But the tional, and
impossible
in any other land.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v30 - Guide to Systematic Readings
Augustine,
she greatly admired Corneille, while she
merely tolerated Racine, whose pathos
left her unmoved. Yet so vivid was
imagination that where she could not
Saint-Simon, The Memoirs of the
Duke of, long suppressed by govern-
ment, did not appear until 1829, three-
quarters of a century after the author's
death, although immediately after the
French Revolution they began to be
published in a fragmentary way.
The
reason for this delay is that they con-
tain so many details not flattering to the
Bourbon family, whose pride sustained a
severe blow upon the publication of the
memoirs.
The present English version, which be-
gan publication in 1857, is an abridg-
ment rather than a close translation, by
Boyle St. John; for the original memoirs
would fill about twenty-five volumes, so
great was their author's fidelity to detail.
The memoirs present a panoramic view,
highly finished as to the minutest detail,
of the court of Louis XIV. of France
during the last twenty years of his reign.
and also of the Regency.
Neither a great soldier nor an eminent
statesman, St. -Simon was yet fitted to
be a court gossip of no mean ability, and
certainly of marvelous pertinacity. His
intimacy with those picturesque charac-
ters which people his age, and his own
part in the intrigues which were
stantly afoot, enable him to detail much
varied and curious information; for he
records every circumstance of court life,
whether serious or trivial, down to 1723,
when his own days as a courtier ended.
Although a strong believer in kingly
power, St. -Simon does not hesitate to
characterize Louis XIV. as a weak and
ineffectual monarch; and Madame de
Maintenon, with the other important ac-
tors in the dramatic scenes of the age, he
sets forth in clear and powerful light.
Versatile, strongly antagonistic towards
the new social order, keenly observant
con-
## p. 548 (#584) ############################################
548
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
on
once
on
SO.
a
of smallest movements, and profoundly ship, personal observations made
analytic of hidden causes, the author pre- several visits to the spot, and excellence
sents a most remarkable series of politi- of style, unite to make the book in-
cal memoirs.
structive and interesting. The charac-
terization is distinct and forcible, the
A Short History of the English battle scenes are vivid. That the best
People, by John Richard Green
results came of the rivalry of Carthage
(1874), is perhaps the most popular his-
with Rome, the author perceives. He
tory of England ever written. At the
regards Hannibal as the foremost gen-
same time it is notable for the breadth
eral of all time”; and asserts that a
and thoroughness of its scholarship. sufficient answer to the question why
The author had consulted a vast number
was it not best for him to march at
of sources, and collected his material at
Rome after the battle of
first hand. The synthetic process of Cannæ, is the fact that he did not do
fusing it into a highly vitalized continu-
Of Scipio Africanus, Hannibal's
ous narrative he performed with won-
great rival, though the historian calls
derful skill, sympathy, and acumen. The
him one of the greatest of Roman
period covered is from the earliest times
heroes,” he asserts that he was "only
to the ministry of Disraeli in 1874. The
three parts a Roman,” lacking genuine
distinction of this great work is that it
Roman respect for law and authority,
is really a history of a people, and of
and possessing an alien strain of Greek
their evolution into a nation. It is not
culture. More space is given propor-
primarily a record of wars and of the
tionately to the First Punic War than
intrigues of courts, but of the develop-
is usual; the author's reason for doing
ment of the important middle class, the
so being that, in his opinion, it throws
rank and file of the nation. The (His-
more light on the energies and charac-
tory of the English · People, in four
ter of the Carthaginians as whole
volumes (1877-80), is an amplification
than does the second: The Second
of the earlier work.
Punic War brings Hannibal before us;
the First, the State which produced
Russia, by D. Mackenzie Wallace.
him. ”
(1877. ) One of the most notable
books on the country, people, and insti-
tutions of the Russian empire. The Hero
Carthew; or, The Prescotts
writer went tº St. Petersburg in March
of Pamphillon, by Louisa Parr.
1870, and remained nearly six years,
This is a new light on an old scene,
the old
which
thoroughly exploring the country and
becomes
collecting information from the local au-
wearisome so long as Love stands in
thorities, landed proprietors, merchants,
the foreground. Hero is the idol of
priests, and peasantry. In large part the
the quaint village folk of Mallett; and
special value of the work, which is very
when it is rumored that Sir Stephen
great, is due to the extent to which
Prescott, who has dropped from the
Russians of all classes most liberally
clouds to look after his long-forgotter
assisted the author. With enough of
estate, is keepin' company » with her,
their satisfaction is unbounded, and ex-
general history to enable the reader to
understand the influences of the past,
pressed with the untutored enthusiasm
the work is an admirable portrayal of the
of the ignorant. Sir Stephen has a
existing conditions in Russia, and the
cousin, Katherine Labouchere, to whom
present prospects of development.
he has played cavalier in his youth; his
devotion being considered so iron-burd
that she has ventured to marry an old
by
(1878. ) man for his money; trusting, after his
This book aims to give a picture of death, to resume her relations with Sir
ancient Carthage, and of her two great- Stephen, and release his estates from
est citizens, Hamilcar and Hannibal; mortgage,- a rôle of continued insult to
while a chapter on Carthage as it is his manhood which Sir Stephen courte-
to-day is appended. Its author, assist- ously declines to play. Hero also has a
ant master at Harrow and formerly an past in the form of Leo Despard, living
Oxford Fellow. has made a careful study under the cloud of a mysterious parent-
of all the materials that have come age and the open glare of village dis-
down to
the subject. Scholar- trust and dislike, to whom she is secretly
scene
never
Carthage and the Carthaginians,
us
on
## p. 549 (#585) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
549
made
Test
pour
aut
DE
engaged. Fate cuts the Gordian knot of
their difficulties with the shears of time
and circumstance. Leo is discovered to
be the rightful heir of Pamphillon; and
Stephen, “Sir » no longer, shorn of his
glory, is rewarded by the love of Hero,
who with a woman's privilege changes
her mind, preferring the kind heart »
to the coronet,” and the «simple faith »
to the Prescott grandeur.
Story of Carthage, The, by Alfred J.
Church, with the collaboration of
Arthur Gilman, is one of the Stories of
the Nations) series, and was published
in 1886.
This historical study of a nation, con-
cerning whose history the authentic ma-
terials are comparatively meagre, is a
picturesque and graphic presentation in
story form.
The historic episodes are
set forth with a view to their philosoph-
ical relation, and the great characters
seem actually to live, speak, and act.
Adequate recognition is accorded to the
myths which cluster about the nation's
as what the thing seen suggests. We
all see a bout the same: to one it means
much, to another little. ) The author is
not one of those who preaches what he
does not practice, and he gives the
reader the result of his studies: the
signs of the weather, the shape and
position of plants and flowers, the habits
of animals, birds, and bees, with apt
quotations from other authors showing
their opinions on the same subjects.
One cannot read this book without
wondering how he could possibly have
passed so many things without noticing
them; and the next walk in the woods
will be taken with greater pleasure, be-
cause of the curiosity awakened by the
author's observations. The other essays
are entitled: A Spray of Pine, Hard
Fare,' The T'ragedies of the Nests,
A Taste of Maine Birch, (Winter
Neighbors, (A Salt Breeze,' (A Spring
Relish, CA River View, Bird Ene-
mies, (Phases of Farm Life,' and
(Roof-Tree. )
و با ته
early life, while from them authentic his Strange Story, A, a novel by Bulwer-
There
Press
. د
a
tory is carefully distinguished so far as
may be.
The Punic Wars are clearly and stir-
ringly described, and the characters and
deeds of Dionysius, Hamilcar Barca,
Hannibal, Regulus, and the Scipios,
treated with fullness and fine discrimina-
tion; while the customs of the people are
made the subjects of felicitous and in-
teresting sketches. The entire «story"
is at once readable and reliable.
Signs and Seasons, by John Burroughs.
This pleasing book of nature-studies
was first published in 1886, and consists
of thirteen essays.
The first, entitled A
Sharp Lookout,' treats of the signs of
the weather and many other curious dis-
coveries which the keen observations of
the author have brought to light. He
says: «One must always cross-question
Nature if he would get at the truth, and
he will not get at it then unless he
questions with skill. Most persons are
unreliable observers because they put
only leading questions, or vague ques-
tions.
Nature will not be cornered,
yet she does many things in a
and surreptitiously. She is all things to
all men; she has whole truths, half
truths, and quarter truths, if not still
smaller fractions. One secret of success
in observing Nature is capacity to take
a hint. It is not so much what we see
Lytton, deals with that
occult phenomena which includes mes-
merism, hypnotism, clairvoyance, and
ghost-seeing. The story is told by one
Dr. Fenwick. His professional rival in
the town in which he settles is a Dr.
Lloyd. He comes into direct opposition
to him when the latter becomes a dis-
ciple of Mesmer, and seeks to heal the
sick by mesmeric influence. Fenwick
directs a vigorous pamphlet against
Lloyd's pretensions, treating the whole
matter as child's-play, beneath the notice
of science. On his death-bed Lloyd
sends for Fenwick, accuses him of hav-
ing ruined him by his attacks, and
intimates that he will be forced to ac-
knowledge the existence of supernatural
forces. The narrative that follows relates
the fulfillment of Lloyd's dying threat.
Curious occurrences force Fenwick into
the consideration of occult phenomena.
He becomes at last a believer in the ex-
istence and power of unseen forces. A
Strange Story) combines romance with
science, scholarship with mysticism. It
is one of the most fascinating embodi-
ments in fiction of the occult philosophy.
Silas Marner, by George Eliot. (1861. )
This story of
a poor, dull-witted
Methodist cloth-weaver is ranked by
many critics as the best of its author's
books. The plot is simple and the field
corner
## p. 550 (#586) ############################################
550
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
of the action narrow, the strength of the
book lying in its delineations of char-
acter among the common people; for
George Eliot has been truly called as
much the “faultless painter” of bour-
geois manners as Thackeray of drawing-
room society. Silas Marner is a hand-
loom weaver, a good man, whose life has
been wrecked by a false accusation of
theft, which cannot be disproved. For
years he lives a lonely life, with the sole
companionship of his loom; and he is
saved from his own despair by the
chance finding of a little child. On this
baby girl he lavishes the whole passion
of his thwarted nature, and her filial af-
fection makes him a kindly man again.
After sixteen years the real thief is dis-
covered, and Silas's good name is restored.
