This curious and now rare
work is written in an old-fashioned, pon-
derous style; and judged by modern
standards of melodramatic fiction, is not
very readable.
work is written in an old-fashioned, pon-
derous style; and judged by modern
standards of melodramatic fiction, is not
very readable.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v30 - Guide to Systematic Readings
» His mother's loyal
reply is, «He takes no hold of me; I
would hantle rather read your books. ”
Margaret is greatly pleased and very
proud to find herself so often depicted
in her son's books. She affects not
to recognize it, but would give herself
away unconsciously. She says, chuck-
ling, “He tries to keep me out, but he
canna; it's more than he can do. ))
At the ripe age of seventy-six, Mar-
garet Ogilvy peacefully passed away.
Her last words were “God” and “love );
and her son adds, «I think God was
smiling when he took her to him, as
he had so often smiled at her during
these seventy-six years. ”
»
an
But
ut Yet a Woman, by Arthur Sher-
burne Hardy, is a romance of real
life, its scene laid mainly in Paris during
the time of the Second Empire. Renée
Michael, a fair young girl destined to be
a religieuse, shares the home and adorns
the salon of her elderly bachelor uncle,
M. Michael. They enjoy the friendship
of M. Lande, and his son, Dr. Roger
Lande. The four, together with Father
Le Blanc, a kindly old cure, and Madame
Ships that Pass in the Night; by Stephanie Milevski, make up a congenial
. This little
at
story achieved notoriety when it was on Mt. St. Jean. Stephanie, the half-
published in 1894, largely on account of sister of her host, is the young widow of
its taking title. The scene is laid in a a Russian nobleman who has died in
Swiss winter-resort for consumptives. exile. She was associated with the emi-
Bernardine, a pathetic worn-out school- nent journalist M. De Marzac in the
teacher, of the new-woman type, who Bourbon restoration plot, and became the
has had hitherto little human interest, object of his ardent though unrequited
finds herself one of the 250 guests of love. Her affection is for Dr. Roger
the crowded Kurhaus at Petershof. Her Lande; but he loves Renée, and not in
neighbor at table is Robert Allitsen, vain. Stephanie induces M. Michael to
a man whom long illness and pain have allow her to take Renée on a journey to
rendered so brusque and selfish, that he Spain. Upon the eve of their departure,
goes by the name of the Disagreeable De Marzac, angered by Stephanie's con-
Man. ) He declares that he has no fur- tinued denial of his suit, accuses her of
ther duties towards mankind, having taking Renée to Spain in order to prevent
made the one great sacrifice, which is Roger from wooing her until the time
the prolonging, for his mother's sake, of set to begin her novitiate shall have ar-
a wearisome and hopeless existence. rived. The unraveling of this situation
XXX-24
## p. 370 (#406) ############################################
370
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
are
makes an excellent story. The book, girls rowing out of the sunset,-Althea
published in 1883, is written with charm- Indagine, and Cottle's younger daughter
ing delicacy of treatment, and conceived Cassie. Althea is the daughter of an
entirely in the French spirit.
unsuccessful and embittered poet, with
whom the girl leads a hermit life, seeing
Dialogues of the Dead, by George,
Lord Lyttelton. Lord Lyttelton is
no one but the Cottle family and an ad-
opted cousin, Oliver,- whom twenty years
a writer with whom only students of the
before, her uncle Dr. Luttrell had bought
English language and literature
likely to be familiar. In fact, his only
from his grandmother for £5, intending
to see how far education, kindness, and
claims to recognition as a littérateur rest
refined association could eradicate the
upon his (Observations on the Convers-
brutish tendencies in a gipsy child of
ion and Apostleship of St. Paul,' and
the Dialogues' here presented, which
the worst type. The boy, having become
first appeared in 1760. The conversation
an eminent chemist, displays when op-
of the Dialogues » shows how thoroughly portunity offers the worst characteristics
of his race. Lawrence falls in love with
versed the writer must have been in the
Althea; and Oliver Luttrell appears as
history of all times. The ruthless Cortez
his rival, having already, unknown to
sneers at the humanitarian efforts of
William Penn; Cardinal Ximenes haugh- friend Cassie. In the end Oliver is ex-
Althea, trified with the affections of her
tily pulls to pieces the reputation of his
posed as a forger, a discovery which
rival Wolsey; Boileau and Pope, the
deeply pains his foster-father.
Like a
satirists, hold a highly instructive conver-
fairy prince Lawrence comes to the as-
sation upon the merits of their respect-
sistance of all his relatives, revealing
ive literatures; and then comes Charles
himself at the most dramatic moment,
XII. of Sweden in hot haste to Alex-
ander the Great, with a proposition that
and shipping most of them to Australia,
where there is room for all.
The un-
they two “turn all these insolent scrib-
happy poet, too, decides to emigrate.
blers out of Elysium, and throw them
down headlong to the bottom of Tar-
tarus in spite of Pluto and all his A"
ntonina, by Wilkie Collins. A romance
of the fifth century, in which many
guards, because an English poet, one
of the scenes described in the Decline
Pope, has called us (two madmen. ) »
Alexander demurs at this Draconic meas-
and Fall of the Roman Empire) are re-
ure, and by a few leading questions, Only two historical personages are in-
set to suit the purpose of the author.
which he answers himself, soon shows
troduced into the story,- the Emperor
the royal Swede that he was only a
Honorius, and Alaric the Goth; and
fool. In connection with this work, it
these attain only a secondary importance.
is interesting to note the Dialogues des
Among the historical incidents used are
Morts,' by the French free-thinker Fonte-
the arrival of the Goths at the gates of
nelle, and the Imaginary Conversa-
Rome, the Famine, the last efforts of
tions,' by Walter Savage Landor. The
the besieged, the Treaty of Peace, the
first complete edition of Lord Lyttelton's
introduction of the Dragon of Brass, and
works was published in London in 1776.
the collection of the ransom, - most of
Bell of St. Paul's, The, by Walter
,
these accounts being founded on the chron-
Besant, is a romance covering in icles of Zosimus. The principal charac-
actual development only three months, but ters are Antonina, the Roman daughter
going back twenty years or more for a of Numarian; Hermanric, a Gothic chief-
beginning Lawrence Waller, a typical tain in love with Antonina; Goisvintha,
hero of romance, a young, handsome, rich sister to Hermanric: Vetranio, a Roman
Australian, comes to London and takes up poet; Ulpius, a pagan priest; Numarian,
his residence at Bank Side, in the house a Roman Christian, Father of Antonina
of Lucius Cottle. Although they are not and a fanatic; and Guillamillo, a priest.
aware of the fact, Cottle and his family This book does not show the intricacy of
are cousins to Lawrence's mother; whose plot and clever construction of the au-
husband, an unsuccessful London boat- thor's modern society stories; but it is
builder, having emigrated to Australia, full of action, vivid in color, and suffi-
has become after thirty years premier of ciently close to history to convey a dra-
that colony. On the night of his arrival matic sense of the Rome of Honorius and
the young Australian sees two lovely, the closing-in of the barbarians.
## p. 371 (#407) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
371
erous.
-
Baby's Grandmother, The, by L. B. essay, and is the name of the imaginary
Walford. The heroine of this pleas- village in which they were written:–«An
ant story, one of the most fascinating inland English village where everything
heroines of fiction, is Lady Matilda Wil-
around one is unhurried, quiet, moss-grown
mot, sister of the Earl of Overton. Mar- and orderly. On Dreamthorpe centuries
ried at seventeen, for reasons of policy, have fallen, and have left no more trace
to a bad husband, she comes back in her than last winter's snowflakes. Battles
widowhood to her early home, Overton have been fought, kings have died, history
Hall, to live with her two brothers: the has transacted itself, but all unheeding
elder the little, ugly, shy, kind-hearted and untouched, Dreamthorpe has watched
Earl; and the younger, the Hon. Edward apple-trees redden, and wheat ripen, and
Lessingham, a handsome, affectionate fel- smoked its pipe, and rejoiced over its new-
low, not quite as bright as other people, born children, and with proper solemnity
obstinate, headstrong, and very hard to carried its dead to the church-yard.
manage, yielding his whims to nobody «The library is a kind of Greenwich
but his beautiful sister. Lady Matilda Hospital for disabled novels and romances.
has one daughter, a girl as dull and con- Each of the books has been in the wars.
ventional, as puritanic and self-seeking, The heroes and heroines are of another
as her mother is arch, brilliant, and gen- generation. Lovers, warriors, and villains
This girl, Lotta, marries (out of as dead to the present generation as
the school-room) a young prig, Robert, Cambyses - are weeping, fighting, and in-
in every way suited to her. Thus Lady triguing. It is with a certain feeling of
Matilda, at thirty-seven,- beautiful and tenderness that I look upon these books:
blooming, full of gayety and fun, ready I think of the dead fingers that have
to help everybody, and rejoicing in her turned over the leaves, of the dead eyes
very existence,- finds herself a grand- that have traveled along the lines.
mother. Her son-in-law invites two «Here I can live as I please, here I can
young Londoners, Mr. Challoner and Mr. throw the reins on the neck of my whim.
Whewell, to stand godfather to the baby. Here I play with my own thoughts; here
They come down to the country, and I ripen for the grave. ”
both fall in love with Lady Matilda. Perhaps no better idea can be given of
The plot of this clever story is re. the rest of the essays than by these quota-
markably well managed, -trifling causes tions. Dreamthorpe-the village of dreams
producing large results, as they do in casts its spell over all of them. The love
life. But its great charm and merit lie of quiet, of old books, and reverence for
in its skillful delineation of character, the past, finds its place in them, and if
its artistic contrasts, and its delightful they be dreams, the reader does not care
and never-flagging sense of humor.
to be awakened.
The titles of the other essays are: (On
Am
nne, a novel, by Constance Fenimore
the Writing of Essays); (Of Death and
Woolson, appeared serially in 1882. the Fear of Dying); (William Dunbar);
It immediately took, and has since main- (A Lark's Flight); (Christmas); (Men of
tained, high rank among American novels. Letters); (On the Importance of Man to
The story traces the fortunes, often sad Himself); A Shelf in my Bookcase);
and always varied, of Anne Douglas, a (Geoffrey Chaucer); Books and Gardens);
young orphan of strong impulses, fine (On Vagabonds. '
character, and high devotion to duty.
