The Cumulative Book Review Digest Devoted to the Valuation of Current Literature Digests of reviews appearing in January—December 1905, magazines (continued 28)
Reading edition
Bethany, a village in middle Georgia, is the scene of a novel which describes southern life during the period immediately preceding and during the earlier years of the Civil war. The author is a well-known writer of both biography and history and his present work is almost an autobiography, for he tells of the old South as he knew it in his boyhood. The greater part of the book is taken up with the comparison of Toombs and Stephens, their characters and the issues for which they stood. The slavery question is discussed freely, but while showing a burning loyalty to the South, there is no bitterness toward the North.
“A novel of a rambling sort, although the element of truth is much larger than the element of invention. The fire-eating southerner has not often been exhibited, in either history or fiction, more truthfully and vividly than in the present work. We fear that Mr. Watson is still sadly in need of reconstruction.” W. M. Payne.
+ — Dial. 38: 127. F. 16, ‘05. 480w.
“Is scarcely a novel at all. It is history localized and presented from the deliberately provincial point of view. Is probably more nearly veracious than any picture of southern life ever given by a southern author. It is a brilliant interpretation, based upon impressions received with the vividness of adoring youth, and written out with the restraint and judgment of a mature mind. Mr. Watson’s literary style is not always good, is often too insolently local in phrasing, but it is always graphic and honest.”
+ — Ind. 58: 209. Ja. 26, ‘05. 600w.
Watson, William. Poems; ed. by J. A. Spender. 2v. *$2.50. Lane.
In this new edition of his works, the author “has made several alterations, even in his greater poems, changes which tend undoubtedly to perfect the original. The two volumes before us are not large, though they contain a 373good many poems not to be found in the ‘Collected works.’” (Spec.) The poems are critical, philosophical, and political.
+ + — Ath. 1905, 1: 328. Mr. 18. 2460w.
* “This is such an edition of a poet’s work as one usually waits for till the author has ceased to be, or at least to write.”
+ + Critic. 47: 584. D. ‘05. 160w.
* “An edition that is nearly all that could be wished.”
+ + Nation. 81: 506. D. 21, ‘05. 640w.
“We would make but one censorious comment. The political verses should have been kept out.”
+ + — Spec. 94: 217. F. 11, ‘05. 1370w.
* Watson, William. Prayer, *35c. Meth. bk.
In this little volume uniform with the “Freedom of faith” series, the author discusses the nature, purpose, conditions, difficulties, and gain of prayer.
* Way, Thomas R. and Dennis, G. R. Art of James McNeill Whistler: an appreciation. $2. Macmillan.
A third and cheaper edition of a book which “contains chapters on Whistler’s various styles and subjects, with many illustrations, some of them in color, and a single chapter on the artist as a writer. It is not a life of Whistler; it is an appreciation merely.”—N. Y. Times.
* “The new edition is an excellent compact little book, not differing except in outward details from its predecessors.”
+ N. Y. Times. 10: 471. Jl. 15, ‘05. 260w.
* “Their method is rather eulogistic than critical.”
+ — Outlook. 80: 690. Jl. 15, ‘05. 30w.
* R. of Rs. 32: 640. N. ‘05. 80w.
Wayne, Charles Stokes. Prince to order. †$1.50. Lane.
A young Wall street broker, Carey Grey, wakes up one morning to find himself in Paris with a new name, new friends, and his black hair and beard bleached yellow. It develops that he has come under the power of an old phrenologist and chemist who is passing him off as the crown prince of the small kingdom of Budaria, whose king is dying. Grey has come to himself because the old scientist’s power is weakened by a fatal illness, but he keeps up the delusion in order to trap the other conspirators. The complications are many; Grey learns that he has been forced to embezzle from his own New York firm while under this strange influence and his friends believe him dead and dishonored; it is only after many adventures that he vindicates his honor, and re-wins his American fiancée.
“Its treatment lacks distinction, but the tale has one or two features of originality. It is not a bad specimen of its class: lively, entertaining and tolerably ingenious.”
+ Ath. 1905, 1: 778. Je. 24. 290w.
“Here we have still another modification of the Zenda story and one which shows ingenuity.”
+ N. Y. Times. 10: 198. Ap. 1, ‘05. 420w.
N. Y. Times. 10: 393. Je. 17, ‘05. 120w.
Pub. Opin. 38: 714. My. 6, ‘05. 150w.
“The colors in which this comedy are dressed are over strong, but the comedy itself is fairly consistent and interesting.”
+ — Reader. 6: 474. S. ‘05. 180w.
“The initial idea in this story is quite promising. The book is amusing.”
+ Sat. R. 100: 25. Jl. 1, ‘05. 300w.
* Webster, Jean. Wheat princess. †$1.50, Century.
The wheat princess, an American girl whose father has cornered the wheat market, is living with her aunt and her uncle, who is a philanthropist, in an old villa on the outskirts of Rome. The wheat famine tells heavily upon the Italian peasants; the newspapers blazon her father’s name, the peasants rise in hot indignation, with cries of “Wheat! wheat!” and her uncle, who has given so much for them, is besieged in his luxurious villa. In the end the Americans, their altruistic plans laid low, return to America, but the troublous times among the poor of Italy have brought to the big hearted wheat princess the love of her uncle’s friend, the man who has shared his unselfish dreams.
* “An entertaining and well-written story upon somewhat novel lines.”
+ Outlook. 81: 684. N. 18, ‘05. 100w.
* “Strong, graphic, truthful.”
+ Pub. Opin. 39: 796. D. 16, ‘05. 160w.
Webster, John. White devil and The duchess of Malfy; ed. by Martin W. Sampson. *60c. Heath.
A volume of the Belles-lettres series. The play-wright’s two masterpieces, “The white devil,” and “The duchess of Malfy,” in critical text with the original spelling. An introduction and critical notes are included among the editorial helps.
Weingartner, (Paul) Felix. Symphony since Beethoven; tr. by Maude Barrows Dutton. $1. Ditson.
This book about modern symphonies, by the conductor of the Berlin royal symphony concerts, and of the Kaim orchestra, is in its second German edition. “He holds that no other symphonies comparable to those of Beethoven in lofty grandeur, deep significance and perfection of beauty, have ever been composed.... He has small praise for the successors of the god of his idolatry in the symphony: a kindly word for Schubert, Mendelssohn, Bruckner; condemnation for Schumann and Brahms; mere cursory mention of Tschaikoffsky, Dvorak, Rubinstein, Borodin, Raff, Goldmark, Saint-Saens, César Franck and Sinding ... Favoring criticism on Berlioz and Liszt for their symphonic poems.... Discussion of Richard Strauss, whose earlier tone-poems the author says he admires, but whose later, and greater works he cannot appreciate.” (Ind.)
“An interesting and stimulating essay, albeit so short as to be fragmentary in parts. The translation of this essay into English was worth while, but one regrets that it was not more skilfully done.”
+ — Ind. 58: 43. Ja. 5, ‘05. 300w.
“A sympathetic study.”
+ + R. of Rs. 30: 761. D. ‘04. 100w.
Weir, Irene. Greek painters’ art. *$3. Ginn.
“This book aims to bring together as much information as possible from ancient and modern literature, from the reports of archæologists, and from the study of specimens in museums and elsewhere, in regard to all that relates to color as used by the Greek painters of old. The book is amply illustrated.”—Outlook.
“Miss Weir possesses a delightful enthusiasm for the Greek painters’ art, supported by knowledge of ancient and modern archæological writings as well as familiarity with art works.”
+ Dial. 39: 20. Jl. 1, ‘05. 150w.
— Ind. 59: 40. Jl. 6, ‘05. 340w.
“A decidedly interesting if somewhat formal story of the least generally comprehended of the arts of Greece.”
+ Int. Studio. 25: sup. 89. Je. ‘05. 290w.
“A curiously offhand and chatty book upon one of the most difficult subjects known to the archæologist.”
+ + Nation. 80: 312. Ap. 20, ‘05. 390w.
“It is a most important addition to the popular literature of the subject. Its scheme is as 374original as it is entertaining.”
+ + N. Y. Times. 10: 276. Ap. 29, ‘05. 590w.
+ + Outlook. 79: 1059. Ap. 29, ‘05. 390w.
“Miss Irene Weir has ... rendered art students an incalculable service in giving them the advantage of the new light which modern discoveries have thrown upon the lost art of Greek painting.”
+ + Pub. Opin. 38: 835. My. 27, ‘05. 300w.
“Although we have to recognize how little we know, we are able to find an account of that little in the present volume.”
+ Spec. 95: 261. Ag. 19, ‘05. 150w.
Weiss, Bernard. Religion of the New Testament; tr. from the Germ. by G: H. Schodde. *$2. Funk.
The object of the book is “to give a ‘brief but clear’ answer to the question, what is the religion of the New Testament?... The book is divided into three parts. In part I, Dr. Weiss describes the suppositions or conditions of the redemption described in the New Testament. In part II, he discusses the redemption in Christ proper. Here the subjects discussed are the redemptive acts of God. In the third part he treats of the realization of redemption in the individual and in the congregation, in the present and in the world to come.”—N. Y. Times.
“With all his splendid exegetical and critical qualities, Professor Weiss does not write in the spirit of the historian. But this is the only serious general criticism one feels compelled to pass upon what is, in fact, a remarkably able work.” S. M.
+ + — Bib. World. 26: 392. N. ‘05. 620w.
N. Y. Times. 10: 153. Mr. 11, ‘05. 280w.
“As an exegete Dr. Weiss excels. Men of all schools will find something to learn from it.”
+ + Ind. 58: 1478. Je. 29, ‘05. 250w.
“His treatment of the subject is thoroughly objective, and strongly conservative. A somewhat less close adherence to the style of the original would have made many sentences of this translation easier reading for the unlearned, for whom the author intended it.”
+ + Outlook. 79: 708. Mr. 18, ‘05. 240w.
Wells, Amos Russell. That they all may be one. **75c. Funk.
A plea that Christ’s wish that “His followers might be kept from schism, and that His church might be maintained in perfect unity,” may be realized in the unification of denominations. To this end the author advocates union Bible schools and pastorates, and under such chapter headings as, Working together; The search for truth; Churches and men; Church union and patriotism, he finally arrives at, The united church of Christ.
“It is not so incoherent as its typographical form would indicate.”
+ — Outlook. 81: 530. O. 28, ‘05. 20w.
Wells, Carolyn. Dorrance domain; a story. †$1.50. Wilde.
Four energetic Dorrances left to the care of their Grandmother Dorrance once wealthy, now skilfully supporting a large family on a small annuity, bemoan their boarding house existence which seems an unbearable hardship after the free life in their Fifty-eighth street home. A part of the Grandfather’s legacy was the Dorrance domain, a rambling summer hotel, which was not easily disposed of and which these daring children propose opening and running for a season. The success of their scheme and the enjoyment which the novel experiment afforded them are told in Miss Wells’ usual sprightly and humorous manner.
* “Miss Wells is just the writer to make it the kind worth reading.”
+ N. Y. Times. 10: 895. D. 16, ‘05. 120w.
Outlook. 81: 575. N. 4, ‘05. 40w.