On this slight framework are hung the
richest pictures of middle and low class
life that George Eliot has painted. The
foolish, garrulous rustics who meet regu-
larly at the Rainbow Inn to guzzle beer
and gossip are as much alive as Shakes-
peare's clowns; from the red-faced village
farrier to little Mr. Macey, the tailor and
parish-clerk, who feels himself a Socrates
for wisdom. But perhaps the best char-
acter in the book is Dolly Winthrop, the
wheelwright's wife, who looks in every
day to comfort Silas,-a mild soul
(whose nature it was to seek out all the
sadder and more serious elements of life
and pasture her mind on them”; and
who utters a very widely accepted no-
tion of religion when she says, after
recommending Silas to go frequently to
church, as she herself does, «When a
bit o' trouble comes, I feel as I can put
up wi' it, for I've looked for help i’ the
right quarter, and give myself up to
Them as we must all give ourselves up
to at the last; and if we've done our
part, it isn't to be believed as Them as
are above us 'ud be worse nor we are,
and come short o' Theirn. »
«The plural
adds the author, was
heresy of Dolly's, but only her way of
avoiding a presumptuous familiarity. ”
and Indian. Ramona betroths herself to
Alessandro, a young Indian of noble
character. Señora Moreno forbidding
the marriage, they elope, to face a series
of cruel misfortunes. The Indians of
Alessandro's village are deprived of
their land by the greed of the American
settlers; and wherever they settle, the
covetousness of the superior race drives
them, sooner or later, to remoter shel-
ters. The proud and passionate Ales-
sandro is driven mad by his wrongs,
and his story ends in tragedy, though a
sunset light of peace falls at last on
Ramona. So rich is the story in local
color,- the frolic and toil of the sheep-
shearing. the calm opulence of the sun-
steeped vineyards, the busy ranch, the
Indian villages; so strong is it in char-
acter, - the bigoted just châtelaine, the
tender Ramona, the good old priest, - that
its effect of reality is unescapable; and
Californians still point out with pleased
pride the low-spreading hacienda where
Ramona lived, the old chapel where she
worshiped, the stream where she saw
her lovely face reflected, though none of
these existed save in the warm imagina-
tion of the author. Though the story
was a passionate appeal for justice to
the Indian, it is in form one of the most
delicate and beautiful examples of ro-
mantic literary art that English affords.
Connecticut Yankee in King Ar-
thur's Court, A, by Mark Twain. ”
(1889. ) This humorous tale purports to
be that of an American encountered by
the author when doing) Warwick
Castle. The two meet again in the
evening at the Warwick inn; then over
pipes and Scotch whisky, the stranger
explains that he is from Hartford, Con-
necticut, where he used to be superin-
tendent of an arms factory; that one
day, in a quarrel with one of his men,
he lost consciousness from a blow on
the head with a crowbar; that when he
awoke he found himself in England at
the time of King Arthur, where he was
taken captive by a knight, and conveyed
to Camelot. Here sleep overpowers the
narrator, and he goes to bed; first, how-
ever, committing to the author's hands a
manuscript, wherein, sitting down by the
fire again, he reads the rest of the
stranger's adventures. The contact of
Connecticut Yankeedom with Arthurian
chivalry gives rise to strange results.
England at the time of Arthur was a
>
pronoun,
no
Rar
amona, by Helen Jackson. (1885. )
This story stands alone, as a pict-
uresque, sympathetic, and faithful pict-
ure of Spanish and Indian life in Cali-
fornia. The scene opens upon an old
Mexican estate in Southern California,
where the Señora Moreno lives, with her
son Felipe, and her adopted daughter
Ramona, a beautiful half-breed, Scotch
## p. 551 (#587) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
551
.
goes well.
by his
society in which the church «took it noble woman. He brings her home as
out of the king, the king of the noble, his wife. Werner is professor at the
and the noble of the freeman; in which university; and Ilse, though brought
(anybody could kill somebody, except up among such different surroundings,
the commoner and the slave,- these had adapts herself readily to her new life,
no privileges »; and in which departure and becomes very popular among her
from custom was the one crime that the husband's colleagues and with the stu-
nation could not commit. Sir Lancelot dents. The reigning sovereign, hear-
of the Lake, Galahad, Bedivere, Merlin, ing of Ilse's charms, invites the pro-
Guinevere, Arthur himself, etc. , duly ap- fessor to pass, with his wife, some weeks
pear; and amidst all the fun and pathos, at the palace; offering as an induce-
the courtliness, the sincerity, and the ment, all the aid in his power towards
stern virtues —as well as what seems to finding the missing manuscript. The
us the ridiculousness — of the age.
invitation is accepted, and all at first
Ilse is not long, however,
Pickwick Papers, The, by Charles
Dickens. (Posthumous Papers of
in perceiving that while her husband
is treated with marked distinction, she
the Pickwick Club) is the one novel of
Dickens that abounds neither in pa-
is shunned by the ladies of the court,
the sovereign alone singling her out
thetic, grewsome, nor dramatic passages.
too marked attentions. Her
It is pure fun from beginning to end,
with a laugh on every page. It was
position is equivocal. Werner, however,
intent only upon his manuscript, is blind
published in 1836, and aided by the
to the danger of his wife. During a
clever illustrations of Hablot Brown, or
« Phiz,” it attained immediate success
temporary absence of her husband, Ilse,
to save her honor, escapes to Bielstein.
and laid the foundations of Dickens's
The professor, returning, misses his
fame. The types illustrated are carica-
tures, but nevertheless they are types:
wife, and follows her in hot haste, and
Mr. Pickwick, the genial, unsophisticated
they are happily reunited.
All hope
of finding the manuscript proves vain,
founder of the club; and that masterly
and the professor realizes with remorse
array of ludicrous individuals drawn
that while pursuing this wild quest,
from all classes high and low.
Although the whole book is exag-
he has risked losing what was dearest
to him. The book is lightened by a
gerated comedy, there is no other that
humorous account of the hostility be-
has furnished more characters universally
tween two rival hat-makers: Herr Hum-
known, or given to common English
speech more current phrases. Many say-
mel, the professor's landlord, and Herr
Halm, the father of Fritz Halm, who
ings and events are still in the (Pick-
lives directly opposite. There is a sub-
wickian sense )); Sam Weller and his
ordinate love affair between Fritz Halm
admirable father are still quoted; Mrs.
and Laura Hummel, the
and
Leo Hunter still a feature in social
life; Bardell trials
daughter of the rival houses, ending in
occur occasionally;
marriage. The story, if not the most
and there are many clubs as wise as
brilliant of Freytag's telling, is yet
Pickwick's.
graphic and entertaining, and is a great
Manuscript, The
Lost, by Gustav favorite in Germany.
Freytag. The scene of this strong
and delightful story is laid in Germany Lº
othair, by Benjamin Disraeli. The
towards the middle of this century. A scene of this extravagant, but at
young but very learned philologist, Pro- the same time remarkable, story is laid
fessor Felix Werner, goes with his chiefly in England about 1570, at the
friend Fritz Halm, also a learned man, time when it was published.
in search of a lost manuscript of Taci- The hero, Lothair, a young nobleman
tus, to the castle of Bielstein, near Ros- of wide estates and great wealth, is in-
sau, where he supposed it to have been troduced a short time before the attain-
hidden by the monks in the sixteenth ment of his majority. Brought up under
century. Though the quest is for the the influence of his uncle, Lord Cullo-
moment fruitless as regards the manu- den, (a member of the Free Kirk,” he
script, the professor finds in Ilse, the has been surrounded by a Protestant
beautiful fair-haired daughter of the pro- atmosphere. When, in accordance with
prietor of the castle, a high-minded and his father's will, he goes to Oxford to
son
## p. 552 (#588) ############################################
552
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
a
(
complete his education, his other guard- | gonde had married for love, but he was
ian, Cardinal Grandison, determines to strongly in favor of woman's rights and
bring him into the Roman Church. their extremest consequences. ”
The story is a graphic description of
the struggles of rival ecclesiastics, states- Onesimus: Memoirs of a Disciple of
St. Paul, by the author of Philo-
men, and leaders of society to secure the
christus: Memoirs of a Disciple of the
adherence of the young nobleman.
Lord,' appeared in America in 1882.
On a visit to the ducal seat of Brent-
ham, the home of Lothair's college friend
The story is told in the language used
in the English version of the Acts of
Bertram, he falls in love with Bertram's
the Apostles, and is placed in the first
sister, Lady Corisande, and asks for her
century of the Christian era.
hand, but is refused by her mother.
Onesimus, who himself tells the story
Lothair next comes under the influ-
in the first person, is one of the twin
ence of Lord and Lady St. Jerome, and
Miss Arundel. Charmed with the beauty
sons of a noble Greek. Stolen from his
parents in childhood, he is sold as a
and peace of their life, he is almost won
slave, and becomes one of the household
over to the Romanist side. At the crit-
of Philemon, who is represented as
ical moment he meets Theodora, the wife
wealthy citizen of Colossæ. Falsely ac-
of Colonel Campian, an American, «a
cused of theft, Onesimus runs away. It
gentleman, not a Yankee; a gentleman
of the South, who has no property but
is then that he meets «Paulus” (the
land. ) Theodora is an Italian but not a
Apostle St. Paul), and becoming a con-
vert to the Christian faith, is sent back
Romanist, and the scale is turned toward
to Philemon, his master, with the letter
the Protestant side. Colonel and Mrs.
which figures in the New Testament as
Campian are friends of Garibaldi; and
Onesimus
through them Lothair is inspired to join
the Epistle to Philemon. )
becomes a minister, at length, and suf-
the campaign of 1867 against the papal
fers martyrdom for his faith.
forces. He is severely wounded at Men-
A prominent character in the narra-
tana, and is nursed back to health by
tive is St. Paul, into some passages of
Miss Arundel, who by degrees re-estab-
whose life the author enters with pictur-
lishes her influence over him. Again he
is saved by Theodora, who appears to
esque minuteness, dwelling upon his
final ministry and martyrdom at Rome.
him in a vision and reminds him of the
Thus is attempted a faithful and realis.
promise given to her on her death-bed,
tic view of the early Christian faith and
that he will never join the church of
apostolic times, introducing Nero and
Rome.
several other historical characters. The
By a desperate effort, Lothair escapes
entire narrative is founded upon state-
the vigilance of his Romanist friends,
ments
and after travels in the East, returns to
of the Scripture records, but
some liberties are taken as to both char-
London.
acters and scenes. However, the author
A second visit to Brentham renews his
has gathered much of his material from
deep admiration for Lady Corisande,
such sources as are generally recognized
whose love he succeeds in winning.
The narrative of Lothair ) never lags
as authentic, even embodying the sub-
or lacks movement.
stance of passages from these authori-
The intervals be-
ties » in the descriptions and conversa-
tween the adventures are filled with witty
tions. The whole difficult subject is
sketches of English society and portraits
handled in a striking manner; the tone
of English personalities. The character
is reverent; and the treatment is emi-
of Lord St. Aldegonde is perhaps the
nently artistic, and quite winning in its
happiest of these. When St. Alde-
simple, dignified beauty.
gonde was serious, his influence over
men was powerful. ”
opinions on political affairs.
«
Fuller, is a story of modern Chi-
opposed to all privilege and to all orders cago life, conceived in a gayer spirit
of men except dukes, who were a neces- than the author's painful study of “The
sity. He was also strongly in favor of Cliff-Dwellers. This tale occupies itself
the equal division of all property except with the social rather than the business
land. Liberty depended on land, and side of society, and takes upon itself the
the greater the land-owners the greater function of the old French comedy, - to
the liberty of a country. ” ( St. Alde- criticise laughingly men and morals.
He held, extreme With the procession, by Henry B.
## p. 553 (#589) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
553
begebenen
#
are as
re-
***
te do
the
Fut
as
The Marshalls belong to a family as ing of feminine America; the pushing
old, for Chicago, as the Knickerbockers little widow, her aunt, determined to
for New York or the Howards for Eng- obtain social recognition; the cad,
land. They have had money for thirty Truesdell; the pathetic, ineffectual
years, and can count themselves as be- “Pa”; the glaringly vulgar Mrs. Belden,
longing to the ancien noblesse of the - all these and a dozen more
city, the race whose founders can typical and indisputable as they are na-
member the early settlers.
