New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1898-11-06

Thomas Nelson ldsc iohiO' ~
Scribners Sons.
THE BLACK CURTAIN; BY Flora MIMI, an1"e e
Loughead ismo, PIP S'' iious HUI"
THE cAsTLE Nh 5er BY hygDI san'G Clark Emo pp
3D. Iongmans, Green q o.
rha central figures Of Mr.. Batess mover a'a
tyo voung deacOns In ritualist ciersy "ou'
vbo are preparing for 4 life OF ceiibacy anu -
n-,.s,,v good works They are OF Purlta" an
cestrv and are moved. we are made 10 ui'ue'
ctand nv the ethical and ascetc impulses VI
tbe steiner and simpler creed. bach yum
falls In love with q beautiful woman anu CO..
f. driven by his passion out OF 'he oiuo
lines of hs career. One IN disappointment CIV.
despair. seeks possible peace IN the "o'
Catholic Church; the other rehou'i'e' Wv
spiritual authority of the ritualist rather ..
perior and comes into the worid Oh iien
,,arrv rho beloved and live happy ever afte'.
Tho sco,o nj the story is Boston and there are
scattered through its pages some eNceiien'
studio, OF the semi-regous or ethicai i"u'
which from time to time agitate that to"n-
Tho Persian seer. the spiritualist medium, the
Christian scientist and faith-heaer these APP
pear in turn in contact with divers clever Bus
ton women who take more or less WHIMSICAL
or humorous view Of their woud-De INSTRUCTORS
and Of human nature generally. Among these
women there are some possibly recognizable
and certainly interesting types. The Purltans
cannot be called a brilliant book, but it Is
careful. shrewd and attractive story OF certain
phases OF Boston life and character az the end
Of the nineteenth century
We wonder what would have been said of Mr.
Pages novel IL it had been printed about tho
time that the Fools Errand" was stirring
the pulses of Northern readers. One book IS
certainly the antithesis Of the other. The fer
vors OF that period over, and the new gen. .
Grafton will probably see only an entertaining
story in what might easily once have been
cause OF wrath and heart-burnng. For this
book Is undoubtedly entertaining in its recital
Of suffering and villany. and its interest 10
sustained after a fashion for which Mr. Page.
as a writer Of short stories. had not prepared
U.S. The cync perhaps will smile little over
the authors insistence upon the high breeding.
the chivalric feeling and the beautiful manners
of the men and women of the South. Truth to
tell while we are ready to accept these things
as facts, cannot but think that 1t would b
In better taste for the authors OF that region to
allow such little matters to be taken for
granted The continual thrusting OF them int
literature IL as conventional and antiQuated -
the mind of the South Carolinian who showed
himself. the other day. quite unconscious that
there had been any writer OF fiction since
Walter Scott
There are humor and poetry and true romance
In Mrs Lougheads story of life In the Cali
fornia hills The Black Curtain"
tuality Is a somewhat weak device. but taken
fguratvely 1t is touchingly effective THO
lonely girl and lonelier man who learn re-
luctanty to love one another in their forest
hermtages the factors OF piquant situa-
ton. The story has striking originality. but
it is wholesome and amusing and full Of femi-
nine deality.
Mr. Weyman has not quite recaptured in
THE Castle Inn" that freshness and vgor
which made Tho House OF the Wolr' and one
or two Of its successors more than acceptable
to a public jaded with sordd realism. but he
comes nearer to his early standard neverthe-
less. than for some time past For thing
he has a irm grasp of his period in this book
and reyves the atmosphere of the last century
In England. with its shallow graces and pro-
found brutality coherenty and even with elo-
quence The characters. barring the hero and
heroine. also limned with much OF his old
skill and finish. Julia MastersOn, who enters
upon the scene In eccentric fashion and PROM
Uses to remain an attractive figure. ends by be-
coming a bit unreal and considerably tedious
Her lover, too, as the book comes to a close Is
made to show himself in an unnatural incred-
ible light Such scene as that in which Sir
George Soane doubly insults the woman whom
he loves and is about to marry testing her
good faith by jest cruelty boorish. would
never take place between two human beings