Wells, Carolyn. Patty in the city. †$1.25. Dodd.
The friends of “Patty at home” will find her quite as delightful to know amid the conditions of New York life, where “she resides in an apartment overlooking Central park, attends a fashionable school, makes new friends, and keeps her old ones.” (Outlook.)
+ N. Y. Times. 10: 648. S. 30, ‘05. 220w.
+ Outlook. 81: 578. N. 4, ‘05. 70w.
* Wells, Carolyn. Satire anthology. **$1.25. Scribner.
“Beginning with the ancients (Aristophanes, Horace, and Juvenal) ... the selections work down to such very modern exemplars of the species as Mr. Owen Seaman and Mr. Gelett Burgess. Sprinkled through the list of authors we note such out-of-the-way names as those of Ruteboeuf, Abraham à Sancta Clara, Villon, and Béranger. The collection is, however, mainly one of English verse, from the Elizabethans on.”—Dial.
* “The selections, from innumerable authors, have been made with skill; but certain of the pieces from very minor modern authors might have been spared in favor of some omitted bits from Lowell and Holmes, both of whom are rather inadequately represented.”
+ + — Critic. 47: 584. D. ‘05. 150w.
* “May safely be depended upon to provide both amusement and instruction.”
+ Dial. 39: 450. D. 16, ‘05. 100w.
* “It is ungracious to find fault where there is so much of good. We are glad to get the anthology as it stands.”
+ N. Y. Times. 10: 905. D. 16, ‘05. 610w.
* “Contains most of the representative and well-known bits of this sort of literature.”
+ R. of Rs. 32: 640. N. ‘05. 70w.
Wells, Carolyn, and Taber, Harry Persons. Matrimonial bureau. †$1.50. Houghton.
The story of a girl who, weary of “waiting for the prince,” sees her maid happily married thru the agency of a matrimonial bureau, and decides to start one of her own. She invites a cousin, who invites a friend, who invites another friend, and they all stay all summer. Everybody falls in love at cross purposes, a beautiful stranger arrives to confuse confusion, and it is all very complicated and amusing, but is untangled in the end.
“The efforts of a New England spinster to be a machine god are amusing and some of the conversations hang together well.”
+ Critic. 46: 564. Je. ‘05. 70w.
“We have never read a more improbable tale, and not often one that so completely failed to amuse.”
— — — Nation. 80: 378. My. 11, ‘05. 220w.
“The small volume is packed with jokes of the kind visible without a glass.”
+ N. Y. Times. 10: 203. Ap. 1, ‘05. 40w.
“Here and there are some love scenes very human, very delicately wrought. Briefly, ‘The matrimonial bureau’ is like the ‘Summer girl,’ passing fair, fair but passing.”
+ N. Y. Times. 10: 214. Ap. 8, ‘05. 330w.
“It is an excellent book for summer reading, being as light as air.”
+ — N. Y. Times. 10: 392. Je. 17, ‘05. 130w.
“A book of the slightest sort, hardly comedy, more accurately described perhaps as a summer farce.”
+ — Outlook. 79: 1014. Ap. 22, ‘05. 80w.
“As a literary soufflé, light, well-flavored and well-browned, this little story will be a tasty addition to the midsummer feast of reading.”
+ Reader. 6: 359. Ag. ‘05. 190w.
Wells, Herbert George. Kipps: a monograph. †$1.50. Scribner.
“An uneducated, awkward, and uncultivated clerk in a London draper’s establishment suddenly 375has a large fortune left him, attempts to get into high society, is made use of and swindled right and left, but finally has the courage to break away, to marry the girl of his choice, even though she be a servant girl, and to live his own life. In the end fortune smiles on him a second time, but now in moderation, and he is left a happy, contented husband and father; and, by a twist of Mr. Wells’ whimsical fancy, is made the proprietor of a bookshop which he manages on the theory that ‘one book is about as good as another.’”—Outlook.
“The book, in fact, has a purpose, but that purpose is not allowed to interfere with its vivacity; and ‘Kipps’ is, indeed, the most amusing book and at the same time the tenderest book that Mr. Wells has ever written.”
+ + Acad. 68: 1129. O. 28, ‘05. 900w.
* “He has set aside the speculations of scientific imagination, and deals with warm human life to-day. This is the work which was designed for him in the end, and we cannot doubt that he will continue to devote himself to it.”
+ Ath. 1905, 2: 681. N. 18. 650w.
“Deals with his subject in a strong, broad manner, intensified by his understanding of such detail of life as the minor incidents of retail trade.”
+ Critic. 47: 478. N. ‘05. 50w.
+ Ind. 59: 1113. N. 9, ‘05. 220w.
“The merit of the novel, however, is not in the story, but in the observation. He never, for a single page, fails to be amusing.”
+ + — Lond. Times. 4: 358. O. 27, ‘05. 780w.
“Is a humorous story, but it is not a trifling one, and though it deals largely with humble folk, it has to do, in a broad and forceful way, with much of the seriousness of life.”
+ N. Y. Times. 10: 649. O. 7, ‘05. 500w.
“The story in its substance is rather sordid and dull.”
+ — Outlook. 81: 382. O. 14, ‘05. 170w.
“Kipps, indeed, carries a social question to be long pondered, and the author’s side-talks are an important contribution to the old but never-ended discussion.”
+ + Pub. Opin. 39: 633. N. 11, ‘05. 290w.
* “Is another triumph in the art of presenting character.”
+ R. of Rs. 32: 759. D. ‘05. 100w.
* “Mr. Wells, as usual, writes cleverly, brilliantly, wittily.”
+ Sat. R. 100: 658. N. 18, ‘05. 820w.
* “We have found Kipps in many ways the most human and sympathetic of Mr. Wells’s stories.”
+ Spec. 95: 718. N. 4, ‘05. 1060w.
Wells, Herbert George. Modern Utopia. *$1.50. Scribner.
Mr. Wells departs from the Utopia-makers of the past in that his Utopia is a world-state using a universal language. The author deals “with strictly modern and current conditions, and imagines a new state of society, whose social basis has been improved and whose social problems have been settled.” (N. Y. Times.)
“Seems to us to mark an advance even on the high level of excellence which Mr. Wells had before attained.”
+ + Acad. 68: 414. Ap. 15, ‘05. 1290w.
* “We can discover nothing in this sample, however, that goes beyond good-natured satire of conditions which none would be so poor as to defend.” A. W. S.
+ Am. J. Soc. 11: 430. N. ‘05. 250w.
“There has been no work of this importance published for the last thirty years.”
+ + + Ath. 1905, 1: 519. Ap. 29. 2450w.
“The form he has chosen for ‘A modern Utopia’ is exceedingly unfortunate. The essay appended ... is a contribution of real value to the theory of thinking and written in a style as witty and original as that of Professor James.”
— + Ind. 58: 1307. Je. 8, ‘05. 740w.
“Mr. Wells meant this work as a very serious one. Many readers of it will find its perusal trying, and will fail to realize, as proper compensation for the task of reading the same, whatever grist it offers for the mind.”
+ — Lit. D. 31: 427. S. 23, ‘05. 990w.
“Mr. Wells’s Utopia is far the most interesting, imaginative, and possible of all the Utopias written since the inventions and discoveries of science began to colour our conceptions of the future.”
+ + Lond. Times. 4: 144. My. 5, ‘05. 1650w.
“In the present book Mr. Wells has become still more moderate and practicable and hopeful, without in the least derogating from his ingenuity and originality.” F. C. S. S.
+ + Nature. 72: 337. Ag. 10, ‘05. 1280w.
N. Y. Times. 10: 313. My. 13, ‘05. 300w.
“It is carefully thought out and reasoned, and holds together much better than the ideal commonwealths imagined by his predecessors.”
+ N. Y. Times. 10: 342. My. 27, ‘05. 1340w.
“The method of presentation adopted is exceedingly happy.”
+ + Outlook. 80: 345. Je. 3, ‘05. 310w.
“It is an admirable piece of literature and a book of unlimited suggestiveness. As literature and as philosophy, ‘A modern Utopia’ is Mr. Wells’ masterpiece.”
+ + R. of Rs. 31: 764. Je. ‘05. 220w.
“The book, both in matter and in form, has been carefully studied and thought out. Mr. Wells’s book seems hardly likely to rank as, or to remain, a classic Utopia.”
+ Spec. 95: 610. O. 21, ‘05. 2040w.
Wells, Herbert George. Twelve stories and a dream. †$1.50. Scribner.
In this volume of stories Mr. Wells “has but rarely any prophetic or scientific axe to grind. His stories deal with the marvelous under many aspects, but always in the light of his half-joyous, half-whimsical humor.” (R. of Rs.)
“None of them is equal to the best of his former tales, but there are some that are very amusing and some quite gruesome.”
+ — Ind. 58: 1308. Je. 8, ‘05. 100w.
“Enough have surely been mentioned to show the varied entertainment which Mr. Wells offers and to indicate our opinion that he has never offered any better.”
+ + N. Y. Times. 10: 327. My. 20, ‘05. 590w.
N. Y. Times. 10: 395. Je. 17, ‘05. 200w.
“In at least half of these stories Mr. Wells is seen at his best.”
+ Outlook. 79: 1062. Ap. 29, ‘05. 160w.
“‘Twelve stories and a dream’ will not lower Mr. Wells’ reputation as an imaginative writer, which his previous volumes probably did.”
+ R. of Rs. 31: 763. Je. ‘05. 80w.
Welsh, Charles, ed. See Famous battles of the Nineteenth century.
Wendell, Barrett. Temper of the 17th century in English literature. **$1.50. Scribner.
“Prof. Barrett Wendell, of the English department at Harvard university, has gathered his lectures on English literature, delivered on the Clark foundation at Trinity college, Cambridge (1902-‘03), into a volume.... These are the first regular lectures concerning English literature ever given by an American at an English university. Together, they are practically a literary study of the age of Dryden. The purpose in these lectures was, he declares, to indicate the manner in which the national temper of England, as revealed in seventeenth-century literature, ‘changed from a temper ancestrally common to modern England, and to modern America, and became, before the century closed, something which later time must 376recognize as distinctly, specifically, English.”—R. of Rs.
“Prof. Wendell is always interesting, whether we agree with him or not, and the Clark lectures ... have much good matter in them, with perhaps as much that is by no means so good.”
+ + — Critic. 47: 92. Jl. ‘05. 190w.
“Smoothness of style ... Though this volume is of such high merit that it will take a place at once as one of the recognized authorities on its subject, it is not likely that all its positions will be accepted without a demur.” Herbert W. Horwill.
+ + — Forum. 36: 407. Ja. ‘05. 1970w.
“The title of this book is more philosophical than the contents warrant; instead of obtaining one final impression, we remember the separate remarks—often wise, suggestive and illuminating—on separate authors.”
+ + Ind. 58: 1016. My. 4, ‘05. 260w.
R. of Rs. 31: 250. F. ‘05. 130w.
“Its author seems wholly destitute of any pretension to critical discernment. The diction and style, as might be expected, are on a par with the rest of the book. It is scandalous that a great university like Cambridge should tolerate such standards of information and criticism as this volume exhibits.”
