No More Learning

The
Agriculture and Prices, A History of,
(Stromtid - the best-known novel of
in England from the year after the
the noted Platt-Deutsch humorist -- is
Oxford Parliament (1259) to the com-
mencement of the Continental War (1793).
considered by competent critics to equal
the best productions of our great Eng-
By James E. Thorold Rogers (8 vols. ,
lish humorists, Sterne and Dickens, and
1866-98). A work of immense research
and monumental significance, undertak-
is thoroughly fresh, sound, and hearty
in tone. Its characters are masterpieces
ing to recover aspects of the history of
the people of England which contempo-
of delineation, and have become famil-
iar to readers of many tongues. The
rary records of prices of every kind give
delicious creation of the inspector eme-
the means of knowing. Until this great
work met the want there was a great
ritus, Uncle Zacharias Bräsig, is one of
lack of satisfactory information on prices
the triumphs of modern humor; and it
in mediæval England. It is possible
is not only in the Low German speech
now, through the immense breadth of
that quotations are made from «de lütte
record spread on the printed page by
Mann mit den rötlich Gesicht und de
staatsche rode näs» (the little man with
Professor Rogers, and through his ad-
the reddish face and the stately red
mirable summary of fruits of research,
nose). One of the best portions of the
to study almost every particular of the
lives of the occupants of the soil of Eng-
book is his speech before the Rahnstadt
Reform Club, on the subject, «Whence
land; particulars as to the land, as to
farms and farming, and as to every fact
arises the great poverty in our city ? »
of the daily life of the landlord, the farmer,
Almost equally popular characters are
and the laborer. There is thus recovered
Hawermann, (un sin lutt Dirning ” (his
for history no small portion of the bygone oddity of the Platt-Deutsch lends itself
little maid), and Triddelfitz. The quaint
life of the English people; and with this,
much light is thrown on principles of polit-
peculiarly well to the quality of Reu-
ical and social economy which must be
ter's humor, and the material of his
taken account of, not only by the philan-
story shows by its vivid reality that it
was drawn from the personal experience
thropist, but in all wise governmental
and observation of the author. The
administration.
(Stromtid) was the last and best of Reu-
Agriculture: De Re Rustica,' by Colu- ter's novels founded on life in the Low
mella. It consists of twelve books, German countries.
of which the tenth is in verse and de-
voted to gardens. The work is preceded Lit
ittle Barefoot. From the German of
by an introduction, in which the author Berthold Auerbach. This Black For-
deplores the contempt into which agri- est peasant story relates with rustic sim-
culture has fallen. He sees on all sides plicity how two children, Amrie and her
schools open to teach rhetoric, dancing, brother Danie, are left orphans with
and music. Even mountebanks, cooks, their home broken up; and how, not
and barbers are fashionable, and infa- understanding what death means, they
mous houses in which gambling and all wander back night after night to the
sorts of vices that ruin youth are patron- deserted woodcutter's hut where they
ized; while for the art of fertilizing the lived with their parents, and lifting the


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SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
159
((
are
a
are
same
latch, call again and again: «Father,
Mother. » They separated, and
brought up as parish orphans, Amrie
living with brown Mariann, an old wo-
man who is called a witch, but who is
kind to her. The dreamy, imaginative
child passes her lonely days on the com-
mon as goose-girl; and to save her earn-
ings for her little brother Danie, goes
without shoes, thus winning the name of
« Little Barefoot. ” An old friend of her
mother, who has married the richest
farmer in the adjoining district, offers to
adopt her; but on Amrie's refusing to
forsake her brother, she hangs a garnet
necklace round the child's neck, and tells
her if she is ever in need of a friend to
come to Farmer Landfried's wife. Am-
rie is promoted to be maid in the family
of the rich peasant Rudel, whose daugh-
ter Rose treats her with scorn; but one
day Rudel's young daughter-in-law takes
pity on the pretty Barefoot, and dresses
her with her own hands for a village
wedding. Here Amrie dances with a
stranger, a handsome youth, who has
ridden to the Feast on a fine white
horse, and who chooses no partner but
her. She has one day of perfect happi-
ness, and is still dreaming of her un-
known partner when she sees him riding
up to Farmer Rudel's door, having been
sent by his parents, the wealthy Land-
frieds, to seek a bride. They wish him
to marry Rudel's Rose; but the youth,
on beholding again his pretty partner,
has eyes only for her, and finding that
Rose treats her cruelly, he comes to the
rescue and carries her off on his white
horse. When they approach his father's
farm to which he is expected to bring a
less humble bride, John's heart fails him;
but the brave Little Barefoot » goes be-
fore him, charms his old father with her
artless sweetness and tact, and showing
his mother the necklace she once gave
her, appeals to the kindness of her dead
mother's friend. So the old people's
hearts are melted, and they give her a
grand wedding: Danie is made head
dairyman on the great farm; and when
Amrie's first child comes, she is christ-
ened Barbara, but is always called by
her father (Little Barefoot. ”
von Wildenort has been placed by her
father, Count Eberhard, a recluse, at
German court. Her beauty and intel-
lectual vivacity attract the King, some-
what wearied by his Queen's lofty and
pious sentiments and her distaste for
court festivities. Early in the story the
Queen gives birth to the Crown Prince,
for whom a wet-nurse is found in the
person of Walpurga, an upright, shrewd
peasant woman, who, for the sake of
her child's future benefit, reluctantly ac-
cepts the position. She is full of quaint
sayings, and her pious nature finds favor
with the Queen. Her naive descriptions
of court life
very entertaining.
From the
mountain district as
Irma, Walpurga acquires some influence
with her, and she quickly detects the
unspoken love of the King for her; but
Irma disregards her friendly warnings.
