Hyslop, James Hervey.Science and a future life.**$1.50. Turner, H. B.
“An attempt to popularize and condense the evidence buried in the Society for psychical research’s voluminous reports on Mrs. Piper’s trances, for one of the bulkiest and most detailed of which Dr. Hyslop was himself responsible.”—Nation.
“Is the most important critical book relating to psychical research that has appeared during the present year.”
“It belongs therefore with a group of books, numerable on the fingers of one hand, which, treating of matters occult, articulate with a body of fact and doctrine in aspect at least scientific.” E. T. Brewster.
“To those who cherish as something precious the reputation of science and the worth and ideals of the votaries thereof, equally with those who draw from religious faith a sensitiveness and a healthy-mindedness that make for intellectual refinement and stability, the volume is nothing less than offensive.”
“He has added to his extracts some sensible comments and a careful comparison of the telepathic and the spiritistic explanation, the latter of which he prefers.”
“Altogether, Prof. Hyslop’s book is the broadest and most understandable work in accord with an intelligent ambition for what this new science can and will do that we have read up to date.” Pendennis.
Ihlseng, Magnus C., and Wilson. Eugene Benjamin.Manual of mining.*$5. Wiley.
“Based on the course of lectures delivered at the school of mines of Colorado, Prof. Ihlseng’s book, which is regarded in America as the best text-book on the subject, has been enlarged under the joint authorship of Mr. Wilson to include coal mining.... The book is divided into two parts, mining engineering and practical mining. The former deals with prospecting, preparatory work, methods of mining, power generation, hoisting machinery, electric generation and water power ... underground haulage systems, ... pumping, mine gases, ventilation, ... and accidents in mines. The second part deals with shafts, ... tunnels and gangways, drilling and boring machines for explorations, miner’s tools, channelers, drills and coal-cutters, and blasting.”—Nature.
“The book has no American competitor, and it is superior to any other book in the English language covering the same broad field.”
“The book contains much useful information, but the lack of method in the arrangement cannot fail to militate against its use as a textbook.”
Indian stories retold from St. Nicholas.65c. Century.
The best of the stories of Indian life and legend contributed to St. Nicholas by well-known travelers and writers have been collected here for “out of hours” reading for young children. The book is the first of a series of historical stories, now in preparation, which in order will include “Colonial stories,” “Revolutionarystories,” “Civil war stories,” and “Our national holidays.”
“Capital tales of Indian legend and adventure.”
Inge, William Ralph.Faith and knowledge.*$1.50. Scribner.
“Mr. Inge’s sermons are chiefly doctrinal.... The subject most frequently recurring is the dependence of faith upon knowledge, the author opposing the Ritschlian view that faith is independent and master in her own sphere.”—Ind.
“A series of well-written sermons of rather more than ordinary power.”
“They disappoint the reader by an absence of intellectual virility and ‘grip,’ and a certain passionate enthusiasm which sweeps the interest of the reader into its current.” F. E. Dewhurst.
“These sermons are thoughtful, scholarly, finely spiritual. I should not think of calling them great or powerful. But they are good—at times quite suggestive, though in places tolerably commonplace. The author is not merely preacher and rhetorician but, one is pleased to find, a capable spiritual thinker. The style is always clear and good.” James Lindsay.
Ingersoll, Ernest.Island in the air.†$1.50. Macmillan.
Fifty years ago some plucky resourceful young people were cut off from their elders, as they all travelled westward to found a new home, by a landslide which held them fast upon a bit of table land, an island in a sea of air. The story tells of their adventures with Indians and wild animals and their final escape. There is also much information upon archaeology, geology, and the use of drugs.
“Exactly the sort of narrative to please adventurous boys and girls.”
*Innes, Arthur Donald.England under the Tudors.*$3. Putnam.
“‘England under the Tudors’ ... is the fourth (the second in order of publication) of Professor Oman’s ‘History of England’ in six volumes, and is, therefore, a companion volume to Mr. Trevelyan’s ‘England under the Stuarts.’ ... Mr. Innes ... has produced a competent book on this troubled epoch.”—Lond. Times.
