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NOTES ON NEW BOOKS.

By Rosa Mulholland [Lady Gilbert],
1. The Wicked Woods.
Author of "The Wild Birds of Kileevy," "Marcella Grace," "A Fair
Emigrant," "Banshee Castle," etc. (London: Burns and Oates).

the cover.

In the remarkable catalogue of volumes of fiction, two dozen in number and the product of one pen, which has sometimes been advertised on the back of the titlepage of our monthly parts, the third "The Wicked Woods of Tobereevil," in order, the two-volume novel, has hitherto been marked "out of print." It has just reappeared in a very attractive form; for, though it is issued in a single cheap Indeed, volume, the type employed is large and pleasant to read. nothing could be better than the printing and binding; and the new edition is moreover enriched with an excellent portrait of the author as frontispiece, while a perfect autograph of her signature slants across Of those other works of Lady Gilbert that are named on the titlepage of the present tale, it is most closely akin to "The Wild Birds of Kileevy" with the strain of poetry and romance that runs "Hester's through them both; whereas "Marcella Grace" and History" approach nearer to the ordinary novel of every-day life. The exquisite refinement and purity of Lady Gilbert's style have seldom been displayed more strikingly than in disentangling the strange variety of difficulties which delay till the right moment the happy union of Paul Finiston and May Mourne. May is one of the sweetest heroines of fiction, with her simplicity, sincerity, and unconscious charm. One carries away a clear idea of even the people that are introduced only incidentally; and, though the story is told right on without wasting time on descriptions and digressions, all the places and scenes, and especially the "wicked woods" themselves, are realised with wonderful vividness. The Morning Post was quite right in characterising "The Wicked Woods of Tobereevil" as "a tale exceptionally bright, powerful, and striking.”

2. The Irish Wolfdog. By the Rev. Edmund Hogan, S.J., F.R.U. I., M.R.I.A. (Dublin: Sealey, Bryers and Walker; M. H. Gill and Son).

We introduced this work to our readers somewhat prematurely in May. A delay occurred in the last stages of publication, but it has now for some weeks been in the hands of the public. Further study of the volume increases the admiration already expressed for the patient and persevering researches of many years which have amassed such a Father Hogan complains somewhere of the wealth of materials.

paucity of references to authorities furnished by writers on the Dog. Certainly the historian of the Irish Wolfdog is not obnoxious to such a charge. A florin is a moderate price for a well bound book of 170 pages with ten full-page illustrations.

3. No less than eight stories have come to us this month across the Atlantic, all from the firm of Benziger Brothers, and all without exception of high literary merit. The largest and most important is a full-length story of 250 pages, "The Taming of Polly," by Ella Loraine Dorsey, who is, we believe, the daughter of the veteran Catholic writer, Mrs. Anna H. Dorsey, lately deceased. A very interesting story did Polly live through before she was tamed. Irish girls especially will find some of the situations very original and out of the common; but we must not make our own experience the standard of the possible. Miss Dorsey's style is bright and clear; and without preaching too much, she teaches many useful lessons very effectively. Mr. Maurice Francis Egan, an excellent judge of the literary merits and the moral influence of a book, has nothing but the warmest praise for "The Taming of Polly." The next two in size of Messrs. Benzigers' batch of tales, are "A Summer at Woodville" by Anna T. Sadlier and "Three Girls and Especially One" by Marion Ames Taggart. Miss Sadlier, like Miss Dorsey, inherits literary traditions. Her new book has no very subtle plot, but is taken up with a variety of pleasant scenes and talks. Miss Taggart's very beautiful story will make us look with interest for every new product of her pen; and indeed a smaller story of hers, "The Blissylvania Post Office," pleases us even more. It is as brightly written a tale for young people as has crossed our path for many a day. "An Heir of Dreams" by Sallie Margaret O'Malley is another very interesting story with plenty of plot in it. Mrs. O'Malley allows herself the use of more peculiar Americanisms than the other writers under notice. At page 69 'Lias-whe never once from the beginning gets his full name-finds the "clean comforts and spreads" of bed very inviting: and his friend at page 100 is "all of sixteen years of age." The three remaining books that we have grouped together are smaller than the rest, and the writers are much better known-"Boys in the Block," by Maurice F. Egan, "My Strange Friend," by Father Francis Finn, S.J., and "The Fatal Diamonds" by Miss Eleanor Donnelly. The last is the most romantic of the three; and indeed, though good and edifying, is not quite suited for the series in which it now appears. We trust that the Catholic public in the United States, assisted by some in the British Isles, especially the Emerald Isle, will show due appreciation of the efforts made by the authors and publishers of these eight volumes to provide wholesome and pleasant fiction. The books are all attractively bound and printed very readably.

