Books of the Month

Poetry and the Drama. The Strophes of Omar Khayyam, translated from the Persian by John Leslie Garner. (The Corbitt & Skidmore Co., Milwaukee, Wis.) Although Mr. Garner does not say so, his studied silence regarding Fitzgerald’s translation and his careful copying, even to typographical effects, of Fitzgerald’s manner, point to an effort to render literally what the earlier poet has transfused with his own personality. There is enough likeness in the two renderings, though the translators have not always chosen the same stanzas, to lead ns to t hink Fitzgerald did not wander very far from the Persian’s thought, and his form certainly is more impressive than Mr. Garner’s, good as the latter is.— The Ulster Guard at Gettysburg, by Henry Abbey. (The Kingston Freeman, Kondout. N. Y.) An occasional poem, which renders not unsuccessfully in verse the adventures of the Guard — The Poems of Emma Lazarus, in two volumes. (Houghton.) The winning likeness which prefaces this work will linger long in the memory of those who look on it, and will invite many to read the poems who might otherwise shrink, as most do, from tackling the full measure of verse which is gathered after the death of a growing author. We wish that by dates or some special arrangement the development of Miss Lazarus’s mind might be more readily perceived ; but however one reads this verse, often glowing and impassioned as it is, the nature of the young poet is the resultant of one’s reading. It is not so much to be moved by this or that poem as to feel the personality of Emma Lazarus. —The Witch in the Glass, etc., by Sarah MB. Piatt. (Houghton. ) In Mrs. Piatt’s poems the reader is quite likely to find what the school-boy finds or misses in his Latin, something understood. She starts the reader on the trail of a sentiment, but is not with him always when he comes up with it. Her verse grows more flexile and — with all respect we say it —less morbid. — The Viking, by Elwyn A. Barron. (McClurg.) This drama has the benefit of a somewhat carefully phrased introduction by Mr. Lawrence Barrett. The scene is laid in Norway in 976. The author evidently wrote the play to be acted, and we think he overvalued the declamatory element.— Hesper, by William Roscoe Thayer. (Charles W. Sever, Cambridge, Mass.) Mr. Thayer calls his work “an American drama.” and it is true that, he has made his plot to turn on the contest for the preservation of the Union, but it is hard to say wherein the play is characteristically American. The characters are all inspired by the author, and the situations are contrived by him. In other words, the: play strikes us as a mechanism for carrying certain more or less obvious truths, but not an organic work of art, justifying itself, and making the reader forget the limitations of the drama. —Volumes seven and eight of Macmillan’s uniform edition of Browning’s poetns embrace The Ring and the Book, In a Balcony, and Dramatis Personae. — Among the Millet and other Poems, by Archibald Lampman. (J. Durie & Son, Ottawa.) There is a frequent, loving touch of friendliness with nature in these verses, and a restraint of moralizing which makes tinpoetry genuine even where it is not noticeably strong. It is not impossible that this writer may yet push into the recesses of poetry. —Verses from the Valley, by E. S. Goodhue. (Pacific Press Publishing Company, Oakland, Cal.) —A Reading of Earth, by George Meredith. (Macmillan.) The most effective pieces in this volume are the epigrams, the one on Gordon of Khartoum having forceful phrases. But it is in phrases throughout the book that one must look for the poetic touch. The whole temper is so darkly intellectual as to drive poor Poetry almost, out-of-doors.

