The most subtle His ancestor, a priest of Isis, had been
of these interpretations is that of the slain by an immortal white sorceress,
portrait of a fair lady whose eyes fol- somewhere in Africa; and in the an-
low the gazer; but foolish is the lover cient record his descendants are exhorted
who thinks them bent on him alone, for to revenge his death.
of these interpretations is that of the slain by an immortal white sorceress,
portrait of a fair lady whose eyes fol- somewhere in Africa; and in the an-
low the gazer; but foolish is the lover cient record his descendants are exhorted
who thinks them bent on him alone, for to revenge his death.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v30 - Guide to Systematic Readings
517 (#553) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
517
mere
ure.
By a mere accident she becomes the tram Shandy) reminds us, now of Cer-
prey of a young man of gross instincts, vantes, now of Rabelais, now of Swift;
returning to her home soiled and but it is sui generis nevertheless. Cole-
dismayed. Her child is born and dies. ridge praised especially Sterne's power of
«Her physical blight becomes her mental giving significance to the most evanes-
harvest;” she is lifted above the grop- cent minutiæ in thought, feeling, look,
ing mental state of the people about and gesture. The work has always been
her. This etherealization has fatal re- popular, perhaps never more so than to-
sults. As she was once the victim of day, when the development of realism in
man's vices, she is destined to become English fiction is receiving so much at-
the victim of his conventional virtues. tention.
At a farm far removed from the scene
of her sufferings, she meets Angel | Onephef
Cleopatra's Nights, by
Clare, a gentleman's son. Their mu-
Théophile Gautier. In this charm-
tual love ends in marriage. On their ing short story, published in 1867, in
wedding-day Tess tells Clare of her a collection of Nouvelles,' the author
past. From that hour she ceases to be shows the exhaustive study which he
for him «enskied and sainted,” becom- had made of Egypt and its ancient
ing a
soiled thing which had customs. He introduces Cleopatra to
drifted in its perilous beauty across his his readers as she is being rowed down
path. He leaves her; and her struggle the Nile to her summer palace. In
with her anguish of spirit, with her describing the cause of her ennui to
poverty, and her despair, has a fearful Charmian, Cleopatra graphically pictures
ending: «The President of the Immor- the belittling, crushing effect of the gi-
tals » had finished his sport with her. gantic monuments of her country. She
(Tess) is well-nigh primeval in its treat- bewails the fate of a Queen who can
ment. A novel created apparently by never know if she is loved for herself
inexorable forces of nature, it is joined alone, and longs for some strange advent-
by its strength and pitilessness to the
She has been followed down the
blind powers of the world. Yet it is Nile by Meiamoun, a young man who is
not without sunny spaces, revelations violently infatuated with the Queen, but
of warm nooks of earth hidden from whom she has
noticed. That
the blasts of the tempest.
night she is startled by an arrow which
enters her window bearing a roll of
Tristram Shandy, by Laurence Sterne. papyrus on which is written, "I love
The Life and Opinions of Tristram you. ” She looks from the window and
Shandy, Gent. , is <a heterogeneous sort sees a man swimming across the Nile,
of whimsical humorous memoirs. ) The but her servants are unable to find him.
first volume appeared January ist, 1760, Soon after, Meiamoun dives down into
when Sterne was forty-six. Up to this the subterranean passage which conducts
time he had lived the life of an easy- the waters of the Nile to Cleopatra's
going fox-hunting churchman, utterly bath; and the next morning, as she is
obscure, but this, his first effort, so enjoying her bath, she finds him gazing
amused the public, that he
was per-
at her. She condemns him to death,
suaded to compose further in the same and then pardons him. He begs for
strain; and he published in all nine vol- death, and she yields, but tells him he
umes, the last in January, 1767. The shall first find his most extravagant
work is full of domestic comedy, «char- dream realized: he shall be the lover of
acters of nature,” “the creations of a Cleopatra. «I take thee from nothing-
fine fancy working in an ideal element, ness; I make thee the equal of a god,
and not mere copies or caricatures of and I replunge thee into nothingness. ”
individualities actually observed,” like “It was necessary to make of the life of
those of Dickens. Here live old Uncle Meiamoun a powerful elixir which he
Toby, Corporal Trim, Dr. Slop, and the could drain from a single cup. ” Then
Widow Wadman; and who does not en- follows the description of the feast. After
joy their garrulous gossip, and that of a night of magnificent splendor, a cup
Sterne himself in his frequent whimsical of poison is handed to him. Touched
digressions, so full of keen observation by his beauty and bravery, Cleopatra is
and gentle ridicule? Sterne had evi- about to order him not to drink, when
dently studied the humorists well: (Tris- the heralds announce the arrival of Mark
never
a
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518
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
»
a
seem
Antony. He asks: «What means this
corpse upon the foor? ” “Oh! nothing,”
she answers; – “a poison I was trying,
in order to use it should Augustus make
me prisoner. Will it please you, my
dear, to sit by me and watch the
dancers ? »
Uncle Remus: His Songs and His
SAYINGS. By Joel Chandler Harris.
(1880. ) These quaint and humorous
folk-lore fables are told night after
night to a little boy by an old negro
who has nothing but pleasant memories
of the discipline of slavery, and who
has all the prejudices of caste and pride
of family that were the natural results
of the system. The animals talk and
show their native cunning, - Brer Rab-
bit, Brer Fox, Brer 'Possum, and the
rest. These characters, as delineated by
Mr. Harris, have won world-wide fame,
and are familiar in all literature and
conversation. Their adventures
directly drawn from the darkey's vivid
and droll imagination; though in the
preface Mr. Page gives data received
from ethnologists, which seem to prove
the existence of like stories - some of
them identical - among Indian tribes in
both North and South America, and the
inhabitants of India, Siam, and Upper
Egypt. But in his preface to a later
collection of "Uncle Remus Stories) Mr.
Harris lightly scoffs at such learned dis-
sertations; and suggests one's pure en-
joyment, like his own, of the stories for
themselves.
Uncle Tom's
Cabin, by Harriet
Beecher Stowe. This world-famous
story was written in 1851, and appeared
originally, from week to week as writ-
ten, in the National Era, an aboli.
tion paper published at Washington.
Brought out in book form, when com-
pleted as a serial, its popularity was
immediate and immense. Its influence
during the last decade of slavery was
great, and its part in the creation of
anti-slavery sentiment incalculable.
It opens in Kentucky, and closes in
Canada. The chapters between
chiefly located in Ohio, in New Or-
leans, beside Lake Pontchartrain, and
down
upon
the Red River. Their
chief purpose is to depict slavery, and
the effects of it, by portraying the ex-
periences of Uncle Tom, and of those
with whom he
or less
nected, through the space of some five
years. Their chief personages, rather
in the order of interest than of intro-
duction, are Uncle Tom, the pious and
faithful slave, and little Eva, to whom
he is devoted; Augustine St. Clare,
father of Eva, and his complaining
wife; Mr. and Mrs. Shelby, from whose
old Kentucky home » Uncle Tom is
sold South; George Shelby, their son,
who finally seeks him for repurchase,
and finds him dying of brutality on
that remote Red River plantation; Si-
mon Legree, who bought Tom after St.
Clare's death (which followed not long
after that of Eva), who owns him
when he dies, and who represents the
brutal slaveholder as St. Clare repre-
sents the easy and good-humored one;
Cassy, once Legree's favorite, now
half-crazed wreck of beauty; Emeline,
bought to succeed her, but who escapes
with Cassy at last; Eliza, who proves
to be Cassy's daughter, and to whom
she is finally reunited; George Harris,
Eliza's husband, who follows her along
the “Underground Railway) in Ohio,
after her wonderful escape across the
Ohio River on the ice, carrying her
boy Harry; Tom Loker, Haley, and
Marks, the slave-catchers, who hunt
these runaways and are overmatched;
Simon Halliday and Phineas Fletcher,
the Quakers, with their families; and
Senator and Mrs. Bird, and John Van
Trompe, all of whom assist the fugi-
tives; Miss Ophelia, the precise New
England spinster cousin in St. Clare's
home; Topsy, the ebony limb of mis-
chief,” who never was born but just
“growed; and Aunt Chloe,
Uncle
Tom's wife back there in (old Ken-
tuck, whose earnings were to assist in
his return to her, but to whom he
returns. Other but incidental
characters, field and household servants,
swell the number to fifty-five.
In a Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin,'
its author gave matter to sustain both
the severe and the mild pictures of
slavery which her story had drawn.
Being once introduced as the writer of
that story, Mrs. Stowe disclaimed its
authorship; and to the question, «Who
did write it then? » she answered rev-
erently — "God. ”
(
never
are
:
Lº
orna Doone: A ROMANCE OF Ex-
MOOR, by R. D. Blackmore, is its
author's best-known wor and is re-
markable for its exquisite reproduction
more
## p. 519 (#555) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
519
>>
of the style of the period it describes.
«To a Devonshire man it is as good as
clotted cream, almost,” has been said of
it; and it is Blackmore's special pride
that as
a native he has «satisfied na-
tives with their home scenery, people,
life, and language. But the popularity
of the brilliant romance has not been
local, and has been equally great on
both sides of the Atlantic. Even with-
out so swift a succession of exciting in-
cident, the unhackneyed style, abounding
in fresh simile, with its poetic apprecia-
tion of the fairest county in England,
combined with homely realism, would
make it delightful reading. Much as
Hardy acquaints us with Wessex, Black-
more impresses Exmoor upon us, with a
comprehensive Englishness) of setting
and character. It is out-of-door Eng-
land, with swift streams, treacherous
bogs, dangerous cliffs, and free vinds
across the moors. The story is founded
legends concerning the robber
Doones, a fierce band of aristocratic
outlaws, who in revenge
for
them by the government, lived by
plundering the country-side. Regarding
their neighbors as ignoble churls and
their legitimate prey, they robbed and
murdered them at will. John Ridd,
when a lad of fourteen, falls into their
valley by chance one day, and is saved
from capture by Lorna Doone, the fair-
est, daintiest child he has ever
When he is twenty-one, and the tallest
and stoutest youth on Exmoor, great
John Ridd) seeks Lorna again. He
hates the Doones who killed his father,
but he loves beautiful innocent Lorna;
and becomes her protector against the
fierce men among whom she lives. If
slow to think, he is quick to act; if
«plain and unlettered,” he is brave and
noble: and Lorna welcomes his placid
strength. Scattered through the swift
narration, certain scenes, such as Lorna's
escape to the farm, a tussle with the
Doones, the attempted murder in church,
the final duel with Carver Doone, and
others, stand out as great and glowing
pictures.
larity, not only among English speaking
people but on the continent of Europe
also. During the publication of these
papers Mr. Scott preserved his incognito
even towards his publisher. The author
spent some sixteen years of his life
(1806 to 1822) in the West Indies, in
connection with a mercantile house in
Kingston, Jamaica. The travels among
the neighboring islands and to the Span-
ish Main, gave him not only great fa-
miliarity with the social life of the West
Indies, but also a knowledge of the wild
and adventurous nautical life of the
times, and of the scenes and aspects of
a tropical climate which he has so faith-
fully and vividly portrayed. There is no
plot; but the book contains a series of
adventures with pirates, mutineers, pri-
vateersmen and men-of-war, storms,
wrecks, and waterspouts, interspersed
with descriptions of shore life and
customs. The time chosen is one full of
historical interest; for the book opens
with an adventure in the Baltic in which
the reader is brought into contact with
Napoleon's army, and later on there are
adventures with American men-of-war
and privateersmen, during the War of
1812,- the celebrated frigate Hornet play-
ing a small part.
