Events hammed, the heir of the Turkish em-
like those recorded are familiar to every pire.
like those recorded are familiar to every pire.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v30 - Guide to Systematic Readings
This poem agery, and the wisdom embodied in this
of twenty-one thousand lines contains story, make it a triumph of poetic and
ten versions of the same occurrence, be- philosophic creation.
sides the poet's prelude. It presents
from these diverse points of view the
A"
urora Leigh, a poem by Mrs. Eliza-
history of a tragedy which took place in beth Barrett Browning, which ap-
Rome one hundred and seventy years peared in 1857. She called it the most
before. Browning, one day in Florence, mature » of her works, the one in which
bought for eightpence an old book which «the highest convictions upon life and art
contained the records of a murder that are entered. ” It is in reality a novel in
of the olden time in Rome, with the blank verse. The principal characters are
pleadings and counter-pleadings, and the Aurora Leigh, who is supposed to write the
statements of the defendants and the story; Romney Leigh, her cousin ; Marian
witnesses; this Browning used as the raw Earle, the offspring of tramps; and a fash-
material for (The Ring and the Book,' ionable young widow, Lady Waldemar.
which appeared four years later. The The book discusses various theories for the
story follows the fate of the unfortu- regeneration of society. The chief theme
nate heroine, Pompilia, who has been is the final reconcilement of Aurora's
sold by her supposed mother to the ideals with Romney's practical plans for
elderly Count Guido, whose cruelty and the improvement of the masses. Bits of
violence cause her eventually to fly from scenery, hints of philosophy, and many of
him. This she does under the protection Mrs. Browning's own emotions and re-
of a young priest named Giuseppe Ca- flections regarding art, are interspersed
ponsacchi, whom she prevails upon to through the narrative. Aurora Leigh, the
convey her safely to her old home. She child of a cultivated and wealthy English-
is pursued by the Count, who overtakes man, is at his death sent from Tuscany
her and procures the arrest of the two to England, and put into the care of a
fugitives, accusing her and Caponsacchi | prim maiden aunt. She devotes herself
of having eloped. They are tried; and to study; refuses the hand of her rich
the court banishes Caponsacchi for three cousin Romney, who has become a
years, while Pompilia is relegated to a cialist; and goes to London to gain a live-
convent. Having at a later period been lihood by literary work. Romney Leigh
removed from there to her former home, wishes to afford society a moral lesson by
she is suddenly attacked by the Count a marriage with Marian Earle, a woman
and several hired assassins, who brutally of the slums, who becomes involved in a
murder her and her two parents; then tragedy which renders the marriage im-
follows the Count's trial and condemna- possible, when Romney retires to Leigh
tion for the murders, and (even in Italy) Hall. Through an accident he becomes
his final execution. The events of the blind, and these misfortunes reveal to
SO-
## p. 301 (#337) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
301
and the early dramatists, with all the
various types of versifiers who were
famous in that period. Mr. Courthope's
broad and generous spirit, his keenness
of analysis, his wide learning, and his
clearness of vision, make his work, so far
as it is completed, an ideal history of
poetry.
Guy of Warwick. This old metrical
so
romance
are
Aurora her love for him; and the poem
closes with a mutual exchange of vows
and aspirations. It is filled with pass-
ages of great beauty, and ethical utter-
ances of a lofty nature.
Poetry, History of English, by William
John Courthope. The work which
in their day both Pope and Gray con-
templated writing on the history of Eng-
lish poetry, and which Warton began but
never finished, has been taken up anew
but with a far different scope by the
professor of poetry at Oxford. His plan
embraces a history of the art of English
poetry - epic, dramatic, lyrical, and di-
dactic — from the time of Chaucer to
that of Scott, as well as an appreciation
of the motives by which each individual
poet seems to have been consciously in-
spired. ” He also inquires into «those
general causes which have unconsciously
directed imagination in England into the
various channels of metrical composi-
tion. ” Mr. Courthope believes that in
spite of the different sources from which
the English national consciousness is
derived, there is an essential unity and
consistency, so that both the technic of
poetical production and the national
genius -- the common thought, imagina-
tion, and sentiment — may be traced in
its evolution. He shows with great full-
the “progressive stages in the
formation of the mediæval stream of
thought, which feeds the literatures of
England, France, and Italy,” and tries
to connect it with the great system of
Græco-Roman cultures so prominent be-
fore the death of Boethius. He also
explores the course of the national lan-
guage, to show the changes produced by
Saxon and Norman influences on the art
of metrical expression before Chaucer.
To Chaucer himself are devoted less than
fifty octavo pages, and this chapter does
not appear in the first volume until it is
more than half finished.
The history
closes with a careful account of the rise
of the drama. Dry as the subject in its
earlier stages threatens to be, Mr. Court-
hope's brilliant style and his wealth of
illustration make it absorbingly interest-
ing to the student. The second volume,
after surveying the influence of European
thought in the sixteenth century, and
the effects of the Renaissance and Ref-
ormation, goes into a careful study of
the works of Wyatt and Surrey, the
court poets and the Euphuists, Spencer
ness
that Anglo-
Danish cycle from which the Norman
trouvères drew
much material.
(King Horn) is perhaps the most fa-
mous poem of this cycle, but (Guy of
Warwick) was one of the most popular
of those which appeared in the thir-
teenth century.
The earliest existing
manuscripts of this
in
French; though it is supposed to have
been written by Walter of Exeter, a
Cornish Franciscan. It consists of about
12,000 verses, iambic measure, arranged
in rhymed couplets. Although the value
of this poem is less as literature than as
a picture of ancient English manners,
the story has considerable interest as
an example of the kind of fiction that
pleased our ancestors. The hero, Guy,
is represented as the son of a gentle-
man of Warwick, living in the reign of
King Edgar. The youth becomes great,
after the fashion of mediæval heroes,
entirely through his own unaided ef-
forts. He is spurred on by his love for
Felicia, daughter of Earl Rohand, for at
first she scorns his suit because he has
not distinguished himself; but when he
sets out in search of adventures, they
come thick and fast. He wins in a
fight with Philbertus, kills a monstrous
makes peace between the
Duke of Lovain and the Emperor, slays
a dragon and a boar, with the help of
Herraud rescues Earl Terry's lady from
sixteen villains, travels with Terry and
saves his father's life, and finally returns
home to claim his bride.
Not long
after, he leaves Felicia to go on a pil-
grimage. On his return, finding Eng-
land invaded by the Danes, he kills in
single combat the Danish giant, Col-
brond. After his victory, entirely weary
of the world, he retires to a cave and
lives a hermit's life; all this time he is
supported by alms, and sees
of Felicia except for one brief interview
just before he dies. Though Guy is
probably a fictitious character, definite
dates are given for his life, and he is
>
dun cow,
no
more
## p. 302 (#338) ############################################
302
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
said to have died about 929. For those
who can follow the quaintness of its
middle English style, this poem is very
attractive. The story has been told in
excellent modern prose rendering
also.
an
nurse
ley's son, and another object of Heath-
cliff's hate, is also one of the household.
With the death of Heathcliff, and the
union of Hareton and Catherine, the
story ends.
Heathcliff is buried by
the side of his beloved Catherine. The
greater part of the narrative is related
by Nellie, the housekeeper at Thrush-
cross Grange, the old
in the
Earnshaw family. Among the minor
characters is Joseph, a servant in the
same family, whose eccentric character
is drawn with marvelous skill. The
entire book remains a monument of
unmodified power,- of strength without
sweetness. Only at the close of the
book, the tempest ceases, revealing for a
moment the quiet spaces of the even-
ing sky. The one to whom the strange
troubled story had been related, seeks
the graves of Heathcliff and Catherine:
“I lingered round them under a be-
nign sky; watched the moths futtering
among the heath and harebells; listened
to the soft wind breathing through the
grass; and wondered how any one could
ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the
sleepers in that quiet earth. ”
Agnes Grey, Anne Brontë's first novel,
was published in December 1847, a
year and a half before her death, when
she was twenty-seven years old. Her tal-
ents were of the moonlight order. The
book is but a pale reflection of the brill-
iant Bronté genius.
The heroine, Agnes Grey, the daughter
of a clergyman in the North of England,
becomes, through reverses of fortune, a
governess. Her experiences are those of
Anne Brontë herself, the unpleasant side
of such a position being set forth.
The
book, however, ends happily in the mar-
riage of Agnes to a clergyman. Al-
though well written, it lacks the elements
of strength and warmth. It lives by the
name of the author rather than by its
intrinsic merit.
Wuth
uthering Heights, the one novel
written by Emily Brontë, and the
work which exhibited the remarkable
quality of her genius, was published in
December 1847, only a year before her
death, when she was twenty-eight years
old. The scene of the tale is laid in
the rugged moorland country in the
north of England, with which she was
familiar from childhood; the persons are
drawn from types only to be found
perhaps in that
country, - outlandish
characters in whom gentility and sav-
agery are united. The hero of Wuther-
ing Heights) is Heathcliff, a
man of
stormy, untrained nature, brought as a
child to Wuthering Heights, the home
of the Earnshaw family, by Mr. Earn-
shaw, who had picked him up as
stray in the streets of Liverpool. He
is reared with Earnshaw's two child-
ren, Hindley and Catherine; for the
latter he conceives an intense affection,
the one gleam of light in his dark na-
ture. Catherine returns his love; but
Hindley hates him. Hindley is sent
away to college, but returns his
father's death, bringing with him
wife, who afterwards dies at the birth
of a son, Hareton. Catherine meanwhile
has made the acquaintance of Edgar
and Isabel Linton, gentleman's children,
living at Thrushcross Grange, not far
from Wuthering Heights. In course of
time, Catherine marries Edgar, though
she loves Heathcliff. Isabel falls in love
with Heathcliff, who marries her in the
hope of revenging himself thereby on
the Linton family. His cruel treat-
ment drives her from him. She gives
birth to a son, Linton; Catherine to a
daughter, Catherine. The elder Cath-
erine's death is precipitated by Heath-
cliff's stormy avowal of his continuing
passion for her. Long after her death
he plans to marry his son Linton to
Catherine's daughter, because he hates
them both, children as they are of mar-
riages that should never have been.
In this he is successful; but Linton
dies, leaving Catherine a very young
widow in the house of her dreadful
father-in-law. Hareton Earnshaw, Hind-
а
on
a
Gºd's
od's Fool, by Maarten Maartens, a
story of Dutch middle-class life,
has for its central figure Elias Lossell,
«God's Fool," a man accidentally de-
prived in childhood of his eyesight, and
in part, of his reason. Of great physical
beauty, gentle in disposition, religious
in spirit, he lives a kind of sacred, shut-
apart life, while surrounded by the
stormy passions, the greedy hates and
loves, the envyings and jealousies, of
## p. 303 (#339) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
303
success.
teach him much. Chief of these is an-
other Von Zehren, the prison director,
an ideal character. His daughter Paula
exercises the influence which opposes
that of Constance in Hartwig's life, and
leads him to new effort and
Georg himself is one of those who by
nature tend to become (anvil ») rather
than hammer. » The story, though less
famous than Problematic Characters )
or "Through Night to Light, is a great
favorite with German readers.
those in full possession of their faculties.
His father, a rich merchant, has made
two marriages. Elias, the child of the
first, inherited vast wealth from his
mother. Hendryk and Hubert Lossell,
sons of the second marriage, find on
their father's death that Elias is the
richest of the family, and the head of
the firm in which his money is vested.
