The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-11-08
hardly furnish a daintier bit of book
making.

| naruly IurnlSn Qa1nt1er bit OF DOCK
making.
Maarten Martens new story, Gods
Fool (New York: D. Appleton & Com
pany; Portland :Loring, Short & Har-
NOM is an inexpressibly dreary book, its
| creatures among the most despicable
| that novelist in his contempt for man
kind ever created. The Fool, the hero
| of the story, is somewhat sentimental
lied, and so far relief from the rugged
realism of the rest of the tale, which is
told with brutal cynicism that often re-
volts the reader. The humor, which the
author too obviously affects, is saturnine
heavy as lead. After the manner of
the man, so often met who makes
| reputation for wit by saying ill-natured
things of his neighbors, Maarten essays to
gain it by saying ill-natured things of all
mankind. The general effect of the
story is depressing in the extreme, and
throws the reader into the state of mind
of Mrs. Gummidge when she had been
thinking of ''the old 'un.n 1t is a story
of idiocy, of mercantile fraud, of fratri-
cide;-yet so strongly told, with such
rugged force and sombre power that it
possesses. a horrible fascination, like the
head of Medusa. We defy any reader to
read fifty pages of the book without long
ing to finish it-and then, perhaps, re-
greet that he yielded to the temptation.
Perhaps the best plea for the book
which can be made is that put forth by
the author in the apologize which prefac-
es it, and which runs thus: There was a
man once--a satirist. In the natural
course of time his friends slew him, and
he died, and the people came and stood
about his corpse. s'He treated the whole
round world as his foot ball. y they said,
Indignantly, Sand he kicked it, The
dead man opened one eye. sBut always
towards the Goal" he said
The author seems to share. the delusion
of the fly on the coach wheel in still
older apologize.
A Wonder Book for Girls and Boys.
BY Nathaniel Hawthorne. With Sixty
Designs by Walter Crane. Boston:
Houghton, Mifflin & Company; Portland:
Loring, Short 6 Harmon. Price, $1,000
Here we have superb edition of a
famous book that has become boyhood
classic, and that is to most other ''juve-
nile'' literature as marble to mud. The
Hellenic myths have never been retold
SO well to Northern ears-not even by
William Morris in the sweet and languid
measures Of the Earthly Paradise, for
Hawthorne's prose is much better poetry
than many stories told in verse. Osten-
sib1y the Wonder Book is for children
Ito whom indeed it is constant delight
but the mature reader also finds pleasure
in Hawthorne's presentation of the fair
shapes of Grecian fable, a pleasure pro-
portionate to his acquaintance with the
myths in their original form. Passing
through Hawthorne's hands the old
legends acquire an inexpressible charm,
and in their new and exquisite dictlon
receive an added grace. It is the apol-
ogue of Pygmation and the Image again.
He has put soul into the beautiful but
cold and heartleas shapes of Hellenic
fable. 70 use the expression of his own
EMr, Pringle,'' his imagination is Gothic
for there is in his treatment of the class
ic myths an undertone of sadness alien
to the ancient mythology, but appealing
with peculiaRforce to men of Northern
blood, the sincere nature-w orshippers
Children feel the charm, though the
stories are to them but tales of wonder;
their elders read between the lines, and
continually discover touches OF beauty
and tenderness which quite escape the
conscious observation of the child The
attempt to ''render the fables of CLASH
cal antiquity into the idiom of modern
fancy and feeling,n which was Haw-
thorne's avowed object, is so entirely
successful that it takes its stand high in
the imperishable literature of the world.
The famous book receives adequate pre-
sentation at the hands of the publishers,
who have to it devoted the resources OF
their craft; and the beautiful, full-page,
colored illustrations by Walter Crane.
with their suggestions of the Illuminated
manuscripts which were once the pride
of monasteries, combine with the text to
make volume over which boys and
girls these long winter nights will be
tempted to pore until the gray dawn
breaks.
-"
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