The es- so
ecstatic
and so base, is vividly de-
sayist now considers in detail, Intellect.
sayist now considers in detail, Intellect.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v30 - Guide to Systematic Readings
While based
it has destroyed thousands, for being on the fullest and minutest research,
what it made me. ” The scene of the and giving a striking picture of the new
story is laid in London and the adjoin-| régime following the Revolution, it is
ing country, at a period shortly preced- less impartial than the previous parts of
ing the French Revolution.
Paul, a the work. The indictment of Napoleon
child of unknown parentage, is brought is as bitter as the picture of his almost
up by an old innkeeper among compan- superhuman power is brilliant; and what-
ions of very doubtful character. Arrested ever the Revolution produced is referred
for a theft of which he is innocent, he to mingled crime and madness. Taken
is sentenced to confinement among all together, the three works show Taine
sorts of hardened criminals.
He es-
at his best of originality, boldness, and
capes, and quickly becomes the chief
power as a writer.
of a band of highwaymen. In the midst
of a
Birtha wlessness, he takes Mºrals of Lucius Annæus Seneca,
residence at Bath under the name of The, is title given to
Captain Clifford and falls desperately in twelve essays on ethical subjects attrib-
love with a young heiress. Lucy Brandon, uted to the great Roman Stoic. They
who returns his affection; but realizing are the most interesting and valuable of
the gulf which lies between them, he his numerous works. Representing the
resolutely takes leave of her after con- thought of his whole life, the most fa-
fessing vaguely who and what he is.
are the essays on 'Consolation,'
Shortly after this he robs, partly through addressed to his mother, when he was
revenge, Lord Mauleverer, a suitor for in exile at Corsica; on Providence, «a
the hand of Lucy, and intimate friend golden book," as it is called by Lipsius,
of her uncle and guardian, Sir William the German critic; and on (The Happy
Brandon, a lawyer of great note, re- Life. ) The Stoic doctrines of calmness,
me
career
mous
## p. 533 (#569) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
533
was
one
forbearance, and strict virtue and just- 40,000 citizens that he found on his re-
ice, receive here their loftiest statement. turn from Europe, a traveled gentleman;
The popularity of these Morals) with and the Boston of three times as large
both pagan and Christian readers led a population, where still his owr house
to their preservation in almost a perfect afforded the most delightful hospitality
condition. To the student of Christian- and social life, among many famous for
ity in its relations with paganism, no good talk and good manners,— this old
other classic writer yields in interest to town is made to seem worthy of its son.
this «divine pagan,” as Lactantius, the The papers recording Mr. Ticknor's
early church father and poet, calls him. visits abroad are crowded with the names
The most striking parallels to the for- of men and women whom the world
mularies of the Christian writers, nota- honors, and who were delighted to know
bly St. Paul, are to be found in his the agreeable American: Byron, Rogers,
later works, especially those on (The Wordsworth, Hunt, Lady Holland, Lady
Happy Life) and on (The Conferring Ashburnham, Lord Lansdowne, Macau-
of Benefits.
lay, Sydney Smith, Jeffrey, Lockhart,
Châteaubriand, Talleyrand, Madame de
Life
ife, Letters, and Journals of George Staël, Goethe, Herder, Thorwaldsen,
Ticknor. (2 vols. , 1876. ) The story Manzoni, Sismondi, and in later years,
of the life of a private gentleman is every man of note in Europe. Of all of
here delightfully told through his jour- these, most interesting friendly glimpses
nals and letters to and from friends; his are given in letters and journals. Mr.
daughter, with excellent taste, having Ticknor's characterizations of these per-
joined the history which these docu- sons are admirable, always judicious and
ments reveal, by the slightest thread of faithful, and often humorous. With his
narrative. The birth of George Tick- strong liking for foreign men and things,
nor in Boston in 1791, his education in he
of the best Americans,
private school and college, his deliberate seeing the faults of his country, but lov-
choice of the life of a man of letters as ing her in spite of them. Happily he
his vocation, his four years of study and lived to see a reunited Union, and to
travel abroad, from the age of twenty- cherish the loftiest hopes for its future.
three to that of twenty-seven, his work The young American who looks for fine
at Harvard as professor of French and standards of intellectual, moral, and
Spanish, his labor upon his History social achievements will find his
of Spanish Literature, his delightful count in a study of the life of this mod-
nome life, a second journey in Europe est, accomplished, genial, hard-working,
in his ripe middle age, and still a third, distinguished private gentleman.
full of profit and delight, when he was
sixty-five, his profound interest in the Daniel Webster, cobyn Henry
Cabot
war for
Lodge. This forms Vol. viii. of
and finally the peaceful closing of his days the American Statesmen) series. Mr.
at the age of seventy-nine, - these are Lodge disclaims all credit for original
the material of the book. But the reader research among MS. records in prepar-
sees picture after picture of a delightful ing this life of Webster; and is content
existence, and is brought into intimate to follow in the footsteps of George
relations with the most cultivated and Ticknor Curtis, to whose elaborate,
agreeable people of the century. George careful, and scholarly biography of the
Ticknor had the happiness to be well great statesman he frankly acknowledges
born; that is, his father and mother were his indebtedness for all the material
well educated, full of ideas and aspira- facts of Webster's life and labors. But
tions, and so easy in circumstances that on these facts he has exercised an inde-
the best advantages awaited the boy. pendent judgment; and this biographical
With his inheritance of charming man-
material he has worked over in his own
ners, a bright intelligence, a kind heart, way, producing an essentially original
and leisure for study, he was certain to study of the life of Webster. In con-
establish friendships among the best. sidering the crises of Webster's life as
The simple, delightful society of the lawyer, orator, senator, statesman, he in
Boston of 18,000 inhabitants, where his a few brief chapters brings the man be-
boyhood was passed; the not less agree- fore us with striking vividnes
able but more sophisticated Boston of tray Webster as a lawyer, his part in
ac-
To por-
## p. 534 (#570) ############################################
534
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
seen at
answer
the Dartmouth College Case is recounted; subject in its industrial and ethical ap-
for there his legal talents are
plications, and concludes that the «inde-
their best. The chapter on this case is pendence of foreigners ” which a high
a model of clear and concise statement. tariff is supposed to secure, must be the
Webster as an orator is the subject of result simply and solely of native supe.
another chapter, dealing with his speeches riority, either in energy, or industry, or
in the Massachusetts Convention of 1820, inventiveness, or in natural advantages.
and his Plymouth oration, and their The papers on Criminal Politics,' 'Idle-
effects upon the auditors. His part in ness and Immorality,) (The Duty of Ed-
the tariff debates of 1828 in Congress, ucated Men in a Democracy,) "Who Will
his reply to Hayne, and his struggle Pay the Bills of Socialism ? ) and (The
with Jackson, occupy two chapters, in Real Problem of Democracy, are lay
which Webster's extraordinary powers of sermons of so vigorous an application
reasoning and of oratory are analyzed. that the most easy-going political sinner
Mr. Lodge seems to juage without par- who reads them will not be able to es-
tisanship Webster's Seventh of March cape the pangs of conscience. The final
speech, and the dissensions between him
paper on (The Expenditure of Rich
and his party. He recognizes in Web- Men) is a disquisition on the difficulty
ster, above all, «the preeminent cham- of real sumptuosity in America.
pion and exponent of nationality. ”
Language and the Study of Lan.
guage, by William Dwight Whitney,
Problems of Modern Democracy, by
Edwin Lawrence Godkin.
1867. This work is not only indispens-
(1896. )
able to students of comparative phi-
This collection of eleven political and
lology, but delightful and instructive
economic essays, on subjects connected
with the evolution of the republic, be-
It controverts some of the
reading
positions of Max Müller's Lectures on
longs among the most thoughtful and
the Science of Language,' notably in its
most interesting books of its class — with
to the fundamental question.
Lecky's, Pearson's, Stephen's, Fiske's,
How did language originate ? The
and Lowell's. From the first one, (Aris-
tocratic Opinions of Democracy,' pub-
growth of language is first considered,
with the causes which affect the kind
lished during the last year of the Civil
and the rate of linguistic change; then
War, to the last, «The Expenditure of
Rich Men,' thirty-one years elapse; yet
the separation of languages into dialects;
the comment of time simply emphasizes
then the group of dialects and the family
of more distantly related languages which
the rightness of Mr. Godkin's thinking.
include English; then a review of the
He states the aristocratic objections to
other great families; the relative value
democracy with absolute fairness, con-
and authority of linguistic and of physi-
cedes the weight of many of them, is
cal evidence of race, and the bearing of
even ready to admit that to some degree
language on the ultimate question of the
democracy in America is still on trial.
But he maintains that the right-hand
unity or variety of the human species:
the whole closing with an inquiry into
fallings-off and left-hand defections with
the origin of language, its relation to
which its opponents tax our political
thought, and its value as an element in
theories, are really due to quite other
human progress. Professor Whitney's
causes, - causes inseparable from the con-
theory is that acts and qualities were
ditions of our existence. Thus thought-
the first things named, and that the
fully he considers ethics, manners, liter-
roots of language from which all words
ature, art, and philosophy, public spirit
have sprung – were originally planted
and private virtue; and his conclusion is
by man in striving to imitate natural
that the world's best saints of the last
sounds (the onomatopoetic theory), and
hundred years have come out of the
to utter sounds expressive of excited
Nazareth of democracy,- issuing from
feeling (the interjectional theory); not
the middle and lower classes in Europe,
by means of an innate (creative faculty »
from the plain people in America.
for phonetically expressing his thoughts,
(Popular Government is a review and
which is Max Müller's view.
refutation of much of the doctrine of
Sir Henry Maine, in his volume on that | Earth and Man: The, by Arnold Guyot.
(Some
(1849. ) This fascinating book was
Aspects of the Tariff) deals with the the first word upon its subject, -com.
## p. 535 (#571) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
535
сол
parative physical geography and its rela-
tion to mankind, - which had ever been
addressed to a popular American audi-
ence. The substance of these pages was
first given in the form of lectures before
the Lowell Institute of Boston. Professor
Guyot contends that geography means
not a mere description of the earth's sur-
face, but an interpretation of the phenom-
ena which it describes; an endeavor to
seize the incessant mutual action of the
different portions of physical nature upon
each other, of inorganic nature upon or-
ganized beings — upon man in particular
- and upon the successive development of
human societies. In a word, says the au-
thor, it must explain the perpetual play
of forces that constitutes what might
be called the life of the globe, its physi-
ology. Understood otherwise, geography
loses its vital principle, and becomes a
mere collection of partial, unmeaning
facts. He then goes on to explain how
the contours of mountains, their position,
their direction, their height, the length
and direction of rivers, the configuration
of coasts, the slope of plateaus, the
neighborhood of islands, and in a word,
all physical conditions, have modified
profoundly the life of man. He explains
in detail the relief of the continents, the
characteristics of the oceans, the gradual
formation of the continents, the effects
of winds, rains, and marine currents on
vegetable and animal life, the causes of
likenesses and of differences, and finally,
the people and the life of the future.
