New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-10-28
CYNICISM IND ROMANCE.
John OHver Hobbies IN a Decidedly
Miped Mood.

ia iasr n Emo, p 5I x 49, b Appleton & Co.
THE TRIDENT AND THE NET A. T Tyverass sS
the author of The Maryrdom Of an an E IN wsfer
color. Svo, PIP. $40. Harper Bros
YoLANDA MAID OF BgRGGNtD1 W.. Ey GhaTess
i5nio, DID viii. 4S7 The Macmillan Company.
Mrs. Craigfes books always pique curiosity
Since as John Oliver Hobbies, she began TO
publish them she has proved herself capable
of many things but never of dulness. TINS
blessed limitation of hers by itself progresses
the reader and he is bound to take up Inc
Flute of Pan in friendly mood He wonders
what new note the author will have struck. he
is certain that he will be entertained. But the
very opening passages of the first cnapter cause
him to rub his eyes and wonder what in the
world Mrs Craigie has taken to doing as
writer of fiction. There is novelty with ven
eeance for her In the taste displayed in the
following fragments:
Boris. viscount Berkele fifteenth Earl Of Felde1f
shey, having refused to enjoy the advantages OF
one hundred pounds to Venice, where ne hreo tnref
rooms in an old palace ana naV FOR his iect-
ures and although certain number OF the curious us
went TO bear Of Wh sen ne but Insufficient
reasoning power. The inheritor. in direct line;
is one s Of e w iH had distinction during
the south African war the owner Of large means
i Hboud he f aSddena adopt line
the normal deplored MAD ana d nae as an
intolerable poser
Women liked Berkele because he was known to
have been susceptible to beauty once, ana 10 h 4b
war Runior had associated his name Win tlat oL
tracttve dashing nprudent brilliant princess who
cause she wanted to enjoy herself
Shades of ouida at her worst! We say at
n,,iIo ut n hest
never dream of piing the agony in this
corintbian fashion Mrs Cragie is still enor-
n1ousIv clever and 1.-The Flute of Pan" is indu-
bitabIv a readable book, but there is something
about 1t so forced and unnatural that, IN view
of what the author has done In the past II Is
actually painful. Her hero hasn't even the
smallest relation to human nature, ana inc nero
mean amazing young person fetcheo from d
kind of opera bouffe principality a la Anthony
Hope-is not one whit more credible Ihelr loNe
story is original enough in all consclence-AIs'
Craigies hand for bizarre situations mas not
lost ITS cunning-but that is just where the trou-
ale comes The Flute of Pan is the result
of an effort to mix cynicsm and romance and
while Mrs Craigie has mixed them before to
oood nurpose. she has concocted an extraord1-
now brew upon this occasion through the fall
,re of her usual instinct for just the right ma
terials Her cynicism is as cheap as her ro-
nance is exaggerated. And the pity or II Is
that shining through the deploraole affair." Is
tbe same brilliant mind. touched by the same
engaging temperament, to which we have so
often been indebted for really distinguished
pleasures.
There is a blending of nomnally opposed ele-
r,ents in The Trident and the Net also' out IN
The case the proceedings of the authors per-
.o,,ogas have a certain nationality. They have
mora than that, they have the interest which at
+o,,os +o events not only natural but poignant
The hero is a young French nobleman whose
odorine mother has gift for training him in
the wrong way. His sister does what she can
to nreserve the balance, but Loic's own charac-
+ar oo,, nletes what his mother begins, and thus
there ts no hope for his escape from the blows OF
fate Though he is at bottom a generous ana
aven fine soul defects of will and temper turn
his best impulses to his own dlsaoVantase.
There are several other interesting actors in the
drama which is worked out within THESE pages
II is with Ioic however, that the reader Is cnleI-
w concerned from beginning to end ana the au-
thor is skilful enough both in the development
of the Incidents In his stormy career and in the
drawing of his portrait to excite at once interest
and svrnnathy. The circumstances OF aristo-
cratic luxury in the heros life are little over
drawn, as in THE Flute of Pan" but fortunately
this factor In the scheme is constantly subordi-
mated to the open air sentiment drawn from the
principal scenes. These are laid IN romantic
Brittany. and the pictures OF Landscape and OF
people. of quaint types and quainter customs
which are lavishly introduced, do much to
sweeten the whole tone of the narrative. The
pen which has been so deity employed IN vol
umes descriptive of court life is here Wreakea
with admirable effect upon the simpler stun OF
less exalted phase of society Romance ana
axrr{fh arrf M feeling
"Yolanda" is undiuted romance. There Is no
realism here. and most assuredly there is no
cynicisn Mr. Major tells an old fashioned love
story. tale of youth and beauty in the days
when--ail the STATEMENTS OF history 10 the CON
trary Observation-Disclosures and beauty were
wont r. have everything their own way. The