the characteristic element in Mr. Fletcher's work is virility. The historic incidents of the time have been caught up by the imagination of the writer and given forth with a pleasant semblance of reality. There is some fine writing in the book; perhaps the finest passages are those in which the author describes the charge of the king's horsemen against Cromwell's Ironsides at Marston Moor, the death of Dennis Watson, and the mad ride of his father, Prince Rupert. When Charles the First was King deserves honourable mention as a novel for its virility and sane qualities.

THROUGH RUSSIAN SNOWS and A KNIGHT OF THE WHITE CROSS. By G. A. Henty. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. $1.50 each.

AT WAR WITH PONTIAC. By Kirk Munroe. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. $1.25.

The most recent works of Kirk Munroe and the two latest by Mr. Henty use history as a background for their stories. Mr. Munroe has a pleasing style and a faculty for creating thrilling adventures. Boys like a hero who can brave the greatest dangers and escape injury with facility-it matters little how improbable may be the method. The time chosen for his new story is the critical period succeeding the subjugation of the Canadian French by the English, the formative period of the spirit of 1776. Park

man was the first to recognise the importance of the Pontiac War and the genius of its moving spirit. Mr. Munroe draws liberally upon fact in his narrative, which has considerable literary merit.

The Henty stories continue the pleasant tradition which their numerous predecessors have created. Like Mr. Munroe's books, they have a certain modicum of value as educators, and are written with the fire and force which appeal to a boy's imagination. Through Russian Snows is a slightly coloured account of Napoleon's fateful campaign and retreat from Moscow. In A Knight of the White Cross good use is made of the fierce conflict which was waged between Crusader and Moslem in olden time. The story follows the fortunes of a sturdy young Englishman in the War of the Crusades, who figures prominently at the first siege of Rhodes. The thrill" is unmistakably there; "no penny dreadful" could harrow up more startling situations and rattling episodes. However, the ideal held up to the boyish mind in these stories is wholesome if somewhat exaggerated. The evil is invariably overcome not by bravado, untruth, and intrigue, but by bravery, unswerving honour, and fidelity. Virtue is apparelled in its whitest robes, and vice is cast out into the blackness of darkness.

LAST POEMS OF JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. Boston Houghton, Mifflin & Co. $1.25.

The value which will be attached to this exquisite little volume will arise more from the melancholy interest of its contents and the beauty of the book in which they are encased than in the quantity or quality of the work. There are ten poems here, the last which Mr. Lowell wrote, and which Mr. Norton believes he might have wished to preserve. Three of them were published before his death; of the rest, two appear here for the first time. The "Verses, intended to go with a posset dish to my dear little goddaughter, 1882," are proof that the author's light touch and nimble wit were with him to the end. In the noble lines, "On a Bust of General Grant,"

we have a burst of the old patriotic fire which glowed with the faith of his forefathers, and with the spirit of his Cromwell hero-worship:

"Strong, simple, silent, therefore such was he
Who helped us in our need; the eternal law
That who can saddle opportunity

Is God's elect, though many a mortal flaw
May minish him in eyes that closely see,
Was verified in him; what need we say
Of one who made success where others failed,
Who, with no light save that of common day,
Struck hard, and still struck on till Fortune
quailed,

But that (so sift the Norns) a desperate van Ne'er fell at last to one who was not wholly man."

"Nothing ideal, a plain people's man-” so he apostrophises Grant-“ one of those still plain men that do the world's

rough work;"' and how fine is the characterisation drawn in that one line:

"He slew our dragon, nor, so seemed it, knew He had done more than any simplest man might do." The finest poem in this scant collection, where choice is almost supererogatory, is, to our thinking, "The Nobler Lover," which has a reminiscent note of Browning's" Christina." We quote the poem entire :

"If he be a nobler lover, take him!

You in you, I seek, and not myself;

ray themselves in pot hats and the costume of the bagman. Nevertheless, there still rise up heroic figures here and there as a sort of protest against the eternal banalité of the century's end; and such a figure is the subject of this very able and instructive volume. Stepan Stambuloff, the son of an inn-keeper and apprenticed to a tailor, a man of rough, half-brutal ways, a peasant in many of his traits, nevertheless is a great and stiking figure in his public career, whether we see him de

And my bit of heaven, I fain would save itMine I thought it was, I never knew.