Taking advantage of Elias's helpless-
ness, his half-brothers get his property
into their hands, although apparently
with his consent; but their greed brings
upon them their own destruction.
most pleasing character of the book is
the fool himself. His pure, noble, child-
like nature perfumes the heavy worldly
atmosphere that surrounds him; and he
comes in as a kind of gracious inter-
lude between the dramatic but sordid
incidents of the plot. The story is well
conceived, if slightly improbable; and
like Maartens's other books, is told with
vigor and grace.
The The Maxwell
a
Ham
ammer and Anvil (Hammer und
Amboss'), by Friedrich Spielha-
gen (1869), is a novel grounded on a
conception of the continual struggle be-
tween castes, arising largely from the
character of the social institutions of
Germany,-- the nobility, the military or-
ganization, and the industrial conditions.
The leading idea is expressed by one of
the characters, the humane director of a
house of correction, who says: “Every-
where is the sorry choice whether we
will be the hammer or the anvil » in life.
And the same character is made to ex-
press Spielhagen's solution of the diffi-
culty when he says: “It shall not be
(hammer or anvil) but hammer and
anvil'; for everything and every human
being is both at once, and every mo-
ment. »
It is not, however, easy to trace the
development of this idea as the motive
of the book; for the ovelist's power lies
rather in his charm as a narrator than
in constructive strength or analytical
ability. In this, as in most of his sto-
ries, he obtains sympathy for the person-
alities he creates, and enchains attention
by his gift of story-telling. Georg Hart-
wig, the hero of the novel, is brought
into contact with a fallen nobleman, a
smuggler, «Von Zehren the wild," with
his beautiful and heartless daughter
Constance, and with a contrasted group
of honorable and generous persons who
The Silence of Dean Maitland, by
Grey)
(Miss Mary G.
Tuttiett). Cyril Maitland, young
clergyman of the Church of England,
accidentally kills the father of a village
girl whom he has led astray. The
man's body is found, and circumstan-
tial evidence points to Henry Everard,
Cyril's lifelong friend and the lover of
his twin sister. Cyril is silent; allows
his friend to be sentenced to penal labor
for twenty years.
His sensitive soul
suffers torture, but he cannot bear to
lose the approval of man, which is very
life to him. His little sister gives un-
consciously the keynote of his character:
“I think, papa, that Cyril is not so de-
voted to loving as to being loved. ”
Endowed with a magnetic personality
that fascinates all, with a rare voice, and
with wonderful eloquence, Cyril Maitland
who becomes almost an ascetic in his
penances and self-torture, gains great
honor in the church, becomes dean, and
is about to be appointed bishop. Life
has proved hard to him. His wife, and
all his children save one daughter and
a blind son, have died, and the thought
of his hidden sin has never left him.
On the day before that in which he is
to preach the sermon that will put him
in possession of the highest place in
the church, he receives a letter from
Everard, who is out of prison after
eighteen years of suffering, telling Cyril
that he knows all, but forgives freely.
This breaks the dean's heart. The next
day he rises before the great audience
of the cathedral and confesses all, — lays
his secret soul bare before them. In
the awful pause that follows the bene-
diction, they approach Cyril, who has
fallen into a chair, and find him dead.
The book falls just short of being
great: it reminds one of The Scarlet
L :,' though it lacks the touch of the
master hand.
## p. 304 (#340) ############################################
304
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
FROM
Miss Ravenel's
a
Conversion
Travels and Adventures of Baron
SECESSION To LOYALTY, by J. W. Munchausen, The, by R. E. Raspe,
De Forest. Dr. Ravenel, a Southern published in England (1785), was founded
Secessionist, comes North at the begin- upon the outrageous stories of a real
ning of the War, with his Rebel daugh- man, one Baron Karl Friedrich Hierony-
ter Lillie; her Secessionism being more mus von Münchhausen, born at Boden-
a result of local pride and social preju- werder, Hanover, Germany, 1720; died
dice than of any deep-seated principle
there, 1797
He had served in the Rus-
due to thought and experience. Her sian army against the Turks. Later his
conversion is due to her environment, sole occupation seemed to be the rela-
social antagonism which she suffers on tion of his extraordinary adventures to
her father's account on their return to his circle of friends. Raspe purported
New Orleans, and the influence of her to have preserved these tales, as they
lovers, John Carter and Edward Col- came hot from the lips of the inimitable
burne, each in turn her husband, -the Baron. They are monuments to the art
War making her a widow after a short of lying as an entertainment. On one
period of matronly duties. With the occasion, the hero, being out of am-
inexperience of youth, carried away by munition, loaded his gun with cherry-
the appearance rather than the reality stones. With these he shot at a deer.
of perfection, she makes
wrong Coming across the same deer some time
choice in her life companion; but afterwards, he sees a cherry-tree growing
death steps in before her mistake is out of his head. The Baron's other ad-
fully comprehended. The character of ventures are on a par with this; and his
John Carter, who dies a Brigadier- name has become a synonym for mag-
General, is strongly drawn: his excesses nificent, bland extravagance of state-
of sensuality, his infidelities to his wife, ment.
his betrayal of the trust assigned him by
his government for personal aggrandize- Andes and the Amazon, The, or Across
ment, all cloaked by the personal mag-
THE
netism which blinds those near him, and by James Orton. In 1868, under the aus-
makes him a popular commander and pices of the Smithsonian Institution, Mr.
his death national loss.
In con-
Orton, who for many years was professor
trast to this is the equally strong pict- of natural history in Vassar College, led
of Edward Colburne, a dutiful an exploring expedition to the equatorial
son, brave soldier, a faithful lover Andes and the river Amazon; the expe.
and friend; meeting his enemies in riences of the party being vivaciously set
open warfare with the same courage forth in this popular book. Before this
that he displays on the less famous exploration, as Mr. Orton explains, even
battle-ground of inner conflict, where central Africa had been more fully es-
he struggles against his disappointment plored than that region of equatorial
in love, his loss of deserved promotion America which lies in the midst of the
and distressing conditions after the western Andes, and upon the slopes of
war, lightened only by the tardy love those mountain monarchs which look
of the woman to whom he has toward the Atlantic. A Spanish knight,
mained faithful. The love episodes
Orellana, during Pizarro's search for the
are the least interesting of the narra- fabled city of El Dorado in 1541, had
tive. There are graphic descriptions descended this King of Waters (as the
of battles, those of Fort Winthrop and aborigines called it); and with the eyes
Cane River being the most noteworthy; of romance, thought he discovered on its
cynical annotations of the red-tapeism banks the women-warriors for whom he
and blunders of the War Department; then newly named the stream the «Ama-
and humorous sketches of the social zon,”-a name still used by the Span-
life in New Orleans during the North- iards and the Portuguese in the plural
ern occupation, with race clashings of form, Amazonas. Except for one Spanish
aristocracy, Creoles, invaders, and freed esploration up the river in 1637, the re-
negroes, besides many amusing anec- sults of which were published in a quaint
dotes and details of army life,- all in and curious volume, and one French ex-
De Forest's sharp black and white. The ploration from coast to coast eastward in
novel takes high rank among Ameri- 1745, and the indefatigable missionary pil-
can stories
grimages of Catholic priests and friars,
a
ure
a
re-
## p. 305 (#341) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
305
be a
the great valley remained but vaguely journeyings in what was designed to
known. National jealousies had kept the new and permanent work. The
river closed from foreign navigation, un- papers were carefully revised, amplified,
til, by a larger policy, it was made free and illustrated, and a work made with
to the flags of all nations in 1867. "The the title "Our New West, 1869, in which
Andes and the Amazon) is not intended the author attempted to convey some true
to be a scientific record of newly discov- idea of the condition and promise of the
ered data. Whatever biological or archæo- western half of the continent. Thor-
logical contributions it offers are sufficiently oughly well executed, Mr. Bowles's narra-
intelligible and accurate, and there is scat- tive of natural resources and of industrial
tered through the three hundred and fifty developments remains full of interest.
pages of the book a large amount of gen- His vigorous style, keen insight, unfailing
eral information, such as a trained ob- sense of humor, and judicial mind, made
server would instinctively gather, and an him an almost unrivaled observer and
intelligent audience delight to share. reporter.
Asto
Across America and Asia: Notes of
storia: OR, ANECDOTES OF AN ENTER-
PRISE BEYOND THE ROCKY MOUNT-
a Five-Years' Journey around the
World, and of residence in Arizona, Japan,
AINS, by Washington Irving. (1836. Re-
and China,' by Raphael Pumpelly (some-
vised ed. 1849. ) An early work, of a
time mining engineer in the service of the
somewhat rambling and disjointed nature,
Chinese and Japanese governments), was
comprising stories of expeditions by land
first published in 1869. It is more than an
and sea, but presenting the history of a
ordinary record of travel, since the author
grand scheme, devised and conducted by
during his residence in Peking gave spe-
a master mind, the national character and
cial study to the political and economic
importance of which fully justified the in-
terest which Irving was led to take in it.
situation of China. As he says in the
dedication : «Many of the following pages
The characters, the catastrophe of the
relate to experiences illustrating the wis story, and the incidents of travel and wild
dom of the diplomatic policy which, in
life, were easily made by Irving to have
the interest of a novel; and in that light,
bringing China into the circle of inter-
dependent nations, promises good to the
not less than as a chapter of Far West his-
whole world. ”
tory, the work does not lose its value by
The book is written in a familiar, in-
the lapse of time.
teresting style, and bears constant witness
to a close observation of men, manners,
Sea Power, Present and Future, IN-
TEREST OF AMERICA IN, by Captain
and things, and to an appreciation of dra-
A. T. Mahan. (1897. ) A work of signifi-
matic or unusual incidents.
cance because of the author's idea of
an approaching change in the thoughts
AC
cross the Continent: (A Summer's
and policy of Americans as to their re-
Journey to the Rocky Mountains, the
lations with the world outside their own
Mormons, and the Pacific States) (May- borders. ) The age of «home markets
September, 1865), by Samuel Bowles. A
for home products” has about closed, in
volume of newspaper letters and supple- Captain Mahan's view, and the United
mentary papers, by an exceptionally able
States must consider interests reaching
journalist, designed to give to Eastern
to all parts of the world. Although,
American readers account of the
therefore, his volume consists only of a
nature, the material resources, and the
collection of detached papers, and he
social and industrial development, of the
makes no attempt to recast them into a
vast region between the Mississippi River
continuous work, he yet puts over them
and the Pacific Ocean; and with this
a broadly significant title, and offers
to make revelations and raise discussion
them to the reader as studies of a great
on such themes as the Pacific Railroad,
theme. They are in that view of par-
the Mormons, and the mines. Mr. Bowles
ticular interest.
spent another summer vacation, 1869, in
travel and exploration among the mount- The Wreck of the Grosvenor, by W.
ains of Colorado, and made a second book Clark Russell. (1874. ) This story of
of newspaper letters on Colorado the British merchant marine is notable
(The Switzerland of America. He then amongst sea novels for its fidelity to the
incorporated the two sketches of far west life, some phases of which it vividly
an
as
XXX-20
## p. 306 (#342) ############################################
306
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
portrays; and is the best by this author. cealed the spot for future exploration.
