The picto-
rial illustrations from Assyrian, Egyptian,
or other monuments, or from photographs
of scenes, are designed not for art effect
simply, but to help the reader to under-
stand what he reads.
rial illustrations from Assyrian, Egyptian,
or other monuments, or from photographs
of scenes, are designed not for art effect
simply, but to help the reader to under-
stand what he reads.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v30 - Guide to Systematic Readings
490
Virgin Soil
Ivan Turgeneff. 473
Virginians, The
W. M. Thackeray. 51
Vishnu, Institute of
417
Vision of Piers Plowman, The
402
Visits to the Monasteries of the Levant
Robert Curzon. 467
Voiage and Travaile of Sir John Mandeville 467
Voltaire, Life of
James Parton. 521
Voyage Around my Chamber
Xavier De Maistre. 521
Whip and Spur
G. E. Waring, Jun. 373
White Aprons
Maud W. Goodwin. 529
White Company, The A. Conan Doyle. 522
White Rocks, The
Édouard Rod. 306
Wide, Wide World, The - Susan Warner. 495
Wild Irish Girl, The Lady Morgan. 438
Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship
Goethe. 404
Will, On the Freedom of the
Jonathan Edwards. 344
William Tell
Schiller. 407
Window in Thrums, A J. M. Barrie. 471
Winning of the West, The
Theodore Roosevelt. 495
Winter's Tale, A
Shakespeare. 399
With Fire and Sword, The Deluge, and Pan
Michael Henryk Sienkiewicz. 457
With the Procession Henry B. Fuller. 552
Without Dogma Henryk Sienkiewicz. 470
Wives and Daughters Mrs. Gaskell. 488
Woman in the Nineteenth Century
Margaret Fuller Ossoli. 530
Woman in White, The Wilkie Collins. 321
Women, Friendship of W. R. Alger. 529
Woodman, The
Quesnay de Beaurepaire. 501
Woodstock
Sir Walter Scott. 545
Wreck of the Grosvenor, The
W. Clark Russell. 305
Wrecker, The
R. L. Stevenson. 546
Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë. 302
-
-
.
WAGES OF SIN, THE "Lucas Malet. 481
Wanda
<< Quida. " 480
Wandering Jew, The Eugène Sue. 468
Wandering Jew, The M. D. Conway. 456
War and Peace
Lyof Tolstoy. 457
Waverley
Sir Walter Scott. 434
Wealth Against Commonwealth
H. D. Lloyd. 483
Wealth of Nations
Adam Smith. 511
Webster, Daniel
H. C. Lodge. 533
Weir of Hermiston R. L. Stevenson. 492
Wetherel Affair, The J. W. De Forest. 481
What Social Classes Owe to Each Other
W. G. Sumner. 499
When Valmond Came to Pontiac
Gilbert Parker. 326
YEMASSEE, THE
W. G. Simms. 407
Yesterday, To-Day, and Forever -
E. H. Bickersteth. 471
Yesterdays with Authors J. T. Fields. 509
Yone Santo
E. H. House. 437
-
-
418
ZEND-AVESTA, THE
Zincali, The
George Borrow. 469
Zoroastrian Sacred Books
418
Zury; The Meanest Man in Spring County
Joseph Kirkland. 503
## p. 1 (#37) ###############################################
I
SYNOPSES OF
NOTED BOOKS
Cosmic Philosophy, Outlines of, by activity. In short, the essayist's defini-
John Fiske. (1875. ) In these two tion of the Cosmic theory is as follows:
small volumes, one of the most eminent "Life — including also intelligence as the
of modern thinkers presents the philo- | highest known manifestation of life - is
sophic and scientific doctrines of Herbert the continuous establishment of relations
Spencer, developed into a complete the- within the organism in correspondence
ory of the universe. Added to the out- with relations existing or arising in the
line of the evolutionary philosophy, as environment;) and his statement of the
represented by Mr. Spencer, is a body Cosmic law of social progress is this: --
of original speculation and criticism set «The evolution of society is a contin-
forth with immense learning and inge- uous establishment of psychical relations
nuity, and in a style which is a model of within the community, in conformity to
clearness and force. Most of Mr. Fiske's physical and psychical relations arising
first volume is taken up with the Pro- in the environment; during which both
legomena, in which are expounded the the community and the environment pass
fundamental principles of Cosmism. The from a state of relatively indefinite in-
second volume comprises the Synthe- coherent homogeneity, to a state of rela-
sis, containing the laws of life, of mind, tively definite coherent heterogeneity;
and of society. Life of every kind is and during which the constituent units
shown to consist in a process of change of the community become ever more dis-
within meeting change without; and this tinctly individuated. ”
process applies alike to the lowest rudi- Mr. Fiske obtains his generalizations
mentary organism struggling against a by means of broad historical researches,
hostile environment, and to the highest and his great knowledge and aptness of
creature making use of those slowly illustration constantly enrich his pages.
evolved adaptations which enable it to In the final chapters he sets forth the
overcome opposing conditions. Mind is Cosmic religion, which, as he interprets
an immaterial process similar in charac- it, seems to be an attitude of awe and
ter, but more complex and more efficient. submission to the Unknowable.
No true Cosmist will affect to know at
what precise point the process becomes Anna Karenina, a famous novel of con-
so complex as to deserve the name of temporary life, by Count Lyof Tolstoy,
mind. Though the extremes seem to was first published as a serial in the Russian
have nothing in common, the chain of Contemporary, an English translation ap-
means has no break, and the real differ- pearing in 1886. The remarkable charac-
ence is of degree and not of kind. A ter of the book places it in the category
like process is seen in the growth of so-
of world-novels. Its theme - the simple
ciety, from the homogeneousness of the one of the wife, the husband, and the lover
primitive family to the heterogeneous- - is treated with a marvelous perception of
ness of the nation. Thus it appears that the laws of morality and of passion. The
the method and the significance of all
author depicts the effect upon a high-bred
changes may be defined in the one word sensitive woman of the violation of the
adaptation. Organic existence begins moral code, through her abandonment to
at some indefinitely remote point in in- passion. The character of Anna Karenina
organic existence; life must somewhere is the subject of a subtle psychological
be foreshadowed in simple chemical study. A Russian noblewoman, young,
XXX-1
## p. 2 (#38) ###############################################
2
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
»
beautiful, and impressionable, she is mar- The author undertakes this large task
ried to a man much older than herself. with cheerfulness and assurance. In five
While visiting in Moscow, in the house- subdivisions of his topic - Fin-de-Siècle,'
hold of her brother Prince Stepan Ob- Mysticism,) (Ego-Mania,' (Realism,' and
lonsky, she meets Count Vronsky, a brill- (The Twentieth Century)- he discusses
iant young officer. He loves her, and those manifestations of modern thought
exercises a fascination over her which she and feeling in art and literature which
cannot resist. The construction of the he is pleased to term «degenerate. ”
novel is intricate, involving the fortunes Scarcely a man of note in these depart-
of many other characters; fortunes which ments escapes. Zola, Wagner, Tolstoy,
present other aspects of the problems of Ibsen, Nietzsche, Rossetti and the other
love and marriage. The interest is cen- pre-Raphaelites, are, so to speak, placed
tred, however, in Anna Karenina. No in strait-jackets and confined in padded
criticism can convey the powerful im- cells. In his attack on Rossetti he speaks
pression of her personality, a personality of the «senseless phrases » of his poems,
colored by the mental states through the repetition of sound, as peculiarities
which she passes, - dawning love, blind of the weak and deranged mind. Com-
passion, maternal tenderness, doubt, ap- menting on the quotation -
prehension, defiance, sorrow, and finally
«The hollow halo it was in
despair. The whole of a woman's heart
Was like an icy crystal cup, "-
is laid bare. The realism of Anna Kare-
he says, “It is stark nonsense to qualify
nina is supreme and merciless. Its fidel-
a plane surface such as a halo by the
ity to the life it depicts, its strong delin-
adjective hollow. ) »
eation of character, above all its masterly The book is an extraordinary mani-
treatment of a theme of world-wide in- festation of the philistine spirit of the
terest, place it among the first novels of
close of the 19th century. For a time it
the century.
had an enormous vogue; the calm judg-
ment of science, however, tends to deny
Degeneration, by Max Nordau. (1895. ) many of its propositions.