Fiction. First Harvests ; an Episode in the Life of Mrs. Levison Gower; a satire without amoral. By F. J. Slimson. (Scribners.) Mr. Stimson, while still using his nom de plume J, S. of Dale, at last comes out flatly with his own name, which we think is of service both to himself and to the reader. — Counter-Currents, by the author of Justlna. (Roberts.) A pleasant story of contemporaneous life, in which simplicity of style, good taste, and an agreeable optimism render one for a while not very exacting of the author. — The Serpent Tempted Her, by Saqui Smith. (Belford, Clarke & Co.) A feverish story, with all the horror deliberately put into it by the writer, who never felt a particle of the anguish which in his autobiographic method he imagines. — One of the Forty is the translation of Daudet’s L’Immortel. (Continental Publishing Company, St. Louis.) — A Christmas Rose, a Blossom in Seven Petals, by R. E. Fraucillon. (Harpers.) A spirited story, the scene laid in England the middle of the last century. It is in a falsetto voice, so as to appear a hundred years old. — Under the Maples, a Story of Village Life, by Walter N. Hinman. (Belford, Clarke & Co.) A fairly interesting story with a conventionally improbable plot.—The Professor’s Sister, a Romance, by Julian Hawthorne. (Belford, Clarke & Co.)—Florence Fables, by W. J. Florence. (Belford, Clarke & Co.) Sixteen tales, some from actual life, some from the life that never was in heaven or earth. — The Battle of the Swash, and the Capture of Canada, by Samuel Barton. (C. T. Dillingham, New York ) A contribution to the paido-post futurum literature, intended to stir up dull minds to look after our naval defenses. — The latest issue in Tieknor’s Paper Series is Edgar Fawcett’s The Confessions of Claud. Mr. Fawcett’s: latest novel, however, is Divided Lives (Belford, Clarke & Co.), which has strength and character, though the work was evidently done in haste. The story is full of action and dramatic situation, and would make an excellent society play, — Cressy, by Bret Harte. (Houghton.) The reader of this book finds himself in Mr. Harte’s topsy-turvy moral world. Things are not what they seem, and as soon as the reader is confronted by one of Mr. Harte’s apparently sincere men or women he looks out for a somersault of character. Nothing but the go of Mr. Harte’s writing keeps bis characters, incidents, plot, and morals from going all to smash before the book is quarter done. — A Stiff-Necked Generation, by L. B. Walford. (Holt.) A domestic novel, with no very serious situations or intricacy of plot. There is a bustling liveliness about this author which almost compensates for wit. — A Village Tragedy, by Margaret L. Woods. (Holt.) A painful and to our thinking entirety unnecessary tale. —His Two Wives, by Mary Clemruer, is the latest issue in Ticknor’s Paper Series. — Recent numbers of Harper’s Franklin Square Library are The Countess Eve, by J. H. Shorthouse; When a Man’s Single, by J. M. Barrie ; and The Peril of Richard Pardon, by B. L. Farjeon —The last Balzac volume (Roberts Bros,) is notable as containing two masterpieces, Louis Lambert and Mr. George Frederic Parsons’s introduction to that subtlest of Balzac s creations. No one has approached Balzac with the same insight and analytic power as Mr. Parsons. We shall have occasion later to return to his essay.

Politics. Economics, and Sociology, Physical and Industrial Training of Criminals, by Hamilton D. Wey, is one of the monographs of the Industrial Education Association of New York. Gradually the principles accepted for the morally sound are found applicable to the unsound. It is not a bad thing to find the man under the subject. —Essays on Practical Politics, by Theodore Roosevelt. (Putnams.) Mr. Roosevelt writes always with freshness, and in this case out of a personal knowledge, which stands him instead of an inconvenient and inelastic preconceived system of notions on the subject of practical politics. — Civics for Young Americans, or First Lessons in Government; containing a brief description of the different forms of government. and a full and clear explanation of the important clauses of our Constitution, by W. M. Giffin. (Lovell.) In his desire to be interesting and simple, Mr. Giffin makes his book of less use than it might otherwise be. In his desire to lead boys and girls to admire their own country, be uses misleading and disparaging comparisons with other countries. — Glimpses of the Future, by D. G. Croly (Putnams), is a series of clever vaticinations on the subject of polities and various social questions. Mr. Croly does not let his imagination fly too high nor too far, and the discussions, thrown into the form of prophecies, have a practical bearing on current issues, since he is concerned in the drift of what is now under the eye. — True or False Finance, the issue of 1888, by a Tax-Payer, is Number 5b of Questions of the Day. (Putnams.) A party pamphlet, which maintains that “the only present road of escape, for moderate protectionist and for free-trader alike, is through the Democratic party.” — The Economic Interpretation of History:, by James E. Thorold Rogers. (Putnams.) A refreshingly direct, candid, and if you will bumptious examination of the social and economic development of the British Empire. Mr. Rogers lias earned the right to speak with authority, and he uses it sharply. The lecture form permits him to use directly his own experience and studies more freely than if he were writing a hook, for this is a collection of lectures delivered at his college in Oxford. The energy of his style not only carries conviction, but arouses criticism. — The Chinese and the Chinese Question, by James A. Whitney. (Tibbals Book Co , New York.) A temperate and thoughtful examination of the conflict of races which the author thinks to be involved in the Chinese question. He has little faith in any change of the Chinese character, and he believes thoroughly in the complete prohibition of Chinese immigration. — Business, by James Platt. (Putnams.) This is a book which has been very successful in England, and is regarded by the writer as a plea for the scientific training of the young in a business career. It is, however, only a better book than many in a class which appeals to the young to follow health, education, industry, perseverance, order, punctuality, truthfulness, integrity, and the like virtues, with a sure result of honorable success.

