“The whimsical tone of the book is so well maintained that all its absurdities of situation and incident take on an amiable glamour.”
“In addition to being amusing and cleverly done, the story is written very gracefully, with a touch of poetic imagination, that, like everything else in the book is not more than half serious.”
“The chief criticism that one is inclined to make is that the situation is dwelt upon a little too long and that the story would have left a better impression if it had been considerably shortened.”
Watson, Henry Brereton Marriott.Twisted eglantine. †$1.50. Appleton.
“Whatever its success may be, this book puts him in the front rank of living romancers.”
“Mr. Marriott Watson has never given us a finer character-study than this of Sir Piers.” Wm. M. Payne.
Watson, John (Ian Maclaren, pseud.).Inspiration of our faith: sermons. **$1.25. Armstrong.
“Somewhat of the same idea, that of ascending in personal Christ-like life to fellowship with the Father, and thence deriving the help necessary for the fulfillment of duty, runs thru a series of twenty-nine sermons by the Rev. John Watson, better known as ‘Ian Maclaren.’ Each sermon breathes that practical Christianity which has characterized Ian Maclaren’s fiction and theological writings alike.”—Ind.
“They have the supreme merit (rare in sermons) of being interesting.”
“Strikingly beautiful as the language is, the volume will be prized by those who desire inspiring and helpful words for their devotional reading.”
“Here the ethical and the inspirational are happily blended, as elsewhere in his writings.”
Watson, William.Poems; ed. by J. A. Spender. 2v. *$2.50. Lane.
“It constitutes, for the present at least, a definitive edition of Mr. Watson’s work.”
Reviewed by Louise Collier Willcox.
Wayne, Charles Stokes.Prince to order.†$1.50. Lane.
“To fiction readers, who do not care for the element of probability, and to whom artificiality is not objectionable, this book will be enjoyable as it is bright and full of action and excitement if one can become deeply interested in a story that is wanting in the important element of probability.”
Weale, B. L. Putnam.Re-shaping of the Far East; with numerous il. from photographs. 2v. **$6. Macmillan.
The author “tells us just as much of the history of the subject as we need to know, sketching the annals of China in particular from the earliest times, and then describing in greater detail the commercial relations of Europe and America not only with China, but also with Korea and Japan. Relations of journeys into the interior and along the coasts give a picturesque glimpse of present Far Eastern conditions. We are shown Sir Robert Hart’s Service at work, the Germans introducing their characteristic methods at Kiao-chau, Dr. Morrison watching the Legations through a glass door at Peking, and the Marconi mast standing ready to signal for help to Ta-ku. There follows a fairly elaborate history of the Russo-Japanese war, and a severe criticism of its operations; and we are told finally what the Chinese are thinking and intending, what Mr. Weale expects the future to bring forth, and what policy seems to him most likely to serve British interests. In fact, we have an embarrassing choice of topics which equally invite discussion.”—Lond. Times.
“Despite some loose history, exaggerated statements, and rather wild speculations, the work is the best account of twentieth-century China in existence, and affords useful, though far from infallible hints as to the possibilities of the next decade in the Far East.”
“One of the most readable and valuable books which have appeared in recent years.” John W. Foster.
“For a work of undoubted weight, in the sense that it shows throughout a remarkably intimate acquaintance with the affairs of the East ... the style is a delight, though style is altogether too big a word to describe the absolutely nonchalant, personal, pungent way of the author with his book.” S. S. Trunsky.
“Is by no means a perfect work of its kind, but its indisputable merits far outweigh the faults which even the most captious critic could ascribe to it.” Frederick Austin Ogg.
“Thruout, he shows a lamentable ignorance of American history and policy.”
“Mr. Putnam Weale’s new book is hardly so interesting as his ‘Manchu and Muscovite.’ It is burdened by a belated account of the early months of the Russo-Japanese war, is somewhat discursive and would ... be improved by elimination and condensation.”
“The author, combining the knowledge of the student with the knowledge of the man on the spot, presents the Far Eastern question exhaustively in almost every imaginable aspect. In spite of the manner in which the Russian ‘débâcle’ has upset some of his calculations, his book is the most valuable of recent contributions to the elucidation of Far Eastern problems.”
“In other words, Mr. Weale approaches the Chinese question from a strictly insular point of view. Yet his books may be highly recommended. All reserves made, there is nothing better on the Far Eastern question as it stands at this moment.”
“Comprehensive and luminous discussion of the development of Far Eastern affairs.” George R. Bishop.