— — — Sat. R. 99: 704. My. 27, ‘05. 1960w.
Wertheimer, Edward von. Duke of Reichstadt. **$5. Lane.
Dr. Wertheimer’s monograph on the Duke of Reichstadt makes use of a vast deal of new biographical material. The study covers the political setting of the life in detail, painstakingly going over the whole piece of statecraft involved in Napoleon’s Austrian marriage, dwelling at length upon the influence which the alliance exerted upon the policy of Napoleon and of his opponents. The short uneventful life of Napoleon’s son is of less interest than the stirring history which the father tried to shape for the glory of a permanent kingdom. “It is to the fact that he was his father’s son that the fame of the Duke of Reichstadt is due ... the shadow of a great name surrounds him, and historical writers record and discuss his every act as if he had been a real king, instead of merely the If, Yes, and Perhaps of Modern European history.” (N. Y. Times.)
+ + — Acad. 68: 1124. O. 28, ‘05. 1780w.
“As a rule, however, the narrative runs easily—perhaps more so than is the case with most translations.”
+ Ath. 1905, 2: 536. O. 21, 2040w.
* “The translation, on the whole, is very satisfactory, though there are occasional lapses into awkwardness or obscurity. Here and there one may question the justice of Dr. Wertheimer’s remarks. But these and a few other blemishes do not detract from the value of a most careful and interesting work, which presents the first complete and authoritative account of the life of this unfortunate prince.”
+ + — Lond. Times. 4: 337. O. 13, ‘05. 1360w.
“Mr. de Wertheimer’s book is a valuable contribution to historical knowledge. The author’s style, however, is somewhat confused, and his judgment is far from critical.”
+ — Nation. 81: 386. N. 9, ‘05. 1050w.
“He has scraped everything together, sorted it out, sifted it, and arranged it in what must be acknowledged to be an interesting story. The matter is not important, however. The English translation of Mr. de Wertheimer’s book is good.”
+ + — N. Y. Times. 10: 669. O. 14, ‘05. 860w.
* “It is as interesting as it is valuable as a contribution to a strangely neglected period of European history.”
+ + N. Y. Times. 10: 820. D. 2, ‘05. 120w.
* “Dr. Wertheimer has chosen wisely to present the details of a sad career with the fulness, the accuracy, and the impartiality of a scholar.”
+ + Spec. 95: 869. N. 25, ‘05. 1410w.
West, George Stephen. Treatise on the British freshwater algae. *$3.50. Macmillan.
“Certainly there is no book upon any phase of cryptogamic botany for which there has been so much need, and for which the demand in recent years, has been so great, as one dealing comprehensively with the freshwater algæ.... A good general discussion of the methods of multiplication and reproduction in algæ, together with a reference to the question of polymorphism and a rather full exposition of the particular theories of the author regarding phylogeny, precedes the specific treatment of the six classes, Rhodophyceæ, Phaeophyceæ, Chlorophyceæ, Heterokonteæ, Bacillarieæ, and Myxophyceæ.... The book is fully illustrated and too much cannot be said for the successful effort to secure new and accurate drawings of not only the more recently described genera, but for the older forms as well.”—Science.
“The work has been thoroughly done throughout, and its value is greatly increased by an exhaustive index. The plates are sufficiently characteristic for most identifications, and the descriptions and keys are good.”
+ + + Nation. 80: 93. F. 2, ‘05. 90w.
“Is particularly well qualified to write such a book. The need of a treatise upon the freshwater algæ has been referred to; that this book will come as near to filling such a need as one of its scope, written by one man, could possibly be expected, is all that is necessary to say regarding its worth.” George T. Moore.
+ + + Science, n.s. 21: 184. F. 3, ‘05. 900w.
West, W. K. George Frederick Watts. $1.25. Warne.
A biographical sketch of Watts by W. K. West, with an essay on his art, and an outline of the sixty-five pictures reproduced in the book, by Romualdo Pantini.
N. Y. Times. 10: 205. Ap. 1, ‘05. 230w.
+ Outlook. 79: 856. Ap. 1, ‘05. 60w.
Westcott, Rev. Frank Nash. Church and the good Samaritan; mission addresses to men. **$1. Whittaker.
A series of Lent addresses to men. They include The lawyer’s question, The Jericho road, The priest and the Samaritan, The Samaritan and the Jew, The wayside inn, The two pence.
+ — Outlook. 79: 758. Mr. 25, ‘05. 60w.
* Westcott, Frank N. Heart of catholicity. $1. Young churchman.
A defence of the conception of the church which is held by the “high church” party of the Anglican communion. It regards the church as a divine institution let down from above, the dispenser of truth and salvation as against the view held by the members of that communion in common with other protestants that the church is a historic growth which has developed out of human needs and which is seeking truth and salvation. The author means by “catholicity” the former conception of the church, but the term ought to be big enough to include both views.
Outlook. 81: 134. S. 16, ‘05. 150w.
Westrup, Margaret. Coming of Billy. $1.25. Harper.
“Billy’s coming will be a pleasure to readers of all ages, for Billy is a delightful addition to the real small boys of fiction. His parents send him from India to Rose Cottage, England, where he is a source of continual surprises, not always agreeable to his maiden aunts. He takes a hand in the love affairs of the ‘youngest and prettiest’ Miss Primrose.”—Outlook.
“The reviewer fancies that the whole book is much more likely to interest mature, and even elderly readers, than children.”
+ Ath. 1905, 2: 432. S. 30. 230w.
377“A delightfully humorous story that is told with a wholly charming grace and simplicity.”
+ N. Y. Times. 10: 710. O. 21, ‘05. 470w.
+ Outlook. 81: 134. S. 16, ‘05. 70w.
Weyman, Stanley John. Starvecrow farm. †$1.50. Longmans.
“The story is placed in the early part of the last century; the heroine, engaged to one man, elopes with another, on whose head there is a price. The couple are captured the day of their flight from the girl’s home, but the man escapes, leaving the girl in the hands of the law. The world thinks her an accomplice, and as her family repudiates her, she has to fight her battle alone.”—Pub. Opin.
“A novel that is likely to be read with delight on a wet day in a country house or on a railway journey.”
+ — Acad. 68: 1025. O. 7, ‘05. 320w.
“It is as good as any of those which have preceded it from the same pen, and to say this is to pay it a high compliment.”
+ + Ath. 1905, 2: 396. S. 23. 420w.
“Its structure is rather flabby. Looking back over the book, we feel that we ought to have been more excited over it than we were; but the truth is that Mr. Weyman is both wordy and a little uncertain.”
— Lond. Times. 4: 295. S. 15, ‘05. 510w.
“It goes—goes a-cantering and takes you along with it.”
+ N. Y. Times. 10: 707. O. 21, ‘05. 440w.
* “Like the others, a thoroughly readable story.”
+ N. Y. Times. 10: 823. D. 2, ‘05. 150w.
— Outlook. 81: 579. N. 4, ‘05. 100w.
“In ‘Starvecrow farm’ there are the same easy flow of narrative, the lively dialogue, the dramatic sense, and the well-developed plot which characterize all that this author does.”
+ Pub. Opin. 39: 573. O. 28, ‘05. 110w.
“As a vigorous, wholesome, and well-constructed tale it deserves to win wide acceptance.”
+ — Spec. 95: 434. S. 23, ‘05. 740w.
Whall, C. W. Stained-glass work. **$1.50. Appleton.
A simple text-book, which the author has written “in a gossipy style, using very few technical terms and explaining every seemingly difficult passage, just as though he were giving oral instruction.” (N. Y. Times.) There are photographic reproductions of windows in English churches, and many diagrams.
N. Y. Times. 10: 474. Jl. 15, ‘05. 390w.
+ + — Pub. Opin. 39: 352. S. 9, ‘05. 200w.
Wharton, Edith Newbold (Jones). House of mirth. †$1.50. Scribner.
A society novel, cruel in its reality. Lily Bart, beautiful and twenty-nine, the orphaned child of a New York merchant, feels her whole being calling for the stamp of permanent possession upon the luxury which she has always enjoyed at the hands of her friends. Relentlessly the author enmeshes her in the toils of debt incurred at bridge; in scandal, the price of a trip upon a friend’s yacht; and, almost in a loveless marriage,—only the wealthy Rosedale himself recoils from it when society no longer smiles upon Miss Bart. She is dropped from stage to stage of society, the unhappy victim of circumstance and environment, but holding the reader’s full sympathy thru an innate nobility which is submerged but never eliminated. The end is hard—but could it all have ended otherwise?
“Mrs. Wharton has done many good things—she has never done anything better than this. Her dialogue is clever, fresh and sparkling; she has a fine discrimination—a natural, unstudied discrimination—in the use of words; and her style is graceful and fluent.”
+ + + Acad. 68: 1155. N. 4, ‘05. 330w.
* “It is a pitiful story, told with restraint and insight and not a little subtlety.”
+ Ath. 1905, 2: 718. N. 25. 160w.
* “As a piece of artistic creation, it falls short of supreme excellence.” Olivia Howard Dunbar.
+ + Critic. 47: 509. D. ‘05. 580w.
“She still has a fine manner, but it is like the fine gowns of her heroines, a fashion of the times for interpreting decadent symptoms in human nature. What she says will not last, because it is simply the fashionable drawing of ephemeral types and still more ephemeral sentiments.”
+ — Ind. 59: 150. Jl. 20, ‘05. 820w.
+ — Ind. 59: 1151. N. 16, ‘05. 250w.
* “Miss Bart is a blend of Becky Sharp and Gwendolen Harleth. She is not as compellingly human as the one, nor as inspiring as the other. Frankly, Mrs. Wharton has surpassed George Eliot in this theme. Not only is Lily Bart more congenial and better, as a human variation, than Gwendolen or Becky, but Mrs. Wharton’s style is more plastic and seductive than that of Mrs. Lewes.”
+ + Lit. D. 31: 886. D. 9, ‘05. 820w.
* “A dozen other novels of the year are good; but this book is really good. What Mrs. Wharton appears to lack is in a word the creative gift at its fullest. She sees with certainty and her hand is as sure as her eye. But with the richest imaginations something takes place beyond this.”
+ + — Lond. Times. 4: 421. D. 1, ‘05. 790w.
* “A feeling for fair play obliges us to protest Mrs. Wharton’s picture as a prejudiced one, yet it is not consciously unveracious. Though depressing, it is not wholly unprofitable.”
+ + — Nation. 81: 447. N. 30, ‘05. 1100w.
* + N. Y. Times. 10: 824. D. 2, ‘05. 190w.
“The story is the product of the most carefully calculated, the most skilfully handled, artistic values and effects; but the workmanship is the manner, not the substance of the novel. A story of such integrity of insight and of workmanship is an achievement of high importance in American life.”
+ + + Outlook. 81: 404. O. 21, ‘05. 1590w.
* “It is by all odds the greatest novel of recent years.”
+ + + Pub. Opin. 39: 796. D. 16, ‘05. 490w.
* “We have touched only the main theme, which like the whole story, is worked out in a manner to stamp the writer a genius, and give her name a place in the history of American literature.”
+ + + R. of Rs. 32: 757. D. ‘05. 380w.
