Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1901-02-23
BOOKS.


which appeared serially in the Strand,
ana d now published In this country
nv Anpleton & Co., IL an extravaganza
ronance in this authors happlest style.
A brass bottle found in an auction
yonm Is the starting point for a series
Of remarkable adventures which hold
a reader of any imagination fascinated
IN tho end Quaint concelts and extra
ordinary situations abound,
"The Slaves Of Chance;
Novel" by Terrier Langworthy'
is an English STORY in when
n detailed account Is given Of the trlbu-
lations encountered by the aristocrauc
and Impractical widow Of an English
colonel in her efforts on an exceedingly
scanty income TO raise and provide
husbands for her five manageable
daughters and keep a worthless son
from dsgracing the family. All the
girls are personally attractive, and fun
page portraits of them adorn the MARIA
tive One Is coquette and ambitious,
another independent. third industri-
GUS and sensible a fourth demure and
religious, and the fifth crushed flower,
who Is the first TO marry and whose
husband goes TO the dogs. Disagree
able family wrangles, with displays Of
selflshness and little Of charity or affec-
ton. everywhere make up the staple OF
the story. Finally one of them marries
an old lord another curate and the
third devotes herself permanently to
charity work because the fourth weds
the man she loves, The son marries a
chorus girl who soon deserts him. and
the story leaves the whole family in an
unsettled condition and at odds and
ends. II Is not very interesting story
as a whole.
When Prof. Woodbury. writes upon
subjects literary the reader may be
sure of finding pleasure and profit In
Makers of Literature by George Ed
ward Woodbury., we find nineteen ex-
celent essays upon Shelley, Lander,
Browning, Byron, Matthew Arnold,
Coleridge, Lowell, Whittier. Darwin
and others. They have been collected
from various magazines and their sim
ilarity in style and feeling brings them
appropriately together into book form.
In his paper upon Arnold he makes an
interesting comparison between the es-
sayist and the man and touches with
sympathetic insight upon Arnold's ami
able and duty-loving nature. In speak
ing Of Judging an author, not by all his
works but by his best, he explains this
as being specially true with Lander,
With his extraordinary gifts his de-
fects in nature and Judgment seriously
interfered with his influence, so that his
work exhibited sad waste of genius.
The author remarks; Ills failure may
well serve as warning 10 the artistic
school Of poetry, II affords one more Of
the long list Of Illustrations of that
Fundamental truth In literature-the
truth that n mans work Is Of service
TO mankind in proportion as. by ex-
pressing himself in It, bv filling with
his own personality, he fills II with hu-
man interest" Prof. Woodbury. speaks
of Lamb as being himself his own best
character and best drawn He goes
quite lengthily into the biography Of
Shelley. discusses his Italian letters and
champions him as much as possible in
his life and admirngly in his work.
There Is an interesting chapter on some
actors criticisms Of Othello. Iago and
Shylock, a sketch of Darwn's life and
of Brownlng's death, and throughout
the book We have the observations of a
scholar that will be interestedly read
by other scholars.
Under the modest title of Mrs. Clyde
the story Of a Social Career" Julien
Gordon has written one Of the best So
ciety novels that has come out for
many a day. Julien Gordon" is the
wife Of Col S. Van Rensselaer, Cruger
and a leader in New York society 1t
is said that the book is making a stir
in the East for II is limited that Mrs.
Clyde in fiction has her counterpart IN
real life. In any event Mrs. Cruger has
drawn the character Of her heroine too
well to be merely the creation OF her
own brain. But still it is more reason
able to suppose that Mrs. Clyde Is a
composite rather than an exact por-
trait.
The book is as the title suggests, a
social career" II Is the story Of a
poor girl who marries simply for
wealth and position who fights her
way into social prominence--wns the
laurels she Graves, and lives to a fairly
good old age i'm the midst of comforts
and luxury. That is a description in
brief and yet it falls far short of the
mark. Mrs. Cruger's work is no ordln-
AIRY one, She is perfectly at home with
her subject and handles II in Just the
proper vein TO bring out the agreeable
and disagreeabe points effectively.