The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1878-02-09

FEN ANN I'M, In ADfANCE
Ren6e and Franz New York: D. Appleton
& Co.; Portland: Bailey & Noyes) Is . novel
from the French of Qustave Heller presumably
the nom de slsnVe Of a lady.) 1t receives the
advantage of an Introduction BY George Sand,
and has as appendix the enthusiastic comments
OF the Paris press. Itisa study Of psychology,
very subtle and little tresome. The STYLE is
brilliant and rapid. As is usual with French TO
mances of its class, its sentiment is trifle too
elaborate its virtue arrives at fantastic heights
where respiration is hindered and its possibili-
ties of viciousness are realistic. At the same
time, it appears to be well intended and writ
ten with enthusiasm and a sense Of the dranat-
c very beautifully developed In the fiusl scenes.
Kathleen, by Mrs. f. H. Burnett Is another
OF the arlier works of that charming writer,
which a -s at present being published by Messrs.
Peterson against the desire of the author
Kathleen is somewhat conventional in design,
the heroine herself being one of the brilliant
and fascinating beings effective in a novel but
not often encountered in actual society. But it
would be impossible for Mrs Burnett at any
time to write story that should not be bright,
entertaining and abounding in touches OF the
genuine and rich talent that pervadss her later
work.
Messrs. Osgood & Co publish another volume
of their series of Artist Biographies, prepared
by Mr.. M. f. Sweetser. 1t contains the me-
moirs and a full catalogue of the works of
Rembrandt, whose character, following the
theories of the learned Q. Vosmser, Mr.. Sweet
ser wishes to clear from the imputations Of
sordidness and miserly greed that the Jealousy
of rival painter hssped upon it, and which
are now discredted by critics and lovers Of art
These biographies of the great painters are use
full and well arranged volumes of reference.
(Loring, Short g. Harmon)
Memory Gems by Charles Northend New
York: D. Appleton & Co.; Portlsnd Loring,
Short & Harmony is compilation for the use
of schools of short passages in prose and verse
worth reciting and remembering While they
are well chosen, these lessons are too dscon-
nected and short, most of them not exceeding
four lines, 50 that the book has rather the ap-
pearance of dictionary Of familiar quotations
than of selections for recitation.
Shepherds All and Maidens Fair (Harper's
Half-Hour Series; Portland: Loring, Shert s.
Harmony is q bright and attractive story by
Messrs. Besant & Rice authors OF the Golden
Butterfly. Da Capo, in the same series, is Q del
icate and shadowy little romance by Miss
Thackeray.
Mr.. Longfellow adds to his Poems Of Places,
a volume of selections relating to the often
sung beauties of Greece, and Of Turkey in Eu-
rope, to which at present war imparts painful
| interest. Boston: j. r. Osgood; Portland:
Loring, Short & Harmony
| Notes and Announcements.
Mr. Noah Brooks will give second series Of
his "reminiscences in Scribner's for March.
The omnivorous Half-Hour series will soon
| include translation by Grace Bigelox of
Count Won Moltke's letters from Russia.
Mr.. Tennyson has several new poems almost
ready to be put into print. One of them is like
the Northern Farmer" in style.
Walter Besant will prepare the volume or
| Rabelais for Mrs. .Ophant's series Of Foreign
| Classics for English Readers
'Nobody's Husband is to succeed THAT
Husband of Nine in Lee & Shspard's fifty
| cent series.
Mr.. Stanley forthcoming volume on his At
rican explorations is the prize for which the
English publishers are Just now contending.
Bret Harte has written for early publication
| in Scribner's Monthly, story and poem,
both of which it is prophesied, win rank among
his best works.
| William Morris, who is dsvoting himself
rather more to household art than to poetry,
in an endeavor to transplant the "Earthly
Para 1ise" into English homes, recently dsliv-
cred before the Trades Guild Of London q
| comprehensive lecture on the Decorative Arts:
| Their Relation to Modern Life and Progress.
Roberts Brothers wisely propose to give ID to
American readers in little book.
The cuts in Clarence Cooks "House Beauti-
fur were sold by the Scrbners to Macmillan s.
Co., of London, and have been Published by
them in a series of three books called ''The
Drawing Room, "rhs Dining Room and
"rhe Bed Roem.'' Some of the cuts have
been copied into the Portfolio as fine speci-
mems of English workmanship, their American
origin not being known to the editors OF that
journal
Wilkie Collins is taken to task by the Pub
fishers Circular London for fiouting history
in the face while attempting the assumed fdel-
ity of Defoe In his '.Duel in Herne Wood he
starts with a telegram from a lawyers clerk to
his firm in 1917, sends his heroine by an ordin-
ary and an express train to Bath oriChelteuham
in the same year 1917, and makes one of his
characters look on his last two sovereigns in
the same year! They must have been the first
two, as sovereigns were first coined July 1877,
but not issued till November of the same year, IS
| A correspondent of the London World says:
"There has been no little discussion as to the
authorship of The Tender Recolections Of
Irene Macgillicuddy, which have amused the
readers of Blackwood's Magazine for the last
two months. have heard the papers ascribed
to Lady Vaudeville the Hon. Mrs. William
Carington, the Hon. Mrs. Wodehouse and more
than one other American lady married into the
ranks of Euglish aristocracy. But the truth is,
that their author is Mr.. Laurence Oliphant,
who ever aud auon flashes our from his strange
American retirement with brilliancy which
| never fades
NJ. Bouchtte, learned Frenchman, has
| made curious bluudsr 10 the Dictisnaaire de
la Conversation He has compiled biography
Of Jacob B ,hme aud supplements it by list OF
| the numerous writings OF the philosophical
shoemaker. Among these he cites Reflections
sur les bottes d. dIsaie." The notion of shoe.
maker devoting some time to reflections or
Isaiah's boots appears sufficiently in accordance
with well-known axiom invented for the in
struction of the craft But the fact is that
what Jacob wrote was an essay on the thso-
logical dissertation of Professor Isaias Stiefel.
| Now Stefsl is German for boots, and to thai
extent Bouchitte was correct enough in sup
posing that Jacob Bohme had been castiug re
Elections on Isaiah's boots.
The Springfield Republican notes the follow
log foreign literary bluuders;-Ths author o
"My Summer in Garden" appears In the Lon
don Spectator as Sir Charles Dudley Warner
and in the catalogue of Mudie's great circu
lating library as Charles Douglas Warner. But
| whsther knishted or adopted into the Dougla
clan, his Egyptian book is 10 its fifth English