One of the most
noteworthy
of the
papers is called (On Thorns in the
Cushion.
papers is called (On Thorns in the
Cushion.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v30 - Guide to Systematic Readings
He is at last
and the king is persuaded to give a re- forced to quit Russia, and dies defend-
ceipt by which he can be tricked out of ing a barricade at Paris. In the character
the amount. Mother and daughter are of Dmitri, Turgeneff satirizes a class com-
released. Schultze tries to escape, but mon enough in every country as well as
fails, and is severely punished. He at- Russia, especially among the young, -
tacks the king, and nearly succeeds in the class of people who niistake words,
poisoning him. A friend in Athens, in which they abound, for ideas, in which
John Harris, a typical American full of they are lacking. And yet, such is Tur-
resources, rescues Hermann. The king | geneff's fine and delicate skill in the an-
is devoted to his one child Photini, a alysis of feeling that he interests us in
schoolgirl in Athens. Harris persuades this poor boaster; he excites our pity for
Photini aboard his barge, keeps her him, - and it is a singular fact that the
prisoner, and threatens to treat her as lower Dmitri falls, the more interesting
Schultze is treated. Thereupon Schultze he becomes. He is a mixture of pride
is released. He afterward narrates the and weakness; and his good faith and
whole story to a friend, between whiffs harmlessness somewhat palliate his faults.
of his long porcelain pipe. This story is
one of the most brilliant and delightful On the Eve, by Ivan Turgeneff
.
In
of About's telling.
this tale which is devoid of plot,
but full of Turgeneff's charm of style
Dmit
mitri Rudin, a story by Turgeneff. and delicate character-drawing, he seeks
This great novel was first published to show the contrast between the dilet-
in 1860. The action passes in the country, tante trifling or learned pedantry of
some distance from Moscow, at the coun- young Russia, and the intense vitality of
try-seat of Daria Mikhailovna, a great conviction in the youth of other nations.
lady who protects literature and art and He first introduces two young Russians,
is determined to have a salon, She has André Bersieneff, a doctor of philosophy
one in embryo already, made up of an old from the Moscow University, and Paul
French governess, a young Circassian secre- Shubin, a gay and pleasure-loving artist,
tary, and a Cossack. The advent of Dmi- who has been modeling the bust of a
tri, a vainglorious creature who thinks beautiful girl, Elena Strashof, whose
himself a great man, completes it. He charms he dwells upon. She is the
has retained a few scraps from the books daughter of a dissipated noble; and her
he has read, some ideas borrowed from mother, a faded society belle, has left
the German transcendentalists, and her to the care of a sentimental govern-
number of keen aphorisms; and so he im-
The ardent girl, filled with high
agines he is able to pull down and set up aspirations, rebels at the prosaic routine
a
ess.
## p. 224 (#260) ############################################
224
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
sexes.
of her life, and longs for intercourse
with nobler natures. Both the young
men are in love with her, but she de-
spises Shubin as a trifler; and just as
she is beginning to be interested in the
young philosopher Bersieneff, the real
hero appears on the scene. This is
Dmetri Insarof, a young Bulgarian pa-
triot, whose life is devoted to freeing
his country from the yoke of Turkey.
His mother has fallen a victim to the
brutality of a Turkish aga, while his
father was shot in trying to avenge her;
and he is now looked upon by his com-
patriots as their destined leader in the
approaching revolt. His tragic story
and his high aims appeal to Elena's
idealism; but Insarof, finding that «on
the eve of the great conflict, he is
distracted from his mission by love for
Elena, has resolved to leave her forever
without a farewell. She, however, seeks
him out, and avows her devotion to
him, and her willingness to abandon
home and country for his sake. In his
struggle between his passion for her and
his dread of involving her in perils and
hardships, he falls dangerously ill. His
comrade and former rival Bersieneff
nurses him with disinterested friendship
until he is partially restored to health,
when he and Elena are married se-
cretly, owing to the opposition of her
family to the foreign adventurer. They
start together for Bulgaria to take part
in the struggle for his fatherland, but
have only reached Venice when Insarof
dies in his young wife's arms. Elena,
in a heart-broken letter, bids her par-
ents a last farewell before joining the
Sisters of Mercy in the Bulgarian army,
as she has now no country but his.
Thus ends the life story of the noblest
and most ideal pair of lovers the great
Russian novelist has ever drawn.
peasant to the nobleman. She is, in-
deed, the pivot on which the narrative
turns; is both hero and heroine, as she
partakes of the subtler qualities of both
The second though unacknowl-
edged hero is Maurice Jókai himself; his
story being generally, if not circumstan-
tially, autobiographical. In his youth he
had loved Bessy. She rejects his love,
but ever afterwards cherishes the mem-
ory of it as the one noble ideal in her
wayward life.
Even this may be a
form of perversity. Jókai leaves her to
console himself with the pursuit of liter-
Later he takes a patriot's
part in the Hungarian revolution of
1848. In the thick of it he marries an
actress, who is most devoted and faith-
ful to him. From time to time, Bessy
seeks his rather unwilling advice and
protection in her love affairs. From the
lady with eyes like the sea” he can-
not escape.
Its strong local color makes
the book a faithful picture of Hunga-
rian social life, while throughout it is
tremendously stimulating, fresh and bois-
terous as a wind from the Carpathian
Mountains.
ary fame.
Elizabeth; or, The Exiles of Siberia,
by Sophie Cottin, is regarded in
the English-speaking world as her best
work; though in France her Mathilde,)
founded on incidents in the life of Rich-
ard Cour-de-Lion's sister, is more highly
esteemed. The picturesque story of Eliz-
abeth was founded on fact; its theme
the successful attempt of a Polish maiden
of high birth to obtain the pardon of her
exiled parents from the Emperor Alex-
ander, at his coronation in 1801 — is so
exalted that one cannot help wishing it
had been told with more simplicity and
fewer comments, giving Xavier de Maistre
less excuse for retelling a story already
read and loved throughout Europe. Un-
like Madame Cottin, who gave Elizabeth
the moral support of a lover, De Maistre
introduced no fictitious love-making into
his version; convinced that nothing was
needed to heighten the interest created
by her daring resolve and unmixed mo-
tives. Yet the presence of much old-
fashioned sentimentality, and the utter
absence of humor, do not prevent Ma-
dame Cottin's story from having dra-
matic passages. Even the love-making
is not without charm; and the dialogue is
well managed. The descriptions of nature
and of remote corners of Russia are done
Eyes Like the Sea, by the celebrated
Hungarian novelist Maurice Jókai,
was crowned by the Hungarian Acad-
emy as the best Magyar novel of the
year 1890. It takes high rank among
the author's one hundred and fifty works
of fiction. The peculiar title of the
book has reference to the eyes of the
heroine, Bessy, a girl of gentle parent-
age, yet of a perverse, adventurous dis-
position, which during the course of the
story leads her five times into matri-
mony; the five husbands representing
almost every class of society, from the
## p. 225 (#261) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
225
Tsar Novishny,' perhaps the prettiest and
most characteristic story of all.
with much fidelity not to mention Eliza-
beth's peasant costume: her short red
petticoat, reindeer trousers, squirrel-skin
boots, and fur bonnet. A less virile writer
than Madame de Staël, Madame Cottin
nevertheless helped to pave the way for
the romantic school in France; her best
work coming between (The Genius of
Christianity) and the Meditations. )
suer.
Cºs
'ossacks, The, by Tolstoy. This Rus-
sian romance is a series of pictur-
esque studies on the life of the Cossacks of
the Terek, rather than a romance. The
slight love story that runs through it sim-
ply serves as an excuse for the author's
graphic descriptions of strange scenes and
strange peoples. The hero, Olenin, is a
ruined young noble, who, to escape his
creditors and begin a new life, enters a
sotnia of Cossacks as ensign. One fine
night he leaves Moscow; and at the first
station on his way, he begins already to
dream of battles, glory, and of some di-
vinely beautiful but half-savage maiden,
whom he will tame and polish. His
arrival at the camp of his regiment on
the Terek gives occasion for a fascinating
and most realistic picture of the wild races
he meets so suddenly. The young ensign
falls in at once with his half-savage
maiden, a tall, statuesque girl, with red
lips, a rose-colored undergarment, and a
blue jacket, who looks back at him with
a frightened air as she runs after the buf-
falo she is trying to milk. As he is lodg-
ing with her parents, he sets about taming
her immediately. But he has a rival,
young Lukashka, whose threadbare kaf-
tan and bearskin shako had long before
captivated the fair Marianka. The love
affairs of the rivals, whom she treats im-
partially, although she has already made
up her inind, go on in the midst of hunt-
ing, ambuscade, and battle, which are the
real subjects of the book. At last Olenin
discovers that he is too civilized for Mari-
anka. "Ah! ” he says to himself, if I
were a Cossack like Lukashka, got drunk,
stole horses, assassinated now and then
for a little change, she would understand
me, and I should be happy. But the
cruelty and the sweetness of it is that I
understand her and she will never un-
derstand me. ) The young Cossack is
wounded in battle; and the ensign, not
displaying much emotion at this calamity,
receives a look from Marianka that tells
him his company is no longer desirable:
so he decides to exchange into another
sotnia. Tolstoy's pictures of the rough
life of the Cossacks have a wonderful
charm. The story is particularly inter-
esting as showing the first germs of the
altruistic philosophy which Count Tolstoy
has developed into a vigorous system of
self-renunciation, and almost a cult.
of folk-lore was selected, edited, and
translated from the Ruthenian by R. Nis-
bet Bain, and published in 1894. The
Ruthenian or Cossack language, though
proscribed by the Russian government,
is spoken by more than twenty million
people. There are in the original three
important collections of folk-tales, from
which Mr. Bain has made a representa-
tive selection for translation. There are,
Slavonic scholars maintain, certain ele-
ments in these stories found in the folk-
lore of no other European people. Among
these may be mentioned the magic hand-
kerchief, which causes a bridge across the
sea to appear before a fugitive, or a forest
to spring up in his rear delaying his pur-
There is the magic egg, which pro-
duces a herd of cattle when broken; and
the magic whip, which can expel evil
spirits. Many elements and episodes com-
mon to other mythologies are found, how-
There are, for example, Cossack
versions of Cinderella, and the woman
who took her pig to market. One tale of
a Tsar expelled by an angel is an almost
literal rendering of King Robert of Sicily,
with Cossack coloring. There is a Sam-
son-like hero, who reveals the secret of
his strength; and an episode of a man in
a fish's belly, which resembles Hiawatha
and the sturgeon rather than Jonah and
the whale.
The serpent figures prominently in these
stories; and is generally, though by no
means invariably, malign, and always
represents superior intellectual power.
The women are frequently treacherous,
especially when beguiled by the serpent;
but it is interesting to notice the number
of men who cannot keep a secret. The
lower animals are always friendly to man,
and frequently assist him in performing
difficult tasks. The whole tenor of the
stories is charmingly naif and inconse-
quent; among the vampires and magic
fires it is somewhat startling to encounter
guns and passports. The style is simple
and poetic, especially in "The Little
XXX--15
ever.
