Books Of The Day.

BOOKS OF THE DAY .

Books , Music , & c . intended for review , should be addressed to the Editor or the Freemason ' s Chronicle , at Fleet Works , Hew Barnet . — : o : — The Coward . By Robert L . Jefferson . With Frontispiece By G . Demain Hammond ( 6 s ) . —Ward Lock and Co ., Limited . THERE is an abundance of entertainment in this story , and readers will wish it longer . Do we indulge an idle fancy , or is it

true indeed that incurable wanderers make good story-tellers , whether the story lies in the domain of fiction or of fact ? Certain it is that , each in their own way , Mr . Guy Boothby . Mr . John Foster Fraser , and Mr . Jefferson are incomparably skilled in the arts of narration —so much so that even where their subject is not well chosen it invariably gains merit in the telling . "The Coward" is an excellent

example of this . The young man who cares not for his father ' s business ; who covers reams of paper , in secret , with pretty platitudes , and shows them afterwards to his lady-love ; who ventures to London in search of literary distinction and finds that drinking and boxing and such-like diversions are at least as keenly followed as the making of books—all these matters have been dealt with by more novelists than we care to remember , and yet Mr . Jefferson has

used these themes again and used them to excellent purpose . An anonymous author has lately been telling us " How to write a Novel" and insists , very rightly , upon the importance of a good subject . But writers like Mr . Jefferson can go one better ; for they can themselves write a good novel with what is often a sorry enough plot—or would be , in the hands of many . "' The Coward " will be reprinted , unless the public taste is much altered in the immediate future .

The Broad Road that Stretches . By Cecil Hartley ( 3 s 6 d ) . —Thomas Burleigh . THE road that stretches to literary distinction is broad enough ; but it is not given to every man to walk therein . The desire is often present , but to perform is found more difficult than was believed . Nor is it easy , in many cases , to indicate the causes of

failure . Mr . Hartley , if we may judge solely from the volume before us , is better equipped than very many aspirants ; but we cannot honestly credit him with any large measure of success . Wayside yarns , ghost stories , and midnight assassins have done yeoman service at the beck of some of our ablest writers , and af an author is to win either applause or pence by dishing up such ideas

he should at least labour to attain originality of presentation , and such a mastery of style as will suffice to make the dry bones live . Mr . Hartley should try to break fresh ground ; for , while we find many sentences of so mediocre a quality that we grudge them room in this tastefully bound volume , we find , too , indubitable proofs that the author would be more successful were his pen engaged

with worthier themes . Mr . Hartley will not grudge us this freedom of speech ; for , as he must be aware , no man is ever " written clown " save by his own pen ; but it is equally true that to the same pen belongs the onus of writing him up . Unless fame is a liar indeed , Mr . Hartley has already written one by no means contemptible romance ; so we hope he will keep to the broad road already essayed , and forbear to venture into perilous byways .

De Omnibus . B y the Conductor—Barry Pain —( paper is , cloth 2 s ) . —T . Fisher Unwia . MR . B . IRRV PAIN can pluck the heart out of any romance , for he sees intuitively where the heart of it lies . Moreover , as his readers know so well , he has a happy knack of writing about trivial matters as though he had devoted a life-time to their contemplation

—a knack which is very rare indeed , even among really able writers . If , in the interests of literature , he had actually followed the fortunes of a bus-conductor for a month , he could hardly have given us a more excellent study of the language , the philosophy , the weaknesses of that very useful worthy . He has " hit him off to a hair just as , in his " City Chronicles " he has hit off certain

other characters so successfully that we suspect the cap must seat rather uneasil y on many heads . Mr . Barry Pain imagines many incidents and has , wc suppose , drawn many from life ; but real or imaginary , his stories are characteristic of the man whom he attempts to portray . That man is a mixture of politeness and effrontery , of shrewdness and follv . of Yankee-like sm , irtnp « nnrl

thick-headedness ; and the reader who has ridden on London busses on a few thousands of occasions will hardly deny that the average conductor is none other than the man depicted so wittil y in the pages of "Do Omnibus . " That worthy is sketched skilfully on the cover of the paper edition , and we are sorry to miss him from the cloth-bound book before us . Perhaps we can yet hope to see "The Love-letters of a Bus-Conductor . " Who can say ?

The Case for the Factory Acts . Edited by Mrs Sidney Webb . With a preface by Mrs . Humphrey Ward ( - > s 6 d ) —Grant Richards . THERE are five papers , on the economic aspects of factory abour , m this volume , and the fact that they are all written by ladies will prove a welcome one to many . Mr . John Morlev in his studof Voltaire

y , has said that nothing would more conduce to the world ' s welfare than the ability , on the part of ladies , to appreciatrthe works of Newton . AVe can all see the meaning between th < - lines of this opinion , and , if we judge rightly , its scholarly author will regard the volume before us as a favourable si gn of the times 1 he essays are carefully thought out and , for the most part , ably written . How deeply some of our most busy Englishwomen feel for the needs of the industrial masses needs no assertion here : but

Books Of The Day.

were proof necessary we would refer readers to the sympathetic , shrewd preface to this volume , from the pen of Mrs . Humphrey Ward . To those of us who welcome all such legislation as is discussed in the preface and the succeeding pages , so much eloquent special pleading on its behalf may appear wholly unnecessary ; but our opinions are not universal , and the world at large needs

converting yet . Let us be thankful when we remember that much has already been done , and that even the abuses to be found set forth in the pages of Mr . R . S . Sherard lare less flagrant than formerly . Masters do not now murder their apprentices in order to get further premiums with new ones , nor is the necessity for

Factory legislation boldly disputed except by the most ignorant of hereditary legislators . But perhaps the best proof of altered attitude on the part of many is afforded by the fact that this able little book is the work of ladies . It should be bought up by benevolent men and circulated widely .