*“Mr. Innes has carefully interpreted each reign in the light of these views and they give to his narrative a consistency and unity which will make his book especially valuable to the younger student and to the general reader, to whom it is more particularly intended to appeal.”
*“Mr. Innes’s work has not the brilliance of Mr. Trevelyan’s installment, but it is thoroughly adequate for its purpose, and shows even greater signs of sound judgment. If it is not so readable, it is perhaps more trustworthy. It is this sane judgment which characterizes Mr. Innes’s treatment of difficult and disputed questions, and makes his book so valuable an introduction to the study of the whole period. If the other volumes of the series are executed as well as the two already at hand, the reading public will at last have an adequate history of England.” Joseph Jacobs.
International catalogue of scientific literature: First annual issue. N-Zoology. pt. 1, Author catalog: pt. 2, Subject catalog, ea.*$8.40. imp. Blakiston.
“The work is planned to include the zoölogical literature for the year 1901, altho one is compelled to analyze the preface in order to determine the period covered since no record of its extent appears on title page of either part.... Part I. contains the general explanations, with the scheme of classification and an index thereto in English; and this matter is repeated in French, German and Italian. Following these, the author catalog fills 260 pages and lists 5,918 titles. Part II., which is about three times as voluminous, contains at the close a list of journals with abbreviated titles and the topographical classification. More than 1100 pages are filled with the subject references proper. The addition to each phylum of a list of names of new genera and species will commend itself to all as a most desirable feature.”—Science.
“With respect to promptness, completeness and accuracy the results are distinctly inferior to those already achieved for zoölogy by several bibliographic agencies.” Henry B. Ward.
Ireland, Alleyne.Far Eastern tropics: studies in the administration of tropical dependencies.**$2. Houghton.
The author spent many months in the Far East in the service of the University of Chicago, and the present volume contains carefully collected data and studies of the governments and commercial conditions of the tropical dependencies of Great Britain, Holland, France, and the United States, also a new map of southeastern Asia prepared by Mr. Ireland, himself, and an appendix containing statistics.
“We should like to recommend it as a very able study in comparative colonization in the tropics.”
*“It is for the most part clearly written in an interesting style, it gives just the facts which an American might wish to know, and its conclusions are given with an impartiality, honesty and forcefulness which must carry the greatest weight in the minds of the unprejudiced.” James T. Young.
“He is courageous in his outspoken comment upon all that he finds wrong.”
“Mr. Ireland has wit and vision, and in his style are clearness and force. He has made a difficult subject interesting.” Wm. Elliot Griffis.
“There is every evidence of careful and painstaking study; and the book has the unusual merit of being on the whole, definite and precise in its statements.” H. Parker Willis.
“It stands out from a copious literature as a valuable contribution to the study of comparative colonization.”
“Mr. Ireland is an effective writer, clear, vigorous, and direct, putting his points in a broad way. Mr. Ireland strikes us as being rather too sweeping in his views, and rather too confidently positive in his expression of them.”
“Altogether, it is the most satisfactory work on tropical dependencies that has yet been published, and is indispensable both because of its first-hand information and its acute suggestions.” Stanhope Sams.
“It is safe to say that nowhere else can be found so many facts, or facts so clearly stated, about the particular places and problems concerned as are gathered in this book.”
“On the whole it is a well-considered work.”
“Sound knowledge and deep care disclosed.”
Irving, Edward.How to know the starry heavens: an invitation to the study of suns and worlds.**$2. Stokes.
“An introduction to the study of astronomy, written, not as a text-book, but with the intention of arousing the reader’s interest in this great subject, and stimulating him to the study of text-books.”—Outlook.
“On the whole, the book may be characterized as a fresh, up-to-date, and stimulating series of short essays on the worlds that people space.”
“The diction, moreover, is simple and direct. In all respects it is a book admirably adapted for the average reader.”
“The wonders of the universe are described in a fascinating way.”
Irving, Washington.Selected works. $2.50. Crowell.
