parison. . . . The novel is distinctly a modern invention, satisfying a modern want. It is, or ought to be, a pocket-stage. Scenery, light, shade, the actors themselves, are made of words, and nothing but words, more or less cleverly put together. Every writer who has succeeded has his own means of creating the illusion which is eminently necessary to success. Some of us are found out and some of us are not; but we all do the same thing in one way or another, consciously or unconsciously. The tricks of the art are without number, simple or elaborate, easily learned or hard to imitate, and many of us consider that we have a monopoly of certain tricks we call our own, and are unreasonably angry when a competitor makes use of them. Dialect seems to me to rank with puns, and with puns of a particular local character. Generally speaking, I venture to say that anything which fixes the date of a novel not intended to be historical is a mistake, from a literary point of view. It is not wise to describe the cut of the hero's coat, nor the draping of the heroine's gown, the shape of her hat, nor the color of his tie. Ten years hence somebody may buy the book and turn up his nose at those times.' The historical novel occupies a position apart and separate from others, but it does not follow that it should not conform exactly to the conditions required of an ordinary work of fiction, though it must undoubtedly possess other qualities peculiar to itself. Provided that no attempt is made to palm off the historical novel as a schoolbook, there can be no real objection to it on other grounds. On the whole, the historical novel is always likely to prove more dangerous to the writer than to the reader, since, when it fails to be a great book, it will in all likelihood be an absurd one. For historical facts are limitations, and he who subjects himself to them must be willing to undertake all the responsibility they imply. As for romance and realism, the realist proposes to show men what they are, the romantist tries to show men what they should be. For my part, I believe that more good can be done by showing men what they may be, ought to be, or can be, than by describing their greatest weaknesses with the highest art. The education of a novelist is the experience of men and women which he has got at first hand in the course of his own life, for he is of that class to whom humanity offers a higher interest than inanimate nature. The novel writer must know what the living world is, what the men in it do, and what the women think, why women shed tears, and children laugh, and young men make love, and old men repeat themselves. While he is writing his book, his human beings must be with him, before him, moving before the eye of his mind and talking into the ear of his heart. He must have lived himself; he must have loved, fought, suffered, and struggled in the human battle. I would almost say that to describe another's death he must himself have died. All this accounts, perhaps, for the fact that readers are many and writers few. The writer must have seen and known many phases of existence, and this is what the education of the novelist means: to know and understand, so far as he is able, men and women who have been placed in unusual circumstances. Sentiment heightens the value of works of fiction, as sentimentality lowers it. Sentimentality is to sentiment as sensuality to passion. The deep waters of life the real novel must fathom, sounding the tidestream of passion, and bringing up such treasures as lie far below and out of sight-out of reach of the individual in most cases - until the art of the story-teller makes them feel that they are, or might be, his. Cæsar commanded his legionaries to strike at the face. Humanity, the novelist's master, bids him strike only at the heart." A life-like photogravure picture of Mrs. Ward and a fac-simile of her signature, "Mary A. Ward," make a frontispiece for the two volumes of her latest novel. The story itself is confessedly a purpose novel, and so falls in the class which Mr. Crawford has condemned so strongly, but even Mr. Crawford must admit that Marcella" is a strong, consistent, artistic piece of work, and that the interest of the story is not overburdened by the development of the author's theory of life. The book deals with life problems, but it is not insufferably didactic, and its teaching is indirect rather than obtrusive. The character drawing is admirable, the personality of Marcella Boyce especially being as clear and vivid as that of any living personage. There is no question that "Marcella" is the best piece of work that Mrs. Ward has done. W. H. H. FRA PAOLO SARPI. By Rev. Alexander Robertson. 