Page images
PDF
EPUB

interest than "Terminations" had. The charm of its author's method is neverfailing, and the success of his epithets and phrases is still secure.

Human interest is not lacking in Mrs. Dudeney's Men of Marlowe's. The men are Nat Chaytor, who died of consumption, and Orion, who killed his aunt for her money; Arnold, who loved his dog better than he loved Clarissa, who turned out to be his slovenly charwoman's daughter; Orchard and Hopkins and Jimmy. Pathetic figures they are, half developed in their manhood, therefore abnormal. They lived in Marlowe's Inn, just off Holborn, in "sets" provided with "dunscopes." Their stories are told in crisp, short sentences, forming chapters linked together by the association of the characters with one another. The author says, in her unusual introduction, written in dialogue: "I prefer sad tales; there is more strength in a sob than in a giggle." True, but not more than in a laugh. Giggling is not the only alternative. The stories may not unjustly be called studies in unhealthy death. They are written with power, but power turned in the wrong direction, in one of the two directions where women turn it who "write with a man's touch." Strong women writers are almost always either morbid or erotic.

How would he have developed had he lived? This question is of perpetual interest when a man dies who appears to be riding on the crest of his highest wave. With Stevenson there could be only one answer: Towards greater perfection of art and ripeness of sane thought. With Stephen Crane the answer is not so sure. These stories of the Spanish war, Wounds in the Rain, show the author's encourag

MEN OF MARLOWE'S. By Mrs. Henry Dudeney. Henry Holt & Co., 12mo. $1.25.

WOUNDS IN THE RAIN. By Stephen Crane. Frederick A. Stokes Co., $1.50.

ing grasp of the grammatical demands of the English language as a means of literary expression-a great gain to the mind of any reader that is at all sensitive to solecisms. The beauty of the scenery is vastly marred if one's wagon has no springs and the road is full of rocks. Some of the early crudeness has disappeared in these vivid pictures of soldier life, and with it some of the Manet splashes of color in word-painting. The vigor and fearlessness are here, without the apparent aim at effect. The book is a distinct advance, but we shall never know whether or not it would have been its author's swansong before literary death. Those who knew the man say No.

In Billy Sanders, Mr. Joel Chandler Harris has given us a character that will not soon be forgotten. On the Wing of Occasions contains, as its longest story, "The Kidnapping of President Lincoln," one of the best bits of rapid narative and clear-cut character sketching in many a day. The first sentence sends you deeper into your easy-chair for pure content. The story is in full swing by the time the first page is turned. Your interest in young Francis Bethune's state of mind is immediate, not so much from psychological analysis, as from an instinctive perception that the author is not analyzing for the sake of analysis, but for the purpose of getting you into the story. The glimpses of President Lincoln, "the man of the people," are perfectly consistent with our ideas of him, even to the point where he says that if Stanton called him a dd fool, there must be something in it, for Stanton generally knew what he was talking about. His deep melancholy dispelled by one of Billy Sanders's stories is shown in a few skilful touches, and Billy's tact in dealing with the Secret Service men gives further evidence that

ON THE WING OF OCCASIONS. By Joel Chandler Harris. Doubleday, Page & Co., 12mo, $1.50.

that shrewd old man, though unversed in Latin and Greek, knew human nature-a much more useful acquirement than knowledge of books.

Mr. Harris has followed in the wake of the supply of historical fiction that must be proceeding from demand, but he follows at a far enough distance, and in a gait of his own distinctive enough to place him in a class by himself. The Secret Service is a phase of the Civil War that has not been made to pall upon our jaded tastes. Those of us that find historical novels hard reading will have no difficulty with a detective story. A healthy mind finds great relief from close work in detective stories. Therefore this book can be heartily recommended to anyone in need of relaxation. The style is so good in all the five stories, that the vehicle of thought is forgotten in the interest of the narrative the test of a really good style.

Mr. A. B. Frost's illustrations of Mr. Harris's stories have been so successful as examples of illustrations which, truly illustrate, that their absence in this book must cause regret. It would be interesting to see what Mr. Frost would make of the scene in President Lincoln's private office.

Since the days of "Wuthering Heights" there have not been many books enthralling enough to make one sit up of nights to read. Mere adventure will not do it. That recent book of hair-breadth escapes par excellence, "To Have and to Hold," cannot do it. Adventure follows adventure, but the susceptibility to impression becomes gradually dulled, and it is possible to put the book down half-finished, with no particular interest as to what form of escape is to follow. Its quality will be the same as that of the preceding

[blocks in formation]

alities of Earnshaw and Heathcliff in their relations to each other and to the remaining characters in the book. The same kind of interest is felt in the passionate, tyrannic Carmichaels-Philip and Nicholas-who fill the opening chapters of Chloris of the Island with a picture of dark brutality. There are adventures in this book, but they have interest only in relation to the characters, and not per se. Mr. Watson has succeeded in combining narrative and psychology, so that the interest is divided between the thing done and the doer. It cannot be denied that the fascination of the story is uncanny, but fascination it undoubtedly has.

