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Ober, Frederick Albion.Amerigo Vespucci(Heroes of American history.) *$1. Harper.

7–7447.

His early life amid Florentine surroundings, the avidity with which he absorbed accounts of Marco Polo’s wonderful journeys, his study of charts, globes, nautical instruments for the sake of acquiring skill in cosmography lead up to a very informing narrative of his four voyages. His relations with Columbus, and the diverging characteristics of the two explorers are interestingly sketched.

“Scholars will object to his interesting but irrelevant digressions. It is a real contribution to popular history.”

“Within very moderate limits, and in a clear, attractive way, Mr. Ober succeeds in presenting an interesting portrait of the man.”

“For several reasons it is less satisfactory than its predecessors. Far too much prominence is given to secondary figures. There is also too liberal a piecing-out of the narrative by quotations. Mr. Ober has paid scanty attention to the results of recent investigations.”

“The story is told in an entertaining way from original, authentic documents, and is illustrated with portraits and maps.”

Ober, Frederick Albion.Ferdinand De Soto, and the invasion of Florida. **$1. Harper.

6–32459.

Descriptive note in Annual, 1906.

“This little volume is neither dry nor dull, and in its pages is recreated a good story of the adventures, dangers and thirst for gold of De Soto and his sturdy band.”

Ober, Frederick Albion.Ferdinand Magellan. *$1. Harper.

7–15946.

Magellan is the subject of this volume in the “Heroes of American history” series. The story of the life and voyages and tragic death of the great Portuguese explorer, his discovery of the Straits of Magellan, Guam, and the Philippines in the first transpacific voyage, is told in compact detail.

“Worth buying for the small library because of the brevity of material found in the general works that most small libraries can afford.”

“The book is an instructive and interesting one to add to a boy’s library.”

“In clear and convincing style, and with candor as well as sympathy, Mr. Ober traces the short and stormy career of Magellan.”

“Is even more interesting than the excellent life of Vespuccius.”

“Mr. Ober’s volume is not the least interesting of an interesting series.”

Ober, Frederick Albion.Vasco Nunez de Balboa.**$1. Harper.

6–37625.

Descriptive note in Annual, 1906.

“It is a book for young readers and will undoubtedly hold their attention. Its chief value is that it presents in rapid story form facts affording a correct general idea of early Spanish exploration and settlement.”

“Young and old readers alike should be interested in the present volume, especially in its chief dramatic episode, the discovery of the Pacific.”

Oberholtzer, Ellis Paxson.Jay Cooke, financier of the civil war. 2v. **$7.50. Jacobs.

7–33957.

A complete biography of this great patriot and marvelous financier in the preparing of which the author has had the interested aid of the family and free access to the chests full of letters and documents preserved by Mr. Cooke during his life. Dr. Oberholtzer presents an open, good and honest career, and shows how impossible it would have been for the Federal government to have carried on the civil war without the help of so great and loyal a financier.

“The historian, who estimates accomplishments by their ultimate effect rather than by the brilliancy of their execution, is certain to take larger account of him as time goes on. To such students Dr. Oberholtzer’s volumes offer themselves as a standard work of reference.”

“Dr. Oberholtzer’s voluminous work will be found interesting, not only to the financier, but to the ordinary reader in search of entertainment. It should be many years before another life of this honest man and patriot is called for.”

“Always the view-point is that of an ardent, even an undiscriminating admirer of Jay Cooke. This, indeed, constitutes the chief defect of a work that is otherwise of real value.”

“Dr. Oberholtzer has made a valuable contribution to the history of the civil war period.”

O’Higgins, Harvey Jerrold.Don-a-dreams. †$1.50. Century.

6–29530.

Descriptive note in Annual, 1906.

Reviewed by Mary Moss.

Oldmeadow, Ernest J.Susan.$1.50. Luce, J: W.

7–22115.

“Susan, a beautiful and impossible maid, receives a letter proposing marriage to her from a young and imaginative peer, who has presumably fallen in love with her pretty face without ever having spoken to her. Susan, greatly embarrassed ... consults her mistress, who ends by conducting her correspondence for her, eventually falling in love with her correspondent. The climax comes when the young lord—his love fanned by the beauty of his lady’s letters—discovers that there has been a mistake, and that the girl whom he saw and loved is the mistress and not the maid.”—Sat. R.