A work which attracted great atten-
tion, and provoked a storm of opposition Char
hance Acquaintance, A, by William
and of argument. A product in equal
Dean Howells. (1873. ) This agree-
parts of German profundity of learning able and entertaining sketch is one of
and one-sidedness of outlook, it is an at- Mr. Howells's earlier stories. It relates
tempt at «scientific criticism of those the experience of a pretty Western girl,
«degenerates” not upon the acknowledged Kitty Ellison, who, while traveling on
lists of the criminal classes. The author the St. Lawrence with her cousins Colo-
in his dedication says: “Degenerates are
nel and Mrs. son, has an affaire du
not always criminals, prostitutes, anarch- cæur” with Mr. Miles Arbuton, of Bos-
ists, and pronounced lunatics; they are ton. The latter, an aristocrat of the
often authors and artists. These, how- most conventional type, is thrown much
ever, manifest the same mental char- with Kitty on the steamer, and finally
acteristics, and for the most part the
falls in love with her. Mrs. Ellison, a
same somatic features, as the members rather commonplace but kind-hearted
of the above-mentioned anthropological woman, sprains her ankle, and this miss
family, who satisfy their unhealthy im- fortune delays their party in Quebec.
pulses with the knife of the assassin or During this interval Mr. Arbuton and
the bomb of the dynamiter, instead of Kitty explore the city, -an occupation
with pen and pencil. Some among these affording ple time for the maturing of
degenerates in literature, music, and their friendship. Arbuton at length de-
painting, have in recent years come into clares himself, and Kitty asks for time
extraordinary prominence.
Now to consider his proposal. She feels the
I have undertaken the work of investi- unsuitability of the match; he being of
gating the tendencies of the fashions in distinguished family, rich and cultivated,
art and literature; of proving that they while she is a poor girl, with little to
have their source in the degeneracy of boast of but her own natural charms. She
their authors, and that the enthusiasm finally accepts him, however, when some
of their admirers is for manifestations of of his aristocratic friends appear on the
more or less pronounced moral insanity scene. He ignores Kitty for the time be-
and dementia. ”
ing and leaves her by herself, while be
## p. 3 (#39) ###############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
3
as
Age
does the honors for the new-comers. She thousands as badly off as is he; hence
realizes that he is ashamed of her, and poverty, crime, unrest, and all social
decides to give him up. On his return and moral evils.
she tells him of her decision, and resists The remedy is to nationalize the land,
his entreaties to overlook his conduct. - make it public property; leaving that
The story ends with the departure of the already in use in the possession of those
Ellisons from Quebec, and the reader is holding it, but confiscating the rent and
left in ignorance of the fate of Mr. Miles abolishing all other forms of taxation.
Arbuton. The book contains many
He declares taxation upon anything but
charming descriptions of the picturesque land to be a penalty upon production;
scenery and places about Quebec, and so he would tax that which cannot be
the story is told with delightful airiness produced or increased or diminished,
and charm.
- i. e. , land. This, he claims, would
abolish all speculation in land, would
Progress and Poverty, by Henry throw it open to whomever would use
George. Single taxers hold this, it. Labor, having an opportunity to
the chief work of the author, to be the employ itself, would do so, or to a large
Bible of the new cult. It was written enough extent to increase production;
in the years 1877–79, and the MS. was and
man is a never-satisfied ani-
hawked about the country and refused mal, increased production would bring
by all publishers till the author, a prac- increased exchange; hence prosperity,
tical printer, had the plates made, doing health, wealth, and happiness.
a large part of the composition himself.
ge of Fable, The, or THE BEAUTIES
It was then brought out by Appletons in
OF MYTHOLOGY, by Thomas Bulfinch,
1879. He seeks, in the work, to solve a
was published in 1855, and republished
problem and prescribe a remedy. The
in 1882 under the editorship of Edward
problem is: “Why, in the midst of a
Everett Hale. It has become a standard
marvelous progress, is grinding poverty
work upon mythology, by reason of its
on the increase ? » In the solution he
full and extensive yet delicate treatment
begins with the beginning of political
of the Greek and Roman myths. While
economy, takes issue with accepted au-
especially adapted for young people, it
thority, and claims that the basis law is
not the selfishness of mankind, but that
possesses qualities which commend it
alike to the scholar and to the general
«man seeks to gratify his desires with
reader.
the least exertion. Using this law as
physicists do the law of gravitation, he Bible, The Polychrome. A new trans-
,
proceeds to define anew, capital, rent,
lation of the Scriptures from a re-
interest, wealth, labor, and land. All vised text, by eminent Biblical scholars
that is not labor, or the result of labor, of Europe and America; Professor Paul
is land. Wealth is the product of labor Haupt, Johns Hopkins University, editor,
applied to land.
Interest is that part of
with the assistance in America of Dr.
the result of labor which is paid to cap-
Horace Howard Furness. The special
ital for its use for a time; capital is the scheme of this great work is its use of
fruit of labor, not its employer; rent is color backgrounds upon which to print
the tax taken by the landholder from the various passages by different writers
labor and capital, which must be paid which have been made up into one work,
before capital and labor can divide.
as Isaiah or the Psalms. It is not based
The problem is solved, he declares, on any doubt of inspiration, but on the
when it is found that the constantly in- general conviction of Biblical scholars
creasing rent serves so to restrict the that only good can come from making per-
rewards of capital and labor that wage, fectly clear to the public the full results
the laborer's share of the joint product,
of modern critical research. The Revised
becomes the least sum upon which he Version is considered by the projectors
can subsist and propagate. The laborer of the Polychrome an unsatisfactory com-
would refuse such a wage; but as it is promise, in that it fails to show the re-
the best he can do, he must accept. sults of modern research, either in its
Were the land public property he could text of the original or in its translation.
refuse, and transfer his labor to open In particular it does not show the exact
land and produce for himself. As he facts of the Hebrew originals; where in
cannot do this, he must compete with many cases a book is made up by fitting
## p. 4 (#40) ###############################################
4
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
>>>
together parts of two or three writings,
differing in character, authorship, and
date. The Polychrome device to show
these facts is that of printing what is of
one writer on the white paper, what is of
a second writer on a color impressed on
the page over just space enough for the
passage, and so with a third, or more.
Each has his color, and the reader easily
follows the respective writers. In the
translation a marked change is effected
by the use of modern literary English,
in place of Biblical English, which does
not faithfully show the true meaning. In
the texts followed and the translation
adopted, the general agreement of Bibli-
cal scholars is represented. In the prep-
arations made for its execution, and the
plans for a collaboration of eminent spe-
cialists throughout the world, the work
is perhaps the greatest yet attempted
in the field of Biblical scholarship. Its
translators especially represent the best
scholarship of America, England, and Con-
tinental Europe. The Old Testament
separate issues will be twenty in num-
ber, of which the first three are Judges,
Isaiah, and Psalms. Although a work
of scholarship, it is meant to be, in its
use of clear, every-day, easily intelligible
language, a Bible for the people. The
explanatory notes and historical and crit-
ical introductions to the several sepa-
rate books will meet the demands of the
scholar, student, or preacher.
The picto-
rial illustrations from Assyrian, Egyptian,
or other monuments, or from photographs
of scenes, are designed not for art effect
simply, but to help the reader to under-
stand what he reads. A corresponding
Polychrome edition of the Hebrew text,
edited by eminent Hebraists under Pro-
fessor Haupt's direction, is issued in ad-
vance of the English version. Of this,
eleven parts have already appeared, 1893–
97. As to the Hebrew text published in
the Polychrome edition, and from which
the Polychrome translation is made, Pro-
fessor Haupt writes: As to the (original
Hebrew,' it is well known that the Re-
ceived Text of the Old Testament is full
of corruptions. All our Hebrew manu-
scripts of the Old Testament are copies of
one archetype; and this original manu-
script, from which all our copies are de-
rived, seems to have been written under
the reign of the emperor Hadrian (117-
138 A. D. ). We try to restore the original
text by a careful comparison of the
ancient versions, — Septuagint, Vulgate,
Targums, etc. , which in many cases
exhibit a more original text, free from
the corruptions which have crept into the
Hebrew text. )
Daisy Miller, by Henry James, a nov.
elette published in 1878, is one of
his most famous stories. Its heroine
is a young girl from Schenectady, "ad-
mirably pretty, who is traveling about
Europe with her placid mother, and her
dreadful little brother Randolph. Mrs.
Miller never thinks of interfering with
her children, and allows her daughter
to go for moonlight drives with young
men, and her son of ten to sit up eating
candies in hotel parlors till one o'clock,
— with an occasional qualm, indeed, but
with no consciousness of countenancing a
social lapse, her code of etiquette being
that of a rural American town, with no
authority of long descent. From the con-
start incongruity between the Miller social
standards and the Draconian code of be-
havior of the older European communities,
come both the motive and the plot of the
story, which is one of the most skillful
and convincing of the very clever artist
who wrote it. Upon its publication, how-
ever, American
society at home and
abroad was mightily indignant over what
it pronounced Mr. James's base libel on
the American young girl, and American
social training. But when it came to be
read more soberly, the reader perceived
that the subtle painter of manners had
really delineated a charming type of in-
nocence and self-respect, a type so confi-
dent of its own rectitude as to be careless
of external standards. It was seen to be
the environment only that distorted and
misrepresented this type, and that in the
more primitive civilization which pro-
duced it, it would have been without flaw.
In a word, the thoughtful reader discov-
ered that Mr. James's sketch, so far as
it had a bias at all, was a plea for just-
ice to a new manifestation of character,
the product of new conditions, that can
never hope to be understood when meas-
ured by standards wholly outside its ex-
perience. The book is one of the most
brilliant, as it is one of the most subtle
and artistic, of this author's productions.
