and romance. The independent mountaineers of rightful owner of the deserted mansion comes to Albania, the siege and fall of Constantinople, the occupy it, with his great bloodhound, Stamboul, intrigue of Oriental domestic life, the discipline and and he, too, plays a large part in the thrilling events traditions of the Janizaries, the wars and strategies which time brings around. The squire of the great and policy, all the shifting and brilliant action and mansion, like the school boys, loves, and finds there picturesque surroundings that belong to the period, are barriers in the way which he is hopeless to remake a splendid setting for the pure and noble love move. The littte by play of the two lovers prior to tale which runs through the whole. We have rarely a knowledge of this fact is a charming piece of workread a story in which there was such perfect free-manship. The action of the Squire after he learned dom from discursiveness or moralizing. The author | the facts, already known to the good old minister, as allows his characters to unfold themselves naturally well as the action of the woman loved, breaks in and easily, and the action of the plot never halts or upon and dissipates the false notion that pure becomes confused. "The Captain of the Janizar- platonic and innocent love cannot exist between a ies" is, in short, a novel of remarkable vigor and man and woman under such conditions. How the directness, not deficient in literary qualities, but great bloodhound finally solved the problem and let most notable for its merit as a story pure and simple. the sweet music of two desolate homes break forth (Dodd, M. $1.50.) in gladness in "a lonely parish" The Inter-Ocean will leave Mr. Crawford to tell. (Macmillan. $1.50.) A Tale of a Lonely Parish. From the Chicago Inter-Ocean. The reader of "Mr. Isaacs" or "A Roman Singer" will never expect to open a volume by the same author with any expectation of finding a dull page. This will be found true of "A Tale of a Lonely Parish." There could scarcely be found a place and characters which of themselves seemed less suggestive of an exciting romance. And yet, with the hand of genius, the first outlines begin the development of pictures of artistic finish and beauty. It is tragic and sensational, and yet all the tragedy is hid from the gossips and even staid residents of the lonely parish. When the motive for all this is seen and appreciated by the reader, it is recognized as one of the most adroit and fine expressions of human sympathy possible to express. The large insight into human character, the first thoughts wrong and overruled by the right, the close connection of guilt and innocence, and yet all the time innocent were never portrayed with greater literary excellence or with stricter or more impartial justice. In all these things dropping into the story so natural as to be real, the reader feels that the nobility of manhood and womanhood in the soul is being strengthened and all its boundaries enlarged. The old parish is found sleepy and no attempt is made to wake it up. Every sensation is suppressed. Tragedy is robbed of its horrors, and yet the book is thrillingly exciting. | As you open the book you will find only a lonely parish with the Rev. Augustin Ambrose, his positive and almost eccentric good wife and two school boys he is preparing for college. A cat rolling in his asparagus bed in the garden is the most interesting event mentioned, and yet it forms a vivid picture in the foreground. The great mansion near by is deserted and has been in litigation for a lifetime. beautiful woman and her little girl are introduced into the cottage at the lodge gate of the deserted mansion. One of the school boys of the old preacher sees the beautiful woman, many years his senior, and without even knowing her name, worships her and writes Greek sonnets to her honor for years before knowing her name or telling his love. The A George Meredith's Novels. From the N. Y. Critic. There are readers who like to have a poet or a novelist of their own, and who would have taken you off in a corner to praise "Death's Jest Book," or "Joseph and his Brethren"-before Mr. Swinburne spoilt that book by overpraising it and reprinting it so that anybody could get a copy. The kind of book this kind of reader likes is a strange and unsuccessful book of a half-known man; a book which is too eccentric in its cleverness ever to have got into a second edition. This kind of reader generally sets up for a critic-unmindful of Jerrold's harsh suggestion to a little man who made that declaration, that he should sit down again. He likes to carry about with him the work of a man whom he calls a Great Unknown because he has discovered his genius while the common herd disdains it. For years the writings of Mr. George Meredith have been favored by readers of this sort, and