Foretold by their physical condition, the
long waiting of the southern continents
for their evolution has been inevitable;
but the scientist foresees for them a full
development when the industrious and
skillful men of the northern continents
shall join with the men of the tropics to
establish a movement of universal pro-
gress and improvement. Full of knowl-
edge and a lofty spirituality, written
always with clearness and often with
eloquence, (The Earth and Man) is a
book whose charm is perennial.
and the criticisms often just, yet some.
times grossly prejudiced. The volumes
were small in size, but Johnson had
intended to make his sketches much
smaller. They had been ordered by
forty of the best booksellers in London
to be used as prefaces for a uniform
edition of the English poets. Johnson
was peculiarly qualified for the work,
deriving his material largely from per-
sonal recollections. The publishers, it is
said, made $25,000 or $30,000, while the
writer got only $2,000. The MS. of the
work he gave to Boswell, who gives us
certain variorum readings. Johnson
himself thought the life of Cowley the
best, and Macaulay agrees with him.
The account of Pope he wrote
amore; said that it would be a thousand
years before another man appeared who
had Pope's power of versification. In
the sketch of Milton the old Tory spoke
with scorn and indignation of that pa-
triot poet's Roundhead politics, calling
him (an acrimonious, surly Republican »
and brutally insolent,” and poured con-
tempt on his (Lycidas. Such things as
this, with his injustice to Gray, called
down on his head a storm of wrath
from the Whigs; which, however, failed
to ruffle in the least the composure of
the erudite old behemoth. It is amaz-
ing to read the names of the English
poets) in this collection. Who now ever
hears of Rochester, Roscommon, Pom-
fret, Dorset, Stepney, Philips, Walsh,
Smith, King, Sprat, Halifax, Garth,
Hughes, Sheffield, Blackmore, Fenton,
Granville, Tickell, Hammond, Somer-
ville, Broome, Mallet, Duke, Denham,
Lyttleton ?
Lady of Fort St. John, The, by Mary
.
and highly imaginative little story is a
romance based on the history of Acadia
in 1645, and describing how Marie de
la Tour, in the absence of her lord,
defends Fort St. John against the be-
sieging forces of D'Aulnay de Charni.
say.
La Tour, as a Protestant, is out
of favor with the king of France;
D'Aulnay, with full permission from
Louis XIII. , is driving him from his
hereditary estates. Marie sustains the
siege with great courage, until
comes from her husband that their cause
is definitely lost; then she capitulates.
The end is tragic. There are several
well-drawn subordinate characters. The
Lives of the Poets, by Samuel John-
The first four volumes of this
once very popular work were published
in 1779, the last six in 1781. Macaulay
pronounced them the best of Samuel
Johnson's works. ' The style is largely
free from the ponderous lumbering sen-
tences of most of his other works, the
narratives entertaining and instructive,
son.
news
## p. 536 (#572) ############################################
536
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
befriended by Harvey Gerald and his
daughter Lucy, falls in love with Lucy,
and finally marries her. Sir Massingberd
in his youth secretly married a gipsy,
whom he drove mad with his cruelty.
She curses him: May he perish, inch by
inch, within reach of aid that shall not
come. » Sir Massingberd disappears, and
all search for him is vain; many months
later his bones are found in an old tree,
known as the Wolsey Oak. It was sup-
posed that he climbed the tree to look
about for poachers, that the rotton wood
gave way, and he slipped into the hollow
trunk, whence he could not escape. Had
he not closed up the public path which
skirted the tree, his cries for help must
have been heard. With his disappear-
ance and death all goes well with the
households on which the blight of his
evil spirit had fallen, and the story ends
happily.
story takes good rank among the hosts
of historic romances which the renas-
cence of the novel of adventure has
given to the time.
Mrs. Candle's Curtain Lectures, by
Douglas Jerrold, appeared first as
a series of papers in Punch; and were
published in book form in 1846. They
gained at once an enormous popularity,
being translated into nearly all Euro-
pean languages. The secret of this pop-
ularity is not difficult to discover. The
book is a dramatic embodiment of a
world-old matrimonial joke — the lay
sermons delivered at night-time by a
self-martyrized wife. Mrs. Caudle had
little in this world to call her own but
her husband's ears. They were her en-
tire property! When Mrs. Caudle died
after thirty years of spouseship, the be-
reaved Job Caudle resolved every night
to commit to paper one curtain lecture
of his late wife. When he himself died,
a small packet of papers was found, in-
scribed as follows:-
"Curtain Lectures delivered in the
course of thirty years by Mrs. Marga-
ret Caudle, and suffered by Job, her
husband.
A single paragraph will suffice to show
how Job suffered:-
“Well, Mr. Caudle, I hope you're in a
little better temper than you were this
morning! There — you needn't begin to
whistle. People don't come to bed to
whistle. But it's like you. I can't speak
that you don't try to insult me. Once I
used to say you were the best creature
living; now you get quite a fiend. Do
let you rest: No, I won't let you rest.
It's the only time I have to talk to you,
and you shall hear me. I'm put upon
all day long; it's very hard if I can't
speak a word at night: besides, it isn't
often I open my mouth, goodness knows! ”
Lost
ost Sir Massing berd, by James Payn.
(1864. ) This novel, generally con-
sidered the best of this indefatigable
novelist's stories, was one of the earliest.
It is a modern tale of English country
life, told with freedom, humor, and a cer-
tain good-natured cynicism. A bare sy-
nopsis, conveying no idea of the interest
of the book, would run as follows: Sir
Massingberd Heath neither feared God
nor regarded man. His property was en-
tailed, the next heir being his nephew
Marmaduke, whom he tries to murder in
order to sell the estates. Marmaduke is
Led
ed Horse Claim, The, by Mary Hal-
lock Foote.
The
scene of this
charming romance is laid in a Western
mining-town. On opposite sides of the
Led Horse gulch are the two rival min-
ing-camps, the Shoshone and the Led
Horse. Cecil Conrath, lately come to
join her brother, superintendent of the
Shoshone camp, while wandering alone
one morning, finds herself, to her dis-
may, on Led Horse ground, and face to
face with Hilgard, superintendent of
the rival camp. He is a handsome and
fascinating man, and the two young peo-
ple rapidly fall in love with each other,
though they meet but seldom, on account
of the animosity existing between the
two mines. From sounds that reach
him through the rock, Hilgard discovers
that Conrath has secretly pushed his
workings beyond the boundary line, and
that the ore of which the Shoshone
bins are full is taken from the Led
Horse claim. The case is put into the
hands of lawyers; but before anything
can be done, Conrath makes an attempt
to jump the Led Horse mine. Hilgard
has been warned; and with his sub-
ordinate, West, awaits the attacking
party at the passage of the drift. Shots
are exchanged, and Conrath is killed,
whether by Hilgard or West is
known. Though Hilgard has done but
his duty in defending his claim, Cecil
cannot marry the possible murderer of
her brother. He returns to New York,
where he would have died of typhoid
un-
## p. 537 (#573) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
537
champion and plaything of his dissolute
friends. Her child-life is pathetic in its
lawlessness, and prophesies a future of
wretchedness if not of degradation. But
at fifteen she suddenly blossoms into a
beautiful, fascinating, and — strange to
say — refined young lady. Her advent.
ures, from the time of this metempsy-
chosis, defy the potency of heredity and
environment, and hold the reader in
amazed attention till the curtain falls
upon an unexpected conclusion. This
story achieved so great a popular suc-
cess that it has been followed by a
sequel called His Grace of Osmonde,'
wherein the same characters reappear,
but the story is told from the point of
view of the hero instead of that of the
heroine. A Lady of Quality,' in spite
of the severe strictures of many critics,
has been dramatized by the author and
performed with much success.
seems
now
fever, had not Cecil and her aunt op-
portunely appeared at the same hotel, to
nurse him back to life. In spite of the
disapproval of her family, the lovers are
finally married. This book was pub-
lished in 1883, and was read with great
interest, as being one of the first de-
scriptions of mining life in the West, as
it remains one of the best.
Real Folks, by Mrs. A. D. T. Whit-
ney. Mrs. Whitney explains the
real folks she means in the saying of
one of her characters: « Real folks, the
true livers, the genuine neahburs- nigh-
dwellers; they who abide alongside in
spirit. ” It is a domestic story dealing
with two generations. The sisters Frank
and Laura Oldways, left orphans, are
adopted into different households: Laura,
into that of her wealthy aunt, where
she is surrounded by the enervating in-
Auences of wealth and social ambitions;
Frank, into a simple country home,
where her lovable character develops in
its
proper
environment. They marry,
become mothers, and reaching middle
age come, at the wish of their rich
bachelor uncle Titus Oldways, to live
near him in Boston. The episodes in
the two households, the Ripwinkleys and
Ledwiths, so widely divergent in char-
acter, complete the story; which, while
never rising above the ordinary and
familiar, yet, like the pictures of the
old Dutch interiors, charms with its at-
mosphere of repose. It is a work for
mothers and daughters alike. It exhib-
its the worth of the domestic virtues
and the vanity of all worldly things;
but it never becomes preachy. Its New
England atmosphere is genuine, and the
sayings of the characters are often racy
of the soil; while the author's sense of
humor carries her safely over some ob-
stacles of emotion which might easily
become sentimentality.
La ady of Quality, A, by Mrs. Frances
Hodgson Burnett. (1896. ) The scene
of this story is laid in England, during
the reign of Queen Anne. Clorinda,
the unwelcome daughter of a dissolute,
poverty-stricken baronet, Sir Geoffrey
Wildairs, loses her mother at birth, and
with her little sister grows up neg-
lected and alone, fleeing from the sound
of her father's footsteps. At the age of
six she wins his heart by belaboring
m with blows and kicks; and from
that day, dressed as a boy, she is the
suc-
cesses.
Education, by Herbert Spencer. (1860. )
It is the highest praise that can
be bestowed upon this treatise, that it
a book of obvious if not
of commonplace philosophy, whereas,
when it was published, it was recog-
nized as revolutionary in the extreme.
So rapidly has its wisdom become incar-
nated in methods if not in systems.
The book opens with an examination
of what knowledge is of most worth:
it shows that in the mental world as in
the bodily, the ornamental comes before
the useful; that we do not seek to de-
velop our own individual capacities to
their utmost, but to learn what will
enable us to make the most show, or
accomplish the greatest material
But if the important thing in
life is to know how to live, in the wid-
sense, then education should be
made to afford us that knowledge; and
the knowledge is hence of most value
which informs and develops the whole
man. Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry,
Biology, the Science of Society,- all
these are important; but an education
which teaches youth how to become
fit for parentage is indispensable. Too
many fathers and mothers are totally
unfit to develop either the bodies, the
souls, or the minds of their children,
From the duty of preparation on the
part of the parent, it is a short step
to the duty of preparation on the part
of the citizen. And still another divis-
ion of human life, that which includes the
est
## p. 538 (#574) ############################################
538
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
art.
now
relaxations and pleasures of existence, strong. The treatment is epic rather
should be made a matter of intelligent than dramatic; and the splendid yet
study; for this comprehends the whole comfortless civilization of the Middle
field of the fine arts, the whole æs- Ages, so picturesque and so squalid,
thetic organization of society.
