Fairlie, John Archibald.Local government in counties, towns and villages. *$1.25. Century.
Uniform with the “American state series,” Dr. Fairlie’s work is mainly descriptive of the present time, reducing historical discussion to a brief summary. Such matters are treated as “county officers, police, and justices; the town in New England, in the south and the west; public education, charities, public health, and local finance in a manner suited to the large mass of readers who approach such a subject neither as lawyers nor as philosophers.” (Nation.)
“He gives a careful and businesslike presentation for the general reader or the young person who wants to get the subject up for a college course.”
“The usefulness of this work will be at once appreciated by any one who has attempted to find an adequate treatment of this topic in existing text-books.”
Fairman, James Farquharson.Standard telephone wiring for common battery and magneto systems. *$1. McGraw pub.
A handbook for telephone men, containing diagrams of circuits for straight lines, party lines, plans, sub-stations, private lines and intercommunicating systems, with a brief description of the apparatus used and rules of the fire underwriters.
“The book is intended primarily for telephone wiremen, and it appears to be well adapted to their work.” H. H. Norris.
Fairweather, Mary.Passion stroke: a tale of ancient masonry. $1.50. Badger, R: G.
A mystical tale of the strange passing of the Sibyl of Delphi-Pythia and the high-priest, Hiereros of Delphi, and his dual personality.the faun thru the two kingdoms of the flesh and of the mind to the great third kingdom of life in love. The action centers about the time of the burning of the ancient temple of Delphi.
Fairy stories; retold from St. Nicholas. **65c. Century.
Sixteen fairy tales in prose and rhyme, copyrighted all the way from 1874 to the present year appear here in an attractively illustrated volume for young readers. Among them are Tinkey, The ten little dwarfs, The king of the golden woods, Casperl, Giant Thunder Bones, and How an elf set up housekeeping.
Fanning, Clara E., comp. Selected articles on the enlargement of the United States navy. *$1. Wilson, H. W.
Fifteen articles dealing with material on both sides of the question, “Resolved that the policy of substantially enlarging the American navy is preferable to the policy of maintaining it at its present strength and efficiency” have been reprinted from various magazines to make up this little volume. The result is a fund of information on the subject which will prove valuable not only to the high school debating league but will help all students, club members, or librarians who wish information upon this subject in compact form. Articles by Captain Mahan, John D. Long, Captain Hobson, and Rear Admiral George W. Melville have been included.
Fanshawe, Reginald.Corydon: an elegy in memory of Matthew Arnold and Oxford. *$1.80. Oxford.
In the 224 Spenserian stanzas which compose this tribute to Matthew Arnold “The evolution of the intellectual life of Oxford during the last sixty years is traced with knowledge and insight, and there is some felicitous literary criticism by the way.... Though the elegy abounds in memorable phrases ... depends for its success neither on these nor on the beauty of individual stanzas, but rather on the orderly progress of the closely knit thought and the sustained dignity of the language.” (Ath.)
“Mr. Reginald Fanshaw has paid a heartfelt tribute to an institution, a man and an intellectual epoch.” Wm. M. Payne.
“In passing from the programme to the performance itself the reader is most pleasantly surprised to find it continuously informed by a mellow poetic mood, and containing scarcely a lapse from suave and accomplished workmanship. The tone is frankly academic and traditional, and most successfully so. There is a lack of intensity, of original poetic energy in the conception of this that makes against its wide and enduring appeal.”
“He is a little inclined to a surfeit of epithets, but his verse is orderly and musical, and he expresses gracefully many genuine, if not very startling truths.”
Fariss, Amy Cameron.Sin of Saint Desmond. $1.50. Badger, R: G.
A tale of the loves of a will-o’-the-wisp girl who allows the marriage with the man she does not love to bind her in no way to marital allegiance. She finally enthrals a man of supposedly strong nature known among his relations as “Saint Desmond.” The story is dramatic, even tragic as it finds no better solution than making death a punishment for waywardness.
Farmer, James Eugene.Versailles and the court under Louis XIV. *$3.50. Century.
“It has been a pleasure to read so historically accurate, and so well-balanced a survey of the court of the Grand Monarque.” James Westfall Thompson.
“The book is therefore likely to be of some value as a work of reference, whilst it should also appeal to the general reader. The index is unfortunately far from adequate; but we have seldom read a book containing so much matter which was so free from printers’ errors.”
“Altogether, this is an entertaining and instructive book, although devoid of pretension to profound interpretations of the age of Louis XIV.”
“In some descriptions Mr. Farmer goes dangerously near the language of auctioneers. Though laborious and careful, Mr. Farmer has only produced a guidebook of a very superior kind. A visitor to Versailles could hardly read anything better.”
