held in Concord and the evening sessions in
Boston. There will be thirty lectures in all.



March, 1903]



THE LITERARY NEWS



95



in which the various aspects of Emerson s
great work and influence will be treated by
the ablest scholars and thinkers who can be
associated for the purpose. Special Sunday
services, with sermons or addresses by emi-
nent lovers of Emerson, will also be arranged
both in Boston and Concord.

Miss Agnes C. Laut, author of "The Story
of the Trapper," recently published by D.
Appleton & Co., is a most interesting young
woman, and has won her place in literature
through sheer pluck and ability. At present
she resides in Ottawa, Canada, but is a native
of Winnipeg. While in her junior year at the
Manitoba University Miss Laut's health
failed, and to this fact is primarily due her
entrance into the literary field. With a hope
that it would lead to some beneficial results,
if not to actual recovery, she was sent to
spend the summer in the mountains, among
the Rockies and Selkirks. There, in the
bright fresh life of the mountaineer. Miss
Laut rode gradually back to life and health.
CW 1X0 an Indian reservation, in her rides
&h^ g.:;thered much of the material used in her
first novel, "Lords of the North." Encour-
aged by the success which met her first ef-
forts. Miss Laut was attracted to the journal-
istic field, and for two and a half years was
connected with the Winnipeg Free Press,
leaving there to go to New York, where she
was engaged to do special correspondence for
some of the larger papers. Her work since
then has been largely sketch work and ar-
ticles descriptive of Canadian scenery and
travel. Her winters have been mostly spent
in New York, while the summers have seen
ker engaged outdoors gaining material for her
articles. Eight weeks were spent in cruising
along the cost northward from St. Johns in a
government mail-boat. Last summer, in com-
pany with two other women, and taking with
them fourteen packhorses with provisions, a
boy and guides, Miss Laut spent some months
in the glacier regions of the Selkirks, many
miles from the railway.

Edna Lyall, the English novelist, died on
the 9th inst., at Eastbourne, Eng. Edna Lyall,
whose real name was Ada Ellen Bayly, was
born at Brighton about i860. Her father and
grandfather had both been barristers. She
early made up her mind to write stories.
Her first published novel, "Won by Waiting,"
appeared in 1879, when she was less than
eighteen years old, and was intended for girls.
It failed to attract attention, and it was not
until 1882, when "Donovan" appeared, in the
regulation three volume novel form, that the
name which the author had formed by trans-
posing her real ones, became at all known.
In 1884 she published "We Two," which es-
tablished her popularity with a certain circle
of readers, which was maintained by her sub-
sequent novels. The names of these are "In
the Golden Days," "Their Happiest Christ-
mas," "Knight Errant," "Autobiography of
rx Slander," "A Hardy Norseman," "Derrick
Vaughan, Novdist, "To Right the Wrong,"
"Doreen, the Story of a Singer," "How the
Children Raised the Wind," "Autobiography
of a Truth," "Wayfaring Men," "Hope the



Hermit," "In Spite of All," and "The Hin-
derers," the last issued last year. Summing
up her work The Athenceum says: "Without
any claim to literary distinction, she was free
from the excesses and the pretentiousness
which characterize much of the feminine writ-
ing of the day. She respected grammar ; she
liad a good idea of narrative, and a sound
sense which restrained at once her output and
her style. Consciously didactic in her stories
of social life, she was broad enough generally
to see more than one side of a question, even
when that question was religion. Her life
was well spent in the teaching and philan-
thropic effort of a quiet kind which supple-
mented her writing. All who knew Miss
Bayly appreciated her uprightness and mod-
esty, and the work which taxed too heavily a '
fragile body."

John Lane's most important new publica-
tion is Zola's "Truth," the third of the trilogy
of novels of which "Labor" and "Fruitful-
ness" were the first two. The plot is virtually
a resetting of the Dreyfus case, illustrating
the keen antagonism of the Jesuits and secu-
lar parties in modern France.

Charles Scribner's Sons have just issued
"The Turquoise Cup," a volume composed of
two stories, "The Turquoise Cup" and "The
Desert," by Arthur Cosslett Smith; also,
"Calvert of Strathore," a novel of the French
Revolution seen through American eyes, by
Carter Goodloe; and "The Better Sort," be-
ing a collection of short stories by Henry
James.

The Bobbs-Merrill Co. will issue immedi-
ately "The Filigree Ball," by Anna Katherine
Green, the ever-popular author of "The
Leavenworth Case." No one will put the
story down till finished. There are constant
accessions to the main mystery, so that the
most practiced reader of detective stories can-
not possibly imagine the conclusion. It is
illustrated by C. M. Relyea.

