The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-12-05
SOME NEW BOOKS.

Miss Lucas Malet calls her latest
novel. 1.-The Carissima" Chicago: Her
bert s. Stone 4 Coz "a modern gro
tesQue;" and her publishers in their
advance announcements assured us II
would be a work of "intense and con-
tinued interest,"" but neither the sub
title nor the forecast wrought expecta-
ton up to the height of fulfilment.
This Is decidedly the book of the year;
any rational judgment taking into ac-
count the extreme difficulties with
which the writer Of it had to contend
must rule that 1t is remarkable tri-
umph of genius in fiction over uninElt-
Ing materials.
Miss Malet has simultaneously
opened three or four veins. She mas
given us a touch of mysticism, in the
shape of Leversedge's Authorizations
about the imaginary dog; she has made
capital study, in Antony Hammond.
of 1.-The degenerate son or decadent
age"-only, and here is where her real
genius comes in, Hammond. while de-
cadent In the sense of SuppresslnS MS
more vital emotions and Sinking as
one may say his more serious RESPONSE
bilities. is not pictured as vicious or in
human, and is given, after all, his
modicum of good points; she has, i'll
Perry pere ct mere, given us pair OF
characters which Dickens himself
might have envied, the pere frst
cousin to Micawber and the mere Il
neutral tint similar to dozens that
Dickens employed; and finally, she has,
in 1.-The carissma," put before us new
woman who is as truly a child of our
time as was Becky Sharp daughter
Of the Hanoverian era.
But to make all this palmer. let us
briefly unravel the thread of the story.
1t opens at a hotel near Lake Gene
va, where one Leversedge-an English
4 L., l,s il..' n
African speculations and come nome
to lay 1t at the feet of the woman ne
loved--is staying in company with a
friend, Antony Hammond; with ms
ance, Charlotte Perry, the "caris-
ma: and with Miss Perry's parents.
81, very brief of it is that while Lev
edge is a great, strong nature filled
he brim with his passion for Char
tte, the latter is a spoiled product
+ our artificial modern schooling who
has been taught a headful of silly
things, tries to appear i'm succession
of poses each of which she herself at
the moment fancies to be her real
self, and in the end tricks Leversedge
into a civil marriage only to conduct
herself So. Immediately afterward, as
to cause him, in moment of despon-
dency brought on largely by men,
tai trouble which had originated i'm
fever. to drown himself and leave her
free to follow the bent of her super
fetal inclinations.
All this seems simple enough and con-
veys little hint of the power with which
the successive situations are handled.
This power will require reading of
the book and will assure that he who
begins to read it will not stop short
of the last word.
a volume from the same publishers,
T1,. s.,1 -
Stories" serves to enable G. f.. Raj
mond to exhibit his powers as a hui
morist. No doubt the humOr in these
seven tales is of a very impressive
character could one find it: but 1t Is
too subtle, far too subtle for us. Mr..
Raimond. by the way, is an English
man.
with Fortune Made" novel by
Victor Cherbuliez. forms No. 2O5 of
Appletons' Town and Country Library.
1t is n story full of Gallicisms but
withal well told.
Sir Walter Besant can. when he wants
to, turn out a capital story. and he
evidently wanted to when he wrote
1.-THE City of Refuge New York:
Frederick A.. Stokes Co.. for sale in
Scranton by II. II. Beidleman) 1t is
novel with purpose; the purpose be-
ing TO Illustrate now easily the the
Oretically ideal rules of a monastic re-
ligious COMMUNICATIVE for instance
the Economites-may be made to work
gross mischief when the manipulation
OF them is animated by evil instead of
philanthropic purposes. The way Sir
Walter gets his villain into the COM
munity" Is somewhat melOdramatic.
He is an English peer, a second Sir
Charles Dilke-possibly Dixie was his
prototype-who is to all appearances
happily married and on the highway
to political success when his mania for
gambling leads him into serious indis-
cretions. including forgery. He fees
from England, wanders from place to
place. always utilizing his cleverness
in fomenting deviltry and finally rounds
up in York state cOmmunistic expert
ment. whereupon the fun begins. 1t
wouldn't be fair to tell what that fun
consists of. hut 1t Is fast and furious
and the narration of it fills out an en-
tertaining story.
The first volume of n nretentiOus lit
erary labor i'm field as yet unoccuped
has appeared from the presses of the
Appletons under the title THE Begin
ners of a Nation; History of the
Source and Rise of the Earliest English
Settlements in America with Special
Reference to the Life and Character
of the People" The author Is DIR. Ed
ward Eggleston. and in the preface he
informs tis that his purpose in this and
in the volumes which are to come is
to trace from their sources the various
and often complex movements that re-
suited in the evolution of this great
nation. He has sought to do for Amer
lean history what Lord Macaulay
thought he could do for Great Britain;
namely. picture the social. intellectual
and religious as well as the political
forces of BODYBUILDING. Lord Ma
caulay lacked in accuracy of detail and
in originality of research. DR.. Eggle-
ston, in order to avoid these faults.
has delved deep into original sources
of information and has written what
in many respects is practically a new
history of the United States-new in
the standpoint from which past events
are viewed and also new in much of
the data recorded. We cannot at pres
ent go into such review of this schol-
arly and important work as it obvious
1y deserves. That pleasant task must
be deferred until more convenient
time. But we can say now that the
initial volume in the series in which
DIR. EgglestOn proposes to incorporate
the fruits of sixteen years research
into the springs of our national exist
prove an epOchal undertaking and that
American letters will be appreciably
the gamer thereby.