But the tional, and impossible in any other land.
father and mother have not taken ad- The story is extremely entertaining, and
vantage of their opportunities. They carries conviction as an authentic picture
are old-fashioned people, who despise of a certain phase of our chaotic life.
modern society because they do not un-
derstand it, and who keep on living in Social Equality: A SHORT STUDY IN A
the primitive ways of forty years ago. Missing SCIENCE, by William Hur-
The eldest son goes into business; the rell Mallock. (1882. ) This original and
eldest daughter marries, on the social acute work asserts the need of a new
level of green rep furniture and Brussels science, applicable to that field after
carpets of floral design. The second considering which modern democracy de-
daughter, Jane, full of energy and am- clares social equality to be the only hope
bition, wreaks herself on charities or of mankind. This science is the «science
clubs. But the younger son, Truesdell, of human character); and Mr. Mallock
is educated abroad; and the youngest aims to point out its limits, and the
daughter, Rosy, goes to school in New order of facts of which it will take cog-
York. Truesdell returns home in a few nizance, reviewing the most important
years an alien; with a dilettante knowl- of these and stating the chief general
edge of music, art, and literature, and a conclusion that will result from them.
set of ideas and ideals wholly Conti- His main points are as follows: That
nental, and wholly foreign to anything human character naturally desires,
his family has ever heard of. At the soon as seen, inequality in external cir-
same time, Miss Rosamund Marshall cumstances, or social inequality (a con-
emerges from school, a willful, shrewd, dition which not only produces this
self-sufficient beauty, who is irrevocably desire, but in turn is produced by it).
determined to win a proud position in All labor is caused by motive, lacking
Chicago's best society. A
day which man is not a laboring animal;
dawns for the Marshall family: they can and motive is the resultant of character
rusticate no longer amid
the city's and external circumstances, i. e. , of a
clangor; they must take their place desire for social inequality, and of a
«with the procession. ”
Mrs. Granger social inequality answering the desire,
Bates, the envied society leader, be- — respectively the subjective and the ob-
comes their pilot, and they are fairly jective side of the same thing. Inequal-
launched on the great social sea. The ity supplies the motive, not indeed of
author's irony is pervasive but
all human activity, but of all productive
bitter, though sometimes it gives us labor, except the lowest. Social inequal-
sharp surprise. There is so much of ity, then, Mr. Mallock asserts, has been,
tragedy as inheres in the deliberate is, and so far as we have any opportun-
choice of low aims and material suc- ity of knowing, ever will be, the divinely
cesses over noble efforts and ends. Rosy appointed means of human progress
makes the match she hopes for, sacri- whether impersonal expressed in
ficing her family to it. Poor Mr. Mar- enterprises, discoveries, and inventions,
shall, who cannot keep up with the pace or personal as expressed in the social
of the crowd, falls under their heedless conditions under which the enterprises,
and merciless feet. The character-draw- discoveries, and inventions have been
ing is admirable: Mrs. Granger Bates, made and utilized. Social equality he
the multi-millionaire who lives in a pal- regards as a hindrance to progress, and
ace, keeps up all her accomplishments, a cause of retrogression. He thus joins
and neither forgets nor conceals the issue squarely with the socialists, strives
happy days of her youth when she to confute them even out of their own
washed "G s» shirts and cooked mouths, and asserts that fa reason,
his frugal dinners; Jane Marshall, the and science, lie not with them but with
embodied common-sense and good feel- the present order of society. The book
new
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never
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## p. 554 (#590) ############################################
554
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
is written with great clearness and di- informed and aided by Katherine, drags
rectness, and an abundance of illustra- Dillon back to the Ariel, but too late to
tive instances. It is the work of a save her. Crippled by the battery, she
scholar, and of a keen and vigorous is wrecked; Tom refuses to leave her,
thinker; and is an admirable text-book Dillon is left aboard to punish his
for conservatives.
treachery; – both are drowned. The frig-
ate takes off the survivors, gallantly
The
The Pilot, by James Fenimore Cooper, runs the gauntlet of an English fleet,
written in 1823, was a pioneer in and lands the Pilot in Holland, his mis-
genuine sea stories. Walter Scott's “Pi. sion ended though not accomplished.
rate) had just been published, and was After the war the four lovers are hap-
discussed at a New York dinner-table pily united.
where Cooper was present. The guests
generally expressed the opinion that it Letters from Egypt, Last, of Lady
|
Duff-Gordon, to which are added
could not have been written by Scott,
Letters from the Cape. ) (1875. ) These
who was suspected to be the author of
letters, which cover the period from 1862
Waverley, because Scott never had been
to 1869, are written in a free and fa-
at sea. Cooper said that for that very
miliar vein, at once engaging and frank.
reason he thought Scott wrote it, and
The descriptions of travels, adventures
added that he would undertake to write
a real sea story. (The Pilot) was the
encountered, people met, and sights seen,
are written to give friends at home a
result.
gossipy account of all her movements,
Paul Jones's adventures suggested the
plot; which is, in brief, an attempt dur-
and with no view to publication. But
Lady Gordon, as Lucy Austin, had
ing the Revolutionary War to abduct
some prominent Englishmen for exchange
begun in early childhood to write fasci-
nating letters, and these were too good
against American prisoners. An Ameri-
to be withheld from the public. They
can frigate, purposely unnamed, with the
schooner Ariel, appears off Northumber-
touch upon an endless variety of topics,
land and takes on board a mysterious
with the readiness of a mind quick to
Pilot, who is intended to represent Paul
observe, trained by happy experience,
Jones. A heavy gale arises; the frigate
and always sympathetic with the best.
is saved only by the Pilot's skill and Philip and his wife, by Margaret
knowledge. Near by, at the «Abbey," Deland. (1895. ) This book might
lives Colonel Howard, a self-expatriated well be called a study in selfishness,
American loyalist, with his nieces, Ce- although its emphasis seems to bear upon
cilia Howard and Katherine Plowden; marriage and the marriage laws; con-
also a relative, Christopher Dillon, a cerning which the author propounds cer-
suitor of Cecilia's and the villain of the tain theories and problems, without offer-
story. The girls' favored lovers ing any direct solution. Philip Shore, an
Griffith, first officer of the frigate, and unsuccessful artist, marries Cecilia Dray-
Barnstaple, commander of the Ariel. ton, rich, beautiful, and accomplished,
The girls discover, and Dillon suspects, but soulless, and finds himself face to
the proximity of their lovers. Griffith, face with the question: "Is not mar-
disguised and with a small support, re- riage without love as spiritually illegal
connoitres the “Abbey,” and is over- as love without marriage is civilly ille-
powered by troops obtained by Dillon; gal? And if it is, what is your duty ? ”
but he is rescued by reinforcements The story of Philip and his Wife) is
brought by the Pilot, whose own mission painful and almost tragic, but it is set
has failed. Colonel Howard and family against a background of charming variety
are taken aboard the frigate. Mean- and richness of color. The plot is sim-
while Barnstaple has fought and captured ple. Philip and Cecil come to open dis-
the British cutter Alacrity. Finding pute regarding the bringing-up of their
Dillon aboard of her, he sends him on only daughter, Molly. They can agree
shore, under parole, together with the to separate, but neither will divorce the
coxswain, «Long Tom » Coffin.
«Long
other. Who shall have the care of Molly?
Tom,” with his inseparable harpoon, is In the end Cecil surrenders the child to
Leatherstocking in sea-togs. Dillon Philip, who goes his way, while his wife
trays his trust, and orders a neighbor- departs on hers. Each has failed in a
ing battery to fire on the Ariel. Tom, different way; he because of his lonely
are
## p. 555 (#591) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
555
-
spiritual selfishness, she because of her
light-minded, superficial, and perilous
frivolity. The subsidiary characters are
drawn with great skill and charm. Roger
Carey, crude and uncompromising, is
engaged to the dainty Alicia, Cecil's
younger sister. The engagement is bro-
ken because of her devotion to her in-
valid motner, tne querulous Mrs. Drayton,
whose selfishness is all-devouring, while
she prays devoutly and quotes Scripture
without ceasing Carey falls under the
influence of Cecil Shore's beauty, which
for a time captivates him, despite his
recognition of her true character. His
manliness asserts itself at last, and Roger
returns to Alicia, in whom he finds his
ideal helpmeet. Dr. Lavendar, the hon-
est, blundering old rector, and his amia-
ble brother, are cleverly depicted; as are
also Susan Carr, in her goodness of
heart and soundness of sense; Mrs. Pen-
dleton, with her literary” affectations;
and Molly in her weird precocity. All
these, down to the drunken brute Todd
and his tearful Eliza, are portrayed with
exquisite comprehension and unfailing
felicity of humor. There are some scenes
of great dramatic power, and the back-
ground of village life in southern Penn-
sylvania is pictured with much charm.
The Purple Island (called also the
Isle of Man), by Phineas Fletcher.
This poem, in twelve cantos, published
in 1633, describes the human body as
an island. The bones are the founda-
tion; the veins and arteries, rivers; the
heart, liver, stomach, etc. , goodly cities;
the mouth, a cave; the teeth are twice
sixteen porters, receivers of the custom-
ary rent); the tongue, «a groom who
delivers all unto neare officers. ) The
liver is the arch-city, where two purple
streams (two great rivers of blood)
(raise their boil-heads. »
The eyes are
watch-towers; the sight, the warder.
Taste and the tongue are man and wife.
The island's prince is the intellect; the
five senses are his counselors. Disease
and vice are his mortal foes, with whom
war. The virtues are his
allies. All is described in the minutest
detail, with a rare knowledge of anat-
omy, and there is a profusion of literary
and classical allusion.
Li iterature, by Hermann Grimm, is a
collection of scholarly essays, upon
half a dozen of the great figures of lit-
erature. The book has a peculiar inter-
est for Americans in its two essays on
Emerson, whose genius Professor Grimm
was the first German to recognize. Even
to-day Emerson has not a large hearing
in Germany,- his style is different and
his ideas strange to the whole tone of
German thought; and thirty-five years
ago, when Professor Grimm had just
discovered him, and went about sound-
ing his praises and persuading his friends
to read him, he (Grimm) was considered
slightly mad. He persisted, however, in
considering Emerson as the most in-
dividual thinker the world has seen since
Shakespeare.
In two illuminative papers, the author
undertakes to explain the most brilliant
figure of eighteenth-century letters, Vol-
taire. In France and Voltaire,' he
traces, from the time of Louis XIII. ,
the governing ideas of French life, and
their expression in the great writers,
Corneille, Racine, Molière, and the rest,
till Voltaire came to give voice to the
new feelings that were surging up in
the hearts of the subjects of Louis the
well-beloved. In Frederick the Great
and Voltaire,' he chronicles the stormy
friendship of the erratic German genius
for the erratic French one. (Frederick
the Great and Macaulay) treats of Ma-
caulay's essay on that monarch, and
incidentally Macaulay's theory of his-
tory. Other essays are on Albert Dürer,
the great pioneer of modern artists; on
Bettina von Arnim, the girl-friend of
Goethe; on Dante; and on the brothers
Grimm, father and uncle of Hermann
Grimm, and known everywhere as the
compilers of (Grimm's Fairy Tales. )
Books and Book men, by Andrew
Lang, (1886. ) is, the author
states in the preface, the swan-song of
a book-hunter. The author does not
book-hunt any more: he leaves the sport
to others, and with catalogues he lights
a humble cigarette. ” Thus humorously
he ushers in a little volume of rare
vintage; the mellow reflections of one
whose scholarship in the subjects he
treats is only equaled by his geniality.
