Chapter 38

6–34081.

A story dedicated “to every little girl who has wished for an hour to be a little boy.” The child heroine figures in exciting adventures among Roundheads and Cavaliers during Cromwell’s time, masquerading for a time as a boy among the King’s soldiers.

“The story is excellent in atmosphere and has more incident and plot than the author’s previous works.”

“A most attractive tale for young people. Should it fall into the hands of the elders it will surely be read at a sitting.”

“This story has decidedly finer literary flavor than most books for children or about children.”

Dix, Edwin Asa.Prophet’s Landing: a novel. †$1.50. Scribner.

7–12634.

The rigor of monopoly in the early seventies in its iconoclastic treatment of the cherished idols of sentiment furnishes the motif of this story. A department store proprietor becomes a magnate thru the exercise of mighty business genius minus heart. His octopus methods work havoc in hearts and homes in Prophet’s Landing, and the events which follow one another in rapid succession show the ultimate futility of greed, tho it shelter itself under the moral law.

“The story is entitled to a place in the honorable line of our New England fiction.”

“The characters in this wholesome novel are strongly drawn. A simple tho powerful love-story traverses it, and there are interesting descriptions of New England life.”

“A good, obvious tract, which might be more serviceable than literature of a higher order, if it could conceivably be held before the eyes of the wicked shopkeeper and the wickeder railroad man.”

“It may be doubtful whether a strong and able man would ever repent in quite the spectacular manner in which Mr. Dix, accomplishes his hero’s reform ... but the book does present a salutary lesson on modern business methods.”

“The story is unpretentious, but distinctively effective; and its humor and sentiment give it variety and dramatic vitality.”

Dix, Morgan, ed. History of Trinity church in the city of New York. 4v. **$5. Putnam.

Descriptive note in Annual, 1906.

“Dr. Dix has been thorough in his search for documents and careful in their use, and his work will be invaluable to students of the matters with which it deals.”

Dix, William Frederick.Face in the girandole: a romance of old furniture. **$2. Moffat.

6–39023.

Mr. Dix makes an asset of his hobby for old furniture in this charming book. “‘The face in the girandole’ sets forth something of the joys, something of the sorrows of an old furniture collector. Into it he has incidentally but skilfully woven just a dash of romance as a foil, and this added touch will make it appeal to others besides those who collect furniture.” (Ind.)

“It is a novelette that almost anybody might like to spend an idle hour upon.”

“For the most part it is pleasantly and faithfully done.”

Dix, William Frederick.Lost princess. †$1.50. Moffat.

7–26021.

“A direct descendant of the novel of imaginary principalities and imaginable adventures rendered popular by Mr. Anthony Hope.... The recipe for this kind of story calls for several manufactured geographical names, a group of appropriate gentlemen and ladies, all superlatively beautiful, brave, good or wicked, and then a rush and tumble of extraordinary events, ending in poetic justice for all concerned.”—N. Y. Times.

“The first chapter really makes one look for something new, but things soon settle down into the old familiar lines.”

Dixon, Thomas, jr.Traitor.†$1.50. Doubleday.

7–24587.

The third novel in Mr. Dixon’s trilogy of reconstruction of which “The leopard’s spots” and “The clansman” were the first two. It deals with “the dissolution of the Ku Klux Klan and the attempt of unscrupulous men after its dissolution to use its garb and methods for personal ends.” (Outlook.) “It provides a secret panel and a secret passage, ghosts, a murder in the midst of the revelry of a masked ball of Ku Kluxes; a young man robbed of his heritage, and a young woman with coquettish curls and a Dolly Varden, who is a daughter of the thief. It makes this willful young woman suspect the young man of the murder—’twas the thief, her father, who perished by the assassin’s hand—and shows her fiercely set upon bringing him to the gallows by making him fall in love with herself, and, therefore, confidential enough to confess all.” (N. Y. Times.)

“The book cries out for the stage—the Third avenue stage. It is as full of situations, thrills, climaxes, ‘curtains,’ as a home of melodrama is of gallery gods.” Ward Clark.

“The book is at least remarkable as a psychological phenomenon, for it is probably the first time a man has so successfully interpreted himself into the character of an historical, palpitating female.”