## p. 226 (#262) ############################################
226
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
Death of Ivan Ilyitch, The, and other the countess waits without, and Cralo
Stories, by Count Lyof N. Tolstoy, and his monks discuss what should be
contains a series of short stories which done, the ready-witted young Ekkehard
represent the latest phase in the evolu- suggests that some one carry the count-
tion of the author's peculiar views. With ess across the portal. He is deputed to
the exception of The Death of Ivan do so; and from the hour when he takes
Ilyitch,' a sombre and powerful study of her into his arms, the poet-monk loves
the insidious progress of fatal disease, and the Countess Hadwig. Later, when he
a vehicle of religious philosophy, these is sent to be her tutor, despite his self-
tales were written as tracts for the peo- restraint he reveals his love to her. He
ple, illustrated in many cases with quaint is as “the moth fluttering around a can-
wood-cuts; aiming to bring a word of dle. ” Fleeing love's temptations, Ekke-
cheer and comfort to the poorer classes hard goes far up into the mountains with
oppressed by Russian despotism. The his lyre, and amid the snow-capped peaks,
second story, If You Neglect the Fire, sings his master-song. This he tran-
You Don't Put It Out, describes a triv- scribes, and tying it to an arrow, he
ial neighborhood quarrel resulting in shoots it so that it falls at the count-
ruin. (Where Love Is, there God Is Also) ess's feet. It is his parting gift. He
is the study of a humble shoemaker who journeys into the world, his songs making
blames God for the death of his child, but a welcome for him everywhere; and in
reaches peace through the New Testament. her halls the countess keeps his memory
(A Candle) and (Two Old Men,' told in a to fill her lonely hours. In 1885 the story
few pages, point a wide moral. "Six had reached its eighty-sixth edition in
Texts for Wood-Cuts, the titles of which the original German, while innumerable
suggest the subject of each cut, follow. translations have been made into English.
Under the heading of Popular Legends) Though Scheffel gave the world other
are the subjects How the Little Devil volumes of prose and poetry, none is so
Earned a Crust of Bread; The Repent- well known, or considered so good.
ant Sinner); A Seed as Big as a Hen's
Egg); and Does a Man Need Much Hero of our Times, A, by Mikhail
Lermontof. The novel portrays the
Land ? )
vices of the modern Russian of rank,
fashion, and adventure, and his utter
Ekkehard, by Joseph Victor von Schef-
selfishness and want of principle and
fel, is a story told by one who be-
lieved in the union of poetry and fiction. ”
conscience. The story takes the form of
To him “the characters of the past arose
a series of tales, of which the libertine
from out the mist of years, and bade
Petchorin, and his unhappy victims,
him clothe them anew in living form to
mostly confiding women, are the sub-
please his own and succeeding genera-
jects. Lermontof was a great admirer
tions. ) The time is the tenth century,
of Byron; and the fascinating Petchorin,
the rascal of the stories, with his mys-
the century of King Canute's conquest
of England. The hero, Ekkehard, is a
terious attractiveness, strongly resembles
young Benedictine monk of the holy house
Don Juan. The publication of the story
of St. Gall, in Suabia, a house whose
excited much controversy; and was the
abbot is an old man named Cralo. The
cause of the duel in which the author
abbot is a distant cousin to Hadwig,
was killed in 1841. Many people claimed
countess of Suabia, whose deceased lord,
that Petchorin was a portrait; but the
Burkhard, had been a tyrannical old
author distinctly states that he is not the
nobleman who in his dotage wedded
portrait of any person, but personifies
the vices of the whole generation. The
Hadwig, a fair daughter of Bavaria, who
had entered into the alliance to please
author does not set himself up as
her father. At Burkhard's death the
reformer, his idea being simply to de-
emperor has declared that the countess
nounce evil.
shall hold her husband's fiefs so long as uunnar: A Tale of Norse Life,
she does not marry again. But the count- by Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen, 1874.
ess, - young, beautiful, rich, and idle, (Gunnar, the one romance of Boyesen,
- in a moment of recklessness decides is also the earliest of his works of fiction.
to visit the monastery of St. Gall, The scene of the story is a small parish
which has a rule that woman's foot must in Bergen Stift, where Gunnar Thorson
never step across its threshold; and while lives in the little hamlet Henjumhei
a
G
## p. 227 (#263) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
227
with his father, Thor Gunnarson, and
his grandmother, old Gunhild. Gunnar's
mother, Birgit, having died when he was
a baby, his father and grandmother bring
him up carefully; and the latter fills his
mind with stories of Huldre and Necken,
and other strange creations of Norse
mythology. As his father Thor is only a
houseman or rent-payer, a sharp distinc-
tion is drawn between him and the fami-
ilies of the neighboring gāardmen or land-
owners. One of the chief of these is Atle
Larsson, Thor's landlord and the leading
man in the parish. As Gunnar grows up,
he falls in love with the beautiful Ragn-
hild, «a birch in the pine forest, niece
of Atle, and daughter of his haughty
sister; Ingeborg Rimul. It is the love
affair of Gunnar and Ragnhild which
forms the texture of the story, - its trou-
bled course, the dangers encountered,
the loyalty and patience of the lovers.
(Gunnar) carries the reader into an un-
familiar world of romance and poetry,
where he comes in contact with the
minds of the simple Norwegian peas-
ants, with their beliefs in fairies and
other mystical beings. Many of their
customs are described: the games of St.
John's Eve, the ski
race, the wed-
ding festivities at Peer Berg's, and some
of the religious ceremonies, such as those
attending confirmation.
fense of the Camp of Refuge at Ely,
and the successes attending the arms of
the little band of patriots in that fen
country; the sacking of Peterborough
by the Danes; the last stand made by
Hereward in the forest, are all graph-
ically described. Mr. Kingsley is liberal
sometimes in his allowance of redeeming
faults to his virtuous characters; yet,
in the fall of Hereward, he forcibly im-
presses the lesson that loss of self-respect
is fatal to noble effort.
There are fine passages in the book ;
and the mourning of the stricken Tor-
frida and the true-hearted Martin Light-
foot
the defeated Hereward is
full of pathos. The genial abbot of
Peterborough, Uncle Brand, and Earl
Leofric, are agreeably sketched. Ivo
Taillebois is true to life, or rather to
the chronicles and ballads; and William
himself is well drawn. The novel is a
book for Englishmen, and helps to popu-
larize their heroic traditions; but it is
of interest to all those who cherish the
ideals of manliness and heroism. The
story was first published in Good Words
in 1866.
over
House of the Wolfings, The, by Will-
Hereward the Wake, by the Rev.
Charles Kingsley. Mr. Kingsley
was Regius Professor of Modern History
in the University of Cambridge, on the
very site of his story. The author's
propaganda of the religion of rugged
strength also made him quite at home
in his theme.
The story, which is largely based on
the old ballads and chronicles, opens
near the end of the reign of Edward
the Confessor, when Hereward is made
a «wake ) or outlaw; and the tales of
his wanderings, his freaks, and feats of
arms, in the North, in Cornwall, in Ire-
land, and Flanders, have their founda-
tion in the old English records. The
author tells in dramatic style how the
hero returns from Flanders, and begins
his daring resistance to the Normans;
running the gauntlet of William's most
skillful generals, and at last meeting
and defeating the forces of the great
master. Hereward's strategy and daring
elicits the admiration of the stern Con-
queror himself. The story of the de-
iam Morris. «The tale tells that in
times long past, there was a dwelling of
men beside a great wood. ” Thus does
the first sentence of the book take us
into the atmosphere - half real, half
mystical, and wholly poetic — which per-
vades the entire story. These “men
belonged to one of the Germanic tribes
of Central Europe. Round about this
«great wood ” were three settlements or
«Marks,) each mark containing many
Houses; and it is with the House of
the Wolfings of Mid-mark that the tale
chiefly deals.
The chief of the Wolfings was Thio-
dolf, the wisest man, and of heart most
dauntless. Hall-Sun, his daughter, ex-
ceeding fair and with the gift of proph-
ecy, was first among the women.
The leading theme of the story is the
war between the Romans and the Mark-
men; how it fared with Thiodolf, and
how the Hall-Sun advises the Stay-at-
Homes by means of her wonderful in-
sight. Thiodolf is chosen War-Duke. He
meets the Wood-Sun, his beloved, a
woman descended from the gods. She
gives him a hauberk to wear in battle;
but owing to a charm that caused whoso
wore this armor to weaken in war, Thio-
## p. 228 (#264) ############################################
228
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
dolf does not acquit himself bravely in
their first skirmishes with the foe. The
Markmen become somewhat disheartened,
and the Romans advance even to the Hall
of the Wolfings. Then Thiodolf is led
by the Hall-Sun, who personifies courage
and duty, to the throne of the Wood-
Sun, who confesses that, fearing his
death and the end of their love on earth,
she had fastened the hauberk upon him.
Thereupon Thiodolf casts it away, and
subordinating love to duty, he goes forth
to meet a hero's death on the morrow's
battle-field. The sight of the War-Duke,
in his old strength and cheer, incites the
“stark men and doughty warriors » to
the complete undoing of the Romans.
The day is given up to the chanting of
dirges for the dead; and the night wears
away in feasting. All the kindred hal-
low with song the return of the warriors
« with victory in their hands. ” And
thereafter the Wolfings «throve in field
and fold. )
This fascinating story is pervaded with
the charm of a primitive people, who
live a picturesque life both in agriculture
and on the battle-field.
orders a reprieve, in quick succession.
Then, going in person to the prison, she
asks Chastelard to return the reprieve.
He has already destroyed it; and after
one short, happy hour with her, he goes
bravely to his death.
From an upper
window in the palace, Mary Beaton watches
the execution, and curses the Queen just
as Mary enters — with Both well.
In "Chastelard? Swinburne has por-
trayed a fickle, heartless, vain, and beau-
tiful queen; and in the few touches
given to a character of secondary im-
portance, has delicately and distinctly
drawn Mary Beaton. The male charac-
ters are less sympathetic.
The tragedy is conspicuously one to
be read, not acted. It is too long, too
much lacking in action, and of too sus-
tained an intensity, for the stage. The
style is essentially lyric, full of exqui-
site lines and phrases; and as a whole,
the play presents an intense passion in
a form of adequate beauty. It contains
a number of charming French Songs,
and is dedicated to Victor Hugo. It
was published in 1869.
The style of the authora the quaint Roundabout ePapers The, by William
English, molded frequently
into a beautiful chant or song, makes
(The House of the Wolfings) a most
artistic and attractive tale.
ties as
Chast
hastelard, by Algernon Charles Swin-
burne. The scene of this tragedy
is laid at Holyrood Castle, during the
reign of Mary Queen of Scots. Mary
Beaton, one of the “four Maries,
prom-
ises Chastelard to arrange a meeting be-
tween him and the Queen. When he
comes to the audience-room, however, he
finds only Mary Beaton herself, who, in
shame, confesses her love for him. While
he is assuring her of his pardon, they
are discovered by the other Maries. The
Queen, angry at what she has heard,
tries to make Chastelard confess his de-
sertion of her; and declares her intention
of marrying Darnley. Chastelard, by
the agency of Mary Beaton, gains access
to the Queen's chamber, discloses himself
when she is alone, and after having con-
vinced her of his love for her, submits
to the guards, who take him to prison.
