Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-12-18
NEW PUBLICATIONS.

THE TRIALS OF RAIssA. Russian Love stony
By Herry Grevile. Philadelphia: T. B. Peter
son & Bros
This is one of the most successful, and, we
incline to the belief, the NEST profoundly in
teresting novel yet given us by this accom-
plished novelist. She has in the course Of
the story introduced her readers to much of
the interior, domestic and rural life in Russia,
and has thus given her novel value beyond
that of mere story. Raissa Porof is the
beautiful daughter of retired army surgeon.
Returning home one evening from a music
lssson, three officers of the Imperial Guard,
half wild with liquor, assault and abduct her.
Carried to the rooms of a club
house, she suffers at the hand Of
one of them grievous outrage, end then is
set at liberty. The shock of the story Of her
dishonor kills her invalided mother. The
aged father endeav0Is to have the authoTi-
ties ferret out the offenders, but they are
powerful, and justice is thwarted. Finally
the girl and her father obtain hearing be-
fore the Gar, who secures the criminals and
banishes them to Siberia after contscatiug
| their estates and transferring them to Raissa-
First, however, he commands one OF
the young men TO marry her He
who does Sc is the richest one at
the wedding and the immediate parting.
Raissa is attracted strangely toward her hus-
band. She enters upon her new estates, but
instead of benefiting by them, she manages
them for their former owners, and by her dis
cretion and economy greatly increases their
| revenues. She ferrets out crime which has
brought shame upon her husbands family and
clears the name of all faint. From
that on the story proceeds with the
romance of the life of the maiden wife and
| the circumstances which eventuated in union
OF love and the righting of the wronged.
These details form the burden of the work,
which is certainly one of the most original
character as it is one Of the most absorbing
interest. OF course in thus speaking we treat
it as of its class, class rapidly growing IN
favor with readers of light fiction, and grade
above the usual French sensational novel.
DRIFTING ROUND THE WORLD. Boys Adventures
by Sea and Land. BY Capt. c. W. HILL author Of
"Adrift in the Ice-Fields." Boston Lee
Shepard. vol, quarto.
A large and handsomely illustrated book
for the holiday season-or any other. 1t is
filed with entertaining variations and useful
Information. Many books have been written
upon the usual routes of European and
Asiatic travel, and it may be thought
difficult now to excite the interest
of young readers without going cut
of the beaten track The adventures
related in this volume are novel and pictur-
esque, and they follow a comparatively new
course. The hero ships on a Cape Ann
schooner, bound to Greenland, is shipwrecked
on the coast of Labrador, reaches Iceland,
then passes through Scotland, England,
France, Holland, Russia, Asia, and after
ward crosses Siberia, sails for Alaska, and
from thence to San Francisco from there
reaching home overland, after many strange
experiences of Siberian, Tartar Chinese and
Indian life. In this long journey, devious
and broken by various accidents, the reader
is introduced to new and strikise scenery,
ard to peoples little known and seldom de-
scribed in modern literature.
The TWIN COUSINS. BY Sophia May. Boston Lee
Shepard. One vol, muslin, l2mo.
This is an admirable little book for very
young readers, and comes in good zine for
the holiday period. 1t is safe book to place
before child, and the text can make no
other than good impressions upon The tender
mind.
Am FIRE y BASeltt Stories for young folks, by
Julia NJ Beecher. Boston Lee Shepard.
Muslin, one vol, 8yo.
This is a holiday book for boys and girls
which comes from the pen of one who-and
there are SO few-knows how 10 write for
children. The book contains thirty-one sto-
ries, all Of charming interest to little ones.
From W. A. C. S. Hougbton, sacra-
mento, we have a pamphlet from the press
of II. S. Croeker & Co., Sacramento. by
John Fl. Leonard, giving brief sketch of an
economical method discovered by him for the
subtraction Of fractions. From hasty
glance at its pages we are enabled to
speak of it generally as work quite
all it claims to be, to wit that
it gives rules which viii prove q saving Of
time to all whose business necessitates the
use Of fractions in calculations. The author
proposes at an early day to issue fuller
work, giving his methods more in detail and
containing a general exposition Of the prin-
ciples involved, with rules for operation also,
in simple numbers.