Books of the Month

Holiday Books. Stuff and Nonsense, by A. B. Frost. (Scribners.) Mr. Frost is a clever draughtsman, and he is sometimes funny, but his extravagance becomes wearisome, and though there is no vulgarity in the book one is affected by the exaggerations almost as if they were improper.— Flowers from Glade and Garden, by Susie Barstow Skelding (White, Stokes & Allen): a collection of poems chiefly by American writers, whose fac-simile draughts are frequently given, and a number of chromo-lithographs which are tolerably faithful in drawing, but somewhat coarse in color. — Illustrated Poems of Oliver Wendell Holmes. (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.) One will linger a little over the form and cover of this volume, because of the admirable proportions and tasteful design. The poems, selected by Dr. Holmes, are possibly a little graver in tone than his admirers would have chosen, but they are favorites, nevertheless, with every one. The designs, while rarely rising above fair virtue, rarely fall below it, and the general make-up of the volume shows care and excellent taste. — Garden of the Heart is one of those distortions of art which do not have much to do with books of any kind : a heart-shaped collection of leaves, fringed of course, each one containing a verse of Scripture or some pious reflection or poem. We have looked in vain for any publisher’s name. — One Year’s Sketch-Book, illustrated and arranged by Irene E. Jerome (Lee & Shepard) : an oblong book of sketches, which follow the seasons of the year. The verses and passages which are inwoven with the designs are well selected. The designs themselves, though somewhat conventional in their form, are well studied, and the engraving, if somewhat hard, is suited to the design. Altogether the book is above the average of its class, and represents much work and interest on the part of the arranger and illustrator.— Wordsworth’s Ode, Intimations of Immortality (Lothrop), is valuable chiefly for the two portraits of Wordsworth which are given. The Illustrations are of trifling value, and one or two, which essay to reproduce spiritualities, are puerile. — An Unsentimental Journey through Cornwall, by the author of John Halifax, Gentleman, with illustrations by C. Napier Henry (Macmillan) : an amiable sketch of travel to Land’s End, undertaken by three ladies. The descriptions are frankly feminine, the illustrations bold and masculine. With our familiarity with American wood-cuts, these at first look coarse, and we think something has been lost in the printing; but it is not difficult to acquire a genuine liking for wood-cuts which have the vigor and rude effects of these pictures. — Daddy Darwin’s Dovecot, a country tale, by Juliana Horatia Ewing (S. P. C. K., London; E. and J. B. Young & Co., New York), is a little story, illustrated by Caldecott, breathing the fragrance of English country life, sweet, pure, and worlds away from the madding crowd.— Sketching Rambles in Holland, by G. H. Boughton, with illustrations by the author and E. A. Abbey (Harpers), is a delightful volume, and proves what Mr. Boughton’s friends have always suspected, that he has a neat pen at the other end of his paint-brush. An artist always has special obstacles to overcome when he mixes ink with his colors. The letterpress of this book has many of the qualities of the illustrations, and it requires very good prose to stand the test of juxtaposition to drawings by Abbey and Boughton.

Poetry. A new edition of Marmion has been published by Crowell, with illustrations which are reasonably good and not too finely engraved for the design. —The same publisher issues an edition of Burns’s complete works, —for the letters are added to the poems, —and considering the unsatisfactory character of the ordinary lives of Burns the reader may be congratulated at getting the work in this form. — A Rosary of Rhyme, by Clarence T. Urmy. (Jos. Winterburn & Co., San Francisco.) Mr. Urmy respects his work, and has shown a care in his form which augurs well. If the poems reflect rather moods than states, they have at least the merit of not attitudinizing. He has evidently read other poets, but read them thoughtfully. She and I, for example, recalls Browning’s Evelyn Hope, without at all imitating that poem, and there are other coincidences which are not mere echoes. —Poems, by Mary Hunt McCaleb. (Putnams.) The writer of these poems evidently translates everything that she sees and something that she is into verse, and does it with a fatal facility. — The Peril of the Republic, and other Poems, by George Macdonald Major. (Putnams.) Mr. Major’s patriotism is sound, and his poetry struggles for an effective voice, but this volume is still practice work. — Echoes from the Highland Hills, by Charles H. Collins. (P. G. Thompson, Cincinnati.) The author claims to have done nothing but amuse himself in these verses, and he would be a churl who would deprive him of his pleasure. —Melodies of Verse, by Bayard Taylor (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.), is a tidy little volume, in which a score or so of musical short poems have been taken from Taylor’s works. The reader of his biography will be glad to have so convenient a testimony to the claim therein made that Taylor’s place in literature is to be as a poet.— A Dream of the Adirondacks, and other Poems, by Helen Hinsdale Rich (Putnams) : the poems of an earnest woman, who took refuge in sentiment from the oppressions brought by thought of wrong and evil.