Blackwood, William, and His Sons,
their Magazine and Friends, by Mrs.
M. O. W. Oliphant. (1897. ) This book,
projected in three volumes, — the last
of which, unhappily, the author did not
live to complete, – is in effect an outline
## p. 5 (#41) ###############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
5.
sketch of English letters for the greater certain incidents, like Blackwood's bring-
part of the eighteenth century. In the ing home to his wife the first copy of
form of a biography of the great Scotch Maga, or the biographer's account
publishing-house, the relations of its part- of her own writing for its pages, almost
ners to the writing world of their time in despair, her first successful serial story,
are detailed with infinite humor and en- the Chronicles of Carlingford,' — touch
joyment. William Blackwood, first of the fountain of tears. Mrs. Oliphant con-
the name, began as a dealer in second- fesses freely the blunders of Maga': its
hand books in Edinburgh; his first pub- mean attack on Coleridge in the first
lication being a catalogue of his own number, its foolish and baseless onslaught
stock, done with so much knowledge and on the “Cockney school represented by
so excellent a classification that it still Leigh Hunt, and its promise of judgment
remains in use. The great London house to come on the Shelleys, the Keatses,
of Murray wanting a Scotch agency, and the Webbes. On the other hand,
the enterprising and determined Black- she shows the friendly connection of
wood secured it, - the first (ten-strike » George Eliot and of Lord Lytton with
in his game of life. His next good for- the house, and its pleasant relations with
tune was the honor of publishing (The many less famous persons whom Black-
Tales of My Landlord, which, though wood introduced to the world. Full of
anonymous, Blackwood confidently as- the most agreeable gossip as they are,
cribed to Scott. Unluckily, he ventured the real value of these volumes lies per-
afterward to find some fault with (The haps not more in the history of the time
Black Dwarf); and the indignant author which they present, than in the impres-
of Waverley repudiated him and all his sion they give of the kindly and helpful
works in a sharp letter, closing I'll be influence of the Blackwoods themselves
cursed but this is the most impudent pro- upon the lives and work of their many
posal that ever was made. ) Blackwood clients.
therefore lost the opportunity of becom-
ing Scott's publisher; but poor Scott Dem
emocracy and Liberty, by W. E. H.
Lecky. (2 vols. , 1896. ) A strong
doubtless lost the assurance of a comfort-
book “dealing with the present aspects
able and tranquil age. Miss Susan Fer-
and tendencies of the political world in
rier, the author of Marriage, (Destiny,'
many different countries, and with spe-
etc. , was one of Blackwood's protégées, as
cial reference to the fact that the most
were so many of the successful writers
remarkable political characteristic of the
of the early century. But all his other
latter part of the nineteenth century has
débuts and successes were eclipsed, Mrs.
Oliphant considers, by the association
unquestionably been the complete dis-
of Wilson, Lockhart, and Blackwood in
placement of the centre of power in free
the founding and editing of Blackwood's
governments,- a profound and far-reach-
ing revolution, over a great part of the
Magazine. Fifteen years earlier, in 1802,
civilized world. ) The work is not one of
Sydney Smith, Jeffrey, and Brougham history, but one of «discussion of contem-
had launched the Edinburgh Review;
whose Latin motto meant, the witty par-
porary questions, some of them lying in
son declared, “We cultivate literature on
the very centre of party controversies,"
and one «expressing strong opinions on
a little oatmeal. ” But the Edinburgh
many much-contested party questions.
literature was always a Whig bloom from
Besides dealing with England, Ireland,
a Whig stalk; Maga,' the Blackwood
America, and much of Europe, it also
venture, on the other hand, was meant
discusses socialism, Sunday and drink
to nurture and develop Tory flowers of
speech. For those were days when poli- questions, marriage and divorce, religious
legislation, woman questions and labor
tics colored opinion to a degree which
liberty, and Catholicism. It is a book of
is now almost incredible. ( When the
able, discussion and strong convictions,
reviewer sits down to criticize, wrote
Lockhart, «his first question is not, Is
by a writer who has many doubts about
modern democratic developments, but too
the book good or bad ? ) but 'Is the writer
a Ministerialist or
competent and too just to be scouted.
an Oppositionist ? ))
From beginning to end of these two Endymion by Benjamin Disraeli
, later
volumes
Earl
tions of the deeds and fortunes of th is one of a series of political portraits
publishing-house are delightful; while under the form of a novel, which for a
## p. 6 (#42) ###############################################
6
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
time attained great popularity among the the easily recognized type of the Pusey-
English people, but for obvious reasons ite of the Tractarian religious movement,
was less interesting to foreigners. (Con- if not a personal portraiture of Cardinal
ingsby' and 'Endymion) are hardly more Newman. Other characters are doubt.
than descriptions of the rival political less drawn from life more or less plainly,
parties in England at the opening of the but none more vividly than Endymion
Reform Bill agitation, and of the Poor himself, in whose career the reader sees
Law and Protection controversies,- outlined very clearly the character and
colored with the pale glimmer of a pas- political fortunes of the author.
sion cooled by shrewdness, and of a ro-
mance carefully trimmed to suit the stiff Curiosities of Literature, by Isaac
. (
conventionalisms of English society,-
erary researches," as the author calls it,
and spiced with revenge on the author's
foes.
comprises three volumes, of which the
first was published anonymously in 1791,
(Endymion) relates the fortunes of a
the second two years later, while the third
youth so named, and his sister Myra;
children of one William Ferrars, who
did not appear until 1817. Repeated edi-
from humble life has won his
tions were called for, and it was translated
way
to
a candidacy for the Speakership of the
into various languages. A sentence from
House of Commons, when suddenly, by a
the preface explains the style and object
of the book. «The design of this work is
change of political sentiment in the bor-
to stimulate the literary curiosity of those,
roughs, the administration is overthrown,
who, with a taste for its tranquil pursuits,
and the ambitious and flattered leader
are impeded in their acquirement. »
finds himself both deserted and bankrupt.
To retrieve their social and political po-
From every field the author has gath-
sition is the steady ambition and never-
ered interesting and recondite facts and
anecdotes on diverse literary and histori-
yielding effort of the son and daughter;
and to Endymion's advancement Myra
cal topics, and has grouped them under
makes every sacrifice that a sister's de-
headings totally without sequence. The
votion can devise. Through personal in-
subjects vary from Cicero's puns to Queen
Elizabeth's lovers, and from metempsy-
fluence as well as his own fascinating
chosis to waxwork figures. For example,
personality and brilliant gifts, Endymion
it is asserted that in the reign of Charles
finds an entry with the winning side;
and being untroubled by any scrupulous
II. the prototype of the steam-engine and
We
motive of consistency to principle, keeps
the telegraph had been invented.
learn the source of the extraordinary
himself at the front in popular favor.
Myra marries the Prime Minister, and
legends of the saints, the true story of
at his death she takes for her husband
the printer Faust, and the Venetian ori-
the king of a small Continental State.
gin of newspapers. In short, the work
is a library of the little known, and is
Endymion crowns her aspirations by
marrying a widow in high station, who
as entertaining as it is instructive.
has long been his admirer, and whose Four Georges, A History of the, in
, .
the narrative. At the close of the story Vols. i. and ii. In this work Mr. McCar-
he sees, by a happy combination of po- thy deals, in his own words, with history
litical influence, the door opened to his in its old — and we suppose its everlasting
own appointment as Premier of England. -fashion: that of telling what happened
The story moves along in the stately in the way of actual fact, telling the story
monotonous measure of English high life, of the time. His manner of writing is
with not even any pronounced villainy the old-fashioned, time-honored one; but
to heighten the uniform color effect of it is very entertaining of its kind. His
the characters and incidents. There is a pictures are clear in color, full, and vivid;
noticeable absence of anything like high the figures that move across the pages
patriotic motive associated with that of are lifelike and complete. Opening with
personal advancement: it is difficult to a shrewd estimate of Queen Anne, and a
conceive of such personages living with- keen glance at the position of affairs at
out some political predilection. Over her death, Vol. i. includes the reign of
all is the subdued glow of an intensely George I. , taking in also that of George
selfish culture and refinement. Nigel, II. down to 1731.