“One submits to the charm of narrative with the feeling that he is resting on absolutely sure ground.”
“One could hardly ask for a more intimate life-like and exact picture of the first gentleman of Europe and his time.”
“As it stands, it is half guide-book, half history and biography, and so arranged that one finds it difficult to read through. Mr. Farmer’s selections from the memoirs of the time are made with great judgment.”
Farnell, Louis Richard.Evolution of religion: an anthropological study. *$1.50. Putnam.
Two of the four lectures delivered in 1905 for the Hibbert trust deal with the methods and the value of the study of comparative religion and its relations to anthropology; the remaining two are special studies in the anthropological manner, of the ritual of purification and the evolution of prayer from lower to higher forms.
“It contains much that is suggestive and valuable, and the two chapters on ritual purification and the evolution of prayer are real contributions to the study of these important matters.”
“This first essay is essentially only a vindication of the comparative study of religion. The remaining two essays are excellent specimens of constructive work.” F. C. French.
Farquhar, Edward.Poems. $1.50. Badger, R: G.
“A volume of somewhat remarkable verse not without promise of future work, as ambitious in theme, and as widely speculative, yet with all mature reflection and more disciplined regard for order.”
Farquhar, Edward.Youth of Messiah. $1. Badger, R: G.
A poem which is based upon material supposed to have been found in an ancient manuscript newly discovered.
Farquhar, George.Plays; ed. with an introd. and notes by William Archer. *$1. Scribner.
An addition to the “Mermaid series.” The volume contains the following, four plays: The constant couple, The town rivals, The recruiting officer, and The beaux’ stratagem.
“Mr. Archer’s edition is, as would be expected, scholarly and trustworthy.”
“The ‘Mermaid’ texts are now issued in those thin-paper editions which are the detestation of most good book-lovers.”
Farrer, Reginald J.House of shadows. †$1.50. Longmans.
“Tempest Ladon, is a north-country squire of ancient lineage, who marries a young Italian lady. Elena dies in giving birth prematurely to a son, and leaves behind her a casket of love-letters written, she says, to her husband, which he promises never to read. The son, St. John, in his turn, marries a beautiful middle-class girl and brings her home to his father, who hates her as she hates him. Meanwhile Tempest discovers that he is dying of sarcoma, and is so afraid of hell-fire if he commits suicide that he tries to persuade his son to take the chances of damnation and kill him. Ultimately the daughter-in-law is tempted into handing him the overdose which ends him, but not before he has discovered that Elena’s letters were written to an Italian cousin, who is the real father of St. John.”—Acad.
“It is clever enough to make us hope that, when Mr. Farrer has read more widely and thought more sanely, he may yet do good work.”
“The characters are drawn with a vivid touch, but not one is genuinely agreeable.”
“A book remarkable for its force and continuity.”
Fawcett, Mrs. Millicent Garrett (Mrs. Henry Fawcett.)Five famous French women. $2. Cassell.
Five character studies of French women “of intellect who were born to hold the reins of power.” (Acad.) They are Joan of Arc, Renée, Duchess of Ferrara. Louise of Savoy, her daughter, Margaret of Angoulême and Jeanne d’Albrét, queen of Navarre.
“The studies suffer from weak construction, but they are interesting. The style is clear, with a certain cheerful colloquialism which is rather unexpected.”
“It is a little difficult to determine what kind of public she has in view. Evidences of carelessness in proof-reading are somewhat numerous.”
“As Mrs. Fawcett’s standpoint is a non-Catholic one, she expresses some opinions with which we cannot agree; and she hardly applies the same weights and measures to the Catholic and Huguenot.”
“The author is to be congratulated ... for having brought very near to modern appreciation a series of remarkable characters.”
Fechner, Gustav Theodor.On life after death, from the German by Hugo Wernekke. **75c. Open ct.
“This is a new edition of a book too little known in this country. The author, a professor of physics in the University of Leipsic ... is at once a scientist and a poet.... His fundamental postulate is the continuity of life, and it will commend itself alike to the student of the New Testament and the student of philosophy.... The biographical sketch of the author which is appended to the volume adds to its interest and serves to interpret it.”—Outlook.
Reviewed by W. C. Keirstead.
“Dr. Wernekke’s [translation] is the more literal, but Miss Wadsworth’s reads more smoothly.”
“The chief defect of the book is its tone of assurance, the author’s fancies being affirmed with the same positiveness as if they were scientific observations of philosophical deductions.”
Fenollosa, Mary McNeil (Mrs. Ernest F. Fenollosa) (Sidney McCall, pseud.).Dragon painter.†$1.50. Little.
