ence and the
religion
of Egypt the work
(Vol.
(Vol.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v30 - Guide to Systematic Readings
D.
cine, which he hates, and forbids him to Traill, (1897,) is a collection of a
marry Agatha van Hessel. As Joost is dozen essays on literary matters, ranging
driving him to the notary to change his from Newspaper English) to the trials
will, he dies of apoplexy. Joost inherits of publishers, and including criticisms
his money and marries Agatha. Ten authors from Lucian to Stephen
years later, Arthur van Aeveld, the next Crane. The title essay considers Ste-
heir, meets the servant who sat behind phen Crane and Arthur Morrison as the
the carriage on the night of the Baron's two apostles of modern «realism, as
death, and persuades him to swear that this sees fit to deal with low life; and
Joost murdered his uncle. At the last accuses them of betraying their own
moment, he confesses his perjury. Joost aim, and being guilty of a wild romanti-
is acquitted, and made a member of the cism, in depicting their slums in impossi-
States General. He declares that though bly lurid colors, and life in them as an
not actually a murderer, he is guilty, in unvarying brutality and horror, irrecon-
that he hated his uncle, did nothing to cilable with human nature. (The Po-
help him in his extremity, and drove litical Novel begins with Disraeli, and
straight on in spite of the old man's ends with Mrs. Humphry Ward, of
appeal to him to stop. With his wife's whose work a very discriminating esti-
concurrence, he gives up his money and mate suggests that a lack of humor
political position, becomes clerk to a accounts for the fact that where her
notary, and is happy on a small salary. great capacity and fine art have done so
much, they have not done more. (The
Yesterday, To-day, and Forever. A Novel of Manners,' which began with
poem in twelve books. By Edward the crude performances of Miss Bur-
Henry Bickersteth. (1866. ) A work in ney, and came to its flower in Miss
blank verse, 10,750 lines in length, de- Austen's delicately perfect work, has a
voted to imaginative journeyings after paper to itself. Other essays treat (Mat.
death in Hades, Paradise, and Hell, thew Arnold, Richardson's Novels,'
with a review of creation, the Fall, Pascal's Provincial Letters,' the witty
the empire of darkness, redemption, the (Plays of Lucian,' and (The Future of
war against Satan, the victory over Humor,' in which the author wonders
Satan, the millennial Sabbath, the Last whether the world is growing so serious-
Judgment, and heaven's many mansions. minded that humor will die out, as some
The author, who was made bishop of fine growth disappears from an inhos-
Exeter in 1885, has been in his genera- pitable soil. Professor Traill's work
tion, as his father was in the previous shows perfect fairness, a nice discrimina-
generation, a chief representative in tion, a sympathetic consciousness of an
the Church of England of profoundly author's purpose, and a neat craftsman-
Evangelical, anti-Romanist, and anti- ship. His attitude is always that of de-
liberal, pietism and teaching,-a very tachment, and the pleasure he gives his
emotional and earnest pietism and in- reader seems to be entirely impersonal.
tensely orthodox Low Church teaching. A book so sound and balanced is inter-
The Christian Psalmody, compiled by esting and helpful.
the father in 1832, which went through
seven most
A.
-
Barrie (1889), is a continuation of
school in the Church. The Hymnal
the Auld Licht) series. Its scenes are
Companion, prepared by the son (final confined mainly to the interior of the
revised and enlarged edition, 1876), is little Scotch cot in "Thrums » where
in use in thousands of churches in Eng- lived Hendry and Jess McQumpha, and
land and the colonies. It was to im- their daughter Leeby. In Mr. Barrie's
pressively invoke divine and
eternal
later work, Margaret Ogilvy,' an affec-
auspices for the doctrines and pietism of tionate and artistic picture of his mother,
the Evangelical party, and to feed Ev- we discern that in Jess and Leeby his
angelical faith and enthusiasm, that the mother and sister sat for the portraits.
younger Bickersteth, with Dante and Jess is a quaint figure. A chronic inva-
Milton in view, essayed his ambitious lid, yet throbbing with interest in every-
task, and executed it with very fair suc- body and everything, she sits at the
cess, at least as to teaching and emotion. window of her cottage, and keeps up
popular hymn book of the Evangeliest Window in Thrums, a, by James M.
## p. 472 (#508) ############################################
472
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
with Leeby a running fire of terse and strong savor of Ibsen and of the Karma
often cutting comment upon village hap-cult, a subtle portrayal of character and
penings, and thus holds herself in touch much fine interpretation of nature. The
with the life and gossip which she knows author was already favorably known
only through the window. Barrie's sym- through his longer novel Eline Vere. )
pathetic ability to see how inseparable
are humor and pathos makes his char-
The Revenge of Joseph Noirel, by
acters living and human. Tammas Hag- Victor Cherbuliez. A lively and
gart, the humorist, at much pains to skillful character sketch by this master
understand and dispense the philosophy of literary portraiture; who here, as in
of his own humor; the little christening Jean Teterol's Idea,' takes for his theme
robe which does the honors for the the moral unrest caused by social class
whole village, and which is so tenderly distinctions, but carries the development
revered by Jess because it was made for of his theme to a tragic extreme. The
her own babe, “twenty years dead, but scene is laid at Mon Plaisir, near Ge-
still living for her; the family pride in neva, the villa-home of the well-to-do
Jamie, the son who has gone to London, bourgeois manufacturer, M. Merion,
in whom we may see “Gavin Ogilvy » whose wife has social ambitions of which
(Barrie's own pseudonym); and finally, the daughter Mademoiselle Marguerite is
Jamie's home-coming to find Hendry, made the innocent victim. Given in a
Jess, and Leeby gone to the long home, mariage de convenance to M. le Conte
are absolutely real. And if the reader d'Orins, she finds the unhappiness of a
laughs at the whimsicalities of the vil- union without love intensified into horror
lage folk, it is because he loves them. and dread by the suspicion that her hus-
band has been guilty of a hidden crime.
Footsteps of Fate, Noodlot, by Meanwhile the hero of the story, Joseph
Louis Marie Anne Couperus. Trans- Noirel, is the trusted overseer in the
lation from the Dutch by Clara Bell. works of M. Merion; having been grad-
This story, by one of the latest and ually promoted to this position of re-
youngest novelists of Holland, is power- sponsibility and esteem from that of the
fully told, and is of absorbing if some- starving child of disgraced parents,
what strange and morbid interest. It whom the village crier had rescued and
opens in a villa of suburban London, introduced as an apprentice in the fac-
where a wealthy and idle young Hol- tory. On Mademoiselle Marguerite's
lander is surprised in his bachelor apart- returning from her years of training in
ments by a visit at midnight of a man the convent for the aristocratic life to
in tramp's attire, who seeks shelter and which her mother had destined her,
food in the name of early friendship and Joseph is captivated by her beauty; and
companionship. «Bertie,” the name of after being thrown together by the ac-
the returned prodigal, is taken in by cident of a storm, he becomes the hope-
his large-hearted friend Frank, washed, less victim of a devouring but unre-
clothed, and fed into respectability, and quited love for her. The marriage with
introduced into the club and made his the count having taken place, Joseph be-
intimate companion and peer in society. comes aware of the crime of which the
Wearying at last of an endless round of husband is guilty, and informs Margue-
pleasure, marred at times for Frank by rite, who flees for refuge to Mon Plaisir.
certain survivals of low habits in his The count meanwhile creates the sus-
friend, they, at Bertie's suggestion, go picion that it is a guilty attachment on
off for a tour in Norway, where Frank the part of Marguerite for Joseph which
meets the young lady who will hence- has brought her there, and her parents
forth absorb his affections. Bertie see- indignantly reject her plea for their pro
ing this, and dismayed at the prospect of tection. A word from her would reveal
being again thrown upon the world, all her husband's crime and would cost his
the more unfitted for struggle after his life. Meanwhile Joseph has already re-
unstinted enjoyment of his friend's solved to end his hopeless misery by
wealth, is prompted by his fate) to taking his own life. Marguerite main-
plot for the prevention of the marriage tains her silence, obeys her husband,
of the loving couple; and the story is and leaves her father's house. She asks
occupied with the progress and results Joseph to become the instrument of her
of his evil scheme. There is in it a death before taking his own life, and
## p. 473 (#509) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
473
prodigality is amazing. ” He also says
that the author has given (a poetical
vision of the sea, which is more like
an apocalypse than the vision of a
healthy mind. ”
a
under circumstances that would imply
guilt, while yet she remains innocent, and
the savior of her husband's life and honor.
The narration of this climax of the
story's action is in the highest plane of
dramatic writing, and is a remarkable
exhibition of the author's power of re-
serve, and of his ability to suggest the
bidden reality beneath expressed unreality.
Toilers of the Sea (Les Travailleurs
de la Mer. ) (1866. ) A novel by
Victor Hugo, which possesses double in-
terest: first, in the story; secondly, in
its bold descriptions of the colossal and
secret powers of the elements. In time
it followed after the still more famous
(Les Misérables. The scene is laid in
Germany; and the book is dedicated
to the Isle of Guernsey, severe yet
gentle, my present asylum, my proba-
ble tomb. ) The heroine, Deruchette, is
the niece of Lethierry, who has invented
a steamboat, La Durande, which plies
between Guernsey and St. Malo, and
which is the wonder of the Channel
Islands. His partner, Rantaine, disap-
pears with a large sum of money, and
is succeeded as captain of La Durande
by Clubin. The latter has friends
among the smugglers, and with their
assistance finds Rantaine, who has es-
caped in the guise of a Quaker. Clubin
obtains this booty and determines to
keep it. He plans to wreck La Du-
rande the 'rocks known
as «Les
Hanois," and then to swim ashore and
escape. From this point, the story is
full of the excitement and terror of
the life of the sailor. The descriptions
of the sea, the wind, and the myster-
ies of the ocean-bed, are wonderful.
