The Portland daily press., 1896-06-10
NEW PUBLICATIONS,

NEW PUBLICATIONS..
| Critical Kit-Kats By Edmund Gosso
author of Gossip in a Library, Questions
at Issue, etc. Kit. Kats, sometimes Kft-
Cats, is the eighteenth century Word
used by the London Cl ub of Steele and
Addison fame to signify portraits Of it's
members painted by Sir Godfrey Knel,er
on small canvasses 86xsS, for low call
ings By this name three-quarter mr.
traits have since been known, at least
generally enough for Mr.. Gosse to have
adopted the term, very happily, to indi-
cate his literary ortraits, not full
length, but sketched in with here a toueh
and there touch of reproduction from
the life. Dedicated to Thomas HARDY.
the author tells US in his preface that the
essa Us to follow contain almost ALWAYS
something gathered by personal observa-
ton or obtained from imprinted sources.
The subjects of the papers are--The
Sonnets from the Portuguese; Keats In
1894; Beddoes; Fitzgerald; Whitman;
Tolstoi; Christina Rossetti; Lord de
Tabley, Tom Datt. M. Jose Maria de
Heredia, Walter Pater and Robert Louis
Stevenson.
Anent the, Edward FitzGerald Life and
Letters, Mr.. Gosse says, And, so almost
imperceptibly, as the reader moves down
the series of these delightful letters,
he finds that the writer, In his delicate
epicureanism, IS, without repining at
it, growing old. A selection from his
early favoHite poet, Suffolk man like
himself, George Crabbe, Is his last liter.
airy enterprise. and SO on the 18th of June
1853, in hie seventy-fifth year, he rather
suddenly pesses away painlessly in his
sleep. His own words shall be his cpl
taph: An idle fellow, but one whose
friendships were more like loves. y
IL il quite too late matter to discant
upon the finish, elegance and disorimina-
ton of Edmund Gosse, as writer and
critic. His Kit-Kats make delightful
reading, scholarly and full OF charm.
(New York: Dodd. Mead & Co. Port
land: Loring, Short & Harmon. Price
s1.50.)
Chronicles OF Martin Hewitt. By Ar
thur Morrison, author of Tales Of Mean
Streets, etc. It will be remembered that
this author attracted much attention,
especially amongst persons interested
in sociology in his Tales of Mean Streets,
the material for which he gathered from
experiences at the East End Of London,
where he administered charity trust
fund. Mr.. Morrison is, we believe, a
lawyer. He maintains that London is a
miorocosm; that every phase Of existence
is duplicated there, which is undoubted-
" true The present volume is of anoth- |
er sort. It is not q series Of slum studies
but group Of detective stories, whose
titles are as follows: The Ivy Cottage |
Mystery: The Nicobar Bullion Case; The
Halford Mill Case; The Case of the Mis-
sing Hand; OF Taker, Absconded; and
of The Lost Foreigner. These stories are
of the order of Conan Doyle, and IL is
sufcie praise to say they are as good
as the type upon which they are modelled.
New York: D. Appleton 6 Company
Portland: Loring, Short & Harmon
Town and Country Library No. 1911
Price, cloth, $l.)
The Secret of Mankind, with Some
Singular Hints Gathered in the Rise
where or After-Life, from Certain EN-
inent Personages; as Also Some Brief
Account Of the Planet Mercury and of Its
Institutions. The reviewer rather doubts
whether to the average reader tho 'sse-
cret of huInanics' will be disclosed at the
end OF this anonymous volume. Yet the
book is not intended for the esoterlc. It'll
is dissertation upon the PHILOSOPHERS
old and new, and since this means a
pretty wide field, the author has grown
his astral wings to some purpose, and
taking flight into another existence, or n
different environment, where he meets |
Milton. Pythagoras and many another
lofty soul, gives US the benefit of
discussion betwixt him and them. The
work shows learning, study and research,
albeit it is sometimes wordy and some-
times pedantic Only those who care for
the inner development. the life away
from the material, will have patience to
peruse this volume. They will here and
there get something to really feed the
soul. But the presentation of the theme
is uneven. The subject of the sexes is
treated in manner which will hardly
commend itself even to the enanoi pated
thinker, and certainly unless a seeker
after guide in matters spiritual and
practical were too altruistic in tendency.
Ia fault rarely encountered in the1young
generation) we should not advise this for
instruction; for the self seeking inculcat
ed might easily grow into self1shuess and
a contemplation of life rather than a par
tioipation In it. The planet Mercury is
contrasted with orr earth. A good deal
of our civilization Is rightly charac-
terized as fruitless and disappointing.
(New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons; Port
land: Loring, Short & Harmon. Price
s2.00.l