Literature and Criticism. Mr. J, A. Wilstach, who some years ago published a translation of Vergil’s complete works, now issues a translation of The Divine Comedy of Vergil’s great disciple. It is contained in two volumes (Houghton), is in rhyme patterned after the original, is as literal as the translator could make it, and is accompanied by arguments, notes, and illustrations. Mr. Wilstach’s comments have an individuality which keeps the reader on the alert. His rendering is often compact and sinewy, and he certainly has blinked no difficulties in his task. He seems, indeed, to invite dangers. His translation ought to receive respectful attention from students of Dante. — The Pluedriis, Lysis, and Protagoras of Plato, a new and literal translation mainly from the text of liekker, by J. Wright. (Macmillan.) The translation is idiomatic and clear, but the writer sometimes chooses the less vigorous word, as " requested ” for " asked ” and “commence” for “begin.” —Mr. Charles F. Richardson has completed his work on American Literature, 1607-1885, by publishing the second volume on American Poetry and Fiction. (Putnams.) It is a running comment on the salient features of the development of American literature in these two directions, with rough-and-ready judgments, often shrewd, but rarely very subtle, Mr. Richardson skims the surface of our literature, and by his maimer quite as much as by his words guards the reader against a too elevated concept ion of the actual accomplishment of literary ideals in America. The Complete Poetic and Prose Works of John Greenleaf Whittier, in seven volumes. (Houghton.) There is a great pleasure to all lovers of good literature when an author who has been writing for sixty years, and has identified himself with his country s name, stops for a while, gathers his work, orders it upon the great lines which it has followed, and sets forth the whole body of his writing in definitive shape, with such brief comment as he might, use if he were answering the questions of this or that friendly reader. This Mr. Whittier has done, and the result is in four volumes of poetry, arranged under such heads as Narrative and Legendary, Poems of the Anti-Slavery Conflict, Religious Poems, Poems Subjective and Reminiscent, Personal Poems, and Occasional Poems. Dates are assigned to each, and head-notes add such slight hints of the origin of certain poems as one naturally desires to possess. In the three prose volumes Mr. Whittier has rearranged previously published matter, and has added a considerable amount chiefly upon the great theme which so occupied his thought, not before collected. Indexes and chronological tables accompany the neat, dignified volumes. — Paradoxes of a Philistine, by William S. Walsh. (Lippincott.) A score of brief essays by a keen-witted lover of literature, whose Philistinism is quite harmless, being rather a cloak than a tissue. — The sixth volume of the Library of American Literature contains passages from Hawthorne, Emerson, Longfellow, Whittier, Poe, as well as a host of minor writers. (C. L. Webster & Co.) It would he unsafe, where other considerations, apparently, than those of chronology have determined the contents of a volume, to draw inferences as to tin* literature contemporaneous with that of these authors; hut setting aside the political passages, how meagre is the showing for pure literature, when one has left out, of view the greater names given above! The selections from Emerson are more satisfactory, on the whole, than those from i Hawthorne, but in all the cases there is a fair exhibition of the range of work. — Lockhart’s Ancient Spanish Ballads and Æsop’s Fables are the latest additions to the charming Knickerbocker Nuggets Series. (Putnams.)

Anthologies. The Pilgrim’s Scrip, or Wit and Wisdom of George Meredith ; with selections from lhis poetry, and introduction. (Roberts.) The introduction, which, is signed M. R. F. Gilman. is an agreeable, well-written account of Meredith’s personality and the characteristics of his work. It would he hard to find any modern English writer who would cut up better than Meredith, and we cordially commend this book as a substitute for the more serious undertaking of a full reading of the novels. — Our Glorified: poems and passages of consolation especially for those bereaved by the loss of children. Edited by Elizabeth Howard Foxcroft, (Lee & Shepard.) The introduction is a touching memorial of the compiler, a noble and useful woman. — Songs in the Night Watches, from Voices Old and New, compiled by Helen H. Strong Thompson. (Baker & Taylor Co., New York.) The selections are poultices for troubled Consciences and hurt souls. Some are curative, or at, least emollient, but in a good many cases they are mere breadand-milk poultices for dangerous wounds. — How Men Propose ; the fateful question and its answer. Love scenes from popular works of fiction, collected by Agnes Stevens. (McClurg.) A most useful book, as useful as was Slender’s Book of Riddles. We can fancy the owner of a Complete Letter Writer and of a Book of Etiquette adding this to his collection of necessary hand-hooks. He will have the advantage that, with the exception of Walter Scott and one or two others, all of the writers quoted use the language of the period.