The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-06-16
Fiction for Summer Reading.

EICtAoh IUE III ~
The lghtness Of touch which Mr.. Robert
W. Chambers has shown before. when he
has chosen to, Is the distinctive quality In
sThe Tracer Of Lost Persons (Appletons).
We doubt II any more agreeable reading for
vacation purposes can be found In this sea-
son'e output than the half dozen or 80 Of
love stories that are run In together In this
volume. The detective element Is anus
Ing and serves merely TO add q dash Of mys-
terry, the machinery allowing through only
here and there. The main thing in each
adventure is the love story and that Is told
vividly and with the needed lghtness and
touches OF humor. The author seems to
enjoy the fun Of working out the tale and
communicates some Of that spirit to his
reader. The one place where his hand Is
pretty heavy is in an elaborate explanation
Of Egyptian h~ieroglyphics, and In hat tale,
too, be makes q rather violent demand on
the readers oredulity.
Among the few French prose writer's
who must remain unknown TO those who
do not know French must be reckoned
Anatole France. He may not be among
the very great, but his qualityand his charm
are 30 bound up In bis delightful style that
no translation can render them. The DELI
cate literary illusions and the fun call for
q pretty extensive acquaintance with
French books and French life that cannot
be made up forSby a~nnotations. When the
late Lafcadio Hearn ventured to try his
hand at sThe Crime Of Silvestfe Bonnard'
q good many years ago. however, he suo-
oeeded In his difficult task much better than
any one could expect and better than other
translators are likely to. 1t Ia q charming
story translated with a great deal Of SYM
patty and we are glad TO sec that a new
edition is published by the Harpers.
A dramatic ending Is essential TO a deteo-
| tive story, and this Mr., Reginald Wright
Kaufman provides In Miss Frances Baird,
Detective a.. O. Page and Company, Bos-
toni. It adds to the interest, however
II that ending Is led UP to In some way,
which Is not done In this case, for the rather
unpleasant young woman simply declaims
the solution In the last few pages. With
hardly an exception the persons involved
are sordidly repulsive. The young person
who calls herself a detective acts throughout
like q hysterioal woman reporter for a yellow
journal, and is more anxious to convey
her impressions and oonieotures to any
one at hand than to find out anything. The
story has the interest Of stories OF crime
and Ia told directly enough.
The voluble country gossip created by
Anne Warner continues to olatter in dialect
through the eight episodes included in
Susan Clegg and Her Neighbors' Affairs
1ittle, Brown and Company. The Incl
dents are humorous, az usual, and the humor,
for those who enjoy it, ia intensified by the
narrator's ~loquaoity. This Is true to life
but In real life II would not take many such
infections to drive most people as far as
possible from Miss Clegg and to make
them dodge her at every opportunity.
A new edition Of Mark Twain's "Eve's
Diary (Harpers) appears, with wood cuts
for drawings by MI. Lester Ralph. The
drawings are very good indeed. They show
much fancy and are really illustrative Of
the text. The artist has succeeded In
handling the nude POLITICALLY without
offending An~glo-Saxon prudery. The piot-
ures are q pleasant relief from the modern
process products.
Another new edition. and a beautiful one
geographically, Is sThe House of Quiet
by j. T. (E. P. Dutton and Company, q
romance Of the meditative life hat has been
previously reviewed In THE Syn.
Russian life In ono phase fs described
In Q pretty ohild's story. the Cars Gift
by the sculptor William ordway Partridge
(Funk and Wagnalls Company. The in
-genuousness and simp lioity with which 1t Is
told Is very good art. and leaves the impress
sion that it might almost be translated
from the Russian.
Half q dozen ingenious and we'll told
stories Of the supernatural are included
in The Little Room and Other stories.- by
Madeline Yale Wynne walter M. Hill,
Chicago. The little volume in it's makeup
is a charming a pie Of what q book
should be.