Few, if any, sea writers have exhibited
such a remarkable power of description;
and the book will stand for many years
as one of the most accurate pictures of
West-Indian life, both afloat and
shore, during the early part of the nine-
teenth century.
The publication of "Tom Cringle's
Log' was followed in 1836 by "The
Cruise of the Midge); and these two
were the only books written by Michael
Scott, who died in 1835, before the pub-
lication of the latter work.
on
wrongs done
seen.
on
((
Middlemarch, by George Eliot. (1872. )
This, the last but one of George
Eliot's novels, she is said to have re-
garded as her greatest work. The novel
takes its name from a provincial town
in or near which its leading characters
live. The book is really made up of
two stories, one centring around the
Vincy family, and the other around Dor-
othea Brooke and her relatives. On
account of this division of interest, the
construction of the story has been se-
verely criticized as clumsy and inartistic.
Dorothea Brooke, the most prominent
figure on the very crowded canvas, is an
as
Tºm
om Cringle's Log, by Michael Scott.
This work was originally published
a series of papers in Blackwood's
Magazine, the first of them appearing in
1829. They were afterwards published
(in 1834) in two volumes; and have
enjoyed a wide and well-sustained popu-
## p. 520 (#556) ############################################
520
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
orphan, who, with her sister Celia, lives Dorothea, nevertheless, is a sweet and
with her uncle Mr. Brooke, a man of upright character, and her second hus-
vacillating and uneven temperament. band, Ladislaw, is in every way to be
Dorothea's longing for a lofty mission admired. Two secondary love stories in
leads her to marry an elderly and Middlemarch) are those of the witty
wealthy clergyman, Rev. Edward Casau- Mary Garth and the spendthrift Fred
bon, who has retired from the ministry Vincy, and of Celia Brooke and Sir
to give his time to an important piece James Chettam. The chorus, which con-
of literary work. Dorothea, though not stantly reflects Middlemarch sentiment
yet twenty, hopes to be his amanuensis at every turn of affairs, is a large one,
and helper; and is greatly grieved to including Mrs. Fitchett, Mrs. Dill, Mrs.
find that her husband sets slight value Waule, Mrs. Renfrew, Mrs. Plymdale,
on her services. In other ways she has Mrs. Bulstrode, Mrs. Vincy; and among
been disillusioned before the death of the men, Mr. Dollop, Mr. Dill, Mr. Bro-
Mr. Casaubon, a year and a half after throp Trumbull, Mr. Horrock, Mr. Wrech,
their marriage. A rather insulting pro- Mr. Thesiger, and Mr. Standish.
vision of his will directs that his widow More carefully drawn are the caustic
shall lose her income if she marries Will Mrs. Cadwallader, the self-denying Mr.
Ladislaw, a young cousin of Mr. Casau- Farebrother, hypocritical Mr. Bulstrode,
bon's. Ladislaw is partly of Polish the miser Featherstone, and the honor-
descent; and both his mother and his able Caleb Garth and his self-reliant
grandmother had been disinherited by wife.
their English relatives for marrying for-
eigners. Ladislaw owes his education to Life of Goethe, The, by George Henry
,
Mr. Casaubon; but not until after the Lewes. (1864. ) The first important
death of the latter does the friendship biography in English of the greatest of
between the younger man and Dorothea German writers, this book still holds its
take the tinge of love.
place in the front rank of biographical
Rosamond Vincy, who may be called literature. The volume is a large one,
a minor heroine, is the daughter of the and the detail is infinitely minute, be-
mayor of Middlemarch. She is a beauti- ginning with the ancestry of the poet,
ful girl, whose feeling that she is much and ending with his death in 1832. His
more refined than her commonplace rel- precocity, the school-life and college-life
atives, leads her to lofty matrimonial of the beautiful youth, his welcome in
aspirations. She wins the love of Dr. society, his flirtations, the bohemian
Lydgate, who, though nephew to a bar- years that seemed prodigally wasted, yet
onet, has a hard struggle to esta ish that were to bear rich intellectual fruit
himself as a Middlemarch physician, with when the wild nature should have so-
Dr. Sprague and Dr. Minchin as rivals. bered to its tasks, his friendships, his
Neither he nor his wife knows how to travels, his love-affairs, his theories of
economize; and the latter, feeling her life, his scientific investigations, his
husband's poverty an insult to herself, is dramatic studies, criticisms, and produc-
a hindrance to him in every way.
The tions, his momentary absorption in edu-
story of his efforts to maintain his fam- cational problems, his official distinc-
ily, and at the same time to be true to tions, his intellectual dictatorship, his
his ambition to add to the science of his ever-recurring sentimental experiences, -
profession, is a sad one. In the charac- all the changing phases of that many-
ters of Dorothea and Lydgate George
sided life are made to pass be re the
Eliot develops the main purpose of this reader with extraordinary vividness.
novel, which is less distinctly ethical Like almost all biographers of imagina-
than some of the others. Her aim in tion and strong feeling, Mr. Lewes, who
(Middlemarch) was to show how the means to maintain a strict impartiality,
thought and action of even very high- becomes advocate. He presents
minded persons is apt to be modified Goethe's wonderful mentality without ex-
and altered by their environment. Both aggeration. He does no more than just-
Dorothea and Lydgate become entangled ice to the personal charm which seems
by their circumstances; though in his to have been altogether irresistible. But
the disaster is greater than in it is in spite of his biographer's admis-
hers, and in each case it is a moral and sic rather than because of them, that
not a social decline which is pointed out. Goethe appears in his pages a man from
an
case
## p. 521 (#557) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
521
was
in the Salem witchcraft trials.
No man
of the time was better furnished with
material to keep a diary, and his was
well done. Its pages afford many a
vivid picture of the early colonial per-
sonages, – their dress and their dinners,
their funerals and weddings, their town
meetings, their piety, their quarrels, and
the innumerable trifles which together
make up life. Mr. Chamberlain finds
this diary a match for Evelyn's and
-
(2
is concerned. He has drawn most of
the material for his book from the three
huge volumes of the journal, following
the career of the diarist from his first
arrival in the colony to his death in
1729. The pages are studded with quo-
tations delightfully quaint and charac-
teristic; and the passages of original
narrative nowhere obscure these invalu-
able (documents. ”
a
whose vital machinery the heart
omitted. Perfect taste he had, exquisite
sentiment, great appreciation, a certain
power of approbation that assumed the
form of affection, but no love,- such the
Goethe whom his admiring disciple
paints. The book presents the senti-
mental German society of the late eigh-
teenth century with entire understand-
ing, and is very rich in memorabilia of
many sorts.
Voltaire, Life of, by James Parton.
vols. , 1881. ) A well-executed at-
tempt to tell the story of the most ex-
traordinary of Frenchmen, and one of
the most extraordinary of human be-
ings”; a writer whose publications count
more than two hundred and sixty in
number, and whose collected works fill
a hundred volumes. Mr. Parton's work
extends to more than 1,200 pages of care-
fully selected biographical evidence,
autobiographical in fact, presenting the
remarkable man and the great writer
delineated by himself. For more
concise work the reader may take John
Morley's (Voltaire, the keynote of
which, on its first page, is the declara-
tion that Voltaire is almost more than
one man, is in himself a whole move-
ment of human advance, like the Re-
vival of Learning, or the Reformation;
an extraordinary person whose existence,
character, and career, constitute in them-
selves a new and prodigious era.
Samuel Sewall, and the World He
Lived In, by N. H. Chamberlain,
is an account of one of the most notable
of the early Puritan worthies, who was
graduated from Harvard College in 1671,
only fifty-one years after the landing of
the Pilgrims at Plymouth. Sewall came
of a good family of English non-con-
formists, who came to this country when
he was a boy of nine. He grew up to
be a councilor and judge, highly es-
teemed among his contemporaries; but
his fame to-day rests not on his achieve-
ments in his profession, but on the re-
markable diary which he kept for fifty-
six years, chronicling minutely the
events of his daily life. He saw all
there was to be seen in public and so-
cial life. As a man of position, con-
nected with the government, he made
many journeys, not only about the col-
ony but over seas to court. As a judge,
he knew all the legal proceedings of the
country, being concerned, for example,
Voyage Around my Chamber, by Xa-
vier De Maistre. (1874. ) A charm-
ing group of miniature essays, polished
like the gems of a necklace, the titles
of which were suggested by the familiar
objects of the author's room.
It was
written during his confinement for forty-
two days under arrest in Turin, while
holding the position of an officer in the
Russian army.
He treats his surround-
ings as composing a large allegory, in
which he reads the whole range of
human life. He depicts with delight
the advantages of this kind of “fire-
side travel," in its freedom from labor,
worry, and expense; and then he shows
under the vast significance of such ob-
jects as the Bed, the Bookcase, the
father's Bust, the Traveling-Coat, and
the instruments of Painting and Music,
the wide range of reflection and delight
into which the soul is thus led. The
bed is the beginning and the end of
earthly life; the library is the pano-
rama of the world's greatest ideals; and
here he reflects on the grandeur and
attractiveness of Lucifer as depicted by
Milton. The traveling-coat suggests the
influence of costume on character, which
is illustrated by the effect of an added
bar or star of an officer's coat on the
wearer's state of mind. (The Animal)
is the heading of the chapter defining
the body as the servant of the soul,
a mistress who sometimes cruelly goes
away and neglects it, as when, while
the mind is absorbed in some entran-
## p. 522 (#558) ############################################
522
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
White Company, The, a
cing thought, the hand catches up heed- an old man
anuscript which he discovers.
lessly the hot poker.