particularly "The Ordeal of Richard Feverel," which existed only in the well-worn copies of the first edition. Despite the publication of his 'House on the Beach," four or five years ago, in one of the handy series, and the quasi-success of the brilliant and tantalizing study of character called the "Egoist," the name of George Meredith is not well known to the host of American novel-readers, whose taste is being debased by the flood of cheap and trivial English fiction that sweeps across this country in ill-printed and unbound pamphlets. It was probably one of the admirers of the marvellous tales of the marvellous novelist who signs herself "the Duchess," that ventured to ask not long ago-just after Messrs. Roberts Bros. announced this new edition of Meredith's novel-whether he was not the author of "Lucile!" The only likeness between George Meredith and "Owen Meredith" is a fondness for borrowing the basis of their stories: Lord Lytton takes his from George Sand or Heine or anywhere, and Mr. Meredith takes his from life and the records of life. The heroine of "Diana of the Crossways" was only too obviously a literary portrait of the brilliant Mrs. Norton, Sheridan's granddaughter; and in the "Tragic Comedians," Mr. Meredith treated the story of Lasalle's relations with a lady now residing here in New York with her husband. It was "Diana of the Crossways" which first made a popular hit in England; it is the ninth of Mr. Meredith's novels and not the best, but it was the first to go through several editions and attract the attention of that strange creature, the Average Reader. But it is small wonder that Mr. Meredith is not popular. His books are hard writing and they are not easy reading. There is a shell to be cracked, and perhaps a liking for the kernel within may be an acquired taste. But the effort is its own reward. Mr. Meredith is somebody; he stands on his own legs; he sees with his own eyes; he speaks with his own voice and he has something to say. As the rest of his novels appear, we hope to be able to recur to them for fuller consideration. All we may do now is to recommend them to the American reader, and especially to those who are heartily sick of the ordinary machine-made novel of British manufacture. (Roberts. Ea., $2.) Mrs. Jackson's Novels. From the Boston Traveller. The appearance of " Mercy Philbrick's Choice," with the name of Helen Hunt Jackson on the title. page, fully settles the doubt, if any lingering trace of it existed, as to the authorship of this number of the No Name Series, which was, perhaps, held in popular estimation only second to "Signor Monaldini's Niece," and "Mirage." It will be re-read by those to whom it has before been familiar with a new and deeper interest. It will be read by thousands to whom it will be, practically, a new book, and the thoughtful reader will find in it almost an autobiographical key to the nature of the author herself. For instance, in this bit of analysis, after the story itself has closed, how much Mrs. Jackson reveals of her own character: is a story of the primitive life of rural New England, but it touches a profound truth in revealing the abnormal intensity of feeling that may exist under the calm and apparently passionless exterior of the rural farming classes. Hetty Gunn, a woman strong, serene, good, and apparently commonplace, marries, when past thirty-five years of age, Dr. Eben Williams, a man younger than herself. After a few years of very happy and quiet married life, she conceives the idea that if she were dead her husband could and would love a beautiful young girl who lives with them, and, with an abnormal capacity for martyrdom, she contrives to have the family believe her to be drowned and flees to Canada, where, under an assumed name, she devotes herself to nursing. After ten years her husband finds her by chance; they are remarried and go to Europe for the remainder of their lives. This apparently eccentric act is revealed as a direct outcome of Hetty's character, and it is a rather suggestive story to those curious in the study of human nature. (Roberts. Ea. $1.) Cassell's National Library. From the Boston Post. Cassell's "National Library" has touched a chord that a more pretentious series might fail to sound. Not only has the public at large proved its appreciation of these delightful little volumes, but it is individually enthusiastic over them, and the publishers are in receipt of letters from distinguished men and women congratulating them on what they have done in this series. Edmund C. Stedman, the poet, writes: "That the masterpieces of standard literature... can now be obtained at the price of a dime for each work is a convincing proof that a system of international copyright in new works will not debar our people from enjoying all literature that has stood the test of time at a cost within