New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-04-10
FICTION.
4 McIodramdtic Story Of old Jap
ancse Life.

/ THE STOLEN EMPEROR BY Mrs. Hugh Fraser
/ l2mo pp 30. Dodd. Mead Co.
VIOLET. a Chronicle BY Baroness Won Hut
/ ten. i2mo, PIP - Houghton Miffn & Co
LITTLE JOAN, BY John Strange Winter. limo.
! Pp. Ssi J. Il. LippincOtt Company.
Mrs. Fraser's intimate acquaintance with
Japan and the japanese has enabled her to
/ impart the color ana movement Of life to
| her story Of far away century. Love and
/ battle and brutal statecraft combine In an
| effective melodrama, and It Is not the less
entertaining that its personages and their ro-
nance are not nearly Oriental is their
| setting The passion of the young Daimyo
| for the noble minded Empress Is not much in
character is the ferocty which counsels the
murder Of her son. the baby Emperor. IN order
| that the mothers heart may be left empty for
another affection. The plot turns upon the abb
duction OF mother and child, and the lonely
| fortress in which they imprisoned is the
scene of many exciting Incidents. That proud
beauty. the Empress; the audacious Daimyo. tho
gentle little peasant woman who saves the EN-
peror-an carry parts which increase in interest
TO the stirring episode OF the fall of the fortress
The lover. wounded ut a critical moment by one
Of the Empress's attendants. is sent into safety
by Motaro. his old general. who prepares for
Jito's rescuers what he means shall be a mock
| ing victory:
MorcfuIy Jto knew nothing yet heard not
tho soldiers rude hands tear her from Kuta's arms
and fling her on his shoulder: these horrors heaven
girls shreked and fought ike wildcats the othe.
ii' s ~ @ aIe t t q! mOrio 80 h ans
| hand and foot with lengths of stuff torn from the
| plumber the floor (poor Kita swathcd help
less in her own green SASH only when their erie!
were were choked by IRON myers at their throats that
they ceased to struggle In their captoTs arms
Hastily, with pounding feet. the men rushed down
| the staircase in Motaros wake They saw him
holding unconscious form against the central
pillar, while others, under his directions bind
lengths of scarlet cords from the great lacquer
Tighter, tighter; your fingers OF wax roared
MotarO. It's but a woman our Lords enemy!"
slender limbs and silver robe. till the Empress hung
like a furled white standard on it's ruddy pole. Her
hands were bound the last above her sinking head.
the fair white hands that had done their womaRs
Then too. the last vestige OF pity died In those
Fire. said one of the men. Strengthening him
self and looking 90 up at MotqrO milo , ,,
She win open her eyes ere they have done their
carrying the unhappy girls.
r6 them fG% S0 5 fer and ne sonS to the
two who had rushed to fetch wood from the empty
The men stationed at the gate mistook the wOrds
for command to them, and ere the executioner4
trembled. .swayed, fell outward with crash. No
one glance of fury at his victims and leaped from
them his horse beside the litter in the centre OF
and his comrades had made their wild dash to the
ridge, bearing all before them.
! What strange spell has music that it cannot
enter into novel without making that same a
thing of weak sentimentality? "Violett" is
worse than dozens of its predecessors, from
Charles Auchester'' down-and il is no better.
Violet, the hero is painted child Of genius
whose very virtues effeminate. His fate IL
grievous from birth to death. and his suicide
evidently intended to be thing OF sublime self
sacrifice-rouses no responsive thrill in much
bored reader. OF its other characters those
who not bad are foolish or colorless Ths
base Bohemians to whose arms the white sOued
Violet drifts are the most natural and most
skilfully presented of the group. We do not
find the story tragic, though its air OF mournful
impressiveness seems to show that tragedy was
meant. 1t is simply morbid
| Let us not Ito the marriage Of true minds adj
nit impediments"-but what would become of
| the novel writer's (and especially of the unim-
portant novel writers) If they were to follow the
poets advice? The author OF the painfully
commonplace story Little Joan" cOntTives just
| enough impediments to shake up the true minds
very uncomfortably and to keep her venerable
plot going. This is in many respects weary
| world and II is wearier than when the
reader happens upon book so hopelessly bour-
geois as this-One SO utterly without distinction
| and humor.