The most subtle His ancestor, a priest of Isis, had been
of these interpretations is that of the slain by an immortal white sorceress,
portrait of a fair lady whose eyes fol- somewhere in Africa; and in the an-
low the gazer; but foolish is the lover cient record his descendants are exhorted
who thinks them bent on him alone, for to revenge his death. The sorceress, no
every other finds them gazing equally other than «She, is discovered in a re-
at him even at the same moment. markable country peopled by marvelous
beings, who, as true servants of the sor-
romantic
tale of the fourteenth century, by
ceress, present an exaggerated picture
of the barbaric rites and cruelties of
A. Conan Doyle. Alleyne Edricson, a
Africa. To this strange land comes the
gentle, noble-spirited youth, who has
been sheltered and educated among a
handsome and passionate Englishman,
with two companions who share his
company of white-robed Cistercians in
England, leaves the abbey to make his
many thrilling experiences. A mysteri-
ous bond exists between the young Eng.
way in the world. Together with two
lishman and the sorceress: the memory
sinewy and gallant comrades, Hordie
of the ancient crime and the expectation
John and Samkin Aylward, he attaches
of its atonement. The climax of the
himself to the person and fortunes of
story is reached when the travelers and
Sir Nigel Loring, a doughty knight, the
mirror of chivalry, ever in quest of a
the sorceress together visit the place
where the mysterious fire burns which
passage-at-arms for the honor of his
gives thousands of years of life, loveli-
lady and his own advancement in chiv-
ness, strength, and wisdom, or else swift
alry.
death. She ) for the second time dares
In vigorous phrase and never-flagging
to pass into the awful flame, and so
interest, the tale rehearses how that Sir
meets her doom, being instantly con-
Nigel heads the “White Company, a
sumed. The weird tale does not lack a
band of sturdy Saxon bowmen, free
fitting background for its scenes of ad-
companions, and leads them through
venture, the author choosing an extinct
many knightly encounters in the train
volcano for the scene of the tragedy;
of the Black Prince, in France and
so vast is its crater that it contains a
Spain. The story rings with the clash
great city, while its walls are full of
of arms in tourney lists, during way-
caves containing the marvelously pre-
side encounters and on the battle-field,
served dead of
of a prehistoric people.
and reflects the rude but chivalric spirit
Mr. Haggard's practical knowledge and
of the century.
experience of savage life and wild lands,
Many characters known to history are
his sense of the charm of ruined civili-
set in lifelike surroundings. The move-
zation, his appreciation of sport, and his
ment is rapid, stirring episodes follow
faculty of imparting an aspect of truth
each other rapidly and withal there is
to impossible adventures, find ample ex-
presented a careful picture of the tumult-
pression in this entertaining and wholly
uous times in which the varied scenes
impossible tale.
are laid.
squire, Alleyne, wins his spurs by gal? Uarda, by Georg Moritz Ebers. (1876. )
This is a study of ancient Egyp-
lant conduct, thrillingly told in a passage
tian civilization in the city of Thebes,
which will rank with the author's ablest
in the fourteenth century before Christ,
efforts. Alleyne lives to return, with a
under Rameses II. A narrative of He-
few comrades of the decimated White
rodotus, combined with the Epos of Pen-
Company, and claims the hand of Lady
taur, forms the foundation of the story.
Maude, Sir Nigel's daughter, who has
We have a minute description of the
long loved the young squire, and gladly
weds him as a knight.
dress, the food, the religious customs
and
of the ancient Egyptians.
She, by Rider Haggard. (1887. ) This There are three separate love stories:
is å stirring and exciting tale. Mr. that of Bent-Anat, daughter of Rameses,
Haggard has pictured his hero as going who loves Pentaur, the poet-priest; that
to Africa to avenge the death of an of Nefert, wife of Mena, the king's chari.
Egyptian ancestor, whose strange his- oteer; and that of L'arda herself, who has
tory has been handed down to him in many adorers, for only one of whom she
wars
## p. 523 (#559) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
523
SO
cares,– Rameri, the king's son. Pentaur
Usurper, The, by Judith Gautier. This
is sent into exile, rescued by Uarda, fol- interesting novel, which was first
lowing in Bent-Anat's train. He saves published in 1875, in two volumes, is
the king in battle, and is rewarded with founded on an episode in Japanese his-
the princess's hand.
Nefert is pur-
tory. The author, who had numbered
sued by Paaker, but is true to her hus- among her instructors a Chinaman, gives
band. Paaker plots to betray Rameses, a most accurate and painstaking descrip-
and perishes in his own trap. It then tion of the feudal and social life and
becomes known that he is the son of a customs of Japan. Taiko-sama, one of
gardener, and Pentaur the true son of the great soldiers of Japan, had reduced
the noble, they having been exchanged the power of the Mikado to a shadow,
at birth. Uarda (The Rose) proves to be and was himself the real ruler with the
grandchild to the king of the Danaids, title of Shogun. Before dying, he mar-
her mother having been taken captive ried his son Fidé-Yori to the grand-
many years before. She marries Ram- daughter of Hyeas, and made the lat-
eri; and after her grandfather's death, ter regent until his son should be of
they rule over many islands of the Med- age.
iterranean and found a famous race.
It is at this time (1614) that the action
of the novel begins. I wakura, Prince
Signor. 1o, II, by Salvatore Farina. of Nagato, who is the intimate friend of
This story of the egoism of Marco Fidé-Yori, is the hero of the tale, who
Antonio Abaté, professor of philosophy endeavors to foil the schemes of Hyeas.
in Milan, is charmingly told. In the Iwakura is in love with the Queen, and
first three chapters, the Professor, in the through her obtains an order for Hyeas
most naive manner, tells of his detesta- to surrender his power to Fidé-Yori.
tion of egoism, and how he has sacri- Hyeas refuses, and a civil war begins.
ficed himself by allowing his dead wife, Iwakura has among his subjects one
and living daughter Serafina, to make named Sado, who resembles him
themselves happy by waiting on him. closely that Sado is enabled to lead a
Iginio Curti, an opera singer, is the life of fashion and folly in his master's
wolf who breaks up his happy home by person while Iwakura is in another
marrying Serafina. Many letters from place serving Fidé-Yori. When war be-
his daughter he returns unopened to gins, he sends Sado to defend Nagato,
Curti. Tiring of his solitary life, he while he, with a band of two hundred
advertises for a wife. In one of the sailors, devotes himself to a desultory
answers, signed Marina, the writer says warfare, turning up when least expected,
she is a young widow. He recognizes and saving the Mikado and Queen from
the handwriting of his daughter, and being captured. Sado is defeated and
writes for her to come home. She does beheaded. The head is sent to Hyeas,
so; and he finds Curti has told her who believes it to be that of Iwakura;
nothing about the return of the letters, but the latter with his band makes his
but has given her many presents, which, way into Hyeas's camp, steals Sado's
he said, came from her father, in place head and two hundred horses, and rides
of letters.
away, to the great dismay of Hyeas's
Thinking Serafina ill, her father obliges army. Peace is proclaimed and reigns
her to go to bed; and he goes to bring for a short time; but Hyeas learning
the granddaughter, whom Serafina had of the Queen's love for Iwakura, she re-
left at home. His surprise is great when signs the crown, and the Mikado mar.
he finds Curti alive and healthy, and ries the second granddaughter of Hyeas.
that Marina is an opera singer for whom The latter attacks the palace of Fidé-
Serafina had written the letter. When Yori, who is about to kill himself, when
he discovers that Curti not only de- Iwakura appears and shows him a sub-
ceived his daughter as to her father's terranean passage through which Fidé-
selfishness, but that his little grand- Yori escapes to the province of Satsuma,
daughter believes him to have sent her where his descendants are said still to
many presents, he says that hereafter he live. Iwakura sets fire to the palace
will teach his pupils that above all the and is destroyed with it. The descend-
treatises on philosophy, there is one that ants of Hyeas ruled Japan until 1868,
must be studied early and to the last when the Mikado again
into
day of our lives, self — Il Signor Io. power.
came
## p. 524 (#560) ############################################
524
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
Moral Tales, by Miss Edgeworth (1801), his childhood, has inculcated in him the
have been translated into many very traits he has endeavored to over-
languages, and have retained their pop- come, and Thorbjörn grows up aggres-
ularity in England and abroad. As the sive and reticent. He is deeply in love
title denotes, these stories have a didactic with Synnövé, but does not dare to
purpose, and although intended to amuse confess his feelings to her family; nor
young people, would insinuate a sugar- does she allow him to visit her, on
coated moral. The character-drawing is account of the reputation in which he is
capable and shrewd; and the fluent, ani- held. He finally promises her he will
mated style makes them easy reading. mend his ways and become more re-
The seven stories comprising the volume spected, when he unintentionally becomes
have a sensible, matter-of-fact, thoroughly entangled in a brawl, and is stabbed and
eighteenth-century quality. Miss Edge- seriously wounded. This catastrophe
worth inculcates nobility, generosity, and causes a change in him for the better;
sincerity; but above everything else, she and by the time of his recovery he is
inculcates good sense. It is not enough much softened and improved. His father
for young Forester to be brave and tal- at the time of his son's illness realizes
ented. He is held up to ridicule for his how deep his affection is for him, and a
uncouth ways and disdain of conven- reconciliation takes place between them
tions, until he learns the wisdom of con- which is the beginning of their final
forming to social usage. Evelina is a understanding of each other. After his
feminine Forester, and learns the same return to health, his father goes with
lesson. Tact is a favorite virtue with him to Solbakken and asks for the hand
Miss Edgeworth. It is by carefully con- of Synnövé in marriage, which is
sulting the individual tastes of her pupils granted by her parents. The story has
that « The Good French Governess” re- been called one of Björnson's master-
forms Mrs. Harcourt's family. Tact is pieces; and shows his fine perception of
the secret of the “Good Aunt's success human nature, and his skill in revealing
in her educational experiment. Miss the traits and characteristics of the
Edgeworth teaches boys and girls to de- peasantry of his native country. The
spise self-indulgence and uncontrolled development of the savage beauty of
emotion; and to mistrust appearances. Thorbjörn's character, and the strong
Her model hero is young Mr. Mount- scene at the church door, where he
eagle, the matrimonial prize in Made- becomes reconciled to his former enemy,
moiselle Panache, who, momentarily at- show the marvelous power of the author.
tracted by the beauty of Lady Augusta,
has the sense to perceive her inferiority Rab and His Friends. by Dr. John
, amiable
story by a
Helen Temple.
well-beloved Edinburgh physician, is
one of the choicest of English classics.
Synnövé Solbakken, by Björnstjerne Rab is a sturdy mastiff — "old, gray,
Björnson. This story, which brindled, as big as a little Highland
the first to reveal to the world at large bull ») — with "Shakespearean dewlaps
the genius of the author, was brought shaking as he goes. His friends are
out in 1857, in a Norwegian newspaper, his master and mistress, James Noble,
and
not translated into English the Howgate carrier, “a keen, thin, im-
until 1870, although it had previously patient, black-a-vised little man”; and
appeared in French, German, Spanish, the exquisite old Scotchman, his wife
and Russian. The scene of the narra- Ailie, with her unforgettable face, pale,
tive is laid among the Norwegian hills, serious, lonely, delicate, sweet, with
which are minutely and picturesquely dark gray eyes “full of suffering, full
described. Synnövé, the daughter of a also of the overcoming of it. ” Ailie is
well-to-do farmer, is a pretty and charm- enduring a terrible malady; and her
ing girl, idolized by her parents and
husband wraps
her carefully in his
beloved by all who know her. She loves plaid and brings her in his cart to the
her early friend and schoolmate Thor- hospital, where her dignified patient
björn Granliden, who is generally consid- lovableness through a dangerous opera-
ered a rough and vindictive fellow. He
tion moves even the thoughtless medi-
is the son of worthy parents, but his cal students to tears. She is nursed by
father, by over-severity towards him in her husband. Handy, and clever, and
was
was
## p. 525 (#561) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
525
was
swift, and patient as any woman, was versation, but frequently the writer in
that horny-handed, snell, peremptory
his own
person addresses the reader
little man;
» while Rab, quiet and obedi- directly. In whatever guise he appears,
ent, but saddened and disquieted by however, we cannot help recognizing the
the uncomprehended trouble, jealously genial personality of Holmes himself.
guards the two. Perhaps no truer, more As he says in the verses subjoined as
convincing dog character exists in lit- epilogue to the series:
erature than that of ugly faithful Rab.
