“Viewed as a manual of plausible and often valuable information, the book is a welcome addition to the library on Japan: but to take Mr. Stead’s statements on their face value is to accept a fabric of delusion.”
Stealey, O. O.Twenty years in the press gallery. $5. O. O. Stealey, 1421 G St., Washington, D. C.
A concise history of important legislation from the 48th to the 58th congress; the part played by the leading men of that period and the interesting and impressive incidents; impressions of official and political life in Washington. There is an introduction contributed by Mr. Henry Watterson in which he alludes to the seamy side of a Washington correspondent’s experiences and to the side that makes the life endurable.
“He has a sunny, gossipy, conversational way of writing that leaves no wounds. And it is evident that he suppresses the unkind things he might say. The chief defect of the book is the suppression of the author’s personality. He tells too little of what he himself has seen and known of public men.”
Steel, Mrs. Flora Annie Webster.Book of mortals: being a record of the good deeds and good qualities of what humanity is pleased to call the lower animals. $3. Macmillan.
“Reproductions of great paintings of animals have been published in attractive typographical form with a story written around them.” (R. of Rs.) “The book is divided into three parts—‘What our fellow-mortals are,’ ‘What animals have done for man,’ and ‘What our fellow-mortals are doing.’ In the first part the author shows the similarity of the ways of the ‘beasts that perish’ and those of mortals; Part 2, is given over to a few animal legends and tales of animal symbolism which have been interwoven with the history of the human race, while the third division concerns itself with the ways in which, day by day, hour by hour, they (our ‘fellow mortals’) make the life of each of us pleasurable, profitable—nay, more! possible.” (N. Y. Times.)
“The author’s is a hopelessly sentimental view, but she is very much in earnest, and pleads her case with eloquence and with the address of an advocate.”
“There are both humor and kindliness in the writing of this book.”
“Perhaps the secret of the unsatisfactory and somewhat mystifying effect of the work is due to the fact that she writes not like one but as two distinct persons.”
Steffens, Joseph Lincoln.Struggle for self-government: being an attempt to trace American political corruption to its sources in six states of the United States, with a dedication to the czar. **$1.20. McClure.
In this volume the author of “The shame of the cities,” “describes the government in six of our states in the direction of a return to the political cleanliness of former times. It is the general movement against bossism, of which the elections of 1905 gave many cheering indications. Mr. Steffens’ account of what has been accomplished in Ohio, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Wisconsin, and Missouri is full of encouragement to friends of popular government in other states.” (R. of Rs.)
“It is unfortunate, however, that Mr. Steffens, with so commendable a purpose, should adopt in his writing a tone of arrogance and a disinclination to restraint in his use of the picturesque. It is difficult at times to overlook this fault, and to keep in mind that the author’s object is truth rather than sensationalism.”
“If there is any serious fault to be found with this book it is a fault of style rather than of substance.”
“A specimen of workmanlike journalism rather than literature. Its value is of the moment, for there is no trace of the learning and insight which distinguish and give permanent worth to treatises like Bryce’s or De Tocqueville’s.” Edward A. Bradford.
“We wish Mr. Steffens’s words were as sound and persuasive as they are courageous.”
Steindorff, Georg.Religion of the ancient Egyptians. **$1.50. Putnam.
“The booklet gives about as good a picture of a complicated and wide subject as could be given in such limited space, and some further minor criticisms would not alter this judgment.” W. Max. Müller.
“It would be impossible to gain anything like a clear idea of the individual Egyptian deities from Steindorff’s book, which is, perhaps necessarily, sketchy and some what superficial.” L. H. Gray.
“As to the value of what Professor Steindorff has given us, there can be but one judgment. It is interesting in manner, and constructed on the best plan of advanced scholarship.”
“Prof. Steindorff’s lectures are comparatively comprehensive of all the light we have on Egyptian religion, set forth in popular and readable but distinctly scholarly terms.” Ira Maurice Pike.
“The most reliable, readable, and sane treatment of the religion of Egypt which has appeared.”
Steiner, Edward A.On the trail of the immigrant.**$1.50. Revell.
Humanity and individual responsibility pulsate thru the pages of Mr. Steiner’s earnest statement of the immigrant problem. The work is offered as the result of careful study the author having been a steerage passenger himself, first out of necessity, and later, for the sake of a close range inquiry. He says that a new gigantic race is being born between the Atlantic and the Pacific, a race whose immigrant element is primitive, uncultured, untutored, with all the virtues and vices in the making. “They are the best material with which to build a nation materially; they are good stock to be used in replenishing physical depletion: and capable of taking on the highest intellectual and spiritual culture.” Yet he admits that they are a serious problem.