— Cofachiqui, and other Poems, by Castello N. Holford. (L. D. Holford, Bloomington, Wis.) The author apparently has Mexican blood ; the poems have, at any rate. There is considerable vigor, but the poetry is chiefly represented by rhyme. — Wanderings on Parnassus, Poems by J. Hazard Hartzell. (Whittaker.) We think this is a case where Mr. Hartzell’s senior warden might have interfered, when he saw his rector proceeding to lay aside his surplice and put on his singing-robes. Mr. Hartzell has lost his way on the mountain; he is on the other side from Helicon. — Dunbar, the King’s Advocate ; a Tragic Episode in the Reformation. (Waddie & Co., Edinburgh.) The author prefaces his drama with a short dissertation on the absence of dramatic art in Scotland; a still shorter one might be written on the absence of any remarkable insight into the subject in the preface. The scenes of the drama are laid in Edinburgh in 1530, and the drama itself is correct and tame. — Callirrhoe, Fair Rosamund, by Michael Field. (Holt.) The former of these dramas is Greek in theme, the latter English, and both have life in them. —Over the Summer Sea, by John Harrison and Margaret Compton (Lovell), is an ingenious medley, in which the characters are passengers upon an Atlantic steamship, and the scene is the voyage over. By rhymed narrative and intercalary songs the authors have told an entertaining story, and probably would be the last to imagine that they had written poetry. — Lovers of exquisite and inexpensive books are in debt to White, Stokes & Allen for at least three of their late publications: Lyra Elegantiarum, a collection of vers de société, edited by Frederick Locker; a new edition of Mr. Locker’s own delightful lyrics; and Heine’s Book of Songs, compiled from the translations of Theodore Martin and E. A. Bowring. — A Minor Poet, and other Verse, by Amy Levy (T. F. Unwin, London), has a great deal of crude gold in it.

History and Biography. The seventh, and we believe the penultimate, part of Mr. Francis Parkman’s series, France and England in North America (Little, Brown & Co.), appears in Montcalm and Wolfe, now published in two volumes. The work is the ripe fruit of years expended not indeed on this particular subject, but upon the great panoramic history of the relations between France and England in America, which finds its most culminating passage in the contest which saw the dramatic death of the two heroes who give the name to the work. — Outlines of Roman Law, comprising its historical growth and general principles, by William C. Morey. (Putnams.) “It seems now to be a well-established fact,”the author says, “that the history of modern systems of law and the principles of comparative jurisprudence cannot be properly understood without some knowledge of this most important branch of learning.” His work is elementary, but is so well furnished with reference lists that it offers a very convenient hand-book, both for the private student and for the class-room. — New York im Siebzehnten Jahrhundert, by Dr. Victor Precht (Cherouny Printing and Publishing Co., New York) : a sketch with special reference to the elucidation of the Leisler question. — Thomas Carlyle, a History of his Life in London, 1834-1881, by James Anthony Fronde, completes the series of Carlyle biography. This section will have a greater interest for most people than the previous portions. It is, moreover, the presentation of Carlyle when he had become a formula, and when his hatred of sham had passed over into the natural condition of being itself a sham. It is extraordinary to see how Carlyle, when everything seemed to be in a state of wreckage, stood on the traditional faith of his ancestors. That was the rock which he never really left. For the rest, one is amazed at the prodigality of Carlyle’s nature; his letters contain picturesque material enough to construct half a dozen popular writers. We must say, that while we respect Mr. Froude for his fidelity to the trust imposed on him, we think his own interpretation of the universe, as thrust in occasionally, is a piece of impertinence. The book is issued in various forms by Scribners and Harpers, the former giving the more satisfactory library form. — The Three Prophets: Chinese Gordon, El Maahdi, and Arabi Pasha, by Colonel C. Chaillé Long. (Appleton.) A volume half narrative, half interpretative of English policy in Egypt. The writer was in a position to see affairs for himself, and he writes dispassionately and frankly.—John Wycliffe, Patriot and Reformer, by John Laird Wilson. (Funk & Wagnalls.) A condensed but not desiccated biography, which claims no originality, but is apparently prepared with care and judgment. — Our Great Benefactors: short biographies of the men and women most eminent, in literature, science, philanthropy, art, etc. Edited by Samuel Adams Drake. (Roberts.) The plan of the work embraces only those who have lived since the introduction of the art of printing, except that Chaucer heads the list, and it excludes merely military heroes and persons of local renown only. The last name given is that of A. GBell. The sketches are not always biographies. In the case of Bell, for instance, there is nothing biographic, not even the date of his birth. As other dates in the book are not all correct, this is less of a loss than it might have been. However, it is not the biographic element which is aimed at so much as an account of the contribution to the world’s progress made by the different persons included. The book is by different hands, and there is a lack of skill shown in some of the sketches, which are really too short to justify so much rhetoric as appears. The emblematically embellished portraits are of varying degrees of infidelity.— Biographical Essays, by F. Max Müller. (Scribners.) The collection includes Rammohun Roy, Keshub Chunder Sen, Dayânunda Sarasvatî, Bunyiu Nanjio, Kenjiu Kasawara, Mohl, and Kingsley. The most of the book throws light upon the native religious movements in India, and the Catholic judgment of Max Müller is of great service in setting in true light the lenders in the movements. — In Harper’s Franklin Square Library is a centennial biography of Sir Moses Montefiore, by Lucien Wolf, a timely sketch, which will explain to some otherwise ignorant that it is not the Jew’s hundred years, but his hundred well-spent years, which have made him justly famous.—Julian Hawthorne’s Biography of Nathaniel Hawthorne and his Wife makes two handsome volumes. (J. R. Osgood & Co.) We shall refer to the work later. — G. P. Putnam’s Sons have issued a very neat edition of the letters of Princess Alice, with an interesting biographical sketch by Dr. Sell, of Darmstadt. — Samuel Taylor Coleridge, by H. D. Trail, is the latest addition to the English Men of Letters Series. (Harper Bros.) — The first volume of Justin McCarthy’s The Four Georges (Harper Bros.) has prepared the reader to give an attentive welcome to the three volumes which are to complete the work.