Five tiny volumes each measuring about two inches by an inch and a half include selections from “Tales of a traveller,” “Christmas sketches,” “The Alhambra,” “The sketch book,” and “Bracebridge hall” respectively. The books are perfect little models in thin paper, clear type and limp leather binding.
Irving, Washington.Rip Van Winkle.**$5. Doubleday.
Mr. Arthur Rackman has made fifty paintings to illustrate this new edition of Rip Van Winkle, and they are all reproduced in full color. “Each of them is a marvel of his Dureresque detail, his grotesque elaborateness, and of the strange bizarre life which beats on every inch of his paper.... Half of the charm of the book lies in the quaintness and originality of the pictures of Rip’s life among ordinary mortals before and after his long sleep in the mountains—in the humour of the old burghers, the beautiful delicately-figured landscapes, the village scenes with their happy mixture of grace and humour.... The winning and tender beauty of his women and children would alone make this book an artistic treasure.” (Lond. Times.)
“Among the Christmas books which will pour from the press during the next three months it will be hard to rival this delightful volume.”
“The humor and the poetry of Irving are all in the pictures, without a hint of the theatrical quality.”
*“It is difficult to understand for whose pleasure this latest edition of ‘Rip Van Winkle’ is designed. It cannot be taken seriously as an ‘art book,’ the drawings are not sufficiently good, while at the same time it is too sumptuous a production to put into the hands of an ordinary child.”
Irwin, Wallace Admah.At the sign of the dollar. $1. Fox.
In this cleverly slangy book of verses
“Statesman, lawyer, business manRob-as-rob-will or catch-as-catch-can,At the jolly old sign of the Dollar.”
“Statesman, lawyer, business manRob-as-rob-will or catch-as-catch-can,At the jolly old sign of the Dollar.”
“Statesman, lawyer, business manRob-as-rob-will or catch-as-catch-can,At the jolly old sign of the Dollar.”
“Statesman, lawyer, business man
Rob-as-rob-will or catch-as-catch-can,
At the jolly old sign of the Dollar.”
The topics are strictly American and up to date, and the verses in their own satirical way point a few morals. Niagara be damned, Frenzied finance, To the pure all food is pure, To an Indian skull, and Fall styles in faces, are fair samples.
*“It is humorous, fresh and glib.”
*Isham, Samuel.History of American painting.*$5. Macmillan.
In this volume the development of art in this country is traced from its beginning and the conditions which influence it, the social aspects of art, and the personality of the artists are discussed. Much space is given to the lives of some of the earlier painters, the rise and development of the National academy of design is described, also early institutions now dead and forgotten. There are twelve full-page photogravures and 100 text illustrations.
*“The book is interesting to read now, and should prove of great value in the future.”
*“The truth is that Mr. Isham has written a book about New York painters with passive sympathy for tradition and convention and with some reference to the development of art in the whole country.”
Jabez, Brother, pseud.SeeKoons, U. S.
Jackson, Charles Ross.Tucker Dan.†$1.25. Dillingham.
Tucker Dan and his chum, Mickey, indulge in a series of pranks and practical jokes thru-out these pages. Good old Uncle Binny is the usual victim altho the village doctor and a rival for the affections of the pretty Martin twins also suffer.
“The style is simple, with here and there little bits of homely humor and philosophy, though the latter is well-nigh lost and soon forgotten.”
“It is one continual laugh from beginning to end.”
*Jackson, Charles Tenney.Loser’s luck.†$1.50. Holt.
A Central American princess, the last of the line of Montezuma, leads what would have been a farce comedy revolution had not the brave lads who believed in her and her dream, died fighting for her. A young American millionaire, his yacht, and a college professor who chances to be his guest are all stolen by this daring young woman, whose personal charm wins these prisoners to champion her forlorn cause. The story is pathetically humorous, but it is also most unreal.
*“On the whole, a readable and briskly moving, if far from natural story.”
*“An unusually readable tale.” H. I. Brock.
*“A lively romance of whim and adventure.”
*Jackson, E. L.St. Helena, the historic island from its discovery to the present time.*$3. Whittaker.
