, 
 had succeeded in giving us, in Fanny's 
 
 husband, a very tolerable specimen of 
 a gentleman. We pardon all t6 the 
 s6mewhat middle-aged lady, whose 
 'feelings ar too many for her'; and 
 we only regret that Mr. Feydeau did 
 not see the eminent propriety of in- 
 creasing the lady's admiration by 
 having this brutal husband pull Ed- 
 ward's divine nose or kic the adored 
 person of the "pauvre enfant' down 
 stairs." [ Atlantic. 2029 
 
 FATAL PASSION (A). [ "Ger- 
 faut") by C: Beenakd [Du- 
 
 GRAIL DE LA ViLLETTE ] (f, 1850.): 
 
 Paris, 18.S8; New- York, Carleton, 
 1874.] ''Among minor novels, none 
 has been more read and esteemed than 
 'Gerfaut.' It is entirely fi-ee from 
 those venturesome details wherein 
 french writers ar prone t6 oftend alike 
 taste and propriety, it is in every way 
 a refined book, there is a delicacy of 
 shading about the love-scenes, an im- 
 aginativ sensuousness, which is rare 
 and has a legitimate fascination of its 
 on. The plot is not a complicated 
 one : it is a story of the seduction of 
 a married woman, but there ar none 
 of those fatalities of circumstance 
 which often play so considerable a 
 part in such stories ; the precipices ar 
 not inevitable; the road t6 them is 
 taken by choice, not accident. But it 
 is the character of the hero t6 which 
 we feel our attention drawn, for t6 
 our mind he is the most singular hero 
 ever depicted by a writer of imagina- 
 tion. Gerfaut is never, even for a 
 moment, deluded int6 the most pass- 
 ing fase of that exaltation which we 
 all connect inseparably with strong 
 passion, and in which many of us see 
 its partial apology. He seems throu- 
 6ut t6 be aware that temporary per- 
 sonal gratification— the same in kind 
 tho not in degree as that t6 be derived 
 
 637 
 
FRENCH XliVELS. 
 
 from an exceptionally good dinner, — 
 is the object of his pursuit; and his 
 nearest approach t5 being swept away 
 by what he is pleased t6 term his love 
 is when the idea occurs to him that 
 the woman he is pursuing is playing 
 with hiui, and the emotion of wound- 
 ed vanity swels the current of his 
 desires t6 something resembling a cat- 
 aract. His selfishness is naif in its 
 openness, his hefirt never obtrudes 
 upon the scene ti5 complicate the ac- 
 tion : he is of noble descent and proud 
 of his lineage, a poet of repute and 
 ambitious of fame, yet in his treat- 
 ment of the woman he professes t6 
 love he never exhibits a spark of hon- 
 orable feeling or romantic enthusi- 
 asm." [ Lippincott's. 2030 
 
 , SAME ("Lover and Hus- 
 band"), London, 1841. 2031 
 
 FIRST AND TRUE LOVE = SIN 
 OF M. ANTOINE. 
 
 FISHERMAN OF AUGE (The) [by 
 K.. S. Macquoid: Appleton, 1879.] 
 "is a pretty story of village life, of its 
 love-makings, disappointments, and 
 marriages. The strong home-feeling 
 of the peasant, the reverence for par- 
 ents and the parental interest, not 
 only for the welfare, but for the hap- 
 piness of their children, the graceful 
 chattering of the old women, ar all 
 wel drawn. In our ruder social life 
 we lac one of the greatest charms of 
 french society, the 'vieille femme,' 
 but in the hier civilization coming t6 
 us, year by year, we may hope for an 
 old age in our women, wh6m house- 
 hold drudgery and petty cares wil not 
 hav so far deadened t6 the beauties 
 and graces of life as t6 deserv banish- 
 ment from their litf ul place as the 
 authority of the Salon." [Penn 
 Monthly. 2032 
 
 FLIRT. bv Paul Hervieu: 
 
 Worthington, 1890, 273 pp. 2033 
 
 ^ FLOAVER GARDEN (The) by 
 ]E. Souvestre: Baltimore, Murphy, 
 1864. 2034 
 
 FOREIGN MATCH (A) [byM.. 
 (Healey) Bigot: McClurg, 1890.] 
 "with no wealth on the one side and 
 no title on tlie other is, if one is t6 
 judge from contemporary fiction, 
 something of an anomaly. But. no 
 doubt, marriages between penniless 
 american girls and impecunious french 
 artists sometimes occur, and d6 not 
 always turn out bad. In Mrs. 
 Bigot's wel-told tale, however, the 
 love and romance ar. from the begin- 
 ning, all on one side — that of the 
 artist. He is called in t6 teach draw- 
 ing t6 the dauter and niece of an 
 american millionaire, and goes on t6 
 fall in love with the latter, who is en- 
 gaged t6 be married t6 a titled Italian. 
 But the Sanf ord's fortune is lost, and 
 Prince Cavalmonte, with tears in his 
 fine eyes, demonstrates t6 Miriam that 
 it is impossible for him t6 marry a 
 poor girl. She wil not quite giv him 
 up, tho. She wil stay in Paris, be- 
 come a great actress and make a 
 colossal fortune . . . Her hopes all 
 vanished, the remnant of her fortune 
 nearly eaten, Miriam marries Raoul 
 Bertrand. and goes t6 liv in his shabby 
 studio with him and his invalid sister 
 Miette. Raoul is happy, Miriam dul 
 until the return of her cousin Mattie, 
 wh6 has married in America a half- 
 rich man, Mr. Silas Blizzard. Led 
 once more int6 the old life of pleasure 
 and lavish expense, she drags her hus- 
 band with her, intrigues with picture 
 dealers, and, on the strength of ficti- 
 tious orders, makes him set up a 
 fashionable studio. She again meets 
 the Prince, and falls a victim t6 his 
 wiles; and the story ends tragically. 
 
 638 
 
KREXCH NOVELS. 
 
 FOLLE-FAEINE. [by "Ouiba," i.e., 
 L.. DelaKumiS: Chapman, 1S1\.] "FoUe- 
 Farine is the child of a miller's dauter, 
 who, in her quiet Xorman home, had 
 passed for a saint, until the miller's cru- 
 elty, and the gloom of her life in a dni 
 atmosphere of superstition, had dri-veu 
 her to run away with a handsome gypsy 
 who had visited the ufiborhood. That 
 she had so run away was knon to none, 
 and her disappearanje was currently at- 
 tributed to some miracle by which she 
 was taken to heaven, and her saintshijj 
 consummated, until six years afterwards, 
 when her child was brot to the miller's 
 house by a kind-hearted gypsy of the 
 tribe to which the sedu5er of the now 
 dead maiden belonged. 'She was a saint,' 
 the old miller exclaimed, oongerning his 
 dauter; 'she was a saint, and the devil 
 begot in her that.' The girl was thus 
 looked upon from the first as a child of 
 the devil, and the dark beauty and the 
 stubborn strength that she inherited from 
 her father, encouraged the ignorant vil- 
 lagers in the belief that she was a witch. 
 That belief was further encouraged by 
 the persistent cruelty of her grandfather, 
 who turned her into an abject slave, and 
 who allowed her to liv in his house only 
 because she was cheaper than any beast 
 of burden, and because in his brutish way 
 he felt that he was doing a duty, as wel 
 as gratifying himself, by thus scourging 
 
 the offspring of the devil and the disgrace 
 of his family. Of course, even in super- 
 stitious Normandy, it would be hard to 
 find people so degraded by bigotry, and 
 rendered so inhuman by superstition, as 
 ar this old miller and his nSbors. But 
 Ouida does not here attempt to paint life- 
 like characters. Her characters ar em- 
 bodiments, for the most part, of preju- 
 dijes and passions which stil defa9e the 
 beauty of the world, and render miser- 
 able that which might be happy. If the 
 miller is inhuman in his cruelty, so ar the 
 two other men who ar the most promi- 
 nent in the story. One of them is a rich 
 old sensualist, who lays cunning snares ' 
 for the ruin of the heroin, hunts her from 
 plafe to plaje, and tries h<T with bribe 
 after bribe, until, tho his ends ar gained, 
 he only succeeds in making of her a mar- 
 tyr and saint indeed. The other is a 
 selfish devotee of art, so wedded t6 his 
 craft that, while he acfepts some of Folle- 
 Farine's slavish homage, he spurns the 
 love which she oft'ers him, and thinking 
 that he oes her nothing, is twife an ignor- 
 ant debtor to her for his life, and for the 
 fame which he values more than life. 
 [Compare No; 725.] The miller, the 
 sensualist, and the painter differ in kind, 
 but alike illustrate the cruelty of selfish- 
 ness, the vileness of human greed, the 
 worthlessness of that lust of power which 
 finds favor with men." [Exam. 2034 m 
 
 638 s 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 It is very wel written, with quiet 
 force, and a tact whicli is beyond 
 praise. Tiie various lases of Paris 
 life introduced ar faitlifully enuf but 
 not too realistically painted. Perhaps 
 the most attractiv characters ar the 
 invalid embroiderer, Miette, and the 
 artist's stone-cutter friend, Pierre. 
 But none of the others is wholly bad, 
 and even the hardened Miriam is al- 
 lowed the grace of a death-bed repent- 
 ance." [ Critic. 2035 
 FOREST HOUSE (The) & OATH- 
 EEINE'S LOVERS [by EmileErck- 
 MANN & P: Alex. Chathian (t, 
 1890.) : N.-Y., 1870.] "opens like a 
 regular story of rustic love, in, say, 
 the second manner of G : Sand. You 
 ar just looking out for the good old 
 traditional denoument, when lo ! you 
 find yourself plunged int6 a thrilling 
 mediaeval legend of crime and retri- 
 bution, skilfully linked t6 the present 
 day by a slender thread of the super- 
 natural . . . On the other hand, in 
 some of the smaller sketches, the de- 
 scription predominates, or rather they 
 ar all description: there is no plot 
 worth the name. Catherine's Lovers, 
 for example, so far as the story is 
 concerned, mit hav been written by 
 Arthur or Titcomb. There is a village 
 heiress and a poor schoolmaster. He 
 is ashamed t6 profess his love, and 
 she forces him t6 confess it ; and his 
 rich rivals, wh6 hoped t6 mortify and 
 ruin him, ar awfully sold. Voila 
 tout! The whole attraction of the 
 sketch is in the delineations of vil- 
 lage life and scenery." [C: A. 
 Bristed. 2036 
 
 FORESTERS (The) by Alex. 
 [ Davy ] Dumas : Appleton, 1854. 2037 
 
 FORGET-ME-NOTS [by Julia 
 Kavanagh : Bentley, 1878.] "con- 
 tains a number of short sketches of 
 
 life in a norman village, and ar con- 
 nected solely by community of place. 
 The great bulk relate tS the fortunes 
 of various inhabitants of "Manne- 
 ville," and all ar gracefully told." 
 [Athenseum. 2038 
 
 FORTUNES OF THE ROUGONS, 
 by E. Zola : Chicago, Laird, 
 1891. 2039 
 
 FOUR GOLDPIECES (The), by 
 GouEAUD : Low, 1875. 2040 
 
 FRENCH COUNTRY FAMILY 
 (A), [by Henriette (Guizot) de 
 Witt: Harper, 1868.] "Apart from 
 the pleasure which old and young 
 must derive from this storj', it is use- 
 ful in correcting some erroneous im- 
 pressions concerning french family 
 life which many persons maj'' hav 
 imbibed from reading novels ; and 
 altho no absolute teaching is aimed at, 
 few persons wil peruse this little 
 book without receiving from it in- 
 struction as wel as delit. The atmos- 
 fere of La Vaeherie is wholesome, the 
 life there picturesque ; the children ar 
 affectionate, dutiful, intelligent, but 
 never priggish ; filial love and parent- 
 al devotion contribute t6 form a fam- 
 ily picture." [Round Table. 2041 
 
 FRENCH EGGS IN AN ENGLISH 
 BASKET by i). Souvestee, London, 
 1871. 2042 
 
 FRENCH HEIRESS IN HER OWN 
 CHATEAU (A) [by Eleanou C 
 Price : Low, 1878.] "takes us t6 the 
 pleasant towns and chateaux of Anjou, 
 and among a society which, tho its 
 bugbear is the Red Republic, has no 
 notion of looking t6 a pinchbeck 
 Caesar for its salvation. Indeed, 
 these courteous and kindly marquises 
 and marchionesses seem, on the 
 whole, very wel content with the ex- 
 isting state of things, and when they 
 marry ar not above being escorted t6 
 
ITKBNCH NOVB-LS. 
 
 FORESTERS (The), [by Alex. Du- 
 mas ( 1803-70 ) : Appleton, 1854.] -'Turn- 
 iug his bac upon camps and courts, the 
 scene of his former triumphs, the author 
 here givs us n charming reminiscence of 
 VilJers Coterfits, his nativ village, and 
 relates a simple tale founded upon occur- 
 rences which once happened in the nfibor- 
 hood. The thread of the story is slight, 
 but it is wel managed and full of interest. 
 The sketches of character introduced, and 
 the descriptions of woodland scenery, ar 
 lifelike, and evidently copied from nature. 
 Unlike some of his more pretentious 
 works, "The Foresters" seems the pro- 
 duct of an unhacnied pen. Altogether it 
 is a delightful episode of country life, 
 pure and healthful in its teachings, and 
 reminding us rather of that beautiful 
 pastoral, Fadette [No. 2108] and some of 
 the tales of Emile Souvestre, than of any 
 previous production of this inexhaustible 
 writer." [ Albion. 3037 
 
 639 e 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 FRANCIS THE WAIF [by '-George 
 Sand," i. e., Amantine Luclle Aurore 
 (Dupin) Dudevant (t, 1876) • Boutledge, 
 1889, 304 p.] "is a story of peasant life. 
 ... A 'cliampi' is a child abandoned in 
 the fields . . . The author introdu9es the 
 hero, at the tender age of 6, boarded by 
 the parish with an old woman who dwels 
 in a hovel. The pretty young wife of the 
 miller takes compassion on the child, and 
 finds means to supply him, unknon to her 
 brutal husband, with food and raiment. 
 He groes into a comely lad, gentle, intelli- 
 gent, and right-hearted, and devotedly 
 attached to Madeleine. He enters the 
 servise of the miller given up to the fas- 
 9inations of a wido, wh5 tries tS seduge 
 the handsome Champi, and, failing of 
 suc9ess, instils jealousy into the ear of 
 the miller, who drives Frangois from his 
 house. The young man finds occupation 
 in a distant village, and returns to the 
 mil of Cornouer only when its master is 
 dead and Madeleine il, to rescue his 
 benefactress from grasping creditors, by 
 means of a sum of money his unknon 
 
 father has sent to him. George Sand 
 makes every woman fall in love with the 
 Champi ; but he repulses all save one, and 
 that one never dreams of loving him 
 otherwise than as a mother. At last one 
 of the fair ones who would fain hav 
 gained his he^rt, generously reveals to 
 him, what he himself has difficulty in 
 believing, that he is in love with Made- 
 leine, and, further, compassionating his 
 timidity, undertakes to brSak the 150 to 
 the pretty wido. It requires a talent like 
 that of George Sand to giv an air of 
 probability to all this. Thgre ar at most 
 but a dozen years' difference between 
 Madeleine and the Champi, but the reader 
 has been so much accustomed t5 look 
 upon them in the light of mother and 
 son, that he is somewhat startled on 
 finding the boy of 19 enamored of the 
 woman of 30. The love-passages, how- 
 ever, ar managed with the author's 
 usual skil. As a picture of peasant life, 
 the book yields internal evidence of fidel- 
 ity." [Blackwood's Magazine. 3040 k 
 
 639 m 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 their homes by the local National 
 Gard. Nay, more ; they iir willing t6 
 admit that their recent ancestors wer 
 not wholly free from blame in their 
 relations «ith their inferiors, even 
 tho the penalty they paid may hav 
 been somewhat too severe. As the 
 chief personages in the story ar tw6 
 young Englishmen, it is needless t6 
 say that it turns mainly on the ''pecu- 
 liar institution" of french society in 
 regaid t6 marriage arrangements. 
 Of course the tw6 english brothers, 
 of wh6m one is charming but selfish, 
 the other less attractiv, but , more 
 genuin, fall in love with french girls, 
 and, of course, each succeeds as he 
 deservs." [Alhenaeuni. 2043 
 
 FRENCH PIOTUEES IN ENG- 
 LISH CHALK. [ by Eustace Clare 
 Grenville Murray : Smith, 1876.] 
 '■Many of oilr readers wil remembei' 
 these brilliant sketches as they ap- 
 peared in the Cornhill Magazine. 
 Martin Boulet, 'Our ruf, red Candi- 
 date,' wh5 so admirably out-manoeu- 
 vres archbishop, prefect, and the rest 
 of the authorities, is quite deserving 
 of a permanent place among portraits 
 of french personages. So is the young- 
 democrat, Camille Lange, and his 
 father, Demosthenes Lange. Of 
 course, our author is a little cynical, 
 witness the end of 'Our Secre"- Soci- 
 ety,' where four conspiratoi's, wh5 ar 
 bent on revolutionising France, not t6 
 say the world, appear in a way which 
 shos them t6 be very fair -friends of 
 order.' 'L' Ambulance Tricochet,' 
 however, is a capital story, free from 
 this characteristic. Altfigether, 
 'French Pictures' is a book worth 
 reading, or even reading again." 
 [ Spectator. 2044 
 
 FRIEND (A). [-'L'Aimge") by 
 "Henei GeiSville" : i. e., Alice M.. 
 
 Cfeleste (Fleury) Durand: Peterson, 
 1878.] "The locale and the person- 
 ages ar french, and all the conditions 
 of french life amongst rising profes- 
 sors, sober old 'rentiers,' and aspiring 
 officials ar very wel described by a 
 person wh6 knos all about them." 
 [ Nation. 2045 
 
 FRIEND FRITZ, [by Emile 
 Erckmann & P : Alex. Chatrian 
 ( t, 1890) : Scribner, 18Si).] "There is 
 something delitfully human, droll, and 
 kindly in it, from the first page t6 the 
 last. Kobus' predestind but uncon- 
 scious laps from the deteimind bach- 
 elorhood of a bon-vivant, easy-going 
 and sweet-tempered, fond of good 
 eating, good drinking, and shuffling 
 about in old clothes, proud of his un- 
 hampered liberty and serene in the 
 untempted security on which it rests, 
 could laardly hav been described with 
 greater simplicity and charm. True, 
 there is nothing which can be called 
 elevating about the story. But grant- 
 ing that the authors look at life like 
 thoro Sadducees. stil they not only 
 hav no quarrel with the moralities, 
 great or small, but they ar plumply 
 and unmistakably enlisted on the side 
 of the natural virtues and social de- 
 cencies. And surely they have sel- 
 dom been surpassed as delineators of 
 those common, humble, and kindly 
 aspects of elsatian village life with 
 which they had a natural sympathy." 
 [ Catholic World. " 2046 
 
 FROMONT THE YOUNGER AND 
 RISLER THE ELDER, [by Al- 
 PHONSE Daddet: Vizettelly, 1880.] 
 "Sidonie is the personification of cold, 
 calculating worldliness; Dfisirfie is 
 the poor, patient, working-girl; 
 Claire, the sweetest wife and mother 
 in the world. — and both Desirfie and 
 Olau'e ar embodiments of self-devo- 
 
 640 
 
FRENXII NOVELS. 
 
 tion. r.PtwoPTi the two stands Sidonie, 
 working luisclaief to both and death 
 t6 one. Sidonie in childliood livs 
 under the same roof with Dfisirfee ; in 
 her married life she is thron constant- 
 ly with Claire. From Dfesirfie she 
 steals her lover ; from Claire, her hus- 
 band. She is faithless in turn t6 both 
 men, as she has been from the first t6 
 her husband ; and cruel as she is t6 
 the women who ar nearest t6 her, the 
 men wh6 love her suffer even more at 
 her hands. The scene is laid in the 
 middle-class life of Paris. There is 
 not a titled jjersonage in the book; 
 and there is a straitforward simplicity, 
 and an absence of pretence and gla- 
 mor, about the way in which the story 
 is told, which is very striking." 
 [Boston "Literary World." 2047 
 
 .SAME, ("Partners"). 
 
 .SAME, ("Sidonie"), Estes, 
 
 1877. 
 
 FUGITIVES (THE) [with "The 
 Duke's Daughter" by Ma. Oliphant 
 (Wilson) Oliphant: London, 1890.] 
 "is popular because it treats of and 
 appeals t6 familiar emotions. The 
 midnit flit of the dishonest financier 
 from his luxurious english home with 
 his tw6 dauters — the young woman 
 and the little child, neither of wh6m 
 can even guess at the meaning of the 
 mysterious journey — provides a strik- 
 ing opening for a story the continua- 
 tion and close of which amply fulfil 
 the promise of these early pages. 
 The life of the little f rench village of 
 Latour, which the fugitivs make their 
 final resting place, and in which poor 
 Mr. Goulbourn finds not only his 
 grave but the opportunity for the one 
 kind deed which makes that grave 
 sacred t6 Blanchette and her husband, 
 is portrayed with intimate knoledge 
 and fine sympathy ; and tho Mrs. 
 
 Olipliant has done more ambitious 
 work than this story of the ordeal of 
 Helen Goulborn, she has never ex- 
 celled its quiet, tender pathos." 
 [ Spectator. 2048 
 
 GABPJELLE ["La Maison de 
 Maurege") by "Henri Gr^ville", 
 i. e.. A. M. (F.) Durand: Peterson. 
 1878.] "is refined and charming." 
 [ Atlantic. 2049 
 
 GALLANT LORDS QF BOIS 
 DOEE, by "G: Sand," = No. 711. 
 
 GAMBARA, by Balzac, in Louis 
 Lambert. 2050 
 
 GAUDISSAET II., = ILLUSTEI- 
 OUS GAUDISSABT. 
 
 GERARD'S MARRIAGE [by 
 Andr£ Thedriet: Appleton, 1877.] 
 "is one of those stories t6 which the 
 term idyl may be wel applied. It is 
 provincial in its locality, and its every 
 page is pervaded by the sweetest of 
 rural influences. Its heroin lifts her 
 lovely head like a beautiful flower, 
 and seems t6 bear about her the charm 
 and the perfume of a rose just not 
 fully blon. Gerard, wh6 is the son 
 of an old chevalier of the 'petite 
 noblesse,' is destined by his father t6 
 marry the not unattractiv dauter of a 
 similar family; but he having seen 
 Helen, falls straitway in love with 
 her . . . All the personages in this 
 most charming story ar full of char- 
 acter and vitality . . . They all ar 
 drawn with a pencil which seems t6 
 carry life and lit in its very touch. 
 Not less remarkable is the use of the 
 rural scenery among which the inci- 
 dents of the story take place. De- 
 scriptions of scenery ar generally very 
 tedious, and fail entirely t6 produce 
 the picture which the writer designs. 
 But in these not only does the scene 
 come vivedly before the mind's eye, 
 but the moral and fysical iucidents 
 
 611 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 blend with and illustrate each other, 
 so that the result is a charming whole. 
 We hav used the word charming more 
 than once in this notice; wc let it 
 stand ; it is only by such tautology 
 that the effect of 'Gerard's Marriage' 
 can be expressed." [ Galaxy.] — 
 " 'Le Mariage de Gerard' is a charm- 
 ing tale, charmingly told, with a 
 touch of quiet, gentlemanly humor, 
 and possessing a pathos that has no- 
 thing sentimental about it." [Athe- 
 naeum. 2051 
 
 , SAME ("Marriage of Ger- 
 ard'"), Chicago, Laird, 1891. 2052 
 
 GERPAUT, ^f {A) FATAL 
 PASSION. 
 
 GEEMAINE [ by Edmond [ Fr. 
 Valentin] About: Boston, Tilton, 
 1859.] contains '-fair delineations of 
 character and faithful descriptions, 
 and the usual number of dramatic 
 situations. The heroin is a young 
 girl of a noble but impoverished fam- 
 ily, wh(5 is sloly wasting away with 
 consumption, her disease being aggra- 
 vated by poverty. She becomes the 
 wife of a rich Spanish nobleman, throu 
 an intrigue of a mistress [ herself mar- 
 ried ], by wh5m he had a child, which 
 child the father s6t t6 legitimise. 
 This is one of the conditions of the 
 marriage, that the child should be ac- 
 cepted too. The mistress trusts t6 
 the death of Germaine t6 recover her 
 lover, and, in the event of the death 
 of her husband, for an opportunity t6 
 marry him. Germaine, however, is 
 restored t5 iiealth, and the plotting 
 mistress is foiled." [ Crayon. 2053 
 
 , SAME. Munro, 1882. 
 
 , SAME, ('-A Round of 
 
 Wrong"), London, 1861. 
 
 GEEMINIE LACERTEUX. by E. 
 & J. ( t- 1870.) DB GONCOURT : [Paris, 
 1865.] Vizetelly, 1887 ; Chicago, Laird. 
 
 1891, 222 pp. ; N.-Y.. Street, 1891. 2054 
 
 GEROLSTJfilN (sequel to "Mys- 
 teries of Paris") by Eugene Sue; 
 Harper, 1843. 2055 
 
 GIRL, WITH THREE PETTI- 
 COATS, by [C:] Paul de Kock, 
 London, 1839, 5@=- No. 1952. 
 
 GODSON OF A MARQUIS (The). 
 [ by Andri5 Theuriet : Appleton, 
 1878.] "No novel in this series yet 
 has pleased us more than -Gfirard's 
 Marriage' [No. 2051] and in exquisit 
 style and in all qualities of interest 
 this is the equal of that. The godson 
 was the marquis' illegitimate son, 
 wh6se ignoble birtii stood in the way 
 of his marriage t6 a lovely girl. Over 
 this hindrance the unfortunate godson 
 almost stumbled int6 an intrigue with 
 a married woman, but happily was 
 saved from it ; the repentant marriage 
 of his father and mother finally bring- 
 ing his love troubles t6 an acceptable 
 solution. This, as will be seen, is a 
 frenchy plot, but the wondrous deli- 
 cacy and refinement of Theuriet relieve 
 it of all coarseness. There ar pas- 
 sages in it of great beauty, and the 
 characterization is masterful and yet 
 easy." [ Boston "Lit. World." 2056 
 
 GOLDEN MEDIOCRITY, by E. 
 (G.) Hamekton, = No. 461. 
 
 GOLDSMITH'S WIFE (The), by 
 Eeybaud, = No. 718. 
 
 GOOD FELLOW (A), [by [C:] 
 Paul DE Kock: Phil'a, Care?/, 1838.] 
 Kock "never soars int6 the regions of 
 fashion t6 dazzle and regale his read- 
 ers with descriptiv luxuiy, or the 
 follies and eccentricities of the world 
 on stilts. He seems quite unconscious 
 of the existence of conventional per- 
 sonages, or that any degree of interest 
 can be attached t6 any other class, 
 but that which he has specially se- 
 lected t6 furnish subjects for his pen- 
 
 642 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 cU. Paul walks along the crowded 
 thorofares of life, jostling and jostled, 
 gleaning materials in every fresh con- 
 tact with his fello-iuen for his amus- 
 ing combinations — treasuring the nice 
 traits and evanescent distinctions 
 which individualize character, and 
 transferring them t6 paper with a 
 fidelity which leaves nothing t6 be 
 desired, and a rapiditj' of execution 
 which is truly surprising. His last 
 work '-Un bon Enfant,"' is the history 
 of what is called among us. A Good 
 Fellow. Charles Darville, the person- 
 ification of tliis character, is the son 
 of a wholesale silk mercer, wli6 died, 
 leaving his wido and son in excellent 
 circumstances. Charles is a most 
 dutiful and sober youth up t6 the 
 period when our history begins ; 
 when, with the best disposition in the 
 world, he is led intd the commission 
 of innumerable follies and absurdities, 
 whioh reduce him t6 distress." [Al- 
 bion. 2057 
 
 GEANDE BEETECHE (THE) 
 ^p^ Eccentric Novels. 
 
 GUENX, by Howakd. = No. 725. 
 
 HAND AND GLOVE [ by Amelia 
 Blandford Edwards : London, 
 Brown, 1838.] "is a slit, but very 
 readable and interesting story — not 
 sensible, indeed, but romantic and easy 
 t6 read. There has been no great ex- 
 penditure of talent or industry upon 
 it, but there ar some pleasant, life-like 
 descriptions of french country-life.'' 
 [Athenaeum. 2058 
 
 HANDSOME LAWRENCE, by 
 "G: Sand." Boston, 1871, is sequel to 
 A BOLLING STONE. 2059 
 
 HAPPY FIND (A) [ by — ( ) 
 Gagnebin: Crowell, 1889.] "is a 
 simple domestic tale, pure and whole- 
 some, and full of unaffected kindli- 
 ness- The 'happy find' is a foundling 
 
 wh6 gros int6 a creature of so sweet 
 and helpful a kind that she becomes a 
 blessing t6 all about her. Of course, 
 in the end, she 'comes t6 her on'." 
 [American. 2060 
 
 HAUNTED 5IAESH, 18.51, Haunt- 
 ed Pool. 1890.. = DEVIL'S POOL. 
 
 IIEADJSMEN OF FRANCE (The) 
 = TIIE SUBGEON\S STOBY. 
 
 HECTOR, [by Flora L. Shaw: 
 Boberts, 1881.] "It is a rare pleasure 
 t6 find such a book as -Hector,' a little 
 tale of country life. It tels of the 
 love and the sorro of gron people, but 
 from the child's point of vue. and 
 with such ex(juisit skil as t6 make it 
 one of the most beautiful of children's 
 books. It is a pui-e idyl, sweet and 
 fresh as the songs of the birds which 
 carol throu its pages."' [Nation.] — 
 8®=-, also. No. 465. 2061 
 
 HELENE by Henriette E. F. 
 (A.) Reybaud. London, 18-19. 2062 
 
 HENRIETTE. or a Corsican Moth- 
 er, by Fr. Corpse : Worthington, 
 1890. 2063 
 
 HEPTAMEEON (THE) = No. 703. 
 
 HESTER [by Beatrice Mat 
 Butt : Appleton, 1S80.] "is one of the 
 happiest little sketches of the french 
 war, in the chronicle of a faithful 
 love crossed and a burden patiently 
 borne. The style has vivacity and 
 charm." [Penn Monthly. 2064 
 
 HIDDEN MASTERPIECE (The), 
 by Balzac, in The Duchess [No. 2020. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE GREATNESS 
 AND DECLINE OF CESAR BIROT- 
 TEAU. [ by HoNORifi '-de" Balzac : 
 transl. by Wight & Goodrich, N.-Y'., 
 Budd, I860.] '-AVe ar very glad t6 
 see this beginning of a translation of 
 Balzac, or de Balzac, as he chose t6 
 christen himself. Without intending 
 an exact parallel, he mit be called the 
 Fielding of french literature,— in- 
 
 643 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 tensely masculiu. an lutist wh5 works 
 outward I'limi an informing idea, a 
 satirist \vh6se liiimor wil not let him 
 despise liuman nature even while he 
 exposes its weaknesses. The story of 
 Cfisar Birotteau is wel-chosen as an 
 usher t6 tlie rest, for it is eminently 
 characteristic, tho it does not sho the 
 hier imaginativ qualities of the au- 
 thor. It is one of the severest tests of 
 genius t6 draw an ordinary character 
 so humanly that we learn td love and 
 respect it in spite of a thoro familiar- 
 ity with its faults and absurdities. In 
 this respect Balzac's 'Birotteau' is a 
 masterpiece. The translation seeras 
 a very easy, spirited, and lino- 
 ing one. The translators hav over- 
 come the difficulties of slang with 
 great skil, rendering by equivalent 
 vulgarisms which giv the spirit where 
 the letter would be unintelligible." 
 [ Atlantic] — "This narrativ of a bour- 
 geois perfumer wh6 adhered t6 the 
 royalist cause, 60 years ago, gathered 
 some money, was decorated, began t6 
 speculate, grew extravagant, went up 
 like the wel-knon rocket and came 
 down like its stic, — this is a particu- 
 larly clean story and study of life. 
 The family of Birotteau is a charming 
 group. His faithful, sensible wife, 
 and gentle, pure-minded dauter ar so 
 different from the female characters in 
 'P6re Goriot' that we can hardly un- 
 derstand why, since they must hav 
 inhabited Paris at nearly the same 
 tim'e with the characters in ''Pere 
 Goriot" we got in that work not a 
 single glimpse of them, and wer 
 forced t6 conclude there wer no such 
 species. But poor Birotteau himself 
 is the best figure, because he ends 
 honorably and cleanly. His death, 
 after his recovery from insolvency 
 and his reinstatement in credit, is a 
 
 patlietie but true stroke of the novel- 
 ist's art. And what is notable about 
 it is that Balzac, in relating it, shos 
 his appreciation of the moral dignity 
 of Birotteau's recovery and exit; he 
 does not handle these incidents coarse- 
 ly or cynically, but as sympatheti- 
 cally as one could ask. So, too, he 
 sketclies the characters of Popinot 
 and Pillerault with a firm but gentle 
 hand, and makes them both win our 
 esteem. On tlie whole it is a pleasing 
 study, and is made the more attractiv 
 by its dashes of cheerful humor." 
 [American.] — ''It is a tale of domes- 
 tic life in Paris, not a tale beginning 
 with an intrigue, filled with passion, 
 and ending in tragedy, as many sup- 
 pose all Parisian life t6 be ; but one of 
 homely virtues, of every-day suffering 
 and sorro, of happiness and love, with 
 something of the social vice and 
 treachery which belongs t6 all seciety 
 ... It is on this land speculation that 
 the story turns. Of course it failed ; 
 failed not because the calculation was 
 not a good one, but because the guile- 
 less C6sar was cheated by tw6 of his 
 associates, one of wh6m ran away 
 with all the ready money, while an 
 ex-clerk of the perfumer wh6m he had 
 dismissed for theft compelled the 
 payment of the notes when there wer 
 no funds. All this, however, is 
 evolved in due season. In the mean- 
 time the grand ball is given, for Mrs. 
 Birotteau, finding contention useless, 
 resigns herself t6 the inevitable. The 
 course of events is full of interest and 
 incident. Euin conies, but salvation 
 comes also, ruin throu weakness and 
 knavery, and salvation throu strength 
 and self-denial. The close, perhaps, 
 is a little too dramatic, as in life the 
 happiness of success Is seldom fatal." 
 [ Albion. 2065 
 
 614 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 , SAME (transl. by J: H. Simp- 
 son), London, 1860. 
 
 , SAME (Cfesar Birotteau) , Bos- 
 ton, Boberts, 1886; N.-Y., Banner, 
 1891. 
 
 HOPE DEFERRED, [by Eliza 
 F.. POLT>Ai!i): Hurst. 1872.] "The 
 patient attitude of a loving woman, 
 \vh6 waits during long yea-rs for an 
 affection which awakes too late, and 
 is doomed t5 find that wlien hope 
 seems no longer possible, the passion 
 which she has stifled so bravely is at 
 length reciprocated, is a subject which, 
 in any hands, must be difficult t6 treat 
 without profanation. That Miss Pol- 
 lard, in her character of Jeanne, 
 should hav succeeded so wel — placing 
 before us a type of ardent affection 
 without grossness, — trusting simplic- 
 ity without weakness or insipidity, — 
 shos that she possesses appreciatiy 
 insit and womanly delicacy of touch. 
 We hav read few stories which hav 
 left so pleasing an impression . . . 
 The scene is laid in France, and the 
 author writes withknoledge." [Athe- 
 naeum. 2086 
 
 HOTEL DU PETIT ST. -JEAN 
 (The) [by C. L.. Havtkins Demp- 
 ster: Smith. 1869.] "is far superior. 
 Even if we leave its main feature out 
 of sit, we find in it much which throes 
 lit on provincial society. A criuiinal 
 trial, the election of a deputy, a ser- 
 mon pregnant with the dramatic ex- 
 pression of french preachers, and 
 other scenes of equal force, giv a zest 
 t6 the story, and keej] us from bi-ood- 
 ing altdgether on the self-sacriflce of 
 the heroin and the meanness of the man 
 wh6m she had first chosen . . . We 
 commend 'The Hotel du Petit St.- 
 Jean' as a careful study of manners. 
 with a central figure of even greater 
 interest." [ Athenaeum. 2067 
 
 HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST IT- 
 SELF [Riviera] = No. 467. 
 
 HOUSE OF PENARY AN, by San- 
 dead. = No. 742. 
 
 HOUSE OF THE TWO BARBELS 
 (The) [ by Andr£ Theuriet : Apple- 
 ton, 1879.] "is full of touches reveal- 
 ing domestic life in a southern town. 
 Tw6 bachelors of middle age liv with 
 their ant, an old maid, simple-minded, 
 unsoflsticated, eccentric creatures all; 
 and ar in consternation when they 
 learn tliat their privacy is t6 be in- 
 truded upon, and their quiet disturbed, 
 by 2 reldJtivs from Paris, a lady and 
 her dauter. If the 3 domestic recluses 
 ar perplexed and in dismay at the 
 advent of the 2 ladies of glittering 
 plumage from the capital, the Pari- 
 siennes ar equallj"- disturbed by their 
 provincial surroundings . . . The cur- 
 rent fiction of France bears unmistak- 
 able testimony t6 the place home 
 holds in the affection of the french 
 people. Some of the most delltful of 
 domestic pictures hav in times past 
 been furnished by french writers ; but 
 recent fiction seems t6 us t6 paint 
 these scenes with more grace and ar- 
 tistic skil, t6 delineate domestic life 
 more distinctly on its artistic rather 
 than on its moral side. Some of the 
 writers of the day ar admirable 
 •genre' painters: they delit in "giving 
 t6 the most homely and simple inci- 
 dents exquisit effects of color and 
 contrast, in turning t6 dramatic ac- 
 count groupings and details which 
 writers of the past disdained t5 heed. 
 . . . Theuriet's stoi'ies ar full of these 
 delltful pictures, these domestic bits 
 of color." [ Applrton's Journal. 2068 
 
 HUNTING THE ROMANTIC, or 
 the Adventures of a Novel-Reader, 
 [by [Leonard Sylvain] Jules 
 Sandeau: N.-Y., Stringer, 1852.] 
 
 645 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 Here "unbridled youth is gently and 
 adroitly led in the path of virtue by 
 guides as delltful as they ar irre- 
 proachable." [ Saturday Eev. 2069 
 ICELAND FISHERMAN (An), 
 [by "Pierre Loti," 1. e. Julian 
 Viaud: N.-Y., Gottsberger. IS8S ; Chi- 
 cago. McClurg. 1S90.] "The scene 
 is not laid in Iceland but in Brfitagne, 
 and his 'PScheur d'Island' is one of 
 those wh6 bear that name because 
 they ar engaged in the cod-fishery off 
 the coast of Iceland, and rarely see 
 France in summer time. The story is 
 a sorroful and yet not a gloomy one. 
 It is lit by so much true and natural 
 affection, and so full of natural beauty, 
 that the tragic death of the tw6 young 
 fishermen, — one sacrificed t6 french 
 ambition, the other never returning 
 from the fishing expedition on which 
 he starts six days after his wedding, — 
 does not bring t6 the reader a sense 
 of unrelieved sadness. The central 
 interest of the story is the love of the 
 proud and sensitiv Yann for a girl his 
 superior in wealth and social position. 
 For tw6 years after their discovery of 
 their mutual affection, he is kept from 
 avowing it by his feeling that he is 
 not the man to marj'y a fine lady. 
 But her father's death as a bankrupt 
 rem6ves the obstacle, and the story 
 of their brief courtship, merry wed- 
 ding, and early and final separation is 
 wel told. Even tho the book does 
 not comply with the requirement 
 which Mr. Darwin would hav enacted 
 by Act of Parliament, that all novels 
 should end pleasantly, yet it may be 
 read with pleasure by those who sym- 
 pathize with his wish." [American.] — 
 "The second translation of Loti's 'Ice- 
 land Fisherman,'' the finished flower 
 of his literary work, is better than the 
 first. The translator has reproduced 
 
 the marked onomatopoetic quality of 
 Loti"s language with singular fidelity 
 andskil." [Nation. 2070 
 
 IDLE TIME TALES, by Fb- 
 Copp:^e: Chicago, iSand. 1891. z071 
 
 ILLUSTRIOUS GAUDISSART 
 (The), by Balzac, in Nos. 1993 and 
 2020. 2072 
 
 IMMORTAL (The). [by Al- 
 
 PHONSE Daudet : Chicago, Band, N.- 
 Y.. Alden, 1888.] "What is stil more 
 remarkable than the correct and 
 sparkling rendition of the original, is 
 the fact that the illustrations really 
 illustrate the text. It is a skit at the 
 'Academic' and the characters ar lltly 
 disguised portraits from life. It is a 
 powerful book, but, like most of 
 Daudet's, it is not cheerful reading. 
 Even 'Le Petit Chose' was not that, 
 delitfuUy amusing as it is in parts. 
 Daudet does not gloat over vice ; we 
 hav more than a suspicion that he 
 cordially detests it. Nevertheless, 
 the atmosfere of his books, even of 
 this one, which is comparativly free, 
 is, if not steeped in corruption, at 
 least redly suffused with it. What a 
 master of pathos he is ! With what 
 lit, unerring strokes he paints the 
 dreadful scene in which Astier-Rfihu's 
 wife unveils herself t6 him after the 
 cold intimacy of 35 years, strips of 
 the last shreds of vanity and self- 
 respect, and drives him t6 suicide, 
 that inevitable refuge for Daudet's 
 disappointed heroes !" [ Catholic 
 World. 2073 
 
 , SAME ("One of the Forty"). 
 
 Sonnenschein. 1889. 
 
 IN THE CAMARGUE [by Emily 
 Bowles : London. 1873, Loring, 1875.] 
 is "a story of Southern France. As a 
 picture of a strange and somewhat 
 fascinating-life it is quite remarkable. 
 its dramatic interest being inferior td 
 
 (OG 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 the charms of its biit and realistic 
 sketches of character and society." 
 [Boston "Literaiy World." 2074 
 
 IN THE SPRING OF MY LIFE 
 [by Oi.GA (Cantacuzene) Altieri: 
 Tinsley. 1S7S.] "is a charming little 
 romance which even an indifferent 
 translation has not been able t6 spoil. 
 It is. indeed, only a variation on a 
 wel-worn theme — "the course of true 
 . love never did run smooth," — but it is 
 treated so delicately and simply, and 
 is so free from vulgarity and bold 
 commonplace, that it interests the 
 reader from beginning t6 end. No 
 doubt there ar improbabilities in the 
 story, and exaggerations of sentiment 
 and manner; but these blemishes ar 
 not of a sicly kind." [ Athen. 2075 
 
 INDIANA, by "G : Sand," = No. 
 753. 
 
 INTERIOR OF A DILIGENCE 
 (The), by E. Sodvestee, in Southern 
 Lit. Messenger, Nov.. 1854. 2076 
 
 IRENE'S DOWER, by C : Desleys, 
 Remington, 1S7S. 2077 
 
 IRONMASTER (The). [by G: 
 Ohnet: Vizetelly, 1884; J?arat?, 1888.] 
 "•T6 what is the success of 'The Iron- 
 master' to be attributed? In the first 
 place, t6 the fact that Mr. Ohnet is 
 manifestly a consummate playwrlt. 
 The convent-school jealousy between 
 Claire de Beaulieu and Athenais 
 Moulinet, seems but a poor basis for 
 a good story. Yet Mr. Ohnet's super- 
 structure is undoubtedly ingenious 
 and compact, and you never quite 
 forget this curlj- girlish rivalry in the 
 duel between the wife of the ironmas- 
 ter and the wife of the heSrtless lover 
 wh6 has deserted hei', to the all but 
 tragic close of which the plot leads. 
 The author skilfully transforms Claire 
 and Athfinais int6 impersonations of 
 moral loveliness and unloveliness in 
 
 woman . . . Philippe Derblay, the 
 ironmaster, is a character of a kind 
 seldom met in f rench flection, a char- 
 acter of the teutonic rather than the 
 gallic type. He is courageous, saga- 
 cious, disinterested, merciful, a wor- 
 shipper of duty ... He declines t6 f or- 
 giv Claire long after he must hav seen 
 that her old indifference t6 him had 
 been transformed int6 an overmaster- 
 ing passion . . . The reader wil be 
 grateful, not only for the story, but 
 for some of the characters. In partic- 
 ular, the mother and brother of Claire, 
 a spritly baroness and her good- 
 natured scientific husband, and a 
 notary of the old school, ar so good, 
 that we can only hope that they ar 
 not too good t6 be out of place in a 
 representation of French life at the 
 present time." [ Spectator. 2078 
 
 , SAME (-'Claire"), N.-Y., iV. 
 
 L. Munroy 1884; Lovdl, 1888. 
 
 , SAME ("Lady Claire"); G: 
 
 Munro, 1884. 
 
 ISHMAEL, by Braddon, [1851- 
 70] No. 755. 
 
 ISLE OF THE DEAD = LAZAS- 
 ETTO-KEEPEB. 
 
 JACK [by Alphonse Daudet: 
 Estes, 1877, Koutledge. 1889.] "is a 
 bad book in its materials and atmos- 
 fere and a good book in its purpos 
 and method. In its literary execution 
 it is exceedingly fine . . . The charac- 
 ters here set before us ar, .for the 
 most part, a loose set. Jack, poor 
 child, and the lovely Cecile, alone 
 stand in the lit. In the Moronval 
 Academy we hav a palpable repro- 
 duction of D6theboys' Hall. The 
 style throuout is hlly artistic, the 
 posturings ar dramatic and absorb- 
 ing, and the entire work that of a 
 master, but the end is sad, painfully 
 so." [Boston "Lit. World." 2079 
 
 617 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 JACQUES, [by '-G: Sand," i. e., 
 Amantine Lucile Aurore (Dupiii) 
 Dudevant: Harper, 1847, 2 v.] "The 
 story is told in tlie shape of correspon- 
 dence ; and thus, as incidents develop 
 themselvs, we hav a running commen- 
 tary supplied in the most piquant and 
 artistic manner . . . The long and 
 short of it is, that because Fernande 
 cannot fathom her husband, she la- 
 ments herself as a 'femme incom- 
 prise' ; so she, too, goes on the search 
 for sympathy. The slope she treads 
 is so gentle at first as t6 be almost 
 Imperceptible. She concerns herself 
 about the sorros of an unhappy lover, 
 and offers herself as intermediary with 
 the object of his affections. The per- 
 ilous intimacy, sweetened by her tears 
 and smiles, seduces him 'int6 trans- 
 ferring his love; and th.at power of 
 sympathy which exercises an irresisti- 
 ble sway over its predestind subjects 
 betrays her int6 reciprocating his 
 passion. Yet she never I6ses her re- 
 gard for her husband^-a regard which 
 is scarcely t6 be distinguished from 
 her early love. Jacques, who is pre- 
 ternaturally shrewd and clear-sited. 
 anticipates the course of her unlawful 
 passion ; and his fancies pass intd firm 
 beliefs a full stage or so in advance 
 of the reality. Finally, he does what 
 was possibly the best thing in the 
 peculiar circumstances, and removes 
 himself out of the way by a suicide 
 which he adroitly disguises as an ac- 
 cident. The charitable consideration 
 that has governed his conduct is "No 
 human being can command love, and 
 no one is t6 be blamed either for feel- 
 ing it or for 16sing it. What degrades 
 a woman is falsehood.' " [ Black- 
 wood's. 2080 
 
 JAMBE p'AEGENT & M. JAC- 
 QUES, by E. SouvESTRE, in Southern 
 
 Lit. Messenger, aug.-sept.. 1855. 2081 
 JEAN TETEROL'S IDEA [byV: 
 Cherbulikz : Appleton, 1879.] "is 
 written with that precision, polish, 
 grace and vivacity which hav always 
 characterised Cherbuliez' work; and 
 it has the additional advantages of a 
 story interesting in itself and of sharp- 
 ly contrasted and piquant characters. 
 Jean Teterol is an illiterate laborer 
 wh6 has raised himself t6 the position 
 of a millionaire, and wh6 exhibits the 
 egotism of a self-made man in its 
 most vulgar and aggressiv form." 
 [ Appleton's.] — "'Jean goes off, and 
 finally comes t6 the f olloing decision : 
 he wil go away, and become rich, — 
 richer than this Baron de Saligneux, 
 wh6 permits himself the pleasure of 
 kicking. Then he wil come bac t6 
 the village, and hav his revenge. And 
 — people wil see ! That is the whole 
 book. He does it, and people d6 see ! 
 He amasses a large fortune, and I'e- 
 turns t6 his nativ hamlet. Unfortu- 
 nately the old baron is dead, but he 
 buys all the land sold by his son, the 
 prodigal young baron, builds a great 
 white house which cuts off his vue, 
 and finally manages t6 get possession 
 of all the claims against him, and 
 present them in a lump. The baron, 
 a spendthrift man of the world, is at 
 his wits' end; having tried all his 
 methods of procuring money in vain, 
 he goes t6 see the ex-gardener in his 
 new mansion, pi-eserving, however, 
 throuout the inteivue his air of the 
 ancien regime. The ex-gardener 
 meets him with an ultimatum : your 
 dauter, aristocrat t6 the tips of her 
 fingers, shal marry my son. Voila! 
 The tw6 fathers at last arrange it. 
 Lionel, meanwhile, has had an excel- 
 lent education, and has been bred 
 
 64S 
 
FRENCH NOVELS, 
 
 with Claire honestly; but when he 
 discovers that she is, as it wer, being 
 sold t6 pay her father's debts, he 
 tSars the paper which binds the baron 
 before his father's astonished eyes, 
 and. barely escaping being strangled 
 by him, flees t6 Paris, where he be- 
 gins t6 earn his living as a writer 
 (how easily they d6 that in books). 
 Of course, the moment Claire (wh6 
 has been very scornful all along) 
 finds him really gone, she turns 
 around and now begins t6 love him. 
 An uncle fortunately dies and leaves 
 her his estate, so that the throttling 
 money obligation is ended. And then 
 the tw6 young people come tdgether 
 again, and the idea is carried out." 
 [Atlantic. 2082 
 
 , SAME ("The Wish of his 
 
 Life") London, 1879. 
 
 JEANNE LARAGUAY [by Eu- 
 genie (GlNDRlEZ) Hamekton : Chap- 
 man, 1864.] -'exhibits so much fem- 
 inin prettiness and piquancy that we 
 ar constrained t6 deal tenderly with 
 it, notwithstanding a want of orig- 
 nality which in one place almost lays 
 the author open t6 a charge of pla- 
 giarism. Jeanne is the onlj'- child 
 of a Parisian banker, wh6 in early life 
 was guilty of forgery. In spite of 
 the unwholesome influences surround- 
 ing her frivolous life, Jeanne is as 
 good and clever as she is beautiful 
 and beloved. She has been taken 
 from her convent and introduced intiJ 
 a brilliant, wealthy, pleasuie-seeking 
 set . . . Ere he has declared his devo- 
 tion, Jeanne has fallen deeply in love 
 with her tutor. Thus the case stands 
 when Sir Henry Luton appears on the 
 scene. Sir Henry is already married 
 t6 a woman of whSse existence society 
 is ignorant ; but he is the one person 
 wh6 possesses the proofs of Mr. Lara- 
 
 quay's early error. He insists on 
 making Jeanne his wife; and Jeanne, 
 wh6 has learnt the awful secret of 
 her house, consents t6 marry the man 
 wh6m she hates, and discard the man 
 wh6m she loves, in order that slic 
 may shield her father from ignouiin- 
 ious punishment. The wedding is on 
 the point of celebration, when the 
 artist prSves Sir Henry t6 be a biga- 
 mist in intention, and compels him t6 
 relinquish his claim t5 Jeanne's hand, 
 and also t5 deliver the documentary 
 evidence of Laraquay's forgery. 
 Thus the villain is defeated ; the vir- 
 tuous forger is freed from dread of 
 exposure; and the lovers begin the 
 world as man and wife." [Ath. 2083 
 
 JET [ Eiviera] = No. 475. 
 
 JO.VN WENTVVOETH. [byK.. S. 
 Macquoid: Harper, 1886.] "is a 
 pleasant story of school-life and Bre- , 
 ton manners." [ Catholic World. 2084 
 
 JOSEPH NOIEEL'S REVENGE, 
 [by V: Cni--i:BULiEz: 'H.-Y., Holt. 
 1873.] "Nowhere has Cherbuliez 
 drawn a character so fascinating as 
 "Marguerite." The way in which she 
 is represented, first as a young girl at 
 home, as charming and lovely as pos- 
 sible, then married and in trouble, 
 but groing in fascination as in char- 
 acter with every affliction, retaining 
 in spite of all her suffering her won- 
 derful innocence and purity, warrents 
 us in declaring that Cherbuliez has 
 shon here a power which, previously, 
 it was in one's power only t6 predict. 
 T5 draw a charming woman is no lit 
 task ; Cherbuliez has done it not only 
 with the cleverness with which he 
 gave us Didier's self-analysis and 
 Ladislas Bolski's fiery passion — a qual- 
 ity in which, by the way, he stands 
 almost alone — but with a pathos and 
 sympathy far superior t6 any such 
 
 649 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 cheap gift as cleverness. While Mar- 
 guerite stands first in merit, Joseph is 
 not t6 be forgotten; indeed, there is 
 no weakness shon in the treatment of 
 any of the characters. The plot is 
 one of the sort in which Cherbuliez 
 dellts, it being complex and not too 
 easily unriddled, but yet one not too 
 heavy for its author — he is never wed 
 down by its demands, it seems t6 
 trouble him as little as the utterance 
 of one of his numerous witticisms. 
 Some of the descriptions, as, for ex- 
 ample, that of the old castle, and the 
 meeting between Joseph and Margue- 
 rite in the sno, ar models of beauty. 
 One of the peculiarities of Cherbuliez' 
 novels is evident in this, their joyous- 
 ness in spite of a tragic end. This 
 quality seems t6 us one of the greatest 
 an author can hav : t6 give us sadness 
 but yet, without cheap consolation, 
 t6 leave in our minds the impression 
 that there is something which no sad- 
 ness can touch — a state of mind which 
 is neither hope nor indifference, but 
 the certainty of tlie grandeur of the 
 world outside of our petty misery. 
 This Cherbuliez has done. If this 
 praise seems fulsome, we hope that 
 the fault-finders wil read the novel." 
 [ Nation. ] Compare No. 708. 2085 
 _ JOSEPHINE, or The Beggar of the 
 Pontsdes Arts, by W: Hauff: Lon- 
 don, Clarke, 1844. 2086 
 
 , SAME ("The True Lover's 
 
 Fortune"), Boston, Munroe. 1843, 91 p ; 
 Shorey, 1869 ( in "Emerald," 57 p.) 
 
 JOURNEY ROUND MY ROOM 
 (A) by Xavier de Maistke : Long- 
 man, 1871 ; Chatto, 1883. 2087 
 
 JOURNEYMAN JOINER (The) = 
 No. 1994. 
 
 JOYS OP LIFE, by E. Zola, 
 N.-Y., Tousey, 1880; Chicago, Laird, 
 1891. 2088 
 
 JUPITER'S DAUGHTERS, [by 
 Henrietta Camilla (Jackson) Jen- 
 kin: SoU. 1874.] --Mrs. Jenkin's 
 pretty stoi'ies hav all a charm . . . 
 They ar written in agreeable english, 
 which, t6 hazard a guess, has been 
 just enuf affected by an intimate ac- 
 quaintance with fi'cnch to increase the 
 delicacy of style without rendering it 
 affected. 'Jupiter's Daughters' is the 
 story of a f rench girl wh6, t6 please 
 her parents, marries a Mr. de Subar, 
 when she is in love with some one 
 else, and regrets it for the remainder 
 of her life. Of course after her mar- 
 riage, she falls in with Mr. Vilpont, 
 but this does not make her any hap- 
 pier. She is a good wife, and nothing 
 is left for her, after her adventures 
 during the siege of Paris, but a life of 
 duty . . . The descriptions of life in 
 St. Gloi. a little provincial town, ar 
 often very attractiv." [ Nation. 2089 
 
 KING APEPI. [ by V: Cherbu- 
 liez: N.-Y., J: Delay, 1889.] '-En- 
 tertainment, pure and simple, is what 
 Cherbuliez here provides for his read- 
 ers, and tho It is only a povelette, 
 and of very slit pretensions, it is nev- 
 ertheless thoroly characteristic. It 
 may be briefly described as the 
 Fotheringay episode in 'Pendennis' 
 done int6 french. It is, of course, 
 admirable in point of workmanship, 
 and reads itself from cover t6 cover. 
 There is no writer of fiction wh6m we 
 now recall from wh6m one can come 
 so near obtaining that ideal of the 
 novel-reader, the maximum of amuse- 
 ment with the minimum of effort, as 
 from Cherbuliez. Every detail of his 
 work is refined and polished t6 the 
 last degree, distinctly t6 that end; 
 and surplusage being ligorously re- 
 jected, the positiv seductivness whfise 
 secret that genial cynicism knon as 
 
 G50 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 Gallic wit alone possesses, is with him 
 unusually potent. You d6 not care 
 t6 I'ead one of his books moi'e than 
 once, but you wish t5 read it aloud. 
 In this sketch, as usual, there Is no 
 great amount or great subtlety of 
 character portrayal ; the personages 
 ar types often enuf used by french 
 romantic writers; but, after the ro- 
 mantic writer's privilege, thgy ar 
 generalizations which afford all sorts 
 of possibilities forbidden t5 students 
 of 'the human documents,' and which, 
 in the hands of so vivacious and in- 
 ventiv a romancer as Cherbuliez, ar 
 very agreeably managed." [ Nation.] 
 — ''The 'affaire du coeur' in which the 
 clever old diplomat flnds himself 
 pitted against an intriguing young 
 wido and her mothei-. is amusing 
 throuout, while the character of the 
 hero, an ardent Egyptologist, is wel 
 conceived." [Penn. 2090 
 
 , SAME ("A Stroke of Diplo- 
 macy"), Appleton, 1880. 
 
 KINGS IN EXILE, by A. Daudet, 
 = No. 774. 
 
 LA BELLE MADAME DONIS, by 
 H. Malot : Tinsley, 1885. 2091 
 
 LA BELLE NIVERNAISE. [by 
 Alphonse Daudet : lioutledge, 1887.] 
 "Daudet here sounds the vibrant, 
 penetrating notes of pity and love. 
 It is a charming idyl of the Seine. 
 Good-hearted Fran9ois Louveau, the 
 bargeman, with his equally benevo- 
 lent tho shrewish-tunged wife, ar por- 
 trayed with a subtle sympathy which 
 bi-ings them out clear against the 
 bacground of poverty and toil. Vic- 
 tor is a poor little waif picked up by 
 Louveau in the streets of Paris and 
 cared for til he comes t6 be the chief 
 prop and comfort of the worthj' pair. 
 The whole picture is before us ; the 
 trips up and down the river, the cheer- 
 
 ful, useful childhood of Victor and 
 his foster-sister, the discovery of Vic- 
 tor's father, the boy's departure for 
 school, his pitiful longing for a return 
 t6 his previous life, his ilness, the 
 family reunion — all is told with :i 
 grace and charm which we may wel 
 call incomparable, and which lend t6 
 the simplest incidents the glo and 
 color of romance." [Boston "Liter- 
 ary World." 2092 
 
 LA TERRE. [by Emile Zola: 
 Peterson, 1888.] '-If the peasants of 
 Fi'ance ar without exception jackals, 
 wolves, and swine, to the degree Zola 
 depicts them, it is hard t6 perceive how 
 anjr other country could equal the 
 abominable sh5ing. The title of the 
 book is understood t6 suggest not 
 merely the occupation of the people 
 as tillers of the soil, but also their 
 excessiv greed for land onership. and 
 upon this Mr. Howells dwels as the 
 essential feature in their character, as 
 shon by this alleged 'study.' But the 
 book does not indicate this : it shos 
 every form of sordid avarice, silencing 
 every form of human feeling, develop- 
 ing hate and jealousy, and employing 
 cruelty and crime without remorse; 
 and while in the midst of this the 
 greed for land appears prominent, it 
 is but one detail in the evil catalog." 
 [American. 2093 
 
 LADIES' PARADISE (The) [by 
 Emile Zola: Tinsley, 1884.] "is 
 prosaic, painful, full of a strange 
 pathos which english novels wonder- 
 fully lac ; and profoundly moral, if 
 ritly understood. It is the story of a 
 great Parisian monster shop, and the 
 exhibition of the spirit of hard, brutal 
 worldliness expressed in its colossal 
 success, ruining all little shops in its 
 neborhood. and casting off scores of 
 workpeople t5 starv at a moment's 
 
 651 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 notice; of the demoralizing influence 
 of the vast 'culte' of luxury, and the 
 magnetic power — sensuous and dead- 
 ening at once— which it exercises over 
 all wh6 hav t6 take part in it. There is 
 something in the picture of a pure 
 iiard-working girl sitting up at nit t6 
 supply the necessities of a brother of 
 17, wh6 invents fresh tales of pro- 
 fligacy t6 bear out his demands upon 
 her. and boasts of the advantage his 
 youth givs him with his mistresses, 
 which opens an instructiv vista int6 
 the true meaning of the worship of 
 luxury, and the tendency of a sensu- 
 ous materialism." [ Contemporary 
 Review. 2094 
 
 LADY WITH THE CAMELIAS, 
 by A. Ddmas: (Paris, 1848.) N.-Y., 
 Belford, 1890 ; 251 pp. 2095 
 
 , SAME (•■Camille") Peterson. 
 
 1860, Laird. 1S91. 
 
 LAKE SHORE (The) [ by Emile 
 SouvESTRE, Boston : Crosby, Nicholls 
 & Co., 1855; 12°, 239 pp.] contains 3 
 tales,— The Slave, The Serf, The Ap- 
 prentice. 2096 
 
 LAKEVILLE = So. 287. 
 
 LAST LOVE. [by G: Ohnet: 
 Chatto, Ivers, Lippincott, Munro. 1890.] 
 "The characteristics of Mr. Ohnefs 
 'Dernier Amour' wer so much like the 
 characteristics of most of his work as 
 t6 confirm a theory held by some 
 critics that thgre is no author so pop- 
 ular as the author wh6 givs the public 
 exactly what it expects. A certain 
 facility of construction, dialog slip- 
 shod but fluent, a knac of describing 
 all classes of society with indifferent 
 incorrectness, and, finally, a kind of 
 bluntness of moral touch which tickles 
 morbid senses without shocking them 
 ^hese ar Ohnet's qualifications, and 
 ' they appear in the history of the con- 
 test of Mrs. de Fontenay and Lucie 
 
 Andremont for the not particularly 
 valuable afifection of the former's hus- 
 band as wel or as il as in most of his 
 other work." [AthensEum. 2097 
 
 LATIN QUARTER COUR'I'SHIP 
 = No. 483. 
 
 LAWYER'S NOSE, J®^ ECCEN- 
 TRIC NOVELS. 
 
 LAZARETTO-KEEPER (The) 
 g@^ No. 1974. 
 
 LE BLEUET [by "Gustave 
 HallEr," i. e., W.. J. (Simonin) 
 Fould: i?ren£ono, 1889.] is "a pretty 
 story of alsatian life, full of tender 
 feeling, of rural charm, and gentle 
 manners. There is a note of intro- 
 duction by G : Sand which givs it hi 
 praise for the delicacy of its charac- 
 ter drawing. Possibly, the story in 
 its english dress would not hav at- 
 tracted such praise unaided, but few 
 wil be inclined t6 quarrel with 'G ; 
 Sand's' estimate. The picture given 
 of the relations between the landed 
 peasantry and the nobility is astonish- 
 ing in the simplicity and freedom it 
 indicates. A very pleasant half hour 
 may be spent in the Alsace of this 
 book." [ Overland.]— '-It is a charm- 
 ing, innocent little tale, of a kind not 
 too common in french or indeed in 
 any other language ... It would be 
 unfair t6 go further in lecounting the 
 story, which is full of delicate senti- 
 ment and chastened, unostentatious 
 observation. That foiein readers wil 
 admire it so warmly as d6 the french 
 can hardly be averred, for we ar ac- 
 customed t6 stoi'ies in which inno- 
 cence and poetry combine, and there 
 is a faint trace of exaggeration in 
 their union here ; but yet the story is 
 very pretty and the book is wel worth 
 reading." [ Atlantic. 2098 
 
 , SAME (-Renee and Franz"), 
 
 Appleton. 1878. 
 
 652 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 LE EEVE, by Zola, = No. 784. 
 
 LEAH [ Paris ] = No. 485. 
 
 LEAVES FROM A FAMILY 
 JOURNAL ["MSmoires d'un Fa- 
 mille") by Emile Souvestre: Lon- 
 don, Groombridge, 1854; N.-Y., Ap- 
 pleton, 1855.] "is an autobiograflc 
 sketch of domestic life in a provincial 
 town, written In a quiet, unpretend- 
 ing manner, but replete with the les- 
 sons of practical wisdom. The char- 
 acters ar wel drawn, and the simplic- 
 ity of the style, the purity of the 
 moral tone, and the homely truths 
 which the book inculcates, recom- 
 mend it. Opening with the marriage 
 of the hero and heroin, the diarist 
 unfolds the family history throu 
 many years, until the children, having 
 reached maturity, prepare t6 leav the 
 family circle for new homes." 
 [ Christian Examiner. 2099 
 
 LED ASTRAY, = LITTLE 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 LES MISERABLES = No. 790. 
 
 LETTERS FROM MY MILL. [ by 
 Alphonse Daudet: Truhner, 1880.] 
 "Few modern volumes hav the subtle 
 charm of this. They sparkle with 
 airy britness. They depict an Arca- 
 dia so delitful that we ar fain t6 be- 
 lieve it real. They please our fancy 
 without strain or fatigue, as nothing 
 but good french work can d6. They 
 d6 not stir our deeper feelings as 
 german or english stories mit. The 
 author makes no appeal t6 our egotism 
 by suggesting that we ar in any way 
 concerned in his puppets, except t6 
 note how gracefully they play their 
 part; and his book is full of diffused 
 lit, so that even the men and women 
 in it cast less gloomy shades than 
 rhose of real life. His Provence is 
 like the sea which plays along its 
 shores, now passionate, now serene. 
 
 but never of the dul leaden hue which 
 the northern atraosfere can giv tii 
 Nature." [ Spectator. ]-^"The grace 
 and charm of Daudet's manner hav 
 never been more apparent than here. 
 Subtle as they ar, keen as is the touch 
 with which his simplest sketch illus- 
 trates some depth or hit or surface 
 folly of human nature, the first and 
 abiding impression of these little 
 tales is their delitful delicacy. There 
 is not one of them but is full of point, 
 either of wit or humor or pathos, and 
 they ar as original as they ar simple. 
 That anything so strongly intellectual 
 should be so delicate is as wonderful 
 as that anything so keen should be so 
 sympathetic." [ Critic] — They '-ar 
 only in part stories, for 7 out of the 17 
 ar descriptiv or meditativ essays, pure 
 and simple. The stones ar delitful, 
 with ii peculiar tenderness and deli- 
 cacy, a playful britness. and a satire 
 quite without bitterness of spirit, 
 even when the subject matter is bitter, 
 with one exception. The exception 
 is upon the subject of making a living 
 by literature. In addition t6 his sym- 
 pathetic expression of human experi- 
 ence, there is no less sympathetic 
 expression of out-door nature of 
 Provence. The delicate dramatic 
 sense very rarely permits a touch of 
 melodrama; and tho the perceptions 
 of the artistic value of sorros and joys 
 of the Proven9als is far from naive, 
 neither would it be fair t6 call it self- 
 conscious." [Overland.]— -'They ar 
 unrivaled in grace, humor and pathos, 
 while now and then a lit, swift gleam 
 of satire crosses the page . . . The 
 english (Harper) version is far above 
 the average." [ Nation. 2100 
 
 , SAME ("Stories from Pro- 
 vence") JSarper, 1886. 
 
 LIFE IN A FRENCH VILLAGE. 
 
 653 
 
FRBNCH NOVELS. 
 
 [ by LlSBETH Goocii (SiSguin) Stra- 
 han: Strahan, 1879.] "The stories 
 contained in this little work ar all 
 very gracefully told. The reader is 
 taken t6 a quaint seaside village called 
 St. Brie — a ro of stone, weather-beat- 
 en, wooden-shuttered cottages, strag- 
 gling along the edge of the clif. — and 
 there introduced t6 various of its in- 
 habitants, and to some of the great 
 folk living hai'd by. Each tale is 
 distinct, and yet a unity is preservd, 
 by reference in one tale t6 characters 
 figuring in others . . . Throuout there 
 runs a subtle local flavor, a delicate 
 presentment of the quaint .side of 
 french life,' which is very attractiv. 
 'The Two Sisters' and the 'Curfe's 
 Crime' ar very good samples of this 
 kind of presentment. We feel at 
 home with the people somehow, and 
 understand their circumstances and 
 modes of thot. Even the slit sketch 
 of the semi-idiot boy, 'poor Michel,' is 
 full of delicate touches, which stamp 
 it as work of a true artist. Alt6- 
 gether, we can heartily recommend 
 this little volume." [ Spectator. 2101 
 
 Lli'E'S DECEIT by E. de Gok- 
 COURT : Chicago, Laird, 1891. 2102 
 
 LIGHTNING ROD (The), by C: 
 DE Bernard, 35 p., in The Sapphire. 
 Boston, Shorey. 1869. 2103 
 
 LILr OF THE VALLEY (The). 
 [b}f HoNORifi "de"' Balzac: (Paris, 
 1835) Boberts, 1891.] "Balzac has 
 written no boob which is regarded as 
 a better representativ of his genius 
 than this, and it is specially remark- 
 able -as being a novel in which the 
 heroin preservs her purity intact, pre- 
 ferring steadfastly her duty t6 her 
 happiness, and sacrificing her life t6 
 her ideal standard of rit. We folio 
 Madame de Montsauf throu all the 
 painful pitiful struggles of her daily 
 
 life ; we see her turn aside from pleas- 
 ure, nay, from happiness, and em- 
 brace her cross day by day ; we con- 
 template her patience, her fidelity, 
 her noble self-renunciation ; we see 
 her hourly victories over self, and we 
 say t6 ourselvs. After all, there is 
 one french writer wh6 comprehends 
 the saying that 'it is more blessed t6 
 15se one's life than t6 find it.' The 
 agonies, the sublimities of self-sacri- 
 flce ar not ignored or scoffed at by all 
 french novelists. Balzac has given us 
 one woman wh5m we need not excuse 
 and pity, but can admire and adore." 
 [ Lippincott's. 2104 
 
 LION'S SKIN AND LOVER 
 HUNT, ("La Chasse aux Amants") 
 by C : -'de" Bernard [ Dugrail de la 
 Villette], N.-Y., Stringer, 1853. 2105 
 
 LISE FLEURON. [by Georges 
 Ohnet : Eemington, 1885.] "No eng- 
 lish writer could bring himself t6 
 depict a girl of Lise Fleuron's innate 
 delicacy and refinement, and then 
 represent her becoming her lover's 
 mistress under no special pressure of 
 temptation, without making us feel 
 that she had, t6 some extent at least, 
 become degraded in her 5n eyes ; but 
 here this is done in such a matter of 
 course manner that it seems for the 
 moment a normal evolution ... It is 
 impossible not t6 pay a tribute of 
 admiration t6 the skil and freedom 
 with which the artist works . . . All 
 the characters liv in a world in which 
 the impulses of emotion ar the only 
 law ; and yet between the mistress of 
 the great financier, and Lise Fleuron, 
 the mistress of his parasite, we ar 
 made t6 see a great gulf . . . Accept- 
 ing the picture as it stands, there can be 
 no doubt of the pictorial and intellec- 
 tual effectivness of the contrasted fig- 
 ures. In one character, that of the 
 
 654 
 
FRENCH NOVF.LS. 
 LION'S SION (The) and The LOVER 
 HUNT [hy Chas. df. Bernard: N.-Y., 
 liedfieM, 1853.] ar "a pair of lively, 
 piquant stories. The first cleverly illus- 
 trates the distinctions between bravado, 
 courage, and temerity. The second shos 
 the Parisian consequences of a marriage 
 lictween a studious, thotful man, and a 
 young, beautiful, and frivolou? woman 
 [compare 1962 p]; and shos, also, how 
 such consequences may be circumvented ; 
 provided the parties possess as much 
 hefirt, wit, and good sense, as ovir hero 
 and heroin." [National Era.] — "Seldom 
 hav we read any more charming tales 
 than these. In the class of literature to 
 which thiSy belong, French writers 
 particularly excel ; and amongst them : 
 de Bernard is entitled to a hi place. He 
 is neat, terse, and clear in his style, has 
 withal an indefinable air of elegance and 
 finish, and weaves a plot so skilfully, con- 
 trasts his characters so markedly, and 
 makes the action of each so complete, that 
 he really may be set down as a master. — 
 The plot of The Lion's Skin is rather too 
 intricate to be unraveled in a paragraph ; 
 but its moral is that one man may be thot 
 a coward and yet be brave, whilst another 
 may be th6t brave, and yet be a coward. — 
 The Lover Hunt teaches that a husband 
 is the best and the only proper gardian of 
 the wife's honor.— If both these tales be 
 french, thfiy ar so in the better and most 
 unexceptionable sense, in piquancy, in 
 wit, in tenderness — not in the fondness 
 for intrigue, and the proneness to dally 
 with forbidden subjects. It is rare in 
 French pages to meet with so much purity 
 which is neither sentimental nor insipid." 
 [Albion. 2105 
 
 654 p 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 play-wrlt, there Is really something of 
 moral elevation ; at any rate, there is 
 true poetic beauty in his selfless de- 
 votion t6 the woman wh6 as a little 
 girl had been his playmate ; but De 
 Barre is held in reserve until he can 
 be used as a toil t5 the poor, shallo 
 creature who leaves him t6 be Lise's 
 support in her hour of need ; and the 
 book, as a whole, is impoverished t6 
 enrich the concluding chapters, which 
 ar certainly full of very simple and 
 genuin pathos ... It is as bad n trans- 
 .lation as we hav ever seen." [Spec- 
 tator. 2106 
 LITTLE COUNTESS (The), [by 
 Octave Feuillet ( t, 1890.) : Peter- 
 son., 1880.] '-Nevertheless there is 
 something very attractiv about Feuil- 
 let's work which makes 'The Little 
 Countess' a refreshing contrast t6 the 
 writings of some of his harshest 
 critics. Altho it is not among the 
 latest, it is in certain respects the best 
 thing he has done, which is probably 
 due t6 its slltness. Feuillet inclines 
 t6 melodrama, and in his more elabor- 
 ate and ambitious efforts, such as 
 ■JI. de Caraors' — a kind of 'Tom 
 Jones' of the Second Empire — it in- 
 volvs him in intricacies of ideas and 
 feelings where it is quite impossible 
 t6 folio him without protest against 
 his artificiality. But -The Little 
 Countess' is distinctly a minor work ; 
 it is simple and genuin. and its scheme 
 permits the writer t6 display all his 
 cleverness, which is great ; his tact, 
 which is considerable, and his work- 
 manship, which is perfect. It is not 
 a large enuf thing t6 tempt his imag- 
 ination t6 part with experience and 
 observation, which is usually his main 
 error; one may even suspect that the 
 little Countess is a portrait, so sym- 
 pathetically and distinctly is she de- 
 
 picted. There must hav been not a 
 few such products of the artificial and 
 yet haphazard society of the Empire; 
 the merit of the book is that it does 
 not paint the manners of the period 
 as illustrated in the conduct of a 
 fiction of Feuillet's somewhat senti- 
 mental imagination, but the effect of 
 such manners upon a real and passion- 
 ate nature. The dfinotiment is very 
 pathetic, and tho, as always, the 
 hopelessness of the tragedy seems 
 partly due t5 the .author's wilfullness, 
 there is no slo music t6 detract from 
 its impressivness." [Nation. 2107 
 
 , SAME ("Led Astray"), N.-Y., 
 
 Carleton, 1875. 
 
 LITTLE FADETTE [by -G: 
 Sand," i. e., Amantine Lucile Aurore 
 (Dupin) Dudevant (t, 1876.) : Lon- 
 don, Slater, 1849.] '-is a tale of quiet, 
 exquisite beauty, and rendered int6 
 graceful, idiomatic english. [ Har- 
 per's.] — "We hav not for along time 
 read so sweet a story. It is pure, • 
 natural and wholesome; thoroly 
 f rench — but not the f rench of Dumas 
 or of Sue, the exaggerated and pru- 
 rient abominations of the present day. 
 It more i-esembles the romances of 
 Florian and St. -Pierre, but, while the 
 purity and beauty of their morals ar 
 preservd, the tone of the pictur-e is 
 reduced, by exchanging the pastoral 
 and sentimental coloring, for the sober 
 hues of country life." [ Southern 
 Lit. Messenger. 2108 
 
 , SAME ("Fanchon"), N.-Y., 
 
 Follett, 1863, 230 pp ; Phil'a, Leypoldt, 
 1863. " 
 
 LITTLE FELLOW AT THE COE- 
 NER(The) [by [C:] PauldeKock: 
 Paris. 1874. pp. 110.] '-Of M. Du- 
 pont, the flourishing Paris grocer, 
 wh6 givs his name t6 one of Kock's 
 novels, we never think without asso- 
 
 655 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 dating the idea of Listoti. His good 
 nature, his simplicity, his vanit}', his 
 timidity, his ridiculous taste in dress, 
 his awliward activity, and, t6 crown 
 all, his utter unconsciousness of not 
 being as fine a fello, and as loveable 
 an object as any in Paris, would all 
 meet an admirable representativ in 
 our inimitable comedian. What en- 
 joyment the people would hav in his 
 dancing at Romainville, with his 
 sounding seals and watch chain, and 
 his pockets full of crown-pieces, malj- 
 ing t6gether a little tambourine ac- 
 companiment, and his coat of sljy- 
 bluBi" [ Foreign Quarterly Review, 
 1834. 2109 
 
 LI'J'TLE GOOD-FOK-NOTHING 
 [ "Le Petit Chose") by Alphonsb 
 Daudet : Boston, Estes, 1878.] '' 'ISTo 
 Account' would hav been a better and 
 a more taking equivalent for the orig- 
 inal title than the one chosen, which 
 givs the impression that the story is 
 one for children. It is, on the con- 
 trary, by no means the least of the 
 author's serious efforts, whether as 
 regards carefully discriminated study 
 of character, delicacy of touch, or 
 sustained interest. The character of 
 the hero, Daniel Eyssette, is a crea- 
 tion, or, rather, a transcription. We 
 hav all seen him in life, if not in a 
 novel. Of diminutiv stature and boy- 
 ish manners, the first remark that 
 mde people make on seeing him, and 
 the first thot of people wh6 say no- 
 thing, is always, substantially. "He 
 is of no account." His character is a 
 compound of childish weaknesses and 
 masculin wil. When his father's 
 business is ruined and the family is 
 scattered, Daniel supports himself as 
 a teacher in a great barrac of a place 
 among the mountains, two days jour- 
 ney from Paris. There he makes a 
 
 brave fit with his unmanageable 
 classes, a race of Anakim, each pupil 
 at least twice as big as himself, and 
 there he devotes himself t6 the task 
 of restoring the fortunes of his family. 
 L6sing his place, however, throu the 
 treachery of a companion, he goes t6 
 Paris, where his brother Jacques re- 
 ceivs and protects him. houses him on 
 a fifth floor in the Latin Quarter, en- 
 courages him t6 commence as a poet, 
 and raises the money t6 publish his 
 first volume, which, being unsalable 
 is also his last. Then the temptations 
 of the city pr6ve too much for Daniel. 
 He succumbs t6 them, and is rescued 
 with diflaculty by the devotion of 
 Jacques. This part of the story is 
 touching, and it describes traits of 
 the f rench character of which we kno 
 perhaps too little. It depicts their 
 strong family attachments, the almost 
 passionate love of the country-people 
 for home, and the same joyous sacred- 
 ness of domestic affection as that 
 which givs the imperishable charm t6 
 the earlier chapters of Marmontel's 
 memoirs. As in those memoirs, too, 
 the escapades, the dissipations of the 
 student-life in the capital form but an 
 interlude. They ar ripples, not inter- 
 ruptions, in the current of family 
 affection. Some of the incidents of 
 the story ar enuf like some which ar 
 recorded of Daudet's on life t6 lend a 
 sub-autobiografic interest to the ad- 
 ventures of his hero. If the original 
 is free from mannerisms, the transla- 
 tor has added none. The version 
 retains much of Daudet's abundant 
 humor. That the story should be 
 entertaining was t6 be expected from 
 its authorship. That it may serv t6 
 illustrate the french character t6 per- 
 sons wh6 find in the word -frivolous' 
 a sufficient critical account of that 
 
 656 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 character is, perhaps, rather t6 be 
 hoped than expected." [Nation. 2110 
 
 , SAME ("My Brother Jack''), 
 
 Low, 1877. 
 
 LITTLE HEAD OF THE FAMILY 
 (The) [by Z^naide M. A. Fi.eu- 
 riot: W^ard, 1877.] "is an excellent 
 story, wel translated. The heroin is 
 a boy, wh6, impoverished by the 
 death of his father, endeavors bravely 
 t6 take the father's place toards his 
 tw6 sisters. We hav a description of 
 the characters of the 3 children, their 
 life with their aged grandfather, the 
 trials and temptations of the village 
 schools." [Athenaaum. 2111 
 
 LITTLE ORATOR (The) by E. 
 SouvESTiiE, Bait., Murphy, 1869. 2112 
 
 LITTLE PETER [by "Lucas 
 Malet," i. e., Mary (Kingsley) Har- 
 rison : Paul, 1887.] "is 'A Christmas 
 Morality for children of any age.' It 
 is a beautiful and pathetic story. 
 'Little Peter' is only one of a fascin- 
 ating group of characters, each of 
 which is unique and piquant. The 
 impatient old father absorbed in an- 
 cient history, the patient wife and 
 mother, the older brother, the cat of 
 the household, the charcoal-burner of 
 the forest, Eliza the servant-maid, 
 with her entertaining flirtations, and 
 Gustavus the cowherd, all play their 
 parts, and play them w.el. The story is 
 a touching one, and yet escapes being 
 entirely niornful, even tho the terrible 
 walk throu the sno-storm results in 
 the death of Little Peter. The local 
 color is wonderfully clear and strong, 
 the descriptions of life in the pine 
 forest vivid and impressiv, while the 
 little tale leaves a sense of simplicity 
 and pleasantness which wil not allow 
 one t6 remember too painfully its 
 mornful elements." [Critic.] — "Not 
 often does a Christmas book appear of 
 
 such charm as this. It is a scene from 
 country life — an idyl with a half-sad, 
 half-joyous ending. T6 giv a sketch 
 of the beautiful, pathetic story would 
 be dding it scant justice; but all wh6 
 can 6t t6 possess themselvs of this 
 •'Christmas morality" for it is rare 
 Christmas reading." [ Athenas. 2113 
 
 LOST BATTLE (A) [:Ed., Douglas, 
 1878.] "is a charming story, of a 
 sort which has come t6 be so old- 
 fashioned that it is very hard t6 find, 
 in these days . . . The author has per- 
 fect taste, considerable invention, and 
 extreme delicacy of touch in descrip- 
 tion. The portion of the story which 
 takes place in France is the best, and 
 the author paints certain fases of 
 Parisian life with great fidelity, spirit, 
 and neatness. Best of all the quali- 
 ties of the book is the true love of 
 honor and goodness in both men and 
 women which shines throu it, and has 
 inspired the writer with courage t6 
 depend on those virtues for the inter- 
 est of a story which is pure and lofty 
 from beginning t6 end, and has not a 
 dul page." [Spectator. 2114 
 
 LOST ROSE AND OTHER 
 STORIES, [by K.. S. Macqdoid: 
 Chatto, 1876.] " 'Lost Rose,' 'A Wild 
 Night,' 'A Sailor's Story,' 'Outside 
 the Porte des Capucins,' 'Neptune's 
 Tower.' -Fiflne,' 'My Daughter Molly,' 
 •The Courtyard of the Ours d' Or,' 
 ar so many illustrations of the sad 
 troubles which befall men and wo- 
 men, when they allow themselvs t6 
 love and t6 be loved. The author 
 excels in her flemish stories. She is 
 at home in the quaint, old-fashioned 
 towns of Flanders, and strongly im- 
 bued with a sense of their picturesque- 
 ness. 'Fiflne' a 'Story of Malines,' 
 may be taken as a fair sample of the 
 author in her happiest mood. The 
 
 657 
 
KRENIH NOVELS. 
 
 LOST ILLUSIONS, .[by lIOJStORK 
 "PE " Balzac ( t, ISoO ) : Iloberts, 1893.] 
 "Turning to the idylie and pathetic pages 
 of "Lost Illusions" is lilce turning from a 
 grinning tragic mask to the beautiful 
 loered head of a stooping caryatid. Won- 
 derful feligity does Balzac possess in de- 
 scribing rural landscape traversed by 
 brimming rivers, jeweled and starred 
 here and there by antique towns, set 
 thicly with even more antique people, 
 and full of the poetry of provincialism. 
 Here, in Angoulfime, "Lost Illusions'' un- 
 folds its vivid pages, in the time of the 
 good year 1822, when the Bourbon Restor- 
 ation was wel under way and royalty 
 seemed re-established forever. Prom this 
 quaint surroiinding Balzac plucs a drama 
 of graphic situations, tender loves and 
 sublime hates, trimming it with all that 
 extraordinary rococo embroidery of which 
 he possessed whole museums. Finer 
 characters than the David and Eve of this 
 book he has never conceived ; a character 
 more flcly brilliant, more Trenchy, more 
 'insouciant' in its airy criminality than 
 Lucien's it would be difficult even in Bal- 
 zac's vast picture-galleries to find. That 
 plague-spot of the French social system, 
 the married flirt, is th^re in all her 
 fl(5iln5es, and her correlativ the 'cavaliere 
 serv'ente' is thfire too as her complement. 
 Surrdilnding these is an interesting as- 
 sembly of provinjial nobility, mamas with 
 marriageable dauters, pettifoggers, in- 
 triguers, misers, ecclesiastics, "newly- 
 rich" and immemorially poor : a tableau 
 living, crowded, moving, breathing, all 
 
 more or less entangled in the meshes of 
 an ingenious plot." [Critic.]— "This vol- 
 ume contains The Two Poets and Eve 
 and David,— the first and third of a 
 series. Thfire is a connecting story, "A 
 Great man of the Provinces in Paris." 
 The book presents two strikingly con- 
 trasted types of character: the young 
 poet, brilliant, volatil, with the artistic 
 temperament, but lacking genuin ability, 
 and entirely devoid of firmness of char- 
 acter; and, in contrast, his sister Eve and 
 her husband David, two noble-minded, 
 strenuous, and self-sacrifl9ing souls. 
 These characters ar all drawn with the 
 wonderful power which Balzac puts into 
 his characterization. The stories ar also 
 representativ because th^y include one of 
 those very careful and elaborate studies 
 of a form of practical activity which Bal- 
 zac was so fond of making. He goes into 
 the details of paper-making, printing, and 
 the legal professes attending commercial 
 disaster with that grasp of detail and that 
 exactness so characteristic of his wonder- 
 ful mental vigor. The book is also repre- 
 sentativ because it givs us a whole section 
 of provinfial society; not a group of 
 names, but a group of people differentiat- 
 ed with the utmost particularity and real- 
 ized to the imagination by every possible 
 detail. We feel as if we wer reading 
 history and meeting people whose pedi- 
 grees wer to be found in the books, and 
 the story of whose anfestral lives could be 
 gained by word of mouth iu the little com- 
 munity in which thiSy liv." [ Common- 
 wealth. 2114 m 
 
 657 t 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 red-faced, good-natured, but out- 
 spoken laundress, Madame Popot, 
 bustling about t6 arrange a good 
 match for her niece Flflne, the pretty, 
 innocent girl in love with a poor fish- 
 erman, and caring little, of course, 
 for the old, rich, selfish bachelor, 
 wh6m Providence, in the shape of her 
 ant, has destind for her ; her girlish 
 troubles and unexpected happiness 
 in finding herself united at last t6 
 the beloved Michel van Vorst, pro- 
 moted in the meanwhile t6 the post of 
 railway-porter, make a charming 
 story, all the more charming because 
 every one knoes that the Flemish, taken 
 as a whole, ar probably the dullest 
 and most prosaic race in Europe. 
 The other stories ar less attractiv. 
 'A Diligence Adventure.' tels the story 
 of a poor Frenchwoman wh6 meets a 
 terrible punishment, on account of a 
 long and loud tung. This way of 
 silencing women is, we trust, as obso- 
 lete as the expedient t6 which the 
 author resorts in the ghastly story 
 entitled 'My Worst Christmas Eve,' 
 Mrs. Macquoid does not kno how t6 
 manage a plot, but she has the knac 
 of writing a pretty story." [ Athe- 
 naeum. 2115 
 
 LOST WILL (The) or DOWEE^ 
 LESS, by H. E. P. (A.) Eetbaud. 
 Phil'a, Peterson, 1847. 2116 
 
 LOVE CRIME (A). [by Paul 
 Bourget: Vizetellyl 1888.] "The 
 husband is a good, honest, hard-work- 
 ing, innocent, and unsuspecting en- 
 gineer; the wife is a romantic and 
 dissatisfied person wh6 has made a 
 marriage '-de raison." She falls in 
 love with a friend of her husband, a 
 man of the world, idle, clever, for 
 wh6m love is an occupation more than 
 a passion. The woman does not 
 understand him ; she loves in him the 
 
 man of her dreams ; she is blind and 
 becomes guilty. She sacrifices 16 a 
 dream, t6 a chimera, her duty, her 
 honor, her peace of mind ; — and her 
 sacrifice is vain. The twiS criminals 
 ar punished in a diflerent way ; the 
 woman, by the gradual discovery of 
 her lover's true character. She finds 
 out in the end that her sacrifice has 
 not been even understood. Her lover 
 does not believe that he is her first 
 lover . . . He sees a mere episode, a 
 mere adventure, in what seems t6 
 H61ene the object and foundation of 
 her whole existence. The more she 
 believes in him the less he believes in 
 her. Her passion has a sort of repel- 
 lant efiect; they d6 not understand 
 each other. She has given everything 
 t6 him, and he does not kno it or com- 
 prehend it. He has been always look- 
 ing, during the idle years of his youth 
 and of his manhood, for real love — 
 for an absolute, boundless, unselfish 
 existence ; he has it, and does kno it. 
 His perverse egotism makes him 
 blind and poisons every thing for him." 
 [ Nation. ' ' 2117 
 
 LOVE EPISODE (A) [ "Une page 
 d'Amour"] by E. ZOLA, Chicago. 
 Laird, 1891. 2118 
 
 , SAME ("A Woman's Heart"), 
 
 N.-Y., Tousey, 1880. 
 
 LOVE MATCH (A), [by Ltjdovic 
 Hal^vt : N.-Y., Delay, 1889.] "The 
 ambitious young lady, bent upon 
 making a good match, is not new in 
 fiction ; but the girl, wh6 is an amus- 
 ing, brit, and nice little girl, and wh6 
 yet sets herself with all her mit, and 
 by every means in her power, t6 se- 
 cure the sort of husband she approves 
 — which is primarily a prince, and 
 afterwards what Heaven may send — 
 is really a delitfully new i-evelation. 
 Such a picture could be only Parisian, 
 
 658 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 LOVE'S CRUEL ENIGMA [ T)y Paul 
 Bourget: N.-Y., Wiiverly Co., 1893.] 
 "describes the placid life ol two ladies, 
 poor and hlly ,i4euteel, who wer educating 
 a younfi; man, thfiir s~<n and nephew, with 
 the most delii-ite and tender care. The 
 beginning of the book is charming ; the 
 description of this quiet home, this I'^den 
 of virtue, of respectability, of pea^e, in 
 the midst of Paris, had real merit. To be 
 sure, it reminded one of many passages in 
 Balzac's 'ScSnes de la vie de province,' 
 for dtir great Balzac was admirable in 
 these descriptions of humble and domes- 
 tic lives ; he knew how to plage his pure 
 figures in tMir 'cadre,' and how to giv a 
 sort of life to this 'cadre.' But it is not 
 everybody who can make you think of 
 Balzac, and I conceived at once a hi opin- 
 ion of the talent of 5Ir. Bourget. I saw 
 also at once how the drama would develop 
 itself; how this tender, delicate, refined, 
 but too feminin education of the hero 
 would il prepare him for the temptations 
 of life. I Avas not deceived ; the young 
 man falls under the influenge of a married 
 woman, and you can imagin the rest — the 
 struggle between the pure affections and 
 the impure love, the hesitations, the vic- 
 tories, the defeats of the human wil 
 
 subjected to the action of coniiicting 
 forges. It Is the old story of HSraklSs 
 plaged between virtue and vige; it is, alas! 
 the old story of the final and irreparable 
 fall. This "cruel enigma" is no enigma at 
 aU ; it is the common story. The work 
 of long years of education, the teachings 
 of angestors, even the clearest possible 
 vision of right and wrfing, the conscious- 
 ness of a grfiat fault and of a grfiat folly — 
 all is vain. Man must meet his fate, and 
 the punishment comes at once, in the 
 diminution of the wil, in the impotenge 
 of liberty, in the degradation of all the 
 faculties which represent the divine in 
 man. This book is not a bad analysis of 
 the struggle which too Often ends in the 
 subjugation of a fine nature to a coarse, 
 common, and bad nature. It is artistic in 
 so far as it is analytic; it is inartistic in so 
 far as the mind is never kept in suspense, 
 and that you can see at once how it wil 
 end. The young man who represents 
 HcrakKs between virtue and vige, is not 
 enuf of a Hdraklfis ; he is too weak, you 
 can expect nothing of him. He is not 
 very interesting; you can not help despis- 
 ing him almost as soon as you kno him." 
 [ A : Laugel in Nation. 2119 m 
 
 LOVER HUNT (The), with No. 210.i. 
 
 6.58s 
 
PUENCH NOVBLS. 
 
 or rather Parisienne. This young 
 lady has the misfortune t6 be Cath- 
 erine Duval, the dauter of ii rich 
 papermaker — respectable, and bour- 
 geois t6 the last degree. There Is a 
 very pretty little sketch of the serious, 
 homely house, of the delltf uj^ mother, 
 modest, a little timid, a little 'dfivote' 
 — the best housekeeper, the best wife 
 and mother imaginable, without a 
 thSt beyond her mild interior, or a 
 preoccupation except that of finding 
 for her dauter a secure and wel-estab- 
 lished 'mfinage' like her on. The 
 scene opens with a conversation be- 
 tween mother and dauter returning 
 from a ball, in celebration of a mar- 
 riage in that respectable bourgeoisie 
 which M'Ue Catherine despises with 
 all her soul, the mother asking anx- 
 iously, "How did you find him?" 
 the dauter pretending not t6 under- 
 stand, tho she is very wel aware that 
 the person in question is a young 
 engineer of grgat promise, the most 
 respectable and the most bourgeois 
 that can be conceived. Catherine has 
 already refused seven or et, "all 
 from the Ecole Centrale or the Ecole 
 Poly technique," and she is in despair. 
 Nothing, however, can be prettier 
 than the home scene. The marriage 
 of the father and mother has been a 
 love-match — 'absolument eomme dans 
 les romans anglais' ; and they hav livd 
 happy ever after, wer it not for a son 
 wh6 lOves pleasure too much and a 
 dauter wh6 loves engineers too little, 
 — wh6 d6 their best t6 spoil their par- 
 ents' peace." [Blackwood's. 2119 
 
 , SAME ("Marriage of Love"), 
 
 London, Simpkin, 1886. 
 
 , SAME ("Marriage for Love"), 
 
 Chicago, Jiand, 1891, 106 pp. 
 
 LOVER AND HUSBAND = (A) 
 FATAL PASSION. 
 
 LOVEES' POOL (The) = No. 2013. 
 
 LUCIE, by H. E. P. (A.) Ret- 
 BAUD, in Brother Jonathan. G-27 av.g.. 
 1842. 2120 
 
 LUCK AND LEATHER, by Bal- 
 zac, J^"" ECCENTBIC NOVELS. 
 
 MABEL STANHOPE [ Paris ] = 
 No. 448. 
 