the means of the lowliest reader." Such a series "must do good," exclaims Rev. Phillip Brooks. "We are all your debtors-all those, I mean, who love good books and recognize the importance of putting a wholesome literature within the reach of the people," writes Bishop Potter. President Barnard, of Columbia College, is "delighted" and "astonished" at the appearance and the quality of the books. Sidney Howard Gay, the historian, regards the series as "a "Mercy Philbrick lived thirty years after the events described in these pages. It was a life rich to overflowing, yet uneventful, as the world reckons; a life lovely, yet full of companionship, yet full of cheer; hard, and yet perpetually uplifted by an inward joy which made her very presence like sunshine, and made men often say of her, 'Oh, she has never known sorrow.' This was largely the result of her unquenchable gift of song, of the true poet's temper-happy thought," and so it is. Harriet Beecher Stowe ament to which life is forever new, beautiful and glad. It was also the result of her increasing spirituality of nature. This took no shape of creed, worship, or what the world's consent calls religion. Her old tolerance was softened, or rather, it had changed from antagonism on the surface to living principles at the core. Truth, truth, truth was still the war cry of her soul; and there was an intensity in every word of her, spoken or written, pleading on this subject, which might well have revealed to a careful analyses of them that they sprang out of the depths of the profoundest experience." writes: "I think an effort like yours both a patriotic and a Christian one." And Miss Cleveland, writing from the White House, says: "I heartily admire and approve your enterprise, for the reason that it looks toward supplying to persons of limited means the best literature in a most convenient form." From England Professor Tyndall writes: "You are doing your countrymen and country women a beneficent service, by bringing the gems of English literature in this handy form within reach of the poorest among them." And Henry Irving, the great actor, adds: "The work is an admirable one, which reflects the greatest credit on its projectors, and cannot fail to have a far-reaching range of public usefulness.” (Cassell. Ea. 10 c.) Balzac's Novels. From the Boston Traveller. The true realistic novel, as distinguished from the materialistic and the reportorial novels, finds its perfect illustration in the series of Balzac's fiction which collectively form the "Comédie Humaine." Of these Messrs. Roberts Bros. are publishing an edition in translation that is one of the most important contributions to modern literature. The translating is done by Miss Wormeley, of Newport, in a manner whose fidelity to the thought of the original is some thing to be especially noted. It is a most sympathetic and vital interpretation of the thought of Bal zac, as well as of the text. "Pere Gorot" and "The Duchesse de Langeais" have already appeared, and the latest issue, and in some respects the most important of this series, is the present volume, "Cæsar Birotteau." In its marvelously detailed picture of human life this novel has perhaps no equal in any language. The realism is not only impressive, it is simply startling, and differs from the so-called realism of the Howells novel as substance differs from shadow, or the genuine article from a mere imitation. The story is the common one of daily life. Cæsar Birotteau, a peasant boy, comes to Paris with no friends or opening. The time is before the revolution. He becomes an apprentice to Ragon, perfumer to Marie Antoinette. He is a born royalist. In time he becomes the head of the shop, marries a charming girl, Constance Pielerant, and his business prospers. Birotteau becomes engaged in politics and is chosen a member of the Tribunal, and finally is made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. "Possibly," he says, "I showed myself worthy of that signal and royal favor by my services on the bench of commerce, and by fighting for the Bourbons upon the steps of St. Roch on the 13th Vendemaire." Speculations follow and Birotteau is ruined. He accepts adversity courageously and honestly and goes to work with a will and finally recovers himself and pays his creditors in full. But the skill that has evolved this drama is wonderful, and in thus bringing this masterpiece of French fiction to the attention of the American public a great service to literature is performed. The style of publication in deep, rich, mottled red makes it a beautiful addition to the library. (Roberts. Ea. $1.50.) Actors and Actresses of Great Britain. From the N. Y. Commercial Advertiser. The first volume of this series relates to Garrick and his contemporaries, and as is designed for each of the five volumes, it is a complete book by