“We naturally expect that Napoleon’s sojourn at St. Helena would be made much of; instead, we have an orderly description of the island and a chronological account of the events which have happened there.” (Outlook.) “The photographic illustrations have a curious worth. Some of these were taken shortly after the Boer war, and show the Boers yet interned in the island.” (Nation.)
*“For a book of reference, in spite of its lack of an index, it has its utility.”
*“This volume is strangely matter-of-fact, but on that very account has a certain restful charm.”
*Jackson, Edward Oscar.Love sonnets to Ermingarde. $1. Badger, R: G.
These love sonnets “are exactly one hundred in number, and their recipient has reason to be proud of the imagery and emotion which she evokes in the soul of her poet. It is the Shakespearean model that Mr. Jackson follows, both as to form and to diction.”—Dial.
Reviewed by Wm. M. Payne.
*“They are refined in form, rich in feeling, and swarm with suggestions that appeal to the bookish mind.”
Jackson, Mrs. Gabrielle Emilie Snow.Mother and daughter.**$1.25. Harper.
Twenty short chapters for mothers upon the management and training of their daughters.
“The style of the essay is simple and straightforward, and the matter itself bears favorable comparison with any other book of its kind.”
Jackson, Mrs. Gabrielle Emilie Snow.Tommy Postoffice: the true story of a cat.*75c. McClurg.
The adventures of Tommy Postoffice were many and all cat-lovers will read with interest how Tommy came to the Hartford postoffice in a mail sack, how he aided Cupid, what he did at the cat and poultry show, and what an important place he filled in the postoffice where all the gray-coated men were his fast friends and defenders.
*“It is brightly told, and will interest children, and their elders who like cats.”
*Jackson, Mrs. Gabrielle Emilie Snow.Wee Winkles and Wideawake,†$1.25. Harper.
“One of the nicest stories possible about a nice little girl and her brother, whose real names are not Winkles and Wideawake at all. They are six and eight years at the time of the story, which tells about the nice times they have together playing house, playing that papa is a whale in the water and taking a swim on his back; having birthday parties, and doing other interesting things. Mary Theresa Hart has made the pictures.”—N. Y. Times.
*“To the little folks of six to nine, the stories being plainly told, will appeal more directly.”
Jackson, Helen Hunt.Ramona.$2. Little.
A new edition of this picturesque story of American life, with an introduction by Susan Coolidge and illustrations by Henry Sandham.
*“A popular but not in any sense a cheap edition.”
*“A very satisfactory edition.”
Jackson, Mrs. Margaret Doyle.When love is king.†$1.50. Dillingham.
Todhunter Payson, who as a child philosophizes over his homely face thus:—“I was born that way.... You know nothing makes the way you’re born. It just happens an’ then you have to stay that way all your life,” and Luke Lyttle “gentleman to his small finger tips” are chums in boyhood, rivals in love, friends all the way. The development of the sturdy Tod from a homeless waif into a man who sways his world is not overdrawn but is true to the principles of a self-made career.
“The book is well worth reading. The people are natural and consistent, the story is well told and interesting.”
“A well-written, excellently constructed novel.”
“It is real, vivid, and compelling.”
Jackson, Wilfrid Scarborough.Helen of Troy, N. Y. $1.50. Lane.
“The story concerns two young men of London, who have been engaged in a duel with a German, arising from a quarrel caused by their mutual love for a young American heiress. The plot turns on the efforts which the Englishmen and the hero of the tale, a chance passerby, who has been induced to be a second, make to flee from the consequences of a supposedly serious wound sustained by the German. The disordered state of affairs existing during the recovery of the wounded man furnish amusement to the story.”—Bookm.
“It is a rollicking farce. He has style, observation and a pretty gift of dialogue, so that his characters talk with a naturalness which immensely heightens for the moment the plausibility of his widely impossible plot. Mr. Jackson appears to have entrusted the reading of his proofs to unskilled hands.”
“It is a pity that Mr. Jackson, whose style is otherwise good and virile, should help to mar the English language by certain small mannerisms.”
“Mr. Jackson has deft wit and an unforced originality.”