“Her reputation will certainly not suffer any decline by the publication of her new novel.”
+ + Spec. 95: 657. O. 28, ‘05. 660w.
Wharton, Edith Newbold (Jones). Italian backgrounds; il. by E. C. Peixotto. **$2.50. Scribner.
Mrs. Wharton says, “As with the study of Italian pictures, so it is with Italy herself. The country is divided not in partes tres, but in two; a foreground and a background. The foreground is the property of the guidebook and of its product, the mechanical sightseers; the background, that of the dawdler, the dreamer, and the serious student of Italy.” The nine chapters are—An Alpine posting inn, A midsummer week’s dream, The sanctuaries of the Pennine Alps, What the hermits saw, A Tuscan shrine, Sub umbra liliorum. March in Italy, Picturesque Milan, and Italian backgrounds: then there are twelve illustrations reproduced from Peixotto pictures.
“The book is written with genuine knowledge, with large and generous sympathy, and in excellent English.”
+ + Acad. 68: 798. Ag. 5, ‘05. 1220w.
“Her style is extraordinarily good, but her thought is pedantic and inhuman.” G. R. Carpenter.
+ — Bookm. 21: 609. Ag. ‘05. 550w.
378“Has an air of spontaneity, as well as of competence, an irresistible grace, countless descriptive felicities, and the fervent glow of a genuine enthusiasm.”
+ + Critic. 47: 287. S. ‘05. 150w.
“Through this traveller’s story runs a fine thread of scholarship, of savoir faire, of cosmopolitanism, not easily to be matched in travel-literature. The book has what we call distinction of style, as impossible to resist as to define.” Anna Benneson McMahan.
+ + + Dial. 38: 351. My. 16, ‘05. 930w.
+ Ind. 58: 1311. Je. 8, ‘05. 190w.
“When Mrs. Wharton leaves the countryside and speaks of pictures and sculpture, she is apt to be less satisfactory. She is almost too impartial in her appreciation.”
+ + — Lond. Times. 4: 215. Jl. 7, ‘05. 640w.
“Mrs. Wharton has many unusual qualifications for writing on the art of Italy in its many phases, among others a brilliant style, historic research and a catholicity of taste.”
+ + Nation. 80: 508. Je. 22, ‘05. 910w.
N. Y. Times. 10: 265. Ap. 22, ‘05. 270w.
“Like the text, they [the illustrations] press the ‘culture’ of elusive expression very near to the vanishing point.” Walter Littlefield.
+ — N. Y. Times. 10: 588. S. 9, ‘05. 940w.
“This attractive quarto shows the combination of thorough knowledge based on original research, ability to enter into and value different aspects of life and different forms of art, and a finished and suggestive style.”
+ + Outlook. 80: 643. Jl. 8, ‘05. 250w.
“The book is full of exquisite impressions concerning matters not to be found in the guide books.”
+ + Reader. 6: 597. O. ‘05. 220w.
“An intimate acquaintance with Italian art and nature, an insight into southern life, and an exquisite literary style,—all of which belong to this writer—are necessary for such a study.”
+ + + R. of Rs. 32: 254. Ag. ‘05. 50w.
“A great deal of charming description is scattered through this volume.”
+ + Spec. 95: 470. S. 30. ‘05. 2560w.
Wharton, Edith. Italian villas and their gardens; il. with pictures by Maxfield Parrish, and by photographs. **$6. Century.
To come so absolutely under the spell of Italy’s garden-magic as is possible thru Mrs. Wharton’s word exposition and Mr. Parrish’s color interpretation, is almost as rare a privilege for the traveler who has visited those haunts as for the stay-at-home tourist. Magic which in its first supernatural impression defies analysis, often yields to laws of formation in the sober moments of consideration. Thus does Mrs. Wharton show that the seemingly spontaneous glory of Italian gardens is, after all, the result of garden-craft which the architects of the Renaissance resolved into a three-fold problem: adaptation of the garden to the architectural lines of the house it adjoins; adaptation to the requirements of the inmates of a house, in the sense of providing shady walks, sunny bowling-greens, parterres and orchards, all conveniently accessible; and, lastly, adaptation to the landscape around. There are fifty illustrations, in color and in black and white by Maxfield Parrish. Months of close observation and sympathetic study have been devoted to the large undertaking and the harmony with the subject matter which the De Vinne press has wrought into the book workmanship is exquisite.
“Mr. Parrish has performed his part of the task in a delightful and satisfactory way. The impression, the atmosphere, created by the illustrations, is not sustained in the text.”
+ + — Critic. 46: 166. F. ‘05. 1260w.
“The text is well written and contains much information concerning the villas and gardens selected for treatment.”
+ + Int. Studio. 25: 179. Ap. ‘05. 150w.
“This is a notable volume, all the more so from the archæological and historical associations which it recalls.”
+ + Spec. 94: 118. Ja. 28, ‘05. 70w.
Wheeler, Candace Thurber (Mrs. Thomas M.). Doubledarling and the dream spinner. †$1.50. Fox.
Doubledarling is a little girl “twice as good and twice as beautiful as other children.” When she tells her father how her little discarded red shoes led her in the night to the land where the old shoes go, he promises her a dream machine which will tell her wonderful stories all night long; and on Christmas morning her dream spinner hangs on a peg by her bed ticking out story after story to her. The book tells about these dreams and also of Doubledarling’s waking hours, her friends and her pets. One regrets the commonplace realism which lets an ordinary burglar finally make away with the dream spinner. Dora Wheeler Keith has illustrated the volume.
* + Critic. 47: 577. D. ‘05. 50w.
+ Outlook. 81: 381. O. 14, ‘05. 60w.
Wheeler, Everett Pepperell. Daniel Webster, the expounder of the constitution. **$1.50. Putnam.
“This is at once a tribute to the genius of Daniel Webster and a handy manual to the decisions which, following Webster’s arguments before the United States Supreme court, have molded the constitution to make it adequate to our needs. While Mr. Wheeler’s chief concern is with the constitutional questions laid before the court, he is not unmindful of the senatorial side of Webster’s career from the constitutional standpoint, and chapters are given over to the replies of Calhoun and Hayne, involving the nature of the republic, and to the famous ‘Seventh of March’ speech, which brought such disappointment to the enemies of slavery.... Interest is heightened by the inclusion of hitherto unpublished accounts of several of the more important cases, and by an appreciative study of Webster as a lawyer.”—Outlook.
Am. Hist. R. 10: 717. Ap. ‘05. 90w.
“Its manifest position as a special pleader for Mr. Webster’s memory. Is particularly desirable as giving us new light on old subjects through its first publication of many facts which aid to a clearer view of the principles of the constitution.”
+ + Boston Evening Transcript. F. 8, ‘05. 550w.
+ + N. Y. Times. 10: 130. Mr. 4, ‘05. 950w.
+ + Outlook. 79: 399. F. 11, ‘05. 130w.
Yale R. 14: 229. Ag. ‘05. 100w.
Whelpley, James Davenport. Problem of the immigrant. *$3. Dutton.
A brief discussion, with a summary of conditions, laws and regulations governing the movement of population to and from the British empire, the United States, France, Germany, Belgium, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, and Scandinavia.
+ + Acad. 68: 242. Mr. 11, ‘05. 260w.
* “Such data is not easily accessible to the average student or legislator, and the volume will be of great service.”
+ + Ann. Am. Acad. 26: 753. N. ‘05. 110w.
“A useful work of reference. Such frantic statements as these are a serious disfigurement in a book professing claims to accuracy.”
+ — Ath. 1905, 2: 45. Jl. 8. 430w.
“This hasty ‘book of the hour,’ for such it evidently is, interests in parts, particularly in its emphasis upon emigration as a matter of international concern.”
+ + — Ind. 59: 578. S. 7, ‘05. 180w.
“His summaries seem excellent and correct. The observations and brief discussions with 379which he accompanies them are illuminating and to the point.”
+ + + Nation. 81: 33. Jl. 13, ‘05. 270w.
N. Y. Times. 10: 313. My. 13, ‘05. 200w.
“The book is more useful than any other bearing on the same subject.”
+ + — N. Y. Times. 10: 452. Jl. 8, ‘05. 720w.
“Mr. Whelpley’s careful study of the general problem of emigration and immigration throughout Europe, our colonies, and the United States will be found a particularly useful addition to a class of recent books that is now somewhat extensive.”
+ + Sat. R. 99: 710. My. 27, ‘05. 340w.
“Mr. Whelpley’s ideas are worthy of respect, and the materials which he has provided should be invaluable to the political student.”
+ + — Spec. 95: 434. S. 23, ‘05. 510w.
* Where the road led and other stories. $1.25. Benziger.
Twenty-eight Roman Catholic stories written by fourteen Roman Catholic authors. The stories are love stories, but some are of filial love, some of maternal love, and some of the love of religion. The authors include Anna T. Sadlier; Mary T. Waggaman; Magdalen G. Rock; Mary E. Mannix; and Mary G. Bonesteel.
Whibley, Charles. Literary portraits. *$2.50. Scribner.
Essays on Rabelais, Phillippe de Comines, Philemon, Holland, Montaigne, The library of an old scholar (the poet William Drummond), Robert Burton, and Jacques Casanova.
“The appreciation is clear and just, and the author is to be congratulated on the decision and delicacy of his touch and the simplicity of his style. The average of the volume is fully up to that high standard of culture which is evident in all Mr. Whibley’s published works.” Frank Schloesser.
+ + Acad. 68: 13. Ja. 7, ‘05. 600w.
“The level of performance here is singularly even and singularly high.”
+ + Ath. 1905, 1: 78. Ja. 14. 580w.
“There is perhaps little art in the various portraits, and there is certainly no pretence at originality; but there is sympathetic understanding, and thorough and conscientious labor.”
+ Critic. 46: 475. My. ‘05. 170w.
+ + Dial. 38: 323. My. 1. ‘05. 930w.
N. Y. Times. 10: 153. Mr. 11, ‘05. 360w.
“‘Literary portraits’ shows marked ability and is to be classed among the books of criticism of the higher standard.”
+ + N. Y. Times. 10: 198. Ap. 1, ‘05. 1020w.
“Mr. Whibley has finished these portraits with a skillful and graceful pen. Readers in a critical mood and readers for entertainment will both find his work attractive.”
+ + Outlook. 79: 760. Mr. 25, ‘05. 160w.
“We miss the illuminating phrase. The fresh judgment and the historical setting is often wholly omitted. Mr. Whibley has ‘the practiced hand,’ and is apt to be content with that amount of accomplishment.”
— + Sat. R. 99: 637. My. 13, ‘05. 180w.
“This seems to us the best of Mr. Whibley’s volumes of essays, the most mature in style and thought, and the most attractive in subject-matter. He has studied each of his writers with a minute care and has read deeply in contemporary literature, so that they are presented to us in the true setting of their age. His judgments have now the sanity which can only come from a full experience and a full enjoyment of a wide field of literature. His style ... has acquired a body and force which it did not always possess, and his essays are admirable, if for nothing else, for their mastery of clear, graceful, and vigorous prose. Sometimes his comment is a little over-strained.”
+ + + Spec. 94: 87. Ja. 21, ‘05. 1830w.
