The Portland daily press., 1891-11-19
BY E. CAVAZZA,

Lyrics sand Legends. By. Nora Parry
The art CT verse of Miss Nora Perry hasa
delicate Individual touch, like that wh,oh
distinguishes Eastern needlework from Tho
most exquisite limitations of machine
wrought embroideries. The charming wav
wardness of repetends and rhymes. the har-
monious recurrence of metrical figures. ara
evidence ola singularly spontaneous noatic
talent, which instinctively comprebends
Its own limits, and works fort unateIv and
we'll within them. To Miss Perry's bannv
philosophy even the change of the seasons
chronic grievance of the minor and mourn.
full lyrists-brings only succession of
cheerful images. The crocus breaking the
chill sod of April gardens declares. for her
ear. its trust even under the black earth
and marvels how men can doubt:
Yet while thus sentient in my shroud
Above me, moving in a cloud,
TheSe restless hearts cried In the hrioht
Ana high monday, "God, give us ig66ti,,
/. June is queen of all the months, vet this
poet Of sentiment and good sense finds au-
tumn gIaddened by the gathering of the
school children,
Laughing, chattering, all together
In the red-leafed autumn weather,
A delicately dramatic sketch, very ele-
waited In feeling, is His Mesmeric Expert
ment. The swift lyric movement of the
Star OF Truth Is admirable. In other brief
poems, Miss Perry shows rare power CT
touching, and not too insistently, an ethical
or spiritual note, and always with whole
hon afu1p
in picturesque and fluent verse, which has
not precisely the tonality of the genuine
ballad, but an interesting vocal quality
of Its own. The tasteful volume is in
every way attractive as a holiday book.
Boston: Little, Brown & Co. Price
$L25)
The House of Martha. By Frank r.
Stockton. This story. which has appeared
as serial in the Atlantic Monthly, is even
more effective In the closer entity Of a vol
ume. For Mr.. Stockton's humor is not of
the kind which sparkles in isolated bril-
liants. but accumulates its delicious and
tranquil touches until it transports the
reader into world where the most COM
monplace causes are certain to produce the
most extraordinary results. His is the
humor of nderstatement-far more subtly
sure than that of extravagant imagery and
phrase. His stories have the fascinating
illogical sequence of events that are the
interest sof dream; and as in dream,
nothing surprises US, nothing appears con-
testable. 1t is quite natural that the hero
of the present romance should on his re-
turn from foreign parts find the people of
his native town more interested to tell of
the local blizzard than to hear tidings of
the Coliseum or of Etna. An understudy
would be most convenient functionary
for most of us who lack time rather than
opportunity to do things. An amanuensis
is frequently employed by persons en-
gagged In literature-and, granted all this,
it ought to be easy to admit all the aston
ishing, yet simple, complications of the
gray-robed Protestant sister, whose duty
1t became to write from dictation the story
OF two Siciltan lovers, to repel with gentle
dutifulness the affections of the man who
wished to become brother of the House
of Martha, and, finally. when the sister,
hood was dissolved, setting her free from
the previous Sicilian theme. with a per-
sonal application. The volume is bound
with quiet elegance, in olive-green illu-
mined with silver. Boston: Houghton.
Miffiin & Co; Portland: Loring. Short &
Harmon. Price $125.)
The Swan of Vilamorta. BY Emilia
Pardo Bazan. One of the most brilliant
among the modern Spanish realists is
Sonora Bazan. Her stories have an init
mate poignancy of feeling which is femi-
nine In its manifestations, while she is as
little afraid of her theme and material as
M. lola himself. The Swan of Vilamorta
Is young poet, Don Segundo, whose
talent has not passed the stages of imita-
ton of his model, the famous BecQuer.
He lis pathetically adored by woman,
plain and elderly. who has for him a sem
half passionate, half material
and all devoted. He is not base or evil,
only weak and selfish, even retaining many
excellent principles and ideals. His obvi-
GUS graces attract the notice of fashiona-
BILE young woman from Madrid. awaken
a precocous tenderness in the little daugh-
ter of Sonora Moves, ana profound jeal-
ousy in the husband and father, who is al
ready In prey to mortal disease. The
latter is witness to scene TO which he
gives an Interpretation worse than the
realty, and dies of the shock. Moves, with
her daughter, returns to Madrid and to-
tally forgets the poet. The poor Lescadia
kills herself with rat poison for
his sake. Naturally, this is not an agree
able story; its personages are not sympa-
AhaAf l. l. 81
that high pity which redeems the tragic
from simple painfulness. The pictures of
provincial life in Galicia are admirably
vivid and detailed; and the vigor and clear
ness Of the authors style are well repre-
sented by Mrs. Serrano's translation.
New York: Cassell Pub. Co.; Portland:
Loring. Short s. Harmon.
Three Tales. By William Douglas
O'Connor. This volume is particularly
suited lin temper and in theme to 1.-The
Christmas season. MIR. O'Connor,-of
whom the venerable Mr.. Walt Whitman
writes an affectionate memorial preface
was prominently imaginative in his writ
ings. They have superabundant fancy, and
rhapsodic style which was not always
held in check. There is undeniable talent
In his pages, of the rhetorical, fluent, oro-
tund Celtic sort, which however often sue
ceeds in reaching the heart or in convey
ing forclbly noble idea. The Ghost, al
though localized on the slopes of Beacon
Hill, is of the order of Dickens's holiday |
spooks, sending the hardhearted right about |
face into philanthropy with a prompt and
radical conversion. The Brazen Android
is by far the finest of the three tales COM
prising the volume; it is powerful sketch
of the oracular Head devised by Friar |
Bacon. The free and imposing magma
tlOn and the lyric swing of diction are ap-
propriate to this tale Of medieval magic. |
certain strong elements |