Birmingham age-herald., 1895-01-27
GOSSIP FROM BOOKLAND.

Fiction.' He says while remembering
 that Victor Hugo remarked to him that ia
 pessimist is dyspeptic who fancies that
 his own indigestion pervades the universe.p
 he, for fear of refiecting upon his own
 intelligence, is restrained from condemning
 as heartily as he should otherwise feel im- peIled to do. He further remarks that TO-
 pnanticism has gained the past year aud
 that realism has suffered temporary eclipse, and that the reputations which have sprung into prominence are mostly
 such as would delight the soul of Andre Lang. The author pays high tribute to J. Stanley Weymau, whose A Gentleman
 of France, '' "Under the Red Robe,''
 "The Man in Black' ard others have been piled high on the booksellers couu- | ters. "'J. Stanley Weyman is to my mind l feebler and paler Dumas, pere, who has | not his predecessors perception of charac. | ter and only fraction of that fun and
 dare devil spirit which imparted such
 nameless charm to Les Trois Mo ousque- | taires.
 "As for that SET pguinary Scotch parson. l $. R. Crockett, he goes back to Walter | Scott and revels in the kind of incidents l from which we vainly fanced civilization
 had delivered us" Such books as t'Fhe | Raiders,' the author complains, leave | him 10 wiser than they found him.
 
 | He further says ''I yield to no one in my admiration okStevensou, though why,
 in the name of mischief he finds bloody | piratives, touiAmouthed robbers and mur- | derous villains of all sorts much more interesting than decent people, am at | loss to understand.''
 In Mir. Boyesen's opinion k. Marion l Crawford belongs with the romanticistS no
 longer, for he detects a strong drift towards | realism in MT. Crawford's later works. | "MarceIla" he places among the mas- | terpeices of fiction. ''It is sane, whole | some, and, to a mature and cultivated | mind, intensely interesting. The life | blood of the age circulates through it.'
 The author very graciously says that | aside from "Marcellap better literary work | is to be found in half dozen American l novels, as in Miss Wilkins 'Pembroke'
 there is moro power. acuteness of observa- l ton and artistic quality than in all the TO- l mantle fairy tales that the Doyles and | Crocketts and Weymans have so Eberally l supplied.
 This is very broad and candid compli- l nent for the young writer of New England
 life; nor less gratifying is the token of ap-
 preciation to Julien Gordon, the brilliant | author of IA Puritan Pagan,' and he
 frankly declares "rosy- fingered" persist l ently recurs to him he writes of her. l or 'FTrilby," the much talked of, widely 1 discussed and written about "Trilby,p he | says: ''Barring the question.of morality,
 it is the most delicious novel that has been 1 published for many year,
 Nym Crinkle, that very original, unique l reviewer, who never fails to say something 1 spicy, condensed and just to the point, I in his own trite way also has his ''iittle | say'' about the past years current novels. | He has something to say of the leading
 books, and with great deal of perspicuity | remarks:
 "It is not expected that men and women | will turn to the novel of the day for the | highest and truest expression of phIoso- | phy, religion or art. But men and women
 ought to be assured .that they will occa- | sionally find in the novel of the day soIne-
 thing beside this everlasting jig of shall
 lowness around illicit love and ignoble inn
 pulses. The realism of the alcove threatens | to become mauia, and much of the treat | ment exhibits the crassness, the superficial
 knowledge and the perversity of the igno- | ble heroines that are treated. There Is only
 one new turn left for this kind of literature | and it is for it to turn on it's species, like l the boa in the London Zoo.' .'
 Conan Doyle, in writing about historical | romances, enthusiastically states that '' if
 I had three votes should plump them all
 for 'The Cloister and the Hearth as being | our greatest historical novel, and, indeed, | as being our greatest novel of any sort.'
 Reade fairly established his reputation in | his novels, "Never too Late to Mend'' and
 "Put Yourself in His Place.' Strong,
 distinct works, each illustrating some | nOCidi LII PuoilO eN'i'
 | ss
 | No character of the reformation period is l wrought with greater in terest than that of | Erasmus, a character of whom everybody | is supposed to know something, but in a l deeper and tenderer sense will one be pre- | pared to appreciate the work and ability of | this great man after you have read "The | Cloister and the Hearth.n The author first | takes us by the hand in this little Dutch l town of Lergou, and after acquanting us I in mn daliuhtfUl
 way with the thrift and energy and cus- | toms of this people, builds around this | far away time people quivering with life
 and full of folks, real and human. He I shows us the great pain ters and talks about them, the wonderful dykes and everything
 strange and distinctive about Dutch life,
 and then. as we follow Gerard in his flight
 ar9 afem of home 'hs from srahas ths people of Italy, what an epit-.
 ome of Knowledge and grand survey of | the period is our privilege. As we follow
 the dramatic and adventurous journey of 1 Gerard we are not only held spellbound by | the recital of his wanderings, but subserv- l tent to this interest is the information l given and gleaned among the pages, and
 never in pedantic or tiresome way. Here | we learn of the dawn of printing, the be- | ginning of freedom, the life of the great l mercantile cities of Germany, the state of l Italy, the artist life in Rome, the monas- | tic institutions on theeve of the reforma- l 6 1 that period ,and most grotesque, yet true, | recital of the many superstitions and be- l liefs that obtained so strong a hold upon l the people of that day. Nowhere might be l found more comprehensive review of the l period ,and with it all the study of Gerard's l own impulsive, generous, brave nature
 his rise, his fall, his regeneration, the whole pitiable tragedy is so full of human | interest; and then the pathetic, patient, l pure life of Margaret, and the good friend l Denys, whose imperturbable cry was, "Courage, l'ami, le diable est mort. o Truly | these scenes, experiences and trials form
 a fitting source for the great, rugged char | acler of Erasmus. PAUL PRY.
 Mrs. Lucinda Gafford, living five miles | north of Greenyile, died very suddenly | last Friday. The deceased was so years of | age and devoted member of the Metho-
 dist church. She was living with her son, l Joseph Gafford, at ths time of her dea,h. l Mrs. Gafford was sister of MT. Archy l nd 0f fal