A King's

Pawn

To continue the comparison implied in the title of this book, "A King's Pawn," (Doubleday, Page & Co.). the king, Henry of Navarre, pushes forward his pawn, Blaise de Bernauld, move after move, supporting him with a knight, De Montamar, and another pawn, Maral, who is Bernauld's servant and friend, into the enemy's country. The opposing queen, Teresa Saumerez, with several pieces, attacks boldly, and about the king's pawn is waged a battle royal, surprises, checks, counter checks, deep laid schemes, and no false moves. The game ends in a draw. The queen does not win, for she is lost, but as a recompense she takes the pawn, Maral, and brings discomfiture upon the king, who does succeed in pushing his pawn through, but not far enough to win his game.

Duc d'Anjou dies, and the Huguenot Henry, King of Navarre, is the next in line for the throne of France. An embassy comes to him from the Catholic King of France urging him to turn Catholic for the good of his country, and in reality offering him succession to the throne if he accede. Henry refuses, and thereupon decides to strengthen himself with the addition of Spanish Navarre that he may be thought worthy and be able to have the crown. With these trusty men the king goes incognito across the mountains into Spain to feel the temper of Spanish Navarre. They meet robbers and cutthroats in the mountains, and their first experience in Spain proper is in a castle, the real head of which proves to be Donna Teresa Saumarez, the personification of Spanish vindictiveness, who has a sworn grudge against Blaise de Bernauld for killing her son in Florida years before. The meetings in the castle are like house parties on a volcano's crater. Donna Teresa has the guests pledge the destruction of de Bernauld. By chance she hears one of the men addressed as de Bernauld, and im

mediately seizes all four, but none will tell. She promises liberty to the other three. Finally Maral confesses himself as de Bernauld, and the way it comes about is not to de Bernauld's discredit. The nominal mistress of the castle, Mlle. de Lignac, Donna Teresa's granddaughter, also a Huguenot, effects the release and means of escape for the whole party. she herself accompanying them. The escape is thrilling. Just a touch of a love tale between Montamar and Mlle. de Bignac gives the last chapters of the book an added zest. The King throughout is a manly, well portrayed character. His bluffness, courage and fairness are well brought out. De Bernauld, the King's Pawn, is the character. He tells the story and tells it so well, with his modesty, wit and action so mingled, that one is carried quite away by it, and reads it straight through, now slowly, with a smile and sense of satisfaction, now hurriedly with feverish excitement, and now and often with a sudden heart thump, stops breathless at some unexpected situation lest he himself precipitate calamities. One regrets to finish the book.

A Satire.

The unprecedented sale of the April INLANDER, containing the now famous satire on Chicago, by Chicago: Thomas P. Johnson, which resulted in exhausting the regular edition of 1,000 copies, has made it necessary for THE INLANDER to bring out the satire in book form. A handsome cover design has been prepared for it, and an edition of 5,000 copies of the booklet will appear within a few days. It will be on sale in Chicago at McClurg's, Brentano's, and every news stand in the city, and in other cities of the middle west. Many flattering notices of the satire have appeared in the leading dailies. One of the most amusing conjectures about the author. Mr. Thomas P. Johnson, is that, because his

name does not appear in last year's Calendar of the University, he mus: be a freshman. As a matter of fact, Thomas P. Johnson is the nom-de-plume of a Michigan graduate, whose scholarly work in other lines of human endeavor have made him a well-known personage.

The name of Brander Matthews on the title page of a book is sufficient assurThe ance of its value and readHistorical ableness. "The Historical Novel. Novel and Other Essays" (Scribner's) is a collection of that writer's latest essays and criticisms which does not disappoint in these respects. The ideas contained therein, while perhaps in themselves not or startling novelty, are presented with such aptness and lucidity that they appeal to one with all the effect of newness.

The first of the essays, which gives to the book its title, is especially interesting because it deals with a literary form very prominent at the present time. Although the author denies that he wishes to disparage the historical novel, yet he certainly leaves that impression with us, and succeeds in making out a good case against it. The real historical novel, the one from which history can actually be studied, is, he proves, not the one which attempts to reproduce a bygone age, but the one written at that time. "In other words," says he, "the really tru tworthy historical novel are those which were a-writing while the history was a-making." The historical novels that have achieved the most success have brought the fiction to the center of the stage and left the history in the background. The reason for the popularity of this type of fiction is that the people like to imagine that in reading i. they are incidentally learning history.

The other essays a e equally good in their way. Even their very titles are suggestive: "Romance Against Romanticism," "New Trials for Old Favorites," "The Study of Fiction," "Alphonse Daudet," "On a Novel of Thackeray's,” “H.

Higher criticism, so-called, is now an established factor in treating the Bible, particularly the Old Testament.

Lyman Abbot, as against the ancient, the theological, and the traditional school, accepts the modern, the scientific, the literary and the evolutionary school of Biblical interpretation, and writes, as he says, with the double purpose of telling the spirit, methods, and conclusions of this school respecting the Bible, and second, to show that they do not imperil spiritual faith, but enhance the value of the Bible as an instrument for the cultivation of the spiritual faith.

He deals with the Bible as literature first, and then, in a scholarly and impartial but reverent way, takes up Hebrew history, tradition, law, poetry, drama, and philosophy and treats them in a broadminded, spiritual way that convinces us not only that he believes that he is helping us on toward a less dogmatic and more spiritual theology than the old, but that he is right.

The Bible is the message of Israel to the world. They contributed not sculpture, architecture, music, but an expression of religious life, and the four questions, Who is God? What is man? What is the right relationship between God and man? How can that right relationship be brought about? are sought out and given to the world in the literature comprising the Old Testament. Genesis is mainly tradition, Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus and Deuteronomy and the books containing civil and ecclesiastical laws are col

lections codified much later than commonly received chronology supposes. Fiction and folk lore are the bases of the stories about Daniel, Samson, and Elijah. Ruth is an Idyl of the Common People, Esther an Historical Romance, Jonah a Satirical Romance, the Song of Songs is a Drama of Love, and Job a Spiritual Tragedy. Proverbs and the Book of Ecclesiastes are a School of Ethical Philosophy, and the Psalms a Collection of Lyrics. Prophets he divides into Preachers of Righteousness and Preachers of Redemption.

The cry is that we lose faith when we read anything that serves to detract from the old time "every sentence inspired" belief in the Bible, but no one can read this book of Dr. Abbot's without loving his Bible more than ever before, and with a fuller understanding of its purposes and a richer trust in its powers.

gressive, though conservative, and convincing without being antagonistic.

Sweetheart

Manette.

The late lamented Maurice Thompson's successful novel, "Alice of Old Vincennes," has caused his former publishers to bring forth new editions of many of his earlier stories. One of the most interesting of these is "Sweetheart Manette" (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co. $1.25). This is really a delightful and absorbing romance, dealing with the dreamy, lazy life of the Gulf, and the hospitable home of an aristocratic family. There are five suitors for the hand of the daughter of the family-a Boston millionaire, a realistic novelist, a bluff Westerner, a Frenchman and a Creole. After a suitable amount of episode. bordering on the melodramatic, the millionaire wins out, and sails away in his yacht, bearing Sweetheart Manette with him as his bride. The story is well worth reading.