Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-09-03

THE DAYS OF JEzEBEL. An Historical
Drama by Peter Bayne Boston: Gould & Lin
CON. A favorite pursuit of historical students
nowadays is the restoration of damaged repu-
tations. Judas, Lucrezia Borgia and Henry
VIII have all been handsomely whitewashed
and made to appear really brilliant examples
of almost spotleSs virtue. Jazebel has waited
longer than either of the Others for a champion,
and she certainly needs one quite as much, for,
if Mr.. Bayne's conception of her character is
correct, she has been sadly maligned. The
her in the Bible narrative is uufavorable
enough, but even that does not account for the
fact that her name has become synonym for
the lowest degradation TO which a woman can
sink. Mr.. Bayne, with much learning and
acuteness, gives in his preface his reasons for
adopting different estimate of the character of
his heroine, for so we must call her, and the
events of her reign from that commonly received.
Jezebel he represents as a woman Of great beauty
and many accomplishments, with a strong
will, clear sighted aud adroit in practical
politics and with no mean conceptions of states
manship. She was well acquainted too with
the arts and letters her time, which the author
supposes had attained in the Phenician cities a
development not inferior to that which they soon
after reached in Asia Minor and Heas. Her
fault was that in religion she was willing only
10 tolerate the worship ofJehOvah az one among
the gods of the land, and refused to abandon the
divinities of her fathers-and that in politics,
like Greeley and his supporters nowadays, she
favored "local sellgovernmeut" and opposed
the centralized theocracy preached by Elijah.
Ahab was poor creature, but his wife in Mr..
Bayne's verse is a heroic figure struggling
brayely against an adverse destiny, and COM
handing the sympathy of the reader as Millions
Satan does. Mr.. Bayne's verse is vigorous and
rhythmical and his poem, aside from its original
ity of subject and treatment, deserves praise for
its purely literary merit. 1t is for sale by San
ford & Co.
The Wears DAUGHTER. An autobiography
cal story by George Macdonald. Boston
Roberts Brothers. This story has been pub
lished as a serial in English and American mag
azines, and has already made for itself readers
and admirers. 1t is intended as a sequel to
Canals of a Quiet Neighborhood" and "The
Seaboard Parish" but has separate interest of
its own for those who have not read the previ-
Gus volumes. 1t is not one of the authors best
efforts, indeed we do not think he has written
anything which has so little attraction for the
general reader. The story purports to be writ
ten by daughter, whose father is an author
and urges her to try her hand at storytelling
She demurs, takes up too much space in apol-
ogy and sell-depreciation, and when at last she
gets to her work is desultory and inconsecutive,
making a collection of sketches rather than
symmetrical narrative, and is moreover too
metaphysical for woman or, indeed, for any
body who is not ayowedly writing a treatise on
mental and moral philosophy. Still the book
has fine points, as any work of Mr.. Macdonald
could hardly fail to have. 1t is for sale by San
ford & Co.
USAwAREs, by the author of The Rose Gar
den. Boston; Roberts Brothers This story
short and very simple in plot and method, is
nevertheless a delightful little book. Like its
predecessor, The Rose Garden, it is story of
French life among the middle classes in French
village. 1t doesn't amount to much as a story,
but the descriptive pictures are so bright and
the good doctor and his ward Therese, the prin-
cipal figures, are so lifeike, that we are sorry,
when we come to the last page to lay down the
book. Sanford & Co. have it for sale here.