“Mr. Weale has given a complete and yet concise survey of the situation. His introduction is a historical prologue giving in a few score pages one of the best ideas of Chinese history that has ever been presented.”
“By far the most valuable book that has appeared on the East for a number of years. Nowhere else can so much valuable information be found in so compact a form.”
“An absorbingly interesting work, including both description and history.”
“Mr. Weale has unquestionably collected and marshalled a mass of information with ability and lucidity, and the result is a comprehensive survey of the situation outlined with a vigorous but light, albeit sharply-pointed, pen.”
Webster, Jean.Wheat princess.†$1.50. Century.
“The conversations are realistic, and the characters individual.”
Wedmore, Frederick.National gallery, London: the Flemish school. *$1.25. Warne.
This is the initial volume of a new series to be called the “Art galleries of Europe.” Mr. Wedmore gives a brief sketch of Flemish art, and emphasizes its two phases: the Mediæval phase dominated by Jan Van Eyck and Hans Menlinc, the Renaissance phase, by Rubens and Vandyke. There are fifty-five reproductions from Haufstaengl photographs.
“Mr. Wedmore’s introduction is not an altogether favourable specimen of his power as a writer on art. True, it contains some very apposite criticisms, but these are interspersed with somewhat captious digressions.”
“Taken all in all, however, Mr. Wedmore’s paper is not a coherent dissertation on the Flemish school; it is too itemized, too scrappy, and too diversified to be of much value as a serious study. As a collection of notes, however, appended to artists’ names, it will save the student of the National gallery with Flemish proclivities much toil and trouble among art encyclopædias.”
Wedmore, Frederick.Whistler and others. *$1.50. Scribner.
Mr. Wedmore’s volume of essays is prefacedby a chapter entitled “A candid word to the English reader” in which he makes serious charge against the Englishman as an art critic. Some observations on Venetian art, Goya, Richard Wilson, Romney, Laurence, Watts, Etty, and others may be passed over to find the real worth of the book in the papers on Whistler, Fantin and Boudin, English watercolour, The print collector. Constable’s English landscapes, and The Norwich school.
“His critical method is not exhaustive but suggestive, and no inventory of qualities could so stimulate the imagination as one of his pregnant summaries.”
“The essays and fragments that make up the volume are in part reprinted from various periodicals. Some of them seem hardly of sufficient importance to warrant the more permanent form.”
“Perhaps the best piece in the book is the study of Fantin and Boudin. We wish that some of the other articles had been undertaken in a like spirit of respect for his subject and respect for his reader.”
“It was, however, an error of taste to pad the volume out with trifling notes which may have served well enough to introduce a temporary exhibition or to characterize a single painting.”
“The critic’s survey is characteristically candid and suggestive.”
“If you want the final word upon Whistler, Wedmore has not said it or thought it.”
Weeden, William Babcock.War government: federal and state, in Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania and Indiana, 1861–1865. **$2.50. Houghton.
Using Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania. and Indiana as typical states, this study of the civil war period shows that “war government, federal and state, accomplished most potent and far-reaching results in the readjustment of the relations between states and nation, and between the people and the governing body.”
“The style, sometimes eccentric and inclined to digression, is always keen, pungent and fearless. The characterization of Lincoln is refreshingly free from conventionality either in praise or blame, and, with all its partisanship, the book has distinct value.” Theodore Clarke Smith.
“With his conclusions many will disagree. In some places a rearrangement of the material might have made the book easier reading; but the vigorous style and independent judgment of the author are calculated to enlist one’s interest to the end.”
“The author’s dislike of those on the other side and his failure to appreciate their position, his inability to recognize and understand the principle of evolution in human affairs, and his twentieth century criticism of nineteenth century deeds, are defects that mar a work which otherwise might have been of considerable interest and value.”
“It is entertainingly written, and only the most ‘blasé’ of readers of Civil war matters can fall to find an engaging interest in its pages. It reveals moreover, a vast deal of research. But it can hardly be called a critical study of the relation of federal to state government during the Civil war.”
“The subject is one deserving exhaustive exploration and it is therefore the more to be regretted that Mr. Weeden has not treated it with a firmer grasp and an unprejudiced mind.”
“The narrative, well fortified by references, is marred by a good deal of feeble and confused rhetoric.”
“It is an interesting and able work.” Wm. E. Dodd.
“He has undertaken a most interesting task; but his spirit is so partisan and his style so turgid, discursive, and inaccurate that his book is of only very limited value.”