196 pp. Cloth, $1.50. New York: Thomas Whittaker. 1894. The body of Fra Paolo Sarpi, whom Mr. Robertson styles "the greatest of the Venetians," has at last found an honored restingplace in the church of the quiet Campo Santo, on the island of San Michele, after being for more than two hundred years transferred from place to place, "built up into walls and altars, concealed in private houses, and surreptitiously introduced in boxes, contents unknown,' into seminaries and libraries, to hide it from the wolf-like hunt of its enemies." To be the ob ject of such persecution after he is dead, a man must have had some strong personal qualities while he was alive, and it does not seem extravagant, therefore, for Mr. Robertson to claim for his hero preeminence among Venetians. "I agree with Mrs. Oliphant," he says, "that Fra Paolo is a 'personage more grave and great, a figure unique in the midst of this ever animated, strong, stormy, and restless race'; and with Lord Macaulay, who has said of him that what he did he did better than anybody. I believe that it is impossible to produce from the long roll of the mighty sons of Venice one name to be placed above, or even to be set beside, his. He was supreme as a thinker, as a man of action, and as a transcript and pattern of every Christian principle." Mr. Robertson goes on to show that Fra Paolo was preeminent as an astronomer and mathematician; that he divides with Dr. Harvey the honor of having discovered the circulation of the blood, and that he was recognized as a leader among magneticians and metaphysicians; while as a statesman he wielded a vast influence in the Venice of three hundred years ago. Mr. Robertson's book was written during a residence in Venice, so that he was able to draw his facts from original sources in books and manuscripts. The interest of his work is heightened by a portrait of Fra Paolo and a fac-simile of a letter written by his hand. W. H. H. INSTRUCTOR IN PRACTICAL COURT REPORTING. Mr. Thorne's "Instructor in Practical Court Reporting" is intended primarily for stenographers incidentally for trial lawyers and law students. Its author is a member of the Fulton County (N. Y.) bar, and an official court stenographer. His aim has been to present to the stenographer every important phase of court reporting, to show and explain the methods generally used in doing it, and to describe the nature and meaning of the various features of a trial. The book is evidently the outcome of long practical experience, and as such has great value for all would-be court stenographers, while to the general reader it is interesting because it gives an excellent idea of court procedure. W. H. H. TENNYSON: HIS ART AND RELATION TO MODERN LIfe. By Stopford A. Brooke. 516 pp. Cloth, $2.00. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1894. As its title implies, Mr. Brooke's work is something more than a study of Tennyson's poems from a literary point of view: it discusses the poet as an artist, his relation to Christianity and his relation to social politics, as well as the literary qualities of his work. The chief part of the book is given to a critical study of Tennnyson's writings, under the head ings, "The Poems of 1830," "The Poems of 1833," "The Poems of 1842," "The Classical and Romantic Poems of 1842, with the Later Classical Poems," "The Princess," "In Memoriam," "Maud and the War Poems," "Idylls of the King,' "Enoch Arden and the Sea Poetry," "Aylmer's Field, Sea Dreams, The Brook," "The Dramatic Monologues," "Speculative Theology," "The Nature Poetry," and "The Later Poems." Mr. Brooke has been a thoughtful and appreciative student of Tennyson, and his analysis of the poet's work is discriminating and full of interest. No lover of poetry can fail to be attracted by the book. W. H. H. THE SEARCH FOR ANDREW FIELD. By Everett T. Tomlinson. Illustrated. 313 pp. Cloth, $1.50. Boston: Lee & Shep. ard. 1894. "The Search for Andrew Field" is a boys' story, based on events of the war of 1812. The object of the author is to give young people an insight into the conditions of the times of 1812, a history of the war, and a glimpse at the results attained. He does this in a capital story, full of life, spirit, and adventure, which imparts much historical information and inculcates lessons of manliness and courage, while it is sure to entertain the youthful reader. The book is the first of The War of 1812 Series, which will take its heroes through the various battles of the war on land and sea. W. H. H. MOTHER, WILL, AND I. By Milton Coit. 390 pp. Paper, 50 cents. Boston: Arena Publishing Company. 