The morning journal-courier., 1908-10-05

llAEt UT w ltllbll 4Ahllts illHitltH 2 NANA
 by w, Hathercll R T. Published by
 Harper & Bros, New York and Lon" don Sl50i at Judha
 Tn "Diana Mallory we have one ot the most talked of and most interest. ing books in recent fiction in which the romance is very pure and very charming, and 1t may also be said that Mrs. Wards prolific and well-bred pen has never produced more captivating figure than that of Dianap the heroine of the story, not excepting the charm ing Lady Roses daughter nor Kitty .Asile. Diana is just hghminded, slngle-hearted girl brought With brutal auddenness into the knowledge of her dead mothers misfortune and crime and fts Inherited disgrace, She is liks- wise q woman deserted fin her grief by her betrothed lover, whose political as- pirations are sufficient to turn him, un- der the hand of patrIoian mother, into a. cad. Mrs. Ward refuses to make her heroine deserter too. When tho world in it's turn goes wrong with young Markham, and shallow soci- ety beauty deserts him, as he knew how to desert another, she goes to him, this Diana- goes to him with love that will make man of him, If any thing will, and q pretty defiance of an old notion of this world that pride would forbid it A brilliant world Of statesmen and society encompasses these two. and such characters as tho Vicar and Marion Vincent are not likely to be forgotten among types in anodern literature. There are dIstln- auishad people and noble; there arc weak people and bad-but they are al- ways real There is absolute reality. Never realisn-but always convincing and actual life overruns these pages, And the theue arouses a widespread discussion. Diana Is English to tho lbackbone in spite of her Continental experiences. and she is a thoroughbred little Tory who in womanly styte champions her views and if vanqulsh- ed in argument, still holds ths reader'a gympathies and admiration, She proves herself in love truer than steel and in endurance in the full bitter of tho try. ling situation fin which she finds her- self, at the revelation of her mothers tragedy, she Is heroic Very pathetic IS her pronunciation of her lover oliver Markham. who ct the supreme test ls found weak and unworthy the love ot 30 hraye and tr1ie q woman. And to add to tho bitterness. the pognancy of the wcman's grief. she later on finds her lover moved by political reasons and the danger of having his 'sinew' of war" the family inheritance funds cut of. pledged himself to another wo- man, though his heart, after all was with the old love. He possesses an aristocratic old mother, stern unro- mantic, firm as adamant in her pride, who, unmoved by her sons evident love and admiration for the beautiful and gifted Diana. repulses all thought of his wedding her. because of the cloud upon her family nanle. The testing or ptsna was triumphant, It was the testing of her lover which came 10 grief. The final testing of Oliver MaTt- ham and of his mothers love comes when Markham Is 8 physical wreck, when his life s hanging in the bal ence, Then, at last, the girl ia vindi , cated and she shines by comparison with her lover whom she nurses back to life and vigor. II ia q strong novel throughout The reader hreethes tho atmosphere of English high society, of English politics. of English conyen- tionalities and is always assured of be- ing in English good society. Every thing ia nioe everybody is well-hred, Tn lher frigidity and hanteur Markham's 's mother is tncesssntly pfiHtooratlo and well-bred. The titled personages that appear in the weaving of the atory are ali we1l-bred. The nicot'es and con ventionalt1es arc preserved in ell de- tails everywhere. even in the sick room of Markham. where the dying man has pictures are all pictures of English hcnnss and life of the most comfortable 7ve1l.bred sort One wonders if Mrs, Word can ever make her pictures step out of their frames. they are all of so comfortable, so cnnventionally &C., curate and uniform in pattern, CT is she limited solely 10 one class. all of the eminently proper sort But anyway Mrs. Ward sticks to her guns, And shA gives ua excellent pictures of real events and real people and is never dull Flor books are assured of an army If readers and if she never at- itatns the glory of the immortal fore most rank, she has achieved much al- ready in winning her high place in the makers of fiction of today
 The book ls handsomely printed and l4s emhelllshed with eight original paintings hy ". 11ntherell R. I,
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 TAELns OF. STOWE. By .HaroId Beg