"What you take of me is yours to serve you,
All I give, you gave to me before;
Let him win you! If I but deserve you,
I keep all you grant to him and more:
You shall make me dare what others dare not,
You shall keep my nature pure as snow,
And a light from you that others share not
Shall transfigure me where'er I go.

"Let me be your thrall! However lowly
Be the bondsman's service I can do,
Loyalty shall make it high and holy;

Naught can be unworthy, done for you.
Men shall say, 'A lover of this fashion
Such an icy mistress well beseems.'
Women say, Could we deserve such passion,
We might be the marvel that he dreams.'

An unusual feature of this fine piece of book-making is the printing of the poems on one side of the paper only, leaving the other side blank. To be sure, the book is slight enough, and it would have otherwise reduced its dimensions to an absurd size had the ordinary form been adhered to. But the book as it stands will find favour in the eyes of all book-lovers, and as a memorial volume it is an artistic and exceedingly attractive production. There is a fine new portrait of the poet at the age of seventy, considered by his family to be an admirable likeness of him.

carving out a free State for his fellowcountrymen, or defying the Great White Czar in his later years, and holding fast his country's birthright in the face of the master of a million soldiers. Mr. Beaman gives us the full details of a life of which most of us have seen only disconnected glimpses; and his narrative weaves together all the scattered threads into a consistent and intelligible whole. Stambuloff has been called "the Bismarck of Bulgaria," and the phrase is no idle one. With far greater odds against him than Bismarck faced, he wrought out results which, when their final outcome shall have been seen, may prove to be no less momentous in Eastern Europe than Bismarck's creation in the West. Six photographs given in the work are of especial interest-Stambuloff himself, a semi-Slavic face; Prince Alexander, a brave soldier, but one who quailed before dangers that his great minister dared to defy; Prince Ferdinand, the puppet Coburg whom Stambuloff raised from obscurity; Princess Ferdinand, a mean, unfeeling face; and Madame Stambuloff and Prince Alexander's wife, two very beautiful women. We cordially commend. the volume to all who have marked the career which ended only a few weeks ago, when the greatest of the Bulgarians. fell, gashed under the assassins' knives in the streets of Sofia. This series bids fair to prove the most valuable of its kind that any publisher has yet brought

out.

LORD JOHN RUSSELL. By Stuart J. Reid. New York: Harper & Bros. $1 00.

This, the last volume in the Queen's Prime Ministers Series, is very largely a history of the foreign relations of England from 1850, preceded by an account of the great Reform movement. For

American readers its most interesting chapter is that which treats (too briefly) of the time when Lord John held the post of Foreign Minister in the Palmerston administration from 1861-65. This portion of the work contains some valuable details regarding the course of the English authorities in letting the Alabama escape from the Mersey; and asserts that Russell was in reality a friend of the United States during the Civil War. If this be so, he evidently had a great power of concealing his sentiments; yet it is certainly a fact that he did, in the face of strong pressure, preserve a fairly strict neutrality in that period, as to which Mr. Reid quotes Grote as saying: "The perfect neutrality of England in the destructive civil war now raging in America appears to me almost a phenomenon in political history. . . . It is the single case in which the English Government and public, generally so meddlesome, have displayed most prudent and commendable forbearance in spite of great temptations to the contrary.' The fact that all the ruling classes were heart and soul with the South makes it all the more remarkable; and it is certainly to be remembered to the honour of Lord John Russell that he was far-seeing enough to follow out so wise a policy. The book contains also much readable information about the relations of England to

Italian affairs in 1861-63, and of the rather pitiful figure cut by its government at the time of the Schleswig-Holstein affair in 1864. A fine portrait of Earl Russell is given as a frontispiece. SHAKESPEARE'S HEROINES ON THE STAGE. By Charles E. L. Wingate. Boston: T. Y. Crowell & Co. $2.00.