1894. "Mother, Will, and I," according to the author's introduction, is “a true story, told for the purpose of making public the process by which the possible future destroyers of society are now being created." The injustice of the existing social system is its theme, and the chief evils of modern life are attributed to their first cause in what the author styles those enemies of humankind, the rich conspirators, who, influenced by self-interest, are engaged in money-getting schemes, the success of which means disaster and misery to hundreds and thousands of their fellow-men. Depicting at the two high-minded, philanthropic young men, the author goes on to show how one of them in particular had his whole results changed by the of the Standard Oil deal and the panic of '73, which reduced his father, an honorable man, to poverty, and compelled his delicate, refined, and sensitive mother to suffer from hard work and deprivation until death at last ended all her wretchedness. To combat this social injustice, the young man, after a hard struggle in ordinary lines, sees no way but to begin an organized secret plotting against capitalists, starting with individual robberies skilfully planned and ending by organizing a band nature of robbers and murderers, of which he is the leading spirit. The Western train robberies during the fall of 1893, the author says, were committed by this band. All the money secured was turned into a fund to be used to help victims of social injustice. The author describes vividly the organization and operations of this society, as well as the causes which led to its formation. The purpose of the story is to show that "the same effort and enthusiasm spent in hopeless violence against society, if devoted to the new ideal in harmony with law, might have organized a new political party capable of an ideal social reconstruction." The tale is certainly a powerful one, and its novelty and its strength of purpose alike recommend it to the reader. W. H. H. SIR FRANCIS BACON'S CIPHER STORY. Discovered and deciphered by Orville W. Owen, M. D. Book III. 148 pp. Paper, so cents. Detroit: Howard Publishing Company. Part III. of Dr. Owen's "cipher story" is much better-looking typographically than either of the preceding parts. It is dedicated to Mrs. E. W. Gallup, Miss K. E. Wells, and Miss O. E. Wheeler, "in acknowledgment of their valuable assistance in deciphering, by the rules of the cipher, volumes II. and III. of the cipher story." The volume completes "Bacon's " account of the Spanish Armada, which is said to be "deciphered mostly from the Shakespearian plays and from the Faery Queene,' but portions are found in the works of Peel, Greene, Marlowe, Burton, and Bacon." Owen still postpones giving any explanation of the methods of his work. Until he does something of the sort, his books will have little value. Dr. W. H. H. TEUTONIC SWITZERLAND. By W. D. McCrackan, M. A. 315 pp. Cloth, 75 cents. Boston: Joseph Knight Co. 1894. ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. By W. D. McCrackan, M. A. 270 pp. Cloth, 75 cents. Boston: Joseph Knight Co. 1894. Mr. McCrackan's publishers have issued in two attractive little volumes his impressions of Switzerland, together with some account of Swiss legends and traditions and of the eminent men and women who have lived within the borders of the mountainous republic. The book is not a guide book in any sense, but it is admirably adapted for a companion during a trip through Switzerland or for home reading by those who can travel only in imagination and WILSON'S CYCLOPÆDIC PHOTOGRAPHY. By Edward L. Wilson, Ph. D. 453 pp. Cloth, $4.00. New York: Edward L. Wilson. 1894. "Wilson's Cyclopædic Photography" is a complete handbook of the terms, processes, formulæ, and appliances employed in photography, arranged in dictionary form for ready reference. The compiler has been for many years an authority on all photographic matters, and his other works on photographic subjects are well and favorably known. This new work contains more than 2,500 references, and is undoubtedly the most comprehensive photographic reference book available for English readers. The object of the compiler throughout has been to make his book simple, clear, concise, and practical, to enable the beginner as well as the expert to use it with profit. He has succeeded admirably in his undertaking, and his work takes its place at once as the standard English photographic dictionary. In his preface Mr. Wilson says: "I have drawn from a thousand authors. Í have filtered and reduced as carefully as my judgment would allow, and I have no doubt I could do better should I begin at once and do it all over again. I commend it to the craft as it is, however, with the full knowledge that in a work like this, including such a multiplicity of subjects, kind indulgence must be asked for the numerous errors that even the most painstaking care must have overlooked." W. H. H. OLD ENGLISH BALLADS. Selected and edited by Francis B. Gummere. 