The story is told by the second mate He pays a short visit to Byzantium,
of the ship Grosvenor; and it relates where he possesses another treasure
the causes of dissatisfaction amongst the vault, and then de ts for China for a
crew, and the harsh treatment of the fifty-years' stay. It is after the expira-
men by a brutal and inhuman captain tion of this period that he assumes the
and chief mate. The troubles reach their title of Prince of India. He is filled
climax in a mutiny, in which the captain now with the purpose of teaching men
and mate are killed by the crew. The that God is Lord under whatever form
mutineers finally desert the ship near worshiped, and that all men should be
the coast of America, and are lost in a united by the bond of brotherly love.
gale. The ship also goes to the bottom; The Mohammedans do not accept his
but the second mate and the few who teaching, and he next goes to Constanti-
were faithful to him are rescued when nople to reveal it to the Greek Church,
almost at the last gasp, by a passing though he is at this time in league with
steamer.
the heir-apparent of the Turkish empire.
The gallant rescue from a sinking The thread of romance here appears in
vessel in mid-ocean, of a beautiful and the love of the young Turk for the prin-
wealthy young lady with her father, cess Irene, a relative of Constantine,
brings into the story the necessary ele- Emperor of Byzantium, and also in the
ment of romance, and provides the sec- fondness of the Prince of India ) for
ond mate with a satisfactory partner for a little Jewess named Lael, whom he
life.
adopts. The (Princeis unsuccessful
The chief value of the book lies in in his mission at Constantinople; and in
the fact that it deals in a plain, straight- rage and disappointment at the treat-
forward manner, and without exaggera- ment he receives, he sets fire to his
tion, with some of the most glaring possessions and flees to the side of Mo-
evils of the mercantile marine.
Events hammed, the heir of the Turkish em-
like those recorded are familiar to every pire. Then follows the capture of
man who sailed the seas during the Constantinople, which is graphically set
middle and even the latter part of this forth by the author. The fiery Moham-
century, and they show to what an ex- med weds the beautiful Irene, who tem-
tent the power given by the law may pers the victor's enthusiasm by her
be abused when placed in the hands of spirit of Christianity. « The Prince of
ignorant and brutal officers.
India,” borne down on the battle-field
(The Wreck of the Grosvenor) is said and supposed to be dead, rises with re-
to have been a powerful factor in re- newed youth to wander forth again, an
forming the laws relating to the mer- outcast and stranger to his generation.
chant seamen in Great Britain. Apart In many ways this book resembles
from its humanitarian motives, it is in- (Ben-Hur): it covers a period of many
teresting for the excellent descriptions years, and its plot is built by putting
of wind and weather, and of situations together historical and geographical
with which the sailor has to deal.
facts, and weaving in a thread of ro-
The boat-race » introduced in
Prince of India, The, by Lew Wal-
, ,
this story suggests the famous chariot-
lace. (1893. ) Both the title of this race ) in Ben-Hur. ) The book has a
book, and the locality chosen by its au- value in awakening an
interest in
thor a background for the story, fascinating period of history, and in fix-
awaken the interest of the reader. ing in the reader's mind many historic
(The Prince of India is no scion of events and customs, while its treatment
those ancient families that held sway of the religious questions involved is
over the country of Golconda, but is a broad and comprehensive.
Jewish shoemaker condemned by our
Lord to wander over the earth until his
Rocks, The, by Édouard Rod.
second coming. This “Wandering Jew” (1895. ) In the Bois-Joli belonging
is first introduced at the hidden sarcoph- to the Swiss commune of Bielle are two
agus of Hiram, King of Tyre, which he great rocks, called Les Rochers Blancs,
has not visited for one thousand years. about which twines a romantic legend.
Ten centuries before, he had found this A noble lord who had loved a woman
mine of priceless jewels, and had con- kept from him by some unknown barrier
mance.
a
as
1
White
1
1
## p. 307 (#343) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
307
was
had entered a Trappist monastery; the Madame de Maintenon, by J. Cotter
woman at the same time became a nun.
Morison, is a brief but capable
But they met every night in the pine- effort to extricate the memory of the fa-
trees of the Bois-Joli. They were faith- mous Frenchwoman fr willful misrep-
ful and loyal, and kept their vows; and resentation, either by her friends or by
just as they had bidden each other an her enemies. This study is a strong and
eternal farewell, they were stiffened into thoughtful presentment of her extraordi-
stone side by side. History repeats it- nary career, beginning with poverty and
self in the life of the peasant pastor of humiliation; culminating as Queen of
Bielle, M. Trembloz. Among his parish- France, wife of Louis the Magnificent;
ioners is an aristocratic family, consist- and ending in dignified seclusion at the
ing of M. Massod de Bussens and his convent school of St. Cyr, which she her-
wife: (Madame de Bussens not self had established for poor girls of
precisely beautiful, but she had a wealth noble birth. But it is not mere narra-
of thick silky hair, which set off a fore- tion, for Madame de Maintenon's char-
head of exceeding purity; large sky-blue acter is drawn with sympathy, and keen
eyes, from which flashed at moments a although not obtrusive psychological
repressed inward light;
a charming analysis. Through all her experiences,
mouth formed for smiling, but rarely whether clad in sabots and guarding
seen to smile;» young in appearance, poultry for her unwilling guardian and
and slender as a girl. Her husband is aunt, Madame de Neuillant; or as wife
a sanctimonious tyrant who has crushed of the crippled poet of burlesque, Paul
out whatever love she may once have Scarron; or in her subsequent glory,-
felt for him. M. Trembloz is simple- she is a shrewd utilitarian, making the
hearted, but gifted with marvelous elo- best of her present, and concerning her-
quence; sees that sh suffers; he self little with the future. She success-
understands her, and it is only a ques- fully serves two masters, and by clever
tion of a few meetings when they find scheming and religious devotion lays up
themselves deeply in love. But like the treasure both in this world and in the
mythical lovers. of the White Rocks, next. Her friends have declared her to
they resolve to meet no more. Unfor- be an angel of goodness; her enemies
tunately, their secret is discovered and have accused her of great deceit and im-
reported to M. de Bussens, who charges morality.
Both were wrong.
She was
her with unfaithfulness. She confesses not passionate enough to be wicked, and
that she loves the pastor. Her husband her head always governed her heart.
is implacable, and sends her away, de- "A wish to stand well with the world,
priving her of their charming son Mau- and win its esteem, was her master pas-
rice, who loves her and is desperately sion;" and her other chief preoccupation
afraid of his father.
with spiritual affairs, which she
M. Rod raises the eternal question of treats as a sort of prudent investment,
what shall be done with incompatible - a preparation against a rainy day,
marriage, but makes no attempt to cut which only the thoughtless could neglect. ”
the Gordian knot. The petty society of Her ruling characteristics were tact and
a Swiss provincial town is graphically good sense. They showed her how to
depicted; but perhaps the cleverest por- make herself agreeable, and how to
trait in the book is the keen, ambitious serve other people; and thus she gained
Madame Trembloz, the mother of the the popularity she craved.
pastor, who in her way is as much of a
tyrant as is M. de Bussens in his. The
Barber of Seville, The, by Pierre Au-
episode of the young girl, Rose Char- gustin Caron (who later assumed
mot, who is brought before the directors the nomme de guerre Beaumarchais »),
of the Orphan Asylum and charged with appeared in 1775 as a five-act French
having gone astray, brings to light all comedy. It is the first of the Figaro
the narrowness of the self-righteous and trilogy, the later plays being the Mar-
Pharisaical spirit rampant in such a pro- riage of Figaro) and the 'Guilty Mother. '
vincial town, and forms a background The whole drift of the Barbier,) as of
for the nobleness of the pastor and the Mariage, is a satirization of the
Madame de Bussens, who alone take the privileged classes, from the political and
part. The story is written in a «rights-of-man” point of view rather
fascinating style.
than from that of the social moralist.
was
## p. 308 (#344) ############################################
308
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
The plays proved to be formidable polit- brother of the charlatanism of his doc-
ical engines.
tors and the selfish designs of his wife.
Full of sparkling, incisive, and direct Argan is deaf to all reason; but to
dialogue, eminently artistic as a piece please his brother, asks the apothecary
of dramatic construction, yet lacking the to defer the administering of an in-
high literary merit which characterizes jection. Purgon is indignant at this
some of the author's other work, the (Bar- «crime of Lèse Faculté,” and to Ar-
bier,' the embodiment of Beaumarchais's gon's great despair, declines to treat
vivacious genius, lives to the world in its him longer. Toinette, a servant-girl,
leading character, Figaro the inimitable. disguised as a traveling physician, es-
The simple plot follows the efforts and amines into his case, and tells him
(useless precautions) of Bartholo, tutor the diagnosis of Purgon was entirely
and guardian of Rosine,-a coquettish erroneous. In her proper character she
beauty loved by Count Almaviva, - to defends Béline, and to prove to Bé-
prevent his pupil-ward from marrying, for ralde that his opinion of her is false,
he himself loves her. But Bartholo is out- asks Argon to counterfeit death. He
witted, though with difficulty, by younger does so, and learns the true character
and more adroit gallants, whose schemes of his wife and Angélique's love for
form the episodes of the comedy. Don him.
Basilio, an organist and Rosine's teacher He consents to her marriage with
of singing, is the typical calumniator, Cléante, with the proviso that he shall
operating by covert insinuation rather become a physician. Béralde suggests
than by open disparagement. Figaro is, that Argan himself become one, assur-
as the title indicates, a barber of Seville, ing him that with the bonnet and
where the action is laid, though the play gown come Latin and knowledge. He
has an air unmistakably French. He is consents, and by a crowd of carnival
presented as a master in cunning, dexter- masqueraders is made a member of the
ity, and intrigue, never happier than when Faculty. To the questions as to what
he has several audacious plots on hand. treatment is necessary in several cases,
«Perpetually witty, inexhaustibly ingen- he replies: «Injection first, blood-letting
ious, perennially gay,” says Austin Dob- next, purge next. ” He takes the oaths
son, “he is pre-eminently the man of his to obey the laws of the Faculty, to be
country, the irrepressible mouthpiece of in all cases of the ancient opinion,
the popular voice, the cynical and incor- be it good or bad, and to use only the
rigible laugher
who opposes to
remedies prescribed by the Faculty,
rank, prescription, and prerogative, noth- even though his patient should die of
ing but his indomitable audacity or his his illness. It was when responding
sublime indifference. ”
"Juro” (I swear), to one of these ques-
Malade
lade Imaginaire, Le, by Molière. tions, that Molière attacked by
This comedy is in three acts, and a fit of coughing, causing the rupture
was first produced in Paris in 1673. It of a blood-vessel, from the effects of
was the last work of the author; and which he died a few hours later.
in it, as Argan, he made his last ap-
pearance
the stage. Argan, who Av
vare, L' (The Miser) one of the most
imagines himself ill, is completely un- famous of Molière's prose comedies,
der the dominion of Monsieur Purgon first produced September 9th, 1668. It
his physician. By his advice, he wishes is founded on the (Aulularia) of Plautus
to marry his daughter Angélique to (which see above), and was paraphrased
Thomas Diafoirus, a young booby, just by Fielding in his comedy of The Miser. )
graduated as a doctor. Béline, his sec- Harpagon, a sexagenarian miser who in-
ond wife, wishes him to oblige both carnates the spirit of avarice, has deter-
of his daughters to become nuns, that mined to marry a young woman named
she may inherit his property. Angé- Mariane, who lives in obscure poverty
lique is at first pleased, thinking that he with her invalid mother. He has likewise
wishes her to marry Cléante with whom determined to bestow the hand of his own
she is in love. Argan insists upon the daughter Elise upon Anselme, a friend
marriage with Thomas, whose studied or- and companion of his own age, who has
atorical speeches entirely captivate him.
consented to take her without a dot or
Béralde, the brother of Argan, pleads marriage portion. But the young women
for Cléante, and tries to convince his prefer to choose their own lovers. Har-
.