Mr. Wingate's book is a noteworthy attempt to record the successive appearances of women on the English and American stage who have impersonated Shakespeare's characters "from the beginning." The author has taken great pains to collect all the gossipy details and historical facts which have gathered about these remarkable actresses. After

an entertaining fashion Mr. Wingate has followed the histrionic fortunes of Shakespeare's heroines on the stage and has reviewed the large part which women have played in interpreting Shakespeare's plays to the world. As the "one missing book in Shakespearian lore, it fills a place, and will prove interest

ing to many readers of light literature who are not particularly anxious to follow the development of the drama from the critic's seat of judgment. There are glimpses of the green-room, revelations of the personality of the actresses; and incidentally many anecdotes of actors are included with those which are recounted about the fair sex. The illustrations, many of them from old woodcuts and engravings, enhance the historical value as well as the picturesqueness of the work. The narrative has a sparkle

and dash about it which make the reading especially light and vivacious. THE VIOL OF LOVE, AND OTHER POEMS. By Charles Newton-Robinson. Boston Lamson, Wolffe & Co.

$1.50.

In a prefatory note the poet prepares us for the moods of passion and inspiration which passed over his lyre and gave it spontaneous utterance. The viol of love," he says, "is an instrument said to derive its beautiful name (viola d'amore) from the 'sympathetic' strings, usually seven in number, with which it is fitted below the finger-board. These are never touched by hand or bow, but vibrate of themselves, with a rain of concords and harmonies, in response to the notes which are sounded by the player." One of the best of these gems, "Love Unuttered," we printed from advance sheets in the July BOOKMAN. Another of these poems, entitled "Love Unchallenged," has been widely quoted by the press. The poet's mind as mirrored in these poems finds the keynote of its expression in such lines as these: "All fairest things have joy in loneliness; For they are timid that are pure in heart, Of taint or malison of spirits vile."

Mr. Newton-Robinson hugs his muse in the "pure cloud that spurns the befouléd earth," and sings shyly of the glory and the dazzling purity of that vision of love which has been vouchsafed to him

"And cherishing still the memory of that light, Looks heavenward for more.

In "Various Poems," which, with several translations, eke out the slender volume, there is one poem which is wonderful for its concentrated passion, depth of tragic feeling, and perfect art. "Forget-Me-Not" is a mad lover's song:

"I planted in the wilderness
The wingéd seed of Love;
I prayed the sun, the rain, the air
Might bless it from above!

And when the seed had lain a month
Below the sheltering sod,
One tiny blade clove out its way
To glint in the light of God.
"And in another month it grew
To bear a flower of heaven's blue,
Men call Forget-me-not!'
Then came an evil-liver by;
On her he cast his treacherous eye
With passion's lightning shot!

"He lured, he stole, he marred my pet;
Mine own in dear remembrance yet,
Although she sleeps in shame!

For him his days are death, and worse!
I set on him so dire a curse

It sears his heart like flame!" These two books of verse, coming as they do from the Bodley Head, are daintily bound and printed, and each is embellished with an appropriate decorative title-page.

STORIES OF THE WAGNER OPERAS. By H. A. Guerber. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. $1.50.

This is one of those useful redactions

which are justified by their popularity. Lovers of the opera, and the general reader as well for that matter, will welcome Miss Guerber's paraphrases of the medieval myths which form the groundwork of Wagner's operas. The author's manner is to describe the legends upon which the operas are based, following them in the latter as they are acted, so that her treatment of each is at once a directory to the acted play and a modern rendering of these weird and fascinating legends and stories. She also traces the origin and conception of the operas in the great composer's mind, and relates the circumstances under which they appeared, and notes their subsequent success or failure. Thus an interesting body of facts concerning Wagner is gathered about these stories of the Wagner operas, which, knit together, one after the other, form a series of links in the chain of his musical career not to be honoured with the name of history or biography, but which contain the material for such. There is a portrait of Wagner and eleven full-page halftones, illustrating various scenes and characters photographed on the stage. The book has been made in good taste, and the cover has a rather pretty design. SNOW BIRD AND THE WATER TIGER, AND OTHER AMERICAN INDIAN TALES. Edited by Margaret Compton. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. $1.50.

