New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-11-30

12mo. PIP 500 Harper & Bros
THE BILE FLOWER ny Henry van snrtb Dyke
Sons.
or MRS A BY /. Cope Cornford. 12mo. PIP.
Bis. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company
Mr. Lang has only himself to blame if, in
good many quarters he is regarded less as the
brilliant man of letters that he unquestionably
is than as a kind of phenomenon, source from
which almost anything is to be expected When
he is not publishing some study in anthropoiogY
he is translatng Greek poetry; when he is not
clearing up an historical mystery he is editing
n book of fairy tales. When he is not producing
an essay, or a book review. or group of para
graphs on any and every subject under the sun,
he is collaborating with Mr.. Haggard or MT
Mason on novel or he is inventing a series OF
short tales all his own, like that which he gives
us in THE Disentanglers" Whatever this YER
satile author does is sure to be interesting, and
his latest book is no exception to the rule The
DiSentanglers' is original in conception and
prodigiously clever in treatment. The great
idea of the two impoverished young English
men to whom introduced in the first
chapter is to organize a system of dsengaglng
or disentangling those youths and maidens who
contemplate marriages against which family
opposition is sure to be brought. This. at all
events. Is the pOlul IIOIIi "IhIh my N'%A| 49,
the clients answering the judcious advertise
ment in which they announce their campaign
of diplomacy involve them in all manner OF
adventures Mr.. Lang is fertile in the contrlv-
ing OF unconventional situations. The first
clients Of the Disentanglers two children
who are abused by a governess who has their
widowed father in her tolls. This may not
seem a startlingly new motive, but there Is
novelty enough III the authors exploitation or
IT, and as he warns to his work he accom-
plishes things more and more bewildering and
delightful Sometimes he goes in for pure COM
edv as in the tale Of the much-engaged heiress
and her three curates Sometimes he is IN
imitably satirical. and sometimes tragic He
brings Eastern mystery into one Of his best
stories. THE Adventure OF the Fair American"
and in another. almost as good. the long "Ad-
venture of the Canadian Heress," he makes
brilliant use of such modern properties as wire
less biography and the submarine boat Always
his characteristic humor is playing like sum
mor lightning around the events Of his stories.
always his touch is light and skilful. MI Lang.
with all his infinite variety. has never we sup
pose. even dreamed Of rivalng the "boomster~
in modern fiction. But If this amusing book, as
amusing in substance as il is accomplished In
style does not win wider popularity than any
thing of MT Langs has hitherto enjoyed, We
shall be very much surprised.
THE Adventures OF NJ DHarcot" also de-
serves a cordial reception. and for similar
reason that it is entertaining and well written
MT CIouston's hero is a light hearted French
man of good breeding, who has dabbled in a
Royalist conspiracy, and has therefore sought
ASYLUM in England. He is a harmless indi-
yiduaI like the astonishing Marquis who is his
chief Taking his political enterprise with a
seriousness over which, TO infer, the
French authorities could not but have smiled.
he begins his career in London with plunge
into mystery, and lands presently in the arms
of the law to be rescued therefrom by stolid
young Engiishman, with whom he is thence
forth associated in divers strange adventures.
He meets other Britons most Of them amusing
in one way or another and wherever he goes
something fantastic happens. The poor fellow
is again and again made ludicrous. but he has,
on the whole a very good time. Mr.. Clouston
is not afraid to let himself go in fun making.
He is indeed. frankly farcical from cover to
cover. Yet If have enjoyed his book it has
been not simply because OF the drollery in it,
but because, in his way. the hero is a lkable
and even lovable person. The author shows
much delicacy of method in his portrature OF
his quaint foreigner We wonder what he thinks
cf the pen sketches by Mr.. lowering which have
lean edition. These are in themselves as funny
could wish. No could look without
laughing at a drawing like that which serves as