The Portland daily press., 1876-03-04


cessitated the wedding out of manv adiac,ves
and phases which added nothing to the clea,.
ness and detracted much from the form Of the
language
The Succeeding five volumes will rapidly ap-
pear, and because of their value as standard
history, their attractive form and their low
price, viii! be in demand by the reading public.
DEAR LADY DIsDAIN. A Novel, By Justin Nc
Carthy New York: Sheldon & Company. For
sale by Lorlng, Short & Harmon.
justin McCarthy's last novel, Dear Lady
Dlsdain," appeared in numbers in the Galaxy
and doubtless secured a large class of readers
before ever it was published 10 book form, as
this author writes in an entertaining and
readable fashion, and has a certain brilliancy
OF style always attractive. Usually in his
stories is to be found crowding Of plot and
inci1ent, only equalled in the sensational
Hash OF the dime novel order; there being the
marked difference, however that here we have
pure English and the undenable traces of rigor-
Gus thought and intellectual culture. Many of
Of US, to be sure, rather like the romantic aud
Startling provided it comes we'll recon-
| mended.
Dear Lady Disdain'' is, in this feature,
somewhat of an exception to his other works
| of more subdued and quiet character, good
deal of its merit lying in the bits of talk
through its pages, descriptive, analytical or
In the moralizing vein. 1t deals with the
course OF true love, that never did run smooth,
between two young people and we are to
watch the rise of the tender passion in the
heart of each, the separation In feeling from
misunderstanding and cruel circumstance, the
hnal reunion ard absorption into tidal wave
| OF bliss, which bears them away on q wedding
journey from England, the scene of events, to
| California and the Golden Gate. This is the
| thread OF the discourse. We are introduced to
some burlesque, English, women's-rights peo-
ple' who are working for an ideal reform and
have much to say on 'the church Of the future"
and kindred topics. One of the best sketches
in the book is of Sibyl Jansen, a young girl
/ with mission" who, when she had entered
upon the work of a prophecies and tried to
inspire Others in the cause, finds she has fol-
lowed in the steps OF her condemned sister
women and fallen in love. As it is not re-
turned she learns to her cost with what des-
tiny she might have satisfied her heart. All
this is very touchingly and sweesly told, and
she is one of the authors strongest characters
Certain scenes are laid in the United States,
and an American reader will be amused at the
explanations given of some of our terms, so
familiar to US as to make an explanation
absurd-and obliged for one or two corrections
offered to English ideas of u.s. The titie a
somewhat odd one, is illustrated early in the
story. One encounters good many eloquent
or forcibe expressions by the way. as for
instance, where 1t says a certain incident 'was
fastened into the mind by the spearhead of a
painful memory - ''Desr Lady Disdain,'
under the distinguished patronage of Justin
| Mccarthy, will not fail to command host of
admirers. ,ta
The WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. By George Du-
| plessis. New York: Scribner, Armstrong & Co.
For sale by Loring, Short & Harmon. le.I =.
This attractive volume is one of the illus
trated LIBRARY of Wonders" aud will prove
quite as entertaining as any in the series, for 10
is an Interesting history of the origin and de-
velopment of the various schools Of er grav-
log. The style is simple and coDcise. The
| manner of treatment is eminently satisfactory,
| Though not so full as many sould DESIRE It IS
as ample as the sc pc of the series Will per-
nit Preceding from an accouut Of the
origin of engraving on wood and metal lin
connection with which the old story Of the
Florentine goldsmith and the Pax and the
damp linen IS told) the author gives an account
OF engravers and engraving in Italy, Spain,
the Low Countries, Germany, France and Eng
land, concluding with an explanation of the
mechanical processes used 10 wood, copper or
steel engraving, etching, mezzotint, &c. The
volume is enriched with thirty -four illustra-
tions, embracing well-exe ,nted fac-simile, of
rare and notable prints, among chem one of
Rembrandts landscapes, Ruysdael's Cornfeld,
Rubens' st. Catherine, Vandyck's Portrait of
Synders, Albert Durers Virgin and Infant
Jesus, Ribera's Poet Hogarih's Marriage a 10
Mode, Claude Lorraine's Sunxise, Collots VAN
ity and Costume of Vatican.
| Notes. t--
Mr.. Geo. p. Lathrop viii have a critical
study of early American novelists in the April
Atlantic. ..--.5..
Mr. Charles Wells, the unrecognized poet
whom Mr.. Swinburne brought to light, is the
recipient OF the highest praise from the London
critical journals His book of poems was pub
lished fifty years ago and fell dead from the
press. HE is still alive" the Athenaum says,
i
this strangely belated fame"
The story is current that when Dante Ros-
setti's poems were published, some years ago,
they had lain for 10 years in his wife's coffin
and that, yielding to his friends solicitations,
he got an order from the secretary of state, had
the cofin exhumed and the manuscript taken
| out.
'Is there Sub;erranean Outlet to the Great
Lakes?" is question which will be discussed
in Scrlbner's Monthly for April, and another
OF Mr.. Clarence Cook 9 pers on "House Fur.
nishing" will appear in the same number
A new dramatic poem, a tragedy, called King
Eric, by Edmund w. Gosse, who has pub
llshed one or two volumes of less ambitious po-
etry in England is much praised by some of the
London critics. r..
| Mr.. Whipple, in his paper in Harper.s re-
ferring to Wadsworth's speaking of Chatterton
as the marvellous boy" says that Walt Whit
man might be styled "the marvellous b'boy."
The Nation, noticing the first book of
"Daniel Deronda,'' has this excellent COM
ment: striking figure in these opening
chapters is that of Herr Klesmer, German
music teacher, who has occasion to denounce
an aria of Bellini as expressing "a puerile
| state of culture-no sense of the universal"
There could not be better phrase than this
| latter one to express the secret of that deep
| interest with which the reader settles down to
| George Eiots widening narrative The "sense
| of the universal is constant, omnipresent.
1t strikes Us sometimes perhaps as rather con-
scious and over-cultivated; but it gives us the
feeling that the threads OF the narrative, as we
gather them into our hands, are not of the
usual commercial measurement, but long
electric wires capable of transmitting messages
from mysterious regions
| The irst volume of "Bancroit's History of
the United States" appeared in 1884 Since
that time twenty-five editions have been pub
lished; and now there is the first volume of
another and thoroughly revised edition. II is
| a rare felicity to revise The labors of ones
early manhood after lifetime of study, and
| tv present to another generation his own re.
vision of a volume which has acquired high
reputation before many who will now read IL