New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1906-01-20

Compilation of the Statements Made IN the
the Public. By Geradine Bonner. o5 5roqtispiecse
Wagnalls Company.
ON ETNA. BY Norma Lorimer. With tronhs-
piece In colors. limo. pp SS6. Henry Holt &
Go.
ronfspiec 1 by yq Everett shin and nfesn Mus
trations from photographs. limo, pp. SN A 5.
Barnes & co.
The British nobleman whose high sounding
name figures in the title Of Miss Bonners book
should be taken as a model by all husbands who
really desire to make their wives happy. My
Lord Castlecourt marries poor young Irish girl
whose notion of perfect bliss is to set off her in
effable beauty with a new dress every twenty
five minutes She goes rioting through the shops
OF London and Paris without the smallest re-
gard for expense and when she gets into the
habit of exceeding her allowance by hundreds
of pounds her devoted spouse, though obliged by
her extravaganza to rent his town house TO
strangers and make his home at q hotel adIalH-
listers mild scolding, beams like q fuH moon
and lets the spendthrift go on in her mad career
Never was there such husband On top OF aL
+ba hills comes a positive catastrophe. the Cas-
tIecourt diamonds nysteriously take flight, but
the man in whose family they have been reVer-
enced for years accepts the loss with suaVlty
worthy of q Turveydrop. For such nero d
novelist ought to be willing to do anything ana
Miss Bonner rises to the situation with splenolo
resolution. She Celebrates the most porIehIouS
machinery. making each step in the development
of her plot the subject Of formal statement
drawn I'D by one of the actors in the farce. We
call the book q farce because 1t Is Impossible 10
take seriously tissue Of such grotesque improo-
abilities as are brought into the pages Of "Tne
Cae+lecourt Diamond Case" It is bad enough
IN have a pair Of hardened burglars escape from
their pursuers by inviting themselves to dine at
the house of total strangers, with whom they
leave the diamonds they have stolen. The thing
becomes merely absurd when one OF the thieves
returns to get his booty and has 1t pressed upon
him by his former hostess, who knows all the
time Just where the stones belong But just De-
oa7,se this skit is so preposterous It supplies q
certain amount Of amusement
The fires of Mount Etna, according to Norma
I,orimer, infame the blood and heat the lnlasl-
nations Of the people who live upon us Slopes
In her novel, ION Etna." they play havoc with
the emotions Of the daughter Of an English pro-
prietor of sicilian vineyards, and involve her IN
many exciting and romantic adventures with
an IMPOVERISHED local noblenan, bandit chle1'
and fine Malta Her English lover PLAYS an en-
+ireIv secondary role in the complicated ana uH-
expected drama, which is continually pursIiHs
into flames like the volcano which forms the
background of the tale. He is, in fact, but e
con ~ conyentionality. The story is light and
sro+b1 hut not without charm OF style and more
+bor q suggestion of local color. An agreeable
,oo1- for an idle evening, when the reader Is
willing n be entertained without being involved
:, Questions of ethics and social problems.
The author of lodgings in Town" mas spent
tie recent years in search Of an ideal form OF
ovistance Some of his experiences have been
related in AN Island Cabin" and THE House
in the Woods" The present volume completes
the so-caled "triIogy," taking up the story at q
point earlier than the former book and continu-
ing II hevond the limits OF the latter. The tale
it is professedly and no doubt mainly, mar
rative of actual occurrences-is certainly enter
tanning. and unconsciously instructive, in show
;ne, that the coveted ideals can only be obtained
nv their temporary sacrifice What the world
would be, if it were entirely peoped by per-
sons of the same cheerful responsibility of Mr..
Henry. it is hard to imagine; but his volumes
are not without value protest against the
sordid all engrossing commercialism of the day,
with its hidebound conventionalites and social
inequalities. There is, however note of self
conplacent bumptiousness in the authors atti-
tude and a certain lack of delcacy in his init
mate revelations that are, If not exactly
offensive at least hardly in good taste.