The depth of feeling which the Japanese of the passing generation hold for Japan and the art that has always been hers is strongly brought out in this story of Kano Indara, the last of a line of great artists, who views with terror the encroachments of western art. He hears of Tatsu, the wild mountain dragon painter and, in his deathless longing for an artist-son, he sends for him and gives to him his daughter Umè-Ko that he may be indeed his son, and also because he could not hold him otherwise, for the youth has painted his dragon-pictures merely because his soul was filled with a longing for the dragon-maid, his mate thruout all incarnations. When he finds her in Kano’s daughter his great love absorbs the artist in him and Kano, who lives for art alone, in his rage and disappointment takes the young wife from her too-loving husband until, from the depths of his great grief and agony of spirit, the artist in him once more emerges, then she is restored to him as from the dead.
“In our judgment ‘The dragon painter’ is far inferior as a novel to either ‘Truth Dexter’ or ‘The breath of the gods.’”
“One does not need to have had any personal experience in the land of which Mrs. Fenollosa writes in order to be perfectly certain that these pages give a truthful picture of Japanese domestic life and a faithful revelation of the inner depths of Japanese feeling—not one of those specious translations of Japan in terms of modern ‘Westernism.’”
Field, Horace, and Bunney, Michael.English domestic architecture of the XVII. and XVIII. centuries. *$15. Macmillan.
The authors of this volume on domestic architecture in England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries “have provided examples of smaller buildings, with their measurements and different views of them, besides an introduction and many full notes. There are about 100 illustrations, including half-tone full, double, and half page plates, drawings, diagrams, etc.The introduction contains a resume of the history of the English domestic architecture followed by a chapter on ‘The renaissance evolution in England,’ and then by descriptions of the houses presented.” (N. Y. Times.)
“The matter of this text is perfectly well thought out and expressed. The book is a valuable one from every point of view.”
Fielding, Henry.Selected essays, ed. by Gordon Hall Gerould. *60c. Ginn.
“The editor has evidently profited by consulting the best critical comment on his author, and his introduction is both full and interesting.”
Finberg, Alexander J.English water color painters. *75c. Dutton.
“About two dozen artists are considered in Mr. Finberg’s little book on the water-color painters of England and forty-two half-tone reproductions of their works are included.... The names include those of Samuel Scott, a marine and landscape painter; Paul Sandby, sometimes called the ‘Father of the English school of water color;’ Thomas Hearne, accomplished also as a draughtsman; Alexander and John Cozens, Thomas Girtin, Turner, Rowlandson, Blake, Cotman, Cox, Prout, Ford Madox Brown, Rossetti, Holman Hunt, Fred Walker, and others.”—N. Y. Times.
“An admirable and instructive essay, which it is a pleasure to read, even where one is bound to disagree with it.” T. Sturge Moore.
“Is really a model short treatise.”
“Both in text and illustration the little book is extremely valuable.”
Finck, Henry Theophilus.Edvard Grieg. *$1. Lane.
Volume eight in the “Living masters of music” series is the first book in English on the life and personality of this famous Norwegian composer. “An invalid, he has lived in seclusion in the Far North; a successful pianist, conductor, and composer almost from the beginning of his career, happily married to a cousin who could not only inspire but interpret his songs—in spite of some dark years and some inevitable shadows, he stands for us in the sun; largely as to his career, wholly and radiantly as to his warm personality. The photographs of him from the fifteen-year-old boy to the sixty-year-old man ... are full of charm and of a winning quality that fit absolutely into the character of his music.” (Nation.)
“There is much new material relating to the personal side of the composer.”
“A sound and sympathetic study of this great son of the North.”
“The book is charmingly written, is entertaining from cover to cover, and is sure to become popular with all music lovers. Mr. Finck has the gift of the true biographer, of nowhere obtruding his own personality.” Joseph Sohn.
“Mr. Finck’s book is an attempt to place him in the very forefront of modern composers. There are interesting biographical details in the book.” Richard Aldrich.
“In spite of this attitude of fierce worshiper, Mr. Finck has written a very readable as well as useful book. He has succeeded in the first place in filling it with personality. He has, in the second place, brought together much information about Grieg, some old and some new, which has not before been easily accessible.”
Findlater, Jane Helen.Ladder to the stars. †$1.50. Appleton.
The author “depicts a young woman whose relatives are housekeepers, commercial travelers, clerks, as sex or circumstances decree; and she invests her with spiritual ambitions with which the local minister cannot cope; with social aspirations unintelligible in a circle where human society means nothing beyond class-strata; and with intellectual ideals that cannot be shared by those in whose eyes ‘two years at Mrs. Clumper’s’ are synonymous with a liberal education.”—Lond. Times.