“Dr. Steiner is a capital story-teller also, and enlivens his chapters with anecdote and incident. The book cannot fail to afford excellent material for the use of students of immigrant problems.”
Step, Edward.Wild flowers month by month. 2v. *$4.50. Warne.
“Mr. Step has a deep knowledge of British plants, and this work is full of interesting and instructive details as to how, when and where they grow.... The author has not attempted (and wisely we think in a book of this description which is intended for the general reader rather than the botanist) anything like a full enumeration of the flora of the British Isles.... We find that mention is made of some five hundred different plants only.... The book deals chiefly with plants whose flowers are conspicuous, as distinct from those with inconspicuous blossoms.... One of the most interesting classes, and the most fully described, is that of the British orchids.” (Acad.) The volumes are profusely illustrated from photographs.
“While we have nothing but praise for the accurate and interesting descriptions and entertaining particulars of the plants mentioned it is impossible to say the same of the illustrations.”
“The traveler, as well as the botanist, will welcome [it.]”
“A book which contains much rather commonplace descriptive writing, with a slightly professorial style and rather strained humorous sallies.”
Stephen, Leslie.Hobbes. **75c. Macmillan.
Stephens, Robert Neilson.Flight of Georgiana.†$1.50. Page.
“A spirited and fairly-well written romantic love-story.”
Stephens, Thomas, ed. Child and religion. *$1.50. Putnam.
Reviewed by Robert R. Rusk.
“Offers much attractive and suggestive material.” M. Mackenzie.
Stephenson, Henry Thew.Shakespeare’s London. **$2. Holt.
“Few volumes will do so much to supply the student of Shakespeare with what is necessary for visualizing not only the background of the life of the poet, but also the background present to the minds of him and his audience in many of his plays.” William Allen Neilson.
“We could wish that Professor Stephenson’s book might commend itself as certainly to the lover of good letters as to the lover of history. Its style is hardly worthy of its theme.” Charles H. A. Wager.
“The curious matter is its own and best excuse for being, and the rarity of the forty odd illustrations adds, also, to the book’s value.”
Sterling, Sara Hawks.Shakespeare’s sweetheart. †$2. Jacobs.
“The author has very much idealized the characters of both Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway, but she has succeeded in writing a most delightful tale.” Amy C. Rich.
“The tale has been told in a quaint, old-fashioned atmosphere that cannot but be pleasing.”
“In many respects the story is a pleasing bit of fancy and can not but win the reader.”
“The story is told in quaint literary style, and the author has fairly succeeded in doing what she set out to do—in suggesting the rhythm of Shakespeare’s own poetry.”
Sterrett, James Macbride.Freedom of authority: essays in apologetics. **$2. Macmillan.
“The author of these essays in apologetics is an impassioned pleader for religious conformity. Professor Sterrett is in greater sympathy with Loisy than with Protestant thinkers.” Nathaniel Schmidt.
“If the book offers the technical philosopher little material and few view-points that are new, yet here much that is not new receives virile, suggestive, stimulating treatment. Its logic is robust, but to a comprehensive survey it does not always appear discriminating and convincing.” E. L. Norton.
“It is not very well put together and sometimes declamation is offered as a substitute for patient criticism. There is a good deal of mere repetition. In my opinion, he propounds a much truer and sounder philosophical standpoint for the interpretation of Christianity than one finds in those whom he criticises.” J. A. Leighton.
Stevens, George Barker.Christian doctrine of salvation. **$2.50. Scribner.
“The aim of this work is ‘to present a biblical, historical, and constructive discussion of the doctrine of salvation.’ It is therefore in the field of systematic theology, but approaches its problems distinctly from the historical side, through biblical theology, distinguishing between the different conceptions held by different biblical writers, and between the temporary and the permanent in their thought.”—Bib. World.
“There are several points in the book which, did space permit, might furnish matter for criticism. But these do not seriously affect the main argument.”
“This magnificent piece of work is entitled to a hearty reception, for it not only abounds in rich and suggestive ideas, but it is also full of religious inspiration.” George Cross.
“Prof. Stevens’s work is a notable addition to our modern theological literature. It is marked by lucidity in its historical presentations and acuteness in its criticisms; and there is evidence of the author’s acquaintance with recent books on his subject.”
“The book is seen to be one of the best from Professor Stevens’s hand.”
“That volume is not suffused with feeling. It is without sentiment. The problem of suffering culminating in the suffering of Jesus Christ is discussed as a purely intellectual problem. In this, to our thinking, is the chief defect of the volume.”
Stevenson, Burton Egbert.Affairs of state: being an account of certain surprising adventures which befell an American family in the land of windmills; il. by F. Vaux Wilson. †$1.50. Holt.
