The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-04-29
BOOK NOTICES.

olt 1ioHel' young EngaShman,
and MAIDEN oiselle Desloge,' a charm
ing and mysterious companion to the
| ar1stocratfc Miss Livingston, meet in
the fashionable drawing -rooms of old
New York and in the beautiful old
country places that used to line the
HUDSON River in the days when Alex
ander Hamilton, Robert Fulton, Wash
lngton Irving, Gouverneur Morris, and
Aaron Burr were among the conspicu-
Gus and lavish hosts in town and
country: Against the fascination of
the stately social life of the period,
there is wildly projected ar absorbing
romance compounded of all the old
familiar elements of love and hate,
crime, false accusations, escape, pur-
suit-all the picturesque deeds of vaIor
tnat were even then dying out in this
country.
In charm of setting and in interest
this is by all odds the best thing Mrs.
Dlllon has written since her famous
Rose OF Old st. Louis" to which this
is, IN way, a continuation.
| 1t should be noted that, while the
author has endeavored to reproduce
the atmosphere of the times and to
portray in their essential qualities the
historic personages who take their
stately way through the pages of the
book, there are some few slight devia-
tons from history, which are neces-
lsary to the dramatic interest of the
tale, but which do not detract from
historic accuracy as a whole.
The typical Western cowboy is usu-
ally presented in fiction as finding
many and strange adventures in the
course of his days work. The fact
of the matter is that he is more liable
to make excitement for himself and
fun for other people when he gets out
OF his own beaten track into unknown
surroundings. Clarence E. milford
has found this out by actual observa-
ton and in Bar 20 Days. recently
published by A. c. McC1urg & Co., he
tells the adventures of his old hero,
I"Hopalong Cassidy" and some of his
companions in arms when they wander
| in fresh fields. The story of how Hop
along and Johnny were Shanghaied by
the captain of a filibustering ship
bound for Cuba, and of what happened
nance of the prairie and that of the
sea in a decidedly novel manner, pre-
senting as it does the phenomenon of
/ a cowboy rising to chief command on
his first voyage and giving his navigat-
ing orders in the language of the
range and corral.
| Justus Miles Forrnan, whose new
novel, 1.-The Unknown Lady" has just
appeared, is regarded primarily as a
writer. AS matter of fact, he spends
NEARLY half the year travelling, and
ilove was given to Paris and all her
Iallurements. All the memories of the
golden days of his art life there are
lcrystalized for both himself and his
lreader in 1.-THE Unknown Lady, He
makes his hero a painter who cannot
lrest until he has succeeded in embody-
ling on canvas the features of an I'M
known woman which have enthralled
him since childhood. The knowledge
that the author was himself once a
lf0a ivofa IT,, oric hot I1o fIo1 70
of light-hearted gayety and earnest
end eavor of the Quarter Latin, makes
1.-The Unknown Lady, the kind of
hook that had really been lived before
it was written.
Lovers of fair play will enjoy new
book just published by the Neale COM
Ipany, entitled -Four Years Under
Marse Robert" being the reminis-
licences of Major Robert Stiles of his
Experiences in the Southern army.
Antonio Fogazzaro, the most vigor-
Gus and eminent of contemporary
Italian novelists, was man of slow
development. Commencing life as a
lawyer, he first attracted attention as
a poet. In his fortieth year he pub
llished his earliest novel, but not until
This forty-seventh did he arrive at
flame. Daniele Cortis convinced the
public of his merits, and placed him in
tine front rank OF mOQern lIallan WITT
lers. One feels that, had Fogazzaro
lpleased himself, he would have re-
Imained a poet all his days; it was the
urgency of his moral passion that
drove him into fiction. His novels are
lpre-eminently novels for the propaga-
ton of ideas. 1t was the clash and
revolt Of the ideas they contain which
brought him success. He mirrors with
extraordinary fidelity the spiritual
strife of his land and age. To the task
of novelist he brought all the poets
reforming fire, divine discomfort, poig-
nant sense of beauty, and tragic per-
lception of the exquisite heetingness OF
life. In addition he brought his love
of privacy and delicate sensitiveness
This meant that in the intellectual
wars that he waged, he suffered con-
tinual crucifixion. This personal fac
tor in his work has made it difficult tC
criticize him. He sought to discover
friends and disciples through his writ
lings; the stirring up of enmities held
. no place in his purpose His novels
are in the main confessional of his
own sours progress; they are a series
of yelled condolences. 1t is as easy tc
misunderstood them as it is to over
praise.
His latest and best novel Leila has
!. just been published in America by
Holder & Stoughton of New York
The translation is by Mary Prighard
Agnetti.
Henry Sydnor Harrison's novel
"Queed," of which the publishers
; Hougnton Miff1in Co, have such high
expectations, will be published on MAY
, 6th. AS this is Mr.. Harrison's frs
novel, the reading public may be in
Iterested to know netting about
; him. After graduating from Column
bia University and short experience
in school-teaching and business, he OBJ
: tanned a position as book-reviewer OF
.. the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Here
he continued for about five years, do
ing more and more editorial worl
|, until in 1908 he was made chief edi
torial writer. But I always wanted
lko I,a I1fn SEQ