Whibley, Leonard, ed. See Companion to Greek studies.
Whiffen, Edwin T. Samson marrying, Samson at Timnah, Samson Hybristes, Samson blinded: four dramatic poems. $1.50. Badger, R: G.
These four dramatic poems deal with four dramatic incidents in the life of Samson. The first tells of Samson’s revenge upon the Philistine youths who, at his wedding-feast, illtreat his father and win from his bride the solution to a certain riddle. The second tells of further revenge upon the Philistines and includes the setting of foxes and fire brands among their corn and vineyards. In the third drama Samson is tried before the elders of Judah, and his mother reveals to him his divinely appointed mission—to free his people. In the fourth the action centers about the effort of Delilah to discover the secret of his strength and closes with Samson blind and a captive.
Whitaker, Herman. Probationer, and other stories. †$1.25. Harper.
Thirteen short stories of life in northwestern Canada. “Most of them deal with the days when the factors and commissioners of the Hudson bay company were the lords of the land, and ruled with an iron hand. The history of the great fur company is full of romance, and there is a peculiar fascination about life in those northern regions.” (Outlook.)
“Some of his stories are thrilling, some humorous, some tame. In narrative Mr. Whittaker has a good deal of manner—too much, and not always his own.”
+ — Nation. 80: 442. Je. 1, ‘05. 260w.
“A book which is unusually vigorous and suggestive.”
+ + N. Y. Times. 10: 213. Ap. 8, ‘05. 770w.
“The stories are full of strength and vigor and the atmosphere of the woods.”
+ + Outlook. 79: 858. Ap. 1, ‘05. 80w.
“No one has so pictured the life of the trappers and traders of that country since Gilbert Parker wrote of ‘Pretty Pierre’ and his people.”
+ + Pub. Opin. 38: 713. My. 6, ‘05. 120w.
+ R. of Rs. 31: 761. Je. ‘05. 70w.
White, Andrew Dickson. Autobiography of Andrew D. White. **$7.50. Century.
A record of diplomatic service which began in 1854 when Mr. White went to St. Petersburg as attaché of the American legation, and ended when on his seventieth birthday, 1902, he resigned his duties as ambassador to Germany. The two volumes contain an account of his work as state senator, as a college professor, and finally, president of Cornell, as a commissioner to Santo Domingo, and the Paris exposition (1878), as minister to Germany and Russia, as a member of the Venezuelan boundary commission, and president of the American delegation at the peace conference of the Hague (1899). There are descriptions of the emperor of Germany and Czar Nicholas II, and their courts, and many anecdotes and crisp comments. The man, his life, his many fields of labor, and the great men and events with which he came in contact, are all set forth in detail.
“The value of the volumes seems chiefly to arise from the charmingly simple tale of personal experience told by a man of wisdom and insight, a tale told with considerable literary skill.”
+ + + Am. Hist R. 10: 925. Jl. ‘05. 470w.
“In ‘The autobiography of Andrew D. White’ we have one of the most brilliant, interesting, instructive and in many ways important works of recent decades. These examples will be sufficient to illustrate the reckless character of our author’s statements whenever the facts run counter to his prejudices and views which in later years he has imbibed from the privileged interests 380and reactionary influences that have environed him.”
+ + — Arena. 34: 97. Jl. ‘05. 7000w.
“The volumes are full of interest for the general reader, but so ill arranged that those may be repelled who by better construction would have been attracted.”
+ + — Ath. 1905, 1: 589. My. 13. 880w.
“Its interest is due not to any novelty of fact, for the entire book is an open page of history, but to an instinct or habit of truthfulness that pervades its pages like an atmosphere.” Theodore T. Munger.
+ + + Atlan. 96: 556. O. ‘05. 7900w.
Reviewed by John W. Russell.
+ + + Bookm. 21: 603. Ag. ‘05. 1460w.
“I have found this a most readable book from cover to cover, the story of a strenuous life told with simple directness.” Jeanette L. Gilder.
+ + Critic. 46: 449. My. ‘05. 1460w.
“In arrangement the work is a model. By his skill in the selection of material, and by his admirably lucid and even style, the author has made every page intensely interesting.” Clark S. Northrup.
+ + + Dial. 38: 260. Ap. 16, ‘05. 1780w.
“To the student of the problems of higher education in America, Dr. White’s ‘Autobiography,’ full as it is of matters of general interest, should prove especially interesting and important.” Clark S. Northup.
+ + Educ. R. 30: 101. Je. ‘05. 1030w.
“Altogether this is a full book, with something for everybody, putting one in touch on many sides with modern times; an adequate narrative of an exceptional career.”
+ + — Ind. 59: 812. O. 5, ‘05. 1080w.
“A better account of the founding of Cornell, of which he was so long the honored and successful head, has never been given, and perhaps in no other of his pages do we see so clearly the practical idealism, which, running throughout his life story like a golden thread, makes it so well worth the telling.”
+ + + Lit. D. 31: 187. Ag. 5, ‘05. 630w.
“Viewed as a narrative the book is excellent, and only needs more continuity; viewed as a collection of essays, it is naturally inadequate.”
+ + Lond. Times. 4: 149. My. 12, ‘05. 2680w.
“By the side of the recent contributions of Hoar, Stillman, Newcomb, Dwight, Le Conte, Villard, and Conway, the autobiography of White will hold an honored place.”
+ + + Nation. 80: 272. Ap. 6, ‘05. 2110w.
N. Y. Times. 10: 121. F. 25, ‘05. 180w.
“Nor does it possess that intimate charm which has made a literary classic of more than one ingenuous personal narrative. There is little in these two volumes which can fail to interest the serious reader in one way or another.” H. W. Boynton.
+ + — N. Y. Times. 10: 321. My. 20, ‘05. 1410w.
“If he is not entirely without prejudice of egotism, he displays those qualities after the manner of great men.”
+ + — N. Y. Times. 10: 388. Je. 17, ‘05. 240w.
“These volumes ... have a value for all his countrymen not surpassed by any American autobiography within our knowledge.” James M. Whiton.
+ + + Outlook. 80: 132. My. 13, ‘05. 5600w.
“Mr. White is an octogenarian, with a full life behind him, but two hundred pages would have been ample space for it.”
+ — Sat. R. 100: 28. Jl. 1, ‘05. 160w.
“It is eminently characteristic of its country of origin.”
+ + + Spec. 95: 51. Ag. 8, ‘05. 740w.
“There is a want of continuity. Repetitions occur, and sometimes when they were unintended. He has written a book to interest all who are interested in the modern world.” Simeon E. Baldwin.
+ + — Yale R. 14: 210. Ag. ‘05. 1770w.
White, C. V. Peace conference: poem. $1. Badger, R: G.
This poem is dedicated to the American delegates of the International peace conference, which met at the Hague, May 18, 1899. It sets forth the harm which war has done thruout history, and declares that the time for universal peace is here. It closes with the prayer,
“Lord God endow
Us with thy blessings now,
And plenteous peace the whole world o’er
Establish thou forevermore.”
White, Fred M. Crimson blind. $1.50. Fenno.
The strands of this story are marvelously twisted. A villain, a fiend in human shape, has plunged his family into dishonor to gain his ends, but by the aid of a clever doctor, whose future had also been involved in the general ruin, a young novelist who applies fiction methods to the case, and a girl cousin who feigns death in order to be free to solve the mystery, the whole is ferreted out, bit by bit. It is an ingenious plot with manifold complications.
“This is a really fine sensational novel.”
+ Acad. 68: 735. Jl. 15, ‘05. 230w.
N. Y. Times. 10: 320. My. 13, ‘05. 210w.
White, George. Practical course of instruction in personal magnetism, telepathy, and hypnotism. $1.25. Dutton.
A practical course of instruction setting forth the manner in which any student may acquire powers over himself, over his fellow men, and even over time and space.
— Acad. 68: 683. Jl. 1, ‘05. 740w.
Reviewed by Pendennis.
— N. Y. Times. 10: 430. Jl. 1, ‘05. 680w.
White, T. Hyler. Petrol motor and motor cars: a handbook for engineers, designers, and draughtsmen. *$1.40. Longmans.
A book which the author feels is needed, because recent automobile literature has not been written for the benefit of designers. Practical rules for the design of the essential parts of motors and motor cars are given, accompanied by figures. There are tables of various kinds to facilitate calculations and to convert English units into metric measures. The illustrations are good, but are not drawn to a given scale.
“The formulas which are given seem to be of a rational nature; but to the reviewer it seems a fault that the derivation of the same are never given. The author discusses at various places the several alternatives for the many parts of a modern automobile; he gives his reason for his choice very clearly and never uses superfluous words, for which fact he deserves praise. Of course it ought not to be necessary to state that it is not always possible to agree with his conclusions. As a book for the special purpose of helping the designers of these engines it appears to the reviewer that it is the best existing book in the English language, notwithstanding the criticisms which have been made above.” Storm Bull.
+ + — Engin. N. 53: 186. F. 16, ‘05. 750w.
White, W. Hale. John Bunyan. **$1. Scribner.
This is the third volume in the Literary lives series which aims to furnish biographical and critical estimates. It treats of Bunyan’s life and characteristics. “Bunyan is not altogether the representation of Puritanism ... the qualification necessary in order to understand and properly value him is not theological learning, nor in fact any kind of learning or literary skill, but the experience of life, with its hopes and fears, bright day and black night.” “Pilgrim’s progress” is fully treated and there are lesser studies of “Grace abounding,” the “Life and death of Mr. Badman,” and “The holy war.”
“If the reader would spend the amount of time required to read this book in the careful perusal of any one of Bunyan’s great pieces, he 381would probably catch more of the spirit of the Bedford dreamer, and gain a clearer and higher conception of his genius, than these pages by Mr. White are able to furnish.”
— Am. J. of Theol. 9: 377. Ap. ‘05. 140w.
* “The writer does with success what he has to do, and imagines very well the personality of the great John.”
+ Ath. 1905, 1: 368. Mr. 25. 230w.
“The final chapter is a very unsatisfactory treatment of ‘Bunyan and Puritanism.’”
+ — Bib. World. 25: 316. Ap. ‘05. 80w.
“A very interesting study. Mr. White has so many admirable things to say of the man and the spirit of his writings that one regrets that he should have devoted so much of his space to a detailed summary of Bunyan’s principal works.”
+ + Contemporary R. 87: 299. F. ‘05. 920w.
“The book proves to be a sympathetic, even a devout, study of its interesting theme.”
+ + Dial. 39: 119. S. 1, ‘05. 340w.
+ — Nation. 80: 79. Ja. 26, ‘05. 940w.
“An interesting and well written biography. But it lacks background. The picture of the times is inadequate.”
+ — Outlook. 79: 246. Ja. 28, ‘05. 190w.
“Mr. White has made us see Bunyan the man, and through him the great, sober, deadly earnest English folk, of whom he was the interpreter.”
+ + R. of Rs. 31: 126. Ja. ‘05. 80w.
Whitefield, George. Selected sermons; ed. with introd. and notes, by Rev. A. R. Buckland. **50c. Union press.