“This very lively and entertaining book. The thing has a sort of tang of ‘The new Arabian nights’ of Mr. Stevenson, a prankish irresponsible air, combined with a style decidedly precious and deliberate.”
Jacob, Violet (Mrs. Arthur Jacob).Golden heart and other fairy stories,**$1.25. Doubleday.
All who love good old-fashioned fairy tales will enjoy these eight new stories, and will be eager to know how, in Golden heart, the ugly prince rescued a bewitched princess from a rock in the sea; how Grimaçon, the dwarf, helped the Princess Moonflower, and how Ella wished for the peacock’s tail and got it. Other stories are: The sorcerer’s sons and the two princesses of Japan; The dovecote; The pelican; The cherry trees; and, Jack Frost—a story for very little children. The volume is illustrated with drawings by May Sandheim.
*“The tales by no means conform to the modern insipid and bloodless standard for juvenile fairy stories and ought to make a direct and lively appeal to the eager imagination of any healthy child.”
Jacob, Violet (Mrs. Arthur Jacob).Interloper. $1.50. Doubleday.
Mrs. Arthur Jacob, who made a sudden reputation in her former novel, “The sheep stealers,” now writes a story of country life in Scotland. The interloper is a young man who returns to his mother’s old home from a sojourn in Spain with the man who has always passed as his father,—all unconscious of the blot on his birth, the suspicions of the neighbors, and the presence of his real father in the vicinity. The situation is well handled and the social tragedy skilfully averted. There are many well-drawn characters in the book, the loyal heroine, the grand dame, the villainous family lawyer and many interesting villagers.
“When you lay down ‘The interloper’ you feel that you know intimately a half-dozen interesting people whom you did not know before. Mrs. Jacob is rich in the supreme gift of the novelist—character depiction. A melodramatic ending, trite in conception, and ill-fitting. Mrs. Jacob did not set out to tell an emotional story. She set out to reflect life in a small, old-fashioned Scotch town and its environs, and she has succeeded in masterly fashion. She has given us a delightful comedy of manners written in a style remarkable for power, simplicity and grasp. Out of the ruck of cheap fiction this book rises to real, permanent value. It is not only worth reading, it is worth a place on the book-shelf.”
Jacobi, Charles Thomas.Printing: a practical treatise on the art of typography as applied more particularly to the printing of books,*$2.50. Macmillan.
“A third revised and enlarged edition.... The completeness of the book will be apparent from a brief list of its chapters, which number thirty-five. They are in seven divisions, and deal with typefounding, composition (thirteen chapters), proofreading, hand-press work (six chapters), illustrated and color work, motive power, machine printing (six chapters), and warehouse work (four chapters).”—N. Y. Times.
*Jacobs, William Wymark.Captains all.†$1.50. Scribner.
This new collection contains “half a score of the tales this author has taught laughter-loving English readers to expect from his pen. This brand is well-known and well-liked.” (Ath.) They include amusing stories of sailormen, longshoremen, and the people of a little English village.
*“The book is thoroughly enjoyable.”
*“Adds notably to the world’s stock of humorous enjoyment.”
*“The stories are not all as good as the earlier ones, the humor often growing out of situations that are forced, and the characters lack their old delightful naïveté.”
*“The book is merely a collection of magazine stories, and their cumulative effect is a little disappointing.”
*“Mr. Jacobs is an artist with a literary conscience as well as a most engaging humourist, and, to borrow the familiar saying, though his genre is not great, he is great in his genre.”
Jacobus, Melancthon Williams, ed. Roman Catholic and Protestant Bibles compared; the Gould prize essays. 50c. Bible teachers’ training school, N. Y.
“In 1903 Miss Helen Gould offered three prizes for popular, brief essays on ‘The origin and history of the Bible approved by the Roman Catholic church’ and ‘of the American revised version.’ Two hundred and sixty-five essays were presented. The prizes were won by Rev. William Whitely, L.L.M., LL.D., Rev. Gerald Hamilton Beard, B.D., Ph.D., and Charles B. Dalton, Esq. These three essays are published in this volume. Of course, they cover much the same ground. The limits of space imposed were such that the authors could give only a somewhat bare and crowded statement of facts.”—Am. J. Theol.