He says: “England
Endymion's student friend at Oxford, is was to him as the State wife, whom for
## p. 7 (#43) ###############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
7
course
>>>
political reasons he was compelled to the destitute may be provided for, the
marry; Hanover, as the sweetheart and temporarily unemployed given work,
mistress of his youth, to whom his affec- etc. ); those for whom such a
tions, such as they were, always clung, seems best being passed on to the self-
and whom he stole out to see at every supporting farm colony,” which in turn
possible chance. He managed England's contributes to English or other colonies
affairs for her like an honest, straight- or to the colony over sea” (yet to be
forward, narrow-minded steward. ) Vol. founded). The result would be a segre-
ii. finishes the reign of George II. , clos- gation of the needy into localities where
ing with his death. The rise of Pitt, the they could be handled, with a draining
lives of Wesley and of Whitefield, the off to unreaped fields, as this process
commotion excited by Walpole's unpop- became desirable, of a part of the great
ular excise bill, Clive's career in India, army of occupation. The book is the
Culloden, the happenings in the literary work of a man in deadly earnest, who
world, all the various interests, charac- feels himself to be an instrument in the
ters, and events of the reign, are consid- hands of God for the rescue of the lost.
ered. George II. , he says, “had still less.
natural capacity than his father. He was
Gull
ulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift's
parsimonious; he was avaricious; he was most famous book, was published
easily put out of temper. His instincts, in 1727. It is one of the most brilliant
feelings, passions, were all purely selfish. and profound of satires, one of the most
Personal courage was perhaps imaginative of stories, and one of the
the only quality becoming a sovereign best models of style. "Gulliver's Travels)
which he possessed. . . . Never was a was given to the world anonymously;
king better served than he; never had so though a few of Swift's friends, including
ignoble a sovereign such men to make Pope, Gay, Boling broke, and Arbuthnot,
his kingdom strong and his reign famous. were in the secret. It became immedi.
He began his term of royalty under the ately popular, and has never lost its
protection of the sturdy figure of Wal- interest for both young and old. «Gul.
pole; he closed it under the protection of liver's Travels, says
Leslie Stephen,
the stately form of Pitt. )
«belongs to a literary genus full of gro-
tesque and anomalous forms. Its form
in Darkest England and the Way Out, is derived from some of the imaginary
by William Booth, general of the travels of which Lucian's (True History)
Salvation Army. This book, whose title - itself a burlesque of some early travel.
is evidently suggested by Stanley's (Dark- ers' tales — is the first example. But it
est Africa,' treats of the want, misery, has an affinity to such books as Bacon's
and vice, which cling like barnacles to (Atlantis) and More's 'Utopia,' and again
the base of English society, as they do to later philosophical romances like "Can-
to the base of all old civilizations, and dide) and (Rasselas. »» It begins with
which it is so much easier to shut one's Gulliver's account of himself and his set-
eyes upon than to analyze, explain, and ting forth upon the travels. A violent
remedy. General Booth's opportunities storm off Van Diemen's Land drives him,
for knowing whereof he speaks have the one survivor, to Lilliput, where he is
been exceptionally good. The statements examined with curiosity by the tiny folk.
he makes are appalling, but they are They call him the man-mountain,” and
supported by figures and facts. The make rules for his conduct.
With equal
subject of his book is the temporal and curiosity he learns their arts of civiliza-
spiritual rescue of «a population about tion and warfare. His next voyage is to
equal to that of Scotland. Three million Brobdingnag, where he is a Lilliputian
men, women, and children
in comparison to the size of the gigantic
inally free, but really enslaved» — what inhabitants of this strange land, in which
he calls «the submerged tenth. ) The he becomes a court toy. In Brobding-
plan he proposes seems practical and nag, Scott says Swift looked through the
practicable, - one indeed in the execu- other end of the telescope, wishing to
tion of which he has made some pro- show the grossness of mankind as be
gress since the appearance of his book. had shown their pettiness. The next
The plan contemplates the establishment adventure is a voyage to Laputa, where
in the great centres of population of the inhabitants are absorbed in intel-
(<city colonies » (establishments at which lectual and scientific pursuits, and taken
»
nom-
## p. 8 (#44) ###############################################
8
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
(
up with intense speculations, and their to lull to sleep. She has not been long
conduct is most eccentric; this is proba- among the familiar scenes, when Val-
bly a satire upon pedantry. Gulliver next entine's cousin, John Dering, who has
visits Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, and Japan, come to the neighborhood, calls to see
and gives an account of the Struldbrugs, her. His remarkable resemblance to
a famous tribe of men who have gained Barbara's dead husband, in appearance
physical immortality without immortal and speech and manner, is at first a
youth, and find it an awful curse. The source of suffering to her. After a time,
last voyage takes the traveler into the however, this resemblance becomes a
country of the Houyhnhnms, where the consolation. Yet she rebels against her
horses under this name have an ideal new feeling as disloyal to Valentine.
government, - Swift's Utopia, - and are She struggles to keep the identity of the
immensely superior to the Yahoos, the two men distinct. She hates herself
embodiment of bestial mankind. The because she cares for her cousin. Yet
irony and satire may be understood when her love for him grows stronger, as his
one remembers that Swift said: «Upon passion for her becomes more imperious.
the great foundation of misanthropy the She strives to resist it, to be true to the
whole building of my travels is erected ”; dead. Finally she gives herself up to
and the remark that the King of Brob- her love for the living, but her abandon-
dingnag made to Gulliver — «The bulk of ment to her overmastering passion is of
your natives appear to me to be the most short duration. She believes that she is
pernicious race of little odious vermin more bound to the dead than to the liv-
that Nature ever suffered to crawl upon ing, and sends John away at the last,
the face of the earth” — may be accepted that she may be faithful to her first love.
as the opinion of the cynic himself re- (The Quick or the Dead ? ) is morbid
garding mankind. Hazlitt said that in and immature to a high degree; yet as
(Gulliver's Travels) Swift took a view a psychological study of a sensitive wo-
of human nature such as might be taken man's conflicting emotions it is not with-
by a being of another sphere. His out interest and significance. The style
description of Brobdingnagian literature is impressionistic. «In the glimpsing
has been applied to the masterly prose lightning she saw scurrying trees against
of his great book: «Their style is clear, the suave autumn sky, like etchings on
masculine, and smooth, but not florid; bluish paper. ” “A rich purple-blue dusk
for they avoid nothing more than multi- had sunk down over the land, and the
plying unnecessary words, or using vari- gleam of the frozen ice-pond in the far
ous expressions. ”
field shone desolately forth from tangled
patches of orange-colored wild grass. ”
nick or the Dead ? The, a novelette «She threw herself into a drift of crim-
by Amélie Rives, was first pub- son pillows . . . brooding upon the
lished in 1883 in Lippincott's Magazine. broken fire, whose lilac flames palpitated
It attained at once great notoriety in over a bed of gold-veined coals. »
this country and in England, because of
the peculiar treatment of the subject, Ga allegher and Other Stories, by Rich-
the strangeness of its style, and the ard Harding Davis.
The other sto-
flashiness of the title, which has become ries include: A Walk Up the Avenue ;)
one of the best known in fiction. Its My Disreputable Friend, Mr. Raegen);
hysteria, its abundant and bizarre use (The Other Woman”; “There Were Ninety
of adjectives, and its innocent treatment and Nine); (The Cynical Miss Cather-
of passion, betrayed the youth and in- waight); «Van Bibber and the Swan Boat);
experience of the author; yet it is not (Van Bibber's Burglar); and (Van Bibber
without traces of genius. The heroine, as Best Man. ) The most noteworthy of
Barbara Pomfret, is a young widow, the collection are (Gallegher,' the story
whose husband, Valentine, has been of the little newspaper boy who brings
dead two years when the story opens. to the office late at night copy” relating
In the first chapter she is returning to to a famous burglary, after many thrill-
the old Virginia homestead, where she ing adventures; (The Other Woman,
had passed the few months of an abso- which presents an unusual ethical prob
lutely happy married life. There every. lem to an engaged couple; and the trio
thing reminds her of her lost love, of Van Bibber sketches, the hero of
awakening the pain that she had sought which is a unique type of man,- one
Quick
## p. 9 (#45) ###############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
9
years old.
of fortune's favorites, but who, by some
malicious freak of fate, is perpetually
placed in peculiar circumstances, from
which he extricates himself with ease and
self-possession; his coolness under trying
circumstances never failing him, and his
fund of humor being inexhaustible. It is
only between the covers of so well-written
a book as the author's that one can meet
the pariahs and the preferred of society
hobnobbing at their ease, and be sure
that the acquaintance so formed will
bring with it no after-taste of regret.
Daniel Deronda (1876), George Eliot's
last novel, considered by some crit-
ics her greatest work, has repelled others
by its careful analysis of Jewish charac-
ter. It really has two separate parts,
and two chief figures, each very unlike
the other. Gwendolen Harleth, the hero-
ine, and Daniel Deronda, the hero, first
see each other at Baden, where Gwendo-
len tries her luck at the gaming-table.
When they next meet, Gwendolen is the
fiancée of Henleigh Grandcourt, nephew
of young Deronda's guardian, Sir Hugh
Mallinger. Grandcourt is a finished type
of the selfish man of the world.
He mar-
ries the beautiful, penniless Gwendolen,
less for love than in a fit of obstinacy,
as his confidant Mr. Lush puts it. Gwen-
dolen, as selfish as he, consents to marry
him because only thus can she save her
mother, her stepsisters, and herself, from
the poverty which the sudden loss of their
property is likely to bring them. The
tragedy of her married life is told with
dramatic force and profound insight.
Deronda has been brought up by Sir.
Hugh in ignorance of his parentage.
His fine education and great talents he
is always ready to place at the service
of others. By befriending a Jewish girl,
Mirah Lapidoth, he comes in close con-
tact with several Jewish families, grows
deeply interested in Jewish history and
religion, and when the secret of his birth
is revealed to him is glad to cast in his
lot with theirs. The influence of Deronda
on Gwendolen is very marked, and the
story closes with the prophecy of a lessen-
ing selfishness and egotism on her part.