 MADAME ALPHONSE by Mad- 
 rice Talmeyr: N.-Y., Tousey, 
 1882. 2121 
 
 MADAME BOTARY [by Gus- 
 tave Flaubert (f. 1880, Paris, 
 1857) : Peterson, 1881 ; Chicago, Laird, 
 1891, 407 pp.] "is noted for having 
 been the subject of prosecution as an 
 immoral work. That it has a serious 
 lesson there is no doubt, if one wil 
 drink t6 the bottom of the cup. But 
 the honey of sensuous description is 
 spread so deeply over the surface of 
 the goblet that a large proportion of 
 its readers never think of its holding 
 anything else. All the fases of un- 
 halloed passion ar described in full 
 detail. That is what the book is b6t 
 and read for, by the great majority of 
 its purchasers, as all but simpletons 
 very wel kno. That is what makes it 
 sel. This book is famous for its real- 
 ism ; in fact, it is recognised as one of 
 the earliest and most brilliant exam- 
 ples of that modern style of novel, 
 which, beginning where Balzac left, 
 attempted t6 d6 for literature what 
 the fotograf has d5ne for art. For 
 those wh6 take the trouble t6 drink 
 out of the cup belo the rim of honey, 
 there is a scene where realism- is car- 
 ried t6 its extreme. — surpassed in hor- 
 ror by no writer, unless it be the one 
 wh6se name must be looked for at the 
 bottonj of the alphabet, as if its nat- 
 ural place wer as lo in 'the dregs of 
 realism as it could find itself. This 
 is the death-bed scene, where Madame 
 
 059 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 Bovary expires in convulsions." [ O. 
 W.Holmes in Atlantic] — ■In -vMad- 
 ame Bovary" tlie husband is a fool t6 
 his wife. T6 the reader he is a simple 
 apothecary, a weak, ever3'day sort of 
 character, ^\■h6 loves his oflfspring find 
 adores the vyretched woman wh6 de- 
 ceives him. She is about equal t6 
 him in station : his superior in intel- 
 lect. Living in a provincial town, 
 and sying for the unknon delits of 
 Paris and splendor, her whole nature 
 cries out t6 be seduced. Of course 
 she does not go t6 her grave without 
 being satisfied. As the German poet 
 writes — 
 
 •Ein Thor ist immer willig. 
 Wenn eine Thorin will." 
 The old blandishing graces of Dumas, 
 Sand, and Balzac ar quite excluded 
 from this story. All is severe matter 
 of fact elaborated. We flung the 
 book t6 the four corners of the room ; 
 but we took it again, and finished it. 
 The author is uncompromising : he 
 givs Madame Bovary successiv lovers. 
 She has not even tlie excuse of love 
 and its pooi' consolation when the end 
 comes. She endeavors t6 persuade 
 both lovers t6 elope with her; she 
 begs money of both. She' plundei-s 
 her husband; ruins him; finally the 
 ,^, discovery of her treason kils him . . . 
 No harm can come from reading Mad- 
 ame Bovary; but it is fysic for 
 adults, as the doctors say. The au- 
 thor has no more 15ve for her than an 
 anatomist for his subject. He does 
 not preach. He allows her patiently 
 t6 make her wickedness manifest, and 
 leaves us t6 contemplate the picture 
 at our leisure. He is a singularly 
 powerful writer." [Westminster. 2122 
 M'ME DE BEAUPRE. [by Hen- 
 rietta Camilla (Jackson) .Tenkin 
 (t, 1S85) : Smith, ISGS.] "The otbei- 
 
 marriage" is much gayer. It is lively 
 and pleasant, and ends most agree- 
 ably. The sketches of provincial so- 
 ciety remind us of some parts of 
 'Eug§nie Grandet' [ No. 2024.] The 
 Vicomtesse de Beauprfi, after being 
 married when almost a child t6 a hor- 
 rid old man, and after bearing her 
 noble husband's tyrannical temper 
 with a patience which must hav touch- 
 ed the hefirt of her gardian angel, 
 is left a wido. and then she enjoys her 
 liberty, and is a most fascinating fine 
 lady, til her time cSmes when she falls 
 in love in so charming a manner that 
 no man wil be able t6 read of it with- 
 out envy. There ar great difiiculties ; 
 but the man she loves is so worthy of 
 her in every respect, so suited t6 her 
 in character, — tho his social position 
 is belo hers, — that the reader's inter- 
 est and sympathy ar secured. The 
 wilful and bewitching little viscount- 
 .ess surmounts all obstacles but one, 
 and that is KayraSnd Savoisy's duty 
 t6 his parents. His father is a prot- 
 estant pastoi', with a disapproval of 
 popery which makes him feel he would 
 rather his son should die than marry 
 a catholic. The mother is even more 
 sternly opposed. Deeply as Ray- 
 mond is attached t6 the viscountess, 
 and she t6 him. neither of them enter- 
 tains an idea of opposing the parental 
 wil. This deep sense of the obliga- 
 tion of duty, t6 be obeyed at all sacri- 
 fice, makes a striking point in the 
 story, and givs it a strong interest 
 quite independent of the love aflfair. 
 However, at last all is happily ended 
 by the impetuous little viscountess 
 declaring her adhesion t6 the pastor's 
 religion ! The protestant reader wil 
 rejoice in so charming a convert, and 
 even a catholic reader wil forgiv her 
 under the extenuating circumstances." 
 
 660 
 
IfRENCH KOVELS. 
 
 [ Atheiia3um. 2123 
 
 MADAME DE BEAUSiEANT, by 
 Balzac, in AFTEB DINNER 
 STORIES. 2124 
 
 MADAME DE MAUVES [Paris] 
 = No. 489. 
 
 MADAME D' OEGEVAUT'S HUS- 
 BAND [by H: Eabdsson: N.-Y.. 
 Dodd, 1891.] "treats a very serious 
 problem in a most strilsing and inter- 
 esting manner — tiie problem as t6 
 whether a \Yoraan can be married t6 a 
 man and continue t6 love him and be 
 happy with him when she has ceased 
 t6 respect him. Mme. d'Orgevaut's 
 second husband tels her, a few hours 
 after their marriage, that he has been 
 a dishonest man and has used his em- 
 ployer's money, but that he was suc- 
 cessful in his gambling, has i-eplaced 
 the money, and has lived an honest 
 life ever since. She loves him, and 
 for the moment, overcome by her feel- 
 ing for him, she forgivs him and per- 
 mits him t6 remain with her. There 
 is a certain charm at first in the sacri- 
 fice she imposes upon herself for his 
 sake, but this does not last. It is not 
 f oi'getfulness ; it is slo familiarization 
 with a new kind of happiness, a pro- 
 gressiv initiation int6 the art of being 
 happy throu the benumbing of the 
 faculties which can make one suffer. 
 It is the voluntary torpor of a woman 
 wh6 does not wish t6 kno whether it 
 was wrong t6 love first and condone 
 afterwards. She does not blind her- 
 self; she goes t6 sleep. There ar, 
 unfortunately, awakenings and sleep- 
 lessness. Madame first knoes the 
 latter by short attacs, of which she 
 hopes t6 be cured ; but it is not long 
 before she also knoes the other, of 
 which one is never cured — the great 
 awakening. Her husband's error — 
 which is inevitable and fatally com- 
 
 mon t6 all those wh6 accept a rehab- 
 ilitation — is t6 become used too quicly 
 t6 the climate of indulgent silence and 
 forced abnegation which surrounds 
 him. The situation becomes intoler- 
 able. The wife tels him that the 
 guilty person wh6 is really worthy of 
 being rehabilitated comprehends that 
 there is no rehabilitation possible, 
 save in a solitude courageously and 
 voluntarily borne; he understands 
 that there wil always be in his con- 
 science and in the memory of othei's, 
 in that of the being he loves, some- 
 thing which woula protest against 
 this pardon. She can stand the life 
 in close companionship with him no 
 longer, and they separate. The story 
 thus draws t6 a perfectly logical con- 
 clusion in its treatment of a moral 
 question which men and women ar 
 being called upon t6 face every day." 
 [ Critic. 2125 
 
 MADAME FIRMIANI, by Balzac, 
 in After-dinner Stories ; also in The 
 Oat and the Battledore; also in The 
 Vendetta ; also in The N. T. Mirror, 
 14 & 21 Jan. 1837.. 2126 
 
 MADAME JEANETTE'S PA- 
 PERS, by Ercicwann-Chatrian, in 
 Ladies Repository, Sept. 1873. 2127 
 MADAME LUCAS [ Osgood, 1882.] 
 "is a charming little story, the gentle 
 veil of sadness toards the close scarce- 
 ly interfering with the reader's deli- 
 cate pleasure. There ar many 
 touches, indeed, of the positiv amuse- 
 ment one anticipates from the head- 
 ings of the chapters. Madame Lucas 
 herself is a vivid little ci-eation, illus- 
 trating pleasantly that when a french- 
 woman is good, she is very, very 
 good. She is eminentlj^ french . . . 
 She gathers about her a small circle 
 of friends knon as the 'Lotos-eaters,' 
 comprising many people of many 
 
 661 
 
fRRNCH NOVELS. 
 
 minds, from the brilliant critic to tiie 
 absorbed irish gentleman who did not 
 Ijno a Pra Angelico from a Fia Dia- 
 volo. The plot is extremely slit and 
 not in the least original ; but the 
 whole is a very charming bit of worlj 
 from an autlior evidently of much 
 cultivation." [Critic. 2128 
 
 MADAME THERi;SE, by Eeck- 
 mann-Chatrian, = No. 809. 
 
 MADAME'S GRANDDAUGH- 
 
 TER, [by F.. M.. Peard (b. 
 1835) : Hatchard, 1887.] '-Everyone 
 acquainted with Miss Peard's charm- 
 ing novels wil welcome this, and not 
 be disappointed. She talies her read- 
 ers again t6 the sunny South, where 
 she herself, it is very apparent, loves 
 t6 be ; and carries them to the spots 
 she describes so wel. This time it is 
 td Grasse, on the Riviera; and there 
 we liv for the time amongst the oliv- 
 groves. the gardens of exquisitly 
 scented flowers for which Grasse is 
 remarkable, the hils and valleys, and 
 the vues on all sides of the bluest of 
 blue seas, and wander over the dilapi- 
 dated castle in Castelbianco, with its 
 gray walls and interesting associa- 
 tions, and with the quaint and lifelilje 
 group of characters which she de- 
 scribes with so vivid power. There 
 is a spirit, humor, beauty, and pathos 
 in Miss Peard's descriptions which 
 seem t6 us t6 increase with each effort 
 of her genius, and we thank her for 
 adding so much pleasure t6 the read- 
 ing hours of our lives. Few of our 
 present-day lady-novelists can vie 
 with JMiss Peard in unfailing interest 
 of subject, delicacy of character- 
 delineation, purity of style, and a hi 
 and refined tone of feeling." [ Spec- 
 tator. 2129 
 MADELAINE'S FAULT iBeming- 
 ton. 1883.] "is pathetic enuf. and 
 
 short. The -'fault" of Madelaine, tiio 
 f rench in character, wil not be deemed 
 a very heinous one." [Spectator. 2130 
 
 MADELEINE [by Julia Kav- 
 ANAGH : Appleton. 1852.] deals with 
 "the simple-hearted peasantry in one 
 of the wildest districts of Auvergne." 
 [ Norton's Lit. Gazette. 2131 
 
 MADELEINE [by [Leonard 
 Sylvain ] Jdles Sandeau ( t, 1883) 
 London, Slater, 1849.] tho '-a wel 
 knon book, and one deservedly hon^ 
 ored with a crown, is perhaps a little 
 Utopian in its pictui-e of a young 
 rou6, reformed by liis cousin, and by 
 the agency of honest labor in which 
 she ingeniously engages him ; but it is 
 a charming sketch." [ Saintsbury.] — 
 "It is as innocently charming s 
 'Madame Bovary' is the reverse, 
 is the difference between the atmos- 
 fere of the dissecting-room and of 
 primrose banks in the spring. Mr. 
 Sandeau shos no lac of knolcdge of 
 the world; but he passes litly by the 
 shados on its shady side, resting by 
 preference on simplicity and virtue. 
 Young Maurice de Valtravers, t6 use 
 a vulgar but expressiv frase, is hur- 
 rying post-haste t6 the devil. Wearied 
 of the dulness of the paternal chateau 
 he has longed t6 wing a wider flit. 
 He soon succeeds in singeing his pin- 
 ions, and has come crippled t6 the 
 ground. There seems no hope for 
 him : he is the victim of remorse, with 
 neither courage nor energy left t6 
 redeem the past in the future ; and he 
 has found at last a miserable consola- 
 tion in the deliberate resolution t6 
 commit suicide, when his cousin 
 Madgleine, wh6 has loved him in girl- 
 hood, comes t6 his salvation as a sister 
 and an angel of mercy ; with the rare 
 sensibility of a loving woman, she 
 understands the appeals which ar 
 
 H02 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 most likely t6 serv her. She comes 
 as a suppliant, and prevails on hiiu 
 at least t6 put oif self-destruction til 
 her future is assured. It proves in 
 the end. that, by a pious fraud, she 
 has presented herself as a beggar 
 when she was really rich. That she 
 resigns herself t6 a life of privation, 
 supporting herself by the labor of 
 her hands, is the least part of her 
 sacrifice. She has stooped tci appear 
 selfish in the excess of her generosity. 
 Maurice swears, grumbles, and vic- 
 timises himself. But the weeds which 
 hav been flourishing in the vitiated 
 soil, die one by one in tliat heavenly 
 atmosfere. Madeleine's sacrifices hav 
 their reward in this world as in the 
 other: and she wins the hand of her 
 cousin, wh6m she has loved in her 
 inmost heart, as the prize of her pray- 
 ers and devotion." [Blackwood's. 2132 
 
 MADEMOISELLE, by P.. M.. 
 Peard, = No. 810. 
 
 M'LLE BISMARCK [ by [ V : J II : 
 [de] Rochefoet [Lucay]: Put- 
 nam, 1881.] '-is in form and con- 
 struction an excellent novel, and in 
 these respects mit hav been written 
 by an academician, so far as it is 
 possible t6 judge from a translation. 
 It is, besides, entertaining from cover 
 t6 cover, and contains at least one 
 portrait which is a character-study of 
 a good deal of acumen. This is the 
 heroin, wh6se tact in social diplomacy 
 gave her the title of the book, her 
 name being Antoinette Alibert. Miss 
 Alibert's father is a professor and has 
 but a small salary. Her mother is 
 dead. She develops astuteness early. 
 Realising, "at the age when little 
 girls ar cutting dresses for their dols," 
 that she never wil be pretty, she be- 
 gins t(S endow herself with other at- 
 tractions. She devotes herself t5 
 
 study, not because she desires t6 read 
 Goethe, Byron, or Tasso. but because 
 she wished it t6 be said of her when 
 she entered a drawing-room : 'You see 
 that young lady ? ^Vould you believe 
 it? She knos 3 languages'." The 
 next end t6 compass is the entrfie of 
 some drawing-room. After she has 
 accomplished that, her effort is t6 
 engage the affections of some import- 
 ant personage, and she succeeds final- 
 ly in entrapping no less distinguished 
 game than the President of the Cham- 
 ber. T6 d6 this, however, she has 
 been obliged t6 forge love-letters from 
 a member of the noblesse, wh6 finds 
 her out, and having her in his power, 
 makes a very base use of it, compelling 
 her t6 sacrifice either herself or her 
 hopes of Tulazac. She chooses the 
 former, and the viscount falls in love 
 with her. As she wil not recognize 
 him and returns his letters unopened 
 he falls il, and his cousip, wh6 is in 
 love with him and is his nurse, finds 
 the letters and sends them t6 Talazac. 
 — This is too bad, for Antoinette's 
 character is. in the main admirably 
 sketched, and in point of art she de- 
 servs t6 be ranked with more cele- 
 brated portraits of the same type, 
 which is a favorit one with french 
 novelists." [Nation. 2133 
 
 MADEMOISELLE DE MALE- 
 PEIRE, by Reybaud, = No. 811. 
 
 MADEMOISELLE DE MAUPIN. 
 [ by ThjSophile Gautier (t, 1872) : 
 (Paris, 1835) Chicago, Laird, Sergei, 
 1890, 423 pp.] '-It is not these thmgs 
 which the admirers of 'Mademoiselle 
 de Maupin' admire. It is the wonder- 
 ful and final expression, repeated, 
 but subtly shaded and diff'erenced, 
 in the 3 characters of D'Albert, Ro- 
 sette, and Madeleine herself, of the as- 
 piration which, as I liav said, colors 
 
 C63 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 Gautier's whole work. If he, as has 
 been justly remarked, was the priest 
 of beauty, 'Mademoiselle de Maupln' 
 is certainly one of the snored books of 
 the cult. The apostle t6 wh6m it was 
 revealed was young, and perhaps he 
 has mingled words of clay with words 
 of gold. The creed may be an impos- 
 sible creed, or an irreligious, or an 
 immoral: that is for fllosofers and 
 priests and moralists t6 decide. "We 
 may certainly agree with Sainte- 
 Beuve when he says that he does not 
 advise any of his female readei-s t6 
 send for Mademoiselle de Maupin, 
 tho we may doubt whether he seizes 
 its spirit when he describes it as a 
 book of medicin and pathology — one 
 which every fysician of the soul 6t 
 t6 hav on some bac-shelf in his 
 library. It would be difficult tH find 
 a Bowdler for our Madeleine, and 
 impossible t6 adapt her t6 the use of 
 families. T?ut for those wh6 under- 
 stand as they read, and can reject the 
 evil and hold fast the good, wh6 de- 
 sire sometimes t6 retire from the med- 
 itation of the weary ways of ordinary 
 life t6 the land of clear colors and 
 stories, where there is none of this 
 weariness, wh6 ar not t5 be scared by 
 the poets' puppets or tempted by his 
 baits, they at least wil take her as 
 she Is and be thankful." [ Saints- 
 bury. 2134 
 
 M'LLE DE MERSAC [Alg6rie] 
 = No. 491. 
 
 MADEMOISELLE DE SEIG- 
 LIEKE, by Sandead, in American 
 Bev., July, 1849 t6 Feb. 1850. 2135 
 
 MADEMOISELLE DESEOCHES 
 [ by ANDEifi Theuriet : N.-Y., Bon- 
 ner, 1891.] "is the story of a fysi- 
 clan's dauter reared by a peasant 
 family. wh6se good sense and deli- 
 cacy of feeling ar strengthened by a 
 
 simple country life. Her subsequent 
 history is full of interest, and shos 
 how closely character and truth and 
 romance ar related." [ Publisher's 
 Weekly. 2136 
 
 MADEMOISELLE GIRAUD [by 
 Adolphe Bei.ot: Chicago, Laird, 
 1891.] "has reached us in a cleverly 
 executed translation. The book had 
 tremendous vogue in Prance. The 
 public believed that it had here found 
 food for its linwholesome curiosity, 
 and continued t6 devour what it 
 united in decrying. It rests on deli- 
 cate ground, but it is delicately and 
 seriously handled. It is an indict- 
 ment for a crime ; it is a session of 
 the court, during which the depravity 
 of society is exposed with the utmost 
 severity. Its author has the clear, 
 cold tone of a judge wh6 probes hu- 
 man monstrosities and applies the 
 eternal law of chastisement as an 
 honest man. His offense is simply t6 
 hav troubled the quietude of people 
 wh6 preferred t6 relate the story in 
 question behind closed doors t6 seeing 
 it freely circulated with all its aveng- 
 ing consequences." [ Critic. 2137 
 
 MADEMOISELLE MEEQUEM. 
 [by"G: Sand," i. e., Amantine Lu- 
 cile Aurore (Dupin) Dudevant ( t, 
 1876) : N.-Y., Carleton, 1868.] The 
 reader's first "impression .is of the 
 extraordinary facility in composition 
 begotten by the author's incessant 
 practice. Never has a genius obtain- 
 ed a more complete and Immediate 
 mastery of its faculties . . . These 
 things it is which besto an incompar- 
 able distinction on this actual "Mad- 
 emoiselle Merqueni" far more than 
 any felicity of selection in the way 
 of events and characters. The 
 style, as a style, strikes us as so 
 far superior t5 that of other novelists, 
 
 CM 
 
FRENCH NOVEIiS. 
 
 MADEMOISELLE MERQUEM. [by 
 G : Sand : N.-Y., Oarleton, 186S.] "It is 
 to )je regretted, we think, that English- 
 speaking peoples ar so much attached to 
 the novels of thfiir respectiv countries as 
 to care little for the masterpieces of 
 forSin fiction, espe9ially those of France. 
 The critics of both countries feel, or affect 
 to feel, a horror of French novels, but, as 
 the French would say, thgre ar novels and 
 novels. "We can understand and sympa- 
 shize with the feeling which leads them to 
 censure such works as the- 'Lady with the 
 Camelias,' 'Indiana' [No. 753], and some 
 of the stories of Balzac, who, after Thack- 
 eray, is the gr&test modern novelist. No 
 French writer has suffered more from 
 the prejudices and the ignorance of her 
 English critics than George Sand. The 
 works of hers which hav been translated 
 ar few, and thSy hav never been popular. 
 "We can recall but 4 or 5 American ver- 
 sions of her novels and novelettes, as 
 'Consuelb' [No. 650] and the 'Countess of 
 Rudolstadt,' 'Teverino' [ No. 2606 ], and 
 'Little Fadette' [No. 2108] . . . For it is 
 one of the special qualities of George Sand 
 that she is always and thoroly an artist. 
 The story of Mademoiselle Merquem is 
 very simple, as the story of most grSat 
 works is — thSre is hardly enuf of it to 
 make a chapter in one of Miss Braddon's 
 
 romances — but as handled by George 
 Sand, how charming it is, and how inter- 
 esting, too, to those whS prefer character 
 to plot, and art to mere "sensation" 
 writing ! "We shal not undertake to tel it 
 here, further than to say that it shos that 
 the coldest, most statuesque, and appar- 
 ently least loving of women can be won 
 by the right man, and so won is the 
 sweetest, tenderest, and most womanly of 
 women. The character of Mademoiselle 
 Merquem is one of the most beautiful in 
 the whole range of fiction, and to hav 
 drawn it so that it produges this effect is a 
 triumph of genius . . . The portrait of 
 Mademoiselle Merquem is as lovely in 
 recollection as that of Miranda or Imogen. 
 The hero, Armand, who tels the story, 
 draws himself very skilfully, and stil 
 more skilfully the person and individual- 
 ity of his rival, Montroger, a weak, 
 vacillating man, who with the best inten- 
 tions in the world, is a monster of selfish- 
 ness. The scene of the story is a village 
 on the coast, the life of which, hi as wel 
 as lo, is painted with the idyllic freshness 
 which is ohe of ther greatest charms in the 
 writings of this author. The adventures 
 of Armand among the sailors ar grafically 
 portrayed, and wil linger in the memory 
 when scores of clever novels ar forgot- 
 ten." [The Albion. 3138 
 
 664 V 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 that while the impression of it is fresh 
 in your memory, you must make up 
 your mind t6 accept her competitors 
 wholly on the ground of their merits 
 of substance, and remit for the time 
 the obligation of writing properly . . . 
 The romance before us is conceived 
 and executed with a heartiness, a 
 good faith, a spontaneity, which as- 
 suredly justify our use of the word 
 '•immortal"." [N.ition. 2138 
 
 MADEMOISELLE SOLANGE. 
 [ "Terre de Prance") by Francois 
 DE JuLLiOT : Chicago, Rand, 1889.] 
 "This is a dainty, graceful and thoro- 
 ly agreeable novel. It is a picture of 
 provincial society of which the tran- 
 quil surface is rippled by the arrival 
 of a young parisian lady, full of 
 caprices, sensitiv, proud, and capable 
 of entire devotion. The story is 
 charming ; one may even be permitted 
 t6 say that it is a refreshment t6 find 
 a new novel which is not the apostle 
 of some theory, but a love story pure 
 and simple. Perfectly refined in 
 quality, unexceptionable in incident, 
 it is a romance suitable for young 
 girls as wel as for their elders." 
 [ Boston "Literary World. 2139 
 
 MAGIC SKIN (The), by Balzac. 
 ^^ ECCENTBIC NOVELS. 
 
 MAKING AN OMELETTE [by 
 GUSTAVE Deoz : in LippincoWs Mag- 
 azine. Oct. 1871.] "is charming and 
 pure." [Nation. 2140 
 
 MAN AND MONEY [ by Emile 
 SODVESTRE ( t, 1854 ) : Liverpool. 
 IfoiceZZ, 1854.] "is an interesting but 
 painful story,— shoing how a rich, 
 hard-hearted man of capital may 
 crush a rival and hunt him t6 poverty 
 without in the least transgressing the 
 laws. It is written on the text of 
 "Competition," and shos how the 
 battle of money may be as fatal as 
 
 the battle of armies ; and the moral 
 is that brotherly love ot not t6 be 
 entirely excluded from business." 
 [ Athena3um. 2141 
 
 , SAME ("Two Rivals"), N.-Y., 
 
 r. B. Dawley, 1865. 
 _ MAN OF THE PEOPLE (A) [by 
 Emile Erckmann and P : Alex. 
 Chatrian (t, 1890.) : London, Bent- 
 ley, 1871.'] "is an account of the rev- 
 olution of 1848, from the point of vue 
 of one wh6 took no small part in it. 
 Jean Pierre Clavel, the hero, is a 
 cabinet-maker. He has come to the 
 capital from Saverne, where his youth 
 was spent ; and the workshop in 
 which he finds employment, is one of 
 those places in which the revolution- 
 ary spirit was nurtured by hot discus- 
 sion and made ripe for an outbi-eak. 
 . . . The quiet scenes of Saverne life 
 ar more interesting than the tumult 
 of the revolution. When Jean-Pierre 
 is first taken up by Madame Balais 
 after his kinsfolk hav abandoned him, 
 — when he climbs the long flits of 
 stairs in the old-fashioned house 
 which is t6 be his home, — when he 
 masters his alfabet by great efibrts, 
 and is all the keener in his enjoyment 
 of one day's holiday in the week, — 
 when he puts his whole energies int6 
 the work he is learning under the 
 quaint old cabinet-maker, — a series of 
 delitful pictures is unroled. No won- 
 der that Jean-Pierre himself looked 
 bac with regret upon that life from 
 the narro streets of Paris, remember- 
 ing his runs throu the long grass and 
 his swims in the clear stream under 
 the leaves." [Athenseum. 2142 
 
 MAN WITH THE BliOKEN BAE, 
 by About, g^=- ECCENTRIC NOV- 
 ELS. 
 
 MANON LESCAUT = No. 816. 
 
 MARBLE BUST (The), by About, 
 
 665 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 in BusselVs Magazine, 1859, 36 pp. 2143 
 MARGARET, by Berthet, = No. 
 
 818. 
 
 MARGARET MULLER, by Ber- 
 SiER, = No. 819. 
 
 MARGERY MERTON'S GIRL- 
 HOOD [ by Alice Corkran : Blackie, 
 1887.] "is a careful and quietly hu- 
 morous study of the life of an orfan 
 wh6 is placed by her father under the 
 care of a maiden Snt in Paris. The 
 ant, tho elderly and wizened, is a 
 good soul and sensible withal, and 
 manages t6 let her niece be reared 
 very much in the ^vay that the girl 
 herself likes best. Mai-gery and her 
 fello-students, the excellent Mrs. 
 Rgville, the not less excellent painter, 
 Mr. Delteil, and. above all, poor Rose 
 Lifebore, ar delltfuUy sketched. 
 Then there is a conspiracy t6 prevent 
 Margery from obtaining a prize t6 
 which she is entitled, and there is 
 another conspiracy t6 defeat that con- 
 spiracy ; and there ar rural adventures 
 resulting in the arrival on the scene 
 of a Prince-Charming in the person of 
 Arthur Wilton, a young englishman, 
 wh6 would doubtless hav married 
 Margery in the flnal chapter, had 
 marriages been permissible in stories 
 for school-girls. The french simplic- 
 ity which, where it really exists, is 
 exquisit, and which is alt6gether the 
 opposit of that abomination knon as 
 chic, pervades this story like a per- 
 fume. An amount of skil and subtlety 
 has been expended — we d6 not say 
 wasted — on 'Margery Merton's Girl- 
 hood' which would hav made the for- 
 tune of more than one good novel." 
 [ Spectator. 2144 
 
 MARGUERITE, or Two Loves, by 
 Delphine (Gat) Gikardin: Apple- 
 ton, 1862. 2145 
 
 MARIE DERVILLE [by HOR- 
 
 TENSE (Guizot) de Witt : Lippincott, 
 1873.] "is a brit and pleasant story 
 of country life. The heroin is a dau- 
 ter of a captain wh5 departs on a 3 
 years' cruise. In his absence pecu- 
 niary troubles overtake the family, and 
 his wife and mother set up a board- 
 ing-school, life in which constitutes 
 the principal material of the story." 
 [ Boston "Literary World." 2146 
 
 MARINER OF THE LOIRE (The) 
 by E. SODVESTRE, in Southern Lit. 
 Messenger, Dec. 1855. 2147 
 
 MARKETS OF PARIS (THE) 
 [ "Ventre de Paris") by Emile Zola : 
 Peterson, 1879.] "is the most success- 
 ful and the subtlest study the author 
 has made of one of those colorless 
 characters which offer few or no 
 salient points t6 most students of life, 
 but wh6se delineation always tasks 
 the hiest powers of the novelist of the 
 first class. The heroin, Lisa, belongs 
 t6 the Macquai-t family — with differ- . 
 ent members of which all of Mr. Zola's 
 books ar concerned — and unites her 
 father's selfishness and her mother's 
 industry ; she may be called, in fact, 
 the embodiment of the reasons which 
 led t6 her parents' marriage. Her 
 'enlTtened self-interest' assures her 
 that it is in the orderly path of life 
 that comfort dwels, and it is only by 
 the unwisdom of disorder, weakness, 
 poverty, and sin by which so poignant 
 a passion as anger is aroused in her. 
 Her husband's brother, an escaped 
 exile, suddenly reappears. Lisa is at 
 once ready t6 divide with him the in- 
 heritance which her husband received 
 from his uncle, and is displeased at 
 the arrangement between the brothers 
 which leaves it all in her hands and 
 givs Florent a home with them. Her 
 dislike of her brother-in-law begins 
 with her aversion to anyone wh6 has 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 suffered such hardships ; that he has 
 suffered unjustly, and that his char- 
 acter Is noble, only emfaslzes her 
 general sense of a hopeless muddle 
 where everything should be so clear. 
 His willingness t6 liv without work, 
 altho he does not spend a tithe of 
 what belongs t6 hiui, increases this 
 aversion by offending her sense of the 
 necessity of work in any wel-ordered 
 life, and in one way and another she 
 forces him t5 accept a position under 
 the government which he hates as his 
 persecutor. He is drawn intd a revo- 
 lutionary society, which she discovers, 
 and. fritened for the safety of her 
 family, she denounces him t6 the 
 police, wh6 ar already in possession 
 of her story throu anonymous letters 
 from the nebors. Florent is trans- 
 ported, and Lisa quiets her conscience 
 by reflecting that her course was open, 
 and that her brother-in-law had al- 
 ready been denounced, and above all 
 by the return t6 the quiet and orderly 
 life which had been interrupted. 
 There is nothing contemptible in Lisa, 
 it is t6 be remarked. She Is one of 
 the elements of society, and a pro- 
 duct of civilization ; tho an incarna- 
 tion of selfishness, from sheer force 
 of selfish wisdom she escapes the 
 patent failings of characters super- 
 ficially similar ; she has, indeed, the 
 garnered worldly wisdom of ages, 
 and mit be offered t5 Mr. Mallock as 
 an example of the passion with which 
 'honesty is the best policy' may be 
 worshipped, or t6 some of his critics 
 as an example of the tragedy such a 
 character develops when br6t int6 
 contact with a life ordered by ideas 
 which, however completely they may 
 pre-figure the wisdom of the future, 
 nevertheless threaten the comfort se- 
 cured by the wisdom of past. Like 
 
 the rest of his books, -The Markets 
 of Paris' shos M. Zola comiuitted t6 a 
 theory of novel-writing, but, unlike 
 some of them, it shos his ability, when 
 he is at his best, to sink his theorizing 
 in an acute and dispassionate study of 
 life and character. The details of the 
 story, aside from the development of 
 its princiisal character, ar even sliter 
 than is usual with him." [Nation. 2148 
 
 MARMORNK, = No. 824. 
 
 MARQUIS DE LETORIERE by 
 Sue, [in Omnibus, vol. 2., N.-Y., 
 Mowatt. 1844.] = No. 82G. 
 
 MARQUIS DE VILLEMER, by "G : 
 Sand," Boston, Osgood, 1871. 2149 
 
 MARRIAGE (All About) by 
 "Gyp," i. e., countess Martel de Join- 
 ville: N.-Y., Tousey, 1880. 2150 
 
 MARRIAGE IN HIGH LIFE (A). 
 [ by Octave Feuillet ( t, 1890 ) : 
 Phil'a, Porter, 1875.] "The hero is 
 handsome, rich, and accomplished; 
 but at the age of 30 is stil a bachelor. 
 He desires t6 marry ; but the wives he 
 sees in society do not suggest t6 him 
 the idea of domestic bliss. At last,. 
 he is introduced by his match-making 
 godmother t6 Marie Pitz-Gerald, and 
 the tw6 ar presently betrothed. The 
 characters of the tw6, and the circum- 
 stances of their marriage, ar unquali- 
 fiedly auspicious ; and they begin their 
 new life assured of a blissful future. 
 Their delltful dream is soon inter- 
 rupted. Mrs. de Rias, intoxicated by 
 the excitement of parisian society, 
 yields herself t6 it without reserv, 
 and her husband, thus robbed of the 
 home happiness he had anticipated, 
 withdraws from his wife. Under the 
 influence of certain gay ladies with 
 wh6m she is intimate, Marie accepts 
 the easy filosofy of their set, and 
 draws near the precipice of ruin. At 
 the most dangerous crisis she is 
 
 667 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 saved." [ Boston -'Lit. World." 2151 
 
 MARRIAGE OF GABRIELLE 
 (The) [ by Daniel Lesdede : Chica- 
 go, Hand, 1890.] '-is pleasantly told, 
 the tone of the 15ve-tale is good and 
 pure, and all ends happily." [ Writ- 
 er. 2152 
 
 MARRIAGE OF LOVE (A), by 
 HaliSvy. = love match. 
 
 MARRYING AND GIVING IN 
 MARRIA.GE = No. 494. 
 
 MARRriNG OFF A DAUGHTER 
 [ -MARIER SA FILLE") by ■•Henri 
 Gr]5ville." i. e., Alice M.. Celeste 
 (Fleury) Duvand: Peferson, 187S.] "is 
 an entertaining stoiy . The heroin and 
 the hero stand out in bold relief 
 against the setting of their disreput- 
 able surroundings, and there is a 
 great deal of humor in the talk of all 
 the people. In short, the writer's 
 cleverness cannot be questioned, and 
 there wil be but few, it is fair t6 say, 
 wh6 wil object td the good-natured 
 way in which the good people ar re- 
 warded for their virtue by a comfort- 
 able income." [Atlantic. 2153 
 
 MATILDA. [by Eugene Sue: 
 N.-Y., Winchester, 1844, 8°, 414 pp.] 
 "The 'young woman' wh6se memoirs 
 ar laid before us has hardly contract- 
 ed a marriage with one of the most 
 charming, fashionable and devoted of 
 men, before she discovers that her 
 husband is bound hand and foot in 
 the thrall of a Mephistopheles, wh6 
 wil not be content unless she also is 
 made t6 minister t6 his satisfaction. 
 This demon has riches by the bank 
 full, — of course, agents by the hun- 
 dred; and the strong interest of the 
 book is excited bj^ the perpetual 
 terror he maintains in the mind of the 
 heroin. whSse reputation he destroys, 
 wh6se person he menaces, whdse hus- 
 band, finally, he bribes and degrades 
 
 until he becomes a partner in his de- 
 signs." [Athenaeum. 2154 
 
 MAUGARS, JR., = YOUNQ MAU- 
 GABS. 
 
 MAUPRAT, == No. 836. 
 
 MAURICE, by F: B^chard, 
 CarUton, 1871. 2155 
 
 MEMBER FOR PARIS (THE). 
 [ by Eustace Claire Grenville 
 Murray (t, 1881): Smith. 1871.] 
 The hero "mixes in the 'grande 
 monde,' makes acquaintance with 
 literary and other celebrities, among 
 wh6m we recognize Arsene Houssaye, 
 Jules Favre, Blanqui and Worth. 
 There is a vacancy for the Corps L6g- 
 islatif and Macrobe urges Horace t6 
 stand for it, and so intrigues that he 
 is triumf antly returned. The pictures 
 of Parisian society which the book 
 contains ar thoroly life-like, and such 
 as only an Intimate knoledge of it 
 would enable any writer t6 depict" 
 [ Athenaeum. 2156 
 
 MERE CAPRICE (A). [byM.. 
 (Healy) Bigot: Jansen, 1882.] 
 "The writer has the power of repro- 
 ducing thot and scenes from the 
 french point of vue which almost 
 amounts t6 genius. The 'caprice' is 
 the whimsical fancy of a rich, heart- 
 less, and idle woman for an orfan 
 girl. Her best motiv is revenge upon 
 her husband's relativs, so that it Is 
 only natural that upon the discovery 
 that the girl has by lier beauty un- 
 consciously won the love of the artist 
 wh6 is the object of her on ardent 
 passion, she ruthlessly turns her out 
 of doors. The moral of the book is 
 hi and pure in intention : it is the ar- 
 tist wh6 dreams of 'an ideal of tender 
 lovje. unlike mere fevered passion — 
 love which dares sho itself t6 all ; a 
 healthy, honest love, which would not 
 fear the blessed monotony of every- 
 
 668 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 day life, with its work, and rest, and 
 lo talks by the common hearth, and 
 the patter 'of little feet for its home 
 music" ; but it is taut only by nega- 
 tlvs, and the story groes more pitiful 
 as each struggle of the poor girl is 
 more hopeless. The plot is new enuf 
 and exciting enuf t6 compel the 
 reader t6 folio it t6 the end, but the 
 book wil never be opened the second 
 time ; for. wel written as it is, there is 
 nothing beyond the plot t6 counter- 
 balance the painful impression of the 
 catastrofe." [ Nation. 2157 
 
 META HOLDENIS. [by V: 
 CHKRBVhlEZ : Appleton, 1873.] "The 
 story is told in letters by a young 
 man, a painter, t6 a lady, • a friend 
 living on the Ehein, wh6 has written 
 t6 him that she has chosen for him 
 the maiden he is t5 marry. The latter 
 is a charming girl, sentimental as wel 
 as practical, and her eyes ar of a 
 heavenly blue ; but about those heav- 
 enly blue eyes he has his opinion, 
 and the novel is the account of the 
 manner in which his present opinion 
 of them was formed . . . Naturally, 
 at an early opportunity, Tony and 
 Meta seek an explanation, which has 
 the usual result of explanations in 
 complicating matters more than ever, 
 bringing him again under the power 
 of her fascination . . . The intrigues 
 of the girl ar discovered, and she 
 leaves the house. Afterwards she 
 becomes a protestant' sister, and de- 
 nounces the immorality of the French, 
 taking an account of the conduct of 
 Tony and M. de Manserre for her text. 
 It is, as may be seen, the story of an 
 intriguer, and, in our opinion, it makes 
 a very interesting novel." [Na. 2158 
 
 MICHELINE [ Normandie ] = 
 No. 495. 
 
 MILDRED VERNON [ by Hamil- 
 
 ton Murray : Colburn, 1848.] "is a 
 novel of more than ordinary excel- 
 lence. It is unusually wel written; 
 the characters ar wel sustained ; the 
 conversations natural and lively ; the 
 plot one of great interest and skilfully 
 developed; and altho much of the 
 society int6 which we ar introduced 
 is, both socially and politically, as 
 bad as need be, — the scene being laid 
 among the hier ranks in Paris toards 
 the close of Louis-Philippe's reign, — 
 yet the tone and feeling of the book 
 ar good throuout, and the morality, 
 while neither narro nor severe, is on 
 the whole pure, correct, and even hi- 
 minded." [ National Review. 2159 
 MILLER OF ANGIBAULT (The), 
 [by ''G: Sand," i. e., Amantine Lu- 
 cile Aurore (Dupin) Dudevant (t, 
 1876 ) : London, Churton, 1847, Simms, 
 1853, Weldon, 1878.] -'The author 
 introduces us t6 a fase of french life, 
 unfamiliar t6 the ordinary reader; 
 and, while working out a plot of ex- 
 traordinary interest, givs us pictures 
 of affairs such as could hav been 
 drawn only by the hand of a master, 
 and which, of themselvs, unaided by 
 the fascination of the story, entitle 
 this novel t6 rank among the author's 
 best." [ Boston '-Literary World."]— 
 It "is divided intd 5 parts, embracing 
 a narrativ of 5 successiv days; and 
 with the exception of the prolog, the 
 scene passes entirely within the narro 
 limits of a country parish. The 
 blemish in the book is that the author 
 pushes t6 extravagance her dreams of 
 an ideal equality of ranks. Marcelle, 
 the beautiful baroness, has formed a 
 platonic friendship during her hus- 
 band's life with Henri L6mor, a work- 
 ino' engineer. When her husband 
 dies, it is her delit t6 believe that she 
 can besto herself on the friend wh6 
 
 669 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 has avowed liis attiichment t6 her. 
 But Lfimor is proud, and an enthu- 
 siast in the principles which hav won 
 him her admiration, and the idea of 
 Marcelle's riches revolts him. He 
 decides t6 fly from her, for a year at 
 least; but, like the moth flickering 
 round the flame of the candle, he can- 
 not help c5ming after her to Blanohe- 
 mont. He experiences a moment of 
 transport in hearing that her late hus- 
 band has ruined her. Then, again, 
 there is a relapse t6 despondency 
 when he finds that enuf has been 
 saved from the wrec t6 giv tlie object 
 of his adoration a tolerable fortune. 
 Finally, a fire, which burns a bundle 
 of bank-notes with the farm buildings 
 of Blancheinont, reduces her means t6 
 such a very modest independence, 
 that he succeeds in shaking himself 
 free from his scruples. They marry, 
 and look forward t6 a life of unruffled 
 love in a cottage. Such is the outline 
 of the romance; and so far it sounds, 
 and it is, absurd enuf. Yet such is 
 the inimitable skil of the narrator 
 that the book does not strike us as 
 ridiculous in the reading ; and we see 
 in Marcelle a hi-minded and fascinat- 
 ing woman, by no means excessivly 
 eccentric. Eefined as she is, born and 
 reared as she has been, it is barely 
 conceivable that she could find a con- 
 genial spirit in L6mor. wh6 nmst ap- 
 pear t6 a man of the, world t6 be a 
 prig and an embodiment of crochets. 
 But there is an easy and effortless 
 abnegation of the habits and preju- 
 dices of her birth and breeding in the 
 way in which she associates with the 
 boors of Blanchemont, altho it savors 
 unquestionably of poetical license." 
 [Blackwood's. 2160 
 
 MIMI. [by 'EsMt Stuaet: Lon- 
 don, 1880.] -'But our readers must 
 
 not suppose that this little novelette 
 deals only with a child's fancies, or 
 with word-iiictures of Normandy 
 scenery and the homely prettiness of 
 a farm. We hav a tale of really 
 thrilling interest, told with the sim- 
 plicity and vividness which ar only 
 natural in recalling some exciting and 
 startling incident of childhood; and 
 exceedingly wel told."' [ Specta. 2161 
 
 MIMI PINSON, m^ Musset. 
 
 MISERABLES (Les) = No. 790. 
 
 MISERIES OF PAKIS, by Eugene 
 Sue: N.-Y.. W: II. Davis, 1891. 2162 
 
 MRS. DYMOND [ Paris ] = No. 
 500. 
 
 MODERN CYMON (The) ["Jean") 
 by [0:] Paul de Kock: London, 
 rep. Phil'a, Carey, 1833.] "is an 
 interesting novel, by a writer of much 
 celebrity. The story, which is the 
 same with the "Cymon" of Dryden, 
 is truly delitful, and has ever been 
 fascinating, tho it be found in every 
 language. A youth of wild passions 
 and bearish, uncultivated manners, 
 which entirely conceal his naturally 
 good heSrt, is arrested at the begin- 
 ning of his evil courses, by the sit of 
 a lovely woman wh6ra he rescues 
 from an attack of some robbers in a 
 lonely street in Paris. Being gradu- 
 ally impressed with a sense of his 
 deficiencies by comparing himself 
 with othei's, he resolvs t6 reform, and 
 devotes a year t6 intense and solitary 
 study in an 'entresol' opposit the house 
 of his mistress, whence he catches a 
 glimpse of her daily as she walks out 
 and returns. The dfinoument is stil 
 more interesting. His manners be- 
 come polished, his address easy, ruf- 
 ness and forwai-dness giv place t6 
 modesty and difiidence, and the lovely 
 cause of this wondrous change be- 
 comes his." [N.-Y. Mirror.]— "If 
 
 670 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 we wer requi'ied t6 mention anyone of 
 Kock's numerous productions as a 
 specimen and proof of his talent, we 
 should select Jean; not because it 
 contains the most brilliant of his hu- 
 morous sketches, but because it is the 
 most regular and best conducted of 
 his novels, the most complete, varied, 
 and natural; and while it ceitainly 
 would not disgust — as some of his 
 romances mlt disgust a fastidious eng- 
 lish reader — would pr6ve the capabil- 
 ity of the writer, and demonstrate the 
 nature and character of his style . . . 
 The skil of the author is not shon in 
 the original conception of the subject, 
 but in his admirable style of carrying 
 it throu ; first, in the naturalness of 
 the character of Jean under the cir- 
 cumstances of his education, the 
 amusing manner in which these cir- 
 cumstances are exhibited, and next, 
 for the knoledge of human nature, 
 which has enabled him t6 trace all the 
 changes affected by the operation of 
 new motivs and new ideas of pleas- 
 ure." [ Foreign Quart. Rev. 2163 
 
 MODERN FRENCH LIFE (trans- 
 lations, edited) by C. G.. F.. ( ) 
 Gore : London, 1842. 2164 
 
 MODESTE MIGNON. [by Ho- 
 nor:^ "de" Balzac : Boberts, 1888.] 
 "Few of Balzac's novels appeal t6 the 
 taste and sensibilities of english read- 
 ers so fully as -Modeste Mignon.' 
 The heroin is a charming young girl 
 wh6 sets about falling In love in a 
 very original and striking way, and 
 chooses her husband with a mixture 
 of audacity and good sense, which 
 provoke interest and sympathy. 
 Stil, full of brilliancy and charm 
 altho tlie story is, the essential un- 
 reality of the chief character is al- 
 ways before the reader's mind. Mo- 
 deste is ardent, naive, innocent, but 
 
 she is not, after all, an actual girl, 
 but a mere projection of Balzac him- 
 self. Behind her spontaneity is the 
 author's intention — the intention of a 
 deeply sofisticated mind, full of whim, 
 resource, and experience. But Bal- 
 zac, being always Balzac, is never 
 less than great, and -Modeste Mignon' 
 is one of the most delitful of his 
 works." [American.] — '-In this work 
 Balzac deals with the liter and sun- 
 nier side of the Coinedie Humaine, 
 often more of a tragedy in his hands. 
 It tels of the love affair of a pretty 
 dauter of a Havre merchant with the 
 friend of a parisian poet, carried on in 
 a correspondence in which the friend 
 masquerades as the poet himself. 
 The most amusing situation in the 
 book is where Dumay, the watch-dog 
 of the maiden, goes t6 Paris t6 pull 
 the nose of the impudent scribbler 
 wh6 has dared from his garret t6 ad- 
 dress the girl, and is amazed and con- 
 founded by the splendor of the Canalis 
 mansion. There ar tedious places in 
 the book, connecting the various epi- 
 sodes, but the reader would as soon 
 quarrel with life for its stupid hours, 
 as with Balzac, for it is impossible in 
 reading him t6 avoid the feeling that 
 Balzac is life." [Overland. 2165 
 
 MONEY, [by "Jules A. Tar- 
 DiEU," i. e., J. D. de St. Germaine 
 (?): London, Allen, 1879.] Here 
 "we hav a quiet comedy, clean, fra- 
 grant, and wel written, rather crowd- 
 ed with characters, which, however, 
 ar drawn with good effect, and flav- 
 ored with a mild humor." [ Boston 
 "Literary World." 2166 
 
 MONEY. [ by Emile Zola : Bos- 
 ton. Tucker, 1891, 435 pp.] "is, as 
 its name implies, a record of the effect 
 produced upon the human race by its 
 greed for gold. Certain capitalists, 
 
 671 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 men wh6 hav spent their lives in spec- 
 ulativ ventures on the Bourse, start a 
 Universal Bank, in connection with 
 which there is t6 be a steamship com- 
 pany. At first the scheme succeeds 
 brilliantly, then comes the inevitable 
 crash, and with It the crush of the 
 small, the trampling crowd which 
 foUoes large armies, passion descend- 
 ing from the parlor t5 the kitchen, 
 from the bourgeois t6 the workman 
 and the peasant, and which hurled 
 int6 this mad gallop of millions sub- 
 scribers having but tw6 or three 
 shares, the whole emaciated and hun- 
 gry mass of tiny capitalists which a 
 catastrofe such as this sweeps away 
 like an epidemic and lays at rest in 
 the pauper's grave. The originators 
 of the scheme, those wh6 hav been 
 the cause of all this, ar pursued by 
 the endless wail arising from the 
 f ritf ul anguish produced by this trag- 
 edy of money. In its study of the 
 subject, which it is the purpos of this 
 novel t6 treat, it is truly great. The 
 descriptions of the scenes at the ex- 
 change, the development of the char- 
 acter of the man wh6 is the main- 
 spring of this mad speculation, 
 the horde of parasites wh6 cling t6 
 him in their overpowering greed until 
 he goes down and then desert him, ar 
 certainly marvellous in their realism. 
 It is a masterly work, unnecessarily 
 revolting at times in some of its de- 
 tails, nevertheless a book in which a 
 difficult subject is handled with the 
 utmost skil and which sustains the 
 most unflagging interest t6 its last 
 page." [Critic] — "In his latest 
 novel, L" Argent, there is a fairer bal- 
 ance than in his other books ; there ar 
 decent people, kindly folk, men and 
 women of honest heSrts and willing 
 hands. We hav a pleasant glimpse 
 
 of the home life of Mazaud, the stoc- 
 broker wh6 commits suicide when he 
 fails. The Jordans, husband and 
 wife, ar perhaps the pleasantest pair 
 t6 be found in all Zola's novels. With 
 the novelist's increasing fame, appar- 
 ently, he is taking briter vues of hu- 
 manity. And Madame Caroline, des- 
 pite her lapse, mit almost be called an 
 honest woman, if this is not a para- 
 dox, she is a strong, wholesome, 
 broad-minded creature, admirably 
 realized. There is no disputing also 
 that Zola is a novelist of most extra- 
 ordinary fecundity and force." 
 [ Brander Matthews. 2167 
 
 MONEYBAGS AND TITLES. 
 [ '"Sacs et Parchemens") by [ Leon- 
 ard Sylvain] Jules Sandbau (t, 
 1883): Lippineott, 1851.] "A certain 
 epigrammatic vivacity of style and 
 expression, occasionally amounting t5 
 wit, and an ingenious plot, fully sus- 
 tain the reader's attention. The types 
 presented of certain important classes 
 of frenchmen ar certainly not flatter- 
 ed but neither must they be looked 
 upon as mere caricatures . . . The 
 pivot of the tale is the misplaced am- 
 bition of a wealthy parisian citizen, 
 wh6se heavy purse and huge vanity 
 render him the target of a host of in- 
 guers, and especially of a dowager 
 marchioness, more proud of her pedi- 
 gree than scrupulous in her manoeu- 
 vres ... Its tone and tendency ar 
 alike unobjectionable; and we ar quite 
 sure that it wil be a general favorite 
 with english readers.'' [Black- 
 wood's. 2168 
 
 MONKEY ISLAND, or The Adven- 
 tures of Polydore Marasquin. by 
 L]50N GOZLAN : Warne, 1888. 2169 
 
 MONSIEUR ANTOINE = SIN OF 
 M. ANTOINE. 
 
 MONSIEUR DE CAMORS, by 
 
 672 
 
FKKNCH NOVKLS. 
 
 MONSIEUR DB CAMOES. [by Oc- 
 tave Feuii,lbt (t, 1890): N.-Y., Ble- 
 lock, 1860, Phil'a, Peterson, 1870.] "Some 
 persons hav taken 'M. de Camors'forM. de 
 Morny , others for the Duke of Gramont ; 
 but the personage is one of pure imagina- 
 tion, and is meant to represent a class . . . 
 Gamers, the elder, th6t nothing of reli- 
 gion, little of honor, a good deal of poli- 
 tics and fen9ing, and he concluded his 
 advise to his son by counselling him not 
 to get angry, to \&t seldom, and never to 
 weep. Whilst he was" penning these in- 
 structions, his son Vfas seduging the wife 
 of an innogent architect with whom he 
 had been at school . . . The acquaintance 
 with Lescandre was renewed by an 
 ac5idental meeting. Camors endeavored 
 not to fall in love ; but one fatal opportuni- 
 ty got the better of his resolution. A din- 
 ner-party, the husband called away on bus- 
 iness, an ant obliged to retire by a headache, 
 a young wife left 'tfite-a-tSte' -with a hand- 
 some man of fashion, a few minutes spent 
 in the twilight, hands that met : 'Sir, I beg 
 you to leave me;' a few seconds more, 
 and Mrs. Lescandre awoke from a trance. 
 . . . Camors goes to parliament, and be- 
 comes a working member. He was look- 
 ed upon as a probable minister, and made 
 himself useful in committees. His father 
 had recommended him 'honor;' and a lot 
 of men about town thot the principle a 
 good one. Thgy formed a Patent Safety- 
 Club; no member of the club was to trifle 
 with the wife or dauter of another mem- 
 ber. This rule was not applicable to 
 people who wer blac-balled, and so the 
 margin given to the leading principle was 
 large. Tho not maried, Camors joined it 
 
 and General de Campvallon did likewise, 
 and an extra barrier was thron between 
 the rising Deputy and Mrs. de Campval- 
 lon. "Wild resolutions, vows, reflections 
 on the regulations of the Patent Safety 
 Club wer all made in vain in presence 
 of the suberb beauty and elegant woman 
 who ruled the world of fashion, and who 
 had never ceased to love. Thdre wer 
 moments of remorse; and Camors was 
 was very near confessing his crime at 
 the club. The poor general suspected 
 nothing til an anonymous letter half- 
 opened his eyes. Trom behind a curtain 
 whSre his wife places him he is witness of 
 an intervue between the couple. Camors 
 arrives, is coldly regeivd by Madame, and 
 immediately smels a rat behind the arras. 
 Charlotte persuades him to marry, and in 
 the hearing of the general, he promises to 
 espouse Mrs. de Tide's dauter. Camors 
 keeps his word, and an element of jeal- 
 ousy is introduced : the mistress is jealous 
 of the neglected wife, who one day is 
 put in possession of a letter from Mrs. de 
 Campvallon to her husband, which leaves 
 no doubt of the intimacy existing between 
 them. The countess finds that she has 
 been married merely to favor the intri- 
 gues of others. Mrs. de Tficle had to come 
 from the country ; thSre was no scandal ; 
 but the young wife was carried home 
 broken-hearted. Camors did try to be- 
 come better, but could not; he wrestled in 
 vain with his fatal attachment . . . Curi- 
 ous trials crop up now and then, and 
 Feuillet might select half-a-dozen to sho 
 that his picture of French life is not over- 
 drawn." [ Examiner 3170 
 
 672 y 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 Octave Feuillet: N.-Y., Blelock, 
 1868 ; Phira, Petemon, 1870. 2170 
 
 MONSIEUR D'HAUTEEIVE = 
 ROMANCE OF A POOB YOUNG 
 MAN. 
 
 MONSIEUR FRANCOIS by Ivan 
 TuRGlfiNlEF: in Appleton's Journal, 
 May, 1880. 2171 
 
 MONSIEUR SYLVESTRE. [by 
 '■G: Sand," i. e., Amantine Lucile 
 Aurore (Dupin) Dudevant ( t, 1876) : 
 Soberts, 1870.] "The hero is a young 
 man wh6 has abandoned the house of 
 his uncle, and his probable heirship, 
 because that relativ would force him 
 int6 a distasteful marriage ... In his 
 retirement Pierre presently becomes 
 conscious of t\v6 nebors — an old man 
 and a young girl. In due time he be- 
 comes acquainted with both, finding 
 one t6 be M. Sylvestre. and the other 
 t6 be the lady wh6m his uncle desired 
 him t6 marry.. The progress of the 
 acquaintance of these three, — poor, 
 proud, hi-souled creatures, each pos- 
 sessing a secret sorro, — is touchingly 
 sketched. The reader falls instantly 
 in love with M. Sylvestre, and be- 
 comes penetrated with the keenest 
 curiosity about him. In the de- 
 velopment of the story tw6 other 
 ladies- — 16 each of wh6ni, at different 
 times, his uncle had wished t6 marry 
 Pierre — ar introduced, both of strong 
 and striking individuality ; one mar- 
 ried, the other single. Another male 
 character comes in, M. G6d6on, a Jew 
 of great wealth, powerful intellect 
 and marked personal fascinations. 
 Among all these personages, thron 
 tSgether in the country, sundry love 
 affairs spring up, and the history of 
 these make the volume.'' [ Boston 
 •Literary World." 2172 
 
 MOTHER (A), by H. Malot, N.- 
 Y., Belford, 1890, 284 pp. 2173 
 
 MOTHER AND DAUGHTER, by 
 Balzac, in vol. 5, of Bomancists' Libra- 
 ry, ed. Hazlitt. London, 1841. 2174 
 
 MOTHER OF A MARCHIONESS 
 (The) by About, in The Great Bepuh- 
 Uc, N.-Y., aug.-sept., 1859. 2175 
 
 MOTHERLESS = A PABI8IAN 
 FAMILY. 
 
 MOUSTACHE, or T^iree Students 
 of Paris [by [ C : ] Paul de Kock : 
 in The Novelist, London, 1839.] "Paul 
 de Kock is that in the literary world, 
 which Michel Angelo was in the 
 realms of sculpture — a perfect master, 
 wh6 with a single touch can repro- 
 duce nature in all its truest and most 
 various shapes. He is as much at 
 home in the pathetic as in the humor- 
 ous, and can extract tears from the 
 eyes as readily as he can draw smiles 
 t6 the lips. His sensibility Is natural 
 and true ; that of Dickens is insipid 
 and mawkish. That half -school-boy — 
 half idiot, Nicholas Nickleby, with 
 his maudlin ideas of honor which 
 scarcely repress the spirit of the ad- 
 venturer, finds no parallel in the cate- 
 gory of heroes wh6 figure in the nov- 
 els of Paul de Kock. We cannot d6 
 otherwise than pronounce Nicholas 
 Nickleby t6 be a most unfortunate 
 tale, written without palpable plot or 
 design, interrupted by frequent as- 
 tounding starts and leaps, and so 
 forced in its 'dfinoument', that the 
 reader almost wonders what refer- 
 ence the last number bears t5 the pre- 
 ceeding ones . . . Giving the full 
 award of his great merits t6 Mr. 
 Dickens, we cannot admit that be is 
 t6 be named even in the same breath 
 with Paul de Kock. The French au- 
 thor is a man of education, — Dickens 
 does not pretend t6 possess this ad- 
 vantage: the former is as familiar 
 with the pathetic style of writing, as 
 
 673 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 with the humorous ; the pathos of the 
 latter is bombast or bathos. Paul de 
 Kock's writings contain a degree of 
 interest which renders It impossible 
 for the reader t6 lay down the book 
 until he has arrived at the end ; his 
 descriptions ar very brief, but invari- 
 ably contain a volume in a few words ; 
 and his scenes of life amongst the 
 middling or loer orders of the Paris- 
 ians ar indisputably the most faithful 
 and natural pictures of the same sub- 
 jects upon recoixl." [ Monthly Ke- 
 view, 1840. 2176 
 
 MUSSET, [L:C.] ALFRED DE, 
 SELECTIONS from his FBOSE 
 AND POETRY [N.-Y., Hurd & 
 Honghton, 1870 ] contains White Black- 
 birds, and Mimi Finson. 2177 
 
 MY BEOTIIEE JACK = LITTLE 
 GOOD-FOB-NOTSING. 
 
 MY BEOTHEE YVES, by "P: 
 LOTI" : Vizetelly, 1887. 2178 
 
 MY COUSIN, MISS CINDEP- 
 ELLA. [ by L^ON de Tinseau ; 
 Appleton, 1888.] "It is a slight but 
 agreeable performance, and the pict- 
 ure given in it of an old aristocratic 
 french family has a striking air of 
 reality." [ American. 2179 
 
 MY SISTEE JEANNIE. [by "G : 
 Sand," i. e., Amantine Lucile Aurore 
 (Dupin) Dudevant ( t- 187G ) : Boberts, 
 1874.] "The incidental contrast of 
 the vehement love-making of Laurent 
 and Manuela with the timid, child- 
 like, yet fervent drawing together of 
 Laurent and Jeannie, is one of the 
 many weighty lessons of the book. It 
 might seem absurd t5 commend 'G : 
 Sand' as a moral teacher ; but we ven- 
 ure t6 say that no one can read this 
 book carefully and searchingly with- 
 out feeling conscious of a refining and 
 ennobling influence. It is unlike any 
 of the author's earlier novels with 
 
 which we ar familiar, being simple in 
 thot and style, and pei'vuded by a cer- 
 tain gentleness of spirit which Is very 
 pleasant." [ Boston "Literary 
 ^Yorld." 2180 
 
 MY STOEY [by K.. S. Mac- 
 qvoiv : Appleton, 1874:.} "is a novel 
 in autobiograflcal form, and is writ- 
 ten with quiet power. It is singularly 
 refined, and is one of the most delicate 
 and beautiful histories of the trans- 
 formation of woman's nature under 
 the influence of love which we ever 
 met. The plot is simple, and the ac- 
 tion is so circumscribed that many 
 novel-readers wil find no entertain- 
 ment in the book. But it is one of 
 those stories wh6se charms ar subtile, 
 not external and palpable . . . The 
 personages of the story ar strongly 
 individual and drawn with sharpness 
 and delicacy, the many french char- 
 acters being especially winning, and 
 the pictures of french country life, 
 tho very quiet, ar not less delightful. 
 The novel is a good, almost great, 
 one of its kind, and its tone is as pure 
 as the ripple of a brook." [ Boston 
 "Literary World." 2181 
 
 MY UNCLE BAEBASSON [by 
 Mario Uchakd : Vizetelly, 1888.] 
 "among the author's more or less 
 fantastical novels . . . has enjoyed ex- 
 ceptional popularity . . . Thoroly 
 french in the character of the adven- 
 tures it describes, but unlike much 
 modern french fiction, it aims at being 
 amusing rather than psychological." 
 [ Athenaeum. 2182 
 
 MY UNCLE BENJAMIN, by Tii.- 
 LIER, = No. 855. 
 
 MYSTERIES OF PARIS. [by 
 [ M . . Joseph ] "Eugene" Sue : N.- 
 Y., Winchester, 1843.] "A sovran 
 prince is the hero — his dauter, wh6m 
 ho bus disoned, the heroin ; and thy 
 
 674 
 
PRfiNCH NOVELS. 
 
 tale begins by his filing a man on the 
 street, and taking a fancy t6 his un- 
 Ijnon child. wh6 livs in one of the 
 loest dens in Paris ! The other 'dra- 
 matis persons' ar convicts, receivers 
 of stolen goods, murderers, intriguers 
 of all ranks — the aforesaid prince, 
 in the disguise sometimes of a work- 
 man, sometimes of a picpocket, act- 
 ing the part of a providence among 
 them, rewarding the good and punish- 
 ing the guilty. The english person- 
 ages ar the Countess M' Gregor — the 
 wife of the Prince — her brother Tom, 
 and Sir Walter Murph, Esquire. 
 These ar all jostled, and crowded, and 
 pushed, and flurried — first in flash 
 dens, where the language is slang; 
 then on farms, and then in halls and 
 palaces — and so intermixed and con- 
 fused that the cleai'est head gets 
 puzzled with the entanglements of the 
 story ; and confusion gets worse con- 
 founded as the farrago proceeds." 
 [Blackwood's.] — '"The morality of 
 'Les Mysteres' strikes us as worse, 
 because of the bier professions made 
 in it by the author, and recognized by 
 the throngs of his eager admirers. In 
 this tale as we hav said, we encounter 
 power in the cause of benevolence. 
 The passion of the Grand-Duke of 
 Gerolstein is t6 bring mischief t6 
 light, t6 succor misery, and t6 punish 
 evil ; he stalks throu all the moral filth 
 of Paris, redressing crime by crime, 
 detecting chicanery for artifice. — here, 
 putting out the eyes of one sinner, t6 
 giv him time and motiv for repent- 
 ance, — thire, awakening the vilest 
 passions of another, without satisfy- 
 ing them, that they may sting their 
 possessor; telling falsehood after 
 falsehood, employing trie after trie, 
 td recommend truth, and purity, and 
 disinterestedness — and t6 set right the 
 
 distortion in the relations between the 
 small and the great, the wearers of 
 rags and of cloth of gold." [Athe- 
 naeum.] — "We freely avow, that in 
 the whole range of fiction-writing, we 
 hav never met anything so thrilling 
 and powerful as 'The Mysteries of 
 Paris.! The works of Mr. Dickens, 
 while they d6 not surpass the "Mys- 
 teries" in bold and efFectiv delinea- 
 tion of character and freedom and 
 truthfulness of dialog, fall far belo 
 them in interest of plot and general 
 scope and purpos. There is some- 
 thing of that indeflnit vastness about 
 the design and execution of the "Mys- 
 teries" — that shifting and far-stretch- 
 ing horizon which seems as if just 
 subsiding from the infinity of chaos — 
 that speaks of sublimity, and startles 
 the soul with a class of sensations sel- 
 dom aroused by literary stimulants. 
 T6 enter intS anything like an analy- 
 sis of the plot of this wonderful book 
 would be totally impossible — as no- 
 thing short of copying the whole 
 would giv the reader an efficient idea 
 of the power, pathos and poetry here 
 strewn over the loest and most dis- 
 gusting details of lo life as wel as the 
 hypocritical and seductlv vices of the 
 nobility and the court. Some of our 
 readers may hav met random asser- 
 tions that the "Mysteries" contain 
 much that is improper and impure, in 
 th6t and expression. This is not so. 
 "We profess t6 despise and loathe the 
 licentiousness of the press as heartily 
 and wholly as anyone ; noi' could any 
 consideration tempt us t6 gloss over 
 a work which we th6t had an im- 
 proper tendency. Such, however, is 
 not the "Mysteries of Paris." True, 
 much which is evil, gross, disgusting, 
 horrible, is there described, and with 
 so vivid power and efTect, that it is as 
 
 675 
 
FKENCH NOVELS. 
 
 if ii broad glare of lightning had sud- 
 denly illuminated the dens of a vast 
 metropolis and laid bare their secrets. 
 There is no maudlin attempt, as in 
 Paul Clififord, t6 sugar over crime, 
 and sho only its fairer side. The pict- 
 ure is truth ; and all truth is whole- 
 some. The translator, Mr. Town, has 
 performed his difficult and thankless 
 duties with a neatness, a delicacy of 
 finish, a clearness of perception, and 
 an acuteness of comprehension, which 
 d6 him honor." [ Ladies' Companion. 
 1843. 
 , SAME (abridged), Harper. 
 
 1843. 2183 
 MYSTERIES OF THE HEATH- 
 ER, by F. SonLi:fi: N.-Y., Langleij, 
 
 1844. 2184 
 MYSTERIES OF THE PEOPLE. 
 
 by Sue. = No. 856. 
 
 NABOB (The), [by Alphonse 
 Daudet : -E'sfes, Smith, 1878.] "is a 
 picture of Parisian life in the garish 
 heyday of the Second Empire; and 
 the evident intention is t6 sho how 
 essentially tawdry, hollo, contempti- 
 ble, intellectually little and morally 
 base, that superflcially brilliant rfigirae 
 really was." [ Appleton's.]— "The 
 hero is a man from the south of 
 France, wh6 has risen from great pov- 
 erty t6 the possession of enormous 
 wealth by mysterious practices in 
 Tunis. Of course his main desire, 
 now that he has made a fortune, is t6 
 spend it in Paris . . . One of the most 
 prominent figures in the motley crowd 
 is the Duke de Mora. This worthy 
 nobleman is distinctly drawn, and so 
 ar some of the less aristocratic 
 characters; but the nabob himself 
 rises far above them all. The story 
 of his crude, boyish ambitions, of his 
 sincere delight in his success, of his 
 humility in defeat, of his affection for 
 
 those he loved, and of his kindliness 
 for every one, is good reading, altho 
 the narrativ is too profusely enriched 
 with all sorts of scandalous titbits 
 which forever tickle the reader's 
 appetite.'' [ Atlantic. ] — "An Irish 
 doctor is one of the leading person- 
 ages in the story. His celebrity in 
 Paris about 1860, his intimate friend- 
 ship with de Morny, the description 
 of his person, and even the decora- 
 tions which he wears, suggest Sir 
 Joseph OllifFe. Mr. Daudet wished 
 when he wrote the book that his read- 
 ers should say t6 5ne another, "Jen- 
 kins, you kno, is Ollift'e." Yet he 
 makes the Duke's fysician liv publicly 
 with a lady wh6 turns out not t6 hav 
 been his wife, and, not t6 speak of his 
 minor crimes, he makes him murder 
 his friend and patient, the duke. Sir 
 Joseph OUiflfe's wido and children ar 
 living. Portraits, far from flattering, 
 of Mr. Mocquard and of some wh6, 
 like Mr. Jules de Lesseps, ar alive, ar 
 also introduced." { Athenaeum. 2185 
 
 NANON, by G: Sand, = No. 859. 
 
 NATHALIE, [by Julia Kavan- 
 AGH : Colburn, 1859.] "A sentiment, 
 a tenderness, an old world, french 
 grace ar commanded by Miss Kavan- 
 agh which ar as individual as they 
 ar elegant. Nathalie is the long love- 
 story of a wayward heart, — the narra- 
 tiv of a contest perseveringly main- 
 tained between girlish wilfulness and 
 fascination and middle-aged reserv 
 and suspicion, — there being no lac of 
 bystanders t6 foment every miscon- 
 struction for their tortuous purposes, 
 yet the tale never languishes int6 sic- 
 liness— never becomes dragging and 
 wearisom. By the side of the petu- 
 lant, sprightly Nathalie the episodical 
 character of her pale and saintly sister 
 Rose, thus charmingly introduced. 
 
 676 
 
FRENCH NOVBLS. 
 
 acquires a double beauty. Most es- 
 pecially, too, after tier kind, d6 we 
 like Snt Kadegonde, the old canoness. 
 — But we should not soon come t6 an 
 end wer we 16 specify all the delicate 
 touches and attractiv pictures which 
 places Nathalie hi among books of its 
 class." [ Athenteum. 2186 
 
 NEAR TO HAPPINESS [Appleton, 
 1889.] "is a society novel. Like 
 nearly all french stories it is readable 
 and clever, but it is (Chiefly devoted to 
 describing the love affairs of married 
 women." [Boston "Lit. World." 2187 
 
 NEW LEASE OF LIFE (A) or 
 Saving a Daughter's Dowry, by E. 
 [Fr. v.] About: Vizetelly, 1S80. 2188 
 
 NINETTE [byC. Louise Haw- 
 kins Dempster: Appleton. 1888.] 
 "is an attractiv story of peasant life 
 in Provence. Possessing always a 
 strong originalitjr, the nature of the 
 french peasant is replete with the 
 germs of romance and song. "Nin- 
 ette" is a very simple story, merely 
 that of a bankrupt peasant-proprietor 
 wh6se pretty little dauter was pur- 
 sued by the roufi of the village, and 
 wh6se honor and happiness wer de- 
 fended by her young soldier lover. 
 But tho simple, the story has decided 
 personality, tdgether with a color and 
 freshness which ar quite distinctiv. 
 It has the delicate piquancy of french 
 landscape art, with its simplicity of 
 scenery and handling. Perhaps no 
 one knew the french peasant better 
 than 'George Sand.' .and we hav in 
 this book, tho in an inferior degree, 
 the same intimate knoledge of their 
 nature. The carnival earthquake of 
 1887 at Nice servs for the timely tak- 
 ing olf of those persons wh5 stood in 
 the way of little Ninette's happiness, 
 and typifies that retributiv justice 
 with which a happy fiction fortunate- 
 
 ly beguiles us." [Critic. 2189 
 
 NINETY-THREE, by Hugo, = 
 No. 867. 
 
 NO RELATIONS, by Malot, = 
 No. 868. 
 
 NOBLE SACRIFICE, by FjSval, 
 = No. 869. 
 
 NOSE OF A NOTARY, by About, 
 ^=- ECCENTEIC NOVELS. 
 
 NOTARY'S DAUTER [ "Un 
 Mariage en Provence") by LiSonie 
 ( ) Avhiim- : Bentley, 1878.] "The 
 pictures of french manners and habits 
 in the comparativly unconventional 
 life of "the provinces, both in 'The 
 Notary's Daughter,' and in 'The 
 House of Penarvan,' — ar lightly and 
 grafically presented." [AthenaBum.] 
 — "A match is arranged for motivs of 
 convenience, among which ceitain 
 political arrangements ar the most 
 important, between Rose, dauter of 
 the notarj^ of La Ciotat, and the sec- 
 ond son of Baron de Croixfonds. 
 The notary looks for aristocratic con- 
 nections and wealth ; the baron looks 
 for political influence. It happens 
 that the second son is one in wh6m 
 he had been grievously disappointed, 
 great hopes of intellectual ability 
 having ended in what seemed not far 
 from imbecility. The marriage, how- 
 ever, takes place ; but Rose betrays 
 her disgust at the husband wh6 has 
 been provided for her, and the tw6 
 seem alienated for life. How she 
 finds out her mistake ( for the young 
 man is a genius, not an imbe^il ),'and 
 how all things come right in the end, 
 is very gracefully told in these pages. 
 The characters of the story ar vivid 
 and picturesque, and the interest is 
 wel sustained." [ Spectator. 2190 
 
 NOTRE COEUR = COQUETTE'S 
 LOVE. 
 
 NOTRE DAME = No. S71. 
 
 677 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 NUMA ROUMESTAX. [ by Al- 
 PHOKSE Daudet: (Paris, 1881.), 
 Vizetelly, 1884 ; Chicago, Band. 1890. 
 (337 pp.) ] "Daudet here tels us how 
 the handsome young Provengal goes 
 t6 Paris at the age of 24 ; frequents 
 a cafe in the Latin Quarter, the f avo- 
 rit haunt of a crowd of boisterous 
 countrymen, among wh6m, because of 
 his strong lungs, originality, and love 
 for music, he is at once installed as a 
 favorit; goes tw5 or three times a 
 'weeli t6 the opera or the play, and by 
 successful lying, for which he has a 
 positiv genius, gets a reputation as an 
 artist ; is installed as fourth secretary 
 of a celebrated advocate throu a pre- 
 tended enthusiasm for Mozart; by 
 audacity wins a beautiful wife with a 
 fortune ; and. t6 complete the story, is 
 at 30, Minister of Fine Arts. This 
 career Mr. Daudet depicts with al- 
 most cruel fidelity, and the public has 
 not been slo t6 recognize the portrait. 
 It is probable, however, that not one 
 person, but many, hav supplied the 
 details of a picture wh5se outlines wer 
 unmistaliably drawn from the life of 
 the great Opportunist — Gambetta. 
 There is an undercurrent of domestic 
 sorro running throu the §tory, a tale 
 of a beautiful and trustful wife, wh6 
 finally learns of her husband's un- 
 faithfulness but is tied t6 him by the 
 convenances."' [ Boston '-Literarj- 
 World."] — "Mr. Henry James and 
 Mr. Zola ar at one in giving the first 
 place in Mr. Alphonse Daudet's re- 
 markable series of fictions t6 'Xuraa 
 Eoumestan,' of which we here hav a 
 translation which, altho free and flo- 
 ing, is nearly everything which could 
 be desired. Mr. James says: — '-Dau- 
 defs other works hav their inequali- 
 ties, their anomalies, certain places 
 where, if you tapped them, they 
 
 would sound hollo. The beauty of 
 'Numa Koumestan" is that it has no 
 hollo places ; the logic and the image 
 melt everywhere int6 one."' ... It is 
 its bright realism, — bright even in its 
 satire, — and its equality of style 
 which constitute the charm of 'Numa 
 Roumestan' and mark it as Jlr. Dau- 
 det's masterpiece, regarded merely as 
 a work of art. It is full of its au- 
 thor's Provence, of the mistral, of 
 the farandole, of "the song and sun- 
 burnt mirth," which come, however, 
 from the soil and the climate, rather 
 than from the heart or the conscience, 
 and which, while they express ''joy 
 abroad," also conceal '■grief at home." 
 M. Daudet's light-hearted Provencals 
 wh6, under a blazing sun. jostle and 
 laf, and chatter in the arafitheatre, 
 and bepraise the Bourbon nose and 
 imposing appearance of their hero, 
 the Legitimist Deputy Numa Eou- 
 mestan, ar quite as true t6 life as the 
 Sicilian peasants of Theokritos, and 
 very nearly as entertaining. In fact, 
 Mr. Daudet's great triumf consists In 
 making his readers not only pity and 
 forgiv, but almost love Numa, wh6 is 
 weak, shallo, vainglorious, self-indul- 
 gent, all things t6 all men, and re- 
 strained only by cowardice from 
 being all things t6 all women, not be- 
 cause he is a worthy man at bottom, 
 but because he is a typical Provencal, 
 and has in him, therefore, not even 
 the germs of those virtues of which 
 self-control is the first. One is almost 
 tempted t6 be wroth with his wife 
 Rosalie, — cold, proud, a true child of 
 the North, — for not more readily for- 
 giving him his weak mendacities, his 
 weaker '-liaisons" ; for being in ducedtfi 
 return t6 him only when her mother 
 tels her that "men ar deceivers ever," 
 and pr6ves what she says b^- telling of 
 
 678 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 the weakness of her on father, wh6m 
 she has hithertd regarded as immacu- 
 late. Is she not a bit of a prig as wel 
 as of a prude? . . . Even his political 
 fibre is of the poorest ; altho the en- 
 thusiastic champion of Legitimism, he 
 is saved from taking office under the 
 Empire only by the superior and re- 
 straining moral sense of his wife. 
 But simply because he is amiable, im- 
 pulsiv, tender, because, in his super- 
 ficial fashion, he loves Rosalie better 
 than any other woman, one is sorely 
 pressed t6 pardon him, or, at least, t5 
 blame Provence, and not him, for his 
 weaknesses." [ Spectator. 2191 
 
 ODD NUMBER (THE) . [ by Guy 
 DB Maupassant: Harper, 1889.] 
 "The first of these tales is a picture of 
 rural life which has its parallel in the 
 paintings of Francois Millet. The at- 
 mosfere of the norman village, the 
 simple and careful manners of the 
 peasants, the grim fate which can 
 depend from so slight a thing as a 
 chance piece of twine saved from the 
 mud of the road, all ar rendered with 
 depth and suggestivness of sentiment, 
 and with absolute command of 
 effects." [Boston "Lit. World." 2192 
 
 OLD HOUSE IN PICARDY = 
 Diane Coryal. 
 
 ON THE EDGE OF THE STORM 
 = No. 880. 
 
 ON THE SCENT = No. 512. 
 
 ONCE AND AGAIN [ by Henri- 
 etta Camilla (Jackson) Jenkin: 
 Smith, 1865.] is "a fitting title, for 
 it is one of those few novels, which, 
 when once read, ar worthy of being 
 taken up again. Its story is interest- 
 ing, tho it deals with few startling 
 incidents ; it is touching and pathetic, 
 and yet it does not leave a dismal im- 
 pression ; it teaches a useful lesson, 
 but it is thoroly free fronj anything 
 
 like sermonizing. We can cordially 
 recommend it as a book which we hav 
 read with great pleasure, and which 
 we believe wil meet with general ap- 
 probation. The heroin is a very at- 
 tractiv being, and her character is 
 admirably sustained throuout the 
 record of her childhood and girlhood, 
 and the earlier years of her married 
 life. There Is a great charm in the 
 picture of her home in Paris; the 
 house int6 which she, as a child, 
 brings happiness by her presence, and 
 in which everyone adores her, from 
 the marquis on the first floor t6 the 
 family of the dissolute professor in 
 the attic. Equally pleasant is the ac- 
 count of the Swiss paradise, in which, 
 as a girl of 15, she inspires a passion- 
 ate and il-omened love in the breast of 
 her former playf ello in Paris." [ Lon- 
 don Review. 2193 
 
 ONE OF THE FORTY = TSE 
 IMMOBTAL. 
 
 ONESTA, by Octave Fedillet, 
 N.-Y., E. D. Long & Co., 1860. 2194 
 
 ONLY A GIRL: A Tale of Brit- 
 tany, [ London, Wells, 1883.] "is a 
 pathetic story of the Breton maiden, 
 Frangoise Dano. We find her an or- 
 f an in the first chapter, and leave her 
 in the last solitary, with her hopes of 
 happiness disappointed, yet not un- 
 happy, because her hefirt is wholly 
 given t6 caring for others." [ Specta- 
 tor. 2195 
 
 ONLY SISTER (AN), by Pauline 
 (Guizot) de Witt : Xow, 1872. 2196 
 
 OPERA-BOX (The), or Judith, by 
 Eugene Scribe, in The Emerald, 
 Boston, 1869. 2197 
 
 OUT OF THE WORLD, by M.. 
 (H.) Bigot, = No. 886. 
 
 OUTBREAK OF THE REVOLU- 
 TION, by Erckmann-Chatrian, => 
 No. 887. 
 
 679 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 PAPA, MAMMA, & BABY. 
 
 [ "Monsieur, Madame, B6b6,") by 
 [Antoine] Gustave Droz: Viz- 
 etelly, 1887.] "Nothing could be more 
 realistic than this idyl of parentage 
 and domesticity — a little too realistic 
 perhaps at points for american taste, 
 but stil always decent and tender, 
 albeit it admits the reader t6 scenes 
 from which all strangers but the doc- 
 tor ar generally excluded [compare 
 No. 1889.] and takes him int6 almost 
 the inmost confidences of husband 
 and wife, father and mother. But 
 everything is as delicate and fine as 
 the baby's wardrobe, and there ar 
 uses in seeing how they manage these 
 things in France." [ Boston "Lit. 
 World." 2198 
 
 . SAME, "Bertha's Baby," Pet- 
 erson, 1881. 
 
 PARISIAN FAMILY (A), [by 
 Henriette (Guizot) de Witt : Low, 
 1871.] "Mdlle. Louise becomes, by 
 the death of her mother, mistress of 
 her father's house, and in the receipt 
 of 1.500 francs a year for the dress of 
 herself and her tw6 sisters; she is 
 only 16, and thinks it delltful t6 
 order dinner, and be the mistress, and 
 above all, t6 buy her dresses. All 
 her follies and sorros and errors ar 
 very pleasantly told ; and, of course, 
 everybody, if not perfect, is at least 
 in the way of being so, before the 
 story ends. The work is beautifully 
 translated." [Athenaeum. 2199 
 
 , SAME ("Motherless"), Har- 
 per, 1871 ; Munro, 1879. 
 
 PARISIANS (The), = No. 889. 
 
 PARTNERS = FBOMONT. 
 
 PASSAGES FROM THE LIFE OF 
 A HAPPY MAN, by K : Spindler 
 ( t, 1855 ) in Southern Lit. Messenger, 
 Dec. 1841. 2200 
 
 PASSION IN THE DESERT (A). 
 
 by Balzac, in The Duchess [No. 
 2020.] 2201 
 
 PAST FORGIVENESS [by Mar- 
 garet E.. (Lindsay) Majendie: 
 Bentley, 1889.] "has the author's old 
 faculty of making french people real 
 t6 us; indeed Madame Brise, Mile. 
 Manchon, and the notary's wife in 
 their first conversation would be enuf 
 t6 stamp the book in this respect. 
 But besides the vividness of the dia- 
 log there is so much power and pathos 
 in the central situation (the passion- 
 ate lover turned priest, and after- 
 wards discovering that the wife he 
 morns is living and loving him as old) 
 as t6 raise this portion of the story t6 
 a hi moral level. The idea is one 
 which forms a feature in one of 
 Charles Reade's novels, but the treat- 
 ment of it here is diflerent." [Athe- 
 naeum. 2202 
 
 PASTELS OF MEN [by Paul 
 BOURGET : iJeftens, 1892.] "first and 
 second series, containing in the first 
 the three titles A Saint, Monsieur Leg- 
 rimaudet, and Two Little Boys. The 
 skil of line, the touch of delicacy, the 
 simplicity and yet subtlety of motiv, 
 make these portraits not only charm- 
 ing in themselvs, but admirable 
 studies in literature. If one could but 
 learn this deft art !" [ Atlantic. 2203 
 
 PASTORALS OF FRANCE, [by 
 F: Wedmore: Bentley, 1877.] "In 
 their tenderness, their simplicity, 
 their truthfulness t6 the slo and re- 
 mote life which they picture, in the 
 quaint accuracy of their slight touches, 
 in the atmosfere of them, these 'Pas- 
 torals' ar almost perfect ... . '■The 
 Four Bells of Chartres'' is a very hily 
 finished study, so done as t6 preserv 
 an appearance of simplicity . . . M 
 Last Love at Formic^ includes some 
 admirable touches of french charac- 
 
 680 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 ter, as true as they ar carefully slight. 
 . . . Here is the slightest thread, upon 
 which it would be impossible t6 hang 
 a story; — Mr. Wedmore has hung a 
 string of pearls upon it . . . ' Yvonne 
 of Croisic' is a beautiful little story, 
 as sad as the 'lonely country, leading 
 nowhithci-,' wherein Yvonne dwelt; 
 the country t6 which inland France is 
 'abroad,' and Piriac, 'beyond the far- 
 thest point, five hours' sail,' so far 
 that the dwellers there ar foreiners, 
 and a girl of Croisic may not marry a 
 man of Piriac, because she cannot 
 leave her on people and her father's 
 house. Mr. Wedmore draws a 
 strangely beautiful picture of the 
 place and the people, the lonely coun- 
 try which made lonely lives for those 
 wh5 dwelt in it ... 'Pastorals of 
 France' is a book t6 be read with 
 great, and t6 be re-read with increased, 
 pleasure." [ Spectator. 2204 
 
 PAVILIONS OP THE LAKE 
 (The), by Thi^ophile Gautier, in 
 Aldine, Jan., 1872. 2205 
 
 PEASANT PROMETHEUS (A) = 
 A BBETON JOINEB. 
 
 PilEE GOEIOT [by HonokiS "de" 
 Balzac: (t, 1850) Roberts, 1885; 
 Munro, 1886 ; Band, 1886, Boutledge, 
 1887.] ''is a good name for a fine 
 book ; yet I am not sui'e that 'La Mai- 
 son Vauquer' would not fit the book 
 even better. True, the tragedy is the 
 tragedy of a father sacrificed t6 his 
 dauter's lust and avarige. But the 
 'pension' is the scene and very symbol 
 of his martyrdom, and the house, like 
 the book, has dark secrets not directly 
 connected with Goriot's story. In his 
 treatment of the Maison Vauquer, 
 Balzac reaches romanticism throu 
 realistic methods. This one sinister 
 house stands out from the houses 
 about it with a lurid light upon it. 
 
 Picked out in this light, the mean 
 lodging-house reveals itself as a cen- 
 tre and heart of suffering, scheming, 
 struggling, criminal Paris. T6 make 
 the work of the builder's hands color 
 and overshado the lives of men, t6 giv 
 it a fysiognomy and a soul which 
 haunt the imagination as of a thing 
 alive and purposful,^ — this is a note of 
 romanticism. It is a function of ro- 
 mance t6 read its appropriate legend 
 int6 a tower, a ruin, a stream, a glen, 
 — the legend which expresses and 
 completes it by seizing and making 
 permanent its lurking and evanescent 
 suggestivness." [Macmillan's.] — 
 
 "What no one wil de'ny t& Balzac is 
 grafio, realistic, all-enforcing use of 
 language. This is his, absolutely. 
 Perhaps he descends at times t6 de- 
 tails too trivial, but his picture is vig- 
 orous beyond reasonable criticism. 
 In this novel the description of the 
 old, decayed, greasy pension, satu- 
 rated with sordid circumstances, reek- 
 ing with all that is ignoble and un- 
 pleasing, is only too complete. But 
 so, indeed, is the work throuoiit. 
 Miserable old Goriot, his shameful 
 progeny, all the despicable group of 
 figures which cluster around them, — 
 this is a chapter out of Dante, a new 
 fase of Inferno. It requires, indeed, 
 not only a rare form of ingenuity, but 
 a mental nature which we must hope 
 is rare likewise, t6 conceive so evil a 
 company. In all the chronicle, no 
 hope appears. Old Goriot, it may 
 hav been intended, should light the 
 horrid blacness of the scene, but while 
 pity pours its tears upon his wretched 
 clay, what more could be than that? 
 His dotage is greater than his self- 
 sacrifice ; his betrayal of his dauters 
 thrusts aside his affection for them. 
 If the author imagined himself t6 be 
 
 681 
 
FKENCH NOVELS. 
 
 drawing a portrait of an old man 
 which should extort sympathy, his 
 mental attitude is all the more curi- 
 ous." [ American. 2206 
 
 , SAME ("Father Goriot"), N.- 
 
 Y., Winchester, 1845. 
 
 , SAME ("Daddy Goriot"), 
 
 London, 1860. 
 
 , SAME ("Unrequited Affec- 
 tion"), Ward it- Lock, 1875. 
 
 PETEE-S SOUL, [by Geokge 
 Ohnet: Chicago, iaiVd, 1891.], "T6 
 see a good fundamental idea inade- 
 quately treated is as irritating as .to 
 behold a valuable fabric fashioned by 
 a clumsy tailor. Ohnet has never 
 been a favorit of ours, despite the '20 
 or 30 mille' which so glibly adorn the 
 covers of his numerous works ; but on 
 taking stoc of his latest novel, we 
 wer forced t6 acknoledge that the 
 author had for once contrived t6 
 stumble upon a really original motiv, 
 which, treated by a Cherbuliez, Feuil- 
 let, or Bourget, would assuredly hav 
 resulted in a powerful and thotful 
 study . . . When the doctor returns 
 t6 France nearly a year after Pierre's 
 supposed suicide, he finds Juliette 
 apparently dying, and Jacques utterly 
 degraded by his infatuation for Cle- 
 mence Villa. Judging it t6 be hi 
 time t6 interfere and put an end t6 
 this metempsychological farce, he 
 recalls Pierre by telegram, and unites 
 him t6 Juliette, wh6 Instantly re- 
 covers her health and spirits. On 
 Jacques, however, the re-apparition 
 of his friend has a directly opposit 
 effect, and having now discovered that 
 he has only his original soul t6 count 
 upon, he promptly falls int6 a decline 
 and dies. Such is the substance of 
 this fantastical story, which, if right- 
 ly treated, might hav afforded scope 
 for so much delicate play of charac- 
 
 ter, but which in Ohnet's hands never 
 rises above the commonplace. He 
 fails t6 interest us in any of his num- 
 erous characters, and fully half the 
 book is taken up with descriptions of 
 masked balls, 'petits soupers', and all 
 the usual paraf ernalia of 'demi-moude' 
 life, which seems to present so ir- 
 resistible and incomprehensible attrac- 
 tions t6 a large propoition of french 
 readers." [ Blackwood's. 2207 
 
 , SAME, Chicago, Sergei, 1890. 
 
 , SAME ("The Soul of Pierre"), 
 
 Cassell, 1891. 
 
 , SAME ("What Pierre did with 
 
 his Soul") N.-Y., Be.lford, 1890. 
 
 ,SAME ("A Weird Gift"), 
 
 Chatto, 1890; [Munro, 1891.] 
 
 PETTY ANNOY" ANCES OF MAE- 
 EIED LIFE (The), [by Honor]5 
 "de" Balzac, N.-Y., Eudd, I860.] 
 "When a man comes int6 the world 
 endowed with vigorous perception, a 
 retentiv memory, and that species of 
 imagination which is only a pot- 
 pourri of memories, made grotesque 
 and fantastic by their incongruous 
 intermixture, it is a matter of the 
 merest accident what he wil write; or 
 whether he wil write on paper, or on 
 canvas . . . When a powerfully en- 
 dowed man, such as Balzac certainly 
 was with all his limitations, does 
 chance t5 spend a lifetime in writing 
 fiction, and moreover, without the 
 accident of any immediate popularity 
 of one volume or another t6 determine 
 the particular form or quality of his 
 work, so that he continues t6 pour 
 out a flood of all manner of fiction — 
 good, bad, and indifferent, clean and 
 unclean, romantic and realistic, it is 
 like characterizing the surface of the 
 globe t6 characterii. ; his productions. 
 His mind was a great mirror — not 
 without its cracs and blurs— and it' 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 imaged the whole fantasmagoria of 
 superficially seen objects and events." 
 [ Overland. 2208 
 
 PHILOMENE'S MAEEIAGBS. 
 [ by "Henki GeiSville," i. e., Alice 
 M.. (Fleury) Durand: Peterson. 
 1879.] "Philomene is a country- 
 woman of the middle class, honest 
 and reputable, but a trifle vulgar; 
 and the story of her "marriages" is 
 the story of her anxious but lucless 
 schemes t6 secure a husband. The 
 scene is a village which Hamerton 
 would love, and the atmosfere is as 
 f I'esh and pure as that of a June morn- 
 ing. The comedy — for it is without a 
 hint of tragedy — is quiet and unex- 
 citing, but amusing throuout, and at 
 points very lafable." [Boston "Lit. 
 World." 2209 
 
 PHILOSOPHEE'S STONE (The), 
 by Balzac : IST.-Y., Winchester, 1843, 
 = 'The Alchemist' (No. 583.) 
 _ PHYSICIAN'S SECRET (The), by 
 E. Souvestre: in Ladies'' Bepository, 
 mar., 1863. 2210 
 
 PICTURES ACROSS THE CHAN- 
 NEL. [ by K .. S. Macquoid : JBent- 
 ley, 1873.] "We rise from the perusal 
 of these tales with a dreamy feeling 
 of not alt6gether unregretful surprise 
 t6 find ourselvs in England . . . Our 
 authoress vues of human nature ar 
 somewhat cynical, but find amusing 
 expression in Captain Gragnac's opin- 
 ions. Nevertheless, she is fully alive 
 t6 its beauty, tho she may deem it 
 fitful, and has given us many sketches 
 here of its more lovely characteristics. 
 In the wife and s5n of The Fisherman 
 of Auge, [No. 2032] and in others, 
 we hav pictures of unselfish love and 
 religious resignation; and, above all, 
 she has described with a most beauti- 
 ful tenderness and insight the loneli- 
 ness of a warm-hearted, imaginativ 
 
 child, always misunderstood, checked, 
 and punished by a conscientious, but 
 cold and shallo-natured mother." 
 [ Spectator. 2211 
 
 PIERRE AND JEAN [byGCYDE 
 Maupassant: Chicago, Laird, 1890, 
 336 p.] "is tragic and full of sombre 
 passion, scarcely relieved by any 
 slighter margin of incident, altho 
 there is neither murder nor violence 
 in it any more than light-heSrtedness 
 of any kind. The book is one of those 
 complete and careful studies of life in 
 which certainly the hier masters of 
 the f rench school ar singularly suc- 
 cessful, when they leave their one 
 favorit subject behind and address 
 themselvs t6 the consideration of those 
 mute tragedies which may be carried 
 on sometimes within the closest en- 
 closure of a family circle. The story 
 in this book is of the slightest. We 
 open tipon the apparent tranquility of 
 a 'bourgeois' family of the most moder- 
 ate means and pretensions . . . There 
 ar tw6 sons : trained, the one as a 
 fysician, but without practice, the 
 other as an 'avocat' in the same con- 
 dition, both at home and depending 
 on their parents . . . All the good 
 things ar for Jean. The pretty wido 
 prefers him ; he is the happiest in 
 temper and life, and the trust of his 
 parents ; and now this inheritance t6 
 crown everything . . . We cannot 
 folio the tragical succession of th6ts, 
 of questions, the piecing tfigether of 
 small incidents and stray recollec- 
 tions, and a hundred things half for- 
 gotten, which lead the unhappy 
 young man from one step t6 another 
 t6 the dreadful conclusion that Jean 
 is not his father's son, but the son of 
 a man wh6 has left him this fortune. 
 Pierre has adored his mother with the 
 traditional fervor of a f rench son, and 
 
 6S3 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 the honor of lindiiig out shame and 
 sin in tlie life of the gentle and tender 
 woman vvh6 has made all the happi- 
 ness of home for him makes him 
 wretched, but does not make him re- 
 linquish the terrible, keenly pursued, 
 inquiry int6 all the evidences of her 
 guilt. The struggle of his thots 
 against this all-invading, all-absorb- 
 ing passion ; the mingling of the piti- 
 ful jealousy for which he despises 
 himself with this devouring horror; 
 the tragic certainty which he acquires 
 that she devines his suspicions, and 
 awaits, helpless, the moment of dis- 
 covery, with an anguish which he 
 shares — ar all set before us with the 
 finest skil and power. There ar few 
 sensational scenes — the ordinary in- 
 cidents of life ar enuf t6 create and 
 hiten the effect of the silent struggle 
 in which the woman can d6 nothing, 
 paralyzed by her guilt and humilia- 
 tion, and the man seems under the 
 dominion of some sombre demon, and 
 cannot arrest himself in the awful in- 
 vestigation into which he has been 
 swept. Nothing can be more painful 
 than the secret, infallible progress 
 from one certainty t6 another of the 
 avenger, nor more terrible than the 
 position of the mother, conscious al- 
 most from the first of the process go- 
 ing on against her . . . All this tre- 
 mendous theme is wrot out upon the 
 narro peaceable bacground of the 
 matter-of-fact 'bourgeois' life with a 
 realitj' and truth which givs it double 
 force." [Blackwood's. 2212 
 
 , SAME ("The Two Brothers"), 
 
 Lovell Co.. 1890, 333 p. 
 
 PIGEON PRIZE (The), or Varia- 
 tions of a Paradox, by Alex. Ddmas 
 [ Second ] in Southern Lit. Messenger, 
 Dec. 1860. 2213 
 
 PLEASURES OF OLD AGE (The) 
 
 by E. SOUVESTRE : London,1868. 2214 
 
 POET AND THE PEASANT 
 (The), by E. Sodvestee, in Southern 
 Lit. Messenger, Sept., 1854; also in 
 Cottage Hearth. March, 1881. 2215 
 
 PONT-DES-ARTS (BEGGAR 
 
 GIRL OF THE), by W: Hauff: in 
 The N.-T. Mirror. 31 Oct. to 5 Dec, 
 1840 ; also in The Mirror Library, No. 
 15.. 1844; also in The Century, 10 Sept. 
 to 29 Oct., 1859; also in The Sapphire, 
 Boston, 1869, 57 pp. 
 
