The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-10-30

Life of Napoleon III" BY Archibald
Forbes. Dodd. Mead & Co.
ritfte.e
The Autobiography nd Correspondence
of Mrs. Delany. Revised and edited by
Sarah Chauncey Woolsey. Two volumes.
Little, Brown & Co.
''our Conversational Circle" By Agnes
H Morton, With introduction by Hamil-
ton w Mabie. The Century Company.
THE Gospel for an Age Of Doubt" By
Henry Van Dyke. The Macmillan Com
pany.
stories Of the Cherokee Hills BY
Maurice Thompson, Houghton, Miffiin &
@The Blindmans World and other
Stories" By Edward Bellamy. With a
PREDATORY sketch by w. d. Howelis.
"The Business Girl in Every Phase of
Her Life BY Ruth Ashmore. Q1adies'
Home Journal Household LibraryD Dou-
"A World of Green Hills; Observations
of Nature and Human Nature in the Blue
Ridge. BY Bradford Torrey Hough-
ton, Mif1in < Co., Boston and New York.
FfN ttf.
Life of Napoleon the Third.p by
Archibald Forbes. With Illustrations.
Dodd, Mead & Co.
Taken all in all, the life of Louis
Napoleon presents a contrast of vicis-
STUDIES and triumphs such as is all
but unparalleled A fugitive before he
could speak. a prisoner for 20 years, an
outlaw for more than half his life. the
butt of Europe; then, by sudden turn
of fortune, president Of the French re-
public; by the coup detat, made en-
peror of the French, and for upward
Of Is years the most conspicuous man
in Europe; commander-in-ch of the
French army. prisoner of war, a brok-
en-hearted. gray old man of IS. dying
in foreign land-could any career be
more spectacular, more picturesque,
more pathetic?
An embarrassing biography of Napo-
leon Ill would be difficult thing to ina
CINE, therefore, it is not the high praise
1t might be to say that Mr.. Forbes has
written an intensely interesting work
in his new Life of Napoleon III 1t
was labor for which he was well
equipped by reason of his brilliant
gifts as a writer of English, which have
enabled him to clothe his material in
crisp, vivid. flexible, rapid style that
Is the perfection of historical nara
tive. That from the literary point of
view ne mas QtStHdf6HQ MS SElI-dp-
pointed duty in a way to win the graft
tude of his readers. will hardly be
questioned. That it will prove equally
satisfactory from the historical stand
point is less certain. not because of any
tailure on Mr.. Forbes part to paint a
true. powerful or adequate picture of
The times and personages he ESSAYS,
but because of the variety and the in
tensity of the emotions enlisted by any
consideration Of them
1.-THE Autobiography and Correspond
snce Of Mrs. Delany." Revised from
Lady Dandover's edition and edited by
Sarah Chauncey Woolsey. Two vol
hines. Little, Brown & Co.
The long life Of Mrs. Delany, the sub
sect Of these. interesting volumes, com
prised- nearly a century Of English his
tory. Born IA years before thes death
of Queen Anne, she lived far into the
reign of George III. Her childhood
caught, echoes Of Blenhein, Families
and Malplaquet; later she heard of
Dettingen. Fontenoy Culloden and
Preston Pans; later still of the Dec
laration of Independence and the Rev
olution Of fhe American colonies. Her
correspondence notes and chronicles in
detail the changes, gradual but vast,
which were Transforming the England
of the Stuarts and Tudors into the
England of our own tines and
planting the germs Of what we can
modern usage, literature and habits 81
thought. Original letters, written i'm che
frankness of family intercourse during
the 18th century, could hardly fa5itff0
be interesting; but those of Mrs. De-.
lany and her correspondents POSSESS
the special value of being written from.
the inner circle. .la
Born of an ancient family and allied
by blood or marriage to many of the
illustrious houses in England, Mrs De-
lany met many of the most noted of
her contemporaries and saw much
of the fashionable and court
life of her day. No less an
authority than Edmund Burke praised
her as 1.-The highest bred woman in the
world, and the woman of fashion of
I'll ages" Dean Swift carried on
vivacious and hirtatious correspondence
with her; Handel dined at her house
and played on his spinet, and even
composed an oratorio for drama she
arranged out Of Paradise Lost" Hor-
ace Walpole entertained her at Straw
berry Hill. she witnessed the corona
tion Of George IL and Queen Caroline.
and the wedding Of Princess Anne and
William, prince of Orange; she came
near marrying Lord Baltimore, who al
forwards retired TO his American plan
tation; she heard Gays THE Beggar's
Opera and Henry Fielding's "The
Miser-" the Messiah Saul and
Theodore" when they We're the latest
novelties: dotted on Sir Charles
Grandson; admired Wedgwood's new
china felt the stab of Hogarth's new
art saw Garrick act barely missed
corresponding with Voltaire and Rous-
sesU saw the mo- popery' riots of 1880
and drank tea and passed snuff with
George III and Queen Charlotte.
The chief interest for the American
reader of these memoirs will consist in
the vivid pictures Of contemporary
life and manners which they contain
They are a distinct contribution 10 the
literature Of correspondence being
marked by good humor, piquancy.
keen observation. a pleasant style and
the art of the successful story teller
II is impossible TO read them without
entertaining a Sincere regard and az
lection for their author
One Of the most remarkable things
about our ancestors is that once hav-
ing fallen III and called in q doctor,
they should eyer by any chance have
escaped death. What constitutions then
the delicate ladies must have had to
pull through 1lle bleedings And the
11enl There was Sir Edward Bentinck
who. being III Of fever, was bled and
then bled again until 10 one way or
another ne had lost SO ounces of blood
IA ~ hours. Gwen Mrs. Delany can