The San Francisco call., 1898-01-02

ment that the good books of the year may be counted on the fingers of two hands. Those that will live, that will be accorded a permanent place in bookdom, may be counted on the fin- gers of one; but they are the best entitled to rank as masterpieces; and they will afford valuable material for the writers and readers of future gen. erations. Nevertheless. with sorrow do we say it. they resemble the righteous in the biblical city-their number is swallowed in the preponderating and heterogeneous mass of that which is trivial and worthless, in the mixed multitude" element of literature.
 Admitting the truth of the postulate that the reader of to-day desires of all things to be amused, that he has little leisure or inclination for aught else than fiction, we shall first notice this branch of the writer's craft. The out put of good fiction for the year has been small, and we are inclined to award the palm in this class to Mr. James Lane Aliens The Choir Invisi- ble." This is a striking and powerful story, the framework of which had previously been exposed in a short sketch by the same author entitled John Gray" Like Thoreau and Stew enson and Blackmore, MT. Allen has done a great work in bringing us closer to nature. His Kentucky Cardinal was styled a perfect calendar of Ma lures year and the characterization is true to an even greater extent of the later book, which is as fully story of nature as of life. MT. Aliens Cana liel at whose feet he has sat with profit to himself and delight to his readers is unquestionably MT. Thomas Hardy, from whose pen we have had a notable book this year. The Well Beloved" is a gloomy story of a disillusionized seeker after an ideal, but it is relieved by the charming descriptions of scenery and reflections on life and character which place his writings above most of the fiction of the day.
 The untimely death of George du Maurier lends a pathetic interest to ''The Martian," which appeared in bound form, after running as a serial. It has been claimed that the principle "De Mortuis" should not apply to the work of authors, and that literary me- Tit should be. judged apart from any personal consideration. We find it im- possible to apply the principle in the case of the creator of "Trilby." Let the reader consider the position of this able dehneator of English draw ing-room life whose energies were bent toward success in one branch of art and who suddenly ac- quired fame in another. His Peter Ibbetson" was received with coldness; many had never heard of it. Then with startling unanimity all the world enthusiastically threw up its hat And over what? The story of a grisette in the Quartier Latinis But, for a lit erary dessert, it was a most delecta- ble dish, and assuredly a pronounced success; was it therefore too much to anticipate strengthening of the popu- lar authors style in his later work ? Was 1t not reasonable to expect some thing better than we received in The Martian"? For, apart from some ex- cellent pictures of schoolboy life in France, the book can only be called mediocre, and inferior to the tardily recognized Peter Ibbetson." It will be readily understood that the canons of good taste forbid further comment on so painful a matter.
 Kipling's Captains Coura geous" and Stevenson's "St. Ives" have also made their second bow to the public after debut in the magazines. The first might be classed as juvenile. a light.