The times., 1899-08-27
Minor Fiction.

| d Dawes Company
| Minor Fiction.
"a Prince of Georgia, and Other Tales, :"
| by Julian Ralph, is a book of short stories
from all over the world. Some of them are
| clever, and some not so clever, but the
| book as whole is certainly not nearly
| equal to Mr.. Ralph's People We Pass"
which was one of the most dramatic pre-
sentations of the East Side OF New York,
| Which ever appeared in print under the
| guise OF fiction. "a Dandy at His Best"
Is rather good, but Rider Hasgard could
! nave done it in simpler and better fash
ion A Prince of Georgia" is merely
clever, and it would be much cIeverer if it
| were simply guide-book to the Caucasus
| instead OF mixture of gude-book and
romance When the Clouds Fell Down,
| Is story OF a London fog, and there have
been three or four fog stories in the cur
| rent magazines during the past two years,
| by writer's less well known than Mr..
| Ralph, which are far ahead of it. THE
Sad Fate of New Woman is an attempt
at a satire, and there is nothing sadder
or more pathetically absurd than a satire
which fails. 1t is like boiled champagne.
| Then comes Mrs. Rupperts Christmas,
/ Wnlch is almost the only story in the col
lection which is equal in power and pathos
| to the sketches of city life which appear
| from time TO time, unsigned and general
| ~ unnoticed in some of the New FORK and
| Chlcago newspapers. 1t is rather hard to
! understand why So clever a writer as Mr..
| Ralph should have allowed so poor a quail
| ty OF work to go out under his name II
ne has any regard for that name, and
| intends to do much more of this sort of
| thlng, he will do well to select a new
| pseudonym- Otherwise his reputation will
| be In the hands of the reviewers. and they
are not always kind under circumstances
like these. New York: Harper & Bros
! $1.25.)
"Dr. Nikola's Experiment is a mys-
! terry story by Guy Boothby author of
! The Lust of Hate" "Pharos the Egyp-
/ tian," and like tales of a more or less SEN
| sational type MIR. Boothby is one OF those
/ writers OF whom one can predict with
| considerable accuracy just what kind of
| work he will do. 1t may be said with rea-
/ sonable certainty that when he writes q
story 1t will not be exactly In the same
vein as his previous work, though bear
/ ing certain likeness in style to his other
books; it may also be prophesied that the
! quality OF the new book will not be infe-
! rior to that of its predecessors. And
these things, in a writer of fiction which
is frankly intended only to amuse, are
very good. There is nothing much more
/ depressing than TO pick up story which
| purports to afford an hours entertain
| Inent on an idle afternoon. and find that
the characters are fabby, the plot trans
parent, or the scheme borrowed from
Robinson Crusoe or some equally we'll
known work. Nothing of the kind need
be feared with Mr.. Boothbys books. One
OF the spictest features OF his romances is
the introduction of characters named
Apollyon. or Beelzebub, or something of
| that kind, and having natures to match
their names. 1t is not everyone who can
| handle powers of darkness in human or
| amman form and make them really fiend-
ish, but this teller of tales can do it very
Well (New York: D. Appleton & Co. S1.)
"Rosalba," by Olive Pratt Rayner. is
story which has the merit of originality
II nothing else, for there is nothing just
| like 1t among the books of the season. It
is rather crude, and one gets the impress
sion that the second romance of this au-
thor may be better than her first. Like
many books by more or less unframed
writer's, its msrit lies in its delineation
of character-one characteristic rest be-
ing merely lay figures. The central per-
| son in this case is viyacious and adyen-
| turous Italian maiden, who leaves her
fathers house in her teens, to become a
vagabond, and in some way or other keeps
herself free from the contaminations
which might be supposed to beset young.
pretty, and spirited girl in such wan
dering life. 5
Those who know much of what aristo-
| cratic noveiists call 'thes lower orders
know that the case is not by any means
impossible; that there are natures so indie
| pendent self respecting, and pure that they
pass through all sorts OF uncanny sur
| roundings without being In anywise affect
ed; they take care OF themselves" +" as they
would say; the explanation being that the
| evil about them has nothing TO work ON;
there is no corresponding chord within
which can be made to vibrate to depraved
! suggestion. Resalba is girl of that ma
| ture. What she wanted when she ran away
was freedom, and she had an artistic soul
and more or less dramatic genius 1t is n
| fact, which writer's of fiction do not alwavs
understand that the possession of a. de-
| clded talent of some sort or other is often
| safeguard against evil. Rosalba's imagi-
nation was fed by her one or two books
her acting, and the changing scenes
through which she passed; it disdained the
! commoner exeitements which might have
led another girl to wreck her life Thus
far the story is true to life; but the Incl
dents and plot are rather too much like
fairy story to be truly artistic. (New
/ YORK: q. Z. Putnam's Sons. Paper, so
cents.)
THE Strange Story of Hester Wvnne" I"
is as one might suspect, mystery story.
Thele is considerable plot in It. and some
character drawing, and the interest of the
| reader is held with skillful devices The
| story concerns young girl who is an
| heiress, and is prosecuted by the son of
her guardian, Mrs. Pimpernel. The mys-
| terry begins almost at once, when Hester
hears unpleasantly suggestive and ghostIy
| sounds at unseemly hours, and on one oc
casion is nearly choked into tnsensibflitv.
apparently by ghostly hands. For the FIRST
| half of the book there are always ewes
looking through the keyhole, or footsteps
stealing into the room in the middle of the
night, and it gives the nervous and sensi
tive reader a shivery feeling II this story
| were to be read by a company of saw three
or four susceptible young girls. alone in n
| country house, there would probably be at
cialist next morning. But the atmosphere
is not realistic enough to disturb serious
| ly any reader of fairly steady nerves. The
! tale ends happily with the death of the
villain and the marriage of the heroine to
| her true lover, and the whole mystery is
of course, thoroughly explained On the
whole, the story is neither better nor worse
| than most of its class. New York: D.
Appleton & Co. $1,000
LITERARY NOTES.