(
was
on
## p. 309 (#345) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
309
pagon's son, Cléante, is the favored suitor des Débats, the preceding year, the author
of Mariane. Valère is desperately smit- makes this reference to it: _«In my work
ten with Elise, and for the purpose of upon the "Genius of Christianity, or the
wooing her has introduced himself into Beauties of the Christian Religion,' a cer-
the Harpagon household under the guise tain portion is devoted exclusively to the
of the house-steward. Harpagon's dear- poesy of Christianity;
the work
est possession is a casket containing ten is terminated by a story extracted from
thousand francs, which he has buried in my Travels in America,' and written
his garden, and with which his thoughts beneath the very huts of the savages. It
are ever occupied. La Flêche, a valet, is entitled Atala. ))) Atala) is an extrav-
discovers the chest. Harpagon's despair agant and artificial but beautiful romance
and fury, the complications ensuing, and of two lovers, ---a young Indian brave,
the distentanglement necessary to a suc- Chactas (i. e. , Choctaw), and an Indian
cessful stage ending, are given with all maiden, Atala. Châteaubriand drew his
Molière's inexhaustible verve and humor. conception of Chactas -a savage, half
civilized by contact with European culture
Alzire, a well-known tragedy, by Vol-
- from the tradition of an Indian chief,
taire. The time is the sixteenth cen- who, having been a galley-slave at Mar-
tury. Montèze, the native king of a part seilles, was afterwards liberated and pre-
of Potosi, has, with his daughter Alzire sented to Louis XIV. The pivot of the
and a large number of American Indians, romance is the power of Christianity to
fallen into the power of Guzman, the subdue the wildest passions of man. Atala,
Spanish governor of Peru. The Spaniard a Christian, has taken the vow of vir-
falls in love with Alzire, who has become ginity by the death-bed of her mother.
a Christian. Having been betrothed to Afterwards she finds herself in love with
an Indian chief now believed to be dead, Chactas, who has been taken prisoner by
she hesitates to marry the governor, but
her tribe. She aids him to escape, and
is persuaded by her father, and by Alvares together they roam through the pathless
the father of Guzman. After the mar- forests of the New World surrounded by
riage, Zamore, her first lover, reappears luxuriant nature, haunted by the genius of
among a crowd of prisoners. His fury the wilderness, the genius of productive
becomes uncontrollable when he learns life. Chactas would fain be one with na-
that Guzman, who has already wrested ture in his abandonment to instinct; but
from him everything else he valued, - Atala, although she is consumed with love
power, wealth, and liberty,- has now de- for him, is obedient to what she believes
prived him of his betrothed. In vain to be a higher law. In a great tempest
does Alzire ontrive the captive's escape.
of lightning and rain they lose their way,
He will not fly without her. In disguise being found and sheltered by a pious
he penetrates to the chamber of his en- hermit, Father Aubrey, who takes them
emy, and mortally wounds him.
Both to his cave. Atala tells him the story of
Alzire and Alvares seek to save him, but her vow, and of her temptation. He re-
cannot unless he adopts Christianity. He plies that she may be released, but his
refuses; but when his rival Guzman says, assurance comes too late. She has taken
«Your God has enjoined on you vengeance a poison, that she may become death's
and murder: mine commands me to pity bride ere she has given herself to an-
and forgive my murderer,” he is over- other. The hermit fills her last hours
come, and makes a profession of faith. with the comfort of his ministrations, and
Dying, Guzman unites the lovers. This she departs reconciled and soothed. Chac-
play is often rated as Voltaire's dramatic tas carries her in his arms to the grave
masterpiece. In elegance of diction, in prepared by the hermit, the wind blow-
picturesqueness and vigor of conception, ing her long hair back against his face.
it leaves little to be desired. The dram- Together they leave her to her sleep in
atist's intention was to contrast the noble the wilderness. Atala, despite its arti-
but imperfect virtues of the natural man ficiality, retains its charm to this day.
with those of the man trained under the Châteaubriand's savages are Europeans,
influences of Christianity and civilization. his forests are in Arcadia; nevertheless
the narrative has a fascination which
Atala, a romance of the American wil. gives it a place among the fairy-tales of
derness, by Châteaubriand, was pub- fiction, – due not only to its charm of
lished in 1801. In a letter in the Journal | style but its noble elevation of thought.
## p. 310 (#346) ############################################
310
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
published in 1816, the third in 1619, and René, by François Auguste Château-
Ast
strea ('L'Astrée), a famous French works of fiction, it lives only in the limbo
novel, is in five volumes. The first of the forgotten.
volume appeared in 1609, the second was
briand, published separately in 1807.
in 1627 his posthumous notes and man-
(René) and Atala) are the fruits of
uscripts were compiled into the fourth
Chateaubriand's American travels, and
and fifth volumes, and published by his
they abound in the exquisite descrip-
secretary Baro. Probably no other novel
tion of natural scenery for which he is
was ever so successful, all cultivated Eu-
noted.
rope being enthusiastic over it for many (René, an episode of the prose epic
years. The period is the fourth century.
Les Natchez,' is in effect a monologue of
Céladon, a shepherd, lover of the beautiful
the young European of that name, who
shepherdess Astrea, lives in the enchanted
has fled to the New World and its soli-
land of Foreste. While their marriage tudes; and who relates to his adopted
awaits parental sanction, a jealous shep-
father Chactas, and the French mission-
herd persuades Astrea that Céladon loves
Aminthe. She therefore angrily repulses
ary Father Souël, his previous life and
the causes of his self-exile. Seated under
him. Céladon throws himself into the
a great tree in the haunts of the Natchez
river Lignon, and Astrea faints on the
Indians, of whose tribe Chactas is a
bank. Her parents sorrow so bitterly chief, the young man tells his listeners
over her grief that both soon die. As-
the story of his boyhood, and his rest-
trea may now weep unreservedly with-
out being suspected of mourning for
less wanderings from land to land in
search of mental peace. He has passed
Céladon. But Céladon lives. He has
through ancient countries and modern,
been succored by the Princess Galatea
has studied humanity in its earliest
and her attendant nymphs, taken to court,
monuments and in the life of his own
and tenderly cared for. Thence he es-
day, and finding no satisfaction in any
capes to
a gloomy cavern, where he
phase of life, has remained long in for-
spends his time bewailing Astrea. Meet-
est solitudes, - only to meet there thoughts
ing a friendly shepherd, he sends a letter
of death.
to the most beautiful shepherdess in the
He tells further how he was rescued
world. » Astrea at once sets out to find
from this temptation by the love of his
him. Thus the story rambles on, a long,
sister Amélie, who came to him and led
inconsequent sequence of descriptions,
his mind back to life, then disappeared
adventures, and moral reflections. War
breaks out in Foreste. Céladon, who,
from his sight forever in the living
death of a convent, where she hid a
disguised as a druidess, has become As-
trea's friend is with her taken prisoner,
heart oppressed by a feeling for René
too strong for her peace. The tragedy
but both escape. At last he reveals him-
of his sister's confession has driven René
self, but is repulsed. Once more he re-
to these wildernesses.
solves to die; all the characters accom-
The episodes of René and Atala are
panying him to the Fountain of Truth,
whose guardian lions devour hypocrites
beautiful in melody and description, but
and defend the virtuous. They spare
inevitably unreal in their suggestions of
Indian life and character. As a kind of
him; and Astrea, looking into the truth-
compromise between the forms of prose
revealing water, is at last convinced of
his fidelity. Everybody is a model of
and poetry, the whole work is perhaps
virtue, and the story ends with a gen-
less thoroughly satisfactory than would
eral marriage fête. Whether L'Astrée)
be an equally fine attempt in either
requires a key is not important. Euric
department of literature.
may have been Henri IV. , Céladon and
AT
drienne Lecou vreur, a play by Scribe
Astrea other names for D'Urfé and his and Légouvé, which first appeared
wife Diane; but probably the story is in 1849, possesses witty dialogue and
fanciful. Its charm lies in its pastoral strong dramatic situations. The scene is
setting, and its loftily romantic concep- laid in Paris, in March 1730, Maurice,
tion of love. It is a day-dream, which Count de Saxe, a former admirer of the
solaced the soldier-author himself. The Princess de Bouillon, now loves and is
story is written in straightforward, fluent loved by Adrienne Lecouvreur, a beau-
French, and is full of sentir ent and in-
actress of the Comédie Française;
genuity; but like so many other immortal whonot knowing his real name and
## p. 311 (#347) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS.
311
rank, believes him a poor soldier of for-
tune. Though the action resulting from
this mistake occupies the space of two
days only, it is very complicated; yet
the unity of the play is vividly clear,
and the strongly contrasted characters
stand out with great distinctness, while
the dialogue is epigrammatic and full of
power.
nature as anything in literature. The
fashionable people who recognized them-
selves under their Roman disguises were
charmed with Mademoiselle de Scudé-
ri's skill as a portrait-painter. The work
marks the transition from the era of
Montaigne to that of Corneille; and as
such may, to some extent, be considered
epoch-making.
Clélie,
a romance in ten volumes by
Mademoiselle de Scudéri. The name
Od Number, The, an English trans-
of her brother figured on the title-pages lation by Jonathan Sturgis, of thir-
of the first volumes; but the secret of teen stories by Guy de Maupassant,
the authorship having been discovered, appeared in 1889. Each tale is an ad-
her name replaced it. It would be diffi- mirable example of the literary art
cult to summarize the incidents of this which made Maupassant the acknowl-
once famous production. The subject is edged master of the short story. All
the siege of Rome after the expulsion of show an acute realization of the irony
Tarquin the Proud. The heroine is the of life, and are written in a pessi-
young Roman girl who was a bostage mistic strain. The unerring choice of
of Porsena, and swam across the Tiber words, the exquisite precision of the
under a shower of arrows from the
descriptive touches, carry home the sens-
Etruscan army. Lucretia, Horatius, Mu- ation which Maupassant wished to con-
cius Scævola, Brutus, and all the heroes vey. Many kinds of life are revealed.
of the young republic, are actors in the In The Piece of ing,' we have
drama; and all are desperately in love, the petty shrewdness, thrift, and obsti-
and spend most of their time in asking nacy, of the Norman peasant. Maitre
questions and solving riddles that have Hanchecorne, on his way to the mar-
a serious connection with love, and espe- ket-place, is seen to pick up something
cially with a very mysterious species of from the ground and thrust it into his
gallantry, according to the taste of the pocket. Thereupon he is accused of
time in which it was written. They stealing a missing purse. His find was
draw maps of love on the noted country only a bit of string; but neither his
of Tendre. We see the river of Incli- guilt nor innocence can be proved, and
nation, on its right bank the villages of he rests under the imputation all his
Jolis-Vers and Epîtres Galantes, and days. In time he himself is almost per-
its left those of Complaisance, Petits- suaded of his guilt.
