The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-10-31
NEW PUBLICATIONS.

Cossack bids fair to be realized SO far as
literature is concerned, for the Russians
are fast taking possession of the book
stalls. Their latest appearance is with
Prince Serebryani, a historical novel OF
the times of Ivan the Terrible and the
conquest of Siberia. New York: Dodd,
Mead & Co.; Portland: Loring, Short &
Harmony 1t is by Axis Tolstoi-not
the Tolstoi, but the other Tolstoi, and
the more entertaining of the two-and
done into English by Jeremiah Curtis.
who dedicates the translation to Colonel
David Bugbee of Bangor, Me-, my es-
teemed friend. and one of those men of
New England who, with strong will,
clear head and high purpose, have con-
tributed so much to the greatness OF
America" Prince Serebryani has the
merit, not shared by all Russian novels
at least those translated into English-of
being entertaining 1t is strong piece
of historical fiction; rapid and passionate
In action, and picturing robust men and
women who strike the reader as being
very much alive. price $L50)
AS motto on the title page of Records
OF Tennyson, Ruskin, Browning, by Anne
Thackeray Richie New York: Harper
& Brothers; Portland: Loring, Short d
Harmony are to be found the following
words from Rusl1in's Preterita; II have
written frankly, garrulously, and at ease,
speaking of what gives me joy to remem-
Der at any length | like; sometimes very
carefully of what 1 think may be useful
for others to know, and passing over in
total silence things which l have no
pleasure in reviewing" 1t is in the
spirit of the foregoing paragraph that
Mrs. Richie has done her work of COM
| momoration of the masters whose names
appear upon the covers Of her book. It
is volume of delightfully."- sympathetic
"Reminiscences, written in English as pure,
albeit not SO sinewy, as her famous fa-
| theirs. The publishers have done their
part, in type and binding and generous
margins, to give proper setting to the
delightful text; and the illustrations are
many and good.
| The thirty-ninth volume in the Eng
fish Men of Letters New York: Harper
& Brothers; Portland: Loring, Short &
Harmony is Professor John Nichols
s'Carlyle,n built on the lines laid down
| by Froude, though necessarily dwarfed
in size. Professor Nichol pretends to
give nothing new, though he affords
prominence to facts less generally
known, while passing slightly over the
details of events enlarged on in previ-
GUS biographies. The result is a con-
else, admirably written and eminently
readable memoir, worthy of place in
the distinguished series to which it be-
longs. price Is cents.)
Brander Matthews latest essays, large
and little, have been gathered into vol
ume bearing the title of the most sig
nificant; namely Americanisms and Britt
cisms, New York: Harper & Brothers;
Portland: Loring, Short & HARMONY He
modestly calls them ''essaylets,' word
it were quite as well to leave uncoined.
In the title-essay he trenchantly attacks
the British tendency to set up London
English as the standard of language, and
to stigmatize all departures from it as
provincialisms, Scotticisms, American
| isms or Australianisms, intimating that a
parochial dissatisfaction may underlie
this utilization of personal experience
as the sole test of linguistic propriety.
by the way he calls "a fig of tobacco"
an Australian phrase, though many of
our readers will agree that it is not I'm
common in New England American
Spelling and the Literary Independence
of the United States are much in the
same line as the initial paper. OF the
other papers perhaps the most significant
is that entitled Three American Essayists
in which he takes issue with Miss Agnes
Repplier. Perhaps the two are the more
disposed to quarrel because they are SO
much alike,-both being charming writ
ers in the essay line, when they are at
one as when they differ.
In Timothy's Quest Mrs. Kate Doug
las Wiggin demonstrated her ability to
write book about children that would
be as interesting to them, though per-
haps in different way, as to their
elders. In her latest work, Children's
Rights Boston: Houghton, ALiff1in d
Company: Portland: Loring Short, &
Harmony, which bears as subtitle "a
Book of Nursery Logic she has taken
and put into formal shape talks originally
| given before members of societies inter
ested in the training of children. In
their present shape they. retain some of
the informality and much of the charm
ofspeech, sounding like the rapid and
sometimes inconsequent talk of bright
woman. The book is stuffed as full with
epigrams as a Christmas pudding with
plums. There is not q dull line in it
from preface to colophon. and it is as
upisa as If is wittv-informeu by "a