Rand, McNally & Co. have just published
a collection of Irieh stories, by Elizabeth
O'Reilly Neville, called after its central fig-
ure, "Father Tom of Connemara." This be-
loved priest of the Galway fisher folk is a
type of the faithful, fatherly Irish priest, keen
to perceive the humor as well as the pathos
of his happy-go-lucky parishioners. The
book abounds with rollicking fun.

Doubled AY, Page & Co. have just brought
cut a book under exceptionally fortunate cir-
cumstances, since it was heralded by a letter
published in the daily press from President
Roosevelt, both commending the work and
enlarging upon modern tendencies. The
book appears under the title "The Woman
Who Toils," is written by Mrs. John Van
Vorst and Marie Van Vorst, and gives the
actual experiences of these ladies as factory
girls.

G. P. Putnam's Sons have just brought
out that much-talked-of biography, "The Life



96



THE LITERARY NEWS.



[March, 1903



and Times of George Joachim Goschen," by
Viscount Goschen; also, "The Great Siberian
Railway froni St. Petersburg to Pekin," by
Michael Myers Shoemaker, author of "Isl-
ands of the Southern Sea" and "Palaces and
Prisons of Mary Queen of Scots." The Put-
nams have secured the American rights to
Lord William Nevill's book on his experi-
ences of prison life, which they will bring
out within the fortnight under the title of
"Penal Servitude, by W. B. N." Aside from
the humor, pathos, and dismal romance of the
book, the American publishers believe that it
contains much valuable information for spe-
cialists in criminology.

LoTHROP Publishing Co. have just ready a
Christian Science novel, "The Life Within,"
by an anonymous writer, which will no doubt
mterest believers quite as much as the general
public, because of its dramatic value and
vivid pictures of the wonders of the new
faith. They will also publish "Cliveden,"
Kenyon West's historical romance of Chew
House, Germantown, in the Revolutionary
days, and Frederick W. Eldridge's satiric
novel of society life, "A Social Cockatrice,"
an arraignment of fashion and folly in pluto-
cratic circles, with a heroine whose striking
personality and brilliant, though heartless, ad-
ventures in chmbing into the most exclusive
circles, make good reading. They also have
in preparation Charles Warren Stoddard's
took of essays, entitled "Exits and En-
trances," containing a dozen and a half mem-
ories and sketches by the famous author of
the "South Sf^a Idyls."

Frederick A. Stokes Co. have just pub-
lished Agnes and Egerton Castle's new story,
"The Star Dreamer," which is described as
the most romantic novel that has yet come
from the pens of these authors ; "Letters of
an Actress," which cover the career of a suc-
cessful actress of our time, who went on the
stage as a child, but who chooses to remain
incognito for the present ; "The Fern Collec-
tor's Guide," by Willard Nelson Clute, which
will enable the novice to learn without much
ciflficulty the name of any species of fern, or
to find all species in his locality; also, "The
Book of Old China," by Mrs. N. Hudson
Moore, well known through her contributions
on the subject in Leslie's sltyA in the Delinea-
tor. "The Magnetic North," promised to the
many admirebiS of "The Open Question" for
recent publication, has been postponed by
the Stokes Company, as Miss Elizabeth Rob-
ins has been unable to complete the story as
soon as she expected. .

McClure, PHiLLiPS & Co. have brought
cut a number of interesting books, most of
them fiction. The most important in the list
are "Lees and Leaven," a clever novel of the
cosmopolitan and panoramic life of New
York, by Edward W. Townsend, author of
"Chimmie Fadden ;" "The Chameleon," a
story of a man's experiments with his emo-
tions and the unhappiness they bring, by
James Weber Linn, author of "The Second
Generation;" "The Squireen," a strong novel
of temperament, the scene of which is laid in
North Ireland, by Shan F. Bullock, author of
"Irish Pastorals." Two books on their list



bear the stamp of a London success
"Youth," by Joseph Conrad, author of "Lord
Jim ;" and "Anna of the Five Towns," by Ar-
nold Bennett, author of "The Great Babylon
Hotel." "Youth" contains three stories of
adventure on sea and land, and critics have
said that to have written "Youth" places Con-
rad in rank with the best short story writers
of any language. "Anna of the Five Towns"
tells the story of a sincere girl's life and her
pathetic struggle for the right to be happy,
amid the cant and hypocrisy of a non-con-
formist community m Staffordshire, England.