“Mr. Weeden’s book should do much to put needed emphasis on a somewhat neglected aspect of the war.”
Weedon, L. L.Child characters from Dickens. $2.50. Dutton.
There are eighteen stories in this group, including many of the children’s favorites, among them are those of Harvey and Norah, of “The holly tree,” Paul Dombey, Johnny and the Boofer Lady, Little Nell, the Marchioness, Polly, Little Dorrit, etc. Six colored plates and seventy half-tones “tell their part of the story so well that every character in the book can be told offhand.” (N. Y. Times.) “His illustrator, Mr. A. A. Dixon, has distributed good looks to everybody with the facility of a fairy of the olden time at a christening.” (Ath.)
“This is a charming book. The tales are skillfully managed. A better introduction to Dickens could not be.”
Weikel, Anna Hamlin.Betty Baird: a boarding-school story; il. †$1.50. Little.
Betty Baird is the daughter of a scholarly Presbyterian minister who had trained his daughter thru her fourteen years on rather oldfashioned but thoro lines. Betty is sent to boarding school and, bright, nimble witted tho she is, she has many trying experiences among her snobbish, fashionable mates. The story follows her thru her three years of victories terminating in first honor at graduation.
Weinel, Heinrich.St. Paul, the man and his work; tr. by Rev. G. A. Bienemann and ed. by Rev. W. D. Morrison. *$2.50. Putnam.
Professor Weinel of the University of Jena says in his preface: “This book forms a necessary supplement to my ‘Jesus in the nineteenth century,’ for it shows how the Gospel came to make that concordat with the ‘world’ i. e., with the ancient state and its religion and morality, which we call ‘church.’ I have tried to show how necessary, and how solitary this compromise was, by what pure motives it was animated, but also with what dangers it was pregnant for the Gospel itself.” Further the author says: “I have wanted to make our people understand and love Paul.”
“He is a scholar who does not intrude his scholarship but is competent to speak on St. Paul.”
“It is a work of careful thought and thoro scholarship.”
“His translator, the Rev. G. A. Bienemann, has rendered him into lucid and finished English form.”
“His biography does not add very much to our knowledge of the apostle and his time; it is vigorously written. fairly interesting, drastic in its criticism, and very anti-Catholic.”
Weininger, Otto.Sex and character; authorized tr. from the 6th Germ. ed. *$3. Putnam.
Six editions in the German are to the credit of this volume. There is a two-fold treatment of the subject, the first dealing with the physical phase, the second with the psychological. “In his view woman ‘is merely non-moral. She is characterized by shamelessness and heartlessness.’ Only man has a ‘share, in ontological reality.’ ‘Women have no existence; and no essence; they are not, they are nothing.’ It does not surprise us to be told that such a philosopher died by his own hand at the age of twenty three.” (Outlook.)
“There is exhibited the most acute and subtle mental play throughout, but the whole argument is characterized by downright unreasonableness. There are parts so poor, obscure, illogical, and stupid that they would not be accepted in a college boy’s essay, and other parts worthy of Kant or Schopenhauer.” W. I. Thomas.
“Never before in all our literature has the ultra-masculine view of woman been so logically carried out, so unsparingly forced to its conclusion.” Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
“Preposterous charlatanry.”
“It is thus ... as a human document, one unconsciously illustrating the pathology of adolescent sex and character, even more than consciously investigating their nature, that this tragic book will survive, if at all.”
Weir, Irene.Greek painters’ art. *$3. Ginn.
“Unpretending but most interesting little volume.”
Weiss, Bernhard.Commentary on the New Testament; tr. by George H. Schodde, and Epiphanius Wilson; with an introd. by James S. Riggs. 4v. ea. *$3. Funk.
In these four volumes we have the results of the work of a great scholar, who has spent over half a century in a study of his subject which while scientific was tempered by true spiritual insight. The work is intended not only for students but for those who have not time for study and desire a better understanding of the scriptures as they read them. Volume 1, contains the commentary upon Matthew and Mark; Volume 2, Luke, John and The Acts; Vol. 3, Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians; Volume 4, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrew, James, Peter, John, Jude and Revelation.
“Professor Weiss’s concise commentary exhibits his well-known learning, thoroughness, and conservatism. It is unfortunate that its English dress was not more carefully prepared.”
Weiss, Bernhard.Religion of the New Testament; tr. from the Germ. by G: H. Schodde. *$2. Funk.
