New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-08-16

Rayner 12mo, PIP. 876. Dodd. Mead & Co ---------
ANNE C, CARMEL mi, By Gwendolen overton limo.
PIP. SSo. Inc Macmillan Company
THE ETERNAL WOMAN. Bv Dorotbea Gerard
4 Ge. Longard de Longarde). 12mo, pp 527.
1t is in literary circles and in studios that
the personages of The Silver Poppy" move
and this tells against them to a certain extent
For some reason other the novelists of to-
day always find it difficult to make their pict-
ures Of artistic and literary people natural or
interesting. Mr.. Stringer is no exception To the
general rule. His idea of the handsome Young
poet, thrown amid men and women who write
or paint, or find their amusement in watching
others who do these things is the conventional
idea, and for good many of it's pages We find
Inc Silver Poppy" dull. Presently, however
II becomes interesting. Cordelia Vaughan, the
heroine, is not after ALL the familiar type On
the contrary, she has curious part to play,
that Of kind of vampire. Her first novel the
| one which gives Mr.. Stringers book it's title is
d success because it deserves to- be one. She
writes another, and the hero to whom she gives
1t IN manuscript, is appalled, at what seems to
him the disastrous collapse OF her abilities
what is the explanation? Neither the hero ner
the reader learns until the narrative has made
considerable progress. Indeed, Mr. John Hart
ley is so far from suspecting the truth that he
throws himself with ardor into collaboration
with his COrdelia. Hints of trouble to come are
offered. The womans character is capable OF
strange windings, and the hero is bewildered at
the same time that his love deepens The last
third Of the book is greatly superior to all that
has gone before it. To this part Of his work
Mr.. Stringer brings some excellent dramatic
qualities and a fresher touch. His climax Is the
best thing in the story.
The author of Handicapped Among the
Free" takes gloomy view Of her subject which
iS he crI1f hat
and the attainment of it's ideals in this coun-
try The negroes in her story go from one
misery to another, and their experiences are
made the more impressive through being
ascribed not to Civil War days or the time
just following the great struggle. but to our
own epoch. The lad who enters the first chap
ter, full of ambition TO obtain an education in
order that he may lift UP his fellows from their
darkened lot, is represented soon as fleeing be-
fore a mob Of white men, the object of a man
hunt, absolutely without cause, in which the
hunters bring a dog well as guns to their
aid The humiliation of a decent negress, in
suited While on her travels, Is deliberately set
forth A negro of the most honorable character
is charged with a crime he never committed,
and is sent to prison, though his people give up
their old home to gain his acquittal. When he
is free once more and married, he and his wife
are set upon by whites, and he is hanged to a
tree. Fortunately he is cut down in time,
and lives for a certain period, but ultimately
he dies, and his wife remains mute symbol OF
terrible agones of body and mind. There are
few CLEANS of sunshine in this book It is a
lurid panorama of grim episodes, not so much
a novel as a tract. 1t is fairly well written.
Miss Rayner has some skill But she wants the
sense of proportion. In the absence Of that
invaluable gift she has produced book too
persstentIy lugubrious to suggest, except in
passages here and there, the truths OF actual
life.
Anne Carmel is a story Of life in a French
Canadian village, a study in gravest tones Of
| selfish and unselfsh love and of fidelity to the
| ideal Anne is a conventional type, the big,
stately. deep bosomed, Greek goddess sort Of
| girl who is usually represented clinging with
| blind and obstinate belief to a sneaking lover.
| The sneak duly appears at St. Hilaire, and
| Anne is duly wrenched out of the even tenor Of
| her days as the Cures sister Almost as con-
ventional is the fine young Cures temptation
| to respond to an earthly love and TO return to
! the secular world he has renowned. 1t is easy
at the beginning to foretell the end when brother
| and sister are made to rise to the noblest that
is in them-the first glimpse Of the fair girl
and the athlete priest is amply significant That
! so obvious story remains readable throughout
the hal tant village set in its distant forests Of
fragrant pine and birch