itself, possessed of the crowning emblem of sovereignty, an index of its own. The scheme is to present a brief biographical and critical sketch of each of the dozen or fifteen characters treated in a volume, prepared by writers who have made a special study of the subject, and to supplement these sketches with stage anecdotes and comments culled from various sources, chiefly the published memoirs and biog raphies. It is a consequence of the arrangement adopted that the sketches are very brief, and in proportion to their brevity does the biographical element preponderate over the critical. This gives to the sketches an appearance of compactness and abbreviation, and adds as well to their value for purposes of reference. Within the limits assigned them the authors have handled their material to the best possible advantage. There is a great satisfaction in being introduced to interesting people by interesting people who are common friends, but there is something almost exasperating in meeting Peg Woffington under Austin Dobson's auspices, only to be cut short after the introduction in order to be trotted up to somebody else. Mr. William Archer has been al lowed somewhat more generous space than most of the contributors, and he has given to his sketches of Macklin and Tate Wilkinson a special charm, which is also found in Mr. Brander Matthews' notice of Samuel Foote. The anecdotes and comments are taken from all sources, both obvious and rare, and a work like Boswell's "Johnson" is freely drawn from. When a period within the scope of modern journalism is reached, doubtless contemporary newspaper and periodical notice will furnish abundant information. As an encyclopædia of the leading dramatic figures and incidents of the last two centuries, the series will have a permanent value quite apart from the pleasure that lies in having a fascinating subject touched by competent hands. The writers besides those mentioned are Messrs. Robert W. Lowe, Walter Herries Pollock, Percy Fitzgerald and Edward Eggleston, and several have written more than one sketch. (Cassell. $1.50.) The Choice of Books. Extract from the Catholic World. Frederick Harrison is a positivist-in fact, a leader in the school of Comte. He is also a very keen writer on literary subjects, and in his "Choice of Books, and Other Literary Pieces" there are many thoughtful things well said. . . . His literary dicta are generally sound and sensible. Nothing could be more sympathetic and at the same time more discriminating than his view of George Eliot's work. "The canvas of laborious culture is too often visible through the coloring of the picture," he writes, and he abstains from extravagant eulogy. But when he approaches the moral question of George Eliot's relations with George Lewes, he loses his grasp and becomes confused. He insists that she experienced a gradual religious evolution from the rigid Protestant formalism of her girlhood-which was as lacking in joy as her later agnosticism was lacking in hope -to the "cardinal ideas of positivism." Being a follower of Comte, Mr. Harrison wants to appropriate what is best in Christian society without acknowledging the power by which this best is kept permanent. He says that "whilst religion (Protestanism) and opinion still sanction divorce, the unsettlement of ideas will still be profound. But we trust the future will recognize that responsibility in marriage and happiness in marriage alike depend on its irrevocable 99 66 "Father Juni nature." He cannot reconcile George Eliot's princi- Descriptions that are like a Diaz landscape, in ples to her practice. He makes himself as vague as their rich brilliancy gem these papers. possible; for it is hard to admit that the woman who Among the essays here collected are has preached the most exalted and purposeless altru- pero and His Work," The Present Condition of ism should have given the lie to the possibility of the Mission Indians in California,” “A Burns Pilkeeping her precepts without the safeguards of Chris- | grimage," "Bergen Days," "The Katrina Saga," tianity by deliberately, and in the face of the world, "The Village of Oberammergau," and "The Passion breaking that moral law which is the foundation of Play at Oberammergau." The work is one of persociety. "The moral law," Mr. Harrison admits, manent value, and will be greatly prized. (Roberts. "is infinitely more precious than the personal hap- $1.50.) piness of any; and the sufferings of exceptional cases must be borne with resignation, lest harm befall the sanctity of every home and the 'moral currency' be debased." Mr. Harrison views St. Bernard as the saviour of Europe, but only the material saviour; of the highest spiritual meanings of the saint's mission he has no conception. Parts of "On the Choice of Books" will bear reading and re-reading; the dicla are very sound, so far as