The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-07
AnrinR Fiction.

It Is a pity that the charming sketches
by Mr.. Walter Hale should be wasted on a
book as trihing as Louise Closer Hale's A
Motor Car Divorce (Dodd, Mead and Com
pany). The drawings and the colored pictures
alike usually catch the feeling Of the scene
depicted. and many are Of places out OF the
beaten track or else new views OF OLD frlenos'
Az for the story, the idea with which it starts
is bright enough for a short magazine ale
and the sprightly tone lie appropriate, but
sprightlinees and giggling kept up through
more than 800 pages are a good deal OF a
trial, even when helped out by motor acci-
dents. There are glimpses Of the real Italy
here and there. provokingly blurred by the
fumes Of gaeolene as the car clashes forward
with no purpose but speed.
Continuous satire is rarely entertaining
in fiction, but Mr.. David NJ. Parry uses 1t
with a pretty light hand in THE Scarlet
Empire" The Bobbs-Merrill Company
Indianapolis). In the strange land into
which his hero is brought the theories OF
| equality, of socialistic State government
and of labor unionism are applied logically
in many ways. The melodramatio and
rather supernatural elements employed
to help the story or rather interfere with the
! exposition, but they make it readable.
Just as the old graduate forgets the real
work he did in college and the things that
counted in the four years and tells only
the scrapes and deviltry of which he
fancies he was guilty, 40 the writer OF the
college novel from Fair Harvard down
finds il necessary to portray neither the
grind" nor the athlete, but the man Of
the world, who is usua lily the least noticea-
BILE fly on the academic wheel. Every
college generation turns out it's college
story; of late years il has seemed as II every
class had it's tale. To the class of 1900 is
dedicated The Count at Harvard by
Rupert Sargent Holland o.. c. Page and
Company, a record Of the sayings rather
than the doings Of a few ~singularly inept
young men. A few like them may be found
in every college class. but their foolish
ness is not Of the college nor of the GLASS,
but of their own selves. The language
used is the pert editorial conversation of
the Harpdrd Ldmpoon, of which a very
little goes a long way. The class OF 1900
must not be Judged by this book, any more
than it's predecessors should be Judged
by "Hamme rsmith" or Fair Harvard"
In The Chateau Of M~ontplaisir" apple
tons) Miss Molly Elicit Seawell presents a
sort Of Palais Royal farce in which the rapid
succession Of events makes up for proba-
bility. The persons are intentionally carl
catures, more like American stage French
men than anything that France ever saw.
At the end, as in all well regulated ~farces,
there is a general marriage festival. The
book is readable enough.
Fourteen of the ranching stories that Mr..
Andy Adams has made his specially will be
found in Cattle Brands" Houghton, Milf
fin and Company. The incidents related
are sometimes rather slight, but there is
abundant out Of door life and r~oughnees,
and we rather think that the author can keep
up the interest better in a short story than
a long one.
To the volumes Of short stories with ool-
ored Illustrations and decorative borders
published by Dodd. Mead and Company has
been added Mr.. George Barr McCutcheon's
love tale "Cowardice Court The author
needs a larger canvass for his romancing,
but the story is pretty and can hold it's own
with others that have appeared in the
same shape.
Some very precocious children meet with
strange adventures in "A Summer in the
Apple Tree Inn, +" by Ella Partridge Lipsett
extraordinary amount Of notice from grown
people and are treated to Oriental magic, a
Japanese lost heir, a deserter, a real burglar
and other e~xcitements. Old fashioned
people may think all this undesirable, but
possibly modern youth may look on it as
childish.