The times., 1899-12-03

pleasant inhabitants, and this is only one
OF several thrilling experiences which are
recorded in the book The author tells.
among other things, of a personal en-
counter with a Tibetan tiger, which came
near being fatal to him Boston: Dana
Estes & Coz
Minor Fiction
In Connection With the De Willoughby
Claim is the somewhat cumbrous tit Of
Frances Hodgson Burnett's latest novel
The book Will probably be known by the
last three words of this name, whenever it
is the subject of conversation.
This novel has been heralded as the best
work of the authors life, which is rather
too high praise, as the public VIII undOubt-
edly say after reading it. In this story
Mrs Burnett discards the somewhat arti-
fetal style of her two "CIorinda Wildairs"
books and goes back to the time before
Fauntleroy" when she wrote of the
North Carolina and Tennessee mountains
This book is a book of the period of Lou
isiana' and "Lodusky, not of That La
o Lowrie's" or "Haworth's." There is
not much new material in it, for the char
acters have been handled before in the au-
thor's various novels and short stories,
and the only really new thing is the com
bination of them. The hero, Big Tom De
Willoughby, has some elements of novelty
about him, however. He is a scion of a
rich and aTistocratic Southern family and
utterly unlike any of his kinfolk, being
huge, awkward, tender -hearted-his father
calls it pusillanimous-and stupid in GER
tain directions. Badgered and tormented
all through his uncouth childhood, he f.
nally leaves home and family and buries
himself in the wilderness of the Cumber-
land Mountains, where, by reason of his
superior education and brains, he becomes
a sort of demigod. In course of time he
adopts a little waif of girl baby, who
grows up under his care and becomes a
strikingiy beautiful and sweet-natured
girl. This episode is the really charming
part Of the book
When the author leaves Big Tom and the
baby, and goes off on erTant expeditions in
TO a New England country town, to ac-
count for the little girls parentage and de-
serton, she drags in some material which
is wholly uncaHed for by the story and in
trying to be intense becomes simply melo-
dramatic. If she had been content with
the simple, tender idyl Of Big Tom and
Sheba, and the romance ofthe De Willough-
by claim, and the Romeo-like youth from
another branch OF the family, who comes
riding up in course OF time to claim She
ba and the family fortune together, she
would have made very pretty story, but
instead of that she seemed to feel obliged
to drag in some wholly extraneOus and
very unpleasant episodes from a distance OF
several hundred miles. One of Mrs. Bur-
nett's serious faults has always been that
she has no sense of proportion in construct
ing a plot II she succeeds in doing this
it is by accident, and in the present case
the accident has not happened. (New York;
Charles Scribner's Sons. $150.)
ciety, by Mary Cholmondeley author of
Sir Charles Danye!s,' and while it has
some rather obvious faults, it has certainly
the merit of being interesting. The unfold
ing of the plot and the development of
character hold the attention of the reader
from the first page TO the last. The defect
of the book-and 1t is a very great one
is that the author does not succeed in
what she attempts Her evident inten-
ton IS to make Rachel West, an heiress
with a sympathetic nature. the heroine of
the book, and this she does not do. Miss
West remains to the last a sort of lay-fg-
ure. Her friend. Hester Gusley is a real
person, though Of a somewhat morbid tenn
permanent: the frivolous vapid Lady
Newhaven is also very real; but Rachel is
simply a collection of attributes. The sit
uations presented, while not at all unpre-
cedented In real life for the most part, are
not likely TO win over much sympathy
! from the average reader. Rachel has an
unfortunate love affair with a scoundrel, is
/ wooed By another man of weak nature
whom she supposes that she loves and
| finally marries a third man. This sort of
! romance while not very uncommon, Will
! not win the interest OF the ordinary girl.
! Moreover, there is no hero in the book.
RacheTs third lover, who eventually wins
/ her hand, has heroic qualities, but he is not
made prominent enough to figure as the
real hero of the story, and Hugh Scarlett,
while possessing interesting traits, is es-
| sentially weak which leaves the centre OF
| the stage practically unoccupied most of
| the time.
| But there is one element in the book
which is absolutely perfect from an artistic
| point of view, and that is the family group
| of the Gusleys, the country curate and his
| amiable and matter Of-fact wife, his sensi-
| tive and highly-strung sister, Hester and
| his three children with their distinct in
! dividualities We have all known Gus
| leys, estma BILE, fussy unimaginative and
! unsympathetic, making life purgatory for
/ the one member of the family-there al
ways is one-who is nervous and sensitive
! II is delightful to see them so accurately
portrayed for once (New York: Harper &
| Brothers. $1.50)
| "The House on the Hills is the latest
! product of the pen of Florence Warden,
! whose House in the Marsh" was one of
| the most strikingly grewsome romapces of
| the season, several years ago Her present
| work is a fairly well constructed story
! without any love interest, but with consid-
! erable sensation, though not by any means
! as thrilling as the tale of the marsh dwell
| ers. and much less complicated. The hero
| is a young medical student who goes ex-
| ploring a certain mountainous part of
| Wales, in quest of his brother, who mys-
| teriously disappeared there some time be-
| fore. Young Mason, that is the students
name-becemes involved in the affairs of q
| strange and not very agreeable household
living in an almost inaccessible part OF
the region in which his brother disappeared,
and gradually becomes convinced that this
| family had in some way or other to do with
the fate of the lost man The daughter Of
the household, beautiful young girl be-
| comes his friend and almost his sweet
| heart; the servant. huge red-headed Oaf
is apparently his enemy, but really his
| friend, and things become considerably
| tangled in various ways. The mystery is
finally unraveIed, and explained as the
| reader has for several chapters foreseen
that il would be. (New York: D. Appleton
| G. Cn 81 90