The plot centres in Ward Heathcote's ar.
Don Orsino, by F. Marion Crawford.
dent and abiding love for Anne, and her This book, which was published in
equally constant affection for him. It is
1892, gives a good idea of Rome after the
managed with much ingenuity, the study unification of Italy, as the author's pur-
of character is close and convincing, and pose is to describe a young man of the
the interest never flags. Like all Miss transition period. It will probably never
Woolson's work it is admirably written. attain the popularity of the two earlier
Saracinesca stories, because many readers
Drea
reamthorpe: A Book of Essays Writ- find the plot unpleasant and the ending
TEN IN THE COUNTRY, by Alexander unsatisfactory. In analysis and develop-
Smith. A collection of twelve essays, which ment of character, however, and in spark-
appeared in 1863, the first prose work ling dialogue, it far surpasses its prede-
of their author. The title is that of the first
cessors.
## p. 372 (#408) ############################################
372
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
an Italian physician. After his marriage
Vaughn discovers that his bride is men-
tally weak; that she has no memory,
and scarcely any comprehension of what
passes. The story then becomes compli-
cated, and full of adventures in Italy and
Siberia. Extremely sensational in char-
acter, and with little literary merit, the
graphic force of this story, the rapidity
of its movement, its directness, and its
skillful suspension of interest, gave it for
a season so extraordinary a vogue that
it outsold every other work of fiction of
vance.
its year.
Orsino Saracinesca longs for a career,
and being rebuffed at home, is attracted
by the sympathetic womanliness of Ma-
dame Maria Consuelo d'Aranjuez, whose
antecedents are mysterious. With the aid
of Del Ferice he undertakes some building
operations, mortgaging his house in ad-
One day he makes love to Ma-
dame d'Aranjuez, but soon realizes the
shallowness of his emotions. Subsequently
constant intercourse renews his affection
on a firmer basis, and he wishes to marry
her. Though she loves him she leaves
Rome, soon writing that a stain on her
birth prevents her marrying him. On the
day of her refusal he learns that his busi-
ness is ruined; but Del Ferice renews the
contract in terms to which Orsino submits,
only to avoid an appeal to his father.
Thus he gets more and more into Del
Ferice's power, until the united fortunes
of the Saracinesca could hardly save him.
At this crisis he receives from Maria Con-
suelo a friendly letter, asking merely that
he tell her about himself. This he gladly
does, writing freely of his business diffi-
culties. Finally the bank releases him
from his obligations, an action inexplica-
ble until the announcement of Consuelo's
marriage to Del Ferice. Then Orsino
guesses, what he afterwards learns, that
she has sold herself to save him. The
story moves rapidly, the atmosphere is
strikingly Italian, and the various compli-
cations are well managed and interesting.
Called Back, by "Hugh Conway. ”
(Frederick John Fargus).
Vaughn, the hero of this story of mys-
tery, is a young Englishman of fortune,
totally blind from cataract. By a curious
accident, he strays one midnight into a
strange house, mistaking it for his own,
and walks in upon a murder. He hears
a scuffle and a woman's shrieks, and
bursting into the room, stumbles over
the body of a man. His keen sense of
hearing informs him that there are three
other men in the room, and a moaning
woman. As he cannot identify them, the
men spare his life, and drug him. Found
by the police in a suburb, he is identified
and taken home. On recovery, he finds
no one to believe in his story. Two years
later, the cataract is operated upon and
he recovers his sight, when he falls
in love with and marries a young girl
of extraordinary beauty, Pauline March.
She is half English, half Italian; her only
living relative being an uncle, Dr. Ceneri,
East Angels, a novel, by Constance
Fenimore Woolson, 1888. Its setting
is “Gracias-à-Dios, a little town lying
half asleep on the southern coast of the
United States, under a sky of almost
changeless blue. The heroine, Edgarda
Thorne, the child of a New England
mother, but with Spanish blood in her
veins, who has lived all her life in
the South, is just ripening into woman-
hood when the story opens. The plot is
concerned chiefly with her love-affairs,
men of totally different types being thus
brought into juxtaposition. Like the au-
thor's other novels, East Angels' lacks
the romantic and ideal elements, but it
is strong in the delineation of every:
day character and incident. It is super-
fluous to say that the workmanship is
excellent and the interest well sustained.
Mehalah, by Sabine Baring-Gould,
1880, is a tale of the salt marshes
on the east coast of Essex, England,
a strange region, where even at the
present day, when this story is dated,
superstition is rife. Every character in
the book is eccentric, the half-mad Mrs.
De Witt with her soldier jacket and
her odd oaths, Elijah Rebow, the fiery
gipsy-beauty Mehalah, or Glory, as she
is called. Mehalah loves George De
Witt, but quarrels with him about
Phæbe Musset. Elijah loves Mehalah,
and vows to make her his wife. To
do this, he robs her of her savings,
burns the house over her head and
compels her to seek shelter under his
roof with her sick mother. So, among
this half-barbarous folk, go on the ameni-
ties of life; and the story grows more
and more lawless to the end.
It is a
powerful study of primitive characters,
never agreeable, but always absorbing.
Its strength is in the skill with which
the romancer environs his fierce human
## p. 373 (#409) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
373
creatures with
an equally untamable Whip and Spur, by George E. War-
nature. «Wild, singular, and extraor-
ing, Jr. This series of interesting
dinary as the conceptions and combina- personal experiences of the War of the
tions of the author of Mehalah) are, Rebellion was first published in the At-
they are almost, if not entirely, removed lantic Monthly. It was reprinted in
from the realm of imagination. It is book form in 1875. Colonel Waring was
on this fact that their value and their attached to the 4th Missouri Cavalry,
permanence as literature rest. They and the scene of his service was chiefly
are bits of human history, studies of in Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, and
eccentric development, scenes from the Tennessee. While there is very little
comedy of unsophisticated life. )
fighting recorded, other no less interest-
ing features of the War are related with-
out any attempt at dramatic effect.
Neighbor Jackwood, by J. T. Trow-
He
bridge, an anti-slavery novel, was tells the stories and paints the charac-
published in 1856, when its author had ters of various horses that he owned,
been turned into an «anti-slavery fanatic, Vix, Ruby, Wellstein, and Max. The
as he called himself, through seeing the two last chapters give a vivid picture of
fugitive slave Anthony Burns marched fox-hunting in England. The volume
from the Boston court-house to a reve- shows that Colonel Waring is as clever
nue cutter in waiting for him by the in handling the pen as in managing the
President's orders at Long Wharf, and great problem of cleaning the streets of
thus returned by the Commonwealth of a great city.
Massachusetts to his Virginia bondage.
“The story finished, I had,” says Mr. Ginx's Baby, by John. Edward Jen-
I
, trouble in
, English
it. I suppose a score of titles were con- laws and the administration of sectarian
sidered, only to be rejected. At last I charitable associations.
Gins, a navvy,
settled down upon Jackwood, but felt earning twenty shillings a week, with a
the need of joining to that name some wife and twelve children, living in two
characteristic phrase or epithet. Thus I rooms of a crowded tenement in a squalid
was led to think of this Scriptural motto district of London, despairs of finding
for the title-page: "A certain woman enough to feed another mouth, and de-
went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, clares he will drown the thirteenth when
and fell among thieves;' which suggested it arrives. He is swerved from his pur-
the question, Who was neighbor unto pose by the offer of the Sisters of
this woman? ) and the answer, Neigh- Misery» to take charge of the infant,
bor Jackwood. And I had my title. ) and Ginx's baby becomes an inmate of
Like his juvenile stories, this novel for a Catholic Home. The child is «res-
grown folks is crowded with incident cued from this Home through the efforts
and dialogue, - homely and true to life of a Protestant society; this society,
in part, and in part melodramatic. The through dissensions and lack of funds,
heroine, Camille,- fugitive (white ) turns him over to the parish; parochial
slave under the alias «Charlotte Woods, law requires his return to the parents:
- is sheltered by the Jackwoods in their and Ginx finally leaves his baby, then
Green Mountain farmhouse, and meets grown to boyhood, on the steps of the
thereabouts the hero, Hector Dunbury. Reform Club, and Alies the country.
Their mutual love, darkened by the dan- Ginx's baby grows up a thief, and ends
gers and distresses which multiply about his life by jumping off Vauxhall bridge,
the path of the fugitive, and almost at the spot where his father set out to
thwarted by a passionate and unscrupu- drown him on the day of his birth.
lous rival for the girl's hand, who knows (Ginx's Baby) was published anony-
her secret, is happily crowned at last by mously in London in 1871, speedily ran
marriage, though the husband has to pur- through many editions, was republished
chase his wife from her Southern master. in the United States, and excited warm
The story was dramatized and played in controversy in the press and even in
Northern theatres with some success; Parliament. It was followed by satires
sympathy for the maiden overcoming the on other phases of social economy, Mr.
prejudice against its abolitionist bearing, Jenkins preserving his anonymity for
and the mésalliance of Hector and Ca- some time under the signature of “The
mille.
Author of Ginx's Baby”; but none of
## p. 374 (#410) ############################################
374
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
a mysterious white race inhabiting the
interior of Africa. Jonathan purchases
her to save her from the horrors of
slavery. The two pass through many ex-
citing adventures, finally arriving in Ka-
loolah's native land, Framazugda, which
is said to be located in 32' north lati-
tude, and somewhere between 250 and
300 of east longitude. In this remark-
able land, Kaloolah is a princess, of sur-
prising charm both of body and mind,
and takes pride in exhibiting to Jona-
than the glories of the wondrous city
of Killoam, whose unexpected civilization
rivals the descriptions of Mr. Rider Hag.
gard's African metropolis. Jonathan de-
termines to renounce America, weds the
fair Kaloolah, and becomes a great man
in Framazugda. The story is filled with
stirring adventure; shipwrecks, pirates,
slaves, deserts, enormous reptiles and
wild beasts, an endless variety of men
and scene, passing rapidly before the
eye, while considerable light is cast upon
the manners and customs of the peo-
ples whom Romer meets. The whole is
couched in dignified language and is per-
vaded by a spirit of wholesome manli-
ness.
the other works of this author attained
such a vogue or exerted such an un-
doubted influence upon the direction of
social reforms.