Soins, and Assiduities. Further on are (La Mère Sauvage) is a study of the
the hamlets of Abandon and Perfidie.
of twenty-one thousand lines contains story, make it a triumph of poetic and
ten versions of the same occurrence, be- philosophic creation.
sides the poet's prelude. It presents
from these diverse points of view the
A"
urora Leigh, a poem by Mrs. Eliza-
history of a tragedy which took place in beth Barrett Browning, which ap-
Rome one hundred and seventy years peared in 1857. She called it the most
before. Browning, one day in Florence, mature » of her works, the one in which
bought for eightpence an old book which «the highest convictions upon life and art
contained the records of a murder that are entered. ” It is in reality a novel in
of the olden time in Rome, with the blank verse. The principal characters are
pleadings and counter-pleadings, and the Aurora Leigh, who is supposed to write the
statements of the defendants and the story; Romney Leigh, her cousin ; Marian
witnesses; this Browning used as the raw Earle, the offspring of tramps; and a fash-
material for (The Ring and the Book,' ionable young widow, Lady Waldemar.
which appeared four years later. The The book discusses various theories for the
story follows the fate of the unfortu- regeneration of society. The chief theme
nate heroine, Pompilia, who has been is the final reconcilement of Aurora's
sold by her supposed mother to the ideals with Romney's practical plans for
elderly Count Guido, whose cruelty and the improvement of the masses. Bits of
violence cause her eventually to fly from scenery, hints of philosophy, and many of
him. This she does under the protection Mrs. Browning's own emotions and re-
of a young priest named Giuseppe Ca- flections regarding art, are interspersed
ponsacchi, whom she prevails upon to through the narrative. Aurora Leigh, the
convey her safely to her old home. She child of a cultivated and wealthy English-
is pursued by the Count, who overtakes man, is at his death sent from Tuscany
her and procures the arrest of the two to England, and put into the care of a
fugitives, accusing her and Caponsacchi | prim maiden aunt. She devotes herself
of having eloped. They are tried; and to study; refuses the hand of her rich
the court banishes Caponsacchi for three cousin Romney, who has become a
years, while Pompilia is relegated to a cialist; and goes to London to gain a live-
convent. Having at a later period been lihood by literary work. Romney Leigh
removed from there to her former home, wishes to afford society a moral lesson by
she is suddenly attacked by the Count a marriage with Marian Earle, a woman
and several hired assassins, who brutally of the slums, who becomes involved in a
murder her and her two parents; then tragedy which renders the marriage im-
follows the Count's trial and condemna- possible, when Romney retires to Leigh
tion for the murders, and (even in Italy) Hall. Through an accident he becomes
his final execution. The events of the blind, and these misfortunes reveal to
SO-
## p. 301 (#337) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
301
and the early dramatists, with all the
various types of versifiers who were
famous in that period. Mr. Courthope's
broad and generous spirit, his keenness
of analysis, his wide learning, and his
clearness of vision, make his work, so far
as it is completed, an ideal history of
poetry.
Guy of Warwick. This old metrical
so
romance
are
Aurora her love for him; and the poem
closes with a mutual exchange of vows
and aspirations. It is filled with pass-
ages of great beauty, and ethical utter-
ances of a lofty nature.
Poetry, History of English, by William
John Courthope. The work which
in their day both Pope and Gray con-
templated writing on the history of Eng-
lish poetry, and which Warton began but
never finished, has been taken up anew
but with a far different scope by the
professor of poetry at Oxford. His plan
embraces a history of the art of English
poetry - epic, dramatic, lyrical, and di-
dactic — from the time of Chaucer to
that of Scott, as well as an appreciation
of the motives by which each individual
poet seems to have been consciously in-
spired. ” He also inquires into «those
general causes which have unconsciously
directed imagination in England into the
various channels of metrical composi-
tion. ” Mr. Courthope believes that in
spite of the different sources from which
the English national consciousness is
derived, there is an essential unity and
consistency, so that both the technic of
poetical production and the national
genius -- the common thought, imagina-
tion, and sentiment — may be traced in
its evolution. He shows with great full-
the “progressive stages in the
formation of the mediæval stream of
thought, which feeds the literatures of
England, France, and Italy,” and tries
to connect it with the great system of
Græco-Roman cultures so prominent be-
fore the death of Boethius. He also
explores the course of the national lan-
guage, to show the changes produced by
Saxon and Norman influences on the art
of metrical expression before Chaucer.
To Chaucer himself are devoted less than
fifty octavo pages, and this chapter does
not appear in the first volume until it is
more than half finished.
The history
closes with a careful account of the rise
of the drama. Dry as the subject in its
earlier stages threatens to be, Mr. Court-
hope's brilliant style and his wealth of
illustration make it absorbingly interest-
ing to the student. The second volume,
after surveying the influence of European
thought in the sixteenth century, and
the effects of the Renaissance and Ref-
ormation, goes into a careful study of
the works of Wyatt and Surrey, the
court poets and the Euphuists, Spencer
ness
that Anglo-
Danish cycle from which the Norman
trouvères drew
much material.
(King Horn) is perhaps the most fa-
mous poem of this cycle, but (Guy of
Warwick) was one of the most popular
of those which appeared in the thir-
teenth century.
The earliest existing
manuscripts of this
in
French; though it is supposed to have
been written by Walter of Exeter, a
Cornish Franciscan. It consists of about
12,000 verses, iambic measure, arranged
in rhymed couplets. Although the value
of this poem is less as literature than as
a picture of ancient English manners,
the story has considerable interest as
an example of the kind of fiction that
pleased our ancestors. The hero, Guy,
is represented as the son of a gentle-
man of Warwick, living in the reign of
King Edgar. The youth becomes great,
after the fashion of mediæval heroes,
entirely through his own unaided ef-
forts. He is spurred on by his love for
Felicia, daughter of Earl Rohand, for at
first she scorns his suit because he has
not distinguished himself; but when he
sets out in search of adventures, they
come thick and fast. He wins in a
fight with Philbertus, kills a monstrous
makes peace between the
Duke of Lovain and the Emperor, slays
a dragon and a boar, with the help of
Herraud rescues Earl Terry's lady from
sixteen villains, travels with Terry and
saves his father's life, and finally returns
home to claim his bride.
Not long
after, he leaves Felicia to go on a pil-
grimage. On his return, finding Eng-
land invaded by the Danes, he kills in
single combat the Danish giant, Col-
brond. After his victory, entirely weary
of the world, he retires to a cave and
lives a hermit's life; all this time he is
supported by alms, and sees
of Felicia except for one brief interview
just before he dies. Though Guy is
probably a fictitious character, definite
dates are given for his life, and he is
>
dun cow,
no
more
## p. 302 (#338) ############################################
302
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
said to have died about 929. For those
who can follow the quaintness of its
middle English style, this poem is very
attractive. The story has been told in
excellent modern prose rendering
also.
an
nurse
ley's son, and another object of Heath-
cliff's hate, is also one of the household.
With the death of Heathcliff, and the
union of Hareton and Catherine, the
story ends.
Heathcliff is buried by
the side of his beloved Catherine. The
greater part of the narrative is related
by Nellie, the housekeeper at Thrush-
cross Grange, the old
in the
Earnshaw family. Among the minor
characters is Joseph, a servant in the
same family, whose eccentric character
is drawn with marvelous skill. The
entire book remains a monument of
unmodified power,- of strength without
sweetness. Only at the close of the
book, the tempest ceases, revealing for a
moment the quiet spaces of the even-
ing sky. The one to whom the strange
troubled story had been related, seeks
the graves of Heathcliff and Catherine:
“I lingered round them under a be-
nign sky; watched the moths futtering
among the heath and harebells; listened
to the soft wind breathing through the
grass; and wondered how any one could
ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the
sleepers in that quiet earth. ”
Agnes Grey, Anne Brontë's first novel,
was published in December 1847, a
year and a half before her death, when
she was twenty-seven years old. Her tal-
ents were of the moonlight order. The
book is but a pale reflection of the brill-
iant Bronté genius.
The heroine, Agnes Grey, the daughter
of a clergyman in the North of England,
becomes, through reverses of fortune, a
governess. Her experiences are those of
Anne Brontë herself, the unpleasant side
of such a position being set forth.
The
book, however, ends happily in the mar-
riage of Agnes to a clergyman. Al-
though well written, it lacks the elements
of strength and warmth. It lives by the
name of the author rather than by its
intrinsic merit.
Wuth
uthering Heights, the one novel
written by Emily Brontë, and the
work which exhibited the remarkable
quality of her genius, was published in
December 1847, only a year before her
death, when she was twenty-eight years
old. The scene of the tale is laid in
the rugged moorland country in the
north of England, with which she was
familiar from childhood; the persons are
drawn from types only to be found
perhaps in that
country, - outlandish
characters in whom gentility and sav-
agery are united. The hero of Wuther-
ing Heights) is Heathcliff, a
man of
stormy, untrained nature, brought as a
child to Wuthering Heights, the home
of the Earnshaw family, by Mr. Earn-
shaw, who had picked him up as
stray in the streets of Liverpool. He
is reared with Earnshaw's two child-
ren, Hindley and Catherine; for the
latter he conceives an intense affection,
the one gleam of light in his dark na-
ture. Catherine returns his love; but
Hindley hates him. Hindley is sent
away to college, but returns his
father's death, bringing with him
wife, who afterwards dies at the birth
of a son, Hareton. Catherine meanwhile
has made the acquaintance of Edgar
and Isabel Linton, gentleman's children,
living at Thrushcross Grange, not far
from Wuthering Heights. In course of
time, Catherine marries Edgar, though
she loves Heathcliff. Isabel falls in love
with Heathcliff, who marries her in the
hope of revenging himself thereby on
the Linton family. His cruel treat-
ment drives her from him. She gives
birth to a son, Linton; Catherine to a
daughter, Catherine. The elder Cath-
erine's death is precipitated by Heath-
cliff's stormy avowal of his continuing
passion for her. Long after her death
he plans to marry his son Linton to
Catherine's daughter, because he hates
them both, children as they are of mar-
riages that should never have been.
In this he is successful; but Linton
dies, leaving Catherine a very young
widow in the house of her dreadful
father-in-law. Hareton Earnshaw, Hind-
а
on
a
Gºd's
od's Fool, by Maarten Maartens, a
story of Dutch middle-class life,
has for its central figure Elias Lossell,
«God's Fool," a man accidentally de-
prived in childhood of his eyesight, and
in part, of his reason. Of great physical
beauty, gentle in disposition, religious
in spirit, he lives a kind of sacred, shut-
apart life, while surrounded by the
stormy passions, the greedy hates and
loves, the envyings and jealousies, of
## p. 303 (#339) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
303
success.
teach him much. Chief of these is an-
other Von Zehren, the prison director,
an ideal character. His daughter Paula
exercises the influence which opposes
that of Constance in Hartwig's life, and
leads him to new effort and
Georg himself is one of those who by
nature tend to become (anvil ») rather
than hammer. » The story, though less
famous than Problematic Characters )
or "Through Night to Light, is a great
favorite with German readers.
those in full possession of their faculties.
His father, a rich merchant, has made
two marriages. Elias, the child of the
first, inherited vast wealth from his
mother. Hendryk and Hubert Lossell,
sons of the second marriage, find on
their father's death that Elias is the
richest of the family, and the head of
the firm in which his money is vested.
