The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1891-12-23
CONCERNING BOOKS.
By E. cAvAzzA.

9bCSCucs A4C dutuUI u ILLS tOluIu6 u
verse Is evidently man of high and seri-
GUS poetic ideals. strong imagination and
mature thought. His themes and metre
are varied and interesting; his command
of language is excellent, based evidently
upon acquaintance with the English
classics. Bis ear for accent and rhythm
requires some careful technical training,
and he occasionally employs inadmissible
rhymes. These defects, however, Mr..
Stevens can overcome. The main point of
poetry is already in his favor: he has some
thing to say. 1t would be agreeable to
quote representative verses from his vol
ume-but this is forbidden by the pressure
of holiday matter upon the columns.
Therefore only the hope may be expressed
that another book Of poems BY Mr.. Stevens
may before long give occasion for more
extended notice of his forcibIe and dignitied
talent. (Holyoke. Mass: Griffith, Axdell
and Cady. Price $125.
Peter Ibbets0n. Edited by George du
Maurier. This extraordinary romance of
which the dramatic unity is preserved by
Mi. du Maurier's styling himself editor in
stead OF author. is the autobioeraphicsl
narrative of man who condemned to
prison for crime officially defensible,
found strange escape from durance and
loneliness, traversing every night way of
dreams. The description is charming Of
the early years of the hero. passed In the
sunny gardens of France, surmounted by q
little circle of charming elders, his conf.
dante little girl playmate with whom he
created such games and intellectual diver
sions as amaze those persons who have
charge of gifted children. Once only, In
later youth, Peter met again the little
Mimsey, grown the tall and stately, Mary
Duchess of the Towers. Then, by grace
OF a fixed system of dreams, an entire dis
covery of the capricious laws of the realm
of sleep, this magnificent woman comes in
her life and after her death, to comfort and
inspire the dreary life Of the poor prisoner.
Mr.. du Maurier has appeared to wish to
materialiZe in this Duchess the beautiful
goddess who is manifest as she walks
through his society cartoons. His pen as
writer has the patrician grace of his artists
pencil; flexibility OF idiom and precision
in the use of words which comes from his
evident equal familiarity with two lam
guages, the French and the English; while
his art of romancist possesses the Anglo
Saxon directness and the delicate psycholo-
gical analysis of the best Gallo fiction.
Certainly it is to the "reminiscences of the
childhood Of the hero that the reader will
return with the most pleasure, but the
latter portion Of the work is managed with
steadiness, moving over Its cloudlike plot
without disaster, and affording strange
hints of light upon certain problems Of the
spirit. The illustrations are in the authors
Characteristic manner. (New York: Har-
per and Brothers; Portland; Loring, Short
& Harmon.
The Blue Pavilions. By 60" In this
story of England in the 18th century, after
the close of the Dutch war. Mr.. Arthur
CUTLER Couch has written with power and
with comedy. The Blue Pavtlions were the
respective homes of Captain Jeremy Run
acles and Captain John Barker, an oddly
assorted pair OF friends; widower and
bachelor, both in love with Mistress Meg,
whose good-for-nothing husband has, ac-
cording to report, been killed. After elab.
crate precautions In order to take fair
start in pursuit of this young weman's
heart and hand-the two captains learn
that she has died suddenly, leaving an in
FAINT son. Their next emulation was for
the right to adopt this boy. right which
was to be allotted by the cast of dice.
Captain John threw skies, and Captain
Jeremy-box and dice out of the window,
angrily. As ward Of Captain John, young
Trisham grew ND to be fine, brave youth;
and after an adventurous campaign in
Flanders, by sea and by land. he finally
returns to the two captains, and to the
lovely Sophia, daughter Of the widower,
Master Jeremy. This Is story written
especially about men and for men; a ro-
bust romance Of friendship, war and love.
New York: Cassell Publishing Company;
Portland: Loring, Short g. Harmon.
Price $1.25)
A Rose Of Hundred Leaves. By Anne
liza A. Barr. This novel by very popular
author is dressed in holiday attire. Moth
Ing could be more exquisitely colored than
it gray-green covers with a medallion.
where blush roses are wreathed upon white
and gold. The many Illustrations. laid
unconventionally along the page in French
fashion, add to the charm of the volume as
Christmas gift. The story itself is Of a
young girl of the North country Of Eng
land. who affronted by the bridegroom that
IaTk hax.~ l.
proudly home between her two brothers Of
the stern and loyal kind that are sung of
in Border ballads. The rejected Aspatria