The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1893-07-29
NEW BOOKS
BRIEF Reviews of Important aud Interestinr
New Publications

|
QUESTION: at Issue" I'd. Appleton & Col Mr..
| Edmund Gosse exhorts the story tellers to
take up the whip Of q loading hunt. the fore
| man OF colliery. the master OF a fishing
| smack. and a Spectator on tho Stock Ex-
| change as central figures In their tales. He is
| after freshness, and he wants those chsrac-
ters and plenty moro like Thorn treated with
| enlightenment and with complete UNDER
| standing on the part of the romancers OF the
habits OF thought and the habits OF action en-
tailed by the occupation OF each. What q call
is this upon the poor novelistl Why. IL he
| could get into the habits Of thought and action
| OF a single one OF these-the Stock Exchange
| speculator, say-he could operate as the Stock
Exchange Spectator does and In twenty
| four hours very likely I'VE have no wish
to be startling in the statement Of timel, could
place himself beyond the need OF novel
writing forever. But II the novelist despairs
OF being able to pluck out the heart OF tho bust
ness mystery OF the broker. the collier the
fox hunter. and the man who catches goldfish
| he may still cherish q reasonable ambition.
| There is such thing as pure delight. Like
| beauty. 1t is its own excuse for being. and 1t
| never grows old. Moreover the story teller
| who can command 1t may we'll think that
| Providence is good to him. for his books will
| SELL But this n not to intimate that Mr.
| Gosse is not wise and interesting essayist
Has America Produced Poet" The In
| fuence OF Democracy on Literature" What
| Is q Great Poet?" Tennyson-end After"
| Mr.. Robert Louis Stevenson as o Poet"
| "Mr. Rudyard Kiplne's Short stories"-
| these are some OF Mr.. Gosse's titles here
| and the promise OF interest in them is well
| borne out What Mr.. Gosse says OF the poetry
| of Sidney Lanier may not be liked In Johns
| HOPKINS University. for he says that 1t Is
cloudy. vapid. and grotesauely violent: but
structures that are not relishod by some may
| he quite agreeable to others. and Mr.. Gosse's
| very explicit comments upon Lanier will be
grateful and consoling. We dare say. to good
many who have reproached themselves for
their inability to appreciate and perhaps to
! understand the poet who heard faint bridal
signs Of brown and green"
| The reader OF Mr.. Marion Crawford's latest
novel. "Pictro Ghisleri" tMacmilian 4 Co..
| will hardly have any fault to find. We should
| think with the love- making OF the heroine to
the FIRST hero. The important thing was. un-
| questionably. that the love should be made
| and we do not see how it could have been
made in this instance II the heroine had not
made it. The first hero had too low an opin-
ion Of himself ever to have taken the intis-
tive. 1t is creditable to the heroine that she
| should have had the strength Of mind to sab
| ordinate her own natural modest scruples and
| to say the word which 1t Ia the part Of woman
| to hear said ordinarily. The fact that the first
! hero tainted when she did say 1t is proof
| enough of his own monstrous incspacity In
| transaction of the kind. The sensitive reader
| will feel early in the story that the first
hero Is bound to mako way speedily In
favor Of the second hero. Pletro Ghisleri Ia
too masculine and TOO forclble a charac.
ter to be denied. though, OF course 1t was
an unbidden fate that worked for him
in the gruesome and wicked event which
made the heroine a widow. The reader will
rejoice for Ghisleri while Borrowing for the
extremely modest man who was his predeces-
sor AS for the evil half sister-in-law who In
oculated the first hero with fever germs. 1t Is
human to exult at the neurotic punishment
which overwhelms her amid her chloral and
her hypodermic syrnees. She helps tho Sec
ond horo and puts the novelist under obliga-
lions, but she is thoroughly bad lot "Pietro
Ghisleri" Is a tale OF modern Rome. If the
style OF the narrative had been more compact
the Incidents would have stood out better We
have kindly feeling for incidents. and do not
like to see them attenuated.
THE Highway Of Letters and the Echoes Of
Famous Footsteps" by Thomas Archer tAnson
D. F. Randolph & Coz is about Fleet street and
it's long line OF distinguished denizens. from
the knights Of the Temple to Sir Edwin Ar
mold
Has done forty miles poetry and forty miles Of
The mon OF war. politics. and literature. the
taverns. coffee houses. and private dwellings.
the eating and drinking. the newspapers. the
literary clubs. the riots-the book gossips Of
these things and OF much else besides. OF one
OF the more recent literary clubs. The Wits"
which was accustomed to meet In the coffee
room OF the Cheshire Cheese. and which must
have been q club with reassuring intellectual
| ~ ri Al
One afternoon. he says. the club was discuss
ing astronomy. and one OF the party OBJ
served that 1t was a wonderful thing to reflect
upon. that the sun was a million miles distant
from tho earth. Upon this quiet but potential
looking young man. who was seated with
friend In corner OF the room. ventured, with
apologies for interposing In the conversation.
to remark that the distance was pinety-flve
million miles Such stupendous statement
needed to be verified. and messenger was
sent to neighborlnR newspaper offce for a
handbook OF astronomy. upon referring to
which the astonshed members OF the Wits
Club found that the stranger was justified In
his correction. Having inquired the strangers
name. the proprietor Of the then recently
established paper exclaimed: e Sir. you are q
man Of genius. Why don't you write for the
London Illustrated Ne1os ?" That anecdote
will do for an example OF the authors abund-
ant and sprightly gossip about this historic
street. The book Is profusely illustrated.
1t is trite thing. we'll worn piece OF bust
ness, to be sure. to have your foeman bite the
dust" We do not know why he should be
kept on at 1t forever without the smallest
effort at variety: and our appreciative SYM
pathy is with Mr.. Madison Cawein. who in his
book Of poems. Moods and Memories" &C., P.
Putnam's Sonsl. is bold enough to make him
mouth the dirt" by way Of slight change.
He causes BLACK lord Of war" to flash on
the foe" and force many foeman" to mouth
The dirt in bleeding Woe" Mr. Cawen treats
Us to number Of uncommon phrases in these
poems. "A bullion bulk the wide Ohio lies"
no tells US. and he has clir-lunGed river and
a tanned moon. Describing the green sea
cavsrns he says:
Strange monster bulks are there.
That yhwn
or roll huge ewes tina glare
And then