“A Boswell, writing out himself!
The pathos in the simple lives of him-
For though he changes dress and name,
self and his friends is heightened by the
The man beneath is still the same,
tinge of Scotch dialect, as well as by the
Laughing or sad, by fits and starts,
One actor in a dozen parts,
author's wise self-restraint.
The story
And whatsoe'er the mask may be,
springs from his scientific knowledge of The voice assures us, This is he. »
life and disease, like a flower from the
soil. Its essence and charm lie in the
Martian, The, by George Du Maurier,
warm-heartedness and refined sympathy his third and last novel, was pub-
which lift it above science, and vibrate lished posthumously in 1897. The hero
contagiously in every word.
is Barty Josselin, the story of whose
life is told by his friend and companion,
Poet at the Breakfast Table, The, Robert Maurice. The school life of the
by Oliver Wendell Holmes. (The two lads in the Institution F. Brossard,
Poet,' like its predecessors, (The Auto- in Paris, is sketched in detail in Du
crat) and (The Professor,)
first Maurier's inimitable manner, the account
printed as a series of papers in the being largely autobiographic. Barty is
Atlantic Monthly, making its appearance from the start a handsome, high-spirited,
in 1872.
In merit it is somewhat su- mischievous, and gifted fellow, thor-
perior to “The Professor, but hardly oughly practical, yet with traits that
equal to (The Autocrat”; and though have in them a strange idealism. After
containing the familiar Aunt Tabitha,' school, the boys return to England, and
and Homesick in Heaven, has nothing Barty goes into the army, but does not
to be compared with (The Chambered like it, and resigns. Then his eyes give
Nautilus) or (The One-Hoss Shay. ) out; and he travels for a time, and con-
Like the earlier volumes, it consists of sults various physicians, being helped
rambling, discursive talks on many sub- finally by a celebrated German special.
jects, — religion, science, literature, — with ist, Dr. Hasenclover, who assures him
a frequent excursion into the realm of that he will be blind in only one eye.
philosophy. The local flavor is very Before this, he has come to such melan-
strong, as usual with Holmes; and prob- cholic discouragement that he intends
ably the papers will always have a suicide; being saved therefrom by dis-
greater attraction for New-Englanders covering in a dream that he has a kind
than for those to whom the local allus- of guardian spirit, the Martian, a woman
ions are pointless, and the setting alien. soul, who has undergone a series of in-
Nevertheless, the author's sympathies carnations, and is now an inhabitant of
are as wide as humanity itself; and he Mars. She advises him about his eyes,
gives many a hard hit at prejudice and and thereafter, for many years, she con-
intolerance. Moreover he says repeatedly stantly communicates with him and helps
that his chief object in writing is to him, using a kind of shorthand called
meet some need of his fellow-creatures, blaze. She inspires him to write won-
to strike some chord that shall wake a derful books, whereby he becomes
responsive note in some kindred soul. famous author. Against her advice, he
Certainly this wide-reaching human kind- obeys the dictates of his heart by mar-
liness is not the least charm of this de- rying Leah Gibson, a noble Jewess, when
lightful book.
the Martian would have had him choose
The principal persons at the table are Julia Royce, an English belle whom he
the Poet; the Old Master, a scholarly meets in Germany. The marriage is so
philosopher; the Scarabee, a withered happy that the Martian acknowledges
entomologist; the poetic young astrono- her mistake. When Barty's daughter
mer; Scheherazade, a young girl who Martia is born, the Martian becomes
writes stories; and the Lady. All of incarnated in her form; and upon the
these occasionally take part in the con- young girl's death, the strange being
a
## p. 526 (#562) ############################################
526
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
a
no
from another world returns to Mars, and opinions, serves Laboulaye as a means
whereupon Barty himself also passes of expressing himself pungently on many
away. The charm of the story lies in points wherein his own country might
the genial description of bohemian friend- well learn of a younger nation.
ship and love, seen retrospectively in The first bewildering change which
the half-light of illusion; and in the greets the metamorphosed physician is
suggestive way in which the odd super- the exceeding comfort of his household
natural element is woven into the nar- arrangements, with the unfamiliar baths
rative.
and heating apparatus; the next is the
affectionate and unrestrained attitude of
Tartuffe, by Molière (Jean Baptiste
his wife and children. A thunderbolt
Poquelin). This most famous com-
falls upon him when he finds his daugh-
edy, once performed under the title
“The Impostor,' was published complete
ter engaged to a man who has not pre-
viously asked his consent, and who makes
in 1669. The principal characters are:
Madame Pernelle; Orgon, her son; his
absolutely no inquiries about a dot. An
wife Elmire, his son, and daughter; and
equal surprise is the career of his son,
a friend, Tartuffe, who stands forth as a
who at sixteen chooses a business, finds
type of the religious hypocrite. The old
an opening, and departs, like a man, for
the Indies.
lady is very devout, but uses plain
words when scolding the grandchildren.
Then in a succession of humorously
Orgon, the husband, on coming home
interesting chapters the author takes his
hears that his wife is ill; but immedi-
hero through the civil world of America
ately inquires about Tartuffe, seeming to
as it was in the sixties; he makes him a
think of else.
volunteer fireman, shows him the inner
This honey-lipped
workings of the free American Press, in-
egoist is chosen by the father as the
itiates him into the bitter knowledge of
proper person to whom he should marry
what it is to be a candidate for office.
his daughter.
But she thinks not so. Those who
And the whole is told with the would be
are forced to marry against their will do
grumbling tone of an old fellow who
not make virtuous wives. The modesty
wants to believe in the superiority of his
of Tartuffe is easily shocked; yet he
adored country in every particular over
this land of savages. ”
would examine closely the material of
the dress of Elmire, to whom he pays
But alas when the sorcery is undone,
court, telling her that to sin in secret is
and the Parisian reawakes in fair Paris,
with an unmistakable French family about
not to sin at all. Elmire risks her repu-
tation a little to unmask the vile deceiver
him, he would fain have remained under
the enchantment. His son is no longer
in the eyes of her husband. Through
self-reliant; his daughter blushes and is
fear of hell, Tartuffe yet rules the hus-
shocked to tears at his suggestion that
band, gets his property by scheming, and
has him arrested as a traitor. At last
she shall marry the man of her heart;
and his wife is indignant that he should
the king acts; and Tartuffe is led off to
prison. This is a striking presentation
suppose his daughter so ill-bred as to have
of the manners and morals of the people
a choice. There is a keen reproach for
and times,
France in the mockery of the finale, which
pictures the doctor in an asylum, where
Paris in America (Paris en Ame- in the estimation of his countrymen, his
rique), by Édouard René Lefebvre strange ideas fit him to be an inmate.
Laboulaye. This satirical romance was
first published in 1863. Through the won-
Las
ast Days of Pompeii, The, by Ed-
derful adventures of a Parisian doctor of ward Bulwer, Lord Lytton. (1834. )
the conventional type, who with his whole The characters and scenes of this story
family is spirited away to America by a are in a great measure suggested by the
sorcerer, Laboulaye sets forth an amus- peculiarities of the buildings which are
ing contrast between many customs and still to be seen at Pompeii. The tale be-
institutions of the New World and those gins a few days before the destruction of
of his own «belle France. The whim- Pompeii, and ends with that event.
sical conceit of this old Frenchman sud- The simple story relates principally to
denly become in appearance and environ- two young people of Grecian origin,
ment an Americ: while retaining his GI cus and lone, who are deeply at-
memory and his hereditary prejudices tached to each other. The former is a
## p. 527 (#563) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
527
(
handsome young Athenian, impetuous, the book. "The Pearl of Orr's Island)
high-minded and brilliant, while Ione is was not published until 1862, although it
a pure and lofty-minded woman. Ar- was begun ten years before that time.
baces, her guardian, the villain of the
story, under a cloak of sanctity and Minister's Wooing, The, by Harriet
Beecher Stowe. The scene of this
religion, indulges in low and criminal
designs. His character is strongly
interesting story is laid in New Eng-
land, and deals with the habits and
drawn; and his passion for Ione, and the
traditions of the past century. Mary
struggle between him and Glaucus, form
the chief part of the plot. Nydia, the
Scudder, the only daughter of a wid-
owed mother, has been reared in an
blind girl, who pines in unrequited af-
fection for Glaucus, and who saves the
atmosphere of religion and piety. Being
lives of the lovers at the time of the
of a naturally sensitive temperament,
destruction of the city, by conducting
she lives up to their teachings with con-
scientious fervor. She is in love with
them in safety to the sea, is a touching
and beautiful conception. The book, full
her cousin, James Marvyn, but does not
of learning and spirit, is not only a
listen to his protestations, because he
charming
has no religious belief. He goes to sea,
novel, but contains many
be
minute and interesting descriptions of
is shipwrecked, and supposed to
ancient customs; among which, those
drowned; and Mary, in course of time,
feels it to be her duty and pleasure to
relating to the gladiatorial combat, the
become engaged to the venerable Dr.
banquet, the bath, are most noteworthy.
Hopkins, her pastor and spiritual ad-
viser. The wedding-day is set, and
Pearl of Orr's Island, The, by Harriet
Beecher Stowe. This story gives a
only one week distant, when Mary re-
truthful and interesting picture of the
ceives a letter from James Marvyn, tell-
ing of his miraculous escape from death,
people in a Maine fishing hamlet. Mara
Lincoln, the «Pearl, a beautiful girl,
his religious conviction, and change of
has been brought up by her grand-
heart, and his abiding love for her. He
follows the letter in person, and presses
parents, Captain and Mrs. Pennel; her
father having been drowned and her
his suit; but Mary, in spite of her in-
mother having died at her birth. Moses,
clinations, considers it her duty to abide
the hero of the book, shipwrecked and
by her promise to the Doctor. How-
washed ashore upon the island when
ever, through the intervention of Miss
Prissy Diamond, a delightful little dress-
very young, is brought up and cared
for by the Pennels; and bears their
maker, who acquaints Dr. Hopkins with
The result of this is the mutual
the facts of the case, this sacrifice is
attachment of the young people, which
prevented. The good Doctor, at the
is at first more strongly felt by Mara.
cost of his own happiness, relinquishes
The
Moses accepts Mara's devotion as a mat-
Mary, and gives her to James.
to
ter of course, and does not awaken to
central purpose in this story is
the fact that he is in love with her
show the sternness and inflexibility of
until piqued by the attentions bestowed
the New England conscience, which
holds to the Calvinistic doctrines through
upon her by Mr. Adams of Boston.