Taking advantage of Elias's helpless-
ness, his half-brothers get his property
into their hands, although apparently
with his consent; but their greed brings
upon them their own destruction.
most pleasing character of the book is
the fool himself. His pure, noble, child-
like nature perfumes the heavy worldly
atmosphere that surrounds him; and he
comes in as a kind of gracious inter-
lude between the dramatic but sordid
incidents of the plot. The story is well
conceived, if slightly improbable; and
like Maartens's other books, is told with
vigor and grace.
The The Maxwell
a
Ham
ammer and Anvil (Hammer und
Amboss'), by Friedrich Spielha-
gen (1869), is a novel grounded on a
conception of the continual struggle be-
tween castes, arising largely from the
character of the social institutions of
Germany,-- the nobility, the military or-
ganization, and the industrial conditions.
The leading idea is expressed by one of
the characters, the humane director of a
house of correction, who says: “Every-
where is the sorry choice whether we
will be the hammer or the anvil » in life.
And the same character is made to ex-
press Spielhagen's solution of the diffi-
culty when he says: “It shall not be
(hammer or anvil) but hammer and
anvil'; for everything and every human
being is both at once, and every mo-
ment. »
It is not, however, easy to trace the
development of this idea as the motive
of the book; for the ovelist's power lies
rather in his charm as a narrator than
in constructive strength or analytical
ability. In this, as in most of his sto-
ries, he obtains sympathy for the person-
alities he creates, and enchains attention
by his gift of story-telling. Georg Hart-
wig, the hero of the novel, is brought
into contact with a fallen nobleman, a
smuggler, «Von Zehren the wild," with
his beautiful and heartless daughter
Constance, and with a contrasted group
of honorable and generous persons who
The Silence of Dean Maitland, by
Grey)
(Miss Mary G.
Tuttiett). Cyril Maitland, young
clergyman of the Church of England,
accidentally kills the father of a village
girl whom he has led astray. The
man's body is found, and circumstan-
tial evidence points to Henry Everard,
Cyril's lifelong friend and the lover of
his twin sister. Cyril is silent; allows
his friend to be sentenced to penal labor
for twenty years.
His sensitive soul
suffers torture, but he cannot bear to
lose the approval of man, which is very
life to him. His little sister gives un-
consciously the keynote of his character:
“I think, papa, that Cyril is not so de-
voted to loving as to being loved. ”
Endowed with a magnetic personality
that fascinates all, with a rare voice, and
with wonderful eloquence, Cyril Maitland
who becomes almost an ascetic in his
penances and self-torture, gains great
honor in the church, becomes dean, and
is about to be appointed bishop. Life
has proved hard to him. His wife, and
all his children save one daughter and
a blind son, have died, and the thought
of his hidden sin has never left him.
On the day before that in which he is
to preach the sermon that will put him
in possession of the highest place in
the church, he receives a letter from
Everard, who is out of prison after
eighteen years of suffering, telling Cyril
that he knows all, but forgives freely.
This breaks the dean's heart. The next
day he rises before the great audience
of the cathedral and confesses all, — lays
his secret soul bare before them. In
the awful pause that follows the bene-
diction, they approach Cyril, who has
fallen into a chair, and find him dead.
The book falls just short of being
great: it reminds one of The Scarlet
L :,' though it lacks the touch of the
master hand.
## p. 304 (#340) ############################################
304
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
FROM
Miss Ravenel's
a
Conversion
Travels and Adventures of Baron
SECESSION To LOYALTY, by J. W. Munchausen, The, by R. E. Raspe,
De Forest. Dr. Ravenel, a Southern published in England (1785), was founded
Secessionist, comes North at the begin- upon the outrageous stories of a real
ning of the War, with his Rebel daugh- man, one Baron Karl Friedrich Hierony-
ter Lillie; her Secessionism being more mus von Münchhausen, born at Boden-
a result of local pride and social preju- werder, Hanover, Germany, 1720; died
dice than of any deep-seated principle
there, 1797
He had served in the Rus-
due to thought and experience. Her sian army against the Turks. Later his
conversion is due to her environment, sole occupation seemed to be the rela-
social antagonism which she suffers on tion of his extraordinary adventures to
her father's account on their return to his circle of friends. Raspe purported
New Orleans, and the influence of her to have preserved these tales, as they
lovers, John Carter and Edward Col- came hot from the lips of the inimitable
burne, each in turn her husband, -the Baron. They are monuments to the art
War making her a widow after a short of lying as an entertainment. On one
period of matronly duties. With the occasion, the hero, being out of am-
inexperience of youth, carried away by munition, loaded his gun with cherry-
the appearance rather than the reality stones. With these he shot at a deer.
of perfection, she makes
wrong Coming across the same deer some time
choice in her life companion; but afterwards, he sees a cherry-tree growing
death steps in before her mistake is out of his head. The Baron's other ad-
fully comprehended. The character of ventures are on a par with this; and his
John Carter, who dies a Brigadier- name has become a synonym for mag-
General, is strongly drawn: his excesses nificent, bland extravagance of state-
of sensuality, his infidelities to his wife, ment.
his betrayal of the trust assigned him by
his government for personal aggrandize- Andes and the Amazon, The, or Across
ment, all cloaked by the personal mag-
THE
netism which blinds those near him, and by James Orton. In 1868, under the aus-
makes him a popular commander and pices of the Smithsonian Institution, Mr.
his death national loss.
In con-
Orton, who for many years was professor
trast to this is the equally strong pict- of natural history in Vassar College, led
of Edward Colburne, a dutiful an exploring expedition to the equatorial
son, brave soldier, a faithful lover Andes and the river Amazon; the expe.
and friend; meeting his enemies in riences of the party being vivaciously set
open warfare with the same courage forth in this popular book. Before this
that he displays on the less famous exploration, as Mr. Orton explains, even
battle-ground of inner conflict, where central Africa had been more fully es-
he struggles against his disappointment plored than that region of equatorial
in love, his loss of deserved promotion America which lies in the midst of the
and distressing conditions after the western Andes, and upon the slopes of
war, lightened only by the tardy love those mountain monarchs which look
of the woman to whom he has toward the Atlantic. A Spanish knight,
mained faithful. The love episodes
Orellana, during Pizarro's search for the
are the least interesting of the narra- fabled city of El Dorado in 1541, had
tive. There are graphic descriptions descended this King of Waters (as the
of battles, those of Fort Winthrop and aborigines called it); and with the eyes
Cane River being the most noteworthy; of romance, thought he discovered on its
cynical annotations of the red-tapeism banks the women-warriors for whom he
and blunders of the War Department; then newly named the stream the «Ama-
and humorous sketches of the social zon,”-a name still used by the Span-
life in New Orleans during the North- iards and the Portuguese in the plural
ern occupation, with race clashings of form, Amazonas. Except for one Spanish
aristocracy, Creoles, invaders, and freed esploration up the river in 1637, the re-
negroes, besides many amusing anec- sults of which were published in a quaint
dotes and details of army life,- all in and curious volume, and one French ex-
De Forest's sharp black and white. The ploration from coast to coast eastward in
novel takes high rank among Ameri- 1745, and the indefatigable missionary pil-
can stories
grimages of Catholic priests and friars,
a
ure
a
re-
## p. 305 (#341) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
305
be a
the great valley remained but vaguely journeyings in what was designed to
known. National jealousies had kept the new and permanent work. The
river closed from foreign navigation, un- papers were carefully revised, amplified,
til, by a larger policy, it was made free and illustrated, and a work made with
to the flags of all nations in 1867. "The the title "Our New West, 1869, in which
Andes and the Amazon) is not intended the author attempted to convey some true
to be a scientific record of newly discov- idea of the condition and promise of the
ered data. Whatever biological or archæo- western half of the continent. Thor-
logical contributions it offers are sufficiently oughly well executed, Mr. Bowles's narra-
intelligible and accurate, and there is scat- tive of natural resources and of industrial
tered through the three hundred and fifty developments remains full of interest.
pages of the book a large amount of gen- His vigorous style, keen insight, unfailing
eral information, such as a trained ob- sense of humor, and judicial mind, made
server would instinctively gather, and an him an almost unrivaled observer and
intelligent audience delight to share. reporter.
Asto
Across America and Asia: Notes of
storia: OR, ANECDOTES OF AN ENTER-
PRISE BEYOND THE ROCKY MOUNT-
a Five-Years' Journey around the
World, and of residence in Arizona, Japan,
AINS, by Washington Irving. (1836. Re-
and China,' by Raphael Pumpelly (some-
vised ed. 1849. ) An early work, of a
time mining engineer in the service of the
somewhat rambling and disjointed nature,
Chinese and Japanese governments), was
comprising stories of expeditions by land
first published in 1869. It is more than an
and sea, but presenting the history of a
ordinary record of travel, since the author
grand scheme, devised and conducted by
during his residence in Peking gave spe-
a master mind, the national character and
cial study to the political and economic
importance of which fully justified the in-
terest which Irving was led to take in it.
situation of China. As he says in the
dedication : «Many of the following pages
The characters, the catastrophe of the
relate to experiences illustrating the wis story, and the incidents of travel and wild
dom of the diplomatic policy which, in
life, were easily made by Irving to have
the interest of a novel; and in that light,
bringing China into the circle of inter-
dependent nations, promises good to the
not less than as a chapter of Far West his-
whole world. ”
tory, the work does not lose its value by
The book is written in a familiar, in-
the lapse of time.
teresting style, and bears constant witness
to a close observation of men, manners,
Sea Power, Present and Future, IN-
TEREST OF AMERICA IN, by Captain
and things, and to an appreciation of dra-
A. T. Mahan. (1897. ) A work of signifi-
matic or unusual incidents.
cance because of the author's idea of
an approaching change in the thoughts
AC
cross the Continent: (A Summer's
and policy of Americans as to their re-
Journey to the Rocky Mountains, the
lations with the world outside their own
Mormons, and the Pacific States) (May- borders. ) The age of «home markets
September, 1865), by Samuel Bowles. A
for home products” has about closed, in
volume of newspaper letters and supple- Captain Mahan's view, and the United
mentary papers, by an exceptionally able
States must consider interests reaching
journalist, designed to give to Eastern
to all parts of the world. Although,
American readers account of the
therefore, his volume consists only of a
nature, the material resources, and the
collection of detached papers, and he
social and industrial development, of the
makes no attempt to recast them into a
vast region between the Mississippi River
continuous work, he yet puts over them
and the Pacific Ocean; and with this
a broadly significant title, and offers
to make revelations and raise discussion
them to the reader as studies of a great
on such themes as the Pacific Railroad,
theme. They are in that view of par-
the Mormons, and the mines. Mr. Bowles
ticular interest.
spent another summer vacation, 1869, in
travel and exploration among the mount- The Wreck of the Grosvenor, by W.
ains of Colorado, and made a second book Clark Russell. (1874. ) This story of
of newspaper letters on Colorado the British merchant marine is notable
(The Switzerland of America. He then amongst sea novels for its fidelity to the
incorporated the two sketches of far west life, some phases of which it vividly
an
as
XXX-20
## p. 306 (#342) ############################################
306
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
portrays; and is the best by this author. cealed the spot for future exploration.
