drawn with the strength born of knowledge of the types for which they stand and a small sociological problem is solved -at least for the Will Warburtons. The chances are that much of the work is autobiographical; Warburton would appear to have many of the author's own traits. In all, it is an able presentment of life in modern London, and no one who reads it can fail to enjoy its wealth of sentiment, its abundance of allusion, its excellent descriptions and the people who make up its very entertaining company of characters. The England of Country Houses* A of appeal. Sainty-Lord's Belchamberan invalid of scholarly proclivities, affords something not common even to the best. novels of life among the upper English classes and the predicament into which chivalry leads a man too modest to demand a man's share of woman's affection, is startling with its freight of cruel possibility. Here is life and not a picture of the ideal. This is realism, and its truth hurts. There might have been a divorce; there might have been a crude desertionthe generosity that protected a woman wholely undeserving of protection, yet that made the very effort to shield a humiliating punishment, an unrelieved burdenhas in it the spirit of the more complex. personality, the restraint of a nature trained to endure and to conceal. Mr. Sturgis is never brutal; in the class which he has undertaken to portray the brutality of Mrs. Frankau, for instance, would have been incongruous. At the same time it is to be regretted that a story such as this one has need to be written, though in the light of facts the moral preached with such strength of purpose and such force of realism, must bear in its train more chance for good than for evil. The Struggle in the Far East1 N eye-witness to most of the scenes which he so graphically describes, the author of this book has endeavored to set a number of the incidents of the Russian-Japanese conflict before the eyes of his readers in a way to impress them with the full significance of a war in which two first-class Powers are pitted against one another. The pictures afforded are vivid, nothing that has been written. about the war in the Far East has had so much of tangible color, so much of dramatic force. Again the Japanese, with their heroic, patriotic spirit; again the cold and the hardships; the hunger and the dying; war is a bloody ordeal and among all wars this is one of the bloodiest. At *BELCHAMBER. By Howard Overing Sturgis. G. P. Putnam's Sons. THE YELLOW WAR. By "O." Illustrated. McClure, Phillips & Co. the blocking of Port Arthur, superior officers gave their lives in mad efforts to save their men; at one point of the fighting a Japanese officer, educated in England, is described thus, with the craze and fanaticism of battle upon him: A little figure leaped in front of the firing. For a moment the face was turned towards the Foreigner. The mildness, the culture, the charm were gone: animal ferocity alone remained. It was Kamimoto as he would have been a hundred years ago. His two-handed sword was bare in his hand. He raised it gleaming above his head and dashed into the amphitheatre. Like a pack of hounds his men streamed after him. The Foreigner covered his face with his hands. The end was too terrible. . Throughout the the narrative fictitious names have been employed. The papers were originally prepared for "Blackwood's Magazine" and the author is one of the few war correspondents who actually had access to the field. T Reviewed by George E. Roth HREE dramas of absolutely unlike subject matter and treatment offer a nice study in contrast. One is a realistic depiction of English social life, another is a strong metrical dramatization of an old Scandinavian folk story, and the third aims to be a sympathetic treatment of a well-worn classical subject. Mr. Henry Arthur Jones's "Mrs. Dane's Defence"* first appeared at Wyndham's Theatre, London, five years ago. As a clever piece of realism, it grows in one's estimation. The play seems a very natural and faithful reproduction of actual Eng lish social conditions, with slight traces of being too minutely studied to possess very vital dramatic qualities. The witching Mrs. Dane, strongly feminine and appealing but with an unfortunate past, the quarreling Mr. and Mrs. Bulsom-Porter, the acute, world-wise Sir Daniel Carteret, and the diplomatic Lady Eastney are strikingly individual. As one would expect from Mr. Jones, melodramatic touches are rarely even suggested, and the conclusion is satisfying to the ethical sense. "Fenris, the Wolf" is the author's second published drama. The theme is dual in nature, partaking of one of Browning's favorite problems, the evolution of human consciousness from brute instinct, and A Volume MR Goethe's Faust-principle of renunciation. The material is splendidly adapted to the theme, and the writer adheres closely to the folk story. It is a tale of the gods. Baldur, the Beautiful, and Fenris, the offcast, brute offspring of Odin, both love the divine maiden Frejya. In incarnated form Fenris evolves human consciousness by the power of music and the pity of Frejya. The supreme test comes when the human love of Frejya and the eternal principle of self-renunciation for the preservation of the world, lie open to the choice of Fenris. immortal soul is created in him. Mr. MacHe finally decides for the latter, and an kaye's work possesses compelling interest and beautifies a tale that ought to be known more widely. Several alliterative passages given by Fenris