The age-herald., 1902-05-09
SHORT REVIEWS
 OF NEW BOOKS.

The continued popularity of When Knighthood Was in Flower" by Charles Major Edwin Caskoden), will no doubt be duplicated in his latest book, "Doro- thy Vernon of Haddon Hall' (the Mac milan Company. The readers of the former will not be surprised that the au- thor has selected the beautiful Dorothy Vernon for his heroine for it is women of this type, flair, fierce, weak, strong" that he loves to portray. Other writers have written of Dorothy and the main facts previously chronicled in her life are adhered to by MT. Caskoden. The histori- cal liberties taken by the author only add to the interest of the fascinating story. No other writer spea- s of Mary Stuart having been at Haddon, and upon a few other points the chroniclers differ
 The plot is centered round Haddon Hall. famous in history as one of the places which sheltered Mary Queen of Scots during her captivity. The story It. self Is of the romantic attachment and elopement of Dorothy Vernon and young John Manners, in spite of the opposition of parents and guardians. The time Is around 1510. The story of the hero and heroine has long filled a romantic place in the more personal annals of Eliza bethan history. Both Elizabeth and Mary Stuart come into the story, which Is set in perhaps the most beautiful of English scenery-the hill country of Der byshire, In the neighborhood of Chats worth, beautiful hills through which flow the Wye and the Derwent This neigh borhood Is one of the most interesting in England Not far from 1t Is Chatsworth where Walter Scott was often seen and where Byron met fair Mary Chatsworth, the heiress of AnnesleS. Not far to the south of it is Leehurst, where Florence Nightingale used to live, while to the north of it is the grave of Little John, famous in the Robin Hood legend. Some of the rooms in Haddon Hall stand ex- actly as Dorothy herself saw them three hundred years ago. In the state cham Der still stands the canopied bed of green velvet and white satin. in which tradi- ton says Queen Elizabeth slept when she visited Haddon to open the first ball in the new ballroom of that day.
 .'The Minority" by Frederick Trenor Hill (Frederick A. Stokes).
 "The Minority" the new novel by the author of "The Case and Exceptions" should be one of the literary successes of this spring
 The average reader requires before everything else, that a novel shall supply diversion and amusement. This condi- ton "The Minority" amply fulff1ls. The story Is told for its own sake and 1t is strong enough to stand alone The plot is unusual, the action is quick and the situations are dramatic. MT. Hill has the development of his story we'll In hand and the reader who refrains from Skip ping will not unravel the plot before the author intends he should do so.
 Mir UillS literary style attracted the attention of the critics when his first book "The Case and Exceptions, ap- peared. He was then favorably compared with some of the best writers in the country and his power of graphic descrip- tion was universally admitted.
 His present book confirms the promise of his earlier work. His pictures of New York are daring in scope and thorough in detail. Perhaps never before has a New York novel so positively '1ocated'' places. people and events London has been familiarized to the world by hun dreds of good novels. It is high time New York received an equally close study. But "The Minority" though staged in New York, is neither provincial nor To- cal It is thoroughly American in spirit and its treatment is broad.
 Vivid descriptions are given of the horse show, of the grand central depot on a wet day, of the little church around the corner, of the charity ball. Of Fifth avenues Sunday parade, of Broadway at the high tide of traffic, of the o'clock home rush, of the crush at the bridge, and other characteristic scenes in the great metropolis
 Margaret Tudor. by Annie T. Calcook fFrederick A. Stokes Company
 This Is a romantic novel of old St. Au- g,stine. It gives a most interesting pict- ure of the stirring life of the year 176O, in what is now the State of Florida and what was then under the dominion of Spain. It has a historical basis but Is rather a story of love and exciting ad- venture. than a historical novel.
 The illustrations are by w. D. Gilbert.