A. S. Barnes & Co. have in preparation a
work on "The Real Benedict Arnold," by
Charles Burr Todd. While emphasizing Ar.
nold's services to the Colonies, Mr. Todd
does not condone Arnold's treason. He shows
that it was the influence of the traitor's wife
and his fear of losing her should her own
treasonable correspondence with the British
officers be discovered which induced Arnold
to betray his country, and not the gross in-
justice of Congress nor the calumnies of pa-
per generals the motives generally ascribed.
Two novels that promise more than ordi-
nary interest are soon to appear "The Stum-
bling Block," by Edwin Pugh, with illustra-
tions by R. M. Crosby, and "Life's Common
Way," by Annie Eliot Trumbull, a novel of
present-day New England. For distracted
mothers as well as settlement workers in
kitchen gardens there is "The Child House-
keeper," by Elizabeth Colson and Anna G.
Chittenden, with introduction by Jacob A.
Riis. It is the xDUtcome of actual experience
in teaching small girls to do intelligent work
in their homes, using the materials and uten-
.cils there provided. Classes may be thus
taught, and work which is ordinarily classed
as drudgery will become interesting and pleas-
urable to the young people.

D. Appleton & Co. will shortly issue "The
History of Puerto Rico," by R. A. Van Mid-
deldyk, librarian of the Free Public Library
of San Juan. This will be the first English
record of Spanish rule in the island and, hav-
ing been compiled from all data obtainable
in the island, will present in a connected nar-
rative a trustworthy account of the social and
institutional life of the island during four
hundred years. A notable biography also on
press is that of "Horace Greeley," by Will-
iam A. Linn, author of "The Story of the
Mormons." Strange as it may seem, this is
the first comprehensive life of Greeley since
Parton's book, published just before the
Civil War. "Millionaire Households and
Their Domestic Economy, with Hints upon
Fine Living," is an altogether unusual book,
by Mary E. Carter, describing how the es-
tablishments of American millionaires are
managed from kitchen to topmost story ; how
preparations are made for balls, etc. The
Appletons' most important fiction announce-
ment is "Richard Rosny," by Maxwell Gray,
author of that successful novel, "The Silence
of Dean Maitland." It is a stpry of a mar-
ried life of misunderstanding almost culmi-
nating, though not quite, in a domestic trag-
edy, and is worked out with the author's
proved skill in secrecy of motive.



The Literary News

3n tm'nfer ijou mag rca^e t^em, 06 isnem, 6p f ge ffrectbe ; anb in tummer, ob umBrom, un&er some B^Obit ttu,

anb f0ertortg fa&B atoj fge fefetous 6otcr.



Vol. XXIV.



APRIL, 1903.



No. 4.




From "The Great Sibeiian R



Copyright, 1903, by C. P. Futnan.'s Sons.



PORT ARTHUR.



The Great Sib

It was in 1891 that the first steps were
taken, under an Imperial rescript from the
CVar, in the construction of the great railway
line that now stretches from ocean to ocean
across the vast dominions of Russia. From
St. Petersburg and the wild desolation of Si-
beria, down through the Tartar provinces and
the Mongolian regions into the Orient, the
traveller may to-day make continuous, swift
and indeed luxurious journey. It is this
journey that is now described by that veteran
globe trotter, Michael Myers Shoemaker, who
brings to his narration a fund of experience
and observation in far distant corners of the
world. Mr. Shoemaker's journey began at
Moscow on April 24, 1902, and ended at
Port Arthur, just across the gulf from Pekin,
on May 13, having carried him in less than
three weeks "from the frozen Gulf of Finland
to the laughing blue waters of the Gulf of
Liao-tung or the Yellow Sea." Interesting
as is this panorama of "The Great Siberian
Railway" on account of the varied scenes and
the sharp contrasts in nature and in man that
il presents, it is still more impressive in its
revelation of the vast potentialities now stir-



erian Railway.

ring in the immense realm of Russia a realm
tliat must become one of the great world-
forces of the future. Mr. Shoemaker's nar-
rative is simple, direct, and graphic. He has
a keen eye for the picturesque, and a strong
practical habit of thought that emphasizes the
commercial and national possibilities of Rus-
sia's industrial development. From the bril-
liant cosmopolitan life of St. Petersburg and
Moscow he carries us through Western Si-
beria and the great steppes, with their tragic
penal settlements, across Eastern Siberia and
the Trans-Baikal with its mixed population of
Russians and Mongols, into the semi-Oriental
barbarism of Manchuria. Port Arthur marks
the end of the railway journey, but from there
the traveller passes by steamer to touch at
Korea, "the land of the morning calm," and
to close his pilgrimage in Pekin, where the
fierce fires of the Boxer riots and the later
war, are, so Mr. Shoemaker believes, still
sniouldering for future devastation. The vol-
ume is supplied with excellent illustrations
from photographs, an outline map, and,,ar^^-^ f iy!t^

fu] index, and is a distinct contributiOT^on,thc

\niViicUhr



subject. (Putnam. $2 net.)



ary



"To



98



THh LITERARY NEWS.



