we mistake not, on a tradition told of the ancestor of a living baronet. The situation is striking, but the scene where the dreadful discovery is made by the murdered man's son should have been amplified. Indeed, all that this story needed in order to become a really powerful tale was a more ingenious construction, a better method of arranging and evolving the imaginative material at the writer's command. Carlyle's remark that, given the imaginative material contained within the lines of "Hamlet," it would still require a Shakespeare to make, by power of construction, the play vital, is not, perhaps, so true of "Hamlet" as of certain other great works, but it is generally admirable, and applies to all imaginative literature. This lack of constructive power on the part of the writer of "Kriegspiel" is not unlikely to stand in the way of his tale's prosperity with the general novel-reader. But whatever may be the temporary success of any work of fiction, the quality by which it really passes into literature is that of truth of organic detail. The incidents, the manners, and the scenery must be so true that they seem From "A Woman with a Kuture." Copyright, 1896, by F. A. Stokes Co. HESPERIA. to be a natural growth. Here is Mr. Groome's strength. His pictures of East Anglia and the lights and shades of East Anglian character and manners are worthy of the writer of "Two Suffolk Friends"; and as regards the pictures of gypsy life, the book is full of touches which could only have come from a writer who has had intimate personal contact with the Romanies, and who was at the same time deeply versed in their traditional lore. This enables him to introduce touches that seem to spring up as naturally as flowers from the soil. As a gypsy novel, as a novel depicting gypsy life, "Kriegspiel" is unrivalled. (Ward, Lock & Bowden, Ltd. $1.50.)-The Athenæum. A Woman with a Future. A NEW book by the author of "The Grasshoppers" will be gladly welcomed by all who delight in the quiet descriptive style of which Mrs. Dean is so finished a master. Family life with its petty but irritating little troubles and misfortunes is her specialty. Little schemes for eking out small incomes, little plans of housekeeping, little details of daily life she works into little scenes that could be easily transformed by a painter into most captivating pictures of home-life. In her latest book Mrs. Dean draws two portraits of women: one an old-fashioned, duty-loving, devoted mother; the other a young wife of the period, devoted to pleasure and flirtation, who takes no interest in her husband's life-work, and all but ruins him by her careless extravagance. This woman has not had much past, but she prepares for herself a future of which the two ingenious letters with which the book closes give a very distinct fore cast. Mrs. Dean has read the present style of novels to good purpose. She pictures the style of home created by a woman who has for years delighted in decadent poets, impressionist painters, and novels which treat of "new woman" and the "higher life." The story is so slight, that were it told the reader would be cheated of some pleasure; still the charm rests not in the plot, but in the little touches by which Mrs. Dean brings out the characters and peculiarities of the actors in the little drawingroom drama. (Stokes. 75 c.) Preparing the Banquet. "I GUESS they take us for a pair of animals," observed Tommy, as he glanced about at the peaceful beasts. "Some new kind," he added. "That must be it," said the ex-Pirate, absent-mindedly; "but I wish we could find the Sheep." "In this crowd!" exclaimed the Gopher, who The three walked along for some time in silence, and they saw all sorts of queer things as they went. In a retired corner the Hippopotamus was shaving himself with a razor-backed Hog, who kept up a perpetual snorting and grunting. Near by an old mother Pig was putting her little Pigs' tails up in curl-papers for the night. Further along the Armadillo, the Turtles, the Hedge-Hog, the Porcupine, squatted on the floor together, were playing dominoes. A Leopard-like creature sat near by, watching the game, looking very much diappointed and mournful. "They won't let him play," volunteered the Gopher, "because he's a Cheetah." All this time there was much bustle and preparation going on in the middle of the hall. The Monkey tribe, of which there must have been a hundred, were bringing up tables and stools and benches from down below somewhere, and were stretching these out the entire length of the big room. They made a banqueting-board much longer than Tommy had ever seen before, and then they laid plates and mugs along the edges, enough to accommodate all. The Monkeys made first-rate waiters, and the big Gorillas bossed them around, and kept them working "just like real waiters in a restaurant," thought Tommy. "There's the Sheep!" shouted the ex-Pirate suddenly, and he pointed out their old friend, came up at that moment. "Why, that's like sitting on a bench about a third of the way looking for a beetle in a smoke-stack." down from the head of the long table. They hastened towards him, for the animals were taking seats rapidly. (Harper. $1.25.)