A Wall street capitalist and two daughters are established in a poorly patronized hotel at a Dutch watering place. The inaction of the sojourn palls upon the father and he assumes the proprietorship of the place for one month. His American business methods result in large patronage and among the guests are diplomats who are bent upon settling the question of succession to the duchy of Schloshold-Markheim. Love, intrigue and misunderstanding produce a continuation of dramatic situations.
“The easy indifference of the early style and story may have been part of the author’s plan. Whether it was or not, it contributes in no small measure to the sudden surprise and delight of the big chapter at the end.”
“Fails to hold the interest or stimulate the curiosity.”
Stevenson, Burton Egbert.Girl with the blue sailor. [+]1.50. Dodd.
“A young newspaper man, going upon his first real vacation since he left college, gets involved with an old college chum and the college chum’s bride upon their honeymoon, and entangled also with an interesting family consisting of a pompous papa, and affected mamma, and four charming unmarried daughters. All of them are guests at the same mountain tavern. The girl in the blue sailor also comes there.... First are jests Inspired by the presence of the bride and groom, then matchmaking plots, picnics, boating expeditions, sparkling conversations with rather frequent quotations from Browning. In the very midst of it the young newspaper man gets sent to South Africa, where he makes an immense name as a war correspondent. After several years he comes back after his reward.”—N. Y. Times.
“A very college boyish and amateurish love story.”
“Slight but rather pretty summer romance.”
Stevenson, Burton E., and Elizabeth B., comps. Days and deeds; a book of verse for children’s reading and speaking. **$1. Baker.
Significant poetry relating to American holidays and to great Americans has been grouped in this volume for use in schools and in the family. To this have been added a short anthology of the seasons, and eight lyrics that every child should know, including “The chambered nautilus,” Kipling’s “L’envoi,” “Abou Ben Adhem,” etc.
“This should prove a very useful book for schools.”
Stevenson, Mrs. Margaret Isabella (Balfour).Letters from Samoa, 1891–1895, ed. and arranged by Marie Clothilde Balfour. *$2. Scribner.
“The second and last instalment of these letters written by the mother of Stevenson during her journeys to Samoa and her life in his household there up to her return home after his death. All lovers of the man will be interested in them from their connection with the last years of his life, and no less for their personal charm and wit combined with sterling commonsense. They show that mother and son were in many respects alike—in their patience and fortitude in suffering as well as in their intellectual qualities and tastes.”—Critic.
“This last batch of letters is always interesting, although Vailima was but a little world and life there much of a muchness day after day. Nor is anything described in these letters that is new to us.”
“Had the letters contained anything noteworthy, either for its own sake, or as illustrative of Stevenson’s character or genius, they would have been welcome.”
“Though the motive in publishing the book may have been the desire to preserve some record of Mrs. Stevenson, it is quite certain that the only motive in reading it will be the desire to press still further if that is possible into the intimacies of her son’s life.”
“No more delightful book about Stevenson has been published since his death, and it is a moral tonic as well.”
Stevenson, Robert Louis Balfour.Child’s garden of verses.$2.50. Scribner.
“Stevenson’s delicate cameos of childhood have found a most apt interpreter who has a style of her own with a curious charm.”
“One of the most attractive forms in which this most delightful book about children has appeared.”
Stickney, (Joseph) Trumbull.Poems. *$1.50. Houghton.
A posthumous volume of verse which includes “all of Stickney’s work that is for any reason valuable.” There are six groups as follows: Dramatic verses, Fragments of a drama on the life of Emperor Julian, Later lyrics, A dramatic scene, Juvenilia, and Fragments.
“Promise rather than fulfillment is a mark of this work as a whole.” Wm. M. Payne.
“The book is edited with a wealth of piety and a rather conspicuous poverty of taste. Had he lived and been able to attain to a mastery of form and of syntax, he would undoubtedly have been a poet to reckon with.”
“We owe to the excellent judgment of his editors, no doubt that nothing commonplace or unworthy has crept into this posthumous book of his verse.”
Stiefel, H. C.Slices from a long loaf; logbook of an eventful voyage by five Pittsburg tourists down the beautiful Allegheny river, from Oil City to Pittsburg. $1.25. Bissell block pub.
“A minimum of information about some of the industries of the Pittsburg district is here combined with the story of a boating trip and with a retelling of some other stories, classical and otherwise. The author explains his title by saying that the book like a loaf, may be sliced into at either end or the middle, as fancy chooses.”—Engin. N.
Stimson, Frederic Jesup (J. S. of Dale, pseud.).In cure of her soul. †$1.50. Appleton.