The Queen is apparently unaware of
their increasing infatuation. Irma, be-
coming restless and unsettled, visits her
father, who solemnly warns her against
the temptations of court life. She is
drawn back irresistibly to court, and the
King reveals his passion for her by kiss-
ing the statue of which she is the model.
Irma, in a sort of ecstasy, submits for
a moment to his caresses. For a time
she lives as though in the clouds. The
Queen's friendship for her increases, and
her Majesty resolutely banishes her oc-
casional suspicions of evil.
Walpurga returns home laden with
gifts and money, and she and her hus-
band, Hansei, buy a farm on the mount-
ain. Irma's father meanwhile receives
anonymous letters, wrongfully represent-
ing her as the King's mistress. The
shock of the accusation mortally pros-
trates him, and Irma is summoned in
haste to his death-bed. Unable to
speak, he traces one word on her fore-
head and expires. She falls unconscious.
Letters of condolence arrive from their
Majesties; the King's inclosure one of
passionate longing; the Queen's so full
of affection and confidence that remorse
seizes Irma. She writes her guilt to
the Queen, and resolves to drown her-
self. In her wanderings she comes un-
espectedly on Walpurga and her family,
on the way to take possession of their
new home. She implores protection from
herself; and in the care of Walpurga and
the grandmother, she lives for a year
« on the heights,) writing a journal of
philosophical and religious rhapsody.
!
On the Heights (Auf der Höhe”) by
Berthold Auerbach, (1865,) is con-
sidered the author's finest work. The
charm of the story is not conveyed in
a synopsis of the plot. Countess Irma


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160
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
Tormented by remorse, she grows
makes her debut in Rome and captivates
weaker in body, while her soul becomes both their hearts. The scene of the last
purified of its earthly passion. Gun- chapters is placed in Venice; and here it
ther, her father's friend, absolves her is that Annunziata, a broken-down singer
from his curse; and, her spirit freed, she on a low-class stage, dies in poverty,
passes away in the presence of the King leaving her blessing for her early lover
and Queen, now happily reconciled. and his bride. A visit to the Blue Grotto
closes the brilliant narrative.
Improvisatore, The, by Hans Christian
Andersen. This romance is probably Emile, by Jean Jacques Rousseau, the
,
the best known to English readers of all most famous of pedagogic romances,
the works of Danish literature, and its was composed in 1762. Its immediate
translation by Mary Howitt has become effect was to call down on his head the
itself a classic. The work possesses the denunciations of the Archbishop of Paris,
threefold interest of an autobiography who found him animated by a spirit of
of the author, a graphic description of insubordination and revolt,” and to exile
Italy, and a romance of extremely emo- him for some years from France. Its
tional and passionate type. To those lasting effect was to lay the foundation
English and American tourists who knew of modern pedagogy. Due to the sug-
Rome in the time when the beggar Beppo gestion of a mother who asked advice
still saluted them with his bon giorno as to the training of a child, it was the
on the Piazza de Spagna steps, the story | expansion of his opinions and counsels; the
will serve almost as a narrative of their framework of a story sustaining an elab-
impressions of the ruins, the galleries orate system of elementary education.
and churches of Italy. It is to be Émile, its diminutive hero, is reared apart
classed with its great Italian contempo- from other children under a tutor, by a
rary I Promessi Sposi) of Manzoni, and long series of experiments conducted by
the (Corinne) of Madame de Staël, the the child himself, often with painful con-
national type of genius of the several sequences. Little by little, his childish
authors presenting in these three works understanding comes to comprehend at
a very interesting contrast. All three first-hand the principles of physics, me-
are intensely romantic, -'Corinne,) with chanics, gardening, property, and morals.
the classic reserve of the Latin race; (I At last the loosely woven plot leads to the
Promessi Sposi, with the frank natural- marriage of Émile with Sophie, a girl who
ness of the Italian; the Improvisatore, has been educated in a similar fashion.
with the suppressed warmth of the Teu- Arbitrary, but always ingenious and stim-
ton.
ulating, the experiments introduced are
The story of the Improvisatore) is veritable steps of knowledge. As object-
related by one Antonio, a poor chorister lessons, the altercation with the gardener
boy in Rome, whose voice and quickness and the visit to the mountebank are un-
in improvisation are at once his fortune surpassed in the simplicity with which
in bringing him into the favor and pat- the complex ideas of property and mag-
ronage of the aristocracy of Rome, Na- netism are presented to a developing
ples, and Venice, and the cause of many intelligence. From the hints contained in
heart-breaking alliances and disengage- Émile, Basedow, Pestalozzi, and Froebel
ments with the charming women of vari- drew their inspiration and laid the broad
ous types who come under the spell of foundations of modern elementary educa-
his genius and personal attractions. The tion. Unsystematic, sometimes imprac-
events of the story bring to the reader ticable, full of suggestion, it invests the
a vivid sense of participation in the suc- revolutionary ideas of its author with
cessive scenes of the Roman church fes- his customary literary charm.
tivals: the Pifferari at Christmas, the
Ara Cæli Bambino, and the boy orators Eneyclopédie, The: An Encyclopædia
at Epiphany, the Corso races and the
,
Senza Moccolo of the Carnival, the Mis- character, its significance, and its results,
erere of the Holy Week, and the illumi- was the most startling and striking pro-
nations at Easter. The chief romantic duction of its time,-- an outburst of
interest lies in the rival loves of Antonio ideas, of intellectual audacity, of free-
and of his patrician friend Bernado for a dom, and a great passion for knowledge,
famous Spanish singer, Annunziata, who and of the sympathy of humanity, labor,


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SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
161
note
and progress. No encyclopædia ever tion of the problems of human aspiration
made compares with it in respect of its and desire. Not only were the sciences
political influence and its commanding pushed to the utmost by Diderot, but he
place in the civil and literary history of made industry, labor, human toil in the
its own century. It grew out of a plan shop, an interest unceasingly cherished.