what to avoid is concerned. (Macmillan. pap., 50c.) American Diplomacy. Extract from the Chicago Tribune. Eugene Schuyler, who was in the United States diplomatic service for seventeen years, beginning as Consul at Moscow and ending as Minister Resident and Consul-General to Greece, Roumania, and Servia, has revised and recast two series of lectures delivered From the Boston Evening Traveller. Helen Hunt Jackson has left another monumental memorial of her literary life in the volume entitled "Glimpses of Three Coasts," which is just published and includes some fourteen papers relating to life in California and Oregon, in Scotland and England, and on the North Shore of Europe in Germany, Denmark and Norway. The sketches are marked by that peculiar charm that characterizes Mrs. Jack-affairs are managed, but he is not able to speak with son's interpretations of nature and life. She had the divining gift of the poet; she had the power of philosophic reflection; and these, with her keen observation and swift sympathies, and ardent temperament, make her the ideal interpreter of a country's life and resources. It is impossible to analyze such writing. The unknown element, the elusive secret, which is its charm, escapes one like an impalpable essence. It is true that one may become absorbed in Mrs. Jackson's sketches as in a novel. How finely the note is struck in this paper on "Out-Door Industries in Southern California." "Climate is to a country what temperament is to a man-fate. The figure is not so fanciful as it seems: for temperament, broadly defined, may be said to be that which determines the point of view of a man's mental and spiritual vision,-in other words the light in which he sees things. And the word climate is, primarily, simply a statement of bounds defined according to the obliquity of the sun's course relative to the horizon-in other words, the slant of the sun. The tropics are tropic because the sun shines down too straight. Vegetation leaps into luxuriance under the nearly vertical ray; but human activities languish; intellect is supine; only the passions, human nature's rank weed-growths, thrive. In the temperate zone again the sun strikes the earth too much aslant. Human activities develop; intellect is keen; the balance of passion and reason is normally adjusted; but vegetation is slow and restricted." Among the out-door industries of California Mrs. Jackson gives grape culture the first place. equal warmth of our diplomatic or consular service. The latter, in particular, labors under serious defects. The Consuls are underpaid, and they are not selected for their fitness, but simply on political grounds. Owing to constant disagreement between the department and the House of Representatives the recommendations of the former have generally come to naught, and what the latter has done has been in the way of mischievous economy. The need of a systematic reorganization of the service is strongly insisted on, and doubtless with justice. If this country is to be represented abroad, it should be by competent and well-paid men. It was the opinion of Lord Palmerston, who knew what he was talking about, that the giving of dinners was an essential part of diplomacy. No American Minister, however, gets enough-unless he draws on his private means-to allow him to perform those social duties which, after all, form the most valuable part of his functions. Otherwise he cannot get on terms of intimacy with men of prominence and influence, cannot learn anything, and cannot accomplish anything. To be intimately acquainted with the Minister of Foreign Affairs implies often the ability to settle in a brief personal conference a question which might otherwise require a protracted and perhaps ineffectual correspondence. It is suggested, looking at the subject from a commercial standpoint, that the most important mission is that to England; next comes that to Spain, by reason of Cuba and Porto Rico; then Mexico; then the Sandwich Islands; then the countries of Eastern Asia, with which there is a steadily increasing trade; and then Germany, which is of special importance to the large migration therefrom, and the many questions which are constantly arising. As for France and other European countries, they should be looked on as of minor importance. which the native born citizen can neither feel nor understand." In his preface he declares that he seeks to show to the plain, common folk, the democracy of Britain, the progress, prosperity and happiness of their child, the Republic, that they may still more deeply love it and learn that the government of the people through the republican form, and not the government of a class through the monarchical form, is the great foundation of individual growth and of national greatness. He is also anxious that Americans should more fully appreciate the institutions .which obtain in this country, and with a few other words of introduction Mr. Carnegie begins to wrestle with his self-imposed task. Mr. Schuyler claims for the United States the credit of having been the first to insist on the now admitted principle of international law that the people who live on the upper waters of a river have a right to navigate it to the sea through the dominions of another Power. It carried its point in the case of the Mississippi and the St. Lawrence. It was earnest in the advocacy of neutral rights, and as long as it had a commercial marine was foremost in making the decadence of the monarchical form of governtreaties which helped the interests of trade and commerce. (Scribner. $2.50.) Triumphant Democracy. Extract from the N. Y. Herald. Mr. Andrew Carnegie, the rich iron manufacturer of Pittsburg, Pa., is becoming quite a man of letters. He has written two or three books descriptive of his travels, which were pleasant reading enough, but his last work, which now lies before us fresh from the press of Charles Scribner's Sons, he probably considers the crowning literary labor of his life. It is entitled "Triumphant Democracy; or, Fifty Years' March of the Republic," and is probably the most eulogistic glorification of the United States that was ever written. It would have been strange indeed had the author treated otherwise the country of his adoption to which he owes so much. The fifty years' march of the Republic is marvelous, we admit; but with what adjective can we characterize the upward growth and development of Mr. Andrew Carnegie himself? Let us glance at his career. He was born about fifty years ago in the dirty town of Dunfermline, in Scotland. He came to this country with his parents when he was a boy, and secured employ. ment as a messenger at a weekly wage of $2.50. Being shrewd and canny he worked his way upward, and he now controls four of the largest iron and steel works in the country, and is very rich. A radical in politics, he had an ambition to influence public opinion in Great Britain, and he formed a syndicate to purchase a number of daily and weekly newspapers in that country, which are all now in a flourishing condition and are paying their way, while at the same time disseminating Mr. Carnegie's democratic ideas. A remarkable man is Mr. Carnegie, and any book from his pen is worthy of consideration. The author thus dedicates his book: "To the beloved Republic under whose equal laws I am made the peer of any man, although denied political equality by my native land, I dedicate this book with an intensity of gratitude and admiration His book is divided into twenty chapters. It is a stout octavo of some five hundred pages. Its red cover is adorned with various devices emblematic of ment. The Republic is represented by a pyramid standing firm on its base and proudly raising aloft its summit. An inverted pyramid, balanced on its apex, and threatening soon to topple over, pictures the present condition of monarchy. A golden mace, broken in two, has also some significance in the same direction. On the cover are also two pregnant passages from Mr. Gladstone and Lord Salisbury, the former high in praise of the American constitution and the latter eulogistic of the United States Senate and the Supreme Court. Mr. Carnegie waxes enthusiastic when he considers the commercial capabilities of the country. He points out with pride that "the coal area of the United States exceeds three hundred thousand square miles. The total coal area of the world is only 401,401 square miles; that of Great Britain is 11,900; so that the coal supply of America constitutes about three-fourths of the world's supply, and is twentyfive times as large as that of Great Britain." He glories in the fact that cotton manufactures have increased at a great rate in many lands, but nowhere so rapidly as in America. Those of England in 1880 were nearly six times greater than in 1830; those of America were eighteen and a half times greater." The He chuckles because more yards of carpet are manufactured in and around the city of Philadelphia alone than in the whole of Great Britain, and points out with pride that "many of the most important practical inventions which have contributed to the progress of the world during the past century originated with Americans. No other people have devised so many labor saving machines and appliances. first commercially successful steamboat navigated the Hudson and the first steamship to cross the Atlantic sailed under the American flag from an American port. America gave to the world the cotton gin and the first practical mowing, reaping and sewing machines. In the most spiritual, most ethereal of all departments in which man has produced great triumphs-viz., electricity-the position of the American is specially noteworthy." (Scribner. $2.) |