The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1900-02-21
CONCERNING BOOKS.

n. Wells whose 81 ries CT the Wffo, -
weird. the invi ible and tie preposterous
have had such vogue. will welcome q
fresh volume Of cirver and entertaining
short stories BY this author, called Tales
Of Time and Space. (Doublsday & Nc
Clure Co 4; Portland; Loring, Short s.
Harmony For titles there srs The Crys-
tai Egg, The Star, A story Of the Stone
Age. A Story of the Days 70 Come. and
The MN Who Could Work Miracles.
Thess are all In the same vein as When
the Sleeper Wakes and The War Of the
Worlds which attracted 50 much atten-
ton, and will be found equally clever and
Ingenious.
A dainty little volume from Messrs. e.
p. Dutton g. Co., portland: Lofing.
Shcrt s. Harmony t,lls up, in small space
the story Of Lewis Carroll, and 1t 1, told
for young people BY the real Alics In
Wonderland, Miss Iss bowman. The
b-ok contains also diary and numerous
| facsimile letters written to Miss Bowman
and others; also many sketches and photo
Craps By Lewis Carroll, and other Illus
trations. And Just he.e wish to say
that see neither reason NOR excuse for
using photo" on the title page. without
hint that 1t 10 o contraction, which
would be bad enough, for even used col
loquis,ly the ourtailiug would be mex
cussble.
However, we are grateful for any thing
new BY way of personal knowledge Of
the man who has delighted the hearts Of
thousands with his delicious nonsense,
the man whose heart was as the heart
OF little child, and who so loved ohild-
rem and was ndored BY them in return.
1t is said that when Queen Victoria had
read Alice In Wonderland she was 80
p,e,sed that she asked for more books by
the same author. Lewis Carroll WAS
written to, and back, with the name Of
Charles Dodgson on the titls-page, came
. number OF books OF algebra and geoms-
try. And who would believe that q
grave and shy Professor OF Mathematics,
who at tbs time of his death had not
com pleted HE work on Symbolic Logic,
would have given to the world those won
derful books Of the two Ahoes, The
Hunting OF the Shark and the delightful
Sylvie and Bruno. which last Miss Bow
man calls "a curious romance, half fairy
tale, half mathematical treatise" And
VINO dces not remember that it contains
one Of the authors tent nonsense verses,
which Levi, Carroll's present biosraph-
er quotes:
"He tt ought he raw kangaroo
Turning n coffee-mill;
He looked again, and found It was
A vegetable pill!
Were TO swallow you,' he said,
Il should be very i'll
In closing. Mise Bowman, 1.-THE real
Alice" says: al have not pretended in
any way to write an exhaustive life
story of the man who was % near to me,
but by the aid Of the letters and the
diaries that have bssp enabled to pub
lish, and by the few "reminiscences that
l have given you of Lewis Carroll as
knew him. hops that 1 have done
something to bring still nearer to your
hearts the memory Of the greatest friend
that children ever kad.n
Two new volup, % of fiction come from
Mes,rs. Harper & Brothers, portland:
Loring. Short g. Harmony one being q
collsction Of short stories, : entitled In
OH Franos and New, and the other a
novel by Edward Van Zile, With Sword
and Crucidx.
The first of these, by William McLsn-
nan, is dedicated to Mr.. W. ID. Howells.
who had greatly praised the authors
French Canadian Sketches. and thus wish
es to show his appreciation of an enoour.
sgement which he valued highly.
These storie, OF Mir. AoLsnnan are full
OF charm. They are delicate bits of bis
torical romance. tut the romantic side 10
SO much more In evidence than the his
torical, and truth is SO much stranger
than fiction, that 1t all seems TO be
purely and simply work Of the imagin-
alton. delightfully."- picturesque and at the
same time oVerfowing with human In.
terest.
The author has read to good advan-
tags N. Roussels Chatsau dss Tuileriss,
a ouriously real book, and II has served
as frame for his pictures Of the French
revolution, two Of which. A King for
Week and An Adjustment Of Accounts,
were suggested BY Incidents noted BY NJ
Rousssi, while there 10 no fonndA tion
for the story Of MirAbeau and the little
waif Sophie. nor for Caohe-C Cache. The
last half Of the book 10 filled with Cana
dian stories.
The novel by Mr.. Van Zlle. With
Sword and Cruoiflx, Is an account of the
strange adventures Of Count Louis de
companion Of Sisur de Ia sale,
on the Lower Mississippi in the Year Of
Grace 1859. 1t is q handsome volume,
fully illustrated by Kellar with honest.
sensible pictures, which look what thsy
are intended for. and unlike much Of the
work of the modern skstoher-I cannot
call him artist-who contents himself
with several smudges, q few dabs. and
some orlss-cross lines. making an indefi. |