4. Messrs. Burns and Oates of London have published a very long and a very short story. The first is rather ominously called "A Long Probation" and consists of 750 closely packed pages. The name of the author, Mr. Henry Gibbs, is quite new to us. There is a great variety of characters, of scenes, and of incidents, ranging from France to England and back again to France. There is even a good sprinkling of French phrases: and here the author (or probably the proof-reader) is more at home than with the three Latin phrases which are all wrong for we have "docendo dicimus "a dozen times, and "sanitas sanitatem" and "requiem aeternam dona ea, Domine." The book is written in an excellent spirit and has considerable merit; but somehow as a work of art, as a piece of literature, we cannot praise it as warmly as we should wish to praise so well-meaning an Author. Besides a general want of inspiration and charm, there are positive faults every now and then. We notice that one of his critics credits Mr. Gibbs with "leisurely grace." The leisurelines of his style is quite as apparent as its gracefulness. The small story which we paired with "A Long Probation" is "Dorothy Close" by Mary T. Robertson, which the same Publishers have brought out very neatly and even elegantly. If Mr. Gibbs's book has matter enough for a three-volume novel, Miss Robertson's on the contrary is short enough for a mazazine story, and has not very strong claims to its present dignity. It is well written, and will probably interest young readers such as the convent girls to whom it is first supposed to be read.

5. Conferences given by Father Dignam S.J., with Retreats, Sermons, and Notes of Spiritual Direction. (London: Burns and Oates)

This volume, which is introduced by a preface from the pen of Cardinal Mazzela, has been most correctly printed at Rome, and is another proof of the devotion shown to his memory by some of his spiritual children, Poor Servants of the Mother of God Incarnate. Father Dignam displayed great zeal in assisting in the establishment of this pious congregation, and its members have certainly not been wanting in gratitude. The present volume is fully worthy of being joined with the others which have been published since the death of this holy and zealous priest, and which have already been received with much favour in religious communities. The instructions it contains are earnest, solid, plain, and practical.

6. Messrs. Burns and Oates have brought out a very tasteful edition of Lady Georgiana Fullerton's brilliant novel " Grantley Manor," the most interesting perhaps of all her stories. Here at least is a harmless novel which no one can accuse of dulness. quite exciting, and the literary merit is very high. The same publishers have also issued an extremely neat and

The plot is

VOL. XXV.

No. 289.

28

readable edition of "Angels' Visits" by the Author of "Tales from the Diary of a sister of Mercy." There is indeed no indication on the title-page that this is a reprint; and, as there is no date, it may pass as a new book ten years hence. This is not quite fair. The catalogue at the end of the volume mentions a seventh edition of "Angels' Visits" by C. M. Brame. If her career is over, like Lady Georgiana Fullerton's, we should, for our own part, like some notice of her to be prefixed. But of many books edition after edition is issued after the author's death without any such information being furnished.

7. James Duffy and Co. of Dublin have published for the Cistercian Abbey, Mount Saint Joseph, Roscrea, a guide and popular history of Mellifont Abbey, Co. Louth. These are perhaps the most interesting ruins in Ireland. The remains are described in these pages as they now appear, and their history and associations have been traced out with the utmost diligence. A formidable list of authorities is given in the introduction. For this well printed volume of 150 pages, with a picture of the ruins and with maps and plans, the price is only a shilling. Our readers should apply for it at once to Mount St. Joseph, Roscrea.