“Her picture of middle-class life in a country town is admirably incisive and humorous, and at the same time free from ill-nature. The character of her heroine is less satisfactory.”
“The writer leaves us with a feeling that the ideas which she attributes to her heroine are her own; in other words, the illusion is incomplete. If it had been otherwise the book would have been a triumph of art; as it is, we have a comedy of manners, wise, kindly, and incisive.”
“In spite of its stilted and sometimes unreal heroine and its several impossible incidents, it will certainly be the exceptional reader who will not find himself very much interested and amused.”
“The story, of course, is open to the criticism common to all stories which turn on the literary ability of their characters, that the author can give no proof of this ability, and that the reader has to take it on trust.”
Firth, Charles Harding.Plea for the historical teaching of history: an inaugural lecture delivered on November 9, 1904. *35c. Oxford.
Firth, John Benjamin.Constantine, the first Christian emperor. **$1.35; **$1.60. Putnam.
“On the side of institutions, however, the book is distinctly weak.” Charles H. Haskins.
Fischer, Louis.Health-care of the baby: a handbook for mothers and nurses. *75c. Funk.
Under Part 1, General hygiene of the infant, the author gives chapters upon bathing, clothing, training, etc. Part 2, Infant feeding, treats of the various methods of feeding and of infant foods. Part 3. Miscellaneous diseases and emergencies, includes a detailed treatment of the various children’s diseases and a chapter upon accidents.
Fisguill, Richard, pseud. (Richard H. Wilson).Venus of Cadiz. †$1.50. Holt.
“Read him sympathetically and he will reward you with the next best thing to tears,—a laugh.” Mary Moss.
Fish, Carl Russell.Civil service and the patronage. *$2. Longmans.
“A careful and useful historical study.”
Fisher, Clarence Stanley.Excavations at Nippur; plans, details, and photographs of the buildings, with numerous objects found in them during the excavations of 1889, 1890, 1893–1896, 1899–1900 with descriptive text by Clarence S. Fisher. (Babylonian expedition of the Univ. of Penn.) 6 pts. ea. pt. $2. C. S. Fisher, Rutledge, Delaware co., Pa.
“The entire work comprises some two hundred large folio pages of topographical introduction and descriptive text, abundantly illustrated with cuts and photographs, including some splendid full-page photogravures, besides many folding lithographic plates giving plans and details of the buildings.”—Outlook.
“Altogether we may heartily congratulate both the University and Mr. Fisher on the first part of a book, which bids fair to be a most valuable contribution to science. We have noticed some typographical errors ... but these are trifles.”
“Mr. Fisher certainly deserves great credit for the manner in which he has exhibited the topographical and culture development of Nippur and its temple. In this regard his work constitutes an important contribution to Babylonian archæology, and scholars will await with interest the publication of the remaining five parts, in which, it is to be hoped, more care will be bestowed on the proof reading of the descriptive text.”
Fitch, (William) Clyde.Climbers: a play in four acts.**75c. Macmillan.
A new volume in the published edition of the plays of Mr. Fitch. The climbers, which had a considerable degree of success on the stage, is not only a clever satire upon the social climber but contains some well-devised situations, which, altho they lose some of their effectiveness in book form, make good reading.
“No other play of this author that we have seen so well bears the test of print.”
Fitch, (William) Clyde.Girl with the green eyes.**75c. Macmillan.
The first appearance in book form of Mr. Fitch’s four-act play.
“While far from being a distinguished illustration of the literary drama, the play reads very well—possibly better than it sounds when acted.”
“Many passages in this smart piece read well, and the study of feminine jealousy it involves has not been surpassed since Colman’s ‘Jealous wife.’”
Fitch, William Edwards.Some neglected history of North Carolina, including the battle of Alamance, the first battle of the American revolution. $2. Neale.
“The value of the book lies wholly in the original documents reprinted from the North Carolina Records.” Theodore Clark Smith.
Fitchett, William Henry.Unrealized logic of religion; a study in credibilities. *$1.25. Eaton.
The author deals with a wide field, and apparently with unrelated subjects, but his object is to show that “when widely separated points in literature, history, science, philosophy and common life are tried by their relation to religion they instantly fall into logical terms with it.” Under the headings: History; Science; Philosophy; Literature; Spiritual life; and Common life he discusses such subjects as; The logic of the missionary; of our relation to nature; of the infinitesimal; of human speech; of answered prayers; of unproved negatives; and of half-knowledge, in which he gives “examples of the innumerable correspondences which link the spiritual and secular realms together.”
“It is a very strong book. The author has read widely, thought deeply and knows his ground thoroly.”