for a French translation of an early It was an explosion heralding the Revo-
"Chambers's Cyclopædia. Diderot, to
'
lution a quarter of a century later.
whom the glory of the colossal enterprise
belongs, took occasion from this plan to French Society, The History of, dur-
and
a thorough work, summarizing human ory (The History of French Society
knowledge, putting the sciences into the during the Directory,' 1879; and “The
place which tradition had given to re- History of French Society during the
ligion, and aiming at the service of Revolution, 1880), by Edmond and Jules
humanity instead of the service of the de Goncourt, are curious as well as in-
church. The Titans of intelligence and teresting compilations of historical ma-
of literature, says M. Martin's graphic terial. They show the authors' constant
sketch, had developed an excess of energy preoccupation with visual impressions.
and boldness. Voltaire, bringing Locke's The Goncourts were not philosophers,
ideas into France, had changed Christian and they throw no new light upon the
deism into Epicureanism, and prepared causes of events; but they were tireless
the way for Condillac's pushing the philos- in research, and they tell us all the
ophy of sensation to an extreme beyond curious incidental little facts ignored by
Locke; and for Helvetius to press the greater historians. Theirs is probably
moral consequences of the system, justi- the least gloomy study of the Revolution
fying all the vices and all the crimes. ever written.
Under the guillotine they
Buffon, magnificent in knowledge, and in the cake-vender. Believing that
a noble style, had made Nature take the the revolution originated in aristocratic
place of God, and the love of humanity salons, they picture the social life which
do duty as religion. In sequel to such preceded it, and tell us how the lords
moral skepticism or naturalist pantheism and ladies dressed their hair, and what
came Diderot, with audacious repugnance they wore, and how they talked. They
to any limitations upon liberty, and im- show that in spite of fear and blood-
petuous passion for knowledge, for human shed, people feasted, danced, and went
progress. With D'Alembert drawing to- to the theatre as usual. In their study
gether a society of men of science and of of the Directory they show the country
letters, he launched a Prospectus in No- plunged in torpor after its period of ex-
vember 1750, for an Encyclopédie or Dic-
The people are weary of struggle,
tionary of Arts and Sciences, and in of success, of failure, of all things, un-
1751 began with 2 volumes, to finish in til awakened to new energy by a youth
1765 with 17 volumes; then to add il of twenty-eight. Napoleon reconstructs
volumes of plates (1762–72), and 5 vol- society; and in the reaction which fol-
umes of supplements (1776–77); and thus lows, cynicism changes to an eager rush
make, with 2 volumes of Index (1780), 35 for wealth, pleasure, and position. The
volumes (1751-80), with 23,135 pages and Goncourts touch lightly upon the great
3,132 plates. Not only information was political events, and emphasize the gar-
given in these volumes, but opinions of dens and ball-rooms of Paris, - all the
the most radical character, hostile to the places where well-dressed people gather.
church, subversive of religion, intensely They are not interested in masses of
antagonistic towards everything in the society, but delight in portrait-painting.
old order of things. The clergy and the Their histories abound in pictures and
court had fought the work, had even picturesque effects. But in spite of their
broken into it with alterations secretly careful word-searching, they are always
made at the printers', and left no stone more sensitive than intelligent. ) The
unturned to prevent its circulation. Yet result of their labor is finally an
Europe was filled with it, and shaken with meration of noteworthy details, which
the effects of it. It was an immense they have been unable to synthesize.
burst of everything which journalism to- They are not successful in presenting as
day means; a fierce prophecy of changes a logical whole the period of which they
which are still hanging; a wild proclama- treat.
cess.
((
))
enu-
XXXII


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162
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
Cons
onsulate and the Empire of France French Revolution, Contemporary
under Napoleon, History of the, American Opinion of, by Charles
(1799-1815), by Louis Adolphe Thiers. Downer Hazen (1897). An extra volume
The History of the Consulate and Em- in the Johns Hopkins University Studies
pire) fills twenty octavo volumes, and was in Historical and Political Science,-a
published in installments between 1845 volume of three hundred pages, rich in
and 1862. Written from an imperialistic interest to the student of American his-
point of view, it met with unusual success tory. The first part of the work is de-
in France. It was crowned by the Acad- voted to the opinion of the French
emy, and Thiers was given the title of Revolution formed by Americans who
(national historian. ) The French found were in France at the time. These were
in it their own enthusiastic admiration Thomas Jefferson, Gouverneur Morris,
for success, and their own prejudices. and James Monroe. Jefferson and Mor-
Thiers has little regard for the morality ris were eye-witnesses, who held them-
of actions: “You have failed, therefore selves aloof from the conflict about them,
you are wrong," seems to be his maxim. and reported upon it as judicial and
He rejoices in the establishment of ab-clear-sighted spectators. These two tell
solutism and the suppression of liberty; a continuous story from 1784 to 1794,
nor does he see, beyond the glory of a with a change from Jefferson to Morris
victorious campaign, the excesses of war- in 1789. Then comes Monroe, from Au-
fare.
gust 1794 to October 1795.