Mary, fickle and heartless, in her desire
to avoid both the shame of letting him
live and the shame of putting her lover
to death, tries to shift the responsibility
to Murray, signs his death-warrant, and
Makepeace Thackeray. Thackeray
undertook the editorship of the Cornhill
Magazine; in the year 1859. (The Round-
about Papers' were sketches for the
magazine, coming out simultaneously, be-
tween 1859 and 1863, with Lovel the
Widower and “The Adventures of Philip.
They represent Thackeray's best quali-
an essayist, and cover a wide
range of subjects. Some of the titles
are: "On Two Children in Black,) On
Screens in Dining-Rooms, 'On Some
Late Great Victories,' On a Hundred
Years Hence,) and (A Mississippi Bub-
ble. One of the papers, (The Notch on
the Ase,' displays the author's peculiar
genius for burlesque story-telling. It is
a dream of the guillotine, occasioned by
his grandmother's snuff-box and a sensa-
tional novel. The essay On a Joke I
Once Heard from the Late Thomas Hood
is a cordial tribute to that poet's mem-
ory, and in it the joke is not repeated.
One of the most noteworthy of the
papers is called (On Thorns in the
Cushion. ) The task of editing a maga-
zine was irksome to Thackeray's kindly
and sensitive nature. «What, then,” he
writes, “is the main grief you spoke of
as annoying you,- the toothache in the
Lord Mayor's jaw, the thorn in the
## p. 229 (#265) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
229
cushion of the editorial chair? It is Joe Bagstock, the major. The scene is
there. Ah! it stings me now as I write. laid in England at the time the novel
It comes with almost every morning's was published, in 1848.
post.
They don't sting quite so
sharply as they did, but a skin is a skin, David Copperfield; of all my books,
bite, after , most . says in his
Ah me! we wound where we to this immortal novel, “I like this the
never intended to strike; we create anger best.
Like many fond parents,
where we never meant harm, and these I have in my heart of hearts a favorite
thoughts are the thorns in our cushion. ” child. And his name is David Copper-
Thackeray, in fact, resigned the position field. ” When David Copperfield) ap-
of editor in 1862, though he continued to peared in 1850, after Dombey and Son)
write for the magazine as long as he and before Bleak House,' it became so
lived.
popular that its only rival was Pick-
wick. ) Beneath the fiction lies much of
Dombey and Son, by Charles Dickens. the author's personal life, yet it is not
The story opens with the death of
an autobiography. The story treats of
Mrs. Dombey, who has left her husband David's sad experiences as a child, his
the proud possessor of a baby son and youth at school, and his struggles for a
heir. He neglects his daughter Florence livelihood, and leaves him in early man-
and loves Paul, in whom all his ambitions hood, prosperous and happily married.
and worldly hopes are centred; but the Pathos, humor, and skill in delineation,
boy dies. Mr. Dombey marries a beau- give vitality to this remarkable work;
tiful woman, who is as cold and proud and nowhere has Dickens filled his can-
as he, and who has sold herself to him vas with more vivid and diversified char-
to escape from a designing mother. She acters. Forster says that the author's
grows fond of Florence, and this friend- favorites were the Peggotty family, com-
ship is so displeasing to Mr. Dombey that posed of David's nurse Peggotty, who was
he tries to humble her by remonstrating married to Barkis, the carrier; Dan'el
through Mr. Carker, his business manager Peggotty, her brother, a Yarmouth fisher-
and friend. This crafty villain, realizing man; Ham Peggotty, his nephew; the
his power, goads her beyond endurance, doleful Mrs. Gummidge; and Little Em’ly,
and she demands a separation from Mr. ruined by David's schoolmate, Steer-
Dombey, but is refused. After an angry forth. “It has been their fate,” says For-
interview, she determines upon a bold ster, as with all the leading figures of
stroke and disgraces her husband by pre- his invention, to pass their names into
tending to elope with Carker to France, the language and become types; and he
where she meets him once, shames and has nowhere given happier embodiment
defies him and escapes. Mr. Dombey, to that purity of homely goodness, which,
after spurning Florence, whom he con- by the kindly and all-reconciling influ-
siders the cause of his trouble, follows ences of humor, may exalt into comeli-
Carker in hot haste. They encounter ness and even grandeur the clumsiest
each other without warning at a rail-
forms of humanity. ”
way station, and as Carker is crossing the Miss Betsy Trotwood, David's aunt;
tracks he falls and is instantly killed by the half-mad but mild Mr. Dick; Mrs.
an express train Florence seeks refuge Copperfield, David's mother; Murdstone,
with an old sea-captain whom her little his brutal stepfather; Miss Murdstone,
brother, Paul, has been fond of, marries that stepfather's sister; Mr. Spenlow
Walter Gay, the friend of her childhood, and his daughter Dora, - David's child-
and they go to sea. After the failure of wife ));- Steerforth, Rosa Dartle, Mrs.
Dombey and Son, when Mr. Dombey's Steerforth, Mr. Wickfield, his daughter
pride is humbled and he is left deso- Agnes (David's second wife), and the
late, Florence returns and takes care of Micawber family, are the persons around
him. The characters in the book not whom the interest revolves. A host of
immediately concerned in the plot, but minor characters, such as the comical lit-
famous for their peculiar qualities, are tle dwarf hair-dresser, Miss Mowcher,
Captain Cuttle, Florence's kind protector, Mr. Mell, Mr. Creakle, Tommy Traddles,
who has a nautical manner of expres- Uriah Heep, Dr. Strong, Mrs. Markle-
sion; Sol Gills, Walter's uncle; Mr. Toots, ham, and others, are portrayed with the
who suffers from shyness and love; and same vivid strokes.
## p. 230 (#266) ############################################
230
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
a
Li
ittle Dorrit, by Charles Dickens, was
published 1856-57, when the author's
popularity was at its height. The plot
is a slight one on which to hang more
than fifty characters. The author began
with the intention of emphasizing the
fact that individuals brought together
by chance, if only for an instant, con-
tinue henceforth to influence and to act
and react upon one another. But this
original motive is soon altogether for-
gotten in the multiplication of characters
and the relation of their fortunes. The
central idea is to portray the experiences
of the Dorrit family, immured for many
years on account of debt in the old Mar-
shalsea Prison, and then unexpectedly
restored to wealth and freedom. Having
been pitiable in poverty, they become
arrogant and contemptible in affluence.
Amy, Little Dorrit,” alone remains pure,
lovable, and self-denying. In her, Dick-
ens embodies the best human qualities
in a most beautiful and persuasive form.
She enlists the love of Arthur Clennam,
who meantime has had his own trials.
Returning from India, after long ab-
sence, he finds his mother a religious
fanatic, domineered over by the hypo-
critical old Flintwinch, and both preyed
upon by the Mephistophelian Blandois,
perhaps the most dastardly villain in the
whole Dickens gallery. The complica-
tions, however, end happily for Arthur
and Amy. The main attack of the book
is aimed against official «red tape » as
exemplified in the Barnacle family and
the «Circumlocution Office. ” It also
shows up Merdle the swindling banker,
«Bar,) «Bishop,” and other types of “So-
ciety. ) The Meagleses are practical
people with soft hearts; their daughter
is married to and bullied by Henry
Gowan, whose mother is a genteel pau-
per at Hampton Court. Other characters
are Pancks the collector, “puffing like a
steam-engine,” his hypocritical employer
Casby, the humble and worthy Plor-
nishes, the love-blighted and epitaphic
young John Chivery, and the wonderful
Mr. F. 's aunt with her explosive utter-
here introduced. There is the central
story of Our Mutual Friend, himself the
young heir to the vast Harmon estate,
who buries his identity and assumes the
name of John Rokesmith, that he may
form his own judgment of the young
woman whom he must marry in order
to claim his fortune; there is the other
story of the poor bargeman's daughter,
and her love for reckless Eugene Wray-
burn, the idol of society; and uniting
these two threads is the history of Mr.
and Mrs. Boffin, the ignorant, kind-
hearted couple, whose innocent ambi-
tions, and benevolent use of the money
intrusted to their care, afford the author
opportunity for the humor and pathos of
which he was a master.
Among the characters which this story
has made famous are Miss Jenny Wren,
the doll's dressmaker, a little, crippled
creature whose love for Lizzie Hexam
transforms her miserable life; Bradley
Headstone, the schoolmaster, suffering
torments because of his jealousy of Eu-
gene Wray burn, and helpless under the
careless contempt of that trained adver-
sary — dying at last in an agony of de-
feat at his failure to kill Eugene; and
the triumph of Lizzie's love over the
social difference between her and her
lover; Bella Wilfer, the boofer lady,
cured of her longing for riches and made
John Harmon's happy wife by the plots
and plans of the Golden Dustman, Mr.
Boffin; and Silas Wegg, an impudent
scoundrel employed by Mr. Boffin, who
is, at first, delighted with the services
of “a literary man with a wooden leg,”
but who gradually recognizes the cheat
and impostor, and unmasks him in dra-
matic fashion.
As usual, Dickens finds occasion to in-
cite his readers to practical benevolence.
In this book he has a protest against
the poor-laws in the person of old Betty
Higden, whose dread of the almshouse
haunts her dying hours. By many, this
volume, published among his later works,
is counted as among the most important.
ances.
ens.
Our
vir Mutual Friend, by Charles Dick-
«In these times of ours, are
the opening words of this book, which
was published in England in 1864-65.
The scene is laid in London and its im-
mediate neighborhood. All the elaborate
machinery dear to Dickens's heart is
Fool's Errand, A, by Albion W. Tourgee.
1879, purports to have been written
by one of the fools. It is the first of a
series dealing mainly with events con-
nected with the Civil War. «The Fool »
is Comfort Servosse, a Union colonel, who
removes from Michigan to a Southern
plantation after peace is declared. The
story of his reception there and the diffi-
## p. 231 (#267) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
231
culties encountered, arising out of old himself deceived, seeks out Carroll de
prejudices upon the one hand and his own Lancy, the other party in the affair,
training and convictions upon the other, and from him learns that, when he was
is told with great detail and strong local too ill to travel, his sister had masquer-
coloring. The author with great fairness aded in his West Point uniform, taken
considers the questions of reconstruction, Miss Rivers as companion, and reached
while some thrilling chapters deal with the death-bed of an uncle in time to
the outrages of the Ku-Klux. A love secure the favorable disposition of his
episode is introduced, which proceeds as property. The scene of reconciliation
a simple narrative with no complications follows immediately. The story is well
of plot.
told, and the dramatic possibilities of
the unconventional adventure lend color
Floyd Grandon's Honor, by Amanda
M. Douglas. The scenes of the story
to an otherwise commonplace narrative.
are laid in a New York suburb.
