New-York tribune., 1902-02-09


Seeker takes US back into the strange, naive
/ days Of medieval Germany, and shows Us per
| sonages who seem 10 belong TO a world as re-
/ mote and detached from actuaIity as those in
/ Wagners music dramas They are peasants,
actuated by motives Of childlke simplicity,
/ ignorance and directness, struggling with an
evil fate. and at last sUcCUmbing to it. The
tale IS a gloomy tragedy. and its atmosphere IS
as bleak aLC iorbidding as that of the dark
valley OF the Trawies and the deep primeval
forests in which its action takes place The
villagers of Trawies cOnspire TO kill an OBJ
noxious priest who tries to crush out some Of
their old heathenish customs and Wahnfred,
/ the carpenter, is chosen by lot to do the deed.
The authorities, unable to find the guilty man.
/ decree that eleven villagers shall suffer death
/ to eXplate the crime, and the whole parish is
/ communicated and cut off from all inter-
/ course. 1t turns them to ruthless desperation
and savagery. Finally, Wahnfred energies from
/ his long hiding with the fervOr Of a prophet
preaching new god in place of Him of whom
/ they were deprived-a god of fire. He leads
! the Trawiesers to a worship His expia-
/ tiOn of the crime, Of which the community
shares the guilt with him, consists in the build
/ ing of a great wooden temple, TO which, when
! the people are assembled on Midsummer Day
for its dedication, he sets fire, and they are all
consumed
!
! bling walls of The little Trawies church.:
With the exception of bold hunters people
| pass much against their wills through the
! forests of Trawies. And he who is obliged 10
! do so hastens, for in every shadow he sees Il
ghost, in every gleam Of light shmmerinE
! of some robber band. Those dwelling in the
/ outlying district. fear the mists that rise over
! Trawies. crossing themselves whenever storms
/ from that direction descend upon them.
Herr Rosegger has caught the spirit of the
! legendary and the folk tale and his book is
| full of it, He makes his simple people; his
! Little Baumhacke, his Bartfrom-Tarn, his
Wahnfred, seem to live and move and he in
/ terprets their simplicity and unsophisticaton
/ in way that makes them sympathetic and
admissible to modern intelligence.
Mr.. BloundelIe- Burton has the story telling
/ faculty. and he uses it to good purpose in The
Year One another contribution to that endless
/ series of romances based the chaotic days
of the French Revolution. 1t is a period with
which the popular novelist may easily take
! liberties, just because il is chaotic. Any
| thing might have happened then. All sorts Of
things happen to the people Of this novel, and
/ if the tone of the latter is sometimes rather
crudely thrilling We need not blame the author.
On the contrary. appreciate his thrills
They make. in their way, very good reading,
reading of the sort to which turn when
want to be amused and do not feel like taking
a novelist very seriously 1t is meodrama, no
doubt, but. on the whole. it is creditable meIo-
drama, devised with enough inventive skill and
managed from beginning to end with spirit.
Mrs. Blundeu has taken the types with which
she has made US acquainted in ncr "PastoraIs
= Of Dorset and, painting their portraits a little
more in detail. giving them a little more 10 do
she has thrown them upon a larger canvas in
. flanders Widow" The book has the merits
of its predecessors, sympathetic deIineation Of
amusing rustics tender feeling for the humor
and pathos in their lives. and easy, agree
able style. There is dialect of course, but it
is never oppressive perhaps because this author
has a gift for making us feel thoroughly at
home with her Dorset folk, and beguies US into
q friendly attitude toward them and their
quaint ways
Mr. Bepke's book. BY Rock ana Pool" is the
fruit In part Of his Imagination and in part Of
his observation of life in Australia and
Southern seas. AT one moment he is writing
i'm adventurous vein about white men and
brown. at auothe, he is discoursing of the fish
ing that may be found at the antipodes and
again he is jotting down notes for the beneht
of prospective travellers among the Pacific isl
ands II is a very miscellaneous book, and dis
tinctly uneven in interest; but. though some
pages may safely be skipped. there are others
which - would be sorry miss