-From Lee's "Tommy Toddles." Among the Freaks. MR. W. L. ALDEN has been to Chicago for his latest volume. He represents himself as having made the acquaintance of the proprietor of a dime museum there, who was induced to part with sundry incidents in his career. The dime museum is essentially an American institution. We get an occasional "skeleton man" or "fat woman" in the booths of a country fair, but the "Freak Show," as such, is only to be seen to perfection across the Atlantic. The " freaks," by reason of their peculiarities, lend themselves readily to Mr. Alden's treatment, and their loves and hates, their sentiments and passions, are sufficiently ridiculous for a humorist of quite average ability to make capital from, without any gross exaggeration. Of course, the best stories occur with the manufactured articles, who are always in danger of detection, and who generally get "given away" at some particularly nopportune moment. Mr. J. F. Sullivan and Miss Florence K. Upton, help out the text admirably with their genuinely funny illustrations. (Longmans, Green & Co. $1.25.)London Literary World. History of Prussia. THE Concluding volume of the "History of Prussia Under Frederic the Great," by the late Professor Herbert Tuttle, of Cornell University, leaves unfinished a work which in its wealth erudition, scientific exactitude and philosophical tone is acknowledged by eminent authorities to stand among the foremost productions of modern historical literature. The book now published contains the first three chapters of the third volume of Professor Tuttle's "Frederic," or the fourth of his "History of Prussia." It opens with the march into Saxony, in the autumn of 1756, reviews the general aspect of European affairs, as they were affected by Saxon subjugation, and follows in detail the progress of the memorable "Year of Battles," from the battle of Prague to that of Leuthen. In spite of the illness with which the author was stricken, and which finally brought his life to an end, these three chapters show no trace of weakness in thought or manner, but are as logical in their marshalling of events and as vigorous in the judgment passed upon men and affairs as were any of the preceding volumes. Professor Herbert B. Adams, in a sympathetic biographical sketch included in the volume, speaks of Professor Tuttle as "perhaps the only original American scholar in the domain of Prussian history." In fact, it is probably not too much to say that he has given a new reading to many incidents that have hitherto been partially obscured or sadly misinterpreted. All the vast literature that has grown up since Carlyle's day he had completely mastered, and his command of the original authorities enabled him, as Professor Adams observes, to clear away many historical delusions which Carlyle and Macaulay had perpetuated. The story of his life, as Professor Adams concisely gives it, is that of the ideal scholar, who never spared himself in his search after truth, and who sacrificed health and strength and a career of future usefulness in his persistent and tireless pursuit of his chosen studies. He was a man of many friends, whose recollections add much to the interest of the biography. (Houghton, Mifflin & Co. $1.50.)- The Beacon. The Damnation of Theron Ware. FOR his latest novel, "The Damnation of Theron Ware," Harold Frederic has taken for his theme a subject somewhat analogous to that which Mr. Howells treated in "A Modern Instance." The story deals with the career of a young Methodist minister, who had not strength of character enough to withstand the influences of a new theological and social environment, and who went to pieces with a rapidity of degeneration that will be surprising only to those who have never met a Theron Ware in the flesh. Mr. Frederic's story is very carefully worked out, and it presents an effective series of contrasts in its portrayal of militant Methodism on the one hand, and of a tranquil, easy-going Catholicism on the other. In presenting this picture Mr. Frederic has brought out effects that are entirely new in American fiction, and his characters, nearly all of them, stand out with lifelike impressiveness. Theron Ware himself is undoubtedly a type, but in Mr. Frederic's hands he has distinct individuality. He has that fatal gift of persuasive oratory so often associated with lack of moral stamina, and when he casts off his traditional beliefs and tries to become a man of the world, his downfall is only the outward and visible sign of an innate tendency. Mr. Frederic has undoubtedly produced a book that will be read with conflicting emotions by a widely divergent class of readers, and though some of them may question the validity of some of the scenes which he depicts, no one can question the essential veracity of the whole picture. Given such and such characters and such and such conditions, and the story works itself out in its own way, and leads up to a sequel that is grimly humorous in its inevitability. "The Damnation of Theron Ware" is not likely to be a popular novel, as novels go, but there have been few American stories in recent years better worthy the attention of those who seek for originality and artistic power. (Stone & Kimball. $1.50.)