Fiction. My Friends and I, edited by Julian Sturgis. (Holt.) Three tales which Mr. Sturgis need not at all feel obliged to palm off on any imaginary Mrs. Harris. — At Last, by Carlotta S. Annspaugh (Tribune Publishing Co., Oxanna, Ala.): a ridiculous story of the sensational order.

— The Shadow of John Wallace, by L. Clarkson (White, Stokes & Allen), is a strained piece of writing, in which a sleepy village of Long Island and a mysterious English nobleman are brought together. The author weaves The Ring and the Book into the web as a sort of mystifying interpretation.— On a Margin (Fords, Howard Hulbert) is a story of artful elaboration, but with no pattern which it is worth one’s while to trace.— Dorcas, the Daughter of Faustina, by Nathan C. Kouns (Fords, Howard & Hulbert): an historical romance of the fourth century. Historical accuracy seems to have been carefully studied, and the story is subordinated to an earnest attempt at making real the life of the Christians in the catacombs. — Jack’s Courtship: a sailor’s yarn of love and shipwreck, is the latest of W. Clark Russell’s tales. (Harpers.) It is told with more or less faithfulness to a sailor’s style of narrative, but the literary art is tolerably well superimposed.—At the World’s Mercy (Appleton) is by the author of The House on the Marsh. It is romance served up in realistic form. — John Rantoul, by Henry Loomis Nelson. (Osgood.) — Dark Days, by Hugh Conway (Holt), is the latest book of an author who has sprung into sudden popularity, less through the literary merit of his work than through the story-telling faculty which he possesses. This book will be read quickly and forgotten, like his previous one. — The Bassett Claim, by Henry R. Elliot. (Putnams.) The claim was one of the French Spoliation claims, and Mr. Elliot has made a clever story out of it by making his hero a descendant of the original claimant, and employing the political circumlocution office for machinery. — Choy Susan and other Stories, by W. H. Bishop. (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.) Dir. Bishop understands the art of short stories, for he has in each case employed a motif which requires quick movement and short compass. These stories are not brief novels, nor extended anecdotes, but wellconsidered stories, with just enough suspense in them to keep the reader’s mind on the alert to the end. Bright, often witty, and crisp in style, they ought to be popular.—The latest issues in the Franklin Square Library (Harpers) are A North Country Maid, by Mrs. H. Lovett Cameron; Beautv and the Beast, by Sarah Tytler; the Lovers’ Creed, by Mrs. Cashel Hoey.