Literature, philosophy, and art do not The second part of the work gathers
attract him; in the twenty volumes, he from a variety of sources the opinions of
devotes but a scant half-dozen pages to the Revolution which Americans at home
such subjects. He imagines that the Con- formed, the Republicans on one side and
sulate realized the ideal of a perfect gov- the Federalists on the other. These
ernment, and that the misfortunes of the opinions had much to do with American
Empire would have been avoided had Na- politics for considerable time, and al-
poleon continued the tradition of the ear- together they form an interesting chapter
lier time. It is evident, however, that the in our national life.
later policy was but the development of
the earlier. Though admiring every act Citoyenne Jacqueline, by Sarah Tyt-
of unrestrained ambition on the part of his ler. The scene opens in the early
hero, Thiers deplores its consequences. months of the French Revolution, 1792,
At first the Continental system is Napo- in Faye-aux-Jonquilles, a village near
leon's gigantic plan to conquer England Paris; the home of Jacqueline de Faye,
on the sea; later Thiers recognizes that only child of “Monsieur” and “Madame,»
Napoleon's own ports were the chief vic- nobles of the old régime. Jacqueline has
tims of the designed conquest. His inac- inherited the traditional ideas of her
curacy as a historian is shown in his
aristocratic ancestry, and is trained in the
treatment of English affairs. He consulted fantastic etiquette of her age; but dis-
no authentic document in the English plays disquieting symptoms of independ-
language; and in his chapter on the Con- ence, a character sure to lead its pos-
tinental System, he says that England's sessor into strange paths. She is in love
violation of international law by “pa- with her cousin, the Chevalier de Faye,
per » blockades in 1806 furnished Napo- to whom she is betrothed; but owing
leon with just pretext for issuing the Ber- to the changes brought about by the
lin and Milan Decrees, — the exact oppo. Revolution, he transfers his attentions to
site of the facts in the case. Thiers is another cousin, a wealthy and vivacious
proud of his knowledge of military tac- widow, Petronille de Croī. In her anger
tics, and likes to explain how defeat might and despair, Jacqueline takes a step that
have been avoided; but even his descrip- separates her from her order: she marries
tions of battles are inexact, as Charras in a handsome young peasant proprietor.
his History of the Campaign of 1815) The wild days of '93 arrive, and she and
points out. His style is easy; its prolix- her family are deeply involved in the
ity, however, frequently deprives it of turmoils of the time. After they have
clearness and force, by requiring a whole suffered together, and he has sheltered
volume to describe a military action her mother, she comes to love her ple-
which might have been more vividly pre- beian husband. The story moves swiftly
sented in a few pages.
through scenes of conspiracy and blood.


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SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
163
shed, to close among the green fields of
Jonquilles. It presents a vivid picture
of the days of the Terror; a realistic
portrayal of the inhumanities and self-
sacrifices of that lurid period. The
meetings of Citoyenne Jacqueline with
Charlotte Corday, and with Lydia, daugh-
ter of Laurence Sterne, are interesting
episodes of her Paris life.
name.
Notre-Dame of Paris, by Victor
Hugo, relates a romance growing
up in and around the cathedral of that
More than this, the mighty
building, dating back at least to the
eleventh century, and enriched with
thirteenth-century glass, seems to fill
the author's vision and dominate his
mind from beginning to end; just as it
dominates, from its immemorial island,
the overflowing city for which he wrote.
Among his different conceptions of
Notre-Dame — folding over and fitting
into each other — he brings out most
clearly of all the truth that the cathe-
dral of the Middle Ages was the book
of the people; and that since the dawn
of printing, books have taken the
place of those marvelously involved
and inexhaustible carvings, where the
smoldering passions of the multitude,
their humor and irreligion as well as
their religion and poetic emotion, found
continual expression. Even necromancy
and astrology wreathed themselves in
fantastic figures around the great door-
way of Notre-Dame.
To the reader who loses himself in
the atmosphere thus created, the world
is France, France is Paris, Paris is the
cathedral. He is taken through the
aisles and galleries, out on the roof, up
in the towers, and into every nook and
corner of the church; then lovingly,
faithfully, scrupulously through the
squares or cross-roads of the old city,
along crooked streets that have van-
ished, and thoroughfares still existing,
like Rue Saint-Jacques or Rue Saint-
Denis, which it calls the arteries of
Paris. Thus it may be taken as
fifteenth-century guide-book of the town,
answering all the purposes of a Baede-
ker; not only giving the general topog-
raphy, but touching on nearly every
structure then standing, from the Bastile
to the gibbet of Montfaucon.
To Quasimodo, the deaf and deformed
bell-ringer of the cathedral, «stunted,
limping, blind in one eye,” the great
church is an object of extravagant de-
votion and superstitious awe. Its arch-
deacon alone had pity on him when he
lay, a miserable foundling, at its door;
it is all the home he has ever known,
and he leads a strange existence among
the statues and gargoyles within and
without. Sometimes, when he is skulk-
ing among them, the great interior
seems alive and trembling, like some
huge animal - an elephant, perhaps, but
-
not an unfriendly one. In such passages
the poet romancer gives his wild fancy
full rein.
No less than Faust,' the story is a
phantasmagoria, in which a learned goat
has a rôle of importance, everywhere
accompanying the heroine, Esmeralda,
a beautiful, innocent, and incorruptible
singer and dancer of sixteen summers.
This many-sided book may also be
regarded as an eloquent condemnation
of capital punishment; of all forms of
capital punishment, perhaps, or the
writer would hardly say in 1831 that the
vast resources of the chamber of torture
have been reduced in his day to a
sneaking guillotine that only shows its
head at intervals. Or, quite as fairly,
the book may be regarded as a sermon
against celibacy, since it never loses
sight of the effect of monastic vows on
the ardent though ascetic archdeacon
of the cathedral, Claude Frollo. The
avowed motive of the story is the work-
ings of fate, in whose toils nearly all
the chief characters inextricably
caught. The keynote is given in the
word anágke, the Greek equivalent of
kismet or fate, which the author - if
his introduction is to be taken seriously
- found rudely scrawled on the wall of
a cell in one of the cathedral towers.