8. Swift's Tale of a Tub and other Early Works. Edited by Temple Scott. (London: George Bell and Sons).

This is the first volume of a new edition of the prose works of Jonathan Swift, D.D., which is to be added to Bohn's Libraries, now published by the firm just mentioned. Mr. Lecky, M.P., contributes a biographical sketch of the great Dean of Saint Patrick's. present issue is very well printed and bound, and is very cheap. 9. Legend of the Blemished King and other Poems. By James H.

Cousins. (Dublin: Bernard Doyle, 9 Upper Ormond Quay).

The

This is the second volume of "The Little Library" edited by M. J. Keats, and printed at the Franklin Works, Dublin, which we have never before seen named on a title-page, and therefore we hasten to pronounce the printing excellent. The Editor of the series has a name of good omen, though we suppose he claims no kinship with the Author of "Endymion." The Reader will hardly be impressed favourably by the Editorial Note prefixed to Mr. Cousins' poems. The poet's themes and his treatment of them display a poetical temperament, but there is none of them to which we can conscientiously give the warm welcome that we should wish to give to the work of a young Irishman of refined feeling and high aspiration. There is no piece that, even if our space allowed, we could quote with much pleasure. Starting with the Prologue, Swinburnian alliteration is rampant; "the bacchanalian bee blusters by with strident shout," and "foamy flanks" rhyme with "rattling ranks." There is indeed

a good deal of poetical feeling in this opening poem and in others; but the diction seems to lack correctness and directness and that refined simplicity which is the chief characteristic of poetical language. There are good phrases in most of the poems, and much lyrical skill in the legendary part of Saint Mahee- where, by the by, Mr. Cousins "lethal strain" as if the epithet were derived from lethe "forgetfulness," whereas it comes from lethum "death" and means mortal," "fatal." Yet, even so, we prefer it to " dalliant,' "iterant,' ," "fluctuant," and some other novelties. "The palimpsest

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of earth" is an ingenious phrase. The item that pleases us best is on the whole "The Railway Arch," though one is not sure at the beginning how it "has stood, theme for bards and theme for seers." The present bard has made a good deal out of it. There is dignity and boldness of thought also in the sonnets on Copernicus and "On some Twentieth Century forecasts"-in which last "the imperturbable and silent years" have to be content all through with the singular pronouns thou and thy. Wordsworth told Aubrey de Vere that the first requisite of poetic diction is perfect grammatical correctness.

10. The admirable work of the Rev. William Stang D.D., ViceRector of the American College, Louvain, upon Pastoral Theology, to which we have already given a cordial welcome, has reached a second edition in a very short time. This edition has been revised and enlarged. We earnestly recommend it to any priest who has not yet procured a copy. The publishers are the Benzigers of New York, Chicago, and Cincinnati; but of course copies can be obtained from the chief Catholic booksellers in Dublin and London.

Another second edition is the three-penny book on the Rosary of the Blessed Virgin by Father Wilfrid Lescher, O.P. (London: Burns and Oates.) It contains the Encyclical Letters of Leo XIII., and a great quantity of excellent matter about this queen of Devotions.

The newest tribute of devotion to the popular Saint Antony of Padua may be procured from the Abbé Buquet, La Chapelle Montligeon, Orne, France. It contains his life, prayers, and hymns, in a neatly bound book of ninety pages for five pence or 4/6 a dozen.

11. The Jesuit Fathers in charge of the Association called "The Apostleship of Prayer" in New York have issued a very complete and beautiful Manual of the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary. "The Ceremonies of Holy Week by Father Herbert Thurston S.J. is compiled with his wonted thoroughness and accuracy, and will be fully in time for the Lent of 1898. At the same price as the last mentioned-namely, sixpence-Mr. Washbourne of Paternoster Row has published "The Catholic Church in England: An Answer to the Anglican Claims to Continuity," by Nicholas S. Murphy.

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