The es- so ecstatic and so base, is vividly de-
sayist now considers in detail, Intellect. lineated.
ual Education, Moral Education, and
Physical Education. He shows not only
Ersilia, by Emily Frances Poynter,
an unreasoned and unreasonable exist-
is a story of love, friendship, and
The scene is mainly in Paris and
ing state of things, but he discloses
the true philosophy underlying the ques-
in a watering-place in the Pyrenees,
Eaux Bonnes, where the story opens with
tion, and points out the true methods
the arrival of an Englishman in a hotel
of reasonableness and rightness. Each
at evening, just as a party of three are
chapter is enriched with a wealth of
seen returning from a mountain walk.
illustration drawn from history, litera-
The Englishman is the artist, Arthur
ture, or life; and the argument, although
Fleming; the three are: bis pupil, Hum-
closely reasoned, is very entertaining
phrey Rudolph, a youth of mixed Eng-
from first to last. Few books of the
lish and French parentage; the maiden
age have had a more direct and per-
aunt, Mademoiselle Mathilde de Brissac;
manent effect upon the general thought
than this; for parents and teachers who
and his fair and youthful cousin Ersilia,
know Herbert Spencer only as a name,
the supposed widow of the Russian
Prince Zaraikine. Fleming falls in love
follow the suggestions which are
with Ersilia, who was already loved by
a part of the common intellectual air,
Humphrey; and Humphrey experiences
the double wretchedness of a struggle
Rienzi
ienzi, The Last of the Roman
between his love and the friendship
Tribunes, by Sir Edward Bulwer-
that attaches him to both his master
Lytton (1848), is one of the author's
and his fair cousin. The marriage of
most famous historical romances. It is
Ersilia and Fleming being arranged for,
founded on the career of Cola di Rienzi,
a M. de Rossel brings news which for-
who, in the fourteenth century, inspired
ever intercepts this union, and Hum-
by visions of restoring the ancient great-
phrey is induced to write the fatal
ness of Rome, made himself for seven
letter. Fleming and Rossel meet in a
months master of that imperial city,
duel, the Prince Zaraikine, supposed to
and after nearly seven years of exile
and excommunication, during part of
be dead, reappears, and many interesting
complications arise which are told in a
which he was a prisoner, repeated the
triumph, finally dying at
style by the accom-
the people's
very charming
hands in
plished writer.
1354.
Bulwer was im-
pressed with the heroism and force of Jocelyn, by Alphonse de Lamartine. A
character of his hero, that at first he romantic and sentimental poem pub-
meditated writing his biography, instead lished in Paris in 1836, intervening be-
of a romance founded on his life. The tween the author's Eastern Travels)
story adheres very closely to the histori- and his Fall of an Angel, and sue-
cal facts. To secure accuracy and vivid- ceeded ten years after by his great prose
ness of setting, the novelist went to work, the History of the Girondins. )
Rome to live while writing it. Rienzi's Jocelyn) was widely read in England,
contradictory character, and above all, and was the outcome of the extreme ro-
his consummate ability, and the ambi- manticism that held sway at the time in
tious and unprincipled yet heroic na- Europe. Suspected of containing a con-
ture of his rival, Walter de Montreal, cealed attack the celibacy of the
are skillfully drawn. Among the lesser priesthood, the author defends his poem
personages, Irene, Rienzi's gentle sister, as being purely a poetic creation, consti-
and Nina, his regal wife, with her love tuting a fragment of a great Epic of
of the poetry of wealth and power; Humanity, which he had aspired to write.
Irene's lover, Adrian di Castello, the The poem expresses the conservative re-
enlightened noble; Cecco del Vecchio, ligious feeling of the country as opposed
the sturdy smith; and the ill-fated to the military and democratic spirit.
Angelo Villani, are prominent. Many There are in it echoes of Châteaubriand,
of the situations and scenes very St. Pierre, and Wordsworth; and despite
SO
on
are
## p. 539 (#575) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
539
uge.
With the execution of this wish
the story closes. There are passages of
tender emotion and deep piety in the
poem that recall (St. Augustine) and
the Imitation); and a pure and lofty
moral atmosphere pervades the whole
narrative.
uintus Claudius, by Ernst Eckstein.
its wordiness and long-drawn-out de-
scriptions, which have called forth the
comment of a reviewer that the author
will not allow even the sun to rise and
set in peace,” the piece often reaches a
very high mark of poetic fervor and
beauty. Jocelyn is a priest who leaves
behind him certain records describing
his suffering and temptations, which are
afterwards discovered by his neighbor, a
botanist, — the supposed writer of the
poem, - who after the pastor's decease
visits his dwelling. The story begins
with a picture of Jocelyn at sixteen, a
village youth of humble but respectable
parentage. Morning and evening scenes
of village life are graphically depicted,
and the episodes of youthful love among
the lads and maidens, in which Jocelyn,
destined as he is for the priesthood,
feels that he has no rightful share. To
provide for a suitable dowry in marriage
for his sister, he has vowed himself to
the Church. War breaking out, and the
lives of the clergy being threatened,
Jocelyn finds refuge among the solitudes
of the Alps. There he meets
an old
man accompanied by a boy who as ref-
ugees are passing near his cave, pursued
by soldiers. In the attack which fol.
lows, the old man is killed, and Jocelyn
takes the boy into his cave. They en-
joy delightful companionship as
brothers under the pure and sublime in-
fluences of the Alpine home. At length
an accident reveals to Jocelyn that his
orphan protégé and friend is a maiden,
who had disguised herself in fight in
male attire, and since had maintained
the deception out of reverence for the
priestly vows of her protector.
The
friendship of the two companions be-
coming now an avowed love, Jocelyn
seeks his bishop for advice as to his
duty, and is directed to renounce his
passion as unlawful, and to be separated
from Laurence, the object of his love.
Laurence goes to Paris, where years
afterwards Jocelyn finds her married,
but unworthily, and leading a gay but
miserable life. He returns to his mount-
ain home to find solace in his severe
round of duty. Called later to minister
to a dying traveler on the pass to Italy,
he discovers her to be his Laurence,
who in breathing her last tells of her
never-dying love for him, and be-
queathes to him all her fortune, and the
prayer that her body may be buried near
the scene of their mountain-home ref-
a
Clara Bell. ) This story, which appeared
originally in 1881, is (A Romance of Im-
perial Rome) during the first century.
The work was first suggested to the
author's mind as he stood amid the
shadows of the Colosseum; and the ear-
lier scenes are largely laid in the palaces
and temples that lie in ruins near by
this spot.
The central motive of the
book is the gradual conversion to Christ-
ianity of Quintus Claudius, son of
Titus Claudius, priest of Jupiter Capito-
linus; his avowal of the same, and the
consequences that flow from it to him-
self, his family, and his promised wife,
Cornelia. The time of the story is 95
A. D. at the close of the gloomy reign
of Domitian; and the book ends with
that Emperor's assassination and the
installation of Nerva and Trajan. Cor-
nelia, though not a Christian herself,
claims to be one, that she may share
her lover's fate; and they are exposed
together in the arena, where Quintus
kills a lion and obtains a temporary
reprieve. The death of Domitian re-
leases and saves them. Much of the
book is taken up with the love of the
Empress Domitia for Claudius. Re-
pulsed by him, she plots against him, or
in his favor, as her mood changes. The
various other characters in the compli-
cated plan of the book are involved in
ceaseless plotting and counter-plotting,
either for love or ambition, including
the political conspiracy which finally
destroys the tyrant and saves Quintus
and Cornelia. The chief interest in the
story lies in the conflict it reveals be-
tween the corruption and decay of the
Old Roman society and religion, and
the fresh vigor of the new faith, as it
appears in the ranks of the humble and
despised. The local coloring is excel-
lent; and the ample footnotes explain
minutely a thousand details which are
ingeniously woven into the text. The
author has fulfilled a difficult task with
taste and discretion, and has given a
vivid glimpse of Rome at the opening
## p. 540 (#576) ############################################
540
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
a
of the Christian Era. The book has en-
joyed a wide popularity.
I" the Year of Jubilee by George
Gissing. (1895. ) Mr. Gissing's real-
ism is relentless; and his tale of
middle-class philistinism would be un-
bearable were it not also the story of
the growth of a soul through suffering.
Nancy Lord, the heroine, daughter of
a piano-dealer in a small way, has in
her the elements of strength which
under other circumstances would have
made her silent and rigid father great.
Her youth is full of mistakes, the tests
of life are all too severe for her, and
she seems to have met total defeat be-
fore her«fighting soul sets itself to
win. Perhaps it is not a very great
victory to turn a foolish and compulsory
marriage into a calm and comfortable
modus vivendi. But it is great to her.
Besides the vivid and headlong Nancy,
and her faithful friend and servant
Mary Woodruffe, there is hardly a per-
sonage in the book whose acquaintance
the reader would voluntarily make.
Even the hero, a gentleman by birth and
tradition, seems rather a plated article
than the real thing, though he shows
signs of grace as the story ends. All
the women sordid, mean, half-
educated under
process which is
mentally superficial and morally non-
existent. The men are petty, or vulgar,
or both.
Apparently both and
women, typical as they are, and care-
fully studied, are meant to show the
mischief that may be done by impos-
ing on the commonest mentality a sys-
tem of instruction fit only for brains
with inherited tendencies towards cult-
Yet the book is not a problem
work. It is a picture of the cheaper
commercial London and the race it de-
velops; and it is so interesting a human
document that the expostulating reader
is forced to go on to the end.
Middle
iddle Greyness, by A. J. Dawson.
(1897. ) Henry Manton Darley, «un-
able to tone down to middle greyness
the mad hunger of his passionate na-
ture,” has broken his wife's heart and
dragged himself down to ruin by a
«black streak of dissipation in his
blood. A rich cousin, James Cummings,
having a daughter but no sons, offers to
bring up Darley's two boys, Robert and
William, and start them in life, guaran-
teeing a splendid career to the most
able,– provided that Darley shall efface
himself forever, on pain of forfeiting the
compact. Darley, under the name of
Crawford, buries himself in the Austral-
ian bush for seventeen years. A chance
newspaper reference to Robert, bis eld-
est, as the leading man at Oxford, in-
spires a yearning to see and judge of
his sons; and he makes a hasty trip
incognito to England for the purpose,
returning, however, unenlightened as to
their characters. The sons graduate in
due course: Robert brilliant and ener-
getic, but erratic and showing symptoms
of the black streak); while William
has the artistic temperament, dreamy and
unpractical. Their cousin Charlotte,
nicknamed «Trottie, regards them as
her brothers, but gradually develops a
closer feeling for William. Robert enters
Parliament with much éclat, but soon
the black streak) reappears, fostered
by Robert's evil genius, Rollo Croft, a
dissolute artist. Darley returns again to
England to watch over Robert, and be-
comes his secretary, assuming the name
of Crossland. He endeavors to break the
Croft connection, but is dismissed for
his pains; and Robert breaks down in-
toxicated at a Parliamentary crisis, loses
his seat, and is disinherited by Cum-
mings. William meanwhile has also
been disowned for refusing to enter his
uncle's business, and earns a precarious
living by doing newspaper work.
He
meets Darley accidentally, and keeps him
for a few days, when the latter again re-
turns to Australia, leaving with William
his address as “Crawford. ) Robert dis-
covers his father's whereabouts, seeks
him out, is thrown from his horse when
intoxicated, and dies recognizing him as
“Crossland — secretary - father. ” Will-
iam also visits Crawford, and is encour-
aged by him to return and write the
book that is in him; which he does. The
book suceeeds, his position in literature
is assured, he is taken into favor by
Cummings, and marries «Trottie. He
telegraphs his success to Crawford, whom
he never knows to be his father, and
who sums up the life-stories: - (Robert
is dead with the black streak all through
him, and Will is white and strong; and
I-I am nothing. The book presents
vivid pictures and strong contrasts, from
the wild scenery and bush life in Aus-
tralia to the social and political luxury
and refinement of England. The key-
note of the action is the struggle of
are
a
men
ure.