Among the most striking scenes is the
encounter of Gilliatt, the real hero of
the book, with an octopus which lurks
in a rocky cavern beneath the
Penetrating into the shadows of this
submarine crypt, whose arches are cov-
ered with seaweed and trailing moss,
Gilliatt soon finds himself in the em-
brace of the gigantic and slimy monster,
whose gleaming eyes are fixed upon
him. Of this story George Henry Lewes
said that it had «a certain daring in-
flation about it which cannot be met
elsewhere; and if the splendor is bar-
baric it is undeniably splendid. Page
after page and chapter after chapter
may be mere fireworks which blaze
and pass away; but as fireworks, the
Virgin Soil, by Ivan Turgeneff. Tur-
geneff gives in Virgin Soil?
graphic picture of the various moral and
social influences at work in the modern
Nihilistic movement in Russia. The mo-
tive of the story is deep and subtle, and
is developed with masterly skill and re-
finement. The hero Neshdanoff, a young
university student of noble but illegiti-
mate descent and in poor worldly cir-
cumstances, has his sympathies roused
for the depressed peasantry of Russia,
and with romantic ardor enters into the
secret conspiracy for their relief. In the
house of a government official where he
is engaged as tutor, he meets Marianne,
a relation of the family, who is also
secretly an enthusiast in the Nihilistic
cause, and, irresistibly drawn to her, he
elopes with her, and seeks employment
with a machinist and manufacturer, Solo-
mine. The effort to descend to the
level of the peasants, to enter into their
life and to rouse them to a united move-
ment for liberty, is met with a stolid
apathy and lack of intelligence on their
part, that dampens his ardor and makes
his effort seem to him like the merest sen-
timentalism, that can never yield any real
result. This loss of faith in himself and
in his own sincerity impels him to break
his promise of marriage with Marianne,
and, commending her to marry Solo-
mine, the machinist and manufacturer, to
take his own life in despair of finding a
sphere in the world for his genius, -
a mixture of inherited aristocracy and
purely romantic democracy. In Solomine
is depicted the real reformer, the man
without “ideals and elegant phrases,
who, in his honest dealings with those
under him and his recognition of the
true dignity of labor and of neighborly
service, is exerting the redeeming force
that can gradually introduce a new man-
hood into the laboring classes, and so
enable them to appreciate and aspire to
the practical and the heroic elements
of a true freedom. In the marriage of
Solomine and Marianne is seen the union
of reform, as distinguished from the in-
effectual idealism of an aristocracy that
lacks the practical knowledge and the
social mediation of a middle class.
on
sea.
## p. 474 (#510) ############################################
474
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
Æne
Æneid, The, the golden branch on the which, like a trumpet-call, roused Savo-
ilex-tree of Latin literature, was the narola to seek the things that are above.
work of Publius Virgilius Maro, who was And this line Dante heard on the lips
born October 15th, 70 B. C. , and died Sep- of the Church Triumphant, at the open-
tember 22d, 19 B. C.
ing of the Paradise of God. ”
The poem is interwoven with pre-
neid, The, an epic by Heinrich von
Christian civilization, with mediæval and
Veldeche, a minnesinger of the
modern thought, as is no other poem of
the ancient world. It is the Bible of the
twelfth century and one of the earliest
German poets. It is distinguished for
later classical literature, as the Iliad is
the elegance of its form and the har-
of the earlier, linked by its very nature
mony of its versification. In this poem,
to the visionary Middle Ages. For in
love (die Minne) is for the first time in-
the Æneid, conflict has become spiritual.
troduced as a theme. The story follows
ized; and the warrior Æneas bears al-
the same line as Virgil's until the hero
ways about him the remoteness of the
comes to Latium. There it pauses to de-
priest, or of one mindful ever of the place
of souls. It is the detachment of the
pict the love of Lavinia for Æneas, and
this is its most original and successful por-
hero from the passion of love, from the
tion. Æneas marries Lavinia, becomes
passion of war, which made him appeal
so powerfully to the mediæval mind, pre-
king, and builds Alba. Gawain Douglas
translated the Æneid into the Scottish
occupied with the Unseen. Only the
dialect in 1513. This vigorous adaptation
creator of Æneas could be Dante's guide
probably suggested to the Earl of Surrey
among the shades. Of him Tennyson
the idea of turning the second and fourth
writes:-
books into blank verse, the earliest exam-
"Light among the vanished ages; star that gild-
ple of blank verse in the language. Dou-
est yet this phantom shore ;
Golden branch among the shadows, kings and
glas takes some strange liberties with his
realms that set to rise no more. ”
author. He changes the sibyl into a nun,
and makes her admonish Æneas to be
The Æneid is in twelve books: the
first six in imitation of the Odyssey; the
sure to say his prayers and tell his beads.
The English translations are numerous;
last six, of the Iliad. The Trojan hero
is led to Italy, where he is to be the
Dryden's, Conington's, and notably Sir
Charles Bowen's, being perhaps the best.
father of a race and of an empire su-
That of William Morris is much admired
preme among nations. On his way thither
also, and in America the versions of C. P.
he tarries at Carthage, whose queen,
Cranch and of Prof. Geo, H. Palmer are
Dido, loves him as with the first love
of a virgin. To her he tells the story of
examples of good scholarship and good
taste. The epic has been often travestied.
Troy. For love of him she slays herself
The first travesty, entitled Eneide de
when the gods lead him from her shores.
Arrived in Italy he seeks the underworld,
Virgilio Travestida,' appeared at Rome in
1633. It was very popular among the friv.
under the protection of the Sibyl of Cu-
olous; but scholars, to whom everything
mæ. He emerges thence to overcome
his enemies. The Æneid was not per-
written by the Mantuan was sacred, were
scandalized. The Eneide Travestie) of
fected at the time of Virgil's death, and
Scarron is a French classic.
his friends Varius and Tucca edited it
at the request of the emperor Augustus,
Angel in the House, The, Coventry
It has since become the heritage of the Patmore's most noted poem, was pub-
world.
lished in four parts between 1854 and
“On this line the poet's own voice fal- 1862. (The Betrothal' appeared in 1854,
tered as he read. At this Augustus and (The Espousals) in 1856, Faithful For-
Octavia melted into passionate weeping. ever) in 1860, and "The Victories of
Here is the verse which Augustine quotes Love) in 1863. The entire poem is idyl-
as typical, in its majestic rhythm, of all lic in form. It is a glorification of do-
the pathos and the glory of pagan art mestic life, of love sheltered in the home,
from which the Christian was bound to and guarded by the gentle and tender
fee. This is the couplet which Fénelon wife. In consequence it has been ex-
could never read without admiring tears. tremely popular in British families of the
This line Filippo Strozzi scrawled on his class it describes, — high-bred gentlefolk,
prison wall, when he slew himself to to whom the household is the centre of
avoid worse ill. These are the words | refining affection.
## p. 475 (#511) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
475
Age of Chivalry, The, or THE LEGENDS
estimate of Greek culture as providen-
OF KING ARTHUR, by Thomas Bul- tially ordained not less than Hebrew,
finch, was published in 1858. More than and to be studied the same as Hebrew.
twenty years after, an enlarged edition In view of the corruption of his own
appeared under the editorship of Edward times, Roger Bacon said: “The ancient
Everett Hale. In Part First, the legends philosophers have spoken so wonderfully
of King Arthur and his knights are con- on virtue and vice, that a Christian man
sidered. Part Second deals with the Ma- may well be astounded at those who
binogion, or ancient prose tales of the were unbelievers thus attaining the sum-
Welsh; Part Third with the knights of mits of morality. On the Christian vir-
English history, King Richard, Robin tues of faith, hope, and charity, we can
Hood, and the Black Prince. From the speak things of which they knew nothing.
time of its first publication the popularity
But in the virtues needed for integrity
of the book has been great. No more
of life, and for human fellowship, we are
sympathetic and fitting introduction could not their equals either in word or deed. )
be found to the legends of chivalry. The
A section of his moral philosophy Roger
book is written in a youthful spirit that
Bacon devotes to the first attempt ever
commends it to the young.
made at the comparative study of the
religions of the world.
Bacon, Roger, his Opus Majus. (A. D. His protests against the intellectual
1267. ) Newly edited and published, prejudices of the time, his forecasts of
with introduction and full English Anal- an age of industry and invention, the
ysis of the Latin text, by J. H. Bridges. prominence given to experiment, alike
(2 vols. , 1897. ) An adequate publication, as the test of received opinion and the
after 630 years, of one of the most re- guide to new fields of discovery, render
markable productions of the human mind. comparison with Francis Bacon unavoid-
The work is an exhortation addressed able. In wealth of words, in brilliancy
to Pope Clement, urging him to initiate of imagination, Francis Bacon was im-
a reform of Christian education, in order measurably his superior. But Roger
to establish the ascendency of the Cath- Bacon had the sounder estimate and the
olic Church over all nations and religions firmer grasp of that combination of de-
of the world. Its author wished to see ductive with inductive method which
recognition of all the sciences, since marks the scientific discoverer.
all are parts of one and the same com- The competent editor, whose judg-
plete wisdom. He first gave experiment ments we give, has furnished analyses of
the distinct and supreme place which Bacon's Latin text which enable the
was later revived by Descartes, and car- English ler to gather easily his lead-
ried out in modern science. He formed
ing ideas,
a clear conception of chemistry, in his
day not yet separated from alchemy; Adv
dvancement of Learning, The, by
and of a science of living things, as re-
Francis Bacon, 1605, the original title
sulting with chemistry from physics. being Of the Proficience and Advance-
(The generation of men, and of brutes, ment of Learning, Divine and Human. )
and of plants,” he said, “is from ele- This book, received with great favor by
mental and liquid substances, and is of the court and by scholars, was afterwards
like manner with the generation of in- enlarged and published in Latin with the
animate things. ”
title De Augmentis Scientiarum,' as the
The central theme of his work was first part of a monumental labor, (The
the consolidation of the Catholic faith as Instauration of the Sciences, of which
the supreme agency for the civilization the second part was the still famous
and ennoblement of mankind. For this Novum Organum,' on which Bacon's
end a complete renovation and reorgan- fame as a philosopher rests. The (Advance-
ization of man's intellectual forces was ment of Learning) considers first the ex-
needed. The four principal impediments cellence of knowledge and the best way of
to wisdom were authority, habit, preju- spreading it, what has been already done
dice, and false conceit of knowledge.
to scatter it, and what left undone. The
The last of these, ignorance under the author then proceeds to divide all knowl-
cloak of wisdom, was pronounced the
edge into three kingdoms or inclosures, -
worst and most fata
A striking feature history, poetry, and philosophy: which
of this scheme of instruction was its appeal directly to the three manifestations
## p. 476 (#512) ############################################
476
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
of human understanding, memory, imagi- | tory of the Conquest of Mexico,' which
nation, and reason. The smaller third is usually regarded as the author's most
of the book relates to revealed religion. brilliant production. Of the opportuni-
ties this afforded, Prescott himself re-
Astro
stronomy, The Dawn of, by J. Nor- marks: “The natural development of
man Lockyer (1897). A popular study the story is precisely what would
of the temple worship and mythology of be prescribed by the severest rules of
the ancient Egyptians, designed to show art. ” The portrait drawn of Pizarro,
that in the construction of their magnific who is the principal figure in the drama,
cent temples the Egyptians had an eye is that of a man brave, energetic, tem-
to astronomical facts, such as the rising perate, and though avaricious, extrava-
or setting of the sun at a particular time gant; bold in action, yet slow, and at
in the year, or to the rising of certain the same time inflexible of resolution;
stars; and so planned the long axis of a ambitious; exceptionally perfidious. An
great temple as to permit a beam of light effort is made to counterbalance the
to pass at a particular moment the whole tendency to hero-worship and pictur-
length of the central aisle into the Holy esque coloring by the occasional inser-
Place, and there illuminate the image of tion of passages of an opposite character.
the deity,-giving at once an exact note
of time, and a manifestation of the god The Jesuit Relations and Allied
by the illumination, which the people
Documents: Travels and explora-
supposed to be miraculous. Mr. Lockyer's
tions of the Jesuit Missionaries in New
France. (1610-1791. ) The original
clear discovery of these astronomical facts
French, Latin, and Italian texts, with
explains very interestingly the nature of
the gods and goddesses, many of whom
English translations and notes; illus-
are found to be different aspects of the
trated by portraits, maps, and fac-simi-
les.
same object in nature. For both the sci-
Edited by Reuben Gold Thwaites.
ence and the religion of Egypt the work
(Vol. i. , 1896. — Vol. xiv. , 1898. ) A part
is of great value.
of a republication of great magnitude
and importance; the fourteen volumes
,
History of the Conquest of Peru, already issued being a beginning only,
covering the years 1610–38. The en-
by William Hickling Prescott.
tire work consists, as to “The Jesuit Re-
(1847. ) Of the five books into which
this admirable work is divided, the first
lations,' in forty volumes of Jesuit
treats of the wonderful civilization of
annual reports in French, which began
the Incas; the second of the discovery
to appear in Paris in 1632, and came
of Peru; the third of its conquest; the
out year by year to 1673. These begin
fourth of the civil wars of the con-
in the present work with Vol. v. ; and
ten volumes carry (Le Jeune's Relation'
querors; and the fifth of the settlement
into 1638.
of the country.