Floxid ,
Grandon, a young widower, returning Miss F. F. Montrésor (1895) is a plea
from England with his motherless child, for the ideal in daily life. To Margaret
Cecil, to wind up his deceased father's Deane, the beautiful imaginative young
affairs, promises over the death-bed of heroine, life becomes intolerable under
one of the partners, Mr. Percival, to
the guardianship of her uncongenial and
marry his daughter, Violet, a seventeen-
worldly aunt, Mrs. Russelthorpe. Her
year-old girl; a promise made and after-
spiritually sensitive nature is touched
ward redeemed through pity for her by the preaching of Barnabas Thorpe, an
defenseless position, fear of the avowed earnest revivalist; and by conforming to
designs of another partner, Jasper Wil- his teaching, she incurs her aunt's con-
marth, and gratitude for her rescue of
temptuous persecution. An unfortunate
his own
child from a terrible death. chance throws the two together late at
This marriage, contracted without the night; and to protect her from insult,
usual conditions of courtship or even Barnabas marries her. He is poor, un-
previous acquaintance, is the theme of
couth in manner, barely able to read
the story. Transplanted exotics require
and write; while Margaret is refined and
special treatment before they become ac- book-loving, and accustomed to all ad-
climated; and marriages à la française, vantages of wealth and position. In
amid prosaic American surroundings, af- picturing the results of this hazardous
ford ample opportunity for the imagina- | marriage, the author emphasizes a con-
tion of a novelist, an opportunity of which tempt for moral makeshifts. Barnabas
the author has made the most.
and Margaret desire at any cost to live
sincerely. Her friends regard her as a
Reverend Idol, A, by Lucretia Noble
(1882). The Reverend Idol is Rev.
disgrace to them, and blot her name
Kenyon Leigh, a popular New York
from the family Bible; but her new life
clergyman, who, pursued by the unwel-
teaches her to disregard rank, wealth,
come attentions of his feminine parish-
and popular esteem. She knows poverty,
ioners, fees to a quiet boarding-house
sorrow, humiliation, danger, yet feels
richer than in her days of ease. There
on Cape Cod for summer outing:
There he meets Monny Rivers, a charm-
are striking pictures of prison life at
ing Boston girl and an artist of
Newgate, and many dramatic incidents;
but the interest lies above all in the
ability. Commencing with
slight feeling of hostility, they drift
analysis of emotional life based upon a
first into toleration, then companionship,
conviction of human instinct for what is
and finally to love. The course of this
true and noble.
affection does
smooth. Mrs. Jerome, by Mary E. Wilkins. Jerome
Van Cortlandt, who has marked the is the vignette of a New England
Reverend Idol for her own, invades the youth, relieved against a background
solitude of sand and
of provincial types. When hardly out
nizes in her young and beautiful rival of his teens, he is called upon by the
a participant in an adventure, which, sudden disappearance of his father to
though harmless in reality, in appear- take upon his shoulders the burden of
scandalous in the extreme. the family. His course is a pathway of
She imparts only the semblance of the misfortune, sacrifice, and hardship, lead-
truth to Kenyon Leigh, who, believing | ing by rugged steps to a summit of
a
no
mean
a
not
run
sea.
She recog.
ance
was
## p. 232 (#268) ############################################
232
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
acter.
are
a
well-earned prosperity. A great sacri- Spanish blood, he has a fearless and hon-
fice to a high ideal is the turning-point est soul. The novel comes to a climax
of the story. Like Miss Wilkins's other in a piot made against him by his ene-
works, Jerome) is a careful and truth- mies in Gloria. Besides the hero, “The
ful study of New England village char- Dictator) introduces two or three other
characters of especial interest: Captain
Sarrasin, who has traveled and fought in
Agnes of Sorrento, a romance by Har-
The scene is
many countries, and whose wife on oc-
casion can don men's garments and handle
laid in central Italy during the time of
a gun; Dolores Paulo; and the Duchess
the infamous Pope Alexander VI. (from
of Deptford, of American birth, a cari-
1492 to 1503). Agnes is the daughter of
cature rather than a true type. The plot
a Roman prince who secretly marries,
involves the use of dynamite, and much
and then deserts, a girl of humble par-
mining and countermining; in spite of
entage. The young mother dies of grief,
which the book remains an entertaining
and Elsie, the grandmother, takes Agnes
domestic story.
to Sorrento, where she lives by selling
oranges in the streets. Her beauty and The
The Life and Adventures of Jack of
her purity attract to her many lovers, the Mill, commonly called Lord
worthy and unworthy, and involve her in Othmill, created for his eminent services
many romantic and dramatic incidents. Baron Waldeck and Knight of Kitcottie.
The story is delightfully told, the Italian A fireside story, by William Howitt. The
atmosphere is well suggested, and the scenes of these adventures lie partly in
book, though not Mrs. Stowe's best, takes England during the reign of Henry V. ,
good literary rank.
partly in Bohemia and Germany. They
succession of bloodthirsty and
Cºlon
olonel Enderby's Wife, by Lucas
thrilling conflicts, in which Jack, the
Malet » (Charles Kingsley's daugh-
hero, with scarcely an effort, overcomes
ter, now Mrs. Harrison). The scene of
robbers and gipsies, fights the opponents
this story, published in 1886, is laid in
of the Lollards and the Hussites with equal
England and Italy during the seventies.
vigor, and obtains honors, preferment,
Colonel Enderby is a disinherited Eng-
and a lovely wife. From the moment
lishman of middle age, whose life has
when, a runa
inaway boy, he fills his pockets
been shadowed by his father's neglect
with fish-hooks to trap the hands of
and injury. At the age of forty-eight
thieving companions, to the time when,
he marries in Italy a glittering young with a single companion, he overcomes
creature of wonderful beauty. The tra-
the robber-baron Hans von Stein, with
gedy which follows is that which always
his train,-a semi-historical character
comes when a crass and brutal selfish-
whose castle, honeycombed with dun-
ness arrays itself against the generosity
geons, is still visited by tourists in Ger-
of a higher nature, if two people are so
many,-- his wit and success never fail;
bound together that they cannot escape and as valor as well as virtue has its
each other. The ending, though sad, is
due reward, Jack, the vagrant frequenter
that which the logic of the situation
of the old mill, becomes in turn John
makes inevitable. The book has been
Othmill, respected and feared by society,
very widely read and praised.
and finally the great Lord Warbeck.
The author allows himself considerable
Dictator, The. by Justin McCarthy,
When Justin McCarthy published
latitude of imagination and plot, and the
result is aptly named in the quaint term
(The Dictator,' in 1893, he had been
known to the novel-reading public for
of apology he uses in the preface, a
«hatch-up. ”
twenty-six years, and had written a score
of books. (The Dictator,' a story of con- Cudjo's Cave, by J. T. Trowbridge, an
temporary life in England, gives scope anti-slavery novel, first published in
to its author for the display of his knowl- 1863, was, like its predecessor Neighbor
edge of politics.
Jackwood,' very widely read. The scene
The Dictator of the story, Ericson, when of the story is eastern Tennessee, at the
first introduced to the reader, has just outbreak of the rebellion. The State,
been ejected by a revolution from his though seceding, contained many Union-
position as chief of the South American ists; and their struggles against the per-
Republic, Gloria. Of mixed English and secution of their Confederate neighbors,
## p. 233 (#269) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
233
slave-holders, and poor whites, form the and picturesque descriptions of the Rivi-
plot of the book. The ostensible hero is era, where the author passed the last
Penn Hapgood, a young Quaker school- months of her life. Published in 1879, it
teacher, whose abolitionist doctrines get was left unfinished, the last chapters be-
him into constant trouble; but the really ing written by Mrs. Macquoid. The story
heroic figure of the book is a gigantic principally concerns itself with the love
full-blooded negro, Pomp, a
runaway
affairs of two cousins, Emmie West and
slave, living in the woods in a great Alma Rivers; and the moral of it is that
cave with another runaway, Cudjo. Cudjo tribulation worketh patience, and patience
is dwarfish and utterly ignorant, a mix- godliness. Lady Rivers, Sir Francis, and
ture of stupidity and craft; but Pomp is charming Madame de Florimel, are clev-
one of nature's noblemen. Cudjo's cave erly sketched characters.
The story,
becomes a refuge for the persecuted aboli- which is very simple, is so natural and
tionists of the neighborhood, a basis of homely, and its psychology is so faithful,
operations for the Union sympathizers, that it became at once a favorite, and
and finally the seat of war in the region. is still one of the most popular domestic
The novel, though written with a strong novels.
ethical purpose, is interesting and effect-
ive simply as a story, containing much Newport, by George Parsons Lathrop.
incident
(1884. ) Newport) is a story of soci-
some capital character-
ety,- the intrigues, adventures, and su-
studies.
perficialities of one summer affording
9
, (the author
a
tale of Aquitaine, during the Eng- grammatic remarks, vivid descriptions of
lish occupation, in the early fifteenth the principal places of local interest, and
century. The country was in a state of photographs of men and women of the
civil war; and free companies, nominally leisure class. The love affair of a charm-
fighting for French or English, but in ing widow, Mrs. Gifford, and a widower,
reality for their own pockets, mere plun- Eugene Oliphant, incidently engages the
derers and bandits, fourished mightily. reader's attention; a love affair which,
The most dreaded freebooter in the after a slight estrangement and separa-
valley of the Dordogne was Le Gros tion, is ended by a sudden and incredi-
Guillem, who from his stronghold at ble catastrophe, an unexpected finale
Domme sweeps
down
upon the farms
strangely out of harmony with the pref-
and hamlets below; till at length the ace of elopements, Casino dances, polo
timid peasants, finding a leader in games, Airtations of titled heiress-hunters,
Ogier del Peyra, a petty sieur of the and other trivialities of social existence.
neighborhood, rise
up against their The characters are well chosen and very
scourge, destroy his rocky fastness, and well managed, the individual being never
put his men to death or flight. Guil- sacrificed to the type, though the reader
lem's daughter, Noémi, a madcap beauty, is made to feel that the figures are
joins her father's band of ruffians; but really typical. In no other piece of fic-
soon sickens of their deeds, and risks tion has the flamboyant and aggressive
her life to save Ogier from the oubli- life of Newport — that life wherein amuse-
ette, because she loves his son. The ment is a business, and frivolity an occu-
book is filled with thrilling and bloody pation — been more vividly painted.
incident, culminating in the storming
of L'Eglise Guillem, as the freebooter's Phroso, by Anthony Hope (Hawkins),
den is ironically called, and the strange
is the story of one Lord Charles
death of the robber chieftain. The de-
Wheatley — told by himself — and his ex-
scriptions of the wild valley of the Dor-
periences in taking possession of the
dogne, and the life of the outlaws, are
small Greek island, Neopalia, which he
striking; and the pretty love story, set
has purchased from Lord Stefanopoulos.
against this background, very attractive.