“The first two essays are very full, accurate, and well proportioned. The third leaves something to be desired in accuracy, especially regarding the exactness of the present biblical text (p. 140). The chief value of the third essay lies in certain quotations from contemporary Catholic sources.” Irving F. Wood.
“These three constitute what must now be regarded as the standard work on a theme of controversy that greatly needed enlightenment.”
James, Bartlett Burleigh.History of North America, Vol. V. $6. Barrie.
The fifth volume of the series edited by Professor Guy Carleton Lee, treats of the colonization of New England and was written by Professor James of Western Maryland university. The chronological table begins with the sailing of the Mayflower and is brought down to the passage of the Stamp act. There is a careful examination of the motives of the Puritans in coming to New England, and the founding of the settlements of Connecticut and Rhode Island is given in detail. The closing chapter is devoted to the causes which led to the Revolution. There are many excellent illustrations.
“The work is of the most comprehensive character. The treatment of an extended topic is carefully and philosophically worked out.”
*James, George Wharton.In and out of the old missions of California: an historical and pictorial account of the Franciscan missions.*$3. Little.
This interesting volume covers a broad field successfully. It begins with the founding of the California missions, then gives a chapter upon Junipero Serra and his coadjutors, followed by a discussion of the Indians at the coming of the padres and at the present time. An especially noteworthy chapter deals with the secularization of the missions, and in twenty-one chapters is given an account of as many individual missions, followed by a chapter upon nine mission chapels or Aristencias. Perhaps the most distinctive feature of the volume is its treatment of mission architecture and interior decoration. A careful survey of the mural decorations of the missions is followed by a pictorial account of the furniture, pulpits, doors, and other woodwork, crosses, candlesticks, and other silver and brass ware, and of the various figures of the saints found at the missions. The illustrations are reproduced from photographs made expressly for this book.
*“An interesting and adequate treatment of a fascinating theme.”
*James, Henry.English hours.*$5. Houghton.
“This reprint of some of Mr. James’ essays descriptive of England is happily illustrated by the drawings of Mr. Joseph Pennell. The essays include London; Browning in Westminster abbey; Chester; Lichfield and Warwick; North Devon; Wells and Salisbury; An English Easter; London at midsummer; Two excursions; In Warwickshire; Abbeys and castles; English vignettes; An English New Year; An English watering-place; Winchelsea, Rye and ‘Denis Duval;’ Old Suffolk.”
*“Mr. James is like his simple original self in this charming book.”
*“These interpretations of English life carry the reader with them by their quality of tonic freshness, which takes the place of the bewildering curiosity about everything and nothing characteristic of the late novels.”
*“But these lapses though apparent are rare—more apparent, indeed, on account of their rarity—and it is impossible to resist the engaging enthusiasm, the fine freshness of mind which he brings to bear on the variety of topics and places about which he chatters in the fugitive papers bound up in this volume.”
James, Henry.Golden bowl.$2.50. Scribner.
“Four principals and two particularly diverting subordinates make up the role of characters” in this story whose action centers about the marriage of an American girl to an impoverished foreigner. “The four are Adam Verver, widower, and his daughter, Maggie, Americans,—the husband of Maggie, an Italian prince, and Charlotte Stant, a young woman of exquisite intelligence, and paramount charm, American by birth, cosmopolitan by nature.” The elements of tragedy are fostered thru the prince’s yielding to his former love for Charlotte Stant, the princess’ friend, and now Adam Verver’s wife. The strength of the story is embodied in the princess’ determination to win back the love of her husband, “which she vows must be as complete and perfect as the original crystal of the broken bowl, that picturesque property of the story that takes so unique a part in the development of the plot.” (Reader).
“The intellectuality overpowers the sensuous and objective traits proper to a novel, until one has the impression of reading an abstruse treatise of psychology rather than a tale. Despite exasperations of detail, the novel in the main is masterly. The three leading women are differentiated with the nicest skill: each is living and persuasive. But it fairly ranks as a master-work—if a master-work flawed by some of his obscurest later mannerisms.”
