Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-11-08

site melody and LITERARY finish. Their
thought is pure and strong. The possioii-
tiles of young writer capable OF such Work
are large. If Mr.. Thorne permits his marked
literary genius to work along poeticai hnes'
bis future is certainly most promising one.
Secrets of Happy Home Life What
Have You to Do With it? BY ]. R. Miller,
D. D., Thomas Y. Crowell & Company,
New York and Boston, price IS cents.
No book publishing firm has built up its
E lstern trade more rapidly or upon q
more substantial basis than have Messrs.
Crowell & Co. They are handling an e9-
ceptionally fine line ofiwork at prices easily
within reach of the masses. Among the
most popular of these works is series OF
booklets, dealing in practical way, with
matters of every day life and experience.
These books have dainty light bindings, are
handsomely printed upona fine quality OF
paper and, at IS cents per volume are about
the best book bargains of the season. DR..
Miller is always an able and entertaining
writer. His works along the lines of prac-
teal ethics have been exceedingly helpful
and their popularity has been attested by a
very large sale. In his "Secrets of Happy
Home Life" he is at his best. 1t is an adj
mirable little work and will be especially
appropriate as gift book.
Marie, by Laura E. Richards, l6 mo. PIP.
95, cloth Boston Estes & Lauriat. Price
so cents.
The success of the now famous Captain
January" series, of which this forms the
fourth volume, has been both rapid and
marked. Over 100,0 900 copies of its various
volumes have already been sold, and their
popularity shows no signs of abatement.
Indeed the last volume bids fair to outrival
all its predecessors in popular favor. As a
writer of short stories Mrs. Richards has
attained an enviable distinction. In
her own particular field she has
established a reputation as secure
and we'll founded as that of either
Miss Jewett or Miss Wilkins. Indeed she
appears to combine in her work the descrip-
tive powers of the one with the sympa.
thetic insight of the other. There
is never anything STACEY about one
of Mrs. Richards characters. They are
real flesh and blood, breathing the whole
some atmosphere of our every day New
England life, and never lacking in live hui
man interest.
In many respects Marie is the strongest
book of the Captain January series. 1t is a
sweet story, charmingly told, of little
French girl, who becomes separated from
band of strolling musicians and grows up
amid the rugged associations of New
England village. The narrative, simple
as it is, affords opportunity for
some admirable character sketching,
and is never lacking in absorbing interest
from start to finish. There can be no doubt
of its success. No home library is COM
plete now without the books of the Captain
January series.
Pelleas and Melisande. A Prose Drama
in five Acts, by Maurice Maeterlinck.
Translated by Erving Winslow, l VOL.
1876 PIP. Cloth, gilt top, $l.00. IT. Y.
Crowell & Co., Boston and New York. J
The "symbolicap style of writing which
is attracting so much attention at the pres
ent time and is by some, called "decadent'
is in reality revival. Those who are its
greatest masters,-and undoubtedly Maeter-
linck, who has been called "the Flemish
Shakespeare" leads all the rest-claim that
the principle is founded in the very depths
of the human mind.
The tendency of this new-old school is
towar obscurity. But whatever obscurity
one finds in Maeterlinck's most powerful
and impressive drama is confined to its es-
oteric significance. The old fatalistic King
Arkel reigns over Allemonde which means
All the World. He may be meant to typify
the sum of human wisdom which at last
comes to see that it is useless for men to
fight against their destiny. Melisande is
the natural unsophisticated woman inno-
Gently working out dreadful doom for
herself and those who love her. In this
way one may try to interpret and bring
down each of the dr0mdtis persona. But
such Interpretation is apt to be fallacious,
misleading and Elusive. The duplication
is too tenuous to hold fast to any definite
theory: therefore different people will see
different meanings in it.
But the play itself is clear and definite.
1t wakens the interest from the first DOOM
presaging tones of the serving-women who
SO mysteriously appear and disappear. 1t
is the old story or a variation of the old
| story of Francesca da Rimini and her lover.
Golaud, a gray-haired widower, marries
the stranger-maiden Melisande and thinks
it uukind of his half brother Pelleas that he
avoids her. The young people are thrown
much together. Pelleas tries to escape the
doom which he sees approaching. The de-
velopment of the love between them, and
the awakened jealousy of Golaud who at
last in fit of fury kills his brother just as
Pelleas is about to depart, is portrayed with
marvellous power, pathos and insight.
The language throughout is welded with
consummate art. The breaks of passion
and feeling are suggestive of the action.
The tone is that of a tender minor mood
which at the end melts into mist of tears.
The last scene is one of the most beautiful
in all the range of drama.
Mr.. Winslow who has admirably Eng
lished this classic production, furnishes a
brief biographical and explanatory intro
duction. The volume is elegantly printed
and tastefully bound.