Like Walter Scott's Quentin Durward,
and Théodore de Banville's exquisite
play of (Gringoire,' Notre-Dame) con-
tains a searching study of the treacher-
ous but able monarch, Louis XI. , and
his barber Olivier-le-Daim.
are
a
as
French Traits, by W. C. Brownell
(1889), appeared first a series
of essays in Scribner's Magazine. These
essays offer
an unusually astute yet
sympathetic study of the French nation
in everything which makes its members
French, and not German or Italian. The
instinct of the author guides him un-
erringly to the selection of those qualities
which are the most perfect medium of


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164
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
ners.
men.
Cities
national characteristics. He considers
the city. It is to a large extent a story
first the most prominent endowment of of regions unknown to travel, and not
the French people, -- the social instinct. reported upon in any of the guide-books.
This explains their kind of morality, of It is so written, moreover, as to serve
intelligence; their standards of sense and the purpose of those who must travel
sentiment; the peculiarity of their man- only as readers. The author added to
Above all it explains the French his Days) a third work of like character
woman, destined from her cradle to be and interest, on (Cities of Northern and
a woman and not a hybrid. She re- Central Italy,' designed to be a companion
fuses to be separated or to separate to all those parts of Italy which lie be-
herself from
She lives in the tween the Alps and the districts, described
family, as the family lives in the na- in the Days. ) The three works tell the
tion. Four remaining essays treat of present story of the city and of Italy,
the art instinct, of the provincial spirit, whether for the traveler or for the reader.
of democracy, and of New York after
Paris.
ities of Northern and Central Italy,
The author has evidently studied his
by Augustus J. C. Hare. In this
subject at close range.
His treatment
work, consisting of three volumes, not
of it is brilliant, epigrammatic, and at
only the cities but the towns and even
the same time solid.
the villages of Northern and Central Italy
receive the careful and comprehensive
attention of the writer. Entering Italy
Journeys through France, by H.
Taine. (1897. ) This book is one of
by the Cornice Road at Mentone, the
the French critic's earlier works, written
reader is plunged at once into the land
in the form of a diary. In the sixties,
of the citron and myrtle. The district
M.
Taine, then an official examiner in
described embraces the whole country
the government schools, traveled about,
from the Alps to the environs of Rome:
up and down France, taking notes as
Genoa, Turin, Milan, Venice, Bologna,
Verona, Padua, and Florence are treated
he went, upon all the features of life in
the provinces: agriculture and landscape,
at length. Nothing of interest has been
market-places and shops, castles and
omitted: cathedrals, palaces, homes and
town-halls, professors and officers, peas-
haunts of great men, the Old Masters
ants and bourgeois, as these existed in
and their works, all have place, while
the years preceding the downfall of the
well-known names of history and legend
have been studied with painstaking care.
Empire. He constantly accompanies his
entertaining descriptions by social
The volumes contain hotel and pension
economic inferences, and neat generali- rates, omnibus and railway fares, and
zations of French life and habits of
catalogues of the exhibits in the various
thinking. Brilliantly written, and full of
galleries, – that of the Pitti Palace being
insight as to the relation of the institu-
particularly noteworthy. Yet they are
tion or the custom examined to the
not guides » merely; for they offer the
idea which it incarnates, the whole vol-
reader not only the excellent comments
ume is
of Mr. Hare, but whole pages of quota-
illustration of M.
Taine's formula of the effects of hered-
tions from famous art critics and histor-
ical authorities, such as Ruskin, Goethe,
ity and environment.
Gautier, Dickens, Symonds, Freeman,
Perkins, Story, and others. The writer's
Days Near Rome, by Augustus J. C.
love for his subject produced a delightful
Hare. (1875. ) A very pleasant and
work.
instructive record of excursions into the
country around Rome. The book is sup- Italian Republies: "THE ORIGIN, Pro-
plementary to the author's Walks in
GRESS, AND FALL OF ITALIAN FREE-
Rome,' which supplies an excellent hand- DOM. ) By J. C. L. de Sismondi. (1832. )
book of the city and environs of Rome. An extremely useful story of Italy from
As that work treated, more fully and the beginning of the twelfth century to
carefully than the usual guide-book, the 1814 A. D. , with an introductory sketch
most interesting aspects of the ancient of the history from 476 A. D. to 1138.
city, and especially the latest discoveries The work was prepared for Lardner's
of the recent explorers, so the Days) Cabinet Cyclopædia, after its author
gives an interesting story of what can be had told the arger story in an elaborate
seen in a variety of journeys away from work extending to sixteen volumes.
or
>
one
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SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
165
to
was
Marco Polo. The record of the ad-
ventures of the Venetian merchant
Marco Polo, as dictated by him to a
fellow-prisoner in Genoa, is one of the
most remarkable books of travel ever
written. Marco Polo was born at Ven-
ice about 1254.
His father, a
man of
noble rank, in 1275 had taken young
Marco with him on a trading expedition
to China and the East. The youth of
twenty entered the service of the Em-
peror of China, and traveled extensively
through the neighboring regions. Re-
turning, later, to Venice, he was cap-
tured in the struggle between that city
and Genoa. It was in the year 1298
that Rusticiano or Rustichello of Pisa
wrote for him the history of his wander-
ings.
The “young bachelor's » experience
made an interesting book. (Ye shall
find therein) (says the prologue) (all
kinds of wonderful things.
Some
things there be indeed therein which he
beheld not; but these he heard from
men of credit and veracity. ”
It is said that a French version of the
book made under his direction.
Though his narrative made a great sen-
sation, it was for many years regarded
as a mass of fabrications and exaggera-
tions, It had an undoubted effect,
however, upon exploration; and later re-
searches have confirmed the truth of
many of the author's descriptions. This
may be taken as a sample of its style: –
“Book iii. , Chap. ii. DESCRIPTION OF
THE ISLAND OF CHIPANGU.