[April, 1903




Courtesy of Bobbs-Merrill Co.
ANNA KATHERINE GREEN (mRS. ROHLFS).

The Filigree Ball.

Detective stories, well-written detective
stories, have a strange fascination for the
great majority of novel readers. Anna Kath-
erine Green is past master in the art of stir-
nr;g curiosity, suspicion, theories, doubts, new
reasonings, etc., that point first to one then
to another and still another character as the
culprit in the special crime she treats in each
story.

"The filigree ball" was a trinket attached
to a little chain, which for two centuries had
been an heirloom in an old Washington fami-
ly. The information hidden in this little or-
nament leads to the solution of mystery sur-
rounding a suspected case of murder and a
si-spected case of suicide, both committed
within a few weeks in the library of an un-
used mansion in Washington, also an heir-
Icom in the same family that so highly prizes
"the filigree ball."

A young detective, on his metal to show his
talent and untiring work to his superior
officers, and full of jealousy and dislike of a
fellow detective, tells the story, with all the
elaboration of detail which always keeps the
author's readers in such breathless suspense.
Faint finger marks in dust on book-covers,
little filings of gold dust, peculiarly tied bows
of ribbon, surprised expressions on faces, the
unaccountable actions of a dog, the change of
position of a picture and the thousand and
one little trifles of speech and action of those
suspected from time to time are all studied by
this indefatigable detective, who occasionally
gets a sweet little girl to help him in a spe-



cially delicate manoeuvre. The publishers have
certainly a book sure to sell in this last comer
in the ranks of their phenomenally popular
bcoks. There is nothing harrowing about the
story, but it is intensely exciting, and through
it all runs a peculiar tale of love and its pro-
verbial lack of smoothness. (Bobbs-Merrill.
$1.50.)



Aana of the Five Towns.

The book in question is Mr. Arnold Ben-
nett's "Anna of the'Five Towns." Mr. Ben-
nett I do not know, except as the author of
the "Great Babylon Hotel." a book which was
published last winter, and achieved a certain
degree of popularity. It was good of its kind.
It began with broad farce, which was amus-
ing, and then developed into a Russian Nihilist
story of the usual sort. "Anna of the Five
Towns" is a totally different sort of thing. It
is a study of life in a small Nonconformist
town, and it is not in the least humorous,
neither does it contain any adventure worth
mention. It is a study after the manner of
?Jola, but without those peculiarities which
make Zola's books sometimes tedious and
often unfitted for general reading. The plot
is a simple one, but it contains a surprise that
breaks on the reader in almost the last para-
graph. The characters are wonderfully true
to life, and are painted with the hand of a
master.

I have read every novel of importance that
has been published in England for the last




Courtesy of McClure, Phillips & Co.
PAULINE BRADFORD MACKIE.



April 1903]



THE LITERARY NEWS.



99



ten years, and, of its kind, "Anna of the Five
Towns" is certainly the best piece of work
since "Esther Waters." Mr. Bennett is an
artist. One thing may be safely prophesied.
"Anna of the Five Towns" will he promptly
recognized by those critics whose opinion is
vvorth something as the most thoroughly ar-
tistic story of the year. Whether the public
will care for it, rerpains to be seen. I am
inclined to think they will.
Work so good as that which
Mr. Bennett has here done can
hardly fail of its reward. Be-
sides the book does not err on
the side of length. It does not
tire one to read it through at
a single sitting.

Still, if the public does not
see the merit of Mr. Bennett's
performance, he will at least
have the satisfaction of know-
ing that he has done work of
which any man might well be
proud. We shall hear more of
him as time goes on. He has
found his proper path, and he
has only to follow it with the
same care which he has shown
in "Anna of the Five Towns."
(McClure, Phillips. $1.50.)
\W. L. Aid en in N. Y. Times
;Sat. Review.



A Virginia Girl in the Civil War.

This is one of the most interesting of
books upon the Civil War period. It is a
simple story of the experience of a woman
during war times and its very simplicity is
its charm. The author has given us just
the plainest sort of a tale, but if she had
striven to embellish it she would have spoiled
its effect. As the work now stands it is en-



Maxwell Gray's New Novel.