“It must, however, be said with frankness that the work of translation has not been well done. The book is a very clear presentation of the general idea which is represented in Harnack’s ‘What is Christianity?’ and, in more extreme form, by Wernle’s ‘Beginnings of Christianity.’” Irving F. Wood.
Wells, Amos R.Tuxedo avenue to Water street: the story of a transplanted church. $1. Funk.
The author calls his story a parable, and also, the story of a possibility, which the united action of God and the people may make a reality. He tells of a fashionable church which was mysteriously transplanted in a single night and set up stone on stone among the poor of Water street. He depicts most vividly the scorn with which the fashionable members of the old church regard the poor with whom they are thus brought in contact, and he shows the great good which came of it all. It is a story so true to human nature that it makes one pause to think. The author’s character drawing is excellent and he has softened his moral by introducing into his parable the love story of the young minister and Irene, the flower of his flock.
“His little book is of more than passing interest as a well-developed piece of fiction, and it is profoundly significant as a Parable and an indictment.”
“The little book is effective in its way.”
Wells, Amos Russel.Donald Barton and the doings of the Ajax club. †$1.50. Little.
The “Ajax club” is composed of lusty boys who meet in “The glen” and plan adventures worthy of their honored Greek hero. They do battle against a band of disreputable village boys and win the commendation of the townspeople.
“Though there is the highest intent in this, the author has somehow missed the mark.”
Wells, Carolyn.At the sign of the sphinx.$1. Duffield.
Miss Wells’ fancy-juggling has produced one hundred and twenty rhymed riddles to which are appended answers.
“Is marked by the same cleverness that is always characteristic of this writer.”
“Generally her mood is playful and her ingenuity is always equal to the task she sets for it. As a general thing, her touch is becomingly light and she treats her syllables with respect. Sometimes the enigma is still a bit enigmatical after one knows the answer.”
Wells, Carolyn.Dorrance doings; il. †$1.50. Wilde.
Another chapter in the lives of the wide-awake Dorrances which is really a sequel to the “Dorrance domain.” The inventive ability of the quartette and their energy in executing have suffered no diminution since they first made their bow to young readers.
“Written in a rather perfunctory manner—lacking in charm and freshness.”
Wells, Carolyn.Whimsey anthology. **$1.25. Scribner.
“A whimsey, Miss Wells explains, is ‘a whim, a freak, a capricious notion, an odd device.’ Her new book contains nearly 300 selections from the poets old and new.... Here we have famous wheezes touching the eccentricities of the English language, typographical frenzies in which the compositor shapes the poem as nearly as possible like the object it treats of.... Alphabetical nonsense ... acrostics and lipograms, alliterative efforts, enigmas and charades, macaronic poetry, travesties, certomes, (which are made up of assorted lines from divers poems,) and palindromes are here in rich profusion.”—N. Y. Times.
Wells, Herbert George.Future in America: a search after realities.**$2. Harper.
America’s social, economic, and material phases furnish conditions for objective scrutiny which any American would do well to observe. Mr. Wells finds the note of a “fatal, gigantic, economic development, of large prevision and enormous pressures” uppermost and invincible. His range of observations is broad, covering the main representative cities of America, his insight ready to cope with the peculiarly American conditions, and his comments virile and convincing.
“‘When the sleeper wakes,’ for example, is an astonishing caricature of the inordinate individualism of the American sort. ‘The future in America,’ a sober study of the same subject, is, we think, below it in insight as well as in effectiveness. Mr. Wells’s book is written rather in a mood of despondency.”
“His lucid and discriminating description of the present in America is probably worth more than his intended prophecy of the future of America would have been, had he ventured to write it.”
“His is a book which will be criticised, but it will be read, and no reader will fail to gain from it a broader view of the great world-power with its vast opportunities and inequalities, its contradictions and aspirations, its towering wealth, and its suffering, which Mr. Wells has analyzed in this book.” James Wellman.
“He has brought to the study of the social, economical, and material problems now confronting us an insight rarely found in an Englishman, and has given lucid expressions to certain ideas concerning the future which have been vaguely stirring in the national consciousness.”
“A volume, that more than any other book I know of picks out and co-ordinates the tendencies and conditions that are really shaping the American future, disencumbers them from the misleading obstruction of detail, and displays them with that spaciousness, that fervent clarity, which Mr. Wells commands so easily.” Sidney Brooks.
“He has struck some nails on the head that have, perhaps, never been struck before—at least with so emphatic a hammer.”
“To us, Mr. Wells’s hasty observations of American life seem only dull. It is frequently interesting. It is generally disparaging. It is often inaccurate.”