“Mr. Oldmeadow knows how to write, and should entertain a wide circle of readers this spring. His book has a sense of character, too, which is the more effective for not being lost in a cloud of verbiage.”

“The sprightly tale of ‘Susan’ is delicately, and at times humorously feminine, in its grasp of that only constant theme, love, to which it is a delightfully clever variant.”

“It has a unique and daring plot, and is written with an airiness and humor that make its pages most entertaining and attractive.”

“It is a dainty trifle, pleasantly written, but it has, in spite of its modern setting, no relation to the life and action of to-day. The story is developed with considerable skill and humour, and although it is written in the literary diary form, it is never tedious.”

“[Though] it strains the reader’s credulous powers to breaking-point, is at any rate lightly and freshly written.”

Oliver, Frederick Scott.Alexander Hamilton: an essay on American union. *$3.75. Putnam.

6–16717.

Descriptive note in Annual, 1906.

“He ought to have enough discrimination to see the point of view of the other side and to recognize that his own favorite had some shortcomings. Neither of these things has Mr. Oliver done.” John Spencer Bassett.

“It is so broad, so generous, so just to both sides in its analysis of the great struggle for liberty, its estimates of all the actors in that picturesque drama, it is so evidently a labor of love in an infinite leisure, above all so classic in style, and so interesting in mere reading, that, in an era when the American public was more addicted to serious books than now, it would have become a handbook at once and exerted a powerful influence.” Gertrude Atherton.

Ollivant, Alfred.Redcoat captain: a story of that country, il. †$1.50. Macmillan.

7–29092.

A story fraught with tender symbolism which “contains the key to the right of entry into ‘that country’—the country of those who have learned to remain young in heart and to look out upon life with the frank serenity of little children.” (Bookm.)

“The form of nonsense that finds expression in ‘Redcoat captain’ does not please us at all.”

“Curious, alluring and altogether unique volume.” Frederic Taber Cooper.

“Those who bring the heart and mind of a boy will discover that it is a striking piece of work, and also that it is a very beautiful parable.”

*Olmsted, Frederick Law.Journey in the back country in the year 1854. 2v. *$5. Putnam.

“This book, originally published in 1860 on the eve of the war of secession, is one of the most remarkable indictments of negro slavery to be found in the arsenal of abolitionist literature. It records a personal study of the conditionsand habits of the people of the south ... [in order] to obtain and report the facts of ordinary life, not to supply arguments. Mr. Olmstead[Olmsted] was no abolitionist, ... he aimed at emancipation through the gradual cultivation and education of the capacities of the slaves, and the awakening of the masters to the economic waste of the existing system. His most interesting pages are not those devoted to the sordid realities of the cotton-fields and the varied conditions of life in the cabins of the ‘darkies;’ but those which contain a searching and pitiless analysis of the southern planter and the ‘mean’ whites.”—Spec.

“Negro slavery has gone forever, but the negro problem is still acute, and those who would understand both the real nature of the ‘peculiar institution’ and the causes of the great war should study this very opportune reprint of Mr. Olmstead’s work.”

Olney, Oliver, pseud.Novelty circus company. †$1.50. Jacobs.

7–29151.

How some school boys organized a company and gave a series of circus performances for the benefit of their town library provides material for a capital story.

Oman, Charles William Chadwick.Great revolt of 1381. *$2.90. Oxford.

6–42914.

“The late André Reville had projected a work on this movement, and had got together a vast collection of records of trials, inquests, petitions, and escheators’ rolls for this purpose. Professor Oman has enjoyed the use of all of these documents, and also includes some new and unpublished material regarding the poll-tax. He thinks he has discovered why that impost met with such universal detestation, how the poorer classes in England conspired to defeat its operation, and how the counterstroke made by this government provoked the rebellion.” (Nation.)

“Mr. Oman has written his account without prejudice, and its value, we imagine, lies less in any thesis it may be thought to establish, than in the picture it gives of England in 1831.”