“Chipangu is an Island toward the
east in the high seas, 1500 miles distant
from the continent; and a very great
Island it is.
« The people are white, civilized, and
well-favored. They are idolaters and
are dependent on nobody. And I can
tell you the quantity of gold they have
is endless.
“I will tell you a wonderful thing
about the Palace of the Lord of that
Island. You must know that he hath, a
great palace which is entirely roofed
with gold.
Moreover, all the
pavement of the palace, and the floors
of its chambers, are entirely of gold, in
plates like slabs of stone, a good two
fingers thick,
so that the rich-
ness of this palace is past all bounds
and all belief. "
The work was published in English in
1818. The most valuable edition to the
student is that of Colonel Henry Yule,
in two volumes, London, 1875.
Hernando Cortez, The Life of, by
Arthur Helps, English historian and
essayist, was published in 1871, being
dedicated to Thomas Carlyle.
It is a
clear, simple, scholarly account of the
picturesque conquest of Mexico —a con-
quest by a gallant gentleman and war-
rior, who was no better than his age.
The author seeks neither to extenuate
nor to conceal the doubtful qualities in
the character of Cortez, but accepts him
in the impersonal spirit of the historian.
Columbus Christopher, History of
the Life and Voyages of, by Wash-
ington Irving. This history, published
in three volumes, was written by Irving
in 1828, during his residence in Madrid.
He was at the time an attaché of the
United States legation, having been sum-
moned there by Alexander H. Everett,
then minister to Spain, who desired him
translate Navarrete's Voyages of
Columbus,' which were then in course
of publication. Irving entered upon this
work with much interest, but soon came
to the conclusion that he had before him
rather a mass of rich materials for history
than a history itself; and being inspired
by the picturesque aspect of the subject
and the great facilities at hand, he at
once gave up the work of translation
and set about writing a Life of Colum-
bus) of his own. Having access to the
archives of the Spanish government, to
the royal library of Madrid, to that of
the Jesuits' college of San Isidoro, and
to many valuable private collections, he
found numberless historic documents and
manuscripts to further his work. He
was aided by Don Martin de Navarrete,
and by the Duke of Veraguas, the de-
scendant of Columbus, who submitted
the family archives and treasures to his
inspection. In this way he was enabled
to obtain many interesting and previously
unknown facts concerning Columbus. He
was less than a year in completing his
work, which has been called “the noblest
monument to the memory of Columbus. »
This history, a permanent contribution
to English and American literature, is
clear and animated in narrative, graphic
in its descriptive episodes, and finished
in style. Recent historians have dif-
fered from Irving with regard to the
character and merits of Columbus, and
have produced some evidence calculated
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166
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
to shatter a too exalted ideal of the imposed. The darkest curse brought by
great discoverer; but despite this, his the Inquisition, in Mr. Lea's view, was
valuable work still fills an honored place the application of its unjust and cruel
in all historic libraries.
processes to all criminals, down to the
closing years of the eighteenth century;
Inquisition of the Middle Ages, A and not to criminals only, but to all
History of the, by Henry Charles accused persons.
Lea, 3 vols. , 1888. A work at once com- In his second volume Mr. Lea follows
prehensive in scope, complete in learn- the story of the Inquisition in the sev-
ing, and judicious in thought. It tells eral lands of Christendom. The third
the story of the organized effort against he devotes to special fields of Inquisi-
heresy made by the Christian Church of torial activity. It is a story, not only of
the Middle Ages, or for about three how those whose motives, by the stand-
centuries previous to the Reformation ard of their age, were only good, in-
(1215-1515 A. D. ). For the entire his- flicted the worst wrong and cruelty
tory of this effort Mr. Lea makes two upon their fellow-creatures under a false
periods, that of the old or medieval In- idea of the service of God, but how
quisition, before the Reformation, and ambition and avarice took advantage of
that of the new or reorganized Inquisi- the system. At the best it was a non-
tion coming after the Reformation, ex- strous application of mistaken zeal to
cept in Spain, where Ferdinand and keep men from following their honest
Isabella «founded the New Inquisition. ” thoughts into paths of desirable pro-
This famous institution is not viewed gress. Mr. Lea's masterly treatment of
by Mr. Lea as an organization arbitra- the whole history makes his work an
rily devised and imposed upon the ju- authority second to none.
dicial system of Christendom by any
ambition of the Church of that age or Pepita Ximenez, by Juan Valera.
any special fanaticism. It was a nat- The scene of this vivid story is in
ural development, an almost inevitable Andalusia. Pepita Ximenez, when six-
expression of the forces universally at teen years old, is married to her rich
work in the thirteenth and following uncle, Don Gumersindo, then eighty
centuries. To clearly understand it and years old. At the end of three years,
judge it fairly, Mr. Lea carefully exam- she finds herself a widow, with many
ines the whole field of intellectual and suitors for her hand, among them, Don
spiritual developments, and the condi- Pedro de Vargas. At this time his son
tion of society, in the Middle Ages. He Luis comes to pay him a visit before
makes of chief importance an examina- taking his last vows as a priest. Hav-
tion of the jurisprudence of the period, ing lived always with his uncle, he is
as a means of ascertaining the origin learned in theology and casuistry, but
and development of the inquisitorial little versed in worldly affairs.
