of the frailties of her sex, for had not Eastman Brooks died Vivien would have found her ruin-knowingly, willingly, lovingly.

The writer's melodrama may be neither new nor original, but she possesses great descriptive power and accentuates with high art the situations. But what there is is a keen sense of humor quite foreign to impressionists. Ned Bronlow's New England uncle and aunts are happy sketches. Some of the satire is very sharp and the distinctions between well-bred people of London and New York are given with slashing cuts. Vivien may be pert at times, but she is never flippant. If it be the supreme art-which the impressionists believe they alone possess, and which we deny of using but few words to sketch a situation, the author of this story possesses it. The "Children of the Earth" deserves many readers. (Holt. $1.)

"A Moonlight Boy."

From the N. Y. Critic.

If Mr. Howe in his first novel, "The Story of a Country Town," filled us with high expectations of a new American novelist, and in his second, "The Mystery of the Locks," sadly disappointed us, he has in his third effort, "A Moonlight Boy," made up for the disappointment and fulfilled the expectations. He seems, indeed, with ease and readiness to have freed himself from almost all his faults, and to have developed all his better qualities as a writer. He has risen above the narrow, though clever, power of writing a good story of strong local color, and attained the power to write a fine story of the human nature of the world; and he has emerged from the doleful, doubtful, and useless tragedy of utterly hopeless representations of life, into a rendering of quite commonplace material, so sunny, so genial, so mirth-provoking, and so tender, that the reader who is not quite hardened reads with mingled tears and smiles. Mr. Howe's work has often suggested that of Dickens, and "A Moonlight Boy" is more like Dickens than ever in general characteristics, though the execution and the types are as original as if Dickens had never existed. But the author follows Dickens in the idea of selecting, not exceptional heroes or exceptional villains for his drama, but at least exceptional individuals, and making his quaint characters individual by allowing each to have a single trait which always comes to the front. It was said when large plaids came in fashion for trousers, that it took two men to show the whole pattern; and one might almost say of the work of both Dickens and Mr. Howe that it takes a whole book to illustrate human nature, no one character ever being a rounded human being, or a bundle of possibilities, but always a creature of one trait, one feature, one purpose, inexorable and changeless as death. Neither Dickens nor Howe cares to touch upon the power of circumstance, of heredity, of fate, in balancing each human life on a pivot, to be rocked to tumultuous results by the breath, perhaps, of a zephyr. Their characters all come into the world

like Minerva, ready for action, incapable of being, doing, or suffering anything but the one thing for which the novelist wants them to fill a vacant niche in his museum. This does not detract in the least from the skill of the novelist, as each proves himself capable of creating and understanding more than one type by having a great many widely different individuals; it merely marks a habit of mind, a peculiarity of workmanship, in which alone the two novelists resemble each other; the character of Howe's novels being as quaintly different from any of Dickens' as Dickens' were from those of average fiction.

The success of "Moonlight Boy" is largely due to the way in which the point of view is preserved. The "Boy" tells his own story; and clever, pathetic, unique, touching as it is, it never passes beyond what might be expected from an honest, straightforward, illborn and lowly-bred youth, the pathos of whose life is less that he is in every sense awkward, than in the fact that he has intelligence enough to know that he is awkward without power to become anything else. One of the delicate touches in the book is the rough appreciation of the lad for the feeling of his supposed mother in finding him a disappointment; he does not complain or pity himself; he pities her, as she still sits in the bay-window, "listening for the footsteps of the boy who would have been welcome in that house :" and it is another skilful point in the author, that he lets his reader, too, feel the same sympathy for the mother. Our hearts are bound up in the awkward lad, and the mother is a poor creature who says and does very little, and nothing attractively; yet for the moment we pity her, and feel that the boy, good at heart as he is, must have been something of a disappointment. Another fine point in the story is that the author, who has chosen a foundling for his hero, is content to leave him a foundling. He does not create lords and ladies and potentates for his suddenly found relative on the last page; but leaves him as he took him the child of unknown parents, brought up in rude circumstances, and a hero only as all of us may be heroes if we care to be. (Houghton, M. $1.50.)

Taras Bulba.

From the N. Y. Tribune.