“The prophesying is hedging, vague, indeterminate. Probably a fairer book about America has never been written.”
“The book is illuminating in the fullest sense, a criticism not only of America, but of all civilised society, and it is written in a style which is always attractive and rises now and then to uncommon beauty and power. Though we endorse his demand for reform in many directions, we are bound to condemn his frequent exaggerations, the shrillness, nay feverishness, of his criticism, and his want of a sense of proportion. He says many true things about the United States, but his picture as a whole is false.”
Wells, Herbert George.In the days of the comet.†$1.50. Century.
A young middle-class Englishman loves a girl who elopes with the son of a landed proprietor. The outraged suitor pursues the couple, bent upon murder and suicide. Then the comet intervenes. It strikes the earth and diffuses a trance-producing vapor. When the world wakens there are no longer passions and rivalries. At this point the author works out a state of socialistic reform characterized by brotherhood principles. The hero finds love an impersonal thing with none of the old proprietary limitations. Woman to him becomes the “shape and color of the divine principle that lights the world,” and whether wife or friend he may love her without reproach.
“An earnest and exceedingly interesting book.”
“Is far more than an interesting romance written in the fine literary style that marks the works of this popular imaginative novelist.”
“It remains as a whole a fine testimony to the imagination and intellect of one of the most original thinkers of the day.”
“Regarded as an argument for socialism ... it is a very weak one.”
“Perhaps it is not the best book Mr. Wells has written. It is in reality no more than a brilliant piece of descriptive writing. But no reader can fail to be touched by the picture of the glorious life that awaits mankind after some great change.”
“As a story pure and simple, it falls far below his ‘War of the worlds.’”
Wells, Herbert George.Kipps: the story of a simple soul.†$1.50. Scribner.
“Displaying an almost Dickens-like gift for the portrayal of eccentric traits and types of character.” Wm. M. Payne.
Wells, Herbert George.Modern Utopia.*$1.50. Scribner.
“Culling over the literature of 1905, I should place at the head of works of the first-class ‘A modern utopia.’” Winthrop More Daniels.
Reviewed by Charles Richmond Henderson.
Wendell, Barrett.Temper of the 17th century in English literature. **$1.50. Scribner.
“We must thank Professor Wendell for the pleasant, if slightly exotic, prose of this thoughtful and inspiring volume. The fly in the amber is the continual use of the word ‘elder.’”
Wertheimer, Edward de.Duke of Reichstadt. **$5. Lane.
“The general reader, for whom this handsome volume is evidently intended, will find that the events and persons in the life of this son of Napoleon stand out sharp, clear, and interesting. Some errors have slipped into the translation. This book with its good index and illustrations is the best on the subject.” Sidney B. Fay.
“Is essentially an historical study, not a mere collection of gossip and rumor.”
Wesselhoeft, Mrs. Elizabeth Foster (Pope) (Lily F.).Ready, the reliable. †$1.50. Little.
Thru the influence of a little child a wealthy, crusty, bachelor uncle learns the great lesson of love and opens his heart to the needs of an overworked mother and her three responsible little ones. Ready, a befriended street dog, is so important a factor in the tale that he has appropriated the title.
“When it comes to one part of a story dealing with humans and the other part giving us the thoughts and conversations of cats and dogs ... we think a literary license is taken that is not warranted by the results obtained.”
Westermarck, Edward Alexander.Origin and development of the moral ideas.2v. v. 1. *$3.50. Macmillan.
“A multitude of curious facts concerning the crude institutions of early times and savage tribes awaits the general reader of these pages. About one-fourth of the volume is concerned with homicide, both in general and in its varying forms down to feticide. The philosophic student finds what he has a right to expect from such an investigator ... acute insight and discriminating judgment in tracing the evolution of moral ideas.”—Outlook.
“We have drawn attention to a few points in which Dr. Westermarck has seemed to us unconvincing. We have intended this only as the criticism which makes appreciation significant. And for the book as a whole—for its learning, its open-mindedness, its catholicity, of interest—we have the warmest appreciation.”
“Westermarck’s great strength ... consists in his ability to assemble materials, and if he has a weakness, it is on the psychological side.” W. I. Thomas.
“Even suppose, however, certain shortcomings on the side of pure theory, this book remains an achievement unsurpassed in its own kind, a perpetual monument of the courage, the versatility, and the amazing industry of its author.”