## p. 541 (#577) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
541
Darley to secure for his sons the mid- fellow troubadours through the valley
dle greyness," as between his own dis- of Vaucluse, he comes by accident upon
astrous black streak) and the strong the secluded garden and villa where
living white » derived from their pure King René had kept his daughter in
mother.
confinement under the care of the faith-
ful Bertrand and Martha. The count,
Steven Lawrence, Yeoman, by Mrs.
Edwards. (1867. ) Katha-
entering while Iolanthe is sleeping un-
der the spell of the Moorish physician,
rine Fane, rich, beautiful, good, engaged
and ignorant that she is the king's
to Lord Petres; and Dora Fane, poor,
frivolous, and heartless, -are cousins.
daughter, is ravished by her beauty,
and lifts the amulet from her breast, at
Dora sends Katharine's picture to Steven
which she awakes. He first reveals to
Lawrence, in Mexico, as her own. He
falls in love with it, returns to England,
her the secret of her blindness, and de-
clares his love. Surprised by the arrival
discovers his mistake, but is beguiled
of the king, he renounces his engage-
by Dora into marrying her. They are
ment with his daughter, and thereby his
not happy. Dora persuades him to take
inheritance of a kingdom, that he may
her to Paris, where she leads a life of
The
frivolity. Katharine, who loves Steven,
marry this beautiful stranger.
though she will not admit it, is his
Moor appears, declaring the time and
the conditions fulfilled for Iolanthe's res-
friend, now as ever. She goes to his
toration. Iolanthe comes forth seeing,
aid, and fancying him a prey to evil
companions, sends him to England. He
and is owned by the king as his daugh-
ter, and the count as his bride. The
returns unexpectedly, finds his wife at
a ball in a costume he had forbidden her
whole transaction is between noonday
wearing, and casts her off; she elopes,
and sunset, and takes place in the rose
Katharine follows and brings her back.
garden of Iolanthe's villa. The deep
Steven declines to receive her; Katha-
psychological motive of the play lies in
the fact of the soul's vision independent
rine takes her to London, where she
dies, frivolous to the last. A few days
of the physical sight, and of the inflow-
before the time set for her marriage to
ing of the soul's vision into the sense
Lord Petres, Katharine hears that Ste-
rather than the reverse, as the principle
ven has been thrown from his horse and
of seeing. Ebn Jahia, the Moor, teaches
thus:--
is dying. She hastens to his beside,
breaks her engagement- and he recovers.
« You deem, belike, our sense of vision rests
Within the eye; yet it is but a means.
He prepares to sell out and go back to
From the soul's depths the power of vision
Mexico; but Katharine stoops to conquer,
flows.
begs him not to leave her, and wins the Iolanthe must be conscious of her state,
happiness of her life. It is an entertain- Her inward eye must first be opened ere
The light can pour upon the outward sense.
ing story, of the common modern Eng-
A want must be developed in her soul:
A feeling that anticipates the light. ”
King Rene's Daughter: A Danish The coming of the count, and the love
lyrical drama, by Henrik Hertz. inspired in Iolanthe by the sound of his
(Translation by Theodore Martin: 1849. )
voice and the touch of his hand, creates
The seven scenes of this drama are lo- the necessary discontent: -
cated in Provence, in the valley of Vau-
“Deep in the soul a yearning must arise
cluse, in the middle of the fifteenth For a contentment which it strives to win. ”
century. The chief characters are King The interview between Iolanthe and the
René of Provence, and his daughter
count and his companion is partly in in-
Iolanthe, rendered blind by an accident
terchanged songs after the Minnesingers'
in early infancy, but raised in ignorance
manner. The construction of the drama
of this deficiency to her sixteenth year, is highly artistic, and the work is of
when by the skill of her Moorish phy- rare and unique beauty. The play was
sician she is to be restored to sight.
performed with success at the Strand
Plighted in marriage by her father to
Theatre, London, in 1849.
Count Tristan of Vaudemont, for state
reasons, without love, the two destined Tenants of Malory, The, bypti Sheri-
have count dan Le Fanu. (1867. ) This story
on arriving at manhood repudiates the opens in the little Welsh town of Car-
forced contract. Wandering with his dyllian. The hero is Cleve Verney,
lish type.
## p. 542 (#578) ############################################
542
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
who falls in love with Margaret Fan- long-lost daughter of that aristocratic
shawe, the daughter of Sir Booth family. Brave Commander Rodney Blu-
Fanshawe, who, in ignorance of his ett's proud relations do not therefore ob-
landlord's identity, is hiding from his ject to his marriage with the heroine.
creditors at Malory, part of the estate The old veteran's description of naval
of Lord Verney, - Arthur's uncle, - who engagements, and his quaint views of
has brought Sir Booth to ruin. The two «the quality » (the story is a first-person
families hate each other. Arthur Verney narrative throughout), makes it intensely
marries Margaret Fanshawe secretly in dramatic. The death and disinterment of
France, to which country Sir Booth Black Evan's » five sons, smothered in a
has departed. His uncle Lord Verney sand-storm; the villainy of giant Parson
wishes him to marry a lady of rank; Chowne, and his savage death from
and he, being ambitious and knowing hydrophobia; and the honest love of the
that his prospects will be at an end if narrator for Lady Isabel Carey, are
his marriage is known, procrastinates. prominent factors in the development of
A son is born to him, but this only adds
the plot.
It is to the latter that old
to his embarrassment. He hears that Davy, describing the unpleasantness of
Lord Verney himself has decided to hanging,” remarks, “I had helped, my-
marry the lady intended for him; and self, to run nine good men up at the
he contemplates bigamy, in order to yard-arm. And a fine thing for their
forestall his uncle. He is saved from souls, no doubt, to stop them from more
this crime by Lord Verney's sudden mischief, and let them go up while the
illness, and the return of the former Lord might think that other men had in-
Lord Verney, who was supposed to have jured them . . ”
In another
died in Turkey. Mrs. Arthur Verney place he is made to admit, “If my equal
eventually pines away and dies neglected insults me, I knock him down; if my
in Italy; while the hopes of the Verney officer does it, I knock under . .
family are dashed to the ground by the These illustrations show something of
fact that Tom Sedley, a genial open- the drollery of much of Blackmore's writ-
hearted young fellow, turns out to be ing:
the legitimate son of the former Lord
Verney, and succeeds to the title and
Story of a Bad Boy, The, by Thomas
estates, much to the advantage of all Bailey Aldrich, (1870,) is a fresh,
concerned. A large part of the book is humorous story, that has long been pop-
devoted to the intrigue of a firm of ular with children of all ages. Its open-
Jews, who, with a solicitor named Lar- ing sentences tend to explain the dubious
kin, endeavor to make money out of title: « This is the story of a bad boy.
Lord Verney in connection with the Well, not such a very bad, but a pretty
supposed death of the brother.
bad boy ; and I ought to know, for I am,
The story has the open moral that or was, that boy myself.
I call
ambition dulls the moral sensibilities of my story the story of a bad boy, partly
man, and that deception leads into diffi- to distinguish myself from those faultless
culties.
young gentlemen who generally figure in
narratives of this kind, and partly be-
In
Maid of Sker, The, by Richard D. cause I was not a cherub.
Blackmore, carries one through the short, I was a real human boy, such as
last twenty years of the eighteenth cent- you may meet anywhere in New Eng-
ury in England and Wales. « Fisher- land; and no more like the impossible
man Davy” Llewellyn, 'longshore sailor, boy in a story-book than a sound orange
and later, one of Lord Nelson's very is like one that has been sucked dry. ”
bravest own,” — while fishing along the The story is autobiographical in so far
shores of Bristol Channel and Swansea as suited the author's purpose. River-
Bay, finds in a drifting boat, which is mouth, where the so-called bad boy of
carried by the seas into Pool Tavan, a the story was born and brought up, after
wee two-year-old child asleep, — the Maid spending a few of his earliest years in
of Sker. ( Born to grace,
New Orleans, stands for Portsmouth,
beautiful too, is this “waif of the sea,” New Hampshire; just as his name, Tom
first known as “Bardie,” then Andalusia; Bailey, stands as a part, not even dis-
and last proved, by the true Bampfylde guised, of the author's own. Tom Bai-
peculiarity of thumbs, to be Bertha, the ley's temperament and appetites were
-
» and very
## p. 543 (#579) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
543
were
wholesome; his boyish pranks
never vicious or mean, though he frankly
didn't want to be an angel,” and didn't
think the missionary tracts presented to
him by the Rev. Wibird Hawkins were
half so nice as Robinson Crusoe, and
didn't send his little pocket-money to
the natives of the Feejee Islands, but
spent it royally in peppermint drops and
taffy-candy. ) The author, disgusted with
the goody-goody little hypocrite of an
earlier moral tale, created this boy of
flesh and blood, to displace the moribund
hero of Sandford and Merton”; though,
as Mr. Aldrich has since remarked, “the
title may have frightened off a few care-
ful friends who would have found noth-
ing serious to condemn in the book itself. ”
The story has been translated into French,
German, Spanish, Danish, Swedish, and
Dutch. An illustrated edition appeared
escapes, and, finding himself on a roof,
lets his dog down a chimney to sound
it. The dog lands in the fireplace of
his sweetheart's house, and she embraces
the dog. Obadiah pulls and hauls up
his sweetheart and her father and
mother. Just as they reach the top of
the chimney, the rope breaks and Oba-
diah falls, but is saved by falling into a
street lamp. After many other ludicrous
adventures he is married to his lady-
love.
in 1895.
Ad
dventures of Mr. Obadiah Oldbuck,
The, by Rudolphe Töpffer. This
series of 184 comic drawings, illustrating
the wonderful exploits of Obadiah Old-
buck in search of a sweetheart, with
text explaining each sketch, first ap-
peared in French in 1839, under the
title of M. Vieuxbois, and is the first of
a series of like sketches illustrating other
stories. The work won for its author
high praise, and was originally drawn
for the amusement of his young pupils.
Obadiah, in despair at not having re-
ceived an answer from his sweetheart,
determines on suicide; but the sword
luckily passes under his arm.
For forty-
eight nours he believes himself dead,
but returns to life exhausted by hunger.
He tries to hang himself, but the rope
is too long. He fights with a rival, and
after vanquishing him is accepted by his
sweetheart. He is arrested for hilarity,
and the match is off. He drinks hem-
lock, but is restored to life. He be-
comes a monk, but escapes; and finding
a favorable letter from his sweetheart,
elopes with her. He is recaptured by
the monks, and throws himself from a
window; but his life is saved by the
index of a sun-dial. He escapes, and is
to be married, but is late and finds
neither parents nor bride; throws himself
into a canal, but is fished out for his
wedding clothes. He is buried, and dug
up by birds of prey, and frightens his
hei who have him arrested, and he
sentenced to a year's imprisonment. He
My Arctic Journal, by, Josephine
Diebitsch-
In My Arctic
Journal, Mrs. Peary describes her ex-
periences as a member of an exploring
expedition sent out by the Philadelphia
Academy of Natural Sciences. Besides
her husband (the commander), Lieuten-
ant Robert E. Peary, U. S.
it has destroyed thousands, for being on the fullest and minutest research,
what it made me. ” The scene of the and giving a striking picture of the new
story is laid in London and the adjoin-| régime following the Revolution, it is
ing country, at a period shortly preced- less impartial than the previous parts of
ing the French Revolution.