“That the words ‘logic’ and ‘logical’ are the most applicable to his reasonings we certainly doubt. A few pages of his book suggest the obvious criticism that there is much more of rhetoric than logic in it. The pertinence of the criticism may be concerned, but it does not derogate from the value of the work.”
Fitz, George Wells, and Fitz, Rachel Kent.Problems of babyhood; building a constitution, forming a character. **$1.25. Holt.
This two-fold study of the controllable aspects of child development furnishes conclusions reached from the standpoint of the physician, the teacher, the mother and the father. “It is hoped that thru its frank and practical treatment of some of the many problems presented by parenthood it may give courage to withstand the criticism of tradition and convention, strength to resist the modern tendency to indulgence, faith to fight for the child’s birthright of a sane mind in a sane body.”
“There is an air of authority, based on experience and the unmistakable certificate of good common sense about ‘Problems of babyhood.’”
FitzGerald, Edward.Euphranor: a dialogue on youth. *75c. Lane.
“Many will read this charming reprint of a forgotten book not for its educational, but for its literary charm, for in it FitzGerald proved himself a master of the two crafts.”
Fitzgerald, Percy Hetherington.Sir Henry Irving: a biography. **$3. Jacobs.
Mr. Fitzgerald’s biography was published during Irving’s life time. This issue includes ten years of added happenings, making it a complete sketch.
“There is still room, however, for a full critical account of Irving the actor.” Percy F. Bicknell.
“Mr. Fitzgerald’s volume will hardly be a rival of Bram Stoker’s more elaborated and formal one. At the same time, it has a value that is quite its own.”
“It would be better if it were a little more conservative and little less discursive.”
“We commend Mr. Fitzgerald’s biography of Irving to persons who want a handsome book about a great actor, containing the story of his life, told in a kindly way.”
Fitzgerald, Sybil.In the track of the Moors. *$6. Dutton.
“Ranging over wide fields of knowledge, it betrays ignorance which should have deterred the writer ... from venturing anywhere near them. Solecisms are sown so thickly that the charitable supposition of printer’s errors cannot cover half the sins. Nevertheless, the writer has observed many things truly, and said some things well.”
Fitzmaurice, Edmond George Petty.Life of Granville. 2v. $10. Longmans.
“In every way very competent for it, the biographer has done his work sympathetically.”
“This is not only an interesting and readable book, but, as indeed was to be expected, a permanently valuable contribution to our political history.” Augustine Birrell.
“It is not, I may add, too political for the reading of any American who loves to read of the history of his own time in England written so absolutely from the inside as is this.” Jeannette L. Gilder.
“If these two portly volumes cannot lay claim to full equality of style and political insight to John Morley’s monumental work on Gladstone, among the lives of the statesmen of the Victorian era, they may be ranked second, with Charles Stuart Parker’s ‘Sir Robert Peel’ forming a close third.”
“A work of immense importance in its bearing upon the history of England from 1850 to 1890.”
“The biographer has done his work well. American readers will find amusement as well as instruction in this excellent biography.”
Flammarion, Nicolas Camille.Thunder and lightning; tr. by Walter Mostyn. **$1.25. Little.
An abridged form of the French work discussing the victim of lightning, atmospheric electricity, the flash and the sound; giving the effect of lightning on mankind, animals, trees and plants, metals, objects, houses, etc.; showing the curious freaks of fireballs, and concluding with a chapter on pictures made by lightning.
“The translation is exceedingly well done, and we have noticed but one mistake.”
“Apart from the above mentioned differences the English translation is well done, and will be found very interesting reading.”
“Seems less concerned to explain the marvelous occurrences by recognized laws than to startle the reader and convince him that there is much that is inexplicable in electricity.”
Fleming, John Ambrose.Principles of electric wave telegraphy. *$6.60. Longmans.
A treatise based to a large extent upon the author’s Cantor lectures delivered before the Society of arts in London. It is a three part work treating respectively of electric oscillations, electric waves, and electric wave telegraphy.
“The book seems destined to occupy the same place in the field of oscillatory currents as the author’s work on the ‘Alternating current transformer’ did in the field of ordinary alternating currents. It is a book deserving the careful attention of the student, of the physicist, and of the engineer, as well as of the telegrapher.” Samuel Sheldon.
“In Dr. Fleming’s book is to be found a treatment of the subject which is exhaustive and thorough both on the theoretical and practical sides. It is a book which has been wanted and will be warmly welcomed.” Maurice Solomon.
Fleming, Walter Lynwood.Civil war and reconstruction in Alabama.**$5. Macmillan.