The
process: some of the worst features of acquaintance with Pepita arouses senti-
which would have been a blot upon the ments which he had never known; and
history none the less if there had never he soon recognizes that he loves her,
been any quest for heresy; while the and that she returns his affection. Hor-
idea of heresy was one of the deepest rified at his position, both in regard to
seated, not only of the period, but of his profession and to his father, he re-
later generations, and as relentlessly solves never to see Pepita. Visiting the
applied under Protestantism, in
club, he meets Count de Genazahar, a
special instances, as under Catholicism. rejected suitor of Pepita, who speaks
Mr. Lea devotes an entire volume to slightingly of her. He expostulates with
«The Origin and Organization of the him on the sin of slander, but is only
Inquisition, the sad story of how the derided. The expected departure of
giving way in jurisprudence of the old Luis has so affected Pepita that she is
barbarisms was arrested by the use of ill; and her nurse, Antonona, goes to
those made by the Church; and how the Luis and obliges him to come to bid
worst of these barbarisms were given a farewell to her mistress.
He goes at
consecration which kept them in force ten o'clock at night, and is left alone
five hundred years after they might with Pepita. She tries to convince him
have passed away; and in force without that he is ill adapted for a priest. If
the restraints which Roman law had he has allowed himself to be charmed
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SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
167
a
by a plain country girl, how much more the house. He grants Mansour's three
are to be feared the beautiful, accom- wishes: 'that Omar shall be healthy and
plished women he will meet in future wealthy, and love no one but himself.
life. Her self-condemnation causes him On Abdallah he lays a charge to seek the
to praise her; and when he leaves her, at four-leaved clover. Omar is reclaimed
two o'clock in the morning, he is obliged at fifteen by his father, and immediately
to confess his own unworthiness. He begins a career of selfish and heartless
learns that Genazahar owes Pepita a greed. To Abdallah a wise Jew explains
large sum of money; and goes to the that the four-leaved clover was a mys-
club, where he finds him gambling. He tic flower, which Eve had hastily snatched
enters the game and finds a chance to on her expulsion from Paradise. One leaf
insult him. In a duel they are both was of copper, one of silver, the third of
wounded, the Count, dangerously. When gold, and the fourth a diamond. Eve's
Luis recovers he marries Pepita.
hand trembled as the fiery sword touched
The novel is regarded in Spain as her, and the diamond leaf fell within the
modern classic.
gates of Paradise, while the other three
leaves, swept away by the wind, were
Berber, The; or, The Mountaineer scattered over the earth. The deeds by
of the Atlas, ‘by William Starbuck which Abdallah seeks to win the succes-
Mayo (1850), is a tale of Morocco. It is sive leaves — and especially the crisis of
full of incidents of the most stirring char- his fate when revenge against Omar, who
acter; and read after a course of modern has irreparably injured him, is weighed
psychological novels, is refreshing as a against the diamond leaf — form the ma-
sea-breeze, because it has no purpose save terial of the story. This book of the great
that of amusement. The author draws a scholar and scientist Laboulaye is likely
vivid picture of the lawless existence of to be remembered when his more ambi-
the Sultan, and the free, danger-loving tious labors are forgotten. The stories
life of the mountaineers; and contrasts breathe the very atmosphere of the East;
characters with sufficiently bold strokes, while the Oriental character is studied
while his plot is excitingly romantic. and rendered with the accuracy of the
Edward Carlyle, a rich Englishman at naturalist and the imaginative charm of
Cadiz, fancies himself in love with Isabel,
the poet.
Nothing could be more de-
daughter of Don Pedro d'Estivan; and lightful than the invention displayed in
through the machinations of Don Diego the way of incident, and nothing sweeter
d'Orsolo, who himself desires to marry
than the unwritten moral of the wisdom
her, is discovered on a clandestine visit. of goodness.
He escapes capture by plunging into the
water from his boat; is picked up by a Annals of a Sportsman, by Ivan Tur-
pirate craft belonging to Hassan, the sea- geneff, consists of number of
rover, who proves to be Edward's long- sketches of Russian peasant life, which
lost brother Henry; and together they go
appeared in book form in 1852, and es-
to Morocco, where there are adventures
tablished the author's reputation as
enough of love and piracy to satisfy any
writer of realistic fiction. Turgeneff rep-
reader.
resents himself with gun on shoulder
tramping the country districts in quest
Abdallah; or, The Four-Leaved
Clover of game and, in passing, noting the local
(French, (Abdallah; ou, Le Trèfle à life and social conditions, and giving
Quatre Feuilles)), an Arabian romance closely observed, truthful studies of the
by Edouard Laboulaye (1859). An Eng- state of the serfs before their liberation
lish translation by Mary L. Booth was by Alexander II. ; his book, it is believed,
published in 1868.
being one of the agencies that brought
Abdallah is the son of a Bedouin woman, about that reform. Twenty-two short
widowed before his birth. Hadji Man- sketches, sometimes only half a dozen
sour, a wealthy and avaricious merchant pages long, make up the volume.
Peas-
of the neighboring town of Djiddah, con- ant life is depicted, and the humble Rus-
fides to her care his new-born son Omar; sian toiler is put before the reader in
and fearing lest the evil eye shall single his habit as he lived in the earlier years
out his child, he charges her to lay the boys of the present century; contrast being
in the same cradle and bring them up as furnished by sketches of the overseer,
brothers. An astrologer is summoned to the landed proprietor, and representatives
a
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168
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
.
of other intermediate classes. The gen- checkered career there, becoming the pro-
eral impression is sombre: the facts are tégée of a prince and a conspicuous act-
simply stated, leaving the inference of ress; but eventually she prefers to come
oppression, cruelty, and unenlightened back to the mine, don her old working
misery to be drawn. There is no preach-clothes to show her humility, and marry
ing: The best of the studies — The Ivan. Very graphic scenes in the stock
Burgomaster, Lgove,' (The Prairie,' exchange, in the underground world of
(The Singers,' (Kor and Kalmitch,' (The the miner, and in the fashionable society
District Doctor) - are little masterpieces life of Vienna and Pesth, are given; the
of analysis and concise portrayal, and a author being thoroughly familiar with
gentle poetic melancholy runs through Hungary, high and low, and crowding
all. Especially does the poetry come out his book with lively incidents, and varied
in the beautiful descriptions of nature, clearly drawn characters.
which are a relief to the poignant pathos
of some of the human scenes.