Chrysal; or, The Adventures of a
Guinea, containing curious and
interesting anecdotes of the most noted
persons in every rank of life whose
hands it passed through, in America,
England, Holland, Germany, and Portu-
gal. This satirical novel, by Charles
Johnstone, an Irishman, was published
in 1760. In Davis's Olio of Biblio-
graphical and Lit lry Anecdote,' a key
to the characters is presented. The
first two volumes of the work were
written for the author's amusement. Its
popularity induced him to extend it to
four volumes.
Chrysal, signifying gold or golden, is
the spirit inhabiting a guinea, which
passes through many hands, from the
prince's to the beggar's. It tells its own
story, which is chiefly the adventures of
those in whose pos ession it is for the
time being.
This curious and now rare
work is written in an old-fashioned, pon-
derous style; and judged by modern
standards of melodramatic fiction, is not
very readable.
Cycle of Cathay, A, by W. A. P. Mar-
tin, 1896. A Chinese cycle, explains
the author of this volume, is sixty years,
the period covered in the sketches of
China here included. Dr. Martin, whom
forty-five years of residence qualify to
speak with knowledge of that mysterious
empire, describes the face of the country,
the villages and cities, productions, com-
merce, language, institutions, beliefs, but
above all, the every day life of the people,
and its significance in the general pro
gress of mankind.
History is made to
explain the present, and the present to
throw its light on the future. The tone
is, indeed, that of the foreign observer,
but an observer who honestly tries to dis-
abuse his mind of Occidental prejudice,
and to give an uncolored report. (A Cycle
of Cathay) ranks among the most interest-
ing and valuable of modern books on
China.
Kaloolah, a
aloolah, a narrative of travel and
adventure, by W. S. Mayo, (1849,)
purported to be an autobiography of
Jonathan Romer. In Africa, where most
of the scenes are laid, Jonathan meets
Kaloolah, a young slave who belongs to
was.
Cabot, John, The Discoverer of North
America, and Sebastian, his Son.
A Chapter of the Maritime History of
England under the Tudors (1496–1557).
By Henry Harrisse. (1895. ) A work of
authority for the earliest history of Amer-
ica; especially valuable for its complete
recovery of the true Cabot history, and
exposure of the false tradition of things
done and honors won by Sebastian, the
son, who is proved to have grossly falsi-
fied the course of events to make himself
a far more important figure than he ever
He did indeed play no small part
in the story after his father; but it not
only gave no ground for the claims made
by him in connection with the work of
the father, but left him discredited by
notable want of success. The entire his-
tory is admirably dealt with by Harrisse,
and the story is one of great interest.
Cape Cod, by Henry D. Thoreau: 1865.
Until Thoreau arrived to make ac-
quaintance with its hard yet fascinating
personality, Cape Cod remained unknown
and almost unseen, though often visited
and written about by tourists and students
of nature. Something in the asceticism,
or the directness, or the amazing keen-
ness, of Thoreau's mind brought him into
## p. 375 (#411) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
375
sympathetic understanding of the thing eter and Worcester under Charles II. «It
he saw, and he interpreted the level got Parson Gauden a bishopric. ) Carlyle
stretches of shore with absolute fidelity. wrote November 26th, 1840. On Thurs-
In these pages the melancholy land looks day, January 4th, 1649, the change of Eng.
as long, lank, and brown » as it looks land from a monarchy to a republic, or
lying under the gray autumn sky. Nor commonwealth, had been made by the pas-
does he spare any prosaic detail. The sage in the Commons House of Parliament
salt wholesomeness of his sea breeze does of three resolutions: (1) That the people
not wholly overcome the offensive flot- are the original of all just power in the
sam and jetsam drifted up on the sand; State; (2) That the Commons represent
but on the other hand, with the simplest that
power; and (3) That their enactinents
means, he communicates what he feels needed no consent of king or peers to have
so fully, — the savage grandeur of the the force of law. On Tuesday, January
sea, and its evanescent and ever-changing 30th, between two and three P. M. , the ex-
loveliness. In this, as in all his other ecution of Charles I. had taken place. Ten
books, Thoreau rises from the observation days later, February 9th, there was pub-
of the most familiar and commonplace lished with great secrecy, and in very mys-
facts, the comparison of the driest bones terious fashion, the small octavo volume of
of observed data, to the loftiest spiritual 269 pages, the title of which is given above.
speculation, the most poetic interpretation The frontispiece to the volume was an elab-
of nature. His accuracy almost convinces orate study in symbols and mottoes, in a
the reader that his true field was history picture of the king on his knees in his cell
or science, until some aërial flight of his looking for a crown of glory. The twenty-
fancy seems to show him as a poet lost eight chapters purporting to have been
to the Muse. But whatever his gifts, he written by Charles, and to tell the spiritual
was above all, as he shows himself in
side of the later story of his life, each be-
(Cape Cod, Nature's dearest observer, to gan with a fragment of narrative, or of
whom she had given the microscopic eye, meditation on some fact of his life, and then
the weighing mind, and the interpretative gave a prayer suited to the supposed cir-
voice.
cumstances. Not only was the whole
scheme of the book a grotesque fiction, but
Our
ur New Alaska; or, The Seward the execution was cheap, pointless, “vapid
Purchase Vindicated, by Charles falsity and cant,” Carlyle said, and a vulgar
Hallock, was published in 1886. In the imitation of the liturgy; yet fifty editions
preface, the author explains that the in a year did not meet the demand for it;
special object of the book is “to point and it created almost a worship of the dead
out the visible resources of that far-off king. It remains a singular example of
territory, and to assist their laggard de- what a literary forgery can accomplish.
velopment; to indicate to those insuf-
ficiently informed the economic value of Headlong Wall, by Thomas Love Pea-
important industries hitherto almost neg- cock. Written in 1815, Headlong
lected, which are at once available for Hall) is a study of typical English life
immediate profit. ” In thus considering put into the form of numerous detached
the industrial and commercial aspects of conversations, discussions, and descrip-
Alaska, the author does not neglect its tions. At first it tells how invitations
natural beauties, nor the peculiarities of have been sent to a perfectibilian, a de-
the inhabitants and their customs. Be-
teriorationist, a statu-quo-ite, and a reve
cause of the variety of his observation, erend doctor who had won the squire's
the work is never lacking in interest, fancy by a learned dissertation on the
and the reader is made to share the art of stuffing a turkey. There is a
pleasure of the traveler in his voyage of graphic picture of the squire at break-
discovery.
fast. After the arrival of the guests they
are taken over the grounds, dined, fêted,
Eikon
ikon Basilike: THE TRUE PORTRAIT- taken to walk, introduced to the tower,
URE OF HIS SACRED MAJESTIE IN HIS and given a ball. In the interim one of
SOLITUDES AND SUFFERINGS, by John Gau- them discovers the skull of Cadwallader
den, February 9th, 1649. One of the most and begs possession of it from the old
worthless yet most effective and famous lit- sexton, and being somewhat of a physi-
erary forgeries ever attempted. Its author ologist, follows his discovery with
was a Presbyterian divine, bishop of Ex- learned dissertation on the animal man.
a
## p. 376 (#412) ############################################
376
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
The whole story is bright, witty, humor- the author's reactionary views on mod.
ous, devoid of plot, and elaborate in its ern inventions, reforms, education, and
phrasing. It is engaging as a relic of competitive examinations. The material
old English life. Mr. Peacock was born side of his character is summed up in his
in 1785, and died in 1866. The present own words, «Whatever happens in this
is perhaps a little better known than world, never let it spoil your dinner. ”
any of his other seven books, though (Gryll Grange) was Peacock's last novel,
(Maid Marian,' (Crotchet Castle, and having been published in serial form in
Nightmare Abbey) are also to be reck- 1860.
oned among standard, if not classical,
English literature. The story is distin Ravenshoe, by Henry Kingsley, (1862: )
guished by a display of varied erudition,
in
and is to some extent, like his other Stonington, Ireland, is the scene of
books, a satire on well-known characters this novel; and the principal actors are
and fads of the day.
the members of the noble family of
Ravenshoe. The plot, remarkable for
Crotchet Castle, by Thomas Love Pea-
its complexity, has three stages. Den-
cock, was published in 1831. Richard
zel Ravenshoe, a Catholic, marries a
Garnett, in his recent edition of the book,
Protestant wife. They have two sons,
says of it that it displays Peacock at his
Cuthbert and Charles. Cuthbert is
zenith. Standing halfway between Head-
brought up as a Catholic and Charles
long Hall) and (Gryll Grange,' it is equally
as a Protestant. This is the cause of
free from the errors of immaturity and the
enmity on the part of Father Mack-
infirmities of senescence. » Like the au-
worth, a dark, sullen man, the priest
thor's other works, (Crotchet Castle) is less
a novel than a cabinet of human curios
of the family, who has friendly rela-
tions with Cuthbert alone. James Nor-
which may be examined through the glass
ton, Denzel's groom, is on intimate
of Peacock's clear, cool intellect. It is the
terms with his master. He marries
collection of a dilettante with a taste for
Norah, the maid of Lady Ravenshoe.
the odd. Yet among these curios are one
Charles becomes a sunny, lovable man,
or two fesh-and-blood characters: Dr.
Cuthbert a reticent bookworm. They
Folliott, a delightful Church-of-England
clergyman of the old school, and Miss
have for playmates William and Ellen,
the children of Norah. Two women
Susannah Touchandgo, who is very much
play an important part in the life of
alive. They are all the guests of Mr.
the hero, Charles, – Adelaide,
very
Crotchet of Crotchet Castle. Their doings
beautiful in form and figure, with little
make only the ghost of a plot. Their say-
depth, and lovely Mary Corby, who,
ings are for the delight of Epicureans in
literature.
cast up by shipwreck, is adopted by
Norah. Charles becomes engaged to
Gryll Grange, by Thomas Love Pea- Adelaide. The plot deepens. Father
cock. The plot of this, as of all of Mackworth proves that Charles is the
Peacock's novels, is very simple. The true son of Norah and James Norton,
heroine is Morgana Gryll, niece and heir- the illegitimate brother of Denzel; and
ess of Squire Gryll, who has persistently William, the groom foster-brother, is
refused all offers of marriage, of which real heir of Ravenshoe. To add to the
she has had many. The hero, Algernon grief of Charles, Adelaide elopes with
Falconer, is a youth of fortune, who lives his cousin Lord Welter. Charles flees
in a lonely tower in New Forest, attended to London, tries grooming, and then
by seven foster sisters, and with every joins the Hussars. Finally he is found
intention of continuing his singular in London by a college friend, Mar-
mode of life. Morgana and Algernon are ston, with a raving fever upon him.
brought together by the familiar device After recovery, Charles returns to Ra-
of an accident to the lady which com- venshoe. Father Mackworth again pro-
pels her to spend several days at the duces evidence that not James Norton,
tower. A sub-plot of equal simplicity is but Denzel is the illegitimate son, and
given in the love-affairs of Lord Curry- Charles, after all, is true heir to Ra-
fin and Alice Niphet. The most inter- venshoe. The union of Charles and
esting character in the book is the Rev. Mary then takes place. The book is
Doctor Opimian, a lover of Greek and written in a flashy manner, and con-
madeira, who serves as a mouthpiece for tains many bits of piquant humor.