Paul, a the work. The indictment of Napoleon
child of unknown parentage, is brought is as bitter as the picture of his almost
up by an old innkeeper among compan- superhuman power is brilliant; and what-
ions of very doubtful character. Arrested ever the Revolution produced is referred
for a theft of which he is innocent, he to mingled crime and madness. Taken
is sentenced to confinement among all together, the three works show Taine
sorts of hardened criminals.
He es-
at his best of originality, boldness, and
capes, and quickly becomes the chief
power as a writer.
of a band of highwaymen. In the midst
of a
Birtha wlessness, he takes Mºrals of Lucius Annæus Seneca,
residence at Bath under the name of The, is title given to
Captain Clifford and falls desperately in twelve essays on ethical subjects attrib-
love with a young heiress. Lucy Brandon, uted to the great Roman Stoic. They
who returns his affection; but realizing are the most interesting and valuable of
the gulf which lies between them, he his numerous works. Representing the
resolutely takes leave of her after con- thought of his whole life, the most fa-
fessing vaguely who and what he is.
are the essays on 'Consolation,'
Shortly after this he robs, partly through addressed to his mother, when he was
revenge, Lord Mauleverer, a suitor for in exile at Corsica; on Providence, «a
the hand of Lucy, and intimate friend golden book," as it is called by Lipsius,
of her uncle and guardian, Sir William the German critic; and on (The Happy
Brandon, a lawyer of great note, re- Life. ) The Stoic doctrines of calmness,
me
career
mous
## p. 533 (#569) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
533
was
one
forbearance, and strict virtue and just- 40,000 citizens that he found on his re-
ice, receive here their loftiest statement. turn from Europe, a traveled gentleman;
The popularity of these Morals) with and the Boston of three times as large
both pagan and Christian readers led a population, where still his owr house
to their preservation in almost a perfect afforded the most delightful hospitality
condition. To the student of Christian- and social life, among many famous for
ity in its relations with paganism, no good talk and good manners,— this old
other classic writer yields in interest to town is made to seem worthy of its son.
this «divine pagan,” as Lactantius, the The papers recording Mr. Ticknor's
early church father and poet, calls him. visits abroad are crowded with the names
The most striking parallels to the for- of men and women whom the world
mularies of the Christian writers, nota- honors, and who were delighted to know
bly St. Paul, are to be found in his the agreeable American: Byron, Rogers,
later works, especially those on (The Wordsworth, Hunt, Lady Holland, Lady
Happy Life) and on (The Conferring Ashburnham, Lord Lansdowne, Macau-
of Benefits.
lay, Sydney Smith, Jeffrey, Lockhart,
Châteaubriand, Talleyrand, Madame de
Life
ife, Letters, and Journals of George Staël, Goethe, Herder, Thorwaldsen,
Ticknor. (2 vols. , 1876. ) The story Manzoni, Sismondi, and in later years,
of the life of a private gentleman is every man of note in Europe. Of all of
here delightfully told through his jour- these, most interesting friendly glimpses
nals and letters to and from friends; his are given in letters and journals. Mr.
daughter, with excellent taste, having Ticknor's characterizations of these per-
joined the history which these docu- sons are admirable, always judicious and
ments reveal, by the slightest thread of faithful, and often humorous. With his
narrative. The birth of George Tick- strong liking for foreign men and things,
nor in Boston in 1791, his education in he
of the best Americans,
private school and college, his deliberate seeing the faults of his country, but lov-
choice of the life of a man of letters as ing her in spite of them. Happily he
his vocation, his four years of study and lived to see a reunited Union, and to
travel abroad, from the age of twenty- cherish the loftiest hopes for its future.
three to that of twenty-seven, his work The young American who looks for fine
at Harvard as professor of French and standards of intellectual, moral, and
Spanish, his labor upon his History social achievements will find his
of Spanish Literature, his delightful count in a study of the life of this mod-
nome life, a second journey in Europe est, accomplished, genial, hard-working,
in his ripe middle age, and still a third, distinguished private gentleman.
full of profit and delight, when he was
sixty-five, his profound interest in the Daniel Webster, cobyn Henry
Cabot
war for
Lodge. This forms Vol. viii. of
and finally the peaceful closing of his days the American Statesmen) series. Mr.
at the age of seventy-nine, - these are Lodge disclaims all credit for original
the material of the book. But the reader research among MS. records in prepar-
sees picture after picture of a delightful ing this life of Webster; and is content
existence, and is brought into intimate to follow in the footsteps of George
relations with the most cultivated and Ticknor Curtis, to whose elaborate,
agreeable people of the century. George careful, and scholarly biography of the
Ticknor had the happiness to be well great statesman he frankly acknowledges
born; that is, his father and mother were his indebtedness for all the material
well educated, full of ideas and aspira- facts of Webster's life and labors. But
tions, and so easy in circumstances that on these facts he has exercised an inde-
the best advantages awaited the boy. pendent judgment; and this biographical
With his inheritance of charming man-
material he has worked over in his own
ners, a bright intelligence, a kind heart, way, producing an essentially original
and leisure for study, he was certain to study of the life of Webster. In con-
establish friendships among the best. sidering the crises of Webster's life as
The simple, delightful society of the lawyer, orator, senator, statesman, he in
Boston of 18,000 inhabitants, where his a few brief chapters brings the man be-
boyhood was passed; the not less agree- fore us with striking vividnes
able but more sophisticated Boston of tray Webster as a lawyer, his part in
ac-
To por-
## p. 534 (#570) ############################################
534
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
seen at
answer
the Dartmouth College Case is recounted; subject in its industrial and ethical ap-
for there his legal talents are
plications, and concludes that the «inde-
their best. The chapter on this case is pendence of foreigners ” which a high
a model of clear and concise statement. tariff is supposed to secure, must be the
Webster as an orator is the subject of result simply and solely of native supe.
another chapter, dealing with his speeches riority, either in energy, or industry, or
in the Massachusetts Convention of 1820, inventiveness, or in natural advantages.
and his Plymouth oration, and their The papers on Criminal Politics,' 'Idle-
effects upon the auditors. His part in ness and Immorality,) (The Duty of Ed-
the tariff debates of 1828 in Congress, ucated Men in a Democracy,) "Who Will
his reply to Hayne, and his struggle Pay the Bills of Socialism ? ) and (The
with Jackson, occupy two chapters, in Real Problem of Democracy, are lay
which Webster's extraordinary powers of sermons of so vigorous an application
reasoning and of oratory are analyzed. that the most easy-going political sinner
Mr. Lodge seems to juage without par- who reads them will not be able to es-
tisanship Webster's Seventh of March cape the pangs of conscience. The final
speech, and the dissensions between him
paper on (The Expenditure of Rich
and his party. He recognizes in Web- Men) is a disquisition on the difficulty
ster, above all, «the preeminent cham- of real sumptuosity in America.
pion and exponent of nationality. ”
Language and the Study of Lan.
guage, by William Dwight Whitney,
Problems of Modern Democracy, by
Edwin Lawrence Godkin.
1867. This work is not only indispens-
(1896. )
able to students of comparative phi-
This collection of eleven political and
lology, but delightful and instructive
economic essays, on subjects connected
with the evolution of the republic, be-
It controverts some of the
reading
positions of Max Müller's Lectures on
longs among the most thoughtful and
the Science of Language,' notably in its
most interesting books of its class — with
to the fundamental question.
Lecky's, Pearson's, Stephen's, Fiske's,
How did language originate ? The
and Lowell's. From the first one, (Aris-
tocratic Opinions of Democracy,' pub-
growth of language is first considered,
with the causes which affect the kind
lished during the last year of the Civil
and the rate of linguistic change; then
War, to the last, «The Expenditure of
Rich Men,' thirty-one years elapse; yet
the separation of languages into dialects;
the comment of time simply emphasizes
then the group of dialects and the family
of more distantly related languages which
the rightness of Mr. Godkin's thinking.
include English; then a review of the
He states the aristocratic objections to
other great families; the relative value
democracy with absolute fairness, con-
and authority of linguistic and of physi-
cedes the weight of many of them, is
cal evidence of race, and the bearing of
even ready to admit that to some degree
language on the ultimate question of the
democracy in America is still on trial.
But he maintains that the right-hand
unity or variety of the human species:
the whole closing with an inquiry into
fallings-off and left-hand defections with
the origin of language, its relation to
which its opponents tax our political
thought, and its value as an element in
theories, are really due to quite other
human progress. Professor Whitney's
causes, - causes inseparable from the con-
theory is that acts and qualities were
ditions of our existence. Thus thought-
the first things named, and that the
fully he considers ethics, manners, liter-
roots of language from which all words
ature, art, and philosophy, public spirit
have sprung – were originally planted
and private virtue; and his conclusion is
by man in striving to imitate natural
that the world's best saints of the last
sounds (the onomatopoetic theory), and
hundred years have come out of the
to utter sounds expressive of excited
Nazareth of democracy,- issuing from
feeling (the interjectional theory); not
the middle and lower classes in Europe,
by means of an innate (creative faculty »
from the plain people in America.
for phonetically expressing his thoughts,
(Popular Government is a review and
which is Max Müller's view.
refutation of much of the doctrine of
Sir Henry Maine, in his volume on that | Earth and Man: The, by Arnold Guyot.
(Some
(1849. ) This fascinating book was
Aspects of the Tariff) deals with the the first word upon its subject, -com.
## p. 535 (#571) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
535
сол
parative physical geography and its rela-
tion to mankind, - which had ever been
addressed to a popular American audi-
ence. The substance of these pages was
first given in the form of lectures before
the Lowell Institute of Boston. Professor
Guyot contends that geography means
not a mere description of the earth's sur-
face, but an interpretation of the phenom-
ena which it describes; an endeavor to
seize the incessant mutual action of the
different portions of physical nature upon
each other, of inorganic nature upon or-
ganized beings — upon man in particular
- and upon the successive development of
human societies. In a word, says the au-
thor, it must explain the perpetual play
of forces that constitutes what might
be called the life of the globe, its physi-
ology. Understood otherwise, geography
loses its vital principle, and becomes a
mere collection of partial, unmeaning
facts. He then goes on to explain how
the contours of mountains, their position,
their direction, their height, the length
and direction of rivers, the configuration
of coasts, the slope of plateaus, the
neighborhood of islands, and in a word,
all physical conditions, have modified
profoundly the life of man. He explains
in detail the relief of the continents, the
characteristics of the oceans, the gradual
formation of the continents, the effects
of winds, rains, and marine currents on
vegetable and animal life, the causes of
likenesses and of differences, and finally,
the people and the life of the future.
