Q

Querido, Israel.^[11] Toil of men. **$1.35. Putnam.

The wretched, sordid life of some Holland slaves of toil is portrayed in this story. Whether it be the sodden, passion-seized man or woman, or the creature whom grim toil has plunged into stupor, the author reproduces the type with marvelous realism. There is no progress, no development in the story; it ends where it began. It is a cross section of actual life, among the very animals of human society, sharply scrutinized and clearly analyzed. It contains a description of a thief’s passion for stealing that has no parallel. The book suggests Zola and Gorky.

“Able translation. In striking contrast with the deplorable human element is the beauty of the setting.”

+ − Ath. 1909, 2: 493. O. 23. 170w.

N. Y. Times. 14: 652. O. 23, ’09. 40w.

“Much that must seem coarse appears in the tale. It is grim, but never uninteresting, and some of the descriptions of nature in varying moods are beautifully written.”

+ − N. Y. Times. 14: 729. N. 20, ’09. 380w.

Quick, Herbert.^[12] American inland waterways. **$3.50. Putnam.

9–31048.

“The present work is not only a description of places, but a work on commerce and transportation. Among the eighty fine illustrations most represent harbors, docks, levees, and elevators. The writer, in fact, may be said to hold a brief for the waterways as means of transportation, as against, or rather supplementary to, the railways. He suggests a plan for a system of water communication coextensive with the continent and he states, with many arguments in support of his thesis, the country’s ‘bitter need for better transportation facilities’ as likely best to be met by ‘a more complete use of our inland waterways as a complementary system of free highways to 364carry the tonnage which in good times the railways can not bear.’”—Lit. D.

Lit. D. 39: 1080. D. 11, ’09. 210w.

“Mr. Quick’s text is of the sort which stirs the blood of Americans with either imagination or patriotism, and makes a hardly less convincing appeal to that class—neither small nor uninfluential—which is moved most by thrills of the pocket nerve.”

+ N. Y. Times. 14: 763. D. 4, ’09. 770w.

Quick, Herbert.^[10] Virginia of the air lanes. †$1.50. Bobbs.

9–26671.

Miss Virginia Suarez, cruising above the Gulf of Mexico in her uncle’s aërostat, the Roc, steps into a helicopter while its inventor is explaining the mechanism. Unintentionally she touches the wrong lever, the intricate machinery is started in motion, the helicopter rises from the deck, and before the startled bystanders can prevent, the little car with its one occupant shoots off into space. So this exciting tale of adventure in mid air begins. Succeeding chapters tell of Virginia’s rescue by Theodore Carson, of the perfection of his own invention, the aëronef, of his fight with the girl’s uncle for the monopoly of the skies, and of the final happiness of the young people. The time of the story is, naturally, some few years hence.

“The author enables you to interpolate several bright, irresponsible hours into the drab calendar of your days.”

+ N. Y. Times. 14: 719. N. 20, ’09. 500w.

Quiller-Couch, Arthur Thomas.^[9] True Tilda. †$1.50. Scribner.

9–35790.

A youthful heroine with nine years to her credit pursues her shrewd, energetic way thru the pages of this story. Tilda is a circus girl and when the story opens is lying in a hospital ward impatiently biding the healing of a bruised thigh-bone. With true sleuth cleverness she pieces together the incoherent sentences murmured by a dying woman near her, takes advantage of a half hour granted for an airing and slips away, steals a wronged child from a prison orphanage, and with the aid of coal-stokers, show-people, bargemen, a “Pooh-bah” of the wharf, and a determined lady bountiful conducts the child to his home and brings justice upon the head of a depraved orphanage superintendent.

“A story with much originality, an abundance of strong human interest, and full of the charm of the unexpected and unusual.”

+ A. L. A. Bkl. 6: 54. O. ’09. ✠

“The touch of the poet is felt throughout the book, and the description of some of the waterways over which the children travel would alone make it worth reading.”

+ Ath. 1909, 2: 357. S. 25. 220w.

“Although a book about children, it is distinctly designed for their elders to read, and is one of the happiest of the author’s whimsical inventions. So much humor, entertaining adventure, and unconventional life is not often packed within a single pair of covers.” W: M. Payne.

+ Dial. 47: 237. O. 1, ’09. 250w.

“Is not at his best in ‘True Tilda.’”

− Ind. 67: 550. S. 2, ’09. 160w.

“The plot is simply all that it needs to be. The unlucky thing is the sketchiness and inclusiveness of the persons. ‘Q’-land is peopled with creatures of paper and ink as well as of flesh and blood; a large number, more particularly, of figures bearing the mark of ‘Boz.’ It is not so much that ‘Q,’ like De Morgan, thinks in terms of the middle-Victorian novelist, as that his brain seems to be persistently haunted by the spooks of Gadshill.”

+ − Nation. 89: 329. O. 7, ’09. 450w.

“There is something of a treat in store, so long as [the readers] will only leave the thing they call their critical sense behind them.”

+ − Sat. R. 108: 386. S. 25, ’09. 1000w.

“A very delightful and genial book and the best tribute that we can pay to its many merits is to say that it suffers from its brevity.”

+ Spec. 103: 650. O. 23, ’09. 1250w.

Quinn, Daniel. Helladian vistas. $1.50. Daniel Quinn, Yellow Springs, O.

8–30697.

“In effect this is rather a book of travel, a sort of personally-conducted tour. We are taken to the Acropolis of Athens, to an Athenian cemetery, to the regions about Mycenae, and to the vale of Tempe. We are also shown the Olympic games, and, so far as may be, the mystic rites of Elevsis are unfolded to us. But it is to those places to which our classical studies less often lead us that our author oftenest conducts us—to ‘The land of the Klephts,’ to ‘Mega Spelaeon or the Monastery of the great cave,’ to ‘The Phaeaks’ island,’ to Zakynthos (‘The flower of the East’), and to other localities, among which Arkadia and Mesolonghion are not to be forgotten. History, ancient, medieval and modern, mingles with the description of natural scenery and characterizations of the people.”—Am. Hist. R.

“The ‘tone’ is a delightful one and even those who are not classical students will find the book full of interest.”

+ Am. Hist. R. 14: 375. Ja. ’09. 250w.

“Is very entertaining reading.”

+ Cath. World. 88: 693. F. ’09. 130w.

“Neither grace nor fashion in the narrative ... neither thoroughness nor learning. A due regard for the quick and the dead should have allowed these brief and breathless essays to remain in the holy sleep of the magazines where they first appeared.” J. G. Winter.

− Class. J. 4: 336. My. ’09. 130w.

“Some of the essays are very readable.” F. B. R. Hellems.

+ Class. Philol. 4: 335. Jl. ’09. 130w.

“We may prophesy that when this book once gets into circulation it will receive high praise.”

+ − Ind. 66: 868. Ap. 22, ’09. 460w.