Virgin Soil
Ivan Turgeneff. 473
Virginians, The
W. M. Thackeray. 51
Vishnu, Institute of
417
Vision of Piers Plowman, The
402
Visits to the Monasteries of the Levant
Robert Curzon. 467
Voiage and Travaile of Sir John Mandeville 467
Voltaire, Life of
James Parton. 521
Voyage Around my Chamber
Xavier De Maistre. 521
Whip and Spur
G. E. Waring, Jun. 373
White Aprons
Maud W. Goodwin. 529
White Company, The A. Conan Doyle. 522
White Rocks, The
Édouard Rod. 306
Wide, Wide World, The - Susan Warner. 495
Wild Irish Girl, The Lady Morgan. 438
Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship
Goethe. 404
Will, On the Freedom of the
Jonathan Edwards. 344
William Tell
Schiller. 407
Window in Thrums, A J. M. Barrie. 471
Winning of the West, The
Theodore Roosevelt. 495
Winter's Tale, A
Shakespeare. 399
With Fire and Sword, The Deluge, and Pan
Michael Henryk Sienkiewicz. 457
With the Procession Henry B. Fuller. 552
Without Dogma Henryk Sienkiewicz. 470
Wives and Daughters Mrs. Gaskell. 488
Woman in the Nineteenth Century
Margaret Fuller Ossoli. 530
Woman in White, The Wilkie Collins. 321
Women, Friendship of W. R. Alger. 529
Woodman, The
Quesnay de Beaurepaire. 501
Woodstock
Sir Walter Scott. 545
Wreck of the Grosvenor, The
W. Clark Russell. 305
Wrecker, The
R. L. Stevenson. 546
Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë. 302
-
-
.
WAGES OF SIN, THE "Lucas Malet. 481
Wanda
<< Quida. " 480
Wandering Jew, The Eugène Sue. 468
Wandering Jew, The M. D. Conway. 456
War and Peace
Lyof Tolstoy. 457
Waverley
Sir Walter Scott. 434
Wealth Against Commonwealth
H. D. Lloyd. 483
Wealth of Nations
Adam Smith. 511
Webster, Daniel
H. C. Lodge. 533
Weir of Hermiston R. L. Stevenson. 492
Wetherel Affair, The J. W. De Forest. 481
What Social Classes Owe to Each Other
W. G. Sumner. 499
When Valmond Came to Pontiac
Gilbert Parker. 326
YEMASSEE, THE
W. G. Simms. 407
Yesterday, To-Day, and Forever -
E. H. Bickersteth. 471
Yesterdays with Authors J. T. Fields. 509
Yone Santo
E. H. House. 437
-
-
418
ZEND-AVESTA, THE
Zincali, The
George Borrow. 469
Zoroastrian Sacred Books
418
Zury; The Meanest Man in Spring County
Joseph Kirkland. 503
## p. 1 (#37) ###############################################
I
SYNOPSES OF
NOTED BOOKS
Cosmic Philosophy, Outlines of, by activity. In short, the essayist's defini-
John Fiske. (1875. ) In these two tion of the Cosmic theory is as follows:
small volumes, one of the most eminent "Life — including also intelligence as the
of modern thinkers presents the philo- | highest known manifestation of life - is
sophic and scientific doctrines of Herbert the continuous establishment of relations
Spencer, developed into a complete the- within the organism in correspondence
ory of the universe. Added to the out- with relations existing or arising in the
line of the evolutionary philosophy, as environment;) and his statement of the
represented by Mr. Spencer, is a body Cosmic law of social progress is this: --
of original speculation and criticism set «The evolution of society is a contin-
forth with immense learning and inge- uous establishment of psychical relations
nuity, and in a style which is a model of within the community, in conformity to
clearness and force. Most of Mr. Fiske's physical and psychical relations arising
first volume is taken up with the Pro- in the environment; during which both
legomena, in which are expounded the the community and the environment pass
fundamental principles of Cosmism. The from a state of relatively indefinite in-
second volume comprises the Synthe- coherent homogeneity, to a state of rela-
sis, containing the laws of life, of mind, tively definite coherent heterogeneity;
and of society. Life of every kind is and during which the constituent units
shown to consist in a process of change of the community become ever more dis-
within meeting change without; and this tinctly individuated. ”
process applies alike to the lowest rudi- Mr. Fiske obtains his generalizations
mentary organism struggling against a by means of broad historical researches,
hostile environment, and to the highest and his great knowledge and aptness of
creature making use of those slowly illustration constantly enrich his pages.
evolved adaptations which enable it to In the final chapters he sets forth the
overcome opposing conditions. Mind is Cosmic religion, which, as he interprets
an immaterial process similar in charac- it, seems to be an attitude of awe and
ter, but more complex and more efficient. submission to the Unknowable.
No true Cosmist will affect to know at
what precise point the process becomes Anna Karenina, a famous novel of con-
so complex as to deserve the name of temporary life, by Count Lyof Tolstoy,
mind. Though the extremes seem to was first published as a serial in the Russian
have nothing in common, the chain of Contemporary, an English translation ap-
means has no break, and the real differ- pearing in 1886. The remarkable charac-
ence is of degree and not of kind. A ter of the book places it in the category
like process is seen in the growth of so-
of world-novels. Its theme - the simple
ciety, from the homogeneousness of the one of the wife, the husband, and the lover
primitive family to the heterogeneous- - is treated with a marvelous perception of
ness of the nation. Thus it appears that the laws of morality and of passion. The
the method and the significance of all
author depicts the effect upon a high-bred
changes may be defined in the one word sensitive woman of the violation of the
adaptation. Organic existence begins moral code, through her abandonment to
at some indefinitely remote point in in- passion. The character of Anna Karenina
organic existence; life must somewhere is the subject of a subtle psychological
be foreshadowed in simple chemical study. A Russian noblewoman, young,
XXX-1
## p. 2 (#38) ###############################################
2
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
»
beautiful, and impressionable, she is mar- The author undertakes this large task
ried to a man much older than herself. with cheerfulness and assurance. In five
While visiting in Moscow, in the house- subdivisions of his topic - Fin-de-Siècle,'
hold of her brother Prince Stepan Ob- Mysticism,) (Ego-Mania,' (Realism,' and
lonsky, she meets Count Vronsky, a brill- (The Twentieth Century)- he discusses
iant young officer. He loves her, and those manifestations of modern thought
exercises a fascination over her which she and feeling in art and literature which
cannot resist. The construction of the he is pleased to term «degenerate. ”
novel is intricate, involving the fortunes Scarcely a man of note in these depart-
of many other characters; fortunes which ments escapes. Zola, Wagner, Tolstoy,
present other aspects of the problems of Ibsen, Nietzsche, Rossetti and the other
love and marriage. The interest is cen- pre-Raphaelites, are, so to speak, placed
tred, however, in Anna Karenina. No in strait-jackets and confined in padded
criticism can convey the powerful im- cells. In his attack on Rossetti he speaks
pression of her personality, a personality of the «senseless phrases » of his poems,
colored by the mental states through the repetition of sound, as peculiarities
which she passes, - dawning love, blind of the weak and deranged mind. Com-
passion, maternal tenderness, doubt, ap- menting on the quotation -
prehension, defiance, sorrow, and finally
«The hollow halo it was in
despair. The whole of a woman's heart
Was like an icy crystal cup, "-
is laid bare. The realism of Anna Kare-
he says, “It is stark nonsense to qualify
nina is supreme and merciless. Its fidel-
a plane surface such as a halo by the
ity to the life it depicts, its strong delin-
adjective hollow. ) »
eation of character, above all its masterly The book is an extraordinary mani-
treatment of a theme of world-wide in- festation of the philistine spirit of the
terest, place it among the first novels of
close of the 19th century. For a time it
the century.
had an enormous vogue; the calm judg-
ment of science, however, tends to deny
Degeneration, by Max Nordau. (1895. ) many of its propositions.
A work which attracted great atten-
tion, and provoked a storm of opposition Char
hance Acquaintance, A, by William
and of argument. A product in equal
Dean Howells. (1873. ) This agree-
parts of German profundity of learning able and entertaining sketch is one of
and one-sidedness of outlook, it is an at- Mr. Howells's earlier stories. It relates
tempt at «scientific criticism of those the experience of a pretty Western girl,
«degenerates” not upon the acknowledged Kitty Ellison, who, while traveling on
lists of the criminal classes. The author the St. Lawrence with her cousins Colo-
in his dedication says: “Degenerates are
nel and Mrs. son, has an affaire du
not always criminals, prostitutes, anarch- cæur” with Mr. Miles Arbuton, of Bos-
ists, and pronounced lunatics; they are ton. The latter, an aristocrat of the
often authors and artists. These, how- most conventional type, is thrown much
ever, manifest the same mental char- with Kitty on the steamer, and finally
acteristics, and for the most part the
falls in love with her. Mrs. Ellison, a
same somatic features, as the members rather commonplace but kind-hearted
of the above-mentioned anthropological woman, sprains her ankle, and this miss
family, who satisfy their unhealthy im- fortune delays their party in Quebec.
pulses with the knife of the assassin or During this interval Mr. Arbuton and
the bomb of the dynamiter, instead of Kitty explore the city, -an occupation
with pen and pencil. Some among these affording ple time for the maturing of
degenerates in literature, music, and their friendship. Arbuton at length de-
painting, have in recent years come into clares himself, and Kitty asks for time
extraordinary prominence.
