The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-12-21

seems somehow the most endearing;
and II would have been welcome had
Sfr Ellwanger devoted a seventh chap.
ter to that prince of natures euioSists.
II. d. Blackmore. whose latest story or
Crocker's Hole, for instance, Is by all
odds the most captivating disquisition
sop trout fishing ever put into type. But
this is aside. For the six studies that
the author has given us, let us be duly
grateful. He has caught in each case
the true spirit of his subjects relations
with the out door world, and has trans
scribed 1t for us in liquid prose that
charms almost as surely as the originals
themselves. No true son of the soil can
fail to find himself at once in sympathy
with Mr. Ellwanger's Commentaries.
which, even In midwinter, make one
yearn to HE to leafy forests or muse
awhile beside purling brook or look for
mirrored picturings on the margin Of
some pellucid lake. ...
MACAIRE: A Melodramatic Farce. BY
Robert Louis Stevenson and William
Ernest Henley. Green cloth. Handmade
paper gilt top. los pages, $l.0O Chicago:
Stone &. Kimball.
This dramatfzation by the greatest
modern novelist and colaborator of
the familiar story from the French
which has become familiar to American
playgoers through its utilization in the
lilTetto of the:operetta, ''Erminie," was
Observation-Disclosures, a few months ago.
in the Chap Book, at which time it was
given an extended notice in this depart
ment The text, as readers of that
notice will recall in view OF the many
bright epigrams then culled and quoted
from it, is sharp, and keen as Damas-
Gus blade, and in literary finish it has
not recently been surpassed. There Is
likewise an undercurrent of true humor
I'm the farce such as illumines few OF
Stevenson's more ambitious prose
works The fact that this version is not
actable will not diminish the enjoyment
of those who wish to read 1t as some
thing of. Stevenson's rather than as
something by promscuous lot of chat
tering player folk D., '"'
-,' '' ..i+'N \ y
AUTHORS AND PUBLISHERS: -
| Henry Watterson is said to be at work
/ on life of Lincoln. ~.
|
titled "I,.nita.ions,r which will have
much TO say of ant study AMI art life.
ARy'D. BlaclSmore has nearly eompleted
q crew story, to be entitled "Dariel, Il Ro-
mancei of Surrey" 1t will appear as a
serial In Blaokwoods during the coming
year. ! ~, ~ o., ..-... -....t-
Eleanora Duxe has written a novel, the
plot and situations of which are drawn
frcm the Iia,!an stage. The actress Is SAID
TO be the poSsessor of an admirable lit
erary style and is a keen studen. Of char
'agter.
h M! Hanotaux, an authority on Balzac,
is abouato issue q book about the author
. of the 'Comedie Humaine." He has in
his, possession "A, quantity of documents
relating to Baizae's unhappy experience as
a printer .. t...
An act of self-defence on the part of 7.
b. Aldrich Is the following letter, which
I he has sent to the Boston Transcript:
Some verses called The Ideal Husband
and having my name attached to them as
the author, are being extensively reprint
ed by the newspapers. i beg leave TO
say, and N gives me great plasure to say
1t, that I ann not the author of those
verses"
Commenting cn the publication of Ian
Maclarens new book, "'The Days o. Aud
Lang Syne," the Westminster Gazette re-
marks that before the work went to press
over Go00 copies had been ordered in ad-
vance In England and America. OF the
same authors first book, Beside the Bon
ME Briar Bush over 1901 900 copies have
already been sold. Clearly, the literature
of the kailyard' Is still In the ascendent.
We note that Ian Maclaren goes to Amer
lea next autumn on a leoturing tour"
Readers of Mr.. Barr.e's new serial that
Is to run through the year in Scribner's
will be glad to know that a great deal
of the action of the tale takes place in
Thrums and that some of Barrie's favOrite
minor characters appear: n glimpse Is mad
of the L.ttle Minister himself In one chap
ter. A new portrait of Barrie aceompl-
MES the January instalment
'St. Ives" the novel left substantially
complete and unpublished by Robert Louis
Stevenson at his death, is described as
purely a romance of adventure. 1t Is the
story of a French prisoner captured In the
Peninsular wars, who Is shut up In Edin-
burgh castle: there he fails In love with
a Scotch girl who, with her aunt. fire.
quentiy visits the prisoners. There is early
In the story a duel under extraordinary
circumstances, between ST. Ives and
felow-pr.soner; after various episodes
dangerous plan of escape Is decided upon,
and the daring St. Ives finally becomes
free man. The perils that he undergoes
while in hiding about Edinburgh, his ad-
ventures on the Great North road with
strangers and robbers, his final escape
across the border into England, and many
other incidents are told In the vivaciOus
and wonderful style of which Stevenson
was q master.