The complications created by a host of characters and a tangle of events make for this novel a much-involved plot in which the hero who married in haste, realizes his mistake, finds the woman whom he can love “as a star,” but renounces her and turns from the giddy world to sincere endeavor in the field of law and politics. The wife, meanwhile, develops from a selfish petulant girl who loves the admiration of other men and the ways of a flashy vulgar social set, into a wife and mother worthy of the husband to whom she is re-united on the eve of his greatest political victory. The whole is an argument against divorce.
“With certain marked faults of style and some looseness of construction, Mr. Stimson’s new novel is none the less one of the few genuinely valuable contributions to fiction of the year. Would that its like were more common.”
“In failing to work out this problem psychologically, the author has missed a great opportunity, and to a certain extent disappointed us in the expectations which might reasonably be based upon the title he has chosen for his work.” Wm. M. Payne.
“Whether or not Mr. Stimson wrote his latest book keeping pace with a serial, it has faults which a serial form imposes. The lessons of the book are mainly noble ones developed with much generous interpretation of motive, much poetic breadth of vision.”
“Excision and compression would have added greatly to the value of a striking book.”
“It lacks a certain vitality which makes some stories popular, a certain brilliancy of touch or definiteness of characterization which carries other stories to great audiences; but it is a clean, clear, strong piece of work.”
Stodola, Aurel.Steam turbines; with an appendix on gas turbines and the future of heat engines. *$4.50. Van Nostrand.
Stokely, Edith Keeley, and Hurd, Marian Kent.Miss Billy. †$1.50. Lothrop.
“The story is pleasant and cheering, and it contains a lesson that we all need.”
Stoker, Bram (Abraham).Reminiscences of Sir Henry Irving. *$7.50. Macmillan.
Mr. Stoker, for many years Mr. Irving’s business manager, writes from first-hand information. “Of Irving, as a man and manager—a personality potent, intellectual, indomitable, ambitious, honorable, tender, imperious, picturesque, and fascinating—he gives a most at-
“Here, at last, the man lives for us in the pages of his friend; here, at last, we catch the sense of his greatness, which makes all the gossip and chatter seem dustier and dryer than before. Three things in the book are of importance: the account of Sir Henry’s views on his art; the financial history of his management and his attitude towards the contemporary dramatist.”
“Mr. Stoker has failed to endow his sketch with life. The outline is conventional where it is not vague, and the filling in shows a decided want of the sense of proportion.”
“This tribute of love and admiration which his sorrowful lieutenant lays upon his tomb is not the least of his honours.” I. Ranken Towse.
“His candid Reminiscences have opened the actor’s life and character to the public. The wit, the wisdom, the anecdote, the talk by famous men and about them, the strangeness and vivacity of many of the incidents and eminence of many of the characters, combine to render the work fascinating and instructive.” Ingram A. Pyle.
“The book may often enough provoke a good-humoured smile, but it is of first rate interest for the light it throws on one who was, in his line, a great man, and none the less welcome because it incidentally records the entirely honourable career of that man’s faithful friend.”
“‘For my own part the work which I have undertaken in this book is to show future minds something of Henry Irving as he was to me.’ So says Bram Stoker, in his preface to these two bulky volumes of personal reminiscences, and no one, after reading them, can deny that to this extent at least he has fully and ably accomplished his purpose.”
“It is not a biography at all, but it presents such a picture of Henry Irving from the beginning of his career to his last performance, as has not been hitherto accessible. As a gossip Mr. Stoker is always amiable.”
“Other shortcomings there are in these volumes besides the failure to make known to us the real Irving—Irving the man as distinguished from Irving the actor. But, after all is said, this is a book to be grateful for, abook that will be of deep interest to gentlemen of ‘the profession,’ and an important contribution to the history of the English stage.”
“Within the limitations laid down for himself by the author, however, the work is brimful of interest as a contribution not only to the history of the technical advance of the stage during half a century, but to that of its social rise as well.”
Stone, Gertrude Lincoln, and Fickett, Mary Grace.Days and deeds of a hundred years ago. *35c. Heath.
Under the headings: Two heroes of a “Far old year” (1780), From Massachusetts to Ohio (1787), The inauguration of Washington (1789), The story of the cotton gin (1793), The Parkers’ moving and settling (1798), The success of Robert Fulton (1807), A canal journey (1826), Kindling a fire (1828), A railroad story (1830), The electric telegraph (1844), are told stories of a hundred years ago which will make those days seem real to the children of today.
Stoner, Burton.Squeaks and squawks from far-away forests: a sequel to Jim Crow tales; il. by C: Livingston Bull. $1. Saalfield.