Now to consider his proposal. She feels the
I have undertaken the work of investi- unsuitability of the match; he being of
gating the tendencies of the fashions in distinguished family, rich and cultivated,
art and literature; of proving that they while she is a poor girl, with little to
have their source in the degeneracy of boast of but her own natural charms. She
their authors, and that the enthusiasm finally accepts him, however, when some
of their admirers is for manifestations of of his aristocratic friends appear on the
more or less pronounced moral insanity scene. He ignores Kitty for the time be-
and dementia. ”
ing and leaves her by herself, while be
## p. 3 (#39) ###############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
3
as
Age
does the honors for the new-comers. She thousands as badly off as is he; hence
realizes that he is ashamed of her, and poverty, crime, unrest, and all social
decides to give him up. On his return and moral evils.
she tells him of her decision, and resists The remedy is to nationalize the land,
his entreaties to overlook his conduct. - make it public property; leaving that
The story ends with the departure of the already in use in the possession of those
Ellisons from Quebec, and the reader is holding it, but confiscating the rent and
left in ignorance of the fate of Mr. Miles abolishing all other forms of taxation.
Arbuton. The book contains many
He declares taxation upon anything but
charming descriptions of the picturesque land to be a penalty upon production;
scenery and places about Quebec, and so he would tax that which cannot be
the story is told with delightful airiness produced or increased or diminished,
and charm.
- i. e. , land. This, he claims, would
abolish all speculation in land, would
Progress and Poverty, by Henry throw it open to whomever would use
George. Single taxers hold this, it. Labor, having an opportunity to
the chief work of the author, to be the employ itself, would do so, or to a large
Bible of the new cult. It was written enough extent to increase production;
in the years 1877–79, and the MS. was and
man is a never-satisfied ani-
hawked about the country and refused mal, increased production would bring
by all publishers till the author, a prac- increased exchange; hence prosperity,
tical printer, had the plates made, doing health, wealth, and happiness.
a large part of the composition himself.
ge of Fable, The, or THE BEAUTIES
It was then brought out by Appletons in
OF MYTHOLOGY, by Thomas Bulfinch,
1879. He seeks, in the work, to solve a
was published in 1855, and republished
problem and prescribe a remedy. The
in 1882 under the editorship of Edward
problem is: “Why, in the midst of a
Everett Hale. It has become a standard
marvelous progress, is grinding poverty
work upon mythology, by reason of its
on the increase ? » In the solution he
full and extensive yet delicate treatment
begins with the beginning of political
of the Greek and Roman myths. While
economy, takes issue with accepted au-
especially adapted for young people, it
thority, and claims that the basis law is
not the selfishness of mankind, but that
possesses qualities which commend it
alike to the scholar and to the general
«man seeks to gratify his desires with
reader.
the least exertion. Using this law as
physicists do the law of gravitation, he Bible, The Polychrome. A new trans-
,
proceeds to define anew, capital, rent,
lation of the Scriptures from a re-
interest, wealth, labor, and land. All vised text, by eminent Biblical scholars
that is not labor, or the result of labor, of Europe and America; Professor Paul
is land. Wealth is the product of labor Haupt, Johns Hopkins University, editor,
applied to land.
Interest is that part of
with the assistance in America of Dr.
the result of labor which is paid to cap-
Horace Howard Furness. The special
ital for its use for a time; capital is the scheme of this great work is its use of
fruit of labor, not its employer; rent is color backgrounds upon which to print
the tax taken by the landholder from the various passages by different writers
labor and capital, which must be paid which have been made up into one work,
before capital and labor can divide.
as Isaiah or the Psalms. It is not based
The problem is solved, he declares, on any doubt of inspiration, but on the
when it is found that the constantly in- general conviction of Biblical scholars
creasing rent serves so to restrict the that only good can come from making per-
rewards of capital and labor that wage, fectly clear to the public the full results
the laborer's share of the joint product,
of modern critical research. The Revised
becomes the least sum upon which he Version is considered by the projectors
can subsist and propagate. The laborer of the Polychrome an unsatisfactory com-
would refuse such a wage; but as it is promise, in that it fails to show the re-
the best he can do, he must accept. sults of modern research, either in its
Were the land public property he could text of the original or in its translation.
refuse, and transfer his labor to open In particular it does not show the exact
land and produce for himself. As he facts of the Hebrew originals; where in
cannot do this, he must compete with many cases a book is made up by fitting
## p. 4 (#40) ###############################################
4
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
>>>
together parts of two or three writings,
differing in character, authorship, and
date. The Polychrome device to show
these facts is that of printing what is of
one writer on the white paper, what is of
a second writer on a color impressed on
the page over just space enough for the
passage, and so with a third, or more.
Each has his color, and the reader easily
follows the respective writers. In the
translation a marked change is effected
by the use of modern literary English,
in place of Biblical English, which does
not faithfully show the true meaning. In
the texts followed and the translation
adopted, the general agreement of Bibli-
cal scholars is represented. In the prep-
arations made for its execution, and the
plans for a collaboration of eminent spe-
cialists throughout the world, the work
is perhaps the greatest yet attempted
in the field of Biblical scholarship. Its
translators especially represent the best
scholarship of America, England, and Con-
tinental Europe. The Old Testament
separate issues will be twenty in num-
ber, of which the first three are Judges,
Isaiah, and Psalms. Although a work
of scholarship, it is meant to be, in its
use of clear, every-day, easily intelligible
language, a Bible for the people. The
explanatory notes and historical and crit-
ical introductions to the several sepa-
rate books will meet the demands of the
scholar, student, or preacher.
The picto-
rial illustrations from Assyrian, Egyptian,
or other monuments, or from photographs
of scenes, are designed not for art effect
simply, but to help the reader to under-
stand what he reads. A corresponding
Polychrome edition of the Hebrew text,
edited by eminent Hebraists under Pro-
fessor Haupt's direction, is issued in ad-
vance of the English version. Of this,
eleven parts have already appeared, 1893–
97. As to the Hebrew text published in
the Polychrome edition, and from which
the Polychrome translation is made, Pro-
fessor Haupt writes: As to the (original
Hebrew,' it is well known that the Re-
ceived Text of the Old Testament is full
of corruptions. All our Hebrew manu-
scripts of the Old Testament are copies of
one archetype; and this original manu-
script, from which all our copies are de-
rived, seems to have been written under
the reign of the emperor Hadrian (117-
138 A. D. ). We try to restore the original
text by a careful comparison of the
ancient versions, — Septuagint, Vulgate,
Targums, etc. , which in many cases
exhibit a more original text, free from
the corruptions which have crept into the
Hebrew text. )
Daisy Miller, by Henry James, a nov.
elette published in 1878, is one of
his most famous stories. Its heroine
is a young girl from Schenectady, "ad-
mirably pretty, who is traveling about
Europe with her placid mother, and her
dreadful little brother Randolph. Mrs.
Miller never thinks of interfering with
her children, and allows her daughter
to go for moonlight drives with young
men, and her son of ten to sit up eating
candies in hotel parlors till one o'clock,
— with an occasional qualm, indeed, but
with no consciousness of countenancing a
social lapse, her code of etiquette being
that of a rural American town, with no
authority of long descent. From the con-
start incongruity between the Miller social
standards and the Draconian code of be-
havior of the older European communities,
come both the motive and the plot of the
story, which is one of the most skillful
and convincing of the very clever artist
who wrote it. Upon its publication, how-
ever, American
society at home and
abroad was mightily indignant over what
it pronounced Mr. James's base libel on
the American young girl, and American
social training. But when it came to be
read more soberly, the reader perceived
that the subtle painter of manners had
really delineated a charming type of in-
nocence and self-respect, a type so confi-
dent of its own rectitude as to be careless
of external standards. It was seen to be
the environment only that distorted and
misrepresented this type, and that in the
more primitive civilization which pro-
duced it, it would have been without flaw.
In a word, the thoughtful reader discov-
ered that Mr. James's sketch, so far as
it had a bias at all, was a plea for just-
ice to a new manifestation of character,
the product of new conditions, that can
never hope to be understood when meas-
ured by standards wholly outside its ex-
perience. The book is one of the most
brilliant, as it is one of the most subtle
and artistic, of this author's productions.
Blackwood, William, and His Sons,
their Magazine and Friends, by Mrs.