“The book is clear to those who think Mr. James worth a little trouble. The method, in spite of its inwardness, is detached, cold, and, if the word is possible, a little cruel. But its mental agility, its likeliness, its atmosphere, are perfect.”
“Another two volumes of abstruseness, another long discussion of a situation that only scandal mongers are supposed to discuss; again the same old heavy respectability where nothing is bad because it is not named; again the heroic sweetness of two characters, that is always his saving grace, that makes us read him.”
“In the end you have your reward—a story, a situation, which, as you think about it, pierces the obscurities and strikes you in the eyes, like the low red autumn sun pushing out of a mass of black clouds.”
“A book of mixed ugly and charming aspects. Never has the art of description been brought nearer to that of painting.”
“A book so pregnant with fundamental brainwork, so rich in suggestiveness, and so accomplished in execution. The book is clearer, and, for that very reason, more vital, than the works of what one may call his middle period.”
*James, Henry.Question of our speech: The lesson of Balzac; two lectures,**$1. Houghton.
“In the first essay, delivered as a commencement address at Bryn Mawr, Mr. James has well emphasized the overlooked needs in America of ‘a virtual consensus of educated people to impart to our speech a coherent culture.’ ... The second essay in the volume, ‘The lesson of Balzac,’ is a notable piece of literary criticism in its concentrated vigor, its elucidation of the novelist’s art, and its nicety of phrase. Recognizing in Balzac the master-artist of modern fiction.”—Dial.
*“These essays will raise a divergence of opinion, as does all of Mr. James’s literary work; but however widely readers may differ from his point of view, all will recognize the stimulating intellectual quality.”
James, Montague Rhodes.Ghost stories of an antiquary.$1.50. Longmans.
Eight old fashioned ghost stories with all the gruesome and hair-raising qualities which a story of their kind could possess. The eight are Canon Alberic’s scrap-book, Lost hearts, The mezzotint, The ash tree, Number 13, Count Magnus, “Oh, whistle, and I’ll come to you, my lad,” and The treasure of Abbot Thomas.
“Mr. James manages at times to give you a pretty well-defined creepy feeling—but his ghost stories are not quite the real thing in spite of the pains he takes to pile up detail in the setting and leave the horror itself as undefined, shapeless, and elusive as may be.”
“There can be no question about the literary merit of these eight stories, and of the ingenuity which Dr. James has shown in their construction.”
Jamison, Cecilia Viets (Mrs. Samuel Jamison).Penhallow family; a story.†$1.50. Wilde.
A little wanderer, back from India to her father’s old home, is dropped into an uncle’s family where three self-centered, noisy youngsters ruled by a hard task-mistress, “Aunt Gordon,” make life miserable for the new-comer. Her brave helpfulness in bringing happiness out of the confused and warring forces of the household frames a lesson for every young reader to profit by.
Jane, L. Cecil.Coming of Parliament, 1350-1660. (Story of the nations, no. 73.)**$1.35. Putnam.
“The general scheme of this volume is indicated by its title. It deals more especially with the development of the Constitution within the three centuries with which it is concerned, and it is an attempt to trace the steps by which Parliament attained to a permanently important share in the government of England. While stress is laid upon this theme, other sides of the national life have not been ignored.” (N. Y. Times.) There are many illustrations, a map of England, and a chronology.
“What Mr. Jane has really written is an English history of a period. But, while itsaccuracy it notable, it has other merits which are astonishing. The events of the period, particularly towards the close, were many and complex and stirring; yet, although this book is almost as compact as an encyclopaedia, it is so fluent and fascinating that one reads it with the delight which is given by great romance. Mr. Jane, it is true, is not without predilections. His imagination is attracted by the navy. In all other respects, though invariably he arrests attention, he is coldly judicial. Besides being exceptionally well-informed, our historian brought to his task a fresh, independent and penetrating intellect.” W. Earl Hodgson.
“As a book professedly concerned with ‘the coming of parliament’ and the place of parliament in national life, it cannot be said to have any particular merit or value, or to render of less service any of the accepted histories of English constitutional development.” Edward Porritt.