 , SAME ("True Lovers' For- 
 tune'"), Boston, Munro. 1843, 91 p., 8°- 
 
 , SAME ("Josephine"), Lon- 
 don, Clarke, 1844. 2216 
 
 POOR RELATIONS, by Balzac, 
 = COUSIN PONS. 
 
 POPULAR TALES, by E .. C. P.. 
 (de Meulan) Guizot: Boston, 
 Crosby, 1859. 2217 
 
 PORT SALVATION, by Daddet, 
 = MVANOELIST. 
 
 PRANKSOME PAIR (A)i [UN 
 
 PETIT MKNAGE ) by • Ginistt : 
 
 Belford, 1890.] "recounts the fooler- 
 ies of a young couple, not satisfied 
 with a humdrum married life and de- 
 termined on varying it by raake- 
 believ quarrels, adventures and recon- 
 ciliations. They at last venture on a 
 moc divorce which the wife decides 
 t6 make real, at least for a season. 
 The translator's 'preface' suggests the 
 presence of improprieties of a sort not 
 t6 be found in the book." [Critic. 2218 
 
 PRINCESS AMELIE (The) = No. 
 903. 
 
 PROSPER RANDOCE [by V: 
 Cheebdliez : Holt, 1874.] "tels the 
 stor}^ of a modern poet, an artificial 
 nature, forever posing, more theatri- 
 cal than most actors on the stage, 
 extravagant in manner, assuming 
 great warmth, but with a heart of 
 stone. The other hero, Didier, is the 
 
 684 
 
FKKNCII NOVELS. 
 
 PRn^ATE LIFE OF AN EMINENT 
 POLITICIAN (The) [ by E : ROD : Lon- 
 don, AXlen, 1893.] "is the story of amiddle- 
 aged statesman, prosperous and respected, 
 beloved by his wife and children, the lead- 
 er ti a large minority in the Chamber. 
 He poses a moral regenerator, his trump 
 card being the revival of social purity and 
 the abolition of divorse, and his influenfe 
 is largely founded on the supposed fact that 
 he is a good husband, and so forth: 'in- 
 stead of which' he falls violently in love 
 with an unmarried girl who is a kind of 
 ward of his. Teissier's love is not the 
 passing faiigy of an impressionable sensua- 
 list : but it is a complete absorption, and so 
 is the girl's for him. Both ar moral and 
 would be Platonic ; but his wife discovers 
 all, and pre9ipitates matters. ThCre is a 
 scene between her and Teissier, which is 
 curiously modern: 'Wear friends,' he says, 
 'partners if you wil, who ar threatened by 
 a common danger. We must combine to 
 resist it.' Beautifully reasonable, and so 
 entirely ignorant of women's ways is Teis- 
 sier. He stils feels affection for his wife, 
 and the changing of that into hatred as 
 
 she opposes his desire is skillfully describ- 
 ed. Ultimately, after a, futil attempt to 
 save appearances, Teissier is divor9ed, re- 
 signs his seat in the Chamber (very ab- 
 surdly), and marries the girl. But the 
 divorce and the publifity and the com- 
 ments of the newspapers hav vulgarised 
 their love, and you ar left with the inti- 
 mation that they wil probably be wretched. 
 The questions of the relation of private 
 morality to public position and of the 
 working of divorce in France ar, however 
 interesting, merely questions of transient 
 convention. ThSre ar deeper questions of 
 sex and physical history which, intention- 
 ally or not, the book wil raise in many 
 readers and leave unanswered. But it is 
 cleverly done, and, of course, is suggestiv 
 reading. By far the best thing in it is the 
 character of Mrs. Teissier ; she seems ab- 
 solutely true. Teissier himself is possible, 
 but dubious, and the girl is unconvin9ing. 
 An old school friend is as tedious as the 
 most of his tribe. The English is rather 
 ponderous but fairly good." [National 
 Observer. 2218 m 
 
 684 s 
 
FRKNCII NO\ELS. 
 
 veiy opposit ; lie is kind, amiable, a 
 skeptic t(5 the heart's core, and boi-n 
 to be the victim of delusions, altho 
 confident of his ability t6 see thiou 
 them. The contrast between these 
 tw6 is strikingly given, with no more 
 caricature than is needful t6 make 
 them life-like. The 'verve' with which 
 the story is told makes it 'one of the 
 most entertaining of modern novels. 
 Every page bears witness t6 the qual- 
 ities a novelist most needs, exhibited 
 in wise profusion. The characters ar 
 most vivid ; Prosper is wel enuf drawn 
 t6 stand as the representativ not only 
 of the school of writers Cherbuliez 
 had in his mind, but of that larger 
 class of human beings whdse charac- 
 tei'istics ar the dramatic fire which 
 imitates enthusiasm, and real, deep- 
 seated coldness." [ Atlantic. 2219 
 
 PROVENCE KOSE (A),by Ouida, 
 = No. 907. 
 
 PSYCHE OF TO-DAY (A) [by 
 Henrietta Camilla (Jacksojj) Jen- 
 kin: Leypoldt. 1868.] "is Eegina 
 Nolopoeus, [ compare real names and 
 Incidents of A Sister^s Story by Mrs. 
 Craven J the dauter of a musical and 
 constitutionally impecunious Hunga- 
 rian and a noble French girl with 
 wh6m he eloped. Eegina. orfaned 
 and disoned by her maternal relativs, 
 is introduced td the reader at the age 
 of ten, a shy but dignified young per-- 
 son, wh6 keeps her sorros t6 herself, 
 and announces that she can cook, 
 speaks Latin, and never tels lies. She 
 is adopted and reared by a Parisian 
 lady Avh6 knew her mother. Madame 
 Saincere is one of those women wh6m 
 Mrs. Jenkin loves t6 paint, and she 
 does it so wel that we ar always glad 
 t6 see her. An old lady, full of the 
 best kind of worldly wisdom, warm- 
 hearted and sensible, Madame Sain- 
 
 cere differs from her predecessors 
 in being childless, and therefore with 
 less experience of the ways of young 
 liearts. She is a patroness of letters 
 and art. With her dwels her nefew, 
 wh6 is a painter and a genius. La- 
 tour's aristocratic mother in the pro- 
 vincial town of Juvigny had destined 
 him for a government office, and 
 would hav chosen him a proper wife, 
 but he shocked her by refusing both, 
 yielding t6 her influence only so far 
 as t6 break his engagement with a 
 young lady wh6m he loved and of 
 wh6m she disappr6ved. This young 
 lady soon becomes Madame Autry, 
 without, however, 16sing her affection 
 for Latour . . . There is nothing in the 
 whole book so delightful t6 our mind 
 as the description of the society in 
 this old town. It consists of a few 
 Legitimist families and the respect- 
 able and wel-t(5-d6 people with wh6m 
 they condescend t6 mix ; the former 
 poor, despising trade. — their manners 
 and thots of the past, hopeless, en- 
 nuyed, yet indefinably elegant and 
 attractiv, the latter, more modern in 
 their ideas, upright, narro, provin- 
 cial." [ Nation. 2220 
 
 PUNCHINELLO, by Octave 
 Feuillet: Appleton, 1858. 2221 
 
 ■ , SAME (in "Picture Story- 
 books"), Appleton, 1852. 
 
 PUPIL OP THE LEGION OF 
 HONOR, (THE) [ by Louis Enault : 
 Phil'a, Porter, 1871.] "is the story of 
 a young girl. wh6 was left an orfan 
 and destitute, and wh6, passing throu 
 many and grievous trials, emerged 
 into the valley of wedded happiness 
 and general good fortune. Her ex- 
 periences ar interesting, and she is an 
 admirable and fascinating character. 
 The book glvs striking pictures of hi 
 society." [Boston "Lit. World." 2222 
 
 685 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 , SAME ("Woman of Honor"'), 
 
 Peterson^ 1875. 
 
 PUESE (THE), by Balzac, in 
 The Cat and Battledore ; also in Come- 
 die Surname ; also in Fame and Sor- 
 row • also in The Vendetta. 2223 
 
 QTJEEN OF THE WOODS, by 
 A. Theukiet, = A WOODLAND 
 
 QUEEN. 
 
 EANZAUS (The) [ "Les Deux 
 Frei-es").N.-Y.. Touses/, 1886. 2224 
 
 RAPHAEL, by Lamaetine, = No. 
 911. 
 
 KAYMONDE. [ by Andei^ Theu- 
 eiet: Appleton, 1879.] '-With the 
 simplest of plots and the tamest of 
 incidents, the writer has made a very 
 pretty story. One is pleased and in- 
 terested, never in any way thrilled, 
 even at the climax of one scene where 
 the heroine, Eaymonde, a girl of 18, 
 is slapped by her mother, which 
 brings intS her eyes 'an expression 
 fearful t6 behold.' The power of 
 f rench parents over their children is 
 the hinge on which the story turns, 
 and the only situation at all dramatic 
 is that in which it is made use of t6 
 defeat the effort of Kaymonde's moth- 
 er t6 marry her t6 a man she does not 
 love, and enable her t6 folio her in- 
 clinations. But it is the people in the 
 story wh6 ar interesting, not what 
 they d6 or say. Mr. Noll is a woman- 
 hater; Eaymonde's mother simply a 
 bad, selfish woman; her father, a 
 nonentity; the rejected suitor, a 
 good-natured lout. We make an ex- 
 ception as t6 Raymonde herself, wh6 
 is thoroly and vividly drawn — grace- 
 fully and delicately as wel." [Penn 
 Monthly. 2225 
 
 BED CROSS (The) = No. 916. 
 
 RED INN (The), by Balzac, in 
 AFTEB DINNER STORIES. Z2,^Q 
 
 REXEE & FRANZ =LEBLEU- 
 
 ET. 
 
 RESIGNATION, by Akbodville, 
 in THREE TALES, also in Living 
 ^^e, 13 Oct., 1849. 2227 
 
 REVERBERATOR (THE) [Par- 
 is] = No. 522. 
 
 RITA [ by Hamilton AidiS : Lon- 
 don, Mayhew. I860.] "is the story of 
 an english girl born in Paris, the 
 dauter of a scamp of an officer, a man 
 wh6se principles ar as lo as his social 
 position is hi, and wli5 is obliged t6 
 seek refuge, not only against the duns 
 and bailiffs, but against the frowns 
 and the contempt of the better part of 
 the society int6 which he was born. 
 Int6 the less scrutinising circles of 
 the french capital he is freely receivd ; 
 and also int6 that english set made up 
 of men and women in a gieater or less 
 degree like himself. In this society 
 Rita makes her acquaintance of the 
 world ; and, her mother being an in- 
 valid, she is bi'6t out under the chape- 
 ronage of a lady in wh6se finely delin- 
 eated character it is impossible not 
 t6 recognise the chief mental, 
 moral, and fysical traits of the cele- 
 brated Countess of Blessington. 
 "Rita" is thoroly good, kind-hearted, 
 simple, and pure-minded, as wel as 
 beautiful ; and the motley crowd int6 
 which she is thron, young and inex- 
 perienced as she is, soon disgusts her. 
 All, however, is not distasteful ; for 
 now-a-days, as of old, there is always 
 "a certain man" making his appear- 
 ance, wh6 prevents the world from 
 seeming a mere blank. Rita is not 
 only good and a beauty, but she has a 
 great talent for painting, which 
 amounts almost t6 genius ; and this 
 she uses t6 relieve her father of the 
 disgrace and the burden of some of 
 his debts. After selling a sketch or 
 tw6 at a paint shop, and finding that 
 
 686 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 she does not receive half their value, 
 she bethinks herself of a certain Isra- 
 elite wh5 made her aoquaintanoe in 
 the course of a business visit t6 her 
 father, and wh6 spoke kindly t6 her 
 and offered to purchase her drawings. 
 In this good son of Abraham, the au- 
 thor has given us one of the best of a 
 series of portraits which constitute 
 perhaps the chief attraction of the 
 book." [Albion. 2228 
 
 RIVAL EACES (The), by Edgenb 
 Sde : Trubner, 1863. 2229 
 
 ROBERT HELMONT, by Daudet 
 = No. 919. 
 
 ROLLING STONE (A). [by"G: 
 Sand," i. e., Amantine Lucile Aurora 
 (Dupin) Dudevant (t, 1876) : Boston, 
 Osgood. 1871.] '"The tendency of this 
 novel, \vh6se central figure is the 
 handsom Laurence, is the rehabilita- 
 tion of the stroling comedian. The 
 theme is handled in a manner which 
 strongly reminds us of 'Wilhelm 
 Meister' [ No. 1017 ] only that George 
 Sand"s characters ar more virtuous. 
 The hero of the story, the son of a 
 peasant, is a sort of rural Antinous. 
 His Marianne is a poor maiden of 
 noble birth, wh6 has g6ne on the 
 stage t6 support an aged parent. 
 Laurence, wh6se father desires that 
 he shall make a figure in the world 
 because he happens t6 be the heir- 
 expectant of an uncle wh5 is a baron, 
 is sent t6 study law at Paris. At the 
 Odeon he meets the heroin, wh6 ap- 
 pears on the boards in classic parts 
 under the name of "Imperia." He at 
 once falls in love with her, and joins 
 the company in order t6 be constantly 
 near her. But his idol is as cold t6 
 him as she is t6 an admiring public, 
 and even declares t6 his face that she 
 loves another ... On the way t6 Con- 
 stantinople and Corfu the vessel in 
 
 which the actors hav taken passage is 
 wrecked, and they ar cast on a barren 
 roc, where they would hav perished 
 by hunger and exposure but for the 
 interference of the factotum of the 
 troupe, a sort of cross between Iler- 
 akles and Caliban. Rescued from 
 death, they meet another adventure in 
 the castle of a semi-barbarous prince. 
 ... At this conjuncture the wealthy 
 uncle dies without a wil, and leaves 
 him, if not a baron, at least the pos- 
 sessor of a barony — an event which 
 kils the father with joy. Laurence 
 meets the rich wido again and manies 
 her. Imperia, for wh6ra he now ex- 
 periences no warmer feeling than 
 friendship, marries Bellaraare, long 
 loved by her in secret, and everybody 
 is left comfortable and happy when 
 the curtain drops." [ Lippincott's.] 
 See also the Sequel '■'■HANDSOME 
 LAUBENOE." 2230 
 
 EOMAIN KALBRIS, by Malot, 
 = No. 921. 
 
 ROMANCE OF A CHILD (The), 
 [by "Pierre LOTi," i. e., [L: M.. ] 
 Julien Viaud: Chicago, Band, 1891, 
 179 pp.] " 'Pierre Loti' is too deli- 
 cate and refined a writer t6 be gener- 
 ally appreciated : he excels rather in 
 suggesting the fleeting, intangible 
 feelings common t6 us all, than in 
 depicting the violent emotions or pas- 
 sions by which a few individuals ar 
 swayed. He brings home tS'us as 
 few authors hav succeeded in d6ing 
 the subtle poetry of commonplace 
 events, the cruel pathos of inanimate 
 objects, when looked at in the light of 
 after-years. More effectivly than 
 any other author we kno, he seems t6 
 hav gaged the bitter contrast existing 
 between our unstable nature and thots 
 and the terrible immutability of our 
 surroundings . . . This book is not a 
 
 687 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 Story in the strict sense of the word — 
 or rather it is the story of every one 
 of us, the record of the gradual devel- 
 opment of the thots, feelings, opin- 
 ions, and aspirations of a child, wh6, 
 having unconsciously invested his 
 surroundings with something of his 
 individuality, experiences the disap- 
 pointment common t6 us all when, 
 being hereafter confronted with these 
 reflectors of our early years, we make 
 the discovery that we ar no longer 
 ourselvs." [ Blackwood's. 2231 
 
 ROMANCE OF A POOR YOUNG 
 MAN [by Octave Feuillet: N.-Y., 
 Budd, 1859, Miller, 1875, Gottsherger. 
 1887.] is "one of the best french 
 novels which has been translated. It 
 is deeply interesting, thoroly pure in 
 sentiment, and characterized by a cer- 
 tain nobility and loftiness of spirit 
 which is very admirable. The hero 
 is a fine creation, wh6se merit is 
 strikingly set Off by his associates and 
 the circumstances of his life. Mar- 
 guerite is unique, and the lovely old 
 Mile. Poerhoet-Gael is an exquisit 
 character. The general tenor of the 
 story is placid, — its tumults being 
 those of feeling only ; but tw6 or three 
 dramatic scenes ar wonderful 'tours' 
 of descriptiv power. It is a charming 
 novel, which stimulates and elevates." 
 [Boston "Lit. World," 1875.]— 
 "Feuillet's most popular romance has 
 maintained its hold upon the affection 
 of at least tw6 generations of readers, 
 and seems t6 be in a fair way t6 re- 
 tain its freshness of interest for some 
 time t6 come. The simplicity of its 
 motiv, the charm of its style, the re- 
 finement of its passion, the purity of 
 its sentiment, all appeal t6 tender 
 and th6tful minds, and awaken re- 
 sponsiv echoes from ardent tempera- 
 ments which cannot escape such influ- 
 
 ences any more than a flower can 
 escape the solicitation of sunshine and 
 the dew. The author, t6 be sure, 
 displays t6 a certain extent in this 
 book the defects of his virtues. Max- 
 ime is perhaps a little too perfect; 
 one would hav more patience witli 
 him if he occasionally lost his temper 
 — but he is a type far rem6ved from 
 the prig, and his manly .qualities of 
 head and heart win frank admiration. 
 In Marguerite we hav the prototype 
 of many figures which hav appeared 
 again and again in modern fiction, 
 none of the conscious or unconscious 
 imitations having the reality of the 
 original. She is a distinct creation, 
 and one which bears the test of analy- 
 sis. And then the triumfant conclu- 
 sion of the narrativ ; the hero coming 
 victorious from all his trials, and 
 finding himself rewarded with a for- 
 tune and the hand of the woman he 
 loves ! It is like a f ary tale, and in 
 spite of the realists, good women and 
 chivalric men hav not lost their appe- 
 tites for the fairy-tale oi'der of fic- 
 tion." [ Same, 1887.] — "No one can 
 fail t6 be interested in the story of the 
 young Marquis, wh6, on finding that 
 his inheritance had been dissipated, 
 resolutely settled down t6 earn a 
 living for himself and his little 
 sister. Throu the influence of an 
 old friend, the family lawyer, he ob- 
 tains the post of bailiff on the estate 
 of a rich wido wh6 has one beautiful 
 dauter. Unknon t6 the young man, 
 the lawyer purposly sends him t6 this 
 place, in hopes that he may marry the 
 heiress, and thus retriev his fortunes. 
 The marquis drops his title, enters on 
 his work, and, as the old man had 
 hoped, the young peojile fall in 15ve 
 with each other ; but there ar difBcul- 
 ties in the way. He is proud, and 
 
 688 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 she, always afraid of being married 
 for money, is prejudiced against him 
 by the spiteful insinuations of her 
 g5verness. These materials the au- 
 thor works int5 an exceedingly pretty 
 story. The characters ar lifelike, and 
 the style vivid and picturesque. Al- 
 tSgether, there is a freshness and 
 grace about it, which is verj' charm- 
 ing." [ Spectator. ] — " 'Le Roman 
 d' un Jeune Homme Pauvre,' for in- 
 stance, with its stoc of wel-worn inci- 
 dents, that air of lofty morality which 
 is t6 be found in french only in a 
 novel which sets out t6 be virtuous, 
 and in english in the writings of Mr. 
 T. S. Arthur, — this story doubtless 
 oes its long life t6 the fact that it can 
 be read in girls' schools." [ Atlantic. 
 
 , SAME ('-Monsieur d'Haute- 
 
 rive") London, 1860. 2232 
 
 ROMANCE OF A SPAHI, by "P: 
 LOTI" : Chicago, Band, 1890. 2233 
 ROMANCE OF AN HONEST 
 WOMAN (The) [by V: Cherbu- 
 LiEZ: Boston. Gill, 1875.] "is one of 
 the best french novels of the day. 
 The author's style is charming, and 
 its characteristics hav been wel pre- 
 servd by the ti-anslator. A young 
 girl, reared in seclusion by her father, 
 a devoted arphasologist, is brot int6 
 contact with a Marquis Lestang, a 
 man of various accomplishments, and 
 in every way a desirable 'parti.' 
 Thgy ar married and go t6 the Mar- 
 quis" chateau. He behaves very wel 
 for & time, but his old associations ar 
 too strong fov his sense of marital 
 duty, and he resumes his attentions 
 t6 a certain pretty wide. The wife, 
 aware of his infidelity, yet stil loving 
 him fondly, maintains her womanly 
 dignity amid many temptations, but 
 suddenly and unaccountably finds 
 herself in correspondence with a half- 
 
 demented youth wh6 intends t6 be- 
 come a Trappist. While this intimacy 
 is in progress, tiie marquis is learning 
 t6 love his wife ; he is aware of her 
 relations with Dolfln, but i.=i bound 
 not t6 abridge her freedom of action. 
 In a maze, 5ne day, Isabel sets forth 
 t6 join her lover, but accident detains 
 her; she meets her husband, and con- 
 jugal harmony is re-established. The 
 plot, tho simple, is interesting ; but it 
 is of small account compared with the 
 skil of the author in his portraiture of 
 character." [Boston '-Lit. World."] 
 — -'The scene is laid in an artificial 
 world, much jauntier than the familiar 
 vale of tears, and the tw6 leading 
 characters, wh5 ar about equally 
 equippd with pride, self-possession, 
 attractivness, and readiness of wit, 
 play their amusing game of tit-f or-tat. 
 The reader's sympathy is secured be- 
 forehand for the abused wife, wh6 
 manages by dexterous strokes of wit 
 and ingenuity t5 turn the tables on 
 her polite but overbearing husband. 
 . . . One foUoes the downfall of the 
 husband from the hights of his foolish 
 presumption with the satisfaction one 
 always has in seeing the right con- 
 quer. In this case, t6 be sure, it is 
 less the glo at the victory of right- 
 eousness over sin which one is con- 
 scious of, than a somewhat spiteful 
 rejoicing at seeing a polished domestic 
 tyrant beaten at his on game : but the 
 feeling, if a trifle malicious, is none 
 the less sincere. In spite of the trite- 
 ness of the subject, there is so much 
 freshness and originality in the treat- 
 ment that it reads like a, new revela- 
 tion." [ Atlantic. 2234 
 ROSA; OR, THE PARISIAN 
 GIRL, [by E.. (Dehault) db 
 PresseNSjS : Harper, 18C0.] '"Its pur- 
 pos is t6 giv a correct idea of domes- 
 
 689 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 tio life among families which retain 
 simplicity of purpos, and hav not cast 
 aside moral and religious principle as 
 an antiquated humbug. The little 
 volume abounds in charming pictures, 
 skilfully drawn." [Harper's 2235 
 
 EOSE AND NINETTE, [by Al- 
 PHONSE Daudet: Cassell, 1892.] 
 '•With the evident motiv of shoing 
 divorce as a failure in that it at most 
 givs temporal relief, sometimes, in the 
 first moments of release, mistaken 
 for happiness, and that it does not 
 effectually dissolv marriage, the au- 
 thor creates his characters. Regis de 
 Fagan, dramatist, recognizes that his 
 wife and self ar incompatible. They 
 agree upon a plan by which they can 
 obtain divorce. In the consequences 
 of this act, "Kose and Ninette," a 
 Wagnerian devotee and the ex-wife 
 hav prominent parts. The hero's 
 characteristics ar in some respects 
 those of "Pere Goriot"." [Publisji- 
 er's Weekly. 2236 
 
 ROSE GARDEN (The) [by F.. 
 M.. Peard: JJofterts, 1S72.] "is not 
 english : — but the humor, the trans- 
 parent refinement of the story, the 
 cool, moderate tints with which it is 
 drawn, ar unmistakably so, as wel as a 
 certain quiet pathos here and there, 
 which differs as widely from the thing 
 recognised as "sentiment" on the un- 
 english side of the channel as day- 
 light from gas. It is the picture of a 
 frenoh landscape from a british paint- 
 brush, and cleverly and justly given. 
 . . . The charm of the story lies in the 
 simple yet subtle methods by which 
 the characters ar made t6 unfold 
 themselvs without visible interference 
 from the author, in the delicate senti- 
 ment which pervades like perfume, 
 and the picturesque setting of the 
 whole." [Scribner's. 2237 
 
 EOSINE, by Melville, = No. 928. 
 
 ROUGE ET NOIR [ "Trente et 
 Quarante.") by Edmond [Fr. Val- 
 entin ] About ( t, 1885 ) : Phil'a, 
 Claxton, 1873.] "A french writer is 
 generally seen at his best in his short- 
 er stories. The plot is so carefully 
 worked out, the characters ar so viv- 
 id, and the language is so crisp and 
 sparkling that a book like this is t6 a 
 story of the same size by Dickens or 
 Wilkie Collins as a diamond t6 a lump 
 of quartz . . . Wit, verve, and bright- 
 ness, with just a dash of pathos, the 
 quic play of feeling and an exquisit 
 sense of the ludicrous — these wil re- 
 deem even a flimsy plot and conven- 
 tional characters . . . His story begins 
 with a family of three living in a 
 Paris flat ; Captain Bitterlin, his dau- 
 ter Emma, and his servant Agatha . . . 
 He shuts up his dauter from all soci- 
 ety and amusement, and is especially 
 on the watch against lovers. Never- 
 theless, a young Italian, Bartolomeo 
 Narni, wh6 has lost his home and 
 fortune, sees her at church, and the 
 pair instantaneously fall in love. 
 Agatha is br6t int6 the plot ; and after 
 some weeks of hidden meetings Emma 
 tels her father boldly that she wishes 
 t6 be married. He falls int6 a parox- 
 ysm of rage, boxes her ears, sends off 
 poor Agatha, and Iocs Emma intd her 
 room. The confinement soon makes 
 her sic, and the captain, at his wits' 
 end, adopts his doctor's advice, and 
 takes his dauter t6 Switzerland and 
 Baden. Meo goes in the same car- 
 riage, and by a lucky manoeuver de- 
 vised by a wiser head than his on puts 
 the captain under an immense obliga- 
 tion, excites his impulse t6 contradic- 
 tion, so that he insists on dfiingjust 
 what Meo secretly wishes, and finally 
 marries Emma with her father's full 
 
 690 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 approbation. How the result is 
 achieved we wil leave the reader t(S 
 discover, but the critical moment is at 
 the gaming tables of Baden." [IVnn 
 Monthly. ]— It "is one of the most 
 enjoyable of About's novels, and is 
 remarkable for the force and consist- 
 ency with which Captain Bitterlin is 
 drawn. Much of the story is occu- 
 pied by records of travel, which ar 
 very amusing. The book is bright, 
 witty, and interesting, from the first 
 page t6 the last." [ Boston "Liter.ary 
 World." 2238 
 
 ROUND OF WRONG, by About, 
 = GEBMAINE. 
 
 SABINE'S DECEPTION [byOL- 
 GA (Cantacdz^ne) Altikri : Harper, 
 1888.] "is a good story of provincial 
 life, wretchedly translated. Its at- 
 mosfere is pure and clear, and the 
 people hav a moral excellence which 
 would repay the study of Parisian 
 journalists and playwrights. Sabine's 
 whole life had been so open t6 the 
 sunlight that the little deception prac- 
 tised t6 insure her sister's happiness 
 seemed t6 her a deed of darkness, and 
 doubtless caused her more anguish 
 than did the relinquishment of her 
 lover, so faithful in letter and faithless 
 in spirit. Sabine is carefully drawn 
 from nature. The author peiceivs, 
 as it almost seems that only f rench 
 novelists can perceiv, tJiat truth has 
 many sides. Sabine is positiv, preju- 
 diced, rigid, but she is also coura- 
 geous, loyal, and full of passionate 
 tenderness for those dependent on 
 her. No sort of perfection is ascribed 
 t6 Sabine, but a natural proportion is 
 observd between her defects and her 
 good qualities. Of course, the sacri- 
 fice which marks the victory of her 
 strength over her weakness, is made 
 for people wh6 can never remotely 
 
 appreciate its fineness. In fiction 
 such a sacrifice is rewarded by the 
 reader's sympathy. The Sabine of 
 romance gets enthusiastic admiration ; 
 the Sabine of reality goes on t6 the 
 end, managing the farm, studying 
 the causes of potato rot, and spoken 
 of behind her bao as a hard, cross- 
 grained old maid, wh5 has no soul 
 above a sixpence, and never had." 
 [Nation. 2239 
 
 , SAME ("Sabine's Falsehood") 
 
 Peterson, 1881. 
 
 ST. MICHAEL'S NIGHT [ by Ag- 
 nes Hakrison : in Atlantic Monthly, 
 six numbers, 1868.] "is t6 be praised 
 as having much of local truth in its 
 pictures of norman scenes and the 
 character of norman peasants and 
 fisherman; and certainly it is very 
 honest and wel-flnished writing, which 
 might wel be given as a lesson t6 9 
 out of 10 of our women whO write. 
 Even better than that — we speak of 
 the reader's pleasure, and not of the 
 nature of the writer, as revealed by 
 her style — the author sh5s that she 
 has an eye for character, and quic, 
 true sympathies. Read, for example, 
 her account of the touching conversa- 
 tion between Jeanne and Epiphanie as 
 they walked t6 Dieppe ... It is a very 
 fresh and agreeable little story, with 
 plenty of old-fashioned love in it, and 
 plenty besides ... It groes upon us 
 as we read, and turns out a story t6 
 be heartily praised; it is not saying 
 too much t(5 call it beautiful." [ Na- 
 tion. 2240 
 
 SAINTS AND SINNERS [ "Noirs 
 et Rouges") V : Cherbuliez : Apple- 
 ton, 1882.] '-is, above all things, 
 amusing in the best sense — a sense 
 which implies a first-rate romancer 
 doing his best, and bringing t6 his 
 work qualities which many novelists 
 
 (J91 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 SAINT (A) AND OTHERS. [by 
 PaulBodrget: Lomlon, Osgood, 1S93.] 
 "Of the i "portraits" ( S taken from his 
 •Nouveaux Pastels' ) the one entitled "A 
 Saint" is the longest and most lifelike. 
 In all of them we see one or two points 
 5nly of Mr. Bourget's many-sided genius, 
 he is as profoundly analytical as ever, 
 idyllic, dramatic, tragic; but we hav none 
 of the subtle delineations of the mata- 
 physics of passion, no studies — except, 
 perhaps, faintly foretold in the youthful 
 heroins of "Childhood Perfidy"— of the 
 fin-de-sificie "mondainc," her luxurious 
 surroundings, her correctly attired lovers 
 or the analysis of her emotions, to which 
 we hav become accustomd. "ilarcel," 
 the first portrait in the book, is a remin- 
 iscence of a boyish friendship, "the only 
 interest of which— if, indeed, it has one — 
 consists in the study, so rarely attempted, 
 of an aspect of a child's sensitivness." In 
 'A Story of a Child,' [ Xo. 145 p ] regently 
 written by an American authoress, we 
 hav been str6ngly reminded of the child's 
 secret, tho futil iiight, and of the heart- 
 awakening which folloes. "Monsieur 
 
 Viple's Brother" is the record of a liy- 
 gdne tragedy. The vail of an apparently 
 uneventful life, lifted for a moment, dis- 
 covers a hidden scar; the old man speaks 
 of a brother, ]6ng dead, who in his boy- 
 hood avenged an insult by shooting an 
 Austrian ofliyer. But this brother was a 
 Action ; it was Optale Viple himself "who 
 has avenged his outraged father, he, the 
 sometime associate of the University, 
 who, since that time, perhaps, had never 
 touched a weapon. "What strange mys- 
 tery sometimes lies behind the most pea5e- 
 ful'and humble career !" A Gambler and 
 "Childhood Perfidy" ar sliter sketches, 
 tho "study" is, perhaps, a more appropri- 
 ate word for the dissection of human 
 nature that is a special cliaracteristic of 
 Bourget. He turns his microscopic eye 
 even on the friendships of boys and girls, 
 thiSir childish loves and quarrels, and lays 
 bare the intricasies of hopes and fears, 
 the miseries which seem gigantic in pro- 
 portion to the size of the sufferers, the 
 action that for good or for evil may deter- 
 min the future course of thSir lives." 
 [ Spectator. 3239 t 
 
 691s 
 
FRENCH NOVKI-S. 
 
 deem of too much public importance 
 to be employed merely in entertain- 
 ing a frivolous public. But Cherbu- 
 liez has also, besides the felicity of 
 manner which conies from presuppos- 
 ing his readers t6 kno as much as him- 
 self about things in general, a great 
 deal of a quality not usually t6 be found 
 in the Imaginativ writings of his 
 countrymen — the quality of humor, 
 namelj' : Usually one is perfectly safe 
 in looking for the best sort of humor 
 in an english work, and the best sort 
 of wit in a f rench one ; but this writer 
 is an eminent exception, and the flav- 
 or of his books is a compound which 
 it would be puzzling t6 analyze, but 
 which is certainly as clearly humor- 
 ous as it Is witty. The title givs the 
 key t6 the substance of the book, 
 which deals with Jesuit intrigues on 
 the one hand, and chronicles the hap- 
 penings in a radical interior on the 
 other. Jetta Malaubret. the heroin, 
 is left an orf an by the suicide of her 
 father and the death of her mother, 
 wh6 had run away with an Italian 
 count. T6 expiate these sins she 
 enters the hospital where her ant, a 
 nun, is a nurse, and declines the offer 
 of a home with her great-uncle, who 
 is a radical Kepublican, and the next 
 thing t6 an atheist. Mr. Antonin 
 Cautarel is an atheist outright, but a 
 very different man from his brother, 
 being, among other things, a man of 
 intelligence and a gentleman. He is 
 a surgeon at Jetta's hospital, and the 
 tw6 become fast friends just before 
 his death, after which his wil is found 
 t6 leav her a large fortune on condi- 
 tion of her living tw6 years in Mr. 
 Louis Cantarel's family. She is about 
 t6 decline this stipulation when Mere 
 Amelie, her Snt, shos her the folly of 
 it. and the action of the book concerns 
 
 the efforts of the 'blac army' t6 keep 
 alive her intention t5 take vows at the 
 end of her probation in the world, 
 and the efforts of various other people 
 t6 marry her. Her uncle Louis en- 
 deavors t6 giv her t5 the vulgar son 
 of a marquis wh6se favors he hopes 
 thus t6 win, and the executor of her 
 Uncle Antonin dijes his best t6 bring 
 abo^it feer union with a young friend 
 of the latter's, in accordance with his 
 dying wish. She herself falls in love 
 with this young gentleman, but deems 
 it her duty t5 become a nun, and her 
 conflict with herself becomes one be- 
 tween her and a fanciful vision of her 
 benefactor, wh6 appears to her from 
 times t5 time. It is in this sort of 
 thing that Cherbuliez discloses a vein 
 of poetry now and then and it is very 
 prettily managed here. As skilful as 
 this is pretty is the social diplomacy 
 which conducts the external conflict, 
 in which also the author is an adept. 
 The result is satisfactoiy, of course, 
 it being a pet theory with Cherbuliez 
 that there is alt5gether too much 
 tragedy in novels t5 need any aug- 
 mentation at his hand." [ Nation. 
 
 , SAME (--The Trials of Jetta 
 
 Malaubret"), VizHteUy, 1886. 2241 
 
 SAMUEL BROHL & CO. [ by V : 
 Cherbuliez: Appleton, 1878.] "In 
 this story, a german Jew named Brohl 
 has assumed the name and personality 
 of a polish count wh6m he has knon, 
 wh5 has died in great poverty, and 
 under this disguise the Jew has won 
 the love of a very charming french 
 girl. All of our author's heroins ar 
 attractiv and life-like ; this one is no 
 exception, but there is something odi- 
 ous in the way in which Cherbuliez 
 maltreats them. In this story the 
 young woman givs her hefirt t6 this 
 fascinating reptil, and the novel de- 
 
 692 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 scribes the net-work of intrigue spun 
 by him and by those wh6 suspect him 
 of being the adventurer he is. It is 
 enuf t6 say that Cherbuliez has writ- 
 ten this t6 make it perfectly plain 
 that the book holds the reader's atten- 
 tion fast, and that he is a bold man 
 wh6 can say at any given chapter that 
 he knoes what is coming next; all he 
 can be sure of is that it wil be some- 
 thing verj' clever. But all the clever- 
 ness in the world wil not make up for 
 the tone of the book, which is unde- 
 niably depressing. The hero is a 
 most odious villain, the girl's feelings 
 ar dangled before the public in a pain- 
 ful way, and one cannot help a sort of 
 shame at reading a story which, if 
 true, 6t t6 be kept from the public out 
 of respect for the victims. But yet it 
 is entertaining." [ Atlantic. 2242 
 SAPPHO, [by Alphonse Dau- 
 det: N.-Y., Tousey, 1885; London, 
 Vizetelly, (abridged); Maxwell, 1886; 
 Chicago, Nile, 1891.] "Daudet holds 
 a peculiar place in our romantic liter- 
 ature. He does not belong t6 the old- 
 fashioned, somewhat artificial school, 
 which may be said t6 be represented 
 by Feuillet; he does not belong any 
 more t6 the true naturalist school, 
 which has Zola for its master. He is 
 realistic without being systematically 
 vulgar; he does not prefer odious, 
 hideous, loathsome subjects and char- 
 acters ; he is not a pessimist, and there 
 is in him an irrepressible touch of the 
 gay, cheerful, and optimistic South. 
 Tho he has ridiculed the South in his 
 Tartarin, in Numa Boumestan [No. 
 2rjl.] and quite recently in 'Tartarin 
 sur les Alpes,' Daudet is a child of 
 the South ; there is no real sadness, 
 no true melancholy in him. There is 
 a vein of true sentiment, sometimes 
 ;in outburst of real pathos in some of 
 
 his works: in Fromont [No. 2047], iu 
 Jack [ No. 2079 ] ; but on the whole 
 the balance always falls on the side 
 of humor, gayety, and hope. What 
 is very remarkable and even admir- 
 able in all Daudet's productions is 
 what I can not call other than life. 
 There is an extraordinary vitality and 
 mfivement throu all his work — no sys- 
 tem, no elaborate style, no perception 
 of effort; his descriptions ar foto- 
 grafs, but they ar not dry : "il y a de 
 I'air," as the painters say of a land- 
 scape. His characters also hav "de 
 I'air"' : they ar all more or less vola- 
 til, they hav nothing statuesque, they 
 ar carried away on the current of life 
 — a current which is sometimes so 
 rapid that you can hardly folio it. 
 In this respect also Daudet belongs 
 truly t6 the South ; he is not a dream- 
 er, he is essentially an actor. There 
 does not seem t6 be much system in 
 his choice of subjects. He does not 
 pretend, like Zola, t6 giv us a new 
 "Comfidie Humaine." His receptiv 
 mind takes in t6-day one thing, t6- 
 morro another ; he is a mirror. You 
 can always recognize some living 
 character in his novels ; every Parisian 
 knoes wh5 the Nabob [ No. 2185 ] was, 
 and can giv the real names t6 all the 
 characters of that novel as wel as t6 
 those of Numa Houmestan. The poet 
 of 'Jack' is stil living: the verses 
 which ar cited by Daudet iij the novel 
 were written by this poet '-without a 
 heart." I d6 not kno wh6m Daudet 
 had in vue when he wrote his last 
 novel, -Sappho', for this takes us int6 
 a world which is not familiar t6 me— 
 the world of the studios. This world 
 is, in many respects, quite apart. It 
 is very diiferent from the real world, 
 tho I hasten t6 say that the artists of 
 very grgat eminence ar a part of 
 
 693 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 this real world ; but the rising artists, 
 the beginners, those wh6 ar only 
 knon in a small circle, form a sort of 
 society which has a freedom unknon 
 in the regular society. In dress, in 
 manners, in almost all the details of 
 life, this artistic world affects a license 
 and has an originality which make it 
 worthy of study. It is not the 
 '•demi-monde," but it has its liaisons, 
 which sometimes assume the serious- 
 ness of marriages. The women who 
 ar met among the painters, the artists, 
 the literary men wh6 liv in their com- 
 pany, ar not venal, and in this respect 
 they ar much superior t6 the women 
 of the "demi-monde." They ar more 
 intellectual, more imaginativ; they ar 
 living in a hier stage. They ar t6 be 
 seen on varnishing day, with their 
 friends, as anxious as these can be, as 
 curious, as uneasy. There is some- 
 thing of the old "Bohemia" left in 
 this world of painters, but it is no 
 longer the Boheme of Henri Miirgnr, 
 [No. 2244] composed only of very 
 young men and women ; it is a Bohe- 
 mia where you meet men with gray 
 beards, and old models wh6 hav be- 
 come semi-respectable matrons." [A. 
 Laugel in Nation. 2243 
 
 SCENES FKOM THE LIFE OF 
 BOHEMIA, [by H: Murger (t, 
 1861.) : N.-Y., Gould, 1891.] "The 
 Vie de Bohime stands apart from all 
 preceeding works. In it the author 
 explored unknon solitudes, discover- 
 ed a fresh world, full of gaiety and 
 tears, of ringing laf ter and the stark- 
 est poverty, of hopes unutterably 
 eager, and of miseries which ar indi- 
 cated rather than described . . . Each 
 chapter in the strange volume is a 
 work complete in itself, yet the chap- 
 ters lead one int6 the other, til the 
 whole, with its quips, its jests, its 
 
 delicate shades of humor and its fine 
 strokes of wit, forms one of the gay- 
 est, naivest books of even this cen- 
 tury of fantasies . . . But the charm 
 of the Vie de Bohfeme, after its never- 
 failing gaiety, lies in the tenderness 
 and the beauty of its love-scenes. In 
 connexion with the student we natu- 
 rally hav the grisette — now, alas ! no 
 more — devoted in her love, fagil in 
 her conquests, industrious and happy 
 in her labors and privations. T6 
 Miiiii and Musette we 6 all the pathos 
 of the volume. We may, after «, col- 
 orless fashion, compress the gayer 
 episodes — Eodolphe writing Mimi a 
 gown, and. at her solicitation, adding, 
 with so many more columns of mat- 
 ter, so many more flounces and fur- 
 belos ; but it is impossible t6 deal in 
 this meagre manner with the pathetic 
 chapters. Mimi was Eodolphe's mis- 
 tress, and her love, affected only by 
 too long a bout of starvation, for she 
 was fond of di'ess and pleasure, is 
 merely a reproduction from life. 
 "The scene at the hospital," says 
 Banville, "so poignant with misery, 
 is completely true. Poor Mimi had 
 livd too long among the poets, til she 
 naturally came t6 die at the hospital 
 as a poet might." [ Westminster. 
 
 , SAME ("The Gypsies of 
 
 Art"), transl. by C: G. Leland, 
 in Knickerbocker, Oct. 18."i3 — Jan., 
 1854. 2245 
 
 SCYLLA & CHARYBDIS, a Lesson 
 for Husbands, by Octave Feuillet, 
 in vol. 4 of Cosmopolitan. 2246 
 
 SEAGULL P.OCK. by Sandeau, 
 = No. 935. 
 
 SEASHOEE GLEANER (The), by 
 E. SonvESTRE : Bristol, 1855. 2247 
 
 SECRET OF HAPPINESS (THE), 
 ["La Comtesse de Chalis.") by Er- 
 nest Feydeau ( t, 1873.) : Edinburgh, 
 
 694 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 Edmonston, 1867.] "The author of 
 'Fanny' [No. 2029] has discovered 
 that the secret of happiness lies in 
 d6ing good. We hav heard something 
 like that before; but coining from a 
 gentleman wh6 has been once or twice 
 held up as the terrible example of 
 modern french literature, the defini- 
 tion acquires a startling novelty. We 
 would not recall the author's past 
 crimes, wer it not t6 point out the 
 singular sort of nature in which french 
 writers wli6 endeavor t6 escape from 
 the artificial and conventional gener- 
 ally seek refuge. Nature t6 them is 
 synonomous with ignorance ; and the 
 people wh6m they represent as dwell- 
 in a state of nature ar merely over- 
 gron 'babies with a taste for aimless 
 sentiment. 'The Secret of Happiness' 
 is an effort in the 'Paul and Virginia' 
 direction, Mr. Feydeau having appar- 
 ently been stung by criticism int6 
 pr6ving that he was something better 
 than a worshipper of poetic adultery. 
 The really valuable part of the book 
 consists of the vivid description of 
 scenery in Algeria and arab manners, 
 with which the work abounds. The 
 author tels us that he traveled leisure- 
 ly throu this region, noting the most 
 minute facts which came before him ; 
 and we ar not without a suspicion that 
 the colonists wh6 figure in these 
 pages, and wh6 discover 'the secret of 
 happiness' ar mere sketches from lay 
 figures thron In t6 complete a picture, 
 the chief merit of which lies in the 
 faithful painting of the bacground. 
 At the same time it must be said that 
 the story is readable and interesting, 
 and that it occasionally becomes povr- 
 fully dramatic." [London Rev. 2248 
 SEMPSTRESS'S STORY (THE) 
 
 [ by [ ANTOINE ] GUSTAVE ] Droz : 
 
 West, Johnston & Co., 1877.] "is a 
 
 simple but touching little tale of a 
 child in J'uris wh6 lay at the point of 
 death with . croup, and was saved by 
 the kind servi^;e of a big-hearted sur- 
 geon. It Is a fresh, bright, warmly 
 colored picture of an ordinary •inte- 
 rior' and a not uncommon experi- 
 ence." [ Boston --Lit. World." 2249 
 
 SERAPHI'l'A, by Balzac. g@=- 
 EGGENrElG NOVELS. 
 
 SEVEN YEARS. [ by Julia Kav- 
 ANAGH ( t, 1S77) : Peterson, 1860.] 
 "The name is due t6 the period dur- 
 ing which the hero, an honest-hearted 
 Flemish upliolsterer, is obliged t6 
 work and wait for his capricious mis- 
 tress, a quic-witted and not, perhaps, 
 utterly hetirtless Parisian sewing girl. 
 The tale is an interesting one, and 
 very wel told, and the soul-experience 
 of the lovers as they go throu the 
 trials consequent, chiefly, upon the 
 waywardness of the girl — is described 
 \\ith a very clear perception of tlie 
 modes of mental dSing, being, and 
 suffering." [ Albion. 2250 
 
 SERGE PAXIN. by G: Ohnkt, 
 Manchester, Tubhs, 1883. 2251 
 
 , SAME ("Prince Serge Pa- 
 nine"), ISlunro, 1890. 
 
 SERGEANT'S LEGACY (The), by 
 E. [B. ] Berthet; London, iVimmo, 
 1880. 2252 
 
 SHORTER STORIES, by Balzac. 
 London, L. W. Scott, 1890. 2253 
 
 SIBYLLE'S STORY = STOBY 
 OF 8IBYLLE. 
 
 SIDONIE = FBOMONT THE 
 YOUNGEB. 
 
 SIEGE OF BERLIN (The), by A. 
 Daudet, in Swlnton^s Story-Teller, 
 Oct., 1883 ; also in vol. 4 of Tales from 
 Many Sources, N.-Y.. 1884; also in 
 Cosmopolitan, Aug., 1886. 2254 
 
 SILVIA [Provence] by Julia 
 Kavanagh = No. 5.30. 
 
 695 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 SIMON [London, Churton, 1847.] 
 "But.'Geoi-ge Sand' has written sev- 
 eral [ novels J which ar fit for the 
 perusal of the most spotless. These 
 ar 'Andre' [No. 1950], 'Simon,' 'Les 
 Maitres Mosaistes' [No. 850], 'Paul- 
 ine,' 'Le Secrfitaire Intime,' 'Les Sept 
 Cordes,' and the -Mfilanges'." [ For- 
 eign Quarterly, 1S44.] See also No. 
 945. 2255 
 
 SIN OF M. ANTOINE (The), [by 
 '■G : Sand"', i. e., Amantine Lucile 
 Aurore (Dupin) Dudevant (f, 1876) : 
 N.-Y., H. Long, 1850.] '-The hus- 
 band in this novel behaves better, or 
 rather the circumstances of the plot 
 permit him t6 take the step which G : 
 Sand would Imv society make open t6 
 ever}' husband. The offspring of the 
 adultery is the heroin of the story, 
 and she brings about a happy recon- 
 ciliation between her father and the 
 husband of her mother. An unfilo- 
 sofical irritation has kept them asun- 
 der for years ; but Gilberte, the hero- 
 in, when driven by a storm t6 seek 
 shelter, happens t6 see a portrait of 
 her mother in the house of what, 
 speaking conventionally, we may cill 
 the injured husband, and she is struc 
 by Its likeness t6 a miniature which 
 she has often seen in the hands of her 
 father, wh6 contrary t6 the usual 
 practis, has reared her. 'Her modest 
 imagination refusing t6 comprehend 
 the possibility of an adultery,' she is 
 naturally puzzled ; but she takes ad- 
 vantage of the occasion t6 make 
 friends with the first possessor of the 
 original, and at length gets him t6 
 pardon the second possessor. Friend- 
 ship survives the conflict and conse- 
 quences of youthful passion, and they 
 ar all happy at the end of the book." 
 [ National Eeview. 
 
 , SAME ("First and True 
 
 Love"), Peterson., 1852. 2256 
 
 SISTER ANNE [by [C:] Paul 
 DE KOCK ( t, 1871.) : London, Hender- 
 son, 1840; 396 p., 8°; N.-Y., Wilson, 
 1843.] is by "an author wh6 enjoys 
 more celebrity than any living writer; 
 that is t6 say, if the extent of a man's 
 reputation be judged by the number of 
 his readers. From the hiest lady t6 
 the poorest 'grisette', from the states- 
 man t5 the copying-clerk — all classes 
 hav pored over those pages which 
 teem with gaiety and mirth, relieved 
 by the finest touches of pathos and 
 feeling^^all hav felt the magic charm 
 of this great enchanter. A new novel 
 by Paul de Kock creates a more pow- 
 erful sensation than the speech of the 
 king. His popularity extends t6 the 
 meanest and most distant cottage ; 
 there exists not a laborer, who has 
 not heard of Paul de Kock, and lafed 
 at some village pedant's recital of the 
 best episode in his last work." [ For- 
 eign Quarterly.] — '-An Englishman 
 who turns t6 Paul de Kock's numer- 
 ous works t6 form a judgment of 
 their merits and defects, will be as- 
 tonished t6 find that, amidst an exu- 
 berance of familiar humor, which 
 often passes the limit of good taste, 
 there ar veins of the most beautiful 
 and elevating sentiment, and passages 
 of tremendous, yet never exaggerated 
 power." [Edinburgh Review.] — • 
 "This is one of those novels in which 
 we find the most exquisit humor and 
 most beautiful pathos. It is a novel 
 which abounds in strong contrasts. 
 The wit and the pathos — the passion- 
 ate love of Sister Anne, and the calm 
 but deeply-rooted affection of Con- 
 stance — the sincere and honorable 
 character of the elder de Montreville, 
 and the levity and inexperience of his 
 son — the half swindler, half filosofer 
 
 606 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 Dubourg, and the upright, but easily 
 duped M6naid — the tries practised hy 
 Dubourg, and the deeply interesting 
 adventures of Sister Anne, form the 
 basis of one of the most amusing 
 novels in the Fiench language . . . 
 "Sister Anne" is the narrativ of a 
 beautiful joung girl, wh6, in her in- 
 fancy, 16ses the faculty of speech 
 throu a sudden fright, and recovers it 
 eventually by a similar revulsion in 
 nature. The fortunes of this orfan 
 girl form the ground-work of the tale. 
 She is seduced by a young count, wh6 
 is subsequently compelled by his 
 father t6 abandon her; and she sets 
 out in search of the faithless swain. 
 After experiencing all those dangers 
 and difficulties which must necessail- 
 ly hav attended an individual in her 
 forlorn condition, she arrives at the 
 very house where dwels her seducer's 
 wife. The dumb stranger is kindly 
 received by the unsuspecting wife. 
 The husband's return however ex- 
 plains all ; and the tale is wound up 
 by the death of Sister Anne, wh6 re- 
 covers the faculty of speech only a 
 few monents before she suri-enders 
 her spirit." [ Monthly Review. 2257 
 SISTER PHILOMENE [byED- 
 MOND & Jules de Goncoukt ( f, 
 1870): Paris, 1861, Boutledge, 1890.] 
 "is a sad and painful study of a wom- 
 an's heSrt which the cold and monot- 
 onous life of a convent in vain at- 
 tempted t6 subdue ; a cry for human 
 love and sympathj' which is hushed 
 only with life itself. Marie Gaucher 
 is a little f rench girl wh6 groes up as 
 a dependent in a great fiench house. 
 She is admitted t6 unusual familiarity 
 with the young heir, and assumes airs 
 far above her true position in the so- 
 cial world. T6 recall her t6 her 
 proper sfere, her ant sends her t6 a 
 
 convent t6 be educated. Without any 
 real unkindness being shon, her health 
 and spirits ar most successfully 
 broken by the unnatural, repressed 
 life she is forced t6 lead. The steps 
 ar then easily taken by which she be- 
 comes 'Sister Philomene.' As a nun 
 she finds little happiness until her 
 duties transfer her t6 the hospital. 
 Here, in the care of the sic, she finds 
 her vocation, and becomes almost 
 reconciled t6 life. A great deal of 
 space is devoted t6 an account of life 
 in a hospital ward, the talk of the 
 medical students, and t6 the feelings 
 aroused in the innocent nun's heart by 
 the varied experiences she passes 
 throu. She comes constantly in con- 
 tact with a young hospital surgeon, 
 wh6 inspires her with \\ hat she be- 
 lieves t6 be a strong sisterl3' interest. 
 The gradual awakening t6 the con- 
 sciousness of her love is described by 
 a master hand." [Literary News. 2258 
 
 SO FAIR YET FALSE [ "Pour- 
 quoi"] by Eugknp: Vachette, called 
 "Chavettb": N.-Y., Carleton, 
 1874. 2259 
 
 SOUCI = No. 951. 
 
 SONS OF THE SOIL, [by Ho- 
 noe£ "de" Balzac: Boberts, 1890.] 
 "The proprietor of a country place in 
 Bourgogne endeavors l6 iniprSve it 
 t6 the best of his knoledge and ability. 
 In cultivating and imprfiving his es- 
 tate, he wounds the sensibilities and 
 tramples on the traditions (often 
 without knoing it) of the surrounding 
 villagers. Instantly a legion of malign 
 activities spring int6 life : his trees ar 
 'ringed,' his vintage is lessened, his 
 steward is murdered, and he, a gen- 
 eral of the Empire, is threatened with 
 murder. In the end the beautiful 
 chfiteau and its lands ar laid waste, 
 the general is driven t6 ignominious 
 
 697 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 sale and flight, and the peasants pos- 
 sess themselvs of his acres. One or 
 tw6 bright spots rellev this diabolic 
 gloom, across which Balzac shoots 
 his sinister profecies of the results of 
 peasant proprietorship. He has con- 
 jured not so much 'sons of the soil' in 
 his Jeremiad as the gnomes and gob- 
 lins which dwel beneath it, creatures 
 of his dreams, monsters of his dys- 
 pepsia, a proletariat peopling hell, 
 not the gay. gracious country-folk of 
 Sunny France." [ Critic. 2260 
 
 SOUL OF PIEREE, by G: Ohnet, 
 = PETEB'S SOUL. 
 
 SPECULATOR IN PETTICOATS 
 (A), by H. Malot: Peterson, 
 18S7. 2261 
 
 SPIEIDION, by "G : Sand," ^=- 
 ECCENTBIC NOVLES. 
 
 STAR OF EMPIRE (The), N.-Y., 
 Tousey, 1885, = CLOSINDA. 
 
 STARTLING EXPLOITS OF DR. 
 QUli;S (THE), [by Paul Celieees : 
 . Harper, 1887.] '-As t6 the involun- 
 tary journeyings of Dr. Quies, they 
 ^r br6t about in such a forced way, 
 there is such a sameness in his dis- 
 comforts on being disturbed from his 
 quietude, that a little adaptation and 
 arrangement would hav imprfived the 
 original work. Stil, pictures and all, 
 the book presents a very pleasant vue 
 of provincial life." [Nation. 2262 
 
 STONE-MASON OF ST.-POINT 
 (The), by Alphonse de Lamartine : 
 ( t, 1869.) Boutledge,— Harper. 1851.] 
 "We d6 not admire all which Lamar- 
 tine writes, but of this, his last pro- 
 duction, we can speak with almost 
 unqualified praise. It is all it pro- 
 fesses t6 be, a simple village tale. 
 The record of a very humble life, it 
 breathes the spirit of love and Chris- 
 tian meekness, exalted by the noblest 
 sentiments." [ National Era. 2263 
 
 STORIES OF AN OLD MAID, by 
 D. (G.) Girardin: London, Addey. 
 1856. 2264 
 
 STORIES OF PROVENCE = 
 LETTEB8 FBOM MY MILL. 
 
 STORM-DRIVEN [Paris] = No. 
 533. 
 
 STORY OF A DEMOISELLE 
 (THE) [by E.C.Price: Ward, 1880.] 
 is an "excellent story. Its great 
 charm is the pronounced nationality 
 of every word and thot of the mem- 
 bers of the family groups which sur- 
 round Clotilde de Mornay. The 
 strong-minded uiarquls, the pleasure- 
 loving and unscrupulous Madame de 
 Belleville, the "good Jourdaiu" with 
 her girth, her gruffness, her tender 
 heart, her skin-deep severity, ar all 
 life-like. It is the story of a french 
 marriage of arrangement. The au- 
 thor is too wise t6 drag her heroin . 
 throu the mud, and the reader learns 
 a lesson, s6t t6 be impressed on him, 
 not throu the failure but the success 
 of a sweet nature in coping with 
 trials which would hav embittered 
 and spoiled an ordinary character. 
 The men ar as good, nearly, as the 
 women, and the gallant old Legiti- 
 mist obtains no more than his due 
 when, after saving the life of his rival, 
 he secures the affections of his bride." 
 [Athenaeum.] — ■■The characters ar 
 sketched with force, and the french 
 life is very delicately and vividly 
 painted. A pleasanter tale, on the 
 whole, it would not be easy t6 find." 
 [ Spectator. 2265 
 
 STORY OF AN HONEST MAN 
 [by Edmond [Fe. Valentin] 
 About (t, 1885): Low, Appleton, 
 1880.] is "the story of the plain life 
 of a bourgeois lad, wh6 rose by virtue 
 of his character and exertions t6 be 
 the head of a great business, a mil- 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 lionaire, and the father of a lovely 
 and interesting family. The manner 
 is realistic enuf t5 giv the work the 
 aspect of a veritahle autobiograf y ; 
 but it has all the true shape and color 
 of fiction, gloes with the warmth of 
 life, and appeals in the strongest way 
 t6 the tenderest feelings. The sub- 
 ject is full of interest, the style is 
 masterly, the tone lofty and morally 
 exhilarating ; and while the fortunes of 
 Pierre Dumont present little t6 gratify 
 a love of the sensational, they wil be 
 folloed with keenly sympathetic 
 pleasure by every reader of refined 
 taste." [Boston '-Lit. World." 2266 
 STOEY OF COLETTE (The) 
 Appleton^ 1888.] "is a harmless and 
 amusing tale, put int6 very pleasant 
 english. It opens on the first day of 
 March with the little prayer Colette 
 inscribes at the beginning of the 
 journal she keeps t6 relieve the weari- 
 ness of life spent in a dismal chateau 
 under the gardianship of a maiden- 
 Snt wh6 does not love her, and one 
 old servant . . . Colette is an ingfinue 
 of a rather sparkling type. With the 
 exception of tw6 happy years in a 
 convent — where her Snt placed her 
 in order at once t6 keep and t6 evade 
 the promis made t6 Colette's dying 
 mother, by which she was obliged t6 
 giv her ntece at least tw6 years in 
 Paris, and thus a chance t5 settle her- 
 self" — she has spent all her days in 
 this gloomy mansion, and at 18 she 
 is groing very tired of being "full of 
 ideas with no earthly being t6 tel 
 them t6 ; t6 be gay alone, t6 be sad 
 alone, t6 be angry alone — it is unsup- 
 portable." She has begun t6 look for 
 her "adventure." She is sure it wil 
 come . . . But when the 20th of 
 March also comes and goes and brings 
 nobody, Colette flies int6 a passion. 
 
 seizes the statue and flings it throu 
 her windo int6 the road — where, of 
 course, it hits the "adventure" in the 
 head as it is climbing the garden wall 
 t6 see what lies beyond, knocs it 
 down, fractures its knee, makes a 
 hole in its forehead, and throes it thus 
 upon repentant Colette's good oflSces 
 as nurse. The story is old enuf, as 
 the reader sees, but it is charmingly 
 told." [Catholic World. 2267 
 
 STOE,Y OF ELIZABETH (The), 
 [ Normandie ] = No. 534. 
 
 STOKY OP PEINE (The), [by 
 Jean de la Brbte : Soberts, 1891.] 
 "The opening chapters d6 not appeal 
 especially t6 the reader, but the inter- 
 est increases as the story is develop- 
 ed. 'Peine' is a young girl, wh6, 
 altho of aristocratic birth and rich by 
 inheritance, is reared in a lonely 
 country house by an ant, wh6 is not 
 only ignorant, but lo-bred. The Snt 
 has a most incorrigible temper, which 
 she visits upon her young and pretty 
 charge. The cur6 wh6m she loves, 
 the ant wh6m she hates, and the ser- 
 vants ar the only companions Peine 
 has during the formation period of 
 her life. Endowed by nature with an 
 impulsiv disiDOsition, a love of free- 
 dom, and an inclination t6 ride ruf- 
 shod over those wh6 hav her educa- 
 tion in charge, Peine finds herself at 
 16 in open warfare with her surround- 
 ings, a condition the reader cannot 
 but sympathize with, for the child 
 possesses a warm heSrt, and instincts 
 which require only judicious training 
 for their ultimate proper develop- 
 ment . . . She promptly falls in love 
 with the first young man she meets, 
 and from that moment life has un- 
 knon charms for her. On the death 
 of her ant, she goes t6 liv with an 
 uncle, in the midst of a 'cultivated 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 society. Tlie sclienie of tlic story is 
 original . . . Tlic dialog, true t6 its 
 frenoh origin, is sparkling and eft'ec- 
 tiv, the ready wit of IJeino, and lier 
 delicate raillery at the exactions of 
 social propriety, which she regards 
 as a bugbear, being at once charming 
 and infectious. ■ Purely as a charac- 
 ter study, -The Story of Reine' is 
 worth reading." • [ Writer. 2268 
 
 STOliY OF SVBILLE (sic for 
 Sibylle) [by Octave Feuillet ( f, 
 1800.) Boston, Osrjood, 1S72.] "is a 
 novel in wliicli aluiost everybody is 
 moral, the heroin an ultramontane 
 catholic witli some of the instincts of 
 a saint, and tlie hero a free-tiiinlier, 
 converted throu love, is a curious 
 thing t5 get from a. man wh6 after- 
 wards wrote ••Camors" [Nos. 2107& 
 2170.] It is an interesting story, never- 
 theless, skilfully told, and put int6 
 readable english. Sybille is a unique 
 creation — not because she is either 
 lifelike or possible, for we imagin her 
 t6 be neither, but because Mr. Feuil- 
 let seems t5 hav tried his hand at 
 making in lier an incipient saint. T5 
 be a saint he has understood that 5ne 
 loves God exclusivly ; and in his effort 
 t6 combine an exclusiv love for God 
 with an absorbing passion for a man, 
 he has produced a character which 
 has no consistency nor possibility. 
 On its face it is a very siuiple, pretty, 
 religious little tale, but it has a taint 
 of insincerity throuout which would 
 be as perceptible wer the novel an 
 anonymous one as it is when it bears 
 its author's name." [Nation.]— '-It 
 is not likely t6 win new laurels for 
 its author. It is thoroly french in its 
 extravagant use of adjectivs, and 
 equally so in the extremes of pietism 
 and skepticism exhibited in its princi- 
 pal characters. Sibylle is one of those 
 
 rare combinations of beauty, grace, 
 intellect, and pioty which abound in 
 second-rate religious novels — a creat- 
 ure all too 1) light and good for hu- 
 man nature's daily food — and the 
 reader is hardly surprised when she 
 takes t6 herself wings. The grand- 
 father and grandmother Ffirias ar a 
 line old couple ; but the majority of 
 the characters ar very indiiferent 
 people, and the plot is poorly man- 
 aged." [ Hearth & Home.] G : 
 Sand's "M'lle de Quintinie" is an 
 answer t6 this novel. 2269 
 
 , SAME, in Hearth and Home, 17 
 
 July, 1869, secj. 
 
 STORY OF THE PLEBISCITE = 
 No. 960. 
 
 STRAIGHT ON. [by author of 
 ■■Colette," Appleton, 1S91.] "Captain 
 Bailleut's dying injunction t6 his little 
 boy was keep ■'Straight on" throu 
 life, and when' he was too weak t6 
 convey the message by words he 
 wrote them. The child adopts this 
 as his motto, and the result is a pretty, 
 pathetic story of a lad's mastery of 
 all sorts of difficulties. A military 
 school is the scene." [ Publisher's 
 Weekly. 2270 
 
 STROKE OF DIPLOMACY (A) = 
 KING APE PI. 
 
 STRUGGLE (A), [ Normandie ] 
 = No. 535. 
 
 SUCH IS LIFE [ by Albert Del- 
 pit], Chicago, ZaM, 1891. 2271 
 
 SURGEON'S STORY (The) ["Les 
 Parents de Bernard" ] by About, in 
 Appleton''s Journal, IS nov. 1871. 2272 
 
 SYBIL'S SECOND LOVE = No. 
 538. 
 
 SYDONIE'S DOWRY [by Ma. 
 Roberts : London, Bell, 1865.] "is a 
 healthy little story, pathetic in some 
 parts, humorous in others and char- 
 acteristic throuout. The scene is laid 
 
 700 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 in a remote valley of Languedoe 
 liemmed in by the hights of C6vennes ; 
 and the characters ar probably such 
 as might be met in that Arcadian re- 
 treat, tho it is possible that they may 
 be a little Idealized. Sydonie, at 
 least, appears t6 be a little above the 
 peasant standard ; but we must make 
 some allowances on account of her 
 having been patronized and petted by 
 the lil-boi-n Therfese de Parthenan. 
 This young lady is the only dauter of 
 a nobleman of the old regime wh6 
 has lost his parents by the guillotine 
 and his lands by confiscatiopY^t has 
 succeeded in buying bao a fragment 
 of the family estate which he culti- 
 vates as a farmer. Hence we hav oc- 
 casional reminiscences of the bonnet- 
 rouge, the Carmagnole, and other fea- 
 tures of the Revolution, which is sup- 
 posed t6 be not so far bac but that 
 elderly people can recollect its hor- 
 rors. The local customs and super- 
 stitions ar lightly and pleasantly 
 touched, and the character of the re- 
 puted witch is welded in with care 
 and effect. Sydonie, of course, is the 
 main figure and is a lovable tho way- 
 ward little heroin." [Athen. 2273 
 
 SYLVIE [ by Gerard de Nerval . 
 Eoutledge, 1888.] "has the elegance, 
 the purity, the translucency of a por- 
 celain vase. When the Frenchman is 
 charming, how charming!" [Boston 
 "Lit. World." 2274 
 
 SYLVIE'S BETROTHED. [by 
 "Henry Gr:^ville", i. e., Alice M.. 
 Celeste (Fleury) Durand: Peterson, 
 1882.] The author here "manages a 
 delicate situation with exquisit tact, 
 and makes what might easily hav 
 been, in the hands of the naturalist, a 
 grossly offensiv story int6 a charming 
 romance of innocent love and heroic 
 self-devotion. A beautiful, wilful 
 
 creature, she fascinates from tlie first 
 with her delightful candor and dainty 
 obstinacy. It Is not strange that 
 Sylvie, left an orfan at an early age, 
 should gro t6 love her godfather, 
 Pierre Clei'mont, with something more 
 than the affection due from ward t6 
 gardian. Nor is it surprising, per- 
 haps, that he should find the educa- 
 tion of this fascinating girl an agree- 
 able task. But the}' ar on dangerous 
 ground, as Sylvie is the first t6 dis- 
 cover when Jacques Debrancy asks 
 for her hand. The scene in which 
 Clermont tries t6 persuade his ward 
 ttS accept the young suitor is admir- 
 ably written. The former is mSved, 
 he knoes not why ; the latter cherishes 
 her dream, loath t6 see it shattered. 
 She yieids at last, only t5 find that 
 her innocent passion can not be over- 
 come, and in despair she sends her 
 young lover away. Meanwhile Mrs. 
 Clermont, seeing herself isolated from 
 her husband's love, is obliged t6 
 meet Jacques Avith sympathy and con- 
 solation. Their mutual pain brings 
 them t6gether, and neither is proof 
 against the 5ther's pity. Only the 
 noble sense of duty in the woman 
 holds bravely out. Amfilie is also 
 forced t6 confess that the dream is 
 fair ;■ but she bids him f arewel with- 
 out a murmur at her fate. "You 
 must learn t6 liv for others," she says. 
 "We may not liv for ourselvs alone." 
 We shal not undertake t6 folio the 
 characters throu the remainder of the 
 story, or foreshado the end which Is 
 made so inevitable. It is easy t6 com- 
 plain of the monotony of the types 
 chosen by Mrs. GrSville t6 exemplify 
 her art ; but no one can question the 
 grace and freshness of her method, 
 the purity of her motivs or the 
 piquancy of her style, which even a 
 
 701 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 nebulous translation cannot wholly 
 obscure. There is evidence of a firm- 
 er touch in Sylvie's Betrothed than in 
 perhaps any other of the author's 
 novels, and the absence of dramatic 
 incident is largely compensated by a 
 breadth of portraiture almost mascu- 
 lin in its grasp of contrasting personal 
 traits." [ Boston -Lit. World." 2275 
 
 TALE OF TWO CITIES = Xo. 972. 
 
 TALES OF TO-DAY AXD OTHER 
 DAYS, by A. DE Musset, Coppice, 
 
 BOURGET, ilAUPASSAXT. MliKIMl^E, 
 
 and Gactier: CasseZZ. 1891. 2276 
 
 TEMPTATION (The) by [M.. 
 Joseph] ••Eugene"" Sue: X.-Y., 
 Winchester. 1845. 2277 
 
 THOROUGH BOHEMIEXXE 
 
 (A), [by Hexriette Etiennette 
 Fanny (APvXAUd) Reybaud: Aj^le- 
 ton. 1879.] '-Sketches of life in an 
 old breton manor-house, framed in 
 pure and simple language, and a few 
 characters wel defined and consistent- 
 ly sustained, combine t6 make this a 
 story of unusual merit. It wil be 
 read with interest and remembered 
 with pleasure, whilst in refinement of 
 touch and delicacy of execution it 
 excels most current novels.'" [Penn 
 Monthly. 2278 
 
 _ THREE REXCONTRES (The), by 
 E. SOUVESTRE. in Southern Lit. Mes- 
 senger, July. 1855. 2279 
 
 THREE STROXG MEX, by Alex. 
 Dumas [Second], X'.-Y., Devntt. 
 1850. 2280 
 
 THREE TALES. [ by Sophie (de 
 Bazancoukt) d'Arbouville, Har- 
 per, 18.53.] '-These stories ar of such 
 exceeding beauty and peculiar merit, 
 that we should be inclined t6 adopt 
 the extravagant estimate of their value 
 taken by the translator, if by so d6ing 
 we could arrest the attention of our 
 readers and provoke them t6 a perusal 
 
 of the volume. They ar simple, clear, 
 sweet, truthful, free from all the 
 vices of style, sentiment and principle 
 which most beset the modern school 
 of french romance. Their leading 
 characteristics ar vividness of con- 
 ception, depth of pathos, and closeness 
 and clearness of pictorial representa- 
 tion." [ Graham's.] — --They exhibit 
 an inimitable portraiture of refined 
 and beautiful passion, in a style of 
 singular sweetness, simplicitj'', and 
 power." [Harper's.] See VILLAGE 
 DOCTOR. 2281 
 
 TOUR AROUXD MY GARDEX 
 by Alphonse Karr: Routledge, 1854. 
 See Athenffium, X'o. 1214. 2282 
 
 TOWER OF PERCEMOXT (THE i 
 [by"G: Saxd". i.e., Araantine Lu- 
 cile Aurore (Dupin) Dudevant ( t, 
 1876.) : Appleton, 1S77.] --The elder 
 dauter has been placed in a convent, 
 and there her stepmother wishes t6 
 keep her and compel her t6 take the 
 vail. A nefew of M. Chautabel 
 named Jacques, a handsome, good- 
 hearted fello, sees M'lle de X'ives. 
 while she is a novice, falls in 15ve 
 with her and succeeds in contriving 
 her escape, she. however, not yet 
 being in love with him . . . This sister 
 Miette is loved by and loves Henri 
 Chautabel, but a coolness has gron 
 between them. The motiv of the 
 story is t6 bring this pair of lovers 
 together, t6 counteract the plans of 
 Countess de X'ives. and tb save the 
 dauter of the latter from her mothers 
 evil influence. The story is almost 
 alt6gether one of character." [ Gal- 
 axy. 2283 
 
 , SAME [and '-Jlarianne"] 
 
 London, ISSl, 240 p. 
 
 TRAJAX = No. 987. 
 
 TREASURE (The), by Souvestre, 
 in Arthur's Magazine, Nov., 1S80. 2284 
 
 702 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 TRIALS OF JETTA MALAU- 
 BRET. = SAINTS AND SINNEMS. 
 
 TRUE AS STEEL [ by ( ) 
 
 Colomb: Boutledge, 1879.] "is a 
 spirited translation of a good story of 
 the War of 1870. Tile liero is a quiet, 
 retiring government clerk, wh6, think- 
 ing nothing of himself and everything 
 of his duty toards God and man. is 
 as '-true as steel," and conceals the 
 hefirt and conduct of a true hero 
 under a quaint, not t6 say rather 
 absurd exterior. The character of 
 uncle Plagide is beautifully drawn; 
 it reminds one of -'Cousin Pons" [ No. 
 2008] in some of its touches. The 
 ending is too sorroful and .the au- 
 thor might, we think, hav turned the 
 faint "hope for the best." with which 
 she consoles her readers, intd a reality 
 without any sacrifice of truth." 
 [Athenaeum. 2285 
 
 TRUE LOVERS' FORTUNE 
 (The), by W : Hauff: Boston, Mun- 
 roe, 1843, 91 pp, 8°. 2286 
 
 , SAME ('-JOSEPHINE, or 
 
 The Beggar of the Pont des Arts"), 
 London, Clarke, 1844. 
 
 TURKO (The), by About, in Six- 
 penny Magazine, 1886 [ Every Saturday, 
 1st t6 15th Sept., 1866.] 2287 
 
 TWINS OF THE HOTEL COR- 
 NEILLE (The) by About, in Bus- 
 selVs Magazine, vol. 6. Nos. 4-6. 2288 
 
 TWO BROTHERS [by Honors 
 "UE" Balzac: Boherts, 1887.) -'is 
 not entirely a story of Provincial 
 life, for the scene is partly Paris, and 
 the brothers ar Parisians born and 
 bred, tho their mother is a provincial. 
 Each novel of Balzac unfolds t6 the 
 reader a little more of the marvelous 
 range of the artist's vision, the uni- 
 versality and fidelity of his insight. 
 Saint and sinner alike ar comprehen- 
 sible t6 him ; love such as has given 
 
 human hearts the material for their 
 saintliest dreams of the relations of 
 Heaven, no less than love in its coars- 
 est satyr shape. Material love is the 
 theme of "The Two Brothers"— but it- 
 is presented here less noble than the 
 typical material love, because tiie 
 mother is herself a weak, dul woman. 
 Strong and unselfish as is her mate- 
 rial passion, sweet and upright and 
 loyal as is her character, Agathe is 
 not an impressiv enuf figure t6 suffice 
 for the story, and it is largely occu- 
 pied with the drama of Philippe's 
 contest with an interloper for the in- 
 heritance of his uncle's property." 
 [ Overland.] — '-The elder brother is a 
 monster ; he has f ysical courage, but 
 absolutely nothing else good. — he is 
 sensual, dishonest, selfish, cruel, and 
 base. On the other hand, his brother 
 is patient, unselfish, clean, honest, 
 and noble. The contrast is almost 
 too great a strain on belief. Associ- 
 ated with them ar other figures which 
 may be classified almost as distinctly 
 as the brothers ... It is not a book t6 
 be left in the way of all sorts of lead- 
 ers ; but it is undoubtedl}' a powerful 
 study of life, and like the others of 
 its kind in the Balzac list, leavs no 
 doubt in the reader's mind as t6 the 
 right and wrong of living." [Ameri- 
 can. 2289 
 
 TWO BROTHERS, by Maupas- 
 sant, = FIEBBE&JEAN. 
 
 TWO DUCHESSES (THE), by E. 
 Zola, N.-Y., Tousey, 188.5. 
 
 TWO FRENCH MARRIAGES 
 [ London, 1868 ] = MADAME DE 
 BEAUPBE [No. 2123.], and Jl 
 PSYCHE OF TO-DAY {_ No. 2-220.] 
 
 TWO LILIES [Normandie] = 
 No. 548. 
 
 TWO MOTTOES (The), by Sou- 
 VESTRE, in Southern Lit. Messenger, 
 
 703 
 
PKENCH NOVELS. 
 
 Jan., 1S55 ; also in The Sapphire. Boi?- 
 ton, Shorey, 1867. 2290 
 
 TWO OLD CATS [Riviera] = 
 No. 549. 
 
 TWO PUPILS OF ST. MARY OP 
 GREXOBLE. by E.. C. P.. ( de 
 Meulan) Guizot, in Southern Lit. 
 Messenger. June, 1854. 2291 
 
 TWO RIVALS (THE) = MAN & 
 MONEY. 
 
 ULLI. [ by Emma Billee : Triib- 
 ner. 1889.] •'Ulrika de Watteville is 
 the dauter of a ruined nobleman, and 
 at an early age is tliron ujion the 
 world without education, and with 
 the most meagre equipment of com- 
 mon sense. Her adventures ar comi- 
 cal enuf, and she struggles most 
 plucliily with her misfortunes. In tw6 
 or three years she becomes formid- 
 ably "educated." But tiie story need 
 not be absolutely tabooed on that 
 account." [Athenaeum. 2292 
 
 UNAWARES. [by F.. M.. 
 Peard : Smith, 1870.] "Written with 
 all the sentiment and delicacy which 
 distinguish The Rose Garden [ No. 
 2237.] the story is even more charm- 
 ing. It does not turn on the incon- 
 sistencies of a little wilful heart lilie 
 Rente's, but portrays the gradual 
 groth and development of a true 
 womanly nature . . . We ar struc 
 afresh in reading this story by the 
 same odd inconsistency between spir- 
 itual and material atmosfere which 
 was so remarkable in 'The Rose Gar- 
 den.' The entourage is as distinctiv- 
 ly forein as the actors ar not. It ie 
 an english mind thinking in french, a 
 french landscape wh6se figures ar full 
 of the health, simplicity, and under- 
 lying reserv of english character. 
 The point and delicacy, the finish of 
 frase and picturable quality of the 
 book cannot be too lill}' praised. It 
 
 abounds in tender th6ts and happy 
 touches." [ Scribner's.] — "We hav 
 so often had t6 condemn stories of 
 french life, that it is both a pleasure 
 and a surprise t6 find one which we 
 can unreservedly praise, both from its 
 tone and its adherence t6 truth. The 
 picture of the old doctor is in every 
 way excellent. The character, too, 
 of Thfirese is stil more delicately 
 drawn. It is in her female characters 
 that the writers' strength is shon. 
 The descriptions, too, ar full of 
 poetry." [Westminster. 2293 
 
 UNCLE & NEPHEW, by About, 
 Graharn's Mag., Jan., 1858; also in 
 The Independent, Jan. 12, 1882 ; also 
 Cassell, 1892. 2294 
 
 UNCLE BERNARD'S SHELL, by 
 Erckmann-Chatrian, in English- 
 woman's Magazine, July, 1872. 2295 
 
 UNCLE CESAR [ by Henriette 
 Etiennette FANNr (Arnadd) Rey- 
 BADD : Appleton, 1879.] "is the story 
 of a rich, aristocratic, pompous bach- 
 elor and his nefew, told in a vein of 
 light comedy. The action takes place 
 in a provincial town. The nefew 
 loves and is beloved ; untoard circum- 
 stances obstruct his marriage ; the 
 uncle finds the nefew t6 be his rival 
 and disinherits him ; the nefew in turn 
 15ses his avaricious lady, and marries 
 a better and worthier girl wh6 had all 
 the while adored him in secret. The 
 story is pure and proper, without 
 having, however, either the strength 
 or beauty inherent in such a work as 
 Theuriet's Young Maugars." [ Bos- 
 ton "Lit. World."]— "The story is 
 somewhat painful, but there is good 
 character-drawing, and a certain per- 
 sistent fidelity in treating the slo, 
 disintegrating processes which aflect 
 human characters and action, which 
 is anything but commonplace. The 
 
 701 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 buoyant and successful selfishness 
 which at first makes Mr. Fauberton 
 the delight of his fello-townsmen is 
 the same sentiment which shapes his 
 subsequent cruel life, and the pru- 
 dence which seems altSgether admir- 
 able in Camille's youth sloly dries the 
 sources of feelings which seemed sin- 
 cere and might hav been controling." 
 [Nation. 2296 
 
 UNDEK THE BAN [ "Le Maudit" 
 
 by the Abb^ * * *^ j. e., DelSon : 
 
 Smith, 1864.] is "a book of some 
 power t6 which the controversies of 
 the time impart adventitious interest. 
 A second part, 'La lieligieuse', folloes 
 the rule, in being less powerful and 
 more tedious than the first portion . . . 
 It is not, however, chargeable with 
 the acrimony and the open prejadi9e 
 which too frequently disfigure novels 
 of its quality." [ Athenaeum.] — "The 
 individual sufferings of the La Cla- 
 vieres' (brother and sister, as suppos- 
 ed, and the hero and heroin of the 
 narrativ) — sufferings attributable t6 
 the machinations of the brotherhood 
 of Loyola, and other malevolent in- 
 fluences which bring the young and 
 ardent reformer of his religious con- 
 temporaries 'Under the Ban' — ar de- 
 lineated with a painful fidelity and 
 verisimilitude which hav rarely been 
 surpassed. The dulness of provincial, 
 the vivacity of Parisian, society, and 
 the charms and perils of Pyrenean 
 solitudes, ar forcibly and appropriate- 
 ly depicted. The events related suc- 
 ceed each other with rapidity, and the 
 alternations of fortune frequently 
 produce striking and sometimes ro- 
 mantic effects. The work is one of 
 much talent and interest." [London 
 Eeview.]' See, also, continuation of 
 above in THE CONFESSOR, N.-Y.. 
 Brady, 1868. 2297 
 
 UNDER THE TRICOLOR [Paris] 
 = No. 551. 
 
 UNDINE, by Andr^ THEnmET 
 [Paris, 1872] in Canadian Monthly, 
 June 1873 t6 Feb. 1874. 2298 
 
 UNFROCKED, by Ernest Dau- 
 DET, N.-Y., Tousey, 1885, = THE 
 APOSTATE. 
 
 UNREQUITED AFFECTION = 
 FEME GOMIOT. 
 
 URSULA. [by Honor]5 "de" 
 Balzac : Eoherts, 1891.] '-Ursule 
 Mirouet. in the series of "Scenes of 
 provincial life," was published in 
 1841. "Ursula" is a most charming 
 creation, a pure, lovely young girl, 
 reared by three old men, wh6 all suc- 
 cumb t6 her tender influence. Her 
 godfather. Dr. Minoret, is surrounded 
 by a number of rapacious relativs, 
 wh6 ar watching for his last breath, 
 that thgy may pounce upon his wealth. 
 Their meanness and viciousness ar viv- 
 idly reproduced. The scene is Ne- 
 moTirs, the life of a provincial town 
 being carefully studied. The post- 
 master of Nemours, wh6 is the Doc- 
 tor's cousin, forms, with his wife and 
 son, a remarkable character group." 
 [Publisher's Weekly.] — "It seems as 
 if for once in his life the great ro- 
 mancer had said t6 himself, 'I wil be 
 a poet and you — ray poem !' Leaving 
 Paris and its storms and dramas, the 
 subject of 'Ursule' nestles among the 
 hils of the provinces, where a silver 
 stream and a, town of ancient houses 
 make love-eyes at each other and co- 
 quet in the piquant way knon only t6 
 old french houses and swift french 
 streams. Glimpses of Pontainebleau 
 bring us near Paris ; but the scene, 
 the plot, the people, the drama ar 
 entirely provincial. The study of 
 provincial manners has always been a 
 fascinating theme, for there is so 
 
 705 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 much of individuality about the old 
 town and chftteau life, untainted with 
 the glaze and polish of the capital, 
 unspoiled in its naive nakedness, 
 simple and good in its rural strength 
 and 'bonhomie.' Here if anywhere 
 the true heSrt of France is found, a 
 pious, godly, often passionate life un- 
 suspected by the hurrying tourist, 
 which Balzac has caut in his vast net 
 and made t6 illustrate one corner of 
 his great comedy — the fireside corner, 
 with all its precious and tender asso- 
 ciations ... In 'Ursule Mirouet' quite 
 the contrary refreshes us, after a long 
 'spel' of barbaric and rococo Balzac. 
 The loveliest Bermuda lily on its tall 
 and tapering stem could not be love- 
 lier than this sweet young girl or the 
 circle of venerable old men t6 wh6m 
 she oes her education. The one weak 
 spot in the book is its use of the super- 
 natural t6 bring about the catastrofe. 
 Balzac, like Dumas, had a 'penchant' 
 for mesmerism and Swedenborg and 
 has nearly spoiled several powerful 
 books by introducing it. 'Ursule 
 Mirouet' imperils the reader's interest 
 by exciting his derision, and produces 
 a feeling of incredulity that is unfort- 
 unate for the whole book. A new 
 fase of covetousness is analyzed with 
 all the master's terrible knoledge of 
 this passion, and new and beautiful 
 love-scenes gro out of the complica- 
 tions in the old doctor's house, t6 
 counterbalance it. The moral of the 
 tale is good, and one is thankful that 
 Balzac wrote fine [only one? See No. 
 2024.] book that, like Zola's 'Reve,' 
 [ No. 784.] can be put int6 the hands 
 of a girl." [ Critic. 2299 
 
 , SAME, In The Dial, Cin'ti, 
 
 1860. 
 
 VENDETTA (THE). [by Ho- 
 nor^ "DE" BiLZAC (t, 1850): Bos- 
 
 ton, Bedpath, 1864, 85 p ; also (transl. 
 by F.. A.. Kemble) in The Democratic 
 Meview, sept. -nov., 1845; also in Ca- 
 nadian Monthly, mar.-apr., 1873.] 
 '■The first of the Scenes de la Vie 
 Privet is entitled La Vendetta. The 
 only dauter of one of Buonaparte's 
 Coi'sican f oUoers, wh6m he has raised 
 t6 rank and wealth. Is, nevertheless 
 a pupil in a common painting school, 
 where she makes acquaintance with a 
 proscribed officer 'de la vieille armee,' 
 wh6m she persists in marrying, in 
 spite of the advice, entreaties, and 
 commands of her affectionate parents, 
 wh6 had the deepest and best found- 
 ed objections t6 the match — namely, 
 an old family feud, exasperated by 
 recent bloody injuries. She at first 
 supports herself and her husband by 
 her great talents as a painter — but 
 gradually she goes out of fashion, and 
 poverty comes. Her parents ar inex- 
 orable; and then perish, of actual 
 starvation — first her baby — for the 
 sources of maternity ar dry — ^and then 
 she and her husband ! The parents 
 repent when too late — the mother dies 
 of remorse, and the father is left alone 
 in the world — soon, also, t6 die of a 
 broken heSrt, the punishment of his 
 cruelty." [ Quarterly Review. 2300 
 
 . SAME ("The Family Feud"), 
 
 in Ohamber''s Pocket Miscellany, Vol. 
 15. 
 
 VILLAGE DOCTOR, (The) [by 
 Sophie ( de Bazancodrt) d'Aebou- 
 ville: Chapman, 1853.] "is a tale 
 of pure and pathetic feeling set in a 
 bright and distinct framework of de- 
 scription. The arrival at a deserted 
 country-house in Brfitagne, of a gay 
 party from Paris, opens the story; 
 and the reminiscences of the village 
 practitioner as t6 what happened in a 
 certain white cottage, which the lady 
 
 706 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 of the manor th6tlessly talks of hav- 
 ing pulled down, furnishes the mat- 
 ter. The Doctor tels the old tale of a 
 secret marriage, foUoed by the young- 
 husband's sudden death and the neg- 
 lect of the wido by his proud relutivs — 
 simply and mornfully — without that 
 affected g.arrulity which writers ar 
 apt t6 introduce intfi such narrativs 
 when they wish t6 be natural.'' 
 [AthensEum. 2301 
 
 , SAME, in '-Three Tales" [No. 
 
 2281.] and in Graham's Magazine, Oct.- 
 Nov., 1847. 
 
 VIOLETS OF MONTMARTKE 
 (The) [ by ( ) Bersier : Lon- 
 don, Seeley. 1874.] "is a collection of 
 interesting stories, excellently trans- 
 lated. It is good and profitable for 
 english girls t6 vary their interests in 
 reading, and these french stories wil 
 sho them incidents in the lives of girls 
 under other environments than their 
 on." [Athena3um. 2302 
 
 VICTIMS [Bretagne J = No. 554. 
 WAS IT LOVE? ["Un Coeur de 
 Fenime") by Paul Bourget : Worth- 
 ington Co.. 1891.] "Bourget ranks 
 with the greatest of modern novelists, 
 and this marvellous effort places him 
 on a plane which few if any of his 
 contemxjoraries wil ever reach. It 
 was a natural supposition on the part 
 of those wh6 knew him that the de- 
 velopment of the 'Comfedie Humaine' 
 would cease with Balzac, that no 
 other hand, however cunning, would 
 possess the genius t6 push the work 
 t6 further if not greater successes. 
 And yet this is what Bourget has 
 done, and in d6ing so has pr6ved him- 
 self a worthy successor of that great 
 master of the modern art of Action. 
 He has taken a theme upon which 
 Balzac wiote at length, and has de- 
 veloped it in a most fascinating man- 
 
 ner. It is the theory of the duality in 
 feminin nature^ — a theory which 
 forms the basic idea in Balzac's 'Sera- 
 phita.' AVith Balzac it was tiie devel- 
 opment of a fllosofical theory solely. 
 Bourget has made a practical applica- 
 tion of that theory, and has produced 
 one of the most interesting psycholog- 
 ical studies as wel as one of the most 
 charming novels which we hav been 
 treated t6 in modern times. This is 
 an expui'gated edition, and in making 
 what he deemed necessary excisions 
 the translator has left out the point of 
 the study. Either these books should 
 be translated literally or they should 
 be left alone : it is too great a wrong 
 t5 the author t6 mutilate his work in 
 this fashion. In an ordinary narrativ 
 of blood-curdling events one or tw6 
 more or less t6 the page would make 
 no difference, but in a great psycho- 
 logical study such as this, where every 
 link in the chain of thot fits int6 its 
 proper place and cannot be dispensed 
 with, it is vandalism and aff'ectation 
 t6 introduce him t6 a thinking public 
 in an expurgated form." [Critic. 2303 
 
 WEDDED IN DEATH, by &. 
 Zola, N.-Y.. Tousey, 1885, = FOB- 
 TUNES OF THE BOUG ON8.—Com- 
 pare No. 1890. 
 
 WEEK IN A FEENCH COUNTRY 
 HOUSE (A). [by Adelaide 
 (Kemble) Sartoris : Loring, 1868.] 
 "The style of this little novel was 
 singularly bright and accomplished, 
 the humor original, and -the chai'ac- 
 ters sharply drawn. The fact that 
 certain persons very wel knon in the 
 world of art wer understood t6 hav 
 sat unconsciously t6 Mrs. Sartoris for 
 their portraits gave a further popular- 
 ity t6 an exceedingly clever and gen- 
 ial book." [ Athenaeum.] See, also. 
 No. 558. 2304 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 WEIRD GIFT, = FETEM'H SO UL. 
 
 WHITE BLACKBIKDS, 8@=- Mus- 
 sel 
 
 WHITE LIES, by C: Eeai.e. = 
 No. 1013. 
 
 WHITE 510NTH (The), by F., 
 M .. Peard. = No. 1014. 
 
 WILL (The), by G: Ohnet. Vizet- 
 elly, N.-Y.. Brentano, Ivers, 18SS. 2305 
 
 WINGS OF COUKAGE (THE) 
 [ by "G : Sand." i. e., Aiuantinc Lu- 
 cile Aurora (Dupin) Dudevant (t, 
 1876) : Putnam, 1877.] ''contains 3 
 rather long stories. But why '-adapt- 
 ed?'' and why is not George Sand ac- 
 knoledged as the author? There 6t t5 
 be an authentic translation of Ma- 
 dame Sand's fairy-tales, which ar so 
 full of fancy, earnestness, and charm. 
 These stories appeal t6 a more imag- 
 inativ and cultured audience of boys 
 and girls than that t5 which the real- 
 istic tales of amerioan writers ar ad- 
 dressed. The beauty and simplicity 
 of the antique, wil, we fear, ai^pear 
 dul when compared with the adven- 
 tures of hoydens and newsboys, and 
 Young America is not partial t5 the 
 young naturalist unless he justifies 
 the singularity of his pursuit by an 
 abundance of slauter." [Lippincott"s. 
 
 SAME, [ London, Blackie, 
 
 1883.] 
 
 "There ar two stories in this volume, 
 the first and most important being a 
 tale of Bretagne. in which the great 
 novelist has mingled fact and fancy 
 in a very happy fashion. We feel 
 sure that the lad wh6 makes his home 
 among the wild birds on the breton 
 cliifis a real person; but he is skil- 
 fully idealised, and his story made in- 
 t6 a genuin romance." [ Specta. 2306 
 
 WINNIE'S HISTORY = No. 560. 
 
 WISH OF HIS LIFE = JEAN TE- 
 TEBOL. 
 
 WITHIN AN ACE = No. 561. 
 
 AVITHOUT DOAVRY', by E. 
 About: in The Emerald, Boston, 
 Shorey, 1866. 2307 
 
 WOMAN OF HONOR = PUPIL 
 OF THE LEGION. 
 
 WOMAN'S HEART (A) = No. 
 2118. 
 
 WOMAN'S JOURNAL (A), [by 
 Octave Feuili.et ( t, 1890.) : 3Iunro, 
 1878.] "Trivial as the story is, it has 
 the merit of being entertaining. All 
 of the woman ar cleverly drawn, their 
 talk is as natural as possible, while 
 the men ar mere vague creations . . . 
 Feuillet holds a hi place among con- 
 temporary french novelists, which he 
 has won by studying fashionable so- 
 ciety, and by flattering the largest 
 class of his readers by putting them, 
 with their little ways, intd his stories ; 
 thus he makes them interested, and 
 he wins those also wh6 hav great cu- 
 riosity about the ways of the great 
 world. He does his work cleverly, 
 but it is a poor piece of business, and 
 one which can hav only brief success. 
 His admission int6 the Academy is 
 very much like the choice of a fotog- 
 rafer for a vacant seat in the Royal 
 Academy." [Atlantic] — "In such a 
 book, tho it touches on delicate 
 ground, there is in the style a refine- 
 ment and in the story an apprecia- 
 tion of the finer things in life which 
 speaks of an atmosfere of chivalry 
 and honor which is becoming less and 
 less common in France. The charac- 
 ters in the story ar few in number-, 
 the interest turns upon the fate and 
 character of the woman wh6 tels it. — 
 It wil be seen -that there is very little 
 incident in it. It is aluiost alt6gether 
 a novel of sentiment ; but, told with 
 that amazing cleverness of which 
 Feuillet is a master, the play of pas- 
 
 708 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 sion and feeling furnishes us much 
 or more interest than the most excit- 
 ing plot." [ Nation. 2308 
 
 , SAME ("Diary of a Woman") 
 
 Appleton, 1879. 
 
 WOMAN'S REVENGE (A), or 
 the Count of Morion, by F: Souli^ : 
 Peterson, 1847. 2309 
 
 WOMAN'S TRIALS (A). [by 
 "Grace Ramsay," i. e., Kathleen 
 O'Meara (t, 1888) : Hurst, 1868.] "In 
 tliis plain, everj'-day story, in which 
 there ar no hiiy wr6t sensation scenes, 
 we hav a minute and vivid picture of 
 an English girl's school life in Paris. 
 Mr. Sala, in Quite Alone, givs some 
 glimpse int6 these establishments, 
 where English girls ar, in more than 
 one sense, finished, but his sketch is 
 not for a moment t6 be compared with 
 that of Grace Ramsay. The place, 
 tlie pupils, the teachers, ar singularly 
 exact. It is a lifelike picture, with 
 which imagination has nothing t6 d6, 
 and the picture is calculated t6 make 
 English parents pause before th6y 
 suffer their girls t6 experience its 
 reality. Of course all the superin- 
 tendents of these schools ar not harsh, 
 sordid, and unscrupulous; of course 
 they d6 not all freeze and starv their 
 pupils ; of course Madame St. Simon 
 is no more the exact likeness of all 
 French schoolmistresses than was Mr. 
 Squeers that of all English school- 
 masters. But they both represent 
 with a terrible distinctness a certain 
 fase of school life." [Englishwom- 
 an's Domestic Magazine. 2310 
 
 , SAME [ "Mabel Stanhope"], 
 
 Boston, Boberts, 1886 [No. 488.] 
 
