Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1892-02-11

CHOSEN from among the library
books for the winters reading"
suggests certain ones as readable,
pure, and worthy.
1t is to be desired that our young
folks are shown that in the world
of fiction, Tolstoi, Marie Bashkirt-
self, Ouida and other morbid
writer's are melodramatic, witless,
and vile in comparison with a
multitude of later day writer's
whose names are less notorious.
One of the latest books of fiction
that will be widely read is The
History of David Grieve" from the
pen of Mrs. Humphrey Ward,
author of Robert Elsmere." With
keen, sarcastic pen, the writer
makes war on hypocrisy, cant and
meanness as shown under the
guise of religion, puts selfish ego
tsm IN the scale with the orphans
inheritance, and robs the children
of their birthright, greed, falsehood,
vanity, worldliness, are each I'M
masked by the clear light of
justice, and the deep, true, abiding
religion of the Kingdom Of God.
An inherent nobility in the hero
of the story will not down"
Adversely cramps him, persecution
exasperates, pretense and hypocrisy
sours him, but with every larger
experience in the unbouuded hori-
zon of life, he gains a power of
consideration for the narrow and
deformed humanity that forever
buzz so loudly of their own petty
cares.
The shallow, the worthless, the
false, each perform mission of
humanity that rounds out the life
of David Grieve. The orthodoxy
of the book is not bounded by any
ism but there is in it a concep-
ton of the dlviner christianity that
embodies the brotherhood of man,
the fatherhood of God. Of the
plot of the story, the sad child
hood of the orphaned brother and
sister, the hayward, passionate,
erratic girlhood Of Louie" en-
Uttered and driven to inevitable
ruin by the hard, cruel domination
of the aunt, whose cant and
religious pretenses are sharp con-
trast to the stingy, selfish, over
bearing disposition she shows, are
pictures OF thrilling realism.
David's love affairs are intensely
interesting as life studies. For a
time Glove rules the world" even
with so staid, sober, and earnest a
parsonage as our intellectual young
athlete. In the changeful scenes
of life, after the grown up children
break away from the restraints of
the aunt, there is ample incidents to
interest the mere story reader.
Two extreme characters are taken
for the characters of the novel and
each is depicted with a master
hand.
There are few persons with any
ambition for Literary culture who
have not become familiar with
Dickens, Thackery, Scott, Irving
George Elliott, and Hawthorne.
To those who have been so un-
fortunate as not to have read them
we would say, begin first and read,
not all of these works, but one or
two of each. Try Washington
Irving's Sketch Book" SCOTS
"Ivanhoe," Thackerys "Vanity
Fair" George Elliott's mill on
the Floss" Hawthorne's Wonder
Stories" Dickens David Copper
field or "Oliver Twist" Read
book every week; a little time
gained in the early morning will
give you bright, fresh thought
for the day, and an inspiration to
use the minutes wasted in saying
things too oft said, to be regretted.
A pleasant thing to do, as we'll
as beneficial, is to write down in
a scrap book quotations from the
books you read, noting the book
and author. 1t will furnish a fund
of information in the future, and
help to while away lonely hour.
FELIX FAIR.