“It may be partly owing to this special study, but largely no doubt also to a remarkably sympathetic and candid turn of mind that Dr. Westermarck presents this heterogeneous mass of evidence with so much understanding, and avoids those hasty generalizations and those uncomprehending judgments of alien races that so frequently characterize many writers, even among those who have dwelt long among the people they describe.”
“The mass of information included in these chapters is wonderful. The use which Dr Westermarck makes of it, I have no pretensions to criticise. At any rate, everyone who reads this volume will look forward with impatience to the next.” J. Ellis McTaggart.
“Exceptionally wide reading and a faculty of lucid arrangement in dealing with masses of detail are the necessary equipment for such a task, and to these Dr. Westermarck adds a four years’ residence among the country population of Morocco.”
“Although this massive work is elaborately analytical and critical, it is none the less interesting.”
Westrup, Margaret.Young O’Briens.†$1.50. Lane.
“A family of undisciplined young people from the wilds of Ireland, thrust for many months upon the society of a Scotch spinster aunt in a squalid little house in London, suggests a situation which might well draw tears from a stone.” (Ath.) “The transplanting is a hard trial for all of them, and not less trying at times to the aunt. The humor of some of the episodes is delightful.” (Critic.)
“Makes an enjoyable afternoon’s reading, but from a literary point of view does not begin to compare with ‘Helen Alliston’” Amy C. Rich.
“The narrative ... is told with much humor and not a little pathos, but at too great length.”
“Both young and old will enjoy this entertaining account of the doings of four Irish young folk.”
“The book is too long, but the high spirits of the family carry the reader on.”
Weyman, Stanley John.Chippinge Borough.†$1.50. McClure.
“Mr. Weyman’s latest romance has for its background the passing of the Reform bill of 1832. No novelist is more conscientious in his treatment of historical events, and the picture he presents of the fierce struggle between the old governing class and the advocates of the ‘People’s bill’ is singularly faithfuland vivid.... Into this political struggle he has successfully woven a romantic story.”—Ath.
“It is wholesome, mediocre work, and will delight Mr. Stanley Weyman’s immense number of readers.”
“Is to be numbered among the best of Mr. Weyman’s books.”
“Novels that urge you along with them as ‘Chippinge’ does are not so common that you can afford to quarrel with the means by which they do it.”
“The chief defect of the book is its length. Good as it all is, the temptation to skip, soon becomes overpowering.”
“Rarely does one find a semi-historical subject treated so dramatically and with such intense personal interest.”
“It is not for its tale however that the book may be commended. The interest of the book is in its atmosphere. It renders admirably the spirit and sentiment.”
“A most enjoyable story as well as a deeply interesting study of a great struggle.”
Weyman, Stanley John.Starvecrow farm.†$1.50. Longmans.
“This is by no means the best of Mr. Weyman’s novels, but it has a considerable interest nevertheless.” Wm. M. Payne.
“Mr. Weyman’s atmosphere is charmingly true; the story that he has to tell is more than ordinarily worth telling.”
Wharton, Edith Newbold (Jones).House of mirth.†$1.50. Scribner.
“For all its brilliancy, ‘The house of mirth’ has a certain shallowness; it is thin. At best, Lily can only inspire interest and curiosity.” Mary Moss.
“It is Mrs. Wharton’s great achievement, in a book where all is fine, that she makes us see and sympathize with the true distinction in a woman who on the surface has little else than beauty and charm.” E. E. Hale, jr.
“It is a story elaborated in every detail to a high degree of refinement, and evidently a product of the artistic conscience. Having paid this deserved tribute to its finer characteristics, we are bound to add that it is deficient in interest.” Wm. M. Payne.
Reviewed by Charles Waldstein.
Reviewed by Louise Collier Willcox.
“The book is one of the few novels which can claim to rank as literature.”
Wharton, Henry Marvin.White blood; a story of the South. $1.50. Neale.
The natural ingratitude and inability of the negro to rise to the level of the white man forms the motif of this story written for the purpose of proving that “white blood must rule.” A love story with a southern setting imparts an interest to the much mooted question.
What would one have?: a woman’s confession. *$1. West, J. H.
“An essentially New England temperament is revealed in this ‘confession.’ ... The supposed author is a plain woman of the middle class, brought up on a farm with few opportunities. She has so many sorrows and by them she learns what seems to her the meaning of life.”—Critic.
“The tone of the book is strongly religious; it is at least free from the morbid taint usually to be found in revelations of a similar character, and doubtless it will make a strong appeal to persons of a type of mind similar to that of the ‘woman’ supposed to make the ‘confession.’”