add much color to the play. We suppose that "The Judgment of Paris'' aims to present, by selective wordpicturing, a living Paris and a new Trojan mob. The author has not had ill success. He has given us some really fine lines, as when Oenone says to Paris, "I see the far import of things, while thou art taken with their immediate flush." The play is a pretty, poetic interpretation of the wellknown classic legend, and this poetic vein atones for the crude presentation of the Trojan mob. of Reminiscences* R. HUTTON revised the manuscript of this work just before he died, and therefore it stands as the last work left by him to his many friends and admirers. In these talks we are given what is, practically speaking, an autobiography of one of the most interesting of American men of letters, a man with *MRS. DANE'S DEFENCE. By Henry Arthur Jones. The Macmillan Company. FENRIS THE WOLF. By Percy Mackaye. The Macmillan Company. THE JUDGMENT OF PARIS. By Peter Fandel. The Poet-Lore Company. It needed a sympathetic listener and Mr. Hutton could entertain for hours with anecdotes and reminiscences. And Mrs. Isabel Moore was a sympathetic listener indeed, and when disinclination would have prevented Hutton from making a book of his literary recollections, Mrs. Moore undertook to listen systematically and later to make the book for him. TH Fiction of Entertainment Brothers in Peril* He HEODORE ROBERTS in "Brothers in Peril" follows the awakened America in her quest for the foundations on which she builds her life. weaves a story of love adventure, discovering about the Beothics, the original inhabitants of Newfoundland, a people, a language and a history unknown or forgotten. A race peaceable and "mild-mannered" could not long withstand the cupidity, the daring of the pirates and fishermen who came to the wilderness for gold. He shows that Newfoundland "was the prey of England, France, Spain and Portugal, that their fishermen and adventurers toiled together, and that 'fish, not glory, was their quest,'" and that "greed" and that "greed" was their "two-edged sword" which not only hounded the aborigines, but "discouraged the settlement of the land by stout hearts of whatever nationality." To those interested in original races there is something deep underlying the story. Not only for the race whose hair was as frequently yellow as black or brown, but for the way the fisherman faced pirates, would-be settlers, danger, hardship, and took with insolence and without conscience anything within sight for self. So powerful at court were these adventurers that they could slay or strangle in the palace of the king the noble who would build for the glory of England or the dreamer who would strike at the wilderness for God and His kingdom. We are face to face with the men who gained the mastery, and see the background as the writer presents it, where "a purple *BROTHERS IN PERIL. By Theodore Roberts. Illustrated. L. C. Page & Bros. band hung above it like a belt of magic wampum-the belt of some mighty god. Above that night the silent hunter set up the walls of his lodge of darkness," and out of the darkness he brings a glimpse of the history that made a nation of the wilderness. KATE BLACKISTON STILLE. A Courier of Fortune* Μ' R. MARCHMONT'S tales of intrigue and adventure have been widely read. While in no sense historical novels, they are couched in this vein, and so convincingly are they told, that one perforce believes, nearly, that the thing itself has occurred. In the present volume, Lord Gerard de Bourbon has been sent by his father, who is all powerful in France, on a secret mission, to look into and ameliorate the reported ill-treatment of the townsfolk by the Governor of Moraix. The young man assumes an other name, and on this fact turn the com plications which follow. plications which follow. Owing to this, too, he finds a betrothed. The Governor, though married long since, and whose wife is now a hopeless invalid, is also in love with the maid, and offers her the indignity of a proposal to divorce his wife and marry her instead. On her refusal, he submits Gerard to every kind of trouble, and has him engaged in many a melee. As is to be expected, the hero rises above every obstacle, and as a final denouement, announces under the most dramatic conditions who he really is. The Governor in his rage and despair attempts to thrust his sword into Gerard, and, being foiled, turns the *A COURIER OF FORTUNE. Arthur W. Marchmont. Frederick A. Stokes Company. weapon upon himself. While the fiance of Gerard is presumably the heroine, there is a winsome lass whose caprices fill much of the volume. B. J. ROTART. The Accomplice* DDED to the pleasure that we are A reading a well-written story is the knowledge that "The Accomplice" is the work of an author who is thoroughly conversant with his subject, and who expresses himself with a certainty and skill that is wholly convincing. The book appears to have as its mission the serious purpose of proving how easily a great and sad mistake may be made by depending entirely on circumstantial evidence. A respected citizen is supposed to have committed suicide, but an investigation develops a case of murder. Circumstances point to the murdered man's secretary, a young woman of unblemished character. Indicted, she is placed on trial, and it is here in the court room that Mr. Hill shows his particular power, so vividly and strongly is drawn his picture of Judge, jury, witnesses, lawyers and audience. Several times during the