The times., 1901-05-19

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and other people engaged in the clothing
| business. Every husbanS who has been
| through a similar experience will delight
in this book and in its dramatic and un-
| expected but thoroughly satisfactory de
| nouement; and it would he a good lesson
| for some women, although the kind OF
| woman who most needs j. is the woman
| who never reads ANYTHING and could not
| possibly appreciate it's delicate cynicism
! On the whole, Mrs Dodd ought not to
| have written that book. 1t is liable to
make trouble in families CBoston: Little,
J Brown & Co. slOO)
The way of Belinda" by Frances
| Weston Carruth, is a little romance of
J New York life the heroine being young
girl much interested in the philanthropic
work of the college settlement, and the
| hero a newspaper reporter. The plot Is
| of the slightest, and the character-draw
| ing. while clever. does not go deep, or
make any pretensions to being exhaus
tive. In short, the book is as good as it
| pretends to be- 1t is soda-water, not
| strong drink, but the soda-water is good,
and the dash of Ice cream at the bottom
is refreshing. (New York: Dodd, Mead
| & Co. $1.50)
"The Story of Eva" by VIII Payne, is
a novel OF Chicago life, having for it's
heroine an average woman with one or
two uncommon qualities. Eva is young
woman brought up IN a small town of the
Middle West, who, on discovering that
her husband, a commercial traveller, has
been habitually uBfaithful to her, breaks
with him and goes to Chicago to earn her
own living, at which point the novelist
takes her up. with all her crudities, which
are many her warm hearted goodness,
which is essentially true to life, and her
standards, which are such as she has
thought out for herself. There are n good
many things about Eva which the grande
dame would unquestionably pronounce
common; she is in no way above enjoy
ing the responsible position of cashier at
dairy lunch counter; she likes the
rough and tumble competition of COM
mercial life; she sees nothing repellant in
conditions which more dainty women
would certainly consider squalid and bar
rem OF enjoyment. In fact, her idea of
happiness is independence and freedom
from intimate contact with men essen
TALLY vulgar in their thoughts and in this
respect she is perhaps superior to some
great ladies. The weak point of the story
is the plot, which, to use a colloquial but
expressive verb, Enthusiastically "wobbles"
in this 1t follows the example of the
hero, who, such as he is, is surely weak
on his legs; and If the author, instead of
ending his book with a meIodramatic
miracle in order TO make his hero n man.
mad simply brought him to his logical con-
clusion. 1t would have been good thing
and would have made the book much
more true to life. AS 1t is, It is strong
in -,
cidedly speckled. (Bosten: Houghton,
Miffiin & Co. s1.5o)
In choosing for his novel of modern
Greek life the title Like Another Helen"
Mr. George Horton has daringIy invited
comparison. 1t would be unkind to refuse
the challenge, or to withhold the opinion
thus tacitly demanded; and the verdict
of the average reader is likely to be that
though Mr.. Horton may have considered
his heroine second Helen, she is no
more that than he is another Homer,
which he is not, nor anything like it, In
fact, the book of this ambitious newspa-
per correspondent is not even a pocket
edition of the Iliad, and he will do well
to reflect that the proud father who names
his offspring Napoleon Bonaparte renders
it extremely unlikely that the youngster
under the infliction of such a name.
If he had not made the misstep of dub
hing his book with a title so suggestive
Mr.. Horton might have some reason for
elf-congratulation, for the story without
its label is really fairly well written and
interesting, and -Panayota, the heroine
is a maiden we'll grown and comely, and
of virtues suitable to the prize of n story
Of adventure. Moreover, the author has
evidently been whore the incidents of his
story take place, and knows his people
lie tells mis- story with a lightness and
dash which is that of the newspaper man
as opposed to the seriousness of the pro-
fessed novelist; and there is plenty of
incident and adventure, and some good
character drawing. Lindbohm, the Ger
man soldier Of fortune, who is the hero's
fidus Achates. is especially interesting. If
he is little like a German out of stage
land. In fact, one has a sbrewd suspicion
that the author wrote his book in the
hope that it might reach that heaven of
the needy novelist's romance-dramatiza
ton The title would not hurt il there
SO much, and it would really make a good
melodrama. indianapolis The Bowen
Merrill Company)
"Philbrick Howell" a novel by Albert
kinross, author of The Opera and Lady
Grasmere," is a novel of contemporary
English life. rather psychological in its
character, and illustrating mainly the diff
ference in the influence which two types
OF women may have over the life of a
youthful novelist. 1t sounds as if it
might be drawn from life, II not autobio-
graphical; and it may be of considerable
use to young literary men The hero is
not quite natural, and the ending is Just
little strained and out OF keeping with
the moderate tone OF the rest of the book.
but it is not a bad story of its kind.
(New York: Frederick A. Stokes & Coz
miscellaneous Books.
''Mr Cbupac nd Afie.