It

Marie Corelli's last novel, The Master Christian, should have an index. might read somewhat after this fashion: Africa-a fashionable pasture-land for disappointed lives, p. 199.

Actors' vs. Priests' follies, p. 193.
Celibacy in the Roman church, p. 127.
Charm-more fatal in a woman than beauty, p.
251.

Eyes-English vs. Italian, p. 319.

"Go," definition of (in a man), p. 392. Hand, character shown in, p. 177.

Heretic, definition of, by precocious child of twelve, p. 138.

Marriage vs. liaisons, p. 161.
Man's nature, p. 154.

Sleighrides in America, p. 250.
Socialism, p. 126, et al.

Stage managers who keep harems, p. 153.
Tramping with tramps, p. 257.
Vivisection, p. 130.

Woman's rights, p. 126.

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

The central motive of the story is the hypocrisy of the Roman Church, the immoral lives of its priests, and its successful attempt to encourage ignorance, bigotry, and superstition. The book is for the most part a series of conversations on this subject, sometimes among "servants of Christ," sometimes in fashionable society. Angela Sovrani paints a picture illustrating it" the finest picture ever seen since Raffaelle and Michael Angelo left the world to work elsewhere." The Abbé Vergniaud preaches about it—a sermon ten pages long; Aubrey Leigh preaches about it on a quay. Even the Princesse d'Agramont, riding gracefully in the Bois on her beautiful Arab, ponders deeply over the matter.

All this hammering succeeds in making of the book nothing more nor less than a tract, which, if compressed within reasonable limits and into the form of a novel, with the excess of religious talk as an appendix, would have defeated the author's purpose. She has either made the mistake of believing that an Index Rerum of her thoughts constitutes a novel, or else she has purposely defied artistic canons in her effort to preach the truth. The problem has swamped the art.

That Miss Corelli is sincere there can be no reasonable doubt. She strikes the keynote at once in her opening chapter, where she describes the sensuous atmosphere of a great cathedral as a background for the ascetic figure of Cardinal Bonpré. The spiritual immediately begins its struggle against the material, and the note is firmly held throughout the book. But the endless discussions are dull. The really good parts are probably not what Miss Corelli in her own mind counted

THE MASTER CHRISTIAN. By Marie Corelli. Dodd, Mead & Co., 12mo, $1.50.

[merged small][ocr errors]

If a pot-pourri, a Commonplace Book is successful as a novel, then the "power and daring" of The Master Christian will place it among the great novels of the moment, for there are startling passages. But literature it is not. And as entertainment it is not worth while.

N

IN

Carolyn Shipman.

MR. BRADY ON HEROES

the series of Great Commanders the volume devoted to Paul Jones, by the Rev. Cyrus Townsend Brady, is a spirited study based upon remarkably thorough researches. The famous American sea-dog of whom it has been said, as of the great Condé, "This man was born a captain," was during his life the object of venomous attacks against character and deeds; after death both his bravery and his weaknesses were magnified. Mr. Brady believes that the English historians have never been able to forgive Jones the thrashings Great Britain received at his hands, and have therefore been only too willing to make much of the shadows that for truth's sake must be admitted in any fair account of his life. Mr. Brady, it is pleasant to say, is able to write that after the most careful study and impartial investigation he laid down his pen with a higher respect, a more affectionate regard and a greater admiration than ever for the man who had been to him for many years

COMMODORE PAUL JONES. By Cyrus Townsend Brady. D. Appleton & Co., 12mo, $1.50.

a hero. The accounts of the naval fights in which Jones played a leading part are given with fine spirit and enthusiasm. The Russian episodes in Jones's life make chapters that will be read with renewed interest even by those who may have thought there was nothing new to tell concerning the curious and romantic relations between our bluff American sailor and the most corrupt court of Europe. Altogether, this is a study with which the author may well be satisfied.

American Fights and Fighters, by the same author, is a book-title to make the average boy's eyes shine; and the stories that Mr. Brady collects within these covers amply fulfill the promise of the outside. The achievements of such fighters as Washington, Paul Jones, Greene, Decatur and Schuyler are set forth in a graphic fashion by a writer who knows how to interest his young audience. It may be well to add that the book ends with the war of 1812. There is actually no word about Dewey, for which some of us may be thankful-and some not.

AUTUMN NOVELS

RUSSIA has been a mine of plots to

the sensational novelist, who usually draws upon his imagination for his facts. Nihilism can be made to cover a multitude of romantic impossibilities, and the Secret Police can be accused with impunity of all kinds of horrors. He who takes his knowledge of Russia from books. of this kind, will find his ilk in the Frenchmen who derive their historical lore from the elder Dumas, and their geographical information, plus a confused smattering of science, from Jules Verne. And their numbers are great. Of a far different quality are the Petersburg Tales of

AMERICAN FIGHTS AND FIGHTERS. By Cyrus Townsend Brady. McClure, Phillips & Co., 12mo, $1.25.