M. O. W. Oliphant. (1897. ) This book,
projected in three volumes, — the last
of which, unhappily, the author did not
live to complete, – is in effect an outline
## p. 5 (#41) ###############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
5.
sketch of English letters for the greater certain incidents, like Blackwood's bring-
part of the eighteenth century. In the ing home to his wife the first copy of
form of a biography of the great Scotch Maga, or the biographer's account
publishing-house, the relations of its part- of her own writing for its pages, almost
ners to the writing world of their time in despair, her first successful serial story,
are detailed with infinite humor and en- the Chronicles of Carlingford,' — touch
joyment. William Blackwood, first of the fountain of tears. Mrs. Oliphant con-
the name, began as a dealer in second- fesses freely the blunders of Maga': its
hand books in Edinburgh; his first pub- mean attack on Coleridge in the first
lication being a catalogue of his own number, its foolish and baseless onslaught
stock, done with so much knowledge and on the “Cockney school represented by
so excellent a classification that it still Leigh Hunt, and its promise of judgment
remains in use. The great London house to come on the Shelleys, the Keatses,
of Murray wanting a Scotch agency, and the Webbes. On the other hand,
the enterprising and determined Black- she shows the friendly connection of
wood secured it, - the first (ten-strike » George Eliot and of Lord Lytton with
in his game of life. His next good for- the house, and its pleasant relations with
tune was the honor of publishing (The many less famous persons whom Black-
Tales of My Landlord, which, though wood introduced to the world. Full of
anonymous, Blackwood confidently as- the most agreeable gossip as they are,
cribed to Scott. Unluckily, he ventured the real value of these volumes lies per-
afterward to find some fault with (The haps not more in the history of the time
Black Dwarf); and the indignant author which they present, than in the impres-
of Waverley repudiated him and all his sion they give of the kindly and helpful
works in a sharp letter, closing I'll be influence of the Blackwoods themselves
cursed but this is the most impudent pro- upon the lives and work of their many
posal that ever was made. ) Blackwood clients.
therefore lost the opportunity of becom-
ing Scott's publisher; but poor Scott Dem
emocracy and Liberty, by W. E. H.
Lecky. (2 vols. , 1896. ) A strong
doubtless lost the assurance of a comfort-
book “dealing with the present aspects
able and tranquil age. Miss Susan Fer-
and tendencies of the political world in
rier, the author of Marriage, (Destiny,'
many different countries, and with spe-
etc. , was one of Blackwood's protégées, as
cial reference to the fact that the most
were so many of the successful writers
remarkable political characteristic of the
of the early century. But all his other
latter part of the nineteenth century has
débuts and successes were eclipsed, Mrs.
Oliphant considers, by the association
unquestionably been the complete dis-
of Wilson, Lockhart, and Blackwood in
placement of the centre of power in free
the founding and editing of Blackwood's
governments,- a profound and far-reach-
ing revolution, over a great part of the
Magazine. Fifteen years earlier, in 1802,
civilized world. ) The work is not one of
Sydney Smith, Jeffrey, and Brougham history, but one of «discussion of contem-
had launched the Edinburgh Review;
whose Latin motto meant, the witty par-
porary questions, some of them lying in
son declared, “We cultivate literature on
the very centre of party controversies,"
and one «expressing strong opinions on
a little oatmeal. ” But the Edinburgh
many much-contested party questions.
literature was always a Whig bloom from
Besides dealing with England, Ireland,
a Whig stalk; Maga,' the Blackwood
America, and much of Europe, it also
venture, on the other hand, was meant
discusses socialism, Sunday and drink
to nurture and develop Tory flowers of
speech. For those were days when poli- questions, marriage and divorce, religious
legislation, woman questions and labor
tics colored opinion to a degree which
liberty, and Catholicism. It is a book of
is now almost incredible. ( When the
able, discussion and strong convictions,
reviewer sits down to criticize, wrote
Lockhart, «his first question is not, Is
by a writer who has many doubts about
modern democratic developments, but too
the book good or bad ? ) but 'Is the writer
a Ministerialist or
competent and too just to be scouted.
an Oppositionist ? ))
From beginning to end of these two Endymion by Benjamin Disraeli
, later
volumes
Earl
tions of the deeds and fortunes of th is one of a series of political portraits
publishing-house are delightful; while under the form of a novel, which for a
## p. 6 (#42) ###############################################
6
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
time attained great popularity among the the easily recognized type of the Pusey-
English people, but for obvious reasons ite of the Tractarian religious movement,
was less interesting to foreigners. (Con- if not a personal portraiture of Cardinal
ingsby' and 'Endymion) are hardly more Newman. Other characters are doubt.
than descriptions of the rival political less drawn from life more or less plainly,
parties in England at the opening of the but none more vividly than Endymion
Reform Bill agitation, and of the Poor himself, in whose career the reader sees
Law and Protection controversies,- outlined very clearly the character and
colored with the pale glimmer of a pas- political fortunes of the author.
sion cooled by shrewdness, and of a ro-
mance carefully trimmed to suit the stiff Curiosities of Literature, by Isaac
. (
conventionalisms of English society,-
erary researches," as the author calls it,
and spiced with revenge on the author's
foes.
comprises three volumes, of which the
first was published anonymously in 1791,
(Endymion) relates the fortunes of a
the second two years later, while the third
youth so named, and his sister Myra;
children of one William Ferrars, who
did not appear until 1817. Repeated edi-
from humble life has won his
tions were called for, and it was translated
way
to
a candidacy for the Speakership of the
into various languages. A sentence from
House of Commons, when suddenly, by a
the preface explains the style and object
of the book. «The design of this work is
change of political sentiment in the bor-
to stimulate the literary curiosity of those,
roughs, the administration is overthrown,
who, with a taste for its tranquil pursuits,
and the ambitious and flattered leader
are impeded in their acquirement. »
finds himself both deserted and bankrupt.
To retrieve their social and political po-
From every field the author has gath-
sition is the steady ambition and never-
ered interesting and recondite facts and
anecdotes on diverse literary and histori-
yielding effort of the son and daughter;
and to Endymion's advancement Myra
cal topics, and has grouped them under
makes every sacrifice that a sister's de-
headings totally without sequence. The
votion can devise. Through personal in-
subjects vary from Cicero's puns to Queen
Elizabeth's lovers, and from metempsy-
fluence as well as his own fascinating
chosis to waxwork figures. For example,
personality and brilliant gifts, Endymion
it is asserted that in the reign of Charles
finds an entry with the winning side;
and being untroubled by any scrupulous
II. the prototype of the steam-engine and
We
motive of consistency to principle, keeps
the telegraph had been invented.
learn the source of the extraordinary
himself at the front in popular favor.
Myra marries the Prime Minister, and
legends of the saints, the true story of
at his death she takes for her husband
the printer Faust, and the Venetian ori-
the king of a small Continental State.
gin of newspapers. In short, the work
is a library of the little known, and is
Endymion crowns her aspirations by
marrying a widow in high station, who
as entertaining as it is instructive.
has long been his admirer, and whose Four Georges, A History of the, in
, .
the narrative. At the close of the story Vols. i. and ii. In this work Mr. McCar-
he sees, by a happy combination of po- thy deals, in his own words, with history
litical influence, the door opened to his in its old — and we suppose its everlasting
own appointment as Premier of England. -fashion: that of telling what happened
The story moves along in the stately in the way of actual fact, telling the story
monotonous measure of English high life, of the time. His manner of writing is
with not even any pronounced villainy the old-fashioned, time-honored one; but
to heighten the uniform color effect of it is very entertaining of its kind. His
the characters and incidents. There is a pictures are clear in color, full, and vivid;
noticeable absence of anything like high the figures that move across the pages
patriotic motive associated with that of are lifelike and complete. Opening with
personal advancement: it is difficult to a shrewd estimate of Queen Anne, and a
conceive of such personages living with- keen glance at the position of affairs at
out some political predilection. Over her death, Vol. i. includes the reign of
all is the subdued glow of an intensely George I. , taking in also that of George
selfish culture and refinement. Nigel, II. down to 1731.
He says: “England
Endymion's student friend at Oxford, is was to him as the State wife, whom for
## p. 7 (#43) ###############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
7
course
>>>
political reasons he was compelled to the destitute may be provided for, the
marry; Hanover, as the sweetheart and temporarily unemployed given work,
mistress of his youth, to whom his affec- etc. ); those for whom such a
tions, such as they were, always clung, seems best being passed on to the self-
and whom he stole out to see at every supporting farm colony,” which in turn
possible chance. He managed England's contributes to English or other colonies
affairs for her like an honest, straight- or to the colony over sea” (yet to be
forward, narrow-minded steward. ) Vol. founded). The result would be a segre-
ii. finishes the reign of George II. , clos- gation of the needy into localities where
ing with his death. The rise of Pitt, the they could be handled, with a draining
lives of Wesley and of Whitefield, the off to unreaped fields, as this process
commotion excited by Walpole's unpop- became desirable, of a part of the great
ular excise bill, Clive's career in India, army of occupation. The book is the
Culloden, the happenings in the literary work of a man in deadly earnest, who
world, all the various interests, charac- feels himself to be an instrument in the
ters, and events of the reign, are consid- hands of God for the rescue of the lost.
ered. George II. , he says, “had still less.
natural capacity than his father. He was
Gull
ulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift's
parsimonious; he was avaricious; he was most famous book, was published
easily put out of temper. His instincts, in 1727. It is one of the most brilliant
feelings, passions, were all purely selfish. and profound of satires, one of the most
Personal courage was perhaps imaginative of stories, and one of the
the only quality becoming a sovereign best models of style. "Gulliver's Travels)
which he possessed. . . . Never was a was given to the world anonymously;
king better served than he; never had so though a few of Swift's friends, including
ignoble a sovereign such men to make Pope, Gay, Boling broke, and Arbuthnot,
his kingdom strong and his reign famous. were in the secret. It became immedi.