The publisher of "Taras Bulba" announces his intention to issue other works of Gogol, whose stories, though long popular in his own country, have not hitherto been translated into English. The present tale is one of old Russia and the wild Cossacks. It is an historical romance, and introduces the reader to novel scenes and conditions of life. If the Cossacks are not half-civilized to-day, in the thirteenth century they were but a few degrees removed from absolute savagery. They possessed a rude and partial freedom, imagined themselves independent, lived like all semi-savage races, in alternations of excess and privation, thought more of military prowess than of any other attainment, despised learning with all the bitter

Taras

ness of animalism toward the spiritual, and afforded in their continual lawless raids and fierce contentions more than enough material for the romancer. Bulba, the hero of this story, was a tough and rough old Cossack colonel, having two sons who had just completed a make-believe educational course at a socalled university, where the principal study was scholastic logic, the most utterly barren and time-wasting rubbish ever invented by human perversity and folly. Old Taras, though he had sent his boys to school, had a profound (and justifiable) contempt for the educational process through which they had gone, and as soon as they returned home he took them to the Setch, where the Cossack headquarters were then found, and the national assembly met.

The account

of life at the Setch is realistic and interesting. Drinking and gambling were the principal amusements among the fierce Cossacks there assembled, and when idleness began to pall on them they organized a raid upon the Turks or the Poles, and carried fire and sword far and wide. Gogol has introduced a touch of pathos to his story, and it has plenty of rude heroism; but the stage of existence he has chosen to study is a low one, and it is not easy to feel much sympathy with those born brigands, the Cossacks, when occasionally the tables are turned upon them and they are punished mercilessly by their enemies. The implication of the story is that the Setch was a nest of robbers and murderers who had not the capacity to found a settled empire, but played the part of a sort of Northern Bedouins. (Crowell. $1.)

editor of the Millennium, and Miss Dart, which forcibly recall the friendship and union between George Henry Lewes and George Eliot. Miss Dart prospers in literature, but ultimately becomes "The Heir of the Ages," by purchasing a property in Sussex, upon which a fine old antiquary, Roger Leyden, discovers a large amount of treasure-trove. An admirable character in his way is Matthew Meyrick, a young poet afflicted with spinal disease. The poems which Mr. Payn introduces under his name, and which were really written by a youth in his nineteenth year, scarcely give the impression of real genius, though they are far beyond what most writers of verse could accomplish at that age. The career of Jefferson Melburn points to the necessity for the "Bill for the Abolition of Scoundrels," spoken of in the course of these volumes. Another striking individuality, but of a wholly different type, is Miss Dart's Aunt Jane, with her cat Apollinaris, "so called, not after the famous drinking water, but the Syrian bishop of that name, wnose life and works her late husband had edited with great applause, but unhappily at his own expense." Mr. Argand, too, is very interesting, with his common-sense views of literature, and his belief that "genius, like murder, will always out." The whole story is something more than entertaining, it is suggestive in thought, and discriminating in its views of character. (Harper. pap., 25 c.)

Heir of the Ages.

From the London Academy.

Mr. Payn has struck fresh ground in "The Heir of the Ages," and the literary treasure brought forth is of considerable value. The story is, indeed, remarkable when we consider the author's unwearied skill and industry as a novelist. But though Mr. Payn is prolific, he is never dull; and this, the latest work from his pen, is as bright, as clever, and as interesting as any of its predecessors. In one respect— namely, as regards clear, sympathetic, and graphic delineation of character-it is almost superior to any others by the same writer. Elizabeth Dart, the central figure, now and then reminds us of Jane Eyre, and toward the close of the narrative still more strongly of George Eliot. She is introduced to us as a companion and governess to a Miss Melburn-an appointment she resigns when her affections have been cruelly trifled with by Miss Melburn's cold, cynical, and blasé half-brother, Major Melburn. She drifts into literature, and writes an article in the Millennium, which becomes the talk of the town. She scores a second great success with her novel of "The Usher," which appeared in the same periodical, and caused a profound sensation. It may be an undesigned coincidence, but there are many passages in the literary and personal relations between Mr. Felix Argand, the

A Fallen Idol.

From the Boston Literary World.