The text of this volume is with some slight changes that of the “Sermons on important subjects” published in 1828. The six sermons are entitled—The necessity and benefits of religious society, Regeneration, A penitent heart the best New Year’s gift, The almost Christian, Glorifying God in the fire, and Jacob’s ladder.
Whiting, Lilian. Florence of Landor. **$2.50. Little.
Lilian Whiting weaves a charm into the living drama that was set in the scenic enchantment of Florence during the period of Walter Savage Landor. She draws the Florence still vital with color, the romance, the tragedy and passionate exaltation and despair of the fifteenth century, and shows the sympathetic common interests of the English and American colony including permanently the Brownings and the Trollopes, and welcoming as visitors from time to time, George Eliot, Frances Power Cobbe, Frederick Tennyson and a number of the Brook farm men and women. The book creates the author’s usual ideal atmosphere, and is handsomely illustrated from photographs.
* + Critic. 47: 581. D. ‘05. 70w.
* “There are so many good things in Miss Whiting’s book, that the pity is all the greater that the writer has never acquired the literary virtues of restraint and selection.”
+ — Dial. 39: 443. D. 16, ‘05. 370w.
* + N. Y. Times. 10: 835. D. 2, ‘05. 230w.
* “Uses a great mass of material with fine discretion. At times her pen seems to flag, and she repeats from mere weariness; but far oftener she shows the nice discrimination of the true critic and the grace of the trained writer.”
+ + — Outlook. 81: 834. D. 2, ‘05. 280w.
* + Pub. Opin. 39: 826. D. 23, ‘05. 180w.
Whiting, Lilian. Joy that no man taketh from you. **50c. Little.
The realization of the Kingdom of Heaven in the hearts of men right now and here through the great power of love is the problem which Lilian Whiting meets. This joy may be achieved by the soul “so that neither death nor privation nor loss nor disappointment, not trial in any of its innumerable forms, shall dim its radiance or diminish its energy.”
Whiting, Lilian. Outlook beautiful. *$1.25. Little.
In chapters entitled The delusion of death, Realizing the ideal, Friendship as a divine relation, The ethereal world, The supreme purpose of Jesus, An inward stillness. The miracle moment may dawn on any hour, Miss Whiting sets forth her convictions regarding the relation of this life to the life eternal.
“It is unusually rich in helpful thought for those who enjoy transcendental and broadly religious discussions.”
+ + Arena. 34: 330. S. ‘05. 320w.
“The book is entirely characteristic of the author, and as such will recommend itself to her considerable public.”
+ + Critic. 47: 283. S. ‘05. 40w.
“It is a rhapsody, a carnival of spiritual joy.” David Saville Muzzey.
+ — Int. J. Ethics. 15: 526. Jl. ‘05. 70w.
“She weaves a fabric not overstrong, but light, and firm enough for every-day uses.”
+ Outlook. 80: 142. My. 13, ‘05. 80w.
+ Pub. Opin. 39: 61. Jl. 8, ‘05. 90w.
“Her philosophy and style are very stimulating and suggestive.”
+ + R. of Rs. 32: 254. Ag. ‘05. 50w.
* Whitney, Caspar. Jungle trails and jungle people; travel, adventure and observation in the Far East. **$3. Scribner.
“Recent travels in the Far East, in India, Sumatra, Malay, and Siam.... The record of a trip prompted by the lust of adventure, and by the desire to see strange lands and strange peoples, and to hunt strange animals. Mr. Whitney has caught the trick of making a little human interest enhance the vivid story of some thrilling or stirring hunting adventure.... Hunters or servants, enlighten us as to the mental and moral habits of the natives of the countries described.”—Dial.
* “Mr. Whitney has written a volume of travel and adventure that will make his name conspicuous among American hunters.” H. E. Coblentz.
+ + Dial. 39: 378. D. 1, ‘05. 380w.
* “If he had been less journalistic in style and the printer more careful, the reader’s pleasure would have been increased. Mr. Whitney has given us a pleasing account of a region little known to the white man.”
+ + — Nation. 81: 407. N. 16, ‘05. 770w.
* “Is a most interesting and informing volume.”
+ + N. Y. Times. 10: 706. O. 21, ‘05. 570w.
* “His descriptions of some of his guides and hunters are intensely diverting. He makes very real the life in the jungle.”
+ Outlook. 81: 717. N. 25, ‘05. 160w.
Whitney, Helen Hay. Sonnets and songs. **$1.20. Harper.
“All the sonnets and most of the songs give evidence both of temperament and of the study of the older poets, and frequently attain a richness of tone that neither could have accomplished without the other.” (Nation.) “Their mood is chiefly that of quiet wistfulness, touched by the fears and sorrows of uncertain human fate, but open also to the influences of wholesome joy and unaffected sentiment.” (N. Y. Times.)
“Every one of which is a finished bit of art. The work is of so even an excellence that it offers little room for choice.” Wm. M. Payne.
+ + Dial. 39: 275. N. 1, ‘05. 480w.
“Love poems, of a passion and sincere subtlety that are none too common.”
+ Nation. 81: 303. O. 12, ‘05. 300w.
+ N. Y. Times. 10: 656. O. 7, ‘05. 660w.
382Whitney, Mrs. Helen Hay. Verses for Jock and Joan. †$1.50. Fox.
The marginal drawings and the many full page pictures in color by Charlotte Harding, with which this volume of little-folk’s verses is illustrated make it an unusually attractive giftbook.
* “A pretty book with graceful verses and dainty illustrations.”
+ Critic. 47: 584. D. ‘05. 10w.
* “Challenges comparison with Betty Sage’s ‘Rhymes of real children’ of a year ago. The verse is correspondingly humorous, perhaps a trifle more sophisticated.”
+ Nation. 81: 503. D. 21, ‘05. 60w.
* “The verses are not without point, but are entirely lacking in that ‘turn of the phrase’ which makes the verses of Stevenson or Lewis Carroll dwell in the memory of a child.”
+ — R. of Rs. 32: 767. D. ‘05. 110w.
Whitson, John Harvey. Barbara, a woman of the West. 75c. Little.
A new popular edition of a story which follows the fortunes of a young woman in search of her ne’er-do-well husband. He has some claim to literary attainments, starts off on a tour of fortune hunting, and becomes mentally deranged. The scenes shift from Kansas plains to Cripple Creek, thence to San Diego, and the story ends happily despite the fact that Barbara’s Enoch Arden reappears after her second marriage.
Whitson, John H. Justin Wingate, ranchman. †$1.50. Little.
Life in the West, where the interests of the ranchman and the farmer are at war is shown thru the medium of story characters. The hero who enters the fight in the Colorado legislature, the doctor who sacrifices all for the unworthy woman who was once his wife, the rancher, choleric but honest, and the son who disgraces him, stand out clearly in the scenes of love, political strife and danger.
Reviewed by Frederic Taber Cooper.
+ Bookm. 21: 367. Je. ‘05. 160w.
Dial. 38: 392. Je. 1, ‘05. 120w.
N. Y. Times. 10: 272. Ap. 22, ‘05. 80w.
“Is a wonderfully vivid presentation of the largeness of Western horizons. Mr. Whitson is not so happy in his love stories as in his politics and adventure.”
+ — N. Y. Times. 10: 374. Je. 10, ‘05. 360w.
Outlook. 80: 246. My 27, ‘05. 40w.
Who’s who, 1905; an annual biographical dictionary. *$2. Macmillan.
A book of biographic data about living Englishmen. This edition contains over seventeen thousand biographies, each of which has been submitted for personal revision.
+ + + Critic. 46: 96. Ja. ‘05. 50w.
+ + + Int. Studio. 24: 370. F. ‘05. 60w.
+ + + Nation. 80: 32. Ja. 12, ‘05. 90w.
“Improved in arrangement.”
+ + + Outlook. 79: 197, Ja. 21, ‘05. 60w.
+ + + R. of Rs. 31: 532. Ap. ‘05. 70w.
Whyte, Rev. Alexander. Apostle Paul. *$1. Jennings.
Sixteen lectures upon the apostle Paul, which follow his life and form a comprehensive study of him as preacher, pastor, man of prayer, and chief of sinners, from the first lecture, Paul as a student, to the last, Paul the aged. Five sermons, and an appreciation of Walter Marshall are also included in the volume.
Whyte, Rev. Alexander. Walk, conversation and character of Jesus Christ our Lord. $1.50. Revell.
Addresses offered to the multitude which are “innocent of criticism, but beautifully devout and sweet.” (Outlook.)
“Is composed of original, somewhat visionary, studies of the life of Christ.”
+ Ind. 59: 331. Ag. 10, ‘05. 50w.
“Is a simple in thought, not obtrusively original, and expressive of a genuine personal religion.”
+ Outlook. 80: 936. Ag. 12, ‘05. 80w.
Wiborg, Frank. Commercial traveller in South America; being the experiences and impressions of an American business man on a trip through Panama, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, the Argentine and Brazil. **$1. McClure.
“Mr. Wiborg’s business trip around the coast and across the continent of South America is ... an individual view of a business proposition, and is made readable by descriptions—a business man’s descriptions—of the beauty of the country, and enlivened by some travelling ‘anecdotes.’ A well-drawn map elucidates the whole considerably and makes a very unified piece of work.”—Pub. Opin.
“Its descriptions of the country where conditions have changed rapidly have some value because of their freshness and of the writer’s candid expression of an alert business man’s ideas.”
+ N. Y. Times. 10: 716. O. 21, ‘05. 620w.
“Principally as a plea for more intimate business relations between the north and south continents of this hemisphere the work is of value.”
+ Pub. Opin. 39: 448. S. 30, ‘05. 110w.
Wiggin, Kate Douglas (Smith) (Mrs. G. C. Riggs). Rose o’ the river. †$1.25. Houghton.
The simple story of Rose, a country girl, “a fragile pink rose blossoming on the river’s brink,” and Stephen Waterman, a sturdy young farmer who lives on the other side of the Saco, is prettily told in this volume. Rose’s fancy for a city man interrupts their love for a time, but in the end she returns happily to Stephen. As a background for the slight plot, Mrs. Wiggin gives us the dangerous trade of the lumberman, and the river, a thing of beauty, strength and passion.
“Mrs. Wiggin has contributed a charming picture to the ever-increasing gallery that shows us American country life.”
+ Acad. 68: 1008. S. 30, ‘05. 330w.
* “This is a rather slight and mildly interesting story.”
+ — Ath. 1905, 2: 642. N. 11. 190w.
“With a slight plot and commonplace incident, the author, through her clever delineation of Maine manners and peculiarities, makes up an amusing story that may be read in a couple of hours.”
+ Cath. World. 82: 266. N. ‘05. 210w.
* “The originality and humor that belong to Mrs. Wiggin’s best work are altogether lacking. In spite of a certain rather specious charm, ‘Rose o’ the river’ must be classed with the pot-boilers.”
+ — Critic. 47: 579. D. ‘05. 70w.
“A pretty story, pleasantly told by Mrs. Wiggin in her usual limpid style.”
+ Ind. 59: 989. O. 26, ‘05. 130w.
* “It is ‘manufactured’ from the start, and the attempt to bestow ‘color’ and stir emotion are cruelly patent, tho perfectly null.”
