Life — December 8, 1898 — page 7: what you’re looking at

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

furnish an author's imagination matertal for fiction, oe ‘© English readers this new arrangement of the venerable matertal of thelr romances will seem no doubt a clever Imitation—for Mr. Frederic was always a skilifal writer who could give reality to his characters. To American Teaders {t will seem an tnfertor vartety of the ngiish novel. A novel written by a native ts always one remove from reality—and a novel written by a foreigner 1s at least two removes from reality, with an added gap for all those In- stincts and hereditary aptitudes which give so much penetration to an author's insight when he “LIFE Whose Ideals promise so much. Moreover, there 1s always Intense curtosity to know how tt feels to be a Duke—particularly when the subject of the experiment comes from poverty, and no dream of bis future, to enter the enchanted duke- dom with beautiful Duchess as au tmminent posstbility, ‘There ts # fine touch of the ideal also in Eman- ual, the dreamer of socialistic land reforms, his clear-eyed wife with her high standard of ideal- iam in marriage, and in the whole love-story of Christian and Prances, Buta great deal of the story 1s sordid, and even brutal, This element ts evidently a part of the scheme of artistic contrasts, and 1s managed with skill, When you have fn- {shed the tale, the feel- ing 1s uppermost that all this elaborate ma- chinery has come to nothing. The young M. Caine, LIFE'S PANTHEON OF POPULAR PETS. MARBLE STATUES OP UP-TO-DATE GODS, SCULPTURED BY OUR OWN LIGHTN! writes abont his native land. You can teach a parrot to talk, but the result tsa long way from human speech. Bot Mr, Frederic’s skill as a novelist bridged many gaps for him. The first few chapters, 1n which are Introduced the unknown heir to the dukedom and the woman he 1s to marry, are alto- gether charming. They allure the reader to follow the fortunes of the two young -people man has bis dukedom, and on the last page wins the Duchess he wants; but the supreme problem of what a young man Ike that can do with a dukedom when he gets It 13 left on the threshold. All that ts certain 18 that he hasa sensible wife with a level business head. He evidently means to do weil by his poor rela- tives; but that Isabout all we can guess as to bis future career. He 1s very much in love with his “SAY, NOAH, 18 MAMMA WITH Your" wife, and perhaps that 1s a great enough achieve- ment to expect of any Duke. J. Drew. CARICATURE CHISELER. I" 18. pity that all of Mr. Predertc’s fiction could not have developed out of American soll ideals. He higher level than In that splendid historical novel, and American never touched a “Io the Valley.” When his English admirers have forgotten bis work, his own people will thumb the pages of his Mohawk Valley stories and give them to thelr children to read. Droch, comicbooks.com