A slauga’s Knight, a romantic tale of me-
a
diæval chivalry, by Friedrich Fouqué,
Arn
rne, by Björnstjerne Björnson, was
Baron de la Motte, was published in 1814:
published in 1858, when the author
Aslauga was a golden-haired Danish
was twenty-sis. It was the second of
queen, whose memory was preserved in
the delightful idyllic tales of Norwegian an illuminated volume that told of her
country life with which Björnson began good and beautiful life. The fair knight
his literary career. It is a simple, beau- Froda read in this book, and made a vow
tiful story of the native life among the that Aslauga should be his lady, the object
fiords and fells, with a charming love of his love and worship. She thereupon
interest running through it. There is
appears to him, an entrancing visionary
no intricacy of plot, and the charm and form. From that day forth he often sees
power come from the sympathetic insight her, in the dimness of the forest, or min-
into peasant character and the poetical gling with the glory of the sunset, or glid-
way it is handled. Arne is a typical son ing in rosy light over the winter sea.
of the region, sketched from his days of She protects him in a great tournament,
boyhood to his happy marriage. The where the bravest knights of Germany
portrayal of Margit, Arne's mother, is a fight for the hand of the Princess Hilde-
pathetic and truthful one; and many of gardis. Only Froda contends for glory,
the domestic scenes have an exquisite not for love, and wins. Froda's dear
naturalness.
friend Edwald desires to win the prin-
cess; but as he is second, not first, she
Black
lack Diamonds, by Maurice Jokai, scorns him. Froda is to wed the prin-
the famous Hungarian novelist, is cess; but on the day of their nuptials,
a strong story of industrial and aristo- Froda's skyey bride, Aslauga, again ap-
cratic life in Hungary, with a complicated pears in her golden beauty to claim her
plot, and dramatic- - even sensational - faithful knight; he dies that Edwald and
features. It was published in 1870. Its Hildegardis may be one.
interest centres around the coal-mining The pretty story is told with simplicity
business; the black diamonds are coal -
It has about it the same
also, by a metaphor, the humble folk air of unreality and remoteness that give
who work in the mines and exhibit the charm to Undine.
finest human virtues. The hero is Ivan
Behrends, owner of the Bondavara coal
Bride of Lammermoor, The, is included
mine; a man of great energy and abil- in the group of Waverley Novels)
ity, with a genius for mechanics. He called "Tales of my Landlord. The plot
does a small conservative business, and a was suggested by an incident in the fam-
syndicate of capitalists try to crush him ily history of the earls of Stair. The
by starting an enormous colliery near scene is laid on the east coast of Scotland,
by; only to make a gigantic failure, after in the year 1700.
The hero is Edgar,
floating the company by tricky stock- Master of Ravenswood, a young man of
exchange methods. Ivan outwits them noble family, penniless and proud. He
by sticking to honest ways and steady has vowed vengeance against the pres-
work. Edila, the pretty little colliery ent owner of the Ravenswood estates, Sir
girl whom Ivan loves, goes to the city William Ashton, Lord Keeper, whom he
as the wife of a rich banker, and has a considers guilty of fraud; but foregoes
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SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
169
his plans on falling in love with Lucy, were unable to marry, and her infant
Sir William's daughter. There is a se- she believes to have died at birth. Her
cret betrothal; the ambitious Lady Ash- sister, however, has brought up the child
ton endeavors to force her daughter to under the name of Esther Summerson.
marry another suitor; and in the strug- Esther becomes the ward of Mr. Jarn-
gle Lucy goes mad, and Ravenswood,
dyce, of the famous chancery law case of
thinking himself rejected, comes to an Jarndyce vs. Jarndyce, and lives with him
untimely end. The most famous char- at Bleak House. Her unknown father,
acter in the book is the amusing Caleb the Captain, dies poor and neglected in
Balderstone, the devoted old steward of London. A veiled lady visits his grave
Ravenswood, who endeavors constantly at night; and this confirms a suspicion
to save the family honor and to conceal of Mr. Tulkinghorn, Sir Leicester Ded-
his master's poverty by ingenious devices lock's lawyer, already roused by an act of
and lies, and whose name has become Lady Dedlock. With the aid of a French
the symbol of “the constant service of maid he succeeds in unraveling the mys-
the antique world. Though sombre and tery, and determines to inform his friend
depressing, the Bride of Lammermoor) and client Sir Leicester of his wife's
is very popular; and the plot has been youthful misconduct. On the night before
used by Donizetti in the opera Lucia. ' this revelation is to be made, Mr. Tulk-
inghorn is murdered. Lady Dedlock is
Boris
oris Lensky, a German novel by Ossip suspected of the crime, disappears, and
Schubin, was published in an Eng- after long search is found by Esther and
glish translation in 1891. The story is a detective, lying dead at the gates of
centred in the career of a famous musi- the grave-yard where her lover is buried.
cian, whose name gives the title to the The story is told partly in the third .
book. A violinist of world-wide reputa- person, and partly as autobiography by
tion, a man to whom life has brought Esther. Among the other characters are
golden gifts, he is yet unhappy, as forever the irresponsible and impecunious Mr.
possessed with a craving for the unattain. Skimpole; Mrs. Jellyby, devoted to for-
able. The most unselfish love of his bar- eign missions; crazy Miss Flite; Grand-
ren life is for his beautiful daughter father Smallweed; Krook, the rag-and-
Mascha. Her downfall, when little more bottle dealer; Mr.