“Prof. Fleming’s aim is to trace the course of the civil war in his native state ... particularly in its political and social aspects, from its beginning to the breaking down of reconstruction in 1874.... The book is divided into six sections, treating consecutively: “Secession,” “War times in Alabama,” “The aftermath of war,” “Presidential restoration,” “Congressional reconstruction,” and “Carpetbag and negro rule.” All these phases of the theme are discussed freely and with a wealth of detail and fullness of bibliography that must delight the student’s heart. The general reader will also find much that is new, many a story or party episode told in such a way as to be truly illuminating.”—N. Y. Times.
“The author’s sympathies are decidedly with the South, but the work is free from bitterness or prejudice, and is on the whole as impartial an account as one can expect from any writer on this subject.” William O. Scroggs.
“The spirit in which this book is written and the personal equation of the writer are fairly open to criticism. On the whole, the author is to be commended for a scholarly and critical treatment of a most highly important historical epoch.” Charles C. Pickett.
“The most comprehensive and valuable work of this kind that has yet been written.” James Wilford Garner.
“Professor Fleming’s method, for scientific precision and efficiency, could hardly be surpassed, even by a guillotine. Nevertheless, we consider this volume a very important contribution to the history of its period.”
“It is diffuse, poorly arranged, notwithstanding the elaborate scheme or outline presented in the table of contents. In this the subdivisions seem to be so minute as to become a source of embarrassment to the author. Another difficulty closely allied to this one is the frequent repetition of the same ideas. But despitethese blemishes—important though they be—the book is eminently worth while. It is a magazine of information for the general reader.” William E. Dodd.
“An admirable, piece of work.”
Reviewed by David Miller DeWitt.
Fletcher, Ella Adelia.Philosophy of rest. 75c. Dodge.
The philosophy of rest is preached in four peaceful little essays which this tranquil philosopher calls; The unrest of our day, The cultivation of soul-force, The ministrations of nature and silence, and To conserve force.
Flint, Robert.Socialism. **$2. Lippincott.
A reprint of the work brought out in 1894. “As becomes its author, ‘Socialism’ is a philosophical essay upon cardinal points of doctrine, and does not deal with the history and present position of socialistic speculation or agitation.” (Nation.)
Fogazzaro, Antonio.The saint(Il santo): authorized tr.; with introd. by W. R. Thayer. †$1.50. Putnam.
“Piero Maironi, a young Brescian, is summoned from an intrigue with a married woman ... to the deathbed of his wife.... In the little church adjoining the asylum Maironi has a vision which alters the whole course of his life. He leaves the world and adopts the name of Benedetto, but remains a layman and joins no religious order. Driven from the monastery ... he goes forth to preach to the people and is hailed by the peasants as a saint and a miracle-worker. He disclaims miraculous power; and a sick man, who is brought to him to be healed, dies under his roof.... Naturally Benedetto is discarded by his ignorant followers.... And he goes to Rome, where he becomes the leader of a movement for the reform of the church. Naturally, again he comes into conflict with ecclesiastical authority, and ... he is relentlessly pursued by Vatican intrigue ... is practically turned into the streets, but is taken in by an agnostic professor ... in whose house he dies, apparently a failure but foretelling with undying faith the triumph of his cause in the person of his disciples.”—Spec.
“The English version reads fairly well as a piece of English, but as a translation it is not satisfactory and the author’s meaning is often inadequately represented or even distorted. But it will give the English reader a very fair idea of the book as a whole, and he will miss nothing essential.”
“One feels compelled to protest against any confusion of the greatness of ‘Il santo’ as a piece of brilliant polemics, a powerful theological brief, with its worth as a novel. Frankly, it is not a great novel; it is too defective in technique, it lacks on the one hand the rugged simplicity of Verga, on the other the melodious rhythm and artistic proportions of d’Annunzio. Nevertheless, it remains one of the most interesting human documents that have come from Italy in the last quarter century.” Frederic Taber Cooper.
“Very acceptable English version now given us.” Wm. M. Payne.
“Fogazzaro’s Italian is not the highly poetical medium manipulated by Gabriele d’Annunzio. It is saner, simpler, and more direct, while the wide sympathy, kindness of heart, and light, wholesome humor of Fogazzaro incite, maintain, and develop the reader’s respect.” Walter Littlefield.
“The book has gained a place of power among the factors of coming change.”
“It appeals to the intelligence and to the religious instincts on every page.”
“This task [to illustrate in the guise of romance, with a modern St. Francis of Assisi as its central figure, the four ‘spirits of evil’] has been achieved by Signor Fogazzaro with such eloquence, and yet such reverence and restraint, that the action of the Curia in proscribing his work is little short of the inexplicable.”
Folsom, Justus Watson.Entomology, with special reference to its biological and economic aspects. *$3. Blakiston.