 WOMAN'S WHIMS (A), by Jo. 
 Xavier Boniface, called Saintine, 
 N.-Y., 1850. 2311 
 
 WONDERFUL EYE-GLASS [Le 
 Lorgnon ] by Delphine (Gay) 
 
 GiRARDiN ( t, 1855) : in Englishwom- 
 an's Domestic Magazine, aug. 1871 t6 
 Jan. 1872. 2312 
 
 WOODLAND QUEEN (A), [by 
 Andr£ Theuriet: Chicago, Sergei, 
 1891.] "The 'Queen' is a sweet sen- 
 sible girl wh6 has been educated 
 abSve her rustic station, but leaves all 
 her opportunities t6 devote herself t6 
 a paralytic old man, wh6m she has 
 alwa3'^s deemed her father. Her 
 country home, with its many duties, 
 changing seasons, and the rare beauty 
 of the woods of Southern [?] France, is 
 artistically drawn. Her love-story is 
 rudely shattered by hearing from her 
 confessor that she and the man she 
 proposes t6 marry ar children of the 
 same father. She goes bac t6 her de- 
 votion t6 the half-witted old paralytic, 
 and in the end wins the love of a truly 
 nobleman." [Pub. Weekly. 2313 
 
 . SAME (abridged) "The Queen 
 
 of the Woods,' Chicago, Laird, 1891. 
 
 WORKMAN'S CONFESSIONS 
 (A), [by Emile Sodvestre (f. 
 1854) : Longman, 1851 ; N.-Y., Hunt & 
 Eaton, 1891.] "Souvestre excelled 
 in delicate description of the minutise 
 of daily life. The workman here 
 tels of the trials and pleasures of his 
 life, his love, marriage, fatherhood 
 and plan of making his children use- 
 ful and happy. The details of home- 
 life among the working classes ar 
 very touching; and the picture he 
 draws of himself and his wife in old 
 age surrounded by thgir children is 
 inspiring and helpful." [Publishers' 
 Weekly. 2314 
 
 WORLD'S VERDICT (THE). 
 [ Riviera ] = No. 564. 
 
 YELLOW ROSE (The), by "C: de 
 Bernard": In The New Mirror, Oct., 
 1843. 2315 
 
 YOUNG GIRL'S CONFESSIONS 
 
 700 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 (A), [by '-G: Sand," i. e., Araan- 
 tine Lucile Aurore (Dupin) Dude- 
 vant: N.-Y., Brady, 1865.] "The 
 author endeavors t6 sho that an im- 
 passioned character may be in the 
 dark about its sentiments and wants 
 in consequence of contradictions 
 which may hav occurred in its educa- 
 tional progress, and of the various in- 
 fluences which hav by turns acted 
 upon it. In order t6 pr6ve her argu- 
 ment, G : Sand introduces t6 her 
 readers several characters wh6 hav 
 their peculiar notions about love. 
 Frumence, a stoical disciple of the 
 ancient fllosofers, and Jenny, an activ 
 and devoted woman, deem love an 
 instinct which should be suppressed 
 and even sacrificed in certain contin- 
 gencies, and which, under all circum- 
 stances, must giv way t6 duty. The 
 vulgar Galanthfee holds love t6 be 
 nothing more than a 'grossier besoin 
 des sens ;' and for the selfish Marius 
 it is simply a means t6 repair the 
 wrongs of fortune by a rich match. 
 Lucienne, wh6 is the principal char- 
 acter of this subtly conceived story, 
 has natural, womanly feelings. She 
 marries one MacAllan, wh6, like her, 
 was deceived in his first aspirations. 
 The devoted Jenny wil marry the 
 stoic Frumence; and the covetous 
 Marius must content himself with the 
 sensuous Galanthfee. The plot in this 
 tale is rather slight, but the delinea- 
 tion of the characters, and the psycho- 
 logical analysis, t6gether with the 
 descriptions of picturesque scenery, 
 ar executed in a masterly manner." 
 [ London Eeview. 2316 
 
 YOUNG MAUGAES. [ by Ande^ 
 Theuriet: Appleton, 1879.] "Those 
 of our readers wh6 remember Theu- 
 riet's exquisit story, 'Gerard's Mar- 
 riage' [No. 2051.] wil learn with 
 
 pleasure that in his latest work, he 
 has produced very nearly, if not quite, 
 its equal. All the charms of beauti- 
 ful description, clear analysis, deli- 
 cate workmanship, hi ideuls, refined 
 motiv, and elevating purpos, ar here 
 found in full strength and equable 
 proportion. The autlior's design 
 is the hiest and best. It is t6 bring 
 out the strong contrast between the 
 sordid and the unselfish life, t5 trace 
 the struggle in a human soul between 
 the loer and the loftier nature, and t6 
 prepossess the heart in favor of that 
 choice which secures virtue, and 
 peace, and simplicity and the delights 
 , of home, even at some sacrifice of 
 things which the world commonly 
 holds dear. All this is accomplished 
 without a suggestion of cant on the 
 one hand, and without resort t6 vul- 
 gar d-evices on the other, so that the 
 reader is guided along a flowery and 
 fragrant path, even tho at times under 
 the shado of clouds, t6 his happy 
 destination . . . Mile. Marcelle's se- 
 ductiv approaches and Etienne's 
 sturdy resistance and final escape ; the 
 latter's present discovery of Therese 
 in her retreat at La Joubardiere and 
 the fanning of the old flame which 
 had already fired their pure and truth- 
 ful hearts, the pleasant picture of the 
 simple life which went on at the f arrn, 
 while the bond that knitted the lovers 
 grew stronger and stronger ; the ruin 
 which then burst upon Mr. Maugars, 
 senior, and the unkind fate that once 
 more threatened the upright-minded 
 son ; these and other passages which 
 conduct the story t6 its conclusion we 
 forbear t6 enter upon in detail . . . 
 The extracts which we hav given wil 
 convey t6 the reader a good idea of 
 the soft and gloing beauty of the pas- 
 toral scenes amidst which this story is 
 
 710 
 
FRENCH NOVELS. 
 
 laid, the tender delicacy of sucli of 
 the dialog, and the sharp outlines of 
 the figures which pass before the eye. 
 We kno no european writer, unless it 
 be Turgfinieff, wh6 equals Mr. Theu- 
 riet in his power of setting a real 
 landscape visibly before you and 
 making his personages t6 stand or 
 m5ve with the vividness of life. Cer- 
 tainly the beauties of rural France 
 hav been seldom if ever placed upon 
 the printed page with more exquisit 
 effect than in this story and in Ge- 
 rard's Marriage. And yet the scene 
 never obtrudes itself in the way of the 
 drama ; the development of character, 
 the play of motiv, the succession of 
 circumstances and incident, and the 
 slo but steady and natural evolution 
 of the result occupy their full share 
 of the attention." , [Boston "Lit. 
 World."] — '-Mr. Theuriet is rather an 
 optimist: his vue of life suggests gay 
 ribbons and holiday jollity in the 
 main, and tho it has its shades they 
 ar not very sombre. But he is very 
 much of a poet, and in an idyllic story 
 like "Young Maugars" is at his best. 
 The love-making is very charming 
 and done with great delicacy. It 
 
 quite atones for the author's nalvetfi 
 in painting a villain of a deliberate 
 and frank execrability with which 
 Zola, wh6 knoes villains t6 their fin- 
 ger-tips, would never think of endur- 
 ing his worst character. — The book 
 is excellent for its contrast between 
 the virtues of the peasants and the 
 vices of the bourgeoisie in a small 
 town, and for its many pleasant 
 pictures of out-of-doors. These, tho 
 they giv a somewhat episodical char- 
 acter t6 the story, ar in a subdued 
 key, and they ar admirable in tech- 
 nique." [Nation. 2317 
 
 . , SAME ("Maugars, Jr.") Viz- 
 
 etelhj, 1880. 
 
 YOUNG MAN OF THE PEEIOD, 
 by A. Theuriet, Chicago, Laird, 
 1892. 2318 
 
 YOUNG STUDENT (The) by E .. 
 C P.. (de Medlan) Guizot: 
 Appleton, 1844. 2319 
 
 ZADIG, by Voltaire : in Brother 
 Jonathan, 12 Nov. 1842. 2320 
 
 ZEMGANNO BKOTHERS (The) 
 byE. de Goncourt: [Paris, 1879.] 
 Maxwell, 1886. 2321 
 
 ZYTE, by H. Malot: Warne, 
 1888. 2322 
 
 "I like the novel because it tels the eternal story of love. And I like 
 it above all because, while I read, I liv a life different from that of every 
 day : the novel carries me for some hours beyond this petty every-day 
 life ; it makes me for the moment realize my dream. In order t6 charm 
 and t6 attract me it should be sentimental, impassioned, graceful, ele- 
 gant, full of illusions, and not the simple fotograf of my ordinary 
 existence which weighs me down on account of its vulgarity and com- 
 monplace, which folloes me everywhfire, — which I kno too vrel, and 
 which I should like t6 forget." [ Quoted in Pall Mall Budget. 
 
 711 
 
PRICE. ONE OOPY. $100; TWO COPIES, $1,00; THREE, $2.26; FOUR, »3,0Oi FIVE, »3.2IJi SIX, »4.(W| TEN, ♦O.OO. 
 
 DESCRIPTIVE LIST 
 
 , OF 
 
 NOVELS AND TALES 
 
 DEALING WITH 
 
 LIFE IN GERMANY. 
 
 COMPILED BY 
 
 W: M. GRIBWOLD. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE, MASS. : 
 
 "W: M. GKISWOLD, Publisher. 
 1S92. 
 
[ From the "Soh^tol Hulletin," Auff., 1892. ] 
 
 "We hope teachers will not fail t6 recognize the work W. M. Griswold 
 is doing in his classified bibliography. He sends us a Descriptive List 
 OF Novels and Tales dealing wnu Life in France (Cambridge, 
 Mass., 1892, 8vo, pp. 94, fl.OO), which is of immediate practical use t6 
 the teacher of French history as well as of French literature. 
 
 [ From the '* Central Christian Advocate " ] 
 
 Mr. Griswold has done an excellent work, which will be appreciated 
 by all librarians, and by many people of cultivated taste wh6 wish t6 
 get on the track of the best French fiction, or at least t6 secure some 
 guidance and information in regard t6 its qualities and characteristics. 
 His former "lists" have dealt with American City and Country Life) 
 with Life in England, etc . . . Life in city and country, peasant life 
 and soldier life, the reckless and adventurous career of the free and 
 easy student in Paris, and the rude rustic among the mountains, — all 
 these phases of French life pass in review in the books which Mr. 
 Griswold has here catalogued. A guide like this would be invaluable 
 t6 a student of French literature, telling as well what t6 avoid, as 
 what t6 secure and read. 
 
 [From the ''Boston Commonwealth," 13 Aug., 1892.] 
 
 If all libraries wer generously equipped with these Lists, the long- 
 suffering curator of books would find more pleasure in life. The com- 
 pilation and selection ar made with rare skill. The poor book drops into 
 deservd oblivion, while the worthy but neglected and forgotten good 
 book is restored to the eye of the world. 
 
 Some not too busy people make note of the name of a novel recom- 
 mended by a trustworthy critic, but when the time for use comes the 
 note seldom is at hand, and, if ready, generally givs the mere title and 
 no idea of the contents. But here is a series of brochures that contain 
 excerpts from the fairest critical notices, often from several sources, 
 and one is enabled t6 form a sort of judgment of choice without actually 
 glancing at the book itself. Of course, those dealing with foreign lauds 
 must for the greater part be translations, since with few exceptions 
 the most truthful and vivid characterizations come from the compatriot 
 wh6 has summered and wintered his fellows. Few people realize the 
 patience, skill, and labor involvd in such an undertaking as the publica- 
 tion of these successiv lists, but those wh6 d6 should urge upon others 
 the use of so valuable a means of education and pleasure. As a series 
 of 'condensed novels' they ar interesting, too. 
 
Germain Novels. 
 
 The object of this list is to direct readers, such as would enjoy the kind of books 
 here described, to a number of novels, easily accessible, hut which, in many cases, 
 hav been forgotten within a year or two after publication. That the existence of 
 works of fiction is remembered so short a time is a pity, since, for every new book 
 of merit, there ar, inmost libraries, a hundred as good or better, unknown to the 
 majority of readers. It is hoped thai the publication of this and similar lists will 
 lessen, in some measure, the disposition to read an inferior new book when supe- 
 rior OLD books, equally fresh to most readers, ar at hand. It may be observed that 
 the compiler has tried to include only such works as ar well-written, interesting, 
 and free from sensationalism,, sentim,entality , and pretense. BUT in a few 
 cases, books hav been noticed on account of the reputation of their authors, or 
 their great popularity , rather than their merit. 
 
 The selicted " notices" ar generally abridged. 
 
 This list will be followed by others describing RUSSIAN, NORWEGIAN, 
 SPANISH, — HUMOROUS, ECCENTRIC and FANCIFUL novels and tales. 
 
 AAEON'S EOD, or the Jewess, in 
 Southern Lit. Messenger, Sept. 1846. 
 
 2323 
 
 AD£ [by BsME Stuart : London, 
 The S. P. C. K., 1882.] "is the tale of 
 an unloved husband and a forsaken 
 lover, of duty faithfully discharged and 
 of virtue rewarded in the end." [Athe- 
 niEum. 2324 
 
 AERONAUT, by A. Stiftek, in Illus. 
 Mag. of Art, Feb., 1853. 2325 
 
 AFTERGLOW [Dresden] = No. 
 405. 
 
 AGAINST THE STREAM, by E. 
 Eckstein, in Masterpieces of German 
 Fiction. 2326 
 
 ALL IN VAIN, by R. Lindau, in 
 Masterpieces of German Fiction. 2327 
 
 ALOYS, by B. Auekbach : Holt, 
 1877. 2328 
 
 ALPINE PAY (The), [by " E. Wee- 
 nek," i. e., E.. Biirstenbinder : Lippin- 
 cott, 1889.] " Two pretty motherless girls, 
 cousins, divide the interest. The father 
 of one is a wealthy man and the presi- 
 dent of a gr^at railway ; that of the 
 other a baron, and • possessor of an 
 ancestral mansion among the mountains, 
 which the railroad president is trying to 
 get for his railway. The struggle t6 
 retain his home kils the old baron, and 
 he dies cursing the originator of the 
 road. Added to this curse is a legend of 
 the ' Alpine Pay ' connected with a peak 
 which is verified in the story just as the 
 baron's curse seems tS carry out its evil 
 work. The theft of an invention, the 
 final punishment of the thief, several 
 love affairs, and many charming scenes 
 from domestic life make up the story." 
 
 712 
 
GERMAN NOVELS. 
 
 [Pub. Weekly.] It "is agreeable. 
 . . Readers wh5 do not relish the 
 ultra emotionalism of the German novel 
 may yet find in the strong and effectiv 
 local coloring of this book a good excuse 
 for giving it their attention." [Ameri- 
 can. 
 
 — , SAME (" A Heavy Reckoning.") 
 
 — , SAME ("The Fairy of the Alps.") 
 See No. 729. 2329 
 
 AMAZON (The) [by Feanz 
 DiKGELSTEDT (f, 1881) : Putnam, 1868.] 
 ■" deals cleverly with artistic and 
 theatrical life under the glare of the 
 footlights." [Nation. 2330 
 
 ANNA HAMMER [by Hubertus 
 Temme : Harper, 1852] " givs a vivid 
 picture of the interior of german life, 
 and is filled with passages of exciting 
 interest." [Harper's. 2331 
 
 ARISTOCRATIC WORLD (The) 
 by Fan^y (Lewald) Stahr : in Mas- 
 terpieces of German Fiction. 2332 
 
 ASBEIN, by " Ossip Schuein," 
 Worthington, 1890. See No. 2345. 
 
 AT A HIGH PRICE [by " E. Wer- 
 ner," i. e., E.. Biirstenbinder : JSsies, 
 1879] "A love affair between tw5 
 young people as strongly affected by a 
 feud of long standing between two 
 elderly men, who stand in near relation 
 and friendship to the lovers. One of 
 the men is "a physician of renown, the 
 other is the governor of the Province. 
 The cause of the bitter feud is political. 
 Gabrielle, the heroin, is the ward of the 
 governor, whom she learns t(5 love, and 
 hence is ready t5 sacrifice her early lover. 
 The situation is elucidated by a tragedy." 
 £Pub. Weekly. 
 
 — , SAME ("No Surrender") Rem- 
 ington, 1879, Munro, 1883. 
 
 — , SAME, (" The Price He Paid ") 
 N. Y., Street, 1891. 2333 
 
 AT ODDS, = No. 593. 
 
 AT QUARANTINE, by Fanny 
 
 (Lewald) Stahr : in The Radical, 
 Nov., 1871. 2334 
 
 AT THE ALTAR, by Werner, = 
 No. 594. 
 
 AT THE COUNCILLOR'S [by " E. 
 Marlitt," i. e., Eugenie John (f, 1887) : 
 Lippincott [Bentley~\ 1876] is " a story 
 which compares wel with the best the 
 author has written, while it is far better 
 than her worst. She always runs the 
 risk of overdSing whatever she takes in 
 hand, of exaggerating the goodness of 
 her heroes and heroins, and the villainy 
 of the wicked ones ; but if we overlook 
 this fault, we find her capable of inter- 
 esting the reader and of giving a fair 
 picture of german life. On this occa- 
 sion she has drawn upon her experience 
 of the turmoil which has arisen in her 
 country since the late Avar, and has 
 shon the disturbance caused "by the sud- 
 den gain and sudden loss of wealth. 
 The councillor d5es not belong to one 
 of the fine old families, but he accumu- 
 lates a large fortune and illustrates 
 admirably the fate of those of his class 
 whS ar put on horsebac, by riding 
 rapidly in the familiar direction, expe- 
 diting his journey by the awful explosion 
 of dynamite. The main interest of the 
 book lies not in him but in the heroin, 
 Kitty, who is young, rich, handsome, 
 fascinating — in fact, faultless; and in 
 the silent, uncomplaining, but able Dr. 
 Bruck. Flora, whij was for a long time 
 engaged to Bruck, was a very mischiev- 
 ous young person, and is the object of 
 the utmost virulence on the part of the 
 author. She is aggressivly wicked; 
 and this exaggeration is the more to be 
 regretted because she is a wel-imagind 
 character." [Nation.] — ^"We cannot 
 say that any of the personages of the 
 story ar very pleasing. The doctor, 
 wh6 is the hero, is a good example 
 of the half-scientific, half-military prig. 
 
 ri3 
 
GERMAN NOVELS. 
 
 BEACON FIKES [ "Fliimnu'nzeicb- 
 nen") by "E. A\'ehner," i. c.,E.. Btirstcii- 
 binJer: Bentley, 1891.] "is a German 
 novel by a German, but it is written in good 
 plain Englisb. It is romantic, of eourse, 
 anil rather sentimental, butdesidedly inter- 
 esting. The struggle between father and 
 son, which is the pith of the story, is wel 
 conceived, and botli hold the reader's sym- 
 pathy. A' on Falkenricd, with his stern 
 sense of disfiplin, moral as wel as military, 
 and with a kind nature hardened by a 
 miserable marriage, is determined to nndce 
 his son go as strait as he and his angestors 
 hav always gone. Hartmut, however, has 
 hi.s Roumanian mother's blood, and it is 
 not of the quality which goes strait. At 
 17 he is induced by the divorced wile, his 
 mother, whom he believed to be de.ad, to 
 desert the military college where he is 
 being trained, and to which is attached a 
 sort of parole of lionor not so binding as 
 the oath of service, but distinctly under- 
 stood, and also to brfiak his promise to his 
 lather. These ar deep ofl'enses, and thSy 
 ar lolloed by ten dubious years of adventu- 
 rous life, in which Hartmut's poetic gen- 
 ius is developed at the cost of his morals 
 and faith. How the gifted and unhappy 
 son redeems the blited reputation by 
 splendid service in the war with France, 
 and reconciles his iron lather, may be 
 read, al6ng with much more or less relev- 
 vant matter, in the pages of the book it- 
 sell. Hartmut is a distinct individuality, 
 and his story has interest. There is, ol 
 course, plenty ol love-making ol various 
 
 sorts, and a grCat many weddings at the 
 end, as German novels usually hav, and 
 the only trouble is, that the fine lello 
 Prince Egon has to he shot, because he 
 also was in love with Adelheid, and she 
 (•(juld'nt marry both him and Hartmut. 
 [Saturday lieview]— As a picture ol 
 various phases ol lile among the "classes" 
 in Germany, the book can be heartily and 
 unreservedly praised; and the humorous 
 sidi-story, which deals with tlie love-afl'aii's 
 ol the easy-going young giant, Willibald 
 \on Eschenhagen, is really a good deal 
 more enjoyable than the greater part ol 
 the rather melodramatic romance in which 
 the Byronic liei'o, Hartmut p'alkenried, 
 is the leading figure. There is, however, 
 a point in the story at which Hartmut 
 (,'eases to be merely histrionic and be- 
 <'umes human ; and Irom tliis point onward 
 is, what the writer has meant him tij be all 
 along, the true centre ol interest. His 
 midnight interview with the stern lather 
 who has disoned him, and who reluses to 
 condone the dishonor ol the stainless name 
 ol Falkenried, is a really strong piece ol 
 work,— a tragic situation quite unspoiled 
 by anything iu the way ol sentimental un- 
 reality; and hardly less inipressiv is the 
 pathetic and picturesque recital ol the 
 sucpesslul issue ol the deed ol daring by 
 which the son saves the lather's lile." 
 [Spectator. 
 
 , SAJIE ("His'Wnrd ol Honor"), 
 
 >i.-Y., iStreci & Smith, 1890 ( 284 p. ) 
 
 , SAME ("Northern Lights"), X.- 
 
 Y., Bonner, 1890. 2339 q 
 
 714 s 
 
GERMAN NOVELS. 
 
 it class wel knon in the Fatherland. The 
 lady with whCm he plays the game of 
 fast and loose is 29 year.? old, writes, and 
 speaks of herself as a ' rich perfumed 
 plant;' while her grandmother and the 
 other members of her family ar all 
 disagreeable after their ways. Her half- 
 sister, for whSm her lover finally givs her 
 up, an innocent and not wholy unpleasant 
 young girl, tinctured, however, rather 
 too deeply with Dresden culture, and 
 the Doctor's dnt, an elderly lady of the 
 ' goody ' type, who makes pancakes and 
 talks piously, ar the only tw5 people in 
 the book whSm we dS not feel we should 
 hate if we met them in the flesh. The 
 descriptions ar good; tho, as is usual 
 with descriptions of german life and 
 scenery, they produce a somewhat de- 
 pressing effect, like the stove-warmed 
 rooms." [Athenaeum.] — " This is one 
 of the author's best stories, — a graphic 
 picture of hi life ; a vivid love-drama ; 
 a gallery of striking portraits, with a 
 moral echo infinitly impressiv. The 
 contrast of Kitt}', the heiress — a pure, 
 innocent, sincere young girl, and the 
 vain, arrogant, selfish Flora, her half- 
 sister, is one of the finest effects in 
 fiction ; and the characters of the 
 councillor and the physician ar not 
 less effectivly opposed. The history 
 of the betrothal of Flora and Bruck 
 is a tragical drama, forcibly illustrating 
 the woman's perfidy and the steadfast 
 iusti9e of the man. Kitty is a lovely 
 character, who passes throu many trib- 
 ulations to her due reward." [Boston 
 " Literary World." 2335 
 
 BACHELOR OF GOTTrNGEN(The) 
 in The Symbol, Jan., 1846. 2336 
 
 BAILIFF'S MAID (The) [by " E. 
 Maklitt," i.e., Eugenie John (f, 1887) : 
 Lip-pincott, 1881.] is " a piece of fiction 
 as faithful to life as t6 seem no fiction ; 
 a summer love-idyl, invested with name- 
 
 less charm and quaintness of old-world 
 existence ; a plot of the simplest and 
 most transparent character, yet with 
 mysteries and surprises skilfully 
 handled, and a technique fresh and 
 rich . . . The scene is u, beautiful 
 secluded manor in the Thiiringian 
 forest — just the place for the new hSir 
 of the estate, a wealthy young manu- 
 facturer from Berlin, to fall in love on 
 occasion of his first visit ; and fall in 
 love he does, most hopelessly, and 
 much tS his dismay, with the queenly 
 and mysterious maid of the farm 
 steward." [American. 2337 
 
 BALDINE = No. 598. 
 
 BANNED AND BLESSED = No. 
 600. 
 
 BAREFOOTED MAIDEN = LIT- 
 TLE BAREFOOT. 
 
 BARON LEO VON OBERG, 
 Boston, Loring, 1868. 2338 
 
 BARONESS BLANK, by A. ~Sm- 
 mann: ^oJiJier, 1891. 2339 
 
 BEATRICE, by Heyse, = No. 669. 
 
 BEGINNING AND END, by Heyse, 
 = No. 669 : also in Every Saturday, 23- 
 80 Jan., 1869. 2340 
 
 BELINDA [Dresden] = No. 420. 
 
 BETROTHAL OF MR. QUINT, 
 by H: Zschokke, in Graham's Mag., 
 Feb .-Apr., 1844-. 2341 
 
 BLACK FOREST VILLAGE 
 STORIES. [by Berthold Auer- 
 each (t, 1882.) : Phil'a., F. W. 
 Thomas, 1858; N. Y., Leypoldi, 1869.] 
 " ar Pr£e-Raphaelite pictures of peasant 
 life — pictures so simple and so vivid 
 that with a, little stretch of fancy we 
 can see the figures moving in the fields 
 or in the roads, the smoke curling from 
 the rustic cottages, and almost hear the 
 soft gutturals transforming themselvs 
 intS the sharp aspirates of o3r english 
 speech. In each story we meet the 
 same fresh-faced peasants, — the same 
 
 ri4 
 
GERMAN NOVELS. 
 
 homely, simple life. This is all delitful 
 to read about, because it is so fresh and 
 new. The perfectly unaffected manner 
 in which these tales ar told is another of 
 th^ir charms, and the book wil hav a 
 wholesom attraction for any reader 
 whose taste has not been vitiated by the 
 hily-spiced pictures current in the liter- 
 ature of tS-day." [Round Table.] — 
 " All of them hav a wonderful air of 
 truthfulness and naturalness and tender- 
 ness, to which undoubtedly, their popu- 
 larity is due. That this should be as 
 grSat as it is, even in forein parts, and 
 with readers whose experience is so un- 
 like that of the german peasants and 
 villagers, is good testimony to the au- 
 thor's excellence. In our opinion, it is 
 in these village stories, and in his 
 shorter, less ambitious novels, that 
 Auerbach is at his best ; he is certainly 
 infinitly more natural, and he comes 
 much nearer life, than he does in the 
 long novels in which he discusses vague 
 theories of social philosophy." [Atlan- 
 tic]. — " The somewhat realistic english 
 mind is rather repelled than attracted by 
 Auerbach's peasants, who ar anything 
 but genuin boors. They ar german 
 philosophers, folloers of Spinoza, 
 tricked out for the nonce in peasant 
 attire. Yet, for all these defects, the 
 stories hav real merits, ar prettily told, 
 and, save for the fault we hav named, 
 ar true to nature." [Athenaeum.] 
 
 The tales in this collection ar : The 
 Gawk [a story continued in Aloys (No. 
 2328), The Pipe of War, Manor- 
 House- Farmer's Vefela, Nip-cheeked 
 Tony, Oood Oovernment, The Hostile 
 Brothers, Ivo, Florian and Crescenz, 
 The Lauterhacher . " How shal we dis- 
 miss the other stories, Brosie and Moni, 
 for example. Ar we not to dwel even 
 on the proud device of Brosie, ' I hav 
 no equal,' which was quite true? Not a 
 
 word about Ivo, whS was t5 hav been a 
 parish priest, and never became one ; or 
 his gentle mother, Christin, or Lorle, the 
 village maiden whom the painter wedded, 
 or his democratic and satirical friend, the 
 Kohlebraier ; or the shy schoolmaster 
 from Lauterhaeh ; or the story of Seh 
 and Zilge and their house which was 
 founded on sand? And Hops and Bar- 
 ley, and the sad disappearance of Vefele, 
 and the adventures of Joseph in the 
 Snow, with his witch friend, Lugard, 
 Hecate's first cousin, and the wild Roe- 
 mannin and Aivle and Matthias wh5 
 stole the May, ar these tS be lumped in 
 a bare catalog when they would fur- 
 nish a winter's reading? But the reher- 
 sal of such names wil tel us why Auer- 
 bach is a household word among his 
 countrymen ; and why his death brot 
 grief into German homes." [Dublin 
 Review. See, also, GERMAN STO- 
 RIES. 
 
 — , SAME (" Village Tales of the 
 Black Forest,") Bogue, 1846-7, 2 v. 
 
 — , SAME (" Ivo"), London, 1847. 
 
 — , SAME (" Florian and Cres- 
 cenz"), London, 1853. 
 
 — , SAME ("Professor's Lady"), 
 Harper, 1850. 
 
 — , SAME ("Lorley and Eeinhart ") 
 HoH; 1877. 2342 
 
 BLOODSTONE (The) = No. 612. 
 
 BLUE WONDER (The), by H: 
 ZsOHOKKE, in The Albion, 8 July 1837. 
 
 2343 
 
 BOARDING SCHOOL GIRLS, by 
 E. Eckstein, in Masterpieces of German 
 Fiction. 2344 
 
 BORIS LENSKY [by " Osaip Schu- 
 BiN," i. e., Lola Kirschner : N.-Y., 
 Worthington, 1891.] is " a continu- 
 ation of ' Asbein.' The hero, wh6 ap- 
 pears as a violinist, is said to be in- 
 tended for Rubinstein. His selfishness 
 and vanity ar further illustrated, and 
 
 715 
 
GERMAN NOVELS. 
 
 the last days of a gr^at genius, whiSse 
 powers ar waning, are depicted with a 
 pitiful realism." [Pub. Weekly. 2345 
 
 BRAVE WOMAK (A), by " Mar- 
 LiTT," = No. 936. 
 
 BREACH OF CUSTOM (" Geheim- 
 niss des Geigers ") by Reinhold Ort- 
 MANN, N.-Y., Bonner, 1891. 234=6 
 
 BREAKING OP THE DIKES, by 
 Th. MiJGGE : [Schleswigr] in Gra- 
 ham's Mag., Apr., 1856. 2346 g 
 
 BREAKING OF THE STORM (The) 
 {by F : Spielhagen : Bentley, 1877.] is 
 " a powerful and vivid picture of social 
 life in Berlin during the late financial 
 crisis." [Athenajum. 2346 k 
 
 BRIGADIERFREDERIC, by "Erck- 
 MANN Chatrian,"=No. 619. [Elsass.] 
 
 BRIGITTA [by Berthold Auer- 
 BAOH : Soli, 1880.] " deals with simple 
 peasant life and character. The heroin is 
 the dauter of a peasant, once the oner 
 of a farm and much forest-land, who is 
 defrauded, ruined, and finally brot to a 
 premature grave by the machinations 
 of a swindler. The burning sense of 
 wr6ng which fires the old man's blood 
 passes at his death intS the nature of 
 his dauter. She fights it with all the 
 powers of wil and resolv, but \vhen, 
 years after, her enemy comes for treat- 
 ment t5 the oculist in whose hospital 
 she is serving as assistant, and she hears 
 him boast of his crimes and their suc- 
 cess, an uncontrollable fury seizes her; 
 she tears the bandage from his eyes, 
 tels her true name, and bids him go 
 blind thenceforward as a judgment on 
 his villainy. The terrible revulsion of 
 remorse, her agony of relief when she 
 learns that the operation was unsuccess- 
 ful and in no case could her victim hav 
 recovered his sight, the expiation she sets 
 herself of tending her enemy and nurs- 
 ing him t5 the end of his days, her 
 beautiful and peaceful life afterward as 
 
 landlady of the Golden Lamb, ar all 
 powerfully depicted, and make a har- 
 monious and fiawless picture, full of 
 fresh and vigorous feeling." [Boston 
 "Lit. "World."] — " Brigitta is a story 
 which may be warmly commended. It 
 is in Auerbach's best style, and does not 
 contain the discussions of the true in- 
 wardness of everything which some- 
 times overburden his long novels. It is 
 a short story, very much like the Vil- 
 lage Tales [No. 2342], by which we 
 ar safe in presuming that this author 
 wil be remembered by future genera- 
 tions. Indeed, it is t8 be borne in mi.id 
 that Auerbach deservs credit, not merely 
 for his delightful stories, but also with 
 inspiring other writers with a desire tS 
 copy him. G : • Sand, for instance, was 
 led by reading these village tales to 
 write ' La Mare au Diable ' [No. 2013] 
 and her other stories of simple peasant 
 life. It is not given tS every man to open 
 a new path in literature, and that Auer- 
 bach has d5ne this is something which 
 should not be forgotten. Of late years, 
 after abandoning the tale, he has tried 
 more ambitious flights, which hav been 
 less successful." [Atlantic. 2347 
 
 BROKEN CHAINS [by " E. Wer- 
 ner," i. e., E.. Biirstenbinder : Osgood, 
 1876.] "The bonds riven ar those of 
 matrimony. A young German, in a, 
 gushing mood, deserts his counting- 
 house and his too domestic wife for the 
 life of i» musical composer and the 
 society of a passionate Italian. Rein- 
 hold is wel described, tho most english 
 readers wil be rather repelled by his 
 enthusiasm, and indignant at his artistic 
 hypocrisy. Certainly, he is a selfish 
 scamp, and the signora has more to dS 
 with his errors than the needs of his 
 mental idiosyncrasy. His lamentations 
 and rhapsodies ar wel contrasted with 
 the plain sense of his brother, a mer- 
 
 716 
 
GERMAN NOVELS. 
 
 chant skipper, who comes home after 
 a long absence just when Reinhold is 
 on the point of escaping. His feelings 
 ar not demonstrativ, but he is genuinly 
 touched by his sister-in-law's distress, 
 and makes a discovery about the color 
 of her eyes which causes him, being a 
 manly fello, to go throu much repressiv 
 self disciplin. The character of Ella, 
 whose principal fault was being too 
 youthful, is brot out as wel as hardened 
 by adversity. She gains a complete 
 mastery over the truant Beinhold, to 
 whom she is reconciled by force of cir- 
 cumstances, which need not be re- 
 vealed." [Athenasum. 
 
 — , SAME ("Riven Bonds"), Rem- 
 ington, 1877. 2348 
 
 BITCH HOLZ FAMILY (The) [by 
 Julius Stinde : London, Bell., 1886-7, 
 2 v.] "This series of letters from 
 a middle-class, typical ' Hausfrau," 
 who is utterly devoid of sentiment, 
 poetry, of any feeling save jealousy, of 
 any instinct save the maternal one, has 
 passed into its 50th edition. . . 
 The truth is, that the gr^at success of 
 these bri^f sketches of middle-class 
 people and their ways, drawn by one of 
 themselvs, is due to the fact that they 
 hav been recognized as perfect like- 
 nesses by the people who unconsciously 
 sat for them. . . . More than this, 
 Dr. Stinde has made his "Wilhelmine 
 Buchholz so vitally feminin in her 
 pretty traits that she wil appeal to the 
 h^art of many a woman in 5ther ranks 
 of society, who would, nevertheless, 
 consider this german woman ' common.' 
 Common she certainly is ; but the way, 
 for instance, in which she breaks off 
 and renews her connection with the 
 hated Bergfeldt family, is not unknon in 
 other lands and circles. The other 
 actors possess the same vital quality, 
 tho they ar limited to casual exhibitions 
 
 of it, in subordination to Wilhelmine. 
 As a whole, they present a perfectly 
 real but depressing class of the com- 
 munity, which is wholy wrapped up in 
 its petty interests, which has no ambi- 
 tion to elevate itself in any way — which 
 indeed, seems unconscious that there is 
 anything hier than itself and its unintelli- 
 gent ways except when some member 
 of the circle, like Emil Bergfeldt, 
 chances to recall the fact by marrying 
 a little more money than it is accus- 
 tomed to. Erau Bergfeldt has not au 
 idea beyond snubbing or conciliating her 
 dearest female friends, who ar also her 
 natural enemies, and getting her dauters 
 married; yet her nativ mother wit en- 
 ables her to say things which ar clever 
 and droll enuf to appeal to hily culti- 
 vated readers, if the latter wil take the 
 small trouble of adjusting the focus to 
 their vision." [Nation.] — The book 
 " is amusing and readable; but if this 
 is indeed german middle-class life and 
 these ar the 'hausfrauen' of Berlin, 
 one can only be thankful that he is not 
 a Berliner. President Lincoln's wel- 
 knon commendation is, however, here in 
 order : ' For anybody who likes that 
 sort of thing, it is just the sort of thing 
 he would like,' — and presumably the 
 placid Berliner likes women of this 
 sort, for he takes especial pains to train 
 them and compress them and trim them 
 into just this type, and resists with 
 horror any suggestion to make them 
 more interesting or more reasonable." 
 [Overland. 
 
 The second series of these sketches 
 "differs to some extent from the first 
 in style and method. Emphasis is laid 
 on the kind and motherly qualities of 
 Fran Buchholz rather than on her un- 
 conscious humor, and in the love story 
 of her dauter Betti an attempt is made 
 to suggest a romantic element of serious 
 
 717 
 
GERMAN NOVELS. 
 
 interest. . . . The author presents 
 an admirable picture of a foppish young 
 ' poet,' who thinlss nothing good enuf 
 for him in the writings of the grSat 
 poets of the past, and is always convict- 
 ing them of plagiarism. At last he is 
 persuaded to read u, poem of his on, 
 when he is found practically tQ have 
 appropriated one of Heine's lyrics." 
 [Athenseum.] For continuation see 
 FRAU WILHELUINE. 2349 
 
 BURGOMASTER OF BERLIN 
 (The), in The Anglo-American, 4 Nov., 
 1843. 2350 
 
 BURIED GEM, by Auerbach, in 
 Ladies' Repository, Nov., 1873. 2351 
 
 BUSY HANDS AND PATIENT 
 HE.A.RTS. [by [C :] Gustav Nieritz 
 (t, 1876) : London, Jackson, 1863.] 
 
 " There is no mistake as to the 
 charming style of German tales. . . . 
 The first chapter, in which little Magda 
 comes early in the morning to Master 
 Tanzer, the potter, with a broken cup 
 to be mended, is enuf to seal the char- 
 acter of the rest; and we promis our 
 young friends that th^y wil not be eon- 
 tent until th^y read of the blind boy, the 
 hard landlord, and the merry Christmas, 
 with all the other exciting but instruc- 
 tiv incidents of the volume, which is 
 one we can recommend without hesita- 
 tion." [London Review. 
 
 — , SAME, transl. by Harwood, 
 Lippincott, 1869. 2352 
 
 BY HIS OWN MIGHT [by "VVil- 
 HELMINE (B.) VON HiLLERN : LippincoU, 
 1872.] "is intended to teach the young 
 the advantages of overcoming all obsta- 
 cles in the way of good works. As a 
 work of fiction we must say that we 
 found it extremely dul, tho perhaps no 
 duller than most german novels. With 
 all respect for the Germans, it would 
 seem as if th^y th6t fiction wer a science, 
 and, given a problem, 2 or 3 incarnate 
 
 qualities, and some morally sound conver- 
 sation, the novel must be good." [Na- 
 tion.] ■ — " The author conducts a frail, 
 crippled lad from infancy to manhood. 
 The tale, which has great variety in its 
 scenes and an interest decidedly above 
 the common run of novels, is above all 
 a study of character. Young Alfred, 
 the child of aristocrats, is delineated at 
 full length in his pampered weakness, 
 with his intelligence shooting forward 
 into unnatural preco9ity, and his habits 
 tinged with cowardice and valetudina- 
 rianism. Everything is conspiring to 
 make him the despised, spoiled pet of 
 the household ladies, when the discov- 
 ery, just at the turning point of his 
 youth, of a home tragedy, suddenly 
 makes him the judge of his mijther, the 
 protector and inheritor of the family 
 estates, and the avenger of his father. 
 How he becomes studious and heroic, 
 how he embraces that profession of sur- 
 gery which has remodeled his on frame 
 into symmetry, how he carries his healing 
 science to the battle-field, and arrives at 
 fame and royal favor, ar told with a 
 most inventiv wealth of detail and with 
 never-flagging spirit." [Lippinc. 2353 
 CASTLE [Schloss] AND TOWN. 
 [byF.. M.. Peard : Smith, [rep., Lip- 
 pincott~\ 1882.] " It is pleasant tS think 
 that there ar people in the world wh5, tho 
 commonplace, engrossed in the petty 
 concerns and anxieties of every-day life, 
 and not above occasional small jealous- 
 ies and squabbles, possess, nevertheless, 
 a genuin heroism which holds itself in 
 reserv til called out by some emergency, 
 and then manifesting itself quietly and 
 spontaneously, as a real and essential 
 element in their composition. Schloss 
 and Town affords, capital examples of 
 such people, drawn with much quiet 
 humor and fidelity to life, whom it is 
 impossible for the reader to help 
 
 718 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 BY THE ELBE, [by " S.. Tytler," 
 i. e., Henrietta Keddie : Smith, 1876.] 
 "An english squire, his wife, and 3 
 dauters go tS Dresden in search of 
 opportunities for retrenchment. Dresden 
 is so much frequented by english, that 
 . the fact of having spent a vaca- 
 tion in that artistic but dullish capital 
 seems tS admit to a kind of Freema- 
 sonry. No doubt those who ar thus ini- 
 tiated wil read with interest the advent- 
 ures of the Carterets : how they went t9 
 Prag a^d Niirnberg ; how they attended 
 ' smoking concerts,' and studied pict- 
 ure-galleries ; finally, how the maidens, 
 at least, of the family got married (or 
 failed tS do so) in the land of thto 
 exile." [Athenaeum. 425 u 
 
 118 h 
 
GERMAN NOVELS. 
 
 liking. The wliole representation of 
 tlie Von Tellenbacli family is delight- 
 ful, with their troubles, manner of life, 
 little jars, individual weaknesses, and 
 strong, mutual affection ; it is truthful, 
 amusing, and yet, now and then, touch- 
 ing." [Spectator.] — " Within its 
 modest limits it is singularly wel 
 sustained and harmonious. Th^re is 
 a Niirnberg episode, which, with- 
 out delaying the action of the story, 
 sets before the reader all the charm of 
 that ' quaint old town of art and song.' " 
 [Nation. 2354 
 
 CASTLE HOHENWALD = No. 
 629. 
 
 CHARLOTTE ACKERMAN [by 
 0:MtiLLER: Phil'a, Porter, 1874.] "is 
 a hily romantic story, very pleasantly 
 written, and full of the metaphysics of 
 love. It begins with a death, and ends 
 with the death of the heroin in the full 
 blaze of youth, beauty, and talent, its 
 termination being, in fact, remarkably 
 infeli9itous. . . . Charlotte is very 
 beautiful, very clever, proud, and sen- 
 sitiv, encouraging none in particular of 
 her numerous admirers. . . . The 
 style of the novel is occasionally very 
 good, but it is a dismal story. Virtue is 
 not made even its on reward, nor is 
 crime adequately punished." [Arca- 
 dian. 2355 
 
 CHILDREN OF THE "WORLD 
 (The) [by Paul Heyse : Chapman, 
 1882; N.-Y., WortUngton, 1890.] "is 
 a classic; the most th6tful and philo- 
 sophic of all Heyse's novels. The pict- 
 ures of artist life, the mysterious young 
 girl, beautiful and alone, the tender 
 love-story of Leah and Edwin, all hold 
 fast the reader's attention. Inter- 
 spersed with the story ar numerous 
 beautiful reflections and philosophic 
 musings, tSgether with poems, which, 
 tho inadequately rendered, possess some 
 
 of the charms of their originals." 
 [Writer. 2356 
 
 CHRISTIAN GELLERT by B. Auer- 
 bach: Low, 1858, S". 2357 
 
 CHRISTOPHER'S FIRST JOUR- 
 NAL, with No. 2471. 
 
 CINDERELLA OF THE BLACK 
 FOREST (A) = No. 2455. 
 
 CLARA, [by F: W: Hacklander 
 (1816-77) : Harpers, 1856.] " The au- 
 thor made up his mind that th^re was a 
 slave-life in Europe as wel as in Amer- 
 ica, and sets himself to work to prove 
 this. He lays his scene among the loer 
 classes ; in the green-rooms of theatres ; 
 in the dens of thieves, and in the whole- 
 sale nurseries of children of doubtful 
 birth. His characters belong to the 
 localities in which . he finds them ; they 
 ar poor and wretched, and sometimes 
 villainous. The women ar the slaves of 
 the men; the men the slaves of thSir 
 passions. ... As a mere character 
 the Baron is capitally drawn ; but he 
 reminds us of the melodramatic impossi- 
 bilities of Sue. The author of ' Clara' 
 is indeed a sort of german Sue, and 
 ' Clara ' itself is a. german ' Mysteries 
 of Paris.' They ar purer, however, 
 than their french originals. The move- 
 ment of the story is complicated and 
 brisk ; you ar deeply interested, even in 
 its improbabilities. We should judge it 
 to be a fair picture of slave-life ia 
 Europe; at any rate, it is an absorbing 
 one, and the work of a skilful hand." 
 [Albion. 
 
 — SAME (" European Slave Life "), 
 Tinsley, 1880. 2358 
 
 CLOCKMAKER (The) = EDEL- 
 WEISS. 
 
 CELIA, by " A: Mels," i. e., Martin 
 Cohn: Boston, Littell, 1869. 2359 
 
 CLOISTER WENDHAUSEN [by 
 " W. Helmeurg," i. e.. Bertha Beh- 
 rens : Chicago, Rand, 1890.] " is an 
 
 719 
 
GERMAN NOVELS. 
 
 old-fashioned love-tale, separated from 
 our busy life by several centuries, altiio 
 it is presumably written of t)ie present 
 time. It is a story of women and for 
 women, dealing more with emotions 
 than actions, and ending in happiness 
 and wedding bels. The characters ar 
 either saints or fiends, in the good old 
 style of fiction ; and the book can be 
 warranted t6 please the most romantic 
 schoolgirl." [Critic. 
 
 — , SAME ("Magdalen's Fortune") 
 N.-Y., Worthington, 1889. 
 
 CONVICTS AND THEIR CHIL- 
 DREN (The) by B. Aueebach : Holt, 
 1877. 2360 
 
 COQUETTE (The) , in N. Y. Mirror, 
 12-19 Sept., 1840. 2361 
 
 COUNT ERNEST'S HOME, by P. 
 Heyse : in Tales from the German; also 
 in Part IV. of Oood Stories, Ticknor, 
 1868. 2362 
 
 COUNT SILVIUS = No. 655. 
 
 COUNTESS ANNA, by A. Wellmer 
 in Canadian Month., Nov., 1874. 2363 
 
 COUNTESS ERIKA'S APPREN- 
 TICESHIP [by " Ossip ScHUBiN," 
 i.e., Lola Kirschner : Lippincott, 1892] 
 "describes the manners of aristocratic 
 society in Berlin. No one under a 
 countess figures in her pages, and prin- 
 cesses gro on every bush. Th^re ar, of 
 course, a few artists wherewith to stoc 
 the princesses' b^ar-gardens, but even 
 th^y ar all ' vons.' With few excep- 
 tions, the characters ar a wicked and 
 adulterous generation, and the story 
 consists of the list of th^ir misde- 
 meanors, either detailed or hinted. The 
 supreme struggles of the small fry to 
 associate with the gr^at, of the grSat tS 
 Jieep themselvs supplied with scandals, 
 subjectiv and objectiv, ar equalled only 
 by those of the writer to sho an arm-in- 
 arm intimacy with human nature, and 
 more particularly with the aristocracy. 
 
 The whirling of the scene from Berlin 
 t5 Bayreuth and tS Venice changes only 
 the sky and not the mind. The Grand 
 Canal, ' Parsifal,' the Thiergarten, ar 
 simply pegs on which tS hang the same 
 clever but shallo feats of pen, the same 
 display of knoingness. Thfire is an 
 air of cheerful alacrity about the vices 
 of Ossip Schubin's world which is want- 
 ing to its reluctant and perfunctory vir- 
 tues. Wit and the wish t8 be caustic ar 
 not absent, and in a superficial sense the 
 story is entertaining." [Nation. 2364 
 
 COUNTESS GISELA (The) [by 
 ' E. Maklitt," i. e., Eugenie John (f, 
 1887) ; Macmillan, 1870.] "carries the 
 reader to the end without any flagging 
 of interest. ... At the beginning a 
 dark story of crime and death is told, 
 and many names ar introduced. . . 
 
 This want of distinctness at the outset 
 throes a mist over the rest of the story, 
 and makes it like a picture the outlines 
 of which ar blurred. The countess her- 
 self is charming ; the gradual groth of 
 her noble nature, in spite of the sys- 
 tematic deceit and heartlessness with 
 which slie is trained, is very interest- 
 ing." [Athenaeum. 2365 
 
 COUNTESS OF ST. ALBAN (The). 
 ["Namenlose Geschichten " by F: W: 
 Hacklandeb (t, 1877) : London, 1854.] 
 " Description is the author's best 
 quality. He relates humorous inci- 
 dents in a manner both festiv and 
 easy ; and can rise intS eloquence and 
 pathos, without offending the modesty 
 of Nature. The outward aspects of 
 stil-life at home or abroad, old places, 
 lonely forests, busy streets, the glitter 
 of boudoirs and saloons, the squalor of 
 the rogue's asylum, the starvling tailor's 
 garret, or the home of decent industry, 
 ar each in turn exhibited by him in 
 lively and appropriate pictures. In pas- 
 sages apt for sober color he can glide 
 
 720 
 
GERMAN NOVELS. 
 
 maffectedly into a pensiy tone, botli 
 ilegant and winning; and he never vio- 
 ates decorum by tirades unsuited to the 
 iharacter of his subject; or out of pro- 
 jortion with tlie event which he is 
 •elating." [.4then»um. 2366 
 
 COUNTRY HOUSE OK THE 
 RHINE (The), [by Berthold Auee- 
 3ACH (t, 1882) : Bintley, 1870.] " The 
 ilot turns on the attempt of a man whS 
 las been a slave-dealer in America to 
 jecome a german noble. He changes 
 lis name, buys a villa on the Ehein, 
 jets into society, procures more than 
 jne friend at court, and is then found 
 3Ut. . . . ' Das Landhaus am Ehein,' 
 ' Auf der Hohe ' [No. 881]' and ' Wald- 
 fried' [No. 2538] ar tedious, diffuse, di- 
 dactic romances, filled with a sentimental 
 falsetto of which Auerbach's earlier 
 works had shon some indication, but 
 which here assumed intolerable shril- 
 ness. The books met some success in 
 Germany, wh§re their spirit was not an- 
 tagonistic; but outside the Fatherland 
 th^y wer accounted failures, and tho 
 translated into English, hav found few 
 readers. Auerbach's fame rests, and 
 wil continue to rest, on his village tales, 
 and it is to these that he oes his euro- 
 pean reputation, tho out of his nativ 
 land he is more talked of than read." 
 [Athenaeum.] — . . . " The first two 
 books of the ' Villa ' ar charming. . . . 
 But this does not continue ; wit and 
 freshness and good sensd" ar swalloed in 
 philosophical inquiry; — love continues. 
 The people make metaphysical love to 
 une another. They analyze their sen- 
 sations, and express them in technical 
 formulary! Could anything be more 
 hopelessly german, or tedious, or better 
 jaloulated to make the reader close the 
 Folume with a si? " [Overland. 
 
 — , SAME ("Villa on the Ehine,"), 
 Leypoldi, 1869. 2367 
 
 DAME CAEE [by Herbiann Suder- 
 MAN : Harper, 1892] ' ' is very dainty and 
 with that touch of pathos and trace of 
 mysticism so common in German tales. 
 Meyerhofer has met misfortune, and 
 just as his third son, Paul, is born, his 
 home falls into the hands of creditors 
 andissold. The story which foUoes is of 
 the after life of the little one born at 
 such a time of distress, a child of whom 
 it was said : ' Care stood at his cradle.' 
 The story is sad, but it is the story of 
 one who bore a weight of care, and who 
 was ever thotful of others. The nobil- 
 ity of the character of Paul is at its 
 climax when he is willing to suffer im- 
 prisonment for a technical crime, com- 
 mitted in order to save his father from 
 the c\)mmission of one far worse. The 
 story, d^pite the sadness which pervades 
 it, ends brightly." [Boston Advertiser.] 
 — " Let not him whS begins ' Dame 
 Care ' be discouraged by its common- 
 place tone at the outset. . . A 
 little story at once striking and poetic ; 
 sad with the sadness of Turgenief al- 
 most, but blooming with more of the 
 humanities than usually flourish on Eus- 
 sian soil. Paul Meyerhofer hears the 
 fairy story of Dame Care from his 
 mother, whS, however, wil never tel 
 him the ending. He spends his life in 
 learning it, and it is not until it is told in 
 full on the last page that the complete- 
 ness and artistic quality of the little 
 book are wholy revealed. Th^re ar 
 plenty of Teutonisms tS be forgiven, 
 but it wel stands a searching test for 
 any work of art, that of retrospect." 
 [Nation. 2368 
 
 DEAD LAKE, by Hbyse, = No. 
 669. 
 
 DEBIT AND CEEDIT [by Gustav 
 Freytag : Bentley, 1857.] " contains all 
 the elements of popularity. It is fresh, 
 rich in incident, vital with character. 
 
 721 
 
GERMAN NOVELS. 
 
 thdt, and fancy, and in all respects an the elephantin playfulness of the wor- 
 
 uncommon, genuln, interesting book. 
 The humor is not broad, but quiet; the 
 irony glances out in sudden, mild irradi- 
 ations, and the narratir is one of un- 
 broken strength and consistency. . . 
 The dark characters ar brot out amid 
 Rembrandt shados ; th^y appear and 
 vanish like the demons in a mediaeval 
 allegory ; th^ir shapes and voices ar 
 startling, and thgy impress a peculiar 
 moral horror upon certain episodes of 
 the romance. . . . But the chief 
 merit of the book is its reality as a pict- 
 ure of manners, its broad and deep 
 perspectiv, throing open the interior of 
 german life, its faithful illustration of 
 the intercourse between classes, its as- 
 sortment of representativ characters." 
 [Leader. 2369 
 
 DIANA WBNTWORTH [Po- 
 sen]=No. 434. 
 
 DOCTOR CLAUDIUS fHeidel- 
 berg-] = No. 675. 
 
 DIARY OF POOR YOUNG GEN- 
 TLEWOMAN [by M.. (Scheele) 
 VON Nathusids (1817-57) : Trubn,er, 
 I860.] "givs in autobiographic form the 
 experiences of a wel-born damsel, whose 
 necessities force her to be a governess in 
 a, noble family. The picture of inner 
 german life is extremely wel delineated, 
 and thSre ar touches of pathos and of 
 quiet humor which ar pretty and origi- 
 nal." [Albion. 
 
 — , SAME ("Louisa von Pletten- 
 haus)," N.-Y., Francis, 1857. 2370 
 
 DR. GOETHE'S COURTSHIP. ['Der 
 , Stadtschultheiss von Frankfurt,'' (1856) 
 by 0: MijLLEK: Eotttledge, 1S66'] "In 
 the quiet, minute german manner the 
 author's characterizations ar admira- 
 ble. He has combined most success- 
 fully a mixture of simplicity and homely 
 wisdom in the worthy couple, th^ir 
 honesty and shrewdness and sincerity, 
 
 shipful mayor and the matronly dignity 
 of his spouse, wh5 regards him with 
 blended aw and admiration, and has a 
 proclivity for drawing auguries from 
 those incidents of everyday life which 
 popular tradition has invested with a mys- 
 tic significance. . . . The story is one 
 of those quiet, pleasing descriptions of 
 domestic life in a place and age them- 
 selvs interesting which ar especially 
 pleasant reading by contrast with the 
 harroing recitals of crime and despair 
 which form the staple of the fiction of 
 the day." [Round Table. 2371 
 
 DOCTOR JACOB [Frankfurt] = 
 No. 436. 
 
 DOOMED, by Heyse, = No. 669. 
 
 DOROTHY'S PICTURE [by " W. 
 Heimbukg," i. e., Bertha Behrens : 
 Worthington, 1891] " the first of a col- 
 lection of Christmas Stories, is a sweet, 
 simple little tale of a woman wh5 sacri- 
 fices herself for the man she loves, givs 
 him up to another, takes care of his old 
 mother, and does many other beautiful 
 things which ar impossible to the average 
 human being. The other stories ar in 
 the same vSin." [Critic. 2372 
 
 DRESDEN ROMANCE (A), by 
 Lauka M. Lane : London, S. P. C. K., 
 1884. 2373 
 
 EBERHARD [by K.. CUve : Tinsley, 
 1883] " describes very wel the life of 
 an english pupil teacher in a. small ger- 
 man town." [Athenaeum. 3374 
 
 EDELWEISS [by Berthold Auer- 
 BACH (t, 1882) : Roberts, 1869.] " We 
 think the first charm the reader wil find 
 in this most charming book is the fact 
 that the story seems t(5 tel itself. From 
 the beginning it goes alone, and 5ne 
 does not think of the author til the end, 
 when perhaps one's homage is all the 
 more devout in recognition of the 
 genius which could produce so ex- 
 
 722 
 
GERMAN XOVELS. 
 
 quisit a fiction, and nowhere in it be- 
 tray a consciousness of creation. The 
 scene is not among courtly people : but 
 in a little cloc-making district in the 
 Black Forest, and the characters of 
 the story ar the oloc-makers and their 
 friends and kinsfolk. It is simply the 
 story of Lenz, who makes musical does, 
 and marries Annele, the worldly-minded 
 but not bad-hearted dauter of the inn- 
 keeper, who leads him a very miserable 
 life. . . . The glimpses of sweet, 
 simple, refined life in the physician's 
 family, and of the tender esteem in 
 which all Lenz' friends and ndbors hold 
 him, ar almost the only cheerful lights 
 in the picture ; the humorous passages, 
 tho abundant, ar for the most part only 
 varied expressions of the gloom of the 
 story, for it is, indeed, as the author pre- 
 mises, ' a sad, cruel history,' tho ' the sun 
 of love breaks throu at|last.' " [Atlantic] 
 • — "Edelweiss, Little Barefoot, and Jo- 
 seph in the Snow ar 3 stories which form 
 the connecting link between the brief 
 sketches and the novels. The last two 
 ar simpler in form than many of the 
 village stories [No. 2342] ; they ar 
 charming pastorals, full of deep feeling, 
 and appealing to uncomplex emotions. 
 Little Barefoot [No. 2455], indeed, is 
 almost a child's story, and it is not alone 
 the plot of the story which makes it so ; 
 thgre is something in Auerbach's delight 
 in his simple narration which may be 
 noticed in any one who is entertaining 
 children with a story. Everything is 
 made perfectly clear, there is no ob- 
 scurity ; the passions are far from being 
 a tumultuous ocean, they ar, rather, a 
 placid lake. . . Edelweiss, on the 
 
 other hand, is a more serious attempt 
 at novel-writing ; it deals with more in- 
 tricate matters than the repetition of a 
 fairy story in the 19th century, like 
 Little Barefoot; it is really a very 
 
 thoro and wel-managed study of charac- 
 ter. The hero Lenz, a young man of 
 delicate sensibility and loyal feeling but 
 of a somewhat weak, lachrymose charac- 
 ter, full of amiability and the gentle 
 virtues but inclined to sentimentality, 
 falls in love with Annele, a young 
 woman about whSm the reader is likely 
 to be of tw8 or more minds. Her fas- 
 cinations ar wel presented, and the 
 reader is very likely tS be blinded in 
 the same way that Lenz was. 
 As the novel groes more and more 
 tragic, until the dreadful accident which 
 crushes all wickedness and the mem- 
 ory of it from them both, we ar led on 
 with the keenest sympathy in their sad 
 fate. Their reconpiliation is beautifully 
 told ; and it is not every writer wh5 
 could carry a novel to so gr^at a hit of 
 feeling with so sure a, hand. 
 The whole book is written with admir- 
 able strength, and th^re is none which 
 those who ar unfamiliar with Auerbach 
 can be more warmly advised to read." 
 [T: Sergeant Perry. 
 
 — , SAME (" The Clockmaker") with 
 "JOSEPH," London, 1861. 2375 
 
 EICHHOES (The), [by "Moritz 
 VON Reicheneach," i. e., Valeska Be- 
 thusy-Huc: Lippincott, 1881.] "How 
 Count Eichhof gets his 3 sons married and 
 settled, — the matrimonial afilictions of 
 the eldest, the spendthrift career of the 
 second, and the tribulations of the 
 youngest in choosing a profession, — 
 these afford the warp of the story, and 
 the woof is composed of the plots, 
 plans and sentiments of a fashionable 
 n^borhood." [American. 2376 
 
 EIGHT DAYS IN THE LIFE OF 
 A PASTOR'S WIFE, by — Essing, in 
 Ladies' Repository, Aug.-Sept., 1871. 
 
 EKKEHARD No. 670. [2377 
 
 ELECTIVE AFFINITIES [by -J: 
 
 WOLFGANO VON GoETHE (f, 1832) : 
 
 723 
 
GEKMAK NOVELS. 
 
 Bohn, 1856] is " elaborate and skilful as 
 a composition. . . . The gradual prog- 
 ress by which a husband's affections ar 
 estranged from his wife, and fixed on 
 her adopted dauter, who is made a most 
 winning character, tho returning the 
 passion felt for her : likewise, the wife's 
 estrangement from the husband and 
 preference for his friend the Captain, 
 ar the central points of the story, wrot 
 with consummate tact. Th^re is no guilt 
 in this condition of things ; it is the nec- 
 essary result of those ' affinities ' which 
 operate as inevitably in the moral as in 
 the chemical world. The husband and 
 dauter die of grief for ungratified 
 passion." [Southern Lit. Messenger. 
 
 2378 
 
 BLEONORE. [by " E. von Rothen- 
 FEL8," i. e., Emilie Qvon Loga") von In- 
 gersleben, 1822-71: Lippincott, 1872.] 
 " This is a very plotty novel, which re- 
 counts in an autobiografical form the ad- 
 ventures of a simple-hearted young lady 
 with an artful step-mother and an intrig- 
 ing ' companion.' What arts these tw6 
 false women used to entrap the heroin, 
 first int5 a lo marriage and afterwards 
 into a hi one in which her heart Was not 
 engaged ; how her father was deluded by 
 his beautiful wife ; how the stepmother 
 exerted herself t5 fascinate every man 
 of her circle ; and how they one and all 
 deserted her colors for those of the in- 
 genuous narrator of the tale, who is, 
 however, steadily true throuout — or, at 
 least, with only one short interval in 
 which she became engaged to another — 
 t3 an upright and unsophisticated admir- 
 er, wh5 livs in the country and appears 
 rather awkward in the company of those 
 wh5 surround her in her father's house 
 — all these fine things ar told in a rather 
 lively way, and ar put into readable and 
 easy english." [Nation. 237U 
 
 ELSIE = No. 2492. 
 
 EMERENZ, by Heyse, in Cosmopoli- 
 tan, Oct.-Nov., 1888. 2380 
 
 ERL QUEEN (The), [by Nataly 
 VON EscHSTKUTH ; Worthington Co., 
 1892] " The old-fashioned novel, which 
 cares little for analysis and is written 
 for the sake of the story rather than as 
 a statement of some problem of life, 
 may stil be found, and ' The Erl Queen ' 
 is a good type of this class. There is a 
 certain artlessness about these stories — 
 a pleasant homeliness — that carries even 
 the realist critic along with measurable 
 content throu lengthy descriptiv pas- 
 sages, brief orations in the place of the 
 give-and-take of dialog, and even v^ils 
 such a preposterous proceeding as the 
 solitary midnight ramble of a child- 
 Baroness — lightly-clad, at that — throu 
 a clover-del, with a, graceful garb of ro- 
 mantic illusion which half -conceals the 
 absurdity. The obsequious deference 
 which noble birth once demanded is an- 
 other survival in these novels which con- 
 cern themselvs with German nobility, 
 and tho the loly hero wins his hi-born 
 beloved, it is only after he has come into 
 his fortune and his relativs hav pardoned 
 his father's ' mesalliance.' All the slan- 
 derers ar punished — lightly, all the 
 lovers ar made happy, all debts ar paid, 
 and the comfortable, mildly-exciting 
 story is gracefully concluded." [Com- 
 monwealth. 2381 
 
 ERLACH COURT = No. 441. 
 
 ESTHER'S FORTUNE [Munich] 
 = No. 445. 
 
 EUROPEAN RELATIONS [by Tal- 
 MAGE Dalin : Cassell, 1892] "is a 
 pleasant little sketch. A count quarrels 
 with his family, changes his name and 
 comes tS America. Here he marries 
 and dies, leaving a wife and tw5 chil- 
 dren — a dauter nearly gron and a boy. 
 The family go abroad in obedience tS an 
 invitation received from the head of the 
 
 724 
 
GERMAN NOVELS. 
 
 family who livs in the old castle in 
 Tirol. Before the time for the visit 
 arrives thfiy spend weeks wandering 
 over the mountains with tw8 friends — 
 a man and his sister, — the man very 
 much older than the girl whose father 
 was his friend, but not too old to fall a 
 complete victim to her fascinations. He 
 looks upon himself as absurd, is per- 
 suaded the girl wil laf at him, and lets 
 her go to the castle without declaring 
 his love for her. No scruples of this 
 kind chec the passionate declaration 
 which her handsome, dashing cousin 
 makes before he has knon her 3 weeks. 
 The girl confesses that she has loved 
 her father's old friend, but as he seemed 
 t5 take only a paternal interest in her 
 she is willing at least to consider her 
 new lover. It happens that this con 
 versation is overheard by the man most - 
 concerned in it. When the young couple 
 ar married he writes a new book — his 
 greatest success — which deals with the 
 vafillation of the heart, and the absurd- 
 ity of a man's not putting his love and 
 his faith to the test. One does not trouble 
 oneself about the improbability of the 
 denoument, but is content to enjoy the 
 mountain atmosphere which pervades 
 the book and the unusual interest which 
 the characters inspire." [Critic. 2382 
 
 EXCHANGE NO ROBBERY = 
 No. 688. 
 
 EYE-BLINDNESS AND SOUL- 
 BLINDNESS, by Heyse, = No. 707. 
 
 FAIRY Oe THE ALPS = ALPINE 
 FAT. 
 
 FALKENBURG [by Hamilton Mur- 
 ray : Harper, 1852.] "is wel worth 
 reading for its piquant delineations of 
 character, apart from the interest of 
 the plot, which is one of gr^at power 
 and intensity. The scene is laid in the 
 picturesque regions of the Kliein." 
 [Harper's. 2383 
 
 FAMILY FEUD (A) [by L: 
 Harder: Lippincott, 1877.] "The 
 action lies between a baron, his second 
 wife and a dauter, on the one side, and 
 a young kinsman on the other, whose 
 earlier prospects of inheritance ar de- 
 stroyed by the birth of the dauter. Ot- 
 to, the disinherited, is unjustly accused 
 of a plot against the life of his little 
 rival, and groes up under this cloud 
 int5 a somewhat gloomy character. 
 Reconciliation, however, comes at last, 
 and the girl becomes Mrs. Otto. The 
 book is interesting and wholesome." 
 [Boston "Literary "World." 2384 
 
 — , SAME, by J: Gottfried Kin- 
 KEL, in Tales from Blackwood, N. S., 
 21; also in (Boston) Saturday Rambler, 
 18-25 may, 1850. 2385 
 
 FARINA = No. 691. 
 
 FATAL PICTURE, in Ladies' Re- 
 pository, Jan. 1868. 238t> 
 
 FAUSTINA [by Ida (Hahn) Hahn 
 (t, 1880): N.-Y., Carleton, 1872.] "is 
 the story of a woman who married a 
 man whom she did not love ; learned 
 tS love another, and with him left her 
 husband's house ; and ere long, being 
 separated from her protector, gave her 
 heart, or what was left of it, to a third 
 claimant. The heroin is a Countess, 
 and all the characters ar nobles, Faus- 
 tina, the heroin, is powerfully drawn, 
 and some of the scenes in which she 
 figures ar wonderfully effectiv. But 
 the book has little tS do with life ; it is 
 a, record of Faustina's meditations and 
 speculations about 15ve, and must be 
 regarded as a vue of that passion from 
 a German sentimental stand-point. As 
 a story it is not interesting; but it is 
 written with boldness and vigor, and 
 sets forth in a brilliant light some of 
 the rarest qualities of woman's nature." 
 [Boston " Literary World." 2387 
 
 FELIX LANZBERG'S EXPIATION. 
 
 725 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 FAILURE OF ELIZABETH (The) 
 [by Emma E,. Poyntee : Bentley, 
 1890.] " is a pleasing, wholesome story, 
 and Miss Poynter's carefully drawn, 
 distinctiv characters can never fail to 
 arouse interest. Elizabeth belongs t5 
 that charming type of fresh, unspoilt 
 girlhood which Miss Poynter knoes wel 
 how, t3 depict. Sent out alone into the 
 world with the inexperience of 17, it is 
 scarcely surprising that this much neg- 
 lected girl with her generous impulses 
 should fall in love with the first person 
 wh5 interests himself in her. Unfort- 
 unately her hero is an elderly, invalid 
 clergyman of the worst type of vanity and 
 sordid egotism. [Compare plot of Nos. 
 436 & 452 k.] We ar only glad t5 think 
 that this chapter of her history is finally 
 closed while she is stil young, and, we 
 hope, wholes5me-minded enuf t5 begin 
 life anew under brighter and more 
 worthy circumstances. Miss Poynter 
 givs a humorous description of life in a 
 Grerman pension, with its uncomfort- 
 able economies, and petty jealousies." 
 [Athenaeum. 449 1 
 
 125 m 
 
INTEKNAHONAL NOVELS. 
 
 FELICIA, [by Matilda [Barbara] 
 Betham Edwards, London, 1875.] 
 "The part of the lady who givs her 
 name tS the book is subordinate t5 that 
 of a morbid clergyman wh6 has un- 
 frocked himself on conscientious grounds 
 and thenceforth is principally occupied 
 with drifting intS sentimental relations 
 with various friends of the softer sex. 
 Stickland's moody temperament seems t5 
 become more or less gloomy only under 
 the annoying or refreshing influence of 
 these successiv flirtations ; but his cold 
 nature givs him a most unfair advantage 
 over the ladies, wh5, one and all, fall in 
 love with him. Felicia, his earliest love, 
 makes the mistake, when he fails t3 come 
 forward as she expects, of marrying 
 the musical dictator of a little german 
 court, a graceless but not unamusing 
 scoundrel, who neglects and cannot ap- 
 preciate her. The german life is wel 
 described." [Athenaeum. 4:52 k 
 
 125 s 
 
GERMAN NOVELS. 
 
 [by " Ossip ScHUBiN," i. e., Lola 
 Kirsehner: N. Y., Worthington, 1892.] 
 " At a watering-place the hero, a man 
 under the shado of an early sin, meets 
 beautiful Linda Harfink, the dauter of 
 a millionaire bourgeois, who, dazzled 
 by his rank, encourages his suit. lie 
 believes she knoes his story, and th^y 
 ar married ; but the secret has been 
 kept from her by her mother, who fears 
 the match wil be broken off. How 
 Felix fared with his frivolous young 
 wife, her discovery of her husband's 
 secret, and his final expiation, ar devel- 
 oped in a wel-told story of dramatic 
 interest." [Pub. Weekly. 2388 
 
 FICKLE FORTUNE = No. 1011. 
 
 FIDDLER OF LOGATJ = No. 696. 
 
 FIRE AND FLAME [by Levin 
 ScHiJCKiNG (t, 1883) : Appleton, 1876.] 
 " abounds in exciting incident, the plot 
 is bold and wr6t with masterly auda- 
 city. . . . No mere abstract could 
 giv a just idea of it, and we dismiss the 
 book with the remark that it is excep- 
 tionally noble in tone, keen in analysis, 
 vivid in its sketches of character, and 
 cultivated in style." [Boston "Lit. 
 World." 2388 1 
 
 FIRST AND LAST BALL, by Hack- 
 lander, in Ladies' Repository, June, 
 1872. 2389 
 
 FIRST TEMPTATION (The) . [Lon- 
 don, Newly, 1863.] " The story ranges 
 within a very narro circle and introduces 
 us to but a small number of characters : 
 the principal persons belonging to the 
 professorial class. The hero is a uni- 
 versity professor and one of the greatest 
 lights of the atheistic philosophy ; a tall, 
 handsome man wh5 has traveled, and 
 studied art and literature, is cold and 
 critical ; looking at all things from an 
 aesthetic point of vue, and never so 
 satisfied as when anatomizing conduct 
 and character. His wife Elizabeth, in 
 
 whSm the deepest interest of the story 
 is centred, was the only dauter of a 
 professor of philology, a friend of 
 Schartel. . . . Associated with Doctor 
 Schartel as fello-professor is the grave, 
 earnest Fischman, whose married life 
 is unhappy also. He, devoted t5 the 
 same philosophy as his friend, has 
 married a simple-minded little woman 
 whom he found in a romantic way among 
 the Alps. . . . Poor Susette ! She 
 pines for her mountains, and her 
 spouse pines for the sympathy and com- 
 panionship she can not giv him. [Com- 
 pare plot of No. 2458.] Then Madeline 
 appears on the scene — a brilliant, 
 beautiful, and intellectual woman, but 
 also bad and unscrupulous. 
 Schartel remonstrates with him in a very 
 wise way about his passion for this at- 
 tractiv woman, but with no further effect 
 than a brief hesitation before he sends 
 away the ' Swiss peasant to her moun- 
 tains,' and take steps to obtain a divorce. 
 One of the most pathetic passages in the 
 book is that which describes the return 
 of Susette, with her brother and child, 
 t5 see whether the Schartels can do any- 
 thing for her toards a reunion with her 
 husband. The simplicity and naturalness 
 of her story ar beautiful ; and the subse- 
 quent scene, when she goes with the child 
 t5 see her husband, and makes the most 
 touching appeal to his old sympathies, is 
 no less so." [London Review. 2390 
 
 FIRST VIOLIN [Dusseldorf] = 
 No. 698. 
 
 FIVE BRAS IN A WOMAN'S LIFE, 
 by H: ZscHOKKE : in Boston Miscellany, 
 Feb. 1842, and So. Lit. Messenger, Oct. 
 1845. 2390 m 
 
 FLEURANGE [Heidelberg-]= 
 No. 700. 
 
 FLORIAN AND CRESCENZ, by B. 
 AuEKBACH : Low, 1853. 2391 
 
 FLOWER BASKEl(The), byCnKis- 
 
 726 
 
GERMAN NOVELS. 
 
 TOPH VON SoHMiD : N.-Y., F. Price, 
 1842. 2392 
 
 FLOWER, FRUIT AND THORN 
 PIECES, or the marriage, death and wed- 
 ding of the Poor Lawyer Siebenkas, by 
 Jean Paul F: Richter : (1796) Boston, 
 Tickrwr, 1859. 2393 
 
 FORBIDDEN FRUIT [byF: W: 
 Hacklandek (t, 1877) : Boston, Estes, 
 1877.] " takes us from France to a ger- 
 man capital, and introduces us to a do- 
 mestic circle in which a talented artist, 
 his wife, his wife's brother, and his pu- 
 pil-model ar chief personages. The 
 brother is conditional heir tS a large 
 property, the condition being his marriage 
 within a certain period [compare plot of 
 " In Hot Haste"] ; and but two months 
 of grace remain. He has come to ob- 
 tain the helpful offices of the sister in 
 finding the desired wife. He finds her 
 in the pupil-model of his brother-in-law. 
 Certain peculiar, tho innocent, relations 
 between her and the artist provoke the 
 bitterest jealousy of the latter's wife, 
 greatly to the complication of the suit in 
 question, but that is of course finally 
 successful. The relation of the title to 
 the book we fail to see." [Boston " Lit. 
 World." 2394 
 
 FORESTER OF ALTENHAIN 
 (The), London, 1852. 2396 
 
 FORESTERS (The), [by Berthold 
 AuEREACH (t, 1880) : Appleton, 1880] 
 " These characters make a picturesque 
 and pretty group, set off by the shados 
 and solitudes of the forest, the dash of 
 the mountain brook, the pleasures and 
 excitements of the chase, and the in- 
 describable, indefinable sweetness and 
 simplicity of german character on its 
 rural and domestic sides. Thfire is no 
 badness in the book, either, beyond 
 Schaller's, and his is the badness only 
 of jealousy and slander and mali9e. 
 The life is pure arid peaceful ; the very 
 
 animals share its joy. . . . It is a 
 sweet and gentle story. One touch 
 more would hav made it a work of 
 power." [Boston " Lit. World." 2396 
 
 FORESTER'S FAREWELL SUP- 
 PER (The), in Ladies' Companion 
 (London), vol. 2. 2397 
 
 FORGET-ME-NOT, by G. zu Pdt- 
 LiTz, in Lippincotfs, Jan. 18(58. 2398 
 
 FORTUNE IN MISFORTUNE, in 
 AppletorCs, 4 Oct. 1870. 2399 
 
 FORTUNES AND FATE OF LIT- 
 TLE SPANGLE [by Hans Hopffen, in 
 Masterpieces of German Fiction. 2400 
 
 FORTUNES OF MISS FOLLEN 
 [Baden] = No. 704. 
 
 FOUR PHASES OF LOVE, by 
 Heyse, =No. 707. 
 
 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. [by 
 Ernst von Wildenbruch : Chicago., 
 Laird, 1891] " Francesca livd in 5ne of 
 the large towns of Prussia. She attracts 
 the attention of the new governor and 
 soon becomes his wife. Tho her husband 
 is much her senior, she admires him 
 greatly and marriage begins happily. A 
 young officer who secretly admires Fran- 
 cesca is the one to destroy th^ir prom- 
 ising future. A picture of her which 
 he paints iu the character of Francesca 
 da Rimini is the cause of a tragedy." 
 [Publishers' Weekly. 2401 
 
 FEAU ANTJE, by A. Meinhakdt, in 
 The Modern Age, Mar., 1884. 2402 
 
 FEAU DOMINA [by Claire (v. 
 Tolstoy) von Glitmer: Boston, LocTc- 
 wood, 1877.] "ushers us into painful 
 scenes ; but the sympathies of the author 
 and the heroin ar on the right side, nor is 
 the guilt of a hazy description. And the 
 usual clearness of the story does not lie 
 in the fact that the heroin instinctivly 
 repulses the man whS has entrapped her 
 into an illegal marriage from the mo- 
 ment he is discovered, but in a certain 
 resolute dealing with herself, which does 
 
 727 
 
GERMAN NOVELS. 
 
 not allow her tS look bac, does not per- 
 mit her to break the heraldic seal which 
 closes the letters annually sent her, nor 
 even to look from a distance on the face 
 of the man she loves, until death has 
 taken his epileptic wife. Then, perhaps, 
 she mit hav forgiven him, but the 
 excitement is too much for her wasted 
 frame, and her gray-haired lover is glad 
 to fall soon after on the field of battle." 
 [Boston " Lit. World." 2403 
 
 FEAU VON BERNHARD'S VALET, 
 by L. ScHaciUNG, in Every Saturday, 
 6-13 apr. 1867. 2405 
 
 FRAU WILHELMINE. [by JtTLina 
 Stinde : Scribner, 1888.] " The fourth 
 'and last' series of the adventures of 
 the Buchholz Family resembles the pre- 
 vious volumes, and is wel worth reading 
 by all who enjoy a book whose humor is, 
 so to say, only incidentally revealed, but 
 which, like the perfume in a dress, ex- 
 hales with every motion of the wearer. 
 But perfumes ar sometimes offensiv, 
 and, without being unduly sensitiv, a 
 person with a nose less robust than that 
 of Bismarck might wel find too strong 
 the scent of some of the suggestions in 
 these volumes. Thgre is little which is 
 ' improper ' in the allusions — nothing, 
 indeed, tS recall the typical french novel, 
 in which vice is supposed to ISse half its 
 evil by ISsing all its grossness. On the 
 contrary, references tS vice ar of the 
 most distant kind, and ar of such a nat- 
 ure as to imply that it is non existent 
 in the Landsberger-Strasse. But thSre 
 is plenty of 'grossness' — that is, allu- 
 sions to accidents of life which persons 
 of refinement ignore or keep in the bac 
 ground, and for the use of which, as 
 material for exciting a smile, one would 
 hav to go bac, in english literature, 150 
 years. Hence the "comparison of this 
 book, sometimes made, with Cranford 
 [No. 1175] is most misleading. The 
 
 atmosphere of ' Cranford ' is of the most 
 delicate and fastidious refinement; the 
 air of ' The Buchholz Family ' is that 
 breathed by people whS ar good-natured 
 and wel-meaning, but thoroly coarse in 
 grain. Frau Buchholz, in fact, in spite 
 of her veneer of book-culture, belongs 
 to the social level of Mr. Howells' 'Man- 
 da Greer [No. 315]. The laboring class, 
 as represented in novels, however un- 
 favorable thereto their life may be, pos- 
 sess a certain innate refinement, as does 
 also the grisette of the prse-Zola era. It 
 is only the middle class in Germany and 
 England and the loer middle in this coun- 
 try, whS appear tS be entirely destitute 
 of it." [Nation, 1887.] — " The comfort 
 here is, that all these dul, sordid, con- 
 tracted creatures ar of one nationality. 
 Since the Germans hav taken Stinde t6 
 their bosoms and proclaimed him the 
 profet of their middle class, far be it 
 from a foreiner t5 protest that they ar 
 in any respect more attractiv than he has 
 painted them. Anyone in doubt about 
 the meaning of the word vulgar is com- 
 mended tS ' The Buchholz Family,' 
 wh^re it is amply and exactly defined. 
 The vulgarity is not only in their cus- 
 toms, which ar disgusting, but in their 
 thots and feelings. Their standards ar 
 lo, their judgments narro, their motivs 
 mean. They hav no manners, and th^y, 
 — the women especially, — talk t3 each 
 other with brutal coarseness. The civili- 
 ties of life ar unknon t5 them, the pro- 
 prieties ignored, 'and the de9eni;ies out- 
 raged. They ar envious, spiteful, meddle- 
 some, and mercenary, and th^y thank 
 Heaven that they belong t5 the cultivated 
 classes ! If the Buchholz family appeared 
 t5 the Germans what they ar, it is natural 
 to suppose that the family would not 
 hav been repeivd with such favor. If 
 Stinde thot they wer at all offensiv , he 
 could not so thoroly hav identified him- 
 
 728 
 
GEKMAN NOVELS. 
 
 self with th^ir vulgarity. Therefore au 
 outsider must accept his work for what 
 it seems t3 be, a close transcript of an 
 actual phase of life of which he is a 
 part. If the author can remotely conceive 
 of the impression on the foreign mind 
 made by Trau Wilhelmine and her tribe, 
 he must write for the purpos of excit- 
 ing inveterate repugnance for the whole 
 german nation.'' [Nation, 1888. 2406 
 
 FRERES (The) [Saxony] = No. 
 456. 
 
 FRIEDEL [by " W. 0. von Horn," 
 i. e., F: W: Oertel, (1798-1867) : N.- 
 Y., Collins, 1856.] " is a pleasing story 
 portraying the manners of rural life 
 some hundred years ago. It shos the 
 german naivete of narrativ, and contains 
 an excellent moral beneath its lively 
 pictures." [Harper's. 2407 
 
 FRIEDEMANN BACH, by Albert 
 Emil Brachvogel: (1858), Tinsley, 
 1875. 2407 d 
 
 FRIEND FRITZ [by Emile Ekck- 
 MANN & P: Alex. Chatrian (f, 1890) : 
 Scribner, 1877.] "is one of the britest, 
 purest, sunniest stories we hav read for 
 many a day. It is just charming in its 
 way. Not that it is a great work as 
 respects either plan or execution, except 
 so far as there is the greatness of true 
 art in the simplicity of the one and the 
 beauty of the other , but that it is a fresh, 
 tuneful, natural, and in every way delight- 
 ful tale wr6t of commonplace materials, 
 yet with a consummate skil and that 
 refinement of touch which one so quicly 
 recognizes, but finds it so hard to define. 
 Thfire is the merest thread of a story. 
 ' How comes it that Mr. Kobus, that 
 rich man, that man of position, is going 
 tS marry a simple country girl, the 
 dauter of his farm manager, he who 
 for the last 15 years has refused so 
 many fine matches? ' This is a question 
 occurring on one of its pages, to 
 
 which the whole book may be set down 
 as the answer. The charm of the work 
 lies in the ease of the dramatic develop- 
 ment, the life-likeness with which the 
 characters ar drawn, the absolutely 
 untainted sweetness of its materials, the 
 delicacy with which sentiment and feel- 
 ing ar portrayed, the amusing turns 
 which ar given here and th^re tS tlie 
 narrativ, and the careful finish which is 
 bestoed upon every part." [Boston 
 " Lit. World."] — " One never wearies 
 of the idyllic pictures of elsatian life 
 presented in the happy and seemingly 
 artless style of these authors. One 
 hears all about the ancestors of Fritz, 
 his intimate friends, his housekeeper, 
 and finally of his farm in Meissenthal. 
 Th^re groes a little maiden whQ upsets 
 all his cunningly devised and solidly 
 argued theories of bachelor life. She is 
 the dauter of his farmer, a little thing 
 of 16 ; but the jovial gourmand Fritz 
 is slain in his turn, and indeed takes 
 on after a wonderful fashion when he 
 finds he is really deep in love. His 
 terror lest she shal not hav him is as 
 gr^at as his former philosophic indiffer- 
 ence to the fair sex. But not Fritz 
 alone is admirably described ; his friends 
 and boon companions ar alike vividly 
 portrayed. The whole story overruns 
 with good-nature and good cheer." 
 [Scribner's. 2408 
 
 FRIENDSHIP'S TEST. [Zwei 
 Freundinnen by " W. Heimburg," i. e.. 
 Bertha Behrens : N. Y., Ogilvie, 1889.] 
 " Heimburg's stories ar always pleasing. 
 Simple and pure in tone, fresh in senti- 
 ment, with enuf motiv tS render the 
 reader unwilling tS pause, and with a 
 heroin as sweet and charming as a June 
 rose, the present book bids fair to 
 sustain the reputation of the author's 
 earlier works. The local color is good ; 
 the scene wh^re Hortense tries to kil 
 
 729 
 
GEEMAS NOVELS. 
 
 herself is affecting without being se^n- 
 sational, and the story ends wel. The 
 characters ar live men and women, and 
 the interest of the pretty tale is wel 
 sustained." [Writer. 
 
 — , SAME ("Hortense"), Chicago, 
 Rand, 1891, 336 pp. 
 
 — , SAME (" Lucie's Mistake "), N.- 
 Y., Worthington, 1890. 
 
 — , SAME ("My Heart's Darling"), 
 Munro, 1889. 2409 
 
 FEOM HAND TO HAND [by " Go- 
 LO Raimund," i. e., Bertha (Heyn) 
 Frederich (1810-83) : Lippincott, 1882.] 
 "It is not surprising that Mrs. "Wister's 
 heroin should murmur sorrofuUy, ' I am 
 passed from hand to hand.' She is 
 separated from her mother by a divorce 
 suit which adjudged the child to her 
 father; given by her father, when very 
 young, to a husband of whSm she knew 
 nothing, except that he had been her 
 father's friend ; entrusted by the bride- 
 groom t5 a pastor and his wife with 
 whom she is to remain til her education 
 is completed; sent bac to her husband 
 in disgrage by the indignant Erau when 
 the secret marriage is discovered, only 
 to find that, as she is led t5 believe, 
 her husband is hers only in name ; flying 
 from him for refuge tS her divorced 
 mother, just in time to discover that 
 her mother has repented of her sins, 
 and in the safe seclusion of a convent 
 is quite as indifferent to her dauter's 
 welfare as she had been in the gay 
 world ; hastening finally t5 her grand- 
 mother, t5 be restored at last, in per- 
 fect confidence and love, t6 her husband's 
 side — the young lady certainly does 
 seem to be ' passed from hand to hand.' 
 The story is interesting and gracefully 
 •told, and the heroin is not passed from 
 band to hand in any way to imply a 
 lac either of strength or sweetness." 
 [Critic, 2410 
 
 GEIER WALLEY = No. 1005. 
 
 GELLERT, in Sabbath at Home, vol. 
 1. 3411 
 
 GERMAN LOVE = No. 7U. 
 
 GERMAN TALES, [by Bekthold 
 AuEREACH : Roberts, 1869.^ "Thestories 
 of this collection wil probably be found 
 uninteresting by most readers. They ar, 
 however, full of that homely wisdom 
 which is one of Auerbach's most marked 
 characteristics, and which forms a so 
 singular contrast t5 the half -sentimental 
 sort of transcendentalism which also 
 distinguishes him." [Nation.] The 
 tales in this collection arv: Christian 
 Oellerts Last Christmas (No. 2357). 
 The Stepmother, Benigna, Rudolph and 
 Elizabeth, Erdmutha. See, also. Black 
 Forest Stories. 2412 
 
 GERTRUDE'S MARRIAGE, [by 
 "W. Heimbueg," i. c, Bertha Behrens : 
 Worthington, 1888.] "Gertrude is a 
 proud, tho sincere, young woman, with 
 a large fortune, and is deeply in love 
 with a worthy suitor in humbler circum- 
 stances. After th^y ar happily married, 
 which it takes about half the book 
 tS accomplish, Gertrude unfortunately 
 conceives that Frank married her for 
 money, and that he even had the af- 
 fair arranged by a matrimonial broker. 
 So she goes away and pines for some 
 months, and it takes the other half of 
 the book to get her back to Frank. 
 This is not a bad plot, and thSre ar some 
 rather entertaining side characters." 
 [American.] — Husband and wife 
 " settle their difficulties in the end, and 
 leave one thankful, as usual, for that 
 perennial supply of very young people, 
 skirting about the ' terra incognita ' of the 
 natural affections who make the produc- 
 tion of innocent, unexciting fiction a 
 recognized and, we hope, a paying in- 
 dustry." [Catholic World. 2413 
 
 GLORIA VICTIS = No. 716. 
 
 730 
 
GBKMAN NOVELS. 
 
 GOLD ELSIE = No. 717. 
 
 GOLDEN DAYS = No. 460. 
 
 GOLDEN LION OF GRANPfiRE 
 (The), [by Anthony Tuollope (f, 
 1882) : Tinsley, 1872.] " In the charm- 
 ing village of Granpere, among the 
 Vogesen, stands the Lion d'Or, an ex- 
 cellent spefimen of an old-fashioned 
 inn. . . . The character of Michel 
 Voss, the real hero of the tale, is de- 
 veloped with all Mr. Trollope's best 
 skill. The gradations by which the 
 unexpected obstinacy of his ward and 
 son, in resisting a ' mariage de conven- 
 ance ' which he has decided upon for the 
 benefit of the former, infuriates beyond 
 3,11 bounds the usually good-tempered 
 gardian, and the stil subtler workings 
 of natural affection and common sense 
 which gradually reduce him t3 a better 
 state of mind, ar traced in a way which 
 leaves nothing to be desired. The true- 
 hearted, rather strong-minded girl, 
 whose happiness is pla9ed in such 
 jeopardy, is sufficiently charming t3 
 enlist our interests in her favor, tho 
 Master George, her lover, has too much 
 of his father's hasty and imperious char- 
 acter, and is too easily induced t3 be 
 hard in his estimate of Marie's conduct, 
 tS come quite up t5 our ideal of fidelity 
 or tenderness. However, he is perhaps 
 the more thoroly a man of his class for 
 not being altogether a model of chivalry , 
 and Marie is right in preferring him 
 tS the curled and oiled Adonis from 
 Basel, whose successful linendrapery 
 has seduced old Michel's affections. It 
 is a very natural propess in a mind of 
 Marie's type tS estimate these worthies 
 at thSir proper relativ worth ; for with 
 all her activity and external absence of 
 sentiment, th^re ar sound depths in her 
 unpretending character, and nothing vul- 
 gar or shallo. Her fondness for her 
 gardian, even when he is wounding her 
 
 most deeply (a fondness which that ex- 
 cellent man re9iprocates with something 
 of youthful ardor, unsuspected by him, 
 but not absolutely unnoti9ed by his 
 wife) ; her not unnatural indignation 
 'against her old lover, struggled against 
 as heroically as her absolute detestation 
 of her new one ; her devotion to daily 
 duty ; her readiness, when George is 
 prSved sincere, tS go forth to she 
 knoes not what ruf fortune in the world, 
 satisfied with that knoledge, and con- 
 tent t6 abandon, for duty's sake, any 
 further fruition of her hopes ; — all 
 mark her as a heroin of no common mold. 
 When we add to the conception of tw8 
 wel-defined and original characters, a 
 lifelike rendering of the subordinate 
 parts, and occasionally, as in the naive 
 expedient of the panic, a v^in of humor 
 more decided than is frequently the case 
 with Mr. TroUope, we hav indicated the 
 principal merits of an excellent tale.'' 
 [Athenaeum. 2414 
 
 GOLDMAKER'S VILLAGE, -by Js 
 H: ZscHOKKE : Appleton, 1845 ; also in 
 New England Family Mag., Aug.- 
 Sept., 1845 ; also in Chambers' Miscel- 
 lany, No. 2. 2415 
 GOOD LUCK ("Gluck Auf") [by 
 " E. Wernek," i. e., E.. Biirstenbinder : 
 Boston, Osgood, 1874.] "is remarka- 
 bly good. In delineation of character 
 it is especially strong. A proud baron 
 sels his dauter to a rich parvenu. The 
 young wife despises her husband, who 
 seems tS deserv her contempt. He is 
 the son of a mine-oner wh5 is killed 
 by an accident, and the management 
 of the property falls suddenly on the 
 son, whS had been indolent and spirit- 
 less. The shoe of responsibility makes 
 a new man of the latter, whS displays in 
 the critical circumstances attending a 
 strike, the hiest qualities of manhood. 
 His young wife begins t3 respect, and 
 731 
 
GERMAN NOVELS. 
 
 presently t5 love him, — the vicissitudes 
 of her feelings being described very 
 skilfully. Ulrich Hartmann, a miner, 
 who leads the strike, hating the husband 
 and madly in love with the wife, is a 
 strikingly original character. But the. 
 charm of the story lies in the gradual ap- 
 proximation of husband and wife, the slo 
 crumbling of the barrier which separates 
 them, under the influence of the noble 
 qualities of each." [Boston"Lit."World."] 
 — " However looked at as a romance, no 
 one can deny that the story is, like its 
 title, u, ' success,' since it has the unana- 
 lysable quality of carrying the reader on 
 with it, without for a moment getting 
 tame or dul. Many stories mit be writ- 
 ten embodying a far deeper insight into 
 character, yet without one-half the inter- 
 est. The incidents ar skilfully woven, 
 the circumstances ar vivid, the sym- 
 pathies of the reader ar never lost hold 
 of, and there is no irritating shifting of 
 the scenes and dropping of the thread to 
 take up another. In fact, whatever the 
 faults in the conception, Herr Werner 
 (sic!) knoes how to narrate, and the 
 freshness of his industrial subject, — 
 which is not overloaded with any sho of 
 economic detail, — lends a new fascina- 
 tion tS the story." [Spectator. 
 
 — , SAME (" Success and how he 
 won It") transl. by C. Tyrrell, Bent- 
 ley, 1876. 
 
 — , SAME (" She Fell in Love with 
 her Husband ") N. Y., Primrose Series, 
 No. 91 [1892.] 2416 
 
 GRANDIDIERS (The), [by Julius 
 RoDENBERG : Low, 1881.] " The charm 
 of this book lies in its freshness. The 
 plot is simple, and the characters famil- 
 iar. The estrangement of a father and 
 son, from the latter's devotion to painting, 
 the son's successful fight to secure his 
 place in the world of art, and their 
 ultimate reconyiliation, hav been the 
 
 basis of more novels than we care tS 
 specify. But it is in this very point 
 that the writer's superiority is manifest. 
 Dealing with emotions so general that 
 in the hands of ordinary novelists they 
 would be commonplace, the author 
 engages our attention at once, and when 
 we lay down the book, we seem to hav 
 parted from old and dear friends. In 
 almost every character the writer's skil- 
 ful hand has achievd success. As is 
 natural the hero is the least satisfactory. 
 He is shadoy. In Mr. Grandidier, the 
 prosperous hatter, with his love for his 
 children, his pride in his ancestry, and 
 his almost religious respect for the Gr^at 
 Elector, Mr. Rodenberg has drawn what 
 we think his most striking character. 
 . . . And this is done hot by the labori- 
 ous accumulation of minute detail, but by 
 the force of a delicate imagination, of a 
 quiet humor, and a truthful pathos. To 
 readers whose critical palates can appre- 
 ciate the finer flavors of the literary tabic, 
 we committhis novel." [Spectator. 2417 
 
 GREAT UNKNOWN (The) in 
 Godey's, july-aug. 1850. 2418 
 
 GREEN GATE (The) [by Ernst 
 WiCHERT : LippincoU, 1875.] " is a 
 story of -musual interest. The erotic 
 (sic) element in it is handled with ex- 
 ceptional skil, and several of the charac- 
 ters posses an attractiv individuality, — 
 especially the professor, whose course 
 one foUoes with deep sympathy. Its tone 
 is pure, and its incidental lessons whole- 
 some." [Boston "Lit. World." 2419 
 
 GREIFENSTEIN [Freiburg-] = 
 No. 724. 
 
 GRETCHEN'S JOYS AND SOR- 
 ROWS [" Backfischen's Leiden und 
 Freuden"] by Clementine Helm," i. e., 
 — ( ) Beyrich : Boston, Williams, 
 
 1877.] " wer, for the most part, such 
 as ar not recorded in fashionable novels. 
 Her sorros wer in good measure the 
 
 732 
 
GERMAN NOVELS. 
 
 result of her not knoing the use of 
 sponge, soap, etc., and so having to be 
 taut them by a careful ant. When she 
 had acquired these important rudiments 
 of education she went int3 the gay world 
 and was married. It is interesting to 
 observ that the author, 'a german lady, 
 throes the weight of her authority in favor 
 of helping one's self tS salt with a knife. 
 It should be said in justi9e, however, 
 that the only other alternativ suggested 
 was the employment of the hand." 
 [Nation.] " This is an unpretending 
 little story, which, without much plot, 
 or any subtle study of character, 
 yet manages t6 interest the reader. 
 It is a picture of home life in one 
 of its most attraotiv aspects, with the 
 proper admixture of sentiment, without 
 which a tale could hardly claim to hav 
 a raison d'etre." [Spectator. 
 