“There are not lacking some dramatic scenes in the course of the story, but as a defense of government by means of the Invisible Empire the author manifestly defeats his own purpose.”

“From a literary point of view there is much in common between Mr. Lawson and Mr. Dixon. In fact, both are yellow journalists.”

“This tale, like its predecessors, seems to us ill written and almost hysterically high-keyed in expression.”

Dodd, Helen C.Healthful farmhouse, by a farmer’s wife; with an introd. by Ellen H. Richards. *60c. Whitcomb & B.

6–45718.

A book written for the average farmer’s wife from the point of view of one who does all her own cooking, dishwashing, sweeping, and laundry work, yet runs a lawn mower and cares for the flower beds about the house, and does much work in the vegetable garden. It proves that art may be combined with the ideas of utility and sanitation.

“An admirable little book full of practical ideas.”

Dodge, Walter P.Real Sir Richard Burton. *$1.80. Wessels.

Mr. Dodge’s biography was inspired by a desire “to overthrow the destructive criticism of Burton contained in the ‘Life’ by Thomas Wright.” “By confining himself not without a sense of proportion, to Burton’s main exploits, Mr. Dodge is able to skim over several pitfalls in which a fuller biography is likely to be enmeshed, and his reticence over certain threadbare controversies is welcome.” (Lond. Times.)

“His ‘Real Sir Richard Burton’ is no Sir Richard Burton at all, but an abstraction who made certain journeys and wrote certain books. He settles no vexed questions and produces no new information.”

“Is actually a panegyric rather than a biography. To original research or critical acumen it can make little claim, nor does the author appear to have had any personal acquaintance with the subject of his sketch.” Percy F. Bicknell.

“Mr. Dodge is too passionate an admirer to be a good biographer. He sacrifices personality to achievement lest by chance he admit something to his hero’s discredit. In the case of Burton such caution is superfluous.”

Dole, Charles Fletcher.Hope of immortality; our reasons for it. *75c. Crowell.

6–34260.

Descriptive note in Annual, 1906.

“This is as far as any thinker of any age has ever reached, the final word for the present.” Robert E. Bisbee.

“Dr. Dole has handled a hard subject in a thoughtful, sympathetic fashion.”

Dole, Charles Fletcher.Spirit of democracy. **$1.25. Crowell.

6–26499.

Descriptive note in Annual, 1906.

“A most readable book.”

“It is specially to be commended to young men and women who have not yet learned the value, the possibilities, and the triumphs of a true democracy.” I. C. Barrows.

“Of course the treatment of so many subjects in one small volume must necessarily be superficial and unsatisfactory.” Max West.

“It is a reasonable and thoughtful presentation of some of the most pressing problems in our contemporary political life.”

Dole, Nathan Haskell, comp. and tr. Russian fairy book. †$2. Crowell.

7–24600.

Seven stories on which a child’s imagination may feed, full of adventure, humor, mystery and magic. They are Vasilisa the beauty, The Bright-Hawk’s feather, Ivan and the gray wolf, The little sister and little brother, The white duckling, Marya Morevna, and The frog-queen.

“The stories are in the nature of folk-lore, and are all good.”

“Opens a new and fascinating vista to lovers of stories that are full of original beauty and the naïve appeal of ancient folk-lore.”

“The illustrations allure on account of their novelty. However, in the tales there is little or no freshness of subject-matter or style.”

Donaldson, James.Woman, her position and influence in ancient Greece and Rome, and among the early Christians. *$1.60. Longmans.

W 7–73.

“The book gives one a clear picture of the various ideals in regard to woman which prevailed through the Greek, Roman and early Christian times, and of how the women measured up to them.”—N. Y. Times.

“Dr. Donaldson’s readable little book is perhaps quite as useful as a work of more solid erudition would be.” Paul Shorey.

“For the most part, a lucid and excellently written summary of the salient facts which may be gathered from the scattered and often conflicting testimonies available to us. He has a wide knowledge of the German writers who have done the ‘spade-work’ of the subject, but he has also an advantage they generally lack—a clear and attractive style.”

“We conclude by recording the impression of sanity and clarity produced alike by the first and second reading of this modest work. Occasionally we might quarrel about a nuance of interpretation or of presentation. The essential parts are readable and instructive; the whole is valuable.” F. B. R. Hellems.

