New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1890-11-16
NEW NOVELS.
MRS. DELAND'S SIDNEY

Hsnshtou. Miniin a Co.
QUITE ANOTHER STORY. by Jean Ineelow' l2mo''
M 9O1. John w. Lowell Co.
xIRsTEEN BY Mrs. oliphant. 12mo., PIP. 344'
M Harper & brothers.
GILBERT CIGARS SON. By Harriet Riadie DaV'S'
I2mo. PIP. 46O g. P. Putnam's sons
THE lew. From the Polish Of Joseph KraszewsN oy
| Linda Da Kowalewska Emo, PIP. 4oe' D'uo'
Mead & Co.
The author OF John Ward. Preacher Is still &C.
cuped with religious and theological problems, but IN
sidney she has conceived motive. Her heroine
Il girl who has been educated to the bankert
scepticism By a father who In losing dearly loved
wife has also lost all faith In the Provdentsl arrange
ment of Life and has thenceforth shut himself up In
tbe dismal creed that Love and Death arc allied and
that TO avoid the bitterness Of despair the first must
Ia vigorously excluded. AS he continues to lovc ana
watch over his daughter with passionate affection
IL is evident that he is not consistent; but tien
philosophers seldom The condition Oh oidhey
mind as represented here is certainly peculiar and IL IS
not easily to be received natural or possible Inc
o,e stion that inevitably suggests itself Is could young
er mixing freely with her contemporaries as this one
does grow TO womanhood wholly ignorant OF the
passons and griefs which pervade all social Ofgahi-
zations Sidney agnostic Of the most pronounced
type She is dominated by an "enlghtoned SELFISH
ness to a phrase. She nevertheless loves her
father which according TO her lights she clearly ouent
not to do since he Is sure to die some day, ana 50
her love will bring her uering The obvious fact
IS that Major ought not to have cared enough Tor
his daughter to educate her in his own falth while
she ought not being educated, to nave cared LOT
him at ALL Then there would have been perfectly
consistent pair of anostcs. and 1t would have been
more interesting to follow their course. As 1t Is one
feels that there is false pretence IN MAJOR Lee ,
position and one does not understand why man
represented as so very intelligent wholly falls to
perceivs the incongruites of the situation. sidney
does not escape Nature She falls In love- though In
all unsatisfactory way, with a man VINO mas near.
disease and cannot live long, Through hcr love anu
through the death OF her lover she achieves my
and metaphysical illumination, and is made 10 reaizo
the existence Of a Supreme Being. Her enhsh'en-
ment however, does not proceed very far: perhaps
not much beyond the dim recognition OF "a power,
not ourselves that makes for righteousness" as
Matthew Arnold nut IT, But 1t Is enough to overwhem
her father who sees the work OF his life swept away.
Precisely what spiritual plane Sidney occupies at the
end of the story have found II quite Impossible
to determine, what the roots OF the cohsoa-
ton and comfort she Is supported by The expert
ment perhaps, worth making. but the result
shows that II was some what beyond the powers OF
the author There are several strongly marked char
acters among the more mundane people in the book,
and Of these the vicious selfish cynical old lady, Mrs
PAUL. at once the most dsagrecabe and The clever
est Another decidedly original person is Robert
steele This Young man Is sensitive and punctous
that lie hesitates to rescue drowning SUICIDE because
he Is not sure that he has right to interfere in
such case ard after engaging himself TO marry Miss
Sally, he breaks of the engagement because he has
discovered that he does not really love her. MISS
Sally des-partly Of grief; and Robert steele very
rightly blames himself But he Is man OF the most
tender conscience and lie becomes victim OF the
morphine habit and ends by jonsng Roman Catholic
fraternity. He feels the need of some external ah-
thoty to regulate his too sensitive and eccentric con-
Ur. hn and Inc paI M
| for which he yearns The whole strange and unreal
story Is told with decided force and spirit but 1t does
not produce the impression OF transcript from life,
and at least far the principal figures are CON
cerned there is human nature In it than in John
Ward, Preacher"
Jean Iugelows novel is pleasant tale of English
family life for the most part of young who finds
himself the head Of his hOuse almost before he Is OF age
and of particularly nice and sensible GIRL his cousin
who begins by being heess and loses all her fortune
through the faithlessness Of trustee Jean lngclow
shows special insight TO the minds OF young people,
Her boys and girls refreshingy natural and ami
mated in no respect goody goody. full Of foibes and
naughty ways but all the more lifeke and attractive
for their venlaI wrongdoings. The young squire him
self is Hne frank, Open-mnded lad and what he does
when returning from his travels he learns Of his cousin
Daisys impOvershment the reader does not need to be
told The story ends in the good old way with mar
riage bells
Kristen Is good example OF Mrs. ELEPHANTS way
OF making novels II Is the story OF Scotch family
seventy years ago. The head Of this family is grim
and dour laird, who DULLES his wife-a feeble sou-and
his daughters. all but Kristen, who has spirit OF
her own Tho interest In the between
Kristen and and ntOlcrsnt sire the vital
question OF the girls marriage The laird has decreed
that she shall wed old rich man. She has. how
evor promised to walt for lad who is of TO India to
shake the Pagoda Tree, and she will none of aud
Robin Gray Hence divers Affections, Kirstecns flight
from her home, her endurance Of many trials and the
final disappointment Of her hopes The atmosphere Is
gray the story unfolds itself quietly, with much de-
tail and many skilful touches There Is particle Of
sensauoDaism from first 10 last neither is there any
really strong writing The flow Of the narrative Is
even, sometimes 1t appears almost prolix. gentle
interest Is excited I'm the fortunes of the various char
acters, but the pathos is subdued like the prevailing
tone. and putting the book down feels that 1t Is
clcverly done, and that is nearly all that can be said
The truth is Mrs. Olphant writes too much and too
| rapidly to do full justice to her work.
Gilbert Cigars son is, in fact. daughter. She is
also daughter of Maryland. and rcoreant member
| OF community Of Friends who mostly farm
es and constitute the major part Of the district pOp
laton. Here the elements for fresh and inter
estng novel, and the author has awaited herself Of the
opportunity with Judgment and good taste. The old
quaker lllc Is VVluly ncrOulc hODll,
takes upon herself the management OF the farm upon
her fathers DEATH is spirited, Independent, yet
.irsly lovablc girl: and the adventures before and
after the return of Cousin Dick to the scene are
full Of interest and freshness. The chief fault have
to find with the book is the too free Introduction OF
tircsome and irrelevant discussions about "woman's
rights" OF which Robin Is not the most temperate
champion. very little more of this and she must
| have degenerated into a masculine and masterful Old
maid whose exaggerated professions Of independence
| and self.support would have driven Cousin Dick
and every other sutton far away. Happily the author
sbandons the preaching vein in time. and so secures
fitting and wholesome climax to her story. which Is In
all other respects than the one mentioned very well
and cleverly written.
The Polish story called "Thc Jew a translation OF
which has been put or the American market, does not
convey very high idea OF the authors talent. 1t is
a somewhat confused tale Of Polish Instruction and
Jewish reformer who seeks TO bring back the old Ortho
dox Hebrew life. and fail, signally in all his en-
deavors There are interesting views Of Polish
politics. illu stratDc methods