The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-10-14

novel, ''Perlycross," which comes like
a breath of sweet country air after the
| tempeStuous and not over fresh gusts
that have been blowing from the bou-
DORIS and studies of the enfranchised
daughters, wives and emancipated
woman generally, Social Evolution"
by Mr.. Benjamin Kidd, is book which
has caused a remarkable amount of
comment in Europe and America. 1t
has been characterized as the most
thought-inciting book of recent times.
The author has been six years produc-
ing this work, and has done some
| thing relating to it every day during
that time. He has contributed signed
and unsigned articles to many re-
views and magazines, but Social Evo-
luton is his only published book. The
revival of Napoleonic literature was
referred to at length. The Memoirs
of Baron Menebal,'' 1.-The Private Life
of Napoleon" by Arthur Levy, and
THE Life of Napoleon" by Professor
Sloan, to be published the coming
year, were specially mentioned.
This running comment was followed
by two reviews at length, of "Trilby,"
by George Du Maurier, and Lord Or
mont and His Aminta,' by George
Meredith.
OF the former, Miss Hampstead said
that the author of peter IbbIeton"
and "Trilby" was born in Paris in 1884,
was educated in Paris, London, Bel
GUM, and the Netherlands. He stud
led art in the Latin Quarter, in Paris,
and many of the experiences in "Tril-
by were said to have been. his own in
those dayS-so he is French by tenn
permanent, English by environment and
selection, and cosmopolitan by educa-
ton. For more than thirty years he
has been a contributor to Punch as
caricaturiSt, and we are all familiar
with his sketches in Harper's. The
big, young Englishwomen, with their
air of grace and breeding, are modelled
after his own daughters. "Trilby" is
one of the books everybody asks you if
you have read and what you think of
it. The reviewer thought there could
be but one opinion on the subject, viz:
that it is perfectly charming, and the
thread Of the story is the least charm
ing part, for there are so many little
excursions on the side and happy lit
tie touches that we read every page
with pleasure. Mr.. Du Maurier him
self naturally regards "Trilby as
much lighter piece of work than his
first book-'Peter Ibbleton''-as. in
fact, it is But there is one quality in
it, so essential to the success of a
novel, quality it has in larger de-
gree than peter Ibbleton" and that is
human interest.
OF George Meredith, the author of
Lord Ormont and His Aminta,'' Miss
Hardness stated that he began writ
ing about 1S50-first poems, then fiction.
1t was thought rather curious that
George Eliot's Adam Bede" and
George Merediths Richard Feveral"
were the same age, but while George
Eliot has been famous for about thir-
ty-two years, George Meredith has I'M
dergone far different fortune, for until
the publication Of "One of Our Con-
uuerors," about 1890, he was read by
very few. And now, after forty years
in the Wilderness, Mr.. Meredith's po-
sition may be described as Browning
in 1870 has been-as that of distin-
guished unpopularity. The compare
lively small company who even now
read him are not unanimous in admir-
alton of him as a novelist, but unite in
considering him a writer who must
be ranked with Thackeray, George
Eliot and other immortals. Carlyle,
when he had finished reading Richard
Feveral,' paid Meredith the high COM
pliment of remarking to Mrs. G: The
mans no FOOL He is a philosopher.
scientist and analyst, and belongs to
the realistic school, a firm Dellever III
.Reality's infinite sweetness" Mere
dith is fond of translating actual his
toricaI personages into his novels, and
is said to have taken the idea of his
latest romance-"Lord Ormont and His
Aminta"-from the adventures OF the
famous Earl of Peterborough ana
Anastasia Robinson. A sketch OF the
plot of the story and the following
criticism on it concluded the review
That there seems nothing In its parts,
or especially in the characters, or IN
their actions, to excite great interest,",
and we must infer that the interest is
made by the author in the grouping
and arrangement OF parts and his Pc
culiar method.
The club had the pleasure OF re-
ceiving Mrs Haberly and nearlns
! something about the interesting lee
lures she is giving in the city.
The president announced that it was