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Show S PERTINENT REVIEWS. OF ; THE VERY LATEST BOOKS. , "Prisoners of Hope." by Miss Mary-Johnston, Mary-Johnston, is a fresh and vigorous story of the "Oliverian Plot" of 16ti:J in Virginia, Vir-ginia, when Sir William Berkeley was governor. Godfrey Landless, a Puri- , tan gentleman who has been sent to Newgate for a crime of which he was innocent, is transported to Virginia with other convicts, and sold into service. ser-vice. He becomes the leader of the Oliverian conspiracy and has many thrilling adventures by flood and field, j with ruffians, gentlemen and Indians, ; who have abducted his master's daugh- ; ter. His love for this daughter is the principal motive of the story. The novel gives the best picture of life in the Old Dominion contained in any recent re-cent work of fiction, and the portrait of Sir William Berkeley is an interesting inter-esting one. Descriptions of adventures of the hero and the heroine and of the dangers of colonial settlements from the Indians are excellent. The story throughout is very well written and of engrossing interest, and the ending finely romantic. Miss Johnston will surely gain the approval of her readers, read-ers, who will so much enjoy "Prisoners of Hope" as to gladly welcome a second sec-ond book from her pen. In "Two Chums," the story of a boy and his dog. Miss Minerva Thorpe gives to the young folks an exquisite tale of pure and wholesome adventure. A little lit-tle waif from the Ardennes forest region, re-gion, on the French-Belgian frontier, obeys the last wish of a dying grandmother grand-mother by crossing the big pond in an emigrant ship on a quest after more or lc--,s mythical relatives. He reaches; New York with b'5 cents and his beloved dog, Jock, a St. Bernard of unusual devotion and intelligence. What fate is that of the two friendless chums in a foreign land is told in a bright, natural nat-ural style, and with touches of real sentiment. This is a remarkably fine story that ought to be read extensively and is sure to please parents and children chil-dren alike. The illustrations are many and excellent; the binding is original, and the whole book a most appropriate appropri-ate holiday 'present. Three most valuable books have been issued recently by Cassell & Co. in their national library of cheap books, thus placing them within the reach of all. Probably the most interesting of the three is "Marco Polo's Travels." but "Bacon's Essays" is the more valuable. val-uable. The last issue is an edition of Carlyle's essays on "Heroes and Hero Worship." "The Wire Cutters," by M. E. M. Davis, is a strong story of western life, which will appeal to all in the great southwest by its truthfulness to life and to its readers everywhere by its exciting tale. As the title would readily suggest to the western reader, the plot is laid on the great prairies at the time when syndicates .began fencing in the cattle lands and the cattlemen raided and cut the fences as often as they were put up. A strange natural freak ; by which a child is influenced by its mother's hatred before birth, so that it is in appearance like her former hus-, hus-, band, adds complications to the tale which certainly ends artistically, although al-though not in a way that will please every reader. Appleton has published another of the series of home reading books for children. "Harold's Quest," by John W. Troeger. tells a great many things about nature that the old as well as the young may profit by reading. The j various insects, the different kinds of forest trees, animal life in the forest. ; are described, after which the author ! treats of sound, light, heat, magnetism, electricity and other subjects. . The Appletons have added another book to their valuable series of "Useful "Use-ful Stories," the last one being "The , Story of the Living Machine," by H. W. Conn, professor of biology in the Wesleyan university. It is a review of the conclusions of modern biology in regard to the mechanism which controls con-trols the phenomena of living activity. "The Life of Admiral Dewey," by WiU M. Clemens. Admiral George Dewey is one of the most interesting characters in Ameri-1 Ameri-1 can history, and this work supplies to the reading public the much needed information in-formation concerning his life and deeds. We have been supplied with odds and ends of information in this line through the columns of the press, from time to time, but here