Denny Swinton, his cousin, Hogoardt,
a factotum, and Watkins, his servant,
As a picture of a fierce and horrible
period, it hardly less vivid than the
accompany him. The natives, under Con-
(White Company) of Conan Doyle.
stantine, Lord Stefanopoulos's nephew,
violently oppose them and threaten their
Doubting Heart, A, by Annie Keary. lives. They all escape from the island
The scene of the story is laid in Eng- by a secret passage to the sea, except
land, although there are some charming / Wheatley, who is imprisoned. He is
## p. 234 (#270) ############################################
234
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
scenes
Own
WOOS
to
cesca
-
about to be stricken to death before the society girl, Bessie Lynde, who Airts
populace, when Phroso, the Lady of with Jeff for the sake of a new sensa-
the Island,” leaps to his aid, declaring
tion. The
are laid partly in
that she loves him better than life.
and the king is persuaded to give a re- forced to quit Russia, and dies defend-
ceipt by which he can be tricked out of ing a barricade at Paris. In the character
the amount. Mother and daughter are of Dmitri, Turgeneff satirizes a class com-
released. Schultze tries to escape, but mon enough in every country as well as
fails, and is severely punished. He at- Russia, especially among the young, -
tacks the king, and nearly succeeds in the class of people who niistake words,
poisoning him. A friend in Athens, in which they abound, for ideas, in which
John Harris, a typical American full of they are lacking. And yet, such is Tur-
resources, rescues Hermann. The king | geneff's fine and delicate skill in the an-
is devoted to his one child Photini, a alysis of feeling that he interests us in
schoolgirl in Athens. Harris persuades this poor boaster; he excites our pity for
Photini aboard his barge, keeps her him, - and it is a singular fact that the
prisoner, and threatens to treat her as lower Dmitri falls, the more interesting
Schultze is treated. Thereupon Schultze he becomes. He is a mixture of pride
is released. He afterward narrates the and weakness; and his good faith and
whole story to a friend, between whiffs harmlessness somewhat palliate his faults.
of his long porcelain pipe. This story is
one of the most brilliant and delightful On the Eve, by Ivan Turgeneff
.
In
of About's telling.
this tale which is devoid of plot,
but full of Turgeneff's charm of style
Dmit
mitri Rudin, a story by Turgeneff. and delicate character-drawing, he seeks
This great novel was first published to show the contrast between the dilet-
in 1860. The action passes in the country, tante trifling or learned pedantry of
some distance from Moscow, at the coun- young Russia, and the intense vitality of
try-seat of Daria Mikhailovna, a great conviction in the youth of other nations.
lady who protects literature and art and He first introduces two young Russians,
is determined to have a salon, She has André Bersieneff, a doctor of philosophy
one in embryo already, made up of an old from the Moscow University, and Paul
French governess, a young Circassian secre- Shubin, a gay and pleasure-loving artist,
tary, and a Cossack. The advent of Dmi- who has been modeling the bust of a
tri, a vainglorious creature who thinks beautiful girl, Elena Strashof, whose
himself a great man, completes it. He charms he dwells upon. She is the
has retained a few scraps from the books daughter of a dissipated noble; and her
he has read, some ideas borrowed from mother, a faded society belle, has left
the German transcendentalists, and her to the care of a sentimental govern-
number of keen aphorisms; and so he im-
The ardent girl, filled with high
agines he is able to pull down and set up aspirations, rebels at the prosaic routine
a
ess.
## p. 224 (#260) ############################################
224
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
sexes.
of her life, and longs for intercourse
with nobler natures. Both the young
men are in love with her, but she de-
spises Shubin as a trifler; and just as
she is beginning to be interested in the
young philosopher Bersieneff, the real
hero appears on the scene. This is
Dmetri Insarof, a young Bulgarian pa-
triot, whose life is devoted to freeing
his country from the yoke of Turkey.
His mother has fallen a victim to the
brutality of a Turkish aga, while his
father was shot in trying to avenge her;
and he is now looked upon by his com-
patriots as their destined leader in the
approaching revolt. His tragic story
and his high aims appeal to Elena's
idealism; but Insarof, finding that «on
the eve of the great conflict, he is
distracted from his mission by love for
Elena, has resolved to leave her forever
without a farewell. She, however, seeks
him out, and avows her devotion to
him, and her willingness to abandon
home and country for his sake. In his
struggle between his passion for her and
his dread of involving her in perils and
hardships, he falls dangerously ill. His
comrade and former rival Bersieneff
nurses him with disinterested friendship
until he is partially restored to health,
when he and Elena are married se-
cretly, owing to the opposition of her
family to the foreign adventurer. They
start together for Bulgaria to take part
in the struggle for his fatherland, but
have only reached Venice when Insarof
dies in his young wife's arms. Elena,
in a heart-broken letter, bids her par-
ents a last farewell before joining the
Sisters of Mercy in the Bulgarian army,
as she has now no country but his.
Thus ends the life story of the noblest
and most ideal pair of lovers the great
Russian novelist has ever drawn.
peasant to the nobleman. She is, in-
deed, the pivot on which the narrative
turns; is both hero and heroine, as she
partakes of the subtler qualities of both
The second though unacknowl-
edged hero is Maurice Jókai himself; his
story being generally, if not circumstan-
tially, autobiographical. In his youth he
had loved Bessy. She rejects his love,
but ever afterwards cherishes the mem-
ory of it as the one noble ideal in her
wayward life.
Even this may be a
form of perversity. Jókai leaves her to
console himself with the pursuit of liter-
Later he takes a patriot's
part in the Hungarian revolution of
1848. In the thick of it he marries an
actress, who is most devoted and faith-
ful to him. From time to time, Bessy
seeks his rather unwilling advice and
protection in her love affairs. From the
lady with eyes like the sea” he can-
not escape.
Its strong local color makes
the book a faithful picture of Hunga-
rian social life, while throughout it is
tremendously stimulating, fresh and bois-
terous as a wind from the Carpathian
Mountains.
ary fame.
Elizabeth; or, The Exiles of Siberia,
by Sophie Cottin, is regarded in
the English-speaking world as her best
work; though in France her Mathilde,)
founded on incidents in the life of Rich-
ard Cour-de-Lion's sister, is more highly
esteemed. The picturesque story of Eliz-
abeth was founded on fact; its theme
the successful attempt of a Polish maiden
of high birth to obtain the pardon of her
exiled parents from the Emperor Alex-
ander, at his coronation in 1801 — is so
exalted that one cannot help wishing it
had been told with more simplicity and
fewer comments, giving Xavier de Maistre
less excuse for retelling a story already
read and loved throughout Europe. Un-
like Madame Cottin, who gave Elizabeth
the moral support of a lover, De Maistre
introduced no fictitious love-making into
his version; convinced that nothing was
needed to heighten the interest created
by her daring resolve and unmixed mo-
tives. Yet the presence of much old-
fashioned sentimentality, and the utter
absence of humor, do not prevent Ma-
dame Cottin's story from having dra-
matic passages. Even the love-making
is not without charm; and the dialogue is
well managed. The descriptions of nature
and of remote corners of Russia are done
Eyes Like the Sea, by the celebrated
Hungarian novelist Maurice Jókai,
was crowned by the Hungarian Acad-
emy as the best Magyar novel of the
year 1890. It takes high rank among
the author's one hundred and fifty works
of fiction. The peculiar title of the
book has reference to the eyes of the
heroine, Bessy, a girl of gentle parent-
age, yet of a perverse, adventurous dis-
position, which during the course of the
story leads her five times into matri-
mony; the five husbands representing
almost every class of society, from the
## p. 225 (#261) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
225
Tsar Novishny,' perhaps the prettiest and
most characteristic story of all.
with much fidelity not to mention Eliza-
beth's peasant costume: her short red
petticoat, reindeer trousers, squirrel-skin
boots, and fur bonnet. A less virile writer
than Madame de Staël, Madame Cottin
nevertheless helped to pave the way for
the romantic school in France; her best
work coming between (The Genius of
Christianity) and the Meditations. )
suer.
Cºs
'ossacks, The, by Tolstoy. This Rus-
sian romance is a series of pictur-
esque studies on the life of the Cossacks of
the Terek, rather than a romance. The
slight love story that runs through it sim-
ply serves as an excuse for the author's
graphic descriptions of strange scenes and
strange peoples. The hero, Olenin, is a
ruined young noble, who, to escape his
creditors and begin a new life, enters a
sotnia of Cossacks as ensign. One fine
night he leaves Moscow; and at the first
station on his way, he begins already to
dream of battles, glory, and of some di-
vinely beautiful but half-savage maiden,
whom he will tame and polish. His
arrival at the camp of his regiment on
the Terek gives occasion for a fascinating
and most realistic picture of the wild races
he meets so suddenly. The young ensign
falls in at once with his half-savage
maiden, a tall, statuesque girl, with red
lips, a rose-colored undergarment, and a
blue jacket, who looks back at him with
a frightened air as she runs after the buf-
falo she is trying to milk. As he is lodg-
ing with her parents, he sets about taming
her immediately. But he has a rival,
young Lukashka, whose threadbare kaf-
tan and bearskin shako had long before
captivated the fair Marianka. The love
affairs of the rivals, whom she treats im-
partially, although she has already made
up her inind, go on in the midst of hunt-
ing, ambuscade, and battle, which are the
real subjects of the book. At last Olenin
discovers that he is too civilized for Mari-
anka. "Ah! ” he says to himself, if I
were a Cossack like Lukashka, got drunk,
stole horses, assassinated now and then
for a little change, she would understand
me, and I should be happy. But the
cruelty and the sweetness of it is that I
understand her and she will never un-
derstand me. ) The young Cossack is
wounded in battle; and the ensign, not
displaying much emotion at this calamity,
receives a look from Marianka that tells
him his company is no longer desirable:
so he decides to exchange into another
sotnia. Tolstoy's pictures of the rough
life of the Cossacks have a wonderful
charm. The story is particularly inter-
esting as showing the first germs of the
altruistic philosophy which Count Tolstoy
has developed into a vigorous system of
self-renunciation, and almost a cult.
of folk-lore was selected, edited, and
translated from the Ruthenian by R. Nis-
bet Bain, and published in 1894. The
Ruthenian or Cossack language, though
proscribed by the Russian government,
is spoken by more than twenty million
people. There are in the original three
important collections of folk-tales, from
which Mr. Bain has made a representa-
tive selection for translation. There are,
Slavonic scholars maintain, certain ele-
ments in these stories found in the folk-
lore of no other European people. Among
these may be mentioned the magic hand-
kerchief, which causes a bridge across the
sea to appear before a fugitive, or a forest
to spring up in his rear delaying his pur-
There is the magic egg, which pro-
duces a herd of cattle when broken; and
the magic whip, which can expel evil
spirits. Many elements and episodes com-
mon to other mythologies are found, how-
There are, for example, Cossack
versions of Cinderella, and the woman
who took her pig to market. One tale of
a Tsar expelled by an angel is an almost
literal rendering of King Robert of Sicily,
with Cossack coloring. There is a Sam-
son-like hero, who reveals the secret of
his strength; and an episode of a man in
a fish's belly, which resembles Hiawatha
and the sturgeon rather than Jonah and
the whale.
The serpent figures prominently in these
stories; and is generally, though by no
means invariably, malign, and always
represents superior intellectual power.
The women are frequently treacherous,
especially when beguiled by the serpent;
but it is interesting to notice the number
of men who cannot keep a secret. The
lower animals are always friendly to man,
and frequently assist him in performing
difficult tasks. The whole tenor of the
stories is charmingly naif and inconse-
quent; among the vampires and magic
fires it is somewhat startling to encounter
guns and passports. The style is simple
and poetic, especially in "The Little
XXX--15
ever.