Then, prompted by jealousy, he pays
all phases of life.
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
517
mere
ure.
By a mere accident she becomes the tram Shandy) reminds us, now of Cer-
prey of a young man of gross instincts, vantes, now of Rabelais, now of Swift;
returning to her home soiled and but it is sui generis nevertheless. Cole-
dismayed. Her child is born and dies. ridge praised especially Sterne's power of
«Her physical blight becomes her mental giving significance to the most evanes-
harvest;” she is lifted above the grop- cent minutiæ in thought, feeling, look,
ing mental state of the people about and gesture. The work has always been
her. This etherealization has fatal re- popular, perhaps never more so than to-
sults. As she was once the victim of day, when the development of realism in
man's vices, she is destined to become English fiction is receiving so much at-
the victim of his conventional virtues. tention.
At a farm far removed from the scene
of her sufferings, she meets Angel | Onephef
Cleopatra's Nights, by
Clare, a gentleman's son. Their mu-
Théophile Gautier. In this charm-
tual love ends in marriage. On their ing short story, published in 1867, in
wedding-day Tess tells Clare of her a collection of Nouvelles,' the author
past. From that hour she ceases to be shows the exhaustive study which he
for him «enskied and sainted,” becom- had made of Egypt and its ancient
ing a
soiled thing which had customs. He introduces Cleopatra to
drifted in its perilous beauty across his his readers as she is being rowed down
path. He leaves her; and her struggle the Nile to her summer palace. In
with her anguish of spirit, with her describing the cause of her ennui to
poverty, and her despair, has a fearful Charmian, Cleopatra graphically pictures
ending: «The President of the Immor- the belittling, crushing effect of the gi-
tals » had finished his sport with her. gantic monuments of her country. She
(Tess) is well-nigh primeval in its treat- bewails the fate of a Queen who can
ment. A novel created apparently by never know if she is loved for herself
inexorable forces of nature, it is joined alone, and longs for some strange advent-
by its strength and pitilessness to the
She has been followed down the
blind powers of the world. Yet it is Nile by Meiamoun, a young man who is
not without sunny spaces, revelations violently infatuated with the Queen, but
of warm nooks of earth hidden from whom she has
noticed. That
the blasts of the tempest.
night she is startled by an arrow which
enters her window bearing a roll of
Tristram Shandy, by Laurence Sterne. papyrus on which is written, "I love
The Life and Opinions of Tristram you. ” She looks from the window and
Shandy, Gent. , is <a heterogeneous sort sees a man swimming across the Nile,
of whimsical humorous memoirs. ) The but her servants are unable to find him.
first volume appeared January ist, 1760, Soon after, Meiamoun dives down into
when Sterne was forty-six. Up to this the subterranean passage which conducts
time he had lived the life of an easy- the waters of the Nile to Cleopatra's
going fox-hunting churchman, utterly bath; and the next morning, as she is
obscure, but this, his first effort, so enjoying her bath, she finds him gazing
amused the public, that he
was per-
at her. She condemns him to death,
suaded to compose further in the same and then pardons him. He begs for
strain; and he published in all nine vol- death, and she yields, but tells him he
umes, the last in January, 1767. The shall first find his most extravagant
work is full of domestic comedy, «char- dream realized: he shall be the lover of
acters of nature,” “the creations of a Cleopatra. «I take thee from nothing-
fine fancy working in an ideal element, ness; I make thee the equal of a god,
and not mere copies or caricatures of and I replunge thee into nothingness. ”
individualities actually observed,” like “It was necessary to make of the life of
those of Dickens. Here live old Uncle Meiamoun a powerful elixir which he
Toby, Corporal Trim, Dr. Slop, and the could drain from a single cup. ” Then
Widow Wadman; and who does not en- follows the description of the feast. After
joy their garrulous gossip, and that of a night of magnificent splendor, a cup
Sterne himself in his frequent whimsical of poison is handed to him. Touched
digressions, so full of keen observation by his beauty and bravery, Cleopatra is
and gentle ridicule? Sterne had evi- about to order him not to drink, when
dently studied the humorists well: (Tris- the heralds announce the arrival of Mark
never
a
## p. 518 (#554) ############################################
518
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
»
a
seem
Antony. He asks: «What means this
corpse upon the foor? ” “Oh! nothing,”
she answers; – “a poison I was trying,
in order to use it should Augustus make
me prisoner. Will it please you, my
dear, to sit by me and watch the
dancers ? »
Uncle Remus: His Songs and His
SAYINGS. By Joel Chandler Harris.
(1880. ) These quaint and humorous
folk-lore fables are told night after
night to a little boy by an old negro
who has nothing but pleasant memories
of the discipline of slavery, and who
has all the prejudices of caste and pride
of family that were the natural results
of the system. The animals talk and
show their native cunning, - Brer Rab-
bit, Brer Fox, Brer 'Possum, and the
rest. These characters, as delineated by
Mr. Harris, have won world-wide fame,
and are familiar in all literature and
conversation. Their adventures
directly drawn from the darkey's vivid
and droll imagination; though in the
preface Mr. Page gives data received
from ethnologists, which seem to prove
the existence of like stories - some of
them identical - among Indian tribes in
both North and South America, and the
inhabitants of India, Siam, and Upper
Egypt. But in his preface to a later
collection of "Uncle Remus Stories) Mr.
Harris lightly scoffs at such learned dis-
sertations; and suggests one's pure en-
joyment, like his own, of the stories for
themselves.
Uncle Tom's
Cabin, by Harriet
Beecher Stowe. This world-famous
story was written in 1851, and appeared
originally, from week to week as writ-
ten, in the National Era, an aboli.
tion paper published at Washington.
Brought out in book form, when com-
pleted as a serial, its popularity was
immediate and immense. Its influence
during the last decade of slavery was
great, and its part in the creation of
anti-slavery sentiment incalculable.
It opens in Kentucky, and closes in
Canada. The chapters between
chiefly located in Ohio, in New Or-
leans, beside Lake Pontchartrain, and
down
upon
the Red River. Their
chief purpose is to depict slavery, and
the effects of it, by portraying the ex-
periences of Uncle Tom, and of those
with whom he
or less
nected, through the space of some five
years. Their chief personages, rather
in the order of interest than of intro-
duction, are Uncle Tom, the pious and
faithful slave, and little Eva, to whom
he is devoted; Augustine St. Clare,
father of Eva, and his complaining
wife; Mr. and Mrs. Shelby, from whose
old Kentucky home » Uncle Tom is
sold South; George Shelby, their son,
who finally seeks him for repurchase,
and finds him dying of brutality on
that remote Red River plantation; Si-
mon Legree, who bought Tom after St.
Clare's death (which followed not long
after that of Eva), who owns him
when he dies, and who represents the
brutal slaveholder as St. Clare repre-
sents the easy and good-humored one;
Cassy, once Legree's favorite, now
half-crazed wreck of beauty; Emeline,
bought to succeed her, but who escapes
with Cassy at last; Eliza, who proves
to be Cassy's daughter, and to whom
she is finally reunited; George Harris,
Eliza's husband, who follows her along
the “Underground Railway) in Ohio,
after her wonderful escape across the
Ohio River on the ice, carrying her
boy Harry; Tom Loker, Haley, and
Marks, the slave-catchers, who hunt
these runaways and are overmatched;
Simon Halliday and Phineas Fletcher,
the Quakers, with their families; and
Senator and Mrs. Bird, and John Van
Trompe, all of whom assist the fugi-
tives; Miss Ophelia, the precise New
England spinster cousin in St. Clare's
home; Topsy, the ebony limb of mis-
chief,” who never was born but just
“growed; and Aunt Chloe,
Uncle
Tom's wife back there in (old Ken-
tuck, whose earnings were to assist in
his return to her, but to whom he
returns. Other but incidental
characters, field and household servants,
swell the number to fifty-five.
In a Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin,'
its author gave matter to sustain both
the severe and the mild pictures of
slavery which her story had drawn.
Being once introduced as the writer of
that story, Mrs. Stowe disclaimed its
authorship; and to the question, «Who
did write it then? » she answered rev-
erently — "God. ”
(
never
are
:
Lº
orna Doone: A ROMANCE OF Ex-
MOOR, by R. D. Blackmore, is its
author's best-known wor and is re-
markable for its exquisite reproduction
more
## p. 519 (#555) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
519
>>
of the style of the period it describes.
«To a Devonshire man it is as good as
clotted cream, almost,” has been said of
it; and it is Blackmore's special pride
that as
a native he has «satisfied na-
tives with their home scenery, people,
life, and language. But the popularity
of the brilliant romance has not been
local, and has been equally great on
both sides of the Atlantic. Even with-
out so swift a succession of exciting in-
cident, the unhackneyed style, abounding
in fresh simile, with its poetic apprecia-
tion of the fairest county in England,
combined with homely realism, would
make it delightful reading. Much as
Hardy acquaints us with Wessex, Black-
more impresses Exmoor upon us, with a
comprehensive Englishness) of setting
and character. It is out-of-door Eng-
land, with swift streams, treacherous
bogs, dangerous cliffs, and free vinds
across the moors. The story is founded
legends concerning the robber
Doones, a fierce band of aristocratic
outlaws, who in revenge
for
them by the government, lived by
plundering the country-side. Regarding
their neighbors as ignoble churls and
their legitimate prey, they robbed and
murdered them at will. John Ridd,
when a lad of fourteen, falls into their
valley by chance one day, and is saved
from capture by Lorna Doone, the fair-
est, daintiest child he has ever
When he is twenty-one, and the tallest
and stoutest youth on Exmoor, great
John Ridd) seeks Lorna again. He
hates the Doones who killed his father,
but he loves beautiful innocent Lorna;
and becomes her protector against the
fierce men among whom she lives. If
slow to think, he is quick to act; if
«plain and unlettered,” he is brave and
noble: and Lorna welcomes his placid
strength. Scattered through the swift
narration, certain scenes, such as Lorna's
escape to the farm, a tussle with the
Doones, the attempted murder in church,
the final duel with Carver Doone, and
others, stand out as great and glowing
pictures.
larity, not only among English speaking
people but on the continent of Europe
also. During the publication of these
papers Mr. Scott preserved his incognito
even towards his publisher. The author
spent some sixteen years of his life
(1806 to 1822) in the West Indies, in
connection with a mercantile house in
Kingston, Jamaica. The travels among
the neighboring islands and to the Span-
ish Main, gave him not only great fa-
miliarity with the social life of the West
Indies, but also a knowledge of the wild
and adventurous nautical life of the
times, and of the scenes and aspects of
a tropical climate which he has so faith-
fully and vividly portrayed. There is no
plot; but the book contains a series of
adventures with pirates, mutineers, pri-
vateersmen and men-of-war, storms,
wrecks, and waterspouts, interspersed
with descriptions of shore life and
customs. The time chosen is one full of
historical interest; for the book opens
with an adventure in the Baltic in which
the reader is brought into contact with
Napoleon's army, and later on there are
adventures with American men-of-war
and privateersmen, during the War of
1812,- the celebrated frigate Hornet play-
ing a small part.