All about the first, second and third floor dwellers in White oak castle—which, unshorn of its romance, is a plain old oak tree. The animals and birds that tenant it furnish bits of wisdom and entertainment for juveniles.
Strang, Herbert.Brown of Moukden: a story of the Russo-Japanese war; il. by W. Rainey. †$1.50. Putnam.
Mr. Strang’s story is “an exciting narrative reciting the adventures of an English youth—Jack Brown—the son of a British merchant doing business in Moukden at the outbreak of the recent war between Russia and Japan.” (N. Y. Times.)
“Herbert Strang may be congratulated on another first-rate book.”
“The fault of the story is that it is too long, and, to tell the truth, is sometimes tedious. Yet there is more good matter in it than in most of the kind.”
“A good story for boys.”
“An admirable piece of work.”
“Is certainly a success.”
Strasburger, Eduard.Rambles on the Riviera; tr. from the German by O. and B. Comerford Casey. *$5. Scribner.
While in the main it is the botanist who studies his flowers for the reader’s benefit, yet in more than plants does he use his powers of observation. Descriptions of people, their surroundings, and the changes that the seasons make in both are to be found in the book, as well as intimate knowledge of the local flora. The illustrations reproduce almost every plant presented in the text.
“One’s interest in his luxuriously printed and illustrated book is primarily scientific.” Wallace Rice.
“As a writer, he is a true impressionist, making some times a single line or a touch of color tell a long story. This record then, is an attractive, as well as sound guide-book.”
“This luxurious—one might truly say luxuriant—book is pre-eminently the work of a scientific mind which would remove itself as far as possible from reposeless, useless, pleasure-seeking modern life and find rest and acquire knowledge in a contemplation of nature.”
“Does for the Riviera something of the service that Mr. Thomas’s [‘Heart of England’] does for England.”
“Dr. Strasburger suggests a pursuit which would give novel zest to the walks of the dilettante sojourner.”
Streamer, Col. D., pseud. (Harry Graham).More misrepresentative men.**$1. Fox.
Streatfeild, Richard A.Modern music and musicians. $2.75. Macmillan.
In this volume the author has made studies of most of the greater composers from the time of Palestrina to the present day, attempting to trace the growth of the idea of a poetic basis in music.
“Our author—somewhat impulsive, and ... not always charitable—may now and again irritate us, but there is more to be learnt from him than from one who follows custom, and therefore displays little or no individuality.”
“On the whole, his criticisms are temperate and judicial, albeit at times the bias of an English point of view is discoverable. His style, though not polished, is especially easy, flowing and serviceable.” Lewis M. Isaacs.
“The whole volume seems to want a great deal of revision. It shows much reading and some research, it is well presented, with good illustrations and a good index, but it deals too lightly with a set of problems which, after all, are the most difficult in all musical criticism.”
“There is a good deal that is insular in Mr. Streatfeild.”
“It is unfortunate that theories and prepossessions have taken so firm a hold of a writer who presents himself so authoritatively to the musical public as Mr. Streatfeild.” Richard Aldrich.
“It Is a volume which may well be entitled to occupy an honoured place on the shelf of the book-lover, and which will make its appeal, as the reflection of a cultivated and catholic mind, far beyond the limited circle of English musicians.” Harold E. Gorst.
Street, George Edward.Mount Desert: a history; ed. by S: A. Eliot; with a memorial introd. by Wilbert L. Anderson. **$2.50. Houghton.
“The whole history is simply and interestingly told.”
“It is of specific value as a local history, but it includes much that is beyond the range of its title.”
Stringer, Arthur John Arbuthnott.Wire tappers. †$1.50. Little.
A story of greed end craft and a goodly amount of implied electrical information. Two people, an electrical inventor, and an English girl, by force of unusual circumstances play in a game of chance side by side under the direction of a bookmaker ogre who attempts by wiretappingto beat a pool-room in New York City. “Yet there is in it a plot, or the suggestion of a plot, that might have served Ibsen. In its earlier chapters it develops a posture of events on which a ‘psychological’ novelist or dramatist could have builded a powerful work.” (N. Y. Times.)
“As a whole this novel is one of the most original, interesting and suggestive romances of the year.”
“Quite as clever in its way as Mr. Hornung’s ‘Raffles’ stories.”
“The story is exciting, but the morale is unqualifiedly bad.”
“Although this story is about as immoral in its tendencies as any that we have ever read the crimes which it deals with are so ingeniously contrived as to prove remarkably interesting.” Wm. M. Payne.
“The book is at once action and life, virile and alluring. It grips, and remains a pleasant memory.”
“We care much less for the characterization than for the incidents and the felicitous handling that gives them the semblance of reality.”