He writes with pleasant nonchalance of
Literary Forgeries ); of Parish Regis-
ters); of (Bookmen at Rome); of (Bibli-
omania in France); of (Book-Bindings);
of Elzevirs? ; of Japanese Bogie-
Books, ' - - a feast indeed for an epicu-
The volume ends with a prayer
that it may be somehow made legitimate
as
he wages
rean.
## p. 556 (#592) ############################################
556
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
was а
(to steal the books that never can be
new settlement in the old spot
mine. ”
that rose again to prosperity as Lud's
Town. From the sixth century onward,
The Roman Poets, by W. Y. Sellar.
Vol. i. , The Poets of the Republic;
the city, though ravaged by plagues, and
Vol. ii. , Virgil; Vol. iii. , Horace and the
more often by fires, always its bane, has
Elegiac Poets. (1863-97. ) The entire
grown steadily in population, wealth,
work forms one of the most scholarly,
and importance. Roman, Saxon, Dan-
complete, and interesting contributions
ish, Norman, Plantagenet, and at last
to the history of literature ever written.
English, it has always been a city of
The author is not only a classical critic
churches and palaces. Its burghers have
of the first order, of ripe scholarship and
always been free men, owning no lord
but the king; and its mayors have ri.
fine literary taste, but his appreciation
of Roman culture, profound and exact,
valed great nobles in power and splen-
and his exceptional power of lucid expo-
dor. Dick Whittington may not have
made his fortune by selling a cat; but it
sition, have enabled him to give Roman
is certain that when, as mayor of Lon-
intellectual culture of the finer Sort its
due, in comparison with Greek, to an
don, he entertained King Henry V. , he
extent not elsewhere done. Largely as
burned £60,000 worth of royal bonds, as
Roman genius in Latin literature was
a little attention to royalty. The city's
fed from Greek sources, it was yet more
greatest mayor was Sir Thomas Gres-
original and independent than has been
ham, who, in Elizabeth's day, conceived
commonly supposed. The whole level of
the idea of transferring the centre of the
Latin culture is at once lifted and illu-
world's commerce from Antwerp to Lon-
minated in Dr. Sellar's wonderfully rich
don, and to that end built the Royal
Exchange. The record of each century
and glowing pages.
The volume de-
voted to Virgil is unsurpassed in any
is full of incident, story, and social
changes. Mr. Besant is writing on a
language as a masterpiece of interpret-
ation and of delightful critical praise.
subject he loves, and spares no pains to
The writer's outlook is not that of a
lay before the reader a brilliant picture
Latin chair alone: it is that of humanity
of the streets and buildings, businesses,
customs, and amusements of the ever-
and of universal culture; that of Greek
flourishing, ever-changing city, now the
and English and European history; to
great centre of the financial, economical,
bring Roman mind into comparison with
and social world.
all the great types of mind in all lands
and of all ages.
To know what the
deeper spiritual developments of the Mithridate, by Racine. This power-
ful and affecting tragedy was pro-
Roman world were when Christ came,
duced on the 13th of January 1673, the
what were the rays of light and the
day after the author's reception into the
clouds of darkness at the dawn of the
Academy. It seems to have been writ-
new faith, readers can hardly find a
ten in reply to those critics who asserted
better guide than this study of the Ro-
that the only character he was success-
man poets.
ful in painting was that of a
Lon
ondon, by Walter Besant, is a
The scene is laid in Pontus, and the
prehensive survey of the metropolis hero is the cruel and heroic king who
of the modern world from the Roman was the irreconcilable enemy of Rome.
days to those of George the Second. Mithridates has disappeared, and is be-
The material is of course well worn, but lieved to be dead. His two sons, the
the skill of the writer's method and the treacherous Pharnaces and the chivalrous
freshness of his interest make it seem Xiphares, prepare to seize his crown
He begins his tale with the occu- and dispute the possession of his be-
pation of the Romans, who, appreciating trothed, Monima. The old king returns,
the value of the river Thames, picked discovers by a stratagem that Xiphares
out a dry hillock in the great stretches has won the love of Monima, and swears
of marsh along the stream, and founded to be avenged. Meanwhile he plans a
the town of Augusta, - an isolated spot formidable attack on Rome: he will
in the midst of fen and forest. After ascend the Danube and burst upon the
the Roman evacuation of Britain, no Romans from the north. Xiphares fa-
more is heard of Augusta; the town vors the project, but Pharnaces opposes
having been deserted or destroyed. It it, and the soldiers refuse to follow their
woman.
com-
new.
## p. 557 (#593) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
557
manner
king. The Romans unite with the reb-
els; and in the battle that follows, Mith-
ridates falls mortally wounded. Before
dying, he joins the two lovers Xiphares
and Monima. In his portraiture of
Mithridates, Racine sometimes rises to
the sublimity of Corneille. He has
scarcely ever written anything grander
than the speech in which the hero ex-
plains his policy to his two sons. The
in which the complexity of
Mithridates's character, his greatness and
weakness, his heroism and duplicity, are
laid bare, shows wonderful psychological
delicacy and skill: and all this is finely
contrasted with the simplicity and unity
of the nature of Monima in its high
moral beauty and unvarying dignity.
The great fault of, Mithridates) is the
fault of Racine's other tragedies dealing
with Eastern life: the absence of an
Oriental atmosphere.
unrivaled among the many fine scenes
in Molière. When fiercest in denuncia-
tion, the guardian yields to a gentle glance
and word. "Little traitress," he cries,
«I pardon you all. I give you back my
love. That word, that look, disarms my
wrath. )
A pair of conventional stage
fathers now appear, who, by revealing
the fact that their children, the lovers,
have been betrothed from their cradles,
unite the two with their blessings; and
the desolate Arnolphe receives the pen-
alty of a selfish meddler with youthful
affection. Obdurate and rigid in his
theories, Arnolphe yet wins esteem by
the strength of his character that domi-
nates, even in defeat, the close of the
play. Agnes, a type of maiden innocence,
far from being colorless or insipid, is a
living, glowing portrait of a genuinely
interesting ingenue, using artifice nat-
urally foreign to her disposition at the
service of love only. Outside of the real
merit of the play, and the curious side-
light it throws on the dramatist's opin-
ions (married at this time at forty years
of age to a girl of seventeen), it opened
an attack upon him for suspected reli-
gious latitude; contemporary criticism
being leveled at the scene in the third
act, where a treatise, The Maxims of
Marriage,' is presented by the guardian-
lover to his ward.
L'Ecole des Femmes (The School for
Wives), by Molière, produced in 1662,
is a companion piece to L'École des
Maris ) (The School for Husbands). They
have essentially the same plot; treated,
however, with great dramatic dexterity,
to clothe a different idea in each.
In
this comedy, Arnolphe, a typical middle-
aged jealous guardian of Agnes, has edu-
cated his ward for his future model wife
by carefully excluding from her mind all
knowledge of good or evil; her little
world is circumscribed by the grilled
windows and strong doors of Arnolphe's
house. Returning from a journey, he
finds her sweet and tranquil in her ignor-
ance as before. But soon meeting Hor-
ace, a son of his old friend Oronte, he
learns by the ingenuous confession of
the young fellow that, madly in love with
"a young creature in that house,” he in-
tends to use the money just borrowed
from his father's friend to carry her off.
Frantic at this disclosure, Arnolphe rushes
to the imprisoned Agnes, from whom by
ingenious questioning he extracts a can-
did avowal of her affection for her lover,
and an account of a visit from him. By
a clever series of intrigues, the guardian
is made the willing, unwitting go-between
of the two young people; until at last
Agnes, having determined to run away
from her hated suitor, braves his anger.
Then it is that Arnolphe displays a depth
of real passion and tenderness, tragic in
its intensity, in pleading with her to re-
voke her decision; a scene that remains
Dawn of the Nineteenth Century in
England, The: A SOCIAL SKETCH
OF THE TIMES, by John Ashton. With
116 illustrations, drawn by the author
from contemporary engravings. Never
in the history of the world has there
been such a change in things social as
since the beginning of the nineteenth
century; and to those who are watching
its close, already at the dawn of the
twentieth, this work is one of invalua-
ble reference and comparison. The arts,
sciences, manufactures, customs, and
manners, were then so widely divergent
from those of to-day, that it
hardly possible that they belong to the
same era, or could have existed less
than one hundred years ago.
Steam
was then in its infancy: locomotives and
steamships just beginning to be heard
of; gas a novel experiment; electricity a
scientific plaything. Beginning with a
slight retrospect of the eighteenth cen-
tury, the author briefly outlines the in-
fluence of Bonaparte in matters political;
follows with a description of the food
seems
## p. 558 (#594) ############################################
558
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
a
a
to
riots in London; the union with Ireland; her window to Adam in his strawberry
death of Lord Nelson; abolition of the bed below are a delightful feature of
slave trade; amusing photographs of the the story, which is enlivened by his dry
streets with their beggars, chimney- humor and her witty repartee. After-
sweeps, dealers of small wares and great math,' the second part of A Kentucky
cries; then the postal drawbacks and Cardinal, follows the lovers through the
stage-coach infelicities; the famous pris- days of their engagement and their brief
ons, notably the Fleet; museums and wedded life, which is one of ideal happi-
museum gardens, theatres and operas; ness while it lasts. Georgianna strives
Tattersall's and Gretna Green marriages;
to win her husband from his overmas-
with innumerable extracts relating to tering fondness for nature; and he, to
people and places of note; -- all taken please her, enters into social life and
from original and authentic sources, seeks to interest himself more in the
newspapers being an authority of con- (study of mankind. ” At the birth of a
stant reference. The quaint illustrations son Georgianna passes away, leaving her
add much to the interest of the work husband to seek consolation where he
which extends a little over a decade. can best obtain it, - from his beloved
(nature. ” Mr. Allen has delicate
A
Kentucky Cardinal, and Aftermath, touch and a charm of style; and his de-
by James Lane Allen. (1895. ) The scriptions of nature and of bird life pos-
Kentucky Cardinal) is fresh and sess a really poetic beauty, while they
dainty tale, which may be called an are characterized by a ring of truthful-
idyl of the woods. » The story tells of ness which convinces the reader that the
the wooing of Adam Moss, a recluse who author's heart is in his words. There is
devotes himself nature, and who a blending of pathos and humor in the
dwells in a garden, which his loving work which makes it delightful reading.
touch converts almost into fairyland,
where all the fruits and flowers blossom
Spanish Conquest in America, The,
and ripen to perfection, and where all by Arthur Helps, was published in
the birds have learned to rest on their four volumes, in England, from 1855 to
migratory journeys. Adam knows all 1861.
she greatly admired Corneille, while she
merely tolerated Racine, whose pathos
left her unmoved. Yet so vivid was
imagination that where she could not
Saint-Simon, The Memoirs of the
Duke of, long suppressed by govern-
ment, did not appear until 1829, three-
quarters of a century after the author's
death, although immediately after the
French Revolution they began to be
published in a fragmentary way.