He began his term of royalty under the ately popular, and has never lost its
protection of the sturdy figure of Wal- interest for both young and old. «Gul.
pole; he closed it under the protection of liver's Travels, says
Leslie Stephen,
the stately form of Pitt. )
«belongs to a literary genus full of gro-
tesque and anomalous forms. Its form
in Darkest England and the Way Out, is derived from some of the imaginary
by William Booth, general of the travels of which Lucian's (True History)
Salvation Army. This book, whose title - itself a burlesque of some early travel.
is evidently suggested by Stanley's (Dark- ers' tales — is the first example. But it
est Africa,' treats of the want, misery, has an affinity to such books as Bacon's
and vice, which cling like barnacles to (Atlantis) and More's 'Utopia,' and again
the base of English society, as they do to later philosophical romances like "Can-
to the base of all old civilizations, and dide) and (Rasselas. »» It begins with
which it is so much easier to shut one's Gulliver's account of himself and his set-
eyes upon than to analyze, explain, and ting forth upon the travels. A violent
remedy. General Booth's opportunities storm off Van Diemen's Land drives him,
for knowing whereof he speaks have the one survivor, to Lilliput, where he is
been exceptionally good. The statements examined with curiosity by the tiny folk.
he makes are appalling, but they are They call him the man-mountain,” and
supported by figures and facts. The make rules for his conduct.
With equal
subject of his book is the temporal and curiosity he learns their arts of civiliza-
spiritual rescue of «a population about tion and warfare. His next voyage is to
equal to that of Scotland. Three million Brobdingnag, where he is a Lilliputian
men, women, and children
in comparison to the size of the gigantic
inally free, but really enslaved» — what inhabitants of this strange land, in which
he calls «the submerged tenth. ) The he becomes a court toy. In Brobding-
plan he proposes seems practical and nag, Scott says Swift looked through the
practicable, - one indeed in the execu- other end of the telescope, wishing to
tion of which he has made some pro- show the grossness of mankind as be
gress since the appearance of his book. had shown their pettiness. The next
The plan contemplates the establishment adventure is a voyage to Laputa, where
in the great centres of population of the inhabitants are absorbed in intel-
(<city colonies » (establishments at which lectual and scientific pursuits, and taken
»
nom-
## p. 8 (#44) ###############################################
8
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
(
up with intense speculations, and their to lull to sleep. She has not been long
conduct is most eccentric; this is proba- among the familiar scenes, when Val-
bly a satire upon pedantry. Gulliver next entine's cousin, John Dering, who has
visits Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, and Japan, come to the neighborhood, calls to see
and gives an account of the Struldbrugs, her. His remarkable resemblance to
a famous tribe of men who have gained Barbara's dead husband, in appearance
physical immortality without immortal and speech and manner, is at first a
youth, and find it an awful curse. The source of suffering to her. After a time,
last voyage takes the traveler into the however, this resemblance becomes a
country of the Houyhnhnms, where the consolation. Yet she rebels against her
horses under this name have an ideal new feeling as disloyal to Valentine.
government, - Swift's Utopia, - and are She struggles to keep the identity of the
immensely superior to the Yahoos, the two men distinct. She hates herself
embodiment of bestial mankind. The because she cares for her cousin. Yet
irony and satire may be understood when her love for him grows stronger, as his
one remembers that Swift said: «Upon passion for her becomes more imperious.
the great foundation of misanthropy the She strives to resist it, to be true to the
whole building of my travels is erected ”; dead. Finally she gives herself up to
and the remark that the King of Brob- her love for the living, but her abandon-
dingnag made to Gulliver — «The bulk of ment to her overmastering passion is of
your natives appear to me to be the most short duration. She believes that she is
pernicious race of little odious vermin more bound to the dead than to the liv-
that Nature ever suffered to crawl upon ing, and sends John away at the last,
the face of the earth” — may be accepted that she may be faithful to her first love.
as the opinion of the cynic himself re- (The Quick or the Dead ? ) is morbid
garding mankind. Hazlitt said that in and immature to a high degree; yet as
(Gulliver's Travels) Swift took a view a psychological study of a sensitive wo-
of human nature such as might be taken man's conflicting emotions it is not with-
by a being of another sphere. His out interest and significance. The style
description of Brobdingnagian literature is impressionistic. «In the glimpsing
has been applied to the masterly prose lightning she saw scurrying trees against
of his great book: «Their style is clear, the suave autumn sky, like etchings on
masculine, and smooth, but not florid; bluish paper. ” “A rich purple-blue dusk
for they avoid nothing more than multi- had sunk down over the land, and the
plying unnecessary words, or using vari- gleam of the frozen ice-pond in the far
ous expressions. ”
field shone desolately forth from tangled
patches of orange-colored wild grass. ”
nick or the Dead ? The, a novelette «She threw herself into a drift of crim-
by Amélie Rives, was first pub- son pillows . . . brooding upon the
lished in 1883 in Lippincott's Magazine. broken fire, whose lilac flames palpitated
It attained at once great notoriety in over a bed of gold-veined coals. »
this country and in England, because of
the peculiar treatment of the subject, Ga allegher and Other Stories, by Rich-
the strangeness of its style, and the ard Harding Davis.
The other sto-
flashiness of the title, which has become ries include: A Walk Up the Avenue ;)
one of the best known in fiction. Its My Disreputable Friend, Mr. Raegen);
hysteria, its abundant and bizarre use (The Other Woman”; “There Were Ninety
of adjectives, and its innocent treatment and Nine); (The Cynical Miss Cather-
of passion, betrayed the youth and in- waight); «Van Bibber and the Swan Boat);
experience of the author; yet it is not (Van Bibber's Burglar); and (Van Bibber
without traces of genius. The heroine, as Best Man. ) The most noteworthy of
Barbara Pomfret, is a young widow, the collection are (Gallegher,' the story
whose husband, Valentine, has been of the little newspaper boy who brings
dead two years when the story opens. to the office late at night copy” relating
In the first chapter she is returning to to a famous burglary, after many thrill-
the old Virginia homestead, where she ing adventures; (The Other Woman,
had passed the few months of an abso- which presents an unusual ethical prob
lutely happy married life. There every. lem to an engaged couple; and the trio
thing reminds her of her lost love, of Van Bibber sketches, the hero of
awakening the pain that she had sought which is a unique type of man,- one
Quick
## p. 9 (#45) ###############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
9
years old.
of fortune's favorites, but who, by some
malicious freak of fate, is perpetually
placed in peculiar circumstances, from
which he extricates himself with ease and
self-possession; his coolness under trying
circumstances never failing him, and his
fund of humor being inexhaustible. It is
only between the covers of so well-written
a book as the author's that one can meet
the pariahs and the preferred of society
hobnobbing at their ease, and be sure
that the acquaintance so formed will
bring with it no after-taste of regret.
Daniel Deronda (1876), George Eliot's
last novel, considered by some crit-
ics her greatest work, has repelled others
by its careful analysis of Jewish charac-
ter. It really has two separate parts,
and two chief figures, each very unlike
the other. Gwendolen Harleth, the hero-
ine, and Daniel Deronda, the hero, first
see each other at Baden, where Gwendo-
len tries her luck at the gaming-table.
When they next meet, Gwendolen is the
fiancée of Henleigh Grandcourt, nephew
of young Deronda's guardian, Sir Hugh
Mallinger. Grandcourt is a finished type
of the selfish man of the world.
He mar-
ries the beautiful, penniless Gwendolen,
less for love than in a fit of obstinacy,
as his confidant Mr. Lush puts it. Gwen-
dolen, as selfish as he, consents to marry
him because only thus can she save her
mother, her stepsisters, and herself, from
the poverty which the sudden loss of their
property is likely to bring them. The
tragedy of her married life is told with
dramatic force and profound insight.
Deronda has been brought up by Sir.
Hugh in ignorance of his parentage.
His fine education and great talents he
is always ready to place at the service
of others. By befriending a Jewish girl,
Mirah Lapidoth, he comes in close con-
tact with several Jewish families, grows
deeply interested in Jewish history and
religion, and when the secret of his birth
is revealed to him is glad to cast in his
lot with theirs. The influence of Deronda
on Gwendolen is very marked, and the
story closes with the prophecy of a lessen-
ing selfishness and egotism on her part.