The first book hardly
The very great value of the
work is that of original materials of the
yields in interest to any of the others,
most interesting character for the his-
describing as it does, on the whole, an
unparalleled state of society. In it some
tory of North America from 1611, the
date of the first landing of Jesuit mis-
of the votaries of modern socialism have
sionaries on the shores of Nova Scotia.
seen confirmation of the practicability
and successful working of their own
The present reproduction of documents
theory; but Prescott's verdict of the sys-
takes them in chronological order. Thus
tem is that it was the most oppressive,
Vols. i. -iv. are devoted to the story of
Acadia from 1610 to 1616, and the open-
though the mildest, of despotisms. ” At
least it
ing pages of the story of Quebec, 1625-
more lenient, more
29.
fined, and based more upon reason as
Then comes (Le Jeune's Relation,
as stated above. The execution of the
contrasted with force, than that
of the Aztecs. He describes it very
work by translators, editors, and print-
ers (at Cleveland, Ohio) is every way
fully: the orders of society, the divisions
of the kingdom, the administration of
admirable; and its completion will make
a monumental addition to our historical
justice, the revenues, religion, educa-
libraries.
tion, agriculture, manners, manufactures,
architecture, etc. From the necessities
Nineveh and its Remains (1849).
of its material, the work is more scat-
of
(1853).
tered in construction than is the (His- By Austen Henry Layard. A highly
was
re-
was
## p. 477 (#513) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
477
was
as
If a
a
interesting narrative of the earliest of the earth; and his clothing was made
the discoveries which have laid open from the skins of beasts, or
of
to historical knowledge the civilization, skins not made at all. The few simple
empire, and culture of Babylonia (and tools or weapons which he contrived
Assyria), back to about 4000 B. C. , and showed one chief material, except wood
which already promise to make known for handles, and that was stone. Horn
history beginning as early as 7000 B. C. and bone came into use for some minor
Layard, in traveling overland from Lon- implements, but stone was the material
don to Ceylon, passed ruins on the mainly employed for tools and weapons.
banks of the Tigris which tradition Manufactures consisted chiefly in making
pointed out as marking the site of Nine- sharp flakes of stone, some with edges
veh; and the desire which he then felt for knives or hatchets, and others with
to make explorations led him to return points for a thrusting tool or weapon.
to the region. He made some secret If fire was known, and the potter's art
diggings in 1845, and in 1846 and 1847 also of molding moist clay into shapes
pushed his excavations to the first great and baking them to hardness, this added
success, that of the discovery of the not only to the comfort but to the im-
ruins of four distinct palaces, one of plements of primitive man; and shells
which, supposed to have been built by perforated and strung made jewelry.
Sardanapalus yielded the remarkable If there was any money it was shell
monuments which are still a chief at- money. Bone and horn served to make
traction of the British Museum. Beside implements such arrow-heads, and
the bas-reliefs and inscriptions which bodkins, man's earliest needles.
had covered the walls of a palace, use like that of paper was known, a flat
there were the gigantic winged human- bone, like shoulder-blade, served.
headed bulls and lions, and eagle-headed The first art was with a bodkin, scratch-
deities, which are among the objects of ing on the flat of a bone the outline of
Assyrian religious art. As an opening the head of a favorite horse, or of a
of a story of discovery hardly surpassed reindeer captured for a feast. Burial
in the annals of modern research, the customs arose, and funeral feasts; and
work reported in Layard's books is of there seem to be indications of belief
the greatest interest.
that the dead were not so dead but that
they would need food and tools and
Primitive Man, by. Louis Figuier. other means of life.
Revised Translation with Thirty The name given to this earliest Stone
Scenes of Primitive Life and 233 Fig- Age epoch is that of the Mammoth and
ures of Objects belonging to Prehist Cave-Bear, the conspicuous representa-
Ages. (1870. ) A clear popular manual tives of the gigantic animals of that
of the facts and arguments going to time. It was a time of fearful cold, in
show the very great antiquity of man. one of the ages of ice which played so
It presents the evidence of actual relics large a part in the early history of the
of prehistoric life, with special attention globe.
to those found in France. At the time The second of the Stone Age epochs
of its publication English readers were is called that of the reindeer, because
familiar with the views advocated by this animal existed in great numbers,
Lyell and Lubbock, and knew less of the and with it the horse, various great
results of French research, which cattle, elk, deer, etc. , in place of the
prehistoric archæology very largely rests. mammoth, cave-bear, cave-hyena, cave-
In the scheme of this startlingly interest- lion, etc. The intense glacial cold of
ing science the history of primitive man- the first epoch was gone.
Forests in-
kind is divided into two great periods or stead of ice clothed the earth. But
ages: (1) The Stone Age, divided into these earlier Stone Age epochs are a
three epochs; and (2) The Age of dark dismal night hard to penetrate. A
Metals, divided into two epochs. The third Stone Age epoch followed, called
story of these ages is the story of primi- the Polished Stone epoch, because of the
tive man. Man first appeared in the great improvement effected in imple-
epoch of those gigantic animals which ments by polishing or smoothing the
became extinct long ages ago, the mam- stone parts. Other advances were made
moth and the great cave-bear. He
epartment of rude life.
could only dwell in caves and hollows of It was the age
many tamed animals.
on
in every
## p. 478 (#514) ############################################
478
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
The Stone Age was succeeded by the whose domains he was royally enter
Age of Metals, in which there first came tained. The party then proceeded to
the Bronze epoch; and after it the Iron Ujiji, on Lake Tanganyika, at which
epoch, each being marked by knowledge point Stanley again embarked with a
of the use of the metals named. The picked crew, and sailed around the
details, and the exact facts as to the lake. In his subsequent march across
type of man in each of the earliest country, he beard rumors of Dwarfland,
epochs, can be made out but imper- which he afterwards visited, and had
fectly; and since Figuier wrote, not a dangerous skirmishes with cannibals.
little has been added to our knowl- He reached the Luama River, and fol-
edge; yet the story as far as given is lowed it 220 miles until it united with
of extreme interest.
the Lualaba, to form a broad gray river
which he knew as the Livingstone, or
Through the Dark Continent, by Congo. Along its many windings, some-
Henry Morton Stanley, appeared in times delayed by almost impassable rap-
1878. It is a graphic narrative of his ids, through the haunts of zebra and
dangers and remarkable experiences in buffalo, and of friendly and hostile na-
traversing the African continent, from tives, he persuaded his weary men, until
the eastern shore to the Atlantic Ocean. they reached cultivated fields again, and
Already distinguished as an African ex- a party of white men from Bornu came
plorer, he had told the story of his ear- to greet him. Even then his troubles
lier trips in “How I Found Livingstone); were not over, for the sudden relaxation
and the latter's death in 1874 made him from hardships caused illness among his
anxious to continue his unfinished work. men, from which several died.
The London Daily Telegraph and the According to his promise, he took his
New York Herald combined to organize company all the way back to their
an expedition of which he was ap- homes in Zanzibar; and saw their happy
pointed chief. Its objects were to solve meeting with the friends who welcomed
the remaining problems of Central Afri- them as heroes.
can geography, and to investigate the The Anglo-American Expedition had
haunts of slave-traders.
succeeded, and since its work the map
Before beginning his own narrative, of Africa is far less of a blank.
Stanley sums up all that was previously
known about the Nile and great central
Travels with a Donkey in the Ce-
lakes; and the achievements of his pred- vennes, by Robert Louis Stevenson,
ecessors, Speke, Burton, and Living- is one of the author's earliest works,
stone; and shows that the western half published in 1879 when he was under
of the continent was still practically a thirty. It is an account of his journey-
blank.
ings, for health's sake, in the mountains
He reached Zanzibar Island in Sep- of southern France, with a diminutive
tember 1874, where he engaged Arab donkey, Modestine by name. It is full
and Wangwana porters, and bought sup- of charming descriptions of the native
plies of cloth, beads, and provisions. population and of nature, and has lively
Upon November 12, he embarked with fancy, frequent touches of poetry, and
three young English assistants and a sparkling humor, making it one of the
company of 224 men for the mainland
most enjoyable of Stevenson's autobio-
in six Arab dhows. From that day un- graphic writings. The sketch of the
til his triumphal return to Zanzibar in a seemingly meek but really stubborn and
British steamer, over three year later, aggravating donkey, whom he becomes
with the survivors of his company, he fond of in spite of himself, is delicious.
describes a long contention with famine, The itinerary is described under the
disease, insubordination in camps, war headings: Velay, Upper Gévaudan,'
with hostile natives, and other dangers. (Our Lady of the Snow,' and 'The
After pushing inland, he turned north- Country of the Camisard. ? Quotable
ward to Lake Victoria, which he circum- passages abound: – "Night is a dead
navigated in the Lady Alice, a barge monotonous period under a roof, but in
constructed so as to be portable in sec- the open world it passes lightly, with its
tions. Upon this trip he met Tsesa, skies and dews and perfumes, and the
the then king of Uganda, whom he says hours are marked by changes in the face
be converted to Christianity, and in of nature. What seems a kind of tem-
## p. 479 (#515) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
479
where the organization of the army for
the invasion of Russia was in hand.
