Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1889-08-27
BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

York. Ne
| I can hear the reader n shinking
In my minds car, and why should
there not be a "mind's ear'' -
well as q "mind's eyer This Ii what
tho reader seems to think: History, two
volumes! No, thank you don't want TO
read II or read about IL. A short magazine
article now and then, or newspaper cdi-
torial, politely recalling what have for
gotten, as II is suggested by current events,
| is all the history care for. Tell me some
thing new Of novels or magazines" Per-
| haps the reader occasionally reads real
book smong his mass Of novels snl tho
other litter that SO fearfully cncum-
bcrs tho literary harvest floor Of
our day. Genuine books continue
TO be published and read, but tho vast
majority Of them are novels. The novel Is
the work OF art Of our age, but there are
few who read only the masterpieces, and
great majority who read nothing but poor
fiction. Like Longfollow's little girl, good
fiction is Every, very good, bad fiction
ais horrid." 1t is therefore a great pity
that histories and biographies are so
neglected by the mass Of readers who read
| for pleasure and not for profit. Tho
n1sIpTIdIlh WTC DdTttY LD iDI stupiuly
making their work moro dull than 1t
should be, but no one who reads the best
histories judiciously, and without the
feverish haste of the novel reader, will
complain of lack of pleasure. These two
volumes appall the novel reader, and yet
within them is more action and pathos
than in whole library of flimsy romances.
Short histories are too much read. The
| latatlp Tt,ittrl tho lifo pf TIM
story and by them great events are fixed
in tho memory without effort. II is the
graphic account Of Columbus--his strug-
giles, courage and wonderful voyage-all
work ed TO the grand climax of the dis
covery, that fix the date 1892 In the mind
of the school boy. And the poor lad might
be saved much worry If other facts were
given him in the same pleasant way. So
in this history of Germany one strikes a
mine of interest when leaving the histori
cal review, which forms an excellent intro
duction, he finds the story of modern
Germany set forth with graphic clcarness
and no waste Of words,
George Eliot received $4,000 for the
rcgs cited his bargain.
esr
PAssr RosE, by Arthur Shorburnc
Hardy, author of "But Yet Woman +"
and "The Wind of Destiny" Houghton,
Minlin g. Co., Boston and New York.
without the least prejudice to the former
works of Arthur shcrburno Hardy, one
may safely say of Passe Rose that 1t will
probably prove the most generally inter-
esting. II il distinguished from the current
I...
unfamiliar plot. Tho period Mr.. Hardy
has chosen is that era between barbarism
ana civilization, the reign of Charlemagne.
Persons who read book merely for the
plot will follow with delight the fortunes OF
Passe Rose how she left the home OF
hor adopted parents and followed
her lover, Gui of Tours, TO court, her many
trials and finally hor discovery of the
scheme to murder the king, the timely
warning which resulted IN her marriage to
her lover. one cannot help laughing with
Passo Bus" M tho effect she produced on
both the abbot and monk by their taking
hor for demon, sent by the devil TO tempt
their souls; and again when the monk
tries 10 conceal how he came into posses.
sion Of the string of pearls.
The qualifying "But' must, however, fol
once be said on the favorable side, for apar
from the adventures of tho horoinc aud the
many humorous incidents; II is in the de-
scrptions that Mr.. Hardy's chief success
lies, especially the scene i'm the abbey ol
st. Servais when the people were gathered
to pray for tho recovery OF Abbot Rainal.
Passo Rose first appeared as a serial
story In the Atlantic Monthly, but IL is not
n tale to be enjoyed piece by piece; to be
fully appreciated it should be read as II IL
now published in book form. Passe Rose
Is gom of literary art,-a very poem In
prose.
Tho following letter lately published will
bo of Interest to many who remember their
reading of "Tom Browns Schoodays -
Dear Sir: am obliged by your hearty
! letter. would not advise YOU to try read
ing any passages from my books aloud AT
such entertainments as you speak of. You
will find they won't do. AS to the charac-
ters, they were none of them taken ms por-
traits, though / hope they are something
like living folk. 1 could not tell you whal
You ask ii j wished: but I could name
dozens Of boys l knew whom had more
or less in mind and tried TO boil down fol-
the book. There are pictures and photo
graphs of DR.. Arnold; but really don't
know where you could get one.
Yours very truly,
THOMAS HUGHES"
.es
TnE Truth ABOUT CLEMENT KER, by
George Fleming, author of "Kismet,' ,
Mirage" "rhe Head of Medusa," Roberts
Brothers, Boston, publishers.
} Lovers Of the weird and uncanny will
certainly ENJOY reading " The Truth about
Clement ker" Tho ghosts are very
superior and do not fall to mere flesh aud
blood in the end, rs our modern ghosts
usually do. The scene of this latest nov e
ofGoorge Fleming's is laid i'm Scotland near
, the Border the home of superstition
Tho kers of Brae have been possessed by
! devils from time immemorial, and in the
case of our hero Tor one of our heroes as We
have two the dcvil has taken the form OF
opinion, at least that is the form of the
one the reader meets by the light of day
although there seem TO be others who
make their homes in him, but are invisi.
BILE, with the exception of spiritualism
The story is told in the first person bv d
younger brother of our second hero, whc
comes of another branch of the Kers. The
second hero is noble straight forward
fellow. Our greatest objection TO tho bool,
is the title, for it is deceptive. We NAV
! have been told nothing but the truth "
but so little of the truth as 10 give us 4
:, great desire TO know 1.-The whole truth y
about poor Clement We are not conten,
, with legends as our great grandparents
were, we want TO drag to the surface "thos,
cold, soft, soden masses of wool, which fee
, like drowned hair that Godfrey Kei