The
reason for this delay is that they con-
tain so many details not flattering to the
Bourbon family, whose pride sustained a
severe blow upon the publication of the
memoirs.
The present English version, which be-
gan publication in 1857, is an abridg-
ment rather than a close translation, by
Boyle St. John; for the original memoirs
would fill about twenty-five volumes, so
great was their author's fidelity to detail.
The memoirs present a panoramic view,
highly finished as to the minutest detail,
of the court of Louis XIV. of France
during the last twenty years of his reign.
and also of the Regency.
Neither a great soldier nor an eminent
statesman, St. -Simon was yet fitted to
be a court gossip of no mean ability, and
certainly of marvelous pertinacity. His
intimacy with those picturesque charac-
ters which people his age, and his own
part in the intrigues which were
stantly afoot, enable him to detail much
varied and curious information; for he
records every circumstance of court life,
whether serious or trivial, down to 1723,
when his own days as a courtier ended.
Although a strong believer in kingly
power, St. -Simon does not hesitate to
characterize Louis XIV. as a weak and
ineffectual monarch; and Madame de
Maintenon, with the other important ac-
tors in the dramatic scenes of the age, he
sets forth in clear and powerful light.
Versatile, strongly antagonistic towards
the new social order, keenly observant
con-
## p. 548 (#584) ############################################
548
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
on
once
on
SO.
a
of smallest movements, and profoundly ship, personal observations made
analytic of hidden causes, the author pre- several visits to the spot, and excellence
sents a most remarkable series of politi- of style, unite to make the book in-
cal memoirs.
structive and interesting. The charac-
terization is distinct and forcible, the
A Short History of the English battle scenes are vivid. That the best
People, by John Richard Green
results came of the rivalry of Carthage
(1874), is perhaps the most popular his-
with Rome, the author perceives. He
tory of England ever written. At the
regards Hannibal as the foremost gen-
same time it is notable for the breadth
eral of all time”; and asserts that a
and thoroughness of its scholarship. sufficient answer to the question why
The author had consulted a vast number
was it not best for him to march at
of sources, and collected his material at
Rome after the battle of
first hand. The synthetic process of Cannæ, is the fact that he did not do
fusing it into a highly vitalized continu-
Of Scipio Africanus, Hannibal's
ous narrative he performed with won-
great rival, though the historian calls
derful skill, sympathy, and acumen. The
him one of the greatest of Roman
period covered is from the earliest times
heroes,” he asserts that he was "only
to the ministry of Disraeli in 1874. The
three parts a Roman,” lacking genuine
distinction of this great work is that it
Roman respect for law and authority,
is really a history of a people, and of
and possessing an alien strain of Greek
their evolution into a nation. It is not
culture. More space is given propor-
primarily a record of wars and of the
tionately to the First Punic War than
intrigues of courts, but of the develop-
is usual; the author's reason for doing
ment of the important middle class, the
so being that, in his opinion, it throws
rank and file of the nation. The (His-
more light on the energies and charac-
tory of the English · People, in four
ter of the Carthaginians as whole
volumes (1877-80), is an amplification
than does the second: The Second
of the earlier work.
Punic War brings Hannibal before us;
the First, the State which produced
Russia, by D. Mackenzie Wallace.
him. ”
(1877. ) One of the most notable
books on the country, people, and insti-
tutions of the Russian empire. The Hero
Carthew; or, The Prescotts
writer went tº St. Petersburg in March
of Pamphillon, by Louisa Parr.
1870, and remained nearly six years,
This is a new light on an old scene,
the old
which
thoroughly exploring the country and
becomes
collecting information from the local au-
wearisome so long as Love stands in
thorities, landed proprietors, merchants,
the foreground. Hero is the idol of
priests, and peasantry. In large part the
the quaint village folk of Mallett; and
special value of the work, which is very
when it is rumored that Sir Stephen
great, is due to the extent to which
Prescott, who has dropped from the
Russians of all classes most liberally
clouds to look after his long-forgotter
assisted the author. With enough of
estate, is keepin' company » with her,
their satisfaction is unbounded, and ex-
general history to enable the reader to
understand the influences of the past,
pressed with the untutored enthusiasm
the work is an admirable portrayal of the
of the ignorant. Sir Stephen has a
existing conditions in Russia, and the
cousin, Katherine Labouchere, to whom
present prospects of development.
he has played cavalier in his youth; his
devotion being considered so iron-burd
that she has ventured to marry an old
by
(1878. ) man for his money; trusting, after his
This book aims to give a picture of death, to resume her relations with Sir
ancient Carthage, and of her two great- Stephen, and release his estates from
est citizens, Hamilcar and Hannibal; mortgage,- a rôle of continued insult to
while a chapter on Carthage as it is his manhood which Sir Stephen courte-
to-day is appended. Its author, assist- ously declines to play. Hero also has a
ant master at Harrow and formerly an past in the form of Leo Despard, living
Oxford Fellow. has made a careful study under the cloud of a mysterious parent-
of all the materials that have come age and the open glare of village dis-
down to
the subject. Scholar- trust and dislike, to whom she is secretly
scene
never
Carthage and the Carthaginians,
us
on
## p. 549 (#585) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
549
made
Test
pour
aut
DE
engaged. Fate cuts the Gordian knot of
their difficulties with the shears of time
and circumstance. Leo is discovered to
be the rightful heir of Pamphillon; and
Stephen, “Sir » no longer, shorn of his
glory, is rewarded by the love of Hero,
who with a woman's privilege changes
her mind, preferring the kind heart »
to the coronet,” and the «simple faith »
to the Prescott grandeur.
Story of Carthage, The, by Alfred J.
Church, with the collaboration of
Arthur Gilman, is one of the Stories of
the Nations) series, and was published
in 1886.
This historical study of a nation, con-
cerning whose history the authentic ma-
terials are comparatively meagre, is a
picturesque and graphic presentation in
story form.
The historic episodes are
set forth with a view to their philosoph-
ical relation, and the great characters
seem actually to live, speak, and act.
Adequate recognition is accorded to the
myths which cluster about the nation's
as what the thing seen suggests. We
all see a bout the same: to one it means
much, to another little. ) The author is
not one of those who preaches what he
does not practice, and he gives the
reader the result of his studies: the
signs of the weather, the shape and
position of plants and flowers, the habits
of animals, birds, and bees, with apt
quotations from other authors showing
their opinions on the same subjects.
One cannot read this book without
wondering how he could possibly have
passed so many things without noticing
them; and the next walk in the woods
will be taken with greater pleasure, be-
cause of the curiosity awakened by the
author's observations. The other essays
are entitled: A Spray of Pine, Hard
Fare,' The T'ragedies of the Nests,
A Taste of Maine Birch, (Winter
Neighbors, (A Salt Breeze,' (A Spring
Relish, CA River View, Bird Ene-
mies, (Phases of Farm Life,' and
(Roof-Tree. )
و با ته
early life, while from them authentic his Strange Story, A, a novel by Bulwer-
There
Press
. د
a
tory is carefully distinguished so far as
may be.
The Punic Wars are clearly and stir-
ringly described, and the characters and
deeds of Dionysius, Hamilcar Barca,
Hannibal, Regulus, and the Scipios,
treated with fullness and fine discrimina-
tion; while the customs of the people are
made the subjects of felicitous and in-
teresting sketches. The entire «story"
is at once readable and reliable.
Signs and Seasons, by John Burroughs.
This pleasing book of nature-studies
was first published in 1886, and consists
of thirteen essays.
The first, entitled A
Sharp Lookout,' treats of the signs of
the weather and many other curious dis-
coveries which the keen observations of
the author have brought to light. He
says: «One must always cross-question
Nature if he would get at the truth, and
he will not get at it then unless he
questions with skill. Most persons are
unreliable observers because they put
only leading questions, or vague ques-
tions.
Nature will not be cornered,
yet she does many things in a
and surreptitiously. She is all things to
all men; she has whole truths, half
truths, and quarter truths, if not still
smaller fractions. One secret of success
in observing Nature is capacity to take
a hint. It is not so much what we see
Lytton, deals with that
occult phenomena which includes mes-
merism, hypnotism, clairvoyance, and
ghost-seeing. The story is told by one
Dr. Fenwick. His professional rival in
the town in which he settles is a Dr.
Lloyd. He comes into direct opposition
to him when the latter becomes a dis-
ciple of Mesmer, and seeks to heal the
sick by mesmeric influence. Fenwick
directs a vigorous pamphlet against
Lloyd's pretensions, treating the whole
matter as child's-play, beneath the notice
of science. On his death-bed Lloyd
sends for Fenwick, accuses him of hav-
ing ruined him by his attacks, and
intimates that he will be forced to ac-
knowledge the existence of supernatural
forces. The narrative that follows relates
the fulfillment of Lloyd's dying threat.
Curious occurrences force Fenwick into
the consideration of occult phenomena.
He becomes at last a believer in the ex-
istence and power of unseen forces. A
Strange Story) combines romance with
science, scholarship with mysticism. It
is one of the most fascinating embodi-
ments in fiction of the occult philosophy.
Silas Marner, by George Eliot. (1861. )
This story of
a poor, dull-witted
Methodist cloth-weaver is ranked by
many critics as the best of its author's
books. The plot is simple and the field
corner
## p. 550 (#586) ############################################
550
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
of the action narrow, the strength of the
book lying in its delineations of char-
acter among the common people; for
George Eliot has been truly called as
much the “faultless painter” of bour-
geois manners as Thackeray of drawing-
room society. Silas Marner is a hand-
loom weaver, a good man, whose life has
been wrecked by a false accusation of
theft, which cannot be disproved. For
years he lives a lonely life, with the sole
companionship of his loom; and he is
saved from his own despair by the
chance finding of a little child. On this
baby girl he lavishes the whole passion
of his thwarted nature, and her filial af-
fection makes him a kindly man again.
After sixteen years the real thief is dis-
covered, and Silas's good name is restored.