"

"A Fallen Idol" is not so elaborated an extravaganza as was The Tinted Venus," but the motive is similar enough to provoke comparisons. In the later story it is an Indian idol which acts as the deus, or rather diabolus, ex machinâ. This idol was made in the eighteenth century by the Jains, to commemorate the supposed virtues of an old reprobate of a Tirthankar, and when, a century later, the idol is dug up, carried to London, and given into the hands of a promising young artist, Ronald Campion, it soon becomes evident that the evil spirit of the Oriental impostor has returned to animate the exiled image. At least a series of extraordinary events, involving the artistic fame of Ronald and his engagement with Sybil Elsworth in common disaster can reasonably be accounted for in no other way. The implacable malignity of the idol, the adventures of Ronald in attempting to get rid of it, and the performances of Herr Axel Nebelsen, the theosophist, supply abundant material for comedy, and Mr. Anstey has told the tale in his own inimitable way. The reader who does not have at least one hearty laugh for every chapter, must be indeed devoid of any active sense of humor. And yet, as in all of Mr Anstey's books thus far, the true interest lies deeper in the genuine humanity with which the characters are made to live their various parts. There is nothing in "A Fallen Idol" to match the admirably realistic pictures of cockneydom in the "Tinted Venus," but hon

In Primrose Time.

est, bafled Ronald Campion; the sleek scoundrel, Babcock; the charming, half-coquettish, half-naïve Sybil; time-serving Aunt Hilary; the bluff old Colonel-and each one of all the minor dramatis personæ are delightfully true to actuality-so that we find ourselves wishing once more their author would for once surrender the farcial vein and confine himself to the comedy and pathos of every-day, commonplace existence. (Lippincott. 75 c. pap., 25 c.)

Justina.

Extract from the Boston Literary World.

After a considerable pause, the "No Name Series" takes the field once more, and with a book which is a beginning again. 'Justina" is an "epoch-making book" in its famous series. A stronger, finer story has not been written with an American pen this many a day. It is high praise, but just praise, to say that it might have been written by the author of "But Yet a Woman ;" and except Mr. Hardy we think this moment of no American novelist who has precisely the unusual combination of traits which its pages manifest; admirable invention with great descriptive excellence, masculine strength and force with feminine tenderness and delicacy, beauty and naturalness of scene and character with a lofty sentiment and purpose. The story is interesting, it is pleasant, it grows absorbing, it becomes powerful, it lays hold of the reader's sensibilities with a profound grasp, it serves a grand ideal with fidelity, it depicts a moral heroism as sublime as it is rare, and ministers as keen a satisfaction to the reader's ethical convictions as to his intellectual tastes. This is large praise; for the moment it may seem exuberant, even extravagant; but that the book will justify it we insist, and we leave the public to confirm our verdict.

The story is simply this: John Rolfe casually meets Justina Wilton on her homeward way from Europe to her uncle in the New England town of Easterly, and renders her an important service, which establishes mutual remembrance and regard. Later they meet again in Easterly, acquaintance is renewed and deepens into love. But Rolfe's hands are tied by circumstances in his past which Justina does not know, and when she learns them she is for the time being blasted. With wonderful elasticity and control she recovers herself, however, like a strong flower rising after the storm; he braces himself to duty; as mutual interest draws them together, conscience stands firmly between, the struggle becomes terrible, the victory is for the right, and the end is peace. This is the merest outline of a romance which has sternness as well as pathos, and whose filling in is almost altogether delightful. . .

It is a fine and noble story, a new and firm and skilful hand touching the old notes of love and longing, and awakening out of them a fresh variation of the one theme that underlies all human life. The book is extremely well written. It is a master's work whoever he is. (Roberts. $1.)

From the N. Y. Tribune.

Here is a singer with a strong, sweet note, clearly and entirely her own-as characteristic and individual as the charming bold music of the robin. Nothing could be more natural, more simple, more free, than her melodious verse, which touches pure sentiment with unerring sympathy, and even in its lightest moods generally finds its way to the heart. It is telling because it is at once fanciful and true, because it shows a great deal of fine and gentle feeling united with an unusually bright temperament. The poem which gives its title to this volume is an example, not of Mrs. Piatt's highest power, but perhaps of her happiest manner. It is a song of early spring in Ireland, an outburst of delight at the scene of fresh meadows, sunshine, and popular good humor which greets the voyager landing at Queenstown :

Oh, pleasant land-(who thinks of thorn or thistle?)
Upon your happy hills

The world is out! And, faith, if I mistake not,
The world is in its prime

(Beating for once, I think, with hearts that ache not)
In Primrose time.

