Los Angeles herald., 1908-04-06

temerity should be a doubtful subject
for unstinted communication, as 1t Is
IL the morals of the pub
lie i'm general will be benefited by a
surfeit of literature of this class.
In the Introduction to the American
edition the publishers have offered the
book "to those discriminating readers
who desire to consider the inadequacy
of our social standards as applied to
the morals of men and women, ana
who find something more than pruri-
ency and indelicacy In serious discus
sion of the sex problem"
The Yoke. BY Herbert Wales. New
York The Stuyvesant Press.
Charles e. Walk has written detec-
tive story of cumulative interest in
"The Silver Blade" just published.
The author has succeeded well in
tangling the reader in a maze of clews
from which he finally energies, only
to discover that he has interpreted
them wrong. The story Is interesting
and it's characters are living, breathing
men and women. In his earlier scenes,
however, the author has displayed a
legal habit of thought which has led
him into too minute detail. American
readers-particularly those who find
needed mental relaxation in the perusal
of detective novels--do not care to be
bothered with intricate diagrams, even
though such aids to the proper under
standing of the case may be necessary
to a coroner's jury. Apart from this,
however, the story Is a good example
of the class of fiction to which it be-
longs.
The scenes are laid in an unnamed
city of the south-New Orleans, per-
haps--and the task set Capt. Converse
is the discovery of the murderer. This
he accomplishes, but only after con-
siderable time and with difficulty.
The Silver Blade. BY Charles e.
Walk. Chicago: A. c. McClurg & Co.
"The Lady of the Mount" Frederic
S. Isham's new novel, is a tale of
France before the revolution, when
cavaliers fluttered dainty lace hand
kerchiefs and when the poor eked out
miserable existence only with diff
Guilty. The story moves finely, tale
of love, intrigue and politics. culminat-
ing in the revolution itself. OF course,
the lady's father, governor of the
mount, puts price upon the seigneur's
head, and of course in the struggle
between them which follows advantage
rests first this way and then that.
The seigneur places himself at the
head of the peasants and attacks the
castle, the governor Is killed, but his
daughter makes her escape to an island
where she again meets the seigneur
and whereof course.
The Lady of the Mount. BY Frederic
s. Isham. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-
Merrill company.
In his new novel, "Old Wives for
New" David Graham Phillips attacks
the problem of unhappy marriages
from "a somewhat different point of
view than that usually employed BY
the writer's of fiction.
When a man and a woman who are
welded in an atmosphere that breathes
all the idyllic charm arising from a
union of youth and beauty, drift apart
until their love turns to Indifference
and then to positive hatred, who is to
blame? AS a rule the chivalrous novel
list finds that 1t is heartless husband
who is at fault. Not SO Mr.. Phillips.
From the special instance of accu-
mulating miseries through which he
leads his hero and heroine he sug-
gests the general theory that the wo-
man in the tragi-comedy is really mis-
tress of the situation, and in most
cases could hold her husbands devo-
ton if she would exert herself to keep
her own character mentally and phys
ically in pace with his.
In the development of his theme Mr..
Phillips does not hesitate to handle
some rather disagreeable matters.
using a keen and trenchant analysis
of character and motive, however, that
lifts his story out of the bog into
which a too microscopic realism Is apt
to fall.
Old Wives for New. BY David Gra-
ham Phillips. New York, d. Appleton
e. Co.
yard and Garden" differs materially
from other books on gardening subjects
1t is for the amateur first and last, for
the expert amateur as well as for the
beginner. 1t tells what to do and how
to do it, and tells 1t on the basis or
conditions in America, not in England
of the best gardening1
books are the products of English pens
and are written for the use of the Eng
lish gardeners. III
The American amateur who obtains
such a book and attempts to follow its
for England-will fail
in his plans and planting.
yard and Gardening contains infor-
nation that is based on the experience
OF wears. The author Harrington Bak-
er. has made gardening his hobby; he is
an expert planter and landscape archi-
tect, but prefers to practice only for his
own enjoyment.
The work. of course, has not been
written to meet California conditions or
seasons, but 1t contains much that may
be applied locally notwith-
standing.
Yard and Garden. BY Harrington
Baker. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Mer-
rill Co. 4
Tn "Character Portraits from Dick
ems" Mr.. Charles Welsh presents one
hundred and fifty or more pen por-
traits of the great novelist's charac-
ters in Dickens own words, arrang-
ing them alphabetically and prefac-
ing each with q brief note indicating
the place the individual occupies in
the story from which the portrait is
taken. At the end of each references
are given to all the chapters in the
story in which the character appears.
There is also a remarkably useful in
dex to the characters arranged ac-
cording TO their occupations and con-
ditions of life.
Character Portraits from Dickens.
BY Charles Welsh. Boston: Small
& Co.
The aim of Umphrey's Spanish Prose
Composition" is to offer interesting ma
terial systematically arranged for
translation, composition and copversa-
ton in Spanish. 1t is intended for
students who already know something
about the essential principles of the
Snanish language. The first part con-
tains a connected Spanish text extend
ing through nineteen lessons and deal
ing with a Journey from this country
Ia Madrid and other Spanish cities