New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-01-14
NEWNoVELSAND SHORTSTORLES

A SUCCESSFUL MAN. BY Julien Gordon. 12mo,
PIP. le4. Philadelphia j. b. Lippincou Co
MARTHA COREY. Tale of the salem lem, Wi6chcr S,I
Chicago: A. c. McClurg q Co.
THE PARADISE IN HYDE PARK. ny Marion
Wilcox. 12mo. PIP. $50. London gilbert XIV
THE DEVIL Is DEAD AND SCENES IN GENERAL :; RAJ;
DAYToNs GARDEN nm b the o s%n0r Gi EeS
Rivington
HER LOVE AND HIS LIFE. Ey F. W. Robinson
l2mo Pr. o12. Harper & Brothers.
STRANGERS AND wAYFARERs. BY Sarah orne
Jcwett. lomo, PIP. go. Houghton, Mihiin q Co.
LITTLE VENICE. AND OTHER STORIES. BY Grace
Denis Litchfeld. 16mo PIP. "os. IT, T. P"'-
MANS sons.
The author Of "A Diplomats Diary" makes his sec
ond appearance with production which in point OF
scope is something between the short story and the
novel. a Successful Man has undeniably strong
features but is not as effective tale as the writer's
maiden effort. In both incomprehensibe woman
is the focus of the action. In the new mover
she IS, however, emphatic and less
pardonable coquctte. The seduction of the politician
and orator by society woman who hardly KNOWS
whether she is amusing herself or Is embsrking uh-
Willingly upon serious amour. affords opportunity ior
plenty Of interesting situations IT might be supposed
that Mr.. Gordon had finally got his people into cui
de sac" extricaton from which in any reasonable man
ner proved hey his ability for the catastrophe with
which he suddenly ends the tale solves no prooemS
and has the appearance OF anything but good ART III
is true that the successful had grown hopeiessH
away from his wife, and that his feelings had become
seriously entangled by the siren OF Lea New. But
artists should not create situations which prove IN
tractabIe and that appears 10 be what Mr.. Gordon
has doGe here. The best things In the book are the
conversations between Mrs Greenham and her friend
"Connie!p Daniel Lawton himseM-the succcssfut
man-is rather impossible politician considering that
he is not meant type Of the scholar In politics.
His wife, really most respectable character in the
book judged by superficial and essentially low, II
not vicious. standards. She has been good wife, ana
has raised family well and wisely. But because she
does not know how 10 dress fashonably she Is IN
directly held up 10 rdculc and the author expatates
upon her humiliation finding herself dowdy among
the smart butterflies of seaside villa. The tone OF all
this Is dlsagreeabe and unwhoesome. Mr.. Gordon
must do better work he expects 10 retain the vogue
earned by a DIPLOMATS Diary
The attempt to reproduce the Salem witchcraft in
novel is an undertaking which doomed to failure
from the moment the author determined TO moderrze
the speech of the characters and TO pay little or no
attention TO the mise en- scene" But when she
further determined to eliminate the darkest features of
the salem wi;chcrsf and present merely outline
Of the historical fact. the experiment really ceased TO
be worth making As the story stands, it Is kind OF
puppet-show, in which nothing approaching to an
adequate conception of the truth is offered The plot
which has been added 10 mpart more llvelness TO the
distorted sketch OF Puranic superstition i of the
poorest kind Of machine made romance. Neither the
thought nor the manner Of the time is reproduced.
No doubt the subject is difficult one to handle and
while Hawthorne would have made classic ont Of IT,
IIav,horne's mantle has not fallen upon any living
shoulders.
We have before two books by Marion Wilcox,
but they are different as possible. "The Paradise
in Hyde Park is q delightful series of sketches of
life in the Riviera 1t is thrown into the form OF
letters which are marked by graphic description and
quaint philosophy and quiet humor. The tile Is
taken from Italian musicteacher. who has devised
a wonderful scheme for building glass and iron palace
in Hyde Park for the luminous carrying on Of pop
uIar sports and pastmes This place, however really
cuts but a small figure in the book which is chiefly
remarkable for the brancy of its Italian photographs
and the genial temper with which the local ethics and
manners are discussed and criticised.
Il i elsv to describe The same authors volume
b ring The startling unconventional title The Devil
is ,ead7-a title which recalls Charles Reade's famous
adventurcr Denis of Burgundy in "The Closter and
the Hearth The opening Sketch indeed is not to be
ticketed upon any terms. Fantastic Is word which
suits II in many respects but which by no means covers
the production Is half in aud half out OF the socaled
real world a queer collection of shadows and linger
ing supcrsttions and mystic efuences and influences,
all forth with fascinating skill of phrase and beauty
Of STYLE. As to the scenes in General Dayton's
Garden" it is fragmentsry drama presented in a
series Of character studies. and furnishing seques TO
some of the stories of Real People, Mr.. WcoX's
"reaI people" very real in some ways, but very I'M
real in Others His active brain engendes them, and
they forthwith take independent existence. but at
intervals he seems to wish to recall them to their
mu,ng and then curious dimness and indistlnct
ness creep the scene. more individual thinker
does write fiction today and his pecularities arc
all attractive, however.
Mr.. Robinson has struck ont quite novel idea in
Michael Garwood the boy bred in the London sums
By a drunken and thicving father and mother, who
makes desperate efforts to rise above his surround
ings and being fortunately helped by great artist
who genius in the lad develops into famous
painter. such story cannot, in the nature OF
things he very cheerful and il the reader into
some queer company. The author, however, has
evidently made conscientious studies for his bad char
ecters, and James GarwOOd and his wife mikes
parents are really quite horribly true TO the life of the
class they represent If there any fault in the book
IL is in the working out of the character of The hero
Mike Garwood. lie is invested with hard obstinacy
in his boy hood which does cot seem altogether com
patibie with his final evolution. Yet it must be ad
uitted that boy with such antecedents and eX
periences would need very grim and liked resolution
to extrcato himself from the atmosphere OF crime and
vice into which he had been BORN and that no tendency
10 playflness tenderness could well be anticipated
I'm such a case. Altogether Her Love and His Life"
IS a strong and highly interesting novel
Sarah Orne Jewett's "Strangers and Wayfarers" is
4 sheaf of those admirable New-Engand studies for
which this writer has become Justly famous Nothing
can be more natural and simple than her sketches
They deal with the owly. the ignorant the eccentric
and the poor. They show us New England village lilo
w in looking glass with its set its gossip It's
dialect its supersthOns and traditions. ITS grand
motbery pharrnacopoea. its wise saws. its conser-
yatism its venerable usages and fixed customs. It's
sterling virtues external roughnesses There are
eleven sketches OF the kind in the present volume,
and IL would be hard to determine which OF them
Is the best. a Winter Courtship" and 1.-The Quest
nj Mr. Teabys are capital and chiefly humorous. "The
Iuck of the Bogans' is somewhat out Of the authors
usual track being study Of Irish life transDanted
Into American city surroundings This too is tragedy
md han ending recnnntS