 — , SAME (" A Miss in her 'Teens "), 
 London, KLockmann, 1878. 2420 
 
 HALLIG (The), a, tale of humble 
 life on the coast of Schleswig, by J: 
 Chkistoph Bieknatzki (f, 1850) : 
 Boston, Oould ^ Lincoln, 1856. 2420 p 
 
 HAMMER AND ANVIL, by E: 
 Spielha6en:N.-Y., J7o«, 1870. 2421 
 
 HARD HEART (A) by " Golo 
 Raimund," i. 6., Bertha (Heyn) 
 Frederich (f, 1884) : Lippincott, 1884.] 
 "is an extremely pleasant and readable 
 story, told with simplipity of purpos 
 and turning on questions of real heart 
 and feeling. The character of Erau 
 Sybilla is forcibly presented : strong, 
 and for a time relentless, in bearing 
 her woes and in making others suffer, 
 she at last listens tS the voige of con- 
 science, and alters the course of things 
 for those she can make happy. Thfire 
 is no doubt of the popularity of these 
 german stories, and it lies, we believe, 
 in thfiir reflection of the simple ele- 
 mentary emotions. The men ar not 
 
 dilettanti, wh5 play with ideas until 
 th^y forget the feelings which 6t to lie 
 behind them, and the women limit 
 their range of th6t tS what lies within 
 thSir reach. Thus thoir hopes and 
 fears, loves and passions, hav an idyllic 
 effect, which is refreshing t5 the reader 
 after more elaborate efforts and aes- 
 thetically-minded heroes and heroins." 
 [Lippincott's. 2422 
 
 HEAPS OE MONEY, [Dresden.] 
 by NoRRis, = No. 463. 
 
 HEAVY RECKONING (A) = AL- 
 PINE FA r. 
 
 HEIDELBERG BROTHERHOOD 
 (The), by GnsTAv Liston, in The 
 Crayon, may-aug., 1856. 2423 
 
 HELEN YOUNG [by Paul Lindau : 
 Chicago, Rand, 1892.]" The scene opens 
 in the Royal Theatre, Berlin, during the 
 play of ' Elsa ' founded on a noted 
 murder. Prince von Lohenburg is at- 
 tracted by the entrance of tw3 ladies, 
 and tries to learn thfiir identity, but 
 fails. On the nezt day, however, cir- 
 cumstances favor him, and the unknon 
 is soon knon tS him as Helen Young, 
 and thSre folloes a story of mystery, 
 love and pathos which seems real." 
 [Publisher's "Weekly. 2424 
 
 HELOISE, by " Talvi : " Appleton, 
 1850. 2425 
 
 HER ONLY BROTHER [by "W. 
 Heimburg," i. e.. Bertha Behrens : N.- 
 Y., Crowell, 1888.] " may be s5mewhat 
 spun out ; but is nevertheless an excellent 
 and entertaining story. Here we hav no 
 disregard of the unities of time and 
 place : on the contrary, all the sensational 
 business is transacted in the precincts 
 of a venerable abode on the storm-beaten 
 shores of the Baltic. The various inci- 
 dents and episodes hav their rise in the 
 ordinary play of feeling or passion ; and 
 any further effects ar t6 be found only 
 in sketches of old-fashioned manners, or 
 
 733 
 
GERMAN NOVELS. 
 
 descriptions of half-savage nature. The 
 story sounds true ; it is the more im- 
 pressiv that it is simple. . . . We 
 ar interested from the first in all the 
 inhabitants of the manor-house ; they 
 enlist our sympathies by their good old- 
 fashioned german kindliness and simplic- 
 ity of manners ; and we feel personally 
 concerned in the misunderstandings 
 which drove them to infinit trouble, by 
 destroying their domestic harmony. 
 . . . The reader is permitted to hav 
 an insight into the heroin's real character, 
 which is denied to those whS ar nearest 
 and dearest t5 her. We kno her to con- 
 ceal passionate emotions under an ap- 
 parently phlegmatic exterior, and tS rise 
 unpretentiously to sublime hights of 
 self-denial, while all the time she is the 
 victim of most irritating misconceptions." 
 [Blackwood's.] — ■ " When her only 
 brother was 15, little Anne Marie was 
 laid in his arms by his mother, 
 and at her death-bed, Klaus promisd 
 never to leav his sister. He sternly 
 put aside love and marriage for her 
 sake, and when she was 19 she did the 
 same for him. They livd in an old 
 castle with a dear old maiden ant, whose 
 diary furnishes the chief part of the 
 tale. Her only brother has reached the 
 ripe age of 35, when a little sprite, — 
 selfish, pleasure-loving, in all things the 
 opposit of his sister, dances and sings 
 her way into his heart. The story passes 
 over 30 years, and the life of the only 
 brother is read by another generation at 
 the cradle of another Klaus." [Pub- 
 lisher's Weekly.] — " Fraulein Anna 
 Maria von Hegewitz calculates thaler 
 and groshen, tels her knoing old ant 
 that she means never to marry , and that ■ 
 neither wil her brother, wh8 has prom- 
 ised always to care for her. But this, 
 as the reader wel knoes, is as tho a green 
 apple should swear never t5 turn red in 
 
 the rind. He watches the melloing of 
 the acrid juices in the fraulein's charac- 
 ter as he might his ndbors' fruit ripening 
 over the wall. In the fullness of time, 
 Anna Maria is married to an old friend of 
 the family, and brother Klaus, whSse 
 brotherly affection she at first held suffi- 
 cient, tho a. good fello enuf, is the one 
 from whSm most of her troubles come." 
 [Critic, 1888.] — " It contains the same 
 descriptions of the quaint maiden ant, 
 the country life of the nobles, and the 
 strong family affection which we find 
 in the numerous novels translated by 
 Mrs. Wister. The author displays fine 
 descriptiv powers in his rendering of 
 country scenes and interiors, so we can 
 almost believe we, too, hav vegetated in 
 a Markisch house. The 3 women in the 
 story ar the best drawn and most inter-, 
 esting characters ; they ar also excellent 
 foils to each other — ant Kosamunde, 
 anxious and affectionate ; Anna Marie, 
 strong, self-controled, and loving ; Sus- 
 anne, weak, childish, and pleasure-seek- 
 ing. The power half-consiously wielded 
 by a beautiful, selfish, spoilt girl in the 
 lives of those around her is trench- 
 antly illustrated. Perhaps she may 
 be summed up as ISving pleasure and 
 love." [Critic, 1889. 
 
 — , SAME ("A Sister's Love"), 
 WortUngton, 1890. 2426 
 
 HER SON [by " E. Weknek : " Bent- 
 ley, 1887.] = ST. MICHAEL. 
 
 HERMANN [by "E. Wernee," i. c, 
 E., Biirstenbinder : Tinsley, 1879.] "is 
 a powerful tale, and very readable. The 
 story treats the bane which the sins of 
 the fathers cast upon the children. A 
 cloud of dark crime blights the child- 
 hood and youth of a young count, and 
 the same crime has darkened the life of 
 a young girl whom he loves, unconcious 
 that the evil deed of his father has raised 
 a fatal barrier between them. How this 
 
 734 
 
GERMAN NOVELS. 
 
 barrier was raised, how overcome, is the 
 theme of the story. All ends wel ; the 
 crime is expiated, not avenged, and the 
 lovers united." [Athenasum. 2427 
 
 HERO OF THE PEN (A) [by " E. 
 Wekner," i.e., E.. Biirstenbinder ; Low 
 ^ Co., 1878.] "deals with the for- 
 tunes of the dauter of a German wh5, 
 exiled to America in 1848, determind to 
 rear his child as much of a forSiner as 
 he could. The story is simply, naturally, 
 and gracefully told." [Athenaeum. 2428 
 
 HIGHER THAN THE CHURCH = 
 No. 737. 
 
 HIS WORD OF HONOR = 
 NORTHERN LIGHT. 
 
 HOHENSTEINS (The) = No. 738. 
 
 HOLE IN THE SLEEVE, by H: 
 ZscHOKKE : in Godey's, May, 1844. 
 
 HOME SOUNDS [Heimatklang] by 
 " E. "Werner ; " Munro, 1888. 
 
 — , SAME ("The Spell of Home"), 
 Lippincott, 1887. 2429 
 
 HONOR [by Clemens Brentano 
 (1778-1842) : London, J: Chapman, 
 1848.] is " a little story worthy to take 
 rank with Auerbach's ' Village Tales.' 
 We feel grateful to the translator for hav- 
 ing put into an english dress a charming 
 little tale." [Westminster. 2429 k 
 
 HOUSEHOLD IDOL (The), [by 
 Marie Bernhard : N. Y., Worthington, 
 1892.] " The story opens in Rome, 
 after the fall of the Casa Borteni. 
 Andr6e, an artist, is hastily summoned tS 
 the death-bed of a young sculptor, wh5 
 beseeches him to convey the news of 
 his death to the beloved dauter of a 
 Hamburg banker. In fulfilling this 
 commission the artist loses his heart, 
 and there foUoes a romance of contra- 
 diction and unexpected action." . . . 
 [Publisher's Weekly. 2429 r 
 
 HOE.TENSE = No. 2409. FRIEND- 
 SHIPS TEST. 
 
 HOW THE BARON GOT HIM A 
 
 WIFE, by L. Schijcking, in Fenn 
 Monthly, nov., 1878. 2429 
 
 HULDA [by Fanny (Lewald) 
 Staiir (1811-89) : Lippincott, 1874.] 
 ' ' tels the love of the humble pastor's dau- 
 ter for the Baron Emanuel, and all the 
 suffering which embittered that young 
 woman's path in life. It is not a remark- 
 able novel, but it is readable." [Nation.] 
 "From one of the advertising pages 
 we learn that Mrs. Wister has given 
 t5 the world some nine volumes of 
 versions of German tales. There would 
 appear to be nothing but want of the time 
 employed in the mere mechanical writing 
 tS prevent her from speedily increasing 
 this number. A tolerable knoledge of 
 German, and the ability to render that 
 language into fair English ar all the 
 qualities we can discern in Mrs. Wister's 
 writings. As they ar stated to be ' after 
 the German,' the reader would be led 
 to believe that the idioms and style of 
 the original text had not been closely 
 adhered to, but that the English adap- 
 tation would flo smoothly and naturally. 
 In this, however, he would be disap- 
 pointed, as many long and involvd 
 sentences sho that the original has 
 been too faithfully folloed. The scene 
 of the early portion of the book is laid 
 on Prussian northern coast, and the 
 time is early in the century. In the 
 opening chapters the reader is introduced 
 to Hulda, the heroin, who is the only 
 child of a pastor of a village. All the 
 inhabitants of this village ar depen- 
 dents of a noble family, which occa- 
 sionally occupies the castle. We ar 
 all familiar with the nursery tales in 
 which the poor peasant girl falls in 
 love with a rich noble, and by her 
 silent adoration wins his affection. 
 . . But in ' Hulda ' we ar asked 
 to believe that a country girl, after only 
 two months' instruction, can become a 
 
 735 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 HYPERION, [by H: Wadsworth 
 Longfellow: N.-Y., Coleman, 1839.] 
 " The hero, a young American, oppressed 
 with grief for the loss of a friend, makes 
 a tour t6 Germany. Here he passes 
 some time with a young Baron, and then 
 sets out for Switzerland. He falls in 
 15 YB there and is re j ected — but the tone 
 of his mind becomes, finally, restored, 
 and the book leaves him on the eve of 
 returning t5 his nativ land. This is the 
 story, but the story is merely the vehi- 
 cle for beautiful simile, aphorism, thot 
 and description." [Southern Lit. Mes- 
 senger. 467 t 
 
 129 s 
 
GEKMAST NOVELS. 
 
 grSat actress, and that a villain, a valet, 
 whS has been horsewhipped and kicked 
 out of his place for his crimes and 
 impudence, could be the grandest 
 tragic actor in Germany. . . . 
 'Hulda' is concluded by the marriage 
 of the Baron with the actress, so in a 
 true fairy-like manner all ends happily." 
 [Arcadian. 2430 
 
 HUNGER-PASTOR (The) [by W: 
 Raabe : Chapman, 1885.] "is by a 
 writer wh5m Germany claims as its 
 greatest living humorist. His best book 
 is generally acknoledged tS be the 
 ' Hunger Pastor,' published some 20 
 years ago. It is full of merit, and 
 quite deservd the honor of translation ; 
 but in putting it intS forein dress most 
 of its humor has evaporated, being 
 rather of the superficial nature which 
 deals with curious mistakes of speech 
 and quaint language than of the true 
 pathos which remains under all dis- 
 guises. The story, which folloes the 
 career of two village boys, is wel sus- 
 tained. The best portions of the novel 
 ar the descriptions of life in the sea- 
 board village where the protagonist is 
 curate." [Athenaeum. 2431 
 
 IMMENSEE = 747. 
 
 IN EXILE [Lippincott, 1871.] " is 
 an agreeable and pleasantly written 
 story. . . . The characters of 
 Elizabeth and her ' husband, and that 
 of the Prince Alezis, ar very delicately 
 done, and in a manner not unsuggestiv 
 of work so much better that even tS 
 hav recalled it is no small achievement. 
 The book is very wel translated, also, 
 and may be recommended t6 the class 
 of novel-readers wh5 like to be careful 
 In their selections." [Nation. 2432 
 
 IN HOT HASTE [by M.. E. Hdl- 
 lah: Holt, 1888.] "is a wel-told, in- 
 teresting tale. The haste was due t5 
 the necessity of the hero's marriage be- 
 
 for his 28th birthday, in order not t5 
 ISse an inheritance. . . In the first 
 blush of her indignation she begs per- 
 mission of her now angry husband t5 
 leave him and go t5 her english relativs , 
 which he grants. That they afterwards 
 come together in reconciliation and love 
 is due to a sudden generosity which nov- 
 elists always implant in the nature of a 
 german hero t6 be br6t t5 light once 
 and once only in the course of the 
 story, and which usually overturns all 
 one's preconceived idea of character." 
 [Critic. 2433 
 
 IN PARADISE [by Paul Heyse : 
 Appleton, 1878.] "is a story of artist 
 life, and takes its rather eijigmatie title 
 from a club of Munchen artists, which 
 has been formed by a circle of congen- 
 ial spirits on the theory that it is 
 possible even in the midst of this 
 world to thro off the hypocrisy of society 
 and return once more to a state of inno- 
 cence — to substitute for the constraint, 
 conventionality, and philistinism of or- 
 dinary life a social state in which each 
 man shal act out his individuality, and 
 reveal himself as he is. The oppor- 
 tunity thus afforded for depicting bo- 
 hemian life is very happily used. . . . 
 The plot of the story is ingenious and 
 intricate without being complicated, and 
 the interest expands and deepens to the 
 end." [Appleton's Journal. 2434 
 
 IN THE COUNSELLOR'S HOUSE 
 = No. 2335. 
 
 IN THE SCHILLINGSCOURT [by 
 "E. Marlitt," i. c, Eugenie John (t, 
 1887): Lippincott, 1879.] "has the 
 usual elements of the german novel; 
 the grave stern hero maintains an agree- 
 able and lively game of fen9ing with the 
 hauty heroin, til it is finished on the 
 last page by a happy marriage. In this 
 instance, a complication results from the 
 circumstance that the hero is already 
 
 736 
 
GERMAN NOVELS. 
 
 married t5 a woman selected by his 
 father because of her wealth, but this is 
 easily arranged by means of a dirorce. 
 It is notifeable that discussion of all 
 sorts, from socialism to decorativ art, is 
 beginning to push its way into the regions 
 of such pure romance as Marlitt's stories 
 with the effect of making them more 
 unreal and far less agreeable." [Na- 
 tion.] — "The story turns upon the 
 frieddship and ultimate enmity of tw8 
 neboring families, one of whom dwels 
 in a former monastery, while the other 
 inhabits the hostelry of the monastic 
 building. A large part of the tale is 
 concerned with the designing interfer- 
 ence of priests. It is a sensational 
 story, but the plot is skilfully con- 
 structed, and the reader's interest is 
 neyer allowed to flag. The writing, too, 
 is good, and the descriptions of scenery 
 both graphic and attraotiv. The scene 
 is Thiiringia, with its woods and 
 streams." [Athenaeum. 2435 
 
 IN THE VILLAGE SALON, by 
 Claiee von GliJmek, in Ladies' Repos- 
 itory, Oct., 1870. 2436 
 
 INGEMISCO [Bavaria] = No. 472. 
 
 INITIALS [Bavaria] = No. 473. 
 
 INSIGNIFICANT WOMAN (An), 
 [by " W. Heimbukg," i. k.. Bertha 
 Behrens : N. Y., Bonner, 1891.] " The 
 insignificant woman is rather too good 
 for human nature's daily food. She is 
 the dauter of rich parents wh6 hav 
 earned money. She marries a selfish, 
 exacting artist, whS uses her property tS 
 surround himself with luxuries, and 
 traces his lac of success to the prosiness 
 of his wife. He finds a kindred soul in 
 a wild baroness, and his wife puts up 
 with untold insult at the hands of this 
 woman. After many pages the husband 
 groes tired of his old habits and ways 
 and tries being good." [Publishers' 
 Weekly. 
 
 — , SAME (" Misjudged"), Wortli- 
 ington, 1891. 2437 
 
 INTERESTING TALES [by J: H: 
 JtTNG Stilling : London, 1838.] " Al- 
 tho this is not so beautiful a book as the 
 autobiografy of Stilling, it is stil one of 
 grSat and rare merit. The ten short 
 tales, of which it consists, ar, with one 
 exception, (The Way to the Throne) 
 narrativs of humble life — not the life 
 of fantastic metaphysicians and poets, 
 but of real homely, honest burgers, and 
 peasants of the better class. We have 
 read the stories of ' Conrad the Good,' 
 ' The Emigrant,' ' Blind Leonard and 
 his Ouide,' ' The Watchman and his 
 Dauter,' and one or twS others, with 
 singular satisfaction. Th^re is a bon- 
 hommie about them — a simplicity and 
 strait-forwardness which contrasts in a 
 happy manner with the artificiality of 
 modern stories." [Metropolitan. 2438 
 
 IT HAPPENjlD YESTERDAY 
 [by E: Marshall: New York, D. 
 Appleton S; Co., 1891. J "is a story the 
 scene of which is laid in Augsburg. 
 It is rather a clever picture of society life 
 in that city, and is fairly interesting, but it 
 lacks individuality. It is only a familiar 
 picture in a new frame." [San Fran. 
 Chronicle. 2439 
 
 IT IS THE FASHION ["Modern ") 
 by " ADELHEiDVONAnEE,"i. e., C von 
 Cosel : Lippincott, 1872.] "is the 
 record of a, family given up tS worldly 
 ways — tS extravagance, and t8 all manner 
 of pomps and vanities. The story is told 
 in letters from a young woman wh8 is 
 boarding with them, and wh8 having a 
 very keen observation, and a fine talent 
 for gossiping, covers many pages with 
 descriptions of th^ir ways of life, and the 
 troubles it brings upon them. Naturally, 
 this is not the sort of novel which wil 
 please the giddy, and even steadier- 
 headed people may find it a trifle dul, but 
 
 737 
 
GERMAN NOVELS. 
 
 it is by no means unreadable. It is t(5 
 be remembered that this is a german novel 
 and what german novels generally ar." 
 [Nation. 2440 
 
 IVO. [by Bertiiold Auerbach : 
 London, Bogiie, 184:7.] " This charming 
 little story completes the series of Auer- 
 bach's ' Village Tales' [No. 2342] . Ivo 
 is the youngest son of the carpenter and 
 desires to become a priest. In this wish 
 lie is encouraged by his parents ; and 
 when of proper age, he proceeds to the 
 university. Here his mind becomes 
 harassed by numerous doubts and diffi- 
 culties, which result in a determination 
 t5 quit the university, and to folio any 
 other vocation than that of the priesthood 
 even at the risk of incurring his father's 
 lasting displeasure. This determination 
 he puts in practi9e, and wanders on he 
 cares not whither : a lucky chance con- 
 ducts him tS the farm of an old servant 
 of his father's, named Naza, to whom he 
 had been warmly attached from child- 
 hood, and who now receives him with 
 open arms, and the tale thus concludes.'' 
 [Westminster. 2441 
 
 JOSEPH IN THE SNOW, [by Bee- 
 THOLD Auerbach : London, Saunders, 
 1861, 3 V. ; Boston, Fuller, 1867.] " Many 
 of the best of the Village Stories [No. 
 2342] ar familiar to english readers, 
 indeed oun acquaintance with the Black 
 Forest dates from the appearance of 
 Barfussle [No. 2455] or of Edelweiss 
 [No. 2375] ; but to our mind the crown 
 of them is a little one — Joseph in the 
 Snow, a bit of simple, pathetic, soul- 
 touching village-life, told so vividly and 
 so naturally that we seem to smel the 
 pines of that hilly land and to feel as 
 ours the tender wo of little Joseph and 
 his mother. We might wel spare the weak 
 moral tone and the sentiiiientality of On 
 the Heights [No. 881] or the morbid 
 weariness of the Villa on the Rhein [No. 
 
 2367] ; but the man wh5 led us by the hand 
 into the innermost life of the wise and 
 patient peasant of the woods of Baden 
 has earned our heartiest gratitude. We 
 should think it might placate the veriest 
 'Jew-hater' of Berlin, when he remem- 
 bers that Germany oes some of its sweet- 
 est songs to one Jew (Heine) and its 
 very purest, sweetest, and most appealing 
 tales of loly life t5 another (Auerbach).'' 
 [Boston "Lit. World."] — Joseph is 
 a " gr^at favorit abroad and at home. 
 The plot is simple and touching, and the 
 capital descriptions of country life and 
 country characters make the story stil 
 more interesting. Joseph is the illegiti- 
 mate child of Martina, the dauter of a 
 wood-turner, who is an old man of un- 
 blemished character, and has taken gr^at 
 pride in his dauter's good principles and 
 promising talents. The shoe produced 
 by the news of Joseph's birth is terrible, 
 and David is near murdering his child. 
 The parson, however, interferes, and 
 brings the old man round not only to 
 pardon but even to love his dauter and 
 her offspring, and to be paternally solici- 
 tous for their welfare. The struggle be- 
 tween the father's love and his sense of 
 shame is wel depicted. The parson, too, 
 and his wife ar finely-drawn characters 
 and splendid types of th^ir class , Joseph's 
 father is faithfully attached to Martina, 
 but neither his father nor, much less, his 
 mother wil hear of his marrying the 
 penniless girl; they keep him so close a 
 prisoner that he finds it impossible even 
 to see her. By his parents he Is betrothed 
 to Tony, the miller's dauter, and is about 
 to be married to her against his wil. In 
 the night preceding this unnatural wed- 
 ding the complication reaches its climax. 
 Adam is sent to make love to Tony, but, 
 forgetting himself, talks to her of her 
 rival and his faithful attachment to her, 
 and at last wins his ' bride, ' who is a 
 
 738 
 
GERMAN NOVELS. 
 
 good girl at lieart, to his scheme of secret- 
 ly marrying Martina." [Englishwoman's 
 Domestic Mag. 2442 
 
 JUDITH STERIV, in TALES by 
 Heyse. 
 
 KATHERINE = No. 772. 
 
 KICKLEBURYS ON THE RHINE 
 = No. 477. 
 
 KLAUS BEWER'S WIFE [by Paul 
 LiNDAU : Holt, 1887.] " is ivorth reading, 
 if it wer only to contemplate the finished 
 portrait of ' Katie Schone,' whom Bewer 
 so rashly married. Katie's notion of 
 the value of truth was crude, and, being 
 a concert-hall singer, her propensities 
 wer vagabond. Nevertheless, she had 
 no desire to offend her conventional hus- 
 band, or to outrage the fine society to 
 which she unexpectedly found herself 
 elevated. But the introduction of very 
 respectable relativs into her house, her 
 husband's delight in their company, and 
 her discomfort, quite upset her equanim- 
 ity, drawing her to the activ antagonism 
 which resulted fatally to Bewer. Katie's 
 character is so completely disclosed by her 
 acts and words, with the sniallest amount 
 of description, that misunderstanding is 
 impossible. The rest of the characters 
 ar interesting and life-like , save the Amer- 
 icans, who ar of a kind which Americans 
 never see." [Nation. 2443 
 
 — , SAME ("Mr. & Mrs. Bewer"), 
 Band, 1892. 
 
 KNIGHT OF THE BLACK FOR- 
 EST = No. 480. 
 
 LABOR STANDS ON GOLDEN 
 PEET [by [J:] H: [Daniel] 
 ZscHOKKE : Cassell, 1871.] " illustrates 
 artisan life in the german towns as it 
 was many years ago. The tale is inter- 
 esting as a picture of life and manners, 
 and it is valuable as embodying the prin- 
 ciples which ar the basis of all true and 
 healthy civilization. It is the history of 
 the progress of a family for 3 genera- 
 
 tions, — now, beginning with Thadeus 
 the tinker, it groes and prospers by the 
 exercise of honesty, piety, and good 
 se se. The prosperity of the family is 
 not confined to themselvs, but it works 
 like leaven amongst the artisans of the 
 town, til the efforts of the old ' Master 
 Girdler,' to giv his son a good education 
 gradually extend to forming schools 
 and reading-rooms, and delivering lect- 
 ures for the instruction and cultivation 
 of all the workmen, — a general spread 
 of education and the means of learning." 
 [AthenaBum. 2444 
 
 LACE [by Paul Lindau : Appleton, 
 1889.] " is a good specimen of the mod- 
 ern german novel, — heavy, as it seems 
 that class of fiction must inevitably be, 
 but full of matter and of fine and consci- 
 entious workmanship. The finish and 
 elaboration of the german novelist may 
 wel serv as a model for his fello crafts- 
 men in other lands. The story is too 
 complicated and full of plqt to be easy 
 reading, but from its point of vue it 
 is a meritorious performance. It is 
 chiefly concerned with the political and 
 hier social life of the Empire, and 
 apart from its literary force wil be 
 found of value by any one concerned in 
 study of the people and institutions of 
 Germany." [American. 2445 
 
 LADY OF EISENACH .(The), in 
 Temple Bar, 1867, [Every Saturday, 
 21 Sept., 1867.] 2446 
 
 LADY WITH THE RUBIES = No. 
 779. 
 
 LAKE HOUSE. [by Fanny (Le- 
 wald) Stahe (1811-89) : Boston, Tick- 
 nor, 1861.] " A young German of hi 
 aspirations fails tS get any acknoledg- 
 ment from his relativs of his mar- 
 riage to a most lovely french lady of 
 noble family. And so, throu some inter- 
 ference of his father and her brother, 
 the young wife dies, and her miserable 
 
 739 
 
GERMAN NOVELS. 
 
 husband becomes an exile tC America, 
 and a desolated soul for the rest of 
 his days.. The cruelty of such rigid 
 conventionalism adds to the tragical 
 course of events in making the narrativ 
 intensely sad. The opening portion 
 givs a glimpse at the early horrors 
 of the french Revolution, but most of 
 the incidents cluster around a retired 
 country-seat near Hainblirg. Th^re 
 is little dialog, very little variety, and 
 nothing akin to american wedded trials 
 in this touching record of vrhat seems a 
 ,real experien9e of bliss blasted by the 
 inexorable pride of an old family, the 
 needless embarrassments of a concealed 
 love, and the exaggerated sensibility re- 
 sulting from misdirected education." 
 [Christian Examiner. 2447 
 
 LANDOLIN. [by Bekthold Auer- 
 BAOH (t, 1882) : Holt, 1878.] " The 
 inevitable Nemesis by which crime, una- 
 toned for, wotks out its punishment in 
 the soul, even when legal penalties ar 
 evaded is the motif and moral of the 
 book ; and the tragic theme is wr6t with 
 a dramatic for^e and effect which con- 
 trast impressivly with the peaceful rural 
 scenes and the simple people amid whom 
 the scene is laid." [Appleton's. 2448 
 LAST VON RECKENBUKG (The), 
 [by LuiSE VON FkaNjOis: transl., 
 Boston, Cupples, 1888.] " The noble 
 Fraulein Eberhardine is bound, by what 
 in fairy tales is described as the mysteri- 
 ous laws of her being, to defend the 
 weak and unworthy who depend upon 
 her, no matter hov.' grfiat the cost tS 
 herself. Then the obligation is increased 
 by a sense of what is due to her on 
 rank when protection is demanded by a 
 plebeian, one whom circumstances hav 
 made her companion and, with certain 
 reservations, her friend. The novel in 
 which this heroin displays the nobility of 
 her nature and of her order is thoroly 
 
 romantic. The scene is laid in the 
 early years of the century in a village 
 whfire the Von Reckenburgs subsisted 
 clitefly on the consciousness of their 
 long descent and on the deference ac- 
 corded it. Their feeling that a Von 
 Reckenburg is neither degraded by 
 poverty nor exalted by riches, that per- 
 sonal dishonor is as impossible to them 
 as personal dishonesty, is so genuin and 
 delightful tliat a fiery radical could scarce- 
 ly withhold respectful acquies9ence. 
 The village never dreams of question- 
 ing the validity of the poverty-stricken 
 Von Reckenburg's claim to superiority. 
 When Dorl, the common sinner, grovels 
 at the patrician Hardine's feet, and is 
 lifted, comforted, and shielded from the 
 worst consequences of her sin, th^re is 
 an almost comical recognition of the 
 immeasurable social distance between 
 the tw5. The beauty of the story is 
 that the reader accepts the situation as 
 naturally as Dorl and the rest of the 
 villagers, and the credit of this effect 
 should be given to the author's unpreten- 
 tious, sincere literary manner. The in- 
 terest in Hardine's sorros and Dorl's sins 
 is strong enuf to survive the artistic 
 blunder of telling the end before the 
 beginning." [Nation. 3449 
 
 LEFT-HANDED ELSA [byRo. E: 
 Francillon : Boston, Loring, 1879.] is 
 " a quaint little tale. It is about a young 
 artist, wh5 wins a prize, and is nearly 
 ruined by his success. In his obscurity, 
 he had loved the humble maiden, Elsa; 
 in his greatness he neglects ; when he 
 falls he finds consolation in her affec- 
 tion." [Boston "Lit. World." 2460 
 LENORE VON TOLLEN [by " W. 
 Heimburg," i.e.. Bertha Behrens : 
 Ifunro, 1890.] " is a natural, unaffected, 
 and purely domestic story of a sort on 
 which our german kinsmen seem to hav 
 a patent. An unbroken thread of narra- 
 
 740 
 
GERMAN NOVIiLS. 
 
 tiv conducts the reader from one inci- 
 dent to another by wel-trodden, homely 
 ways, and throu an atmosphere suffused 
 ■\vith sentiment until it brings him con- 
 tentedly to the most orthodox and pros- 
 perous of endings. _ The good ar re- 
 warded and the evil punished, deaths 
 liappen opportunely, and people incon- 
 Tenient t5 the villain turn up at the most 
 convenient moment for his trembling 
 victim." [Catholic World.] — " It is a 
 rather tragic story of the sacrifice of a 
 young and beautiful girl to pay the debts 
 of a scapegrace brother. Her mother 
 and sister connived to sel her to a 
 coarse, brutal husband, and separate her 
 from the lover to whom she had given 
 her heart. The girl's despair and her 
 disgust for the man she marries ar very 
 wel pictured. By a happy turn of cir- 
 cumstances she is finally able to thro off 
 her yoke and marry her early love. 
 Novels in which matrimonial mistakes 
 ar rectified by divorce ar not always the 
 healthfulest ; but in the book before us, 
 Lora has the reader's sympathies throu- 
 out. . . . Th^re is a Teutonic sim- 
 plicity about her which makes her a 
 fascinating heroin." [Boston " Lit. 
 World."]' — Lora "is the typical ger- 
 man heroin of the ' Marlitt ' style, ' de- 
 voured with the hate of hate, the scorn 
 of scorn, the love of love.' She carries 
 her little head so very hi that oiie feels 
 sure the muscles of her nee must often 
 hav ached sadly. Some of the char- 
 acters ar sufficiently life-like, but the 
 plot is weak and sentimental. The 
 [ Worthington] translation is well done 
 and is in easy, colloquial English." 
 [American.] — " The plot is common- 
 place and badly worked out, the trouble. 
 s5m characters being either sent to 
 America or killed off by convenient 
 maladies. Some of the dialog, however, 
 is brightly written ; and the author has 
 
 succeeded in presenting an attractiv 
 heroin of a thoroly german type. 
 [Athenseum. 
 
 — , SAME {"'Lora." WoHhington, 1882. 
 
 — , SAME ("Was she his Wife?") 
 London, Eden, 1891. 2451 
 
 LIESCHEN = i/.^^Zff OF THE 
 MILL. 
 
 LIFE AND DEATH, in Ladies' Re- 
 pository, june-july, 1868. 24:52 
 
 LINDA TRESSEL. [by Anthony 
 Tkollope (t, 1882) : Litiell and Gay, 
 1868.] " Looking at these short novels 
 candidly, taking the good with the bad 
 and comparing them with the multitud- 
 inous host of kindred works, . we find 
 ourselvs ready t5 say that they contain 
 more of the real substance of common 
 life and more natural energy of con- 
 ception than any of the clever novels 
 now begotten on our much tried english 
 speech. . . . There ar many ways 
 by which an effect may be reached. 
 Scott traveled throu romantic gorges 
 and enchanted forests, and scaled the 
 summits of mountains crowned with 
 feudal towers. Mr. TroUope trudges 
 throu crowded city streets and dusty 
 hiways, and level garden-paths. But 
 the two roads converge and meet at a 
 spot where a sweet young girl lies 
 dying of a broken heart. It matters 
 little whether she be called Lucy Ashton 
 or Linda Tressel." [Nation.] — "The 
 same strong character-painting, the 
 same striking contrasts, and remarkable 
 but almost painful reality which distin- 
 guished ' Nina Balatka,' ar shon with 
 equal power in the present story, al- 
 tho it affords less scope for variety 
 than did the former. The plot is laid 
 in Nurnberg' — and while it certainly 
 introduces us t5 a singularly unattractiv 
 set of people, the exhibition of thSir 
 peculiar modes of thinking and action, 
 and thSir effect upon individual fortunes. 
 
 741 
 
INTISKNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 LIKES AND DISLIKES. [Oxford, 
 Parker, 1858.] " Two-thirds of this 
 volume ar occupied with an account of 
 a family tour in Germany. . . . Altho 
 the plot is the simplest conceivable — 
 being summed up in the popular phrase, 
 who would hav thot it? — an interest is 
 gradually .created which is sustained to 
 the last chapter. As to the continental 
 wanderings of the Marsdens and the 
 Digbys, they supply at once the basis 
 of a charming domestic tale, and of a. 
 most intelligent narrativ of travel, for 
 we seldom meet with criticism so sug- 
 gestiv, or gossip so pleasant, in the 
 diaries of ordinary tourists. . . . The 
 book is full of grace and fascination." 
 [Leader. 486 h 
 
 137 h 
 
GERMAN NOVELS. 
 
 th^ir very strange manners, and the 
 strong claim ti5 our sympathies wliich 
 the author bespealcs for poor Linda — 
 wh6 seems to be entirely misplaced 
 amid the picturesque antiquities and 
 besotted prejudices of this Bavarian 
 city, ar decidedly interesting. . . 
 
 The conversation is particularly good, 
 and servs gradually to develope the 
 peculiar qualities and opinions of the 
 speakers in a manner so natural as to 
 bring each individual before the reader 
 with a degree of distinctness which 
 no mere description could produce." 
 [Round Table. 2453 
 
 LINKED AT LAST [by Fanny E.. 
 BuNNETT : London, King-I "Mrs. 
 Bunnett's slight story derives most of its 
 interest from the picture of pleasant 
 life which it contains. ThSre is much 
 which is true and wel described in the 
 simple routine of the Massengers' home- 
 stead at the foot of the Odeawald. 
 The fete-days and working days, the 
 ' aussitz ' in the gardens of the ' Crown,' 
 the rustic love-making, and the village 
 ambitions which cross its happiness, the 
 simple true-hedrtedness of Rosa, the 
 honest worldliness of her hard mistress, 
 the phlegip of the male Massingers, 
 father and son, ar all sketched with an 
 appreciativ and not unskilful pen. 
 [Athenseum. 2454 
 
 LITTLE BAREFOOT. [" Bar- 
 
 f iissle ") by Beethold Auekbach .- Bos- 
 ton, Fuller, 1867, 12° London, 1873, 4".] 
 " It is rarely that th^re is published any- 
 thing so simple and naturally delightful 
 in tone and so complete in finish. The 
 common sufferings and pleasures which 
 mark the life of a peasant orphan ar 
 rescued from insipidity by the poetry 
 and humanity with which they ar 
 treated. The thriftiness, cheerfulness 
 and wisdom of Amrei, the little heroin, 
 ar made touching by the circumstances 
 
 742 
 
 under which they hav t8 be exercised. 
 ' Brother and sister ' is one of the 
 most charming combinations of love 
 and confidence, clear of selfishness, — 
 but ' sister and brother ' is yet more 
 so, and never was woman's self-sacri- 
 ficing care of the weak boy left alone in 
 the world with her more innocently and 
 naturally displayed than in the career 
 of Amrei and Dauci." [Athenaeum.] — 
 " We hav in this story of a shoeless 
 maiden one of those simple yet exquisit 
 fictions which stand unrivaled in their 
 department of romance, the faculty of 
 producing which seems to belong to 
 some peculiar element of the german 
 mind. It is characterized by the rare 
 charm of freshness, a spontaneity, and 
 a. purity which renders the perusal, like 
 inhaling the breezes of spring, redolent 
 of mingled perfumes from gardens, 
 meados, and groves. It would be 
 stinted praise to say this little volume 
 has excellence ; for it possesses the 
 many excellences essential t5 a truly 
 artistic production. In design it is ap- 
 propriate throuout, ever natural and 
 truthful. A depth of guileless wisdom 
 speaks in the tender, earnest strain of 
 the story, the reflectiv tenor of which 
 is relievd by the perpetual play of a 
 sparkling fancy, and warmed by irre- 
 pressible utterances of the hiest and 
 sweetest intuitions." [Leader.] — 
 " ' Little Barefoot,' as she should be 
 called, is a most fascinating creation, 
 and her story is told in an altogether 
 charming manner. The picture is 
 taken from the humblest life, the scene 
 is laid in an ordinary german village, the 
 dramatis personie ar peasants . . . but 
 the beauty and the glory of humanity 
 ar here, encompassed by loliness, and 
 yet all the more able tS move our hearts. 
 The book, without making a profession 
 of religion, is rehgious, — and moral. 
 
C2EMAN NOVELS. 
 
 too, without moralizing, — and witlial a 
 charming combination of the real anJ 
 the ideal, of hard, grasping, mean, 
 grinding village life, under iron condi- 
 tions, and of that faith and knoledge and 
 sweetness — the gifts of God as manifestly 
 as the flowers and the fruits, the birds and 
 the soft breezes — which create thOir on 
 world, and that world almost a. heaven, 
 out of the most unpromising materials." 
 [Monthly Religious Magazine. 
 
 — , SAME ("Cinderella of the Black 
 
 Forest ") , in SKETCHES, translated by 
 
 Georgina Gordon, London, 1H61. 24:55 
 
 — , SAME ("Barefooted Maiden"), 
 
 Low, 1857 ; Boston, Monroe, 1S60. 
 
 LITTLE HEATHER-BLOSSOM 
 [by Emilie von Ingersleben : Bnnner, 
 1891.] is " a pretty and somewliat intri- 
 cate romance of a little watering-place 
 on one of the inlets of the Baltic. 
 Erica, the heather-blossom, upon losing 
 her mother, drifts into many strange 
 surroundings, and eventually discovers 
 the place which is hers by right of birth 
 as wel as by merit and fitness." [Pub- 
 lisher's Weekly. 2456 
 LITTLE MOORLAND PRINCESS 
 = No. 79.5. 
 
 LITTLE WHITE HAT (The) in 
 Amer. Monthly Mag., aug.-oct., 1833. 
 
 LIZZIE OF THE MILL (" Lum- 
 penmiiller's Lieschen ") [by " W. 
 Heimburg," i. e., Bertha Behrens : 
 transl. by Tyrrell, Beniley, 1880.] " is 
 a pleasant enuf little story. It tels how 
 the h^ir of a. half-ruined house fel in 
 love with an il-tempered and treacherous 
 cousin, who leavs him in the lurch and 
 in gr^at pecuniary difficulties, andhow he 
 is rescued thfiref rom by the usual faithful 
 and munificent girl of the people. A 
 wicked italian grandmother with ruthless- 
 ly aristocratic vues is the only other per- 
 son deserving mention." [Athenasum. 
 — , SAME ("Lottie of the MiU"), 
 
 Lippincoit, 1882. [In this version, the 
 first chapter is omitted.] 
 
 — , SAME ("Lieschen"), N.-Y., 
 Tribune Co., 1882. 
 
 — , SAME (" Tale of an Old Castle" ), 
 Munro, 1889. 
 
 — , SAME ("A Maiden's Choice"), 
 Worthington, 1891. '24c51 
 
 LORA = No. 2451. 
 
 LORENZO STARK, by Engel, = No. 
 821. 
 
 LORLEY AND REINHARD. [by 
 Bekthold Auerbach (t, 1882) : Holt, 
 1877.] " A painter visiting a village 
 paints as a Madonna the beautiful dauter 
 of the keeper of the village inn. He 
 fails in love with her, attracted no less 
 by her unconcealed love for him than by 
 her beauty. He takes her to town with 
 him, a town where th^re is a little 
 court, very refined, esthetic, and very 
 hi dried old manners. The poor girl 
 drives him almost mad with her awk- 
 wardness, her ignorance of polished 
 life, and her independence. [Compare 
 plot of No. 2390.] It does not matter 
 that in the latter respect she wins the 
 favor of others, even of the Prince. 
 After awhile he avoids her, and comes 
 home drunk. She sees her position, and 
 from what he is suffering, and she goes 
 bac to her parents, leaving behind hor 
 an unreproachful, fond, and most touch- 
 ing letter of farewel. . . . After 
 awhile she dies, and he after a long time 
 betroths himself to another woman who 
 loves him, and to whose love he re- 
 sponds with such a feeling as beauty and 
 sweetness and devotion might raise in 
 the breast of a man whose heart is really 
 in the grave of his dead wife. He dies 
 before a second marriage from injuries 
 receivd in a dispute with his br5ther-in- 
 law. It wil be seen that this simple 
 story of humble life presented tempta- 
 tions to treatment in the most literal and 
 
 743 
 
GERMAN NOVELS. 
 
 realistic way. But in Auerbach's hanJs 
 it is ideal." [Galaxy. 
 
 — , S.4ME ("The Professor's Wife") 
 [No. 2498], Oxford, Parker, 1850. 
 This includes, however, only the first 
 part. 2458 
 
 LOST IN THE SNOW, in (N. Y.) 
 Citizen, 17-24 Sept., 1870. 2459 
 
 LOST MANUSCRIPT (The) = No. 
 799. 
 
 LOTTIE OF THE MILL = No. 
 2457. 
 
 LOUISA VON PLETTENHAUS = 
 No. 2370. 
 
 LOVE AND SILENCE, or the Fam- 
 ily of Almstein by K. (v. G.) Pichlee, 
 in Boston Saturday Rambler, 18 and 25 
 may, 1850. 
 
 — , SAME (" Silent Love") in Boston 
 Miscellany, Jan., 1842 ; also in Ladies' 
 Repository, July, 1844; also in " The 
 Passion Flower," N.-Y., Leavitt ^ 
 Alden, 1859 (?). 2460 
 
 LUCIE'S MISTAKE = No. 2409. 
 
 LUCY, or Married from Pique, by 
 " E. JuNCKER," i. e., Else ( ) 
 Schmieden: Loring, 1868. 2461 
 
 LULU'S NOVEL [by Elise Polko : 
 Boston, Loring, 1874.] "is a pretty 
 story of family-life. Lulu is one of 
 those wild-flowers of genius, who in 
 stories but not outside, gro, without 
 much training, into the ability to dS 
 gr^at things. Scarcely out of childhood, 
 she is betrothed to a grave Herr Doctor, 
 whom she reverences more than loves, 
 and whQ has very strict ideas with re- 
 gard t5 her education and sphere. A 
 gay and genial young officer is intro- 
 duced under the right conditions to make 
 trouble, but he, or Lulu, or both, disap- 
 point our expectations in this respect, 
 and she ends rather tamely with her af- 
 fianced at last. She is scarcely more 
 prominent in the story, however, than 
 all her friends. The gentle Professor, 
 
 her father, with his birds and flowers, 
 her over-anxious mother, the romantic 
 ant Elsbeth, with her worship of 
 female greatness afar off, — these make 
 u family circle whose life is like a pas- 
 toral." [Hepository. 2462 
 
 MAGDALEN'S FORTUNES = No. 
 2360. 
 
 MAGIC OF A VOICE (The) [by 
 Margaret Russell Macfarlane : Oas- 
 sell, 1886.] "is a charming story of 
 german life, resembling those chosen 
 [see No. 595] by Mrs. Wister for trans- 
 lation, in its bright or pathetic episodes 
 and its clear representation of german 
 customs and modes of thot." [Critic.]— 
 ' ' The picture of life as it is led by the 
 gentry of Meck)enburg, with their 
 narro interests and restricted companion- 
 ship, is full of local color and realistic 
 touches. . . . Given, a dark man, 
 with close cut hair curling crisply around 
 his open brow, with an eye like a falcon, 
 and other manly attributes, in love with 
 a mysterious voice ; the oner of the 
 voice, a tall, slender maid, with ash 
 blonde hair, arms like a Psyche, aspira- 
 tions in music and the gift of their ex- 
 pression, for principal actors, and the 
 wild waters of the Baltic, the woods, 
 and the rockbound shore for a romantic 
 setting, one is somewhat exasperated at 
 having to listen to old women gossiping 
 over their knitting." [Nation. 2463 
 
 MAID, WIFE, OR WIDOW? 
 [by "Mrs. Alexander," i. e., Annie 
 (French) Hector : C/iaSo, 1879.] is a 
 "pretty, pathetic, wel-modulated little 
 romance. As a matter of fact, the story 
 cannot be read without pleasure ; and it 
 is Avritten with so much delicacy, as wel 
 as correctness, that criticism is disarmed 
 from the outset. ' Maid, Wife or Widow?' 
 is in many respects cast in a different 
 mold from that which produced The 
 Wooing O't, [No. 1934] but the tw5 
 
 744 
 
GERMAN NOVELS. 
 
 novels hav their best qualities in com- 
 mon. Humanity at its truest and tender- 
 est, youthful affection and faith at their 
 purest and simplest, circumstance and 
 detail in their most natural form — these 
 ar the materials out of which Mrs. 
 Alexander has woven a charming tale. 
 The thoro ease of the narrativ is one of 
 the best proofs of the fidelity of the 
 pictures which it brings before our eyes,; 
 and no one wil be likely tS carp at the 
 delineation of the quiet phases of saxon 
 rural life, set in their bacground of mili- 
 tary bustle and excitement. The half- 
 transparent mystery which is created by 
 the title before 5ne dips intS the first 
 chapter is maintained without effort t5 
 the last ; we feel that there is not much 
 to be discovered when all is over, and 
 we ar content to lend ourselvs to the 
 delusion until it may please the hero 
 and heroin to unravel their silken skein. 
 This is art of a simple kind ; but it is 
 true art for all that." [Athen. 2464 
 
 MAIDEN'S CHOICE (A) = No. 2457. 
 
 MARGARETHE [by "E. Junker,'' 
 i. e.. Else ( ) Schmieden : Lippincott, 
 1878.] "is the simplest of narrations, a 
 much-used theme ; the marriage of the 
 only son of an aristocratic house and a 
 young girl from a class beneath him — 
 a count with a tradesman's daughter. 
 She is lovely in person and character ; 
 but her exacting love and childlikenese 
 weary him, and he is about to give him- 
 self up to the influence br6t to bear 
 upon him by a magnificent but unprin- 
 cipled woman of his rank,, whom he 
 had formerly admired, when his wife 
 Margarethe learns the truth and nearly 
 dies of the shoe. Stung with remorse 
 and shame, he strives and waits for res- 
 toration of the love and trust he has for- 
 feited, and which now seem to him 
 treasures beyond price ; but she, from a 
 confiding, affectionate girl, has become 
 
 at once a woman, self-possessed, reti- 
 cent and unapproachable. The result 
 of his now absorbing passion and patient 
 waiting, and of the disciplin of his truly 
 noble nature, is such as to gratify the 
 reader. Another love story of great 
 pathos runs along with the leading one 
 — that of the Count's sister for a lover 
 beneath her. The sketches of the home 
 life of a cultivated family of rank ar 
 very graphic, as ar the general scenes 
 and incidents ; and the characters ar so 
 clearly drawn that we recognize their 
 fidelity." [Boston " Lit. "World." 2465 
 
 MARIA WUZ, by Riohtek, No. 
 821. 
 
 MARIE AND MARIA, by Ottilie 
 (RoNSCHtJTz) Wii.DERMUTH : in Ladies' 
 Repository, Jan.-May, 1871. 24:(iG 
 
 MARRIAGE TIE (The), [by 
 "Johannes van Dewall," i. c. A: 
 Kiihne : Remington, 1879.] "The au- 
 thor makes about as much as is possi- 
 ble of material which an english reader 
 would deem impracticable. The her- 
 oin, a miracle of beauty and virtue, is 
 found to hav tw5 husbands. Not all 
 the author's ingenuity can account for 
 the first divorce in a satisfactory way — 
 to love too much seems to be as fatal to 
 the stability of the ' marriage tie ' as to 
 love too little. The tale is wel told, and 
 rises at its climax to a bight of interest 
 which all readers wil acknowledge." 
 [Spectator. 2467 
 
 MARRIED OR NOT MARRIED in 
 Imperial Magazine, 1839, and Gift of 
 Friendship, 1852. 2468 
 
 MARTHA = No. 2514. 
 
 MASTER BIELAND AND HIS 
 WORKMEN, [by Berthold Aueebach, 
 (t, 1882) : Holt, 1883.] " The Phila- 
 delphia exhibition figures in its pages, 
 but in it Auerbach returns to the same 
 theme which was long ago the motif in 
 ' Edelweiss ' [No. 2375] cooperation in 
 
 745 
 
GERMAN NOVELS. 
 
 handicraft. Then it was the doc- 
 makers', here it is the shoemakers'. 
 ThSre is in it that same comprehension 
 of the significance of all the littleness of 
 the life of a small community which was 
 the success of his first stories, tho th^re 
 is less of picturesque detail such as made 
 us intimate with the Black Forest." 
 [Nation. 2469 
 
 MASTER OF ETTERSBERG (The) 
 = No. 1011. 
 
 MASTERPIECES OF GERMAN 
 FICTION : Milwaukee, 1885. 
 
 MATRIMONIAL AGENT OF 
 POTSDAM (The) [by Adolf von Win- 
 TEEFELD. N.-Y., T: R. Knox, 1887.] 
 "is called a ' humoro-social' romance. 
 The recipe for this is a certain propor- 
 tion of sentiment, a certain quantity of 
 sententious discourses on women, love, 
 matrimony, the spirit of the age and a 
 large amount of horse-play. It is in 
 this that tlie humor consists. A man 
 stands on his feet; therefore a man 
 standing on his head must be irresistibly 
 funny. Wives must obey their hus- 
 bands ; therefore men afraid of th^ir 
 wives ar side-splitting. In the same 
 measure physical defects, such as stam- 
 mering, can convulse the gods. This is 
 a cheap and easy way of raising a laf , 
 but one with which we confess we are 
 not greatly in sympathy. Otherwise the 
 book professes to illustrate a curious 
 phase of German society, but one which 
 is equally farcical." [Epoch. 24 70 
 
 MAX WILD, THE MERCHANT'S 
 SON, Edinburgh, Nimmo, 1874. 2471 
 
 MEN AND BOYS, by Th. Kornee, 
 in Amer. Monthly, Apr. 1836. 2472 
 
 MINNIE'S HOLIDAY [by Matilda 
 ISaebaea Betham Edwards: London, 
 M. Ward, 1875.] " is a fresh and pleasant 
 story. The scene is Vienna, and the 
 little country cousins come from Salz- 
 burg. It is told in a lively, pleasant 
 
 way, and it shos that girls in Austria 
 and England ar much alike." [Athe- 
 UEBum. 2473 
 
 MISJUDGED = No. 2437. 
 
 MISS IN HER 'TEENS = No. 2420. 
 
 MISTRESS OF IBICHSTEIN = 
 No. 845. 
 
 MONEY, London, 1852. 2474 
 
 MY HEART'S DARLING = No. 
 2409. 
 
 NANNCHEN VON MAINZ [byBEE- 
 TiiOLD AuEEBACii : in Appleton' s Jour- 
 nal, 10 and 17 July, 1875.] " is much like 
 some of the author's earlier work. It 
 tels how a young girl of Mainz fell In 
 love with a prussian soldier, much to 
 the wrath of her father, and how finally 
 they wer married. It is a clever enuf 
 little story, and It is amusing tS notice 
 that it has, or rather had, its political 
 meaning, in shoing how much il-feel- 
 ing existed between different sections of 
 Germany." [Atlantic. 2475 
 
 NEW RACE (A) = No. 864. 
 
 NINA BALATKA, see No. 2453. 
 
 NOBLE NAME (A) [by Claire 
 (von Tolstoy) von GLtlMEK : Lippin- 
 cott, 1883.] " glrs the purposes and 
 cross-purposes of the grandchildren of 
 the aged head of the house of Donnlng- 
 hausen, a house ' whose members,' ac- 
 cording to his pronouncement, ' ar 
 not in the world solely tS enjoy them- 
 selvs, but to do their confounded duty 
 as far as they can, and fulfil their re- 
 sponsibilities.' " [Nation. 2476 
 
 NORA [London, Burns. 1877.] "is 
 not an uninteresting novel ; it is livelier 
 and more attractlv than most german 
 stories of the sentimental order, and 
 its morality is all which can be de- 
 sired, — it is, indeed, of ahier order than 
 we ar generally fortunate enuf tS find 
 in novels of either home or forein man- 
 ufacture. We should hav been pleased 
 to make the acquaintance of the ac- 
 746 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 MY COUSIN MAURICE. [iow, 
 1872] " is a very pleasant, readable 
 tale, written by some one whS has evi- 
 dently seen a good deal of the world. 
 We are taken here and thSre, t6 India, 
 Ireland, and Germany, and the writer 
 is evidently at home in each land. Some 
 of the translations of poetry ar particu- 
 larly wel done." [Westminster. 501 q 
 
 142 1 
 
GERMAN NOVELS. 
 
 oomplishecl scion of a french noble 
 house [which has espoused the cause of 
 the Revolution] wh6 found himself 
 obliged to take to circus riding, and 
 also of his charming wife and their 
 dauter Nora." [Spectator. 2477 
 
 NORICA [Niirnberg'] = No. 870. 
 
 NORTHERN LIGHT [" Flammeu- 
 zeichnen"] by '-E. Werner," N.-Y., 
 Bonner, 1890. 
 
 NOT FOR THE WORLD, [by D. 
 0. T. . Newly, 1872.] " Not til we get to 
 the last page of D. 0. T.'s unpretend- 
 ing story do we find the connexion, a 
 very slight one after all, between it and 
 the title ; and the enigma which the 
 latter presents to us is the only perplex- 
 ity involvd in the simple plot. Th^re 
 is no doubt as to the general fidelity of 
 the representation of german life and 
 character. This is conveyed throu tlie 
 medium of a narrativ by an english girl, 
 who leavs her ' villa at Brompton ' t5 
 stay with some german relativs, a, good- 
 tempered, rather sluggish baron, and 
 his vixenish but affectionate ant, who 
 rules her dofile nephew with despotic 
 sway. By very slo degrees, during 
 which one frequently gets completely 
 out of patience with her hero, that gen- 
 tleman makes up his mind to assert his 
 right of independent choice in the impor- 
 tant question of matrimony. Clara Ley- 
 bach, the young lady whom he wisely 
 prefers even t5 the approbation of his 
 ant, is, in every way, charming, wom- 
 anly, and natural. Unfortunately, as 
 the dauter of a village pastor, she does 
 not boast the patrician Von, and this 
 defect, when coupled with some early 
 reminiscences which ant Minuschka 
 stil retains of other members of the 
 Leybach family, proves sufficient to 
 induce the hi-hearted old baroness to giv 
 the match her stoutest opposition. Of 
 course, after much resistance, in the 
 
 course of which ant Minuschka shos 
 herself in colors very unworthy of her 
 better nature, a happy consummation is 
 arrived at. Th^re is a good deal of skil, 
 tho no attempt at striving after effect, 
 in the manner in which the complex but 
 homely nature of the old lady is re- 
 vealed to us ; much truth in the exposi- 
 tion of the really loering tendency of 
 misplaced pride, and a good deal of 
 humor in the description of the final 
 ' coup ' on which the gallant old com- 
 batant stakes her all, and loses. The 
 younger people, Clara, Fanny, and the 
 baron, ar tame in comparison with 
 her — the latter provokingly so ; but 
 th^y all hav th^ir merits, and the tone 
 of the book is lady-like and refined. 
 Especially noticeable is the absence of 
 coquetry in Fanny, wh3m most novelists 
 would hav instantly placed in rivalry 
 with the gentle Clara, but who, while 
 giving us sufficient indications that her 
 heart is not without its susceptibility, 
 acts and thinks like a modest and a 
 loyal english lady." [Athense. 2478 
 NOT IN THEIR SET. [by Makie 
 Lenzen: Boston, Lee, 1874.] "The 
 heroin is the illegitimate child of Count 
 Steinthal, who deceived her beautiful 
 mother Helene, dauter of the proud 
 Regierungsratli Lorsberg. The Count 
 loves Helene, to whom he is betrothed, 
 and would marry her, but weakly yields 
 to the appeals of his father t5 save the 
 tottering fortunes of their noble house 
 by wedding the wealthy Fraulein von 
 Metelen. The Regierungsrath is furi- 
 ous when he hears of the Count's insult 
 t(5 his family, altho as yet he does nut 
 kno its full extent. Helene becomes a 
 listless invalid, and dies. Pretty little 
 Margarethe, nowtwS years old, is reared 
 in the cottage of Jost, a poor basket- 
 maker, on a barren moor, throu which, 
 at the opening of the story, a survey is 
 
 747 
 
GERMAN NOVELS. 
 
 being made under direction of Mr. Ber- 
 ger, who is accompanied by liis sun. 
 The boy at once loves Margarethe, and 
 becomes her friend. He visits lier 
 often, brings her boolcs, and educates 
 her. Th^y gro up t5gether and become 
 lovers. Herr Berger sees the danger of 
 their intimacy, for he wishes Leo to 
 marry an heiress for the benefit of the 
 firm. He sends him to England to learn 
 the trade of a merchant, and in the be- 
 .'ief that a few years' stay there wil 
 thoroly cure him of his passion, prom- 
 ises him that if, when he shal return to 
 Germany, he persists in marrying the 
 girl, the paternal sanction shal not be 
 withheld. Leo comes back a thoro 
 Merchant, but is more anxious than ever 
 to wed Margarethe." [Arcadian. 2479 
 
 NOVEL WITH TWO HEROES 
 [Leipzig-.] =No. 506. 
 
 NUN (The), by K: Spindler : N.- 
 y., Dewiti, 1850. 2480 
 
 "0 THOU, MY AUSTRIA." [by 
 " Ossip SoHUBiN," i.e., Lola Kirschner : 
 Lippincott, 1890 ] " We ar carried 
 throu the diary of a young girl, as lively 
 in its way as the ' Neuvaine de Colette ' 
 [No. 2267] ; we ar introduced to a sen- 
 timental irish governess wearing red 
 stockings and flourishing a Gamp um- 
 brella, and to a globe-trotting uncle 
 whose ambition it is to be the austrian 
 Canning, and who imports ' his clothes, 
 his soap and his political ideas,' from 
 England. Then folloes the pretty love- 
 affair of the principals Idena and her 
 cousin Harry, interwoven and somewhat 
 overclouded by the tiresome tragedy of 
 a man who has married a rich parvenue 
 to repair his fortunes and commits sui- 
 cide in consequence. Clever as the story 
 is, one's attention, toard the close, can- 
 not resist straining in vain conjecture as 
 to the meaning of the title in its relation 
 to the book." [Critic. 24=81 
 
 ODDS AGAINST HER = No. 
 873. 
 
 OLD COUNTESS (The), [by Ber- 
 nard Hofeb; Lippincott, 1870.] "If 
 all his novels ar as good as this, we hope 
 Bernard Hofer's name wil become a 
 familiar one. 'The Old Countess' is a 
 story of hi life, involving a grave family 
 mystery and divers love affairs, which 
 ar handled with pleasing effect. The 
 action is lively, and each Sue of the 
 characters makes a claim upon the read- 
 er's interest. There is no moralizing or 
 philosophizing in the book, not a tedious 
 page ; the author's single purpos seems 
 to hav been to make an interesting story 
 of natural elements, and without the aid 
 of extravagance or sensationalism." 
 [Boston " Lit. World." 2482 
 
 OLD MAM'SELL'S SECRET = No. 
 877. 
 
 OLD MONASTERY (The), [by F: 
 W; Hacklander : Beniley, 1862.] 
 " The ' old monastery ' is not a monas- 
 tery after all; but a place which once 
 was monastic, and is now inhabited by 
 washerwomen, receivers of stolen prop- 
 erty, etc. Of the personages whose 
 good or evil fortunes fll the drama, the 
 most interesting is the heroin, Maria, an 
 orphan, the dauter of a female lamp- 
 lighter in a german town and an Italian 
 peer. She is thron upon the mercy of 
 the world, and the world, personified by 
 a most sedate and admirable laundress, 
 takes charge of her, and, faithful to her 
 mother's wish, educates the child for the 
 ballet. Her vicissitudes ar narrated 
 with pleasant simplicity. Other- 
 
 wise the book is entertaining enuf. It 
 is lively, cleverly written, and in some 
 respects, the scheme of the romance is 
 originally conpeivd." [Leader. 2483 
 
 OLD STORY OF MY FARMING 
 DAYS (An) =No. 2509. 
 
 ON GUARD, by Auerbaoii, in Apple- 
 
 748 
 
GERMAN NOVELS. 
 
 ton's, 19 June, 1875 ; also in Modern 
 Age, Jan., 1884. 2509 t 
 
 ON THE HEIGHTS = No. 881. 
 
 ONE HUNDRED SHORT TALES, 
 by Chkistoph ton Schmid : London, 
 1852. 2484 
 
 OPEN DOOR (The) [by Blanche 
 Willis (Howard) Teuffel : Houghton, 
 1889.] " as a story, is very simple. A 
 count meets an accident in early man- 
 hood, and becomes a cripple. The lady 
 who would probably hav married him is 
 thenceforth the heartless woman of the 
 world. His mother is an old frump, who 
 lavishes all her tenderness on a lap-dog, 
 and this lap-dog is thrust disagreeably 
 upon one at every turn in the story. The 
 mother has a way of taking young girls 
 as companions, expending her foolish 
 fondness on them, and then tiring of 
 them and throing them aside. At last 
 comes along the 15th of them, a pure, hi- 
 spirited girl, a baroness remotely con- 
 nected with the family, who refuses to 
 be a sycophant, and marches throu the 
 story with uncompromising sturdiness 
 dealing out truth on every hand. Early 
 in the novel it is clear that the crippled 
 count wil marry her, and the reader is 
 not deceivd by the obstacles which 
 spring up. The countess tries to marry 
 her to an officer, but she disdains him, 
 and he sets about sedu9ing the baroness' 
 maid. Here comes the one notable pas- 
 sage in the book : the baroness at night 
 goes to an outcast's room, whither her 
 silly maid has gone to meet the officer, 
 and has thdre a long intellectual and 
 sentimental struggle with the outcast and 
 the maid, finally winning the game. 
 But the passage is only superficially 
 strong ; it is shoy rather than genuin. 
 Indeed, this is the term to be applied to 
 the entire novel. The manner of the 
 book is forced, exaggerated, with occa- 
 sional brilliancy, but with the glitter of 
 
 tin foil rather than of precious metal." 
 [Atlantic] — It "is bright and suffi- 
 ciently readable, tho the interest no- 
 where becomes so absorbing that the 
 volume may not easily be laid down. A 
 certain suspicion of dulness may be ac- 
 counted for by the lac of actuality in 
 the characters. The story treats of ger- 
 man life ; but unlike Mr. Crawford's 
 new book, which is german in its whole 
 warp and woof [see No. 724] ' The 
 Open Door ' is not distinctively german 
 at all. ThSre is no forein bacground, 
 no local color ; and as all the lively dia- 
 log is carried on in english and american 
 slang and idiom, it is a difficult matter 
 to catch the characteristic Teutonic 
 tendency in any one of the characters." 
 [American. 2485 
 
 OTTILIE = No. 855. 
 
 OTTILIE ASTER'S SILENCE 
 ["Eine Liige"), by Ida ( ) Boy- 
 
 Ed : N.-Y., Bonner, 1891. 2485 t 
 
 OUR DOOR BELL, by " W. Heim- 
 BupG," in Gosmopol.,Aec., 1886. 2486 
 
 OUR FRAULEIN. [by W. H. 
 Watts: Chapman, 1877.] "A young 
 engUsh lady, reduced to great difficulties 
 by the death of her father, takes the 
 management of the household of -a 
 certain german professor, and reduces 
 t(3 order the chaos in which she first 
 finds it involvd. Her last and greatest 
 victory is over the Professor himself, 
 who begins with the strongest and most 
 obstinate prejudi9es against England 
 and english women in particular, and 
 ends by laying down his arms in a most 
 ignominious subjection. . . . The 
 story is fairly amusing, and the writer 
 has evidently some acquaintance with 
 german life, tho he writes of a time now 
 past, and indeed further away than the 
 mere laps of time would sho, — the 
 period of 1848. This suggests the in- 
 terweaving of politics with the plot. 
 
 749 
 
UEltMAN NOVELS 
 
 PARTNERS [by "E. Werner," i. e.. 
 E.. Burstenbiiider: Bemington, 1S92. ] 
 "deals with the characters and 
 situations of which tlie author seems 
 particularly fond. AYe hav the usual 
 strong man, who wins his wife by' sheer 
 strength of wil in her on despite. The 
 partners ar the brothers Sandow, of wh5m 
 the elder is head of a mercantile house in 
 America, and the younger a journalist of 
 grfiat brilliancy. . . ThCy ar to be partners 
 because the elder wishes his ward Jessie 
 Clifford to marry the younger, who is to 
 come over and take a wife and a partner- 
 ship. Jliss Clifford's consent is deemed a 
 very unimportant thing by the elder San- 
 dow, and the young lady shos a helpless- 
 ness which is surprising considering that 
 she is an American citizen with a large 
 fortune, and is nowise disposed to be 
 handed over in a business transaction to 
 Mr. Gustav Sandow. The journalist, how- 
 
 ever, is not only an Admirable f'richton, 
 but a flue fello, and has not cijme to Amer- 
 ica on a fortune-hunting errand. His first 
 object is to reconcile his brother to a dau- 
 ter whom he has long refused to recognize 
 for painful family reasons. This dauter 
 he introdufes into the house as a young 
 German in search of a place as a governess. 
 He tels Miss Clifford that he has a deep 
 plot to carry throu, but tels her nothing as 
 to its details. Henge the inevitable mis- 
 understandings and surprising situations. 
 The plot is further complicated by the 
 efforts of the younger brother to dissuade 
 the elder from mixing himself in a promis- 
 ing land swindle. All comes right at the 
 proper time. The hard man surrenders as 
 soon as his finer feelings ar properly ap- 
 pealed to, and the virtuous younger brother 
 makes everybody else, and himself too, 
 happy and prosperous." [ Saturday Re- 
 view. 2489 
 
 750 f 
 
GEE5IAX NOVELS. 
 
 ' Our Friiulein's' patron is a revolution- 
 ary thinker, and we hav a somewhat 
 vague account of the Continental move- 
 ment ill that year of disturbance." 
 [Spectator. 2487 
 
 OVER YONDER [by" E. Marlitt " 
 i. e., Eugenie John (f, 1887) : Lippin- 
 cott, 1869.] "is simple and charming, 
 and short enuf to make one quite regret 
 its brevity." [Round Table. 2488 
 
 OWL'S NEST = No. 888. 
 
 PARTNERS (Egoist) , by " E. Wer- 
 ner," London, Remington, 1882.2489 
 
 PARTY OF FOUR, by E. Eckstein, 
 in Appleton's, 21 Aug. 1875. 2490 
 
 PASTOR'S DAUGHTER (The) = 
 No. 2514. [2491 
 
 PENDULUM OF FORTUNE, by 
 R. LiNDAU, in LippincoU's, Nov., 187G. 
 
 PENNILESS GIRL (A). [ " Ein 
 Armes Madchen " by " W. Helmeurs," 
 i. e., Bertha Behrens : Lippincolt, 1884.] 
 " When a german novel is at all good, it 
 is generally very good. Th^re is a sim- 
 plicity about it, a tenderness, a vearmth 
 and radiance of feeling, a familiarity 
 with and fondness for nature, a kindly 
 humor, a bias toard the domestic 
 virtues, and a vindication of trutli, 
 honor, and fidelity, which combine into 
 an unusual charm. This story may be 
 read with affectionate interest in the 
 pathetic childhood and youth of Elsie, 
 with hearty sympathy for the suit of her 
 manly lover, Bernardi, with lively con- 
 cern for her deliverance from the bonds 
 which family pride undertakes to weav 
 about her, and with joyful congratula- 
 tions over the Providence which finally 
 unites two deserving hearts and lives in 
 one. . . . Altogether a sweet and 
 rewarding story is this of A Penniless 
 Girl, full of the briter phases of german 
 life, picturesque with castles, spears, 
 Moravian sisters, and grim old ants, 
 and alive with the humanities, chastened 
 
 with suffering, and sanctified by self- 
 denial." [Boston "Lit. World."] — 
 " We hav become so accustomed to the 
 energetic modern heroin, eager tS be a 
 lawyer, physician, author, at least a 
 professor, anything rather than be con- 
 demned to the stagnation of the life of 
 a conventional young woman, that Elsie, 
 the ' penniless girl ' is refreshing to us 
 by way of contrast. The accident of 
 her sex cuts her off from the possibility 
 of inheriting the family prosperity, and 
 the ' gray set of life and apathetic end ' 
 of a governess is appointed tO be her 
 destiny. Elsie, however, 15ves the 
 freedom and ease of every-day ez- 
 istence ; she loves society, she is 
 quickened by all a young girl's hopes of 
 a happy marriage. How at first the 
 life of a happy woman seems to hav 
 been denied her, — her temptations to 
 accept gr^at wealth without love, — her 
 fidelity to the promptings of her heart, 
 — all this makes a pleasing and excellent 
 story." [Lippincott's. 
 
 — , SAME ("A Penniless Orphan"), 
 jVunro, 1887. 2492 
 
 — , SAME ("Elsie"), Band, 1891. 
 PICKED UP [by H. Schobert : 
 Lippincolt, 1888.] "is undeniably inter- 
 esting, tho for american taste it may be 
 too sentimental and overburdened with 
 plot. It narrates the history of a waif 
 who proves to be the abandoned child 
 of a noble family, and who in the end 
 comes triumphantly to her on." [.Ameri- 
 can. 2493 
 PICTURES OF LIFE, by A. Stif- 
 TER : London, Parlor Library, 1852. 
 
 2494 
 PLUMWOMAN (The) and CHILD 
 WITH THREE MOTHERS, by G. 
 NiERiTz: N.-Y., Scribner, 1854. 2495 
 POOR MARGARET, in Democratic 
 Re-view, dec, 1843, and in Tales transl. 
 by Greene. 2496 
 
 750 
 
GERMAN NOVELS. 
 
 PRIEST'S COAT (The) by A. ron 
 'BlyLo^\',mAmer. Keepsake, 1851. 2497 
 
 PRINCE OTTO = No. 901. 
 
 PRINCESS EVA, by " C. Helm," 
 Boston, Lee, 1887. 2497 li 
 
 PROBLEMATIC CHARACTERS 
 [by F: Si'iELiiAGEN : N.-Y., Leypoldt, 
 1869.] is "a story of dramatic inci- 
 dent, of continuous interest, and dis- 
 playing a humorous, as wel as Iseen 
 appreciation of character. One might 
 tliinli that nothing less than a miracle 
 could keep the german novelist out 
 of that slou of mysticism and meta- 
 fysics in which he usually loses him- 
 self, or, at least, becomes unintelligi- 
 ble ; but the intervention of humor 
 has, in tliis case, proved as efficacious. 
 . . The author seems to hav noth- 
 
 ing tB do with the immorality with 
 which certain love passages may justly 
 be charged. One feels that the persons 
 to whom he is introduced ar flesh and 
 blood — not mere heroes and heroins, 
 shaped in a very uncommon, if not un- 
 earthly mold. There is tangibility about 
 them, witli all their virtues and vices — 
 qualities which ar continually puzzling 
 one to determin on which side of the 
 ' fence' to put them. The plot is elab- 
 orated skilfully and artistically, and the 
 interest is not for a moment allowed to 
 fag. Perhaps the final denoument is 
 somewhat vague and unsatisfactory ; and 
 the whole book leaves a slightly bitter 
 taste." [Overland.] — "The scene is 
 laid in a prussian manor-house, the time 
 is that immediately preceding the Revo- 
 lution of 1848, whose oppressiv, electric 
 atmosphere pervades the entire story. 
 Every character is unnatural and stilted, 
 and their language is as artificial as their 
 ideas. Disquiet harasses all spirits, 
 evincing itself among the aristocracy in 
 reclessness, and among the burgers and 
 thinkers in Utopian or despairing conclu- 
 
 sions. The heroes ar of course, prob- 
 lematic characters. It is significant of 
 german life that th(?y ar both connected 
 with philosophy, the one as a student, 
 the other as a professor, of Nihilism. 
 This novel, published in 1861, was suc- 
 ceeded by a continuation, ' Durch Nacht 
 Zum Licht,' which, like all continua- 
 tions, is not so good as its forerunner, 
 but which possesses the curious attrac- 
 tion which renders all Spielhagen's 
 novels, when once begun, so hard to lay 
 aside. The tenor of the books is simi- 
 lar — tliey depict the impassible barrier 
 which exists between the aristocracy and 
 the middle class in Germany." [Spec- 
 tator. 2498 
 
 PROFESSOR'S WIFE (The) [by 
 Bekthold Aueebacii (t, 1882) : Ox- 
 ford, Parker, 1850.] "is charming. The 
 author endeavors to set off nature 
 against conventional civilisation, and he 
 has succeeded in presenting the world 
 with a composition so truly poetical and 
 original that it is difBcult to imagine a 
 reader whom it would not please. Auer- 
 bach has in this story got the mastery 
 over his favorit weakness of laying too 
 much stress upon subordinate events and 
 sacrifi9ing the necessary perspectiv ; 
 but has, on the contrary, grouped the 
 incidents in a manner setting them off 
 to the greatest advantage " [English- 
 woman's Domestic Mag.] For continu- 
 ation see No. 2458. 2499 
 
 PYTHIA'S PUPILS [by "Eva 
 Hartnek," i. e., Emma von Twardow- 
 ska (1845-89) : Routledge, 1888.] "is a 
 capital story about 4 german girls who 
 had a little cooking school, with the au- 
 gust 'Pytliia' for instructor. . . . 
 The cookery forms, however, but a 
 small part of the book. The daily home 
 life of the several households is por- 
 trayed, and an insight given into pleasant 
 interiors in a german city. Dr. Stein- 
 
 751 
 
INTEKNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 PROUD MAISIE [by Bertha 
 Thomas: Low, 1877.] " is the autobi- 
 ography of a fascinating, wayward, 
 lovable young lady, who relates in 
 these volumes the story of her life's 
 love. As gay and light-hearted at the 
 beginning of the story as the original of 
 the ballad whose name she b^ars, her 
 ultimate fate proves more fortunate 
 than that predicted for Scott's heroin. 
 The plot is original in its development, 
 for we ar transported from humdrum, 
 respectable english surroundings to an 
 unconstrained art-student existence in 
 Ludwigsheim [Munich]. The heroin 
 portrays herself with ability, her char- 
 acter stands out firmly, and her indi- 
 viduality is wel sustained. The writing 
 of the book is excellent. It is easy 
 and pleasant to perceive that it is the 
 work of a cultivated person : this is 
 shon by the references to various litera- 
 tures^, and the thoro acquaintance with 
 music and art betrayed. The book 
 abounds in touches of quaint humor as 
 wel as in epigrammatic writing. ' Proud 
 Maisie ' is a readable, clever novel, which 
 keeps the reader's attention fixed to its 
 close." [Athenseum. 519 k 
 
 148 p 
 
INTEKNATIUSAL NOVELS. 
 
 QUEEN OF CURDS AND CREAM 
 (A) . [by Dorothea Gerakd : Apple- 
 ton, 1892] " Glockenau, an Austrian 
 mountain village, and afterwards Lon- 
 don, ar the scenes. In the first. Count 
 Emil Eldringen dies, leaving his 
 dauter Ulrica penniless and friend- 
 less ; a marriage beneath his rank and 
 a life of dissipation had so estranged 
 the count's relativs, that nothing was 
 left to Ulrica but tS work with her 
 hands like a peasant. At Glockenau, 
 after many vicissitudes, she earns a 
 living for herself in a large dairy farm. 
 Here an English cousin discovers her, 
 a love-story of varied interests fol- 
 loing. Ulrica believes herself the h^ir 
 of a large fortune, and figures for a 
 time as a fine lady of London.'' [Pub- 
 lishers' Weekly. 519 r 
 
 148 V 
 
GERMAN NOVELS. 
 
 mann, the father of Dora, gardian of 
 Lotta, and true friend of faithful Eva 
 and Marie, is the typical good physician, 
 always delightful t6 meet. He makes the 
 way smooth for his sensitiv wife, is the 
 wise adviser for Lotta's nervous mother, 
 and almost cures Marie's irascible sol- 
 dier father. Some of the young people 
 hav serious faults and make mistakes, 
 but they ar teachable and sound at core. 
 There ar mild mysteries and pretty little 
 romances, loves, an attempt at author- 
 ship, unselfish living, patient waiting, 
 and final reward. Pleasingly written, 
 vivacious, full of the incidents which 
 might naturally happen in so many lives, 
 kindly in spirit, commendable in its 
 tone, it is an excellent book." [Boston 
 "Lit. World." 2500 
 
 QUEE^Sr (A) [N. Y., Button, 1864.] 
 "is a pleasant story, shoing how a little 
 girl, who was ever dreaming she was a 
 queen, became a queenly woman. It is 
 very pleasant as shoing the ways of ger- 
 mau children; and its pure lessons of 
 kindness to all make it a gem of a 
 book. It is written with simple, child- 
 like feeling." [Church Monthly. 2501 
 QUICKSANDS = No. 909. 
 QUIET HOUSE (The), in Ladies' 
 Companion, oct.-dec. 1852. 2502 
 
 QUISISANA, by F: Spielhagbn : 
 N.-Y., Munro, 1892. 2503 
 
 QUITS, by TAUTPHons [Bavaria] 
 = No. 521. 
 
 RANK AND NOBILITY, by 
 
 "Jeanne Makie," in National Era, 27 
 
 may to 19 aug. 1852. 2504 
 
 RAYMOND'S ATONEMENT = Nos. 
 
 600, 683. 
 
 REATA = No. 914. 
 RECTOR OF ST. LUKE'S (The) 
 [by Marie Beknhakd, N. Y., Worihing- 
 ton, 1891.] "is a very unusual and a 
 most lovely story. A young girl, beau- 
 tiful and attractiv from every point of 
 
 vue, is the idol of the town. The officers 
 of the regiment ar all in love with her, 
 but they ar distanced by the rector and 
 an artist, both of whom ar devoted to the 
 girl. The artist wins her at last, and he 
 and she ar perfectly happy in their be- 
 trothal, tho thfire is something strange 
 about the man which makes everyone 
 distrust him and doubt his ability tS 
 make his sweetheart happy throu life. 
 The facts of his early life come into the 
 possession of the rector in the most 
 curious manner, and he generously re- 
 solvs to say nothing about them. Ac9i- 
 dent, however, reveals to the artist the 
 fact that his history is knon to his rival, 
 and he sees that it wil be impossible for 
 him to marry Annie with this knoledge 
 hanging over him. He leavs without 
 seeing her and writes her that th^re is 
 something which he can never over- 
 come, and that she wil not see him again. 
 Shortly afterwards he dies. It is only a 
 question of time then as to when the 
 rector shal win the girl for himself. 
 The charm of the story is in the telling, 
 and in the deep interest which the char- 
 acters, one and all, inspire. The ex- 
 quisit daintiness of the girl around 
 whom the story revolvs ; the unusual 
 charm of her elder and invalid sister 
 with whom she livs ; the beauty and 
 harmony in the development of the rec- 
 tor's character ; and the wonderful fasci- 
 nation of the artist, notwithstanding the 
 cloud which seems from the first to en- 
 velope him, combine to produce that 
 most uncommon thing — a really charm- 
 ing german novel." [Critic. 2506 
 
 RIYEN BONDS = No. 2348. 
 
 ROMANCE OF A GERMAN 
 COURT = No. 923. 
 
 ROMANCE OF THE CANONESS 
 (The) [by Paul Heyse : Appkton, 
 1887.] "is devoted t5 descriptions of life 
 in those religious houses, the members of 
 752 
 
GERMAN NOVELS. 
 
 which !iv in common, hut withniit t;iking 
 monasiic vows. It is inteliigont, even 
 able, but heavy." [American.] — " Ko- 
 mantic enuf , and of course interesting ; 
 the situations ar not sucli as the realists 
 would devise, and a melancholy air per- 
 vades the whole as if tlie narrator did 
 not quite expect to be believed ; but it is 
 conceived with poetic thot, and taken as 
 a lyric of the stage is not without beauty." 
 [Atlantic. 2507 
 
 ROSE OF TANNENBURG, by 
 CiiRisTOPH VON SciiMiD (1768-1854) 
 Phil'a, Cunningham, 1848. 2508 
 
 ROSE OF THE PARSONAGE [by 
 Ro. GisEKE : N.-Y., Parry, 1854. 2509 
 
 SACRED VOWS = No. 594. 
 
 SACRISTAN'S HOUSEHOLD (The) 
 [by F. . Emnok (Tiernan) Trollope : 
 London, Virtue, 1869.] " The fidelity 
 to nature with which all these scenes ar 
 sketched, the details of life which ar 
 skilfully woven in, the picturesque bits 
 of architecture, and the descriptions of 
 woodland scenery which form the setting 
 of the story, recommend it tS all who 
 hav livd in Germany. It is hardly a 
 
 fair ground of objection to most of the 
 characters that they ar typical rather than 
 individual. The military men, tlie wild- 
 haired professors, the stout and pla9id 
 matrons, and the romantic old maids, 
 who form the cream of Detmold 
 society, — the small tradesmen and farm- 
 ers who hold th^ir social gatherings at 
 the Pied Lamb, — ar the familiar figures 
 of german life rather than the persons 
 of this particular'story. But if we look 
 at the characters which hav been worked 
 out with greater pains, and notably at 
 the lawyer, we see that there is no lac 
 of dramatic force or of life-like painting. 
 . . . It is for th^ir sakes in the first 
 instance that we read the book with such 
 pleasure. As each of them develops 
 new attractions, we rejoice in thinking 
 
 that each is becoming more worthy of 
 the other ; and when they confess their 
 mutual love, in a delicious scene of 
 playful happiness, we join with them in 
 forgetting all the other persons of the 
 story. But, after all, the other persons 
 ar not tS be forgotten. The plot may 
 be put aside, yet in the course of work- 
 ing it out the author brings us in contact 
 with so much which is pleasant, the chief 
 characters ar so perfect, the minor char- 
 acters b^ar marks of such care and 
 observation, that we can forgiv any of 
 those failings at which we hav hinted, 
 and can ask our readers to take the book 
 on its merits." [Athenseum.] — "In 
 these german stories there is always a 
 certain freshness, coming, in the case of 
 translations, in great part from the kind 
 of th6t and speculation with which they 
 ar occupied ; and in the case of studies 
 made by foreiners, from the novelty of 
 the manners, the household customs, 
 and the ways of looking at life which 
 th^y describe, which generally makes 
 them interesting. To our taste, one of 
 the pleasantest of the latter class is the 
 ' Sacristan's Household.' It is written 
 with a grgat deal of grace and spirit, the 
 love story is prettily told, the characters 
 ar sketched in cleverly, and the life of a 
 village [?] with its homely heartiness, 
 its petty economies, and its small punc- 
 tilios, is described in a way which makes 
 the reader understand how carefully the 
 author has studied it, and how thoroly 
 she has enjoyed it. Then, too, th^re is 
 no dul or irrelevant matter to be skipped ; 
 and altho the characters ar not specially 
 remarkable for originality, nor analyzed 
 with any grfiat subtlety, they hav a 
 certain vigor and vitality, and ar uni- 
 formly interesting." [Nation. 2510 
 ST. MICHAEL [by " E. Werner," 
 1. e., E.. Biirstenbinder : Lippincoit, 
 1887.] is "a strong, enjoyable story 
 
 753 
 
GERMAN NOVELS. 
 
 of northern Germany, with a hero of 
 the sort which old-fashioned novel- 
 readers have a partiality for, — one wh8 
 has been defrauded of his rights in his 
 youth, but rises superior to poverty and 
 il usage and comes to a noble manhood, 
 brave, honorable, and true ; asserts him- 
 self, and wins the girl he loves. What 
 better hero could one ask than the con- 
 quering Michael Rodenberg? Hans, the 
 artist, is as good in his way, while the 
 old genealogist, Gerlinda, wh6 repeats 
 genealogy like a parrot, is delightful ; 
 and the scenes where Hans gets the 
 advantage of his father, and wh^re the 
 twS fathers ar made to accept the situa- 
 tion, ar capital bits of light and whole- 
 some comedy." [Boston "Lit. World."] 
 — " The story is interesting, the plot 
 consistent and wel developed, the dialog 
 natural, and the characterization dis- 
 tinctly good. Hauty, intolerant, domi- 
 neering, but not hard-hearted Count 
 Steinriick and his unacknoledged grand- 
 son, Michael Rodenberg, ar the protag- 
 onists representing intolerable pride 
 and passionate determination conflicting 
 in an eager life drama. The author 
 has s6t to delineate the power of con- 
 sanguinity — how il-treatment, indiffer- 
 ence, neglect, absence, and a hundred 
 other ils of life ar incapable of arrest- 
 ing the manifestation of the charac- 
 teristics of a dominant race. By slo 
 degrees Michael Rodenberg forces his 
 way in the world, under the very eyes 
 of his antagonistic grandfather ; and in 
 the end he comes to his on again (and 
 another's also) and marries his beautiful 
 cousin. A skilful plot has been woven 
 for the evolution of this motiv." [Acad- 
 emy. 
 
 — , SAME ("Her Son"), Bentley, 
 1887. 2511 
 
 SCHLOSS AND TOWN = see No. 
 2354. 
 
 SCULPTOR OF THE BLACK 
 FOREST (The) by Souvestre, in 
 Southern Lit. Mes., Dec, 1854. 2513 
 
 SECOND WIFE (The) [by " E. 
 Marlitt," i. B., Eugenie John (f, 1887) : 
 Lippincott, 1874; Bentley, 1875.] " is 
 a bright, spirited novel, much more 
 interesting than most German works of 
 fiction, which indeed ar generally dis- 
 tasteful t8 us, with th^ir mixture of 
 silly sentiment and commonness of life 
 and manners, and their resemblance tQ 
 the lordly-baron and faithful-retainer 
 school which vanished long ago. In 
 this instance, tho there are a regning 
 duchess and a ' hof-Marschal,' tho 
 titled people abound, and the flavor of 
 Pumpernickel is everywhere, stil thSre 
 is a strong human interest in the story, 
 and at least One striking character, that 
 of Frau Lohn. The Second Wife is 
 introduced in the position of a victim, 
 but she makes her exit with flying colors, 
 having conquered her enemies, routed 
 her rival, and won the true love and 
 respect of her husband with a woman's 
 noblest weapons, love, patieufe, gentle- 
 ness, and self-sacrifice ; his motiv for 
 marrying her is so unworthy that Baron 
 Mainau inspires us with anything but 
 esteem and interest. A scene in which 
 the baron presents his wife t5 the 
 duchess, — wh3 has a pleasing conviction 
 that he is about t8 desert the baroness 
 for her sake, — and utterly disconcerts 
 the royal coquette by the announcement 
 that the contemplated journey is to be 
 made ' a deux' — is very effectiv. The 
 translator [Wood] has done her part ad- 
 mirably ; her rendering of the story has 
 no hitches, no blunders, no rawness in it." 
 [Spectator.] — "We hav all the old char- 
 acters with which the ' Old Mam'selle's 
 Secret' [No. 877] and the author's suc- 
 ceeding tales hav familiarized us. Th^re 
 is the wel-knon hero, gloomy, sardonic, 
 
 754 
 
GERMAN NOVELS. 
 
 on cousin to the Stranger, with a tinge of 
 commonplace, not to s.iy vulgar, scepti- 
 cism. Like the professor in the ' Old 
 Mam'selle ' and the subsequpnt heroes, he 
 continually poses with bitter smiles and 
 folded arms. He indulges in alternate in- 
 finities and worlds of scorn. His passion 
 is revealed by a quite unnecessary inten- 
 sification of his usual exceedingly had 
 manners, and his kindness finds expres- 
 sion, according to the time-honored 
 tradition of this family of creations, in 
 increased rudeness and brusqueness. 
 And in spite of his lofty character and 
 spirit, he often finds it necessary, in 
 keeping with the dramatic habits of his 
 kind, to lurk in convenient spots for the 
 purpos of over-hearing private conver- 
 sations. The heroin is not less like her 
 predecessors, nor less unlike any proper 
 flesh-and-blood heroin. She is one of 
 those personages greatly affected by the 
 purveyors to the Bowery stage, with su- 
 pernatural clearness of vision for misty 
 plots and deeply-hidden depths of subtle 
 villany, united to the most extraordinary 
 stupidity as t5 what is going on under 
 her nose. ... If the author, how- 
 ever much passing the limits of proba- 
 bility, had given us a number of noble, 
 ideal characters, much might be forgiven 
 the staginess and unreality of her portrait- 
 ure. But these characters, Ilaoul von 
 Mainau, Liana, and the rest, ar not 
 noble, and ar very iinlovely. Th^ir 
 sentiments, when th^y hav not the false 
 ring of those of a man wh3 is perpetu- 
 ally calculating th^ir effect, ar absurd, 
 vulgar, and tiresom, and thSir actions, 
 instead of being inspiriting, ar, for the 
 most part, il-bred or positivly brutal." 
 [Arcadian. See also No. 936. 2513 
 
 SALTMINEB OF HALLSTADT, 
 by A: SiLBEKSTEiN : in Ladies' Re- 
 pository, apr. 1870. 2514 
 
 SEED TIME AND HARVEST 
 
 [" Ut mine Strombid") by Ekitz 
 Rehter (t, 1874) ; Boston, Littell ^ 
 Co., 1871.] "Mr. Reuter tels his 
 story with his pipe in his mouth, and 
 his slippers on, his feet on the fender, 
 and the fog outside. The business of 
 life is over, and th^re is no need for 
 hurry. . . To those who hav lei- 
 
 sure to enjoy it, we can promis n quiet 
 treat of an uncommon kind ; they shal be 
 made free of half-a-dozen households, 
 and breathe an air of homeliness and 
 simpli9ity which shal for the moment 
 carry them out of the tawdry civilisation 
 in which we liv. . . . But no 3ne 
 must imagin this is a story all honey- 
 sweet of pleasant parsonages and bloom- 
 ing girls, — far from it. There is 
 enuf of sorro, and suffering, and sin.'' 
 [Spectator. 
 
 — , SAME (An Old Story of my Farm- 
 ing Days), Low, 1879. 2516 
 
 SEVERA [by " E. Hartner," i. e., 
 Emma von Twardowska, 1845-89 : 
 LippincoU, 1881.] The story is of "a 
 man deserted by his betrothed, living 
 to see her again, with her child, Severa, 
 by her side ; and waiting for Severa 
 to gro up t5 take the place which the 
 mother was to hav had, but which in a 
 moment of infatuation she had aban- 
 doned. Such an experience is one of 
 suffering, and the c51ors in this rela- 
 tion of it ar grave and subdued." [Bos- 
 ton " Lit. World." 2517 
 
 SHE FELL IN LOVE WITH HER 
 HUSBAND = No. 2416. 
 
 SHORT STORIES, by " W. Heim- 
 BURG : '.' N. Y., Worthington, 1890. 2518 
 
 SILENT LOVE = No. 2459. 
 
 SISTER'S LOVE (A) = No. 2426. 
 
 SKELETON IN THE HOUSE (The) 
 [by F : Spielhagen ; N. Y., Harlan, 
 1881.] " is scarcely more than a sketch, 
 but it is admirably told. 
 Every stroke tels, and one hardly knoes 
 
GERMAX NOVELS. 
 
 which t6 like best : a. plot ingeniously 
 contrired to rivet the reader's attention 
 yet giv him a heirty laf at the end, 
 or the portraiture of character, which 
 is exceedingly clever, and full of hints 
 for the wise. The moral of the story 
 is that husbands may dare to confess 
 anything ' down to the dot on the i,' 
 to a wife whS loves them ; but let them 
 beware of her learning what they hav 
 to confess from the lips of anyone else ! " 
 [Critic. 2519 
 
 SMOKE, by Turgesief = No. 948 
 [Baden]. 
 
 SOUGHT AND FOUND, [by " Gold 
 Kaimund," i. e.. Bertha (Heyn) Fred- 
 erich (t, 188 ) : N.-Y., Funk, 1888.] "A 
 young German returns to his nativ land 
 from America, wealthy, of course, and 
 in the ruins of his hotel, burned on the 
 night of his arrival, finds the charred 
 leaves of a girl's diary. The diary 
 causes him to wish to find its author, 
 for it is a charming record of a fine 
 character, amid grievous disappoint- 
 ments and misfortunes. He seeks his 
 relativs, and the rest of the narrativ is ta- 
 ken up with the strife between the rival 
 claims of a pretty but designing cousin 
 and a maiden not fair to see but 
 of much modest merit. Modest merit 
 wins, and of course proves tS be the un- 
 knon writer of the diary, and the story 
 ends with virtue triumphant. Slight 
 enuf for a fria,mework, but sufficient 
 to carry much of the simple and pleas- 
 ing narrativ often found in german 
 tales." [Overland. 2520 
 
 SPELL OF HOME = No. 2429. 
 
 SPRING FLOODS, by Tukgekief, 
 =1= No. 952. 
 
 STORY FOR CHRISTMAS (A) in 
 Graham's Mag., Jan., 1852. 2521 
 
 STORY OF A CLERGYMAN'S 
 DAUGHTER by " W. Heimeubg : " 
 N. Y., JIunro, 1889. 
 
 — , SAME ('■ A pastor's Daughter"), 
 N. Y., Worthington, 1890. 
 
 — , SAME (" Martha ") , N.-Y., Street, 
 1891. 2522 
 
 STORY OF A GENIUS, by " Ossip 
 ScHUBiN," in Modern Age, Mar .-Apr., 
 1884. 2523 
 
 STORY OF A MILLIONAIRE (The), 
 [by "L. . MtfHLBACH," i. c, Clara 
 (Miiller) Mundt (f, 188 ) : Apple- 
 ton, 1872.] " Mrs. Miihlbach, having 
 come to the end of her historical novels, 
 which threw a dark vail of romance 
 over the dry records of history, has 
 written a social novel. Its merit is 
 about that of the works of Mrs. Caro- 
 line Lee Hentz, Mrs. Holmes, etc., in 
 this country ; so we may suppose it wil 
 be one of the most popular works of 
 the year. In Germany Mrs. Miihlbach 
 holds about the same position as a 
 writer that these ladies dS here." 
 [Nation. 2621 
 
 STRANGE FOLK, [by Heemann 
 Oelschalagek : Longman, 1&'I2.'] "A 
 pleasant dreaminess pervades ' Strange 
 Folk.' Authors, actresses, and monks 
 ar its chief characters. "We alternately 
 exchange the stage for the cloister, and 
 step from the greenroom to the green- 
 wood. Dr. Anselmus is an author who 
 suffers from extreme nervousness. The 
 least noise prevents him from writing. 
 He ilies from home with his niece to a 
 little town in Frank en. He finds a 
 house there beautifully situated. Every- 
 thing is charming. His book progresses. 
 He feels the inspiration of the scenery. 
 Summer cSmes. The grass in the 
 meados changes from its varying shades 
 of green to its last purple tints. From 
 that moment there is no more rest for 
 the doctor. From morn til night sounds 
 the eternal sharpening of the scythes. 
 He flies from his new quarters to the 
 Convent of the ' Fifteen Saints.' His 
 
 756 
 
GERMAN NOVELS. 
 
 niece, disguised as a student, accom- readinf; public is. Almost without ex- 
 
 panies him as secretary. Here the 
 real story begins. Of the characters, 
 that of the Doctor is, perhaps, the best 
 drawn. Marion is more interesting and 
 less vulgar than most actresses ar. 
 Dr. Breitman is one of those odious 
 hangers-on to be found at every theatre, 
 who sponge upon every one alike. We 
 fancy however that Dora's unconven- 
 tional habits may prove some bar to the 
 popularity of the story." [Westmin- 
 ster.] — "The story is hily amusing. 
 . . . For a time, uncle and niece 
 liv quietly enuf in the monastery, and 
 the romance of the 13th century goes 
 on apace. Dr. Anselmus discovers a 
 set of old chessmen, which must date 
 from the time of the Crusades, while 
 Dora becomes acquainted with a novife, 
 wh6 tels her the history of his early 
 life, and makes an impression on her 
 heart. Before very long. Dr. Ansel- 
 mus is roused from his pleasant dream 
 by discSvering that the novi9e and his 
 niece ar in love, and that the antiquity 
 of the treasured set of chessmen is a 
 delusion. One morning the novi9e 
 calmly walks out of the monastery in 
 the doctor's clothes, as the only way of 
 bidding farewel to the place without 
 causing an open scandal. The Doctor 
 is furious at this unauthorized use of 
 his garments, and at the relations which 
 hav sprung up between the two young 
 people, but in time he relents, and they 
 ar happy." [Athenaeum.] Compare 
 plot of No. 2576. 2522 
 
 STRANGE HEART (A) by Heyse, 
 in Cosmopolitan, Apr., 1886. 2523 
 
 STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE 
 (The), [by " Robert Byk," i. e., Rob- 
 ert V. Bayer: Chicago(?), McKinney, 
 1874.] " Translations of recent german 
 novels ar chiefly of importance as shoing 
 how hard put t5 it for entertainmeut the 
 
 ception they ar dul with a deadly dul- 
 nes.'-, considered as stories, and to that 
 they add the dulness of the lofty plati- 
 tudes and long winded abstractions 
 whicli somehow hav such a charm for 
 the teutonic mind. . . . The 
 book is a thing to be delivered from, 
 but many good souls wil devoutly go 
 throu it, and fancy they ar being amused 
 and ar besides that listening to numer- 
 ous pregnant truths." [Nation. 2525 
 
 SUCCESS = No. 2416. 
 