Against the sea-wall leans the Irish beauty,
With face and hands in bloom,
Thinking of anything but household duty
In her thatched cabin's gloom;

Watching the ships as leisurely as may be,
Her blue eyes dream for hours.

Hush! There's her mother-coming with the baby
In the fair quest of flowers.

And her grandmother! hear her laugh and chatter
Under her hair frost-white!

Believe me, life can be a merry matter,

And common folk polite,

And all the birds of heaven are of a feather,

And all their voices rhyme

They sing their many songs, like one, together,
In Primrose time.

There is no resisting such happy music as this; and the author carries all through the Irish visit, to which the volume is devoted, the same genial and loving spirit. She is touched, of course, by the pathos of Irish life, but to her clear eye and simple heart even suffering has its beautiful aspect. In "An Irish Fairy Story" we have a conversation with an old peasant woman who has borne nearly all the ills of loss, poverty, and age, and yet is cheerful in her pious trust :

"Two Inno

That ending is exquisitely poetic. cents Abroad" contains much of the sweet audacity which sometimes startles and amuses us in the midst of Mrs. Piatt's suave and proper sentiment, and there are flashes of the same engaging quality in other pieces, "Bird's-Nesting in Ireland," "In St. Mary's Church," etc. In technical finish all the poems show fine work. If we had any complaint to make of the book it would be that there was not more of it. But it is doubtless the expression of a single short and happy experience, and the author has done well to restrict it to the unforced fruit of that fortunate time. (Houghton, M. $1.)

The Literary News.

AUGUST, 1886.

PRIZE QUESTIONS.

REVISED rules.

THE object of the prize questions is to encourage a 'comparing of notes," especially on subjects relating to literature, and to make such comparing" interesting and instructive by introducing the element of competition. We desire and invite all readers of the LITERARY NEWs to answer these questions, as the number of competitors adds to the interest of competitors and readers.

There are two kinds of Prize Questions, viz., the regular Prize Questions on the Books of the Month, and miscellaneous Prize Questions on subjects that are attracting attention at the moment, or have been suggested by subscribers or readers.

The main object of the LITERARY NEWS is to aid in the dissemination of good literature; and to further this object, the prizes are awarded in books only. They are selected by the winner, and we desire, if possible, to have them bought at the local bookstore, or from the bookseller who supplies the LITERARY NEWS. There are five prizes (amounting to $12 on each question), distributed as follows: $4, $3, $2.50, $1.50, $1, for the five winning answers.

The following rules must be observed:

1. Contributions and titles must be written legibly and in ink, on one side of the paper only. (Use postal-card if possible, and answer each prize question on separate postal-cards or slips.)

2. Full name and address of competitor must be given in every instance (ladies should add Mrs. or Miss to their names). The name of the bookseller who sends the LITERARY NEWS should be written clearly on every answer submitted.

3. Every reader is requested to compete, and no restrictions are placed in the way of consultation or exchange of information. Members of the same family, however, must not present the same votes on any individual book.

4. It has also been found expedient to establish a rule to grant one prize only to the same person or to a member of the same family within a space of four months. No one, however, will be excluded from competition, and honorable mention will be made of all successful competitors.

5. Immediately on the publication of the decisions, purchase orders on their booksellers will be sent to the winners who receive the LITERARY NEWs from booksellers; and those who subscribe direct are requested to send, as soon as possible, the name of any bookseller on whom they desire an order. We prefer in such cases that the books should be taken from the focal bookstore. The value of the books will be reckoned at the retail price of the publishers.

6. All inquiries concerning the Prize Questions should be addressed to MRS. F. LEYPOLDT, 31 and 32 Park Row, New York.

The highest count, 104, was reached by Mrs. L. H. Bassett, Lowell, Me., who takes the first prize. The next, 103, by Miss F. D. Fish, Brooklyn, N. Y., who takes the second prize. The next, 100, by W. H. Sanderson, Woodstock, Vt., who takes the third prize. The next, 99, by G. W. Humphrey, Dedham, Mass., and Benj. C. Bancroft, Denver, Col., who divide the fourth and fifth prizes.