Foretold by their physical condition, the
long waiting of the southern continents
for their evolution has been inevitable;
but the scientist foresees for them a full
development when the industrious and
skillful men of the northern continents
shall join with the men of the tropics to
establish a movement of universal pro-
gress and improvement. Full of knowl-
edge and a lofty spirituality, written
always with clearness and often with
eloquence, (The Earth and Man) is a
book whose charm is perennial.
and the criticisms often just, yet some.
times grossly prejudiced. The volumes
were small in size, but Johnson had
intended to make his sketches much
smaller. They had been ordered by
forty of the best booksellers in London
to be used as prefaces for a uniform
edition of the English poets. Johnson
was peculiarly qualified for the work,
deriving his material largely from per-
sonal recollections. The publishers, it is
said, made $25,000 or $30,000, while the
writer got only $2,000. The MS. of the
work he gave to Boswell, who gives us
certain variorum readings. Johnson
himself thought the life of Cowley the
best, and Macaulay agrees with him.
The account of Pope he wrote
amore; said that it would be a thousand
years before another man appeared who
had Pope's power of versification. In
the sketch of Milton the old Tory spoke
with scorn and indignation of that pa-
triot poet's Roundhead politics, calling
him (an acrimonious, surly Republican »
and brutally insolent,” and poured con-
tempt on his (Lycidas. Such things as
this, with his injustice to Gray, called
down on his head a storm of wrath
from the Whigs; which, however, failed
to ruffle in the least the composure of
the erudite old behemoth. It is amaz-
ing to read the names of the English
poets) in this collection. Who now ever
hears of Rochester, Roscommon, Pom-
fret, Dorset, Stepney, Philips, Walsh,
Smith, King, Sprat, Halifax, Garth,
Hughes, Sheffield, Blackmore, Fenton,
Granville, Tickell, Hammond, Somer-
ville, Broome, Mallet, Duke, Denham,
Lyttleton ?
Lady of Fort St. John, The, by Mary
.
and highly imaginative little story is a
romance based on the history of Acadia
in 1645, and describing how Marie de
la Tour, in the absence of her lord,
defends Fort St. John against the be-
sieging forces of D'Aulnay de Charni.
say.
La Tour, as a Protestant, is out
of favor with the king of France;
D'Aulnay, with full permission from
Louis XIII. , is driving him from his
hereditary estates. Marie sustains the
siege with great courage, until
comes from her husband that their cause
is definitely lost; then she capitulates.
The end is tragic. There are several
well-drawn subordinate characters. The
Lives of the Poets, by Samuel John-
The first four volumes of this
once very popular work were published
in 1779, the last six in 1781. Macaulay
pronounced them the best of Samuel
Johnson's works. ' The style is largely
free from the ponderous lumbering sen-
tences of most of his other works, the
narratives entertaining and instructive,
son.
news
## p. 536 (#572) ############################################
536
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
befriended by Harvey Gerald and his
daughter Lucy, falls in love with Lucy,
and finally marries her. Sir Massingberd
in his youth secretly married a gipsy,
whom he drove mad with his cruelty.
She curses him: May he perish, inch by
inch, within reach of aid that shall not
come. » Sir Massingberd disappears, and
all search for him is vain; many months
later his bones are found in an old tree,
known as the Wolsey Oak. It was sup-
posed that he climbed the tree to look
about for poachers, that the rotton wood
gave way, and he slipped into the hollow
trunk, whence he could not escape. Had
he not closed up the public path which
skirted the tree, his cries for help must
have been heard. With his disappear-
ance and death all goes well with the
households on which the blight of his
evil spirit had fallen, and the story ends
happily.
story takes good rank among the hosts
of historic romances which the renas-
cence of the novel of adventure has
given to the time.
Mrs. Candle's Curtain Lectures, by
Douglas Jerrold, appeared first as
a series of papers in Punch; and were
published in book form in 1846. They
gained at once an enormous popularity,
being translated into nearly all Euro-
pean languages. The secret of this pop-
ularity is not difficult to discover. The
book is a dramatic embodiment of a
world-old matrimonial joke — the lay
sermons delivered at night-time by a
self-martyrized wife. Mrs. Caudle had
little in this world to call her own but
her husband's ears. They were her en-
tire property! When Mrs. Caudle died
after thirty years of spouseship, the be-
reaved Job Caudle resolved every night
to commit to paper one curtain lecture
of his late wife. When he himself died,
a small packet of papers was found, in-
scribed as follows:-
"Curtain Lectures delivered in the
course of thirty years by Mrs. Marga-
ret Caudle, and suffered by Job, her
husband.
A single paragraph will suffice to show
how Job suffered:-
“Well, Mr. Caudle, I hope you're in a
little better temper than you were this
morning! There — you needn't begin to
whistle. People don't come to bed to
whistle. But it's like you. I can't speak
that you don't try to insult me. Once I
used to say you were the best creature
living; now you get quite a fiend. Do
let you rest: No, I won't let you rest.
It's the only time I have to talk to you,
and you shall hear me. I'm put upon
all day long; it's very hard if I can't
speak a word at night: besides, it isn't
often I open my mouth, goodness knows! ”
Lost
ost Sir Massing berd, by James Payn.
(1864. ) This novel, generally con-
sidered the best of this indefatigable
novelist's stories, was one of the earliest.
It is a modern tale of English country
life, told with freedom, humor, and a cer-
tain good-natured cynicism. A bare sy-
nopsis, conveying no idea of the interest
of the book, would run as follows: Sir
Massingberd Heath neither feared God
nor regarded man. His property was en-
tailed, the next heir being his nephew
Marmaduke, whom he tries to murder in
order to sell the estates. Marmaduke is
Led
ed Horse Claim, The, by Mary Hal-
lock Foote.
The
scene of this
charming romance is laid in a Western
mining-town. On opposite sides of the
Led Horse gulch are the two rival min-
ing-camps, the Shoshone and the Led
Horse. Cecil Conrath, lately come to
join her brother, superintendent of the
Shoshone camp, while wandering alone
one morning, finds herself, to her dis-
may, on Led Horse ground, and face to
face with Hilgard, superintendent of
the rival camp. He is a handsome and
fascinating man, and the two young peo-
ple rapidly fall in love with each other,
though they meet but seldom, on account
of the animosity existing between the
two mines. From sounds that reach
him through the rock, Hilgard discovers
that Conrath has secretly pushed his
workings beyond the boundary line, and
that the ore of which the Shoshone
bins are full is taken from the Led
Horse claim. The case is put into the
hands of lawyers; but before anything
can be done, Conrath makes an attempt
to jump the Led Horse mine. Hilgard
has been warned; and with his sub-
ordinate, West, awaits the attacking
party at the passage of the drift. Shots
are exchanged, and Conrath is killed,
whether by Hilgard or West is
known. Though Hilgard has done but
his duty in defending his claim, Cecil
cannot marry the possible murderer of
her brother. He returns to New York,
where he would have died of typhoid
un-
## p. 537 (#573) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
537
champion and plaything of his dissolute
friends. Her child-life is pathetic in its
lawlessness, and prophesies a future of
wretchedness if not of degradation. But
at fifteen she suddenly blossoms into a
beautiful, fascinating, and — strange to
say — refined young lady. Her advent.
ures, from the time of this metempsy-
chosis, defy the potency of heredity and
environment, and hold the reader in
amazed attention till the curtain falls
upon an unexpected conclusion. This
story achieved so great a popular suc-
cess that it has been followed by a
sequel called His Grace of Osmonde,'
wherein the same characters reappear,
but the story is told from the point of
view of the hero instead of that of the
heroine. A Lady of Quality,' in spite
of the severe strictures of many critics,
has been dramatized by the author and
performed with much success.
seems
now
fever, had not Cecil and her aunt op-
portunely appeared at the same hotel, to
nurse him back to life. In spite of the
disapproval of her family, the lovers are
finally married. This book was pub-
lished in 1883, and was read with great
interest, as being one of the first de-
scriptions of mining life in the West, as
it remains one of the best.
Real Folks, by Mrs. A. D. T. Whit-
ney. Mrs. Whitney explains the
real folks she means in the saying of
one of her characters: « Real folks, the
true livers, the genuine neahburs- nigh-
dwellers; they who abide alongside in
spirit. ” It is a domestic story dealing
with two generations. The sisters Frank
and Laura Oldways, left orphans, are
adopted into different households: Laura,
into that of her wealthy aunt, where
she is surrounded by the enervating in-
Auences of wealth and social ambitions;
Frank, into a simple country home,
where her lovable character develops in
its
proper
environment. They marry,
become mothers, and reaching middle
age come, at the wish of their rich
bachelor uncle Titus Oldways, to live
near him in Boston. The episodes in
the two households, the Ripwinkleys and
Ledwiths, so widely divergent in char-
acter, complete the story; which, while
never rising above the ordinary and
familiar, yet, like the pictures of the
old Dutch interiors, charms with its at-
mosphere of repose. It is a work for
mothers and daughters alike. It exhib-
its the worth of the domestic virtues
and the vanity of all worldly things;
but it never becomes preachy. Its New
England atmosphere is genuine, and the
sayings of the characters are often racy
of the soil; while the author's sense of
humor carries her safely over some ob-
stacles of emotion which might easily
become sentimentality.
La ady of Quality, A, by Mrs. Frances
Hodgson Burnett. (1896. ) The scene
of this story is laid in England, during
the reign of Queen Anne. Clorinda,
the unwelcome daughter of a dissolute,
poverty-stricken baronet, Sir Geoffrey
Wildairs, loses her mother at birth, and
with her little sister grows up neg-
lected and alone, fleeing from the sound
of her father's footsteps. At the age of
six she wins his heart by belaboring
m with blows and kicks; and from
that day, dressed as a boy, she is the
suc-
cesses.
Education, by Herbert Spencer. (1860. )
It is the highest praise that can
be bestowed upon this treatise, that it
a book of obvious if not
of commonplace philosophy, whereas,
when it was published, it was recog-
nized as revolutionary in the extreme.
So rapidly has its wisdom become incar-
nated in methods if not in systems.
The book opens with an examination
of what knowledge is of most worth:
it shows that in the mental world as in
the bodily, the ornamental comes before
the useful; that we do not seek to de-
velop our own individual capacities to
their utmost, but to learn what will
enable us to make the most show, or
accomplish the greatest material
But if the important thing in
life is to know how to live, in the wid-
sense, then education should be
made to afford us that knowledge; and
the knowledge is hence of most value
which informs and develops the whole
man. Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry,
Biology, the Science of Society,- all
these are important; but an education
which teaches youth how to become
fit for parentage is indispensable. Too
many fathers and mothers are totally
unfit to develop either the bodies, the
souls, or the minds of their children,
From the duty of preparation on the
part of the parent, it is a short step
to the duty of preparation on the part
of the citizen. And still another divis-
ion of human life, that which includes the
est
## p. 538 (#574) ############################################
538
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
art.
now
relaxations and pleasures of existence, strong. The treatment is epic rather
should be made a matter of intelligent than dramatic; and the splendid yet
study; for this comprehends the whole comfortless civilization of the Middle
field of the fine arts, the whole æs- Ages, so picturesque and so squalid,
thetic organization of society.
