LITERATURE, AMERICAN, IN 1890. 



477 



by the last-named author were " A Moment of 

 Madness" and "Were they Sinners'?" "A 

 Dream of a Modest Prophet," by M. D. Leggett, 

 and " The Auroraphone, by Cyrus Cole, are con- 

 ceptions of an improved social condition, with a 

 scientific basis ; while " Asaph's Ten Thousand," 

 by Mary E. Bennett, handles the labor question. 

 Novels ' of local color are numerous. Among 

 stories of the war are to be mentioned especially 

 Miss Alice French's (Octave Thanet) first long 

 story in book form, " Expiation," picturing Ar- 

 kansas life in 1805 ; " Jack Horner.'' by Mary 

 Spear Tiernan ; " Two Loyal Lovers," by Eliza- 

 beth Winthrop Johnson ; and " A Mountain- 

 White Heroine," by James R. Gilmore (Ed- 

 mund Kirke), who found her mission among 

 the loyal mountaineers of western North Caro- 

 lina. " Throckrnorton," by Molly Elliott Sea- 

 well, " Aunt Dorothy," by Margaret J. Preston, 

 and " Poky Clark," by N. D. Bagnell, are all Vir- 

 ginian ; while " Widow Guthrie," by Richard M. 

 Johnston, describes Georgia life before the war. 

 Other Southern stories are : " A Kentucky Colo- 

 nel," by Opie P. Read ; " In God's Country," also 

 Kentucky, by D. Higbee; "The Girl in Checks," 

 by Rev. J. W. Daniel ; "Kathleen Douglas," by 

 Julia T. Bishop; and "Gilbert Elgar's Son," by 

 Harriet Riddle Davis. " The Wilderness and the 

 Rose," by Jerome J. Wood, belongs to Michigan ; 

 while "An Adirondack Cabin" is a family 

 story by Margaret Sidney (Mrs. H. M. Lothrop). 

 " The Demon Trapper of Umbagog," by D. P. 

 Thompson, is a tale of the Maine forests. " Sto- 

 ries of New Prance " were told by Agnes Maule 

 Machar and Thomas G. Marquis, in two series, 

 and " The Story of Tonty," by Mrs. Mary Hart- 

 well Catherwood : while " Mamelons and TJn- 

 wa " were " A Legend of the Saguenay," by W. 

 . II. Murray, who also described " How John 

 Norton, the Trapper, kept his Christmas." In- 

 dian life is dealt with in " Wannet a, the Sioux," 

 by Warren K. Moorehead, illustrated from life ; 

 "The Delight Makers," by Adolf F. Bandelier; 

 "A Novel of Pueblo Indian Life," and "The 

 Bridge of the Gods, a Romance of Indian Ore- 

 gon," by F. H. Balch. " A Chronicle of Con- 

 quest," by Frances C. Sparhawk, is a plea for In- 

 dian education. " Not of her Father's Race," by 

 William T. Meredith, suggests the unfortunate 

 life of a girl with African blood in her veins. 

 Among historical novels the foremost place is to 

 be given to " The Master of the Magicians" (the 

 prophet Daniel) and "Come Forth," written in 

 collaboration by Mrs. Elizabeth Stuart Phelps 

 Ward and her husband, the hero of the last story 

 being, as we infer from the title, the 'Lazarus 

 of the New Testament. Others in which biblical 

 characters figure are : " Belteshazzar," by E. R. 

 Roe; "A Son of Issachar, a Romance of the 

 Days. of Messias," by Elbridge S. Brooks; and 

 " Leah, of Jerusalem," by E. Payson Berry, a 

 story of the time of St. Paul. " The Genius of 

 Galilee " was from the pen of Anson LJ. Hancock. 