Prize Question No. 136. Subject: LINES FOR AN ALBUM.

This subject for a Prize Question was given in the LITERARY NEWS some years ago, but seems quite appropriate once more when the time of chance meetings and partings is at hand and many will be asked to write in albums. No quotation which appeared before will be printed again. Quotations from some book published within the year would give most satisfaction. Forty words, if prose; or, four lines, if rhyme, is the limit. Answers due August 20th.

Champlin, Cyclopædia of Painters. Scribner.
Stepniak, Russian Storm-Cloud. Harper
Horstmann, Consular Reminiscences. Lippincott..
Bowker, Copyright. Publishers' Weekly.
Croffut, The Vanderbilts. Belford, C
Phillips, Labor, Land, and Law. Scribner.
Single votes..

9

7

5

2

2

8

180

The maximum is 199, and is reached by Mrs. J. J. Soule, Edina, Mo.; Miss Alice W. Atkinson, Pataskala, O., and J. T. Milliken, Illiopolis, Ill., and these three competitors divide the first three prizes. The next count, 193, gives the fourth and fifth prizes to Miss Mary Green, Ravenna, O., and Rev. D. Thomas MacClymont, Williamsport, Pa.

Prize Question Nos. 147 and 149. Subject: BOOKS OF THE MONTH.

Select books of our monthly list in accordance with the rules on Book Prize Questions printed in this issue. Selections from July issue due August 20th; from this issue September 20th.

The object of these questions is more particularly to elicit

answers as to which of the new books can be safely recommended for reading or study.

The answers shall consist of six titles, selected from the classified list of the "SURVEY OF CURRENT LITerature (found in each issue of the LITERARY NEWS), given under two sections, viz.: three titles under A, restricted to Fiction, Humor and Satire, Poetry and the Drama; three under B, selected from the other departments. New editions of books and books mentioned for reference only (usually indicated in list by brackets) are excluded.

The titles should be arranged and numbered under each section, in the order of their estimation by the competitor.

The vote on each book is determined by the number of lists which contain it. Thus if a book is found on ten lists, it counts ten. As a full account is given of all the books that receive more than one vote (that is, appear on more than one list), every one can readily estimate the standing of his list by ascertaining the number of votes each of his books received, and adding them up for the total vote.

DESCRIPTIVE.-Atlantic, "Six Visions of St. Augustine," by Octave Thanet.-Catholic World, "Saints and Shrines of Switzerland," by F. Gautier.-Century, Algiers and its Suburbs," by W.;* “Heidelberg," by Lucy M. Mitchell.*-Eclectic, "In Osman Digna's Garden," by Phil. Robinson; “An African Arcadia;' "The Greek Home according to Homer," by E. W. Godwin; "A Mysterious City" (Lhassa, Thibet).— Harper's, "The City of the Strait" (Detroit), by Edmund Kirke; "Some French Mineral Springs," by T. M. Coan, M.D.— Magazine of American History, "Montpelier," by E. Marguerite Lindley.*

DOMESTIC AND SOCIAL.-Forum, "Newspaper Espionage," by Jos. B. Bishop.

EDUCATIONAL.-Forum, "How I was Educated," by Prof. Wm. T. Harris.-Popular Science, “Extension of Scientific Teaching," by Prof. T. H. Huxley; "The Physical Laboratory in Modern Education," by Prof. H. A. Rowland.

*

HISTORICAL.-Atlantic, “Domestic Economy in the Confederacy," by David Dodge. Catholic World, "Mary Stuart," by Charles Gayarré.-Century, “Battle of Fredericksburg," by General James Longstreet; * 'Lee at Fredericksburg," by Major J. H. Lacy; 'Sumner's Right Grand Division,'" by General D. N. Couch; "Franklin's Left Grand Division,'" by General William F. Smith.*-Magazine of American History, "Convention of New York, 1788," by A. W. Clason; "At the Death Angle," by Charles A. Patch; 'Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette," by Mrs. Martha J. Lamb.*

HYGIENIC AND SANITARY.-Forum, "Poisons in Food and Drink," by Dr. Cyrus Edson.