The es- so ecstatic and so base, is vividly de-
sayist now considers in detail, Intellect. lineated.
ual Education, Moral Education, and
Physical Education. He shows not only
Ersilia, by Emily Frances Poynter,
an unreasoned and unreasonable exist-
is a story of love, friendship, and
The scene is mainly in Paris and
ing state of things, but he discloses
the true philosophy underlying the ques-
in a watering-place in the Pyrenees,
Eaux Bonnes, where the story opens with
tion, and points out the true methods
the arrival of an Englishman in a hotel
of reasonableness and rightness. Each
at evening, just as a party of three are
chapter is enriched with a wealth of
seen returning from a mountain walk.
illustration drawn from history, litera-
The Englishman is the artist, Arthur
ture, or life; and the argument, although
Fleming; the three are: bis pupil, Hum-
closely reasoned, is very entertaining
phrey Rudolph, a youth of mixed Eng-
from first to last. Few books of the
lish and French parentage; the maiden
age have had a more direct and per-
aunt, Mademoiselle Mathilde de Brissac;
manent effect upon the general thought
than this; for parents and teachers who
and his fair and youthful cousin Ersilia,
know Herbert Spencer only as a name,
the supposed widow of the Russian
Prince Zaraikine. Fleming falls in love
follow the suggestions which are
with Ersilia, who was already loved by
a part of the common intellectual air,
Humphrey; and Humphrey experiences
the double wretchedness of a struggle
Rienzi
ienzi, The Last of the Roman
between his love and the friendship
Tribunes, by Sir Edward Bulwer-
that attaches him to both his master
Lytton (1848), is one of the author's
and his fair cousin. The marriage of
most famous historical romances. It is
Ersilia and Fleming being arranged for,
founded on the career of Cola di Rienzi,
a M. de Rossel brings news which for-
who, in the fourteenth century, inspired
ever intercepts this union, and Hum-
by visions of restoring the ancient great-
phrey is induced to write the fatal
ness of Rome, made himself for seven
letter. Fleming and Rossel meet in a
months master of that imperial city,
duel, the Prince Zaraikine, supposed to
and after nearly seven years of exile
and excommunication, during part of
be dead, reappears, and many interesting
complications arise which are told in a
which he was a prisoner, repeated the
triumph, finally dying at
style by the accom-
the people's
very charming
hands in
plished writer.
1354.
Bulwer was im-
pressed with the heroism and force of Jocelyn, by Alphonse de Lamartine. A
character of his hero, that at first he romantic and sentimental poem pub-
meditated writing his biography, instead lished in Paris in 1836, intervening be-
of a romance founded on his life. The tween the author's Eastern Travels)
story adheres very closely to the histori- and his Fall of an Angel, and sue-
cal facts. To secure accuracy and vivid- ceeded ten years after by his great prose
ness of setting, the novelist went to work, the History of the Girondins. )
Rome to live while writing it. Rienzi's Jocelyn) was widely read in England,
contradictory character, and above all, and was the outcome of the extreme ro-
his consummate ability, and the ambi- manticism that held sway at the time in
tious and unprincipled yet heroic na- Europe. Suspected of containing a con-
ture of his rival, Walter de Montreal, cealed attack the celibacy of the
are skillfully drawn. Among the lesser priesthood, the author defends his poem
personages, Irene, Rienzi's gentle sister, as being purely a poetic creation, consti-
and Nina, his regal wife, with her love tuting a fragment of a great Epic of
of the poetry of wealth and power; Humanity, which he had aspired to write.
Irene's lover, Adrian di Castello, the The poem expresses the conservative re-
enlightened noble; Cecco del Vecchio, ligious feeling of the country as opposed
the sturdy smith; and the ill-fated to the military and democratic spirit.
Angelo Villani, are prominent. Many There are in it echoes of Châteaubriand,
of the situations and scenes very St. Pierre, and Wordsworth; and despite
SO
on
are
## p. 539 (#575) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
539
uge.
With the execution of this wish
the story closes. There are passages of
tender emotion and deep piety in the
poem that recall (St. Augustine) and
the Imitation); and a pure and lofty
moral atmosphere pervades the whole
narrative.
uintus Claudius, by Ernst Eckstein.
its wordiness and long-drawn-out de-
scriptions, which have called forth the
comment of a reviewer that the author
will not allow even the sun to rise and
set in peace,” the piece often reaches a
very high mark of poetic fervor and
beauty. Jocelyn is a priest who leaves
behind him certain records describing
his suffering and temptations, which are
afterwards discovered by his neighbor, a
botanist, — the supposed writer of the
poem, - who after the pastor's decease
visits his dwelling. The story begins
with a picture of Jocelyn at sixteen, a
village youth of humble but respectable
parentage. Morning and evening scenes
of village life are graphically depicted,
and the episodes of youthful love among
the lads and maidens, in which Jocelyn,
destined as he is for the priesthood,
feels that he has no rightful share. To
provide for a suitable dowry in marriage
for his sister, he has vowed himself to
the Church. War breaking out, and the
lives of the clergy being threatened,
Jocelyn finds refuge among the solitudes
of the Alps. There he meets
an old
man accompanied by a boy who as ref-
ugees are passing near his cave, pursued
by soldiers. In the attack which fol.
lows, the old man is killed, and Jocelyn
takes the boy into his cave. They en-
joy delightful companionship as
brothers under the pure and sublime in-
fluences of the Alpine home. At length
an accident reveals to Jocelyn that his
orphan protégé and friend is a maiden,
who had disguised herself in fight in
male attire, and since had maintained
the deception out of reverence for the
priestly vows of her protector.
The
friendship of the two companions be-
coming now an avowed love, Jocelyn
seeks his bishop for advice as to his
duty, and is directed to renounce his
passion as unlawful, and to be separated
from Laurence, the object of his love.
Laurence goes to Paris, where years
afterwards Jocelyn finds her married,
but unworthily, and leading a gay but
miserable life. He returns to his mount-
ain home to find solace in his severe
round of duty. Called later to minister
to a dying traveler on the pass to Italy,
he discovers her to be his Laurence,
who in breathing her last tells of her
never-dying love for him, and be-
queathes to him all her fortune, and the
prayer that her body may be buried near
the scene of their mountain-home ref-
a
Clara Bell. ) This story, which appeared
originally in 1881, is (A Romance of Im-
perial Rome) during the first century.
The work was first suggested to the
author's mind as he stood amid the
shadows of the Colosseum; and the ear-
lier scenes are largely laid in the palaces
and temples that lie in ruins near by
this spot.
The central motive of the
book is the gradual conversion to Christ-
ianity of Quintus Claudius, son of
Titus Claudius, priest of Jupiter Capito-
linus; his avowal of the same, and the
consequences that flow from it to him-
self, his family, and his promised wife,
Cornelia. The time of the story is 95
A. D. at the close of the gloomy reign
of Domitian; and the book ends with
that Emperor's assassination and the
installation of Nerva and Trajan. Cor-
nelia, though not a Christian herself,
claims to be one, that she may share
her lover's fate; and they are exposed
together in the arena, where Quintus
kills a lion and obtains a temporary
reprieve. The death of Domitian re-
leases and saves them. Much of the
book is taken up with the love of the
Empress Domitia for Claudius. Re-
pulsed by him, she plots against him, or
in his favor, as her mood changes. The
various other characters in the compli-
cated plan of the book are involved in
ceaseless plotting and counter-plotting,
either for love or ambition, including
the political conspiracy which finally
destroys the tyrant and saves Quintus
and Cornelia. The chief interest in the
story lies in the conflict it reveals be-
tween the corruption and decay of the
Old Roman society and religion, and
the fresh vigor of the new faith, as it
appears in the ranks of the humble and
despised. The local coloring is excel-
lent; and the ample footnotes explain
minutely a thousand details which are
ingeniously woven into the text. The
author has fulfilled a difficult task with
taste and discretion, and has given a
vivid glimpse of Rome at the opening
## p. 540 (#576) ############################################
540
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
a
of the Christian Era. The book has en-
joyed a wide popularity.
I" the Year of Jubilee by George
Gissing. (1895. ) Mr. Gissing's real-
ism is relentless; and his tale of
middle-class philistinism would be un-
bearable were it not also the story of
the growth of a soul through suffering.
Nancy Lord, the heroine, daughter of
a piano-dealer in a small way, has in
her the elements of strength which
under other circumstances would have
made her silent and rigid father great.
Her youth is full of mistakes, the tests
of life are all too severe for her, and
she seems to have met total defeat be-
fore her«fighting soul sets itself to
win. Perhaps it is not a very great
victory to turn a foolish and compulsory
marriage into a calm and comfortable
modus vivendi. But it is great to her.
Besides the vivid and headlong Nancy,
and her faithful friend and servant
Mary Woodruffe, there is hardly a per-
sonage in the book whose acquaintance
the reader would voluntarily make.
Even the hero, a gentleman by birth and
tradition, seems rather a plated article
than the real thing, though he shows
signs of grace as the story ends. All
the women sordid, mean, half-
educated under
process which is
mentally superficial and morally non-
existent. The men are petty, or vulgar,
or both.
Apparently both and
women, typical as they are, and care-
fully studied, are meant to show the
mischief that may be done by impos-
ing on the commonest mentality a sys-
tem of instruction fit only for brains
with inherited tendencies towards cult-
Yet the book is not a problem
work. It is a picture of the cheaper
commercial London and the race it de-
velops; and it is so interesting a human
document that the expostulating reader
is forced to go on to the end.
Middle
iddle Greyness, by A. J. Dawson.
(1897. ) Henry Manton Darley, «un-
able to tone down to middle greyness
the mad hunger of his passionate na-
ture,” has broken his wife's heart and
dragged himself down to ruin by a
«black streak of dissipation in his
blood. A rich cousin, James Cummings,
having a daughter but no sons, offers to
bring up Darley's two boys, Robert and
William, and start them in life, guaran-
teeing a splendid career to the most
able,– provided that Darley shall efface
himself forever, on pain of forfeiting the
compact. Darley, under the name of
Crawford, buries himself in the Austral-
ian bush for seventeen years. A chance
newspaper reference to Robert, bis eld-
est, as the leading man at Oxford, in-
spires a yearning to see and judge of
his sons; and he makes a hasty trip
incognito to England for the purpose,
returning, however, unenlightened as to
their characters. The sons graduate in
due course: Robert brilliant and ener-
getic, but erratic and showing symptoms
of the black streak); while William
has the artistic temperament, dreamy and
unpractical. Their cousin Charlotte,
nicknamed «Trottie, regards them as
her brothers, but gradually develops a
closer feeling for William. Robert enters
Parliament with much éclat, but soon
the black streak) reappears, fostered
by Robert's evil genius, Rollo Croft, a
dissolute artist. Darley returns again to
England to watch over Robert, and be-
comes his secretary, assuming the name
of Crossland. He endeavors to break the
Croft connection, but is dismissed for
his pains; and Robert breaks down in-
toxicated at a Parliamentary crisis, loses
his seat, and is disinherited by Cum-
mings. William meanwhile has also
been disowned for refusing to enter his
uncle's business, and earns a precarious
living by doing newspaper work.
He
meets Darley accidentally, and keeps him
for a few days, when the latter again re-
turns to Australia, leaving with William
his address as “Crawford. ) Robert dis-
covers his father's whereabouts, seeks
him out, is thrown from his horse when
intoxicated, and dies recognizing him as
“Crossland — secretary - father. ” Will-
iam also visits Crawford, and is encour-
aged by him to return and write the
book that is in him; which he does. The
book suceeeds, his position in literature
is assured, he is taken into favor by
Cummings, and marries «Trottie. He
telegraphs his success to Crawford, whom
he never knows to be his father, and
who sums up the life-stories: - (Robert
is dead with the black streak all through
him, and Will is white and strong; and
I-I am nothing. The book presents
vivid pictures and strong contrasts, from
the wild scenery and bush life in Aus-
tralia to the social and political luxury
and refinement of England. The key-
note of the action is the struggle of
are
a
men
ure.
