New-York tribune., 1903-06-21

OUR NEIGHBoRs. By Ian Maclaren 12mo. PIP.
341. Dodd. Mead & Co.
| Mr.. Hopes novel, based on the history Of the
Russian Court in the time of Peter the Great
and his immediate successors has a quality
| that sets it aside from the efforts in this field
most familiar in the fiction of the day. THE
Triumph of Count Ostermann' is neither brill
liant POWERFUL it does not suggest that the
| author is q man of genius; but it makes it very
clear that he is sincere, that he has written not
simply to swell the list of current novels. but
because he is really interested in his person
ages, and feels that he has something to say
about them. He sketches the barbarism OF the
Russians of that era but he does not after the
manner of the average novelist, sketch It 1or
it's own sake and eXaggerate it into the bargain
| On contrary he makes his scenes perfectly
natural and the people who move through them
are treated as living beings toward whom ne
has a certain responsibility, not as the puppets
| of a romancer who is concerned only Win uie
| production of a dramatic effect He shows MS
courage too, and his good Judgment in his
choice of a hero. In Peter the Greats FoTelSh
Minister he has found a type of everything that
| is excluded from the portrait OF the central
figure in most modern novels, type Of merely
rational manliness and of an entirely uncon-
ventional demeanor in affairs of the heart. At
| fairs? Count Ostermann has only one, and that
Is with his wife. He loves her in a way all his
own, as a protector amid the perils and miseries
of a corrupt court. She however, refuses to see
the worth of the man. In her fierce Russian
pride she thinks that hatred alone is possible
between them, for he is low born and for
eigner and every drop of blood in her veins re-
beIs against the fate which has linked her to
him Here are the materials for very COM
monplace novel, but Mr.. Hope uses them in a
"a
skful, too, in balancing his love story with
his glimpses of historical events, his portraits OF
famous individuals and his descriptions of old
| Russian manners. He is not very exciting. but
we can be grateful for this. 1t is pleasant to
read now and then a historical novel which
is not one prolonged rattle of adventure, blended
with the susurrus Of artificial love making.
The authors OF "Au on the Irish Shore" re-
peat in that book the fresh breezy and humor-
Gus charm of Some Experiences of an Irish
R. NJ" Sportsmen will delight in it, but so
likewise will the reader who knows nothing, and
cares less, about horses, fox hunting and fish
ing but loves a funny tale 1t is possible, too,
that by the time he has finished this handful OF
short stories he may find himself capable of
new emotions where the subjects just mentioned
are concerned. Certainly cannot read the
descriptions of hunting in this book without
feeling keen sympathy for the episodes related,
without tasting some of the exhilarat1on IN
which the stories abound The authors write
with the Zest of enthusiastic riders. For them,
we can we'll believe, there is nothing III the
world so enchanting a run across country
after a pack of hounds, and they put their de-
light into their work All the time. moreover,
their love of joke of quantity humorous
type or situation is bubbling over, and the
reader is joyOusly entertained from beginning 10
end man with a toothache could read this
book and chucke.
The opening chapter in Ian Maclaren's new
book Our Neighbors,' is somewhat forbiddinS
to the reader familiar with the sentimentality OF
that novelist. His Majesty Baby" it is en-
titled and we are at prepared for some
thing saccharine and fabby. But this sketch OF
an omnibus full of people surrendering one by
one to the Establishments of an infant turns out
to be wholesome piece of writing and, though
there are insipidites in the book, it is, on the
whole, a readable and agreeable collection Of
illustrations of human nature Pure fiction oc-
cupies some of the chapters In other cases as
in AN Expert in Heresy' o The Scot at an
Argument" the author gives us impressions
drawn obviously from actual experience. In
The Lecture Platform he tells anecdotes like
the following:
I have a vivid recollection of one place where