The Washington times., 1901-07-07

tune from ms cradle. Everybody ne iuttNS
either murders some of his near relatives,
cheats him out of his property, or at
tempts to destroy his reputation, and
when mortal characters fail to get him
into trouble. the prince of the powers of
the air is invoked, and those strange
French legendary creatures, the Chasse
Galere and the Main Rouge, are dragged
in by the scruf of the neck to deprive
the poor youth of something which ought
to be his. One feels certain that only
when the novel ends will he cease to be
unhappy. No sooner does he appear on
hitherto peaceful scene than things begin
to happen. 1t seems as if, in real life,
he would have had such reputation as
a Jonah that people would have been
afraid of him. But anything can be done
in fiction. However, ne finally gets the
lady of his choice and settles down to
peaceful married life; but after all the
exciting If unpleasant eXperier ces of ear
lier manhood, it seems if he might find
happiness little dun. (New York: Har
per & Bros. sl.50)
Ezra Game" by Joseph Sharts, is as
gruesome a tale as one would care to
meet on a dark night 1t is the autobi-
ography of a crazy man, and is just long
enough, and not too long, to make its
horrible realism take hold of the imagi-
nation. The author has aot made his
hero devoid of all human qualities. nor
has he made him so human that the
pathos overpowers the repulsion felt by
ths reader. One feels that in different
surroundings. away from the haunting as
sociations of his fathers fate, the boy
Ezra might have escaped the curse of his
heredity; and then, he might not. There
the authors style which leaves one in
doubt as to what he himself really
thinks.
in its wcy, the thing is gem. 1t is
not the sort of book one would Ike to
read in an old country house alone. on
one of those evenings when the wind
seems TO be trying to get in and tell ghost
stories and all the dark stairways and
closets are half alive. But the fact that
it is not suitable for that does not mean
anything. One might as well reject book
because ii is not proper reading for
sensitive and impressionable child-and by
the way. nobody who buys this one has
any right TO leave it lying about where
such a child can get hold of it. 1t is
enough to give him commissions. But
some of the stories of Poe, of Charles
Reade, of Dickens and of Hawthorne are
open to the same objection. Perhaps the
inner workings Of the brain of madness
have never been more skillfully analyzed.
The style is sombre, subdued, and not
melodramatic. which is a wonder when
the subject is considered. The case dis
cussed is one of hereditary homicidal ma
MIA, which may be. at bottom, an atavistic
return TO the semi-human condition of
some ferocious ancestor, the weakened
brain, in it's topsy-turvy condition, obey
ing the brute impulse to slay Chicago:
Herbert S Stone & Coz
'Euphrosyne and Her Golden Book"
by Ellsworth Lawson. is a brief record of
an equally brief courtship, which many
people Will unquestionably dub sentimen-
tai in the extreme Not that courtships
do not and should not partake of this
quality but that the sentiment of this one
is so extraordinarily exalted and attenuat-
ed as scarcely to be comprehensive to
the average person. The heroine is a
woman in the last stages of a mortal dis
ease, and the hero is a physician, who
meets her 4 short time before her death,
and falls in love with her. The kind or
love possible in these circumstances is
necessarily Of a very lofty and spiritual
sort. The book is written, some time af-
ter the death Of the her oine. by the
lover. Chicago; Herbert s. Stone & Coz
They That Took the Sword" IS one
Of the stories of the war between the
States. which are flooding the market
just at present, and it deals with a field
hitherto unclaimed by the war novelist
the city of Cincinnati, in the days of the
prominence of Vanandieham. That is
practically the only original thing about
it, though the characters are well drawn
and lifelike. (New York: John Lane, the
Bodley Head)
THE Curious Courtship of Kate Poins,"
by Louis Evan Shipman, is a romance OF
the days of Beau Brummel although
neither he nor any Of his prominent con-
temporaries appear as characters in the
story. 1t is well written and diverting.
and there is the usual beautiful girl, and
the usual gallant young officer ready to
die for her. CNew York: D. Appleton &
Co. Sl.50)
The Luck of the Walls is the latest
romance of E. F. Benson. author of
''Dodo." Mr.. Bensons readers will note
with delight that he has forsaken Greece
and returned to the field of modern Eng
lish fiction, in which he is much more
at home. The present novel is a sort of
detective story. in which the villain Is
genial and apparently sweet-natured
great-uncle of the hero; and the interest
Of the plot consists in the unsuspiciOus-
ness Of that innocent young man and the
more or less fruitless Vaccinations Of the
wicked uncle. The book Is capitally writ
ten, as anything Of this authors is sure
to be, and there is the true. creepy and
horror-stricken atmosphere about it, 1t
is good bit Of light reading for lazy
summer day I'm a hammock, for that is
a time when one enjoys dwelling on the
subject of musty old country houses
haunted by the ghosts of wicked ances-
tors, and possessed of exquisite heiTlooms
with mystical inscriptions on them (New
York: D. Appleton & Co SI50)
THE Grapes of Wrath" by Mary Har-
riott Norris, is one of the novels now be-
ing multiplied dealing with the war OF
secession. The characters are chosen
from the members of a family divided
against itself. part being Northern and
a part Southern in sympathy. The book
is in no way remarkable. though faithful
in its pictures of the social life of the
North during the last years Of the war
(Boston: Small, Maynard & Co. $.50)
Henry B3urland: The Passing of the
Cavalier" by Albert Elmer Hancock is
story of the South in the days of re-
construction. The hero is the last of an