380 pp. Cloth, $1.05. Boston: Ginn & Co. 1894. Professor Gummere's collection of old English ballads is made more interesting by an exhaustive introduction, full explanatory notes, and a glossary. The ballads themselves are representative in range and quality, and have been well selected by the editor. The Athenæum Press Series, to which the book belongs, is intended to furnish a library of the best English literature from Chaucer to the present time in a form adapted to the needs of both the student and the general reader. BOOKS RECEIVED. W. H. H. The A Magazine File. I have a file which I had made for magazines, consisting of a series of shelves, and employed peculiarly in my own case. Every writer would find such a case a valuable adjunct to work of a general literary character. It is made of three ten-inch-wide boards (whitewood stained), with top, bottom, and back covered in by others (which may be cheap pine) in such a way as to leave room for two tiers of shelves six feet high, with compartments large enough to accommodate the larger magazines. Light cleats are nailed in place with wire nails to hold the shelf-boards. shelves are of basswood, and are simply laid on these cleats. By removing one of the shelves two spaces may be thrown into one, perhaps to fit the growing requirements of some particular journal. There are fourteen such spaces on each side of the centre-board in my case, making twenty-eight spaces in all, - each 10 x 14 x 5 inches, wherein may be filed specimen copies of twenty-eight papers or magazines of large size, or double the number of small ones. I advocate preserving such a collection of journals, with information as to date of publication, "press" day, office address, and any other fact desirable to know. Suppose it is the tenth day of the month. My magazine file shows me at a glance which publications are "available contributions, as regards the chance of catching each paper before its next issue. The number is limited my field of work for the day has been indicated. From the number of papers which might use my matter soon, as thus indicated, I select one and look over it for ideas as to what might be acceptable. I am of those who desire to see the special need of their work before setting about it; for then I am supplied with an impulse, and can work to the end of exactly shading my writing to the requirements before me — - the audience I am for Note-making on Book-covers. Has it ever occurred to any reader of THE WRITER to make use of a book-cover as a note-book? I always like to index the books I read, to keep track of suggestions and side paths which are not always put in a book which has a published index. I therefore have to take notes as I read. But often I do my reading on verandas and in hammocks, and it is not always convenient to have a paper at hand on which to write; then the summer breezes are apt to make sad havoc with anything that is of light weight. But a note-book is very clumsy. I have long been in the habit of covering the books I read with ordinary manila paper, and when I find a reference say to Cowley, or to the subject of art viewed in its moral relations, anything, in fact, which is not put in the general index - I simply turn my book over and write the references into my "Library Key." I should never have thought of mentioning this very simple convenience had not one of the professors in the university here said in one of our talks that he thought the idea an excellent one, and that he should never have thought of it. He intends to adopt it henceforth. Kenyon West. ROCHESTER, N. Y. LITERARY ARTICLES IN PERIODICALS. [The publisher of THE WRITER will send to any address a copy of any magazine mentioned in the following reference list on receipt of the amount given in parenthesis following the name -the amount being in each case the price of the periodical, with three cents postage added. Unless a price is given, the periodical must be ordered from the publication office. Readers who send to the publishers of the periodicals indexed for copies containing the articles