But in its incomplete state even, the
work sufficiently carries on the arraign-
ment of the empire of Napoleon at the
bar of historical judgment to stand as
the ablest and the most complete criti-
cism upon Bonaparte and his career.
romancer
so
poral death to people choked between
walls and curtains, is only light and liv-
ing slumber to the man who sleeps
afield. »
After camping out in a pine wood
over night: “I hastened to prepare my
pack and tackle the steep ascent before
me, but I had something on my mind.
It was only a fancy; yet a fancy will
sometimes be importunate. I had been
most hospitably received and punctually
served in my green caravanserai. The
room was airy, the water excellent, and
the dawn had called me to a moment. I
say nothing of the tapestries or the inim-
itable ceiling, nor yet of the view which
I commanded from the windows; but I
felt I was in some one's debt for all this
liberal entertainment. And so it pleased
me, in a half-laughing way, to leave
pieces of money on the turf as I went
along, until I had left enough for my
night's lodging. ”
At the end of his trip he sold Modes-
tine: “It was not until I was fairly
seated by the driver . . that I be-
came aware of my bereavement. I had
lost Modestine. Up to that moment I
had thought I hated her, but now she
was gone.
For twelve day's we
had been fast companions; we had trav-
eled upwards of 120 miles, crossed sev-
eral respectable ridges, and jogged along
with our six legs by many a rocky and
many a boggy by-road. After the first
day, although sometimes I was hurt
and distant in manner, I still kept my
patience; and as for her, poor soul! she
had come to regard me as a god. She
loved to eat out of my hand.
She was
patient, elegant in form, the color of an
ideal mouse, and inimitably small. Her
faults were those of her race and sex;
her virtues were her own. Farewell,
and if forever -. »
»
Count of Monte Cristo, The, by
,
Alexandre Dumas, is
the only
novel of modern times which the great
has written; and it is
widely known that «the treasure of
Monte Cristo » has passed into a prov-
erb. The story opens in Marseilles, in
the year 1815, just before the «Hun-
dred Days. ”
Young Edward Dantes,
the hero, mate of the merchant ship
Pharaon, is about to be made her cap-
tain and marry his sweetheart, the
lovely Catalan Mercedes, when his dis-
appointed rivals, one of whom wants
the ship and the other the girl, con-
spire against him, and lodge informa-
tion with the « Procurateur du Roi)
that Dantès is a dangerous Bonapartist,
and is carrying letters from the Em-
peror, exiled in Elba, to his supporters.
Although there is circumstantial evi-
dence against him, the magistrate
knows Dantès to be innocent; but he
has reasons of his own for wanting
him out of the way. He sends him to
the gloomy Château of If, a fortress
built on a rocky ledge in the sea, where
he suffers an unmerited captivity of
nearly twenty years. He escapes at
length in a miraculous manner, with the
knowledge, confided to him by a sup-
posed madman, a fellow prisoner, of an
enormous treasure hidden on the barren
Island of Monte Cristo, off the Italian
coast. Dantès discovers the treasure,
and starts out anew in life, to dazzle
the world as the mysterious Count of
Monte Cristo, with the one fixed pur-
pose of avenging himself on his perse-
cutors, all of whom have risen high in
the world to wealth and honors. He
becomes a private Nemesis for the de-
struction of the rich banker, the honored
general, and the distinguished magistrate,
each of whom his tireless, relentless
hand brings low. The first half of
the book is a story of romantic and
exciting adventure; the second is in
a different key, sombre and unlovely,
and not likely to convince any one that
revenge is sweet.
But the splendid
Napoleon the First, The History of,
by P. Lanfrey. (1871-79. ) A study
of the career and character of Napoleon
down to the close of 1811, in which ad-
vantage is taken of the lapse of time,
and the comprehensive collection made
by many writers of materials, for a
work thoroughly and perfectly historical,
- a clear-sighted estimate of the great
figure which so many eminent writers
have examined, either for
of
apology or for unjust detraction. The
death of the author, November 16th, 1877,
left his work unfinished, at the point
excess
## p. 480 (#516) ############################################
480
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
imagination of Dumas transfigures the forth in the most brilliant colors. It is
whole, its intensity persuades the reader like a historical painting, so many por-
that the impossible is the actual, and its traits are introduced. The description of
rush and impetuosity sweep him breath- the sea trip to Genoa, whither the beau-
less to the end.
tiful yacht of the American millionaire
carries most of the personages of the
A Tragic idyll. (Une Idylle Tra- story, is also most vividly told, and the
gique), by Paul Bourget. (1896. ) episode of the secret marriage is like a
M. Bourget declares that in life there canto of a poem. Surely no ceremony
are two types of beings corresponding in Genoa had ever been more remark.
to tragedy and comedy, to one of which able : « This great Venetian lady had
great departments each belongs, gen- come from Cannes on an American's
erally with no mixture. «For one, the yacht to marry a ruined gentleman of
most romantic episodes end as in a dubious title from Barbentane, assisted
vaudeville. For the other the simplest by a young American girl and an Aus-
adventures end in drama; devoted to trian lady, a morganatic archduchess,
poignant emotions, cruel complications, who in her turn is accompanied by a
all their idylls are tragic idylls. With Frenchman of the simplest, the most pro-
this idea in mind the author pictures the vincial French tradition. ”
young Provençal Vicomte de Carancez, The poetry of the idyll is not to be
a true D'Artagnan, un gourmand de gainsaid, or its fascinating interest, or its
toutes les gourmandises, who has run
dramatic power.
Its tenuous moral is
through his inheritance of 600,000 francs; thoroughly French, but is based on this
and contrasts him with his friend Pierre epigrammatic exclamation:-
Hautefeuille, a genuine, sweet-tempered, "Ah! demain ! ce dangereux et mys-
chivalrous, and chaste (at least, compara- terieux demain, l'inevitable expiation de
tively chaste) provincial gentleman. The tous nos coupables aujourd'huis. (Ah
light, fickle, astute, and clever advent- to-morrow, that dangerous and mysteri-
urer, whose very title is in question, in ous to-morrow, the inevitable punisher of
searching for means to recoup his for- all our guilty to-days! ”)
tunes deliberately falls in love with a To an American reader an element of
rich widow, the Venetian Marchioness An- comedy is introduced in the author's
driana Bonaccorsi; and successfully car- amusing portrayal of Marsh the Ameri-
ries his romantic plan into execution, can railway magnate. More realistic is
cleverly parrying all the attempts of her his account of the half-mad scientific
Anglomaniac brother to get rid of him Archduke, who hated his wife and yet
by sixteenth-century methods of poison was jealous of her.
and assassination. Pierre on the other
hand falls under the seduction of the
a romantic novel by «Ouida,”
beautiful and passionate morganatic wife was published in 1883. It has a
of an Austrian archduke: and though picturesque and extravagant plot and
their liaison reaches the last develop- setting. Wanda, the heroine, a beauti-
ment, its guilty fruit is utter wretched- ful woman of high rank and wealth, is
ness for both, — not, as an Anglo-Saxon the possessor of a magnificent ancestral
moralist would have pictured it, from the castle in the mountains of Austria.
breaking of any moral law, but because There the nineteenth century meets the
a former lover of the Baroness Ely de Middle Ages. Wanda is herself steeped
Sallach-Carlsberg is Pierre's most inti- in old-world traditions of honor and
mate friend; their passions cross each chivalry. She will not marry until she
other and clash, and ultimately lead to loves, and she does not love readily.
the death of Olivier du Prat, who in a One stormy night a stranger is rescued
moment of exaltation and moral despair from drowning in the lake beside the
sacrifices himself to save his friend, castle. He calls himself René, Marquis
though he knows that this friend is play- de Sabran-Romaris, but he is really the
ing him false and breaking a solemn oath. natural son of a great Russian noble by
This dead friend becomes the living re- a peasant girl. Yet he is the son of his
morse that prevents the two passionate father rather than of his mother; he has
lovers from ever again meeting.
lived so long in the atmosphere of aris-
The story opens at Monte Carlo, the tocracy that he almost believes in him-
heated unwholesome life of which is set self. The ancient family from which
Wanda,
## p. 481 (#517) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
481
he stole his title is extinct. The world dicting his happiness, and laying a curse
accepts him as its last representative. upon those who are dearest to him.
By temperament and training he is in The innocent suffer for the guilty, and
every way a man suited to Wanda von the wages of sin is death.
Szalras. She loves him in spite of her-
self. He on his part loves her honestly Wetherel Affair, The, by J. W. Die
;
Forest. (1873. ) The scene of this
he cannot tell her the true story of his story is laid in America in the present
birth, and that he was once Vassia
ceptury. Judge Jabez Wetherel, a rich
Kazán, a serf. Only one person lives old man of stern religious principles, is
who remembers Vassia Kazán. This is mysteriously murdered in his library at
Egon Vásárhely, Wanda's cousin, who his country-seat in Connecticut, while
cherishes for her a hopeless love. As a rewriting his will; and the document is
boy guest in the house of Prince Zaba- stolen. There is no clue to the mur-
Vassia's father, he had quarreled derer, though some suspicion rests upon
with Vassia, and had wounded him with the victim's nephew Edward, who has
a knife.
been too gay and worldly to suit the
The Marquis of Sabran marries Wanda; old-fashioned ideas of his uncle, who
children are born to them; their married has consequently disinherited him. Pre-
life is wholly happy. After several years, vious to the murder, and contrary to his
Egon is prevailed upon to visit them. uncle's wishes, Edward has become en-
The beautiful features of Wanda's hus- gaged to Nestoria Bernard, a lovely
band awaken strange memories of a young girl who is visiting at Judge
boyish quarrel. By a long chain of cir- Wetherel's house. Nestoria is the daugh-
cumstances, Sabran is at last forced to ter of a missionary in Persia, and has
tell Wanda of his deception. She sends returned home to cor her educa-
him from her, and for three years lives tion; Edward was a fellow passenger
in solitude and bitterness. She forgives with her on the homeward voyage, dur-
him only when he saves the life of their ing which he fell in love with her, at-
eldest son. But he has given his own tracted by her innocence and charm.
life to do this, living only eleven days On the night of the tragedy Nestoria
after the rescue of the child. In the catches a glimpse of the murderer, and
heart of his wife he lives forever, and is impressed with the dreadful belief
with him lives a sleepless and eternal that it is her lover who has committed
remorse. )
the deed. Dreading the thought of meet-
ing him again, and being compelled to
Wage
ages of Sin, The, by «Lucas Ma- testify against him, she fees from the
let,” is a study of character rather house and eventually reaches New York
than a novel of incident. The leading city, where all trace of her is lost. Ed-
personages stand in high relief against ward Wetherel shows great strength of
a background of commonplace English character in this troublous time, and ex-
prosperity. Mary Crookenden, the hero- hibits fine qualities which win the respect
ine, is a charming English girl; beautiful, of all. He finds himself sole heir to the
spirited, and an heiress. Her cousin, large fortune, but chooses to divide it
Lance Crookenden, who is a few years with his relatives, Mrs.