## p. 226 (#262) ############################################
226
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
Death of Ivan Ilyitch, The, and other the countess waits without, and Cralo
Stories, by Count Lyof N. Tolstoy, and his monks discuss what should be
contains a series of short stories which done, the ready-witted young Ekkehard
represent the latest phase in the evolu- suggests that some one carry the count-
tion of the author's peculiar views. With ess across the portal. He is deputed to
the exception of The Death of Ivan do so; and from the hour when he takes
Ilyitch,' a sombre and powerful study of her into his arms, the poet-monk loves
the insidious progress of fatal disease, and the Countess Hadwig. Later, when he
a vehicle of religious philosophy, these is sent to be her tutor, despite his self-
tales were written as tracts for the peo- restraint he reveals his love to her. He
ple, illustrated in many cases with quaint is as “the moth fluttering around a can-
wood-cuts; aiming to bring a word of dle. ” Fleeing love's temptations, Ekke-
cheer and comfort to the poorer classes hard goes far up into the mountains with
oppressed by Russian despotism. The his lyre, and amid the snow-capped peaks,
second story, If You Neglect the Fire, sings his master-song. This he tran-
You Don't Put It Out, describes a triv- scribes, and tying it to an arrow, he
ial neighborhood quarrel resulting in shoots it so that it falls at the count-
ruin. (Where Love Is, there God Is Also) ess's feet. It is his parting gift. He
is the study of a humble shoemaker who journeys into the world, his songs making
blames God for the death of his child, but a welcome for him everywhere; and in
reaches peace through the New Testament. her halls the countess keeps his memory
(A Candle) and (Two Old Men,' told in a to fill her lonely hours. In 1885 the story
few pages, point a wide moral. "Six had reached its eighty-sixth edition in
Texts for Wood-Cuts, the titles of which the original German, while innumerable
suggest the subject of each cut, follow. translations have been made into English.
Under the heading of Popular Legends) Though Scheffel gave the world other
are the subjects How the Little Devil volumes of prose and poetry, none is so
Earned a Crust of Bread; The Repent- well known, or considered so good.
ant Sinner); A Seed as Big as a Hen's
Egg); and Does a Man Need Much Hero of our Times, A, by Mikhail
Lermontof. The novel portrays the
Land ? )
vices of the modern Russian of rank,
fashion, and adventure, and his utter
Ekkehard, by Joseph Victor von Schef-
selfishness and want of principle and
fel, is a story told by one who be-
lieved in the union of poetry and fiction. ”
conscience. The story takes the form of
To him “the characters of the past arose
a series of tales, of which the libertine
from out the mist of years, and bade
Petchorin, and his unhappy victims,
him clothe them anew in living form to
mostly confiding women, are the sub-
please his own and succeeding genera-
jects. Lermontof was a great admirer
tions. ) The time is the tenth century,
of Byron; and the fascinating Petchorin,
the rascal of the stories, with his mys-
the century of King Canute's conquest
of England. The hero, Ekkehard, is a
terious attractiveness, strongly resembles
young Benedictine monk of the holy house
Don Juan. The publication of the story
of St. Gall, in Suabia, a house whose
excited much controversy; and was the
abbot is an old man named Cralo. The
cause of the duel in which the author
abbot is a distant cousin to Hadwig,
was killed in 1841. Many people claimed
countess of Suabia, whose deceased lord,
that Petchorin was a portrait; but the
Burkhard, had been a tyrannical old
author distinctly states that he is not the
nobleman who in his dotage wedded
portrait of any person, but personifies
the vices of the whole generation. The
Hadwig, a fair daughter of Bavaria, who
had entered into the alliance to please
author does not set himself up as
her father. At Burkhard's death the
reformer, his idea being simply to de-
emperor has declared that the countess
nounce evil.
shall hold her husband's fiefs so long as uunnar: A Tale of Norse Life,
she does not marry again. But the count- by Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen, 1874.
ess, - young, beautiful, rich, and idle, (Gunnar, the one romance of Boyesen,
- in a moment of recklessness decides is also the earliest of his works of fiction.
to visit the monastery of St. Gall, The scene of the story is a small parish
which has a rule that woman's foot must in Bergen Stift, where Gunnar Thorson
never step across its threshold; and while lives in the little hamlet Henjumhei
a
G
## p. 227 (#263) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
227
with his father, Thor Gunnarson, and
his grandmother, old Gunhild. Gunnar's
mother, Birgit, having died when he was
a baby, his father and grandmother bring
him up carefully; and the latter fills his
mind with stories of Huldre and Necken,
and other strange creations of Norse
mythology. As his father Thor is only a
houseman or rent-payer, a sharp distinc-
tion is drawn between him and the fami-
ilies of the neighboring gāardmen or land-
owners. One of the chief of these is Atle
Larsson, Thor's landlord and the leading
man in the parish. As Gunnar grows up,
he falls in love with the beautiful Ragn-
hild, «a birch in the pine forest, niece
of Atle, and daughter of his haughty
sister; Ingeborg Rimul. It is the love
affair of Gunnar and Ragnhild which
forms the texture of the story, - its trou-
bled course, the dangers encountered,
the loyalty and patience of the lovers.
(Gunnar) carries the reader into an un-
familiar world of romance and poetry,
where he comes in contact with the
minds of the simple Norwegian peas-
ants, with their beliefs in fairies and
other mystical beings. Many of their
customs are described: the games of St.
John's Eve, the ski
race, the wed-
ding festivities at Peer Berg's, and some
of the religious ceremonies, such as those
attending confirmation.
fense of the Camp of Refuge at Ely,
and the successes attending the arms of
the little band of patriots in that fen
country; the sacking of Peterborough
by the Danes; the last stand made by
Hereward in the forest, are all graph-
ically described. Mr. Kingsley is liberal
sometimes in his allowance of redeeming
faults to his virtuous characters; yet,
in the fall of Hereward, he forcibly im-
presses the lesson that loss of self-respect
is fatal to noble effort.
There are fine passages in the book ;
and the mourning of the stricken Tor-
frida and the true-hearted Martin Light-
foot
the defeated Hereward is
full of pathos. The genial abbot of
Peterborough, Uncle Brand, and Earl
Leofric, are agreeably sketched. Ivo
Taillebois is true to life, or rather to
the chronicles and ballads; and William
himself is well drawn. The novel is a
book for Englishmen, and helps to popu-
larize their heroic traditions; but it is
of interest to all those who cherish the
ideals of manliness and heroism. The
story was first published in Good Words
in 1866.
over
House of the Wolfings, The, by Will-
Hereward the Wake, by the Rev.
Charles Kingsley. Mr. Kingsley
was Regius Professor of Modern History
in the University of Cambridge, on the
very site of his story. The author's
propaganda of the religion of rugged
strength also made him quite at home
in his theme.
The story, which is largely based on
the old ballads and chronicles, opens
near the end of the reign of Edward
the Confessor, when Hereward is made
a «wake ) or outlaw; and the tales of
his wanderings, his freaks, and feats of
arms, in the North, in Cornwall, in Ire-
land, and Flanders, have their founda-
tion in the old English records. The
author tells in dramatic style how the
hero returns from Flanders, and begins
his daring resistance to the Normans;
running the gauntlet of William's most
skillful generals, and at last meeting
and defeating the forces of the great
master. Hereward's strategy and daring
elicits the admiration of the stern Con-
queror himself. The story of the de-
iam Morris. «The tale tells that in
times long past, there was a dwelling of
men beside a great wood. ” Thus does
the first sentence of the book take us
into the atmosphere - half real, half
mystical, and wholly poetic — which per-
vades the entire story. These “men
belonged to one of the Germanic tribes
of Central Europe. Round about this
«great wood ” were three settlements or
«Marks,) each mark containing many
Houses; and it is with the House of
the Wolfings of Mid-mark that the tale
chiefly deals.
The chief of the Wolfings was Thio-
dolf, the wisest man, and of heart most
dauntless. Hall-Sun, his daughter, ex-
ceeding fair and with the gift of proph-
ecy, was first among the women.
The leading theme of the story is the
war between the Romans and the Mark-
men; how it fared with Thiodolf, and
how the Hall-Sun advises the Stay-at-
Homes by means of her wonderful in-
sight. Thiodolf is chosen War-Duke. He
meets the Wood-Sun, his beloved, a
woman descended from the gods. She
gives him a hauberk to wear in battle;
but owing to a charm that caused whoso
wore this armor to weaken in war, Thio-
## p. 228 (#264) ############################################
228
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
dolf does not acquit himself bravely in
their first skirmishes with the foe. The
Markmen become somewhat disheartened,
and the Romans advance even to the Hall
of the Wolfings. Then Thiodolf is led
by the Hall-Sun, who personifies courage
and duty, to the throne of the Wood-
Sun, who confesses that, fearing his
death and the end of their love on earth,
she had fastened the hauberk upon him.
Thereupon Thiodolf casts it away, and
subordinating love to duty, he goes forth
to meet a hero's death on the morrow's
battle-field. The sight of the War-Duke,
in his old strength and cheer, incites the
“stark men and doughty warriors » to
the complete undoing of the Romans.
The day is given up to the chanting of
dirges for the dead; and the night wears
away in feasting. All the kindred hal-
low with song the return of the warriors
« with victory in their hands. ” And
thereafter the Wolfings «throve in field
and fold. )
This fascinating story is pervaded with
the charm of a primitive people, who
live a picturesque life both in agriculture
and on the battle-field.
orders a reprieve, in quick succession.
Then, going in person to the prison, she
asks Chastelard to return the reprieve.
He has already destroyed it; and after
one short, happy hour with her, he goes
bravely to his death.
From an upper
window in the palace, Mary Beaton watches
the execution, and curses the Queen just
as Mary enters — with Both well.
In "Chastelard? Swinburne has por-
trayed a fickle, heartless, vain, and beau-
tiful queen; and in the few touches
given to a character of secondary im-
portance, has delicately and distinctly
drawn Mary Beaton. The male charac-
ters are less sympathetic.
The tragedy is conspicuously one to
be read, not acted. It is too long, too
much lacking in action, and of too sus-
tained an intensity, for the stage. The
style is essentially lyric, full of exqui-
site lines and phrases; and as a whole,
the play presents an intense passion in
a form of adequate beauty. It contains
a number of charming French Songs,
and is dedicated to Victor Hugo. It
was published in 1869.
The style of the authora the quaint Roundabout ePapers The, by William
English, molded frequently
into a beautiful chant or song, makes
(The House of the Wolfings) a most
artistic and attractive tale.
ties as
Chast
hastelard, by Algernon Charles Swin-
burne. The scene of this tragedy
is laid at Holyrood Castle, during the
reign of Mary Queen of Scots. Mary
Beaton, one of the “four Maries,
prom-
ises Chastelard to arrange a meeting be-
tween him and the Queen. When he
comes to the audience-room, however, he
finds only Mary Beaton herself, who, in
shame, confesses her love for him. While
he is assuring her of his pardon, they
are discovered by the other Maries. The
Queen, angry at what she has heard,
tries to make Chastelard confess his de-
sertion of her; and declares her intention
of marrying Darnley. Chastelard, by
the agency of Mary Beaton, gains access
to the Queen's chamber, discloses himself
when she is alone, and after having con-
vinced her of his love for her, submits
to the guards, who take him to prison.