— Lit. D. 31: 797. N. 25, ‘05. 360w.
“Rose is a pretty girl, and her story is a pretty story with a pretty moral.”
+ Lond. Times. 4: 305. S. 22, ‘05. 200w.
* “‘Rose o’ the river’ is as slender a tale as ever walked into print on the merits of an author’s name.”
— Nation. 81: 488. D. 14, ‘05. 120w.
383“The story is written with a graceful sprightliness which is always part of Mrs. Wiggin’s stories, but beside those other two [Rebecca and Penelope] Rose simply cannot live.”
+ — N. Y. Times. 10: 635. S. 30, ‘05. 240w.
* + N. Y. Times. 10: 822. D. 2, ‘05. 100w.
“The author, as is usual with her, keeps well on the right side of the line that divides sentiment from sentimentality.”
+ Outlook. 81: 335. O. 7, ‘05. 80w.
* “It is certainly inferior to the author’s usual excellent work.”
+ — Sat. R. 100: 600. N. 4, ‘05. 80w.
“Her shrewdness and humour act as antiseptics to her strong vein of sentiment. She is tender without being effusive, reticent without any taint of priggishness, entertaining without resort to extravagance of facetiousness.”
+ Spec. 95: 570. O. 14, ‘05. 850w.
Wight, Emily Carter. Denim elephant; il. in colours. †50c. Stokes.
This little volume in the “Christmas stocking” series presents in a succession of colored pictures and their accompanying text an episode in the life of the denim elephant which belonged to the baby and interfered with the rest of the farmyard, the woolen rabbit, tin cat, china pig, rubber dog, cotton goose, and wooden cow, which belonged to Edith and Philip.
* + N. Y. Times. 10: 894. D. 16, ‘05. 200w.
Wilbrandt, Adolf. New humanity; or, The Easter island; tr. by Dr. A. S Rappoport. $1.50. Lippincott.
Helmut Adler, an enthusiast and the hero of this story, is modeled after Nietzsche. He has a plan for improving the human race by taking a few chosen followers to a secluded isle where they may rear a perfect race. He loses his reason and dies, and his daughter and her lover decide that the island of perfection can exist only in their own souls.
“But we have seldom seen a worse piece of work as translation than the volume before us.”
— — Acad. 68: 567. My. 27, ‘05. 960w.
“The story is told with a certain morbid power, but drags heavily in the telling, and is only moderately successful in the delineation of the several types of character which people its pages.” Wm. M. Payne.
+ — Dial. 39: 41. Jl. 16, ‘05. 160w.
“If the book is doctrinal and the doctrines heavy, it is not therefore a heavy book. On the contrary, there is so much sincerity in each point of view, combined with so much lightness of pen, that it is even absorbing reading; the way is tortuous, indeed, but not slimy.”
+ + — Nation. 81: 148. Ag. 17, ‘05. 780w.
“The translation is sufficiently clear to carry the meaning of the German writer to the English reader. It is certainly not a work of literary art, but that does not matter.”
+ N. Y. Times. 10: 376. Je. 10. ‘05. 540w.
Wilde, Oscar Fingall O’Flahertie Wills. De profundis. **$1.25. Putnam.
A masterpiece of literary expression penned by Oscar Wilde during his detention in Reading jail, and the last prose he ever wrote. Into it he has put his bitterness in his downfall, his misery in the first two months of prison discipline, and the final triumph of a chastened spirit, a conviction that “there is not a single degradation of the body which I must not try to make into a spiritualizing of the soul.”
“He has added to our literature a work which from its intrinsic value is sure to command the attention of thinking men, from its style the admiration of literary artists, from the tragedy of which it records a part the pity of human hearts.”
+ + + Ath. 1905, 1: 397. Ap. 1. 1070w.
“The essay has ... great literary charm, and possesses unquestioned authenticity as a contribution toward the comprehension of the abnormal and in many ways inexplicable psychology of its author.”
+ + Dial. 38: 359. My. 16, ‘05. 330w.
“‘De profundis’ is one of the orchids of literature. As a self-revelation, for it is sincere even in its manifestation of his fundamental insincerity, this little book ranks with the ‘Confessions of Rousseau’ and the ‘Journal of Amiel.’ Both from its style and as a study in abnormal psychology ‘De profundis’ is one of the most noteworthy and interesting books that have appeared for a long time.”
+ + Ind. 58: 842. Ap. 13, ‘05. 920w.
* “Is one of the saddest, most terrible, yet most fascinating books of recent times.”
+ Ind. 59: 1161. N. 16, ‘05. 30w.
“It is one of the most sincere, of all self-revelations, and will go far towards setting Oscar Wilde’s memory right with the world for which he affected to care so little.”
+ + Nation. 81: 58. Jl. 20, ‘05. 1800w.
N. Y. Times. 10: 205. Ap. 1, ‘05. 450w.
“The analysis of sorrow, which occupies a considerable part of the volume, is without question, worthy of living and doubtless will live. Least of all its qualities should this book be commended for its literary style and yet for its style alone it is worthy of reading.”
+ N. Y. Times. 10: 388. Je. 17, ‘05. 240w.
+ + Pub. Opin. 38: 592. Ap. 15, ‘05. 470w.
Wilde, Oscar. Intentions. *$1.50. Brentano’s.
Four essays which gayly and ruthlessly assail what we have thought were truths, and give us others in their place. The decay of lying, defends lying as a fine art; Pen, pencil and poison, is an artistic appreciation of that prince of poisoners, Thomas Griffiths Wainewright; The critic as artist, in dialogue form, is divided into two parts containing some remarks upon the importance of doing nothing, and upon the importance of discussing every thing. The concluding essay, The truth of masks, is styled A note on illusion.
* “Disciple-wise, the editor of the present reprint is rather zealous than judicious in his manner of introducing the text.” H. W. Boynton.
+ — Atlan. 96: 847. D. ‘05. 600w.
* “‘Intentions’ is an interesting book to the student of literature; it contains much that is well put; but even its virtues are vitiated by a false conception of the real meaning of life.” Edward Fuller.
+ — Critic. 47: 568. D. ‘05. 390w.
Dial. 39: 213. O. 1, ‘05. 50w.
Wilder, Marshall Pinckney. Sunny side of the street. **$1.20. Funk.
Recollections of some 300 more or less well known people with whom the jester-author has come in contact. Three presidents, a king, and various great preachers, actors, politicians and soldiers contribute to the “garland of blossoms” plucked from “the gardens of humor and pathos” in the weaving of which the author modestly claims as his own merely “the string that binds them together.”
“Cannot fail to interest the many friends of the author. Mr. Wilder’s writing is on a par with his speaking.”
+ Critic. 47: 475. N. ‘05. 50w.
“The loquacity of the author, his well-known success in ‘getting around,’ his chatty tone, make a very cheerful book.”
+ + Lit. D. 31: 188. Ag. 5, ‘05. 580w.
“He tells many good stories. He nearly always lives up to his doctrine of amiability. We can recommend his book as cheerful reading.”
+ + N. Y. Times. 10: 452. Jl. 8, ‘05. 360w.
“The dense personal fog that surrounds this work casts diminutive shadows on the sunny 384side, and many of the anecdotes of which the book is composed savor of spice and antiquity.”
— Pub. Opin. 39: 383. S. 16, ‘05. 150w.
R. of Rs. 32: 255. Ag. ‘05. 50w.
Wiley, Harley Rupert. Treatise on pharmacal jurisprudence, with a thesis on the law in general. $2.50. Hicks-Judd.
This text-book is “A pioneer in its peculiar field” and aims to give “a presentation of the principles, with a collection of the leading cases, which define the legal aspects” of the profession of pharmacy. Over 200 cases are cited and the ground defined is fully covered.
* Wiley, Sara King. Alcestis and other poems. **75c. Macmillan.
“A priestess of classic song comes with two-fold, precious offering, in this presentation of Iphegeneia, that flower of Argos ... and in the retold story of Alcestis, whom Hercules brings back from the gates of death.”—Critic.
* “A beautiful and welcome work, shone upon as by the white light of Greek art, has been contributed in this volume to the poetry of the year.” Edith M. Thomas.
+ Critic. 47: 511. D. ‘05. 130w.
* “Mrs. Drummond’s treatment of the fables has no very novel features, but she has realized its mood very vividly, and made of it a compact and moving little drama.”
+ Nation. 81: 508. D. 21, ‘05. 50w.
* Wilkins, Augustus Samuel. Roman education. *60c. Macmillan.
“In ninety-two pages the whole system of Roman education is presented.... Dr. Wilkins divides the story of Roman education into two periods: the ‘purely national stage, when as yet there was no outside influence,’ and the effects of Greek influence from the middle of the third century, B.C. onwards on ‘the distinct departments of literary—or what we might call now secondary—education,’ and in the higher training of rhetoric and philosophy.... In four chapters, ‘Education in the ‘early republic,’ Education under Greek influence,’ ‘Elementary schools and studies,’ and ‘Higher studies—rhetoric and philosophy,’ he gives all the information that can be possibly discovered on record and the natural inferences from it.... The final chapter deals with the Endowment of education in ancient Rome.”—Acad.
* “There are few teachers who will not benefit by it; few interested in any way in education who will not read it with pleasure and profit.”
+ + Acad. 68: 966. D. 16, ‘05. 910w.
* “We know no other work to which one could go for so complete and accurate an exposition of what is known about Roman education.”
+ + + Ath. 1905, 2: 395. S. 23. 1760w.
* + Lond. Times. 4: 317. S. 29, ‘05. 360w.
* “It contains in six chapters and a hundred pages all that is really known upon this subject, and it is the best compendium which we have seen. Its style is pleasant, and the method of treatment makes the book easy to read.”
+ + + Nation. 81: 402. N. 16, ‘05. 170w.
* N. Y. Times. 10: 683. O. 14, ‘05. 230w.
* “The present volume offers a singularly clear, accurate, and trustworthy statement of the somewhat scanty information that is to be found in Roman writers on the subject of education.”
+ + Spec. 95: 817. N. 18, ‘05. 1750w.
Wilkins, Philip A. History of the Victoria cross. *$6. Dutton.
This volume contains an account of “the 520 conspicuous acts of bravery which have called for as many bestowals of the decoration, instituted in 1856 and made retroactive for the Crimean war. These plain tales are accompanied by a remarkably large number (392) of portraits of the recipients; by statutory and narrative appendices; by a table of awards of the cross by branches of the service; and by a personal index.” (Nation.)
“The scheme has been very carefully and soberly carried out.”
+ + Nation. 80: 290. Ap. 13, ‘05. 220w.
“A very interesting account of the 520 men who have won the cross.”
+ N. Y. Times. 10: 340. My. 27, ‘05. 1030w.
“Though we must confess that some of the narratives are somewhat bald, and that the author has neglected many excellent opportunities, Mr. Wilkins’s records are interesting.”
+ — Spec. 95: 158. Jl. 29, ‘05. 150w.
* Wilkins, William Henry. Mrs. Fitzherbert and George IV. **$5. Longmans.