cine, which he hates, and forbids him to Traill, (1897,) is a collection of a
marry Agatha van Hessel. As Joost is dozen essays on literary matters, ranging
driving him to the notary to change his from Newspaper English) to the trials
will, he dies of apoplexy. Joost inherits of publishers, and including criticisms
his money and marries Agatha. Ten authors from Lucian to Stephen
years later, Arthur van Aeveld, the next Crane. The title essay considers Ste-
heir, meets the servant who sat behind phen Crane and Arthur Morrison as the
the carriage on the night of the Baron's two apostles of modern «realism, as
death, and persuades him to swear that this sees fit to deal with low life; and
Joost murdered his uncle. At the last accuses them of betraying their own
moment, he confesses his perjury. Joost aim, and being guilty of a wild romanti-
is acquitted, and made a member of the cism, in depicting their slums in impossi-
States General. He declares that though bly lurid colors, and life in them as an
not actually a murderer, he is guilty, in unvarying brutality and horror, irrecon-
that he hated his uncle, did nothing to cilable with human nature. (The Po-
help him in his extremity, and drove litical Novel begins with Disraeli, and
straight on in spite of the old man's ends with Mrs. Humphry Ward, of
appeal to him to stop. With his wife's whose work a very discriminating esti-
concurrence, he gives up his money and mate suggests that a lack of humor
political position, becomes clerk to a accounts for the fact that where her
notary, and is happy on a small salary. great capacity and fine art have done so
much, they have not done more. (The
Yesterday, To-day, and Forever. A Novel of Manners,' which began with
poem in twelve books. By Edward the crude performances of Miss Bur-
Henry Bickersteth. (1866. ) A work in ney, and came to its flower in Miss
blank verse, 10,750 lines in length, de- Austen's delicately perfect work, has a
voted to imaginative journeyings after paper to itself. Other essays treat (Mat.
death in Hades, Paradise, and Hell, thew Arnold, Richardson's Novels,'
with a review of creation, the Fall, Pascal's Provincial Letters,' the witty
the empire of darkness, redemption, the (Plays of Lucian,' and (The Future of
war against Satan, the victory over Humor,' in which the author wonders
Satan, the millennial Sabbath, the Last whether the world is growing so serious-
Judgment, and heaven's many mansions. minded that humor will die out, as some
The author, who was made bishop of fine growth disappears from an inhos-
Exeter in 1885, has been in his genera- pitable soil. Professor Traill's work
tion, as his father was in the previous shows perfect fairness, a nice discrimina-
generation, a chief representative in tion, a sympathetic consciousness of an
the Church of England of profoundly author's purpose, and a neat craftsman-
Evangelical, anti-Romanist, and anti- ship. His attitude is always that of de-
liberal, pietism and teaching,-a very tachment, and the pleasure he gives his
emotional and earnest pietism and in- reader seems to be entirely impersonal.
tensely orthodox Low Church teaching. A book so sound and balanced is inter-
The Christian Psalmody, compiled by esting and helpful.
the father in 1832, which went through
seven most
A.
-
Barrie (1889), is a continuation of
school in the Church. The Hymnal
the Auld Licht) series. Its scenes are
Companion, prepared by the son (final confined mainly to the interior of the
revised and enlarged edition, 1876), is little Scotch cot in "Thrums » where
in use in thousands of churches in Eng- lived Hendry and Jess McQumpha, and
land and the colonies. It was to im- their daughter Leeby. In Mr. Barrie's
pressively invoke divine and
eternal
later work, Margaret Ogilvy,' an affec-
auspices for the doctrines and pietism of tionate and artistic picture of his mother,
the Evangelical party, and to feed Ev- we discern that in Jess and Leeby his
angelical faith and enthusiasm, that the mother and sister sat for the portraits.
younger Bickersteth, with Dante and Jess is a quaint figure. A chronic inva-
Milton in view, essayed his ambitious lid, yet throbbing with interest in every-
task, and executed it with very fair suc- body and everything, she sits at the
cess, at least as to teaching and emotion. window of her cottage, and keeps up
popular hymn book of the Evangeliest Window in Thrums, a, by James M.
## p. 472 (#508) ############################################
472
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
with Leeby a running fire of terse and strong savor of Ibsen and of the Karma
often cutting comment upon village hap-cult, a subtle portrayal of character and
penings, and thus holds herself in touch much fine interpretation of nature. The
with the life and gossip which she knows author was already favorably known
only through the window. Barrie's sym- through his longer novel Eline Vere. )
pathetic ability to see how inseparable
are humor and pathos makes his char-
The Revenge of Joseph Noirel, by
acters living and human. Tammas Hag- Victor Cherbuliez. A lively and
gart, the humorist, at much pains to skillful character sketch by this master
understand and dispense the philosophy of literary portraiture; who here, as in
of his own humor; the little christening Jean Teterol's Idea,' takes for his theme
robe which does the honors for the the moral unrest caused by social class
whole village, and which is so tenderly distinctions, but carries the development
revered by Jess because it was made for of his theme to a tragic extreme. The
her own babe, “twenty years dead, but scene is laid at Mon Plaisir, near Ge-
still living for her; the family pride in neva, the villa-home of the well-to-do
Jamie, the son who has gone to London, bourgeois manufacturer, M. Merion,
in whom we may see “Gavin Ogilvy » whose wife has social ambitions of which
(Barrie's own pseudonym); and finally, the daughter Mademoiselle Marguerite is
Jamie's home-coming to find Hendry, made the innocent victim. Given in a
Jess, and Leeby gone to the long home, mariage de convenance to M. le Conte
are absolutely real. And if the reader d'Orins, she finds the unhappiness of a
laughs at the whimsicalities of the vil- union without love intensified into horror
lage folk, it is because he loves them. and dread by the suspicion that her hus-
band has been guilty of a hidden crime.
Footsteps of Fate, Noodlot, by Meanwhile the hero of the story, Joseph
Louis Marie Anne Couperus. Trans- Noirel, is the trusted overseer in the
lation from the Dutch by Clara Bell. works of M. Merion; having been grad-
This story, by one of the latest and ually promoted to this position of re-
youngest novelists of Holland, is power- sponsibility and esteem from that of the
fully told, and is of absorbing if some- starving child of disgraced parents,
what strange and morbid interest. It whom the village crier had rescued and
opens in a villa of suburban London, introduced as an apprentice in the fac-
where a wealthy and idle young Hol- tory. On Mademoiselle Marguerite's
lander is surprised in his bachelor apart- returning from her years of training in
ments by a visit at midnight of a man the convent for the aristocratic life to
in tramp's attire, who seeks shelter and which her mother had destined her,
food in the name of early friendship and Joseph is captivated by her beauty; and
companionship. «Bertie,” the name of after being thrown together by the ac-
the returned prodigal, is taken in by cident of a storm, he becomes the hope-
his large-hearted friend Frank, washed, less victim of a devouring but unre-
clothed, and fed into respectability, and quited love for her. The marriage with
introduced into the club and made his the count having taken place, Joseph be-
intimate companion and peer in society. comes aware of the crime of which the
Wearying at last of an endless round of husband is guilty, and informs Margue-
pleasure, marred at times for Frank by rite, who flees for refuge to Mon Plaisir.
certain survivals of low habits in his The count meanwhile creates the sus-
friend, they, at Bertie's suggestion, go picion that it is a guilty attachment on
off for a tour in Norway, where Frank the part of Marguerite for Joseph which
meets the young lady who will hence- has brought her there, and her parents
forth absorb his affections. Bertie see- indignantly reject her plea for their pro
ing this, and dismayed at the prospect of tection. A word from her would reveal
being again thrown upon the world, all her husband's crime and would cost his
the more unfitted for struggle after his life. Meanwhile Joseph has already re-
unstinted enjoyment of his friend's solved to end his hopeless misery by
wealth, is prompted by his fate) to taking his own life. Marguerite main-
plot for the prevention of the marriage tains her silence, obeys her husband,
of the loving couple; and the story is and leaves her father's house. She asks
occupied with the progress and results Joseph to become the instrument of her
of his evil scheme. There is in it a death before taking his own life, and
## p. 473 (#509) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
473
prodigality is amazing. ” He also says
that the author has given (a poetical
vision of the sea, which is more like
an apocalypse than the vision of a
healthy mind. ”
a
under circumstances that would imply
guilt, while yet she remains innocent, and
the savior of her husband's life and honor.
The narration of this climax of the
story's action is in the highest plane of
dramatic writing, and is a remarkable
exhibition of the author's power of re-
serve, and of his ability to suggest the
bidden reality beneath expressed unreality.
Toilers of the Sea (Les Travailleurs
de la Mer. ) (1866. ) A novel by
Victor Hugo, which possesses double in-
terest: first, in the story; secondly, in
its bold descriptions of the colossal and
secret powers of the elements. In time
it followed after the still more famous
(Les Misérables. The scene is laid in
Germany; and the book is dedicated
to the Isle of Guernsey, severe yet
gentle, my present asylum, my proba-
ble tomb. ) The heroine, Deruchette, is
the niece of Lethierry, who has invented
a steamboat, La Durande, which plies
between Guernsey and St. Malo, and
which is the wonder of the Channel
Islands. His partner, Rantaine, disap-
pears with a large sum of money, and
is succeeded as captain of La Durande
by Clubin. The latter has friends
among the smugglers, and with their
assistance finds Rantaine, who has es-
caped in the guise of a Quaker. Clubin
obtains this booty and determines to
keep it. He plans to wreck La Du-
rande the 'rocks known
as «Les
Hanois," and then to swim ashore and
escape. From this point, the story is
full of the excitement and terror of
the life of the sailor. The descriptions
of the sea, the wind, and the myster-
ies of the ocean-bed, are wonderful.
