The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-11-18

Mr.. Butterworth believes that he has in
no case been untrue to the fact and spirit
of the times he pictures; and uses fiction
chiefly as a framework to bring what is
real more wildly into view. He has, to
use his own phrase, employed the in
terpretive imagination merely for MARIA
tive purposes" The vocabulary occasion
ally strikes us as anachronistic, for we
sometimes detect on the lips of his boys
the ''lingo" of later day. This, how
ever, is but trifling blemish. The sto-
ry, as whole, seems true to its time.
The picture of Lincoln is what he might
have been in youth-indeed what all
record leads us to believe he was.
MRS. BIgh has the conspicuous merits
and the defects, also conspicuous, OF all
Miss Rhoda Broughton's novels. The
merits are eminent readableness, touches
here and there of genuine passion, and
profound conviction as to the reality
of her characters which she co mpels her
readers to share in. The defects are oc-
casional coarseness of phrase if not of
thought, and perfervid, semi-hysterical
manner of treating the loves of men and
women. 1t is to be acknowledged that
the defects diminish with the passing
years while the merits remain. We
meet Mrs. Anne Bligh as widow and
part with her as she is about to become
the wife of Sir Robert Coke. with whom
she has apparently been in love from the
first The story of their mutual misun-
derstandings, as Miss Broughton's read
ers will remember, is sufficiently inter-
esting to hold close attention through
three hundred pages, mostly pleasant, to
the denouement that is dimly seen from
the beginning. (New York: D. Appleton
& Co.; Portland: Loring, Short & Har-
mon.)
To criticise the art of a work that has
been crowned by the Academy would be
rash; nothing remains but to commend
at least the French of it, which we may
assume to be faultless. Fortunately for
the Engllsh-writing critic My Uncle and
My Cure, Jean de la Brete's famous book
has been done into our tongue by Ernest
Redwood, and the language of it falls
within the English-writer's province. OF
the fidelity of the translation we may not
speak, for the conclusive reason that the
original is not at hand. The English
Sc do1
the vernaeular standpoint correct, though
we suspect that much of the French
mans stylistie charm has escaped in the
process of translation; either that, or
the Academy has made mistake--a
profane thought not to be harbored
for moment. However, the story is so
delightfully."- fresh and charming, so out
of the common, SO interesting merely as
story, so vivid in its characterization,
and the mise en- scene SO attractive, that
even dull or careless translator, and
Mr.. Redwood seems to be neither, can
not spoil it in the retelling. The heroine
is altogether delightful; and the tale of
how love came to her threading on WOOL
in the proverbial way, told with grace
and tenderness and sympathetic insight
that go far to justify the greatreputation
the work has achieved. The American
edition is sumptuous, uniform in size
and style with the library edition of the
Able Constantin, and the photographic
illustrations after drawings by Georges
janet done in Paris, leave nothing to be
desired. (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co.;
Portland: Loring Short & Harmony
Persis Hastings was, to adopt the Ian
guage of Mr.. Harold Strong, principal of
the high school at marlborough, "a
plucky little DEVIL and in the book
bearing the name of the town just mem
toned (Winterborough. By Eliza Orne