trial pointed and ingenious questions of the foreman of the jury elicit evidence that transfers the line of suspicion from prisoner to witness, and again from witness to prisoner. The guilt of the accused seems about to be confirmed, when without any effort, a most unexpected and satisfactory climax is reached. Interwoven with the mystery of the story is a decidedly pretty romance which of itself would be entertaining enough. M. J. GILL. The Morals of Marcus ting his finger here and there upon the verities; yet intermittently, and with an unfortunate heaviness in less inspired moments. In "The Morals of Marcus Ordeyne" he has been able not only to sustain almost throughout the convincingness of nearly grotesque situation and of a combination of individualities scarcely less unusual; but to proceed consistently with a portrayal of character development issuing from these same grotesqueries of situation and personality, which seems a considerable achievement. As briefly as may be, the purpose of the book and the gist of its situation are: for the first a comment, undertaken with whimsical relish, upon the inadequacies of accepted moral standards; for the second, as follows: Marcus Ordeyne, student and tutor in an English school, falls heir to a title and the moderate wealth thereunto attached, and some time subsequently to the person and responsibilities of a beautiful and unchaperoned damsel, reared in a Turkish harem. Sir Marcus's prior obligations have been limited to an ill-defined relationship with a woman of intellect and temperamental charm, who has definitely committed herself, some years earlier, to a life divorced from the solaces of conventional respectability; to his cook and his valet, and secondarily to a few acquaintances, among them the irresistible libertine, Sebastian Pasquale, and finally to an exhaustive work on Renaissance morals, to which Sir Marcus brings a leisurely, comprehensive scholarship and the temper of a broad and habitual student. It is fairly to be suspected that the tone of the book is at least generally subjective. Written in the first person, Sir Marcus's scholarship, his convictions and his philosophy of life have a vitality that betrays them. He exhibits at times a delicate wit, and again a broadly sympathetic humor; his narrative is unhurriedly interspersed with allusion to the humanities, and lastly he has achieved the portrayal of two feminine characters whose precise type in fiction the reviewer cannot call to mind. It is a matter of some regret that the author could not have preserved unbroken throughout, the composure of style and the ΤΗ There are also three little grand-daughters, two, twins and the third a deaf-mute. This third little girl figures much in the story, and yet, oddly enough, seems throughout to be a superfluous character. She adds little interest, and it is almost as if Mrs. Murfree had taken her from life and forced her upon the balance of her characters. There are quaint negro characters, faithful beyond all comprehension; the usual incidents attendant upon an army invasion of a region; some love-making by the northern officers; a visit secretly to Judge Roscoe's home by his son, his discovery and escape; the severe illness of one of the Northern officers, his later arrest for letting young Roscoe escape, a corroboration of damaging testimony by the litle deaf-mute, and his exoneration, ending with his immediate marriage to Leonora after his release from prison. B. J. ROTART. A New Utopian Dream* HE modern Utopia must be not static but kinetic, must shape not as a permanent state, but as a hopeful stage, leading to a long ascent of stages." Mr. Wells thus differentiates his conception from all the Utopian conceptions of the past, thus states his conviction of the inconceivability per se of any Utopia at all, in the sense in which we are used to employ the word. The metaphysical aspects of the logical impasse into which we are thus led need not be discussed, since Mr. Wells does not treat them with further detail, except as to considerations set forth in the appendix, "The Scepticism of the Instrument" may seem generally applicable to the case. He has apparently merely digressed from the Utopian convention in preferring a logical to a material fallacy. In short, Mr. Wells's interpretation of Utopia is a world mainly like this one *THE STORM CENTER. By Charles Egbert Craddock. The Macmillan Company. A MODERN UTOPIA. By H. G. Wells. Illustrated. Charles Scribner's Sons. its physical counterpart for purposes of comparison-but at a stage of civilization not only further advanced, but on a higher plane, a world wherein the better, that is to say, the more mentally complex and individualistic element has been of a sufficient preponderance for a sufficient. period of time to effect a world-attitude on points social, economic, educational and judicial, which the best minds of our misgoverned orb have already generally conceived as being an immeasurable advance upon our own, but which we have as yet been unable to compass otherwise than speculatively. It would be impossible in the space of a short review to enter with any detail into the phases of Utopian life which are the subject-matter of Mr. Wells's discussion. With a method partly discursive, partly narrative, such topics are considered as the Utopian system of currency, which has very nearly succeeded in eliminating a ponderable medium of exchange, and employs in its stead units of physical energy; Utopian disciplines and freedoms. |