Among the most striking scenes is the
encounter of Gilliatt, the real hero of
the book, with an octopus which lurks
in a rocky cavern beneath the
Penetrating into the shadows of this
submarine crypt, whose arches are cov-
ered with seaweed and trailing moss,
Gilliatt soon finds himself in the em-
brace of the gigantic and slimy monster,
whose gleaming eyes are fixed upon
him. Of this story George Henry Lewes
said that it had «a certain daring in-
flation about it which cannot be met
elsewhere; and if the splendor is bar-
baric it is undeniably splendid. Page
after page and chapter after chapter
may be mere fireworks which blaze
and pass away; but as fireworks, the
Virgin Soil, by Ivan Turgeneff. Tur-
geneff gives in Virgin Soil?
graphic picture of the various moral and
social influences at work in the modern
Nihilistic movement in Russia. The mo-
tive of the story is deep and subtle, and
is developed with masterly skill and re-
finement. The hero Neshdanoff, a young
university student of noble but illegiti-
mate descent and in poor worldly cir-
cumstances, has his sympathies roused
for the depressed peasantry of Russia,
and with romantic ardor enters into the
secret conspiracy for their relief. In the
house of a government official where he
is engaged as tutor, he meets Marianne,
a relation of the family, who is also
secretly an enthusiast in the Nihilistic
cause, and, irresistibly drawn to her, he
elopes with her, and seeks employment
with a machinist and manufacturer, Solo-
mine. The effort to descend to the
level of the peasants, to enter into their
life and to rouse them to a united move-
ment for liberty, is met with a stolid
apathy and lack of intelligence on their
part, that dampens his ardor and makes
his effort seem to him like the merest sen-
timentalism, that can never yield any real
result. This loss of faith in himself and
in his own sincerity impels him to break
his promise of marriage with Marianne,
and, commending her to marry Solo-
mine, the machinist and manufacturer, to
take his own life in despair of finding a
sphere in the world for his genius, -
a mixture of inherited aristocracy and
purely romantic democracy. In Solomine
is depicted the real reformer, the man
without “ideals and elegant phrases,
who, in his honest dealings with those
under him and his recognition of the
true dignity of labor and of neighborly
service, is exerting the redeeming force
that can gradually introduce a new man-
hood into the laboring classes, and so
enable them to appreciate and aspire to
the practical and the heroic elements
of a true freedom. In the marriage of
Solomine and Marianne is seen the union
of reform, as distinguished from the in-
effectual idealism of an aristocracy that
lacks the practical knowledge and the
social mediation of a middle class.
on
sea.
## p. 474 (#510) ############################################
474
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
Æne
Æneid, The, the golden branch on the which, like a trumpet-call, roused Savo-
ilex-tree of Latin literature, was the narola to seek the things that are above.
work of Publius Virgilius Maro, who was And this line Dante heard on the lips
born October 15th, 70 B. C. , and died Sep- of the Church Triumphant, at the open-
tember 22d, 19 B. C.
ing of the Paradise of God. ”
The poem is interwoven with pre-
neid, The, an epic by Heinrich von
Christian civilization, with mediæval and
Veldeche, a minnesinger of the
modern thought, as is no other poem of
the ancient world. It is the Bible of the
twelfth century and one of the earliest
German poets. It is distinguished for
later classical literature, as the Iliad is
the elegance of its form and the har-
of the earlier, linked by its very nature
mony of its versification. In this poem,
to the visionary Middle Ages. For in
love (die Minne) is for the first time in-
the Æneid, conflict has become spiritual.
troduced as a theme. The story follows
ized; and the warrior Æneas bears al-
the same line as Virgil's until the hero
ways about him the remoteness of the
comes to Latium. There it pauses to de-
priest, or of one mindful ever of the place
of souls. It is the detachment of the
pict the love of Lavinia for Æneas, and
this is its most original and successful por-
hero from the passion of love, from the
tion. Æneas marries Lavinia, becomes
passion of war, which made him appeal
so powerfully to the mediæval mind, pre-
king, and builds Alba. Gawain Douglas
translated the Æneid into the Scottish
occupied with the Unseen. Only the
dialect in 1513. This vigorous adaptation
creator of Æneas could be Dante's guide
probably suggested to the Earl of Surrey
among the shades. Of him Tennyson
the idea of turning the second and fourth
writes:-
books into blank verse, the earliest exam-
"Light among the vanished ages; star that gild-
ple of blank verse in the language. Dou-
est yet this phantom shore ;
Golden branch among the shadows, kings and
glas takes some strange liberties with his
realms that set to rise no more. ”
author. He changes the sibyl into a nun,
and makes her admonish Æneas to be
The Æneid is in twelve books: the
first six in imitation of the Odyssey; the
sure to say his prayers and tell his beads.
The English translations are numerous;
last six, of the Iliad. The Trojan hero
is led to Italy, where he is to be the
Dryden's, Conington's, and notably Sir
Charles Bowen's, being perhaps the best.
father of a race and of an empire su-
That of William Morris is much admired
preme among nations. On his way thither
also, and in America the versions of C. P.
he tarries at Carthage, whose queen,
Cranch and of Prof. Geo, H. Palmer are
Dido, loves him as with the first love
of a virgin. To her he tells the story of
examples of good scholarship and good
taste. The epic has been often travestied.
Troy. For love of him she slays herself
The first travesty, entitled Eneide de
when the gods lead him from her shores.
Arrived in Italy he seeks the underworld,
Virgilio Travestida,' appeared at Rome in
1633. It was very popular among the friv.
under the protection of the Sibyl of Cu-
olous; but scholars, to whom everything
mæ. He emerges thence to overcome
his enemies. The Æneid was not per-
written by the Mantuan was sacred, were
scandalized. The Eneide Travestie) of
fected at the time of Virgil's death, and
Scarron is a French classic.
his friends Varius and Tucca edited it
at the request of the emperor Augustus,
Angel in the House, The, Coventry
It has since become the heritage of the Patmore's most noted poem, was pub-
world.
lished in four parts between 1854 and
“On this line the poet's own voice fal- 1862. (The Betrothal' appeared in 1854,
tered as he read. At this Augustus and (The Espousals) in 1856, Faithful For-
Octavia melted into passionate weeping. ever) in 1860, and "The Victories of
Here is the verse which Augustine quotes Love) in 1863. The entire poem is idyl-
as typical, in its majestic rhythm, of all lic in form. It is a glorification of do-
the pathos and the glory of pagan art mestic life, of love sheltered in the home,
from which the Christian was bound to and guarded by the gentle and tender
fee. This is the couplet which Fénelon wife. In consequence it has been ex-
could never read without admiring tears. tremely popular in British families of the
This line Filippo Strozzi scrawled on his class it describes, — high-bred gentlefolk,
prison wall, when he slew himself to to whom the household is the centre of
avoid worse ill. These are the words | refining affection.
## p. 475 (#511) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
475
Age of Chivalry, The, or THE LEGENDS
estimate of Greek culture as providen-
OF KING ARTHUR, by Thomas Bul- tially ordained not less than Hebrew,
finch, was published in 1858. More than and to be studied the same as Hebrew.
twenty years after, an enlarged edition In view of the corruption of his own
appeared under the editorship of Edward times, Roger Bacon said: “The ancient
Everett Hale. In Part First, the legends philosophers have spoken so wonderfully
of King Arthur and his knights are con- on virtue and vice, that a Christian man
sidered. Part Second deals with the Ma- may well be astounded at those who
binogion, or ancient prose tales of the were unbelievers thus attaining the sum-
Welsh; Part Third with the knights of mits of morality. On the Christian vir-
English history, King Richard, Robin tues of faith, hope, and charity, we can
Hood, and the Black Prince. From the speak things of which they knew nothing.
time of its first publication the popularity
But in the virtues needed for integrity
of the book has been great. No more
of life, and for human fellowship, we are
sympathetic and fitting introduction could not their equals either in word or deed. )
be found to the legends of chivalry. The
A section of his moral philosophy Roger
book is written in a youthful spirit that
Bacon devotes to the first attempt ever
commends it to the young.
made at the comparative study of the
religions of the world.
Bacon, Roger, his Opus Majus. (A. D. His protests against the intellectual
1267. ) Newly edited and published, prejudices of the time, his forecasts of
with introduction and full English Anal- an age of industry and invention, the
ysis of the Latin text, by J. H. Bridges. prominence given to experiment, alike
(2 vols. , 1897. ) An adequate publication, as the test of received opinion and the
after 630 years, of one of the most re- guide to new fields of discovery, render
markable productions of the human mind. comparison with Francis Bacon unavoid-
The work is an exhortation addressed able. In wealth of words, in brilliancy
to Pope Clement, urging him to initiate of imagination, Francis Bacon was im-
a reform of Christian education, in order measurably his superior. But Roger
to establish the ascendency of the Cath- Bacon had the sounder estimate and the
olic Church over all nations and religions firmer grasp of that combination of de-
of the world. Its author wished to see ductive with inductive method which
recognition of all the sciences, since marks the scientific discoverer.
all are parts of one and the same com- The competent editor, whose judg-
plete wisdom. He first gave experiment ments we give, has furnished analyses of
the distinct and supreme place which Bacon's Latin text which enable the
was later revived by Descartes, and car- English ler to gather easily his lead-
ried out in modern science. He formed
ing ideas,
a clear conception of chemistry, in his
day not yet separated from alchemy; Adv
dvancement of Learning, The, by
and of a science of living things, as re-
Francis Bacon, 1605, the original title
sulting with chemistry from physics. being Of the Proficience and Advance-
(The generation of men, and of brutes, ment of Learning, Divine and Human. )
and of plants,” he said, “is from ele- This book, received with great favor by
mental and liquid substances, and is of the court and by scholars, was afterwards
like manner with the generation of in- enlarged and published in Latin with the
animate things. ”
title De Augmentis Scientiarum,' as the
The central theme of his work was first part of a monumental labor, (The
the consolidation of the Catholic faith as Instauration of the Sciences, of which
the supreme agency for the civilization the second part was the still famous
and ennoblement of mankind. For this Novum Organum,' on which Bacon's
end a complete renovation and reorgan- fame as a philosopher rests. The (Advance-
ization of man's intellectual forces was ment of Learning) considers first the ex-
needed. The four principal impediments cellence of knowledge and the best way of
to wisdom were authority, habit, preju- spreading it, what has been already done
dice, and false conceit of knowledge.
to scatter it, and what left undone. The
The last of these, ignorance under the author then proceeds to divide all knowl-
cloak of wisdom, was pronounced the
edge into three kingdoms or inclosures, -
worst and most fata
A striking feature history, poetry, and philosophy: which
of this scheme of instruction was its appeal directly to the three manifestations
## p. 476 (#512) ############################################
476
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
of human understanding, memory, imagi- | tory of the Conquest of Mexico,' which
nation, and reason. The smaller third is usually regarded as the author's most
of the book relates to revealed religion. brilliant production. Of the opportuni-
ties this afforded, Prescott himself re-
Astro
stronomy, The Dawn of, by J. Nor- marks: “The natural development of
man Lockyer (1897). A popular study the story is precisely what would
of the temple worship and mythology of be prescribed by the severest rules of
the ancient Egyptians, designed to show art. ” The portrait drawn of Pizarro,
that in the construction of their magnific who is the principal figure in the drama,
cent temples the Egyptians had an eye is that of a man brave, energetic, tem-
to astronomical facts, such as the rising perate, and though avaricious, extrava-
or setting of the sun at a particular time gant; bold in action, yet slow, and at
in the year, or to the rising of certain the same time inflexible of resolution;
stars; and so planned the long axis of a ambitious; exceptionally perfidious. An
great temple as to permit a beam of light effort is made to counterbalance the
to pass at a particular moment the whole tendency to hero-worship and pictur-
length of the central aisle into the Holy esque coloring by the occasional inser-
Place, and there illuminate the image of tion of passages of an opposite character.
the deity,-giving at once an exact note
of time, and a manifestation of the god The Jesuit Relations and Allied
by the illumination, which the people
Documents: Travels and explora-
supposed to be miraculous. Mr. Lockyer's
tions of the Jesuit Missionaries in New
France. (1610-1791. ) The original
clear discovery of these astronomical facts
French, Latin, and Italian texts, with
explains very interestingly the nature of
the gods and goddesses, many of whom
English translations and notes; illus-
are found to be different aspects of the
trated by portraits, maps, and fac-simi-
les.
same object in nature. For both the sci-
Edited by Reuben Gold Thwaites.
ence and the religion of Egypt the work
(Vol. i. , 1896. — Vol. xiv. , 1898. ) A part
is of great value.
of a republication of great magnitude
and importance; the fourteen volumes
,
History of the Conquest of Peru, already issued being a beginning only,
covering the years 1610–38. The en-
by William Hickling Prescott.
tire work consists, as to “The Jesuit Re-
(1847. ) Of the five books into which
this admirable work is divided, the first
lations,' in forty volumes of Jesuit
treats of the wonderful civilization of
annual reports in French, which began
the Incas; the second of the discovery
to appear in Paris in 1632, and came
of Peru; the third of its conquest; the
out year by year to 1673. These begin
fourth of the civil wars of the con-
in the present work with Vol. v. ; and
ten volumes carry (Le Jeune's Relation'
querors; and the fifth of the settlement
into 1638.
of the country.