Mary, fickle and heartless, in her desire
to avoid both the shame of letting him
live and the shame of putting her lover
to death, tries to shift the responsibility
to Murray, signs his death-warrant, and
Makepeace Thackeray. Thackeray
undertook the editorship of the Cornhill
Magazine; in the year 1859. (The Round-
about Papers' were sketches for the
magazine, coming out simultaneously, be-
tween 1859 and 1863, with Lovel the
Widower and “The Adventures of Philip.
They represent Thackeray's best quali-
an essayist, and cover a wide
range of subjects. Some of the titles
are: "On Two Children in Black,) On
Screens in Dining-Rooms, 'On Some
Late Great Victories,' On a Hundred
Years Hence,) and (A Mississippi Bub-
ble. One of the papers, (The Notch on
the Ase,' displays the author's peculiar
genius for burlesque story-telling. It is
a dream of the guillotine, occasioned by
his grandmother's snuff-box and a sensa-
tional novel. The essay On a Joke I
Once Heard from the Late Thomas Hood
is a cordial tribute to that poet's mem-
ory, and in it the joke is not repeated.
One of the most noteworthy of the
papers is called (On Thorns in the
Cushion. ) The task of editing a maga-
zine was irksome to Thackeray's kindly
and sensitive nature. «What, then,” he
writes, “is the main grief you spoke of
as annoying you,- the toothache in the
Lord Mayor's jaw, the thorn in the
## p. 229 (#265) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
229
cushion of the editorial chair? It is Joe Bagstock, the major. The scene is
there. Ah! it stings me now as I write. laid in England at the time the novel
It comes with almost every morning's was published, in 1848.
post.
They don't sting quite so
sharply as they did, but a skin is a skin, David Copperfield; of all my books,
bite, after , most . says in his
Ah me! we wound where we to this immortal novel, “I like this the
never intended to strike; we create anger best.
Like many fond parents,
where we never meant harm, and these I have in my heart of hearts a favorite
thoughts are the thorns in our cushion. ” child. And his name is David Copper-
Thackeray, in fact, resigned the position field. ” When David Copperfield) ap-
of editor in 1862, though he continued to peared in 1850, after Dombey and Son)
write for the magazine as long as he and before Bleak House,' it became so
lived.
popular that its only rival was Pick-
wick. ) Beneath the fiction lies much of
Dombey and Son, by Charles Dickens. the author's personal life, yet it is not
The story opens with the death of
an autobiography. The story treats of
Mrs. Dombey, who has left her husband David's sad experiences as a child, his
the proud possessor of a baby son and youth at school, and his struggles for a
heir. He neglects his daughter Florence livelihood, and leaves him in early man-
and loves Paul, in whom all his ambitions hood, prosperous and happily married.
and worldly hopes are centred; but the Pathos, humor, and skill in delineation,
boy dies. Mr. Dombey marries a beau- give vitality to this remarkable work;
tiful woman, who is as cold and proud and nowhere has Dickens filled his can-
as he, and who has sold herself to him vas with more vivid and diversified char-
to escape from a designing mother. She acters. Forster says that the author's
grows fond of Florence, and this friend- favorites were the Peggotty family, com-
ship is so displeasing to Mr. Dombey that posed of David's nurse Peggotty, who was
he tries to humble her by remonstrating married to Barkis, the carrier; Dan'el
through Mr. Carker, his business manager Peggotty, her brother, a Yarmouth fisher-
and friend. This crafty villain, realizing man; Ham Peggotty, his nephew; the
his power, goads her beyond endurance, doleful Mrs. Gummidge; and Little Em’ly,
and she demands a separation from Mr. ruined by David's schoolmate, Steer-
Dombey, but is refused. After an angry forth. “It has been their fate,” says For-
interview, she determines upon a bold ster, as with all the leading figures of
stroke and disgraces her husband by pre- his invention, to pass their names into
tending to elope with Carker to France, the language and become types; and he
where she meets him once, shames and has nowhere given happier embodiment
defies him and escapes. Mr. Dombey, to that purity of homely goodness, which,
after spurning Florence, whom he con- by the kindly and all-reconciling influ-
siders the cause of his trouble, follows ences of humor, may exalt into comeli-
Carker in hot haste. They encounter ness and even grandeur the clumsiest
each other without warning at a rail-
forms of humanity. ”
way station, and as Carker is crossing the Miss Betsy Trotwood, David's aunt;
tracks he falls and is instantly killed by the half-mad but mild Mr. Dick; Mrs.
an express train Florence seeks refuge Copperfield, David's mother; Murdstone,
with an old sea-captain whom her little his brutal stepfather; Miss Murdstone,
brother, Paul, has been fond of, marries that stepfather's sister; Mr. Spenlow
Walter Gay, the friend of her childhood, and his daughter Dora, - David's child-
and they go to sea. After the failure of wife ));- Steerforth, Rosa Dartle, Mrs.
Dombey and Son, when Mr. Dombey's Steerforth, Mr. Wickfield, his daughter
pride is humbled and he is left deso- Agnes (David's second wife), and the
late, Florence returns and takes care of Micawber family, are the persons around
him. The characters in the book not whom the interest revolves. A host of
immediately concerned in the plot, but minor characters, such as the comical lit-
famous for their peculiar qualities, are tle dwarf hair-dresser, Miss Mowcher,
Captain Cuttle, Florence's kind protector, Mr. Mell, Mr. Creakle, Tommy Traddles,
who has a nautical manner of expres- Uriah Heep, Dr. Strong, Mrs. Markle-
sion; Sol Gills, Walter's uncle; Mr. Toots, ham, and others, are portrayed with the
who suffers from shyness and love; and same vivid strokes.
## p. 230 (#266) ############################################
230
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
a
Li
ittle Dorrit, by Charles Dickens, was
published 1856-57, when the author's
popularity was at its height. The plot
is a slight one on which to hang more
than fifty characters. The author began
with the intention of emphasizing the
fact that individuals brought together
by chance, if only for an instant, con-
tinue henceforth to influence and to act
and react upon one another. But this
original motive is soon altogether for-
gotten in the multiplication of characters
and the relation of their fortunes. The
central idea is to portray the experiences
of the Dorrit family, immured for many
years on account of debt in the old Mar-
shalsea Prison, and then unexpectedly
restored to wealth and freedom. Having
been pitiable in poverty, they become
arrogant and contemptible in affluence.
Amy, Little Dorrit,” alone remains pure,
lovable, and self-denying. In her, Dick-
ens embodies the best human qualities
in a most beautiful and persuasive form.
She enlists the love of Arthur Clennam,
who meantime has had his own trials.
Returning from India, after long ab-
sence, he finds his mother a religious
fanatic, domineered over by the hypo-
critical old Flintwinch, and both preyed
upon by the Mephistophelian Blandois,
perhaps the most dastardly villain in the
whole Dickens gallery. The complica-
tions, however, end happily for Arthur
and Amy. The main attack of the book
is aimed against official «red tape » as
exemplified in the Barnacle family and
the «Circumlocution Office. ” It also
shows up Merdle the swindling banker,
«Bar,) «Bishop,” and other types of “So-
ciety. ) The Meagleses are practical
people with soft hearts; their daughter
is married to and bullied by Henry
Gowan, whose mother is a genteel pau-
per at Hampton Court. Other characters
are Pancks the collector, “puffing like a
steam-engine,” his hypocritical employer
Casby, the humble and worthy Plor-
nishes, the love-blighted and epitaphic
young John Chivery, and the wonderful
Mr. F. 's aunt with her explosive utter-
here introduced. There is the central
story of Our Mutual Friend, himself the
young heir to the vast Harmon estate,
who buries his identity and assumes the
name of John Rokesmith, that he may
form his own judgment of the young
woman whom he must marry in order
to claim his fortune; there is the other
story of the poor bargeman's daughter,
and her love for reckless Eugene Wray-
burn, the idol of society; and uniting
these two threads is the history of Mr.
and Mrs. Boffin, the ignorant, kind-
hearted couple, whose innocent ambi-
tions, and benevolent use of the money
intrusted to their care, afford the author
opportunity for the humor and pathos of
which he was a master.
Among the characters which this story
has made famous are Miss Jenny Wren,
the doll's dressmaker, a little, crippled
creature whose love for Lizzie Hexam
transforms her miserable life; Bradley
Headstone, the schoolmaster, suffering
torments because of his jealousy of Eu-
gene Wray burn, and helpless under the
careless contempt of that trained adver-
sary — dying at last in an agony of de-
feat at his failure to kill Eugene; and
the triumph of Lizzie's love over the
social difference between her and her
lover; Bella Wilfer, the boofer lady,
cured of her longing for riches and made
John Harmon's happy wife by the plots
and plans of the Golden Dustman, Mr.
Boffin; and Silas Wegg, an impudent
scoundrel employed by Mr. Boffin, who
is, at first, delighted with the services
of “a literary man with a wooden leg,”
but who gradually recognizes the cheat
and impostor, and unmasks him in dra-
matic fashion.
As usual, Dickens finds occasion to in-
cite his readers to practical benevolence.
In this book he has a protest against
the poor-laws in the person of old Betty
Higden, whose dread of the almshouse
haunts her dying hours. By many, this
volume, published among his later works,
is counted as among the most important.
ances.
ens.
Our
vir Mutual Friend, by Charles Dick-
«In these times of ours, are
the opening words of this book, which
was published in England in 1864-65.
The scene is laid in London and its im-
mediate neighborhood. All the elaborate
machinery dear to Dickens's heart is
Fool's Errand, A, by Albion W. Tourgee.
1879, purports to have been written
by one of the fools. It is the first of a
series dealing mainly with events con-
nected with the Civil War. «The Fool »
is Comfort Servosse, a Union colonel, who
removes from Michigan to a Southern
plantation after peace is declared. The
story of his reception there and the diffi-
## p. 231 (#267) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
231
culties encountered, arising out of old himself deceived, seeks out Carroll de
prejudices upon the one hand and his own Lancy, the other party in the affair,
training and convictions upon the other, and from him learns that, when he was
is told with great detail and strong local too ill to travel, his sister had masquer-
coloring. The author with great fairness aded in his West Point uniform, taken
considers the questions of reconstruction, Miss Rivers as companion, and reached
while some thrilling chapters deal with the death-bed of an uncle in time to
the outrages of the Ku-Klux. A love secure the favorable disposition of his
episode is introduced, which proceeds as property. The scene of reconciliation
a simple narrative with no complications follows immediately. The story is well
of plot.
told, and the dramatic possibilities of
the unconventional adventure lend color
Floyd Grandon's Honor, by Amanda
M. Douglas. The scenes of the story
to an otherwise commonplace narrative.
are laid in a New York suburb.
