New-York tribune., 1905-11-18
Holiday Books of TraveI by Mr..
Henry James and Others.

itTTaogsbton. Mif1;in & Co.
ryr TRACK OF THE MooRs Sketches in
spaiIRs aI' With S Illustrations in color and many
sTinsSs a g. 'hf 'fsi D8Sson 8y Co Fitzgerald
xoRMANDY By Nlso ~ Jgngmsn mar Text BY G 4 E
.lo~c FRENCH INNS. The story of a PHI
rage to SaTiee GIBSON fiE9strated 32mo
ffALT as Boston: L. c. Page & Co.
ssrA Bv TheophIe Gautier and by Other Dis.
Ru;s,SslLA1ished French Travellers and Writer'S O
tngg lg Translated from the French, with an ad-
s,f.onaI chapter upon the Struggie, for Sr
soa illustrated with numerous plhotq2ssTia1s 2sIi1s
Is In two volumes. Svo. PIP. vll 4ol ! ma
NeSs15fa: The John c. Winston Company
e-sside traveller is always kept in mind
.ha publishers at this time OF year. IN
:. 20 since the development of the halftone
and of color printing the illustrated
- Of travel has made as brave q Snow IN
=. ,ol,days as any volume destined for
-S-,s+nss gift and 1t promises to become more
- more popular for the latter purpose through
sll- r,s5a more and more book TO read Take,
s.-.xsrnpIe. the English Hours of Mr. James.
=. s+v1e Of the book, its many Illustrations by
- ponneu and its decorative cover may be
-oses m have been settled with view to
49, holiday trade" but readers Of Mr.. James
an rrsserye IL long after the holidays have
as one has to be somewhat Of a devoted
.o.ssr Of his IT Is true, to get the fullest en-
.,vr,ent out Of his text In writing Of this
.o- ss In the writing of fiction or criticism, he
.,,s elvvsy-s TO be IN terror of making a merely
straightforward remark in straightforward
fashion He cannot plainly state plain fact,
hut must always dress II up a little, to show
that in its presence he has been moved to ideas
more original than those held by the general
tty OF mankind, and hence he overweights his
observations with concets. The comfortable
scenes Of Warwickshire. for example, inspire
him to this curious comment: The landscape,
indeed sins by excess OF nutritive suggestion;
II savors Of larder and nlanger; it is too ovine
TOO bovine IL is almost asinine. and if you were
10 believe what you see before you this rugged
globe would be sort of boneless bali, covered
with some such plushlike integUment as might be
figured by the down the cheek of a peach"
Criticism is helpless before a passage like this
One can only muse upon the lengths to which
man of letters will sometimes CO.
Fortunately. however, Mr.. James is not
always so passionateIy bent upon saying things
IN way of his own. Very often in the writing
Of these old essays OF his-some of them were
written as far back as the early seventies-he
appears 10 have forgotten himself and to have
register
ing Of delightful Impressions At his best In
travel notes, he is very good indeed. The open
ing paper in this volume, the one on London. is
dated 1888. but when he wrote it he was able
TO revive in their full force the emotions with
which he had first approached the English cap-
ital, twenty years before. and the result is a
specimen Of fact seen through temperament
which it would be hard to beat He realizes. of
course, the difference between London and
Paris he notes that ''the idea Of beautiful and
stately arrangement has never been out of
fashion, that the art Of composition has always
oeen at work or at play on the banks Of the
Seine and that on the other hand the banks
OF the Thames illustrate only "a tremendous
chapter OF accidents" But never has the
strange way in which London somehow holds
us own with Paris been better elucidated than
In these words:
All the same. If there be not the intention thor.
is al Ieast the accident, of styIe which - 80
looks at il in friendly way appears to rroceS eag
Hon IhIee sources. One of these is siro1I,J the
makes difference for the better in anv parIic,iis Ir
1sIf 10 - Ina tho4gh you may often perceive your
mat this IS the end of il. Another is the aT
aaters and superfuses makes eveTTt6j9e bro1 Nm
zen olm vague magnifes distances and r9ininzes
eesns TOlS fpf m me inference Of vastness by sug-
makes its own system Of yes+Fer SEeIN @ L1iIg 1t
PARKS which constitute an ornament nor eIseI,@ere @
to be matched, and give the place sIIneTdrii ftg
thai none Of its uglinesses overcome T6ey snTes
WIN such luxury Of space in the cen
preston of any walk OF almost any View vi Se and iI
pastoral landscs45 aZiogeth9r Z their own, make
= no mooo OF the rich London climate that IS not
weetbeTnd bae IKE PARKS IN novels in the wettest
bS1ag belag TO say The high things OF LONDON which
spaces vaster by peg9 re8i 9E@F tine them only make the
a. d. moi in Kent or Yorkshire; and these things
Whatever they he-rows Of eligible dwellings,
LOVE levers OF churches. domes of lnstitutions-take
noorts+ $3.50 Lue unt that a clever water
rial reasons. '--'-ii III 1o- Plclo-
English Hours" happily contains more of
mis- sort Of thing than Of the old landscape
painting in which, we have shown. Mr.
'enes has occasionally indulged The chapter
oA Chester is almost as good as the one on !
LONDON and the author is, indeed, so often in a
MOOD profitable for the reader that we are fain !
10 eondone his ineradicable fondness for tort |
1tlng the language. Mr.. Pencils drawings !
are uneven. Some are very good, picturesque, |
ou' truthful. and are hit off with certain feel
ing Tor the atmosphere of the subject More Of |
them are carelessly drawn. and very smudgy in |!
tone
MISS sybn Fitzgerald is not the most enter
tanning writer In the world but, on the other |
iand' she has the great virtue of looking be-
Aeath the surface of things. Accordingly. her |
notes on Spain and Northern Africa, I'm the !
Track Of the Moors,' may be commended as in /
s'ructre If not particularly beguiling II Is d |
great relief to come upon writer who is not /
welded 70 a false tradition, who has realized /
'aat Spain, fer all its sunshine, is not, In the |
stfict sense. a sunny land. People who fit from |
Gibraltar to MacIid ard back again, catching |
sHmpses os Granada or Seville by the way are
apt When they write their little books. to give |
ae impression that they have seen everything |
n a blaze Of ligft to the sound Of eastanets. !