## p. 541 (#577) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
541
Darley to secure for his sons the mid- fellow troubadours through the valley
dle greyness," as between his own dis- of Vaucluse, he comes by accident upon
astrous black streak) and the strong the secluded garden and villa where
living white » derived from their pure King René had kept his daughter in
mother.
confinement under the care of the faith-
ful Bertrand and Martha. The count,
Steven Lawrence, Yeoman, by Mrs.
Edwards. (1867. ) Katha-
entering while Iolanthe is sleeping un-
der the spell of the Moorish physician,
rine Fane, rich, beautiful, good, engaged
and ignorant that she is the king's
to Lord Petres; and Dora Fane, poor,
frivolous, and heartless, -are cousins.
daughter, is ravished by her beauty,
and lifts the amulet from her breast, at
Dora sends Katharine's picture to Steven
which she awakes. He first reveals to
Lawrence, in Mexico, as her own. He
falls in love with it, returns to England,
her the secret of her blindness, and de-
clares his love. Surprised by the arrival
discovers his mistake, but is beguiled
of the king, he renounces his engage-
by Dora into marrying her. They are
ment with his daughter, and thereby his
not happy. Dora persuades him to take
inheritance of a kingdom, that he may
her to Paris, where she leads a life of
The
frivolity. Katharine, who loves Steven,
marry this beautiful stranger.
though she will not admit it, is his
Moor appears, declaring the time and
the conditions fulfilled for Iolanthe's res-
friend, now as ever. She goes to his
toration. Iolanthe comes forth seeing,
aid, and fancying him a prey to evil
companions, sends him to England. He
and is owned by the king as his daugh-
ter, and the count as his bride. The
returns unexpectedly, finds his wife at
a ball in a costume he had forbidden her
whole transaction is between noonday
wearing, and casts her off; she elopes,
and sunset, and takes place in the rose
Katharine follows and brings her back.
garden of Iolanthe's villa. The deep
Steven declines to receive her; Katha-
psychological motive of the play lies in
the fact of the soul's vision independent
rine takes her to London, where she
dies, frivolous to the last. A few days
of the physical sight, and of the inflow-
before the time set for her marriage to
ing of the soul's vision into the sense
Lord Petres, Katharine hears that Ste-
rather than the reverse, as the principle
ven has been thrown from his horse and
of seeing. Ebn Jahia, the Moor, teaches
thus:--
is dying. She hastens to his beside,
breaks her engagement- and he recovers.
« You deem, belike, our sense of vision rests
Within the eye; yet it is but a means.
He prepares to sell out and go back to
From the soul's depths the power of vision
Mexico; but Katharine stoops to conquer,
flows.
begs him not to leave her, and wins the Iolanthe must be conscious of her state,
happiness of her life. It is an entertain- Her inward eye must first be opened ere
The light can pour upon the outward sense.
ing story, of the common modern Eng-
A want must be developed in her soul:
A feeling that anticipates the light. ”
King Rene's Daughter: A Danish The coming of the count, and the love
lyrical drama, by Henrik Hertz. inspired in Iolanthe by the sound of his
(Translation by Theodore Martin: 1849. )
voice and the touch of his hand, creates
The seven scenes of this drama are lo- the necessary discontent: -
cated in Provence, in the valley of Vau-
“Deep in the soul a yearning must arise
cluse, in the middle of the fifteenth For a contentment which it strives to win. ”
century. The chief characters are King The interview between Iolanthe and the
René of Provence, and his daughter
count and his companion is partly in in-
Iolanthe, rendered blind by an accident
terchanged songs after the Minnesingers'
in early infancy, but raised in ignorance
manner. The construction of the drama
of this deficiency to her sixteenth year, is highly artistic, and the work is of
when by the skill of her Moorish phy- rare and unique beauty. The play was
sician she is to be restored to sight.
performed with success at the Strand
Plighted in marriage by her father to
Theatre, London, in 1849.
Count Tristan of Vaudemont, for state
reasons, without love, the two destined Tenants of Malory, The, bypti Sheri-
have count dan Le Fanu. (1867. ) This story
on arriving at manhood repudiates the opens in the little Welsh town of Car-
forced contract. Wandering with his dyllian. The hero is Cleve Verney,
lish type.
## p. 542 (#578) ############################################
542
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
who falls in love with Margaret Fan- long-lost daughter of that aristocratic
shawe, the daughter of Sir Booth family. Brave Commander Rodney Blu-
Fanshawe, who, in ignorance of his ett's proud relations do not therefore ob-
landlord's identity, is hiding from his ject to his marriage with the heroine.
creditors at Malory, part of the estate The old veteran's description of naval
of Lord Verney, - Arthur's uncle, - who engagements, and his quaint views of
has brought Sir Booth to ruin. The two «the quality » (the story is a first-person
families hate each other. Arthur Verney narrative throughout), makes it intensely
marries Margaret Fanshawe secretly in dramatic. The death and disinterment of
France, to which country Sir Booth Black Evan's » five sons, smothered in a
has departed. His uncle Lord Verney sand-storm; the villainy of giant Parson
wishes him to marry a lady of rank; Chowne, and his savage death from
and he, being ambitious and knowing hydrophobia; and the honest love of the
that his prospects will be at an end if narrator for Lady Isabel Carey, are
his marriage is known, procrastinates. prominent factors in the development of
A son is born to him, but this only adds
the plot.
It is to the latter that old
to his embarrassment. He hears that Davy, describing the unpleasantness of
Lord Verney himself has decided to hanging,” remarks, “I had helped, my-
marry the lady intended for him; and self, to run nine good men up at the
he contemplates bigamy, in order to yard-arm. And a fine thing for their
forestall his uncle. He is saved from souls, no doubt, to stop them from more
this crime by Lord Verney's sudden mischief, and let them go up while the
illness, and the return of the former Lord might think that other men had in-
Lord Verney, who was supposed to have jured them . . ”
In another
died in Turkey. Mrs. Arthur Verney place he is made to admit, “If my equal
eventually pines away and dies neglected insults me, I knock him down; if my
in Italy; while the hopes of the Verney officer does it, I knock under . .
family are dashed to the ground by the These illustrations show something of
fact that Tom Sedley, a genial open- the drollery of much of Blackmore's writ-
hearted young fellow, turns out to be ing:
the legitimate son of the former Lord
Verney, and succeeds to the title and
Story of a Bad Boy, The, by Thomas
estates, much to the advantage of all Bailey Aldrich, (1870,) is a fresh,
concerned. A large part of the book is humorous story, that has long been pop-
devoted to the intrigue of a firm of ular with children of all ages. Its open-
Jews, who, with a solicitor named Lar- ing sentences tend to explain the dubious
kin, endeavor to make money out of title: « This is the story of a bad boy.
Lord Verney in connection with the Well, not such a very bad, but a pretty
supposed death of the brother.
bad boy ; and I ought to know, for I am,
The story has the open moral that or was, that boy myself.
I call
ambition dulls the moral sensibilities of my story the story of a bad boy, partly
man, and that deception leads into diffi- to distinguish myself from those faultless
culties.
young gentlemen who generally figure in
narratives of this kind, and partly be-
In
Maid of Sker, The, by Richard D. cause I was not a cherub.
Blackmore, carries one through the short, I was a real human boy, such as
last twenty years of the eighteenth cent- you may meet anywhere in New Eng-
ury in England and Wales. « Fisher- land; and no more like the impossible
man Davy” Llewellyn, 'longshore sailor, boy in a story-book than a sound orange
and later, one of Lord Nelson's very is like one that has been sucked dry. ”
bravest own,” — while fishing along the The story is autobiographical in so far
shores of Bristol Channel and Swansea as suited the author's purpose. River-
Bay, finds in a drifting boat, which is mouth, where the so-called bad boy of
carried by the seas into Pool Tavan, a the story was born and brought up, after
wee two-year-old child asleep, — the Maid spending a few of his earliest years in
of Sker. ( Born to grace,
New Orleans, stands for Portsmouth,
beautiful too, is this “waif of the sea,” New Hampshire; just as his name, Tom
first known as “Bardie,” then Andalusia; Bailey, stands as a part, not even dis-
and last proved, by the true Bampfylde guised, of the author's own. Tom Bai-
peculiarity of thumbs, to be Bertha, the ley's temperament and appetites were
-
» and very
## p. 543 (#579) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
543
were
wholesome; his boyish pranks
never vicious or mean, though he frankly
didn't want to be an angel,” and didn't
think the missionary tracts presented to
him by the Rev. Wibird Hawkins were
half so nice as Robinson Crusoe, and
didn't send his little pocket-money to
the natives of the Feejee Islands, but
spent it royally in peppermint drops and
taffy-candy. ) The author, disgusted with
the goody-goody little hypocrite of an
earlier moral tale, created this boy of
flesh and blood, to displace the moribund
hero of Sandford and Merton”; though,
as Mr. Aldrich has since remarked, “the
title may have frightened off a few care-
ful friends who would have found noth-
ing serious to condemn in the book itself. ”
The story has been translated into French,
German, Spanish, Danish, Swedish, and
Dutch. An illustrated edition appeared
escapes, and, finding himself on a roof,
lets his dog down a chimney to sound
it. The dog lands in the fireplace of
his sweetheart's house, and she embraces
the dog. Obadiah pulls and hauls up
his sweetheart and her father and
mother. Just as they reach the top of
the chimney, the rope breaks and Oba-
diah falls, but is saved by falling into a
street lamp. After many other ludicrous
adventures he is married to his lady-
love.
in 1895.
Ad
dventures of Mr. Obadiah Oldbuck,
The, by Rudolphe Töpffer. This
series of 184 comic drawings, illustrating
the wonderful exploits of Obadiah Old-
buck in search of a sweetheart, with
text explaining each sketch, first ap-
peared in French in 1839, under the
title of M. Vieuxbois, and is the first of
a series of like sketches illustrating other
stories. The work won for its author
high praise, and was originally drawn
for the amusement of his young pupils.
Obadiah, in despair at not having re-
ceived an answer from his sweetheart,
determines on suicide; but the sword
luckily passes under his arm.
For forty-
eight nours he believes himself dead,
but returns to life exhausted by hunger.
He tries to hang himself, but the rope
is too long. He fights with a rival, and
after vanquishing him is accepted by his
sweetheart. He is arrested for hilarity,
and the match is off. He drinks hem-
lock, but is restored to life. He be-
comes a monk, but escapes; and finding
a favorable letter from his sweetheart,
elopes with her. He is recaptured by
the monks, and throws himself from a
window; but his life is saved by the
index of a sun-dial. He escapes, and is
to be married, but is late and finds
neither parents nor bride; throws himself
into a canal, but is fished out for his
wedding clothes. He is buried, and dug
up by birds of prey, and frightens his
hei who have him arrested, and he
sentenced to a year's imprisonment. He
My Arctic Journal, by, Josephine
Diebitsch-
In My Arctic
Journal, Mrs. Peary describes her ex-
periences as a member of an exploring
expedition sent out by the Philadelphia
Academy of Natural Sciences. Besides
her husband (the commander), Lieuten-
ant Robert E. Peary, U. S.