LITERARY.-Atlantic, Bunner's "The Midge;" Eleanor Putnam's "Old Salem;" "Joel Barlow."Century, "John Burroughs and his Last Two Books," by Edith M. Thomas.-Eclectic, “International Copyright," by H. D. Traill; "Who Wrote Dickens?"

"Goethe and Carlyle," by F. Max Müller; " John Webster," by A. C. Swinburne; "Théodore Agrippa D'Aubigné," by P. F. Willert.-Lippincott's, "Gilbert White's Book," by John Burroughs.

MENTAL AND MORAL PHILOSOPHY.-Eclectic, “Genius and Insanity," by James Sully.-Popular Science, "Genius and Precocity," by James Sully.

MISCELLANEOUS.-Atlantic, "On the Benefits of Superstition," by Agnes Repplier.

NEW SERIALS.-Century, "The Casting Away of Mrs. Lecks and Mrs. Aleshine," I., by Frank R. Stock

ton.

PHYSICAL SCIENCE.-Century, "Sea Birds at the Farne Islands," by Bryan Hook.*-Harper's, “Orchids," by F. W. Burbridge.*-Popular Science," Woods and their Destructive Fungi," by P. H. Dudley.

POLITICAL, ECONOMICAL, AND SOCIOLOGICAL.—Atlantic, "Indian Question in Arizona," by R. K. Evans. -Catholic World, "Our Present Troubles," by H. P. S.; "The Children at Work," by John Talbot Smith; "The Catholic Charities of New York," by L. B. Binsse.-Century, "Is it Peace or War?" by Washington Gladden; "Falsehood of Extremes;" "Democracy in England" (Topics of the Time).-Eclectic, "Indian Arms;" "Development of Northwest Canada by the Hudson's Bay Trade-Route," by W. Shelford.Forum, "Revolt of the Majority," by George Batchelor; "Results of the Labor Struggle," by Andrew Carnegie; "Our African Contingent," by Eugene M. Camp; "The New Total Abstinence Creed," by W. J. Beecher; "The Banks in 1861," by A. S. Bollies.Lippincott's Magazine of American History, The Northwest Territory," by Israel W. Andrews; "Negro Slaves During the Civil War," by Col. Chas. Jones, Jr.-Popular Science, "A Canadian Chapter in Agrarian Agitation," by Geo. Iles; "Causes of the Present Commercial Crisis," by Paul Leroy-Beaulieu.

RELIGIOUS AND SPECULATIVE.-Atlantic, "Individual Continuity," by Andrew Hedbrooke.-Catholic World, "Dr. Hammond as an Amateur Theologian," by Henry A. Brann, D.D.-Eclectic, "Sermons and their Hearers."-Forum, "Confessions of a Roman Catholic."-Popular Science, "Progress of Psychical Research," by Prof. N. M. Butler.

SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL.-Forum, "What we Know About the Weather," by Lieut. A. W. Greely.Popular Science, "Good Time and its Ascertainment," by Prof. Isaac Sharpless; “Recent Progress in Chemistry," by Prof. H. C. Bolton; "Prediction of Natural Phenomena," by Dr. A. Schafft.

SHORT STORIES.-Atlantic, "The Two Browns," by Sarah Orne Jewett.-Catholic World, "Otto Arlesberg," by Rob't McPhail; " My Grandmother's Story," by L. T.-Century, "Colonel Spaight's Prejudices," by Julian Hawthorne.—Harper's, "De Barbadoesa's Little Hour," by Lucy C. Lillie; "Penalties of Authorship," by John Habberton.-Lippincott's, “Lolita," by Mary Agnes Tincker.

SPORTS AND AMUSEMENTS.-Lippincott's, " Paddling for Pleasure," by John Habberton; "Notes of a Baseballist," by John M. Ward; "Confessions of a Champion Athlete," by L. E. Myers.-Outing, "A Bit of Racing," by Arthur Coventry and A. E. T. Watson.

FRESHEST NEWS.

THE Literary World for July 10th has an interesting article on "The Bibliography of Norway."

As was naturally expected, the Century Company will before long collect the different papers in their successful "War Series" for publication in book form. It is the present intention of the publishers to bring out the work in two volumes.