 " Dr. Le Baron and his Daughters " was " A Story 

 of the Old Colony," by Mrs. Jane G. Austin, and 

 ' The Begum's Daughter," by Edwin Lasseter 

 Bynner, pictured charmingly life in New York 

 in 1689. " The Witch of Jamestown," as its title 

 indicates, was a story of colonial Virginia, by 

 James T. Bowyer; and to the same theme belong 

 "Martha Corey: a Tale of Salem Witchcraft," 



by Constance G. Du Bois, and "The Fair Puri- 

 tan," by H. W. Herbert (Frank Forrester), 

 prepared for publication in 18oG, but given to 

 the public for the first time in this year. "In 

 the Valley," by Harold Frederic (who wrote, 

 also, " The Lawton Girl," a pathetic story deal- 

 ing with the social problem), pictures life in cen- 

 tral New York in the Indian, French, and Revolu- 



" 1791 : a Tale of San Domingo," was written 

 by E. W. Oilliam, M. D.; and "The Hidden 

 Treasure, a Tale of Troublous Times" (in Eng- 

 land in 1527-'38), by Lucy Ellen Guernsey. 

 " Mrs. Reynolds and Hamilton," by George Al- 

 fred Townsend (Gath), revives many Revolu- 

 tionary heroes, while here " The Demagogue," a 

 posthumous political novel by David Ross Locke 

 (Petroleum V.Nasby), maybe mentioned. "Paoli: 

 the Last of the Missionaries," gives a picture of the 

 overthrow of the Christians in Japan in the seven- 

 teenth century; while "Honda, the Samurai," 

 by Rev. William Elliot Griffis, D. D., author of 

 " The Mikado's Empire," portrays graphically 

 the Japanese feudal system and the causes which 

 led to its overthrow, being largely historical, 

 and written from an inside point of view. " Fra 

 Lippo Lippi," by Margaret Vere Farrington, is 

 a romance of Florence, with that monk as hero; 

 and other novels of artistic tendency are " The 

 Dominant Seventh," a musical story by Kate 

 Elizabeth Clark, and " Brushes and Chisels," by 

 Teodoro Serrao. " The Feet of Love " was the 

 title of a novel by the poetess Anne Reeve Al- 

 drich. Stories which portray American life of 

 the present day are : " The Broughton House " of 

 Bliss Perry, a new writer ; " The Mistress of 

 Beech Knoll," by Clara Louise Burnham ; " Miss 

 Brooks," by Eliza Orne White, who gives us the 

 typical Boston girl ; " Two Modern Women," by 

 Kate Gannett Wells ; " Leon Pontifex." by Sarah 

 Pratt McLean Greene; and " Ascutney Street," 

 by Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney. "With the Best In- 

 tentions," by Marion Harland (Mrs. M. V. Ter- 

 hune), shows the evils of gossip and unfounded 

 jealousy ; while from Harriet Prescott Spofford 

 we have "A Lost Jewel." Frank R. Stockton 

 published " The Merry Chanter," in his own style, 

 and " The Story of the Three Burglars," Bret 

 Harte brought out ' A Waif of the Plains," and 

 Clara Louise Burnham " The Mistress of Beech 

 Knoll." "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's 

 Court" is flippant, and shows Mark Twain in 

 his most irreverent mood. " Nora's Return " is 

 a sequel to " The Doll's House " of Ibsen, by Mrs. 

 Ednah D. Cheney, and "Against Heavy Odds," 

 a tale of Norse heroism, by Hjalmar H. Boyesen. 

 "The Craze of Christian Engelhardt" was a 

 study of an important phase of human con- 

 sciousness made in a deeply religious spirit, by 

 Henry Faulkner Darnell, and " Geoffrey Hamp- 

 stead/' by T. Stinson Jarvis, involves the ques- 

 tion of heredity. Anna Katharine Green reap- 

 pears before us in " The Forsaken Inn," while 

 " The Aztec Treasure House " of Thomas A. 

 Janvier is a realistic story of the wildly impossi- 

 ble. .Other tales of adventure are : " The Captain 

 of the Rajah," a story of the sea, by Howard 

 Patterson ; " The Princess of Montserrat," by 

 William Drysdale: "The Captain of the Jani- 