“Ingenious story.”
Strong, Mrs. Isobel (Osbourne).Girl from home: a story of Honolulu. †$1.50. McClure.
“Mrs. Strong’s story is of the slightest, but it leaves you with a cheerful sense of having lately picnicked in some pleasant spot where a perpetual sun shone with pure benevolence.” Mary Moss.
Strong, Josiah.Social progress: a year book and encyclopedia of economic, industrial, social and religious statistics, 1906. **$1. Baker.
“Social progress” for this present year directly aids the Department of international social information of the American institute of social service in its aim to create an exchange of thought and knowledge between the workers and students in all departments of social activity around the world. It takes its place in statistical value with the statesman’s year book, the census abstract, and the metropolitan almanacs.
Stuart, Charles Duff.Casa Grande. †$1.50. Holt.
Casa Grande is the California ranch house of a young Southerner who, in the early fifties, was forced into a serious struggle to make good his title to an unconfirmed Mexican grant in the Sonoma valley. The eviction of the squatters, who would neither sell their improvements nor buy his land, brings him in contact with Belle, a spirited young girl of true frontier type, adored by the sheriff, her family and dogs. In the course of the events which follow, Belle is mellowed into a truly womanly woman and, laying aside gunpowder and an explosive temper becomes the mistress of Casa Grande.
“Mr. Stuart goes quietly to work to draw a romantic environment and succeeds in placing in it a number of people who, like volcanoes smolder without exploding until the right time comes.”
Stubbs, Charles William.Christ of English poetry: being the Hulsean lectures delivered before the University of Cambridge, 1904–5. **$2. Dutton.
Dr. Stubbs calls four poets representing four periods in English history to witness to the personality of Christ. They are Cynewulf, Langland, Shakespeare and Browning. Some of the poems of each man are analyzed and there have been added full explanatory notes to each lecture.
“The Christianity of these lectures is a little too vague and indefinite to be either historically true or practically valuable. This is not to deny that the argument of the lecturer is often clever, and that contact with a spirit so tolerant, so hopeful, so appreciative of the best in English life, is refreshing and delightful.”
“They exhibit the preacher’s inevitable limitations. The most serious of these is the determination to force an edifying conclusion out of matter which in fact refuses to provide one. Many interesting things are said and quoted, both in the lectures and in the notes: but the book as a whole must be admitted to be a disappointment.”
“It is a keen intellectual pleasure to read these scholarly and most graceful discourses, stimulating as they are to our own thought.”
Stubbs, Rev. Charles William.Story of Cambridge; il. by Herbert Railton. $2. Macmillan.
The Dean of Ely’s work belongs to the “Mediaeval town series” and tells the reader “what Cambridge was in the past, how it grew materially and spiritually, and what it is now.” (Spec.)
“The book is somewhat dry reading, rather a book of reference.”
“This little book is a handy guide to the university town.”
“His style is not attractive; but everything he knows about town and university is placed at your service, you may help yourself.”
“Dean Stubbs knows his Cambridge at first hand, and, what is as important, knows also how to write.”
“The Dean has made a lively and picturesque volume out of his superabundant materials.”
“This volume ... is in every way attractive.”
Stubbs, Rt. Rev. William, bishop of Oxford.Lectures on early English history; ed. by Arthur Hassall. *$4. Longmans.
“The first half of the volume is, in some measure, a commentary upon the author’s ‘Select charters.’ ... The second half of the book is a series of lectures on an entirely different topic—a study of medieval constitutions in the light of nationality and religion. In these pages Bishop Stubbs is less restrained than in his treatment of the details of the English constitution, and they reveal, not, indeed, the humour of the companion volume, but some of the speaker’s fundamental positions and convictions.”—Lond. Times.
“We may be grateful for the publication of Bishop Stubbs’s ‘Lectures on early English history’ ... for biographical reasons, if forno other, for the light they throw on the author’s methods of work. For those who can separate what is obsolete from what is still of value, they are worth much more than this.”
“Their work was done in the hour of their delivery; they can never have been meant for publication, for Stubbs knew how fast and far knowledge had posted since they were written.”
“Mr. Hassall has taken his editorial duties much too lightly.” James Tait.
“Students of early English history will find in these pages much that is useful and suggestive, and they will leave them with greater admiration than ever for the learning and the wisdom of the great Bishop of Oxford.”
“Some of the discourses published by Mr. Hassall would hardly have left Stubbs’s own hand for the press in their present unrevised condition, but, as revealing his more spontaneous habits of thought, it is well to have them in their present form.”
“It is doubtful whether he intended these lectures to be published; and he would have been the first to admit that some parts of them required further elaboration before their argument could be regarded as complete.”
