The Portland daily press., 1890-08-22

manner is decidedly local. 1t could not ex-
list or find nutriment outside of the radius
of the influence of Boston. 1t has certain
inherent quaintnesses, limitations, points of
intelligence, that would be impossible in an
other social world than that which revolves
with the gilded dome of the Massachusetts
State House for the centre of Its solar system.
Meanwhile. Miss Whites gifts of common
sense and humor enable her to note. from
the position Of an insider, the exaggeration,
the provinciality, the solemn affectation of
Boston civic sentiment. She has discovered
a really new situation in fiction; heroine
who resigns her lover for the love of her ma
tive city. And this not for the blindly filial
sentiment Of attachment to ones birthplace
but because of the advantages of Boston
culture. The character of this young wo-
man, beautiful and seIf-sufacing as Diana,
critical of the masculine qualities, piously
enthusiastic toward feminineity, whose
brains has thriven at the expense of her
hearts, drawn with precision and in a
spirit of gentle comedy. The tender imagia-
tive Janet is In reality the heroine of the ro-
nance, and her story is followed with the
interest Of the reader. Among the minor
personages Emily and her witty husband,
Sam, deserve especial praise. The hero,
John Graham, is a favorable specimen of his
kind. as delineated by feminine pens. The
secondary characters of men are apt to be
the best drawn in novels written by women
perhaps because they are permitted to be
humorous and have lapsed into pr0saic and
unambitious moments in which the protag-
onist and masculine ideal may never rest.
1t would be very obliging of Miss White to
tell the story of Sam Randolph and his
Emily! Meanwhile, acknowledgements are
due her for novel at once sensitive, spicy,
original and thoroughly agreeable. Boston
Roberts Brothers: Portland: Loring, Short
& Harmony
Lucie's Mistake. By W. Heimburg. This
is an attractive novel Of German society;
neither more nor less than loye-story with
out other purpose or episode than those
which belong to the sentimental vicissitudes
of Lucie and her lover, the good young Herr
Doctor. His common sense and sincerity
for awhile seem to her less attractive than
the exciting ambitions and carrices of her
brilliant friend Hortense; and therefore
Lucie makes her girlish mistakes, pardona-
BILE enough, and finally more than forgiven
by her lover. Also the cynical and mundane
HOrtense finds happiness in the love of
Waldemar Weber; and the story ends to the
satisfaction of all. including the reader.
The pictures of German life are rgreeable'
and the translation, by Mrs. j. w. Davis, is
smooth and apparently neither too literal or
90 frna ipn G. ~
Portland; Stevens g. Jones. Price 70 cents.
Nora's Return. By Ednah d. Cheney. 1t
might be curious question of literary pro-
prietorship, or perhaps merely of literary
courtesy, whether the imaginary personages
of an author, once sent into public, are sub.
ject exclusively to his future control or may
be seized and managed by whomever is in
terested in them. Here, for instance. are
Nora and Helmar, the protagonists of Ibsen's
famous play the Dolls House, taken in hand
by New England lady and conducted along
finally convergent paths of duty. Mr.. Wal
ter Besant has tried to solve the enigma in
one way. and Mrs. Cheney tries to answer it
in another. She has not attempted to con-
meet her work closely with the national or
the literary character of Ibsen's drama, but
has offered simple and highly moral solu-
tion to the effect that in the serious and low
ing service of humanity is to be obtained the
needful discipline WEIGH ennobles. Frankly
speaking, Mrs. Cheney's sequel is entirely of
New England in its spirit. 1t is pure-and
also a. trife Puritan-in its ideals of duty
and development. 1t is, in brief, precisely
the contribution to the complicated problems
of society which was to be expected from
the pious and, in the best sense, unsophisti-
Gated mind of Massachusetts, gentlewoman.
Morals Return will interest many readers;
and one would bespeak for it especial favor
because Of the object of its sale. for the bene-
fit of the New England Hospital Fair, to be
held at Boston next December. Boston:
Lee g. Shepard; Portland: Stevens & Jones.
Price 80 cents.