The first book hardly
The very great value of the
work is that of original materials of the
yields in interest to any of the others,
most interesting character for the his-
describing as it does, on the whole, an
unparalleled state of society. In it some
tory of North America from 1611, the
date of the first landing of Jesuit mis-
of the votaries of modern socialism have
sionaries on the shores of Nova Scotia.
seen confirmation of the practicability
and successful working of their own
The present reproduction of documents
theory; but Prescott's verdict of the sys-
takes them in chronological order. Thus
tem is that it was the most oppressive,
Vols. i. -iv. are devoted to the story of
Acadia from 1610 to 1616, and the open-
though the mildest, of despotisms. ” At
least it
ing pages of the story of Quebec, 1625-
more lenient, more
29.
fined, and based more upon reason as
Then comes (Le Jeune's Relation,
as stated above. The execution of the
contrasted with force, than that
of the Aztecs. He describes it very
work by translators, editors, and print-
ers (at Cleveland, Ohio) is every way
fully: the orders of society, the divisions
of the kingdom, the administration of
admirable; and its completion will make
a monumental addition to our historical
justice, the revenues, religion, educa-
libraries.
tion, agriculture, manners, manufactures,
architecture, etc. From the necessities
Nineveh and its Remains (1849).
of its material, the work is more scat-
of
(1853).
tered in construction than is the (His- By Austen Henry Layard. A highly
was
re-
was
## p. 477 (#513) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
477
was
as
If a
a
interesting narrative of the earliest of the earth; and his clothing was made
the discoveries which have laid open from the skins of beasts, or
of
to historical knowledge the civilization, skins not made at all. The few simple
empire, and culture of Babylonia (and tools or weapons which he contrived
Assyria), back to about 4000 B. C. , and showed one chief material, except wood
which already promise to make known for handles, and that was stone. Horn
history beginning as early as 7000 B. C. and bone came into use for some minor
Layard, in traveling overland from Lon- implements, but stone was the material
don to Ceylon, passed ruins on the mainly employed for tools and weapons.
banks of the Tigris which tradition Manufactures consisted chiefly in making
pointed out as marking the site of Nine- sharp flakes of stone, some with edges
veh; and the desire which he then felt for knives or hatchets, and others with
to make explorations led him to return points for a thrusting tool or weapon.
to the region. He made some secret If fire was known, and the potter's art
diggings in 1845, and in 1846 and 1847 also of molding moist clay into shapes
pushed his excavations to the first great and baking them to hardness, this added
success, that of the discovery of the not only to the comfort but to the im-
ruins of four distinct palaces, one of plements of primitive man; and shells
which, supposed to have been built by perforated and strung made jewelry.
Sardanapalus yielded the remarkable If there was any money it was shell
monuments which are still a chief at- money. Bone and horn served to make
traction of the British Museum. Beside implements such arrow-heads, and
the bas-reliefs and inscriptions which bodkins, man's earliest needles.
had covered the walls of a palace, use like that of paper was known, a flat
there were the gigantic winged human- bone, like shoulder-blade, served.
headed bulls and lions, and eagle-headed The first art was with a bodkin, scratch-
deities, which are among the objects of ing on the flat of a bone the outline of
Assyrian religious art. As an opening the head of a favorite horse, or of a
of a story of discovery hardly surpassed reindeer captured for a feast. Burial
in the annals of modern research, the customs arose, and funeral feasts; and
work reported in Layard's books is of there seem to be indications of belief
the greatest interest.
that the dead were not so dead but that
they would need food and tools and
Primitive Man, by. Louis Figuier. other means of life.
Revised Translation with Thirty The name given to this earliest Stone
Scenes of Primitive Life and 233 Fig- Age epoch is that of the Mammoth and
ures of Objects belonging to Prehist Cave-Bear, the conspicuous representa-
Ages. (1870. ) A clear popular manual tives of the gigantic animals of that
of the facts and arguments going to time. It was a time of fearful cold, in
show the very great antiquity of man. one of the ages of ice which played so
It presents the evidence of actual relics large a part in the early history of the
of prehistoric life, with special attention globe.
to those found in France. At the time The second of the Stone Age epochs
of its publication English readers were is called that of the reindeer, because
familiar with the views advocated by this animal existed in great numbers,
Lyell and Lubbock, and knew less of the and with it the horse, various great
results of French research, which cattle, elk, deer, etc. , in place of the
prehistoric archæology very largely rests. mammoth, cave-bear, cave-hyena, cave-
In the scheme of this startlingly interest- lion, etc. The intense glacial cold of
ing science the history of primitive man- the first epoch was gone.
Forests in-
kind is divided into two great periods or stead of ice clothed the earth. But
ages: (1) The Stone Age, divided into these earlier Stone Age epochs are a
three epochs; and (2) The Age of dark dismal night hard to penetrate. A
Metals, divided into two epochs. The third Stone Age epoch followed, called
story of these ages is the story of primi- the Polished Stone epoch, because of the
tive man. Man first appeared in the great improvement effected in imple-
epoch of those gigantic animals which ments by polishing or smoothing the
became extinct long ages ago, the mam- stone parts. Other advances were made
moth and the great cave-bear. He
epartment of rude life.
could only dwell in caves and hollows of It was the age
many tamed animals.
on
in every
## p. 478 (#514) ############################################
478
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
The Stone Age was succeeded by the whose domains he was royally enter
Age of Metals, in which there first came tained. The party then proceeded to
the Bronze epoch; and after it the Iron Ujiji, on Lake Tanganyika, at which
epoch, each being marked by knowledge point Stanley again embarked with a
of the use of the metals named. The picked crew, and sailed around the
details, and the exact facts as to the lake. In his subsequent march across
type of man in each of the earliest country, he beard rumors of Dwarfland,
epochs, can be made out but imper- which he afterwards visited, and had
fectly; and since Figuier wrote, not a dangerous skirmishes with cannibals.
little has been added to our knowl- He reached the Luama River, and fol-
edge; yet the story as far as given is lowed it 220 miles until it united with
of extreme interest.
the Lualaba, to form a broad gray river
which he knew as the Livingstone, or
Through the Dark Continent, by Congo. Along its many windings, some-
Henry Morton Stanley, appeared in times delayed by almost impassable rap-
1878. It is a graphic narrative of his ids, through the haunts of zebra and
dangers and remarkable experiences in buffalo, and of friendly and hostile na-
traversing the African continent, from tives, he persuaded his weary men, until
the eastern shore to the Atlantic Ocean. they reached cultivated fields again, and
Already distinguished as an African ex- a party of white men from Bornu came
plorer, he had told the story of his ear- to greet him. Even then his troubles
lier trips in “How I Found Livingstone); were not over, for the sudden relaxation
and the latter's death in 1874 made him from hardships caused illness among his
anxious to continue his unfinished work. men, from which several died.
The London Daily Telegraph and the According to his promise, he took his
New York Herald combined to organize company all the way back to their
an expedition of which he was ap- homes in Zanzibar; and saw their happy
pointed chief. Its objects were to solve meeting with the friends who welcomed
the remaining problems of Central Afri- them as heroes.
can geography, and to investigate the The Anglo-American Expedition had
haunts of slave-traders.
succeeded, and since its work the map
Before beginning his own narrative, of Africa is far less of a blank.
Stanley sums up all that was previously
known about the Nile and great central
Travels with a Donkey in the Ce-
lakes; and the achievements of his pred- vennes, by Robert Louis Stevenson,
ecessors, Speke, Burton, and Living- is one of the author's earliest works,
stone; and shows that the western half published in 1879 when he was under
of the continent was still practically a thirty. It is an account of his journey-
blank.
ings, for health's sake, in the mountains
He reached Zanzibar Island in Sep- of southern France, with a diminutive
tember 1874, where he engaged Arab donkey, Modestine by name. It is full
and Wangwana porters, and bought sup- of charming descriptions of the native
plies of cloth, beads, and provisions. population and of nature, and has lively
Upon November 12, he embarked with fancy, frequent touches of poetry, and
three young English assistants and a sparkling humor, making it one of the
company of 224 men for the mainland
most enjoyable of Stevenson's autobio-
in six Arab dhows. From that day un- graphic writings. The sketch of the
til his triumphal return to Zanzibar in a seemingly meek but really stubborn and
British steamer, over three year later, aggravating donkey, whom he becomes
with the survivors of his company, he fond of in spite of himself, is delicious.
describes a long contention with famine, The itinerary is described under the
disease, insubordination in camps, war headings: Velay, Upper Gévaudan,'
with hostile natives, and other dangers. (Our Lady of the Snow,' and 'The
After pushing inland, he turned north- Country of the Camisard. ? Quotable
ward to Lake Victoria, which he circum- passages abound: – "Night is a dead
navigated in the Lady Alice, a barge monotonous period under a roof, but in
constructed so as to be portable in sec- the open world it passes lightly, with its
tions. Upon this trip he met Tsesa, skies and dews and perfumes, and the
the then king of Uganda, whom he says hours are marked by changes in the face
be converted to Christianity, and in of nature. What seems a kind of tem-
## p. 479 (#515) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
479
where the organization of the army for
the invasion of Russia was in hand.
