New-York tribune., 1903-06-07
FICTION.
The Tragic and the Humorous.

THE cArTA7Ns sEstch By FFspk Sy
fs@os Ss9ek'DP DP. xxRil aad s5s D. Appleton CO.
MAN OVERHEARD! BY F. Marion Crawford
16rno, pp. Sc. The Macmillan Company
PHILOSOPHY FOUR. BY Owen Wister 16rno
PIP. 95 The Macmillan Company
pigs in Clover is a puzzlng book. 1t begins
by suggesting that it is going to be novel Oh
English political life. AS the reader proceeds
he sees that he is to be bored with the thrice
told tale Of the war in South Africa. But pres
entity it is made plain that Frank Dandy Is
chiefly resolved upon portraying one or two men
and women whose natures are OF more Hl'elee'
to her than anything provided by poItlcs' so
ciety or war Two brothers move through her
pages representing, in two very different ways
the world of speculative finance on Whlch tre
conservative inhabitants of Mayfair are olS-
posed to look with coldness, if not with down
right aversion. One of these men, though un-
scrupulous in business when occasion seems TO
him to iustifv it is at bottom capable of fine
emotions. Karl Althaus is almost lo'dpie'
and certainly an interesting, sympathetic figure.
But he is not the leading actor in this curious
tragedy of squalor and romance 1t Is LOUIS
Althaus who is chiefly to the fore, and II Is
in his abominable treatment of her heroine,
Joan de Groot, that the author finds her ac-
count. Louis is a scoundrel of the purest water
he exudes dishonesty. 1t is little difficult to
understand therefore why Karl should be so
long in finding out the true character or the
man he loves. 1t is not enough to fall back on
the old aphorism that love is blind. To explain
I<arTs conduct as it is represented in this book
we must assume not simply that love mas
blinded him. but that man OF great oraln
power be, for months on emo, nothlns nloie
nor less than utter fool-for no OBVIOUS rea-
son. But Frank Dandy has queer way with
her. Il way that is somehow very searching and
persuasive When she sketches English society,
tormented by applicants for its favors Whom
it cannot but despise we murmur wearily that
we have heard of all this before. we are
frankly bored by her South African excursions.
We resent the griny character of the love story
she has to tell and protest that Pigs in Glover"
is very unpleasant book. But it is packed |
full of human nature and read it. despite |
stretches of impatience and distaste, from De- |
ginning to end.
The late Frank r. Stockton was active IN the
exercise of his pen very nearly to the day OF
his death The posthumous novel by him which
has lust been published he left in absolutely |
complete form, and Mrs Stockton assures u.s.
in the memorial sketch which she has prehxeo !
to the volume, that mo other hand has peen |
allowed to add to or to take from H. IL is d
cbaractaristicallv dernure piece of writing, very
r1acid in its tone, though at one stage OF tlie
story, we see the heroine leaning over pros
trate man with d smoking pistol in her hano .
This heroine is pursued by more than one
e,itor a fact however, which does not receive
all the support that it should from the young
Iadv's own traits. Why in the world any one
sbould be particularly anxious to marry Miss
Olive Asher it is impossible for US TO perceive.
She is a colorless young person But IN her
circle there are several figures of the sort be-
loved by Mr.. Stockton. people crotchety or un-
consciously droll and while there is nothing OF
serious value in this book. nothing either OIL
characterization or romance which dWeiIs in
the memory it is pleasant enough to spend an
hour in the atmosphere of Mr.. Stockton's mild
hurnor as one may do in these pages Mrs.
Stockton writes of her husband with great ten
derness in the memorial sketch mentioned
above, and gives Us an engaging little Tlgnette
of a very companionable personality. The bib
biography at the back of the book is also vel
come.
The two stories with which the Macmillan
Company has just launched a series of Little
Novels by Favorite Authors are exactly what
one wants for summer reading. They good
and they are short. Mr.. Crawford's Man
Overboard" is in the eerie vein of that remark
able little achievement of his, "The Upper
Berth" 1t is not so brilliantly written. 1t is
NOT apy+finpr like convincing Mr. Wells in |