## p. 377 (#413) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
377
The characters are all interesting, and
have a certain bright originality about
them.
fragments of poetic ideas which had been
handed down through centuries, was cal-
culated to excite national ardor and in-
terest. The subject of the epic is the
invasion of Ireland by Swaran, king of
Lochlin, Denmark, during the reign of
Cormac II. , and its deliverance by the
aid of the father of Ossian, King Fingal
of Morven, on the northwest coast of
Scotland. The poem opens with the over-
throw of Cuthullin, general of the Irish
forces, and concludes with the return of
Swaran to his own land. It is cast in
imitation of primitive manners, and is
written in a rugged yet artistic style,
which comports with its theme. While
manifesting sympathy with the gloomy
Scottish landscape, the author has pre-
sented a warmly colored variety of scenes,
at times almost Homeric in their vigorous
tones.
Fair Barbarian, A, by Frances Hodg-
son Burnett, appeared in 1881. Like
James's (Daisy Miller, it is a study of the
American girl in foreign surroundings.
Miss Octavia Bassett, of Nevada, aged
nineteen, arrives with six trunks full of
finery, to visit her aunt, Miss Belinda Bas-
sett, in the English village of Slowbridge.
The beautiful American soon sets tongues
wagging. All the village young ladies wear
gowns of one pattern obsolete elsewhere,
and chill propriety reigns. Octavia's
diamonds and Paris gowns, her self-pos-
session and frank independence, are
frowned upon by the horrified mammas,
especially when all the young men gather
eagerly about her. Octavia, serenely in-
different to the impression she creates at
the tea-drinkings and croquet parties, re-
fuses to be awed even by the autocrat of
the place, Lady Theobald. Her ladyship's
meek granddaughter is spurred by admi-
ration of the American to unprecedented
independence. She has been selected to
be Captain Barold's wife, but as he does
not care for her, she ventures to accept
Mr. Burmistone, upon whom her grand-
mother frowns. Barold meantime is en-
slaved by the charming Octavia. But he
disapproves of her unconventional ways,
and considering it a condescension on his
part to ally himself with so obscure a fam-
ily, he proposes with great reluctance, and
is astonished to meet a point-blank re-
fusal. In due time, Octavia's father and
her handsome Western lover join her; and
after a wedding the like of which had
never been witnessed at Slowbridge, she
says good-by to her English friends. The
story is slight, but the character-sketches
are amusing, the contrast of national traits
striking, and the whole book very enter-
taining.
Fingal, by James Macpherson, is an
(Ancient Epic Poem, in Six Books,
which appeared in 1762. The poet being
a favorite, Fingal had an immense sale.
The sources of the poem are the Ossianic
materials founded upon the claim that in
the third or fourth century there existed,
among the remote mountains and islands
of Scotland, a people exhibiting all the
high and chivalrous feelings of refined
valor, generosity, magnanimity, and vir-
tue. That there should exist among them
Eugene Aram, by Sir Edward Bulwer,
1832, was founded on the career of
an English scholar, Eugene Aram, born
1704, executed for the murder of one
Clark in 1759. The character of the
murderer and the circumstances of his
life made the case one of the most in-
teresting from a psychological point of
view, in the criminal annals of England.
Aram was a scholar of unusual ability,
who, self-taught, had acquired a consid-
erable knowledge of languages, and was
even credited with certain original dis-
coveries in the domain of philology. Of
a mild and refined disposition, his act
of murder seemed a complete contra-
diction of all his habits and ideals of
life.
At the suggestion of Godwin, Bulwer
made this singular case the basis of his
novel Eugene Aram. He so idealized
the character as to make of the murderer
a romantic hero, whose accomplice in the
crime, Houseman, is the actual criminal.
He represents Aram as forced, by ex-
treme poverty, into consenting to the
deed, but not performing it. From that.
hour he suffers horrible mental torture.
He leaves the scene of the murder and
settles in Grassdale, a beautiful pastoral
village, where he meets and loves a
noble woman, Madeline Lester.
She
returns his love. Their marriage ap-
proaches, when the
reappearance of
Houseman shatters Aram's hopes for-
ever. By the treachery of this wretch,
he is imprisoned, tried, and condemned
to death.
## p. 378 (#414) ############################################
378
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
(Eugene Aram) is an unusually suc- noble soldier Crillon. The story opens
cessful study in fiction of a complex on the morning of October 26th, 1585, with
psychological case. At the time of its a description of a vast assembly of peo-
publication, it caused
a great stir in ple before the closed gates of Paris,
England, many attacks being made upon clamoring for admission, to witness the
it on the ground of its false morality. execution of Salcède, a convict murderer.
To the present generation its romance is This miscreant is no vulgar assassin, but
of more interest perhaps than its psy- a captain of good birth, even distantly
chology
related to the queen. King Henri III. ,
his queen, Anne, and the queen mother,
Al Ikahest, or The House of Claës, The
Catherine de' Medici, have come to wit-
('La Recherche de l'Absolu)- The
Search for the Absolute), is a striking
ness the execution of the sentence, which
novel by Honoré de Balzac. The scene
is drawing and quartering. Word reaches
the King that Salcède, on promise of
is laid in the Flemish town of Douai
early in the present century; and the
pardon, will reveal important State secrets.
tale gives, with all the author's care
Henri agrees to the condition, and re-
and richness of detail, a charming repre-
ceives a document which, to his disap-
sentation of Flemish family life. The
pointment, exonerates the Guises from
central character, Balthazar Claës, is a
the charge of conspiracy. The perfidious
wealthy chemist, whose ancestral name
King orders the execution to take place,
and a horrible spectacle ensues. After
is the most respected and important in
this dramatic opening incidents and events
the place. His aim, the dream of his life,
crowd thick and fast; and the two vol-
is to solve the mystery of matter. He
would by chemical analysis discover the
umes are taken up with the unraveling
of the political plots suggested in the
secret of the absolute. Hence he toils
first chapter. Th story is one of the
early and late in his private laboratory:
most famous of historical romances.
everything is given up to the god of
science, Gradually the quest becomes Camille (La Dame Aux Camélias),
a fixed idea, for which money, family, a novel by Alexandre Dumas the
health, sanity, are sacrificed. Claës dies younger, was published in 1848, the cele-
heart-broken and defeated;- ;-a tragic fig- brated play founded upon it appearing in
ure, touching in its pathos, having dignity 1852 at the Vaudeville Theatre in Paris.
even in its downfall. As foils to him The popularity of both the novel and the
stand his devoted wife and his eldest play is owing, perhaps, to the fact that
daughter Marguerite, noble women, the
the incidents of the story admit of many
latter one of the finest creations of Balzac's | interpretations of the character of the
genius. They sympathize sorrowfully yet heroine. Like other women of her class,
tenderly with his ideal, and bear with she is linked to, is indeed a represent.
true heroism the misery to which his mad ative of, the most inexplicable yet most
course subjects them. Simple in its plot, powerful force in human nature. Camille
the story displays some of the deepest is the portrait of a woman who actually
human passions, and is a powerful ro- lived in Paris. Dumas had seen her, and
It belongs to that series of the relates a love story of which she was the
Human Comedy known as Philosophical central figure. Like Aspasia, she has a
Studies,' and appeared in 1834.
strange immortality. Each reader of the
book, like each spectator of the play,
Forty-five Guardsmen, The, by Alex-
gains an impression of Camille that is
andre Dumas, the most celebrated of
largely subjective. The elusiveness of
French romance writers, is in two vol-
the personality, the young ardor that
umes, and is the third of a series known
forced Dumas to tell the story straight
as (The Valois Romances. ) The scenes
from the heart, straight to the heart,
are laid in and about Paris during the
autumn and winter of 1585-86, when
gives to (Camille ) its fascination.
political events made all France excited Literary, Movement in France dur-
and
III. and the ambitions of the queen Georges Pellissier. (1889. Authorized
mother, Catherine de' Medici, are vividly English Version, by Anne Garrison Brin-
set before the reader, so as to hold his ton, 1897. ) A work which Brunetière
unt gging attention. (TI Forty-five » pronounced upon its appearance not less
are guardsmen led by the brave and the picture than the history, and at the
mance.
(
## p. 379 (#415) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
379
ex-
swers
em-
ures,
poetry and
same time the philosophy, of contem-
porary French literature. It is without
doubt the best history of French achieve-
ment in letters during the last hundred
years. The list of authors, sixty in
number, whose works are used as
amples of the literary movement, begins
with Rousseau and Diderot, and
braces all the names that are of greatest
interest for their relation to develop-
ments subsequent to the Revolution.
The chief conceptions which have held
sway in France, creating schools of lit-
erature, are carefully studied; and the
examples in writers of various types are
pictured with felicitous insight. After
the classic period had lasted from the
middle of the sixteenth century nearly
two hundred and fifty years, Rousseau
and Diderot became the precursors of
the nineteenth century, its initiators in
fact. Then Madame de Staël and Châ-
teaubriand preside at its opening. The
founders of Romanticism, modern French
literature begins with them. There still
lingered a school of pseudo-classicists,
and then Victor Hugo brings in the full
power of Romanticism. There is a ren-
ovation of language and of versification,
and a wide development of lyric poetry.