"Richard Rosny/' the new
novel by Maxwell Gray, the
i well-known English author of
J "The Silence of Dean Mait-
[land" and "The House of Hid-
[den Treasures!" is the story of
a man whose character changes

after an incident in his life.

The author does not give the

true cause of this until the end

of the story, although her rea-
son is sufficient at the time this
.happens. The novel closes
Iwith the wrecking of the hero's
idomestic happiness by the dis-
|loyalty of his best friend and the disappointed

iflfections of his wife. The scene of the book
Ks laid in the North of England, near the sea.
|:The characters are of gentle birth, though
the author introduces as a contrast the ten-
antry of Cumberland. The author shows her

:sual knowledge of human nature and her
compassionate love for all mankind. She al-
W'ays writes a wholesome story.




From "Richard Rosny."

"l MEANT WHAT I SAID/



Copyrij;ht, 1903, by D. Applelou i Co^
ADDED KATHLEEN.



titled to high praise. It is worthy, too, of
a permanent place in the library of the stu-
dent of history, as well as in the collection
of the reader to whom entertainment comes
before information.

Our author says in her preface : "This his-
tory was told over the tea cups. One winter
in the South I had for my neighbor a gentle,
little brown-haired lady, who spent many



lOO



THE LITERARY NEWS.



[April, 1903



evenings at my fireside, as I at hers, where
v/ith bits of needlework we gossiped away
as women will." Those who read this book
arc admitted to the sacred councils of close
friends. "A Virginia Girl in the Civil War"
shows us simply, sincerely and unconsciously
what life meant to an American woman dur-
ing the vital and formative period of Ameri-
can history. That this American woman was
also a Virginian, with all a Virginian's love
for Virginia and loyalty for the South, gives
to her record of those days that are still "the
very fiber of us" a fidelity rarely found in
studies of local color. Meanwhile her grate-
ful affection for the Union soldiers, officers
and men, who served and shielded her, should
lift this story to a place beyond the pale of
sectional prejudice.
We cordially agree with our author and



are of the opinion that the story of the Vir-
gmia girl will be read without a trace of sec-
tional feeling other than the pride that we
of the South naturally have in our true-
hearted women, of which the heroine in the
present volume is a type. Northern readers
will join us in our appreciation, for no more
typical American has ever been pictured by
an author. (Appleton, $1.25 net.) Balti-
more Sun.




f> ttiH , '^U



?rom Lady Rose s Uaaghter.' ' Copyright, 1903, by Harper & Bros

"her hands clasped in front of her."



Lady Rose's Daughter.

A great outcry has been raised over the
very small discovery that Mrs. Humphry
Ward did not invent the "situation" out of
which she developed her new novel, but took
it ready made from what, in the confession
that has been extorted very easily from
her, she calls "that treasure house of human
psychology, the world of
French memoirs." Per-
haps it would have been
as well, or even a little
better, if she had briefly
noted the fact on her ti-
tle-page or in a preface,
but to have done so
would have been to de-
prive some of her critics
of a precious opportuni-
ty to display the extent
of their erudition, while
it would have added
nothing whatever or at
least nothing relevant
either to the interest or
to the value of the novel
as a novel.

And "Lady Rose's
Daughter" is certainly a
book that captures the at-
tention at once and holds
it a far from unwilling
prisoner, as chapter after
chapter reveals a curious
and significant phase of
what, if not English high
life, is a most convincing
semblance of it. These
are living people to
whom we are introduced,
and we come to know
and understand them
much better than our
next door neighbors and
daily associates. This is
true to almost as great a
degree of the minor as of



April, 1903]



THE LITERARY NEWS



101



the major personages of Sir Wilfrid in
the role of chorus and universal confi-
dant, as of the tyrannous and tempered
Lady Henry; of the statesmen looming
dimly in the background, as of Julie's two
lovers, the too practical Warkworth and
the too virtuous Delafield of the birdlike
Duchess, as of Julie herself, infinitely com-
plex, and yet consistent, comprehensible,
and human. They are all individuals and
all individualized. But it is literature
the real thing and big; art, with the doing
hidden by the done, as it ought to be; the
creative imagination at work on observed
^actualities. . . . Living, few will dare to
[call Mrs. Ward's genius great and unques-
.tionable, but for her talent terms of ex-
aggeration would be hard to find. Hers,
^certainly, are the comprehending view and
[,the large, if not the grand, style. She has
(.made Julie Le Breton as substantial as,