Few, if any, sea writers have exhibited
such a remarkable power of description;
and the book will stand for many years
as one of the most accurate pictures of
West-Indian life, both afloat and
shore, during the early part of the nine-
teenth century.
The publication of "Tom Cringle's
Log' was followed in 1836 by "The
Cruise of the Midge); and these two
were the only books written by Michael
Scott, who died in 1835, before the pub-
lication of the latter work.
on
wrongs done
seen.
on
((
Middlemarch, by George Eliot. (1872. )
This, the last but one of George
Eliot's novels, she is said to have re-
garded as her greatest work. The novel
takes its name from a provincial town
in or near which its leading characters
live. The book is really made up of
two stories, one centring around the
Vincy family, and the other around Dor-
othea Brooke and her relatives. On
account of this division of interest, the
construction of the story has been se-
verely criticized as clumsy and inartistic.
Dorothea Brooke, the most prominent
figure on the very crowded canvas, is an
as
Tºm
om Cringle's Log, by Michael Scott.
This work was originally published
a series of papers in Blackwood's
Magazine, the first of them appearing in
1829. They were afterwards published
(in 1834) in two volumes; and have
enjoyed a wide and well-sustained popu-
## p. 520 (#556) ############################################
520
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
orphan, who, with her sister Celia, lives Dorothea, nevertheless, is a sweet and
with her uncle Mr. Brooke, a man of upright character, and her second hus-
vacillating and uneven temperament. band, Ladislaw, is in every way to be
Dorothea's longing for a lofty mission admired. Two secondary love stories in
leads her to marry an elderly and Middlemarch) are those of the witty
wealthy clergyman, Rev. Edward Casau- Mary Garth and the spendthrift Fred
bon, who has retired from the ministry Vincy, and of Celia Brooke and Sir
to give his time to an important piece James Chettam. The chorus, which con-
of literary work. Dorothea, though not stantly reflects Middlemarch sentiment
yet twenty, hopes to be his amanuensis at every turn of affairs, is a large one,
and helper; and is greatly grieved to including Mrs. Fitchett, Mrs. Dill, Mrs.
find that her husband sets slight value Waule, Mrs. Renfrew, Mrs. Plymdale,
on her services. In other ways she has Mrs. Bulstrode, Mrs. Vincy; and among
been disillusioned before the death of the men, Mr. Dollop, Mr. Dill, Mr. Bro-
Mr. Casaubon, a year and a half after throp Trumbull, Mr. Horrock, Mr. Wrech,
their marriage. A rather insulting pro- Mr. Thesiger, and Mr. Standish.
vision of his will directs that his widow More carefully drawn are the caustic
shall lose her income if she marries Will Mrs. Cadwallader, the self-denying Mr.
Ladislaw, a young cousin of Mr. Casau- Farebrother, hypocritical Mr. Bulstrode,
bon's. Ladislaw is partly of Polish the miser Featherstone, and the honor-
descent; and both his mother and his able Caleb Garth and his self-reliant
grandmother had been disinherited by wife.
their English relatives for marrying for-
eigners. Ladislaw owes his education to Life of Goethe, The, by George Henry
,
Mr. Casaubon; but not until after the Lewes. (1864. ) The first important
death of the latter does the friendship biography in English of the greatest of
between the younger man and Dorothea German writers, this book still holds its
take the tinge of love.
place in the front rank of biographical
Rosamond Vincy, who may be called literature. The volume is a large one,
a minor heroine, is the daughter of the and the detail is infinitely minute, be-
mayor of Middlemarch. She is a beauti- ginning with the ancestry of the poet,
ful girl, whose feeling that she is much and ending with his death in 1832. His
more refined than her commonplace rel- precocity, the school-life and college-life
atives, leads her to lofty matrimonial of the beautiful youth, his welcome in
aspirations. She wins the love of Dr. society, his flirtations, the bohemian
Lydgate, who, though nephew to a bar- years that seemed prodigally wasted, yet
onet, has a hard struggle to esta ish that were to bear rich intellectual fruit
himself as a Middlemarch physician, with when the wild nature should have so-
Dr. Sprague and Dr. Minchin as rivals. bered to its tasks, his friendships, his
Neither he nor his wife knows how to travels, his love-affairs, his theories of
economize; and the latter, feeling her life, his scientific investigations, his
husband's poverty an insult to herself, is dramatic studies, criticisms, and produc-
a hindrance to him in every way.
The tions, his momentary absorption in edu-
story of his efforts to maintain his fam- cational problems, his official distinc-
ily, and at the same time to be true to tions, his intellectual dictatorship, his
his ambition to add to the science of his ever-recurring sentimental experiences, -
profession, is a sad one. In the charac- all the changing phases of that many-
ters of Dorothea and Lydgate George
sided life are made to pass be re the
Eliot develops the main purpose of this reader with extraordinary vividness.
novel, which is less distinctly ethical Like almost all biographers of imagina-
than some of the others. Her aim in tion and strong feeling, Mr. Lewes, who
(Middlemarch) was to show how the means to maintain a strict impartiality,
thought and action of even very high- becomes advocate. He presents
minded persons is apt to be modified Goethe's wonderful mentality without ex-
and altered by their environment. Both aggeration. He does no more than just-
Dorothea and Lydgate become entangled ice to the personal charm which seems
by their circumstances; though in his to have been altogether irresistible. But
the disaster is greater than in it is in spite of his biographer's admis-
hers, and in each case it is a moral and sic rather than because of them, that
not a social decline which is pointed out. Goethe appears in his pages a man from
an
case
## p. 521 (#557) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
521
was
in the Salem witchcraft trials.
No man
of the time was better furnished with
material to keep a diary, and his was
well done. Its pages afford many a
vivid picture of the early colonial per-
sonages, – their dress and their dinners,
their funerals and weddings, their town
meetings, their piety, their quarrels, and
the innumerable trifles which together
make up life. Mr. Chamberlain finds
this diary a match for Evelyn's and
-
(2
is concerned. He has drawn most of
the material for his book from the three
huge volumes of the journal, following
the career of the diarist from his first
arrival in the colony to his death in
1729. The pages are studded with quo-
tations delightfully quaint and charac-
teristic; and the passages of original
narrative nowhere obscure these invalu-
able (documents. ”
a
whose vital machinery the heart
omitted. Perfect taste he had, exquisite
sentiment, great appreciation, a certain
power of approbation that assumed the
form of affection, but no love,- such the
Goethe whom his admiring disciple
paints. The book presents the senti-
mental German society of the late eigh-
teenth century with entire understand-
ing, and is very rich in memorabilia of
many sorts.
Voltaire, Life of, by James Parton.
vols. , 1881. ) A well-executed at-
tempt to tell the story of the most ex-
traordinary of Frenchmen, and one of
the most extraordinary of human be-
ings”; a writer whose publications count
more than two hundred and sixty in
number, and whose collected works fill
a hundred volumes. Mr. Parton's work
extends to more than 1,200 pages of care-
fully selected biographical evidence,
autobiographical in fact, presenting the
remarkable man and the great writer
delineated by himself. For more
concise work the reader may take John
Morley's (Voltaire, the keynote of
which, on its first page, is the declara-
tion that Voltaire is almost more than
one man, is in himself a whole move-
ment of human advance, like the Re-
vival of Learning, or the Reformation;
an extraordinary person whose existence,
character, and career, constitute in them-
selves a new and prodigious era.
Samuel Sewall, and the World He
Lived In, by N. H. Chamberlain,
is an account of one of the most notable
of the early Puritan worthies, who was
graduated from Harvard College in 1671,
only fifty-one years after the landing of
the Pilgrims at Plymouth. Sewall came
of a good family of English non-con-
formists, who came to this country when
he was a boy of nine. He grew up to
be a councilor and judge, highly es-
teemed among his contemporaries; but
his fame to-day rests not on his achieve-
ments in his profession, but on the re-
markable diary which he kept for fifty-
six years, chronicling minutely the
events of his daily life. He saw all
there was to be seen in public and so-
cial life. As a man of position, con-
nected with the government, he made
many journeys, not only about the col-
ony but over seas to court. As a judge,
he knew all the legal proceedings of the
country, being concerned, for example,
Voyage Around my Chamber, by Xa-
vier De Maistre. (1874. ) A charm-
ing group of miniature essays, polished
like the gems of a necklace, the titles
of which were suggested by the familiar
objects of the author's room.
It was
written during his confinement for forty-
two days under arrest in Turin, while
holding the position of an officer in the
Russian army.
He treats his surround-
ings as composing a large allegory, in
which he reads the whole range of
human life. He depicts with delight
the advantages of this kind of “fire-
side travel," in its freedom from labor,
worry, and expense; and then he shows
under the vast significance of such ob-
jects as the Bed, the Bookcase, the
father's Bust, the Traveling-Coat, and
the instruments of Painting and Music,
the wide range of reflection and delight
into which the soul is thus led. The
bed is the beginning and the end of
earthly life; the library is the pano-
rama of the world's greatest ideals; and
here he reflects on the grandeur and
attractiveness of Lucifer as depicted by
Milton. The traveling-coat suggests the
influence of costume on character, which
is illustrated by the effect of an added
bar or star of an officer's coat on the
wearer's state of mind. (The Animal)
is the heading of the chapter defining
the body as the servant of the soul,
a mistress who sometimes cruelly goes
away and neglects it, as when, while
the mind is absorbed in some entran-
## p. 522 (#558) ############################################
522
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
White Company, The, a
cing thought, the hand catches up heed- an old man
anuscript which he discovers.
lessly the hot poker.
