The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-09-06

come its friends, and if it is accorded
its deserts the number of it's readers
will be large. The essay, as literary
form, is certainly advancing in popular
favor. Whether this Is due to the evo-
luton of body of readers sufficiently
cultivated to appreciate manner as
we'll as matter, or to the fact that af-
ter years Of dearth the new genera
ton has produced essayists worthy of
attention, is a difficult question, and,
since at last we have essays again,
perhaps the cause of their reappear-
ance does not matter. Mr.. LIE Gal
lienne's qualities as an essayist are
delicate and whimsical fancy, a care
fully wrought style, dash of moral
earnestness, warm human sympathy
and an obvious delight in his own
work, of that engaging sort which i'm
mediately predisposes the reader to de-
light in it also. The essays in the
present volume are quite unequal in
value, but the author has done nothing
more charming than "a Seventh Story
Heaven" Wholly admirable also, but
in a different way are THE Dramatic
Art of Life" and THE Greatness Of
Man"
Chicago. II. S. Stone & Co. 81. 25.) q
There are a great many books pub
lished nowadays which are intended to
be amusing, and occasionally one finds
it's way into print which successfully
fulfills that intention. Such a book is
"The Sentimental Sex by Gertrude
Warden. The story is clever and spark
ling in style, but its irony is structural
as we'll as superficial, and the contrast
of characters throughout is the source
of a. deep and perhaps unholy joy in
the readers breast. The hero is an
Australian sheep farmer, with exalted
middle f-the-century sentiments. "If
women cease to believe and obey" he
observes in the first chapter, 1.-The
world won't hold together long. Gentle
obedience and implicit belief are two
of woman's most beautiful qualities,
and if she ceases to believe and obey
her God, how much longer do you
think she will believe and obey her
husband?" He falls in love with the
picture and the poems of a young
woman in London, proposes to her
through her publishers and learns that
she is married, but ultimately meets
neT IN LOnQOn dll6T she Has UcCOIIlS d
widow. The Iris" of his dreams Is
very different person from the real
Iris" who is practical, hard-headed,
beautiful young woman, extremely
modern and up-to-date, and, in mild
way, everything which the Australian
sheep farmers sainted mother would
have disapproved. But this fact is
never discerned by the Noble Savage"
as he is dubbed by Iris friends and
he makes love to her in a large, deter
mined, primitive fashion, declining to
believe that she is going to marry him
for his money, even when she fatty
tells him 50. The story is told alter
nately by him and by her, and the
method brings out, as no other could
do, the contrast between the two char
acters, a contrast whose humor lies
in it's inherent probability. We recall
no comedy in recent fiction that is half
so amusing as this The tragedy on
the last page Is impertinent and out
of place. So clever a writer as Miss
Warden should have found less hack
neyed solution of the situation.
(''The Sentimental Sex" by Gertrude War;
den. New York. d. Appleton Co. 81. For
sale by the St. Paul Book and Stationery
companyD ~
1t is difficult to conceive that "Epis-
copo & Co." can have any interest for
sane readers except a pathological one,
and an equal number of pages selected
at random from the American Journal
of Insanity would be quite as valuable
in that respect. We are told that Mr..
Henry James once said of D'AnnunZio:
He speaks so loud that one hears him
well only from a distance" We may
add that the only distance at which he
is desirable is one that renders him in
audible The book is made up of the
rawlings of an insane criminal, always,
apparently, an imbecile-not. one of
God S fools,' but very decidedly, one
of the DEVILS. If you like that sort of
thing, the feast is spread for you in
this little book. The general reader,
however, has a more oxygenated taste.
The only value of the volume Is for
the student of literary symphonic tology,
to whom its inherent responsiveness will
be matter of scientific Indifference
C'Episcopo & Co.." by Gabrielle d'Annun-
Eio. Translated by Myrta Leonard Jones
Chicago H. S. Stone & Co. H.25.)
1t is as unpleasant to read novels
about degenerates as novels by them.
Hence "CyyD'S' ga Degenerate oan