The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-11-06
NEW FICTION,
BY James and Martens.


The Macmillan Company.
Under this title Mr.. James has put
forth two stories, THE Turn of the
Screw" and Covering End The lat
ter may be briefly dismissed, for it is
the sweetened wind of literature, and
presents the author under his least at
tractive but most characteristic guise
Mr.. James can be very irritating, and
he is very irritating in the endless YER
biage and much ado about nothing of
Covering End" In it manner has
quite got the better of matter. He has
next to nothing to say, and he says it
with so much elegance and distinction
as to become almost insupportable.
THE Turn of the Screw" is a ghost
story, which under a psychological con-
eeption, teaches a profound moral law.
The events take place in an old Eng
lish country place with only the gov
erness, two little children, the middle
aged housekeeper and the ghosts for
dramatis personae. There are two
ghosts. They belong to the dead gov
erness and the dead valet, both of
whom were wicked people. The man
is pale, with red hair and arched eye
brows and sharp, small, strange, fixed
eyes; the woman is in black, pale and
hungry eyes. They appear now on the
top of the house, now on the edge of
the lake, now peering through the Win
dow with face pressed against the pane,
now in the lonely corridors of the old
mansion; what they want is to destroy
the children, whom they already have
half under their power. The story of
their attempts and their ultimate par
tial success, is told with all the re-
sources Of Mr.. James art, and with a
subtlety and richness of effect that
make it little masterpiece. Not only
are the descriptions overwhelming in
their realism, but there is the minute
ness of analysis, the careful finish and
the exquisite artistic divination that
stamp Mr. James work at its highest.
1t has the most thrill of any story since
Or Jekyl and Mr.. Hyde"
Her Memory, by Maarten Mar
tens. D. Appleton & Co
Her Memory" is one of the novels
that the reader should by no means
miss Mr.. Martens has already pro-
claimed himself an author of remark
able brilliance and dramatic power, but
in this latest novel of his he shows
how delicate and idealistic he can be
with all his epigrammatic realism. 'HeI
Memory is a love story, but the love
is that of a widower for his dead wife
The book opens at her deathbed and
the early chapters which tell of her
passing and of the agony of the be-
reaved man are so eXquisitely written
! that one turns back to them again and
| again for the mere pleasure OF
repeating the artistic sensation,
A little daughter is left, and tc
her the father devotes himself
and to her the father devotes himself
for 16 years, during which he mourns
Fundamentally for his wife. The
death of his brother makes him thehead
of the house and brings him back to
England from a life of sentimentalism
and amateur painting in Italy to enter
parliament and lead an active life. His
engagement to a wealthy, vulgar wom-
an, who was once in love with him
and whom he meets again at the gam
bling tables of Monte Carlo, is a dis.
appointment, but it is natural, per
haps, in a man of his temperament.
With all his realism, Mr. Maartens
can not contrive to make him hero
without a touch of the morbid and the
Fantastic about him. His women are
nearly always nonentities. In "Hei
Memory the little girl heroine is 9
charming child, who developes into &
young woman of great force of char
acter, with a passionate alteration fol
her dead mother, which survives the
effOrtS OF her tatner TO QuenCn 1t, dnC
endures long after his mourning is out
lived
Her Memory" is strong in plot anc
character drawing, and no one who
has read Mr.. Martens previous works
will need to be told that it is full OF
dramatic color and striking situations
1t cannot but strengthen his position.
SONGS OF WAR AND PEACE"
Songs of War and Peace" by San
Walter Foss. Lee & Shepard.
Mr. Foss is a fluent writer, with 9
knack of putting homely truths, SHARP
satire or comment on current events into
catchy, colloquial rhymes. He relies fol
part of his success upon the same traits
as Will Carleton. addressing plain peo-
pie of limited experience and education
in terms of homespun, and emphasiz-
ing the characteristic qualities of ru-
raj and remote Americanism. Songs
of War and Peace" as its name indi-
Gates. is concerned largely witt
thoughts suggested by the war Will
Spain. 1t would be strange under the
circumstances If the eagle did moi
screech a little boisterously. Severa
Of the poems have a distinct ring OF
Imperialism, and all but a few are dis
tinctly patriotic with the new patriot.
ism of a conquering and expanding ma
ton. The covering is especially dainty
In he lao CT tsIil