On this slight framework are hung the
richest pictures of middle and low class
life that George Eliot has painted. The
foolish, garrulous rustics who meet regu-
larly at the Rainbow Inn to guzzle beer
and gossip are as much alive as Shakes-
peare's clowns; from the red-faced village
farrier to little Mr. Macey, the tailor and
parish-clerk, who feels himself a Socrates
for wisdom. But perhaps the best char-
acter in the book is Dolly Winthrop, the
wheelwright's wife, who looks in every
day to comfort Silas,-a mild soul
(whose nature it was to seek out all the
sadder and more serious elements of life
and pasture her mind on them”; and
who utters a very widely accepted no-
tion of religion when she says, after
recommending Silas to go frequently to
church, as she herself does, «When a
bit o' trouble comes, I feel as I can put
up wi' it, for I've looked for help i’ the
right quarter, and give myself up to
Them as we must all give ourselves up
to at the last; and if we've done our
part, it isn't to be believed as Them as
are above us 'ud be worse nor we are,
and come short o' Theirn. »
«The plural
adds the author, was
heresy of Dolly's, but only her way of
avoiding a presumptuous familiarity. ”
and Indian. Ramona betroths herself to
Alessandro, a young Indian of noble
character. Señora Moreno forbidding
the marriage, they elope, to face a series
of cruel misfortunes. The Indians of
Alessandro's village are deprived of
their land by the greed of the American
settlers; and wherever they settle, the
covetousness of the superior race drives
them, sooner or later, to remoter shel-
ters. The proud and passionate Ales-
sandro is driven mad by his wrongs,
and his story ends in tragedy, though a
sunset light of peace falls at last on
Ramona. So rich is the story in local
color,- the frolic and toil of the sheep-
shearing. the calm opulence of the sun-
steeped vineyards, the busy ranch, the
Indian villages; so strong is it in char-
acter, - the bigoted just châtelaine, the
tender Ramona, the good old priest, - that
its effect of reality is unescapable; and
Californians still point out with pleased
pride the low-spreading hacienda where
Ramona lived, the old chapel where she
worshiped, the stream where she saw
her lovely face reflected, though none of
these existed save in the warm imagina-
tion of the author. Though the story
was a passionate appeal for justice to
the Indian, it is in form one of the most
delicate and beautiful examples of ro-
mantic literary art that English affords.
Connecticut Yankee in King Ar-
thur's Court, A, by Mark Twain. ”
(1889. ) This humorous tale purports to
be that of an American encountered by
the author when doing) Warwick
Castle. The two meet again in the
evening at the Warwick inn; then over
pipes and Scotch whisky, the stranger
explains that he is from Hartford, Con-
necticut, where he used to be superin-
tendent of an arms factory; that one
day, in a quarrel with one of his men,
he lost consciousness from a blow on
the head with a crowbar; that when he
awoke he found himself in England at
the time of King Arthur, where he was
taken captive by a knight, and conveyed
to Camelot. Here sleep overpowers the
narrator, and he goes to bed; first, how-
ever, committing to the author's hands a
manuscript, wherein, sitting down by the
fire again, he reads the rest of the
stranger's adventures. The contact of
Connecticut Yankeedom with Arthurian
chivalry gives rise to strange results.
England at the time of Arthur was a
>
pronoun,
no
Rar
amona, by Helen Jackson. (1885. )
This story stands alone, as a pict-
uresque, sympathetic, and faithful pict-
ure of Spanish and Indian life in Cali-
fornia. The scene opens upon an old
Mexican estate in Southern California,
where the Señora Moreno lives, with her
son Felipe, and her adopted daughter
Ramona, a beautiful half-breed, Scotch
## p. 551 (#587) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
551
.
goes well.
by his
society in which the church «took it noble woman. He brings her home as
out of the king, the king of the noble, his wife. Werner is professor at the
and the noble of the freeman; in which university; and Ilse, though brought
(anybody could kill somebody, except up among such different surroundings,
the commoner and the slave,- these had adapts herself readily to her new life,
no privileges »; and in which departure and becomes very popular among her
from custom was the one crime that the husband's colleagues and with the stu-
nation could not commit. Sir Lancelot dents. The reigning sovereign, hear-
of the Lake, Galahad, Bedivere, Merlin, ing of Ilse's charms, invites the pro-
Guinevere, Arthur himself, etc. , duly ap- fessor to pass, with his wife, some weeks
pear; and amidst all the fun and pathos, at the palace; offering as an induce-
the courtliness, the sincerity, and the ment, all the aid in his power towards
stern virtues —as well as what seems to finding the missing manuscript. The
us the ridiculousness — of the age.
invitation is accepted, and all at first
Ilse is not long, however,
Pickwick Papers, The, by Charles
Dickens. (Posthumous Papers of
in perceiving that while her husband
is treated with marked distinction, she
the Pickwick Club) is the one novel of
Dickens that abounds neither in pa-
is shunned by the ladies of the court,
the sovereign alone singling her out
thetic, grewsome, nor dramatic passages.
too marked attentions. Her
It is pure fun from beginning to end,
with a laugh on every page. It was
position is equivocal. Werner, however,
intent only upon his manuscript, is blind
published in 1836, and aided by the
to the danger of his wife. During a
clever illustrations of Hablot Brown, or
« Phiz,” it attained immediate success
temporary absence of her husband, Ilse,
to save her honor, escapes to Bielstein.
and laid the foundations of Dickens's
The professor, returning, misses his
fame. The types illustrated are carica-
tures, but nevertheless they are types:
wife, and follows her in hot haste, and
Mr. Pickwick, the genial, unsophisticated
they are happily reunited.
All hope
of finding the manuscript proves vain,
founder of the club; and that masterly
and the professor realizes with remorse
array of ludicrous individuals drawn
that while pursuing this wild quest,
from all classes high and low.
Although the whole book is exag-
he has risked losing what was dearest
to him. The book is lightened by a
gerated comedy, there is no other that
humorous account of the hostility be-
has furnished more characters universally
tween two rival hat-makers: Herr Hum-
known, or given to common English
speech more current phrases. Many say-
mel, the professor's landlord, and Herr
Halm, the father of Fritz Halm, who
ings and events are still in the (Pick-
lives directly opposite. There is a sub-
wickian sense )); Sam Weller and his
ordinate love affair between Fritz Halm
admirable father are still quoted; Mrs.
and Laura Hummel, the
and
Leo Hunter still a feature in social
life; Bardell trials
daughter of the rival houses, ending in
occur occasionally;
marriage. The story, if not the most
and there are many clubs as wise as
brilliant of Freytag's telling, is yet
Pickwick's.
graphic and entertaining, and is a great
Manuscript, The
Lost, by Gustav favorite in Germany.
Freytag. The scene of this strong
and delightful story is laid in Germany Lº
othair, by Benjamin Disraeli. The
towards the middle of this century. A scene of this extravagant, but at
young but very learned philologist, Pro- the same time remarkable, story is laid
fessor Felix Werner, goes with his chiefly in England about 1570, at the
friend Fritz Halm, also a learned man, time when it was published.
in search of a lost manuscript of Taci- The hero, Lothair, a young nobleman
tus, to the castle of Bielstein, near Ros- of wide estates and great wealth, is in-
sau, where he supposed it to have been troduced a short time before the attain-
hidden by the monks in the sixteenth ment of his majority. Brought up under
century. Though the quest is for the the influence of his uncle, Lord Cullo-
moment fruitless as regards the manu- den, (a member of the Free Kirk,” he
script, the professor finds in Ilse, the has been surrounded by a Protestant
beautiful fair-haired daughter of the pro- atmosphere. When, in accordance with
prietor of the castle, a high-minded and his father's will, he goes to Oxford to
son
## p. 552 (#588) ############################################
552
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
a
(
complete his education, his other guard- | gonde had married for love, but he was
ian, Cardinal Grandison, determines to strongly in favor of woman's rights and
bring him into the Roman Church. their extremest consequences. ”
The story is a graphic description of
the struggles of rival ecclesiastics, states- Onesimus: Memoirs of a Disciple of
St. Paul, by the author of Philo-
men, and leaders of society to secure the
christus: Memoirs of a Disciple of the
adherence of the young nobleman.
Lord,' appeared in America in 1882.
On a visit to the ducal seat of Brent-
ham, the home of Lothair's college friend
The story is told in the language used
in the English version of the Acts of
Bertram, he falls in love with Bertram's
the Apostles, and is placed in the first
sister, Lady Corisande, and asks for her
century of the Christian era.
hand, but is refused by her mother.
Onesimus, who himself tells the story
Lothair next comes under the influ-
in the first person, is one of the twin
ence of Lord and Lady St. Jerome, and
Miss Arundel. Charmed with the beauty
sons of a noble Greek. Stolen from his
parents in childhood, he is sold as a
and peace of their life, he is almost won
slave, and becomes one of the household
over to the Romanist side. At the crit-
of Philemon, who is represented as
ical moment he meets Theodora, the wife
wealthy citizen of Colossæ. Falsely ac-
of Colonel Campian, an American, «a
cused of theft, Onesimus runs away. It
gentleman, not a Yankee; a gentleman
of the South, who has no property but
is then that he meets «Paulus” (the
land. ) Theodora is an Italian but not a
Apostle St. Paul), and becoming a con-
vert to the Christian faith, is sent back
Romanist, and the scale is turned toward
to Philemon, his master, with the letter
the Protestant side. Colonel and Mrs.
which figures in the New Testament as
Campian are friends of Garibaldi; and
Onesimus
through them Lothair is inspired to join
the Epistle to Philemon. )
becomes a minister, at length, and suf-
the campaign of 1867 against the papal
fers martyrdom for his faith.
forces. He is severely wounded at Men-
A prominent character in the narra-
tana, and is nursed back to health by
tive is St. Paul, into some passages of
Miss Arundel, who by degrees re-estab-
whose life the author enters with pictur-
lishes her influence over him. Again he
is saved by Theodora, who appears to
esque minuteness, dwelling upon his
final ministry and martyrdom at Rome.
him in a vision and reminds him of the
Thus is attempted a faithful and realis.
promise given to her on her death-bed,
tic view of the early Christian faith and
that he will never join the church of
apostolic times, introducing Nero and
Rome.
several other historical characters. The
By a desperate effort, Lothair escapes
entire narrative is founded upon state-
the vigilance of his Romanist friends,
ments
and after travels in the East, returns to
of the Scripture records, but
some liberties are taken as to both char-
London.
acters and scenes. However, the author
A second visit to Brentham renews his
has gathered much of his material from
deep admiration for Lady Corisande,
such sources as are generally recognized
whose love he succeeds in winning.
The narrative of Lothair ) never lags
as authentic, even embodying the sub-
or lacks movement.
stance of passages from these authori-
The intervals be-
ties » in the descriptions and conversa-
tween the adventures are filled with witty
tions. The whole difficult subject is
sketches of English society and portraits
handled in a striking manner; the tone
of English personalities. The character
is reverent; and the treatment is emi-
of Lord St. Aldegonde is perhaps the
nently artistic, and quite winning in its
happiest of these. When St. Alde-
simple, dignified beauty.
gonde was serious, his influence over
men was powerful. ”
opinions on political affairs.
«
Fuller, is a story of modern Chi-
opposed to all privilege and to all orders cago life, conceived in a gayer spirit
of men except dukes, who were a neces- than the author's painful study of “The
sity. He was also strongly in favor of Cliff-Dwellers. This tale occupies itself
the equal division of all property except with the social rather than the business
land. Liberty depended on land, and side of society, and takes upon itself the
the greater the land-owners the greater function of the old French comedy, - to
the liberty of a country. ” ( St. Alde- criticise laughingly men and morals.
He held, extreme With the procession, by Henry B.
## p. 553 (#589) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
553
begebenen
#
are as
re-
***
te do
the
Fut
as
The Marshalls belong to a family as ing of feminine America; the pushing
old, for Chicago, as the Knickerbockers little widow, her aunt, determined to
for New York or the Howards for Eng- obtain social recognition; the cad,
land. They have had money for thirty Truesdell; the pathetic, ineffectual
years, and can count themselves as be- “Pa”; the glaringly vulgar Mrs. Belden,
longing to the ancien noblesse of the - all these and a dozen more
city, the race whose founders can typical and indisputable as they are na-
member the early settlers.