 SUPERFLUITIES OF LIFE, ,by 
 L: TiECK : in Blackwood's, Feb., 1845. 
 iSo. Lit. Mes., Oct. 1845.] 2526 
 
 SWALLOWS OF ST. JURGENS, 
 by Tii. Storm, in Canadian Monthly, 
 Oct., 1872. 2527 
 
 TALE OF AN OLD CASTLE (A) 
 = No. 2457. 
 
 TALES, by Th. Kornek, London, 
 1845. 2528 
 
 TALES by Paul Heyse [^Appleton, 
 1876.] contains Count Ernest's Home,The 
 Dtad Lake [also No. 669], The Fury 
 {L'Arrahiata^, Judith Stern. 2529 
 
 TALES FROM THE GERMAN: 
 London, Emily Faithful, 1863. 2530 
 
 TALES FROM THE GERMAN [by 
 Mus^us, Schiller, Kleist, Immer- 
 MANN, Hoffmann, and Van der Velde] 
 Chapman, 1844, see FANCIFUL 
 NO VELS. 
 
 TEACHER OF THE VIOLIN (A) = 
 No. 975. 
 
 TEMPTED OF THE DEVIL, by 
 A : Becker : London, A. Gardner, 
 1888. 2631 
 
 THEKLA [Vienna] = No. 980. 
 
 THROUGH NIGHT TO LIGHT, 
 [by F: Spielhagen : N.-Y., Holt, 1869.] 
 See No. 2498. 2533 
 
 TOO RICH, [by Adolf Streck- 
 Fuss; Lippincott, 1878.] "For inge- 
 nuity and complication, and for the ease 
 
 757 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 THREE SISTERS. [Low, 1884.] 
 " Any one whS cares to folio the fortunes 
 of 3 brave Irish girls wh8 ar forced t5 
 support themselvs in a South German 
 ' Residenz ' can not fail tS he amused. 
 The Miss Denbiglis hav a perfect genius 
 for making the best of most tilings, and 
 extracting the fun out of everything. 
 But besides the fun th^re ar glimpses 
 of genuin pathos, and Carry's fate 
 touches the reader very nearly . . . 
 That the author knoes german town life 
 wel, and is alive to the opportunities it 
 presents for humorous description is 
 obvious. The book is, moreover, wel 
 written, and some of the anecdotes ar 
 wel told." [Athenaeum. 541 p 
 
 156 t 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 TREHERNE'S TEMPTATION, [by 
 Alakic Carr. Smith, 1883] The 
 author has " set himself a- very difficult 
 task, and has performed it with skil and 
 power. The story is full of interest 
 from beginning to end — the plot un- 
 usually good and thoroly developed. 
 It would be unfair to the reader even tS 
 hint at the unravelment of this romantic 
 novel. One of the chief charms of the 
 book is the description of easy Conti- 
 nental life; whether in Paris, or at 
 Baden-Baden, the author is always 
 equally at home, and evidently fond of 
 his subject. The characters ar remark- 
 ably wel drawn, and distinctly defined — 
 the Vicomte a most polished and per- 
 fect specimen of a French noble. His 
 very weaknesses ar charming. Our 
 sympathies ar always with him, and with 
 his nation because of him. The Ger- 
 man element in the book is not the least 
 agreeable feature of it. The very 
 servants and dogs add their quota tS the 
 enjoyment to be derived from this most 
 agreeable novel. We must not omit to 
 notice that th^re is a great deal of in- 
 teresting talk about music." [West- 
 minster. 545 h 
 
 157 3 
 
GERMAN NOVELS. 
 
 "with which its intricate knots ar untied 
 by the natural development of the story, 
 its plot would d8 honor t5 the masters of 
 fiction, while the style has that trans- 
 parent simpli9ity and singular brilliancy 
 which with some french and german 
 writers seem so natural a quality. The 
 story opens in a capital, but is speedily 
 transferred to a village in Tirol. Out 
 of the chief parties to it, 3 pairs of lov- 
 ers ar curiously evolvd, 2 of the 3 gentle- 
 men being army officers. The first pas- 
 sages ar in the tone of a delightful light 
 comedy, in which an old Uncle Bal- 
 thasar is a most enlivening figure ; but 
 the action speedily takes on a graver 
 character, and in the dismal ruins of 
 Castle Keifenstein sweeps by the verge 
 of a tragedy. The narrativ is compact; 
 the people ar all of an interesting sort, 
 even to the rascal Bertram and the silly 
 Nanette ; and while th^re ar one or two 
 glimpses of social impurity, the book is 
 free as a whole from any taint. Its in- 
 genuity wil baffle the best guessing as to 
 the issue and the freshness of its ma- 
 terials and beauty of their treatment wil 
 awaken new sensations of pleasure even 
 in the satiated novel-reader." [Boston 
 " Lit. World." 2534 
 
 TOWK STORIES, by Max Ring, 
 London, 1853. 2535 
 
 TRAGIC COMEDIANS = No. 98.5. 
 
 TREE IN THE ODENWALD (A) 
 by O: BoQtJETTE, in Appleton's, dec, 
 1880. 2536 
 
 TRUDEL'S BALL, by Hans Hopfen, 
 in Masterpieces of Oerman Fiction, 70 p. 
 
 TRUE DAUGHTER OF HARTEN- 
 STEIN. [byE. Vely: N.-Y., Bonner, 
 1892.] "The Castle of Hartenstein, in 
 the Harz Mountains, was entailed; and 
 as circumstances prevented Count Hart- 
 enstein from making provision for his 
 only dauter, on his sudden death Hertha 
 leaves home. Her story after this is 
 
 one of romance, revelation, adventure 
 and heroism." [Pub. Weekly. 2538 
 
 TWIXT WIFE AND FATHER- 
 LAND [Tirol] =No. 5-16. 
 
 TWO BROTHERS (The) [Eine 
 Familie aus der ersten Gesellschaft) 
 by Mathilde (Beckmann) Raven : 
 Bentley, 1850.] " wil be welcome to 
 the many who enjoyed ' The Initials ' 
 [No. 473] . Like that book, ^ it contains 
 a faithful picture of german domestic 
 life. This time, moreover, it is a, nativ 
 who has 'played the painter.' . 
 Here the general animus is graver and 
 bitterer — the tragedy is longer drawn. 
 In both stories, the love of appearance 
 and establishment is shon as uppermost 
 in a german woman's mind, to a degree 
 which wil shoe all who hav given her a 
 blank credit for simplipity ; but in ' The 
 Two Brothers,' the foible is mingled 
 with, and crossed by, class and caste 
 prejudi9es of a force and a folly which 
 justify the sharpest satire because they 
 bring on the saddest consequences. . . 
 So much for the moralists, and for the 
 more superficial reader this tale will 
 be found to possess deep interest and 
 welcome freshness. The characters 
 ar capitally marked. We hav never 
 met a better study of fine frivolity than 
 in the person of the noble Mrs. Hatte- 
 sohl. Poor Amelia, her victim, — and 
 Steinheim her son-in-law, chosen, but 
 not choosing, — ar delicately and clearly 
 drawn, without exaggeration. The good 
 people, of course, ar more strained in 
 their proceedings, and less palatable to 
 us." [Athenaeum. 2539 
 
 TWO DAUGHTERS OF ONE RACE 
 = No. 993. 
 
 TWO DAYS IN THE COUNTRY, 
 in Leaflets of Memory, 1848. 2540 
 
 TWO SISTERS, by Heyse, in La- 
 dies' Repository, inly-nug., 1871. 2541 
 TWOFOLD LIFE (A) [byW..(BiECH) 
 
 758 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 UP THE RHINE [by T: Hood : Lon- 
 don, 1840;N.-Y., Putnam. 1852] is "one 
 of the pleasantest of Hood's many pleas- 
 ant books. It is composed of letters, 
 written by the rarious members of a 
 family traveling up the Rhein, and 
 conceived somewhat after the model of 
 Humphrey Clinker. Hood's characters 
 ar a hypochondriac, a wide, a dashing 
 young man, and a maid servant ; and it 
 is in exhibiting the oddities and humors 
 of these, rather than in any description 
 of the scenery, that the charm of the 
 book consists. The letters of Martha 
 Penny, the servant, are the gems of the 
 volume. Her spelling and grammar ar 
 so felicitous in th^ir infelicities, as to 
 amount to a kind of genius ; and the 
 character is one of the best which Hood 
 ever delineated." [Graham's. 552 k 
 
 160 p 
 
GERMAN KOVELS. 
 
 TON HiLLERN : Lippiiicott, 1873.] "treats 
 a great deal more of various forms of 
 profligacy than one cares to see in a 
 book intended for the family circle. 
 He who leads the twofold life is Hein- 
 rich von Ottmar, who, when on Ms good 
 behavior, calls himself Heiurich, but 
 when, as is very often the case, he 
 abandons himself t6 evil ways, trans- 
 hites his name into the more appropriate 
 french, and as Henri imperils the virtue 
 of every woman near him. In general, 
 the german novelist is notorious for 
 stuifing a suit of clothes with some 
 moral quality, and calling the product 
 a human being, but here we hav the 
 clothes — the richest purple court 
 dress — • stuffed with all sorts of immo- 
 ralities, and the result is a bad and 
 tedious representation of a bad life." 
 [Nation. 2542 
 
 ULRICH, by Ida (Hahn) Hahn : 
 London, 1885. 2544 
 
 UNDER THE STORK'S NEST = 
 No. 997. 
 
 VAIN FOREBODINGS [by E. Os- 
 wald: Lippincott, 1885.] "is a domestic 
 tale, quite void of sensationalism or 
 unclean passion of any kind, but which 
 steadily maintains a real if pla9id inter- 
 est. The writer excels in descriptiv 
 power, and we hav not lately encoun- 
 tered anything more genuinly delightful 
 than the series of sweet pictures of 
 country life to be found in this book. 
 'Vain forebodings' is a capital summer 
 book — and a good book to keep when 
 summer is over." [The American.] — 
 " It is a pleasant story, but containing a 
 sSmewhat surprising point : for the story 
 is of a benevolent physician, who first 
 cured of insanity a youth upon whom 
 this disaster had fallen, after he had 
 long been predisposed to it, and then 
 allowed his dauter to marry the patient, 
 telling him that his forebodings of in- 
 
 sanity as his doom ar folly and his scru- 
 ples about marrying unnecessary since 
 all he needs to be safe is t5 exercise due 
 mental self-control." [Overland. 2545 
 
 VALENTINE THE COUNTESS 
 [by " Cakl Detlef," i. e., Klara Bauer 
 (t, 188-): Phil'a, Porter, 1874.] "is 
 a story of remarkable power. The 
 heroin, a. young girl of extraordinary 
 beauty and intellectual charms, meets a 
 lover, a young man who repiprocates 
 and seems worthy of her affections. 
 . . After u, time she is induced to 
 marry a very wealthy but weak-minded 
 nobleman, tS whom she proves a tender 
 and faithful wife. . She is one 
 
 of the loveliest women in fiction, tho her 
 look is always sad, and the reader's 
 admiration for her is faithful. The 
 general effect of the story is melancholy, 
 but it is intensely interesting." [Boston 
 " Lit. World." 2546 
 
 VILLA ON RHINE = No. 2368. 
 
 VILLAGE ASTRONOMER = Lon- 
 don, 1^51. 2547 
 
 VIXETA = No. 1003. 
 
 VILLAGE COQUETTE (The) [by 
 F : SpiELHAGEN : Chapman, 1875.] 
 "is a curious study of nature. The 
 beautiful, almost soulless Bertha is 
 brot to something like human steadfast- 
 ness and feeling by the savage disciplin 
 which may be used to subdue an animal. 
 The cruel wound, which, at the bidding 
 of a wise woman, the lover whom she is 
 ready to deceive indicts upon her, works 
 in a strange way on her limited nature, 
 and she is vanquished by that which 
 would hav roused a being of hier 
 faculties into irrecon9ilable hostility. 
 The plot is wel worked out, and it is 
 founded upon what may be a real, tho 
 a rare phase of nature." [Spect. 2548 
 
 VILLAGE TALES, by Auekbach = 
 No. 2342. 
 
 VIOLETTA. [by Ursula Zoge von 
 
 759 
 
GERMAN NOVELS. 
 
 Manteufpel : LippincoU, 1886.] " The 
 story runs smoothly, and there is the 
 agreeable union of homeliness and mili- 
 tary glitter which makes the atmosphere 
 of most novels of upper-class german 
 life. The one unusual situation is the 
 Baroness von Treffenbaoh's flight from 
 her husband, and the unusualness is not 
 in the fact, but in the underlying reasons. 
 The woman, who had been a, gr^at 
 singer, was neither inconstant nor un- 
 loving, but the moment came when the 
 monotony of assured rank and respect- 
 ability pressed on her so heavily that she 
 had to go. [Compare 'Klaus Bewer.'] 
 There is much to be said in behalf of a 
 woman in such a case, but the author 
 has little more charity for the Baroness 
 than has the world, which passes a 
 superficial yet inexorable judgment on 
 the deed. The younger TrefEenbach is 
 very wel characterized, but a prig of 30 
 years' standing is not to be reformed in 
 a day. Even during the honeymoon he 
 probably drew from his pocket a MS. 
 nicely calculated properly to repress the 
 too volatil and light-hearted Violetta." 
 [Nation. 2549 
 
 VISIT TO THE LOCKUP, by E. 
 Eckstein, in Masterpieces of German 
 Fiction. 3550 
 
 VULTURE MAIDEN (The) = No. 
 1005. 
 
 WALDFRIED. [by Bekthold Auer- 
 EACH (t, 1882) : N.-Y., 7/0^!:, 1880.] 
 "The more familiar the reader is with 
 Germany, the more entertaining wil he 
 find this novel; it has not life enuf to 
 force itself upon those who hav not a 
 tolerably keen interest in that country ; 
 indeed, such wil find it almost 'unread- 
 able ; and it demands a respectable 
 knoledge of all which has been going 
 on in Germany during the last 25 and- 
 especially during the last 10 years, to be 
 fully enjoyed. . To our think- 
 
 ing Waldfried is the best of the long 
 novels. It is infinitly more natural than 
 the Villa Eden, [No. 2368] or On the 
 Heights, [No. 881] but it can. hardly be 
 brfit into fair comparison with them. 
 That many should find it intolerably 
 dul is not surprising, for many readers 
 require for their entertainment more 
 than a disconnected assemblage of inci- 
 dents ; others, however, wil read it with 
 some pleasure, not with the keen enjoy- 
 ment one gets from the few masterpieces 
 of fiction, but with the calm satisfaction 
 one has in reading about matters which 
 turn out as one would hav them." 
 [Atlantic. 2552 
 
 WALT & WULT, or the Twins 
 [ " Flegeljahre," 1805) by Jean Paul 
 F : Richter : Boston, 1845, 2 v. 2553 
 
 WANDA = No. 1006. 
 
 WAS SHE HIS WIFE? London, 
 Eden, 1891= No. 2451. 
 
 WEDDING UNDER GROUND, in 
 Brother Jonathan, 20 aug., 1842. ^5o4k 
 
 WBLLFIELDS (The) = No. 1010. 
 
 WHAT THE SPRING BROUGHT 
 = No. 1011. 
 
 WHITE ROSE (The), in Canadian 
 Monthly, Jan., 1874. 2555 
 
 WHY DID HE NOT DIE ? [by 
 Adelheid von Volckhausen : Lippin- 
 coU, 1871.] "has the same virtues and 
 the same defects as its predecessors. It 
 is sprightly and entertaining, full of all 
 sorts of generous sentiments, and per- 
 vaded by that gentle, half -timid radi- 
 calism, which contents itself with aim- 
 ing innocuous bios at safe objects ; at 
 german protestant orthodoxy; at the 
 hypocrisy of the ' rigidly righteous ; ' at 
 the excesses of the agitators of the 
 Woman Question ; and at the arrogance 
 of an aristocracy which yet must not 
 resign too many of its pretensions if 
 it would please its fair opponents. 
 We recommend the book to everybody 
 
 760 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 WHEN ALL "WAS YOUNG, [by 
 Cecil Clark: Ijondon Stock, 1885] "is 
 a very innocent and tender little 15ve 
 story. A lovelorn damsel, dwelling in 
 Saxon Switzerland, encloses in a 
 tin canister a despairing letter to her 
 lover, entreating him to come bac t5 her. 
 This canister she sends floating down the 
 Elbe, and it is fished up by some English 
 children. Their widoed mother deter- 
 mins to trace the writer, and bring about 
 a reconciliation between the lovers. 
 In carrying out this purpos, she acci- 
 dentally falls in with an old friend and 
 admirer, who co-operates with her so 
 ardently and effectually, that not one, 
 but two happy marriages ar brot about 
 by the old canister." [Westmin. 558 p 
 
 162 s 
 
GERMAN NOVELS. 
 
 in search of amusing reading." [Na- 
 tion. 2566 
 
 WHY FRAU TROHMANN RAISED 
 HER PRICES, [by Anthony Tkollope 
 (t, 1882) : London, Mister, 1882.] 
 " The old hostess of the Brunuenthal, 
 anxious to entertain the old customers 
 of the Peacock at the old rates, js 
 driven ' by the cheapness of money,' t5 
 raise her prices. The perplexities and 
 mortifications of good Frau Prohmann, 
 who is tormented by her advisers, by 
 her old-world honesty, and by the march 
 of time, ar very wel handled, while the 
 woodland setting of the Tirolese inn 
 makes a pretty picture. ' The Lady of 
 Launay ' is a wel-told little , domestic 
 tale of the struggles of an old lady tS 
 prevent the union, on hi grounds of 
 family polity, of her son and an adopted 
 dauter whom she dearly loves." [Athe- 
 nseum. 2557 
 
 WIFE-HUNTER (The), by Kaeo- 
 LiNE (von Greinek) Pichlek : in Om- 
 nibus, vol. III., N.-Y., 1844. 2558 
 
 WIPE TO ORDER = No. 1016. 
 
 WILD ROSE OP GROSS- 
 STAUPFEN (The), [by Nataly von 
 Eohstkuth: 'S.-Y.,Worthingion, 1891.] 
 " is one of those novels, made up of an 
 unsophisticated heroin, a too-sophisti- 
 cated hero, a wicked princess, an in- 
 jured duchess, hard-hearted court ladies, 
 and court gentlemen of all degrees of 
 worthlessness. All virtuous persons ar 
 rewarded, and all the bad perish miser- 
 ably. Th^re is even an element of 
 novelty in this book, in the transforma- 
 tion of the hero by various afflictions 
 into a pattern of virtue. But all such 
 books hav for their major premis a 
 social order in which the regard of a 
 prince is the hiest prize a man can 
 win, and in which a woman's sole pro- 
 
 fession is tS be married." [Common- 
 wealth. 2559 
 
 WILHELM MEISTEB =No. 1017. 
 
 WILL (The) = No. 1018. 
 
 WON [Hamburg] = No. 563. 
 
 WOODCUTTER (The) by C. (v. 
 G.) PioiiLER, in Arthur's Mag., Jan., 
 1845. 2560 
 
 WOODLAND TALES [by Julius 
 Stinde : London, TF/w'«aA;er, 1887.] "ar 
 6 quiet stories. Dr. Stinde here shos 
 himself to hav the imagination of a 
 poet ; the romantic element which runs 
 throu the whole volume is made dis- 
 tinctly prominent ; and the treatment is 
 always delicate and discerning. In 
 'Aunt Juliana ' we hav unfolded be- 
 fore us the heftrt history of a, gentle- 
 woman who is loved by the count, altho 
 he marries another, and who, loving him 
 in return, altho she pities his weakness, 
 ' found her happiness in making the 
 happiness of others.' ' His Stupid 
 Wife' is the story of a marital mis- 
 understanding, and how it was reme- 
 died ; ' Brother Johannes ' relates the 
 fate of a, monk falsely suspected of 
 crime and sustained by the affection of 
 a woman wh8 strives t5 save him by de- • 
 daring herself guilty; ' Three Tir/ies 
 Ten Years ' is the story of an artist 
 fallen from his youthful ideals by pride 
 and thirst for wealth, but won bac to 
 the road of truth throu love ; in ' Bello ' 
 is depicted the life of a noble mind out- 
 lawed by conventional prejudiqes, and 
 driven to destruction ; and ' Princess 
 Ooldenhair' is a dainty idyl of youth 
 and youthful dreams." [Boston " Lit. 
 World." 2561 
 
 YOUNG WIDOW OP BREMEN, in 
 AlUon, 22 Sept., 1832. 2562 
 
 YOUNGEST BROTHER, by E. 
 WiCHERT : Chicago, Laird, 1891. 2563 
 
 761 
 
PRICE: ONE COPV, f .35; TWO COPIES, f .37; THIEC, f .BO; FOUR, ^ .66; FIVE, f .60; TEN, ^\.26; FIFTSKN, ^1*70, 
 
 DESCRIPTIVE LIST 
 
 OF 
 
 NOVELS AND TALES 
 
 DEALING WITH 
 
 LIFE IN ITALY. 
 
 COUPILED BT 
 
 W: M. GKISWOLD. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE, MASS. : 
 
 W: M. GRISWOLD, PubliSHEB. 
 1892. 
 
[ From the "School Bulletin," Aug., 1892. ) 
 
 We hope teachers will not fail t6 recognize the work "W. M. Griswold 
 is d6ing in his classified bibliography. He sends us a Descriptive List 
 OF Novels and Tales dealing v\riTH Life in France (Cambridge, 
 Mass., 1892, 8vo, pp. 94, $1.00), which is of immediate practical use t6 
 the teacher of French history as well as of P"rench literature. 
 
 [ From the *' Central Christian Advocate." ] 
 
 Mr. Griswold has done an excellent work, which will be appreciated 
 by all librarians, and by many people of cultivated taste wh6 wish t6 
 get on the track of the best French fiction, or at least t6 secure some 
 guidance and information in regard t6 its qualities and characteristics. 
 His former "lists" have dealt with American City and Country Life) 
 with Life in England, etc . . . Life in city and country, peasant life 
 and soldier life, the reckless and adventurous career of the free and 
 easy student in Paris, and the rude rustic among the mountains, — all 
 these phases of French life pass in review in the books which Mr. 
 Griswold has here catalogued. A guide like this would be invaluable 
 t6 a student of French literature, telling as well what t6 avoid, as 
 what t6 secure and read. 
 
 [From the "Boston Commonuiealth," lA Aug., 1892.] 
 
 If all libraries wer generously equipped with these Lists, the long- 
 suffering curator of books would find more pleasure in life. The com- 
 pilation and selection ar made with rare skill. The poor book drops into 
 desei-A^d oblivion, while the worthy but neglected and forgotten good 
 book is restored t6 the eye of the world. 
 
 Some not too busy people make note of the name of a novel recom- 
 mended by a trustworthy critic, but when the time for use comes the 
 note seldom is at hand, and, if ready, generally givs the mere title and 
 no idea of the contents. But here is a series of brochures that contain 
 excerpts from the fairest critical notices, often from several sources, 
 and one is enabled t6 form a sort of judgment of choice without actually 
 glancing at the book itself. Of course, those dealing with foreign lands 
 must for the greater part be translations, since with few exceptions 
 the most truthful and vivid characterizations come from the compatriot 
 \vh6 has summered and wintered his fellows. Few people realize the 
 patience, skill, and labor involvd in such an undertaking as the publica- 
 tion of these successiv lists, but those wh5 do should urge upon others 
 the use of so valuable a means of education and pleasure. As a series 
 of 'condensed novels' they ar interesting, too. 
 
Novels Descriptiv of Italian Life. 
 
 The object of this list is to direct readers, such as would enjoy the kind of books 
 here described, to a number of novels, easily accessible, but which, in many cases, 
 hav been forgotten within a year or two after publication. That the existence of 
 works 0} fiction is remembered so short a time is a pity, since, for every new book 
 of merit, there ar, in most libraries, a hundred as good or better, unknown to the 
 majority of readers. It is hoped that the publication of this and similar lists will 
 lessen, in some measure, the disposition to read an inferior new book when supe- 
 rior OLD books, equally fresh to most readers, ar at hand. It may be observed that 
 the compiler has tried to include only such works as ar well-written, interesting, 
 and free from sensationalism, sentimentality, and pretense. B UT in a few 
 cases, books hav been noticed on account of the reputation of their authors, or 
 ' their great popularity, rather than their merit. 
 
 The selected "notices" ar generally abridged. 
 
 This list will be followed by others describing RUSSIAN, NORWEGIAN, 
 SPANISH,— HUMOROUS, ECCENTRIC and FANCIFUL novels and tales. 
 
 AGATHA PAGE = No. 406. 
 
 AMAZON (The). [byCARLVos- 
 maer: ?7»wi?i, 18S4.] '-The value of 
 the work depends upon its descrip- 
 tions of character, and not on the 
 artistic, sesthetic, and archaeological 
 disquisitions t6 which we ar unwill- 
 ingly treated, and in this respect Mr. 
 Vosmaer has scored a signal success. 
 Of course, the Amazon abandons her 
 resolv of remaining mistress of her- 
 self, and Aisraa finds another mistress 
 besides Art."' [ Athenaeum. 2565 
 
 AMONG ALIENS = No. 587. 
 
 ANDEOMEDA = No. 411. 
 
 ARIADNE = No. 591. 
 
 AT CAPEI = No. 413. 
 
 AUROBA [bvM.. Agnes Tinck- 
 ER: Lippincott. 18SG.] "is certainly a 
 fresh and flowery spot in the midst of 
 
 the somewhat rank over-luxuriance of 
 modern story-telling. It is unique in, 
 being full of the local color of a< lo-. 
 cality not too familiar, and in being a 
 story without a purpos, ideal; rather 
 than realistic, aiming at little but be-. 
 ing a reproduction, at once faithful' 
 and picturesque, of life under pictur- 
 esque conditions as it may stil be livd; 
 and seen in Italy and" Spain . . . 
 Whether it is a beautiful old garden,. 
 or a woman's lovely gown, or some 
 delightful little boys- being tucked 
 int6 bed. tliie thing described livs in, 
 the memory. And yet the author has. 
 a treroend'ous catastrophe for the crisis 
 of her novel. Her use of the earth-, 
 quake at IscMa is most di-amatic .ind- 
 powerful." [Critic] — "Miss 'IMrick- 
 er's stories of Italian life invariably 
 
 162 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 AGNES TREMORNE [bylsABLAO- 
 DEN (t, 1873) : Smith, 1861] is 
 " a graceful, the perhaps over-senti- 
 mental book. The story, vued as a 
 story of English life and manners, must 
 be regarded as fanciful and slight. 
 The plot is rather unreal, and the 
 curious connexion subsisting between 
 the leading characters, is so unworldly 
 and imaginativ, that one feels in reading 
 it that a pure fancy rather than knoledge 
 of the world is the wel from which the 
 author lias drawn. But the very un- 
 worldliness of the book suits, perhaps, 
 its Italian dress. "When we ar in the 
 land of statues and of pictures, of olivs 
 and villas, of a blue sky and a blue sea, 
 life becomes invested with brighter 
 colors, and dusty English family his- 
 tories ar lighted intS something of ro- 
 mance. One of the most charming of 
 modern novels is a book in which a 
 simple and elegant plot is almost hidden 
 in descriptions of Italian life and 
 scenery — like statuary half lost ir» 
 leaves and flowers. The plot, and the 
 form in which the plot is given t5 us 
 in such works as "Transformation" 
 [No. 817] ar mutually adapted tii one 
 another. The imaginativ character of 
 the story, its airy unreality and grace, 
 suit the region in which its action is 
 laid." [Saturday Review. 406 d. 
 
 112 p 
 
INTEKNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 BABEL l>y Margaret [I..] (Col- 
 lier) Galetti : Blackwood, 1887] " is a 
 pleasant little tale, dealing with the 
 fortunes of a young lady born of an 
 Italian father and an English mother. 
 She is a nativ of a village at no gr^at 
 distance from the line t8 Brindisi ; and 
 thSre she has passed her youth in the 
 country house of her father, a, count, 
 ■with no company but her reservd mother, 
 a boorish brother, her tutor, a quaint 
 French professor, and his warm-hearted 
 and shrewd Russian wife. From this 
 polyglot society the house has got the 
 name which it givs tS the story. How 
 the elements of it ar stirred by the 
 arrival among them of an English 
 ■" Milor," and how Giannetta's fate is 
 affected thereby, may be read in the 
 book. Of course, she gets tS England 
 in course of time; and here the story 
 becomes somewhat commonplace, tho 
 thfire ar amusing touches." [Athe- 
 naeum. 416 k 
 
 115 t 
 
ITALIAN NOVELS. 
 
 possess points of hi charm, ar elo- 
 quent in description, and ar pervaded 
 by a poetic ardor, which she puts int6 
 striking relief by oflFering in contrast 
 vivid and realistic pictures of com- 
 monplace existence. In 'Aurora,' 
 which is a sequel t6 "The Jewel in the 
 Lotos,' — there ar scandals, falsehoods, 
 intrigues, and all the machinations of 
 powerful and unscrupulous workers 
 in evil." [American. 2566 
 
 BABYLON = No. 417. 
 
 BEAUTY OF AMALFI = No. 603. 
 
 BEPPO THE CONSCRIPT, [by 
 T : Adolphus Trollope : Chapman, 
 1856.] The scene is '-the narro strip 
 of territory shut in between the Apen- 
 nines and the Hadriatic, where Tasso 
 sang and the dukes of TJrbino flour- 
 ished. But not t6 revive their past 
 glories ar we beguiled t6 the decayed 
 old city of Fano, and the umbrageous 
 valleys which nestle amid the sur- 
 rounding hils ; it is the normal, primi- 
 tiv, agricultural life and economy of 
 the region, and the late political and 
 social condition of the inhabitants, 
 which this story illustrates. The 
 means and methods of rural toil, — the 
 "wine, corn, and oil" of Scriptural 
 and Vergilian times; the avarice, the 
 pi'ide, the love, the industry, and the 
 superstition of the peasants of 
 Romagna ; a household of prosperous 
 rustics, their ways and traits ; and the 
 subtil and prevailing agency of 
 priestcraft in its secret opposition t6 
 the government, — ar all exhibited 
 with a quiet zest and a graphic fidelity 
 which takes us int<3 the heart of the 
 people, and the arcana, as wel as the 
 spectacle of daily life, as there latent 
 and manifest. The domestic, peasant, 
 and provincial scenes and characters 
 ar drawn with fresh and nat- 
 ural colors and faithful outlines." 
 
 [ Atlantic. 2567 
 
 BEPPO THE STARGAZER, by 
 Heyse, in Masterpieces of German 
 Fiction. 2568 
 
 BETROTHED (The), by Man- 
 ZONJ, = No. 608. 
 
 BIMBI, by OuiUA, = No. 609. 
 
 BRUSHES AND CHISELS [by 
 Teodoeo Serrao : Lee, 1890.] '-is a 
 transcript of artist life in Borne, 
 which in delicate and poetic phrases 
 recounts the love-story of Angelica, 
 a modern Corinne, and Cormoto, a 
 Roman painter, wh6 for love of the 
 fair Muse throes away his life in a 
 duel. Angelica, more happy, marries 
 a Russian noble." [Critic. 2569 
 
 BY THE TIBER = No. 622. 
 
 CAMILLA'S GIRLHOOD = No. 
 623. 
 
 CAPTAIN MAX:^ANA = No. 427. 
 
 CARLINO = No. 428. 
 
 CASTELLAMONTE. [by "L. 
 Mariotti," i. e., Antonio [ C: Napo- 
 LEONE ] Gallenga : London, Wester- 
 ton, 1854.] ••One of the great charms 
 of the book Is that it is truly what it 
 is described as being — an illustration of 
 Italian domestic life in town and 
 country. We hav, too, some good 
 sketches of individuals, a specimen of 
 the now happily almost extinct spe- 
 cies of 'cicisbeo,' and the pompous 
 and penniless marquis, one of the few 
 lingering remnants of the feudal no- 
 bility stil to be found in secluded 
 nooks of the Apennines." [ Westmin- 
 ster. 2570 
 
 CASTLE OF OTRANTO = No. 630. 
 
 CONSUBLO = No. 650. 
 
 CORINNA. [by "Rita," i. e., 
 Eliza J. (Gollan) Booth : Maxwell, 
 1885.] ••There is not much substance 
 in it, but the heroin is graceful and 
 gracefully described. The lively 
 little countess, coquettish and world- 
 
 763 
 
ITALIAN NOVELS. 
 
 BROKEN TROTH (The) [by Philip 
 Treton: Macmillan, 1861.] "is a. 
 genuin Italian tale — a true picture of 
 the Tuscan peasant population, with all 
 their virtues, faults, weaknesses, follies, 
 and even vices. It is not a tale con- 
 cocted tS meet the popular passion or 
 prejudice of the day; for it does not 
 touch in the remotest degree upon 
 politics, and is completely free from the 
 slightest strain of sectarianism. It is a 
 domestic tale — its hero, a humble, 
 hard-working shoemaker — its heroin, 
 the rich dauter of a crafty miser, who 
 by his skil and cunning has contrived t6 
 amass a large property in houses and 
 vineyards; and its villain is an idling, 
 gambling, town-bred fop — a personifi- 
 cation of that worthless class, whose 
 numbers and dissoluteness make them 
 the curse of Italy. We recommend 
 ' The Broken Troth ' as the best Italian 
 tale which has been published since the 
 appearance of the ' Promessi Sposi ' 
 [No. 608]; because, like that work, 
 there ar t8 be found in it genuin 
 pictures of the Italian peasant popula- 
 tion. Th^re is no exaggeration in the 
 portraiture of character; and the in- 
 cidents — even the worst described — 
 ar of constant occurrence — such as the 
 murder of the hero's father, by the hand 
 
 of a villain who envied the humble 
 man's happiness — such too, as the 
 robbery and attempted murder of the 
 heroin's father by tw8 wretches, whose 
 frightful bargain with each other was 
 that he who took life should also be- 
 come sole possessor of the money and 
 jewels tS be found in the house whSre 
 the murder was committed. The records 
 of crime in Italy exhibit the frequency 
 of such deeds of cruelty and atrofity; 
 and the author keeps within the strict 
 lines of probability when introducing 
 them intS his story. The gr^at charm, 
 however, of this work is the protraiture 
 of Stefanino — the hero. It is an ex- 
 quisit picture of virtue struggling 
 against poverty — against the charms of 
 beauty — the passions of youth — the 
 temptations of wealth. And despite of 
 the many difficulties in his way, triumph- 
 ing over every obstacle, and with a clear 
 conscience, finally winning, with the ap- 
 probation of his fello-men, all he had 
 wished for. The foil to this character, 
 his cousin Cecco, is a wel-intentioned 
 youth, but with no control over his 
 vehement disposition, and whose fiery 
 spirits ar constantly involving him in 
 the most unpleasant scrapes." [London 
 Review. 2568t 
 
 763 h 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 BUCHHOLZES IN ITALY (The) 
 [by Julius Stinde : London, Bell, 
 1887.] "is not equal to 'the Buehholz 
 Family.' It has some clever passages, 
 of course, but the author strains too 
 much after effect, and in the end one 
 becomes thoroly tired of Mrs. Buehholz' 
 comments on the pictures, scenery, and 
 social life of Italy. It is worth noting, 
 perhaps, that she is made tS express all 
 the notions current in Germany about 
 English travelers." [Athenaeum. 4:24: k 
 
 117 s 
 
INTEKNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 CAMORISTI (The) and other 
 TALES [by Ma. [I..] (Collier) Gal- 
 ETTi : London, 1882] " is attraetiv and 
 interesting." [Sat. Review. 426 k 
 
 118 p 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 CAEA KOMA. [byMxKiAM. Gkant : 
 Chapman, 1885.] " Life at Kome, 
 both in outside aspect and in the condi- 
 tions which it excites is described with 
 considerable power; and the study of 
 Lady Daring, with its curious strata, 
 so to spealc, — an outside of sentiment, 
 a deep layer of what may be called 
 practical or worldly, and underneath all, 
 again, a capacity for being disinterested, 
 which can assert itself if only it can be 
 roused, — is a really successful effort." 
 [Spectator. 427 k 
 
 118 8 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 CARTOUCHE, [by F.. M,. Peard : 
 Smith, 1879.] " The author prefers good 
 tS bad people, likes things tS turn out 
 wel, and has a sympathetic acquaintance 
 with a good deal of f orein society. The 
 scene of ' Cartouche ' lies chiefly at 
 Florence and Rome, and the de- 
 scriptions of scenery and of the life of 
 English residents in those places ar 
 charming, and, what is rarer, ar given 
 without extravagance ; but the best 
 point in the author's treatment of her 
 story is her skilful management of twS 
 heroins, girls of very different charac- 
 ters, but both of them true and noble- 
 minded." [Athenseum. 4:28 ll 
 
 119 m 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 CONTRADICTIONS, [by F.. M.. 
 Peakd: Bentley, 1883.] "The two 
 sisters ar an attractiv pair of fresh, 
 right-thinking, vigorous English girls ; 
 and Olivia, with her more conventional 
 and worldly aims, which dSnot, however, 
 wholy occupy her heart, forms an effec- 
 tiv contrast. Life in Venice, too, is 
 described with some skil, and there ar 
 descriptions of scenery and of the effects 
 of light and color in the canals and la- 
 goons which ar wel and forcibly writ- 
 ten." [Spectator. 431 d 
 
 120 m 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 CORINNE [by A.. L„ Germaine 
 (Neoker), baroness Stael-Holstein 
 (t, 1817) : Boston, 1808, 2 v., 12" ; Phil'a, 
 Carey, 1836; N. Y., Langley, 1844; 
 London, 1856, Warne, 1884.] " The 
 hero is the eon of a Scotch nobleman, 
 who possessed all the excellencies of 
 that region, viz : hi mental cultivation, 
 grSat moral purity, strong religious faith, 
 and a rooted attachment to the quiet, de- 
 mure habits of his countrymen. . . . 
 His prejudices against Italian -women 
 wer melting away as the frost of his 
 nativ hils would hav done under an 
 Italian sun. Passion impelled him to an 
 immediate union with this charming 
 creature ; but the mystery resting on her 
 origin and early history, the recollection 
 of his former imprudence, and of his 
 father's opinions, and an occasional re- 
 laps lnt5 his old feelings, always made 
 him shrink from that final step. She is 
 nursed by him in sicness ; she traverses 
 the peninsula from one end 15 the other 
 in his company, and defies even Italian 
 public sentiment in all her intercourse 
 with him . . . "With grSat difficulty 
 
 he t^ars himself away, and she despairs. 
 The sight of Britain revives his attach- 
 ment tS English manners, and with it his 
 prejudice against those of Italy. The 
 appearance of Miss Edgemond, blush- 
 
 ing like a young rose, chimed in with this 
 renewal of old prepossessions. He does 
 not cease t5 love Corinne; but she is 
 fast 15sing the monopoly of his heart, 
 and his letters become less frequent and 
 more cold. Altho this only realized the 
 gloomy anticipations of Corinne, it drove 
 her nearly frantic, and when the intelli- 
 gence reached her that he was about 
 starting with the army for the West 
 Indies, slie returned t5 England with 
 more impatience than she left it. . . . 
 Corinne returns tO Italy tS die of a 
 broken hedrt. Oswald, in a short time 
 after his marriage, goes to the West 
 Indies, wh^re he encounters the toils 
 and perils of war for four years. When 
 he returns, the feelings and tastes which 
 had partially lost their hold amid the din 
 of battle and the horrors of pestilence, 
 resumed their power. His conscience is 
 troubled about the unknon fate of the 
 poor Italian; he finds that his English 
 wife, with all her loveliness and innocent 
 affection, lacs the genius and acquire- 
 ments, which gave such constant attrac- 
 tion t5 the conversation of her sister. 
 This occasions no actual dissension, but 
 a want of perfect sympathy and confi- 
 dence." [Southern Lit. Messenger] 
 Compare No. 2004. 431 p 
 
 120 s 
 
ITALIAN NOVELS. 
 
 ly, wh6m we meet in her company at 
 the outset of the story, is a good foil 
 t6 the beautiful, single-hefiited. and 
 imaginativ author and poet wh6 is her 
 traveling companion." [ Athen. 2571 
 
 DANIELE CORTIS. [by Anto- 
 nio FOGAZZARO: Remington, 1890.] 
 '•It is not easy t6 create sympathy for 
 Italian Action. The obstacle is not so 
 much the foreinness of the '-ways" of 
 the people and their social customs, 
 as it is the moods of mind, the objects 
 of life, and the curious staccato style 
 in which modern Italian prose is writ- 
 ten. That style departs as widely 
 from the floing sentences and rather 
 over-done elegance of the older Ital- 
 ian writers, as the naturalist French 
 style departs from the romantic. In 
 'Daniele Cortis' we hav a favorable 
 example of the modern Italian novel, 
 6ne which 6t t6 arouse interest, even 
 vivid curiosity, and which not only 
 tels a clever story in a clever way, but 
 offers some striking types of charac- 
 ter. The love-story is not a happy 
 one; the tragic element comes int6 it, 
 and "its earthly close"' is separation; 
 but its interest is pathetic, and the 
 underlying political element is ad- 
 mirably conveyed. Count Leo is an 
 original and entertaining personage. 
 The translation has the charm of ease 
 and gracefulness.'' [ Spectator. 2572 
 
 DAPHNE = No. 667. 
 
 DEVIL'S PORTRAIT (The) [by 
 ANTONIO GiDLio Bareili : Beming- 
 tnn. 1885.] "is a painful, but yet a 
 rather powerful story of love, ven- 
 geance, and tragedy. As in most 
 fictions of the kind, the plot is prac- 
 tically everything, — the incidents and 
 the characters nothing. The unfoitu- 
 nate hero is Spinelli. wh6 develops 
 int6 a great artist. But his betrothed, 
 the dauter of his master, is spirited 
 
 away from him by a rival artist, in a 
 marvellous, and indeed, incredible 
 fashion. Tuccio di Cridi, a confedei- 
 ate of Buonalente, fastens himself 
 upon Spinelli as a friend and admirer, 
 and allows him t6 drift int6 a mar- 
 riage which is nearly, if not quite, 
 loveless. At last Spinelli discovers 
 that Fiordalisa. wh6m he believes t6 
 be dead, has been forced t6 marry 
 Buonalente. Him he kils. tho not be- 
 fore the villain has had time t6 strike 
 an lago's bio at Fiordalisa. Finally, 
 he goes mad, altho, before his death, 
 he retains reason enuf t6 achieve won- 
 ders as an artist, and t6 kil the second 
 villain of the story. Next t6 the plot, 
 the artistic babble is most t6 be com- 
 mended, because it is true t6 nature, — 
 at least, t6 nature in Italy." [Spec- 
 tator. 2573 
 
 DIAMOND CUT DIAMOND [ by 
 T: Adolphds Trollope: Harper, 
 1874.] "is a wel-written. excellent, 
 and soporific tale of Tuscan life. The 
 best portion deals with the priest- 
 hood, and the portraitures of the dif- 
 ferent priests ar drawn with a firm 
 and masterly hand. The object of 
 the storj' is t6 sho the evil results of 
 priestly interference in the manage- 
 ment of the domestic affairs of private 
 families, and if this purpos be held 
 steadily in vae, we must pronounce 
 the novel a success. But it is not til 
 we reach the end that we discover the 
 moral, and most people we suspect 
 wil fall asleep by the way." [ Arca- 
 dian. 2574 
 
 DOCTOR ANTONIO = No. 435. 
 
 DREAM NUMBERS [ by T : Adol- 
 PHUS Trollope: Chapman, 1868.] 
 "is a charming picture of life in 
 Tuscany •, the life of wel-t6-d6 farmers 
 and peasants ; pictures of life as it is 
 in those little old-world towns and 
 
 764 
 
ITALIAN NOVELS. 
 
 DON FINIMONDONE. [by E.. 
 (Jones) C'avazza: N.-Y., Webster, lslj2.] 
 "Don Finimondoiie was n ('alaljrian kil- 
 joy, always prophesying evil and the enil 
 of the world. Hen^e his nicname. A\'ho- 
 ever wishes to read a good story, wel 
 told, quite iu the manner of the old 'fab- 
 liaux," should read how he disguised him- 
 self as the devil and threw a gloom over 
 the carnival by hinting his intimate knol- 
 edge of all his nfibors' pecadilloes, until 
 his dauter Filomena, recognizing him by 
 certain patches which she had sewn on 
 the knees of his trousers, recommended 
 him to go learn of himself, in his capacity 
 of head of a household, how to play the 
 part properly. Mrs. C'a\az-za, to whom 
 we dur acquaintance with this delight- 
 ful old skinflint, introduges ns also to a 
 procession of other quaint characters, 
 very real for all thSir shoy Italian virtues 
 and vi^es. Th^re is Cirillo, the frog- 
 catcher, born a baron, and who knoes it, 
 yet who wil not claim his on because he 
 has promised his foster-mother not 15 
 publish her fraud. ThSre is the Calabrian 
 Penelope who forges her husband, return- 
 ed from South-America, to put a bullet 
 throu her wedding-ring, held in her hand, 
 the only proof that wil convince her of 
 his identity; thfire ar the women who 
 carry ije on thiiir heads, bound in rush 
 mats and sheepskins, from the mountains 
 to the city; the shepherd who suddenly 
 appears from behind a roc, with his pipe, 
 to play to them, while thfiy lay down thfiir 
 burdens and dance ; and Donna Eosina, a 
 
 'grCat piece of a woman' like a purple 
 cabbage, who in her day was the belle of 
 till- village, and who spoiled her on funeral 
 in an extraordinary way. Even the tom- 
 tits and the grasshoppers in these stories 
 hav character and chirp and wag thfir 
 tails after a fashion of th<!ir on. The 
 Madonna del Carmine, to whom the vil- 
 lagers pray for success, is able to make 
 'any ten other Madonnas run away with 
 lifted legs.' In general, the tales concern 
 such humble folk as peasants and thfiir 
 donkeys, priests and proprietors of pup- 
 pet-shos. But, as Theokritos sketched 
 his Syracusan dames, Mrs. C'avazza paints 
 the likeness of the Neapolitan gr^at folk 
 in 'Princess Humming-bird'; and the 
 same light touch which puts before us 
 the gypsy, Nastasia, in her tinsel tinery, 
 or Pina weeding in the furros, answers as 
 wel for thSir superiors, who revile Christ- 
 ofero Colombo for letting loose on them 
 the American hfiiress with the bodice of 
 humming-bird's feathers. The conclusion 
 of this last tale reminds one a little of 
 Hawthorne, but one need not take that 
 as an injury. In fact, seeing that the 
 book puts us in mind of what is best only, 
 in idyl and story, we ar open to discuss 
 the question whether its plage is not some- 
 whSre in Hawthorne's n^borhood— 
 whether, smacking, as it does, of fat 
 olivs and blac wine, it may not claim 
 standing-room on the shelf beside Leigh 
 Hunt's 'Jar of Honey from Mount 
 Hybla'." [Critic. 2574 m 
 
 764 p 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 DODD FAMILY ABROAD (The), 
 [by C : Lever (1806-72) : Harper, 
 1854.] " This is one of the gayest, 
 shrewdest, most sparkling and most rol- 
 licking of the many works cf Lever. 
 The Podds, an Irish family of encum- 
 bered estate, ar taken t5 the Continent 
 by the senior member of the concern, in 
 the hope of living more economically 
 abroad than at home. The book is 
 made up of letters, written by the vari- 
 ous members of the Dodd connection, 
 and as various in style and sentiment as 
 the characters of their writers. The re- 
 sult is a picture, or series of pictures, of 
 German and Italian life and manners, 
 strongly provocativ of lafter. Tlie ab- 
 surdities of the family in their desire tS 
 be fashionable and distinguished, and 
 their queer adventures and mishaps, ar 
 exhibited with grfiat humor. Dodd, the 
 father, is a splendid specimen of the 
 elderly Irish gentleman, impulsiv, irasci- 
 ble, full of animal spirits, slirewd, and 
 sensible enuf in his mode of thinking, 
 
 foolish and recless in his conduct. His 
 letters ar perhaps the best in the book. 
 Dodd, mother, is a vixen of a peculiar 
 stamp, wr6ng-headed and wr6ng-hearted, 
 wh5 spoils her children, plagues her 
 liusband, and worships herself. Dodd, 
 dauter, is a beautiful and sentimental 
 young lady, eager for conquests, a co- 
 quette, a jilt, and almost a jade. James 
 Dodd, the son, is a young scapegrace, 
 wh5 gets intQ all kinds of ridiculous 
 scrapes, but is so good-natured in his 
 good-for-nothingness that he never en- 
 tirely 15ses the sympathy of the reader. 
 The failures ar Capt. Morris and Carry 
 Dodd, characters in which the author at- 
 tempts t5 delineate excellent people, and 
 succeeds only in describing bores. They 
 fortunately occupy but a small space in 
 the book, and can be easily skipped. We 
 d5 not kno but that the interposition of 
 their dulness is a contrivance of the au- 
 thor to hav some foil tS his brilliancy ; 
 if so, he has succeeded t5 a charm." 
 [Graliara's Mag. 437 h 
 
 122 h 
 
JNTEKNATIONAt. NOVELS. 
 
 DRIVEN BEFORE THE STORM, 
 [by Gertrude Force : Hurst, 1887.] 
 " The early chapters, which take us t6 
 the coast of Italy, and tel us how Bar- 
 rington de Witt fel in with the traveling 
 party, with the members of which he 
 was tS become so fatefuUy allied, ar 
 full of brisk incident, bright character- 
 sketching, and quiet humor. The Brere- 
 tons, father and son, ar solidly executed 
 portraits, the former being the more 
 successful, as the churlish irascibility of 
 the older man is better realized for us 
 than the brutal caddishness of the 
 younger, which surely passes the bounds 
 of credibility. An equally clever and 
 much pleasanter creation is the pretty 
 American girl, Blanche Hopkins, with 
 her piquant grace, her free but always 
 self-respectful ways, and her wonderful 
 knac of turning lovers into permanent 
 friends. . . . Th^re is no strain, no 
 exaggeration, no melodrama, but a vivid- 
 ness and intensity after which the dealers 
 in these things strive in vain. The early 
 part of the book is admirable, but it is 
 this later portion which marks out the 
 writer as one of whom gr^at expecta- 
 tions may reasonably be indulged." 
 [Spectator. 438 k 
 
 122 p 
 
ITALIAN NOVELS. 
 
 hamlets, perched in nooks of the 
 mountains, hardly ao9essible t6 the 
 dwellers themselvs, and never seen or 
 knon by ordinary travelers. The state 
 of rude plenty, with its rustic and 
 yet classic grace, its ignorance, 
 shrewdness and beauty; the energy 
 which underlies its laziness ; the sense 
 of unbounded leisure, which precludes 
 the possibility of haste or hurry ; the 
 charm of glad animal-life, which 
 hardly needs labor t6 support it; all 
 combine t6 make the people seem a 
 race set apart from those who dwel 
 under the iron rule of the 19th cen- 
 tury, and under the self-conscious 
 laws of political economy. They liv 
 in beauty instead. The lights and 
 shades of Italian peasant life ar the 
 subject of '-The Dream Numbers." 
 The hiest social personage is the law- 
 yer Morini, wh6 livs in the city of 
 Iiucca, and wh6se son Meo, the type 
 of the young provincial "gent," is the 
 lover of Pegina, the dauter of a rich 
 'contadino.' " [ Athenaeum. J — "Be 
 it remembered that in this, as in his 
 other sweet and true pictures of Ital- 
 ian life, it is a domestic chronicle he 
 weaves; there ar no complex charac- 
 ters — none of the subtlety of analysis 
 and portraiture appropriate t6 a hier 
 or more varied culture or stage of 
 civilization ; it is with the people he 
 deals, with their simple tastes, their 
 harmless gossip, their poor supersti- 
 tions, their limited knoledge, their 
 local traditions and habitudes. Inci- 
 dent is, of course, essential, and inci- 
 dent of a dramatic or picturesque 
 kind, and this lie finds in such authen- 
 tic events as a trie of priestcraft which 
 came t6 light in the records of the 
 local tribunals; in a memorable and 
 destructiv inundation of the Serchio. 
 and the course of a true 15ve which 
 
 did not run smooth until it had en- 
 countered and overcome numerous 
 obstacles— doubts, fears, meetings 
 and separations— the story whereof 
 takes the reader pleasantly from the 
 cathedral of Lucca t6 the mountain 
 path from Pescia. from a funeial t6 a 
 court-room, from the jewelers' bridge 
 at Florence t6 the trim little -bagarino' 
 with its smart pony and scarlet worst- 
 ed reins, from a supper of macaroni 
 and Chianti wine t6 a cemetery, and 
 from a gay 'passeggiata' t6 a tearful 
 vigil— all minutely true t6 local life 
 and character, and narrated with a 
 tact, wisdom, ethical justice, and hu- 
 man sympathy alike pleasing and 
 rare." [ Round Table. 2575 
 
 ELEVENTH COMMANDMENT 
 (The) [ by Antonio Giulio Barrii.i : 
 N.-Y.. Gottsberger, 1882.] "is a gay. 
 sparkling little comedy. The first act 
 passes amid the petty strivings and 
 plottings of the town, with its sub- 
 prefect and its register-general. En- 
 ter a grand personage, a duke, wh6 is 
 seeking a riclily-dowered bride. Act. 
 II. In the mountains, above the town, 
 in an monastery, is gathered a party 
 of 9 gentlemen wh6 hav voluntarily 
 bound themselvs t6gether as the "Re- 
 formed Order of Saint Bruno." They 
 devote themselvs t6 archfeology — 
 "monks wh6 ar not monks, a craze 
 worthy of an Ariosto," but "the con- 
 vent of madmen." T6 them enter a 
 young novige with "round, fresh face 
 like an archangel out for a holiday," 
 with his uncle, likewise a novi9e, a 
 portly, comfortable man of 50. The 
 young novi9e brings t6 the communi- 
 ty an eleventh commandment : "Thou 
 shalt stay among thy fello-men. liv 
 their life, love and suffer as th6y M ; 
 for thou raayest not escape the com- 
 mon lot." The book Is so wholy 
 
 765 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOTELS. 
 
 ELENA, [by L. N. Comtn : Long- 
 man, 1873.] "The dauter of an 
 English father and an Italian mother, 
 bred in ignorance of her birth, and in 
 little more than peasant rank, by an 11- 
 tempered ' cugina,' Elena meets acci- 
 dentally an officer in the then Piedmontese 
 army, who is thron from his horse close 
 to her home. From her good offices t5 
 him, after the accident, an acquaintance 
 arises, and his kindness to the lonely 
 and hardly-used girl wins her he4rt. 
 After an interval, during which 
 she wonders never to hav heard his 
 name, a certain Marquis Montanari 
 appears as suitor for her hand, to her 
 grSat dismay, for her heart has long 
 been given to Marco. Of course, Mon- 
 tanari and Lorenzini turn out to be the 
 same person ; but poor Elena finds that 
 tho to please his father he has under- 
 taken to make a ' mariage de conven- 
 ance,' his affections ar at first wholy 
 given to her beautiful step-sister. Thus, 
 in spite of Marco's kindness, which, how- 
 ever, proceeds from a kind disposition 
 rather thaa from any affection for her, 
 the first months of Elena's married life 
 pass unhappily enuf. In course of 
 time, however, his eyes ar opened to 
 Pauline's shallo nature (be it understood , 
 he is too hoaorable a man to hav con- 
 tracted any serious ' liaison ' with her) 
 and to the depths of his wife's love for 
 him. . . . Our readers wil see that 
 the story is a sad one, pitched, so t6 say, 
 in a minor key throuout. It is told, 
 however, with good taste, and avoid- 
 ance of ' sensation,' for which the sub- 
 ject might offer a favorable opportunity." 
 [Athenaeum. 4:39 h 
 
 122 s 
 
ITALIAN NOVELS. 
 
 FANTASIA. [by SIatilde ( ) 
 SERAu:t8S3; Lovell, 1S91.] "■When we 
 ur introduced to Lucia Altemare as a 
 schoolgirl in the convent, she thinks she 
 wil And her ideal in ecstatic worship of 
 the Virgin, and faints with exc^itenient on 
 the told iiags of the chapel before her 
 image. She vows she wil hav nothing to 
 do with earthly love, that she is born to 
 be lonely and sad ; vows it to lier bosom 
 friend, a quiet, simple, gentle girl, who is 
 devoted to her strange comrade with all 
 the strength of a fond and straitforward 
 nature ... So the school-life breaks up. 
 Lucia at home loses herself in religious 
 fervors and in studies conducted under 
 the tuition of tlie poor Professor, whom 
 she at last drives into a mad-house. Catc- 
 rina marries a handsome, athletic cousin, 
 who at first takes n violent dislike to her 
 sicly "athletic" friend ; but one evening 
 on being malijiously left alone with her 
 by his wife, who is anxious to coax the 
 two beings she loves best into some kind 
 of sympathy, he falls a prfiy to her subtle 
 fascination. From this moment the 
 love-duet begins. Lucia deems it a, phil- 
 anthropical duty to marry a despicably 
 selfish, consumptiv cousin, whose last 
 years she wishes to briten ; but her elab- 
 orate display of pitying affection toards 
 this wretched creature is rather repulsiv 
 than the reverse. Even in the last horri- 
 bly realistic death-ljed scene, when the 
 mask has fallen, and the two who hav 
 been betrayed sit side by side looking at 
 th^ir fate, and one after the other turning 
 over the leaves of the diary in which 
 Lucia has written her ecstatic love-th6ts 
 to her friend's husband — even in the 
 vifinity of death, the wild and selfish 
 
 ravings of a poor nature must fil us with 
 disgust; and it is to tlic silent and patient 
 grief of the outraged young wife that we 
 giv all the pathos, guessing what the 
 lapis-lazuli rosary is to moan for her. 
 The character of Lucia is a clever psycho- 
 logical study, but it is little C'aterina who 
 claims <itir tears as she orders her apart- 
 ment in Naples, like the methodical little 
 housewife that she is, and goes quietly off 
 to the deserted villa whfire thCy all four 
 spent such pleasant summer days, and 
 thiSre lays herself down in the closed 
 room with the smoldering (-harcoal to 
 keep her part, according to her simple 
 notion, of the bargain of the lapis-lazuli 
 rosary." [Saturday Review.]— "It would 
 be impossible for the English lady novel- 
 ist to write such a book. An English 
 woman miglit kno a Lucia Allimare thor- 
 oly, might depict her perfectly up to the 
 crisis of her career; but just at this point 
 she would certainly succumb to tradition. 
 She would arrange for a Lucia a tearful 
 parting from licr lover, and sanctimonious 
 retirement to the hearth she has come so 
 near to desecrating, or she would kil 
 Lucia, or represent her as doing anything, 
 everything, except what a Lucia always 
 does when she gets the change — bolt with 
 the husband of a dearest friend, leaving 
 behind wild, ejaculatory epistles for her 
 husband and /is.s wife. The presentation 
 of a nervous, excitable, sensual woman, 
 whose real character is scarcely suspecteil 
 by her nearest friends, and who, with oc- 
 casional spasms of scathing frankness, 
 livs in a state of blissful self-deception, 
 is exceedingly clever and surpassingly 
 cold . . . Thfire is much grasp, power, and 
 kuoledge in it." [Nation. 3576 k 
 
 765 m 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 ELS A [by E. McQueen Gray: 
 Harper, 1892] " is one of those delight- 
 ful old-fashioned novels vith a love- 
 story pure and simple and all the 
 adjuncts to the furtherance and hind- 
 rance of the same. The scene is laid 
 chiefly in Venice Th^re is Elsa, 
 whose mother was Italian and whose 
 father is Austrian, pure in spirit and 
 with a marvelous voice ; th^re is the 
 morose old father; th^re is Somerled 
 the Englishman, an artist whS loves 
 Elsa; th^re is the baroness, an ex-ballet 
 dancer, whS in her vain and silly fash- 
 ion devotes herself to Elsa's for- 
 tunes ; th^re is Kramer, the little Munich 
 artist whQ sentimentalizes about beer and 
 love in the same breath; th^re is the 
 Princess Morini, old and bitter, with the 
 thirst for vengeance in her he^rt, giving 
 ' Wednesday evenings ' to which every- 
 one comes, in spite of her il-humor; 
 there is Francesco Savarni, the villain 
 of the tale, wh6 oppresses Elsa after her 
 father dies, and upon whom t8 be 
 avenged the Princess has livd until she 
 is 83; and finally th^re is Antonio the 
 gondolier, silent and discreet. And out 
 of this material the author has made a 
 story which is charming in scene and 
 conversation, absorbing in interest, abso- 
 lutely true in its premises, even if its 
 conclusions ar sometimes a trifle ex- 
 aggerated and theatrical, — artistic in ar- 
 rangement, and healthful and objectiv 
 in tone — a story so little modern, so 
 unlike some of the monstrosities of 
 realism, as t5 command our genuin ad- 
 miration." [Critic. 440 k 
 
 122 V 
 
ITALIAN NOVELS. 
 
 without pretension, and so lightly 
 told, that one jiai-dons minor faults, 
 and no more questions probabilities 
 tlian one would in the 'The Princess'." 
 [ N.ation.] — "It rehearses the history 
 of certain friars wh6 established a 
 convent, merely t6 secure seclusion 
 from politics and society. AVomen ar 
 excluded, not because they had found 
 Woman dangerous, but because thgy 
 had not felt her charm. They pro- 
 pose, in short. t6 giv up the world 
 without renouncing it. But a young 
 and beautiful girl, in the disguise of a 
 friar, gains ac§ess t6 their retreat, and 
 the processes by which she gradually 
 breaks up the lay convent ar admir- 
 ably described." [ Critic.]— Compare 
 plot of No. 2522. 2576 
 
 FIAMMETTA. [ by W : Wetmore 
 Stoky : Houghton. 1875.] "Its theme 
 resembles "Guenn" [No. 725.]; it is 
 less painstaking and less ambitious 
 than "Guenn." perhaps less spirited, 
 but it is gentler and prettier. It is, 
 we think, both good art and good na- 
 ture t6 drop intentional wrSnging of 
 each other out of our stories of life 
 and liuman relations, and sho more 
 how fates unavoidably clash. In this 
 theme — the Elaine theme, we may call 
 it — it is an open question how far the 
 Lancelots should be, as they usually 
 ar. held responsible morally for hav- 
 ing allowed love t5 be given which 
 they could not return in kind. The 
 girl herself should hav some right t6 
 say something in the matter; and it is 
 certain that such a girl as either Guenn 
 or Fiammetta would choose t6 hav 
 had the first love and its consequences, 
 rather than the lifeless peasant con- 
 tent which would hav otherwise hav 
 been hers. Where there has been no 
 effort t6 win love, no advantage taken 
 of the love given, no deception or cre- 
 
 ating of expectations which can not 
 be fulfilled — merely the ppportunity 
 given for the girl's pure and unsolicit- 
 ed devotion t5 attach itself — it is a 
 question whether the novelist should 
 hold up the result as disastrous, and 
 the man as a wrong d6er. It is a for- 
 tunate arrangement of fate that the 
 girl wh6 is not strong-hearted enuf t6 
 prefer, on the whole, the hier loving 
 and its consequence of sorro, is also 
 the girl \vh6 gets over such an expe- 
 rience easily, and takes the cheaper 
 attainable, rather than the costly un- 
 attainable." [ Overland. 2577 
 
 FOREGONE CONCLUSION (A) 
 [ Venice ] = No. 453. 
 
 FROM THE FOAM OF THE SEA 
 [by Salvatore Farina: Charing 
 Cross Pub. Co., 1880.]— '-is written 
 with quite as much sprightliness as 
 'Love Blinded' [No. 2591] and with 
 similar grace ; but it is, on the whole, of 
 slighter texture, the incidents being 
 extremely improbable, and they be- 
 long more t6 the region of light com- 
 edy than that of novel-writing. At 
 first one's curiosity is agreeably 
 aroused, and all promises wel; but 
 before the end of vol. 1. the mysteries 
 of the plot becouie artificial and prac- 
 tically impossible, and from that point 
 forward 6ne reads on with diminished 
 zest, tho certainly not with entire dis- 
 relish." [ Athenaeum. 2578 
 
 GEMMA. [by T: Adolphus 
 Trollope: Chapman, 1866.] "The 
 scene is Siena ; and, altho the story is 
 based upon one of those impassioned 
 tragedies of love and jealousy which 
 can be found only in the family chron- 
 icles of Italy, the stil-life, social 
 phases, and local traits of the romance 
 ar delineated with the same quiet sim- 
 plicity and graphic truth which con- 
 stitute the authenticity of the author's 
 
 766 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 FORTUNES OF GLENCORE (The) 
 [by C: Levek (1806-72): Chapman, 
 1857.] " is a very pleasant book. Th^re 
 is a flo of hi animal spirits throuout, and 
 the best characters ar usually the gay, 
 hot-blooded Irishmen, fond of wild 
 horses, whisky, duelling, and pretty 
 girls. The scene of the story changes 
 from the western coast of Ireland, wh^re 
 the sea dashes against the castle of the 
 Glencores, t6 the soft skies of Val 
 d'Arno and the sunny shore of the Bay 
 of Naples." [Southern Lit. Messenger. 
 
 453 k 
 
 126 h 
 
' ITALIAN NOVELS. 
 
 previous delineations of Italian life. 
 The grave, consevvativ, and old-fash- 
 ioned Tuscan city reappears, with its 
 medifeval aspect and traditional cus- 
 toms. Convent education, the homes 
 of the patrician and the citizen, the 
 little gig of the 'fattore,' with the 
 small, wiry ponies of the region, the 
 local antiquarian and doctor, the let- 
 ter-carrier, family servant, lady- 
 superior, pharmacist, the noble and 
 plebeian, the costumes, phrases, and 
 natural language characteric of that 
 non-commercial and isolated Tuscan 
 city before the days of railways, ar 
 drawn with emphasis and significant 
 detail. Shades and causes of charac- 
 ter ar finely discriminated ; the old 
 mediasval "festa' peculiar t6 Siena, 
 with all its original features and so- 
 cial phenomena, is vividly enacted in 
 the elaborate description of the "Pa- 
 lio;" while the insalubrious and pict- 
 uresque Maremma is portrayed, from 
 the Etruscan crypts of the ravines t6 
 the desolate streets of Savona, by an 
 artistic and philosophic hand." [ At- 
 lantic. 2579 
 GIANNETTO [ by Margaret 
 [E..] (Lindsay) Majendie: HoU^ 
 1876.] '-is a prettily-written story, 
 with charming descriptions of some 
 few sides of life in Italy, and a 
 general air of having been studied 
 from nature, while it suffers mean- 
 while from the introduction of a sort 
 of supernatural flavor which nowa- 
 days, when literalness of local color 
 is so abundant, is as unimpressiv as a 
 ghost would be in a horse-car at mid- 
 day. The story tels of a singer wh6, 
 after having been dumb from birth, 
 bursts out int6 song; and his voice, 
 obtained, it is suggested, by a com- 
 pact with the Evil One, givs hiru 
 wealth t6 the detriment of his moral 
 
 character. With that exception, 
 which is an important one, the little 
 book is agreeable reading." [ Na- 
 tion. ]— Compare No. 715. 2580 
 
 GIULIO MALATESTA. [byT: 
 Adolphus Trollope: Chapman, 
 1863.] "As the story is, in spite of 
 all its perilous chances and changes, 
 light and pleasant, it was necessary 
 t5 make the interest hang on the pri- 
 vate fortunes of the actors, and not 
 the tragical elements of the struggle 
 for liberty ; but the reader is throuout 
 made sensible of how much he es- 
 capes, for between convents, priests, 
 agents of police and prisons, the dan- 
 gers and abuses of all kinds make the 
 reader tremble. The influence of con- 
 vent life is very wel painted; and 
 Stella, the heroin of Giulio. is a brave, 
 hi-spirited little creature, tho even she 
 almost succumbs t6 the treatment, 
 and except in a novel must hav done 
 so. But the author is merciful, and 
 he brings on the scene a charming 
 abbess — we shal not tel the reader 
 wh6 she is, nor shal we hint at the 
 ending of the story ; it is enuf t6 say 
 that poetical justige and generosity ar 
 both consulted, and the end is so 
 pleasant that we can only wish all 
 parties the blessing of continuance." 
 [Athenaeum. 2581 
 
 HOUSE BY THE MEDLAR 
 TEEE. [ by Giovanni Verga : Har- 
 per. 1890.] "In the beginning, there 
 is no family in the Italian fishing vil- 
 lage of Trezza so happy and prosper- 
 ous as the Malavoglia, wh6se home 
 is 'The House by the Medlar Tree.' 
 The Malavoglia ar honest, industri- 
 ous, pious, and much more addicted 
 t6 minding their on business than ar 
 their nebors . . . The sadness of the 
 storj' — and what in life could be sad- 
 der? — is not mitigated by the manner 
 
 767 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 HARRY JOSCELYN. [by Ma. Oi.i- 
 PHANT (Wilson) Oliphant : Hurst, 
 1881.] " When Harry, the youngest 
 son, rushes away intS space from the 
 home which is made so intolerable, a 
 chapter of Italian life succeeds whicli is 
 made as charming and idyllic by the 
 loves of Harry and the young half-Eng- 
 lish girl lie marries, as his first days 
 wer gloomy and depressing in the grim 
 mansion on the Eels. By an extraordi- 
 nary combination of circumstances, aided 
 by his good conduct, he induces the 
 jealously affectionate father of Rita tS 
 consent tS his dauter's marriage with a 
 man of whSse antecedents he knoes 
 nothing except that he has quarrelled 
 with his family. Mr. Bonamy's is an 
 excellent portrait. The union of busi- 
 ness-like energy with extreme simplicity 
 is very fascinating, and the playful ten- 
 derness which subsists between father 
 and dauter is touchingly described. In- 
 deed, the relations between the members 
 of the little party at L/ivornO ar so 
 charming that one is vexed when the 
 inevitable discovery takes place, and 
 Harry's sister Liddy, the " little Liddy " 
 of liis boyhood, unearths him in his re- 
 tirement, and brings about the reconcili- 
 ation which no doubt is desirable and 
 proper. All this is very wel told, and 
 we fully sympathize with the happiness 
 of poor Mrs. Joscelyn in tlie fairer 
 weather of her declining years ; but in 
 spite of our pity for her and respect for 
 her warm-hearted tho undemonstrativ 
 elder dauter, we prefer Livorno to 
 "Westmoreland, and think Paolo, an 
 amusing Italian friend of Harry's, was 
 right in not f oUoing the later fortunes of 
 the family." [Athenajum. 462 p 
 
 128 t 
 
INTEllNAHONAL K0VEL8. 
 
 HOUSE OF THE MUSICIAN 
 (The) . [by Virginia Wales Johnson : 
 Boston, Ticknor, 1887.] " The -title 
 does not describe a character in the story 
 but the scene of the narrativ, which is 
 in Venice, whither a young Dutch 
 artist goes to ply his calling, and by a 
 strange web of circumstances is carried 
 deep int5 the romance of one of the 
 most entrancing of cities. ThSre is a 
 good deal of merit in this book. It is 
 rather excessivly sentimental, but it is 
 written in a good style and especially 
 givs a charming series of pictures of 
 life in Venice." [American. 467 II 
 
 129 m 
 
INTEKNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 HUGH MOORE, [by Evelyn Stone : 
 Blackwood, 1885.] "A yacht in the 
 Ionian seas, a golden evening in Corfu, 
 the English oner of the yacht and his 
 companion, younger son of an Irish lord, 
 a wily consul, and his pretty dauter, 
 with the intrlging spirit of her Levanting 
 mother strongly developed — such is the 
 opening scene and such ar the leading 
 characters of this acceptable story. The 
 impressionable young Irishman is the 
 hero whSse adventures ar related in 
 terse English, studded with natural in- 
 cidents and dialogs. Th^re is nothing 
 out of the ordinary beat in Hugh Moore's 
 experiences, and when the reader knoes 
 that there ar more heroins than one he 
 may make a tolerably confident surmise 
 as tS the development of the plot which 
 dates its origin from that autumn trip in 
 the Mediterranean." [Athenseum. 
 
 467 p 
 
 129 p 
 
ITALIAN NOVELS. 
 
 of its telling. No story could o moi-e 
 of its worth t6 the author and seem 
 t6 o less. As we read we ar not con- 
 scious of an author, a person wh6 has 
 selected a scene and a group of peo- 
 ple, then proceeded t6 arrange a 
 number of events in which each 
 shai-es, and t6 present all in orderly- 
 fashion with more or less regard for 
 elfect. For the time, we ar actually 
 in the village, an unseen and all-seeing 
 guest, lildng or disli4^ing the people 
 wh6 liv tlieir lives and ar themselvs, 
 without a,ny reference t6 us, lafing, 
 gossiping, and wrangling with them, 
 and with an ever-deepening sense of 
 pain for the Malavoglia which barely 
 stops short of helirtbieak. For an 
 example of realism in its widest and 
 only true sense, a sincere rendering 
 of reality which is lasting and univer- 
 sal, and of reality which is transient 
 and local, we hav nothing in English 
 comparable witii 'The House by the 
 Medlar Tree'."' [ Nation. 2582 
 
 HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST IT- 
 SELF [ Bordighera ] = No. 467. 
 
 IMPEOVISATOEE (The), [by 
 Hans Christian Andersen (1805- 
 76) : Kopenhagen, 1834 ; Harper. 1846.] 
 "The talent of Andersen is shon here 
 by its sympathetic perception and 
 delicate power of description. It is 
 one of the books which ar full of 
 Italy, so that as you read it in the 
 Valley of the Connecticut, or where- 
 ever you may be, you ar transported 
 t6 that far country, and feel and see 
 the verj"^ Italy of which, in the land 
 itself, you ar only sometimes conscious. 
 This is the charm of a few books 
 only. Beckford's little sketch has it, 
 and so hav parts of Goethe"s Italian 
 Journey, and Stendhal. And The 
 'Improvisatore' has it, with Childe 
 Harold." [ Harper's. 2583 
 
 IN A WINTER CITY = No. 468. 
 
 IN THE GOLDEN SHELL [by 
 Linda (White) (Mazini) Villaei : 
 Macmillan, 1873.] '"introduces us t6 
 a graceful and interesting picture of 
 life and scenes in Palermo. It has 
 all the freshness and reality of a 
 sketch from nature, and it is set in a 
 delightful little framework of family 
 life. The characters ar wel drawn, 
 from Ciccio, the funny little nauty 
 boy, td the mother of Linda, wh6 has 
 seen and knon much sorro, but wh6 is 
 all the gentler and more tender for 
 the experience." [ Athenaeum. 2584 
 
 IN THE RICE-FIELDS, [by the 
 "Marchesa Colombi" : Chapman, 
 1887.] "Simple and rapid almost t6 a 
 fault and with a certain puerility in 
 the conclusion, this little tale stil 
 contrives t6 charm by its natural 
 representation of human nature, its 
 unforced and abundant feeling, its 
 gentle, yet irresistible touches of oc- 
 casional humor . . . The other stories 
 — "Too Late' and the wel-knon 'Sun- 
 set of an Ideal' [No. 2607]— d6 not 
 quite equal "In the Eice-fields.' This 
 dwelling on the monotony of passiv. 
 uneducated, and unmarried women 
 ends by becoming monotonous itself. 
 Yet a certain likeness t6 life recom- 
 mends the narration, altho the critic 
 wil resent his transportation from the 
 rice-marshes, where the author holds 
 an unchallenged sway, t6 cities such 
 as Torino and Milano." [ Ath. 2585 
 
 INDIAN SUMMER [Florence ]= 
 No. 471. 
 
 IRENE = No. 754. 
 
 ITALIAN (The) = No. 756. 
 
 JEALOUSY = TEVERINO. 
 
 JEWEL IN THE LOTUS, m^ 2566. 
 
 JUNIA. [ by M . . Allen Olney : 
 Blackwood, 1878.] '-The heroin is all 
 which is noble, pure, and unselfish. 
 
 768 
 
ITALIAJf NOVELS. 
 
 She is crushed and broken by what 
 she endures, but not soured nor hard- 
 ened ; and in this, as in many other 
 respects, the narrativ of her life is 
 made t6 seem thoroly consistent and 
 natural. The majority of the charac- 
 ters ar clear and life-like, and the 
 reader is not likely t6 leave the 
 book unfinished, in spite of its monot- 
 onous melancholy. The scenes bor- 
 roed from Italian history ar treated 
 with vigor and success." [ Ath. 2586 
 
 KNIGHT ERRANT [Naples] = 
 No. 479. 
 
 LA BE ATA [Florence] = No. 
 481 ; ^^ also HIABIETTA. 
 
 LA MARCHESA = No. 482. 
 
 LA EABBIATA, by Paul Heyse, 
 in Chambers' Eepos. [ Living Age^ 22 
 dec. 1855 ] ; also in The Crayon, aug., 
 1859 ; also in The Ladies'' Bepositury, 
 feb. 1863 ; also in Tales by Heyse, (No. 
 2521) ; also in Masterpieces of German 
 Fiction. 2587 
 
 LAST ALDINI (The) = No. 782. 
 
 LAVINIA = No. 484. 
 
 LAZY BEPPO, by Haks Hoff- 
 mann, in Appleton^s, sept., 1880; also 
 in Independent, o inly, lS8o. 2588 
 
 LEONORA CASALONI. [by T: 
 AdOLPHUS TrOLLOPE : Chapman, 
 1869.] '-The heroin, so proud and 
 noble, unable t6 understand baseness, 
 or t6 comprehend that faith can be 
 broken, struc down by her lover's 
 worthlessness, is a fine type of char- 
 acter. The little glimps int6 Roman 
 manners and customs given by the 
 relations of the Monsignor and the 
 Marchesa opens possibilities of more 
 tragedies and sins and miseries than 
 hav ever come t6 light. The curious 
 complications of the Casaloni family 
 arrangements work out. a very pleas- 
 ant and interesting story ; and there 
 is, at the last, one moment of supreme 
 
 poetical justice which the reader wil 
 regret was not more prolonged, only 
 that the victims ar too contemptible 
 t6 be even trodden upon." [Athe- 
 na3uni. 2589 
 
 LEONE = No. 789. 
 
 LEPER OF AOSTA (The), by Xa- 
 viER DE Maistre: London, Williams, 
 1872. 2590 
 
 LIKE SHIPS UPON THE SEA 
 [ Rome ] == No. 486. 
 
 LORENZO BENONI = No. 797. 
 
 LOUISA = No. 804. 
 
 LOVE BLINDED [ by Salvatore 
 Farina: Charing Cross Pub. Co., 
 1879.] '-is a compact little story of a 
 young married couple of the ujiper 
 middle class settled in Milan. They 
 hav married throu whim, and almost 
 immediately afterwards suppose that 
 they d6 not care for one another. 
 They agree t6 liv apart without any 
 scandal, each taking a spel of town 
 life at a time when the other is in the 
 country. Then the husband 16ses his 
 eyesight by cataract ; his wife stretches 
 a point in his favor so far as t6 tend 
 him in his blindness; they fall in love 
 with one another during the process, 
 and, on his restoration t6 sight by an 
 operation, ar the happiest and most 
 tender of lovers. The thread of this 
 simple plot is twined with the humors 
 of a materialistic physician. wh6 at 
 first wishes t6 make love on his on 
 account t6 the unsatisfied bride, 
 thinking that no real wrong wil be 
 done thereby t6 his patient, the chilly 
 Leonardo, but afterwards saorifi9es 
 his inclination t6 the pleasure of 
 reconciling the young couple, and 
 gets himself married, willj'-nilly, t6 
 the wife's ugly cousin. The story is 
 prettily told, with a certain combina- 
 tion of the sentimental, the gallant, 
 and the domestic in tone ; there is a 
 
 769 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 MAID CALLED BARBARA (A), 
 [by Catharine Childar : Hurst, 1883.] 
 " The story is a good one, and it is wel 
 told. The scenes in Florence, with 
 the picture of the life of the English 
 colony, ar particularly good. The 
 writer, too, giys frequent proof of a gift 
 of quiet humor." [Spectator. 492 k 
 
 140 h 
 
ITALIAN NOVELS. 
 
 touch of Italian grace tljrouout." 
 [Athena3uin. 2581 
 
 MADAJIE DE PliESNEL [Rome] 
 = No. 490. 
 
 MADEMOISELLE MORI, [by 
 Ma. Egberts: Boston, Ticknor, 
 1S60.] '-The descriptions of Roman 
 scenes and places ar full of truth, and 
 render the common, everyday aspect 
 of streets and squares, of gardens and 
 churches, of popular customs and 
 social habits, with equal spirit and 
 fidelity." [Atlantic] See No. 812. 2592 
 
 MAE MADDEN [Rome] = No. 
 492. 
 
 MAN'S A MAN FOR A' THAT 
 [Rome] = No. 490. 
 
 MARIA FRANCESCA. by Heyse. 
 in Masterpieces of German Fiction, 
 (64 pp.) 2593 
 
 MARBLE FAUN [ Rome ] = No. 
 817. 
 
 MARIETTA [by T: Adolphus 
 Trollope : Chapman. 1862.] is "a 
 slsilfully-executed and luly-finished 
 picture of middle-class life in Flor- 
 ence. The incidents ar so accurately 
 described that we feel the,v be matter 
 of every-day occurrence in Tuscany. 
 Marietta is as different a heroin from 
 LA BE ATA as can be conceived. 
 Nor does this book, like that, contain 
 the simple, touoliing story of a wom- 
 an's wrongs. Marietta is of quite 
 another nature f i-om the devoted little 
 model, — a woman with but one idea, 
 whicli amounts almost t6 a mono- 
 mania — relentlessly stern of purpos — 
 sacrifi9ing herself and all about her, 
 t6 the accomplishment of her one ob- 
 ject, viz.. the restoration of the Lu- 
 nardi family t6 its hi position." 
 [Athenajum.]— '-In Marietta family 
 pride is the all-engrossing sentiment. 
 She is a persevering, but otherwise 
 not remarkable woman ; and yet she 
 
 rises above the level of her surround- 
 ings by the force of her character and 
 the power which has sustained her in 
 the surrender of all human sympathy 
 and love for the achievement of one 
 great object. She is not a lovable 
 person, but one wh6 commands re- 
 spect. The same can not be said for 
 her nephew, the last scion of the 
 house of Lunardi, — weak, dreamy, 
 and irresolute — as much in love with 
 Laura as his half-alive nature wil ad- 
 mit, and yet incapable of a lofty or 
 absorbing passion. We ar at a loss t6 
 see what a charming girl like Laura 
 can find t6 admire in such a slo, 
 nervless lover, except, perhaps that 
 his gentle natui'e yields readily t6 her 
 control, and that it is gratifying t6 
 her self-love t6 be the Egeria from 
 wh6m he draws aid and inspiration. 
 The old Canonica is one of a thou- 
 sand wh6m we daily meet in the 
 streets of an Italian city ; but the 
 canon Guido is a more subtle and 
 dangerous personage. A man of 
 moderate intellect, no lil standard of 
 morality, and a dignified and per- 
 suasiv address, he seems secure in a 
 position established by history and 
 tradition, and dating bac t5 an age t6 
 which Italians refer with unquestion- 
 ing reverence. The little sketcli of 
 poor Gobbo Bonanera is one of the 
 best in the book; it is short, but full 
 of vigor, and imparts a degree of life 
 t6 the latter'pages of the novel which 
 is very desirable. No one wli6 has 
 been in Florence can read without 
 interest the graphic sketches — so sat- 
 isfactory in their fullness of detail— 
 of this lovely old town and its sur- 
 roundings ; and tiiose wli6se wander- 
 ings hav been more circumscribed wil 
 feel themselvs transported int6 the 
 atmosphere of that beautiful city, 
 
 770 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 MISS MEREDITH [by Amy Levy 
 (t, 1889) : Hodder, 1889.] "is a short 
 story prettily told ; a forlorn young gov- 
 erness, experiences in an aristocratic 
 Italian family with the brief trial, and — 
 this time — the entire reward, of a happy 
 love. The style is animated, the Eng- 
 lish pure, and a tone of cheerfulness 
 prevails. The descriptions of Pisa, of 
 the old palace, and of its inhabitants ar 
 all equally happy. The atmosphere of 
 the little town, full of color and sun- 
 shine, is wel reproduced ; while the dif- 
 ferent members of the Brogi family ar 
 humorously sketched with few strokes. 
 The love story is extremely slight, but 
 supplies a suiflcient excuse for its bright 
 and pretty setting." [Athenaeum. 4:98 p 
 
 141 s 
 
ITALIAN NOVELS. 
 
 whgre everything, except humanity, 
 may be seen in the greatest perfec- 
 tion." [ Round Table. 2594 
 MAEZIO'S URUCIFIX. [by Fr. 
 Marion Crawfoud : Macmillan, 
 1887.] "Mr. Crawford has here given 
 us another of his striking pictures of 
 Italian life and character, which yet 
 differs from the rest of his work; 
 since here, instead of taking a large 
 canvas and covering it with brilliant, 
 varied, and contrasting groups, he 
 has made a careful study of a few 
 personages, has presented t6 us but 
 tw6 interiors and worked out a single 
 situation. There ar 5 characters: 
 Marzio, a silver-chiseller and an artist 
 of hi merit in his rich designs and the 
 perfection of his work ; his wife, Ma- 
 ria Louisa, a hands5me, self-indulgent 
 Roman woman of the loer class, wh5 
 spends her time in church-going and 
 visiting, and is afraid of her hauty, 
 severe husband ; his dauter ; his ap- 
 prentice ; and his brother, a priest and 
 his patron, for it is throu Don Paolo's 
 influence that Marzio re§eives lavish 
 orders for his best work . . . Marzio's 
 motiv for killing his brother seems 
 inadequate, and the characters d6 not 
 take hold of the reader t6 such a de- 
 gree that the story, wel conceived and 
 executed tho it is, possesses a deep 
 interest. It is, as all Mr. Crawford's 
 work is, extremely picturesque in 
 design; and the descriptions of the 
 workshop suggest a series of clever 
 •genre' pictures. We ar not sure but 
 that the book is Mr. Crawford's con- 
 cession t6 the present fashion for 
 realistic novels. If so, we ar glad 
 that he stopped short of actual crime, 
 and, instead, allowed his imagination 
 t6 develop his work with an ennobling 
 idealizing influence which makes it 
 what it is, and a book with a power- 
 
 ful moral." [American. 2595 
 
 MOSAIC-WORKERS (The) [ Ven- 
 ice ] = No. 850. 
 
 MOSAIC-WORKER'S DAUGH- 
 TER (The) [Rome] = No. 501. 
 
 NEPTUNE VASE (The) [ Siena] 
 = No. 502. 
 
 NINO AND MASO, by Hei'SE, in 
 Modern Age, June, 1883. 2596 
 
 NOBLE KINSMAN (A) . [by An- 
 tonio GiULio Barrili : Unwin. 1885.] 
 "Those wh6 love a rather old-fashion- 
 ed story of the complications and 
 intrigues which arise from loss of a 
 wil must enjoy 'A Noble Kinsman.' 
 The story, of which the scene is laid 
 in modern Kaples, deals with the 
 history of a family throu tw6 genera- 
 tions. There is a most ardent love- 
 tale, and plots and counterplots 
 innumerable. The characters, which 
 ar mostly pleasant, ar wel delineated, 
 and the occasional descriptions inter- 
 posed ar graphic." [Athense. 2597 
 
 ONLY A CORAL GIRL [ Capri ] 
 = No. 511. 
 
 ONWARDS! BUT WHITHER? 
 [ by A. E. N. Bewicke : Smith, 1875.] 
 "There is not any resemblance be- 
 tween Onwards and Hawthorne's 
 'Transformation' [No. 817 ], beyond 
 the general outlines of a story in 
 which a young girl of exceptional 
 talent and artistic taste, not satisfied 
 t6 let the world wag without asking 
 it why. finds herself at Home, sur- 
 rounded with admirers of various 
 ranks and nationalities, with wh6m 
 she does not flirt but philosophises ; 
 but probably no one wil read the 
 opening chapters of the one book 
 without being reminded of the other. 
 . . . The 3 young men wh6 ar types of 
 the 3 modes of thot which the author 
 traces in their influence and action 
 throuout the story ar all cleverly 
 
 771 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 ONE OF THEM [by C: Lever 
 (1806-72) : Chapman, 1861.] " is amus- 
 ing — very amusing. The scene is 
 placed in Italy, wh^re English people of 
 various kinds, Irish people of Mr. 
 Lever's infallibly clever kind, and it 
 Yankee wh6 is ' sui generis,' meet and 
 make acquaintance — and the present 
 story. Quackinboss, the Yankee, is, 
 perhaps, the most successful." [Spec- 
 tator. 509 l> 
 
 144 p 
 
ITALIAN NOVELS. 
 
 drawn; but the third, the cousin, 
 Gaspard, the fiercely orthodox, brave, 
 uncompromising, rather inhuman, yet 
 ardently helpful Lieutenant in the 
 Papal Zouaves, is the most interest- 
 ing and original . . . C6eile is a most 
 interesting creation, more so, perhaps, 
 by her faults and errors, than throu 
 the fine characteristics with which the 
 author invests the careful, elevated, 
 and suggestiv 'life study'." [Spec- 
 tator. 2598 
 
 OKCO [Venice] = No. 850; also 
 in LippincoWs Mag., Nov. 1873. 
 
 PAOLO GIANINI. [ by Pericles 
 TziKOS: Tinsley, 1879.] '-Without 
 being particularly wel written, with- 
 out much plot or striking incident, 
 this is a racy romance of bohemian 
 life. Journalists and actors hold 
 most of the stage, tho a few cheap 
 aristocrats appear in the wings, and a 
 Russian prince emerges from the side 
 scenes and carries off one of the sub- 
 sidiary heroins. In fact, the boards 
 ar crowded with characters of all 
 kinds, some of them having only a 
 remote connexion with the leading 
 personages." [ Athenaeum. 2599 
 
 PASCAEEL = No. 890. 
 
 PILLONE = No. 899. 
 
 PRELATE (The) [ Rome ] = No. 
 518. 
 
 RECLUSE (The), by Hetse, in 
 Ladies' SeposUory, feb., 1868. [Sor- 
 rento. ] 2600 
 
 ROBIN [Venice ] = No. 523. 
 
 RODERICK HUDSON [Rome ]= 
 No. 525. 
 
 ROMAN SINGER (A), [by Fk. 
 Marion Crawford : Houghton, 
 1884.] "It is hard t6 say in just what 
 the pure and dignified quality of 
 style here displayed consists : but no 
 fastidious reader can fail t6 find pleas- 
 ure in its frank simplicity and its 
 
 mature air of having the language 
 entirely in hand and feeling under no 
 anxiety in using it. Professor Grandi 
 seems t6 us the best thing in it : the 
 principal characters ar very objectiv, 
 and there is not much character- 
 drawing about them, only such block- 
 ing out in large, simple outline as 
 t6 giv them distinctivness, whereas 
 the fact that the good professor is the 
 narrator, and that his narration is 
 kept excellently in character throuout 
 makes it inevitable that a pretty inti- 
 mate knoledge of him should be ac- 
 quired by the reader. \\'e find his 
 economies and generosities, his brav- 
 eries and cowardiges, really the most 
 pleasing thing in the book ; and his 
 sale of the vineyard he had at last 
 just succeeded in paying for, in order 
 t6 be able t6 help his foster-son search 
 for his sweetheart, is a very success- 
 ful bit of pathos. Yet Professor 
 Grandi is altSgether too uneventful 
 and too colorless t6 be artistically 
 valuable except as a bacground t6 the 
 tw6 vivid young figures of the singer 
 and the contessina ; as a bacground he 
 is charmingly efiectiv. The frame- 
 work of incident upon which the story 
 is built is old : the plebeian but noble- 
 spirited lover; the faithful, hi-boi-n 
 maiden imprisoned by a, stern father ; 
 the attempted compulsion t6 accept 
 an old and ofiensiv suitor ; the final 
 elopement by way of the secret stairs 
 of a lonely castle. Even the lover's 
 devige of making her acquaintance by 
 masquerading as a tutor, is old. But 
 everything is so freshly handled that 
 the antiquity of the main incidents 
 seems rather t6 iinpr6ve them. After 
 having said all this, as only a part of 
 what we might say of the pleasant- 
 ness of the novel, it is almost out of 
 place t6 add that in spite of the great 
 
 772 
 
ITALIAN NOVELS. 
 
 passions It deals with, it nowliSi-e 
 attiilns t6 the hier province of art in 
 rousing emotion, be it only the ex- 
 citement of narrativ." [Overland. 
 [ See also, No. 922. 2601 
 
 EOMOLA = No. 926. 
 
 SANT' ILAKIO = No. 933. 
 
 SARACINESCA. [by Fr. Mari- 
 on Crawford : Macmillati, 1887.] 
 •■The author has taken for his dra- 
 matic personages Ifomans with 
 princely titles and long pedigrees, t6 
 \vh6ni the rich basilicas, the historic 
 palaces, the splendid church cere- 
 monials, — instead of being a sho, — 
 belong by inheritance. This stately 
 life Mr. Crawford describes from the 
 interior. Few story-tellers could d6. 
 this. He is a cosmopolitan, wel 
 equipped with ready knoledge of men 
 and things, while he has a floing 
 stj'le and a brilliant, ingisiv touch. 
 But the secret of his success lies deep- 
 er than this, and consists in the clear 
 realization of the fact that he is writ- 
 ing about men and women, and that 
 men and women liv, niiive. and hav 
 their being in emotions, — in sympa- 
 thies, loves, hates, joys, and fears. 
 In the present book he has taken a 
 plot worn threadbare by long use, 
 but has invested it with new and rich 
 tints, and offers the reader so splendid 
 a spectacle, with such dignified and 
 stately figures for actors against 
 his magnifi.cent baoground, that the 
 whole has the eflect of novelty. He 
 never hesitates; his touch is never 
 crude. He has the insight of a man 
 of the world int6 all social machinery. 
 He recognizes conventionalities and 
 obeys them, but is so brilliant, so flu- 
 ent, above all so picturesque, that 
 what is technical, even commonplace, 
 seems fresh. This is the story : Cor- 
 ona d'Astradenti is the young wife of 
 
 a worn-out roufi, of great fortune and 
 of hi rank. Beautiful as Corona is 
 she is no less discreet, and no scandal 
 lias sullied her fair name. But how- 
 ever wise she may hav been, the 
 present drama opens at a moment 
 when she realizes, with alarm at her 
 on weakness, that she is under the 
 sway of a strong feeling for Giovanni 
 Saracinesca, wh6 is deeply in love 
 with her. Saracinesca is iilso the 
 object of the passionate and ambitious 
 hopes of Donna TuUia. a rich wido 
 wh6m Del Felice, the villain of the 
 story, is scheming t6 marry. This is 
 the plot with which we ar over- 
 familiar, but it is filled in with clever 
 dialog, spirited action, and scenes 
 which would carry off with 6clat a 
 much weaker story." [Amer. 2602 
 
 SEALED PACKET (The) = GIU- 
 LIO MALATESTA. 
 
 SICILIAN EOMANCE (A) = No. 
 943. 
 
 SIGN A. [by "Ouida", i. e., L,. 
 de la Eam6: Lippincott, 1875.] 
 •' 'Ouida' has taken a new departure. 
 She has abandoned the sublime alti- 
 tudes of hi society, where her heroes 
 wer Admirable Crichtons, and her 
 heroins ladies of impossible loveliness, 
 and descended t6 child-life among the 
 humble . . . 'Signa' is a story of re- 
 mai-kable intensity, but overwrot and 
 decidedly painful. It deals with life 
 in a villaige, describing it with singu- 
 lar vividness. The hero is an orphan 
 hoy wh6 becomes a great composer, 
 and dies in the dawn of manhood, a 
 victim t6 the wiles of a woman. The 
 characters in the story ar drawn with 
 a stern vigor which is very impressiv. 
 Bruno, Gemma, Lippo, Signa himself, 
 ar masterly conceptions. There is no 
 humor in the book. — which is sad, 
 intense^ hard from the beginning t6 
 
 ITS 
 
ITALIAN NOVELS. 
 
 its tragical end." [ Boston "Litei-ai-y 
 World." 2603 
 
 SIGNOR I. [by Salvatore 
 Farina : London. Gardner, 18SS.] 
 "A graceful, not uncommon theme is 
 here treated in a decidedly original 
 manner. The story of how Marc An- 
 tonio Abate's dauter married without 
 his consent, and how the ultimate 
 reconciliation was brSt about, is told 
 with delicate humor, gentle pathos, 
 and sympathetic observation of hu- 
 man nature, in the playful, suave 
 style which Fanna handles with such 
 rare literary skil." [ Athenseum. 
 