The most subtle His ancestor, a priest of Isis, had been
of these interpretations is that of the slain by an immortal white sorceress,
portrait of a fair lady whose eyes fol- somewhere in Africa; and in the an-
low the gazer; but foolish is the lover cient record his descendants are exhorted
who thinks them bent on him alone, for to revenge his death. The sorceress, no
every other finds them gazing equally other than «She, is discovered in a re-
at him even at the same moment. markable country peopled by marvelous
beings, who, as true servants of the sor-
romantic
tale of the fourteenth century, by
ceress, present an exaggerated picture
of the barbaric rites and cruelties of
A. Conan Doyle. Alleyne Edricson, a
Africa. To this strange land comes the
gentle, noble-spirited youth, who has
been sheltered and educated among a
handsome and passionate Englishman,
with two companions who share his
company of white-robed Cistercians in
England, leaves the abbey to make his
many thrilling experiences. A mysteri-
ous bond exists between the young Eng.
way in the world. Together with two
lishman and the sorceress: the memory
sinewy and gallant comrades, Hordie
of the ancient crime and the expectation
John and Samkin Aylward, he attaches
of its atonement. The climax of the
himself to the person and fortunes of
story is reached when the travelers and
Sir Nigel Loring, a doughty knight, the
mirror of chivalry, ever in quest of a
the sorceress together visit the place
where the mysterious fire burns which
passage-at-arms for the honor of his
gives thousands of years of life, loveli-
lady and his own advancement in chiv-
ness, strength, and wisdom, or else swift
alry.
death. She ) for the second time dares
In vigorous phrase and never-flagging
to pass into the awful flame, and so
interest, the tale rehearses how that Sir
meets her doom, being instantly con-
Nigel heads the “White Company, a
sumed. The weird tale does not lack a
band of sturdy Saxon bowmen, free
fitting background for its scenes of ad-
companions, and leads them through
venture, the author choosing an extinct
many knightly encounters in the train
volcano for the scene of the tragedy;
of the Black Prince, in France and
so vast is its crater that it contains a
Spain. The story rings with the clash
great city, while its walls are full of
of arms in tourney lists, during way-
caves containing the marvelously pre-
side encounters and on the battle-field,
served dead of
of a prehistoric people.
and reflects the rude but chivalric spirit
Mr. Haggard's practical knowledge and
of the century.
experience of savage life and wild lands,
Many characters known to history are
his sense of the charm of ruined civili-
set in lifelike surroundings. The move-
zation, his appreciation of sport, and his
ment is rapid, stirring episodes follow
faculty of imparting an aspect of truth
each other rapidly and withal there is
to impossible adventures, find ample ex-
presented a careful picture of the tumult-
pression in this entertaining and wholly
uous times in which the varied scenes
impossible tale.
are laid.
squire, Alleyne, wins his spurs by gal? Uarda, by Georg Moritz Ebers. (1876. )
This is a study of ancient Egyp-
lant conduct, thrillingly told in a passage
tian civilization in the city of Thebes,
which will rank with the author's ablest
in the fourteenth century before Christ,
efforts. Alleyne lives to return, with a
under Rameses II. A narrative of He-
few comrades of the decimated White
rodotus, combined with the Epos of Pen-
Company, and claims the hand of Lady
taur, forms the foundation of the story.
Maude, Sir Nigel's daughter, who has
We have a minute description of the
long loved the young squire, and gladly
weds him as a knight.
dress, the food, the religious customs
and
of the ancient Egyptians.
She, by Rider Haggard. (1887. ) This There are three separate love stories:
is å stirring and exciting tale. Mr. that of Bent-Anat, daughter of Rameses,
Haggard has pictured his hero as going who loves Pentaur, the poet-priest; that
to Africa to avenge the death of an of Nefert, wife of Mena, the king's chari.
Egyptian ancestor, whose strange his- oteer; and that of L'arda herself, who has
tory has been handed down to him in many adorers, for only one of whom she
wars
## p. 523 (#559) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
523
SO
cares,– Rameri, the king's son. Pentaur
Usurper, The, by Judith Gautier. This
is sent into exile, rescued by Uarda, fol- interesting novel, which was first
lowing in Bent-Anat's train. He saves published in 1875, in two volumes, is
the king in battle, and is rewarded with founded on an episode in Japanese his-
the princess's hand.
Nefert is pur-
tory. The author, who had numbered
sued by Paaker, but is true to her hus- among her instructors a Chinaman, gives
band. Paaker plots to betray Rameses, a most accurate and painstaking descrip-
and perishes in his own trap. It then tion of the feudal and social life and
becomes known that he is the son of a customs of Japan. Taiko-sama, one of
gardener, and Pentaur the true son of the great soldiers of Japan, had reduced
the noble, they having been exchanged the power of the Mikado to a shadow,
at birth. Uarda (The Rose) proves to be and was himself the real ruler with the
grandchild to the king of the Danaids, title of Shogun. Before dying, he mar-
her mother having been taken captive ried his son Fidé-Yori to the grand-
many years before. She marries Ram- daughter of Hyeas, and made the lat-
eri; and after her grandfather's death, ter regent until his son should be of
they rule over many islands of the Med- age.
iterranean and found a famous race.
It is at this time (1614) that the action
of the novel begins. I wakura, Prince
Signor. 1o, II, by Salvatore Farina. of Nagato, who is the intimate friend of
This story of the egoism of Marco Fidé-Yori, is the hero of the tale, who
Antonio Abaté, professor of philosophy endeavors to foil the schemes of Hyeas.
in Milan, is charmingly told. In the Iwakura is in love with the Queen, and
first three chapters, the Professor, in the through her obtains an order for Hyeas
most naive manner, tells of his detesta- to surrender his power to Fidé-Yori.
tion of egoism, and how he has sacri- Hyeas refuses, and a civil war begins.
ficed himself by allowing his dead wife, Iwakura has among his subjects one
and living daughter Serafina, to make named Sado, who resembles him
themselves happy by waiting on him. closely that Sado is enabled to lead a
Iginio Curti, an opera singer, is the life of fashion and folly in his master's
wolf who breaks up his happy home by person while Iwakura is in another
marrying Serafina. Many letters from place serving Fidé-Yori. When war be-
his daughter he returns unopened to gins, he sends Sado to defend Nagato,
Curti. Tiring of his solitary life, he while he, with a band of two hundred
advertises for a wife. In one of the sailors, devotes himself to a desultory
answers, signed Marina, the writer says warfare, turning up when least expected,
she is a young widow. He recognizes and saving the Mikado and Queen from
the handwriting of his daughter, and being captured. Sado is defeated and
writes for her to come home. She does beheaded. The head is sent to Hyeas,
so; and he finds Curti has told her who believes it to be that of Iwakura;
nothing about the return of the letters, but the latter with his band makes his
but has given her many presents, which, way into Hyeas's camp, steals Sado's
he said, came from her father, in place head and two hundred horses, and rides
of letters.
away, to the great dismay of Hyeas's
Thinking Serafina ill, her father obliges army. Peace is proclaimed and reigns
her to go to bed; and he goes to bring for a short time; but Hyeas learning
the granddaughter, whom Serafina had of the Queen's love for Iwakura, she re-
left at home. His surprise is great when signs the crown, and the Mikado mar.
he finds Curti alive and healthy, and ries the second granddaughter of Hyeas.
that Marina is an opera singer for whom The latter attacks the palace of Fidé-
Serafina had written the letter. When Yori, who is about to kill himself, when
he discovers that Curti not only de- Iwakura appears and shows him a sub-
ceived his daughter as to her father's terranean passage through which Fidé-
selfishness, but that his little grand- Yori escapes to the province of Satsuma,
daughter believes him to have sent her where his descendants are said still to
many presents, he says that hereafter he live. Iwakura sets fire to the palace
will teach his pupils that above all the and is destroyed with it. The descend-
treatises on philosophy, there is one that ants of Hyeas ruled Japan until 1868,
must be studied early and to the last when the Mikado again
into
day of our lives, self — Il Signor Io. power.
came
## p. 524 (#560) ############################################
524
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
Moral Tales, by Miss Edgeworth (1801), his childhood, has inculcated in him the
have been translated into many very traits he has endeavored to over-
languages, and have retained their pop- come, and Thorbjörn grows up aggres-
ularity in England and abroad. As the sive and reticent. He is deeply in love
title denotes, these stories have a didactic with Synnövé, but does not dare to
purpose, and although intended to amuse confess his feelings to her family; nor
young people, would insinuate a sugar- does she allow him to visit her, on
coated moral. The character-drawing is account of the reputation in which he is
capable and shrewd; and the fluent, ani- held. He finally promises her he will
mated style makes them easy reading. mend his ways and become more re-
The seven stories comprising the volume spected, when he unintentionally becomes
have a sensible, matter-of-fact, thoroughly entangled in a brawl, and is stabbed and
eighteenth-century quality. Miss Edge- seriously wounded. This catastrophe
worth inculcates nobility, generosity, and causes a change in him for the better;
sincerity; but above everything else, she and by the time of his recovery he is
inculcates good sense. It is not enough much softened and improved. His father
for young Forester to be brave and tal- at the time of his son's illness realizes
ented. He is held up to ridicule for his how deep his affection is for him, and a
uncouth ways and disdain of conven- reconciliation takes place between them
tions, until he learns the wisdom of con- which is the beginning of their final
forming to social usage. Evelina is a understanding of each other. After his
feminine Forester, and learns the same return to health, his father goes with
lesson. Tact is a favorite virtue with him to Solbakken and asks for the hand
Miss Edgeworth. It is by carefully con- of Synnövé in marriage, which is
sulting the individual tastes of her pupils granted by her parents. The story has
that « The Good French Governess” re- been called one of Björnson's master-
forms Mrs. Harcourt's family. Tact is pieces; and shows his fine perception of
the secret of the “Good Aunt's success human nature, and his skill in revealing
in her educational experiment. Miss the traits and characteristics of the
Edgeworth teaches boys and girls to de- peasantry of his native country. The
spise self-indulgence and uncontrolled development of the savage beauty of
emotion; and to mistrust appearances. Thorbjörn's character, and the strong
Her model hero is young Mr. Mount- scene at the church door, where he
eagle, the matrimonial prize in Made- becomes reconciled to his former enemy,
moiselle Panache, who, momentarily at- show the marvelous power of the author.
tracted by the beauty of Lady Augusta,
has the sense to perceive her inferiority Rab and His Friends. by Dr. John
, amiable
story by a
Helen Temple.
well-beloved Edinburgh physician, is
one of the choicest of English classics.
Synnövé Solbakken, by Björnstjerne Rab is a sturdy mastiff — "old, gray,
Björnson. This story, which brindled, as big as a little Highland
the first to reveal to the world at large bull ») — with "Shakespearean dewlaps
the genius of the author, was brought shaking as he goes. His friends are
out in 1857, in a Norwegian newspaper, his master and mistress, James Noble,
and
not translated into English the Howgate carrier, “a keen, thin, im-
until 1870, although it had previously patient, black-a-vised little man”; and
appeared in French, German, Spanish, the exquisite old Scotchman, his wife
and Russian. The scene of the narra- Ailie, with her unforgettable face, pale,
tive is laid among the Norwegian hills, serious, lonely, delicate, sweet, with
which are minutely and picturesquely dark gray eyes “full of suffering, full
described. Synnövé, the daughter of a also of the overcoming of it. ” Ailie is
well-to-do farmer, is a pretty and charm- enduring a terrible malady; and her
ing girl, idolized by her parents and
husband wraps
her carefully in his
beloved by all who know her. She loves plaid and brings her in his cart to the
her early friend and schoolmate Thor- hospital, where her dignified patient
björn Granliden, who is generally consid- lovableness through a dangerous opera-
ered a rough and vindictive fellow. He
tion moves even the thoughtless medi-
is the son of worthy parents, but his cal students to tears. She is nursed by
father, by over-severity towards him in her husband. Handy, and clever, and
was
was
## p. 525 (#561) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
525
was
swift, and patient as any woman, was versation, but frequently the writer in
that horny-handed, snell, peremptory
his own
person addresses the reader
little man;
» while Rab, quiet and obedi- directly. In whatever guise he appears,
ent, but saddened and disquieted by however, we cannot help recognizing the
the uncomprehended trouble, jealously genial personality of Holmes himself.
guards the two. Perhaps no truer, more As he says in the verses subjoined as
convincing dog character exists in lit- epilogue to the series:
erature than that of ugly faithful Rab.
