Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1905-11-27
Books and Auth rs.

So much has been written of Jane
Austen that another extended work
dealing with her life as novelist and
woman seems scarcely necessary.
Nevertheless in his Jane Austen and
Her Times" Mr.. G. E. Milton has COW
cred so wide field and has had access
to so much important material that he
has amply justified his work and its
purpose. 1t is. in fact study of the
period and it's influences upon Jane
Austen, and also an analysis of Jane
Austen's influence upon the social and
literary life of her time. At the outset
Mr.. Milton acknowledges that of Jane
Austen herself there is little new to be
said, but that as a central figure of a
picturesque epoch too much cannot be
| written Of her. Her pictures of life and
character are, moreover, as real as they
| were a century ago. Her characters
might be introduced to us in the flesh
at any time" says Mr.. Milton, land
with the exception of a certain quaint
| ness of eighteenth century flavoring,
there is nothing to bring before us the
striking difference between their en-
vironment and our own" Mr.. Milton
also remarks that the same elements
| are to be found in Miss Austen's letters,
and that so lasting is their quality they
| might have been written yesterday.
Austin DobsOn has said in one of his
prefaces: Going over her pages, pen
Gil in hand. the antiquarian annotator
| is struck by their excessive modernity,
and after a prolonged examination dis
covers, in this century-Old record, moth
ing more fitted for the exercise of his
ingenuity than such an obsolete game
at cards as casino or quadrille."
| Miss Austen's strongest characteris-
| tic is her thorough English nature
| She never went abroad, and she writes
! wholly of the villages, the provincial
towns of her native country, and their
| people. She was, moreover, a clergy
mans daughter, and she was brought
up amid the restricted surroundings of
a provincial rectory. Mr.. Milton calls
attention to all these things, he ex-
plains the position of the clergy, the
visiting and travelling customs of the
time. the dress and fashions, and hun
dreG other phases of eighteenth century
| English intercourse. and he has made
| OF his work Il rambling and discursive
| survey VI lie ana customs.
Two chapters are all that is given to
Pride and Prejudice" and the other
novels, and to this is added supple
/ mentary account of contemporary writ
/ erS This, however is scarcely more
| than a mere list of names and titles
Mr.. Milton also gives especial attention
to the home life at Steventon, to Bath,
to society and lovemaking, to South
ampton, Chawton and London, his en-
| tire work being mass of material that
| has been assiduOusly collected, but in
many ways faulty arranged About
twenty illustrations reproduced from
contemporary prints are included in it's
| pages, and the statistical matter COM
| prizes a tabular statement of the dates
OF the novels, a record of Jane Austens
| residences, genealogical table and an
| index. G. p. Putnam's Sons are the
| publishers.
Winston Churchfll's ":Coniston' may
be ready for publication this fall 1t is
| a love story. with it's scenes in the New
Hampshire of the 1905, and is not one
of the historical series to which "Rich-
| ard Carvel," The Crisis" and THE
Crossing" belong.
John c. Reed. the author of "The
| Brothers War;" new discussion of
the Southern problem just issued by
Little, Brown & Co., is well-known
attorney-at-law of Atlanta, and the
author of american Law Studies
Conduct of Law Suits" and "The Old
and New South He is a Princeton
graduate. and during the Civil War
was captain in the Eighth Georgia
Volunteers. His "Old and New South"
was published in 1876. and showed
| that even then he was able to write dis
| paSsionately of the lost cause. "The
Brothers War" is especially note
worthy for the information it contains
regarding the present condition of the
South and the Negroes.
Although born and educated in New
T England, Octave Thanet has lived most
of her mature life in the West and the
South. One who knows her well re-
| marks that fate led her in the one di-
rectiOn and inclination in the other,
with the result that she has known at
first-hand widely varying phases of
American civilization. On both sides
of the house Miss French's ancestry
goes back to Colonial stock. Her faith
err was descended from William French,