- The Beacon. The Columbian Knowledge Series. THE editor of the Columbian Knowledge series has been singularly happy in the selection of subjects for the volumes that have thus far appeared. "Total Eclipses of the Sun," Public Libraries in America," and 'Arctic Discoveries" are all subjects of timely interest, and each is, in a sense, complete in itself; that is, deserving of special treatment, although really but a part of some larger subject. General A. W. Greely's "Handbook of Arctic Discoveries" is essentially a manual of facts, concisely stated and well arranged, condensed from the 50,000 pages of narrative that have grown up about the subject, mostly during the past half-century. The book is divided into a series of sketches, under separate chapters, devoted to special lines of exploration regardless of chronological bearing. It is well supplied with maps, and will be found in every way helpful to those interested in Arctic exploration. (Roberts. ea., $1.)—The Dial. Etidorhpa. UPON a first examination The Inter-Ocean pronounced it the strongest fiction of a decade and its author a literary genius. While it abounds in romance and adventure that taxes the imagination, yet the author never for a moment loses sight of the truths of science which he unfolds with grace and beauty. The style is severely simple and the theories so bold and so well executed to a finish as to charm the reader. The volume has no impure teaching in all its chapters. Faith in God and all Copyright, 1895, by Robert Clarke & Co. things pure and true and beautiful shine out in white light all through the pages. It is the strangest mixing of science, mythology, theosophy, and morals the reader will anywhere find, and told in such a Jules Verne style as to constantly call out the wonder of the reader. The first edition of the work was speedily exhausted, and Messrs. Robert Clarke & Co. have issued a beautiful edition at a reduced price. The artist deserves also a special commendation for the excellence of his artistic work. (Robert Clarke & Co. $2.)-The Inter-Ocean. verse, and it is this translation which the author uses throughout his work to enable the reader of modern English only to compare the two poems, side by side. The book is a full comparative study of Cadmon's and Milton's account of the rebellion in heaven; the expulsion of the rebel hosts from the empyrean; the creation of the starry universe; the council in hell; the fall of man; and the banishment from Eden. There is, besides, a characteristic chapter on the "Angel of Presumption and Other Devils"; and another equally suggestive one on "The Three Poetic Hells." In the latter chapter Dr. Gurteen introduces the "Inferno" of Dante, and shows the difference between the early legendary hell of Cadmon, the mediæval, philosophical hell of Dante, and the modern traditional hell of Milton. parison the two most remarkable poets in English sacred literature-Cadmon and Miltonthe monk-poet of the seventh century and the puritan-poet of the seventeenth. The author's object is to show the points of similarity and divergence between these two men of genius in their mode of treating the subject of "Paradise Lost," and by comparison of passages from their respective works to emphasize the correspondence that at times exists between the two poems in the invention of incident, and, at times, even in the wording of some impassioned speech. Dr. Gurteen, in the last chapter, gives a translation of the Anglo-Saxon poem in blank From Mrs. Oliphant's "Jeanne d'Arc." Copyright, 1896, by G. P. Putnam's Sons. JEANNE D'ARC. The plates in this work (twenty-six) give a distinctive character to the book. The volume contains, in addition, a number of diagrams explanatory of the comparative study. (Putnam. $2.50.) A Dancer in Yellow. WE are well content to read Mr. Norris's smooth and unruffling fictions as long as he is pleased to send them forth so well finished and, as far as they go, perfect. His characters never appear to be very real, their passions are not strong, but everything is expressed in admirable proportion, and there is never any rudeness or vehemence to throw the picture out of key. This story is a most agreeable specimen of his art; the hero is the young man to whom Mr. Norris has accustomed us, weak and impres sionable, possibly a somewhat dull fellow, but redeemed from commonplace by the rare distinction of being a perfect gentleman. Mr. Norris is eminently restful, and none of his books has surpassed "The Dancer in Yellow" in this his peculiar quality. (Appleton. $1; pap., 50 c.)-The Athenæum. |