The story is told by the second mate He pays a short visit to Byzantium,
of the ship Grosvenor; and it relates where he possesses another treasure
the causes of dissatisfaction amongst the vault, and then de ts for China for a
crew, and the harsh treatment of the fifty-years' stay. It is after the expira-
men by a brutal and inhuman captain tion of this period that he assumes the
and chief mate. The troubles reach their title of Prince of India. He is filled
climax in a mutiny, in which the captain now with the purpose of teaching men
and mate are killed by the crew. The that God is Lord under whatever form
mutineers finally desert the ship near worshiped, and that all men should be
the coast of America, and are lost in a united by the bond of brotherly love.
gale. The ship also goes to the bottom; The Mohammedans do not accept his
but the second mate and the few who teaching, and he next goes to Constanti-
were faithful to him are rescued when nople to reveal it to the Greek Church,
almost at the last gasp, by a passing though he is at this time in league with
steamer.
the heir-apparent of the Turkish empire.
The gallant rescue from a sinking The thread of romance here appears in
vessel in mid-ocean, of a beautiful and the love of the young Turk for the prin-
wealthy young lady with her father, cess Irene, a relative of Constantine,
brings into the story the necessary ele- Emperor of Byzantium, and also in the
ment of romance, and provides the sec- fondness of the Prince of India ) for
ond mate with a satisfactory partner for a little Jewess named Lael, whom he
life.
adopts. The (Princeis unsuccessful
The chief value of the book lies in in his mission at Constantinople; and in
the fact that it deals in a plain, straight- rage and disappointment at the treat-
forward manner, and without exaggera- ment he receives, he sets fire to his
tion, with some of the most glaring possessions and flees to the side of Mo-
evils of the mercantile marine.
Events hammed, the heir of the Turkish em-
like those recorded are familiar to every pire. Then follows the capture of
man who sailed the seas during the Constantinople, which is graphically set
middle and even the latter part of this forth by the author. The fiery Moham-
century, and they show to what an ex- med weds the beautiful Irene, who tem-
tent the power given by the law may pers the victor's enthusiasm by her
be abused when placed in the hands of spirit of Christianity. « The Prince of
ignorant and brutal officers.
India,” borne down on the battle-field
(The Wreck of the Grosvenor) is said and supposed to be dead, rises with re-
to have been a powerful factor in re- newed youth to wander forth again, an
forming the laws relating to the mer- outcast and stranger to his generation.
chant seamen in Great Britain. Apart In many ways this book resembles
from its humanitarian motives, it is in- (Ben-Hur): it covers a period of many
teresting for the excellent descriptions years, and its plot is built by putting
of wind and weather, and of situations together historical and geographical
with which the sailor has to deal.
facts, and weaving in a thread of ro-
The boat-race » introduced in
Prince of India, The, by Lew Wal-
, ,
this story suggests the famous chariot-
lace. (1893. ) Both the title of this race ) in Ben-Hur. ) The book has a
book, and the locality chosen by its au- value in awakening an
interest in
thor a background for the story, fascinating period of history, and in fix-
awaken the interest of the reader. ing in the reader's mind many historic
(The Prince of India is no scion of events and customs, while its treatment
those ancient families that held sway of the religious questions involved is
over the country of Golconda, but is a broad and comprehensive.
Jewish shoemaker condemned by our
Lord to wander over the earth until his
Rocks, The, by Édouard Rod.
second coming. This “Wandering Jew” (1895. ) In the Bois-Joli belonging
is first introduced at the hidden sarcoph- to the Swiss commune of Bielle are two
agus of Hiram, King of Tyre, which he great rocks, called Les Rochers Blancs,
has not visited for one thousand years. about which twines a romantic legend.
Ten centuries before, he had found this A noble lord who had loved a woman
mine of priceless jewels, and had con- kept from him by some unknown barrier
mance.
a
as
1
White
1
1
## p. 307 (#343) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
307
was
had entered a Trappist monastery; the Madame de Maintenon, by J. Cotter
woman at the same time became a nun.
Morison, is a brief but capable
But they met every night in the pine- effort to extricate the memory of the fa-
trees of the Bois-Joli. They were faith- mous Frenchwoman fr willful misrep-
ful and loyal, and kept their vows; and resentation, either by her friends or by
just as they had bidden each other an her enemies. This study is a strong and
eternal farewell, they were stiffened into thoughtful presentment of her extraordi-
stone side by side. History repeats it- nary career, beginning with poverty and
self in the life of the peasant pastor of humiliation; culminating as Queen of
Bielle, M. Trembloz. Among his parish- France, wife of Louis the Magnificent;
ioners is an aristocratic family, consist- and ending in dignified seclusion at the
ing of M. Massod de Bussens and his convent school of St. Cyr, which she her-
wife: (Madame de Bussens not self had established for poor girls of
precisely beautiful, but she had a wealth noble birth. But it is not mere narra-
of thick silky hair, which set off a fore- tion, for Madame de Maintenon's char-
head of exceeding purity; large sky-blue acter is drawn with sympathy, and keen
eyes, from which flashed at moments a although not obtrusive psychological
repressed inward light;
a charming analysis. Through all her experiences,
mouth formed for smiling, but rarely whether clad in sabots and guarding
seen to smile;» young in appearance, poultry for her unwilling guardian and
and slender as a girl. Her husband is aunt, Madame de Neuillant; or as wife
a sanctimonious tyrant who has crushed of the crippled poet of burlesque, Paul
out whatever love she may once have Scarron; or in her subsequent glory,-
felt for him. M. Trembloz is simple- she is a shrewd utilitarian, making the
hearted, but gifted with marvelous elo- best of her present, and concerning her-
quence; sees that sh suffers; he self little with the future. She success-
understands her, and it is only a ques- fully serves two masters, and by clever
tion of a few meetings when they find scheming and religious devotion lays up
themselves deeply in love. But like the treasure both in this world and in the
mythical lovers. of the White Rocks, next. Her friends have declared her to
they resolve to meet no more. Unfor- be an angel of goodness; her enemies
tunately, their secret is discovered and have accused her of great deceit and im-
reported to M. de Bussens, who charges morality.
Both were wrong.
She was
her with unfaithfulness. She confesses not passionate enough to be wicked, and
that she loves the pastor. Her husband her head always governed her heart.
is implacable, and sends her away, de- "A wish to stand well with the world,
priving her of their charming son Mau- and win its esteem, was her master pas-
rice, who loves her and is desperately sion;" and her other chief preoccupation
afraid of his father.
with spiritual affairs, which she
M. Rod raises the eternal question of treats as a sort of prudent investment,
what shall be done with incompatible - a preparation against a rainy day,
marriage, but makes no attempt to cut which only the thoughtless could neglect. ”
the Gordian knot. The petty society of Her ruling characteristics were tact and
a Swiss provincial town is graphically good sense. They showed her how to
depicted; but perhaps the cleverest por- make herself agreeable, and how to
trait in the book is the keen, ambitious serve other people; and thus she gained
Madame Trembloz, the mother of the the popularity she craved.
pastor, who in her way is as much of a
tyrant as is M. de Bussens in his. The
Barber of Seville, The, by Pierre Au-
episode of the young girl, Rose Char- gustin Caron (who later assumed
mot, who is brought before the directors the nomme de guerre Beaumarchais »),
of the Orphan Asylum and charged with appeared in 1775 as a five-act French
having gone astray, brings to light all comedy. It is the first of the Figaro
the narrowness of the self-righteous and trilogy, the later plays being the Mar-
Pharisaical spirit rampant in such a pro- riage of Figaro) and the 'Guilty Mother. '
vincial town, and forms a background The whole drift of the Barbier,) as of
for the nobleness of the pastor and the Mariage, is a satirization of the
Madame de Bussens, who alone take the privileged classes, from the political and
part. The story is written in a «rights-of-man” point of view rather
fascinating style.
than from that of the social moralist.
was
## p. 308 (#344) ############################################
308
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
The plays proved to be formidable polit- brother of the charlatanism of his doc-
ical engines.
tors and the selfish designs of his wife.
Full of sparkling, incisive, and direct Argan is deaf to all reason; but to
dialogue, eminently artistic as a piece please his brother, asks the apothecary
of dramatic construction, yet lacking the to defer the administering of an in-
high literary merit which characterizes jection. Purgon is indignant at this
some of the author's other work, the (Bar- «crime of Lèse Faculté,” and to Ar-
bier,' the embodiment of Beaumarchais's gon's great despair, declines to treat
vivacious genius, lives to the world in its him longer. Toinette, a servant-girl,
leading character, Figaro the inimitable. disguised as a traveling physician, es-
The simple plot follows the efforts and amines into his case, and tells him
(useless precautions) of Bartholo, tutor the diagnosis of Purgon was entirely
and guardian of Rosine,-a coquettish erroneous. In her proper character she
beauty loved by Count Almaviva, - to defends Béline, and to prove to Bé-
prevent his pupil-ward from marrying, for ralde that his opinion of her is false,
he himself loves her. But Bartholo is out- asks Argon to counterfeit death. He
witted, though with difficulty, by younger does so, and learns the true character
and more adroit gallants, whose schemes of his wife and Angélique's love for
form the episodes of the comedy. Don him.
Basilio, an organist and Rosine's teacher He consents to her marriage with
of singing, is the typical calumniator, Cléante, with the proviso that he shall
operating by covert insinuation rather become a physician. Béralde suggests
than by open disparagement. Figaro is, that Argan himself become one, assur-
as the title indicates, a barber of Seville, ing him that with the bonnet and
where the action is laid, though the play gown come Latin and knowledge. He
has an air unmistakably French. He is consents, and by a crowd of carnival
presented as a master in cunning, dexter- masqueraders is made a member of the
ity, and intrigue, never happier than when Faculty. To the questions as to what
he has several audacious plots on hand. treatment is necessary in several cases,
«Perpetually witty, inexhaustibly ingen- he replies: «Injection first, blood-letting
ious, perennially gay,” says Austin Dob- next, purge next. ” He takes the oaths
son, “he is pre-eminently the man of his to obey the laws of the Faculty, to be
country, the irrepressible mouthpiece of in all cases of the ancient opinion,
the popular voice, the cynical and incor- be it good or bad, and to use only the
rigible laugher
who opposes to
remedies prescribed by the Faculty,
rank, prescription, and prerogative, noth- even though his patient should die of
ing but his indomitable audacity or his his illness. It was when responding
sublime indifference. ”
"Juro” (I swear), to one of these ques-
Malade
lade Imaginaire, Le, by Molière. tions, that Molière attacked by
This comedy is in three acts, and a fit of coughing, causing the rupture
was first produced in Paris in 1673. It of a blood-vessel, from the effects of
was the last work of the author; and which he died a few hours later.
in it, as Argan, he made his last ap-
pearance
the stage. Argan, who Av
vare, L' (The Miser) one of the most
imagines himself ill, is completely un- famous of Molière's prose comedies,
der the dominion of Monsieur Purgon first produced September 9th, 1668. It
his physician. By his advice, he wishes is founded on the (Aulularia) of Plautus
to marry his daughter Angélique to (which see above), and was paraphrased
Thomas Diafoirus, a young booby, just by Fielding in his comedy of The Miser. )
graduated as a doctor. Béline, his sec- Harpagon, a sexagenarian miser who in-
ond wife, wishes him to oblige both carnates the spirit of avarice, has deter-
of his daughters to become nuns, that mined to marry a young woman named
she may inherit his property. Angé- Mariane, who lives in obscure poverty
lique is at first pleased, thinking that he with her invalid mother. He has likewise
wishes her to marry Cléante with whom determined to bestow the hand of his own
she is in love. Argan insists upon the daughter Elise upon Anselme, a friend
marriage with Thomas, whose studied or- and companion of his own age, who has
atorical speeches entirely captivate him.
consented to take her without a dot or
Béralde, the brother of Argan, pleads marriage portion. But the young women
for Cléante, and tries to convince his prefer to choose their own lovers. Har-
.