Although planned primarily for the student this volume is intended also for the general reader, and gives “a comprehensive and concise account of insects.” As a rule only the commonest kinds of insects are referred to in the text, in order that the reader may easily use the text as a guide to personal observation. The anatomy of insects, their physiology, color, relations to plants, other animals, and man, their behavior, distribution, etc., are fully treated and the volume is profusely illustrated and has a bibliography and an index.
“It is well adapted to general readers who want books on insects more advanced than the small popular works.”
“It easily takes rank not only with the best treatises on entomology, but among those which modern zoological science has produced. The author’s style is simple, concise, and lucid. His treatment of other writers is uniformly generous and just.”
“Here is an abundance of practically useful as well as interesting knowledge.”
“The style is never prolix, and although verbal infelicities are rather too frequent, the meaning is rarely obscure. The book as a whole is excellent, and will be most useful to the general student.” J. G. N.
Forbush, Rev. William Byron.Boys’ life of Christ. **$1.25. Funk.
The author has made a strong appeal to boys thru this vivid and natural biography of Jesus. His aim is “to show the manly, heroic, chivalric, intensely real, and vigorously active qualities of Jesus,” to approach the divine Jesus thru the human greatness.
“The author of this work has written one of the most fascinating stories for the young, apart from all consideration of the subject, that we have read in years.”
“It is remarkably well done.”
Ford, Ellis A.Challenge of the spirit. **30c. Crowell.
A monograph whose keynote is sounded in the following: “Life itself is revelation,” says Mr. Ford, “in all that I myself have felt or have known through watching others I find thetriumph of spirit over sense, the gain on things unseen through the instrumentality of the seen.”
Ford, Richard.Letters of Richard Ford. 1797–1858; ed. by Rowland E. Prothero. *$3.50. Dutton.
Mr. Ford’s letters are filled with the inimitable humor that made his guide book to Spain so popular. These letters written in 1830 from Spain to Henry Unwin Addington, then British minister to Madrid, “convey in piquant language Mr. Ford’s first impressions of ‘an original peculiar people, potted for six centuries.’” (Ath.) The editor says “To the artist, the historian, the sportsman, and the antiquary, to the student of dialects, the observer of manners and customs, the lover of art, the man of sentiment, Spain in 1830 offered an enchanting field, an almost untrodden Paradise. In Ford all these interests were combined, not merely as tastes, but as enthusiasms.”
“Mr. Prothero’s connecting narrative is skilful and clear.”
“A graceful but slight book. Only the ghost of Ford has passed into these pages.”
“Excellent letters ... edited with the utmost discretion.”
Fordham, Elias Pym.Personal narrative of travels in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky; and of a residence in Illinois territory, 1817–1818; ed. with notes, introd. and index by Frederick Austin Ogg. *$3. Clark, A. H.
This manuscript, hitherto unpublished was written anonymously in 1817–18 by a young Englishman who assisted Morris Birkbeck in establishing his Illinois settlement. The journeys are “rich in personalia of early settlers, remarks on contemporary history and politics, state of trade, agriculture, prices, and information on local history not obtainable elsewhere ... and make accessible to historical students much new and important material.”
“It might be added that Mr. Ogg’s prefatory description of the westward movement during this period, showing the economic condition of both Old and New World under which Fordham made his tour and his observations, is as interesting as anything Fordham wrote.” Edwin E. Sparks.
Reviewed by Theodore Clarke Smith.
“It is a most enjoyable narrative, and of real historical importance.”
“The volume contains much new material on the local history of the region over which Fordham’s travels extended.”
Foreman, John.Philippine islands.*$6. Scribner.
This third edition of Mr. Foreman’s “Political, geographical, ethnographical, social, and commercial history of the Philippine archipelago, embracing the whole period of Spanish rule with an account of the succeeding American insular government” is not only revised and enlarged but contains several chapters upon our administration in the Philippines since February 6, 1899, not found in the earlier editions. The volume is abundantly illustrated.
“Jumble of facts and fancies, information and misinformation.”
“Such a work as this is of scant value to anyone.”
“The author’s knowledge is so broad and complete that even his criticisms (and he does criticise) are likely not to be resented. The work fulfills all that is implied in its sub-title; it is so complete that it is not possible adequately to catalogue its contents in a short notice.” George R. Bishop.
Forman, Justus Miles.Buchanan’s wife. †$1.50. Harper.
Beatrix Buchanan, for two years married to a man whom she does not love, finds her lot unbearable. The “droop to her mouth” reveals the state of her mind and incidentally betrays the fact that she had not made the way all sunshine for her husband. Grown cynical and harsh, with the “desperately shy sweetness” entirely crushed having nothing to nourish it, Buchanan disappears one night from the world. The day of Beatrix’ happiness must dawn. She tricks the man she loves by purposely lying when called to identify a body resembling her husband. After her marriage a little “gray tramp” steps into her rose garden with mind as well as lungs gone. It is the pitiable shadow of her husband and in her misery she ministers to him till death. The story is one of a woman’s will dramatically expressed.