The culmination of Romanticism is in
the new drama, and again it renews
history and criticism, and creates the
novel. But half a century brought the
decadence of Romanticism; and Realism,
essentially prosaic, a fruit of the scien-
tific spirit, succeeded. Its evolution, its
effect on poetry and criticism, and its
illustration in the novel and the theatre,
are carefully traced. M. Pellissier thinks
the inevitable return of Idealism already
evident, but no sign that this will arrive
before the end of the century.
sighs painfully.
reply is, «He takes no hold of me; I
would hantle rather read your books. ”
Margaret is greatly pleased and very
proud to find herself so often depicted
in her son's books. She affects not
to recognize it, but would give herself
away unconsciously. She says, chuck-
ling, “He tries to keep me out, but he
canna; it's more than he can do. ))
At the ripe age of seventy-six, Mar-
garet Ogilvy peacefully passed away.
Her last words were “God” and “love );
and her son adds, «I think God was
smiling when he took her to him, as
he had so often smiled at her during
these seventy-six years. ”
»
an
But
ut Yet a Woman, by Arthur Sher-
burne Hardy, is a romance of real
life, its scene laid mainly in Paris during
the time of the Second Empire. Renée
Michael, a fair young girl destined to be
a religieuse, shares the home and adorns
the salon of her elderly bachelor uncle,
M. Michael. They enjoy the friendship
of M. Lande, and his son, Dr. Roger
Lande. The four, together with Father
Le Blanc, a kindly old cure, and Madame
Ships that Pass in the Night; by Stephanie Milevski, make up a congenial
. This little
at
story achieved notoriety when it was on Mt. St. Jean. Stephanie, the half-
published in 1894, largely on account of sister of her host, is the young widow of
its taking title. The scene is laid in a a Russian nobleman who has died in
Swiss winter-resort for consumptives. exile. She was associated with the emi-
Bernardine, a pathetic worn-out school- nent journalist M. De Marzac in the
teacher, of the new-woman type, who Bourbon restoration plot, and became the
has had hitherto little human interest, object of his ardent though unrequited
finds herself one of the 250 guests of love. Her affection is for Dr. Roger
the crowded Kurhaus at Petershof. Her Lande; but he loves Renée, and not in
neighbor at table is Robert Allitsen, vain. Stephanie induces M. Michael to
a man whom long illness and pain have allow her to take Renée on a journey to
rendered so brusque and selfish, that he Spain. Upon the eve of their departure,
goes by the name of the Disagreeable De Marzac, angered by Stephanie's con-
Man. ) He declares that he has no fur- tinued denial of his suit, accuses her of
ther duties towards mankind, having taking Renée to Spain in order to prevent
made the one great sacrifice, which is Roger from wooing her until the time
the prolonging, for his mother's sake, of set to begin her novitiate shall have ar-
a wearisome and hopeless existence. rived. The unraveling of this situation
XXX-24
## p. 370 (#406) ############################################
370
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
are
makes an excellent story. The book, girls rowing out of the sunset,-Althea
published in 1883, is written with charm- Indagine, and Cottle's younger daughter
ing delicacy of treatment, and conceived Cassie. Althea is the daughter of an
entirely in the French spirit.
unsuccessful and embittered poet, with
whom the girl leads a hermit life, seeing
Dialogues of the Dead, by George,
Lord Lyttelton. Lord Lyttelton is
no one but the Cottle family and an ad-
opted cousin, Oliver,- whom twenty years
a writer with whom only students of the
before, her uncle Dr. Luttrell had bought
English language and literature
likely to be familiar. In fact, his only
from his grandmother for £5, intending
to see how far education, kindness, and
claims to recognition as a littérateur rest
refined association could eradicate the
upon his (Observations on the Convers-
brutish tendencies in a gipsy child of
ion and Apostleship of St. Paul,' and
the Dialogues' here presented, which
the worst type. The boy, having become
first appeared in 1760. The conversation
an eminent chemist, displays when op-
of the Dialogues » shows how thoroughly portunity offers the worst characteristics
of his race. Lawrence falls in love with
versed the writer must have been in the
Althea; and Oliver Luttrell appears as
history of all times. The ruthless Cortez
his rival, having already, unknown to
sneers at the humanitarian efforts of
William Penn; Cardinal Ximenes haugh- friend Cassie. In the end Oliver is ex-
Althea, trified with the affections of her
tily pulls to pieces the reputation of his
posed as a forger, a discovery which
rival Wolsey; Boileau and Pope, the
deeply pains his foster-father.
Like a
satirists, hold a highly instructive conver-
fairy prince Lawrence comes to the as-
sation upon the merits of their respect-
sistance of all his relatives, revealing
ive literatures; and then comes Charles
himself at the most dramatic moment,
XII. of Sweden in hot haste to Alex-
ander the Great, with a proposition that
and shipping most of them to Australia,
where there is room for all.
The un-
they two “turn all these insolent scrib-
happy poet, too, decides to emigrate.
blers out of Elysium, and throw them
down headlong to the bottom of Tar-
tarus in spite of Pluto and all his A"
ntonina, by Wilkie Collins. A romance
of the fifth century, in which many
guards, because an English poet, one
of the scenes described in the Decline
Pope, has called us (two madmen. ) »
Alexander demurs at this Draconic meas-
and Fall of the Roman Empire) are re-
ure, and by a few leading questions, Only two historical personages are in-
set to suit the purpose of the author.
which he answers himself, soon shows
troduced into the story,- the Emperor
the royal Swede that he was only a
Honorius, and Alaric the Goth; and
fool. In connection with this work, it
these attain only a secondary importance.
is interesting to note the Dialogues des
Among the historical incidents used are
Morts,' by the French free-thinker Fonte-
the arrival of the Goths at the gates of
nelle, and the Imaginary Conversa-
Rome, the Famine, the last efforts of
tions,' by Walter Savage Landor. The
the besieged, the Treaty of Peace, the
first complete edition of Lord Lyttelton's
introduction of the Dragon of Brass, and
works was published in London in 1776.
the collection of the ransom, - most of
Bell of St. Paul's, The, by Walter
,
these accounts being founded on the chron-
Besant, is a romance covering in icles of Zosimus. The principal charac-
actual development only three months, but ters are Antonina, the Roman daughter
going back twenty years or more for a of Numarian; Hermanric, a Gothic chief-
beginning Lawrence Waller, a typical tain in love with Antonina; Goisvintha,
hero of romance, a young, handsome, rich sister to Hermanric: Vetranio, a Roman
Australian, comes to London and takes up poet; Ulpius, a pagan priest; Numarian,
his residence at Bank Side, in the house a Roman Christian, Father of Antonina
of Lucius Cottle. Although they are not and a fanatic; and Guillamillo, a priest.
aware of the fact, Cottle and his family This book does not show the intricacy of
are cousins to Lawrence's mother; whose plot and clever construction of the au-
husband, an unsuccessful London boat- thor's modern society stories; but it is
builder, having emigrated to Australia, full of action, vivid in color, and suffi-
has become after thirty years premier of ciently close to history to convey a dra-
that colony. On the night of his arrival matic sense of the Rome of Honorius and
the young Australian sees two lovely, the closing-in of the barbarians.
## p. 371 (#407) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
371
erous.
-
Baby's Grandmother, The, by L. B. essay, and is the name of the imaginary
Walford. The heroine of this pleas- village in which they were written:–«An
ant story, one of the most fascinating inland English village where everything
heroines of fiction, is Lady Matilda Wil-
around one is unhurried, quiet, moss-grown
mot, sister of the Earl of Overton. Mar- and orderly. On Dreamthorpe centuries
ried at seventeen, for reasons of policy, have fallen, and have left no more trace
to a bad husband, she comes back in her than last winter's snowflakes. Battles
widowhood to her early home, Overton have been fought, kings have died, history
Hall, to live with her two brothers: the has transacted itself, but all unheeding
elder the little, ugly, shy, kind-hearted and untouched, Dreamthorpe has watched
Earl; and the younger, the Hon. Edward apple-trees redden, and wheat ripen, and
Lessingham, a handsome, affectionate fel- smoked its pipe, and rejoiced over its new-
low, not quite as bright as other people, born children, and with proper solemnity
obstinate, headstrong, and very hard to carried its dead to the church-yard.
manage, yielding his whims to nobody «The library is a kind of Greenwich
but his beautiful sister. Lady Matilda Hospital for disabled novels and romances.
has one daughter, a girl as dull and con- Each of the books has been in the wars.
ventional, as puritanic and self-seeking, The heroes and heroines are of another
as her mother is arch, brilliant, and gen- generation. Lovers, warriors, and villains
This girl, Lotta, marries (out of as dead to the present generation as
the school-room) a young prig, Robert, Cambyses - are weeping, fighting, and in-
in every way suited to her. Thus Lady triguing. It is with a certain feeling of
Matilda, at thirty-seven,- beautiful and tenderness that I look upon these books:
blooming, full of gayety and fun, ready I think of the dead fingers that have
to help everybody, and rejoicing in her turned over the leaves, of the dead eyes
very existence,- finds herself a grand- that have traveled along the lines.
mother. Her son-in-law invites two «Here I can live as I please, here I can
young Londoners, Mr. Challoner and Mr. throw the reins on the neck of my whim.
Whewell, to stand godfather to the baby. Here I play with my own thoughts; here
They come down to the country, and I ripen for the grave. ”
both fall in love with Lady Matilda. Perhaps no better idea can be given of
The plot of this clever story is re. the rest of the essays than by these quota-
markably well managed, -trifling causes tions. Dreamthorpe-the village of dreams
producing large results, as they do in casts its spell over all of them. The love
life. But its great charm and merit lie of quiet, of old books, and reverence for
in its skillful delineation of character, the past, finds its place in them, and if
its artistic contrasts, and its delightful they be dreams, the reader does not care
and never-flagging sense of humor.
to be awakened.
The titles of the other essays are: (On
Am
nne, a novel, by Constance Fenimore
the Writing of Essays); (Of Death and
Woolson, appeared serially in 1882. the Fear of Dying); (William Dunbar);
It immediately took, and has since main- (A Lark's Flight); (Christmas); (Men of
tained, high rank among American novels. Letters); (On the Importance of Man to
The story traces the fortunes, often sad Himself); A Shelf in my Bookcase);
and always varied, of Anne Douglas, a (Geoffrey Chaucer); Books and Gardens);
young orphan of strong impulses, fine (On Vagabonds. '
character, and high devotion to duty.
The plot centres in Ward Heathcote's ar.