“Here for the first time he has placed in his hands full, and for the most part satisfactory, explanations and the technical terms used in the laws and charters of the Norman kings, and what is really a full commentary upon the texts of the ‘Select charters.’”
Studies in philosophy and psychology: a commemorative volume by former students of Charles Edward Garman. *$2.50. Houghton.
A volume presented to Professor Charles Edward Garman on the 20th of June, 1906, in commemoration of his twenty-five years of service as teacher in philosophy in Amherst college. There are thirteen papers on philosophical subjects, nine of whose contributors are professors in American colleges and universities, one a professor in a theological seminary; two are college instructors; and one is head of the South End house, Boston.
“The present volume will serve as a permanent and worthy memorial of this service, upon which the outside world may be permitted to congratulate all concerned.” James Rowland Angell and A. W. Moore.
“The ‘Outlook’ congratulates him on this well-deserved monument which they have reared to his memory.”
Sturgis, Howard Overing.All that was possible. †$1.50. Putnam.
A series of letters written by a woman who had sold her birthright for a mess of pottage. “The Earl of Medmenham was Sybil Croft’s first serious indiscretion; and when he took her from the stage and agreed to be responsible for her expenses, she justified herself by the belief that she really loved him. But when the Earl married, she realised that she was not in the least broken-hearted, philosophically accepted the modest settlement he offered her, and betook herself to a remote corner of Wales.” (Bookm.) Here Robert Henshaw finds her; “they fall in love,—she, uplifted by him, honourably; he, dragged down by her, dishonourably.” (Pub. Opin.).
“The subtle understanding of mood and temperament stamps this book as a finer piece of art than many a more pretentious volume.” Frederic Taber Cooper.
“The book is extremely interesting, although much shorter and slighter in construction than that brilliant study of London life, Belchamber.” M. K. Ford.
“It is the most normally written, least emotional book of the season; and it may be a good one, but, if so, goodness may be regained, like the health by a change of scene, diet and climate.” Mrs. L. H. Harris.
“The letters are brilliantly written.”
“The man, Robert Henshaw, is wooden and unconvincing—the woman behind the letters is strange, but very true.”
“A successful psychologic study.”
Sturgis, Howard Overing.Belchamber. †$1.50. Putnam.
“Belongs among those books which are good enough not only to read, but to discuss.” Mary Moss.
Sturgis, Russell.Appreciation of pictures. **$1.50. Baker.
“Judging the book strictly on the standards thus set up by its author it is found to be of very uneven merit. We should like it better if the author had taken more pains with his verbal style, which is, barring the occasional technical jargon, a very ordinary journalese.”
“Mr. Sturgis strongly resembles Mr. Hamerton in the perverted diligence with which he forces the most unsuitable pairs of artists to work in harness under the same category for his own nefarious book-making ends.”
“This is, on the whole, a wise and sensible book, full of wide-minded appreciation of art.”
Sturgis, Russell.Study of the artist’s way of working in various handicrafts and arts of design. 2v. **$15. Dodd.
Reviewed by John La Farge.
“The subjects are multitudinous, indeed, which Mr. Sturgis treats, and it seems invidious almost to claim a superiority of handling of one over the other.” Frank Fowler.
“It is a form of notebook, but also of encyclopaedia, and one more offshoot of a habit of life constantly curious in everything connected with art.”
Sturt, Henry.Idola theatri: a criticism of Oxford thought and thinkers from the standpoint of a personal idealism. *$3.25. Macmillan.
“Under this Baconian title an Oxford scholar, Mr. Henry Sturt, rips up some current philosophic fallacies. Recent British philosophy (and American also) has been carried captive, as he views it, by a German invasion inculcating a one-sided idealism, in which the conative factor of thought is overshadowed by the speculative.... The general charge is that the ‘idols’ deceive by substituting a static for the dynamicconception of reality, with resulting damage to various interests, chiefly those of ethics, politics, and religion.”—Outlook.
“Mr. Sturt is sincere, and his way independent: but the structure of the book is slight; and in closing it we are haunted by the suspicion that its author has failed to master the doctrines he attacks.”
“Unfortunately, this is written from a very narrow outlook. It is history to suit a special interest. The attempt is made to convict Idealism of three great crimes—called Intellectualism, Absolutism, and Subjectivism.”
“The work lacks systematic thoroughness; the criticisms are often haphazard, and the positive views adopted are so various that the reconciliation and substantiation of them all prescribes a somewhat difficult task to that yet unwritten new system of philosophy to which the author looks for a complete proof of his ‘master principle.’” J. W. Scott.
