The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-10-11
coming Books--MosanineS.

worthy of reading and re-readlng. It Is a book of deep, strong, compelling human interest, and will live as mas terlv production long after hundreds of its competitors for public favor are forgotten. The scene is in London, ana Joseph Vance's life story is given from his boyhood to old age. A subtle hu- nor pervades the story and adds much to its charm. It is the story of a boy ish love that lasted a lifetime, and there is deep pathos connected with this unfading, idealistio love, and the self abnegation and self-sacrifice, coupled with it. As the New York Times re- viewer says: Briefly, no work of fic- tion at once so broadly human, so va- riously delightful, so racy of the soil and the people that grew it, so stamp ed with a wholesome personality, mel lowed even in its whimsicalities so richly and distinctly a literary tram script of the significant things in real life, has appeared in long time Even "The Divine Fire of Miss May Sin clair, the book of recent years that comes nearest to the mark must yield 1 place to this. There is certain kim ship between the two a certain family and class likeness, a certain aura of essential Englishness, but MT. de Nor gan's insight goes beyond Miss Sin clairs and spreads a completer picture upon the canvas"
 The story of the life of Joe Vance told by himself in his old age-his cher ished memories of the plain vernacu lar man of his father, of the plain, even more vernacular, woman his mother, and of the politer company, be- ginning very early with a girl all sun shine, that prosperity brought him into afterward. The place is suburban I4on- don, and the boyish memories date back fifty years and more. Appropriately the philosophy and the sentiment are a tri- fle old-fashioned-just enough for the utmost excellence of the tlavor-but the view of things as they are, of l people as they seem and are not, these are views of no fashion, new or old. Instead they are the views of man who has spent lifetime among other men, man with eyes ana ears open and heart unspoiled, who has quick understanding and that ultimate balance of humor which comes partly by free grace and partly by acquired enlightenment.
 This ill-written biography it may be added is as rich in felicitous word- ings of things everybody ought to see and does not, or would like to say and cannot, as 1t is of the larger merits of truth and breadth and sympathy all ready mentioned"
 The New York Globe says: Written with such apparent closeness to life and to truth that the illusion is Well-nigh perfect. The elder Vance is a creation In character drawing quite worthy to be compared with the elder Weller, and perhaps the story as nearly measures up to the best standards in English fiction--the standards of Dickens, Ihackeray-as any story recently pub [. lished. American readers should be grateful to the publishers of the "Di- vine Fire for giving them another nov el of such conspicuous merit.
 The New York Mail says: "We do not believe that poignant life story, strewn with sorrows as are the books in Vallombrosa with leaves, was ever before told in so merry a way as in this book" I've cannot tell the story but we can commend Joseph Vance as a very remarkable novel, of vivid in- terest for one who is capable of being pleased by patient, humorous, mi mute, psychologist unfolding of the emotions of lifetime"
 "The Court of Pilate," by Roe R. Hobbs, published by R. F. Fenns X Co, New York, $150, is visit, absorbing story of love and intrigue in and about , Perusalem in the days of the crucifxion. In spite of the military action in the ' book, which is fierce and rapid, a re- markable love story runs throughout. Pauline, a typical woman of Rome, ] sensuous and frankly "a woman of the palace" loves Cestus, the second Cen. turion of the guards with a passion } that sweeps everything in it's way and will brook no intereference, but she finds rival in the person of Myria. a typical Jewess. pure and undeiled. be- neNllB III tlt ItllBlO1 DL her fathers with all her heart The intrigues of Paulina, inscriptions and daring. highly influential at court and lacking nothing of dangerous woman's natur- al shrewdness, against Myria for the possession of the heart of Cestus makes the love story unique and with out parallel She goes to any length to attain her ends, even to having the object of her love imprisoned and sen teneed to death, offering him herself as the price of liberty The action of the story is so rapid and the plot so close ly interwoven that it is difficult to lav the volume aside before finishing Tho whole work is founded in the bitter }, hatred existing at that time between | Jews and Romans, which resulted in the crucifxion of the Messiah. Critics are unanimous in predicting a great success for this work. MT. Hobbs is m uncertain quantity in literature. His magazine and serial work has attract
 ed wide attention, and his addition to the list of novelists is likely to he marked with pronounced success.
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