Lessons from Work . By Brooke Foss Westcott , D . D ., D . C . L ., Bishop of Durham ( 6 s ) . —Macmillan and Co ., Limited . FEW reviewers will transcribe the title of " Lessons from Work " without regret ; for the . author of this book , a deeply learned and truly great divine , was removed by death from his many labours almost at the moment of its publication . The most modest of men ,

he probably regarded these stray papers as of very humble worth ; but we will vouch for it that in each of them there are indications that Bishop Westcott was no' unworthy successor to the even more learned Lightfoot . Perhaps , from the standpoint of the lay reader , the most valuable essay in this volume is the first , on " The Position and Call of the English Church . " Such an essay could only have

emanated from one whose heart was wholly in sympathy with his Church's aims and aspirations , whose knowledge of her internal economy and polity was searching and profound , and whose outlook over the still wider world at large was at once luminous and sane . The essays on Biblida ] Study and Revision are distinguished by that wide grasp of a subject in its entirety which so frequently characterises the writings and addresses of our greater prelates , and although

perhaps deficient in ease from the standpoint of the journalist , are eminently readable and may be enjoyed by all who are accustomed to read serious literature at all . The works of the late Bishop Westcott arc so widelv known and esteemed that we may safely predict a large and continued demand for this volume of thoughtful papers , which must inevitably enhance an already great reputation , and tend to perpetuate a revered name .

We are promised plenty of new literature for the solace of our leisure moments . Among many other announcements we learn that : Messrs . Macmillan are to publish " A Maid of Venice , " by Mr . F . Marion Crawford ; " The Sinner and the Problem , " by Mr . Eric Parker ; and "Aftermath , " by Mr . James Lane Allen . They are also about to add to their "English Men of Letters" : — "Hazlitt , "

by Mr . Augustine Birrell , K . C . ; "Jane Austen , " by Rev . H . C . Beeching ; " Crabbe , " by Canon Ainger ; "Ruskin , " by Mr . Frederic Harrison ; "Richardson , " by Mr . Austin Dobson ; "George Eliot , " by Mr . Leslie Stephen ; "Tennyson , " by Sir Alfred Lyall ; and " Matthew Arnold , " by Mr . Herbert Paul . Here will be a feast of good things for such as love literature for its own sake .

Mr . John Lane promises new editions of George Eliot's " Scenes from Clerical Life , " and of Anthony Trollope's " Barchester Towers" and "Dr . Thorne . " Messrs . Longman will presently publish : "A Memoir of Sir

George Grey , Bart ., G . C . B ., 1709-1882 , " by Mandell Creighton , D . D ., late Lord Bishop of London ; "The Women of the Salons , and other French Portraits , " by S . G . Tallentyre ; and "The Old Royal Palace of Whitehall , " by Edgar Sheppard , D . D .. Sub-Dean of H . M . Chapels Royal .

Mr . Grant Richards has just issued a new edition of " Colin Clout's Calendar , " by Grant Allen . The book deserves a very large sale , for it is one of the best of many good works by the same writer . A new illustrated magazine , under the title of " The Playgoer , "

is to be started on the 15 th of next month . It will cater for all amusement seekers , and several interesting features are contemplated , among them being interviews with prominent entertainers , and a series of full page portraits of leading stage favourites , many of them in pairs , as studies "At Home" and " In- Character . " The magazine will be issued at 6 d net .

Books Received.

BOOKS RECEIVED .

The Temptress . B y William Le Queux . Illustrated ( 3 s 6 d ) . —Ward , Lock and Co ., Ltd . God , the King , my Brother . By Mary F . Nixon Roulet—Ward , Lock and Co ., Ltd . A Modern Slavedealer . By Archer Philip Crouch .

Illustrated by Henry Austin . —Ward , Lock and Co ., Ltd . The Fighting Troubadour . A Novel . By Archibald Clavermg Gunter . Illustrated by Gordon Browne ( 6 s ) . —Ward , Lock and Co ., Ltd . Dona ! Grant . By George Macdonald , LL . D . ( 6 d ) . —George Newnes , Ltd .

New Century Library ( 2 S net per vol . ) . —T . Nelson and Sons . The Works of SIR WALTER SCOTT , Bart . Vol . xiii ., The Pirate .

Ad00803

EXPERIENCED Reviewer is open to supply a column of criticisms weekly , to Provincial or London newspaper . Will submit specimen notices . T ., care of FREEMASON ' S CHRONICLE , New Barnet '