mentioned in the list will confer a favor if they will mention THE WRITER when they write.] THE COSMOPOLITAN'S NEW HOME. Illustrated. Cosmopolitan (18 c.) for September. EARLY JOURNALISM IN SAN FRANCISCO. J. M. Scanland. Overland Monthly (28 c.) for September. TALKS WITH THE TRADE: WRITERS AND TYPEWRITERS. Lippincott's (28 c.) for September. HEADLINES. W. T. Larned. Lippincott's (28 c.) for September. THE EVOLUTION OF THE HEROINE. H. H. Boyesen. Lippincott's (28 c.) for September. A THIRD SHELF OF OLD Books. Mrs. James T. Fields. Scribner's (28 c.) for September. THE ORIGIN OF "THANATOPSIS." John White Chadwick. Harper's Magazine (38 c.) for September. GEORGE DU MAURIER AS AN AUTHOR. Charles Dudley Warner. Editor's study. Harper's Magazine (38 c.) for September. A DRAMATIC REALIST TO HIS CRITICs. G. Bernard Shaw. Reprinted from New Review in Eclectic (48 c.) for Septem ber. THE FOURTH ESTATE. Reprinted from Gentleman's Magazine in Eclectic (48 c.) for September. DANTE AND TENNYSON. Francis St. John Thackeray. Reprinted from Temple Bar in Eclectic (48 c.) for September. THE NOVELIST IN SHAKESPEARE. Hall Caine. Reprinted from New Review in Eclectic (48 c.) for September. MY FIRST BOOK, "TREASURE ISLAND." Robert Louis Stevenson. McClure's Magazine (18 c.) for September. THE RELIGION OF WALT WHITMAN'S POEMS. Rev. M. J. Savage. Arena (53 c.) for September. CHARLOTTE M. YONGE. With portrait. Frederick Dolman. Ladies' Home Journal (13 c.) for September. MY LITERARY PASSIONS. William Dean Howells. Ladies' Home Journal (13 c.) for September. IN DEFENCE OF HARRIET SHELLEY. - III. North American Review (53 c. ) for September. A READING In the Letters of John KEATS. Lena H. Vincent. Atlantic Monthly (38 c.) for September. WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING. Chicago Magazine for July. RECOLLECTIONS OF ARTEMUS WARD. II. John L. Carncross. To-day for August. POE IN THE SOUTH. Letters of Edgar Allan Poe, John P. Kennedy, J. K. Paulding, Beverly Tucker, and others. With introduction and editorial notes by George E. Woodbury. Century (38 c.) for August. CONVERSATION IN FRANCE. Th. Bentzon. Century ( 38c. ) for August. FOUR WOMEN WRITERS OF THE WEST (Ina D. Coolbrith, Octave Thanet, Charles Egbert Craddock, and Edith M. Thomas). With portraits. Mary J. Reid. Overland Monthly (28 c.) for August. CURE FOR DIALECT ENGLISH IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. Eliza B. Burney. Arena (53 c.) for August. AN EPISODE IN TURGENIEF'S LIFE. Nathan Haskell Dole. Arena (53 c.) for August. IN DEFENCE OF HARRIET SHELLEY. II. Mark Twain, North American Review (53 c.) for August. MY CONTEMPORARIES. Jules Claretie. North American Review (53 c.) for August. THE LOVES OF EDGAR A. Poɛ. Godey's (13 c. ) for August. Eugene L. Didier. THE PHOTOGRAPHY OF COLORS. Lazare Weiller. Popu lar Science Monthly (53 c.) for August. Edwin L. per's Young People (8 c. ) for August 28. LOCAL JEALOUSY IN LITERATURE. Youth's Companion (8 c.) for August 16. DEATH OF AN OLD EDITOR (George Rex Graham). Harper's Weekly ( 13 c.) for August 4. THE LATE JAMES STRONG, S. T. D., LL. D. With portrait. Harper's Weekly ( 13 c. ) for August 18. REV. HENRY M. FIELD, D. D. With portrait. Printers' Ink (8 c.) for August 1. R. H. STODDARD AT 69. Reprinted from New York Sun in Rochester Union and Advertiser for July 21. THE NEWSPAPER HEADMAKER. New Haven Register for July 25. OUIDA'S RICHES GONE. Gloucester (Mass.) Breeze for July 28. GEORGIA'S WRITERS. Atlanta Constitution for July 29. WALTER PATER. New York Sun for July 31. LITERARY TENDENCIES. Alice Wellington Rollins. Christian Register for August 2. CHARLES DANA GIBSON. With portrait. Town Topics for August 2. SARAH GRAND AT HOME. Jeannette Hale. Detroit Free Press for August 3. GEORGE DU MAURIER. Reprinted from Boston Transcript in St. Louis Globe-Democrat for August 4. MAURICE JOKAI. With portrait. Outlook for August 4. MRS. KATE M. BOSTWICK. Boston Commonwealth for August 4. WILLIAM MORRIS. Boston Transcript for August 4. MY FIRST BOOK, "TREASURE ISLAND." Robert Louis Stevenson. Indianapolis Journal (10 c. ) for August 4; Syracuse Sunday Herald, Louisville Courier-Journal, Denver Republican, San Francisco Examiner, New York Sun, for August 5; Jacksonville Citizen for August 7. THE RISE OF HENRY HARLAND. Arthur Stedman. Boston Herald, Galveston News, for August 5; Burlington Hawkeye for August 7. WALTER PATER. Carleton E. Noyes. Boston Budget for August 5. SENSATIONAL STORY WRITERS. Reprinted from New York Morning Journal in Detroit Journal for August 6. MRS. CELIA PARKER WOOLLEY. New York Times for August 6. |