Los Angeles herald., 1892-08-01
BOOK TALK.
Iw. 81. A.l

Haggard's happiest-that is, most
acknowledgements, tells the tale o.
NADIA the Lily and mirrors forth the hor.
rors in the lives of those who surround
her.
1t is weird, fantastic, gloomy, and
filed with strange conceits. Death
awful, universal, omnipresent death
is it's theme. Death in every shape
| form, manner and kind that hell-borr
ingenuity could conceive, and the spirit
of remorseless cruelty command, Chaka
ssthe lion of the Zulus," "a Napoleon
and q Tiberius in one'-ambitious
grasping, and relentlessly cruel--is the
| tyranical genius who raised up the Zu-
lus from nothing to be one of the most
powerful and warlike of the African
tribes. He is the evil spirit of the book,
whose word is law and whose law is
| death.
MIR. Haggard has given free rein to
his fancy. In the quaint idiom of
Mopo, son of Makeduma, the story
"winds in and out, like river in q
plain" now following the fortunes of
Mopo himself through the vicissitudes
OF head-physician to the bloody minded
Chaka; now turning aside to tell the
adventures that befel Umslopagaas, the
slaughterer, and Galazi, the wolf, who,
with their fierce following of ghost
wolves, headed by Greysnout, Black
fang, Blood and Deathgrip, hunt night
after night beneath the shadow of ''the
Ghost mountain, where the stone witch
sits forever, waiting for the world to
die." But it all centers at last around
NADIA the Lily, daughter of Mopo, who
is "the woman in the case" She is
good and beautiful, but is the herald of
Misfortune, who follows swiftly in her
footsteps. 1t is her sad fate to bring de-
feat, destruction and death to all she
loves, and to come herself to most
horrible end.
The story is thrilling, and never for a
moment lacks interest ofa certain kind ;
but, as Mr.. Haggard says in the preface,
''those who think it wrong that massa-
ere and fighting should be written of,
except by special correspondents, or
that the sufferings of mankind beneath
onesof the most cruel tyrannies, should
form the groundwork OF romances, may
be invited to leave this book unread"
venture to say, however, that, san
culinary as it is, few who do read it will
regret having done go. / certainly en-
joyed it, and only wish that half the
romances that it fell to my lot to read
were as thoroughly entertaining.
NADIA, the Lily, by R. Rider Haggard.
For sale by Stoll & Thayer. 139 South
Spring street.)
x*x
"a few brave women are laboring to-
day to secure for their less capable, less
thoughtful, less imaginative sisters, a
recognition of true womanhood. based
on individual rights This sounds
we'll. has the true "spread-eagle" ring
to it, and was written by Elizabeth
Cady Stanton in an Introductory word,
by way of preface, to Helen H. Gard
ener's Pray You, Sir, Whose Daughter.
LESS thoughtful, less capable, less
imaginative sisters" it is to be hoped
80, if their thoughts are to take the
trend that Mrs. Gardeners have taken
in this book, If their capabilities are to
! be increased by the standard she here
sets up, if their imaginations are to lead
them into any such by-paths of literary
endeavor as the one into which she has
strayed.
Mrs. Gardener seems to be dreadfully
in earnest. She evidently feels that che
is waging right royal and most right
eoHs battle as the champion of her sex.
l must confess, however, that l fail to
see wherein the necessity lies ''for som 9
woman to arise to do for her sex what
Mrs. Stowe did for the black race in
Uncle Toms Cabin" Seriously now,
doesn't that sentence, taken in cold
blood, sound absurd? / think know a
few. women as beautiful examples of as
exalted womanhood as Mrs. Gardener
or Mrs. Stanton ever dreamed of-yho
would vigorously resent the imputation
that the nineteenth century woman is
as much in need of a champion as were
the negroes at the south.
Mrs. Gardeners book, though an
earnest and well-intentioned book, is in
no wise good book. She creates few
pitiably weak characters, and says OF
them: "These are our women of to-
day-what imbeciles! what slaves"
| don't doubt but that you could find
just such women; but to hold them up
to the world as average women is most
thoroughly (even If unintentionally) to
malign her own sex.
The attack she makes uponsthe gross
laws that have disgraced the legislative
halls of some of our states is vigorous
and we'll deserved. / can also meet her
half way in her contentious for stand
ard of morals that should be adhered to
by both sexes alike. There is good fight
ing ground on both propositions. But
while l grant that there are wrongs here
which ought to be righted, question
seriously Mrs. Gardeners method of
rightiDg them. A book that too rudely
strips the veil from the conventional,
and too brutally pictures isolated truths
which we all know to be, but discreetly
cover up, is always calculated to do
more harm than good. 1t disgusts
rather than impresses; and we turn
from it with lothing.'
Such book has Mrs, Gardener writ
ten. lam sorry. would like to speak
we'll of an effort so evidently well meant.
would hesitate long time, however,
before advising our young women to
read Pray You, Sir, Whose Daughter,
in order that they may learn sof the
dangers that beset their path on every
side.
(Pray You, Sir, Whose Daughter, by
Helen FL. Gardener. For sale by Stoll
& Thayer, No. 139 S. Spring street.)