Birmingham age-herald., 1895-01-13
GOSSIP FROM BOOKLAND.


 as writer of historical fiction recalls hu- morous little sketch of him in recent magazine, which comments upon the length of time Dr. Doyle remained with us during bis visit in this country, from which it is to be supposed he liked us or he would not have tarried so long; but also very pertinenty remarks that he gained nothing in reputation by his visit, as he possessed 'tnoue of the charm, magnet ism uor sympathy which keep a mans personality before the public.' Dr. Doyle said he usually takes year to write book, during which time he is reading books upon the subject. But it is amusing to note he confesses to being ashamed of aSherlock Holmes, b and that be killed aHolmes" because he refused to be iden
 tified with him any longer. And yet, al- though Dr. Doyle's saturnine detective was mixed up in some very ridiculous ad- ventures, he is nevertheless considered by the great reading public to be Dr. Doyle's one original character.
 M. Paul Blouet (Max O'RelD, who is in America upon his fourth featuring tour, is considered one of the cleverest conversa- tionalists that ever touched these shores.
 His new lecture is called ''Her Royal Highness, Woman,'' and he has given 1t all over England and Australia with great success. It is series Of scenes which M. Biouet acts himself, exhiliting the char acteristics of the English, French and American women as he has known them in personal experience. "A frenchman loves woman; he understands woman. From his earliest youth he studies her, mentally and morally.w She is his one en- crossing subject, the one study he never finishes. It is easy for him to talk of her as it is easy for him to talk to her.'' As an example ot tbe lack of truthfulEess in the literature of England M. Blouet says: "1ake Hall Caine's new book, The Manx- man. l said to Caine: You are great man '-not that Hall Caine needed to be told that; he knows iL all the time-'but your great scene in The Manxman is an impos- sible scene. You have tried to be realistic; you have created an impossible woman. A woman may be bad, but she cannot be good and pure and act like depraved crea- lure. She cannot. Zola would never have made that mistake.
 M. Blouet is very much amused over the sight of American women following after the cult of the thew woman' as she is being exploited in England. ''The Amer ican women,'' he says ,"have considers ton which the English women would never dream of enjoying in their widest revolt. The class in England who do the writing are not the class who need reform. Their attitude is the attitude of the writer, not of the yictim.'
 Surely the character of Sydney Carton is the most pathetic and touching character portrayed in modern fiction. The thrill of his words when he confesses his love and weakness in one breath to Lucie is unmis. takable: CT am like one who died young; all my life might have been." The for lorness and regret of this sentence fully ex- presses the wasted life and blighted hopes of him who utters them with sigh.
 It has been said of Dickens by an early critic: lille has described London like special correspondent, and the same ;rk,t he 6ofb io nf ha aric of the Sansculottes in "A Tale of Two Cities.'' Andrew Lang has said that "'A Tale of Two Cities is one of the three most enthralling stories that have ever and saddest.' h this work Dickens lifted his art out of the plain of his life work and left on its summit the stamp of an abiding | beauty. "There is no instapce,'' says | Forster, "excepting this, of deliberate | and planned departure from the method of | treatment which had been pre- eminently | the source of his popularity as a novelist. ? 1 Forster also relates how ''with dreadful | insatiabiiity he passed through every | variety of sight ng--prisons, pala ces, theaters, hospitals, the morgue and the | lazare, as well as the Louvre, Versailles, | SL. Cloud and all the spots made memora- | ble by the revolution.' No preparation | was too tedious to acquire the information | necessary to the writing of this book. In | the preface Dickens says: "It has been | one of my hopes to aud something to the l popular and picturesque means of under | standing that terrible time, though no one l can hope to add anything to the philoso- l phy of MT. Carlyle's wonderful book.o | Froude tells us of the tremendous hold this | book took upon Dickens mind. "He car | ried a copy of it with him wherever he | vent
 Balzac has said: "The portrayal of the | noble natured castaway makes "A Tale of | Two Cities almost peerless book in mod | ern literature, and gives it place among | the highest examples of literary art. The l conception of this character shows in it's l author an ideal of magnanimity and of | charity unsurpassed. There is not | grander, loveier figure than the self | wrecked, self-devoted Sydney Carton in | literature or history.
 "A Kentucky Cardinal,' story by | James Lane Allen, is just from Harper Bros. and bears the imprint of 1895. All l lovers of Mir. Aliens delightful stories, ''The Blue Grass Region of Kentucky" and "Flute and Violin,'' will be as equally charmed with this last work of his. MT. Allen is a Kentuckian, and @ strong flavor of the picturesque blue grass country per vades his every page.
 Mir. Allen must be earnest lover of out door beauties of nature, for every line glows with the passion and fire of an ar dent nature, while entwined about this genial enth usiasm glows the simple recital of the old, old story. Ih the opening pages i5 iounu. lue louser ilfe uofo Iuo oetIeE satisfied am in having pitched my earthly campfire, gypsy-like, OF the edge of a town, keeping it on one side, and the green fields, lanes and woods on The other. Each in turn is to me as magnet to the needle. At times the needle of every nature points towards the country. On that side every thing is poetry. 1 wander over field and forest, and through me runs glad current of feeling that is like clear br,ok across the meadows of May.' This is but few lines of the poetic beautiful thouoht ts that abound in the book and make it one of the most acce pta ble of little love stories