Don Orsino, by F. Marion Crawford.
dent and abiding love for Anne, and her This book, which was published in
equally constant affection for him. It is
1892, gives a good idea of Rome after the
managed with much ingenuity, the study unification of Italy, as the author's pur-
of character is close and convincing, and pose is to describe a young man of the
the interest never flags. Like all Miss transition period. It will probably never
Woolson's work it is admirably written. attain the popularity of the two earlier
Saracinesca stories, because many readers
Drea
reamthorpe: A Book of Essays Writ- find the plot unpleasant and the ending
TEN IN THE COUNTRY, by Alexander unsatisfactory. In analysis and develop-
Smith. A collection of twelve essays, which ment of character, however, and in spark-
appeared in 1863, the first prose work ling dialogue, it far surpasses its prede-
of their author. The title is that of the first
cessors.
## p. 372 (#408) ############################################
372
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
an Italian physician. After his marriage
Vaughn discovers that his bride is men-
tally weak; that she has no memory,
and scarcely any comprehension of what
passes. The story then becomes compli-
cated, and full of adventures in Italy and
Siberia. Extremely sensational in char-
acter, and with little literary merit, the
graphic force of this story, the rapidity
of its movement, its directness, and its
skillful suspension of interest, gave it for
a season so extraordinary a vogue that
it outsold every other work of fiction of
vance.
its year.
Orsino Saracinesca longs for a career,
and being rebuffed at home, is attracted
by the sympathetic womanliness of Ma-
dame Maria Consuelo d'Aranjuez, whose
antecedents are mysterious. With the aid
of Del Ferice he undertakes some building
operations, mortgaging his house in ad-
One day he makes love to Ma-
dame d'Aranjuez, but soon realizes the
shallowness of his emotions. Subsequently
constant intercourse renews his affection
on a firmer basis, and he wishes to marry
her. Though she loves him she leaves
Rome, soon writing that a stain on her
birth prevents her marrying him. On the
day of her refusal he learns that his busi-
ness is ruined; but Del Ferice renews the
contract in terms to which Orsino submits,
only to avoid an appeal to his father.
Thus he gets more and more into Del
Ferice's power, until the united fortunes
of the Saracinesca could hardly save him.
At this crisis he receives from Maria Con-
suelo a friendly letter, asking merely that
he tell her about himself. This he gladly
does, writing freely of his business diffi-
culties. Finally the bank releases him
from his obligations, an action inexplica-
ble until the announcement of Consuelo's
marriage to Del Ferice. Then Orsino
guesses, what he afterwards learns, that
she has sold herself to save him. The
story moves rapidly, the atmosphere is
strikingly Italian, and the various compli-
cations are well managed and interesting.
Called Back, by "Hugh Conway. ”
(Frederick John Fargus).
Vaughn, the hero of this story of mys-
tery, is a young Englishman of fortune,
totally blind from cataract. By a curious
accident, he strays one midnight into a
strange house, mistaking it for his own,
and walks in upon a murder. He hears
a scuffle and a woman's shrieks, and
bursting into the room, stumbles over
the body of a man. His keen sense of
hearing informs him that there are three
other men in the room, and a moaning
woman. As he cannot identify them, the
men spare his life, and drug him. Found
by the police in a suburb, he is identified
and taken home. On recovery, he finds
no one to believe in his story. Two years
later, the cataract is operated upon and
he recovers his sight, when he falls
in love with and marries a young girl
of extraordinary beauty, Pauline March.
She is half English, half Italian; her only
living relative being an uncle, Dr. Ceneri,
East Angels, a novel, by Constance
Fenimore Woolson, 1888. Its setting
is “Gracias-à-Dios, a little town lying
half asleep on the southern coast of the
United States, under a sky of almost
changeless blue. The heroine, Edgarda
Thorne, the child of a New England
mother, but with Spanish blood in her
veins, who has lived all her life in
the South, is just ripening into woman-
hood when the story opens. The plot is
concerned chiefly with her love-affairs,
men of totally different types being thus
brought into juxtaposition. Like the au-
thor's other novels, East Angels' lacks
the romantic and ideal elements, but it
is strong in the delineation of every:
day character and incident. It is super-
fluous to say that the workmanship is
excellent and the interest well sustained.
Mehalah, by Sabine Baring-Gould,
1880, is a tale of the salt marshes
on the east coast of Essex, England,
a strange region, where even at the
present day, when this story is dated,
superstition is rife. Every character in
the book is eccentric, the half-mad Mrs.
De Witt with her soldier jacket and
her odd oaths, Elijah Rebow, the fiery
gipsy-beauty Mehalah, or Glory, as she
is called. Mehalah loves George De
Witt, but quarrels with him about
Phæbe Musset. Elijah loves Mehalah,
and vows to make her his wife. To
do this, he robs her of her savings,
burns the house over her head and
compels her to seek shelter under his
roof with her sick mother. So, among
this half-barbarous folk, go on the ameni-
ties of life; and the story grows more
and more lawless to the end.
It is a
powerful study of primitive characters,
never agreeable, but always absorbing.
Its strength is in the skill with which
the romancer environs his fierce human
## p. 373 (#409) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
373
creatures with
an equally untamable Whip and Spur, by George E. War-
nature. «Wild, singular, and extraor-
ing, Jr. This series of interesting
dinary as the conceptions and combina- personal experiences of the War of the
tions of the author of Mehalah) are, Rebellion was first published in the At-
they are almost, if not entirely, removed lantic Monthly. It was reprinted in
from the realm of imagination. It is book form in 1875. Colonel Waring was
on this fact that their value and their attached to the 4th Missouri Cavalry,
permanence as literature rest. They and the scene of his service was chiefly
are bits of human history, studies of in Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, and
eccentric development, scenes from the Tennessee. While there is very little
comedy of unsophisticated life. )
fighting recorded, other no less interest-
ing features of the War are related with-
out any attempt at dramatic effect.
Neighbor Jackwood, by J. T. Trow-
He
bridge, an anti-slavery novel, was tells the stories and paints the charac-
published in 1856, when its author had ters of various horses that he owned,
been turned into an «anti-slavery fanatic, Vix, Ruby, Wellstein, and Max. The
as he called himself, through seeing the two last chapters give a vivid picture of
fugitive slave Anthony Burns marched fox-hunting in England. The volume
from the Boston court-house to a reve- shows that Colonel Waring is as clever
nue cutter in waiting for him by the in handling the pen as in managing the
President's orders at Long Wharf, and great problem of cleaning the streets of
thus returned by the Commonwealth of a great city.
Massachusetts to his Virginia bondage.
“The story finished, I had,” says Mr. Ginx's Baby, by John. Edward Jen-
I
, trouble in
, English
it. I suppose a score of titles were con- laws and the administration of sectarian
sidered, only to be rejected. At last I charitable associations.
Gins, a navvy,
settled down upon Jackwood, but felt earning twenty shillings a week, with a
the need of joining to that name some wife and twelve children, living in two
characteristic phrase or epithet. Thus I rooms of a crowded tenement in a squalid
was led to think of this Scriptural motto district of London, despairs of finding
for the title-page: "A certain woman enough to feed another mouth, and de-
went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, clares he will drown the thirteenth when
and fell among thieves;' which suggested it arrives. He is swerved from his pur-
the question, Who was neighbor unto pose by the offer of the Sisters of
this woman? ) and the answer, Neigh- Misery» to take charge of the infant,
bor Jackwood. And I had my title. ) and Ginx's baby becomes an inmate of
Like his juvenile stories, this novel for a Catholic Home. The child is «res-
grown folks is crowded with incident cued from this Home through the efforts
and dialogue, - homely and true to life of a Protestant society; this society,
in part, and in part melodramatic. The through dissensions and lack of funds,
heroine, Camille,- fugitive (white ) turns him over to the parish; parochial
slave under the alias «Charlotte Woods, law requires his return to the parents:
- is sheltered by the Jackwoods in their and Ginx finally leaves his baby, then
Green Mountain farmhouse, and meets grown to boyhood, on the steps of the
thereabouts the hero, Hector Dunbury. Reform Club, and Alies the country.
Their mutual love, darkened by the dan- Ginx's baby grows up a thief, and ends
gers and distresses which multiply about his life by jumping off Vauxhall bridge,
the path of the fugitive, and almost at the spot where his father set out to
thwarted by a passionate and unscrupu- drown him on the day of his birth.
lous rival for the girl's hand, who knows (Ginx's Baby) was published anony-
her secret, is happily crowned at last by mously in London in 1871, speedily ran
marriage, though the husband has to pur- through many editions, was republished
chase his wife from her Southern master. in the United States, and excited warm
The story was dramatized and played in controversy in the press and even in
Northern theatres with some success; Parliament. It was followed by satires
sympathy for the maiden overcoming the on other phases of social economy, Mr.
prejudice against its abolitionist bearing, Jenkins preserving his anonymity for
and the mésalliance of Hector and Ca- some time under the signature of “The
mille.
Author of Ginx's Baby”; but none of
## p. 374 (#410) ############################################
374
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
a mysterious white race inhabiting the
interior of Africa. Jonathan purchases
her to save her from the horrors of
slavery. The two pass through many ex-
citing adventures, finally arriving in Ka-
loolah's native land, Framazugda, which
is said to be located in 32' north lati-
tude, and somewhere between 250 and
300 of east longitude. In this remark-
able land, Kaloolah is a princess, of sur-
prising charm both of body and mind,
and takes pride in exhibiting to Jona-
than the glories of the wondrous city
of Killoam, whose unexpected civilization
rivals the descriptions of Mr. Rider Hag.
gard's African metropolis. Jonathan de-
termines to renounce America, weds the
fair Kaloolah, and becomes a great man
in Framazugda. The story is filled with
stirring adventure; shipwrecks, pirates,
slaves, deserts, enormous reptiles and
wild beasts, an endless variety of men
and scene, passing rapidly before the
eye, while considerable light is cast upon
the manners and customs of the peo-
ples whom Romer meets. The whole is
couched in dignified language and is per-
vaded by a spirit of wholesome manli-
ness.
the other works of this author attained
such a vogue or exerted such an un-
doubted influence upon the direction of
social reforms.
Chrysal; or, The Adventures of a
Guinea, containing curious and
interesting anecdotes of the most noted
persons in every rank of life whose
hands it passed through, in America,
England, Holland, Germany, and Portu-
gal. This satirical novel, by Charles
Johnstone, an Irishman, was published
in 1760. In Davis's Olio of Biblio-
graphical and Lit lry Anecdote,' a key
to the characters is presented. The
first two volumes of the work were
written for the author's amusement. Its
popularity induced him to extend it to
four volumes.