 , SAME, in Cosmopolitan Mag., 
 
 Dec. 1886— June, 1887. 2604 
 
 SIGNOR MOXALDINI'S NIECE 
 = No. 944. 
 
 SILVIA [ Sorrento J = No. 530. 
 
 SIREN (A), [by T: Adolphus 
 Trollope: Smith. 1870.] "The 
 novels which best describe the daily 
 life of the Italians of the present day 
 ar written not in Italian but English. 
 The most delightful of them is "Doc- 
 tor Antonio" [ No. 435], next Ruffl- 
 ni's, Mr. Adolphus Trollope's novels 
 ar undoubtedly t6 be placed. They 
 ar valuable, not uierely because they 
 ar wel-constructed and wel-written, 
 but because they giv us studies of 
 Italian life and manners painted with 
 the utmost accuracy. The story is 
 told with the skil of an accomplished 
 narrator. In the "Siren" we ar shon 
 the ancient and secluded city of 
 Ravenna; and its streets and sub- 
 urbs become as familiar t6 us as tho 
 we knew them by hefirt. We ar 
 introduced t6 the leaders of fashion, 
 the players, the young men of pleas- 
 ure, the lavcyer. the physician, and 
 the monk of the quaint provincial 
 town. We learn their habits, their 
 ways of thot, their crude theories of 
 
 politics and science, their narro pre- 
 judices and rapid passions. The car- 
 nival, with its wild license and its dul 
 and stately ball ; the gay, feverish life 
 of the prima-donna. and the lonely 
 vigils of the monk wh6 watches in the 
 wayside church ; the pompous pride 
 of the conceited poet, and the fierce 
 passion of the infatuated nobleman 
 wh6 rushes int6 crime at the bidding 
 of jealousy, all pass before us with 
 the vivedness of the magic-lantern, 
 and the minute faithfulness of the 
 stereoscope." [ Round Table. 2605 
 
 STELLA [Rome] = No. 955. 
 
 SUMMER'S ROMANCE (A) 
 [ Capri ] = No. 536. 
 
 TEVERINO. [ by "George Sand", 
 i. e., Amantine Lucile Aurore (Dupin) 
 Dudevant ( t 1876) : N.-Y., Fetridge. 
 1856.] "Within the brief space of 24 
 hours, a whole romance is here com- 
 prehended. It is as bright and at- 
 tractiv as the clime it illustrates, and 
 full of that wisdom which 16ses 
 nothing from the sportiv mood in 
 which it sometimes shos itself. "Tev- 
 erino" exhibits but little passion or 
 action, nor is it t6 be taken exactly as 
 a portraiture of manners, but the story 
 is admirably told, and givs some new 
 and interesting studies of character. 
 The author paints not only the hily- 
 born, fastidious woman of fashion, 
 sated with pleasure, and seeking re- 
 lief from ennui in any new adventure 
 which is suggested, but she shos that 
 her sympathies ar tenderly awakened 
 by the virtues and sorros of humble 
 life. She understands the fervor and 
 truth of loly affection, and describes 
 the vicissitudes of toil and penury 
 with close fidelity and touching 
 pathos. There ar likewise indications 
 of common-sense and sagacity, such 
 as ar not generally looked for in a 
 
 774 
 
INTESNAHONAL NOVELS. 
 
 TALES OP EUROPEAN LIFE. 
 [Boston, Loring, 1870.'] "So many of our 
 countrymen hay been in Italy, and so 
 many travelers hav written about it, 
 that if we ar ignorant of any particular 
 concerning the scenery, climate, or 
 ruins, it is not oing t5 any scarcity of 
 works on the subject. These simple 
 little stories, which ar entirely free 
 from any pretension, ar t5be treated as 
 pictures of manners and customs with 
 which strangers ar not always ac- 
 quainted. ' St. Cecilia ' is the most in- 
 teresting, but ' Praia Fiorito ' is, per- 
 haps, more characteristic of Italian 
 feeling, its impulse and passion, its re- 
 morse and exaggerated contrition. The 
 sketch entitled, ' Salvi and Cesare,' is 
 briefly and plainly given, and the ' Ad- 
 venture in Prag' wil repay perusal." 
 [Hearth and Home. ' 538 p 
 
 155 I 
 
INTERNATIONAL NOVELS. 
 
 TWO ENGLISH GIRLS. [by 
 Mabel Hakt : Burst, 1890.] " The 
 heroins ar charming specimens of very 
 modern English girls. . . . Th^y ar 
 art students at Florence, and their 
 adventures in the city of flowers ar deftly 
 and delicately treated. Both liv in a 
 world which is much more Italian than 
 our country women usually mSve in, and 
 both in their different ways giv as much 
 as th^y gain from the teachers and f ello 
 pupils wh3 receive them so heartily and 
 finally come tS adore them. About the 
 best points in this little sketch ar the 
 easy dialog and the natural manner in 
 which the passionate old ' maestro, ' 
 his ruffish, masculin son, and the 
 selfish, unmoral, not immoral, genius 
 Guido Gindotti, act and ar acted on by 
 the bright society of twS simple-hearted 
 English gentlewomen. It is obvious 
 that every member of the little coterie is 
 the better for the intercourse which is 
 so vividly described, tho a terrible laps 
 on Guide's part leads t5 a tragic end of 
 the hopes he once shared with Evelyn 
 Grey." [Athenaeum. 546 p 
 
 158 m 
 
ITALIAN NOVELS. 
 
 writer wh6 is supposed t6 be devoted 
 t6 tlie •cloud-land" of imagination, 
 and a power of sketching scenery and 
 incident of a very hi order. The lady 
 wh6 resigns herself t6 the guidance of 
 Leonce, upon condition that she shal 
 be wel amused during the day, has no 
 reason t6 complain of liis efforts for 
 her entertainment, altho her treat- 
 ment of him shos little generositj'. 
 He is as naturally jealous and unrea- 
 sonable as most lovers ar, and she as 
 coquettish and vain as others of her 
 class. Madeleine, the little bird- 
 tamer, is most captivating." [Hearth 
 and Home. 2606 
 
 . SAME (-'Jealousy"), PeJei'son, 
 
 1S70. 
 
 TO LEEWARD [ Rome ] = No. 
 543. 
 
 TOLLA, Boston. WJiittemore, 1856, 
 [Rome] =Ko. 983. 
 
 TREASURE TOWER (The) 
 [Malta] =No. 545. 
 
 TWO CORONETS = No. 992. 
 
 VERA [ Rome ] = No. 553. 
 
 VESTIGIA [Livorno] = No. 
 1000. 
 
 VIRGINIA [ Rome ] = No. 556. 
 
 WANE OP AN IDEAL (The) [ by 
 "the Maechesa Colombi", i. e., 
 Maria Torelli-Torriani : N.-Y., Gotts- 
 berger, 1885.] is '"one of the saddest 
 of stories, sadder than any tale of 
 constancy and death. We d6 not call 
 it a tragedy in the ordinary sense 
 when the hero is left prosperous and 
 successful, and the heroin peaceful and 
 moderately content with life ; yet it is 
 really tragical t6 trace the decadence 
 of generous and enthusiastic youth t6 
 worldly-wise and self-seeking middle 
 
 age, and t6 see pure and strong love 
 supplanted by meaner passions. The 
 work in which this is done is one of 
 no ordinary ability ; the characters ar 
 so forcibly drawn as t6 bear the stamp 
 of reality and truth, and ar character- 
 istic both as individuals and as na- 
 tional types. Especially is this true 
 of -La Matta,' the pathos of whdse 
 dumb devotion t6 her young master 
 is t6 be paralleled only in the pages 
 of Turgfinief. Altogether, this is a 
 remarkable book, particularly surpris- 
 ing as the work of a feminin hand." 
 [ American. 2607 
 
 , SAME, with No. 2585. 
 
 WHIMSICAL WOOING (A) . [ by 
 Antonio Giulio Bakrili : N.-Y., 
 Wm. S. Gottsberger, 1883.] "If 'The 
 Eleventh Commandment' [ No. 2576] 
 was a good three-act play, 'A Whim- 
 sical Wooing' is a sparkling comediet- 
 ta. It has one situation, a single 
 catastrophe, yet, like a bit of impres- 
 sionist painting of the finer sort, it 
 reveals in a flash all the possibilities 
 of the scene. The hero, a man of 
 wealth, position, and accomplish- 
 ments, finds himself at the end of his 
 resources for entertainment or inter- 
 est. Hopelessly bored, he abandons 
 himself t6 the drift of chance, and 
 finds himself, in no longer space of 
 time than from midnight t6 daylight 
 — when and how, the reader will 
 thank us for not f orstalllng his pleas- 
 ure in finding out for himself." [Na- 
 tion. 2608 
 
 WHO BREAKS— PAYS = No. 559. 
 
 YOUNG HOSTESS OF TREPPI, 
 by Hetse, in Ladies^ Repository, jan.- 
 feb., 1870. 2609 
 
 775 
 
PRICE: ONE COPY. $.B0, TWO COPIES. ^.75; THREE. $100, FOUR, $1.20; FIVE. »l.&0; TEN, $2.00; FiFTEEN, $3.00. 
 
 DESCRIPTIVE LIST 
 
 OF 
 
 NOVELS AND TALES 
 
 DEALING WITH 
 
 LIFE IN RUSSIA. 
 
 COMPILED BY 
 
 W: M. ORIS WOLD. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE, MASS. : 
 
 W. M. GRISWOLD, Publisher. 
 
 NCW-VORK, FOR SALE OV Q: P. PUTNAM'S SONS, 27 W. 230 ST. 
 1S92. 
 
[ From the "School Bulletin," Aug., 1892. ] 
 
 We hope teachers will not fail t6 recognize the work W. M. Griswold 
 is doing in his classified bibliography. He sends us a Descriptive List 
 OF Novels and Tales dealing with Life in France (Cambridge, 
 Mass., 1892, 8vo, pp. 94, $1.00), which is of immediate practical use t6 
 the teacher of French history as well as of French literature. 
 
 \^Fro'm the "Central Christian Advocate." ] 
 
 Mr. Griswold has done an excellent work, which will be appreciated 
 by all librarians, and by many people of cultivated taste wh6 wish t6 
 get on the track of the best French fiction, or at least t6 secure some 
 guidance and information in regard t6 its qualities and characteristics. 
 His former "lists" have dealt with American City and Country Lifei 
 with Life in England, etc . . . Life in city and country, peasant life 
 and soldier life, the reckless and adventurous career of the free and 
 easy student in Paris, and the rude rustic among the mountains, — all 
 these phases of French life pass in review in the books which Mr. 
 Griswold has here catalogued. A guide like this would be invaluable 
 t6 a student of French literature, telling as well what t6 avoid, as 
 what t6 secure and read. 
 
 [From the "Boston Commonwealth," 13 Aug., 1892.] 
 
 If all libraries wer generously equipped with these Lists, the long- 
 suffering curator of books would find more pleasure in life. The com- 
 pilation and selection ar made with rare skill. The poor book drops into 
 deservd oblivion, while the worthy but neglected and forgotten good 
 book is restored t6 the eye of the world. 
 
 Some not too busy people make note of the name of a novel recom- 
 mended by a trustworthy critic, but when the time for use comes the 
 note seldom is at hand, and, if ready, generally givs the mere title and 
 no idea of the contents. But here is a series of brochures that contain 
 excerpts from the fairest critical notices, often from several sources, 
 and one is enabled t6 form a sort of judgment of choice without actually 
 glancing at the book itself. Of course, those dealing with foreign lands 
 must for the greater part be translations, since with few exceptions 
 the most truthful and vivid characterizations come from the compatriot 
 wh6 has summered and wintered his fellows. Few people realize the 
 patience, skill, and labor involvd in such an undertaking as the publica- 
 tion of these successiv lists, but those wh6 d6 should urge upon others 
 the use of so valuable a means of education and pleasure. As a series 
 of 'condensed novels' they ar interesting, too. 
 
Novels Descriptiv of Russian Life. 
 
 The object of this list is to direct readers, such as would enjoy the kind of books 
 here described, to a number of novels, easily accessible, but which, in many cases, 
 hav been forgotten within a year or two after publication. That the existence of 
 works of fiction is remembered so short a time is a pity, since, for every new book 
 of merit, there ar, in most libraries, a hundred as good or better, unknown to the 
 majority of readers. It is hoped that the publication of this and similar lists will 
 lessen, in some measure, the disposition to read an inferior new book when supe- 
 rior OLD books, equally fresh to most readers, ar at hand. It may be observed that 
 the compiler has tried to include only such works as competent critics hav pro- 
 claimed to be u-ell-written, interesting, and free from sensationalism, sentimental- 
 ity, and pretense. B XJT in u few cases, books hav been noticed on account of 
 the reputation of their authors, or their great popularity, rather than their merit. 
 
 The selected "notices" ar generally abridged. 
 
 This list will be followed by others describing DANISH, NOR WEGIAN, 
 SPANISH,— HUMOROUS, ECCENTRIC and FANCIFUL novels and tales. 
 
 AFTER DEATH, by Tukgenief, in 
 Modern ^jre, july-aug., 1883. 2610 
 
 ANNA KAREXINA [by Lyof [N. ] 
 Tolstoi: N.-Y., Crowell, 1886.] "is 
 the most mature and probably the 
 gr&test of the author's works. Unlike 
 'War and Peace' [No. 1007] it is purely 
 domestic in its subject matter, but thiSre 
 is no lac of variety in its scenes and char- 
 acters. It Is, indeed, a world in itself, so 
 comprehensiv is its grasp, and so inti- 
 mately does it bring us into relations with 
 the manifold aspects of country and city 
 life in Russia. Wer this work the sole 
 available document, it would be possible 
 to construct from its pages a grfiat deal of 
 Russian contemporary civilisation. It is, 
 of course, realistic to the last degree, but 
 
 its realism is not confined to minute de- 
 scriptions of material objects ; — it is no less 
 made use of in the treatment of emotion. 
 ThSre ar few works of art in which the 
 art is so wel conpealed; few works of 
 fiction which giv so strong a sense of real- 
 ity as this. We seem to look upon life 
 itself and forget the medium of the novel- 
 ist's imagination throu which we really 
 vue it. And right here we ar brot to 
 compare the "methods of Tolstoi with 
 thoie~oflais better knon and unquestion- 
 'ably greater countryman, Turg^nief. In 
 the marvellous novels of the latter we 
 hav this same feeling of immediate con- 
 tact with the facts of material existence 
 and of emotional life, and the effect is 
 produfed with much less machinery than 
 
 776 
 
RUSSIAN" NOVELS. 
 
 Tolstoi is compelled to use. The uork: of 
 Turgtoief surpasseSj tlie worli of Tolstoi, 
 In revealing tbat sublimation of th6t and 
 imagination whicli gi\' to it an artistic 
 value beyond that of almost any other 
 imaginativ prose. Tolstoi lacs this power 
 of concentration and this unerring judg- 
 ment in the choife of word or phrase. 
 He can not sum up a situation in a simple 
 pregnant sentence, but he can present it 
 with grSat force in a chapter. Now that 
 this grSat story of 'Anna Karfinina' has 
 been br6t to the cognizance of the western 
 world, it is not likely to be soon forgotten. 
 It wil be remembered for its minute and 
 unstrained descriptions, for its deep trag- 
 edy, unfolded act after act as by the hand 
 of fate, and for its undercurrent of gentle 
 religious feeling, never falling to the 
 offensiv level of dogmatism, yet giving 
 marked character to the book, and reveal- 
 ing unmistakably the spiritual lineaments 
 of the Russian apostle of quietism." 
 [Dial.] — "The free, unconscious move- 
 ment, and the marvelous vitality of 
 Tolstoi's work, is one of the many im- 
 pressions left in the reader's mind on 
 laying down "Anna Kar^nina." The 
 succession of pictures is so natural, the 
 development of the characters apparently 
 so simple, that (5tir idea of the greatness 
 of the artist is lost in (Jlir perception of 
 the absolute truth of his work. The novel 
 seems to be not a creation, but a revela- 
 tion of something which exists . . . No 
 mere realist could hav written the chapter 
 which describes 'Levin's' long day in the 
 hay-flelds, and the birth of Kitty's and 
 Levin's first child. These ar transcrip- 
 tions from nature, — from life ; they giv 
 us, too, that exquisit thril of feeling 
 
 which it is the province of poetry to stir. 
 . . . 'Anna' herself is a more complex 
 creation than either, but she is not less 
 real. It would be impossible to find a 
 more truthful study of a woman, one 
 which better enables us to recognize the 
 struggle in the moral nature. 'Anna' is 
 married to an official, hi in i^ower, who is 
 much older than she. The marriage has 
 not satisfied her, but she has, nevertheless 
 been happy in her life and in her child, 
 and she is startled to find that new and 
 rich sources of enjoyment ar stirred in 
 her whole nature by the mere presence cf 
 'Vronsky', a young officer whom she 
 meets while on a visit to Moscow. 'Vron- 
 sky' folloes her to Petersburg, and for 
 him gradually she givs up everything — 
 her husband, her social status, and finally 
 even her son. She goes away and livs 
 with her lover, and as long as she believes 
 that he loves her she is, she believes, com- 
 pletely happy. When she suffers it is not 
 from conscience, — at least she does not 
 believe that it is conscience, but from a 
 jealous dread of some new influence which 
 shal draw 'Vronsky' away from her. 
 This jealousy is a vital and progressiv dis- 
 ease. She tries to fll her lover's life so 
 absolutely that he can care for nothing 
 else. She interests herself in everything 
 which interests him, she develops all her 
 Ijowers, and studies evcy art to preserve 
 her beauty, and yet she feels every day an 
 increasing conviction that he is tired of 
 her, that he is cramped, mortified to be 
 excluded from the society he loves by his 
 anomalous position ... He loves her, but 
 she can not endure it that his love for her 
 is not' the only thing in his life. Her irri- 
 tability poisons all thiSir intercourse. She 
 
 777 
 
RUSSIAN NOVELS. 
 
 knoes that she is "wroag and that hur 
 jealousy overthroes more than she can 
 evci- build up again. It is lilve a madness, 
 —she feels that it wil destroy her, and she 
 finally rushes toards it that it may destroy 
 her. TliCre is no sadder story on record 
 and no truer one." [American. 2011 
 ANXALS OF A .SPORTSMAN. [ by 
 Ivan Turgenief: N.-Y., Holt, 1885.] 
 "Turg^nief s first large work is perhaps 
 his best. The "Kecollections" ar thron 
 into the form of short sketches, of which 
 the ablest ar "Khor and Kalinilsh," 
 "The Devil's Dale," "The Singers,'' 
 "Kasjan," " Two Days in the Forest," 
 and "Forest and Steppe". . . This book 
 contains almost a natural history of the 
 Eussian people. Nearly all the sketches 
 ar taken from among the dwellers in the 
 country ; Turgenief pictures the liouseJess 
 serf, shos peasant after peasant, givs type 
 after type of land-oner and aristocrat. 
 The peasant is, iu his pages, an extremely 
 good-natured, easily-satisfied man, clever, 
 ready, and of robust health . . . The aris- 
 tocrats employed at Court or in the public 
 servife liv iu his pages as Tartars, with a 
 slight exterior polish of manner. They 
 ar all either spendthrifts, who ruin others 
 as wel as themselvs, or fools honored with 
 servile reverence. Debauches, tyrants, 
 wild beasts of all sorts hav sat to him for 
 their picture.'' [Spectator.] — "These 
 simple, quiet stories made no startling 
 revelations of the woes of the serfs, but 
 they opened the eyes of the masters to 
 thi^ir on forlorn, hopeless position . . . 
 These sad, stunted existences ar 6ur 
 brothers, cfflrselvs. To this has our injus- 
 Uge br6t us. Let iis sa\c dijr children 
 from the like . . . 'The Annals of a Sports- 
 
 man' is Ijcst described as a piece of pure 
 realism all the more remarkable since the 
 Romantics wer stil the rulers. It is real- 
 ism in that sense which applies not to 
 choice of subject, but to method of treat- 
 ment. It sets before the reader the scene, 
 the character in so clear white light that 
 he may judge of them with /ii's eyes, /u's 
 thot. By any such word or phrase as 
 impartial, impersonal, or disinterested 
 curiosity, the same thing is meant. To 
 set forth the subject not iu our way, not 
 in dtir party's way, not to serv a special 
 end, but to represent life perfectly— this 
 is realism." [Nation. 2612 
 
 , SAME ( "Eussian Life in the In- 
 terior"), Edinburgh, Black. 1853. 
 
 , SAME (abridged) in Fraser's 
 
 Hag. [Graham' a il/at/., Nov.] 1854. 
 
 AXNOUCIIKA, by Turgenief: Bos- 
 ton, Gupples, 1884. [ Same as No. 
 2616?] 2613 
 
 AXTCHAE (The), by Turgenief, in 
 Galaxy, max.-apT 1873. 2014 
 
 APOTHECARY'S WIFE (The), by 
 SOLLUGUB, in Dublin Univ. Mag. 
 [Daguerreotype, 25 mar and 8 apr.] 
 1S48. 2615 
 
 ARIADNE, [by "H : , Greville," i. 
 c, Alice M.. Celeste (Flcnry) Durand: 
 Appleton, 1S78.] "The heroin is lo-born 
 and poor; but the divine gift of song 
 rescues her from companionship with the 
 'canaille,' and plages her in the gircle of 
 the Princess Orlin and other lords and 
 ladies of hi degree . . . But it is due to the 
 author to say that she apparently deline- 
 ates hi society simply because she is most 
 familiar with its ways, and is aware of the _ 
 pictorial and striking efiects to be ob- 
 tained from luxurious surroundings. 
 
 778 
 
RUSSIAN NOVELS. 
 
 'Ariadne' is a simple and affecting love- 
 story, diversified witb a charming picture 
 of school-girl life and a few vivid glimpses 
 of the operatic stage and green-room, the 
 whole written in an exquisitly easy, 
 grajeful, polished style." [Appleton. 2610 
 ASSYA. [by Ivan [Nikolaivich] 
 Tdkgenibf : in Galaxy, mar. 1877 ; also 
 with AN UNFORTUNATE WOM- 
 AN. ] "The logic of destiny has full sway 
 in determining the conclusion of Assya. 
 The heroin is a creation of extraordinary 
 vitality, a remarkable type of perverted 
 womanhood. She is the dauter of a noble- 
 man, the mother being a peasant. Assya 
 has many fine qualities, but the shame of 
 her origin acts as a continual irritant upon 
 her proud, shy nature; "she was asham- 
 ed, — ashamed of that feeling of shame, and 
 proud of it at the same time." An un- 
 trained mind, given over to the impulses 
 of the moment, how could she be any- 
 thing but a problem to others as wel as to 
 herself? When she falls in love with the 
 va9illating youth in whose words the 
 story is told, she is overwhelmed with the 
 fervor of her passion, and when her ad- 
 vances ar repulsed, she is like a wounded 
 animal, seeking a hiding place. Here 
 again Turg^nief has aimed to depict the 
 vicjes and shortcomings of the nobility, 
 and to foretel the results of thSir selfish 
 and ignorant power. But in reading 
 Turgtaief one 6t not to push the allegory 
 too far. The interest of his writings lies 
 in thSir artistic power, and throu that thiSy 
 speak to us in no uncertain way." [Bos- 
 ton "Literary World." 2617 
 BLIND MUSICIAN (The) [by Vladi- 
 mir KOBOLBNKO: N.-Y., Lovell, 1890.] 
 "is a charming, idyllic tale in which the 
 
 groth and development of a musical 
 genius is described with gi-Sat insight and 
 delicagy of feeling. The blind boy, who 
 gains a wide acquaintance with the ex- 
 ternal world throu hearing sounds inaudi- 
 ble to others, and with the inner world of 
 emotion throu his groom's flute-playing, 
 groes to be a gr^at pianist, and every step 
 in the pro9ess is shon with a singular 
 power." [ Critic. 2018 
 
 , SAME, Boston, Little & Brown. 
 
 BURIED ALIVE [ by Fedor DOSTOI- 
 BFSKi : Holt, 1S81.] "is a vivid picture of 
 life in a convict prison in Siberia 30 years 
 ago. It is difficult to see why it should be 
 br6t forward now, for the supposed nar- 
 rator ( he had killed his wife in a fit of 
 jealousy) is at pains to remark more than 
 once that even in 1862, many things had 
 been changed for the better. The book 
 has little to say of political prisoners . . . 
 The childish, recless yielding to momen- 
 tary passion which reappears in every i5ne 
 of the convicts' stories, and the dumb in- 
 difference to consequences, sho precisely 
 the qualities of the men who use the dag- 
 ger and the bomb. As to the prison and 
 its disciplin, hideous and cruel as many 
 of the ingidents seem, thfiy ar not without 
 parallel." [Nation. 2619 
 
 CAPTAIN'S DAUGHTER, by Push- 
 kin, = No. 62.). 
 
 CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH [by 
 Lyop [ Nikolaivich ] Tolstoi : London, 
 Bell, 1862.] "is a very clever and life- 
 like story of childhood and boyhood. The 
 Russian dress does not disguise the truth 
 of the human nature. It givs a wel- 
 described picture of daily life. Story it 
 can scarcely be called, for it is the ram- 
 bling recollections of a child and youth ; 
 
 779 
 
RUSSIAN .\OVP]LS. 
 
 but it givs an insight into the tb6ts, per- 
 verseness and sorros of a child. The 
 translation [by M. von Meysenbug] is 
 that of a f oreiner, and the stif , peculiar 
 English givs it an originality ^vhich is 
 quaint and pleasant." [Athenaa. 3620 
 
 CLEMENCE D' ORVILLE, by Carl 
 Dbtlef, Boston, Littell, 1868. 2621 
 
 CLOAK (The), by GOGOL, in Short 
 iSJoj'Jes, Aug., 1891, 29 p.; also with No. 
 2631, which see, 2632 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE (A), by Torge- 
 NIEF, = No. 652. 
 
 COSSACK TALES, by GOGOL, Lon- 
 don, 1860. 2623 
 
 CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, by Dos- 
 TOIEVSKI, la- ECCENTRIC NOV- 
 ELS. 
 
 CRUEL CITY CThe). [by DIMITRI 
 Geigorovich, N.-Y., Oassell, 1891.] 
 "Grigorovich represents an entirely 
 different school of literature from that of 
 Tolstoi and Gogol, being as cheerful and 
 optimistic as th§y ar gloomy and pessi- 
 mistic. 'The Cruel City' is an admirable 
 picture of life in St. Petersburg, described 
 with a Balzac minuteness. It is the story 
 of a countryman who came to St. Peters- 
 burg with all his savings in his pocket. 
 He had a number of relativs thfire whom 
 he believed to be rich and grfiat because 
 thfiy livd in a city. Th§y wer neither, 
 and the way thSy fleeced the amiable 
 countryman is as amusing as it is pa- 
 thetic." [Publishers' Weekly. 2624 
 
 DEAD SOULS [by N: [Vasilie- 
 viCH] Gogol: N.-Y., Crowell, 1888.] 
 "is not a novel ; it is a document in the 
 history of civilization. It is the perman- 
 ent record, in artistic form, of the life of a 
 nation at an important period of its ex- 
 
 istence. It shares with Turgfinief's 'An- 
 nals of a Sportsman' [ No. 2612] the 
 distinction of preserving for future stu- 
 dents the Russia of Nicholas and the 
 period preceding the emansipation. The 
 art of Gogol is less perfect than that of 
 Turgfinief , but the two writers ar equal in 
 the power of minute observation and its 
 interpretation, and thgy combine alike the 
 closest attention to details with the utmost 
 breadth of conception. Just as in one 
 book the sportsman who relates his ex- 
 perience comes into contact with all sorts 
 of people, so the rascally hero of the other, 
 in his quest for dead souls, vues all the 
 typical phases of provincial life, and 
 portrays them with marvellous accuracy. 
 Dead souls, it should be understood, ar 
 souls, or serfs, legally existent and tax- 
 able after death, because thSir names ar 
 stil on the census lists. Tchitchikoif pur- 
 chases dead souls with the extremely 
 discreditable design of mortgaging them 
 as valuable property, and living in opu- 
 lence upon the il-gotten proceeds. His 
 travels from one country to another, and 
 the descriptions of the people whom he 
 meets, form the substance of Gogol's 
 work. The story of Tchitchlkoff and his 
 rascalities is amusing enuf, but it is only 
 a pretext for introduQing the reader to a 
 grSat variety of people, so the fact that 
 the work was left unfinished at Gogol's 
 death does not griSatly detract from its 
 value." [Dial. 
 
 , SAME ("Home Life"), Loudon, 
 
 Hurst, 185i. 3625 
 
 DEAD TO THE WORLD, [by "Carl 
 Detlef," i. c, Klara Bauer (t, 1876): 
 Boston, Oill, 1875.] "Prince Ugarin, 
 when more that half his life has been 
 
 780 
 
IIUSSIAN NOVELS. 
 
 passed in debauchery, marries a woman, 
 young, hi-born, and beautiful, but whom 
 he does not pretend to love, and whom he 
 fails to treat with even common respect. 
 She livs with him for years in the splendid 
 solitude of a home from which truth and 
 trust, love and purity, hav fled. At last, 
 when she can b&r it no longer, she goes 
 away, leaving a letter in which she re- 
 veals her knoledge of his past life, and 
 confesses her on sin. "Leo, my favorit 
 child, is not your son." The princess is 
 overtaken with her lijver and thfiir child, 
 both of whom disappear, while she is left 
 "dead to the world," a garded prisoner 
 for life, behind the walls of a nunnery In 
 the heart of Russia. The prince an- 
 nounces his wife's death to his only 
 legitimate dauter — a mere child, — keeping 
 from her the whole story. This girl, as 
 she groes to womanhood, becomes vio- 
 lently in love with the prince's nephew. 
 He again is in love with and secretly 
 marries an illegitimate dauter of the 
 prince, a foundling who had been kept in 
 the manor-house — the fact of her kinship 
 unknon to any but herself. By and by 
 the nephew is seized for partifipation in 
 a conspiracy, and shoots himself rather 
 than be taken. The foundhng dauter 
 asserts her kinship to the prince, and con- 
 fesses the secret marriage with his 
 nephew. Poor Olga, the prince's dauter, 
 is crushed for a time, and is restored only 
 when she finds the mother whom all had 
 believcdto bedead." [Overland.] — "The 
 tone of the story is singularly stern and 
 sad ; thiSre is no happiness or light, and 
 thSre is far more sin than atonement. 
 Some of the characters — indeed, we may 
 say, all — ar powerfully drawn. Dina and 
 
 Paul Petrovich being especially original. 
 The injidents ar few; but some of the 
 scenes, — that between Prince Ugarin and 
 his wife, and the arrest of A'ladimir, for 
 instance, ar terribly dramatic. The effect 
 of the story is not pleasant, — tho its moral 
 is unexceptionable; but the author's gen- 
 ius exergises an undeniable fascination in 
 its pages." [Boston "Lit. World." 2626 
 DEATH OF IVAN ILYITCH [ETC.] , 
 (The) . [ by LYOif [ N. ] Tolstoi : N.-Y., 
 Crowell, 1811.] "These short stories may 
 be taken as the fairest expression of the 
 author's philosophy of life. The first 
 story seems to hav been written for edu- 
 cated readers ; all the others as tracts for 
 the instruction of the peasantry. Curious 
 and interesting tho these popular stories 
 ar, we think most readers wil find a deep- 
 er impression left upon, them by the one 
 in which Tolstoi speaks from his mind to 
 his class ... In substance, several of the 
 moral tales ar not so very difierent from 
 those which English and American chil- 
 dren ar bred on as the Tolstoi enthusiasts 
 would hav us believe (what a curiously 
 familiar sound, e. g., hav the tales called 
 "If you Xeglect the Fire you don't Put it 
 Out," "WhSre Love is, thSre God is also," 
 and "Little Girls Wiser than Old Men"! : 
 but the quaint vigor of these, and a sort of 
 inherent originality, an unconscious re- 
 originating of what others had long-done, 
 make them unique." [Overland.]— It is 
 "most gloomy ; here the miserable act of 
 dying is described at length and with full 
 details, the chief actor in the very realistic 
 tragedy being a hily respectable, but un- 
 sympathetic judicial ofllcer, whose wife 
 and dauter ar a good deal annoyed by his 
 impatience during his sufferings, and the 
 
 781 
 
RUSSIAN NOVELS. 
 
 inordinate lengtli to whicti liis dying 
 agony is protracted. Every one must 
 admit that the descriptions ar powerful, 
 the sketches of character excellent, and 
 no one can read the tale without being 
 gr&tly depressed." [ Atheuajum. 2G37 
 
 SAME, with 31 Y HUSBAND. 
 
 DESPERATE, by Turgenief, in Cos- 
 mopolitan, Aug., 1888. 3638 
 
 DLMITRI ROUDINE. [by Ivan [ S. ] 
 TURGENIEF: N.-Y., Holt, 1873.] "We 
 almost forget, in folloing this tender yet 
 keen analysis of a pathetic character, that 
 thSre is really something of a story in the 
 book. Roudine imaging that he loves 
 Natalie, and he wins her brave, inexperi- 
 enced heart; but when thfiir love is pre- 
 maturely discovered to her mother, and 
 Natalie comes to him ready to fly with 
 him, to be his at any cost, he is paralyzed 
 at the th6t of Daria's opposition . . . We 
 ar not quite sure whether we like or dis- 
 like the carefulness with which Roudine's 
 whole character is kept from us, so that 
 we pass from admiration to despite 
 before we come finally to half-respectful 
 compassion ; and yet is not this the way it 
 would be in life? Perhaps, also, if we 
 fully understood him at first, his relations 
 to the others would not so much interest 
 us. But do we wholly understand him at 
 last? This many be doubted, tho in the 
 meantime we ar taut a merciful distrust 
 of d&r judgment, and we take Lesch- 
 niefps forgiving and remorseful attitude 
 toards him. It may be safely surmised 
 that this was the chief effect that Turgi^'- 
 nief desired to produce; certainly he 
 treats the story involvd in the portrayal of 
 Roudine's character with almost con- 
 temptuous indifference, letting three 
 
 epilogs limp in after the first rambling 
 narrativ has spent Itself , and seeming t5 
 care for these only as thgy further reveal 
 the hero's traits. But for all this loose- 
 ness of construction, it is a very grfiat 
 novel,— as much greater than the novel of 
 incident as Hamlet is grfoter than Richard 
 III. It is of the kind of novel which can 
 alone keep the art of Action from being 
 the weariness and derision of mature 
 readers; and if it is most deeply melan- 
 choly, it is also as lenient and thotful as a 
 just man's experience of men." [Atlan- 
 tic 3639 
 
 DOMINION OF DARKNESS (The), 
 by Tolstoi : Vizetelly, 1888. 3G30 
 
 DOSIA [by "H: Greville," i.e., 
 Alice M.. CiSIeste (Pleury) Durand; Bos- 
 ton, Estes, 1878; London, Charing Cross 
 Co., 1881.] "is a Russian story, but it 
 wil add nothing t5 that mass of sombre 
 lore which we call knoledge of Russian 
 life. The half-dozen personages who talk 
 so wittily and behave so naturally with 
 one another, throuits 260 very open pages, 
 all belong to that hily privileged and triply 
 garded class of society for whom life is 
 much the same in every land ... A wild 
 and wayward, but hi-spirited, warm- 
 hearted, and bewitching little hoyden 
 wins the love of -x, peculiarly grave and 
 fastidious man. A stately and experi- 
 enced woman, the sister of the first lover, 
 bestoes her oft-s6t hand on the cousin of 
 the first lady, — a young officer, remark- 
 able for nothing previously but simple 
 honor and boyish vivacity. This is "the 
 whole story, but it is charmingly told, 
 with an abundanje of odd injident and 
 sparkling dialog. The lasginations of the 
 heroin ar nowh(SFe solemnly proclaimed, 
 
 782 
 
RUSSIAN NOVELS. 
 
 but the reader falls under thSir spel the 
 moment she is introdu9ed." [ Atlantic. 
 
 , SAME ("Wayward Dosia"), Chi- 
 cago, Laird, 1S91. 2031 
 
 DOURNOF [NIANIA] by "H: Gre- 
 viLLB," i. e., Alice M.. CiSleste (Fleury) 
 Duraud : 1879.] "is a sweet and touch- 
 ing little story, introdu9ing, to be sure, 
 an unfaithful wife and a disordered home, 
 but presenting in the pure love of Dour- 
 nof and Antonine a charming picture ; in 
 the disillusion of Dournof after his mar- 
 riage with Marianne, a tender but telling 
 rebuke of inconstan9y ; in Marianne her- 
 self a for5ibIe illustration of a hollo and 
 selfish heart : and in the nurse Niania one 
 of the noblest and most impressiv figures 
 which this true artist has drawn. The 
 story is short and sad." [Boston "Liter- 
 ary World." 2633 
 
 DREAM (The), by Turgeniep, in 
 Borne Journal, Jan.-Feb., 1878. 2633 
 
 EVE OF ST. JOHN (The). [byN: 
 [Tasilibvich] Gogol (1808-52) : N.-Y., 
 Crowell, 1886.] "These n stories range 
 over a wide field—" The Eve of St. John,^' 
 a peasant witch story; "How the Two 
 Ivans Quarreled," a somewhat broadly hu- 
 morous tale ; " Old Fashioned Farmers," 
 a gentle, half-humorous and half-pathetic 
 genre study; "The Portrait," which, 
 with a half supernatural machinery, ex- 
 presses a lofty Tue of moral purpos in 
 art; and "The Cloak," whose motiv is 
 purely pathetic (all the more, perhaps, 
 for its genial style) a pitiful little story, 
 which the tender-hearted wil do as wel 
 not to read." [Overland. 3634 
 
 EXPIATION, = SA VELP S EXPIA. 
 
 FAMILY HAPPINESS = KATIA. 
 
 FATHERS AND SONS. [by Ivan 
 
 [ SERGBIVICH ] TURGENIBF (t 18S3 ) : N.- 
 Y., Leypoldt, 1867.] "What a novel should 
 hav this novel does not lac. Rather it 
 possesses, in large measure, several of the 
 requisits of a really excellent novel, and 
 we feel sure of its taking an honorable-' 
 place among the more valued contempor- 
 ary works of fiction. ThSre can, at any 
 rate, be no doubt that novel readers wil 
 thank Mr. Schuyler for a most readable 
 addition to thSir stoc of stories; it is a 
 grSat deal to say nowadays for a novel of 
 any length, but, after beginning "Fathers 
 and Sons," it wil be found easier to go on 
 to the end than to stop. And if it be the 
 end of novels that thiy be readable, as for 
 comedies, afcording to Dr. Johnson, that 
 thSy make people laf— and certainly a tale 
 which can not be told seems to want the 
 main thing — then what we hav said is 
 praise enuf. But "Fathers and Sous" is 
 not wholy dependejit for its interest upon 
 its plot, upon its freshness of iuQident, the 
 strangeness of the manners depicted, the 
 rapidity of movement, the dramatic situa- 
 tions, the careful and sometimes poetical 
 painting of natural scenery, the humor, 
 the pathos — tho these ar among its char- 
 acteristics ; stil less is it wholy dependent 
 upon the glimpses it givs us of the work- 
 ing of various social forces which ar now 
 operating upon Russia— tho these also it 
 offers us. The author is successful in the 
 novelist's hiest labor — in cougeiving and 
 delineating his characters. He does not 
 paint with elaboration, but he sketches 
 with a vigorous and accurate pencil ; and 
 he has given us real men and real worn., 
 en." [Nation.]— "Thfire ar 3 elderly 
 men in the book, Nicolas Kirsanof, the 
 father of Arcadi,— Paul, his bachelor 
 
RUSSIAN NOVELS. 
 
 brother, a sort of Russian Major Penden- 
 nis, loving neatness ami luxury, and the 
 maxims and principles of the "fine old 
 gentleman",— and the father of Basarof , 
 the Nihilist or free-thinker, which last 
 'becomes, we scarcely kno how, the most 
 interesting character in the book, tho Tur- 
 g^nief has resolutely denied him any charm. 
 He contradicts and criticizes his elders ; 
 he lays down the law to the younger con- 
 gregation who sit at his feet ; he despises 
 established usages ; he has no souj for the 
 things of imagination, he is in some de- 
 gree a sensualist; his very system of 
 negation is inconclusiv, tending to no pos- 
 itiv action for the reconstruction of society, 
 after its superstitions, religious and mor- 
 al, shal hav been abolished. Not the slit- 
 cst glimmer of a halo is thron round 
 him ; and yet, like every person in the 
 tale, we look for him, we listen to him. 
 Thfire is no difficulty in believing that, 
 rude as he was, and not without a touch 
 of Orson in his ways, he could engage the 
 attention of so refined a woman as Mrs. 
 Odintsof , and as much love as she had to 
 giv. ThiSre ar few things in fiction better 
 wrot out than the commotion excited by 
 his return to his humble provincial home, 
 and the deferential, oppressiv afiection of 
 his parents, which becomes too importu- 
 nate to be endured. His mother is touch- 
 ed with a master's hand. His death, too 
 (possibly a novelist's necessity, as dispos- 
 ing of one with whom everything in life 
 was so much at variance), wil not be read 
 without emotion. The other characters 
 ar sliter, but not less individual. A 
 strong-minded lady, who cultivates science 
 and philosophy in a bewildered way of 
 her on, givs champagne br(?akfasts to 
 
 students, and goes to a ball in dirty gloves 
 but with a bird of Paradise in her hair, 
 is expressly to be commended to the cu- 
 rious of her sex, who desire to see a 
 Russian variety of the species. T5 con- 
 clude, tho the tale, like its predecessors, 
 is a saddening one, it is excellent as a 
 work of Art." [Athena3um, 1S63.] — 
 "The account of the origin of Bazarof in 
 'Fathers and Sons,' is extremely interest- 
 ing. It appears that Turgi5nief had met, 
 when on a journey, a young physician 
 who gave him his Bazarof. The author 
 began to keep "Bazarof's Diary," that is 
 to say, each time that he read an interest- 
 ing book or met a person who had much 
 to tel him which was new, he criticized 
 the book or the person in his diary, not 
 from his point of vue, but from that 
 which his Bazarof would hav taken. The 
 result was a masterpiece which, has given 
 both a name and a form to a school of 
 thot wjiich has, since the appearance of 
 'Fathers and Sons,' pervaded Russian let- 
 ters." [Athenaium, 1S89. 3635 
 
 , SAME (Fathers and Children), 
 
 Munro, 1883. 
 
 FAUST, by Tukgenief; in Galaxy, 
 may-june, 1872. 2636 
 
 FIRST LOVE, by Turgenief, Lon- 
 don, Allen, 1884. 2637 
 
 FLA.MING-FIRE (The), by Tolstoi, 
 in Cosmopolitan, vol. 5. 2638 
 
 FRIEND OF THE FAMILY (The). 
 [byFEDOR [Michaiovich] Dostoief- 
 SKY (t, 1881): Vizetelly, 1887.] "It is 
 difficult to believe that 'Crime and Punish- 
 ment' and 'The Friend of the Family' 
 ar by the same hand What the former 
 is we kno. Of the latter it need only be 
 said that it is rather a truculent essay In 
 
 784 
 
RUSSIAN NOVELS. 
 
 wbat may be called the satirical farce of 
 character. The hero, Thomas Tomich, a 
 kind of Eussian Pecksniff, is a capital cre- 
 ation ; and the characters about him ar 
 not unworthy of their eminent nfibor." 
 [ Athenaium. 2639 
 
 GAMBLER (The), [by Fedor Dos- 
 toiefsky: with No. 2639] "Thgre is 
 more of the true Dostoiefsky — the Dos- 
 toiefsky of 'Crime and Punishment' and 
 'The "Brothers Karamasoft'— in 'The Gam- 
 bler.' Here the humor is sombre, the 
 purpos ruthless, the effect a trifle insane. 
 Slight as it is — and it is but a sketch — the 
 thing is very powerful; it Axes the atten- 
 tion at once, and to b£gin it is to be con- 
 strained to read to the bitter end. The 
 two principals, Paulina and Alexis 
 Ivanovich, ar rendered in a fashion 
 nothing less than masterly; and the same 
 may be sajd of the extraordinary old 
 maniac Antonida Vassilievna, who com- 
 ing to Eoulettenberg to play the justiciar 
 on her gambling relativ the General, 
 plays for the first time in her life, and 
 loses 90,000 roubles or so in a couple of 
 days. The translation, it remains to 
 note, is lively enuf, but so full of slang as 
 to produce an effect of real vulgarity." 
 [Athenajum. 2640 
 
 HERO OF OUR TIME [by Michail 
 [ YURVEWICH ] Lermontof ( 1S12-41 ) : 
 London, Warne, 1883.] "is very short 
 and utterly unconventional, yet fuller of 
 poetic feeling and psychological insight 
 than a score of the novels of the period 
 , roled into one. It, moreover, possesses a 
 weird interest all it's on, and is in every 
 way a remarkable romanje. It also givs, 
 inyidentally, some vivid descriptions of 
 Circassian scenery, and the condition of 
 
 the country during the long struggle 
 waged against it by Russia. Altogether, 
 the book is not only wel worth reading,, 
 but sufficiently suggestiv to be made the 
 subject of a treatis as long as itself. We 
 regret that we can not compliment Mr. < 
 Ijipman on the felicity of his translation." 
 [ Spectator. 2641 
 
 , SAME (transl. by Pulszky) Lon- 
 don, Bogue, 1854. 
 
 , SAME ( "Sketches of Russian Life 
 
 in the Caucasus" ) London, Ingram, 1853. 
 
 HOME LIFE= DEAD SOULS. 
 
 HOW RUSSIANS MEET DEATH = 
 SOBCEBER. 
 
 HOW THE TWO IVANS QUARREL- 
 ED, by Gogol, m^' No. 2631. 
 
 IDIOT (The) [ by Fedor Dostoief- 
 sky: Vizetelly, 18S7.] "may be deemed 
 tedious by ordinary readers ; but it wil ex- 
 ercise a weird fascination upon those minds 
 to which its author's other writings appeal 
 with irresistible force. It is as uncon- 
 ventional as 'Crime and Punishment' and 
 'Injury and Insult,' and as rich as thSy ar 
 in minute studies of moral disease. It is 
 easy to understand the immense charm 
 which such works possess for Russian 
 readers, who ar terribly in earnest in thiSir 
 study of vexed social problems, and wh5 
 find only in fiction the free discussion of 
 questions of that nature. It is more diffi- 
 cult to explain the remarkable influence 
 which thCy hav recently exercised in 
 France and, to a certain extent, among 
 us. However this may be, 'The Idiot' 
 undoubtedly deservs tij be carefully stud- 
 ied. The hero of the story, a pauper 
 prince, who suffers from epileptic attacs 
 and incipient softening of the brain, is at 
 first sight an uuattractiv personage ; but 
 
 785 
 
RUSSIAN NOVEL? 
 
 the author, of wh5se opinions he is ap- 
 parently the mouth-piece, has endowed 
 him with go noble aspirations and so 
 tender a sympathy with all forms of suf- 
 fering and distress, that his material 
 weaknesses ar forgotten by ' those who 
 can rightly appre9iate his spiritual per- 
 fection." [Athena3um. 2642 
 
 IDIOT (The),by TURGENIEF, in Tem- 
 ple-Bar, may, 1S70. 2643 
 
 IN TWO MOODS [ by Vladimir Kor- 
 OLENKO: N.-Y., Lovell Co., 1891.] "was 
 written in circumstances which required 
 on the part of the author considerable 
 reti^en^e and many vailed allusions, and 
 one must in many instances read between 
 the lines. In this story Korolenko has 
 graphically portrayed the typical young 
 Russian of 1873-5, a period which marked 
 the beginning of militant Nihilism. The 
 first part is a song of youth, love, enthu- 
 siasm and exuberant life, dyeing rose 
 color everything which it touches. The 
 second half of the story abounds in 
 psychologic analysis, and it is possible 
 that some readers may think it hea\'y." 
 [Critic. 3644 
 
 INJtTRY AND INSULT, by DoSTOi- 
 BVSKY, aa* No. 2639. 
 
 INVADERS (The), by Tolstoi, N.-Y., 
 Growell, 1887. 2645 
 
 IVAN CZAROVVITZ, or The Rose 
 without prickles that stings not, by Cath- 
 erine II., London, Robinson & Sons, 
 1793. 2646 
 
 IVAN ILYITCH, ja" DEATH 
 
 IVAN VEJEEGHAN [by Thaddeus 
 BULGARIN (t, 1859): London, Whit- 
 taker, [Phil'a, rep. Caret/, 1832] 1831.] 
 "affords a striking picture of the domestic 
 habits that prevail amongst those classes 
 
 of Muscovites who ar a little above the 
 rank of boors. The hero is an orphan, 
 who rises in the world, of the interior of 
 which, like Gil Bias, he happens to see a 
 good deal. The story is, however, not 
 wel put together. Here and thiSre wl> 
 hav some good sketches of loer social life ; 
 but the work is rather too full of petty 
 details." [Monthly Review. 2647 
 
 JOURNAL OF A SUPERFLUOUS 
 MAN, by TOKGENIEF, with MOU- 
 MO U. 2648 
 
 KATIA [by Lyof [N. ] Tolstoi: 
 Gottsberger, 1887.] "is an attempt by 
 Count Tolstoi to tel simply the love-story 
 of a young girl, and it is done with grSat 
 fldelit\- and gra9e. The author who has 
 worked so skilfully on griSat problems 
 with a much larger canvas, here enters 
 into the ordinary details of family life, 
 and into the happiness, the tragedy, and 
 the pathos of very simple surroundings. 
 Katia is represented as telling the story of 
 her love and suffering herself, and you 
 would never imagin that one of the grSat 
 thinkers of Europe was holding the pen 
 for her. She falls in love with her gardi- 
 an, and is in turn beloved. The pretty 
 romance is told with taste and feeling; 
 but by and by life becomes at once pro- 
 saic and dangerous. Katia longs for the 
 city, her husband gratifies her, apparent 
 estrangement is the result of widening 
 Katia's horizon, only to end in final re- 
 con9iliation, and the settling of romantic 
 passion into excellent but calm family 
 affection. The only flaw in the story is in 
 this ending. Tolstoi seems to imply that 
 you must not expect dramatic passion to 
 last in all its fervor; but passion tried as 
 was that of Katia and her husband either 
 
 786 
 
RUSSIAN NOVELS. 
 
 does last with a good deal of its first 
 power, or is tilled entirely. Romance 
 may melt away, unsuspected aud unmiss- 
 oil, into placid domestic affection; but if 
 once interrupted by a crisis, it either 
 doubles in intensity, or is lost forever. 
 Stil, the story is a pretty one, and the 
 moral virtuous, if not lofty." [ Critic. ] — 
 "The story of 'My Husband and T' is of 
 a most simple nature, so far as its plot is 
 con9erned, but it is rendered remarkable 
 by the skil with which the character of 
 its leading personage is made to unfold 
 itself as the unsensational narrativ pro- 
 ceeds. Count Tolstoi is at his best when 
 he is analyzing and describing the fitful 
 currents of feeling which stir a girl's 
 heart, and he has seldom written anything 
 better than the account of Katia's quiet 
 affection before marriage for the some- 
 what unromantic wooer who becomes her 
 husband, and of her temporary wayward- 
 ness afterward. That the tone of the tale 
 is not gloomy may be inferred from its 
 final lines : — "Thus ended my romance 
 with my husband. The old passionate 
 emotion remained a dear memory ; but a 
 new feeling of love for my children and 
 thfiir father laid the foundation for an- 
 other life, happier in a different sense to 
 that which had gone before. And this 
 existence stil lasts, and has an endless 
 charm for me, for I hav learnt that true 
 happiness can be found only at one's fire- 
 side, amid the pure delights of family 
 life." [Athenseum.] — "Katia is a young 
 orphan married to her gardian. ThiSre ar 
 misunderstandings which come from her 
 inexperien9e and his peculiar scheme of 
 letting her hav her on way and then suf- 
 fering for it. Thfire ar fine analvses of 
 
 character and motiv in Katia, aud the 
 story is almost idyllic in its purity and 
 simpli9ity." [Catholic AVorld. 3649 
 
 , SAME ("My Husband and I"), 
 
 Vizetelly, 1887. 
 
 , SAME ("Family Happiness"), 
 
 Crowell, 1888. 
 
 , SAME ("Romance of Marriage") 
 
 Laird, 1890. 
 
 LEAR OF THE STEPPES (A), by 
 TuRGENiEF, in London Society [ Living 
 Age, Jan. 1873. ] 2650 
 
 , SAME, with N"o. 952. 
 
 LITTLE RUSSIAiSr SERVANT (The), 
 by "H: Grevillb" : in Modern Age, 
 feb., 1884; also in JJomawce, sept., 1892, 
 15 p. 3651 
 
 LIVING MUMMY (The), by TuRGE- 
 NiEF, in Scribner's Monthly, aug., 
 1876. 3653 
 
 LIZA [by Ivan [S.] Tdrgenieip : 
 N.-Y., Holt, 1872; London, Ward, 1884.] 
 "is the story of Fedor Ivanovioh Lavret- 
 sky, whose handsom wife, after his dis- 
 covery of her unfaithfulness, is left to lead 
 the life which pleases her . . . Lizaveta 
 Mikhailovna is his distant relativ, a young 
 girl of 19 when he comes to live on his 
 estate near the town whfire her family 
 dwels. She is of a pure, hi, religious 
 nature, sensitivly conscientious, and of a 
 reservd and th6tful temperament. Be- 
 fore either is aware tMy ar in love. A 
 paper comes to Lavretsky with the an- 
 nouncement of his wife's death; and he 
 shos it to Liza. That night thSy meet by 
 accident in her mother's garden, and ar 
 suprised into the acknoledgement of thfiir 
 love. It is a moment of rapture to him 
 and of doubt and trouble t5 her ; and the 
 next night Lavretsky's wife, wh5 is not 
 
 787 
 
RUSSIAN NOVELS. 
 
 dead, returns. Then all is over; he rids 
 himself of her, but Liza goes into a con- 
 vent; old friends die, children gro into 
 men and women ; Lavretsky's wife leads 
 her old life in Paris ; Lavretsky becomes 
 45: Liza remains in her convent; and 
 that is the way the story ends." [ Atlan- 
 tic.] — ''It may be an inevitable conse- 
 quence of its truth tS nationality that it 
 should be melancholy, even as Russian 
 music is . . . Turgfinief's hero Lavretsky, 
 had, at all events, no chance of a happy 
 life. Curbed, cramped, neglected in his 
 boyhood, with only rude and eccentric 
 kinsfolk to lean on, the world opened for 
 him too late. When the passions of a 
 man began to urge him he had stil the 
 inexperience of a child; and so, in his 
 love-time, he stumbled into a fatal mar- 
 riage with a mercenary, cold-hearted 
 coquette, who used him, grasped his sub- 
 stance, fooled him, deceived him." [Ath- 
 enteum. 2653 
 
 MAD LOVE, by V. Garshinski : Lon- 
 don, Blacken, 1890. 2654 
 MAKAR'S DREAM, by KorolenkO, 
 in Cosmopolitan, vol. 6, pp 147-15S. 2655 
 MARIE = No. 625. 
 M ARKOP [ by " H : GreVILLE ," i . e . , 
 Alice M.. celeste (Fleury) Durand: Pet- 
 erson, 1879.] "is a story of home and 
 artist life; simple, and yet dramatic; 
 deeply dis§erning, yet unfailingly delicate, 
 a little sad, and not a little droll; a scru- 
 pulously fair and faithful, yet friendly 
 and hopeful study . . . Two honest loves, 
 in fervid alliance, fight gallantly for the 
 soul in danger, and effect its rescue : the 
 touching, self-annihilating love of the 
 artist's hunchbac brother; the more sorro- 
 ing and discerning, but ever pure and 
 
 purifying, passion of the gentle but ad- 
 mirably hi-spirited Helen. AVe grumble, 
 when the light is won, that Helen is too 
 good for Demiane, but the author's skil 
 has sufficed to sho us in the latter just one 
 of those men who wil be good themselvs 
 under the influence of a better woman, 
 and not otherwise. And it is to be ob- 
 served that, in life, such unions appear to 
 be, of all others, those in which a woman 
 is most sure to be humbly and profoundly 
 happy, — whfireby aliens ar certainly 
 cheated of thSir right to complain." [At- 
 lantic. ] — "In 'Markof Mrs. Durand has 
 given us one of her largest and most care- 
 fully elaborated works. In some respects 
 we think it is her strongest and best . . . 
 Markof is a young violinist, whose passion 
 for his instrument defeats his father's 
 purpos of educating him for the priest- 
 hood, and who afterwards barely escapes 
 ruin under the seductions of a modern 
 Kleopatra. His good angel is a young 
 girl, who servs him in the capacity of an 
 accompanist; one of those sweet and 
 lovely creatures whom this author knoes 
 so wel how to create." [ Boston "Liter- 
 ary World." 3656 
 
 MARPHA, by Lydia Paschxof, in 
 Bomance, June, 1S92, 9 p. 2657 
 
 MAY EVENING (A), by GOGOL, in 
 Cosmopolitan, vol. 3, p 186. 2658 
 
 MOUMOU, by Turgeniei-, = No. 851. 
 
 MUST IT BE ? [by "Carl Detlef," 
 1. e., Klara Bauer (t, 1876 ) : Lippincott, 
 1873.] "The heroin is the charming dau- 
 ter of evil-behaving, quarreling parents; 
 her lover is poor in worldly goods, but 
 rich in all which makes heroes admirable. 
 Th&e is much more melodrama in the 
 plot than is needed, but the novel wil be 
 
RUSSIAN N0VKL8. 
 
 found not unreadable Ijy those who care 
 to find out anything about the country 
 which is described in it." [Nation. 2659 
 
 NADIA. [by R. Orloffsky: Son- 
 nenschein, ISSS.] "The heroin is a 
 charming girl, full of sympathy and en- 
 thusiasm, who is induced to join a secret 
 society Ijy the influence of a Nihilist, and 
 who spends some time at Zurich in the 
 company of fello enthusiasts eternally 
 engaged in the discussion of "the question 
 whether one 6t to rebuild society after 
 having destroyed it, or simply destroy it 
 without rebuilding it." But before long 
 she begins to perceive that she has made 
 a mistake, and she tries to extricate her- 
 self from the toils which hav been woven 
 about her by the cunning of Neradovitch, 
 who is represented as a type of all which 
 is mean and odious. The story of her 
 struggles, ultimately crowned with suc- 
 5ess, toards a hier and a nobler life is told 
 with much power. The author's style is 
 excellent throuoht, and the moral tone of 
 his work irreproachable." [Athenne- 
 um.]—"iVadia is marked by the melan- 
 choly which seems the characteristic note 
 of Russian fiction . . . TMre is a liter 
 and more cheerful story mixed with that 
 of the heroin. Jenny Gregorievna is a 
 very sprightly maiden, and never fails to 
 amuse and charm." [ Spectator. 3660 
 
 NARKA = No. 860. 
 
 NEGLECTED QUESTION (The), [by 
 B. Markewich: London, Kinff, 1874.] 
 "The plot is coarse, some of the situations 
 ar revolting, and the poetical justice meted 
 out to the female offender— to her only— 
 in the end, as a homage to conventional 
 propriety, by no means atones for the 
 offenses of the book." [Spectator. 3661 
 
 XIKAXOR, by "H: Greville," 
 Chatto, 1889. 3063 
 
 NOBLEMAN OF THE STEPPE, by 
 Turgenief, in Hcribner's, July, 
 1877. 3663 
 
 OLD-FASHIONED FARJIERS, by 
 Gogol, |ia= No. 2631. 
 
 ON THE EVE [ by Ivan [ S. ] Turge- 
 nief: N.-Y., Holt, 1873.] "is of a sim- 
 pler plan than Liza [No. 2653], and its 
 merits ar in loer relief ; but the careful 
 reader wil find it no less opulent in evi- 
 dences of the author's genius. It is a 
 story of love, meagre in incident and 
 inexpressibly sad in its d^noument. Its 
 principal personages ar not striking or 
 winning, save as love dignifies and beau- 
 tifies them; and, indeed, thfire ar no 
 features in the book, which, under or- 
 dinary manipulation, would stand out 
 either conspicuous or fas5lnating. But 
 beneath the hand of a master thSy take on 
 a beauty and a significance which it is 
 impossible fairly to characterize, and on 
 which the apprejiativ reader wil never 
 weary of dwelling . . .' "We kno few nov- 
 els which ar better worth reading than 
 this; it instructs throu its sketches of 
 Russian life ; it pleases and charms by its 
 manifestations of genius in narration and 
 description, and its marvellous insight 
 into the operations of human passions; 
 and elevates and cheers by its exhibition 
 of noble ideals br6t down to the level of 
 ordinary life, and moving before us as 
 stimulating examples." [ Boston "Liter- 
 ary World."]— "The book Is full of Tur- 
 gfinief's peculiar power, that by which he 
 givs us again the fresh, abruptly fractured 
 surfaces of ordinary life, t5gether with 
 the immeasurable depth of th^ir sugges- 
 
 789 
 
RUSSIAN NOVtSLS. 
 
 tions. It abounds in touches of hi power 
 and pathos . . . The style is mai-ked by 
 that studied independence of mere liter- 
 ary grajes which appears in his other 
 novels. T^'e observ, also, his clear pain- 
 ter's eye for nature; and his fine, artistic 
 impartiality, which enables his charac- 
 ters to stand apart from him, and be 
 themselvs; only, thSre is the all-pervad- 
 ing, grim sarcasm of the llussians . . . 
 For the rest, too much can not be said, 
 in urging a faithful study and careful 
 record, by all readers, of his keen poetic 
 sensibility and his finished and forcible 
 method." [Atlantic.]— "Not that Tur- 
 g6nief is all gloom and despair. In "On 
 the Eve" we see the love of Helena out- 
 lasting everything, and, in spite of its 
 unhappy termination, the reader is left 
 in presence of the sublimity of a woman's 
 love, rather than wSghed down by an un- 
 ne§essari]y painful reminder of the truth 
 that man is mortal." ["Nation. 2664 
 
 PISTOL-SHOT (The), by Pushkin, in 
 Albion, 28 dec, 1861. 2665 
 
 PHILOSOPHY AT HOSIE, by Tchek- 
 OF, in Short Stories, oet., 1891, 9 p. 2666 
 
 POLIKUSHKA. [by Lyof [N.] 
 Tolstoi: (with TSE INVADERS, 
 also with M T HUSBAND.'] "Polikush- 
 ka" has a social or domestic interior, 
 relating the melancholy sui9ide of a ser- 
 vant who had lost a roll of money, and 
 feared to f a9e the consequences, which wer 
 averted by the discovery of the money by 
 a later traveler, almost before the poor 
 fello's body was cold." [ Boston "Liter- 
 ary World." 2667 
 
 PORTRAIT (The), by Gogol, in 
 Blackwood's [Li-oinrj Age, 13 nov. ] 
 1847; also with No. 2631, which see. 2668 
 
 PRETTY LITTLE COUNTESS ZINA 
 [Les Koumassine) by "H: Grevillb," i. 
 e., Alice M.. CiSleste (Fleury) Durand: 
 Peterson, 1879.] is "a cheerful, inter- 
 esting, and thoroly pleasant story. Count 
 Koumassine is a good-natured and very 
 wealthy gentleman, wedded to a selfish 
 but fas9inating woman of the world. 
 Early in her married life, when thSre 
 seemed to be no prospect of her having 
 children, she had adopted a niece, the 
 dauter of ■> poor sister. But soon after a 
 dauter is born, and eventually a son also. 
 The niece, who is pretty and charming, is 
 now supposed by the countess to stand in 
 her dauter's way, espegially as she early 
 attracts the attention of a nfiboring noble- 
 man, by marrying whom she would 
 outrank her patroness. A skilful strate- 
 gem of the latter prevents "Prince Charm- 
 ing" from declaring himself, but she sees 
 that at once her niece must be gotten out 
 of the way. Two marriages, in succes- 
 sion, with disreputable persons, ar ar- 
 ranged, only to be thwarted by the 
 perversity of the girl, who meanwhile 
 has fallen in love with one Maritzky, u, 
 good fello, but poor. The Countess there- 
 upon confines her niece to her room until 
 she shal promis to marry the man of her 
 ant's choice. With the aid of her two 
 cousins, who hav remained true to her 
 throu all, and of the Prince, an escape is 
 effected. The Prince was not very seri- 
 ously in love, and his devotion to the girl 
 is now that of a merely chivalrous friend. 
 But in the close intercourse with the 
 cousin "Zina," rendered negessary by the 
 escape plot, he learns to appreciate her 
 excellent qualities, and becomes finally 
 her most devoted lover. Thus everything 
 
 790 
 
RUSSIAN NOVELS. 
 
 ends to the satisfaction of all con- 
 cerned. [Boston "Literary 'World."] — 
 "In a word, this is just the novel that 
 those people want who ar always looking 
 after a story in French which shal not 
 deal directly or by implication with evil- 
 doing. It is not to be put on the shelf 
 with Mrs. Craven's hily religious stories, 
 [Nos. 440, 700.] but it may be safely com- 
 mended to those who care for a really en- 
 tertaining French novel treating of soci- 
 ety, and, ever and above, of society of an 
 unfamiHar kind in which everyone is in- 
 terested." [Atlantic. 2669 
 
 PEIEST'S SO]Sr (The),by TUBGENIBP, 
 in LippincoWs, June, 1877. 3670 
 
 PEDSrCE AND JEW (The), in Mod- 
 ern Affe,a.i)T. ,1883. 2671 
 
 PKINCESS OGHEROF (The). [by 
 "H: Grbville," i. c, Alice M.. Celeste 
 (Pleury) Durand : tran. by T. H., N.-Y., 
 C: F. Boper, 1879; Peterson, 1880.] 
 "What could be finer than this, either in 
 power or spirit? We defy any reader 
 with any sensibilities at all to take the 
 passage in its connection without sharing 
 both in the pain and the joy of the renun- 
 5iation which it describes — pain at the 
 seeming annihilation of as just a love as 
 hearts ever felt, joy at the victory of 
 cons9ience and principle after a hard con- 
 flict. Thfire is the West art, too, in the 
 skil with which the outward scene is fitted 
 to the play of passion, and every tint 
 made to contribute to the beautiful har- 
 mony which rules the picture. The tragic 
 intensity of the story of Michel and Mar- 
 tha is skilfully relieved by the parallel 
 fortunes of Serge and Nastia, which ar 
 related in a very amusing vfiin, not how- 
 ever so as to introduje any element of 
 
 incongruity. The whole charming epi- 
 sode of the courtship and marriage of 
 these young people we must leave to the 
 reader to take for himself." [Boston 
 "Literary World." 2672 
 
 PRINCESS ROUBINE (The) [ by "H : 
 Greville," i. e., Alice M.. CcSleste 
 (Fleury) Durand : Peterson, 1887.] "is 
 one of Henry Grfiville's most charming 
 stories. It is free from any of the dis- 
 agreeable elements to be classified as 
 'Frenchy' ; and it is not merely an inter- 
 esting story, but one which deals with a 
 problem. Moreover, it does not end with 
 the heroin's marriage; that takes place 
 early in the book, and we ar permitted to 
 observ an entire life run its course to the 
 end, instead of merely seeing a young girl's 
 life merged in her married identity. The 
 heroin is a spirited and beautiful enthu- 
 siast, who is . anxious about the social 
 problems of the day, and who solvs them 
 in her case very picturesquely, uniquely 
 and touchingly. What she livs to see her 
 children reap from her ideas, how she 
 herself outgroes some of them, is admir- 
 ably shon; the effect of heredity, of age, 
 of slrcumstanje, all coming to giv weight 
 and dignity to a very pretty love story." 
 [ Critic. 2673 
 
 PUNIN & BARBUEIN, by TUEGE- 
 NIBP, with No. 2637. 2674 
 
 QUEEN OF SPADES, by Pushkin, 
 [in Chambers' Papers, 1850 [ Living Age, 
 30 nov. 1850] ; also in Gift of Friendship, 
 1854; also in Lippincotts' Mag., sept., 
 1876; also in Modern Age, Jan., 1884] = 
 No. 908. 2675 
 
 ROMANCE OP MARRIAGE (The) = 
 KATIA. 
 
 RUSSIAN COUNTRY-HOUSE, (A), 
 
 791 
 
RUSSIAN NOVELS. 
 
 by "Carl Dbtlkf": N.-Y., Worthing- 
 ton, 1S90. 2670 
 
 RUSSIAN LIFE IN THE INTERIOR 
 = No. 2612. 
 
 RUSSIAN MARRIAGE (A), by TuE- 
 GENiKF, ill Modern Age, may, 1884. 2677 
 
 RUSSIAN PRIEST (A) by N. H. 
 HOTAHEHKO: Cassell, 1S91.] "throes a 
 certain amount of light upon the habits 
 and condition of the peasants who form 
 the grOat mass of the nation, and the in- 
 fluence of the clergy upon them.'- 
 [Critic. 2678 
 
 RUSSIAN PROPRIETOR (A), ETC. 
 [byLYOF[N.] Tolstoi: N.-Y., Crow- 
 ell, 1888.] "In •'Albert," a musician's 
 tale, and "Recollections of a Scorer," a 
 gambling history, we hav evidently leaves 
 out of Tolstoi's earlier experiences, the 
 days of his wild and irregular life; and 
 the story of " The Two Hussars" belongs 
 to the same category. The teaching here 
 —so far as thSre is any teaching — is hardly 
 more thau that of the cruelty of fate, the 
 pitilessness of retribution. Thfiy ar pow- 
 erful cartoons of the working passions. 
 In " Three Deaths," again, and in "A 
 Prisoner in the Caucasus," we hav a 
 simpler and quieter realism, not less 
 eflfectiv, but less intense. Throu the 
 scenes here depicted the reader wil pass 
 with a sense of relief, as if emerging from 
 a sombre wood into a clearing, to which 
 some sunshine has acgess, and whfire an 
 occasional flower groes." [ Boston "Lit- 
 erary World." 3679 
 
 RUSTY LINCHPIN (The), [by 
 
 ( ) Kokhanovsky: Lothrop, 
 
 1887.] These tales "picture the uneventr 
 ful life of the provinces with what seems 
 to be a delicate and a faithful touch. 
 
 They bring us very close tS that strange 
 civilization which has lately become so 
 fascinating to western readers and help 
 us to realize how truly the aims and the 
 emotions of common life ar the same 
 in all lands." [ Dial. 2680 
 
 SAVjELPS EXPIATION [by "H: 
 Greville," i. e., Alice M.. Celeste 
 (Fleury) Durand : Peterson, 1ST8.] "is 
 a story of the days of serfdom. The lord 
 of the manor sends his serfs to Siberia, 
 or to the army, or treats them even worse. 
 A young girl, his victim, drowns herself. 
 SavSIi — hOT lover — and her father, with 
 thSir friends, kil the lord in his bed and 
 burn him with his house, but save the 
 lives of his wife and dauter, who, with 
 the general public, ar kept ignorant of the 
 bloody facts. Mrs. Bagrianof frees her 
 serfs, and, impoverished, removes to 
 Moscow. Years after she returns, with 
 her beautiful grauddauter, who is wooed 
 by Savfili's accomplished son. SavSli's 
 and the priest's superstition breaks the 
 young lovers asunder forever, and in 
 grSat agony Saveli dies comforted by 
 Catherine. The cruelty of the lord, the 
 nobility of the priest, the sufferings of the 
 serfs, the despair of Fedotia, the love and 
 reverence of Philip for his father and his 
 agony at the discovery of the murder, the 
 pathetic trust of Catherine — ar among the 
 grandest triumphs in fictional literature." 
 [ South- Atlantic] — "George Eliot never 
 wrote anything so intensely dramatic in 
 its situations, so thrillingly tragic in its 
 course, so infinitlji pathetic in its sorro, 
 as this remarkable tale. But it is inex- 
 pressibly painful, and we should advise no 
 one to begin it who has not the heirt to 
 face the direst sorro which human cxperi- 
 
RUSSIAN NU\'ELS. 
 
 enge can be made to endure. So life-like 
 ar the people and thSir action that, incred- 
 ible as ar some of the harroing details, it 
 is impossible not to feel that the author 
 had a basis of fact for her imagination to 
 play upon. It is hard to say in which her 
 power is most skilfully exercised ;— in the 
 ■delineation of the cruelties of I5agrianof, 
 the heroism of Father Vladimir, the stern 
 Consecration of Sav61i, or the spiritual 
 beauty and loveliness of little Fedotia, 
 whose fate was too terribly sad to be re- 
 hearsed here." [Boston "Lit. World."] 
 — " It is a true tragedy. Not an element 
 is wanting. Thfire is the insolent tyrant, 
 provoker to wrath— the incarnation of 
 irrespon.sible power; then the groing tol- 
 erance of wrong which rouses the op- 
 pressed to meet crime with crime ; then 
 the slo, inevitable progess wMreby the 
 consequences of crime reach the criminal, 
 and the innogent suffer for the guilty. It 
 is complete, and rouses in us a lively curi- 
 osity to kno whether the story is a record 
 of facts or a construction by the author." 
 [Nation. 2681 
 
 , SAME ("Expiation") N.-Y., Tou- 
 
 sey, 18S6. 
 
 SEBASTOPOL IN 1855, by TOLSTOI, in 
 Sours at Home, feb., 1869. 2682 
 
 SERGE PANIN, by G:Ohnet: Man- 
 chester, Tuhbs, 1883. 2683 
 
 SMOKE, [by Ivan [ S. ] Turgenibp : 
 N.-Y., Holt, 1872.] "A hasty summary 
 of the plot would rather mar the enjoy- 
 ment which so largely consists in its sur- 
 prises, and would giv *fter all but a very 
 unsatisfactory notion of the real merit of 
 the story, which does not lie in the ma- 
 chinery, but in the marvellous way in 
 which the innermost secrets of character 
 
 ar revealed. This much may be said, 
 however, that it tels of the love of a young- 
 man for a married woman, whom he had 
 formerly loved, and who had loved him 
 in the days of thfir early youth. The 
 problem is further complicated Ijy the 
 fact that the man, Litvinof , is engaged to 
 another girl. In the hero we see a man 
 of £1. pleasing nature, honest, modest, and 
 sinpere, in spite of the position in which 
 he is plajed. He is neither exalted as a 
 model of manhood nor yet denounced as 
 a disgrape to humanity. Here, as every- 
 where, Turgfinief understands perfectly 
 how to keep his characters in the proper 
 perspectiv. The heroin, Irene, is a much 
 more complicated character. She is a 
 fascinating woman who interests us most, 
 however, by reason of the incongruity be- 
 tween what she seems to be and what she 
 really is. She is a coquette, but no flirt, 
 that is to say, she possesses that charm of 
 coquetry which consists in suggestivness, 
 in arousing wonder and admiration, with- 
 out the heart which alone can make a 
 woman admirable. She is dishonest from 
 weakness and not from wickedness ; she 
 can not be other than she is. Julian 
 Schmidt has spoken of the difference of 
 the author's treatment of Irene and of 
 heroins like Helen in "On the Eve," [No. 
 266i] who hide the richness of her natures 
 just as Irene hides the poverty of hers, 
 and so both kinds remain a problem t5 
 the reader. This is true, and it is of es- 
 pecial interest to observ the gradual way 
 in which this complexity of Irene's char- 
 acter is set before us. It is not analyzed 
 for us. We see her in different circum- 
 stances, and hav to make up Stxv minds 
 for (JhrselvB ; and it is only later in the 
 
 793 
 
HUBSIAJv' NOVELS. 
 
 ^tol■y that a full-per5eptiou of it begins to 
 dawn upon us. The most toucbiug part 
 of this very sad novel is the aecouut of 
 Litvinof's relation to his betrothed, Tatia- 
 na. She is a simple-minded, transparent 
 girl; no heroin, bedecked with every 
 charm, to whom Irene is to serv as a 
 rival." [Isation.] Jgi- Xo. 948. 3684 
 
 SOSIA [by "H: Grevillk," i.e., 
 Alice M .. Celeste (Fleury) Durand: Pet- 
 erson, 1879.] "is good reading. It is 
 very simple and not wonderfully impres- 
 siv, but it shos the author's intelligence 
 and ready wit. » The story of the young 
 man's love for the girl who does not care 
 for him, and of her subsequent fate, makes 
 the book bright and noteworthy." [ At- 
 lantic. 2685 
 
 SOliCERER (The), by Turgenief, in 
 Appleton's,22ym.,\mO. 2686 
 
 , SA3IE ("How Russians meet 
 
 Death") in Temple Bar {Living Age, 
 Jan., 1887.] 
 
 SPRING FLOODS, by TURGENIEF, = 
 No. 952. 
 
 STRANGE ADVENTURE OF LIEUT. 
 YERGUNOF, by Turgenibf, in Galaxy, 
 Oct., 1877. 2687 
 
 TANIA'S PERIL [by "H: Gee- 
 viLLE," i. e., Alice 31 .. Celeste (Fleury) 
 Durand: Peterson, 1882.] "is good; 
 short, sweet, and wholesome. The "per- 
 il" is that of a pure and noble wife, with 
 a noble and trustful husband on the one 
 side, and an old friend of herself and her 
 husband on the other, who drifts, in spite 
 of himself, into a hopeless passion which 
 both he and its inno9ent subject ar strong 
 enuf to put beneath their feet in a spirit 
 of true heroism . . . The whole thing is 
 told with light, graceful, delicate touches. 
 
 Th^re ar only the 3 characters. The situ- 
 ation is simple. The style is simple. The 
 only excitement is a thunder tempest, and 
 almost a runaway acyident. The book is 
 like a (air and gentle woman, dressed in 
 white muslin, with violets at her throat." 
 [ Boston "Literary "World." 2688 
 
 TARANTASS (The), by SOLLOGUB, 
 London, 1850. 2689 
 
 TATIANA. [by Joseph Lubomik- 
 SKi: Tinaley, 1877.] "The object of 
 'Tatiana' the preface says, is "to portray 
 certain phases of Russian society during 
 the years which immediately preceeded 
 the Crimean War." It may be described 
 as a historico-social novel, and is fresh 
 and attractiv. It should seem that the 
 story before us is, to some extent, founded 
 on facts. Officials ar not spared, but the 
 system rather than the individual is 
 blamed. The Czar is tenderly treated, 
 and represented as a man of a liind and 
 noble nature, unable to prevent the vil- 
 lany of some of his chief servants, and 
 forced by circumstances to adopt meas- 
 ures of severity abhorrent to his disposi- 
 tion. Several other characters ar depicted 
 in pleasing colors, and thfire is internal 
 evidence of an absence of exaggeration. 
 The most unpleasant -feature of the sys- 
 tem during the last years of Nicholas was 
 the arbitrary power, unscrupulously used , 
 of the police. Some ghastly stories of 
 Siberian life and corporal punishment ar 
 powerfully told." [ Athenieum. 2690 
 
 THREE MEETINGS, by Tukgenief, 
 in LippincolVs,iu\y, 1S75. 2691 
 
 TRIALS OF RAISSA ('I'he). [by "H: 
 Greville," i. e., Alice M •• Celeste 
 (Fleury) Durand: Peterson, 1S80.] "A 
 pure and lovely Russian maiden, of the 
 
 794 
 
KHSSIAN NOVELS. 
 
 middle class, is abducted by 3 balf-druuk- 
 en officers, is carried to a liouse of bad 
 reputation, aud tliSre in a darkened room 
 is forged by one of tliem to undergo "tbe 
 greatest outrage which can be oii'ered to^a 
 woman." Late in the evening she makes 
 her escape, aud re-enters her home with 
 so tragic a wearing of her involuntary 
 shame that her mother dies of the shoe. 
 Henjeforth, her old father has but one 
 object — to ferret out the villains who hav 
 wrot this wrong . . . But which is the 
 guiltiest of the guilty? Thfiir lips ar silent 
 on this point, and only by chance, as it 
 seems, is the chief crime fixed upon Val- 
 crien Gretsky. The Czar directs that he 
 marry Eaissa, and the marriage ceremony 
 takes place dramatically in the cathedral. 
 Prom this point on the work of the novel is 
 to join as true and loving husband and wife 
 the man and woman whom gircumstances 
 hav thus put asunder. The barrier of ex- 
 ternal separation, wide tho it be, seems 
 nothing as compared with the cruel un- 
 certainty in which Eaissa is left as to 
 whether it really wer Gretsky who should 
 hav married her, and with the repugnance 
 which Gretsky feels toards her to whom 
 he has been compelled to giv his name. 
 ]5ut the author is equal to the exigency, 
 and succeeds in transforming this un- 
 happy alliance into a true wedloc. The 
 consummation is effected throu a heroic 
 journey of Eaissa to Siberia for the pur- 
 pos of nursing her husband. Her charac- 
 ter is a noble one, and sustains her unfal- 
 teringly throu all her "trials"." [ Boston 
 "Literary World." 2692 
 
 TSA It's WINDOW (The) . [ by LuCY 
 Hamilton (Jones) Hooper: Boberts, 
 1S81.] "Tt wer ungracious to surmise 
 
 that tbe mise-eu-scene of 'The Tsar's Win- 
 dow' was made up from Gautier, eked 
 out b)' the 'Court Circular.' Yet assured- 
 ly, if the author has veritably seen St. 
 Petersburg and Moscow, then never had 
 the famous pussy-cat who went t5 Lon- 
 don to see the queen a worthier rival in 
 scant narroness of vue. If the city and 
 its life wer crowded out by the develop- 
 ment of a plot or the portrayal of charac- 
 ter, wcl and good, but thfire is neither of 
 these. Six or Sight people go in andout, 
 not one of whom says a beautiful or clever 
 thing ; the heroin loves one man and does 
 not love another ; the wrong man takes 
 himself conveniently out of the way — and 
 that is all. It might just as wel hav been 
 quite the reverse, lor any logic in the 
 book.- [Nation. 2693 
 
 TWO GENEEATIONS. [by TOLSTOI, 
 with MY HUSBAND.] "The least at- 
 tractiv features of young military aristo- 
 crats ar here made disagreeably conspicu- 
 ous. Th§y ar iiot pleasing persons with 
 whom the two stories make us acquainted 
 — but thgy ar thoroly Eussian, and thfiy 
 deserv attention as wel on account of thSr 
 singularity as of the undoubted skil with 
 which th6y ar portrayed." [ Ath. 2694 
 
 UNCLE'S DEE AM (The), by DOSTOI- 
 EVSKi : Vizetelly, 1888. 269.'j 
 
 UNFOETUNATE WOMAN (An), 
 [by Ivan [Sergeivich] Turgeniep: 
 Punk & Wagnalls, 1887.] "These stories 
 ar both masterpieces of the faultless real- 
 ism, the pitiless analysis, of which Turg6- 
 nief alone comprehended the possibilities. 
 The first is unspeakably tragic. Susanna 
 Ivanovna, the offspring of an alliance be- 
 tween a nobleman and a Jewess, becomes 
 stcp-dauter to a brutal foreiner, a German, 
 
 795 
 
P.USSIAN NOVELS. 
 
 who has won a title liy the meanest ser- 
 viges; and In the sordid and debasing 
 atmosphere of her home she famishes for 
 companionship. By the schemes of her 
 uncle she has been separated from the 
 man she loves, and her step-father uses all 
 the means in his power to isolate her and 
 make her existence a, torture. From this 
 she escapes by death, which may hav been 
 Buijide or murder. The funeral scenes ar 
 portrayed with Eembrandtesque touches 
 which leave no phase of horror unexpress- 
 ed. The whole effect is oppressivly 
 somber. In its representation of the con- 
 dition of the Eussian nobility of a genera- 
 tion ago the work is a revelation." [ Bos- 
 ton "Literary World."]— "The translation 
 is evidently very bad — even the reader 
 unacquainted with Eussian can see that. 
 No translation, however, can altogether 
 destroy the simple force and beauty of 
 Turg6niefs style, or conceal the greatness 
 of his thot. All the Eussian novelists to 
 whom we hav been introdujed ar 
 writers of power, and, in varying degree, 
 of greatness, but it wil not do, in enthu- 
 siasm over Tolstoi, or Gogol or Dostoiev- 
 sky, to gro forgetful of the greatest Eus- 
 sian of all. For we cannot read him 
 beside these others without being im- 
 pressed with his surpassing gi-gatness. In 
 a calm and masterly grasp of life, in 
 nobility of spirit and motiv, in both intel- 
 lect and emotion, he towers above them 
 all. In the poet's vividness of external 
 beauty and picturesqueness, in freshness 
 and humor, Gogol alone equals, and per- 
 haps surpasses, him. The trueness of 
 Turg^nief's moral insight is something 
 wonderful, when one considers how often 
 it was self-attained, counter to all the 
 
 intluen(,os of his environment." [Over- 
 land. 2696 
 
 , SAME (trans, by Thompson), 
 
 Trubner, 1S88. 
 
 VAGRANT (The) ETC. [by A'ladi- 
 mirKoromxko: N.-Y., Oroioell, 18SS.] 
 "tels of the escape of a band of exiles in a 
 hily interesting way. The 'Sketches nfa 
 Siberian TourisP ar quite as graphic 
 and hardly less interesting. The remain- 
 ing sketches ar worth a place in the vol- 
 ume. Th«yarfuUof the 'Eussian melan- 
 choly' and full also of that vague poetic 
 sentiment which natural scenes inspire in 
 the Eussian writers." [Dial. 2697 
 
 YASSILISSA, by Tdhge.nief, in Eo- 
 »)jance, mar., 1892. 3698 
 
 VIRGIN SOIL, [by Ivan [Sergei- 
 vich] Toegenief: N.-Y., Holt, (transl. 
 by T: S.Perry) 1878; London, i!/acmi7- 
 lan, (transl. by A. "W. Dilke) , 1879.] "Nej- 
 danof is a Hamlet on a small scale, adapted 
 to the sphere of Socialist life. But 
 Marianna is unlike anything which Eng- 
 glish readers ar likely to be acquainted 
 with. Generous, self-sacrififing, pure- 
 minded, true-hearted, full of sympathy 
 with all who suffer and ar oppressed, she 
 is at the same time utterly devoid of reli- 
 gious feeling and totally deflfient in 
 respect for all existing laws. And so, in 
 spite of her position, her beauty, her 
 grage, and her culture, she is ready to 
 brSak with society, to abandon her home 
 and her relativs, and to giv up all which 
 women of her class most prize, for the 
 sake of an idea. It is not easy for us to 
 congeive the possibility of such a sacrifi9e 
 being made by a lady like Marianna, tho 
 it does not seem so incredible in the case 
 of the other female conspirator of the 
 
 796 
 
RUSSIAN NOVELS. 
 
 story, the humble and hard-working 
 Machourina, whose unconfessed love for 
 Nejdanof, most delicately made manifest 
 by iheans of a few stray hints, lends the 
 solitary touch of romanye to her homely 
 features." [ Spectator. 2699 
 
 VISIONS, by TuEGENiEF, in Oalaxy, 
 July, 1872; also in Cornliill [Living Age, 
 apr. ] 18S0. 2700 
 
 VITAL QUESTION (A). [by 
 
 TCHERSTYCHBWSKY : N.-Y., Crowell, 
 1886.] ""WhateYer the novel may be in 
 the Kussian, it is inexpressibly tedious in 
 English." [ Atlantic. 2701 
 
 , SAME ("What's to be DoneV") 
 
 Boston, Tucker, 1886. 
 
 WAR AND PEACE, by Tolstoi, = 
 No. 1007. 
 
 WATCH (The), by Turgenibf, in 
 LippincoWs, may, 1876. 2702 
 
 WAYWARD DOSIA = DOSIA. 
 
 WHAT'S TO HE DONE? = VITAL. 
 
 WHITE SLAVE (The), or the Russian 
 Peasant Girl, Harper, 1845. 2703 
 
 WILD DOVE'S NEST, in Appleton's, 
 apr., 1877. 2704 
 
 XENIE'S INHERITANCE, [by "H: 
 
 Greville," i. e., Alice M.. Celeste i 
 (Fleury) Durand: Peterson, 1881.] "H: 
 Greville" has written no briter, tender- 
 er, purer story than this. The old tones 
 and harmonies ar in it ; its key-note, as so 
 often before, is self-renungiation ; but the 
 composition is fresh, and its effect is that 
 of a symphony, based upon a plaintiv 
 strain, with deeply minor passages in it, 
 and the whole br6t to a gently modulated 
 close, which leaves the mind content and 
 at peace. Xi5nie is a li-spirlted, noble- 
 minded girl, the only dauter of parents 
 who hav separated. When the father dies 
 the dauter cleaves to the mother beyond 
 the power of lovers to tSar her away. To 
 do her duty to this mother she sacrifijes 
 everything, even the true and worthy 
 affection of Paul Rabof , whom, to cure of 
 his grief for her, she persuades to marry 
 her little cousin Anna. Paul and Anna 
 prove to be mismated, and the 3 chief 
 parties in the drama ar not long, in dis- 
 covering thfiir mutual relations. Then 
 ensues a stern and noble consecration t5 
 thfiir several parts in the loftiest spirit." 
 [Boston "Literary World." 2705 
 
 The translations of forein fiction, which increase in number and vari- 
 ety every year, ar generally , more interesting than the average novels 
 written originally in the english tung. One reason of this obvious 
 superiority is that an author almost always has made a reputation in Ms 
 language before his work is deemed worth translating, but a weightier, 
 reason is that in the literature which deals directly with life, that in the 
 English language, more than any other, is conventional and unimpas- 
 sioned ; therefore, weak, dry, ineffectiv. [Nation. 
 
 797 
 
PRICE: ONE OOPY, $.SSi TWO COPIES, ^.37; THREE, %.aO; FOUR, $.60; FIVE, f.SO; TEN, $1.25; FIFTEEN, $I.7S. 
 
 DESCRIPTIVE LIST 
 
 OF 
 
 NOVELS AND TALES 
 
 DEALING WITH 
 
 LIFE IN NORWAY. 
 
 COMPILED BY 
 
 W: M. GEISWOLD. 
 
 CAMBKIDGE, MASS. : 
 
 W. M. GRISWOLD, Publisher. 
 
 NtW-VORK. FOR SALE BV Q: P. PUTNAM'S SONS, 2T «■ =30 ST- 
 1S92, 
 
[ From the "School Bulletin," Aug., 1892. ] 
 
 We hope teachers will not fail t6 recognize the work W. M. Griswold 
 is d6ing in his classified bibliography. He sends us a Desceiptive List 
 OF Novels and Tales dealing with Life in France (Cambridge, 
 Mass., 1892, 8vo, pp. 94, $1.00), which is of immediate practical use t6 
 the teacher of French history as well as of French literature. 
 
 [ From the " Central Christian Advocate," ] 
 
 Mr. Griswold has done an excellent work, which will be appreciated 
 by all librarians, and by many people of cultivated taste wh6 wish t6 
 get on the track of the best French fiction, or at least t6 secure some 
 guidance and information in regard t6 its qualities and characteristics. 
 His former "lists" have dealt with American City and Country Life> 
 with Life in England, etc . . . Life in city and country, peasant life 
 and soldier life, the reckless and adventurous career of the free and 
 easy student in Paris, and the rude rustic among the mountains, — all 
 these phases of French life pass in review in the books which Mr. 
 Griswold has here catalogued. A guide like this would be invaluable 
 to a student of French literature, telling as well what t6 avoid, as 
 what t6 secure and read. 
 
 [From the ^^ Boston Commonwealth," 13 Aug., 1892.] 
 
 If all libraries wer generously equipped with these Lists, the long- 
 suffering curator of books would fiud more pleasure in life. The com- 
 pilation and selection ar made with rare skill. The poor book drops into 
 deservd oblivion, while the worthy but neglected and forgotten good 
 book is restored t6 the eye of the world. 
 
 Some not too busy people make note of the name of a novel recom- 
 mended by a trustworthy critic, but when the time for use comes the 
 note seldom is at hand, and, if ready, generally givs the mere title and 
 no idea of the contents. But here is a series of brochures that contain 
 excerpts from the fairest critical notices, often from several sources, 
 and one is enabled t6 form a sort of judgment of choice without actually 
 glancing at the book itself. Of course, those dealing with foreign lands 
 must for the greater part be translations, since with few exceptions 
 the most truthful and vivid characterizations come from the compatriot 
 wh6 has summered and wintered his fellows. Few people realize the 
 patience, skill, and labor involvd in such an undertaking as the publica- 
 tion of these successiv lists, but those wh6 d6 should urge upon others 
 the use of so valuable a means of education and pleasure. As a series 
 of 'condensed novels' they ar interesting, too. 
 
NOYELS DeSCEIPTIV OF NORWEGIAN LiFE 
 
 The object of this list is to direct readers, such as would enjoy the kind of books 
 here described, to a number of novels, easily accessible, but which, in many cases, 
 hav been forgotten loithin a year or two after publication. That the existence of 
 works of fiction is remembered so short a time is a pity, since, for every new book 
 of merit, there ar, in most libraries, a hundred as good or better, tmknown to the 
 majority of readers. It is hoped that the publication of this and similar lists will 
 lessen, in some measure, the disposition to read an inferior new book when supe- 
 rior OLD books, equally fresh to most readers, ar at hand. It may be observed that 
 the compiler has tried to include only such loorks as competent critics hav pro- 
 claimed to be loell-written, interesting , and free from sensationalism, sentimental- 
 ity, and pretense. B UT in a few cases, books hav been noticed on account of 
 the reputation of their authors, or their great popularity, rather than their merit. 
 The selected '^notices" ar generally abridged. 
 This list will be followed by others describing DANISH, I) XJTCII, SPANISH,— 
 HUMOROUS, ECCENTRIC and FANCIFUL novels and tales. 
 
 AFKAJA, US- HISTORICAL NO V- 
 ELS. 
 
