The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-04-29

Minor Ffcticu.
| In THE Princess Sophia, Mr.. E. +. Ben
son has done an amusing bit Of romance
which will serve very well for summer
reading 1t is not like 'Dodo'' or The
J Capsina." but rather in the style of Antho-
ny Hope AT any rate it was Mr.. Hope
who first conceived the idea of writing
novel OF modern life. laying the scene in 4
mythical kingdom. and Mr.. Benson has
| done the same thing very cleverly in his
present work.
| II is reminiscent. but not urpleasantly so.
When We find the Princess Sophia smoking
cigarette in the stable yard. at the ten
der age of ten we are reminded of the
Lady of Quality but fortunately. the
| father OF this princess understood how to
| deal with her considerably better than Sir
| Godfrey Wildairs krew how to train his
! Clorinda The heroine at maturity is
| good deal like the Causna in some re-
| snecis, but much more spicy character.
! The gradual development Of the kingdom
| along ;he lines of Monte Carlo. the plot
against the Princess, the counterpart so
cleverly carried out. and the denouement in
| which the Kingdom is rescued from its ma
MIA for gambling by the agency of So
| phia son and heir. are all ;mirably man
/ aged. and the interest is sustained through
| out. This latest book of Mr.. Benson S is rot
a grand success, but it Is not a failure by
| any manner Of means. not has it any start
/ lingly weak points. tNew York: Harper &
| Bros. s1.25.)
Red Blood and Blue" by Harrison Rob
ertson, is a story of modern life in Ken
| lucky, and, as may be imagined the plot
| hinges on the relations between one of
! the old families Of the State, and a man
whose father was a nobody and not
very honest nobody at that. The author
/ evidently sympathiZes decidedly with his
| hero aha the story is rather contrast to
| those sketches of the South in which all
| the cbiv;lry, nobility. sensitiveness. and
| honor afe represented as being possessed
| by the patrician element. In fact, it seems
| to have been written expressly to prove
that nothing of this sort is true, and that
| a man of unknown ancestry may be the
| born gentleman, not only in material
achievements, but in delicacy of feeling
honorable generosity, and other attributes
| OF what is known as gentle blood.
| Andrew Outcault is certainly manly, up
right, and generous. There is no Ostenta-
| ton about him, and no nonsense of any
| kind. We are meant to like him. and We
do, The heroine. Victoria Torrance. is less
| well-deiined and decided a character. She
| is type rather than woman. Arthur
| Ferne, the sensitive, gentlemanly man who
| yet acks the vigorous manly instincts of
Outcault, is also well drawn, and the mi
nor characters are sketched with consid-
! cradle precision. The book seems to show
signs of haste and hack-work but the con-
ception is certainly good and the plot well
constructed. New York: Charles Scrib-
| ner's Sons. $500
Curiously enough. Robert Tourney" by
| William Sage, though published by anoth-
er firm and dealing with another time and
country. bears in plot a certain resemb-
lance to Red Blood and Blue" and might
! almost have been printed under that title.
In point of finish. artistic feeling realism,
/ and strength Of conception. however. ii is
by far the better book. 1t is story OF the
French Revolution: the heroine is a wOm-
! an of the nobility, Edme de Rochefort and
the hero is Robert Tourney, son of her
/ fathers steward. One of the particularly
| agreeable features of the work is that
| while the heroine is a charming woman,
| she is also distinctively French not an
| English or American maiden put into a
French gown. Her character is thoroughly
| wrought out as that OF a woman Of the old
| regime in France, OF the centuries when
| French noblewomen were delicately bred
/
cry possible hardship except those which
| come from unhappy and sometimes shame
| full marriage. The pride engendered by
all these centuries of tradition is in Edme
| lie Rochefort and she is a creation as per-
feet a Jacqueminot rose.
In making his hero manly enough to
conquer all obstacles, yet strong and SEN
sitive enough to win the heart of his wo
man. by obedience to all the sweet fantas-
tic observances of chivalry, Mr.. Sage has
fulfilled most difficult task. He also did
rather daring thing in choosing for the
| setting of his story period so thoroughly
| thrashed over by historians and novelists
as that of the Revolution, but in this, too.
he has been successful. His picture of
| Danton is equaled only by that of Robes
pierre. and both are mastery. He gives
| gimpses and sidelights on the life Of that
| terrible period and is not so busy in max
| ing his hero go through impossible adven-
| lures that he neglects the depletion of mi
nor persons in the drama. One of the tell
ing incidents in the book is the execution
| OF La Liberte, the wild peasant girl who
for a time was the leader of the Paris mob.
and another-which it would be hard to
match without going to the classic novels
OF Francis the little scene in the prison
| yard, when the list of those condemned is
read out and the arstoerats rise and take
| their places in the line. One has the SEN
| sation OF being present at the pathellc,
terrible scene. One OF the most delightful
| characters is Gaillard. the actor who is
throughout the comrade and friend of
Robert Tourney. Altogether. Mr.. Sage is
to be congratulated on having written a
| good historical novel, thing which is pos
| sibie 10 only one clever author in d hun
dred. His work is marked throughout by
| a certain reserve power, carefulness of fin
ish, and transformations strength, which,
make 1t notable among the slovenly. crude,
and hasty romances which have lately been
flooding the bookstores under the name of
historical fiction. Boston; Houghton,
| Mifliin & Co. s1-50.)
THE Conspirators' indicates that Mr..
| Robert Barr Chambers has not yet gotten
rid of the habit of writing pot-boilers. This
book is fairly good considered in that
light, but it is not likely to be remembered
very long. 1t has just enough cieverness
u give one patience TO follow it through to