Olive Garnett, an Englishwoman who has lived in Russia, and knows the country and its people well. Her first story deals with the revolutionary movements in St. Petersburg, and centres in the mysterious death of a young woman in its fortress prison-a case whose sinister aspect appalled Europe some years ago. There is no imagination in this tale, only knowledge of the state of affairs as it really is, and a striking interpretation of the Slav character. This author tells us why the liberal movement in Russia achieves nothing. It is only the young, immature students and visionaries who are its apostles. The strength of the nation, the mature men and women, are apathetic, timid, and afraid of risking their material well-being; and the masses are inert through brutish ignorance. This first tale is a notable study of the Russian character, from the energetic AngloSaxon's point of view. Other traits of this semi-Asiatic race are shown in the second and third stories. The fourth, and last, has nothing to do with the title of the book, whose publication is amply justified by the merits of the first.

Sensationalism is the keynote of Miss Lilian Bell's The Expatriates, sensationalism and honesty of purpose. She despises the French aristocracy, and adds one more to the many warnings addressed to American heiresses against marriages with foreign noblemen. To point her moral, she adorns her tale with an account of the behavior of French gentlemen at the Charity Bazar fire in Paris, basing her version, we believe, on one of Gyp's short stories in dialogue, and adds, by way of full measure, the horrors of the foundering of the "Bourgogne." If the Paris society she describes resembles

PETERSBURG TALES. By Olive Garnett. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 12mo, $1.50.

THE EXPATRIATES. By Lilian Bell. Harper & Bros., 12mo, $1.50.

closely that of the current French fiction, the nation has only its own novelists to thank. There is sound, if somewhat aggressive, patriotism in her pages, and stalwart American manhood and lovely American girlhood accentuate the baseness of France. Miss Bell sees very truly that the European, not the American, loves money ignobly, tries again to explain the pitfalls that beset the reputation of the independent, clean-minded American girl, and boils over with indignation at the wolfish hatred of us displayed at the time of the Spanish war. The story suffers from exaggeration, but is readable in a certain crude way, though far from good art.

The old West-the West of the cattleman and the desperado-is disappearing from our fiction as it has already disappeared from our national life. Occasionally it finds a belated interpreter who demonstrates anew how good it was as material for stories, and how far from hackneyed it is even now, especially in the reign of the strenuous historical novel. Such a belated tale is With Hoops of Steel, by Florence Finch Kelly, who has bethought her of the "Soldiers Three" and the "Three Musketeers," transforming them into three cattlemen bound together "with hoops of steel" by the traditional friendship of the romantic, rude West in earlier fiction. The tale begins with a hold-up, followed by the hospitality of the plains extended to the stranger, who has satisfactorily accounted for himself; continues with an attempt to capture two outlaws; thence proceeds to an accusation. of murder brought against one of the three friends; his arrest and rescue; occupies itself for some time with a roundup and a stampede, which ends with an attempt to recapture the dead-shot fugitive, and, of course, furnishes diversion in

WITH HOOPS OF STEEL. By Florence Finch Kelly. Bowen-Merrill Co., 12mo, $1.50.

the form of villains, a love affair, an occasional uproarious "drunk " and a lost gold mine, ending with the vindication of the unjustly accused hero. All this material, it will be seen, deserves the respect due to an honorable old age after a hard-working life; and yet the story is entertaining. It furnishes pleasant relaxation after a busy, trying day. The book is artistically illustrated in colors by Mr. Dan Smith.

The Moon Metal, a short novel by Mr. Garrett P. Serviss, incidentally preaches the doctrine of sound money, but we fear that its popular educational value is very small. For the rest, this is one of those fantastic ideas in which Jules Verne delighted in the days of his best work, but it should not be concluded from this that Mr. Serviss is the French author's legitimate successor. Some time in the next century, he tells us, gold was discovered on the Antarctic continent in such quantities that its value as the money standard became fatally impaired. Its substitute had to be found. The financiers of the world perspired at international Congresses to find a remedy for impending calamities, when a mysterious stranger offered artemisium, a metal of whose provenience and extraction he alone possessed the secret, as the new standard. It was accepted, the proper safeguards were made by international agreement with the inventor, and the financial system of the world established on an artemisium basis. Ere long, however, an ingenious American discovered the secret of the metal, whereupon the original inventor proceeded to revenge himself by making his process known to chemists all over the world. For the solution of this new disturbance, the reader is referred to the tale, which is nothing more than an ingenious magazine story in book form.

It cannot be said that matrimony has im

THE MOON METAL. By Garrett P. Serviss. Harper & Brothers, 16mo, $1.

« PreviousContinue »