Chrysal, signifying gold or golden, is
the spirit inhabiting a guinea, which
passes through many hands, from the
prince's to the beggar's. It tells its own
story, which is chiefly the adventures of
those in whose pos ession it is for the
time being.
This curious and now rare
work is written in an old-fashioned, pon-
derous style; and judged by modern
standards of melodramatic fiction, is not
very readable.
Cycle of Cathay, A, by W. A. P. Mar-
tin, 1896. A Chinese cycle, explains
the author of this volume, is sixty years,
the period covered in the sketches of
China here included. Dr. Martin, whom
forty-five years of residence qualify to
speak with knowledge of that mysterious
empire, describes the face of the country,
the villages and cities, productions, com-
merce, language, institutions, beliefs, but
above all, the every day life of the people,
and its significance in the general pro
gress of mankind.
History is made to
explain the present, and the present to
throw its light on the future. The tone
is, indeed, that of the foreign observer,
but an observer who honestly tries to dis-
abuse his mind of Occidental prejudice,
and to give an uncolored report. (A Cycle
of Cathay) ranks among the most interest-
ing and valuable of modern books on
China.
Kaloolah, a
aloolah, a narrative of travel and
adventure, by W. S. Mayo, (1849,)
purported to be an autobiography of
Jonathan Romer. In Africa, where most
of the scenes are laid, Jonathan meets
Kaloolah, a young slave who belongs to
was.
Cabot, John, The Discoverer of North
America, and Sebastian, his Son.
A Chapter of the Maritime History of
England under the Tudors (1496–1557).
By Henry Harrisse. (1895. ) A work of
authority for the earliest history of Amer-
ica; especially valuable for its complete
recovery of the true Cabot history, and
exposure of the false tradition of things
done and honors won by Sebastian, the
son, who is proved to have grossly falsi-
fied the course of events to make himself
a far more important figure than he ever
He did indeed play no small part
in the story after his father; but it not
only gave no ground for the claims made
by him in connection with the work of
the father, but left him discredited by
notable want of success. The entire his-
tory is admirably dealt with by Harrisse,
and the story is one of great interest.
Cape Cod, by Henry D. Thoreau: 1865.
Until Thoreau arrived to make ac-
quaintance with its hard yet fascinating
personality, Cape Cod remained unknown
and almost unseen, though often visited
and written about by tourists and students
of nature. Something in the asceticism,
or the directness, or the amazing keen-
ness, of Thoreau's mind brought him into
## p. 375 (#411) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
375
sympathetic understanding of the thing eter and Worcester under Charles II. «It
he saw, and he interpreted the level got Parson Gauden a bishopric. ) Carlyle
stretches of shore with absolute fidelity. wrote November 26th, 1840. On Thurs-
In these pages the melancholy land looks day, January 4th, 1649, the change of Eng.
as long, lank, and brown » as it looks land from a monarchy to a republic, or
lying under the gray autumn sky. Nor commonwealth, had been made by the pas-
does he spare any prosaic detail. The sage in the Commons House of Parliament
salt wholesomeness of his sea breeze does of three resolutions: (1) That the people
not wholly overcome the offensive flot- are the original of all just power in the
sam and jetsam drifted up on the sand; State; (2) That the Commons represent
but on the other hand, with the simplest that
power; and (3) That their enactinents
means, he communicates what he feels needed no consent of king or peers to have
so fully, — the savage grandeur of the the force of law. On Tuesday, January
sea, and its evanescent and ever-changing 30th, between two and three P. M. , the ex-
loveliness. In this, as in all his other ecution of Charles I. had taken place. Ten
books, Thoreau rises from the observation days later, February 9th, there was pub-
of the most familiar and commonplace lished with great secrecy, and in very mys-
facts, the comparison of the driest bones terious fashion, the small octavo volume of
of observed data, to the loftiest spiritual 269 pages, the title of which is given above.
speculation, the most poetic interpretation The frontispiece to the volume was an elab-
of nature. His accuracy almost convinces orate study in symbols and mottoes, in a
the reader that his true field was history picture of the king on his knees in his cell
or science, until some aërial flight of his looking for a crown of glory. The twenty-
fancy seems to show him as a poet lost eight chapters purporting to have been
to the Muse. But whatever his gifts, he written by Charles, and to tell the spiritual
was above all, as he shows himself in
side of the later story of his life, each be-
(Cape Cod, Nature's dearest observer, to gan with a fragment of narrative, or of
whom she had given the microscopic eye, meditation on some fact of his life, and then
the weighing mind, and the interpretative gave a prayer suited to the supposed cir-
voice.
cumstances. Not only was the whole
scheme of the book a grotesque fiction, but
Our
ur New Alaska; or, The Seward the execution was cheap, pointless, “vapid
Purchase Vindicated, by Charles falsity and cant,” Carlyle said, and a vulgar
Hallock, was published in 1886. In the imitation of the liturgy; yet fifty editions
preface, the author explains that the in a year did not meet the demand for it;
special object of the book is “to point and it created almost a worship of the dead
out the visible resources of that far-off king. It remains a singular example of
territory, and to assist their laggard de- what a literary forgery can accomplish.
velopment; to indicate to those insuf-
ficiently informed the economic value of Headlong Wall, by Thomas Love Pea-
important industries hitherto almost neg- cock. Written in 1815, Headlong
lected, which are at once available for Hall) is a study of typical English life
immediate profit. ” In thus considering put into the form of numerous detached
the industrial and commercial aspects of conversations, discussions, and descrip-
Alaska, the author does not neglect its tions. At first it tells how invitations
natural beauties, nor the peculiarities of have been sent to a perfectibilian, a de-
the inhabitants and their customs. Be-
teriorationist, a statu-quo-ite, and a reve
cause of the variety of his observation, erend doctor who had won the squire's
the work is never lacking in interest, fancy by a learned dissertation on the
and the reader is made to share the art of stuffing a turkey. There is a
pleasure of the traveler in his voyage of graphic picture of the squire at break-
discovery.
fast. After the arrival of the guests they
are taken over the grounds, dined, fêted,
Eikon
ikon Basilike: THE TRUE PORTRAIT- taken to walk, introduced to the tower,
URE OF HIS SACRED MAJESTIE IN HIS and given a ball. In the interim one of
SOLITUDES AND SUFFERINGS, by John Gau- them discovers the skull of Cadwallader
den, February 9th, 1649. One of the most and begs possession of it from the old
worthless yet most effective and famous lit- sexton, and being somewhat of a physi-
erary forgeries ever attempted. Its author ologist, follows his discovery with
was a Presbyterian divine, bishop of Ex- learned dissertation on the animal man.
a
## p. 376 (#412) ############################################
376
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
The whole story is bright, witty, humor- the author's reactionary views on mod.
ous, devoid of plot, and elaborate in its ern inventions, reforms, education, and
phrasing. It is engaging as a relic of competitive examinations. The material
old English life. Mr. Peacock was born side of his character is summed up in his
in 1785, and died in 1866. The present own words, «Whatever happens in this
is perhaps a little better known than world, never let it spoil your dinner. ”
any of his other seven books, though (Gryll Grange) was Peacock's last novel,
(Maid Marian,' (Crotchet Castle, and having been published in serial form in
Nightmare Abbey) are also to be reck- 1860.
oned among standard, if not classical,
English literature. The story is distin Ravenshoe, by Henry Kingsley, (1862: )
guished by a display of varied erudition,
in
and is to some extent, like his other Stonington, Ireland, is the scene of
books, a satire on well-known characters this novel; and the principal actors are
and fads of the day.
the members of the noble family of
Ravenshoe. The plot, remarkable for
Crotchet Castle, by Thomas Love Pea-
its complexity, has three stages. Den-
cock, was published in 1831. Richard
zel Ravenshoe, a Catholic, marries a
Garnett, in his recent edition of the book,
Protestant wife. They have two sons,
says of it that it displays Peacock at his
Cuthbert and Charles. Cuthbert is
zenith. Standing halfway between Head-
brought up as a Catholic and Charles
long Hall) and (Gryll Grange,' it is equally
as a Protestant. This is the cause of
free from the errors of immaturity and the
enmity on the part of Father Mack-
infirmities of senescence. » Like the au-
worth, a dark, sullen man, the priest
thor's other works, (Crotchet Castle) is less
a novel than a cabinet of human curios
of the family, who has friendly rela-
tions with Cuthbert alone. James Nor-
which may be examined through the glass
ton, Denzel's groom, is on intimate
of Peacock's clear, cool intellect. It is the
terms with his master. He marries
collection of a dilettante with a taste for
Norah, the maid of Lady Ravenshoe.
the odd. Yet among these curios are one
Charles becomes a sunny, lovable man,
or two fesh-and-blood characters: Dr.
Cuthbert a reticent bookworm. They
Folliott, a delightful Church-of-England
clergyman of the old school, and Miss
have for playmates William and Ellen,
the children of Norah. Two women
Susannah Touchandgo, who is very much
play an important part in the life of
alive. They are all the guests of Mr.
the hero, Charles, – Adelaide,
very
Crotchet of Crotchet Castle. Their doings
beautiful in form and figure, with little
make only the ghost of a plot. Their say-
depth, and lovely Mary Corby, who,
ings are for the delight of Epicureans in
literature.
cast up by shipwreck, is adopted by
Norah. Charles becomes engaged to
Gryll Grange, by Thomas Love Pea- Adelaide. The plot deepens. Father
cock. The plot of this, as of all of Mackworth proves that Charles is the
Peacock's novels, is very simple. The true son of Norah and James Norton,
heroine is Morgana Gryll, niece and heir- the illegitimate brother of Denzel; and
ess of Squire Gryll, who has persistently William, the groom foster-brother, is
refused all offers of marriage, of which real heir of Ravenshoe. To add to the
she has had many. The hero, Algernon grief of Charles, Adelaide elopes with
Falconer, is a youth of fortune, who lives his cousin Lord Welter. Charles flees
in a lonely tower in New Forest, attended to London, tries grooming, and then
by seven foster sisters, and with every joins the Hussars. Finally he is found
intention of continuing his singular in London by a college friend, Mar-
mode of life. Morgana and Algernon are ston, with a raving fever upon him.
brought together by the familiar device After recovery, Charles returns to Ra-
of an accident to the lady which com- venshoe. Father Mackworth again pro-
pels her to spend several days at the duces evidence that not James Norton,
tower. A sub-plot of equal simplicity is but Denzel is the illegitimate son, and
given in the love-affairs of Lord Curry- Charles, after all, is true heir to Ra-
fin and Alice Niphet. The most inter- venshoe. The union of Charles and
esting character in the book is the Rev. Mary then takes place. The book is
Doctor Opimian, a lover of Greek and written in a flashy manner, and con-
madeira, who serves as a mouthpiece for tains many bits of piquant humor.