we have it all between two covers of a most excellent excel-lent book, written by one whose attain- ments are fully adequate to his ta k. Mr. Clemens, the author, es f literary stock, being ,a nephew of "Mark Twain." His former worK. titled "A Ken of Kipling." ha3"" much prominence, and this later work will fully establish Mr. Clemens as a writer of worth and ability. A handsome portrait of Admiral Dewey, in colors, is givin on the cover of the October number of the Ledger Monthly. The Dewey Triunrpnal Arcn. erected in New York for the Dewey celebration, showing the magnificent, sculptured ornaments by J. Q- A. v am ! and others, from a drawing by warren j B. Davis, forms the frontispiece. Accompanying Ac-companying these pictures in this S j Dewey number of the Ledger Monthly I are articles on the "Return of the Victors." Vic-tors." bv Rowan Stevens. "How thi Admiral Left Manila." and an illus-I illus-I trated article entitled "In Old Manila." a very interesting sketch of the crty j and its people. Eben E. Rexford eon- , I tributes! an interesting novelette enti-j enti-j tied "The Dunbar Pride," and Dorothy Deanc a-gipsy story, "The Brand of the Romany." With the fall ficti"n number of tIi- Saturday Evening Post, of Philadelphia, Philadel-phia, that journal h;is enlarged from a sixteen to a twenty-four-page weekly magazine, with a double number every fourth week. The Fall Fiction number has a handsome colored cover and thirty-two pages of short stories1 and entertaining articles by well known and popular writers. The price has not been raised. , The invigorating, bracing air of autumn au-tumn is typificil in the warm-toned, cheerful cover design of the October-Woman's October-Woman's Home Companion, and a peep within proves that the contents are jut J as attractive and spirited. Nothing has appeared ii all magazine literature this summer more diverting than John Kendrick Bangs' papers on "The Idiot at Home." and in the present number his droll consideration of the artistic, laziness of the hired man is irresistibly irresist-ibly funny. A ripnle of humor runst through other stories, notably in a scory by Albert Bigclow Paine. Laird & Lee of Chicago bring out. under the attractive title of "Dreams and Omens," a most curious book compiled com-piled from ancient documents and admirably ad-mirably illustrated. A belief in thi meaning of dreams is still very general, although not always acknowledged, and many men and women in all walks of life are guided more or less, in business busi-ness and family affairs, by the my si- terious warnings concerning which no p scientific explanations have been furnished. fur-nished. Even as a. mere recreation, ' this dainty volume deserves recognition. recogni-tion. . It has been decided to place a tablet upon the house in St. James' Square. K London, in which Dickens was wont tc " reside on the occasions of his vistis t the old city whither Pickwick retired' after his memorable trial. As it wa.- at this house that the novelist created: "Little Nell," the tablet is peculiarly appropriate. H. F. Dickens will probably prob-ably be invited to perform the unveiling unveil-ing ceremony. Stevenson's) works have taken a great "slump" in the market, according tn ! ' . the London correspondent of the New York Times. He attributes it to over-puffing, over-puffing, and especially to the policy fol- jj I every' schoolboy scrap and piece of non- J j sense verse they could obtain, until m il I-the public, between, expensive editions $ ! and cheap editions, became "satiated! v j I v.nd nauseated." , t i - Fifty thousand dollars having beeni f voterl by the National Memorial Com- I mitteet for the erection of a suitable t f libiary at Hawardeai for Mr. Glad- f stone's collection of books stored by himself after months of labor in a tern- ' S porary structure near Hawarden Church, the trustees have arranged to go on immediately with the work. Tho foundation sto-ns laying of the library will take place with very little cere- monial. Mr. W. L. Alden writes from London Lon-don that "David Harum" has reached! a second edition there, but can hardly ' be called popular. He says: "Peoplei apparently buy it t find out why thu book has had such a run in America. The dialect and the people of 'David Harum' are too foreign to be appreciated appre-ciated by the English reader. You might as well expect an American to appreciate a story written exclusively t ' in the dialect of Somersetshire." ' . . |