“It is because Prof. Oman’s book, as we have said, supplies a want for teachers and students, that we have drawn attention to certain points which will require revision if he should undertake a fresh edition.”

“We have dwelt at what may appear disproportionate length upon his treatment of the poll tax returns because it is here that he specially lays claim to originality. What is valuable in his suggestions is not materially affected by the inaccuracies pointed out above, but we rise from the examination with a somewhat shaken confidence in the scientific exactitude of his methods of research. The narrative of the rebellion itself can be more unreservedly commended. It is full, well digested, and spirited. But even here we must not look for pedantic accuracy in details.” James Tait.

“Alike from its summing up of recent results, and from the new material it contains and the freshness and suggestiveness of its style, this book will be indispensable to the student of the fourteenth century. It will also find readers beyond the ranks of professional historians, for it narrates a dramatic story, and Professor Oman has told it well.”

“The most interesting, if not the most valuable feature of Prof. Oman’s book, is the diversity of material which it contains. The whole episode assumes new meaning under his skilful analysis of the causes which prompted such a widespread and spontaneous uprising.”

“Brilliant narrative.”

“A valuable historical study, picturesque and compact.”

Oman, John Campbell.Problem of faith and freedom in the last two centuries. *$2.75. Armstrong.

7–29073.

“A critical review of two centuries of debate upon the problem of faith and freedom, which arose in the Protestant reformation.... Jesuitism and Pascal’s ‘Pensées,’ English deism and Butler’s Analogy, Rationalism and Kant on Pure reason, Romanticism and Schleiermacher’s Discourses on religion, The French revolution, and Newman’s ‘Apologia,’ the Development theory, and Baur’s Church history, the Theory of experience and Ritschlianism ... make up a conspectus of a highly diversified field.”—Outlook.

“He has ... the defects of individualist Protestantism; but he has also its good qualities, and that makes his book suggestive and interesting.”

“His book is full of courage and hope, accepting joyously and eagerly the results which the best scholarship has attained, and yet cheered with the outlook for true religion and for the higher interests of humanity.”

“It will be seen at once that the lecturer had fixed upon a subject of great interest and importance, both to the speculative thinker and to the common man. His selection of material for study and discussion indicates no less discernment. As an analyst and critic, Professor Oman exhibits marked ability.”

Omar Khayyam.Rubaiyat: a new metrical version; rendered into English from various Persian sources, by George Roe, with introd. and notes. **$1.50. McClurg.

6–41520.

Descriptive note in Annual, 1906.

“He has caught the spirit of Omar—though not, we think, so completely as FitzGerald—and his translation, though it is not likely to bring many new worshippers to the shrine of the old tentmaker of Naishapur, should be welcomed by scholars. Much learning and research have gone to its making, and the marginal and other notes are valuable; but judged as literature, it is—inevitably—vastly inferior to FitzGerald’s.”

“Workmanlike little book.”

Omond, Thomas Stewart.English metrists in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; being a sketch of English prosodical criticism during the last two hundred years. *$2.40. Oxford.

7–37517.

A book for students which not merely enumerates and summarizes but traces “the gradual development of sound views of verse-structure.” Mr. Omond divides the two hundred years of his survey into four equal periods, to each of which he devotes a chapter, as follows: The old orthodoxy, Resistance and rebellion, The new verse, and The new prosody.

“In recommending the present pamphlet to our readers, we do not intend to indorse Mr. Omond’s conclusions, nor to subscribe to his criticism. We have not yet examined the pamphlet with all the care and thought which it deserves, and there are points on which we distinctly disagree with Mr. Omond.”

“The finest part of Mr. Omond’s book consists in the exposition of his own ideas.”

“Is one of the most important books on versification that have appeared since Sidney Lanier’s ‘Science of English verse.’” Edward Payson Morton.

“But neither these strictures nor some omissions and slips and even misjudgments, which are inevitable in such a work, can change the fact that the work is carefully done, and is to be received with gratitude.”

“Has no competitor in this history of prosody save Prof. Saintsbury. It is eminently scholarly and conscientious, and a noteworthy and valuable contribution to this much-debated and still debatable subject.”

Oppenheim, Edward Phillips.Enoch Strone. †$1.50. Little.