“A Boswell, writing out himself!
The pathos in the simple lives of him-
For though he changes dress and name,
self and his friends is heightened by the
The man beneath is still the same,
tinge of Scotch dialect, as well as by the
Laughing or sad, by fits and starts,
One actor in a dozen parts,
author's wise self-restraint.
The story
And whatsoe'er the mask may be,
springs from his scientific knowledge of The voice assures us, This is he. »
life and disease, like a flower from the
soil. Its essence and charm lie in the
Martian, The, by George Du Maurier,
warm-heartedness and refined sympathy his third and last novel, was pub-
which lift it above science, and vibrate lished posthumously in 1897. The hero
contagiously in every word.
is Barty Josselin, the story of whose
life is told by his friend and companion,
Poet at the Breakfast Table, The, Robert Maurice. The school life of the
by Oliver Wendell Holmes. (The two lads in the Institution F. Brossard,
Poet,' like its predecessors, (The Auto- in Paris, is sketched in detail in Du
crat) and (The Professor,)
first Maurier's inimitable manner, the account
printed as a series of papers in the being largely autobiographic. Barty is
Atlantic Monthly, making its appearance from the start a handsome, high-spirited,
in 1872.
In merit it is somewhat su- mischievous, and gifted fellow, thor-
perior to “The Professor, but hardly oughly practical, yet with traits that
equal to (The Autocrat”; and though have in them a strange idealism. After
containing the familiar Aunt Tabitha,' school, the boys return to England, and
and Homesick in Heaven, has nothing Barty goes into the army, but does not
to be compared with (The Chambered like it, and resigns. Then his eyes give
Nautilus) or (The One-Hoss Shay. ) out; and he travels for a time, and con-
Like the earlier volumes, it consists of sults various physicians, being helped
rambling, discursive talks on many sub- finally by a celebrated German special.
jects, — religion, science, literature, — with ist, Dr. Hasenclover, who assures him
a frequent excursion into the realm of that he will be blind in only one eye.
philosophy. The local flavor is very Before this, he has come to such melan-
strong, as usual with Holmes; and prob- cholic discouragement that he intends
ably the papers will always have a suicide; being saved therefrom by dis-
greater attraction for New-Englanders covering in a dream that he has a kind
than for those to whom the local allus- of guardian spirit, the Martian, a woman
ions are pointless, and the setting alien. soul, who has undergone a series of in-
Nevertheless, the author's sympathies carnations, and is now an inhabitant of
are as wide as humanity itself; and he Mars. She advises him about his eyes,
gives many a hard hit at prejudice and and thereafter, for many years, she con-
intolerance. Moreover he says repeatedly stantly communicates with him and helps
that his chief object in writing is to him, using a kind of shorthand called
meet some need of his fellow-creatures, blaze. She inspires him to write won-
to strike some chord that shall wake a derful books, whereby he becomes
responsive note in some kindred soul. famous author. Against her advice, he
Certainly this wide-reaching human kind- obeys the dictates of his heart by mar-
liness is not the least charm of this de- rying Leah Gibson, a noble Jewess, when
lightful book.
the Martian would have had him choose
The principal persons at the table are Julia Royce, an English belle whom he
the Poet; the Old Master, a scholarly meets in Germany. The marriage is so
philosopher; the Scarabee, a withered happy that the Martian acknowledges
entomologist; the poetic young astrono- her mistake. When Barty's daughter
mer; Scheherazade, a young girl who Martia is born, the Martian becomes
writes stories; and the Lady. All of incarnated in her form; and upon the
these occasionally take part in the con- young girl's death, the strange being
a
## p. 526 (#562) ############################################
526
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
a
no
from another world returns to Mars, and opinions, serves Laboulaye as a means
whereupon Barty himself also passes of expressing himself pungently on many
away. The charm of the story lies in points wherein his own country might
the genial description of bohemian friend- well learn of a younger nation.
ship and love, seen retrospectively in The first bewildering change which
the half-light of illusion; and in the greets the metamorphosed physician is
suggestive way in which the odd super- the exceeding comfort of his household
natural element is woven into the nar- arrangements, with the unfamiliar baths
rative.
and heating apparatus; the next is the
affectionate and unrestrained attitude of
Tartuffe, by Molière (Jean Baptiste
his wife and children. A thunderbolt
Poquelin). This most famous com-
falls upon him when he finds his daugh-
edy, once performed under the title
“The Impostor,' was published complete
ter engaged to a man who has not pre-
viously asked his consent, and who makes
in 1669. The principal characters are:
Madame Pernelle; Orgon, her son; his
absolutely no inquiries about a dot. An
wife Elmire, his son, and daughter; and
equal surprise is the career of his son,
a friend, Tartuffe, who stands forth as a
who at sixteen chooses a business, finds
type of the religious hypocrite. The old
an opening, and departs, like a man, for
the Indies.
lady is very devout, but uses plain
words when scolding the grandchildren.
Then in a succession of humorously
Orgon, the husband, on coming home
interesting chapters the author takes his
hears that his wife is ill; but immedi-
hero through the civil world of America
ately inquires about Tartuffe, seeming to
as it was in the sixties; he makes him a
think of else.
volunteer fireman, shows him the inner
This honey-lipped
workings of the free American Press, in-
egoist is chosen by the father as the
itiates him into the bitter knowledge of
proper person to whom he should marry
what it is to be a candidate for office.
his daughter.
But she thinks not so. Those who
And the whole is told with the would be
are forced to marry against their will do
grumbling tone of an old fellow who
not make virtuous wives. The modesty
wants to believe in the superiority of his
of Tartuffe is easily shocked; yet he
adored country in every particular over
this land of savages. ”
would examine closely the material of
the dress of Elmire, to whom he pays
But alas when the sorcery is undone,
court, telling her that to sin in secret is
and the Parisian reawakes in fair Paris,
with an unmistakable French family about
not to sin at all. Elmire risks her repu-
tation a little to unmask the vile deceiver
him, he would fain have remained under
the enchantment. His son is no longer
in the eyes of her husband. Through
self-reliant; his daughter blushes and is
fear of hell, Tartuffe yet rules the hus-
shocked to tears at his suggestion that
band, gets his property by scheming, and
has him arrested as a traitor. At last
she shall marry the man of her heart;
and his wife is indignant that he should
the king acts; and Tartuffe is led off to
prison. This is a striking presentation
suppose his daughter so ill-bred as to have
of the manners and morals of the people
a choice. There is a keen reproach for
and times,
France in the mockery of the finale, which
pictures the doctor in an asylum, where
Paris in America (Paris en Ame- in the estimation of his countrymen, his
rique), by Édouard René Lefebvre strange ideas fit him to be an inmate.
Laboulaye. This satirical romance was
first published in 1863. Through the won-
Las
ast Days of Pompeii, The, by Ed-
derful adventures of a Parisian doctor of ward Bulwer, Lord Lytton. (1834. )
the conventional type, who with his whole The characters and scenes of this story
family is spirited away to America by a are in a great measure suggested by the
sorcerer, Laboulaye sets forth an amus- peculiarities of the buildings which are
ing contrast between many customs and still to be seen at Pompeii. The tale be-
institutions of the New World and those gins a few days before the destruction of
of his own «belle France. The whim- Pompeii, and ends with that event.
sical conceit of this old Frenchman sud- The simple story relates principally to
denly become in appearance and environ- two young people of Grecian origin,
ment an Americ: while retaining his GI cus and lone, who are deeply at-
memory and his hereditary prejudices tached to each other. The former is a
## p. 527 (#563) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
527
(
handsome young Athenian, impetuous, the book. "The Pearl of Orr's Island)
high-minded and brilliant, while Ione is was not published until 1862, although it
a pure and lofty-minded woman. Ar- was begun ten years before that time.
baces, her guardian, the villain of the
story, under a cloak of sanctity and Minister's Wooing, The, by Harriet
Beecher Stowe. The scene of this
religion, indulges in low and criminal
designs. His character is strongly
interesting story is laid in New Eng-
land, and deals with the habits and
drawn; and his passion for Ione, and the
traditions of the past century. Mary
struggle between him and Glaucus, form
the chief part of the plot. Nydia, the
Scudder, the only daughter of a wid-
owed mother, has been reared in an
blind girl, who pines in unrequited af-
fection for Glaucus, and who saves the
atmosphere of religion and piety. Being
lives of the lovers at the time of the
of a naturally sensitive temperament,
destruction of the city, by conducting
she lives up to their teachings with con-
scientious fervor. She is in love with
them in safety to the sea, is a touching
and beautiful conception. The book, full
her cousin, James Marvyn, but does not
of learning and spirit, is not only a
listen to his protestations, because he
charming
has no religious belief. He goes to sea,
novel, but contains many
be
minute and interesting descriptions of
is shipwrecked, and supposed to
ancient customs; among which, those
drowned; and Mary, in course of time,
feels it to be her duty and pleasure to
relating to the gladiatorial combat, the
become engaged to the venerable Dr.
banquet, the bath, are most noteworthy.
Hopkins, her pastor and spiritual ad-
viser. The wedding-day is set, and
Pearl of Orr's Island, The, by Harriet
Beecher Stowe. This story gives a
only one week distant, when Mary re-
truthful and interesting picture of the
ceives a letter from James Marvyn, tell-
ing of his miraculous escape from death,
people in a Maine fishing hamlet. Mara
Lincoln, the «Pearl, a beautiful girl,
his religious conviction, and change of
has been brought up by her grand-
heart, and his abiding love for her. He
follows the letter in person, and presses
parents, Captain and Mrs. Pennel; her
father having been drowned and her
his suit; but Mary, in spite of her in-
mother having died at her birth. Moses,
clinations, considers it her duty to abide
the hero of the book, shipwrecked and
by her promise to the Doctor. How-
washed ashore upon the island when
ever, through the intervention of Miss
Prissy Diamond, a delightful little dress-
very young, is brought up and cared
for by the Pennels; and bears their
maker, who acquaints Dr. Hopkins with
The result of this is the mutual
the facts of the case, this sacrifice is
attachment of the young people, which
prevented. The good Doctor, at the
is at first more strongly felt by Mara.
cost of his own happiness, relinquishes
The
Moses accepts Mara's devotion as a mat-
Mary, and gives her to James.
to
ter of course, and does not awaken to
central purpose in this story is
the fact that he is in love with her
show the sternness and inflexibility of
until piqued by the attentions bestowed
the New England conscience, which
holds to the Calvinistic doctrines through
upon her by Mr. Adams of Boston.
Then, prompted by jealousy, he pays
all phases of life.
