The record-union., 1894-05-11
new PUBLICATIONS.

MdTC0l1d' Y NOlS.) Is hTS. huLlpuI6
Wards latest work. 1t is from the press
of Macmillan d Co., New York and Lon
don. A very handsome portrait of Mrs.
Ward adorns volume l. The question
under debate IN the literary world
just now is whether Marcella is the
equal of Robert Elsmere in thought,
vigor aud diction. The opinion of the
reading public would seem to be about
equally divided as TO that matter. Mrs.
Ward i'll sMarcella" as chosen TO treat of
thought and things related wholly to
modern sociology. 1t is the story of a
woman who undertakes to see and under
stand the world and to achieve in it cer-
tain triumphs of reform. Into this wo-
mans life love for man comes and it
meets its reward in the end. L. Marion
Crawford sums up the thought and lesson
OF the story IN this paragraph:
Marcela is convinced that there can be no
age of prophecy when there is no prophet, no
reform Without reformer, no conquest of
one portion OF humanity unless there be q
conqueror in the ranks Of the other And
this conclusion seems to contain the lesson
taught uy Mrs. Wards new book, so far as it
can said TO teach a lesson at all.
the whole impression left after carefully
reading .'Marcela' from beginning to end is
remarkable for the number of hignly-finished
pictures nXed in the mind OF the reader-pict-
ures of which he cannot but feel sure that
they arc once true 10 life and typical of life.
by any pictures whatsoever, whether drawn
or written. Ii is common enough TO hear an
author say OF d true story he has heard that
he cannot make use of il; that true stories
look exaggerated and untrue in novel and
are hard TO handle, beside being generally
faulty in The ending OF them, rom tie So
called artistic point of view. But Mrs. Ward
has the very necessary mastery OF detail by
which and in which to make the truth seem
true. There are scenes OF cottage life in the
book which have PROBABLY never been out
fx.l,r
brilliancy OF literary finish. And there is
one of them at least III which an element of
tragic grandeur suddenly dlgnlEeS the squalor
OF great wretchedness, as only Death himself
eau. | mean the sense i'll which Marcelia, at
early morning, is with the miserable vile or
the condemned murde. ca poor, halide-
formed poachcr-juSt when the iar-oH prison
bell is heard tolling the hourfor his execution.
The political question involved in The
life romance and life trials of Marcella
involves the distress of,the English poor,
the drift towards and the remarkably
plausible reasons for socialistic advo-
cacy and the suggestion OF the evolution
OF the Anarchist. Her purpose seems to
have been TO present phases of life as she
sees them, in which are found the seeds,
the tibrous-like roots that are taking
hold upon the soil of society, and giving
vigor and strength TO plants of socialistic
growth. Mrs. Ward has a profounder
knowledge of the truth in lie than any
modern writer of her sex: no other
woman has treated social and even spir-
itual matters by the method Of the novel
writer with such vigor, far-seeing and
philosophic acunen. hamilton W. Ma
bic, the critic, reularklng upon the work
anu Airs. Wards wonderful capacity to
enter into sympathetic communion with
men and women who suffer and doubt
and are cropping, adds that this volume
has its roots in one of the pressing
questions OF the hour; but it so presents
the question and so holds it in subiec-
tion 10 the ultimate ends OF character that
the novel. detached from the root that
bore it, takes on life of its own. The
social question mikes itself SO completely
with almost every phase OF human activ-
ity that it was only question of time
when Mrs. Ward would deal with it. In
dramatic posi- bilities it is inconparably
the riches problem OF the times; but 1t is
also the most perilous, hot only tor the
legislator bit for The artist. For the first
is IN grave danger OF becoming dema-
gogue the second OF becoming propa-
gandist. Mrs. Ward has secured the
volume of dramatic force which the
problem supplies and has escaped the
danger of being swept away by it. She
| has employed it to develop and illustrate
| character. and has resisted the tempta-
| ton to subordinate character TO the pres
entation OF the problem" We incline to
/ regard "Marcella'' as a literary work as
| superior to Robert Elseineren or
david Grieveo 1t is unqueslionahly
more dramatic than either OF the others,
and at the same time is as fully indicat-
i've of the development of thought of the
/ day as either of the others.
0fthe STORY OF the Nations Series,'
! &c. p. Putnam's Sons, New York, w. f.
! Purnell, Sacramento) we have 1.-The
Story of Australasia, New South Wales.
Tasmania, Western Australia, South
! Australia, Victoria. Queensland and New
| Zealand. 1t is by Greville Tregarthen.
| He has done his work well and thor
oughly. The volume well deserves 10
stand in the midst of the splendid series
! of which it is one. We have in our office
/ and home library no work of modern is
sue that has higher place in our estiina-
| ton or more frequent reference that this
splendid series, 1.-THE Story of the Ma
| tons. One of the chief values of the
series is found in the fact that it is stinu-
4 larive of historical reading. There is a
| large class, the vast majority who will
not. indeed cannot read history in ex-
tended form. They must trust TO cyclo-
psedic condensatfons-usua very un-
satisfaetory-or cheap and unreliable vol
unes attempting 10 take all national
/ histories and histories OF civilization in
one embrace. and to give in one volume a
/ general account of the rise, growth and
decay of States. But the s'Stories of the
| Nations Series meets just the need OF