The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-12-15
Recent Publications.

Recent Publications.
Mr.. Clarence Cooks House Beautiful, New
York, Scribner, Armstrong & Co.; Portland.
Loring Short & Harmony is also work upon
household art, of very different though not
less charming kind from that of Mrs. Spof.
ford's book upon the same subject. 1t is a
guide, philosopher and friend for housekeepers
who wish to supply need with beauty as well as
use Without being in the least dictatorial, or
insisting upon the exclusive adoption of any
one style of furniture, the work is full of good
suggestions, founded upon the taste and ex-
perience of the author; and every reader is
left in entire liberty to profit by precisely so
much OF the counsel as peases himself. Mr.
Clarence Cooks volume is imbued with very
liberal spirit in every way; it has also caught
the over-eclectic tone that at present is the
danger of household artists, and looks COM
placently upon the close companionship OF arti-
cles OF times and nationalites the most re-
mote-South American pitchers in Russian
basins, Gothic side-boards and Flemish sofas
but as long as good taste governs the re-
suit, it is pedantry that would object to the
A2oaASs no pOiub W Uo m61d IL IudL IL IS
good taste that dictates and not fancy for 6ric-
a-brac as such, or for striking effects, which
rapidly deterorates the home into museum of
curios. Mr.. Cook also is given to the falling
with an angle of forty-fve degrees toward viz
tues side-of insisting upon as utter ''sincer-
ity' in furniture as if he were decorating the
Palace of Truth of Nine. de Genlis This
sincerity" is a fayorite expression of the iu-
nocent cant of the household artists, to whom
veneer'ng is as vice aud the glue-pos an abom.
ination, who insist upon sincere sldeboards,
armchairs upon their affidavit, and cherry
wood tables that cannot tell a lie. Though
these deyOtees of household art, of whom Mr.
Clarence Cook is one of the least strenuous or
limited in his theories insist upon certain points
with some unnecessary fervor, theirs is the zeal
of the reformer; and the effect of their teach
ing already begins to appear in the increase of
Individuality and taste in our homes Mr.
Cook emphasizes, too, the lesson that beauty
and cheapness ara not unreconclable; and, in
brief, the result of his delightful book is the
very acceptable lesson that 10 the decoration of
home every man-and woman-are to do what
seems good in the eyes that nature gave them,
and that, in household arr, as everywhere else,
what is good and beautiful is desirable Mr.,
Cooks style is easy, full of charming fancy
and piqqant quality of prose raised by entbu-
siasm and esprit to fair level of poetry. The
engravings are interesting and vary in merit,
Household Art is rapidly accommodating q
literature of its own, and several of the most
elegant gift-books of the holiday season are
devoted to this fascinating subject Mrs Hai-
riet Prescott Spoffords Art Decoration Ao-
piled to Furniture (Hsrper Brothers: New
York; Portland: Lofng, Short 8 Harmon) is
very complete aud artistic history of furai.
ture and household decoration through The cen-
turies since man found leisure from his prirns-
val labors to beautifS his home. The volume
is written With care; and tho opportunities for
thorough research connected With her suhject,
which were furnished Mrs. Spofford at the
Washington Library, wers fully improved.
The fervor and luxuriance of her style, its
poetry and its peryadng and rapid magnetism,
characterize the work; and her evident ease
and familiarity with the subject allow the
charm inseparabls from her writings to remain
unobscured By the details, mors severe and
limiting in their quality of special study.
than the department of poetry and fiction in
which she works. The chapters contained in
this volume have appeared 10 current numbers
of Harper's Magazine, and with their original
illustrations are promoted TO deserved honors
of fine paper and binding. The illustrations
are very numerous and well executed giving
examples of the superb or grotesque fanoes
hat bova inf uanoad kha r,,f, G
hold goods, some Of which ara of ideal mag
nihcance. The volume is rather history of
furniture than a manual to aid housekeeper,
of the present time; its specimens are typical
of various epochs of taste and luxury, bat are
suited to palaces rather than homes-but in its
department, as an artistic memoir of the pro-
gress of beauty In the household. as brilliant
ly written monograph upon a most charming
subject, it is deserving of the highest apprecia-
tiop.
A Pleasure Trip from Gotham to the Golden
Gate, BY Mrs. Frank Leslie New York: G. w.
Carleton; Portland: Bailey & Noyes), is a very
poorly written account of a trip from New
York to San Francisco-as the alliteratiye aud
sportive title may have led the reader TO sup
pOsCs AhO UOoh 10 h2fVECN WIN 0SOIlSul, aQU
written under great sense of elasion at the
consideration which the writer received while
making her tour. Some of these attentions
strike the reader as being of kind to dlsplease
refined taste; bat even the clumsy and repul-
sive banter of Brigham Young seems to have
been acceptable, and elicits gushing tribute
to the memory of that mucil- married mao
tribute Of that specious and unsuitable kind
that throws, with seeming generosity, m autle
of elaborate charity over unrepented vice.
Many of the pages of Mrs. Lsslie's work pos
sess interest, in that they describe in lively
manner the phenomenal scenery of the West;
but these descriptions have been much batser
done By those more qualified TO appreciate the
beauty of these sights. The impression laft by
this book is that the writer was Interested to
90 to see much that she had best not have
seen, and should not have been willing to
write about; that the work is coarse and flip
pant, and possessed with that spirit of vulgarity
that enjoys to make public all sorts of personal
details of no interest to readers, aud t, which
note or notoriety are at one, so they may attain
to printed publicity. In brief, what is toler-
ably we'll said here has been much better said
elsewhere AID some things said here better
not said anywhere.
A very interesting study Of the Life and
Aims of Thoreau is made by Mr.. Fl. a. Page,
author Of Life of De Qaincey and Memoir of
Hawthorne Boston: J. r. Osgcoa & Co.;
Portland: Loring, Short s. Harmon) In the
course Of thought upon the character of the
reclase Of Walden Pond, Mr. Page became i'm
pressed with the idea that those who regarded
him as alien to the interests of humanity,
rimon of to-day who sought among the aspects
of nature the sympathy of which mankind
seemed to him incapable, saw imperfectly and
understood little Of the real life of Thcreau.
In graceful if somewhat fanciful comparison
of the hermit of the sylvan solitudes of Maine
to st. Francis of Assist, who preached to the
birds of the air and the fishes in the sea, Mr..
Page accentuates this theory of his, that Tho
read was notably sympathetic; aud that as
his passionate support of tho cause of the mar
tyred John Brown attested, his feeling for hu-
manity was, il in some degree singalsrly de-
monst5sted, not less strong than his love of
Nature, and bore the relation to that love
which the affection for q brother would have to