The times., 1899-01-15


"Belinda-And Some Others is an anony-
nous English story, with less plot than
originality, and very little artistic finish
but it is amusing. 1t deals with the old,
| old notions of rich relative coming to
| his nieces and nephews under the pretense
OF being poor, in order TO test their affec-
ton. In this case it looks as If there
were but little affection to test. and no par
ticular reason for the munificence with
which Belinda-and the others-are treated
in the end. The amusing feature of the
book is its character drawing. Most of us
have known Belinda and Olivia impractical
Jack and practical William, under some
name or other. (New York: u. Appleton
& Coz
The New God" is translation from
the German of Richard Voss, and one is
constrained to say, after thoughtful pc
rusal of the book, that there seems TO par
ticular reason why 1t should ever have
been translated. II is variation on the
theme of the atmosphere of the Roman
world just after the coming OF Christ.
PLATE, Mary Magdalene and other Bibli-
cal characters are introduced; also that
daughter of Jairus who was raised from
the dead, and who wanders through the
book clothed with a blue robe and an &C.
static expression. There is so much that
is really dramatic and fine in the historical
events of those early Christian days that
one wonders why all the books dealing
with the period are so horribly stale fiat
and Improbable. With the single excep-
ton of Kingsleys "Hypatia," not one of
them is worth printing. The New God"
follows the general rule. (New York:
| Harper & Bros. $l.25)
Chap Book Stories; Second Series" is
| a miscellaneous collection of tales once
| published in that lively periodical, The
| Chap Book" AS readers of the magazine
will remember the Chap Book pub ished
no long stories; and the reader of the
| present volume will therefore find that
the tales are brief beyond all expectation
much shorter than the ordinary maya
| zine story. They are mere nibbiings at
| fiction; and the menu is so varied that
| one leaves the table stll hungry for more
| Among the authors represented are
| Clinton Ross, Maria Louise Pool Maurice
| Thompson, and Dabney Marshall. Each
| has contributed bit of work as exquis-
| itely finished as a cameo The Sands of
| the Green River" by Meth Boyce, the
| first of the thirteen stories, is in no way
inferior to any in the book. 1t is vivid
the southwest. THE Escape" is pic
ture of convict camp. by Dahney Mar
| shall. The Tumbrils.' by Nathaniel Ste
| phenson, is a story of the civil War told
with considerable power and small at
| tempt at effectiveness. A striking bit of
| imaginative writing is "A Little Boy of
Dreams" by Beatrice Witte. Chicago:
Herbert S. Stone q Co. s1.25.l
THE Phantom Army" by Max Pember-
ton, is just an imaginative romance of the
military type, dealing with Spanish ad-
venturers dream that he may be second
| Napoleon. Leading his troop of White
| Hussars, men recruited from all nations
and all countries, ne appears mysteriously
| at irregular intervals to pillage some town
or city after which he and his men seem
to melt into the earth. He makes his
headquarters in one of the mountainous
districts of Aragon, where he is regarded
by the people with superstitious reverence
Toward the end of his meteoric career he
numbers among his recruits an English
soldier named Noel Falconer, and this SOL
der becomes his closest comrade, and is
finally captured with him and taken to
prison at Madrid. There is a thread of
love story woven with the adventurous ele-
| ment of the romance, and Isabella de Ga
varnie the beautiful and mysterious
| stranger with whom Noel falls in love in
the first chapter, is as fascinating hero
ine as we have lately found in fiction. The
dream of the Spaniard ends with the gar
rote, but the Englishman, through the in
terposition of his government at the last
moment, escapes.
| The conception is a brilliant one. and
| the plot is well worked out. Every char
acter is clearly and skillfullY drawn, and
| the story never lags for an instant The
reader is carried along from chapter to
| chapter, almost from page to page, by the
| impetuous movement of the narrative We
have had numberless novels of the i'm
| aginative- -statesmanship order during the
last ten years. Kingdoms have been de-
| stroyed, republics reconstructed and in
| ventions have revolutionized the world
with a speed quite bewildering and most
| distasteful to the average reader; and in
| most of these romances there has been 4