The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1892-05-12
BOOKS OF THE WEEK.


HowelIs Latest.
ruc orrxIrTY OF MERCY. BY w. ID.
HowELIs. New York; Harper a. Bros
John Milton Northwick had used his
position as treasurer of the Ponkwasset
Mills 10 lose the money OF that concern'
the Grtic puts H. a. his y mSesllements wses
he fied TO Canada. When concealment
fbere became uncomfortable he caine home
and had an interview with his two daugh-
fers AZ the result of which he returned
20 Canada, and there dropped dead Just
as an amateur detective was putting.
nnir of handcuffs on his wrists. In the
Smexntime the son of the president OF the
defrauded company became engaged TO
the defaulter's youngest daughter, ana In
The end married her. In the last chapter
two Of Northwicks neighpors speak
about him. and come TO the conclusion
that there never was much or him except
what happened to him, which one pro-
Dosed TO call fate, while the other said,
tWhy not call iJ Law?" Whereupon he
who had at first proposed to call 1t Fate
said ''l'll split the difference with you and
After the fashion of the time, Mr.. How
ells's search Is for the moral microbe OF
financial laxity, and he finds it in the sab
stitution of a personal code OF seif-JusJiii-
cation for that unrehective emotional
20 speak, and represents, not the crudely
thought-out ethics of single man or
period, but the. accumulated experience OF
all men from all time.
A Life of BaIzac.
A MEMOIR OF HONORE DE BALZAC.
i Compiled and Written by KATHARINE PRES
coTT WoRMELEY. Boston: Roberts Broth
ers
Az the translator of Balzac Miss
Wormeley Is one to whom it is natural
that the public should look with a GER
sain confidence for an estimate OF the
man. As translator Miss Wormeley
has exhibited very exceptional gifts. AS
. biographer she works with equal
sagacity and literary tact
The biographer of Balzac meets with
peculiar difficulties. for this man, who SO
sesrchingly scrutinized the life OF the
world, who left behind him so exhaustive
q study of the human comedy, himself re-
mained In singular obscurity. There Is.
indeed, considerable quantity of remin-
tscent matter, including the narrative OF
IN sister, Nine. Surville; the jugment,
generally confused and misleading.
Of the personality of the man is
not to be found. Miss Wormeley has this
fact to lament at the outset OF her task.
Like all other biographers of Balzac, she
has been compelled TO acknowledge the
= tu8urmOuntdDle ulIHculty uIlsluB lroui
, the fact that at certain periods of his life
the great novelist entirely disappears.
When he reappears it is chiefly as he was
oecn and known by his literary friends
and associates In Paris; bearing up against
the trials Of hard life with his hearty
Tourainean gaiety, battling for his rights
with editors and publishers, and letting
the reaction from his heavy toll and from
the inward stress of his spirit nave full
swing In the eccentric jovialty which was
q phase of his nature. This Is almost the
sole aspect under which the man, taken
apart from his work, has been made
known to the world.
At the seminary, as at home, Honore
passed for rather stupid aud extremely
lazy pupil. During the whole time of his
Life 1t the seminary tasks and imprison-
ment for neglected lessons left him but
two days Of freedom. That a mind SO
,delicate should have escaped complete
& wreck under such conditions is an indica-
tion of the physical elasticity that sup
ported this MUD and Of the natural buoy
ance of the. disposition by which it was
accompanied.
or course Balzac's father had settled
that he was to be a notary and there was
the usual domestic grief over the young
mans yearning for letters. Balzac begged
the opportunity to go of by himself and
see what he could do. And so he went to
an attic In Paris and:wrote tragedy
which did not convince anybody at home
that he was genius Forty stories were
written by Balzac before he consented to
put his name to one. Les Chouans" was
the first book to which he put his name.
The world was never slower in recogniz-
INK > genius. Even after the publication
Of Louis Lambert" and the "Medecin de
Campagne," people said TO him, "Come.
Balzac, when are you going to give us
! some really fine work." Meanwhile the
struggling novelist had been trying to
make some money in the printing busi-
ness, his father having refused him slen-
der annuity to support him until he
ehould get on his feet. He was not prac-
tical business man, and at the age of %
was 10000 In debt. The struggles of
nature keenly sensible to the Obligations
Of honor make a sad history at times.
hsFrom 1927 to 1S4S he published ninety
ssven books. The pressure under which
he worked was generally produced by
debfs. He was always giving notes; but
he always paid, keeping the total of his
1ndebtedness before him to stimulate his
courage. He could raise money where
other men might fail. He could fascinate
even usurers. And then he would go to
his sister and grimiy remark; What n
might have accomplished had he not been
carried of at the early age of 81 it is amaz-
Ing to contemplate.
Otner New Books.
Louise Imogen Quincy has written in
Monsieur Henri" foot note to French
history OF the eighteenth century, and a
notably delicate and forceful piece of
work she has wrought. The subject is
that Henri du Vergier de la Roche
1aquelin, of whom Nine de Roche
jaquelin left such delightful memories"
the basis of the present volume.
Another book by the famous Spanish
novelist Valera, the author of "Pepita
Ximenez" and "Dona Luz" is to be pub
lished Immediately by ID. Appleton & Co.
The title Is "Don Braulio," and the book
has been translated from the Spanish of
Pasarse de Listo" by Clara Bell IL
will appear in Appleton's Town and
Country Library.
The New World comes from the press
- fair and finished as freshly-minted
coin from the treasury. Ii is "a quarterly
review OF religion, ethics and theology
Au<4 h. G~..s -. nu.n