Life — July 20, 1893 — page 7: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

* LIFE: romance exerts a certain charm, but produces in time a feel- ing of monotony or artificiality. Not that the effect is gained by a Chesterfieldian polish or Grandisonian claborateness of phrase; the language is the plain and casy talk of modern society. But the high leve! of emotion is maintained at some cost. The characters are a!! so intense as to seem exagger- ated; and one feels that a touch of comedy, a condescension to the trivia! or even the vulgar, now and then, would give relief and reality, ‘ Pietro Ghisleri” reminds one frequently of novels like * The American" and “ The Princess Casamas- sima,” but also not infrequently of things written by Miss Braddon and other distressingly high toned and imp fictionists of the more exalted se Thus we fear that the hero himself is rather a lady's hero, Ze., he is made interesting to the tender reader by his repu- tation for wickedness, by the number of his love affairs, by a wound through the right lung which he gets in a duel, and by some Mephistophelian verses which he speaks at a carni- val party. He stops short, indeed, of the Byronic or melo- dramatic. Melodrama, which was present in such excess in “To Leeward” and others of Mr, Crawford's novels, is not obtrusive here. Seta lady who kills her enemy’s husband by infecting his napkin with scarlet fever, and then takes to the mor- phine habit to deaden her remorse, and writes a confession which is hidden in the oudlfette of an old Gothic castle, and the disappearance of which is made the basis of an action for blackmail against another enemy—such a lady as this furnishes all the excitement that a reasonable reader can ask for in one book. It is in the grave, strong and sincere presentation of the heroic element in human character and passion that this writer's forte seems to lie. His emotion strength is curiously combined with a sort of intellectual flimsiness. Both traits were visible in his first novel, Mr, Isaacs,” a very absurd book which the dear public took quite seriously. But since then, in novels like “ A Roman Singer" and “ Saracinesca,” he has shown a thorough mastery of his art. Henry A. Beers: NEW BOOKS. AMERICANS IN EUROPE, By One of Them. New York: Tait, ‘Sonsand Company. A Border Leander. By Howard Seely. New York: D. Appleton and Company. An Original Sinner, By Albert Ross. New York: G. W. Dillingham, Pietro Ghisteri. By F, Marion Crawford, New York and London: Macmillan and Company. A League of Justice. By Morrison 1, Swift. Boston: The Com- monwealth Society. Jerushy in Brooklyn, By Annie Olcott Commelin, New York: Fow- ler and Wells Company. The Adventures of Uncle Jeremiah and Family at the Great Fair, By “Quondam.” Chicago: “Laird and Lee, Lucia, Hugh, and Another, By Mrs. J. H. Needell. New York: D. Appleton and Company. Geld. By Laura Daintrey, New York: G. W. Dillingham. The Star and the Cloud, By A.S. Roe. New York: G.W. Dillingham. The Tatking Handkerchief and Other Stories. By Thomas W. Knox. St. Paul: The Price-McGill Company. The Athlete's Conquest. By BA, McFadden. New York: G, W. Dillingham. A Changed Heart. By May Agnes Fleming. New York: G. W. ingham, “So THEY'VE RUN THE RAILROAD THROUGH YOUR FARM AFTER ALL, SINCE LAST SEASON.” “NO THEY HAIN'T, THAT'S ONE OF THEM HARVARD COLLEGE CHAPS THAT'S BOARDIN' OVER TO Jake HERRICK'S,” DION’T LIKE IT. "ARELEY: Goggins sent me a bottle yesterday, con- taining a snake preserved in alcohol. GriMes: Think he meant to insult you? TANKLEY: I don’t know, but I certainly do not appre- te the gift nor the spirit in which it was tendered. comicbooks.c m