Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-01-01
BOOK REVIEWS.
THE LITERARY HISTORY OF THE
ADELPHI AND ITS NEIGHBOUR
HOOD. BY Austin Brereton. New
Duff &

THE LITERARY HISTORY OF THE
ADELPHI AND ITS NEIGHBOUR
HOOD. BY Austin Brereton. New
York: Duffield & Co.
-HE literary associations OF Lon
don possess fascination for
most readers, and from these
q debt of gratitude is due the
author of this history. In the
midst of London's Strand. one of the
worlds busiest thoroughfares. he dis
closes the old Adelphi. which. from i1l2.
was one of the favorite haunts of Lon
don men of letters. Dryden alluded to
it in one of his plays. Foltare drank
wine here. and its memory is halloWed
by DR.. Johnson. Oliver Goldsmith, 81.
Joshua Reynolds and a host of other
celebrities. Here David Garrick began
his career, and here, curiously enough.
he ended it. the funeral procession of
the poor player reaching from tile
Adelphi to Westminster Abbey. :
Dickens, when boy. prowled about It's
dark arches. On every page we'll known
names appear in some intimate and in
teresting connection with this historic
place. In tracing the origin of the
Adelphi the history of Durham House.
on whose site it was built, comes again
to the surface. This was the residence
of kings and prelates, the retreat of
Elizabeth In the threatening days of her
slrihood, the home of Lady Jane Gray.
who left its shelter for the Tower,
brief queenship. Imprisonment and death.
For twenty years Durham House was
occupied by Sir Walter Raleigh, and
here he did much of his writing The
mlSrations of the courtly class left Dur
liam House to decay and the encroach-
Inents of industry. In its place the
Adelphi now stands. unknown in its his
lafi btr will
pass 1t ny. This is fascinating book
in Its presentation delightfully."- in accord
win the intimate and friendly character
of Its subject.
GREEK LANDS AND LETTERS By
Francis Greenleaf Atkinson. profes
Sor OF classical phiiology in Brown
University, and Anne c. E. Atkinson.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
IT is not easy to imagine anything
outside ones own temperamentaI power
of appreciation. better calculated to in
crease the pleasure and profit of a jour
n"y through the land of Greece than
the present original and scholarly vol
ume. To travel over this country its
literature in hand. that each may inter
pref and light UP the other, is the design
of these authors. Moving from place to
riace In pursuance of this purpose-out
from Athens round the circle north
west. then south to Sparta-each site is
studied m its setting of mountain. or
plain. or sea, from which are d. avn TIE
natural and time-tested effects of mere
geographical .eatures on the physical
and mental development of a people
BEFORE each of these is set it's poet OF.
story teller, or historian. who, in his
own melodious phrase builds again be-
fore one the ancient glory of Greece
To these ideal CHER aspects of combined
trave! and study are added details of
great value to the traveller and of much
interest to the reader. Chief among
these minor features are good pictures
and an excellent map, without which no
book of this sort is quite complete.
THE HISTORY OF FRENCH LIrERA-
TURE; From the Oath of Strasbur1
TO Chantic1er. BY Annie Lemp
konta. New York: D. Appleton & co.
Full scholarship, with its complement
of discriminative power and balanced
judgment, compasses here, within half a
thousand pages. the complete history OF
French literature. Beginning with its
origin In the rise OF the French language,
whose literary expression was then poetic
and epic, 1t leads through the succeeding
stages up to the inception of the news
paper and the character of the French
press of the present day. Each form of
literature, In both it's racial and national
source and development, is traced, and
from each stand out, in their adequacy
-
Each period of literary contamination.
with its subsequent logical transition, is
brilliantly presented; in each, the epoch.
making Names In French literature loom
in the large lines OF their enduring ef-
fects. This difficult task is completed in
such true proportions that, even within
these narrow limits, the literature of this
country, in the broad sweep of its de-
velopment, in the climaxeS of it's genius,
in the splendor of its fulfillment, stands
out III organic unity.
HISTORICAL ESSAYS. BY James Ford
Rhodes. LID. D. Lift. author of
The History of the United States
From the Compromise of 1850 to the
tile South in 1877" New York: The
Macmillan Company. Washington:
Brentano'S.
Given originally as lectures at various
times ard places and for different rea-
sons, the essays of this volume are bound
together loosely. in subjects which range
from the broadcast aspects of historical
thought to relatively circumscribed and
local matters. such as Who Burned Co
lumbia?' a dispute growing out of the
civil r. However, within its own lin
its each essay is substantial in matter,
bearing abundant evidence Of the rich
gathering and Inellowed ripening of the
knowledge out of whose authority it is
produced. The authors free and certain
swi7- i'm his subject. his wealth of illus
tration and example. his tempered and
generous views, and his happy. informal
style, make book of delightful reading.
THE SHAKSPERIAN STAGE. BY Vic
tor E. Albright, PHI. d. New York.
The Columbia University Press.
The evolution of the stage. the place
on which any dramatic form is presented
is the subject of this study, a subject of
narrow appeal and slender stimulus
What value the book possesses lies in
the attitude of the Investigator toward
his work and in the steps OF the investi-
CATION Included here are the choice and
use of material, the basis and ch Iracter
of the conclusions reached, and the rela-
tions established finally between the facts
deduced and those larger ones of which
these d definite part. In this light
the study constitutes excellent ex-
ample of original investigation aud d
guide for similar work along otner lines.
MARIE OF Already. BY F. Hewes
Lancaster. With a frontispiece by
Rose o Neill Boston: Small, May
nard & Co.
The first page OF this story puts the