“His statements were based on sound scholarship, and were made with unusual caution, so that he could publish them in book form with the addition here and there of footnotes embodying certain modern discussions.”

“It has the buoyancy and freshness of a spring day, a frank love of beauty, an invincible conviction that the generous and fine is the real and important side of human nature.” Hildegarde Hawthorne.

“For the most part, his work is rather a series of suggestive essays on comparatively well-known facts than a fresh contribution to knowledge. As such, however, it has great value, and the author exhibits exactly the learning, insight, and judgment which we need for the full investigation of a difficult but fascinating subject.”

Dos Passos, John R.American lawyer as he was—as he is—as he can be. *$1.75. Banks.

7–2440.

“In this work Mr. Dos Passos discusses in broad outline what he conceives to be the real mission of the lawyer in society, his relation to the government of which he is a citizen, and his clearly defined duties in that relation.”—R. of Rs.

Doubleday, Nellie Blanchan (Neltje Blanchan, pseud.).Birds that every child should know: the East; 63 pages of photographs from life. (Every child should know series.) **$1.20. Doubleday.

7–7517.

While primarily for children this book interests other bird-lovers as well. “Nearly a hundred species are described and talked about in an informal, interesting way, technicalities being avoided as much as possible, perhaps too much for convenience of identification.” (Ind.)

“A very good book for children, or to use with children, for supplementary work. Does not supplant Chapman’s ‘Birdlife’ as an identification book, and one might hesitate to choose it in preference to Olive Thorne Miller’s two books for teaching purposes, but is superior for reading.”

“A book charmingly written and copiously illustrated.”

“Mrs. Doubleday occasionally ‘talks down’ to her readers in a way that a child who has got beyond the Mother Goose stage and is proud of it would be apt to resent.”

“One of the most attractive bird-books that we have seen.”

“The chief criticism is the number of these facts which is crowded into each short essay. Slips are few, and the book, as a whole, is well up to the standard set by the numerous pictures, which is very high.”

“One feels that it would be fine to make the personal acquaintance of the author—and that is saying much. Here is an author who knows the calls of the woodland as a man might know his multiplication table.”

“A pleasant, chatty little book.”

*Downes, Alfred M.Fire-fighters and their pets. il. †$1.50. Harper.

Here one finds described the bravery of the guardians of modern life, their allegiance to the great machine called the Fire department, the training, the discipline of the men and horses, and for the gentler part, the devotion of the men to their pets.

Dowson, Joseph Emerson.Producer gas. *$3. Longmans.

7–25693.

A discussion of the theory of producer gas, the practical results obtained, best means of securing them, and the use and application of producer gas.

“It is evident all through the book that the authors are thoroughly conversant with the actual working of apparatus for both the production and use of producer gas, and their book meets the needs of persons handling such plants better than any of the other books on the subject with which the reviewer is acquainted.” Alfred E. Forstall.

Doyle, (Arthur) Conan.Sir Nigel; il. by the Kinneys. †$1.50. McClure.

6–34805.

Descriptive note in Annual, 1906.

Reviewed by Wm. M. Payne.

Doyle, J. A.Colonies under the House of Hanover. $3.50. Holt.

2–11920.

The fifth volume in Mr. Doyle’s “English colonies in America.” It deals collectively with the whole body of colonies from the accession of the House of Hanover to the beginning of those disputes which ended in separation from the mother country.

“Mr. Doyle’s work compares favourably with the new French volume of Prof. Schefer in which are discussed many of the same ‘Colonial problems.’”

“A work as unique as it is valuable, for a one-volume history of the colonies under the House of Hanover has, we believe, no mate.”

“It is evident that Mr. Doyle’s last volumes are no better than those that preceded them, and will do nothing to re-establish the reputation of his earlier work.”

Reviewed by Robert Livingston Schuyler.

“His final volume is far more fragmentary and inadequate than any of its predecessors.”

“Mr. Doyle seems quite content to accept, without further investigation on his own part, what he finds ready to his hand in the books of American writers on colonial history, and has neglected much first-hand authority (or its equivalent) of which he should most certainly have known.”

“Far more important than Mr. Doyle’s misapprehensions as to the social condition of Virginia is his bland acceptance of the ‘Yankee convention’ regarding education in the colony.”

