The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-08-25
Recent PubIicati Ons.

Jack (from the French of Aphonse Daudet,
by Mary Neal Sherwood, translator of Sidonie)
is an inexpressibly sad story. Its moral. if it
has any, is that the sins of the father are visited
upon the child. From the tale Of shame with
which it opens to the death-bed at its close
the author succeeds in making the reader as
well as his hero miserable. There are bright
and happy scenes in the book, but they only
serve to bring into greater relief the prevailing
gloom, and they inevitably usher in some mis-
fortune. There is plenty of wit in the book
and some humor, but wit and humor that
light and do not warm. There is much beauty
but it is the beauty of autumn leaves
The book though not so able work as ''Sid-
onie' through which Daudet was first made
acquainted with English readers, is a powerful
story marked by the peculiar excellsnces of
Daudet's style ard the characteristics of his
sombre genius. The felicity of phrase, the
absorbing love of nature, the keen delineation
of character, the genuine pathos and the spark
ling wit which won for "Sidone" its great
repute give to "Jack" charm which will,
despite the all-pervading sadness of the theme.
command for it hosts of readers. The hero
Jack" is the illegtimate son of woman of
the Partisan half-world, and the book is the
story of his fortunes from the luxurious days of
his childhood to his miserable death in the
charity hospital. The boy himself is chiefly of
interest because of his misfortunes, but Daudet
has gathered about him many men and women
in the development of whose character the
reader cannot fail to feel profound interest
The most remarkable of these characteriza-
-J~a11 Co.: :ko GIol.A - =
''Ida de Baraney," the mother of Jack
woman whose weak generous, shallow nature
provokes a plying contempt and half frees
her from responsibility for her sins. She may
be taken as a type of the better and weaker
portion Of the unfortunate class to which she
belongs, as "Sidonis" was type of the worse
and more daring. Sngularly enough genuine
love leads to all her later misfortunes
and to the ill.hap of "Jack." The man to
whom she devotes herself is one of those men
whom Daudet so delights to paint, poet whose
verse is so poor that he has never found pub
fisher, and who believes himself to be the
superior of Musset and the rival of Hugo. To
his vanity, selfshness and dishonesty are sacri-
feed the woman and her child. About him
have gathered other men who have failed in
literature and art, the men who ito awkward
| ly render the almost untranslatabe French
word) have ''missed fire. To these failures
| the author devotes much Of his attention, and
his bitter scorn shows itself in every sentence.
But the book is not altogether given up to bad
people. The good old ''Doctor Rivals" the
| beggar "Belisaire," "Cecile," and "Rordic"
are tsnderly and lovingly drawn. They suffer
much as seems to be the fortune of all the
| men and women in the story.
The translation is admirably done, as was to
be expected from the writer who so well rem
dered "Sidonie' into English. The success Of
the translator in conveying Daudets manner
| and all the fine felcities of his style and her
fidelity to the spirit of the sentence while lib
| orally paraphrasing it, as she sometimes has
| occasion to do, are worthy of all praise. Mrs,
| Sherwood has wisely done considerable pruning.
| In her version she has made Jack himself the
chief character throughout the story, and has
| thrown into the background. D. 'Argenton and
| his mutual admiration society, but she has
done we'll to preserve In their entirety the Nor
onval Academy and "the children of the sum-"
and the pathetic story of Madou. By this
| method she has eliminated much that might
prove tedious to English readers, while she pre-
serves the essentials of the story.
| slack" is published by Estes & Lauriat.
Boston, and is for sale in this city by Dresser,
Mcclellan & Co. and Loring Short & Harmon,
This "a Treatise on the Law relating to the
Office and Duties of .Notares Public through
out the United States, with Forms of Lsga In
struments &c. By John Proffatt, ILL., B.,
author of Curiosities and Law of Wills sc.
New York; Hurd & Houghton. Portland :
Lorlng, Short s. Harmony is a book of real
| usefulness to the legal profession as well as to
banks and large business houses. 1t treats Of
the powers of notaries. in the different states,
and in brief compendious form cites authori-
ties to sustain its statement 1t has chapter