Page:Summer - from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau.djvu/403

 New and Recent Books. PILGRIM SORROW. By CARMEN SYLVA (The Queen of Roumania). Translated by HELEN ZIMMERN, Author of &quot; The Epic of Kings.&quot; With Portrait-etching by LALAUZE. Square Crown 8vo.. cloth extra o &quot;For this nature of literature the Queen appears to have a special gift. . . . And never has she been happier than in her Leidens Erdengang, which lies before us to-day. The funda mental idea of this cycle of stories is wholly symbolical. The next story. . . is a piece of exquisite writing ... It is said that for the very charming motherly figure of Patience, the Queen s own mother, the wise and good Princess of Wied, has furnished the prototype. . . . The last story of the cycles, called A Life, changes into an elegiac tone, and depicts an existence spent in the search of Truth. Though slightly veiled, it is impossible to ignore its autobiographic character. We have here the soul of the Queen laid bare before us&quot; Literary World (Review of the German edition). &quot;If to write poetry upon a throne be rare of itself, it is certainly still rarer to find Queens giving artistic form to those moments of existence that approach the mysteries of human life. Already, in her &quot; Sappho,&quot; the German poetess, who now occupies a throne, has treated of the relationship of man to the eternal, but the antique garb somewhat veiled her purpose, while here (in Pilgrim Sorrow&quot;) she moves amid modern as wdl as universal life, and is thus able to reveal the whole depth of her feeling and lament. For hat has inspired her poetic phantasy is the ever- unanswered question : Wherefore and whence is sorrow in the world ? The treatment is throughout symbolical. ... It deserves to be counted among the mode rn monuments of our literature.&quot; Review of the first German edition in the Auesburger Allgcmeine Zeitun?, Nov. 2, 1882. OTTILIE: an Eighteenth Century Idyl. By VERNON LEE, Author of &quot; Belcaro,&quot; &quot; Prince of the Hundred Soups,&quot; c. Square 8vo, cloth extra ... o 3 6 &quot;A graceful little sketch. . . . Drawn with full insight into the period described.&quot; Spectator. &quot;Pleasantly and carefully written. . . . The author lets the reader have a glimpse of Germany in the Sturm und Drang period. &quot;Athcnaum. &quot;Ottilie von Craussen is a charming character.&quot; LccdsMercury. &quot;A graceful little picture. . . . Charming all through &quot; Academy. ^&quot;Of exquisite literary workmanship ; it is full of interest.&quot; Ga lign ani s Messenger. &quot;It is a prose-poem which cannot fail to exercise on most readers a refining and purifying influence.&quot; Scotsman. &quot;To all who relish a simple, natural, and most pathetic story, admirably told, we recommend this eighteenth century idyl.&quot; St. James Gazette.