But the tional, and impossible in any other land.
father and mother have not taken ad- The story is extremely entertaining, and
vantage of their opportunities. They carries conviction as an authentic picture
are old-fashioned people, who despise of a certain phase of our chaotic life.
modern society because they do not un-
derstand it, and who keep on living in Social Equality: A SHORT STUDY IN A
the primitive ways of forty years ago. Missing SCIENCE, by William Hur-
The eldest son goes into business; the rell Mallock. (1882. ) This original and
eldest daughter marries, on the social acute work asserts the need of a new
level of green rep furniture and Brussels science, applicable to that field after
carpets of floral design. The second considering which modern democracy de-
daughter, Jane, full of energy and am- clares social equality to be the only hope
bition, wreaks herself on charities or of mankind. This science is the «science
clubs. But the younger son, Truesdell, of human character); and Mr. Mallock
is educated abroad; and the youngest aims to point out its limits, and the
daughter, Rosy, goes to school in New order of facts of which it will take cog-
York. Truesdell returns home in a few nizance, reviewing the most important
years an alien; with a dilettante knowl- of these and stating the chief general
edge of music, art, and literature, and a conclusion that will result from them.
set of ideas and ideals wholly Conti- His main points are as follows: That
nental, and wholly foreign to anything human character naturally desires,
his family has ever heard of. At the soon as seen, inequality in external cir-
same time, Miss Rosamund Marshall cumstances, or social inequality (a con-
emerges from school, a willful, shrewd, dition which not only produces this
self-sufficient beauty, who is irrevocably desire, but in turn is produced by it).
determined to win a proud position in All labor is caused by motive, lacking
Chicago's best society. A
day which man is not a laboring animal;
dawns for the Marshall family: they can and motive is the resultant of character
rusticate no longer amid
the city's and external circumstances, i. e. , of a
clangor; they must take their place desire for social inequality, and of a
«with the procession. ”
Mrs. Granger social inequality answering the desire,
Bates, the envied society leader, be- — respectively the subjective and the ob-
comes their pilot, and they are fairly jective side of the same thing. Inequal-
launched on the great social sea. The ity supplies the motive, not indeed of
author's irony is pervasive but
all human activity, but of all productive
bitter, though sometimes it gives us labor, except the lowest. Social inequal-
sharp surprise. There is so much of ity, then, Mr. Mallock asserts, has been,
tragedy as inheres in the deliberate is, and so far as we have any opportun-
choice of low aims and material suc- ity of knowing, ever will be, the divinely
cesses over noble efforts and ends. Rosy appointed means of human progress
makes the match she hopes for, sacri- whether impersonal expressed in
ficing her family to it. Poor Mr. Mar- enterprises, discoveries, and inventions,
shall, who cannot keep up with the pace or personal as expressed in the social
of the crowd, falls under their heedless conditions under which the enterprises,
and merciless feet. The character-draw- discoveries, and inventions have been
ing is admirable: Mrs. Granger Bates, made and utilized. Social equality he
the multi-millionaire who lives in a pal- regards as a hindrance to progress, and
ace, keeps up all her accomplishments, a cause of retrogression. He thus joins
and neither forgets nor conceals the issue squarely with the socialists, strives
happy days of her youth when she to confute them even out of their own
washed "G s» shirts and cooked mouths, and asserts that fa reason,
his frugal dinners; Jane Marshall, the and science, lie not with them but with
embodied common-sense and good feel- the present order of society. The book
new
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## p. 554 (#590) ############################################
554
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
is written with great clearness and di- informed and aided by Katherine, drags
rectness, and an abundance of illustra- Dillon back to the Ariel, but too late to
tive instances. It is the work of a save her. Crippled by the battery, she
scholar, and of a keen and vigorous is wrecked; Tom refuses to leave her,
thinker; and is an admirable text-book Dillon is left aboard to punish his
for conservatives.
treachery; – both are drowned. The frig-
ate takes off the survivors, gallantly
The
The Pilot, by James Fenimore Cooper, runs the gauntlet of an English fleet,
written in 1823, was a pioneer in and lands the Pilot in Holland, his mis-
genuine sea stories. Walter Scott's “Pi. sion ended though not accomplished.
rate) had just been published, and was After the war the four lovers are hap-
discussed at a New York dinner-table pily united.
where Cooper was present. The guests
generally expressed the opinion that it Letters from Egypt, Last, of Lady
|
Duff-Gordon, to which are added
could not have been written by Scott,
Letters from the Cape. ) (1875. ) These
who was suspected to be the author of
letters, which cover the period from 1862
Waverley, because Scott never had been
to 1869, are written in a free and fa-
at sea. Cooper said that for that very
miliar vein, at once engaging and frank.
reason he thought Scott wrote it, and
The descriptions of travels, adventures
added that he would undertake to write
a real sea story. (The Pilot) was the
encountered, people met, and sights seen,
are written to give friends at home a
result.
gossipy account of all her movements,
Paul Jones's adventures suggested the
plot; which is, in brief, an attempt dur-
and with no view to publication. But
Lady Gordon, as Lucy Austin, had
ing the Revolutionary War to abduct
some prominent Englishmen for exchange
begun in early childhood to write fasci-
nating letters, and these were too good
against American prisoners. An Ameri-
to be withheld from the public. They
can frigate, purposely unnamed, with the
schooner Ariel, appears off Northumber-
touch upon an endless variety of topics,
land and takes on board a mysterious
with the readiness of a mind quick to
Pilot, who is intended to represent Paul
observe, trained by happy experience,
Jones. A heavy gale arises; the frigate
and always sympathetic with the best.
is saved only by the Pilot's skill and Philip and his wife, by Margaret
knowledge. Near by, at the «Abbey," Deland. (1895. ) This book might
lives Colonel Howard, a self-expatriated well be called a study in selfishness,
American loyalist, with his nieces, Ce- although its emphasis seems to bear upon
cilia Howard and Katherine Plowden; marriage and the marriage laws; con-
also a relative, Christopher Dillon, a cerning which the author propounds cer-
suitor of Cecilia's and the villain of the tain theories and problems, without offer-
story. The girls' favored lovers ing any direct solution. Philip Shore, an
Griffith, first officer of the frigate, and unsuccessful artist, marries Cecilia Dray-
Barnstaple, commander of the Ariel. ton, rich, beautiful, and accomplished,
The girls discover, and Dillon suspects, but soulless, and finds himself face to
the proximity of their lovers. Griffith, face with the question: "Is not mar-
disguised and with a small support, re- riage without love as spiritually illegal
connoitres the “Abbey,” and is over- as love without marriage is civilly ille-
powered by troops obtained by Dillon; gal? And if it is, what is your duty ? ”
but he is rescued by reinforcements The story of Philip and his Wife) is
brought by the Pilot, whose own mission painful and almost tragic, but it is set
has failed. Colonel Howard and family against a background of charming variety
are taken aboard the frigate. Mean- and richness of color. The plot is sim-
while Barnstaple has fought and captured ple. Philip and Cecil come to open dis-
the British cutter Alacrity. Finding pute regarding the bringing-up of their
Dillon aboard of her, he sends him on only daughter, Molly. They can agree
shore, under parole, together with the to separate, but neither will divorce the
coxswain, «Long Tom » Coffin.
«Long
other. Who shall have the care of Molly?
Tom,” with his inseparable harpoon, is In the end Cecil surrenders the child to
Leatherstocking in sea-togs. Dillon Philip, who goes his way, while his wife
trays his trust, and orders a neighbor- departs on hers. Each has failed in a
ing battery to fire on the Ariel. Tom, different way; he because of his lonely
are
## p. 555 (#591) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
555
-
spiritual selfishness, she because of her
light-minded, superficial, and perilous
frivolity. The subsidiary characters are
drawn with great skill and charm. Roger
Carey, crude and uncompromising, is
engaged to the dainty Alicia, Cecil's
younger sister. The engagement is bro-
ken because of her devotion to her in-
valid motner, tne querulous Mrs. Drayton,
whose selfishness is all-devouring, while
she prays devoutly and quotes Scripture
without ceasing Carey falls under the
influence of Cecil Shore's beauty, which
for a time captivates him, despite his
recognition of her true character. His
manliness asserts itself at last, and Roger
returns to Alicia, in whom he finds his
ideal helpmeet. Dr. Lavendar, the hon-
est, blundering old rector, and his amia-
ble brother, are cleverly depicted; as are
also Susan Carr, in her goodness of
heart and soundness of sense; Mrs. Pen-
dleton, with her literary” affectations;
and Molly in her weird precocity. All
these, down to the drunken brute Todd
and his tearful Eliza, are portrayed with
exquisite comprehension and unfailing
felicity of humor. There are some scenes
of great dramatic power, and the back-
ground of village life in southern Penn-
sylvania is pictured with much charm.
The Purple Island (called also the
Isle of Man), by Phineas Fletcher.
This poem, in twelve cantos, published
in 1633, describes the human body as
an island. The bones are the founda-
tion; the veins and arteries, rivers; the
heart, liver, stomach, etc. , goodly cities;
the mouth, a cave; the teeth are twice
sixteen porters, receivers of the custom-
ary rent); the tongue, «a groom who
delivers all unto neare officers. ) The
liver is the arch-city, where two purple
streams (two great rivers of blood)
(raise their boil-heads. »
The eyes are
watch-towers; the sight, the warder.
Taste and the tongue are man and wife.
The island's prince is the intellect; the
five senses are his counselors. Disease
and vice are his mortal foes, with whom
war. The virtues are his
allies. All is described in the minutest
detail, with a rare knowledge of anat-
omy, and there is a profusion of literary
and classical allusion.
Li iterature, by Hermann Grimm, is a
collection of scholarly essays, upon
half a dozen of the great figures of lit-
erature. The book has a peculiar inter-
est for Americans in its two essays on
Emerson, whose genius Professor Grimm
was the first German to recognize. Even
to-day Emerson has not a large hearing
in Germany,- his style is different and
his ideas strange to the whole tone of
German thought; and thirty-five years
ago, when Professor Grimm had just
discovered him, and went about sound-
ing his praises and persuading his friends
to read him, he (Grimm) was considered
slightly mad. He persisted, however, in
considering Emerson as the most in-
dividual thinker the world has seen since
Shakespeare.
In two illuminative papers, the author
undertakes to explain the most brilliant
figure of eighteenth-century letters, Vol-
taire. In France and Voltaire,' he
traces, from the time of Louis XIII. ,
the governing ideas of French life, and
their expression in the great writers,
Corneille, Racine, Molière, and the rest,
till Voltaire came to give voice to the
new feelings that were surging up in
the hearts of the subjects of Louis the
well-beloved. In Frederick the Great
and Voltaire,' he chronicles the stormy
friendship of the erratic German genius
for the erratic French one. (Frederick
the Great and Macaulay) treats of Ma-
caulay's essay on that monarch, and
incidentally Macaulay's theory of his-
tory. Other essays are on Albert Dürer,
the great pioneer of modern artists; on
Bettina von Arnim, the girl-friend of
Goethe; on Dante; and on the brothers
Grimm, father and uncle of Hermann
Grimm, and known everywhere as the
compilers of (Grimm's Fairy Tales. )
Books and Book men, by Andrew
Lang, (1886. ) is, the author
states in the preface, the swan-song of
a book-hunter. The author does not
book-hunt any more: he leaves the sport
to others, and with catalogues he lights
a humble cigarette. ” Thus humorously
he ushers in a little volume of rare
vintage; the mellow reflections of one
whose scholarship in the subjects he
treats is only equaled by his geniality.