Floxid ,
Grandon, a young widower, returning Miss F. F. Montrésor (1895) is a plea
from England with his motherless child, for the ideal in daily life. To Margaret
Cecil, to wind up his deceased father's Deane, the beautiful imaginative young
affairs, promises over the death-bed of heroine, life becomes intolerable under
one of the partners, Mr. Percival, to
the guardianship of her uncongenial and
marry his daughter, Violet, a seventeen-
worldly aunt, Mrs. Russelthorpe. Her
year-old girl; a promise made and after-
spiritually sensitive nature is touched
ward redeemed through pity for her by the preaching of Barnabas Thorpe, an
defenseless position, fear of the avowed earnest revivalist; and by conforming to
designs of another partner, Jasper Wil- his teaching, she incurs her aunt's con-
marth, and gratitude for her rescue of
temptuous persecution. An unfortunate
his own
child from a terrible death. chance throws the two together late at
This marriage, contracted without the night; and to protect her from insult,
usual conditions of courtship or even Barnabas marries her. He is poor, un-
previous acquaintance, is the theme of
couth in manner, barely able to read
the story. Transplanted exotics require
and write; while Margaret is refined and
special treatment before they become ac- book-loving, and accustomed to all ad-
climated; and marriages à la française, vantages of wealth and position. In
amid prosaic American surroundings, af- picturing the results of this hazardous
ford ample opportunity for the imagina- | marriage, the author emphasizes a con-
tion of a novelist, an opportunity of which tempt for moral makeshifts. Barnabas
the author has made the most.
and Margaret desire at any cost to live
sincerely. Her friends regard her as a
Reverend Idol, A, by Lucretia Noble
(1882). The Reverend Idol is Rev.
disgrace to them, and blot her name
Kenyon Leigh, a popular New York
from the family Bible; but her new life
clergyman, who, pursued by the unwel-
teaches her to disregard rank, wealth,
come attentions of his feminine parish-
and popular esteem. She knows poverty,
ioners, fees to a quiet boarding-house
sorrow, humiliation, danger, yet feels
richer than in her days of ease. There
on Cape Cod for summer outing:
There he meets Monny Rivers, a charm-
are striking pictures of prison life at
ing Boston girl and an artist of
Newgate, and many dramatic incidents;
but the interest lies above all in the
ability. Commencing with
slight feeling of hostility, they drift
analysis of emotional life based upon a
first into toleration, then companionship,
conviction of human instinct for what is
and finally to love. The course of this
true and noble.
affection does
smooth. Mrs. Jerome, by Mary E. Wilkins. Jerome
Van Cortlandt, who has marked the is the vignette of a New England
Reverend Idol for her own, invades the youth, relieved against a background
solitude of sand and
of provincial types. When hardly out
nizes in her young and beautiful rival of his teens, he is called upon by the
a participant in an adventure, which, sudden disappearance of his father to
though harmless in reality, in appear- take upon his shoulders the burden of
scandalous in the extreme. the family. His course is a pathway of
She imparts only the semblance of the misfortune, sacrifice, and hardship, lead-
truth to Kenyon Leigh, who, believing | ing by rugged steps to a summit of
a
no
mean
a
not
run
sea.
She recog.
ance
was
## p. 232 (#268) ############################################
232
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
acter.
are
a
well-earned prosperity. A great sacri- Spanish blood, he has a fearless and hon-
fice to a high ideal is the turning-point est soul. The novel comes to a climax
of the story. Like Miss Wilkins's other in a piot made against him by his ene-
works, Jerome) is a careful and truth- mies in Gloria. Besides the hero, “The
ful study of New England village char- Dictator) introduces two or three other
characters of especial interest: Captain
Sarrasin, who has traveled and fought in
Agnes of Sorrento, a romance by Har-
The scene is
many countries, and whose wife on oc-
casion can don men's garments and handle
laid in central Italy during the time of
a gun; Dolores Paulo; and the Duchess
the infamous Pope Alexander VI. (from
of Deptford, of American birth, a cari-
1492 to 1503). Agnes is the daughter of
cature rather than a true type. The plot
a Roman prince who secretly marries,
involves the use of dynamite, and much
and then deserts, a girl of humble par-
mining and countermining; in spite of
entage. The young mother dies of grief,
which the book remains an entertaining
and Elsie, the grandmother, takes Agnes
domestic story.
to Sorrento, where she lives by selling
oranges in the streets. Her beauty and The
The Life and Adventures of Jack of
her purity attract to her many lovers, the Mill, commonly called Lord
worthy and unworthy, and involve her in Othmill, created for his eminent services
many romantic and dramatic incidents. Baron Waldeck and Knight of Kitcottie.
The story is delightfully told, the Italian A fireside story, by William Howitt. The
atmosphere is well suggested, and the scenes of these adventures lie partly in
book, though not Mrs. Stowe's best, takes England during the reign of Henry V. ,
good literary rank.
partly in Bohemia and Germany. They
succession of bloodthirsty and
Cºlon
olonel Enderby's Wife, by Lucas
thrilling conflicts, in which Jack, the
Malet » (Charles Kingsley's daugh-
hero, with scarcely an effort, overcomes
ter, now Mrs. Harrison). The scene of
robbers and gipsies, fights the opponents
this story, published in 1886, is laid in
of the Lollards and the Hussites with equal
England and Italy during the seventies.
vigor, and obtains honors, preferment,
Colonel Enderby is a disinherited Eng-
and a lovely wife. From the moment
lishman of middle age, whose life has
when, a runa
inaway boy, he fills his pockets
been shadowed by his father's neglect
with fish-hooks to trap the hands of
and injury. At the age of forty-eight
thieving companions, to the time when,
he marries in Italy a glittering young with a single companion, he overcomes
creature of wonderful beauty. The tra-
the robber-baron Hans von Stein, with
gedy which follows is that which always
his train,-a semi-historical character
comes when a crass and brutal selfish-
whose castle, honeycombed with dun-
ness arrays itself against the generosity
geons, is still visited by tourists in Ger-
of a higher nature, if two people are so
many,-- his wit and success never fail;
bound together that they cannot escape and as valor as well as virtue has its
each other. The ending, though sad, is
due reward, Jack, the vagrant frequenter
that which the logic of the situation
of the old mill, becomes in turn John
makes inevitable. The book has been
Othmill, respected and feared by society,
very widely read and praised.
and finally the great Lord Warbeck.
The author allows himself considerable
Dictator, The. by Justin McCarthy,
When Justin McCarthy published
latitude of imagination and plot, and the
result is aptly named in the quaint term
(The Dictator,' in 1893, he had been
known to the novel-reading public for
of apology he uses in the preface, a
«hatch-up. ”
twenty-six years, and had written a score
of books. (The Dictator,' a story of con- Cudjo's Cave, by J. T. Trowbridge, an
temporary life in England, gives scope anti-slavery novel, first published in
to its author for the display of his knowl- 1863, was, like its predecessor Neighbor
edge of politics.
Jackwood,' very widely read. The scene
The Dictator of the story, Ericson, when of the story is eastern Tennessee, at the
first introduced to the reader, has just outbreak of the rebellion. The State,
been ejected by a revolution from his though seceding, contained many Union-
position as chief of the South American ists; and their struggles against the per-
Republic, Gloria. Of mixed English and secution of their Confederate neighbors,
## p. 233 (#269) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
233
slave-holders, and poor whites, form the and picturesque descriptions of the Rivi-
plot of the book. The ostensible hero is era, where the author passed the last
Penn Hapgood, a young Quaker school- months of her life. Published in 1879, it
teacher, whose abolitionist doctrines get was left unfinished, the last chapters be-
him into constant trouble; but the really ing written by Mrs. Macquoid. The story
heroic figure of the book is a gigantic principally concerns itself with the love
full-blooded negro, Pomp, a
runaway
affairs of two cousins, Emmie West and
slave, living in the woods in a great Alma Rivers; and the moral of it is that
cave with another runaway, Cudjo. Cudjo tribulation worketh patience, and patience
is dwarfish and utterly ignorant, a mix- godliness. Lady Rivers, Sir Francis, and
ture of stupidity and craft; but Pomp is charming Madame de Florimel, are clev-
one of nature's noblemen. Cudjo's cave erly sketched characters.
The story,
becomes a refuge for the persecuted aboli- which is very simple, is so natural and
tionists of the neighborhood, a basis of homely, and its psychology is so faithful,
operations for the Union sympathizers, that it became at once a favorite, and
and finally the seat of war in the region. is still one of the most popular domestic
The novel, though written with a strong novels.
ethical purpose, is interesting and effect-
ive simply as a story, containing much Newport, by George Parsons Lathrop.
incident
(1884. ) Newport) is a story of soci-
some capital character-
ety,- the intrigues, adventures, and su-
studies.
perficialities of one summer affording
9
, (the author
a
tale of Aquitaine, during the Eng- grammatic remarks, vivid descriptions of
lish occupation, in the early fifteenth the principal places of local interest, and
century. The country was in a state of photographs of men and women of the
civil war; and free companies, nominally leisure class. The love affair of a charm-
fighting for French or English, but in ing widow, Mrs. Gifford, and a widower,
reality for their own pockets, mere plun- Eugene Oliphant, incidently engages the
derers and bandits, fourished mightily. reader's attention; a love affair which,
The most dreaded freebooter in the after a slight estrangement and separa-
valley of the Dordogne was Le Gros tion, is ended by a sudden and incredi-
Guillem, who from his stronghold at ble catastrophe, an unexpected finale
Domme sweeps
down
upon the farms
strangely out of harmony with the pref-
and hamlets below; till at length the ace of elopements, Casino dances, polo
timid peasants, finding a leader in games, Airtations of titled heiress-hunters,
Ogier del Peyra, a petty sieur of the and other trivialities of social existence.
neighborhood, rise
up against their The characters are well chosen and very
scourge, destroy his rocky fastness, and well managed, the individual being never
put his men to death or flight. Guil- sacrificed to the type, though the reader
lem's daughter, Noémi, a madcap beauty, is made to feel that the figures are
joins her father's band of ruffians; but really typical. In no other piece of fic-
soon sickens of their deeds, and risks tion has the flamboyant and aggressive
her life to save Ogier from the oubli- life of Newport — that life wherein amuse-
ette, because she loves his son. The ment is a business, and frivolity an occu-
book is filled with thrilling and bloody pation — been more vividly painted.
incident, culminating in the storming
of L'Eglise Guillem, as the freebooter's Phroso, by Anthony Hope (Hawkins),
den is ironically called, and the strange
is the story of one Lord Charles
death of the robber chieftain. The de-
Wheatley — told by himself — and his ex-
scriptions of the wild valley of the Dor-
periences in taking possession of the
dogne, and the life of the outlaws, are
small Greek island, Neopalia, which he
striking; and the pretty love story, set
has purchased from Lord Stefanopoulos.
against this background, very attractive.
Denny Swinton, his cousin, Hogoardt,
a factotum, and Watkins, his servant,
As a picture of a fierce and horrible
period, it hardly less vivid than the
accompany him. The natives, under Con-
(White Company) of Conan Doyle.
stantine, Lord Stefanopoulos's nephew,
violently oppose them and threaten their
Doubting Heart, A, by Annie Keary. lives. They all escape from the island
The scene of the story is laid in Eng- by a secret passage to the sea, except
land, although there are some charming / Wheatley, who is imprisoned. He is
## p. 234 (#270) ############################################
234
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
scenes
Own
WOOS
to
cesca
-
about to be stricken to death before the society girl, Bessie Lynde, who Airts
populace, when Phroso, the Lady of with Jeff for the sake of a new sensa-
the Island,” leaps to his aid, declaring
tion. The
are laid partly in
that she loves him better than life.