“There are doubtless countless readers who will find some sort of spiritual consolation in the book, and mental edification, too, in its appreciation of easily accessible literature.”
“Is manifestly genuine and written with an earnest desire to help others.”
Whates, H. R.Canada, the new nation. **$1.50. Dutton.
“Mr. Whates ... went to Canada as a steerage passenger, posed as an emigrant, and made actual trial of the difficulties which confront an actual settler. In this way he met Canadians of every type and class and had every chance of learning their real views. He travelled over much of the continent, selected a homestead area in the wheatlands of the North-west, and returned after five well-spent months with a knowledge of the land which few could acquire in as many years. The result is a book which is partly a record of travel, partly a most practical guide to the intending settler, and partly a careful and sympathetic study of Canadian political thought.”—Spec.
“Mr. Whates is a little wild in his emigration scheme, and appears in some passages to upset himself.”
Reviewed by Lawrence J. Burpee.
“The French element in Canadian life receives somewhat less attention than it deserves.”
“He has performed his task with a singularly open mind, utterly free from the bias which so often renders valueless the observations of traveling Englishmen.”
“An admirable book which we have read with keen enjoyment. Mr. Whates writes with grace and distinction, he has keen powers of observation, and the tolerant humorous outlook of the true traveller.”
Wheat, Mrs. Lu.Third daughter: a story of Chinese home life. $1.50. Mrs. Lu Wheat, 910 W. 8th st., Los Angeles, Cal.
“Ah Moy, the third daughter of a good family, is the central figure in an idyllic picture of a Chinese home. This is at length broken up by the dire calamities, which give occasion for the display of high qualities of character, but bring Ah Moy to a tragic end. Chinese customs, the position of women, foot-binding, sex-morality, the Boxers, the traffic in slave-girls, their importation hither, and the efforts of missionaries to thwart it, make up the rapidly shifting scene.”—Outlook.
“An extremely interesting and well-written picture of Chinese home-life in a high-caste family.” Amy C. Rich.
“Writes in large sympathy with whatever she has seen that is attractive and worthy. Concerning Christian missionaries there she has not taken equal pains to inform herself correctly.”
Wheeler, Everett Pepperell.Daniel Webster, the expounder of the Constitution. **$1.50. Putnam.
“A convenient manual for any one who wishes to get in a small compass a view of Webster’s career as expounder.”
Wheeler, W. H.Practical manual of tides and waves. *$2.80. Longmans.
The principal part of Mr. Wheeler’s work is devoted to “as practical an account as possible, free from all mathematical demonstration of the action of the sun and moon in producing the tides: and of the physical causes by which the tides are affected after their generation, and of their propagation throughout the tidal waters of the earth.” (Nature.) He further deals with wave phenomena in a manner to be useful to practising engineers.
“A perusal of this work will convince any reader that the entire discussion of tides and tidal phenomena has been undertaken by one familiar with the subject, both practically and theoretically, and influenced by genuine love for the work. As a result the author has produced a valuable practical manual of tides and waves which should be found in the library of every one interested in these subjects.” D. D. Gaillard.
“On the whole, Mr. Wheeler has succeeded in the object he had in view, and has ‘produced a handbook that will be of interest and practical service to those who have neither the time nor the opportunity of investigating the subject for themselves.’”
Whelpley, James Davenport.Problem of the immigrant. *$3. Dutton.
“A most convenient handbook for reference, supplying the student with a mass of materials not elsewhere available in one language or in any sort of connected form.” Frederic Austin Ogg.
Whiffen, Edwin T.Samson marrying, Samson at Timnah, Samson Hybistes, Samson blinded: four dramatic poems. $1.50. Badger, R: G.
“The poetic impulse is hardly sufficient in the dialogue to overcome its tedious length and there are few beautiful or splendid passages to break the monotony of the diction.”
Whitcomb, Selden Lincoln.Study of a novel. $1.25. Heath.
It is not with the science of the novel but with certain fixed values of material and of form that Mr. Whitcomb’s analysis deals. He shows the laudable and practical work of novel dissection to be a necessary part of the teaching of literature. He discusses external structure, consecutive structure, plot, the settings, the “dramatis personae,” characterization, subject-matter, style, the process of composition, the shaping of forces, influence of a novel, comparative rhetoric and æsthetics, and general aesthetic interest.
“As an attempt to break ground in a comparatively uncultivated field the book is commendable. The writer has got together a good deal of material where it can be found when wanted.”
