Page:The Overland Monthly, Jan-June 1894.djvu/281

1894.] times it is true, but it is generally the plain result of unusual misfortune or shiftlessness; but the Cornish peasantry seem to look upon the poorhouse as their natural home when old age shall have lessened their earning capacity,—an unpleasant ending of a long and laborious life, perhaps, but one absolutely unavoidable. Altogether it is a book that will toll its reader on from tale to tale till the whole book is done, whether he reads it by himself or to a sympathetic friend or group of friends.

Three collections of short stories by California writers close our list. The Confessional and the Following, by Dr. Danziger, of this city, has a good deal of ingenuity in plots, a little too much effort after the tragic or startling, and a plain literary style, which lays itself open to no criticism, yet lacks the grace of a strong and finished simplicity, and is rather bald in its effect. Another Juanita is by an old-time contributor to the, and a number of the stories have appeared in these pages. In them also, it might be said, there is too much effort at the tragic, but it does not seem effort, it seems very spontaneous; nevertheless, it sometimes makes the stories what is called loosely " morbid," and they are in places overcolored in diction. Nevertheless, they are unquestionably strong, and leave an abiding impression in the mind; one finds them remembered long after reading. They are very Californian in subject. Mr. Henry S. Brooks's stories are well known to readers, and of the dozen in A Catastrophe in Bohemia seven have been printed in this magazine, "The Arrival of the Magpie," "La Tiburona," "At Don Ignacio's," "The Virgin of the Pearls," "The Don in Pauper Alley," "The Crazy Professor," and the name story, which is rightfully given the place of honor. These names will call up to our readers, therefore, the remembrance of stories that are carefully and sympathetically wrought, whether they deal with the Spanish American life, the days of gold-seeking in California, or with London, as "A Catastrophe in Bohemia" does. They have what is common in Western work a sense of an unlimited amount of material, of new regions to be made part of the literary world so large that there is no need to dole out incident and description sparingly, but rather a difficulty of choosing where to begin. The most novel field touched is that of Lower California, of which Mr. Brooks is perhaps the finest literary explorer.

Coming now to novels, The Shadow of Desire and My Wickedness are stories of the slenderest possible quality, whose sensationalism even is mainly in the titles. Both show an honest desire to be startling, but neither is successful in it. The Shadow of Desire is vague and rambling, without clear narrative structure; and the other is a repetition of an old theme,—the psychology of an insane criminal, who commits crimes from a sort of fascination.

The Russian Refugee, Rachel Stanwood, and None-such? are not unpleasant books to read, even if they have no very conclusive reasons for existence. All three have a sincere and sympathetic spirit, and an interest in social questions; possibly all three might be called somewhat unsophisticated, but neither is ignorant. The first has, in spite of its title, nothing to do with Russian