The Portland daily press., 1892-12-01


any English.
From the American Book Company,
New York, as further numbers in their
carefully annotated English Classics for
Schools come Scott's Ivanhoe, complete
go cents); ten selections from Irving's
Sketch Book, embracing Sleepy Hollow
and Rip Van Wrinkle go cents); the Sir
Roger De Coverley papers from the Spec
tator 90 cents); and Shakespeare JUL
us Caesar, complete (20cents.) The merit
of this series is too widely recognized to
need dwelling upon.
The Great Shadow, by A. Conan
Doyle New York: Harper Il Brothers;
Portland: Loring, Short & HARMONY IS
that of Napoleon Bonaparte, which hung
over Europe for fifteen years. Not only
the great ones of the earth, but certain
humble folk who dwelt in the border
land between England and Scotland, fell
under it, The fortune Of these border
ers led them to the field of Waterloo,
where one of them fell and whence an
other came oack to tell the tale. The
novel is one that the reader does not
willingly put down till the last page is
finished. The plot, though simple, is OF
absorbing interest, and the closing chap
tiers with their descriptions of Waterloo
and the charge of the Old Guard, highly
animated and forceful. The figure of
Bonaventure De Lissac, colonel DIES
Voltigeurs de la Garde, ct aide-de-camp
de S. M. rEmpereur Napoleon" is origi-
nal and impressive. The novel is in its
scope quite unlike Doyle's previous work
and in it's style shows strong traces of
the influence of Blackmore.
Through all Mary Hallock Foote's
work, with pen or with pencil, there runs
an undertone of sadness, often sufficient
to provoke the s'idle tears' of Tennyson's
line if not always deep enough to cause
heart ache. Her pencil sketches OF the
western land she loves so well are SOM
bre and lonely, and the effect of her
books sometimes inexpressibly sad.
The Chosen Valley, which has been run
ming as serial in the Century Magazine,
is not an exception. 1t is book OF sin
gular power, the narrative animated, the
construction ingenious, the execution
artistic, the lesson conveyed one of brave
endeavor and lofty self-sacrifice; but the
reader closes its leaves with sigh, with
feeling of depression that he finds diff
cult to shake off. Yet the charm of it is
so deep that he will go back again and
again to the pages that have given him
pain; he can no more keep away from
them then he can keep his tongue from
an aching tooth.
The Chosen Valley is published in
Boston by Houghton, Mifflin 6 Company
and for sale in this city by Loring, Short
6 Harmon. Price: $1.25.
The good ship Saint Francois, Captain
Baudoin. carried a cargo of rice on the
voyage from ondicherry to Marseilles,
but far more precious than the rice bags
was the solitary passenger, a little brown
whose fortunes the big book called
sHermines Triumph" by Madame C.
Colomb, author of "Chloris and jean
nette,n deals. The triumph was over
the obdurate heart of her uncle and the
malice of his wife. The story is mainly
one of child life, and mildly interesting;
though the theme is as old as the family.
We suspect that much of the interest is
due to the fact that the children have
strange names and play their little parts
in ian alien land. We're they named
Hannah and John and Thomas, and did
they make their home in Maine, we
might find their adventures trife tire
some. In France the book is looked
upon as nursery classic. 1t is SPIRITED
ly illustrated by Vogel. (New York: d.
Appleton & Company; Portland: Loring,
Short g Harmony
Printed in large type, bound in fexi-
BILE covers of full morocco, with gilt top
and photogravure frontispiece, the
fourth series of Literary Gems makes
its appearance from the press of G. P.
Putnam's Sons, New York. The set
comprises six volumes, each done up in
a dainty box: Sheridan's Rivals;
Irving's Rip Van Wrinkle and VOL
fert's Roost; Millions L'Allegro and
II Penseroso, together with the Sonnets
and Odes; Thackerays Charity and
Humor, and Nil Mise Bonum; Gray's
Elegy together with a selection from
the Odes and Sonnets; Bryant's Thana-
topsis, The Flood of Years, Lines to
Waterfowl, and Little People of the
Snow. These exquisite little volumes
are for sale at Is cents each, by Loring,
Short & Harmon.