“The book swarms with misprints and errors in citation. Mr. Doyle’s style is pleasing in the main and often spirited and graphic—far more so than that of the usual chronicler of colonial annals.”

Doyle, J. A.Middle colonies. $3.50. Holt.

2–11920.

The fourth volume in Mr. Doyle’s “English colonies in America” deals with the history of the Middle colonies down to the accession of the House of Hanover, coincident with the disappearance of Penn from the field of colonial politics.

“There is no fairer view of American colonial development than that contained in the five bulky volumes of Mr. Doyle.”

“It is safe to say that no one can hereafter write about or study the colonial period of American history without reckoning with, and constantly referring to, Mr. Doyle’s work.”

“In organizing and distributing his data Mr. Doyle followed very conventional models, and in the work before us has neglected some of the most essential portions of our history.”

“But although specialists will find fault with him for inaccuracies, the great value of the work is unquestionable. It is regrettable that the indexes have not been better made.” Robert Livingston Schuyler.

“In the volume upon the middle colonies the treatment is to a degree systematic and in some parts quite detailed. Much the same method is followed as was apparent in the earlier instalments of the work. But the writer’s chief fault lies in his failure to grasp, or at least to set forth, the significance of our colonial history as a whole.” Herbert L. Osgood.

“Mr. Doyle has made the most of his material. He never lets us forget that if his picture is crowded with a mass of insignificant detail, its outlines are large.”

Draught of the blue, together with An essence of the dusk; tr. from the original manuscript by Francis William Bain. †$1.50. Putnam.

7–6406.

A volume of love stories translated from the original Hindoo manuscripts by the author of “A digit of the moon.” “The title, as he tells us in his charming introduction, signifies in some occult way the new moon, the lotus, and the blue eyes of a girl.... The book is pure sublimated fancy, where Western ideals appear in the delicate garb of Eastern mysticism.” (Spec.)

“There is a very genuine pleasure in reading the two curious tales that make up this new volume, because they are not only fascinating in themselves, as specimens of delicate and involved mysticism, but because they are so abundantly and unmistakably saturated with the spirit of the Orient.” Frederic Taber Cooper.

“The English of the version is singularly fluent, simple, and graceful.”

“They breathe a delicacy and fragrance of sentiment that are as entrancing as they are foreign to the literature to which the author modestly claims to be indebted, and they are rendered in English that charms with its pure music.”

“It is superfluous to praise the charm of Mr. Bain’s style. He writes the English of a scholar and an artist.”

Dreiser, Theodore.Sister Carrie.$1.50. Dodge, B. W.

A reissue of a realistic novel which first appeared in 1900. “It is the direct, unflinching, pitiless history of the physical and moral ruin of one more fool, for the sake of a woman who did not care—a pretty, self-centred, passionless thing, who indifferently suffers his presence while he is useful to her—and then climbs over the wreck of his life in her hasty escape from the mire into which she has helped to sink him.” (Bookm.)

“Mr. Dreiser is no stylist. He merely writes with great simplicity and quiet force of life as he sees and understands it. The only adverse criticism which it seems worth while to make ... is in regard to its rather colourless and misleading title.” Frederic Taber Cooper.

“It is a book very much worth reading. But as about a lady one might be excused for noticing that a costume dating seven years back was a trifle out of fashion, so in the case of Mr. Theodore Dreiser’s story, one may perhaps be pardoned for feeling strongly, as one begins to read, that the stock tricks of the realistic method, even in 1900 somewhat discredited, now almost fatally fail to impress or to move. He moves both the intellect and the heart—a considerable achievement.” Harrison Rhodes.

“There are two reasons why ‘Sister Carrie’ is a book to be recommended in spite of its boldness of theme. First of all for the sake of its truthfulness, the frankness of its portrayal of a widespread type. Secondly it is a pitiless, unsparing portrayal of a man’s ruin.” Frederic Taber Cooper.

“We do not recommend the book to the fastidious reader, or the one who clings to ‘old-fashioned ideas.’”

“‘Sister Carrie’ is a book to be reckoned with, just as the social conditions—or defects—on which it rests must be reckoned with.” Joseph Hornor Coates.

Dresslar, Fletcher B.Superstition and education. pa. $2.50. Univ. of Cal.

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