“A preposterous yarn, which has little power to arouse sympathy, and which depends for its effects upon trickiness and crude melodrama.” Wm. M. Payne.
“Really a most remarkable tale, told in a forked lightning literary style, that is very shocking to the reader’s nerves.”
“Mr. Forman’s new novel has a rather sensational flavor.”
“Nothing and nobody within the covers of the book could possibly have happened; all the same it does grip one’s interest.”
“The weakness of the book lies in its confusion of two literary methods, one objective and melodramatic, the other an analysis of character and its development.”
Forman, Samuel Eagle.Advanced civics: the spirit, the form, and the functions of the American government. *$1.25. Century.
“It offers to the student a large mass of information, clearly expressed, and free from the inaccuracies so common in text books on civics.”
“A valuable handbook for every American citizen, an interesting guide into the field of politics, and an inspiring counselor to duty.” Edward E. Hill.
Forrest, Rev. David William.Authority of Christ. *$2. Scribner.
“The thesis is that Jesus is not to be regarded as authority in matters of literary criticism, to determine the authorship of a Psalm or todecide whether the stories about Abraham are legendary or historical, but that his authority consists purely in his ‘final revelation of religious truth and practice, of “what man is to believe concerning God, and what duties God requires of man.”’”—Nation.
“Has something of the heaviness which characterizes doctrinal discussions of the older sort. The second chapter of the book, however, on ‘The legitimate extension of Christ’s authority,’ is a valuable bit of arrangement.”
“Dr. Forrest is careful to give a logical completeness to his treatment of his subject.”
Fosdick, Lucian J.French blood in America. **$2. Revell.
The first portion of her work is devoted to a survey of the Huguenots prior to their coming to America. Then follow an account of the unsuccessful attempts to found Huguenot colonies in North America, and the story of the beginnings at Plymouth, New Amsterdam, and Virginia.
“The purpose of the whole is to exalt the part played by Huguenot exiles and their descendants, but the claims advanced are so boundless and the critical ability displayed so slender as to provoke incredulity.” Theodore Clarke Smith.
“By reason of loose arrangement, repetition and undiscriminating admiration we lose a notable chapter of American history. In this wide field, Mr. Fosdick has worked with enthusiasm, tho not with care.”
“Mr. Fosdick appears to have no sense whatever of historical objectivity. Apart from its anxiety to prove too much this book is a useful recapitulation of what has been accomplished in the United States by people of French Protestant origin.”
“Mr. Fosdick’s book does not rank in scholarship with Douglas Campbell’s almost forgotten book, but it is as good as some other books of ‘claimings’ and will hold its own for some time to come.”
“The defects of the book are so serious that we cannot recommend it either as an authoritative or interesting contribution to its subject.”
“We cannot help thinking that the book might have been ordered; but it was worth writing, and is certainly worth reading.”
Foster, George Burman.Finality of the Christian religion. *$4. Univ. of Chicago press.
Following an introduction and an historical two parts; “Christianity as authority-religion,” and “Christianity as religion of the moral consciousness of man.” In the first section the rise, development, and disintegration of Christianity as authority-religion is historico-critically traced. In the second section, Christianity as religion of the moral consciousness is defined in antithesis to the extremes of naturalism and clericalism.
“Taken altogether, his style has so little in common with the ordinary usage of British and American theologians that it is not transparent enough to make the reading of the book a pleasure, unless it be to the narrowest specialist. What ... is the secret of Professor Foster’s success? Plainly, it is the vitality of his constructive idea, and the earnest, almost passionate, manner in which he works out its legitimate outline. He has neglected no important work upon any phase of his subject.” Andrew C. Zenos.
“He is too closely dependent upon particular German writers.” P. Gardner.
“From the standpoint of a layman, I must confess that the book seems to me too much elaborated in many places.” T. D. A. Cockerell.
“It is the gravest defect of Professor Foster’s work that he has so much to say by way of approach to his subject, and so little, in proportion, on the subject itself.”
“Dr. Foster’s argument is close and learned; not easy to read, but to be studied and pondered over.”
“Both in source and substance this is a significant book, though opening no line of thought quite new.”
Foster, John Watson.Practice of diplomacy. **$3. Houghton.
The audience reached in this work is mainly that made up of men in the diplomatic service of the nation, and the author discusses in an informing manner the utility of the diplomatic service, the duties of diplomats and their rank qualifications, the consular service, the negotiation and framing of treaties, arbitration and international claims.