## p. 377 (#413) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
377
The characters are all interesting, and
have a certain bright originality about
them.
fragments of poetic ideas which had been
handed down through centuries, was cal-
culated to excite national ardor and in-
terest. The subject of the epic is the
invasion of Ireland by Swaran, king of
Lochlin, Denmark, during the reign of
Cormac II. , and its deliverance by the
aid of the father of Ossian, King Fingal
of Morven, on the northwest coast of
Scotland. The poem opens with the over-
throw of Cuthullin, general of the Irish
forces, and concludes with the return of
Swaran to his own land. It is cast in
imitation of primitive manners, and is
written in a rugged yet artistic style,
which comports with its theme. While
manifesting sympathy with the gloomy
Scottish landscape, the author has pre-
sented a warmly colored variety of scenes,
at times almost Homeric in their vigorous
tones.
Fair Barbarian, A, by Frances Hodg-
son Burnett, appeared in 1881. Like
James's (Daisy Miller, it is a study of the
American girl in foreign surroundings.
Miss Octavia Bassett, of Nevada, aged
nineteen, arrives with six trunks full of
finery, to visit her aunt, Miss Belinda Bas-
sett, in the English village of Slowbridge.
The beautiful American soon sets tongues
wagging. All the village young ladies wear
gowns of one pattern obsolete elsewhere,
and chill propriety reigns. Octavia's
diamonds and Paris gowns, her self-pos-
session and frank independence, are
frowned upon by the horrified mammas,
especially when all the young men gather
eagerly about her. Octavia, serenely in-
different to the impression she creates at
the tea-drinkings and croquet parties, re-
fuses to be awed even by the autocrat of
the place, Lady Theobald. Her ladyship's
meek granddaughter is spurred by admi-
ration of the American to unprecedented
independence. She has been selected to
be Captain Barold's wife, but as he does
not care for her, she ventures to accept
Mr. Burmistone, upon whom her grand-
mother frowns. Barold meantime is en-
slaved by the charming Octavia. But he
disapproves of her unconventional ways,
and considering it a condescension on his
part to ally himself with so obscure a fam-
ily, he proposes with great reluctance, and
is astonished to meet a point-blank re-
fusal. In due time, Octavia's father and
her handsome Western lover join her; and
after a wedding the like of which had
never been witnessed at Slowbridge, she
says good-by to her English friends. The
story is slight, but the character-sketches
are amusing, the contrast of national traits
striking, and the whole book very enter-
taining.
Fingal, by James Macpherson, is an
(Ancient Epic Poem, in Six Books,
which appeared in 1762. The poet being
a favorite, Fingal had an immense sale.
The sources of the poem are the Ossianic
materials founded upon the claim that in
the third or fourth century there existed,
among the remote mountains and islands
of Scotland, a people exhibiting all the
high and chivalrous feelings of refined
valor, generosity, magnanimity, and vir-
tue. That there should exist among them
Eugene Aram, by Sir Edward Bulwer,
1832, was founded on the career of
an English scholar, Eugene Aram, born
1704, executed for the murder of one
Clark in 1759. The character of the
murderer and the circumstances of his
life made the case one of the most in-
teresting from a psychological point of
view, in the criminal annals of England.
Aram was a scholar of unusual ability,
who, self-taught, had acquired a consid-
erable knowledge of languages, and was
even credited with certain original dis-
coveries in the domain of philology. Of
a mild and refined disposition, his act
of murder seemed a complete contra-
diction of all his habits and ideals of
life.
At the suggestion of Godwin, Bulwer
made this singular case the basis of his
novel Eugene Aram. He so idealized
the character as to make of the murderer
a romantic hero, whose accomplice in the
crime, Houseman, is the actual criminal.
He represents Aram as forced, by ex-
treme poverty, into consenting to the
deed, but not performing it. From that.
hour he suffers horrible mental torture.
He leaves the scene of the murder and
settles in Grassdale, a beautiful pastoral
village, where he meets and loves a
noble woman, Madeline Lester.
She
returns his love. Their marriage ap-
proaches, when the
reappearance of
Houseman shatters Aram's hopes for-
ever. By the treachery of this wretch,
he is imprisoned, tried, and condemned
to death.
## p. 378 (#414) ############################################
378
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
(Eugene Aram) is an unusually suc- noble soldier Crillon. The story opens
cessful study in fiction of a complex on the morning of October 26th, 1585, with
psychological case. At the time of its a description of a vast assembly of peo-
publication, it caused
a great stir in ple before the closed gates of Paris,
England, many attacks being made upon clamoring for admission, to witness the
it on the ground of its false morality. execution of Salcède, a convict murderer.
To the present generation its romance is This miscreant is no vulgar assassin, but
of more interest perhaps than its psy- a captain of good birth, even distantly
chology
related to the queen. King Henri III. ,
his queen, Anne, and the queen mother,
Al Ikahest, or The House of Claës, The
Catherine de' Medici, have come to wit-
('La Recherche de l'Absolu)- The
Search for the Absolute), is a striking
ness the execution of the sentence, which
novel by Honoré de Balzac. The scene
is drawing and quartering. Word reaches
the King that Salcède, on promise of
is laid in the Flemish town of Douai
early in the present century; and the
pardon, will reveal important State secrets.
tale gives, with all the author's care
Henri agrees to the condition, and re-
and richness of detail, a charming repre-
ceives a document which, to his disap-
sentation of Flemish family life. The
pointment, exonerates the Guises from
central character, Balthazar Claës, is a
the charge of conspiracy. The perfidious
wealthy chemist, whose ancestral name
King orders the execution to take place,
and a horrible spectacle ensues. After
is the most respected and important in
this dramatic opening incidents and events
the place. His aim, the dream of his life,
crowd thick and fast; and the two vol-
is to solve the mystery of matter. He
would by chemical analysis discover the
umes are taken up with the unraveling
of the political plots suggested in the
secret of the absolute. Hence he toils
first chapter. Th story is one of the
early and late in his private laboratory:
most famous of historical romances.
everything is given up to the god of
science, Gradually the quest becomes Camille (La Dame Aux Camélias),
a fixed idea, for which money, family, a novel by Alexandre Dumas the
health, sanity, are sacrificed. Claës dies younger, was published in 1848, the cele-
heart-broken and defeated;- ;-a tragic fig- brated play founded upon it appearing in
ure, touching in its pathos, having dignity 1852 at the Vaudeville Theatre in Paris.
even in its downfall. As foils to him The popularity of both the novel and the
stand his devoted wife and his eldest play is owing, perhaps, to the fact that
daughter Marguerite, noble women, the
the incidents of the story admit of many
latter one of the finest creations of Balzac's | interpretations of the character of the
genius. They sympathize sorrowfully yet heroine. Like other women of her class,
tenderly with his ideal, and bear with she is linked to, is indeed a represent.
true heroism the misery to which his mad ative of, the most inexplicable yet most
course subjects them. Simple in its plot, powerful force in human nature. Camille
the story displays some of the deepest is the portrait of a woman who actually
human passions, and is a powerful ro- lived in Paris. Dumas had seen her, and
It belongs to that series of the relates a love story of which she was the
Human Comedy known as Philosophical central figure. Like Aspasia, she has a
Studies,' and appeared in 1834.
strange immortality. Each reader of the
book, like each spectator of the play,
Forty-five Guardsmen, The, by Alex-
gains an impression of Camille that is
andre Dumas, the most celebrated of
largely subjective. The elusiveness of
French romance writers, is in two vol-
the personality, the young ardor that
umes, and is the third of a series known
forced Dumas to tell the story straight
as (The Valois Romances. ) The scenes
from the heart, straight to the heart,
are laid in and about Paris during the
autumn and winter of 1585-86, when
gives to (Camille ) its fascination.
political events made all France excited Literary, Movement in France dur-
and
III. and the ambitions of the queen Georges Pellissier. (1889. Authorized
mother, Catherine de' Medici, are vividly English Version, by Anne Garrison Brin-
set before the reader, so as to hold his ton, 1897. ) A work which Brunetière
unt gging attention. (TI Forty-five » pronounced upon its appearance not less
are guardsmen led by the brave and the picture than the history, and at the
mance.
(
## p. 379 (#415) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
379
ex-
swers
em-
ures,
poetry and
same time the philosophy, of contem-
porary French literature. It is without
doubt the best history of French achieve-
ment in letters during the last hundred
years. The list of authors, sixty in
number, whose works are used as
amples of the literary movement, begins
with Rousseau and Diderot, and
braces all the names that are of greatest
interest for their relation to develop-
ments subsequent to the Revolution.
The chief conceptions which have held
sway in France, creating schools of lit-
erature, are carefully studied; and the
examples in writers of various types are
pictured with felicitous insight. After
the classic period had lasted from the
middle of the sixteenth century nearly
two hundred and fifty years, Rousseau
and Diderot became the precursors of
the nineteenth century, its initiators in
fact. Then Madame de Staël and Châ-
teaubriand preside at its opening. The
founders of Romanticism, modern French
literature begins with them. There still
lingered a school of pseudo-classicists,
and then Victor Hugo brings in the full
power of Romanticism. There is a ren-
ovation of language and of versification,
and a wide development of lyric poetry.
The culmination of Romanticism is in
the new drama, and again it renews
history and criticism, and creates the
novel. But half a century brought the
decadence of Romanticism; and Realism,
essentially prosaic, a fruit of the scien-
tific spirit, succeeded. Its evolution, its
effect on poetry and criticism, and its
illustration in the novel and the theatre,
are carefully traced. M. Pellissier thinks
the inevitable return of Idealism already
evident, but no sign that this will arrive
before the end of the century.
sighs painfully.
