Kansas City daily journal., 1896-10-19
2 ON our BOOK TABLE.
WHAT Is PRESENTED BY THE PUB
LISHERS THIS WEEK.
The Result of Literary Work as
Shown by the New Books That
Are On the Publishers'
shelves-Literary Notes.


shelves-Literary Notes.
Poems of Robert Browning" His own
selection. with additions from his latest
works. Edited with biographical and crit
ical introductions and notes by Charlotte
Porter and Helen A. Clarke.
Robert Browning. in making a represent
ative selection of his own poems for the
British public. which. by 1879 had begun 10
love him well, strung together number
of pieces on what he called ''the thread of
an imaginary personality" my Star "
says his editor, striking a preluding note
of love, seems to usher in poems broadly
capable of being grouped together on the
score Of their expressing, in a fresh way,
indicative of a youthful attitude toward
life. various phases of love-either as sem
sation or as observed or recorded expert
ence. Poems follow of a more active sort,
adventurous and partisan in spirit-the
Good News the Lost Leader and others,
which belong to the outlook Of manhood;
and these pass again, in subject, into the
groove of love, but from the standpoint,
now. of the stress and trial belonging to
maturer life and thought Larger themes
succeed, related to natural characteristics
and history, to art, to music, to religion,
and, finally, the summing up of lifes mean
ings natural to ripe vision. The second
series of selections, made by Browning
eight years later. follows. in general, a SIM
ilar line of evolving thought and expert
ence."
The poems are selected from four sources
subjects derived from history. from per-
sonal experience and biography, from true
incidents. popular legends, the classics ana
from his own fertile imagination" The ed
ftors, knowing by wide experience the ex-
act amount of difficulty which readers in
general find in disentangling the meaning
of Browning. especially in his dramatic
monologues, have formulated a series OF
explanatory notes admirably adapted to
cover these puxzling questions which arise.
I'm making the esthetic part Of the
notes." they say, 1.-THE aim has been neither
to paraphrase, nor to give comment about
the poems, but to epitonlize the gist OF
each one. or, at most, where the poem de-
maDded such treatment, to summarize It's
leading traits and show its outcome" The
text has been scrupulously compared with
the authors own revised readings OF 1889
and may be relied upon as the best, in fact
the only edition of the selections in which
the numerous changes made by the poet
have been embodied.
For school use and particularly for clubs
where the study of Browning is pursued
The Typography is perfect, the illustrations
are pertinent and attractive, and the ap-
pearance OF the volumes leaves nothing to
be desired. Two volumes. Price per set,
s.. T. Y. Crowell & Co.. New York and
Boston.
THE Readers Shakespeare" His dra-
matic works condensed, connected and en-
phasiDed. for school, college. parlor and
platform. By David Charles Bell. The gen.
eral satisfaction with which the first vol
ume Of this new edition Of Shakespeare
was received by readers and educators.
and the generous commentator given 1t
by the press prove that the work was nee
essary, timely and welcome. Hiram Car
son, A. NJ, LII. D., professor OF English
literature in Cornell university. declared at
once that the work Is "just what l have
been wanting for the last two years" Pro-
fessor George NJ. Marshall. Ph.B., of the
University of Utah, is sure that almost
all teachers of literature have felt the need
OF such a work" The announcement that
the second volume is published is a well
come one. A third volume, to be issued in
the near future will complete the set. The
present volume contains all the tragedies,
with the addition of one romantic play,
THE Tempest" The third and last vol
ume will contain all the comedies. Pro-
fessor Bell the editor of the work. rs the
author of various successful books for
students Of elocution, is a man Of long ex-
perience and work in London, England,
and has no doubt crowned his efforts in the
present instance. Cloth, f1 pages. Price,
$3.50. Funk & Wagnalls Company. New
York.
THE End of the Beginning is the prob
lematic title of a new story that may claim
for itself place somewhat aside from the
thousand and one novels Of the day. 1t
is New England romance; but the broad
New Englandism Of this tale of little
town is more than a matter of dialect
and hard eccentricity. for the episodes Of
the novel range from the idyllic to the SEN
sational, while the girl Amoret is forced
to answer the question, What is love?'
OF the other important characters pleas
ant sour old bookseller with his "Fhiloso-
ply of Life and an agnostic heir of the
Puritan ages will. perhaps. attract the
most attention. Art. mind. and spirit make
up the undertone of twelve chapters that
may be read either for their story or their
thought Cloth. gilt top. Price. SIS. Lit
tie. Brown & Co., Boston.
Songs and other Verse" BY Eugene
Field In this volume have been gathered
about four-score poems from those which
remained unpublished in book form at the
time of the death of the author, Eugene
Field. The selection WAS made by Mr..
Fields literary executors, and includes a
great variety of verse, grave and gay. the
quality of which is up to the very best of
his published work. The book. in fact,
epitomizes in a somewhat remarkable way
the authors versatility, the poems being
imaginative, descriptive. fanciful. pathetic
or humorous and the treatment having
all the lyric charm characteristic of the
authors most popular verse. Cloth, gilt
top Price. sl.25. Charles Scribner's Sons,
New York. II. T. Wright, Kansas City.
.'Quo vadis" A narrative of Rome in the
Time of Nero. BY Henryk Sienkiewiez.
Author of with Fire and Sword" 1.-The
Deluge." Pan Michael etc. Translated
from the Polish by Jeremiah Curtin.
Crown. Svo. This remarkable romance.
dealing with history and religion. with the
customs of Rome in the days of Nero, and
the martyrdom of the early Christians. al
though a strong contrast TO the famous
with Fire and Sword series and the
authors novels of modern Poland "Chil-
dren of the Soir' and Without Dogma
Is likely TO take a place as the greatest
of his works. The strange eXcesses of the
last of the Caesars, the character of Pc
tronius Arbiter the feasts in Nero's pal
ace the burning of Rome, the scenes in
the arena and the devotion of the Chris
tians. are all portrayed with vividness
and power which hardly any other living
writer can equal Saint Peter and Saint
Paul figure prominently In the narrative
In his Gelineation of Petronius. the Arbiter
Blegantiae, Sienkiewicz closely follows the
account given by Tacitus. The period is
A D., CT. Cloth. Price, 500. Little