The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1904-08-14
New Novel BY Halle Ermiiie
Rives Just Published The
Castaway.'
SUCCESS AMONG NATIONS IS
Elson's Dne-Volume History.
81 the United States CUTLER.
Couch in New Role. n:

THE cAsTAyy4AY. BY Halle Ermenie
Rives Illustrated by Howard Chandler
Chlisty. Published by the Babbs -Merrlll
Company, of indianapolis. For sale BY
Il the Bell Book and Stationery Company.
or all the men OF modern times. George
Gordon, Lord Byron, wrote the best III
5terpretation Of the Book Of Ecclesiastes.
5penning 1t by the pickering light Of his
own wasted heart experience. Looking
forward with prophetic vision into the
future, while the utterance OF the wise
king OF Israel-'rvanity of vanities. all is
vanity''-re- echoed in his brain, his hand
traced the lines:
..If dull Oblivion bar
NV name from out the temple where the
dead is.
Are honored by the nations-let II be-
/ And light the lanrels on q loftier head:
Meantime. seek no sympathies, nor
The thorns which have reaped are Of
II planted. they have torn me-and
bleed. i.,5 80
"M,, ask ID done-my song hath ceased N
my theme H y s1.l
Has died into an echo; It Is ut
The spell should break Of this protracteds
dream. Ss n 9{
The torch shall be extinsuished which
hath lit
Ny midnight lamp and what Is writ Is
3sssS writ. '' q Vi
A splendidly endowed, the fate which so
often dogs the footsteps OF genius in the
perversions of its powers has made Of his
history a tragedy with a heartbreak in
Il 1t. } 5sSi S8
Such ira gedy involves the incidents
4 OF his early life, his ptiful. silent mtsr l
derstood childhood, the estrangement be-
tween him and his mother his worse tlla.,
fatherless boyhood. his rejection by Mary
Chaworths his publication Of English
Bards and Scotch Reviewers,1the5 years
he spent in foreign travel. his return TO-
England, his publication Of "Childe Har-
old. his sunha ppy marriage his separa-zz
ton from his wife and his second exile
ending in his untimely death at Missou-S
longhi, Greece, when he was but little
more than thirty-sX years old Il and in,
the full splendor3 Of his natural 81 alentst
as one OF the finest poets Of his century
Throughout her book, from first to last
Miss Rives rs the apologist Of the poet.
She lays the blame of his early misdi-E
,rected energy on his unfortunate envi-s
ronments and on the bitterness which
grew out&of the fact that he was lame
from a foot deformity, that was In itself
a. source Of poignant anguish to him. She
does not hesitate to picture his mother
as an eccentric termasant. from whose
,gusty tempers her son could only. defend
himself by good nat ured Indifference.
Lacking wholly In happy home n influ-4
,ences and surroundings, Miss Rives de-a
serihes the unhappiness Of heart that
drove Byron from England when Mary
Cbawortil contemptuously put aside his
s,1it, and when he flung his defiant * sa-5
tire worthy Of the caustic wit of a Jus.
the faces of his critics and de-
ira ctors as he went. #
She unveils boldly what she concelvcs
to he the Ignorance and envy on the part
of his collntryrnen that stung his soul
so bitterly by its envenomed shafts. She
describes him as the5victim of Lady Car
oline Lambs infatuation and awakens
sympathy by picturing hlmsas seeking, in
marriage with Annabel Milbank, the
peaceful home joys which he had hither-
to never known. His comparative indf-
ference to the fame which followed close
~ upon his giving his great poem.
i'tChilde Harold. to the world and his
generosity TO the few whose needs he
was able quietly to alleviate, are told by
Miss Rives at length.
g His wife, according to Miss Rives was
wholly to blame !l.the separation from
her husband. 1sr Cruelty in bringing up
her daughter, Ada, In entire ignorance,
even of her fathers name, is commented.
on as being most cruel and unnatural.
Even so partial "a pen as Miss Rives'sl
cannot altogether condone the excuses
into which Lord Byron plunged after his
final expatration, Whatever of excuse
can be offered Is made, but when all that
|. She can say is said. the error and folly
into which he was betrayed. is still paln-
I fully apparent. %
st The browning romance of Byron's me,
Miss Rivesi tells u.s. lay In love for the
italian Countess Gliccioli Every Incl
dentiof their meeting, their acquaintance
and their life together Is Invested with
I an almost passionate desire on the Fart
iOf the writer, to impress on her reader's
1 consciousness the absolute power and
aforce OF the circumstances which brought
Them together almost without, persona,
7 Yoliton.
"a Finally. Byron's decision to engage in
\ the Greek struggle for liberty, his eff
forts, his illness and his death are SO de-
picted as to crown him with tho halo OF
I martyrdom and make the end of his life
4 an atonement for many previous faults
! and errors.
In the last pages, the reader is shown
4 Byron's daughter standing In HucknalI
Il Church, England, before the tablet that
Byron's sister placed in the wall to his
memory, reading Its brief inscription and
4 / nneonsciously verifying sentence which
ESCAPED her father years before when. III
4 thinking of her he said
The srailes OF her youth have been her
q mothers, but the tears Of her maturity
shall be NINE
AS one lays the volume down one can