The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-06-17

affects the study of art in Paris. Inciden-
tally she affects the imagination of a
young Englishman almost too much of a
mothers boy to be quite natural. The
little fluff and foam and f1uster of the
novel, reinforced with French phrases and
society description, does not disguise the
poverty of the plot. The heroine is not
bad enough to be tragic, nor good enough
to be interesting. We confess to long
felt wish that American girls should not
be made to say ''poppa" in print. They
certainly do not in real life.
The Beautiful Miss Brooke is rather
attractively written, but is one of the sto-
ries that really has no excuse for being.
New York: D. Appleton & Company;
Portland: Loring, Short & Harmon.
Price $1.00.)
Sweet Revenge. A Romance of the
Civil War. By It. A. Mitchell, captain and
alde-de camp on the staff of Major GeDer-
al y. M. Mitchell, author of Chattanooga,
Chlckamauga. etc., etc. Thrown into
spirited and moving shape, we have here
the struggles of a young girl deeply in
love, between fealty to her country and
cause or to the man she worships Guer-
lila warfare, secret service, scouting in
Tennessee and Alabama form the mate
rial of the story, in the course of which
are some darkey episodes of song and
dance to tighten the gloom and danger.
The hero of the book is a Union man,
from Tennessee. At times trife eccen-
trio, the story is nevertheless lively read
ing, and will please young lads who love
adventure, and their elders who care for
recitals of Southern skirmish and cpl
sodes of our civil war. New York: Har
per & Brothers; Portland: Loring, Short
& Harmon Price $1.O0.)
An Epistle to Posterity, Being Ramb-
ling Recollections of Many Years of My
Lite, by NJ e. W. Sherwood, author of
Manners and Social Usages, A Trans
planted Rose, etc. We have here very
handsomely appointed crown 8vo vol
ume, prefaced by a photogravure portrait
OF the author from painting by Stephen
Hills Parker, as distinguished and ele-
CANT as the far-famed bellies of the old
French Court. We learn that Mrs. Sher-
wood sat to Chester Harding, Jane Stuart
and other artists, so that her claim to
beauty was no doubt early established.
She explains the title Of her reminiscent
ces by quoting Voltaire, anent an ode by
Rousseau, addressed to Posterity-"V oici
une lettre qui n arrivera jamais son adj
dresse,'' but adds that she shall not be
here to watch for an answer.
Whatever the staying powers may be of
notes on the world of modern art, politics,
bellies lettres and society, it is undoubt-
eddy true that they make very interesting
reading. Mrs. Sherwood has handled her
material marvelously we'll. There are
items which have distinct value in their
preservation, while the whole furnishes a
series of vivid pictures of the personal
and social side of things in America and
Abroad from the forties to the seventies,
with a later visit to Europe in 1885. A
girlhood life in New England with oppor-
tunities for seeing many famous scholars
and statesmen, notably Daniel Webster,
Washington, its balls, receptions and
state affairs; later the literary world,
Lowell, Brook Farm-all our noted wri-
tiers, in short; art, the drama, diplomatic
circles, royalty, hospitality in this coun-
try and in Europe-the way is wide one,
and Mrs. Sherwood has had entrance to
all its exclusive paths. Concerning early
stateliness, our author, then very young
girl, says: 81 remember being appalled,
by one very solemn partner, who led me
off in a cotillon, by the formidable re-
mark, Dancing, madame, is a great SOL
vent of discomfort
DIR. Bellows is one of Mrs. Sherwood's
bright particular stars, with whom she
was associated in the Sanitary Commits
sion as well as in literary and social mat
tiers. Special mention is made of Miss
Anne Pamela Cunningham as having
first started the idea of buying Mount
Vernon.
Sometimes a little egotistical, occa-
sionallv touched by mannerism as, in the
repetition of pet phrase, can Epistle
to Posterity,'' is vivacious and agreeable,
and moreover is thoroughly sweet tenn
pered in tone, which cannot be said of
the majority of such Recollections in
print. The society world will take great
pleasure in reviewing the leading points
of the most prominent figures and cpl
sodes of time unrivaled for elegance and
aristocratic pomp New York: Harper
& Brothers; Portland: Loring, Short g.
Harmon. Price $2.50.)
A Spotless Reputation, by Dorothea
Gerard, MADAME Longard de Longarde
author of A Queen of Curds and Cream,
Etelka' S Vow, etc., etc. Always fluent
and pleasing writer, we note a new title
in the case of this popular author, not
having previou sly seen madame" APP
pended to her name. Perhaps Dorothea
Gerard is pen name, and the author
now begins to add her own to it. But for
this question we must seek some cata-
logue of present day writer's of fiction.
With her work we are entirely familiar
The present volume has touch of sensa-
tionalism, inherent in the subject, that