St. Paul daily globe., 1893-06-12
BOOK TALKS.

The ShandOn series contains many
very readable books. The last install
ment that came to our table was "a De-
plorable Affair."" by w. E. Norris,
pretty love story. with the usual poor
relation. Beatrice Deveraux, in this in
stance, who is lovely, bright and en-
shrouded in just enough mystery to
whet the appetite of Sidney Carleton,
the forbidden man. Complications en-
sue, of course, else why the story? but
all ends happily as love stories should.
Venus VictriX," by Helen Mathers,
is story of far more force; is, in fact,
an unusual story in plot and manage
ment. The situations are new and dra-
matte, and hold the readers attention
from first to last. Sabina Norton,
rarely beautiful woman as 10 animal
beauty, had stolen, by those subtletieS
and falsehoodS that that sort OF
a woman knows, her husband,
Hardness Norton, from his boyhood
sweetheart and the love of his man.
hood, Lindsay Grey. She had borne his
name, but had not seen return for the
wild, idOlatrous passion with which she
loved him. Suddenly she was stricken
with paralysis, and by reason of her
terrible temper was not able to keep
nurse. Finally doctor secured for her
the service of Lindsay Grey, who. to fill
the lonely life that was left her, had en-
tered school for nurses, aud for some
years had worked at the hardest cases.
Not knowing to whom she was being
sent, she went to that handsome home
10 find her old lover and his helpless
wife. Thinking herself unrecogniZed,
by its master, she stayed to care for the
invalid, who dies suddenly from poison,
and Lindsay Grey is arrested. How
tie plot is worked out the story tells.
Another of the same series. THE
Highland Nurse" by the Duke of Ar
gyll, is quaint story of Scottish High
land life. There is little mystery i'll
the story which is never cleared up.
The character of the nurse is well
drawn. The fiery pride, the intense
loyalty to the house that they recog-
hiZe as the head of their clan, the stub
born resistance to patronage that are
recognized as characteristic of the High
landers, are all to be found in the nurse,
Ishabel McGregor. The quaint Scottish
dialect.that has such an attraction to all
Scotchmen.and the graphic descriptions
OF Highland scenery, as we'll as cottage
one. There is no love story, or hint of
one, in the book. There are two stories
bound in this little volume, and the sec
ond, IAN Eighteenth Century Juliet"
is from the French by James Mortimer.
1t is pathetic little love story, and ends
in death.a death that was welcome ratb-
er than the separation that the law en-
joined between two hearts that beat as
one. These pleasant books are to be
found at ID. ID. Merrill's, ST. Paul, and
TAFT & Sons. New York.
Georges Ohnet's The Ironmaster" is
published by Worthington company,
New York. and tells i'll graceful yet
forcible language a story of admirably
sustained interest. The strongly marked
characters develop themselves natural
ly, both in their language and their ac-
tions. The book, moreover, unlike the
general run of French novels, conveys
a sound moral. 1t shows anew how
Eeedful it is that husbands and wives
alike should study each others char
acter before marriage, and it enforces
III convincing language the oft-repeated
lesson that woman should never trifle
with the affections of the man TO whom
she is mated for life.
No one could define the stage. per-
haps, better than Henry irving. In a
book received from TAFT 81 Sons this
week he does this to the best of his very
wonderful ability in four lectures de-
livered at the Philosophical Institute OF
Edinburgh in 1881. The titles of these
lectures are The Stage as 1t Is, ''Ihe
Art of Acting" -Four Great Actors"
and again ''The Art of Acting" Those
who carp at the stage and all that per-
tainS to it will be surprised at the lofty
ideas that those who love it possess of
its mission in the world and their power
to carry it out.
A booklet called "Red River Colony"
by A. l.. Chetlain, if full of information
about that vague country known in our
childish days as the Red river country.
The original beginning of this little his
tory was an article written by Mr.. Chet-
lain for the December number of Har-
per's Magazine, 1878. These facts were
with difficulty obtained. and related to
what occurred in the colony between
the years 1916 and 1880. There was no
source but the memories of the sur
vivOrs 10 which he could turn for iufor-
nation. In preparing this pamphlet he
has added portion of the Earl of Sell
kinks statement, prepared by him after
his return to England from the settle
ment in 1916, and published in London
in 1878: This interesting little history
is put in this form to be placed in the
hands of the descendants OF that brave
band Of emigrants that they may not in
the future be ignorant Of the hardships
their ancestors endured when voyaging
from the fertile valley and vine-clad
slopes Of the Jura to seek new homes
on the inhospitable plains of the far-off
Rupert land.O