A new illustrated edition. Enoch Strone, mechanic and inventor, in a moment of humiliation caused by a rejected suit, marries an impossible factory girl. His struggle between relinquishing his career as member of parliament and saving his wife from herself ends in his facing his duty and in finding definite reward.

Oppenheim, Edward Phillips.Lost leader.†$1.50. Little.

6–18998.

“The prolific Mr. Oppenheim has again brought forth a mouse.” (Nation.) It is a story of English politics in which one Mannering retired from the political arena, is dragged back to the scene of his former successes by the villain of the plot, there to suffer intrigues of both love and politics.

“Mr. Oppenheim is one of the few writers who can make a political novel as interesting as a good detective story where the reader is expecting some one to be shot on every page.”

“This is a story that grips one from the start, notwithstanding its opening, which contains a dialog of platitudes.”

“The truth is, Mr. Oppenheim’s manner is a bit too candidly professional. He has done the trick many times, and is confident of doing it many times more; one may imagine him blandly aware of the fact that it is not much of a trick after all.”

“There is at least one person in the book—Mrs. Phillimore—which is a well conceived and convincing character. This is the best thing in the way of character study that Mr. Oppenheim has done. His hero is a weak man, and most of the other characters are far from taking the flesh and bone of reality.”

“The story is readable enough, but not of great importance.”

Oppenheim, Edward Phillips.Malefactor.†$1.50. Little.

7–984.

One finds In the malefactor of Mr. Oppenheim’s story a companion study to the hero of his “Prince of sinners.” Grown ascetic and bitter during a period of unjust imprisonment, Sir Wingrave Seaton, at the end of his confinement, slips into the world incognito for purposes of revenge. His nature is too generous to permit him to carry out his scheme of injury. Under the mask of indifference, even cruelty, he is a philanthropist. After numerous logical digressions the love interest shapes itself into a typical bachelor’s romance.

“Had Mr. Oppenheim been content to make the outcome of the story a little less obvious from the beginning, the novel would have gained in strength.” Amy C. Rich.

“Mr. Oppenheim’s latest venture will bring no discredit upon his reputation as a storyteller.”

“This is a typical example of the modern realistic novel which, without any pretence to literary art, contrives to hold the interest of the reader.”

“An amusing yarn, and not without a moral.”

“It is the most enticing excuse for suspended mental activity that has yet come from Mr. Oppenheim’s gifted pen.”

“Is a frankly sensational story with little pretence to literary art but constructed with all that skill in development of power and exciting interest of which the author is an acknowledged master.”

Oppenheim, Edward Phillips.Sleeping memory. †$1.50. Little.

A new edition with frontispiece. The story records a physician’s experiment of performing an operation upon a willing patient which results in a loss of memory. With the memory disappears also the soul of the girl leaving only a superficial, pleasure-loving, heartless coquette. A second operation restores her to her former self, and eliminates any memory of her seven months of changed identity.

Oppenheim, Lassa.International law.*$6.50. Longmans.

Descriptive note in December, 1905.

“The part of the book dealing with the development and present state of the law of neutrality is perhaps the most valuable.”

“The general arrangement is admirable; the style is careful, though sometimes a little cumbrous. Solid merit is the distinguishing characteristic of these volumes.” T. Raleigh.

Orczy, baroness.Beau Brocade.†$1.50. Lippincott.

7–28961.

The daring incidents which give life to this tale take the reader back to the days of the Pretender, Charles Edward Stuart. Beau Brocade, a cashiered army officer of high birth, is dropped from the army for justly chastising a superior officer. He becomes a chivalrous highwayman, robbing rich men and extortioners and dropping many of the guineas so secured into Wirkworth’s poor box. His heroism, his chivalry, all his qualities of knighthood are called into play in aiding one Lady Patience Gascoyne to free her brother from the charge of traitorship to the king. As a reward he is restored to the army and wins the hand of the heroine in spite of the machinations of a titled rival.

“Baroness Orczy writes in a breezy, galloping style, which does not scorn any amount of meretricious adornment.”

Orczy, Baroness.Gates of Kamt; il. by the Kinneys. †$1.50. Dodd.

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