The editor of these American Indian

Tales has made splendid use of her materials. The stories are founded, we are informed, on folk-lore contained in the works of Schoolcraft, Copway, and Catlin, and also upon Government records of Indian affairs filed at the Smithsonian Institute. From first to last the narrative shows the firm energy and capability of the aborigines. Running through some of the tales, and especially in

White Cloud's Visit to the Sun Prince," there is an imaginative vein indicative of a high order of intuitive wisdom and moral insight. In power of creation these tales are barely second to the Jungle Book stories. While the descriptions have a richness and warmth of colouring in harmony with the incidents described, there is nothing flowery or superfluous about the style. What is more remarkable is the charming directness and simplicity with which the tales are told, and which is beautifully in keeping with what we know of the poetic in the Indian's character. In this sympathetic treatment of Indian life, Miss Compton has proved herself capable by her qualities of understanding and perspicacity to handle the subject. This collection is not only valuable for its preservation of the myths of a people who have been closely linked to American history, but also as an addition to the few genuine books of folk-lore for grown-ups as well as for children. We would also call attention to the beautiful

illustrations which Mr. Walter Greenough has made to accompany these American Indian Tales.

THE WHITE WAMPUM. A Book of Indian Verse. By E. Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake). Boston: Lamson, Wolffe & Co. $1.50. In Snow Bird and the Water Tiger, and Other Tales, Miss Compton has recreated the shapes that were wont to dance and flash in the Indian's primeval fancy as he sat by his wigwam, on the vast prairie or in the great forest, and dreamed of the Happy Hunting Grounds. Miss Pauline Johnson, whose proudest claim is that Indian blood courses in her veins, and whose happiest memories are of "the copper-tinted face and smouldering fire of wilder life," sings the swan song of the doomed race. There is a genuine note in her voice as she conjures up the scene of a Red Man's death or follows the “Pilot of the Plains," or gives poignancy to the "Cry from an

Indian Wife;" and she makes us hark back to the happy, unmolested days of the Indian's reign in many of the poems which commemorate his wild and unrestrained existence under opal-tinted skies on the "Shadow River," by "Moonset," or "In the Shadows. She sings the praise of the Red Man and of his country, and her song has that pathetic strain which comes from the ever recurring remembrance of the grace of a day that is dead. Her knowledge of the fast-dying race is intimate, and her sympathetic treatment of the virtues and heroism of the redskins quickens almost to tears; but her art, strange to say, bewrays her, and, after all, we get nearer to the life of the Indian through Longfellow and Whittier. Especially is this so where. she deals with human nature; there is none of the strange fascination that creeps over us as we read Hiawatha. But in Nature poetry she is better skilled. When she describes the land he lives in, and still more when she tries to utter the dreams that lie about her there, she rouses us to longing for a sight of the great prairies, and we catch the rapture and sadness of her mood in such lines as these:

"Mine is the undertone;

The beauty, strength, and power of the land
Will never stir or bend at my command;
But all the shade

Americans in Oxford, so that to her and to Cambridge in the future the eyes of Americans may be turned no less than to the universities of Germany. But the sort of interest that this little book inspires-an æsthetic and sentimental interest-has never been lacking to AmeriProfessor Smith chats very instructively about the history of Oxford, giving many curious facts-not always those that evoke scholastic respect-and is very entertaining. Fifteen fine illustrations beautify the volume, which has also a good index.

cans.

CORONATION OF LOVE. By George Dana Boardman, D.D. Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society. 75 cts.

The Coronation of Love" is Paul's canticle in the thirteenth chapter of his first letter to the Corinthians. Dr. Boardman has again touched the lyre and sung the old, yet ever new song in tones that strike new notes and bring out fresh variations on the time-worn theme-time-worn indeed, but which in the skilful hands of such instrumentalists as Professor Drummond and Dr. Boardman becomes keyed to the eternal harmony of the spheres which makes the song endless, deathless in singing. The book itself is beautiful in its artistic simplicity and simple in its artistic beauty. It deserves to take its place along with Professor Drummond's Greatest Thing in the World, and we wish it God-speed on its New Year mission.

BOOKMAN BREVITIES.

Mr. Anthony Hope's Half a Hero, which preceded The Prisoner of Zenda and was published in 1893, has been reissued by the Messrs. Harper in a new and handsome edition. Those who have not already enjoyed reading this work of fiction by Mr. Hope will do well to attempt it in this advantageous form. Messrs. Macmillan and Company have brought out Mr. Crawford's Katherine Lauderdale in one volume, uniform with their dollar edition of this author's novels. The latest volume of Balzac in the new and charming edition which this firm is handling for the Messrs. Dent is The Country Doctor ($1.50). Ellen Marriage, who translates Balzac for this edition, is literate and more, which is something to be grateful for; and who so able, with