The morning journal-courier., 1908-05-07
BERTRAND oF pRl

BERTRAND OF BRITTANY By War.
 nick Deepng author of The Slanl
 ercss. "Ress of the Woods etc.
 published by Harper & Brothers,
 New York; Slio; at Judd's
 charming tale of love and war in mediaeval times, when armor clad fighters drank deeply and fought like demons for their lady loves and their fair lands and against foreign invad- CTS MT Deepins is a capital writer of fiction and his new book will add 10 his popularity among lovers of the stirring and the romantic in days of chivalry. Vividly described are tho kulghtly deeds. tho fcats of prowess. the onaets and the assaults and very charming Is the heroine of this tale. in mastcrly strokes character Is pre- sonted swiftly and surely, and the reader is hcguled hy the quck nov ing pictures of darins and heroic deeds. Inc hero in the story, Der trand du Guescin is no handsome, well proportional knight hut is the ill favored and uncouth in person, yet of llonike strength and hrnwn and of noble soul The first born of a proud, naughty mother he is from childhood displaced in his mothcr'q favor by his younger and pretty faced mlllsop of q brother and grows up wild, half cared for, fierce fighter, unloved, breeding and rejected beautiful little girl changes the current of his life and through her pleading Rrr- trand is grudgingly given his rightful honor of representing hls house at the tournament at Rennes. an honor his mother had decided to rob him of and bestow on his younger brother Bertrand wins great honor at the knightly tournament spurred tc mighty deeds conscious that the sym pathetic approving eyes of the girl are upon him and he is awarded the grand trophy of the fete for his yalol and prowess. Thence forward the girl. Tiphane, and Bertrand drift apart, Bertrand off in the wars, grim brave undaunted in battles against great odds, but ever great hearted and ever the gallant Breton gentle man whose name Is historic through his heroic deeds in aiding to drive 1 the English invaders out of France And by the way our Bertrand is the same whom Conan Doyle tells of sC | charmngly in "Tho White Company The author deftly develops Bertrand's character from the sulky, sullen lad into the hero of mighty deeds of self sacrificing valor, done under an aS sumcd name, and the book is, more over, a fine picture of modiaeva
 France, a picture that will imprint it l self upon the memory. Al Bertrand'S second meeting with Tiphano, loves reawakcning comes and Bertrand'i unselnsh love for Tihpane and hei nobly appealing faith in Bertrand arc | pictured with artistic power, The l books pages are vivid with pictur. 1 esque scenes and with the pomp anG pageantry of the period described.
 l THE SWORD DECIDES A Chronicl, | of a queen in the Dark Ages Found
 cd on the story of GioVanna of Ma
 ples. By Marjorie Bowen l2mo, np
 3S6 The Mcclure Company, Ne" | York; $l,5O, at Judd's. | Marjorie Bowen, in her new nove goes back to the field of romance sht so successfully worked in her first tale and this girlish writer again displays gift for the picturesque in story l telling that many an older writer might envy--a gift which goes far tC otnpn fnp pn nra1pee 1r au6ac inng and l.