Life, 1894-08-23 · page 7 of 14
Life — August 23, 1894 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Page 119 from *Life* Magazine This page contains a literary review section and a satirical sketch titled "Madame Réjane" (drawn by Mr. Gibson). The sketch depicts a fashionable woman in an elaborate, flowing gown with ornate styling—typical Gibson Girl aesthetic from the early 1900s. Below the illustration is a brief comedic dialogue titled "A Satisfactory Arrangement" between a Committee Man and a prisoner debating execution methods (shooting versus hanging). The joke relies on dark humor about capital punishment. The upper text reviews contemporary novels, praising one author's mastery of literary form and comparing works to established classics like "Feverel" and "Harry Richmond." Without additional context, the specific satirical targets of "Madame Réjane" remain unclear, though the Gibson illustration likely caricatures contemporary fashion or society figures.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
-> LIFE: strength and integrity to choose out its own path, even if it goes at cross-purposes to the law. Whether one accepts his philosophy entirely or not, one cannot fail to note how he has worked out the doctrine of individualism in strict accord with the best teachings of contemporary science. . . O many readers this novel will appeal _as.the latest expression of the literary art of the foremost living writer of fiction in English. They will make the inevitable comparisons with “ Feverel,” “Harry Richmond” and “Diana,” to see whether at sixty-six the master’s hand retains the old-time skill of the great artist. Whatever doubts they may have will vanish when they reach the chapter entitled “The Marine Duet.” ‘There the old fervor, the zest of living, the lyric quality of love, corruscate, and flame, and sing and soar in language so strong, so musical, so inspiring, that the novelist is lost in the poet, and both in the emotion which they stimulate. There is not the equal of that chapter in Meredith’s qwn great works, except the love idyl of Lucy and Richard on the river. Droch. , NEW BOOKS. 1LDER THE POET, AND OTHER VERSES. . By George Her- bert. Stockbridge. New York and London: G. P, Putnam's Sons. The Fatal Secret. By Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth. | The Curse of Gold. By Mra, Ana S. Stephens, Lone at Seventy. By Aibert Ross. The Tile of Feminine, By Charles Elliot Niswonger. New York: G. W. Dillingham. Wanted, a Copyist. By W. H. Brearley. New York: The Cassell Publishing Company. The Hon. Stanbury and Others. By Two. New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, “Common Sense” applied to Woman. Suffrage. By’ Mary Putnam Jacob, M. D. New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, After the Manner of Men. By Robert Appleton. Boston: The Franklin Publishing Company. oye A SATISFACTORY ARRANGEMENT. OMMITTEE MAN (Dugout City): The prisoner says he thinks he'd like shootin’ better than hangin’. Jupce Lyncu: Well. most of us would rather see a hangin’. We'll string him up first and shoot after- wards, and then we'll both be satisfied. MADAME REJANE. A Drawino FRoM Lire ny Mr. Gipson,