The times., 1899-07-09

are ALMOST as separate and strongly mark
ed as the work of different persons. Read
| ers of her former book will remember
| Annie Tousey's Little Game" as by all
odds the finest work in it, and as one OF
the best short stories of a humorous type
which can be found in magazine literature.
In Uncle Elijah's Corner Cupboard the
same characters appear, and If the grim,
obstinate old gentleman of these sketches
and his quick -witted niece, with her easy
| going husband and meek maiden sister,
could only be put into a series of short
stories or novel We should have book
of perennial delight TO lovers of American
humor These four people are absolutely
original and thoroughly delightful, and of
all the varied characters to whom their
creator has introduced us they are the
only ones who really deserve immortality,
New York: Harper G. Bros. S1.25)
THAT Fortune" by Charles Dudley War
ner, is the final novel of a trilogy which
began in "A Little Journey in the World
and was continued in The Golden House" "
Those who have read the latter book will
remember Carmen Henderson, and her
marriage to Thomas Mayick. The present
| story concerns their daughter, Evelyn,
heiress TO the Golden House, and the hero
is young lawyer and noYel-writer, Philip
| Burnett.
Nothing that Charles Dudley Warner
writes can escape being clever, and the
thorough cleverness of this book is the
quality which first strikes the reader. The
| style is leisurely, finished and attractive,
the character drawing distinct and perfect.
! All this goes without saying. The only
| trouble with the book is the faint impress
| sion which the reader has after finishing
| the last page, that the romance really has
I 1Faf hal
writing. One continually expects a strong
dramatic effect which does not come.
| However, one cannot have everything,
I and the book is certainly interesting as a
delineation of certain phases of New York
| life. In the first pages Mr.. Warner has
4 apparently harked back to old hunting
| grounds and used some of the material
gathered for that most delightful work.
Being Boy" for he presents to us a
| presumably barefooted boy of twelve,
dreaming dreams, up a hickory tree in a
pasture. This boy is Philip Burnett. The
chapter which describes his youthful
dreams and air castles of future achieve
ments will appeal to everyone who ever
| climbed a tree and built literal mansions
in the air, among the branches. In this
same chapter appears Celia, young play
mate, who later on in the book develops
| into sort of new woman and, it is
There seems TO be no particular reason
why she should be in love with him, ex-
cept that she Is unattached and he has
made her his confidant as to his re-
gard for another woman, but the theory
OF some novelists seems to be that no wo-
man can know any man very well without
cherishing a passion for him, unless she
happens to have some previous tie which
precludes such straying of the affections.
. n DI.s1
dreams that he is going around the world
breaking hearts at any such rate as this,
for he has not one thought for anyone but
Evelyn, from the time he first hears of
her, and is therefore oblvious to the un-
acknowledged love of Celia and of his
cousin Alice (who is several years older
than himself, and is the heroine of his
first novel, "a Puritan NUM-. 1t is
quaint situation.
The original feature of the story, how
ever, is the peculiar bringing-up of Eve
lyn, who has been carefully secluded from
any possible contact with the outer world,
but, fortunately for herself, has been un-
der the continual guardianship and care
of a wise clear headed, and true-hearted
Scotchwoman of culture and refinement,
and has thus developed character foil
of unconscious beauty and strength Her
intuitions. unspoiled by contact with the
very worldly life about her, are correct,
and her judgment singularly good. She is,
in short, little princess, born to rule,
and TO rule well. When her father loses
his money she is free to marry Philip, and
the story ends in a most idyllic way.
A chapter or two is devoted to satirical
comment on the methods of a certain
school of New York journalism, employed
by a brilliant young man named Olin Brad
whose name is in itself proof of the
inspiration OF his creator, because it sounds
so like real name out of the columns OF
the Journal or the World"
There is one rather serious fault from a
critical point of view in the book as 1t
stands. and that is the extraordinary
carelessness displayed by either author or
proofreader in certain minor matters.
When Evelyn, who is understood to be a
highly educated young woman, says that a
thing is real DID, and later talks of
Jennie Deans, there must be something
out of joint somewhere In one place Mr.
Warner tells us that his heroine and her
family attend "St. Agnes Church." and
later the hero, who should surely be accu-
rately informed in all such matters, says
that she goes regularly to "St. Thomas"
Moreover. one occasionally comes upon a
sentence which is split in two in the mid
die and made into two sentences, so that
the second of these is a clause without any
predicate. Such things, in a book which
assumes to treat knowingly of intellectual
matters and refined society, give the i'm
preston OF a gentleman at the Court of
st. James, conversing with the utmost
grace and ease for the most part, but oc-
casionally dropping an 'h' or using the
double negative. tNew York: Harper G.
Bros. s1.50)
Richard Carvel," by Winston Church
hill, is a book which will probably attain
as great a popularity, especially in the
South, as any novel OF the seasons out
put, and its success will be well de-
served. 1t is a picture of the life of the
eighteenth century, and the scene is laid
partly in old Maryland, and partly in Lon
don. The author was perhaps lucky in
having made n reputation at one stroke
with his previous story THE Celebrity"
since Richard Carvel" is much less
striking book, and without this herald
might not have won its way into public
favor. But those who read the former
story, and liked it, will be eager to Sc
cure the later work of the same author,
which would have found a certain number
a readers on its own merits; and so the
success of the new novel is already to
some extent assured.
The book would prove more interesting
to American readers If the scene had been
laid wholly in Maryland, and it may be
added that 1t would then have been more
artistic from an abstract point of view.
for this is a field as yet almost untouched
by romance writer's, and it is full of valu-
able material, while the England OF CEN
tury ago is thoroughly written over by
authors greater than Mr.. Churchill. How
ever he has done very well with his stnry