The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-04-28

EFT has made a fine novel out of gooC
folklore, and he is to be warmly congrat
ulated on this somewhat rare achieve
ment.
The first chapter of 1.-THE Silver Skull
! is a fascination in itself, and the interest
never slackens from the first page to the
last. The priest appears at first in the
guse of the masker Punchinello. and the
heroine as a little child, who has crept
under the table in fear of the strange fig
ure and thus escapes the death which is
dealt out to all other members of the
| family. Found in the courtyard of the
| palace, after the massacre, by the Narda-
| relli, the little Isabella is taken under
their protection and grows UP as their
! sister and comrade. The rest OF it is one
| adventure after another, ending in the
| advent of General Church and certain
| young Highland officer who is the hero
so far as the love-interest is concerned.
Altogether, this book is perhaps the best
| thing Mr.. Crockett has done. 1t is now
published for the first time in this coun-
try, though written two or three years
| ago New York: Frederick A. Stokes
| Company
AT the Court of the King" by G.
| Hembert Wesley. is a book of short
stories of the French Court, mainly OF
the time of Louis XIV Among the titles
| are THE Device of the King, The
| Chevalier of Mont-Chery,' THE Queen s
Ietter." and THE Dukes Sweetheart"
| Two or three of these would make
charming little one-act plays if the talent
of the author happened to run in that
| direction. They are full of the light
gayety, the insouciance. and mischievous
,,,l, ctr NV n <
flower The first story is essentially dra-
matte, and so is "The Dukes Sweet
heart" Most of them are pure comedy,
but THE Priest of Languedoc'' is pa
thetic little tale of hopeless love which
was a curse TO the lover, and The
Humbling of Damp Abbot is grue-
some and not altogether Ineligible story
of the vengeance of a disappointed and
Jealous man "A Desperate Game deals
with the second advent of Napoleon and
the way in which the house of Roth
schild was saved from imminent financial
peril-through a couriers fondness for
chess Altogether, the stories are good
enough for anybody's spare moments,
though very unpretentious. Boston: L.
C. Page & &c. S.5O)
Robert Annys Poor Priest" by Annie
plains, a tale of the Great Uprising. Rob-
ert Annys is one of those followers of
John Wyclif who were sent through Eng
land to preach to the plain people and
oppose the simple teaching of the gospels
to the pomp and power of the visible
Church. The story begins well, and is
full of pictures of the life of the times.
Robert Annys is one of the sensitive,
idealistic, yet strongly sympathetic
dreamers, who have been both the de-
spair and the pride of every reform
party-men whose quick perception of
truth and power of language make them
easy converts, but whose keen sense of
justice and love of all beauty and fine
ness make them shrink, in spite of
themselves, from many phases of the re-
former pure and simple. The Bishop of
Ely also figures in the story, and is de-
scribed very skillfully. the more so, per-
haps, that the Episcopal type does not
change much from generation to genera
ton, and the Bishop of the time of Wyclif
was probably the same in many respects
as the Bishop of today. A strong contrast
to the clergyman is John Ball, historic
member of the Brotherhood of Poor
Priests, and there is girl Rose Westel.
born of peasant mother and a lordly
father with all the richness and fineness
of nature which come of such mixture
of blood, who is one of the most human
characters in the story. The interest
does not. however, hold out quite so well
as it promises and after being prepared, |
by all the logic of things, to see the
martyrdom of Annys. one somehow feels |
it a step downward for him to become |
a respectable and reasonably comfortable |
har NJ bs
milan Company. S1.5O)
If it be permissible to make a comment |
which is not solemn upon a serious mat |
ter, let the suggestion be made that it is |
about time that Mrs Elizabeth Stuart |
Phelps Ward and Mr.. Herbert D. Ward, |
her husband, stop writing resurrection |
novels. 1t is impossible to dissociate the |
two writers in this matter, since before
her marriage Mrs. Ward had already
made a reputation in this line, and since |
the marriage Mr.. Ward. who never be-
fore was particularly heard of in any
thing, has been endeavoring TO do things |
of the same general character. II they |
do not realize~the fact that it is time to |
quit they should be told.
Gates Aiar" which made a stir IN its
time, is the only one of the collection |
which deserves to live. Beyond the
Gates" THE Gates Between" The Mas
ter of the Magicians." and all the other
minor and major works which have been
by the twain, separately or
together, are simply very feeble echoes
of the original notion. with the human
nature left out, and It is to be hoped that
even in heaven we shall not be obliged |
TO listen to endless variations and repeti-
lions of one melodic phrase. And now
here comes Mr. Herbert d. Ward with
1.-THE Light of the World" which is sup
posed to be a record of the confusion of a
man of science on discovering that there
Is such place as heaven after all. Again
let IL be repeated in the language of
if necessary, that the novel
Of heaven, of this particular variety, is
We find in this small book the astrono-
ner and maker of lenses. gazing with
pride which is quite pardonable upon a
huge lens just finished. the work Of more
han two years, and saying something
about IF there be a God" It appears
hat in punishment for his blasphemy, or
,ity for his ignorance, or something, God
struck him dead. The rest Of the volume
s taken up with a narrative of his ex-
,eriences in the other world. II appears
hat his imagination was ''religiously |
Perhaps it was. If he had
iad q religious Imagination the size of |
dr Wards it is improbable that he would !
ver have done much besides attend to it.
Ne are also Informed that he was not
orthodox, did not believe the Bible, was,
n fact, an agnostic. 1t might occur to
he candid reader that if Mr.. Ward does