(
was
on
## p. 309 (#345) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
309
pagon's son, Cléante, is the favored suitor des Débats, the preceding year, the author
of Mariane. Valère is desperately smit- makes this reference to it: _«In my work
ten with Elise, and for the purpose of upon the "Genius of Christianity, or the
wooing her has introduced himself into Beauties of the Christian Religion,' a cer-
the Harpagon household under the guise tain portion is devoted exclusively to the
of the house-steward. Harpagon's dear- poesy of Christianity;
the work
est possession is a casket containing ten is terminated by a story extracted from
thousand francs, which he has buried in my Travels in America,' and written
his garden, and with which his thoughts beneath the very huts of the savages. It
are ever occupied. La Flêche, a valet, is entitled Atala. ))) Atala) is an extrav-
discovers the chest. Harpagon's despair agant and artificial but beautiful romance
and fury, the complications ensuing, and of two lovers, ---a young Indian brave,
the distentanglement necessary to a suc- Chactas (i. e. , Choctaw), and an Indian
cessful stage ending, are given with all maiden, Atala. Châteaubriand drew his
Molière's inexhaustible verve and humor. conception of Chactas -a savage, half
civilized by contact with European culture
Alzire, a well-known tragedy, by Vol-
- from the tradition of an Indian chief,
taire. The time is the sixteenth cen- who, having been a galley-slave at Mar-
tury. Montèze, the native king of a part seilles, was afterwards liberated and pre-
of Potosi, has, with his daughter Alzire sented to Louis XIV. The pivot of the
and a large number of American Indians, romance is the power of Christianity to
fallen into the power of Guzman, the subdue the wildest passions of man. Atala,
Spanish governor of Peru. The Spaniard a Christian, has taken the vow of vir-
falls in love with Alzire, who has become ginity by the death-bed of her mother.
a Christian. Having been betrothed to Afterwards she finds herself in love with
an Indian chief now believed to be dead, Chactas, who has been taken prisoner by
she hesitates to marry the governor, but
her tribe. She aids him to escape, and
is persuaded by her father, and by Alvares together they roam through the pathless
the father of Guzman. After the mar- forests of the New World surrounded by
riage, Zamore, her first lover, reappears luxuriant nature, haunted by the genius of
among a crowd of prisoners. His fury the wilderness, the genius of productive
becomes uncontrollable when he learns life. Chactas would fain be one with na-
that Guzman, who has already wrested ture in his abandonment to instinct; but
from him everything else he valued, - Atala, although she is consumed with love
power, wealth, and liberty,- has now de- for him, is obedient to what she believes
prived him of his betrothed. In vain to be a higher law. In a great tempest
does Alzire ontrive the captive's escape.
of lightning and rain they lose their way,
He will not fly without her. In disguise being found and sheltered by a pious
he penetrates to the chamber of his en- hermit, Father Aubrey, who takes them
emy, and mortally wounds him.
Both to his cave. Atala tells him the story of
Alzire and Alvares seek to save him, but her vow, and of her temptation. He re-
cannot unless he adopts Christianity. He plies that she may be released, but his
refuses; but when his rival Guzman says, assurance comes too late. She has taken
«Your God has enjoined on you vengeance a poison, that she may become death's
and murder: mine commands me to pity bride ere she has given herself to an-
and forgive my murderer,” he is over- other. The hermit fills her last hours
come, and makes a profession of faith. with the comfort of his ministrations, and
Dying, Guzman unites the lovers. This she departs reconciled and soothed. Chac-
play is often rated as Voltaire's dramatic tas carries her in his arms to the grave
masterpiece. In elegance of diction, in prepared by the hermit, the wind blow-
picturesqueness and vigor of conception, ing her long hair back against his face.
it leaves little to be desired. The dram- Together they leave her to her sleep in
atist's intention was to contrast the noble the wilderness. Atala, despite its arti-
but imperfect virtues of the natural man ficiality, retains its charm to this day.
with those of the man trained under the Châteaubriand's savages are Europeans,
influences of Christianity and civilization. his forests are in Arcadia; nevertheless
the narrative has a fascination which
Atala, a romance of the American wil. gives it a place among the fairy-tales of
derness, by Châteaubriand, was pub- fiction, – due not only to its charm of
lished in 1801. In a letter in the Journal | style but its noble elevation of thought.
## p. 310 (#346) ############################################
310
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
published in 1816, the third in 1619, and René, by François Auguste Château-
Ast
strea ('L'Astrée), a famous French works of fiction, it lives only in the limbo
novel, is in five volumes. The first of the forgotten.
volume appeared in 1609, the second was
briand, published separately in 1807.
in 1627 his posthumous notes and man-
(René) and Atala) are the fruits of
uscripts were compiled into the fourth
Chateaubriand's American travels, and
and fifth volumes, and published by his
they abound in the exquisite descrip-
secretary Baro. Probably no other novel
tion of natural scenery for which he is
was ever so successful, all cultivated Eu-
noted.
rope being enthusiastic over it for many (René, an episode of the prose epic
years. The period is the fourth century.
Les Natchez,' is in effect a monologue of
Céladon, a shepherd, lover of the beautiful
the young European of that name, who
shepherdess Astrea, lives in the enchanted
has fled to the New World and its soli-
land of Foreste. While their marriage tudes; and who relates to his adopted
awaits parental sanction, a jealous shep-
father Chactas, and the French mission-
herd persuades Astrea that Céladon loves
Aminthe. She therefore angrily repulses
ary Father Souël, his previous life and
the causes of his self-exile. Seated under
him. Céladon throws himself into the
a great tree in the haunts of the Natchez
river Lignon, and Astrea faints on the
Indians, of whose tribe Chactas is a
bank. Her parents sorrow so bitterly chief, the young man tells his listeners
over her grief that both soon die. As-
the story of his boyhood, and his rest-
trea may now weep unreservedly with-
out being suspected of mourning for
less wanderings from land to land in
search of mental peace. He has passed
Céladon. But Céladon lives. He has
through ancient countries and modern,
been succored by the Princess Galatea
has studied humanity in its earliest
and her attendant nymphs, taken to court,
monuments and in the life of his own
and tenderly cared for. Thence he es-
day, and finding no satisfaction in any
capes to
a gloomy cavern, where he
phase of life, has remained long in for-
spends his time bewailing Astrea. Meet-
est solitudes, - only to meet there thoughts
ing a friendly shepherd, he sends a letter
of death.
to the most beautiful shepherdess in the
He tells further how he was rescued
world. » Astrea at once sets out to find
from this temptation by the love of his
him. Thus the story rambles on, a long,
sister Amélie, who came to him and led
inconsequent sequence of descriptions,
his mind back to life, then disappeared
adventures, and moral reflections. War
breaks out in Foreste. Céladon, who,
from his sight forever in the living
death of a convent, where she hid a
disguised as a druidess, has become As-
trea's friend is with her taken prisoner,
heart oppressed by a feeling for René
too strong for her peace. The tragedy
but both escape. At last he reveals him-
of his sister's confession has driven René
self, but is repulsed. Once more he re-
to these wildernesses.
solves to die; all the characters accom-
The episodes of René and Atala are
panying him to the Fountain of Truth,
whose guardian lions devour hypocrites
beautiful in melody and description, but
and defend the virtuous. They spare
inevitably unreal in their suggestions of
Indian life and character. As a kind of
him; and Astrea, looking into the truth-
compromise between the forms of prose
revealing water, is at last convinced of
his fidelity. Everybody is a model of
and poetry, the whole work is perhaps
virtue, and the story ends with a gen-
less thoroughly satisfactory than would
eral marriage fête. Whether L'Astrée)
be an equally fine attempt in either
requires a key is not important. Euric
department of literature.
may have been Henri IV. , Céladon and
AT
drienne Lecou vreur, a play by Scribe
Astrea other names for D'Urfé and his and Légouvé, which first appeared
wife Diane; but probably the story is in 1849, possesses witty dialogue and
fanciful. Its charm lies in its pastoral strong dramatic situations. The scene is
setting, and its loftily romantic concep- laid in Paris, in March 1730, Maurice,
tion of love. It is a day-dream, which Count de Saxe, a former admirer of the
solaced the soldier-author himself. The Princess de Bouillon, now loves and is
story is written in straightforward, fluent loved by Adrienne Lecouvreur, a beau-
French, and is full of sentir ent and in-
actress of the Comédie Française;
genuity; but like so many other immortal whonot knowing his real name and
## p. 311 (#347) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS.
311
rank, believes him a poor soldier of for-
tune. Though the action resulting from
this mistake occupies the space of two
days only, it is very complicated; yet
the unity of the play is vividly clear,
and the strongly contrasted characters
stand out with great distinctness, while
the dialogue is epigrammatic and full of
power.
nature as anything in literature. The
fashionable people who recognized them-
selves under their Roman disguises were
charmed with Mademoiselle de Scudé-
ri's skill as a portrait-painter. The work
marks the transition from the era of
Montaigne to that of Corneille; and as
such may, to some extent, be considered
epoch-making.
Clélie,
a romance in ten volumes by
Mademoiselle de Scudéri. The name
Od Number, The, an English trans-
of her brother figured on the title-pages lation by Jonathan Sturgis, of thir-
of the first volumes; but the secret of teen stories by Guy de Maupassant,
the authorship having been discovered, appeared in 1889. Each tale is an ad-
her name replaced it. It would be diffi- mirable example of the literary art
cult to summarize the incidents of this which made Maupassant the acknowl-
once famous production. The subject is edged master of the short story. All
the siege of Rome after the expulsion of show an acute realization of the irony
Tarquin the Proud. The heroine is the of life, and are written in a pessi-
young Roman girl who was a bostage mistic strain. The unerring choice of
of Porsena, and swam across the Tiber words, the exquisite precision of the
under a shower of arrows from the
descriptive touches, carry home the sens-
Etruscan army. Lucretia, Horatius, Mu- ation which Maupassant wished to con-
cius Scævola, Brutus, and all the heroes vey. Many kinds of life are revealed.
of the young republic, are actors in the In The Piece of ing,' we have
drama; and all are desperately in love, the petty shrewdness, thrift, and obsti-
and spend most of their time in asking nacy, of the Norman peasant. Maitre
questions and solving riddles that have Hanchecorne, on his way to the mar-
a serious connection with love, and espe- ket-place, is seen to pick up something
cially with a very mysterious species of from the ground and thrust it into his
gallantry, according to the taste of the pocket. Thereupon he is accused of
time in which it was written. They stealing a missing purse. His find was
draw maps of love on the noted country only a bit of string; but neither his
of Tendre. We see the river of Incli- guilt nor innocence can be proved, and
nation, on its right bank the villages of he rests under the imputation all his
Jolis-Vers and Epîtres Galantes, and days. In time he himself is almost per-
its left those of Complaisance, Petits- suaded of his guilt.
Soins, and Assiduities. Further on are (La Mère Sauvage) is a study of the
the hamlets of Abandon and Perfidie.