 AMERICAN IN NOEWAY (An), 
 [by J : F. ViCARY : London, J.ZZe)i, 1886.] 
 "A young Norse-American goes to the 
 Jaud of his forefathers to iish, shoot and 
 bring bac a norwegian wife. He stays 
 with an old friend of his father, and his 
 daily fishing, sporting, and walking ex- 
 cursions, and the narrativ of his wooing 
 and winning a wife from among the^3 
 dauters of his host, form the frameworlt 
 upon which Mr. Vicary has built his 
 book." [ Athena;um. 3706 
 
 AKNE. [by Bjoknstjurnb Bjorn- 
 SOn: Cambridge, Mass., Sever, 1869.] 
 "At first, the reader of these stories is so 
 charmed that he can only enjoy ; and if 
 
 he begins to think of the sources of his 
 pleasure, he very likely says that some 
 books ar simply to be enjoyed and not 
 critically examind. "Arne," in particu- 
 lar, so nearly perfect and so purely de- 
 lightful, affects one as any beautiful 
 appearance in nature does,— a brook, the 
 first green, a lovely sunsel^and for a 
 while analysis of the charm seems im- 
 pertinent. But the books which disarm 
 criticism, even if it be that thSy do not 
 best repay it, ar those which best endure 
 it. So, while we can in no way so wel 
 fulfil one of the critic's most important 
 duties as by indulging oiirselvs in one of 
 his chief pleasures— as by heartily ad- 
 vising all lovers of stories, and all lovers 
 of poetry, and all lovers of nature in her 
 
NORWEGIAN NOVELS. 
 
 sunny aspects, and all who get pleasure 
 from the quickening of thSu- best and 
 kindliest sympathies, to make the ac- 
 quaintance of this captivating poet of 
 nature and the aflfections— stil, it may be 
 as wel to say a word or two of less undis- 
 criminating comment on works upon 
 which it is so easy to lavish praise— ^^•hich 
 it is so impossible not to praise." [ Athe- 
 na3um.] — "Thfoe is in the way the talcs ar 
 told a singular simplijity, or a reticence 
 and self-control which pass for this vir- 
 tue, and which take the aesthetic sense as 
 winningly as thSir sentiment touches the 
 heart. The author has entire confidenye 
 in his reader's intelligencje. He believes, 
 it seems, that we can be fully satisfied 
 with a few distinct touches in represent- 
 ing a situation or a character ; he is the 
 reverse, in a word, of all which is Trollo- 
 pian in literary art. He does not confern 
 himself with detail, nor with general 
 statement, but he makes some one ex- 
 pressiv particular serv for all introduc- 
 tion and explanation of a fact. The life 
 he portrays is that, for the most part, of 
 humble but de9ent folk ; and this choige of 
 subject is also novel and refreshing . . . 
 "With people in another rank, C : Eeade 
 [see No. 639] would hav managed this as 
 charmingly, tho he would hav thron into 
 it somewhat too much of the brilliancy of 
 the footlights; and Auerbach [See Nos. 
 2342, 2375, 2442 ] would hav done it with 
 equal naturalness ; but neither could hav 
 cast about it that poetic atmosphere which 
 is so peculiarly the gift of Bjornson and 
 of the Korthern mind, and which is felt 
 in its creations, as if the glamor of the 
 long summer days had got into literature. 
 ... In that region of novel characters. 
 
 wholesom sympathies, and simple inter- 
 ests tS which he transports us, we hav 
 not only a blissful sense of escape from 
 the jejune inventions and stoc repetitions 
 of what seems a failing art with us, but ar 
 aware of diir contact with an ex9ellent 
 and enviable civilization. Of course the 
 reader sees the Norwegians and thSir sur- 
 roundings throu Bjornson's poetic eyes, 
 and is aware that he is reading romanye, 
 yet he feels that thSre must be truth to 
 the real as wel as the ideal in these 
 stories." [Atlantic] — "In Arne we hav 
 a Norwegian drama-idyl wr6t of many 
 bits of landscape, dialog, description, but 
 pursued and penetrated by such an Imp 
 of the Perverse, such u. plenitude of pro- 
 voking and jerky inyident, so brusque 
 and explosiv in its manner, and so incom- 
 prehensible in its ever-changing motivs, 
 that we no more folio it than we folio a 
 capriccio of Liszt, even tho we ar en- 
 tranged with its vocal melody and sprite- 
 like changefuluess. In 'The Fisher Las- 
 sie' [No. 2713] it is different: the tale 
 has the same changeable charm of word 
 which 'Arne' has, and yet it is harmoni- 
 ous and intelligible in evolution and end." 
 [ Critic. 270T 
 
 , SAME, London, Bell, 1890. 2708 
 
 BARQUE FUTURE (The), [by Jo- 
 nas Lie: Chicago, Griggs, 1879.] "A 
 fresher, sweeter story than this we hav 
 not read for many a day. Its interest 
 lies not in intrica9y of plot, nor harroing 
 tragedy, nor brilliant dialog; but in the 
 faithful and vivid presentation of new 
 and strange scenery, the development of 
 a quiet but tender domestic history, and 
 the presentation of the hiest vues of char- 
 acter and duty. Thfire is no villainy, no 
 
 799 
 
NORWEGIAN NOVELS. 
 
 taint ill ingident or conversation; but 
 tlirou all the charm of a pure imagination 
 and a refined and refining purpos. The 
 story opens with storm and ship-wrec . . . 
 In this outline we hav given the reader 
 no idea of the real depths of the story, 
 which has its mystery and its counterplot 
 as wel as its romance ; nor hav we more 
 than barely hinted at the novel and 
 picturesque materials of which it is wrot, 
 but we hav said enuf to indicate the 
 grounds on which we base (5ilr judgment 
 of it. Its pictures of life in the north — the 
 fishermen of Norway, the lonely trading- 
 posts on the fjord, the habits of the peo- 
 ple — ar full of a simple and rare beauty." 
 [ Boston "Literary AVorld." 2709 
 
 BRIDAL MARCH (The) [by Bjorn- 
 STJERNE BjOrnson : Houghton, 1882 ; also 
 in "Life by the Fells," London, Strahan, 
 1879.] "Bjornson here does for Norway 
 what Auerbach did for the Black Forest 
 [ See Nos. 2342, 2375 and 2442] or Daudet 
 for Elsass [sic ! See No. 2100 ] . Half pas- 
 toral, half idyl, these tales hav the true 
 poetic charmi, and one finds in them the 
 whole range of experienje of a stil primitiv 
 people. The sketch of the horse Blakken, 
 and the little story of "A Dangerous Woo- 
 ing" ar, in a way, parallel passages. Leif, 
 who dies in his attempt to reach the Eagle's 
 Nest, in spite of the elder brother of 
 Thorvald, the priest's son, who carries off 
 with him the whole school to meet the 
 victorious bfiar-hunter and his booty." 
 [Athena;um. 3710 
 
 COMMODORE'S DAUGHTERS (The). 
 [ by JoXAS [Ladritz Edemil] Lie : Lon- 
 don, Heinemann, 1892.] "Jonas Lie is 
 chiefly, if not solely [ ? see Nos. 2709 & 2718] 
 knOn to English readers by "The 
 
 Pilot and his Wife" [No. 2720]. "The 
 Commodore's Dauters" is a much stronger 
 book ... Of the Commodore's 3 children, 
 the son is a selfish fribble, spoilt by his 
 mother, and stranded in a marriage for 
 money and without love, which secures 
 him neither love nor money. The elder 
 dauter is sharp of tung, and loses such 
 happiness as she might hav enjoyed. The 
 younger, baulked of a marriage with a 
 cousin whom she loves, "throes the bon- 
 net over the mil," and loses her lover by 
 a death at sea. It is all perfectly true; 
 but it is not relieved as it should be, and 
 it is not suffi5iently tinged by that more 
 universal knoledge of human nature 
 which the grfiat novelists hav, and which 
 puts things in proportion as wel as in 
 relief. Yet the book is wel worth read- 
 ing, and is on the whole about the best 
 Norwegian novel we kno." [Manchester 
 Guardian. 2711 
 
 DUST, [with "Captain Mausana") by 
 Bjornstjerne Bjornson: Houghton, 
 1882.] "Its literary style is admirable, 
 and as a singular mingling of pathetic 
 child-life with the most solemn questions 
 which can engage the mind, it is an ex- 
 ample of the coldest and clearest intellec- 
 tual judgment touched by poetic fire and 
 thrilled, if not warmed, by sympathy. 
 The story is that of two children whose 
 father is coldly radical, but whose mother 
 and governess ar 'religious' to the point 
 of seeing an answer to prayer in a sno- 
 storm or a dangerous ilness. The effect 
 of th(Sir teaching on the imaginativ tem- 
 peraments of the children is to lead them 
 in thfiir first perplexity in life to seek 
 the heaven which thgy hav been assured 
 is better than earth ; and the 'dust' is the 
 
 800 
 
NORWEGIAN NOVELS. 
 
 clogging superstition which the mother 
 has allowed to settle on her children's 
 souls when, instead of inspiring them 'to 
 vue life properly — to love life, to gain 
 courage for life, vigor for work, and 
 patriotism,' she has taut them 'that life 
 here helo is nothing to the life above ; that 
 to be a human being is far inferior to 
 being an angel ; that to liv is not by any 
 means as wel as being dead'." [ Crit- 
 ic. 2712 
 FISHER MAIDEN (The). [by 
 Bjornstjekxf, Bjokxson: N.-Y., Ley- 
 polcit, 1S69.] "It would be difficult to 
 conceive a more delicately inflected piece 
 of dramatic recital than this. It is the 
 history of an ingenuous, healthy, hily 
 imaginativ girl, whose gloing impulses 
 involv her in a curious inconsistency and 
 faithlessness with a pair of lovers, and 
 bring temporary disgra9e upon her moth- 
 er. But at last her imagination makes an 
 escape into art, and she becomes an ac- 
 tress. In the prejudi9ed community she 
 livs in she can not do this without a 
 struggle; and the climax of the tale is in 
 her ultimate triumph." [ G : P. La- 
 throp.] — "The heroin has a mystery in 
 her character from childhood. Indeed, 
 the author is careful to put the proper 
 amount of odness Into her ancestry for 
 two generations bac, so that no one can 
 dispute her right to be peculiar. The 
 mystery is solvd when Petra has an op- 
 portunity to witness a theatrical perform- 
 ance. To be an actress becomes her grfiat 
 passion. This is the career for which, by 
 the constitution of her nature, she is 
 destiud. She had had her love [affairs, 
 but the 'grand passion' is now subordin- 
 ate to another. Her lover, too, with far 
 
 more observation than that class ar gen- 
 erally presumed to hav, sees the propriety 
 of her decision. He recovers from his 
 despair and gets other 'filling' for the 
 aching void with a gelerity sometimes 
 witnessed in life, but seldom seen in a 
 novel." [ Southern Eeview. 
 
 , SAME, transl.by Plesner, Cassell, 
 
 1870; by I-Ijerleid, Trubner, 1871; by 
 Low, Bell, 1890. 2713 
 
 <JARirAX AND WORSE [by Alex- 
 ander L. Kielland; London, Paul, 
 1SS5.] "is charming reading. A gr&t 
 variety of characters iir iutroduged, and 
 ar admirably treated. The two old 
 brothers Garmau — "The Consul" and 
 "the Attach^," remind one of Mr. Shandy 
 and Uncle Toby, not in themseivs, but in 
 thfiir touching relations to each other. 
 Everything in the book is very real, the 
 talk, the physical features of the country, 
 its varying atmospheric conditions, and 
 the way events often fritter off and 
 dwindle away to nothing, just as th(Sy do 
 in life. In fact Mr. Kielland's work is 
 not so much an artistic picture as a 
 striking realistic study." ["Westminster 
 Review.] See, also, 8KIPPMB 
 WOBSM. 2714 
 
 GUNNAR. [by Hjalmar Hjokth 
 Boyesen: Boston, Osgood, 1S7i.] "The 
 plot is of the simplest, being what might 
 be termd the primal plot. A lo-born 
 youth loves above him, is loved again, 
 and leaves his village to return as a suc- 
 5essful artist and demand the fair one 
 from her cruel parents. This being the 
 old, old story, we look to the acQessories 
 of the love of Gunnar and of the yello- 
 haired Ragnhild for the requisit amount 
 of novelty, and if the by-play and the 
 
 801 
 
NORWEGI.VN NOVELS. 
 
 setting hav nothing startling about tliem, 
 tMy ar, at least, frcsli and charming as 
 nature is charming. It is impossible to 
 read •■ttunnar" without feeling that the 
 author is a poet." [ Scribner's. 2715 
 
 HAPPY BOY (The) [by Bjorn- 
 STJERNK BjoRXsciN : Cambridge, Mass., 
 S'ever, ISTO.] "is a charming story, 
 beautifully told ; there is a freshness and 
 novelty given to the "old, old stury" of a 
 true love which did not run smooth, — the 
 love of a peasant boy for one above him 
 in position and riches, tho botli belSng to 
 the peasant class ; and the story tels how 
 the little boy loved the girl; and the 
 youth, the maiden ; how the young man 
 went out and worked for her sake, and 
 how he succeeded ; and how stil the ob- 
 stacles continued, but th^y wer both faith- 
 ful, and at last wer made happy ; tho for 
 the matter of that, thSy had never been 
 miserable, for thSy had never mistrusted 
 each other. ThSre is a schoolmaster, who 
 is as much beloved by the reader as by 
 the children in the story. Oeyvind's 
 father and mother ar wel sketched. 
 Marit, the young girl, is like a young girl 
 all over the world, but her little coquet- 
 ries and vagillations ar charming, for she 
 makes all she says and dijcs seem delight- 
 ful to others besides Ooyvind, and to the 
 reader espegially! ThSre is a, charm of 
 simphgity, a fragrance from the pine- 
 woods, over the whole tale. It is also full 
 of sweet and tender wisdom,— and no one 
 can read it without feeling the better for 
 its unpretending words of help and coun- 
 sel." [Athenseum.]— "It is a trifle, 
 judged by the present standard of plot 
 and elaboration of character, but it is such 
 a trifle as only a man of genius could hav 
 
 produged. "WTiat distinguishes BjSrnson 
 beyond any writer of his class with whom 
 we ar familiar is his intuitiv knoledge of 
 the heart in the first flush of virginal love. 
 It was that which made "Arne" so de- 
 lightful, and it is that which makes "The 
 Happy Boy" so enchajting. It has no 
 plot to speak of . . . but then how ex- 
 quisit this is, as Bjoruson has handled it, 
 and how life-like ar his characters!" 
 [Putnam's.] — "A village in which the 
 schoolmaster watches the love-affairs, 
 receives the confldenfcs, reproves the 
 sins, and invests the money of the floe ; 
 in which the flx-st grSat ambition of a 
 youth's hfe is to pass brilliantly an exam- 
 ination for confirmation : while the greatest 
 temptation of the hero's life is to pass this 
 same examination and by his subsequent 
 course at an agricultural school, with a 
 mind full of determination, to "spite," 
 by his sucgess, an older and wealthier 
 rival for the affections of his little sweet- 
 heart. Such is the bacground on which 
 the sweet, natural, hopeful, ardent boy 
 livs out his simple drama of love and 
 work. The affectionate good sense of his 
 parents; the pretty Marit, always so much 
 more loyal than she seems ; the goodness 
 and shrewdness of the schoolmaster; the 
 boy's industry, perseverance and dogility 
 — all make the tale idyllic." [ Calif or- 
 nian. 3716 
 
 , SAilE ("The Happy Lad''), 
 
 London, Blackie, 1882, 118 p. 
 
 , SAME ("Ovind"), London, 
 
 Simpkin, 1869. 
 
 HARDY yOESEMAX (A) [by "Edna 
 Lyall," i. e., Ada Ellen Bayley : London, 
 Hurst, 1889.] "is a remarkably wel con- 
 structed and pleasant story . . . Frithiof's 
 
 802 
 
NORWEGIAN NOVELS. 
 
 disciplinary misfortunes ar of an ordinary 
 Ifind. He learns wliat English flirtation, 
 snobbishness, and selfishness ar, with the 
 help of Blanche Morgan, who jilts him, 
 and her father, who, after using hiui and 
 his relativs for holiday purposes, has no 
 abjection to letting ruin descend upon 
 them. He makes the acquaintance of 
 English vulgarity in the shape of James 
 Horaer, the partner of Bonifage the 
 music-seller. His troubles bring him to 
 death's door. He is even suspected of a 
 petty theft. Then, of course, when things 
 ar at thfiir blackest, Frithiof's prospects 
 begin to mend, and finally fortune smiles 
 upon him. This is as it should be, and as 
 it has been a thousand times. But a va- 
 riety of essentially fresh scenes and char- 
 acters ar mixed with the evolution of this 
 familiar story." [Academy. 3717 
 
 LAILA, by J. A. Friis, London, S. P. 
 C. K., 1883 = No. 780. 
 
 LITE BY THE FELLS AND FIORDS, 
 by BjfiRNSON [London, jSVj'a7tan, 1879], 
 contains "Arne" [Xo. 2607] and "The 
 Happy Boy" [No. 2715.] 2718 
 
 LITTLE GREY, the Pony of Nord- 
 fjord, by Jonas Lie : London, Hamilton, 
 1S73. 2719 
 
 LOVE AND LIFE IN NORWAY = 
 SYNNO VE SOLBAKKEN. 
 
 NEWLY-MARRIED COUPLE (The) 
 [by Bjornstjeexe Bjornson; London, 
 Simpkin, 1S71.] "is a comedy, very 
 slight in its construction, but indicating a 
 whole drama of hopes, and fears, and 
 passions beneath the surfage. A young 
 man has married a girl, the only child of 
 rich parents ; the young people ar to dwel 
 with them, as the dauter can not and wil 
 not be separated from them. Laura has 
 
 loved Axel, and the parents hav consent- 
 ed to the marriage as thdy would hav 
 given th(Sir dauter ar.y new toy she might 
 hav wished for. She is quite contented 
 and happy, but Axel finds himself little 
 more than a supernumerary footman. 
 Laura loves her parents, and can not un- 
 derstand that any change has taken place 
 in her relations toards them. Thfire is a 
 good deal of humor in the picture of the 
 household, and the immutable laws which 
 rule even the position of the tables and 
 chairs. Axel, in a fit of disgust, deter- 
 mins to go away and take his wife with 
 him, and, after a painful struggle, he 
 carries his point. A year is supposed to 
 elapse, and the scene shos Axel's home, 
 which he has furnished and arranged 
 exactly like the home from which he had 
 taken his wife. He has done all in his 
 power to win Laura's f orgivness ; but the 
 wife is a spoiled child, and keeps up a 
 feeling of sullen resentment. Matilde, a 
 humble friend, whose relations with the 
 family ar very delicately indicated, ac- 
 companied the wife w^hen she was taken 
 from her parents. AYhen Axel was try- 
 ing to win Laura for his wife, he had, 
 with a lover's selfishness, made use of 
 Matilde as a stepping-stone to reach her. 
 Matilde had believed that Axel loved her. 
 The event has undegeived her; but she 
 stil loves him with a noble, unselfish love, 
 and she is loyal to Laura and to the fam- 
 ily. It is in the indication of Matilde's 
 position and character that BjOrnsou shos 
 his dramatic ability : it is charmingly 
 done. Laura continues so long perverse 
 and estranged, that the husband is almost 
 alienated. Matilde might win him for 
 herself. Laura has gron jealous ; Matilde 
 
XORWF.GIAN NOVT'.LS. 
 
 continues loyal. At this critical moment 
 the parents come to visit thSir child; and 
 Mutilde i;ontrives to smooth the way to 
 an explanation between Laura and her 
 busband. The parents ar charmed with 
 all thfiy »ee. Axel is raised to the summit 
 of feli5ity, and says, with the sublime 
 egoism of a happy man, "Now you can 
 go, Mutilde;" but Laura has a sense of 
 childlike gratitude, and says, "Without 
 you I should never hav got Axel." [Ath- 
 entcum. 3720 
 
 NILS JENSEN [with "A Man of His 
 Word") by W : E : NoRRis : Smith, 1885.] 
 "is much the best story of the series. 
 ThSre is a touch of real pathos in the 
 way in which this noble Norwegian sacri- 
 figes himself when he finds that the 
 woman of his heart is in love with a 
 German painter. The descriiJtions of 
 scenery also ar exceedingly good." 
 [Academy. 2721 
 
 OVIND = THE HAPPY BOY. 
 
 PILOT AND HIS WIFE (The), [by 
 Jonas Lie: Chicago, Griggs, 1876; Edin., 
 Blackwood, 1877.] "No one can read 
 this book without feeling the breath of a 
 civilization which is simpler and purer 
 than 6uTS. And stil, we would not hav it 
 inferred that the chief attraction of this 
 beautiful tale lies in its strangeness. 
 Those touches which make the world 
 akin ar suffi9iently abundant to render 
 the emotions of the prin9ipal actors not 
 only intelligible, but by very reason of 
 thSir kinship to (5ur on, most absorbingly 
 interesting." [ Scribner's.] — "The char- 
 acters ar as forgible and as strong as the 
 wild scenery among which thfiy ar plaged. 
 The Pilot's wife is a rare character; at 
 first appearan9e she seems mismated to 
 
 the weatherbeaten sailor wh5 seems more 
 of a taskmaster than a husband, but as 
 we folio thfiir fortunes we gro to appre- 
 ciate the rare influence which she exerts 
 over him, and to understand that one of 
 its chief powers lies in her inherent 
 gentleness and apparent submission. The 
 The book does not deal with an elaborate 
 plot; on the contrary the forte of the 
 author seems to lie in his power of char- 
 acterization." [Library Table.]— "The 
 scene is now in Norway, now in America ; 
 we folio the hero to Pernambuco, the hero- 
 in to Amsterdam, and the scenes of South 
 American life ar very vivid. This con- 
 stant variety adds considerably to the 
 life of the story, and thSre is no point 
 slurred over or carelessly treated. But 
 the psychological interest is felt to be 
 greatest when Elizabeth and Salve ar 
 married, and return to Norway, whSre he 
 becomes a pilot. The natural jealousy of 
 his nature, nurtured by early misadven- 
 ture and hardship, deepens to a mania, 
 and the figure of Elizabeth, under this 
 terrible moral torture, attains a noble 
 strength and beauty. The story, as a 
 mere novel, is extremely skilful and viva- 
 cious, and wil everywhere be read with 
 interest ; but it belongs to literature in the 
 polish of style and delicacy of observation 
 which remind the reader of the precise, 
 almost mannered, writing of the author 
 of 'Madame Bovary' [No. 2122] and Lie 
 is as fresh and wholesome as the grSat 
 Frenchman is morbid and over-subtle . . . 
 It is difficult to guess why the translator 
 has taken the liberty of omitting all the 
 first 22 pages, as it destroys an efiect evi- 
 dently planned by the author." [Athe- 
 najum. 2722 
 
 80t 
 
NORWEGIAN NOVELS. 
 
 RAILROAD AND THE CHURCH- 
 YARD (The). [ by Bjornstjekne 
 Bjornson : ( with "The Flying Mail." 
 Cambridge, Mass., Sever, 1S70.] "The 
 third story is by BjOrnsou. It is not so 
 characteristic as Arne, but is i» simple 
 tale of village life, the main feature of 
 which is the quarrel of two once dear 
 friends. One supplants the other in pop- 
 ular favor, and becomes the chief man of 
 the village, and the title is derived from 
 the projection of a railroad, which it is 
 proposed to carry throu the churchyard. 
 The story is very quiet and pleasing, but 
 it lacs the beauties which distinguish the 
 author's other tales." [ Boston "Literary 
 World." 2723 
 
 SAETAROE [by James A. Mait- 
 land: Peterson, 1S58.] "is an interest- 
 ing story, and inspires us with a hi re- 
 spect for Mr. Maitland's talents . . . But 
 small defects of this kind wfiigh nothing 
 against the obvious merits of the book." 
 [Southern Literary Messenger. 2724 
 
 SIGNE'S HISTORY. [ by Anna Mag- 
 dalene (Kragh) Thoresbn : Chapman, 
 1865.] "The scene is laid in a primitiv 
 village situated on a fiord, a village lying 
 amidst mountain passes and glaciers. 
 The clergyman is the greatest man knon 
 to the inhabitants, and even the prinjipal 
 yeoman is a kind of local aristocrat. But 
 if he is aristocratic in the eyes of the 
 villagers, he is but a peasant in the esti- 
 mation of the pastor, who has been edu- 
 cated at a university and has passed his 
 early days in the society of Copenhagen. 
 The latter, in fact, is hauty and disdain- 
 ful, and givs himself airs which even in 
 England would scargely be assumed by 
 anybody under a Canon. The interest of 
 
 the story turns upon an attachment which 
 arises between Signe, the rich peasant's 
 dauter, and Gudmund the son of the 
 clergyman. The result of this unhappy 
 intimacy (which does not meet the ap- 
 proval of the parents of either) is very 
 melancholy, and the tale must.be deemed 
 rather didactic than pleasing." [Athe- 
 naeum. 2725 
 
 SKIPPER WORSE [by Alexander 
 L. Kielland: Low, 1SS6.] "is a sad 
 tale, but lifelike and natural; the several 
 characters and incidents ar developed 
 with the ease and power which can dis- 
 pense with the sensational, and the whole 
 picture is continually lited with quiet 
 humor and kindly wit, no less than with a 
 keen and penetrating observation." 
 [Spectator.] See GASMAN. 2726 
 
 SPELLBOUND FIDDLER (The), 
 [by Kristofer Janson: Chicago, 
 Griggs, 1880.] "The title of this book is 
 not very clear, but the book itself is as 
 clear as can be; pellugid and sparkling 
 and fresh, like a mountain stream. It is 
 a romance founded on fact, and we ar 
 able to say that the part which Ole Bull is 
 made to take in it is told with substantial 
 truthfulness. The story is a very pretty 
 and touching one of a Norse boy who 
 grew up with a genius for the violin, 
 which brot him both good and evil for- 
 tune, — told with that simpligity and sweet- 
 ness which attach to the best Norse 
 stories. Between his gift for music and 
 his appetite for drink poor Torgeir has a 
 hard time of it, and many a wrench ; but 
 throu all his trial the faithful and lovable 
 Kari stands by him with the fervor and 
 courage of the true wife, and the picture 
 of her devotion is very tenderly drawn." 
 
 805 
 
NORWEGIAN NOVELS. 
 
 [Boston "Literary World." 272T 
 
 STORY OF ULLA, by K. L. Arnold, 
 in Short Stories, mar., 1S92, 22 p. 3738 
 SYNNOVE SOLBAIOiEN. [by 
 Bjornstjerne BjOrnson: transl. by 
 Julie Sutter, Macmillan, 18S2 ; Houghton, 
 18S2.] "It is refreshing to light upon 
 anything so healthy and natural as this 
 primitiv tale of peasant life. The 19th 
 century, with its noisy politics and its 
 complex society, had, until very recently, 
 no existence in the remote mountain 
 valleys of Norway, and thfire was a, 
 patriarchal simplicity in the manners and 
 speech of the people which seemed to 
 offer but the slenderest resources to the 
 novelist. It is in the way he has used 
 these slender resources that Bjornson has 
 shon that he has the true artistic instinct." 
 [Century.] —It "is a picture of peasant life, 
 shoing thfiir piety, tb&ir love of home and 
 of religion, thSir Church services,— which 
 to a primitiv people take the pla5e of 
 amusements, — and thfiir family life. 
 Thorbjorn, the eldest son, is a grfiat, ruf 
 lad, who means no il, but who has the 
 faculty of always seeming to be a ruf and 
 nauty boy, with a strong, stubborn wil, 
 which his father, who belongs to » strict 
 religious sect, tries to beat out of him; 
 the mother, a sweet, gentle woman, en- 
 deavors to soften things ; the little sister 
 loves her ruf, strong brother; and thfire is 
 a beautiful young maiden, the dauter of a 
 rich nfibor, with whom Thorbjorn falls in 
 love when thSy ar both little children. 
 The influence of this love upon him is 
 delicately described. The characteristic 
 of Bjornson's writing is his faculty for 
 shoing the beautiful soul which may 
 underlie the rude and contradictory out^ 
 
 ward seeming; and for delineating the 
 efforts by which it is striving to work 
 itself clear, and to make the outward 
 seeming and the inward intention gro 
 into harmony. He exQels in painting the 
 pathetic indication of the difficulties and 
 contradictions of a fine character in a 
 'state of groth, and in shoing the struggles 
 to do right. The grSat simplicity of 
 BjOrnson almost conceals the dramatic 
 faculty evinced in his stories, which givs 
 them thSir freshness and thfiir charm. Of 
 all his works which we hav seen, we pre- 
 fer the first by which he was introduced 
 to the English reader — the story of Ovind, 
 'The Happy Boy'." [ Athenajum.] — 
 "Readers whose administration for 
 Bjornson, kindled by the charming story 
 of "Arne," was perhaps a little cooled 
 by what seemed the inferior merit of the 
 "Eishcr Maiden," wil be glad to find in 
 this book a work which is nearly as de- 
 lightful as "Arne" itself, the (Power) 
 translation of which was an almost per- 
 fect piece of literary workmanship, in 
 which the English-speaking reader lost 
 none of the meaning, and wonderfully 
 little of the beauty and vigor, of the orig- 
 inal . . . The story of "Synnbve Solbak- 
 ken," or, as the translators for some 
 incomprehensible reason hav renamed it, 
 "Love and Life in Norway," is in itself so 
 charming that nothing but the clumsiest 
 manipulation could hav made it less than 
 attraetiv, and to such a charge this trans- 
 lation is by no means open . . . The story 
 itself, for beauty and picturesqueness, 
 hardly suffers by comparison with 
 "Arne." Synuove is perhaps hardly so 
 charming as Eli Baardsdatter, and thCre 
 is no scene in this book which makes so 
 
 806 
 
NORWEGIAN NOVELS. 
 
 unique an impression as that in wliich 
 Arne's mother displays to Eli her son's 
 hidden treasures, and with timid mater- 
 nal cunning tries to secure for him a prize 
 which is already his without his knoing 
 it. In this story the interest centres on 
 the hero, ThorbjOrn, whose impetuous 
 temper, a little aggravated by the mis- 
 taken harshness of a father who stil loves 
 him passionately, is finally brot under 
 control by the grfiat influen9e which his 
 love for SynnOve has over him. It is the 
 w^ay in which the story is told, and the 
 beauty of isolated scenes, such as that in 
 which Thorbjdrn and his father come to 
 SynnOve's parents to beg for her hand, or 
 that in which the pair of lovers iirst 
 acknoledge thSir passion, which make the 
 book so charming." [Athenieum. 2729 
 
 , SAME ("Love and Life in Nor- 
 way") , Gassell, 1870. 
 
 TALES OF TWO COUNTRIES [by 
 Alex. L. Kielland: London, Osgood, 
 1891.] "excel in vividness of present- 
 ment and keen appreciation of nature; 
 but we demur to the author's claims to 
 
 be deemed a humorist or a story-teller. 
 He can be sympathetic, but he is seldom 
 genial; his prevailing bent is toards 
 pessimism, and his satire is uniformly 
 mordant. A story is generally supposed 
 to hav a beginning and an end ; but th6re 
 is no rounding off or reading- up in Kiel- 
 land's work. Thes^ "tales" ar rather 
 episodes or transcripts of a fragment of 
 life, and in spite of thiSir poetical feeling 
 and pathos the resultant impression left 
 by thSir perusal is singularly tantalizing 
 and unsatisfying." [Athenaeum.] — "The 
 intellectual power is unmistakable, and 
 thSre is in the literary manner a reservd 
 irony which is very effectiv as a means 
 toards the desired ends of impression; 
 but the pertinacious turning-up of the 
 seamy side of life deprives the stories of 
 all charm other than that given by a sort 
 of relentless cleverness. Notwithstanding 
 this, however, there ar 2 or 3 short 
 sketches, which in their sombre beauty 
 prove that Mr. Archer does not miss the 
 mark in speaking of Kielland as a poet." 
 [Academy. 2730 
 
 807 
 
INDEX TO AUTHORS.* 
 
 A X( iNYMors, Alcestis 
 ■'^ (oS2), Alice Graeme 
 (1044), Anthony Fairfax 
 (1056), Antonio di Carara 
 (973) , Banning .t Blessing 
 (107S), Basil ,St. John 
 (10S6), Beautiful Edith 
 (1080), Beauty of Amalfl 
 (603), Bertie (6 1), Blanche 
 Seymour (1108), Blythe 
 House (1111), Boscobel 
 (10) , Bretou Maiden (616) , 
 Chateau Lescure (635), 
 Chateau Morville (636), 
 Cinderella (1149), Co- 
 quette (2361), Culmshire 
 Folk (1179), David Arm- 
 strong (1190), Democracy 
 (228), Dingy house (1205)", 
 Divided (1210), Dr. Hcr- 
 mione (1211), Duke's 
 Marriage (2021), Elsie 
 (1242), Fallen Angel 
 (1261), First Temptation 
 (2390); For Better for 
 Worse (1276), Forester of 
 Altenheim (2395), Four 
 Crotchets (12S4), Four 
 .Schoolfellows (1286), Gar- 
 den of Eden (1296), 
 Gemini (37), Horrid Girl 
 (1372), Hurst & Hanger 
 (1378) , Ideala (1379;0, In 
 Exile (2432), It Might 
 Have Been (1395), Lady 
 Hetty (1443), Likes anil 
 Dislikes (486 h),Lil (1473), 
 Lost Battle (2114), Lost 
 Inheritance (1483), Lost 
 Keputation (1485), Love 
 
 or Tride (803), Madame 
 Lucas (2128), Madelaine's 
 Fault (2130), Man's a Man 
 for a' That (493), Max 
 Wild (2471), Jlodern 
 Greek Heroine (1583), 
 Money (2474), Monksford 
 (1588), Morning Gray 
 (1592), My Cousin Maii- 
 rice (501q), My Guardian 
 (1599), ily Insect Queen 
 (1600), My Marriage 
 (1604), Jly Queen (1607), 
 Jly Trivial Life (1608), 
 Xear to Happiness (2187) , 
 Xora (2477), Xortham 
 Cloisters (1626), Xot for 
 the World (2478) , Only a 
 Girl (2195), Our Little 
 Ann (1055), Overmatched 
 (1658), Pen (1673), I'olJy 
 (1091), Princess Amelie 
 (903), Pure-squled Liar 
 (349), Queen (A) (2501), 
 Rare Pale Margaret (1722) , 
 liebel Rose (1726), Red 
 Cross (916), Regent Rosa- 
 lind (1730), Repei;tance of 
 Paul Weiitworth (1731), 
 Rubina (31)2), St. Agnes 
 Bay (1752), Shadrach 
 (1766), Sister (1790), Story 
 of Colette (2267), Straight 
 On (2270), Strathrowan 
 (1817). Sunshine and 
 Shadow (1822), Sylvan 
 Queen (1828), Taken by 
 Siege (379) , Tales of Euro- 
 pean Life (538p), Three 
 Geoffreys, (1847), Three 
 
 Sisters (541p), 'Twixt 
 AVife & Fathe-.-land (546), 
 Under the Ban (2297) , 
 YillageA.stronomer(2547), 
 AVTiat You Will (1907), 
 White Slave (2703), Will 
 Denbigh (1920), Winna 
 (1921), Wolf at the Door 
 (0405),Women'sHusbands 
 (0408), Young Mistley 
 (1938) 
 
 Abbott, L., 217 
 
 About, E., 1980, 2053, 773, 
 2143, 2175, 2188, 2238, 98*3, 
 2266, 2272, 2287, 2288, 2294, 
 2307 
 
 Adams, M.., 51 [2228 
 
 Aids, IL, 1389, 1618, 1676, 
 
 AlcottL.. M.,90t, 239, 286, 
 74. 846, 327, 360. 367, 0409 
 
 Aldrich, T : B., 898, ;^47, 
 353, 520, 144, 145 
 
 "Alexander, Mrs.," 1029, 
 1177, 450, 1350, 734, 1480, 
 1586, 1720, 1913. 1934, 2464 
 
 Alger, Horatio, 95 [1858 
 
 Alldridge, L., 1127, 1712, 
 
 Allen, Grant, 417, 540, 1683 
 
 , Phuebe, 16.S6 
 
 Altieri, O. (C), 628, 754, 
 2076, 2239 [ 747 h 
 
 Andersen, H. C. 882, 2583, 
 
 Anstey, F., 1305,1661 
 
 Apel, J: A:, 693 
 
 Arbouville, 2227,228], 2301 
 
 Archer, E. M. (T.), 1314, 
 1876 
 
 Armstrong, W:, 980 
 
 Arnold,E. L.,2728 
 
 "Arr, E. H.," 94 
 
 *PART I., Novels of American Country Life (Numbers 1-178), 
 II., Novels of American City Life (Nos. 179-0413), III., International 
 Novels (Nos. 401-564),— price: 8 .50 each; IV., Romantic Novels (Nos. 
 579-1024), $1.00; v., British Novels (1025-1941), $2.00; VI., Novels 
 
 descriptive of Life in France (Nos. 1943-2322), $1.00; of Germany 
 
 (Nos. 2323-2563), $1.00; of Italy (Nos. 2565-2609), $ .25; of 
 
 Russia (Nos. 2610-2705), $ .50; of Norway (Nos. 2706-30), $ .25. 
 
INDKX TO AUTHORS OF WORKS NOTICED IN DK8CinPTI\E LISTS OF NOVELS. 
 
 "Auer, Adelhcid," 2440 
 Auerbach, B., 881, 524,2328, 
 2342, 2347, 2351, 2357, 2360, 
 2367, 2375, 2391, 2396, 2412, 
 2441, 2442, 2448, 2455, 2458, 
 2469, 2475, 2509 1, 2499, 
 2552 
 Aulney, L6oiiie, 2190 
 Austen, J .. , 1246, 1515, 1627, 
 
 1679, 1697 
 Austin, J.. (G.),21, 89 
 "Ayrton, S. C." [M.. F.. 
 Chapman] 1762 
 
 BACHELOR'S BLUN- 
 DER (A), by w: e: 
 IfoijRis: (New- York, H: 
 'Holt & Company, 8°, 50 
 cents.) 1076 
 
 Baker, ,r. A., 1129 
 
 , ^V : M., 214 
 
 Baldwin, Jo. G., 33 k 
 Balzac, H., 583, 1944, 1946, 
 1961, 1964, 1976, 1982, 1986, 
 1991, 1993, 2005, 2007, 2008, 
 2018, 2019, 2020, 2024, 2027, 
 2028, 2050, 2065, 2072, 2104, 
 2124, 2126, 2165, 2174, 2201, 
 2206. 2208, 2212 d, 2223, 
 2226, 2253. 2260, 2289, 2299, 
 2300 
 Rardtcn, C. >\'., 127 
 Biirker, Bernard, 1240 
 Barr, A. E. (IL). 1103, 615. 
 
 1186, 761, 1534, 1805 
 Barrett, Frank, 1362 
 Barrie, J. M., 1475 m, 1920 p 
 Bari-ili, 2573, 2576, 2597, 2608 
 Barry, Alfred, 862 
 Bartlctt, Th.. 264 
 Bartol, M... 271 
 Bates. A., 68, 843a, 337, 112, 
 
 339 
 Baylor, F..C., 509 
 Beacon.'ifleld, earl of, 1159, 
 
 682, 730, 801, 999, 1895 
 Beale, A... 1782,1804 
 Bean, II .. M., 0403 
 B6cliard, F:, 2155 
 Becker, A:, ^ 2533 
 Beecher, II : W., 99 
 Bell, ,J. F., 1695 
 
 Bellamy, C: Jo., 202 
 
 , E:, 232,138 
 
 ,E..W. (C). 253, 292 
 
 Bfilot, Adolplie, 2137 
 Belt, H. P., 841 
 Benedict, F. L., 88, 322, 117 
 Bentley, T:, 1264 
 Bergsoe, 899 [2105,2315 
 Bernard, C : de, 2031, 2103. 
 Bernhard, M.., 2429 r, 2506 
 Bersier, 819, 495, 2302 
 Berthet, L. E. B., 818, 2252 
 Bcsant, W., 1058, 10^3, 1143, 
 
 1424, 1769, 1021 , 1853, 1872 ; 
 
 and Ja. Bice, 1047, 1315, 
 
 1587, 1603, 1725, 1765, 1779, 
 
 1820, 1872, 1923 
 Beverly, M., 1589 [2598 
 Bewicke, A. E. N., 1523, 
 Biart, Lucien, 2026 
 Biernatzki, 2420 p 
 Bigot, M.. (H.), 287, 880, 
 
 533, 536, 2035, 2157 
 Biller, E., 2292 
 Bishop, \V: II:, 274 
 Blaze, E. (S.), 1948 
 BjOrnsen, B., 427, 2707, 2710, 
 
 2712, 2713, 2716, 2718, 2720, 
 
 2723, 2729 
 Black, C, 1652, 1825 
 
 , Ma. Moyes, 1384 
 
 , W:, 1090, 1187, 1285, 
 
 1324, 1383, 1388, 1430, 1448, 
 
 1488, 807, 1505, 813, 829, 
 
 1674, 1700, 905, 1777, 1807, 
 
 1815, 1816, 1015, 1846, 1914 
 Blackmore, R : D., 584, 642, 
 
 661, 1176^ 684, 1435, 798, 
 
 814, 833, 953 
 Blackwell, A. B., 276 
 Blagden, Isa, 406 d 
 Blaze "de Bury," 1948 
 Blind, Mathilde, 974 
 "Bonner, Slierwood," 72 
 Bourget, Paul, 1951, 2117, 
 
 2203, 2276; 2303 
 Bowles, Emily, 2074 
 Boy-Ed, Ida, 2485 t 
 Boyesen, H. H., 504, 2715 
 Boyle, F., 695, 1275 
 Brachvogel, A. E., 2407 d 
 
 Braddon, M.. E.., 1373,755, 
 
 1418, 777, 1060, 982, 986 
 Bradley, M..E. (N.), 24 r 
 
 Bradshaw, ( ),1738 
 
 Bramston, M.., 1244, 1742 
 Brentano,C. ,2429 k 
 Brock, F..E..G.(B.), 1527 
 Brodie, Carrick, 735 [ 1002 
 Bronte, C, 762, 519,1892, 
 
 , Emily, 1022 
 
 Brooks, [C: W:] S. 1059 
 Brouglitou, Ehoda, 420, 
 
 1156,1406,1611,1630,1727, 
 
 1768 
 Brown, Alice, 249 
 
 , H.. D., 161 
 
 , W:P., 364 
 
 Bruce, E. M., 158 
 Brush, C. (0,215,60 
 Buchanan, H. (J.), 668, 1710 
 
 . "Rachel," 227 
 
 , Ro., 1287, 835 
 
 Bulflnch, S. G., 740 
 Bulgarin, Thaddeus, 2047 
 Bulow, A. von, 2497 
 Bulwer. E :, Upg* Lytton. 
 Banner, H: C, 313 
 Bunnett, F..E..,2454 
 Burnett, F.. [E. ] (H.), 
 
 1216, 450, [1258] , 1339, 793, 
 
 75, 1553, 900, 1716, 1758, 
 
 1831, 383 
 Burnham, C. L.. (R.), 86 t, 
 
 226. 97, 325, 170 
 Burrowes, Rose, 1489 
 Burton, ^\'., 127, 22 m 
 
 ^ButIer3JLJi04 
 
 Butt. B.M.. 1197. CSl, 1559, 
 
 2023, 2064 
 
 , Geraldine, 1802 
 
 Butterworth, H., 394 
 Buxton,— (L.),593 [387 
 Bynner, E. F.,5S1, 98, 897, 
 "Byr, Ro.,-' 2527 
 Byrrne, E. F., 1248, 1348 
 
 Cable, G: W., 614, 234, 
 720, 80S, 874, 964 
 Cadell' J. ( ),1379 [1030 
 Caddy, Florence ( ), 
 Caine,T: Hall, 672, 940 
 Cameron, Emily (Sharp), 
 
IXDEX TO AlTIlOltS 01'" WOliKS NOTICED IN DKstTiirTlVE LLSTS Ol'' NOVELS. 
 
 UTO [171 
 
 CampbelJ, n .. (S.), 48, 35S, 
 Ciipcs, J : MooiiK, 501 
 Carow,Raclicl,539 
 Carey, Ji. N., 1067, 1080, 
 1251, 1278, 1355^ 1491, 
 1533 a, 1614, 1620, 1648, 
 1714, 1737a, 1706, 1903, 1933 
 Carlcton.AV:, 1019 
 Carpenter, E. B., 141 
 Carr, Alarie, 545 li 
 
 , Alice. Vansitt.\1!T 
 
 (Strettel), 1522 • 
 Carriugton, K .., 193 [ 114 m 
 Cary, Aliee,. 15 m, 41, SO p. 
 Gate, E. J .., 377 
 Catherine II., 2646 ^n 
 
 Catherwootl, M.. {II. I, 221, 
 
 126, 924 
 Cavazza, E.. , 2.'i74 m 
 COMres, P., 2262 
 Cervantes, 676 
 Chamberlain, X. II.. 196 
 (iiampiuy, E.. [J.] (W.), 
 
 424 
 Chaplin, II. AV., 23 
 Cherl)uliez, V :, 053, 768, 
 499, 2082, 2085, 2090, 2158, 
 2219,2234.2241,2242 
 Chesebro, Caroline, 34, 114 
 Chesney, G: T., 1702 
 Chotwynd, J .. B. (D.),1757 
 Childar, Cath., 492 Ic, 1223 
 CHILDEEN OF THE 
 EARTH, by AkniR R. 
 -Macfaulane : (New- 
 A'ork, H: Holt <li Co., 
 cloth, |I., flexible cloth, 
 50 cents.) 213 
 
 Claflin, M..B.,I22h 
 Clark, M.., 13931- 
 Clarke, Cecil, 558 p, 1243 
 Clayton, C, 1073, 1236 
 Cleland, Ko., 1079,1393,388 
 Clement, C. (E.),439 
 Clifford,!.. (L.), 1576, 1839 
 Clive, K .. , 2374 
 Cobb, S. D., 47 
 
 , Sylvanus, 775 
 
 , T :, 1642 
 
 Collins, M. [Cook], 1390 
 
 , Willde, 601, 671,1255, 
 
 1359, 1461, 1619, 1023 
 "(Jolombi, JIarchesa," 25R5, 
 
 2607 
 Comyn, L. Jf., 439 h, 10166 
 CONFESSIONS OF HAU- 
 RY LOUREQUERtThe), 
 by Levek: (Hoston, 
 Little, Brown & Co., 
 1 vols. 8°, illustrated by 
 Phiz. $5.) , 727' 
 
 CONSUELO, by George 
 Sand, (Philadelphia, T. 
 B. Peterson (fc Bros.,\1°, 
 11.25. paper, $,75). C50 
 •■Conway, H.," 1265 
 Cook, [K:] Dutton, 1669, 
 
 1785 "^ 
 Cooke, Rosi' (Terry), 64 r, 
 
 225,140, 142, 143,954 
 "Coolidge, Susan," 251, 73 
 Coombs, A.. (S.),712 
 Cooper, Ja. F., 466 1, 785. 893 
 
 ,K.. (S.),1342 
 
 , T :, 689 
 
 CoppcJe, Fr., 2003, 2071, 2276 
 Corclli, Marie, 541 
 Corkran, Alice [Aiuoait. ], 
 
 1100, 1024, 2144 
 Cottin, S. (K.),6S0 
 Coulsqn, .1. (i. .i., 507 
 COUNT OF JIONTi:- 
 CRISTO. by l>rMAS, 
 ( Philadelphia, T. B. 
 Petemon & Bros., paper 
 $1.00, cloth, Jfl.50) 
 
 SAME, by Dumas : (4 
 
 vols. 12 mo. cloth, gilt top, 
 $6.00, Boston, Little, 
 Brown & Co.) 654 
 
 Cox, jNIaria A., 122 
 Coxon, E., 1085 
 Cozzens, F: S., 141 p 
 "Craddock, C : E.," 673, 56, 
 
 59, 906, 1012 
 Cradock, HAHUiiyr (Lis- 
 
 TEK), 1414 
 Craik, .D. M. (M.), 1034, 
 1117,1145,1332,1356,1410, 
 1431,1460,1467,1562,1605, 
 1023, 1868, 1929, 1939 
 
 Craven, H : Thornton, 879 
 
 , P. (La. F.), 440,700 
 
 Crawford, Fr.Jl., 185, 643, 
 
 675, 724, 843, 894, 922, 933, 
 
 1829,543,2595, 2601, 2602 
 Crawfurd, O., 1935 
 Crommelin, M,, HOG, 1405, 
 
 1649, 1713 
 Cross, M.B.,1852'>. 
 Cudlip, A. (T.), 1178, 1198, 
 
 1664 
 Cummins, 51. S.,781,\301 
 Cunningham, II : S., 1354, 
 
 1459, 1909 
 Curtis, Car. G., 255, 209 
 
 , G: W:,ink, 348, 389 
 
 '■Czeika," 331 
 
 Dalin,Talmage, I^ Vil- 
 lari. 
 Damon, Sophia M., 104 
 "Danforth, P.," 505 
 Daniel.— ( ), 1252, 1272 
 Daudet, Alphouse, 774, 919, 
 
 2025, 2047, 2073, 2079, 2092, 
 
 2100,2110,2185,2191,2236, 
 
 2243, 2254 
 
 , Ernest, 1957 
 
 "Daugb, II : ," 243 [ 1323 
 i;)avidson, Hugh Coi.eman, 
 Davies, E. W.,875 
 Davis, R. [B.] ' (H.) 279, 288 
 
 , Ro. S., 192 
 
 Day, ,1141, 1291,1746 
 
 Deane, 31 .. , 1708 
 Debans, Camille, 1983 
 DeFoe, D.,920 
 DeForest, J: AV : , 270, 284, 
 
 342, 365 
 Deland, Ma., 63, 366 
 
 DelSon, ,1995,2297 
 
 DeLielde, Jacob, 732 
 Delpit, Albert, 2271 
 Deming. Philander, 2, 160 
 DEMOCRACY: (New-York 
 
 H: Holt & Co., cloth, |1., 
 
 paper, 30 cents.) 228 
 
 Dempster, C. L. (H.), 553, 
 
 1924, 2067, 2189 
 Denison, M .. (A.) , 311 
 Derby, G:H., 142 h 
 Desart, carl of, 1369, 1475 , 
 
INDKX TO AUTHORS OF WORKS NOTICED I.\ DKSCltlPTI^'E LISTS OK ^■()^•KI,S. 
 
 Desleys, C, 20T7 
 
 "Detlef, Carl," 413, 2546, 
 
 2621, 2026, 2659, 2676. 
 Devereux, G : H. , 133 
 Dewall, J: van, 723, 2467 
 Diaz, Abbey (M.) , 0404 
 Dickeus, C:, 309,' 722^ 792, 
 
 831, 86p, 2176, 972, 1656, 
 
 1191 
 Dillwyn.E. A.,1120 
 Dlngelsteclt, Franz, 2330 
 Dobson, W:. 1144 
 Dodge, M.. (M.), 157 
 Dorr, J. C. (R.),30w,70f,6S7 
 Do9toief8ki,e61-9, 2639, 2640, 
 
 2642, 2695 
 Doudney, S .. , 190S, 1911 
 Douglas, A. M., 256, 333, 174 
 
 ,G : , 1122, 1728 
 
 [Davies] , C. J .., 1787 
 
 Downey, E., 1387 
 
 Droz, G., 1958, 1962p, 1967, 
 
 2022, 2140, 2198, 2249 
 Drury, Anna Harriet, 751 
 "Duchess" (Tlie),|II^-Hun- 
 
 gerford 
 Duff, H. A. 550 [654 
 Dumas, Alex., 2037, 1997, 
 , , Jr., 1954, 19SH, 
 
 2095, 2213, 2280 
 Dunning, C .. , 426, 371, l(i5 
 Dunsmuir, A., (Il3" Oli- 
 
 phant. 
 Dupuy, E. A .., 585, 743 
 
 Earl, II. P., 1363 
 Eaton, P...] 19 
 
 Ebers G .., 820 
 
 Ecilaw, Ary; 923 
 
 Eckstein, Ernst, 1018,2320, 
 2344, 2490, 2350 
 
 Eden, EJeauor, 1231, 1263 
 
 , Emily, 1770 
 
 Edgeworth, M., 1092, 1137 
 
 Edler, K:E.,398 
 
 Edwards, (Qox), 1682 
 
 , A. B., 1081, 1330, 776, 
 
 2058 
 
 , Annie, 412, 414, 418, 
 
 423, 662, 459, 1310,475, 485, 
 1554, 1591, 1650, 1654, 893, 
 1689, 1690, 1824, 557, 1936 
 
 , H:S., 163 
 
 , M. B., 452k, 1119, 1121, 
 
 436, 688, 1437, 802, 969, 
 
 1915, 2473 
 Egglestou, E :, 15, 30, 40, 52, 
 
 92, 131 
 
 , G:C.,79 
 
 Eichendorff, Jo. vou, 838 
 Elioart, E.. ( ), 1422, 1504, 
 
 1601,1797 
 "Elbon, B.," 1101 
 '•E]iot,G: "1027.1183, 1269, 
 
 1402, 1344, 1547, 926, 1750, 
 
 1780 
 Elliott, 11:11., 197 
 
 , S..B.,368 
 
 Ellis, S.. (S.), 16SS 
 Emerson, M.. S., 588 
 Emery, S .. A., 159 
 Enault, L :, 640, 2222 
 Engel, J : J., 821 
 English, X: D.,759 
 Erckmann-CUatrian, 619, 
 
 649, 809, 887, 960, 1906, 
 
 1975, 2036, 2046, 2127, 2142, 
 
 2224, 2295, 2408 
 "Erroll, H:,"1025, 550 
 Erskiue, Mrs., 1526, 1937 
 Eschstrutli, ^'on, 2381, 2559 
 Essing, 2377 
 Evans, Al.BEitT E., 1704 
 
 , Augusta J., 931 
 
 Ewing, J. H. (G.), 1181, 
 
 1397, 1399, 1477, 1792, 1812 
 T?laljre,F., 1942 s 
 ■^ Falconer. H .., 957 
 Fawcett, Edgar, 181, 184, 
 
 ■^40, 259, 272, 273, 307, 329, 
 
 385 
 Fariua, 2578, 2591, 2604 
 Feudal], Percy, 532 
 Feiin, G: JI., 1476, 1890 
 "Fern, Fanny," 129 
 Ferrier, M., 1529 
 Fetberstonhaugh, M. G. 
 
 (Carletok), 1279, 1429, 
 
 1433 
 J'euillet, Octane, 606, 1947, 
 
 1958 a, 2107, 2151, 2170, 
 
 2194, 2221, 2232, 2246, 2209, 
 
 2308 
 
 F6val, Paul, 869 
 
 Feydeau, Eruest, 599, 2029, 
 
 2248 
 Field, C. OV.),46 
 Fielding, II:, 1417 s, 1855 k 
 "Fife, M. B.," m^- M. M. 
 
 Black. 
 FIRST VIOLIN, by Jessie 
 FOTHERGILL : (N ew-York 
 H: Holt& Co., cloth, $1., 
 paper, 30 cents.) 698 
 
 FIVE HUNDRED DOL- 
 LARS AND OTHER 
 STORIES, by H. W. 
 Chaplin (12 mo. cloth, 
 $1.00; paper, 50 cents, 
 Boston, Little, Broton & 
 Co.), 33 
 
 Flagg, ^V: J.,39 
 Flaubert, Gustuve, 932, 2122 
 "Fleming, G :," 411, 478, 
 
 1000 
 "Flcmming, Harford," 207 
 Fleuriot, Z. M. A.,2111 
 Fogazzaro, Antonio, 2572 
 Foote, M .. , 766, 783, 780 
 Fordc, Gertrude, 438, 311 
 "Forrester, Mrs.. 1545 
 Foster, H. (W.),031 
 Fothergill, Car., 434, 1249, 
 1806 
 
 , Jessie, 1039, 698, 1292, 
 
 1341,1436,1434,1306, 1516, 
 1646, 1677, 1703, 1010 
 "Foxton, E.," 267 
 France, A., 2009 
 Fraucillon.B. E., 041, 787, 
 
 965, 996, 2450 
 Francois, Luise von, 2449 
 Franzos, K : E., 702, 765 
 Freytag. Giistav, 799, 2369 
 Friis, J. A., 780 
 
 Gagnebin,— ( ),2060 
 Galetti, Ma., 416 k, 
 426 k 
 Gallenga, A. [C. N.] , 2570 
 Gambler, J. W:, 968' 
 "Garrett, E:" 1061, 1132, 
 
 1266, 1469, 1632 
 Garshinski, A'., 2654 
 Gaskell, E. C. (S.) 1175, 
 
INDEX TO AUTHORS OF WOUKS NOTICED IN DESCKirTlVE LISTS OF NOVELS. 
 
 l.">32, 1565, 1590, 1602, 1735, 
 
 Yli-, 1749, 970, 1926 
 (iasparin, V. (B.),1979 
 (iaiitier, ThCophile, 624, 
 
 2134, 2205, 2276 
 (iollie, 51 .. E., 1809 
 (ioraril [Longaril] , Doro- 
 
 tliea, 519 r, 883, 1440, 915 
 
 [Laszowsta], E.,937 
 
 , "E. D.," 605, 914, 1773, 
 
 1009 
 (ierstaeker, F :, 557 m, 1010 
 (Mbbon, C :, 1128, 1220, 1317, 
 
 1511, 1906 
 Gibson, W: II., Ill 
 Gifforcl,]M.. A.., 1432 
 '■Gift, Tlieo.," 1206, 487, 
 
 1509, 1536, 1696, 554 ' 
 Gilbert, W:. 1212 
 Giiiisty, — , 2218 
 (iirariiin, D. (G.), 2145, 
 
 2264,2312 
 
 ,[M. A.] J., 2017 
 
 Gisekc, Ko , 2509 
 
 Giiimer, C. von, 2403, 2436, 
 
 2476 
 GoUlrey, — ( ), 1881 
 Goethe, 1017, 2378. 
 (iogol, 2622, 2623, 2625, 2034, 
 
 2658, 2668 
 Goldsmith, O., 1001 
 Goneourt, E. de, 2102, 2321 
 , E. & J. de, 1992, 2054, 
 
 2258 
 Goodwin, H.B., 704 
 "Gordon, Julian," 375 
 Gore, C. G. F. ( ),2164 
 Gourard, — . 2040 
 Gozlan, Leon, 2169 
 Graeme, Elliot, 506 
 Graham, S., 1316 
 -Grant, G." 1321 
 
 , M. M., 427 k, 592, .137 
 
 , Ko., 449 
 
 Gray, E. M., 440 k 
 
 (ireen, A. K., 378 
 
 Greene, Louise Lilias 
 
 (Plunket),1026 
 Greenough, F .. (B.), 187 
 "Greville, H :," 1971, 2003, 
 
 2046, 2049, 2153, 2209, 2275, 
 
 2616,2631,2632,2651,2656, Harte, [Fr.] B., 590, 621, 
 2662, 2669, 2672, 2673, 2681 , 663, 665, 701, 733, 750, 788, 
 
 2685, 2688, 2692, 2705 
 "Grey, M.," 917,1877 
 Griffith, C, 1624 
 Grigorovich, D., 2024 
 Guernsey, L.E., 314 
 
 806, 832, 839, 139, 949, 1008 
 Hartley, M. (L.), 1146, 1371, 
 
 1687 
 "Hartner, Eva," 2500, 2517 
 Harwood, I .., 1425, 1724 
 
 Guizot, E. C. P., 2217, 2291, HaulT, W :, 2086,2216,2286 
 
 2319 -Hawthorne, J., 1622 
 "Gyp," 2150 , N., 610, 743, 817, 934 
 
 Habberton , J : , 282 Hay J : , 201 
 Hacklander, F: AV:, , M.. (C), 1625, 1800 
 
 772, 2358, 2366, 2389, 2394, Hazlett, H.., 1313 
 
 2483 
 Hageu, A:,870 
 Haggard, H : E,, 764. 939 
 Hahn,Ida (H.), 2387. 2544 
 Hale, E:E., 746, 748. 815, 
 
 318, 395 
 
 HaMvy, L., 401,2010,2119 Helmore, M.\. C, 1498 
 Haller, Gustave, 2098 Henderson, J :, 406, 518 .' 
 Halliday, H. C. 1333 Henkel, F., 845 
 Hamerton,E. {G.),461, 2083 Hentz, C. L. (W.), 659, 791 
 ,P. G., 1335, 466, 824, Bering, [Acton] ,Jeanie 460 
 
 Hearn, Lafcadio, 638 
 
 ' 'Heimburg, W. ," 993, 2359 a , 
 2372, 2409, 2413, 2426, 2437, 
 2451,2457,2486,2492,2518, 
 2522 
 'Helm, C," 2420, 2497 h 
 
 Hervieu, Paul, 2033 
 Heyse, Paul, 669, 707, 752, 
 482, 2340, 2356, 2362, 2380, 
 2434, 2507, 2.5'24, 2529, 2541, 
 2568, 2587. 2593, 2596, 2600, 
 2609 
 Higginson.T: W., 78 
 Hillern, W .. (B.) v., 737, 
 741,1005,2353,2542 
 
 Hodges, Sydney, 1615 
 — , T:, 1200, 1268, 1270, Hofer, B., 2482 
 1331,1453,1538,1660,1732, Hoey, P.. S.. (Johnson) 
 918,991,1875,1931 (Stewart), 1492 
 
 Harland, H :, 261, 483, 319, Hoffmann, H., 2588 
 
 1904 
 "Hamilton, Gail," 32 
 
 , K. W.. 120 
 
 Hamley, E:B., 1445 
 
 . W : G.. 9S9 
 
 Hamlin, 51. (S.), 343 
 Harder, L:, '2384 
 Hardman, F:, 736 
 Hardy, A. S., 891, 173, 1977 
 , I. D., 1308 
 
 HOHENSTEIl>rS (The), by 
 Spielhagen : (Nevy- 
 
 York, H: Holt & Co., 
 paper, 50 cents.) 738 
 
 Holden, E : G., 245 
 Holland J. G., 191, 602, 86 
 Holmes, M.. J.. (H),30h, 
 154 1, 233 
 
 , O. W., 29, 43, 91 
 
 Holt, J : S., 179 
 
 0411 
 , "Marion," 2 q, 91 t, 
 
 257, 278 
 Harris, E. M., 1097, 1250, 
 
 1466 
 
 , J. C, 708 
 
 , M. (0,340 
 
 Harrison, Agnes, 310, 2240 
 
 , C. (C), 186,265 
 
 , Joanna, 1628 
 
 Hart, Fanny (Wheeler), Hood, T:, 552 k 
 
 1289, 1887, 1919 Hooper, L. H. (J.) , 551 , 2693 
 , Mabel, 546 p Hope, A. J. B., 1116, 1818 
 
INUEX TO AUTHORS 01' WOIiKS Nt)TICEl) IX DESCUIPTIVE LISTS OE NO\IOI-S. 
 
 , Cecil, 1T64 
 
 , L., 1593 
 
 , y., IPW Hodges. 
 
 Hopffen, Hans, 2400, 253t 
 Hopkins, [J..] E., 1744 ' 
 
 , M:, 564 
 
 , T :, 1631 
 
 Hoppin, A :. 123, 162 
 Hoppus, A. M., 699, 1560 
 Horn, (;:, 655 
 
 , W:0. von, 2407 
 
 Hornl))ower, Mrs., 324 
 Hotahehko, N. H., 267S 
 Howard, B. ^y., ,597, 416, 
 
 725, lOOS, 544, 2485 
 Howe, E. W., 306, 857, 146 
 Howell, C, 1182 
 Howells, ^\^^. I)., 4, IS?,^, 
 14, 24, 453, 263, 471, S^, 
 315,_90, 336, 346, 117 p, 357, 
 • , l5fi,'0407^ " — 
 
 Hubbell, M. (S.)- 136 
 Hughes, T:, 1854,1855 ' 
 Hugo, A':, 790,867,871 
 Hullah, M.. E., 2433 
 Humphrey, F.. A. (!'.), 211 
 Hungerford, Ma. (Hamil- 
 ton) (Akolks), 1037, 
 1113, 1200, 1435, 1382,1494, 
 1510, 1531, 1572, 1585, 1694, 
 1745 
 Hunt, 31. (i;.),]462, 1768 a, 
 
 1832. 1837, 1842 
 Hunter, H., 1596 
 
 Inchbald, E.. (S.). 94C; 
 1781 
 Ingelow, J., 1217, 1411, 1759 
 Ingerslebeu, E. vou, 2456 
 
 Jackson,H..M. (P.) (H.), 
 8, 84, 910, 134, 177, 433, 
 
 1307. 1343 
 ■Tames, (i : P. E., 967' 
 , H:, 410,200, 415,431, 
 
 432, 447, 454, 474, 489, 514, 
 
 515, 516, 517, 904, 522, 525, 
 
 528, 398, 1S59 
 Janson, K., 2727 
 Janvier, T : A., 216 [0406 
 Jeaftreson, J: C., 1638a, 
 Jeukin, H. C. (J.), 660,1793, 
 
 559, 561, 2089, 2123, 2193. 
 
 2220 
 Jephsou,P. P., 1057 
 Jewett, S .. O., 7, 16, 17, 20, 
 
 67, 81, 82, 101, 328, 374, 
 
 153, 172 
 
 , S. Vt'., 36 
 
 Johnson, E .. W., 0410 
 
 , H.. (K.), 121,354 
 
 , Y. W., 455, 467 h, 502, 
 
 545, 390, 549 
 Johnston, H:, 1147 
 Jokai, M., 847 
 Jolly, E., 1134, 1072 
 Jones, C:H:, 22 
 Judd, Sylvester, 80, 125 
 JuUiot, Francois de, 2139 
 "Juncker, E.". 2461, 2465 
 Junior, T:C., 1496 
 
 KaiT, Alphonse, 1945, 2282 
 Katseh, A. E., 997 
 Kavanagh, Julia, 403, 419, 
 
 1099, 438, 476, 1709, 1718, 
 
 527, 530, 538, 548, 1968, 
 
 2038, 2131, 2186j 22.50 
 Keary, A., 1136, 1152, 1225, 
 
 1401 
 Keatinge, — (Pottingek) , 
 
 1368 
 Keenan,H:F., 987 
 Keith, L., 1823, 1871 
 Kendall, M., 1821 
 Kennedy, J: P., 152 
 Kent, James, 942 
 
 , W:C:, 973 
 
 Kepler, A., 1574 
 Kettle, IJ. M., 852, 1791 
 Kieliand, A. L., 2714, 2726, 
 
 2730 
 King, G .. , 848 
 
 , K : A., 1163, 1665, 1902 
 
 Kingsley, H:, 1301, 1337, 
 
 1123 " "■ 
 
 Kinkel, J : G., 2385 
 Kipp, Leonard, 670, 861 
 Kipling, E., 1472 
 Kippeli; J.. M., 1796 
 Kirk, E. [W.] (O.), 168, 290, 
 
 77, 85, 352, 370, 373, 384 
 Kirkland, Jo., 302, 178 
 Knowlcs, E:B. S., 1312 
 Kock, [C:] P. de, 1952, 
 
 1964 p, 2057, 2109, 2103, 
 
 2176, 2257 
 KOrner, Th., 2472, 2530 
 Kokhanovsky, 2680 
 Korolenko, \., 2618, 2044, 
 
 2655, 2697 
 
 La Brete, J : de, 2268 » 
 Laffan,A.A. (A.),1507 
 Lamartine, A. de, 697, 121, 
 
 911, 2263 
 Lane, L. M., 1300, 2373 
 Lang, Andrew, 470 
 
 , L. B. (A.), 1207 
 
 Lamed, A., 168 [96 
 Lathrop, G : P., 405, 28, 57, 
 Latimer, M.. E.. (W.), 110 
 Law, J:, 1150 [496 
 Lawless, Emily, 1140, 1513, 
 Lawlor, D. S., 1984 
 Lee, D. K., 84 k 
 , "Holme," 1055 a, 1084, 
 
 1096, 1281, 1353,1493, 1568, 
 
 1693, 1814, 1827, 1838', 1841, 
 
 1890 a 
 
 [JuNNKH], K .., 1385 
 
 , Ma., 231, 235 
 
 , M.. K.. [C] (J.), 351 
 
 , '■Vernon," 885 
 
 LeFanu, J. S., 104(i 
 Lenzen, M., 2479 
 Le Peur, J., 1865 
 Lermontof, M. [V.],2041 
 LES MISEliABLES, by 
 
 Hugo (5 vols. 12 mo., gilt 
 
 top, ^7.50, Hoston, Little, 
 
 Brown & Co.) 790 
 
 Lester, A. S. E., 1610 
 Lesueur. 1)., 2152 
 Lever. C : , 437 li , 453 k, 509 p, 
 
 1115, 727. 7!I0. 1784, 979 
 Levy, A., 498 p, 1741 
 Le\vakl,F., 955, 2332, 2334, 
 
 2430, 2447 
 Lie, Jonas, 2709, 2711, 2719, 
 
 2722 
 Lillie, Lucy C, 445, 1705 
 Lincoln, J." T. {G.),823 
 Lindau, P., 2424, 2443, 2445 
 
 , E., 2327 
 
 Linskill.M.., 1102,1329 
 Linton, E. (L.), 1666,1850 
 
IXDKX TO Al'TIIOliS OF WOUKS NOTICED IN DKSCRIPTIVE LISTS Ol' NOVELS. 
 
 Lippartl, G :, 350 
 
 Listoii, G., 2423 
 
 Litchflekl, G .. D., 330, 4S0, 
 
 109 
 Locker, A., 1820 
 Lockhart, L. W. M., 1224, 
 
 1259, 1548 
 Logan, A. R. (M.),213 
 Longfellow, H : W. , 06, 40T t 
 Longstreet, A : B., 37 d 
 Longueuil, O. (G.),407, 386, 
 
 1949 
 Loti, v., 912, 2070, 2178. 
 
 2231,2233 
 Lowell, Fr., 137 
 
 , Eo. [T. S.] , 190, 863 
 
 Lubomirski, J., 2090 
 Lucy, H:"\y., 1306 
 Lunt, G:, 27 
 '•Luska, Siilney." la" II : 
 
 Ilarland 
 "Lyall, Edna," 1070, 1199, 
 
 1229,479,1901,2717 
 '■Lyiidon," 308 
 Lytton, baron ,006 f, 074, 685, 
 
 896 m, 973, 1427, 889, 963 
 
 MfCartliy. J., 1185, 1558, 
 1596, 1898 
 McClelland, M.. G., 10 p. 
 
 277, 872, 345 
 Macdonald,F., 1274 
 MacDonald, G :, 1040, 1192, 
 1218, 1*28, 1366, 1514, 828, 
 1533, 1G68, 1721, 1737, 929, 
 1889,1918 [1707 
 
 Maedonell, A. (Harrison), 
 McDowell, L., 1232 
 MacEwen, C, 1795 a 
 Macf arland , Ma . K . , 873, 2463 
 Macfarlane, A. R., 213 
 Mackarness, Matilda A.. 
 
 (P.), 1860 
 McLean [Greene], S. P., 12 
 MacLeod, Donald, 612 
 Macleod, X., 1808 
 MacMalion,E., 1345 
 Macquoid, K.. S., 415, 1211, 
 443, 451, 804, 1549, 1607, 
 1786,1357,2001. 2014,2032, 
 2084, 2115, 2181, 2211 
 "Madoc, Fayr," 1521. 1S34 
 
 Magruder, Julia, 180 
 "Maine, E. S.," 1050, 1053 
 Mail-, A. E. A. (S.), 1349 
 Maistre, Xavier dc, 2087, 
 
 2590 
 Maitland, A. C, 1930 
 
 , E:, 1360 
 
 , Ja. A.,399, 2724 
 
 Majendie, Ma. [E..], 715, 
 
 512, 1209, 2202, 2580 
 "Malet, Lueai3," 1154, 1165, 
 
 1578, 1897, 2113 
 Mallock, ^Y : H., 1616, 1638 
 Malot. Hector, 868, 921, 2091, 
 
 2173, 2261, 2322 
 Mann,— ( ),1662 
 
 , M.. E.,1644 [1539 
 
 Manning. M.. A.. [R.], 
 Manteuftel, U. von, 1004, 
 
 2549 
 Manzoni, A., 608 
 Marguerite of Navarre, 703 
 Marie, .Jeanne, 2504 
 Markewicb, B., 2661 
 "Marlitt, E.," 717, 779, 793, 
 
 877, 888. 936. 2335, 2337, 
 
 2365. 2435, 248S, 2513 
 Marryat. F., 1606, 1680 
 Marshall, E. (Martin), 
 
 1048, 1468, 1579 
 
 , F:, 2439 
 
 Martin,— ( ), 1807 
 
 .A. (A.). 335 
 
 , M.. E.. (LeBreton), 
 
 1051, 1112, 1327, 1S79 
 JIartinean. Harriet, 1196 
 Mason, M..M., 492 
 Mathews, C, 209 
 Maupassant, G. de, 1998, 
 
 2192, 2212, 2276 
 Maxwell, C, 961 
 May, G. M. (C), 10o.\ 1189, 
 
 1283, 1463, 1546 
 
 " Sophie," 230, 227 
 
 Meade [Smith], L. T., 1370, 
 ■ 1421, 1634 
 
 Meinhardt, A., 2402 
 Mels. A; [i. e., Martlv 
 
 Cohn], 2338, 2359 
 Melville, J : G.Whyto, 928 
 Meredith. G:, 580, 1088, 
 
 1201, 1239, 1243, 1234, 691, 
 
 1645, 1651, 1734, 985, 1894 
 Mi5rim6e, 628 d, 648. 2276 
 Merriman,H, S., 1681 
 Metcalf, W. IL, 150 
 Meyers, Ro. C. von, ^Slt) 
 Miller, "Joaquin," i05 
 Minto, A\':, 1174 
 Mitchell, D. G., 233 
 
 , S. W., 690, 206, 339 
 
 Mitford, M. li., 1657 
 Molesworth, M .. L. (S.) , 
 
 706, 1338, 494, 1612, 177S, 
 
 1835 
 Monkhouse, AV. C. 1715 
 Monro, A.M., 1118 
 
 , Th. E., 116!) [988 
 
 Montgomery, Fl., 1380, 1851, 
 Monti, L :, 789 
 Montresor, C. A., 849 
 Moore. V. P., 242 , 
 
 , F. F., 531 
 
 , G :, 1226, 1584 
 
 , M., 1071 
 
 Morley, S.. 10.30, 1320. 1S4S 
 Morse, L. G., 210 
 Mugge,Th., 2316 g 
 "Miihlbaeh, L...-2321 
 Milller, F. M., 714 
 
 , O:, 2353.2371 
 
 Muir, A., 1441 
 Murger, II., 2243 
 Murray, D:C., 1069. 1382, 
 
 1899 [2044,2136 
 
 , E. C. G., 1114. 2006, 
 
 , I-L, 2159, 23S3 
 
 Musgravc,H.,1380 
 Musset, Alfred do, 2177, 2276 
 
 Nathusius, 31.. (S.) von, 
 2370 
 Nerval, G. dc, 2274 
 Nesbitt, E. 6., ]3i)4 
 Newby,— , 1138, 771 
 Newman, M.. AVi:.\t- 
 
 WORTII, 1403, 1437 
 Nichols, M.. S. G.. 1870 
 Niemann. A.. 2339 
 Nieritz, G., 2352. 2495 
 NINETY-TlIKEi:. by HU- 
 GO (1 vol. 12 mo. gilt top, 
 $1.50, Boston, Little, 
 
INDEX TO AUTHORS OF WORKS NOTICED IN D]vSCl!Il>TIVE LISTS OV NO\ELS. 
 
 Brown cfi Co.) 867 
 
 Noble. A. L., 446, 164 
 
 , Lucretia, 124 
 
 Noel, A., 1659 
 
 Nordhoff, C:, 11 
 
 Norris, W: E:, 1031, 1076, 
 1077, 430, 463, 491, 1512, 
 1518, 1535, 1551, 1561, 1571, 
 1597, 1620, 1739, 1836, 2721 
 
 NOTRE DAME, by HUGO, 
 (2 vols. 12 mo. cloth, gilt 
 top, $3.00, Hoston, Little, 
 Brown & Cn.) 871 
 
 Oberholtzer, S .. L., 53 
 Oelschlager, H., 2522 
 Ogden, Ruth, 49 
 O'Hanlon, Alice, 1878,552 
 Ohnet, G:, J955, 2016, 2078, 
 2097, 210(i, 2207, 2251, 2683, 
 2305 
 OLIPHANT, Miss, 1891 
 Oliphant. L.. 409, 620. 380 
 
 , M. O. (W.), 462 p, 467, 
 
 744, 1035, 1063, 1065, 1124, 
 1133, 1168, 1172,1180, 1193, 
 1215, 1230, 1235, 1322, 1336, 
 1340, 1357, 1391, 1396, 1400, 
 1407, 1419, 1426, 1434, 1439, 
 1442. 1444, 1450, 1458, 1474, 
 1497, 1501, 1508, 1537, 1542, 
 1557. 1569. 1609, 1613, 1633, 
 1639, 1641, 1663 V. 1678, 
 1686, 1692, 1699, 1743, 1756, 
 1767, 1789, 1798, 1799, 1800, 
 1803, 1813, 1844, 1925. 1927, 
 1940, 1941, 2048 [2586 
 
 OIney, M .. A., 444, 45, 1420, 
 O'Meara. K., 488, 758, 860, 
 
 2015. 2310 
 ON THE HEIGHTS, by 
 AUERBACH : (New-York, 
 JI: Holt & Co., translated 
 by Stern, 2 vols., $2.; 
 paper, translated by 15un- 
 nett, 30 cents.) 881 
 
 "Optic, Oliver," 2 m 
 O'Reilly, E. G .. ( ), 1148 
 Orloffsky, R., 2660 
 "Orne, P.," 137 
 Ortmann,R., 2346 
 Oswald, E., 2545 
 
 "Ouida," 591, 604, 609, 632, 
 709, 1374, 468, 884,890, 907, 
 959, 966, 971, 990, 994, 1006, 
 2603 
 
 "Owen, A.," 1484 
 
 Page, H., 1447 
 , T:N., 749 
 
 Palmer, M.. (T.), 23 
 
 Parkmati, Fr., 107 
 
 Parr, L.. (T.), 579, 1222, 
 
 1319, 1376, 1415, 805, 523 
 Parsons. G. (H.), 1883 
 Paschkof, L., 2657 
 Patrick, M.., 1566 [1840 
 Paul,Ma.A. (C.),1221,1299, 
 Paxton, M. W., 1912 
 Payn, Ja., 1087, 1131, 1262, 
 
 ,1277, 1320, 1347, 1464, I4S6, 
 
 1530, 15,50. 1874 
 Peard, P .. M ... 428 h. 431 d, 
 
 1045,1162,1167, 1361, 810, 
 
 510,1843,1014. 1874, 1922, 
 
 2129, 2237, 2293. 2354 
 Pendleton. Edmund. 2IS, 
 
 396 
 Perks, — ( ). 1293 
 Perrier, A., 1318 
 Perry. Bliss, 203 
 
 , Nora, 250 
 
 PheJps [ Ward ] , E . . S. . 205 , 
 
 254, 58, 304, 83, 103, 135 
 Philips, r. C, 1495, 1763 
 Philleo, C. W., 391 
 Phillips, A. C, 1194 
 
 , Barnct, 335 
 
 . Melville, 229 
 
 Phillpotts, E., 1247 
 Picard, G:H:,842. 508 
 Piohler, K., 2460, 2558, 2560 
 PiDDiNGTON, Rose, 710 
 Pierce, G. A., 0413 
 Pike, M.. H. (G.), 6r 
 Pinkerton, T : A., 1052, 1413, 
 
 1540 
 Polko, Elise, 2462 
 Pollard, E.F., 2066 
 Pool, M. L.., 155,166 
 Porter, A. E.( ), 19 
 
 ,J.., 978 
 
 Pouvillon, Emilc, 1985 
 Poynter, E. F.., 449 t, 686, 
 
 S 
 
 490, 853, 1020 [372 
 
 "Prescott, Dorothy," 344, 
 PressensiS. E. (D.) dc, 2235 
 Preston. H. W.. 194, 262, 61, 
 
 298, 175 
 Provost d'Exiles, 816 
 Price. Alice, 1748, 19i6 
 .E.G.. 1041,1161,1303, 
 
 1481, 1577, 1729, 1884, 2043, 
 
 2265 
 Prime, W:C., 102 
 Primrose. E. D., 1282 
 Probyn, M.. 1643 
 Protliero. R. E., 407 
 Pryce. R:, 14^3 
 Pushkin. A. S.. 625, 908, 
 
 2665, 2675 
 Putlitz. G. zu, 2398 
 "Putnam, Eleanor," 
 .uincy, E., 170 m 
 
 105 
 
 q; 
 
 Raabe. W:. 2431 
 Rabusson,H., 2125 
 Radcliffe. A.. (W.). 756f 
 
 858. 925, 943 
 Rae.W: Eraser. 498 
 Rahm, Ida, 317 
 "Raimund. Golo," 864,2410, 
 
 2520. 2422 
 Randolph,— ( ). 1917 
 
 , E.. 1647 
 
 Raven, M. (B.), 2539 
 Raymond, G : Lansjng, 320 
 Read,E., 115 
 Reade, C :, 639. 646. 647. 719, 
 
 1334, 1487, 811, 896, 1706, 
 
 1829 a, 1013, ,562 [ 1157 
 
 Reeves, H.. B. (M.), 1142, 
 
 , M. C. L., 115, 472, 794 
 
 "Reichenbach, M. von," 
 
 2376 
 "Reid, Christian," 224, 238, 
 
 458, 464, 70, 147 
 
 , [ T : ] Mayne, 800 
 
 Reuter, Fritz, 2516 
 Reybaud, H. E. F.. (A.), 
 
 718, 811, 1978, 2062, 2116, 
 
 2120, 2278, 2296 
 Reynolds, J., 114 d 
 Richards, Ja. B., 902 
 , L. E. (H.), 118 
 
IXl>i:X TO AUTIIOliS OF WORKS NOTICED IX DKSCItlPTIVB LISTS OF NOVELS 
 
 Richardson, S:, 045 
 Richter, J. P. P\, 821,2393, 
 
 2553 
 liicWell, C E. L. (C), 
 1267, 1302, 1352, 13G7, 1555, 
 1701, 1771, 1S19 
 Riddle, A. G., 183 
 Rideing, W:H:, 296 
 Ring, Max, 2535 
 "Rita," 1164, .667, 694, 462, 
 
 854, 177S a, 2571 
 Ritchie, A.., 1110, 1273, 
 
 1563, 500, 876. 534, 555 
 Roach. E.M.. 1202 
 Roberts, C. A., 1517 
 
 , Ma., 596, 637, 696, 135S, 
 
 1502, 812. 880, 1830, 1873, 
 1973. 2012, 2273, 2592 
 
 , Morley, 1386 
 
 Robinson, F..M., 1564 
 
 , F : W :, 1170. 1309, 1932 
 
 . R. E., 393 
 
 Roche, M.R., 037 f 
 Rochefort. H : [de] . 2133 
 Rodenberg. J.. 2417 
 Roe, A. S., 61 f. 71 v, 159 m 
 
 .E:P.. 332,0412 
 
 Ropes, H. A., 220 
 Roquitte, O., 2536 
 "Rothenfels.E. von," 2379 
 Round, ^V. M. F., 1, 130 
 Rowson, S. (H.), 034 
 Ruffiui. G. [D.], 42S, 435, 
 
 484. 797 
 Oaintine,X. B., 2311 
 *^ Sanborn, E. W.. 113 s 
 Sand, G :, 650, 711, 723, 782, 
 836, 850, 859, 945, 950, 977, 
 1950, 1956, 1963. 1981, 1994, 
 2013, 2059, 2080. 2108, 2138, 
 2149, 2160, 2172, 21S0, 2230, 
 2255, 2256, 2283. 2306. 2316 
 Sandeau, Jules, 031.742,935, 
 
 2009, 2132, 2135, 2168 
 Sardou, V., 1970 
 Sartoris. A. (K.). 837, 892, 
 
 558 [2304] 
 Savage. M. J., 9 
 
 , M. W.. 1075 
 
 Scheft'el, Jo. V : von, 679 
 Schniid, C. von, 2392, 2184, 
 
 2508 
 Schobert, H., 2493 
 Schreiner, O.. 956 
 Schubin, Ossip, 441,716, 513, 
 2345, 2364, 2288, 2481, 2523 
 Schucking, Levin, 2388 1, 
 
 2405, 2429 
 SCHULTZ, J .. , 2267 
 Scott, M., 984 
 
 , Sir Wa., 589, 617, 726, 
 
 728, 757, 878, 9^0 ' '^ 
 Scribe. IjugiSne, 2197 
 Scudder, M. L., 408 
 "Sealsfleld, C:," 291 
 Searing, A. E. (P.), 369 
 Sedgwick, S. R., 169 
 Seemuller,A..M. (C), 241 
 Serao.M., 2576 k 
 Sergeant, Adeline, 421 , 1010, 
 
 1621, 1774 
 Serrao, Tb., 2509 
 Sewell, E.. M.,' 1882 
 Sband, Al. I., 941, 1033 
 Shaw, F. L., 1135, 1153, 465, 
 
 2061 
 Sheppard, E .. S .., 633, 656 
 Sherwood, M .. E.. (W.), 
 
 526, 386 
 Shipley, M..E., 1295 
 Sborthouse, J : H :, 057, 707, 
 
 947, 1788, 975 
 "Sidney, Ma.," 338 
 Sigma, 1783 
 Sigourney, L. (H.), 77 s 
 Silberstein, A:, 2514 
 Simpson, M.. C .. Maii!, 
 
 1304, 1479, 500 • 
 Simms, W:G., 822 
 Smart, H., 1062, 1094, 1866 
 Smith, Alex., 1042 
 —, Alice (J.), 1928 
 
 , J. P., 0402 
 
 , M.. P. ^^y.), 204, 42, 
 
 64 
 
 , Seba, 170 
 
 , Shirley, 1763 
 
 , AV. H., jg- WHITE 
 
 Smythies, — ( ), 1028 
 Solly. H:, 1449 
 SoUugub, 2615, 2689 
 Soulii?, F., 2002, 2184, 2309 
 
 Southworth, E. D. E. (N.), 
 
 618, 664 
 Souvestre, Emile, 1962, 1972, 
 1974, 2034, 2042, 2076, 2081, 
 2096,2099,2112,2141,2147, 
 2210, 2214, 2215, 2290. 2314. 
 2512, 2247, 2279, 2284 
 Speight, T:W., 1083 
 '■Spen, Kay," 1863 
 Spender, E., 1862, 1880 - 
 
 ,Lily(H.), 457 
 
 Spielhagen, F:, 611, 738, 
 2346 k, 2421, 2498, 2503, 
 2519, 2533, 2548 
 Spindler, K : , 2200. 2480 
 Spofford, H. [E..] (P.), 
 
 268, 827, 382 
 Sprague, M.. A., 25 
 Stael, A.. L.. G. (X.), 
 
 431 p, 2000. 2004, 2111 
 •'Stahl, P. J.," 825 
 Stanley, J., 1188 
 
 , Mary, 1864 
 
 Stephens, A., .s. HV.), 607, 
 
 692 
 Stevenson, E: I.. 763 
 
 , Ro. L., 834. 901 ' 
 
 Stifter, A., 2325. 2494 
 Stilling, J: H: J.. 243iS 
 Stimson. F: J.. 844 
 Stinde, J., 424 k. 234!l. 2406, 
 
 2561 
 "Stirling, A.," 195 
 Stockton, F. 1! :. ."i h. 275, 71, 
 
 132, 962 
 Stoddard. E..[D.] (I?), 3-Jl, 
 392, 976 
 
 . W:0.. 3 
 
 Stone, E., 467 p, 1377 
 Storm. Th. [W.]. 747 
 Story, Ja. P., 429 
 
 ."W:W., 2.-)77 
 
 Stowe, H. [E..] (B.). 
 294,840,323, 107. 100, 113, 
 341. 116, 400. 9115 
 '■Strahan, E :." 503 
 
 , L. G. (S.),2101 
 
 Strathesk, J :, 1105 
 Streckfuss, A., (:29, 9nn, 2534 
 Stretton, Hesba, 1091, 437, 
 1670, 1849 
 
 •2.VJ7 
 
 078, 
 
ISDKX TO AUTHORS OF WORKS XOTICED IX DKSCMPTIVE LISTS OF NOVELS. 
 
 , J. Cecilia, 1517, (?)> 
 
 1711, (?), 1885 
 Stuart, Esm6, 2161, 232,i 
 ^tiirgis, Julian, 402, 1155, 
 ' 120i, 1408, 1412, 1598 
 Sudermaun, H., 2368 
 Sue, Eugene, 826, 856, 2055, 
 
 2154, 2162, 2183, 2229, 2277 
 Sullivau,T: R., 361 , 
 SUZETTE, by M .. S. TlER- 
 
 NAX : (New- York, H: 
 
 HoU & Co., $1.25.) 151 
 Swau. A. S., 1038 
 Swett, Sophie, 13 
 Syiige,W:F., 1640, 1856 
 rilador [Stephenson], Eli- 
 -L za. 613 1109,1238, 14iJ6, 
 
 1543. 1755. 1772, 1910 
 Talmeyr, Maurice, 2121 
 -Talvi," 448. 2425 , 
 "Tardieu, J. A.",2l66 
 Tautphceus. J. (M.) von, 
 
 593. 666. 473. 521 
 Taylor. Bayard, 6. 44, 2S0, 
 
 65, 958 
 
 , E...1717 
 
 , I. A.. 1886 
 
 Tehckof, 2066 
 Tchernyehewsky, 2701 
 Teal. A. (G.), 281 
 Tellet. Roy, 1227 
 Temme, H., 2331 
 Temple, G : 1451 
 Thackeray, A .. I ... 153° 
 
 Ritchie. 
 , , W. 11.. 1032, 1160, 
 
 731, 477, 1490, 1617, 1675, 
 
 998 
 Theuriet. Andrii, 1953, 1969, 
 
 19SS, 2051. 2052, 2056, 2068, 
 
 2136, 2225, 2298. 2313, 2317, 
 
 2318 
 Thomas, B., 519k, 1381, 1893 
 Thompson, Maurice, 50, 154 
 
 , Ray. 356 
 
 Thoreson, A. M. (K.), 2725 
 Thornton, M. J., 230 
 THREE MUSKETEERS, 
 
 by DUJIAS (2 vols. 12 mo. 
 
 cloth, extra, gilt top, 
 
 $3.00. Boston, Little, 
 
 Brown & Co.) 981 
 
 Ticck, L :, 2526 
 Tiernan. M.. S. (X.),739, 
 
 760, 151 
 Tillier, Claude, 855 
 Tincker. M.. A., 022, 54, 
 
 044, 992, 256G 
 Tinseau, L6on de, 2179 
 Tolstoi, 1007. 2611, 2020, 
 
 2627, 2630, 263S, 2645, 2649, 
 2667, £679, 2682, 2094 
 
 Tourg6e, A. W., 206, 247 
 
 Townsend.V. "\V.,289 
 
 Trafton [Knox], A., 285 
 
 Treton. Philip, 2568 t 
 
 Trollope. A., 1043, 1049, 
 1072. 1082, 1095, 1095, 1098, 
 1130, 1138, llol, 1171, 1213, 
 1214.1229,12.53.1157, 1288, 
 1394, 1409, 1428, 1438. 1446, 
 1455, 1500, 1,524, 1.556. 1637, 
 1653, 1684, 1685, 1698. 1719, 
 1760; 1794, 1845, 1S8S, 1900, 
 2414. 2453, 2557 
 
 ,F.. E. (T.), 587. 1054, 
 
 1068, 1107, 486, 1499, 1503, 
 1833, 2510 
 
 , T : A.. 1298, 481, 2567, 
 
 2574, 2575. 2579, 2o81,2589, 
 2594, 2605 
 
 Trotter, A. M.. 422 
 
 Trowbridge. J: T., 10 s, 18, 
 31, 81 h, 246, 300, 93, 100 
 
 Tucker, G:F., 117 m 
 
 Tunstall. N. W., 326 
 
 Tur, Eugenia, 938 
 
 Turg6niaf, Ivan, 644, 652, 
 769, 851, 948. 952, 2171, 
 2010, 2612, 2613, 2614, 2617, 
 
 2628, 2629, 2633, 2635, 263S, 
 2637. 2643, 2648, 2650, 2652, 
 2653, 2663, 2664, 2670, 2674, 
 2677. 2684. 2686, 2687, 2691, 
 2696, 2698, 2699. 2700, 2702 
 
 Twain, M:, 182 
 Twells.J. H., 951 
 Tyler, M.L., 1482 
 Tytler [Greene], M.. E.. 
 
 F., 1.S26, 1861 
 [Liddell], C. C. F., 
 
 1417, 1575 
 
 10 
 
 " , S ..," 425 u, 1126, 713, 
 
 1375, 778, 1478, 1754, 1761, 
 1905 
 
 Tzikos, P., 2599 
 
 U chard, Mario', 2182 
 Underwood, Fr. H:, 
 305, 1193 
 
 Vachette, E., 2259 
 Vase, Gillan, 542 
 
 Veitch, S. F. F., 1398 
 
 Veley, Ma., 1184, 1280, 1297, 
 1581 ' 
 
 A'ely, B., 2538 
 
 A'erga, G., 2582 
 
 Yerney,F... 1271,1465 
 
 Vicary, J:F., 2706 
 
 Vigny, A. de, 19S7 
 
 VILLAGE PHOTO- 
 
 GRAPHS, by Augusta 
 Laknk.d : (New-York, li: 
 Holt& Co.,12°,$1.75)168 
 
 A'illari, L. (W.) (M.l, 623, 
 469, 2382, 2584 
 
 Volckhausen, A. von, 2556 
 
 Voltaire, 2320 
 
 Yosmaer, C, 2565 
 
 VXTaMord, L. B. (C), 1074, 
 
 VV 1173, 1203, 1351, 1364, 
 
 1541, 1567, 1671. 17.51, 1810 
 
 Walker, A. L., 1365, 1869 
 
 Wallace, E., 1104 
 
 Walpole, Horace, 630 
 
 "AVanderer,'' 1311 
 
 Ward. Artemus, 1192 k 
 
 , M.. (A.), 1552, 1736 
 
 AVarfleld, C. A.. (W.),627 
 
 Warner, A. B., 260 
 
 , C : B., 293, 381 
 
 -, Susan, 46 r, 117 s, 222, 
 
 312, 363, 0401 
 
 Watts, W. H., 2487 
 
 Webb, C : H :, 931 
 
 Weber, A., 1064, 1635 
 
 Wedmore, F : , 1795, 547, 
 2204 
 
 AVeed, Ella, 248 
 
 Weitzel, S..W.,2]9, 283 
 
 Wellmer, A.,2363 
 
 "Werner, E.," 594, 600, 683, 
 729, 770, 913, 1003, 1011, 
 2329, 2333, 2339 q, 2348, 
 
INDEX TO AUlIIOltS Ol' WORKS KOTICKI) IX DESCUIPT1\E LISTS OF NO\'ELS. 
 
 2416, 2427, 2428, 2429, 
 
 2477 a, 2489, 2511 
 Westall, W:, 866 
 Wharton, GIF., 397 
 ■Wheelwright, J : T., 212 
 Whitaker, E :, 1663 
 White, R : G., 452 
 
 , W. Hale, 1528, 1733 
 
 Whiting, S., 1740 
 AVhltney, A. D. (T.), 5 k, 
 
 30 m, 36 p, 199, 244, 258, 
 
 269, 334, 355, 149. 529 
 Wichert, E., 2419, 2563 
 Wildenbruch, E. Yon, 2401 
 Wildermuth, O., 2466 
 
 Wilkins, M..E.,80 w, 55 
 Willcox, 0. B., 136 k 
 Wmets, S. B., 830 
 Williams, H.. M., 628 d 
 Williamson, F. ( ), 1290, 
 
 1392 [299 
 
 "Winchester, Carroll, 255, 
 '•Winter, J: S.," 1228, 1801 
 Winterfeld, A. von, 2470 
 Winthrop, Th., 209, 62 
 Witt, H. (G) de, 2041, 2146 
 
 , P. (G.) de, 2196, 2199 
 
 Wood, E. (P.), 1139, 1234, 
 
 1416, 1471, 1573, 1775 
 AVoollcy, C. (P.), 38,76 
 
 Woolson, C. F., 188, 26, 35, 
 
 252, 128 
 Wylde,K. .,1379 b 
 
 Yardley, J.. (W.), 295, 
 376 
 Yates, E., 1120, 1452 
 Yonge, C M.., 1166, 1183, 
 1208, 677, 1344, 1346, 1811 
 Yorke, C, 1123 
 
 Zola, Emile, 784, 1943, 1959, 
 1990, 1996, 2039, 2088, 
 2093, 2094, 2118, 2148, 2167, 
 2289 a 
 Zschokke, [J:] H:, 927, 
 2341, 2343, 2390 ra, 2415, 
 2428 a, 2444 
 
 11 
 
TRAVEL. A Series of Narratives of Personal 
 Visits to places famous for Natural Beauty and Histor- 
 ical Association. This publication is not an easy one to describe 
 and is wholly beyond criticism. It is made up from the contents of 
 Travel, an interesting and unique semi-monthly periodical published by 
 W: M. Griswold, which consists of select narratives of personal visits to 
 famous places. These selections, indexed in a thoroughly scientific man- 
 ner, compose the two volumes before us. They are a museum of miscel- 
 lanea, interesting to the traveler who is endowed with intellectual curi- 
 osity. The only drawback on their use en route is their miscellaneous 
 character, a drawback which disappears when the journey is done and 
 the well seasoned traveler, at home by his family fireplace, wishes to re- 
 fresh his memories, renew his experiences, or to add to his own personal 
 discoveries. Headers of both classes will find this publication, especially 
 as bound in a permanent form, an invaluable aid in bringing to their 
 notice the best, freshest, and most interesting illustrations lohich have been 
 published on the field of travel, whether at home or abroad. — [ The Indepen- 
 dent, IS Dec. 1890. 
 
 A serial of ivhich two volumes have been ptiblished, composed of re- 
 prints, either in full or abridged, of papers which have appeared in a va- 
 riety (if periodicals and books. The personal element gives a special 
 flavor to this serial, and the editor, who is also the publisher, has a keen 
 scent for the interesting, as well as a good faculty for leaving out the 
 superfluous. The English Lakes, Vallombrosa, the Engadine, Lake 
 George, Quebec, the Black Forest, the Pyrenees, Heidelberg, the White 
 Mountains, are among the subjects treated. The editor has annotated the 
 text judiciously and sparingly. — \_The Atlantic Monthly, March, 1891. 
 
 LIST OF NUMBERS ISSUED, w 
 Riviera, Lago-Mfiggioro, MoDtafon, Franco- 
 nian-Switzcrland, Wengern Alp, English Lakes, 
 Ardennes, Neckar, Rouen to Metz (by Oscar 
 Browning) , Quebec (by II : James), Vailombro- 
 sa. Lakes George and Cbaraplain (by H : James), 
 Leuk, Tirol, Holland, Killarney, Daupbine, 
 Salzkamraergut, Brienz and Thun, Ilarz (by 
 H; Blackburn), Hyeres (by Grant Allen), 
 Scotch nighlands. Black Forest, Pyrenees, 
 Tarasp, Ravenna, Moscl, Engelberg, Venice (by 
 E. (L.) Linton), Monaco (by Grant Allen), Zer- 
 malt, Mountains near Nice, Spanish Travel, Bay 
 of Naples (by E. (L.I Linton), Vogesen, Sabine 
 Mountains, Arcachon, Devonshire, Lake of 
 
 Zurich, Eastern Pyrenees, Heidelberg, Etrctat, 
 Schaffloch, Badenweiler, Sicily, Bavarian Iligh- 
 lands, Wiesen, Oybin, Val Maggia, Pegnitz Val- 
 ley, TTriage, Eifel, Albenga, Weimar (by "Geo. 
 Eliot"), Lake Leman, Bohemian Forest, Heiden, 
 Environs of Dresden, Environs of Florence, 
 Lakes of Savole, Locarno to Rhone, Thiiringen, 
 Headwaters of Rhein, Ricsengebirge, White 
 Mountains (by Grant Allen), Normandie and 
 Bretagne, Varese, Herculesbad, Fontainebleau, 
 Channel Islands, Odenwald, Mont Bore, fcitelvio. 
 Cap d'Antibes (by Allen), Urbino,. Along the 
 Seine, Birkenfield and Idar, Along the Eastern 
 Apennines (by Theo. Bacon), Niagara, Rhein- 
 land, Heidelberg to KUrnberg (by Taylor), etc. 
 
 PinCE, POST PAID, IN LIGHT GRAY CLOTH, $2.25 PER [SMALL 8V0.J VOL- 
 UME. IX SHEETS, $2.00 PER VOL. OF 30 NUMIiERS. EaCII NUMBER SOLD 
 SEPARATELY AT 10 CENTS .V COPY. ADDRESS : 
 
 W: M. Griswold, 35 Craigie~' St., Cambridge, Mass.