The Portland daily press., 1884-07-05
New Publications.


J. S. of Dale lie one of the quartette at pres
ent exciting the story-reading world over
joint production in the Boston Globe, and he
is also the author of Guerndale." No doubt
his novel, OF, as he calls it, his "study with a
moral, i" "The Crime of Henry Vane," will be
widely read. The literary style of the book is
one familiar to us in the greater number of
modern American works of fiction; hardly a
touch of description of scenery or surround
ings, no lettering by the way, but a Short
clear-cut dialogue and analysis of motives
Perhaps, instead of analysis, we ought to say a
series of hints or suggestions about the charac-
ters whereby the reader may be led to ana
lyze or study motive. The story, with its soci-
ETY. incidents and It's tragic close, will be read
at a sitting, for it is brief. The readers inter-
est will not for moment flag, and the impress
sion made will be strong enough to arouse new
speculatlons upon vexed question How
much coquetry and heartlessness mingles with
innocence and insonciance in the character of
beautiful American girl who breaks the
heart of noble man, views it all with "soft
lights in her face and eyes like two blue gen.
tians," and shows by her after career the ac-
curacy of a chess player in making the move
in life which gives her the destiny she DESIRES
To be sure, this heroine renounced wealth for
love, but the question of her heartlessness re-
mains an interesting study.
A new novel by Edgar Fawcett will have it's
place in every package of books sent out of
town for summer reading, for Mr.. Fawcett is q
brilliant writer and his stories never fail to in-
terest and entertain novel readers. Newport
is the scene of the story Thinking Cymbals''
"a favorite focal habitation" with our writ
ers here and abroad-and the plot is one of un-
usual interest even for this author.
barbara Thayer' is story the intention of
which is to sketch the character of one more
selt-reliant, self-supporting American woman,
and the reader experiences slight disappoint-
ment at the narratives prompt transition into
a somewhat commonplace love story. It's au-
thor, Mrs. Annie Jenness Miller, has been
known in New England as lecturer, and now
publishes her first novel. The style of writing
is easy and graceful, but the moral of the story
might have been conveyed in some less hack
effort will show an increase OF force and q
greater degrse of srtislic finish.
The Lee & Shepard series of handbooks has
been most successful publication. In the
"Science" series the last number is "Whirl-
winds, Cyclones and Tornadoes," by Prof.
Davis of Harvard. The little book is perfect
of its kind, with maps, tables and other illus
trations. 1t will prove both interesting and
instructive. The essay is arranged from a
| course of lectures given by the author at the
| Lowell Institute, and was first published in
| Science" and is now remodeled and put into
| Its present convenient form.
II "A Palacs-Prison" could by its circula-
| tion help bring about an improvement in the
management of Insane sylums its tone would
be justified, bat we fear its revolving de-
| tail and its heart-rending, agonizing de-
| scriptions of unutterable horrors will but pro-
6uce evil results. We cannot feel that in our