The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-11-18


1t is full of human nature-young human
nature-bubbling over with emotions of 9
mixed character, and it would make q
charming gift book for college boy OF
girl. 1t seems somehow suited to those
happy go-lucky days. New York: Charles
Scribner's Sons. 81 SOY
! THE Moving Finger Writes is a new
novel by Grace DEMO Litchfield, writer
| who made her reputation as the author OF
clever magazine stories. The thing which
puzzles one in reading this book is the
crudeness of it. 1t seems curious that the
author of The Knight of the Black For
est and other brief romances of brilliant
and dainty finish. should be satisfied to let
a work so amateurish. almost school girl
ish, go before the public as hers. The
title, in the first place. will be meaning
less to the average reader, and is not par
ticularly appropriate even when explained
by the rest of the quotation from THE
Rubaiyat." The book is problem novel
of the ethical type, and the plot is the old
one of an unhappy marriage between a
gifted man and a shallow woman, and the
advent of the other woman, whom the man
should have married. The hero is unexcep-
tionable from a moral point of view. but
candor compels one to admit that he is
rather uninteresting, not to say fiat, in his
goodness. The heroine is as faultless and
| as lacking in individuality as model in
! a millner's window. and there is hardly an
original. impressive human character in the
| book. 1t is the oldest of contrasts to the lit
| tie Black Forest romance Of ten years ago,
with its clearly-c cut misunderstanding and
| intimate knowledge of girl nature. In some
of the authors short stories there is a
tinge of bitterness, of cynicism. which is
not unpleasant; it is a flavor like that of
| bitter almonds. or the bitter-sweet of chry-
santhemums; but in this book there is no
such flavor. only stale didacticism. New
York: G. P. Putnams Sons.)
| A considerable lot of advertising has
| been given to "a Furnace of Earth" by
| Miss Halle Erminie Rives. and. as some-
| times happens, the advertisements are a
| fairly good index to the character Of the
! book. Miss Rives is cousin of the Prin-
| cess TrOubetsk0y. who. as We are inform
| ed in the publishers advance notices OF
| this new book, caught two continents
! with the powerful insanity of The Quick
| or the Dead?''' Though that lurid produce
| tion has not before been described as bait
| for continents, powerful insanity is not
| q bad summary of it.
| AS to the work OF Miss Halle Rives, we
are told that the Prince of Wales read it
| in manuscript, and said that if he had 1t
| in book form he should be afraid to cut
| the leaves for fear they would bleed. For
the benefit of apprehensive American
readers it may be stated, however, that
! the present edition was sent out with I'M
cut leaves and that the reviewers desk
was not messy while it was read. In an
other advance notice a "hysteric success"
is prophesied for the story, and in still
| another we are told that Halle Erminie
Rives' sex-novel has leaped into the pull
pit" The work is not, however, quite so
phenomenally lively as this would indi-
cate, the meaning being merely that
Baptist minister in Savannah preached
sermon about it. The publishers have fur
Their enlightened US as to Miss Rives'
youthful career, informing US that while
she was still in short dresses she was
found with her fathers duck gun, shoot
ing her name into the back of the church,
the barrel of the weapon resting on the
head of a small negro boy. She also on
one occasion set the broken leg of an en-
gineer who was pinned under some burn
ing wreckage after a railway accident,
and at other times found il necessary to
save the tobacco crop of a neighborng
planter, and get convict out of the peni-
Tertiary. That young lady of such over
flowing energies should have found time
also to write problem novel is not, per-
haps, surprising.
The book itself deals with the vagaries
OF a young woman who, as George AIDE
would say, had the artistic temperament
bigger than a church debt She has so
much of it, in fact, that considered as
heroine she resembles a temperament
walking about in society with woman
attached TO it. 1t may be imagined that
in the role of sweetheart the young lady
was not an unqualified success. Although
On one occasion, while conversing with her
lover. the look she gave him melted over
him in a rage OF love" the day after.
without any possible reason that he could
think Of she wrote him this kind of a
note:
! am leaving this morning for long visit
cannot see you again Do not think
that have treated association lightly. I
could go upon my knees TO beg You not to be-
lieve that ] have been deliberately hcartlesl.
Remember me, not as the one who writes you
this NOW, hut the girl who walked with you
the beach, and who. for that one hour, thought
she saw heaven opened.
Naturally, the man answered this Pc
cuiiar missive in what would have been a
spirit of profanity had he been writing to
another man. The only reason which the
young lady ever gave him for her singular
behavior was that she was afraid their
love for each other was not spiritual
enough and might interfere with true re-
ligious feeling. 1t takes some two hundred
pages and railway accident TO bring her
out of this frame OF mind and in the ac-
cident the unfortunate lover is caught and
crippled for life. This does seem rather !
too bad The calamity taught his recreant
sweetheart that she loved him, but her |
education was somewhat expensive for him !
a good title for this book might have been |
the one given to former novel by the |
same author. "A Fool in Spots The |
heroine here depicted is very speckled |
kind of imbecile indeed. New York: The |
Camelot Company
"A Little Girl in Old Washington by
Amanda NJ. Douglas is as the title indi-
cafes, story OF life in the Capital City |
in the early days of the Republic. It is |
full Of life and action, and there is good |
deal of miscellaneous information abou. |
old time life mixed with the story; but on |
the whole the possibilities suggested by the !
title are scarcely realized. A more charm
ing theme surely was never thought of, !
but the book, though interesting, is a lit |
tie less charming than its name New |
York: Dodd, Mead & Coz
The lnfidel" is a new novel by NJ f.
Braddon. 1t deals with the times of the
great Wesleyan revival in England and is
full of the atmosphere of old London when
David Garrick ruled its stage and SmolIett
and Fielding its literature. Those who are
familiar with the work of this popular
author know what to expect and they will
not be disappointed. New York: Harper e.
Brothers. $500
"Rafnaland," by w. H. Wilson, is a
'anciful tale Of an unknown country, sup
posed to exist behind the North Pole and
called Rafnaland, after the raven which
led th., narl,. aSrIn |