“In its own chosen field this book is exceedingly thorough and instructive.”
“Is really a dissection, diagrammatically set forth, of a number of the great novels in English.”
White, Frederick M.Slave of silence.†$1.50. Little.
The Royal Palace hotel, London, is in this complicated story made the center of a series of strange happenings which begin when Sir Charles, who is marrying his daughter to a rich brute to save his own financial honor, is found dead in his bed at the close of the ceremony. Then follows the disappearance of his body, and the series of adventures which his daughter, her old lover, and their friend Perington encounter when they trace the thieves to a house in Audley place which is full of electrical surprises. Diamonds of fabulous value and certain ruby mine concessions in Burmah complicate the plot, but at last Sir Charles reappears alive, his daughter is left a widow at an auspicious moment for her lover, and the slave of silence is released from allegiance to the crippled villain who is her brother, and marries the faithful Perrington.
“There is a suggestion of occultism from the East, which, serving no purpose in the plot, seems a little superfluous, but for genuine entertainment one cannot do better than to read this book.”
White, Frederick M.Weight of the crown.$1.50. Fenno.
A story in which plots and counter plots run their brisk course as Russia makes a tool of the dissipated crowned head of Asturia and tries to force an abdication. There are two sets of doubles in the story introduced on the one hand to facilitate, on the other hand to retard and complicate the movement towards the dramatic climax.
White, Stewart Edward.The Pass. *$1.25. Outing pub.
In which Mr. White tells the story of a journey across the high Sierras made by an explorer, his wife, his guide, their two dogs and four horses.
“It is the triumph of Mr. White’s enthusiasm and of his ability to put his facts and his impressions into the right words that what was encountered and what was seen on the trip is almost as plain on the printed page as it would have been to you or me had we taken the trip with him.” Churchill Williams.
“It is told simply in a style as crisp as mountain air.” May Estelle Cook.
“Like most of Mr. White’s books ‘The Pass’ is very agreeable reading indeed, soothing, but not exciting.”
White, William Allen.In our town.†$1.50. McClure.
Thirteen stories made up from happenings observed by the editor of a Western newspaper. “He draws humorously convincing portraits of the people of the town, the town millionaire and the town drunkard, the smart set and those who try to be smart, the literary crowd that laughs at them and envies them for their superior culture. But it is not all humorous. The trail of Jim Nevison, the black sheep and ‘desert scorpion,’ is followed to the end and thecareer of Sampson, a good fellow ‘and yet a fool,’ is graphically outlined by Colonel Alphabetical Morrison.” (Pub. Opin.)
“Read at intervals it will be found quite entertaining, but it decidedly is not a book for steady perusal.”
“A good and wholesome book ... that may serve its best purpose in showing the American people themselves just what they are in this very hour.”
“He may not have made great stories but he has put into his sketches the stuff out of which great stories are made.”
“Every newspaper man has his recollections, but few of them can give them with such an artistic blending of pathos and humor as he has.”
Whiteing, Richard.Ring in the new. †$1.50. Century.
London and its awful problems of labor and poverty is the theme of this bitterly real study of “the other half,” thru which there ever runs a note of hope. Prue at twenty, penniless, unskilled, tho gently born and bred, casts herself into the maelstrom of London in a pitiful attempt to earn a living, and there realizes her own helplessness and all but goes down before the overwhelming fear of it, clinging for comfort to the mongrel dog she can ill afford to keep. The people whom she meets in the course of her plucky career as an incompetent working girl. Sarah the charwoman, Laura, a gem engraver, Leonard the young editor of The branding-iron, a journal of the back streets, and all the others, interest us not so much as individuals as parts of a struggling whole.
“This is the most important romance of recent months dealing with social progress. The author is a finished writer, a scholar skillful with the use of words. This is a work that we can heartily recommend to all lovers of human progress and social advance.”
“The darker side of the picture, as seen by his heroine during her terrible initiation into the struggle for existence, is presented with power, but also with commendable sobriety and restraint.”
“He is earnestly, even angrily intense with the sincerity of his motive. And his motive the noblest of all, is the brotherhood of man.” Richard Duffy.
“The style is somewhat Meredithian—brilliant, suggestive, prismatic, but oftentimes blinding through an excess of nervous energy that entices its possessor from a consistent point of view. As a performance in fiction this book hardly ranks with the same author’s ‘No. 5 John street.’”
“A story that flashes with wit, glows with indignation, and beams with the steady light of an unshakable hope.”