Sociology and Politics. The fourth edition of that terrible book, The Jukes (Putnams), has been published. A brief introduction gives some glimpse of the personality of Mr. Dugdale, the heroic author. —Black and White: Land, Labor, and Politics in the South, by T. Thomas Fortune. (Fords, Howard, & Hulbert") Mr. Fortune’s position is that the problems at the South are part and parcel cf all labor problems, and are not especially affected by racial or political considerations. He violently denounces the centralization of wealth, but his book offers little in the way of reasonable solution of any problem. He adds his testimony, however, to that of others in pleading for a more technical education of the blacks. — Public Relief and Private Charity, by Josephine Shaw Lowell. (Putnams.) This is an attempt at formulating the best results of charitable organization, and is done with an earnestness and a soundness of judgment which make it both valuable and stimulating.— Judge Tourgée has wisely dropped the form of fiction, and made his An Appeal to Cæsar (Fords, Howard & Hulbert) a direct one. The book is an impassioned argument for national legislation in aid of education at the South, and it is supported by a dense array of facts, figures, and observations. It is to be hoped that the book may be widely read, even though one may suspect the writer to be wanting in scientific habit of mind. — Our Penal Machinery and its Victims, by John P. Altgeld. (Jansen, McClurg & Co.) An inquiry into the prison and contract system, chiefly as carried out in Chicago and in the neighboring county. The study results in certain sensible propositions, looking to such a reform as will give convicts a chance to be self-supporting when discharged. — The Way Out; suggestions for Social Reform, by Charles J. Bellamy (Putnams), is a thoughtful book, intended to apply rational principles to the treatment of the various diseases now afflicting the body politic. Mr. Bellamy does not claim to have discovered a panacea, but he has studied his patient well, and the remedies which he proposes are not those of a quack.

Hygiene and Medicine. The Man Wonderful in the House Beautiful, an allegory, teaching the principles of physiology and hygiene, and the effects of stimulants and narcotics, by Chilion B. Allen and Mary A. Allen (Fowler & Wells) ; a droll book, in which the customary facts are couched in alluring terms. The youngest pupils when listening to the book may be supposed to be playing baby-house. One may extract some entertainment from this ingenious work, and it might furnish teachers with illustrations, but it tries to do too much when it makes grave subjects dance a jig. — Mythsin Medicine and Old-Time Doctors, by Alfred C. Garratt (Putnams) : a book which is not confined in its interest to the profession, but will amuse many people who like curiosa. Dr. Garratt will lose some of these readers, however, when they come to the last section, and find that he includes the homoeopathic school with the alchemists and other deluded folk. — Health for the Maori is a little book intended for the use of Maori children in the schools established by the English government. It is a most practical application of English sense. The author is James H. Pope, an inspector of native schools, and it is published at Wellington by George Didsbury, government printer.

Handbooks. Mrs. Lincoln’s Boston Cook Book (Roberts Bros.) will prove a serious rival to the very best compendiums of the kind. Like other things with the prefix “ Boston,” it will be found indispensable everywhere. — The Harpers have added a valuable work to their Franklin Square Library in Stormonth’s English Dictionary, now issuing in weekly numbers. It is to be completed in twenty-three parts. — A Handy Classical and Mythological Dictionary for Popular Use, by H. C. Faulkner (A. L. Burt, New York) : a convenient little book, if one is satisfied with the very meagre information to be obtained. — Handbook for Horsewomen, by H. L. De Bassigny (Appleton) : a book which might be used to advantage by some teachers, but is inadequate as a guide to horsewomen themselves.

Criticism and Philology. Elements of English Speech, by Isaac Bassett Choate. (Appleton.) Mr. Choate, adopting the familiar grammatical classification, has given ten chapters, in which he illustrates in an agreeable fashion the forms which have been taken on by English speech. It is not a text-book, but will be read with interest by any intelligent observer of our language. It is a pity that the book is not furnished with an index. — From Opitz to Lessing: a study of pseudo-classicism in literature, by T. S. Perry. (Osgood.) Mr. Perry, who has shown himself a patient and minute student of literature, has aimed in this book to take German literature, within the time named in his title, in illustration of the phases of change common to all European nations. The comparative method which he employs is one full of suggestion, and his attempt to show the unity of literature is in itself one which will win readers for the book, since the tendency of thought is in this direction.

Government Documents. Annual Report of the operations of the United States Life-Saving Service for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1883. (Government Printing Office, Washington.) Among the recipients of this series of documents should be included all professional novelists of incident and adventure. Mere analysts of character might be omitted, unless they promised to introduce episodes of shipwreck. Mr. Howells would thus be entitled to the series. Yachtsmen who do or do not sail their own craft will be glad to see the book, for its list of places on the coast where vessels have stranded during the past fiscal year. A fiscal year is as good a one to be shipwrecked in as could be found.

Travel. Three visits to America, by Emily Faithfull. (Fowler, Wells & Co.) An uncommonly solemn preface by the publishers, which reads as if they had done an unexampled thing in arranging for the publication of this book, hardly prepares one for the endless chatter which he encounters as he moves with Miss Faithfull from point to point. All looks rosy to the good lady, but the freedom with which she uses names and introduces to the public at large all the American ladies who were civil to her is a curious commentary on manners. — Cupples, Upham & Co. send us the Report of an Archæological Tour in Mexico in 1881, by A. F. Bandelier. The book, which is issued under the direction of the Archæological Institute of America, contains a large number of excellent illustrations.