“For more than a century there has been no moral doubt of the marriage of Maria Fitzherbert and George IV. of Great Britain. For the last seventy years it has been practically certain that the proof of that marriage was deposited in Coutts’s bank, in London ... [these papers] ... King Edward placed at the disposal of the author of this volume, and thus enabled him to prove conclusively that Mrs. Fitzherbert was the wife of George, Prince of Wales, later George IV.... Although he writes as a partisan of Mrs. Fitzherbert, he is fair-minded enough to write of the king: ... ‘His faults were many and grave, but ... there must have been some good in him or a good woman would not have loved him.”—N. Y. Times.
* “In his Life of Mrs. Fitzherbert he has reached a higher level, both as regards literary excellence and in the interest attaching to his subject.”
+ + Acad. 68: 1219. N. 25, ‘05. 1930w.
* “Mr. Wilkins displays his usual lucidity in narrative and firm grasp of his subject. These things [errors] do not detract materially from the merit of Mr. Wilkins’s well-written and historically important work.”
+ + — Ath. 1905, 2: 716. N. 25. 1860w.
* “If Mr. Wilkins’s ideas are not remarkable, nor his style brilliant, he may be congratulated upon having accomplished the task he set himself by clearing the memory of an injured woman.”
+ — Lond. Times. 4: 393. N. 17, ‘05. 1920w.
* “Mr. Wilkins has handled his material ably, making a book at once interesting and valuable.”
+ + N. Y. Times. 10: 820. D. 2, ‘05. 160w.
* “Mr. Wilkins has made a very complete biography of Mrs. Fitzherbert.”
+ + N. Y. Times. 10: 870. D. 9, ‘05. 650w.
* “The book is fustian from beginning to end, and is not at all below Mr. Wilkins’ form.”
— + Sat. R. 100: 722. D. 2, ‘05. 1850w.
* “It is easy in such a work to fall into the role of mere purveyor of scandal, but Mr. Wilkins never loses sight of his main theme, and the book is primarily a study of character. If now and then he seems to speak from a brief, on the whole he sticks soberly to facts, and his comments are generally fair and convincing. He has performed a delicate task with good taste and good sense, and has produced what is not only a volume of entertaining gossip, but a solid contribution to the history of the epoch.”
+ + — Spec. 95: sup. 788. N. 18, ‘05. 1480w.
Wilkinson, Kosmo. Personal story of the upper house. *$3. Dutton.
The main purpose of this book is to set forth “how the peers of England, from being an estate of the realm, grew into an independent parliamentary assembly; how and by what personal agencies the hereditary chamber became in a sense the parent of the elective; on what issues, by what degrees, it co-operated with other agencies to establish the house of commons; how then, from seeing in that chamber its natural ally, if not its political offspring, the upper house gradually discovered in the lower a rival and a foe.”
385“He has undoubtedly succeeded in his intention of writing what is most likely to find acceptance with those who read to be interested as well as informed.”
+ Acad. 68: 391. Ap. 8, ‘05. 660w.
“Is a good book of gossip about the Lords, in which there are plenty of stories and few mistakes.”
+ + — Ath. 1905, 1: 335. Mr. 18. 160W.
“There is no partisanship in his estimates and judgments. There are some really masterly characterizations, especially among those of later times. References to authorities are few and far between, and here and there he makes statements which seem to need the support of good authorities.”
+ + — Ind. 59: 335. Ag. 10, ‘05. 550w.
“Mr. Wilkinson writes agreeably. He also shows a considerable range of reading.”
+ + Nation. 81: 120. Ag. 10, ‘05. 400w.
“A book that is neither pure history nor pure gossip, and yet comes near to being both.”
+ + — N. Y. Times. 10: 404. Je. 17, ‘05. 1680w.
“As history the value of the work is, to be sure, of rather negative character.”
+ + — Outlook. 81: 131. S. 16, ‘05. 1680w.
“In his concluding pages Mr. Wilkinson is obviously hampered by the fact that he is dealing with events and men too near our own time, and writes too much in the style of the professional parliamentary lobbyist. But this book as a whole is a most valuable addition to the series of useful manuals to which it belongs, and is perhaps the most readable of them all.”
+ + — Spec. 94: 916. Je. 24, ‘05. 2290w.
Wilkinson, William Cleaver. Modern masters of pulpit discourse. **$1.60. Funk.
Criticisms and appreciations of the foremost preachers of France, England and America. “As critical sketches of homiletic art they have a special value for every preacher who is, as he should be, a student of the art.” (Outlook.)
“The author evidently enjoyed writing it. But. personally, we prefer the ‘formless infelicity’ of Newman.”
— Ath. 1905, 2: 399. S. 23. 410w.
+ Ind. 59: 754. S. 28. ‘05. 90w.
“For the general reader there is enough of warm life in them.”
+ Outlook. 80: 293. Je. 10. ‘05. 160w.
“The essays are all eminently readable, and have the appearance of carefully formed judgments.”
+ + — Spec. 95: 262. Ag. 19, ‘05. 280w.
Williams, Henry Smith, ed. See Historian’s history of the world.
Williams, Henry Smith, and Williams, Edward Huntington. History of science. 5v. Harper.
“The plan followed by the editor in chief and his collaborator (Dr. Edward H. Williams) is to give a brief biography of the scientific men to whose labors the world of to-day is indebted, prefacing these biographies by a brief account of the beginnings of science and connecting them by references to the circumstances amid which each investigator worked.... In his second volume Dr. Williams carries on his story through the dark ages, among the Arabians, the most famous investigators of their time, into the western world, giving the biographies and telling of the labors of astronomers, physicists, physicians, down to Franklin and Linnaeus.... In the last three volumes Dr. Williams treats of the development of the physical sciences, of the chemical and biological sciences, and of the present aspects of science.”—N. Y. Times.
“Inevitably, the murmuring shallows of science are more in evidence than its silent deeps; its thaumaturgics than its revelations. All this is somewhat trying to the student. For the student, however, there is already no lack of adequate works in this field; he should be the last to begrudge to the general reader the one book which best meets his demands.” E. T. Brewster.
— + Atlan. 96: 690. N. ‘05. 390w.
“He has diligently collected an abundance of material of an encyclopedic kind. His treatment of many topics is disproportionate and cloudy. Some of the blunders are inexcusable.”
— — + Ind. 58: 381. F. 16, ‘05. 570w.
N. Y. Times. 10: 56. Ja. 28, ‘05. 440w. (Outlines scope and contents).
“Without many noticeable omissions or slurring of important events. The story he tells, dry as it might be under certain circumstances, is fascinating as told by Dr. Williams. The volume might almost be a history of modern British science alone; to Dr. Williams apparently, American contributions to the subject are merely incidental. Proof-reading is careless. Inconsistent in the spelling. An index of little value makes part of the last volume; the work is worthy of a good one.”
+ + — N. Y. Times. 10: 99. F. 18, ‘05. 1190w.
“Error is by no means absent, and some of the defects which the work betrays are surprising, but, viewing it in the large, it must be agreed that its excellencies far outweigh its faults and that it is of genuine value to both student and general reader. The style is picturesque, fluent, and clear. Altogether, the fifth volume, in striking contrast to its predecessors, must be accounted ill advised and weak.”
+ + — Outlook. 79: 956. Ap. 15, ‘05. 1030w.
* Williams, Hugh Noel. Queens of the French stage. *$2.50. Scribner.
“A set of biographical essays entitled ‘Queens of the French stage,’ which cover the period from Louis XIV to the Revolution, beginning with Armande Béjart (Molière’s wife) and ending with the celebrated, and notorious Clairon.” (Nation.) “Mr. Williams gives both the ‘backstairs’ and the theatrical biography of his subjects.... The picture is not a pleasant one, for the book resolves itself into the story of liaisons, jealousies, infidelities, intrigues, and scandals in high life and low.... The book, a substantial volume of some three hundred and fifty quarto pages, is pleasantly illustrated with eight or ten full-page half-tone reproductions after contemporary drawings or paintings.” (Dial.)
* “Culled from many sources, these gossiping lives of six actresses make very entertaining reading.”
+ Critic. 47: 575. D. ‘05. 70w.
* “Written in a clear vigorous style, the book makes interesting, if not very stimulating reading.”
+ Dial. 39: 443. D. 16, ‘05. 280w.
* “The volume is readable and accurate in most matters save that of French quotations, in which elementary blunders are altogether too frequent.”
+ — Nation. 81: 424. N. 23, ‘05. 140w.
* “The author’s not inconsiderable learning, tact, taste, and elegant literary style, actually do honor to the careers of the ladies whose portraits painted by famous contemporary brushes are among the art treasures of the world.”
+ N. Y. Times. 10: 765. N. 11, ‘05. 430w.
Williams, John Rogers. Handbook of Princeton. **$1.50. Grafton press.
Dr. Woodrow Wilson has written a sympathetic introduction to this volume which “in very good taste describes most of the interesting objects and places of patriotic association in that university town of Revolutionary memories.... The book is fully illustrated for the eye of the absent.” (Nation.)
+ Critic. 47: 479. N. ‘05. 30w.
“Except in one or two very minor matters, the accounts here given are accurate and sympathetic.”
+ + — Nation. 81: 143. Ag. 17, ‘05. 140w.
386“A very readable manual.”
+ R. of Rs. 32: 510. O. ‘05. 70w.
Williams, Theodore C. Elegies of Tibullus. $1.25. Badger, R. G.
The consolations of a Roman lover done into English verse. Twenty-four elegies of books I., II., III., and two short pieces of book IV., in the translation of which the author has “always been faithful to the thought and spirit of the original except in the few passages where euphemism was required.”
“A free but exquisite translation.”
+ + Dial. 39: 94. Ag. 16, ‘05. 50w.
“Though it is in no sense a slavish rendering, it does present the substance of Tibullus with remarkable fidelity.”
+ + Nation. 81: 304. O. 12, ‘05. 520w.
N. Y. Times. 10: 678. O. 14, ‘05. 30w.
Williams, William Henry. Specimens of the Elizabethan drama from Lyly to Shirley, A.D. 1580-A.D. 1642. *$1.90. Oxford.
“Nearly a hundred typical and representative scenes, complete in themselves, have been selected.... A short appreciation is prefixed to each section, notes being added.”—Dial.
“Mr. Williams does not in our judgment always do the best with the material that his plan leaves him.”
— Acad. 68: 521. My. 13, ‘05. 560w.
“It is pervaded by the atmosphere of ripe literary scholarship.”
+ + + Critic. 47: 288. S. ‘05. 150w.
Dial. 38: 277. Ap. 16, ‘05. 60w.
Dial. 39: 20. Jl. 1, ‘05. 60w.
“In all substantial matters—connecting introductions, notes, and text—(so far as we have, tested it) his work as an editor seems to be well executed.”
+ + — Nation. 81: 105. Ag. 3, ‘05. 820w.
“The specimens are generally well chosen, though it is easy to complain of some omissions.”
+ — Sat. R. 99: 637. My. 13, ‘05. 420w.
Williamson, C. N., and A. M. Lightning conductor. †$1.50. Holt.
The popularity of “the strange adventures of a motor-car” has warranted this revised and enlarged edition, including a frontispiece by Eliot Keen, and sixteen full-page illustrations from photographs of the scenes of the story in France, Spain and Italy.