St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-03-07
NEW BOOKS.

In all history there is scarcely to be
found a more interesting character than
Julius Caesar. Every school boy has
pOred over Caesars own terse account
of those marvellous campaigns in Gaul
and Britain, and has felt the living per-
sonality of the great soldier. w. Warde
Fowler has given us, in the Heroes of
Nations" series, one of the most admir-
able and interesting lives of Caesar ever
published. For accuracy the writer de-
ponds on Caesars own writings, and on
CicerO'S, as we'll as on the evidence OF
contemporary writer's Caesars youth,
education, campaigns, trium yirate and
assassination form the basis of story
OF absorbing interest. The tendencies
of the age in which Caesar lived and
the gradual formation and foundation
of the Roman imperial system form an
effective background to the biography,
and render Caesars acts more easily I'M
derStoOd. For students especially the
book is highly commended.
"The Penance of Portia James" is
one of the cleverest books of the sea-
son. 1t is character study, for each
one OF its people is distinct and clear
cut type, but it is free from the pain
full elaboration of minor details which
usually burdens the character sketch.
There is decided novelty in the story,
too. Portia James, an Australian girl
of eighteen, is betrothed to John Morris
son, man twenty years her senior.
When the story opens, she is in London
with her stepbrother, and is approach
ing her twenty-firSt birthday. Her
fiance comes to claim her, much to her
lion, md ho 10 sol
AS the bride is preparing to depart on
the wedding journey, which she heartily
wishes her husband would take alone.
John MoriSson's former mistress and
illegitimate child are brought to her.
and Portia runs away to Paris, to Anna
Ross, young artist of the bohemian and
truly radical type. Here there comes
into the story again Harry Tolhurst,
a young artist whom Portia has known
in London. He is in love with her, but
advises her to return to her husband.
This she does. and, the discarded mis-
tresS being conveniently killed by a
street accident, Portia returns to Aus
tralia with her husband and his child.
Portla is an intensely interesting char
acter. One hardly knows whether she
is woefully weak, since she was married
simply because she lacked courage to
retreat, or whether in going back to her
husband and away from Tolhurst she is
strong in a blind fidelity to her own
ideal of right. She rouSeS ones SYM
pathy and ones curiosity. In fact, the
story possesses something better than
cleverness. Its people are delightfully."-
natural, and each is distinctly individ-
nal. Student life in Paris is incidentally
introduced. The story is not analytical;
it is simply a cfear-cut. dramatic and
well managed series of life pictures.
"Princess Mazarotf" possesses ele-
ments of originality. In the usual story,
when the innocent hero is tried for muir
der, somebody tnrns up just in the nick
of time to turn the scales in his favor.
In this entertaining story the hero is
cleared by the deliberate lie of his
friend, John fremont, a Church of En-
gland clergyman, who IeStities that ne
overheard the conversation between the
hero, Dick Travers. and the Princess
Mazaroff, who stabs herself, declaring
Dick her murderer. To account for his
former silence. fremont declares that
he was Dicks rival in the affections of
Evelyn SomerS; that Dick had won, and
that, for revenge, he had kept secret his
knowledge of the truth about the prin-
cess death till he saw that he would be
Dicks murderer if he persisted in
silence. fremont is one of the noblest
characters in modern fiction. TraverS
is contemptlbly weak, and Evelyn Som
ers is trifle unusual. The book as a
whole is we'll written, wholesome and
readable.
An interesting little book in French
Revolutionary history, by Louise Imo-
gen Quincy. will soon come from the
presses of Harper & Bros. 1t is called
monsieur Henri: A Foot-Note to
French History" and deals with Henri
de La Rochejaquelein, OF the Army of
La Vendee.
A new volume of short stories by
Richard Harding Davis, entitled Van
Bibber and Others" will be published
shortly by Harper 81 Bros.
''In the Vestibule Limited" by Bran
der Matthews, is the subject of the new
volume in the dainty and popular
"Black and White SERIES" published
by Harper & Bros.
Undoubtedly the most successful COM
pilation of popular music ever made is
the Franklin Square Song Collection"
published by Harper & Bros. If any
proof Of this fact were wanted 1t may
be found in the announcement that the
eighth volume of the series has Just
been issued. This collection now in
cludes 1,60O songs.