The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-12-23

momentary popularity so large? Five
thousand copies was deemed big sue
cess two or three years ago. Now we
have got up 20 the hundreds of thousands
Good advertising must have something to
do with it, but as every bookseller knows,
the most reckless expense in this direc-
ton will not keep a book going unless
there is something else to back it, Is it
that there are widespread contagious or
fads or whims among readers which GER
tain books happen to minister to? Is it
that certain characteristics of the actual
life which we are forced to live from
week to week and month to month gen.
crates, either by the law of likes or of
differences, a craving for a book that
shall act homeopathically or allopathical-
ly, as the case may be? Is it that we
like a certain touch Of humor. or OF
pathos or of sensationalism in a book
and go about telling our friends: THAT
is a thing you have got to read?' l don't
know, but / invite the analytical gen.
fuses to study the matter earnestly, for
it would pay many of US to know
The steadily famous authors have not
done anything very remarkable this year.
Kipling especially has fallen so far below
his reputation in his South African
sketches that it would not be unjust to
describe them as rubbish. But the adver-
tisement Of the new Mcclure gives US
hope that he will more than redeem him
self in the year to come with his long
novel of Kim a tale of life in India.
He is the greatest contemporary writer
of fiction STILL and, for my own part, |
have little doubt that he can surpass any
thing he has yet done. Barrie has written
Tommy and Grizel," and it is a book that
only he could have written; but it has
been harshly spoken of by some persons,
because Tommy turns out not to be an
Tommy, which is much better. There is
another story from Barrie on the way,
/ believe. Our friend, Marie Corelli, has
written her Boy" which I have not
read, but it is one of those books which
does great deal of selling before it is
published. Another volume of this kind
is Mrs. Humphrey Wards Eleanor" of
which the reviewer of one New York pa
per declares that its reception-but let
me quote the exact words: Not the
novel, but the public is to DC judged by
its reception of Eleanor. We are glad
to have lived long enough for it, and we
feel life to be better worth the living be-
cause there has come into it book so
noble!" You perceive that the youthful
enthusiasm of this critic has quite wiped
out any faculty Of writing English which
he or she nav have possessed: but the
paragraph indicates a moral AMI intel
lectual fatuousness which the book can
hardly be responsible for, though it is ole
of the heaviest and most pretentious
Jumps of moralized verbiage that even the
distinguished authoreSs has yet prodLc-
ed However. more than $4,000 persons,
according to the advertisement, thought
it a gem before they had chance to read
it, and how many hundred thousand Will
thirN it so after that trifing preliminary
.emains to be seen Gilbert Parker. who
writes such good tales and persists in
taking himself so seriously. has kept
quite up to his mark this year with his
Love That Has No Turning" But on
the whole, as l said, nothing very start
ling has occurred from the elite as yet,
and we have all the more to anticipate.
Accounts Of The wars which we have
been waging of late have been numerous,
and seem to go well; and there has been
some fiction from the same inspiration,
but rot worth much. 1t is too soon as
yet for the proper atmosphere to have
nterposed itself between the scenes and
the writer's. There has been at least as
much biography as usual, among which
Lord Roseberry's Napoleon" is the last
to appear, and is not the least important.
His lordship really has some literary
faculty, despite his disadvantages, and
his political intelligence is commendable.
Mr.. Buell's story of Paul Jones is the
best biography of that famous fighter
that has appeared and is, as the review
ers say, more fascinating than most nov
els The son of Huxley has written his
fathers biography and treated it fully
and charmingly. The memoirs of Mad
anne Potocka, a pretty, patriotic and CO.
quettish Polish lady, who knew Napoleon,
is one of the entertaining contributions
to the history of that era. But the weight
lest and best book of this kind is Henry
George, Jr.s biography of his father. 1t
comes out in good time, for the world is
ripe to hear the message which Henry
George brought to it.
In the way of essays, the most notable
thing is Tolstoi's Slavery of Our Times.
makes mark, but is not popular. Con-
trast with it, if you like, Major Ponds
diverting tale of his experiences with lee
turers, which he entities "Eccentricities
of Genius" OF foreign authors, Gabriel
D'Annunzio has written 1.-THE Flame of
Life" page & Coz, and Sinkiewiez gives
us "The knights of the Cross" which
have not read but am willing to believe
is as good as the advertisements say
it is.
Two new magazines, have been born
since last year, and both are doing well
The Smart Set and The Worlds Work
Harper's after having sold for 20 cents
for while, has returned to 50, and pub
fishes Christmas number of unsur-
passed sDlendor.
THE CHRISTMAS SMART SET"