But in its incomplete state even, the
work sufficiently carries on the arraign-
ment of the empire of Napoleon at the
bar of historical judgment to stand as
the ablest and the most complete criti-
cism upon Bonaparte and his career.
romancer
so
poral death to people choked between
walls and curtains, is only light and liv-
ing slumber to the man who sleeps
afield. »
After camping out in a pine wood
over night: “I hastened to prepare my
pack and tackle the steep ascent before
me, but I had something on my mind.
It was only a fancy; yet a fancy will
sometimes be importunate. I had been
most hospitably received and punctually
served in my green caravanserai. The
room was airy, the water excellent, and
the dawn had called me to a moment. I
say nothing of the tapestries or the inim-
itable ceiling, nor yet of the view which
I commanded from the windows; but I
felt I was in some one's debt for all this
liberal entertainment. And so it pleased
me, in a half-laughing way, to leave
pieces of money on the turf as I went
along, until I had left enough for my
night's lodging. ”
At the end of his trip he sold Modes-
tine: “It was not until I was fairly
seated by the driver . . that I be-
came aware of my bereavement. I had
lost Modestine. Up to that moment I
had thought I hated her, but now she
was gone.
For twelve day's we
had been fast companions; we had trav-
eled upwards of 120 miles, crossed sev-
eral respectable ridges, and jogged along
with our six legs by many a rocky and
many a boggy by-road. After the first
day, although sometimes I was hurt
and distant in manner, I still kept my
patience; and as for her, poor soul! she
had come to regard me as a god. She
loved to eat out of my hand.
She was
patient, elegant in form, the color of an
ideal mouse, and inimitably small. Her
faults were those of her race and sex;
her virtues were her own. Farewell,
and if forever -. »
»
Count of Monte Cristo, The, by
,
Alexandre Dumas, is
the only
novel of modern times which the great
has written; and it is
widely known that «the treasure of
Monte Cristo » has passed into a prov-
erb. The story opens in Marseilles, in
the year 1815, just before the «Hun-
dred Days. ”
Young Edward Dantes,
the hero, mate of the merchant ship
Pharaon, is about to be made her cap-
tain and marry his sweetheart, the
lovely Catalan Mercedes, when his dis-
appointed rivals, one of whom wants
the ship and the other the girl, con-
spire against him, and lodge informa-
tion with the « Procurateur du Roi)
that Dantès is a dangerous Bonapartist,
and is carrying letters from the Em-
peror, exiled in Elba, to his supporters.
Although there is circumstantial evi-
dence against him, the magistrate
knows Dantès to be innocent; but he
has reasons of his own for wanting
him out of the way. He sends him to
the gloomy Château of If, a fortress
built on a rocky ledge in the sea, where
he suffers an unmerited captivity of
nearly twenty years. He escapes at
length in a miraculous manner, with the
knowledge, confided to him by a sup-
posed madman, a fellow prisoner, of an
enormous treasure hidden on the barren
Island of Monte Cristo, off the Italian
coast. Dantès discovers the treasure,
and starts out anew in life, to dazzle
the world as the mysterious Count of
Monte Cristo, with the one fixed pur-
pose of avenging himself on his perse-
cutors, all of whom have risen high in
the world to wealth and honors. He
becomes a private Nemesis for the de-
struction of the rich banker, the honored
general, and the distinguished magistrate,
each of whom his tireless, relentless
hand brings low. The first half of
the book is a story of romantic and
exciting adventure; the second is in
a different key, sombre and unlovely,
and not likely to convince any one that
revenge is sweet.
But the splendid
Napoleon the First, The History of,
by P. Lanfrey. (1871-79. ) A study
of the career and character of Napoleon
down to the close of 1811, in which ad-
vantage is taken of the lapse of time,
and the comprehensive collection made
by many writers of materials, for a
work thoroughly and perfectly historical,
- a clear-sighted estimate of the great
figure which so many eminent writers
have examined, either for
of
apology or for unjust detraction. The
death of the author, November 16th, 1877,
left his work unfinished, at the point
excess
## p. 480 (#516) ############################################
480
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
imagination of Dumas transfigures the forth in the most brilliant colors. It is
whole, its intensity persuades the reader like a historical painting, so many por-
that the impossible is the actual, and its traits are introduced. The description of
rush and impetuosity sweep him breath- the sea trip to Genoa, whither the beau-
less to the end.
tiful yacht of the American millionaire
carries most of the personages of the
A Tragic idyll. (Une Idylle Tra- story, is also most vividly told, and the
gique), by Paul Bourget. (1896. ) episode of the secret marriage is like a
M. Bourget declares that in life there canto of a poem. Surely no ceremony
are two types of beings corresponding in Genoa had ever been more remark.
to tragedy and comedy, to one of which able : « This great Venetian lady had
great departments each belongs, gen- come from Cannes on an American's
erally with no mixture. «For one, the yacht to marry a ruined gentleman of
most romantic episodes end as in a dubious title from Barbentane, assisted
vaudeville. For the other the simplest by a young American girl and an Aus-
adventures end in drama; devoted to trian lady, a morganatic archduchess,
poignant emotions, cruel complications, who in her turn is accompanied by a
all their idylls are tragic idylls. With Frenchman of the simplest, the most pro-
this idea in mind the author pictures the vincial French tradition. ”
young Provençal Vicomte de Carancez, The poetry of the idyll is not to be
a true D'Artagnan, un gourmand de gainsaid, or its fascinating interest, or its
toutes les gourmandises, who has run
dramatic power.
Its tenuous moral is
through his inheritance of 600,000 francs; thoroughly French, but is based on this
and contrasts him with his friend Pierre epigrammatic exclamation:-
Hautefeuille, a genuine, sweet-tempered, "Ah! demain ! ce dangereux et mys-
chivalrous, and chaste (at least, compara- terieux demain, l'inevitable expiation de
tively chaste) provincial gentleman. The tous nos coupables aujourd'huis. (Ah
light, fickle, astute, and clever advent- to-morrow, that dangerous and mysteri-
urer, whose very title is in question, in ous to-morrow, the inevitable punisher of
searching for means to recoup his for- all our guilty to-days! ”)
tunes deliberately falls in love with a To an American reader an element of
rich widow, the Venetian Marchioness An- comedy is introduced in the author's
driana Bonaccorsi; and successfully car- amusing portrayal of Marsh the Ameri-
ries his romantic plan into execution, can railway magnate. More realistic is
cleverly parrying all the attempts of her his account of the half-mad scientific
Anglomaniac brother to get rid of him Archduke, who hated his wife and yet
by sixteenth-century methods of poison was jealous of her.
and assassination. Pierre on the other
hand falls under the seduction of the
a romantic novel by «Ouida,”
beautiful and passionate morganatic wife was published in 1883. It has a
of an Austrian archduke: and though picturesque and extravagant plot and
their liaison reaches the last develop- setting. Wanda, the heroine, a beauti-
ment, its guilty fruit is utter wretched- ful woman of high rank and wealth, is
ness for both, — not, as an Anglo-Saxon the possessor of a magnificent ancestral
moralist would have pictured it, from the castle in the mountains of Austria.
breaking of any moral law, but because There the nineteenth century meets the
a former lover of the Baroness Ely de Middle Ages. Wanda is herself steeped
Sallach-Carlsberg is Pierre's most inti- in old-world traditions of honor and
mate friend; their passions cross each chivalry. She will not marry until she
other and clash, and ultimately lead to loves, and she does not love readily.
the death of Olivier du Prat, who in a One stormy night a stranger is rescued
moment of exaltation and moral despair from drowning in the lake beside the
sacrifices himself to save his friend, castle. He calls himself René, Marquis
though he knows that this friend is play- de Sabran-Romaris, but he is really the
ing him false and breaking a solemn oath. natural son of a great Russian noble by
This dead friend becomes the living re- a peasant girl. Yet he is the son of his
morse that prevents the two passionate father rather than of his mother; he has
lovers from ever again meeting.
lived so long in the atmosphere of aris-
The story opens at Monte Carlo, the tocracy that he almost believes in him-
heated unwholesome life of which is set self. The ancient family from which
Wanda,
## p. 481 (#517) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
481
he stole his title is extinct. The world dicting his happiness, and laying a curse
accepts him as its last representative. upon those who are dearest to him.
By temperament and training he is in The innocent suffer for the guilty, and
every way a man suited to Wanda von the wages of sin is death.
Szalras. She loves him in spite of her-
self. He on his part loves her honestly Wetherel Affair, The, by J. W. Die
;
Forest. (1873. ) The scene of this
he cannot tell her the true story of his story is laid in America in the present
birth, and that he was once Vassia
ceptury. Judge Jabez Wetherel, a rich
Kazán, a serf. Only one person lives old man of stern religious principles, is
who remembers Vassia Kazán. This is mysteriously murdered in his library at
Egon Vásárhely, Wanda's cousin, who his country-seat in Connecticut, while
cherishes for her a hopeless love. As a rewriting his will; and the document is
boy guest in the house of Prince Zaba- stolen. There is no clue to the mur-
Vassia's father, he had quarreled derer, though some suspicion rests upon
with Vassia, and had wounded him with the victim's nephew Edward, who has
a knife.
been too gay and worldly to suit the
The Marquis of Sabran marries Wanda; old-fashioned ideas of his uncle, who
children are born to them; their married has consequently disinherited him. Pre-
life is wholly happy. After several years, vious to the murder, and contrary to his
Egon is prevailed upon to visit them. uncle's wishes, Edward has become en-
The beautiful features of Wanda's hus- gaged to Nestoria Bernard, a lovely
band awaken strange memories of a young girl who is visiting at Judge
boyish quarrel. By a long chain of cir- Wetherel's house. Nestoria is the daugh-
cumstances, Sabran is at last forced to ter of a missionary in Persia, and has
tell Wanda of his deception. She sends returned home to cor her educa-
him from her, and for three years lives tion; Edward was a fellow passenger
in solitude and bitterness. She forgives with her on the homeward voyage, dur-
him only when he saves the life of their ing which he fell in love with her, at-
eldest son. But he has given his own tracted by her innocence and charm.
life to do this, living only eleven days On the night of the tragedy Nestoria
after the rescue of the child. In the catches a glimpse of the murderer, and
heart of his wife he lives forever, and is impressed with the dreadful belief
with him lives a sleepless and eternal that it is her lover who has committed
remorse. )
the deed. Dreading the thought of meet-
ing him again, and being compelled to
Wage
ages of Sin, The, by «Lucas Ma- testify against him, she fees from the
let,” is a study of character rather house and eventually reaches New York
than a novel of incident. The leading city, where all trace of her is lost. Ed-
personages stand in high relief against ward Wetherel shows great strength of
a background of commonplace English character in this troublous time, and ex-
prosperity. Mary Crookenden, the hero- hibits fine qualities which win the respect
ine, is a charming English girl; beautiful, of all. He finds himself sole heir to the
spirited, and an heiress. Her cousin, large fortune, but chooses to divide it
Lance Crookenden, who is a few years with his relatives, Mrs.