He writes with pleasant nonchalance of
Literary Forgeries ); of Parish Regis-
ters); of (Bookmen at Rome); of (Bibli-
omania in France); of (Book-Bindings);
of Elzevirs? ; of Japanese Bogie-
Books, ' - - a feast indeed for an epicu-
The volume ends with a prayer
that it may be somehow made legitimate
as
he wages
rean.
## p. 556 (#592) ############################################
556
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
was а
(to steal the books that never can be
new settlement in the old spot
mine. ”
that rose again to prosperity as Lud's
Town. From the sixth century onward,
The Roman Poets, by W. Y. Sellar.
Vol. i. , The Poets of the Republic;
the city, though ravaged by plagues, and
Vol. ii. , Virgil; Vol. iii. , Horace and the
more often by fires, always its bane, has
Elegiac Poets. (1863-97. ) The entire
grown steadily in population, wealth,
work forms one of the most scholarly,
and importance. Roman, Saxon, Dan-
complete, and interesting contributions
ish, Norman, Plantagenet, and at last
to the history of literature ever written.
English, it has always been a city of
The author is not only a classical critic
churches and palaces. Its burghers have
of the first order, of ripe scholarship and
always been free men, owning no lord
but the king; and its mayors have ri.
fine literary taste, but his appreciation
of Roman culture, profound and exact,
valed great nobles in power and splen-
and his exceptional power of lucid expo-
dor. Dick Whittington may not have
made his fortune by selling a cat; but it
sition, have enabled him to give Roman
is certain that when, as mayor of Lon-
intellectual culture of the finer Sort its
due, in comparison with Greek, to an
don, he entertained King Henry V. , he
extent not elsewhere done. Largely as
burned £60,000 worth of royal bonds, as
Roman genius in Latin literature was
a little attention to royalty. The city's
fed from Greek sources, it was yet more
greatest mayor was Sir Thomas Gres-
original and independent than has been
ham, who, in Elizabeth's day, conceived
commonly supposed. The whole level of
the idea of transferring the centre of the
Latin culture is at once lifted and illu-
world's commerce from Antwerp to Lon-
minated in Dr. Sellar's wonderfully rich
don, and to that end built the Royal
Exchange. The record of each century
and glowing pages.
The volume de-
voted to Virgil is unsurpassed in any
is full of incident, story, and social
changes. Mr. Besant is writing on a
language as a masterpiece of interpret-
ation and of delightful critical praise.
subject he loves, and spares no pains to
The writer's outlook is not that of a
lay before the reader a brilliant picture
Latin chair alone: it is that of humanity
of the streets and buildings, businesses,
customs, and amusements of the ever-
and of universal culture; that of Greek
flourishing, ever-changing city, now the
and English and European history; to
great centre of the financial, economical,
bring Roman mind into comparison with
and social world.
all the great types of mind in all lands
and of all ages.
To know what the
deeper spiritual developments of the Mithridate, by Racine. This power-
ful and affecting tragedy was pro-
Roman world were when Christ came,
duced on the 13th of January 1673, the
what were the rays of light and the
day after the author's reception into the
clouds of darkness at the dawn of the
Academy. It seems to have been writ-
new faith, readers can hardly find a
ten in reply to those critics who asserted
better guide than this study of the Ro-
that the only character he was success-
man poets.
ful in painting was that of a
Lon
ondon, by Walter Besant, is a
The scene is laid in Pontus, and the
prehensive survey of the metropolis hero is the cruel and heroic king who
of the modern world from the Roman was the irreconcilable enemy of Rome.
days to those of George the Second. Mithridates has disappeared, and is be-
The material is of course well worn, but lieved to be dead. His two sons, the
the skill of the writer's method and the treacherous Pharnaces and the chivalrous
freshness of his interest make it seem Xiphares, prepare to seize his crown
He begins his tale with the occu- and dispute the possession of his be-
pation of the Romans, who, appreciating trothed, Monima. The old king returns,
the value of the river Thames, picked discovers by a stratagem that Xiphares
out a dry hillock in the great stretches has won the love of Monima, and swears
of marsh along the stream, and founded to be avenged. Meanwhile he plans a
the town of Augusta, - an isolated spot formidable attack on Rome: he will
in the midst of fen and forest. After ascend the Danube and burst upon the
the Roman evacuation of Britain, no Romans from the north. Xiphares fa-
more is heard of Augusta; the town vors the project, but Pharnaces opposes
having been deserted or destroyed. It it, and the soldiers refuse to follow their
woman.
com-
new.
## p. 557 (#593) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
557
manner
king. The Romans unite with the reb-
els; and in the battle that follows, Mith-
ridates falls mortally wounded. Before
dying, he joins the two lovers Xiphares
and Monima. In his portraiture of
Mithridates, Racine sometimes rises to
the sublimity of Corneille. He has
scarcely ever written anything grander
than the speech in which the hero ex-
plains his policy to his two sons. The
in which the complexity of
Mithridates's character, his greatness and
weakness, his heroism and duplicity, are
laid bare, shows wonderful psychological
delicacy and skill: and all this is finely
contrasted with the simplicity and unity
of the nature of Monima in its high
moral beauty and unvarying dignity.
The great fault of, Mithridates) is the
fault of Racine's other tragedies dealing
with Eastern life: the absence of an
Oriental atmosphere.
unrivaled among the many fine scenes
in Molière. When fiercest in denuncia-
tion, the guardian yields to a gentle glance
and word. "Little traitress," he cries,
«I pardon you all. I give you back my
love. That word, that look, disarms my
wrath. )
A pair of conventional stage
fathers now appear, who, by revealing
the fact that their children, the lovers,
have been betrothed from their cradles,
unite the two with their blessings; and
the desolate Arnolphe receives the pen-
alty of a selfish meddler with youthful
affection. Obdurate and rigid in his
theories, Arnolphe yet wins esteem by
the strength of his character that domi-
nates, even in defeat, the close of the
play. Agnes, a type of maiden innocence,
far from being colorless or insipid, is a
living, glowing portrait of a genuinely
interesting ingenue, using artifice nat-
urally foreign to her disposition at the
service of love only. Outside of the real
merit of the play, and the curious side-
light it throws on the dramatist's opin-
ions (married at this time at forty years
of age to a girl of seventeen), it opened
an attack upon him for suspected reli-
gious latitude; contemporary criticism
being leveled at the scene in the third
act, where a treatise, The Maxims of
Marriage,' is presented by the guardian-
lover to his ward.
L'Ecole des Femmes (The School for
Wives), by Molière, produced in 1662,
is a companion piece to L'École des
Maris ) (The School for Husbands). They
have essentially the same plot; treated,
however, with great dramatic dexterity,
to clothe a different idea in each.
In
this comedy, Arnolphe, a typical middle-
aged jealous guardian of Agnes, has edu-
cated his ward for his future model wife
by carefully excluding from her mind all
knowledge of good or evil; her little
world is circumscribed by the grilled
windows and strong doors of Arnolphe's
house. Returning from a journey, he
finds her sweet and tranquil in her ignor-
ance as before. But soon meeting Hor-
ace, a son of his old friend Oronte, he
learns by the ingenuous confession of
the young fellow that, madly in love with
"a young creature in that house,” he in-
tends to use the money just borrowed
from his father's friend to carry her off.
Frantic at this disclosure, Arnolphe rushes
to the imprisoned Agnes, from whom by
ingenious questioning he extracts a can-
did avowal of her affection for her lover,
and an account of a visit from him. By
a clever series of intrigues, the guardian
is made the willing, unwitting go-between
of the two young people; until at last
Agnes, having determined to run away
from her hated suitor, braves his anger.
Then it is that Arnolphe displays a depth
of real passion and tenderness, tragic in
its intensity, in pleading with her to re-
voke her decision; a scene that remains
Dawn of the Nineteenth Century in
England, The: A SOCIAL SKETCH
OF THE TIMES, by John Ashton. With
116 illustrations, drawn by the author
from contemporary engravings. Never
in the history of the world has there
been such a change in things social as
since the beginning of the nineteenth
century; and to those who are watching
its close, already at the dawn of the
twentieth, this work is one of invalua-
ble reference and comparison. The arts,
sciences, manufactures, customs, and
manners, were then so widely divergent
from those of to-day, that it
hardly possible that they belong to the
same era, or could have existed less
than one hundred years ago.
Steam
was then in its infancy: locomotives and
steamships just beginning to be heard
of; gas a novel experiment; electricity a
scientific plaything. Beginning with a
slight retrospect of the eighteenth cen-
tury, the author briefly outlines the in-
fluence of Bonaparte in matters political;
follows with a description of the food
seems
## p. 558 (#594) ############################################
558
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
a
a
to
riots in London; the union with Ireland; her window to Adam in his strawberry
death of Lord Nelson; abolition of the bed below are a delightful feature of
slave trade; amusing photographs of the the story, which is enlivened by his dry
streets with their beggars, chimney- humor and her witty repartee. After-
sweeps, dealers of small wares and great math,' the second part of A Kentucky
cries; then the postal drawbacks and Cardinal, follows the lovers through the
stage-coach infelicities; the famous pris- days of their engagement and their brief
ons, notably the Fleet; museums and wedded life, which is one of ideal happi-
museum gardens, theatres and operas; ness while it lasts. Georgianna strives
Tattersall's and Gretna Green marriages;
to win her husband from his overmas-
with innumerable extracts relating to tering fondness for nature; and he, to
people and places of note; -- all taken please her, enters into social life and
from original and authentic sources, seeks to interest himself more in the
newspapers being an authority of con- (study of mankind. ” At the birth of a
stant reference. The quaint illustrations son Georgianna passes away, leaving her
add much to the interest of the work husband to seek consolation where he
which extends a little over a decade. can best obtain it, - from his beloved
(nature. ” Mr. Allen has delicate
A
Kentucky Cardinal, and Aftermath, touch and a charm of style; and his de-
by James Lane Allen. (1895. ) The scriptions of nature and of bird life pos-
Kentucky Cardinal) is fresh and sess a really poetic beauty, while they
dainty tale, which may be called an are characterized by a ring of truthful-
idyl of the woods. » The story tells of ness which convinces the reader that the
the wooing of Adam Moss, a recluse who author's heart is in his words. There is
devotes himself nature, and who a blending of pathos and humor in the
dwells in a garden, which his loving work which makes it delightful reading.
touch converts almost into fairyland,
where all the fruits and flowers blossom
Spanish Conquest in America, The,
and ripen to perfection, and where all by Arthur Helps, was published in
the birds have learned to rest on their four volumes, in England, from 1855 to
migratory journeys. Adam knows all 1861.