“But altho the book is far from effective as a whole, the criticisms it contains of certain points in Green’s metaphysics and in Mr. Bradley’s doctrine of the Absolute are perfectly sound, and the protest on behalf of the importance of activity or conative experience may be accepted as substantially true.”
“Mr. Sturt’s work is worthy of all commendation. And in condensing so much and such crabbed material into so interesting a form he has achieved a considerable feat. His book deserves to be read, and doubtless will be.”
“Mr. Sturt is keen, vigorous and clear.”
“The main purpose of the book is critical, and ... we are prepared to admit that Mr. Sturt is, on the whole a ‘very respectable person’ in that field. Constructively the book is weak, and the weakness is a serious blemish.”
Sudermann, Hermann.Undying past; tr. by Beatrice Marshall. †$1.50. Lane.
“The scene of the story is East Prussia ... and the setting is agricultural. Two landed proprietors have grown up from childhood with the love of David and Jonathan.... Leo, having been detected in an intrigue with the wife of a nobleman of the neighborhood, is challenged by the injured husband to a duel, slays his opponent, is sentenced to a term of imprisonment, and, after his release, goes to South America, for a period of years. Ulrich, in the meanwhile, knowing nothing of his friend’s guilty relations with the widow of the slain, offers himself to her in marriage and is accepted. They have been united for some time, when Leo returns to his home, and at this point the story opens.... Leo is all the time conscious of the dark shadow of guilt that separates him from Ulrich. The latter, wholly unsuspecting, seeks to reknit the old relations, yet must defer to the stubborn fact that his wife had been made a widow by the deed of his friend.... Her old passion for her husband’s friend is revived upon his return, and ... the substance of the book is the struggle between these two characters-her struggle to bring him back into the old sinful relation, his to banish her from his thought, and purify his soul by repentance and expiation.”—Dial.
“It cannot be said altogether that Miss Marshall has attained a very high standard. But at least it may be said that she has given us a readable and fairly literary rendering of the original.”
“This is a gloomy but powerful psychologic study which also gives a fine realistic picture of life on the great landed estates of Prussia.” Amy C. Rich.
“If from the artistic point of view it is hardly equal to some of the author’s other novels that appeared before it, it is none the less a fine and forcible romance, and contains some of his best writing.”
“The pages and chapters which are devoted to a portrayal of local customs and modes of thought, careful and vivid though they are, tend to obscure the real issue of the story rather than to elucidate it.” Frederic Taber Cooper.
“[This] English version is carelessly made.” Wm. M. Payne.
“That which is eminently unsatisfactory besides the title, however ... is the absence of any biographical introduction.”
“A powerful drama of humanity.”
“There is a profound depression over the whole book, though the literary art which presents it is, as usual with Sudermann, full of force and of fine restraint.”
Suess, Eduard.Face of the earth (Das antlitz der erde); tr. by Hertha B. C. Sollas under the direction of W. J. Sollas. 5v. per v. *$8.35. Oxford.
A work complete in five volumes. Volume one is divided into two parts. “The first consists of five chapters, in which are discussed the movements of the outer crust of the earth, diluvial, seismic, dislocatory and volcanic. In the second part the mountain systems of the world are examined in very varying detail, but sufficiently to bring out the main trend lines.” (Ath.) “The main purpose of [the second] volume is the statement of the evidence for Suess’s contention that continents are never uplifted in mass, and that the occurrence of raised shore lines and horizontal sheets of marine rocks is due to the lowering of sea level, and not to the raising of the land.” (Nature.)
Sutcliffe, Halliwell.Benedick in Arcady. †$1.50. Dutton.
Really the sequel to “A bachelor in Arcady,” the book reveals a rather prosaic coloring. “The scene is the same, but it has lost some of its colour and breeziness. Cathy is not less fascinating as wife than as maid: the Wanderer is as courtly and buoyant as ever; but the Bachelor, by turning Benedick, has become a different being. His touch with nature is less intimate. Instead of the delightful notes on gardens, fields, animals, and birds in the earlier book, we have attractively written essays on such subjects as the Stuarts, superstition, the yeomanry, and old age.” (Ath.)
“In fact, the book is an idyll, and much better written than such idylls are wont to be.”
“Is disappointing only because its predecessor was much better.”
“The wanderers with Mr. Sutcliffe into his Arcady will be rewarded for their stroll, and will come upon many a bye-the-bye bit, well worth tucking into their memories.”
“Though hardly the equal of its predecessor, ‘A bachelor in Arcady,’ there are to be found both grace and charm in these chapters, which occupy a middle ground between the story and the essay.”
Sutphen, William Gilbert van Tassel.Doomsman. †$1.50. Harper.